//------------------------------// // Warm Welcome // Story: An odd family: The foundations. // by EdBoii //------------------------------// Road To Redemption, The Dirt Path "Surprise!" I woke up to the sounds of a party, confetti, streamers, music and balloons littered the hospital room in it's entirety. And in the middle of it all were five ponies. I recognized them as Twilight, Rarity, Applejack and the pink pony that accompanied her before, there also was another one, a pegasus with a pink mane and yellow coat, Rainbow wasn't among them. The pink pony hopped towards the bed, I noticed the lack of kids around me and took a look around, they were on the floor playing with a balloon while giggling happily. "Good morning sleepy head! Were you surprised? Were you? Because I was! I didn't know that there were ponies like you! I mean, I know there are some ponies that don't look like ponies, but you don't look like a not-looking-like-a-pony type of pony either!" The overly enthusiastic pony spoke so swiftly that by the time her sentence was over, I was still catching up to the meaning of the first words. "Wait, what?" My head was spinning, no living being should be able to speak so rapidly. As the pink pony drew breath to repeat herself, Twilight quickly pressed a hoof against her mouth. "Heh, well that's Pinkie Pie!" She smiled and chuckled slightly, and then asked me in a more worried tone. "How are you feeling Iron? Does it hurt?" Sitting up, I looked at myself. My clothes had been removed for the operation, I was now wearing a hospital robe, although small and uncomfortable since it was designed for ponies, they must have used the largest size they had and still had to attach a couple more pieces of fabric to it! The robes weren't very long, barely reaching my knees while laying down, and they were really tight on the shoulder area, the sleeves were positioned on the front instead of the sides, so they had to cut holes through it so my arms could fit. Looking under the robe, I noticed that I had a bandage across my waist, covering the section were my ribs were,I also sported a few bruises and cuts from my first encounter with discord, and the skin under the bandage was red and slightly swollen, it didn't hurt though. Taking a peek under the bandages, however, revealed several stitches and a long cut that ran down my side, from where the doctors had to operate, I was probably missing a few ribs as well. The thought made me wince and shudder slightly, some of the anger from last night being reignited at the sight of my mauled body. This wouldn't have happened if a certain someone hadn't been a bitch... "Where's Rainbow?" I asked solemnly, eyes staring off into space, thoughts welling up in my head. Where was the cause of my misfortune? She was to blame for what had happened, she started the fight, so why wasn't she here?. Sure, Applejack was the one who broke my ribs, and it was probably Twilight who had me imprisoned, but they were here, they were saying sorry for what they had done, and they meant it. If I was going to forgive them for what they did, I had to know they were sorry. Silence met my question, just as I thought it would. Twilight and the others lowered their heads, trying to avoid my gaze. Eventually, Applejack broke the silence. "She, um... Well, she ah..." The orange mare struggled with her words, she knew why Rainbow wasn't here, she just didn't know how to say it. I wasn't one to hold a grudge, and I had done my share of evil, but still, my ribs were broken, they almost pierced my lungs, and now I had a permanent record as a convicted criminal. That kind of stuff is not easily forgiven, not even for me. The silence dragged on for a little while longer until I decided it wasn't worth it. I needed these ponies and their friendship, especially now that the town had their first impression of me, and I didn't think it was a good one. So, smiling as convincingly as I could, hiding the anger once again, I decided to put on a mask and make myself a puppet, for as long as I needed, until I could snatch the strings from my puppeteers and switch the roles. "Meh, whatever. I guess she must have been busy with something, right?" Shrugging and keeping my smile, I looked at the ponies, they took their chance and nodded rapidly, desperately wanting to move on to a less delicate subject. "Yeah! No point in getting all moody because Dashie couldn't make it! Come on everypony! Let's party!" Pinkie jumped up in the air and frantically waved her hooves in the air. The other ponies cheered and laughed as Pinkie produced an old record player out of nowhere and placed it on the ground. "Is that a record player?" I chuckled at the sight, my grandma used to use those, and even then they were getting old fashioned! "Indeed, one of the most recent models too! Just received it from Canterlot." Rarity beamed proudly, she was either the owner of that antique, or was rather fond of record players. I chuckled slightly and then watched as Pinkie placed a large black disk on the machine and a tune started playing. "Come on everypony! Let's get tha party started!" Applejack then started to dance, swaying from side to side with the occasional hoof stomp