//------------------------------// // Heading to Klugetown // Story: Hearth's Warming in Klugetown // by Zenitram Nadroj //------------------------------// Once upon a time in the kingdom of Equestria, a place that was inhabited by ponies, lead by two alicorns named Luna and Celestia, the citizens in the kingdom were all gathering and swarming, because it was almost time for the best day of the year, Hearth's Warming. The holiday was created when three races were at war, with pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies fighting, fighting, fighting and nothing more. But then a herd of Windigos attacked the three tribes. Causing the three leaders to be trapped, giving themselves bad vibes. But soon the Fire of Friendship stopped all the madness, and as a result the races then found their gladness. They all worked together and formed a band. The new group of friends then founded the new land. They dubbed the land, Equestira, where ponies of all races can live. And there was no better gift to the citizens for them to give. From that day forward, Hearth's Warming was a time to gather around. And if it wasn't for the leaders, this land would have never been found. One day in Ponyville, in Twilight Sparkle's castle, she and her friends were decorating without hassle. They were getting ready for Hearth's Warming, ready for the celebration. This is, until Pinkie Pie made a startling realization. "Oh, my goshy, goshy, gosh!", Pinkie exclaims. "What's up, Pinks?", Rainbow Dash asks. "I just remembered there was a friend I forgot to send an invitation to." "Pinkie, you've practically sent everypony in the kingdom an invitation. Who could you possibly have forgotten?" "I'm talking about Skystar, duh!" "Hey, wait a minute.", Twilight says. "You sent an invitation to her last week, right?" "Yeah, she did.", Applejack answers. "And the week before that.", Rarity says. "And the week before that.", Fluttershy states. "What's going on? Why hasn't she sent any replies?", Pinkie asks. "I mean she and I are like to peas in a pod. It's not right for her to not reply to an invitation sent by one of her bestest friends." "Well we better pay them a visit.", Spike proposes. "If we're gonna want some answers, we're gonna have to hear it straight from the horse's mouth. Or hippogriff's mouth in this case." "We can't, Spike. We've been banished.", Twilight reminds them. "I tried to take their pearl and we are not allowed to enter their kingdom anymore." "Come on, Twily. I need to see my friend again. Please, please, please, please, please with sugar, sprinkles, frosting hot fudge and a cherry on the tippy, tippy top!", Pinkie begs. "Alright, Pinkie. Sheesh. I'll see what I can do.", she gives in. "Spike, write a letter to Celestia and tell her, Luna, Shining, Cadance, Flurry and Starlight to meet us at the train station." "I'm on it.", he responds as he takes out a scroll and quill pen. Later that day, Twilight and the others went to the train station and waited for their friends and family with not too high and not too low expectations. Celestia and Luna were the first to arrive. Then Shining Armor, Cadance and Flurry Heart came next with complete strive. Starlight Glimmer was the last to the group and she was so exhausted that her mane started to droop. With the friends and family noticing Pinkie with no cheer, Twilight approaches them and they ask why to meet them here. "Twily, why are here? Hearth's Warming is in a few days and the train station is already closed.". Shining asks. "Don't worry, BBBFF, we all asked a certain somepony to take us to the end of the kingdom.", Twilight says. A train suddenly appears right out of a portal and the engineer of that train was a creature immortal. It was none other than Discord who was driving the train. While he has been reformed some still call him a pain. "Hello there, my friends.", Discord exclaims. "You got Discord as the engineer?", Starlight asks. "Yeah, we were a bit skeptical about that, but he's the only one who can take us.", Twilight says. "Alright. If you say so." "All aboard for Klugetown!" "I can't wait to see one of my bestest friends again! My mane and tail are standing up on end.", Pinkie exclaims. They enter the train and Discord blows the whistle, and as soon as they all got in it bolted out like a missile. They all sing songs along the way, though they do wish to save them for Hearth's Warming day. They then arrive in Klugetown which was completely bland. They then set off to find the hippogriffs and with answers they'll demand. Discord exits the train shrinks it down to size. He then takes the train, puts it in his pocket and prepared to explore with chaos in his eyes. The draconequus, princesses, stallion, filly and mare are about to enter the town without knowing what's out there. They enter the town and see revolting citizens and broken down homes. Like they had just entered the Equestrian catacombs. "Uh, what is this place?", Cadnace asks. "This is Klugetown.", Rarity asks. "We were very nervous about entering this place, because the citizens wanted to purchase us." "That's terrible." "It