//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8: Introductions Are In Order 
// Story: The Flame Chronicles 
// by FlameBrony1625 
//------------------------------//

Silence.

That was the only response they could give to my nervous greeting. They were still staring at me with those bulging eyes, and I'm pretty sure their irises have shrunken considerably. I was looking at each and every one of them, hoping they would say something by now. However, they just kept staring into the void, a.k.a. me. I frowned, kind of starting to get annoyed.

"Alright, one of y'all has to say somethin'."

Then right at that moment, one of the ponies slowly moved forward and stopped in front of me, while the others stood still, holding the same facial expressions. She's noticeably taller than the others, however I still had about an inch on her. She has a lavender coat, and a dark purple mane and tail with magenta streaks. Her cutie mark is a six-pointed star, and there are five smaller ones circling around it. The biggest eye-popper about her was that, like Celestia and Luna, she has both a horn and a pair of wings. She must be the pony I'm looking for. She cleared her throat, and opened her mouth to speak. "Y-you're... you're him, aren't you?"

I responded to her question by simply nodding. She continued to stare at me in silence. Suddenly, her eyes slowly widened even more, and a toothy grin started forming on her face, causing me to look at her with a somewhat frightful expression. I was preparing for her to explode any second.

"OHMYGOSH OHMYGOSH OHMYGOSH!", she yelled out rapidly as she jumps up and down, and then starts jumping in circles around me. "I can't believe it's really you! This is so amazing!" 

"Oooh! I wanna join!" For some reason, the pink one joins in on the jumping and yelling. I looked at Spike, giving him a face saying 'What the hell's going on?' He had a grin on his face and simply shrugged. Is all of this normal for him?!

Suddenly, my head gets forcefully pulled in, as the purple one grabs my cheeks with her hooves and squishes my nose against hers, making me stare at her hyper, violet eyes. "Do you have any idea how exciting this is?!"

I blinked twice. "Uh--can anyone give her a kilogram shot of Thorazine, please?" 

She backed herself away from me and lifted herself in the air, flying around in excitement. "I can't believe it! The chance to meet somepony from another dimension! I have so many questions!" She then stops her frantic flying and hovers right in front of me. "THIS IS SO EXCITING!" She then stares at me with a beaming smile and wide eyes. I honestly didn't know how to react at this point except move my eyes around while still holding a nervous expression.

"Uhh, Twi?" We both looked at the tan pony wearing a stetson hat. "You're kinda freakin' 'im out a tad bit."

Her smile quickly deflated, as if she just realized what she's been doing the whole time. She giggles sheepishly and lands in front of me. She then clears her throat, trying her best to act more professional, but I think she's having a little trouble trying to calm down. "Sorry if I kinda seemed a bit out of line there. It's just so exciting to meet somepony from another dimension!"

Before I could correct her like I did with Spike about me being a dragon and not a pony, a raspy voice yelled out, "Now hold up!" Suddenly, the blue pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane flies toward us and hovers between me and the purple one. "How do we know he's really from another world, huh?" She suddenly hovers just an inch away from my face, causing me to lean my head back as she stares at me with a suspicious glare. "What if he lied to the princesses? Or what if he mind controlled them with evil magic!?"

This pony's accusations caused me to form a bewildered expression. "Are... Are you serious?" I looked at the purple one and pointed my thumb at the pegasus. "Is she freakin' serious?"

"Rainbow!", the purple one shouted as her horn glowed a raspberry-like color, and the pegasus was suddenly covered in a raspberry colored aura, and was forcefully pulled back from me, back in line with the other ponies. I'm guessing she's the one that Flash mentioned back in Canterlot. "Don't be ridiculous! Does he look like he can cast evil magic?!" The pegasus huffed, crossed her hooves, and looked away, still keeping an irritated-looking expression. "Besides, Princess Celestia told me herself, so it has to be true." The purple one turned back to me. "Sorry about her. She can be a little... forward." That's putting it mildly. "Anyway, allow me to introduce myself. My name's Twilight Sparkle."

