19 - Perfect Punctuality
I felt the gentle, but firm, embrace of stone. I was in the pony world. I could break free, but I didn't. I centered myself and tried to think as the things I had read taught me.
It was quiet and still, but I heard something. I twitched an ear in the confines of my stone prison and heard another faint shuffle.
Someone was nearby, but I wouldn't be able to see who until I broke out. Just as well. Even as relaxed as I was forcing myself to be, the air was growing stale. I gave a firm twist and broke the shell, just in time for a loud pop and colorful confetti to rain down on and around me. I blinked cluelessly, distracted from shaking free the stone as I became even more of a mess.
"Surprise!" shouted Pinkie as she sprang out from behind a shelf, then suddenly there were other ponies everywhere! It was like the whole town had come.
Twilight was there, looking a bit sheepish. "I hope you're alright with this?"
Rarity was also there, and began picking the debris clean of me as a feather duster came in to assist in the matter. "Darling, poor thing, ambushed in such a state!"
Pinkie bounced towards me, already launching into a welcoming song. I could have been annoyed, but, no, compared to human struggles, it was just funny in the end. Laughter erupted from me in deep bellows as I sank to my haunches. "Thank you, Pinkie, everyone. Do you do this for every new person?"
"Each and every one!" agreed Pinkie. "As if there's a pony not worth being happy about." She produced a slice of cake from seemingly nowhere and held it out towards me. "Try it!"
I willed the plate it was on up over to me and gave it a nip. It was like I sank my mouth into a huge wad of bubblegum, but it was cake. Bubblegum cake, without any artificial after-tastes. I looked up from the cake to the grinning pink pony. "Is this one of your favorite flavors?"
"How'dja know?!" She exclaimed with obvious surprise. "I like a lot of flavors actually, but that one's good. Like it?"
I did, and took another bite, to Pinkie's satisfaction.
"Hello," came a new voice and I looked up at a dark red mare with flowers on her flank. "Welcome to Ponyville. You're just visiting, I'm told? I'm Cheerilee, a teacher of the foals here. Nice to meet you."
I let the plate float away and hover. "Hello Cheerilee. It's always nice to meet a teacher. There are only a few people as important in our life."
She managed to blush through her already reddish fur. "O-oh? Don't flatter me so." She tried to wave it off, but I could see she was affected. "I'm not that important."
"Yup." A large stallion stepped in on the conversation. He was red too, like an apple, rather than the champagne color of the mare.
Cheerilee tittered softly. "This is Big Mac." She waved at him lightly. "Who's maybe a little jealous of a new stallion making me blush."
I gave Big Mac a light smile. "She's all yours. I just wanted to compliment a teacher on what they do. It's a noble profession." Maybe more noble than being a lawyer, but I was satisfied with my work, and my pay. In a totally fair world, maybe our salaries would be swapped, but that wasn't happening and I was greedy enough to not bemoan it for too long.
"Ayup," he agreed, seemingly calmed down by knowing I wasn't trying to chase the mare. "Pleased to meetcha." He offered a hoof that I met with a solid clop. With a final nod, he wandered away.
Twilight and her friends came in next. "Hello there. I hear you met Rarity and Applejack."
Rarity smiled. "You gave us quite the start, suddenly going all to stone like that, dearie me, that must be quite trying."
Twilight gestured to a yellow pegasus. "This is Fluttershy." Then to the more colorful pegasus. "Rainbow Dash."
"I'm Pinkie!" declared Pinkie with her usual glee. "Now we're all introduced."
Then I spotted something new and curious. She wasn't as brightly colored as all the other ponies around. She also wasn't a pony, not entirely. She was clearly a zebra, stripes and all. She also had African-style gold bands on her legs and neck. It was... I liked it.
I pointed to her. "Who is she?"
All their heads turned at once. Rainbow shrugged softly. "Who? Zecora? Hey, Zecora, come over here!"
Zecora perked her ears and wandered closer. "For what reason do you yell? Are you introducing me as well?" She looked me up and down. "A stallion cut from stone, even here he stands alone. Something curious I do smell, but what it means I cannot tell."
