After Ed was accidentally teleported to Equestria by Twilight, Twilight tries to figure out a way to send Ed back home while Ed spends his time working at the Hay Burger and befriending all of Twilight's friends. Whether they want to or not.
"Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger. Can I take your order?"
Ed was mopping the floor during closing time at the Good Burger until he was accidentally teleported to Equestria by Twilight due to her failed magical experiment with her Crystal Mirror. While Twilight tries to figure out how to send Ed back home, Ed spends his time working at the Hay Burger as a volunteer and befriending all of Twilight's friends. Whether they want to or not.
Meanwhile, a certain group of ponies is dedicated to try to dethrone the Princess of Friendship and find out the secret of how Ed was brought into their world.
It was nearly closing time at the Good Burger. The last customer left the restaurant about fifteen minutes ago and most of the employees already went home for the day. All except for this one young man who was cleaning the floor with a mop while singing his catchy song with a smile on his face.
“I’m a dude. He’s a dude. She’s a dude. ‘Cause we’re all dudes, HEY!”
This young man was tall with dark skin and long thin black deadlocks that reached to his chin. He was wearing a short sleeve blue and white striped shirt, long tan pants with black belt around his waist and a white with a blue line bus boy hat on top of his head. He also had a nametag on the right side of his chest that said, ‘I’m Ed’ on it.
Ed loves working at Good Burger. Heck, Good Burger is practically his whole life. Everyday he always has the same routine; waking up, take a shower (while wearing his uniform for some reason), eat a Good Burger for breakfast, skate his way to work, taking customers orders from behind the counter for seventeen hours, mop the floor at closing time, skate his way back home, eat a Good Burger for dinner and finally go to sleep before starting all over again the next day. No matter what life throws at him, Ed always wore a smile on his face, even when an angry customer yells at him.
Despite Ed working at the Good Burger the longest, he was known to screw up the customers’ orders or misinterpreted what the customers were saying. Why Ed still keeps his job is everyone’s guess, but they say it’s because he is good friends with the manager.
…sorta.
Speaking of which, a chubby man with curly hair came out of the office. He was wearing a blue shirt, blue and white striped tie, black pants and black shoes. The cubby man is Ed’s manager, Mr. Bailey and he’s in charge of the Good Burger. He works at Good Burger ever since it’s first opening and his job is to manage the employees and to do the paper work at the office. The most important job of all is to make sure his restaurant didn’t get any bad reputation, especially the mistakes Ed has caused.
Recently, Ed takes it too far this time when the Health Inspector visited the restaurant to find anything that’s considered ‘not healthy’ for the customers. It was bad enough that Ed did some disgusting things right in front of the Health Inspector, but when the Health Inspector was looking through the shake’s dispenser with Ed’s help…
…let’s just say they’re not going to make any milk shakes for a while.
Mr. Bailey was on the phone with both the lawyers and inspectors for hours about this incident and it stressed him out more than usual. He needs to get this settled and fix this mess as soon as possible, but not with Ed around. He needs to get Ed out of the building for a while without Ed making things worse then it already is. Despite all of this, Mr. Bailey couldn’t bring himself to fire Ed. Ed may have made a lot of mistakes but not all the time. Plus, Ed is a really a good guy and pure of heart. So Mr. Bailey decided to take it a different approach.
Once he was near Ed, Mr. Bailey cleared his throat. “Ed?”
Ed looked up from his mopping and gave Mr. Bailey his trademark goofy smile. “Oh hey Mr. Bailey! What’s up?”
Mr. Bailey was adjusting his tie with a nervous look on his face. “You know about the incident with the Health Inspector?”
Ed had a thoughtful look before he lit up in realization. “Ooh you mean that guy? Yeah, I remembered him. He claimed to be the city wide Health Inspector, although he doesn’t look like he’s wide and he doesn’t want to check my health but he did looked at all of our food. He then checked into our shakes dispenser so I helped him in but he disappeared afterwards. I found his shoes though. Haha!”
Mr. Bailey winced. “Yes…well…we’re trying to get this incident sort out so that they won’t shut us down. In a meantime, I think it’s best that you should…take a vacation.”
Ed blinked. “Vacation?”
Mr. Bailey nodded. “Yes, vacation! See, you’ve been working for Good Burger everyday for over three years without any time off.”
Ed smiled. “Cool!”
“No not cool!” Mr. Bailey insisted. “You’ve been working too hard and you never use any vacation days or sick days. But that’s all going to change Ed. I’ve decided, starting tomorrow, that you will take a two month—scratch that—three month vacation for you to relax and not coming back here to work until your vacation ends! With pay of course!”
Ed eyes widen. “Whoa dude! That’s almost…four months!”
“Yes Ed…yes it does,” Mr. Bailey answered slowly.
Ed frowned. “But what was I supposed to do while I’m vacation? Good Burger is my life.”
“Well you can do anything you want Ed,” said Mr. Bailey. “You can stay home—or better yet—take a trip to wherever you want to go to. Like the Bahamas, Italy, France or anywhere that is far away from Good Burger. As long as you get to relax and have fun!”
“Whoa…” said Ed with a far away look in his eyes. “That…sounds…AWESOME!”
“I know, right?” said Mr. Bailey with a pleased look on his face. “So what do you say? Will you accept my offer?”
“Can I keep this uniform for my vacation?” Ed asked.
“Er…yeah sure,” Mr. Bailey agreed.
“Then I’ll accept!” Ed said with a huge smile.
“Great!” Mr. Bailey said cheerfully. “Just finish your mopping duty, lock the doors and have a fun time on your vacation!”
“I will,” said Ed with a smile. “Good luck settling things with the lawyers!”
Mr. Bailey drooped slightly. “Yeah…thanks.”
Mr. Bailey slowly made his way out the front doors. “Mother’s right, I should’ve been a TV producer at Los Angeles,” he muttered before he left the restaurant.
Ed chuckled as he resumed mopping the floor. Going on a three-month vacation sounds fun…but what should I do? Where do I go? I never go on vacation before.
Ed continued to hum and mop as he was thinking of possible places he should go to, when all of a sudden, he heard a low humming sound. Ed stopped mopping and turned to see huge oval glowy purple portal right in front of him. Ed rubbed his eyes a bit to make sure he wasn’t seeing things but the portal was still there.
“Whoa…what was that?”
Ed put down his mop and he slowly approached the purple portal. When he was close enough, he couldn’t see anything from within the light. He slowly brings his arm close to the portal to touch it, when all of the sudden the portal began to shake violently. Ed tried to step back but something from the portal was pulling him towards the portal. With a shout, Ed was sucked into the portal and disappeared before the portal shrink out of existence.
–Somewhere in Equestria - 15 Minutes Earlier–
Inside the library section of the Castle of Friendship, a lone Alicorn mare was making a last few adjustments to the Crystal Mirror by using her flaming magical torch while wearing her safety goggles like a mad scientist. She was so focused on her task; she didn’t hear the door opened or small footsteps walking into the room.
“Hey Twilight, I bought you your lunch,” someone said from behind her.
Twilight, stopped using her torch, turned to the source and smiled at her number one assistant who was carrying a tray of hayburger, fries and a soda.
“Thank you Spike,” said Twilight as she removed the goggles from her eyes. “Those hayburgers smelled so good!”
Spike chuckled as he laid the tray down next to Twilight. “I swear Twilight, you’ve been eating those things for lunch every day now. Keep that up and we may have to make the front castle doors bigger for your sake.”
“Oh ha ha. Very funny Spike,” Twilight said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “You’ll be in my position too if a certain guard who keeps insisting on the foods that you should eat.”
“Now don’t be too hard on him,” Spike said. “He was just looking out for you to stay healthy.”
“I get that Spike, I really do,” Twilight sighed. “But there’s a difference between a friendly reminder and being overkill. Monitoring and telling me what to eat and not to eat at every meal including snack time is definitely in the overkill category!”
Spike scratched his neck nervously. “Okay, so he may went a little overboard with his job. But still-”
“And it’s not just that, he pretty much runs my life!” Twilight vented. “I get that he’s my personal royal guard, but he’s taking his job a little too seriously and he had no respect of my personal boundaries. I just want him to back off a bit, isn’t that hard to ask!?”
Spike looked uncomfortable as he continued to scratch his neck. “Okay…he went way overboard with his job.” Spike then cleared his throat. “If Flash Sentry really bothered you that much, you should tell him what you feel.”
Twilight sighed dejectedly. “I tried many times Spike! He just won’t listen! I might as well be talking to a wall!”
“Why not send Cadence a letter requesting for a different guard,” Spike suggested.
Twilight frowned in thought.
During her visit to her niece’s Crystaling a few weeks back, she told her brother Shining Armor and her sister-in-law, Cadence about the time-jump incident with Starlight. Wanting to keep Twilight safe, Princess Cadence decided to send Flash Sentry to Twilight as her new royal guard to add security to Twilight’s castle. At first, Twilight was excited to work with him especially that she already met his human counterpart over at Sunset’s world. As the few days went by however, not only he’s not the same Flash Sentry as the human counterpart, but he was also ridiculously strait. Twilight knew that he is a good pony, she really did, but he took his job as a guard way too seriously. What irritates her was that he followed her almost everywhere she goes (except the filly’s room), speak to another pony on her behalf and he monitored every pony she talks to including her best friends. There is nothing more infuriating than not be able to talk to her friends with him around, but was it really enough to send him back to Cadence?
Twilight sighed. “I can’t do that to her Spike. She did all the trouble to send him here just for my sake. Requesting her to take him back would be like spitting her in the face and say “you’re gift doesn’t mean a thing to me.””
Spike patted Twilight on her shoulder. “Oh c’mon Twi, Cadence will never think like that. You just tell her that you appreciate her thoughts and then tell her what you told me how he’s acting. You’re happiness is more important to her than anything. She’ll understand.”
Twilight appeared to be thoughtful for a moment before she let out her sigh.
“You’re right Spike, but let me think about it for awhile before I made my decision.”
Spike nodded. “Fair enough.”
The two were silent for a while before Spike decided to change the topic. “So what is it that you’re working on Twi?”
Twilight perked up. “Well I’m glad you asked Spike!” She turned and pointed to the mirror behind her. “I was just finishing up making the last few adjustments to the Crystal Mirror.”
Spike starred at the mirror with interest. “Oh you mean the portal that we’ve used to visit Sunset and our human versions of our friends to another world?”
Twilight nodded. “Yes Spike, the very same.”
Spike turned to Twilight with his one eyebrow raised. “But why did you work on the mirror? Was it broken?”
Twilight shook her head. “No Spike, the mirror is fine. I was actually adding a new feature to the mirror before I can perform my experiment.”
“What kind of experiment?” Spike asked.
“It’s an experiment on finding out if there are other worlds and dimensions out there besides our own.” Twilight answered. “Ever since our first visit to Sunset’s world, I was very curious about it. But I never looked into it because the mirror belonged to Cadence at the time. But after Cadence gave the mirror to me, I studied the mirror for quite some time. The whole time-jumping event with Starlight is what finally gave me the answer! After I asked Starlight about Starswirl’s time spell, I modified it a bit with another type of magic so I can cast it on this mirror and make it as a viewing window for other dimensions.”
Spike starred at Twilight with a blank look on his face as he was processing what Twilight just said. “So in other words…you’re making the mirror as a television like from the human world except we’re watching other worlds and dimensions instead of just exploring it?”
“Exactly!” Twilight crowed. “I want to see what other worlds are like, but after what we’ve been through with Starlight, I think it’s best if we just observe them for our own safety.”
Spike rubbed his chin. “Yeah that makes sense. Have you tried it out yet?”
Twilight stood up. “I’m just about to. You wanna see?”
“Heck yeah I wanna see!” Spike cried enthusiastically.
Twilight giggled. “Okay Spike, but be sure to step back. This is my first attempt with this spell.”
Spike obeyed as Twilight lit up her horn and cast the spell on the mirror. The entire mirror engulfed in purple light with a hum before an image of a restaurant slowly appeared on the glass part of the mirror.
“Spike, it’s working!” Twilight exclaimed excitedly. “I can see an image of another world aside from Sunset’s!”
“Wow…that’s so cool!” Spike chimed in before scratching his chin. “Although the place looked a bit dark and gritty.”
“It’s probably because it’s in the middle of the night,” Twilight reasoned. “But I’ll admit, this world does look a bit less colorful than Sunset’s.”
Both Twilight and Spike then heard a hum from the other side. They watched as the mirror slowly shifted towards the source of the noise to see a bipedal creature wearing a blue and white stripe uniform with long thin black deadlocks and white with blue line bus boy hat mopping the floor, humming all the while. Both the Alicorn and the baby dragon widen the eyes in awe.
“Fascinating…” Twilight breathed. “So must be one of the creatures who lived in that world. He looked exactly like our humans friends that are with Sunset, but he also looked different from them too!”
“You think maybe there are other creatures just like him in his world?” Spike asked softly, never taking his eyes off of the mirror.
“It's a strong possibly Spike,” said Twilight with an exciting look on her face. “But we only just begun! Who knows what else we could find in that world or many other worlds for us to discover!” Twilight closed her eyes and let out her geeky squeal. “So many possibilities!”
Spike shook his head in amusement before he stopped when he spotted that same creature who was slowly approaching towards them.
“Um…Twilight,” Spike said nervously. “I think he’s coming towards us!”
Twilight opened her eyes and nearly gasped when she saw the creature stood right in front of them, trying to see through the portal.
“That’s…that’s impossible!” she spluttered. “He…he shouldn’t hear or see us! How can he?”
Their eyes widen in horror as the creature slowly reached out towards them.
“He’s gonna touch the portal! I must shut this down!” Twilight said in her panicky tone as she hastily summed her power on her horn.
Spike gasped. “Twilight calm dow-”
Spike never got the chance to finish when the mirror bright in a harsh light and the room began to shake. The vortex appeared out of the mirror and was blowing around the room violently like a hurricane. Spike tried to hold on to one of the bookshelves for his dear life while Twilight was struggling with her magic.
“What’s happening?” Spike screamed.
“I don’t know! Twilight shouted. “My magic is out of control! I can’t stop it!”
“You have to try!” Spike yelled. “If this keeps up, this vortex is going to destroy Equestria!”
With a grunt, Twilight use full power on her horn and her eyes changed to bright white as she was focusing on the vortex. Very slowly, she shrink the portal down to keep it from spreading. She heard a shout but she’s too focused on taking care of the vortex to take a look. After a minute of struggling, Twilight finally shrink the portal down until it disappeared from site. Twilight eyes became normal again and she collapsed to the ground breathing heavily.
“That was close!” Twilight said in between breaths. “If we haven’t closed it, there’s no telling what would happen! I think we may have hold off on the mirror experiment for the time being.”
While Twilight was recovering, she heard Spike gasped behind him.
“Um Twilight…I think we have a problem here!”
Just as Twilight was about to ask what sort of problem, Twilight looked up and gasped at what she saw. There in front of him was that creature they been observing for a few minutes from another world, was out cold on his back right in front of them.
Ed groaned as he was slowly waking up with a daze. His vision was blurry as he couldn’t make out these two figures standing over him. He could barely make out what they were saying.
“Twilight, are you sure it’s safe to go near him?”
“He may need our help!”
“But he could be dangerous!”
“We don’t know that Spike! Besides, based on our observation, he appears to be harmless.”
“That may be, but still…”
Ed suddenly sat up straight and yelled, “WelcometoGoodBurgerhomeoftheGoodBurgercanItake-”
He stopped yelling when his senses finally kicked in. He looked around as he noticed he’s in a room he’s not familiar with. His eyes then landed on a stunned but hesitant purple creature who was starring right at him.
Ed gasped. “Whoa! A purple horse!”
Twilight blinked. “Um…I’m actually a pony.”
Ed gasped again. “Whoa! A talking purple pony!”
“She’s an alicorn to be exact,” Spike added.
Ed gasped yet again. “Whoa! A talking purple alicorn pony and a talking purple lizard thing!”
“…I’m actually a dragon,” Spike deadpanned.
Ed gasped once again. “Whoa! A talking purple ali-”
Twilight shoved her hoof against Ed’s mouth. “Okay, knock it off!” she snapped.
Realizing what she had done, Twilight gasped and stepped back away from Ed.
“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to act that way! You’re probably freaked out right now and the first thing I did is to act hostility against you. Please forgive me! I don’t want to upset you to accuse us of kidnapping or giving you false impression that we’re invading your land, which we will never do that sort of thing. We were only just observing your world just to see it what it was like. I really hope you don’t really think we’re taking over. Are you the leader because we didn’t mean to. I hope your people won’t declare war on us because we will find a way to send you-”
Twilight’s high-speed rant was interrupted when Spike dumped Twilight’s soda over her head to cool her down. Despite her mane’s all wet, Twilight was now completely calm and turned to Spike with her grateful look.
“Thanks Spike, I needed that.”
Spike nodded. “Anytime Twi!”
Ed laughed. “You talk funny. Haha!”
Twilight turned her head with her confused look. “Did you understand the words of what I just said?”
“Nope!” Ed stated proudly.
Twilight had a blank look on her face before she shook her head and smiled sheepishly. “Perhaps we should start over.”
“From the day I was born?” Ed asked.
Twilight did a back take. “No I- I mean our introductions.”
Ed blinked for a moment before his eyes lit up in realization. “Ooooh. Why didn’t you say so! I’m Ed!”
Twilight chuckled. “Yes, I can see that from your nametag that’s on your left chest.”
Ed stood up. “Cool! Wanna see my bellybutton?”
Twilight stood awkwardly for a moment before Twilight cleared her throat. “Annnnnnnyway. My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle and this is my number one assistant and best friend, Spike the dragon.”
Spike raised his hand in greeting. “Sup.”
Ed’s smiled further. “Cool! I never met a talking pony and dragon before!” Ed looked around the room around. “So where am I?”
Twilight smiled. “Well let me be the first to welcome you to Equestria! Specificity, you’re in my castle in a small town called Ponyville.”
Ed scratched his chin. “Equestria…never heard of it. Where exactly is Equestria?”
Twilight had a look of guilt in her eyes before she let out her sigh. “Um…Ed…I don’t know how to say this…”
Ed perked up. “Oh it’s easy, you just go…thiiiissssssssssss.”
Spike leaned in to Twilight’s ear. “Is he for real?” he asked quietly before he received a stern look from Twilight.
Twilight then turned back to Ed with her somber look. “Listen Ed…I want to apologize for bringing you here. This was all an accident. I used my magic through that mirror behind you just to check out your world.”
“Cool!” Ed praised.
“No not cool! You somehow able to see us and I wanted to cancel my spell without getting discovered. But my magic has gone haywire and we almost created a vortex that could destroy our world. I managed to stopped the vortex but…”
Twilight looked down to the floor, not wanting to meet Ed’s gaze. “In doing so…I accidently took you away from your world and ended up in mine.”
There was a long pause in a room. Twilight was sure that her news had devastated him, until she heard him speak up.
“So?”
Twilight looked up at him in disbelief. “’So?’ What do you mean, ‘so!?’ That mean’ you’re trapped here! In my world! Instead of yours! And I had no idea how to send you back!”
Ed had titled his head confusingly. “You don’t?”
Twilight sighed and looked down again. “No. My spell was supposed to be used as a one-way window, not a portal. I used every spell I could think of just to close the vortex, but I unintentionally brought you here. It’ll be too risky for me to send you back blindly without knowing the exact location of your home and what combination of spells without opening up the vortex again. I don’t know exactly how long it would take to reproduce this spell to send you back to your world. Please forgive me.”
Twilight sadly closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable backlash from him. Whatever hateful things Ed said to her, Twilight felt she truly deserved it. Spike placed his claw on her back for comfort. To their surprise, Ed asked her a question.
“So you brought me here by accident?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re really sorry?”
“Yes.”
“Then I forgive you!”
Twilight and Spike looked up to Ed in shock.
“You do?” Twilight cried.
Ed smiled warmly. “Yeah, it’s no big deal, from where I come from, I make mistakes all the time. I was never angry. In fact, I thought it was pretty awesome that I’m in another world!”
“Really? You’re not upset or freaked out that you’re trapped in this world.” Spike asked in surprise,
They were going to ask what he means about that until suddenly they heard shouting and galloping from the hallways.
“Princess Twilight, where are you?”
“She should be in her library.”
“Oh my, I hope she’s okay!”
“And Spikey-wikey too!”
“Whatever dat light is from dat castle ain't look so good!”
“Yeah, that light was all flashy-dashie!”
“If anypony messed with them, they will answer to ME!”
Twilight was beginning to freak out. Oh no, Flash and my friends are coming! Normally, I’ll be glad to see them, but if they see Ed, they’ll think he is a big threat! Heck, Flash will have him arrested before I get to explain to them!
Twilight turned to Spike. “Spike, take Ed and hide him somewhere while I talk to the others!”
Spike blinked in confusion. “What? But why Twilight? We could just tell them about Ed right now while he’s here!”
Twilight leaned over and whispered to Spike’s ear. “Spike, not too long ago, you were hesitant in helping Ed earlier because you didn’t know if Ed’s a threat. What do you think will happen if our friends, especially if Flash saw him before we had the chance to explain?”
Spike cringed. “Okay, you have a point Twi, but we can’t just hide him forever.”
“I know, that’s why I think it’s a good idea to tell them about Ed first before they meet him. I just need a few minutes to convince them that Ed won’t hurt us before they jumped to conclusions.”
Spike nodded. “Alright, I’ll hid him for now. Where should I take him?”
Twilight pointed to the back door with her head. “Go through the back way of the library and then meet us in the kitchen.”
Spike saluted. “All right, I’m on it!”
Spike quickly ran up to Ed who was busy looking at the mirror in fascination.
