Pony of a Different Color

by Sparky Brony

Chapter 14.

In the practice yard of the camp around the cloud house. The clack of practice swords is quite evident. Rainbow is sitting on a low flying cloud watching the action, but I don't have time to pay attention to her. It's been two months since I gave Twilight her sword. And with all the practice my daughter has been putting her through, along with her normal studies, Twilight still found time to practice with me every day. And today is no exception. I bring my sword up to parry her attack. She's gotten very nimble on two hooves. She rarely uses her wings to steady herself. I push back, and kick her in the stomach. Or rather, I try to. Her horn glows as my foot lashes out and I only hit air as the kick pushes me off balance. Her teleportation is an excellent advantage. I have a feeling where she teleported to. I bring my practice sword around and meet her descending blade. This lavender colored alicorn has excellent instincts. She had teleported about ten feet above me, letting the power from her fall add to her muscles. I'm on the ground. My sword flies from my hooves. I'm on my back, my sword is out of reach. Her sword lands right next to my exposed neck.

“Do you yield?” She pants. She may be exhausted, but her sword is held steady at my neck, I can feel my vein pulsing underneath the wood.

“Would you?” I say as I notice the mistake she made. I sweep her legs out from underneath her with my rear leg. She didn't get the chance to see me move before she was on her back. I grab her practice sword as she's falling and I quickly right myself. I don't have the coordination right this instant to stand on my rear legs, but her sword is in a flow of Air right in front of her. And I'm safely out of striking distance.

“I'm not yielding either.” She grunts as I feel the cold tingle down my back as she embraces Saidar. I'm readying a shield when I'm hit from behind. I'm stunned. The smell of manure hard in my nose as she starts laughing. I can't help it. I'm laughing as well as I drop the sword and offer a hoof to help her up.

“Well played Twilight. Is there anything you can't do?” I shake all over, trying to get the manure off of me. I know I'm going to be taking a shower in a few minutes.

“There are plenty of things I can't do, Sparky.” She looks at me quizzically.

“Name one thing, Twilight.”

“Well, for one, I can't cook to save my life, I'd only be eating sandwiches if it weren't for Spike and his excellent cooking.”

That earns a snort from me. “Cooking, you can't do it because nopony has shown you how to.” I grumble a little bit. “I bet if someone shows you how to cook, you'll be a head chef in any restaurant you choose to work at.”

Twilight laughs so hard she snorts. “No deal, buster. Spike has tried to show me for years how to cook, but I burn nearly everything I try to cook. There's a reason we have two fire extinguishers in the kitchen. Makes me glad Spike is fireproof.”

I laugh as I offer her a hoof up. She waves me away as her horn flares and she disappears, only to reappear on her feet a moment later. She looks up at the cloud. “You ready for supper Rainbow Dash?” A rainbow colored mane appeared as she rubbed sleep from her eyes. A moment later Rainbow was on the ground with us.

“What are we having for supper?” She asked. I know she's almost as helpless in the kitchen as Twilight claims to be. I do most of the cooking at home.

Twilight speaks up. “Fluttershy has asked us over for dinner recently, perhaps we should take her up on the offer.”

And that's how I found myself at Fluttershy's cottage. Rainbow, myself, Twilight, Fluttershy, Moonshine and Discord, apparently he was visiting as well. He did make eating interesting.

“Well well well, looks like we have an adept with their powers back. Dear Fluttershy here already let me know about it.” The Draconequus intoned.

I gave him a toothy grin as I channeled the gravy boat over to me. It was squealing and bucking as I tried to pour the vegetable gravy over my potatoes. I got more gravy on myself than the food, much to Discord's delight.

“So, what do we owe this honor too?” He apparently has a lot of trouble keeping the menace out of his voice. I know he doesn't like me very much. He turns to Fluttershy, “I still think you should banish this creature. He's more trouble than he's worth.”

“Now Discord. Sparky here is a friend, and his daughter and I have become the best of friends as well.” Fluttershy's tone brooked no argument.

“But what about those nasty creatures that tried to invade?” Discord is kind of pathetic when he's whining.

