“Are you sure this is a great idea Twilight?” Adrian asked nervously. After reviving Fluttershy, sending the letters off, and teleporting to the Library, Adrian found he was a teensy bit stressed out.
“It’ll be fine. Just… brace for a very hyper pink pony, okay?” Twilight assured Adrian, hearing Pinkies endless chatter down stairs. After making sure the human was ready, Twilight called down, “Alright, be down in a second!”
“Wha’ in tarnation do ya think this is abou…” Adrian was able to hear before walking into the views of four very surprised ponies. Even Pinkie Pie was stunned into silence, for the moment at least.
“Girls, meet Adrian. Adrian, the girls.” Twilight introduced.
“Hi everyone.” Adrian said, to mixed reactions.
What the hay is that thing? It’s trouble, sure as sugar. Whatever it is, I don’ trust it worth a hill o’ beans, it’s no coincidence this thing gets here with HIM on the loose. Applejack thought, edging away oh so slightly, a grimace on her face.
What in Celestia’s mane is that? Oh dear, look at that thing. And it’s clothes! Poor dear, it must be so frightened...Perhaps I could make something for it. Yes, surely that would help…Rarity’s mind began humming with what the thing would want to wear to replace its tattered, soaked clothing.
Oh my goodness! Somepony new! You know what that means: PARTAAAY! Now, we’ll need steamers, balloons, hats, I should see if that likes chocolate or vanilla more…wait, who doesn’t like chocolate? NOPONY, silly filly, And so on raced through the head of Ponyvilles native partyer, a string of nonsense streaming through her head.
Wow. Was all that Rainbow Dash was able to think upon seeing the human, for once at a loss for words.
“…Well, welcome to Ponyville, eh, what was your name again dear?” Rarity said, breaking out of her stupor first, trotting over to the human.
“Adrian, and you are...?” Adrian shook Rarities perfectly manicured hoof, the oddness of the motion escaping neither of them.
“Rarity, my dear. These are the rest of the girls, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack,” Rarity pointed to each in turn, “And you know Twilight and Fluttershy.” Adrian sat down next to the nearest filly.
“Not ta be rude, but I ’ma might bit more concerned ‘bout Discord than this here…uh, thing.” Applejack bluntly stated, her frankness slightly insulting to Adrian. A round of voices added their two bits about the situation as well.
“Yes, that’s what I mainly wanted to talk about.” Twilight turned to the farm pony as it grew quiet again, “I’ve sent a letter to the princess telling her about his escape, and that we found something… interesting.”
“I assume that’s me?” Adrian interrupted from his seat near Rainbow Dash. It may have just been the candle light, but it seemed the pegasus was blushing, however hard she would have denied it.
“Of course Adrian.” Twilight responded.
“And not to side track, but who is this Discord and why is everyone panicking about him?” Adrian asked, his hand slipping closer to Rainbow, who was by now redder than Big Macintosh.
“It’s a long story.” Twilight said at once. Unfortunately for Adrian, Pinkie had recovered from her shock.
“Discord’s this big Meany Bobeany who tried to ruin everything! He made everyone act all crazy, and then there was cotton candy cloud with chocolate milk rain, and buffaloes in tutus, and then he made-” Whatever Pinkie said next was blocked by a cyan hoof shoved into her mouth.
“Discord’s chaos, we turned him into stone, and it looks like we need to do it again.” Rainbow summed up Pinkie’s rambling, and then pulled her hoof out of Pinkies mouth, who still hadn’t gotten the hint.
“-And then I said ‘I hate chocolate milk’, but I really didn’t!” Inhaling deeply, Pinkie Pie stopped her talking.
“Makes about as much sense as anything has lately.” Adrian leaned back, accidently brushing a finger against Rainbow Dash, another blush emerging from the speedster.
“So, now we just need to wait for Princess Celestia to respond.” Twilight knew several of her friends would rather do than wait, and that they were wasting time even now with Discord on the loose.
“So, I for one am very curious about Adrian here,” Rarity turned towards the human, grinning, “And just what his world is like.”
“Umm…well, what do you want to know?” Adrian awkwardly said, not used to all the attention being on him.
“Everything, silly!” Pinkie (rather unhelpfully) said.
“Why don’t you start with what a human is?” Fluttershy asked from her secluded spot near the back of the room.
“Sure, Fluttershy. Well, we humans are the only species that can talk...”
