“HEY PINKIE PIE!” Adrian shouted to the pink party pony, who was manning the punch bowl. This party is pretty awesome, thought Adrian. It had only taken Pinkie a day after returning to Ponyville to get all the supplies, send invitations to all of town, half of which had shown up, and set up the party in Twilights library. Plus, she had gotten one of Equestrias best DJs, DJ-PON3. Adrian wasn’t big into music, but he could tell Vinyl Scratch obviously knew what she was doing.
“Yeah Adrian?” Pinkies reply was muffled by a ladle clutched in her mouth. Even with that, Pinkie didn’t need to raise her high pitched voice to be heard over the music emanating from the DJ table.
“DO YOU KNOW WHERE RARITY IS?” Adrian shouted, his voice beginning to crack. He had been talking almost non-stop since ponies started to arrive. Most wanted to know where he came from (Manehattan), what he was doing in Ponyville (studying the native birds of the Everfree Forest), and how long he was staying (until his research was complete). Most ponies were satisfied with his answers, but two seemed to take a keen interest in Adrian: the unicorn Lyra, who seemed to talk more like a human than a pony, and a certain cross eyed mail mare. Adrian had only shaken the two off by saying there was a muffin eating contest (there wasn’t), and Bonbon taking Lyra home when she had had too much ‘special’ cider, compliments of Big Macintosh
“Over there!” Pinkie nodded to a corner, where Adrian could see the unicorn chatting to a few well-dressed ponies. Making his way through the sea of ponies, Adrian noted that out of all the ponies at the party, he hadn’t seen one since the party had started. Fluttershy seemed to have dropped off the face of Equestria, but Adrian had arrived at Rarity’s secluded spot before he could figure out where the pegasus might have gone.
“Ah, Big Pecks, there you are darling!” The group had been drilled by Celestia on only calling Adrian his real name when they were sure they were alone. Rarity turned to the other ponies she had been talking to. “Would you mind giving Big and I a moment?” The ponies obliged, nodding as they left.
“What can I do for you darling?” Rarity asked, making sure she did not look up to Adrian actual face level, else somepony notice.
“Just wanted to make sure that we’re still on for the session tomorrow.” Rarity had offered to make Adrian some new clothing as a welcome present. Adrian had gladly accepted the offer: the clothes he had come in hadn’t been in great condition before he was transported, and they hadn’t fared well since.
“Of course! I cleared my schedule so that we may have as much time as possible.” Rarity kept her voice down, not wanting to let anything suspicious slip. Adrian was glad somepony was keeping his real identity a secret: Pinkie Pie had almost said he was a human instead of a pony twelve…no, fourteen, times, and kept looking up to have eye contact, which must have looked weird to anypony who happened to be watching.
“Great. Look, I was actually thinking of heading out, so do you know where Fluttershy went?” Adrian wanted to make sure that Fluttershy made it home safely. He felt that it was the least he could do in return for Fluttershy letting him stay with her.
Rarity shrugged, or at least did the pony equivalent. “Heavens if I know. I haven’t seen the dear in hours. Try up stairs; she’s bound to be wherever it’s quietest.” Giving thumbs up, Adrian headed for the stairs.
“Hey Big Pecks!” Turning, Adrian saw Spike pushing his way through the crowded library. Adrian stopped to let the dragon catch up with him.
“What is it Spike?” Adrian asked, not wanting to have another thing to keep him at this party. He was beginning to feel a head ache in the back of his skull.
“I was just wondering, when are we gonna go and have that guy time you talked about?” Adrian sighed: he should have known this was what Spike wanted to talk about. He had barely stopped asking that same question since they got to Ponyville.
Adrian shrugged. “I don’t know, why don’t you come over to Carousel Boutique tomorrow and we can plan it out.”
Spike immediately got a shade redder. “Y-you think Rarity will let me?”
“Spike, she’s the element of generosity for Celestias sake, I doubt she’ll mind.” Adrian thought this would play to both their advantages: Spike could spend time with Rarity, and Adrian would have someone to talk with to break Rarity’s stream of fashion related talk.
“How do you know?” The dragon asked.
“I watched the entire first season five times. I know Rarity better than I know my own sister.” Adrian said, surprised he had to remind Spike: he HAD been there to listen to him explain about television and the show.
“Oh yeah.” Spike said. How had he forgotten this alien knew almost as much about Ponyville as he did? “So anyways, Pinkie told me you were looking for Fluttershy?”
