• Published 23rd Dec 2013
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What Separates - Zurock



A story of trust and differences. Twilight Sparkle is charged with befriending an otherworldly creature whose sudden appearance is unexpected for the both of them.

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Chapter 15: Preparation

The wheels on the cart squeaked and creaked in a charming fashion with every rotation as they carved a path through the dust of the Ponyville roads. The cart was packed with party favors like balloons, horns, ribbons, streamers, hats, and noisemakers. It was stuffed with supplies like paper plates, colorful napkins, and disposable cups. And, certainly not to be forgotten, it was overloaded with the obviously obligatory cake, record player, games, and other operative options for an optimistic occasion.

Hitched to Pinkie Pie's back, the whole collection rolled along as she trotted gaily down the street. Every hoof struck the ground rhythmically in sequence as she glided, and she was bearing a smile whose beaming matched the noontime sun. Other ponies who were out tending to their own midday business didn't bat an eye at the pink pony and her party wagon. Most gave a hearty hello in passing and some wished for her to have a wonderful party. They didn't need to know what the event was or who the party was for. Anypony in Ponyville knows what it means when Pinkie Pie is dragging those goods somewhere.

Eventually Pinkie Pie arrived at the library and guided her cart right up to the front door. She gave the door a steady three knocks and politely waited for a response, taking tiny leaps off the ground in her excitement and consequently jostling her payload. It only took a moment for the door to open and Twilight emerged from inside.

"Hey, Pinkie," she greeted her friend. She was slightly stumped in tone, not fully expecting the arrival of the party pony.

"Hey, Twilight!" Pinkie Pie returned enthusiastically. "Are you ready to PARTY?" she exclaimed, lowering herself at first before bouncing up on the final word.

The surprise lapsed as Twilight immediately recalled the arrangements that had be made and she slapped the side of her head. "Oh, horseshoes! I forgot about the party!" she complained. "It must have slipped my mind with all the other things that have been going on. I haven't even reorganized today's schedule to account for it."

Pinkie Pie's big smile drooped into a worried frown. Her large eyes began to glisten, the precursor to a bout of tears.

But Twilight quickly put her friend's concerns to bed, telling her, "No no, Pinkie, don't worry. We're still going to have the party. Any problems in my schedule are my fault for forgetting to clear the time." She took several steps back inside, pushing the door all the way open as she did. "Come on inside," she invited.

The pink pony perked up just as fast as she had pouted. She carried herself forwards through the doorway, dragging her cart behind her. The wagon almost perfectly matched the width of the door and the widest part became lodged in the doorframe as Pinkie Pie tried to pull it through. When she felt the sudden resistance from her stuck cargo, she simply upgraded her leisurely trot into a canter. Her hooves scrapped against the wooden floorboards but they weren't giving her the traction needed to free her haul, lending her the appearance of jogging in place. Since her first effort proved futile, she kicked into a full gallop, grunting and straining as she pulled forwards. The bending wooden frame of the cart groaned loudly before suddenly popping free of the doorframe. All the excess force of her pull flung the cart forwards, pushing Pinkie Pie from behind while she slammed her hooves into the floor. Her brakes slowed her down just enough to come to stop right before crashing into the bookshelf on the opposite side of the room. The relieved pony wiped the sweat from her brow.

Twilight merely rolled her eyes once and shut the front door. She made her way over to her friend, magically gathering and putting away some of the history books that were scattered about. She had been digging through them just prior to Pinkie Pie's arrival.

"Are you okay to start setting everything up?" she asked.

"Sure!" Pinkie Pie easily responded while unhitching herself from her supplies.

"Alright," Twilight said. "In that case, why don't you begin unpacking while I just go look over my schedule to move some things around? Get them out of the way for the party."

"Okie dokie lokie!" With that, Pinkie Pie pulled open the back gate on the cart, causing several of her jumbled items to spill out onto the floor. Ignoring the litter, she thrust her upper half into the bounty of goods still secure on the wagon.

