“I’m just saying I don’t want to eat grass out in the open.” Camden complained for the enth time. “Our forms changed and a few systems were added but hay still tastes like hay. I checked.” There was a general murmur of agreement among our diverse group.
“It's cool, I had lunch with them.” I said trying to convince the group back to going. “They have shit like grilled cheese and soup too. No meat obviously but I’m sure we can go one meal without meat.”
“And!” I continued when I didn't seem to have them convinced. “This is our big reveal. I talked it over with Twilight and our group is a group of friends dedicated to the science of interdimensional travel. We even discussed our roles. So Atom Split is our head scientist, Blue is our specialist...I don't know on what so pick something interdimensional science related that you know a lot about and go with that.”
“How about materials like elements.” Blue added in. “Being a diamond dog it would make sense if my specialty was material related.”
"Great, that’ll do.” I said. “Griffin and Nyjill Moon...well your still scouts but take out the zombies, like you still get supplies but no zombies. Ok, everyone take the zombies out of our story and also earth in general. No mention that. And I’m head bodyguard with the scouts sometimes working with me like when we travel. Everyone with me so far?”
Everyone nodded. “Good.” I said, continuing with my impromptu briefing. “Also we’ve traveled all over equestria so any place you remember from the show you can use. But be sure you know at least a little about the area in case someone asks about it. And after this we plan on going to the bad lands because Blue thinks there are gems we need or something.”
“This story is making surprisingly a lot of sense.” Nyjill chimed in. “Just glad I don't have to memorize an entire backstory, just take ours and remove zombies...in a less violent way than we usually do.”
“Yah, I understand y’all aren't theatre majors so a character analysis would be a bit much for you.” I joked, but actually a little true. “There's more I’m forgetting... O yes. Before we met. That's entirely up to you. If someone asks me what Nyjill did before we met I’ll say I don't know. That will be the general response, I don’t know. The last thing we want is conflicting information. This is why I’m going over all this now. We have about four more hours before we have to go so let's get everything straight.”
We spent the next three hours getting our stories together. I know I said they couldn't handle a character analysis but we did one for each of them anyways. Especially since we were likely to keep these personas for the next month or so. We decided to keep our origins to outside of Equestria just to be sure that we didn't say something like, ‘I graduated from Canterlot 12 years ago’, and some pony being like ‘O rly, me too...don’t remember you.’ It was unlikely that we would be revealing that much info to anyone but just to cover all our bases. We decided that, like on earth, we went to school together. One year we visited the Canterlot Archives on a trip for school and found we were all interested in interdimensional travel and that not much had been discovered since Star Swirl had researched it. So we dedicated ourselves to the forwarding of interdimensional travel. I think it's a pretty solid story but we’ll see how it goes.
“We should get going soon.” I said looking at my watch. “It’ll take us the better part of an hour to get there and Pinkie made it very clear not to be late.”
“Scared of little pink pony?” Griffin said in a German, or yackish, accent.
“When said pony can teleport, read minds, and do other Pinkie things...yes.” I said defensively. “Especially if she went all Pinkamena on us.”
“Point taken let's GTF-go!” Blue said walking out the front gates. Must be nice having thumbs.
“Atom, we’re leaving, let's go.” I yelled into the lab. He really didn't want to go so he snuck off into the lab hoping we’d forget him. No such luck.
“I’ll catch up in a bit.” He said from the doorway. “In the middle of important science stuff.”
“O hell naw.” I said. “You get yo labcoat ass over here. You will eat dinner with the main six, and everyone else in Ponyville, and you will like it!”
“Fine.” Atom relented. “But if the camp is leveled when we get back don't blame me.”
“I'll risk it.” I said as I lead him out behind the rest of our group.
And thus our group headed towards Ponyville. I lead the way because I’m really the only one that’s been there so far. It's really just follow a path but the path changes and splits so unless you’re really lucky you wouldn't make it to town. Thanks to Zecora our journey was unhindered. She voluntarily lined our path with her special shew-brew (™) so no baddies came after us.
“...and then I said oatmeal? Are you crazy!?” I said as we reached the edge of town by Fluttershy’s house.
“Why did you randomly say that as if you were finishing a story?” Griffin asked.
“I think I know why.” Blue said. “He’s letting Pinkie know that-”
“You made it yey!” Pinkie said popping out from behind Atom. “I was getting worried you would be late or someone wouldn't come or nopony would show up and I was sad but then my Pinkie sense said someone was saying something about oatmeal and I was like omygosh same and I found you!”
“Pinkie, what a coincidence.” I said in mock surprise. “I was just saying that this one person I know would put oatmeal in his chocolate milk and my response was-”
“Oatmeal? Are you crazy!?” She said bewildered.
“My thoughts exactly.” I said smiling. “Glad someone agrees with me. I was beginning to think that these guys might like oatmeal in their chocolate milk too.”
“No one said anything about this till now.” Nyjill said confused. “I mean I’ll try it before I say no, but-”
“Eww. That's weird.” Pinkie said sticking out her tongue. “Lets all try it before dinner! Come on, let's go.”
