Inside Ponyville Lily trotted to Sugarcube Corner with a group of foals who all had milkshakes on their mind. Outside of Ponyville Leftfang hesitated with turmoil on his mind. He could just see it. The moment he was spotted those ponies would be after him. Everyone knew that ponies were greedy and would demand wishes the moment that they saw him. Or maybe they would be angry that he dared enter pony territory. Everyone knew that ponies only got along with other ponies and you couldn’t just waltz into their towns. He didn’t have his magic for a quick escape. He still had his wings for a getaway but so did some ponies.
“Well, I’m still smarter than most ponies and if that doesn’t work I can still flame them,” He muttered to himself. “Or perhaps my magic can work for me just this once.” He closed his eyes and envisioned himself as invisible. At first he seemed to begin to fade but quickly he began to glow like a beacon instead of vanishing. Leftfang opened his eyes and yelped. He clasped his head in his claws and focused hard until finally the spell was shut down. He quickly looked around worried that he had been spotted but not a single pony face was peaking around the buildings at him.
Leftfang took a deep breath, growled and resolutely stomped towards the town. When he reached the buildings he felt like a soldier who had stepped into enemy territory. There was no pony in the alleyway that he strolled down but her could hear random chatter mingled with hoof steps echoing around the buildings. He stepped around the corner onto a street and found himself looking at a small crowd various ponies going about their business. They were all kinds of colors and different shades of those hues, tall short, think and fat, male and female, young and old moved back and forth between buildings and streets.
Leftfang just stood there awhile as he watched them not sure what to do and just waited for them to react. Oddly, not much happened. They noticed him, this was evident from the curious glances that came his way. Yet none lasted for more than a few seconds and ponies simply continued to go about their day. Leftfang scratched his head trying to figure out if it was a trap or something. Then the creaking of trolley wheels caught his attention. He looked over to see of all things a griffin walking down the street ahead of a cart pushed by two stallions. Curling his mustache, he alternately shooed ponies out of the way and called back instructions to the ponies moving the cart which was loaded with pastries stacked in the design of a tree or castle. Leftfang wasn’t sure which.
“Make way, make way please. My masterpiece must make it to the competition. Tread easy please, so you do not shake the cart. I did not come all this way and craft my pastries in the design of the princesses’ castle only for it to splatter on the ground.”
Leftfang watched in astonishment as they passed. It wasn’t just the pastry castle tree and the fact that there was a castle that looked like that, it was the griffin. Why was a griffin in a pony village? He sat down next to a building and watched pondering this as well as the unexpected reaction of the ponies. Some seemed curious for sure but that was about it.
A few minutes after the griffin passed he spotted another pair of creatures who stood out in the crowd. Two donkeys trotted through the passing ponies while they chatted with a mare. The mare was a light tan with white/grey mane and tail and wore a white and green collar around her neck.
Somewhat confused, Leftfang scratched the back of his head as he watched. Why were there donkeys and griffins here? Ponies were for ponies. Everyone knew that. He shrugged deciding that maybe they kept them around for to do work or something. Either way he had sat there long enough.
Taking a deep breath Leftfang strolled out across the street keeping an eye out for a little pink pony with purple mane and a hedgehog cutie mark. Once again ponies glanced at him with curious expressions but left him alone. It wasn’t what he expected. Going around a turn he found himself walking down a street that was lined with venders selling various items. A few waived at him and he snorted. Did they expect him to come buy something from them?
“You’re a new face around here,” A mare said suddenly stepping up next to him. She was such a faint shade of yellow that she was almost white. Her mane and tail was both pink and purple. Leftfang scowled at her as she pointed back to a booth where festively wrapped candies stood on display. “Would you like to try a free sample of my new orange and walnut bonbons? So far everypony loves them.”
“I don’t eat pony food!” Leftfang snapped. “I'm a dragon! I eat gems!” With that he hurriedly walked away before she could demand wishes or something.
“Humph!” Said the mare as she stomped back to her booth. “Spike doesn’t mind eating pony food.”
Leftfang kept moving at a quick pace hoping to spot Lily so he could quickly get out of here. In his rush he nearly collided with a pink mare with a diamond ring cutie mark who was walking down the street. It was just as much her fault since she was prancing along with her nose in the air.
“Humph! Watch your step!” She snapped huffily stalking past him.
Leftfang glared back at her and growled back, “Sorry, you’re so broad that it was hard to get around you!”
