A Blissful Planet

by VonArmen

Act V: Meetings All Around ~ Let the Game Begin

Act V: Meetings All Around ~ Let the Game Begin

For what it’s worth, what I glossed over before was idle chitchat that Twilight and I had between the major conversations I recorded. Believe me, I despise it when anyone uses censorship, but those talks just weren’t really important. Well, from my perspective everything that happens here is important, even lifting up a pen -or in this case, quill- to write something, but that’s not the point. What is the point, however, is that after our conversations while travelling, we finally made it back to Ponyville just before sundown.

Upon our return, I obtained even more strange looks from the passerby ponies that crossed our path back to Twilight’s library. It was obvious that the only reason the stares became longer while looking at me was that I now had my hood down to reveal my face. I know they were just curious about a foreign creature from another universe, but that still doesn’t make them staring at me any less awkward.

“Hey, would you like to meet my friends?” Twilight suddenly asked this question out of nowhere. She seemed rather enthusiastic about it, as well.

I was a bit caught off guard when she asked it, so it took me a few seconds to process, but when it did I managed to give a legitimate answer. “Hm? Oh, sure, I don’t see why not. My luck hasn’t been too bad with meeting your species so far.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow with a curious smile, “Didn’t you say luck doesn’t exist?”

“In the sense that most refer to? Yes, I however, am just abbreviating for the sake of convenience. Unless, of course, you want me to say ‘the probability of a good event happening based on exactly where and when I am in your universe is in my favor,’ instead of just saying ‘luck’.”

She cocked her head with her eyebrow still raised, the smile on her lips fading due to thought process, I’d imagine. Eventually she just settled on saying, “Point taken,” and left it at that. Sounded as though she were a bit frustrated when saying it, though.

Perhaps that came across the wrong way…

“Ah! You two are back!” It was the Mayor. She had apparently snuck up on us while we were talking. “I see the word about your return was correct after all. I expected you to be gone another couple of days.”

Wait, what?

“‘The word on our return’? You mean you only heard about us coming back and didn’t actually see it for yourself?”

“Well, yes. I figured that would be obvious, would it not?”

“In only five minutes since we walked through that gate? I mean, this town is small, but word travels around here at an abnormally quick rate,” I leaned down to my left where Twilight was standing and whispered into her ear, “Remind me not to start any rumors around here. Ever.”

“I’ll keep the same thing in mind,” Twilight whispered back, “I didn’t even realize that rumors spread around here so quickly.”

Strange. She’s a citizen of the town and doesn’t know that rumors spread here that quickly? I looked back at the way we entered the town from and out of the corner of my eye I noticed a fairly built pony in glistening gold armor that was hiding (very poorly, I might add) behind one of the fruit crates that littered the street. I have no idea what this one is trying to accomplish, but if he’s trying to spy on me he’s not doing a very good job of keeping it a secret.

“Anyway, as I was about to say,” The Mayor interrupted, getting my attention, “Your help, Hurricane, is very much appreciated. Never in all my years have I seen anypony reason with anything from Tartarus. Here is the reward, as promised.” She reached into her bag tied around the midsection of her body (presumably the pony equivalent of a human’s waist) and handed (or should I say hooved…?) a bulging sack to me with the end of her hoof. How she managed that feat, however, was something I was very curious about.

“How are you doing that?”

“Doing what?”

“Gripping things with your hooves, how are you doing that?”

“I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

I raised an eyebrow, Must have an extra joint in their hooves to allow them to grip things. Might explain how they were able to build these structures… Man, I really need to dig inside that library.

“Oh, by the way,” The Mayor continued, “I hope the both of you don’t mind, but I contacted the Princess about your arrival. She asked me to give this to you.” She pulled an enclosed letter out of her bag and handed/hooved it to me, which I promptly swiped from her hoof. The envelope had a big red stamp on the back (I had assumed that it was a royal seal at the time) and the front was left blank.

This should be interesting, I mused, opening the unlabeled letter.

“Greetings, strange new entity,

Mayor Mare has told me, to the best of her ability, where you are from, and I believe I am starting to understand. You are from an alternate universe, and, while I am not entirely sure whether you getting here was an accident or not, I do not think that should mean you are not entitled to a proper welcome. I know not how conditions were like in your universe, but do bear in mind that this society that I’ve built does have rules and regulations that I expect you to abide by. Do not think that just because you are in an alternate universe that means you can do whatever you want without any repercussions.

That being made clear, welcome to Equestria! Once again, I have not the slightest idea how things are like in your universe, so I do hope that you can feel comfortable here until you can find your way back.

Mayor Mare has also spared no expense on telling me about how you so easily accepted the job to get rid of the Chimera problem. From recent reports, I gather you have already met my most talented student, Twilight Sparkle, and got the Chimera to willingly go back to Tartarus with the both of you. Very commendable. A job well done, to say the least.

