> The Traveller
>  by Phxntxm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I trotted into this town for the first time in my life.  It was a small town (I could tell that just by walking in); that might be why I'd never heard of it.  The sign just outside said 'Ponyville', but I had already forgotten the name not 20 yards past the sign. I've lived in many places throughout my life, half of them I can't even remember the name of because they weren't important to me. This was just one more place to me, just another place to try out, to see if it was a nice place to live. I noticed that a purple pony had  spotted me from off in the distance. She turned her head to the side when she saw me, as if she were curious about something. I just walked in the same line I was on which ended up taking me right to her.

“Hello,” she said. It was a pretty simple greeting I guess, not the worst I've had, so I'll take it. 

“Hi!” I responded, with a big smile on my face. I might want to mention I'm an optimist. I can't remember the last time I was mad, sad, anything like that. I just don't ever feel that way; it doesn't result in anything but unhappiness, which I don't like.

She smiled at me, which hopefully wasn't an “I'm insane and you're going to die” smile. I've seen a couple of those. Smiles can be very misleading, you know. “You seem like a nice enough pony, but I've never seen you around here before. Are you visiting?”

“Nope!” I responded cheerfully. I then began a slow trot in no particular direction, just looking around at the scenery, but keeping an eye on this mare as well. Always gotta keep your surroundings in check. You don't know what's going to happen if you don't. She followed alongside of me and raised an eyebrow questioningly. 

“Oookay then, do you live anywhere around here?” She asked.

“Probably, we'll see in a little bit.” I responded, again with a smile on my face. She scrunched her nose up and looked confused.

“Okay...uhm...do you have a house you're going to buy or something?” She was an inquisitive one. That doesn't get you anywhere good in most of the places I've been to. That also gives me some feedback on this pony; she probably hasn't had to deal with too much “bad” stuff. I decided to trust her and stopped keeping one eye on her. 

“Nah I don't have enough to afford a house. I think I've only got like 2 bits to my name or something.” I stuck my tongue out in concentration as I searched through the pocket in which I kept my money in my saddlebag. I frowned when I found nothing, “Crud, I think I dropped it somewhere. Oh well, not the first time I've been broke.” 

The purple mare's jaw dropped for some reason. Man this pony is odd I thought. I don't get her. She started stammering before she spoke again. “But-but how...how did you get here?!”

“I walked.” I continued walking, searching around.

“WALKED?! From where!” She demanded.

“Hey, why are you getting angry? I didn't do anything, and here I was beginning to think you were a nice pony. Also, I don't remember where I came from last; names of places I've been aren't important to me. I've been traveling from...” I pointed a hoof towards the direction I came from, “That way for a few days. I think I'll just find somewhere to settle down for a little bit. Maybe I'll like this place if ponies don't get so angry at you for answering their questions honestly.” I shot her a glance; she looked really angry. Did I say something wrong? I honestly thought I was doing well here.

“Where do you expect to live if you can't buy a house!” She shouted. She obviously gets riled up very easily.

“Hmm...” I searched around a little more, it took me a while to find what I wanted since it was night time, but I eventually found exactly what I was looking for. A little alleyway with a couple of trash cans, and to my glee, a box that must have been for a sofa or something. The thing was huge! “Right here! Look at this box, it's just so perfect! I could fit like two of me here! And then I can pick food up right there.” I pointed at the trash cans with jubilation, “It's perfect!” 

Okay, NOW she was mad. Seriously, what am I doing wrong? She was actually turning red, literally, with rage. Oh...OH! I know what must be the problem. “You already live here don't you? Crud, I'll go find another box.” I walked away dejectedly when she began shouting. I'm honestly baffled at how she keeps getting so mad, I'm trying to be nice to her! I just sat down and let her end her rant, which I honestly understood like one or two words of. I think the shortest word she used had maybe twenty letters in it, okay maybe that's an exaggeration but you get my point. She took a breath, dropped her head, and shook it, her horn lit up and I felt myself get lifted off the ground. 

“Come on, you're coming with me.” She said.

She began walking with me levitating off the ground behind her. I just crossed my arms, screwed my eyes shut, and made a raspberry sound at her. 

She looked back and me and saw me pouting at her, sighed and continued walking. “You are the weirdest pony I've ever met, and I know Pinkie Pie.” I did the little foal thing where you mock what they said in a weird voice behind their back, she didn't even respond to it, it's no fun when they don't respond to it. 

I had no idea where I was being taken now, but whatever, I'd already decided she was trustworthy. Maybe a little bit crazy, but she didn't seem harmless. I watched, upside-down, where she was taking me and we eventually ended up heading straight towards a tree. “Uhm no offense, but I'd rather go back to my box, I'm not an owl, owl's live in trees, not ponies.” 

“This is my house, and it's a library.” Now she was being short with me, why couldn't she just lighten up?

“Okay, well owl's live in trees, and books live in libraries. Since you're not an owl...you must be a book!” I concluded with triumph. I smiled when she just looked back at me and attempted to say something but nothing came out of her mouth. She facehoofed and continued walking towards the tree/library/house. 

When we got there she set me down on the floor and closed the door. “You are sleeping here tonight.” She stated with finality in her voice, her eyes dared to challenge her but I saw no reason to. 

I just shrugged, lay down, closed my eyes, and said, “Okay, if you say so.”

She gritted her teeth, clearly frustrated, but again I was at a loss as to what for. “NO! Not on the ground...in a bed! Or couch! For Celestia's sake, something ponies normally sleep on!”

“In my defense, I normally sleep on some newspapers, or a box, or something like that. You took that away from me you jerk. How can a nice pony be so mean? You're weird.”

She turned red again, is that even supposed to be possible? To actually turn red? Well since she's a unicorn, I guess it could be partly due to magic. “You- I just- YOU'RE WEIRD! I'M NOT WEIRD! YOU'RE JUST....GAH!” She was about ready to burst again, but took a deep breath, let it out long and slow and began again. “You...are sleeping on this couch. This one! Right here! See it? No where else! Not a box, not newspapers, not the ground, the couch! I'm going to bed, you've worn me out.”

“That's what she-”

“DON'T YOU DARE. For Celestia's sake how old are you?!” She shouted...again.

“I'm like 20 I think, I don't know, I don't know my birthday.”

She sighed, shook her head and began walking upstairs. “I'm going to bed, goodnight.” As she almost was out of sight, she looked back at me, “I don't even know your name yet, mine is Twilight Sparkle...what's yours?” 

“I don't know it either.” I responded.

Her teeth had to have been worn down a couple centimeters from all the grinding they were doing, she also probably had a headache after banging her head on the wall a couple times. I'm no doctor, but that can't be good for you. She went up the stairs, out of sight, and I didn't see her again. Hopefully she doesn't hate me in the morning, because she probably does right now. 

I settled down on the couch for the night, and all jokes aside, I was really grateful that she let me sleep there. I'm pretty sure she probably didn't get that from me at all, I made sure to make a mental note to let her know in the morning. This was by far the most comfortable place I'd ever slept in my life, a random mare whose name I'd just learned about a minute ago let me take refuge in her house, even if just for a night. That alone astounded me, I didn't understand the hospitality, but I wasn't about to deny it. Well she might be a serial killer that attracts her victims just like she did with me, but I had a feeling that wasn't the case. Oh well, we'd see in the morning if I didn't wake up. Or well...technically wouldn't see...but you get my point.
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I woke up the next morning at about eight AM I realized that I hadn't eaten at all yesterday, when you eat as little as I do that's not really a big deal. I thought about just grabbing something from her fridge, but I didn't want to overstay my welcome too much. Normally my food comes from trash cans, where ponies have thrown out contents and it doesn't belong to them. Taking from their fridge would be stealing if I didn't have permission, I have never stolen in my life. Never have, never will. So I decided I would ask for permission, I hate going days without eating, it's not very comfortable. 

I walked upstairs and found the room that I presumed to be hers and knocked on her door. After I received no answer I opened the door and walked in, and trotted up to her bed where she was sleeping. I poked her snout with a hoof and whispered, “Hey? Psssst, Twilight, you awake?” She groaned and shooed away my hoof as if it were an annoying fly. “You want an annoying fly? I'll show you an annoying fly!” I began poking anywhere and everywhere I could reach, “Hey! Twilight wake up!”

She sat up with quite a bad bed-mane, bloodshot eyes, and her teeth ground together. She glared at me and shouted, “What?!” 

I giggled when I saw her, “You look funny.” She looked about ready to murder me, I decided I better quell that storm before it happens. “Okay, before you commit any felonies here, I was hungry and I didn't want to be rude and just raid your fridge. Can I have something?” 

She facehoofed and plopped back down in the bed, “Of course you can have something! I don't care!” She stopped as she heard my stomach growl, she got up and raised an eyebrow as she asked curiously, “When's the last time you've eaten?” 

I shrugged my shoulders and responded, “I don't know, maybe a couple days ago?”

She freaked out, bad, her hair flung out as if she was just shocked by lightning, and she jumped up screaming, “ A COUPLE DAYS AGO?! Are you freaking crazy?!” I had a feeling the spontaneous outbursts were just part of her personality, because I've known her for like...14 hours or something and it's happened at least two zillion times, maybe 3. One thing I was also going to have to get used to apparently was getting carried off by her magic. Once again I found myself floating along behind her as she rushed downstairs. I sighed at her theatrics, not much else I could have done at the moment. When we reached the kitchen I found her hurriedly rummaging through the cabinets; she pulled out some bread and some flowers. 

