Chapter 7: Pony Probation
POV: Twilight
Saturday - 12:00
After their meeting with the Princesses, I decided it would be best if the three humans were introduced to the town, “Alternivity? Am I saying that right?” the human in question nodded, “Locke? Like a door, right?”
“Yep?”
“Thalos?”
“Present.”
“Good, none of you wandered off.”
“That is an ever-present danger with us,” quipped Alternivity.
“Great. Rainbow? I’m going to need your help watching these three.”
“No problem, Twi! I’d never leave my friends hanging!”
“What about when you have to carry them?” asked Thalos, innocently.
“They usually ride me.”
All three humans burst into uproarious laughter.
“Hey! What’s so funny?”
Thalos quelled his laughter long enough to shout, “That’s what she said!” before returning to his fun.
“What- I- No! That’s not what I meant!” Rainbow yelled, crimson staining her cheeks.
Before Rainbow could cram her hoof any further into her mouth, I butted in, “Thalos, stop picking on my friends. Rainbow, are you still up for this?”
Rainbow had a troubling gleam in her eye. Oh dear, she was not going to let go of this.
“Hay yeah, I am!”
“Excellent,” I said, “why don’t we go see the mayor first, and have her set up a town meeting?”
“Sure, I guess,” was Alternivity’s response.
“Yay, outside!” cried Thalos, “And without the fear of probing!”
“I’m sure that’s Rainbow’s deal-”, began Luke
“Hey!”
“But I digress. Let’s go see the Mayor shall we?”
“Yes,” I hissed, “let’s go.”
I really didn’t want to deal with the rest of the town meeting these three yet, so I decided to lead them through some of the narrower alleyways that would take us right up to the town hall.
As we neared the town hall, Jake shouted, “Heads up!” and jerked a thumb behind him. We were promptly set upon by three fluffy disaster zones.
Applebloom nailed Locke in the small of the back and knocked him to the floor. Sweetie Belle wrapped herself around Thalos’s neck, and Alternivity caught a speeding Scootaloo in one hand.
“Girls! Where did you come from?”
Applebloom stood up on top of Locke, “We were on the roof. Y’all don’t pay attention good.”
Alternivity softly set down a struggling Scootaloo and tapped a weird glass thing mounted on his arm, “I saw you a few blocks back. Bushes aren’t the greatest for hiding. Nice use of those boxes though.”
“Where are you taking them?” asked Scootaloo.
I sighed. If anypony is curious, it’s the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “We’re just taking them to meet the mayor, so we can make sure everypony knows they’ve arrived.”
Sweetie Belle perched on top of Thalos’s head, “Can we come with? We were the first ones to meet them.”
Locke stood up, sending Applebloom tumbling onto the floor. “Hell of a kick there, little one. Next time, try not to knock me over.”
I decided that there couldn’t be much harm in letting the girls come along. Besides, if we told them to go away they’d just follow us. Again.
“Fine, you can come. Let’s get this over with.”
We arrived at the Town Hall with no further incident. I left the humans under Rainbow’s watch and went inside to speak with the Mayor. A few short explanations and a great deal of “I’m too old for this” we had a plan to introduce the village to the humans.
When I returned to the rest of them, I let them know the plan, “Mayor Mare says that she’ll have a town meeting at three o'clock tomorrow, so that we can introduce them to the village. For now,” I glared at the humans, “we are to lie low, and not cause any trouble”
“I promise nothing.” the three said simultaneously.
As we started walking towards the exit, Rainbow chimed in.
“Twi, how hard can it be. We just have to get them back the the library and it’ll all be-”
PARTY
Just beyond the hall’s doors was an enormous celebration. A steady rain of streamers fell from high above while balloons drifted around the square. Long tables covered with all manner of snacks dotted the grass, and it seemed like most of the town had joined in the party. A few local musicians were playing light music on a stage that should have taken three days and a train car full of stagehoofs to set up.
Overhead, suspended between two houses, was a long banner, stating that this was a “HAPPY DISCOVERING A NEW SPECIES AND ALSO WELCOME TO PONYVILLE THREE NEW HUMANS WHO KEEP ON CALLING THEMSELVES DIFFERENT NAMES SO I’M NOT SURE WHAT TO CALL THEM YET PARTY!”
I give up.
“Hey guys free food!”
“Sweet.”
“And savoury, too.”
Ohnononono! I cannot let the townsponies see these three before the meeting tomorrow! What do I do? “Wait!”
Thalos turned looking unamused, “Whaaat? I’m hungry!”
“I-I, um, think it might be, um, better if you, you know, avoid public places until after the meeting tomorrow. Ponies around here tend to be a bit, um, panicky.”
Thalos looked confused, “Why would anyone be scared of us?”
“You’re tall and sort of intimidating, and also a completely new species they’ve never met before.”
“Would now be a bad time to tell you that Alternivity just walked over to the cupcake table?”
“WHAT?”
“Hey! He’s bringing some back for us too!”
“Hey, who wants cupcakes?”
“Me!” shouted Thalos.
“Sure,” was Locke’s response.
“Here,” Alternivity handed a cupcake to Locke.
“And me?”
“Tough shit, Thalos. You opened your mouth before cupcake time, so you don’t get any.”
“But-but, I want a cupcake!”
Locke facepalmed, “You realise you could just go out there and get one.”
“I had not thought of that.”
“Clearly, or else I imagine you would already be there”
Thalos opened his mouth to argue, and it was immediately filled with a cake. Pinkie had arrived.
“Hey everypony! I just saw you guys across the party and I thought you looked so lonely and I thought that you might need someone to introduce you to the rest of the townsponies and then I saw that Thalos didn’t have a cupcake and now I’m here!”
“He wasn’t supposed to have a cupcake.”
“Well I guess he does now. Who wants to play Pin the Tail on the Princess?”
“That sounds like a major case of lèse-majesté,” said Alternivity. ”I’m in.”
“Sign me up.”
“But you aren’t supposed to be introduced to the town until tomorrow!”
“And?”
“And this counts as an introduction!”
“You can’t always have nice things, Twilight. Especially if Thalos has a nuclear potato gun.”
“Speaking of that, where did it end up? I don’t really think that’s the kind of thing we want to leave lying around.”
“I’ll go hunting for it when we head out to grab our shit from the camp. But for now let’s make a terribad first impression. To the party!”
And with that Alternivity swaggered off followed closely by Thalos, and somewhat by Locke.
Why does this always happen to me?