Seeing as you have already met her, I leave you in the very capable hooves of my student to show you around Equestria; perhaps you shall even get to see the other surrounding countries if you stay here long enough. At any rate, the Summer Sun Celebration is being held tomorrow in Ponyville. I would like to get the chance to meet you face to face.

Signed,

Princess Celestia of Equestria”

Of course, my initial thought was, How the hell did she know I was from an alternate universe? I didn’t tell her anything about that. Hell, I haven’t even talked to her, period. Then it hit me, Maybe not her, but I did say that to Rainbow right outside her door. Although, that would mean that those walls aren’t soundproof. I thought about the door leading to the Mayor’s office with skepticism. I guess ponies aren’t as paranoid as humans when it comes to their citizens listening in on governmental delegations. Then again, after what happened in 2025 with those high caliber bullets piercing through the starboard wall to the Senate in the middle of a debate on a bill that killed three senators, I suppose I would want to heighten security after something like that, as well. Well, to be fair, they were fairly secure before that event, as well, they just felt the need to overdo it after something like that. Can’t say I blame them.

“‘Recent reports,’ huh?” I muttered. “Well, Twilight, it looks like I’m in your very capable- er… hooves, I think.” I handed her the letter, just in case she didn’t believe me.

“Look,” The Mayor interrupted again, “Are you going to take this money or not?”

“Oh, right. That.” I wonder… “That building that was destroyed by the Chimera… that wouldn’t have happened to have been a house, would it?”

“Ah, that old place. As a matter of fact, it was. It was very lucky for all of us that no pony was residing in it at the time.”

Seems perfect. “Then use the money to rebuild that. Furthermore, if it’s not too much trouble, would you mind if I took residence in said house when the repairs are done? Until I can find a way back home, of course.”

“I don’t see why not. The rebuilding of that house, however, will take at least three weeks. I hope you don’t mind the wait.”

“I think I can manage. Thank you, Mayor. Now, Twilight, what was it you were saying about meeting friends?”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After making a quick stop back into Twilight’s house (which I found out was also a library) to check on how the place held up, we went across town with her explaining various things about its history. Fortunately for Twilight, Rainbow had apparently gotten her message and delivered it to Spike in turn, who did as the message instructed and kept track of the library while she was away. Speaking of, all I really wanted to do was stay in the library and just dig through all the books I could before the day ended. Unfortunately, I had already told Twilight that I’d meet her friends, which it seemed she had her heart set on. Furthermore, I figured, I waited this long to dig through the library already, what’s another day going to hurt? On top of that, this nation’s Princess wants to have a word with me later today, anyway. I’m sure I can get information out of her.

Regarding the town’s history, it didn’t have a particularly interesting start; funded by some of the governmental higher-ups to compensate for a growing population about 100 years ago and has been very slowly growing since. I think the only detail that caught my attention was the fact that Princess Celestia herself helped fund the town. You know, over the years I’ve come to the conclusion that coincidences don’t really exist except under very rare circumstance, and with what Twilight told me about the whole Nightmare Moon thing, it made me wonder whether Princess Celestia had planned that out in advance, especially considering Twilight speaks of her as though she were a goddess. I mean, who’s to say she’s not an oracle?

“Since Pinkie Pie is the closest of my friends near here, I think we’ll just head there first,” Twilight decided aloud, pulling me away from my thoughts. Well, I suppose a more accurate term at this point in time would be “conspiracy theory.”

My thoughts shifted after I heard her friend’s name, Pinkie Pie? Mayor Mare? What’s next, Time Turner? Upon our arrival to this ‘Pinkie Pie’s’ house, I noticed that it was very strangely decorated… as a gingerbread house.

“I take it your friend likes sweets?” I asked, assuming the most obvious conclusion I could draw from her apparently living in a gingerbread house.

“Yeah, she does. Actually, this place also doubles as a bakery, Pinkie just lives on the second floor.”

“That would explain it. Now,” I said, turning to Twilight, “Do introduce me to this ‘Pinkie Pie’.” I opened the door while still facing Twilight only to hear a deafening-

“SURPRISE!” Yes… that. I turned around to see where that obnoxious sound came from only to find an incredibly pink pony with a fairly lightened pink coat and hot pink hair standing right in front of me with a massive grin stretching across her face.

“I take it you’re Pinkie Pie?” I asked, a stoic expression on my face.

“Yessiree!” She was far too hyper to do anything, as far as I was concerned.

Yeah, I’m not dealing with this. “…Twilight, may I withdraw my previous request and forget it ever happened?”

“Oh, come on, don’t be a spoilsport!” Pinkie said, dragging me by my cloak inside. “I had this whole party set up for you!”

