Bucking Magnets, How Do They Work?!

by SiMoS MCmuffin

7 Charging up, part 2

Simon and Scootaloo walked out of the forest into the beautiful meadows next to Ponyville. A narrow dirt road leading into a wider well worn one. The morning sun had begun it's daily trip across the sky, guided by the celestial pony. Uhm... Celestia. But even in the midst of all this beauty and wonder. Simon just couldn't help, but feel a little apprehensive about going back into the town. They continued towards Twilight's tree house at the edge of the town.

"Hey Scoots? Uhh, you don't mind me calling you 'Scoots' do you?"

"Not at all."

"Good. So... How are the townspony in your view? I mean are they nice, mean etc... etc..."

"It's gonna be alright Simon. Relaaax a bit, would you? Rainbow Dash did tell us that Twilight explained the situation to the townponies. Besides..." She stopped and looked down to the ground, "You saved my life..." kicking a random pebble with her front hoof.

"Hey hey I told you it's alright. Things turned out okay, right? You're alive and I'm not injured anymore." He crouched down next to her, "What'cha say you and me became pals, as in the way that if you ever have something bothering you and want to tell someone about it, you'll come to me? And I get another friend here. Cmon, what'cha say?" he playfully nudged her shoulder.

"Really? You still want me to be your friend?" She looked up to him with teary eyes.

"Yes" Wiping a tear away from her cheek, "Let's head to Twilight's." He picked up Scootaloo on placed her on his shoulder, "And you can ride there."

" *Sniffle, Wow I can see so far from here!" She moved so that her front hooves were on his head, while her back legs were on his shoulders. "I think that's Twilight's tree house over there." She pointed to right, towards the big hollowed out tree. They headed there.

"Do you see anybody inside?" Simon asked as he lifted Scootaloo to the window.

"I don't see nopony in there."

Simon sighed and let Scootaloo back on the ground, "Weird... And Rainbow Dash said the Twilight would be waiting here...I wonder where she went?", he tried tugging the front door a couple more times, but it was locked shut.* Well this sucks... Plus this suit is really starting to get itchy* he scratched his forearm. "Let's go to Rarity's boutique, I want to get back in to my normal clothes"

"I would, but we have a meeting with the crusaders this morning and I have to head there."

"Ok, have a good one!" He yelled after Scootaloo. "Heh... What a sweet kid" He sighed to himself. He took a quick look around himself and noted how silent the streets were. Well at least the trip to the boutique should be painless...

"CLOSED?!" He exclaimed at the sign on the inside of the door. Where is everybody?! I didn't see anybody on my way here either and there weren't even any windows open on the nearby houses. It's like everyone has vanished into the thin air or something. He felt really alien again as he looked at his surroundings, even though the itching from the suit was starting to slowly get worse, which helped to distract him from the feeling of loneliness.

"Hello?!... Anybody?!... Anypony?..." He yelled to the surrounding area, but was met with silence, until a sudden clang from a back alley opposite of the boutique's entrance caught his attention. "Hey? Hey!" He managed just to see a shadowy figure disappear into the alley, "Wait, stop!" He took chase after the figure.

The chase continued through couple of alleys, but Simon kept up with the pony, which was rather strange considering it was much faster than him, but as soon as he lost sight there was always some sort of noise or glimpse of movement in his peripheral vision, which allowed him to continue the chase. But follow he did and he soon arrived at the town's square and saw somepony run towards what seemed to be the town's hall. "Gotcha" He smirked as the figure slipped inside.

"Time to get to the bottom of this" He rose the small steps up to the double front doors, took a hold of both door handles and swung both doors open in a flashy way, "Okay, what's----" He managed to start was, but drown out by the opposing voice.

"SURPRISE!!!!"The massive crowd shout to him as confetti and party balloons started descending over him from the ceiling. Simon stood there silent, still, motionless as one of the balloons bounced off his head. He surveyed the crowd as suddenly a pink blur shot past the wall of ponies toward him. Next thing he knew there was a spiral striped party hat on his head. "So were you surprised?! Huh?! huh?!" A pair of pink hooves wrapped around his neck from behind.

"Pinkie? What is this?" He inquired, looking up towards the hanging banner in the room which said 'Welcome to Ponyville Simon!'.

" *Giggle It's your welcoming party silly"

"My what?" It was like gears inside his head had jammed up.

"Oh! Oh! Come! The Mayor is about to give her speech!" She suddenly started pulling him through the crowd towards the little stage with a speaker box. Pinkie finally stopped right in front of the stage as a light tan mare with white collar and grey hair stepped up to the speaker box.

"Much better than before?" A familiar voice came from his right side.

"Twilight?... How?..." A couple more ponies stood next to her including Rainbow Dash, Rarity and two unfamiliar mares.

"It's a good thing I'm good negotiator. Last night after you had escaped I gave them a little pep talk and explained your situation to them. They were sort of horrified after they understood how terribly they had treated you and I suggested a public apology in the form of your welcoming party." She explained the situation.

