//------------------------------// // New pony in town // Story: Prototype: Friends until the bitter end // by Carmine Prophet //------------------------------// Five days had passed in Ponyville and Quann had been given a room in Rarity’s boutique, and Cooper was staying with Fluttershy. But in Quann and Coopers opinions that week couldn't have gone by any quicker. In the five days the two have come to terms with being Evolved. Quann Visited Fluttershy quite often to check on Cooper when his sergeant wasn’t following him around, leading to some of the ponies thinking Cooper was some kind of guard leading to Cooper pouting behind his mask and goggles. But thankfully Fluttershy was nice enough to treat the few wounds that still lingered on Cooper, despite his first protests the Blackwatch sergeant finally gave in to the gentle pegasus, but still both promised to help her out not taking no for an answer. The pony never raised her voice even as the concern etched through it. They were grateful for the mare's kindness as she would stop whatever she was doing to help them if they were doing something wrong. Their duties usually consisted of helping the animals out from feeding or giving them some attention as hers was preoccupied with the off-key songbird. Angel helped by rounding up the needed animals before taking off, something the armored pegasus and alicorn had come to expect. They let the animals eat in peace and instead focusing on brightening their day until the caretaker arrived. Quann entertained the aquatic life swimming with them as they nipped at his hooves, no doubt the most relaxing part of his day by far. It lasted for maybe an hour as Fluttershy came back accompanied with various birds all looking tuckered out as Angel walked up to him tapping his foot on the ground, expecting something from the alicorn. Which he happily replied with a quick splash drenching the poor bunny as Quann calmly walked out. He was careful to avoid Angel after that little trick, who knew bunnies could hold a grudge. And in Coopers case Pinkie pie was the other mare he would hang out with whether he wanted to or not. Her confetti cannon was a great deal breaker in fact he still wanted to see how the damn thing worked. Him meeting up with Pinkie Pie was a great way to meet the locals though, she'd always drag him along delivering Sugercube Corner orders which led to impromptu meetings. These meeting though either ended with a generous tip or the door being slammed into his face, yep he screamed popularity. Though the time was well spent none the less, so he chatted with the pink pony and even getting a few treats along the way, it really explained the constant ball of energy that Pinkie Pie was, and she was the only one that could help with his taste for sweets. But in Quann’s case the rest of his time was spent with Sweetiebelle and Rarity. He was very grateful to help them in any way possible for the hospitality, which usually involved watching Sweetiebelle and her friend Scootaloo. The two fillies took to him as vanilla took to cake, both looked up to him like the brother they never had and he was more than grateful to spend time with both fillies. Though it all stopped when Rarity asked for Quann’s help with something, usually it was him posing for her in some outfit, which was a feet because she had discovered what could get him to do what she said and it was food as was the case earlier today causing him to Draw his armor into his body except for his shoulder armor causing the Blood Red stripe in his mane and tail to pulse red ever so slightly (like Heller’s back, or the symbol on the back of Mercers Coat), or helping her with dinner. Today though was him watching the fillies prance around him as he laughed while trying to catch one. "Come on girls slow down, I'm not as good as your sister with magic, you know that." Quann whined. Both of them rang out in giggles, as they galloped past him, running outside the boutique, he sighed to himself before heading to the door. "Rarity I'm going out to play with the girls, call me if you need me." Quann called She didn't respond as she was too busy in finalizing the decorations for Celestia's arrival, and his mind was too preoccupied with the purple unicorn and what seemed to be a lizard hopping out off a chariot drawn by two pegasi in gold armor. "I don't think that they would be here that soon." Quann said. The fillies watched with Quann, both in awe of the method of transportation. "No Raptor, the princess is an alicorn like you. She must be here for something else." Sweetiebelle said as she nodded to herself, as Scootaloo started to nod in agreement almost in sync with her filly counterpart. "Well if she's going to check on everything, then shouldn't someone help her?" All three of them nodded in agreement before a certain pair of fillies stared at Quann. "By someone you mean me, don't you?" Quann asked. The two nodded again as he sighed and walked towards the two visitors. Twilight Sparkle was having a terrible day, first it started off at the Canterlot as she uncovered the mare in the moon who would come back on the longest day of the 1,000th year which was tomorrow. She even informed her mentor, Princess Celestia, about the matter and all she got in return was a letter. It stated she believed her, but she needed to stop spending time with dusty old book and make some friends. The alicorn matter was stressed in the letter even stating to meet him was another request from herself that went with supervising the preparations of the celebration along with the friend making, but she still saw little point in that endeavor along with handling the ‘fake’ alicorn matter. So here she was in Ponyville, having the daylights scared out of her by some pink pony. "Now Spike, let’s go over the check list." She said as she looked at the purple baby dragon, as he combed over everything on the list. "First we need to ask a pony about seeing some pony named Raptor two-one, then head to Sweet Apple Acres and check on the catering." he said dismissingly ‘seriously, Raptor two-one.’ The lavender mare's eyes staring at the Dark lavender "Unicorn" coming towards the then, deciding to deal with this alicorn business from the get go. "Hey mister, have you seen an alicorn around here? No, well thanks anyway, come on Spike were wasting time." The purple unicorn yelled as she started walking away, not even giving the Black red maned "Unicorn" a chance to speak. ‘what the fuck?’ Quann Thought as the purple mare started walking away, his face turning to one concentration before his horn glowed with a crimson red aura as it slowly grasped Twilight's tail. The startled mare bucked backwards trying to free herself from the aura's grip, being dragged up into the air. "Miss, you didn't even let me answer." Quann said as the scowl seemed to grow on Twilight's face as his magic lifted her higher into the air, meeting face to upside-down face. "Well, since you’re so insistent have you seen this Raptor Two-One?" she asked. She smiled as the name rolled off her tongue with dripping sarcasm, before a frown began to settle in as she took in his appearance, his wings beating at a slow but constant pace, teasing the poor mare. "You're the alicorn?" He nodded as she felt herself being lifted and lowered with each little movement from his head, her face turning into one of disbelief. “The name is Quann, but call me Raptor” Normally Quann wouldn't flaunt him being Equestrian royalty in all but name, this time was different though. He felt compelled to prove his existence to the purple mare even if he didn't know her personally, like a social tic he had and what really just pissed in his oats was anyone denying somepony Else's existence. "Now, since you know my name miss unicorn could you tell me yours?" He set her down upright as she gawked at his presence folding both wings back as the lizard's emerald eyes studied him. "Hey I'm not here to cause any trouble, and I hope you both aren't either." He said causing both nodded dumbly at him as he eyed the baby lizard thing, it looked real suspicious. I mean it walked on its hind legs, but so did he and Cooper. "I see, I didn't expect there to be an actual alicorn here, but still this doesn't change my duties. My name is Twilight Sparkle and this is my assistant Spike. He is a baby dragon, so stop staring at him." She said, her face beamed as he tried to compose himself acting like she didn't see a thing. "So your here for the Summer Sun Celebration then?" He nodded as she started her inspection of Dark lavender alicorn, and with a quick shake of her head she came to the conclusion that he was truly an alicorn. She needed to be sure it wasn't the first time that a pony attempted to be one, in fact Canterlot got the crazies about every second Sunday of each month. While she thought little of the annoying posers, Celestia would get a quick chuckle before sorting the fake alicorn ordeal out. She felt slightly in awe as she stood before him but it was nothing compared to her mentor Princess Celestia. Then a sudden idea hit her, maybe he could help with Nightmare moon, after all he was an alicorn and Nightmare moon was an alicorn so who better to beat the nefarious mare then another alicorn. "Raptor, would you mind helping me with something?" she asked. He slowly nodded as he backed away from Twilight, the gleam in her eye only spelled trouble, similar to the first time he had met Rarity. "Well, come on then, I need your help first on with something else Princess Celestia tasked me with." Twilight insisted. About two or three hours and one long life story later in the library. Twilight had slammed the door shut the only source of light being the ominous slow glowing red pulse that the stripe on Quann’s mane and tail gave off. Quann braced himself for what was to come, it could only be one thing a, Pinkie Pie Party. He prepared himself as Twilight turned on the lights and lo' and behold he was right, so being like any pony including Cooper without his armor on that wanted to relax at a Pinkie Party, he just faded into the background, mingling with other ponies. "Surprise, were you surprised? huh, huh, huh I mean if you were surprised then my surprise party would be a success." The unicorn had actually replied. Quann started his mental clock to see how long it would be before pinkie pie stopped talking to catch her breath, it was more of a game to him and no matter how kind he was he just wanted to see if she would pass out from lack of oxygen. and as long as he was stuck with. "Boring! Now I was the first one that saw you when you got here remember? You were all like "hello" and I was all like "ooha" remember? I never saw you before so that must mean you’re new, because I know everypony and I mean EVERYpony in Ponyville. And if your new you hadn't met anyone yet, and if you hadn't met anyone yet then you must not have any friends, and if you don't have any friends that must make you a lonely pony, which makes me so sad, so I had an idea so that's why I went "ooha" so I decided to have a great big super-ginormous welcome party that I invited everyone in Ponyville. See and now you have lots and lots of friends." Pinkie said Quann’s mental clock timed out at ten seconds before she stopped for a breath give or take a few seconds. Sadly due to Twilight's lack of attentiveness she had poured herself a self a nice drink of Pinkie pie's extra hot sauce, and with one sip was all she wrote for the poor mare as she took to the nearest water source. Making Cooper and himself fall on the ground laughing Twilight had it, first of all she just wanted to be left alone and figure a way to stop Nightmare moon and learn about the elements of harmony, but no someponies wanted to try and be her friend, she didn't have time for friends the world was going to be gone after tomorrow or all the sunlight would disappear in the very least. So here she was holed up in her room at 1:20 in the morning with a party still going on and she was willing to bet it was all thanks to that pink pony. "All the ponies in this town are CRAZY!" She vented on the lifeless pillow, stomping on it to relieve much-needed stress. "TAP,TAP,TAP" And now she was hearing things, oh great, what was going to happen next? Nightmare moon was actually princess Celestia's sister, ha fat chance. So the Unicorn did the only thing she could do at the moment and that was watch the moon, well Quann's flank blocking the moon to be exact, and with that image burned into her head she let the alicorn into her room via window. "Why were you flying outside my window, Quann?" She stared on at the blue eyes of his before she planted her hoof in his mouth. "Never mind that, I need you to listen to me Quann, your my only hope since no one else will believe me." So she began to tell the Quann everything she knew and when she finished, all that she could see in his eyes was fierce determination. "That's it Quann, it’s unless we find the elements of Harmony by sundown tomorrow we are all doomed." She panicked as the reality of the situation came crashing down on her, it would be almost impossible to find the elements of harmony before sundown tomorrow. "Twilight, I'll do something only a few ponies get from me, I promise when Nightmare Moon comes I'll beat her so bad I'll knock her into the next galaxy." The mare smiled at his declaration but was shocked when he was covered in what looked like a cloud of red and black and he was wearing his Blackwatch armor with mask and goggles in place. The lights activating and turned blue. Maybe he'd find a way to beat Nightmare moon, but it didn't matter right now because he trusted her so she would do the same in him and she watched him walk out the door. “I can’t pull Cooper into this fight, he is still injured. But non the less it is a good thing he unlocked the blades.” Quann said behind his mask and walked out of the library.