The Strength of Bonds

I had asked Twilight to call my friends to the library.

“I have discovered a…terrible, truth about the spell used to bring us here.” I said cautiously.

“How terrible…is terrible?” asked KeyClicker with obvious concern.

“The spell used to bring us here was…one way, there is currently no way to get us back to our original states or our world. I’m so sorry, I’ve been doing nothing but research portal spells since we woke up but even after discovering the spell Princess Luna used, Twilight assured me that the spell was one way.” Tears clouded my vision and showed how distraught I was. Breaking this news to them had not been easy. I noticed my teacher had wrapped a wing around me and I felt safe, protected.

I looked at all my friends and saw nothing but raw emotion. Autumn Song looked mentally shattered but seemed to come to terms rather quickly. Key on the other hand had his jaw on the floor and shock in his eyes. That shock turned to disbelief and then to anger as he stormed out of the library not knowing where to go or what to do. Finally Crystal, Bass and Kind looked concerned but that concern melted away knowing the world they were in and shrugged off the doubts they had about staying as now they had no choice.  I looked at Bass “So you seem to be enjoying yourself what happened to you over the past couple of days?”

His ears perked up as he said “Um YES! What did you expect form me dude?”

I smiled warmly and said “Nothing less man, nothing less.”

“As for what happened, I may have found a way to bunk with Vinyl.” He said confidently.

“And how, pray tell are you going to accomplish this?” I question.

“Well I plan on performing at the welcoming party and hope to catch her attention,” he said confidently.

“I have the utmost faith in you, but other things need to be taken care of now. We need to find Key before he hurts himself,” I said concerned.

“Agreed,” was his only rebuttal as we left the library.

“Where do you think he went?” I asked.

“I think we should just follow the carnage,” he deadpanned as he motioned his hoof toward the town. I look and saw several ponies recovering from being trucked over. Similarly several market stalls had also been knocked over.

“Well this is… unexpected,” I said astounded by the carnage reeked by a single distraught earth pony.”I never thought he was capable of something like this,”

“Me neither” he said quietly.

As we walked through the destruction a familiar grey mare was flying buy seeming not to notice the destruction around her. Bass and I nearly died as we came face to face with Ponyville’s mail mare.

“Hi Derpy!” we said excitedly startling the poor mare into a recently up righted rose cart.

“Hi there, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you two before, and I know practically everypony,” she said as she helped, who I can only assume was Roseluck, right her cart before turning back to us. We nearly died as those big wall eyes looked into ours.

“No we haven’t met. My name is RamCard and this stallion here is BassTrot,” I said resisting the urge to “squee” as loudly as possible. Bass however was not as composed as he seemed to be literally babbling incoherently.

“Well we need to go and find our friend we’ll talk to you later Derpy!” I exclaimed as I ran dragging Bass by the tail as we went. After about a hundred yards I let him go as I said “Can you walk again or are you still stuck up your own plothole over meeting Derpy.”

“I’m good,” he said shakily as he got up brushing the dirt out of his coat and tail.

“I think I see him over there by the tree, let’s go,” I said as I trotted toward the tree with Bass following close behind.

(Shift to Key Clicker’s Perspective)

I didn’t care to stop or even avoid anyone or anything, I just ran. I ran to the point of my legs trembling and pushed myself even farther until sheer exhaustion clamed me. I collapsed panting and sweating against what looked like an apple tree. I didn’t know what to think anymore and I didn’t want to think anymore. I could never go home and I felt destroyed. By the time my breathing had slowed I felt myself fall further into the grooves of the tree. However it gave a huge jerk and I tumbled away from it with an apple hitting me on the head.

“OUCH!” I screamed rubbing my head.

“Key, that you?” sounded a familiar southern accent.

“Hi, Applejack,” I muttered.

“What’s got your tail in a twist now?” she asked harshly

“Nothing you should be concerned about,” I shot angrily.

“Consider’n you live on my farm it does concern me, so spill it!”

At this point I was beyond snapping I was full blown ranting, “You want to know what’s got me upset, FINE I CAN NEVER GO BACK HOME, EVER! AND IM STUCK HERE IN THIS FANTASY LAND THAT I NEVER ASKED TO BE IN! There I said it now can you leave me alo…,” at this point I saw Applejack sitting there her mouth agape and the pain of true loss shined in her eyes as she muttered,

“I know how it feels to lose family,”

“I’m…I…,” I stuttered trying to find the right words but was cut off by Applejack.

“Look here sugarcube, I can’t pretend to know what you’re goin through but I can say this you will never be alone here at Sweet Apple Acers or here in Ponyvile as much as you want to be,” she said as she tipped off her Stetson.

