As Dusky Glimmer strode into Our Celium, Ponyville's premier provider of mushrooms, she was disappointed to find it empty. Princess Luna had sent word ahead to the local government that her official representative would be arriving to check on the proceedings, and she had therefore expected to find the owner, one 'Penny Bun', ready to greet her. Instead, the farm was totally silent. Luna's pale moonlight fell across a series of buildings made of deep red wood and a small forest of pine trees some way from that. In contrast to the neatly ordered woods in Canterlot's public parks, this was half-wild, tangled and chaotic. It certainly didn't look appealing, but the house and barns weren't giving any signs of being occupied. The lights were all off, there was no smoke coming from the chimney of the house - they even had fresh snow laying on the paths. Dusky sighed, and wandered into the forest.

'At the rate this night's going,' she thought, 'I probably shouldn't be surprised by one more little inconvenience. At least Spike's happy enough, I guess.' Indeed, the little dragon was as cheerful as Dusky had ever seen him. Apparently he was enjoying the change of scenery from Canterlot – or, more specifically, Canterlot University. Her friends had tried at first to convince her to come with then for a girls' day out, but they had eventually accepted that they were only ever going to see her by night. Dusky hadn't really considered it in that way before. Maybe when she got back she'd have to put a little effort into the whole socialising thing. She didn't want to get so wrapped up in her studies that she drove them off altogether, after all. 'Mind you, I probably don't have to worry too much about that. I mean, I'd have to be a real shut-in to pull that off.'

Dusky decided to enjoy the scenery. In fact, she was so interested in the artistically arranged piles of logs that she bumped into something warm and firm. Shaking her head to clear it, she realised that something was in fact someone – a huge red stallion with a white-blonde mane. Despite the cold, he was unclothed and Dusky could see that his cutie mark was a cross-section of a mushroom's head. His face was stern as he stared down at Dusky and Spike impassively. Dusky suddenly realised that she had no proof that she was meant to be on this farm.

“Oh, sorry. We're, uh, looking for Penny Bun?”

The stallion said nothing, and instead pointed one enormous hoof eastward. Dusky, slightly nervous by this point, grabbed Spike and headed off as fast as she could without actually giving the appearance of fleeing. She was so intent on getting away from the giant that she tripped over one of the piles of logs. As she picked herself up and tried to rearrange the logs into their old pattern – hoping very much that she hadn't just destroyed this family's crop – she came to a disturbing realisation. Her surroundings were alien to her. She was totally and utterly lost. She couldn't even see any hoof-prints in the snow.

'On the plus side', she thought, 'for once my purple coat makes me easier to see'. Back home in Canterlot, she was forever being bumped into and tripped over. Having a coat that helped you blend into the night was considered by some to be a good luck charm, especially when (as Dusky did) the pony in question also had a matching mane, but Dusky considered it an annoyance more than anything else. Her short stature and skinny build didn't exactly help matters, even if her friends were perpetually jealous of her inability to ever put on weight. 'On the other hoof', she continued, 'it's not as if there's even anypony around to actually see me.'

She slumped to the floor in despair, and tried to work out how long she would have to remain lost in order to send for Princess Luna without it being embarrassing. As she was contemplating inventing or summoning some dire threat in order to make her request seem more reasonable, she heard a sniffing sound coming from behind the roots of a particularly old tree. Dusky was overjoyed. This farm's dog must have found her, and soon it would lead her back to civilisation. She trotted over to the tree, only to fall backwards in shock as the source of the sniffing revealed itself not to be a dog but a pony.

The pony in question beamed at Dusky. She had a mid-brown coat and a pale blonde mane, roughly the same shade as that of the earlier giant. Though she was significantly smaller than him, she had a rugged presence that spoke of long hours doing the kind of difficult physical work that would have Dusky collapsing in a heap. Her clothes looked a good deal sturdier than Dusky's, and she envied the farmer her boots. She should have realised that Winter away from a city would be colder, and that the snow would be cleared less thoroughly. “Howdy! I'm Penny Bun and this here's Our Celium. What brings you out-wait, I know. You're from the Princess, ain't ya? Shoot, I plum forgot you was visiting today.”

Dusky had never been more conscious of her Canterlot accent. “Yes, that's right. How did you know, by the way?”

Penny Bun gestured at Dusky's neck. “It's that there clasp on your cloak. Only folks with royal business or royal blood get to wear them, and you're the only royal pony I could think of.”

Dusky looked down, and the single lidless eye on her clasp stared up at her. Now that she thought about it, she did often see this design when she was around the Princess. “Huh, I guess that's right. I hadn't really thought about it. I mean, I spend so much time around the Princess that I suppose I'm just used to seeing this design on things.”

“So are you, like, a Countess or a Duchess or something?”

She grinned. “Actually, yes! As Her Majesty's personal student, I'm automatically made a Knight. Technically, commoners aren't allowed to be her students, and everypony decided it would be more fun to do it this way. I don't have any land or anything, though. Heh, I think you're probably richer than me.”

Penny blushed at this, and rubbed one hoof on the back of her neck. Snow fell into the hood of her thick cloak, but she didn't seem to notice. “Well, we do our best. I gotta say, I wasn't expecting a royal herald to be so friendly.”

“Oh, sure. I don't have any reason not to be nice, you know? Anyway, I'm told you're in charge of the food for the Midnight Moon Merriment.” She looked around the forest. This was not how she'd expected her meeting to go – Penny Bun had an important responsibility, and ponies with important responsibilities did business in offices with velvet chairs and fireplaces, not in the middle of a forest. This village made no sense, but not in an unpleasant way. She'd rolled her eyes whenever her friend Carrot had spoken about how nice it was outside of the city, but now she could see her point.

“Yep, sure are. We're just putting the finishing touches on the spread now.”

“By sniffing a tree?”

“Sure! How else am I meant to find mushrooms?” The look on Penny Bun's face suggested that this was the most natural and logical thing in the world, and only some kind of weirdo would see a problem with it.

Dusky held up one hoof. “Hold on a second. I've lived in a city all my life, and I've never even set hoof on a farm before tonight, but even I know that plants can't grow in Winter.” Spike made noises that suggested that he agreed, but was too busy eating mushrooms to join in the conversation.

Penny nodded. “Not most of 'em, you're right there. But these little beauties are called White Trumpets, or else they're called Ghost Caps if you come from Neighpon and they love the snow. They need to drink a lot, ya see, and if they get it from rain most of 'em get washed away and even if ya catch 'em, they're all stressed and it's a total pain trying to cook with 'em. You try cooking with ingredients like that some time, you'll see exactly what I mean. So anyway, about thirty years back a bunch of farmers and alchemists got together and decided to see if they couldn't...”

What you're reading is the redone version of Chapter 1. If you're wondering what the difference is, this version is longer and has a lot more description. Also, I've moved Dusky further away from Twilight – she was basically a clone in the first version. I'll get around to redoing chapters 2 and 3, and then writing entirely new stuff, eventually.

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