//------------------------------// // An Adventure in National Holidays (Part 1) // Story: The Midlife Crisis of an Extra-planar Being // by The DM //------------------------------// It has been two weeks since the incident with Big Mac. Things on Apllejack’s farm quickly returned to normal and the two of us were able to finish harvesting in the south field. Normally we would just tear through the east field in a week and be done with the harvest season, but this week was different. There was a national holiday approaching by the name of The Summer Sun Celebration. From what I had gathered from Twilight, it was a holiday that signified the beginning of summer as well as the anniversary for the return and subsequent defeat of Nightmare Moon. The way the holiday works is Princess Celestia chooses a town to host the celebration, this year it’s Ponyville, and the whole town decorates and gets this huge reception organized. Then the Princess shows up early in the morning and everyone watches her raise the sun in a very dramatic fashion. Then everyone eats and drinks and is all around happy. So there we were, Applejack and I, gathering many of the apples we had put in storage in preparation for catering this festival. We began first by baking about a hundred apple pies. I thought baking this many pies a week in advance would be pointless, but AJ had a solution to that. She showed me this strange purple box. On the outside it was just a purple metal box, but upon closer inspection I found some amazing pieces of spellcraft. On the inside was an Arcane Rune that was modified to release its energy slowly instead of all at once. The next was a stripped version of the spell Imprison, except only the stasis part was present. Finally the box opened up to its own pocket dimension, allowing it to hold all the baked goods. In all, this box could hold hundreds of pies at a warm temperature without them aging. It was brilliant and I could think of only one pony in town who might be able to pull this off. The two of us were packing the latest batch of pie into the magical baked goods stasis box when a knock at the door interrupted us. “Ah’ll get it Zir.” Applejack set down the pie she was carrying on the counter and trotted over to the door. Twilight was standing at the door with what looked like a baby half dragon sitting on her back holding a clip board. “Twilight! Spike! What brings ya’ll here? Chekin’ up on the preparations?” Twilight nodded and the one I assumed was Spike spoke up. “Yup, and with how delicious it smells in here I bet everything is going great.” “Ah, why thank you Spike. With some help from Zircom here ah reckon we’ll be done ahead of schedule.” Spike looked at me with surprise and bewilderment. “Uh Twilight? You said he was a dragon, but this guy is a Pegasus.” I chuckled a bit. “It’s a natural shape shift spell. It helps me interact with smaller species.” He didn’t look convinced. “But dragons can’t use magic, aside from our fire breath.” “Well Spike, that may be true for dragons in Equestria, but the ones from my home can become very powerful magic users.” “What about you?” Spike asked, “Can you use any magic?” “Aside from dragon abilities, yes, I am trained in healing magic. I know a few utility spells and a handful of offensive combat spells.” He still wasn’t buying it completely. “You know healing spells?” This time Applejack spoke up, “He sure does. Saved mah brother from being paralyzed after a tree crushed his back.” “Wow, really?” I nodded. “Pump enough divine magic into someone and you’d be surprised at how quickly injuries go away.” Before Spike could say anything Twilight interrupted. “As much as I would love to discuss magic all day, and believe me how much I wish I could, we do need to get back to town hall. Which reminds me, AJ, could I borrow Zircom for an hour or two?” Applejack nooded. “Sure thing.” “Great, thanks Applejack.” I just stood there. “Wait… don’t I get a say in this decision?” “Nope.” They both answered at the same time. “Eh, okay. Can I at least go in my true form?” Twilight pondered this for a moment. “Sure, might as well get ponies used to seeing you.” So with that decided I followed Twilight outside. Once in the open and with ample space, I released the shape shift spell. Spike was taken aback at my new body. I stretched my wings to full length and arched my back, allowing various bones and joints to pop and crack as everything stretched out. “Alright, shall we be off?” “Sure, we are going to go see Rarity first. She is supposed to be decorating town hall.” “And why do you need my help with that? I’m not the most artistic individual.” Twilight chuckled. “Well a few days ago the local mail mare managed to fly into the building and caused the balcony to collapse. I wanted to bring you along in case anything out of the ordinary happened.” “Well they did fix the balcony, right?” “Oh yes. I would just rather not take any chances. Not with the festival so close.” “Alright then.” We walked for another ten minutes or so to the outer part of town. All along the way Spike was peppering me with questions about dragons from my world. “So you can’t breathe fire?” Spike almost sounded shocked at this. “Nope, if anything fire and I have a very poor relationship. Instead I can breathe a frozen gas.” He seemed amazed by this. “Do you