“You’re lucky you found me.”
“Ugh. I know, Twilight, I know. You don’t have to keep telling me.”
This had been getting old.
Basically, after I had left Sugar Cube Corner, I started back in the direction that I thought the library was in. I was sure of it. An hour later, I wasn’t as sure as I had been. I didn’t see anything that I recognized anywhere. No landmarks, no familiar ponies, no anything helped me out.
About then I just leaned up against one of the buildings and thought about how to get back. I could just try to teleport to the library. I knew all of the things that could go wrong with that, but at the rate I was going I would never manage to get back. I filed that away as a last resort for when it was getting dark.
About the time I did that, I finally got lucky and spotted Twilight walking down the road. I didn’t want to drop my spell, so I had to get her attention in a different manner. I looked around and spotted a good-sized rock. That would do nicely. I then levitated the rock and moved it in front of Twilight. It caught her attention pretty quickly and I then levitated the rock over to myself with her following closely behind. I then grabbed the rock out of the air. It only took her a few second to understand what was happening.
“Seth! What are you doing?”
“I was out for a walk to see the town.”
“You’re invisible again.”
“I know that. I still don’t like crowds.”
“You’re never going to get anypony here used to you if all you do is hide from them. You’ve got to stop worrying so much about what others think of you.”
“I can’t help it Twilight. That kind of thinking is hard-wired into my brain. Getting past it hasn’t worked for me in the past and it certainly isn’t going to be easier here when I’m the only one of my kind. The only thing I will receive here is attention. It’s the same as Fluttershy.”
“Fluttershy comes out of her cottage to feed her animals and comes into town and nothing bad happens to her.”
“She’s not a six foot biped. I doubt Iron Will was unnoticed at any time here in Ponyville.”
As soon as I had said it, I knew it was a mistake. She furrowed her brow and I could see the gears working in her head. Finally, she asked what I knew she would ask.
“How do you know about Iron Will? None of us have mentioned him at all. He hasn’t been here for months.”
I already had an answer by the time she finished.
“I’ll tell you about that when your friends are ready for the chat later. It’s part of what the Princess asked me to talk to you all about. You’ll get your answers then.”
“Fine, but no more invisibility.”
“What? Why not?”
“Because I’m already getting some stares of my own from some of the ponies here.”
I looked around and, sure enough, a couple of ponies were starting to look at her in a funny manner.
“All right, fine. This is not going to be fun.”
A quick shimmer later and my spell dropped. A few gasps after that and now all eyes were on me. Uncomfortable was an understatement.
“Let’s hurry up and get to the library.”
“Actually, I wanted to make a quick stop at Sugar Cube Corner. I hope that’s alright with you.”
“Yeah, that sounds fine. I’m starting to wonder if I can get anywhere in this town without an escort.”
“You probably should just watch where you’re going. I’m surprised you haven’t already.”
“I’ve been a little distracted the last couple of times. Let’s just get going.”
She started to walk away and I quickly followed.
“You’re lucky that I came along or you might have not found your way back for quite a while.”
“Maybe. I bet I would have stumbled upon it at some point.”
“I doubt that. You’re almost on the edge of town right now.”
“I would have turned around if I hit the edge of town.”
She let out a contemptuous snort. It had a lot more power behind it what with her being a pony and all. I let out a smile at that.
“All I’m saying is that it was lucky you found me, and that’s all.”
“I get it, Twilight.”
Almost thirty minutes of that later, and we found ourselves in front of Sugar Cube Corner.
“It’s after hours so we should knock and let them know we’re coming in.”
Wow, that was a lame cover. Too bad I couldn’t call her on it. I do need to play along.
“Do you want me to come along? I probably should tell Pinkie that she can throw me a party now.”
I didn’t see her face, but I saw her hoof go to her face. I could almost imagine what she looked like right now. She was probably holding back her laughter right there to keep up the act.
“You know, that’s a good idea, Seth. Why don’t we do that while we’re here.”
She proceeded to knock on the door.
“Who is it?”
”It’s me, Pinkie.”
“Me, who?”
“It’s Twilight. Open up!”
“Okie dokie lokie!”
The door opened up and the two of us went inside. The place was quite dark and you couldn’t make out anything. The door then closed behind us.
It was time.
“SURPRISE!!!”
