Ness sat in the shade of the trees, munching on a Skip Sandwich. His muscles ached as he sat at the base of a tree, the grass tickling the back of his legs. Taking another bite out of the sandwich, he looked around, finding his surroundings very calming. He faintly heard the sound of rustling grass, and knew that it wasn't the wind. He swung his head left, making a grab for his bat, and trying to find the source of the noise. An enormous figure suddenly appeared, blocking out the sun. Shielding his eyes with a hand, he found a glorious creature standing over him, its wings spread out majestically. It was some sort of massive horse, a long horn poking out of its flowing mane, which was dyed literally every color of the rainbow, and then some.
"Hello," Ness said simply, blinking owlishly "out for a walk?"
It blinked, then folded its wings, staring down at him as if he'd grown a second head.
"Thou...dost not know of me?" it asked as its beautiful, light blue wings folded in.
"No...not that I know of..." Ness said, scratching his head "...unless you're some sort of shape-shifting alien..."
The pony muttered something to itself, and then directed its attention back to Ness.
"Who art thou?"
"Me? Nobody, why?"
"I mean to know thy name, creature." it huffed, setting itself down on the grass before him.
"Ness, what's yours?"
"Aurora, I am Aurora Borealis." it said, looking around, as Ness had done earlier.
'Aurora-? As in...the lights at the North Pole? Paula talked about that once...'
Ness cringed, remembering that he was alone here, and his friends were who-knew-where.
"So...um...Aurora..."
The winged unicorn's slender neck twisted, and indicated he had his attention.
"What are you doing here? Not to be rude, or anything..."
The pony chuckled, not even making Ness flinch. He'd definitely seen weirder, he believed there was very little that could surprise him.
"We have sensed thy great power, young Ness," the Aurora stated, chuckling softly once more "We sensed it long before thy landing- we believe that is why We were awoken."
"How long were you asleep?" the boy asked, genuinely curious.
The unicorn looked thoughtful for a moment, before replying.
"We do not know, the pattern of the stars feels so much different than they used to..."
'How can you feel the stars?' Ness wondered 'How could anybody feel the stars?'
Ness shrugged mentally, finding logic in that if he himself could use psychokinesis, then gosh-darn-it, the magical blue pony could feel the stars!
"You must be hungry after sleeping so long." Ness deduced, tearing the remainder of his Skip Sandwich in half.
"Not particularly....but...We suppose a small re-nourishment couldn't hurt..."
Ness held out the half of the sandwich that his mouth hadn't touched, germs and all that. The winged-unicorn's mouth tentatively closed around the crust of the sandwich, and his eyes lit up. Taking his half of the sandwich out of his hand, the pony devoured the sandwich in a scant few minutes, appearing to savor it.
"You must've been really hungry." Ness observed.
A small blush came to Aurora's face.
"Well, I'm going to go look for a hotel, wanna come with me?"
Aurora cocked a brow, staring down at the small child.
"Thou wishest we travel with thee?" he asked.
"Sure! I could always use the company."
Aurora smiled.
"Verily! We shall become travel companions, and the best of friends!" he declared, marching forward with a forehoof in the air.
'Reminds me of something Tracy would make up...' Ness thought, his mind turning to Tracy and Mom, then quickly pushed the thought out of his head 'I'll be home soon.'
"No way!" Green shrieked in Button's ear "No feckin' way you made it all the way to the last boss!"
Button did his best to keep his focus on the screen of the console, but the whoops and cheers he was receiving from the two bipeds were making that a bit difficult. Some ponies, like his Mom, Cheerilee, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Truffle, Rumble-
Button shook his head, refocusing his mind and reflexes on the task at hand. Point was, most of his friends and family didn't appreciate his skills the way he did, but these two...things...were eating it up! They were cheering him on! They practically understood him!
A particularly large fireball blasted out of the turtle-beast's pixelated mouth, and his character was burnt to a crisp, indicating a game over. The screen went black, and the main title screen popped up, along with the words "Insert Bit" below the Super Mare-io logo.
Button frowned, and looked at the Purple and Green both still in ecstasy from Button's runthrough.
"Well...I guess you guys are gonna leave now..." Button stated, beginning to trot off towards Sugarcube Corner- gaming for hours on end always made him a bit peckish.
"Hey, can we come with ya?" Purple asked.
Button stopped, then turned to face the two boys.
"Really?" he asked, confused "You actually want to hang out with me?"
"Why not? You seem like a pretty cool guy." Green stated.
Cool! Somepony actually called him 'cool'!
"S-Sure!" Button cried ecstatically.
"Huh, town seems a bit small, will they even have a hotel here?" Ness asked of the winged-unicorn trotting beside him.
"We know not, We've been away for so long, it seems..."
As they approached the settlement, Ness found it unsurprising to find the entire town inhabited by nothing but colorful ponies. Ness wondered, briefly, if he wasn't somehow transported into his little sister's imagination, as everything was blindingly cute and colorful. Not to mention the deliberately heavy smattering of ponies hanging around.
"Sir Ness, these ponies seem to be...skittish- nervous."
"Given that they've never seen a human before, and the fact that I'm carrying a baseball bat, approaching the settlement is probably more than enough to make them nervous." Ness deduced.
"Then should we not find a more subtle way into the settlement?" he asked.
Ness shrugged, thinking on it for a moment.
"That'd probably be misconstrued as us trying to sneak in, instead of just entering directly."
"I am afraid We do not understand."
"If we enter head-on, that'll show we don't mean any harm to them- no idiot who'd want to plan a sneak attack would waltz directly into town."
"Subtlety by directness, thou truly art a brilliant mastermind."
Ness blushed, his face burning as he and Aurora continued walking.
"Not exactly...but...yeah...I guess..." Ness replied, scratching at the back of his head.