A Whole New World

A nightclub? I didn't know these ponies were the sort to go out raving. But then again, maybe their definition of a nightclub was different to a human's. I hadn't been to many nightclubs back on Earth, so I was a little out of practice when it came to things like these.

"I'm afraid to say I haven't Lyra."

"Well there's a first time for everything," she climbed to her hooves and offered a hoof to help me up, "Come on, me and Twilight will get everypony else, you can take Scootaloo home. She looks like she could do with a proper bed instead of a sofa."

I lifted Scootaloo into my arms and carried her out the door, going in one direction while the girls went in another. I began walking, but Lyra quickly came running back to my side, "One more thing, Twilight mentioned you had some little box that made music. Maybe you could bring that too."

I nodded, and carried on through the town. The moon had just begun to rise over the horizon, and it cast a grey and blue glow that replaced the orange dusk. Despite the darkness, the air was warm, and felt comforting as I entered the Bannered Mare. I quietly carried Scootaloo up to our apartment, and tucked her into the sleeping bag.

I stood up to leave, but a voice from the sleeping bag caught my attention, "Dutch?"

I turned back to Scootaloo to see her sat up in the sleeping bag, giving me a nervous look. I sat down next to her, "What's wrong Scoots?"

"That letter... it said you were going to become a soldier. And... my dad..."

I made the connection. She was scared I wouldn't come back either, "Don't worry Scoots, that's not going to happen."

She jumped off the bed and sat next to me, resting her head against my leg, "I know, but... can you promise me that you won't let what happened to Dad happen to you?"

My heart skipped a beat. What she was asking of me had shocked me, but I knew that it was one of those impossible promises. I put a hand under her chin and raised her head so that she looked me straight in the eye, wrapping a wing round her as I spoke.

"I can't promise that I won't die Scootaloo. I don't like making promises I can't keep. But what I can promise is that no matter what happens, I'll always come back, and I'll always be there for you."

She continued to stare at me a while longer, before slowly nodding, "Ok Dutch."

I gave her a warm smile, "Get some sleep. Tomorrow we can spend some time together."

"Really?"

"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." I had heard the Pinkie Promise before, but this was the first time I had actually used it, though I understood what kind of a promise it was.

She nodded again, and climbed back into bed. As I zipped up the bag, a thought entered my head, and I did something I never thought I would do. I leaned down and gave Scootaloo a kiss on the forehead, "Goodnight Scoots, I'll see you in the morning."

I left the building to find only six ponies waiting outside for me.

"Ready to go?" Lyra asked.

"Yeah, but where's Fluttershy?"

"She didn't want to come," Rainbow explained, "She's not the biggest fan of crowds or loud places."

We began walking down the street. Ponies were slowly disappearing from sight, entering their homes and ending a hard day's work in whatever method they chose. As we walked, everyone was chatting amongst themselves. Twilight was curious about trying alcohol for the first time, and Applejack and Rainbow Dash were arguing over who was better at holding their liquor.

Lyra was next to me as we walked, "Honestly, I'm not surprised you haven't heard about this place yet. New nightclubs have a habit of keeping themselves low-profile, if you know what I mean."

"How come?" I asked.

"The media's full of critics when it comes to new things, and nightclubs are no exception. Most of them like to keep on the down-low until they've gotten popular with the locals. If they don't, the newspapers will learn about them and create an opinion for them, and not always a good one. This one we're going to is only a few months old, so it's still a secret, kinda."

Twilight walked up alongside me, "Dutch, why did your brother apologise when we met him? Is the name Twilight a bad thing there?"

I chuckled, "I don't want to go too deeply into it, but what I can tell you is that Twilight is the name of a series of poorly written novels involving vampires, werewolves and bad romance. I won't tell you any more for fear of damaging your young mind."

"Sounds a mite like the Dusk books, don't ya'll reckon?" Applejack said.

The rest of the group giggled, while Twilight had a look of confusion and curiosity on her face. Luckily, she had the sense to drop the subject.

Since the Summer Sun Celebration, the spark inside Dutch had been growing, gaining strength and learning what it could about its host. It had been a few months now, and it had grown enough to form its own conscience.

