I woke early in the morning on Saturday, heading straight for the small printing house. The maroon stallion looked over my work (which I had mouth-written, with difficulty) and his face lit up.

    "My, Mr. Star," he beamed at me, "I didnt know what a gifted writer you are!"

    "Well, thanks," I replied. "I thought it was pretty good." I smiled. "I just hope it'll sell papers."

    He clapped me on the back. "See, that's the kind of work ethic we need! Oh - smile!" he said, whipping out a camera. I was just able to smile before the camera flashed.

    "I - wait, we?" I asked, confused.

    "Yeah!" he continued smiling. "I thought your idea was such a good one, I expanded the idea, and the company, a little bit."

    Almost as if on cue, a tall, golden pony with a blackish mane came out from the back room. His apron (and face, for some reason) was covered with ink. "Mr. Widget, I just finished cleaning the printer, what else -" He noticed me. "Oh, so you're the first writer?"

    I nodded, and muttered, "I didn't know his name was Widget."

    He must have heard me, because he began shaking my hoof quickly. "Of course, Mr. Star, my name is Todd Widget, and I'm glad to meet you personally for the first time."

    A question popped into my head. "Did I ever even tell you my name?"

    "No, but I was in the hospital bed to your left when your wing was broken."

    I stared at him. Why wouldn't he have told me that before?

    "Anyways," he continued as the golden pony returned to the printing room, "I also hired another writer for the paper. She should be arriving sometime in the next few minutes."

    I stood there, unsure of what to do next. "Uh... can I leave?" I asked.

    "Oh, yeah, sure!" he said, his attention returning to me. "I'll just wait for her."

    I walked out the door, my head still turned to Mr. Widget. "Bye, Mr. Widget!"

    "Call me Todd," he replied, before -

    WHUMPH! I collided with another pony, who was apparently in a hurry (judging from how far back I flew). I groaned and looked up from the ground. I saw a really short young filly, with a light orange coat, light green (and in some spots blue) mane, and bright pink eyes.

    "Oh, I'm so sorry, sir. Can I -" she pulled me up with her horn. "There you go!" she grinned. I fluffed my wings a bit. "Oh, my name's Sherbet." she held out her hoof.

    "I'm Falling Star," I replied, by now taking this kind of weird crap in stride. "Are you the new writer?"

    She held out her paper. "Are you the first writer?"

    "Yeah, I just turned my paper in to Mr. Widget."

    "Call me Todd!" I heard from behind me.

    "I'll have to read it!" she grinned, walking past me.

    I flew away. I just realized - I hadn't met an unfriendly pony yet. I kinda hoped I would, or I might become delusional. Seriously, it was freaking me out.

    By Tuesday, I literally had ponies stopping me in the street. "Nice story, Mr. Star!" and "Hey! You wrote that story that was in the paper, right?"

    I guess all of this unintentional fame was okay, but what put it over the edge was when I had Applejack's little sister Applebloom asked me about my story.

    I was shocked at first, but then, taking weird crap in stride again, responded. "I'll be writing a new chapter every Saturday. And..." I tried to control myself, "what's your name?"

    "Applebloom, sir!" she said (so cuuuute!)

    "Oh yeah!" I said, pretending to remember. "Your sister told me about you. Speaking of, where are your other two friends?"

    "Ah think Scootaloo's sick, and ah don't know where Sweetie Belle is." She looked at me again, then gasped. "Could ah get your advice, sir?"

    "Okay, on what?"

    "How'd ya get yer cutie mark?"

    I was confused. "I just - I don't have one yet -"

    "Well why wouldn't ya?" she said cheerfully, and walked around to my flank. "See, there it is!"

    My eyes opened wide. I whipped my head around, and I was able to see a notebook with a pencil. "Ha!" I cried, happily. "Would you look at that!"

    "So how'd you do it?" Applebloom asked, smiling up at me.

    "Well, it must have happened during the week..." and I recollected everything that had happened since I got my job. Before I knew it, we were in the heart of Sweet Apple Acres. I'd been talking the whole way.

    "Hey, mister, I'm home!" she seemed excited. "Wow, how'd ya do that?"

    "Time flies when you're having fun."

    I didn't think ponies knew this idiom, but she seemed to accept it. "Thanks for the story, mister! Now I'm gonna get a job!"

    I smiled. I'd let Applejack deal with that. Next Chapter: Chapter Eleven - Accident Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 4 Minutes