The Kobold of Ponyville
Chapter VII - Welcome!
As the group made their way towards town with Pinkie and Tak discussing the very important topic of cake, Fluttershy couldn’t help feel a little nervous. Twilight noticed this and trotted up to her friend.
“Are you okay, Fluttershy?” she asked.
Fluttershy sighed softly, “Sort of, I’m just worried about Tak. I mean, I know he’s trying his best for me, but I can’t help but feel worried about how this will turn out.”
Twilight nodded, “I understand, and nopony would feel bad if you were to take him home early should he start getting nervous.”
“Thank you,” Fluttershy smiled. “My main hope is just that he has a good time tonight.”
“We all do. The little guy is going to be in for a shock, that’s for certain.”
Fluttershy giggled as the two increased their speed in order to catch up with the others.
As they walked through the town, Tak couldn't help but notice the entire town was practically deserted.
“Uh… Pinkie?” he asked. “Where is everyone?”
“You’ll see, Tak,” she giggled. “Don’t want to ruin the surprise~!”
Tak gulped nervously and clung tighter to the mare’s head. Pinkie led the group to the town hall which had no visible lights. This only served to make the kobold even more nervous than he already was, however. Pinkie leant her head down and let the kobold slide off before turning to the others.
“Okay, Fluttershy, wait here with Tak. Everypony else, in!”
The group giggled as they entered the town hall. Tak swore he could hear more giggling and whispers in the darkness ahead of them, though. Fluttershy gently stroked his head with a hoof and smiled down at him.
“You okay, sweetie?” she asked.
“Y-Yeah, j-just a little nervous,” Tak replied.
Fluttershy leant down and nuzzled his cheek gently, “It’s okay to be nervous, sweetie. But I promise, you will like this. And me and your friends are going to be here for you, okay?”
Tak nodded and smiled up at the mare, before turning his attention to the doors and waited. The doors then opened and Pinkie’s hoof beckoned them inside. Tak slowly and cautiously made his way towards the door, waiting as Fluttershy held it open for him. He nervously poked his head round the corner and stared into the darkness. Thanks to his low light vision, he was able to detect that there were indeed dozens upon dozens of bodies standing in the darkness, the light from the door opening showing him a glimpse of their outlines. with a encouraging nudge form Fluttershy, he stepped inside into the darkness, only to be assaulted with light as the main lights were turned on.
“WELCOME TO PONYVILLE, TAK!” the room cheered.
Tak screamed and leapt up into Fluttershy, grabbing her neck tightly and panting rapidly as he shook from fear. Fluttershy giggled gently and gave him a reassuring cuddle as he took note of the room.
Dozens upon dozens of ponies from the town were in front of him, all with grinning faces, but the second they truly laid eyes on the kobold, the expressions varied between shock, interest, fear and excitement.
All around them were balloons, streamers and tables with food and drink, a large banner with the words ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ on them hung from the wall. Tak slowly got down from Fluttershy and took a step forward. The whole room seemed to hold its collective breath as the stared at the kobold.
“U-uh… hello?” he said with a meek wave.
The kobold swallowed a lump in his throat as he used every ounce of will he could muster to refrain his small frame from shaking violently. The five mares shared a look of slight concern, with Pinkie being the exception, beaming down at Tak with a large grin on her face.
“Huh, so that’s what a kobold looks like,” someone said from the crowd, “figured they’d be taller.”
“Hey!” Tak huffed and crossed his arms,” Tak is taller than most for his age!”
The voice giggled along with a couple others, “Easy lil dude. Meant no offence.”
A white unicorn stepped out from the crowd with purple shades on and grinned down at the kobold, offering a hoof.
“Names Vinyl, nice to meet ya!”
“T-tak,” Tak replied, gently holding her hoof to shake it, only to be roughly shaken by the unicorn who remained oblivious.
Slowly, other ponies from the group began to come forward and say hello the the kobold, however, Twilight noted that there were a fair few dozen ponies who remained back some with looks of fear and a couple with disdain. This was a fact not lost on Rainbow Dash either, the pegasus had seemingly scoured the crowd in an act of protecting towards Tak.