“Talk to em, your friends, you need it,” she continued as she replaced her hat. At this point I heard two sets of hooves as Bass and Ram came up to me.

“Dude, are you ok?” Ram deadpanned.

“Does it look like I’m ok?” I deadpanned right back.

“No and that’s why we came to find you, you need to cope and if we can help you do this, than we will,” Bass said confidently.

“Thanks guys,” I said sympathetically

“Good but we still need to head towards the lake we wouldn’t want to be late for our own party now,” Ram said enthusiastically.

As we began to walk towards the lake one thought crossed my mind “Party? What party?”

After the boys had left, the girls were hanging around the library, but not for very long.

“Hey…..what’s your name again?” Crystal whispered over to Autumn.

“Autumn?” She said it more like a question.

“Okay, so what’s my name?” she whispered back.

“How am I supposed to know?”Autumn yelled to her friend.

“Well I don’t know either. Let’s go ask Pinkie!” she yelled before sprinting out the door.

“Hey! Wait up! Uhh....yeah,” she said hesitantly, running after her.

The both of them continued to sprint through ponies in the town, and soon ended up near the lake.  Continuing their race, Crystal reached the lake first and spotted a familiar purple and green dinosaur.  She slammed on her brakes after making him spin around, and had a “phew” moment right before going into the lake, but as she turned around, it was too late.  Autumn couldn’t stop fast enough, and she ran straight into her.  Crystal fell in with a huge splash, and came up yelling, “SPIKE!!!!”

Both ponies turned around to stare at the dinosaur, and he looked slightly creped out by the two.

“How do you know my name?” Spike questioned.

“Oh well….you see….,” Autumn tried to explain but failed to do so. Lucky for her, there seemed to be acue for another pony to come in.

“PINKIE!!” Crystal screamed running towards the pink pony.

“CRYSTAL!!” Pinkie yelled running in the same direction as her.

Of course, they missed each other, and Pinkie went straight towards Autumn instead.  Because she was too close to the water, well you can guess what happened after that.

“Splash!” Autumn landed straight in the lake with Pinkie following after her.

“Hey! Wait for me!” Crystal yelled jumping back in the water again.

After coming up from the water, Autumn saw no one else in the water with her.

“Crystal? Pin…” Before she could finish her question, she was sent flying through the air and hit the ground with a thud.  “Ugh,” she groaned.

“Oopssorryididntmeantothatijustwantedsomemorefuntothispartywhat’syourname?” screamed Pinkie magically appearing in front of Autumn.

“Ugh,” she groaned again.

“Ugh? That’s an interesting name, but it’s nice to meet you! Now if you don’t mind I have to finish decorating getting the food getting thesuppliesohmanican’tbelieveiforgottheconfettiireallyneedtogogetthattooandohcrystalyoucanhelptoo,” she said all in one mouthful as she seemed to vanish to the other side of the lake.

“Did someone say my name?” Crystal shouted finally appearing from under the water.

Finally coming back into reality, Autumn walked over to Pinkie who seemed to be concentrating very hard on something as Crystal came over too.

“Hey Pinkie….oh my god is that a cannon! Can I try it? Pleasepleasepleaseplease?” said Crystal.

“Yes sure if I can get it working!” replied Pinkie.

“Ohohohoh let me help let me help let me help!” she said while going behind the cannon.  “Oh shiny button!”

“No don’t press….” Autumn didn’t have time to reply before she was shot backwards from a blast of confetti. “That.”

“Let’s do that again!” said Crystal as she stood in front of the cannon. “Woohoo! I’m flying!” she shouted as she was shot through the sky. It just had to be at that time that the boys decided to show up.

“Weeeeeee!!!” shouted Crystal as she fell from the sky with confetti falling around her.

“Wait, what was that?” questioned Key as they approached the lake.

Turning towards the sky, Ram shouted, “RUN!!”

They began to run towards the forest, while yelling, “NOOOO!!” Key tripped over his new hoofs and fell to the ground very hard. Once Bass turned around to check on his friend, he continued running and went straight into a tree.  While all of this happened, Crystal finally hit the earth or should we say Ram.

“That was fun! Let’s do it again!” Crystal said happily.

(Shifts to Ram’s perspective)

“There are no words to describe the catastrophic amount of pain I’m in right now,” I groaned out as the crimson Pegasus removed herself from the small crater the impact created.

“Sorry! But that was so much fun!” she babbled.

Groaning I removed myself from the crater and proceeded to limp to the picnic table that was set up by the lake. I went over myself, checking for injuries and fortunately found nothing of significance. Looking back at the group eying me with concern I simply stated “Well? Aren’t we supposed to be having a party?”

