My little hunter : Companionship is magic

by ~Meteorimpact/Monster Hunter Brony

chapter 2 : New friends

version 1.2

Special thanks to Onej6 for helping me fix some grammatical mistakes.

A week passed since Ponyville witnessed weird magical activities coming from the Everfree forest. Twilight Sparkle tried to lead a search party with her best friends to discover the source, yet all she could find was a huge dome of magical ice, too thick to see trough it. She did send a letter to Celestia to inquire about it, but the reply told her not to worry, and that the situation was under control. After a few days passed, she chose to stop thinking about it and go back to her normal activities, until today. At dawn her sleep was suddenly interrupted by the sound of Spike coughing, then burping a letter from Celestia.

"Ugh, my head... I guess I went to sleep too late yesterday." Still a bit drowsy, she slowly got off her bed, then looked at the still sleeping Spike, a roll of parchment rolling away and back at him every time he snored. This scene brought a smile to the unicorn's face. "I wonder what is going on, it's unusual of the Princess to send her letters this early in the morning." She stifled a yawn, and proceeded to take the parchment and read it. After a few seconds of running trough the royal letter, her eyes grew wide in surprise. Immediately awake after reading the letter, Twilight grabbed her saddlebags. She rushed to her mirror to fix her bed-mane. Pleased with the result, she quickly trotted over to spike, where she unmerciful brought the dragon out of his slumber.

The baby dragon jumped out of his bed out of surprise and accidentally bumped the bookcase he was sleeping under making all the books in it fall on him.

"Spike stop fooling around we are in a hurry!" The purple unicorn stated impatiently.

"Geez Twilight, what's the hurry?" Spike emerged from under the book pile. "Did Pinkie Pie play with fireworks and set Sugarcube Corner on fire... Again?"

"More urgent, Celestia wants us at Canterlot as soon as we can and I need to contact everyone else! Let's head to Rainbow Dash's place first, she will be able to reach Sweet apple acres way faster than anypony else to get Applejack. Now stop playing with these books and let's go!"

"So, what's the big fuss about sugarcube, Ah barely had 'nough time to finish mah mornin' chores when Dash came crashin' in the barn." Said a strong looking orange mare, her mane covered with a stetson hat and her flank harboring a cutie mark consisting of 3 small apples.

"Hey I didn't crash in your barn, I just landed loudly." The one who replied was a cyan colored pegasus with a rainbow colored mane, obviously not wanting to swallow her pride and admit her mistake.

"If that was a proper landin' then Ah don't wanna see what a bad landin' is. Can't you just admit you failed one of yer new tricks?"

"What?! I never fail my tricks... Except when I don't succeed! I'll let you know that-"

"GIRLS! Now is not the time to argue." Twilight Sparkle intervened and tried to stop the fight that was about to start. "And to answer your question Applejack, I recieved a letter from Celestia this morning, asking all of us to meet her in Canterlot. This gotta be important!"

"It's probably nothing to worry about, as usual," Said the little dragon. " you know how Twilight tends to overreact whenever the Princess is involved?"

"Spike! I'll let you know I never overreact!" All six of her traveling companions raised an eyebrow in disbelief." Ok, maybe 'sometimes' I overreact, but now I'm pretty sure it's important."

"Maybe she is throwing a party? You know like a it's-been-one-week-since-mysterious-lights-appeared-around-Ponyville-party? Oh! Oh! Oh! I bet there will be a gigantic cake, and games! And then-Mfmmmlfmfll!" The excited pink party pony was suddenly interrupted by a white hoof on the mouth belonging to none other than Rarity, the unicorn dress designer.

"Pinky, Please! Allow Twilight to talk, I'm sorry darling but if we want to know what's going on we need to hear what the letter said. Now if you may, Twilight, would you be a dear and read the letter aloud?"

I need to inform you about the recent magical activities in the region of Ponyville. I will answer all the questions you have about the phenomenon, but I need your help with a particular task. We now have a newcomer to Ponyville, and I would like you and your friends to meet him. His situation is a bit special and I will need to give you more details personally, but the task ahead will basically consist in helping him settle in Ponyville and teaching him some of your lessons in the magic of friendship. I would like him to also meet the other elements of harmony to help him make some friends from the get go.

"Um... Well... The situation doesn't seem that bad... I mean, all we know is that we will meet a new pony... I'm pretty sure it will even be... Nice..." Fluttershy was about to say something else but a pink streak popped right in front of her, happily bouncing around.

"How great! there will be a new pony in town, then it means I need to prepare a welcome-to-Ponyville-party! I need to start baking a cake and cupcakes! Do you think he likes chocolate? Or maybe strawberries! I love strawberries, because sweets made out of them comes out pink and pink is my favorite color! I wonder what he will look like, is he a farmer? A craftpony? Oh maybe he is a-Mphmhphmh!" Rarity sighed as once again she held her hoof over Pinkie's mouth.

"Pinkie, darling, you need to show a bit more patience, we are arriving in Canterlot soon enough, you will be able to get all the answers you seek there. And I'm pretty sure you can wait until we are done with this meeting before heading to your ovens, the day is still young."

The seven friends finally reached the castle, at their arrival a guard who was tasked in welcoming them lead the way to the throne room. After all of them entered the meeting place, the guard stepped back and closed the door behind him, making sure they were left alone with both princesses. Celestia was comfortably sitting in her throne, her grace reflecting onto the golden structure, on her left, the younger princess, Luna, stood solemnly bearing a gentle smile. To Celestia's right tough, a young stallion was standing with a bit of a nervous look. He was probably two or three years older than Twilight, she guessed he was the pony who was going to be brought back to Ponyville. The colt had a red earth colored coat, his mane was long and had the same color as dark chocolate. Yet, the earth pony had one strange feature, even tough he was clearly a young adult, he didn't have a cutie mark, how could this be? Was he as oblivious as the cutie mark crusaders about his own special talent? Now standing in front of the throne, the six mares and the baby dragon kneeled down, bowing their head. The princess of the sun spoke:

"Now, now, everypony, you don't have to act so formal, after all we are alone in this room, I think we can allow ourselves to act a bit more familiar, Just like that one time at the doughnut shop after last grand galloping gala. I'm guessing Twilight briefed you all on the letter I sent, right?" The group all nodded at once."Good, I'll start with the introductions right away then, Clay if you please, take a step forward and introduce yourself."

The stallion obliged and started eyeing all the ponies in front of him, he already heard from the princesses that these ponies were special, they were the representatives of the elements of harmony, those who defeated an evil being known as Nightmare Moon. As he now stood before all of them he felt a bit overwhelmed by their presence, they were emanating some sort of invisible power, as if their very being could match Celestia's majesty.After taking a deep breath he finally opened his mouth. "Hello everybody... Err I mean everypony, my name is Clay. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, I want to thank you all in advance for your assistance in my adaptation to Ponyville lifestyle and I hope I'm not going to give you all too much troubles."

"Well, you sure are the polite pony, you can call me Rarity, it's my pleasure to meet such a well behaved stallion."

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia’s student from the school of gifted unicorns. Pleased to meet you."

"Hey there! My name in Pinkamena Diane Pie but I don't like my full name so I ask everypony to call me Pinkie Pie, I love to party and to make everyone happy, being happy is a good thing, because no one enjoys being sad, well maybe there is somepony out there who likes to be sad but I'm sure it's only because they never had the chance to attend my parties. Oh by the way do you like chocolate?" Clay took a step back completely startled by the Pink pony who had her face less than an inch away from his. Her eyes were blinking expectantly as he could barely answer the last question.

Now with a puzzled look, all he could reply was "What is chocolate?" At this question Pinkie's face switched from overly happy to an expression of horror as she came to realize the colt never ate chocolate before. Her coat became a bit darker and her poofy hair suddenly deflated in a cascade of long straight hair. After a few seconds tough her colors and mane returned to normal as a conspiratory grin crept on her face, she had something in mind and Clay wasn't sure he wanted to know what it was.

Then, a reassuring hoof firmly landed on his shoulder. "Don't you worry sugarcube, this reaction of yours is completely normal, Heck Ah'm pretty sure Ah had the same face as you do right now when Ah first met Pinkie. The name's Applejack, mah closest friends call me AJ. If you ever get hungry for a snack in Ponyville just look for mah stand, Ah sell the best apples in all of Equestria."

The cyan pegasus then landed right beside Applejack. "Hello there! Rainbow Dash's the name, and speed is my game! I'm the fastest flyer in all of Equestria and nopony can beat me in a race... Except Pinkie, but I never understood how she managed to do that." Her rose colored eyes briefly drifted in the pink pony's direction, then back at Clay, Rainbow dash shrugging. "All I know is that the laws of physics don't seem to apply to her." She then took a step aside to allow a little purple and emerald colored dragon to introduce himself.

"I'm Spike, Twilight's number one assistant, I do some of the chores at the library and take care of communication between Twi and the princesses." A yellow pegasus then slowly crept away from behind the five mares.

"Perfect, now I think it's time for me to explain the situation." The eldest alicorn spoke once more. "You probably all remember the magical disturbances that occurred a week ago I presume. These disturbances were caused by none other than Luna and me, we were trying to help her control a power she just discovered, and it seems like she have the ability to open portals to other worlds. In other words, Clay originate from a totally different world than ours, and he wasn't born a pony either." All guests were obviously surprised by the revelation, their eyes as wide as saucers. "Clay is the name he came up with to identify himself in Equestria, as you can guess, he named himself after his coat's color. His original species is called a human, and even tough their lifestyle is similar to ours, they are shaped completely differently. Allow me to reveal some of the images one of my agents managed to show me." Celestia's horn started to glow as a little reproduction of a village appeared in the room. The illusion was a replica of some of the memories the princess was willing to show. Everypony formed a circle around the small village and then noticed something peculiar, practically hairless monkeys were walking around between the houses, they were all wearing clothes of different color and style. Yet, contrary to common monkeys their facial traits were more defined, and they all stood straight on two legs. Some of these creatures were engaged in conversations, other drinking outside what looked like an inn, and a few different humans were walking out of the village, all clad in armor and carrying massive weapons. "As you can all see, our guest is now stuck in a body he knew nothing about prior his arrival. Gladly, he is a quick learner and he can probably take care of himself by now."

Twilight raised a hoof to draw Celestia's attention, the princess gave an approving nod. "I know this question may seem weird but, why was he transformed into a pony? I find it hard to believe it would just happen without reason."

Luna took a step forward to reply. "I can answer this question since I have been making research about it myself. I found the information in a book dating from before me or Tia were born, it was probably written by our parents or grandparents. It seems like it is a security measure they implemented in our world, apparently Clay's situation has happened before and to make sure that no dangerous being would be set free in Equestria, they infused a spell that would turn any intruders into ponies. This is also a way to prevent panic if an alien creature appeared in a crowded place, and since someone stuck in a different body than their own is easily spotted by trained eyes, the royal spies scattered in villages and cities can warn the current royalty of their presence. But now this leads us to an other problem, this magic doesn't work on creatures that are devoid of sentience or are very resistant to magic. And three powerful creatures appeared in Equestria along with our guest, our tracking equipment is in need of repairs and we only managed to find one of these beasts, yet, it easily fought off the guards that found it and they only managed to get away out of sheer luck. Since then we haven't seen the beast."

"They are very similar in appearance to dragons, but I will let you find out about it on your own since Clay will show you a dead one that was brought here with him. We will work on tracking them, the best we can to prevent useless destruction, but I can't promise anything."

The village illusion slowly faded away as the regent of the sun talked once again. "Now that you know the situation at hand, I give you all this mission: Bring Clay back with you in Ponyville, show him around and help him adapt to pony life. Twilight, I will need you to give him shelter for a while, of course I'm not asking you to share a room with him but I know the library has a room, or two that can be used underground. On our side we will keep doing researches until we can find a way to send him back where he came from. I hope you will all get along until then. I am afraid we need to cut short this meeting tough, I have to hold court in less than an hour and I have to properly prepare for it. And don't worry about money, I gave him enough bits to be able to take care of himself for a while, and thank you all for coming today."

The purple unicorn quickly bowed and replied. "It was an honor to come see you Princess, and worry not, we will do our best for our new friend over there." Then the 6 mares and dragon started heading toward the exit, leaving both celestial regents alone with the stallion.

Clay grabbed a saddle bag and before he joined the pony group, he turned around to face Celestia one last time. "I thank you as well for allowing me to stay in the palace in the past week, also to have taught me how to live with this body."

Both princesses lightly bowed. " This was a pleasure." then Luna added "I really enjoyed the memories we shared trying to understand how to operate modern stoves." both she and Clay giggled as they remembered how they stuffed logs and wood sticks inside the door of the oven. They wanted to surprise Celestia by making her some pastries, but since neither of them tried this kind of oven before, they both came to the conclusion they worked like those where, for Clay, or when, for Luna, they came from. It resulted in a kitchen set on fire and two embarrassed ponies apologizing non-stop. Celestia frowned for a second then allowed a smirk to show on her face.

"You two sure kept the royal staff busy all right, but I think it helped you realize something, my dearest sister, adaptation to a new world is the same for everypony. You have to work hard, and learn as much as you can from your mistakes. Both of you share a similar fate, and I know you both have the potential to succeed in modern Equestria, and most important of all, you probably realized you must never give up."

"I sure did!" Both Luna and Clay replied at the same time, triggering a hearty laugh from all three of the ponies.

"Well I think I have to be on my way now. If I can be of any assistance to you please let me know, nothing forced you to help me out in this situation and I am very grateful for it. I hope to see you soon." Clay then turned around and galloped toward his seven new friends.

My little hunter : Companionship is magic

by MonsterHunterBrony

Chapter 2 : New friends