28: Forgiveness
Connor
He breathed deeply through his nose and let out a calming breath as he walked to Carousel Boutique down the main market street in Ponyville. Connor was trying to keep his nerves in check the closer he got to the shop by hiding them under a façade of not caring and being nonchalant. He had a habit of behaving this way whenever he was nervous about something important like having to perform in front of judging crowds or attend a meeting. In his pursuit of projecting an air of casualness, he would become sloppier and fumble a lot more than usual; at least, in his own eyes he thought he did. He almost made a mess this morning for breakfast when he nearly missing the sink when putting the dishes away to wash.
He wasn’t sure what kind of party to expect at the castle. Connor wasn’t much of a ‘Party animal’ in his world as he didn’t go out that much after school nor did he get invited to parties other than birthday parties for some of the kids at his martial art studio he worked at. This was new territory for him and he wasn’t sure how to behave while there.
He tried taking another steady breath as the shop came into view. Rarity had told Connor to come by the shop at around 2:30 in the afternoon for dressing and then they would all leave together for Canterlot. Connor noticed a large ivory white and gold carriage parked just outside the shop with two earth pony guards hooked in and a small purple dragon in a black tuxedo siting in the driver’s bench reading what looked like a comic.
Spike lowered the comic as he heard Connor’s hoofsteps draw closer. He smiled and waved to him as they came within earshot of each other.
“Hey Connor! How’s it going?”
“Not too bad,” he answered, “Why are you up there in the driver seat?”
Spike set his comic down, “Well, I’m the driver for the carriage so I’m waiting for everypony to come out when they are all ready to leave.”
“But don’t these guys already know the way to the castle?” motioning to the stoic castle guards hitched to the carriage.
“Uuh…”
Connor smirked and shook his head, “Don’t worry about it. I’m just poking fun at you; looking good by the way.”
Connor pressed forward to the store’s front door while Spike thanked him from behind. He gave a half hearted wave as he pushed open the door. The door chime overhead gave a loud cry as it rang throughout the empty shop. Connor was expecting to see Twilight and her friends on the shop floor all wearing something for the party, but found the shop floor deserted of anyone. A voice or two could be heard on the next floor above him and he craned his ears to get a better understanding of who was speaking and what they were speaking about.
But he heard a different noise coming from the stairs as he strained to listen. Hoofsteps thundered down the stairs and Connor was greeted with Rarity wearing what was the equivalent of a queen’s dress complete with crown and glass shoes.
“Ah! Connor, you are just on time! Quick, let’s get you into your suit and then we can leave.”
“Sure, just what are you wearing though? Isn’t that a little much for a simple party?”
Rarity made a noise of unbelieving shock, “Heavens, no. this is an old design that I have been using for the Grand Galloping Gala for a while now. I still need to make up a new one.”
Connor threw his eyes to the ceiling again.
“Are we ready to go yet, or do we still need more time?” he asked.
“We are ready to go, but you still need to change. Are you ready for your outfit?”
“Ready as I will ever be.” He retorted.
Rarity gave a single nod and trotted into the back room to get the clothes. Connor stood there waiting for only a minute when Rarity returned with the bundle of clothes in her magic. The outfit floated into the changing room while she nudged Connor inside.
“Now, here is your outfit and don’t come out until I tell you!” she gave a good push sending Connor into the dark changing room.
“Okay! Calm down, jeez!” Connor picked up the clothes that were set on the changing table and started working to put all the clothes on. While he fumbled with the buttons on the pants and worked to get the first shirt on he asked Rarity a few questions.
“Hey Rarity,” he called out.
“Hmm?”
“Could you answer a few questions for me?”
“And what’s that dear?”
“Well, this is my first party here in this world and I was a little curious as to what the proper, etiquette, was for castle parties; like how do you behave, what is acceptable, how to address the Princess…” He trailed off letting Rarity speak, but Connor realized that he just opened up a can of worms as Rarity let out a faint squeal of delight.
“Oh, I am so glad you asked, Connor! So few ponies actually know how to act during such important events like castle parties or how to be proper mares and stallions! Now, whenever you attend a party, you have to make sure you stand up straight and your head held high as walk with pride in yourself. No, wait, we should talk about how to eat properly without making a single crumb. See, when you take a bite out of anything you have to take small bites of it; that way any crumbs will be caught in your mouth and not on the plate or on the floor.”
Connor put his head in his hoof as he had stopped from dressing to listen to the spew of information that held little worth to him. He already got the basics of table manners and they didn’t seem that different from his world. He was looking for any kind of specific differences in their culture that would be considered rude compared to his world. Connor was about to say something when Rarity let out a loud gasp.
“I almost forgot to mention about how to address Princess Celestia! Connor are you listening to me because this is very important!”
“Yes, I am listening,” he answered from inside the changing room. He genuinely was listening this time as this information would be important if he ran into the Princess at the party; it was her castle after all.
“Now, when you greet Princess Celestia you absolutely must give a proper bow, otherwise ponies will think you are disrespecting her.”
“Well, it hasn’t been the first time I disrespected a Princess,” he muttered under his breath. He worked on buttoning up the white under shirt to his outfit.
“Now to give a proper bow, you must place one elbow on the floor and bow from the hips as you lower yourself close to the floor. You cannot make eye contact with the Princess so it is best to just keep your eyes closed when you bow to her.”
Connor let out another pained sigh, “Never mind Rarity, I think I can figure it out when we get to the party and I see some other ponies doing it. Thanks for the help anyways.”
Rarity went silent from the other side of the curtains of the changing room, but Connor could tell that he had cut her off from a speech that she wanted to give. He was okay with not hearing the full thing. Although there was one fact that had escaped him.
“Hey, uh, Rarity? Which Princess are we talking about? What does she look like?”
There was an awkward pause as gears slowly turned inside heads before clicking into place. “Which Princess? Well Princess Celestia of course! You have already met her before!”