How did Pinkie…Oh right, she’s Pinkie, Adrian thought. “Yeah, I figure we should head back to her cottage before soon. You know where she is?”
Spike nodded. “She’s in Twi’s room.”
“Thanks, Spike.” Adrian continued up the stairs. Maneuvering the crowds, Adrian finally came upon Twilights door. Knocking, Adrian heard what could have been a faint voice. Opening the door, Adrian saw Fluttershy at the window.
“Hi Ad-Big Pecks.” Fluttershy corrected herself, despite being alone.
“Hey Fluttershy.” Adrian walked to Twilights bed, where Fluttershy had taken a seat. Sitting down Adrian looked over at Fluttershy. It was clear that Fluttershy wasn’t used to staying up this late: already there were bags under her eyes and she seemed to be half awake, staring out the window at nothing. “I was thinking it might be time to head back to the cottage, if you want to.”
Fluttershy brightened a little at this. “Sure, if you don’t want to stay anymore.”
Adrian smiled. “Let’s go then.”
* * *
The duo walked in silence, both relishing the quiet after the noise and commotion of Pinkies party. The only noise was the sound of the pair’s hooves and bare feet, respectively. Adrian made a mental note to ask Rarity whether she could make him some shoes. Finally, Adrian broke the silence just as they were exiting Ponyville.
“Whew! Pinkie doesn’t disappoint. No wonder Twilight couldn’t sleep when one of those was going on.” Adrian smiled down at Fluttershy, her head coming up to his elbow.
“I guess you know more about Pinkies parties then I do.” Fluttershy shivered as a sudden breeze blew.
“Well, I probably know more about a lot of things then you do about this crazy town. You might live them, but I can go back and watch what happens here as many times as I want.” Fluttershy shook her head at that.
“Now don’t you think that might be exaggerating, Adrian?”
“Fine, I’ll prove it. Right after you six defeated Discord, you were giving that bear a very violent message. Who came to your cottage and saw you do that?”
Fluttershy furrowed her brow, which just made her that much cuter. “What do you mean? There was nopony at my cottage that day.”
“See, that proves it! Twilight came thinking you needed help, and she thought you were beating that bear up! I have to say though; we bronies were surprised you had that in you.” At the mention of bronies, Fluttershy looked around worriedly.
“H-how many bronies did you say there were, again?” Fluttershy could feel her wings locking up. The very idea of large crowds watching her every movement made her fell light headed in fear.
Luckily, Adrian had expected her to panic. “Don’t worry about us. We love you guys. Wouldn’t hurt a hair on your pretty little head.”
“…D-do you think they’re watching r-right now?” Fluttershy’s voice was barely more than a whisper, but Adrian knew he had to keep his ears open when Fluttershy was around, or else he’d miss hearing her beautiful voice.
“Maybe.” Adrian shrugged, then waved in a random direction, “Hi everyone! Wish you were me right now?”
“Now don’t gloat Adrian.” Fluttershy scolded, but with a smile. “A-adrian?”
“Yes?”
“You s-said that you Bronies do some weird things. J-just what do you do?” Fluttershy had wanted to ask more about Bronies on the way back from Canterlot, but Pinkie had been too busy talking about the party, and Rarity had been taking measurements.
“Well,” Adrian thought what he could tell the shy pony without creeping her out, “we make really cool art about the show, we take all those songs you guys sing and add our own special touch, and we write fan fictions.” Fluttershy became confused at Adrian’s last word.
“Fan fictions?” Fluttershy asked.
“They’re stories about things we want to happen in Equestria.”
“Like what?” Fluttershy found herself oddly excited to know these Bronies made so much about them.
“A little bit of everything, really. Funny stories, sad stories, horror,” Adrian shuddered at this, recalling a certain story. He still couldn’t eat cupcakes without wanting to puke, much to Pinkie’s dismay, “crossover, shipping-“Adrian went wide eyed and slapped his hands over his mouth: He hadn’t meant to list that last type of story. But Fluttershy’s curiosity was peaked.
“What’s shipping?” Fluttershy looked up at Adrian, the picture of innocence. Adrian knew he had no choice but to follow through.
“Well…”Adrian shook himself: why was he so reluctant to tell Fluttershy about…that? She was an adult (or close to one. Adrian hadn’t really thought to ask). So why was he so…embarrassed?
Fluttershy saw Adrian blushing. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it.”
“No, no i-it’s fine.” Adrian braced for whatever reaction Fluttershy was about to have. “Sometimes we write stories where we put two ponies in a relationship we want them to have. Shipping is short f-for relationshipping.”