or tail movement. Rarity joined in with her own style, a more elegant and reserved dance, similar in certain ways, like the swaying or hoof stomping, but with less force and more graceful, Applejack rolled her eyes and danced faster. The yellow pegasus imitated Rarity's dance moves, although in a rather modest and shy way, Twilight and Pinkie joined in and I was left to stare and wonder at the utter strangeness of it all. I, a human, was sitting in a pony hospital with a broken rib cage, while watching five colorful, speaking, and dancing ponies shake it to the beat of a record player... I felt like I had skipped the first steps of losing it and went straight to the weird part... "Hey Iron! Aren'tcha coming?" Applejack waved a hoof at me to join. "Yeah! Come on Iron!" Twilight walked over to the side of the bed and extended a hoof to me. "Huh? Wha?" I look perplexed at the ponies, dancing was not my forte, nor was it something I enjoyed, but dancing with ponies? That was taking it to a whole different level of weird! But then again, it was a party, and no one likes a party pooper. Besides, I had already made myself look like an asshole, I didn't want that impression of myself to remain, and dancing was a sort of good way of making up and forgiving right? Shocked with myself for what I was about to do, I slowly lifted my legs from their resting places, and slid them off the edge of the bed, being careful not to brush anything against my injured side, I slowly slid myself off the bed, feeling the floor with my feet, trying to assert just how much strength I had in my legs. Carefully tensing and stretching the muscles on my legs, I started to apply pressure, trying to support more of my weight on my limbs every passing second. "Come on Iron! Ya can do it!" Applejack started to cheer, and was quickly followed by the others. "Way to go Iron!" Pinkie Pie happily clapped her hooves and smiled as I managed to stand, while leaning on the bed. Smiling, I slowly attempted to let go of the bed, only to find my legs quivering under the effort. "Be careful now, dear." Rarity moved forward and helped me recover my balance. "Heh, sorry, wasn't expecting that, they don't usually fail me." I simply tried to regain my footing, and finally managed to stand, although slightly leaning against Rarity. "It's all right, just be careful Iron." Twilight's horn started to glow, and a purple aura enveloped my legs, I suddenly felt strength rushing through them, reinforcing the tired muscles, strengthening and fortifying. "Whoa! I don't think I'll ever get used to that magic stuff you guys use..." With my newly recovered mobility, I decided to test out just how much I could do. "Well, here it goes!" No longer needing to hold on to anything, I started to bend my knees, trying to see just how low I could go. Smiling to myself, I decided to walk around a bit. "Whoa Nelly! Ah' sure hope that fancy-schmancy spell o' yours holds Twi, wouldn't like to have him stumbling around after a surgery!" Applejack looked worriedly at me as I moved about the room. "Don't worry Applejack, I designed this particular spell specially for Iron's physical and anatomical particularities, It should hold for about two to three hours as long as he doesn't strain himself too much." Twilight beamed proudly, she clearly had a thing for studying and... Did she say anatomical? As in anatomy? You know, the kind of study that involves being physically examined? FUCKING THOROUGHLY?! I stopped dead in my tracks, eyes growing wide with realization. "Um... Twilight?" I asked, looking straight at the wall, a slight blush on my face. "Yes Iron?" She smiled and looked at me. "When and how exactly did you get the knowledge of my 'anatomical particularities'?" I slowly turned to face her, eyes still wide and face still red. Twilight simply smiled wider, and started to answer. "Well, of course it was after the nurse removed your..." She then realized what was bothering me, she stopped talking, her eyes grew even wider than mine, and somehow, her face blushed fiercely through her coat. I decided to end it right there and then. "Never speak of this again?" I asked quickly before the other ponies caught up to what was going on. "Never." She simply replied. The party continued afterwards, Pinkie had a punch bowl on a table, a large cake of as many flavors as there could possibly be as well as some others, and the record player kept on rocking, granny style, some sick pony tunes, like the pony pokey, the good o'l The wheels on the apple cart go round and round as well as a personal favorite of mine... THE PONY BACK BUCKER! HOW HARDCORE IS THAT?!?!? The whole party dragged on for about two hours, most of it was dancing, these ponies have a hell lot of stamina though, I'll give them that. They didn't seem to get tired! Not even after Pinkie made a triple jump with barrel roll in mid air and still managed to catch a cupcake in her mouth! How in the fuck am I supposed to compete with that? Eventually, I was forced off the dance floor, beaten by Pinkie's dancing skills. I decided to get to meet these ponies. I already knew some stuff about Rarity and the names of the others, except for the timid yellow pegasus, so I decided to introduce myself. Walking out of the dance floor, I slowly made my way to the pink maned pony, she was standing by the punch bowl serving herself a drink. "Hey, how's it going?" I waved at her, while grabbing a glass for myself. The reaction I got was... Strange... She hid behind her mane and whispered something I couldn't hear. "What was that?" I smiled while pouring some punch into my glass. "Hi..." "Um... Come again?" This was awkward... If she didn't speak up I guess I could always pull off the classical 'laugh and hope it wasn't a question' But nope, instead she simply remained quiet, the music playing in the background and the laughter of the other ponies the only sounds in the entire room. Scratching my head, I tried to exit the conversation while keeping it cool. "Yeah... Well, nice talking to ya, guess I'm gonna check on the kids!" I smiled and started to walk away. Damn ponies just kept on getting stranger... Just as I was a few steps away from the punch table, a gentle tap on my shoulder made me turn around. "Huh?" To my surprise, the yellow pegasus was standing behind me, and Applejack was pushing her forward. "Come on now Shy, Ya can't stay inside yer shell forever..." Applejack grunted as she pushed the pegasus in front of me. "Iron, meet Fluttershy, Fluttershy this is Iron." Applejack stopped pushing and walked off to the punch table, Fluttershy stared at me with a mixture of nervousness and fear. "Hi..." She said in almost a whisper, barely audible above the party music and Pinkie's laughter. "Hello... So, um, your name is Fluttershy?" It was too awkward by now, no way of resurrecting this chat on a normal level. "Yes..." "Do names have such a large impact on ponies around here?" I chuckled slightly, trying to improve the mood. She didn't answer, instead she kicked at the ground with her hoof and looked at, what must have been, one hell of an interesting stain on the wall. "Well, what do you do around here?" Awkward... "I... um... Take care of animals..." She switched from the stain to a broken tile on the floor. "Like a veterinarian? That's cool, I guess... I have a dog at home, he used to get pretty sick sometimes." I was about to buy a tombstone and a coffin for this conversation by now. But... "Oh my, poor thing, what happened to him?" Fluttershy seemed to gain interest as soon as my dog came into play, animal lover perhaps? Anyway, for the first time she actually looked up from the floor and at me. "Well, I'm not sure... Doctors said that he had some sort of eating disorder or something... They gave him a shot and he eventually got better though." I smiled, proud of my social skills... Don't laugh... "Shot?" Fluttershy blinked, confused. "Yeah, it's like an injection or something, he got one and he suddenly started to feel better." Fluttershy was intrigued by my dog's multiple adventurous trips to the vet, so much in fact, that I was simply unable to switch the topic! She rambled on and on about the multiple herbs and plants she used to heal her animals, or as she put it, 'woodland friends' it seemed like taken out of a children's story, snow white perhaps? Anyway, the chatter continued for what seemed like forever, after I ran out of medical knowledge, Fluttershy made sure to fill me in on the latest medicinal advances for squirrel neuromusculoskeletal disorders, as well as a fully detailed and rather graphic explanation about the proper way of cleaning a rabbit's... You don't wanna know... Long story short, I lost my appetite! "Um... Fluttershy?" I asked, wide eyed and completely traumatized. "Yes Iron?" She stopped her rambling and looked at me with a smile. "I think the kids are kind of in need of me... Or something... You wouldn't mind if I..." "Oh, no, of course not Iron, please go ahead." Fluttershy smiled and turned towards the punch table. Feeling sorry for cutting the talk in half, I did something I might have come to regret in the future. "Hey Fluttershy?" I asked before she left. "Yes Iron?" She turned around again, the same smile on her face. "We'll continue this conversation later ok?" I smiled and made a thumbs up, because why not? "Sure thing!" Fluttershy smiled wider and left. I turned towards the kids, sighing. The next time we meet I better be able to bring out a topic that wont give me nightmares... As the party progressed into the evening I started to feel Twilight's spell fading from my legs, exhaustion settling in and the weight on my eyelids suddenly became a heavy burden, the Ectorius, Aquilder and Esperanza were fast asleep by now, all cuddled on top of the bed. The music had stopped playing, the punch bowl was dry and the cake rested inside our stomachs, all in all, it had been one hell of a party. Story time! "Wait, so a giant bear from outer space simply walked into town, started destroying everything, and Twilight just sent it to sleep?." I said from the floor, when the spell started to wear off, I sat on the floor and soon, five tired ponies followed suit. We were all sitting on a circle, sharing stories, jokes and funny anecdotes. Well, they were. After a few attempts at trying my jokes on them, I found out that they were too innocent for the crude ones, didn't know much about people for the racist ones, they had never heard of human religions so religious jokes were out as well, and politicians were actually honest in this place?!? What?! That was like half of my comedic material! So I just settled down and listened to their stories, apparently, Applejack was an apple farmer, no shit! Fluttershy cared for animals but was unemployed otherwise, Twilight ran a library, no surprises there, Pinkie Pie worked at a bakery and Rarity had her boutique. "Yup, she sure did! An we sure are happy that his mother never did come looking for him either!" Applejack gave Twilight a playful nudge on the shoulder, to which Twilight modestly answered. "Oh, it wasn't that much of a big deal... I'm sure anypony would have done the same..." "Oh dear, please! You saw us running away, utterly terrified of that dreadful Ursa minor!" Rarity dramatically moved her hooves and pretended to faint. "Yes Twilight, If it hadn't been for you, Ponyville wouldn't be here anymore..." Fluttershy added in her quiet tone. "Hey Iron! Why don't you tell us one of your mighty-super-duper-extra-adventurous adventures!" Pinkie exclaimed happily as she, somehow, bounced up and down without moving her legs or body in the slightest. "Yeah, you've been awful quiet Iron! Tell us a story!" Applejack looked at me and adjusted her hat. All other ponies moved their eyes to me, expecting a super tale of awesomeness. Too bad, my life was boring as hell... "Um... Well, there was that one time when... No that isn't funny... Oh! I know how about when I... No, that wasn't legal..." I scratched my head, looking for something to share. In the end, I decided to go with the one thing that changed my life entirely. The reason I had to abandon my city. "Well, Ok, I've got one..." I leaned forward and signaled for them to get closer. All five ponies moved in, closing the circle, ten pairs of ears perked up to listen better. "Well, as you all know, I'm not from Equestria..." I started, but... "Are you from Candyland?" Pinkie Pie smiled widely. "Yes-wait what? No, I'm not from Candyland Pinkie." I looked at the pink pony with a smile and an arched eyebrow. "Okie-dokie-loki!" She never lost her cheerful mood, I'll give her that much. "Well, as I was saying..." I cleared my throat and continued. "I come from another world, universe thingy. Where there is a city in the middle of the desert." Twilight pulled out a notebook and started to take notes, Rarity straightened her mane without looking away from me, and Applejack was munching on an apple as if it were popcorn. Pinkie was standing upside down, munching on bite size cupcakes. "In this city there was a president, he was a very powerful man, didn't take orders from anyone, but he also never took advice from anyone, he had gone as far as to ignore his advisers and his own people..." "What's a pressdent?" Applejack raised her hoof into the air like a little schoolgirl, the sight of it almost made me smile. "A president is an elected leader, chosen by the people of a country for a period of time, after which he steps down from office and a new president is chosen." I explained, but Applejack only seemed confused, before she could ask anything though, Twilight interrupted. "You choose your leaders?" She scribbled something down on her notebook, and looked up at me. "Yes, I lived in a republic, back at home, the citizens of our country would choose one candidate that was running for president and vote for him, then the votes would be counted and the winner became president." "So, it was like a contest?" Now it was Rarity who asked. "Sort of, more like a popularity thing, they promised things and whoever promised the best things and made the other candidates look bad was usually the winner." I was getting off topic, but they seemed so ignorant of the elements of a democracy that it was intriguing to see how they would react. Twilight picked up her notebook again and continued to write, Rarity and Applejack settled down and listened, Pinkie Pie was laying flat on her belly, looking intently at the wall. "Anyway, so the president of the city started to ignore his people, they started to grow hungry and the public services were scarcely reaching the poorest among the populace, corruption among the leaders was also very common and the people were angry at the government. So a man from one of the most affected slums in the..." Interruption time is fun time! Presented by Rarity! "Whatever is a slum dear?" She arched an eyebrow curiously. "It's like a part of a city that is in very bad condition, and it's usually inhabited by poor people, there's diseases, crime, and the whole place is dirty and most buildings are in very bad shape." Once again I explained, and once again I was getting off topic. "Why, that sounds dreadful!" Rarity seemed shocked at the prospect, which in turn shocked me. "Don't you ponies have this kind of problems here in Equestria?" Now it was my turn to ask the questions, and Twilight's turn to answer them. "Not since the Windigos were defeated by the fire of friendship." Twilight looked up from her notebook. "Is your city not aware of the power of friendship?" "I, uhm... I don't think I've ever heard of a windigo... Anyway, back