The days past by quickly while I settled into my new home. Windows needed to be replaced, basic furniture and utilities need to be bought and installed. Plus one memorable moment when I had to evict an entire family of racoons from the attic.
Yeah sure the place was a bit of a fixer upper but it wasn't one of the worse places I've seen. The modest cottage I bought wasn't the best in terms of the looks department, but it had a roof and sturdy walls that kept the cold out. That was good enough for me.
Even then, with what I payed to get this place. It was a lot better than what I was expecting, with how cheap it was I thought it would have been the site of a murder or maybe just in need of serious repairs.
So imagine my surprise that the sole reason that it was that dirt cheap was because of its proximity to the local forest. The first time I heard that I thought that the forest was a suicide hotspot or something (As unlikely of a problem that seemed to be in this new world). Turns out it was because of something way less serious than what I was expecting.
The forest was able to function completely by itself without the need of ponies.
The first time I heard that from my annoying real estate agent I nearly laughed out loud with how seriously she said it. Later on I understood why she took a forest that could actually function as forest so seriously. Literally almost anything weather or nature related the ponies did themselves. Some eye opening examples was how the Pegasus tribe would manipulate clouds to bring in water for the crops. Our how the ponies had to do yearly races to knock down the leaves from trees during the fall.
As such having a forest that could naturally do all these things was seen as strange and alien.
Idiotic is what I would call that. But it did attract me to location even further then what the cheap price could. Having a small reminder of home near me put my mind at ease after everything I've been through.
After nearly a week of renovations and upkeep, I could finally say I was ready to live in my new home. The only thing left to do now was make sure I was able to stay here. The first payment for this place was coming up pretty quick and I needed a way to make some cash.
Truth is back at home I wasn't really good at much stuff, yeah I did the regular things like retail and restocking shelves and such. But never something one might call an actual career, not that I really could at the time as I was still in college working for a degree that didn't even matter anymore. Yet the need to make a living for myself existed in this world as well.
Go figure.
Back at Manehattan where I had first woke up, the only thing I could do was odd jobs as I didn't have an ID nor any papers that could show my qualifications. That was different now however as I had... Acquired these papers through slightly under handed means. Nothing truly illegal I hope, but I did need some help to flub some questions in order to get those papers.
Questions such as 'where were you born?' and 'who were your parents?'.
I had been tempted to get a fake diploma and try to get a higher paying job that way. But I was already taking a huge risk by dodging those questions in the first place, how would I explain a diploma from a school that never even existed?
Plus, this world has magic. Who's to say one of the unicorns could wave their horn around and discover my deception. No better to keep my forgery as simple as possible and work my way up from there.
Unfortunately that means only being able to get bottom of the barrel work. Not unless pe -ponies took pity on the guy who was at most 'self-taught'.
Not the best of situations, but it could have been worse. Just have to start from the bottom and work my way to the top.
No biggie.
Of course, to find work I had to walk into town again. Not that I didn't like the place or anything but it was a small town, and in small towns most people know almost everyone who lives there. What this meant was that I would most likely be gossiped about, or be bombarded by questions from nosy neighbors.
As expected, I wasn't really looking forward to walking into town. However, I also had another reason.
Yesterday around late evening, I recalled the conversation I had with Pinkie Pie, and how I agreed to let her throw me a party. Specifically I remembered when I told her that 'anytime next week' was good.
Now I haven't truly known her for long but from what brief glimpses that I could recall of her personality in the short conversation we had. I would reasonably assume that she was the type to throw surprise parties. Now that it was next week, Pinkie Pie was most likely planning a surprise party for me sometime in the near future.
I wasn't really against this of course as the party had been partly my idea. However, a surprise party meant that it would be a surprise. And I rather know fully in advance when something would be happening. I didn't want to be caught in a bad time and reveal more about myself than what I felt comfortable with in a moment of weakness.
Even if this party was meant in good faith, I didn't want Pinkie Pie to feel the brunt of my anger and frustration of my situation if I ever did crack. As such in tandem with looking for a job, I was now also fishing for information about Pinkie Pie so I could speak with her about the party preparations. Preferably if we could actually schedule a set date so none of what I feared would happen.
As frustrating as all of this was, it was simply my life now so all I could do was suck it up and get to work.
Getting up from the wooden chair that I was sitting on I grabbed my worn saddle bags in preparation for my day out. Inside them was my joke of a resume, some identification papers, and a snack for the road as money was tight as is. No need to waste more on street food.
"Right then, am I missing anything?" I asked myself rummaging through my saddlebags to see if there was anything I left behind.
"Let's see here..." Keys where here, along with my wallet, and some loose change in case I really needed it. "No, that's everything."
With one last glance around my new home. I took a deep breath and walked towards the door. "Do or die time I guess."
The trip over to town wasn't as long as I was hoping it would be. Though it did give me a little time to calm my nerves, the last time I went through here I was in too much of a mood to really feel any discomfort of being in an unfamiliar place.
In the first few minutes of me entering town it felt as though I was being stared at by dozens of people. As the dirt path beneath my hooves shifted into more solid stone, it felt as though each of my steps was as loud as a bullet.
For a second I thought that everyone would look and stare, although I was proven false a few seconds later as almost no one even bothered to look in my general direction.
"Christ, get a grip will you." I mumbled to myself as I walked further into town.
Well last time I walked through here I was too focused on getting into my new home that I barely took in my surroundings. But now that I could take my time I truly looked around and saw some things that would have made anyone below 12 happy. The town itself was nothing truly special, in fact it looked like something out of a medieval village. With most of the houses having what appeared to be thatch roofs with stone and wood walls, most of them had chimneys sticking out from the back. Although the smoke that came out was white grayish rather than the putrid black I was expecting to see. Oddly enough most of the wood and stone was painted in bright cheerful colors such as white or pink.
Not my first choice of wall decor but that wasn't any of my business.
What truly stood out to me were that some of the buildings were built... In a more unique way. As for one example would be what appear to be a boutique, though it seemed to be stylized after a carousel. I wouldn't have expected this world to have any idea what a carousel was, but it did make for an interesting building design. I couldn't even imagine how frustrating it would have been to work with all the little round corners and such to make that silly thing stable.
The one building in particular that caught my interest was one that looked like it was ripped straight out of Hansel and Gretel. The building itself looked like any other building, except for the fact that it was apparently made out of candy. With the brief look I had at it before I turned away it didn't look like it was made of literal candy although it was stylized to look as seemingly delicious as possible.
I believed it was a place to buy confectioners such as pastries or perhaps a Baker's home, though from what I can tell from the foals that came out the front door it looks to be more of a old school soda joint. A type of family Cafe that would serve almost anything I suppose. Or maybe it was just a local diner, as colorful and cheerful as these ponies are it wouldn't surprise me if all they ate was sugar and ice cream.
However, I wasn't looking for a place to eat. I was looking for a place to work and perhaps ask a couple of ponies to see if they knew where Pinkie Pie was.
As I started to turn away from the gingerbread house, I heard a high-pitched yell coming from behind me.
"Hey! It's you! Mr... uh." Pinkie Pie trailed off as she realized I never told her my name.
"Status Quo." I informed her.
"Right! Status Quo!" She coughed well quickly glancing away to the side. "I knew that."
I chuckled a bit at her antics before I started walking up to her. Meanwhile putting on my usual half smile in preparation to talk to her. "Hey Pinkie, I actually wanted to talk to you. I'm glad we ran into each other like this." Before I could elaborate on what I wanted to ask her she immediately jumped in the air with an excited look on her face. I was half expecting her to start running off in a random direction.
"Oh right! You're welcome to Ponyville party! Don't you worry about a thing! Pinkie Pie has got this all handled, after all I'm Ponyville's number one party pony!"
She even started to tense her legs in preparation to move as she was talking. Luckily I managed to grab her coat before she could gallop off to who knows where. "I actually wanted to ask a few questions about that. Is there a place we could talk a bit more privately?"
"Wow! You're really good doing that! How strong are you mister?" She looked at me with a semi-surprised face with one eyebrow quirked upward as she hung in the air, suspended by my hoof.
"I've done quite a bit of physical labor in my time, so about that place to talk privately?" I asked as I gently put her down on the ground.
"Well... I was on my shift but then I saw you outside through the window so I wanted to say hello but you started to turn away so I sort of jumped over the counter and yelled out a random noise so I can get your attention which I'm glad it did because you really look like you were just going to walk away from Sugarcube Corner and nopony does that without at least looking a little bit hungry but you just turned around like it was nothing and then I wanted to ask about that but then you said hi back once you heard me and I was so happy that you said hello back and..." She rambled as I merely stood there in minor shock. It was incredible how much she could talk without taking a single breath.