Fluttershy blushed, unprepared for the suddenly risqué topic. She had her curiosity slated, but Fluttershy heard herself saying, “Who do you…pair up?”
Adrian was just as shocked as Fluttershy that she had continued the line of questions, so he felt he was unprepared to answer. “Well…we put Rarity and Spike together a lot, why ignore what the show gives us?”
Fluttershy nodded, and looked ahead to stop herself from talking any more. But no matter how shy she was, how introverted, Fluttershy could not help but ask one more question. After a few minutes of silence, the pegasus suddenly blurted, “Who do you ship with me?”
Adrian was so shocked at the question he jerked to a stop, his momentum almost causing him to further soil his ruined clothing by face planting onto the gravel path. “W-what?” Adrian needed to make sure he had heard that right: FLUTTERSHY, of all ponies, wanted to know who a group of alien creatures thought she would be interested in?
“Wh-o d-do…me… eep.” Again, the shy pegasus found temporary solitude behind her flowing mane. Adrian stopped, and lowered himself so that he was eye to eye with Fluttershy.
“It’s…not important.” Adrian didn’t know what to say next, so he let his heart speak for him, “ Just know that we love every one of you guys, and we do what we do because we want to see you guys happy as much as possible, even if we know we can’t actually make it real.” Fluttershy looked up, her mane being moved by a shaking finger, letting her see the smiling face of Adrian. Touched by his sentiment, Fluttershy leaned into Adrian. The human embraced the pony.
After several minutes of two minds telling their respective bodies to make a move (and neither body giving into the temptation), Adrian broke the hug, and stretched back to his full height. It suddenly dawned on him what he had just done, and Adrian looked everywhere but at the pegasus standing right in front of him. A sudden loud owl hoot reminded Adrian of what he had been doing.
“So…we should…head home…”
“Okay.” Fluttershy fell into step with Adrian, making their slow way home.
* * *
“Ah say we’re lost.” Said Applejack.
“And I say I know exactly where we are!” Twilight huffed. They had had this same argument not twenty minutes ago, and it had not improved the overall mood of the trio. “This pass will take us to Mount Eversteed, which is where the map is showing Discord. So, I repeat, WE ARE NOT LOST!”
The unicorns outburst startled some crows, which attempted to fly away, but found their efforts for not, what with their wings turned to playing cards. Several other signs had alerted the group of Discords presence: A disappearing cat, Screwball, a family of boulders having a tea party, and the familiar cotton candy clouds.
“UH! Will you two just shut it?” Rainbow Dash pleaded. Not only did the pegasus have to deal with sleep deprivation, but now her friends were stepping on her last nerve.
The pegasus’s glare shut her two friends up fast enough. Twilight occupied herself by going over her map for perhaps the thousandth time that day, and Applejack busied herself by checking on the groups food supplies. Despite the fact that they had only left Canterlot two days ago, the trios food supplies were running low. Rainbow Dash blamed Discord for the disappearing food, but her friends knew how much she loved midnight snacking.
After a few silent moments, Twilights head jerked up from her beloved map.
“Aha! Here it is!” Twilight exclaimed. The scholarly unicorn trotted ahead, stopping at a worn down wooden sign.
“Ok…what is it?” Rainbow Dash asked, landing with a soft thud.
“It’s the trail that leads to the top of Mount Eversteed! It won’t be long before we catch our old ‘pal’ Discord.” At the unicorns mocking use of the word pal, Applejack scowled like she had just seen an army of humans. Twilight was too preoccupied scanning her map to notice, but the expression did not fly past Rainbow Dash. The pegasus trotted up to her orange friend.
“Sheesh, what got under your hat and died?” Rainbow teasingly tried to nudge said hat, but a quick orange hoof deflected her attempt.
“None o’ yur beeswax.” Applejack trotted away, but her pegasus companion wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to tease her best friend.
“C’mon AJ, you know you can trust me.” Rainbow Dash put on her most sincere face, but Applejack kept her focus ahead, not taking the bait.
“Ah’m not talkin’, no way no how.”
“Hey, I thought friends didn’t keep secrets from each other.” A wild idea popped into Rainbow Dashes head. “and keeping secrets is the fastest way to lose a friends trust. And we all know that losing a friends trust is the fastest way to lose a friend-“
“FOREVER!” Boomed a very loud, very familiar voice.
The trio looked around in panic, sure that Discord was upon them, but it seemed the dragonequus was nowhere to be seen. Twilight looked back at her friends.
“Come on girls, we have some chaos to stop.”