After departing from Photo Finish's hotel, I quickly began to trot my way home. The longer I remained outside, the likelier it was for me to end up in some other shenanigan. As I walked from the hotel, I quickly realized that I had no idea where I was. I looked up and down the street for some sort of familiar landmark, but nothing stuck out in the long, winding street.
I had been in Ponyville for only a week, and even though the town was small... I still got lost rather easily. I've spent the majority of my life in the air, so naturally, I was helpless on the ground. If I ever got lost in Canterlot, I could just fly up, get a birds eye view, and find my way like that, but something in me prevented me from doing the same here in Ponyville. It wasn't my fear of getting caught, I knew if I flew discreetly, I wouldn't draw attention. It was something deeper than that.
In fact, I haven't exactly felt comfortable doing any flying since I left the Wonderbolts. Maybe it just reminds too much of what I left behind, and subconsciously, I'm not comfortable with that. Maybe. I don't know. I'm not a psychiatrist.
As I pondered my mental well being, I noticed an orange figure on what looked like... A scooter slowly approaching. She buzzed her wings at an alarmingly fast rate, which propelled her down the street at a quick speed. She navigated through the foot traffic with commendable agility, using her wings to carve around the passers by, when suddenly, a tall red stallion walked out in front of her, carrying a large wagon full of apples. He turned towards the speeding filly, before his eyes widened in surprise.
"N-nope!" He squawked just as the filly was about to collide, tensing his muscles to prepare for the impact.
However, no such impact was made, and he opened his eyes just in time to see the orange foal slide out from under him, before jumping back onto her scooter. She looked back, a proud smile on her face as she admired her work.
Unfortunately, she didn't see the large rock that stood in front of her, and as she looked back at the startled red stallion, her wheel quickly approached the errant stone.
There was loud crack as the rock made contact with the hard wheel, before the scooter stopped and catapulted the filly high into the air. I noticed the filly was a Pegasus, and as I watched her arch into the air, I expected her to take flight.
She neared the top of her arch, and still failed to regain her bearings, when I noticed her flapping her wings desperately, only to continue falling, which could only mean one thing; she couldn't fly yet.
She was at least 40 feet in the air, and if I didn't do anything, she would have been an orange and red mess against the ground. I began galloping to the point where I thought she would land, before flapping my wings slowly; causing me to hover just slightly above the ground. I turned myself around, readying myself to catch the flailing filly as she tumbled.
She smacked into the center of my chest, knocking the wind out of me, but I managed to wrap my arms around her, stopping her fall. I was about to land, but before I could, I felt a large pain ripple through my back and reverberate through my body. I felt several leafy objects tumble over me as I slammed through a woody surface. Finally, I came to a stop amidst the green spheres, holding the filly safely in my arms.
"MY CABBAGES!" Screamed a horrified pony, who stared at me in shock.
My vision was slightly blurry, and it took me a moment to realize what had happened. I had plowed straight through his cabbage cart, and now lay nestled in a large pile of green vegetables. As I came to my senses, I examined the orange Pegasus in my hooves. She was physically fine, though the traumatized look on her face made it seem as if she had witnessed a murder.
"Hey,". I shook her gently. "Hey, are you alright?"
She blinked rapidly before answering me. "I-I don't know," she said distantly, before slowly looking herself over. "I think I'm alright,"
As I tried to comfort the filly, I noticed a few people around clapping their hooves together and stomping the ground. It wasn't too many people, but it was enough to be a small crowd. I put the little filly down on the ground, who wobbled a little as she tried to regain her bearings.
Suddenly, an orange unicorn mare trotted up to me. Her horn was awash with a bright yellow, as a pencil and notepad floated close to her head.
"Wow! That was quite an exquisite display," she said, a little awe in her voice. "My name is Moveable Type, I own the newspaper here in town. I was wondering if I could do an interview with you really quick,"
I was about to open my mouth to respond, before somepony put their hoof around my shoulder and began speaking.
"This here, is Tradewind Potluck, ace flyer and star athlete. And that's a pretty serious title, coming from me."
I looked around to see none other than Rainbow Dash, who was leaning on me like I was a pillar in a bar. "It's no surprise she managed to catch Scootaloo, I would have jumped in to save her myself, but I knew my friend Tradewind here had it in the bag."
The orange unicorn began scribbling down notes at a breakneck pace. She looked up from her pad to ask another question. "Where are you from? How did you learn to fly so well? Those were some pretty amazing moves."
I tried on respond, but Dash opened her mouth before I could. "I don't know where she learned it, but she must practice pretty hard. She certainly an awesome flyer, almost as awesome as myself."
I looked back at Dash crossly, ready to tell her to shut her mouth, and that I didn't want any attention from the press, but was quickly interrupted when the orange filly tapped on my leg.
"Excuse me Miss Potluck? Thank you for saving me,"
A few "Awwwww's" rippled through the audience. "Your welcome, little filly, but I-"
"Would you mind telling me how old you are?"
"No!" I blurted out angrily, inciting looks of surprise from the three ponies. "Please, no more questions,"
"That's alright miss Potluck, I have enough to work with here. Have a good day!"
She began trotting off, looking over he notes as she walked. I could only stare at the audience as they slowly dispersed. Suddenly, I felt like thousands of eyes were watching from every angle. The orange filly ran up to Dash, said a few things, before galloping off after the rest of the audience.
Dash just leaned up against me, staring down at me at me with an expectant look. "Ehh?" she nudged me with her elbow. I only looked up at her with a twinge of annoyance. "Ehh?" she said again louder, expecting some sort of response.
I just walked off, disgruntlement emanating in each of my steps.
"Hey, what gives? I thought you'd be happy! I hyped you up!"
"Yeah, I know, but I... I just don't want any attention from the media,"
"What, are you undercover or something? Why are you so secretive?"
I didn't want to have to tell her the truth, but I did need to think of something convincing. Something that would make her never question it again. "I just... I don't know, like my privacy."
How eloquent.
Dash shook her head. "Don't worry, I'm in the newspaper all the time, it's nothing too big. You don't have to worry about the public following you around everywhere you go,"
She had no idea that just a week ago, that was a legitimate problem for me. "I know, I know, it's just... I..." I let out a long weary sigh. "Can we just drop it? I don't want to talk about it."
Dash shrugged, obviously bummed out at my lack of enthusiasm at her attempts to talk me up.
"Sorry for trying to make you happy," she said, disappointment in her tone.
Now I just felt guilty. I turned toward the crestfallen mare, who was slowly trotting away. "Hey," I called to her, "look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say it like that, I just have a lot on my plate, okay?"
She looked back before turning around and trotting over. "It's alright," she called back.
I felt kinda bad for pushing her to the side like that. "Hey, do you maybe wanna hang out? Go grab something to eat?"
Dash looked around strangely, as if she were considering her options. "Uhh, I kinda have to train... Sorry, maybe another time." I nodded my head solemnly. "I'll see ya round, Tradewind."
I watched as she turned around the corner, before disappearing behind some buildings.
After my encounter with Dash, I decided to head home. I was kind of depressed after my encounter with Dash, and wanted simply to lay in my bed.
For my stay in Ponyville, I had been renting out a house right next to a bakery. It wasn't anything special, just a regular two story home that one would often see littering the streets of Ponyville. I lay in my bed, staring at the fan as it slowly spun above me. My eyes began to droop drowsily as I bored myself to sleep. It was still about midday, but the events of the last few hours had tired me beyond belief. I turned to my side, closing my eyes before drifting into a silent, comfortable sleep.
*Bang!*
"Gaah!" I screamed as I jumped out of bed and collapsed onto my floor. I hopped to my feet and looked around frantically. It was dark outside. Wow, how long have I been asleep? I could a hear a high pitched voice say something, before there was a long, silent pause. I finally mustered the courage to go investigate. The noise sounded like it had come from outside, and as I opened my second floor window, I was greeted with another loud, explosion. In the topmost floor of the bakery, I could see a pink earth pony examining a... Cannon? What the hell?
She gave it a small nudge with her hoof, only for the decorated barrel of gunpowder and iron to explode in a smalll sprinkle of confetti and glitter. I must be dreaming, because this was strange even by Ponyville standards.
The pink mare looked towards it before giving it a strange look. "You're awfully clogged up," she tapped the cannon multiple times, which caused it to fire in quick succession, sending echoing explosions through the town, and more paltry clouds of glitter. "Why isn't anything else coming out?" She looked around frantically. "Where's Gummy?" Her ears flopped, then her tail twitched, and a slight shiver rippled down her spine. "And why is somepony watching me?" She turned directly toward me, her hoof pointed in my direction.
As you could imagine, I panicked. I hid underneath my window rapidly, but it was too late.
"Ooh, are we playing hide and go seek?" she yelled out, "I love hide and go seek! Let's play hide and go seek!!!"
I slowly peeked out from underneath my window, only for the pink pony to quickly run to her window. "Aha! Found you!". She bounced up and down rapidly, before coming to halt. "Now you have to find me!" She jumped from sight, disappearing from the window. I could hear her bounces in the room, before she called to me. "Ready!" she yelled, as if I was actually playing.
There was a long pause in the air as I waited for something to happen. I was about to call out to her, before a voice beat me to it. "Aren't you gonna come look for me?"
"I don't want to play," I said groggily. "I was sleeping before you started firing that thing. How did you get ahold of that? That's... That's a weapon!"
There were giggles rippling through the window, before the pink ponies head popped out of the barrel of the gun. "This isn't a weapon, silly, it's my party cannon!" She jumped out, landing on her feet before continuing. "It's broken I think,". She cast a suspicious glance at the party cannon.
She stuck her head inside the barrel. "I think something's jamming it." She began squeezing herself through the barrel, wriggling and writhing her way inside. Soon, her legs were off the ground, and she slid right down the barrel and disappeared from sight.
I looked around nervously, before I heard her excited scream from in the cannon. "Gummy, what are you doing in here? You crazy alligator!" Laughter bellowed from the inside of the gun, before her head popped out once again. Only this time, there was a green alligator in her teeth.
"Uhh, could you not fire that thing right now? I gotta get some sleep,". I said wearily.
"Oh, no problem!" she exclaimed happily, before jumping to of sight and grabbing a large, black tube.
Out if curiosity, I spoke up. "What's that?"
"A silencer, duh." She put it to the end of the cannon, before screwing it on like a bottle cap. She tightened, before hitting the cannon with her hoof. The cannon jolted back violently, sending a huge spray of confetti, glitter, and streamers into my window,(which hit me directly in the face) but no noise was made.
I looked at the pink mare with sleepy annoyance, before closing my window and heading back to bed. To this day, I'm still not sure if that was a dream.