Way Big raised his hands and looked at them, then down at the tiny town below, mentally cursing at the Ultimatrix for giving him the worst alien he could have gotten at that moment.
”Oh, come on! Unbelievable…” Way Big scowled as he lowered his arms.
He lifted his gaze away from the town below him and glanced around, his immense size allowing him to see miles in all directions with relative ease. His huge green eyes scanned the distance, taking notes of any noticeable landmarks and locations of possible interest.
The first thing, and most obvious thing he spotted was the vast city that seemed to hang off the side of the tallest mountain in the area. A cascade of water fell down from its side and was collected by a sizable lake below. The city itself looked rather fancy and exotic, with many of the buildings colored white, with a hint of gold surrounding them.
Any further detail would require him to move closer, but his rational side told him that moving at that moment wouldn't have been the best of ideas, considering the town of what he presumed to be scared and currently freaking out ponies in-between his feet.
Turning his eyes away from the hanging city, he looked at the vast, dark forest to his east. He couldn't see the end of it, and that's saying something.
Apart from its size, he couldn't spot anything noteworthy about it. He could, however, see a sizeable purple-ish lump in the far distance. He could barely make out the subtle up and down movements it made, almost as if it was breathing.
Turning his attention again, now to his north, he could see many large clouds clustered together. Tall, skyscraper-like formations protruded from its base and reached higher into the sky. The form of the cloud seemed artificial to him, but he would need to get closer to confirm his suspicions.
He wanted to investigate, but he quickly reminded himself of the situation. He had spent long enough as Way Big and had probably scared the ponies to death. Reaching up to his chest with his left arm, he tapped the Ultimatrix dial.
The valley was once again encompassed by a blaze of green light as Way Big transformed back into Ben, who had miraculously not broken anything within the library, much to his surprise.
He wasn't aware of any further damage outside of the town, but he hoped he hadn't accidentally stepped on someone, or worse.
With a shake of his head, he lifted his left arm up once more and began cycling through his selections of aliens. Once he found his previously intended target, he pushed the dial down instead of slamming it down. Purely out of caution, but it seemed to work this time around.
Following a blinding light, Ben had transformed into his previous pegasus form. He let out a sigh he didn't know he was holding as he looked down at his forelegs.
“That is so going to come back and bite me in the ass…” he uttered as he trotted over to the library door and pulled it open, stepping outside and closing it behind him.
He turned his head to face forward and was greeted by a pair of shocked ponies and one dragon. The three of which were staring at him with eyes as wide as dinner plates.
Forcing a smile, he cautiously trotted towards them and stopped a meter or so from away them. Ben lifted one of his forelegs and rubbed the back of his head as his gaze shifted between the three of them.
“So… I'm ready for that tour?” His forced smile became a nervous one as he set his hoof back down.
He could see the gears turning in Twilight's head as he glanced at her as she tried to find something to say. Eventually, she blinked and shook her head as her shocked expression turned into a glare.
“What… what the hay was that?!” Twilight half yelled her eyes switched from Ben to the now empty space that Way Big once occupied.
Ben heard Spike mutter something under his breath as he folded his arms and gazed away from Twilight, towards the now panicking town.
“That, well… that was Way Big.” He sheepishly answered as he glanced over at Luna, who had managed to wipe the shocked expression away from her face and was now staring at Ben, a mixture of disbelief and curiosity now taking over.
Twilight's right eye twitched as she put a hoof on top of her muzzle and closed her eyes with a shake of her head. “Okay, so that was you as… 'Way Big’, but why did you transform into that thing?! You've probably scared everypony within a dozen miles to death!”
“It wasn't intentional! The Ultimatrix usually gives me the right alien!” Ben tried to defend himself as he glanced over at Luna again, hoping that, by a small miracle, she would help him.
As if blessed by the gods themselves, his miracle came to life.
Luna looked at Twilight as she stepped closer to both of them, clearing her throat while doing so. This caught both of their attention, as Twilight and Ben shifted their gaze towards the Princess.
