//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 - Coincidental Party? // Story: On The Wings of Wind // by Chazonic //------------------------------// When I went back to my hotel room, I noticed a slip of parchment on the floor at the entrance. After placing my apple bags on the counter and procuring one, I read what it said. Come to Sugar Cube Corner at 7 pm!! No name... I wonder why this pony chose to give this to me. I've only been in this town for two hours now, and already somepony tries to set me up for... something... My eyes widen in sudden horror. Did somepony from Manehatten find me here? What if this is somepony's idea of a cruel joke? No! Calm down, you are just overreacting to this. Whoever wrote this might of picked a room at random, either for something purposeful, or just as an innocent prank. I sighed before biting into my apple, savoring the taste and juiciness. Letting go of all my bad experiences in Manehatten is going to be difficult. It's ironic, considering that one of my beliefs contradicts what I am doing right now. Sadly, I came up with no other alternatives when I was contemplating about doing what I'm doing now. I sighed again before eating another apple. Right now it was two o'clock, so I had five hours before heading to this Sugar Cube Corner place. Judging by the name, it must either be a bakery or a cafe', so it would logically be a prime meeting spot for anypony. Guess I'll look around town for this place, so that when I go, I'm not wandering around like a lost sheep. Said SugarCube Corner was a joke to find, considering it looks like it's made of sweets. Shaking my head and attempting to make note of the location, I wandered around town while attempting to avoid any attention. I didn't care as much about it when I'm hungry, but when all my needs are satisfied, I shy away from crowds; they make me nervous... Wait, scratch that. They make me VERY nervous. And to make matters worse, my reaction earlier when buying apples will certainly draw attention to me if I'm not careful. A slight snoring sound from above brought me out of my stupor. Looking up, all I see is a lone cloud floating there, with what looks like a rainbow tail dangling from one side. Since I worked at the mini-weather factory in Manehatten, I was privy to certain tidbits of information that only employees can see. Weather schedules are no exception, and I had a look at what should of been Ponyville's forecast: a clear, sunny day. The sky was littered with other clouds, although few and far between. That still isn't sufficient for a properly done job, and that one pony on the cloud was just snoozing away. This would be grounds for dismissal where I came from. How slack can they be around here? Another snore sounded from the one cloud above me Sounds like SOMEpony is enjoying a care-free life. Sheesh, some ponies get all the luck... Resisting the urge to facehoof, I slipped away from the spot. A few blocks later, another thought crossed my mind. That couldn't of been Rainbow Dash, could it? I thought a mare capable of creating the legendary sonic rainboom would be less lazy. Is she all bark, no bite after all? Guess I'll confront her about it tomorrow before I leave. That's IF she's awake at the time. "Why hello there, darling, you must be new here." Looking away from the snoozing pegasus, I see a rather elegant marshm-- excuse me, white unicorn with a regal mane-style. "Uh, can I help you?" "Why yes actually; have you seen a rainbow-maned pegasus around? I need her for something." I snort, earning a look of confusion from the mare. "I haven't seen a rainbow mane, but if a rainbow tail counts, she may very well be a few blocks behind me, right above your head, with HER head in the clouds." She gives an exasperated sigh before looking past me. "She is supposed to be helping me and my friends with something after clearing the skies..." A quick pause, the only things heard are ponies walking along the street and another light snore from afar. Come to think that snore is pretty cute-- --what is wrong with me? "I'll be sure to give her a good talking later. Laziness of that level is unbecoming of a mare her age. For now, lets talk about you, dear." My face got a bit hot as I started stuttering, "w-what? I-I can assure you that there's n-nothing special about me!" "Well, if you pardon my bluntness, you seem to have a rather feminine build for your muzzle." My embarrassment quickly turned into fear. "W-well this has been an interesting conversation, but I think I need to go right now." As I quickly speed away, I hear her say something, but I was long gone before I even considered slowing down. Panting from the adrenaline rush, I notice a tree that has been made into a house, yet is somehow still very much