• Published 5th Jul 2012
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A Pony out of Place - Ausbrony



A young Ponyta suddenly finds himself in Equestria. Will he ever get home? Will he even want to?

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Chapter Four - A Pony is Missing!

Chapter Four - A Pony is Missing!

“Have you found him yet?” Sapphira, a rather irritable Garchomp sat near the park fountain as she questioned the Pikachu that approached her.

Lucy shook her head and stared at the ground. “I’ve been over this whole town a hundred times, just like you. But Flare seems to have vanished into thin air.

It had been nearly three days now and ever since Dialga and Palkia’s attack, Their Ponyta friend had disappeared. Sapphira had asked every Pokémon in town if they had seen him, even Darkrai, but he was gone.

“Do you think he left?” Lucy asked. She knew that Flare had travelled a lot before coming to Alamos Town, but only Sapphira knew just how much. “Maybe he was scared that Dialga and Palkia would attack again.”

Sapphira suddenly stomped the ground hard enough to crack the paving and making Lucy jump. “No!” She snarled. “He wouldn’t just flee like that, not without a damned good reason…” The dragon glanced to her left as Velvet the Espeon approached, but before she could ask he just shook his head, looking just as depressed as the other two.

“I’m sorry darling,” He said dejectedly. “I have searched everywhere and with the assistance of every Psychic Pokémon in town I have even done a full scan of the surrounding region… and he is nowhere to be found.”

Lucy decided to speak up, but she knew how Sapphira would react… this wasn’t going to be pretty.

“May… maybe we should ask ‘her’ for help?” She said, hoping this wouldn’t earn her a one way trip to the afterlife. “She does have connections…”

Sapphira flinched and her eyes locked onto the little Pikachu. Mentioning that Pokémon was seriously off limits and normally the dragon would have punished her… but this was getting serious and that Pokémon could help.

“One more day… we give him one more day and then we ask Virizion for help,” Sapphira said and shot off into the sky. Lucy let out a breath she didn’t realise she was holding and fell to her rump.

“Sapphira must be worried if she agreed to that!” She said to Velvet, who then nodded in agreement.

“Indeed darling, but Flare chose a most inopportune moment to vanish… for all we know, Dialga and Palkia may have ki-“

Lucy sparked and ceased the sentence before he could complete it. “NO WAY!” She yelled, garnering the attention of nearby Pokémon and humans. “There’s no way he’s…” Lucy wiped tears from her eyes and sniffed a little. “Let’s look again okay?”

Espeon nodded and headed back towards town. Maybe there was someplace he missed?

***

Flare had spent over an hour just sitting in the garden talking with Selene before a distant chime from a clock tower signalled that it was six o’clock.

“Well it appears that I must be going now.” Selene said, getting to her hooves. “But it was nice talking with you Flare.”

“And you too.” He replied. “I’m feeling a lot better now, so thanks!”

Selene nodded as Flare headed back towards the castle. “That went better than I expected.” She said to herself once he was gone. “Maybe this time…” Her light blue mane began to blow with an invisible wind and with a flash of light, she vanished.

Once Flare got back to the castle, he received something he didn’t expect as Twilight ran up to him and hugged him tightly. “I was worried,” She said quietly. “Are you right?”

Flare remained silent before nodding. “Yeah, I’m feeling better now.” He said. Twilight smiled and decided that it would be a good time to tell him what she had been talking about with Celestia.

“I think that we might have a way to send you home,” She said. “It’s a long shot though, but it’s our best bet.”

“What? Really?” Flare was honestly surprised. Just over an hour ago, he was told that he would be stuck here and now… well now there was a chance that he could get back home again. “What is it?” He asked.

“Well…” Twilight thought about how best to explain it to him. “As the Princess said before, there is no way to pinpoint the exact location of your world, but perhaps there is a way for your world to reach out to us.”

“How do you mean?” It’s not like they could simply dial up a phone and arrange a ride home… wait a minute? “You’re going to try and summon Dialga and Palkia?” He guessed and Twilight smiled.

“Right on the nose!” She said, booping him on the muzzle. “You mentioned that it was because of Dialga and Palkia that you wound up here and for some reason, the Princess had the same conclusion… though I never mentioned it to her…”

“But how will you do that?” He asked. “Miss Celestia said that there was no method of getting to my world, so how are you going to get Dialga and Palkia to come here?”

“Well that’s what Sparkler and I are going to research.” Twilight said. “If there is a way then I’ll find, no matter what!”