Everyone there yelled out the surprise as loud as they could. They all then looked at me. Or at least where they thought I was. As far as they could see, only Twilight Sparkle was standing in front of the door. I had quickly activated my invisibility spell and moved into the room a tad to avoid them seeing me.
“Uh, Twilight, I thought both ya’ll were uh comin’ for the party.”
“I don’t understand. Where is he? Did he not want to come to the party I threw for him?”
“Of course not,” Twilight said trying to comfort her friend. “He’s just shy. He doesn’t like being the center of attention.”
“No! I think he just hates me! He messed up my party cannon! He yelled at me while he was at your place and now he runs away from my party!”
After hearing that, I decided to walk up close to her in case something bad happened.
“Calm down, darling. I’m sure Twilight is correct,” said Rarity.
“No! He hates me! He’s just a mean grouchy pants and doesn’t deserve a party!”
I reached down and prepared to pick her up for her surprise. She seemed to be getting a little out of hand.
“Oh come now, Sugarcube, you don’t really mean that do you?”
Her mane and tail then went flat and her color dulled. She then gave Applejack a strong glare. Some wind started to pick up out of nowhere.
“I meant what I said!” she exclaimed with a bit of reverberation in her voice.
“Woah! Calm down Pinkie! You’re going kinda bonkers about this,” Rainbow Dash interrupted.
“I’m going bonkers? I’ll show you going bonkers!”
All of a sudden, Pinkie was slowly rising into the air. The wind picked up even more and Pinkie herself started to glow softly. It was a bit unnerving. All the ponies except her close friends started to back off.
“Pinkie, stop!” yelled Twilight trying to calm her friend down.
“I won’t stop! This was going to be the greatest party ever! It was going to be my best surprise party for sure! And now it’s ruined!”
“We can throw you a party instead! How about that?” asked Twilight.
“If I know, then it isn’t a surprise party! A surprise party is supposed to be surprising! Like this!”
Suddenly she breathed in heavily and grew to twice her size. Everyone was getting ready for something bad to happen. Pinkie then yelled at the top of her lungs.
“SURPRISE!!!” we both yelled as I dropped my invisibility.
Everyone jumped as we both yelled at them. Her appearance went back to normal and the wind disappeared as well.
“You should see the looks on your faces!” I exclaimed.
Several jaws started to drop.
“Were you surprised?” asked Pinkie.
A few of them just started nodding.
“I told you this would be an excellent surprise Pinkie. No one ever expects the surprise to be on the guests!”
“You were right! This was an excellent idea! This really is my best party ever!”
Rainbow Dash was the first to break the silence.
“What the hay just happened!?!”
“That’s what I want to know! I thought I was bringing him here for him to be surprised. I can’t believe you did this Pinkie.”
“And that is why you fail,” I added with a chuckle.
“So this whole shindig was you surprisin’ us?” asked Applejack.
“Of course not, silly. The two of us just came up with this a few hours ago.”
“But Pinkie,” interrupted Rarity, “you were preparing this party since yesterday. What in the name of Celestia do you mean that you came up with this a few hours ago?”
“I can shed some light on this,” I said.
“I certainly hope so,” added Rainbow Dash.
“Well, basically I stumbled upon this little surprise party a few hours ago when Pinkie and Rarity here came into here. They were talking loud enough that I managed to hear them mention a surprise party for me before she left Pinkie to go off who knows where. I was going to surprise Pinkie Pie here instead since I doubt any of you have ever really gotten the drop on her before. Unfortunately, I realized that the party wasn’t necessarily for me, so I decided to play the safe route.”
“Where were you anyway?" asked Rarity. "I certainly think I would have seen somepony like you nearby if we were talking.”
“I was invisible at that time as well. After you left, I snuck up behind Pinkie and scooped her off of her feet. It was a bit funny, but it didn’t last long as she figured out it was me rather quickly.”
“It helped that you started laughing real quickly.”
“Yes, that too. After that I asked her about the party, and after trying to hide it I told her I already knew about the party and she confessed that it was for me. She looked pretty sad that it wouldn’t be a surprise party anymore since I knew about it. That’s when I suggested that instead of surprising me, we should surprise the guests.”
“I’ve never thrown a party like that! I told him that that would be a great idea!”
