~Welcome Home~

Fluttershy opened her cottage door and held it for me, ushering me out before her. I slid past and took a huge breath of the morning air. It was cold and seemed to crack my throat; yet it was sweet, with the downwind scent of flowers capturing my sense of smell. I smiled happily and continued down the path until I reached her little bridge, where I made room to sit and watch the small fish flow down the little stream. Everything here looks so… surreal.

It took Fluttershy a few extra seconds to lock down her house, the excessive amount of security she had was hardly practical, and she fumbled with her keys periodically. It was a good minute before the tumbler turning stopped and I heard her soft hoofbeats reach the bridge.

“Do you like the fish?” She asked, giving me one of her giddy smiles. “Some of them are so pretty, like that one” she pointed her hoof to a shiny gold and purple fish. It was short and stubby, a fish in which I had never seen the likes of before. It swirled around, and swished back and forth from one side of the stream to the other, fighting the current and holding itself just in front of the bridge.

“What kind is that?” I asked, “It’s pretty.”

“I don’t really know, it kind-of just… showed up and It won’t swim any further away from my cottage that this bridge. I named him Galadon”

“Cool… Wait what?” Thats a name for a dragon, not a bloated fish.

She giggled. “I-uh, thought it was funny.”

And you know what. It was.

“Heh.” I chuckled; she had this really subtle and somewhat dry humor, but it was so simple and direct that I couldn’t help but love it.

“We should get going, they expect me to be at the pet-play-date in an hour, and I don’t want to be late. Can you change yourself now so we don’t attract attention on the way? I-If you don’t mind… that is.”

“Sure.”

Earlier, right after breakfast, we had done our best to pick a believable veil for me to go by. It took a long time to conjure up something decent, since I was working from scratch, and only using my imagination. I would say it took me a good thirteen-or-so tries to actually change myself into a presentable pony. I ended up altering myself to be a primarily tan pegasus mare; with wavy, long, and dark brown mane and tail. Yet despite my efforts, my overwhelming size difference was more outspoken in pony form, and the top of my head ended up level with Fluttershy’s chin.

She thought I looked cute. And hugged me, almost to death, when I first changed. I guess I can’t complain.

My “Cutie mark” as they call it, ended up being a brown square, which was disappointing, because I never really wanted to have a dull square stamped onto my flank. I had no ability to change it, or rather my dull imagination wouldn’t think hard enough to make the change, so I gave up trying to.

“Shouldn’t I have, a name?” I asked her, “Something that isn’t too outrageous.” She looked at me and scratched at her chin, before lighting up and beaming at me.

“Toffee.”

“What?”

“Oh, um, It’s a type of candy, and it’s very sweet; It’s my favorite food. Your tan coat reminds me of it.”

“Good enough.” I thought the name fit. It was a more, passive sounding name. trying to imagine anything named Toffee trying to hurt you was hard.

That was also when I met Angel bunny. It took me a carrot to the face and eleven seconds to realise that I hated Angel, and that I wished to: smoosh him. Fluttershy didn’t though, in fact, it seemed that she loved the little rabbit more than the world itself, and I wasn’t about to get on her bad side by hurting it.

I have him a rough glare, and he shot one back; it said “I’ll hurt you if you hurt her.” While mine was a simple “Drop the act or I’ll hit you with a stick.” I bet we looked like fools pouting and glaring at each other; especially because he was a rabbit.

That was over an hour ago now. I changed for the fourteenth time that day and stood up, getting on my hooves quickly. We turned and began a leisurely trot down the forest-side path, kicking up dust and loose dirt as we went along. I couldn’t help but notice how regal she looked as she simply glided along the path. So full of grace without even trying. It didn’t occur to me until then how pretty she was, how everything about her was unusually beautiful. Even her mane flowed fluently as trotted along. It was a true sight to see.

We went along the outskirts of a town, in which she labeled as “Ponyville.” A humble little settlement really. We passed by a few ponies, and although I got a few sideways glances, none came about as hostile or even uneasy. Probably just wondering who I am. At one point a grey pegasus flew, albeit recklessly, up to Fluttershy, and gave her some papers. She saluted, said her goodbyes, and flew off without another word. She was later described to me as, “the mail-mare,” and that her job was to give out the Ponyville residents their letters and such for the day. Something I never had back in the hive. There are so many unusual creature comforts here. Ponies handing you your letters. Unheard of.

She quickly tucked her mail into her “saddlebags,” also something new to me, and we continued on. Not long after we rounded past the town, we came to a vast field of green, with a few, randomly scattered trees looming over the landscape.