Flare looked at the lavender unicorn and really just wanted to hug her. She barely knew him and was doing everything she can to help him out. She had given him a place to stay, food to fill his belly and was now dedicating her own time to finding a way home for him.

“Thanks Twilight,” He said. “I really don’t know how to thank you though…”

Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin in thought. “Well we are supposed to be having dinner with the Princesses tonight, would you like to escort me?”

Flare performed a gracious bow and smiled. “I would be most honoured to escort my fair lady to dinner.” He said with a regal tone as Twilight giggled. “Shall we be off?”

“I have to get ready first,” Twilight explained. “Rarity would have a fit if I didn’t wear a nice dress for the occasion. Plus I’ll show you where your room is.”

Flare nodded and followed her only to notice something. “Where did Sparkler go?” He asked. “I figured that she’d be following you everywhere.”

“Funny story actually,” Twilight said. “The moment she saw the Royal archives, I haven’t been able to pull her away from all the books… though I wouldn’t have minded staying a while longer either.”

As they walked through the long corridors of the castle, Flare decided that he wanted to know more about his friend. “So Twilight, What’s the story between you and Miss Celestia?” He asked. “You mentioned that she was your teacher and all, but the way you act around her it’s more like she’s your mother…”

Twilight froze as he said that. Now let me get something straight, Twilight loved her mother with all of her heart and nothing would ever change that. But if I were to say that Twilight had never had dreams of her beloved Princess being her mother… well they would be entirely untrue.

“No, she’s not my mother,” Twilight responded. “But she does feel like one sometimes. She’s always been there for me and given me a helping hoof when I needed it.” When one thought of the relationship between Celestia and Twilight Sparkle, one would naturally think of lessons in magic and a mentor guiding her student through life. But Twilight’s thoughts were something of a completely different matter…

---

“Look Princess! I’m just like you!” A happy, filly Twilight giggled as she levitated a little sun-shaped pillow across the room. Her little hooves trying to fill Celestia gilded hoofguards and her crown teetering back and forth on the unicorns head as her horn glowed, concentrating on the matter at hoof.

“Such a fine job Princess Twilight,” Celestia giggled as she relaxed on a pile of plush cushions after a trying day of work. “But don’t forget the moon.”

Twilight closed her eyes and levitated a white, rubber ball up on the same orbital path she had the sun plush on. It held for a moment before her magic began to falter and as she was about to drop both objects, they became wrapped in a golden hue. The young filly looked up to see Celestia’s horn glow as she resumed the circular path that Twilight had the toys on.

Celestia noticed something though. To anypony else it would have been just a filly playing dress up, but to the experienced eyes of the Princess, she saw a filly whose age was in the single digits having created a astronomically correct representation of the heavenly bodies. With the two toys acting as the sun and moon and Twilight herself as the earth, it was almost a perfect scale model.

“You will be a great pony someday,” Celestia whispered as she nuzzled her student.

---


“The Princess is somepony I love and truly respect,” Twilight said. When she had seen the Princess fall to the Changeling Queen just a few short weeks ago, it tore the unicorn up inside. Not because the Princess of a country had fallen, but because one of her greatest friends had been injured. “And she is somepony that I always will.”

“She kind of reminds me of Virizion,” Flare stated.

“Virizion? Who’s’ that, another Pokémon?” Twilight was curious. She really wanted to know everything there was to know about the mysterious creatures, but even after all the insistent begging she did, Celestia wouldn’t tell her about the other Pokémon that had visited Equestria.

“She’s… someone who taught me a great deal about the world and about life.” Flare Blitz had wonderful memories of those times… but not all of them were nice. “But we haven’t spoken in a long time, she’s probably forgotten all about me by now.”

“Oh, well maybe once you get back home, you could see her again?” Twilight wouldn’t know what to do if she couldn’t see Princess Celestia anymore. That thought alone was too painful to bare.

“There you are darling!” Flare and Twilight looked up to see Rarity and Ditzy approaching them. “Twilight, you were supposed to be back fifteen minutes ago!” The alabaster unicorn scolded. “Perfection is not something that can be rushed.

Ditzy looked like she had already undergone the Rarity treatment. Her mane and tail had been brushed and simply shimmered in the light. She wore a blue dress that started out as a nice sky-blue and got darker as towards the hem. The midsection and the choker holding the dress in place was dotted with shining blue gems and complimented the white lace around the hem.

“Wow Ditzy, you look beautiful!” Twilight admired and Ditzy blushed a crimson hue.