She set me down at the table as she began to focus on what she was doing. After about five minutes of her hopping around, dropping stuff on the ground, and groaning in frustration she shouted, “SPIKE!” I turned around when I heard grumbling coming from the stairs behind me. My eyes widened in surprise as I found a baby dragon walking down with a blanket in his hand, rubbing his eyes. Now how did I not notice THAT before?

He barely even payed notice to me, most likely too tired from the way he looked, and walked straight up to Twilight. “What is it Twilight? I was sleeping you know, it is way too early for this.” He crossed his arms as he looked at Twilight with frustration. A second later he noticed the mess around the kitchen, and looked back at Twilight with confusion. 

“I can't make the sandwich right!” She shouted frantically.

“Twilight...you just put the flowers in the bread...are you being serious right now?” He asked crossly.

“JUST FIX IT SPIKE!” She screamed.

“Okay! Okay!” He grumbled some more as he went to fix Twilight's mess. As soon as the sandwich was made Twilight levitated it off of the plate and shoved it into my mouth. She was about an inch from my face and was watching me intently. She looked legitimately scared, so I knew I had to calm her down a little bit.

I removed the sandwich from my mouth slowly before talking, “Okay, first of all: calm down Twilight. This isn't the first time I've gone a couple days without eating. I do it all the time, second of all; since I'm being serious right now, which we both know doesn't happen much, I wanted to thank you for letting me sleep here last night. I don't think I've ever slept on something as comfortable as a couch, it was pretty awesome. And thanks for the sandwich, I also don't think I've ever eaten something that wasn't from a trash can. This is the first sandwich I'll have ever had...even though the purple guy-”

“Dragon.”

“-Purple guy made it.” She facehoofed at that. “Anywho, I just wanted to say thanks. And I know how to feed myself, you don't need to feed me.” She looked back at me with so many emotions in her eyes that it was hard to read, I saw sadness, pity, curiosity, and thankfulness.

“I don't mean to be intrusive, but I have to know about you; you say you live in boxes, you sleep on newspapers, and you eat out of trash cans. I don't understand...why? Why can't you just find family to live with, get a job and live somewhere, just...why?” She looked so sad when she spoke, she legitimately did not understand my life. She must have never lived, or heard about, someplace where not everypony lives in harmony. 

“So you want to know about my life do you?” She nodded frantically, “Well then I'll start from the beginning.” I cleared my throat, and began by throwing my arms out theatrically, “IN WEST FILLYDELPHIA, BORN AND RAISED-” 

She grabbed a hold of her hair and started pulling at it in frustration, “For the love of Celestia, just be serious for once!” 

I smiled at her before responding, “Technically that'll be the second time I've been serious. But fine, if you insist, I just had to throw one joke in there.” She sighed and shook her head before I continued on a more serious note, “Okay the real start. My first memory is of living on the streets, it's where I started, plain and simple. I don't remember any parents, any family, I don't even know my name. I also do not know why I have no memory before about 12 years old. I don't know why I started out on the streets, I don't know what happened to my parents, and I frankly don't care. I've thought of a few possibilities, they might have been terrible parents and just left me to fend for myself. In that case I have no want to know about my parents because they'd have been terrible and meeting them would just make everything worse. They could have died and I somehow survived, in which case I would not want to know them. You may wonder why then, but it would because I do not want to know what I've missed by them dying. I hate the fact that innocent ponies can meet a fate like that, and I don't want to know if it happened to my own family. If this is what happened, I'm sure they're watching me from wherever they are and they understand where I stand on the matter. They'd know that I love them for who they are and everything that I'm sure they've done for me before they were gone.”

Twilight's jaw had dropped open as she stared on with a mix of fascination and horror. As I took a pause she looked at me with sad eyes. She knew I wasn't done yet and she waited for me to finish.

“At first I hated everyone, I hated everything, no matter what had happened to put me in that situation, it simply wasn't fair. I did nothing to deserve it, so why was I there? I blamed everyone I could, and I never let anyone get close to me. All the time I lived in the place I found myself, I skirted around anything and stuck to myself. I had a little alleyway that had become my home, a dumpster next to it that a whole apartment used. I had food and shelter, that's all I needed. And honestly, that was my life from then on. The only other question I didn't answer is why I didn't get a job and settle down. And well, I just felt like moving around, I don't like staying in one place too long. I think the reason for that is I'm just looking for somewhere that feels right, somewhere I actually can belong and not live a crappy life anymore.

“I just want to mention one more thing though, one thing you'll find out about me is how ignorant I am. I literally knew nothing from I first “started out” I guess. It's why I find it curious that I have no memory before 12-ish, how can someone have the mindset of a toddler at most, no knowledge of anything, and be that old? I don't know what happened to me, but I don't want to delve and find out. I hate feeling like this, it's the reason I joke around all the time. Thinking about the past just puts me down, I don't like it.

“Anyway, I had to learn things by myself, teach myself things. Everyone has the primal urges to eat, drink, and find shelter of some kind. That was all instinctual. What wasn't instinctual however were things like what IS actually food? What is edible and what wasn't? It might seem silly to you, and it even is to me now. But I simply didn't know what I could eat, I had to try a ton of things to figure out what would cause me to throw-up and what would actually satiate my hunger. Another concept I had to teach myself that was no fun was ownership. I learned that ponies don't like it when you take something from them, so I had to experiment and find out what people actually claim is their own. Again it seems like an obvious thing, but how was I supposed to know? 

“I learned that stuff inside their house counts as theirs, something they bring out with them and are near at all times it is out of their house is theirs, anything they leave somewhere—like a dumpster—then it's no longer theirs.

“I wanted to tell you this because I sometimes find myself asking things that make ponies think I'm stupid, and I hate it. I feel like a little foal when ponies act like something is common knowledge but I simply don't know it, it reminds me too well of my past. So I just want to let you know now, if anything like that comes up and I make things awkward, then you'll understand why.”

By the time I had finished all of that, Twilight was actually crying, I didn't understand why she cared so much about a pony she'd never known before, but I wasn't about to complain. No ponies in any town I'd been in had been as kind as she was being, and I was hoping that she wasn't the only one here like that. This place seemed a lot different than anyplace I'd ever been. 

“This the most depressed you'll ever see me, I don't like talking about my past, so don't expect me to do it very often. I hate feeling like this, so I just simply don't. I joke around all the time, I make myself remain happy even when nothing around me can possibly make me feel that way. When you start your life at the bottom of a hill, the only place you can go is up.” 

She sniffed and wiped her eyes dry before smiling and responding to my story, “I just have one question, if you say you don't know your name...what do you call yourself?”

“I go by Phantom,” I responded. “Most places I've lived don't contain the friendliest of ponies. I've found that out first-hoof. So I make myself unknown, I like to be able to come into a town without anyone asking questions, and being able to leave without anyone noticing a pony has left. So I like to be like a phantom, and that's what I've always called myself. I think this is the first time that I've been somewhere where I find that ponies are actually friendly. I also think this might be the first time that I might be able to call a pony a friend...” At the end I had dropped off a little and looked at her with hopeful eyes. I don't know what it was about this Twilight Sparkle, but I found that I could trust her very easily.

Before I knew what had happened, she had jumped at me and gave me a bone-crushing hug. She sniffled into my coat as she spoke, “You can definitely call me a friend Phantom.” I returned the hug and smiled. Although I forced myself to be happy all the time, this was one of the few times I found happiness naturally. 

> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After receiving the tightest hug I'd ever had in my life, Twilight Sparkle told me that she apparently studies ‘friendship’ and that she'd probably be one of the best people to teach me about it. She didn't take too kindly to me laughing at her for studying friendship as if it were a collegiate subject. She wiped the smirk off my face when she told me that Princess Celestia herself had told her to study it and send reports on what she and her friends learned. I was then about to laugh at her for having to learn how to make friends in such a ridiculous way...until I remembered I was probably going to do that too, with Twilight as my mentor. Well I guess there's no better way than to learn to have friends by someone who studies it for a profession. Or hobby. I'm really not sure, I'm going to assume she's a librarian by profession as she lives in a library.

I decided to ask her. 

“Hey, are you a librarian?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at me, “Er...yes, I'm a librarian. Hence the library." Were you even listening to anything I said?” 

"...maybe."

She facehoofed and I took a bite of the sandwich  while she sighed.

“Mmm, this is good! Seriously...it's almost as good as pancakes out of the trash. I do love pancakes, do they make pancake sandwiches? That would be amazing.”

After receiving no answer I looked at her, she was looking back and forth between my horn and the sandwich with her jaw wide open. It took a second to figure out what she was looking at specifically, she noticed that there was no aura around the sandwich or my horn. I'd never seen anyone else have that before, and anyone who saw it was completely baffled. I thought about this and found a perfect way to prank Twilight.

