Metroid Equis

by Flammenwerfer

34.7 A Friend a Day [Part 3]

While Samus had had the pleasure of spending time with all of the mares or a couple of them at a time, the Hunter was noticing a small pattern of they attempting to get some quality time with her… merely an observation. The extra little reassurance and push she was given by Gray Voice and Old Bird, however, was really all she needed to start opening up just a bit more and just a bit more frequently. Since she did not really have to be in a fighting mood constantly anymore, she could turn her attention and efforts to other matters, such as learning her way around closer friendships, much like the ones that were manifesting before her eyes.

Also, despite Twilight’s often quite vocal protests, Samus continued to pay rent.

Fluttershy had asked the Hunter the day before if she would be so inclined to hang out today, and Samus naturally accepted. In fact, she was actually wondering when the shy mare would request more personal time with her, based on the little aforementioned pattern. Like always, there was little mention of what was to actually transpire but knowing what Samus knew of Fluttershy, the chances were rather high that anything the two were to do together would be nothing labor intensive nor dangerous.

Tying up her hair and holstering her pistol to her thigh, Samus said bye to Twilight, fist-bumped Spike, closed the door to the Library after herself and began the now effortless trek to Fluttershy’s cottage. Having been well over a month and a half since the Hunter had been residing in Ponyville, she was more than familiar with the town including all of its establishments, landmarks, and, of course, where everypony lived. However, she knew that things would be changing and changing fast. The Galactic Federation was cozying up quite nicely towards Equestria and the planet as a whole… politics at its finest, but the end result would surely be Equis becoming, initially, a Federation Protectorate. If that were to happen, Samus predicted that it would not be long before interstellar commerce was in completely full swing, and once that was set up, the economic boom would be incredible.

Samus was actually somewhat excited for the future of the planet. However, potential futures were not really what had the Hunter in a particularly good mood today… she had gotten notification that her new ship’s design submission had been fully approved and assembly would begin in the next few weeks. Samus was given an estimate of about three months until it was physically delivered to her literal doorstep.

Not even a Space Pirate raid would probably wipe the gentle, seemingly perpetual smirk off of the normally stoic blonde-haired girl’s face upon reading the news.

Truth be told, Samus felt somewhat restricted and confined without her ship, which was fairly ironic considering that when not deployed, that’s the only place she ever really was.

Having been lost in her thoughts, she realized that she arrived at the bridge that allowed her to cross a rather small river, and said path leading up to Fluttershy’s cottage proper. Samus decided to leap over the river rather than use the bridge for her own entertainment, but continued on the path up towards the shy pegasus’ door. Samus gave a couple gentle knocks and she did not have to wait long for her friend to shyly answer the door.

“H-Hello?” Fluttershy asked cautiously, peeking out with a single eye, but upon laying her eye on Samus, who waved at her with a little smirk, she opened the door fully with an excited smile. “Oh, hi Samus! Thank you so much for coming over today!” She stepped out of the way and let Samus inside, the latter having to duck under the doorframe a bit more than normal.

“Yup! What did you want to do today?”

“W-Well if you don’t mind, I wanted to introduce you to my animal friends and you can help feed them if you want. That, and we could h-have some tea afterwards,” Fluttershy suggested.

“Uhhh, sure. Your animal friends?” Samus asked curiously and on cue, a pristine-white rabbit bounced into view and landed right next to Fluttershy.

To say that Samus was suddenly taken way back would be an understatement.

“Oh, hello Angel! This is Samus, she’s another good friend of mine and she’ll be our guest tonight,” Fluttershy addressed the little bunny like she would a normal pony, and surprisingly, the creature seemed to understand completely. Samus had to realize that wildlife on Equis seemed to be much more intelligent and interactive than on other planets she had been to. That, and it was always a plus that not everything wanted to kill her.

