• Published 2nd Feb 2015
  • 17,671 Views, 1,174 Comments

Clueless in Equestria - David Silver



A middle aged human ends up in Equestria dropped in the middle of nowhere. He wanders into town and quickly discovers pony folk are kind folk. Maybe there's a life to be made here.

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15 - The Party Swells

Luna left shortly thereafter, leaving the stunned ponies, plus human, behind. "She's as pretty as I thought," said David.

Rough bonked him on the knee with a hoof, "That's a princess you're talking about. And you're not even her type, or species."

David shrugged then looked to Nicole and her friend, "Are you alright?"

Nicole took a sip from the glass she had abandoned before before nodding. "I will be." A slow breath came and went and she sat up. With a flash of green she took her usual softly furred appearance.

"Say," said David, "I never did learn their names." He pointed at the drone who perked up in surprise.

Nicole raised a hoof to bonk the drone lightly, "That is because no matter how many times I tell them to pick a name, they insist I do it for them." With a fresh puff of green, the drone became a shy looking chef pony and scurried away before he could receive any more ire. "I love them, really I do, but they refuse to stop being... drones..."

Rough grabbed one of David's hands in his mouth and gave a soft tug before speaking, "Well, it's been fun and I'm glad it had a happy ending but we really should get going. We have a convention to prepare for."

"Yes, we do." spoke Nicole, rising and approaching them.

David shook his head, "Uh, nice thought, but don't you have important famous things to be doing, and having a famous pony tagging with us at the convention..."

Rough perked his ears, "...will drive sales through the roof. Do you play Humanway?" his question asked with a hopeful smile, "Or any other roleplaying games?"

Nicole shook her head with a light titter, "I play a role playing game every day, don't you think." She flashed with the green flame as she became subtly different, with large round glasses perched on her nose. "You two could use a nice nerdy mare."

"You look mostly the same," said David, looking her over, "Besides the glasses, those are adorable."

Rough Draft looked perplexed, "Huh? She looks very different to me." He poked David lightly, "You have sharp eyes." He looked back at Nicole, "But he's right, what about your work as an actress?"

She shrugged, "I have two months before my next movie starts filming. Now stop trying to convince me. You saved me, now you're stuck with me." She sauntered away from the two and with a blue flick of her magic, pressed the elevator call. "Now show me this room of yours"

The other chef appeared, "Queen!" She glowered at him darkly and he drew up short, looking apologetic, "Sorry... Miss Foalman... Where are you going? What should we do while you're gone?"

She waved at him with a dismissive gesture of her hoof, "You two are on vacation. Do something that is fun, for you. Don't hurt anypony or leave me poor, other than that, go find what interests you, and only you, for a change."

He looked entirely uncertain how to take the news, shuffling in place. "We will try... Will you be angry if we don't do much?"

Nicole sighed exasperatedly, "Yes, but not angry... disappointed. There should be more in your lives than me. You already gave up most of it making sure I grew up, live a little." She looked back at Rough and David. The elevator dinged gently and swung open, "So have fun, that's an order." She trotted into the elevator car and sat down. Soon Rough and David joined her and they began descending towards the first floor.

"Huh," said David, "I didn't think the drones were that single-minded. Are they all like that, queens excepted?"

Nicole shrugged softly, "I don't know. This is my 'hive', me and them. If there are other kinds of changelings, I never met them. But enough of that. I don't want to talk about changelings. I want to talk about this, Humanway, was it?"

Rough eagerly began talking about his work, starting with an explanation of the game it was based on, "The idea is to let a pony play an adventurer with their friends. One pony is in charge and makes up the world and things in it. It is their responsibility to keep track of the story overall and lead the others through it. He is, at once, their greatest enemy and the grand orchestra for their lives. It's a big responsibility being the stable master."

"Stable Master?" asked David, failing to hold in a chuckle.

"What?" asked Rough defensively, "What do they call it on Terra?"

"Earth," corrected David as they stepped out of the elevator, "and we call it a Game Master. For a while it was Dungeon Master, but there was legal to-do about the term."

Rough Draft shook his head as he pushed open the door leading back out into the Manehattan streets, "So, uh, Nicole?"

"Nicky," corrected Nic...ky.

