On the train ride back to town all the girls just talk to one another, the main six telling Pyrrha and Penny about Equestria and their lives, and Pyrrha talking about her team and time at Beacon. Penny was mostly quiet as her life mainly consisted of functionality tests and ‘military’ training. I just listened for the most part and answered simply for most of the questions I could. Before long the trains whistle blows and the machine itself begins to slow as we arrive in Ponyville.
Stepping out of the door to the loading platform, we are greeted by the large red stallion I saw in the crowd from after the attack, an elderly looking wrinkled green mare with a cane and a slightly younger mare with tan fur, greyed mane with glasses and in a professional looking suit.
“Big Mac, Granny!” AppleJack and Applebloom rush forward and hug the stallion and old mare. Guess those two are family. I hear somepony clearing their throat and I turn to the other mare here.
“Hello, it is nice to meet you in person mister Taurus. I am Mayor Mare. I wanted to personally thank you for saving the town and to show you to where the house I was planning on giving to you is located.” She says holding out her hand. I smile to her and shake her.
“Pleasure to meet you Mayor Mare. And please just call me Adam. It was no real trouble, though I think the Deathstalker caught us all off guard.” I say with a slight chuckle. Once the Apples finish their reunion they go off to work and our group follows the Mayor around the edge of town to the house.
“HEY ADAM!” I hear someone yell. Stopping I look around before sighting a familiar face.
“Hey Screwball! How are you?” I call to the chaotic earth pony who comes bouncing up and giving me a hug. She look up to me with a smile.
“I am fine. Thanks for helping me last night with my nightmare.” She says after letting me go. She looks past me and noticing Penny and Pyrrha. “Who are those two?” I smile to her and put her next to me.
“Screwball, meet Pyrrha Nikos and Penny Polendina. They are Huntresses from Remnant. They are like me in that they hunt Grimm. Penny and Pyrrha, meet Screwball.” I introduce them.
“Hi there!” Screwball says with a smile.
“Sal-u-tations little Screwball!” Penny says with her joyful smile and tone. Pyrrha looks to Screwball, staring straight into the young mares eyes. We notice her being silent. “Pyrrha are you ok?” Penny asks.
Before any of us can react, Pyrrha rushes over and hugs the adolescent filly tightly. “Oh my gods, your so CUUUTE!” She says with glee. We freeze for a second before we all, Screwball included, laugh at her reaction.
Once she calms down, she releases the captured filly and gives a sheepish grin. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t control myself.”
“It is okay. I am made of pretty sturdy stuff.” She says as we continue behind the Mayor. “So where are you all going?” Screwball asks as she joins the group. I noticed that Pinkie had disappeared.
“Well after some talking with some of the citizens and corresponding with the Princess via Twilight and Spike, I decided to gift Adam one of the vacant houses that are around the edges of town so he could have a place to live as well as function as a first responder if more monsters appear and attack the town.” Mayor Mare explains to her, then gains a slightly sheepish expression. “Unfortunately the house has not been very well kept for a while so it may take a while to clean it all up properly.”
“Eh, no problem. I had to clean my parents cabin before their anniversaries every year so cleaning a house shouldn’t take too long. Plus it isn’t just me but Penny and Pyrrha who will be living there so we should be able to finish it up in a few hours.” I say to her.
“Plus you’ll have the rest of us to help too!” Sweetie Belle adds in.
“Oh! Can I help too? I wanna see if I can help in painting the place at least.” Screwball asks with swirly puppy dog eyes.
“Sure Screwy. It will be fun.” I tell her chuckling. We go on for a mew minutes before coming up to the house, a few minutes from Fluttershy’s cottage.
Looking at the house, I can see that some of the boards on the sides of the house will need replacing and the paint outside will need redoing. The door looks like it just needs to repainted as well. Mayor Mare walks up and unlocks the door and we all walk in.