Twilight made her way over to the wall she had posted the day's schedule on and pulled over a quill with her magic. When she gave a glance back at Pinkie Pie, however, she dropped the quill on the floor. She was stupefied at what she was seeing.

Pinkie Pie withdrew from the pile of supplies with several bizarre, arcane looking amulets around her neck and an ornate bottle of water held sideways in her mouth. She waved her legs about in an absurd dance, turning and spinning about the room. Then, without warning, she began thrashing her head around wildly, squeezing the bottle and spraying water all over the area.

"Pinkie!" Twilight yelled, rushing over to some books and shielding them from the flurry of liquid with her body. When her first cry met with no response, she called the boisterous pony's name again.

The pink pony suddenly ceased her unhinged spouting, dropping the bottle on the floor. However, her peculiar antics continued as she changed up her dance to a slower, more stationary, but equally ridiculous one that involved a lot of jiggling the talismans around her neck. She began chanting in a poorly mimicked deep voice, "Begone spirits! Begone! You're not welcome here! Return to your rest!"

"Pinkie!" Twilight shouted once more, this time getting right in front of her friend. "What in Celestia's name are doing?!" she demanded.

Having finally heard the unicorn's pleas, Pinkie Pie instantly stopped and resumed a neutral stance as if nothing had even happened. "I don't know!" she told Twilight with casual, happy smile.

Twilight scrutinized her friend, utterly baffled, before flatly asking, "What?"

"I don't know," Pinkie Pie said again. "When I told Mr. and Mrs. Cake I was heading over to your place, they gave me all this stuff and told me to sprinkle some of the water around while doing those weird dances and that chant," she explained. "I wasn't going to say no to that!"


"I'm positive that there's more than enough space," Spike said to James as they approached the library. "We won't even have to move anything around. We'll have them drop it all off in the bedroom, assemble the frame ourselves, and slide it into place."

"Alright. I don't think that the bedframe assembly will be any trouble either," James replied. "And we probably could have even taken the mattress back ourselves too, but hey, as long as they were offering the free delivery..."

Spike reached the door of the library and pushed it open. "Yeah, I-" His sentence broke off and his pace slowed as he entered, immediately noticing the obvious differences about the room.

Pinkie Pie and Twilight had been busy setting up the materials for the party. A long table had been positioned and covered in a cloth studded with colorful designs. On top was practically a buffet of party snacks, spread amongst bowls and trays. The most distinguished pieces on the table were a punch bowl surrounded by cups and a large, frosted cake which was ready to be cut up and served. Off to the side of the room, another table had be set up to hold less edible party paraphernalia. A record player, assorted equipment for party games, and different devices for making noise or flinging confetti about. All around the room balloons were scattered; some were rolling freely on the floor, others caught up on the ceiling, and still others had been tied together in bunches and tethered in different places about the room. Streamers weaved high around the room, with Twilight in the process of hanging up even more. Pinkie Pie herself was inflating more balloons to add to the growing collection.

"So... what's the occasion?" Spike asked as both he and James continued their way inside.

The balloon Pinkie Pie had in her mouth was set loose and it darted around the room, wild and delirious. The pink pony discontentedly stared at Spike as the missile made its fateful trip, until it ran dry of air and came to rest. Did anypony remember about this party? She shook off her negative vibes and brought back her smile. "This is for James' 'Welcome to Equestria' party, of course!" she informed the dragon.

"My party?" James questioned. But just after his puzzled inquiry the details quickly came back to him. He had forgotten the discussion they had on this matter at Sugarcube Corner. He didn't feel thrilled to remember, either.

Pinkie Pie's face washed over with confusion as yet another individual didn't acknowledge remembering the party. She tilted her head and asked in astonishment, "Was this supposed to be a surprise party?"

"No, Pinkie," Twilight said, tacking another streamer in place with her magic. She dropped the few more she was carrying and then moved towards Pinkie Pie and the others. "He was right there when we first talked about it."

"Oh, right," Pinkie Pie nodded, clearing up her befuddlement. She turned to James and assured him, "It's NOT a surprise party."

