Celestia's new day started off cool and bright. The sunbeams woke them all from their sleep in the field, save for the fillies. Matt rose and found the Crusaders laying next to him. He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. He rolled over and lifted himself to his feet slowly. He was pretty stiff after laying there for so long. The Crusaders stirred when their human pillow was suddenly no longer there.
"Mornin' Matt!" Applejack said warmly as she held her friend's hand. "How ya feelin'?"
He puffed out his chest and stretched his arms and back. "Good. Damn good." He looked around and saw the others already up too, happy to see him finally on his feet again. He smiled humbly, "Thanks for saving me, girls. I honestly can't believe I made it out of there."
"You almost didn't if it wasn't for Twilight," Fluttershy said. "She went into that horrible place–" she pointed at the Ursa's open mouth, "–and found you laying there right by the entrance. What else could we do?"
"Honestly, Matt, we should be thanking you again. You saved the entire town in a most dramatic way, so to speak," Rarity commented.
"Yeah! I thought you couldn't get any more awesome when you told that dragon to go buck himself! This just...how are you supposed to top it?! It's just. Not. Possible!" Rainbow's enthusiasm got a laugh from them all.
"Oh, I don't know," Twilight spoke up. "Maybe if we found Trixie and showed her this, that could top it. 'Hey Trixie, look! This is how you vanquish an Ursa Major! Just fling yourself into its mouth, no problem!'"
"Twilight, how wrong!" Rarity gasped. "Please, do go on!" The sarcastic comments made them chuckle again.
"Look, there he is!"
"Over here, Mr. Matt!"
"Can we get a picture?"
"The biggest headline in the Equestrian history!"
The random chatter startled them and they looked at the numerous photographers snapping dozens of pictures of Matt, standing in his boxers, which happened to have been soaked through with dried blood like the rest of his clothes. Microphones floated in front of him from all directions, surrounded by various colors.
"Heh, you may get your wish after all, Twilight," Matt said with a nervous smile.
"Yeah, there is no way you're going to be able to get out of this," she fired back.
"Um...okay, everybody," he said, lifting his hands to quiet the crowd, "would it be a big deal if we came back tomorrow for this? I really, really need to clean myself up. I have a feeling there's no way something like this is going be kept under the rug, but I'd be more than willing to sit down with you all tomorrow and you can ask me whatever questions you want, okay?"
The reporters and photographers murmured amongst each other, assessing the situation. One finally spoke up, "Where would you want to be interviewed?"
Matt scanned the crowd. There was easily a hundred ponies there. There was nowhere he could think of off the top of his head that would able to accommodate this many of them except, well, where they were standing. He didn't know much about Ponyville yet anyway. He asked his friends, "I don't suppose anyone has anything to sit on besides the floor?"
"I have a few chairs in storage at the library."
"You think we could bring a couple here?" Matt asked.
"I don't see why not."
He addressed the legion of newspaper ponies. "We'll do it here. Can get some good pictures of that for your backgrounds," he quipped, nodding toward the Ursa. "If your editors don't like it, well, too bad. They can wait a day for something like this."
Twilight whispered to her human friend, "Matt, just please don't go too overboard with this."
Rainbow swooped down and added, "Yeah, trust me on this one. You don't want this kind of thing to go to your head."
"I think my just appearing in public would have done that by itself, but I know what you're saying."
"Eh, good point."
He returned his attention again to the crowd. "Alright everybody, we'll see you tomorrow, say at nine o'clock? Thanks!" He waved goodbye as the ponies dispersed, poised for the biggest story they've ever had to hit their papers. His stomach suddenly screamed in anger. "Um, I don't suppose your fridge is full, Twilight?"
She eyed him suspiciously. "Why?"
"It may be empty in a little while...if that's cool."
"I can always go shopping afterwards," she said with a roll of her eyes.
Matt glanced down at the Crusaders. "And you three should probably head to school, if it's even open today. I think you have a good excuse to be late if it is. Plus, imagine how much attention this'll get you. But, if they're closed today, come back to the library, okay?"
"Please just try and behave if you come back and we're not there. Please?" Twilight pleaded. They acted as innocent as their devilish little grins allowed them to. After giving Matt's legs a hug, they darted off to the elementary school.
"Huh. Ah thought it'd be more difficult to convince 'em. They didn't even have anythin' to eat," Applejack commented.
"I'm sure they'll be fine," Matt said. He helped the girls gather up the pillows and blankets. After everything was accounted for, he continued to search the area.
