A Whole New World

Now things get interesting. You can probably guess what's gonna happen in this chapter.

21st Summer's Dawn (June) 2012

As I woke up, I couldn't help but think the same damn thing I have in the past. It didn't feel like two months. It felt like yesterday I was driving south away from my family, but at the same time, I can barely remember my old life. I don't regret coming here, but it just doesn't feel right.

Christ, quit being such an emo Dutch!

I got out of bed and put on my clothes. After preparing some breakfast - turns out ponies have a cereal similar to museli - I cleaned myself in the bathroom and prepared for the day. As I was exiting, I heard a knocking on my window. I walked over to my bed to see a grey pegasus with blonde hair tapping her hoof on the glass. I pushed the window open and let her in.

"Morning Derpy, what brings you to my humble abode?"

The mare landed on my bed and looked at me with her signature cross-eyed stare, "Hi Dutch! I brought you a letter," she reached into her saddlebag with her wing and pulled out a letter with a smart-looking red seal, "It came all the way from Canterlot."

The capital city of Equestria? Why would someone send me a letter, or even know about me?

"Anyway, that's all I have for you now, but I'll hope to see you soon."

"Thanks Derpy, I'll see you around."

"Byeee!" Derpy flew back out the window and continued her deliveries.

I opened the seal and took out the letter. It must have been written by a unicorn, the writing was extremely neat. As I read through it, my curiosity rose.

Dear Citizen
It has come to our attention, that the pony known as Dutch has displayed exceptional skills in leadership and planning. Because of this, we would like you to assume the role of organising security at the town hall, during this year's Summer Sun Celebration, taking place in the town of Ponyville. You will be assigned three soldiers from the Royal Pegasus Guards to manage security with you, and the event will take place early tomorrow morning. We advise you to start preparations at once.

Yours Faithfully

Scroll Sender, Aide to Princess Celestia

The princess is coming here? I wasn't sure whether to feel excited or worried. Meeting the princess would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and everyone spoke so highly of her, she sounded like a good leader. But how would she react to seeing a human? The letter said I was a pony, so they must not know about me yet.

Nevermind that now. I left my room and walked out onto the streets of Ponyville. I was planning to go to the town hall, grab some blueprints of the room, and see what I could do to make sure nothing happened. As I wandered towards the hall, I saw Applejack dragging a cart filled with food towards her orchard.

She saw me as I approached, "Howdy Dutch, how are ya this mornin'?"

"Not too bad. What's with the cart?"

She looked back at the pile of food behind her, "Turns out Ah've been selected for preparin' food fer the Summer Sun Celebration. It's quite coincidental really, the Apple Family Reunion's happenin' this week, so we'll be able to sort it all out in no time."

"Really? I got a letter this morning saying I've been chosen to organise security. Apparently someone high-up heard about what happened with the rabbits, so I got picked. I don't think they know I'm a human though."

"Wow, that's a big responsibilty. Ya sure yer up to it?"

"They think I am, otherwise they would have chosen somepony else."

Applejack nodded and continued on to her farm, while I carried on towards the town hall. As I entered, I saw that the room had been filled with huge decorations. Flags hung from the walls, and ribbons were tied up everywhere. This looks like Rarity's handiwork, maybe she got a job from Canterlot too.

I entered the mayor's office, and asked if she had any blueprints of the town hall. She grabbed a large piece of paper from a nearby filing cabinet and handed it to me. It was a birds-eye view of the town hall, showing the locations of balconies and entrances. This would be good enough.

"Thanks Miss Mayor, I'll get them back to you after the celebration."

I left the hall, heading back to the apartment. When I got there I went into the dining room and laid out the plans on the table. I started looking at any areas where trouble could arise, and figured that the balconies would present the biggest problem, as they would be the closest to the princess. I found the two highest balconies, and began thinking of places to position the guards.