“Where are we eating by the way?” I asked the pink mare.
“Twilights castle. It's big and really nice and I decorated for your...not a surprise party?” Pinkie let slip. But I was already expecting this and I’m sure everyone else was ready for a surprise party too.
“Ahh, good. A normal dinner to enjoy.” I said looking to Blue. “You know what would make this dinner even better?”
“If it were to be a partyin disguise?” He replied.
“Exactly!” I said excitedly. “Doesn't everyone agree?”
There was a general murmur of agreement and Pinkie was practically vibrating at this point.
“Anywho, let's get to the castle Pinkie.” I said pushing the overly excited mare. “Don’t want to be late to our own dinner party.”
“That's fine because we’re here!” She said pointing to the giant castle around the corner. “I'm gonna go inside and close the door for no reason, see you in there!”
With that she ran into the castle and, true to her word, closed the door after her.
“Let's wait a few minutes to get them really worked up.” Nyjill said.
“But then I need to think of dialogue.” I complained.
“Lets just sit in silence.” Atom suggested. So we did. Sat in silence for three minutes.
“Ok, times up.” Blue said walking to the door. “I’m done waiting.”
He opened the door and we were met with a very dark, and very large room. There were decorations places all around the room and the room was set up with a buffet. I could see this due to my improved vision, Nyjill and Blue could too. May need to tell Pinkie that when throwing surprise parties for different species, tell your guests standing still in the dark doesn't work as hiding. Regardless we waited for the inevitable lights up, surprise.
“It’s dark.” Camden said with his not night vision. Playing right into their hand-whooves.
And, as it tradition, the lights were flipped on and everyone jumped out and yelled surprise. Pinkie even had a banner saying ‘Welcome to Ponyville and confetti that fell from...somewhere.
“Surprise!” Said Ponyville.
“We are surprised!” Replied our group.
“Were you guys surprised!?” Pinkie asked as soon as the surprise part of the party was over.
“Sure were.” Nyjill said.
“I was worried, you guys were outside for so long after I came in I was worried you left.” Pinkie said excitedly.
“No, we were just finalizing our cover stories.” I whispered to her.
“Oh.” She whispered back. “Good thinking. I gotta get this party started.” She said still whispering. And with a wink she ran off to kick start the party. Before I could say anything music started, food was on the buffet table, and games materialized out of who knows where. I was also dragged off by a prancing pink pony to my doom...or so I thought.
“Vinyl, this is Flash Beats. Flash, this is Vinyl Scratch.” Pinkie said to myself and DJ Pon-3. Then vanished leaving us to get aquanted.
“Quite the intro.” I said watching Pinkie leave. “Nice to meet you Vinyl, my name is Flash Beats, as Pinkie just told you.”
“Sup Flash.” Vinyl said levitating her headphones onto the DJ booth. “Theres gotta be a good reason pinkie dropped you off mere seconds after you arrived. So what do you do?”
“Well as a matter of fact there is.” I said smiling. “I’m a lighting designer. I design light shows for concerts and plays.”
“Woah, that's pretty neat.” She said honestly impressed. “I tried to get into that when the magic lights started getting popular but there's a lot to figure out. What's the biggest gig you did?”
“I designed and ran a show for a dubstep festival that saw over ten-thousand people over four days.” I said proudly. I kept the description vague and lowered the number to fit Equis population. There are significantly less beings on Equis than on earth. The real event, Moonrise, saw over one-hundred thousand.
“That's crazy!” Vinyl said excitedly. “My biggest gigs have only had like a thousand ponies.”
“Thing is though, I’ve never worked with these new magic lights.” I said covering my bases. Didn't wand her to ask questions I had no way of knowing the answer to even though I should as ‘Flash Beats’. “I used these unique lights from the Griffin lands. They were outlawed because theater and music were frowned upon so me and my company got them for a steal. But then I sold them off to join my friends on an adventure.”
“What adventure would that be?” She asked.
“We’re studying interdimensional travel.” I said plainly. “But I really miss lighting design. It’s been years since I last got to experience the thrills of a concert.” And it really had been. Not much time for festivals and loud music when zombies were there to eat you.
“Wow, we should keep in touch.” She said thinking over her options...whatever they were. “For now I hope you’ll enjoy my little show.” And even though I couldn't see her eyes, I could have sworn she winked at me.
“Will do, see you later Vinyl.” I said as I gave a short wave goodbye. She put her headphones back on and I made my way over to the buffet table. I was hungry.
As I got some food I looked for the rest of my crew. Nyjill was bobbing for apples with Pinkie and Applejack, Atom was talking with Twilight...no surprise there, Griffin was eating with Fluttershy and...Pinkie, and Blue was sitting at a booth with Rarity and a few other ponies. All in all we were doing pretty well I guess.
“GREETINGS SUBJECTS.” A voice bellowed from the entrance. I looked over to see Luna posing...majestically? Not sure if that's the right way to describe it, I’m sure she thought she was majestic but it didn't really look it to anyone else. And beside her, face-hoofing, was Celestia with what looked like a whisky barrel in her magical grasp.
“Let's get this party started!” I said heading over to the two.