//------------------------------// // Chapter 13 // Story: Welcome the Unknown // by Equestria Buck Yeah //------------------------------// Matt had asked the night before at dinner for the girls to meet him at the library in the late morning with their saddlebags. It had been a couple days since he viciously killed the Ursa and it was beginning to stink a little. He had mentioned to the reporters that he had an idea on how to get rid of it. Unfortunately, he wasn't completely sure if it would work. If it didn't, they'd be back to the drawing board. Pinkie was already working hard at the bakery getting her confectionery delights prepared for the party the following day. The others arrived at the designated time and Matt explained his idea. Concern filled the room, but Fluttershy expressed her disapproval of his idea by shaking uncontrollably. "Uh...are ya sure that's such a good idea, Matt? Ya remember the agreement y'all made, right?" the farm pony asked. "How do ya know he ain't gonna be upset over what he'll probably see as you breakin' your word?" He shrugged. "I don't. Maybe I can give him another award-winning performance. I want you to come with me just in case things head south. I honestly don't expect them to if he sees my little 'gift'." He looked down at his bare feet and frowned a bit. "Climbing the side of a mountain without shoes though? That's gonna suck. Shame that Pinkie's party is tomorrow. Would have said that we go tomorrow once your friends were finished doing their thing," Matt said as he looked at Rarity, referencing her shoe-making friends. "Eh, I'm sure we'll figure out something. Maybe Twilight can put a protective spell on them or something," Rainbow suggested. "Probably the easiest thing to do. It's a simple spell, after all," Twilight commented. Matt nodded in approval. At least the easier problem was taken care of. The big problem still remained and wouldn't be resolved until they reached their goal later. "How long did it take you to get up there the last time?" Twilight reached an estimate first. "Several hours. We had to wait a little longer once we finally got up there because Fluttershy needed to take a different route up the mountain, so we weren't ready for about another hour." Matt was perplexed at the idea that it'd take longer for a pegasus to reach a mountaintop than a grounded pony. "You know how I feel about d-d-dragons, Twilight." Fluttershy looked ready to panic ever since Matt laid out his idea. It'd be the third time she'd have to face the reptile, which is three more times than she ever desired. She desperately wanted to stay away this time around, especially since there wasn't a seriousness to his presence like there was when he originally appeared. Matt held up his hand to relax the frightened pegasus. "No big deal. I was hoping you'd join us since you were able to calm him down once before, like what you guys told me about, but I'm not going to force you. Any of you. I just don't know the way there. Why I'm asking you to come." Rainbow Dash gave him a friendly jab on the shoulder. "I wouldn't miss this for anything. It'll rock to see you in action again." "Ya can count on me, too," Applejack said proudly. "Likewise." "Same here, Matt." Fluttershy looked away depressed when knew she just couldn't join in. No matter how hard she tried to fight through the fear, the thought of encountering the dragon yet again was too much for her. "I'm sorry, girls. I just...can't." "Relax, Fluttershy, jeez! I told you, no big deal," he said as he tried again to calm her down. He leaned over and ruffled her mane, causing her to let out a little squeak in surprise. Her newly frazzled mane made her cheeks redden. Despite the shy pegasus not wanting to accompany them, the others had confidence in Matt. He was more than capable of getting out of the few sticky spots he got into in his short time in Equestria. "So, when were you intent on departing, dear?" Rarity asked. "Was thinking we have an early lunch and head out. May need some extra time to reason with him. You never know." ----- Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Applejack had their respective saddlebags draped over their midsections with some meager supplies for the hike up the mountain. Even though the situation wasn't dire this time around, the familiar path was bringing back some upsetting memories. They all made it a point internally not to bring them up so as not to distract them from the reason they were taking the trek again. They made it up to the mouth of the cave faster than before, likely since they didn't need to stop multiple times. Their only break was about half way up, for about fifteen minutes. They caught their breath and had something to drink. Matt still felt a little winded even though his endurance had increased