//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 - Welcome To Ponyville! // Story: Star Dust // by Juu50x //------------------------------// Star Dust Chapter 6 Welcome To Ponyville! The days seemed to pass quite quickly for Twilight even though she found herself a little bit more nervous each day. Soon, New Year’s Eve came and much to her surprise, her parents, big brother and Cadence had decided to come for a surprise visit. And it certainly was as Twilight had freaked out, but only for a moment. After the minor panic attack, everything mostly went back to normal and Twilight was having a great time with both her friends and family. In a few hours, the New Year’s Eve could fully start. Twilight, her friends and family, and pretty much everypony in Ponyville was getting ready for the celebration. As the time neared slowly, the sky flashed to life in display of bright lights. Everypony gasped in awe as the lights took over more of the sky and soon it was also filled by various explosions of magical projectiles from the unicorns of Ponyville, with extra help from the Sparkle family. “HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE!!” the town echoed. The next day was long and rather slow as everypony had found themselves quite tired and wanting to hide under their covers from the cruel sun because of the late party that Pinkie had thrown. There had been music, dancing, games, music, dancing, even more dancing, and of course, the Canterlot Castle’s Punch that Rarity had got for Pinkie. And that had certainly done the trick, at least for the ponies that had decided to drink too much of it or simply couldn't hold their liquor. Like Applejack, who, after drinking way too many glasses, tried hitting on Rainbow Dash. Well, at least it looked like that, but quickly changed as she directed flirtations towards Rarity when Rainbow had turned her down. However the white unicorn seemed to be an even harder bite to chew and was turned down even faster. After that, it seemed that the earth pony spent most of her night moping around a one corner or the other. Fluttershy, whom nopony ever thought that was even willing to drink, had become the complete opposite of herself, to the shock of everyone, and no doubt was now suffering from a horrible hangover. Rarity had been more sensible for not drinking too much, and even though she still had become a bit tipsy, she still managed to at least had kept her mind clear, same with Twilight and her parents, although her father and Shining had taken a few extra drinks which had made them act a bit more “brave” around their wives. Rainbow Dash had passed out after about twenty mugs. And Pinkie had been... well, Pinkie Pie. “At least she didn't drink too much...” Twilight muttered on her bed. Rolling to her sides, she tried to keep the sun from hurting her eyes. After long hours of rolling, Twilight finally got up; after another hour, the rest of the library was finally waking up as well, with certain ponies suffering from a small hangover due to last night. Then came a good breakfast, and with the morning already fading into noon, Twilight and her family spent the rest of the day with each other. The next day involved Twilight’s family packing for their return trip to Canterlot. After bidding her parents, brother and sister-in law goodbye, she returned to the library. Now she began preparing for Star Dust's arrival, which was tomorrow. “Let's see what we could do...” Twilight pondered out loud. "Well, first we have Pinkie's party, but that's until later this evening," she thought. "But it is only two hours away after she's here. I probably need to distract her, but how...?" Most of the planning lasted a whole day. Then the next day came or, to be more precise, Wednesday; the day Star Dust would come to Ponyville. Twilight literally jumped out of her bed and ran to the bathroom for a proper waking up. After that, she woke up Spike and made a quick breakfast before moving on to making sure that the library was ready for a visitor. She then proceeded to start making a list for a small slumber party she thought about throwing for Star when Pinkie's party was over. "But that needs to be for tomorrow," Twilight thought. "I doubt she can first time keep up with Pinkie's 'Welcome Parties'". She chuckled a bit. Twilight then turned to the clock, seeing that it was now reaching four in the evening, which meant gathering her friends and going to the station to wait for the train from Canterlot. “I certainly would love to know this Star Dust better,” Rarity said thoughtfully as they waited at the station. “I certainly would certainly like hear all the juicy rumors she might have.” Twilight let out a small giggle at Rarity's comment. She couldn't wait for Star to arrive so she could introduce