Prologue

- Illustration courtesy of Wisdom Thumbs

They were almost there.

Novell sighed with relief. He could finally rest.

The aged, grey-coated unicorn beside him hummed happily. The smile on the other pony's face was just visible beneath the bushy mustache. Spectacles perched on the bridge of his nose as if glued there and brown eyes stared out at the world with curiosity.

The unicorn's horn glowed, sparks appearing from its base. A moment later, a magically deepened voice vibrated in the younger pony's brain.

On a familiar path near a rather well-known town, a quite unusual pony sighed. With a coat as white as the snow that capped the nearby mountains and dull brown hair filled with twigs and other detritus from his travels, this particular pony was not the image that would come to mind when the word ‘adventurer’ was uttered. With a fully grown, if somewhat small, lithe body and finely feathered, folded wings, there was no doubt that this pegasus was something altogether strange. But strangest of all was the hindquarters, for they were blatantly blank, absent of any cutie mark, though he tried his best to hide the affliction with saddlebags. In fact—

Novell stopped. "Professor, I've got enough of a headache already. We're almost there, so please... stop. At least until we reach the town."

The unicorn managed to look sheepish at that and coughed awkwardly into a hoof.

Normally, Novell wouldn't have minded his companion's strange quirk, but they had been travelling for a full night in order to reach the local village. They had skipped breakfast and lunch, something the pegasus was starting to regret. Thankfully, the past week had toughened him up enough that he could tolerate the missed meals and lack of rest.

He glanced up at the mountains to check the sun's progress. He squinted his eyes against glaring rays just beginning to peek above the mountainous horizon.

A chill swept through him at the thought of those giant, winter-capped peaks, but he forced it down determinedly. The consequences of what he’d done there were something he had to take care of—his responsibility. He refused to be intimidated, no matter how difficult his task would be.

An innocuous, white picket fence started along the side of the road. It was a sharp contrast to his troubled thoughts and its quaintness managed to elicit a smile from him even in his tired state.

Seconds after his newfound peace of mind, the humming began again. Novell gave a quiet sigh and closed his eyes. His ears twitched at the tune he'd heard far too much of on this latest leg of his journey.

The old unicorn was an absent minded fellow, for all his intelligence, often humming as soon as he was distracted by something new. Novell had hoped he would be accustomed to it, but thus far the only thoughts running through his mind had involved stuffing a cork in the other pony's mouth.

"Please. Stop. Humming," Novell gritted out irritably.

The Professor glanced at him askance. "What was that, my boy?"

"The humming!" He frowned now, feeling like he was missing something. "It's almost as bad as your telepathy!"

The humming was growing closer now, setting his teeth on edge with its repetitive, tuneless melody. His feeling of confusion increased at that thought, but his exhausted mind gave up quickly. So instead, Novell glowered at the other pony.

“But I’m not—.”

“Aaaaruugh!” the pegasus yelled inarticulately, unable to take it anymore. “Why can’t you just be quiet for ten minutes?”

"Novell—," the Professor began.

“Professor Se—oof!”

Something slammed into his chest. He fell backward and shrill voices screeched in his ear. His eyes snapped closed against the sudden pain. Dust kicked up around him and when he tried to regain his breath, he coughed.

When he opened his eyes again, the dust had settled. Unfortunately, there was a small, purple tail clouding most of his vision. Groans of pain came from two other weights on his back.

"You know, I think we run into a lot more ponies than we need to, Scootaloo," a tiny voice accused in a cute southern drawl.

The owner of the voice rolled off of him and stumbled unsteadily with stars orbiting her head. There was an audible rattle as the filly shook her cherry-colored mane, shaking off the helmet she had just been wearing. A bow that almost dwarfed her rustled slightly in the breeze behind her head.

Before he could even begin to clear his own constellations of confusion, another weight fell off his back.

"Yeah, Scoots, do you even watch where you're going?" a prim voice asked archly, though Novell couldn't see her with the tail in his way.

As if in response to his thoughts, the filly on top of his head hopped to the ground with a buzz of her tiny wings. "If ya wanna go fast, we can go fast. If ya wanna go safe, maybe we can get Applebloom to pull the wagon."

Novell shook dust and twigs from his mane, not all of which were from the tumble he had just taken. The forest he and the Professor had walked through hadn’t been kind to him. Though he doesn’t seem any worse for wear. He glared through narrowed eyes at the hefty unicorn's perfect mane.

“I’m real sorry ‘bout that, sir!” Applebloom said with trepidation. “We didn’t mean to hit ya.”

“Though that flip was pretty cool,” the one they had called ‘Scoots’ put in. “Uh, I mean, sorry.”

“Please don’t tell my big sister we hit anyone,” the last of the trio begged, the bobs in her hair reminding him of his friend’s. “Oh! I know! We’ll show you around Ponyville! We can be your tour guides to make up for hitting you!”

“Tourin’ guide?” Applebloom frowned and tilted her head. Novell half expected her to topple over from the weight of the huge ribbon. “That doesn’t sound like much fu—.”

“Maybe we’ll get our cutie marks!” Scoots blurted out.

Novell winced. He sympathized with the younger pony, more than she probably realized. “Well, thank you, but I’m actually just looking for a building called ‘Carousel Boutique’. I was asked to talk to three little ponies about cutie marks and the Pri—.”

“How come ya don’t have no cutie mark?” Applebloom said from behind him.

Novell froze, suddenly aware that in the commotion, his saddlebags had been thrown off his hindquarters. A million excuses rippled through his mind, but all his efforts of catching one and using it were futile. He hadn’t been planning to reveal his problem to anypony in the town just yet.

Defeated, Novell sighed and closed his eyes in an attempt to think up a response. How did he answer a question he still hadn’t figured out himself?

I’ve still got a job to do, on orders from the Princess herself, even if I don’t know exactly why she wants me to. After all, who would want to hear about a pony with no special talent?

He looked up into the concerned eyes of his one, constant companion throughout the last few days. The support he saw there sparked a resolve in him, enough that he was finally able to get his thoughts in order.

“Well, there’s a reason for that, my little ponies,” Novell began sadly, “but first I gotta tell you how I got here. It’s kind of a long story, but it’s got all the things you young ponies love to hear about. All kinds of characters in it. Pegasi, unicorns, earth ponies and even a few other creatures you wouldn’t want anything to do with, like a wild cave troll.”

He shivered at that last memory. “This tale is full of adventure,” he smiled with the feelings the word evoked, “danger,” his voice grew stronger, falling into a familiar groove as he pitched the word in a low tone, “excitement and tragedy,” now a duality of cheerfulness and melancholy, “magic” he said mysteriously, “and, most importantly…”

He could already see the effect his words had made on the little fillies, hanging off of his next word, steadily inching closer and closer to him as he opened his mouth to speak the last word of his little prologue.

“Friendship.”

“And you call me melodramatic.” The Professor snorted and rolled his eyes.