“Don’t y’all have ponies?” Applejack interrupted in a huff, insulted and shocked ponies weren’t the dominant species. She was beginning to like this human thing less than the yearly caterpillar invasion.
“Well, yeah, but ponies are used for… labor.” Gasps emanated from all ponies present.
“But us pegasus can’t take that lying down!” Rainbow said, at the same time Twilight asked “But what about unicorns? Surely they have SOME power, right?”
“Well, both pegasus and unicorns aren’t real, or at least I don’t remember them being real. I don’t remember magic, either.” The winged and horned fillies were shocked, too stunned even to gasp. Well, we might not be the top o’ the haystack, but ‘least we exist, Applejack smugly thought to herself, as Pinkie tried to figure out how many ponies she was going to invite to Adrian’s welcome party (she was up to about 50 by now, and was debating on where to put the party).
“Well…we aren’t the lowest of the low, right?” Rainbow asked, disturbed by Adrian’s tale.
“Oh, no no no! Horses get a lot of respect from us! It’s just; you guys aren’t as powerful as here, I guess.” Adrian tried to recover; he did NOT want to deal with ponies that thought he thought they were worthless (although, from the look Applejack was giving Adrian, it was too late for that). Quick, do something! What do girls like? Uh… Adrian wracked his brain, wishing he knew more about the fairer sex. Suddenly, an idea struck him. “I can’t remember much, actually. Why don’t you tell me about yourselves?” What girl DOESN’T like talking about themself! Of course, it helped that he couldn’t actually remember much more.
“W-well, okay.” Twilight was caught a little off guard from the sudden deflection of topics. “Well, I run the town library, and Spike’s my assistant. Rarity here is-”
“Really, Twilight dear, we can talk for ourselves.” Rarity interrupted, not wanting to waste an opportunity to talk about herself. “I am the owner of Ponyville’s best fashion boutique, Carousel Boutique. I have been recognized by such fashion ponies as Sapphire Shoes, Photo Finish, and Hoity Toity, to name a few. I even made several splendid dresses for the Grand Galloping Gala. Oh, they were magnificent! Perhaps my best work, if you’ll mind me saying.” Rarity paused for a breath to launch into descriptions, which was just enough time for Rainbow Dash to say one word: “Blueblood.”
The effect was immediate: Rarity deflated faster than a balloon with a needle in it. All the excitement and energy drained from the unicorns face, and the elegance of the perfectly groomed pony was lost as she hung her head. It may have been another trick of the candle light, but tears seemed to be welling in the unicorn’s eyes.
“Was that really necessary, Dash?” Fluttershy scolded as she went to comfort the now distraught dress maker. The rainbow manned pegasus merely shrugged her shoulders.
“It was that or listen to an hour of dresses and shampoos,” Rainbow glanced towards the human sitting next to her, “Besides, Adrian here was probably lost in seconds.”
“Thanks.” This seemed to be a half statement, half question as the human looked at the now openly bawling unicorn.
Eyeing Rarity, Rainbow Dash continued talking. “Anyways, I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Equestria, and the loyalist of the loyal! I even did the Sonic Rainboom not once, but twice!” Several eyes rolled at this.
“Ya might wanna add biggest ego in Equestria there, Rainbow.” The element of honesty added, to a round of snickers from every pony present, excluding Rainbow Dash, who, if looks could kill, would be wanted for murder.
“And who are you?” Asked the human, eyeing the farmpony.
“None o’ your bisness, now ain’t it?” Adrian was caught off guard by Applejacks tone: up until now, he was thinking the orange pony was just worried about Discord, but now he could see not everypony in the room wasn’t thrilled at the idea of meeting a new species they had never knew existed.
“That’s Applejack, Adrian.” Twilight said, shooting her a dirty look.
Adrian snorted. “More like Crabapple.” Adrian said, but under his breath.
“WHAT WAS THAT!?!?” Applejack moved so quickly even Rainbow Dash had trouble catching the farmpony before she got to the now terribly frightened human. It took all Rainbow had in her to wrestle Applejack down until she calmed down (although not without several, uh, “Adult” words stemming from her), steam coming out from her hat.
Trying to get his heart to slow to an acceptable rate, Adrian looked around the room. He already knew Twilight and Fluttershy, Rarity was still moping around; the rainbow pony had her hooves full keeping an eye on Crabapple. That only left…the pink one.
“So, last but certainly not least, you are…?” Adrian turned to the party pony, who was having a hard time containing her giggles at Applejack’s display.