Star to her friends. Although she hoped Pinkie or Rainbow didn't try to “scare” her too much as she seemed to be same kind of pony as Fluttershy. "Well, at least there is somepony who is similar to her," Twilight thought to herself. She wasn't sure though how Applejack would react to her. While she was really friendly towards everypony, there was the cautious part of her which she was good at hiding when she wanted to see somepony’s “true colors,” as Applejack liked to say. Twilight’s trail of thought was interrupted when she heard the train’s whistle. As the train was getting closer, Twilight started to feel nervous. Even though she had made some plans on what they would be doing, she was sure that something would go wrong. She wanted to make sure that Star Dust enjoyed her stay in Ponyville and the presence of her friends. Maybe she could even be friends with them. The train finally arrived and stopped at the station. Twilight and the others waited as ponies exited the train and went on with their lives. Soon they, or more specifically, Rainbow, who had decided to use her wings and fly up above the crowd, noticed a familiar dark coated unicorn stepping off of the train. “So you finally made it!” Rainbow was the first one to greet Star, taking the unicorn by surprise when she swooped down right in front of her. “Ah!” Star exclaimed, taking a few steps backwards before realizing who it was. “Hey, no need to be scared of the fastest Pegasi in Equestria,” Rainbow boasted, of course not seriously, but more like playfully, trying to make the frightened unicorn feel better. “I-I-I wasn't scared!” Star replied, trying to sound daring but failing at it. “You just... surprised me. That's all.” “Oohh! I LOVE surprises!” Pinkie cut in, scaring Star Dust and making her jump again, this time smashing her hoof into her chest. "That might have been a bit more frightening," Star thought, but she wasn't going to admit it. She had already embarrassed herself and there was no need to repeat it. “I hope your trip down was good?” Twilight then came to her view, with a small apologetic smile on her face. “And sorry about that,” she said, gesturing towards Pinkie and Rainbow. “It's alright,” Star said, taking deep, long breaths while taking her hoof off her chest. “And the trip wasn't that bad. Even if I hoped it would have been bit faster.” “Do you have anything with you?” Twilight asked, noticing that Star Dust didn't have any kind of saddlebag or luggage with her, except her winter clothing. “No,” Star shook her head, as she gave Twilight and others a confused look. “Should I have brought something then?” she asked, almost sounding afraid. She hadn't known that she had to bring something on her first trip “Of course not,” Twilight smiled. “If you felt that you didn't need to bring anything, then it's fine with us.” Star Dust felt her tense limbs slowly loosen, knowing that there was nothing to be worried about. “Well, let's go to the library first,” Twilight said. When they were approaching the library, Twilight's friends had told her and Star Dust that they all still had some things they needed to do, so they left Star and Twilight on their own. At the library, Twilight had shown Star Dust where she would be sleeping, and had went on showing her home to the unicorn. “What's behind that door?” Star asked when they had returned back to the downstairs. “Basement, I presume?” “That? Oh yes, and that's also where the laboratory is,” Twilight explained. “The library has a laboratory?” Star asked, a bit of skepticism in both her voice and on her face. It just sounded so weird in her head. Usually libraries didn't posses laboratories for many reasons. Mostly the younger fillies and colts possibly doing some kind of damage. “Yes, I know it might be a bit weird,” Twilight replied sheepishly while rubbing back of her head. “But it was there when I moved here,” she quickly added, “But I did make some improvements when I noticed that it had not been used for long while.” As she explained, she was looking for different reactions from Star Dust, and so far it seemed that she wasn't doing a good job. At least in her opinion. While she didn't show that much interest, she still hadn't shown that she was bored at her little house tour, though Twilight was still feeling really nervous. Most of the time she had just mostly nodded, or given a short reply. Of course, she asked few questions, like where she was sleeping. "She probably is that way so she doesn't seem too rude," Twilight thought to herself nervously when she started going through other possibilities. She even started to feel small drops of sweat forming at the back of her head. “Can I see it?” Star suddenly asked Twilight while looking at her with an interested look. Twilight in turn