At that point, every pony that was hiding behind whatever they could muster for camouflage burst out and all yelled a massive, “SURPRISE!” Pinkie looked up at me with that same massive grin she had before after every pony in the room said that.

“…I don’t get it.” Of course, a lot of other processes were going on in my head at the time like, “What the hell is going on?” and “I have the sudden urge to gouge my eardrum out, assuming it hadn’t already been blown.”

“You don’t have to get it, silly! It’s a party just for you!”

“That isn’t what I meant. I meant why.”

She stared at me with a quizzical expression. “Everypony loves parties…”

“Do I look like a pony to you?”

The previous expression she had faded into one of complete seriousness, “Are you saying you don’t like parties?”

I shrugged, “Not a big fan of them.”

She gasped very loudly and jumped into the air, staying airborne for at least 10 seconds before zooming behind me and pushing me in the direction of the sweets table saying something along the lines of, “Not like parties? How could anypony not like parties?! Parties are the most amazing things ever!” Personally, I was a bit more distracted about how she could DEFY THE LAWS OF PHYSICS. Seriously, does this not bother ANYONE else? Physics (or rather, gravity, in this case) should sue; it’d get millions in damage.

First gripping with the hooves, now this? I’m starting to think this universe just doesn’t give a damn about natural order. No wonder a being like Discord exists here.

“Here, try this,” Pinkie said, shoving a cupcake in front of me as far as she could. For fear of her destroying the only sense of reason left on the planet, I obliged to her demands. Using my left hand, I took the cupcake from her hoof and took a bite out of previously mentioned sweet.

“Not bad.” This is the best damn cupcake I’ve ever had in my life. Oh, don’t give me that. So it was the best cupcake I’ve ever had, I still wasn’t about to tell that reality defying pink pony something like that.

…What? Hey, give me a break. I’ve been a mechanical engineer for at least 15 years now; utilizing the laws of physics in everyday life and trying to improve upon things that are based on them is –or rather, was, at this rate- essentially my life’s work. Seeing it literally torn down in a matter of seconds is… aggravating to say the least.

Twilight came walking up to the table that Pinkie brought me to with an orange pony with a cowboy hat on. “Hurricane? I’d like to introduce you to another of my friends: Applejack.”

“Howdy,” the orange pony said in a feminine southern accent, tipping her hat to me.

“Applejack”? Really? Now we’re using breakfast cereals? Are we going to get gibberish next? Next pony name I come across: Flibberworst Dambletrot, ten bucks on it.

Instead of a snarky response, I decided to keep up my appearance and give her a proper salutation. “Greetings.” I glanced over at Pinkie to make sure she wasn’t paying attention, “At least this introduction didn’t begin with screaming.”

Applejack and Twilight chuckled. “Met Pinkie already?” Applejack asked, “You get used to her. She’s not all that bad after you get to know her.”

“Not that bad?” I scoffed, “She broke the Law of Gravity, I’m fairly certain that’s bad.”

“You gotta admit though,” Applejack interjected, “She is a darn good baker.”

“She made those cupcakes?”

Applejack nodded, “Yup. I reckon she’s the best baker around these parts, if not the whole dang country.”

Oh… and now I feel bad. I looked at the table that Pinkie had set up for all the party food, mostly consisting of cupcakes, cakes, and other like sweets. An idea came to mind after seeing the table, She made all of these… Perhaps she’d like to learn how to make something?

Twilight noticed my looking about the table, “What are you doing?”

“Making it up to her. She throws this party for me with sweets she made herself and here I am talking about her behind her back. Now then,” I started, taking Pinkie by the nearest forehoof I could reach and dragging her to the kitchen, “Come with me.”

I believe three seconds is the quickest I’ve ever managed to get into a kitchen before. Anywhere. Walking in, I noticed the kitchen was fairly up-to-date with common standards, and that’s what was so strange. It was up-to-date with MY common standards, from my universe. Had it not been for the fact that I was so guilt-ridden about possibly hurting Pinkie’s feelings, I probably would’ve paid a lot more attention to it when I first entered.

…Yes, I’m paranoid; there are a lot worse conditions a person can have, you know. Huh. “Person.” I suppose that word’s outdated to me by now. One month and already my universe seems so distant, with me starting to use their vocabulary and all. Well, I suppose “vocabulary” is giving it a little too much credit. “Horse puns” would be a little more accurate. Enough of my ramblings, onwards to the sharing of knowledge! Am I always this corny?

“So, I heard that you made all of the sweets here and I figured you might like learning how to make something, assuming you don’t know how already.”

“Sure! But, what is it?”

“Ice cream.”

“Ice cream?” she echoed, “We already have that here, silly!”

“Do you know how to make it? Right here, right now?”