I swallowed the bite that I had taken and glanced at the sandwich. I let my eyes go wide and stammered, “G-G-G-GHOOOST!” I ran upstairs and after turning the corner I waited a second and peeked around the corner. I saw her staring at the sandwich and she had literally turned white. Then all of a sudden she screamed and began running around in circles while picking up books and throwing it at the sandwich. I began to make the sandwich chase her and her screaming got louder.

I noticed Spike had come downstairs to where I was again and after noticing that Twilight was being chased around the room by a sandwich he just rolled his eyes and walked back upstairs. I laughed a bit at that and apparently Twilight heard me, she ran up to me with frantic eyes and yelled at me, “KILL IT! KILL IT!” I'd decided that I'd spare her more worry and decided to tell her what was actually going on.

“Twilight it's okay, calm down. There's no ghost.” I said.

“B...but...the sandwich is just floating!” She pointed back at where I had forgotten I was still levitating it to prove it. 

“Think about it Twilight, why would a ghost be feeding me...and then chase you around with a sandwich?” I smirked at her as she realized she was being a bit foolish and blushed a little bit.

“But...what's going on then? It's just floating there...” She eyed the sandwich curiously as it went back towards me so I could take another bite.

After swallowing I responded, “That's something that I've always had; no aura when I use magic. I don't know why, but I actually like it. I think it's cool.”

Her eyes widened as I explained, “But you can't not have an aura! It's always been a part of magic!”

“I don't think that I don't have one per say, I think it's just completely translucent. The aura is a physical manifestation around the object getting manipulated, it's what actually moves the object, or teleports it, shrinks it, enlarges, whatever you're doing to it. It has to be there, but who says it has to be visible? It's just like the aura of somepony; I bet if someone went up to Luna without ever knowing her would be intimidated immediately. They might not know whether it's because of fear, simple power, or her royalty. Yet they would still be affected, but you don't see an aura around them. For some reason that's the same way my magical aura works I guess, I'm not sure if those two types of auras are similar in any way, but it's a comparison I've thought of before.”

Twilight looked on in interest as I explained how I thought of my aura, or lack thereof. “You know, no offense or anything, but I thought you weren't going to be very...uhm...smart.” She bit her lip as she heard how what she said came out, “I didn't mean it like that, but since you lived on streets and stuff...I don't think you would have gone to a school or anything. So I thought you'd be...unintelligent. Okay that still sounds bad. Um...You're not as stupid as I thought you'd be. No! Grr!” She lowered her head in defeat as she gave up what she was trying to convey.

However, I knew she wasn't trying to be offensive and I knew exactly what she meant. I just chuckled which cause her to look back up at me, “I know what you meant Twilight, you don't have to worry. That's why I used the word 'ignorant' earlier. I am pretty ignorant of many things, yes, but I also do like to read. I have plenty of free time on my hooves with my kind of life, and I've gone to libraries when I could to learn about new stuff. The stuff I'm ignorant on is more of the basic type of things, like I was talking about earlier, the idea of ownership and what to eat. That's the type of thing that will come up and make me look stupid.” 

Twilight sighed, “Yeah that's kind of what I was trying to say. Stupid mouth not conveying what my brain wanted to correctly. Hey wait a minute, I should be mad at you for pranking me!” She pouted at me and swung a hoof out at one of my front legs.

I caught it with my magic and forced it back down with her other hooves, she looked startled when she looked down at her own hoof, then she looked back up at me. I just looked back at her with confusion and asked, “Why did you just try to hit me? Was pranking you seriously bad enough that you don't like me anymore?” I noticed that I sounded a bit sad as I ended my question.

“What? No! I wasn’t going to hurt you, I was just going to hit you playfully!” 

I just continued to look at her in confusion, “Why would hitting somepony be playing? That's violence...that doesn't seem like playing.” 

She just looked at me sadly, I had a feeling one of those times where I wasn't getting something that everyone knew was happening. “It wasn't going to hurt, I promise. It's just something friends do...trust me.”

I continued to stare at her for a couple more seconds before releasing my hold on her hoof. After I let go there was an awkward silence that occurred, neither of us knew what to say until she broke the silence. “Hey,” she said softly, “we should go meet some of my friends that I talked about before, you can make more than just your first friend that way.”

I sighed as I felt thankful that she tried to act like my stupidity didn't happen. I nodded and beamed before leading the way out of the library. I let a couple thoughts brew inside my head as I followed her out as a more comfortable silence filled the air this time. Before this town my life was simple, a bit crappy. I just went in and out of each day doing the same thing, and I was happy about it, because I wanted to be. Then I got here and all of the emotions I was getting felt more genuine. There were also plenty of times when the bad emotions felt better than the fake happiness I always had before. Perhaps it was because it actually meant I cared about somepony, and they cared about me. I smiled at that thought, it was really pleasing. I lifted my head up as I followed the mare that cared about me to meet more ponies that might care about me. And the feeling I felt was nervousness. I was nervous that they might not like me, but the funny thing was that the nervousness felt good.
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So who are we seeing first Twilight?” I asked.

“We're going to head down to Applejack's farm first. It's the farthest away and I'd like to get it out of the way. Pinkie Pie is going to be sad that she wasn't the first to greet you because she usually is with everypony that comes to this town. But I have my reasons for keeping you two separate for now. I have got to keep you two apart for the good of the world. You two will make everypony within a mile go crazy.” 

“So what you're saying is I'm going to like her aren't I?” 

Twilight sighed and pushed me out the door on the way to our first stop. “Yes, you two are going to get along famously. And it is going to kill the rest of us. Have fun.” 

“Hmm, I don't know if I wanted to be a murderer, but if you say it's fun I guess I might give it a try.” 

Twilight Sparkle just rolled her eyes and said, “You're not going to be a murderer as long I'm around, because there is no way I'm letting the two of you be near each other for more than a minute. As long as that rule upholds, everyone else will be fine. Now, changing the subject away from that nightmare, we're going to go to Applejack's.” 

I groaned and followed along behind her as she trotted down the road, “Just hurry up so I can meet this Pinkie Pie pony. She sounds fun.” I got no response from her except for more trotting. “At least I get to walk on my own without you carrying me somewhere.” Still no response. Looks like I'll be traveling in silence for now. 

We ended up heading towards a farm  of some sorts, there were trees as far around as I could see. “So what does this Applejack farm?” 

“Take a guess.” 

That was the only response I got. So I did. “Potatoes.” 

She spun around and gave me a bewildered look. “Are you kidding me? Potatoes? They don't even grow in trees! And you can see plenty of trees around here!”

I looked around as I had no idea what she was talking about, “Huh, I didn’t notice those there.” I shrugged my shoulders and walked past her towards the farm.

“Apples!” She yelled from behind me, “She farms apples!” 

I stopped and put a hoof to my chin thoughtfully, “Dang, that was my fourth guess.” 

“Fourth guess?! What were your other two guesses?!” 

“Jelly beans and pancakes.” 

She stamped the ground furiously, stopped, took a deep breath and muttered, “I'm going to kill this stallion by the end of the day.” I just flashed her a toothy grin. And managed to get carried the rest of the way to the barn. I take it that's her I've had enough and you're going to stop now reaction. So I became silent the rest of the way to the house that was in the middle of all the apple orchards, and she knocked on the door. 

An orange, cowpony looking pony answered the door and gave a big smile when she saw her friend at the door, “Well howdy Twilight! And...you.” She said as she looked up to me with an eyebrow raised questioningly. 

Twilight decided to answer the situation herself, “Hi Applejack, this is-”

“Good evening Madam Applejack, my name is Prince Cornelius of Canterlot.” I gave my best bow that I could while floating in the air.

“You're not a prince, shut up!” Twilight shouted. 

“Aww, why not?” 

“What do you mean ‘why not?’, you're not! It's as simple as that!” I think I was making a good first impression on Applejack, just my opinion though. 

“She hates me Applejack, she crushes all my hopes and dreams. She's so mean to me!” I crossed my arms and gave a pout.

“I don't hate you! You're just-”

“LIIIIIEEEEES!!” I shouted while waving my hooves around in a little tantrum. “Lemme go!” 

Twilight sighed and looked at Applejack, who was just watching the interaction without a clue as to what was going on. “This is Phantom, he's new to Ponyville and he doesn't have many friends yet. If you can't tell he resembles Pinkie Pie a lot, so I'm taking him to meet all my friends...but her last.” I stopped my tantrum for a second to give a cheerful wave, then proceeded to wave my hooves around frantically. 

“Oh lord, just make sure Ah'm not around to witness when those two meet. Otherwise it's been a...pleasure to make your acquaintance Phantom. It'll be...nice to have two Pinkie Pie's around here.”

“That sounded like the most sincere greeting I've ever had.” I told her.

Twilight rolled her eyes, “He's not as bad sometimes, he can be calm and intelligent if he wants to. He just never does. The difference between him and Pinkie Pie is that Pinkie seems to have no idea what she's doing, it's just her. Whereas he’s just messing around.” 

“Well, Ah guess that's not as bad as Pinkie then.” Applejack looked at me as I stopped my tantrum to look down at the two.

“You know, you two don't seem very nice to Pinkie Pie really. You keep saying I'm not as 'bad' as her, or the sarcastic remark that it would nice to have two ponies like her around. Is she actually your friend or just someone who hangs out with you guys?” 