He gave her a funny look at having a question he didn't even ask answered. "Oh. Thank you. Good to know," he told her tentatively, for the sake of having something to say back to her in confirmation.

James gazed around the room to get a look at everything and assess just what kind of party this was intended to be. While the wide collection of snacks invoked some casual memories of hanging out and relaxing with friends, other elements of the set up tugged at his confidence. The large cake and flashy, colorful decorations struck him as more appropriate for a child's birthday party. The set up for playing music, complete with a wide open space for dancing, reminded him of school dances (or the ones he did attend, anyway.) Or maybe this whole set up was more like a wedding reception, though for those events he usually preferred to sit the time away and chat with only more immediate family and close friends. This whole thing could wind up resembling any one of those scenarios, except with a bunch of complete strangers for the other guests. And he was the focal point of attention no less, with it being "his" party and all.

What a pain. But this wouldn't be his first time drafted into an unwanted social spotlight, and he's survived worse anyway. At least these were a bunch of easygoing horses and not the tightly wound up, overly immature cliques of jerks from back in school.

Twilight bit her lip. James' response to Pinkie Pie didn't carry any excitement, nor did his demeanor exhibit any enthusiasm. This party was conceived as a measure to try and welcome him into his strange new environment, but she still couldn't comfortably predict his reaction. She trusted going along with the party because she believed in Pinkie Pie's abilities, but these signs weren't looking good.

But then again, this is just like before. She was running herself ragged with worry over something that probably wouldn't even be a big deal once it was over. Once the party was in swing and everypony was having an entertaining time, James would acclimate and her fears would wash away. It was only just a silly party. And who knows more about throwing fun, stress-free parties than Pinkie Pie?

Shaking off her anxieties, Twilight invited, "You guys want to help us finish setting up? It'll still be about an hour before anypony shows up, but there's no harm in making sure everything is in order as early as possible."

"Alright," Spike accepted. "The deliveryponies will be here with the mattress and parts for James' bed in maybe fifteen or twenty minutes, though. We'll have to stop for that."

It was recognized that they had quite a surplus of time to finish preparations, so that one interruption wouldn't be a problem. Pinkie Pie jumped and clicked her hind hooves together as she spryly went back to inflating balloons with Spike's assistance. Twilight magically snatched back up her dropped streamers and resumed stringing them up as James looked over a pile of unset decorations and other party goods.

"So... looking forward to the party?" she testingly asked him.

"It'll be interesting, I guess," he answered, turning about in his hands a party hat with a goofy circus design and a burst of silver foil on top.

With four hands and eight hooves working together, the party preparations were finished in no time. It was only a few minutes later that there was a knock on the door but, as predicated, it was the mattress and unassembled bedframe being delivered. James was quick to use this interruption to get away from the party room, directing the deliveryponies in. Spike had to accompany them however, as the three ponies carrying the delivery initially hesitated in following the odd looking stranger.

As fast as they arrived, the deliveryponies were gone. They dropped the materials off in the bedroom as instructed and then left. Spike and James stayed there to assemble the bedframe. Like they expected, it was a swift operation, taking only a few minutes to slide and lock all the wooden pieces together. The pair shifted the completed frame to a vacant corner of the room and then hoisted the mattress into place. Although Spike intended to rejoin the ponies in the main chamber, James' decision to stay away for awhile and sit down on the new bed encouraged the dragon to reconsider. He went over and hopped up onto the new furniture, taking a seat.

Aware, but not overly concerned, he asked the man, "Something the matter?"

James thought about it briefly but then dismissively responded, "Nah. Just... going to be seeing a lot of that party in a little bit, I'm sure."

Spike seemed satisfied with the answer and didn't give it a second thought. After a silence he asked instead, "So, what do you think of the bed?"

Positively responding to that question, the man impulsively bounced a bit on the mattress. A delightful vibration spread across the whole surface, lightly bouncing Spike as well. "Springy. But still cushy. Plenty of good nights' sleeps in it I'm sure."

