Chapter 5: Meet, Greet, and Thanks.
When Applejack recovered from the exhaustion sickness she had developed from overworking, she had come personally to Dusk's shop with a basket of apple fritters and apple jams as a thank you for getting her head on straight, and invited him over, along with her friends, for dinner.
He accepted, as it was only polite, and when the night of the dinner came, he closed up shop early and levitated a carafe of sweet-grass and apple cinnamon tea, one of his most popular brews, as well as a few bottles of the iced tea version in case some of them weren't partial to the hot stuff.
The first pony he meant along the walk to Sweet Apple acres was, unfortunately, Pinky Pie.
The pinkish pony was rather excitable, as usual, and upon spotting him, he saw the gleam in her eye that he had gotten familiar with in his time in Ponyville.
It was no secret to the citizens of Ponyville that Dusk had managed, miraculously so, to avoid one of Pinky's surprise parties. After a month of her attempting to give him a welcome party, she had gotten craftier.
The mare was far from having her feelings hurt though, she apparently loved a challenge and often told others, when it was mentioned, that she thought he was amazingly fun to practice her sneak attack surprise party techniques on such a challenging pony. She declared, randomly and often to strangers or friends, that victory would eventually be hers and Dusk…well, he continued to skirt her attempts, often muttering "damned pink Slytherin" under his breath.
Though he had to admit, she almost caught him when she sprang out of his mail box…and he was still trying very hard to not try to figure out how she had gotten in there, especially with confetti and a balloon.
"I can assume, since this is Applejack inviting us for dinner as a thank you we can forgo the attempts at partying for the evening?" Dusk ventured, eyes narrowed, "after all, it's only the polite thing, she being the host."
Pinky hummed thoughtfully, she continued to hop along beside him then nodded, though her own eyes narrowed slightly as she added "alright, truce for the night…your good by the way, but social niceties will only get you so far," and with that ominous sort-of threat hanging over his head, she went back to making up some sort of song in her head, and randomly saying cheese and mimes occasionally.
The two of them were soon joined by Rarity, who began fussing over his shawl again, said shawl manipulating its folds in a motion that Dusk got the sense was a distinct flip-off.
It was another well-known fact in Ponyville now that he remained the only pony to ever resist her make-overs, sighting that he was perfectly comfortable with just his shawl which apparently held sentimental value (or so he claimed anyway).
Dusk was just retelling his tale about a festival in Canerlot that he had attended last year, when the next of Applejack's friends zoomed in…literally.
She was a pale blue pony with rough rainbow coloured mane and tail, and definitely had a rough and tumble quality about her. He had seen her a time or two out in the skies dealing with the weather or practicing aerial maneuvers. From what he understood from customer's idles gossip, she was trying to get into the Wonderbolts, an elite team of fliers in the neighboring Cloud City in the East, the pegasus capital.
"So you're the new guy that's been selling all that fancy frufru stuff," she greeted him baldly.
"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity scolded, "Is that anyway to describe a pony that's brought some added class to our quaint little town?"
"Aww, tea is just fancy drinks made of plants soaking in hot water, what's the big deal?" she scoffed.
Dusk raised a fine black eyebrow.
"Well, you certainly are entitled to your opinions," Dusk drawled diplomatically, "though I had heard that you were the best flyer in town…"
"I am," she replied proudly, puffing out her chest proudly.
"I also heard that some of the aerial maneuvers that the Wonderbolts, who are also good fliers I am told, are often practiced for long periods of time, and I have seen you practice from time to time myself, I admit that you remind me of them."
Rainbow perked her ears forward excitedly, "you've seen the Wonderbolts? And you think I fly like them? Really?"
Dusk nodded, musing almost to himself, "though I admit that your aerial practices don't appear to last as long as theirs. It's a shame really, I really enjoy watching them on my breaks, I have a particular interest in flight you see." Though not for the reason any pony would think of course.
Her chest deflated at that, and she said, rather grumpily, "well, I'm still just learning, it takes time to develop enough endurance and wing strength to fly for long periods like them."
Dusk nodded, "yes, one of them told my mentor, Brew Bag that, when she picked up her weekly supply," he hummed, almost whistling.
"Wait," Rainbow halted him mid step, dropping infront of him and asked slowly, "are you saying that you've actually meant a Wonderbolt? In person?"
Dusk hummed, "well, not directly, I was always busy stocking shelves or seeing to the customers, but Sitfire…no Spitfire…I think her name is Spitfire, likes to chat with my mentor a time or two when she picks up the Wonderbolts' supply. They favor this brew that gives them extra energy for longer flights and levels out their metabolisms enough so that they don't run the risk of overeating and gaining weight."
"Hold up," Rainbow halted, and practically invaded Dusk's personal space, a fervent gleam in her eye, "your saying that the Wonderbolts drink some special tea that helps them with their flying? Really?"
Dusk leaned back a little and nodded, an innocent smile on his face.
"Well, alright then, sign me up for the next high tea! I'll have what their having!"
Dusk smirked inwardly, and after hemming and hawing, eventually nodded and reassured her that he had a supply on hand for sale and to come by whenever she wanted to during business hours. He also assured her that since it will be her first time, her first cup was free, so she would be able to try some out.