Fluttershy missed this, as she was watching the gathered crowd slowly enclose on the kobold who looked like he was on the verge of having a panic attack. Something the mare was all too familiar with.
“Uhm, could everypony give Tak some space? He’s still not so used to large crowds…”
The crowd complied and moved back a small bit in order to give Tak some breathing room. The kobold stood there for a moment, unsure as to what to do when he felt a gentle nudge on his back. He looked back to see Fluttershy looking down at him.
“Go on, sweetie,” Fluttershy smiled. “Go and mingle and have fun!”
“Okay…” Tak replied uneasily.
Tak nervously walked forwards, being careful to not knock into any of the ponies as he made his way into the centre. As he was looking around, he accidently bumped into a pony and looked up, seeing the cross eyed pegasus looking down at him.
At least, he thought she was.
“T-Tak’s sorry, Tak didn’t—”
“See me? Don’t worry, I have those moments to,” the mare smiled and helped him up. “The name’s Ditzy, or Derpy as some ponies call me.”
“I’m Tak… nice to meet you,” he smiled back.
“So how’d you like Ponyville so far?” she asked.
“It’s okay… a little big and k-kinda scary,” he nervously admitted.
The mare giggled and gave him a playful pat on his head, “Know the feeling, was scary when me and my daughter moved here a few years back.”
“Daughter?” Tak asked.
“Mhm,” she replied. “She’s my lil’ muffin. Why not go and play with her and her friends? They're over by the fizzy drinks.”
Tak followed the direction she was pointing and saw a bunch of fillies and colts—including the cutie mark crusaders and pipsqueak—and grinned.
”Okay, Tak will, it was nice meeting you!”
“Likewise, now scoot. go have fun!”
Tak smiled as he ran over to the foals, Derpy watching with a smile on her own face.
As Fluttershy smiled, watching Tak run over to the local colts and fillies before being interrupted by a gentle on her shoulder.
“Fluttershy, you sure this is a good idea?” Twilight asked her.
“Hmm? Why wouldn’t it be?” the pegasus replied.
“Cos of how the ponies were looking at him?” Rainbow replied as she joined in, “I mean, some seemed cool but… I ‘unno, some of the others seemed a little put off…”
“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked.
“Just… keep an eye on him, that’s all. We all will,” Twilight replied, thinking it best not to worry the pegasus too much.
“Okay…” Fluttershy said with a nod, though feeling a little more concerned before looking back over to Tak.
As the foals chattered to one another, Scootaloo was the first to notice the kobold running over to them.
“Oh hey, Tak!” she grinned.
“Hey!” the kobold happily replied.
Tak noticed that amongst the cutie mark crusaders were several other fillies and colts. One colt he remembered from the other day.
“Alright, mate?” Pipsqueak grinned, offering the kobold a hoof to bump.
Tak looked at the hoof with a tilted head in curiosity, and in confusion. The others looked at each other and giggled as Pipsqueak snickered softly.
“You’re supposed to bump it with your own, Tak.”
“Okay?” Tak asked, still confused about what he thought was an odd gesture.
He curled his small clawed hand and gently bumped it on Pipsqueak’s hoof. The colt grinned again before wrapping one of his front legs around the kobold and began to introduce the others.
“You already know the three fillies over there,” he indicated the cutie mark crusaders who waved back at Tak, “but allow me to introduce the rest of me good mates. Firstly, Rumble, our athlete in training after his big bro…”
A grey pegasus with a dark grey mane and tail nodded with a smile.
“Button Mash, the gamer of our group.”
The earth colt was too busy playing with a device to fully acknowledge the kobold, merely grunting and offering a quick wave of his hoof. Pipsqueak rolled his eyes as he continued to introduce the others.
“Pinchy Punch, our resident imagination expert.”
“Hi hi!” a pink unicorn filly greeted with an enthusiastic wave, “maybe you can play with me and Uncle Bones some time?”