Since she's a princess, I did the respectable thing and bowed down to her. "It's an honor, Princess Twilight." At that moment, I started to hear multiple giggles. What's so funny? Is it the way I'm bowing?

"Oh, uhh... Please don't bow." 

Her unexpected request caused me to lift my head up and look at her with a confused expression. "Huh?"

She rubbed the back of her head, and I think I can see red on her cheeks. "I'm... not that kind of princess. You don't need to bow."

I stood back up. "Oh, uhhh... alright then. Not even a Your Majesty?"

She shook her head. "Not even a Your Majesty."

I rubbed my hair. "Gotcha. It just made sense to show respect to a princess, ya know?"

She nodded. "I understand. But you don't have to be so formal with me." She then turned around to face the other ponies. "These are my friends." She pointed to the tan pony with the stetson hat. Her blonde mane and tail had a hair band wrapped around them. Her cutie mark is a trio of apples. "This here is Applejack." As in the drink? Oh geez.

The one called Applejack walked up to me with a friendly smile and extended her hoof toward me. "Pleasure to meetcha, partner." I grabbed her hoof, but then unexpectedly, she grabs my hand with the other one and starts shaking it rapidly along with my entire body, much to my discomfort. "It's always nice makin' new friends."

She finally stops shaking, but my body was a little disoriented from her surprising strength, and I'm pretty sure my eyes were rolling in every direction. I rapidly shook my head, trying to get my senses back together. Well the good news is I'm not dizzy anymore. I let out a soft chuckle while twisting my wrist around. "You got a pretty hard grip there, I'll give ya that."

She crossed her right leg over her left and lifts her chin up, probably out of pride. "It pays off when ya work as hard as I do."

"This is Rarity," Twilight said as the white unicorn with a purplish, curly mane and tail walks up to me. Her cutie mark is that of a trio of light blue diamonds.

She lifts her hoof up to me in a way a noblewoman would introduce herself. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, darling.", she says in that elegant tone I heard earlier.

I made a sly smirk. I guess I could humor her a little. I grabbed her hoof and gave it a light kiss. "Enchanté, ma chérie."

I could tell she was definitely surprised by my action, because I can see the blush on her white coat as clear as day. Nevertheless, she lets out a rather adorable giggle. "My, my... what a gentlecolt." I guess she must have already forgotten that I came here later than usual. 

Right after she said that, I heard grunting. I looked to my right and saw Spike looking at me with a very irritated expression, arms crossed, and tapping his foot rapidly. What the heck did I do? 

Then it hit me.

Is he... jealous?!

Rarity laughed heartily. "Oh, don't worry about him." She walks up to Spike, who's expression changed from angry to lovestruck immediately after laying eyes on her. She then starts rubbing his head. "Everypony knows he's my little Spikey Wikey." The kid has a crush on her. I really shouldn't be that surprised. I shook my head while holding a grin.

"This is Fluttershy." I looked behind Twilight, who was pointing at a yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail, and a trio of butterflies as her cutie mark. "Don't feel bad if she doesn't talk a lot. She can be a little... shy when she meets somepony new." She was sitting down, covering half her face with her mane and rubbing both her hooves against each other. Yeah, she definitely looks pretty nervous around me. 

I gave her a friendly smile, letting her know I mean her absolutely no harm. "Hey there," I said softly. "It's nice to meet ya. I'm Alex."

She started rubbing her mane, and gave me a coy look. "Umm... hi.", she said very quietly. It was actually pretty cute. Hopefully I'll get to know her a little more once she gets used to me being around.

"I think you've already been... acquainted with Rainbow Dash.", Twilight said as I looked up at the blue pegasus, still hovering above the ground, hooves crossed. Does she ever get tired of flapping those things for so long? 

I saw her cutie mark was that of a rainbow colored lightning bolt descending from a cloud. She was looking at me through the corner of her eye, probably still pretty suspicious about me. I gave her an upwards nod, basically saying 'sup'. She did the same thing, then immediately looked away. It's probably gonna be a while before she warms up to me, isn't it?