“You mean you can teach me how to make ice cream when and wherever I want?”

“Assuming you had the materials? Yes. Why?” Somehow I get the feeling I’m going to regret saying that.

“Oh my gosh! That’s the nicest thing anypony’s done for me today! Making ice cream… Whenever I want! Oh, this is like a dream come true! Wait; let me write this down as we go so I don’t forget!” She vanished from the room in a pink blur and rematerialized not even five seconds later with a quill, ink, and a sheet of paper. And here I thought I made it to the kitchen quickly.

Does she ever sit still? With any other person that acts like this I would risk giving them coffee, but seeing as she can break the very fabric of reality, I’d really rather not. Davros should have used her instead of kidnapping 27 planets and putting them out of sync with time itself; a lot less time consuming and probably more effective. “Actually, I was hoping you could help me out with this, seeing as I don’t know where any of your supplies are.”

I didn’t think this was possible, but her smile widened even further and she literally jumped at the chance to help me. “Of course I’ll help! What do you need?”

“Well, first thing’s first, do you have any particular flavor preference for ice cream? If so, you better get it out now before we start.”

Pinkie rushed back into the party room and brought back a single cupcake. “This, please!”

“Unfortunately, a solidified cupcake wouldn’t exactly work with the process I’m about to show you. If you had it in a liquidized form, however, it might work as-”

She zipped out of the room and came back with a sealed jar with liquid in it labeled “Liquidized Cupcake”.

I took one good look at the label and felt like giving up everything right then and there. “-flavoring. Of course you would have something like that, why wouldn’t you? Right, well, might as well start gathering supplies. Salt first, I suppose.”

A fairly large cylinder of salt seemed to materialize on the counter next to the jar.

“Milk and crème.”

The fridge door opened for a split second and cartons of milk and crème were on the counter.

“Ice.”

A bag of ice stood next to the other materials.

“Last things are just two different sized containers. I don’t suppose you have some form of a plastic bag?”

Two different-sized rectangular containers, each filled with plastic bags, formed on the table.

“That’s oddly convenient. Now, let’s get to making this, shall we?”

Her overly enthusiastic nodding signaled that I should’ve probably gotten started making it five minutes ago, so I walked her through, step by step, how the process was going to work.

In order to conserve time due to Pinkie’s constant stopping of my explanation so that she could actually understand what I was saying, (for she apparently didn’t have almost fundamental chemistry knowledge, oddly enough) I shall condense my lecture into a single paragraph. Well, granted, I’m not exactly the best instructor you’d come across, so her constantly asking questions was most likely my fault. Anyway, instructions: (also, for those who either know how to do this already, or don’t want to be bothered with learning this process, you can just skip the next two paragraphs)

After you have all the supplies, you want to mix the milk and crème in the smaller of the plastic bags with whatever extra flavoring you want in and make sure that when you seal it, it’s tight enough so that nothing from outside the bag can get in. Trust me, you do not want to taste salty ice cream, it’s not very pleasant. After that you get the larger container and fill it enough with ice so that the ice can surround the smaller bag when you put it in. Speaking of, that particular action just so happens to be the next step, so after you put the bag in, you put a reasonable amount of salt in the larger bag to get the ice to melt and, in turn, absorb enough heat from the milk, crème, and whatever else you put in the small bag so that it starts to freeze. Shaking the bag with some form of towel or old newspaper wrapped around it helps speed up the process; in fact, I highly recommend doing that. Otherwise the process takes too long for the milk and crème to solidify to the point you want.

It’s not exactly ice cream in the sense that industrial ice cream manufacturers will tell you (on my universe, at least, considering the processes are so differed) but it was the best I could do on that short of notice and with the supplies available. You know, funny thing, I learned how to do that in my junior year of High School. I think the only reason I even remember how is because my chemistry teacher is the best science instructor I’ve had in my life. Man, I miss that guy.

“…and now we can eat it.”

“This is amazing!” Pinkie stated, “The others are going to flip once they hear about this!”

“I’d imagine they would, but it might not be for the same reason. Look,” I said, pointing to the now half empty containers of milk and crème left on the counter, “It wastes far too many resources to be productive. Now, popsicles on the other hand…”

“Pop’s cycle?”

“You know, frozen flavored liquid?”

She shook her head.

“You really don’t have those here?” I find that hard to believe. Well, not as hard as Pinkie breaking the Law of Gravity, but still very unlikely.

Same response from before.

“Huh. That’s odd. Well, it is fairly easy to make. You have an ice cube tray?”

She pulled a tray out of the freezer portion of the refrigerator already filled with ice cubes and showed it to me.

Why am I not surprised? I guess the better question here is what doesn’t this universe have that mine does? “What drink is your favorite?”

“Sarsaparilla!”