“Uncle Bones?” Tak whispered in confusion.
“Her imaginary friend is a weird skeleton wizard thing,” Pipsqueak whispered back before continuing.
“This is Dinky, apprentice muffin maker and the mailmare’s daughter.”
“Hey…” Dinky replied with a shy wave of her hoof and a smile.
“Aaaaand finally, Snips and Snails. Our resident… uh…” Pipsqueak said, scratching the top of his head, “yeah...”
“Yo, scaley dude!” Snails said, oblivious to Pipsqueak.
“Your kinda small for a dragon… like Spike!” Snip said with a simple smile.
“Idiot, he isn’t a dragon! He’s a kabold,” Snails told him with a bop on the head.
“Uh.. Tak’s a kobold, guys,” Applebloom said.
“That’s what I said. Kabold,” Snails replied.
“No, you said KAH-bold. It’s KUH-bold,” Sweetie said slightly irritated.
Snips shook his head in a quick motion, “Nuh-uh, he said it right, you guys didn’t!”
“Yeah!” Snails added.
“No, you said it wrong!” Applebloom said through gritted teeth
“Nuh-uh!” Snips and Snails said in unison.
“Ya-huh!” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle replied in unison.
“Nuh-uh!”
“Yaaaaa-huuuuuuh!” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle said, drawing out the word longer.
Tak and the others watched with confusion and some entertainment as the four began to quickly reply back and forth each other, nearly overlapping one anothers sentences.
“Anyway…” Pipsqueak started, “you wanna drink, Tak?”
“Okay,” the kobold replied.
“Great!” Scootaloo grinned, “we got punch, fizzy AJ, this weird but tasty black fizzy stuff Pinkie calls Kolah…”
Tak tapped his chin as he pondered before shrugging, “Tak trusts your judgement.”
As Scootaloo nodded and went to fetch a drink for him, Tak heard a sound of disgust from behind him and turned around to see a pair of earth fillies, one pink with a tiara and one grey with glasses approaching him.
“Urgh, why would they let a disgusting animal into the town?” the pink one sneered.
“Yeah!” the grey one added, drawing out her reply.
Pinchy glared at the two, “What do you two want?”
“We just came here to see if the rumors of a monster being in Ponyville were true, not that its any of your business you freak,” the pink one replied.
Pinchy winced as she took a step back, only for Rumble to step forward.
“Hey, back off, Diamond. That wasn’t very nice,”
“Who asked you, you weakling,” the silver filly replied, turning her nose up at the colt, “just remember I beat you up the other day, so know your place.”
Rumble gritted his teeth. The only reason he hadn’t fought back was because he knew if he had hit her, she would have run off to tell Miss Cheerilee who wouldn’t believe Silver had started the argument.
“‘Eh! Easy now, Silver,” Pipsqueak said as he trotted in front of Rumble, “just leave us alone, alright?”
“Wot woz that?” Diamond replied in a mock Trottingham accent, “Sownds loike somepony buttin’ when they ain’t wan’ed!”
Pipsqueaks ears lowered a little as the two fillies laughed at him, “I-I don’t sound like that…”
“Oh, buzz off you—”
“Hey!”
Diamond was interrupted by a now seething looking Tak, who walked right up to her and glared at the filly.
“Tak doesn't know who you are, but you’re pissing Tak off! Why don’t you two just piss off and leave us alone!”
“Look, Silver!” Diamond jeered, “the freak can’t even talk right!”
“He’s like a foal!” Silver tease.
Diamond began to laugh but squeaked loudly when the kobold suddenly jabbed a claw into her chest, pressing his snout against her face so his eyes were inches from hers.
“You’d better shut your mouth. Otherwise,” Tak pounded his fist into his palm, “Bap! Tak will shut it for ya,”
Instead of intimidating her to back down, as he had planned, Diamond Tiara instead wailed and pushed Tak away from her.
“Ew! It touched me! I’m going to get a disease!” she wailed and ran away, before shouting, “daddy will hear of this, you freak!”
