“Rainbow!” Twilight called out to her multicolored friend.
Rainbow Dash looked back at Twilight. “Don’t worry Twi, I got this covered.” She said with a confident grin.
Twilight sighed. She would have wondered how it came to this, if the answer wasn’t so obvious. “Rainbow, what do you think you are doing?”
Rainbow Dash raised a brow in a confused manner. “Uhh, duh! Saving you from a total creep creepily creeping on you.”
“I- You...” Twilight uttered, annoyed. She took a deep breath. “Why did you decide the best course of action was to ram into this ‘creep’ at full speed?”
“What? I wasn’t going full speed.” Rainbow retorted, completely missing Twilights point.
The unicorn just gestured at the half submerged body of Smiles, being unnervingly still.
Rainbow Dash followed the gesture before looking back at Twilight with a sheepish grin. “Umm, okay, so maybe I overdid it a bit.” She immediately went back to her serious face. “But that creep was still creepily creeping up on you!”
“Okay, first off, stop doing that!” Twilight commanded.
“... Doing what?” Rainbow asked, confused.
“The alliteration!”
“... Allite-what?” Rainbow said, continuing being confused.
“Creep creepily creeping.” Twilight said flatly. “Really?”
“... Okay, fine. I get it. No nerd word things.”
“Great. Now listen Rainbow Dash, that stallion-”
“Was a real creep, I know! I mean, you should’ve seen that expression on his face-”
“Rainbow.” Twilight tried to interrupt, but Rainbow kept speaking over her.
“-he was, like, totally going to do something weird to you-”
“Rainbow!” Twilight tried interrupting, now louder. Still no effect.
“-I know those new police ponies are around but come on, what good are those guys for if they can’t even keep obvious creeps off the-”
Twilight had already drawn breath to scream at Rainbow Dash, but was interrupted as she was beat to the punch.
“Silence!” A voice said from the outdoor dining area. It was not a yell, heck it wasn’t even that loud of a sentence, but it held such firm commanding tones that it shut both Rainbow and Twilight up.
Both turned their heads to the source of the voice.
At the furthest corner of the dining area, which was near their position, was a table for two. But only one sat there. The source of the voice was a griffon. Not an unheard sight in Ponyville, but definitely rare.
This griffon possessed dark colored feathers and had his eyes closed. On his head was a black fedora with crow feathers on it’s right side. He sat on his chair in an upright manner not usually used by quadrupeds. On his left talon he held a cup full of steaming hot coffee.
The griffon blew into his beverage and spoke. “Please, do try to remain quiet. Many come here to peacefully prepare for the endeavors of the day, or just to relax. You are causing quite a bit a ruckus, and thus leading to discomfort of the patrons.”
Both ponies stood and just stared at the griffon. His tone was polite, elegant and a bit cryptic, never raising in volume above casual speech and just oozing with mysterious charm, it’s impact was only intensified by his deep voice. His voice was, in simple and blunt terms, sexy.
The griffon sipped his coffee and opened his eyes, showing them piercing yellow. He look directly at Twilight and Rainbow Dash.”Miss pegasus, I suggest you listen to what your friend has to say.” He said coolly. “Ignorance leads to the bitter roots of misunderstanding.”
Rainbow dash simply nodded, showing she understood but did say a word. Twilight glanced at her friend and saw that she had an odd wide eyed look on her face.
“And you, miss Twilight Sparkle,” The griffon spoke again, getting Twilight’s attention. He drank his coffee shortly before continuing. “I suggest you help your acquaintance. Heavens know it is a challenge to breath through solid ground.”
Twilight found herself nodding, not even questioning how the griffon knew her by name.
The griffon finished his coffee and set the cup down. He got off his seat and looked over his shoulder at the two. “Now play nice. I have a train to catch.” He gave the two claw salute and walked off.
Twilight blinked when the griffon was out of sight. Her previous experience with a griffon had not ended nicely. This one however… ‘Wait… Smiles is still- oh no!’
“... Oh. My. Gosh!” Rainbow spoke, as if in a trance. “Did you see how cool that griffon was, Twi?”
Twilight was not listening and trotted over to where Smiles sunk into the ground. He was eerily motionless. “Not now, Rainbow! Come help me get him out!”
“Huh?” Rainbow said dumbly, still in a minor trance. “Oh, yeah, okay.” She trotted to Twilight and the two grabbed hold of the ground submerged stallion’s hindquarters. And they pulled.
Nothing happened. They pulled harder, but Smiles refused to budge.
“Rainbow, how fast did you ram into him?” Twilight asked while trying to lift Smiles up with her magic.
“I dunno! Not too fast, I guess.” Rainbow Dash grunted replied, trying to pull Smiles out via flying.
Their combined attempts did not seem to fare too well. Smiles was embedded pretty hard.
“Rainbow, pull harder!”
“I am! He just… won’t… budge!”
All of a sudden Smile’s limbs moved, causing Rainbow and Twilight to back off from the surprise. His hind quarters planted his hind legs onto the ground and pulled. Smiles’s torso popped out of the ground like a vegetable, accompanied by a huge gasp for air.
Twilight reacted and ran to his side after a brief blank out. “Oh my gosh, are you okay?”
Smiles just heaved in air, trying to answer between breaths. “I’m… Fine… Just… Whew...”
Twilight gave him a concerned look and patted him on the back. Then Rainbow spoke up.
“... Twi, what are you doing?”
Twilight’s expression turned to slight annoyance as she looked at Rainbow Dash. “As I tried to explain earlier, this stallion is not a creep...” She paused to take a brief look at Smiles’ heaving, grinning face. “... Okay, he is sort of creepy, but he isn’t a creep!”