The insides seem pretty good, a kitchen with dining table and chairs, cabinets for dishes and food, a refrigerator and stove and the standard sink and drying table. Past that, the living room had an older looking couch and recliner, an empty book shelf and a simple oak coffee table and a fireplace. Almost everything was covered in a thin, almost unnoticeable layer of dust. Going up the stairs we find two simple washrooms with the amenities, three bedrooms without much in them and an empty room we could use for something later. In the basement there is one more bedroom, another empty room we can use and a storage room that holds a power breaker and some weird looking generator.
“Hey, what is this generator thing?” I ask the ponies.
“Oh, that’s a gem powered electric generator. Certain gems can conduct magic naturally and this machine converts it into electrical power. The best gems for the generator to use are quartz as they are extremely common and are some of the best for conducting neutral magic” Twilight begins to explain after seeing our slightly confused looks. “Different gems conduct different natural elements into magic, like rubies being the best for converting heat or fire, sapphires for cold or ice, emeralds for wind, onyx for lights, and topaz for electricity. Luckily Equestria is extremely rich in gemstones, there is even a gem range and cave system just outside of town that Rarity and Spike visit for harvesting.”
“Huh, this is almost exactly the same as the Dust generators we have back in Remnant.” Pyrrha points out, reading through the owners manual for the generator that was sitting atop it. Going back outside, I check my scroll and see it is around noon.
“Well this will definitely take, maybe a day or two to get back to a hundred percent then a bit more for the three of us to furnish it. Twilight, can I borrow a notepad and quill?” I say, Twilight quickly summoning in the two items and I begin to write a to do list. After done I look through it.
“Ok, after lunch we should start by taking the things already here outside to clean them and then clean the inside and maybe get some painting done on some of the rooms. After that is done we can put everything back and tomorrow we can go into town and buy the things we need like replacement planks, paint, dishes, hygiene supplies and food.” I look to Rarity. “When is yours and Spike next trip to the gem range?”
“Well, Spikey and I were planning on going to the range tomorrow morning so I can get some more gems for some orders I have gotten.” She says. I think and nod.
“If you don’t mind, I think I will be joining you two so I can get a variety of gems for the house and generator. Plus with what happened when I arrived, it should be safer if I come along in case some Grimm show up.” I look to the others, “While I am gone can someone go with the girls to do the shopping?”
“Um, I can go with them, if you don’t mind.” Fluttershy says quietly. The girls nod to her with a smile.
Mayor Mare gives me the key to the house and says she will have somepony make copies for Pyrrha and Penny. We walk into town, the new duo extremely amazed by the colours of both the buildings and the ponies themselves, more than a few stopping and waving to us with smiles. After walking for a few minutes we arrive at what looks like a building sized ginger bread house.
Entering the establishment, we see a short line of ponies up front, a few booths like a retro cafe and several baked goods in display cases.
“Hey Adam, Penny, and Pyrrha!” We all look and see Pinkie as she pops out of the back kitchen and to the register. Huh, guess she works here. We all smile to her as we walk up.
“Hey Pinkie. So this is where you disappeared to.” I say as we make it to the front of the line.
Looking at the counter, it actually has a menu between two sheets of glass so we can read the menu from the top down and then see the baked goods from the front. Looking though the menu, the group decides what we want, Penny taking longer than most as she has only eaten an apple before, with Rarity and Twilight paying for us all. We all take some of the booths, with Penny, Pyrrha, Screwball and Scootaloo sitting in one with me, and Twilight, Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Fluttershy and Rainbow sitting in another next to us.
“Hey, your that Adam fellow that protected the town!” Looking next to us I see a brown furred stallion with a darker brown mane in a brown suit and pants, with a white dress shirt. He actually looked a bit like a pony version of Dr. Who. Next to him is a grey pegasus mare with golden blond hair and crooked golden eyes in a pair of blue jeans and red t-shirt. Hiding behind her is likely their daughter, a greyish purple unicorn filly with the same coloured eyes and hair, wearing an adorable blue kids dress. I just smile to them.