The sound of the mayor cleaning his throat brought their attention back to the stage, "Good morning fillies and gentlecolts! We are gathered here today to welcome our newest citizen, Simon. Now, he has experienced a wrongful hate towards him during the past day..." The mayor went on on her formal speech.

"But how did get everyone here? The whole town was empty when I arrived with Scootaloo."

"Easy, Rainbow Dash informed us you would be arriving shortly so we gathered everyone here in town hall. And we had a couple ponies to lure you here... Hey... where are the bandages from your arms?" She looked at his healthy hands and forearms.

"Well after I had saved Scootaloo from the cockratice, my hands were absolutely torn up." He clenched his fist, "But thankfully Zecora made a potion which regenerated my body. I don't have my former ailments bothering me anymore! Also..." He turned towards Rarity, "Rarity, did you have the time to make a new pair of clothes for me?" the itching was nearing the levels of being absolutely intolerable.

"Yes I did darling! I even have them with me right now as your welcoming present." It sounded like pure heaven to be back in regular clothes.

"Excellent! Thank you so much Rarity!"

"...And we all warmly welcome Simon to our town! Simon, would you like to say something?" The mayor finished her speech followed by stomps and hoorays.

"Uuh, sure" He climbed up on the stage on lifted the microphone stand up to his level. "Good morning everybody and thank you for turning up to this party in my favor" Starting with a very neutral opening.

(TO ADD DRAMA, play and jump to 1:00

the next part is meant to be read quite slowly, to really put weight behind every sentence)

(The soundtrack should stop right about here)

The hall was ominously silent, as he surveyed the crowd. Then a single stomp from one direction, another from elsewhere and soon the whole hall was filled with cheers and raging stomping. "My name is Simon, and I look forward to living in Ponyville" He smiled and waved to the crowd as he stepped down from the stage back to Twilight and her friends.

"That was absolutely beautiful..." Rarity commented, wiping an escaping tear of her cheek.

"Yea I think I really managed to pour out my feelings about these couple days and---" He stopped as he was wrapped in a warm hug from six different directions. Looking down he saw all six of them surrounding him. He got a nice warm feeling in his stomach, "Yea... this is nice..." Hugging all of them back as best as he could. He swore he could smell a faint aroma of cotton candy from pinkie's hair... The soft and fuzzy coats rubbing against his... skin?

Indeed it did feel like there was a direct skin contact on his midsection. It couldn't be... Could it? He look down and indeed it was! Big pieces of cloth were flaking off of the suit!

"Twilight, what's going on?!" The others opened their eyes and looked at his bare midsection and backed off a little, but Twilight kept her face buried in his stomach, *Aaaahhh... so warm and cozy...* she nuzzled against him.

"Twilight!" Simon yelled again and had to pull her off him. The sleeves shortening at an alarming rate as big flakes of cloth fell from them.

"AAaaaaa! What! What?!" She seemed to snap back to reality, a slight blush hidden under her lavender cheeks.

Simon motioned down to the obvious problem.

"Oh no. The spell's effect must be running out!"

*Need new clothes, fast!* Simon processed the situation, "Rarity! You said you had finished my clothes?"

"Uhh, yes darling. I'll go get them!" She took off into the crowd which had began to disperse.

"I'll go hide behind the stage, just throw the clothes to me after she gets them" Simon scampered towards the back area trying to hold onto the disintegrating clothing piece, but still leaving quite a trail of flakes on the ground. *Fricking jinxed it!* He cursed. Thankfully the back of the stage was quite remote area. Nobody should stumble here unintentionally he hoped as the last remaining piece fell from his upper body. Covering his privates he just wished Rarity would return soon.

Under a minute a pile of clothes landed on his head. Quickly examining the pieces he was impressed, a pair of dark blue jeans with a white t-shirt and a simple grey denim jacket, and they even fit nearly perfectly, but a little running in would fix it. Too bad there were no underpants... Should have given those to her too... Or not... Well I'll manage, he shrugged.

Emerging from behind the stage he was immediately under the stare of six pairs of eyes. "So. How do I look?"

"Well they seem to fit you better than the suit." Twilight answered first.

"Who cares!" Pinkie jumped, "Cmon! Let's get this party started!" she pulled Simon toward the little side room on the other side of the hall. Simon followed in suit of the pink energy ball, stumbling couple of times as he nearly lost balance. "Here!" She opened the double doors to the room.

Inside the room was decorated with all kinds of party stuff, balloons, streamers, tables filled with all sorts of food... Lifting the party hat off his forehead he looked up to the banner hanging from the sidewalls. The banner spelled "Welcome to Ponyville Simon!" in large letters.

"We thought you'd be up to a little party after the apology from the town" Twilight walked next to him, the rest four also standing next to his sides admiring the room while pinkie pie was jumping across the room.