“Hey Ed,” Spike said to get Ed’s attention. “Since you’re our guest here, let’s say you and I go to the kitchen and I’ll treat you some lunch.”
Ed’s eyes lit up. “Ooooh! Can you make me a Good Burger?”
“Uh…yeah sure!” Spike said slowly, not knowing what a Good Burger is. Spike took Ed’s hand and pulled him away. “Now let’s go!”
“Yippy skippy!” Ed cheered as he and Spike head out the back door of the library.
Twilight sighed in relief as she heard the front library doors opened. She turned to see all of her best friends with concerned looks on their faces and Flash Sentry with a look of determination.
“Princess Twilight, are you harmed?”
“Twilight, are you okay!”
“What happen here?”
“Where’s Spike?”
“What’s with da light?”
“Did something happen?”
“Everypony calm down!” Twilight cried over many voices of her friends and her guard.
When no one was listening, Pinkie took out her air horn from her hair with her tail and then she pressed the top with a loud squeak! Everyone stopped talking and turned to Pinkie in shock while Fluttershy yelped in fright and lay on the ground with her hooves above her head.
Twilight walked up to Pinkie with her grateful smile. “Thank you Pinkie!”
“No problem~!” said Pinkie in her singsong voice.
Twilight cleared her throat. “Now please tell me one at a time. Why is everypony here?”
Applejack spoke up. “We didn’t mean to barge in here Sugarcube. We were just doin’ our usual routine, when we all saw this huge bright light coming from you’re castle.”
“We all saw it from our homes dear,” Rarity added. “And we we’re all worried if something happened to you and Spike.”
“So we all rushed in here to make sure you’re all right,” said Rainbow Dash. “We would’ve come in here sooner but we’re still not used to knowing where the rooms are.”
Starlight scratched her neck awkwardly. “Yeah…I may have lived with you for months now, but even I still get lost in this castle.”
Note to self, start placing the signs everywhere in this castle for navigation purposes. Twilight thought before she started speaking.
“Sorry about that guys, I didn’t mean to scare you. Spike and I are okay. We were just working on a magical experiment earlier that didn’t work exactly as I hoped.”
“You shouldn’t be doing any of these experiments Princess,” Flash scolded. “They’re too dangerous for you to be messing around when you can just hire scientists and magical experts to do the job for you.”
Twilight let out her angry snort. “First of all, call me Twilight! We’ve been over this. Second, I’ve done many experiments before I became a Princess and I want to continue doing just that. I don’t need you to tell me what I should and should not do!”
Flash flinched. “B-but Princess, I think it’s much safer if you-“
“I’m not hiring anyone to do my work! End of discussion!” Twilight snapped before calming down. “If you don’t mind, I would like to speak to my friends alone if you please.”
“But Princess, I think it’s only for your best interest if I st-“
“Leave!” Twilight stated firmly.
With a sigh, Flash turned and trotted out the door and into the hallway. Twilight stood as the doors closed behind him before she let out her sigh. She slowly turned towards her friends with an embarrassed look.
“I’m sorry you had to see that girls,” She said quietly. “I know he’s supposed to be my personal guard but he’s been driving me crazy!”
“Hey, I totally understand,” said Rainbow. “If this guy followed me everywhere and tells me what to do all the time, I would be out of my mind!”
“But um…he was just doing his job,” said Fluttershy in her quiet voice. “Perhaps if you tell him to take down a notch, he won’t bother you much.”
“But I tried to tell him many times, but he just won’t listen!” Twilight argued. “He’ll either dismisses it or just ignored it and continued to torture me.”
“Well why not just send Princess Cadence a letter and tell her you want to send him back?” Applejack suggested.
Twilight groaned. “Spike told me the same thing, but I just can’t do that to her! I don’t want to offend her.”
“She won’t be offending darling,” Rarity cooed. “Just tell Princess Cadence that Flash was going overboard with his job and you don’t appreciate him invading your personal space. She’ll understand.”
“Yeah, you don’t need a personal guard!” Rainbow added. “The only reason she send Flash over to you because she’s worried about your safety ever since you told her about a crazy mare who broke into your castle and change time multiple times just to get back at you for ruining her crazy cult town.”
Rainbow eyes went wide after she said that and then she turned towards Starlight with a guilty smile. “No offence.”
Starlight sighed sadly. “None taken. I’ll admit…I’m not very proud of my actions. And it’s because of me that you have to suffer with that annoying stallion.”
Twilight trotted over and placed her hoof on Starlight’s shoulder. “I told you this before Starlight, I never blamed you because of that. You’re already making up by being my most wonderful student here. So don’t be so hard on yourself. Besides, even if you haven’t broke in to my castle, one of the Princesses would send me a guard for my protection anyway…even though I don’t need a guard.”
Starlight smiled genially. “Thank you Twilight.”
Rainbow cleared her throat. “I don’t mean to interrupt your ‘sappiness,’ but is there a reason why you wanted to tell all of us excluding your guard?”
Twilight sighed. “Actually…there is. There is more to the story of what happened during my experiment. But I want to ask you girls to please hear me out and don’t jump to any conclusions until I’m done. Can you girls do that?”
“Of course Sugarcube!” said Applejack. “You know you can tell us anything.”
The rest of Twilight’s friends nodded in agreement. Seeing all of her friends encouraging smiles, Twilight sighed again before facing her friends.
“Alright, here’s what happened…”
“Then when I was six, I said my first words. My mom thinks it was trousers but I think it was tweezers.”
As Spike and Ed were walking down the hallway, Spike asked Ed earlier to tell him about himself so that that he gets to know more about him. After the first five minutes of Ed’s life’s story, Spike already had a headache.
Spike groaned internally. Man, this guy is more stranger than Pinkie Pie! Twilight owes me a huge bucket full of gems after this!
Spike face immediate lit up when they finally reached the door that leads into the kitchen.
“Here we are Ed,” Spike announced, interrupting Ed’s story. “The kitchen is just beyond this door.”
Spike pushed through the door and they both walked right into the kitchen. The kitchen itself was very impressive. The kitchen was huge. The kichen have walls that were made of various stones and the floors was covered with light brown tiles. There was a long wooden counter in the middle of the room and a green rectangle lighthead over it with frying pans hanging on it. Behind that were three different stoves with a counter on top. There were also various cabinets and shelf’s around the kitchen and a sink near the window for cleaning the plates. There was even a large refrigerator to keep the food fresh and cool.
Ed stood there with a look of awe. “Whoa…”
Spike chuckled. “I know. That’s my first reaction when Twi and I first moved into the castle.”
“You mean this isn’t your original home?” Ed asked in interest.
“No. Twi and I used to live inside of a tree, which was this town’s only library at the time. It was small, but very homey and we lived there for the first few years.”
Ed smiled. “Cool! I wished I lived in a tree. Haha. So what happened to it?”
Spike sighed. “Some horrible monster named Tirek destroyed it as he was fighting with Twilight.”
Ed frowned. “Oh…Bummer!”
“Yeah…” Spike trailed off before he smiled. “But we end up with this castle after we defeat him and our friends helped us out by making it more homely so it all turned out well in the end.”
Spike walked towards the fridge and opened it. “But enough about that, I’m starving! Is there anything you want to eat?”
Ed smiled. “Yeah, do you have any Good Burger?”
Spike turned to Ed with a confused look. “Good Burger?”
“So let me get this straight,” Applejack stated after Twilight told them her story. “You made some adjustments with dat mirror and performed a magical experiment dat allows you to see other worlds and alter dimensions?”
Twilight nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”
“But your experiment went haywire as you were watching the other world and causes a vortex which we saw from your castle earlier?” Rarity questioned.
“Yep,” Twilight said simply.
“And you managed to close the vortex but you accidently brought a ‘hu-man’ to our world and he’s roaming around in the castle right now?” Starlight exclaimed.
“Yeah…that’s pretty much what happened.” Twilight said with some hesitation.
Rainbow flew right up to Twilight’s face. “Are you crazy!? You don’t even know a thing about him and you’re letting him walk around the castle?”
“I’m siding with Rainbow on this,” said Applejack. “How do we know he’s lying? He could be dangerous.
Twilight sighed. “I knew you all would react this way. That’s why I had Spike take Ed and watch him while I talk to you girls about him.”
“Spikey- wikey’s with HIM?” Rarity exclaimed worriedly.
“Yes but Ed is harmless,” Twilight said quickly. “While we don’t know a thing about Ed yet, I can tell that Ed is very good person.
“How can ya tell?” Applejack asked skeptically.
Twilight gave Applejack her stern look. “I just…know.” When her friends looked unconvinced, Twilight continued. “Look…I know it doesn’t make any sense to trust a stranger after we just met, let alone a different species from another world, but the way he smiled and forgave me right off the bat for taking him away from his home…even though I don’t deserve his forgiveness…I realized right then and there that I can trust him. The least I can do is to figure out a way to get him back home. And I’m hoping you girls will help me welcome Ed and to make him feel comfortable while he is staying with us. That is…if you all want too.”
Before anypony said anything, Pinkie suddenly appeared right next to Twilight with her stone look on her face.
“Twilight, what kind of question is that?” Pinkie asked in her low tone. Her face suddenly changed into her overly happy smile. “Of course I will help!” she cheered as confetti appeared behind her from out of nowhere. “Everypony is welcome, including people from another world!I’ll be sure to throw him a ‘Welcome to Ponyville Party!”
Twilight smiled. She can always count on Pinkie Pie when it comes to giving ponies..er humans her warm welcome.
Twilight turned to her friends. “What about you girls?”
Everypony was silent with their unsure expressions until Fluttershy spoke up. “Well…I guess I’ll try to give him a chance.”
Ah’m still not sure about this…Ed fella,” said Applejack with some hesitation. “Ah think I want to meet him in pony…er person before Ah make mah decision.”
Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Starlight Glimmer nodded in agreement.
Twilight frown. This wasn’t the outcome she was hoping for, but she wasn’t blaming them for their hesitation. On the other hoof, they didn’t say ‘no’ either, so there may be still a chance that her friends will help her out with Ed.
“Fair enough,” said Twilight with an accepting nod. “He and Spike are at the kitchen. Follow me so you girls won’t get lost.”
Twilight turned and trotted out the library doors and into the hallway with her friends in tow.
They’ve been walking down the hallway for quite some time until Rarity spoke up. “Twilight, are you were sure that Spikey-wikey will be okay with this…’hu-man’?”
“I told you Rarity,” said Twilight as they reached to the kitchen door. “Spike will be fine. Ed will never hurt a-”
Twilight’s words died in her throat and her eyes widen in horror when she and her friends spotted Spike laying on the kitchen floor unconscious.
“SPIKE!” Twilight screamed as she galloped towards him. “Spike wake up! Answer me!” Twilight pleaded as she lightly shook Spike’s body.
Spike groaned as he slowly woke up. “Wha…Twilight?”
“Spike, you’re okay!” Twilight said in relief while nuzzling him. “Thank Celestia!”
Spike tried to remember for a moment until his eyes widened as his memories came flooding back to him. “ED! Ed did this!”
Twilight recoiled in shock. “Ed did this to you!? Why!?”
Spike sighed as he rubbed the sore spot on his head. “Well…”
Spike walked towards the fridge and opened it. “But enough about that, I’m starving! Is there anything you want to eat?”
Ed smiled. “Yeah, do you have any Good Burger?”
Spike turned to Ed with a confused look. “Good Burger?”
Ed nodded. “Yeah. Back in my world, I worked at the Good Burger, which are the home of the Good Burgers. We made and served food there and they tasted really good, especially with my sauce. Haha.”
Spike blinked. “Huh. Can’t say I ever have those before. Maybe you can teach me how to make one?”
“Sure! Do you have any burger meat?”
Spike cringed. “They’re made of meat?”
Ed nodded. “Yeah, is there a problem?”
Spike scratches his neck, feeling uncomfortable. “Um…ponies don’t eat…meat around here. Most of the burgers here are made of hay.”
Ed blinked. “Oh! Are they vegetarians?”
“Er…something like that.”
Ed smiled in understanding. “Oh well, its no problem. I never cook a burger made of hay before but I’m sure it’ll taste just as good. Haha.”
Spike sighed in relief, glad that he doesn’t have to explain to Ed about the meat taboo. “Oh great. Let me check the fridge.”
Spike opened the fridge to see that it was completely empty. Spike sighed with irritation. “Oh right…I forgot that we’re low on food. Looks like I’ll have to go to the market and buy some food later.”
“Can I help?” Ed asked.
Spike shook his head. “No it’s okay, I went to the market all the time. Besides, you’re our guest.”
“Can I at least make you a drink?” Ed insisted.
“That would be nice, but we’re out of waters, sodas, and fruit punches right now,” Spike pointed out.
“Well, I can make you a Good Punch,” Ed offered.
Spike had a thoughtful look. “I would like to have a Good Punch but I don’t think we have any ingredients for-”
Spike was suddenly got punched in the face by Ed’s fist and his vision went black.
“And that’s all I could remember,” Spike concluded, still rubbing on his face where Ed punched him.
“I knew he’s up to no good!” Rainbow exclaimed loudly. “Wait ‘til I get my hooves on him!”
“Calm down Rainbow,” Twilight said hastily. “There must be some sort of misunderstanding!”
“Misunderstanding?” Rainbow cried in disbelief. “Twi, he freakin’ punched Spike! What so misunderstanding about that?”
“Oh that’s easy,” Pinkie piped up. “Spike asked Ed for a Good Punch. To us, a good punch is a delicious drink made of various fruits blended together and they’re usually used for parties. But to Ed, he musta took that term literally and there for, he punched Spikey because he did what Spike had asked him to do. A Good Punch!”
Everypony stared at Pinkie with their stunned expressions for a moment before Applejack spoke up.
“Um…I highly doubt that’s what happened but if that was the case, then Ah’ll eat mah hat.”
“Um…maybe we should find him and have him tell us what happened…if that’s alright,” said Fluttershy.
“Um…I don’t think he’s in the castle,” said Starlight with a troubled look.
“What!? What do you mean?” Twilight cried.
Without a word, Starlight levitated the note with her magic and hovered it towards Twilight. Twilight caught the note and began to read it.
Hey Dude,
Since you’re taking a nap, I’ve decided to go to the market and get the burger ingredients for you. I’ll be back in a bit!
“I’m a dude. He’s a dude. She’s a dude. ‘Cause we’re all dudes, HEY!”
Outside was warm and sunny and not a cloud in sight. Ed was walking down the pathway as he was singing his song with a huge smile on his face. Since Spike took a nap after Ed gave him a Good Punch, Ed figured he’ll help out by going to the market and picked up the food for the young drake. Sure, he never been to Ponyville and he doesn’t know where the market is, but hey, it’s fun to go on an adventure to new area, even if he’s just going to the market.
As he continued to walk down the path, he noticed a body of a grey pony with wings stuck into a tree. Ed walked up to the struggling pony.
“Hi there,” Ed greeted.
The grey pony stopped struggling. “Oh hi there!”
“Why is your head inside of a tree?” Ed asked curiously.
“Oh I was doing my delivery duty when a wind caught me by surprise and I landed into a tree. Unfortunately, my head is stuck and I'm trapped here since,” she said in her cheerful attitude despite her situation.
“Oh. Are you hurt?” Ed asked.
“Naw, I’m fine. Stuff like this happens all the time!” she said. “Anyway, think you can get me out?”
“Sure thing,” Ed said as he approached behind her.
Ed grabbed both of the pony’s hind legs and began to pull her. He pulled for a while but he stopped when heard her cried out in pain.
“Ow…this isn’t working! My head doesn’t even budge!”
“Okay hang on, I have an idea!” said Ed.
Ed dug into his pants pocket and took out a couple of small package of mustard. He tore them open and began to put some mustard on the neck of the pony.
“Um…what are you doing?” The stuck pony asked in confusion.
“I’m putting mustard on you,” he answered.
“Why are you putting mustard on my neck?” she asked.
“To loosen your neck up a bit,” Ed replied. “Now let’s see if this works…”
Ed walked to the back of the pony and began to pull her hind legs again. This time, her head was able to move a bit so Ed kept on pulling. He was pulling for a full minute before finally, the mare’s head finally popped out of the hole of the tree.
“I’m out!” The grey mare screamed in delight. She reveled to have a long blonde mane and yellow crossed eyes. The grey mare turned to Ed. “Thank you so much mister…”
She froze in her tracks when her eyes met with Ed for the first time. This creature stood on two legs with dark skin, weird garments, and long dreadlocks. She met many other creatures like the yaks, Minotaurs, even dragons during her delivery service, but not never a creature like Ed. Her first instant was to fly away, but what stopped her was his genuine smile he was giving her as he raised his hand out to her.
“You’re welcome! Name’s Ed,” he said. “What’s you’re name?”
“Um…I’m Derpy,” she replied softly as Ed grabbed her hoof and shook it in greeting.
“Really? My mom’s name is Derpy!”
“Really?”
“…no.”
Ed released her hoof. “Anyway, do you know which way I should go to the market?”
“You mean in Ponyville?” Derpy asked before pointing her hoof towards the path. “Just keep going down this path and you should reach the market at the central part of our town within a minute. You can’t miss it.”
“Great! Thanks for the help!” said Ed before making his way towards Ponyville.
“Wait!”
Ed stopped walking and turned his head towards a Derpy with her confused look.
“Why’d you help me?” she asked.
Ed smiled. “I just want to help to get you free. ‘Sides, I can’t just leave a cute pony trapped in that tree. Haha.”
“Y-you think I’m cute?” Derpy squeaked with a blush on her cheeks. “W-what’s so cute about me?”
Ed titled his head. “Um…your eyes?”
“R-really?” Derpy asked softly.
Ed nodded. “Sure! They’re just so pretty to look at. Haha.”
Derpy’s cheeks blushed a deeper shade of red.
Ed chucked and waved at Derpy. “Anyway, I gotta go. It’s nice meeting you Derpy!”
Ed turned his head back towards the road and he walked down the path leading to Ponyville.
Derpy haven’t moved at all and kept starring at Ed in awe as he departed away from her. Only a few ponies in her life have ever come to her aid after her clumsy performance, but no pony or creature for that matter, had ever called her ‘cute’ before. Especially about her eyes! She knew everypony she came across had made fun of her eyes, even when they were trying not to laugh as they were talking to her. It was also because of her eyes that ponies assumed that she was dumb, even though she’s actually a real smart pony. While that always hurt her, she could only smile and pretend that they don’t affect her at all. But this strange guy came out of nowhere and helped her without anything in return and said that she looked very cute because of her eyes. She felt warm feelings growing from inside of her chest as her heart kept pounding like a drum. Derpy slowly grew into a small gentle smile.
“Cute…” Derpy whispered as her smile grew as big as Pinkie’s. Derpy leaped up into the air with a happy glee. “He thinks I’m so cuteeeeeeeeeee-OOF!”
Unfortunately, she was so caught up with her happy feelings, she didn’t paid attention to the tree branch that was above her and she slammed her head into it and then she fell down to the ground out cold.
Near the entrance to Ponyvile, a lone pale yellow coat mare with raspberry mane was struggling with her cart full of roses. No matter how hard she pulled, her cart wouldn’t move an inch.
“Darnit!” She shouted in frustration. “My cart’s stuck in a pot hole!”
“Here, let me help!”
She felt her cart lifted up due to the mysterious stranger’s strength. The cart was then placed back on the ground, which was now on an even surface. The mare pulled the cart a bit and the cart was able to move much more easily.
“Hey, I can move now!” she said happily before facing the stranger behind her. “Thank you so much for your-”
Her words stopped abruptly and her pupils changed to the size of pin-needles when she saw her ‘savior.’ There stood in front of her was Ed, giving her his huge goofy smile that sent chills to her spine.
“Oh you’re welcome!” he laughed before he extended his arm out towards her. “I’m Ed. Haha!”
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! MONSTER!” she screamed as she quickly detached herself off of her cart and galloped away towards Ponyville.
Ed stood there with a confused look. “Monster? Where?” Ed looked around him to see if he had missed the ‘monster.’
“So Spoiled Rich took a bite of my daisy, spat it out and said that it tasted like manure!” the magenta mare with lime green mane vented in anger. “Then she walked away without paying that flower she just ate!”
“Ugh! The nerve of her!” the raspberry mare with a lily in her amber mane grunted in anger. “Snob ponies like her had no idea how hard we grow plants like that!”
“I know right? I swear the next time I see her I’ll-”
Both mares turned towards the scream that belong to their pale yellow and raspberry mane friend who was galloping towards them with a terrified look.
“What? What is it Roseluck!” Lily said with her urgent voice.
“M-M-M-M-M-M-Monster!” Roseluck quivered in fear. “There’s a monster coming this way!”
The magenta mare, known as Daisy, rolled her eyes with a groan. “Again? That’s the third time this week! Can’t we just have a normal day without any monster attacks in this town for once?”
“Relax Rose,” Lily soothed. “I’m sure Princess Twilight and her friends can take care of this monster like they did with the others.”
“You don’t understand!” Roseluck exclaimed as she violently shook her head. “This monster is worse than those wood-eating Parasprites! Worse than that three-headed dog! Even worse than the Bugbear!”
Lily and Daisy looked at each other nervously before Daisy cautiously stepped towards Rose.
“Okay…look Rose. Clearly you’re over exaggerated. We’ve seen a lot of scary creatures coming into our town before. What could be scarier than them?”
“Hey excuse me, pony with a rose tattoo?”
The three mares turned towards the voice and then froze in fear when they spotted Ed standing in front of them with Rose’s cart behind him.
“You forgot your cart so I’m bringing it to you. Haha!”
The flower trio screamed.
“MONSTER!”
“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”
“THE HORROR! THE HORROR!”
