//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Main Entrance // Story: The Happiest Place on Earth // by Ace Sleeves //------------------------------// "Welcome to our family time Welcome to our brotherly time We're happy giving and taking to the friends we're making There's nothing we won't do..." “Is everything alright Mr. Richards?” Nathan stands there at a loss for words, seeing that the crown wearing, rainbow colored horse is actually speaking to him, and is displaying a show of worry upon it’s face. Not wanting to look like a slack jawed buffoon, especially in front of a Guest, Nathan quickly composes himself and smiles to show that he was indeed alright. He then clears his throat and mind of the lingering shock, and nods in acknowledgement to the announcement of his name. "You have assumed correctly…Miss...Soleil, I presume?" Now that he has broken his state of muteness, he can now take a moment to properly analyze the group before him. The newly acquainted ‘Miss Soleil’ is definitely an equine, with a stunning white porcelain coat, pale pinkish eyes, and a multicolor mane that seems to flow like it was underwater. He also notices that she has a horn poking out of her forehead, and two wings folded against her back comfortably. Perhaps she’s a unicorn or pegasus hybrid? “Tia! You can’t let this cicerone address you like this! It’s unheard of!” The Cast Member’s eyes then switch to the other tall being, noticing that it too has a horn and a pair of wings. However, it has a dark blue coat, a sapphire blue mane also flowing majestically, and two cyan eyes staring at him in a displeased expression. ‘Tia’ chuckles, clearly amused for some reason as she turns to the other unicorn-yet-also-a-pegasus. “Luna, we talked about this. Not everyone on this world knows about us. How is he to know of our positions? Besides, it’s nice to not be constantly greeted by formalities and titles. Remember, we decided to have this vacation so that we can relax and enjoy ourselves without having to worry about the kingdom.” “You say leaving Discord in charge of Equestria and our subjects is not a circumstance to be worried about?!” “Now Lulu…” “Do not ‘Lulu’ me Celestia, I told you that this is not a good idea. In fact I’m…” As Nathan continued to watch with mild amusement at the sisterly quarrel, his attention is directed to something tugging on his right pant leg. He looks down to see a nervous, yet curious dragon with purple scales and green spikes look up at him with a small smile. How does he know that it’s a dragon? Well, when you’ve been working with fairies, princesses, and all sorts of characters that belong in fairy tales, you tend to learn to pick up on a few things. “Um...excuse me? Mr. Richards? May I ask you a question please?” Nathan could clearly see that the small drake was tense being this close to him, as his lime green eyes would look down briefly at his claws with a bashful look. The Cast Member smiles softly, having met many children who were a bit shy of him, and slowly gets down on his knee so that he can be at the dragon’s level. Now that he was no longer looking down at him, the anxious dragon began to relax and show a smile of relief. “Sure you can, but my name isn’t Mr. Richards. It’s Nathan, see?” He gestures to the name tag on the upper left side of his vest, showing in bold black letters “NATHAN” with his hometown “Los Angeles” underneath it. Nathan then places his hands upon his bent knee and looks at the drake with a soft smile. “So, what was your question? And what’s your name?” The dragon smiles widely as he puffs his chest out in confidence, before jabbing one of his claws to himself. “My name’s Spike! And I have got to ask you, do you really have...diamonds here?” Now Nathan was truly confused, having not expected a question like that. Diamond? Why would there...Nathan lets out a short chuckle, as he looks down at Spike with an amused grin. “Oh you must mean the Diamond Celebration that we had a while back. Well, sorry to tell you this Spike, but that event ended a while ago and we really don’t have diamonds around here...except maybe on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride-WOAH!” Just as he nearly finished his sentence, Nathan is greeted abruptly with three grinning faces with huge, widened eyes. After a moment readjusting his vision, he sees that they are smaller equines than the ones he’s seen. One of them decides to get up into his face, where he notices it to be a young pegasus with an orange coat, light purple mane, and a set of animated purple eyes. “Did you say pirates?! That sounds awesome! Do you get to meet Blackmane? Or walk the plank? Or even get some buried treasure?!” Before