Seven ponies and one dragon were currently seated around a table in the Ponyville library. After the fight with the dragon Twilight – with the help of Fluttershy – had convinced the strange pegasus who called himself Sanji to come back with them, at least for the night. Rarity had awoken from her unconsciousness just when they were entering the town and Rainbow Dash seemed to be back to her usual energetic self as well – even though she still stared out of the window and into the night from time to time.
Spike had been sleeping by the door when they reached the library, but was immediately wide awake and asked worried questions about the new pony, where they had been and why it had taken so long. He got even more worried when they told them that they – and most of all, Rarity – had been attacked by a dragon. When he heard that the new pony had saved them – and most of all, Rarity – he stared at Sanji in disbelief and wide-eyed idolization.
As soon as they settled down, however, Twilight started to bombard the stallion with questions. “I have so many questions! How did you do that? What did you do, anyway? I have never seen anypony move like that. What happened to your horseshoes? I’m sure you were wearing some kind of horseshoes. What were those made of, anyway, rubies? And what was that smoke? Ohmygosh, there’s so much to know!” Her friends leaned in a little closer as well, curious of the answers themselves.
Sanji shifted around a little, trying to get comfortable with the sitting position his new body demanded. “I’m not sure how to answer some of those questions. The smoke came from my cigarettes; I already gathered that those are not very common around here. I think those… horseshoes had something to do with it, too, but I don’t know what exactly happened with those.”
“You mentioned something about `cigarettes´ when you came here a few hours ago, right? Is that what you needed those pieces of paper for?” Spike said.
“I remember,” Twilight added. “You had something in your mouth when you were fighting that dragon. Was that the paper? But that wouldn’t make any sense… unless there’s something inside the paper. And the smoke would mean that whatever it was must have been burning. But why would you do that? Was it even supposed to be burning?”
She had floated a notebook and quill over to the table and was already feverishly writing away. The other ponies remained quiet for the moment, letting the professional student handle the interrogation. That didn’t mean, of course, that they weren’t all at least as curious about the answers as Twilight.
“They are supposed to be burning, or actually the leaves inside the paper are supposed to be. It’s an addiction, and an unhealthy one, too. Normally cigarettes contain tobacco, but since I couldn’t find any of that I had to look for a replacement.” Sanji spread his wings a little and craned his neck to ruffle through the feathers around the base of his right wing. “I was actually slightly worried if it would turn out to be poisonous, but something about those flowers just seemed like they would work… Ah.”
From between the feathers a single rolled up piece of paper fell to the ground. Sanji picked it up with a wing and set it down on the table for the rest of the ponies to see. Twilight could see something blue at one end of it.
“That… That’s Poison Joke. Why would you… How did you even get the idea to use Poison Joke of all things?”
“Is that what it’s called? I needed some kind of substitute for the cigarettes.” Sanji took another look at the blue leaves spilling from the paper. “The color is a little strange, but it works. I don’t know what it did to my fee- hooves, though.”
“The effects of Poison Joke are completely unpredictable. Usually they are more of a hindrance, though. I don’t know much about it, but it shouldn’t work this fast either, or wear off on its own.” She walked around the table and began examining the stallion. “How did you pick it up? Did you have direct contact to it? Did you notice any changes?”
“It didn’t seem dangerous, so I picked it up with my wings; carefully, of course. The hoof thing was unexpected, but beside that I don’t feel any different.”
Sanji backed away a little as Twilight tried to spread his wing. The unicorn tried it once more, but quickly gave up.
“Well, if you’ve been poison-joked, it will probably not show before tomorrow morning, so we can’t really do anything but wait. Aloe and Lotus always keep the remedy at their spa since last time, so that won’t be a problem. Still, if that cigarette already had an effect on you it might cancel out the actual Poison Joke. If that’s true then we have a new cure for Poison Joke that can be used before the joke even shows.” Twilight’s notebook was floating in front of her again and she was taking notes as fast as she could. “Not to mention that the effects of that cigarette seemed different from normal Poison Joke, positive even.” She sighed. “Of course we have no way to prove that, so in the end it’s all just a theory.”