“I have?”
“Yes!” Rarity emphasized, “It was when you first came to this world! She was the one that-,” she paused as voices could be heard coming down the stairs.
Connor turned his ears to the curtains and to the wall where the stairs were in relation to the changing room as he listened to identify the voices. He recognized Twilight’s, Rainbow’s, and Applejack’s voices as the entered the shop floor and were recounting one of their previous parties they attended.
“Hey Rarity, are you coming?” Rainbow called from beyond the curtains.
“Yes dear, I will be out there in a minute!”
Connor remained silent instinctively trying to stay hidden within the dark room. He wasn’t quite sure why; it was one of those things he did since he was young while trying to eavesdrop or sneak around his house while getting a midnight snack.
When he heard the front door close, Connor finished the last button he was working on and wiggled around in his suit to get situated and comfortable in it. Once done, he threw back the curtains to reveal himself in his aurora green and blue, flourish patterned tuxedo. Rarity stared in awe again at her work but jolted herself out of her trance.
“Right, I need you to wait here for a moment while I make sure everypony else is in the carriage before you come out.”
“Why?” Connor asked in a tone that clearly asked why this was necessary.
“I want to save your outfit for when we get to the castle as a surprise! It will be priceless to see everypony’s reaction when they see you!”
“Fine,” Connor gave in while casting his eye skyward again, but smiled jokingly.
Rarity bolted from the shop and burst outside to check on everypony still getting into the carriage. Once Rarity was gone, Connor started jumping in place going higher and higher with each bounce until he gave one final jump in excitement. He could barely contain himself now with Rarity wanting to show him off. It wasn’t often he was shown off for doing something, usually because he didn’t like being the center of attention or he messed up when put on the spot. But all he had to do was look good in the tuxedo when Rarity revealed her work. How hard could that be?
After waiting for only a few seconds he trotted over to the front door that was still hanging open from when Rarity burst out. He was just able to glimpse Twilight being pushed roughly into the carriage when he came out into the sun light.
“What was that about?” Connor raised an eyebrow in suspicion as he approached Rarity.
“Just trying to make sure that the surprise isn’t ruined!” she said slightly out of breath.
“Okaay,” he raised a single suspicious eyebrow, but let the issue drop, “So am I riding in there, or…?” he glanced at the opened door leading inside the carriage.
“No, you can't ride inside; that would ruin the surprise,” she said like it was obvious, “You can join Spike up front.” Rarity climbed the steps into the carriage leaving Connor to stare in dumbfounded amazement.
The door shut behind her and Connor gape in astonishment at how he was so quickly shunted off. He grumbled to himself as he walked to the front of the carriage and climbed up to the bench where Spike was sitting as gracefully as he could. Spike looked up from his comic a second time at Connor and his eyes glowed in envy.
“Whoa, Connor! That’s an awesome suit you got there!”
“Thanks,” Connor smiled at him as he got comfortable on the bench, “Are we ready to go?”
“Almost. Just going to give the girls a few more moments to get settled before we leave.”
“Sounds to me like they’re already settled in,” Connor reported as he leaned over to the side of the carriage with the door and heard muffled, excited chatter from inside.
Spike listened as well before shrugging, “All right guys, I think we’re ready to leave for the castle.”
The guards nodded and started tugging the carriage forward down the road heading in the direction of Canterlot. The Ponyville bell tower struck fifteen minutes past three as the carriage rolled through Ponyville at a steady, brisk pace. Connor leaned back in his seat as he started to fall into his trance of waiting for time to pass by and arrive at the castle. But before he got too far into zoning out, Spike broke the silence between them.
“Hey Connor, what’s your world like?”
“Huh?” Connor readjusted his seating and sat more upright to focus.
“Your world; you have never said anything about your world and I want to know more about it.”
“You haven’t already been to my world before?” Connor gave Spike a questioning look while raising one of his eye brows.
Spike shook his head, “No, I’ve been there before, but I want to hear your opinion on it. Do you like it? Is it nice like Equestria? What do you do for fun?”
“Fog, so many questions,” Connor commented to himself before turning to answer Spike’s questions, “Alright, well, my world is definitely not like Equestria; that’s for sure. I guess we have a lot more fights than what seems to happen here in this world. Does Equestria ever have any wars?”
Spike paused for a moment in concentration, “I’m not sure we have wars as we have more battles. I know that Princesses had to fight off evil before like in the crystal empire and with the god of chaos.”
“Well in my world, wars are a lot more common. Well, maybe not wars, but we have a lot more…” he paused searching for the right word, “Conflicts between interests; that is putting it in nice terms. But we are still somehow able to come together for a common goal and when we really put our effort into it, my world has done a lot of amazing things.”
The carriage rattled down the country roads as Spike sat there hanging onto every word,” Whooaaa, that’s really amazing!”
“Eh, it’s alright,” Connor shrugged, “Most of it happened before I was born, but I still like my world.”
“What do you do for fun?” Spike pressed.
Connor leaned back again in his seat as he thought about all the things he did for fun, “Well there is a lot of things I do for fun…”
For the rest of the trip to the castle, Connor and Spike traded stories about their respective worlds. Connor learned about Spike’s massive enthusiasm for comic books and loved telling him about the adventures of some of his favorite series like the power ponies and their greatest villain, the Mane-iac. Connor shared his stories of riding his motorcycle (after he explained what a motorcycle was) and his adventures from traveling the world for martial art competition.
Their talks soon turned to arguing over world differences and how they operated. Spike pointed out that the ability to control weather was vastly important as it gave no room for error for weather forecasts while Connor rebutted it took too much energy and resources to constantly manage every cloud in an entire world. The pair quickly turned to sports where Connor rolled his eyes and scoffed at Spike explaining this world’s equivalent to football, or hoofball as he called it.