Both of them blushed and looked at each other, Twilight was the one to answer me first. “No she's our friend, I promise, she's just a bit much sometimes. Like I said, you can be calm and collected at times, whereas she cannot. It's just part of her nature, it can just be a bit more than we can all handle sometimes.”

I still wasn't satisfied with that, “So why put up with her at all if you can't do it all the time? I don't see a reason why a 'friend' of yours should be hard to put up with.”

Twilight opened her mouth a couple times to answer, but it seemed like she had none. I looked at Applejack to see if she had an answer.

“The way Ah see it is no one knows why they're friends with other ponies, everyone has their little tussles with their friends, but being able to get over that is what makes you friends. Ah don't think a day goes by that Rainbow and Ah don't find some way to argue about something, but we're still great friends. The same goes with Pinkie Pie, we may have times where our patience grows thin with her, but we still have fun other times.”

I nodded at that, satisfied this time. I pointed to the exit of the farm, “Onward my faithful steed! We must continue our quest of friendship!” I trotted in the air I was still being suspended in, getting nowhere. 

Twilight sighed and looked back at Applejack, “Thanks for that, and I guess we'll see you later then.” 

Applejack nodded in response and went back inside her barn, closing the door behind her. Twilight began walking away from the barn as we went on to meet the next friend that she had.
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey, Twilight. Can you at least float me right-side up if you're going to levitate me everywhere we go.”

Her response was to drop me on the ground and continue walking. I landed with an “Oof!” and quickly got up to follow Twilight toward the next friend we were going to meet. 

“So who's next? Is it Pinkie Pie's turn? I'm excited for that...”

“No, we've still got 3 more ponies before Pinkie Pie. Next is Rarity, she owns the Carousel Boutique here, and makes dresses for a living. She's also the Element of Generosity.”

“What's that?” I responded.

She stopped mid-step and turned around slowly, “You don't know about the Element's of Harmony?” I shook my head. She looked thoughtful for a minute, and just watched me curiously. When she spoke again it was really softly, but I couldn't figure out why. “Have you heard about Nightmare Moon?” Again I shook my head, “Discord, Queen Chrysalis?” No, and no. 

She sighed and rubbed her forehead with her hoof, “How can you not know about them? If you're supposed to be intelligent, I assume you at least read a bit?”

I nodded this time, “I love going to libraries. That might have been a part of the reason that I was fine with you taking me to your house.”

“Okay, so there MUST have been newspapers, magazines, anything in there that had something about current events?” She asked quizzically.

I shook my head. “I don't care about those really, it doesn't affect me directly, and if it does then I'll learn about it first-hoof. Otherwise I just like to read mostly on magic, or fiction stories.”

She sighed, “Okay, we're gonna go ahead and make a stop before going to Rarity's place. I'm gonna have to tell you about the world outside of...wherever you were before. Lets stop here at this diner.”

I lowered my ears flat to my head, “I don't have any bits Twilight, I can't pay for a diner.”

“That's fine, I'll pay for you.” She responded, and nudged me towards the diner she was talking about.

I didn't budge however and I just looked at her curiously, “But why?”

“Because I want to, now come on.”

“Why do you want to? I don't understand...you barely know me, since we’ve met I've done nothing but annoy you, sleep in your house, eat your food, why are you being so nice to me? I just...don't understand why you care so much. If it's out of pity then please don't, I don't want pity.” 

She looked up at me with a puzzled look on her face and whispered, “Because that's what friends do. I like you Phantom; you mentioned that you were waiting for something to come in and turn your life around. Well, I believe that something is me, and I want to do what I can to accomplish that.” 

I watched her eyes as she talked, and they seemed completely honest. There was no hint of deceit in them at all, just compassion. When she finished I quickly pulled her in for a hug, “Thank you” I whispered in her ear. “I don't know how, but I'm gonna repay you someday. I promise.” 

Twilight blushed, but hugged back, “Your personality flip-flops so much you know, it's really astounding sometimes.” Her comment made me giggle because it was so true.

At this point we had sat down at the diner, and after the waiter came by we ordered our food. When he left, I asked Twilight, “Okay, so why are we going to the diner? What are we gonna talk about.” 

“Mostly me and my friends, you not knowing about the Element's of Harmony made me think a little bit. While I know of your past now, you know almost nothing about me. So I'm just gonna go over the basics I think you should know as a friend of mine.” I nodded and let her start, “Okay, so as a little filly I went to the Summer Sun Celebration, where all ponies get the chance to see Princess Celestia raise the sun, and from that day forth magic became the forefront of my life. I studied magic nearly every waking second I had, and got enrolled in Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. However studying magic and applying it isn't quite the same thing, although I had studied it more than any other normal filly, I could barely perform the simplest of spells. When I got there, I had to go through an entrance exam, and it was TERRIFYING. I couldn't perform the spell that I had been told to do, and I almost failed. However, Rainbow Dash performed a Sonic Rainboom at that moment and it startled me into using the magic that was needed in tenfold. You can ask Rainbow Dash to explain that part. 

“When Princess Celestia saw what raw talent I had, and that doing that magic gave me my cutie mark, she made me her personal protégé. From then on I studied under her tutelage, until one day I had stumbled upon the tale of Nightmare Moon. Now it was just an old mare's tale, but I had a strange feeling that it was a little bit more than that. Princess Celestia banished Princess Luna to the moon after she became resentful that ponies slept in her nighttime, while they relished in Celestia's day.  It turned out that that tale was true, and she came back. The tale also said that the Element's of Harmony were what was able to stop her, so I went out to search for them. I met all of my best friends that day, and we ended up all going to search for them. Eventually we figured out that the Elements of Harmony were actually INSIDE of us. All six of us, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and I were the embodiment of the elements. When we had become the elements I don't know, whether it happened on our adventure, or if we were born with them and fate brought us together, I don't know.

“After that adventure I chose to live here, in Ponyville, with my friends. And that's basically the end of the tale. Two other happenings with Discord, and Queen Chrysalis came up, where we had to use the elements again, but that's a topic for another day. So since we are the embodiment of the elements, we all have a trait that can be chalked up to the element that is a part of us. Rainbow Dash is the Element of Loyalty, Applejack the Element of Honesty, Rarity is Generosity, Pinkie Pie is Laughter, Fluttershy is Kindness, and I am the Element of Magic.”

She looked up at me after she finished her tale. I sat there pondering her story for a minute and responded how I saw fit, “Riiiiiiiight, if you say so.” By messing with her. That's what I saw fit, it always fits. 

She slammed her face down on the table and groaned. When she looked back up at me annoyed, I was just smiling at her. “I'm joking Twilight, calm down. But either way that is a little hard to believe, since I haven't heard about any of that before, it is quite a tale. I think I'm going to need some proof before I believe you. Also, so are you like famous basically?”

She chewed her lip before responding to my question, “Well, I guess all six of us are technically, but I don't like to think of that because I'd rather just be a normal pony to be honest.”

“HEY WAITER!”

“What are you doing?!” Twilight seethed, glaring at me. “You can't just shout at him like that!”

The waiter came over to our table with a little annoyed look on his face, “What can I do for you, sir.”

“Hey what's this pony's name?” I asked, while pointing a hoof at Twilight.

“That's...Twilight Sparkle.” He looked at me unamused. “Will that be all you need, sir?” 

“Yes thank you.” He walked away, shaking his head slightly. “That proves it Twilight, you're famous. Congrats!” I gave her a big grin as she looked at me with the same look that the waiter gave me.

She sighed, “Okay, this is getting us nowhere. I don't even know why I try with you sometimes.” She sighed again. “I was telling you that, so you would get to know me and my friends better, and also because you apparently had never heard about the Elements of Harmony. Now that that's done, we're leaving.”

She put some bits on the table, and after looking at them apprehensively, feeling bad that I couldn't help pay, I followed her out of the diner. Walking through the town, I recognized the place where Twilight had found me...and basically kidnapped me. It was for the better however, I guess some kidnappers can be nice. 

“Hey Twilight, do you kidnap other ponies like you did with me?” After speaking my question, I found a magical muzzle being formed around my mouth. She didn't even look back at me, just a muzzle to shut me up. First she kidnaps me, then she makes me her pet. I summoned a little piece of paper in front of Twilight, and she stopped and looked at it curiously. I magically wrote on it while she was watching it. Phantom is best doggy, it said. She just growled at it, and whisked it away with her magic.

I hate when I don't get a reaction from her, it's much more fun when I do.

We ended up in front of a building that looked much more fancy than the rest of the buildings around it, it looked like it was made to attract people to it. She turned to me and magicked away the muzzle she had made. “Okay, now just be normal...please. Just...don't do anything weird.”

I crossed my eyes at her, and responded, “I promise. I'll be completely normal.”

She sighed and rubbed her forehead with a hoof, “Well, here goes nothing.”

She knocked on the door, and we waited for ‘Rarity’ to come and open it up. When the door opened up, a white unicorn stepped into view. “Well good morning Twilight, what brings you to my boutique this early?” She smiled at me and gave a little bow of her head in a greeting. 

Before Twilight could say anything, I blurted out, “You're hot.”
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You can't just go up to somepony and tell them they're hot Phantom!!” Twilight raged at me with her hooves thrown up frantically.

“Why not? Why does everything have to be your way, why can't I do things my way?" I asked her. "If I think she's hot, then I'm just going to tell her.”

“Well, what if some random stallion coming up to me and calling me hot makes me a little bit uncomfortable?” Rarity's eyes shifted around a little bit, and it became apparent to me that I actually was making her uncomfortable. 

I flattened my ears on my head and looked back at her, “Sorry, I was just trying to compliment you and I didn't think there was anything wrong with just telling you the truth.”

Rarity blinked her eyes in surprise and then blushed, “Oh, well, uhm, thank you...I guess. But you honestly shouldn't be so blunt when you first meet a pony, darling. It's not very appealing, it's actually quite frightening.” 

I looked down dejectedly, but before I could say anything Rarity tutted, “Don't worry darling, I'm not going to take offense to something like that, I was just surprised is all.” I raised my head and saw her smiling kindly at me, I smiled back and felt a little bit better. “Come inside, why don't we sit for a spell and talk about why you're here. Err...no offense, I just assume that's why you are here.” She began walking and looked back at Twilight to confirm.

Twlight nodded, “That's right, this is Phantom and he's new in town. I'm introducing him to all my friends before Pinkie Pie can get to him. She's last, I'm making sure of that.”

Rarity looked back at 	Twilight confused, “Why's that? If he's new Pinkie Pie would have wanted to meet him first. In fact she's probably going to be insulted that you didn't bring him to her first. You know she loves to greet the new ponies first.” 

“I know she does, but he's like a stallion version of Pinkie Pie. I feel like the two of them meeting is going to be the scariest moment of my life. So I'm prolonging it but having him meet the others first. How she hasn't found out yet is beyond me, but I'll accept it.”

Rarity blinked in surprise, “Good heavens! A stallion Pinkie Pie? Can the world even take another Pinkie Pie?”

I rolled my eyes, “There we go again with the hating on Pinkie Pie.”

Rarity looked at me in surprise and flattened her ears down on her head. “I'm not hating on Pinkie Pie dear, she's a good friend of mine, why would-”

“Yeah, yeah, I've heard it before.” I interrupted. 

Both ponies looked at me like they were a bit irritated, I looked back and forth between the two of them confused before I saw Rarity lean towards Twilight and whisper. However she didn't whisper quietly enough. I heard her say “Goodness, he's a bit rude isn't he?” Twilight turned her look of indignation to Rarity.

I flattened my own ears as I heard her say that, “I wasn't trying to be rude, I'm sorry, what did I do wrong?” I asked.

Rarity blinked as she realized I had heard her, she then blushed and stammered a bit, “Ah, well you see, uh, you were...uhm.”

Twilight Sparkle sighed and tried to defend me, “He doesn't know any better Rarity, it's not his fault.”

Rarity blinked in surprise, “Doesn't know any better? But it was simple etiquette, didn't his mother teach him anything about that?”

Twilight gasped and her eyes flew wide, “Rarity!” She screeched.

I tried to make myself smaller as I answered her question sheepishly, “I never knew my mother.”

Rarity gasped just as loud as Twilight had and looked down at her hooves ashamed, “Oh my, it seems my curiosity got the better of me and I was being a bit rude myself. I'm sorry Phantom, I had no idea.”

“It's okay, I know it's not your fault. This happens a lot where I don't know simple things and it gets on other ponies nerves, and I don't mean to. I'm a nice guy, honest, it's just an accident.” I pawed at the ground in embarrassment. 

Rarity shook her head, “Now don't go blaming yourself at all darling, this little disaster of a meeting was my fault. Why don't we go inside and have a little sit-down over some tea and fix this.” She smiled at me as she said this.

Twilight shook her head however, “Sorry Rarity, but it's already afternoon and he's only met two of my friends. There's still a few more that we need to go meet. I think we'll go see Rainbow Dash next. Don't worry at all Rarity, you'll get used to his antics eventually. I'm still adjusting myself.”

Rarity nodded, understanding, “Alright Twilight, I guess I'll see you two later. Is there anything I can do for either of you after my intrusiveness earlier?” 

I rubbed my chin thoughtfully, “Hmm. There might be one thing that'll help.”

As soon as I said that, I noticed Twilight glance at me suspiciously. Shows how much she trusts me. Rarity however just nodded, “Yes, anything to fix that. What is it?”

“How about a kiss?”

Maybe there's a reason Twilight doesn't trust me. She facehoofed as soon as I said it, I grinned, and Rarity flushed dark-red.

“Ugh, ruffian!” She shouted, slamming the door behind her.

Twilight just sighed and turned away, and I followed behind her snickering. Phantom – 15, Twilight – 0. And yes I've been counting.
> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So you've been counting, huh?” Twilight asked me as I recounted my thoughts to her.

“Yes I've been counting. And I've won 15 times.” I nodded in confirmation. 

“And how, pray tell, have you 'won'?”

“Because I said so.”

Twilight growled and turned to look at me while still walking. “You can't just win because you said so! It doesn't work that way. You have to actually physically or mentally beat someone at something to win.”

I paused to think about it a little bit before responding maturely, “Nuh-uh.”

She stopped while still glaring at me and said, “Yeah huh!”

I jumped right up in front of her face, “NUH-UH!!”

“Stop it!” She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with her hoof. I just continued to glare at her while she was trying to deal with me being...well, me, again.

I glanced up for a second before looking back down to Twilight. “Uh Twi, you've got a pony on your head.”

She opened her eyes and gave me a deadpan stare before a blue pony's face came down into her view. She screamed and leaped back while the pony that was previously on her head hovered in place and snickered. “I didn't even have to say boo yet before I almost scared the horn right off your head.”

She steadied out her wings and flapped them once before landing beside me and flashing a grin. “Sup?” She asked. 

I had my mouth open in an “O” shape and pointed at her mane. “Your hair is so pretty!” 

She raised an eyebrow in confusion but responded anyway, “Uhm...thanks?” 

“You're welcome!” I said gleefully. 

Her eyebrow remained up in the air as she nodded, “Uh-huh. I see. Anyway, who are you?”

“Oh! I haven't introduced myself yet! My name is Twilight Sparkle and I'm the personal protegee to Princess Celestia herself.” I smiled at her as I finished my introduction.

She glanced back and forth between me and Twilight, who was still sitting on the ground where she had fallen backwards. “Yeah, I've got nothin'” 

Twilight sighed and sat up straight but still didn't get up all the way, probably thinking that it would be a waste of energy at the moment, which is probably true. “He's Phantom. And you'll have to get used to this kinda thing happening because it happens a lot.”

“Uh-huh. I see.” She continued to stare at me for a little bit, obviously at a loss at what to say.

“Yeah I have that effect on mares a lot.”

Her other eyebrow joined the other as she smirked back at me. “And what exactly is that effect you give?”

“I have many ways to render them speechless,” I said as I waggled my eyebrows at her.

“Phantom!” Twilight shouted.

The blue pony whose name I still did not know just continued to smirk, “Well as far as I know, straight stallions wouldn't normally call something 'pretty'”

“Dash!” Twilight continued to shout.

“Well, I wouldn't mind a good dicking every once in a while.” I said thoughtfully.

“PHANTOM! Oh my Celestia...” Out of the corner of my eye I saw her hooves go up to cover her face which had started to turn a light shade of red. 

Rainbow Dash blinked once before snorting and bursting out in laughter. I grinned and joined her in a laugh and glanced over to Twilight who just sat there shaking her head in disbelief. I walked over and sat next to her and decided to hassle her a little bit less for a little bit.

“16” I whispered in her ear. 

I'm not really good at not hassling ponies I guess...She whipped her head up at me and glared while I patted her head sympathetically. I giggled before turning back to Rainbow Dash who just kept chuckling. “I'm assuming you're Rainbow Dash. The Rainbow mane kinda gives it away.”

“Yep!” She struck a pose and shot me another huge grin, “The one and only Rainbow Dash at your service! I'm the fastest flyer in Equestia if you haven't heard.” She winked at me as she finished her short monologue. 

“You're also an imposter!” I shouted. 

“Ugh, what now.” I heard Twilight say next to me as she shook her head slowly, not wanting to get involved. 

“You're not really Rainbow Dash! If you were Rainbow Dash, you'd have all the colors in the rainbow in your mane! But you don't, you only have 6!”

She again raised an eyebrow at me, “Dude, which color is missing?”

“Blue! If you were the real Rainbow Dash you'd know that! You've got red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet but no blue!”

“What color is my coat?”

“Blue!” I shouted triumphantly. I blinked as realization washed over me. “Oooh I get it! That's clever! Okay you're the real Rainbow Dash. That's good because calling you Rainbow Except for the Blue Dash would just get tiresome.”

Rainbow Dash glanced over to Twilight, who looked back at her with an exasperated glare. “Has this guy met Pinkie yet?” 

“No! I want to though! Everyone keeps saying how I'm like her and the world is gonna burn and stuff. It sounds like so much fun!”

Twilight sighed and looked at Dash. “Help me...” She muttered.

Rainbow flashed her a grin, “Nah you got this! I've gotta go...uhm...do that thing...this way! Bye!” 

Before Twi even got one more word in Dash was gone as a prismatic trail followed after her.