“Hey there, little guy…” Samus spoke softly as she kneeled down and presented her left hand to the fluffy critter. Angel looked rather annoyed by the attempt but seeing her gesture, as well as her physical appearance, his indignation quickly turned to curiosity as he moved to sniff her hand. With a shrug of indifference, Angel, much to Fluttershy’s surprise, hopped into Samus’ hand and she stood back up with a little smile on her face.

“Oh my! Angel has never been so outgoing before, even with me sometimes!” Fluttershy remarked as the rabbit began to climb up Samus’ arm.

“I’m kinda surprised too, actually. On another note though, I used to have a rabbit when I was growing up… well, a ‘rabbit-like’ pet I should say,” Samus replied as Angel sat on her left shoulder quite comfortably. Fluttershy giggled a bit as she closed the door to her residence.

“Aww really? What was his or her name?”

“Pyonchi. The best pet I could’ve ever asked for,” Samus reminisced as she scratched Angel’s head.

“That’s a cute name. But maybe you’ll find another animal that you’d like to take on as a pet when I introduce you to all of them,” Fluttershy suggested, to which Samus shook her head.

“Thanks, but that wouldn’t be a good idea. I’m traveling too much in my line of work, not to mention going to places that aren’t the most welcoming in the Galaxy.” Angel jumped to Samus’ other shoulder before crawling down her right arm. She let him off on the sofa and he hopped away.

“O-Oh okay… well there are several pets that don’t need constant supervision, but that’s completely your choice. Come on! I’ll show you!” Fluttershy said, leading Samus further into the living room where a few birdhouses and dens, among other things, could be clearly seen. What was more interesting was the fact that, for a home that seemed to be frequented almost constantly by different animals, that it did not smell at all.

Introductions to animals, which sounded silly to Samus in the first place, went about as well as she’d expect, at least with the animals inside the house. Samus was introduced to more rabbits, some ferrets, several types of birds, a tortoise, and two foxes. They were all super friendly and Fluttershy let Samus feed them, which the Hunter enjoyed a lot more than she thought she would. It was made all the better by the fact that every animal, as previously mentioned, was incredibly expressive. Chalk it up to the magic of Equis.

“And out here…” Fluttershy kept speaking as she led Samus out the back. “…are more animals that I can’t keep inside for sometimes obvious reasons." Almost immediately, several other species of animals came from seemingly nowhere.

“This is Mr. and Mrs. Deer,” the cream-colored mare introduced the human to a buck and a doe respectively. Samus, however, was immediately drawn to the doe.

“Hey, I remember you! You were the doe who approached me with all those other animals when I first got here. You and the others led me to Fluttershy,” Samus recalled, somehow able to distinguish the doe from any other doe that might lurk in the Everfree. The doe nodded and walked behind the Hunter, nuzzling her back.

“Hehe, it looks like you’ve already had friends here before us,” Fluttershy giggly said.

“No kidding huh?” Samus added, patting the side of the deer’s face. At that moment, a very large yet proud looking bird of prey landed and perched itself on Fluttershy’s back.

“Oh! This is Mr. Falcon,” Fluttershy gestured, to which said falcon seemed to give a respectful bow of his head. Samus huffed amusedly yet again.

These animals are something else…

“And where is…?” Fluttershy looked all around before beginning to call out. “Mr. Bear! Are you out there, Mr. Bear?”

“Don’t tell me…” Samus mused disbelievingly out loud. “You seriously take care of a bear?”

Not even a few moments later, a few tremors in the ground emanating from the Everfree got stronger and stronger before their source came into full view: a massive Brown Bear who immediately brightened up once he saw Fluttershy.

“That… is a bear,” Samus concluded obviously as if not entirely believing it. Of all the things she had seen in her travels, a bear was making her question her sense of sight. The Hunter took a couple of instinctive steps backwards while her right hand inched ever closer to the grip of her pistol… just in case. Fluttershy flew up to the bear’s face and pet him, much to the latter’s delight. He emitted a few low, pleased growls at the contact, nuzzling the side of the mare’s muzzle with his own.