to the story. So this guy rises from the lowest of the lowest, and he makes several friends among the people, after a few years, he gathers a small army and attacks a military outpost outside the city, takes hundreds of weapons and vehicles and runs off into the desert." "Why'd he do that for?" Applejack tilted her head to the side. "Couldn't he just send a letter to his Prince-err, pressdent?" "Yes, why do something like that when he could just ask politely to be taken into consideration?" Twilight stopped writing once again and looked at me. "Well, he wanted to overthrow the president and rule the country himself, so he took his army and started to attack military places outside the city. The people inside the slums saw him as a hero, so his army kept on getting bigger and bigger until he finally attacked a heavily fortified prison inside the city, he freed the captives and gave them weapons, and that's when my dad decided to leave the country, it had become to dangerous for us, so we moved to a neighboring nation until the rebels were defeated." I finished my tale, slightly out of breath, I said the last part of it as fast as I could to avoid interruptions. The ponies let out a collective 'wow' before finally standing up. "Well, it has been a marvelous party, you've certainly outdone yourself Pinkie Pie! But I'm afraid I must say good bye, I left Sweetie Belle alone and I'm afraid she might burn down the house!" Rarity placed her hoof to her heart, feigning a heart attack. "Yeah, well Ah've sure enjoyed mahself today, but Big Mac's got a couple carts o' apples he'll want inside the barn before morning so Ah better get going. It's been mighty fun hanging out with you Iron, hope we can do it again!" Applejack said before turning around, but before she could leave I stopped her. "Wait, Applejack, remember that I told you that I wanted to make a peace offering? For the whole yesterday thing?" I said quickly, the ponies seemed to get slightly uncomfortable at my words, I think I saw a hint of... was it guilt? In Twilight's eyes? "Uhm... What kind of peace offering?" Fluttershy asked from behind her mane. "Well," I stroked my chin in a thoughtful manner, although I already knew what I was going to say. "You see, I named my daughter Esperanza, which,, in my native tongue, means hope." "That's beautiful Iron." Twilight said smiling. "Yuppity! Its pretty pretty!" Pinkie Pie kept on hopping. "Yeah, well, you see, the thing is, since it kind of symbolizes my hope for a new beginning in this town, and you guys are the one's who have welcomed me into it, I guess it's kind of appropriate that you gave her a first name." I smiled, this was probably one of the greatest honors a father could offer a friend of his, to let them name his daughter. "Wait, but wasn't Spranza her first name?" Applejack asked confused. "I'm going to give it to her as her second, and since you guys are my first friends in this place, despite our little incident, I think it's kind of a necessary thing that you name her. That is, if you want to..." "It's... Wow... Iron I... I don't know what to say, I mean, I'm honored but, are you sure? After all we did to you?" Twilight seemed rather shocked, I mean it was a pretty big deal, but not that big! She seemed to be on the verge of tears, as if there was something she did that truly injured me. Aside from the whole ribs and imprisonment thing of course... This was getting weird, they were hiding something, this whole theatrics they were doing over a gesture such as a name was getting ridiculously sentimental, Fluttershy was wiping away tears by now... There was something they weren't saying, had they done more injury to me than I was aware? Or was it just their innocence that amplified the previous incident to a whole new level? Shaking the thoughts off my head I decided to trust them, after all, I still needed their help to accommodate myself into pony society, if I wanted my kids to have a future, then I needed to be, at least, accepted into town without sounding the alarm, and the five ponies before me where my best shot at that. "Well, I..." Twilight smiled and wiped away a few tears from her eyes. "How about Lightshine?" I grinned and the other ponies nodded their approval. "Lightshine Esperanza, sounds perfect! Thanks Twilight." "Heh, what are friends for?" She smiled and then they said their goodbyes and left, leaving me alone in the room with three snoring babies. Laying down on my bed beside the children, I pondered about the past events. They were hiding something, no one breaks into weeping just because they get to pick a name... Or do they? Are ponies that susceptible to emotions? Meh, who knows... It didn't matter anyway, my problems were almost solved! All I needed now was a good paying job, and a place to live and voila! Life secured! Grinning widely, I settled down to sleep, the warmth of the kids beside me gave me a sense of peace, and calm that I had not felt for a long time, not since the times when, as a kid, I would jump into my parents bed after having a nightmare and they'd let me sleep with them. It was comforting to be able to lay down and sleep like this, I almost wished daylight wouldn't come.