Izzy Moonbow magically floats the freshly rolled, blueberry blunt to her lips as her red disposable lighter flies in from the lower-left side. Her head is down as she’s about to spark it, when she notices a pink pegasus filly staring in from her window across the room from the blue coach where she’s sitting. This filly is pink and has neatly arranged bluish-white curls for a mane. Izzy floats the blunt down as she looks up at the filly, “Uh, hi!”

The filly smiles, “Hiya! I see you're about to smoke!” she tilts her head cutely to the left, “I hate to cut in, but I sure would like to smoke too! Um, if that’s okay with you?” before correcting her head and widening her brown eyes at the unicorn while her mouth tightens and quivers in anticipation.

Izzy blinks as she thinks to herself, A filly that smokes devil weed! What the hay? She looks back to the window across from her on the couch, “Uh, sure! Come on in!”

The pegasus smiles, “Oh, golly! Thanks! Miss uh…”

“Call me Izzy! Izzy Moonbow!”

“Thanks, Izzy!” The pegasus cheerfully says before she gets down from the window and flitters over out of view to the left. Soon, the doorknob turns and a little pink pegasus flies into the room before shutting the door and gliding over to the red chair, across from Izzy’s couch and landing there on her haunches, to smile at the unicorn.

Izzy decides to see how much this filly knows when she says, “I got a lighter holder on my table in front of me! Why don’t you do the honors?” before floating the blunt out of her mouth, to turn around in mid-air, and then glide towards the filly, who opens her mouth to catch it in her lips, slanted slightly to her right.

The pink pegasus filly dismounts the chair and trots two steps forward to the lighter holder on the table. She steps on the flint wheel of the green disposable lighter there as she brings her right forehoof down onto the fuel button, so it ignites before bringing her face towards the flame with the freshly rolled blunt in her mouth. Her curls bob back slightly as she releases the lighter and draws from the stogie in her mouth to make the end glow and sets her hoof down, “You know, it’s been awhile since I enjoyed a blunt! Thanks for letting me smoke with you, Izzy!” the filly says before taking the blunt out of her mouth with the cleft of her right forehoof and exhaling while standing on her other three legs.

Izzy frowns, “Well, I’m still not sure if it’s okay for you to be smoking devil weed, as little as you are? Uh, what’s your name anyway?”

“Uh, name?” The filly asks, before smiling and bringing the blunt to her lips again and pursing her lips around it to draw.

Izzy leans forward wide-eyed, “Yeah! What should I call you?”

The filly exhales smoke over the unicorn out the right side of her mouth and then moves her neck down to face Izzy, “You know, I’m actually not sure?”

Izzy frowns, “What do you mean?” before looking at the blunt and making it glow blue to float back to her.

The filly frowns while staring at Izzy with wide-open brown eyes, “I mean, I don't know my name? I’m uh, actually not even sure who I am or why I was in that crummy courtyard?” before sitting down on her haunches on the floor and staring at the unicorn, with perplexed eyes and a frown on her freckled face.

Izzy takes a draw of the blunt before exhaling to the left of the filly out the left side of her mouth before staring back at her, “What do you mean? Crummy courtyard?” and then pursing her lips to cause the cherry to glow once more.

The filly blinks, “I woke up in an abandoned concrete square, not far from here… I don’t know who I am or why I was there…”

Izzy’s eyes widen before she lifts her chin and floats the blunt up front to exhale over the filly and the blunt suddenly turns downward and flies to the glass three-holder ashtray on her black coffee table to be snuffed out as she moves it back and forth. She looks back up at the filly, “So, why did you travel to Bridlewood, anyway?”

The filly widens her eyes again. “Bridlewood? Is that what this place is called? I’m uh, not from around here… I uh, came to see what was here!” before looking around the room to see Izzy there on the couch, in front of a coffee table that spans the couch, and she notices a bookcase near the window and a door across from her and a door leading to the room to her left as well as the entrance door on her right.

Izzy nods before frowning, “Well, you’re a pegasus and so I’m guessing you’re from Zephyr Heights?”

The filly widens her auburn eyes, “Uh, Zephyr Heights?”

Izzy smiles at her. “Yes! That’s where pegasi are from!”