“While what ‘Ben Tennyson’ did was quite idiotic and foolish, he claims he did not do it on purpose. And from what We can see, he did not cause any damage nor harmed anypony,” Luna started as she glanced towards Ben with a smile.
Ben was caught off guard by the sudden expression and quickly responded with an awkward smile of his own. ‘Hokay, this is getting a bit awkward,’ he thought to himself, wishing that the stupid watch hadn't chosen that moment to screw with him.
“B-but… Princess, everypony will be even more jumpy and scared now! It isn't every day that a ten thousand hoof tall creature just appears above them!” Twilight argued, to which Luna responded with a shake of her head.
“Let them, maybe ‘tis time for them to stop being so skittish,” she retorted as she looked away and huffed. While Ben was thankful for the save, he could understand Twilight's reasoning. If he were on the receiving end and didn't know about Way Big, he would probably scream like a little girl at the sight.
Twilight looked like she wanted to argue further, but seemed to admit defeat with a sigh. “I… I guess. Let's just go and see how much damage control we need to do.” Twilight murmured the last part as she turned around and began to walk deeper into the town, leaving Ben and Luna alone.
They both stayed quiet for a few seconds before Ben decided to break the ice.
“Thanks for having my back there, Princess,” Ben started cautiously, making sure to pick his words carefully.
Luna looked back at Ben and nodded, her smile returning.
“'Twas was no problem. We art both strangers to a new land and culture, thus We felt like We should help thee,” she responded, her small smile never leaving her face.
“Come, let us catch up with Twilight Sparkle,” she said, not giving Ben time to respond to her previous comment as she turned tail and trotted after Twilight, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
He blinked a few times as he watched them trot away.
“Okay, well… I guess I should follow then.” He shook his head and did just that, hoping that the rest of the night would go along smoother.
To say that the town was in utter chaos was a big understatement.
Ponies were screaming and running around, trying to desperately hide either inside buildings or behind objects. The entire ordeal was downright comical to Ben. Twilight didn't seem to share his sense of humor, unfortunately.
A part of him still couldn't help but feel bad for all the chaos he had caused. These ponies were trying to enjoy some good old Halloween, and he ahead and probably scared them half to death. Not that it was his fault directly, he blamed Azmuth for not making the watch work right.
‘Or was it Albedo?’ he thought as he paused for a moment before mentally shrugging. He didn't really think about it much. All he could vaguely remember is that Abledo had stolen something and used it to finish the Ultimatrix. If his memory was serving him correctly anyways.
Ben shook his head as he focused back on the scene in front of him. It hadn't gotten any better. Twilight was trying to calm the crowd down with the help of Luna. But Luna's presence only seemed to agitate them further for some reason.
Ben glanced around the area, hoping to spot something that required him to do something. He hated just sitting back and watching. Hell, he was tempted to discard his 'secret identity’ and change into something more useful. Unfortunately, he didn't have any aliens that specialized in gentle crowd control. Big Chill definitely didn't count.
Had Ben not been so distracted by trying to figure out how to help, he would have noticed the pink mare dressed as a chicken suddenly slam into him, sending them both tumbling to the ground.
“What the f-” Ben didn't get to finish his sentence as he slammed his head face first into a large gathering of wild watermelons. Startled, the melons assaulted Ben's face vigorously, sending seeds and juice directly into his eyes.
Gasping for air, he quickly put his forelegs under him and pulled himself out of the watermelons, and took deep breaths.
“Oh, I'm BAWK sorry!” Ben looked over to his right and saw a pink mare in a chicken costume, but before he could respond, she pecked his nose and made various chicken noises before retreating, leaving him with a scrunched nose and a world full of confusion.
“...Okay?” he muttered as he sat upright and tried to wipe his face. It turned out that juice and fur don't mix very well, as he immediately found out.
“Great..” He sighed and stood up, trying to look in the direction the mare went. He couldn't spot her anywhere though.
He blinked. Where did she-
“There you are!” he heard Twilight call from behind him, which prompted him to look over his shoulder, and then to turn around.