"And finally, this is..." Twilight looked around, looking confused. "Huh. Where did she--"

"HI!"

"WHOA!" I jumped back and landed on my rump, because this big, fluff of pink just popped out of nowhere! This one's cutie mark were trio of balloons.

"How ya doin'!? I'm Pinkie Pie!" She then starts jumping circles around me. "This is really exciting! Are you really from another world!? Were you really not a dragon your whole life!? Oooohhh, that means I can throw you a 'Welcome to Ponyville!' and 'Wow, you're an Alien!' party! I'm going to make it the best party you've ever had!" I could only just stare into the void as this pony was bouncing around me and asking rapid fire questions one after the other. I looked at Twilight and the others, who were just giggling at this whole shindig. Suddenly, the hyper ball of pink was directly in front of me. "Do ya like parties!? Do ya like cakes!? Huh!? Huh!? Huh!?" Her face was pressed pretty firmly on mine, and our eyes were probably less than a centimeter away from touching. This was getting pretty uncomfortable.

"Uhhhh..." Before I could even think of a rational response to the walking, talking piece of cotton candy and her jibber jabber about parties and cakes, she was suddenly covered in a raspberry aura and was forcefully pulled back from me, and joined the others. Thank you very kindly, Twilight.

"Calm down, Pinkie.", said Twilight. "I think it was pretty overwhelming when I went all... well, me, on him. You'll have time to throw him a party later."

"Okie dokie lokie!" She ended that with a wide smile, and I think I heard a squeaking noise when she did it. Yeah, what I said about Lyra was a lie: this is the happiest living being I've ever met in my life.

Once again, I rubbed my hair. "Well... It's a pleasure to meet all of you. I'm Alex Flame, but I'm pretty sure y'all knew that."

"If I'm gonna be honest with ya there, partner?" Applejack suddenly caught my attention. "Twilight told us that ya came up with that name... Not exactly the most creative." I frowned. Are we seriously gonna talk about this?

"I'm not a very judgmental pony when it comes to little stuff like that.", Rarity said as kindly as she could. "However, I do have to agree. It is a rather... peculiar name, if you don't mind me saying." Yep, we're talking about this.

"You got a pretty weird name, dude." Rainbow's rather blunt opinion caused me to frown even more than I already am, along with my right eye twitching.

"Umm... I don't mi--"

"I like it!" Pinkie shouted, interrupting Fluttershy's quiet opinion. "It definitely says 'Grr, I'm a big, scary dragon'!" She said that with a deep, growly voice. What the heck is up with this freaking pony?

"Ok, ok guys, leave him alone." Twilight came to my rescue once again. She stood in front of me while facing the other ponies. "I'm sure he's heard how ridiculous his name sounds from every other pony." I raised an eyebrow at that. Se turned her head towards me and looked at me with a sheepish smile. I think she realized what she just said. "Uhh... no offense." I could only roll my eyes as a response. "Besides, I'm pretty sure our names sound just as silly to him."

"Ain't that the truth." I said that as quietly as I possibly could.

"Now... I'm sure you all want to get to know him, but I think it would be best for him to get settled in. He's had a... bit of a rough time." Oh you have no idea how rough it's been.

Applejack was the first to walk up to me as she was leaving. "I got some work to do at the farm anyway. If you're feelin' like it, y'all should swing by."

I shrugged. "I don't see why not." She gave me a nod and walked away.

"If it's not too much trouble, darling...", Rarity said as she walks up to me. "I was hoping you wouldn't mind visiting me at my boutique."

"I suppose I could after I get settled in. Whaddya need from me, if you don't mind me askin'?"

"Oh, you'll find out when you get there." She ended that with a wink, causing me to raise an eyebrow as she walks away as well.

"You should totally stop by Sugarcube Corner!" Pinkie just popped up out of a portal or something. I looked back to where she was last standing, only to find nothing there, and then looked back at Pinkie, who was bouncing up and down with excitement. "We could have so much fun!"