"What are you looking for?" Fluttershy asked.
"What did happen to my clothes?"
Rarity bit her lip. "Um, I may have...thrown them away. They were covered in blood and smelled absolutely dreadful. I don't think anypony would have ever been able to get the stains or the odor out."
"The shoes too?" She eyed the ground and nodded. His face contorted slightly in annoyance. Those were his only pair. "Well, I suppose we can always throw these things out too when we get home," he tugged at his boxers. "Going to be a pain in the ass walking on gravel roads in bare feet."
Rarity held a hoof to her chin. "I may be able to pull some strings. I know somepony in town who makes shoes for formal events such as the Grand Galloping Gala. They've made the most absolutely darling things for me when we would visit Canterlot for pleasure instead of business," the unicorn explained. "I could likely get them to put a few pairs together for you by the end of the day. It would be expensive of course, but I have no problem at all spending a little extra for you after everything you've done for us. If only I knew how big your feet were..."
Pinkie's eyes lit up as she got an idea. She zipped away and returned just as fast, catching the blankets that flew into the air when she left. "Maybe this would help!" She handed Rarity her measuring tape.
"Where did you get this?"
"Your shop!"
"How the hell do you do that?" Matt asked. All he got was a shrug.
"I think you already know the answer to that question," Rainbow Dash said.
"'That's Pinkie Pie for you'?"
"Yep."
Rarity stretched out the tape and measured where she needed to, mentally noting his foot's size for later. "Alright, got it. If it would be alright with you all, I would like to get this to the shoemakers right away. Would it be okay if I headed over there now?"
"Sure, go ahead."
"Fabulous! I'll put together a few pairs of socks for you as well once I've gotten settled back in at the Boutique. Celestia knows it's probably a wreck right now. Could you take these blankets off my hooves for me? Thanks! I'll see you all this afternoon!"
Matt looked around one last time on the grass before deciding he was ready to go as Rarity headed into town. His eye caught a shine coming from the ground and he walked over to it, hoping it was what he was looking for. He leaned down and picked up one of the knives he used to kill the beast. He examined it for a moment and a small grin crawled across his cheeks.
"Whaddaya want that for?" Applejack inquired.
He gingerly shrugged. "Souvenir. Where's the other one?"
The girls scanned the area until Fluttershy spoke up that she had located it. Matt grabbed it off the ground and studied it, remembering what they helped him accomplish.
"Hey, wait a minute," Pinkie interjected. "Those look like they're from Sugarcube Corner."
"What did you think I ran off to get? Cupcakes?" he joked. "Hey, now if you start selling kitchenware instead of just sweets, you have the perfect sales pitch. 'Just look at how tough these knives are! See much abuse they can go through as you slice up an Ursa Major and still be sharp enough to cut right through this muffin!'"
"Have you been hanging around Pinkie Pie more than usual recently?" Twilight asked sarcastically.
"Nnnope."
"Yeah, now he thinks he's Big Mac," Applejack said.
"Nnn...uh...mmmaybe." The girls snickered at the bad impression. "Come on, what do you say we get out of here?"
-----
The library was a disaster area like most of the other buildings in town undoubtedly were. Books were thrown all over the floor and shards of glass were scattered about. Twilight used her magic to make several strategic paths throughout her home. Once they had gotten something in their stomachs, they could get started cleaning the place up.
They put the blankets and pillows by the laundry for later. Twilight would let Spike take care of it when he got back from Canterlot later that afternoon. Most of the blankets were relatively clean but still smelled fairly putrid and only a few pillows had any blood on them thanks to how they were stacked. Everything still needed a good scrubbing though. Hopefully the stains would be able to come out. If not, Twilight would just need Spike to do some shopping for her.
After the linens were set aside, Applejack headed to the kitchen to start making a large breakfast. She remembered what Matt had said about being extra hungry. He hadn't eaten in almost a whole day and had burned through a lot of energy recuperating, so he probably would have eaten everything in the fridge if he had a mind to, and maybe even the appliance itself if he somehow could.
The others had followed Matt upstairs towards the bathroom. They insisted they help clean him up in spite of his protests. Twilight argued that it would take a lot less time with more than one set of hands, hooves or whatever else scrubbing off the bear remnants and that he was probably going to end up going through a few bathtubs full of water. He eventually felt it was best not to argue.
