//------------------------------//
// Ponyville and Parties 
// Story: Truly Alive 
// by To Define Life 
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I was still sitting on the porch when Derpy nudged me from behind. I didn't expect it, but i was at a level of calm where it didn't even matter. 

She looked at strangely, then she quickly looked away and said "Good morning! You are an early riser aren't you, huh. Come inside and have some breakfast."

I got up slowly, then wearily trudged inside. I yawned, then felt my energy return to me. I asked Derpy, "So, you might have mentioned something about a place called Ponyville yesterday, what exactly is so special about it?".

Without even turning her head, she said "Oh, nothing in particular is special, it's just a cool place to be, you know? Just spend the day there, talk to ponies, buy some food or clothes-" she stopped and turned as the small pink unicorn entered the room. "Well good morning sweetheart, how are you?"

Dinky yawned, and said, "Really great mom! I think that's the best night's sleep I've had in a while!" Derpy smiled. "That's great. Would you like some Hay-O's?" Dinky got really excited and said "Oo! Oo! Yes please!" Dinky then levitated the cereal box and poured it into two wooden bowls. She turned to me, then said "Whoops, sorry bout' that Flash.", then poured another bowl.

We sat down to eat, and as I began to reach for a spoon, I saw how both Dinky and Derpy leaned their heads back and threw themselves face-first into the bowl of cereal. The milk went everywhere, and they began slurping noisily. After about maybe 10 seconds, they both came out of their dunking state and gasped for breath, then started laughing. I realized then, they were both waiting for me. So abandoning my ego, I shoved my face in the bowl and tried to eat what wasn't thrown out by the splash. I'm going to guess that some 20 seconds went by before I came out, my lungs begging for oxygen. They stared at me once again, trying to figure out how I had pulled off some other un-ponylike feat. To fill the silence, I said "Well hey, it's pretty good." With that, we all bust out laughing.

Dinky said goodbye to her mother, put on a strap with two parts on either end, and walked out the front door.

When I turned to ask Derpy where she had gone, she looked at me disbelievingly and asked with a hint of sarcasm "You never heard of little fillies and colts going to school?"

She then looked at her, getting farther and farther away, and whispered softly "I really hope her saddlebag isn't too much for her…"

'Ahh, so that's what it was called, the thing on her back.'

Derpy looked really excited. "What are you waiting for? We haven't got all day silly."

I snapped out of my thoughts, and said "Alrighty then, let's go!"

We headed out the door.



As we started walking, Derpy hit herself out of nowhere and exclaimed "Duh! Why didn't we do this earlier! We can just fly there!". I cocked my head at her.

'Fly? Oh yeah, wings dipstick. You have wings.'

Not really thinking, I replied "Well, you see, I never really learned how…".

Now Derpy was curious. "What do you mean you've never flown? You've spent your WHOLE life as a pegasus and have never even TRIED?" she asked disbelievingly. I shook my head, realizing that I had, once again, failed to lay low.

"Well, it's pretty simple. First you just feel the muscles in your wings, try to move them a bit."

I felt my back move in a queer way, a way I'd never felt before. I tried to flap them a little, but I wasn't sure exactly what was a bit. I went up like a rocket a few hundred feet in the air.

'Oh yeah, friendly reminder: YOU'RE TERRIFIED OF HEIGHTS. '

'Shut up brain, just shut up.'

I started falling, and fast. I opened my wings again, slowly this time, and flapped the bare minimum I thought I could go. Slowly, but surely, I started to slow my descent and glide down to the ground. When I touched down, Derpy was blinking rapidly, her eyes going all wild. She then cleared her throat and said, "Well, that's... unusual.". She continued "Alright, you need a walkthrough, come here." I walked over and sat down. She walked behind me and massaged my wings, blushing slightly as she did so. I don't know how she does it, but it was just like everything relaxing creating a soothing feeling nothing could beat. "There" she said after a while, "Try that again.". I flapped my wings very, very gently and felt myself begin to hover about a foot over the ground. She smiled, and said "Not bad, that a pretty good start. Let's see if you can do this!". She turned and took off. Not wanting to lose my guide, I dashed after her, feeling the pure power my wings carried.

Fear = Conquered

Flying = Off the bucket list.

We flew around towards a fairly large group of buildings, which I assumed was Ponyville. We touched down, and Derpy began showing me around. We stopped a variety of markets and carts, of which Derpy bought some groceries. She then introduced me to each and everypony on the street. I remember a few: Lyra, Vinyl, Octavia, and Carrot Top.

