//------------------------------// // Chapter III: Welcome to Equestria // Story: World War Equestria // by brony at war //------------------------------// Chapter III: Welcome to Equestria We walked along the dirt road, following the orange pony, Applejack. Her brother, Big Mac, said he had to go back and finish harvesting the north orchard. Meanwhile, we were headed to the village, apparently called Ponyville. "So, Miss Applejack," I began, being cut off before I could continue. "Please, jus' Applejack." she said. "Ah ain't one fer all that fancy speak." "Sorry ma'am, but you'll be getting that from all of us. The military tends to do that to you." I countered. "Well, maybe not Vic." Vic shrugged his shoulders in response, causing Brooklyn to look at me in mock anger. "How come he doesn't hit you?" he complained. "'Cause Texas boys don't fight unless drunk or really pissed off." the Sarge answered. "Anyway ma'am, where are you takin' us?' he asked Applejack. "Oh, ma' friend Twilight Sparkle." I heard a snort from Brooklyn at the back of our group. "She migh' be able to help ya'll out." I stayed silent as we passed a large sign labeled 'Ponyville City Limits: Population: 2104'. Out of nowhere, a pink blur raced out of the town, rocketing towards us. Applejack, the sergeant, Vic, Schmitty and I all dove out of the way as Brooklyn, bringing up the rear, was left to be bowled over by said blur. "OhmyCelestiaAJwhydidntyoutellmeyoufoundnewpeopleNowIhavetomakeareallyreallybigpartybecausethere'smorethanjustonefriendbutfivewhoooooooooooolenewones!IhavetogonowSeeyoulaterAJ!" With that, the pink pony that had materialized from the blur ran off, leaving Brooklyn on the ground. "What the hell just happened?" he said drowsily, propping himself up on his elbows as the rest of us got up. Schmitty helped him up as Applejack said "That was Pinkie Pie. She can't let anypony new into town without throwing a party for them." "Can't or won't?" Brooklyn asked, rubbing his head in pain. "Can't." Applejack answered, giving him a look that said 'believe me'. Walking into town, everyone was staring at us or shutting up their houses and businesses. "What's everyone's problem?" the sergeant asked. "Accordin' to the ol' tales, you humans are a violent bunch." Applejack responded. "But those are just a bunch of ol' mare's tales. Ya'll ain't even supposed to exist, yet here you are." "Hate to break it to you ma'am, but there's a lot of violent humans where we're from." The Sarge said. "It's better not to go into it." We walked up to a huge tree in the center area of town. The sign over the door said'Golden Oaks Library'. "You're kind of place, right Schmitty?" I said as we walked in. Schmitty nodded slowly as he looked around at the mass amount of volumes. Somehow, the inside of the tree was larger than the outside. We walked into a side room, where four ponies were gathered around a circle, one of them saying "Applejack said she wanted to see us…" "Actually Twi, ah jus' wanted to talk to you, but it's fine the others are here." A purple…unicorn?... walked up to us, followed by a pen and paper, which scribbled down notes as she muttered under her breath, encased in a purple light, as was her horn. Magic? "Umm," I started, about to comment on that, before I was suddenly slammed to the floor with the unicorn on top of me. "You can talk too?" she asked as I felt the same pain Brooklyn must have in the back of my head. She ran off towards a book section marked 'Fiction/Myths', then ran back into our midst before realizing that everyone was staring at her. "Jeez, Twilight, you could at least ask their names first." A cyan blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail said. "Name's Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria and future Wonderbolt." the pegasus said, flying around each of us and looking us over. "What ARE you guys?" "Rainbow Dash! Manners!" another unicorn, this one with a white coat and purple mane and tail, said in a high-class tone. It, no she, stepped forward and introduced herself. "I'm Rarity, owner of the local fashion boutique. You must come by sometime; Olive is so out of fashion this season." "Rarity." Twilight said condescendingly. "What?" Rarity said innocently. "I'm simply trying to make them look their best." The other pegasus stepped forward quietly and said "I'm Fluttershy.", only after we asked about three times to speak up. She hid behind the sergeant, who looked surprised for a moment before he returned to his normal stony expression. Finally, Twilight said "My name, as you heard, is Twilight Sparkle. I am the personal protégé of Princess Celestia." "Princess?" Vic asked. The rest of us looked at Twilight, who seemed to realize that we wouldn't know her. "I'll write to her today. Besides, I have a friendship report due to her by tomorrow. So, what are your names?" The Sarge took the stand to answer the question. "Sergeant Jake Adams, First Squad, Fox Company, Sixteenth Infantry Regiment, First Division. I'm the leader of this group of men." Pointing to each of us in turn, he introduced each of us in turn. "That's Corporal Samuel Burns, known to us as Hawkeye, then Private Victor 'Vic' Jackson, Private Adam "Brooklyn' Sanders, and Private Cole 'Schmitty' Smith." "Are you all related? You certainly seem to act like it, according to Applejack." Twilight asked. "No ma'am." Sarge replied. "Though, we've been fighting together for so long, we're pretty much family. We've been through hell together." She kept asking the Sarge questions as the rest of us interacted with the ponies. Rainbow Dash left to go to some 'Cloudsdale' for a meeting, and Rarity also left to go 'complete a shipment order'. That left Applejack, Fluttershy (who was still virtually attached to the sergeant). After some time, Twilight Sparkle finished and we were allowed to leave to find something to eat. As we followed Applejack to some 'Sugarcube Corner', we received a lot of stares from the town's citizens. "You'd think they'd be nice enough not to stare." I commented dryly, as I watched a pony shield her children from seeing us. "Welcome to my world." Sarge said. "Pinkie, you realize that Twilight's probably asleep right?" The Sarge tried once again to tell Pinkie that because the lights were out, there was no one there. She simply grinned even wider and said "Don't be silly! It's only seven o'clock!" I checked my watch to see that it was indeed, seven. We had all reset our watches when we passed by the clock tower earlier that day. Apparently, the day and month were the same here, but the year here was 1002. We walked into the library behind Pinkie, who suddenly disappeared into the dark. Brooklyn, being dumb as he was, decided to shut the door and throw us into complete darkness. "Ow!" he exclaimed as the sound of a fist hitting its target sounded. "Why'd you do that?" "Lock it up you two." I said, feeling the wall for some lights. Not finding any, I started walking forward when about 80 ponies jumped out and yelled 'Surprise!' as the lights flicked on. "Son of a-" We all went for our weapons, only to remember that we had left them at Applejack's farm. Pinkie popped up from behind a table in the center of the room. "Were you surprised?" she asked, still with the massive grin on her face. "We were…surprised." the Sarge managed to say. With that, a full-blown party started and we were thrown into the middle of it. There was plenty of food, drink, and fun, and everyone we had met so far was there, as well as some others, such as Colgate, the town dentist, Ditzy Doo or 'Derpy Hooves', the mailmare, Lyra Heartstrings, who kept following each of us around (Applejack said she has some fascination about humans), and the Cutie Mark Crusaders Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. Some loud music was playing, and I found it to be Vinyl Scratch, the 'DJ', whatever that was. The music was good, despite being different from what I was used to. As the party wrapped up and everyone began to leave, we began helping to clean up. Brooklyn was asleep, until Vic poured the rest of the water on him and he sputtered awake. Twilight looked on disapprovingly and used her magic to clean up the mess. In no time at all, we had cleaned up all traces of the party. "That was the most fun I've had in years." Vic said as we gathered around Twilight, who had an envelope suspended in front of her. "Who's that from?" Schmitty asked, looking over Twilight's shoulder. "Princess Celestia." She replied, opening it and reading it. "Dear Twilight Sparkle, I have received your letter about the arrival of the humans in Equestria. Thank you for notifying me of this. As this year's Grand Galloping Gala is just around the corner, I believe it would be a wonderful idea to meet them that night. I have already enclosed eleven tickets within, and I look forward to seeing you in Canterlot in two weeks. Princess Celestia." "We get to go to the Galloping Gala again? Oh, my." Rarity had arrived at some point in the party and had just fainted onto a couch that she had pulled from… nowhere? Pinkie began bouncing up and down repeatedly, completely defying the physics that I knew. Fluttershy muttered a little 'Yay!' before hiding back behind Sarge as Applejack started cheering with Pinkie. "Galloping Gala?" the Sarge asked. "It's the most prestigious event in Equestria, where the Princesses host ponies from all over the kingdom in Canterlot, the royal city." Twilight said. "I hope you have something nice to wear."