Matt asked the girls to wait outside as he prepped himself. Once the tub was full, he lost the boxers, hopped into the soapy water, and called them in. Twilight found the garments on the floor carried them with her magic to the waste basket downstairs. When she returned, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had already commenced scrapping off the blood that lingered and washing his hair with him. Twilight's horn glowed and she took a washcloth of her own to assist her friends. It only took a few minutes for the bathwater to go from clear and bubbly to a sickening shade of pink.
Matt stayed sitting in the tub as he drained the water in preparation for a second bath. As the last of it went down, Pinkie's eye caught something and she gasped. "Oh my gosh, what's that?!" Matt followed the direction of her gaze and realized what she was looking at. He jolted up and closed his legs.
"What? What?!" Twilight asked.
"Are you sick or something, Matt? You have some kind of weird growth–"
"Ah-aah-ah! Pinkie, I-I'm fine! Yes, I'm fine. Yes. Thank you," he said, the words stumbling nonsensically out of his mouth.
"Are you sure? I've never seen–"
"Yes. Um, Pinkie...err, why don't you go help Applejack in the kitchen? I'm sure you guys could get everything cooked up a lot faster with two of you there."
"Okie dokie lokie!" The nutty pink pony tossed her washcloth onto the counter and bounced happily out of the room. Matt held his head in his hands before reaching to turn the water on again after she left.
"What was that all about?" Twilight asked.
Fluttershy's cheeks turned as pink as her mane when the pieces came together. "Um, I think she...err, well..." Rainbow Dash joined in to listen to what the yellow pegasus whispered into Twilight's ear. The cyan pony busted out laughing while Twilight became suddenly flustered. Matt did his best to hide his head even more.
"Fluttershy! How do you know this?"
"I do take care of animals, Twilight. They've been known to, well...y'know...f-from time to time."
"But Matt's not one of your animals! And he's not in the middle of 'y'know'."
"Oh dear God..."
"Well, no. It's only an assumption, but...well, a stallion's is in the same place, so I just kind of figured..."
Twilight's jaw nearly hit the floor. "And how do you know that?" Rainbow almost choked as she laughed harder.
"Come on, Twilight, I'm a grown mare. Haven't you ever read about it in any of your books?"
She thought for a moment. "Well, I, uh...I-I was always more interested in things like magic and history and culture. I never really bothered to study much...anatomy. Not that kind, at least," she mumbled, looking away with increasing embarrassment. Rainbow's sides were hurting as she was nearly gasping for air at this point.
Matt chimed in after their discussion, "I'm going to go throw myself back down that thing's throat now."
-----
They would have been finished helping Matt get cleaned up if Rainbow had been able to control herself for the last half hour. Twilight and Matt carefully made their way down the stairs and into the dining area where Applejack and Pinkie were starting to set the table. Fluttershy and a still chuckling Rainbow Dash took advantage of their wings and avoided the mess on the floor.
Their extended breakfast consisted mainly of Matt devouring everything he could get his hands on. The girls discussed what order they'd hit each others respective homes in as far as straightening everything up went. They assumed most businesses were going to be closed for a little while as a result of the disaster.
They decided to swing around in a convenient circle, starting at Twilight's, then heading to Sugarcube Corner, then Carousel Boutique, Sweet Apple Acres next, and finally Fluttershy's cottage. They decided to make sure Rarity was home before they just barged in uninvited. Plus, they knew how meticulous she could be with her things and didn't want to impose.
However, even with five sets of hooves, a magic horn, and a pair of hands, getting all five locations done in one day seemed a task too big to finish. They agreed to complete what they could and then resume the following day if necessary after the interview. There was also the fact that Spike's train was to be arriving at the station at 5:15. They'd have to swing by and pick him up.
-----
It took all morning and a bit into the afternoon to clean up the library. Twilight organized the books but left them on the floor for Spike to deal with when he came back. She figured he'd let it him handle it tomorrow since he'd likely want something to do after the train ride. They could sometimes be a bit on the dull side traveling alone.
Twilight opted to levitate Matt along to avoid possibly injuring his bare feet as they made their rounds. They arrived at Sugarcube Corner at about two o'clock, finding the Cakes and the babies already there when they arrived, finishing up most of the work. The couple welcomed the girls and their tall friend. They were very warm to Matt, despite their initial meeting, and apologized for how they acted during the attack. But it was in the middle of a crisis and he wasn't worried about it.
The twins were enamored with Matt like the Crusaders were when they first met him. Pumpkin had a strange way of showing it, however, almost biting one of his fingers as he tickled her. Either way, he found them to be fairly cute until Pound had an accident.