"I... I... just.. don't know what to say..." He looked down to her with a mixed emotions, feeling so happy he could almost cry. Nobody had arranged a party for him in ages! "It's just... I can't remember the last time someone arranged a party for me in celebration of anything." He smiled weakly, not wanting to shed a tear now.

"Cmon Simon don't be like that!" Pinkie bounced to him, "Here! have some cake." She hoofed him a nice big plate of carrot cake.

"I do agree with Pinkie on this one darling. A party is no place to fret around" Rarity added. Simon nodded in response and took a nice mouthful of carrot cake as they moved into the room proper.

"mmMMmm... this is some good cake." Simon was delighted.

"Of course it is! It's my well kept secret recipe for the most delectable carrot cake" Pinkie piped and leaned in, "The secret is super-duber fresh ingredients" she whispered.

"Why are you telling me, if it's a secret recipe?" Simon whispered back.

"Hmm" she leaned back and brought her hoof up to her chin, appearing to think hard, "That's a good question... Oh well" she shrugged her shoulders, "Just don't spread it around!" she hopped toward the pastry table.

Simon chuckled at the pink pony's antics. *Oh yea I haven't met those two over there yet*. He looked towards the cowboy hat wearing orange pony and the yellow pegasus with a pink mane who were in conversing with Twilight about something. *I better go and introduce myself* He headed towards them.

"Well howdy there pardner" The orange one greeted with a profound southern accent. Tipping the rim of her hat.

"Well howdy there" Simon replied back in a thick accent, "I reckoned back there I should come over here and make your acquaintance miss?..."

"Applejack, but don't you missy miss me there pardner. I ain't as fainthearted gal as you might think." She reached out her hoof for a shake.

"Well pardon me then. I didn't mean to go all lukewarm on you." He slightly crouched down for the shake, "Name's Si-i-i--m--o-n" his voice trembled from the unexpectedly from the firm shake she gave him. "Bloody hell that's a heck of a firm shake."

"Well that's what you get from bucking apples all year 'round. We have an apple farm just outside the town named 'Sweet apple acres'. Here" She hoofed him a red apple from the nearby table, "Picked just this morning, guaranteed to be juicy and the best apple you ever had!".

Simon took a bite and set the rest of the apple on his plate, the taste was... so sweet. "Oh wow!" he took another bite, "this is great!"

"Best apples in the neighboring area sugarcube." She crossed her front hooves with a sense of pride, "You should come down to the farm sometime."

"Yes ma'am! Will do ma'am!" He jokingly saluted. Turning his attention back to the pegasi.... Who was nowhere to be seen. He spotted Twilight by the table looking down to the floor at something. "Seeing something interesting?" He poked his head next to hers. His eyes just catching something pink disappearing under the tablecloth.

"It's Fluttershy... As soon as your eyes were off her, she bolted under the table... Come on Fluttershy. Just come say hello to Simon." but she only heard a slight whimper from under the table. She gave a small grunt and rubbed the bridge of her muzzle.

"What's the problem? She sick or something?" Simon just looked at the table.

"No no no... It's just that Fluttershy's really, really shy... I had hard time talking to her too when I first arrived to Ponyville. And seeing how you are the first human she has met, she must be absolute terrified."

"No kidding... Well that's a shame" He frowned, but a sudden thumping down at his ankle caught his attention. There was a little white bunny apparently trying to hammer his leg with all of it's might to no avail unsurprisingly. "Well hi there little fella." He kneeled down to pull the little furball off of him. Taking a solid hold of it's neck fur, he lifted it to his eye level and watched as it struggled and tried to kick him with it's little tiny feet, "wow, aren't you a little fighter" he chuckled at the useless struggle. "Twilight? Do you know who this is?".

"That's Angel, Fluttershy's pet bunny."

"Well that's cute name, but somehow I just don't think it fits the owner. Don't ya think so too buddy" He tried rubbing Angel's nose and happened to turn his head just for a moment towards Twilight with a silly grin. It was sort of cute to see the little bunny displaying such a act.

*Chomp

There was a slight notion of pain in his index finger, as he turned back to the critter in his hold just to see it firmly latched onto his finger. "You little bugger..." He tried pulling him off, but he just bit down harder, "get off'a me" he shook hand with the bunny still tightening it's jaws. "Seriously!" It really was starting to hurt now, a bit of blood trickling from the broken skin. He started swinging his arm in broader moves in effort to throw the bitee off.

Meanwhile Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were rolling around on the floor giggling at the comedic sight of a big man panicking over a small bunny holding onto him with all of it's might.

"AAAhh! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" Simon started running around room, flailing his arms about in his evidently fruitless effort. Even Applejack was starting to chuckle and Rarity gave a couple of muffled giggles from beneath her hooves. Simon was not sharing their laughs though. The thing was like a bloody pair of locking pliers with someone turning the tightening screw tighter and tighter!

