"SURPRISE!"
Badd stumbled out the door in shock. "Gah! What the hell?!"
All of a sudden, two blue eyes sitting on a pink face were staring at the hero.
"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie! Were you surprised? Wereyouwereyouwereyou?"
"What the... I didn't even see you move!"
That didn't quite seem to register with the pink pony, who was now prancing around Badd in circles. Zenko laughed from inside the shop.
"Remember when I saw you with Applejack and I was all like 'Gaaaaaaasssp!' and ran away? Well I was really planning your welcome to Ponyville party because I know everypony in Ponyville and everypony deserves a welcome party so I can get to know them and be friends with them and make them happy and-"
Badd shoved a hoof to Pinkie's mouth. "Please stop talking. You're giving me a headache."
Pinkie just beamed. "Okie dokie lokie! Enjoy the party, I made sure to make it extra super special!"
With that, Pinkie Pie ran back inside and merged with the crowd. Badd looked at Applejack as she walked up to him chuckling.
"What was that? Is she always so... hyper?"
"Yeah, Pinkie's a bit of a character. I'm sure once ya get ta know her you'll be good friends. Celestia knows Pinkie won't stop botherin ya til that happens."
"Oh joy..."
"Oh, ye'll come around! C'mon, yer sister's already joined the party!"
Badd rolled his eyes but walked in anyway. He wasn't a big party guy to begin with, and the fact he knew almost none of the ponies here didn't help. The semi disgruntled hero walked over to the snack bar and poured himself a cup of punch. He perked up when he saw a familiar face walk over.
Rainbow Dash walked up to him with a smirk. "Not a fan of crowds I take it?"
""Eh, I'm fine with crowds, it's more parties. Not to mention you're one of the only ones here I've even met."
Badd went to take a sip of punch but stopped. "Pinkie doesn't spike this stuff right? I'm underaged."
Rainbow gave a laugh. "Nah. Pinkie doesn't serve alcohol at her parties. The foals come too you know. Besides, in case you haven't noticed, her parties are a little... kiddie."
Badd looked over to where some ponies were playing pin the tail on the donkey, or pony, in this case. "Yeah, that kinda suits her personality from what I've seen of her."
"Hah! Yeah, you're right there. Well, I'm gonna go do some dancing. I'll talk to ya later dude!"
Rainbow trotted off onto the dance floor, leaving Badd alone once more. He didn't really mind much, he was always more of the loner type. Mostly because his classmates at his old school were afraid of him, but that's besides the point.
About fifteen minutes passed, and another pony walked up to him. Badd didn't recognize this one, so he assumed they were just there for some snacks. He was proven wrong when they waved to him.
"Hi there! I noticed you were standing her alone, so I thought I'd say hello! I'm Lyra Heartstrings!"
"Uh, hey. Name's Badd."
"You're one of the new ponies right? I know that it's a little weird to have a party about you just for moving into town, I had one when I moved in a couple weeks ago too. I was so surprised!"
Badd figured this one was just a talker, so he let her ramble on.
"I was pretty nervous, y'know? This big party for me with all the ponies I don't know attending. But then one of them walked up and started talking to me. We hit it off, and now we're best friends! "
"Mhm."
Lyra poked Badd in the side. "C'mon, loosen up a little! It's a party, and you're supposed to be having fun!"
"I'm not a big party guy."
Lyra frowned, then smirked. "If you don't start at least looking like you're having fun, Pinkie Pie will come bother you until you do."
Badd groaned and set his third cup of punch down. "Fine. Lead the way."
"There we go! Come on, I'll go introduce you to my friend Bon-Bon!"
Badd got dragged away into the crowd of ponies by the mint-green pony, already beginning to regret his decision.
"Hey Bon-Bon! Meet my new friend Badd!"
"We literally just met two minutes ago."
A cream colored pony turned around with a smile and waved the two over. "Hi Lyra! And is this our guest of honor?"
"Yeah! He's a little shy though. I found him standing by himself at the punch bowl."
"Oi! I'm not shy, I just don't know anyone here!"
Bob-Bon raised a brow at the use of 'anyone', but shrugged it off. "Well that's why you go and mingle silly! What do you think a welcome party is for?"
Badd just grumbled.
"Oh, come on now. Hey Lyra, why don't you go on one of your rants about humans? That might get him to open up, or scare him off, but it's worth a shot."
"Hey, they aren't rants! I've done genuine research into humans, I'm sure they exist!"
Badd raised an eyebrow at that. "You know about humans? Thought they didn't exist in this world."
Lyra swiveled her head towards Badd and gasped. "You know about humans too? And you said something about 'this world'? Do you think they could exist on another planet?"
Badd groaned as Bon-Bon looked towards him in shock, and then exasperation. "Great, another human nutjob."
"Fine, I'll tell you what I know, but can we go somewhere more... private? Like outside?"
"Oh, hehe, sure! Oh, I'm so exited! You have to tell me EVERYTHING!"
The ex human sighed as he led the ecstatic unicorn outside. "What am I getting myself into with this one?"