“Yes, that is me. And it really wasn’t anything special that I did. It is the job of huntsmen and huntresses to deal with Grimm.” I say with a smile. The two humans smiled at my response.
“Well I am Time Tuner, but most call me Dr. Hooves and this is my wife Ditzy Doo or Derpy and our daughter Dinky.” He introduces them. “So are you going to be staying in this town?” He asks, Dinky peeking out from behind her mothers legs a bit more to get a good look at us.
“Yes actually. As thanks for protecting the town, Mayor Mare is letting me stay in one of the houses on the edge of town. My friends Penny and Pyrrha will be staying with me too until we can find a way to get them home.” I say pointing to the two girls with me.
“Sal-u-tations Time Tuner, Derpy and Dinky!” Penny says with a smile.
“Hello, nice to meet you three.” Pyrrha says with her own smile.
“Pleasures all ours my dears.” He says then puts his hand to his chin and hums in thought. “If you are staying in one of those houses on the edge of town, it is likely you will need want a gem carver kit so the gems fit your generator. If you want, I have a spare I have been working on that you can have.” He says to us.
“That would be very much appreciated. Thank you Doctor. The house we are staying in is the four person house a few minutes from Fluttershy’s cottage.” I tell him. They nod and leave the bakery, Dinky turning back and giving us a shy wave. We all smile and the three of us wave back.
Soon our food arrives and we eat while having casual conversations with one another. Once done and payed for, we leave and pass by Rarity’s Boutique so she can get some of those white painting suits and then to Twilights Library to pick up some spare books she is letting us have as well as grab Spike. After introducing the drake to the girls we all walk back to the house.
Arriving, we find the Apple family members with a bunch of painting supplies and some building supplies and Time Tuner and his family with what looks likes a small air pressure generator, a vice, a large work table and a large tool set. We all walk up and they notice us.
“Bout time ya’ll showed up! Time Tuner and his family showed up sayin ya’ll needed some replacement planks, paint and other supplies. We got some of our paint and some extra stuff we had for repairs.” AppleJack says pointing to the supplies they brought. I smile to them in thank. They effectively just cut our shopping list in half with these supplies!
“I brought the tools for gem carving for you to use as well as a work table and spare tool kit.” He says, patting the large device next to him. Looking at it, it has a some slots for the gems in the between the vice itself and two separate compartment beneath it to gather the shards and dust separately.
I look to the gathered ponies and see that all of them look ready to work. I smile to them all and nod to the two humans. “Alright, let’s get to work.”
We start with taking the things already in the house like the couch, bookshelves, tables etc, and also the generator out to clean. After we do that some of the ponies go in and start to sweep and wipe down the rooms, while me, Big Mac, Screwball, Rainbow and Pyrrha start replacing some of the planks, bricks and shingles on the outside of the house, Screwball having somehow teleported to the roof.
After doing the necessary repairs and cleaning, the girls and I decided to each take one of the rooms upstairs and to move the bookshelves into the spare room to turn it into a study. We move some of the things around and then Penny decided to have the bedrooms and the study be painted by her, the fillies and Rarity. Mine was going to be mostly black, red and white, Pyrrha’s red, gold and bronze, and Penny’s green, silver and white.
While they are doing that, the remainder of the main six are repainting the doors of the house and the outside to make it more pleasing to the eye. Me, Big Mac and Spike have been setting up a workshop for the gem carving tools and air pressure generator in the basement spare room and Time Tuner had been checking the connections to the power generator to make sure everything works. Tuner made sure to run a few tests on the generator with some gems he brought and set it to take quartz and topaz for power.
After that, the girls and I decide to label each of our doors with our symbols so in case we had guests, they could tell which room was each of ours. Pyrrha’s and Penny’s were already set but I was having a small problem. I didn’t want mine to be Adam Taurus symbol of a rose, I wanted my own. After some thinking I came up with one. I drew a symbol of a red and black solar eclipse with a white wolf’s head starring right in front of it, like a front view of the symbol for the White Fang. The others were suprised and impressed by my choice of personal symbol.
