//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: A New Beginning in a New Land // by REDACTED99999 //------------------------------// They went to Fluttershy with the shovels, picking her up for the party as well. Rainbow took the lead towards town, where a big castle was indeed visible. A big castle that looked kind of like a treehouse/castle made out of crystal. It looked out of place in the town, but whatever. Who was he to judge their castle locations. What worried him more was the towns’ reaction to seeing him. Well he was being thrown a party so it couldn’t be that bad, he hoped. As they came into the town the first resident spotted him. She was mint green and had a lyre tat… cutie mark. Tat mark? Cutie tattoo? He would find an appropriate name later. What surprised him the most was that it wasn’t a pegasus… it was a unicorn. Just how many mythical creatures did this place have? Said unicorn looked at him with an expression of… annoyance? Well at least it wasn’t fear or hate. “Can’t we even go a single month without something crazy happening in this town?! What is it now?” She pointed a hoof at him. She sounded like this was a normal occurrence: “Another villain? Is it going to try to eat us all? Or maybe whack us with that staff, or maybe –“ “Relax Lyra. He said he wasn’t dangerous” Rainbow Dash interrupted. Well he did say he didn’t have any malicious intentions, which was close enough. “Besides, you think I would be walking right next to him if he was dangerous?” Lyra looked at Rainbow, then at him, then realization seemed to hit her. “You’re the new pony in town! Pinkie did say something about being a bit different… She, as always, wasn’t specific enough. Many ponies are going to be surprised to see how… different he is. Why are you laughing?” She ended looking at him with an annoyed look again. “I’m… I’m sorry,” he said between laughs “I just imagined me walking around, whacking ponies with my stick… I can’t get the image out of my head now.” Rainbow Dash soon followed suit and started laughing as well, Fluttershy adopted a small smile, and Lyra looked a bit remorseful. “Yes… Well I’m sorry for snapping at you the moment you come into town. It’s just… it’s barely been a month since Tirek made a mess of things and… We just need a break, that’s all. I’ll believe Rainbow when she says you aren’t dangerous though, and I’ll of course come to your party.” She smiled at him. These ponies were just too innocent. She apologized for having an almost perfectly normal reaction (he was expecting fear, but each his own), and now he was feeling guilty for laughing. He smiled down at her. “It’s okay Lyra. My name is Jax, nice to meet you. I promise not to, with your own words, make a mess of things.” Lyra smiled up at him, obviously satisfied that he wouldn’t start whacking ponies with his stick. She went on her way, presumably towards the party. “If we hurry up we can still make it to Twilight before the party,” Rainbow informed him “Let’s go Jax. You can make your way to the party Fluttershy. Maybe inform ponies that Jax is… well, different.” “Oh… okay. I’ll just… do that. Yeah.” Fluttershy seemed a bit nervous about talking in front of many ponies at once. Rainbow adopted that soft look she had when we exited the forest and went up beside her to put a hoof on her shoulder, or whatever it was called on an equine. “Flutters, if you can sing in front of ponies, then saying a few words shouldn’t be that hard. It’s just so they won’t get shocked when they see Jax.” “Singing is different, but I’ll try to do it anyway. I just hope nopony minds…” Fluttershy replied shyly. “Of course nopony will mind! If anything they’ll be happy to hear your awesome voice.” Rainbow answered in complete confidence, cocky grin back in place. That seemed to calm Fluttershy down and they smiled at eachother for a second… two seconds… three seconds… okay this was awkward. Jax cleared his throat, snapping them out of it. Fluttershy went on her way, and Jax learned something new. Ponies could blush through their fur somehow. *** Rainbow Dash led the way towards the castle. As they neared it, more and more of what he presumed to be guards started to appear, but apparently the presence of Rainbow Dash was enough for them to not try and arrest him. They did give him weird looks though, along with several other ponies that were still on the streets. It was late in the evening by now, and most of them were probably at the party or at home. Jax decided to ask what was on his mind: “So are you and Fluttershy a couple?” Rainbow’s cheeks went from blue to red faster than the mare could fly. “What?! No! Who told you that?” She asked accusingly, flying up to his face. Apparently the concept of personal space wasn’t big in Rainbows dictionary. “Nobody.” He hastily assured: “Just the way you calmed her down seemed like you knew just what to say.” Rainbow looked at him for a bit before she landed again, and started walking. Trotting? Whatever. “Me and Fluttershy have been friends since we were foals. One of the reasons I decided to move down to Ponyvile was because she decided to live here. If you think she seems shy now, you should have seen her back then… She could barely form a sentence loud enough for anypony to hear.” Rainbow smiled up at him before continuing the story: “I’ve been looking out for her for as long as I can remember. A lot has happened, and we’ve all learned a lot from our adventures. One of the things