Prior Note: I had half of this chapter written before I uploaded the prior one, and decided to get them both out today. As usual, if you see any mistakes, tell me.
Chapter 10: Caught between a mare and a dragoness
Pinkie Pie’s ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ parties were, as everypony knew, always planned so the guest or guests of honour were caught off guard and surprised by them... in the case of Ponyville’s new resident dragons, being called caught off guard and surprised would have been an understatement so dire it could’ve freed Discord.
Ember took it the easiest. She simply jumped in fright at the word ‘SURPRISE’, reared up on her hind legs, and after a teetering moment fell over backwards on top of Spike, the two going into a burst of laughter when they realized what had happened, and the energetic pink host happily joining in for no apparent reason. Twilight thankfully caught the apple pie with her magic before it joined them on the floor, smirked, and rolled her eyes at the behaviour.
Spyro, on the other hoof yelped, flared his wings, and jumped a meter or so in the air. Upon landing again, he looked like he been scared out of his purple scales, and had just come very close to having a major heart attack, much to the apparent mirth of the various ponies in the room.
Cynder, being the last in and last to realize what was going on, and as one would imagine, took it in the worst possible and imaginable way; her fighting instincts immediately took over as her eyes were filled with a swarm colourful ponies, and a heartbeat later her maw snapped open, sending a blast of red energy arching across the room. Everypony rapidly yelped and ducked in cover as it sailed over them, before striking yet another shelf of one of Twilight’s literature filled bookcases, and caused half a dozen books to explode in a shower of pages and coveres.
Cynder, when her heart rate finally slowed down a little so she saw what actually was happening, and upon seeing both Spyro and Ember glaring at her, let out an embarrassed “oops” as she played with her claws.
“That was fun, Cynder!” Applebloom giggled as she slid down from shocked dragoness’s back, oblivious to her former dark scaled mount's current distressed state; the filly was instead grinning from ear to ear as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle trotting over the join her in the doorway. “Ya gotta let me do that again sometime!”
“Yeah! Can we do that some time too Cynder?” Scootaloo asked, giving the dragoness a beaming smile. “Maybe we can earn dragon tamer cutie marks!”
“I don’t think that would work,” Sweetie Belle giggled. “I’m pretty sure we tried that with Spike… and Cynder’s already pretty tame; we’d be better off trying to get dragon rider cutie marks!”
Scootaloo and Applebloom’s eyes, in Cynder’s opinion, widened to an almost unnatural size. “That would be an awesome cutie mark!” The orange filly giggled with excitement. “Can we Cynder? Pllllleeeeaaaasssse?”
“Umm…” the violet dragoness started, taking a nervous step back from the three.
“Hiya! Did I surprise you three? Did I? Did I?” Pinkie Pie asked, her face and rather large blue eyes uncomfortably close to the three somewhat stunned dragons’ own. “I’ll take that silence as a yes; I mean, this WAS supposed to a surprise party after all, so it MUST have surprised you! Otherwise it’d just be a normal party…or a not-so-surprise-surprise-party… anyway, surprise or no surprise, welcome to your party! Now come with me, there are ponies I want you to meet.”
With that, and without the three dragons being able to say a word in either response or protest, Pinkie Pie forcefully began the traditional party meet and greet with everypony present, dragging the three around the room, and introducing Ember, Cynder, and Spyro to the local ponies individually; it wasn’t exactly easy, given only a day ago, these ponies had been avoiding them like they carried the pony plague, and given Cynder’s actions, they still seemed uneasy.
Spike shrugged towards Twilight and Applejack, before happily deciding to tag along for the Pinkie driven ride, being Ember’s 'coltfriend' and all, and hence leaving the two mares to their other friends, food, drinks, and their own devices.
Within an hour most of the various ponies' unease had melted away, and Ember and Spyro quickly finding themselves enjoying the celebratory atmosphere as well as the immense amount of food on hoof. Despite her general hatred of all things crowds, introductions, and sweets, even Cynder’s snarky mood lightened a little as well.
If it was real change, or just a well-practised façade, however, Spike wasn’t completely sure, even after an hour or so of observing the violet dragoness.
All of his prior joviality dimmed substantially, however, when Pinkie moved them on from meeting Rose, Daisy, and Lilly, and decided, somewhat without thinking of future consequences, to introduce the three to a pair of white unicorns who were chatting the corner. One happened to be the local rave lover and party DJ Vinyl Scratch, and the other was none other than his former crush, Rarity.
“Celestia help me,” Spike thought warily as Pinkie Pie the led four, unintentionally of course, towards his most certain impending doom. “This is gonna be interesting.”