“Rarity made this for me a little while back, and she insisted that I wear it for dinner tonight.” Ditzy said bashfully, pawing at the ground with her hoof.

“Well I think you look really nice.” Flare agreed with Twilight and Ditzy blushed even harder. Rarity just smiled and grabbed Twilight’s hoof.

“Well just wait and see what I do with our bookworm friend here.” She said and dragged the hapless unicorn off. Resistance is futile, you will be stylised. Rarity glanced back to Flare and winked at him “I have an outfit ready in your room too, but do try and not burn it please?”

Flare watched Rarity drag Twilight off and turned back to Ditzy. “Well that’s all well and good, but no one has showed me where my room is.”

Ditzy laughed and pointed to a door right next to them. “It’s this one,” She explained. “Well I’ll see you at dinner then, try not to be late okay?”

Flare nodded and opened the door. It was a good thing that it was a lever type handle, doorknobs were a pain in the flank to try and open. Once inside he looked around and gasped slightly. Never in his life had he stayed in a constructed building, other than the occasional stay at a Pokémon Centre. This room was simply beautiful, well he thought so at least. A giant four-poster bed sat against the far wall, lined with decorative lace and gold trimmings. Flare ran a hoof along the silk sheets and wondered just how comfy it would be.

A painting of some landscape that Flare didn’t recognise sat on the wall above it and other various pieces of furniture dotted the rest of the room. A dresser and mirror sat next to a window that overlooked the city. A mannequin in the shape of a pony was in the centre of the room and on it was a fancy-looking black suit. The hem of the suit was a blood-red and a white undershirt complimented the whole piece.

“It looks nice…” Flare stared at with a perplexed expression. “How on earth am I supposed to put it on?”

It took effort, determination and some advice from Velvet that he remembered, but eventually Flare managed to get the outfit on. “Alright, I think I got it.” He had been fighting with the clothes for about half an hour and when he emerged back out into the hall there was nopony to be seen. “Well, the less ponies that see me dressed this foolishly the better I suppose.”
He took a step and then paused. “Where the heck is the dining hall?”

***


“Still nothing! I have searched this town a dozen times over and still nothing!” Sapphira was beyond irritable now. She had marched right over that line and into full blown rage territory.

“I sent it.” Velvet said. “And we should hear back by tomorrow on whether or not she knows anything.”

“Well I blame those idiots Dialga and Palkia!” Lucy huffed. “Everything was fine until they showed up.”

There was a loud explosion and Velvet and Lucy looked around as Sapphira completely destroyed a perfectly innocent tree with her Hyper Beam. Looking at the smouldering crater and the Pokémon fleeing the pissed off dragon, she gave a slight nod and sighed.

“I feel much better now.”

Lucy applied a paw to her face and sighed. “Y’know that was Gallade’s favourite tree right?”
Said Psychic Pokémon suddenly came running up to investigate the commotion and once he saw the remains of the tree and Sapphira, well it didn’t take a genius to put two and two together.

“Sapphira… I should have guessed.” Unlike any other Pokémon in the town, she showed no fear whatsoever when he approached her. “And to what do we owe this lovely wake up call for?”

“Get lost Gallade,” She snarled and jabbed him in the chest. “I’m not in the mood for your high and mighty crap right now.”

“And I’m sick of you doing as you damn well please in my city,” He snapped back. “You’ve been on edge since the attack and if you don’t calm down then I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

“Calm down!?” This was doing little to ease her mood and Lucy and Velvet had already ducked for cover. Sapphira was usually quite docile, but Flare was one of her greatest and best friends and Sapphira was letting her worry get the better of her. “Flare is gone and you want me to calm down?”

“Every Pokémon the city has searched and he is not here.” Gallade’s eye narrowed as he gave the dragon a hard stare. “He’s either fled the city or he’s perished in the attack. I am truly sorry for your loss but-“

Sapphira saw red and she was a second away from tearing the smug Pokémon apart. Her clawed arm twitched, but before she could raise it, a voice in her head spoke up.

“Sapphira, let’s just go okay.” Her head snapped around as she saw Velvet there, Lucy by his side. “We have little to gain from a confrontation.”

If it had been just a few years ago, all that would have been left of Gallade was a stain on the ground. But since she had met Flare… since he had saved her life… she was different now.

“I’m leaving,” She muttered, turned around and walked away.

Gallade watched the trio walk off. “I hope you find him,” He whispered.

