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This time around, the group had traveled far enough to be seen as they were setting up camp. Luckily enough for them, the village people waited until day to come up to them and talk. They didn't pay much attention during the night either, considering the people on the road would drive off any dangers.
The next morning, the village people walked up to them to figure out who they were, and why they were here, with no cart.
"I see that you all are just waking up from the slumber of night." The mysterious stallion scout had made his way here very early, and got here right before Twilight had begun to set up breakfast with Pinkie.
Pinkie gasped in excitement as she went to see the village scout.
"Oh my gosh, somepony NEW! How are you? My name is Pinkie Pie, but you can just call me Pinkie, like everyone else does! Do you have much fun in this village? I'd bet there are a lot of parties, are they-"
"Pinkie, BREATHE!"
She gasped for air, trying to catch up to herself so she could keep talking to the strange pony in front of her. "-FUN?! You must be a scout for the village, coming to see who we are, and why we're here! We came this way to-"
"Pinkie! Let me explain." She was cut off by Twilight, trying to give the scout more room to breathe himself, and have someone calmer to talk to. "Sorry, she can be a little... Energetic, and overwhelming at times with new ponies to talk to.
"Anyway. I can only guess why you are here, so do you mind to tell me exactly?"
The village scout was still slightly stunned with Pinkie's greeting. "... Uh, yeah... Yes. My people sent me to discover what your groups motives were, moving to our village without word of your coming."
"Oh, Celestia must not have given out word that we were traveling, so I guess... I didn't send a letter to this village, because we weren't sure if we would even get to any village or town of any kind soon. Sorry for that." She tried giving the slightly disturbed scout an apologetic look, for Pinkie still hopping up and down, wanting to say so many things, and have a party. Also, for not sending a letter saying they were coming.
The rest had woken up when Pinkie started jumping up and down, and by the time Twilight was done with her look, she turned to see all of her friends standing there, looking at her and the scout. Pinkie, still hopping uncontrollably.
"I see your friends have awoken now. If you will follow me, we will have our cooks prepare a meal for the village, and you travelers."
The group looked at each other, nodded, and followed the scout back to the village after clearing up camp.
As they were following the scout to the village, Twilight had noticed the odd mix of colors that the mysterious stallion. He had a similar coat to Applejack, but with more red mixed in, like Big Mac. His mane had a dark brown center, but on the sides and edges, they were coated with a bright grey, almost white color. His tail had nearly the same colors, but not exact, which sparked curiosity in Twilight even more. His tail had a darker, almost redder shade of brown, and the grey had a little blue mixed into it to make it less dull. She wanted to ask him so many questions.
"My name is Twilight Sparkle. What's yours?" She looked at him, hoping for an answer.
"My name is Sorin. To answer any other questions you may have, I must be inside the village. I will answer them after we have our meal."
The rest of the small trip was somewhat silent, other than the hoofsteps. "Open the gate! These travelers seek refuge in this village, so they may gather together, and set forth another plan of travel beyond!"
The tower guard simply nodded, and set off to tell the others to open the gate. Moments passed as the group waited in anticipation, wondering what would happen next. The gate slowly opened, which brought out gasps of wonder among the group, mainly Pinkie. She would ask all of them so many questions and be so cheerful it would be scary.
The moment the gate fully opened, Sorin started to walk forward. They were all nervous about entering the village at first, but Pinkie Pie seemed to have been bouncing out of her skin, while having the widest smile Twilight's ever seen. The thrill she gets when seeing a big group of ponies.. She will never understand it.
Pinkie being Pinkie, she rushed in, and yelled at the top of her lungs at everypony in the village, saying "HOWABOUT WE HAVE A PAARRRTTAAYYYYY?!"
Without a moment of delay, Pinkie started bouncing around, nearly singing to everypony in the village.
"Pinkie, how about we DON'T have a party, these people have never even seen such a cheerful pony before."