Inside the main room, Twilight was just giving everything a requisite double-checking. Or triple-checking, where she felt the need. Actually, quadruple-checking never hurt anypony, either. Maybe the napkins would be used up too fast and she should put out more? There were enough cups and plates for everypony, but were there enough EXTRA in case someponies didn't want to reuse theirs? They did store an additional jug of punch under table in the event the bowl runs dry, right? Maybe she should take some measurements and adjust the position of the record player to be acoustically optimal? Were there any streamers that were so close a light that they might be a fire hazard? Was the bathroom clean enough, or would a guest feel it was too filthy to use causing them to restrain themselves for the rest of the party, making them uncomfortable for the whole experience, dragging down the mood for everypony they interact with and ruining the entire event?!

Pinkie Pie gleefully zipped past the consternated unicorn, humming a tune to herself. She was dashing from place to place, also giving everything the once-over. In contrast to Twilight's distress, it was quite obvious that her opinion on the state of preparedness was much more optimistic.

Letting go of her own concerns and turning things over to Pinkie Pie's expert analysis, Twilight gently sighed, "Is everything ready?"

"Yup! It all looks good!" Pinkie Pie happily reported. She took an extra second to inspect the cake, licking her lips, but she successfully resisted the urge to bury her face into it. That was for after the party started.

Twilight remarked, "All that's left, then, is to wait for the others to arrive." She again felt some nervousness for the whole situation welling up and sullenly questioned her friend, "Do you think this party is going to go off okay?"

"Oh, of course it will!" Pinkie Pie said. "Everypony loves a party!"

"Everypony..." Twilight mused to herself.


The sound of knocking came from the library's front door, causing Spike and James to leave the bedroom at the dragon's hopeful behest. Much to his delight, the pony at the door was exactly whom he wished for: Rarity. A casual eye wouldn't notice but she had spent several hours cleaning up from the previous day's escapade. She strutted inside, confident in her own restored beauty. Her fresh brushed curls, her shining coat, her refurbished makeup, all pristine and revised to perfection. But just in case she still carried a bag of emergency cosmetics with her.

Her friends greeted her warmly, and Spike in particular produced an animated salutation to her. Remembering the general, timid reserve which Rarity had displayed in most of their prior encounters, James kept several paces back and didn't offer a greeting. His hope was to avoid appearing imposing and simply to stay out of the way while the girls and dragon had their opening chat.

To his surprise, Rarity kept her words to the others brief and then greeted him directly instead. She gave a plain, "It's good to see you." There was still an ever so slight undercurrent of shakiness in her voice and he was almost sure she was putting a concentrated effort into her actions.

"Good to see you," he politely returned with a short bow of his head.

Twilight informed Rarity, "We're still waiting on all the others so go ahead and make yourself at home."

Thanking her friend, Rarity then turned to her favorite dragon. "Spike, be a dear and put this somewhere out of the way, would you?" Her horn glowed and she tossed her cosmetics bag right into Spike's waiting arms. He caught it, slipping on his feet slightly, and he had to rebalance himself before heading off to drop it somewhere safe.

The ponies began to move towards the food and punch table, but Rarity stopped after barely taking a few steps and looked once again in James' direction. She quivered with uncertainty, but then changed course and approached him.

"Listen," she told him. Her eye contact was unsteady and irregular as she moved her head about and looked around the room, but again there was a clear, determined effort on her part to try and be forward and engaging. Her voice wavered as she had to struggle momentarily to remember his name. "... James? Ah... how should I say this..." She took a breath, settling herself calmly, after which she was able to keep her focus on him and continue. "I... I feel I should apologize for the way I acted during our initial meeting the other day. I was rude and discourteous, which is completely improper for a lady of my refined sensibilities."

"Oh!" James shot out with surprise. Rarity's earlier, suspicious and evasive behavior had not been forgotten by him. Leery of his presence and agitated to the point of speaking aimlessly, even without reasonable volume control, the only things that had kept her head together was the encouragement from Twilight and her dedication to her craft. That meek reserve could have been easily anticipated given the circumstances, but this new attitude isn't what he expected at all. "That's alright. You don't need to apologize," he offered back to her.