That brought Pinkie to full attention and she ran off to get the rest of the town leaving me and my friends at the lake. My friends began to sit around me and I smiled at them with several smiles returned to me. “POP” the sound of a teleporting spell tore me from my contempt state causing me to jump. The end result being me smashing my face into the ground. Groaning again I looked up to see Twilight snickering at me.

“Well that was unexpected” I thought to myself disgruntled.

“Sorry I though you would at least prepared for stuff like that,” she apologized

“Well think about it… I’ve spent the last four days locked in a soundproof study furiously researching the limitations of my magical capabilities, what part of an unexpected teleport should I expect?” I said poking through her logic.

“Well you do have a point there,” she said with a defeated tone. I turned to look behind her and noticed a few ponies coming over the hill lead buy a bouncy pink blur.

“LETS GET THIS PARY STARTED!” cried the enthusiastic party pony.

With that the telltale two tone blue mane appeared behind her and moved towards a large set of turntables. A set of records were levitated on to the tables as a low hum began out of the speakers.

“LETS DROP IT!” she screamed as the low hum became a thunderous roar as the records spun faster. With that a confidant Bass walked up to the turntables and picked up the microphone in his magic. Looking at the DJ confidently he said “Well allow me my dear,” and began to perform for the party. I watched as a torrent of beat boxing erupted form the muzzle of one of my closest friends. Shocked Vinyl gawked open mouthed as the pony in front of her matched her sound system beat for beat. The song ended with an 8 bit chip tune flourish. Vinyl removed her glasses and walked over to Bass “Dude I’ve never seen anypony match my system before let alone with their voice,”

“Thanks, you have no idea how much that means to me,” Bass said shyly.

“You know I have extra space at my place if you’re looking for a place to stay. Tavi already brought in a new roomy and there is still another guest room if…you want,” she said faltering at the end.

“YESIWOULDLOVETOO!” Bass blurted out before falling over.

“Um is he ok?” Vinyl asked as I walked up.

“Yes he’ll be fine just… let him recover from the shock,” I said sarcastically.

“Well when he wakes up give him this,” she said as she floated a note over to me.

“Will do,” as said as she returned to her turntables to begin another set.

“Well looks like you did it man,” I thought returning to the party to mingle.

As the party dragged on began I began to notice…things, especially around the punch bowl, where a very interesting situation was playing out. Berry Punch was drunkenly hitting on Key despite his adamant refusal. However I managed to get a few snippets of the conversation.

“No”

“Aw come on baby I could show you a great time” pleaded Berry her words slurred.

“No” Key deadpanned

“Well maybe you just need a little more…incentive” she said sultrily

“What do you mean…incentive?” Key questioned cautiously.

Realizing what was about to happen I shot a small telekinetic spell at Berry’s front legs as she began to spin in place. Thankfully the blast uprooted her enough to where she slid a few feet away from Key. Berry ended up in front of a few Pegasus stallions so I decided to leave her alone. However two other mares didn’t share my idea however. I looked and saw Crystal and Autumn whispering to each other and looking over at Berry.

“Did you just see that?” Crystal whispered excitedly.

“Yes I did” Autumn shot at her with a glare aimed at Berry.

“Hmm… I know let’s throw apples at her!” Crystal chided.

“Lets” was the only reply.

I gulped remembering how hard both Crystal and Autumn could throw things. I positioned myself between Berry and the girls hidden but still in the party…then the first apple flew. Acting as quick as my magic would allow I made mad grabs for the rouge fruit. However fruit became the least of my worries as several beams of wood came hurtling towards the still unaware mare.

“CRAP” I thought to myself as I made grabs for the carpentry only to realize that a kitchen sink was in the air. Grunting I reached out and caught it with the last of my magic as I cried “PINKIE STOP GIVING THEM AMUNITION!”

The two disgruntled mares turned to see Pinkie sitting there with a pile of stuff that she was handing them.

“Aww but it’s so fun!” Crystal shouted with a frying pan in her hoof. My eyes go wide as several large metal objects started flying towards me. Quickly casting a shield spell I smirked at the crimson Pegasus who then proceeded to grab Spike and hurl him at me. The realization that a living creature was hurtling towards me caused me to drop my shield which inadvertently caused Spike to hit me in the chest.

“Run!” I yelled at him. He took off running towards town as a stool flew towards me.

“That’s ENOUGH!” I exclaimed as I caught the stool and slammed it hard into the ground. The party fell silent all eyes were on me. The mounting embarrassment caused me to want to diffuse the tension but I seized up.

“Its fine everypony it’s getting late so I think you should all head home, I’ll handle this,” came the quiet voice of my teacher. Calming down I relinquished my grip on the stool as I followed my teacher back to the library. Nobody noticing the coat of frost on the stool…