***

Once Flare found a guard wandering the hall, he got him to show Flare the way to the dining hall. Everypony was already there when Flare walked in and he gave a sheepish smile to go with his tardiness.

“Sorry everyone, I kinda got lost.” He said as he sat down at the table.

“Oh, I should have come get you.” Flare glanced towards Twilight and his flames suddenly flared up for a second. Twilight was absolutely beautiful and Flare’s heart skipped beat when he laid eyes on her. She wore a shimmering magenta dress with a pale, yellow underskirt. Like Ditzy’s, it was fastened around the neck with a smooth gemstone, a garnet.

“Wow… you look beautiful,” He said and Twilight turned her head away bashfully.

“I said that this was far too dressed up, but Rarity insisted.” Twilight felt her face grow hot as she blushed furiously.

“And we all think you look lovely regardless,” Celestia spoke up and Twilight returned to her seat, fidgeting awkwardly.

Everyone laughed as the chefs brought out the first dish, a lovely lily salad with a side of hay crackers and sparkling water. As everypony was starting to eat, the doors swung open and a dark blue Alicorn strode in. Celestia almost dropped her fork when Luna appeared, not thinking that her sister would show herself in front of Flare.

“Princess Luna!?” Twilight rose, followed quickly by everyone else and bowed respectfully. Luna waved a hoof and sat down at the table.

“There is no need for that Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “We are friends are we not?”

“O-of course we are Princess!” Twilight replied. “Old habits die hard I suppose.”

Luna smiled and looked at Flare. Celestia however had a faint frown upon her face. Just why did her sister suddenly decide to join them? She knew full well what happened last time Luna encountered a Pokémon.

“Care to tell me your reason as to joining us this evening?” Luna’s ear flicked as Celestia’s voice rang inside her mind.

“I cannot join my own sister and her friends for dinner?” Luna responded. “I did not realise that it was a private party.”

“You know full well what I’m talking about!” Celestia sounded a little annoyed. “Care to share little sister?”

Luna sighed and the griffon chef thought his wings were about to fall off. Did the Princess not like the meal? The hurried to the kitchen to make an adjustment to the menu as unhappy Princesses in his dining hall were simply not permitted.

“I simply had a chance to speak with Mr. Flare Blitz earlier.” This news caused the normally composed Celestia to suddenly drop her fork. This was impossible, both Princesses disliked the salad!? Chef Grills was about to have a coronary.

“Did you know, and why does Flare Blitz not seem to recognise you?” Then Celestia realised what Luna had done. “I see, so ‘she’ met him instead hmm?”

“Yes, well… we had a wonderful talk and it seems that he might not be so bad.” Luna took a bite of her salad and hummed in appreciation. “This is a most delightful meal, wouldn’t you agree Mr. Flare?”

Everypony looked at Luna when they all realised the same thing. Flare was the one to speak it though. “Um, if I may ask… who are you and how do you know my name?”

Luna’s eyes went wide as her mistake was pointed out. “Oh, um… I was informed of your arrival earlier, I have just been resting until now you see.”

That explanation seemed satisfactory for everypony and Luna breathed a sigh of relief. That was a close call.

Chef Grills brought out the main course, an aromatic vegetable soup that made Flare’s mouth water but there was a slight problem however. He watched as the unicorns used their magic to lift a spoon to their mouth and Ditzy seemed to use her wingtip almost like a hand. Flare however lacked telekinesis or an opposable appendage.

“Not too much else I can do,” He muttered and lowered his mouth to the bowl, lapping up the soup noisily. After downing half the bowl, he looked up to see everypony staring at him with mixed expressions.

Rarity looked utterly horrified while Ditzy just smiled, knowing that she did that more often at home. Twilight’s was an easy one to guess since she wore that same expression this morning, after he broke her. Sparkler just applied her hoof to her face, Luna had all the emotion of a stump and Celestia just had that constant, understanding smile.

Dinky on the other hoof giggled and mashed her own face into her soup, lapping at it like a puppy.

“Quite a unique way to eat soup,” Luna said as she lifted her spoon to her mouth. “But there are spoons for a reason you know.”

Flare looked at the silverware and then back to Luna. Said princess placed her hoof onto the spoon and lifted it, the spoon stuck to her hoof like a magnet. Okay, how the heck did she do that?

Flare stared at his own hoof and then placed it over the spoon. Slowly lifting it he almost threw the cutlery across the room when it stuck to his hoof like it did Luna’s.

“What the? How?”