The flower trio turned and ran as fast as their legs can carry them. Ed just stared at the retreating ponies in confusion.
“Jeeze…what’s their problem?”
In the center of Ponyville, the market place was booming with ponies, buying food or other products from different stalls. Some of the vendor ponies were busy selling their goods to their customers, other were either standing around waiting for a customers or having conversations with other vendors, including the brown stallion pegasus who sells cherries and a cream mare who sells tomatoes. Their conversation was abrupt to a complete halt when they heard the flower trio screaming as they ran by past them.
“RUN, EVERYPONY RUN, MONSTER!”
“HE'S COMING THIS WAY!”
“THE HORROR! THE HORROR!”
The cherry vendor stallion grunted at the fleeing mares in annoyance. “Them again? Those three are always over exaggerate things about everything! Don’t they have something better to do than to make a big deal like their stupid flowers?”
He turned back to the other vendor, expecting a reply, only to see an empty stall. He also noticed that all the ponies that were around the area including all the stalls where the vendors were had vanished without a trace.
“Hey? Where did everypony go?” he shouted with a hint of nervousness in his voice.
“Um excuse me?”
The cherry vendor stallion turned towards the source of the voice and his face was quickly chanced to a look of terror when he sees Ed standing in front of him.
“I would like at have some cherries if you please.” Ed said with a huge smile o his face.
The cherry vendor stallion screamed like a little filly and dived behind the counter. He quickly came back up with a buckets full of cherries and slammed them on the counter in front of Ed.
“Here, take 'em! TAKE 'EM ALL! JUST DON’T HURT ME!”
The stallion than turned and ran out through wall and out on the streets, crying out for his mama.
Ed blinked in confusion. “Um…I don’t think I want that many.”
Ed shrugged and then picked up only one bucket of cherries before he continued on his way. As he was walking, he noticed all the other ponies were screaming as they were running or flying away from him. Most of them were fleeing towards the Town Hall while some headed to their own homes for their own safety.
“Huh. I guess today must be an annual screaming fest day. Haha!”
Ed decided to head over to the next stall to buy another food for Spike.
Inside of one of homes of Ponyvile, Lyra Heartstrings was sitting on the couch, reading Equestria Daily. She has a mint green coat with a white and cyan mane and tail and she has a lyre as her cutiemark. She was only reading the paper because she was bored and have nothing to do. Unfortunately, none of news had caught her interest except a scandal story about Prince Blueblood. He almost allowed the demolition to tear down the park just to build a large golden statue of him in it's place without his aunt's knowledge. After Princess Celestia heard the outcries from all the citizens of Canterlot, she immediately put a stop to the demolish crew and gave Blueblood an earful in front of all the bystanders, much to the Prince's humiliation. As much as this amused Lyra about the prude Prince, it wasn't enough to bring her out of boredom.
Suddenly, she heard the front door slammed open. Lyra tuned to see her very best friend, Bon Bon, entered the house. She has a beige coat with blue and pink mane and tail and has three wrapped candy as her cutiemark. Bon Bon looked like she had just ran a marathon, but her features had a look of fright as if she had seen a ghost.
“Lyra, we got to get to the Town Hall!” Bon Bon yelled.
“Why, what’s going on Bon Bon?” Lyra asked as she tossed the paper to the side.
Bon Bon pointed her hoof towards outside. “There’s a monster attack in our town!”
Lyra groaned as she rolled her eyes. “Again? That’s the third time this week! So what kind of monster is it this time?" Lyra then gave her friend her suspicious look. "It’s not the Bugbear again is it?”
“No, it’s not the Bugbear or any other monsters that relates to my former agency." Bon Bon reassured. "So you don’t have to worry about me running off again.”
Lyra sighed in relief. “Oh good! Glad that didn’t happen again." Lyra trotted close to her friend with her curious look. "So tell me, what kind monster is it?”
Bon Bon rubbed her chin with a puzzled look. “I’m…actually not sure. I don’t think I ever seen or heard of this kind of creature before, even from my old agency records. But by the looks of it, this creature appeared to be a fleshy bipedal creature that stands on two legs and it also have these strange hooves with five digits on each one.”
Lyra eyes widen and she went up to Bon Bon's face. “Did you say…bipedal creature?”
Bon Bon was taken back by her friend's sudden change of tone. “Um…yes?”
“And it stands on two legs?”
“Yes.”
“And it has those two things on it’s arms with five digits on each one?”
“…yes.”
All was quiet for a moment before Lyra let out her loud girlish sequel. “OH MY GOSH! Bon Bon, do you have any idea what that is?”
Bon Bon had a perplexed look on her face. “Uh...No, I don't. Do you know what that creature is?”
Lyra nodded with a huge grin on her face. “Yes. That creature you are describing me, is a HUMAN!”
Bon Bon blinked.
And blinked again.
And blinked for the third time.
“…what?”
Caught in her own excitement, Lyra grabbed both of Bon Bon's shoulders and shook her rabidly, much to Bon Bon's discomfort.
“Don’t you see Bon Bon? The creature is bipedal and it stands on two legs! But most importantly, those strange anatomies in place of hooves are actually HANDS! And those five digits on each one are FINGERS! There's no doubt in my mind that the creature you saw is a human!”
Bon Bon gave Lyra her skeptical look as soon as Lyra stopped shaking her around. She took a cautious step back away from her best friend.
“You can’t be serious!" said Bon Bon. "Lyra, you’ve been making these ridiculous theories about humans being real for years! These humans you're so obsessed over are nothing more than myths.”
“You’re wrong Bon Bon." Lyra argued, as she pointed her hoof at her best friend. "They are real! I read many books as a foal that there were signs of human life before we exist! There are theories that it’s possible that humans either died off or escaped to alternative dimensions without a trace.”
“But those weren’t scientifically proven Lyra!" Bon Bon rebuttaled. "Even if the humans turned out to be real, your theory about them vanished to another dimension sounds ridiculous!”
Lyra gave Bon Bon her flat look. “Um…hello? We live in a magical world full of magic? I say it’s a strong possibility there is another world full of humans. In fact, I suspected that Twilight knew there is a human world this whole time.”
Bon Bon blinked. “The Princess? What makes you so sure that the Princess knew there is a human world?”
Lyra cleared her throat in a awkward manner while her cheeks turned to a tiniest shade of red. “I…may have overheard her and Spike about how excited she was to visit her counterpart version of her best friends again one time.”
Bon Bon frowned and narrowed her eyes accusingly. “Lyra…did you spy on Princess Twilight by hiding in the bush near her bedroom window again?”
"N-No!" Lyra denied. "But nevermind about that! If I could catch this human, I can interview him-or her-about their lifestyles and I’ll finally have proof that the humans really does exist! All those jerks in Canterlot, especially him will realize that they are wrong about my-"
Lyra stopped speaking and made a frown when an unpleasant memories flashed into her mind. But almost instantly, her frown disappeared and shook off her memories.
“That’s not important right now! I must find this human!”
Lyra made a beeline to the front door but Bon Bon stepped in front of her.
“No way Lyra!" she exclaimed. "You will not run off and do anything stupid! Human or not, that creature could be dangerous!”
“I’ll take my chances!” said Lyra with a determined look on her face.
Bon Bon glared back at Lyra. “You’re not going and that’s final! Besides, the Mayor already contacted Flash Sentry to take care of him. Now we should towards the-”
“Twilight’s guard?" Lyra shouted in her panicky tone. "Oh no! If he gets to him first, he’ll take him away…or WORSE! And I won’t be able to find out the truth! I must stop him!”
Lyra pushed past her friend and galloped out the door to the town, away from the Town Hall.
“Lyra!" Bon Bon screamed as she ran out on the porch. "You get back here! LYRA!”
“I’m a dude. He’s a dude. She’s a dude. ‘Cause we’re all dudes, HEY!”
Ed continued to stroll down through Ponyvile looking for any other markets that are open while carrying buckets of food from previous stalls. For the past ten minutes, he spotted several vendors in their stalls, only for them to either ran out quickly as soon as they saw him or dumped their food in front of him, begging not to hurt them and than fled before Ed could say anything. Ed made a mental note to tell Twilight and Spike that they owed the market ponies money for the food that they gave him. While he was confused about the whole thing, he did enjoy this quaint little town and he could see why it's so peaceful around here.
...minus all the screaming ponies.
Just as he was heading to a different part of town, he heard someone calling out to him.
“NOT SO FAST CREATURE!”
“Okay,” said Ed as he continued to walk but changed to a speed of a tortoise.
“Just stop and turn around!” the voice shouted impatiently.
Ed stopped walking and turned to a orange stallion pegasus with blue eyes, mane and tail while wearing his golden armor.
Ed smiled. “Oh hey dude! I’m Ed. Haha.”
“Don’t move!" Flash spat while pointed his spear at him threateningly. "Now I want you to place your hooves on your head!”
“But I don’t have any hooves,” Ed replied.
Flash blinked. “Oh," he said awkwardly. "Um…what do you have?”
“I have hands.”
“Okay…than place your…hands on your head.”
"I can't!"
"Why not?"
"Because I'm holding all the food."
Flash facehoof. "Oh for crying out- just put the food down and then place your hands on your head!"
"Okay," said Ed as he placed the food on the ground. He then placed both his hands on his head.
“Now get on you’re knees,” Flash ordered.
As Ed knelt down to the ground, Flash took out his hoofcuffs.
“In the name of Princess Twilight, I, Flash Sentry, placing you under arrest for attacking and terrorizing the citizens of Ponyvile!”
“...Is it because I’m black?” Ed asked.
“STOP!”
They both turned to see a mint green mare with white and cyan mane galloping towards them. Lyra could've gone further, but Flash stood in the way.
“Let the human go!” Lyra cried as she was trying to get around him.
“Stay back Miss!" Flash ordered while doing his best to block her. "You’ll only get yourself hurt!”
“No! If I don’t, you’ll end up hurting him!” Lyra shouted.
“Miss, I have everything under control!" Flash stated firmly. "I won’t hurt him unless I have to. Now back-OW!”
Lyra levitated one of Ed's bucket full of food with her magic and then hit Flash from the back of his head. While Flash was stunned, Lyra quickly stood in front of Ed as she levitated more buckets around her.
“Run human!” Lyra yelled.
Ed looked around him before he pointed to himself. “Me?”
“Yes you!" Lyra shouted. "Now run while you still can!"
"Ooh! Are we playing tag?" Ed asked with glee.
"Why would you thin- You know what fine, yes you're it! Now go! I'll hold him off!” Lyra said urgently.
“Okay,” said Ed before he got up and ran into the alley between the two houses.
“HALT!” Flash cried, preparing to give chase, only to get hit by one of the buckets again by Lyra.
Ed ran as fast as he could, while turning around at every corner and jumped over fences. He ran for about three blocks until he spotted a large cylinder building in the center of town. Thinking that's the best place to hide, Ed ran up to the building and up the stairs to the main doors. Ed tried to opened them, but they're lock tight. Thinking quickly, he ran up to one of the support beams and climbed up to the upper floor. When he reached the top floor, he looked around the area until he spotted a door that was right in front of him. Seeing this opportunity, Ed ran up towards the door and opened it.
Inside of the Town Hall, the building is full of almost every pony in town. Everypony were in a panic as they talked anxiously about the 'monster' that was roaming around in their town. A few ponies were either crying or yelling out of fear that the monster will try to break into the building they're in now and was begging to get out and leave this town. Mayor Mare came up to the main balcony to get the whole situation under control.
“Everypony calm down!" Mayor Mare cried loudly, to get the crowd's attention. Once everypony in the building calmed down, the Mayor began speaking again. "Our town hall is very secured! We survived countless other attacks before this one. I'm sure that the monster won’t be able to come in to this building!”
Suddenly, Ed came out through the curtains and stood behind the Mayor on the main balcony.
“Oh hey everyone! I hope you don’t mind if I come in here. The back door is open. Haha!”
The whole crowd gasped as the Mayor turned and her eyes shrinked in fear.
“EVERYPONY RUN!” The Mayor screamed as she jumped over the balcony and was caught by her assistant.
Everypony in the building were screaming as they ran out the main doors towards outside, away from Ed. Some jumped out of the windows for a quicker way out when they couldn't make their way out the doors. Ed, oblivious to all the chaos, laughed at the sight.
“Oh! You all playing tag too? Look out, I’m coming to get you! Haha!”
Ed jumped and grabbed one of the curtains like a rope and slides down to the ground. Once he reached the ground he ran across the room and headed outside through the main doors. Once he's outside, he dashed towards one of the ponies with a playful laugh. The yellow pony with a orange mane shrieked in fear and ran the opposite direction away from Ed. However, she didn't paid attention to what's in front of her and as a result, she bumped into the side of the tent and the support beam of the tent began to tipped over.
A purple filly with blonde mane was frantically looking everywhere for her mommy, scared of the creature coming to get her. She was so busy looking through the crowd she didn't noticed the big tent starting to fall over to where she was standing. As the tent getting dangerously closer to the ground, the little filly finally noticed the big shadow covering over her. She looked up and her eyes shrinked as the tent was about to land on top of her. Just when the filly thought she was about to be crushed, she felt somepony scooped her up and rolled over alongside with the stranger just at the nick of time. She was snapped out of her frozen state as she heard a loud crash a few feet away from her. Her heart was still beating at the thought of how close she was of getting smashed by that large tent before she could reunited with her mommy. She noticed she was wrapped up what appeared to be arms by a different creature. She looked up and was shocked to see who her 'savior' is.
The one who saved her life, turned out to be the 'monster' that everyone was so afraid of today, was Ed.
Ed smiled warmly at the stunned little filly as he gently put her down. “You okay there little girl? It won’t be fun if you got hurt. Heh.”
Just when the little filly was about to utter a single word, Ed felt someone tackled him to the ground and on his back. Ed looked up to see an angry Flash Sentry standing over him while holing his spear close to Ed's face.
“This is the end monster!” he snarled as he raised his spear over his head.
”EVERYPONY FREEZE!”
Suddenly, all the citizens including Flash and Ed were frozen in place and floated in the air by a purple aura. They all turned to see none other than Twilight and the rest of the gang standing by the bridge.
“Princess Twilight!” someone cried in relief as Twilight calmly headed towards Ed and Sentry.
Flash for his part could only blinked in confusion. “Princess? Why’d you freeze us? Is it to help catch this creature? There’s no need for that! He is about to be dealt with!”
Twilight stopped in front of them and glared at Flash. “That’s precisely why I’m doing this! I don’t want you to hurt him!”
If it weren't for Twilight's spell, he would've made a look of disbelief. “What do you mean? He is terrorizing the town! This monster-”
“HE’S NOT A MONSTER!” Twilight screamed.
The whole town was in an uneasy silence for a moment before Twilight spoke again in a much more calming voice.
“This is all a big misunderstanding! Ed wasn’t trying to hurt anypony! He only came here to shop!” Twilight gave everypony including Flash her stern look. “Now, I’m about to release all of you now. And when I do, will you all promise not to run or attack Ed while we explained everything?”
Everypony in the area nodded feverishly while Flash was still hesitated. He was about to protest but a sudden glare from Twilight told him there are no room for argument. With no other choice, Flash sighed and nodded reluctantly.
Satisfied with everypony keeping their word, she gently lowered them back to the ground and released them from her magic. As soon as they were released, Ed let out a huge cheer while accidentally threw Flash off in the process.
“Whee! That was fun! Let’s do it again!”
Before anypony said a word, Pinkie zoomed over to Ed as the loud noisemaker went off and the confetti exploded out of thin air.
“Hi there!~ You must be Ed! My name is Pinkie Pie! I just want to say welcome to Ponyville! Sorry about all of this. You see, we never see a human like you before, well except for Twilight ‘cause she met the humans before, so everypony was really really frighten of you. But you’re clearly a nice human cause I can tell you saved a couple of ponies and you really wanted to play with us. I hope you can forgive all of us so we can start over and give you a proper welcome this time and then we can be best friends! What do ya say?”
After Pinkie finished with her non-stop, all in one breath rant, Ed gave Pinkie his goofy smile.
“I have no idea of what you just said, but sure!”
“Yay, new bestie!” Pinkie cheered as she hugged Ed who end up hugging her back.
Twilight smiled at the sight of them. She was glad that she and her friends caught up with Ed on time, before it was too late. While he may look intimidating, she knew the moment she met him that Ed is a nice person. She just need her friends to help guide Ed so that misunderstandings like this won't happen again. She just need to convince the entire town that Ed is not their enemy, he is actually their friend from another world.
“Um...Princess Twilight?"
Twilight turned to see a confused yet stern looking Mayor approaching her. "Will you please explain to us just what’s going on and who is that creature?”
"I can't believe you ran off like that!" Bon Bon scolded her best friend as they were trotting towards the Town Hall. "You're lucky that you didn't get hurt from this creature and you're even luckier that the Princess didn't press charges against you for attacking her personal guard!"
Lyra shrugged casually. "Well I knew that human won't hurt me, so I wasn't worried. Plus, I think I done Twilight a favor, considering how unreasonable that guard was."
After Lyra helped gave Ed the slip, she keep on distracting Flash by throwing various objects at him with her magic. Flash eventually overwhelmed her with his skills and immediately placed Lyra under arrest. He hoofcuffed her to the ground and placed the anti-magic ring on her horn before taking off after Ed. Lyra was left on the ground for fifteen minutes before Flash returned with Twilight and a worried Bon Bon in tow. Flash reluctantly uncuffed and removed the ring off of Lyra while Twilight told her she won't press charges against her, especially for trying to help out her new friend. However, she warned her to try not to attack her personal guard again (even if he deserved it). When Lyra asked Twilight about her new friend, Twilight simply responded, "Just head to Town Hall within a half hour and you'll find out."
Bon Bon glared at Lyra in disapproval. "He was just doing his job Lyra! He would have arrested you if you haven't thrown objects at him!?
"But then he would've arrested him if I don't do anything!" Lyra argued. "You should've seen how aggressive that guy was to that human! Plus, he is the key to my years worth of research about humans! I just had to save him!"
Bon Bon sighed as she shook her head. "Again with the human thing! There's no such thing as humans!"
Lyra faced Bon Bon with her eyes narrowed. "Oh yeah? Well why are you coming along then?"
"The only reason I come along just so I can keep you out of trouble." Bon Bon replied bluntly. "Plus so we can find out what's going on from the Princess."
"I'm telling you, it's because a human visited us from another dimension!" Lyra said indignantly.
Bon Bon sighed again. "Look Lyra, we don't know if he's...human or not. I don't want you to get all your hopes up and then get depressed again if this creature doesn't turn out to be human."
"I appreciate your concern," said Lyra. "But this time, I have a very good feeling about this! This hunch won't be a dud like all those other times I tried, you'll see! Now come on, the conference is about to start!"
Lyra galloped towards a crowd of ponies near the outside of the Town Hall while Bon Bon facehoofed herself and groaned loudly.
"You're impossible Lyra!" she muttered.
It's been a half hour since the Town Hall incident with Ed and all the ponies in the entire town gathered around the entrance of the Town Hall with Twilight Sparkle standing behind the podium. Her friends, the Mayor and Ed were standing behind Twilight as she was organizing her cue cards. Ed stood up from his small chair and waved to the crowd, which caused most of them to stepped back in fright. Applejack shook her head at Ed as he was forced to sit back down by Rainbow Dash with a look of irritation in her eyes. Even the Mayor felt nervous just by standing close to Ed but Spike reassured her with his thumb up.
After Twilight finished stacking her cards in a neat pile, she started to speak to the crowd with her microphone.
"Citizens of Ponyville," she began. "I'm sure you all wanted to know what is going on in regards to who our...guest is and about the incident early this past noon."
Once she saw everypony in the crowd nodded in union, she continued.
"About an hour ago, Spike and I performed a magical experiment at my castle; which I'm sure you all noticed the bright flashing lights coming from my windows," she said with a chuckle. When nopony laughed along with her joke, Twilight awkwardly cleared her throat before she continued. "As for what kind of experiment I've done...I cannot say. What I can say is that my experiment didn't go as planned and I...accidentally brought our guest over to our home."
Twilight turned towards Ed, who was still sitting on a small chair, with her hoof pointed at him. "This creature you all met earlier...is Ed. And Ed...is a human!"
"HAHA! I KNEW IT! IN YOUR FACES NEIGH-SAYERS!"
"BE QUIET LYRA! YOU'RE EMBARRASSING YOURSELF!"
There was an awkward silence for a moment before Twilight cleared her throat again.
"Annnnnywaaaaay...Ed is a human from his own world. What happened at the market and the Town Hall was all a big misunderstanding. He was only trying to help me and Spike by shopping around for food...without our knowledge and he was chased around by somepony before getting the full facts!"
Flash, who was standing next to Twilight, winced when he noticed a side glare from her. When she was sure he got the message, Twilight set her eyes back to the crowd again.
"I swear to all of you that he will never harm anypony! He may look strange, but Ed is actually a very good po- person!
"It's true!"
Every pony turned to see a grey pony with crossed yellow eyes while hugging a purple filly with blonde mane as her life depends on it.
"I knew Ed is a very good person the moment I first met him," Derpy said with a sniff. "Not only did he helped me out earlier, but he also saved my daughter's life!" Derpy looked down at her daughter with a smile on her face despite the tears flowing down her cheeks. "I would've been devastated if something ever happen to her."
Her daughter smiled and place her hoof on her mother's cheek in comfort. "Don't cry mommy, I'm okay. All thanks to him!"
Twilight as well as everypony stared at them in shock. They have no idea that Ed put his life on the line to help their local mailmare and her daughter. Twilight held back her tears but she made a mental note to thank Ed later. She started speaking into her mic again.
"I know this is a lot to take in and you don't know him that much, but he's only staying with us for a while. All I ask for all of you is to give him a chance until I find a way to send him back home. Now are there any questions?"
No one said anything for a while until Twilight spotted pink pony with violet mane raising her hoof.
"Yes Amethyst Star?"
"Well...If he's going to be staying with us, can he at least talk about himself?" she asked.
"I don't see why not," Twilight said while nodding in approval.
She then turned to the human in question. "Ed?"
"Yeah, Twilight?" Ed answered.
"Are you comfortable to speak to everypony with this microphone?" Twilight asked.
Ed smiled. "Oh sure! I've done this many times before!"
"Oh great!" Twilight said with a smile. "Then come right up and speak."
"Ok," Ed said before he got up.
He made his way over to the podium and took a microphone from Twilight. He than turned towards the crowd a speak with his goofy smile on his face.
"Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger. Can I take your order? Heh."
Everypony blinked at him on confusion while Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Spike facehoofed in union.
Somewhere behind the crowd, a lone pony stared at the stage with leering eyes before slowly turned and trotted away from Town Hall.
After about a half hour of questions and answers from Ed (as best as they can get), Pinkie Pie threw a party for Ed at Sugarcube Corner. While some ponies were still a bit weary from Ed, while most others accepted him and welcomed him with open hooves. Some of the townspeople were partying outside because they all can't fit in a small bakery. Everypony else were inside of the bakery along with the Twilight and her friends.
While Twilight had fun with the party, she was busy looking for Ed so that she can properly introduce him to her friends. She entered the Cake's living room where she sees Ed sitting on the couch, eating his cupcake. Twilight made her way over to Ed.
"So Ed, how's the party?" asked Twilight.
Ed swallowed his cupcake and gave Twilight his smile. "It was awesome! I'm having a great time here! And these cupcakes Pinkie made for me is delicious!"
Twilight smiled at the mention of one of her friends."When it comes to deserts, Pinkie made the best cakes. So what kind of cupcakes are they?"
"Pickles and cheese. My favorite!" Ed answered. He then bring up one of his cupcake to Twilight. "Want some?"
Twilight barely held back a barf that was threating to come out of her mouth. "Um...no thanks Ed." Twilight then quickly recovered and put on her polite smile. "Anyway, all of my friends are here. Would you like to meet them."
"Oh sure!"
So both Ed and Twilight walked right back into the main store area of the bakery where the main party took place. Twilight led Ed over to the table at the corner of the room where her best friends were waiting. Once they reach their table, Twilight began with her introductions.
"Ed, these seven here are my best friends," Twilight said proudly. She pointed her hoof at Spike. "You already met Spike."
"Yes...we have," Spike said flatly with his face still sore from Ed's punch.
"Oh hello again little dude! Haha." Ed greeted, not noticing Spike's eye roll.
Seeing that Spike wasn't in the mood, she quickly pointed to her next friend.
"This orange mare with a Stetson is Applejack. She's our town's farmer and grows the best apples here."
Applejack tipped her hat in greeting. "Howdy, pleasure to meet ya."
"Like 'howdy' to you too," Ed said with a chuckle. "So do you have farm animals?"
Applejack smiled in pride. "Why yes, yes we do. We have every healthy farm animal we have back at my good 'ol farm."
"Oh cool! Does that include horses?"
Applejack blinked. "Uh...sugarcube, we technically are horses, but as a pony."
"So does that mean you get to ride on other ponies or do they ride on you?"
"...Wat?"
"Um, moving right along," said Twilight as she led Ed to her quietest friend of the group. "This is Fluttershy. She is very shy but she loves and takes care of all the animals, big and small."
Fluttershy shyly hid half of her face in her mane with a blush on her cheeks.
"Oh cool! Hey there Fluttershy," Ed greeted with his hand stretch out to Fluttershy in greeting.
Fluttershy froze in place as Ed's hand were inches away from her face. She wasn't able to make a sound even as one of her friends asking her if she's okay. Feeling overwhelmed, Fluttershy tipped herself backwards and then she pass out after she was caught by Rainbow Dash.
Ed tilted his head in confusion. "Um..is she okay?"
"Oh she's alright darling. She...wasn't very good at meeting other po- people. But this happened rarely."
"Speaking of which, this elegant pony here is Rarity," said Twilight as she pointed to Rarity. "She is a fantastic fashion designer and she owns three different boutiques all across Equestria."
"Oh you flattered me darling," said Rarity, trying to be modest. She then turn to Ed with her polite smile. "If I may be so bold Ed, but what exactly are you wearing?"
"Oh this is my uniform when I worked at the Good Burger," answered Ed with a laugh.
Rarity's furrowed her eyebrows but still kept her smile. "I...see. Do you wear any other clothing other than your...uniform?"
"Nope. I wear this thing all the time," Ed said bluntly.
One of Rarity's eye twitched a bit, but she was still smiling. "Surely you taken them off at some point, right?"
"Nope. I pretty much wear it everyday. Even when I showered or sleep with it. Haha!"
Rarity now had a blank look and her eye twitched much more rapidly. Seeing her friend was about to have another dramatic episode, Twilight quickly moved on to her next friend.
"Anyway...this pony here with the rainbow mane is-"
"AHEM!"
"Sigh...the one and only, super duper amazing and twenty percent more cooler...Rainbow Dash," Twilight said dully as if she had rehearsed her line before.
On cue, Rainbow Dash landed on the ground with her hooves and made ger dramatic pose.
"The one and only!" Rainbow boosted before turning to Twilight. "You still need to put more 'oomph' in your introductions Twi."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Anyway, Rainbow here is very athletic. She's the head director of the weather crew and she's a member of the Wonderbolts."
Ed blinked. "Um...what's a Wonderbolts?"
Rainbow Dash let out her horrified gasp before she flew right up to Ed's face. "You never heard of the Wonderbolts!? Where have you been!?"
"Uh...I don't know."
"Dash, he's from another world, remember?" Twilight pointed out.
Rainbow rubbed her head in her sheepish manner. "Oh yeah...I forgot about that."
"Is your mane natural?" Ed asked suddenly.
"Of course is natural!" said Rainbow with a huff, annoyed by this question many times before. "My mane's is always multi-color since the day I was born. Been in my family for many generations."
Ed smiled. "I like it! Reminds me of Skittles. Haha."
Rainbiw titled her head in confusion. "Um...what are Skittles?"
"Ooh ooh, don't forget about me!" Pinkie chirped, as she was bouncing in her place.
Twilight rolled her eyes but had a smile on her face. "Of course we won't forget you. Ed, you already met her but this happy energetic pink mare standing before you is Pinkie Pie. She is one of Ponyville's best baker and a super party extravaganza. She also loves to make new friends."
Pinkie nodded her head with her huge smile. "Yepperoni~! Me and Eddie are already the best of friends. Right Eddie?"
"Totally!" Ed cheered as both Ed and Pinkie gave each other the hoof bump, or in Ed's case, the fist bump.
Rainbow leaned into Applejack's right ear with her hoof barley covering her mouth.
"Eddie?" She questioned with her low voice.
Applejack shrugged in response.
Twilight trotted over to a nervous light purple mare with purple and mint green mane. "And last but not least, this is our newest friend and my faithful student, Starlight Glimmer. She is very talented with her magic and she's currently learning about the magic of friendship."
Starlight, who was just as shy as Fluttershy, slowly stretch her hoof out to Ed in greeting. "Um...hi."
"Nice to meet you Starlight," Ed said cheerfully as he shook her hoof and Starlight's body in the process. He then lets go of her. "So you're good with your magic?"
Starlight was dizzy for a moment before she quuckly recovered. "O-oh well...I'm pretty good at magic, but not that great."
"Oh don't be so modest darling," said Rarity, now felt better from her near shock. "You are just as good with magic as Twilight."
"Yeah," Pinkie piped up. "You nearly gave Twilight a run for her money when you-"
Before she could speak anymore, a magical zipper in a purple aura zipped her mouth shut. Despite that her mouth was shut, Pinkie was still trying to finish her story with her muffed lips.
"Pinkie, don't bring that up!" Twilight scolded. "You're upsetting her!"
Pinkie finally noticed Starlight's sullen appearance, who was looking down at the floor in shame. Pinkie ears drooped. She hated seeing her friends get so upset, especially when she herself unintentionally was the cause of it. shot Starlight her apologetic look. Receiving the message, Starlight gave Pinkie her small smile, letting her friend know that she's not upset her.
After that exchanged, Twilight unzipped Pinkie's mouth. Ed meanwhile was confused from the display.
"Um...is something wrong?"
"It was nothing Ed, it's best you don't worry about it." Twilight reassured. "Anyway, I think I should escort you back to the castle. You deserve a rest after everything that happened to you today."
"Um...okay," said Ed as he was led to the front door by Twilight.
"Wait, Ed?"
Both Ed and Twilight stopped in their tracks and they turned to see Spike with his neutral expression.
"Back at the castle, why did you punch me?" he asked.
"Oh, it's because you asked me for a good punch," Ed answered.
The whole bakery was in silence as everyone starred at Ed until Spike spoke up again.
"Wait, that's it? That's the reason?"
"Yeah, like, what do you think he means?" said Ed as if the answer was obvious.
"Come on Ed, let's head back to the castle," said Twilight as she was heading out the door. "And stay close to me."
"Ok," said Ed as he stepped out the door to follow Twilight.
It was few seconds later when everypony heard Twilight's loud yelp from outside.
"Ed! I don't mean that close!"
While everyone just stood there, staring blankly, Applejack felt her hat lifted off from head. She turned to see Rainbow Dash holding her hat with her one eyebrow raised.
"So AJ...would you like your hat cooked or raw?"
Twilight sighed as she and Ed we're walking down the road to her castle. Today has been a crazy day. Her experiment was a failure, she accidentally took Ed from his world to hers and caused a whole town to panic when she had her eyes off of Ed for a moment. If she haven't get to him on time, then it would've been a disaster. At least she introduced Ed to her friends...even if it was a bit awkward (except for Pinkie), but she knew they'll come around eventually.
What she dread the most was how will she explain this to Princess Celestia, especially that it was her fault in the first place. All royal Princesses had to make an emergency report on anything major happens to Equestria. As much as she wanted to keep Ed a secret so she can solve her own problem without making a big deal over it, she knew it was pointless. Her huge amount of her experimental magic would most likely get Celestia and the other Princesses attention. Even if they somehow didn't sense her magic, other ponies, like the news reporters would spread that a human appeared in Ponyville. It would only be a matter of time before word reach Celestia. Plus, she didn't want to hurt Celestia for keeping a secret from her. So she'll have to send a letter to her immediately, but she still had to protect Ed in case if anypony who would try to unfairly label him as a monster and send him to the Royal Dungeon.
Especially from him.
"Whoa!"
Twilight stopped in her tracks when she heard Ed. She turned to see Ed who had an awe look on his face as he was staring at a building in front of him. Twilight titled her head up a bit and realized what Ed was looking at.
He was staring at the Hay Burger restaurant.
Twilight turned to Ed again. He still had an awe expression on his face, but she also saw something else she couldn't quite make out.
'Was he...longing?' Twilight thought. 'Could a fast food restaurant really make him feel...homesick?'
"Ed," Twilight said quietly.
Ed snapped out of his trance and faced Twilight. "Oh, what is it Twilight?"
"I see that you're impressed with our local burger restaurant?" said Twilight with a small smile.
Ed smiled back. "Yeah, totally! This place reminds me of Good Burger back home when I work at the register."
"I take that you like your job?" asked Twilight.
"I love my job!" Ed said with a sudden burst of enthusiasm. "Good Burger is my life! But the best thing about Good Burger is meeting new faces. I always work there with a smile on my face, even if some customers get upset over silly things like complaining about me adding a shoe in their burger."
Twilight nearly did a double take. 'Wait...he once added a shoe in their burger!?'
"Despite all that," Ed continued. "I treasured each and everyday I spent working at Good Burger." Ed sighed but had a smaller smile. "Even though Mr. Bailey gave me a vacation to take a break from work...I already missed working at the Good Burger."
While part of her confused as to why working at the Good Burger is the only thing he missed from home, she at least understood (to some degree) of how important his job was to him. She then knew what she had to do to start making up to him for bringing him here while she figures out a way to send him home.
There's no harm in that, right?
"Well Ed, if you like working at a fast food restaurant that much, then how about I get you a job at the Hay Burger as a volunteer. It may not be Good Burger, but I figured it'll be close to home for you."
Ed had a huge smile on his face like a kid who woke up on a Heartswarming morning. "You mean it!"
Twilight chuckled. "Yes, I mean it. I do anything to help a friend."
"You mean...we're buddies now?" Ed asked but with a warmer smile this time.
Twilight smiled back. "I do."
A lone stallion was sitting on his chair, while angrily crushing Equestrua Daily newspaper with his hooves. He had a very rough week dealing with other ponies who disagreed with his ideas and opposed against him despite his title. The worse is what happen to him yesterday that he considered to be the most humiliated moment in his life, especially when the most Royal figure of Equestria, scolded him like a child in front of so many ponies for them to see. The press who wrote the news made things even worse for him. He was used to be the most highly respected stallion in Equestria, but ever since he ran into that mare, things were starting to fall apart around him. He even tried to form a boycott against the newest Princess for not being the true Royal figure and all questionable decisions she made, but due to high popularity of Princess Twilight and Princesses Celestia's interference, he was quickly shot down. They are all fools to him. He needs to find a way to take that fake Princess down and bring himself back on top to gain back the respect that he deserves.
Suddenly he heard the door open and somepony entered his room. The stallion sighed in annoyance.
"I thought I told you I need to be alone!"
"I'm terribly sorry sir," said an old stallion who was most likely his butler. "But I have a message from your...*ahem*...acquaintance...all the way from Ponyville."
The stallion sighed and rolled his eyes. "Again? What is it? It better not be another one of her so called social event!"
"No it's...well, you should read it for yourself."
The butler handed over a silver tray with a letter on top of it to the stallion. The stallion used his magic to levitate the letter over to him and began to read it. As he read the letter, his eyes widen.
"A human!? In Ponyville!? And he was accidentally teleported to our world by a magical experiment from Princess Twilight Sparkle!?
He just stared at the letter in shock, still processing everything he learned. Then, his face slowly formed into a nasty cruel smirk.
"Well, well, well. It looks like an opportunity has fallen into my lap, all wrapped up in a bow by the 'Princess of Friendship' herself." The stallion looked up to face his butler. "Winston, cancel all the appointments for the rest of this week, as well as next week. We're going to make a trip to Ponyville a couple days from now. So make it snappy!"
Winston sighed somberly. "As you wish...Master Blueblood."
Chapter 5: Can I Take Your Order? - Twilight's Perspective
Twilight was sitting on her throne in the Cutie Map room, reading a book. Earlier, she, Spike and Flash visited the Hay Burger to check up on Ed now that he officially works there, as a volunteer of course. She was glad that Ed is happy and comfortable so far, despite being stranded on their world. Even though Ed was never angry at her, she still felt responsible for yanking him away from his home. That's why she's reading many books about spells, forgotten spells, dimension theories or anything that can help her send Ed back home.
So far, no luck.
She sighed in frustration. She knew it'll be difficult to re-duplicate the spell that brought Ed over, but from what she researched so far, it was much more complicated than she thought. While it involved the same spells she used on the mirror, she theorized that it was also a combination of raw magic from the vortex that nearly destoyed Ponyville. Raw magic is very dangerous and unpredictable. Trying to create the same level of raw magic is impossible. Even if somepony was crazy enough to do it, the unstable amount of raw magic could wipe out three different towns if done incorrectly. Raw magic was so dangerous, Princess Celestia banned anypony of using it many years ago. That time, Twilight combined some of its raw magic by accident, but how can she recreate something that is so dangerous and banned by the Princess? She hoped that she can find a different method of sending Ed back home, but if there are no other options...
Just then, her stomach's began to rumble, interrupting her thoughts. Her eyes briefly glanced at the doors. While they were at the Hay Burger, Twilight ordered herself a Hay Burger and then have Spike to take over the rest of the order and told him to bring the food back to the castle since she still have work to do. It's been fifteen minutes since then and was wondering what took the little dragon long. Suddenly, she heard the doors slammed open which caused her to flinched back violently. She turned and spotted Spike who was standing by the door.
Twilight smiled. "Oh hey Spike, just in time! I can't wait to eat that--"
Her words died in her throat when she noticed Spike's angry expression on his face and he stomped his way over to her. Spike reached for his own throne and sat down, while crossing his arms and his nostrils were flaring. Twilight was very concerned for her friend who rarely got this angry and decided to get to the bottom of this as gentle as possible.
"Spike what's wrong? And where's our food?" Twilight asked in her motherly voice.
"I left them there!" Spike answered bluntly.
Twilight did a double take. "You left them there!? Why!?"
"It's your new friend Ed! That's why!" Spike growled.
Twlight blinked in confusion. "Wait...Ed's the reason? I don't understand."
Spike sighed and turned to face Twilight. "Okay look, after you left the Hay Burger, I decided to place an order of one Good Burg--"
Spike froze up for a moment before he facepalm himself. "Aw geeze, now he had me saying that!"
"Spike focus!" Twilight urged him to continue.
"Right, sorry," Spike said a bit sheepishly before he continued. "Anyway, I ordered one hayburger with gems on it."
"And did he?"
"Yeah he did. Which was awesome! Normally, the other employers who work there never allowed that and I had to eat it plain. It looked so delicious."
"Well that's nice of him," said Twilight before she frowned. "But that doesn't explain why you were so angry."
Spike let out an angry snort. "Well after he made that burger, I asked him for a price of two burgers."
"And?"
"And he ended up giving me another two burgers!"
Twilight blinked. "Wait...what?"
"Yeah, I asked how much for the two burgers and he gave me two more burgers!" Spike said, raising his voice slightly.
"Um...did you tell him you don't want another two burgers?" Twilight asked
"I did!" Spike cried. "Only he gave me another two burgers! Then another one!THEN ANOTHER ONE!THEN ANOTHER ONE! No matter what I said to him, he just keeps on piling more burgers on my tray! I was so fed up with him, I decided to leave the restaurant!"
Twilight was stunned from what she was hearing. Did Ed really made a mistake with the amount of burgers they wanted to order or did Ed pulled some kind a prank to Spike's expense. She hoped it was the former. If it really was a mistake, then why?
"Um...maybe he misunderstood what you were asking?" Twilight suggested with hesitation.
"How the hay could he misunderstood from two to a hundred burgers!?" Spike retorted.
"Spike calm down!" Twilight pleaded. When Spike calmed down somewhat, Twilight spoke again. "Look, why don't we head back to the Hay Burger and let me explain to Ed what we really want. I'm sure it was all just a simple mista--"
SLAM
Both Twilight and Spike jumped at the sound of a slammed door. They turned towards the door and they were shocked at what they saw.
There, stood by the door was Applejack, steaming like a demon. What really caught their attention was that Applejack was completely covered in brown substance, dripping from her head to her hooves. She would've been unrecognizable if it weren't for her trademark stetson, which was also covered in brown substance.
"Whoa Applejack! What happened to you!?" Spike cried.
Applejack was stumping across the room towards them. "It's dat no-good varmint human friend of yours!"
"Wait, Ed did this!?" Twilight gasped in shock.
"Yeah! Who else do ya think I was talkin' about!" Applejack retorted.
"But...how? How did he do this to you?" asked Twilight as she used her magic to levitate a towel to Applejack.
Applejack gratefully accepted the towel and began to dry herself off. "Well Ah came in to Good Bur-- Hay Burger for a veggie-chilli hayburger and a berry soda. But he mistook me for a burger frozen in a big 'ol ice cube...don't ask. After Ah clarified what Ah really wanted, he took out that hose from outta nowhere and sprayed chili all over me! Ah was so mad, Ah yelled at him and then Ah left the place!"
Twilight had a bewildered look on her face. "B-but, why would he sprayed chili all over you?"
"Because your friend is nuttier than a bag of peanuts! That's why!" Applejack snapped before she let ou a sigh. "Well at least Ah got myself a free drink after all the trouble."
Applejack took a sip of her drink through her straw. Her face suddenly had a grimace look for a few seconds and then spit out all the drink out of her mouth.
"YUCK! This soda taste like pears!" Applejack exclaimed. Her eyes then narrowed at her cup and sniffed it a bit. "Wait a minute..."
She opened the lid of her cup and this time, she took a small sip of it. The same disgust taste in her mouth confirmed her suspicion, and threw her cup on the ground and stopped on it repeatedly.
"IT IS PEARS!" she roared. "HE GAVE ME A PEAR SODA! WAIT TIL AH GET MY HOOVES ON HIM!"
Both Twilight and Spike watched Applejack nervously at the sidelines. They knew that Applejack despised pears, but they never realized she hates them that much. Spike leaned in to Twilight's ear with his claw covered his mouth.
"Yeash, and I thought I had it rough."
Twilight consciously approached Applejack and placed her hoof on her friend's shoulder. "Okay, I don't know why he would do that to you but maybe if we all calmed down and than we go talk to--"
Suddenly, the doors slammed opened again and a rainbow blur zoomed in and stopped right in front of Twilight, revealing a very furious Rainbow Dash.
"TWILIGHT! YOUR NEW FRIEND DRIVES ME CRAZY!" Rainbow screamed.
"W-who drives you crazy Rainbiw Dash?" Twilight asked, already dreading on who that is.
"ED! THAT'S WHO!"
Twilight groaned. "I'm afraid to ask, but what did Ed do?" Before Rainbow Dash began to vent, Twilight quickly added, "And please try to explain to me calmly."
With a huff, Rainbow took a monent to calm down before she began her woes. "Well I was trying to order a whopper hayburger but he did weird things like showing me his 'yo-yo' or whatever that is. Then when I asked for a number five, he gave me a model shaped number five! And then, when he finally gave me the whopper, it was actually a giant version of the burger and he tried to overcharge me for twenty-five bits! TWENTY. FIVE. BITS! For something I didn't want!"
Twilight's eyes widened in disbelief. "Ed...really did all that?"
"Yeah, but that's not even the worst part!" Rainbow Dash anwsered with a growl. "Pinkie Pie then showed up out of nowhere and ordered the same as mine, including a large fry. By that, I mean a freakishly large french fry! And, get this...he charged her eight bits!EIGHT! FOR THAT LARGE FRY AND THAT SAME GIANT BURGER HE TRIED TO GIVE ME!"
"This...this is crazy!" Twilight exclaimed, can't believe what she was hearing.
"That's what we were trying to tell you Twi!" said Spike.
"Yeah, Ah reckon that you should fire him before he does any more damage!" Applejack interjected in, now with only some of the chili left on her fur.
Twilight was still processing this in shock. How could Ed managed to make a lot of mistakes in an extremely way and make all of her friends angry in such a short time? Worse, one of her friends demanded to fire Ed from his job that he likes. Money isn't a problem for Ed since she is contribute the costs for him for the time being. The problem is, she doesn't want to be the one to take away his happiness by removing him from Hay Burger. Judging from the looks of her friends, they all seemed to agree with Applejack.
Despite that she's in a losing battle, Twilight tried to diffuse the situation.
"Look everyone, what Ed did to you all was wrong...and bizarre, but I think we're being too hasty with this over a few mistakes."
Suddenly they heard the doors slammed open, causing everypony to turned towards the source. They saw Starlight Glimmer trotting in with an angry look on her face. She slowly trotted across the room until she was sitting on the throne next to Twilight. She opened her mouth to speak, but Twilight beat her to it.
"Let me guess...you went to Hay Burger and Ed gave you the wrong order in the most crazy and bizarre way and made you angry."
Statlight's anger disappeared as she blinked her eyes in surprise. "Uh...yeah. How did you know?"
"Lucky guess," Twilight said flatly before burying her face into her hooves with a sigh. "Just...tell me what happened."
Starlight stared at her friend in confusion for a moment before clearing her throat to begin her tale. "I went to Hay Burger to order my burger with extra pickles and light on the ketchup, only for Ed to give me a burger with way too much ketchup and shined a light over it because I said 'light on the ketchup'. So I asked him to give me another one with no ketchup and put extra pickles on it this time, only for him to took out a huge bowl full of pickles and dumped them on top of my burger!"
Spike facepalmed. "Geeze, this guy did a lousy job working at fast foods! Just how the hay did the employers who hired him deal with him!?"
Rainbow Dash flew up to Twilight and crossed her forehooves. "There's no way you can deny this further Egghead! Ed needs to stop! And we both know what needs to be done!"
Twilight glanced around the room and everypony gave her their firm looks. There's no way she can protect Ed any longer. If there are only two of her friends complained to her, she could gave Ed a firm lecture about it so he doesn't make the same mistakes again. But with almost all of her friends come in complaining and demanding to fire Ed, there's nothing she can do for him.
Twilight sighed sadly. "I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but in light of all this...I guess I have no choice."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Let's all go back to the Hay Burger and give him a piece of our minds!"
Everyone nodded and turned to head out of the castle while Twilight lingered behind with a guilt look on her face.
'I'm so sorry Ed.'
- A Few Hours Later -
After they all have a big lunch/celebration of Ed's herotic actions at the Hay Burger, they dropped off the burglar at the police station and then came back to the Cutie Map room on their thrones (spare chair for Starlight). Ed was still at the Hay Burger to do mopping duty which gave them all perfect opportunity to discuss about Ed.
"Well I don't know about you girls, but today was a heck of a crazy day!" said Spike.
"Yeah tell me about it." said Starlight. "I can't believe the same guy who couldn't get any of our orders right, was able take down that robber!"
"Well, technically I took him down after Ed distracted him with his yo-yo tricks and his chilli hose. But I'll admit, it was...so awesome!" Rainbow squealed as she pressed her cheeks together.
Applejack, now completely clean, leaned back into her chair. "Welp, at least the chlli wasn't over me that time! Ah'm still a bit peeved at him though."
"Applejack, language!" Rarity cried out as she was powdering her face in front of her pocket mirror with her magic. "Honestly darling, just because his methods was a bit irritating and bizarre, that doesn't mean you should be so hard on him."
"Says a mare who was about to strangle him over a milkshake." Applejack stated flatly.
Ratity puts down her makeup kit and turned to Applejack with her indignant look. "That's different! You weren't there to see how he made that shake! It was barbaric!"
"How was that different from me getting sprayed with chili?" Applejack argued.
"Girls please, no fighting!" Fluttershy pleaded.
Applejack and Rarity stopped their argument and they both gave Fluttershy their apologetic looks.
Twilight cleared her throat to get her friends attention. "Look, what Ed did...I'll admit it, it was bad. It seems he took things too literal everytime we asked him for an order...except for Pinkie. Apparently, hers came out right."
Pinkie nodded her head vigorously with a smile on her face. "Of course he does! I asked him for a large fry and he gave it to me. Apparently it was made from from a world's largest potato. Wasn't that neat? I bet it took a long time for them to grow one, especially that was grown from the ground. Come to think of it, how did they managed to take the largest potato out of the ground? You need to have strength of one hundred earth ponies in order to-"
"Whoops sorry about that Twilly." Pinkie said sheepishly. "Anyyyyyyyywho, he even gave me Dashie's burger since she doesn't want one."
"I never asked for it in the first place!" Rainbow grunted through her clenched teeth.
"Well you should've kept it. It was really good!" Pinkie chirped, oblivious to Rainbow Dash's glare.
Twilight rolled her eyes from Pinkie's antics and spoke up again. "Girls, I know he can be really frustrating to deal with and acted strangely at times, but you all have to remember that he's a really good guy and was willing to help us out whenever there's trouble. As proof, he risked his life to saved others twice. I honestly don't know what would I do if anything happens to my number one assistant."
To case in point, Twilight draped her hoof over Spike and nuzzled him.
Spike smiled from Twilight's affection. "Aw Twi, I'm alright now. And I'm grateful that Ed saved me despite my attitude towards him earlier. For that, I'm in his dept."
Twilight stopped nuzzling and raised her eyebrow at Spike. "His dept?"
"Dragon's code," Spike clarified.
"Oh, like that time when you served Applejack because she saved you?" Twilight asked which cause Applejack to cringe at that memory.
"Yep."
Twilight frowned. "Now Spike--"
"I know, I know. Don't go overboard like last time," Spike droned to reassure his surrogate sister/mother.
Twilight nodded in approval before facing Fluttershy. "Anyway, back to Ed. It was a good thing you did when you suggested that he gets additional help at the Hay Burger."
Fluttershy blushed from Twilight praise. "Oh...well...even though he made mistakes a lot, there's no reason to fire him on his first day. He was being nice depite how we acted towards him and...I felt bad for being so shy around him so...I figured he deserved another chance."
"I couldn't agree more Fluttershy," Twilight said with a smile. "So when will you start?"
Fluttershy blinked. "Um...excuse me?"
"When will you start working with Ed?" Twilight clarified.
Fluttershy eyes widened and then shook her head. "Oh goodness no! When I suggested that Ed needs help, I don't mean me. I'm too busy watching over the animals enough as it is. I'm sorry...I didn't mean to give you all the wrong impression."
Twilight gave Fluttershy her apologetic look. "No Fluttershy, I'm sorry. I shouldn't assume without clarification from you first."
"Yeah, don't be so sad." Pinkie chirped. "There's still six of us who can go and help Ed tomorrow."
Twilight faced Pinkie with her confused expression. "Uh Pinkie, don't you mean seven?"
Pinkie shook her head, still smiling. "Nope, just six. I'm not counting myself."
"Wait, you're not going to help him?" Twilight asked in shock.
"Actually, I want to help him, but I pinkie-promised to watch all over the twins all day tomorrow. So my hooves are tied." Pinkie said sadly as she literally got her hooves all tied up like a bow.
"I understand," Twilight said with a sigh.
"Might as well not countin' me either," Applejack spoke up. "Me and mah family will be busy with the upcomin' harvest so Ah couldn't help him either."
"That goes double for me," Rainbow Dash added. "I got a very busy schedule now that I'm the main member of the Wonderbolts. So my free time is less than usual."
"I'm afraid I couldn't help Ed either darlings," said Rarity with a bit of regret. "Coco needs my help with a big order in Manehattan for a few days that I must attend to. Besides...I don't think I want to get grease all over my coat from that place. No offense."
"And I promised Trixie that I help her perform her magic show at Canterlot tomorrow. So I'm not available either," said Starlight, shooting her teacher her apologetic glance.
Spike cleared his throat awkwardly to get Twilight's attention. "I hate to remind you Twi, but we'll be busy having a meeting with the other Princess tomorrow about the 'you-know-who'.
Twilight gave everyone her bewildered look."So let me get this straight. None of you girls are available to help Ed at the Hay Burger tomorrow!?"
When everyone in the room was avoiding Twilight's gaze, Twilight began to panic.
"Oh no this is bad! We nearly prevented a disaster last time but how are we going to help him if none of us will be there at all!?"
"Twilight, calm down!" Spike cried, while rubbing her back.
"Yeah Twi, maybe there's somepony else who could watch him in our place?" Applejack suggested.
Twilight turned to Applejack with her skeptical look. "Oh yeah? Well who do we know and trust could possibly be available to help and keep Ed out of trouble when we're not around?"
Just when anypony was about to answer, they heard the door opened. They turned to see none other than Flash Sentry, with two black eyes and a small bruise on his forehead from Ed's Good Punches from earlier. He made his way over to the Cutie Map where Twilight and her friends were sitting at.
"Princess Twilight, you must reconsider!" He begged, as he bowed down in front of them. "If it's about montering you consistently, I am so sorry! I was just doing my job! Well...I kinda overdue it, but please don't fire me and send me back to the Crystal Empire! If you give me another chance, I'll promise I'll...try...to...do...better?"
When Flash looked up, he noticed everyone was giving him their huge smirks, except for Fluttershy, who only smiled guilty. Twilight wore the biggest smile out of all of them like a cat who just swallowed a canary.
Flash gulped nervously. "Um...why is everypony looking at me like that?"
It was a new day at the Hay Burger and it was once again around lunch time. There were a lot more customers in the restaurant today then there were yesterday despite word spread about Ed's performance or the attempted robbery at the Hay Burger around town. As for Ed himself, he actually improved himself about taking the customers orders all thanks to his new friends.
"Hey! Is this some kind of joke!?"
...by a sheer margin.
Ed brought his attention to a grumpy looking donkey with a thin yet long orange mane.
"What's wrong Mr. Donkey?" Ed asked.
Cranky snorted angerly. "I'll tell you what's wrong! I ordered one hay burger with nothing on it!"
Ed blinked "But that's what I gave you."
"No, you gave me a bun! Just a bun!"
To demonstrate his point, Cranky lifted up his "burger" and opened the buns, reveling nothing in between the buns.
"Look! There's no hay burger in here!" Cranky complained as he waved the buns around.
"But you said you wanted 'nothing on it!'" Ed pointed out.
"Yeah but I expected a hay patty!" Cranky shouted.
Ed shook his head. "Dude, a hay patty is something, you said nothing!"
Ed then turned to his new co-worker. "Hey Flash! Is a hay patty something or nothing?"
Flash, who wore the same uniform as Ed, snapped out of his miserable funk and turned to Ed with his confused expression.
"Um...something?"
Ed turned back to the donkey and raised his right arm in victory. "I win!"
Cranky growled. "Oh right that does it, I'm going to report your name to Princess Twilight!"
Ed lowered his arm. "But Twilight already knows my name."
"Then I'll see you in Tartarus!" Cranky yelled as he slammed the buns on the counter and stomped towards the exit.
Ed smiled and waved at the donkey's back. "Okay, see you there!"
The only response Ed received from the donkey was the doors slammed shut behind him. Ed stopped waving and turned back to Flash.
"Nice guy," Ed mused. "I don't know why he had to throw the bread everywhere. I mean jeeze!"
Flash let out an annoyed sigh as he thought back to how he ended up in this predicament in the first place.
"You can't be serious!" Flash shouted, not believing what the princess just proposed to him.
Twilight smiled smugly. "Oh I'm serious Mr. Sentry. My friends and I are too busy tomorrow to check on Ed. Since you now have a lot of free time on your hooves, you'll be the perfect candidate to keep him in line."
Flash Sentry's eyes bugged out. "B-but Prin-"
Flash was cut off when Twilight narrowed her eyes at him. "I- I mean Twilight," he quickly corrected. "I was just doing my job! He was causing havoc if I haven't shown up! That monster could be dangerous!"
He yelped when Twilight growled and then brought her face close to him. "First of all, that monster is my friend! Don't you ever call him that in front of me again! Second, he was trying to shop for food for us. The reason why there was havoc was because YOU tried to arrest him by jumping to conclusions in the first place! And third, you just said that you 'want another chance.' Well, I'm giving you one! If you do the job well, I may consider giving your old job back!"
As Twilight leaned back to her seat, Flash tried to plead his case again, despite his nervous state. "T-there's no way I'll spent my days babysitting that mon-" Twilight narrowed her eyes again. "Human!" Flash corrected. "That guy is nuttier than a fruitcake!"
"It's either that or you face my brother and my sister in law that you failed as a guard and find another job!" Twilight stated bluntly before letting out her smirk. "So what's it gonna be?"
Not wanting to damage his pride any further (and fear of facing the prince back to Crystal Empire) Flash accepted Twilight's 'proposal' much to his reluctance. When Ed heard about the news this morning, Ed was so excited about having a new working buddy, he literally dragged poor Flash out of his bed to the restaurant and then appointed Flash as a new member for Good Burger (even though the place is called the Hay Burger). Flash's real job is to keep an eye on Ed, but after five minutes working with Ed, Flash already couldn't stand him.
How did my life reached so low? Flash thought bitterly with a sigh. I'm an elite royal guard from the Crystal Empire, not a low-life fast food employee! Worse part is I'm stuck with this idiot!
Flash felt a hand roughly placed on his shoulder. He looked up to see Ed with his goofy smile on his face.
"Thanks for coming to volunteer with me," Ed said gratefully. "Work will be much more fun now that you're here! I can teach you everything you need to know about working at Good Burger. Doesn't that sound great?"
"I think I would rather spend my time peeling a thousand potatoes at my old academy," Flash deadpanned.
"Hey, if you want to make french fries then that's fine too!" Ed chuckled.
Flash grunted in frustration. "That's not what I meant!"
As the two co-workers were talking, three fillies walked through the door and entered the building. One filly is yellow earth pony with a long cherry red mane and tail with a pink bow and orange eyes. The second filly is a white unicorn with shades of purple and pink mane and tail with a white horn on her head and light green eyes. The last filly is a light orange pegasus with dark magenta mane and tail, small wings on her back and light purple eyes. They each have the same three shades of purple shields as their cutie marks, but the image in the middle of their shields are different. One has an apple with a heart inside of it, the other has a star with a musical note inside of that, and the third is a wing with a lighting bolt inside of it.
These three fillies are famously known as the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders.' They originally formed a club to find their own cutie marks, but after helping out a known school bully, now friend, they realized they should help other ponies with a cutie mark problem and they got their mark as a result. They just finished solving another pony's cutie mark problem and they decided to come in to the Hay Burger for lunch but paused when they spotted the infamous human from another world, standing behind the counter.
"Look girls, is that 'hew-man' that our sisters were talking about," said Sweetie Belle.
Apple Bloom raised her eyebrow. "Huh, he looked a lot stranger than the descriptions of wat mah sister told me."
"I don't care how strange he looks," said Scootaloo as she took out a coupon from her saddlebag. "I just want to order our lunches with my coupon for today."
Apple Bloom stared at Ed for a moment before she turned to her pegasus friend with a unsure look. "Ah don't know Scoots, mah sister told me that he was terrible of takin' orders."
Scootaloo frowned. "So? Some fast-food staffs makes mistakes with orders all the time! I won't make a big deal if he made a small mistake."
"Scoots, it's more than a small mistake," said Apple Bloom before pointing at Ed. "Applejack told me that this guy was either too literal or somehow fulfilled yer order in the most bizarre way. She also told me that he makes more mistakes than every single fast-food employee on Equestria combined!"
Scootaloo scoffed. "Oh come on! She was probably over-exaggerated."
"She tried to order a veggi-chili burger the other day, only for her to get covered in chili from a hose!" Apple Bloom argued.
"And my sister ended up getting a burger shake instead of a milkshake," Sweetie Belle added with a squeak. "And she still have endless nightmares about his most 'unfashionable, atrocious, and abomination of a uniform' from the nineties!"
Two of the fillies starred at the unicorn strangely, causing the unicorn to frown. "What? It's her words, not mine!"
Scottaloo backed away slightly from Sweetie Belle "Ooooookay? Look, I'm still going to order our lunches. How bad can this guy be?"
Scootaloo trotted towards the counter with her two other friends in tow. By the time they reached their destination, Ed noticed them and gave them a smile.
"Hi! Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger. Can I take your order?"
Flash studied the fillies from the sidelines. Those fillies, they look so familiar, but I can't seem to recall who they are.
Scootaloo stood on her rear hooves and leaned on the counter. "Hi, we would like to order three good burgers with a coupon of 'one half off one good burger on your birthday?'"
Ed's eyes widen and let out a gasp. "Whoa, WHOA! IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!"
"DID SOMEPONY SAY BIRTHDAY!?"
Pinkie Pie popped out from behind the counter, surprising everypony except for Ed.
"PINKIE!?" Flash exclaimed. "Where did you-- NEVERMIND! I thought you're watching the twins today!"
"I am!" Pinkie giggled and pointed across from them. "They're right over there eating their lunches at their table! Aren't they so cute~!"
The others turned toward the table where Pinkie was pointing at, to see the two foals, the Cake Twins, sitting on their high chairs. One was building a house made of french fries while the other was eating some apple sauce while waving back at them with a happy gurgle.
"Anyway..." she began seriously, getting everypony's attention before she broke into her huge Pinkie grin. "DID SOMEPONY SAY SOMETHING ABOUT BIRTHDAY!?"
"YEAH, IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY!" Ed announced excitedly.
"YIPPEE! LET'S CELEBRATE!" Pinkie cheered with confetti exploded behind her. Both Ed and Pinkie took out their party hats and put them on their heads. After Ed took out and blows into his party horn, they both began to sing.
"For I'm/He's a jolly good dude!~ For I'm/He's a jolly good dude!~ For I'm/He's a jolly good duuuuuuuuuude!~ With nobody/nopony can deny!~
With nobody/nopony can deny~ With nobody/nopony can-"
"No NO NO!" Scottaloo screamed, making the party duo stopped singing. "It's not YOUR birthday!"
"It's not?" Both Pinkie and Ed chorused.
Scottaloo shook her head. "No! It's MY birthday. You know? The day I was born?"
Pinkie blinked for a moment before she smiled in realization. "Oh yeah! Happy birthday Scootaloo! I'll set up a party for you later!"
Ed stared at Scootaloo in amazement. "Whoa...dude you are born today!? You're the biggest baby I've ever seen!"
Everypony but Pinkie stared at Ed in disbelief. After about a minute of silence, it was Flash who first shook off his state. "Ed! I don't think that's what she's-"
"Who's a cute little baby?" Cooed Ed as he started to squeeze one of Scootaloo's cheeks. "Atty-Boo~! Atty-Boo~!"
Scootaloo angrily slapped Ed's hands away from her. "STOP THAT!"
Apple Bloom lean towards Sweetie Belle's ear with her hoof blocking her mouth. "Ah don't know about you, but Ah think he's nutter than mah Granny's lifetime supply of peanuts."
Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement.
Scootaloo growled. "Look, just forget about my birthday--"
Pinkie gasped in horror, as if Scootaloo had said something crazy. "How can you sat that!? We can't forget about your birthday! Everypony should celebrate their own birthday!"
"Yeah dude," Ed spoke up. "How can say 'no' to cake? Or the presents, or a creepy clown named Steve or--"
"ENOUGH ABOUT THE BIRTHDAY!" Scootaloo snapped. After seeing both Ed and Pinkie in stunned silence, she calmed herself. "Look...I just want to use this coupon for one half-off burger."
Ed nodded. "Okay, one Good Burger, half off!" said Ed, taking the coupon from Scootaloo.
As Ed heads towards the burger rack, Flash approached the fillies with his apologetic look. "I'm sorry about this girls, he's...not a normal person."
"That's an understatement," Scootaloo mumbled in irritation.
While they were quietly discussing how weird Ed is, Ed took one burger from the rack. He then went back to the counter where everypony is waiting. However, they failed to noticed him docking under the counter and took out a scissors. Ed used the scissors to cut the hay burger in half. Once he's finished cutting the burger, he handed over the half burger to Scootaloo.
"There you go! One Good Burger, half off!" Ed announced.
Scootaloo stared at her burger in disbelief before she looked up to Ed in anger. "What the hay! Why did ya give me a half a burger!?"
"You asked for a Good Burger, half off," Ed answered.
"He got you there Scotts," said Sweetie Belle, only to received a glare from the pegasus.
"Do you two want yours half off too?" Ed offered.
"No, in fact we're leaving," Apple Bloom said hastily as she backed away from him.
"Yeah, we rather have a whole burger!" Sweetie Belle said quickly, backing away as well.