Rainbow let that sink in a bit. “... Oh. So you mean-”
“Yes, Rainbow. You almost accidentally suffocated a pony in dirt for no reason whatsoever.” Twilight said in a deadpan fashion.
Rainbow just looked at Twilight weird. “But Twi, that cre-” Twilight glared at her “-pony, that pony tried to sneak up on you!”
Twilight rolled her eyes.“I stumbled on a rock, he reached out to help.” She stated.
“... Well, but he-”
“Just because he looks scary does not make him a bad pony.” Twilight said preemptively to null Rainbow’s argument.
Smiles had gotten his bearings back and stood straight, cracking his neck in the process“... Ow.”
Twilight turned back to look at Smiles. “You sure you are okay?” The stallion just nodded, moving his neck about to release some tension.
“... Wait, if he could pull himself out that easily, why didn’t he do it in the first place?” Rainbow asked out of the blue.
“You know, I was starting to wonder that myself.” Twilight added with a curious look.
Smiles just blinked and looked at the two. He then chuckled, embarrassed even if it did sound creepy as hell, scratching the back of his head. “Well… I sort of passed out, I think.” Rainbow and Twilight shared a mild disbelieving look. “I think I got my senses back when something pulled me. Can’t remember.”
“... Right...” Twilight said, wanting to change the subject. She put on a half-strained smile. “So, Rainbow, this is Smiles. Smiles, this is Rainbow Dash. My friend.” and before Rainbow could say anything stupid Twilight shot her a warning look.
Smiles remained oblivious this exchange happened and just… smiled like a creepy homicidal maniac and extended his hoof. “Hello there… miss Rainbow.” He greeted with a hoarse tone that could be easily read as ill intent.
Rainbow Dash did not make a move, just eyeing Smiles suspiciously. Twilight shot her a look that said ‘Do it!’. Rainbow rolled her eyes and half-heartedly, and cautiously, shook Smiles’ hoof.
A faint whine left Smiles, causing both Twilight and Rainbow to give him an odd look. “... Sorry. Nervous.” He explained himself in that intimidating hoarse tone. “Umm, no offence miss Twilight, but your friend looks just a bit... scary.”
“WHAT?!” Rainbow Dash snapped angrily, making Smiles visibly flinch at her volume and tone.
Rainbow, to be fair you are giving him nasty looks.” Twilight commented, finding it just a tad ironically amusing that Smiles was finding Rainbow intimidating.
“... Whatever!.” Rainbow said, obviously miffed. Before zooming off she gave Smiles a look and gestured at her eyes, then him. She was gone in an instant before Twilight could say anything in rebuttal.
Smiles just looked at Rainbow go, his expression never changing. “You have weird friends.” He said maybe a bit too bluntly.
Twilight, still very conscious of how backwards that sounded coming from him, sighed as she admitted the truth. “Yeah… I suppose they kind of are.” She put on a smile as she thought of her friends, flaws and all. “But that is what makes them so fun to be around.”
Smiles chuckled at that. “I understand that.” He said while seemingly immersed in some old memories. “The best friends are the ones who are kind of weird, aren’t they.”
He shook his head. “Anyway, let’s proceed.” He said and gestured at the diner.
Twilight nodded with a smile, starting to really think Smiles’ wasn’t so bad at all.
“...”
“...”
“... Uhh...” Twilight said as she squirmed in place. Not because of present company, at least directly, but because of all the ponies looking their, or rather his way. The dining area had a large radius of empty tables around them since ponies were too afraid of Smiles’ to sit closer.
Smiles, for his part seemed oblivious or ignorant to the whole thing and acted as if everything was normal. Or that’s what Twilight thought anyway.
Smiles looked up from his meal, a daffodil sandwich and the very second everypony around them started acting like they weren’t looking at him. “Something wrong, miss Twilight?”
“Uhh… Nothing.” Twilight lied. “Umm, also, you don’t have to call me miss Twilight. Just Twilight will do.” She added.
The eerily smiling stallion blinked his extremely wide eyes. “But that’d be rude, and I wouldn’t want that.” He said earnestly.
“It’s not rude to refer to me by name.” Twilight rebutted. “You are a guest at my home, yes. But that shouldn’t stop you from calling me by my name.”
Smiles thinked, or at least that’s what Twilight read that mile-long silent stare. “Oh, I see. I’ll keep that in mind, miss Twilight.”
Twilight groaned lightly, and facehooved since only a part of her point seemed to go across.
“Hey bro, whacha doing?” A little voice asked, startling Twilight only to see that, at some point, Coral had sneaked her way to the table and looked up at the two of her elders.
“Oh, hi Coral.” Twilight greeted the filly.
“Hi, miss Twilight!” Coral responded cheerfully.
‘Argh, not her too!’ Twilight mentally groaned at all the politeness.
“Hello, Coral.” Smiles greeted his little sister with a pat on the head.
“Hi, big bro.” Coral said as she looked at the two grown ups and the diner table. “You two on a date?”
“What?!” Twilight yelled out in shock, going a bit red while Smiles just chuckled at the idea.
“No, no we’re not.” Smiles said calmly, ruffling the filly’s head. “It’s rude to assume such things for no reason, Coral.” Twilight wholeheartedly agreed with silence. “Besides, we’ve just met yesterday.”
“Kay! I’ll be more observant and considerate next time.” Coral said with a cute salute.
Smiles chuckled and gave the filly a hug. “That’s bette-”
“This is officer Gleaming Badge, I’ve located suspicious activity.” A mare a small distance away said to a radio.
Twilight groaned and buried her face into her hooves. ‘Here we go.’