alive. Must of taken a lot of magic to make that happen. I was a bit afraid of talking to whoever lives in there, but my curiosity got the better of me. I gave the door the standard three knocks. "The library is open." Right, time for me to notice the blatantly obvious sign that reads: Golden Oaks Library. I facehoof before entering, mentally bucking myself for not noticing. The library looks bigger on the inside. How much magic DID they use to build this place? "Anything you are looking for at all?" Time to take notice of the lavender-colored unicorn with the pink stripe down her dark-purple mane. That wasn't creepy at all. "Nothing in particular, just browsing to pass the time. I'll let you know when I find something of interest." "Oh, OK then. SPIKE!" A purple and green dragon rounds a corner with a slightly irritated face. "Be sure to help our guest if he needs any, OK?" He gives a lazy salute before she turns to you. "Its fine, I don't wish to be too much trouble. I'm just passing time until I have to go to SugarCube Corner at seven for something." She stares at me for a moment before giving me a coy smile. I subconsciously tense up. "...What?" "Nothing. My name is Twilight Sparkle by the way." "Zephyr Earthwing." She gave a thoughtful pause before saying, "pleased to meet you. Again, let us know if you need anything." I relax a bit and simply nodded before trotting over to one of the nearby shelves to see what books they have. Despite being a smaller town, they had a bigger public library than Manehatten did. When the clock was reading four-thirty, Twilight suddenly decided to leave Spike in charge of the library before heading out. Looking up from the one book I found interesting, I saw her give me a sly smile, sending shivers down my spine. I hope she isn't one of the ones involved in that meeting that may-or-may-not be a really bad joke. "I'm not sure if Twilight would appreciate me saying this, but I have to say it." I look over at spike who was giving me a happy, yet apologetic smile. "Fire away." "Thanks for putting books you take off the shelves back where they originally were. you have no idea how much that means to me! Also, sorry for being grumpy with you earlier." I simply raise an eyebrow. "It's no problem, and what I did is a common courtesy to do so where I'm from. Does Twilight give you a hard time with this kind of thing?" "Yeah, she goes a tad bit loopy when things become 'un-orderly' in her books." He shrugs before going off to dust the opposite corner, as to not disturb me. "No offense, but my impression of her is that she can be quite scatterbrained." A snort of laughter comes from him and, realizing what I said, I plead to him, "don't tell her I said that!" Snickering some more, he stated, "it's fine. She doesn't want to admit that she is though." She must be fun at parties. Although she seems too young to be partying, unless that's another way this town is lax. Checking the clock and confirming the time as quarter-after six, I bid Spike farewell before heading back to my room to eat dinner. Reading about the food culture other cities in Equestria made me quite hungry. Getting back to my room, I decided to down a few more apples instead of making a proper meal, which would leave me time to tune my wind harp a bit more to my comfort. When ten-to seven rolled around, I packed away everything before heading to SugarCube Corner. Exiting the hotel, I noticed the sun starting to set. Have I mentioned to anypony yet that i hate wandering around after dark? Don't get me wrong, I love night-time. The cool calmness relaxes me after a stressful day and I can practice my harp skills without anypony hearing me, or paying attention to me. That's only if I'm near my home. The reason why I'm scared of going out at night is because my mom and I got jumped by a thug on our way home from one of her concerts. We were lucky an officer happened to turn the corner to see it happen. Hopefully whatever happens at this place is quick. As I approached the place, I noticed that all the lights were off inside. Right, closed early for some reason or another. Checking the open hours on the sign, it shows that they were supposed to be open for another three hours... This is starting to look more like a really elaborate joke by the minute. I gave a door a frustrated push, only to almost fall in, since it was unlocked. The inside of the store was pitch-black, save for near the entrance. This would be one of the few times I wish I was a unicorn, in case of flashlight emergencies like thi-- "SURPRISE!!!" ... I wonder if I make a good ceiling throw rug. "Huh? Where did he go?" This is what I get for eating too many apples. For some reason, I get extremely high-strung when I eat apples, yet when I eat anything