Equestria: Awakening

by Fighterx345

Chapter 6: Perfect Mirrors

The party quickly became awkward, to say the least. After Twilight calmed every-pony down about the whole fiery fiasco, she pulled me aside.

I was led through a curtain to a separate room that looked like a kitchen, although there were certain metallic contraptions that made no sense to me. The view of my culinary surroundings was interrupted by the look of an annoyed - and quite powerful - magic user, based on the passive field of energy she was radiating off.

"Robin, what is with all the fire!? Look, I understand that you have good intentions, but you need to demonstrate that you can restrain yourself! So far, you've almost incinerated me or my friends twice!"

My eyebrow twitched. "Twlight... I take full responsiblity for my actions-"

"As you should."

I twitched again. "-but show me a little empathy here! You say you have trouble trusting me to restrain myself, yet I have trouble believing that the next time I go to sleep, I won't wake up with a dagger in my back!"

"Robin..."

"I'm in a completely unfamiliar world! Full of people - no, ponies - I don't know! Forgive me if I'm not exactly trusting of everyone I see. I've had my fair share of grand betrayals in my own time, even though they were extremely obvious beforehand, but I just don't know who to trust here. I hope you can understand that the next time I'm led blindly into what very well may be an ambush of sorts. My world isn't perfectly hospitable at every corner, and I can't be expected to hope any different from your world."

"Robin, I'm sorry."

I turned to Twilight. Her eyes were wide and apologetic. I felt terrible immediately.

"I can't expect you to adjust in the course of a day. Celestia, I can't expect you to adjust at all. Like you said, this isn't your world..." Twilight brightened. "...but at least try to have some fun while you're here."

She smiled and looked back at the party. "The citizens of this town have a lot to offer: I've learned that the hard way, just as you might be learning now. All I ask is that you give them a chance, and I'll make sure they give you one. Okay?"

I breathed deeply. "Okay."

She paused before turning back to the party. "I won't force you to party like Pinkie Pie, Celestia knows nopony else can, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it if you let yourself. Pinkie's parties just have that effect on ponies. Let's find out if they have the same effect on people." She winked. "Spend some time here thinking of what to say to the partygoers. You are the guest of honor, after all, and I'm sure they all want to hear something from you, even after that little misunderstanding."

I nodded. "I understand. Thanks, Twilight."

She nodded over her shoulder before walking out of the room back to the party. I overheard her telling the crowd that I would shortly be giving a brief speech, to which they lightly cheered.

I sighed, and smiled inwardly. 'Dear Naga, this pony... She holds faith in the goodness of others, and brings out the best in them. Not to mention she doesn't seem afraid of arguing with me if I step out of line. If it weren't for the purple fur, I'd think she was Lucina. Oh well... Idle contemplation aside, what in the seven hells am I going to say in a speech to a town of ponies!? 'Sorry for almost incinerating you?' Good gods. Okay, Robin. Just think...'

~~~

Moments later, Twilight looked over to see me emerge from the room she left me in. She smiled and turned to the other party-goers.

"Alright, everypony! Gather 'round, Robin just wants to share a few words with us before the party continues!"

At this point, Pinkie Pie signaled a white pony with spiky duo-chrome blue hair to turn off the pounding music. The pony did this by removing a needle on a lever from a sizeable device I did not recognize in the slightest. I shook my head and attempted to ignore it. I turned to the crowd and looked around I was wondering where to give my speech from when Pinkie cleared an area towards a wall. She pulled a soap box out of nowhere, placed it on the ground, and nodded enthusiastically at me to take my place on it. I just stared at her, but decided not to think much of it. Nevertheless, I thanked her for her aid.

"Thanks, Henry. I guess..." I blanched at what I just said.

Pinkie replied before I could catch myself. "Don't mention it. Nyeheheheh!" She winked after the eerily familiar cackle.

I blinked. 'Naga damn this pony, lest she breed.'

Keeping Pinkie in my peripheral vision, I mounted the soap box. After she made no sudden movements, I turned to the crowd.

'There must be at least half a hundred ponies in here...' I thought, and I sighed. 'Well, let's get this over with.' I cleared my throat and began to speak.

"Greetings, citizens of Ponyville!" I raised my arms for emphasis, the reply to which was polite applause.

"As Pinkie has probably told you, I am Robin. I'm not sure how much she told you about me, but allow me to explain further. I'm sure very few to none of you has seen something like me before. I am what is known as a 'human'." I made air quotation marks with my fingers, before almost slapping my own face when I realized ponies don't have fingers. I played the motion off as a demonstration.

"And... I have four limbs, just like a pony, but I am bipedal, and have five digits on each limb." I waggled my fingers in front of me.

"And also, like some ponies - unicorns, rather - I can use magic. I'm sure many if not all of you have already seen my magic, but it isn't dangerous. Some of it is quite helpful." I focused as if I were using a Mend staff again, and let the magic diffuse into the air around me. It resulted in a warm, green glow that elicited some ooh's and ahh's. I smiled.

"And now that you know enough about what a human is, I'll tell you about who I am. Like I said before, I am Robin. My official title is 'Royal Tactician of the Ylissean Army'. Ylisse is the country - and continent - that I hail from. Before you start freaking out, no, I am not here to invade your country."

I put my hands at my sides. "To tell you the truth, I don't know how I got here, or how I'm supposed to get home. I don't know if I'm even on the same world as my own. But one thing is clear enough."

I smiled again. "The ponies living here are hospitable and helpful. You accepted me with open arms and even threw this party in honor of me. For that, I am grateful. And I hope as long as I'm here, we can grow together as friends and allies. Here's to the start of a new day and a hundred new friendships!"

A cheer bubbled from the enthusiastic crowd. I stepped down from the soap box, which Pinkie Pie impossibly stored out of sight on her person. I walked back to join the party, when Twilight stopped me.

She was smiling. "Well, you're definitely better at public speaking than I am. I'm glad you decided to give this town a chance."

I glanced around. I caught some eyes, whose faces smiled back. "From what I've seen, this town has been kind to me in every way. It's the least I could do. Well, I'm off to mingle and party then, I guess."

Twilight responded before I walked off, "Before you do, I'd like you to meet my friends."

I smiled. "Sure, why not?"

