Based on what I had heard about flying, I assumed I would find it rather enjoyable. Floating freely in the air, no bumping of train tracks or the sound of a train’s engine. It would be a calm, smooth ride.
I was incorrect in that assumption.
Instead, all I felt was the winds shaking the carriage. It wasn’t much, but the little lurching back and forth made my stomach churn. The one time I peeked over the edge, I was met with a dizzying sensation that forced my breathing to speed up. Towards the start of my oncoming panic attack Spike had given me a reassuring hug and, admittedly, it worked a little; I didn’t know him too well, but a hug is a hug. While my breathing slowed thanks to the comfort, my stomach was still flipping for a while. I eventually got to sleep with some help from Twilight; she read some of the books she brought along out loud. I tried my best to pay attention, but once I felt myself being taken by sleep I gave up.
The nap was pretty good, until a soft voice pulled me out of it.
I opened my eyes groggily from the nap I used to avoid the horrible upset stomach I was experiencing. I heard the soft voice again, but didn’t feel like responding. Instead, I opted to groan and close my eyes again. Hopefully sweet sleep would carry me away from this horrible contraption.
My hope flew out the window when I felt something poking into my forehead.
“Hey, Equestria to Moondancer! C’mon, we’ve got work to do!”
That voice wasn’t soft.
Despite another groan, Spike continued poke my face. I’ve found through hanging out with Twilight that he was usually a pretty intelligent kid, after all he had to keep up with her to some extent to be her ‘Number One Assistant”. But unfortunately, intelligent or not, he was still a baby dragon. And being a baby, of any species, tended to come with a lack of understanding when it came to what annoys some ponies. Rather than dealing with him poking me until I got a hole in my head, I stood up and hopped out of the loathsome form of transportation.
Twilight gave the pegasi guards our thanks and walked back to the two of us. Spike, who at some point deemed it appropriate, jumped on my back and took out Celestia’s letter.
He cleared his voice and spoke in what I assumed to be an attempt at impersonating the Princess’ royal tone.
“Don’t forget to complete your most essential task Twilight!”
Twilight did her best to ignore him, but he leapt off of me and onto her back. He then leaned over her head to make sure he had her full attention.
“Make some friends!”
I couldn’t help but snicker at that part. Twilight really needed to socialize a little more. And that was coming from me of all ponies. With a grumble from his carrier, Spike slid down onto her back and rolled up the letter.
“Maybe the ponies in Ponyville have interesting things to talk about. Come on, Twilight, just try!”
Just as Spike finished talking, an obnoxiously pink mare stood in front of the three of us. Okay, maybe not obnoxiously pink. Just…. pink. She had a light pink coat, and a slightly deeper pink mane that seemed to be made of cotton candy. She seemed to be smiling though, perhaps she was a pony that Twilight could test her friend making on. Maybe it would be a step in the right direction.
“Um... hello?”
My hope started to crumble when the mare jumped up and inhaled deeper than I thought anypony could. When she shot away, she took the rest of it with her.
“Well, that was interesting all right,” I gawked. With a little bit of magic, I pushed my glasses back up against my face. Spike sighed in defeat while Twilight attempted to suppress a laugh. Sarcasm, as I learned from our study sessions, was one of the few things to hit her funny bone; she couldn’t deconstruct the logic and fallacies like she, unintentionally, tended to do with other jokes.
“Right,” she continued, “Let’s get on with checking the preparations. Since there’s two of us we should be able to get through them in half the time, leaving us with plenty of research time.”
She gave a glance to Spike, motioning for him to do something with the letter. After receiving a puzzled look from her assistant Twilight picked the letter up in her magic and took a look at the list of preparations. When we had gone over it before, there seemed to actually be a minimal number of things we needed to check up on. Overall, it looked like we only had to go and meet four ponies. I didn’t know why Twilight had decided I needed to come along, there was no way it would take more than half the day.
Then again, she was also very big on contingency plans.
After divvying up our duties for the day, Twilight and I split ways. She left to go talk to the local apple farmer, while I went to town hall to check the decorations. On the way, I couldn’t help but get caught up in the sights of the small town. Having never gone outside of Canterlot before, I was fascinated by the interesting homes that lined the streets. Despite being made of the same few materials, each one seemed to give off it’s own personality. Even homes that appeared to be equal in size had their own little quirks in layout and exterior decoration. On the occasions that I saw a habitant at their abode, the belief entered my mind that they and their houses matched. Their homes fit them. I felt just by seeing them next to their house offered me a small peek into their lives and personality.
That, and the roofs were made out of hay.
Hay.
Finding town hall didn't take much effort. While most houses were placed relatively near each other, the Town Hall stood in the center of town with a sizable radius between it and the buildings surrounding it. Unfortunately, unlike the rest of the buildings in the town, there was a distinct lack of hay.