“Oh, hey Twilight. Did you see a pink mare run by you? Chicken costume, making chicken noises?” He questioned, glancing around.
Twilight looked at him with confusion before realization seemed to dawn on her face. “Oh, you met Pinkie? What did she…” She sighed and shook her head. “Nevermind that, I need your help calming everypony down!” She had to shout the last part as a mare ran by, screaming something about horrors at the top of her lungs.
Ben waited until the screams faded before answering. “I'm not very good at calming people down, but if there's nothing else I could do, well…” He shrugged.
“Great, now follow me!” she said as she galloped back into the fray, prompting a sigh from him as he followed along.
As it turned out, calming ponies was very hard.
It took them nearly an hour to finally get things down to a manageable level, and an extra one to get things as close to normal as they could get.
Ben couldn't count the times he had to go ahead and hide before timed out in front of everyone, which served well in irritating him.
Now, ponies were hesitantly mingling and resuming their prior activities, and the four of them were now walking down a small dirt path leading to the outskirts of the town.
He had remembered passing by this area as XLR8, it was supposed to lead to a small cottage somewhere along the line.
His suspicion proved correct, as they soon arrived in the very same cottage he had knocked on and gotten his pegasus transformation from a yellow mare. He might have to apologize for scaring her later on, but at the moment he had no idea why Twilight had dragged them here of all places. Luna seemed to share his thoughts as she glanced at him briefly.
Twilight knocked on the door a few times as Spike hopped off her back and stood beside her. “Fluttershy! Are you in there? Come out, I want you to meet somepony!” She called out.
A few seconds passed before the door opened ever so slightly, revealing a pair of scared teal eyes.
“T-Twilight, what are-” The door opened a bit more, but as soon as the pony behind it spotted him and Luna, she quickly slammed the door shut, shouting something about ‘Nightmare Moon’, whatever that meant. It seemed to upset Luna.
Ben vaguely remembered something about that. He had basically read an entire library, but not a lot of things stuck when he transformed back to human form. He had already forgotten most of the history, only remembering things like magic spells and other noteworthy events.
Snapping back to reality, he noticed that Twilight had dragged out the yellow mare, now identified as Fluttershy, into the open and had introduced her to Luna, who seemed to be a little more considerate of her introductions. Their first time meeting having most likely been the critical point where she realized that shouting wasn't exactly a perfect welcoming tone.
“Uh... uhm… h-hi, m-miss Nigh-... uh... Luna…” Fluttershy managed to get out as Twilight held her in place, most likely to prevent her from dashing back into her house.
Luna seemed to reach deep into her smile reserves and pull out one of her more calming ones as she bent down to look Fluttershy in the eyes.
“‘Tis a pleasure to meet thee, Fluttershy. If thou art a friend of Twilight Sparkle, thou art a friend of ours!” Her smile widened as she stood back up and took a step back, likely to give the smaller mare some space.
Fluttershy seemed to relax the tiniest bit at that, now managing a shaky nod. “U-Uh, yeah, f-friends! C-can I go n-now? I kind of… uh… forgot to f-feed Angel!” She stammered, still trembling ever so slightly.
It sounded like an excuse to Ben, and probably Twilight too, who merely rolled her eyes and let her magical aura disperse around the yellow pegasus. It took her a few seconds to realize that she was now free to move, but as soon as she did, she quickly retreated back into her cottage. A small frown promptly flowed back into Luna, barely noticeable, but Ben picked up on it. He was used to reading expressions, especially considering the fact that he dealt with inhuman ones all too often.
Twilight seemed to huff and motioned for the rest to follow, which they did, but Ben's mind had already wandered off elsewhere, his body on autopilot.
He paid no attention to what was being said as his thoughts were clouded with worry. With the initial surprise of it all worn off, he began to remember the gravity of the situation back on Earth. If he had suddenly disappeared, Gwen and Kevin would likely assume that Diagon had killed him. He didn't want to imagine how they would take it initially, but the thought of Gwen turning into her anodite form and going ham on that oversized floating cluster of spaghetti brought a small smile to his lips, even though it probably wouldn't work.