After nearly six hours and a few breaks each, we have almost everything done. The needed repairs were done, the generator was fully functioning, the workshop was set, and each of our rooms and the study just needed time to dry. We all decided that we would go shopping and do the rest, like set up the beds and stuff tomorrow after I get back with Spike and Rarity. After that we all cleaned ourselves up and put what we didn’t need away.
“Thanks for all your help today everypony. With the rate today went, I say this will all be done around tomorrow afternoon.” I tell them, the ponies cheering.
“Well, I don’t know about ya’ll, but I could go for some food and drink after all this work.” AppleJack says, getting several grumbling stomachs in response. We all share a good laugh and head back to town to get some food.
We decide to head back to Sugar Cube Corner for dinner as they have different menus for each major meal time. Walking through town, me and the two humans notice that there are nopony outside and it seemed everyone is gone. Seeing this we all tense up, me putting my hand on the end of my sword, Penny barely opening her pack, and Pyrrha’s hand lighting up slightly with her magnetic aura.
After a few minutes we arrive at the bakery and find that the door says open but all the lights are off. This makes the three of us even more tense. Twilight walks up, opens the door and we get set for a fight. But....
“SURPRISE!!” The three of us jump back as almost every pony in town shouts this. Looking into the bakery I see three banners on the roof. One is labeled ‘Welcome to Ponyville Adam, Penny and Pyrrha!’ Beneath that is one that says ‘Welcome to Equestria Penny and Pyrrha!’ And the final one is ‘Happy Birthday Penny!’ Pinkie quickly bounced up to us, a proud and joyful smile on her face.
“Well? Were you suprised? Were ya? Were ya? Were ya?” She asks quickly. Pyrrha and I recover and smile to her, while Penny is still confused.
“Yes Pinkie, you sure surprised us, right girls?” I ask, the duo nodding, Penny now understanding what is going on after seeing the banners.
“Then let’s party!” She says, tragging the three of us in. The gathered ponies begin to converse with one another, almost all of them saying happy birthday to Penny and welcoming the three of us. Our friends come up with a few of them sporting smirks on their faces. I just smirk back to them as Penny is drinking punch and Pyrrha is talking with some of the ponies.
“You all knew, didn’t you?” I say.
“Duh! Everypony knows that Pinkie throws a party for new arrivals in Ponyville. Plus the fact that those two just showed up in Equestria today, AND that we decided that today is Penny’s birthday, I am honestly surprised you didn’t think this would happen.” Rainbow says, some of the others nodding with her. I just laugh.
“Fair enough. I was wondering where everyone was when we walked here. This was certainly a pleasant suprise.” I look to the two Huntresses and frown for a moment. “I think these two needed it.” The others look to me in worry. “Remember, those two were brought here after they died. They need something to keep their mind off this fact. I can only imagine what is going through their heads.”
The others bow their heads a bit, looking to the two smiling humans. I walk up to Penny and see she is just hanging out by the punch bowl looking over the crowd. I smirk. Socially awkward just like Jaune and Ruby.
“Hey Penny. Enjoying yourself?” I ask, getting my own cup. She looks up to me for a moment and then to her cup.
“I don’t understand. Why is it that everyone here is so nice?” She questions. My response is just a raised brow. “Back in Remnant, the human and Faunus, even just humans and humans, they had very clear lines drawn between them. There was distrust, envy and fear. Yet here in Equestria, no one care that we are not ponies. They don’t care we are a different species with different view. Why isn’t Remnant like this place?” She asks. I sigh and lean on the table a bit.