The mare paused and stiffened with anger. The she snorted and continued walking. “Wrenched little beast. Not worth exchanging words with, not for a pony of my status.” She stated both to herself and Leftfang.
The dragon glared after her wondering if it would cause too much of a commotion if he burned off her tail with a fireball. She wouldn’t be strutting so proudly then. He thought better of it and stomped down the street angrily growling.
“Stupid ponies! Arrogant, full of themselves, selfish little-oof!” He had been so focoused on his grumbling that he bumped into a mare who was pulling a cart and muttering something about mixed up apples. She didn’t seem the least bit irritated. “Oh, well Howdy,” She said adjusting her hat which had nearly fallen off. “Sorry about that. I was a might lost in thought over a couple issues back at my farm. I’m Applejack.” She stated and held out a hoof.
“Uh, hi,” Leftfang replied suspiciously refusing to take the hoof.
Applejack didn't seem to mind. “We don’t get many dragons around here except just flyin' over when the migration happens. Are you one of Spike’s friends that he met at the Dragon Lord’s meeting or just traveling?” She asked.
“Dragon Lord’s meeting? You mean as in greed dragons!?”
“Ua, I guess,” Applejack replied.
“I’m no greed dragon!” Leftfang stated.
“Oh, uh, sorry. I didn’t know. What exactly is a greed-“
Leftfang did wait for her to finish for he had spotted a glimpse of pastel pink through an alleyway. He hurried off hoping that it was Lily. The sooner that he found her, the sooner he could get away from ponies. Passing through the alleyway he skidded out into the street to find himself looking at a full grown pink pony. The mare turned around at the sound of him rushing up. She blinked at the disappointed face of the dragon and suddenly gasped. “Oh, no!” she cried and took off in a pink streak leaving a cloud of dust behind. Leftfang stood there stunned as he watched the dust settle.
“Ponies are weird.” He grumbled and turned to walk away. He paused when he heard the sound of cart wheels and running hooves closing in behind him. He turned around again to see the pink pony scampering back down the street and pulling a painted little cart behind her. The mare skidded to a stop, spun around and pushed a button on the cart. The top opened and instantly flags and trumpets popped out and waived wildly.
Leftfang could only stare in stunned silence as the pink mare pranced back and forth singing, “Welcome, welcome, welcome! A fine welcome to you! Welcome, welcome, welcome! I say how do you do?!”
Leftfang looked at various ponies in the street but they carried on as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Except for one of the donkeys from earlier. He looked back at the dragon with a sympatric expression and mouthed, “I feel your pain.”
“Welcome, welcome, welcome to Ponyville tooooo-dayyyyyy!” The mare finished throwing her hooves in the air. “Wait for it!” This was followed by a small Ding and confetti blasted both pony and dragon. Shaking bits of paper off his face Leftfang glared at the mare. A second later another explosion sounded from the cart contraption and Leftfang hopped nimbly aside as cake batter splattered all over the pony and ground. The mare then simply fell backwards laughing hysterically.
“Hahahaha, I-hahahaha I mixed them hahaha up again. Hahahaha! Of course I hahaha, might not be doing it entirely by accident. Hahaha!”
Leftfang just stood back staring at the laughing pony as he tried to figure out what to think. Before he could decide the mare popped up from the and darted over, clutched a claw in both hooves and began shaking it up and down rapidly as she babbles away.
“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie and I know everyone around her and since I don’t know you I know that your new. It’s my job to welcome everyone and I saw your face and you just looked so sad so I figured that you were lonely or maybe nopony had welcomed you to Ponyville yet and that left you disappointed so I grabbed my welcome wagon and hurried back as fast as I could. It’s my job to cheer up everyone who’s sad or blue so do you feel better. If not I could throw you a party or-“
“I feel better!” Leftfang declared yanking his claw away, “But, uh, there’s a really blue pony on the street back there. I just saw him.” Leftfang pointed through the buildings towards the street that he had just come from.
“Oh, No!” Pinkie Pie cried. She shot over to the cart and slammed the lid shut. Then she shot off across the street pushing it ahead of her and yelling, “Everypony out of the way! This is an emergency!”