thanks to working the farm. They took a few minutes when they reached their destination. Even though they were a long way from the town, they could still see the Ursa laying on the ground. "Okay, just let me do the talking. Here goes nothing," he said, looking into the cave and breathing deeply. Matt took the lead with slowly headed inside. It wasn't a very deep cave so the midday's sunlight allowed them to see inside without the use of magic for a short distance. He could hear the sounds of slumber and almost immediately noticed the outline of the familiar red dragon. A massive pile of jewels and gems glistened faintly. Matt figured that must be his hoard. He didn't see his old cell phone anywhere, but that didn't necessarily mean that it wasn't present. He didn't dwell on the thought and approached the sleeping giant. "Uh...hey there. What's going on?" he said with a hint of nervousness. The groggy dragon blinked a few times, clearing his vision and adjusting to the light trickling in from outside. He looked down and recognized the morsel he became acquainted with and four of his friends. Matt's quickly masked his uncertainty with a smile and greeted the drake. 'Time to put on a show again,' he thought. The large reptile was shocked and irritated that he had the audacity to intrude in his home. "You! What are you doing here? We had an agreement!" "We did, and we still do, dragon. I'm sorry for bothering you here in your home–" "Wait a minute," the dragon cut him off. "Why are you even still here? Shouldn't you have gone back to your people?" "Well, I did. But when I got home, I have to admit I started missing the hospitality and atmosphere here in Ponyville. So much more peaceful than where I came from. I quit my position and decided to return here. I asked the Princess in charge of the land if it was alright if I could stay, even though I'm not a pony like my friends here." They waved as Matt continued to perform. "She said it was okay, so here I am." "Yes, you are here. You agreed to leave me alone. Perhaps I should break the agreement as well," he said as he leaned down to look Matt in the eye, baring his teeth. Matt held his hands up innocently in an effort to calm the beast down. "I know you're angry, and you have every right to be, but I'm actually here because I have another gift for you." The dragon cocked his head. "Another gift? What are you talking about?" "We had a...situation in Ponyville the other day. It's been resolved but we were at a loss as to what to do after it was settled," Matt explained. "The problem was a rather large one, literally. I put some thought into how we were going to clean up the mess and an idea came to mind. That idea was you." The girls silently looked at each, unsure of what Matt was getting at. "What do you mean?" Matt motioned for the dragon to lower his head. He whispered in his ear, deliberately loud enough for the girls to overhear. "This particular gift will pretty much make my previous gift to you, that ancient relic, look like a pile of nothing. You probably enjoy fresh meat, and this gift is loaded with it. Plus – and trust me with this – if you were to tell females that you were the one who disposed of this...problem, weeeell..." He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned. The dragon stared at him for a moment before coming to his senses. "Okay, you've got my attention. So, where is this gift?" "Follow me outside." The beast glared daggers at Matt. "If this is a trick–" "No trick, I promise. If I'm lying, you have my full permission to eat me. Won't even try and stop you." The girls shot open their eyes, horrified at Matt's comment, given what they just went through recently. "Curious, didn't you hear anything unusual or feel any earthquakes in the last few days?" "I was asleep for a while before you disturbed me." Matt and his friends led the dragon outside to the edge of the cliff outside his shelter. He pointed to the Ursa in the distance. "There it is, sir." It's massive purple frame was easy enough for the drake to spot against the lush green field at their height. He remained still as he stared dumbfounded at the gift. He finally spoke up, "Is that what I think it is?" Matt grinned broadly at the oversized lizard. "What else could be so noticeable at such a distance?" He took a minute to admire his work while the dragon continued to gaze. "Like what I did with the place?" Matt joked. The dragon eyed the human rather dubiously. "Are you suggesting you had something to do with that Ursa being dead?" "I am." "Now I know this is a trick," the reptile said sardonically. "I didn't think I could convince you that I was able to kill it myself, even with a little help from my friends here in getting ready, but that's fine. The fact of the matter is that there's an