"Well if you want your burger with a hole in it, I can make it happen." Ed offered.
Scootaloo threw her burger to the ground. "You're crazy! Wait 'til I tell Rainbow Dash about this!"
Scootaloo, along with her two of her friends quickly headed to the door. As they stomped though the door, they heard Ed yelled, "Happy Birthday Big Baby!" Scootaloo growled angrily before she slammed the door behind her.
Flash began to panic when he finally realized who those three fillies were. Oh crap, those three are younger sisters to the other elements of harmony! If they told their sisters about this, then their big sisters will report to Princess Twilight! And if they report to Princess Twilight, then she'll know that I didn't do a good job of keeping Ed in line. And if she knows that I didn't do a good job...THEN I'M SCREWED! I have to fix this!
Flash turned to Ed. "Ed, stay here! You be the manager until I get back!" Flash then turned to Pinkie. "Pinkie, I know you're babysitting the twins, but will you please also watch him for five minutes?"
Pinkie nodded with a smile. "Sure thing Flashy! And I Pinkie Promise that I won't tell Twilight about this incident so you won't get fired from your job."
Flash eyes widen. "How did you-- nevermind, thanks! Gotta go!"
Flash leapt over the counter and then ran out the door to find the three Crusaders. "GIRLS WAIT!"
"Cool! I'm the manager!" Ed cheered with a smile, but then he frowned. "Um...what do I do?"
Pinkie giggled. "You're in charge of Good Burger silly! You get to do whatever you want!"
"Cool!" said Ed with a smile again. "Hey, since I'm the manager and you're watching me, would you like to work with me?"
"I love too!" Pinkie cried excitedly. "In fact..." Pinkie quickly ducked behind the counter for a moment and then popped back up, now wearing the same uniform as Ed. "I already have this uniform for this occasion!"
"Awesome!" Ed cheered.
Just then, the front door opened and two ponies entered the restaurant. One is a gray earth pony mare with black mane and tail and purple eyes. She also wore a pink bow tie with a white collar and have a violet treble clef as her cutie mark. The other pony is a white unicorn mare with many shades of blue mane and tail. She was wearing purple shades over her eyes and her cutie mark is a mirror image of two bridged eighth notes. Both of these ponies walked towards the counter where Ed and Pinkie Pie was. Once the newcomers were close enough, Ed and Pinkie turned towards them with a smile.
"Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger. Can WE take your order?" Both Ed and Pinkie said in union.
The gray mare briefly glanced at the menu above her. "Yes. We would both like to order a Good Spicy Oats Wrap."
"Ooooh! Okay, one Spicy Oats Rap coming right up!" said Ed and then turned to Pinkie. "Hit it Pinks!"
Pinkie smiled and then placed two of her hooves over her mouth and began to beatbox. Ed was bobbing up and down with the beat as he was waving his right hand as if he was scrubbing a record. Then Ed began to sing along with the beat.
"Oh my name is Ed and I'm here to say~ I love Spicy Oats in a major waaaaaay!~"
The gray mare had a stupefied look on her face while her white unicorn companion was bobbing her head in interest.
"All the Spicy Oats say, what? What?~ O what? Da what?~ What, what?~ O what? Da-"
"STOP STOP STOP STOP!" The gray mare screamed, having enough of their rapping.
Once Ed and Pinkie stopped their 'performance,' the gray mare gave them her hard look.
"What the bloody heck is that!?" she demanded.
"Well you asked for a Spicy Oats Rap" Ed answered.
Pinkie nodded with a smile. "Yuperuni! That'll be eight bucks!"
"You two are crazy!" The gray pony scowled. She then turned and trotted towards the door with her head held high. "Let's get out of here Vinyl!"
The white mare stared at them for a moment before she turned and walked after her companion.
"Hey! We are NOT crazy!" Ed called out as the two visitors walked through the door. He then turned to Pinkie with her back facing him. "Isn't that right Pinks?"
Pinkie quickly spun around and revealed that she got both of the green grapes up her nose. "Look! I'm grape nose mare!" she announced with a giggle.
"That's impossible!" Ed stated as he turned away from Pinkie.
"Why?" Pinkie asked, tilting her head in confusion.
"Because..." Ed turned back around with two green grapes up his nose. "I'M grape nose boy!" Ed said with his goofy smile, making Pinkie laugh like crazy. The two then began to dance.
Pinkie stopped dancing when she heard a whine from a foal. She glimpsed at the table where the twins are and both Pound and Pumpkin Cake were getting fussy from their seats.
"Uh oh! It looks like the twins need their Auntie Pinkie!" said Pinkie before facing Ed. "Eddie, do you mind if I can check on them?"
Ed stopped his dancing and turned to his friend. "Oh of course Pinkie! Go see the little dude and dudette!"
Pinkie smiled. "Thanks Eddie, I'll be right back!" Pinkie hopped over the counter and headed to the table where the twins are at.
While Pinkie tried to make silly faces at baby Cakes with her grapes up her nose, another pony walked into the restaurant. This mare is a white pegasus with small wings, long light blonde mane and tail and magenta eyes. Her cutie mark are two small pink dumbbells. She made her way to the counter just as Ed finished taking (and eating) the grapes out of his nose.
"Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger. Can I take your order?" said Ed with a smile.
"Oh no order from me," the white mare said as she took out a huge gold bit. "Can I have a change for a bit?"
Ed blinked. "Change?"
The mare nodded.
"Um...okay," said Ed. Ed begins to slowly unbuttoned his uniform while singing 'I'm a Dude.' Just as he was about to fully take off his shirt, he stopped when he heard the mare screamed.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" she shrieked with a blush on her cheeks.
"Changing," Ed answered.
"What for?"
"A bit," Ed answered with a chuckle as he snatched a bit from the mare's hoof and then pocketed it.
"You can't do that!" the mare snapped angrily.
"Why not?" Ed asked.
"Because I'm asking for the coins!"
"Oh. Okay!"
Ed took out the bit from his pocket and gave it back to the mare. "Here ya go!"
The mare growled. "You just gave me back the same bit you took from me!"
Ed threw his hands up. "Hey don't look at me dude, you're the one who gave it to me and then ask it back! Make up your mind dude!"
The mare slammed her hoof on the counter. "That's it, I want to speak to your manager!"
Ed nodded. "Okay."
The two of them were just standing around for a minute, staring at each other. The mare was starting to lose her patience.
"...well?"
Ed blinked. "Well what?"
"Where's the manager?" The mare demanded.
"I'm the manager!" Ed answered.
"You!?" The mare exclaimed in disbelief.
Ed nodded. "Yep."
"...you can't be serious!"
"No, I'm Ed."
The mare sighed heavily in frustration. "Okay, if you're the manager, I want to complain to you about you!"
"Well...what did I do?"
"You didn't give me change with this bit!"
"Uh...when?"
"Today! Just now!"
"And when did this happen?"
"I told you! It happened just now!"
"Well, do you have any witnesses?"
"YES! YOU!"
"Who?"
"...I really don't like you at all!"
Ed sighed. "Look dude, I'm gonna have to let you go. This just isn't working out."
The mare blinked. "What?"
"You're fired."
"Fired!?" The mare screeched in rage. "You can't fire me!?"
"Sure I can! I'm the manager!" Ed responded.
"But I don't even work here!"
"I know. I just fired you."
"YOU'RE CRAZY!"
"Well, at least I have a job."
The mare glowered at Ed. "You know what, I'll let my big brother deal with you!"
"Hey okay, fine!" Ed countered.
The mare did about-face and then stomped her way towards the door. Before she left the building, the mare faced towards Ed, stuck out her tongue at him and then slammed the door behind her.
Ed shook his head. "Well...how rude."
Ed took out a cloth from his pocket and began to wipe the counter. As he's cleaning the counter, the door opened again and two more ponies walked into the building with the blue unicorn mare with white mane and tail and a wand with a moon as her cutie mark in the lead. The other unicorn, known as Starlight Glimmer, followed behind her.
"What a day!" said Trixie, Starlight's best friend. "All of our hard training for my next performance really paid off!"
Starlight scoffed. "Training? What training? All you did was turning everything you see into a teacup...and then chased away by guards after turning some guy's face into a teacup."
Trixie frowned. "Hey, he said nothing but insults to Trixie!"
"...was it before or after he called you a 'cheap knock off' of Princess Twilight?'"
"Do you have to bring that up!?" Trixie snapped before calming herself down. "Look...Trixie is very stressful and she needs her shake."
As Trixie makes her way to the counter, Starlight eyes widen when she realized where she is and that her friend is heading towards a certain someone that could only lead to trouble. "Um...Trixie, I think we should go somewhere else."
Trixie stopped walking and turned towards Starlight with her raised eyebrow. "How come?"
Starlight hesitated as her eyes darted between her friend and to a certain employee who just ducked behind the counter. "Well...we have a new...visitor from another world and he does fast food for a living-"
"Well Trixie doesn't see anything wrong with-"
"And does a terrible job," Starlight finished.
Trixie blinked at her friend for a moment before she rolled her eyes and made her way close to the counter. "Oh please, I'm sure this pony is not that-"
Trixie words died in her throat when Ed popped out of the counter with a new rag. When he noticed Trixie standing in front of him, he placed the rag down and faced Trixie with his goofy smile.
"Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger. Can I take your order?"
As Trixie stared at Ed in shock, Starlight coughed nervously. "Did I mentioned that he's a human?"
Ed turned to Starlight the moment he heard her speaking. "Oh hi Starlight!" Ed greeted with his huge grin.
Trixie snapped out of her shocked state and turned to her friend. "Wait...you know him?"
"Unfortunately," Starlight said with a sigh. "His name is Ed."
"Oh...hello Ed," said Trixie awkwardly, not sure what else to say to him.
"Hello!" said Ed with a wave. "What's your name?"
Trixie smiled smugly. "Well I'm glad you asked. You are witnessing the presence of the Great and Powerful Trrrrrixie!" she boasted while standing on her rear hooves and raised her forehooves up in a dramatic pose. Starlight rolled her eyes while Ed titled his head in confusion.
"...who's Trixie?"
Trixie frowned. "I'm Trixie!"
"I'm Ed!"
"I'm aware!"
"You said you were Trixie!"
Trixie just stood there with her right eye twitched in annoyance. Not wanting things to get out of hoof, Starlight tried to defuse the situation.
"Um...why don't you ask Ed what you want to order?" Starlight suggested to her friend.
After calming herself, Trixie raised her head up with a grunt. "Fine! Just give Trixie a Good Shake!"
Ed smiled. "Oh you want a good shake? I'll give you a good shake!"
Ed leaned towards Trixie to grab both of her shoulders and then started shaking her, much to Trixie's confusion and Starlight's horror.
"SHAKE-A, SHAKE-A, SHAKE-A, SHAKE-A, SHAKE-A!~"
"STOP THAT!" Trixie roared, freeing herself out from the crazy human. "Trixie meant for you to give me a beverage, not for you to shake my insides!"
Ed blinked "...a be-ver-what?"
Trixie huffed. "Nevermind! Just give me an orange soda instead!"
"Oh okay," said Ed as he grabbed a yellow soda cup.
Ed then took out a soda gun and proceed to fill the cup with soda. Once the cup is full, Ed handed the cup to Trixie.
"Here you go!" Ed announced, as Trixie took the cup with her magic.
Starlight sighed in relief, glad that Ed did something right for once. Her relief vanished when she noticed her best friend scowled inside of the cup.
"Are you deaf?" Trixie snapped, levitating the cup close to Ed so he can see the inside . "I said orange soda! Look, there's nothing that's orange in this cup!"
"Oh okay, hang on," said Ed as he grabbed the cup.
Ed ducked down behind the counter and grabbed a paint can. He shook the can for a moment and then he pressed the nozzle, spraying the cup with orange paint. After he almost completely covered the cup in orange paint, Ed brings the cup to the two stunned ponies.
"There you go! Now it's all orangey!" Ed chuckled.
Trixie face suddenly turned red and growled in rage. "Why you- you'll pay for this!"
Ed shook his head. "Nah-uh. You ordered it. You have to pay for it."
"...THAT'S IT!"
Trixie was about to lunge at Ed, but Starlight stopped her by trapping Trixie with her magic. "Get a hold of yourself Trix!"
"Let me go Star!" Trixie screamed, struggling within Starlight's magical shield. "I'm gonna turn his head into a teacup!"
"That's precisely why I'm not letting you go!" Starlight fired back.
During the commotion, the front doors opened an in walked in Flash along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
"Okay girls, as promised, we will give you three the good burgers meals free of-" Flash stopped talking when he saw Starlight holding an aggressive Trixie, while Ed chuckled in amusement. "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!" Flash demanded loudly.
Everyone stopped what their doing including the customers. Trixie who was still stuck inside of Starlight's magical shield, pointed at Ed.
"Trixie will tell you what's wrong! This infuriating...human shook Trixie's body and then sprayed my drinking cup with orange paint instead of giving Trixie her orange soda!"
"I tried to tell her that coming here wasn't a good idea!" Starlight added.
Flash shook his head in disbelief. "I left for five minutes and Ed already caused trouble!?" Flash then looked around. "Where the hay is Pinkie?"
Just as Flash spoke her name, Pinkie quickly came up to them. "I am so super-duper sorry Flashy! I had to check up on the twins! I guess I was gone longer than I thought."
Flash groaned as he buried his head into his hooves. "Twilight's gonna kill me!"
"No she wouldn't," Pinkie assured with a smile. "She'll most likely fire you for real and then sent you home, facing Shinning Armor. Who will then demote you as a soldier, further soiling your reputation and lose all respect from other soldiers."
"...thanks a lot Pinkie, I feel so much better now," Flash said sarcastically.
"You're welcome!" Pinkie chirped.
Apple Bloom frowned. "Hey, Ah thought you said what the human did to us was all an act! ...unless this is also an act too?"
Starlight raised his eyebrow. "Act?"
Flash felt nervous when all eyes are on him. "Oh well...you see..."
Just then, the door opened again, revealing the same white unicorn and an irritated gray earth pony from before with the white unicorn in the lead this time.
"You can't be serious Vinyl!" The gray mare cried, while trying to keep up with the unicorn. "They're bloody crazy!"
The white unicorn with purple shades, known as Vinyl galloped towards the gang and stopped right in front of them. Once the gray mare caught up, the white unicorn addressed to Ed. "Excuse me, Ed right?"
Ed nodded with a smile. "That's me! Heh heh."
"Listen, we were just here a few minutes ago and I can't get your 'Spicy Oats' rap out of my head!" Vinyl then smirked. "You sir have potential talent for music!"
Ed blinked. "I am?"
"HE IS!?" Everypony but Pinkie cried out in disbelief.
"Totally!" Vinyl whooped. "Plus, you're that human guy eveypony was talking about! It'll be great to have you as a special guest for our show!"
Everypony gasped.
"OH. MY. GOODNESS! Ed, you're going to be on Good Morning Ponyville!" Pinkie gushed excitedly.
"Oh it's morning?" Ed asked. "I should probably get some breakfast!"
"No Ed, she means her radio show!" Starlight corrected as she released a stunned Trixie out of her shield.
"Oooohhhhh!" said Ed, nodding in understanding. Then he titled his head in confusion. "Who?"
Vinyl chuckled. "Oh right, I forgot to introduce ourselves." She placed her hoof on her chest. "The name's Vinyl Scratch, aka DJ Pon-3. I'm usually the DJ for every event, but I'm also the host of my radio show." Vinyl then wrapped her hoof around the gray mare. "And this lovely mare next to me is Octavia Melody. She's the elite cellist for both Canterlot and Ponyville; as well as my co-host for the show." Vinyl then blushed. "And she's also my...*ahem*...marefriend."
Despite that she appreciate the flattery from her marefriend, Octavia gave Ed her flat look.
"Charmed," Octavia deadpanned.
"Anyway, will you and Pinkie come down to our show in a few days?" Vinyl asked hopefully.
Before anypony could say anything, Ed responded without hesitation. "Sure, I would love to!"
"Awesome!" said Vinyl with her huge grin.
She used her magic on her business card from her saddlebag and levitated it over to Ed. "Here is my card," she said as Ed took the card. "Our studio's address should be on there. We'll see you in a few days! C'mon Tavi!"
As Vinyl turned and made her way to the door, Octavia sighed in exasperation. "Unbelievable! What did that mare see in him?"
"My thoughts exactly," Flash muttered irritably as Octavia followed her marefriend out the door with a huff. Once the musician duo were out of sight, Flash turned to Ed and shook his head.
"I can't believe you were invited to their radio show...all because you made a rap song about spicy oats!"
"Me either," said Ed with a chuckle. "Especially that I didn't remember that I did it! Heh heh."
Flash half lid his eyes.
Suddenly, Spike barged through the front doors and ran up to them. "Starlight, Pinkie, Ed! Thank Celestia you're here! This is an emergency!"
"What? What is it Spike?" said Starlight in concern.
"Twilight was having a meeting with the other princesses a moment ago about Ed and then...he showed up!" said Spike, putting a strong emphasis with word 'he'.
Starlight growled. "Ugh, not again! What does he want now?"
"I'll tell you on the way over," Spike reassured. "I already contacted the others. We should go there now!"
"On it!" Pinkie saluted. Then Pinkie ran over to the table to pick up the twins and then zipped out the door at an incredible speed that rivaled Rainbow Dash.
"I will never figure out how she does that," Spike muttered, scratching his head.
"We should get to Twilight at once!" Flash cried, ready to leap over the counter.
"Actually Flash...Twilight wants you to...stay here and only wanted Ed and her friends," said Spike in an uneasy tone.
"What!?" Flash exclaimed.
"Who me?" Ed said, pointing to himself.
"Why would the princess want him!?" Flash questioned angrily.
"Because this whole emergency concerned him," Spike stated bluntly. And Twilight specificity requested not to include you.
"Whelp, you heard the dragon! Let's get to Princess Twilight right away!" said Trixie, making her way to the door.
"HEY! I thought you said Twilight wanted Ed and her friends!" Flash said accusingly.
"I did," Spike stated firmly before he and Starlight headed towards the door.
As Flash sulked by Spike's words, Ed looked at Flash quizzically. "You alright Flash?"
"Why yes Ed, I'm perfectly fine!" Flash said sarcastically in a bitter tone. "Just run along with your friends and I'll stay here, taking over as the manager of this place, cleaning the counter top while being bored out of my mind!"
Ed stared at Flash for a moment before he broke out into his goofy grin. "Okay! See you later!"
Flash scowled as Ed hopped over the counter. "...Idiot."
As Ed was heading out the door, a huge white stallion barged in. He has huge bulky biceps, short blonde mane and tail, tiny wings and red eyes. His cutie mark is a large black dumbbell. The stallion looked furious and his nostrils flared up. He spotted Ed as Ed walk by him.
"WHERE'S THE PUNK WHO FIRED MY SISTER?" he boomed.
Ed stopped and titled his head at the stallion. "Huh?"
"WHERE'S THE MANAGER?" The stallion clarified loudly.
Ed smiled and pointed to where Flash was. "Oh he's right over there!"
The stallion nodded to Ed in thanks before he stomped his way over to Flash while Ed walked out the door.
Flash was finishing up cleaning up the mess on the counter in a grumpy mood when he noticed he was covered by a dark shadow. He slowly looked up to see an angry stallion, looming over him.
Flash gulped. "Uh...hi?"
"ARE YOU THE MANAGER?" The stallion demanded loudly.
"Er...yes. Yes I am. How can I--"
The stallion suddenly punched Flash right in the face, knocking Flash down to the floor. After Flash lost his conscious, the white stallion flexed his arm and let out a bellow.
"YEEEEEAAAAAHHH! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR MESSING WITH MY SISTER!"
From within the map room of Twilight's Castle of Friendship, Twilight sat at the far end of the room with her number one assistant, Spike at her side. Earlier this morning, she sent emergency messages to the other princesses of Equestria for a meeting in regards to Ed. After about two hours of waiting, only two Alicorn princesses showed up at her castle.
The first Alicorn had a midnight blue fur with blue and purple mane and tail, flowing freely behind her. She wore a black front piece with a crescent moon which was the same image as her cutie mark. She also wore crystal hoof shoes and a black crown on her head. She is Princess Luna, princess of the night and ruled Canterlot along with her sister, Princess Celestia.
The second Alicorn had a pink fur with mixures of purple, hot pink and and yellow mane and tail. She wore a golden crown on her head with a purple gem, along with gold hoof shoes and a gold chest piece. Her cutie mark was a crystal in a shape of a heart. She is Princess Cadance, the princess of love and ruler of Crystal Empire along with her husband Shinning Armor. She is also a sister-in-law to Twilight Sparkle and a proud mother of her Alicorn filly, Flurry Heart.
After they both took their seats of her friends thrones, Twilight silently gathered up her thoughts to say before she finally addressed to her two guests.
“Thank you two for coming,” said Twilight as she nodded with appreciation. “I know I requested you all here on short’s notice, but this is an emergency.”
“It’s alright Twilight,” Cadance assured and gave her sister-in-law her smile. “On a personal note, I’m always happy to see my sister-in-law.”
“And we both know you wouldn’t have summoned us without a good reason,” Luna added.
"How is Shinning Armor and Flurry Heart Cadance?" Spike asked with a smile.
Cadance smiled back. "Oh they're both fine, thanks for asking Spike. Those two are back at the Crystal Empire to do some father and daughter bonding time."
"No no no Flurry! Don't fly up there!" Shinning cried panicky to her daughter as she flew around the room with a giggle.
"Please come down!" Shinning pleaded.
His pleas went deaf ears as Flurry flew towards one of the priceless vases with was sitting on one of the columns.
"Flurry don't touch that—"
SMASH!
Flurry flew around the room again with a giggle while Shinning let out his distressed groan.
