My New Life
Chapter 18 – PonyCon: The Festivities
“Time for the 20-meter dash! Please come and sign up!” Rainbow Dash announced.
“Hey Rainbow, how's it going?” I asked her, walking towards her booth.
“Same old, same old. You here to watch the race?”
“Nah, just making my rounds. Looks like a good turn out.”
“Yeah, this is gonna be a good race.”
After a few minutes of meeting the ponies as they signed up, Rainbow Dash said, “Alright, looks like nopony else that wants to sign up.”
As she began to pickup the clipboard up, a couple pegasi ran towards the booth yelling, “WAIT!”
“It looks like you have some last minute entries.” I chuckled.
The ponies arrived withing a few seconds. One of them, a black pegasus with a gray rain cloud cutie mark, spoke first. “Is it too late to sign up?”
“Nope, you are just in time. Just sign here.” Rainbow assured, gesturing to the clipboard.
“Good. Wouldn't want to miss the chance to show off my mad skills.” The white pegasus said, flexing his wings. He had a brown mane and tail and his cutie mark depicted a pair of wings that looked to be on fire.
“What are your names?” I asked the two pegasi.
The white one spoke first this time. “The name is Blazing Wings. Good to meet you Prince.”
I shook his hoof and turned to the other one. “And what is your name?”
He seemed to snap out of a trance. I think he was staring at Dash. “My name is Dawn. It is nice to meet you sir.” He quickly shook my hoof and then turned back to Dash. “And it is a great pleasure to meet you, Rainbow Dash.” He took her hoof and kissed it.
Now the next thing she did really threw me off. She blushed and giggled. I didn't think she was capable of such a feat.
“Um... okay. Anyways, it was nice to meet you Blazing Wings and Dawn. I welcome you and wish you luck in the competition.”
I waved and began to walk away but stopped when I saw a red pegasus in the distance. At least, I'm pretty sure it was a pegasus. He was staring at Dawn with a look of disdain and then looked at me. We made eye contact and that is when I noticed his eyes seemed yellow.
“Pure Heart!”
I blinked and turned my head to see Luna trotting up to me.
“Pure Heart, I found somepony who paints portraits. Come on.”
I turned back to the spot where the pegasus was only to find he wasn't there.
Luna saw me looking into space and said, “Pure, what is wrong?”
I faced her again and smiled, “Nothing. A portrait, huh? I've been wanting to get a family portrait done for a while now. Let's go.”
She smiled and started walking away. I took one last look and then followed suit.
Five minutes later, I meet up with Luna and the kids to get our portrait painted. We got into the position we wanted for the portrait, me and Luna sitting next to each other with the kids in front of us.
Luna spoke, “We are ready whenever you are, Mister...”
“Electrum Flamestreak. Alright, hold still, this should only take a few minutes.”
While he skillfully worked his paintbrush and pallet, I studied his features. He was a pegasus with a dark rusty-brown coat and a scruffy honey-brown mane and tail. He had one gold eye and one silver eye and on his flank was a depiction of a paintbrush and pallet.
“Alright, I'm done. What do you think?”
“Wow, that was really fast.” I commented.
“It helps when you have been painting as long as I have.”
We took a look at the portrait and Luna looked a little irritated. Though she kept her cool and in a calm tone said, “Hmm. I think your color scheme might be a bit off.”
“Really? How so Princess?” Electrum inquired.
Trying to hold back my laughter, I sputtered, “Luna *snicker*... is... pink.”
“Well I think you amazing in yellow as well.” Luna remarked back.
I took a second look at the picture and saw I was indeed yellow. Actually, it seemed that the whole portrait was in a different color scheme. “Yeah, I guess I do. But that is besides the point. Why are none of the colors correct?” I asked Electrum.
“Oh, did I not use the right colors again?” We nodded. “Sorry, I guess I forgot to mention.”
“Forgot to mention what?” Luna asked.
“I paint in the way I think it should be.”
“Why don't you just paint the way you see it?” I asked.
“Well if I did that, then everypony would be even more mad.”
“Why is that?”
“I suffer from Monochromaticism.”
I walked over to him and pulled him into a hug. “I am so sorry. I had no idea. How long do you have?” I started choking up.
“Huh? What?” Electrum was struggling in my grasp.
“Pure Heart.” Luna said.
“Not now Luna. Can't you see I am consoling this poor stallion in his time of need?” I went back to hugging him tight.
“Pure Heart!”
“What!?”
“He can't breathe!”
I looked at him and he was indeed turning blue from the lack of oxygen. “Oops, my bad.” I let go and he breathed deeply a couple times.
While he regained his composure, Luna spoke, “Pure Heart, Monochromaticism means that he is color blind.”
“Oooooh.” I looked back to Electrum. “Sorry about that, I had no idea that it was not a debilitating condition.”
“Nope, that title belongs to the rib that is currently puncturing my left lung.” He chuckled.
Not wanting to be left out of the fun, the kids walked up to Electrum and hugged him.
“Well thank you.” He said smiling and hugged them back.
“Well that is very sweet, but we should get going. It was very nice meeting you Electrum and I do hope that we see you again.”
“Yeah and sorry about the crushing you thing again.” I said, shaking his hoof.
“Don't worry about it. It was a pleasure meeting you as well.”
He waved and we walked off.
Around noon, Luna had to officiate in a duel tournament or something, so it was my turn to take care of the kids.
“Starfire, stop pulling your sister's hair. Nightshade, sit still. Don't make me come back there.” The kids were on my back and were roughhousing as usual.
“Shoot partner. Looks like you have your hooves full.”
I turned to see Applejack walking up beside me. “You have no idea.” I groaned. “How in Equestria does Luna do this by herself?”
“Don't really know. Ya need some help there?”
At that point, Nightshade was on my head, chewing on one of my ears. “Would you?”
“Of course, let me just take Starfire off your hooves.” I knelt down and she picked up Starfire and placed her on her own back.
“Thanks Applejack.” I levitated Nightshade onto my back again.
“'Twas nothin'.”
We began walking and talking. “So, have you enjoyed the festival so far?”
“Oh yeah. I am meeting many new ponies and having lots of fun. You ponies sure do know how to throw a shindig.”
“Please, your making me blush.” I said.
“Yep. But I can't help but feel that something is off.”
“Really? How so?” I asked as I pulled Moonbeam off my neck and sat her back down next to her brother.
“Well, earlier I thought I saw a red pegasus staring at me from a distance. But then I got distracted and when I turned back to look again, he was gone.”
“Hmm, that happened to me as well. I wonder if it is just a coincidence.”
“I am not too sure. Something about him seemed familiar.”
“Okay, if it makes you feel any better, I will keep an eye out for him. If I see him again, I will confront him.”
“Thanks Prince.”
“No problem.”
A couple of hours later, we took the kids home and put them to bed. Cadence was more than willing to watch them, saying something about wanting to have more experience with foals or something. I wasn't really listening because I was too psyched for the final event of the evening back at the festival.