“And yes, Samus. This is Mr. Bear,” she then turned to him with a knowing, slightly mischievous grin. “Go on, say hi to Samus…”

The Hunter shrugged and stepped up.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Bea—AAAAHH!” Samus was taken completely by surprise when Mr. Bear hunched down and gripped her tightly against his chest in a literal bear hug, a goofy, friendly smile ever present on his face as he swung the Hunter around. Samus’ legs flailed as she was getting squished against his chest but soon enough he relaxed his posture, setting her down in front of Fluttershy, who was giggling profusely. As for the woman, her hair was completely ruffled and she smelled like… oddly clean-smelling bear. Mr. Bear let out a series of low growls which sounded a lot like laughing.

“Well… I can cross ‘getting a literal bear hug’ off my bucket list,” Samus spoke, running her fingers through her hair and making sure her red hair-tie was still secure. “I’m actually slightly disappointed that I didn’t evade that by instinct.”

Fluttershy introduced the Hunter to a few more of her animal friends that were present and the two got to feeding them. Like all of the other mares that Samus had gotten the pleasure of spending quality time with, Fluttershy was quite easy to talk to, especially since she had, for the most part, become completely comfortable around Samus. However, around the time when they were having some tea together, Samus was still not entirely convinced as to why or how Fluttershy could have warmed up to her so quickly when it took her several months to become even completely comfortable with her best friends. That was not to say that Fluttershy was not shy or awkward around Samus at all, but from what the latter had gathered from her time here, it seemed like an oddly fast pace for someone who clearly had self-confidence and trust issues.

The answer was a little unexpected:

“I already feel safe around you… like nothing bad’s ever going to happen. You’ve proved that several times already when you’ve saved our lives.”

Samus immediately remembered what it was like to have words make one feel nice and warm on the inside.

Samus was almost certain that Pinkie Pie would have been the first of the mares to bust down her door and attempt to party with her or whatever she liked to do. Surprisingly though, the Hunter had spent personal time with each one of the girls besides Pinkie by that point, but apparently that was due to Pinkie being absolutely booked for ‘end of the conflict’ parties as well as her job. The day came, though, when, after a little get together of all the mares plus Samus, Pinkie wanted the Hunter to drop by Sugarcube Corner the next day.

After completing her now somewhat-usual regimen with Rainbow Dash and witnessing a group of ponies break into song and dance to music that seemingly came from nowhere for the first time, a Zero Suit-garbed Samus finally made it to Sugarcube Corner at around the time she was expected. Knowing Pinkie as well as she did (which in retrospect may or may not have been that much), Samus knew well that the curly-haired pink mare had enough energy to recharge her Suit’s energy tanks. Thus, there was little telling what the party pony could possibly have planned for the two of them.

Only one way to find out.

After giving a passing, friendly wave to the super friendly mailmare, Samus entered into Sugarcube Corner and found Pinkie Pie finishing up what appeared to be a large order for several cakes. They were all boxed and she was ringing up the seemingly middle-aged unicorn. Pinkie did spy the blonde-haired woman and briefly waved at her, Samus returning the gesture in kind. The Hunter was not in any rush so she opted to take a seat in the corner and gaze at her wrist console as the hyperactive mare finished her business. In fact, that actually worked out rather well; since Samus’ ship (which she proudly engineered the design herself much like her last ship) was being put into production at Aliehs III, she had to order a few other specific computer parts so she could port over Chozo-designed software for interfacing purposes.

That was always the most annoying part of acquiring a new ship, and Samus had always hoped that she would not have to get another one for a long time.

A few minutes passed and Samus was able to quickly purchase all parts that she would need. As she was closing out a few applications on her console, she was greeted with the pink mare trotting up to her with a much more placid smile than what Samus had come to expect these past two months.

“Hey Samus!” Pinkie greeted in, again, a somewhat less excited demeanor than the Hunter would have thought… it was almost anticlimactic as Samus had expected her eardrums to start ringing as a result.