~~~
Spike and Connor laughed and joked around the rest of the trip as the carriage finally entered the city of Canterlot. The city was cast in a golden orange glow as the sun was setting for the day. The guards took the most efficient route to the castle where several other carriages were lining up drop off their occupants. Spike and Connor had stopped talking as they slowly pulled to a stop in front of the stone pathway leading up to the castle.
Once the carriage stopped moving, Spike hopped down and Connor followed behind him.
“Okay, so here’s how we are going to do this. You and I are going to stand on either side of the door with you opening it. When we open the door both of us are going to bow and welcome the girls to the castle party. You are going to be the one greeting them, okay?”
Connor threw his eyes skyward again but smiled and shrugged to say ‘Why not’. He took his position on the door and placed his hoof on the handle. He looked at Spike one last time and got a nod from him saying to open the door. Connor nodded himself and pulled open the door. He stepped back still holding onto the door handle and gave a bow with his eyes closed.
“Madams, the party awaits.” Connor chose to speak in a deeper voice and add a little cultured accent to it for added effect. He swept his free hoof towards the castle while holding onto the door handle to keep himself from falling face first into the ground.
He heard hoofsteps as the passengers disembarked their carriage and into the evening air. But the hoofsteps ended shortly after that, which confused Connor. He was expecting to hear everypony walking around a little to stretch or start making their way to the party inside the castle. He heard a gasp very close by to him, then several more followed by ponies oo-ing and aah-ing. He decided to risk a glance at what was going on and cracked an eye open.
Everypony was gathered around Connor and was staring directly at him. He opened both of his eyes and glanced around at each pony looking at their smiling faces. Despite everyone around him looking at him in joy, he still felt that small urge to disappear into the background and return to his outside observer position where it was safe and away from prying eyes. But he held his place and instead stood up to his full height and tried looking as strong and confident as possible.
He got a few more coos from the small crowd around him and he inwardly grin.
“Oh my goodness, Rarity! It’s beautiful!” Fluttershy was the first to speak out of the group.
“Wow Rarity, you were right to make this a surprise! That is awesome!” Connor watched Rainbow Dash fly back and forth above trying to look at him from different perspectives.
He heard a shrill of a whistle coming from Applejack to Connor’s left, “You have really outdone yourself this time, sugar cube.”
Rarity was standing above everypony looking extremely smug with her work as everyone gawked at Connor. “Thank you everypony. But I do need to thank Connor for giving me the inspiration too. I didn’t do all the work.”
“Oh come on Rarity,” Connor scoffed, “All I did was stand there and tell you what I wanted for the tuxedo.”
Everypony laughed at what he said and he tried to hold his embarrassment. Rarity turned to look up at the majestic, ivory white castle in the distance and where the party was still going on.
“Should we head inside now? I think the party is still waiting for the arrival of the guest of honor.”
Twilight nodded in agreement, “I think you’re right. Let’s get in there and make this one of the best nights ever!”
Connor nodded as well ready to move on from being scrutinized by everypony.
“Ooh, ooh! I have an idea!” Connor groaned to himself as Pinkie Pie started bouncing erratically, “We can make this just like at the Gala!”
Her bounces carried her to the front of the group and began something that he never thought possible from this world.
~ Like the Gala, there will be music, fun and sweet! ~
Pinkie Pie started to sing and dance down the stone pathway to a tune that only she seemed to know. He gaped in stupidity as the ridiculousness of the scene unfolded before him. But things only got worse for Connor. Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash followed along after Pinkie singing along with her and dancing to the music.
He tilted his head to the side and let his mouth hang loose as his mind sputtered and died from disbelief. Out of all the things he had to endure from moving clouds to manipulating the color of rainbows, this was the oddity to end all oddities for him. It was such a disastrous display of social suicide that he couldn’t look away.
Without looking to his left, he asked Spike, “Does this happen often?”
Spike was nodding along to the beat of the singing as he answered. “Yeah, they actually come up with some pretty good songs too.”
Connor finally broke his staring to look between Spike and the group slowly making its way to the castle while ponies around them paid no attention to the spectacle.
“Really?” he asked pausing to look at everypony before looking back at Spike.
“Yeah! Even Fluttershy has done a few songs!”
Connor stopped his mental breakdown and focused on the name Spike said. “Fluttershy? Who is that?”
“That yellow Pegasus right there. She is really nice, but really shy too.”
Connor fixed his gaze on the Pegasus that Spike pointed out not too far from them. She was in the back of the group singing along while remaining obscured from everypony except behind her.
“I don’t think I have really introduced myself to her yet,” Connor mulled to himself.
“Was she there at the portal when I first came here?”
“Yeah; why?”
“I still need to talk to her and apologize for a few things.”
Spike nodded not really sure what Connor was talking about, but understood that it was important. Connor nodded a thanks to him and ran after the group before they got too far away.
“Uh, hey Fluttershy!” he called out the yellow and pink Pegasus’s name and she stopped in her singing to see who had called her. The rest of the group didn’t notice Fluttershy stop in her tracks or ceased her singing.
Connor ran up to the Pegasus while the rest of the group continued their journey down the stone path. As he stopped in front of her, Fluttershy visibly shrunk underneath him and downcast her eyes to the floor.
“Aaah shift,” he cursed. When Spike said she was shy, he didn’t expect him to mean social anxiety levels of shyness. He was going to have to be delicate when he talked to her.
They stood there in silence as Connor looked down at Fluttershy below him while she looked down at the ground below her.
“Um, hey,” he tried to sound friendly.
Fluttershy whimpered out an almost inaudible “Hello.”
“Wow, this is going to be hard,” he thought.
“Um, how are you tonight?”
“I-I-I’m fine,” she answered just barely louder than her last response.
“You look nice tonight,” Connor offered.
“Th-Thank you,” she answered in the same quiet voice.
“Okay, this is going nowhere. I need to just jump into what I need to say.” Connor breathed in and held it as he prepared himself for what he was going to say. He absolutely had to pick his words with the upmost care otherwise this could end worse than a boat on fire stranded in the middle of the ocean with no chance of recovery.