“Here’s the park,” she said, pointing her hoof to a group of ponies stationed around a tree on the other side of the park, “Those are my friends, the ones for the pet-play-date. Uh, Please be nice to them, um, please.” She muttered the last few words, seemingly afraid I would lash out at her at the very aspect of “being nice.” for some odd reason.

There was a sudden fast gust of wind, it blew me onto my haunches and made Fluttershy jump out of her skin. “Eep!” she squeaked out.

“Heya Flutters, and… new mare… wow you’re short” Gee, thanks. “ Who’s this Fluttershy?” I could hear a voice overhead, it was raspy but full of energy. too much energy. When I looked up, I was greeted with a hovering cyan pegasus, with a… rainbow mane and tail. this “Equestria” place is freaky. I couldn’t stop my mouth from hanging open in awe at the mare in front of me. I may have seen a few oddities here and there throughout my life: but never a flying Skittle.

“Oh, she’s my friend, Toffee.”

“Cool,” she chuckled and pointed at me. “She’s speechless; looks like she already knows how awesome I am!” Oh dear Chrysalis is she cocky. She brought herself down to me and nudged my side with her hoof. “Name’s Rainbow Dash, but I bet you already knew that.” she crossed her arms and gave a smug smile. Commencing ego destroyer.

“Never heard of you.” She reeled back, and threw up her hooves way above her head.

“What! But how? You know; Rainbow Dash, the winner of the Best Young Flyers competition, hero of equestria and coolest pony around.”

“Nope.” This is great.

“You have to live inside of a cave, as a shut in, or under a rock. Or maybe you’re just lame…” She turned away from me, keeping her hooves crossed.

“Rainbow!” Fluttershy scolded. “Thats no way to treat somepony new, She just moved here from Fillydelphia” She glanced at me and gave a an assuring smile. Shes crafty. “I was showing her around town after we bumped into each other near the Everfree, and I offered for her to come to our pet-outing. Don’t be rude, now say you’re sorry.” Way to go Fluttershy! although… all she did was call me lame.

Rainbow deflated, “But!” Fluttershy glared at her “Uhhg, I’m sorry Toffee.” She held out her hoof for me to shake it. “Forgive and forget?”

“Ha, sure thing.” I shook her hoof, it was rough and unkempt and clearly belonged to somepony rough-and-tumble. “Forgotten.” She smiled and took off, unusually fast, towards the group huddled around a picnic basket on a red and white checkered blanket.

“She can be a little… rowdy, but, she is very nice, and loyal to her friends.” Fluttershy ushered me with her hoof. “Lets go see the others, you need to make a good impression for things to go… smoothly.”

All of her friends were oddities in their own way, well, Pinkie was an oddity in every way.

She frightened me.

Rarity bothered me at first, because she seemed to be unbearably prissy; however I warmed up to her after she used her magic to dump a cup of tea onto Rainbow Dash for splashing mud in her mane. Me laughing seemed to bother Rainbow more than the tea dumping did, because I received more than a few negative glances after that.

Twilight was very booksmart. Only booksmart. and she also liked books. Alot. She legitimately never stopped talking about books. She brought and finished two books while we watched the pets play, and she told us about both of them like she would be exiled if she didn’t.

She also frightened me, but she seemed completely unsuspecting of me, which helped my nerves.

Applejack was the problem. She was simple, and had a strong country accent. She was loud and energetic. Competitive and very athletic.

But none of those were the problem.

She was honest. too honest. She sniffed out lies like drugs, and that scared me. Every time I would be asked a question about how Fillydelphia is, or why I came here, I would answer it as simple and forthright as I could be; “It was nice” and “I came here for the scenery,” she would glare at me. She never outright spoke up about it, and she never seemed angry, just… aware that I wasn’t telling my true story.

I got a lucky break when Pinkie stood up on her two back hooves, I don’t know how, and began launching pies, that she got from absolutely nowhere, at all of us.

“Pinkie Pie Patented Pie Pogrom!” She screeched out a battle cry and launched two apple pies at Rainbow Dash and me.

Rainbow Dash dodged at lightning speed. She flew over the air-to-air pie, and swooped down to grab a hoof-full of grapes. She used her wings to smack them at Pinkie at bullet speed. Are we really having a food fight?... This is incredible “Ahhg!” I got hit right in the face, but battle hardy as I was, I scraped half of the pie bomb of my face and used it to launch back at the pink assailant.

The childish, absolutely incredible, battle lasted for a whopping fifteen seconds before Twilight and Rarity “magically” put a stop to it. As in they pinned the food, and then us, to the ground with their magic.