I watched as Twilight slowly turned her head towards me and I flashed her a toothy smile. She groaned and got up and began to walk away.

“You know...she was kinda cute.”

“UGH!!”

I snickered and whispered to her, “17.”

“No! We're stopping here! We're going to have a little talk before we continue...”

Crap...
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Fiiine...what'd I do wrong this time?” I whined as I wanted to move along so I get to meet the mare everypony was trying their to keep me away from. 

“You're just insufferable sometimes! I get you're trying to be funny but just...every now and then tone it down and be a little calmer, that's all I'm asking.”

My ears had flattened out halfway through what she was saying and I responded quietly, “I'm just trying to have some fun Twilight, I don't get why you keep freaking out on me like this. You know I don't mean anything bad by it.”

She sighed and shook her head, “I know you don't but you're just really good at getting on my nerves and it's hard to handle it. I know you don't like at how we refer to Pinkie Pie as our annoying friend, but that's what you keep reminding me of.”

As soon as she said it her hoof flew to her mouth and she glanced up at me when my whole body sagged a bit more. She gasped as she tried to correct herself, “Gah! That's not what I meant! I just meant that it's like we can only take Pinkie in small doses. No, no, no that doesn't sound better either! I just...what I'm trying to say is although you get on my nerves, you're still a friend and I don't want that to change.”

I responded with my ears still flattened and looking down dejectedly, “I understand Twilight, I act like a little foal because that's pretty much what I am. I missed the part of my life when I was a foal so I haven't really grown up from that. I'm sorry that I annoy you, I'll try to do better.”

I heard her whisper to herself, “Oh Celestia I really need to pay attention to what I say sometimes...” She looked back up to me before speaking normally, “Phantom I'm sorry I don't always say what I'm thinking sometimes...it just...comes out wrong. What I was TRYING to get at was that we're going to see Fluttershy next, she's very...shy and gets spooked easily. I think it would just be best if you try to tone it down for her at least. Please.”

“Oh come on Twi, it can't be that bad.” I responded.

She looked at me with an eyebrow raised and said, “She's scared of her own shadow. Literally.”

I blinked a couple times while that processed. “Oh, well I'll try to remain calm when we meet her then.” 

Twilight then smiled and began walking again and I followed her again. Pretty soon we ended up on the opposite side of the town of Applejack's farm, which made me think that Twilight actually had things planned perfectly out to go in a line through town...skipping over Pinkie Pie of course. I assume, who knows, maybe the mare lives in the forest, it wouldn't really surprise me.

Wait if she had it planned out, and she said we were going to Rainbow Dash's next...and then within a minute Rainbow had showed up before we had gone to find her. 

I gasped out loud before narrowing my eyes and growling out, “She kneeewww..”

Twilight stopped and turned to look at me with an inquisitive look on her face. “What? Who knew?”

I turned my head to look at her and tapped my chin with my hoof, “I dunno I forgot.” I shrugged and continued walking as she facehoofed before speaking.

“How did you forget what you were just thinking, it was literally 5 seconds ago!”

“I don't know, I got distracted by how pretty you are I guess.”

The sound she made made it seem like she choked on something before squeaking out her response, “I'm what?!”

This time I was the one to look at her questioningly, “You're pretty? If you haven't noticed I speak my mind and I think you are an attractive mare.” 

While I spoke I watched her face go from red to crimson, and she spoke very quietly when she responded “Oh, well, uhm, thank you.” She paused for a moment while she looked down quietly before glaring back up at me, “Wait! You called pretty much all of my friends hot! Are you just trying to flirt with every mare you can?” Her glare intensified as she finished.

I stopped and looked at her feeling a bit hurt that she thought that, “No I'm not Twi! I said Rainbow was cute just to annoy you, I didn't say anything about Applejack. Also, Rarity was more of a fact than anything, it's not like I'm attracted to her or anything, it was just the first thing that came to mind. Which I know now wasn't really the best thing to say. I wasn't trying to flirt with her and with Rainbow it was all just to mess with you.”

She watched me for a bit as if she was trying to figure out whether I was lying or not. “Okay I trust you, either way we're here now.” She pointed a hoof at the cottage that we were near and we began walking towards it again. “Just remember to try to be a little calm when you meet her please.”

I rolled my eyes, “I know I know Twilight, I'll behave I promise.”

She nodded and we took the last steps up to the door and she knocked on it softly three times and before long the door opened to reveal a soft yellow pegasus with an softer voice, “Oh, hi Twilight it's good to see you.” She glanced over at me and immediately squeaked and hid behind her mane with just a little bit of one eye peeking out, “A-and you brought c-company.”

“Hi Fluttershy,” I said softly, “I'm here because I'm new in town and Twilight took it upon herself to make sure I get friends while I'm here, so she's taking me to meet all her friends throughout the town.” I smiled at her and out of the corner of my eye noticed Twilight smile at me too, she actually seemed satisfied with me for once! Mission accomplished!

Fluttershy in response lifted her head a little bit, showing a bit more of her face as she stopped hiding behind her mane, “Yeah Twilight is really big on friendship, I'm not surprised she's showing you around making sure you meet everyone. I am surprised that Pinkie Pie isn't doing that though.” She glanced inquisitively at Twilight as she said that.

“I'm keeping him away from Pinkie until last, they're way too similar and I'm prolonging that as much as I can.”

Fluttershy glanced back at me curiously, apparently not seeing the similarity but deciding not to argue. From what I'd learned from the short time I'd known this mare, I doubt the concept of arguing even existed in her mind. She looked back at Twilight to talk to her again, “Couldn't you have done that first to get that out of the way then?”

Twilight blanched a little before responding, “Well, I suppose that might have been the smarter thing to do. But oh well, it's done now, she's next so it doesn't really matter anymore. Anyway, this is Phantom, like he said he's new in town and he doesn't have a place to stay so I told him he could stay with me. He also didn't really have friends before he came here which is why I'm making him meet all my friends like he already said.”

Fluttershy nodded along and smiled when Twilight finished, “That makes sense, well I hope you enjoy your stay here in Ponyville Phantom, everypony here is really friendly so it shouldn't be a problem making friends here.”

I smiled over at Twilight when I responded, “Yeah I've been shown that already, I'm really glad I came here.”

My response made her beam proudly back. I looked back at Fluttershy and gave a polite bow, “Well thank you for taking this time to talk to me but I believe it's time to go meet Pinkie Pie.” When I said that I grinned over at Twilight who gave a little groan in response. “I'll see you later Fluttershy.” 

Fluttershy smiled and waved as we began to walk away and I gave a small wave goodbye in return. I looked over at Twilight and said the words that she'd been dreading this entire time, “Can we go meet Pinkie Pie now?!”

She rolled her eyes and said, “I guess we have to now...Celestia help us all.” 

I just laughed at her antics and gave her a small nuzzle on her neck in response, “Come on, you know you don't actually resent the idea that much.”

She blushed again and swatted my muzzle away from her before shouting out, “Stop it! No flirting allowed.”

“But you look so cute when you're embarrassed!”

She just looked straight ahead and pouted, “No I don't.”

I just snickered and trotted along beside her following her to wherever Pinkie Pie lived, and I could swear out of the corner of my eye her pout turned into a smile after a little bit.
> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So it's finally time to meet Pinkie Pie?!” I said as I grinned widely at the unicorn nex..t to me...WAIT WHAT? “HOW LONG HAVE YOU HAD WINGS!?” I shouted out as I finally noticed that my unicorn friend...wasn't quite a unicorn. In response she just facehoofed, again, man I seem to get those a lot.

“I've had them the entire time you've known me Phantom. I've been an alicorn for about a month now.” 

I squeaked and dropped into a bow and stammered out, “I-I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention, please forgive me.”

I felt her magic envelope me and I was pulled back to my hooves which made me glance up at her curiously, she was blushing and glancing around furtively, “Please don't, you're embarrassing me. I would prefer if ponies didn't bow to me, I'm still a bit new to this whole 'alicorn' business.”

I nodded as she spoke, “I understand, it's just, my best friend is the third princess in Equestria! That's so awesome.”

She looked at me with a weird look on her face, “Uh, I'm the fourth princess Phantom. Cadance is the third.” 

“WHAT. Who the hay is Cadance!? How did I miss this?”

“I don't really know to be honest, she's been a princess as long as you've been alive. I think, I don't exactly know how old you are since you don't even know, but you seem about as old as I am.”

I stuck my tongue at her in response, “Well not mentally, you know that.”

She giggled and shook her head as we continued on as she told me who Cadance was, and the crystal empire, and King Sombra (didn't she already tell me who that was, and on that note how did she not explain Cadance when she brought Sombra up?). 

“So what I'm getting out of all of this is that my best friend is famous, a princess, her sister is ALSO a princess, was tutored by ANOTHER princess, saved equestria from the OTHER princess, and her brother is captain of the royal guard. Did I get that all right?” 

Her blush showed I had embarrassed her yet again as she murmured quietly enough that I couldn't hear her at all, I just snickered and patted her head, “It's just so fun to tease you Twilight. It's so easy.”

She just glared at me but didn't respond and we walked silently to where Pinkie Pie lived. I glanced up at the building and laughed, “Of course she lives in a building with a roof that looks like frosting and a cupcake sitting up top. She's probably hyped up on sugar 24/7.”

“It would make sense,” Twilight replied, “but she actually is like that with or without sugar. It's like...she's so hyper that sugar just doesn't affect her anymore.” She sighed and gulped before looking over at me. “Well...shall we get this over with?”

I grinned and nodded my head enthusiastically before bounding up to the door and knocking on it loudly. I hopped around excitedly on both of my hooves waiting for the door to open up and when it finally did I shouted out “HI!” as loud as I possibly could. I noticed Twilight grimace to my left and the pink mare who had answered the door just gasped and slammed the door in my face.

“Wait, what?” I said, “that...that's it? I was expecting like everypony in the town to run around screaming 'WE'RE ALL DOOMED' or something. That was a bit...anticlimactic.” I turned and pouted at Twilight who was obviously having trouble holding her laughter in. “Is she...coming back?” I asked.

Twilight opened her snout to give a response but all that came out was a bark of laughter, she brought a hoof up to her muzzle as she snickered a bit more. “I don't think so, she did kind of the same thing to me when I first got here, which means she's probably planning to throw a party. Tomorrow, since it is getting a bit late.”

My pupils shrank as my worst nightmare, that I only came to realize was my worst nightmare about 2 minutes ago, was coming true. “But I need to meet her! You said we were going to meet her! I was so excited and now everything is ruined!” 

Twilight giggled and began to walk away while grabbing my tail with her magic and started to pull me with her. “Sorry Phantom but the fates have decided to let Equestria live another day.”

I dug all my hooves into the dirt except for one to try to stop her from taking me away from the bakery, the other hoof was shaking angrily at the sky, “Damn you fates! You've ruined my life! I wanted to make the town go PCHEW!”

Twilight snorted and looked back at me, “What in the world is 'pchew'?”

“That's the sound of the town blowing up.”

“Uh-huh. Because you know what a town blowing up sounds like.”

I looked at her very seriously as I replied, “Yes, I blow up every town that I leave. That is what I do, and now I've come here.”

She paused for a second and watched me curiously, and I put my hooves up in an innocent fashion, “I'm kidding Princess! Don't banish me from the face of Equestria!” 

She just rolled her eyes and we continued on our way to the library/tree/house/castle place. On the way there I got a few weird looks, probably because I was being dragged along the ground behind the town's alicorn. I just waved at them jubilantly before remembering every time that I was supposed to be angry at fate right then.

When we made it to Twilight's place she let me out of her magical grasp and I followed her in, she looked at me and said, “You can sleep on the couch again, I'll actually go get a bed tomorrow to make better arrangements for you.”

I tilted my head as I processed what she was saying, “So you're telling me that you're actually making long term plans for me to stay here?”

She just nodded and I stood there for a moment thinking before looking back up at her and smiling, “Thank you Twilight. I don't think I could say it enough, but thank you.”

She took a few steps towards me and gave me a hug which made me freeze up and I just stood there awkwardly for a few seconds before returning the hug. After a little bit she let go of me and said, “Get ready for bed Phantom, I'm sure Pinkie will have a party planned sometime tomorrow morning.”

I squealed when she mentioned that, having completely forgotten about that apparently plan. I noticed Twilight grimace at my loud squeal so I smiled sheepishly, “Oops, sorry, I got a little excited there.”

She rolled her eyes and began to walk up the stairs as we gave our goodnights and retired to our beds, well me to the couch, but I wasn't really complaining. I lay down on the couch and nuzzled into the pillow that had appeared there while we were out. If I had to guess I would say the little purple dude might have put it there since he seemed to be some kind of helper to Twilight. Maybe he worked as a librarian too, I don't really know. 

Either way I had a really comfy place to call my own to sleep in, and a very comfortable...home now. I'd never EVER had a real home before and felt amazing. I fell asleep with a huge smile on my muzzle that night and knew that tomorrow was going to be just amazing.
> Chapter 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first thing I heard as I woke up the next day was a very loud voice shouting “SURPRISE!” about five inches away from my face. My eyes shot open and I shouted out as a hoof instinctively lashed out towards the pink mare that had interrupted my beautiful sleep. It however connected with nothing as Pinkie Pie apparently teleported a couple feet to the side. I blinked as I tried to process how my hoof had missed her before sighing in relief that I actually didn't hit her.

She giggled then snorted before speaking, okay even though I was tired and cranky I've got to admit, that was kinda cute. “You're not supposed to hit a pony trying to throw you a party smarty. OOH THAT RHYMED, ah I crack myself up.” She smiled at the ceiling for a few seconds as I stared at her before dropping my head back onto the pillow in front of me.

“Go away it's too early for this!” I groaned out, voice muffled by the pillow.

I heard a gasp to my left where Pinkie Pie still stood, “It's never too early for a party grumpy pants! Now get up and have some fun!”

I felt myself enveloped by the familiar magic that I'd come to know so well and immediately started kicking out and groaning loudly in a feeble attempt to somehow get away from the accursed aura. A second later I was plopped on the ground in front of about thirty ponies, six of which included Twilight and her friends. When I found Twilight I scowled and stuck my tongue out, which only got me a good-natured grin. 

“...soooo welcome to Pony-” The voice of a mare near the front of the crowd was stopped as the pillow I had next to me ended up covering her muzzle.

“No.” I muttered as my hoof gently set back on the ground next to me.

There was a moment of silence before Twilight stepped forward clearing her throat, “Phantom we always throw a welcome part for new-” she quickly found the pleasure of having a pillow chucked at her face as well.

“No.”

“Wait where did you get-oof!”

“No.”

Rainbow Dash now lay on the ground dramatically with the pillow covering her face. Her hoof lifted up in the air and she yelled out, “I'm hit! Pony down! Pony down! Avenge me you guys!”

I looked back at the rest of Twilight's friends and saw a huge mound of pillows laying next to them. Their wicked grins racked my body with a kind of adrenaline rush as I powered up my horn and an identical mound of pillows lay next to me. I stood up in a fighting stance with my head lowered and a glare on my face. “Bring it” I spoke out softly, not moving a muscle as my body tensed up in preparation.

I saw the pink mare in the group take in a deep breath before belting out, “PILLOW FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!” And the pillows went flying.

I let out a war cry as I took as many as I possibly could at once and flung them across the room at my enemies. I weaved and dodged as many more pillows than I could throw at once were being pelted right back at me, due to the severe outnumbering this war had. After a couple seconds of this one against six fight, the other ponies in the crowd apparently had gotten over their shock at this sudden outburst and joined in the fight. Some took my side and some took the others evening out the odds a little bit.

For about an hour all you could hear from the tree/house/library thing (I still hadn't figured out what I wanted to call it yet...) was shouting and a very loud “poof” noise all the time. After a while we collectively decided, probably because so many of us were exhausted, that when we were hit we would act as Rainbow Dash had and pretend to be dead. Eventually one mare stood tall while the rest were down, panting gently as she looked around at all of her fallen enemies and comrades.

She began to cackle loudly and shouted, “I am the victor! Nopony will doubt my might ever again and you will all bow down to me! Pinkamena Diane Pie!” She panted for a few more moments before bouncing in the air and speaking in her normal voice, “So do you want your cake now!?” 

I jumped up excitedly and shouted “Yes!” before we both bounced into the kitchen. Which is a good thing because if the cake had been in same room we were just in then it probably would have been destroyed. The rest of the party quickly got up as well and followed us and we all oohed as we found a delicious looking carrot cake sitting on the kitchen counter. 

“Well,” Twilight started “let's dig in guys!”

A collective “Yeah!” was what she got in response and I quickly leaped over and slammed my face into the left side of the cake. I heard a gasp behind me and heard Twilight shout out “No! I didn't mean it like that!” 

All I gave in response was a soft “mmmmmm” as I chowed down on the side of the cake I had claimed as my own. Shortly after I lifted my face up and turned back to the group saying, “It's okay guys, I left you some.” I strutted over to the group and gave a smile which in response got a couple different reactions. Pinkie Pie snorted and then burst out laughing, Rainbow Dash did the same, Applejack just chuckled, Rarity had an aghast look on her face, Fluttershy just stared with wide eyes, and Twilight had a hoof planted against her forehead as she shook it in disbelief.

Everyone else just kind of sat there in shock, unsure of what to really do at this point. After a few moments Pinkie Pie snorted again before standing up, unable to really contain her giggles as she walked up near the counter that contained the once beautiful cake. “Don't worry guys, I have a backup cake.” She said as whipped out another identical looking cake and lay it next to the eaten one. 

I let out a happy little gasp and jumped towards it before getting stopped in midair by that accursed magic, a whimper escaped my mouth as I feebly reached for the cake. Twilight set me down back next to her without saying a word and I just glared towards the cake as a couple ponies took it upon themselves to be the servers, and were getting plates ready for the rest of the ponies. I knew it was pointless to even try devouring more of the cake because Twilight was watching me, so I sat there grumbling as I refused to look directly at Twilight.

Eventually all the rest of the ponies got a piece of cake and were littered around the room eating happily, I even got an extra piece! Admittedly I probably didn't deserve another piece but I'm not gonna complain. As I looked around at the ponies around Twilight's home I smiled, feeling at peace as all the ponies were gathered around here to celebrate...erm...celebrate...

“WAIT,” I belted out. Everypony in the room stopped and turned to look at me and I glanced to my right when I heard coughing. Rainbow Dash was choking on her cake as Applejack at her misfortune. Oops...anyway I continued in a confused voice, “I don't even know what we're celebrating, why are you all here?”

I saw Twilight roll her eyes when she responded, “Well we were trying to tell you what the party was for before you starting pelting us with-don't you dare...put it down” Twilight glared at me as my hoof was raised with another pillow in it. I lowered my hoof silently and pouted, waiting for Twilight to continue. She waited a moment longer, probably to see whether or not I was thinking about throwing the pillow (which I wasn't! I promise!) before clearing her throat. “As I was saying, we throw a party anytime a new pony finds their way to Ponyville. It's Pinkie Pie's way of saying welcome, which is part of the reason I didn't want us to go meet her first, I wanted to let you get more accustomed to the place and us before we did. No offense Pinkie.”

Pinkie Pie turned around and looked over at Twilight with a piece of cake in both of her hooves and her cheeks bulging with a third piece, “Hmm?” She responded, unable to really speak. Twilight sighed and shook her head before looking back up at me, “I thought I mentioned that Pinkie was probably going to be planning a party?”

“Oh yeah you did mention that didn't you? Sorry all I heard was Pinkie Pie and I squealed and missed the rest of what you said.” I grinned apologetically.

“I said it twice.” Twilight deadpanned.

I tapped my chin with my hoof for a moment before saying, “Yeah I don't remember that, you're probably going crazy Twi.” I grinned happily at the mare as she facehoofed at me. Okay I've really gotta start keeping count of how many times she does that. That has to be in the double digits now. I gasped as I realized something, “Wait so all these ponies are here for me? That's...amazing, I don't even know most of you guys! Thanks!” 

“Any friend of Pinkie's is a friend of ours!” a mint-green unicorn in the crowd said.

The rest of them nodded their heads in agreement and I felt myself tear up with joy. I've never, ever, had ponies be this nice to me before. It was a little bit overwhelming and all I could do was sit there and softly thank them again.

Pinkie Pie bounced over and sat down in front of me, “Hey no tears! We're here to have fun! Let's play some games!” I smiled and nodded as I wiped my eyes clear. She smiled and gave me a hug and I swear I heard a couple “Daww's” from the crowd. After we parted she suggested a couple games for everyone to vote on to play. I just sat there listening to everypony in the room and felt pure joy. I looked over at Twilight who was watching me with a smile on her face and I grinned back in response.

The rest of the party was spent playing simple games, and I learned a little bit about everypony there. I even learned a little bit more about Twilight's closest friends and was happy to admit to myself that I was able to call them friends of my own. When the thought crossed my mind I couldn't stop beaming for the rest of the party.

I noticed I was subconsciously sticking close to Twilight throughout the welcoming party, but I payed it no mind, just thinking it was probably because she was the one I felt the most comfortable with so far. I don't think she minded though, every time she looked at me it was with a soft smile.

The party was the best I'd ever been to, and that's not just because it was the only party I'd ever been to. I will definitely admit that Pinkie Pie knows how to throw parties. 
> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

My welcome party ended up letting out around 7 PM later that night, which seemed just crazy to me! I didn't even know it was possible to have a party go that long! Well then again I'd never been to a party before, but that's beside the point. She'd had everything planned, after a few hours we had lunch and sat down to take a break and talk with everypony there. I walked around to talk to some other ponies and they were all so freaking nice! It felt amazing to be able to walk up to anypony and strike up a conversation with no problem. After about half an hour Pinkie Pie dropped a turntable out of no where and music starting playing.

For another few hours everyone was up and dancing, playing games that had been set up, or snacking at the food station. When it was finally time for everyone to leave I stood at the door waving enthusiastically at everypony that walked by. Eventually the only ponies left were me, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie and I turned to look around at the room that was trashed in front of us. I stuck my bottom lip out and said, “Looks we have to do the cleaning up part now don't we?”

In response I heard a giggle come from Pinkie Pie, “There's no need to worry about that! I've always got my patented Party Picker Upper 3000!” She pulled a small box out of her mane and lay it on the floor before pressing the one and only button on the top of it. As she did it began to spin quicker and quicker before shooting off and it started to suck in all the trash lying around until the whole floor was clean of debris.

Twilight raised an eyebrow and said, “You actually have that patented?”

“No of course not! It's just part of the name!” Pinkie responded as she walked over to the box that had finished and actually grew while it was sucking everything up. She bounced over to the trash can before releasing the trash into it and bouncing back over to us. 

“Well that's useful.” I muttered. I looked over at Twilight to see her glaring at the object as if it were some kind of abomination. I snickered and patted her muzzle reassuringly, “It's okay Twi, the scary Patented Party Picker Upper 3000 is not going to hurt you.”

She looked back at me with a deadpan expression on her face and said, “What are you doing.”

“I'm petting you!” I replied.

Pinkie Pie bounced over and shouted out, “That's not petting this is petting!” Before she started to pat Twilight on her head.

I let out a small “Oooooh,” and moved my hoof next to Pinkie's and patted her head as well. I beamed and said, “There we go! All better now!”

She just continued to stare at me for a few more seconds then muttered, “Please stop touching me.”

I complied and took a couple steps back and saw that Twilight's attention had turned to Pinkie Pie, whose hoof was still stroking Twilight's mane. “Pinkie she said please,” I said.

“Huh? Oh right sorry! I got kind of distracted, her hair's so soft! How'd you get your hair so soft Twilight?” Pinkie asked.

All the while the look on Twilight's face of I'm so not amused right now never left. “It's called a shower.” Twilight deadpanned.

I stuck out my tongue and said, “Showers are stupid, what's the point of them, you just stand under water forever then dry off the water. Seems counter-productive to me.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at me before replying, “That's not what you're supposed to do in a shower, you're supposed to clean yourself.”

“With what?” I asked.

Twilight sighed and put a hoof to her forehead, “With the shampoo that's in there...”

“Oooooh, well you probably should have mentioned that.”

“I figured you would have known.”

I grinned before replying, “You have to remember I'm kind of dumb.”

Twilight removed her hoof and looked at me with a bit of...concern? She took a step towards me and said, “You're not dumb, you're ignorant. There's a big difference, I'm sorry I should have figured to ask.”

I shook my head and said, “No you shouldn't have, it's not normal for somepony to not know this stuff, I do know that. It was just another misunderstanding, no harm done, I'll go upstairs and take a real shower then...?” I paused as I looked at Twilight to tell me what we were going to do next.

She nodded and said, “We're going to go to Quill's and Sofa's to get a bed for you before it closes.”

I looked at Twilight a bit as I thought before replying, “You know Twilight, I don't need a bed, I've never slept on something as comfortable as a couch before and I'm perfectly fine sleeping there.”

“I know but I want to do it.” She said as a soft smile donned her face.

I paused before smiling back, walked towards her, and nuzzled against her neck without saying anything. I then turned to walk up the stairs to take a real shower. As I reached the top of the stairs, I could have sworn I heard a happy sigh come from downstairs. It made my smile widen as I reached the bathroom and stepped into the shower.

When I finished I bounced down the stairs to find Twilight peacefully reading in a chair, I jumped around till I stopped in front of her and said, “Twilight! Twilight! I smell like you now!”

She closed her book in surprise when I landed in front of her, then smirked before replying, “Is that a good thing?”

“Yeah! You smell pretty!”

An intense blush adorned her face and she smiled before saying, “So you want to smell pretty.”

I flicked my nose up into the air and said, “It just accentuates the prettiness of me, I'm a very pretty pony I'll have you know.” I pranced around like that for a little bit before tripping over a table and landing face first into the ground. I muttered out “Ow...” and heard Twilight giggle before walking over to me and offering a hoof to help me up.

“Come on Mr. Pretty Pony, we need to get to the shop before it closes.”

I nodded and followed her out the door before stopping and asking, “Wait, what happened to Pinkie Pie?”

Twilight just shrugged without looking back, “I don't know, she just disappeared before you went up to take a shower.”

I raised an eyebrow at the back of her head, in hindsight it probably made no sense but whatever, and asked, "Should we be worried?”

“Nah, she disappears like that all the time, no need to worry.”

I pouted and said, “I never got to actually say thank you...”

Twilight looked around at me and smiled, “You'll see her again don't worry, you can thank her the next time you see her.”

I nodded in compliance and continued to trot behind Twilight. Sometime during the journey a big smile had found its way onto my face as I thought about all the friends I had, and exactly what the implication of getting a bed meant. It meant I had a home now, a place to belong, I'd never had something like that before and the thought of it was very nearly overwhelming. I looked at Twilight and thought about all the things she'd done for me and I made it a clear goal in my mind to tell her exactly what everything she had done meant to me when we got back home. But for now, I get to go pick out a bed of my own!

I let out a little squeak and began to bounce in excitement, earning a raised eyebrow and a chuckle from Twilight. As she shook her head I blushed a little and coughed into my hoof before resuming a trot, “Sorry I just got a little excited there.” She just shook her head and we continued in silence the rest of the way to the shop.