“Well, yes! Zephyr Heights! I’m a pegasus and am therefore from there! Um, I think?” The filly stammers out before frowning with wide-open eyes.

Izzy scrunches her brow as she thinks on this for a moment, “Well, I can’t just call you ‘filly’ this whole time?” she looks at the filly, “What would you like me to call you?”

The pegasus stares up at the unicorn, “Well, how about Twinkle Shine?”

“Twinkle Shine? I like that name!” Izzy says before smiling at the filly. “So, do you have any idea of how you got there?”

The filly looks up at Izzy, “Well, I woke up inside a ruined building… I uh, actually don’t know where I’m from or why I’m here…”

Izzy stares intently at the peculiar little pegasus, “What do you mean, woke up?”

“Well golly! I just opened my eyes, and I was looking out at what looked like a ruined courtyard… I saw lots of rocks and debris around me, but I didn’t find anything interesting, and so, I just left! I came up this way to a forest, and after flying here, that’s where I found you in this cottage…”

Izzy frowns, “But you knew what I was doing when I had a blunt?”

The pegasus smiles dimly, “Well, I have smoked before!”

Izzy leans towards the filly interestedly, “Oh… Who were you smoking with? I mean, who’d let a little foal have weed?”

The filly looks up, “You know, I can’t remember that either?”

Izzy frowns as she leans back, “So, do you have a place to stay, in the meantime?”

The filly shakes her head no and stares up at Izzy solemnly with her brown eyes.

Izzy frowns, “Well, gosh! We should probably talk to somepony about this?”

Stolen story; please report.

“Like who?” The filly asks with wide eyes.

Izzy smiles, “Well, my best friend Sunny Starscout lives in Maretime Bay? We can go there and see if she can help us!”

The filly smiles, “Well golly gee Izzy, that’d be just swell!”

Izzy nods, “Right! But first, I should puff this blunt a bit more!”

The filly smiles wider with bright hopeful brown eyes, “Is it okay if I have some drags too?”

Izzy widens her eyes as she can already tell that this is no normal filly!

<*****>

“La la la la la!” Izzy hums to herself as she steps out of the cottage with part of her buzz still intact and the filly flitters over to her side.

The filly lands and begins trotting next to her as she looks up at Izzy from the right, “Um, so where’s Maretime Bay?”

Izzy looks down at the filly, “It’s a few miles to the southeast! Come on! Let’s go!” Before staring forward and again humming to herself. “La la la la la!”

The filly frowns while staring at the unicorn with a wide-open perplexed expression on her face, “You’re very whimsical, huh?”

Izzy looks back over as they trot down the road leading through an open field, “Whimsical? I like that word!” and she smiles happily while looking at the filly with open red eyes.

The filly smiles and her freckled cheeks rise cheerfully as her brown eyes squint in an adorable expression of joy. Izzy can also tell at this point that this filly is very cheerful and happy! She also takes note of the distinctive red rook cutie mark on this filly’s flank. She says, “Your luminescence is a bright blue color now!”

The filly frowns and widens her eyes, “Luminescence?”

“Yeah! You know? Your glow? Your spark! Yours is blue! Mine is purple!”

“Neat Izzy!” Twinkle says before looking forward to trot silently

Izzy leans slightly to her right with her red eyes open while the two ponies continue to trot forward, “You okay?”

Twinkle shakes her head, “Oh uh, it’s nothing!” before looking back forward as they trot.

Izzy blinks, “Um, okay Twinkle!” before she stares back in the direction they’re trotting.

Twinkle looks to the left to the unicorn, “It’s just that I uh… Golly, I don’t know why I don’t want to admit this?” before sighing.

Izzy looks back to the pegasus with wide eyes, “What do you mean?”

Twinkle gulps, “I mean, ponies hug all the time to show affection, right?”

Izzy eyes this pink pegasus filly carefully for a moment before slowing down as she says, “D-do you want me to hug you?”

The filly stops trotting and Izzy reciprocates to face her body to this filly, now staring down with her brown eyes. The filly somberly says, “Well um, kinda?” before showing a confused and disturbed frown on her normally cheerful dimpled face.

Izzy smiles dimly at this filly before taking two paces towards her and staring down at Twinkle, as the filly continues to stare at the unicorn’s chest floof with a distraught expression on her face as Izzy suddenly embraces the filly tightly in a warm hug!