“So noncarbonated root beer. Alright then, get that out.” Not surprised that her favorite drink is something loaded with sugar. No wonder she’s so hyper.

She opened the fridge and took one of the many bottles on the door (I’d estimate there were somewhere around 30 of them) and put that on the counter, along with the ice cube tray.

“Then toothpicks and plastic wrap.”

The toothpicks weren’t really a surprise. I mean, if they can grip things with hooves, I don’t see the problem. Plastic wrap and plastic bags, on the other hand, signify that they’ve utilized nonrenewable resources (specifically petroleum) already. The lack of air pollution around Ponyville tells me that if they do make plastic the same way my Earth does, they don’t make it around here. This also means that they have a shipping system that would have to get the job done fairly quickly if they want the supplies to reach Ponyville in a short amount of time. Just what do they use, anyway? At the time I was so dumbfounded at Pinkie’s being able to defy physics that I didn’t notice it. After the party, however, that’s when the questions started.

But, back to the event at hand, as I explained how to go through the process of making, essentially, flavored ice, I was doing the actions I listed (once again, you can just skip the rest of the paragraph if you don’t want to be bothered by something like this). “So, you fill the ice cube tray with whatever drink you want, in your case sarsaparilla, and put the plastic wrap tightly over it so that you can stick the toothpicks in. Then you just place it in the freezer and wait until it cools. Easy stuff.”

Pinkie looked up at me with an amazed expression, almost child-like amazement. “How do you know how to do all this?”

“Random information tends to stick in my head. Funny. Here I can recite complicated Physics equations, memorize chemical processes, reason with a mythological being, but I still can’t remember my name.”

“Don’t be silly! It’s Hurricane, remember? The whole town will tell you that!”

“Not my real name. That’s something Rainbow came up with on the spot to call me by and I just went with it.”

“But… Rainbow told me that you didn’t have a name…”

“What?” I suppose I wasn’t very clear with that to her when Rainbow and I first met, was I? “Oh! Oh, no, when I said I didn’t have a name, I meant I didn’t have one to give. Couldn’t remember it, didn’t want to strain myself, so I just let her pick. Probably caused by partial amnesia, I’d wager, considering I also can’t remember the last two weeks I spent on my planet. Either that or it has to deal with how I got here. I’ll never know. Maybe.”

“Then what do I call you?”

What is she, daft? I shrugged, “Same thing you called me before.”

“But it’s not your real name.”

Where is she going with this? “So?”

“Doesn’t it bother you that you don’t know your real name?”

I shrugged again, “Not knowing my real name is the least of my problems right now, Pinkie. Trust me on that.”

What is this species’ obsession with hugging each other? Honestly, I reveal one piece of information about myself and these ponies just start hugging me. Did my life really go that poorly? Ironically, I wasn’t even referring to my dysfunctional family that time. I was actually referring to me being stranded on an alternate universe that may or may not even have a way to get me back home. Granted, that isn’t exactly the best of situations to be put in, but it’s a hell of a lot better than being thrown into a warzone. THAT wasn’t a fun day.

Oh great, this again. I’m starting to think that there just might be a pattern here. “Uh… There, there. It’s alright.”

“But you don’t know your own name!” She was blubbering so much that I barely managed to make that out from her original statement which went something along the lines of, “Buhh you duhnt ebben know eyoiuor neyme!” Trust me, despite how easy I made that seem, deciphering that from speech and then converting it to text was probably harder than my physics final. Then again, I have a feeling trying to analyze anything Pinkie does will be just as difficult.

“It’s only a name, Pinkie. Calm down.” And here I thought I made mountains out of molehills.

“Okay!” Her tears immediately stopped flowing as if she was a water faucet and Pinkie instantly returned to her usual bubbly attitude. Which was then preceded by a question not even a minute afterwards, “Say, how long have you had a sword?”

I’m not even going to ask. I think I’m better off just abandoning all sense of logic and reason when I’m around her, it might make my life just a bit easier. “Ever since I got here, Pinkie.” Come to think of it, I don’t remember why I had it on me in the first place. Despite all the trouble I went through to be able to carry that thing around, I don’t have it on me 24/7. If my memories that are missing return, I really hope it’s the past two weeks that come back first, because I want to know why in the fuck I have a handkerchief, my cloak, and my sword on me all at the same time, let alone all the rest of the things in my cloak that I had yet to look through as of this point in time.

“Ohhhhh… Then how did you get it?”