“Sparky and Twilight took care of them, and Sparky is in the process of training some detachments of Royal Guards to defend against those humans.” She says with finality. The draconequus subsides. Fluttershy looks at me. “How much longer are they going to be on Rainbow's land?”

Rainbow speaks up. “I was talking to Soarin and the other Wonderbolts, they are rotating back to Canterlot at the end of the week. Sparky says their training has been improved, and they will be taking what they have learned and will be training up the rest of the guard.”

We are interrupted by a knock at the door. Fluttershy moves quickly to answer it. A lavender Pegasus with two tone blonde mane and a very light pink Pegasus with a green and cerise mane are ushered in. They quickly take up extra space at the table, I use Air to float flatware and apparently Discord is in a helpful mood as well, the large serving plates sprout legs and fill the empty plates. Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth both fall to the food quickly. After a few minutes, Cloud Kicker speaks up.

“Hey, Boss. Over at the weather bureau, we've been wondering when you are going to end your leave of absence. We could use you back.”

I knew that Rainbow took some time off from running Ponyville's weather ponies, I guess she's pretty important to her crew.

Rainbow munches on some salad. After a bit she swallows. “I'll be coming back to work soon. Sparky and I have been busy.”

Cloud Kicker gets a look I've gotten to know from hanging out with her and Blossom. Before she can get crude, I clear my throat. “Cloud, we are in polite company, kindly keep your... ahem... amorous nature to yourself.”

Cloud Kicker looks at me with a grin on her face, “It's not my fault that you and Rainbow are always together, what other explanation would there be if you two are...”

Rainbow cuts her off, her face red. “What Sparky and I do in our spare time is none of your business. Unless you want to join us Kicks.”

That throws the lavender Pegasus for a loop. Her mouth hangs open, working slowly. I look around the table. Every pony except for my daughter has a red face.

I nudge Moonshine. “Some of the fan inspired personalities have apparently been folded into the reality here. Yes, Cloud Kicker is exactly like she is in some of the stories.”

Cloud Kicker is really at a loss for words at this point. She looks at me, my daughter, then Rainbow. Rainbow, for her part, is really trying to keep a straight face.

“The stories?” Cloud Kicker says helplessly.

“Oh, right, you aren't in the loop completely about Sparky's nature and such.” Twilight jumps in. Her face is flushed a bit, I wonder if the wine that I brought with isn't affecting her a little much. She continues. “Well, in Sparky's world, where he's from. All of us are characters from a television show, and our lives are broadcast all over his world. And apparently we have a following of fans, a lot of them. There is even a, what was that called Sparky? The thing on the inter...”

“Internet, a website.”

“Yes, a website, that is dedicated to fan made stories about us ponies. For example, Sparky knows about your time at West Hoof, and even your actions during the Changeling invasion.” {Authors note: I read the Life and Times of a Winning Pony, and couldn't put it down, excellent story. I had to include Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth because of it. Kudos to Qordath Chengar for an incredible read}

I can tell that Cloud Kicker is at a loss for words. “We are stories?”

I put her out of her misery. “It's called world as myth Cloud Kicker. It's a theory put forth by an author of my world. He said that myths and fictional worlds exist on multiple parallel dimensions from mine. I simply found out that it is possible to jump between those worlds. That is how my daughter and I are here.”

Blossom, I think, is taking this news better than Cloud Kicker. “So we are fiction, and yet we are not.”

“Exactly, just like I am fiction, and yet, I'm here. The best way to understand it is that you are real, even if in another world, you may be the figment of some animators imagination, you are real, I can touch you, you can touch me. We are all real.”

Cloud Kicker puts her head on the table. “My brain hurts.”

I move over to Cloud Kicker and put my wing around her. She must be really reeling, she doesn't react. Rainbow moves over to her other side.

“What's amatter Kicker? Don't you like being the filling in a pony sandwich?” Rainbow coos into her ear.

Cloud's ears are twitching. After a few minutes she shakes us off. Rainbow and I back off, big smiles on both our faces.

She turns to look at us. “We aren't real?”

Blossom saves us. “No honey, we are real, so are they. Because a literal infinite number of universes exist, if it can be imagined, it is real.” She ruffles her fillyfriends mane. “So, we are real, and so are they. And with Sparky's powers, he can visit worlds that are mere myths to him, and find out exactly how real they are. He's an explorer.”