the hyperactive filly could continue, one of the other small equines pulls her aside before taking her place. This one did not have any wings, or a horn, but did have a yellow coat, orange eyes, and a bright red mane tied up by a pretty dark pink bow. “Scootaloo, mind your manners! Howdy! My name’s Applebloom, please’d to meet ya! Do you know any good places to grab some grub here? Also I’m sorry about my friend here, she can be kinda…rambucktious? Am I sayin’ that right?” Applebloom turns to the last of the group, who was a unicorn with a light gray coat, light purple and pink mane, and pale green eyes. The unicorn holds a hoof to it’s forehead before sighing in disappointment, clearly not liking something Applebloom said. “It’s rambunctious, not rambucktious Applebloom. Come on, that was on last week’s spelling quiz with Ms. Cheerilee!” Applebloom blushes in embarrassment as she backs away from Nathan, while the surprisingly well-read unicorn looks up at him with a smile. “Hello, my name is Sweetie Belle! I can’t tell you how-well, I mean we can’t tell you how excited we are to be here! Twilight was telling everypony about how cool this kingdom is, and how there are DOZENS of princesses here! I have never met a princess before! I mean, I already have met some princesses like Princess Twilight and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna-but I can’t wait to meet some new ones here!” When Sweetie Belle finished her energetic introduction, Nathan couldn’t help but laugh at the fillies’ enthusiasm, knowing all too well how Disneyland can make anyone get really excited. “I am sure you will meet a lot of them here Sweetie Belle. Also yes, I do know some of the best places to grab some food Applebloom, I’ll be sure to ask for your preferences later. As for buried treasure Scootaloo…who knows what you might discover?” Nathan leans forward and gives a small wink to the filly, who can’t help but squeel in excitement. As he leans back, he turns to the dragon who has been left out of the conversation. “So Spike, what are you looking forward to on your visit here?” “I...I actually don't know.” The drake admits with a shrug before walking up next to the three fillies. “I wasn't paying attention to what Twilight was saying about the park, and the trip, and the statistical amount of water we will needed to stay hydrated, and such. Needless to say, I started to tune out what she was saying.” “What was that about tuning me out?” Spike then freezes and slowly turns around to see a not-too-amused unicorn with a light purple coat, dark blue, moderately purple, and rose-colored mane, and fiercely violet eyes looking down at him with a displeased expression. "Spike, the reason that I gave that lecture was to make sure that you and the Crusaders don't wear yourselves out, go wondering off, or get hurt during our trip. Especially since we are in another world entirely!" Twight's horn then begins to glow, and from her saddlebags floats out a glowing piece of rolled up parchment. The gravity-defying piece of paper then unrolls itself to reveal a long list of items. "That is why I have made a list of every possible outcome that can probably happen during our trip. Look, there is a 57.8% percent chance that you could be trampled by a herd of humans. 57.8%!!!" As Spike is getting grilled by Twilight, Nathan is standing there staring at the levitating list of seemingly ridiculous outcomes. Except for the being attacked by an Abdominal Snowman, but he will not say anything about that now. "Um...excuse me? Twilight is it?" The lecturing unicorn, no wait, pegasus? As Twilight turns around to see who called her name, Nathan sees the pair of wings upon her back for the first time. He wonders if it's a common thing to have both wings and a horn, seemed to be handy with the flying and making things float. "I know that you are worried for Spike's safety, but you can be rest assured that we here at Disneyland take every precaution for our Guests' safety." While Spike smiles gratefully at Nathan's interruption, Twilight frowns at Nathan's proclamation at being prepared for anything before showing a smug smile. "Is that so Mr. Richards? You seem pretty confident in your ability to be prepared for anything. Tell me, what do we do if we get separated?" Nathan smiles as he holds his hands behind his back before speaking in a knowing and practiced manner. "Guests are recommended to designate a meeting place and time, just in case the group gets separated for any reason. The most popular locations include City Hall or the Baby Care Center. If you believe that you are lost, you may consult a park map or ask a Cast Member for assistance. Once a Cast