I spent the next couple of hours planning, all the while listening to some Guns and Roses on my Ipod. After everything that had happened, I had forgotten about it until a week ago. I had expected it to be dead, but the charge just seems to keep going. I was just going over the finer details, I heard a knock at the door.

Twilight Sparkle groaned as she finished her apple pie. She wasn't keen on spending so much time with other ponies, she had more important things to do, but she had decided to have brunch with them out of common decency. Now she just felt fat, and her stomach was hating her for it.

She looked at the dragon sat next to her, who was still enjoying his meal, "Come on Spike, we need to get a move on."

Spike grumbled at the thought of leaving early, but he knew there were other things on the checklist. Reluctantly, he finished his caramel apple, and they got up to leave.

"It was nice havin' ya Miss Twilight," Applejack said, "We look forward to seein' ya at the celebration."

Twilight faked a smile, then turned to her assistant, "What's next on the list Spike?"

He looked at the parchment in his hands, "Umm, oh, security."

Applejack overheard this as they left the farm, and called out, "Say hi to Dutch fer me, just don't freak out when ya see him."

Twilight considered asking what she meant, but decided she wouldn't. She wanted to get these checks done quickly so that she could research about the Elements of Harmony. She figured she would find out what she meant herself.

"So, what does the checklist say about this 'Dutch' guy?" Twilight asked.

"Not much," replied Spike, "Just that he lives in a place called the 'Bannered Mare'."

"You're kidding. The pony in charge of security for the princess lives in a pub?"

She sighed as they approached the building. When they entered, Twilight asked Full Pint which room Dutch was in.

"He's on the second floor, room 17," the bartender said, "Just don't scream or anything when you see him."

"Why does everpony keep saying that?" Twilight asked herself as they ascended the stairs. She reached room 17 and knocked on the door. They heard a voice from inside shout, "Come on in," and Twilight opened the door.

There was a hallway on the other side, and three doors leading into different rooms, "Uh, hello?" Twilight called, hoping to find out where the mystery voice came from, "My name is Twilight Sparkle. The princess sent me to check on security for the Summer Sun Celebration."

"Oh, great," called the voice, "I'm in the second room. Just going over the plans now."

The voice sounded odd, it didn't have the same drawl as other ponies she had met. Twilight walked over to the door, opened it, and immediately closed it again. There weren't any ponies in the room, just some thing that stood twice as tall as her that she hadn't even seen in the books at the Canterlot library.

The creature spoke again, "Oh, I forgot. You've never seen a human before, sorry about that."

The human opened the door again, and this time Twilight got a better look of him. He didn't have a coat, just skin underneath the clothes he was wearing, and his light brown mane was extremely short, it barely went past his ears. His face was pretty intimidating too, he had a long scar on his left cheek that looked like it would frighten a minotaur. Despite this, he put on a friendly smile and said, "Nice to meet you Twilight, my name's Dutch. Come in and I'll show you the plans for the town hall."

Twilight shuffled inside, not sure what to expect from Dutch. He walked over to a table and flattened out the plans of the town hall, "We're going to be getting three Pegasus guards for the celebration," he began, "I'm going to assign one of them with me near the entrance to the hall. The other two will be positioned here," he pointed to two of the balconies, and Twilight saw his hand had fingers like Spike, but he had one extra on each hand. Something seemed odd though, there was a gap on one hand, where the other hand had a finger.

"The two pegasi on the balconies will be able to see over the ponies in the other balconies, while the third pony and I will monitor the ground floor," Dutch sat down in a chair and rested on leg on top of the other, "Any questions?"

Spike spoke first, "Yeah. What are you?"

Dutch simply laughed at this, "I'm a human, but I said that part already. I arrived in Equestria about two months ago, and I've been living in Ponyville ever since."

"So how come I haven't read about anything like you?" Twilight asked.

"Probably because I'm from another world, or at least I think I am. I fell asleep in a forest back home and woke up here. The ponies in Ponyville were kind enough to take me in, and they treat me like any other citizen."