“Hi Pinkie. I hope I’m not disturbing you during your work hours,” Samus replied and voiced mild concern, hoping, despite being invited to the sweet-shop at this specific time, that she was not interfering with any duties. Pinkie, however, softly shook her head, her omnipresent smile never failing her.

“Nope!”

“Well… okay! What did you want to do today?” Samus asked, oddly suspicious of the mare’s relatively calm demeanor.

“A coffee date! How d’ya take yours?” she asked gleefully. Samus, for her part, let the right side of her jaw go semi-slack and her respective eyebrow raise in confusion, merely staring questioningly at Pinkie for what seemed like several moments.

Is that even a good idea… let alone safe?

“Uhhhh… one cream, one sugar please.”

“Okie Dokie Loki!”

Samus keenly watched Pinkie Pie hop away towards the counter, and out of instinct, the girl looked around to ensure there was not some weird ambush planned by how smoothly things were going. She mentally berated herself for even considering the ludicrous possibility that the pink party mare, one of her friends, would set her up for an ambush… what would such an ambush even look like anyway?

In the midst of clearing her head of all the ‘weird stuff,’ Pinkie had returned with a plastic tray balancing on her back, two large mugs of what looked like freshly brewed coffee resting on it. She expertly set it on the table and nudged it towards the center with her snout before taking her seat opposite of Samus. The latter continued to look at her expectantly… mentally prepared for a sudden surprise or an explosion of confetti; Pinkie only gestured to the two mugs with her hoof, never losing that calm smile.

“Thanks…” Samus replied somewhat hesitantly as she grabbed one of the mugs, pulling it towards her. Pinkie reciprocated and the two began taking probing sips of the steaming brew. After the first sip, the pink mare breathed out a more than satisfied sigh.

“Gotta admit, I was expecting a little more… flair out of you,” Samus finally spoke her mind, going for another sip of one of the greatest cups of coffee she had ever had. Quite a few culinary records were being broken for her on Equis.

“Yeah I know,” Pinkie replied between sips. “But it’s nice to wind down juuuuuust a bit every now and then,” she admitted, fully facing the Hunter with a smile, the latter nodding and offering a gentle smirk in return.

“You feeling okay?” she genuinely asked the mare, wondering if she was down about something or maybe she was coming down with a sickness.

“Oh yeah, I’m Pinkie Perfect as always!” she replied eagerly with a little bounce in her seat. She then took another sip of her super-sweetened elixir. “But even Pinkie needs a tiny recharge once in a while. The last few weeks have been super-duper hectic, that’s for sure!”

“Hmm?” Samus asked in the middle of taking a sip, curious as to what ‘hectic’ meant for a mare that could seemingly do an infinite number of tasks at once. “What have you been doing these past few weeks? Work bogging you down?”

“Not really, but there’s so many parties to plan since the end of the fighting,” Pinkie rebutted.

“Too many for you to handle?” Samus asked, taking a playful jibe at her, the mare giggling in response.

“There’s no such thing as ‘too many parties’ for me, not at all! I’m having the time of my life!” Pinkie raised her voice to a much more excitable level that Samus was used to. “But, as I said, even I have to recharge though it never looks like it. Nothing that coffee and cake can’t solve!”

“It’s funny,” Samus began to comment before taking an elongated sip. “Seeing how excitable and hyper you are, I always thought what it would be like to give you coffee. I’d almost think that you’d, like, explode or something.” Pinkie snorted adorably and failed to stifle a hard giggle. It was incredibly contagious and was almost too much even for Samus.

Almost.

“I had an incident with coffee once… once. It went about as well as you’d expect, which is why I drink decaf. Still perks me up though,” Pinkie explained cryptically.

Ahh. That explains why she’s not bouncing off the damn walls.

“I can only imagine,” Samus replied with a slightly sarcastic edge, swirling the contents of her mug before taking another swig. “I have to say though, I’m really enjoying this,” she added genuinely, throwing the mare another friendly half-grin. Pinkie returned the gesture knowingly.