I blinked twice. "Uhhh... sure, Pinkie. Why not?"

She suddenly hugged me very tightly. "Yay!" She then quickly let me go, and started bouncing away. "See ya later, Flamey-Wamey!" Did she seriously just call me that?

As I watched that hyper ball of fluff leave, I noticed the yellow pegasus, Fluttershy, walk past me through the corner of my eye. I turned my head fully to look at her. She stopped walking, and turned her head to look at me. She had the same coy look on her face as she did earlier. "Umm... bye." 

Her shyness caused me to lightly smile. "See ya." And with that, she walks away to what I assumed to be her home.

I turned my head to face Twilight, but instead, I saw intense, magenta eyes staring into my soul. I yelped a little bit and jumped back a few feet, and saw Rainbow hovering above the ground and staring at me like she has been the entire time I've been in the room. "Just remember, buddy..." she warned me firmly. "No funny business while you're in my home." She then decides to bump her nose against mine while keeping her glare on me. "I've got my eye on you."

She backs away from my face. I gave her a sarcastic smile. "Duly noted." She snorts aggressively, then flies away, blowing wind at my body. I couldn't even see her fly out the door. Dang... Flash told me she was fast. I turned my head back to Twilight. "Well ain't she full of sunshine and rainbows, as ironic as that sounds."

She chuckled sheepishly. "Yeah... But don't worry about her. Just give her some time. She'll warm up to you soon."

I shrugged at that. "Yeah, I guess." Suddenly, an idea came to me. "Hey, Twi. Do you have a piece of paper and pen I could use? I wanna let Celestia know that I've arrived in Ponyville."

"Sure! Spike?"

"On it!" He dashed away in the blink of an eye. 

I chuckled lightly. "He's one loyal dragon, I'll give 'im that."

"Hehe, yeah. I've been taking care of him since I hatched him for Celestia's School of Magic. He's basically my little brother."

I never had any siblings growing up, so their relationship made me kind of jealous. It would have been nice to relate to someone on a daily basis besides my friends.

"Here ya go!" Spike returned rather quickly with what I asked for. He placed them on the crystalline table in the middle of the room.

"'Preciate it, Spike." I walked up to the table and lifted my upper body on it. I noticed that instead of a pen, they gave me a quill with ink. Never thought I'd use one of these. I shrugged, then dipped the quill in the ink, and started writing the letter:

Dear Princess Celestia,

Just wanted to let you know that I've arrived in Ponyville. The ride here was a little uneventful if I'm gonna be honest. You can thank both Clouds for that.

I'm here with Princess Twilight. I've also met her other friends as well. They're a rather... interesting bunch. But I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get along with them just fine. Just might take a while for me to get used to their lifestyle.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I got here safe and sound. Tell Luna I said hi.

Sincerely,

Alex Flame

I placed the quill in the ink jar, and rolled up my letter. I turned to Twilight and Spike. "Alright, I'm ready to send this. There a post office I can send this from?"

Spike suddenly flew up to me. "Please, allow me." He reached his hand out to me. I was a little confused as to what he was about to do, but I gave him the letter anyway. He puts it in front of his face, and took a deep breath. He spat green fire out of his mouth and... burnt the freaking letter!

"DUDE!"

"WHAT!?" He yelled back, startled by my sudden outburst.

"Why'd you do that!?" I actually kind of felt myself getting mad.

"What the hay are you talking about!?" He started to get a little defensive.

"You just burnt my letter!"

My answer caused him to snap out of his defensive state. He and Twilight looked at each other, and the next thing I knew, they both actually started laughing, causing my right eye to twitch. Twilight walked up to me, still giggling. She then hovered a hoof around my neck. "Oh, Alex. He didn't burn your letter. He has magic fire that allows him to send anything to Princess Celestia?"

I blinked twice. "Say what?"

"Yeah!" Spike flew up to me once more. "Celestia gave me that ability for me to send Twilght's reports to her." This world just keeps getting better.