“Um, Fluttershy right?” she nodded without making eye contact.
Ah, look, I wanted to talk about when I first came here,” Connor said hesitantly.
“Uh, about what I said when I first came here, when I was mad and yelling at everyone around me and calling everypony names?” he paused to see what kind of reaction he was getting from her but saw no changes in her body language. Why was this becoming so difficult to get out of his head and just say it? He breathed in again and sighed as he pressed forward with his next sentence.
“So I, um, just wanted to, say that I am sorry about that. I didn’t mean to call everyone names; and, I’m sorry about the name I called you. it was mean and uncalled for,” his ears folded back on his head and he let his own gaze fall to the ground like Fluttershy, “So, I just wanted to say, that, I’m sorry for what I did, and, I hope that we can maybe move past that start over.”
“……. I forgive you.”
Connor looked up to see Fluttershy still looking nervous around him, but looking directly in his eyes with surprising willpower.
“R-Really? Just like that?” he asked slightly disbelieving.
“Of course. I know you were upset and scared when you first came through Twilight’s portal and you were just trying to deal with being in a new world. I was more surprised when you started shouting at everypony then when you starting calling us names.”
“Really?” Connor asked still disbelieving.
“Well, I may have been a teensy-eensy bit hurt when you called me that name,” Connor’s face fell slightly, “And I may have gone home that day and cried myself to sleep that night,” Connor’s face fell even more, “And I may have needed an entire three days to recover and feel better about myself with the help from my animal friends…”
“Oh rod, will you please stop foot-ing guilt tripping me, here?! I feel bad enough as it is!!” Connor shouted inside his head while he hung his head.
“But I still forgive you.”
Connor glanced up from his view of the ground to stare up at Fluttershy with a grumpy, pained look. Fluttershy shrank back again from his glare again.
“Oh, sorry. Was it something I said that made you feel bad again? I’m sorry,” she apologized.
“No, its fine. It was only hearing the consequences of my actions that got me down. But I’ll be fine,” he smiled to show that he was recovering.
Fluttershy smiled, “Oh, thank goodness! I thought I might have upset you!”
Connor sighed, “I’m not always angry or mad at everypony. I just have a more, serious attitude; that’s all.”
The pair stood in silence looking at each other for second before both broke out into chuckling and giggling. Connor looked down the pathway to the castle to see the group a fair distance away from them.
“Uh, we’re going to get left behind if we don’t head in now. Are you ready to go?”
Fluttershy nodded in agreement. Connor smiled as he saw the mare brighten a bit and opened herself up to him more. An idea hit him as one last move to solidify his position in Fluttershy’s good side.
“Um, if you don’t mind, would it be alright if I walked you in to the party?” Connor offered his right elbow as he turned to make his way to the castle.
Fluttershy smiled and slipped a hoof through his arm, “I think that would be okay. Um, hopefully nopony will get the wrong idea.”
“Don’t worry about it, we will just say that we are friends and that’s all.”
She smiled gratefully as they started walking down the stone path.
~~~
As Connor and Fluttershy walked down the pathway, he tried striking up several conversations to understand the mare a little more. Most of the topics he brought up ended quickly as she didn’t have much to say about them. But as soon as he brought up his pet dog from his home, Fluttershy dived into everything about her animal friends and how she adore them. They swapped stories briefly about each other’s pets, but Fluttershy had far more stories (and animals) to talk about. So Connor let her happily chat about her animals as they neared the castle entrance.
Connor enjoyed talking with Fluttershy, but his mind drifted to other things as he half listened to her babble on. Fluttershy was a nice pony once she opened up to you and wasn’t diving for cover, but Connor didn’t like the fact that she basically had to be cuddled through almost everything in life. In the short amount of time talking with her, Connor had gathered enough to know that her social anxiety had been a constant hindrance for her. Connor was understanding and willing to work around it, but he preferred to have someone that he could count on without fear of being let down, disappointed or having to compensate for some handicap.
Connor had already spent most of his life trying to seem self-sufficient and fully capable of doing anything that was asked of him when around other people. The stigma of being labelled as incapable of doing anything for any reason infuriated him, and it didn’t help that his brothers were glaring smudges against him when people found out they were related. Even though mental disability sort of ran through his family and all three of them were labelled with some form of attention deficit, he fought as hard as he could to stay focused and be thought of as ‘normal’ and dependable.
Fluttershy was nice, but Connor wanted someone dependable.
His thoughts were cut short as they approached the group from behind. Connor heard Twilight speaking to everypony as they approached.
“Alright everypony, the party is just inside and it looks like we are right on time!”
The group yelled in joy as Connor and Fluttershy came to a stop just behind them. Connor spotted Twilight looking directly at them and heard Fluttershy give a small yelp in shyness and took a quick step to the side away from Connor. He glanced at Fluttershy sad that their little bonding moment was over, but understood that she was still nervous about the whole arm-in-arm thing. He glanced forward at Twilight still looking at them and saw a knowing smile slowly grow across her face.
“Funk,” he cursed, “That is going to be a ship storm to explain.”
He sighed as he started theorizing about how to handle the prying discussion with Twilight while she explained when and where everypony was going to meet up after the party. He caught the time 10:30 being the dead line and absent-mindedly nodded an affirmative. The group entered the castle and up a flight of stairs to the next floor until they stopped in front of a large doorway that opened up into a huge ball room.
He put his Twilight discussion simulations on hold as Connor stared in amazement at the room. It was practically filled to burst with ponies inside and there was a food court set up and music playing in the background. It surprised him that so many ponies would show up for his game. There was a silent que dismissing everypony in the group to go off and do their own thing and Connor was left standing there in the doorway.
But a fact caught his attention as he glanced at all the ponies in the room and compared it to what he was wearing.
“Well schist.”