“I knew you would. And I do realize that I can be a little too energetic for some ponies.”

“Maybe just a little,” Samus answered honestly. “But please don’t take that the wrong way. I just need to get used to it a little bit more.”

“Never took offense at all! Heck, even the girls have to calm me down sometimes,” Pinkie admitted with another giggle. Samus let out an amused huff at the mare’s antics, finishing off her coffee and leaning back into the chair.

“I will have to be exposed to at least one of your parties sometime though. Word amongst the girls is that they’re the absolute best,” the Hunter mused.

“You never had a choice in the matter, Samus,” Pinkie spoke so matter-of-factly, punctuating with another hefty giggle when Samus raised her eyebrow incredulously.

“Well I guess that settles it then,” the blonde-haired girl replied sarcastically. Pinkie finished her cup off at that time and pushed the empty vessel forward. “Gotta get back to work?” Samus inquired.

“I have about ten more minutes. Want some cakes?” Pinkie asked hopefully.

“Wait… ‘cakes’ plural?”

“Yeah! Do you want cakes?”

“Umm, maybe one or so. You mean small slices, right?” Samus asked to confirm.

“Maaaaaaybeeeee…”

The Hunter deadpanned. As much as she loved Pinkie’s baking and all of her confectionaries, it was not good to be consuming so much of the irresistible sweets.

“Well, whatever unit of measurement you decide upon, I’ll have one. ONE.” the Hunter stated resolutely, emphasizing the number with her right index finger.

“Okie dokie! She wants one cake!” the mare said to no one in particular as she bounced off behind the counter. Samus watched her go and shook her head facetiously while chuckling to herself, opting to rest her chin on her supporting left palm to watch the mare work. Thinking about it all, Samus had to get it through her head that she had called Equis home for about two months already, the longest she’s ever stayed in one place since her Federation Academy days and Zebes before that. She recalled the moment that she first stepped out of her ship into the Everfree, she could not even in her wildest dreams (and she had some pretty wild ones) imagine that she would have befriended six mares, a baby dragon, and two Princesses who happened to be ponies of all creatures.

She laughed to herself over the ridiculousness of whole thing… also realizing that she had been laughing a lot more too, come recently. However, she immediately retracted the notion of it all being ‘ridiculous,’ as she would have it absolutely no other way.

Thankfully, when Pinkie returned, the unit of measurement for cake happened to be ‘slice,’ and a single slice of fresh cheesecake was more than enough for Samus to enjoy. Pinkie, however, had the remaining complementary amount of cake and by the time Samus was finished with her slice, Pinkie had already finished eating a few minutes prior. Despite Samus’ silent astonishment at quite a few things that the pink mare happened to do, they talked for another ten minutes about a number of things, the one that resonated the most with the Hunter being Pinkie’s background and upbringing. Such a conservative childhood certainly explained more than a few obvious things, and by the time that the two parted ways (with Pinkie, true to her word, springing back up to her over-excitable, over-clocked self) Samus left with a much deeper sense of respect for the party mare as to why she was the way she was.

Samus was delighted to see that Pinkie could hold a serious yet pleasant conversation, and, like with the rest of the mares, she left with a much more profound knowledge of who Pinkie was as a pony. Like many of the humans who were starting to mingle a lot more with the equines, Samus was increasingly finding said ponies much more interesting than she could have ever thought possible. She was in absolutely no rush to get off the planet (especially since she was technically a legal resident, in effect, making this place her de facto home) even with her ship on the way. However, as Samus walked back to the Library, she vowed to not let such pleasantries and luxuries not previously afforded to her to make her complacent: she would have to keep up her combat readiness and ensure that her battle prowess was as sharp as ever. Regular, rigorous workouts were barely a part of that though, she needed to physically have adversaries that challenged her. Perhaps…

I wonder if Luna would be up to sparring sometime?