Rainbow Dash let out a little cheer and swooped up in the sky to do a few maneuvers to work off some energy for dinner.
The last to arrive, while a Pegasus as well, seemed to prefer walking serenely.
He recognized her as Fluttershy. The shy pony had only squeaked nervously, hiding behind her mane when they were introduced for the first time at the harvest.
She was a painfully shy, soft spoken pony that had a flare for animals, apparently she could communicate with a large variety of them, and seeing that he was making her uncomfortable, he had merely given his hellos and backed off calmly, but quickly, giving her space as soon as politeness allowed.
She was the complete and utter opposite of Rainbow Dash, and he noticed that Rainbow Dash had come down from the clouds of hover nearby protectively as soon as she noticed their interaction.
Thankfully, Twilight Sparkle had given him the heads up about her own first meeting with the shy pony and the best way to break the ice.
"Hello again Fluttershy," he greeted first calmly, knowing that she was not going to greet him first.
She squeaked and hid in her hair mumbling incomprehensibly in a manner that Dusk chose to believe was some form of a greeting.
"Well, it's nice to see you to, I hear that you're the best with animals, and I wanted to ask you a question about a friend of mine."
With a few soft hisses a blackish green snake slithered out from his mane, which he had worn down for the evening for this purpose (and made Rarity absolutely gush at how fine he looked) Rarity nearly fainted and Pinky leaned closer, oohing at his pretty scales, which seemed to be the thing to say to bring Rarity out of her near swoon.
"You know darling, the snake actually suits you for some reason," she commented as it slid around his neck casually, "even if it is *shutter* a snake".
"Hey cool!" Rainbow commented, "you just hissed at it! Did you just talk to it in snake?"
The snake and that comment seemed to grab Fluttershy's attention.
"Oh my!" she gasped, nearly bowling over Pinky, and trotted over to hover over the snake around his neck, "he's so cute! And such a rare breed!"
Dusk nodded proudly, he didn't mind revealing that he could talk to snakes, since it was something that he could already do in both worlds but unlike his old world, here it was not uncommon in Equestria that there were ponies who could communicate with other animals.
"Her family was nesting in the grazing grounds of those Cow folks, and were the initial cause of that stampede from a few weeks back. I offered them a place to stay in my garden, and I just wanted to ask you a bit more about their breed, since I hear you're the go to pony for animals to make sure that they are going to have what they need in their new home."
Fluttershy brightened and soon the two of them got to talking, she seemed rather fascinated by his ability to speak snake. Apparently her understanding of snake was a little rusty and the two were soon arranging lessons. While she could understand snake to a certain degree, in a similar manner that she could understand other animals, but she could not speak a lot of the various animal languages in return. Her form of magic, rare for a pegasus, relied more on establishing a near psychic connection with other beings which helped facilitate understanding. She was eager to be able to learn how to actually speak the snake tongue, though he warned her that he was not exactly sure how he did it, but she was willing to try.
They were soon joined by Twilight Sparkle and the conversation turned to a friendly debate on a book the two of them had read, which bored Rainbow Dash who went back to the clouds.
By the time they had all arrived dinner was almost ready and the group greeted a much more refreshed looking Applejack. Harry immediately made a beeline for Mac who had the couch as he was still the injured party, and sat beside the happy stallion.
When dinner was ready, Dusk and the others gorged themselves on a veritable feast and the other ponies chuckled over Dusk's fussing over Big Macintosh, who didn't seem to mind a bit.
When the eating was done, a toast was made by Applejack.
"To the finest friends a pony could ever have…and new ones," she gestured over to Dusk, to his surprise, "who aren't afraid to give a stubborn mare a good verbal kick in the chops when she needs it, thanks, all of you."
"Cheers!" every one called, and clanked their cups of cider together.
After dinner they all retired to the family room where they played a few games. Dusk retired to the veranda and sat on the porch swing and stared up at the beautiful starlit sky contemplatively.
"It's strange," he commented out loud, turning to face Twilight who had come outside as well and sat down beside him.
"What's strange?" she asked curiously.
"That after years of keeping to myself in Canterlot with only my landlady and my mentor as…well, more the closest thing to family a pony could ever have then friends really, and only a little over a month in this town, I now have the very thing I never really considered wanting, let alone having."
Twilight nodded and said sympathetically, "I understand, I wasn't really into friends myself before I came here. I was always so fixated on my studies that I didn't really think having friends was important enough compared to learning all I could about magic. But after everything that happened with Nightmare Moon and the Everfree forest," she turned her head to the window where the two of them could see the others laughing at Pinky's rather accurate depiction of a chicken, wearing a fond smile she finished, "I couldn't imagine my life without them now."
She gave the other pony a comforting pat on the back and got up, "don't worry," she reassured, "you'll get used to this friendship thing, we both will, eventually, just give it time."
The stallion nodded and after another moment of staring up at the stars he got up and rejoined the others inside, sitting beside Mac, giving the concerned stallion a reassuring smile before turning his attention to the game of charades that was attempting to be played.