Everypony in the room was wearing black tuxedos or dark colored business suits. Not one had any kind of interesting design on it. Connor glanced down at his own elegant and alluring tuxedo and grumbled a few more choice words to himself.
“Well, so much for fitting in,” he said out loud.
But he couldn’t just leave. He was already here, so he might as well make the best of it. His ear twitched as the notes of music drifted from the corner of the room and out into the hall. The hum of string instruments caught his attention followed by the heavy thump of an electronic bass hitting him in the chest forced him to identify the orchestra band and DJ booth set up in the corner.
“Ooh, this is something I have to check out,” he thought as more notes flowed into his ears creating an intriguing and enjoyable song. He sidestepped and weaved his way through the crowd until he was standing in front of the band and speakers listening to the song with rapt attention.
The song ended and the musicians got up to take a break. Connor watched the pony musicians disperse amongst the crowd except for two ponies. One was a grey earth pony mare with straight black hair wearing a purple tie around her neck. She was talking with another unicorn pony who seemed like the complete opposite of grey mare. Her white coat and crazy blue hair screamed energy as she nodded to the grey mare, or nodded to the beat of her headphones; he couldn’t tell.
He felt an urge to talk with those two ponies and his body began moving on its own. He climbed up the stage and headed for the two ponies. The grey mare noticed him approaching and stopped her conversation with the white unicorn who eventually figured out what her friend was looking at.
“Hello, how are you this evening?”
The grey earth pony spoke in an accent that sounded like high class British to Connor. “Ooh, a British accent! Already you have my attention!”
“I’m doing fine, thanks. I couldn’t help but hear you two playing and I really enjoyed it.”
“Oh, well thank you. This was a first with my friend and I doing a performance like this.”
“I thought it was really neat combining orchestral music with electronic. So, thank you.”
“Your welcome. Oh, we never introduced ourselves. My name is Octavia,” she stuck out a hoof which Connor shook, “And this is my friend, Vinyl. She is the DJ for tonight.”
The white unicorn gave a toothy smile at Connor which Connor returned with a ‘What’s up?’ head nod. Vinyl seemed to like the response as her smile broadened while she continued to nod to the beat of her music pumping through her head phones.
“I was wondering,” Connor began, “I am a bit of a music fan as I listen to all kinds of music. So when I heard both of you playing individually, followed by mixing the two genres together, I was really hoping I could get a copy of a recording of that kind of playing.”
Octavia and Vinyl seemed to share a silent conversation as they glanced at each other with uncertain looks. Connor glanced between the two and could draw an inference from their daunting expressions.
“Right, I guess that’s not really an option since we probably don’t have the technology to do that. Well, thanks anyways and have a good night.”
“Wait just a moment,” Octavia said to stop Connor from leaving, “It’s not that we can't do something like that. It’s just that this is a first that somepony has requested such a record from us wanting both orchestra and Vinyl’s music together.”
“Well, I was thinking like a few songs that were orchestra, a few songs that were electronic and dubstep, and a few songs mixing the two together; if that is okay with you two.”
Octavia put a hoof to her chin for a moment then smiled, “I think we can do something like that. It will take some time for both of us to come up with a decent amount of songs together, but I think we can do it,” she grinned at her friend who seemed to be sharing in her creative possibilities.
Connor smiled as well, “Great! That would be awesome to have. Don’t worry about taking too long, I think I will be here for a while.”
He chuckled at his inside joke while the pair in front of him gave him quizzical looks. “Um, alright. Where would you like to have the finished record sent when we are done?”
“Send it to Princess Twilight at the Ponyville library when it’s done. I can pick it up from her, then.”
“The Ponyville library?” she glanced at Vinyl again, “Very well then, we will have it delivered to her when we are done.”
“Thank you so much for this,” Connor shook hands with both Vinyl and Octavia, “I can't wait to hear what kind of songs you come up with. Have a good rest of the party!”
Connor waved farewell to the pair as he left the stage. He would have never had guessed that such a thing was possible in this world. Now that he knew ponies could record music, that meant he could have something to look forward to while living here in this world. His stomach growled at him as he walked along the outskirts of the party floor. He didn’t realize how hungry he was until he heard his stomach tell him. He made a beeline for the food court and stopped right before the trays of food set out on the tables.
He scanned the available foods looking for something that looked delicious to eat. However, a thought hit him when he realized he didn’t know what the proper way to eat was. He tried to glance around for another Pegasus to see how they selected food and ate, but he could only see unicorns around him. His hunger overruled his judgement though and he started picking up a few snacks in his wing and eating.
But his snack was short lived when somepony started calling his name.
“Ah, Connor!”
He looked around for the source and found Mr. Sportsen approaching quickly wearing his own black tuxedo.
“Connor my boy, how are you tonight! Are you enjoying yourself?”
He quickly swallowed his mouthful as Sportsen put a hoof around his neck, “Yes! I am enjoying myself thoroughly!” he cleared his throat before speaking again, “How can I help you right now?”
“Ah, I found you at just the right moment Connor,” he pointed at the stage at the back of the room with a pedestal set atop it, “I was just about to make an announcement when I found you and I want you to be there when I do it.”
“Um Mr. Sportsen, there was something I wanted to discuss with you. It was another idea that I had-”
Connor was interrupted by Sportsen, “Hmm? Oh, yes, please tell me afterwards. Right now, we need to be on that stage.”
Sportsen hurried off through the crowd to take his place on the stage. Connor crammed a few more snacks in his mouth and followed after him.
Standing on the stage, everypony had quiet down to watch Sportsen stand at the pedestal with Connor standing next to him. Sportsen waited a few more moments waiting until he had everypony’s full attention before speaking.
“Fillies and gentlecolts! I want to personally welcome you all for coming to tonight’s party and hope you are all having a good time!”
There was a chorus of applause from the crowd. Connor stood as stern as ever watching everything that was happening. Sportsen was smiling to himself enjoying the clapping before continuing his speech.