David raised a brow, "Oh come on, seriously?"

Rough Draft and Nicky looked at David with confusion.

He waved at Nicky, "It's so obviously her."

Nicky blinked up at the human through her thick glasses, then moved to the sidewalk where ponies were milling past. She went up to a dark furred stallion and smiled at him, "Excuse me, sir. I heard Nicole Foalman was close by. Have you seen her?" She sighed dramatically, "I was really hoping to get her autograph."

The stallion smiled brightly, "I can't say I have, little lady. I've seen her once or twice though. If I see her again, I'll let you know." The stallion tipped his top hat at her, then moved on with a soft whistled tune.

Nicky returned to the stunned looking David with a deep smirk. "You were saying?"

David slowly shook his head, "I can't promise I understand even a little of this. Ponies must be way more oblivious than I thought possible, and I'm hardly the model of perception."

Rough jerked his head back, "You're saying other humans are more perceptive than you? That sounds scary as hades to me. What else do you see with those special eyes of yours."

"Nothing much," demured David. "Besides the unicorn magic, and changeling magic I guess."

Nicky raised a brow, "What does magic even look like?" She moved then, gesturing with her tail for them to follow as she called for a taxi.

They had soon returned to Draft's hotel, with David explaining the hazy glow that he could see on horns and around objects that were being affected by magic. "And the color changes depending on who's doing it."

Nicky perked an ear, "I've seen that, but only when a unicorn is really trying something powerful." She batted her lashes, "Like this time I tried to lift all of my school books at once. It was so hard!"

David snorted at the adorable, if fake, story and hopped free of the carriage when it stopped. He held the door open for the others and they clambered out after him.

Rough paid for the taxi with a larger coin than David had seen before, getting a salute from the driver before he trotted off with the carriage. When they all marched past the front desk, the mare working there looked up at them. "Are you all together, Mr. Draft?"

Rough Draft pulled up short and turned to face her, "Huh, oh, yea, they're with me."

She raised a brow lightly, "Will you be requiring a rollout bed?"

Rough only looked more confused, "Why would I need that?" He walked on past her, joining the other two already at the elevator. When they reached Rough's room, he realized why she had asked when he saw Nicole hop up onto the bed and curl up there. "Oh."

David reached down to gently pat Rough on the head, "I'll sleep on the ground if it's too crowded. I've done it before for cons."

Rough perked an ear, "You have? I mean, no! I should do that. It's my fault we only have one bed anyway."

David flicked Rough's nose, making him jump. "I can handle it. Your punishment will be thinking what the front desk mare thinks you're up to, here, with only one bed, and two guests, one of them being a cute mare."

Rough lit up a bright cherry red and wandered into the bathroom, be it to relieve himself or hide from the shame he didn't say.

Nicky laughed merrily at the exchange, sliding to the side of the bed to peer at David with her head resting on her forehooves. "You two must be good friends. I've tried teasing mine like that, and they just withdraw into themselves with shame. I can't get them to play along at all."

Rough emerged with the sound of a flushing toilet, "Just for that, you can take the bed! We'll see how you do with a seductress for a bed companion."

David snorted softly and moved to give Nicky a soft ear rub as he had done for Rough many times, "Whatever will I do, consigned to petting warm ponies. Who will save me from this cruel fate?"

Nicky settled into the soft rubbing and closed her eyes, listening to the two as they traded light hearted jabs back and forth. When the bed lurched, she opened her eyes to see David had flopped up beside her, but was still petting, "Either way," he said, "I'm going to sleep, for real this time. That fake sleep didn't do it for me."

Rough looked almost jealous at missing out on petting, watching the two of them before he hopped up, crowding the bed before he curled up with the others. David considered complaining, but was too tired to get into it. No, petting soft warm ponies and getting some sleep seemed like a perfect way to end this little escapade.

When Nicky could feel both of their emotions reaching a calm state of sleep, she shuffled and gave David a peck on the cheek. "Thank you." Then she joined them in slumber.

Author's Note:

And so wraps up the changeling arc. What's next? The convention arc! And I promise it should be filled with comedy and awkward moments!

All this released tension may have made my typing a bit more lax, so punish me by finding the typos.