know what kind of gas it is?” Asked Twilight. “Nitrogen, I believe.” Spike's eyes lit up with interest. “That’s so cool! So you can, like, freeze ponies by breathing on them!?” I nodded. “Indeed. I can also breathe a second gas which can paralyze anyone who inhales it.” “Why would you want that though?” “It is useful if I don’t want to hurt anyone. It lets me gain control of a situation without me having to resort to violence.” “Oh, I get it now. That’s pretty cool too.” I laughed at his unintended pun. “Alright you two, we’re here.” And indeed we were. Before us was the town center of Ponyville. Most ponies were going about their daily lives. A few more observant ones were stopping to look at the huge dragon sitting in the road next to a unicorn. Once they saw Twilight, however, they went back to their routines. “You okay Zircom? You looked like you spaced out.” I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “Yeah, fine. Just surprised everyone is so calm right now.” “Oh don’t worry, Ponyville has been through stranger things than a dragon showing up.” “I’ll take your word for it.” The three of us made our way to the town hall where a white unicorn with a styled purple mane was putting up various colored banners and other decorations. “That must be Rarity then?” Twilight nodded in an affirmative before calling out to her friend. “Hey Rarity!” The unicorn set down what she was doing and trotted over. “Why hello Twilight. Come to check on the decorations?” “Yup, and it looks like everything is coming along great.” “Thank you Twilight, you’re too kind. Oh and how could I forget to say hi to my little Spikey-wikey.” It took all of my willpower to remain silent. He blushed and tried to keep his composure. I don’t know if he was trying to appear tough in front of me or if he was genuinely embarrassed… or maybe he liked the attention. It was also at this point that Rarity turned her attention up toward me. “Twilight, aren’t you going to introduce me to your new friend here?” “Oh right, sorry. Rarity, this is Zircom, he’s been working and staying with Applejack for the past two months.” “A pleasure to meet you ZIrcom.” “Likewise. Quite the decorative set up you have here, I’m sure the princess will love it.” “Well thank you darling. I must say I am relieved. Most other dragons I have met have been quite uncouth and rather rude.” “I guess it helps being from a different world.” “Ah yes, Twilight did mention somepony had come from a different world, I didn’t realize you were that somepony, or that that somepony could be so handsome and quite the gentlestallion.” Rarity then turned and faced the town hall. Half of it was already decorated and the other half had banners and streamers lying at the base. “Now as much as I would love to chat I simply must finish these decorations; so much to do in such a short amount of time.” “Of course, don’t let me keep you.” Rarity then went back to her work on the town hall. There were a few more introductions after that. I first met the mayor; she seemed a lot more relaxed after talking to me and establishing that I was not going to bring about the destruction of her town. Then there was a mint green unicorn, Lyra I believe was her name; she was nice enough. For some reason she wanted to know about the humans from Faerun. She was even more ecstatic when I told her about the other humanoid races that occupy my world. Out conversation was cut short as another mare, who I heard was called Bon Bon, came and grabbed her by the tail and dragged her away. Lyra put up quite the protest but it fell on deaf ears. Then the Cutie Mark Crusaders went screaming by in a small wagon pulled by a scooter. As long as they weren’t trying to capture me again I could care less. I sat in front of the town hall for about ten minutes after meeting the mayor and Lyra. I was content to just take in the scene in front of me. It was normal. These ponies were just going about their lives with hardly a care in the world. If anything the only one who seemed high strung was Twilight. I then noticed a few clouds in the area. While that wasn’t odd on its own, the fact that one cloud had a rainbow tail was a bit more suspicious. I gently tapped Twilight on the shoulder with a claw and pointed out the so-called cloud. Twilight just sighed and brought a hoof to her face. “Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?” The cloud didn’t answer. “Rainbow I know you’re up there.” Twilight was sounding a bit irritated at this point. The cloud still didn’t answer. “Rainbow Dash…” Twilight was gritting her teeth. “Twilight, allow me.” I calmly stated as I cast a spell on myself, leaving a faint golden aura around my body. Normally I wouldn’t try to antagonize someone, but this was a special case where it was deemed necessary. “Hey Twilight, you said she is fiercely loyal to her friends right?” Twilight nodded. “Yeah, she is the Element of Loyalty after all.” “Cool, then I need you to go with me on this one.” I cleared my throat and looked up at the cloud. “If you don’t come down here right now, Twilight dies.” It hurt just saying it. I would never hurt any of these poines. That was all it took. Rainbow Dash shot out of the cloud in a straight charge for me as she let out a war cry. A foot away from impact she stopped, a look of shock on her face. “Wha-a-a!? Why