Silver quickly ran after her friend as Tak merely snorted and rubbed his snout with a sniff and turned back to the others who were staring at him with mouths agape.
“What?” he asked.
“Dude, no pony’s ever stood up to her… well a couple have, but not like that!” Scootaloo grinned.
“Don’tcha think it was a little harsh?” Applebloom asked.
Tak shrugged, “Tak’s dealt with worse. Don’t think Tak did anything wrong?”
Tak blinked as the others looked above him with wide eyes. He tilted his head in confusion and was about to ask what was wrong when he felt something touch his shoulder.
A yellow hoof.
The kobold swallowed a lump that had formed in his throat suddenly and slowly looked up the hoof to see the unamused expression of Fluttershy.
“U-uh… hey, F-Fluttershy…” Tak chuckled nervously.
“Care to explain why I saw you threaten Diamond and Silver, Tak?” Fluttershy calmly asked.
Tak was about to respond when Pipsqueak stepped forward.
“Beggin’ your pardon, Miss Fluttershy. But he was just standing up for us again, like the other day.”
The other colts and fillies nodded in unison.
“She made fun of Pipsqueak’s accent,” Scootaloo said.
“She called me a freak…” Pinchy said softly, resting against the air as if something was there.
Rumble gritted his teeth and snorted, “And she called me a weakling.”
Fluttershy looked at the fillies and colts before sighing, “Tak, it’s good that you are looking out for your new friends. But you can’t just let your anger get the better of you, and you certainly can’t just threaten ponies. We’ll talk about your behaviour later, okay?”
Tak wanted to protest, but he felt that it wasn’t worth it and sighed, “Okay, Tak is sorry…”
Fluttershy smiled, “Now, come on. You need to apologise to Diamond.”
“But she—!” Tak stopped when Fluttershy raised her brow at him and groaned, “fine…”
The two made their way over towards where Diamond as now angrily talking to a very worn out looking stallion who seemed to only be half listening. As the mare and kobold approached them, Diamond pointed at them and glared angrily.
“There, daddy! That’s the freak!” the filly hissed.
Tak bit his tongue as he refrained from retaliating as Fluttershy gave the filly a glare, a look that was missed by Diamond’s father.
“Hello, Miss Fluttershy,” the stallion said, albeit a little wearily, “is what my Diamond saying true?”
Fluttershy nodded, “I’m afraid so, Filthy. I’ve told him to apologise to Diamond and to not do it again.”
“What prompted him to do it?” Filthy asked, giving the kobold a look over with a gleam of curiosity in his eyes.
“Well… it appeared that Diamond was, well, being very mean to the other colts and fillies.”
“I was not!” Diamond snapped, “how dare you accuse me of that you, you stupid—”
“Diamond!” Filthy interrupted with a glare, “that’s not how you speak to your elders, now apologise to Fluttershy and Tak.”
“But daaaaddy!” she wailed.
“No buts, Diamond,” Filthy replied, keeping his glare on his daughter.
Diamond glared back at her father before waivering and glaring at Tak, “Sorry.”
Tak grumbled and crossed his arms in annoyance, prompting the pegasus to give his back a little nudge. With another grumble, the kobold mumbled something.
“What was that, Tak?” Fluttershy asked.
“Tak is sorry, too,” Tak replied, a little louder.
“Apology accepted,” Filthy said with a smile before turning to his daughter, “now come one, Diamond. We’re going to get Silver and you two are going to go and apologise to the others.”
“But—”
“What did I say, Diamond?” Filthy interrupted, “now come on!”
The filly grumbled as she and her father made their way over to where the other fillies and colts were, who had been watching the conversation with interest. Fluttershy smiled down at the kobold and nuzzles the top of his head.
“That’s my little kobold,” she cooed.
Tak grumbled and shooed her away as he huffed, making the mare giggle softly.
“Now, lets enjoy the party,” Fluttershy
Tak fistpumped the air before Fluttershy continued.
“But you are grounded, mister.”
The kobold blinked as he looked up at her in confusion.
“What does that mean?”