Why do I get the feeling she won’t stop pestering me until I tell her what she wants to know? “I made it. Took up swordsmanship in a country on my Earth called Japan, and when my teacher felt I was ready he allowed me to make this.” I pointed to my sword, still in its sheath, “My country’s law wasn’t very happy about me replacing a gun with this, but I managed to convince the Supreme Court otherwise.” That was the most time-consuming, pointless debate that went on way longer than it should have about my sword. I had to appeal to the Supreme Court (after getting arrested, of course. The law is always shoot first; ask questions later) that the Second Amendment, the Right to Bear Arms, justified my usage of a sword because Arms is short for Armaments, which includes swords. Nearly a year of debate just to tell the Judicial System a single sentence and for them to agree with me. If that wasn’t a massive waste of time, I don’t know what is. I suppose I was lucky the Supreme Court at the time had a majority of Conservatives, because approving something like that definitely wouldn’t have happened with a Liberal majority. Ironically, I’ve always been a Liberal at heart.

I think Pinkie ignored my entire last sentence, because she went straight to asking me, “Why do you have it with you?”

Oh great, ask the one question I don’t know. “Self-defense. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to do some research at the library.” The only thing I’ve wanted to do for the past day now.

I walked out the door from the kitchen back to where the party was going on and bumped into a pure white unicorn with styled purple hair. “Oh! Sorry about that, wasn’t paying attention.”

“It’s quite alright, darling,” she replied, looking up at me. “So you’re that new creature everypony has been talking about. Twilight has been telling me about you while you were in there with Pinkie Pie.”

Twilight? “I take it you’re another of Twilight’s friends she wanted to introduce me to?”

“Yes, that’s right. However, Spike hoofed her a letter from Princess Celestia and then she darted off mumbling about needing to get things prepared for dinner.”

I may not have known her for very long, but somehow that doesn’t really surprise me. “I see. What’s your name? I suppose we haven’t properly met, have we?”

“Oh, how rude of me! Of course; I’m Rarity, the Element of Generosity and fashionista extraordinaire. A pleasure to meet you, darling.”

“Element of-? Oh, that’s right. The… what were they…? Elements of Harmony, I think Twilight called them?”

“That’s right. All of us are best friends. How many of us have you met, by the way?”

“There are six of you right?”

She nodded.

I suppose this is a good a test as any for my memory. “I’ve only met five of you, then. In order, I met Rainbow, Twilight, Pinkie, you, and I had a brief talk with the breakfast cereal.”

Rarity shot me a confused look, “I’m sorry?”

“Er- Applejack.” Speaking of, that reminds me: next pony I met was… Rarity… Well, there goes ten dollars.

“I see…” Rarity remarked, still confused. “At any rate, it is very nice to finally meet you, Hurricane.”

“Likewise. So, I’m curious, and I thought you might know; did Pinkie really throw this party for me?” The only reason I ask is because the last time I had an actual party thrown for me was on my- what, 15th birthday? Even then, it was only a friendly get-together with a couple of my close friends, and it was never on a caliber of this size. You know, with the whole damn town being invited. Speaking of, for a bunch of curious ponies, they didn’t really bother about trying to get to know me during the party. I don’t recall a single one of them coming up and asking me a question. Got me rather dissapointed, actually. I like answering questions…

She brought one of her forehooves up to her chin, I would assume to contemplate the answer. “Well, honestly, darling, I think she was knocking out two birds with one stone. Since the Summer Sun Celebration is tomorrow, all us ponyfolk stay up all night to watch Princess Celestia raise the sun, and that usually involves a party.”

“Knocking out”? I suppose killing would be rather extreme for them, considering how they act. Well, maybe except Rainbow. I wouldn’t be surprised if she did something like that. Regardless, it gives me some consolation that Pinkie didn’t just throw this party for me. I don’t like when people try to throw parties for me, because I’m most definitely not a party person, and I hate to dissappoint the host. “Kinda figured as much. Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but I really need to do some research at your library. Been meaning to do that for the past day.”

“Tell Twilight I said thank you for introducing me, even if she wasn’t there to do so, herself.”

“Will do.” With that, I sidestepped past her and made my way out of the crowded bakery with the occasional “Excuse me,” and “Pardon,” when I accidentally bumped into some ponies here and there. Apparently, the ponies are a lot more comfortable around me now that (I think) they don’t consider me a threat. It still surprises me was that they didn’t stop me to ask any questions about my personal life or my planet. Around the time I thought that in some form or another, (my exact thought process revolving around that was too much of a jumbled mess for me to remember very well; I’m rather scatter-brained, in case you can’t tell) there was this nagging feeling in the back of my head as if I had forgotten something about it, but I couldn’t put a finger on what it was. Oh well, I’ll think of it eventually.

By retracing my steps and remembering certain landmarks, (being the only tree building certainly made it noticable) I made my way back to Twilight’s library-house in a good five minutes, I’d estimate. The streets were fairly clear at the time due to Pinkie’s party; the already fairly low count of ponies on the street had dwindled to virtually none except for the few who were late to said party from before. Town’s really small. One hundred years and barely any expansion? Strange. A little too strange… I would think that the ponies who literally saved the planet at least once would get some attention, whether it be unwanted or not. Chalk another question up for the already outrageously long list that still keeps growing.