enormous gift waiting for you on the outskirts of town, and like I said before, feel free to spread the word that it was you who killed that thing. You probably wouldn't be getting much sleep after that for a while, if you know what I mean, but I don't think you'd really have a problem with that," Matt said with a wink. The girls understood the not-so-subtle hints and looked away, blushing uncomfortably. The dragon thought for a moment and looked over the area. There was no way it was going to fit in his cave. The top of the entrance wasn't much higher than he was and the Ursa was about twice as tall as him. Who knows how much heavier it was. He was a fairly average sized drake, but the Ursa was thick in most places. "Where exactly am I expected to put it? And how am I even supposed to get it here?" Matt bit his lip and searched for an answer that wasn't forthcoming. "Maybe you could leave it near the base of the mountain? Would be a pretty good 'Keep Out' sign I suppose. But you've decided to take it?" the human asked. The drake nodded once with certainty. He could probably hibernate for months, if not longer, after gorging himself on something that size. Ursa was one of the only meats he had yet to taste over his lifetime too. This opportunity was too good to pass up. Matt just hoped he wouldn't mind that the carcass was already a few days old. He knew most predators preferred the fresh kill performed by their own hands. "Great!" Matt exclaimed. The girls delighted at the news but remained quiet. Their tall friend looked up at the dragon with uneasiness written all over his face. "I, um...don't suppose it'd be too much to ask if you could fly those of us without wings down there? It's a pretty long walk. I don't mean to impose, just..." he asked as he trailed off. The question made the girls nearly jump out of their skin. Being carried around – thus being extremely vulnerable – in a large dragon's claw wasn't something that Matt had discussed with them. The idea of being a taxi for the group didn't sit well with the beast either and he glared at Matt. "You've got a lot of nerve asking something like that. Why do you think I'd do that?" "You kept your word about not attacking Ponyville. I trust you." The monster had never heard stranger words. Since when was a dragon ever supposed to be considered trustworthy? He sighed, almost embarrassed, and lowered a claw onto the ground. Hopefully this wouldn't get out to other dragons either. Only one of the ponies were going to fit alongside Matt comfortably. Applejack stepped up and hopped onto the large hand. The dragon rolled his eyes and lowered the other. Twilight and Rarity cautiously approached and jumped on after a moment of contemplation. They trusted Matt's judgment and followed his example. The dragon lifted them up carefully and, with a flap of his wings, lifted off toward Ponyville and the waiting prize. They arrived on the outskirts of the town within a couple minutes. Matt and the rest didn't expect such a ride. They weren't sure whether they should be feeling thrilled or nauseated. They began their descent to the corpse and Matt started to hear faint screams coming from Ponyville between the flaps of the dragon's wings. They probably thought they were suddenly under attack again. Matt pointed to a destination on the ground and addressed their carrier. "Try to land over there so they can see us getting off your hands. They're probably panicking right now." The dragon honored his request and settled gently on the ground between the body and the town. His passengers jumped down and their large red acquaintance scanned the Ursa's body, still in disbelief that it was there to begin with. Several passerbys who saw the dragon land near them were shaking in place or huddled together in fear. Matt turned and saw the commotion and shouted, "It's okay, he's with me." Most of the frightening ponies took their eyes off the dragon standing over the Ursa. Matt waved at them to keep their attention. Hushed whispers were passed around through the crowd when they realized that new human thing that was in the papers that morning was running around with a fully-grown dragon. "I have no idea how I'm going to get this back home," it said, never looking away from the body. "Probably going to have to drag it. As big as you are, I have no idea how you'd be able to carry it, and I sincerely doubt we'd be able to help you in any way. We're kind of puny next to the two of you." Matt hoped the dragon wouldn't feel insulted by the insinuation, despite how true he knew it to be. After examining its limbs, it decided to grab the Ursa by one of its hind legs and prop it over his shoulder. He had to fold his wings in to do so. Most of the dragon's body was lost under the mountainous purple beast and lifting it up