"Oh..." I rubbed the back of my head, kind of embarrassed about how I acted. "Umm... Sorry I kinda yelled at ya like that, Spike."

He waved me off. "Nah, don't worry about it. I shoulda told ya sooner."

I giggled lightly, then all of a sudden, I lightly yawned. "Hey Twi, you mind if I get settled in before you ask me any questions about me and my world? I'm more tired than I thought, and could use a nap or two, hehe."

She gave me an understanding grin. "Of course! Take your time. Spike will take you to your room. Spike?"

Said dragon gave her a salute. He flew in the other direction, and picked up something on the ground. It was my saddlebags. It must have fallen off during my meeting with the other ponies. I really shouldn't be that surprised. He flew up to me, and placed my saddlebags on my back. He gave me a wink and a thumbs up. I did the same to him.

I turned back to Twilight. "It was great meetin' ya, Twi. Once I get settled in, you can ask me whatever ya want."

She smiled warmly at that. "Thanks, Alex. It was great meeting you, too. I'm sure we'll become great friends."

Not gonna lie, I felt a little heat on my cheeks after she said that. "Hehe... Yeah, me too." I looked at Spike. "Shall we?"

"We shall." 

He slowly flew forward as I followed him. Suddenly, I just remembered something. "Oh, and Twi." That caught her attention. A snide smirk formed on my face. "Flash Sentry says hi." 

I suddenly saw red on her cheeks. What a shocker. "Oh, uhhh... He did, did he?"

I chuckled. "Yep!" And with that info given to her, I followed Spike.





We've been walking around this castle for a few minutes. I know it's not as big as Celestia's castle, but it's still like a huge maze. It's gonna be a while before I find my way around this place.

I looked at Spike, who was flying by my side in silence. I don't think it would kill anyone if I tried to start a conversation. "So..." That caught his attention. "Your friends seem pretty interesting."

"Ooooh, you have no idea."

I chuckled at that. "That bad, huh?"

He waved that off. "Nah, nothin' like that. We've been through so much that it'll probably take forever to tell you the whole story. And if i'm gonna be honest, I was surprised by how they reacted when they saw you, because a lot of crazy stuff has happened in Equestria. You should've been in the norm for them."

That actually grabbed my curiosity. "Wait, are you saying I'm not the only one from another world?"

He kinda shrugged. "Well yes, but actually no." I raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure what he meant by that. "That's really all I can say about that. You wanna know more? Talk to Twilight about it." I shrugged as we continued our walk.

As we were walking down the hallway, I noticed there were multiple doors on every side. "Do other ponies live here?"

"Nah, just one other pony lives with me and Twi. She's off doing something with a friend of hers. You'll meet her soon, though." As he flew, he perked up at something. "Hey, we're here!" He flew up to a door as I caught up with him. "This is where you'll be staying. Need any help with your stuff?"

I looked back at my saddlebags. "Nah, I think I can manage from here." I looked at Spike. "'Preciate the help Spike. It was great meetin' ya."

"Same here, dude." Suddenly, he looked around, as if he was trying to make sure no one was around. He flew closer to me. "Just between you and me, it's about time I got more guy friends. I've been around these mares for way too long." That actually garnered a laugh out of me. I can only imagine what that's like. "Anyway, I hope we get to hang out some more."

"Me too, big guy." I lifted my fist toward him, and he immediately responded by pounding it with his own.

"See ya!" He the flew away from me, probably just to do his own thing. 

I walked up to the door, and pushed it open. I got a good look around the room that I'll be staying in. It wasn't exactly a huge room, but definitely looked cozy. The entire room was covered in different shades of blue, kind of like me. Did Twilight intentionally give me this room?

As I laid eyes on the bed, I immediately took off my saddlebags, letting it run down my tail and onto the ground. I walked up to the bed, and climbed up on it. It was just as comfy as the bed I slept on at Celestia's castle. I managed to find myself in a comfortable position with my wings not being in the way too much. I already felt myself dozing off.

Well... this is it... my new life has officially begun.