//------------------------------//
// ch 18. party 
// Story: A New World, a Fearful Way 
// by Votederpycausemufins 
//------------------------------//

	It was not yet six in the morning when Angela entered the building. Most of the pokemon were asleep, but a few nocturnal pokemon, like noctowl, were still up.
“Better get upstairs and into bed before Lea wakes up and realizes I’m not there. She’s not gonna want to hear the bad news.”
“Hear what bad news?”
Angela’s fur stood on end for a few second when she heard Lea’s voice. She turned and saw Lea in the doorway leading towards the kitchen standing on three legs with the fourth in the handle of a mug with steam coming from it.
“L-lea! What are you doing up? And is that coffee?”
Lea walked over to her sister. “Nah, it’s hot cocoa. The peppermint kind too. I kinda figured out how to hold a mug while still being able to walk.” She took a sip. “By the way, I need to buy a few new mugs. Anyway… where where you?”
Angela gave a small sigh. “I went out to the town Citrus said she had got the bookmarks. Turns out it’s just the next town over. I asked if some of the residents had seen Sparks and if they knew where to find him. Apparently he left a few days ago.”
“Oh, that’s, uh… too bad.”
“Hey, I have good news too.”
“What’s that?”
“He was seen leaving with a quilava.”
Lea’s eyes widened. “Then that means, if we find him, we find Kya!”
“Yeah, if it is her. It most likely is, but still… Anyway, why are you up?”
“My dream woke me up.”
“You had an actual dream?”
“No, haven’t had once since we got here. The colors just suddenly changed.”
Lea had a dream form of synesthesia. She dreamed in colors instead of pictures. Sometimes she had a normal dream, but not usually.
“What was it last night?”
Lea took another sip from her mug. “It was mostly blues and purples, then it suddenly changed to a burst of bright orange and yellow with a little red. The burst is what woke me up.”
“Okay. *yawn* Anything else happen.”
“Well nothing that I can-”
Lea was cut off by another voice. “Hey! You should have told me you were waking up early! I could have started to set up the party!”
“Oh yeah, there’s this guy.”
Angela wasn’t use to being surprised, and the new pony popping up right behind her really didn’t help.
“You…” She started after she calmed down. “Are worse than sparks after having sugar. Well, maybe equally bad.”
“The name’s Cheese Sandwich. This is my friend, boneless.” He gestured to the rubber chicken on his back.
“Uh, huh. Well, I’ve been up all night, so I’m gonna go up to be-”
“Come! Let’s make a party for your friend!” Cheese yelled as he took ahold of Angela.
“All. My. HATE!” Angela whispered to Lea before being pulled away by the party pony.
“And that’s for staying out all night without telling me!” Lea called back after her.
‘Hmm, I wonder if I can manage two legs again. I saw one article about someone’s houndoom who could could do it. I should go try.’
And so the sleep deprived Lea left the room to try walking on two legs again.



After Lea had slept a bit more, she came down to have breakfast. She found the whole downstairs area decorated for a party. 
‘Huh. This pony doesn’t mess around when it comes to parties.’
Lea found the party pony looking at various pokemon and taking notes.
“Ah, glad to see you up! I started the party already for the younger ones who were already up. They’ve been having fun.” 
He stopped to look at what he had been writing down. Then out of nowhere he put up a poster of the legendary pokemon Lugia, and started bouncing around the room, pointing 	at various pokemon and saying their names.
“Krabby, snubbull, venonat, mankey, chansey and zubat. Slowking, ditto, butterfree. Lugia and caterpie.”
Out of nowhere, he pulled out an accordion and started up a tune. After an intro, he started singing.



“Krabby, Snubbull, Venonat
Mankey, Chansey and Zubat
Slowking, Ditto, Butterfree
Lugia and Caterpie
Oddish, Poliwag, Goldeen
Elekid and Nidoqueen
Victreebel and Magneton - Everybody Polkamon!
“Aerodactyl, Seel, Machoke
Marill, Moltres, then Slowpoke
Articuno, Ditto, Muk
Flareon and ol' Psyduck
Cloyster, Kingler, Shellder, Gloom
Snorlax and of course Vileplume
Zapdos and Charmeleon - Everybody Polkamon!
“It's time to polka
For Ponyta and Pidgey too
Come on put on your lederhosen
And try not to stamp on little Pikachu
You'd better grab yourself a partner
Like Tentacruel or Bulbasaur (Bulbasaur)
Hold on a minute - there's still at least a hundred and twenty-seven more
“Including Ledyba and Omastar
Jynx, Bellossom and Magmar
Geodude and Arcanine
Jiggypuff and Mr. Mime
Don't forget about Sandslash
Exeggcute and Rapidash
Lickitung and Porygon - Everybody Polkamon!
“Everybody Polkamon!
Everybody Polkamon!”