Twilight had stopped listening. She just wanted to leave, she was actually preferring the company of ponies now. She was about to leave, but Dutch spoke again, "Hey, you mentioned the princess sent you. How well do you know her?"

"I'm Princess Celestia's personal student," Twilight replied, "She sent me here personally to check on the preparations."

Dutch let out a low whistle, "You must know a thing or two then," Twilight nodded, "Well, any chance we could sit down and talk sometime? I'd love to know more about this world."

Twilight was starting to feel quite nervous now. It was bad enough ponies wanted to hang out with her, let alone some... thing, "Uh, sure. But we can't right now, there's other items to check."

"Sure, don't let me keep you," Dutch called as she left the room, "See you at the celebration."

Twilight shuddered at the thought, and left without replying. When she shut the door, she let out a huge sigh of relief, "Thank Celestia that's over. I wasn't sure what would happen."

Spike walked up to her, "I don't know, he's seemed cool enough."

"Spike! How can you say that?"

"Because I'm a dragon among ponies, and he's a... human was it, among ponies. I just feel I can relate to him."

Twilight sighed again, she'd been doing that a lot today, "Nevermind. What's next on the list?"

Spike looked at the scroll, "Weather."

"Good, hopefully that should be simpler." Twilight said, as she walked back down the stairs and out of the pub.

As I watched Twilight leave, I couldn't help but feel sympathetic for her. She didn't come across as the type to socialise. That would weigh her down in the long run.

I was about to look over the plans again to see if there were any flaws, but before I could, Pinkie burst into the room.

"Hi Dutchy!"

"Woah! Don't do that Pinks, you scared me."

Pinkie giggled, "Well, I thought I would surprise you, because I was just coming here to give you an invitation to a surprise Welcoming Party! There's this new unicorn in town, and I only saw her once, but when I did I went," she gave a massive gasp, "And I knew I had never seen her before, so here I am, giving invitations to every pony in Ponyville to welcome her here!"

She gave me the invitation, and bounced back out of the room to find more ponies to invite. I looked at the invitation, which said the party was taking place at the library at 6:00. I've got some time, I think I'll just wander round the town for a bit.

I took one last look at the plans, and decided that everything was in order. It didn't take long after leaving the pub that I saw Lyra walking through the streets, so I thought I would make conversation until the party was ready.

"Hey Lyra!" I called. Lyra looked over and smiled.

"Hi there Dutch, looking forward to the Summer Sun Celebration?"

"Of course. It will be exciting to see the princess face-to-face. Have you seen that new unicorn in town?"

"You mean Twilight? Yeah, I saw Rainbow Dash crash into her just now."

"Wait, do you know her already?"

"Sort of. I just came back from a two week holiday in Canterlot with my friend Sparkler, and she told me about her," her ears drooped slightly as she paused, "She didn't say hello. She seemed like a bit if a hermit really."

I sighed, "Yeah, I got that impression too," I felt I needed to lighten up the mood, so I said, "Pinkie's organising a surprise party for her at the library, you want to come?"

Lyra ears perked back up again, "Sure!"

We arranged a time to meet there, and she carried on through the town. I looked at my watch: 5:30. I decided to go to the library early to see if I could help with the party decorations. Pinkie was more than happy to let me in, and I used my height to pin ribbons on the wall.

As 6:00 approached, more ponies began to arrive, including Lyra and the rest of my friends except Fluttershy, she would arrive later. At 5:58, we switched off the lights and waited in the darkness for Twilight to arrive. At 6:04, the door opened and a fimiliar voice was heard.

"...without a bunch of crazy ponies trying to make friends with me. Now, where's the light?"

Pinkie saw that as her cue to switch the lights on, and we all shouted, "SURPRISE!" as Twilight almost jumped in the air from shock. Upon realising what was going on however, I noticed her expression become one of annoyance. Don't worry about it, I thought to myself, she'll open up eventually.

While Pinkie started another rant to Twilight, I walked over to Applejack and the others. Fluttershy had now arrived too.

I learned that each of my friends had also been chosen to organise something for the celebration. We discussed how we had performed our responsibilities, until we reached the subject of the town's new arrival.

"So," I began, "What do you guys think of Twilight?"

"She seems like a friendly pony," Applejack said, "But Ah don't think she's had too many friends. She didn't come across as the type."

"Yeah," Rainbow continued, "She was kinda cool and all, but she seemed a little boring," she giggled at the thought of the Rain-blow Dry.

"She left my boutique before I could even have a decent conversation with her," Rarity pouted, "I didn't even get to inquire about her time in Canterlot. I've always wanted to live there."

"I didn't really talk to her very much," Fluttershy whispered, "I get very nervous about meeting new ponies. I spent most of the journey talking to her dragon Spike."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Twilight going upstairs and out of sight. I was going to ask Pinkie what had happened, but she was too busy eating a cupcake dripping with hot sauce to answer. The spicy flavour didn't seem to phase her though, and she wolfed down the cake without even blinking.

The party carried on without Twilight, and everypony started having fun and games. I tried my hand at Pin the Tail on the Pony, but I ended up putting the tail on the drawing's face.

The games seemed to last for hours, but as the morning approached, I announced I had to leave early. The guards were going to arrive soon, and I needed to get there ahead of them. I entered the town hall and examined the room, locating the balconies where I had planned on placing the guards. I climbed the stairs to them and looked out over the hall. There was a wide view, and all the other balconies were in sight, especially the centre one. That was good.

I climbed down and waited for another ten minutes, before I heard heavy hooves landing outside and a male voice say, "Now, we wait here until Dutch finds us."

I opened the door back outside to see three identical pegasi in gold armour standing outside. Upon seeing me, they took a step back in fright, before lowering into a position to charge.

I remained calm as they prepared to attack me, "Let me guess, you were expecting a pony?"

One of the ponies stood up and slowly approached me, eyeing me with suspicion. I held out my hand, "Name's Dutch, I'm the guy in charge of security."

The stallion tentatively shook my hand, "Captain Wingfleet, reporting for duty."

I motioned them to follow me into the town hall. As we entered, I pointed up to the two highest balconies, "Captain, I need you and one of your guards to position yourselves on those balconies up there. You should be able to monitor the ponies higher up. I'll take your third soldier and stand at the entrance. We'll keep an eye on the ponies on the ground floor."

Wingfleet simply nodded and flew up to the balcony with one of the guards, whilst I stood by the doorway with the other pony. I noticed he kept glancing at me, but I had gotten used to receiving funny looks.

Soon afterwards, the Mayor arrived, along with other ponies from the party. Everypony was chattering excitedly amongst themselves, and I saw my friends appear, along with Twilight. Fluttershy flew up to an empty balcony with a small group of birds, and Rarity went to the central balcony where Princess Celestia would appear.

When everypony in town had arrived, the Mayor began her speech, and ponies started cheering. I saw Lyra in the crowd bouncing up and down in a way that would give Pinkie a run for her money. I continued looking at the crowd, my height allowing me to see over their heads. I noticed Twilight among the ponies, and Spike on her back. She was shifting on her hooves, but she didn't seem excited, she seemed nervous. Then I saw her face.

It had a look of fear on it.

The Mayor announced the princess, and Rarity tugged on a rope, pulling back on the curtains to reveal... an empty balcony. The crowd began to murmur, my adrenaline spiked, and I looked around. The princess was missing; she didn't sound like the type to arrive late. I looked up at Wingfleet, he had the same look of concern as I did.

I looked back at the balcony, and saw a faint blue cloud begin to appear from the ground. I slowly grew into a rough shape of a pony, and split to reveal a large, winged unicorn with a black coat. Alicorns were new to me, so I was as surprised as everypony else.

And I only needed to take one look at this one to tell it was trouble.