Then Derpy thought I should meet some of her good friends. We stopped off at Sugarcube Corner first. Derpy and I walked in, and we were greeted immediately by a bouncing pink pony.

"Hey Derpy how are you? How's Dinky?" the pink pony glanced at me, Derpy, then back to me.

Then the onslaught of talk began with a gasp.

"Oh hi! YOU'RE who Dinky was talking about yesterday! Flash Drive, right? I'm Pinkie Pie. My friends call me Pinky though. Omygosh are you new?! Nopony's been new in AGES! You know what you need? A PARTY! Be at the library at 8, don't be late!"

Practically shoved out, I blinked and tried to comprehend what the hell just happened.

Derpy looked at me knowingly "She's a handful isn't she? Pinkie... anyway, let's check out the library she was talking about." 

We passed a few more stands and arrived at a huge treehouse. The place was massive, must have been three stories tall, a window at the second floor led my eyes back to the bottom and showed me a door. I went to knock, but Derpy just barged right on in.

"Hello? Twilight, you there?" she called.

A small green, I want to say dragon?, started down the stairs.

He yawned and said in annoyed voice "Sorry Derpy, you're gonna have to wait, she's REALLY strung out about her studies. AGAIN."

He fixed his gaze on me, and I looked right back at him. He seemed a little dazed in general, so I ignored it and went on.

"Hi, I'm Flash Drive, you?"

He paused and said much more cheerfully than before, "I'm Spike, Twilight's #1 assistant!"

He seemed proud about it, so I didn't push further into the subject.

I continued "Sorry to interrupt, but I was hoping to at least say hello. You see, I'm new in town."

Spike's attention was obviously taken and he seemed excited. "Whew! FINALLY something to break her out of her studies! I'll be right back." He ran back up the stairs and you heard a door slam.

Derpy was looking down when I glanced over, and she mumbled "What, having me come over wasn't enough?"

I gave her a questioning look and asked "Is she really that serious on studying? What does she study anyway?"

She glanced elsewhere and replied "Anything and everything she can get her hoofs on. And she can get her hoofs on a LOT of subjects." 

Just as Derpy finished, Twilight began to slowly walk down the stairs, spike leading her. "Alright, don't open your eyes just yet, almost there..."

As Spike told her I saw she had her eyes shut tight.

Spike led her in front of the two of us and said "Alright Twi, go for it!".

The purple pony's eyes blinked open as she looked at Derpy, then Spike, then back to Derpy.

"Really Spike?! You interior my studies on producers to tell me Derpy showed up?!" she exclaimed.

Derpy looked a little hurt, but said nothing.

Spike must have delt with this a lot, because he answered calmly, "Not exactly, take a look to her left." 

Twilight's attention turned to me, so I spoke up "Hi, the name's Flash Drive, you're Twilight I take it?" She blinked, wondering what to say.

'Wow, I guess it really IS rare to have a new pony in town...'

She paused before responding "That's me. I don't think I've seen you around, you're new?"

I chuckled. "Wow, I guess it is that obvious huh."

Derpy interjected with "Well, there's a lot to see. Thanks Twilight! See you tonight!"

She seemed confused "Tonight? What's going on tonig-" Derpy slammed the door, cutting her off. We then heard the pony's sudden rage from point-blank through the door.

"PINKIE PIE! WHY DO ALL THE PARTIES YOU HAVE NEED TO BE WHERE I BUCKING SLEEP!"

Derpy tried to distract me from the outburst, "Two down, four to go, you ready?"

I replied, "As much as I'll ever be.".



Next stop was to meet a timid pony who found her place among the animals, or that's how Derpy presented it.

Derpy and I walked up to her and she said in a very small voice "Oh, hi Derpy, how are you? Who's your friend?" 

I had Derpy respond, she had saying it would be better that way in advance, "I'm alright. Dinky's off to class. This is our new house guest. His name is Flash Drive."

I stepped forward and trying to remove whatever edge of my voice i could, said "Hi, Flash is the name, how do you do?"

"Fine, thank you. I'm Fluttershy. Umm, Flash Drive? Like the one's in those computers?"

I replied with a "Yeah, those are the ones…"

Derpy looked at the yellow pony and said kinda regretfully "Sorry to cut it short, but we gotta run. See you later!"

Fluttershy said "Oh, all right. See you later…" When we got out of earshot, Derpy breathed a sigh of relief. "Whew! Sorry about that, she can be a little timid at first, but fun when you get to know her.

I looked up in the sky. It was clear with no cloud in sight.

Derpy's stomach started to growl.
She laughed "Wow. I am STARVED. You hungry?" Hearing my own stomach growl was all the assurance I needed.

"Same here." We headed down to a small diner and walked inside. Like most places here, it was bigger on the inside and colored a bright orange. A waitress skipped over and handed, or should I say- hoofed us some menus. I looked it over from top to bottom twice, and couldn't find anything meaty!

'I guess vegetarians are the norm, huh'

With Derpy's help in choosing, two Celestia salads were on their way. When they arrived, I watched Derpy to see how she ate in public. She ate like I would have regularly when I was a human: stab some greens with a fork and eat. After a nice, quiet lunch, we left and set off for a nearby farm.

On the fly there I thought it best to ask Derpy a few questions I had. "Hey, Derpy?"

She looked over her shoulder and replied "What?"

I said, "There's no easy way to ask this, so I'm just going to go ahead. Why do these ponies all seem somewhat alike? Your friends I mean."

Effortlessly, she flew ahead and turned around to face me, still flying straight as she did so. "Well, I guess not much... other than the fact that they all have pieces of the elements of harmony."

I thought it best to stop her there. I knew who these ponies were and what they represented, I just had to make my initial clueless-ness not so awkward by asking questions.

She continued "Well, we should be there soo-"

I didn't hear the end of what she said. Just then, she crashed into a huge wooden barn. Pieces of wood flew everywhere.
I reacted: folding up my wings and droping out of the sky like a rock. I broke my fall with an awkward somersault and skidded to a halt.

Then, kicking open the large door, I sprinted to Derpy's aid. When I found her, she was in a haystack, small bits of wood here and there. 

"Derpy, are you okay?!"

She groaned, then said "I'm alright, my back hurts like crazy though..."
Derpy made eye-contact with me and said "Thanks for asking. Aghh. I just don't know what went WRONG."

Derpy had barely finished her sentence when an angry pony from in the field screamed "DERPY! You tell me... YOU TELL ME! THA' YOU DIDN' JUST BUS' ON THROUGH MY BARN AGAIN!"

I looked to Derpy and said "Well, you're the expert... do we wait for the anger or should we break?"

Derpy replied quickly with "Go. Go go go gogogogo!"

I wasted no time in taking off like a rocket again and flying away.

When we had put some distance between us and the barn, she chuckled "Well, now you can say you've met Applejack."

Switching subjects, she continued "Pick a hoof."

She stuck out both hoofs and I tapped the left one.

She pulled them back and said "Alrighty then. Rarity, then Dash."

We took a left turn and headed toward the seamstress' boutique.



We landed by the doorstep and Derpy knocked twice.

"Hello? Rarity, you there?" Derpy called.

A high class voice returned with a groan, "Derpy! What could you POSSIBLY want?! I am very busy working for a client, so of you excuse me, I-"

"THIS ISN'T ABOUT MUFFINS I PROMISE!" Derpy interrupted.

The door swung open. "Oh really then, what is it?" The curly haired mare stepped out and looked at me.

A little baffled, she spoke in bursts "Well... I'm sorry... I thought... I'm Rarity."

Derpy spoke for me "Told you it wasn't muffins. Rarity, Flash Drive. Flash Drive, Rarity"

Rarity seemed to understand and said "Oh, so that's what the party is for, seeing as pinkie never takes the time to specify..." The white pony turned to me and said "Well hello, sorry I can't chat, but I have so much work to do! See you at... 8!"

She took out a phone to check, then walked back inside.

Derpy started back towards the main road, and I ran up alongside her.

"It's a bit of a ways, but we can see Dash and back at about 7. You ready?" Derpy unfolded her wings.

"As much as I'll ever be."

"All right then, let's go!"

We took off once again and flew almost straight up. We began heading to a dense group of clouds and as we got closer, it looked more and more like a city. 

Derpy pointed ahead and said "Welcome to Cloudsdale, home of most pegasi." I couldn't respond, I was too astonished at how huge the city was and of it's ability to just float like it did. As we arrived, I spotted a blue pony flying from cloud to cloud at unbelievable speeds, destroying each cloud as she did so.

Derpy called out "Dash! Hey! Hey Dash! Rainbow Dash over here!" Derpy started waving her hoof in the air.

The pegasus must have heard her because she ducked behind a cloud. 

Derpy looked around and called out "Rainbow dash? Where'd you go?"

Remembering Derpy is cross-eyed, I recalled witch cloud dash had hid behind and flew over. I rested on the other side of the cloud, which was surprisingly solid, and made my way around. When I saw the pony, I found it was hard to miss where 'rainbow' in her name came from. 

I started "Hi, you're Rainbow Dash right?"

Instead of an answer, I received a punch headed my way. While still in the air I moved left to dodge it and blocked her next one with the flat of my hoof.

Rainbow Dash strained against the resistance "So… nghh… you're obviously not Derpy…"

Derpy popped out from over the cloud and said "No, I'm right here!"

I threw her failed punch towards the ground and flew a foot backwards.

I continued "No, I'm not. I'm Flash Drive and I'm new to the area."

Dash replied "Well for somepony new you box like a pro, where did you learn that?"

I thought, and gave her somewhat truth "All self taught, no teacher."

It was partially true. I learned it from the streets following the apocalypse breakout, and I was pretty certain that would be bad to say here. 

"Well Flash I'm Rainbow Dash. Listen, I've gotta go finish this before the party tonight. See you there!"

The blue pony took off to a patch of clouds in the distance, leaving the two of us behind. 

With nothing else on the agenda, Derpy and I started home. On the way back i decided to do an experiment, just to see what would happen. While just cruising I folded my wings and dropped out of the sky. 

Derpy freaked out "Flash! Open your wings!"

Every bone in my body told me to do so, but this was an experiment. After falling about half a mile, and about 100 feet off the ground I thrust out my wings and started to slow my descent. I hit the ground hard and rolled, but I was okay for the most part.

Derpy flew over in seconds and was pale "Ohmygodareyouokaywhydidyoufallwhydidntyouopenyour wingslikeI, 'gasp', toldyou?!"

"Sorry," I replied "I was curious to see what would happen."

Derpy was astonished. Her eyes narrowed in, uncrossing, as she spoke "Never, NEVER do that again."

She sniffed, then said "I thought you were going to die…". 

She looked around confused, then face-palmed herself with her hoof. 

"I needed to pick up DINKY that's what I forgot!"

She acted pretty nervous, then asked me "Hey Drive? I was wondering if you could pick up Dinky if it's not too much trouble."

I stared at her in disbelief. This was her CHILD she was asking me, some pony she doesn't truly know, to go and get. But in the same boat, what else could I say?

"Sure, where is she?"

Derpy replied "That's the point. After school if I'm not there right then she'll go home with Applebloom, one of her friends."

I was a little frustrated "So I need to go BACK to where we almost got our behinds served to us? Alright, I'll see you in a half hour."

Derpy was estatic, "Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! Remember how to get there?"

I shook my head, so she pointed a hoof and I started on my way.



I could see why Derpy wanted me to do this:

#1- it was Applejack's barn we demolished

#2-Dinky could come home herself, but it was getting dark fast

In about five minutes, I touched down and walked past the destroyed barn and to the front steps. I knocked and Applejack came to the door. 

"Hi, Derpy sent me to pick up Dinky?" I said, uncertain of what her reaction would be or even if she'd recognize me from earlier.

Appkejack's face hardened "You mean you a friend of that… that… anyways how do I know you aint just a… a… ponynapper, or somthin like that?"

Dinky poked her head out and seeing the commotion spoke up "Hi Flash! You here to pick me up?"

I didn't get a chance to respond "Probably, mom's getting ready for the party."

'How does everyone know already? Word travels faster than I thought...'

Applejack looked back at Dinky "So this is who you were, *ehem*, entertaining, our dinner with tonight." She choked out. "Well, so you're this mysterious Flash Drive then, sorry i was so curt."

"No problem, really. I would have done the same." I replied, still a little awkward about the barn situation.

"Well, thanks a bunch, but we need to get going. See you later?"

Applejack seemed confused, then it must have clicked "Ahh, I remember now, tha' party's tonight. Well, see yall soon!"

She shut the door, and Dinky and I began the walk home.

After about five minutes, I asked out of pure curiosity "Umm, Dinky? Do you think you can use your horn to light everything up? It is a little dark."

Without responding verbally, she started levitating a pebble and a small area of the forest lit up. Her horn was glowing in light pink magic.

"Thanks, much better." I said.

We arrived to 'Home sweet home' and Derpy gave Dinky a hug and me a thank you. Derpy walked out of the room with Dinky. She came back outside after a bit and told me what she was doing.

"Just tucking Dinky in, you ready?" 

"I'm good, let's roll!"

We set off out into the night. We flew fast, knowing we were somewhat behind. In-flight, Derpy took out a phone and checked it.

"Crap, we have 2 minutes!" she yelled over the wind.

"Well, let's see if we can't pick up the pace then!" I yelled back. 



We landed by the library steps with 30 seconds to spare. We walked in and were greeted by tons of ponies.

Pinkie was the first one to run up and say "Oh my gosh! I'm so happy you're here! Aren't you happy you're here too! This is gonna be awesome!"

Pinkie looked over her shoulder, "Ooo! Vinyl's here! Hey everypony! The music just arrived!"

I looked to Derpy, "So, parties are this crazy always? or is this-" Derpy interrupted, "Oh NO. Ha! The party hasn't even STARTED YET!"

Time passed and I walked over to the main table and poured myself a glass of the fruit punch. I looked at all the ponies, some standing around talking and others dancing. I found Derpy again by her friends. Without walking over, I canceled out the other noise in my head and focused on their conversation. Twilight was leading the conversation.

"Okay, Princess Celestia's birthday is tomorrow, and she's coming to Ponyville like usual. Pinkie, you're on party supplies and banners. Applejack, you're on drinks. Fluttering and Rainbow Dash, I need you two on weather, I don't want a cloud in the sky. Rarity, you have that present ready?"

The white pony said nothing, which I took as a nod. 

The unicorn continued "Great. Derpy, you can make all the muffins anyone will ever eat right?"

Derpy liked the idea "Sure, they'll be ready in the morning."

Twilight replied "Awesome, and-" I cut her off, walking up to the group.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I need to know if the princess has an interest in technology."

They all stared at me baffled.

Rainbow Dash spoke up "You mean does she like computers? Yeah! Who doesn't?"

I looked down, I was afraid of blown off like this.

Fluttershy added "Well, I guess if you had something to give her, you could. She's very into new ponies and what they have. I mean... you don't really have to... it was just an idea."

It was nice to get a full response.

'Nice. You're getting there.'

"I will thank you. Just a question, sorry about that." 

Derpy said "No problem! I ask questions all the time."

Twilight turned toward me "Hmm. You seem to know what you're doing, go for it. Actually could you do that and help Derpy with the muffins?"

She leaned closer and whispered "Just make sure she doesn't eat them all... she'll do that just so you know."

I muffled a chuckle and whispered back "Gotcha. Not happening on my watch."

The group broke up and we enjoyed the rest of the party. It wrapped up around 10, so Derpy and I started home.

On the fly back, Derpy asked "As you were saying earlier, you wanted to give the princess something. What exactly?"

I sighed and said "Well, it's not ready yet. On the flip side I have a question for you. Could we stop at the house and pick up something, then go to that cave?"

Derpy got a little fidgety, then said "Why not?"

We landed and I ran inside and grabbed my pack, along with the HoloCube inside.

Remembering the path, I quickly led us to the duplication cave. We landed by the mouth and walked in.

I set down my pack and pulled out the HoloCube. Then, with a leap of faith, dropped it in the pool. As before, two popped out. I chucked another one in and caught the two for a total of three.

I then sat down and wiped two of them, leaving the cubes blank. I then moved all the Earthy information to one cube, Equestria info in the other and put it back in my pack.

I turned to Derpy "Ready?"



We dropped by the doorstep and opened the door quietly.

"Remember that Dinky's asleep." She whispered.

I nodded in return, and Derpy walked into the kitchen. She began taking a variety of ingredients from a bunch of different places, then pulled out a massive muffin tray.

Amazed, I had trouble asking "Wow, how many muffins do you have to make again?"

Without looking up, she said "Only 250, so that's 2 1/2 batches I'll need to make."

Awed by the sight, all I could say was "Wow, that's a lot."

Recovering, I continued "Say, do you have any wrapping paper and some tape?"

Still absorbed, Derpy pointed to a closet.

"Thanks."

I went over and got what I needed, then set the empty HoloCube on the floor. I put a simple message inside: 'To a better world'. I used what experience I had and wrapped it up, in the end using more tape than paper. I put it on the counter for the morning and headed off for some well deserved sleep.