Guardian Angels: Prologue

by Scattershot

Round Up

Chapter 5
Round-up

By the time they reached Ponyville, Twilight had almost reclaimed her rational thought and was busy planning how best to assemble the group. “We can’t have you two there during the round-up, we don’t need anypony to be a gibbering mess when we arrive at the door.” She turned to Dash and gave her the best puppy dog eyes she could muster. “Could you deal with them? Just for a short while? I’ll teleport to make this quicker.”

Rainbow Dash was still apprehensive about being around the two of them on her own, but she had mostly recovered from her break-down, at least enough that she could operate. “I’ll do what I can.” She said.

Twilight nearly collapsed in relief. “Thank you! I’m really sorry, but I’ll be as quick as I can. Meet us at the café in an hour.” She was just powering up her teleportation spell when she turned to Scattershot. “You know what to do.”

“Aye ma’am!” Scattershot replied readily, giving his best hoof-salute as Twilight disappeared.

“You are enjoying this entirely too much.” Mobius said, shaking his head.

“Oh lighten up.” Scattershot retorted, punching his friend on the shoulder. “Be optimistic for once in your life why don’t you?”

“And what if I don’t want to?”

“I have the nuclear option.”

“So yeah, something to do for an hour.” Dash interrupted loudly. She was beginning to learn that these two needed to have their talks in bursts or things got out of hoof quickly.

“Oh don’t worry; I’m sure some convenient disaster will come along to occupy our time.” Mobius assured her. “And if one doesn’t, I’ll create one.”

“I sure we can sufficiently entertained without any more destruction, thank you.” Scattershot countered.

“How about I give you guys an aerial tour of the town?” Dash suggested. “Unless you already have it memorized or something.”

“He probably does.” Mobius said, shoving Scattershot with his wing. “But you are forgetting that we only know how to glide and hurt each other with these things.”

“How do you two not already know?” Dash asked, confused.

“We’re aliens, remember? Personalized flight isn’t really a thing where we come from.” Scattershot said. “But we are fast learners if you feel like teaching us.”

“As long as you promise not to get any of us killed or put in the hospital.”

“We can certainly try.”

“That’ll have to work.”

While Rainbow Dash gave her new companions an impromptu flying lesson, Twilight was composing herself in front of Applejack’s front door. She had decided to rally the troops in order of furthest from town to closest in order to preserve her magic. She had also chosen Applejack first because getting her to come meet and accept these two would require a bit of lying, which was hard since AJ was the Element of Honesty. But she figured if she could convince the farmer pony to trust the strangers then she could convince anypony.

With one last deep breath she knocked at the door. Applejack answered promptly and smiled at her friend “Well howdy Twilight! What brings you around here?”

“That is a very long story.” Twilight said. “But the short version is that two new ponies have come to town and Princess Celestia wants us all to meet them.”

“Ah’m all fer meetin’ new folks, but why does the Princess want us t’ meet these two?”

“They aren’t from Equestria.” Twilight said, cobbling together half-truths on the fly. “The Princess thinks becoming friends with them would be beneficial.” It took all her mental discipline to contain the spasm of fear the idea sent through her.

Fortunately, AJ took the story at face value. “Makes sense to me. Where’re y’all meetin’?”

Doing her best not to appear visibly relieved, Twilight gave Applejack the time and place before excusing herself and teleporting away. Fluttershy’s house was next on the list. Twilight appeared in a flash of purple light and heard a scream from behind her. She whirled around to see a pair of eyes peeking out from a bush. “Oh, Twilight it’s you.” Fluttershy’s soft voice emanated from the leaves. She extricated herself from the bush and shook leaves from her mane. “You startled me!”

Twilight groaned internally, poor Fluttershy would have a heart attack around those two! “Sorry about that Fluttershy, I’m in a bit of a rush.”

“Oh my! Is something wrong?”

I left Rainbow Dash with two manic ponies and don’t want to torture her any further. “I’m setting up a meeting, two new ponies from beyond Equestria have come to town and the Princess thinks it would be best to meet them.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened at the thought of meeting two new ponies. One stranger was bad enough! “Well if the Princess says it’s a good idea I guess…” She kicked a hoof at the dirt in thought. “What are they like?”

Twilight closed her eyes for a moment to think before responding. “They are eccentric.”

Fluttershy was immediately concerned by her friend’s expression. “How are the eccentric?”

Twilight realized that dancing around the subject was hopeless and dropped all pretenses of subtlety. “They have tested everything I know about other ponies since I first met them. They are bizarre, frightening, and by all indications should be incarcerated. However they seem to be able to contain the insanity to themselves and are accommodating enough around others, unless somepony else’s consternation amuses them. One of them is nice enough and seems to be trying the make the best out of our predicament. The other is a walking headache. Being around them is an exhausting experience but they are going to be here awhile so we may as well get used to them.”

Fluttershy’s knees, which had been wobbling more and more throughout Twilight’s exposition, gave out. Twilight caught her friend with magic before she could hit the ground and set her on her hooves. “S-so why do we have to meet them?” Fluttershy stammered.

“Trust me, this wasn’t my idea. But the Princess feels that it is for the best, and it won’t be as horrible as I made it sound.” She rubbed her face with a hoof, sighing. “I’ve just had a long day.” She was hoping that the two pegasi had at least worn own their crazy energy and would behave at the meeting.

Reluctantly, Fluttershy agreed to meet with Scattershot and Mobius. Twilight again gave the time and place and teleported away. She arrived outside Sugarcube Corner and was surprised to have Rarity answer the door when she knocked. “Hello Rarity, is Pinkie there?”

“Indeed she is and before you say anything I already know why you’re here!” In response to Twilight’s confused expression she added. “Pinkie saw Rainbow Dash with those two stallions earlier and…”

She was cut off by an explosion of pink as Ponyville’s resident party animal squeezed past her and out the door. “I knew I had never seem those guys before and I could tell Dashie was going to your place with them so I started to plan a party to welcome them and I knew that you had to know them since that’s where they were headed but when I tried to get Applejack and Fluttershy’s help they were too busy and when I went to the library you all were gone so I got Rarity to help me and we’ve been working on the party ever since!” Pinkie Pie made her entire explanation without pause, punctuation, or even a break for air.

Twilight blinked several times as her brain caught up with Pinkie. When she finally processed what had been said she replied. “Well we are already having a meet-up to introduce everypony to them.” Pinkie seemed to deflate and her eyes became teary as it seemed her party would be overwritten. “But I’m sure we will be able to have your party right after!” Twilight hastily added.

Pinkie immediately returned to full poofiness and hoof-pumped the air triumphantly. “Yes! There will be candies and cakes and confections and…” She gasped dramatically as she remembered something and zipped back inside at top speed.

The two unicorns stood stunned for several seconds before Rarity said. “So where is this meeting?” Twilight provided the necessary information once again and set out for the café. She opted to walk rather than teleport, the meeting point was close by she was wiped from teleporting such long distances. She would need all her energy back when the rest of her friends finally encountered the two strangers.