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Spike knew he hadn’t yet told Rarity about him and Ember yet, but given what had happened with the other dragons on the migration, the chances of her being readily accepting were... virtually zero to none.
Staying as close to Ember as possible, should something go wrong, Spike followed the bouncing pink earth pony up to the two unicorn mares, who immediately stopped their prior conversation when they registered the five new presences in their vicinity.
Vinyl, for her part, just grinned enthusiastically and lifted her signature shades from her bright red eyes, Rarity, however, remained fairly much blank faced other then, Spike swore, an unusual but somewhat understandable small scowl.
“So you’re the three who’ve been causing the ruckus round town huh? Hehe, probably better that it’s you guys instead of me and my equipment for once,” Vinyl chuckled, taking a step forward and gazing over the three newly acquainted dragons before her. “Name's Vinyl Scratch, I’m the local DJ, bass expert, and window shattering professional around these parts… well, really the last parts mainly my stuff.”
“And I am Rarity, seamstress, fashion extraordinaire, and owner of Carousel Boutique,” said Rarity with an elegant flick of her purple mane, putting on the most regal voice she possibly could. “So, darlings, what are your names?”
Spyro, after taking a moment of silence, and quick look at his three companions, stepped forward and took the initiative. “Nice to meet you both, I’m Spyro,” he said politely with a small incline of his golden horns. “And this is my mate Cynder, and my friend Ember.”
Rarity’s eye twitched when she heard Ember’s name, and then again as she grudgingly glanced down at the smiling pink dragon, although she was thankful that her mane kept the unladylike action well hidden.
She was, admittedly, more than a little surprised to learn which one Ember was, and even more surprised about her appearance; the dragons she had encountered before had all been ruffians, and nothing more, little better than the brutish diamond dogs who had kidnapped her in both demeanour, presentation, and especially hygiene... but the dragoness before her was the greatest possible opposite of said descriptions.
Her eyes were like two large baby blue sapphires, her scales were a shade of pink that matched a certain pink party host exactly, and her horn’s almost looked to be made from bronze or gold. She wasn’t slim and streamlined like Cynder was, but nor could she be said to look excessively bulky either, it was almost like Ember, apparently without even trying, had captured the figure mares like Rarity had always been searching for. Plus, if the simple, but elegant heart necklace she wore around her neck meant anything, this particular dragoness had a good taste for fashion as well.
As much as she loathed both the dragoness, and the very thought, Rarity silently had to give it to Spike that despite his lack of dating experience, he certainly knew how to pick his partners.
“Heh, wow, you three are like three totally different tunes,” Vinyl chuckled. “Ember, you’re really cute, Spyro, you seem pretty cool, and Cynder… you’re just all kinds of badflank.”
“Vinyl!” Rarity snorted in disgust. “language please!”
“And what’s wrong with my flank?” the violet dragoness hissed with an arched eyebrow, taking a look back at her hips, her action though only causing the DJ’s grin to widen, and Spyro to blush and chuckle behind a concealing claw.
“Nah, not literally like that, it’s pony for being a ‘don’t buck with me’ type individual,” she snickered with a shake of her lightning blue mane. “By the way, love the colour scheme and the bling you got going on… makes you look like one of those head-bangers I met in Fillydelphia.”
Cynder turned back and regarded the DJ oddly. “Uh… thanks… I think.”
Unbeknown to conversing group, they and their every action, and Rarity’s in particular, were being watched through the pony crowd from across the small room, mainly so that in the event of things going downhill an intervention could and would be quick.
Next to the now resealed doorway stood the combination of Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow, and Fluttershy, three of the four mares watching the conversation intently, while Dash was content to simply tune in and out between stuffing her face with party food.
Said three observers were all silently praying to Celestia nothing went wrong, and their alabaster friend didn’t suddenly snap, which luckily, so far was an event which hadn’t occurred.
So far nothing obvious had gone wrong, and that fact, given what had transpired when Rarity had been told, was currently making Applejack extremely nervous; Rarity was her usual well behaved and ladylike self, and didn’t seem in the slightest bothered by Ember being near her, a far contrast to the jealous, raging, tea cup throwing, violent oath swearing unicorn she had been the night prior.
“So she really took it that bad?” Twilight asked sheepishly as she turned to Applejack. “You don’t think she maybe just… got over it, do you?”
The farm pony simply sighed and shook her head, her eyes returning to Rarity before she answered. “I can't honestly say; she seems to me to be back to her usual fine and dandy self… but something just don’t feel right.”
“Y-you don’t think she’d… h-hurt Ember do you?” Fluttershy asked, her question drawing a snort and another head shake from Applejack, this one however showing far more agitation, and causing the pegasus to let out a small ‘eep’.