“Oh, I’m Pinkie Pie, and it’s so nice to meet someone new!” Pinkie violently shook Adrian’s hand, making an audible pop come from the human’s wrist, “I just love throwing welcome parties! And it’s been soooooooo long since Twilight moved here, and I can’t remember having a really serious party since we defeated Nightmare Moon! Oh, but Princess Luna is all better now, we met at Nightmare Night. But I just can’t believe that I get to throw a human a party! What types of cake do you guys like, huh Adrian? Chocolate? Vanilla? Oats? Or are you more of a candy kind of pony? I don’t blame you, not everypony loves cupcakes and that kind of stuff. Oh, never mind the candy, how many ponies do you girls think we should invite? Should we invite anypony else?” Pinkie managed in one breath, her head turning side to side. Rarity had pulled herself up, and was even smiling at the party ponies antics.
Twilight cleared her throat. “Pinkie actually brings up something I’ve been worrying about: Clearly, we need to hide Adrian from the town until we figure something out, unless we want him torn limb from limb.” At this last part, the unicorns eyes shifted to the fuming pony in the corner, her hat tugged over her eyes.
“H-he could stay with me…” Fluttershy offered, to the surprise of many ponies: FLUTTERSHY offer to have a complete stranger stay with her? Even the pegasus was surprised to her herself say it; she had been thinking it would be nice to get to know Adrian better, but to actually offer?
“Well, I’m touched by the kindness, Fluttershy,” Adrian said, placing his hand over his heart, “but I don’t think hiding in your cottage will be the most exciting thing in the world.”
“Well, sorry to play Discords advocate, but we don’t have much of a choice, do we?” Twilight interjected, the Apple pony stirring at the chaos lord’s name, but continued to slump under a window, rain continuing to pitter onto it.
“A-actually…” The groups collected heads moved towards the sound. Rarity seemed to be in control of herself again, albeit with smeared make up, “Twilight dear, don’t you know a spell that can make something look like a pony?”
The librarian thought for a moment. “Well, yes, but any unicorn could see through it if they had a mind to, and I guarantee you the Princess will see right through it.”
“Well, don’t we kinda NEED Celestia to know about Adrian?” Rainbow interjected. Twilight placed her hoof to her chin in thought.
“Hmm…well, I guess it could work… what the hay, I can try it.” Applause came from the group. Adrian, on the other hand, seemed concerned.
“I’m sure you’re capable of this, Twilight, but didn’t the last time you did magic on me cause you to almost faint?” I hadn’t thought about that, Twilight thought to herself, before waving it off.
“I’m sure that was a onetime ordeal, Adrian.” Twilight was unsure of that however, as she readied the spell. Gathering the available magic, Twilight imagined a plain, unsuspecting colt where Adrian now stood, eyes closed in preparation. She concentrated the magic into a single point. Slowly, the unicorn forced the magic onto Adrian. A wave of chaos flooded through Twilights mind, causing her to almost lose her essential focus. The unicorn was prepared for it this time, and was able to complete the spell.
Adrian shivered as the magic flowed onto his form, and then surrounded him. Slowly, Adrian opened his eyes. “Did it work?”
“No” Came a confused chorus. Fluttershy looked at Twilight, “Did Dis- did HE make it not work?”
Twilight cast a reassuring look at her friend. “No, it worked fine. We know that Adrian isn’t a pony, so we can see through the charm.”
“What a convenient plot device.” Pinkie chirped from her seat, eating out of a bag of chips no one had seen before. Her friends brushed it off as Pinkie being Pinkie.
“So…now we just wait?” Rainbow Dash asked. Twilight turned to her hued friend.
“Yeah, but I would have thought that the Princess would respond qui-” Whatever Twilight said was cut off from a rather loud BRAAP from Spike, causing Pinkie to giggle through a mouth full of chips. Spike broke the seal, and looked to Twilight. With a nod, Twilight signaled Spike to start.
“Hehem…Dearest Twilight: Thank you for alerting us to the danger of Discords escape. Unfortunately, we were unable to act quickly enough to stop him from eluding us. This is, however, accompanied with the good news that Discord seems to still be weakened from his imprisonment by the Elements. Luckily, Luna and I had the forethought of casting a tracking spell on Discords form, which seems to be working. I have sent our largest chariot to immediately gather you six and bring you to Canterlot. Expect it at your home within the hour. Best wishes, Princess Celestia of Canterlot. P.S: I am very intrigued by your mention of finding a pony of interest. If it would be no trouble, please bring them before myself, so I may see them myself.” Spike finished with a sigh, handing the letter to Twilight so she could re-examine it, as she so often did.