~~~

We shortly gathered four of Twilight's five friends. We were just about to give up finding Pinkie again when she somehow fell out of the back of my shirt. I flushed confusedly and looked at both Pinkie and Twilight for an explanation. The former acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. The latter assured me to just go with it:

"Don't worry; she can seem a little invasive at times, but she'd never do anything to actually hurt her friends."

'That doesn't say much for my sense of security,' I mused.

After the six of them gathered together, they stood back in a horizontal line to introduce themselves one by one. They went from my left to my right. I knew the first three. They named themselves rather enthusiastically anyway for formality's sake.

"Twilight Sparkle, student of friendship!"

"Applejack, farmer an' cowpony!"

"Pinkie Pie, baker and full-time partier!!!"

"Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria!"

"Rarity, faaabulous fashion designer!"

The last pony was half hidden from view behind Rarity. I leaned a bit to the right to perhaps see them better. Rarity noticed; she turned around, "Oh calm now, dear. He's polite and a man of position, at that. I'm sure he wouldn't hurt a fly."

The pony slowly edged her way to the right to make herself slightly more visible.

"I'm... I'm Fluttershy..."

I raised an eyebrow. I looked at Twilight to my left questioningly. She simply shrugged with one forearm and said, "She's a little shy. Also, she's an animal caretaker. She lives closest to the forest next to the town."

My eyebrow stayed raised. 'Well, the name certainly is fitting. I bet she's a pegasus, as well.' The nervous flutter of a wing at her side confirmed my suspicions. 'These ponies don't exactly have the most creative of names...'

I looked at all of them together for a second, and my mind flashed for just a moment to my troops, six in particular, standing side-by-side. The image played out like this, left to right:

--Lucina-Donnel-Henry-Sully-Maribelle-and Olivia--

I shook my head to clear it. 'I'm not looking at my troops... I'm looking at six ponies. We don't even know each other that well, why did my mind flash like that?...' I then noticed they were all looking at me expectantly. I completed the cycle.

"Robin, army tactician and.... friend."

Comments

[Pleiades]

Cue Pinkie cheering "I'm gonna kill you!"
EDIT: Oh, one more thing... I'd actually compare Rarity to Maribelle. Lissa is more of a match for Pinkie... though Henry is even better. Not to mention Kellam isn't exactly shy; he's just a ghost.

[butterfield pancake]

I see Olivia as Fluttershy

[Fighterx345]

Good ideas; currently editing.

[FallenKnight]

Olivia and Fluttershy have the same hair color..... holy moly!

[HB_DS2013]

Henry and Pinkie together!? Naga, no!