Chapter VIII. – Entrance: Part Two
Rainbow Dash
Snuggled up for an early bedtime, Rainbow Dash felt as though she were lying on a cloud- which she literally was, of course. She laughed aloud at her private joke. She was exhausted from accumulating the storm clouds that were now slowly pounding away at the windowpanes. If all went right, this rainstorm would be pouring on the Ponyville countryside for the rest of the night. She sighed with a smile as she sank deeper into warm bliss…
And jumped clear off the bed as she heard her doorbell chime. Mumbling curses under her breath, she dragged the violet blanket off the bed with her still wrapped in it. Coming to the door, she threw it wide open to reveal a very wet Twilight, wearing a soaked raincoat and a large grin.
“Come with me, Rainbow, I wanna introduce you to somepony,” she said enigmatically, and turned to go.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes with an incredulous scoff. Her face fell slowly, though, as she realized Twilight was serious. The powder-blue pegasus turned and grabbed her similarly-colored raincoat out of the closet with a moan. Knowing Twilight, this was worth the trudge to the library, but she could hear her bed calling to her as she shut the door behind her and took off into the air after her friend.
. . . .
Rainbow Dash alighted carefully next to Twilight, who stood at the library door. She hadn’t said a single word on the whole trip here, and Dash was getting more and more weirded out by the minute. Twilight walked inside, and Dash trounced in behind her, shedding her raincoat as she did so, and tossed it in the closet nearby. Raising an eyebrow at the suave violet ensemble that was neatly hung up in the closet, she turned back to look about the room.
“Rarity’s here? Where’s the pony I’m supposed to meet?” Dash said, her rose-colored eyes finally resting on Twilight, who still had the same grin on her face. Dash cocked her head and pricked up her ears, listening to the voices coming from out of the other room. The tone of one sounded smooth and luxurious, another high pitched, both familiar, while the other was deep and fluid, alien.
“So Rarity is here. And Spike… Who else is here, Twilight?” she asked, puzzled.
Twilight, without breaking her smile or gaze on Dash called out.
“Okay guys, she’s here!”
Dash waited, hearing the scrape of chairs, the clopping of hooves and the sound of scales on wooden floors. In entered Rarity, Spike and—
Something out of a nightmare.
Dash’s eyes went wide, mouth agape, and froze. A large, vicious-looking creature stood before her, with piercing ember eyes and a mouthful of sharp teeth. Dash returned the look with a blank, frightened stare.
Time seemed to stand dead still in the library.
Finally, Twilight broke the very heavy pause that had hung in the air.
“Rainbow Dash, this is Ento. Ento, Rainbow Dash. Rainbow is a pegasus!” she added, beaming.
The creature walked up slowly to Dash, and smiled slightly. Her keen ears heard the little clicks that the creature’s mouth made, seemingly by habit. It extended a hoof and said:
“Charmed, of course. Twilight and Rarity have told me a lot about you.”
Dash took his hoof numbly, and he shook it. Hers hung limp like a marionette.
“H-h-hi, h-hello,” Dash stuttered, dumbfounded and in shock.
. . . .
After a cursory introduction, much awkward laughter ensued, and the two seemed to become a bit more keen on each other.
Just as he had with Spike, the Ekina and the pegasus seemed to bond on a form of mutual awe. Dash marveled at Ento’s teeth and horns, and Ento gawked at her wings and her incredible ability to use them. After finally settling down in the kitchen with the others, the friends shot a multitude of self-assured thoughts at each other, along with with plenty of bragging from both sides.
"So, Ento, those teeth!" Dash squeaked in her tomboyish tone, "You ever, ah, get to use them in some street fights? I can imagine they do wicked damage!" Ento's eyes seemed to go wide in astonishment, and he merely shook his head, a bit more morbidly than anyone else had expected.
"Ah, no. Considering that using one's teeth to harm another in any way is grounds for execution, I don't think that would be such a good idea." He smiled sheepishly at the pony's looks of confusion, and Rainbow Dash's Oh. "It's one of our most ancient laws," he added finally, as if that settled everything. Everypony else in the room merely shrugged, setting it aside for the time being.
Looking up and down at the pegasus before him, Ento smirked slightly. Deciding to step up to the plate, he set a bet down on Rainbow Dash.
“So, Twilight tells me you’re considered the greatest flyer this side of Equestria.”
“You’re damn right I am!” she blurted out. This just brought a smile to Ento’s lips.
“Okay miss ‘best flyer in Equestria,’ a challenge: think you could outfly every single raindrop out there without getting a single one on you?” Ento challenged, eyebrow raised in joking skepticism.
Dash merely scoffed.
“Of course I can. We pegasi practically build rain, I think I can outmaneuver a few fat, measly raindrops,” she said haughtily, rolling her eyes.
Ento sat back and laughed. His face suddenly hardened into a serious look.
“Ten Ampré says you can’t do it,” he said, dragging up two rectangular pieces of bright red, silly-looking paper from his folded piece of leather. Tossing them flatly on the table, the three ponies, as well as Spike, looked at the paper blankly.
“Uh,” Twilight said, “Ento, what is that?”
The Ekina stared at the confused faces before him for a second, down to the money, and back up again. Finally, he broke into jovial laughter.
“I’m…sorry…ladies. I forgot…I’m not in Ek’Rael… anymore," he gasped, tears streaming down his face. Still laughing at himself, he glanced around at the confused faces around the table. Realizing no one else found the joke nearly as funny as he did, he cleared his throat, straightened up and said much more seriously, “What do you ponies use for currency around here?”
Rolling her eyes, Twilight produced three golden coins from a drawer with her horn sparkling red.
“We use bits. They’re gold,” she said, laying them down on the table in front of Ento. He glanced at them casually.
“Metal currency. How quaint.” Although the comment could have easily been misconstrued as elitist, Ento's obviously exaggerated tone of seriousness made the gang chuckle along with him this time. Pleased with himself, Ento leaned in towards Rainbow Dash.
“Alright Dash, I don’t know the exchange rate of Ampré to bits, but I promise you ten bits if you can be outside for a minute and not get a drop on you.”
“Alright, you’re on!” she said with her usual characteristic vigor, and jumped up to run outside. The rest followed her to the entryway, Spike grabbing a clock off the counter on his way out.
Dash flung open the door to reveal a slowly darkening courtyard of grass. Rain plopped down lazily and a chilly breeze whispered through the doorway.
She glanced behind her at the group, smiling widely with a cocky grin, and then with a kick, took off straight into the air. Ento, Rarity and Twilight ran upstairs to the window, and watched as Dash streaked across the sky, barely visible in the clouded dusk. Of what they could see of her, she was simply incredible in the air: swooping and zigzagging, she seemed to be more at home in the sky than actually standing on the ground.
Eventually, they lost sight of her. After some seconds of intense scanning of the sun-stained skyline, Ento, Twilight and Rarity shouted in surprise as Dash screamed past, not two feet from the window, and traveling at lightning speeds! The floors and windows rattled violently as she passed, eliciting a shocked gasp from Rarity and a hearty cheer from Twilight.
Ento merely smiled quietly to himself.
. . . .
Spike eventually called time. After what had felt like an hour’s pass, all were shocked to find it had been merely sixty seconds. Dash landed inside, panting heavily, the same cocky look still painting her features. The rest of the group scrambled down the stairs to meet her.
“See Ento, I told you I could do it, no problem!” she said between puffs of air.
Ento merely smiled slyly.
“Yes, of course Dash, but uh, maybe you should have a look at your tail there.” He pointed with a hoof.
Dash gasped, spinning around to get a closer look at her tail. With a moan, she spotted a single spot on her tail where the hair had darkened from the drop that had landed on her. She looked up to Ento, defeated. He returned the look with a laugh.
“Don’t worry, my friend, I’ll only charge you five Ampré, how about that?”
Dash grumbled as her friends laughed along with Ento’s joke, but she soon found herself smiling along with her friends. After all, it wasn’t the end of the world, was it? She found the laughter contagious, and joined in with her friends as the rain outside picked up to a quiet roar against the windowpanes.
Twilight took a pause and glanced around the room.
“Where’s Spike?” she asked, concern rising in her voice.
Pinkie Pie
The sky was awash in red and pink as the sun was beginning to set behind the thick clouds. Pinkie, stuck on the tail end of her afternoon shift, glanced out the window of Sugarcube corner. The wispy clouds reminded her instantly of cotton candy. Her stomach grumbled, and she looked down and scolded it.
“Now, now, tummy. Work’s almost over, then we can go get dinner!” She smiled gleefully as her stomach quieted itself. She looked back out the window, her head dipping and ducking comically as she tried to glance around the raindrops that danced and paraded on the frosted windowpane across the counter.
She couldn't place it, but something in her gut told her that her way to dinner would be different than it usually was on Tuesday evenings. She smiled, reveling in her aptly-named Pinkie sense, and turned her smile to the dripping wet powder-blue pony that had walked into the store with the tingle of a bell. She shed her raincoat and hung it on the coat rack next to the door. Pinkie was quick to jump on helping the mare, and the last customer of the night!
“Welcome to Sugarcube corner! My name’s Pinkie pie, how can I help you today?” she said gleefully, twirling around the counter to greet the new customer.
. . . .
Pinkie stepped outside into the darkening sky, reveling in the rain that danced around her in dusk's light. Singing to herself, she skipped over to her favorite corner café, and could practically taste the tomato and hay soup that was the specialty of Ponyville Café.
Ooh! And hay fries. Yummy yum yum! she thought, getting more and more hungry by the minute.
Just as she rounded the corner, a tingling sensation ignited at the base of her tail. She looked up instinctively as a familiar blue blur flashed past her vision, distorting the air around it and making the ground tremble slightly as it passed. She watched as it did a one-eighty in the air and zigzagged in the direction of the library.
“Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie cried, running with it towards the library, off in the distance. “Rainbow Dash!” As she ran up, she spotted Spike standing just inside the entryway, door hanging wide open, as well as his mouth. “Hey Spike,” she said, skipping towards the door. “What’s up?”
Spike came back down to earth, shaking his head.
“Oh, uh, Pinkie Pie. What are you doing here?” he asked as Pinkie noticed the clock he held tight in his hands.
“Well, I was going to the café for some dinner, but then my Pinkie senses started a-twitching, and I looked up and whoosh! came Rainbow Dash flying over me! I followed her back here and found you, Spike!” The pink pony finished with a poke to Spike’s chest, panting slightly at the effort she had put into her tone and wild gestures. She smiled down at Spike. “What are you guys up to, anyways?”
Suddenly, the ground began to rumble again, and a fierce streak of multihued light passed directly in front of the library. Pinkie’s “Wow!” was lost in the sonic scream and the trembling of windowpanes.
“Rainbow’s taking a dare from Ento to dodge the rain for a minute,” he said matter-of-factly, as the sound disappeared into the distance.
Pinkie’s smile dipped slightly.
“Ento? Ento whoooooo?” Her drawn out question to Spike drew out a hoot of reply from Owloysius.
Spike waved a claw distractedly at the pair.
“Er, ask Twilight about it in a sec. Hold on, time’s up, I gotta call it,” he said, stepping out, and did just that.
As Dash came back in wide for a landing, Spike suddenly snapped back to attention, as if realizing something he was supposed to do.
“Here, Pinkie, come with me. Quick!” He grabbed the pink pony, who followed behind with a shout of protest. The two ran into the kitchen, just as they heard hoofsteps clambering down the stairs, and the door shut as Rainbow Dash alighted into the entryway.
Spike raised a single claw to his mouth at Pinkie, indicating a need to be quiet. Pinkie affirmed it with an understanding pantomime of zipping her mouth shut, and stood silent.
She cocked her ears, and heard four voices: a suave, elegant voice which must have belonged to Rarity, a precise and analytical voice, belonging to Twilight, a voice full of tomboyish charm, belonging to Rainbow Dash, and, finally, a deep, liquid voice that seemed to flow like black ink from out of the speaker’s mouth. She raised a question, but was shushed by Spike.
With a harrumph, Pinkie settled. She heard a gasp from Dash, and the collective laughter of her friends, along with a deep, hearty chuckle from the mysterious pony.
They’re getting in a good laugh without me! Pinkie thought, her body itching to get out there and join the cavalcade of fun. Her body squirmed in mad protest as Spike nudged her to be quiet.
She heard Twilight’s voice ask for Spike. Pinkie glanced sidelong at the little dragon, who shrugged, and motioned for her to follow him into the entryway.
She walked out of the kitchen, following Spike, and saw her friends- as well as some hobgoblin sort of creature that stood in between them. The laughter died away as Pinkie’s face hardened.
. . . .
Ento had been having an amazing time with these ponies. They reminded him of home, and were a lot like his friends Kima and Chela. They were exciting, they had a good time together, they had unique interests, and, most of all, they could just laugh together.
As he laughed along now with his new friends, he was surprised to see Spike walk out of the kitchen, followed by a bright pink, soaking wet pony. His laughter was replaced by a cocky smile, and he looked over her with a mild glance as she skipped in behind Spike. She looked something like a clown, ironic humor palpable by the aura she gave off.
Much to his surprise, she stopped in place, her features hardening as her baby blue eyes settled themselves on his figure. Ento’s smile wavered. This was not the response he had expected from her. Then again, he really wasn’t sure to expect from these ponies when they met him. They really all seemed to differ.
The pink pony’s icy glare changed slightly as she raised an eyebrow sternly. Under this scrutiny, Ento glanced at his friends around him. Their faces seemed mixed with both concern and expectant glances at their fellow pony friend.
The silence seemed to hang in the air thickly, like a sauna that had run for far too long. Disquieted and anxious, Ento found the feeling to be unbearable, and squirmed in place under such a fierce gaze.
Finally, the pink pony burst into peals of laughter, falling to the floor and rolling on her back, tears pouring down her already soaked face. She pointed to Ento, and said, as she gasped for air between bouts of laughter:
“You look... so, so… ridiculous! Oh, my goodness…!”
Ento could only grin at this as relief washed over his mind.
“You’re quite a spectacle yourself,” he said, letting out a nervous sigh. He was, of course, talking about her soaking wet mane that clung to her body and stuck out every-which-way.
The pony stood up, still laughing just as hard. She could barely keep her balance, in fact.
“Yeah… I know.” She gave a wink in return, and shook her head vigorously, spraying water everywhere. When she finally stopped, her mane stood as straight and neat as he had seen on any pony or Ekina, but shortly popped out in a messy tangle of hair. Pinkie smiled and leaped up to Ento.
“My name’s Pinkie Pie,” she said, shaking his hoof ecstatically. “You must be Ento!”
“Yes, t-that would b-be me,” he said as his body shook from the full-blown greeting he was receiving from Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie gasped loudly, making everyone in the room jump slightly.
“Oh my gosh! You know who would love to meet you?! My friend, Fluttershy!” She turned to Twilight expectantly, a brilliant smile spread across her entire face. Twilight laughed.
“Yes, okay Pinkie, we’ll go get Fluttershy. You and Ento catch up. Come on, Rarity, let’s go.”
Her selection was met with a shocked, if not thoroughly played out reply.
“Twilight! Must I go? I mean, really; the rain… my mane!” she said, pouting. Dash merely snickered behind her, joined by Ento’s chuckle. He glanced down at Spike, who seemed pained at Rarity’s predicament.
Twilight rolled her eyes, and dragged Rarity’s umbrella and coat up from the closet with a sparkle of magic.
“Yep. Come on, princess, let’s go.”
Ento watched the two go out into the pouring rain, an overplayed groan sounding from Rarity as the door shut behind them, and finally turned to Pinkie.
“So, why the balloons for a cutie mark, if I may ask?” he said, and smiled as he was hit with a tornado of excitement and was already promised a welcome-to-Ponyville party.
This night keeps getting better and better he thought privately as his smile widened greater and greater.