Zenko had run around the party and met a lot of ponies, even some foals around her age! It felt good to talk to other peo-ponies her age without them being terrified of her, or rather her brother. She spotted another couple of fillies. One grey with glasses and one pink wearing a tiara. Smiling, she walked over to introduce herself.
"Hi, my name's Zenko! Who're you two?"
The two fillies turned around. "Huh? You, like, don't know who we are?"
The grey one leaned in to whisper to the pink one. "Diamond, she's one of the new ponies the party is about."
"Oh, you're new here. Then I guess it, like, makes sense. I'm Diamond Tiara, and that's Silver Spoon. We're like, the coolest and richest ponies at school."
"Oh, that's uh, neat!"
"I heard you were living with the Apples. Like, why would you want to live with a bunch of dirty farmers like them?"
"Huh? Why wouldn't I? They're super nice! They let me and my big bro stay at their house when we had nowhere else to go!"
"So you're like, homeless? Ew."
"What? No! My bro and I are just... really far from home. We actually had a really nice house!"
"Like, how big was it?"
"It wasn't a mansion or anything, but my bro had a really well paying job, so we it was pretty nice. It even had a really big kitchen!"
Diamond Tiara tilted her head. "Like, what did your brother do? Did he own a business or something? My daddy does."
Zenko was starting to get the feeling that these fillies were the snobby type, but she didn't want to give up just yet. "No, my big bro was a hero! One of the top ranking ones too!"
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon stared at her blankly for a moment before they erupted into laughter.
"A-a superhero? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! Seriously, you couldn't come up with anything better than that?"
"Hey, I know it's hard to believe, but it's true! In fact, I didn't even have any friends at my old school because the kids there were afraid of him."
"Yeah, right. I bet it was just because you're a loser."
Zenko folded her ears back and backed away until she bumped up against something. Something tall and red.
"OI. Were you two makin fun of my little sis?"
Badd had ended up telling Lyra and Bon-Bon everything about where he was from.
"Wow! Superheroes that fight monsters? Humans are even more awesome than I thought!"
Bon-Bon sighed. "Great. I'm in the company of a couple of wackos. Likable wackos, but still."
"And I'm in the company of somepony who used to be human, and a superhero? Amazing!"
Badd rolled his eyes at the enthusiasm. "Cool yer jets. You don't need to go freaking out about it for so long."
Lyra gave one last 'EEEEEEE!' before settling down. "Sorry. It's just that I've been researching humans for so long, and to finally have such a solid lead is so invigorating! Obviously I can't tell if you're telling the truth or not, but that sounds super hard to make up! I can already tell we're going to be great friends!"
"Yeah, ok. If you want to be my friend, first thing's first, don't treat me as just 'the human guy'. I'm me. Badd. Not something for you to research."
"Well obviously! You're also super fun to hang out with! Right Bon-Bon?"
"Besides the whole human nonsense, yeah, you are pretty cool."
"See? I don't want to be friends with you because of anything to do with humans, I want to be friends because you're cool!"
Badd rolled his eyes at the sappiness, but smirked despite himself. "You ponies are way too nice."
After a little more conversation, the three went back into the party. "Hey, I'm gonna go find my little sis. I'll talk to ya later."
"Okay, bye Badd! Nice meeting you!"
Badd chuckled and walked away. He spotted Zenko in a corner of the room talking to a couple of fillies. He noticed her backing away, and growled.
"OI. Were you two makin fun of my little sis?"
The two fillies looked up to see Badd's face. His mouth was twisted into a snarl and his eyes were bloodshot in anger. All and all, he looked very, very menacing.
The two gulped. "N-no. We w-were just, uh... gottagobye!"
The two scurried away as fast as their legs could carry them. Seeing the bullies run away, Badd relaxed. "Hey, you okay Zenko?"
His little sister looked up at him with a frown. "Big bro! I don't want you scaring all the kids here too! You know how that went at school!"
"Sorry Zenko, I thought they were bullying you."
"Well, they were being a little mean... but still!"
"Alright alright, I promise I won't scare them next time. As much."
Zenko rolled her eyes at her brother's overprotectiveness, but let it drop. She noticed Applebloom running over and smiled.
"Wow mister Badd, that was amazin! Ah've never seen anypony make Diamond and Silver back off that quick!"
"Huh? are they a problem to all o you or somthin?"
"Yeah, they're the school bullies. Their parents never punish them, so they can get away with whatever they want."
"Well that's stupid. Maybe I should go 'Have a chat' with those parents of theirs."
Zenko glared at her brother. "Big bro..."
"I know I know. I'm not gonna do anything. But someone should. Brats like that shouldn't be able to get off scot free forever."
"Applebloom! There ya are! Oh hey there Badd, Zenko!"
Badd turned around to find Applejack walking over. "Hey AJ. What's up?"
"Nothin much, but ah was wondering if you an yer sis wanna come hang out with me an the girls."
"Uh, do I know any of 'the girls'?"
"Shoot Badd, ya met em all this afternoon! Well, not Fluttershy, but the rest of em!"
"Eh, what the hell? Lead the way AJ."
Badd and Zenko followed the farm mare into the crowd. Badd gave some passing thought as they walked. "This place is sickly friendly, but I guess that's a step up from disasters on the daily. I guess I could get used to it here."