My train of thought was put on hold as I realized that I had made it to the front door of the library. By instinct, I reached for the door and was about to open it, but then I realized that this is still someone- somepony’s house. Instead of just going with instinct, I stopped my hand and curled it into a fist. Four knocks could be heard on either side of the door followed by footsteps- or should I say hoofsteps? I’m not sure. Either way, they stopped at the other end of the door that proceeded to swing inwards to reveal a large, white-coated unicorn with wings locking its eyes with mine.

It spoke first, chiming a distinct feminine voice, “You must be this human I’ve been hearing about.”

I glanced to her side, looking for distinct characteristics about her. Fairly built frame, nebula-like hair that was long, and pieces of golden armor on her chest, legs, and head. Similar armor to what that strange pony was wearing from before. The most important feature was a sun marking on her backside. “I take it you’re Princess Celestia?”

“That is correct.” She replied, “Do come in. We have much to discuss.”

The so-called goddess stepped aside from the doorway and motioned me in with the swipe of her head. I took her command and stepped inside the library, to which I found Twilight frantically trying to rearrange things with Spike’s help.

The table from the kitchen was apparently movable, for it was now right in the middle of the room with a massive amount of shelves filled with books. Spike was carrying kitchen utensils such as silverware and plates to the table while Twilight was levitating chairs in appropriate spots all around it.

“So what’s, uh…?” I asked, motioning to the work Twilight and Spike were doing.

“My young student is preparing a feast in response to our arrival here. I had surmised that you would have gathered that much already.”

Smart ass. I suppose the better question would have been ‘Why?’, but I think it’s safe to assume that from what Rarity told me earlier about Twilight’s initial response to hearing of Princess Celestia’s arrival that she probably felt obligated to do something special for the one she admires most. Can’t really say I’m surprised. Twilight would seem the type to overreact with a gathering like this. That, and this is the Princess of a nation that’s visiting you, after all.

I moved towards the kitchen, deciding to help with setting the table, seeing as I had nothing better to do at the time. There were already three spots at the table set up, so I got an extra two sets, for I had suspected something about that suspicious character I noticed when I walked back into town earlier. On top of setting up the rest of the table, I also aquired another chair from nearby and put it on the side of the table closest to the door, as with the extra set.

Celestia noticed this (obviously; if she hadn’t I would’ve expected there to be something wrong with her) and promptly asked, “Are we expecting somepony else tonight?”

Since that question was very clearly directed toward me, I was the one to answer, “You never can be too sure whether or not you get an extra person knocking on the door at an unexpected time such as this. I will take lesser portions to reflect this.” It wasn’t a total lie. I definitely wasn’t lying about the last part, but the first part, on the other hand… I mean, when I lived in India for a very brief period of time (about 2 months, I was stationed there for a project at work because a company in India was working with us on it at the time) I occasionally set the table for an extra person on the off chance something like that did happen because I didn’t want a person to leave empty handed, especially considering some of the religions out there, but my intentions this time were a bit more dubious.

“A seemingly noble intention,” she replied, “Do you object to this, my faithful student?”

Twilight shook her head, “Not at all, Princess.”

I smirked a bit, I bet the only reason she’s accepting this is because her Princess is calling it a “noble intention.” She’s a little too predictable when it comes to this nation’s royalty.

Soon after Twilight’s response, everyone was seated with food on the table, the extra seat being at Celestia’s side of the square. The feast, which Twilight had wonderfully prepared, consisted of numerous greens, most of which I recognized. It reminded me a bit of natural Indian cuisine, coincidentally enough.

It was unnaturally quiet at the table, no one speaking a word as the dinner dragged on. It was up to Celestia to break the silence, as I was never one for being able to start a conversation well.

“So where exactly are you from, Hurricane?”

“The state of California, in the United States of America. It’s located on the continent of North America on the planet Earth, which I hear is the name of this planet.”

“That’s right,” she replied, “Although the state, country, and continent you speak of is foreign to me. I have not yet heard of these places you speak of.”

So my initial assumption was correct on my being here. “I see. Well, that clears up about half of the questions I had lingering in the back of my head. Also, a bit off-topic,” I said noticing a faint glimmer near the window, “but when were you going to tell me about your friend tailgating me since I got back here?”

Celestia looked taken aback for a brief moment before gaining her composure, “What do you mean?”

I laughed, “Oh, don’t be daft.” I nodded to the window behind Twilight and Spike, “He’s hiding under that window. Been following us all day; doesn’t do a very good job at it, either, sorry to say.”

