Expected Friends: Unexpected Problems

by Sleepyted


Chapter 1

“If I tell you how I lost my wing will you stop nagging me every single day about it?” Twilight asked, eye twitching.

The large beaming grin of the blue Pegasus in front of her nodded quickly before sitting herself down on the crystal floor of the castle and waited to listen to a story.

Twilight sighed, rubbing her eyes with a hoof. “Fine, you asked for it…”

Taking out her flask the princess took a drink from it before closing it back up. “A war was coming in the Mojave and we needed help if we wanted to win-“

“Who were you fighting?” Rainbow butt in.

“Bad people.” Twilight answer before trying to continue but was stopped again

“How bad?”

“They would crucify people they didn’t like.”

“What’s that?”

“They would nail you to a large cross using giant metal spikes and leave you there until you die days later of either dehydration, blood loss or trauma.” She state, feeling slightly smug by the shocked and sickened reaction she got by that. “Can I continue now?”

Rainbow Dash hesitated for a moment before nodding, her blue coat looking slightly greener.

“Okay, so we needed some allies for the upcoming battle so I was going to an old air force base and before you ask, it’s a place where they fly to and from.” Twilight stated, continuing before Rainbow had a chance to question it. “But they didn’t like outsiders from coming so as I approached they started to shell me, pretty much meaning they tried blow me up. They succeed to an extent, some shrapnel took out my eye and tore off my wing.”

“How did you survive...?”

“I got close enough to their fence that they didn’t want t blow up their own stuff and stopped.” She stated with a shrug.

“What happened after?”

“Well, I managed to convince them to help after helping them a bit, and then I left to go onto the next one.”

“Just like that?”

“Pretty much, not much time to do nothing when work needed to be done, so I took time off whenever I could which ended up with me just reading and playing cards or drinking.”

“They have cider over there?” Rainbow asked.

“Not that I could find, although I ended up finding a drink I like, Cola and Whiskey.” She stated. “But after a while I got used to just whiskey.

“What does that taste like?”

Twilight grinned, an evil idea coming to mind. “I have some, you can try it.” Twilight stated as she pulled out her flask and opened it up, hovering it over to the Pegasus.

Rainbow took hold of it, looking over the flask before taking a sniff. “Smells funny…” She stated before bring it up to her mouth and taking a drink from it that was probably a bit too large for someone who never had whiskey before.

Her eyes went wide and her face contorted in a look of discomfort as she dropped the flask although it was caught by the princess who brought it back over to herself while she giggled like a filly. She spat what was in her mouth out with a sputter, stumbling back as she clutched her throat with her hooves, coughing heavily as she fell to the floor. Twilights giggles turned to laughter and soon to out tight bawling on the ground as her friend sputtered.

“It feels like hot sauce!” Rainbow yelled, her voice sounding even rougher than normal.

“It’s a lot stronger than cider Dash.” Twilight aid between laughter fits.

“I can tell…” Rainbow grunted in embarrassment, her cheeks tinting red.

“And that’s how we defeated Chrisalis.” Starlight said as she and Twilight walked through the Everfree, heading back to the castle with some herbal painkillers for the princess. Metal implants on her back and in her skull could hurt at times.

“Definitely different than the way problems were solved a year ago for me.” Twilight stated, her pistol strapped to her leg since the Everfree had a history for not exactly being known for the friendliest place to go through.

“Then Chrisalis better hope that she doesn’t poke her head out again in that case.” Starlight stated with a bitter chuckle.

“My gun isn’t even all that powerful compared to other’s I’ve seen or even used.” Twilight stated, pulling her revolver from its holster.

“How does it even work?”

“Well it uses a small explosion to cause a pressure wave to send out a chunk of metal.” Twilight stated, cocking the hammer of the gun. “And while the projectile is light, with the speed it travels at, it more than makes up from it.”

“Can I have a look at it?” Starlight asked.

“Sure, just don’t point the barrel at yourself, it would kill you if you mess up.”

Twilight floated the gun over to Starlight, lowering the hammer again.

Starlight looked over gun, looking over the white ivory handle with a three leafed clover in the middle. The black metal barrel and firing mechanism had detailed carvings into its surface and the name ‘Lucky’ on a small plaque. “And this thing can kill ponies?” Starlight asks in morbid curiosity.

“More than just ponies.” Twilight stated, stopping as she got closer to Starlight, pulling the hammer back on the pistol. “Point it at the tree and pull that lever on the bottom.”

Starlight nodded nervously, pointing it into a tree before slowly pulling the trigger.

‘BANG’

“Ah!” Starlight yelled out as she fell backwards, not expecting the gun to kick in her magical grip as much as it did.

Twilight chuckled as she picked up her gun from the floor, flicking the cylinder cover off and taking out the empty casing and putting in a new .38 bullet and clicking it closed.

“Holy horseapples.” Starlight exclaimed, clambering to her hooves before looking over at the tree, and the shattered bullet hole in the wood and bark. “Is that what it did?”

“Yeah.” Twilight stated as she dropped the gun back into the holster. “No wonder Anne laughed her ass off when I was learning to shoot, it was pretty funny to watch you.” She said with a giggle.