“So let’s talk about you.” She looked up from her notebook and back to Sanji. “When we found you, you said that a bear attacked you. Rarity also told me that she found you inside a strangely shaped crater. What exactly happened?”
“Me and my friends were attacked by this guy at the Shabondy Archipelago. He was incredibly strong, and we had no chance to win. Our captain told us all to run away and meet up later at the ship. Then this bear guy, Kuma, appeared out of nowhere and started to make everyone… I don’t know. They just disappeared! He probably sent them of somewhere like he did with me. I don’t know if he got all of us, but it wouldn’t surprise me.” Sanji seemed like he could break down any moment, but he kept his composure.
Twilight couldn’t make sense of any of it yet. “Your captain? I thought you were a chef.”
Sanji took a deep breath and braced himself for the reaction. “I’m a pirate. I’m the chef for our crew, the Strawhat Pirates, and we’re trying to sail the Grand Line so our captain can become the Pirate King.”
“A pirate?” Pinkie Pie let out an audible gasp. “You mean like in those stories that Rarity always reads?”
Rarity tried to cut her off with a forced laugh. “Ahaha, what stories? I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, darling.” Her eyes shifted from side to side.
“I mean your romantic novels, silly.” Pinkie Pie put a hoof around her and started to gesticulate with the other one. “You know, those books about tough stallions and adventures and romance between-“
“Oh, those old books!” Rarity said a bit too loud, trying to free herself from Pinkie’s hoof at the same time. “I don’t think those are very accurate, so let’s never talk of them again.”
Twilight did her best to ignore the two. “You said something about a Grand Line, but I’ve never heard about a place like that. I’ve never heard of a ´Shabondy Archipelago´, either.”
Applejack took a step closer to join the discussion. “Maybe you could ask the Princess. If anypony knows about that, it would be her.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Twilight said. “We can’t just bother Princess Celestia with something like this. We’re in a library after all, I’m sure I can find something out about this Grand Line.” Her face brightened. “That does remind me of something, though. I should write a report to the Princess.“ She squeed and tried to locate her assistant. “Spike? Can you take a letter?”
“Way ahead of you, Twilight.” The baby dragon already held a quill and an empty scroll in his hands, ready to start writing.
“You’re the best, Spike. Now, take a letter… Uhm.” She stopped in her tracks, trying to find the right words. “Take a letter… Ah, I got it!”
Dear Princess Celestia,
No matter how hard you try, there might be a time when it seems impossible to help your friends, but that is no reason to lose hope. Even if you can’t help a friend, another pony might just be able to.
Today my friends and I met a stallion who seemed quite strange at first, but stood up for us when we needed help the most. Even though he barely knew us he put his life on the line for us and – as much as it scares me – without him I could have lost one of my friends. There’s still a lot that we don’t know about him and I hope to find out more about him before he leaves Ponyville again.
I’ll write another report once I’ve found out more about him and the place he came from. I have never even heard of the place he claims to have come from or any of the other things he mentioned and I feel like there’s a lot to know.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle
She handed the letter over to Spike and Sanji watched with interest as the dragon simply burned it with a wisp of green fire.
“Isn’t it a bit late to send the Princess a letter?” Applejack spoke up. ”Ah mean, Ah know she’s important and busy and all that, but she's got to sleep some time, right?”
“Don’t worry, Applejack.” Twilight gave her friend a warm smile. It was nice to talk about more normal things for a while. “The letters don’t just appear in front of the Princess if she’s busy or asleep. Usually they end up in a certain spot where she can pick them up and read them as soon as she has the time.” She stopped for a second to let that information sink in and turned her attention back to their guest. “Anyway, now that that’s out of the way I still have so many questions! Is this Grand Line-“
Her interrogation was interrupted by a low rumble. Everypony turned their heads in the direction the sound had come from. “I’m sorry,” mumbled Fluttershy, keeping her head down. “It’s just that I was really busy taking care of a new animal earlier today, so when you and Rarity came by I hadn’t had lunch and-“
Another stomach could be heard, this time from the other side of the table. Twilight blushed a little. “I guess all this running made me a bit hungry, too. Spike, I know it’s getting late, but could you fix us some quick dinner? It doesn’t have to be much, just some sandwiches would be fine.”
Spike started to move towards the library’s kitchen with a bit off mumbled protest, but Sanji had already passed him and was now blocking his way. “If you don’t mind, I can take care of that. It’s the least I can do after you offered to let me stay here. Just show me were everything is and I’ll prepare some real dinner.” And find out just what ponies eat in the process, he thought.
Twilight and her friends had followed him into the kitchen. “The least you can do? You saved Rarity from a dragon! Letting you spend a night in the library is the least we can do!”
Sanji continued finding his way around the kitchen, inspecting spices, ingredients and tools. “I really don’t mind making some food; I am a chef, after all. It’s my calling. Whoa!” He had opened another door to find a whole cupboard filled to the top with apples.
“That’s a lot of apples,” Applejack remarked.
Twilight turned around to her, grimacing a little. ”We… have a few left. Don’t get me wrong, Applejack, it’s really nice of you to give me some apples whenever I help you out, but… We’re just two ponies – one pony and a baby dragon, actually – and between the two of us and eating out occasionally and all of Pinkie’s parties… We eat a lot of apples when we’re at home.”
“Well, why didn’t y’all just say so? Anyway, now we’re all here, so how about we help you get rid of some of those there apples?”
Sanji pulled a few apples out of the cupboard and examined them from all sides. “These are really high quality. I’m sure I can make something out of these.”
Great, Twilight thought, more apples.
Twilight looked over the table in front of her. She couldn’t prove it, but the plates seemed cleaner than they had been an hour ago. Maybe she should repeat the experiment, just to be sure.
Dinner seemed like a dream and some of the details were already slipping from her mind. Objectively, dinner had been apples. But saying that would be like calling Princess Celestia a pony. She had never eaten anything like it and, judging from the state her friends were in, neither had they. This stallion – Sanji, she corrected herself – had somehow managed to make two different sauces based on apples, plus one seasoning. The seasoned salad was also a good part apples, mixed with lettuce, some daisies and lemons, which Twilight didn’t even remember buying. He had made three apple pies for dessert, pies the Princesses would have fought over, and which made the caramel apples almost unnecessary. When they told Sanji that dragons could eat the same food as ponies, but preferred gemstones, he picked an especially big and juicy apple. Then he scooped up some gemstone dust from the bottom of Spike’s collection – the dust that would normally just get blown away and gather on the books – and mixed it with the leftover caramel to create a gem-coated apple that looked delicious even to a pony like her.
“Can we keep him?” Pinkie Pie lay on her back, all of her limbs spread out on the floor. “Everypony in favor raise their hoof.”
Applejack was lying right next to her. “Ah don’t think Ah can raise my hoof anymore. Though, if that’s the best that can happen to apples, I’ll gladly run Sweet Apple Acres for the rest of my life.”
“If you do decide to ´keep him` I hope you don’t mind if I borrow him for a day,” Rarity said. She chuckled to herself. “I always thought it would take a miracle to teach my Sweetie Belle how to cook. I certainly never expected to find one.”
They kept chatting for a bit, while Sanji went back to the kitchen to do the dishes, but they soon decided that it was time to go back to their homes. Spike had already gone to sleep and everypony was tired and exhausted by the day. Twilight showed Sanji the guest bed where he could sleep and went to her own bed.
It had been a crazy day, but tomorrow would just be a quiet and normal day of studying and showing a new pony the town.