//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 - Matsunaga Hisahide - The Welcome Wagon 
// Story: Heaven's Own Vainglory 
// by darkstone57 
//------------------------------//


Matsunaga Hisahide
Chapter 2
Location: Street's of Ponyville
Date: February 18th, 2036 


 After their brief meeting and receiving information that he has somehow arrived in another world, Matsunaga was greeted awkwardly by two citizen's of the town - Rainbow Dash & Twilight Sparkle. They took it upon themselves to show the human around the town and kindly informed Matsunaga that they will contact the Princess to see if she can help him. Humbly accepting their offer of generosity, he followed the two ponies into the town with an amiable smile on his face.

"Don't worry, Matsunaga. I'm sure everything will be alright." said Twilight.

"Yeah, nothing will be worth sweating over, we got your back." said Rainbow Dash.

"Hmm, I hope so..." Matsunaga replied.


The Welcome Wagon



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As ponies began walking out of their homes, embracing the fresh air that the morning graced them with, their gazes were aimed at a trio that were casually passing by. Two members of the trio were familiar faces that the citizens of the town have grown fond of more and more, as their deeds have deemed them 'One of Equestria's Greatest Defences': The Elements of Harmony'. However, the third member of the trio was someone that gained a lot of fixated gazes of either curiousity, fear or both, from everypony that caught a glimpse of him. 

Matsunaga surveyed the ponies that stared at him, on face his smile turned into more of a nervous grin but mentally he wasn't fazed. 'Not surprising that they are all transfixed on me, then again I am used to receiving such looks.' His thoughts then showed him a brief image of a man with brown long hair in the form of a ponytail, staring at him as if he saw a ghost. 'Who is that boy again? Oh well, the notion is irrelevant.' 

Twilight and Rainbow knew that simply by casually walking into town with this human would attract a lot of attention. It's as Twilight said, Matsunaga is the first human anypony has ever heard or seen before. 

Rainbow leaned towards Twilight as they continued on their path through the town, "So, should we head to the library, or keep walking around until he receives looks from all the ponies in town?" Rainbow asked.

"How about this; I will continue walking with you two until we reach the library, before and after we do, we should introduce him to the rest of the girls." Twilight replied with her idea, "once we do; I will write the letter to the princess and you can take him to see Applejack and Fluttershy, since their homes are beyond the library." 

"Fair enough." said Rainbow. She then hovered round the back of Matsunaga and then proceeded to float by his left side. "Hear that big guy? We're going to introduce to our good friends, you will still get to see the sights though," Rainbow aimed her front left hoof at her face and wore a lot of pride on her smile and tone, "courtesy of the coolest Pegasus around these parts."

'Ego the size of a house, this one has.' Matsunaga thought, 'wonder if she understands the word subtlety?' He smiled at the Pegasus, "That sounds like a plan, Ms. Dash. It would be nice to meet your frie--"

"HEY! YOU! GUYS!!!" the trio were caught off guard by an excited call, that came from a female, aimed at them from above. When they looked up, the saw a pink pony with bubbly pink hair that had largest grin on her face looking over a roof of the building next to them.

"Talking of which." Twilight said with a light chuckle. The pink pony leaped down from balcony and landed a couple of feet in front of the trio. With her sky blue eyes growing wider, aiming at Matsunaga. 

She took in a deep breath and began inspecting the human from head to toe, all the while she spoke at a rapid pace with a cheery voice, "Hi! Who are you? Where did you come from? Why is your hair in a pony tail? I like the mix of black and white on your getup! What's that by your hip? When did you get here? How old are you? How do you know Twilight and Rainbow Dash?" When the plethora of questions ended, the pink pony began catching her breath. Matsunaga and the two girls faces became dumbfounded by her questions. Matsunaga blinked several times, processing the questionnaire that was swiftly shoved in his head.

'This one speaks as fast as he moves. I may as well humour her.' Matsunaga pondered and then began to reply at a calm pace, ticking the boxes of the questions that were asked. "I'm Matsunaga Hisahide. I'm from another world. I prefer this to having my hair over my shoulders. Thank you for the compliment. A katana, that's a family heirloom. I arrived in this world yesterday. I'm 43 years old. I just met your friends about seven minutes ago." 

The pink pony nodded to every answer he gave her and then finished with a huge gasp whilst jumping in mid-air, "You're from another world!?" when she ended the sentence, she charged behind the building next to them and within seconds returned with a wagon.

"I can now use my 'Welcome to Equestria' wagon!" the pink pony said as she opened the hatch of the wagon's top and pressed a switch on a small mechanism that seems to have trumpet ends attached to it, a light bouncy beat began to play. The pink pony began dancing around on her back legs, standing up straight and started to sing;


 "Welcome to Equestria, oh, Welcome to Equestria, Welcome to Equestriiaaaa~~~~

Matsu-na-ga~~~

There's places to be, smiles to see, treats to eat & ponies to meet.

You'll love it hear, that much is clear, and you will know that where there is fun - Pinkie will appear~~~

Oh, one more time!

Welcome to Equestria, oh, Welcome to Equestria, Welcome to Equestriiaaaa~~~~

Matsu-na-ga~~~"



As the song ended, confetti shot out of the wagon skyward in every direction. Pinkie ended her dance on her back knees with front arms in air, catching her breath. Once again, the trio were dumbfounded by Pinkie's performance and stood surprised for a few moments. Matsunaga broke the silence by clapping his hands together, with a bright smile on his face. Twilight and Rainbow looked at each other, genuinely surprised and then let out a large laugh, both of the girls turned back to Pinkie and began clapping their hooves together and cheered for Pinkie.

"You certainly know how to greet strangers, Pinkie" Twilight said with a small chuckle.

Matsunaga continued clapping as his thoughts went on, 'If she was in Japan, she could replace that prissy preacher Sorin. Then again... those two would more than likely take Xavism to a whole new level with their presentations and festivals.' Halting his clapping, he gave Pinkie a warm smile that in turn, made Pinkie smile. "I never thought I would receive a greeting like this, thank you very much, Ms. Pinkie."

Pinkie's smile grew brighter at his appreciation. "You're welcome. Oh, right, almost forgot. I'm Pinkemina Diane Pie, but everyone calls me 'Pinkie' Pie. Party thrower extraordinaire. It's nice to meet you." said Pinkie.

"Likewise." replied Matsunaga. His eyes diverted towards her back legs where he noticed a marking of three balloons on her rear. Turning his attention to Twilight's and Rainbow's rears and saw a pattern of stars in circular formation on Twilight's, and a rainbow bolt coming out a cloud on Rainbow's. Puzzled by this unique feature, he raised his right hand and pointed back and forth between the three ponies, seemingly unsure of what to make of the situation. "Pardon my rudeness, but what are those markings on your rear's supposed to be?" asked Matsunaga, "I notice all three of you have a different one. I haven't seen anything like it before." his thought's however were different than his words, 'Keep playing the curious cat, Matsunaga, they will only answer what you know already.'

Twilight was the one to answer, "These are our cutie marks." Matsunaga turned his attention to Twilight with an even more confused look.

"I beg your pardon?" Matsunaga replied. 

"Cutie marks." Twilight repeated with enunciation, "All of pony kind receives one, when they come to the realisation of their special talent. Mine represents my special talent for magic and my love of stargazing."

"Mine represents my love for speed, flying and racing." said Rainbow.

"Mine represents my love for parties and I have thrown so many I can't count." Pinkie explained "I have thrown parties for weddings, get togethers, celebrations, birthdays, even just for the heck it. I love them so much! One time, our friend Rarity, kept trying to go back and forth between her own party and a fancy party, to keep everyone happy, she ended coming back to us at one point with a croquet mallet in her mouth." Pinkie chuckled, followed swiftly by Rainbow and Twilight chuckling along with her.

Pinkie then somehow changed her bubbly mane's style to match Rainbow's spiky bangs. "Rainbow was like 'What's with the croquet mallet?'" swiftly afterwards she changed it again to more curly one, "then Rarity was like," she pulled the ends of her mane and shoved it her mouth, gripping it with her teeth making what she said next muffled, "'What croquet mallet?'" Rainbow ended laughing so hard from Pinkie's impression, she landed on the ground back first, kicking her legs about from a laughing fit. Twilight began laughing a whole lot more, she could hardly contain herself. Pinkie shook her head and her mane returned to its original state, she chuckled along with the other two girls.

Matsunaga stood truly flabbergasted at what he just witnessed, mouth agape and all. 

As the girls around continued their outburst of laughter, Matsunaga began to mentally recollect himself, 'Remember, when it comes to this upbeat pony, there is always one thing to do - you must not question her antics.' A moment later, he managed to get but a few words out, "That was...quite a tale." Matsunaga said, still quite surprised by Pinkie's actions. 

A few moments later, all three of the girls recollected themselves.

"Anyway, what's going on?" Pinkie asked.

"Matsunaga here, has somehow woke up in this world, and we were just showing him around and plan to introduce him to the rest of the girls." Twilight explained.

"Neat." replied Pinkie.

Twilight continued, "We are now going to Rarity's to introduce him to her. Along the way I'm going to stop by my place so I can send a letter to the Princess about Matsunaga's problem. While I do that, Rainbow will go with Matsunaga to Rarity's to save time." 

"No harm in my joining you three, right? I got nothing to do today anyway." Pinkie said bouncing up and down on the spot. 

"I see no reason to object. The more, the merrier, as they say." Matsunaga replied with a welcome smile. Twilight nodded with a warm smile and Rainbow merely shrugged her shoulders.

"Then let's get going then. I'm sure the Princess will help out sooner, the faster we get the letter sent off." Rainbow said, hovering high above the group, pointing a her left hoof in the direction of a giant tree. Twilight nodded at Rainbow, but what seemed to mistaken as a signal, the Pegasus flew off with great speed towards the tree.

"Rainbow!.. Sorry about her, she get's impatient some times. Let's go." Twilight said, charging in the same direction as her friend took off in.

"Come on, MH, we don't want to keep them waiting." Pinkie said, casually bouncing after her two friends. Matsunaga began jogging in the same direction the three ponies went, making sure not to fall too far behind. 

As he tried to keep his sights on Pinkie, smiling all the while, his thoughts once more delved into what is going on, 'Hehehe... The beauty of this moment is just too brilliant. Still, I must keep this up, I must not give them reasons to begrudge me... yet. Hehehe...'


To Be Continued