"Why did Cadance left me to watch our daughter and then left without a word?! Was it because she's still upset with me the other day?"
Shinning groaned further as Flurry knocked down another vase onto the floor.
"I knew I should've kept my mouth shut when she asked me if her new dress makes her look fat!"
"Yep. I sure those two will be fine!" Cadance assured with her almost too sweet of a smile.
Both Spike and Luna stared at each other from Cadance behavior but then they shrugged, deciding not to comment about it.
Twilight glimpsed at the door for a moment with her confused expression before turning back to Luna.
“Where is your sister Luna?” Twilight asked.
Luna frowned with a confused expression of her own. “She… said that she’ll be late.”
Twilight raised her eyebrow. “Late? How late?”
Luna shrugged in response.
That's strange, Twilight pondered. Princess Celestia is never late when it comes to meetings. I was hoping I can explain this to everypony about Ed at once, but I guess that can’t be helped.
Putting her thoughts about her former mentor's aside, she began to explain the situation. “Alright listen… you both sensed a huge magical serge from a couple days ago, right?”
Both the princesses nodded in unison.
Twilight sighed uneasily. “Well… the thing is… I was… experimenting the mirror... with my magic.”
Both Princess Luna and Cadance widened their eyes in shock.
“Y-you don’t mean… that mirror!” Luna asked with dread. Her fears were confirmed when Twilight nodded with hesitation. “Twilight, what were you thinking? That mirror contains unpredictable magic that not even Starswirl couldn’t understand! What possessed you to do that?”
Twilight winced from Luna's scolding, but she knew she deserved it. She sighed through her nose.
“Okay I’ll admit, what I did was risky, but I was curious if I could see other worlds from other dimensions other than the human world where Sunset Shimmer lives.”
"Yeah, once her curiosity kicks in, it'll be impossible to talk her out of it," Spike added, only to received a side glare from his surrogate sister.
Luna's eyes narrowed. “Do you know what they say about the cat?”
“Have you heard that satisfaction brought it back?” Twilight replied.
As the two of them stared down, Cadance spoke up.
“Were you hurt?" Cadance asked with concern. "What about everypony else who was near the mirror?”
“Thankfully, everypony including me were fine and the mirror remained in tact," said Twilight. "I just need to be more careful when I experiment with it again.”
“IF you do it again,” Luna mumbled.
Cadance gave Luna a quick look before giving Twilight her caring smile. “Well I’m glad that you’re okay. Was that all?”
Twilight hesitate before she sighed and shook her head. “I wish but… there’s more.”
“More?" Luna exclaimed. "Well what could be more important than nearly destroying the mirror and put other pony lives in danger?”
Twilight fidgeted in her seat nervously. “When my magic’s gone haywire, I… may have accidentally brought someone here… from another world.”
Both Luna and Cadance droped their jaws in shock. A minute of tense silence, Luna facehoofed and groaned loudly.
“Oh you have got to be kidding me! You brought a stranger from another world here!?”
Twilight nodded and chuckled nervously, further aggravating the princess of the night further.
Cadance frowned worryingly. “Is this stranger… dangerous?”
“No, he’s not dangerous," Twilight assured.
Spike nodded. "Yeah, Ed is completely harmless!”
Cadance raised her eyebrow. “Ed?”
“That’s his name,” Twilight answered. “He's a human who works at a fast food restaurant called Good Burger as a cashier and he takes orders from his customers.” Twilight rubbed the back of her neck and adverted her eyes from the other two princesses. “Although... he didn’t do a very good job at that.”
"Tell me about it," Spike mumbled, only to received a nudge from Twilight.
Luna frowned. “Well harmless or not, you should send him back to where he came from through the mirror as soon as possible.”
Twilight shook her head. “It’s not that simple Luna. Unlike the world where Sunset lives, this human is from a different universe thanks to my magical experiment with the mirror from earlier.”
“Then use that same magic that you experimented on the mirror and send him back!” Luna retorted.
Twilight sighed in frustration. “You don’t understand Luna. The magic I used on the mirror days ago was meant to observe other dimensions, not teleport. And when my magic’s gone haywire, there was a vortex with various different magic types in the mix that brought Ed here in the first place.”
“…meaning?” Cadance asked for clarification.
“In order for me to send him back, I need to re-create the same kind of magic that was from the vortex and combined it with my other spell," Twilight explained. "But I need to figure it out what types of magic that was from that vortex. And even after I identify each one, I still need to figure out the right amount for each type in order to re-create the same vortex without risking Ed’s life.”
“So he’s stuck here for the time being,” Luna summed up before huffing and rubbed her temples with her hooves. “Well, that’s just great! With that strange creature roaming around, there’s going to be a disaster waiting to happen!”
“I don’t know Auntie Luna,” said Cadance. “Were there any issues with Ed since he first arrived?”
Twilight hesitated a bit before she answered. “Well… other than a small… mishap when he unintentionally scared everypony when he went out shopping and made a few—” Twilight paused for a moment, re-thinking her words. “Okay, a lot of mistakes when he took orders at his job from the Hayburger, there wasn’t any major issues from him at all.”
“You also said that Ed is harmless right?” Cadance asked.
Twilight nodded.
“And this “Ed” is a good… person?”
Twilight nodded again.
Cadance beamed. “Then I don’t see the issue with him staying in Equestria.”
“Surely you jest Cadence,” Luna spoke up with a disapproving frown. “This... "Ed" may be “harmless”, but our subjects doesn’t know that! Everypony will think that he is a danger to our society!”
“Everyone in Ponyville already warmed up to him,” Twilight argued.
“More or less.”
“But no one thinks he’s dangerous!”
“Sure, in Ponyville. But many other ponies from Manehattan, Cloudsdale, and especially Canterlot will be much harder to convince!”
There was tense silence with Twilight taken aback from the way Luna spoke to her, Luna glared daggers at Twilight and Cadance and Spike stared awkwardly. Realized how harsh she sounded, Luna's anger melted away and replace with her apologetic expression.
“Sorry," Luna said with a sigh. "I don’t mean to sound so harshly, but I’m a realest when it comes to how the world works. Certain ponies will just look and judge you harshly without even knowing any of the facts first. Believe me… I know.”
Twilight nodded, with her assuring smile. “I understand Luna, but I promise that nothing bad is going to happen and I’ll figure out a way to send Ed back home," Her expression then became serious. "But I want you two to promise me to not mention how Ed came to our world to anypony except for Celestia.”
“Not to mention what?”
The princesses and Spike eyes widened when they heard a familiar snotty voice belonging to a certain spoiled prince of Equestria.
Oh no! Not “him!” Twilight thought panicky.
They all turned to the main entrance of the map room and they spotted two ponies entered the room. The first pony was an older light blue unicorn stallion with yellow eyes, white mane, mustache and tail, wearing a butler outfit and a one-eye monocle over his right eye, which looked exactly like his cutie mark on his flank. The other was a white unicorn stallion with long blonde mane and tail, blue eyes, and was wearing a tuxedo collar and blue bow tie. He also had a yellow and violet compass rose as his cutie mark.
The white stallion gave Twilight his arrogant, yet sneering smile. “Hello… Princess Twilight.”
Twilight eyes narrowed. “Blueblood.”
Blueblood scoffed. “That’s Prince Blueblood to you or better yet, Lord Bluebood! I hope you don’t mind, but no one is at the door so me and Winston let ourselves in.”
“I see,” Twilight stated calmly.
Twilight knew Prince Blueblood as one of the most powerful and most important bachelor in Equestria. He is very wealthy and also one of the representatives for the government of Canterlot. The reason why he is a prince was because he is one of the descents of Princess Celestia. Unfortunately, Prince Blueblood was anything but a prince. He was arrogant, greedy, selfish and full of himself. And if anypony who isn't as rich as him, he'll just look down on them and treated them very poorly as if they weren't important to him at all. On top of that, his actions at in the government office were very corrupt. He would rather used bits as cheap as possible to improve the the city and saved them for himself, he contently abused the system for his own benefits instead of the citizens of Canterlot or any other towns and worse of all, he pushed others around because of all the power he had as both prince and govern officials.
But ever since she and her friends go to the Grand Galloping Gala years ago, his image went downhill. Nowadays, there were numerous controversies involving Blueblood, including his latest attempts to build a statue of himself instead rebuilding the park a week ago. Thankfully Princess Celestia put a stop to his plans and then strip him away of his title, banning to do any of his royal duties or abused his power again.
However, he was here standing in front of her now instead of Celestia. She had several lovely visits from him before during his reign, but the fact that he was here despite that he was now permanently relieved from his duties, alarm bells were ringing in her head. She had a feeling that he was up to something, possibly wanted to know about the latest events in Ponyville, but she was not going to give him what he wanted.
Twilight subtly glanced at Spike, slightly telling him to gather up her friends. Thankfully, Spike got the message and he made his way out the door, ignoring Blueblood's eyes drilling at the back of his head. Once the dragon disappeared from the map room, the princesses, the butler and Blueblood stared each other down. It was so tense, you could easily cut it with a butter knife. After a what it seemed like a minute, it was Twilight who was first to break the ice.
“So... to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit Blueblood?” said Twilight.
Blueblood smirked. “Well Princess, if you must know, I came here for our meeting.”
Luna's eyes narrowed. “Well it seems you are mistaken. This meeting is strictly between princesses only.”
Blueblood chucked. “Sorry, let me rephrase that. I’m here for the meeting on behalf of Princess Celestia.”
Blueblood smirked. “It’s true. And in case you don’t believe me...” Blueblood used his magic to levitate the scroll out of his coat pocket and floated over to Twilight. “I have a written approval signed by my aunt herself!”
Twilight opened the document went straight to the bottom. Her eyes then widened in shock when she spotted Celestia's signature, confirming that it was true.
N-no way! Twilight scanned her eyes all over the signature several times to see if there was any signs of forgery. Unfortunately, she couldn't find one. I don't see any signs of forgery, Princess Celestia really signed this! But why!?
“Now wait just a moment!” Luna spoke up angrily. “My sister never mentioned this to me! In fact, ever since you did that statue stunt back in Canterlot, my sister banned you from your royal duties so you won’t abuse the system again.”
“Oh?" said Blueblood, acting innocently before he shrugged arrogantly. "Well I guess auntie didn’t tell you that my ban was recently lifted and coming here in her place was the first step of redeeming myself.”
Luna's eyes narrowed. “I’m still not buying this! I’m going to talk to her when I returned back to Canterlot!”
“I’m afraid she’ll be busy meeting with other creatures outside of Equestria," said Blueblood with a smirk. "This might take days before her return. So, for the time being, anything important you want to discuss in regards to Equestria will go directly to me.”
Luna growled in frustration.
"Speaking of which," Blueblood trailed off as he turned to Twilight. "I heard that we have visitor from another world called a human?"
Twilight's felt her blood turned to ice. "H-how did you know that?"
"I have my ways," Blueblood answered vaguely. “So how did this human arrive in our world?”
“Oh I... I just accidentally teleported him here,” Twilight answered but kept half of the truth to herself.
Blueblood's rolled his eyes. “Yes, but how did you teleported him here?”
“...I'm afraid that I can only discuss this with Princess Celestia,” Twilight stated coolly with her stern expression.
Blueblood eyes narrowed. “Did you forget… princess? she’s not available for you right now. So anything you have to report is to me for now on!”
Twilight's expression remained unchanged. “Even so… I rather report any of my findings to Celestia directly! This information is classified and too important to share with anypony!”
Blueblood leaned in too close to Twilight's face and spoke in a low volume. “Do you really not going to say anything because this information was really that classified… or was that an excuse to hide your reasons from me?”
The two of them were in a silent stare-down, one trying to break through while the other refused to give in, despite that her heart was beating like a drum. The gazes were broken when they suddenly heard the main doors opened and then several hoofsteps galloped into the room.
“We’re here Twilight!” Applejack loudly announced as she and the others entered the room.
Oh thank Celestia! Twilight thought, sighing in relief that her friends came through and made it at the nick of time.
The other two princesses were also relieved after seeing Twilight's friends while Blueblood stared on with an annoyed expression with a huff.
“So sorry we’re late," said Starlight. "We could've came here much quicker if somepony didn't stop for a shake at the ice cream parlor!"
Trixie stopped sipping her shake from a straw when she noticed everyone were glaring daggers at her. "What? That crazy human didn't gave Trixie her shake! So she has to go get it from somewhere else!"
Speaking of human, Twilight looked pasted her friends then around the room when she realized there were two more of her friends missing in the room.
“Where's Pinkie and Ed?"
Before anypony could answer, the main door opened again and then Ed and Pinkie walked into the room while they were in the middle of a friendly conversation.
"So that's the story of me, Applejack and her family went out on our family trip together to see if I'm really related to them, but deep in my heart, I knew it was true!" Pinkie concluded her epic tale to Ed.
"Cool!" said Ed with a huge smile. "That's an awesome story!"
"Thanks!" Pinkie chirped. "So, do you also have a cousin or any family members back in your world?"
Ed chuckled. "Sure do! I have a cousin who lives in Chicago along with his best friend. He and his friend did all kinds of crazy things together and he even loves orange soda!"
Pinkie gasped excitedly. "He loves orange soda!?"
"Totally!"
"I love orange soda too!"
"Is it true?"
"Mmmhhmmm! I do, I do, I do-oooh!~"
Many others stared at pink mare strangely, but decided not to question her because Pinkie was just being Pinkie again. Princess Luna and Cadance meanwhile were surprised when they saw Ed for the first time. When Twilight mentioned to them that a creature from another world appeared in their world, they expected the human to be somewhat intimidating. But they never imagined that the creature would actually appeared to be goofy with such long locks and wore strange looking clothing. They were slowly beginning to see why Twilight insisted that Ed poses no threat, but they were still weary of him.
While this was going on, Blueblood scoffed at the new arrivals and then gestured his butler towards them.
“Hey check it Winston, it’s those commoners pretending to be heroes!” Blueblood mocked loudly, ignoring the angered looks from others except for Ed.
“Hey check it everypony, it’s the Royal Pain!” Rainbow sneered at the prince.
Ed, not picking up Rainbow’s sarcasm, smiled and stuck his hand out towards Blueblood.
“Oh nice to meet you Royal Pain, I’m Ed. Heh.”
Blueblood had a flat look for a moment before he smirked and lightly pushed Ed's hand away.
“So… you must be this human I heard so much about!” he said as he eyed Ed. “For a moment, I thought you were some ugly looking monkey while wearing such ghastly clothing!”
Ed's eyes lit up. “There’s a monkey? Where?” Ed cried excitedly as he looked around the room.
“…and a stupid one too,” Blueblood deadpanned before smirking again. “Still, I’m surprised you didn’t lock him up in a zoo!”
“Oooh I love zoos! Can we go?” Ed exclaimed with eagerness, causing everyone else to to roll their eyes.
“Ed is not an animal Bluebood!” Twilight exclaimed angrily.
Blueblood scoffed. “Even so, you should have reported him immediately and have him lock up to keep creatures like him from harming our subjects.”
“But he didn’t harm anypony at all!” Twilight argued.
“What about when he caused a panic a couple of days ago in this town?” Blueblood shot back.
“That was a misunderstanding! …no thanks to that certain guard!" said Twilight with narrowed eyes. "We already cleared everything up!”
“And just how do we know that this was all an act?” Blueblood questioned. “For all we know, he was just biding his time until he overthrow us when we least expect it!” Blueblood then faced Ed with a sneer. “Isn’t that right human?”
“…sooooo we’re not going to the zoo?” Ed asked.
Rainbow facehooved while Blueblood stared blackly at Ed before he raised his head with a scoff.
“You know what, why don’t you make yourself useful and serve me tea!”
“Hey! Ed’s not your servant!" Spike yelled. "You should get your own—”
“Sure thing!” said Ed.
Everypony but Blueblood stared at Ed in shock.
“ED!” Twilight exclaimed.
“It’s fine Twilight,” Ed assured. “I served rude customers like him all the time! I got this. Heh heh.”
Prince Blueblood glowered at Ed for be referred as "rude" but didn't say anything as Ed left the room. Once Ed disappeared behind the door, Blueblood started speaking to Twilight again.
“Anyway princess, I'm also here to tell you that I arranged a huge upcoming gala which will take place in your castle next week!"
"Next week!?" Twilight shrieked.
"That's right," said Blueblood with a dark chuckle. "Since you're our newest princess of our country, I figured we should properly introduced you to your subjects just to see what kind of princess you really are!"
"Oh my, an upcoming gala next week!" Rarity gasped. "I don't think I can put together all those new dresses on time!"
"Ah think makin' them new dresses was the least of our worries Rare!" Applejack deadpanned.
"Hold on," Twilight shouted. "I was never informed that I have to host a gala at my castle this year! And besides... this week isn't a good time for me!"
"That's because I just set that plan in motion a few days ago, already notified everypony in Equestria about it!" Blueblood revealed. "And they will all come to see you! Aren't you honored?"
"You can't do that!" Twilight protested. "I'm sure even Princess Celestia will agree that this is too soon!"
Blueblood smirked. "Who do you think approved my idea in the first place princess? I'm sure you can complain about this to my aunt and have it cancelled." Blueblood then gasped in a mocking matter. "Oh wait, I forgot. She's not available right now. I guess you have no choice. You wouldn't want to let those ponies down, do you?"
Twilight growled in anger, unable to fight back.
"Now see here Blueblood!" Luna spoke up with an authoritative tone. "Celestia and I ruled equally! I can easily overrule your ridiculous decisions in her place!"
Blueblood smirked while "tsking" ay her other aunt. "Nice try Auntie Luna, the document I gave to Twilight stated that only your sister Princess Celestia can overrule my decisions! No substitutes, including you cousin!"
Cadance winced, unable to help while Twilight checked the document again. After a minute of reading her ears drooped and her expression changed into a look of despair.
"...he's right."
The girls and Spike were shocked by the revelation while Blueblood laughed cruelly.
"Tough luck princess! Anywho, I’ll be staying here in Ponyville at a high rate hotel for the time being so I can keep an eye on you and him. Until then, you have a week to set up the gala and introduce your… human to Celestia and everypony else in the entire country. If everypony label him dangerous, then I’ll have the pleasure to lock him up in the deepest dungeon in Canterlot like a animal he is.”
Twilight eyes narrowed. “We'll never let you do that! Ed is a harmless and nicest person I know! He’s not a threat to Equestria!”
Blueblood smirked evilly. “Well good luck trying to convince everypony including my aunt… princess.”
“Here’s your tea!” Ed announced loudly with a cup of tea in his hand.
Blueblood jumped in fright from Ed's sudden appearance from out of nowhere. The others only jumped somewhat because they were used to Pinkie's sudden appearance all the time.
“Huh!? What!? How’d you—” Blueblood stammered for a moment before he shook his head with a growl. “UGH, nevermind! Just give me that tea!”
Blueblood snatched the cup from Ed with his magic and then he took a sip. His eyes suddenly widened and then he spat out the tea from his mouth. He turned to Ed with his anger expression.
“BLEK! What the heck is this!?”
“It’s tea, just like you asked,” Ed answered simply.
Blueblood growled. “But this tea is cold!”
Ed blinked. “So?”
“It’s supposed to be hot!”
Ed's eyes widened in understanding. “Oooh! Well you didn’t say you wanted a hot tea.”
Most of girls snickered quietly while Rainbow, Pinkie, Trixie and Spike were laughing out loud that somepony else suffered from Ed’s antics for once, especially at somepony that they truly despised. Even Winston barely suppressed his smirk but kept himself composed so he doesn't get in trouble.
Blueblood growled angrily at Ed. “Why you… you better watch your butt human!”
Ed blinked. “Okay.”
Ed tried to turn his head around so he can look at his butt. When he’s unable to do it, he tried to lean closer, only he ended up spinning around in circles like a dog chasing after his own tail. Everypony (sans Pinkie) and young dragon were staring at Ed’s odd display in stunned silence. Trixie leaned over to Starlight and spoke in her semi-hushed tone.
“Is Trixie the only pony here who was wondering what was wrong with this guy?”
Starlight shrugged in response.
Blueblood decided to ignore the strange human and set his focus on Twilight again.
“Enjoy it while it last Twilight Sparkle, because the next time I return… everyone will see just how of a fraud you really are! Come Winston!”
With his head up high, Blueblood showed himself out the door with his butler following behind him. Everypony stood silently with uneasy expressions. With Blueblood's running around and Princess Celestia's out of commission, they don't know what to do to convince other ponies outside of Ponyville that Ed is a good person before the upcoming gala at Twilight's castle. With Ed's unpredictable behavior and unintentionally makes things worse at the Hay Burger, this could end up in a disaster. Their thoughts were broken when Ed stopped spinning and placed his hand on Twilight's shoulder.
“Okay, I give up! There’s no way a guy can watch his own butt!”
"Ugh... the things I do for Princess Twilight... and to keep myself from getting fired," Flash groaned painfully as he held a frozen bag of peas over his right eye.
After waking up from being punched in the face by a muscled white stallion with tiny wings, Flash stood behind the counter and continued to take orders from many customers while treating his injury. He silently cursed Ed for putting him in this situation, but at least he managed to convince the three fillies to not report on their sisters thanks to his little "lie" he came up with. Although, he had hoped that his lie won't come back to bite him in the flank if things went wrong. He just needs to explain to Princess Twilight very gently about this after he's done with his work.
Speaking of those three fillies, the CMCs were sitting at their seats, eating their lunch which was given by Flash free of charge. As they were eating, the three we're having a conversation about Spike's suddenly arrival and have everypony, including Ed to come to Twilight's castle for some "emergency".
"What do ya supposed was that about Apple Bloom?" Sweetie asked before taking a bite of her hayburger.