can’t I…?” “Why can’t you hit me? Magic. Now Twilight, I believe there was something you wanted to tell Dash?” Twilight just shook her head in disbelief. “Oh, right. Rainbow Dash, please remember to keep the skies clear for the next couple of days. I know we talked about it last week, but I need to express just how important it is. Okay?” Rainbow just sat there dumbfound. “Relax.” I said, “I wasn’t going to hurt Twilight. Besides, she is more than capable of taking me down.” Twilight looked up at me in surprise. “Well it’s true. I have no doubt that you could easily kill me if you so choose” I stated very nonchalantly. Rainbow Dash just looked at us both. “So you aren’t going to try and kill her?” I laughed. “I couldn’t even if I tried. We simply needed to get you down here so we could talk.” “Oh,” she said sheepishly. Twilight then took over the conversation again. “So Dash, can you keep the skies clear?” Dash immediately perked up. “You can count on it!” She then took to the air and began clearing clouds, leaving a rainbow trail in her wake. “Well that was certainly interesting.” “Hey Zircom, what was that spell you used?” “It’s called Sanctuary. It basically makes it so that I can’t be directly harmed by another person. It makes them unwilling to attack me. That’s the simple explanation; I could go into greater detail later.” “I see. Is it possible to cast it on somepony else?” “Yup. I could cast it on up to three targets.” “Interesting… well then, Spike, what is left on the checklist?” There was no response. “Spike?” I turned and spotted the baby dragon asleep on Twilight’s back. “Eh, he’s dead to the world.” I then used a Mage Hand spell and levitated the clipboard to my eye level. “Looks like you still need to check on Fluttershy and her bird choir, someone named Pinkie Pie and her baking prep, and that looks like it.” I then floated the list back to Twilight who took it in her own magical grip. “Well, to Fluttershy’s house then?” Twilight nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.” The three of us began walking to Fluttershy’s cottage; well, two of us walked, one slept. We arrived in time to see Fluttershy finishing up with a rehearsal. When I was told there would be a bird choir, I was not holding high expectations. After seeing it, however, that view has changed substantially. We had a quick meeting. Everything was going well, as we had just seen. We talked for a few minutes; Fluttershy was much more relaxed around me than the first time we met. After about twenty minutes we left to go check on Pinkie Pie. Now the building Pinkie Pie was in can only be described as… odd. For all intents and purposes it was a giant cupcake. As we reached for the door we could hear a mixture of odd sounds coming from inside. It was a mix of pots crashing against each other, forks and knives falling to the ground, a chicken being startled, and a large fire. I looked at Twilight with concern. “I guess we can come back later.” She said with an embarrassed grin. I simply nodded and turned to leave. We began walking toward the library when Twilight stopped in her tracks and looked at the sky. “Oh no, is it already that late in the day?” I looked around, it indeed had grown late in the day as the sun was already setting. “It does seem like it.” Something caught my eye, a small object in the sky was getting bigger. “Zircom, I need you to change into a pony. Please, I’ll explain later.” “Okay then.” I assumed my Pegasus form and waited as the object grew in size. Eventually the object grew into a carriage, except it was pulled by two pegasi in golden armor. Its occupants were also donned in golden armor and were unicorns. One in particular wore purple armor with golden trim. In all there were seven of them. Twilight had a look of worry and excitement on her face. As soon as the carriage landed in front of us, she darted toward it. “Shining!” she shouted as she wrapped her hooves around the unicorn with purple armor. “Twiley, I’m so glad to see you!” He removed his helmet and returned the gesture. The others began disembarking and grabbing bags off their transport. “I’ve missed you, how’s Cadance doing?” “I’ve missed you too little sis, and Cadance is doing fine. She will be coming later this week.” I just sat there silently like the awkward third wheel I felt like. “Shining, this is my friend Zircom. Zircom, this is my brother Shining Armor he’s the captain of the royal guard.” I brought myself back to reality as Twilight began to speak. “Pleasure to meet you captain.” I was silently hoping that he wasn’t as strong of a mage as Twilight, that way my disguise would stand a chance of surviving. “That’s an odd name for a pony.” He was eyeing me with suspicion. “I’m not from around here. I’ve only been in town for a few months.” He seemed to buy this answer. “Right, well then let me grab my bag and we’ll be off.” He turned and grabbed his saddle bags. “Hey Twilight, I’m going to head back to AJ’s. I’ll see you tomorrow?” “Oh, sure thing Zircom. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I nodded and took to the sky. Shining Armor watched me fly away before speaking. “Do you know why he was radiating a massive magical field? And that name… that’s not a pony name…” Twilight sighed. “Yeah, I know. I’ll tell you about it when we get to the library.”