"That's whats making it BETTER!" She was nearly shouting now, uncontrollably shaking and shivering with excitement meeting all these new ponies, getting to know every single one. Everyone in the village had just stared at her, mouth agape. Some had taken a few steps backwards, fearing that the party pony would come to them.
She hadn't noticed Sorin, standing behind her, nearly falling over from laughter.
She was practically singing, but Twilight and the others managed to hold her down until she calmed down a little, so that they could talk normally.
"Sorry for Pinkie, she's a little.. energetic." Twilight gave Sorin an apologetic look, raising her eyebrows and smiling. That made the scout even more curious as to what would happen next, how all the other outsiders would act. Although his face didn't really show that much curiosity, it still showed that he was wanting to know things about them. "Yes, you've already told me. After we have our meal, we will talk more."
"O-of course. We have to apologize about Pinkie. She-"
"Oh, we don't mind, it's quite fun having such a cheerful mare around. It's honestly been a while since we've had anyone make me laugh like that. Come, let's go eat."
Everypony gathered around a big table, and they all shared breakfast with smiles all across the dinner table. Many fillies and colts were at the table, all giving Pinkie a cheerful look. Expecting Pinkie to be.. Well, Pinkie, we all thought she would try to jump everywhere and try to make everypony smile, like she would everywhere else.
She didn't this time, because she had known that breakfast was a time for not too much silly stuff.
After the breakfast, and whatever party Pinkie could make, they got a chance to get used to everyone in the village, and they also got used to the outsiders. "So Sorin.. What is it about this village?"
"What do you mean? There are many things about this village's history I could tell you about, but maybe that could wait. There are the few more recent things that have come and gone, and there's the information about the town past our village, linking two towns together."
"So this is in the middle, between two towns? Then that must mean we have two days of travel again before we see any more people?" Rarity asked.
"Well, you could always rest here until tomorrow, and get on the supply cart going to the next town."
"What is the next town called?" Twilight needed to know, so she could send a letter over there, saying they were arriving.
"The town your group is going to see next has many names, but the most used one is Ritran. Odd name for a town, but it is the one everyone uses most. The other names seem to have died off well enough, so that is the only name you really need to know."
"Thank you, I'll send a letter stating our arrival right away." Twilight said in a serious tone, as she always did about letters.
"Oh, you mustn't worry," Sorin looked at Twilight with a slightly worried look. "Whenever we sent out our next cart, we always tell the town it's coming, so no need to do so. We've also already told the town that the cart may take a little longer than the normal. Mainly because of the group of seven travelers."
"Seven? Now last time ah counted, there were six of us." Applejack was slightly confused.
"Well yes, there are six of you. But then you count me in. I've been wanting to go to the next town myself." He said with a goofy smile. "ADVENTCHAH!" He said, goofing around with his voice.
"He's HAPPY!" Shouted Pinkie.
"Indeed I am Pinkie Pie! We shall set off tomorrow, on the cart!" He said, bouncing around with Pinkie. She was glad to see somepony else that could bounce around like her.
The group had a chance to rest for a while, that they were thankful for. But Applejack and Fluttershy were unable to do anything much that night. They all got separate small houses, so that helped Applejack and Fluttershy get together while they could. Fluttershy had simply told everyone that asked her what she was doing that she was just walking around and getting fresh air before bed. She then got closer to Applejack's little hut-like house.
When she got inside, she was laying on her side and looking at the entrance, waiting for Flutter to come in. She had promised her that she would try to get to her. "Applejack I got in, just like I promised. It was a little scary to do during the night though."
"Ah'm proud of ya Flutter. Wanna come lay with me?" She had done just so, lying next to her, wing over her body, trying to get her warmer. She had looked into those amazing eyes of hers all while doing so. Applejack's eyes to Fluttershy were like crystals of green, in a sea of all of her other beautifully mixing colors.