"ANGEL BUNNY!", a stern voice suddenly called out from beneath the table.

Simon stopped his flailing, the bunny also loosened it's jaws a little and both looked toward the owner of the voice. "Let go of him this instant." The pegasi gave fierce glance at the little bunny, which hopped down to the floor and scratched it's ears in a very innocent manner.

*Bloody pest* Was all that ran through Simon's head. The gnash on his finger was on the same level of seriousness as a paper cut, but it still stung damit!

"You should know better." She seemed to be scolding Angel after which she turned back toward Simon, "Oh my goodness. Are you alright?" looking at his finger.

"I'll live... Name's Simon" He offered his non-bit hand for a shake.

"I'm... Fluttershy..." Her behavior suddenly changed, hiding behind her pink mane, almost seemingly trying to avoid Simon's eyes.

"What?" He leaned closer.

"I'm...Fluttershy... *Squeek" She whimpered.

"I'll go get you a bandage for your finger Simon." Twilight announced as she exited the room. "I'll come with you Twilight!" Fluttershy suddenly flew after her, leaving Simon kneeling there, confused. Looking toward the others, frowning as they tried to quell the remainders of their giggles. "Don't worry Simon. Fluttershy doesn't mean no harm. She just can't help it" Rarity stepped towards him.

"Yea I get it. She's shy." He looked to the door and back seeing the blue and pink ponies still holding onto their sides, "Oh c'mon..." he raised his arms up in the air, "It wasn't that funny.".

"Ahaha, easy for you to say. You just didn't see a big guy running around the room, flailing his arms around with a tiny little bunny attached to the end... *snort... Bwahahaaaa!" Raindow Dash rolled back on her back, still having some laugh in her.

Simon just sighed deeply, *better just let them get it out...*

"Darling don't let them bother you, but could you tell me what this thing is that was in your old trousers pocket?" She hovered a small black monolith to him.

He lifted his head and paused for a moment when he saw what the item in question was, "My phone!" he quickly grabbed it. Looking it over for any damage. He had completely forgotten about his phone! Rarity stepped closer along with Applejack who had sparked interest in the item. Simon pressed the power button, waited for a couple heated seconds with his eyes firmly locked in, hoping for any signs of life. "YEESSS!!" He roared as the splash screen popped up. Rarity and Applejack jumped at least a couple of feet when he yelled.

"What in tarnation are suddenly yelling about?" Applejack picked up her hat off the floor, dusting it off first.

"Indeed" Rarity straightened out her mane, "How could that little thing be so important?"

"Uuuh, it's a bit hard to explain, but this is one of the greatest inventions of the humankind" He punched in his PIN-number and looked over the status bar, as the phone booted into the menu screen. *No connection bars... Well no surprise there really" He frowned slightly, AJ and Rarity peeking over his shoulder at the the screen.

"Soo, what is that thingamajicker?" AJ asked.

"This, is a phone. It allows us to call other people's phones. For example if you had a phone like this and I had your number. I could call you and have talk no matter where you were." He hold the phone like he was talking into it. "And that's not the only thing they are capable these days. For example stay still a couple of moments and..." He quickly browsed to the camera app and pointed it towards AJ, "Smile" He grinned as he pressed the shutter button, the smd leds flashed bright white for moment as a shutter sound was emitted.

AJ was not knowing what to expect and toppled over as the leds flashed bright in his eyes, "Ah'm blind!" she rolled on the floor rubbing her eyes.

"Ooops, looks like the flash was on" He grinned apologizingly. "Sorry didn't mean to surprise you like that" He helped the filly back on her hooves and popped the cowboy hat back on her head.

"What in tarnation was that?!" She blinked.

"That was me, taking a photo of you." He quickly navigated to the photo gallery and brought up the latest one. "Here, look" He turned the screen to her.

"You're telling that tooting thing is a camera?" She looked the picture over, "And ah' look all silly in it!". Indeed it did look a little funny as she was clearly just toppling over, her hooves high in the air.

"Oh darling it looks *-muffled giggle- very like you." Rarity added as she took a gander at it.

"Hey, are you trying to imply som-"

"Hey what are you guys looking at over there?" Pinkie bounced from behind the food table. "Yea, what's the big deal there" RD added.

"You'll see soon when Twilight and Fluttershy return!" He replied, looking back at the door as the two of them had just returned with a small bandage. Twilight looked towards Fluttershy and she nodded strongly in return and took the bandage Twilight had in her mouth and brought it over to Simon.

"Umm... Can I put this bandage on your finger?... I mean... if you want to?..." She looked up in his eyes and Simon stretched out his hand. Carefully she applied it to the little gnash which had actually already clogged up, but never the less it would at least protect it from dirt.

"I'm Fluttershy..." She softly said, still hiding a little bit behind her mane, her eyes shying away from his. Simon guessed Twilight had a little pep talk with her and encouraged her to introduce her this way. "Umm... I'm sorry about Angel bunny... does... your finger still hurt?"