proved to be quite the struggle. Thankfully, he was holding up well enough so far. The dragon slowly turned back toward the mountains. The corpse fought him as he tried to make it move with him, but eventually the dragon won the battle. He spun his neck around and nodded at Matt. "Enjoy your gift!" He stared at the human briefly before responding, "What gift? I killed this thing myself." Matt grinned slyly as the dragon slowly lumbered away with the Ursa. The huge corpse dug up the ground as it was dragged away. Missing grass would be the easiest thing out of the whole situation to fix. It took most of the rest of the day for the dragon to finally be out of sight. ----- There was one thing that Matt could concede since almost as far back as the first day when he originally arrived. Pinkie Pie always seemed to outdo herself when it came to throwing a party. The first one he attended, which celebrated his arrival, he thought seemed kind of silly with balloons and streamers and almost what one would think are kids' games, but the girls made it fun regardless. He saw most of the town for the first time only a couple days, and a lot of it had various amounts of damage. The townsponies had been working over the weekend after his famous interview at cleaning things up. One thing was for sure, though. The ponies who would be replacing the windows would be very, very busy over the coming weeks. But today was a celebration, regardless of how good things looked. Even though Monday was typically a work day, the stands and businesses had been closed. Even the normally workaholic Apple family had taken the day off and made their way to Town Square where the festivities were being held. The elementary school also took a holiday and the energy levels skyrocketed thanks to all the hyper fillies and foals running around. Rarity had made an early trip to her friend Cobbler's place to pick up Matt's new shoes and brought them to the library. They did an exquisite job, given that they were used to making shoes for ponies. Matt tried the three pairs on and they fit very snuggly, allowing him to bend his feet as he walked. He was pleasantly surprised they were able to accommodate his differently shaped feet. He thanked Rarity by jokingly kneeling like a gentleman and giving her a kiss on the hoof, much to Spike's chagrin. Rarity rolled her eyes and giggled at his silly antics. Spike snorted his disapproval at that, too. Matt, Spike, Rarity and Twilight ran into the rest of their friends in Town Square. Sure enough, it looked like the entire town had shown up. Matt couldn't have counted the number of times he said hello or was cheered on from a bystander if he had the rest of his life. He and the girls made friendly small talk with the party goers as they took in the atmosphere. He made his way through the crowd to get his hands some of the ridiculously delicious treats Pinkie had laid out but ran into a familiar pony pairing and stopped himself short thanks to the seemingly insane expression on one of their faces. "Oh my Celestia, he's finally here!" Lyra yelled at her friend. She wore an almost impossibly big smile like the few other times he met her. "Uh, hi Lyra," Matt muttered, trying to be polite. She was the only pony he had met up to that point that creeped him out at all. When he first met Twilight and her friends, he wasn't nearly as spooked as he was when he ran into Lyra the first time. Even Pinkie wasn't as bad as the mint unicorn. "Who's your friend?" "Oh, I'm sorry! This is my roommate Bon Bon." "Hello." "What's going on, Bon Bon?" "Just wondering why I hang out with her. She hasn't stopped talking about you since that interview." He met Lyra's gaze and it almost felt like she was trying to stare into his soul. "You don't say?" "Oh, what? You love it," Lyra said to Bon Bon sarcastically. She looked over Matt with wide eyes and what he could swear was a bit of drool falling out from the corner of her mouth. "Oh, if you only knew what I'd do to you if I got you home," she mumbled her inner thoughts. Much to her embarrassment, however, she happened to do so a little too loudly. She snapped her hooves over her mouth when she realized what she said. Once it registered, Bon Bon turned her head at a snail's pace and stared at her friend with a mixed look of shock and disgust. Matt heard her as well and nervously cocked his eyebrows. "And I'm so very glad that I don't. Uh, look...um...I actually wanted to talk to someone...over there!" he exclaimed, pointing in a random direction. "I'll see you later. Nice meeting you, Bon Bon." "Uh, yeah. See ya." Once he felt they were finally far enough out of sight, he hunched over and facepalmed. Listening to Rainbow Dash chuckling most of the way didn't help things. "Looks like you have a fan, Matt!" the pegasus