“After a bit of planning and a little practice, I told her I would come back with Twilight since she was to be the one who was going to bring me here.”
“And I still say you’re incredibly lucky I found you.”
“I was expecting to get back to the library before that. I’d say it worked out nicely.”
“It just means I had to walk around an extra ten minutes in order for them to get ready.”
“Which, I might add, you spent the entirety of telling me how lucky it was for me to have found you.”
“Hold on a second!” Rainbow Dash interrupted us. “How did you do that stuff with Pinkie Pie with the wind and the voice and making her grow huge!?!”
“I didn’t do any of that. Pinkie Pie did.”
Again everyone grew silent.
“Ah beg yer pardon?” Applejack finally asked.
“Pinkie Pie is the one who actually did most of that. I was just holding her up while she did that.”
“B-but P-P-Pinkie Pie can’t use magic.”
I looked over and noticed Fluttershy for the first time. She really was pretty hard to notice.
“I wondered about that myself. I was under the impression that earth ponies couldn’t use magic either. However, Pinkie seemed to create that cannon out of nowhere. I thought that perhaps she actually could use magic. Celestia herself told me that all beings had magic within them. Unicorns and alicorns seemed to be the best at using it though. It got me to thinking. Perhaps any pony could use magic. Earth and Pegasus ponies could use magic too. They just can’t do it because they don’t have enough magic or they don’t have the required focusing medium to make it work properly.”
“But that goes against everything I’ve ever been taught in magic school!” yelled Twilight.
“Perhaps it does. However, Pinkie Pie just proved that not everything is as it seems. She is capable of using magic. She's normally just klutzy with it or it is underpowered. That is where I came in.”
I began to channel magic into my hand again while I was still holding Pinkie in the air. It started to glow like normal. Then, Pinkie then began to glow herself. A few seconds later, the wind effect began again only this time bits of confetti started to appear in the air as well.
“While I was practicing what we were going to do, I found out that by channeling my magic into her, I can actually amplify her magic.”
“It’s really fun!” added Pinkie.
“I’m willing to bet I could do that with any pony that had magic. Something to talk about later, eh Twilight?”
Twilight just looked like her brain may have broken.
“Alright, I’ll be the first to admit it,” Rainbow Dash spoke up. “That was an impressive surprise. Nice going you two.”
With that, the wind died off again and the confetti fell to the floor. I then stopped my magic and set down Pinkie.
“I’ll admit it too. That was one heckuva surprise you pulled off. Ain’t that right everypony?”
All the ponies that were backing off earlier started to calm down and nod at Applejack’s statement. The air of unease in the room died off as well and everyone started to feel much happier it seemed.
“Alright! Let’s start the party!” exclaimed Pinkie.
Some music kicked on from somewhere and the ponies started to party as ordered. I honestly felt better after having done that. Sure, I was still uncomfortable around all those ponies, but at least I hoped I made a really good impression on those that were here.
Aside from that, I, of course, am pretty much a wallflower kind of person. I don’t really have a way of saying that without sounding like I’m a total wuss, but then again I normally am anyway so who really cares. Unfortunately, when you’re the biggest thing in the room, you really stand out from the crowd. As such, over the next few hours pretty much every pony at the party had a chat with me. It was all nice, easy chatter talking about who I was, what life was like back on Earth, and things of that nature. It was all general things as well, so I managed to avoid talking about myself. I hate talking about myself.
Finally, after about four hours the party started to die down and the guests started to leave. Everybody thanked Pinkie for a great party and I ended up on generally friendlier terms with the ponies as a whole. I would say that everything went nicely. However, I did check to make sure nothing bad happened since this wasn’t back home and something could go wrong if I had said that out loud. The only reason I didn’t think something would happen was because I didn’t say it out loud.
Surprisingly, after all the guests had left, there was almost nothing left to do for the cleanup. This, in my case, was good because I didn’t have too long left until I had to tell the six of them about what’s going on. After about an hour of silence we finished the work and all that was left was the talk I had to give.
“Alright everyone, it’s time for what I was asked to talk about from Princess Celestia. Let’s head back to the library.”
Everyone nodded and we all left for the library. I wasn’t quite as eager about it as they were. Basically because I was about to have a chat with them about their entire existence as well as what essentially was mine.
This was probably going to be the most awkward thing I would ever have to do.