She looked out the window and sighed, probably noticing the glimmer from the armor that our suspect was wearing. Twilight and Spike both turned around to look, as well, but I couldn’t get a good look at their faces to see whether they noticed him or not.

“Are you going to invite your friend in, or not?”

“You certainly have a good eye,” she started, turning her head towards the window, “Alright, Warding Bolt, you can come out now. I think it’s safe to say that your cover has been blown.”

Rustling from the bushes could be seen from the window and the fairly built, golden-armored pony that I saw before stood up, walking around the house to the front door. I saw Celestia’s horn light up and the door swung open, revealing the spy.

“Welcome aboard.We saved you a seat,” I said, motioning to the chair next to Celestia. The guard walked shamefully to the seat and took his place.

“So how did you…?” Celestia started.

“Notice him?” I finished. “Truthfully? I probably wouldn’t have if he wasn’t wearing that armor. If that’s standard espionage procedure, I highly suggest you reform it.”

“You seem to have a talent for noticing things. Makes me wonder what all you noticed today…” she stated rather ominously.

“Besides the tailgaiting?” I asked. “Well, the fact that the reason you know about me was because of the Mayor giving you word. Also, I may not have noticed it at the time, but that a guard or guards were following us to and from Tartarus as well as after we got back.” I motioned to aforementioned Warding Bolt sitting next to Celestia after saying the last part. “Not to mention that there are probably more guards somewhere near this general vicinity.”

Twilight gave me a really confused look then turned to Celestia, as if to ask her if that was true.

Celestia’s eyes widened, only for a second, then they went back to normal, “What gave you those ideas?”

“Easy,” I started, “I figured out the first part from what was in the letter, that much was very obvious. The second part, however, was from a slip of the Mayor’s tongue. She told me that she only got word of our arrival back, which implies that someone had been watching us on at least our way back to know when we would make it here. Since your level of espionage is hiding under windows,” I said smirking toward Warding Bolt, “I can imagine someone being near us to observe our every movement would be on that level of espionage. The third is an assumption based on your political status. Seems unlikely that a Princess taking a leave to do some sort of performance or another at a celebration would only get one guard assigned to her, not to mention the fact that he was already tailgating us at the time of your arrival.”

The Princess gave me a stare I couldn’t quite read, then smiled and chuckled, “It appears as though I underestimated your mental prowess, Hurricane.”

I smiled and laughed back with her, “Gee, thanks.”

“I am quite curious as to what your profession is based on what you’ve told me thus far.”

“Tell you what,” I said, “How about we make this questionairre a little more fun?”

All the members at the table gave me a confused look and Celestia motioned for me to continue.

“Let’s play a little game. It’s a form of 20 questions. Whoever starts asks a question, and one of the rest of us at the table is supposed to answer it. When someone answers a question correctly, they get to ask the next question. If a question isn’t answered, it’s considered a pass, doesn’t count toward the total 20 question limit, and the questioner needs to ask another question. Things regarding my homeworld you’ll have to take my word for and if I’m not sure of something it’ll count as a pass to make things fair. So, are you all willing to play?” I put my hand in the middle of the table, making sure not to touch the food.

Spike was the first one to chime in, “I’m game.” He tried to reach his small arm over the table into the middle, but couldn’t reach, so I put my arm closer to him and he put his claws over my hand.

Twilight and Warding Bolt were clearly unsure of what to do for fear of getting on Celestia’s bad side, so they waited for her input on the matter.

Celestia’s look of previous confusion dissipated into that of curiousity, and with a smile said, “Sure, why not? That sounds like fun.” She then reached her hoof over the table and put it on top of Spike’s claw. Her actions forced the other two at the table to join her, their hooves being placed over hers.

“So it’s unanimous?” I clarified.

The rest of the table all nodded their heads in response.

I smiled, “Then let the game begin.”

Author's Note:

Terribly sorry on unnecessarily long delay for this chapter. Had some recent family problems coupled with writer's block for the past two and a half weeks, but it's finally done. Hope you all enjoyed this one, especially considering the long wait involved with it.

Comments

[Theta KnightMare]

I rather enjoy this story, although I do ave some problems with it. I don't really like Hurricane that much, he seems kind heated enough and not boasting but he seems to automatically have a lower opinion on the ponies and an elevated opinion of himself. Other than that great story.

I do have a question though, why do ponies only live till forty. Hurricane suggests its because of the way they live but that makes no sense: The ponies have an ample and clean food supply, modern hospitals, clean streets, bathroom facilities, running water, , lack of crime, good lighting, and since they have little modern tech (likely through a lack of necessity rather than a lack of capability) they work harder and are generally healthier. If anything they should have LONGER average life-spans than us. Is forty an old age just because ponies are only really capable of that kind of age due to there natural physiology?

[Florida]

Well
That was a good read
And now I wait for MOAR