managed to say between laughs. "Don't you have a fan club, Rainbow?" he asked. "Yeah, what about it?" "Who's the president?" "Scootaloo, why?" "Picture her wanting to take you home so she can 'do things' to you." Rainbow thought for a moment and her eyes slowly widened in horrifying realization. "Aww.. awwwwww! No, no! Dear Celestia, no! That's just wrong on so many levels! Ugh, now I have to go wash my brain." Another unfamiliar pony trotted up to greet the guest of honor. This one was tan and had a gray mane and glasses. "Ah, there you are! I'm so glad I you're here, Mr. Matt!" "Hey, what's up? And it's just Matt." "My apologies! I'm Mayor Mare. It's a pleasure to meet you finally! I cannot thank you enough for saving the town from that Ursa Major, and this party that Pinkie Pie threw was a wonderful idea!" "Thanks!" Pinkie said, bouncing happily at the compliment. "On behalf of the citizens of Ponyville, I welcome you to stay as long as you like! I know you said to the reporters the other day that you've been here a few months. Do you plan on staying long? I'm honestly surprised they never asked that question," the diplomat inquired. "Probably. There's no way for me to go home, as far as we know. I've been sleeping in Twilight's basement at the library since I arrived." "Oh, that simply won't do! Starting first thing in the morning tomorrow, I'm going to personally see to it that we have a home custom built for what you need," the Mayor insisted. "It'll be a simple task to write up the permits and pass them along to the contractors." They all perked up at the Mayor's offering. "Wow, are you serious? You don't have to, really," Matt said. "Oh, nonsense. It's the least we can do." "Oh my God, I don't know what to say. Thanks!" "You're very welcome, Matt. I'll be seeing you around." With that, the Mayor happily trotted off to enjoy more of the festivities. "Oh my gosh, that's so cool! You're getting your own house!" The looney pony gasped. "Do you know what this means?!" Matt thought for about three seconds. "House party?" "Heeheehee! You know me so well!" ----- A few hours had gone by and the party was still very much alive. Matt had separated from the group to sit down on a bench. He had been standing for a long time and his feet were getting tired. The girls went their own ways to mingle with the crowd and enjoy some of the snacks. Another pony, this one appearing to be a stallion by his squarer muzzle, walked up to greet Matt while he rested. His coat was light brown and his spiky mane a much darker brown. He spoke with an almost posh accent. "Ah, there you are. My, it's been quite the long time since I've seen one of you." "One of me? What, you mean a human? I thought Twilight said that there's never been a human in Equestria." "She would be right." "Then what do you mean you've seen one before?" Matt's curiosity reached new levels with the implications. "Well, I am rather...well traveled, so to speak. I've seen a lot of places and things on my journeys." "Right. So, what's your name?" "As much as I would like to tell you, my situation here dictates that I must remain incognito as much as possible, so unfortunately, I cannot say," the mystery pony confessed. He put a hoof to his chin. "In fact, I probably shouldn't have even mentioned bumping into others like you before. I may have inadvertently compromised myself. Ah well, we'll see what happens. Could be fun!" "I'm sure you're probably aware, but my name's Matt." "Yes, I saw you in the papers. Bang-up job handling that Ursa for me. Maybe defeating that beast was why you were brought here by...whatever it is that brought you here. Which would be odd, considering that's usually my department. Curious, you didn't bring yourself here by any chance, did you?" "No, I don't know what brought me here," Matt said, completely perplexed at what the stallion was talking about. "Drat. I would so love to learn how you came to be here, as I'm sure you would as well. Eh, perhaps another time," the stallion said with a shrug. "Well, it was nice making your acquaintance, Matt, but I must be off. You said you were from a place called Alabama, correct?" "Yeah, why?" "Oh, I'm almost sure I remember a greeting of sorts that I found where I do my work from. Or perhaps it was a way of saying goodbye? Maybe it was just a common phrase in that area?" Matt continued to stare in utter confusion as the light brown pony collected his thoughts. "Ah yes, that's it. Now I remember. Roll Tide," he said as he smiled and trotted away. "Yeah! That's right!" Matt grinned widely and looked around at the goings on at the party after his new friend had left. He suddenly froze up and stared at nothing for a moment as what was said finally sank in. He turned his head back in the direction the pony trotted off to. "What?"