A short while – and one set of furiously washed hands – later, they had lunch and finished up what they could. It was only about an hour before everything was taken care of that could be. With Sugarcube Corner taken care of, it was time to see a fashionista.
Rarity was home when the group showed up at the boutique. Her home was hit the least so far, probably because her place was the farthest away from the epicenter. Most of the damage that she could clean up on her own was already taken care of, but she welcomed the help regardless. She presented four pairs of socks to Matt when they were settled in. Decent start for now.
"I thought I would take care of them before getting started around here, Matt. Celestia knows the mess wasn't going anywhere. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, your shoes won't be ready for two more days. Their shop was pretty badly damaged," Rarity explained. Matt shrugged and thanked the white unicorn for her generosity. After quickly surveying what was banged up, they began tending to the destruction Rarity had yet to get her hooves on.
-----
It was getting close to five o'clock by the time they finally called it quits for the day. Spike was going to be at the train station soon and they needed to pick him up. They discussed the possibility that the tracks may have been damaged as they made their way there. Hopefully everything would be alright. The Ursa was quite the distance from the station, and since Rarity's place wasn't in too bad of shape, the tracks should be okay. They arrived a few minutes late, but the train hadn't arrived yet. It never seemed to be on time.
With little to do as they waited, they decided to ask the employees if they had heard anything about the condition of said tracks. One of the pegasi who worked for the railroad had checked ahead after the chaos died down. The path to Canterlot had looked okay. They weren't aware of the tracks that headed to Manehattan, Fillydephia or any other area just yet.
About ten minutes later, the train arrived and Spike was welcomed by his friends. He immediately spotted Matt towering over the group. His surprise was quickly replaced by a smile. "They finally decided to let you out, huh?"
"Them? No, not really. Something...came up. You'll see." Matt noticed the odd looks the girls were giving him. He whispered to them with a sly grin, "Just play along."
Spike was a little lost for words, but shrugged it off. He noticed Matt's bare feet. "Lose your shoes?"
Matt looked away with a hint of embarrassment. "Sort of."
"'Sort of'? How do...you know what? Nevermind. I'm not sure I want to know."
"Trust me, Spike. You'll find out," Twilight giggled.
-----
Spike was sharing his experiences over the week with his friends as they headed back to the library. Matt kept taking discreet opportunities to check and see if the Ursa's large frame had started emerging over the rooftops yet. He stifled his chuckles, picturing Spike's reaction in his head as they went.
They were on the last leg of the walk back to the library when Spike asked an interesting question. "Say, did you all hear something about an Ursa in the last couple days? I overheard some of the guards talking about one."
The girls and Matt looked at each other, acting as innocent as they knew how.
"Hm...nope. No idea what you're talking about, squirt," Rainbow lied.
"Yeah, it's not like one just decided to go for a walk and show up here or anything! That would be just silly!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Huh. I thought I heard one of them say that...uh, what's that?" He spotted a large patch of light purple fur overhead, sticking out over the buildings, and froze up.
Fluttershy giggled, "I have no idea what you're talking about, Spike."
"What do you mean?! There's something over there! I can see it over the houses!"
Twilight laughed at his reactions. "Come on Spike, we're almost home."
He tried to speak his protests but nothing came from his mouth. He sighed and continued walking, never taking his gaze away from the Ursa's concealed body. When he finally came to a clearing next to the library and saw the gigantic creature, he froze up again. "I-i-i-is th-that...?"
"Oh, that? New lawn decoration," Matt quipped. "What do you think?"
Spike yelled in panic and raced inside, jumping into his basket and shaking like a leaf under his blanket. The Crusaders were waiting when the first of them went inside even though Spike paid them no mind as he dashed right past them. School was apparently closed that day, and they miraculously did as Matt asked and returned there. Nothing looked more out of place than it was this morning, much to Twilight's relief. They watched in wordless confusion as Spike sped by them and out of sight.
Matt whispered into Twilight's ear and she laughed at his idea, as immature as it might have been. He motioned for them all to keep quiet and follow. They all snuck up on Spike, still hiding, as quietly as they could. A familiar purple glow surrounded the basket and carried him to a window that happened to overlook the field that the Ursa was still laying in. Outside and slightly to the left, they could see the monster's head in the crater. Perfect!