Leftfang at the same time was running in the other direction. He shot down serval streets before coming to a stop and looked around to make sure that she had not come after him. He groaned and sat down. Just how was he going to find the one pony he was looking for at this rate? He couldn’t stand ponies at all and how many crazies was he going to run into? He snorted and looked around. The street was mostly empty save on one end. A large number of ponies were filtering out of a building. Above the doors hung a banner reading Ponyville concert and musicians’ jammin convention; come and enjoy the traditional and classy to the wild and new made up on the spot. The ponies walking out were both young and old, some were dressed in classy style while others dressed loud, such as a pink mare with her mane separated into two huge ponytails sticking out on either side of her head and a bib hanging around her neck. Last thing Leftfang wanted to deal with was pink ponies again. He continued to study the crowd deciding whether or not he should ask one of them if they knew where he could find the pony that he was looking for. Soon he spotted a mare walking out who had an interesting color pattern, a white coat with a mane streaked two different shades of blue. Most importantly though she seemed to be by herself as she walked down the street bobbing her head with a beat that only she could hear in her headphones. Leftfang stepped in front of her and she stopped still bobbing her head to the beat as she looked at him.
“Look I don’t really want to talk to you but I need to know where I can find somepony. She’s pink and short with a purple mane and a hedgehog cutie mark.” He stated holding up his claws to indicate size. The mare continued to bob her head and just stare at him. “Are you listing?!” Leftfang growled. “Look, I don’t want to be here but I have to!” He said waiving his claws and flapping his wings in frustration. “I can’t stand being surrounded by ponies,” He swept his claws wide to indicate the nearby ponies. “Especially the extra insane ones! I just escaped from one who started randomly singing and dancing in the street!” He said mimicking Pinkie pie’s dance.
Vinyl Scratch watched the animated dragon as she continued to bob her head to the beat in her headphones. As far as she could tell, he was dancing to some tune that must be blocked out by her headphones and wanted her to join in. She had no desire to stop listening to her own music so she started to follow the dragon’s movements to keep to the beat of whatever he was listing to.
Not far away a grey mare with a jet black mane spotted the two “dancing” creatures as she was putting away her cello. She couldn’t make out what the dragon was saying but it looked like they were making up some kind of funny dance. She tapped her chin a moment and then picked up her musical instrument and began to play a tune to keep up with the quirky movements of the pair. Nearby other ponies who were carrying instruments turned their way, intrigued at the sound of her music. In seconds cymbals, drums, guitars and other various instruments joined in completely drowning out Leftfang. Departing ponies stopped to listen to the impromptu jamming. Soon ponies started stomping their hooves to the beat while other joined in the goofy dance.
Leftfang stopped and stared in shocked bewilderment at the dancing ponies around him. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes to ensure that he was really seeing this. The surrounding ponies did the same. He stared at them a moment then began hopping and flapping his forelimbs as if to fly with them. The ponies added that movement to the dance. Leftfang blinked at the crowd once again not knowing what to think. He started swinging his tail back and forth and waiving his claws in the air and the ponies swished their tails and waived their hooves in unison.
Leftfang stood slack jawed as he watched the ponies mix up the movements he had made into some kind of crazy dance. He threw his claws up into the air and roared at the top of his lungs, “What’s wrong with ponies?!”
“What’s wrong with ponies?! What’s wrong with ponies?!” The crowd began to chant and then add their own lines to the “song” taking turns shooting lines back and forth.
“What’s wrong with ponies?”
“We just like to have fun!”
“What’s wrong with ponies!?”
“And we like to dance under the sun!”
“What’s wrong with ponies!?”
“We love music in the air!”
“What’s wrong with ponies!?”
“Join in if you dare!”
Leftfang sat on the ground and continued to stare, completely lost for words as ponies sang and danced around him. His reprieve was broken as Pinkie Pie came pushing through the crowds pulling after her, of all things, a blue pony.
“This is some awesome party you started!” Pinkie called over the crowd. “You should have told me that you were planning one but it’s ok. I really just wanted to thank you for letting me know that somepony was blue so I could go cheer him up. Look at him grin, aww. He’s just so happy after I sang the welcome song to him. Now that we’re all happy let’s just Parrr-tay!”
Pinkie Pie spun away into the crowd calling out,” Hey everypony everywhere!”
‘What’s wrong with ponies!?” The crowd chorused back.
“Put your hooves in the air!”
“What’s wrong with ponies!? What’s wrong with ponies!?”
As Pinkie Pie took the lead in the dance Leftfang slipped out of the crowd before any of the ponies could focus back on him. He hurried, taking serval turns to get out of sight before he was spotted. He was so focused on looking over his shoulder that he nearly collided with a group of foals who were coming to investigate the noise. The dragon and the ponies skidded to a stop kicking up dust. Leftfang sighed with grateful relief when he spotted a pink filly with purple mane among them. A little hedgehog sitting in her mane blinked at the dragon and asked, "currr?"