"Never felt better, thanks to that bandage of yours" He gave a little rub behind her ear, which she pushed against with a little *MMMmm.... AH, she was just so innocent and cute!

"Oh by the way you're just in time!" Simon motioned Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Raindow Dash to come closer, "What would say we took a quick group photo?", this only elicited a raised eyebrow from Twilight.

"But we don't have camera here. What are going use to take the picture?" Her eyebrow still high, looking over the room for anything apparent photo shooting equipment, but Simon just waved his phone in front of him "With this".

Twilight glanced between his eyes and his phone, still confused, "You'll see in a second. Uuh, everyone can you move in front of that wall?" He pointed to the wall behind the food table. As the girls moved, Simon set up his phone on the table with a ten second timer. "Leave some room for me in the middle" He asked as they all lined up, leaving a place for Simon in the middle. Activating the countdown he hurried to his place, "Smile everyone!" kneeling down so he was on the same head levels as the other, he took a wide smile and placed his hands on the backs of Twilight and Fluttershy who were next to him. The timer quickly ticked down to zero and the photo was taking with a bright flash.

"Let's see how it turned out." He picked up his phone and brought it over to the girls, "Well I'd say that was pretty succesful" He smiled, bringing up the picture.

"This thing takes pictures?" Twilight was surprised.
"I would have worn something more... adequate have I known I would have been immortalized in a picture." Rarity slightly woed.
"Well hay, I wouldn't mind framing this over the fireplace" AJ clearly liked it.
"Hmm, it needs to be about... 20 percent cooler" RD waved her hoof like she didn't care, but still she leaned back to inspect it.
"Oh wowie-zowie! I wish I had a thing like that!" Pinkie bounced excitedly.
"It's nice..." Fluttershy smiled warmly.

Unfortunately a message popped up on the screen the telling about the battery level being 25 %, and recommending attaching it to a charger. "Well I guess I'll turn it off for now. I need to be careful with what battery life I have left. I don't think I'll be able to charge it anytime soon.", *Or ever for that matter... Maybe if I learn to control this discharge ability of mine I could produce a stable dc voltage to recharge the battery... Is that a gramophone?*, he put the phone in his pocket.

Pinkie indeed was rolling out an old looking gramophone, "Let's get this party started for realzies!" She cranked the crank couple times and set the needle down on the record. A very upbeat melody started blasting through the speaker, filling the whole room. Pinkie soon rolled on to the middle floor as she appeared to be dancing to the music. Simon did think it looked a bit silly but hey, at least he'd never seen a dancing pony before.

"Wanna try your luck with some apple bobbing there pardner?" AJ bumped the side of his leg. Motioning towards a large bucket of water, with some apples floating in it.

"Sure" They walked to the bucket. RD decided to join them too. "So how does this work?"

"Easy, you dunk your head in the bucket and pickup an apple with nothing else, but your mouth. Like this" RD dunk her head in the water and soon pulled it out with an apple in her mouth. "Eehy".

Simon took off his jacket. No point getting all wet. He knelt down over the side of the bucket and chose his target, a nice bright red apple in the middle. Taking a deep breath he plunged his head in the bucket as he sought to bite down on the apple, but it was a bit harder than he expected. Mainly because he couldn't open his jaw wide enough to just bite down on, so it just slid out of his mouth every time he tried to bite it. *Dang it. I need to press down against the bottom to get some more leverage on it, but before that...* He pulled out to catch his breath.

"Owie, my shoulder's aching!" Pinkie suddenly started rubbing her shoulder.

"Achy shoulder? Wait that means... !!!" Twilight quickly looked around for any sizable container. Pinkie's achy shoulder could mean only one thing....

"Got it now." Simon plunged back into the bucket. Quickly, hold the apple in front of his mouth as he reached the bottom. *Yes!* He finally sink his teeth into the prize, but suddenly the world became dark and he could feel something closing down on his face!

Yanking his head out with whatever was still attached to it, the world still was dark, but at least he could hear everything around him. His hand reached out feel around the unwelcome growth, but as his hand explored the sizable lump, he felt scales?... and ridges?... Was it some sort of reptile! but... He didn't feel teeth or anything biting down on him...

"Ehehehe" AJ laughed next to him, "You sure did get something there pardner".

"Oh good you found Gummy!" Blared Pinkie's voice.

"Get him off of Simon, Pinkie!" Shouted Twilight.

Simon didn't wait for Pinkie as he yanked whatever reptile on his face off with a pop. And soon after the apple flew away with a same sound, splashing the water as it landed back in the bucket. "A crocodile?..." Simon looked half believingly at the small, dotted eyed reptile. It seemed to be straing off into the distance like in a trance.

"Hihi, No you silly. Gummy's an alligator"

"Wha!.. Why... I!... Aaargh never mind!" He threw her pet to her and it latched onto her mane. "I need to sit down.." He rubbed his temple's.