Starlight blushed deeply.

“Thank you for coming Twilight…” The timid voice of the pink haired Pegasus said as she looked through her bangs.

“No worries Shy, it’s nice to spend some time with friends.” Twilight said happily as she lifted the tea cup to her muzzle as she took a sip of the hot sweet liquid inside.

“And thank you for not… bringing a knife…” Fluttershy added, even softer than before.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” She said quickly with a sweet smile as she brought her cup up by her wing to take a drink.

“Thank you for taking care of Owllilious while I was away.” Twilight stated.

“It was no trouble, he was very well behaved whenever I went over to take care of him and see how he was.” Fluttershy said happily. “Were there any cute animals where you went?”

“If it was ever cute it’s not anymore.” Twilight said with a shiver, one word rattling around in her head, cazadors.

“All animals are cute, they’re all softies at heart.”

“There were animals in the Mojave called Deathclaws…” Twilight stated. “The name alone should tell you that they weren’t that nice.”

“Well… they might just be misunderstood…”

“Trust me when I say they’re not, I’ve seen what they’ve done to a person before… I won’t give details because I don’t want to scare you.”

Fluttershy was shaking slightly in fear, her tea cup rattling against its saucer.

“Ah don’t mean to be rude when ah say dis but yer in better shape since comin’ back.” Applejack said as she trotted along, pulling a cart behind her filled to the brim with barrels of apples.

“I did a hell of a lot of walking with heavy things in the other world.” Twilight explained, also pulling along a cart to help her friend with a very large delivery for a party that was going to happen up in Canterlot. “This is rather nice compared to other things I had to do.”

“Ah don’t envy what ya went through.” Applejack said. “And while ah can’t say ah know what yer going through, me, and all our friends are here for you if ya need us.”

“To one year of Twilight being back!” Pinkie cheered as she held up her mug of cider at the table all her friends were around, the dragon not allowed to drink cider yet so he was stuck with a glass of lemonade.

They all let out a soft cheer and clinked their drinks together in a toast, bringing it to their muzzles and taking a drink of the sweet liquid before bring the mugs back down to the wooden table in front of them all.

“To being home…” Twilight said with a soft smile as she put her mug back down on the table. “I’m just glad that my life has returned to some form of ‘normality’, for here anyway…” She said with a soft smile.

“Do you know if Princess Celestia has left her chambers yet?” Starlight asks, taking a dainty sip from her mug.

“Not yet, I’ve been in contact with Luna, she’s getting pretty worn out doing all the work.” Twilight stated. “I wonder how Celestia did it for a thousand years. She still hasn’t forgiven herself after I went missing, even though I know everything that happened was an accident.”

“Well, it hit everypony pretty hard when it happened.” Starlight said. “Celestia thinks of you like a daughter, of course it was going to be bad for her. And she wasn’t the only one, your brother and Princess Cadence came over a few times a month to make sure everything was okay in the castle and offered to help Spike. And your parents moved into town once you got back…”

“Yeah, I love my parents but they kept coming over for breakfast every day for a month!” Twilight said with a tired sigh.

“Well at least things are going back to normal now right?” Rainbow clarified, taking a gulp of her mug.

“Nothing wrong will happen for quite a long time.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide in horror as they said that. “Don’t jinxed-“

Just as she said that there was a girly scream from outside, along with the sounds of running on the cobblestone outside.

“You jinxed it.” Twilight grumbled as all of them quickly got to their hooves, rushing outside to see what was going on, Twilight kind of wishing to actually brought a weapon with her.

Outside ponies were running away from the direction of the town center, a few guards that are around Ponyville running towards it. “We have to see what’s happening.” Rainbow stated, flying just above the ground like she normally did.

The group ran towards the ruckus, hearing yells and screaming. Soon they arrived in the town center, a group of guards running after a floating sack, flour puffing up from the remains that lingered inside it. The sack kept flying away from the guards in fear, something inside it just trying to escape from everything.

“It’s getting away! Catch it!” One guard yelled, the scene quite humorous with the small pile of guards that were tangled in a wooden cart, and another few running after the bag while being covered from head to hoof in flour.

“Nothing’s faster than Rainbow Dash!” the cocky pony yelled, charging towards the back as fast as she could. Just as she was about to crash into it though it moved out of the way and with the speed she was going she couldn’t slow down fast enough before crashing right into the running guards, a massive pileup forming.

Twilight sighed, rubbing her eyes, nothing changes.

Starlight and Rarity meanwhile had the same idea, grabbing onto the sack with their magic, pulling it towards the ground. The thing inside the sack jerked around, trying to break out of its Hessen prison but it couldn’t.

Twilight approached, horn charged and ready for an attack. “Open it up.” Twilight stated, the two unicorns nodding and allowing their horns to fade.

The thing floated up again, the sack falling away to reveal a rather familiar ball of metal, the antenna coming from its back bent at odd angles and a few new dings in the metal. Stickers and plates were along its surface, one very notable, a green license plate that red E-DE.

“E-de?” Twilight asked in confusion, the bot turning around to look at her.

Beep Beep