"Nonsense," she countered, "There was no excuse for my behavior. Not in front of a guest, especially the guest of a dear friend. So... I just wished to say that I'm sorry. And, in the spirit of this party, I'd like to give you my formal and proper welcome to Ponyville." She graciously bowed to him with elegant poise and movement laced with noble dignity. Her trepidation had been mastered and she was back in complete control.

Still somewhat taken aback, James managed to say, "Thank you." But he just wasn't able to let the matter rest. He continued on, telling her, "But again, it's alright. What you did was perfectly understandable. And even then you still loaned me your boots... and got these clothes together so quickly." He ran a hand down the side of his top, not having lost any amazement for the garment that Rarity so casually regarded as only a simple prototype. It frankly looked better and felt nicer than most of the other things he had worn in his whole life. "Really, I should be apologizing for troubling you."

Rarity had mostly moved past her frustration with having had to let that ensemble go before its time and wasn't too bothered by its sight or mention anymore. She jumped right into a reply but, having summoned the courage to apologize directly to James, she didn't want to let the matter rest either. "That's nice of you to say, and I do appreciate it. But I must insist that I failed to mind my manners and behave politely in company."

Weary, James surrendered. "Alright. Thank you for the apology," he said.

"Yes, well... very good, then." Rarity realized that she had successfully gotten through everything she had planned to say and now there was suddenly nothing left to add. She stewed in the awkward silence before declaring with muddled haste, "Enjoy the party!" She disengaged from James and stepped swiftly towards the others at the snack table, striking up a conversation with them.

James shook his head, still confounded at her surprisingly forward presence and at her resilient insistence for what seemed such a small matter.

As more time passed, the man stay removed from the idle chit chat of the ponies and their dragon friend. Their conversations didn't strike as being of topics which were terribly important; they had all last seen each other only yesterday after all. They were just killing time. If he was to be sucked into the party later, the least he could do was get some time away right now.

It wasn't much longer before there was another knock at the door, this one faint and gentle. Fluttershy had arrived. The upbeat pegasus bore the same smile from yesterday, empowered by that day's success and the rebound in mood it provided her. She greeted those present with her uniquely benevolent and mellow enthusiasm and her friends reflected their own good cheer back, losing no time in inviting her into their continuing conversations.

Unlike with Rarity, James' prior interactions with Fluttershy had gone off much better and he didn't feel the need to be distant from her during her arrival. Their previous meetings had almost assuredly been colored by Fluttershy's distraction, caused by the stressful situation she had been in. Also, they were without a doubt influenced by the fact that she did not know about any of his actions prior to being assigned to Twilight. Those two things had allowed them to bypass that clumsy meeting period which came into play with Rarity.

James joined in with the others on welcoming Fluttershy to the library, but he still determined to stay out of the developing social atmosphere. His withdrawal mostly went unnoticed by the pegasus since she, unburdened by the responsibilities that had been present before, found she couldn't think of much to say to him. She didn't have any time to stop and think of things either, as the others often kept her engaged with questions and conversation. At one point she did manage to try and talk to the man, reporting to him on the much improved condition of Rocky, the squirrel reunited with his parents. The little squirrel was jubilant, active, eating properly, and playing with the other animals. To that, James was happy he could honestly tell her that he was glad to hear it. After that report, Fluttershy didn't have anything more to address him with and he drifted out of any potential involvement with the ongoing discussions.

A strong and sturdy knock heralded Applejack's arrival a few minutes later. The lingering soreness from her aches and bruises were evident by the way she moved, but overall she wasn't slowed down in the least. Nor was there any damper in her attitude as she said her hellos with abundant cheer.

Applejack's greeting to James was a cordial, "Howdy, Beanstalk." Although he returned her greeting politely, Applejack readily caught wind of his removed demeanor. She stared at him momentarily with a lowered brow, considering what to make of it, but she eventually thought it best to let sleeping dogs lie. If he didn't want to talk right now, he didn't want to talk right now. So she let him be and went to talk amongst her friends.