“That is the weirdest song I have ever heard.” Lea said when he finished. “But I loved it! I think Kya would too if she heard it.”
“Who’s Kya?” Cheese asked.
Lea lost her smile. “She was my adoptive daughter. I never really thought about her being like that until two weeks ago, and I haven’t seen her since we got here. I-I want to see her again.” A tear fell from Lea’s face.
“Hey! This is a no tears zone! Go find something fun to do.”
Lea wiped her eyes. “Thanks, but first I want to go check on the berry plants upstairs. I’ll be back down in a little bit.”
“Well I’ll continue the party down here!”
Lea gave a small laugh before heading to the roof, where she found Blue Grass looking at the sprouts.
“Blue Grass?” Lea called.
She turned, “Oh, hi there Lea. Ah just came to see the plants. Can’t believe you’ve already got sprouts!”
Lea looked at the plants, “Yeah, they’ll be in stage three by tomorrow.”
“Stage three? What d'ya mean by that?”
“Berry plants are grouped into five stages of life. When they haven’t sprouted yet, sprouts, a not yet flowering plant, and flowering plant, and a plant with fruit.”
“But ya only planted these a few days ago.”
“Yeah, they’re growing nicely. Should have a few berries in a couple days more.”
“How in the hay did ya get ‘em to grow so fast?”
“Eh,” Lea shrugged. “They naturally grow fast. The fastest is to have a plant with berries in just a little over four days.”
“Four days!” Blue Grass sputtered. “Most plants don’t even get a sprout in that time. Well, if you let it grow naturally.”
That caught Lea’s attention. “What do you mean?”
“Earth ponies like me have magic too. It’s more connected to Equus though. We can make plants grow a little faster an’ keep them bearing fruit almost all the time. There’s a farm called Sweet Apple Acres where they’ve got apples that need harvesting almost every day. Fact is, Earth ponies have alway been the main producers of food, all the way back to before Equestria was formed and the princesses ruled.”
“Aren’t they thousands of years old or something?” Lea asked, thinking some mistake had been made.
“Yep, always been that way.”
“Hmm, the librarian would let me get out anymore books because I was trying to take them all. I guess I’ll need to find some more history books somewhere else to learn more about all that. Anyway, they’ve been planted so that hopefully we’ll get new berries from mutations in the plants. I’ll be able to tell once they flower.”
“‘Cause of what the flowers look like?”
“No, all the flowers look the same, even if it is a different berry. The way to tell, while strange, always works. An even number of blossoms mean that at least one of the berries is a mutation. Odd means they’re all normal berries.”
“Huh, ah never would have guessed.”
“It’s probably best if you were able to find a former human that gardened before. My knowledge is limited to what I’ve read. They might have more knowledge from personal experience.”
“Alright then. Ah hope I’ll see ya again soon.”
“Hey!” Lea called. “There’s a party going on downstairs. Why don’t you bring your friends and come back to have some fun.”
“Ah might just do that. See ya soon!”



Lea found herself enjoying the party. There had been a few former humans at the party. One group had been lucky enough to find many of their very large group. It consisted of a porygon2 named Agatha (no relation the the elite four member), a scyther named Zeetha, a Weavile named Violetta, and others in their crew. Agatha even had a pokemon that spoke English named Krosp (a purugly).
Somewhere else was a girl from the orange islands. She had become an oddish with her pokemon, a sableye she named Stitch.
The last group Lea met with was a young girl named Kryssa who had just been starting her journey the day everyone was brought to Equus. She had been happy to find her fennekin next to her upon waking up,but the now flabebe had had some trouble trying to convince her new pokemon it was her.
The party goers still had fun eating the cake and other treats, and for once, Lea was having fun and enjoying herself. This Cheese Sandwich really knew how to make a party, though it still felt like it could be better. Like if it were possible for laughter itself to make the party.



Somewhere in ponyville, a pink pony that looked like cotton candy sneezed.



Still, Lea had to admit, it was the best party she had been to so far. There were many games that were like she had seen back home, but there were also a couple thrown in that she couldn’t tell if they were some of the games they had here, or that Cheese had made up for the party.
For the first time since her arrival on equus, Lea felt fully relaxed. Well, until She was dragged to the center of the room to join in a group dance. It didn’t take long for her join in, as it was almost exactly like one she had heard Kya or Angela sometimes play at home.
By the time it was over, Lea was ready to sit down and get something to drink. At the table of food, there were a variety of foods that both ponies and pokemon would enjoy. Along with a mug of punch, Lea got herself a plate of pizza, which she carried over to a table on her back.
After she had set her food down, Ziggs came over to her with a few cookies stuffed in his mouth. “Mrrph ffmrrphs mrr phrrmmph mrrff!”
“Wait until you’re done eating.” Lea told him, using her paws to block the crumbs coming from his mouth. “I can’t understand you with food in your mouth.”
“These cookies are really good!” Ziggs said after her finally swallowed them. “Maybe you should get some too.”
“What kind are they?” Lea asked, taking another bite from her pizza.
“They’re called snickerdoodles! It’s a really funny name.”
Even with the pizza in her mouth, Lea’s mouth started watering. She took one more bite of her pizza, and ran over to the cookies. She piled about ten cookies onto her plate before coming back to the table with them. In one bite, she ate almost all of the first, fairly large cookie. Linoone soon came over to his son and saw Lea eating the cookies. He face pawed.
“Oh Arceus, she found the snickerdoodles.”
“What’s so bad about that?” Ziggs asked his dad.
“She plows through them like a tyranitar could plow through a snow fort. They’ll be gone before you know it.”
And just as Linoone foretold, within a matter of minutes, and the snickerdoodles we gone from the table, and Lea was left with a fully belly.



It wasn’t long before the party was finally over. Everyone had had their fill of food, and all of the games had been played. Lea had inquired Cheese Sandwich on where he had gotten the recipe for the cookies. He admitted the recipe had come from a shop in Ponyville, and that theirs were probably better.
“That’s it!” Lea exclaimed, “When this whole thing with Ire and Quarry is finished with, we’re taking a vacation, and our first stop is Ponyville. Everything seems to happen there. And I hear they also have a good library!”
Everyone else face hoofed or pawed respectively.