Twilight removed the blanket and levitated Spike over to the window, badly hidden snickers coming from his friends as they pieced together what was going on. She released his legs and they found their way to the floor. The rest of the aura faded from his body. Spike opened his eyes, desperately searching for the security he had under his blanket. He saw he was in front of the window and spotted the empty stare and enormous exposed fangs facing him from the distance. He stiffened up and slowly turned around.
"Th-that's okay, I didn't need to sleep tonight."
-----
Matt's journalistic entourage had started coming together about a half hour earlier than he planned, but that wasn't unexpected. His existence was going to be a huge story and it only made sense that everypony wanted to be in the front row. The number of ponies with cameras and notepads looked even bigger than yesterday. Word must have spread like wildfire about this weird new creature in Ponyville and what it did to the Ursa, giving reporters from out of town the perfect reason to come.
Most of the rest of Ponyville had shown up as well. He arrived precisely when he intended to with his chair in hand. As he sat down, he happened to spot the same light green unicorn from the other day near the front of the crowd off to the side with a similar enormous grin on her face. Another pony beside her, a light beige one with a curly pink and bluish-purple mane, kept glancing at her friend with a rather irritated look.
"Why did you have to drag me along to this?" Matt heard the biege pony ask.
"To say I told you so. Besides, this is going to be awesome!"
"Ugh."
The girls had congregated at the library that morning to join Matt for his interview. Big Mac and Granny Smith had taken care of just about everything back at the farm over the course of the previous day, and Applejack assisted in the final touches in the evening once she got home. Fluttershy's cottage was a bit of a wreck when she had gotten home but got most things cleaned up. Not having any animals in the way except for Angel made things a lot easier. It'd be several days before they'd return, more than likely. Spike remained inside and was working on the chores Twilight left for him.
The interview had taken up all morning and finally ended in the early afternoon. It had gone much better than expected. He told them about himself as best he could and answered every question they asked. He even told them he had an idea for getting rid of the Ursa's body but didn't go into detail.
Twilight was the most surprised that all had gone so well since she had been the most adamant about keeping Matt under wraps. Before all the equipment had been put away, Pinkie took the liberty of using one of the boom mics to advertise the town-wide party she was going to have ready Monday, starting in the late morning. The reporters still had plenty of time to write up their reports and lay out their articles for the big Sunday edition the next day but still hurried back to their respective offices.
Matt took some time afterwards to talk with some of the Ponyville citizens who stuck around after the crowd began to disperse. Everypony seemed very accepting and friendly.
During the chatter, he told his six friends that he wanted to take them out to eat at a fancy restaurant that night to celebrate. He'd make sure to include Spike too. He suggested that he could probably convince the owner of wherever they decided to go to get them a meal on the house, considering his new found celebrity status. They assured him that they would take care of any bill if it came down to it. However, they did feel they had earned themselves a little treat after what had transpired the last couple of days.
Pinkie darted off to start putting decorations on everything in preparation for Monday, but the rest of the girls stuck around and mingled. Sunday was going to be a nonstop baking day for the party animal, and she wanted to get a jump on things. The others eventually found themselves drifting toward the center of town to show Matt around. This was going to be a nice, relaxing, lazy day.
-----
Even for a Sunday, it was a typical busy day in Manehattan. Taxi carriages were driving ponies to and from wherever they needed to go. Pedestrians were taking up more room on the sidewalks than there was. However, there was a very atypical number of ponies surrounding most of the local news stands.
A brash blue showpony happened to be strutting down the road, doing her best to make sure everypony went around her. She'd be nuts to think that she was going to concede any room to anypony going by. She saw a group of businessponies huddled at a corner by a kiosk and smirked with delight.
"Hmph! Those pathetic noponies must be reading about the amazing perfomance the Great and Powerful Trixie put on for them last night at Mareson Square Garden. I can't say I blame them for wanting more of the most incredible show of the Great and Powerful Trixie's career yet. Let's see what they had to say about my performance, hm?"
She scooted up and did a double take at the Manehattan Times headline. "WHAT?!" She yanked a newspaper off the stand with her magic.
"Hey! Are you gonna pay for that?"
"'Mystery Creature Vanquishes Ursa Major'?!" she yelled. On the front was a picture of Matt standing triumphantly with his arms crossed in front of the Ursa's face. She flipped to the inner pages and scanned over the story. The first picture that caught her eye made her blood start to boil. It was Matt sitting there with the girls.
She gritted her teeth and an eye twitched. "He's friends with Twilight Sp...RAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" and she ripped the paper in half.
"Okay, you're payin' for that!"