What did take much effort was catching the attention of the mare I was supposed to speak with. Standing in the middle of the hall stood a white unicorn, with a mane and tail style akin to the ones I’ve seen in canterlot’s fashion district. Floating in her magic beside her was a variety ribbons held by her magic.
“Excuse me, are you th-”
“Just a moment darling, I am in the zone, as it were.”
She stared down a multitude of ribbons as they floated past her sight. One at a time, she lifted ribbon after ribbon over their intended location only to pull them back down and move to the next in line. This went on for nearly fifteen minutes before she was satisfied with her choice, giving it a nod. I started making my way over to her, putting on a friendly smile once again.
“Okay, so now that you’re done, I’m Moonda-”
Arrangements of various flowers flew past my face as I was interrupted yet again. The surprise sent me falling onto my back, glasses left askew on my face. Before I could process the flora that flashed through my vision, she had begun a familiar process of deciding which flowers would be best suited to hang over one of the doorways while I laid ten feet from her.
I laid there on the floor for a while. I didn’t really want to get up. However, as per the increasingly usual, my desires were thrown into the garbage by a claw poking me in the head.
“Someone should get you a bell.” I groaned out. I stayed staring at the ceiling waiting for a response of some sort, whether it was in the form of a statement or another poke to the face. When neither of those came, I was forced to roll over and make sure he was okay. After adjusting my glasses to get a proper look at the dragon, I was mostly convinced that he was, in fact, not okay. He stood there, arm stretched out towards me mid-poke, with a blank gaze.
“Hey, Spike, you okay there?” I waved my hooves in his face, but his stare kept. I tried poking his face, to no avail. Next I tried lifting him up in my magic. At first he seemed to keep his stare, that is until I turned him upside-down in the other direction. With a couple blinks, he slouched into a position far more casual than ‘rigid with his arm stretched out’. Satisfied that he shouldn’t enter a stupor again, I placed him back down next to me. His arm lifted back up and I flinched expecting a possible poke attack. Thankfully, his arm stopped to point in front of him.
“Beautiful…”
I turned my view to follow his outstretched claw. The interior of the hall had transformed, to say the least, since the time I first walked in. Bouquets and ribbons lined the railings of the halls many overhangs, each it’s own shade of blue to create a gradient across the room. The white of the bouquets along with the greens of vines blended with the ribbons, and together they all stood out and complimented the halls brown walls. It was, admittedly, pretty beautiful.
“You’re right,” I confirmed, “the decorations are rather beautiful.”
“Not that, her!”
Standing on the other end of the room was the unicorn, inspecting her job well done. She held her head up in a show of pride before turning around and noticing the elephant, or dragon, in the room. Her eyes widened a little before dropping back down to a kind gaze.
“Oh hello there! Is there something I can help you with?”
“Yes, actually,” I answered, “I’ve been sent from Canterlot to check on the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. You’re Rarity, I presume?”
Her eyes seemed to light up once I mentioned Canterlot. “The one and only, darling.” She turned and waved her hoof towards the decorations filling the hall. “And as you can see, the décor is simply divine. Simple, yet elegant if I do say so myself.”
“I agree with that,” I gave the whole room another once-over to still find myself pleased with the look, “and I’m sure the Princess will too.”
“So tell me darling, what’s it like living in Canterlot? Oh how I’ve always dreamed of living there, with all it’s glamour and sophistication!” She looked into the air, seemingly in her own world. I would probably be stuck there for hours if I started talking to her, no doubt to be asked every question she could to find out about her fantasy home.
“As much as I’d like to regale you with my thrilling tales of life there, I unfortunately have to check on other preparations for the Celebration.” I tried to look not at all enthused about leaving. Granted, the fact that I wasn’t that enthusiastic about checking on the next preparations helped me with that look.
She, while looking momentarily heartbroken, took it in stride. She trotted up to my side and wrapped a hoof around me. I didn’t squirm awkwardly, that would be rude. Instead I just died a little on the inside and let her talk.
“That’s alright dear, but sometime during the event we just have to have a chat. I can’t wait to hear about it all! We’re going to be great friends, you and I!”
Okay, died a little more. Truth be told, I wasn’t too against becoming friends with her. She seemed like a nice enough pony, but I had work to do. Plus, if Nightmare Moon didn’t make a grand appearance and do something crazy, like kidnap Celestia, to put a hamper on the morning I kind of wanted to spend time at the Celebration with Twilight. We never really hung out enough prior to the party, so this would be a great opportunity to both talk with her and maybe get her to start coming out of her shell like me. Maybe I could introduce her to Rarity. She seems friendly enough.
I gave my goodbye and began heading towards the exit. As I walked under the doorway, I felt a certain dragon climb onto my back. I would need to ask Twilight about giving him a speech on personal space.
“So where to next?” He asked with a little too much excitement in my opinion.
“Aren’t you supposed to be with Twilight? Where is she?”
“Oh, she got held up having brunch with that Apple family. I wasn't really in the mood for all those apple foods.”
I shivered. Better her than me.
“Well, the next task she handed off to me was to check on the music for the event. There should be a pegasus named Fluttershy in the park somewhere that’s in charge of that.”
As if on cue, some birdsong could be heard in the distance.. We followed it into the middle of the park, where we saw a yellow pegasus conducting a line of birds in a soothing fanfare. I trotted up quietly, being careful not to interrupt. Following the etiquette learnt from years of going to Canterlot orchestras, I gently sat down a few yards behind the pony conductor and listened to the nice tune produced by the birds. I heard a soft thud with the sounds of a dragon falling into a bush and snickered. That’s what he get for jumping on ponies backs without permission, I thought.
Unfortunately, his interaction with the bush caught the avian musicians’ attentions. The music died to nothing as they all peaked around to see the commotion going on behind their maestro. She, having her small choir decide to stop and investigate, turned around to look as well.
“Oh… I uh… um… Hi.” I stammered out. The pegasus floated down to the ground a few feet ahead of me, keeping her eyes on anything but me. I could tell she was more on the timid side. While I wasn’t meek, I was on the side of not exactly being comfortable with strangers; I could understand how she was probably feeling.
“Um… Hi.” She whispered at a barely audible level.
“So uh…” I adjusted my glasses, “You’re Fluttershy?”
She nodded shyly. I smiled at her, both because we were making progress and because of the apposition of her name and the trait.
“Well… My name is Moondancer. I’m here to check on the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. Could you tell me a little bit about these birds of yours?”. Her face seemed to light up at the mention of the birds. Animal lover. Got it.
“Oh yes! Well, you see, they really enjoy singing. I mean, they’re songbirds after all! Usually they just sing around town on their own which seems kind of lonely, so I got them all together to try and maybe sing as a group! It’s been a bit of a rough start, but the towns ponies really love it! And not to mention how much the birds enjoy it!” She flew over to the tree where they were perched, giving a one an appreciative pat on the head. “Them being asked to sing at the Celebration is a big honor.”
“It sure is! You must be proud of the little guys.”
“Oh I am!” She was positively beaming at this point. It was probably a good thing that Twilight wasn’t checking on the music. She wasn’t that good with extraverted ponies, let alone introverted ones.
“I wish I could stay and listen more, but I have to go meet with the other pony that was sent to check on the preparations.” This time I didn’t need to fake being unenthused about leaving. The music was nice, and Fluttershy seemed like she would be a kind friend once you got to know her. And a lot less… overwhelming than Rarity. Not to say Rarity wasn’t nice but I wasn’t up for a game of twenty questions.
“Oh, I understand,” her smile seemed to fade a little, but it only took a little to tear my heart. This pony could probably guilt me into robbing a bank if she wanted to. Thankfully, her face perked right back up. “I’ll see you at the Celebration though, right? We can talk a little after the ceremony… if you’re not busy doing something more important of course.” If I was planning on doing something important after the ceremony, I had no doubt that I would change those plans.
“Of course!” I smiled reassuringly back at her. My smile, however, faltered when I felt a familiar weight on my back again. I looked back to unsurprisingly find a purple dragon.
“Spike, do you mi-”
“OH MY GOSH, IS THAT A BABY DRAGON?” Fluttershy flew excitedly up to my side, buzzing around Spike like a hummingbird. “Oh my gosh this is so exciting, I’ve never seen a baby DRAGON before. He’s so cute!”
Her excitement was adorable. I was smiling despite the subject of it. “Careful there,” I interrupted, “No need to let his ego get any bigger.”
“I’ll have you know,” he interjected, “That my ego is perfectly fine. It’s your head that we need to worry about growing too large.”
“Ha Ha Ha.” I said with as minimal emotion as I could.
“Oh my, he talks. I didn't know dragons could talk. That's just so incredibly wonderful I, I just don't even know what to say!”
“Well,” I added, “We have to walk all the way to the library where we’re staying, so you’re welcome to join us and ask him questions.”
There was that heart-melting grin again.
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to be a bother.”
“It’s not a bother at all! If anything, you’re stopping him from bothering me too much.” That earned me a flick in the back of the head. Seemed like I was rubbing off on him a little. That probably wasn’t good.
“Aw but how could such a cutie be a bother? What’s his name?” While it sounded like the question was aimed at me, her eyes were aimed at him.
“I’m Spike,” He said proudly.
“Hi Spike, I'm Fluttershy. Wow, a talking dragon! And what do dragons talk about?”
“Well, what do you wanna know?”
“Absolutely everything.”
I actually hadn’t known too much about Spike. It wouldn’t hurt too much to get to know him a little better. I decided pay a little attention as well as I made my way towards town.
“Well,” he started, “I started out as a cute little purple and green egg…”