I learned was to be… considerate of others. Fluttershy helped me with that. Now I want to help her open up a bit more.” Jax looked down at Rainbow with a smile. Wait did she say… ”Adventures?” He looked at her. She looked at him. “Twilight?” He asked. “Twilight.” She confirmed They shared a laugh at that before Rainbow’s face consorted into worry. “I hope Twilight isn’t mad for bringing you there so late…” *** “Rainbow Dash I was hoping to question him BEFORE the party!” Twilight exclaimed as they entered her study. She looked stressed, like she had spent the last couple of hours pacing back and forth, wondering where they were. Rainbow looked apologetic. “Well then you could have told me that!” She said defensively. Jax had honestly expected an apology there. There were other things occupying his mind though, like how could Twilight have both a horn and wings? Was this a normal occurrence with pegasi and unicorn offspring? Was she a pegacorn? So many questions… “It wasn’t Rainbows’ fault. She was just helping me.” He felt like he should defend her at least. Rainbow had already defended him from Lyra, the least he could do was to take responsibility for something that was more or less his fault. Twilight focused on him now. She looked like she was about to say something, then stopped herself and took a deep breath, before smiling at him. “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. I had planned to get to know you better before Pinkies party, but for now I will only ask you this: Do you have any ill intent towards the citizens of Equastria?” Jax looked at Rainbow who just smiled at him. He kneeled down to look into Twilight’s purple eyes before answering. “Hello Twilight, I’ve heard a lot about you, and I hope that I can get some answers to all my questions from you later.” He exchanged an amused glance with Rainbow. “My name is Jax, and I can honestly tell you that I do not intend to do any harm unto the ponies of this land. In fact, I plan to treat them with every bit of kindness that they have shown me.” Twilight seemed very pleased with his answer by the look of her warm smile. “Very well Jax. I think it’s time we made our way towards your ‘welcome to Ponyvile’ party. There will be an official welcome tomorrow, with me and the mayor where you will be expected to say a few words. Tonight you are free to relax and have fun.” “Tomorrow? Already?” Jax answered, surprise evident in his voice. “You guys work fast.” “Well,” Twilight answered, a bit accusingly. “I had a few unexpected hours to prepare everything in.” Rainbow Dash and Jax looked sheepishly at each other while Twilight wrote something on a piece of parchment, before calling for something Jax could only describe as a maid, telling her to go get someone named Spike. After that an awkward silence spread and Jax was unsure of what to do. “Weren’t we gonna go?” he asked restlessly. “I just need to send this letter then we’ll be on our way” Twilight answered. Silence… His stomach decided to use this moment to growl loudly, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten the whole day. “Can’t we do that on the way? Or latter?” Jax didn’t mind silence when he was alone, or with people he knew very well, but a growling stomach and almost-strangers was enough for this to become awkward. “We would need to wait for Spike anyway, he’s joining the party. Besides, I need to let Princess Celestia know that an unknown sapient creature that speaks equestrian has suddenly appeared. I’m sure she would want to know-“ “Oh my god!” Jax exclaimed, pointing a finger at the entity that entered the room “a tiny dinosaur!” “Dinosaur? I don’t know what that is, but I’m a dragon.” It responded, sounding offended. “And I’m not tiny…” It mumbled. “It speaks! Wait… dragon?” Jax looked surprised at the purple reptile. “Yes, Jax, Spike is a baby dragon I accidently hatched when I was still a filly.” Jax went over to Spike, looking at him closely. He did kind of resemble a mythical dragon, except he was standing on two legs for some reason, was smaller than even the ponies, and didn’t have wings. “I apologize Spike. I was caught by surprise, but I have a question if I may ask?” “That’s okay I guess. Sure, ask away.” Jax smiled down at the baby dragon. He was very cool about the whole situation. Maybe Jax should start getting used to that soon. “I don’t know much about this world but… Aren’t dragons supposed to have wings?” Twilight looked at him curiously. “Do you know a lot about dragons? What do you mean with ‘this world’? Are you from a different world? Do you have a lot of dragons there? Are you-” “Oh great,” Rainbow butted in, “you triggered her curiosity. Now we’ll never leave.” Twilight looked somewhat offended at that. She quickly gathered herself. “Rainbow, I’ve learned my lesson. Being too curious can be dangerous. So to answer your question Jax, yes, dragons are supposed to have wings. I’m hypothesizing that Spike’s wings will grow out later. Not much is known about dragons though and I see no point in growing your wings later in your life-“ She looked at her own wings for a moment, flapping them gently “-but its seen before. I just hope it’s a magical process, instead of natural. Now, Spike, will you please send this letter to Princess Celes-“ She seemed to remember something, looked out the window at the night sky and changed the sentence “-Princess Luna.” She quickly crossed something over at the top of her letter and