took a little bit more time to register what Star had asked her as she was maybe bit too focused on where her mind had started to take her. “What? Oh, y-yes. Sure! I would love to!” it wasn't really convincing, but Star seemed to accept that and gave Twilight an appreciative smile. Before either mare had realized it, they had spent most of their time at the laboratory. Twilight had explained to Star about the state the laboratory had been when she had officially moved in, then went on explaining the amount of time it had taken to make the laboratory look the way it probably was before it was abandoned. Star let out a giggle when Twilight went on explaining how Spike had cleaned most of the dust in the laboratory by sneezing small amounts of his fire when he was cleaning the table. “... and then Spike started sneezing quite uncontrollably and before I knew it, the entire room was clean,” she told Star with a wide, humored smile. She then let out an amused, but still just slightly annoyed sigh. “And then we of course had to clean up the ashes and whatever burnt marks there were.” “But that wasn't the end of the craziness that happened here...” Twilight muttered. “How so?” Star asked with raised eyebrow. “Well, it happened two years ago when I...” Twilight started, nervously rubbing her hooves together while looking at them; shifting her gaze between her hooves and Star. “I tried to make some sense from Pinkie's Pinkie Sense...” “Pinkie Sense?” Star asked, wearing a rather confused look on her face. “What kind of a name for a sense is that?” she asked, not really believing what Twilight had said. “Well...” Twilight sighed, her shoulders moving with her. “It is really hard to explain...” With that, Twilight went on about how she tried to make sense from the Pinkie Sense, only to fail quite badly on it and soon just accepting that it was something that she, or anypony else didn't really understand. Even Pinkie couldn't. Star stared at Twilight in disbelief. The story just sounded really unbelievable and bizarre. "Almost bizarre as Pinkie Pie," she thought. All of sudden the door upstairs opened and Spike stepped inside, looking down at the two unicorns. “Hey Twilight,” he called, “Just letting you know that the clock’s almost at five. You’re gonna be late for-” but before Spike could say anymore, Twilight quickly cut him off. “Thanks for letting me know Spike!” she said a bit hurriedly. "Getting late from what?" Star wondered, eying both Spike and Twilight with a raised eyebrow. She quickly put a neutral face when Twilight turned towards her. “Well, I guess we have spent enough time here,” Twilight said. Sounding rather composed than few moments ago. “What you say if I showed you bit more around Ponyville?” she suggested. Star pondered for a moment if this was some kind of test Twilight was giving her, but it didn't seem that way. She decided to go with what Twilight was saying. “I guess,” she replied. “Great!” Twilight grinned happily. “Let’s just dress up and then move on!” Twilight quickly went to the stairs, Star Dust following behind her wondering what the lavender unicorn had in mind. The tour around Ponyville was, for some reason, quite short. At first, Twilight had shown her Rarity’s boutique was and then started showing her around the town, but soon Twilight had suggested that they would head for Sugarcube Corner. “Since it’s kind of cold here and, well, you really should taste their wonderful pastries and desserts!” she recommended, any attempt at subtlety lost. "What are you thinking?" Star wondered. She wasn’t really fond of when somepony would keep something from her. But she decided to play along now. "It really can’t be anything bad…" Soon they were at the building called Sugarcube Corner, and Star Dust could already feel her mouth suddenly watering a bit when she noticed how the building resembled some kind of pastry and the snow on it made it look even more delicious. Inside the shop, her mouth felt even wetter when the smells of various pastries reached her nostrils and the amount that was displayed around the shop. “Oh, hello there Twilight,” greeted Mr. Cake. “I see that you brought a new friend.” He smiled at Star. “Thank you Mr. Cake,” Twilight thanked the earth pony as she took her winter outfit off. “And this here is Star Dust. I met her while we were at Canterlot,” she explained. “Ah yes!” exclaimed Mr. Cake in realization. “Pinkie did mention you.” He pointed at Star, “Nice to meet you then Star Dust. Any friend of Twilight and Pinkie is a friend of mine.” Mr. Cake gave a nervous Star a quick hoofshake. “So, I take it that you’re here for something to eat?” he then asked. “Yes, you could say that.” Twilight smiled before giving Mr. Cake a quick wink, which went unnoticed by Star who was too