"Maybe ah' can offer something to calm your nerves sonny" AJ rolled an old looking barrel of something onto the table. "This is some special brew of this year's apple cider harvest." She popped the cork off and poured a him a glass of the golden liquid.

"You make apple cider?" Simon asked as he grabbed the glass and took a whiff of the aroma. *Yep, sure smells like apple cider...* Well what did you expect?! He brought the glass to his mouth and took a good sip, "Well at least our world's share something between them. Good old apple cider!" He gave an approving thumb up to AJ. Although there seemed to be a lot more punch, "Quite strong also".

"Well it's from ma'h special wares, meant for special occasions."

"You two lightweights feel up to find out who can drink the most?" Rainbow Dash filled a glass of her own and slammed it down on the table.

"That sounds like a challenge. Heh... You're on pardner" Applejack filled a glass of her own.

"You two better put your on your game faces, if you think you can keep up with me." Simon grinned and took a big gulp.

"Hah, I'll show you rookie" Rainbow Dash downed her glass in one go.*BUUURP she let out a mighty belch.

"Oh my! What manners..." Rarity droned on.

"Ooh! I want some cider too!" Pinkie was suddenly filling a glass for her.

"Pinkie no!" AJ tried to reach her, but as soon she had filled her glass it was pretty much gone down the hatch. "uh-oh" AJ slumped in his place.

"What's the problem?" Simon asked. Pinkie was starting to slightly wobble in her place, as her eyes started glazing over.

"Pinkie... Can't handle alcohol at all" Twilight rubbed the bridge of her muzzle. Pinkie was starting to lose her balance as she started stumbling around, "Hey... Why are you all *Hic looking at me like that?!" Her mane was starting to lose it's puffiness as it lowered straight towards the ground. *Pinkie's a bad drunk?... And a real drunk troublemaker?* Simon realized as she watched the party pony lean against the table for support, but why did her hair loose all it's puffiness?

He watched as Fluttershy and Rarity tried to help their friend stay on her hooves, but to his surprise Pinkie quite vigorously shook them off and fell against her bottom on the floor. "Hey Rainbow. Why is she acting like that?" He asked with a bit of concern.

"I can see NOW how this is a plot against me!" The now straight maned pony raved on the floor, "You guys ARE trying to have party WITHOUT me again!"

"Well it was long ago, but we decided to have a surprise party for her, so we had to lie to her so she wouldn't find out about it beforehand, but it sort took a turn in the wrong direction." Rainbow looked over to her prankster buddy, now laying flat on her back. "But it still turned out allright when we brought her to the party, so most likely it's just that she can't handle a drink as it goes straight to her head..."

"I think she fell asleep" Twilight gave her a little poke, eliciting a little groan from the pink pony, but otherwise continued deep, steady breathing.

"I think we umm... should take her home..." Fluttershy proposed, to which she received nods from Twilight and Rarity. Keeping Pinkie in the sleeping position they lifted her up, as Fluttershy went ahead to open any doors. "Well drop Pinkie at the sugarcube corner and come back." Twilight noted before they left the party room. "Oh and do try to keep the room clean!" Rarity added. The drinking trio just groaned back in response.

"So where were we?" Simon asked from his drinking partners.

"Well ah' might say that ah' just took the lead" AJ licked the remainder of the apple cider from her lips, lowering her empty mug on the table, "2-1-0 for me"

"Just you wait!" Dash beckoned, finishing her glass with a mighty tip. "Don't count me out here yet either!" Simon chugged the rest of his glass down as he reached for a refill...

Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity were just returning after putting Pinkie in her bed on the second floor of sugarcube corner. Twilight had to unlock the front door with a spell, but they're weren't up to no good, so they thought no harm of it. Dusk had settled down on the town. The setting sun painting the clouds pink, as candlelight shone throw the bypassing house windows. Approaching the town hall they could barely make out muffled shouts emanating from inside. Looking each other with raised eyebrows they closed in with a bit of added speed.

"AAAAAHAAAaaaah STop it!" They recognized the voice to be AJ's. Now exchanging worried looks with each other they quickly sped up into a gallop in the main hall towards the side room.

"NOoo! NOooooo!" She seemed to scream out the top of her lungs. As the trio approached, a cackling noise grew stronger with each step along with a wet slurpish sound, but it did make a sort of wet plop sounds too...

"You give *Hic! up?!" The trio entered the room just when Simon lifted his head off Applejack's stomach, as she laid on her back on the floor, her back legs giving a couple of twitches. His mouth was practically surrounded by drool and bits of orange hair.

"It ain't my style t---"

"You choice" Simon interrupted her, burying his face back in her stomach and started loudly motorboating it. The returned trio just watched the act jaws open, as the maniacal cackling started again on their right side. Peeking behind the table they discovered Rainbow Dash doubled over, laughing her guts out at the sight of the powerless earth pony.