Twilight cleared her throat lightly. "Good evening, Zecora. This is True Shot. True Shot, Zecora."
I nodded to Twi and the zebra. She held herself differently than the ponies. She felt more... mature? I felt more like I was speaking to a peer. Most ponies I felt I was speaking to a well-meaning and adorable child. Celestia made me feel like the youth. Zecora, whom I had just met, immediately had me looking her straight in the eyes on more equal terms. "Nice to meet you. What do you do? As a profession, I mean."
She canted her head just faintly. "You ask what it is I profess, there are many things I could confess. I work with mysterious brews, and sometimes I am here to provide a clue. And what of you?"
A triple rhyme? I supposed it wasn't technically breaking a rule. "I'm a l--" No I was not. I was True Shot. I quickly stopped and restarted. "Sorry, I'm not really employed yet, but I'm good with this bow and love helping ponies understand each other better."
Fluttershy poked me lightly. "Do you hunt?" She sounded mildly terrified of the answer.
"Not animals," I quickly assured. "These arrows don't hurt anything, not directly at least."
Applejack blinked softly, but Rainbow was faster to speak, "So what do they do?"
I willed the bow to a ready position, nocking an arrow as it went. "Two ponies struck with these feel the need to speak truly about what they mean to each other. It can help cement a relationship, or, I suppose, quickly prove where a false one is trying to hide."
Rarity gasped, a hoof over her mouth. "You'd best be careful with that, darling. You could cause no end of mischief with it were you to fire it indiscriminately. "
Rainbow got a cocky grin. "I can think of a few ponies I wouldn't mind being sure about."
Applejack shook her head up at her colorful friend. "Whoever you're thinkin', stop. It ain't yer place to go pryin'."
Rainbow thrust a hoof at Cheerilee and then over to Big Mac standing closeby but not engaged directly. "C'mon! You aren't the slightest bit curious to know what the real deal is?"
Applejack reared up just to cross her forelegs. "Ah ain't curious enough t'go pryin' into m'brother's business any."
Twilight coughed into a hoof lightly. "We're not here to violate any boundaries, right?" She looked towards me.
I felt... I had an urge. I wanted to shoot them both and dispel the romantic ambiguity. It was literally what I was made to do. The arrow in my bow pulled back, but was released to fire wildly into the air as ice-cold water splashed right into my face.
All eyes turned to Zecora as she put down her cup. "Our stallion was about to transgress, I hope my actions did not distress."
Rainbow snickered softly. "I wanted to see what would happen, but his face when you got him was good." She offered a hoof towards Zecora, but the brohoof was not returned that time.
Fluttershy moved in front of me, taking up most of my vision. "You shouldn't do that." She sounded far more sure than she had before. "It's not right."
I felt chastised and I hung my bow back on my side. "Sorry." I wasn't afraid of her, but I didn't want to make her upset either. "Just a flight of fancy."
Pinkie tilted her head "More like a flight of an arrow." She plucked the arrow out of her rump. I didn't remember aiming at her, and wondered why the arrow hadn't vanished as normal. Thankfully, it didn't seem to have actually hurt her. She hoofed it back to me and I put it back into my quiver.
The party proceeded smoothly, with many ponies coming up to say hello to me.
One of them, a filly with pink fur accompanied by another filly with silver fur, eyed me quite critically. "So," spat the pink one. "I hear you're friends with Princess Celestia."
Was she nervous of me, or a brat, or something else? I wasn't sure. "I am, but let's not let that get in the way of being friends."
The silver one nudged her. "I told you, DT, he's not like that."
"Like what?" I asked curiously.
DT thrust a hoof at me. "You may have been a big shot back in your day, but it's our day now. My daddy owns this town."
I raised a brow at that. "The ponies I've met don't seem the sort to enjoy being 'owned'."
DT took a step towards me. "Don't try talking your way out of this! I--"
I was certain I would have brushed the little kid off, but I had a hunch. She was threatened. She was lashing out. I scared her, and her loud words were her way of defending herself. I gave a gentle smile. "What's your name?"
She flushed red across the face. "I am Diamond Tiara! And you--"
"A lovely name," I quickly interjected. "Ponyville is lucky to have you."