Even though Fluttershy couldn't see her own wing over Applejack's body, she was sure it was there, by the way she had responded. This magic made it impossible to see oneself.
"Applejack..." She leaned in to kiss her, then continued. "Do you want to... Go a little further this time?"
Applejack was slightly stunned by her question, but wasn't sure about the answer. "Ah... Ah don't know, Flutter. Ah have a feelin' that we should wait fer a few days, where we have more.. Space. And time. Ah'm sorry Flutter, Ah really want to, but we can't just yet."
Fluttershy had started to reply, but was stopped by Applejack kissing her. A more emotionally deep kiss than usual, she had thought. The kiss lingered for a moment, then broke away. Fluttershy had quickly moved her head forward to kiss her again, and she obliged. They stayed there, kissing for a while, Fluttershy's wing petting her friend, without her realizing it, until they had broken away again, to catch their breath.
Applejack had then started to lean over her close friend, and they had begun kissing again. After a few moments of the last lingering, passionate kiss, Fluttershy had returned to her house, and they had slept through the night.
Twilight on the other hand, while Applejack and Fluttershy were busy, she was talking to Sorin in private, and asking him many questions.
"So, is there anything else about you and your friends I should be aware of, other than the fact that half of them are insane beyond reason?" She giggled a little at that statement.
"Well, there is one thing. Even though nearly all of them are insane, I'd have to say out of all of them, I'm the most wacky one on the plate. Everything I do is completely random, from random things. Although I do have a favorite person to act like," His voice changed a little again, to a different accent that Twilight had never heard before. "There is always one person that I love to imitate the most, and that is someone you can't know about, else you would be lost in wonder for days, knowing you."
"Who is it?" Twilight was beyond curiosity.
"Well, that would spoil the surprise about our journey to the next town! That is, if you do decide to take me along with you."
Twilight had never thought about it very much, too lost in the conversation she was having to really think about the trip ahead of her, to the next town. She had begun to wonder what time it was. "I didn't say no, did I?" She replied, smiling at the stallion in front of her.
"Thank you." He bowed his head in thanks, and Twilight was unsure of what to do. "I'll help with the cart, your group should stay inside. Trust me, even if it's just me, I can push the cart to the next town." He looked proud of himself.
"We'll see about that. There are six of us, and supplies in the cart, right?" She had told him, in a nearly taunting tone to him.
That sparked something in him that Twilight never expected. "It doesn't matter what task I have ahead of me, I'll do it. And I'll do it no matter what it takes, even if I die trying. That's always been my motto."
Twilight was unsure of what to say yet again. She then told him that she was going to get some rest, and he should too. "Thank you. I will." He replied, laying down.
After the breakfast next morning, they had all said goodbye to the little village they had gotten a chance to rest in. Twilight was still unsure of what to expect with Sorin, wasn't he the scout of this place?
"Sorin, don't you think you should stay here? I had never thought about it, but aren't you the village's scout?"
He looked at her nervously, and whispered to her, "That.. That was a lie. I was just traveling here as you were. I had came from another path. That's why the gaurd took so long with the gate, because he was worried about trusting me."
The unexpected news hit her finally, and clicked into her brain that he was a traveler, and had gotten enough luck to get the gate open. So that's what it was. He's a traveler, and he managed to cross paths with us.
Applejack and Fluttershy gave each other a quick glance, fearing that he may have seen them.. Together.
They didn't want to risk asking him, so they just set off for the next town in cart. A few strong stallions, including Sorin pushing the supply cart, with the group inside it.
"Well, the next town waits for us." Twilight was happy to know that this village was so kind to strangers like her and her group of friends.
Maybe this trip won't be so bad afterall. Twilight had thought. Then again, this could be the only nice place we go to, and we might have to stay away from everywhere else. Let's hope not. She turned to the rest.
"Well, we all in a group here? Show of hooves!"
They all gathered hooves into a circle, and cheerfully raised them, nearly shouting: "Let's go!"
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