“I don’t think so, ‘cause I told her plain and simple last night that if she did… boy howdy she’d be regretting it pretty quickly.”
What exactly that meant, Twilight wasn’t sure, and judging by her rather uncomfortable expression, it was clear she didn’t want to know either.
Rainbow Dash, however, wasn’t Twilight, and had for the last half an hour been wondering what the hay it was three mares were going on about; she hadn’t been able to gain a clear understanding as of yet, all she had gathered so far was that it concerned Rarity, Spike, and Ember, and her urge to be in the loop suddenly and catastrophically overcame her.
“Wat ar yu al talkin abrout?” Dash asked with a mouth full of chocolate cake, hovering directly above Twilight’s head and showering the unlucky unicorn with crumbs, much to her annoyance. “Com on, spil it alredy.”
The three mares looked uneasily between each other, and then at the small conversing group across the room, where thankfully Rarity was still apparently herself; all the while Dash hovered there, and glared at them with bulging cheeks, her front hooves crossed in expectance of an answer for one of her friends. Eventually, it was Applejack who broke first, the farm pony chewing her lip nervously for a moment before answering her cyan pegasus friend in a volume close to a whisper, Rainbow’s magenta eyes staring daggers of suspicion straight at her.
“Well… Ya see sugercube… we’re all talking ‘bout a bit of situation we have on our hooves. Now whatever ya do, don’t go yelling nothing out… but, as it is now, Spike and Ember are dating.”
“SPI-MMF!” Dash started, her rather loud voice suddenly being cut off, as Twilight drew a magic zipper across her mouth, momentarily silencing the pegasus pony while the three mares collectively glared her into submission.
“As I was saying,” Applejack continued as Dash unzipped her maw, clearly unimpressed. “Spike and Ember are going out, and right now we’re discussing how Rarity’s taking it.”
Gingerly, Dash landed, cast an eye over her shoulder, and flicked her ears back. “She seems to be taking it alright to me… why would she be so against them anyway? No offense to the little guy, but It’s not like Rarity ever took any real interest in Spike.”
“That’s just it Rainbow, she took it about as bad as a pony could when I told her last night, so with her acting all calm and composed… I just got the feeling something’s up,” AJ snorted in distaste, her front hoof pawing at the floor in annoyance without her being aware. “Uh, anyhow, listen here good and proper Dash, this stays between them and us, you don’t go telling anypony ‘bout any of this okay… especially Pinkie Pie.”
“What can’t Rainbow Dash tell me about?”
Nopony knew how she did it, and both Applejack and Twilight doubted anypony ever would at that, but upon the mentioning of her name, Pinkie Pie seemed to pop into existence next to Fluttershy purely out of thin air.
As could be expected, Fluttershy let out another fearful ‘eep’, and jumped behind Applejack with frightening speed, who groaned and face-hoofed whilst the bubbly pink mare went into a fit of giggles, prompting everypony in the immediate area to cease their conversations and look at the group of mares; there was only one exception in existence to the laws of reality, and that as everypony knew was Pinkie.
“Pinkie Pie… a second ago ya’ll were on the other side of the darn room, how did you… you know what, just forget it, ah’m done thinking about how you do things.”
“Agreed.” Twilight sighed, adding her own face-hoof to the mix.
“Ok!” the candy-floss maned mare smiled as she regained herself. “Anyway… what’s the super secretive super-secret Dashie’s supposed to keep secret from me?” she asked, her muzzle pressed uncomfortably close to Applejack’s own, as a set of abnormally wide blue eyes drilled into the amber mare’s own green ones.
Applejack though maintained her nerve and shook her head. “Nu-uh, sorry Pinkie, but there are things it’s best that you don’t know.”
There were very, VERY few things that could make Applejack even come close to going back on her word; as the Element of Honesty, her word was an oath in its own right, a swearing that she would uphold to the best of her ability. However, if there was one thing that could make anypony, including Applejack, teeter on the very edge of breaking such a vow, it was the sight of Pinkie’s puffy mane dropping and her bright blue eyes filling with tears, which as soon as the amber pony finished speaking happened.
“But… but… but…” the pink mare whimpered softly as her lip quivered and she cried, the sight causing the farm pony’s insides to curl up, and for her to bite down on her lip in an effort to control her tongue.
Somehow, by the grace of Celestia, and the strength of her mental resistance, Applejack managed to maintain control of herself for the few agonizing moments, despite the waterworks put on by Pinkie Pie. Finally, the amber mare quietly sighed in relief, and wiped a drop of sweat from her brow as the party pony at last broke eye contact with her, and then turned to Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow, regrettably, didn’t last longer than ten seconds.
“GRRR! Pinkie!” Dash snorted, the watery blue eyes of her best friend tearing down the wall her mind had put in front of her tongue. “Alright, fine, Spike and Ember are going out! You happy?!”