Her fury fizzled in confusion. "W-what?"
Her friend tittered softly before offering a hoof. "I'm Silver Spoon. Nice to meet you, True Shot." I reached and accepted her greeting with a gentle clop. She nudged Diamond gently and pointed at me. Soon I had a second little clop for the collection.
Diamond let out a heated breath. "So... why are you here, anyway?"
"Just visiting," I replied truthfully. "I'm not sure when I'm going, but I will go back to Canterlot. Still nice to meet you both."
The words seem to put Diamond at ease and she wandered off. Silver, on the other hand, came closer and started circling around. "You're like a painting!"
Warning sirens went off. Here was a filly that was too interested for such a little pony. "I think I heard Diamond calling for you."
"What? Really?!" She dashed off into the crowd. She'd forgotten all about me for the moment, thankfully.
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Wow Diamond Tiara is very unsecure young mare. She needs some serious help mentally if she is threatened by our protagonist. Still it was handled beautifully and hopefully Diamond Tiara can use this to become a better pony.
Dodged a bullet with that compulsion to fire arrows whenever chance presents.
Next time he'll may have a problem out of it...
Noooo! Fire all the arrows!
Pinkie got one.
Does there need to be another?
Darker sided of the multiversal fanon are hinted at.
nocking
('Nock' is the part of an arrow that has the slot to go over the bowstring, and the act of doing so is 'nocking', despite what spellcheck may suggest.)
Pinkie is immune to the arrows
7896899 Two ponies get poked, confessions spill free.
7896907 Fixed!
The arrow was brokeden?
7897390 It seems intact.
7897413
But it didn't disappur.
7897437 This is Pinkie.
7897517
Congratulations, you found your pinkie finger.
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Is it going to be a theme that Linda/True Shot is going to think clop when ever they greet someone, because if it ever comes up with kevin, it'd be awkward
dust feather - feather duster
noking - nocking (I see that you already corrected this one once before, these typos are extraordinarily sneaky today.)
seem to actually hurt - seem to have actually hurt
There was a filly - Here was a filly
She forgot all about me - She'd forgotten all about me
Really liked this chapter and I'm glad that True got to enjoy their welcome party, but it's a Pinkie party after all, so it should come as no surprise that she planned for every contingency.
Zecora is another favorite of mine, and it's good to see her here. As the more mature... equine in the room she's having none of the fawning over True Shot that other mares have expressed to greater or lesser degrees, or at least not outwardly.
But Linda has yet to learn that, as a male, they can't go shooting their arrows off at the first pony that arouses their interest. That could easily get very messy, very quickly.
Hypothesis #1: Pinkie has no ambiguity to resolve in any of her relationships
Hypothesis #2: It was funnier this way. Literally a plot-point.
7898350 Typos fixed, though they would be small compared to what would have gone down if Linda wasn't a responsible adult, usually... arrows not included.
Zecora rhymes flow smoothly today?
7898373
I think you did a good job with the rhymes. I admit, I had to drum them out, but once I figured out the beat it all came together.
I meant to ask about the cake. Is it just bubblegum flavored (banana/strawberry) or is it chewy like bubblegum too?
7898418 Flavor is what I meant.
It's not often Zecora gets to be directly involved. Nice!
7897855 it's less than likely he's made his way into that part of the fandom, but even if he has, how would that....
Oh, that would be worth a snicker.
Huh, well, and who is Applejack to stop True Shot from doing something? Indeed, when someone asks "who are we to X" it seems like no one asks "who are you to not X"; what would happen if they never take it anywhere? What if they are too shy or too undecided to do anything and take the relationship in any direction?
Seriously, it's like the saying "playing God" or claiming cyborgs aren't human any more, like that isn't playing God in and of itself, since you are deciding what is or what isn't "God" and "human".
That is the best way to throw a surprise party ever!
Wow, that sounds incredibly disgusting.
8440927
Well since the closest natural flavor to bubble gum is banana, I don't see why it wouldn't be tasty. Fun fact, bubble gum flavor was the first completely artificial flavor.
oh god if that was me id throw up then and there that sounds disgusting