The being it was inhabiting was brave, that much was certain, otherwise it wouldn't be here. He had suffered severe mental trauma when he was younger, but he was strong-hearted, and had overcome that, as well as the guilt of leaving his family. And even if he wasn't part of this world, he had found a home here, as well as friends, maybe even a family, of sorts.

It concluded that he would make a suitable host, and decided it would reveal itself to him tonight. It would only be brief, but long enough to contact him. As it chose a physical form, it wondered if the other six would do the same with their hosts.

We pushed open the door to the club and were greeted by swinging disco lights and the cheering of ponies. I looked around at the interior. It wasn't as crazy as a human nightclub, and wasn't crowded to the brim, but populated well enough to make it busy. Upon further examination, I saw a bar, a dancefloor, and a DJ behind a set of turntables; the essentials. Lyra motioned us towards the bar, where we each took a seat and ordered a drink.

"Hey Dutch, I'll get you the first round. Birthday treat!" Lyra shouted over the noise of the music. I was happy to oblige, and the bartender passed me a pint of cider. I took a mouthful, and savoured the taste. It had been a while since I'd had alcohol, but I could guess this was weaker than the average human cider. Maybe that was because I could hold my drink pretty well, or because I usually drank strong cider, who knows. What I did know was that it would take a while before I was on the floor.

The distinct flavour of the alcohol gave me a brief flashback of home, but it wasn't a bad memory. In fact, I found myself smiling. It was when my family was celebrating my eighteenth birthday, and we had gone down to the local pub. I had been eager to legally buy my first drink, and I felt sorry for people like the Americans, knowing they'd have to wait another three years before they could buy the stuff.

"Thanks Lyra," a thought occured to me, "You know, you're actually the first female I know who's actually bought me a drink."

We shared a laugh, and Twilight set her own drink down as she turned to me, "Hey Dutch, when we were back at your house, your brother called you 'Doug'. Why did he call you that?"

I rested my half empty glass on the bar, "Doug is my real name, Douglas Jones. Dutch was an old nickname I had at college that I started using when I first arrived in Equestria. It just sort of stuck from there."

"Sounds like a tough-guy's name." Rainbow remarked.

"Well, I was the one who carried all the heavy gear whenever we went on expeditions," I said, flexing my arms jokingly, "I was also a champion at British Bulldog."

"What in Equestria is 'British Bulldog' darling?" Rarity asked.

"It's like tag, only with more tackling and pain and less actual tagging."

Rarity was aghast. "That sounds absolutely horrid! Inflicting pain on somepony else just for a game?"

"I'll admit, it sounds bad to someone who hasn't played it, but it was our game, and we loved it all the same." I replied, taking another sip from my cider.

I was halfway though my second pint of cider when I felt a hoof tap me on the shoulder. I turned around to see a white unicorn with magenta eyes and spiky, electric-blue hair looking up at me.

"Hey big guy," she shouted over the music, "You're Dutch right? Lyra mentioned that you had some kind of musical box."

I pulled my Ipod out of my pocket, "Yeah, got it right here."

"Cool," she said, eyeing up the Ipod, "Any chance we can listen to some human music?"

"Lead the way," I hopped off the chair and followed the mare towards the turntables.

"I'm Vinyl, by the way," the unicorn said, "Vinyl Scratch. I run this club."

"Nice to meet you Vinyl," I said, "So how do you know Lyra."

"Anypony that works in the music industry is good at making friends with other musicians," Vinyl explained, "Lyra mentioned you a few weeks after I arrived in Ponyville. She seems quite fond of you."

I paused, "What do you mean by 'fond of me'?"

Vinyl's answer was drowned out as the current song reached its finale and released a blast of bass, but before I could reply with, "What?!" She had already reached the turntables and was donning a pair of large purple goggles. She asked to take the Ipod, and after a bit of glowing from her horn, she handed it back to me.

"There, just select a song and it'll play."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Totally, just hurry up, the crowd needs their music," she picked up a microphone with her magic, "Hey guys. Big D over here's going to show us a taste of human music!"