I smile at her. “Exactly.”

It takes Cloud a few minutes to make every piece fit in her head.

After that, she gets up and whispers in Rainbow's ear. I watch curiously as Rainbow's wings slowly extend fully. After Rainbow's face makes a new record for a blush, Cloud whispers in my ear. I won't repeat what she says, but all I'll say is Cloud Kicker has a naughty mind. And some very good ideas. I move forward to Rainbow and decide to do something to her that she usually does to me. I nip her ear, hard. She squawks and jumps, her wings helping her hit the ceiling. I end up on the receiving end of a very hard nip to my ear, I think she drew blood. She swishes her tail into my face and sits back down at the table. At that point, my wings are fully extended as well. I take a moment to calm down. I sit back at the table next to Rainbow Dash. I put my hoof on hers. She blushes and nuzzles my cheek.

“Can we get back to eating?” A tipsy Twilight says.

I seize Saidin and drag my saddlebags over. I open them. “Most of us are here.” I break off as a knock sounds at the door. Our visitors are Pinkie, Rarity and Applejack. Apparently that's what Angel Bunny was doing when Fluttershy whispered to him when we arrived. Angel Bunny is riding on Applejack's back. After a moment Big Macintosh pushes in as well.

“Well, Fluttershy's got a full house this evening. All we need are the Royal Sisters to show up.” I say.

Twilight looks abashed and chimes in. “Well, I sent them a letter, inviting them. Celestia politely refused for both of them. Something about an emissary from the Griffon Kingdom.”

I laugh. “Well, I did want you guys to check out some stuff I brought from my world. You are all of age, well. The most potent drink I've had here in Equestria is your hard Apple Cider Applejack. I took the liberty of visiting a store and nearly buying them out.

I reach in my saddle bags, I've mentioned before they have more capability than they appear too. A very clever weave makes them much bigger on the inside than they are on the outside. I start pulling out bottles. I toss a square sided bottle to Applejack. She catches it and reads the label as I finish pulling out the multitude of bottles.

“Who is this Jack Daniels?” The orange earth pony says.

I pull out a stack of shot glasses and some other mixing equipment. I seize Saidin and gently take the bottle from her. I pour a shot and hoof it over. I pour shots of genuine Tennessee Whiskey for every pony. Yes, even Fluttershy. After every pony has a shot glass full of amber liquid in their hooves I raise mine. It's time for a toast.

“It's been over two years since I've seriously altered my consciousness with alcohol. I don't do it often, but I'm in the mood tonight. I'm going to get seriously smashed, and I invite you all to join me.” I toss the drink back. I watch as all the ponies in the room do the same. With the exception of Cloud Kicker and Big Macintosh, every pony starts coughing. I smile at Cloud. I know a pony that can hold her liquor. Though I'm kind of surprised that Big Mac is licking his lips. To the uninitiated, Dr Jack is a little harsh. I pour another round for him, her and myself. We clink our shot glasses together and toss them back. Every pony else is still recovering from the strength of the amber liquid.

“Gah, how can you drink this stuff?” Rainbow croaks. I pound on her back a bit to help her breathe.

“It's good Rainbow. Though let me let you try something that might be a little more your speed. Just as much strength, but it's infinitely smoother. I reach over to a skinny blue bottle. I pour the clear liquid and let her take a sip. After a taste, she swallows it down.

“That's much better. What is that?”

“Vodka.”

“Never heard of it. But it's good.” I lift the bottle of vodka towards Twilight.

“Want a snort Twi?”

She's already had some wine that I had brought out first. She's not totally in her cups, yet. But she lifts another bottle and brings it to her with her magic. “Yes, but not the Vodka or Jack Daniels. What's this?”

“Oh, that is yummy, and very strong. It's called Tequila. It's from south of the border from where I come from.”

“Patron.” She says, reading the label. The lid flies off the bottle. “I'll give it a shot.”

I laugh. After a few minutes, all the ponies are dipping into the stock of liquor I bought.

Now this is going to be a night to remember.

Comments

[Sparkyfan]

Fun party time. I think I like cloud kicker