Apple Bloom shrugged as she swallowed her food. "Ya got me Sweetie Belle! Whatever this is, it must've been serious."
"And they bring that strange hoo-man along!" Scootaloo added with her mouthful, much to the other two's disgust before swallowing. "Whether an act or not, he is a one strange creature!"
"And yet, he was invited to Good Morning Ponyvillie from DJPON-3! The DJPON-3!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
"Ah still coundn't get my head wrapped around dat!" said Apple Bloom before taking a sip from her soda.
Their conversation was interrupted when they heard the restaurant's main door opened. A filly about the same age as the Crusaders walked in with a tired frown. She had a pink coat with purple and white-striped mane and tail. She also wore a tiara on her head, which also appeared on her flank as her cutie-mark. The CMC realized that it was their ex-bully, now friend from their school, but noticed that their friend appeared to be stressed about something.
"Oh hey Diamond Tiara!" Apple Bloom greeted on behalf of the group. "What brings y'all here?"
Diamond walked up to them and let out a sigh. "Well... our stove just broke down, so daddy suggested we come down to this fast food restaurant to pick up some food."
"We?" Apple Bloom asked.
Before Diamond could clarify, the girls heard a loud angry shout from behind them, making Diamond froze in place in fear.
"DIAMOND TIARA!"
Diamond gulped as she and the Crusaders turned towards an older mare, who was towering over them. She had a light magenta coat with purple mane and tail. She wore a light turquoise dress shirt with golden chain necklace around her neck and a golden belt around her waist. She also had wrinkles underneath her eyes and an almost permanent scowl on her face.
That mare was Spoiled Rich, Diamond Tiara's mother. She is the head member of Ponyville's Schoolhouse and the richest mare in town. However, despite her status, the ponies in town who knew her, will tell you that she is not the most "friendly" pony either. Unlike Diamond Tiara when she was a bully, Spoiled's attitude was a hundred times worse! She was always acted stuck-up towards others like she's better than every pony else and looked down on others who she thinks have lower class than her. She even treated her loyal employers like they were nothing. She even goes out of her way just to get herself to be the top of the social ladder.
Even going as far as to use her own daughter!
She tried to teach her daughter everything she knows when her husband wasn't around so that not only her daughter will follow in her hoofsteps, but also gained better benefits through her daughter in the long run years later. But her laid out plans went up in smoke after those CMC brats changed her daughter and wanted to be her own pony. Not only that, her own daughter even stood up against HER, as if she herself was in the wrong. She did as she was told by her daughter in the end, but was furious due to humiliation. Not only she and her daughter were no longer see eye to eye, but also her daughter no longer wanted to pursue the same interests as her.
And it was all those CMC brats' fault!
Needless to say, she had a grudge against those three ever since. She was grouchy enough that she was forced to getting food in that dump of a restaurant after their stove was broken. After seeing her daughter with those brats however, her blood pressure nearly skyrocketed.
"What did I tell you to not go talk to them or associate with these insignificant lowlifes!" Spoiled shouted, attracting other customer's attention in the process.
"They're my friends mother!" Diamond argued, nearly embarrassed from her mother's public display.
"Not another word from you Diamond!" Spoiled huffed as she trotted towards the counter with her nose up. "Let's just pick up these low quality low food and leave! I rather not be here any longer with these commoners!"
Diamond sighed heavily as her mother stormed away before she faced the Crusaders with an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry about that girls!" she said. "I would rather be here but..."
"It's alright Diamond, we understand," Apple Bloom responded as both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded along. "You can hang out with us later after yer done eating with your family."
"If I can get away from mother," Diamond mumbled.
"DIAMOND TIARA!"
Diamond flinched from her mother's voice before she responded. "Coming!"
Just before she ran off, Apple Bloom called out to her. "Hang on Diamond!"
Diamond turned back. "What is it Apple Bloom?"
"Just fer the heads up, the guy yer ordering from not only takes orders wrong, but he also take orders in the most bizarre way," Apple Bloom warned.
Diamond turned towards the direction where Flash Sentry was standing with a raised eyebrow. "You mean that pony?"
Apple Bloom shook her head. "No, he took over for that guy. The one we're talking about is a hoo-man... or something."
Both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded in union to back up Apple Bloom's warning.
"...oh. Well no biggie!" Diamond said with a shrug. "This won't be the first time dealing with a register po– hooman who had trouble dealing with taking orders."
Scootaloo huffed and crossed her hooves. "That's what I said... until he gave me a half of burger after cutting it in half with scissors when I gave him a half-off coupon!"
"I wish we were," said Sweetie Belle. "Although that Flash guy told us he was just doing this as an act for the restaurant and we shouldn't take that seriously."
"Hmmm... taking orders on purpose just for laughs sounds like an interesting concept," Diamond mused. "If that's the case, I would love to see how he drives my mother crazy when she ordered!"
Apple Bloom smirked. "While Ah don't see the appeal of that, but if dat happens, Ah'll definitely take a front row seat for the show!"
"DIAMOND!"
The girls jumped from Spoiled's angry call.
"Sorry, gotta go! Later girls!" Diamond said hurriedly before running towards her mother to avoid getting scold at... again!
Meanwhile, Flash had just took a bag of frozen peas off of his face when he noticed two ponies coming his way. He saw a young filly with a Tiara on her head and a mare with a deep scowl on her face. Flash groaned internally when he recognized that uptight mare from one of Celestia's galas a couple months back.
Oh great... it's that mare! Flash thought. Okay Flash... just smile, stay calm, take her order and be done with it!
He put on his welcoming smile as soon as the two ponies approached him. "Hi. Welcome to the Good Burger, home of the Good Burger. May I take your order?"
Spoiled stared at him with judgemental eyes for a moment, making Flash feel slightly uncomfortable before speaking.
"Yes... I want you to give me your rarest hay steak you got!"
Flash felt his left eye twitching but still kept his smile. "Um... ma'am, it's not that kind of restaurant. This is a fast food restaurant."
Spoiled huffed and rolled her eyes. "Well you should have that on your menu! Honestly, why would you commoners preferred some greasy food made by some low-quality stove when you could have a much better and high quality food like Prance or Neigh-talian! At least with those foods, they'll taste like heaven and fulfilling while your food tasted like it came from a barn! Not to mention, your kind of food would give many ponies a heart attack just waiting to happen and yet they would still come back for more like a bunch of morons they are! But I guess that's what happens when they're not rich enough to get better food then we are!"
During her loud angry rant, she inevitably attracted nearly all the customers in the restaurant to her direction, much to Diamond's embarrassment. Their curious stares slowly changed to glares after hearing so many insulting things she had said about them. Spoiled paid no attention to many angry customers, either because she was too arrogant to notice or she just simply doesn't care. As for Flash, he no longer had that welcoming smile he put on for the mare, as if he too had enough of rude mare.
"Ma'am... I don't appreciate your rude comments towards our customers who are currently eating our food now and we also have the right to refuse to take orders from you. So you can either take your order from whatever we have from our menu or you can just leave and eat elsewhere!"
Spoiled simply glared at him as if he was the one who insulted her, until she let out a huff.
"Fine! ...then I'll have one of your so-called Good Burger!"
Flash nodded. "Much better–"
"But I want you to cook it Canterlot style" Spoiled added. "Including the finest veggies which were grown from New Hayshire!"
As Flash resisted the urge to facehoof, Diamond spoke up. "Um... what about me?"
Spoiled raised her nose up. "You're getting a salad Diamond Tiara!"
"A salad!?" Diamond exclaimed angrily. "Why am I only getting a salad!?"
"It's because you put too much weight in your body," Spoiled responded coolly. "So therefore, you're on a diet!"
"Says the mare who often sneaked food during her diet!" Diamond growled lowly.
Spoiled turned to her daughter with a glare. "What was that!?"
"Nothing mother!" Diamond responded immediately.
Flash sighed heavily. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish Ed was here to put up with this mare!
Back at the castle, Twilight was nervously pacing back in forth, while everyone else (except for Pinkie and Ed, who was having a rollerblading contest) watched her with concern expressions.
"OOOOOOH! I'm already stressful enough as it is!" Twilight exclaimed, while keeping herself from having a panic attack. "First with figuring out how to send Ed back, then my upcoming meeting with Thorax about some rogue changelings on the loose, who are still very loyal to Queen Chrysalis... and now this!"
Rainbow Dash scoffed as she crossed her hooves. "I don't get it Twilight! Why to you let that royal jerk walk all over you? Can't you just say "no" to his stupid gala party?"
Twilight stopped pacing and sighed heavily. "It's not that simple Rainbow Dash! Blueblood had the document with Celestia's actual signature that I have to host this year's gala!"
"Are ya sure that was Princess Celestia's signature?" Applejack asked.
Twilight sighed. "I... don't know."
Applejack frowned. "Don't know? What do you mean, you don't know?"
"After glimpsing at it many times and remembered how the princess wrote her documents, her signature looked exactly how Celestia wrote it! Even Princess Luna confirmed that it was her hoofwriting!" Twilight explained.
Princess Luna nodded to back up Twilight's statement.
Twilight then furrowed her brow. "And yet..."
"And yet... what darling?" Rarity pressed.
"And yet... there's something about her signature that seemed... off... but I can't quite put my hoof on it."
"So, why don't you just go to Princess Celestia herself and tell her you don't want to do it!" Fluttershy suggested.
Twilight shook her head. "You heard him, she's out of the country right now, having a meeting with other world leaders! Even if she's not busy... I'm afraid that I may be... offending her."
Spike scoffed. "Offending her? That's ridiculous Twilight! Why would you think Princess Celestia would be offended for questing her?"
Twilight rubbed her shoulder with uncertainly. "Well... what if Princess Celestia really was giving Blueblood a chance to redeem himself and me throwing the gala would be the way to do it? I don't really care much about Blueblood at all, but I really don't want to disappoint her."
Spike walked up to Twilight and placed his claw on her shoulder. "Aw come on Twilight. You know Celestia will never be disappointed in you, even if you don't agree with her decisions. I'm sure if you talk to her when she returns, she'll understand."
Every pony nodded their heads encouragingly, agreeing with Spike. Despite their suppose, Twilight still felt some doubt about the situation.
"I appreciate it Spike," Twilight sighed. "But unfortunately until she comes back, I have no choice but to go along with it and come up with ways for Ed to give his first good impression with other ponies."
"You worry too much Twilight!" said Cadance. "Ed is a very likeable guy! I'm sure he can easily make his first impression."
"Check this out guys! Me and Pinkie are rollerblading!"
"Yeah, check us out!"
Everyone turned to see both Ed and Pinkie rollerblading across the room as they held each other hand/hoof. However, they were going too fast and their rollerblading straight towards them. Spike noticed this and ran out in front of them in panic.
"Wait wait Ed! Pinkie! Don't--"
Unfortunately for Spike, they didn't heed his warnings. As a result the crashed into him and fell on top of him in the process. The girls winced at their display.
"...okay. He definitely needs to work on his impressions." Starlight mumbled, causing Trixie to nod in agreement.
"And maybe a better outfit!" Rarity added. "That uniform is sooo nineteen nineties!"
"I think I just broke my spleen!" Spike mumbled in pain.
As Ed slowly got himself off from Spike, Luna walked up to him with a neutral face.
"So... Ed, right?" she asked.
Ed nodded. "Yep, that's me! Heh!"
Luna's eyes narrowed. "What are your intentions of staying here until we find a way to send you home?"
"Luna!" Twilight cried and tried to fly over to her, but was prevented by Cadance. She shook her head at Twilight and silently told her to stay put and let Luna handle this. They all hoped that Luna's blunt question didn't offend Ed in the slightest, but to everypony's surprise, Ed simply smiled.
"Oh well, I take orders at the Good Burger and maybe make some friends while I'm here. Heh!"
Luna blinked. "...that's it?"
"Yeah! What do you think I should do?" He asked with a smile. He then checked his watch and his eyes widened. "Whoa! Speaking of which, I gotta go! I need to get back helping Flash! Later dudes!"
Before anypony could say anything, Ed abruptly left the room with his roller-blades, disappearing out into the hall. Everyone just stood silently with stunned expressions until Cadance jabbed her Aunt's ribs.
"Still convinced that he's up to something?" Cadance asked with her sly smile.
Luna simply looked away with a huff. "Well... I'm convinced that he doesn't appeared to be smart... unless that's how he acted."
Suddenly, they heard a loud noise, starling everypony in the process.
"Um... girls? Did ya'll hear somethin?" Applejack asked nervously.
The noise have gotten louder until they heard a loud scream coming from above them. It sounded like it came from the ceiling vent and something, or rather, some pony wall falling down from their. They looked up just in time to see a mint green pony fall through the vent cover and falling down towards the ground. Before that pony hit the ground, Twilight used her magic just in time to catch the intruder. Once they got the pony in her grasp, they all got a good look at their "visitor" and then gasped in surprise.
"Lyra!?" Twilight exclaimed.
Lyra, who was floating in Twilight's magic, waved at them with her sheepish smile.
"Eheheheh... long time no see everypony!"
Flash sighed irritably for a hundredth time. He had spent almost fifteen minutes with that unbearable mare... just to make an order. Everytime he felt like he was making progress, that mare would then demanded something that was not on the menu or ordered him to do something unrealistic like take a trip to another city to buy a specific ingredient for her within five minutes. His customer was getting angrier by the second, but at this point, Flash nearly run out of patience with this mare.
"Ma'am, for the last time, we are out of mustard and we also do not have a so-called high quality mustard which was made in Canterlot!" Flash explained calmly.
Spoiled scrunched her nose in anger and banged on the counter with her hoof. "This is outrageous! You ponies don't have everything I like here! And when I do want something, you refused to fulfilled my request! Whatever happened to "the customer is always right"!?"
"Mother, this isn't how you do things in a place like this!?" Diamond spoke up. "You need to order what they have available here! You can't just demanded to have them take a trip to Canterlot to pick up the brand you wanted and expected to get it right this minute!"
"Not a word from you Diamond!" Spoiled growled as she turned to her daughter. "You're still getting a salad so you don't become fat from their food!"
"I think you need a salad more than her!" Flash mumbled.
Spoiled faced Flash again with a fierce glare. "What was that!?"
"Er- I mean, your daughter has a point!" Flash quickly clarified. "You could only get what we have here!"
"But I don't like any of your selections in this dump!" Spoiled shouted.
Flash's eyes narrowed. "Well what do ya expect!? This is a fast food restaurant, not a five star restaurant!"
Spoiled banged her hoof on the counter again. "Alright, that's it! If you don't give me what I wanted in five seconds, I'm calling the manager!"
"But I am the manager!" said Flash.
Spoiled scoffed. "Nice try, but you're not fooling me! I'm counting down right now!"
"Mother, stop!" Diamond shouted.
"Five!"
"Ma'am, just calm down!" Flash cried out desperately.
"Four!"
"Mom! You're making a scene!" Diamond pleaded.
"Three!"
Flash surveys the area nervously. "Where's Ed!?"
"Two!"
Suddenly, the main doors flew open and a screaming mysterious figure rushed into the restaurant, startling everypony in the process. Before Spoiled, Flash or Diamond noticed, the figure was heading towards their way until he crashed into the counter, flipped over and fell onto the floor from behind the counter. Shortly after that, the figure stood up, revealing to be Ed with his same goofy smile.
"I'm back!" Ed announced.
"Ed!" Flash cried, silently relieved of his arrival... for once. "What took ya? And is Princess Twilight okay?"
"Oh sure, Twilight's fine!" Ed responded with a wave. "She just talked to some guy named Mr. Royal Pain. Heh."
"Royal Pain?" Flash asked in confusion
Before Ed could continue, they were interrupted by a certain angry rich spoiled mare.
"Hey! Why is some monkey showed up behind the counter!? I'm still demanding for some service!"
Noticing her for the first time, Ed turned towards Spoiled with a smile. "Oh hi, welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger. Can I take your order? Heh."
Spoiled gave Ed her an annoyed look before she huffed. "First of all, I already ordered! Second, what you just did was completely unprofessional! And third, your grammar is atrocious! It's not "Can I take your order," it's "May I take your order?"
Ed smiled and began to list things off with his fingers. "Oh sure! I'll have a good burger, some good fries, a good shake and maybe a good apple pie–"
"No no no no no!" Spoiled shouted, already losing her patience with Ed. She then gave Ed her stink eye. "Listen here you simpleton, all I want is a new bottle of mustard and I want it now!"
Ed tilted his head. "You want a bottle of mustard?"
"YES! That's what I just said!" Spoiled shouted briefly showing Ed her empty bottle of mustard before putting it down on the counter.
"Uhhhh... mustard..." Ed mumbled as he slowly turned himself around to find another bottle. "Mustard... mustard..."
After he did a full three-sixty turn, he spotted a mustard bottle, which was the same mustard bottle that Spoiled showed him earlier. He picked it up and gave it to Spoiled. "OH! Here you go!"
Almost everypony in the restaurant was snickering at Spoiled expense, while Spoiled herself was getting angrier at the goofy human.
"You think this is funny you hairless ape? I demanded to be serviced, but you were busy clowning around!"
"There were clowns! Where!?" Ed shouted excitedly as he looked around the room.
Spoiled was now gritting her teeth. "Look! I need a different bottle of mustard for my food!" She then picked up her mustard bottle again. "Look! Can't you see that this bottle is empty?!"
"Uhhhhh... no?" Ed responded. "You just got to squeeze it like you mean it lady!"
To demonstrate his point, he took the bottle from Spoiled and start squeezing the bottle as hard and wildly as possible. Unfortunately for Spoiled, Ed had the mustard nozzle pointed straight at her. As a result, he sprayed mustard all over her, including her face. Ed eventually stopped squeezing the bottle and smiled at the angry mare.
"See? There you go! That'll be eight bucks!"
Everypony in the restaurant was now exploding with laughter, glad to see that insufferable mare finally got some karma. Even Diamond Tiara was laughing at her mother's expense, despite trying so hard (and failed) to hide it from her. Spoiled's face was now deep red in rage as she wiped some mustard off of her eyes.
"You little-- wait til I get my hooves on--"
As she made one step towards Ed, she failed to notice a pool of mustard that was on the floor underneath her. As a result, she slipped and landed on her butt. This makes everypony who watched her laughed even harder.
Ed peaked down over the counter with a concerned expression. "Hey! You okay lady?"
Spoiled growled and stood up. "NO! I am NOT okay!" She shouted, nearly scaring her daughter. "You don't have what I want! Your food looks terrible! Your manners are HORRIBLE! And you sprayed mustered all over my FAVORITE dress! You will pay for this!"
"Uh... no? Your the one who ordered, so YOU have to pay it!" Said Ed, making everypony in the restaurant laugh again.
"You'll regret this!" Spoiled seethed while giving Ed her hateful glare. "You'll regret the day you ever mess with Spoiled Rich... and I will make sure of it!" She then lifted her muzzle up as she turned to walk out of the door. "Come Diamond Tiara!"
Diamond obeyed, but not before she looked at Ed and mouthed, "Thank you!" and then ran after her mother. By the time they went out the door, Ed stared quizzically at their direction.
"Wow... what's her problem?" Ed asked as Flash went up to him.
"Ed, I can't believe I'm saying this, but for once, I'm glad you're here!" Flash said with a smile before frowning. "That mare was the most unpleasant, despicable pony I've ever met!"
"Yeah, that's Spoiled Rich alright!" said Apple Bloom as she and her friends trotted up to the counter. "She's the head of a school board from our school with a ruler up her butt and thinks she's better than everypony!"
"She's has a ruler up her butt!?" Ed exclaimed. "Whoa! She should go and see a doctor!"
"It was only a figure of speech Ed!" Flash sighed before addressing towards the fillies. "So she acted like this to everypony often?"
When the CMC nodded, Flash felt even more disgusted about that rich mate.
"Unbelievable! How did this mare kept getting away with this!?"
"That's because she's also a wife to the richest stallion in Equestria, Filthy Rich," Sweetie Belle explained. "But unlike Spoiled, Mr. Rich is actually a really nice guy. What Mr. Rich sees in that mare was beyond me!"
"Still, ever since we helped her daughter, she held a grudge against us since, often making our lives miserable!" Scootaloo added bitterly before smiling up to Ed. "But seeing you driving her crazy like that really made my day!"
Ed smiled. "Thanks, except I don't have my license yet! Heh!"
Scootaloo was confused about Ed's statement, but she just shook her head and smirked. "You're pretty weird and I'm still miffed at you from earlier, but after what you did to Spoiled, you earned my respect!"
"Thanks!" said Ed. "So, would you like to take your order?"
The three fillies grimaced.
"Uh... we're good!" Apple Bloom responded. "Ah think we had enough of your performance on us fer one day!"
"But we would like to watch you do that to other ponies, as long it's not too far!" Sweetie Belle added.
Ed gave them his confused look. "Performance?"
"Er, they mean... keep doing what you've been doing Ed!" Flash quickly spoke up. "Just... bring it down a notch."
"Oh okay! Heh heh!" Ed laughed, much to Flash relief.
Apple Bloom turned to her friends. "You know what girls... Ed was actually kind of funny... when he's not messing with us that is!"
Scootaloo nodded in agreement. "Yeah! I guess he was doing this all in good fun if we don't take this seriously!"
"Maybe we should tell everyone from our school to come over!" said Sweetie Belle. "I would love to see how he acted towards the others!"
"Like Snips and Snails!" Scootaloo suggested with mischief in her eyes. "There's so many possible funny outcomes from these guys!"
Flash, who overheard the trio's conversation gulped nervously.
Oh boy... I better let Princess Twilight know what I just done before things get out of hoof... even if I end up receiving her wrath!
