• Published 2nd Jun 2021
  • 4,027 Views, 261 Comments

Newfound Neighbors - FrostTheWolf



Having a new neighbor move in next door is one thing... that is, until you realize that neighbor is a unicorn that's too smart for her own good.

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21- Conventional Chaos- Part 1

Author's Note:

Part 1- Planning and Preparation

The next part will consist of the event itself. Though, as a disclaimer, I have not attended Babscon before and can't this year because I found out last minute as I was informed that my family would be going to San Antonio this easter weekend.

In the meantime, I hope you guys like this and I'll see you around
-Frost

In the months after I woke up drunk next to the retired princess of the night, things slowly began to come to some particular sense of normality. While we did happen to see Luna a few more times for other occasions, it didn’t quite end up being a repeat of what happened that night. On one hand, I was a bit relieved by this since the events of what happened was something I didn’t fully remember and didn’t want to repeat. However, on the other hand, I couldn’t help but feel that I should say something to her. Not to make it awkward, but to make sure that things were okay.

Much to my own surprise though, about a couple of months after that night, I found her at my doorstep again. Only this time, she had a bit of an odd request. “Can you tell me more about these gatherings called ‘Conventions’?”

I almost spilled the coffee I was drinking at the question. “Uh, sure? I mean, don’t you have something similar in Equestria?”

“There are. Though, from what I was told, the ones on earth tend to have a bit more variety compared to Equestria. The only ones that I’ve heard of are the conventions on the Daring Do novels in Manehattan, a Power Pony based one in Ponyville and an annual show held by the Geological and Gemological Society.”

I had to just stop for a moment to collect my thoughts, before looking back at Luna again, “And who was it that told you about this?”

“Why, it was your father. I happened to notice his collection of figurines & pictures in his office and he told me a bit more about where he got them from. By the way he described everything, it sounded like the places you went to with him were rather enjoyable.”

Of course he’d tell her that,” I groaned as my forehead met the flat surface of the dining room table. As I raised my head to look back at her, she seemed a bit puzzled by how I reacted to that. “And do you know about any of the things that these conventions have?”

Immediately, she shook her head, “Nope, none at all.”

Oh, you sweet summer pony. This is going to be a future headache, I’m calling it right now. “So, you want to go to one to see what it’s like for yourself?”

“Oh, not just by myself. I believe such occasions are best shared among friends. So, I would like to go to one of them with you.”

“… You mean, like a date?” I nervously asked as my brain was preemptively jumping to conclusions on where this might be going.

“By the stars, no,” she retorted, while also giving me a small chuckle, “What gave you that idea?”

“Sorry! I-I just didn’t know if this was something you wanted to do with just the two of us or if you wanted to include some of our other friends as well,” I shrugged, really hoping that the caffeine from my morning coffee would kick in soon. Because right now, my brain was still trying to slowly process things and Luna was talking a mile a minute.

“The thought did happen to cross my mind, but I didn’t want to assume that they would always happen to be available. Despite their differences, one similarity between your home and mine is that things do have a tendency to come up when you least expect it.”

Okay, fair point, I’ll give her that. However, another thought soon crossed my mind as I looked back at her. “That’s true. Which is why sometimes we have a tendency to plan things in advance for such things.”

“Really? I wasn’t aware that such fun times require preparation in advance.”

Yeah, I’m calling it now, this is going to take a bit of time. “Well, before you can even have fun, you need to be able to get tickets. Depending on the event itself and how many people would be expecting to come, they sometimes can sell out rather quickly. Like, for the one that happens here every summer called San Diego Comic Con, all the tickets for that usually sell out within a number of hours after it becomes available.”

“Well, perhaps it’s because the tickets were cheap-”

“Oh hardly,” I countered, “For one ticket alone, it cost over three hundred dollars to go to all four days and preview night. If you included Ryan and I, that’s near a thousand dollars. Which is a lot, all things considered.”

Luna just stopped for a moment, her eyes looking around the room as it looked like she was trying to process this. Though, before I could ask if she was okay, that’s when I heard her reassure me in the weirdest way possible. “Dear me, that’s a lot. Though, I think I can make some arrangements on that. Just give me a moment.”


“Hello?”

Is this Princess Celestia I’m speaking too?

“... It is. Who’s this?”

My apologies, but I’m one of the ponies that works at the Royal Bank of Canterlot. Recently, there was some activity with the joint account with you and your sister and I wanted to make sure this wasn’t suspicious activity.

“What sort of activity?”

Apparently, a new fund has been opened in your account and nearly three thousand bits were transferred into it just a few moments ago. Would you happen to know who might be responsible for this?


I wasn’t sure what Luna meant, but everything was happening a bit too quickly for my taste. “Maybe it would be best to try something on a smaller scale first,” I suggested, “Like a trial run to see if such things would be interesting for you, and also not as expensive.”

The alicorn paused, before putting a hoof to her chin as she began to ponder in thought. “That could be possible. Do you happen to know about such events?”

“Not off the top of my head, but I can ask Google-”

“And who is this… Google that you speak of?”

Oh right. I forgot about that. Come on, keep it simple. I'd rather not be going down a rabbit hole I can’t get out of this morning, “Let’s just say that it’s a place on the internet where if I ask it something, it can provide numerous results. It might take a moment or so, but I think I can find a few options.”