Member has reported their status, I would receive a notification by my cellular device and we would redirect our tour to retrieve the member of our group." As Twilight shows a look of slight surprise, the Crusaders and Spike giggle to themselves as they watch Nathan show his resourcefulness in terms of preparation and safety, clearly being more prepared than Twilight's list can predict. However, the surprised look on her face changes to a look of fierce competitiveness. "That may be so, but as you can see we are not like human beings walking on two legs. How would we be able to ride attractions designed specifically for human?" After that question, the trio of fillies and dragon become saddened at the realization that they may not even be able to go on certain rides. Nathan, however, does have a response that will hopefully wipe away those sad frowns. "Many of the attraction's vehicles are made to accommodate specially sized people. Due to the nature of your form, you may be required to sit up straight with your back against the seat and your hooves firmly on the floor below you. Is that alright?" Before Twilight could answer, Sweetie Belle throws her hoof into the air excitedly as though she wished to be called on by a teacher, and answers the question. "Miss Lyra does it all the time, we should be able to do it too!" Nathan smiles in gratitude to Sweetie Belle's response before turning his attention back to Twilight, who was currently trying to think of another problem that needed to be solved. "Ah hah! Food! You cannot expect us to believe that you are prepared with meal suited to our special diets now can we?" Just as Twilight was about to what seemed to be a trotting victory dance, Nathan smiles as he nonchalantly looks at his fingernails and recites what he knows from memory. "Special dietary requests - including food allergies, food intolerances, kosher meals and medically restricted diets - can be accommodated at most table-service restaurants and select quick-service locations. All you have to do is notify me of any special accommodations you may require and I will be sure to have it prepared for you in advance. Now if you will excuse me, I believe I left the two sisters enough time to figure this out." With that done, Nathan leaves an eye twitching Twilight and a laughing heap of fillies and a dragon to go and see Celestia and Luna about what they wished to have planned for the day. As he walks up to them, he notices that they have already finished fighting, with Luna looking a bit agitated, while Celestia continues to smile happily. Once he was in front of them, Celestia looks at Luna expectantly only to see that she doesn't react to the tour guide's presence. With a small nudge from Celestia's elbow, Luna looks up and smiles extremely wide. "Forgive me Mr. Richards for my rude behavior...I do hope that we can be...be...friends." After Luna finished her sentence she drops her smile and looks at Celestia with a menacing glare, which appears to not faze the smiling white unicorn and pegasus mix. "Mr. Richards, as you can clearly see we are not from this world. We have journeyed from a far off place to visit this magic kingdom, and hope to see and experience the magic and wonders that live here. We understand if you wish to deny us this opportunity, not only for our appearances but for the safety and wellbeing of your...Guests as you call them? If you do indeed wish to cease our appointment, please take this." Celestia's horn then glows a soft yellow as a tied brown bag appears before Nathan, making him reach out and catch it before it hits the floor. It certainly was a heavy bag despite it's size. What was in there bricks? Nathan carefully sets the bag down and slowly opens it before closing it as he saw something yellow flash in his eyes. He opens the bag once more to see a small bag filled to the brim with gold coins. This bag could easily pay his entire salary, for a year or more! He closes the bag and picks it back up as he lowers his head in thought, thinking about what to do now. He already knew what he was going to do. The question was, how would they respond? With a determined nod, Nathan holds out the bag and drops it before Celestia who captures it in her glowing aura. Once that was put out of the way, Nathan bows slightly before the two equines with a soft smile. "My name is Nathan. Celestia and Luna, it would be my honor and privilege to be your tour guide today. Welcome..." He turns around and gestures to the incoming locomotive slowly coming into the station, the fantastic flowerbed where the smiling mouse can be seen, and the rest of the park that has yet to be explored. "To the Happiest Place on Earth."