“I don’t understand it either. But from what I can tell, this is just how Equestria is. Remnant and Earth are worlds built on survival and war. Equestria doesn’t seem like it has seen any major battles in a long time. What day to day life is like in Remnant may seem like the apocalypse to the ponies.” I look her in the eye. “For now, just enjoy it Penny. For all we know, the princesses will find a way to get you home tomorrow. Don’t lose this chance to have fun and not worry about things.” She looks to me and smiles with understanding in her eyes. I smile back and pat her shoulder.
I mingle with some of the ponies and see that Penny has left the punch bowl and begun to talk with some mint unicorn mare and that Pyrrha was talking with Big Mac and that school teacher I saw from after the attack. I smile seeing them so happy and continue to talk to some of the ponies here and there.
The main six are all together and watching the three of us separately talking to some of the ponies.
“Nice job as usual Pinkie. Those three look like they are having a blast.” Twilight says, seeing Penny laugh at something Lyra said.
“You said it Twi. I ain’t one to complain, but ah could tell how distracted those two girls were being when we were working on the house. They must really miss their friends, especially Pyrrha about that Jaune fellow.” AppleJack says, taking a bite from an apple fritter Mrs. Cake made for the party.
“Indeed. Perhaps this Jaune is Pyrrha’s special somepony? I cannot image how it must be like to be separated from your true love after valiantly giving your life to stop a mad villain.” Rarity says, imagining Pyrrha and Jaune as a pair of royal warriors.
“Um, Penny seemed to get distracted too, but mostly about her new body, like when she was feeling the sand paper earlier.” Fluttershy says quietly, drinking some punch she grabbed earlier.
“Yeah, it must be pretty weird being able to feel stuff after not being able to for the longest time.” Pinkie says, blowing up another balloon as she sees one fall to the ground.
Rainbow was just watch me like a hawk as I talked to the flower trio and asked them if I could come by and get some flowers for the house.
“You know, since their house isn’t done yet, some of us will have to house them for a night or two. I can have Adam stay with me and Spike at the library.” Twilight says.
“Um, maybe Penny can stay with me? Some of my animal friends can help her get used to her new form and keep her distracted and happy.” Fluttershy suggests.
“And I can have Pyrrha sleep over and I can make her some new clothes. Going around in that armor all the time will get uncomfortable and she could use a more casual look.” Rarity says. The group nods their heads before Pinkie rushes to the kitchen after hearing the oven beep. She comes back and whistles loudly, getting everyone’s attention.
“Ok everypony! We all are here not just to welcome the a trio of Huntsman to Ponyville but to celebrate Penny’s birthday!” The crowd cheers and claps for the young girl, causing her to blush and smile. “And what party would be completed without...a cake!” She says bringing out a large chocolate frosted cake, the crowd cheering again. Looking to the cake I suddenly get an idea. I grab Pyrrha and Penny and wave Pinkie over. I tell them the plan and the three females get mischievous smile on their faces.
“Okay. Everypony, step back!” I call out, all the ponies listening.
Pinkie goes to the cake and lifts it with seemingly no problem, Penny extends four of her swords and Pyrrha lights up her hands and levitates some metal platters. Pinkie suddenly throws the cake into the air, most of the ponies shouting in shock. While in the air Penny sends her swords at the cake and slice it into even pieces and Pyrrha sends the platters through the air and catching the peices of cake and places them on the tables next to the plates and forks.
Pinkie, Pyrrha and Penny walk forward and give a play like bow and the ponies come back to their senses and applaud the trio. After a laugh, those present at the party begin to eat some cake, finding it is a chocolate frosted, red velvet and vanilla filling cake.
After everyone eats at lease one piece, Pinkie begins some games like pin the tail on the nightmare and Twister Pyrrha having to opt out of Twister because of her armor. Penny took her pack off and showed that she actually has a microchip in the back of her neck where the the top of the pack connects to her.
The party goes on for a few more hours till it was around eleven thirty when all the party goers leave and we begin to clean up the bakery. Once done we all split up, the girls going with Fluttershy and Rarity separately as I go with Twilight and Spike to her library.
‘Talk about a good day.’