“Darling, that is simply grotesque, you must halt these… foalish games immediately.” Rarity pouted and wiped mushy apple off her self. “That was uncalled for.”

“But whyyyyyyyy?” Pinkie gave her best puppy-dog face to her magical captor.

“Ah’l have ta’ agree on that one sugarcube, those were perfectly good pies y’all were throwin’.”

“Well of course silly-filly! Throwing bad pies at each other would be gross and it would smell yucky!” Rarity released her strained magical hold on the pink pony and she immediately began bouncing in place. “Besides,” She grinned passed her faces natural “grinning-limit.” A grin so wide it broke planets. “You had fun right?”

“Ah didn’t take part.” Pinkie bounced over to retrieve her toothless alligator, Gummy. Yes that’s right, she has an alligator.

“Thats your own fault silly,” she threw the Gummy up and he clamped onto her cotton-candy like mane. “I have to go now though. I got work tomorrow and Mr. and Mrs. Cake said that If I skip again I might get the boot, whatever that means, I mean, who would want only one boot?” She turned around and started bouncing towards the town. “Goodbye everypony!” She gave a little hoof-wave as she disappeared from sight. the group collectively saw her off with a wave and some form of verbal goodbye.

“I better get going too, Its getting dark and I want to get more practice in tonight. See ya’ later.” Rainbow Dash brushed the remaining food remnants off and took to the sky with her turtle-copter following suit. well that was abrupt she didn’t even wait for a goodbye from her friends…Why does she have a turtle with helicopter blades on it?

Soon enough, Twilight and Rarity followed suit, Twilight leaving to see after somepony named Spike, who was sick, and Rarity because she “Couldn't handle the dirt anymore.”

And that left Applejack.

“Where did y’all say you were from again?”

“Fillydelphia, It was very dull there. City life can take it out of you.” I forced a calming smile to help ease the lie past her sensors.

I don’t think It worked.

“Uh huh, and what did you do there?” buck…

“I-uh was an uh… artist.” I can’t draw for shit. She sharpened the look she was giving me, her placid smirk turned into a frown and it chilled me to the bone.

“Applejack, I uh…”

“Not now Fluttershy, hold on a moment. So where you stayin’ now?

“Look it’s not really your business…

“It is if ah don’t think y’all’re tellin’ me the whole story. buck. buck. buck.

“It most certainly does not make a difference if you don’t believe me, I never said you had to. Isn’t it like, uh, common courtesy-or-something to stay out of other ponies business.

“Uhm, I don’t like it when you yell, can we…”

“Isn’t It common courtesy ta’ tell ponies the truth when they ask where y’all’re from?” She’s going to blow this whole thing up, right in my face.

“Yes.” Keep it simple.

“So…”

“I told you the truth Applejack, you can deny it all you want but you’ll look like a foal.

She scowled and looked about to reply -probably with some unavoidable and brutal counter argument that would break my bones- but her expression changed when she glanced at Fluttershy, who was now tearing up.

“Fine…” She sighed. Not another word, no comeback, just “fine.” “Ah’m sorry. Ah’m going back to the Acres, have a nice night Fluttershy,” she tipped her hat and turned to me; still scowling. “Ah sure hope y’all enjoy Ponyville.” She trotted off, quickly. the dog that she brought for the play-date hot on her heels. It took me until then to realise that Fluttershy was actually sobbing now, goody; I made her cry again. piece-of-fecal-matter-me-making-mares-cry.

I slumped over to her and gave her a hug, I started stroking her mane absent mindedly. A task that was surprisingly difficult due to the height difference.

“I-I’m sorry I yelled at your friend and almost blew it.” she looked torn, her eyes were red and puffy.

“I-It’s just… It was going so well, b-but then you both started yelling. I s-should have known she would be s-so skeptical. I’m stupid.” Why does she have to do this whole self bashing thing.

I sighed, “Look, I know you aren’t stupid, and you know you aren’t stupid; so don’t down yourself like that, please, it bothers me. Besides, she gave up her questioning, so we’re in the clear for now.” I gave her a little nudge, even that satanic bunny was poking at her, trying to lighten her mood.

The tears stopped flowing, it only left her eyes a bloodshot mess. “It’s just, I-I brought you here and you, just, ended up fighting. I knew it would happen.” I dun’ bucked up.

I sighed again and squeezed her tighter. “I’m sorry, I just, couldn’t find a way out of that; Applejack is smart.” Too smart.