“Sounds like we hav’ a plan.” Applejack said, breaking her gloomy silence. Rainbow Dash began hovering a foot in the air, tired of sitting around waiting. Pinkie, surprisingly, was just staring at one of the walls, instead of her usual bouncing around.
Adrian sighed. “Great.” Adrian suddenly sat up, eyes widened. “Hey Twilight, what do I look like?”
The unicorn glanced up from the letter. “What do you mean? You look…like a human, I guess.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Adrian said with a sigh. “What does the charm make me look like? What does pony me look like?”
The student’s eyes widened in understanding. “Oh. Well, you have brown fur, black mane; you’re an earth pony, and a bird as your cutie mark.” The human looked confused at the end of the unicorn’s statement.
“What does a bird have to do with me?”
“I don’t know, come up with a cover story!” The unicorn walked away from the human, who was racking his brain for a likely story. Twilight noticed Fluttershy seemed to be having some trouble packing a saddle bag she had borrowed. Trotting over, Twilight offered her help.
“O-oh, thank you Twilight.” Fluttershy waited as the unicorn used her magic to re-organize the cluttered bag, and then began looking around for a book she seemed to be missing. The shy ponies gaze drifted over to the human, who was now quietly conversing with Spike. The yellow ponies face took on a red tint to it.
Smirking, Twilight asked what had been on her mind since the pegasus had said it. “So Fluttershy, why do you want to have Adrian stay with you?”
The pegasus, startled by the question, dropped the book she had found hiding under the table. “W-what d-do you mean?” The pegasus tried to grin like nothing was ahoof, but she was almost as bad a liar as Applejack.
“Well, I’ve never thought you the type of pony who would invite strange ponies into your home, let alone strange…humans.” The last word caught on Twilights tongue; it was just such an odd word to stay.
Fluttershy’s eyes looked everywhere but at the unicorn. “Well…Adrian needs a place to stay, and with me being the element of kindness… I think Rarity wants me.” The pegasus quickly walked away, leaving a grinning Twilight.
Something’s going on with her, and I’m going to find out. But before Twilight could solve any mysteries, a loud noise coming from outside the library caught her attention. Opening the window the intrusion came from, Twilight looked around, finally spotting the pony that had made the noise.
“Derpy! What are you doing here?” This was the fourth time the mail mare had been caught hanging around the library. Derpy seemed soaked to the bone, a waterlogged bouquet of flowers tucked under a wing. Twilight was getting tired of telling the crossed eyed mare she had no interest in a relationship, but Derpy seemed not to get the message.
Startled by her loves sudden appearance, Derpy tried to assume the most innocent look possible. Twilight couldn’t know she had overheard everything! Looking around, the crossed eyed mare thought up the best cover story possible.
“N-nothing, just…just bringing you some flowers!” The mail mare hoisted the drowned roses to Twilights level, accidently shoving them right in her face. The mail mare had felt so bad after dropping a truck load of mail onto Twilights head that she, on a weekly basis, tried to apologies, while also trying to get the exotic unicorn to go out with her.
Rather unceremoniously, the unicorn shoved the flowers out of her face. “Look Derpy, you’re a nice pony, but I’m not interested in being in a serious relationship.” Twilight looked at the mail mare; soaked to the bone from the violent thunderstorm…a thunderstorm that nopony would go through without significant reason. Derpy definitely wasn’t the smartest pony, but she should have known to wait to give Twilight her affections. “Derpy, why did you come here?”
Derpy didn’t have the best vision in all of Equestria, but she could see the suspicion on Twilights face. Panicked, Derpy reverted to an old saying her (rather cowardly) grandfather had told her: if things aren’t looking up for you, RUN! With a burst of speed, the mail mare flew off as fast as possible, hoping she didn’t hit anything heavy.
“WAIT! Derpy…” But Twilight knew it was a lost cause to try and get Derpy back. Looking at the retreating form, a glint caught Twilight eye. Wondering who else was crazy enough to brave the storm; Twilight levitated a nearby telescope to her eye, and focused on the growing dot. After a few seconds, Twilight turned her head back to her awaiting companions, who seemed have been listening in on the conversation.
“Get ready, the carriage is here.”