wrote something. “Sure thing Twilight” Spike happily replied, taking the scroll from Twilight and setting it on fire. Jax, who was completely unprepared for this gave a surprised squeak, jumping back into Rainbow who was standing beside him and stumbling over her. “You were supposed to send it! Not set it on fire!” He said with some trouble as he was getting up. Rainbow was laughing at his expense, Twilight looked worried at him, and Spike confused. “Would be pretty hard to send it without using my dragon fire though.” Spike replied, looking over at Twilight, as if expecting some explanation. Jax looked over at Twilight as well. Twilight sighed, turning to Jax. “Spike did send it. His dragon fire deconstructs the letter here and reconstructs it at a chosen location, in this instance, Canterlot Castle. Now, we’re late to the party, so let’s go.” Jax didn’t argue. This world was interesting to say the least. He needed to get control over his reactions though, he thought he had seen enough of this world to not act like an idiot every time something new happened. He held back a sigh. He could do this. “Did you say Cant-a-lot Castle? What’s up with the puns around here?” He asked with a smile, getting one in return from Twilight. “Canterlot. There actually is an explanation for that. You see…” *** Not so far away a letter materialized in front of a dark blue alicorn. Luna was sitting on the night throne, preparing to go into the realm of dreams to help out ponies with their nightmares. Picking up the scroll with her magic she looked it over curiously. Twilight rarely wrote to her, to Luna’s dismay. She opened the letter and read it. Her eyes grew bigger with every word, until she closed it resolutely. Taking a moment to think it over, she made her decision. She quickly descended the stairs leading up to her throne, down to one of the two guards standing at the base. “We art… I mean, I am going to see my sister. Should any visitors decide to visit night court for once, tell them it is closed and won’t open for a while.” The guard hesitated for a moment before nodding. Satisfied that she could leave her duties for a while, she teleported out in front of her sister’s chambers. *** Back in the court Shadow Wing sighed when his princess teleported away. “I wish she would let us escort her, instead of teleporting everywhere.” He confessed to his fellow night guard. “Yeah… it did look like she had a good reason this time though. That letter must have been important for her to wake Princess Celestia. I think it was from Princess Twilight.” His fellow bat-pony nodded his agreement, and they stood in silence for a moment. “I wish someone would show up to night court. Did you hear Princess Luna’s voice when she said ‘for once’? She sounded sad… I wanted to tell her something encouraging but I didn’t know what to say.” Shadow Wing said after a while. “I know. At least you weren’t here when she just got back from her… exile. She was in terrible shape, barely leaving her room for weeks at a time. Things got better after she visited Ponyville though, and she started helping folks in their dreams. It has cheered her up quite a bit.” The second guard, appropriately named Night Guard, smiled at the thought before he continued: “I was one of the bat ponies pulling her chariot to Ponyvile you know. First time she didn’t just teleport where she needed to go. Things almost ended in tragedy that night. Good thing Princess Twilight was there to salvage the situation. Princess Luna has been much more relaxed since then.” Shadow Wing smiled at the veteran bat pony. He had joined the guard after Princess Twilight’s ascent, so he didn’t know much about things before then. “She helped my nephew with a nightmare. He asked me to give her a drawing he drew for her, but I can’t seem to find the right time to hand it over. When I asked him why he didn’t come give it to her himself, he said that he didn’t want to disturb her night court. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that ponies rarely come at the beginning of the court, then not at all for the rest of the night. I mean, shouldn’t all the bat ponies come now?” Shadow Wing’s voice went from sad to frustrated. “I mean, this is when we are awake! Don’t we have anything to complain about?” Night Guard just shook his head. “You have to remember that we aren’t the most populated species. Probably half of us work as night guards, and you know the Princess treats us well, no guard would dare complain. The other half probably get fair wages for working night shifts various places.” He looked at the ground before a thought occurred to him “But maybe we don’t need ponies to complain.” He said, raising his head. “What do you mean? I thought we wanted to help Princess Luna.” “Yes, but all she really wants is to feel appreciated. There are other ways of doing that then dragging ponies in here. Like… A party.” “A party?” Shadows Wing was skeptical. “Yeah, a party. Ever heard of the Summer Sun Celebration? Where is the Winter Moon Celebration? WE could arrange it. If nopony else attends, at least all the night guards will.” A grin spread on both their muzzles. “And I’m sure Celestia would love to help.” Shadow Wing added with excitement, already liking the idea. “We have about 5 months to get everything prepared. This will be the best party ever!” *** In the Apple family’s barn a pink pony with a huge grin jumped onto the table. “This will be the best party ever!”