"So you think this is funny eh?" Simon stopped. Turning towards the rolling ball of giggles and rainbow colors, leaving the orange filly on the floor to catch her breath. With a uncertain steps and a devious grin on his face he approached her. RD, seeing the approaching human with wiggling fingers and a grin that would put the devil to shame, she got on her hooves and with a drunken stupor started running for it, giggling along the way. Simon leaned a bit more forward and started to chase the rainbow maned pegasus around the room, still wiggling his fingers.

The clear headed trio watched the two of them go at it, while they moved over to check on Applejack. "You alright there? That's a quite big tower of glasses on the table there" Twilight motioned to the table, on which there was piled up a tower of glasses at least 14 strong.

"Oh that tower. Yea 'at ain't ours. It's Simon's. He sort... took the lead"

Simon had caught up with Rainbow Dash. It seemed that doubling the amount of limbs used for walking doubles the amount of stumbling while drunk. Through his alcohol clouded vision he practically locked on the runner, as he dived in for the kill.

"But... He's still standing!" Twilight looked at Applejack with round eyes.

"Oh, he's doing better than that darling" Rarity looked at Simon.

Simon made contact with Dash's backside as he tackled her, sending them both rolling around floor, Simon holding on to her back. They stopped a little further away with Simon on the bottom holding Dash on top of his chest. "Hahaa! Got you now, we'll see how funny you think this will be." He loosened his grip as he moved his hands right on the side of her rib cage.

"Yea he suddenly started downing that cider like it was the last he would ever have." Applejack rested her head back on the floor.

"What'cha gonna do big boy? Blow me away like miss fuzzy tummy over there?" Dash's legs hanged in the air.

"Oh. Aren't you a little fighter?" Simon smirked behind her back, "I have just always wanted to taste the rainbow..." tracing her back with his nose upwards to her ear, giving it a little lick.

"You need to up your game if you want play in the major league buddy" Rainbow swatted him in the face with his wing.

"And naughty girls... need to be punished" Simon's fingers burst in to action, searching for the tickliest spot along her sides. Their dexterity finding all the right places to dig down and tickle. Dash just couldn't handle it and burst into a hysterical laugh between pleading him to stop.

Meanwhile the girls just looked amused at the sight of their friend being reduced from the fastest flier in Equestria to a helpless mess of twitching hooves and wings in the unrelenting assault of Simon's dexterous fingers. Rarity specially was having trouble containing her laughter. Seeing the troublesome prankster finally getting something in return. Especially since that green mane dye in the shower head prank.

"Umm... You think we should... Stop him?" Fluttershy asked, a very slight blush on her cheeks from the sight.

"AAAAaaaaahaaahaaaaa!! Stop it! Sttoop iiiiiiiiit!" Rainbow pleaded between the giggles and flailing hooves, trying to desperately swat him with her wings to make her stop.

"Just hold on there pardner, I want to see this to the end." AJ smiled at the sight.

"Who's the better drinker?!"

"hhhAAhh aaaaahhhh! you Are! YoU ARE!"

"And you want me to do what *Urp" Simon was suddenly starting to feel sick. Now in hindsight it probably wasn't so smart to chug so many glasses in row. His body was still processing the alcohol, but it had reached it's limits, especially after drinking so much of that sweet cider. He could feel a familiar feeling rising up in his stomach, it could only mean one thing...

Simon's fingers stopped, as he quickly lifted the befuddled pegasus off of him while he rose up holding his other hand on his mouth. 'I'm gonna barf!' He looked for any near object in which he could empty whatever was about to come up. The girls' expression changed from amused to one of wondering what he was doing. Spotting a window on a near wall Simon stumbled his way to it, pushed it open, leaned over and let the floodgates open.

*Just what in the world is he doing by the window?... Oh... OOHHH!* Twilight's question got it's answer, as the flowerbed under window got some fertilizer mixed with some stomach acid...

"You alright there darling?" Rarity tentatively asked, walking over to him. Simon just waved his hand off, thinking it was over, until another wave of nausea hit him. Leaning back against the window frame, hurling more content to the flowerbed. Rarity took a step back with a slight expression of disgust on her face.

"Alright girls! I think the party is over." Twilight announced, "Fluttershy can you take care of Rainbow Dash?"

"Y-yes ma'am!" She went over to see if she could stand up on her own.

"Rarity, you take care of Applejack." Rarity nodded in response. Propping her country friend up against her. "You can stay at my boutique for the night darling. Oh! I have a couple of new dress ideas I want to test in the morning!", Applejack could already feel the surfacing headache just from hearing that...

Simon slumped on his stomach, hanging his head just over the flowerbed. Spitting the remainder of puke out of his mouth.

"You okay?" Twilight walked up to him.

"Ahhm fine..."

"Really? You don't look or sound that good really."