I found a good song in the jazz genre, and picked up the microphone, "Here's an old classic," I pressed play on my Ipod, and put on my best Lou Bega impression as I spoke to the crowd, "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Mambo Number Five"

As the main beat started up, I could already see ponies bobbing their heads. The rest of the music began, and I went down to the dancefloor to join them. Twilight, Pinkie and Lyra came out to join me too, and we began dancing. As the chorus started, I did my best attempt at the Carlton Dance. I wasn't the greatest of dancers, so it involved a lot of arm flailing, but the ponies seemed to be doing something similar, and were just enjoying the music.

Lyra was standing on her hind legs, her forelegs in the air and her mane swinging back and forth. Pinkie was on all fours, and her dancing involved a lot of bouncing. Twilight on the other hand... well, I didn't know what she was doing, because it certainly wasn't dancing. Lyra had a huge grin on her face, and we locked eyes as we danced. I saw a fire in the gold of her irises, and whether it was because of the music or the alcohol, I didn't know, but she had confidence written over her.

After the song, Vinyl put on some of her own music, and the three ponies were out of breath. After retrieving my Ipod, we returned to the bar, and I saw Rainbow Dash and Applejack were about to start a drinking game involving some of the stronger Apple Family drink. Lyra decided to partake, and I sat down next to them as they took their first shots. All three of them managed to remain strong after three shots each, and I started to give encouragement to whoever looked like they were about to fall off their chair first after the fifth shot.

"Come on Lyra, your not going to let them get the better of you, right?"

"Not a chance!" Lyra shouted to me, as the sixth shot went down.

"Ah'm gonna get ya both, Ah drink this stuff all the time!" Applejack said with a speech impediment that was known as 'being drunk'.

"Nu uh!" Rainbow replied, just as intoxicated as the others, "I don't lose remember?"

Another two shots later, and there was a loud thud as Applejack collapsed to the floor in a drunken, mumbling mess. She was quickly followed by Lyra who, out of fear of joining her, let Rainbow Dash win by forfeit. Rainbow attempted to hover in the air as she celebrated, but quickly returned to her hooves after some unstable wobbling. Meanwhile, something similar was happening over at the bar. Pinkie Pie and Twilight seemed to have swapped personalities because of the alcohol; Pinkie being surprisingly calm, while Twilight was practically bouncing off the walls. She seemed to enjoy her first time getting drunk.

Rarity and I were perhaps the closest to being sober. The cider had affected me less, though I still felt tipsy. Rarity, being a lady, had limited her alcohol intake, and was still able to compose herself appropriately. She and I looked over the other five ponies.

"Perhaps we should call it a night?" Rarity suggested.

"Agreed," I said, and walked over the Twilight and Pinkie, "Are you two going to be alright getting home?"

"Suuure," Twilight slurred, "The library's only that way," she gestured out the door, Really? I didn't know it was outside the club.

"Don't worry Dutch," Pinkie said, sounding surprisingly sober despite the amount of alcohol she had in her system, "I'll make sure she gets back safe."

"Thanks Pinkie," I said, before turning to Rarity, "Rare, do you think you can get Applejack back to the farm?"

"Must I?" I nodded, "Ugh, very well." She lifted Applejack off the floor and put a foreleg round her as she carried her out the door. That left only Lyra and Rainbow Dash.

"Come one you two," I said, picking up Lyra, who couldn't support her own weight, "You ok with getting back to your cloud home Rainbow?"

"Sure," she followed me outside before taking off, occasionally wobbling as she disappeared into the night sky.

I saw another couple exit the club. I recognised one of them as Derpy, the other was a brown earth pony with a dark brown mane and an hourglass cutie mark.

"Hey Dutch," Derpy said. Her voice was slurred, and her eyes were perfectly straight, Yep, definitely been drinking, "You have fun too?"

"Great fun, I'm just taking Lyra home now," I said, gesturing at the unicorn in my arms.

Derpy let out an 'Aaawww' and stumbled before being caught by the stallion next to her.