Having a fifth pony around pushed the chatter amongst them into an even higher gear. With so many individuals crowding one area, the conversations began to break down into several smaller threads with tighter groups of speakers. Twilight had a moment of isolation where she stepped back to grab a drink after finishing a chat with Rarity. Having been watching and contemplating, James was growing more bothered by the potential state of things with each arriving pony. He seized upon the open moment to speak with Twilight.

"Hey, Twilight? So, what's going to be happening here?" he asked her.

"A party?" she replied, confused. She couldn't pierce the vagueness of his question and wasn't sure what he was expecting in a response. "They have parties where you come from, right?"

"Of course they do. I mean, what's going to happen specifically? What are we going to do?"

His annoyance wasn't well masked and Twilight picked up on it immediately, setting her drink down. She understood his question now but the problem was that she had no real idea what his deeper concern was. "Dance. Play games. Eat some snacks. It's just going to be an ordinary party," she literally answered him, hoping it addressed his concern. "If you need the exact details you should ask Pinkie Pie, since she's the planner."

"Right," he said quietly to the open air. After a pause he added with detectable rhetorical sarcasm, "What kind of drinks do you have here?"

Twilight didn't answer. The seeds of worry sprouted in her mind again and she rapidly debated just what to say to him, or if perhaps she should even halt the proceedings.

Before she could do anything however, the whole room was sidetracked by the front door swinging open with a slam. Rainbow Dash appeared, having brashly let herself in, and with that the cycle of salutations began anew. Twilight looked back over to where James had been standing but he had already moved on. The unicorn heaved a burdened sigh but ultimately decided to go over and greet her newly arrived friend first, before taking any other action.

Amidst the exchanges between friends, Rainbow Dash looked around the room and spotted James. Glaring at him, she raised a hoof and gestured to her own eyes, then pointed right at him. He gave a nod back to her, still accepting and understanding of her feelings. That would have been all, but Applejack suddenly called for the pegasus' attention and James watched what unfolded with some curiosity.

"Hey Rainbow," Applejack opened. She dejectedly lowered her head a little, but kept her eyes on Rainbow Dash. "I wanted to tell you, I appreciated the apology you gave me yesterday. Even if'n I was all saddlesore to you about it when you gave it. I was just too riled up to be gentle-like about it." She let out a sigh, disappointed in herself, and closed her eyes with regret.

"Oh, hey, no problem Applejack," Rainbow Dash sincerely said. Then she drew a breath and lowered her head down to match the despondent pony's. In a low and honest voice, Rainbow Dash told her friend, "I really am sorry about leaving you behind without saying anything." She offered out a hoof to Applejack. "Pals?"

Applejack's spirits picked right up and she smiled while bumping the pegasus' hoof with one of her own. "Pals," she agreed.

Both ponies got a little exasperated when Pinkie Pie suddenly joined them and pulled them in for a tight hug, jamming all of their faces together. "Awwwww," the touched pony sweetly crooned.

With Rainbow Dash's attention being taken away, Twilight got back to musing over what she should do about James. But she hardly had the time to even think when she felt the others' focus falling onto her. The room was quieting down and slowly everypony seemed to be expectantly bringing their attention to her. She surveyed everything quickly.

"Well... looks like everypony is here," she stated weakly. Except for James, their faces looked eager and ready. She really didn't want to hold things off since all the others had taken the time to come out here, and she still hoped that once things got going the man would warm up. Putting on a smile, she took center stage and addressed the group, saying, "I want to thank everypony for coming out to the party today. Three days ago, Princess Celestia assigned James to my care because he's a newcomer to Equestria. With all our help, he's here to learn about who we are, what we do, and, today..." She took breath and put her faith in the enticing liveliness of her friends' company. Holding out a hoof, she continued, "... how we party! Now, let's get started!"

"Yahoo!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. She kicked the table with the record player, causing the device to start up with a scratch before belting out a loud and jaunty dance tune. Then she effervescently dove across the room, landing at the snack table, and plunged her head into the base of the cake with a splat.