is. That is until a charmingly handsome cat, named Capper, managed to help us escape and get us to safety." "Well, I wouldn't exactly call myself charmingly handsome." They notice the voice and turn to the source. And they see who it is, Rarity being stunned of course. It was Capper, the former con artist cat, still wearing his snazzy cape and his fancy top hat. "Capper, it's so good to see you again.", Rarity says. "The pleasure's mine, Rarity.", Capper says. "So you're Capper, huh?", Shining asks. "Yep. Capper's the name. Charming's my game.", he says with charisma. "And you are?" "I am Prince Shining Armor. The ruler of the Crystal Empire." "Oh, so you're the ruler's husband, yes." "Yes. I am.", he says dejectedly. "And the filly is Princess Flurry Heart, I presume?" "You presumed correctly.", Cadance says as she and Flurry approach him. "She really loves to meet new faces." Flurry Heart was astonished by the cat's handsome grin. If there were a grinning competition he would've no doubt win. Starlight then approached him with slight doubt, because any creature with a terrible past is a terrible moral route. "Hello, there. My name is Starlight Glimmer.", she says with caution. "So you're Starlight Glimmer. Twilight Sparkle's former pupil.", he says. "It truly is an honor to meet the former pupil of the Princess of Friendship herself." "Oh, please. You're making me blush." "Well since we are getting acquainted around here. Allow me to introduce myself.", Discord intrudes. "I am Discord, the lord of chaos." "A lord of chaos, huh? Well there's something you don't see every day." After the introductions were out of the way, Pinkie breaks up the reunion, having something to say. "Alright now that we all know who we are, I'll just explain what we're doing here.", she says. "Capper, do you have any idea how to get us to Skystar's underwater home?" "Hmm. I'm actually not sure about that. But, I'll tell you this, I'm certainly not smuggling you into the kingdom." "Ugh, isn't there anypony in this place who can show us how to get to the underwater kingdom!" Pinkie's voice was so loud, which was louder than a preacher, it actually caught the attention of all the Klugetown creatures. "Pinkie!", her friends say. "We better get going." Pinkie bolts out faster than lightning. And they don't blame her because being caught was frightening. "Enough with the rhyming. This is supposed to be a mission.", she scolds. Pinkie knows there's no stopping the rhyming, but soon she bumped into someone in such poor timing. When she saw who it was she did a quintuple take, in front of her was Grubber holding a seven layer cake. And who else does she see coming up ahead. It was Tempest Shadow, or Fizzlepop Berrytwist as she's called, with an expression deader than dead. "Grubber, you didn't eat a piece of cake, did you?", Tempest asks him. "Um, no.", Grubber says with a mouthful of cake. "Ugh, Grubber that's third cake you've taken a bite from today. Oh, hello Pinkie Pie." "Hi, Fizzy. Hello Grubby.", she says with glee. "Hi, there. What brings you here?" "Well we were just looking for my friend Skystar." "'We'?" Pinkie gestures the two to her friends. And they were both surprised to see the others were the friends the two made amends. The hedgehog and unicorn immediately recognized the alicorn, two pegasi, two earth ponies, dragon and other unicorn. "Hey, wait. If the narrator says the same word twice in a rhyme, does it count?", Pinkie asks. "Fizzlepop, Grubber, it's so good to see you two again.", Twilight says. "What are you doing here?", Rarity asks. "Me and Grubber were just picking up a cake for the queen's birthday.", she answers. "Wait, Queen Novo's birthday is today?!", Pinkie asks. "And we weren't invited?!" "Sorry about that. Pinkie gets really high strung when she doesn't get invited to a party.", Rainbow says. "Yeah, we'll keep that in mind.", Grubber says. "Hey, Twilight, who are these two?", Shining asks. "Oh, Shining, this is Grubber and Fizzlepop Berrytwist.", Twilight answers. "They used to be the followers of the notorious Storm King, but soon, Fizzlepop found compassion with us and helped us defeat the Storm King." "And what happened to her horn?" "She lost it when she went into and Ursa Major's cave. But soon she then realizes that she can be a friend horn or no horn." "Hey since you're all here, how about you come with us to find the queen.", Tempest asks. "Wait, you can get us in their kingdom?" "What do you mean? The queen is here in Klugetown, but we all got lost and we have no idea where we are." "No need to worry.", Capper reassures. "I've been in this town for so long, I practically know this place like the back of my paw. There's only one special place to hold special celebrations, the center town square." "Alright, Capper, lead the way.", Tempest says. They all follow the cat to find the hippogriff queen. Although some of them were still not so keen. "Do you think we can really trust him?", Cadance asks. "Don't worry, Cadance.", Rarity says. "He's learned his lesson. I mean have you seen that hat and cape. It makes him even more stunning."