Regardless, he still needed to find a way back to his Earth, and he had no idea how to do so.
He thought of turning into Alien X and convincing Bellicus and Serena to send him back, but he doubted that would work. Those two had caused him enough headaches already, but if there were no other options… was there really any harm in trying?
…
...
Probably, everything always seemed to go wrong if it involved him.
He could only hope that he found a way back before everything went to hell in a handbasket, assuming it hadn't done so already. In the meantime, he should likely get acquainted with this place, even if it was only temporary.
Maybe Paradox will come for him? He always seemed to be there whenever something real ugly had happened or was going down. He wouldn't let him be stuck here forever, right? He had to eventually find a way back. Hell, didn't he already meet his future self? He seemed fine.
‘I think…’ Ben thought to himself. He had technically met his future self more than once, and there were two of him that were drastically different.
“Ben!” he heard someone call out, instantly snapping him out of his thoughts.
“Huh?” He obliviously asked as he blinked, glancing around.
He must have really gotten caught up there, they were already back in the festival area, and Twilight was looking at him with a semi-concerned expression.
“Are you okay? You seemed out of it,” she asked.
“Uh… Yeah, I was just thinking.” He nodded and waved her off. He technically hadn't lied, but he hadn't disclosed the scope of it yet.
“Right. Well, I was asking if you wanted to join us in some of the games! Princess Luna seems to be enjoying herself!” she exclaimed as she gestured over to the aforementioned Princess, who seemed to be playing some kind of pumpkin launching game.
'Huh? How long was I just standing there?' he thought to himself incredulously.
“Er… no thanks, I'm good. Is there a bathroom nearby by any chance?” He quickly blurted the last part out, suddenly remembering the fact that the Ultimatrix could go into recharge mode any second now.
She tilted her head for a second before nodding and pointing to a nearby outhouse. “Well, there's that, but it's kind of uns- hey!” Ben was already gone when she had pointed the small wooden outhouse, quickly opening it and slamming it closed behind him. Just in time too, he heard the all too familiar beeps before he transformed back into a human, a flash of red light following in his wake and shining through the cracks of the outhouse.
He let out a sigh of relief as he locked the door and leaned against it. “Whew, that was a close one.” He went in to take a breath, and it turned out to be one of the greatest mistakes he'd ever make.
Almost instantly, the foul odor that accompanied an outhouse assaulted his nostrils, making his hands shoot up from his sides and quickly cover his mouth and nose in disgust.
He took his hands away from his mouth and quickly looked down at the Ultimatrix, the hourglass symbol flashing red. Ben cursed under his breath as he went over his options.
He could try and tolerate the smell long enough for recharge mode to be over but given the stench, that might be harder said than done. On the other hand, he could leave the outhouse and hope that he wasn't spotted in the process, but if he was it could cause even more panic.
‘Well... they do have Spike walking around, right? Maybe I can pass off as just someone out of town?’ he mused to himself. But then again, with the stunt he pulled off earlier, they might be a lot more prone to go into a panic than before.
‘Screw it, I can take this.’ He held up his jacket to his nose and put his hand over it for an extra layer, hoping that it would be enough to make the smell at least somewhat tolerable.
It seemed to work for the most part, he couldn't quite filter it all out, but it was enough to not be as big of a bother. It was a bit difficult to breathe, however.
‘Why did Azumith have this stupid recharge mode again?’ he thought with a groan. Ben remembered him telling him that it was necessary it wouldn't damage his normal DNA or whatnot, but would it kill him to at least give Ben the option to take it out of recharge mode in case of emergencies? True, being stuck in an outhouse wasn't exactly an emergency, but it was close enough!
It usually only took around a few minutes for him to be able to transform again, so he had that going in his favor at least. From what he had seen, everything was going well outside, he doubted he was needed at the moment. So now all he needed to do was wait.
Well, that didn't take long.
