My welcome party ended up letting out around 7 PM later that night, which seemed just crazy to me! I didn't even know it was possible to have a party go that long! Well then again I'd never been to a party before, but that's beside the point. She'd had everything planned, after a few hours we had lunch and sat down to take a break and talk with everypony there. I walked around to talk to some other ponies and they were all so freaking nice! It felt amazing to be able to walk up to anypony and strike up a conversation with no problem. After about half an hour Pinkie Pie dropped a turntable out of no where and music starting playing.
For another few hours everyone was up and dancing, playing games that had been set up, or snacking at the food station. When it was finally time for everyone to leave I stood at the door waving enthusiastically at everypony that walked by. Eventually the only ponies left were me, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie and I turned to look around at the room that was trashed in front of us. I stuck my bottom lip out and said, “Looks we have to do the cleaning up part now don't we?”
In response I heard a giggle come from Pinkie Pie, “There's no need to worry about that! I've always got my patented Party Picker Upper 3000!” She pulled a small box out of her mane and lay it on the floor before pressing the one and only button on the top of it. As she did it began to spin quicker and quicker before shooting off and it started to suck in all the trash lying around until the whole floor was clean of debris.
Twilight raised an eyebrow and said, “You actually have that patented?”
“No of course not! It's just part of the name!” Pinkie responded as she walked over to the box that had finished and actually grew while it was sucking everything up. She bounced over to the trash can before releasing the trash into it and bouncing back over to us.
“Well that's useful.” I muttered. I looked over at Twilight to see her glaring at the object as if it were some kind of abomination. I snickered and patted her muzzle reassuringly, “It's okay Twi, the scary Patented Party Picker Upper 3000 is not going to hurt you.”
She looked back at me with a deadpan expression on her face and said, “What are you doing.”
“I'm petting you!” I replied.
Pinkie Pie bounced over and shouted out, “That's not petting this is petting!” Before she started to pat Twilight on her head.
I let out a small “Oooooh,” and moved my hoof next to Pinkie's and patted her head as well. I beamed and said, “There we go! All better now!”
She just continued to stare at me for a few more seconds then muttered, “Please stop touching me.”
I complied and took a couple steps back and saw that Twilight's attention had turned to Pinkie Pie, whose hoof was still stroking Twilight's mane. “Pinkie she said please,” I said.
“Huh? Oh right sorry! I got kind of distracted, her hair's so soft! How'd you get your hair so soft Twilight?” Pinkie asked.
All the while the look on Twilight's face of I'm so not amused right now never left. “It's called a shower.” Twilight deadpanned.
I stuck out my tongue and said, “Showers are stupid, what's the point of them, you just stand under water forever then dry off the water. Seems counter-productive to me.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow at me before replying, “That's not what you're supposed to do in a shower, you're supposed to clean yourself.”
“With what?” I asked.
Twilight sighed and put a hoof to her forehead, “With the shampoo that's in there...”
“Oooooh, well you probably should have mentioned that.”
“I figured you would have known.”
I grinned before replying, “You have to remember I'm kind of dumb.”
Twilight removed her hoof and looked at me with a bit of...concern? She took a step towards me and said, “You're not dumb, you're ignorant. There's a big difference, I'm sorry I should have figured to ask.”
I shook my head and said, “No you shouldn't have, it's not normal for somepony to not know this stuff, I do know that. It was just another misunderstanding, no harm done, I'll go upstairs and take a real shower then...?” I paused as I looked at Twilight to tell me what we were going to do next.
She nodded and said, “We're going to go to Quill's and Sofa's to get a bed for you before it closes.”
I looked at Twilight a bit as I thought before replying, “You know Twilight, I don't need a bed, I've never slept on something as comfortable as a couch before and I'm perfectly fine sleeping there.”
“I know but I want to do it.” She said as a soft smile donned her face.
I paused before smiling back, walked towards her, and nuzzled against her neck without saying anything. I then turned to walk up the stairs to take a real shower. As I reached the top of the stairs, I could have sworn I heard a happy sigh come from downstairs. It made my smile widen as I reached the bathroom and stepped into the shower.
When I finished I bounced down the stairs to find Twilight peacefully reading in a chair, I jumped around till I stopped in front of her and said, “Twilight! Twilight! I smell like you now!”
She closed her book in surprise when I landed in front of her, then smirked before replying, “Is that a good thing?”
“Yeah! You smell pretty!”
An intense blush adorned her face and she smiled before saying, “So you want to smell pretty.”
I flicked my nose up into the air and said, “It just accentuates the prettiness of me, I'm a very pretty pony I'll have you know.” I pranced around like that for a little bit before tripping over a table and landing face first into the ground. I muttered out “Ow...” and heard Twilight giggle before walking over to me and offering a hoof to help me up.
“Come on Mr. Pretty Pony, we need to get to the shop before it closes.”
I nodded and followed her out the door before stopping and asking, “Wait, what happened to Pinkie Pie?”
Twilight just shrugged without looking back, “I don't know, she just disappeared before you went up to take a shower.”
I raised an eyebrow at the back of her head, in hindsight it probably made no sense but whatever, and asked, "Should we be worried?”
“Nah, she disappears like that all the time, no need to worry.”
I pouted and said, “I never got to actually say thank you...”
Twilight looked around at me and smiled, “You'll see her again don't worry, you can thank her the next time you see her.”
I nodded in compliance and continued to trot behind Twilight. Sometime during the journey a big smile had found its way onto my face as I thought about all the friends I had, and exactly what the implication of getting a bed meant. It meant I had a home now, a place to belong, I'd never had something like that before and the thought of it was very nearly overwhelming. I looked at Twilight and thought about all the things she'd done for me and I made it a clear goal in my mind to tell her exactly what everything she had done meant to me when we got back home. But for now, I get to go pick out a bed of my own!
I let out a little squeak and began to bounce in excitement, earning a raised eyebrow and a chuckle from Twilight. As she shook her head I blushed a little and coughed into my hoof before resuming a trot, “Sorry I just got a little excited there.” She just shook her head and we continued in silence the rest of the way to the shop.