“RAINBOW!” Twilight and Applejack snorted in unison.
The deed, however, was already far done and beyond changing.
Within a bare second, Pinkie’s mane was back up to its usual cotton candy fluffy self, and her eyes were no longer watering... but rather had widened to an incredible and usually unbelievable size, and her jaw had dropped to the point of almost meeting the wooden floor.
“OHMYGOSH! OHMYGOSH! OHMYGOSH! OHMYGOSH!”
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“…So, basically, we’re stuck here for the time being,” Spyro ended with a shrug and a blank expression, the two mares in front of him looking between each other, and then dragons before them, as their minds processed and made sense of Spyro’s tale of how they had ended up in Equestria.
“Sheesh, that really blows horn for you three huh?” Vinyl sighed at last with a sad shake of her head, the DJ’s usual hype all but deflated by the dragon’s rather depressing story. “Well, no matter what happens, you got friends like us here in Ponyville who’ll watch out for ya, so I’m pretty sure you three will be fine once you’re all settled in… ain’t that right, Rarity?”
Rarity didn’t answer, nor did she berate Vinyl on her language as she had done earlier; she couldn’t, not in the twisting and turning state her mind was in. Right now, her emotions were fighting each other for dominance like Timberwolves for the rank of alpha, and her thoughts were scattered around her brain like confetti fired from Pinkie’s party cannon.
Up until now, she had hated Ember with just about every fibre of her being, and would have enjoyed nothing more than frankly shoving the dragoness in a box like she did her finished dresses, and shipping her as far from Ponyville as possible.
Now though, she felt, despite her utter hatred of the concept, some level of sympathy for the bright pink dragoness; she was stuck in a totally different world then her own, one where her kind were commonly feared, with as of yet no possible way to get home... and here was Spike, being the young knight in shining armor he likened himself to, honourably standing at her side as she braved this new world.
A faint, but obvious smile spread across Rarity’s muzzle. “Yes, of cour…”
“OHMYGOSH! OHMYGOSH! OHMYGOSH! OHMYGOSH!”
The sudden, and rather loud in Spike’s opinion, voice of Pinkie Pie rudely silenced the white mare there and then.
The conversing group, along with a slightly annoyed crowd of everypony else in the room, quickly turned to see what the fuss was all about, and their eyes were greeted by a most unusual sight.
Pinkie Pie was known to be somewhat ‘out there’ when it came to what she did at parties, as pretty much everypony in Ponyville had witnessed firsthoof, and the present moment was a perfect example of such behaviour; the pink mare was standing on a somewhat conveniently placed table, leaning directly over Ember and himself with hoof on their of their heads, and smiling down at them like somepony had given her a whole thermos of coffee, everypony in the room staring straight at her.
“Soooo, is it true? Are you two really special somedragons? Cause if it’s true and you really are, this isn’t just a surprise party! It’s a We-surprised-you-with-a-party-and-you-surprised-us-by-falling-in-love party! Wait… isn’t that just a different type of combined surprise party?”
Both dragons’ cheek scales immediately flared crimson, as not only Rarity and Vinyl’s eyes fell questioningly on them, but also those of all the other guests in the room who had formerly been looking at Pinkie. The situation before Spike was one of total and utter doom in all directions; here he was, standing before both his former crush, and current fillyfriend, with an entire crowd of ponies watching on from the sidelines, and being asked to answer a question on a fact he would’ve much preferred to have kept secret.
Best option when under pressure, tell the truth.
“Well…” he said somewhat nervously, scratching his green spines with one of his talons. “…Yeah.”
What followed his answer was a reactive blush from Ember, a rather loud squeal of delight from Pinkie Pie, a chorus of wolf whistles, cheers, and alike from everypony else, and slight snort from Rarity... though she made it barely audible so it went unheard.
All prior level of tolerance for the dragoness was gone in a bare instant. The white unicorn had made up her mind, there was only room for one lady in Spike’s life, and come Tartarus she would make sure it wouldn’t be Ember.
Then, however, there was another abrupt sound that filled the library, one which virtually shattered the calm atmosphere like a blast from Pinkie’s party cannon did silence.
Said sound being an extremely loud wooden crash, followed by the clang of metal armour, and a collective yelp from the pony crowd as they ducked in cover.
“Hmmm… that’s weird,” Pinkie said oddly to herself, her head swivelling around on an angle that would’ve been impossible for anypony else. “I don’t remember inviting any royal guards.”
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Notes:
Cynder, Spyro and Ember vs royal guard… take cover! shit storm incoming! Anyway, the questions you’re most likely wondering will be answered in next chapter.