//------------------------------// // Chapter Four: Moving In // Story: A Storm is Coming // by Plasmadon //------------------------------// Chapter Four: Moving In Sarge didn’t know what was going on. One minute he went to ask a pony where town hall was, the next he was in a library in the middle of a party. Suddenly Pink. “HI THERE!” “Oh my Celestia!” shouted Steelhoof, who was finally paying attention to what was going on. “A talking pony!” At this Sarge face-hoofed “Steel, we’re ALL talking ponies.” Steelhoof looked around awkwardly rubbing the back of his head. “Uhhhh… yeah, I knew that. Wait, why is there a party going on?” The pink one answered. “Well it’s your Welcome to Ponyville Party DU-UH!” Sarge looked around, then asked “How did you know we were coming?” The pink one was quick to answer. “Well, the Princess sent word to Twilight then Twilight told me then I said WE SHOULD THROW A PARTY and then we did and then I realized you weren’t here yet, so my Pinkie Sense said there were new ponies in town so I went out and you were there and I went AUUUUHHHHH cause there you were and then the party could start and I could introduce you to all my friends! OH MY GOSH I forgot to introduce myself! I’m Pinkamena Diane Pie, although everyone calls me Pinkie, or Pinkie Pie, or The Pink One, or Creepy! Now, allow me to introduce my friends.” As she was saying this she had been dragging the two newcomers towards a group of 5 ponies. “This is Applejack,” she began. “Howdy.” “This is Rainbow Dash,” “Hey.” “This is Rarity,” “Why, hello darling.” “This is Pinkie Pie, oh wait I already did me, sorry, this is Twilight,” “Oh, Sarge! I didn’t know you were the one The Princess was sending.” “Oh cool you guys know each other already, awesome! Aaaand last but certainly not least, is Fluttershy.” “Oh, Hello.” “Now that introductions are done, WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!” After the party ended and Sarge had been introduced to what seemed to be the entire population of Ponyville, Sarge asked Twilight, “So now that that’s all over with, we can finally get down to what I wanted in the first place: where’s the Mayor’s office? I have to give this note to her to get the key to my house at…. 143 Cherrycorn Lane.” At this Rainbow Dash perked up. “Hey that’s next door to my place, where that crossbow nut dude lived!” Steelhoof snorted. “Yeah, that’d be Uncle Bolt alright.” Rainbow Dash started “He’s your uncle? That’s gotta be awesome, he could hit anything with his crossbow.” Steelhoof sighed. “Yeah, but he stopped visiting after Aunt Rose died, and letters just aren’t the same.” “Anyways, we really should get down to the Mayor’s office so we can unpack and get settled in.” Twilight nodded. “The Mayor’s office is just down the road, you can see it from here. Come and visit me later on when you’re settled in; it’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other. As they said goodbye to their newfound friends, they finally set of towards the mayor’s office. When they reached their destination, Steel noticed an ad for: “A challenge of skill, the first to create a working self-propelled flying toy for my daughter will receive a prize of their choice, Signed Filthy Rich.” “You should try that Steel; you already made that little flying camera thingamajig,” Sarge pointed out. “One, it’s not called a thingamajig it is a Ninjacam™, and yes it would be pretty easy to recreate a toy version of that, plus it says that the prize is my choice so I might be able to ask for an inventor’s license which would allow me to finally sell off some of my inventions.” Steelhoof grabbed the flyer and put it into his pocket, and the duo went inside. “Hello there, you must be the ponies the Princess sent word about,” The mare sitting behind the desk said. “My name is Mayor Mare and might I officially welcome you into Ponyville.” At this Sarge laughed. “Pretty sure that Pinkie already did that.” The mayor laughed, “Ah, so that’s what Pinkie was setting up a party for.” “Anyways,” Sarge said, “I’m here because I was told the key to the house I’m moving into was being kept here.” The mayor took a quick glance around the desk, than rummaged around in one of her many drawers, quickly pulling out a shiny brass key with a note attached. “Here you are, and the address is on the note in case you’ve forgotten. Now you’d best be on your way, it’s getting pretty late and you won’t want to have to missed dinner will you?” With that being said, the trio left, thanking the mayor for her time, and began making their way to 143 Cherrycorn Lane. When they finally came to their house, Sarge noticed a large cloud house, with a rainbow flowing down from it. “That must be Rainbow Dash’s house,” Sarge stated. At this Steel looked up. “HEY, RAINBOW! YOU IN THERE?” Rainbow Dash stuck her head out. “Yeah, so you’ve finally got the key right? Oh, hey Pinkie, why are you with them?” She asked. “Yeah, we just came from the mayor’s office and-” Suddenly, Pink. “HI AGAIN!” “GAH!” screamed Steelhoof. “THE PINK ONE HAS RETURNED!” “Silly Steelie, my names Pinkie Pie, not the Pink One,” Pinkie said. “Anyways, I was thinking and I realized that the party had no cupcakes, and since you don’t live here that means you haven’t had any of Sugarcube Corner’s cupcakes and that made me feel sad, so I thought to myself: ‘Pinkie you need to bring them some cupcakes’ so I did. Here you go!” at that she reached into her mane, and pulled out a tin full of freshly made cupcakes. Salivating, Steelhoof immediately grabbed one and started to eat it. “Mmmm… This is the best tasting cupcake I’ve ever had!” Sarge on the other-hoof could only wonder, ‘How did that mane hide those cupcakes, and how is there not any hair on them?’ “Oh that’s simple silly pony, the cupcakes are made with love, so nothing but icing and sprinkles will stick to them.” Sarge started. “Wait, did I say that out loud?” “Nope,” Pinkie exclaimed merrily. “But I just remembered that I promised the Cakes I’d be back to watch the foals for a bit so they could do something together.” Ignoring the mystified stares of the stallions beside her, she began to bounce off towards the direction of what Sarge could only assume was where the Cakes lived. “Hey, Rainbow, Steel, I’m going to go take a walk over to the lake for a bit. Steel, do you mind taking a look around inside, getting everything set up, finding a place for your workshop and all that jazz?” Sarge asked as he began walking towards a lake near the forest, where he could see three fillies laughing and playing together. “Nah. You go on ahead; I’ll take your pack.” Steel offered his hoof. “Thanks, here you go,” Sarge said, handing him the bag. “Oh, that reminds me. I told Scootaloo I’d show her and the other Crusaders a few tricks, and I think that’s them over by the lake anyways so I think I’ll come with you,” Rainbow Dash said. When they reached the lake Rainbow took off towards the three fillies Sarge had spotted earlier, and Sarge was alone finally. As he was staring up into the clouds, using Amaterasu as a support, he suddenly heard a scream come from the fillies. Looking around he saw the three fillies hiding behind Rainbow Dash who was nervously backing up, away from what looked like a pack of seven timberwolves. Seeing this, Sarge quickly burst into action, grabbing Amaterasu with his wing and galloping towards the wolves. The wolves, noticing his charge, turned to face him and in doing so turned away from Rainbow Dash, and the helpless fillies. Rainbow Dash seized the opportunity and quickly began ushering the three of them away from the wolves. When they were far enough away, she yelled, “I’m going to get the Crusaders out of here and get some help. Do you think you can handle them until then?” Without turning around he shouted, “Yes, I’ll be fine. Get them to my house, it’s the closest they can get to, and Steelhoof will be able to help.” “Alright, please be okay!” she replied and got the fillies running towards the house. “Dash,” Sarge muttered under his breath, “I might as well be the god of okay.” A phantom pain trailed along his marred side as he turned to face his new enemies. With the distraction taken care of, Sarge could fully focus on the fight. And none too soon, too, as one of the wolves was leaping at him. Thinking quickly, Sarge spun Amaterasu around and backhoofed the wolf with it. The blade of Amaterasu flared to life, blazing in a glorious display of white-blue fire, and he quickly spun it back around and slashed a second wolf in the leg, which in turn caught fire. The licking flames made the rest of the wolves step back, and the wolf who was hit by the blade limped towards the lake to put himself out. Sarge, not wanting to have to kill the wolves, swept the blade back and forth, slowly driving the wolves back towards the forest. Then he heard the sounds of galloping and risked a glance back. It was Steelhoof and Rainbow Dash! When they reached him Steelhoof asked him, “Alright, Sarge, what’s the plan?” Sarge thought about it quickly then said, “Well, timberwolves don’t like loud noises at all so one of your poppers ought to send them scurrying back to the cave they crawled out of.” Steel nodded, reaching into the pouch at his side, pulling out a firecracker “Hey, Sarge, mind giving me a light?” Sarge nodded and pulled back Amaterasu, allowing time for Steel to light the firecracker. The moment he heard the fuse hissing, he quickly swung it back towards the wolves, causing the ones who had been creeping forward while the blade was back to jump away. With the fuse lit Steel tossed the firecracker towards the wolves and yelled, “Alright, everybody cover your ears!” Rainbow Dash covered her ears with her wings, along with Sarge who had done so the moment Steel had tossed the ‘cracker. “BANG!!!” When the timberwolves heard the firecracker go off, which had sounded a lot bigger than the size of it would imply, they turned tail and fled back towards the wood. “Haha, see you later cowards! Next time, bring an army!” Steelhoof yelled at them. Sarge snuffed Amaterasu in the lake and slung it onto his back. “Thanks for getting Steel, Rainbow. I didn’t really want to have to hurt them too much.” At this Rainbow Dash started. “Why? I mean, they were trying to hurt those fillies.” “And that is part of why I didn’t want to hurt them: they only wanted to survive and to do so means they need to eat. Those fillies are adequate food. The other reason that I didn’t want to hurt them is what happens to their young if they can’t hunt and bring them back food? The young ones would be hurt themselves, and all life is precious in this world,” Sarge stated as they began walking back towards their houses. “Hey, want to come to my house for dinner? As a way of thanking you for saving us back there, I mean?” Rainbow asked. Sarge replied, “Why not? Anyways, I’m not even sure our house has any food that isn’t stale in it.” Steel, after thinking about it for a while said, “Well actually, I think that there might be a dandelion growing in the driveway still.” Laughing, the trio headed towards Rainbow’s house for dinner. After eating, and thanking Rainbow for the delicious dinner, Steel and Sarge glided down towards their house, landing gently outside the door. Steel opened it up, and began telling Sarge where everything in the house was. “Alright Bathrooms the door across from the stairs, basement’s my new lab-shop so don’t mess with anything down there, the bedrooms are down the hall past the stairs, the kitchens right over there and the dining room is behind the curtain to your right. Oh, and I already claimed the first bedroom on the left, and I think the bedroom on the right side of the hallway would make a good guest bedroom, so that leaves you in the far bedroom on the left.” Thanking Steel, Sarge made his way to the bedroom that he would now be sleeping in for the foreseeable future, leaned Amaterasu against the doorframe, went inside and fell asleep on the bed. He snored lightly, unaware that his world was going to be shaken to the very core not one day ahead.