“I want to thank everypony who came out tonight to show their support for Paint Wars and its major success across Equestria. It was a surprise seeing so many ponies take up the game with such enthusiasm, but I am glad that it has been met with outstanding reviews. I would also like to thank its creator, Connor, for coming up with such a brilliant idea and for being here tonight!”
Sportsen motioned at Connor and another round of applause went around the room. Connor smiled and waved thanks to every pony in the room. But a suspicion crept into Connor telling him that he might only be there to help boost Sportsen’s popularity and increase sales.
The applause ended soon and attention was returned to Sportsen.
“Again, I would like to thank everyone who came out tonight. Before we return to the party, I believe our creator would like to say a few words.” Sportsen stepped back to allow Connor take the stage. Connor grudgingly took the stage as he was forced into the spot light again and made to say something.
He stared out at the crowd of ponies all politely clapping for him with a few genuinely energetic claps coming from select ponies in the crowd. He waited as the crowd quieted down for him speak, but he was using that time to think of something to say rather than trying to get attention. What was going to say?
“Screw it; just wing it like the politicians back home.”
“Thank you everypony for coming tonight. It is amazing to see that my creation has garnered so much popularity in such a short amount of time; I never would have thought this was possible for such a small game.”
There was another round of clapping and Connor stopped himself from speaking to smile at the crowd before continuing.
“I am excited to see where Paint Wars will go from here and I hope it will bring many hours of entertainment to everyone.”
He paused for a moment and debated whether or not he should reveal his idea right now while on the stage or later with Sportsen in private. It took him a second to decide to reveal the idea now and discuss it later. He was already on the stage so why not entertain the crowd?
“There is one thing I would like to bring to everyone’s attention. For the past few days, I have been thinking about taking Paint Wars in a direction that will help bring communities a little closer together.”
Connor stopped again to plan out his next words. The crowd however, now had their curiosity peaked by the opportunity.
“We haven’t made any official decisions yet, but I would like to offer the possibility of starting a tournament with Paint Wars; possibly one for regional and one for national level. There would be three different regional tournaments with the east, west, and central part of our nation. For the central regional tournament, I was debating on holding four rounds in competition in…” Connor quickly thought of the map he once glanced over in Twilight’s library trying to think of some cities’ names to use for tournament spots. A few names came up.
“…holding four rounds of elimination in Cloudsdale, Appaloosa, our great capitol Canterlot, and maybe Ponyville as well to provide different environments and playing conditions. The winners of the regional tournaments would be invited to participate in the national tournament to be held in Manehattan.”
The buzz of the crowd became even more excited at the idea of different cities holding competition with a final national championship at the end. Connor felt he had stirred up the crowd enough and thought it was time to go.
“No official action has been made yet, but I believe a decision will be made soon in the future. Thank you again for coming and please have a good rest of the evening.”
Connor stepped down from the pedestal and off the stage, only to be tracked down by Sportsen and pulled to a quiet corner on the side.
“Connor what were you thinking?! Why did you make that announcement before talking with me?” His was tone serious.
Connor wilted slightly, “I was going to sir, but we had to rush off for the stage. I wanted to talk to you about it and see what you thought before we went on stage. I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you-”
“That was brilliant making such an announcement!” Sportsen’s face quickly lit up like a kid on his birthday, “When did you come up with such an amazing idea?! Holding a multi-round tournament across different cities and to have it all come down to a national level competition for the grand finale?! This is great!”
Connor loosened the tension in his body as he realized that Sportsen was congratulating him instead of scolding him, “Uh, well, it sort of just came to me one day after I finished playing a few rounds of Paint Wars with somepony.”
Sportsen bellowed a laugh, “Ha ha! Connor this is excellent! I knew that brain of yours would come up with something great! This will work perfectly for the next phase in my grand plan!” Sportsen face seemed to darken before Connor’s eyes.
“Uh, your ‘Grand plan’ sir?”
Sportsen seemed to realize what he said and quickly recovered, “Ah, yes! My grand plan to make Paint Wars a massive sport for everypony to get lost in and have a great time! Yes, that is what I meant.”
Connor tried to act like he brushed it off, but the way he said ‘Grand plan’ sent off some warning flags in his head.
“Anyways,” Sportsen tried diverting the conversation away from his slip up, “This is a great opportunity for the both of us. The cities you picked for the central region of Equestria sound like a good mix of places to play in and I think we can come up with some different flying condition to play in as well. I’ll have my ponies working on it right now and we’ll have this tournament started in no time! You go ahead and enjoy the rest of the party!”
“Thank you, you enjoy the party too!” Sportsen ushered him away as he turned to another pony and started whispering instructions to him.
Connor slipped away through the party as ponies congratulated him on a good speech and wished him luck on the tournament. He thanked them briefly as he passed by looking for a quiet place to cool off. The pressure of being on stage, making the risky move of announcing a nationwide tournament involving hundreds of thousands of ponies, and almost being grilled by Sportsen made him more than a little hot under the collar.
He spotted a stair case that lead up and outside as a viable exit and began his climb up the steps. Once outside, the night air began its work cooling him off. He fanned his wings a little to help speed up the process until he got too cool and headed back to the head of the stairs for some warmth.
He stood at the top step overlooking the ponies below and let his mind calm down and wander across the ponies below him. The stairs were actually quite high as he could see every single pony from where he stood. As he relaxed, he wondered if he could spot Twilight and her friends amongst the party guests.
It didn’t take too long until he found each one as their bright colored dresses made them stand out from the see of black tuxedos. Rainbow Dash was the first he saw with her multi-colored hair and dress being a strong contrast against the black. She was looking bored and staring absent mindedly at the crowd with her back near the wall while two guards stood on either side of her. He could just pick out the minute movement of their eyes and head as they continuously glance at the Pegasus like some delinquent. Rarity was in the middle of a circle of ponies laughing and enjoying herself, but she kept throwing evil glares at a white unicorn stallion with long blonde hair. The stallion seemed to glance nervously at her while trying to ignore the daggers being shot at him.