busy now looking at all the delicious looking confectionaries. “Ah, yes. Of course,” Mr. Cake replied, understanding what Twilight meant. “Why don’t you two try to find yourselves good seats then?” He asked. With that Twilight and Star first got out of their tablecloths and Twilight took them to the closest table. “I hope you’re fine with this.” Twilight said as they seated themselves. For some reason Twilight had decided to take a table at the corner of the shop. “Yeah. I'm fine with this,” Star replied, looking around the shop. She simply couldn't get enough of this place. The smell of the sweets simply was amazing, the pastries themselves looked amazing, which made Star wish she could taste every one of them. “So...” began Star. “Does this place work like any kind of restaurant or can we choose our own-?” Star's question was brought to a quick interruption when a giant pink blur suddenly jumped in front of her eyes and screamed: “SURPRISE!” At the same time, there was a giant “BANG!” and confetti started falling. But Star wasn't that concentrated on either of them since she let out quite loud yelp. “I think we might have scared her,” Pinkie said, when all six of them looked at the frightenly frozen Star Dust on the floor. After a little while of calming down and hearing good chunk of apologies, Star was finally able to calm her speeding heart. “It's-it's alright...” she reassured them again, while feeling ashamed of herself. “You sure?” Twilight asked bit worriedly. “We really didn't know that you might get scared like that.” “Scared?” Star tried to shrug off the moment as it was nothing. “I wasn't that scared.” She tried to laugh convincingly. “Just... taken by surprise.” “I don't know.” Rainbow smirked. “It looked more likely as somepony got scared out of their living horse shoes,” Rainbow teasingly commented, to which Applejack and Pinkie Pie let out small giggles. “Not true!” Star tried to defend herself, while her face was starting to feel a bit warm. “I just didn't know that all of you were planning on something like that...” “Well of course silly!” Pinkie grinned, suddenly appearing right next to Star and wrapping her hoof around her shoulder. “Then what kind of surprise it would be if you knew about it already?” “We are sorry if we scared you a bit,” Fluttershy apologized while Star still tried to show that it was nothing, trying to keep some shreds of her pride. “But, we were hoping to give you a good welcoming party.” “A welcoming party?” Star repeated the words, like she wasn't expecting something like that. “For me?” “Well of course!” Rainbow exclaimed. “Can't have a new friend without at least some kind of party!” “I'm... I'm your friend?” Star asked, almost in disbelief. “Well, you are friend of Twilight are you not?” Rarity asked. Star nodded slightly. “Well then that means you are our friend as well. And this is a perfect opportunity to get to know each other perfectly,” she explained happily. “And get to know EVERYPONY!” Pinkie then exclaimed, taking Star off guard again. “Huh!?” “COME ON EVERYPONY! IT'S TIME TO PAAAARRTYYY!” With that, the door of Sugarcube Corner was pretty much slammed open and ponies started to pour in and getting close to scaring Star again. With that, the welcoming party for Star Dust had started. The party certainly had been one of its kind as there was loud music, lots of dancing and many games, but Star Dust didn't really feel like doing any of those things. At first, she had spent her time with Twilight, but then she had left her alone, hoping that she might make some new acquaintances. “It is good to see another fellow Canterlot pony, and a unicorn for that matter.” Star had at some point found herself talking with somepony named Lyra Heartstrings, who said that she was originally from Canterlot. She had found herself quite surprised when she had heard that beside Twilight, someone else from Canterlot was already living in Ponyville. “Yeah...” Star said, not really sure how to reply to Lyra's comment. “How long have you been living here exactly?” “Hmmmm...” Lyra tapped her hoof to her chin. “Maaaybe three or four years now. Been living with Bon Bon about two and a half years now,” Lyra said, shrugging a bit. “I see...” Star finished awkwardly, hoping to change the subject quickly, feeling that she might make things a bit uncomfortable for Lyra. “It's really funny how your life changes when you meet somepony special for you, don't you agree?” Lyra asked. “Uuuh... I... I guess...” Star muttered. “I never really had anypony “special” for me...” “Not ever?” Lyra asked, puzzled. “How is that possible? You certainly look like somepony who would have a lot of ponies chasing you down.” Star just looked at Lyra awkwardly, while feeling herself starting to blushing from her comment. No one had ever said anything like that to her. “I hope this doesn't count as you hitting on me?” Star joked awkwardly, hoping to ease the tension that had started slowly taking over her. Lyra then let out good hearted laugh and suddenly wrapped her hoof around Star’s shoulder. "Don't any of these ponies know about personal space?" Star wondered as she had already had enough of this gesture, which had already happened few times at this party. “That was a good one.” Lyra chuckled. “But no worries, I'm not hitting on you. I can't cheat on Bons because if I do...” She shuddered. “Well, it certainly wouldn't be healthy.” Star decided to give out a small chuckle of her own. “I bet...” After spending little bit longer with Lyra, Star soon found herself talking with Rarity, who started to talk about Canterlot's latest happenings and then proudly told Star a bit about her work at Ponyville as a fashionista and the amount of fame she was slowly gaining. “...I still can't believe I had to make the costumes for Manehattan's mayor and his wife for their wedding anniversary,” Rarity explained excitedly. “It was like a dream come true to be part of something so romantic!” “I'm sure it was,” Star said, interested. However, before she could continue her conversation, Rainbow suddenly cut between them. “Oh come on Star!” she exclaimed, “You gotta do more than just talking to everypony! That's not what the party is about!” “Then what else can I do then?” Star asked, confused. She had never been in a “party” that was directly meant for her. At least not in this kind of party. “Please Rainbow Dash, it is a bit rude to interrupt somepony's conversation,” Rarity commented a bit distastefully on Rainbow's actions, but the pegasi ignored her and was grinning at Star. “I might have few ideas...” "How did I get myself into this?" Star thought to herself almost sadly as she sat on a chair and stared at the many, many mugs of Apple Family Cider before her. While she always enjoyed a good mug or two of cider, this was where she drew the line. “The rules are quite simple,” Rainbow began explaining with a smug grin on her lips. “The first one who passes out, loses. So, are you ready?” “Do I really have to?” Star asked, her voice telling everypony that she wasn't fond of the idea. And she also didn't really like to have pretty much everypony looking at them. “Well of course not,” Rainbow replied, but Star didn't like the tone the pegasi used. “Unless you're a chicken!” she said in challenging tone. “Or are you saying that you Canterlot types can't take a drink?” That certainly did the trick. “Oh I'll show you a Canterlot type!” Star answered to the challenge and then drank her first cider mug before Rainbow could react. “Now that's more like it!” With that Rainbow drank her own mug dry. And then the competition was on. Both Rainbow and Star drank down their ciders, not wanting to give up. At first, neither of them showed any signs that the cider was affecting them, but after almost twentieth mug, things were turning different. “Still *hic* feeling like *hic* going?” Rainbow asked drunkenly. She was having a hard time keeping her mind focused on one thing and keeping her eyes open. But the thought of winning was still strong enough to keep her going. The same could be said about Star Dust. “Al *hic* ways,” she said as she raised her next mug; it had become quite hard to use her magic, and it was also wearing her greatly. But the mug’s movements had become slow and suddenly the mug stopped moving and Star was looking down on the floor. “Huh? Can't take it anymore?” Rainbow asked, trying to get a reaction from the unicorn, but got nothing. “There! *hic* Guesh she wasn't up to it!” Rainbow said, or more likely mumbled. “But put up a good figh...” With that Rainbow simply passed out and dropped herself onto the floor. However, Star suddenly moved and got up. “Guess that *hic* makes me the... the winner?” Star asked with drunken grin on her face. But the expression soon changed from victorious to sickly. “Might somepony tell me where the little fillies room is?” She suddenly asked. Pinkie then quickly pointed at the back of the room and Star became a blur. A little while later, Star was seen again, but she was much more sluggish than before and soon found out that maybe the dance floor wasn't such good idea anymore. Soon, before Star had realized it, the party was over. It had left her a bit disappointed that she didn't fully take the fun out of it immediately, but it still had left some memories for her. “If I can remember any of this in the morning...” she said to herself, to which Twilight, who was helping her to stay up, chuckled. She was happy that this day had gone perfectly, without the few missteps, and was looking forward for tomorrow.