“I know, I just hate it when my friends fight, especially because I forced you to come here, and then y-you suffered for it. I…I’m sorry. Friend?

“I…I’m a friend to you?” Friend? She nodded and wiped at her eye with a hoof. I’m her… friend. I never made friends before. You were never supposed to become acquainted with other hive members. Friendship was “weak.” This hit me like a ton of bricks. Friend! Fluttershy was now, my first friend. I was here for a day and I could already call somepony friend.

That brought a tear to my eye. It made me feel like I was home, only, it was better than home.

I squeezed Fluttershy harder, most definitely suffocating the poor mare at this point. “You’re my first friend… Thank you.” She looked at me with a sympathetic smile on her face. She began to tear up again, but it wasn’t out of sadness. She wrapped a wing around me and we sat there calmly for an uncounted amount of time.

And I could not have been any happier.

*knock knock knock* “Oh who could that be, the sign says closed.” Twilight angrily mumbled to herself, pushing out of the chair in front of her desk. She groggily trotted over to the door and opened it, only to find a very distraught Applejack filling her line of sight.

“W-what is it, Applejack?” Now Twilight was concerned. Her friends down show up upset very often, and it more often than not took a lot to force this kind of action.

“We need ta’ talk.” Applejack talked quickly, with more than a hint of concern in her voice.

Within a few moments, both mares sat at the kitchen table, with steaming cups of tea between them.

“Now, what’s causing you this distress, Applejack?” Twilight asked.

“It’s that new mare, Toffee If I recall correctly; Ah don’t like her.” Applejack shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

“Why? She seemed… alright. Did she do something?”

“Y’all could say that ah suppose. It’s more about the fact that the whole ‘Ah came from Fillydelphia’ sorry wasn’t true. Ah feel it in ma’ bones. And nopony lies about their past unless they have something to hide.”

“I suppose you’re right, and I undoubtedly trust your judgement; but why is her lying scaring you so much?”

“Because Twilight!” Applejack shouted, though she recognised her outburst and tried to calm herself, “She’s associated herself with Fluttershy sugarcube! This mare, shady figure as it is, came inta’ town and met Shy, poor defenceless Fluttershy, and told her, as well as us, not a word of truth about who she is. You know how sweet Shy is, she’s wide open for a world of hurt, and ah don’t like it.” She settled back into the chair and cracked her neck, relieving some pent-up stress.

Twilight was lost in thought, mainly because Applejack was right; and that was scary. She knew the element of honesty wasn’t one to lie about her feelings, and she knew that if Applejack called someone out on a lie, they were lying. But she also knew that just because a mare wants to keep to herself about past experiences, doesn’t mean she can’t be trusted. she sighed.

“Applejack, it’s not that I don’t trust your judgement, because I do, but I don’t really believe that this, Toffee mare can be that bad, give her a chance.”

“Ah’m telling y’all, she can’t be trusted, and I won’t sit by and wait for something bad to happen. When ah confronted her, she got mad and snappy, and ah find that suspicious. Ah only stopped the interrogatin’ because Shy was bout’ to throw a fit.”

“Applejack I…”

“Please Twilight, if ah’m not askin’ too much, will y’all go around town with me tomorrow, so ah can find this mare and finish ma’ questioning. This time Fluttershy won’t be there to stop ma’ yelling. Please? Ah need a second opinion on this.”

“Fine, but only because you’re my friend. I don’t like doing things like this to other ponies. After that incident with Zecora, putting blame on others hasn’t been my favorite thing to do. But we arent hurting her if your suspicions turn true, I’ll write to Celestia about it if we find something we don’t like.” Applejack smiled, happy she didn’t have to do any more convincing.

“Thank y’all kindly, Twilight. Ah wouldn’t press this nearly as much if it weren’t fer’ Shy’s sake. Ah’m telling y’all though, this mare is up to no good.” Applejack finished the tea she had been sipping on throughout the conversation, and placed it back onto the tray, next to the still half-full teapot.

“It sounds rude, but, I hope you’re wrong about that.”

“Ah reckon ah ain't.”

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait for this everybody, I got this weird depression like vibe after I published the first chapter to the other story i'm writing, and it completely shut me down for a bit. I'm back now, and will hopefully feel up to writing more. thanks for reading.

Sorry for all the formatting problems with this chapter as well. It seems that Google docs could not handle this chapter and had a heart palpitation, causing the story to come out all jumbled. I tried to fix it, but I don't know what I've missed. Tell me if you find anything I forgot to fix.

Here's this chapters song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8a4iiOnzsc I still can't embed the link sorry guys and gals.