Applejack was at the far side of the food court arguing with the chef there. He strained his ears trying to guess what they were arguing about, but they were too far away. Fluttershy was seen being marched back to the party by a single guard while she pleaded with him for something. The guard shook his head and mouthed the words ‘No gardens’ to her and she let her head droop. Pinkie Pie was somehow popping up between ponies at random parts in the room doing whatever Pinkie Pie did. Connor watched the strange pink pony pop in and out of the crowds like a whack-o-mole with a bemused smile for a while until he started searching for the last pony.
He finally picked out Twilight just as she reentered the main floor looking quite pleased with herself about something and heading for the food court. Another large pony seemed to finally drift back into the party as well but looked like he had seen a ghost. Connor chuckled at the idea of Twilight scaring a pony and thought it unlikely that she was the cause of the poor pony looking faint.
A set of hoofsteps were heard to his right and stopped next to him, but Connor didn’t bother to look and see who it was. He was content with just watching over the party.
“Are you enjoying the party?” said the pony beside him.
Connor shrugged not really caring how he spoke or who he spoke to. “Eh, I feel like I was just a figure head being used and show cased, which was stupid, so I feel like I could be doing better things right now instead of this. Other than that, could be worse.”
“Hmm, it seems Twilight’s reports about your general well-being improvement over the past few weeks were true. It’s nice to read it from her reports, but it’s always a pleasure to see it with my own eyes. I am glad you have come so far.”
Connor froze in place as his mind processed what the voice just said. It sounded far too knowing for its own good. How did it know about his struggle with comprehending and adapting to this world? Why did it sound like it knew Twilight on a personal level? Why was Twilight sending regular reports about him to this voice without him knowing?
His brow furrowed more and more as the questions quickly piled on top of each other and pushed to be the first in line to be answered. Connor turned to his right ready to interrogate the owner of the mysterious voice only for his view to be filled with tall white legs. His eyes travelled up the legs to find a tall white pony with wings and a horn with a crown placed on top of her head and mystical, flowing, pink, blue, and green hair billowing in the nonexistent wind.
She smiled gently down at Connor as he recognized the pony as the last one in the portal room when he first arrived here.
“So this is Princess Celestia,” he thought.
Rarity’s words came rushing back to him and he remembered that he need to bow.
“Oh shin, right! Bow! Uh, execute bow command!”
He tried to remember Rarity’s exact words on how to bow properly when addressing Princess Celestia, but trained habit kicked in as he forgot what Rarity told him was a proper bow and defaulted to his martial arts bow. His hooves snapped together at attention with a click and he tried to imitate his martial arts bow as much as possible by bowing his head forward. This only resulted in a funny, low head nod from his shoulders and the base of his neck.
“Ma’am…” he uttered without making eye contact. Even though he was before the ruling Princess again, he still couldn’t bring himself to say the word ‘Princess’ as it just felt too weird to say yet. So he went with the next best thing.
She laughed softly at seeing Connor trying to show respect to her in his own way. “Please, you can call me Celestia if that helps. If it is okay with you, you don’t mind if I call you by your name as well?”
Connor raised his head and warily looked up at the tall alicorn Princess, “Uh, I don’t mind if you call me ‘Connor’. But, I think I will just stick to ‘Princess’ for now.”
“Alright then,” she chuckled again, “How are you this evening, Connor?”
“Uh, quite well, Princess. The evening has been fun with the exception of a few, unexpected turn of events. But other than that, I have been enjoying myself right now.” He picked his words carefully and tried to be as political as possible.
“Oh really?” she turned her head to the side and gave a playful grin, “Then what was that about you ‘Feeling like a figure head being used and show cased’, hmm?”
“Ehh, ahh, that was- uhh, umm, mmmm…” Connor sputtered out trying to defend himself as he was caught red handed.
Princess Celestia laughed again letting him know that she was only playing and poking fun at him. He chuckled along with her and relaxed as he let himself return to staring at the party happening below. They stood there in silence for a moment or two letting the tension lessen to a more comfortable and friendly interaction.
He watched the shift and flow of ponies below as he asked a question sitting at the front of his mind.
“So, has Twilight really been sending reports to you about my ‘Well-being’?”
“She has,” she sounded truthful which caused Connor to sigh, “And the reports have been saying good things about you if that makes you feel any better.”
“Not really,” he admitted, “It’s a little weird knowing that my every move was being recorded and sent off for someone to read about, but I’ll get over it.”
Silence fell again as Connor waited for the Princess to ask a question of her own.
“So how are you, Connor?”
“Fine,” he replied vaguely.
“No, I mean how are you doing since your arrival in Equestria? Have you been adjusting well? Have you been able to find somepony to call friends yet? How are you holding up with Twilight and her friends?”
“Isn’t it in some report that Twilight sent you? Can’t you just read one of her reports to get the answers?” Connor flinched as he finished what he said coming out a little too coldly than what he intended.
“I could,” she suggested, “But I want to hear it from you personally instead of through one of my student’s reports. I would like to hear it in your own words, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Connor breathed in through his nose and exhaled through his mouth as he considered the consequences of speaking so openly.
“I can trust you, right?” he glanced up at Celestia, “You won’t tell anypony or Twilight or get upset if I speak my mind?”
She nodded. He took another cautionary breath as his gaze went off into space as he prepared his speech.
“Well, I’m currently stuck in a world full of ponies painted every color of the rainbow and seem to have more mental cases than I have ever met in my life. I’ve been turned into a pony myself, a Pegasus no less, and it has taken me forever to relearn how to work everything. This world seems to have more scientific problems and inconsistencies than a poorly written fanfiction that’s its unbelievable. On top of that, this world is so sweet and perfect with almost no problems that it’s almost sickening. I wouldn’t exactly call them friends yet, but I have met some ponies that I don’t mind hanging out with.