At this, I went upstairs to grab my laptop real quick and fire it up. Once I plugged it into the wall socket and I was logged in, I got Google up and started my search. Much to be expected, I didn’t quite find the search results I was looking for at first. While I was intending to try and find a simple list of conventions going on, I instead kept finding pages for trade shows and events that I knew would just end up boring us more than actually being fun and entertaining.

When local results didn’t bear any possibilities aside from the obvious, I began to expand a bit outward. Some possible options came up in places such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. Though, none of them specifically seemed to stand out as Luna and I looked at the descriptions. There were a few that might’ve been possible, but if we were considering travel-

“What’s this one?” the alicorn asked, almost touching my laptop screen with a hoof. At first, I wasn’t sure what she meant. But after I clicked the name, what looked like a symbol of a pegasus underneath one of the arches of the Golden Gate Bridge soon appeared on my screen.

“Babscon,” I read the title, before scrolling down the page, “A pony fan convention held at the Hyatt Regency hotel in San Francisco. It’s a three day event that consists of panels, workshops, meet and greets, live music… Quite the numbers of things to do here if I say so myself-”

“I want to go to this one.”

Looking at Luna with a baffled expression, I just stared at her, “I… didn’t even finish reading-”

“All the things you did say were enough to pique my interest. Besides, it sounds like a lovely event to attend,” she said with an insistent look on her face.

Oh god, I guess we’re doing this. And to be completely honest, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting ourselves into. Though, in the meantime, there were other things that I needed to think about. Hotel reservations, tickets for our flight, having to explain this to my folks. Pretty much an ordinary Tuesday to some people.

Though, I’m not sure if there’s anyone else that I know who would be interested in going to such an event.


Remember what I said previously about nobody else being interested? Well, scratch that. Turns out, Luna told my neighbors about what we were going to be doing and because of it, Gizmo was intrigued by it to the point that the unicorn insisted that she should join us for that weekend. Not because there was anything that related to her interests, but because she wanted to see the city of San Francisco itself.

Not to be outdone, there was Ryan. Though, in his case, he wanted to come along because he thought that having to babysit two Equestrians who knew absolutely nothing about where we were going and how we were going to get there was something that couldn’t be done alone. Something that, much to my own surprise, I can actually agree with him on.

Over the next few months, all of us made various preparations for what we wanted to do up there. Some were simple things, like hotel reservations, where we were going to eat and so on. Others were for outside of the hotel, such as a tour along San Francisco Bay and also looking around downtown.

Then, there was an idea that Luna had that I was… well… hesitant on. “So, let me get this straight… while we’re at this convention, you want me to cosplay as your sister?”

“Well, that’s part of it,” the alicorn told me, “Think of it. If I were to show up as myself, there’s no doubt that I would have crowds of both humans and equestrians following me everywhere. But, if I were to go as a human pretending to be me, would anypony really notice the difference?”

“Okay, couple questions,” I lifted a finger, looking towards her as I continued to speak, “First, how exactly are you going to pull that off? And second, what exactly am I going to need if we’re doing this?”

Wait, why is she grinning at me? Oh god, I’m seeing magic now. What is she even casting-?

“To answer your first question, why don’t I just show you?”

With a flicker of magic, the alicorn of night transformed in front of my eyes into a human version of herself. She was tall as I am with clothes that looked like that of a regal dress like something out of ancient greece… and felt somewhat familiar for some reason. I wasn’t even sure if I was looking at the same pony I was with earlier or this was someone completely new.

“Okay, how-?”

“A simple transfiguration spell, with a few minor adjustments,” Luna explained to me. Though, I personally doubted that completely changing species was anything but ‘simple’, “The only catch is that I can only stay in this form for about a few hours before the spell fades and I change back. I took inspiration from a trinket my sister would use from time to time and even consulted her former protege to come up with it.”

“And how does this relate to my second question-?”

Immediately, I was presented with what looked like a gift bag that had a logo of what seemed like a merry-go-round, yarn and a sewing needle. The words ‘Carousel Boutique’ were on the side and when I looked inside, I found a matching dress similar to what Luna was wearing, but colored white and looking like something Celestia would… Wait… don’t tell me she-

“Go ahead and put it on.”

Okay. If it were any other time that someone randomly just brings clothes to me and tells me to put them on, I would be greatly uncomfortable. Though, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Luna had a surprise in store for me that was somewhat related to this. Ehh, probably better to just go along with it rather than question anything at this point.

Huh. This… actually fits rather nicely. Nothing felt excessively tight or loose at any corner. In fact, it felt rather comfortable.

“So, what do you think?”

“This is… a lot different from what I was expecting, if I have to be honest,” I said, “Where’d you get this?”

“My sister and I know somepony who’s a well talented seamstress and runs her own business,” she explained, “The last time that she was here on business, I had the chance to talk with her over tea. When I mentioned the idea I had for you, she insisted that she wanted to help make the gown you’re now wearing.”

“Huh… I thought a process like this would require me to meet her so she can get measurements and the like.”

“Normally, that would be ideal,” she looked back to me, “But we had a… I think the term is ‘frame of reference’, based on one of your other dresses that I see you wear normally.”

My other dresses? I’m pretty sure I don’t have… Wait a minute. Don’t tell me she means…


Shortly after I mentioned that response, Sam immediately went upstairs without a second thought. At first, I honestly thought that it was to check something.

Then, the shouting started.

“Mom? Where did the dress that I wore for prom go?”

“Oh that? I thought you didn’t fit in it anymore. So, when Luna told me of her idea for your trip, I decided to give it to her.”

“You WHAT-!?!”