A minute or so after he had concluded that he wasn't needed, he had begun to hear sounds of panic coming from outside, followed shortly by lightning and very loud yelling, which he guessed was caused by Princess Luna. He had had a first class seat to experiencing her amazingly strong vocal cords, after all.
With a grimace, he looked down at the Ultimatrix and tapped his foot against the wooden floor, any second now...
Ben let out a sigh of relief as the red hourglass symbol turned green following a few more excruciating seconds.
"Alright, what'll it be..." He muttered as he took his right hand away from his nose and quickly began to cycle through his available aliens, all while he held his breath.
"Come on, where is it?!" He began to turn the dial at a faster pace, passing by an alien he hadn't quite seen before, but he filed that away for another time. It was probably his new dragon transformation, but he didn't exactly need a heavy hitter at the moment.
He sighed in relief when he finally found his pegasus form and quickly pressed the dial down, the iconic glow of green light illuminating the outhouse for a short second. Wasting no time, he rapidly exited the poor excuse of a bathroom and shut the door behind him, taking a deep breath of air once he was outside.
"Ah, fresh air how I've missed... you?" His gaze found itself landing on the scene in front of him. Things were scattered about, with kids crying and being comforted by their parents. He looked around the place as he tried to spot Twilight, but to no avail. How could things have gone south in less than two minutes without him being involved somehow?
As a matter of fact, he hadn't seen Princess Luna around either. He was positive that the shouting had come from her, but he couldn't see her anywhere. Finding both her and Twilight was likely his chance of finding out the details of what had gone down a minute prior.
"Time to really test this guy out, then." He opened his wings and crouched down before taking to the sky. He stopped just above the town hall, squinting his eyes and holding up a hoof just above them as he scanned the surrounding area for his target. Soon enough, he spotted Twilight and Luna across a small bridge near the edge of the town, conversing. He couldn't hear what was being said, but Luna didn't look so happy if her expression was anything to go by.
With the pair located, he spared another glance towards the gathered ponies below before speeding off towards the two, closing the distance in less than a second.
His arrival startled the two, with the Princess taking a noticeable step back as her horn began to glow in preparation to defend herself. Seeing this, Ben quickly tapped the Ultimatrix Symbol on his chest and reverted back to human form.
"Relax, it's me," he calmly stated as he took a good look around. They were in a place hidden behind some houses and vegetation, with a small river separating them and the rest of the town. It was actually quite the calming place, as the sound of frogs, crickets, and other nighttime critters filled the air and cast a pleasant aura over the area.
"Ah, Ben Tennyson." Luna seemed to relax, her horn's glow dying out. Twilight looked over to him with a slightly annoyed look on her face.
"Why did you run off so suddenly? You've done it a few times already," Twilight asked with a slight tilt of her head.
"Oh, I just needed to hide before I was reverted back to my human form in front of everyone. This thing has a timer on it and it takes a few minutes for it to let me transform again." He shrugged. "Trust me, I didn't exactly want to be in that wooden coffin at all, even for a few seconds." His nose scrunched up slightly when he remembered the foul odor he had to endure.
"But enough about me, what happened back there? I heard shouting and when I come out, everything was a mess and all the kids were crying about something." At that, Luna's ears lowered slightly as she cast her gaze elsewhere.
"Yes, that. Well... We just couldn't stand everypony running away from us as if we were some sort of monster!" Luna scowled, but it quickly gave way to a sigh. "But we do regret resorting to such drastic measures. We're afraid we've only made them even more scared of us."
Something about seeing these ponies almost broke Ben's heart and made him want to go pick them up and tell them everything was going to be alright. Not that he could do that to Luna without breaking his back, but the thought was there. He turned to look at Twilight, who seemed equally as sad.
‘Jeez, puppies don't hold a cradle to these guys in that department.’ he thought as a small frown formed on his face. Was this a universal trait they all possessed?
"I don't understand why all the children are so afraid of her, hence why we were just going over a plan to get to the bottom of it." Twilight suddenly regained a confident look as she looked over to Ben.
"I'm sorry to get you involved in this, but could you do me a favor?" Twilight's horn shined and a bag of candy was levitated over to him.
Ben raised his eyebrow, what could that she possibly want him to do with candy?
"And... done!" ChamAlien exclaimed as he dropped his camouflage and finished laying down the final piece of candy. Twilight had tasked him with laying down a trail of candy from the center of the town into a nearby alleyway. She hadn't told him what for yet, but he guessed it was to lure someone in.
"Great! I didn't know you had a transformation that could turn you invisible," Twilight spoke up as she walked up beside him, inspecting the trail.
"It's technically just very good camouflage, not invisibility," Ben corrected as he took a few steps back and admired his work.
"We can talk about your abilities later, for now just go hide with Luna and wait for my signal." Twilight nodded her head over to a darker corner of the alley, where Luna currently was. Ben had to surprisingly squint his eyes slightly to see her, but he shrugged it off as having something to do with magic.
"You're the boss." He gave a mock salute as he activated his camo again and dropped down on all fours, quickly making his way to Luna and taking the spot beside her. He assumed she knew he was already there, as he saw her track him almost perfectly even when he should have been invisible to the naked eye. Once more, he chalked it up to magic. It didn't take him long to guess that both Twilight and Luna relied on magic for a lot of their abilities.
"So, what's she planning?" ChamAlien asked as he stood up, now towering slightly above the Alicorn.
"She is going to attempt to draw in the leader of the group that kept running away at the sight of us." She huffed slightly at the last part. Ben nodded as he watched Twilight disappear in a flash of purple light, most likely off to hide and wait just like them.
He wasn't quite sure how they were supposed to lure in someone with candy, but he wasn't going to question it. Twilight knew much more about the town than he did, and probably knew the pony she was attempting to draw in.
"What did you say that had them all so upset out there?" he said slowly, unsure if he should bring it up.
"We... may have told them we canceled Nightmare Night." She sighed and looked over at him, the slightest bits of regret starting to show on her face.
‘She canceled their version of Halloween? I can see why they're upset then.’ He stared at her for a couple of seconds before shifting his gaze back towards the entrance of the alley.
"Can't say I agree with that, but shhh. I think someone took the bait," he whispered as he remained still, with Luna only replying with a nod and doing the same.
The moment he spotted their target, he resisted the urge to facepalm. The pink chicken pony that had caused him to fall face first into a bunch of fruits was now pecking at the candy on the ground as she followed the trail. It took her a new seconds before she had reached the end, but Twilight wasted no time in teleporting behind her and tackling her and pinning her against the wall.
"No! No shrieking! No squealing or screaming either, okay?" Twilight began as she held a hoof to the pink pony's mouth, preventing her from saying much other than a muffled 'okay!'.
Twilight's glare softened as she took a step back, her hoof still covering the costumed mare's mouth.
"There's something I want you to see. I promise that it's safe, but you really really really can't shriek. Can you promise not to shriek?" The mare responded with a nod. Once she did so, Twilight's face took on a relieved expression as she took a few more steps back and removed her hoof, giving the mare some space. She then glanced their way and gave Luna a nod.
Luna looked over at him one last time before turning her attention to the two ponies and walking out of the shadows, revealing herself to the pink one. To her credit, she covered her mouth just as she was in the beginnings of a cross between making chicken sounds and screaming.
"Pinkie Pie, you remember Princess Luna, right?" Twilight gestured over to Luna, who took this as an initiative to walk closer.
"Ah, the ringleader of the frightened children." She stopped once she was in front of the now Identified Pinkie Pie.
"Hast thou come to make... peace?" She smiled gently and extended her hoof towards Pinkie, whose face had begun to form a smile of her own as she began to meet her halfway.
If ChamAlien hadn't been paying careful attention to their surroundings in case someone decided to randomly walk into the alley, he would have missed the storm cloud that had been slowly sneaking up behind Luna.
'The hell?' He squinted his eyes and slowly reached down to grab a rock, he had seen a dressed up pegasus running around with a storm cloud on occasion when they were dealing with the panic, they had been using the cloud to make miniature lighting to scare even more as they tried to calm them down. He wasn't about to let them mess up this one up though.
With great precision, he put a decent amount of force into his arm and threw the rock directly into the dark cloud, with elicited a yelp from someone on top of it. The sound was almost immediately noticed by all three ponies, who turned their heads to look at the source of the noise.
"Rainbow?" Twilight spoke up first, then followed it up with a huff of annoyance. "I see what you were planning, can't you tell we're in the middle of something?"
A cyan colored pegasus mare peeked over the edge of the cloud as she rubbed her shoulder with her other hoof, a confused expression on her face.
"Who threw...? Ah, forget it. You're no fun to prank anyways." She waved Twilight off and sped off, cloud in tow.
‘Whew, possible disaster avoided.’ ChamAlien smiled to himself as he crossed his arms over his chest. Score one for him yet again.
Luna shook off the events that had unfolded and turned back to look at Pinkie Pie, who also seemed to have shrugged it off and just ended up shaking Luna's hoof before the latter could get a word off.
"Hiya Princess! I hope you're liking the games we have, I helped set them up! Well, I did most of the work, but hey, even if it's only a little help it always counts!" She smiled happily and set her hoof back down. Twilight let out a sigh and wiped some sweat from her forehead.
"Yes, well... We were wondering why thou hath been running away scared of us for the better part of our entire stay. " Luna began, her expression taking on a more serious tone as she looked over to the exit, where the mess that had been created previously were still visible.
"Isn't it obvious? We love getting scared! It's so fun!" Pinkie giggled before she locked eyes with ChamAlien, startling him.
‘How did she...’
"Speaking of fun, who's that over there? Is he new?!" She gasped as she quickly put her hooves to her head in an overdramatic way.
"Oh no! I don't have my party throwing equipment ready! It's been ages since–" She was quickly interrupted by Twilight, who used magic to force her muzzle shut.
"Calm down, Pinkie. He's our friend, Ben. And... Did you say you love getting scared?" Twilight asked curiously.
ChamAlien shook his head in disbelief and tapped the Ultimatrix symbol, reverting back to his normal form and crossing his arms across his chest. He had a few questions for the hyperactive mare himself, but whatever Twilight was planning took priority.
"Yeah, why?"
‘I have to give Twilight credit, she knows what she's doing.’ Ben had, once again, been told to sit by the sidelines as Twilight put her plan together. He didn't particularly like to be excluded so much, but he could understand it, considering that he himself couldn't find much of a way for him to do any good given the situation.
He watched from the tree line as a group of kids had deposited a bunch of candy near the base of a Nightmare Moon statue, which was actually just Luna, but using magic they'd made it so it appeared differently for anyone viewing it from the outside. He really needed to learn how to do that stuff with his alicorn transformation. Both because he just wanted to show off to Gwen and because it could prove to be really useful in a fight.
The plan went off without a hitch, the kids got scared when the disguised Luna began speaking and ran off screaming once she revealed herself in a completely different form than usual. He didn't recognize it, but it looked cool in his opinion. The armor really added to the overall look.
Ben had been a bit worried about being back at square one with the group of kids, but it faded away when one of the smaller ones had come up to Luna after a few seconds and conversed with her. He couldn't hear what was being said, but he definitely heard Luna start shouting in her incredibly loud voice, which forced him to cover his ears once again and gave him minor flashbacks to when he was thrown against a bookshelf by the very same force.
In the end, they returned to the town with Ben in tow in his pegasus form. The festivities resumed and went on for the better part of another hour before eventually dying down. He, Luna, Twilight, and Spike returned to the library afterward once everyone had begun to turn in for the night, and they were now currently in the main room, with Ben now back in his human form.
"Man, what a night," Ben said to himself out loud as he leaned against one of the bookshelves, reflecting on everything. His mind was still lingering on Diagon and the possible ongoing events back on Earth. He hoped they had somehow managed to beat the demon, but he was unsure if they could alone. The situation was dire even before he had tried to fight them, he didn't dare to think how bad things could be doing now, hours later.