Luna chuckled and put her spoon back down. “Earth pony magic, I thought that it might apply to you, and it seems that I was right.”

“Why didn’t I think of that?” Twilight said. “I never thought that magic would work with him.”

Flare waved his hoof back and forth slowly as the spoon slightly wobbled. It wasn’t stuck very well, but enough to lift what was left of his soup.

“Huh, well would you look at that.” He mused and put the spoon down before lifting up his bowl with his forehooves and gulping down the rest of his soup. Twilight just groaned and facehooved while Luna’s mouth slowly turned upwards. Dinky finally emerged from her own bowl, soup dripping from her muzzle.

“That was yummy! Do we get ice-cream now?” She asked adorably.

***

After dinner and once Luna raised the moon, Ditzy left to put Dinky and Spike to bed while Twilight took Flare to see her old room and its observatory.

“I bet you’ve never used a telescope before huh?” Twilight asked him and Flare shook his head.

“Nope… what’s a telescope?”

Twilight paused for a moment, he’d never even heard of a telescope before? Just how did he live up until now?

“Well then this will be fun!” She giggled excitedly. “I’ll show you constellations and star charts and orbital patterns...” Twilight dreamt of all the things she could teach him. This was going to be a wonderful night~.

Flare just decided that it would be best to agree with her. He liked hanging out with Twilight, she seemed like a nice enough pony. She had not only been the first to tend to him when he arrived, she even gave up a room in her tree-house to accommodate him and pacified an entire town that was terrified of him. He really had caused her a good deal of trouble.

“I’m sorry for burdening you like this,” He said. “I didn’t really want to be so much trouble to you and your friends.”

Twilight suddenly turned and walked back to him, almost pressing her muzzle against his. “I never said you were a burden and I certainly didn’t do this because I expect a reward or some such!” Flare took a sudden step back as the unicorn continued her lecture. “I helped you because you were in trouble and nothing more. I do not regret my decision and I don’t want you feeling sorry for anything. Nopony has said anything like that and I think that all of the friends you have made would agree with me. Do I make myself clear!?”

Flare’s eyes were wide open at Twilight’s outburst and he just nodded. “Yes ma’am,” He replied weakly.

“Good, now let’s go and learn!” Twilight said and continued to her observatory. Flare just followed obediently, not wanting to incur more of the adorkable unicorn’s wrath.

Twilight led him up the spiral walkway to her old tower. And Flare thought that her library had a lot of books. This place was probably twice as full, with almost every shelf crammed with books and massive piles that just didn’t fit.

“You… really like to read huh?”

Twilight smiled bashfully as she walked up to the second floor and positioned next to a massive hourglass was her telescope. “Well you can learn a lot from books.” Which reminded her, she needed to bring a few back with her for her research. “Now come up here, please?”

Flare walked up beside her and she motioned for him to look through the small lens at the end of the telescope. When he did so all he could do is gasp in surprise and wonder.

“Whoa… this is cool!” He said as Twilight made some adjustments to focus it better.

“That constellation is Lupus Major,” Twilight explained as she slowly moved the telescope to the left. “And that one there is the Delphinus Constellation.”

“I wonder if one of those stars is my home.” Flare said quietly and Twilight fell silent. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

Flare saw another star, a bright blue one. “What’s that one?” he asked. “It’s beautiful.”

Twilight looked through her books, but she couldn’t find it there anywhere. “I-I don’t know.” Her melancholy mood forgotten, she was now determined to solve this mystery. “Maybe Princess Luna placed a new star in the sky?” There was no way her books were wrong. Books were never wrong!

“Then we’ll ask her tomorrow,” Flare said. “How about that one?”

Twilight nodded and blushed a bit when she saw the ones he was looking at. “That one’s a little embarrassing actually…” The stars in question were a cluster of six stars, a gleaming bluish-purple star in the centre and five shining white ones in a star pattern around it. “Those are the Stars of Salvation… They’re supposed to represent myself and my friends.”

“You have stars named after you!?” Flare exclaimed and Twilight nodded bashfully, showing off her best Fluttershy impression. Flare smiled as he looked at them some more. “That’s really cool, you’re pretty awesome Twilight.”

“Thanks,” She replied, “So, um… oh that one over there…”

The two ponies spent hours just looking at stars and talking about anything and everything. The moon had already begun its descent by the time they retired to bed. As Flare lay there, his mind wandered to thoughts of home, which was usual when he was alone. But tonight was different, tonight he thought about his new friends and about a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle.