Patience. It’s a virtue. Everyone has there own tolerance and limits they can be pushed to. Right now, Tarun’s was being stretched beyond belief. He was being pushed and shoved around the Ponyville streets like a rag doll; behind him was the person, or rather pony responsible for this. Pinkie Pie’s face was constantly moving, constantly contorting and making movements as she pushed the rather heavy stallion in front of her. She had been waiting for Tarun to come back into Ponyville ever since she had baked him the chocolate cake he had asked for. Now she was impatient and had waited for around 4 hours for him to come back. After all he had been maliciously scrutinising and recording data from what he called “The perfect specimen”, Rainbow Dash. After the fillies and colts had headed off the field, Tarun had insisted that he take some more measures from Rainbow. As these involved proving herself physically, Rainbow obliged, determined to show off her stuff. To say Tarun was impressed was an understatement, he was blown away by, not only speed, but agility, stamina and raw strength. By the time the tests were over, Celestia’s sun had dropped very low in the sky and it was growing rather dark outside.
“Come on, pick up the pace a little bit!” Pinkie yelled, her front hooves pushing hard into Tarun’s plot as she shoved him down the almost empty cobbled road.
“I am going as fast as I can muster, Miss Pie. I can’t run or move very fast with this amount of gear in my bags” Tarun said slowly back to her, almost like how a mother talks to their child when the have been nagging them constantly.
“Well slow poke, we are almost here so can you move a little faster, pretty please?” She spoke in a slightly calmer voice as they turned another corner, passing another cottage with a thatched roof.
“I’ll give you move a little faster” He mumbled under his voice so Pinkie couldn’t hear him properly.
“What did you say?” Pinkie enquired.
“I did not say a thing, must be the wind” Tarun replied, lying easily to her.
“Okey dokey lokey, well we are here now anyway”.
As Pinkie stopped digging her hooves into his rump, the two ponies came screeching to a halt. Now that he wasn’t being pushed about against his will, he finally could see everything without being a blur. He stood before a large house, though quite unlike anything he had seen before. It looked like it was made of gingerbread and sweets. The roof certainly, with icing covering the sides of the confection roof. Small windows stuck out in odd places. No light however shone through the thick panes of glass. Out of the top of this rose what looked like a huge cupcake, complete with pink frosting and candles, rising above the gingerbread roof. Looking at a sign above the door, he saw there was a large cupcake on it and written below it, in bright pink letters it read ‘Sugar Cube Corner’. A small flight of purple steps led up to the double splitting doors, the doors looking like they had been taken from stable.
“Mein Gott...” Tarun mused quietly as he stared up at it.
“Oh, don’t be so surprised at it. Its only sculpted and painted wood silly. It’s not real and I mean, come on, a massive piece of food would not last this long, no matter how delicious and tasty it looked”
“Er, is there anyone... I mean anypony in there, I mean the lights are out and it looks like...”
“Its fine, I live here after all, just follow me, okey dokey” Pinkie excitedly said to Tarun as she pushed open the door.
“If you say so, Miss Pie” He mused after her as they entered the almost pitch black room.
In the dim light of now rising moon, it was almost impossible to make out any details. He could see a few tables and what looked like a counter at the far end of the bakery. On these tables were various shapes which he could not figure out in the dimly lit room. The air was quite pungent with smell of cakes and pastries clinging everywhere. Stepping forward slightly apprehensively, Tarun though he could see a movement or two in the gloom. “Err, Miss Pie, where did you go?” Noticing his bouncy and energetic guide had vanished, he began to put his hoof to the wall, to try and find a light switch or anything. For what seemed like ages his hoof landed on what felt like a switch, which he pushed down.
Suddenly the whole room filled up with light and at almost the same time, ponies sprung from pretty much everywhere. “Surprise!” They all yelled at the same time as they all looked at him with excited faces.
“Just what the hell is going on here” said Tarun, rather annoyed as the ponies began to clamber out of their hiding spots.
From behind a large wooden pillar, Pinkie emerged“Well I really wanted to give you a big welcome and all but you just refused. So after I made the chocolate cake you asked me to make, I went all around Ponyville and gave invitation to everypony that I found and asked them to come here for a super duper surprise party”
“Well...” Mused Tarun “Since you spent such a long time getting this prepared, I guess I kinda have to stay at the party now. So yeah, let the celebrations begin, I guess”
After that remark there was a loud cheering and the party began. Music, though not to the taste of Tarun, began to play. All sorts of food and drinks were around the room on several tables. Most of it was confectionery or pastries of some sort, with the odd savoury here and there. Large stacks of brightly iced cupcakes and golden brown muffins reached up the head of the tallest stallion. A large chocolate fountain with strawberries and marshmallows on sticks was in the centre of the room, though a grey pegasus with a yellow mane had already buried her now chocolate covered face into the cascade of melted chocolate. As well as this there were also oaken mugs containing some sort of frothy drink on another one of the white table clothed tables.
“Wie kindisch” Tarun mumbled to himself as he took in all the different foods on offer. However the mugs did peek his interest a little. Walking over to the table he picked up a mug after dodging around a purple pony who had around 4 cradled in her hooves. After lifting it to his muzzle and taking a sip, he realised it was cider, but incredibly weak cider. It was like drinking fizzy apple juice as he placed the mug back down.
“It’s good, isn’t it?” the voice being so sudden took Tarun off guard. Whipping his head around, he saw standing in front of him a blue, rainbow maned pegasus. She stood in a very casual pose, leaning onto the nearby table with her left hoof. She had a very confident look on her face as she looked at the rather bemused stallion that stood before her. “I hear that you were watching me fly earlier today, what did you think then, did I look awesome, did I look insanely cool.”
“No, you didn’t look cool, you looked bloody fast” He said rather matter of factly. “ Somehow you were flying around 5 times the speed of sound and when you made that huge explosion, you flew 10 times the speed of sound, That’s not cool, that’s down right impressive”
Looking slightly confused, she eventually regained her composure “I guess I’ll take that as a compliment. Any way I have a friend I’d like you to meet.” Looking to her left the blue mare made a beaconing gesture with her hoof at a taller looking mare. She had a purple coat with darker purple mane and tail with pink stripes running through it. Most notably was the fact that she had both wings and a horn, unlike all the other ponies he had seen. With a friendly look she walked towards Tarun, levitating a small paper cup with her magic.
“Who are you?” said Tarun in a rather confused way.
“Who is she, who is she? She is Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship for ponysakes. How do you not know who she?”
“Er why, should I know her?”
“Yes you should and, ahh!” Rainbow Dash looked to her side, where Twilight Sparkle had just jabbed a hoof into Rainbow’s side.
“Rainbow, please try not to make such a fuss out of this” Twilight mused in a rather condescending way. She looked to Tarun, almost scanning him. “As you may have guessed, my name is Twilight Sparkle and yes I am a Princess, but you don’t have to address me as such. I gather you were quite interested in Rainbow’s flying skills, so you seem to be a researcher of some sort. But tell me, why are you in Ponyville?”
“Well, erm, I was just passing through this place and I happen to like to do some research, especially on specimen as fit and powerful as she was. On a side note, how come you have wings and a horn?”
“Well, that’s quite an interesting question, with a quite long answer, so I’ll give it you in brief. I was a student of Princess Celestia and she told me to study friendship here in Ponyville. I eventually completed my studies and using some sort of magical powers she turned me from a unicorn into an alicorn. I am also what’s known as an Element of Harmony. I, along with my friends, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity are all bearers. I am the element of magic is you were wondering”.
Tarun stood there with a slightly blank expression, trying to understand what he just heard. Magic? Elements of Harmony? Element of Magic? “So, if you are magical, how powerful are you?”
Placing a hoof to her head, she quickly though about the question the lowered her hood again. “Sorry, this answer will be very vague, but I’m going to say quite powerful. Alicorn magic is much stronger then most unicorn magic I have ever seen. Anyway I can’t really hang out here too long. I promised Pinkie I would be here for a little while, but I have to go and finish off some paper work for the Princess documenting quality of life for ponies throughout all regions of Equestria so she can send ponies to help improve the lives of those less fortunate then ourselves. Thanks for a nice chat and I hope to see you later.”
And with that she placed her nearly empty cup of what looked like juice on the nearby table and trotted out of the door.
“Huh, that was interesting” Tarun said, with an air of amazement in his voice.
“Yeah, she talks a lot, way more then she should do. Well it was nice meeting you and all but I really need to go over to Applejack. She is looking like she wants a hoof wrestle and I’m just the pony to accept” And with that she flew over to the orange earth pony, determination in her eyes.
“Powerful huh, well I think I know what another project later on might be later on, now I just need to get my hands or rather hooves on some of their genetic material and...” As he cut himself off he noticed on the nearby table the cup that Twilight drank from, and close to that was a strand of blue and green hair. A smile came to his mouth. Patience, its a virtue, sometimes, if you wait and be patient, what you desire will come to you.