"Come on Derpy," he said, "It's late, and Dinky's going to be waiting for you." They walked off, leaving me alone outside the club.

I looked down at the mint-green ball of fur in my arms, "Right then, that just leaves you and me."

I began walking back through town, while Lyra shifted in my arms to make herself more comfortable, "Hey Dutch. You said you'd never been bought a drink by a girl before. Surely your special somepony must have at some point."

I was familiar with the term 'special somepony', referring to a girlfriend or equivalent. I smiled at her drunken silliness, "To tell you the truth Lyra, I've never had a girlfriend."

Her eyes went wide, "Huh? Never?! A cute, polite, strong guy like you?"

Cute? Ok, that's a new one, "I'm afraid not. I guess I was just unlucky when I was younger."

"It doesn't matter what you were. At least tell me you been kissed."

I shrugged, "Sorry to disappoint."

I carried on down the street towards Lyra's house, but my journey was interrupted as I felt a hoof on my cheek. Before I could react, Lyra had lifted her head and planted her lips onto mine, pulling me into a kiss, and I stopped dead in the middle of the street out of shock, eyes going wide. She had her eyes closed, and her lips felt soft, despite her being a pony. She held the kiss for a few seconds longer - I was too shocked to break off - before pulling away.

"Well, that solves that problem," she said with a giggle. She also mumbled something about 'the Pegasus thing' as she nestled in my arms again, but it was too quiet to hear.

"Erm, ok... thanks," my heart was pounding, and I had to take a moment to compose myself before continuing down the street. Lyra's house came into view, and I quickened my pace towards it. Lyra had fallen asleep into my arms, and I took care not to wake her as I opened her door. I was about to walk through, but I felt my wings get caught in the door. Looking over, I saw they had stiffened for some reason, and were just a little too wide to get through the door. Huffing in frustration, I turned to the side and shuffled inside.

I carried Lyra upstairs and searched for her bedroom. Upon finding it, I carefully placed her under the sheets and made my way towards the door. Just as I was leaving, I felt something tug on my hand and turned to see it wrapped in a golden aura.

"Please don't go," Lyra mumbled from under the sheets.

I smiled, and sat down next to the bed. My wings were still a little stiff, but after a few minutes they returned to their original position, I wonder what caused that. I felt Lyra rest her head next to me, and a long line of thoughts entered my head.

She kissed me! My first kiss, and it was from a bloody pony!

Calm down. Maybe this is your lucky chance to actually get a girlfriend.

Are you kidding, she's a pony, it just wouldn't work. Besides, that was probably the alcohol talking; she didn't mean it.

And if she did? At least go for it, the worst that can happen is she says no. You were turned down by girls back on Earth three times. Maybe your luck will take a turn for the better this time round

I don't know. I'm going to need some time to think about this if that's the case.

"I honestly think you'd make quite a cute couple."

The voice snapped me out of my mental argument, and I looked around for the source. Someone else was in the house.

"Who's there?" I whispered aggressively, taking care not to wake Lyra.

"Relax pal, I'm over here," I saw a pony step out from the shadows. It was a tall, well-built Pegasus stallion, about the same height as Big Mac, though not as bulky, with a dark green coat that had a few brown stripes on it, almost like camouflage. His mane was short and brown, as well as his tail, and he had deep, hazel eyes. His wings were larger than the average Pegasus, and looked comparable to Princess Celestia's.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

"My name is Valiant. I've been watching you for some time."

"Uh huh."

"You can drop the hostilities Dutch, I'm not a threat."

I was still suspicious, "How do I know that?"

"Simple. Meet me at the library tomorrow, I will explain everything then."

I felt Lyra wrap a hoof around me, and I looked over to see her resting her head on my shoulder, still asleep. I turned back to the mysterious pony, but he had already disappeared back into the shadows, as if he was never there. I was still unsure as to whether I could trust him, whoever he was, but I figured I would find out more tomorrow.

I shuffled in my seating position and let myself drift off.

Author's notes: Zhayce, you asked for it in comment #136, and you got it!
Plus, big story development next chapter.

P.S. Exams are over! Woot!