Chapter 2 Bearings
The walk to the town was done in silence much to my relief. There were quite a few questions I would rather not have to answer, particularly the ones pertaining to where I came from.
True to Twilight’s word, the town was not far from where we had been. It was perhaps a fifteen minute walk away from where I met her.
“Well, welcome to Ponyville.” The unicorn said as the trees parted before us. The Ponyville was a small village reminiscent of the old English villages back when King Arthur was said to have lived. In front of me was a large apple orchard and to my left was a sod house with mostly small animals around it. “Let me show you around since you’ve never been here before.”
“Thanks.” Real eloquent aren’t I.
Twilight started the tour where we were pointing out Fluttershy’s house and Sweet Apple Acers, her friend Apple Jack lives there. After that was a short trip down a dirt road to a building made out of Gingerbread. Shortly after seeing this “gingerbread” building there was a loud “GUAH” followed by a flash of pink racing into said building. “What was that?”
“That would be Pinkie Pie. Now that she has seen you she’ll start planning a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party for you in Surgarcube Corner, the local bakery. I wouldn’t recommend leaving until after her party tonight. She’s a little… illogical, but nice.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
The next place she pointed out on the tour was the Town Hall, perhaps the biggest building in Ponyville. Just past that and over a bridge was a multi-story building she called the Carousel Boutique, a clothing shop her friend Rarity lives and works at. After a few more stops along the way we came to a rather large tree with a door in it.
“And this is where I live, the Ponyville library.” She opened the door and went in hollering up at the second floor. “Spike! What happened in here?”
Curious as to what the commotion was about I came in behind her to see three little ponies… foals moving books all over the place.
“What’s the matter Twilight? AH! The books! When did this happen?” This new voice came from a small green and purple dragon.
Alright, did I land in a fantasy book? Never mind, let’s just see where this is going.
“Apple Bloom, what are you all doing?”
The yellow one with red hair responded, “Were tryin’ to sort the library to get our cutie marks.” In perfect unison the three fillies shouted, “We’re Cutie Mark Crusader Librarians!” After which they began fussing over their flanks in disappointment over something. I slowly backed out of the library before something else happened. I wanted to help with the book sorting, but not being used to hooves and all I figured it would be best to fall back. I hadn’t gotten far from the library before I heard the voice of the one called apple bloom.
“Mister, wait jus’ a second.” I sighed but stopped. The filly looked at my side and nodded as if she had just confirmed something important.
“Would you like to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders mister?”
“What’s a Cutie Mark Crusader?”
The little filly got a gleam in her eye before she began explaining it to me. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders are ponies who don’ have Cutie Marks yet who try lots o’ different things to try and find out what their special talent is. I don’t have one yet which is why my flank is still blank, and I noticed that yours is too.” I looked around for a moment at some of the nearby ponies and noticed that they all indeed did have some sort of design on their flanks. I looked at my own and saw that it was blank, much like that of this little filly’s.
“So what’s yer name mister and do ya wanna join?”
“I’ll think about it and my name is Bastion.” I was shocked. I lifted my dog tag from around my neck. Bastion Bulwark, Blood type: A-pos, it was official. My form had changed when I came here, but it seems that my name had to. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about my name sounding weird.
“Bye Bastion, I gotta’ head home now or mah sis will be mad.” Little Apple Bloom ran off in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. I was almost too shocked to notice.
I needed to calm down and get my thoughts in order. A walk around Ponyville seemed like just the ticket. I took the tour that Twilight had taken me on in reverse while I organized my thoughts.
I’m probably going to be stuck here for the rest of my life. My name has changed, which isn’t that big of a deal but still something to get used to. I’ll have to adjust to having hooves and a new diet. At least it seems peaceful here, unlike all that war back at home. I’ll need a new job and home; I had to become a marine though because I wasn’t exactly good at anything else. For now I think I’ll talk to Twilight for some help with all of this. She seemed to be more than just a librarian… Damn clichés.
***
By the time I finished walking I was standing outside Sugarcube Corner and the sun was getting low. Twilight did tell me that there was going to be a party here for me tonight. I might as well see if there’s some food to be had.
The instant I opened the door to Sugarcube Corner a pink pony popped up in front of me and yelled “SURPRISE!” I jumped back a step, startled even though I knew it was coming…
“Well, come in come in, this is YOUR party!” The pink party obsessed pony stepped out of the way to permit me entry. Beyond the door I could see eight more ponies and one dragon there; including me eleven people total. Twilight and Spike, Apple bloom and her group, another unicorn with a white coat and purple mane, Rarity I would guess. An orange pony with yellow ponytails and a large Stetson hat was there. That would be Applejack. The last of the ponies I could easily name was Fluttershy due to her shy and demure nature. The only pony I couldn’t put a name to was the cyan and rainbow colored pegasus who was talking with Applejack.
The cyan pony looked in my direction and something about me seemed to have caught her eye because she left Applejack who was in the middle of a saying something. “So, how fast are those wings? I’ve only ever seen Luna’s guards have wings like those.”
I shrugged, “No clue, I don’t know how to fly.” The cyan pony’s jaw dropped.
“How can you not know how to fly? You’re a pegasus aren’t you?”
“I would guess, considering the wings and all.”
The cyan pony looked me over with a scrutinizing eye before finally saying, “I’ll teach you. Your lessons will be at least twenty percent cooler than anypony else’s.”
“Rainbow Dash, did ya walk away just so you could go boast to the new pony?”
“No. I’m going to teach him how to fly. It sounds crazy, I mean, what pegasus doesn’t know how to fly.”
I attempted to fade into the background and taste some of the food left out. I admittedly didn’t know what anything other than the desserts were, but my god was it good.
Note to self, Pinkie Pie makes some mean party snacks.
***
When the party ended I thanked Pinkie Pie and everyone else before I walked Twilight to her place. Alright, try not to sound like a crazy pony… ‘Crazy pony’, I’ve been here to long already.
“Twilight, I need some help with something.”
She turned to look at me with Spike still asleep on her back.
“I’m not a pony, at least not originally, I was a human; hairless ape if you will. When I told you I had been living in the Everfree forest for at least month that was because I got sent here by… well I don’t know what it was but I looked like a bunch of different animals put together. Point is though I’m here now and I don’t think I want to go back to my world, but I need a place to start.”
Her eyes got wide for a moment before something seemed to click in her head. She started to try to wake Spike up who elicited a groan before batting at her. We moved into the library where Spike eventually woke up.
“What is it Twilight, I’m tired.” He groaned.
“Spike this is important, I need you to take a letter.”
I listened to her dictate the letter to Spike and was rather surprised to see how it was sent. The letter said:
Dear Princess Celestia,
I met a pony today named Bastion. He saved me from a Manticore on my way back from visiting Zecora. He claims to have come from another world and would like to stay here. According to him he was once a hairless ape or human. I think that, from his description of how he got here, Discord had a hoof in it. He claims that it was at least a month ago, but as you know a year has passed since then. As it stands I will teach him about Equestria and Ponyville so that he will be able to fit in better. Neither of us have told anypony else about his current situation except for Spike who is currently writing this.
Spike: ‘Hi’
Rainbow Dash seems to have taken it upon herself to teach him how to fly. I think it will probably be for the best, a pegasus who can’t fly would stick out. I’ll ask Rarity to teach him how to fit in with other ponies and proper manners.
PS. He looks almost like an alicorn except where his horn would be there is a flat bone and he knows nothing of magic as far as I can tell.
PPS. His wings are leathery like Princess Luna’s guards.
Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle