//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: The Traveller // by Phxntxm //------------------------------// “So it's finally time to meet Pinkie Pie?!” I said as I grinned widely at the unicorn nex..t to me...WAIT WHAT? “HOW LONG HAVE YOU HAD WINGS!?” I shouted out as I finally noticed that my unicorn friend...wasn't quite a unicorn. In response she just facehoofed, again, man I seem to get those a lot. “I've had them the entire time you've known me Phantom. I've been an alicorn for about a month now.” I squeaked and dropped into a bow and stammered out, “I-I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention, please forgive me.” I felt her magic envelope me and I was pulled back to my hooves which made me glance up at her curiously, she was blushing and glancing around furtively, “Please don't, you're embarrassing me. I would prefer if ponies didn't bow to me, I'm still a bit new to this whole 'alicorn' business.” I nodded as she spoke, “I understand, it's just, my best friend is the third princess in Equestria! That's so awesome.” She looked at me with a weird look on her face, “Uh, I'm the fourth princess Phantom. Cadance is the third.” “WHAT. Who the hay is Cadance!? How did I miss this?” “I don't really know to be honest, she's been a princess as long as you've been alive. I think, I don't exactly know how old you are since you don't even know, but you seem about as old as I am.” I stuck my tongue at her in response, “Well not mentally, you know that.” She giggled and shook her head as we continued on as she told me who Cadance was, and the crystal empire, and King Sombra (didn't she already tell me who that was, and on that note how did she not explain Cadance when she brought Sombra up?). “So what I'm getting out of all of this is that my best friend is famous, a princess, her sister is ALSO a princess, was tutored by ANOTHER princess, saved equestria from the OTHER princess, and her brother is captain of the royal guard. Did I get that all right?” Her blush showed I had embarrassed her yet again as she murmured quietly enough that I couldn't hear her at all, I just snickered and patted her head, “It's just so fun to tease you Twilight. It's so easy.” She just glared at me but didn't respond and we walked silently to where Pinkie Pie lived. I glanced up at the building and laughed, “Of course she lives in a building with a roof that looks like frosting and a cupcake sitting up top. She's probably hyped up on sugar 24/7.” “It would make sense,” Twilight replied, “but she actually is like that with or without sugar. It's like...she's so hyper that sugar just doesn't affect her anymore.” She sighed and gulped before looking over at me. “Well...shall we get this over with?” I grinned and nodded my head enthusiastically before bounding up to the door and knocking on it loudly. I hopped around excitedly on both of my hooves waiting for the door to open up and when it finally did I shouted out “HI!” as loud as I possibly could. I noticed Twilight grimace to my left and the pink mare who had answered the door just gasped and slammed the door in my face. “Wait, what?” I said, “that...that's it? I was expecting like everypony in the town to run around screaming 'WE'RE ALL DOOMED' or something. That was a bit...anticlimactic.” I turned and pouted at Twilight who was obviously having trouble holding her laughter in. “Is she...coming back?” I asked. Twilight opened her snout to give a response but all that came out was a bark of laughter, she brought a hoof up to her muzzle as she snickered a bit more. “I don't think so, she did kind of the same thing to me when I first got here, which means she's probably planning to throw a party. Tomorrow, since it is getting a bit late.” My pupils shrank as my worst nightmare, that I only came to realize was my worst nightmare about 2 minutes ago, was coming true. “But I need to meet her! You said we were going to meet her! I was so excited and now everything is ruined!” Twilight giggled and began to walk away while grabbing my tail with her magic and started to pull me with her. “Sorry Phantom but the fates have decided to let Equestria live another day.” I dug all my hooves into the dirt except for one to try to stop her from taking me away from the bakery, the other hoof was shaking angrily at the sky, “Damn you fates! You've ruined my life! I wanted to make the town go PCHEW!” Twilight snorted and looked back at me, “What in the world is 'pchew'?” “That's the sound of the town blowing up.” “Uh-huh. Because you know what a town blowing up sounds like.” I looked at her very seriously as I replied, “Yes, I blow up every town that I leave. That is what I do, and now I've come here.” She paused for a second and watched me curiously, and I put my hooves up in an innocent fashion, “I'm kidding Princess! Don't banish me from the face of Equestria!” She just rolled her eyes and we continued on our way to the library/tree/house/castle place. On the way there I got a few weird looks, probably because I was being dragged along the ground behind the town's alicorn. I just waved at them jubilantly before remembering every time that I was supposed to be angry at fate right then. When we made it to Twilight's place she let me out of her magical grasp and I followed her in, she looked at me and said, “You can sleep on the couch again, I'll actually go get a bed tomorrow to make better arrangements for you.” I tilted my head as I processed what she was saying, “So you're telling me that you're actually making long term plans for me to stay here?” She just nodded and I stood there for a moment thinking before looking back up at her and smiling, “Thank you Twilight. I don't think I could say it enough, but thank you.” She took a few steps towards me and gave me a hug which made me freeze up and I just stood there awkwardly for a few seconds before returning the hug. After a little bit she let go of me and said, “Get ready for bed Phantom, I'm sure Pinkie will have a party planned sometime tomorrow morning.” I squealed when she mentioned that, having completely forgotten about that apparently plan. I noticed Twilight grimace at my loud squeal so I smiled sheepishly, “Oops, sorry, I got a little excited there.” She rolled her eyes and began to walk up the stairs as we gave our goodnights and retired to our beds, well me to the couch, but I wasn't really complaining. I lay down on the couch and nuzzled into the pillow that had appeared there while we were out. If I had to guess I would say the little purple dude might have put it there since he seemed to be some kind of helper to Twilight. Maybe he worked as a librarian too, I don't really know. Either way I had a really comfy place to call my own to sleep in, and a very comfortable...home now. I'd never EVER had a real home before and felt amazing. I fell asleep with a huge smile on my muzzle that night and knew that tomorrow was going to be just amazing.