“Twilight is alright, but she can get a little annoying when she gets overly cautious and plans things way too far in advance. Rarity can be a bit of snob and overly dramatic as she gets carried away with things, but she at least knows how to be mature when need be. Rainbow Dash is a tool and can be really tough to work with, but she seems dependable. Fluttershy is so afraid of her own shadow you could give a casual ‘Hello’ and she’d dive for cover. Pinkie Pie, I can't understand how she does the things she does and I probably will never understand. Though she does like to help out. Applejack I don’t mind that much. She can be tough, but it’s all within reason; for the most part. She seems like the most straight forward or sensible one out of Twilight’s friends. Though, she does have a strange addiction for apples.
“As for the rest of my time here, I’ve made, what looks like, a brand new sport and I am now making thousands a month. I have my own place which is nice, but I still would like to go home and ride my motorcycle. So that’s really everything that has happened to me. It was a little rough at the beginning, but I think it’s starting to work out.”
“Mmm,” Princess Celestia hummed cryptically. The conversation lapsed into more dead air as they watched some more of the party. it was a little strange confiding so much into somepony that could easily take what he said as offensive and punish him for it, but she seemed okay with listening to him speak his mind. There was still one matter that rose to the front of his mind he wanted to get off his chest that involved her before she left though.
Um, Princess, there was something else that I wanted to tell you.”
“Yes?” she directed her eyes back to Connor.
“It’s about when I first came here.”
“I’m listening.”
He took a steadying breath and let it out as he prepared for his last final goal in the conversation. His eye twitched a little and he crunched his eyes shut to make it stop.
He turned to face the Princess as he said the next line, “I wanted to say I’m sorry for what I said when I first came here. I didn’t mean what I said and I’m sorry for insulting you.”
“You are forgiven.” He stiffened at her response expecting something different.
She chuckled, “What? Were you expecting something else? Did you think I was going to take what you said personally when you were clearly upset at the situation and not everypony around you?” she lowered her head to speak more quietly with him.
He stared at her still like a statue before stiffly nodding at her inquisition. She laughed that kind and relieving laugh again smoothing Connor’s turbulent mind and massaging the tight muscles in his body. He let the breath he was holding out and relaxed as Celestia finished laughing and smiled down at him.
“You should realize that the ponies around you care about your well-being and are willing to overlook a few missteps on your first visit to Equestria.”
“Well, maybe now, but before-”
“That was the past and this is the present,” Celestia said while shaking her head at his pessimism, “You’ve earned their respect and they see you as a somepony worth being around, Connor. Trust them, and they will help you achieve many things.”
He pondered her words for a second before nodding in agreement and smiling up at her. “Alright Princess.”
She smiled back and turned around to head out into the night, “Have a good rest of the evening, Connor.”
“You too, Princess.”
He waved goodbye as she flapped her powerful wings and took for the sky. As she flew away his body felt heavy all of the sudden like he just did a full body work out. So much happening in one night with Fluttershy, the musicians, Sportsen, the possible tournament, and now the Princess sapped him of his energy. Despite his nagging hunger, he was ready to head back to Ponyville where his bed waited for him and snacks stored in a drawer called his name. They may not be a health meal, but at least it was in a familiar and comfortable environment.
He turned back to the party and stared out again hoping he could pass the time faster until the deadline of 10:30 came for him and the group to head back. After only a few minutes of standing there, movement heading in his direction caught his eye and he locked onto it to identify what it was. A purple dot amidst the sea of black tuxedos was quickly approaching him looking directly at him.
He recognized Twilight before she even got to the stairs and he smiled as he waited for her to come up the stairs.
“Its past 10:30 right now; are you ready to leave or do you want to stay a little longer?” she asked once she was on the same step as him.
Connor shook his head, “No, I think I’m ready to go. It’s been a long night with so many things happening at once and I’m ready to pass out for the night.”
Twilight smiled comfortingly, “Okay then; let’s go see if we can find everypony else at the entrance hall and then we can leave.”
Connor nodded after her as they moved towards the entrance hall.
“Alright then, let’s go.”
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Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie's 4th wall senses are tingling.
P.S.
FIIIIIIRST!!!!!!
(Please don't sleep me with the fishes)
6628640 You are currently standing on a tight rope over a lake of piranhas with your wings tied up with that comment, sir. This is the second warning; anymore and I will bounce that wire enough to send you into the deep end with the fishes.
Next time, I will have to scold you the same way a father scolds his child when caught misbehaving.
Don't make me use the 'Disappointed father' tone with you...
6630109 ....he he yeah. You might need to invest in the economy so it doesn't collapse.
*places damage report in random pile of papers.
6630116 Already working on that; one town and city at a time...
First one is Ponyville.
6629914
(in a totally legitimate and civilized manner) Oh of course not good sir!
but seriously, sorry.
Now, the hairs on the back of my neck are woken up.
Just what sort of "grand plans" is Sportsen preparing? Something that might get Conner possibly facing a charge of conspiracy of treason?
6631917
Maybe he's planning on taking full control and rights to 'Paint Wars' from Connor realising he can make a bigger fortune out of it. I can see Michael returning and ending up in Equestria and teaming up with Sportsen, maybe to do what I just suggested before. Either way I think Connor's in for a rough time.
6637523
Is that specific only to your school area? Cause I have never heard of such a thing in my school
6630553 Uh... that was the damage report for Equestria. Ponyville was the first half of the first paragraph.
Ooh boy! Here comes the "take over Equestria" part of the story!
6654985 Shhhh!!!! No spoilers!!
6661422 I'll get the popcorn! :discordpopcorn:
Better?
I'm sorry, but is this guy for real? He'd rather ride his motorcycle than fly though the air?
I can't even.
6775509
The familiar is more comforting than the new.