"I've mighta gon' a bit ov'r my limts..." He pulled back and sat down in front of the window, leaning against the wall. Looking at Twilight's worried/annoyed face he just couldn't help feeling like he was staring at the face of an angel, "Anyone ever told you how pretty you are?" He concentrated not to slur too much.

Twilight was a bit taken back from that statement, her cheeks becoming clearly crimsoning up. "Aaah! I'm not nothing special..." She felt really flattered, it must have been the cider talking... Yes. Definitely the cider...

"But you are! You're smart, witty, you love learning, you are the protegee of the kingdom's ruler, you have the most wonderful friends you could hope for!... I just wish I had met a girl like you before..." He looked her in the eyes, his heart feeling lighter.

Twilight's heart was beating like crazy... Had he just confessed to her?... No... Just no way... "Let's go home."

"Home..." He Hmmph'd.

"Can you stand on your own?"

He propped himself up on the wall, taking a couple of steps before stumbling and nearly smashing his face on floor, feeling the familiar pull of magic on the back of his shirt, "Thanks" the trip would take sometime...

They left the room untouched, they would clean it tomorrow. Emerging form the town hall's main door they entered the starry skied night. Simon walked the best he could with a little stabilization help from Twilight every once and a while. After passing a couple of houses, Simon stopped and looked up at night sky, seeing the beautiful full monn and all the hundreds of stars filling it, he lout out a deep sigh. Twilight looked first at him and then towards the sky too.

"It's been a really long time since I have seen a night sky like this..."

"..." Twilight looked at him and returned to the sky

"Just makes you wonder... How many other worlds there are in the universe... How insignificant you are on the grand scale of things... But still understanding how much of a impact you can make on the local scale..." He looked at her, "You ever thought of things like that?..."

"Sometimes... I was really fascinated by Starswirl the bearded's theory of the creation of everything..."

"Heh, I meant in a more abstract way, but that's good too" Simon smiled at her response, feeling the cool night air brushing some the haze away, "Oh! stay there for a minute" he quickly got an idea, pulling his phone out from his pocket and turning it on.

"I want to study your phone tomorrow, if that's okay"

"Sure, but for now I want you to look up at the stars" He booted the camera software up and lined himself so that Twilight's face was visible from the side, illuminated by the sky and rest of the sky filled the picture, *Tap *Shutter sound, "Perfect"

"Can I move now?"

"Yea yea" He brought the phone to her, showing the picture. "You're beautiful"

"Uuh! Uuh! What else can it do it?!" She didn't quite catch the mood, eyes sparkling as she inspected his phone. "Yea I'll let you take a look at it tomorrow, but not for long. I need to save the battery." Simon sighed. Absolute defeat.

"Yay! he hee." They continued forwards.

Rest of the trip went uneventfully as they finally reached the library. Carefully they opened the door, suspecting that Spike had already gone to sleep. Simon knew already that the next morning might have a nasty surprise waiting for him, so he decided to do some damage control.

"I'll head to bed in a minute, but I'm going to grab a glass of water before that. I also want to have a word with you before you go." He headed to the kitchen.

"I'll *Yaaawn, wait for you in my bed." Twilight felt very tired after the day. She hadn't had very good sleep last night since she gave the townponies their deserved pep talk. She slowly climbed the stairs on the side of the main hall to her bed and personal desk. Giving a quick peek she discovered Spike sleeping soundly, curled around himself. Sighing at the sight, she went to her bed and pulled back the sheets and slipped between them. *Aaahhhh... Feels good to finally get some shut eye".

Simon finished drinking his second glass of water, but he still was pretty sure next morning would not be ideal... In more than oneway... *Here we go*, he put the glass down and headed to upstairs. Reaching the top stairs he saw Twilight sitting in her bed, bathed by the moonlight from the nearby window. She looked... just, magical. WELL, she was a magical being, but this was something on another level... Something much more purer. He walked to the bed and crouched down, both of them on the same eye level.

"I want to thank you for today, for getting the townponies to understand me and my situation, for the official apology from the mayor, for the welcoming party and for letting me meet your friends."

"Oh Simon, it's allri-"

"I'm not finished." He interrupted softly. "I just want you to know, that I feel like even if I had insurmountable problems... If you are there, It'll turn out alright in the end." He brought his hand up to her cheek, his heartbeat picking up. He leaned towards her, their faces coming closer.

Twilight was not sure sure what to expect, was he about to kiss him?! I'm not sure if I'm ready yet! What would the others think if they knew? Is there a law that forbids love between different species? Her mind mulled over the different questions and possibilities. His face still coming straight for her's. Twilight instinctively shut her eyes, waiting for his lips to connect with her's, but... It never came.

Simon looked at her, maybe it was too soon... He rubbed her cheek gently, feeling her soft coat run through his fingers. Yeah, still too soon... He gave soft peck at her other cheek, "Good night Twilight", he smiled and left for the guest room.