//------------------------------// // 3. Face the Ponies // Story: Face the Unexpected // by Hakuno //------------------------------// The smell of food woke Daniel up, he could already taste the pancakes being made in the kitchen. ‘Wait a minute’. He abruptly opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. The room had a weird color between brown and pink, and two walls had been replaced with full bookshelves. “I’m going to kill the responsible of this nightmare” Daniel stood up, walked to the door and opened it, and instantly he closed it and ran to the side of the bed where his bow and quiver were. He took one arrow and held it against his torso in a defensive pose. The door opened slowly and a big fat snake with legs came in, glaring at Daniel with concern. “Don’t come any closer! I know how to use this!” Daniel felt his hands shiver, but paid no mind to them and only stared at the purple snake, watching its every movement. “Woah dude, calm down” Of course, it can talk too. By this point it wouldn’t surprise him if donkeys could talk as well. “I’m pretty sure that’s not how you use an arrow” “Shut up!” He wouldn’t ever admit it, but he had ofidiophobia. Snakes terrified him. “Go away! Shoo!” The reptile moved its green spines in irritation and narrowed its eyes. “I’ve killed things ten times your size just with an arrow! I’m not afraid of you!” But he was. “Oh I’m sure you are.” It shrugged. “But I’m not going to harm you, dude. Twilight sent me to tell you that breakfast is served.” So it was the princess’ slave? “The name’s Spike, by the way.” The so called Spike turned around and left the room. Daniel could hear its claws going downstairs. It took him a full five minutes to stop the shivering. “So that thing is the famous Spike?” Daniel remembered that last night Twilight told him that she had an assistant, and that he was in another mare’s house for a sleepover or something. But what she had failed to tell him was that the said assistant was the fattest snake he had ever seen. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was scared. But he couldn’t just hide in that room forever, maybe he could sneak for the front door without them noticing him. So he put his vest on, took his bow and quiver and carefully opened the door. Slowly and as soundless as he could, Daniel went downstairs with his bow and an arrow prepared for self defense. When he finally reached the bottom of the stairs, he could hear some voices coming from what he guessed was the kitchen. “But it’s true! He was as scared of me as a filly in the Everfree Forest!” Now that was rude. “I’m not saying that you’re lying, Spike” That was the voice of the princess. “But maybe you just startled him, or he thought you were some kind of threat.” “You didn’t see him, he was about to pee his clothes.” “Say that again and I’m going to cross your heart!” Daniel was suddenly behind Spike with his bow ready to shoot. But suddenly the arrow started to glow with an unnatural color purple and made its way away from his grab. It took him a few seconds to realize that the winged unicorn had its horn shinning with the same glow. “Daniel, I expect you to give me a really good excuse for threatening my number one assistant” By the time he could react, all the arrows that once had been in his quiver were now floating in thin air. The human was speechless, he didn’t have a good reason. And now, without the only weapon he had in this world and being in front of the purple reptile, he felt helpless. One thing was magical talking horses -he was getting used to it-, or the possibility of being hunted by a hungry griffon –he could live with that-, and even the fact that he was in a strange new world away from everything he ever knew. But being in front of an obviously irritated snake with the ability to run and smart enough to talk, without any mean of defense, Daniel finally felt his heart in his throat. He fell on the floor in a sitting position, all the color his skin had vanished, and on top of all, he wasn’t able to move. He was terrified. Cold sweat running through his body. He didn’t even try to hide that he was shivering and his breath was getting faster every second. “Hey dude, are you all right?” Spike tried to short distance with Daniel, but he only gave one step and the human started to go backwards using his hands and feet as fast as he could until he hit a wall. “STAY AWAY FROM ME!” Twilight trotted to Spike’s side and told him to get back to the kitchen. Then she slowly approached to the human. “Daniel, calm down, Spike’s not going to hurt you.” “You didn’t tell me your assistant was a fucking snake!” “Dragon” “What?” Twilight tried to smile at him. “Spike is not a snake, he is a dragon... A baby dragon, for that matter” Daniel looked at the kitchen, where Spike was watching him with a concern look in his eyes. He then looked at Twilight, who was trying to pull the most comprehensive face she could. He realized that in this position he was at eye level with Twilight, these damn horses sure were small. He let out the breath he didn’t even know he was holding. Now that he thought on it, Spike didn’t look like a snake at all, he was more like a crocodile standing in two legs and with a round snout. Daniel suddenly felt stupid. It still didn’t make him feel comfortable, but knowing that Spike wasn’t a snake as he thought made him feel way better. He slowly stood up. “S-So it’s not going to attack me?” “He” Twilight corrected. “And no, he’s as friendly as the next pony, well, unless you make him angry” The princess suppressed a giggle. “Now, come and have breakfast” Daniel nodded and followed the mare to the kitchen. He never stopped looking at Spike’s direction, who tried his best to not say anything. ‘He’s not a snake’ Daniel repeated to himself over and over again. ~~~~~~~~ “So, why do I need to meet your friends?” Daniel and Twilight were going to a place called Carrousel Boutique. He noticed how there was a lot of small horses of different colors everywhere, even a few donkeys here and there. All of them looking at him, some in awe, some with fear, and a particular green unicorn seemed to be having an orgasm. “Because I don’t know how long will it take to figure out how to return you home” She said with a weird tone of excitement in her voice. “And I need to tell my friends why I’m not going to be able to hang out with them. Though Applejack and Fluttershy already know it.” “Ok...” He scratched idly the back of his head. “So... I’d like to ask you something, but I don’t want to sound rude” Twilight pondered this for a moment, and then smiled at him. “Please do ask me anything, since you came here the only one answering questions have been you.” “Yeah, well...” He glanced at the ponies around him and then looked at Twilight again. “I noticed that you’re the only winged unicorn here...” “Oh, that...” She cleared her throat. “That’s because I’m an alicorn, not a ‘winged unicorn’. And with me, there are only 4 alicorns that we know” Daniel rubbed his chin with two fingers, Twilight found that interesting. “And I suppose that all of you are royalty, yes?” Twilight nodded. “The King, the Queen...” “Oh no, no” The former winged unicorn, now alicorn, interrupted him. “There are no queens nor kings in Equestria, only princesses and princes.” She guided Daniel through the central square of Ponyville. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are the rulers of Equestria and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza –call her Cadence- is the ruler of the Crystal Empire with my brother.” Daniel didn’t need to think more than a few seconds to notice something wrong. “You said that with you there are only 4 alicorns-“ “My brother is a unicorn” “So what you say is that the only alicorns known in this world are all mares?” “Well, yes.” Twilight never thought about it, but now it sounded odd. “And you rule this town?” Twilight stopped and waved her hoof to let him know that they finally came to their destination. If the buildings in Ponyville were really weird for Daniel, this one was the triangle among circles. Its shape reminded him to a military tent, but instead of having a square area, it was circular. “No, I don’t” Twilight entered the building making a little bell ring. “Good day, how may I- Twilight, darling!” A white unicorn ran with the intention to hug her friend, but stopped when she saw the weirdest thing in her life. It was tall, tall enough to make it duck a little in order to enter through the door. It had short brown hair and black eyes, almost as black as coal. And it was wearing a black suit and a brown vest. And for some reason, the unicorn blushed. “Hi Rarity, this is Daniel, he’s a human” Twilight seemed oblivious to her friend’s sudden red face. “Daniel, this is Rarity, bearer of the Element of Generosity and one of my best friends.” “Pleased to meet you, Miss Rarity” He ignored the part of the element as he thought it wasn’t important. “Hello, darling” The white mare turned around and started to walk to another room. “Please do come in and make yourself comfortable, I’m going to bring some tea” She said moving her tail from one side to another. Was that mare... Nah... Daniel nodded and sat in a nearby couch, he still needed to get used to the small size of everything. A few minutes later the white unicorn returned holding a plate with some cups of tea with her magic. The color of this pony’s magic was blue, Daniel wondered if each unicorn had a different color in their magic. “What brings you today to my boutique, Twilight?” Rarity sat suspiciously to Daniel’s side. Twilight sat in a small cushion in front of them. “Well, as you can see, Daniel here is a human, something that as far as I know doesn’t even exist in this world” She heard her friend mutter something that sounded like ‘so I noticed’ but didn’t think about it. “So he’s living in the library with me, because together we’re going to find a way to return him to his home” “But where do you come from?” Rarity asked to the human, who was trying to be as far as possible of her. “Well, we call our planet, Earth.” Daniel expected them to wonder in silence for a few minutes, but then he only could see a purple screen known as Twilight Sparkle. “Earth? That’s how Chancellor Puddinghead wanted to name Equestria before, well, before somepony else named this land Equestria! “You know what this mean? It means that we may have our first clue!” The alicorn was hovering in the air beaming, not letting the human or the unicorn to say a word. “Oh, once I tell Rainbow and Pinkie about this we’re going to read every single book about it!” There was silence, and the princess felt a little embarrassed, so she landed in her cushion and cleared her throat. “Well, I don’t want to hold you back, but since Daniel is a guest in our world, I’d like to at least make something for him.” Rarity was already levitating a measuring tape. “Please stand up and let me take your measurements” “Oh you don’t have to-“ “Yes I do. I simply cannot let you leave Equestria without something to let you remind us!” Daniel sighed in defeat. He knew that the faster he accepted, the faster it would be over. ~~~~~~~~ Daniel and Twilight walked in silence through the streets. He had never experienced sexual harassment before, but ten minutes with that crazy unicorn made him think that that’s how it felt. “Our next stop is Sugar Cube Corner” Twilight pointed to an even weirder building, it looked like a lot of pastries glued together with cream and liquid chocolate. “Pinkie Pie lives here. She can be... random at times” The alicorn allowed Daniel to be the first to enter the building, he wondered how someone could live in such a weird house, but shrugged and opened the door. He was received with streamers and confetti directly at his face and a loud ‘SURPRISE’ that seemed to come from a crowd. As soon as he opened his eyes to see what was going on, a pink pony was bouncing in front of him. “Hi! My name is Pinkie Pie! Well, actually it’s Pinkamena Diane Pie, but everypony calls me Pinkie Pie! I saw you last night walking with Twilight and I thought that I have never seen you before, in fact, I’ve never seen anything like you! But since you were walking with Twilight I thought that you must be from a very very far land, and that you were visiting Ponyville! And that means that you’re new in Ponyville! And if you’re new in Ponyville it means that you don’t know anypony, and that made me feel sad because that means that you don’t have friends here! Well maybe Twilight is your friend since you were walking with her last night, but I couldn’t be sure, so I decided to throw you a party! Because what says ‘You’re new here and we all want to be your friends’ than a welcome party?!” Daniel was trying with all his will to not grab her and make her stop jumping. “Pleased to meet you, Miss Pinkie” The name was the only thing he could hear from the crazy mare that was still jumping. “And thank you for this party...” He turned to look at Twilight, who only shrugged, smiled and walked to a nearby couch. “Oh you don’t have to thank me, silly! This is your party after all!” She pulled a cupcake from what Daniel thought it would be a table hidden behind the crazy pink pony. “Take this, make a wish, blow the candle and that wish will come true!” He took the cupcake with a hand and quickly blew the candle, not even thinking in a wish, he only wanted to make that mare to go away. And as if on cue, Pinkie started to bounce to another part of the room to talk with other ponies. Daniel narrowed his eyes and just went where Twilight was and sat to her side. “I thought we only were going to tell them our situation and head back to the library” “That was the plan,” Twilight said after finishing the last of punch in her cup. “But Pinkie threw you a party. It would be rude of us to just leave, wouldn’t it?” He sighed and put his hands on his face. “Besides, now we don’t need to find Rainbow Dash, she’s already here.” He knew that he had to look up, he could feel a smooth breeze that came every few seconds, as if someone was trying to annoy him with a paper fan. And so he did. In front of him was a light blue pegasus with rainbow mane. ‘I suppose the name came with the mane’. “So this is the hueman Pinkie was talking about” The pegasus was trying to hide her surprise by rubbing her chin with a hoof. “My name is Daniel, pleased to meet you, Miss Rainbow” He said trying not to sound too rude. “Heh, just call me Rainbow, or Dash, or The amazing Rainbow Danger Dash” She said making a loop in the air and trying to inflate her chest in an attempt of show her pride on herself. Daniel rolled his eyes. “Very well Miss Rainbow” He heard a small giggle coming from Twilight, but he ignored it. “Though it’s nice to meet you and all that, I’m not going to be here for a long time” He motioned to Twilight. “I’m living in the library for the time being until we find a way for me to return home” He was getting tired of that last sentence. “You don’t know how to return to your home?” Daniel heard the voice of the pink pony. How did she get there without him noticing? “Indeed, we don’t know how I came here either” He said starting to feel tired. “That doesn’t mean you have to hit the books as Twilight does” Rainbow said still in mid air. Daniel wondered if she ever touched the ground. “Since you’re here, you should have some fun” “Well, it’s not that easy, Rainbow” Twilight finally decided to join the conversation. “I need him here so I can study him” “Why don’t you call Princess Celestia? She might know something ‘bout these humans” “That’s... actually a good idea...” Twilight scolded herself for not thinking about that. Daniel raised an eyebrow. “If none of you ever heard about humans, why this Princess Celestia would?” He immediately regretted his question when three mares looked at him with unreadable faces. “What?” “Well, let’s go back to the library” The alicorn stood up with an expression on her face fixed of enthusiasm and concern. “We’re going to send a letter to the Princess” Twilight started to walk to the front door motioning him to follow her. "But you said it'd be rude to leave the party..." It wasn't that he wanted to fave fun surrounded by overcolored horses, it was that he had a bad feeling about this Princess Celestia.