sweet, I don't get the same results. Two blue eyes suddenly envelop my vision. "Silly, you're supposed to lay on the floor, not on the ceiling!" One surprised yelp later, I land on my back with painful results. I look at the now noticed crowd in front of me; half of them wearing a concerned look while the other half, including a blue rainbow-maned pegasus, looked like they were trying to contain laughter and failing. Once again my vision gets taken up, this time by pink. "SowereyousurprisedithoughtyouweresurprisedImeanwetriedtosurpriseyouthenyousuddenlydissapearedandwewereallwonderingwhy yousuddenlyvanishlikethatthenIlookupan--" She gets an orange hoof stuffed into her mouth. "Sorry 'bout that sugahcube. She likes to go off like that when she tries to surprise somepony." "Its fine," I groan as I roll onto my legs and stand up before looking at the owner of the hoof. "Oh you're the farm pony that sold me all those apples! I can't believe i didn't introduce myself then." She grins as she removes her hoof from the other mare's mouth. "Don't worry 'bout it, ah'm sure we will be well acquainted after this party, Zephyr." What? How? "Enough of that! lets get this party STARTED!" With a blast from her-- wait, where did that cannon come from? It took all my willpower to not plaster myself against the ceiling for the second time. Regardless, I should get introduced to her and everypony she knew. Oh Celestia, I hope I didn't make a mistake. "Right, well follow me for a minute here." I followed the orange mare to a group of three other mares, two of them I recognize. "So this is where you went, Twilight." The mare in question turned and smiled at me. "Hey, Zephyr, I figured i would introduce my friends to you here. Although it looks like you already met Pinkie Pie and Applejack already." Fitting the pink one would be named Pinkie Pie. Plus it's good to finally know the one who sold me delicious apples. Twilight gestured towards the white unicorn and the flying pegasus. "This is Rarity and Rainbow Dash." I nod to them while saying, "Zephyr Earthwing. Pleased to make your acquaintance." Hope that didn't come off too awkward. "Earthwing... that name seems familiar. Regardless; you're the one who dashed away from me when we met earlier!" Rarity gave an irritated huff. Rainbow Dash snickered before saying, "and don't you forget; you're in the presence of the fastest flyer in Equestria!" I raise an eyebrow at her. "I've heard rumors about your performance at the Best Young Fliers competition. Some are even going so far as to call you a 'Faker.'" She gave a small grimace, but quickly placed her hooves behind her head before saying, "they are just jealous they aren't as awesome as I am." An arrogant mare. This is going to be fun... Not! Twilight looked at you curiously. "Why did you run from Rarity?" "All I said was that his muzzle had a build like a mare's" At this, I lowered my head and ears both in shame and fright, waiting for the inevitable plethora of potential insults. "Sorry" Applejack gives Rarity a slightly annoyed look. "He's sorry for doing that, so don't hold it against him." Giving me a curious look, she added, "Why did you look frightened anyways? It's not like we were going to insult you or anything." I gave her a dumbfounded look before Twilight added, "yeah, I say it looks OK on you." Rarity gave a gentle nod while Rainbow gave a small smirk that went unnoticed by everypony but me. I sigh. "Its because when I was younger I--" I gave a small gulp "-- was made fun of a lot for my muzzle shape." I got three sympathetic looks, though Rainbow Dash was looking at me a bit puzzled. "You remind me a lot of our friend Fluttershy. Speaking of her, where is she?" Twilight looked around. "She is here somewhere. And I was hoping she would of opened up a bit more after that incident with the cockatrice. ... Suddenly I got an annoying buzzing in the back of my mind. Fluttershy... For some odd reason that name was like a half-remembered song for me; Familiar, yet not familiar. "Hey! Turn that frownie upside-downie!" I get a jab to where my bandages were and I let out a high pitched yelp of surprise. "Would you kindly not do that to me, please?" I glare at Pinkie Pie who gave an awkward smile. "Warn me before you do that again. Ah' feel like ah' temporarily lost mah' hearing'..." My turn to give a sheepish smile. "Sorry. My sides there are really sensitive, that's why I have bandages over them." It was a half-truth, but I hoped they would buy it. After yet another awkward situation of me being weird, I quickly excused myself and went off to try some of the snacks and punch. As soon as I reached the table, I felt a hoof tap my on the shoulder. I turn, only to come face-to-face with a familiar face. "Mr. Hoofington?"