<*****>

The two ponies trot up the road to the outskirts of Maretime Bay. Izzy turns her head to Twinkle on her right as they stop in front of a slope, leading up to the porch of a small brown cottage at the edge of town., “Okay, so we’ll just tell her you’re a filly who doesn't know her name or where she’s from! Probably Zephyr Heights,” Izzy widens her eyes, “but we don’t know that for sure! Uh, “she looks at the filly intently, “what do we now?”

Twinkle sighs and turns her neck back to the unicorn, “Well golly gee! I just woke up in an abandoned courtyard, to the southeast of your cottage, which is in that forest town!”

“Bridlewood!” Izzy corrects, before nodding.

“Um, yeah! That place!” Twinkle says while nodding so her curls bob with her head.

Izzy widens her eyes, “Right! Okay well, let’s go!” before staring back to her front and trotting towards the cottage.

The filly follows a few paces behind her at this point, as she’s still unsure.

Izzy looks over her right shoulder, “Don’t worry! Sunny is nice!” before looking forward to complete her journey by trotting up the three unpainted wooden steps leading up to Sunny’s front porch. She knocks on the door with her right forehoof four times, while the filly trots up to get behind her.

The door opens to reveal an orange alicorn with a purple mane and tail. Sunny smiles at her unicorn best friend, “Hi Izzy! Uh,” her head sways to the right as she tries to get a look behind the blue unicorn to see the pink curly maned pegasus filly there, currently cowering behind the larger blue unicorn and looking at her with wide brown eyes and a frown on her freckled face, “who’s your friend?”

At this point, the filly looks up at the alicorn from Izzy’s left flank and soberly says, “Well, until further notice, my name is Twinkle Shine! Uh, that’s kinda why we’re here!” as she widens her eyes.

Izzy frowns at the alicorn, “Yeah, this filly says she woke up in an abandoned courtyard, near Bridlewood! We were wanting to know what you thought?”

Sunny frowns, “Well, I don’t know?” she looks down at Twinkle, still timidly hiding behind the unicorn as she looks out from the side, “Could you show us this place, Twinkle?”

Twinkle blinks, “Um, I think so?”

<*****>

The wind blows across the open grasslands as the three ponies approach the ruined stone rectangle with many square holes in a line across the walls, in two rows, one over the other. The first row is about 8 feet from the top of the structure and the second row below is about 10 feet below that as it seems very tall. And 10 feet below the second row is the ground. Twinkle speaks up from the right of Izzy, who stands in the middle as her body shakes, “This is where I woke up! Uh, it looks like just a rectangular stone enclosure?”

“Hmm?” Sunny ponders as she turns her head to the structure. “Well, do you remember anything that might give us some clues about who you are?”

The pegasus turns her head to the structure, “Uh, I don’t think so? I remember I came to while standing on a platform and for some reason, my forehooves were held up to my face and there were dried tears on my cheeks.” She blinks and shakes her head, “I don’t know why life of me, though? I uh,” she blinks, “don’t really remember?” before frowning at the structure.

Sunny frowns as she eyes the structure, “Uh, could you show us this platform, Twinkle?”

“Uh, sure Sunny!” The filly says before she trots up to the structure to the single door-shaped opening on the side wider side they’re facing and then trots into a rectangular area, with ancient pavement there, now partially covered by dirt with dark green vines climbing the interior.

Sunny and Izzy both follow her into the structure to see the filly stop a few paces into the doorway and point with her right forehoof to what looks like a crumbling old concrete platform on the other side of the enclosure, near another door-like opening on the far wall. “That’s the platform!”

The two ponies look at this platform as Sunny trots to it from the left and looks down to see the front face now crumbling. She frowns when she realizes that this was once engraved and asks Izzy behind her, “Could you use your craft glue to reconstruct this?”

Izzy trots to the platform from the right and looks down as she says, “Uh, not really? There’s a lot of dust and even if I could glue that small, we really don’t have any way of knowing what goes where.” Before frowning.

Sunny sighs as she stares forward at the wall, “Great!” before looking up at the platform to see two piles of crumbled stone there, closer to the wall “Twinkle! Any idea what made these two piles?”

