Not long after leaving Fluttershy’s cottage, the samurai and his kind yellow friend had reached a building that was unlike any the man had ever seen. Unlike the simple, square, alabaster buildings of his home, this structure was round, its walls covered in eye-catching patterns and embellished with ornate fixtures. To the humble man, this looked more like a palace than any shop he’d ever seen.
Fluttershy approached the flamboyant purple door, and held her hoof up to knock on it. The curtains over these windows are drawn shut, the samurai observed, perhaps this friend is not here?
When Fluttershy rapped on the door, it did not meet her hoof solidly as expected, but gave way and opened, revealing the shop to be dark and empty.
“Oh my!” Fluttershy said, “maybe she went out to do some errands… Still, it is unlike her to leave her door open… We’d better make sure everything’s alright.” The samurai followed her inside while she looked around in the dark, and called out for her friend. “Rarity! A-Are you in here? Is everything oka-“
Suddenly, the room was filled with light as the curtains flew open, and something jumped towards the samurai from behind a table.
Reflexively, the samurai’s hand went to the hilt of his sword, ready to defend himself and his new ally against whatever might have attacked her friend, but the blur stopped a few feet before it would have collided with him.
“SURPRISE!” wailed a high-pitched, excited voice, coming from the pinkest thing the man had seen in his entire life. “Welcome to Equestria, Samurai Jack!”
The samurai took a few cautious steps back, hand still resting on his sword, albeit not as tensely as it had been a few moments prior. For the first time since the room was suddenly illuminated, he had a chance to observe his surroundings. The eccentric purple walls were covered in all manner of colorful bits of paper and bulbous round objects that floated in the air. “W-What is this?” he asked, bewildered by the sudden onslaught of color and the exuberant presence standing before him.
“It’s a ‘Welcome to Equestria’ party, silly! I made it just for you, Jack!” the pink pony exclaimed, wearing a smile too impossibly large for her face.
“You… What? H-How did you… that isn’t-“
“-Your name? Of course it’s your name silly! You’re only, like, the crackalackinest, show-stoppingest, back-to-the-pastest samurai EVER! DUH! I knew you were you were coming when my Pinkie Sense started acting up! It started when my head bobbed, then my tail twitched, my legs kicked and my kidneys itched, and that could only mean one thing! Samurai Jack was in Equestria!”
“Yes, and I’m afraid when she came over to tell me about it, I made the mistake of informing her that you, Fluttershy, dear, had dropped by and had given me a very large robe that was in need of a few repairs,” said a new voice, with a crisp, refined accent that the samurai was unfamiliar with. “I suppose she thought you would be picking it up shortly, and before I could even breathe a word of protest, my shop was filled with colorful streamers and Pinkie raced me under a table. One learns, after spending as much time around her as I have, to accept Pinkie Pie’s little tirades and wait for them to blow over. I apologize for her excessive fervor mister Samurai… erm, Jack, was it?”
‘Samurai Jack’ looked to the new pony, with a coat of alabaster, a royal purple mane, and a horn—a unicorn, he remembered— and gave her a calm smile, and bowed slightly. “It is no trouble, Miss. We are just glad you are not hurt,” said Jack.
Fluttershy walked up to his side. “Oh yes, when we saw that your door was open we were worried something had happened,” she said.
“Well I’m very sorry to have worried you two, but some ponies,” she shot a look over to Pinkie, who gave a large apologetic smile, “simply must throw a surprise party for absolutely anypony that comes through town.” She gave an exasperated sigh, and her horn started to glow a soft, pale blue. The samurai was unsure what to make of this, until he saw a large mass of white cloth float from beyond his vision; the cloth was shrouded in the same glow as her horn. Interesting… she must me manipulating the cloth with her horn somehow, perhaps through wizardry?
“I’ve finished the repairs to your robe, Jack,” she said, as the bundle of cloth floated over to him. He unfurled it and inspected the seamstress’ work. His robe looked better than it ever had; the robe was clean, the fabric was whiter, the holes were patched, and it felt sturdier than ever before. However, there was one detail that was starkly different: the grey trim that had lined the edges of his robe had been replaced with a deep purple trimming, the same as the seamstress’ own hair color, the samurai noted. “And I made a few alterations, I do hope they are to your liking,” said the mare.
Not one to look a gift… robe in the erm… trim, Jack bowed once again, and thanked the seamstress for her exquisite work. The mare blushed ever-so-slightly at the samurai’s praise, made easily visible by her bright white coat.
“I am very sorry; I have no way to compensate you for this, Miss…”
“You may call me Rarity, dear. And perish the thought! I wouldn’t accept payment for the opportunity to work on such a unique garment, especially since you’ve only just arrived here. Consider this time to be ‘on the house,’ as it were.” Jack smiled, and thanked her yet again for her benevolence.
“WAIT!” The shrill voice of Pinkie Pie came yet again, before she dashed back behind the table.
The ponies (and human) in the store looked to each other, confused as to what set Pinkie off this time, when the overly-pink mare came rocketing from behind the table once more, stopping just before the samurai. In her outstretched hoof, she balanced a sizeable round box, wrapped, and with a bow on top.
“I got you a present, Jackie!” He held out his hands and she placed the box on top of them. “Go ahead, open it!” All eyes in the room were on him, watching him expectantly.
Feeling slightly uncomfortable accepting these hospitable creatures’ overwhelming generosity, he hesitantly undid the bow, and removed the wrapping paper. Also lending to his hesitancy was his weariness of this odd pink pony, not wanting another surprise.
When he lifted the box’s lid, the samurai was dumbfounded. Inside the box was a round object made of woven straw that Jack immediately recognized as his preferred type of traveling headwear. Wherever he went, however many miles, over whatever kind of terrain, he always felt the journey went better with one of these straw hats atop his head.
The stoic samurai was even further at a loss for words than normal. He smiled, it was a gentle, genuine thing, and felt a small tear well up in the corner of his eye. He was so struck by the kindness and thoughtfulness of this pony, he didn’t even think to ask how she could have known of his fondness for this type of hat, or where she even obtained it. It was all he could do to bow deeply, for what felt like the thousandth time this day, and profess his thanks for the gift.
“Oh it’s no problem, Jackie! Your auntie Pinkie Pie always knows just what to get!” The pink pony hugged the man, which he readily returned.
“Jack, would you like to go to Twilight’s now?” She looked to her friends, smiling sheepishly. “I-If that’s alright with you girls, of course.”
Rarity nodded. “Yes that’s fine, dear. I should probably get back to work anyway, I do have several orders to fill,” she said. “But it was very nice to see you. And it was nice meeting you, mister Jack, even though we practically ambushed you. Again, sorry about that.” She smiled a reserved smile, as did Pinkie.
“Yeah, it was nice meeting you Jackie! We should totally party again sometime!” said the ecstatic pink mare.
“I will… keep that in mind,” said the samurai, none too excited about another surprise.
With that, he and Fluttershy departed for Twilight Sparkle’s treehouse, eager to see if he would be able to return to his home and finish the fight with the Shogun of Sorrow.
As they pair walked, they passed many unique and colorful ponies, which gave the odd-looking samurai a varied number of looks, ranging from questioning glances, to nonchalant gazes, to outright looks of disgust. However, there was one pony which inexplicably caught Jack's eye.
He was an unusually large pony, near eye-level with the samurai. He had a white coat, and a flaming red mane. But what was most unique about this pony was that he was wearing some kind of garment that looked like a tartan skirt. Another unique quality about him was that he had facial hair, and a considerable amount at that. A large, bushy moustache stemmed from furry chops on the side of his head, all a bright red color.
The stallion wore a look that Jack had seen on no other pony thus far: it was a look that only experienced fighters wore. A strong, focused stare that judged and analyzed as it saw. A look that was much like the samurai’s.
As he watched this pony, the samurai was overcome with a feeling of familiarity towards the stallion; Jack felt as though he knew him, or SHOULD know him. The kind of association that one experiences with an unfamiliar-but-familiar face in a dream, a face that one is sure they have never seen before, but cannot rid themselves of their familiarity with it.
The stallion looked over and, when he saw Jack staring, turned around to face him, and shouted "OI!" He spat as he spoke. "WHAT'RE YOU LOOKIN' AT, YE PAJAMA WEARIN' DAISY?!"
Taken aback by the gruff pony's rudeness, the samurai shook his head to clear the odd feeling away, and hurried to catch up with Fluttershy, deciding it would be better to remain ignorant of someone so brash.
When they reached the library, Jack was greeted with the first of two unexpected sights. He had expected the library to look different from buildings he had experienced, as were all of the structures in this town. However, what he saw before him was not a building, but a large tree, with a door, windows, and a balcony, growing right in the middle of town.
How… strange. Surely there are better places to store flammable books besides the inside of a tree? Jack thought.
Fluttershy went up and knocked on the door of the strategically unwise library, and a purple unicorn answered and ushered them inside, revealing the second unexpected sight: a large, white pony, at eye-level with the samurai. Her mane flowed gracefully in an ethereal breeze, and she was clad in minimal, golden regalia.
Fluttershy gasped. “Princess Celestia!” she cried as she bowed. Jack saw this, and, figuring she must be their sovereign, knelt in reverence to the foreign ruler’s position.
“That is quite unnecessary my little pony. And I see you have brought your new friend,” she said, voice bounding with motherly compassion. “Please, come in. There is much to discuss,” she said, gaze wandering to the foreign warrior.