I don't know how long I stood there merely letting Pinkie Pie ramble on and on as the ponies all around us merely ignored us as though this was a daily occurrence. "... But then you somehow caught me before I could run off to prepare your welcome to ponyville surprise party and then I asked you how do you keep doing that and then you told me that you do a lot of physical labor and... and..." She finally stopped to let herself take gasps of air.
My half smile was becoming slightly more strained as I watched her take in a few more puffs of air. "You done?"
She held up a single hoof and response as her breathing slowed down into something that could resemble control. "Yeah... -huff- I'm good... -gasp- Whew..." She wiped her brown with her hoof. "Nopony has ever let me talk that long before."
I forced my half-assed smile to be a bit less fake "So about that private talk...?"
Her eyes suddenly lit up and a light bulb appeared over her head. "Oh yeah! Yeah sure I got somewhere we can talk just follow me!" She turned 180 almost instantly and started skipping her way back into the gingerbread house. What did she call it? Sugarcube Corner?
With the invitation as clear as could be from a being known as Pinkie Pie, I followed her into the establishment.
'Jeez, I hope she's not always this energetic.'
When I stepped inside the establishment I was accosted by how aggressively cheerful everything was. The walls at least looked relatively normal being a light beige with the wooden supports giving it a bit of highlight as they were colored pink. There were tables scattered about each having two to three chairs, there was a long counter with a cash register near the end, and behind and within the counter was a myriad of sweets pastries and cake.
Honestly with how everything looks delicious including the building itself that was sorely tempted to use some of my pocket change to at least by one thing for the road. But now that I think about it that's probably why it's designed that way.
"Hey! Mr, Status Quo! Hurry up!" I heard Pinkie Pie say from behind the counter. She was standing in front of an Open door which led to a back room of some sort.
"Sorry, I was just... Distracted by the scenery." I shook my head a bit to get the predatory marketing scheme out of my head. "Lead the way, I'll be right behind you."
She merely laughed and turned to walk into the room, the door was held open by a door stopper shaped like a piece of cut cake.
Quickly making my way around the counter I stepped through the doorway into what appeared to be a storage room of some sort. There was boxes stacked alongside the walls, and shelves filled with more boxes of what I assume to be ingredients. Or perhaps some sort of equipment to make more detail pastries and such.
Pinkie suddenly stopped and turned around to face me. "So what was he wanted to talk about? Oh, oh! Was it about your super duper awesome welcome to ponyville surprise party?!"
She started to bounce in place. "Oh don't you worry I've got it all handled. See when you told me that you wanted to be left alone for at least a week I was a bit sad. But then you said that anytime next week was good."
She started to bounce around in a circle smiling all the while. "So then I thought 'oh what if you just wanted a surprise party.' So then I started making preparations, I even added new confetti to my party cannon!"
The more she expanded upon what she planned to do for my party the more strained my smile became. Clearly, Pinkie Pie took pride in being 'Ponyville's number one party pony'.
However, what I was asking wasn't much so I hoped she wouldn't take it too badly.
"... I also got new colors for my streamers like ruby, lapis lazuli, indigo, scarlett..." Oh she was still talking.
"Pinkie."
"... Did you know they made streamers in sky dolphin baby blue! I sure didn't!"
"Pinkie."
"... I even managed to find my old rainbow foil party hats! I've been looking for those since forever!"
I took a deep breath. "Pinkie Pie!"
That finally got her to stop rambling on about her new party equipment. Taking the time to call myself down with a few breaths, I looked Pinkie Pie in the eye and started talking.
"Listen Pinkie, I appreciate everything that you're doing to make sure my welcome to Ponyville party is as good as it can be but I need to ask you a small favor."
Her eyes wide in a bit at my request. "Oh. Well what is it?"
I had a small grimace while I spoke the words. "Can it... Not be a surprise party?"
Suddenly it felt as though times stood still. Pinkie Pie's face stood frozen like ice, her eyes wide and her pupils like pinpricks. Her body taunt, her muscles straining as the words started to be comprehended in her mind.
Slowly her face turned redder and her hair started to inflate to a noticeable degree. Steam poured from her ears as though someone was making tea in a tea kettle. Finally after it felt as though eons had passed she belted out a single word.
"What!?"