Twinkle looks at the piles on the platform and just shakes her head, “Golly no, Sunny! I don’t know what those were?”

Sunny frowns, “Strange? Uh, Izzy?”

Izzy cheerfully pipes up as her head rises, “Yeah Sunny?”

“We need to look around this structure and see if we can find any clues as to what this may have been.”

“I can help!” chimes in Twinkle from behind the two ponies.

<*****>

Izzy trots on the other side while Sunny and Twinkle trot around the right side of the building to examine the walls.

Sunny asks Twinkle, “So, you don’t remember why you were there on that platform? You just ‘woke up' there, as you say?” while trotting around the structure and examining the walls, as they pass by the square openings, one by one.

Suddenly, both ponies suddenly hear an excited squeal coming from the other side as Izzy shouts, “I found a clue!”

Sunny faces the building, squats, and opens her wings before looking at Twinkle, “You can fly too, after all!”

Twinkle smiles, “Oh yeah!” before turning to the building and squatting down herself with her little pink wings open and ready at her sides.

“I’ll go first!” Sunny says before launching herself into the air with a woosh to fly over the structure.

Twinkle stares up at this majestic orange alicorn as she flies over the building to drop out of view over the horizon.

Twinkle then here’s Sunny from the other side, “You coming, or what?”

Twinkle’s eyes widen as she shouts back, “Uh, sure! Hang on!” She begins to flap her little wings as her legs bend down more and she quickly launches herself into the air to fly over the building. She sees the courtyard from above as she passes and sees the crumbling platform where she woke on the right as grass and dirt now covers sections of the pavement. She flaps her wings vigorously to float over all of this and the two ponies on the other side soon see this flying pink filly descending towards them, closer to the wall on the building. She finally lands and looks at Izzy, “What did you find?”

Izzy looks down at the dirt and lifts what appears to be a ripped-up dark green shoulder bag with some contents inside in her blue glow on her right as she smiles at the other two ponies, “It looks like an old book bag! I wonder what could be inside?”

Sunny says, “Well, let’s take a look!”

Izzy lowers the bag to the ground and soon, forces the zipper up top to move several inches before it won’t move anymore.

“Ugh!” Izzy exclaims. “I can’t move the zipper past this point! But uh, there is this big hole in the back here?” before blinking as her bouncy mane jitters. She moves the bag around to view the hole on the other side and causes two objects inside to glow blue and float out so she can look at them.

The two objects are closer to her than the bag as she sees they’re both leatherbound books! She moves the brown one on the right before her and opens it up to see inside before saying, “I can’t read any of this. It’s all smudged and many of these pages are torn! Every bit of it!” before closing the book and she looks on the cover before saying, “Uh, it says, Sharing 101, on the front though!” She floats the other red book before her while moving the brown book off to the side. She opens it and looks and says, “Same story! No way of knowing what this once said!” before closing the book and seeing the cover, “It says, Buddy System, on the cover. Uh, it’s got weird lettering though. I don’t know anypony who writes like this!”

Sunny looks at Izzy as she scrunches her brow, “You think maybe this was some kinda school?”

Izzy stares back at the alicorn, “I’m not sure?” before turning to her right to Twinkle, “Do you know anything at all about this place?”

Twinkle Shine’s eyes widen as she stares up at the unicorn, “Um golly no, not really?” before wistfully turning her head to the stone structure, “But I can already tell that this is all that’s left…” she closes her eyes as she faces down, “It’s all gone…”

Izzy leans forward with trained eyes on the filly, “What’s all gone?”

The filly opens her eyes at the unicorn before saying at a louder volume while her body shakes slightly, “Everything! My old life is now gone and… And the worst part is, I don’t even remember what it was!”

Sunny frowns at the filly, “What makes you say that?”

Twinkle stares at the alicorn with resolve in her brown eyes, “There’s something else going on here… I can already tell that this is, not normal…”

Izzy narrows her eyes at the filly, “Well, you got us! You don’t have any place to go, right?”

Twinkle shakes her head no.

Izzy normalizes her eyes and smiles, “Well, you do now, Twinkle Shine! You’re staying in my cottage in Bridlewood until we can figure out where you belong!”

Twinkle smiles, “Oh golly! That sounds like fun!”

(To be continued…)