"Ugh... Tell me about it, I think I ate too much candy again," Spike grunted from his chair as he held his stomach.
"I told you not to, but I recall you saying, and I quote 'That's future me's problem! Present me wants candy.' end quote," Twilight replied with a smug look on her face as she read over a scroll she had in her magic, to which Spike just replied with a glare.
Luna seemed to be doing... something, as she had her eyes closed and her horn was glowing in her gentle blue aura. Ben was about to ask before she suddenly opened them and glanced around the room, her eyes eventually landing on Ben.
"Ben Tennyson, we–" He held up his arm and shook his head.
"Just Ben," he casually said, which earned a slightly irritated glare from Twilight.
"...Ben, we'd like for thee to accompany us back to Canterlot," she finished. If she was bothered by him interrupting her, she didn't show it.
Ben blinked. Canterlot? That name sounded somewhat familiar. He guessed it was the capital of this place since the princess originally came to this town from there, but he still had a lot on his mind. Hell, he was actually considering going Alien X and begging Serena and Bellicus to send him back to Earth.
Twilight perked up at this and decided to throw her two cents in before Ben could formulate a proper response.
"Are you sure, Princess? I mean, there's just so much knowledge that he's bound to have! He claims to be an alien, and from what I've seen I'm inclined to believe him! So much that could be learned! Like their culture, their way of thinking, or their science! So many new things to learn and–" She was cut off by Spike, who had reached over and bonked her horn with a book, causing her to drop the scroll she had in her magic out of surprise.
"No, you don't! Last time you went on one of your sessions you ended up talking for hours!" He shivered and shook his head, his arms returning to his stomach.
Twilight shot him a glare as she picked the scroll back up and grumbled something Ben couldn't quite pick up.
Luna rolled her eyes as she turned her attention back to Ben. "As we were saying, we'd like for thee to accompany us so we can figure out thy situation. Thou art stranded here, correct? Perhaps we could help thee." Ben caught the slightest twitch of her right eye as she finished. While he was good at picking those kinds of things up, he was never good at deciphering what they meant. He still decided to proceed with a bit of caution. It never hurt to do so, right?
"Well..." He held up a hand to his chin and scratched it. On one hand, he'd barely met these ponies and he was already being taken to their leaders, Quite literally as he was currently talking with one. But on the other, he didn't really know how to get back to his Earth and having a bit of help never hurt.
"I guess I can come along, it's not like I have much to do here anyway." Ben nodded as he stood upright and straightened his jacket. Truth be told, there were likely things he could do to help around town, but right now his mind was focused on finding a way back to Earth.
"Splendid! Our chariot will be here at any moment now. If thou hath any belongings, thou should pack them now." Luna smiled. She seemed strangely enthusiastic that Ben decided to come along, but he decided to brush it off for now and replied with a shake of his head.
"All I got is the Ultimatrix and the clothes on my back, nothing more." He was sure he had a stick of gum in one of his pockets, but that probably wasn't very noteworthy to begin with.
"Hm. Follow us, we should wait for them outside. Farewell, Twilight Sparkle." Luna then nodded to Spike. "And farewell to thee too, Spike. We hope to hear from the two of ye soon."
Twilight smiled and gave a small wave. Spike replied with a wave of his own, but his arm quickly returned to his stomach once more.
"Oh man, this is gonna suck..." He grimaced as he held his stomach. It looked like the little guy was probably not doing to be feeling so well in the coming hours.
"I'll be sure to send letters! I'm eager to learn more about both you and Ben!" She nodded over to Ben, who responded with a thumbs up as he walked over to the Princess.
"If I can find a way back, I'll make sure to keep in contact and send you some stuff from my world." Twilight's expression brightened at that, which resulted in a small smile forming on Ben's face. Did these ponies learn how to weaponize cuteness? Because could they easily take over the universe if they did.
With that, Luna began to trot towards the door with Ben in tow. He could only hope that they knew how to help him because he didn't have a lot of options on the table. And if he was stuck here for the foreseeable future...
He wasn't sure what would become of his home universe.