We stand together

The last week went by slower than Bowdler thought possible. He was looking forward to Ponyville so much that he found it hard to sleep.

‘Although,’ he thought, ‘I’m still kinda’ happy here, Nurse Redheart isn’t even scared of me anymore’ He still wanted to see the outside world though.

When the day finally came, he was more riled up than he could ever remember being, although that wasn’t really that hard. Princess Celestia arrived to pick him up at dawn, along with another pony who looked as if she’d been up all night.

‘This is my sister’ the Princess said, noticing his curiosity, ‘She’s called Luna and she watches over the night, she was the one who told me when you first arrived’

‘Hi Luna!’ he said, anxious to make friends as soon as possible.

The dark blue pony yawned, gave a faint smile and replied, ‘Morning!’

Somehow, Bowdler thought of this as his first great success.

The Princesses escorted him to a chariot, where Luna promptly passed out.

‘Get the chariot pullers to take you to the library’ Celestia said as she hoisted Luna up onto her back, ‘You’ll be fine, I’ll catch up with you later’ and so, she took Luna up to her chambers to get a good day’s sleep.

‘Uh...’ he started as he turned to face the four Pegasi attached to the chariot.

‘Yeah we heard her’ said the one at the front, ‘to the library?’

‘Yeah, if that’s OK with you?’ he replied.

‘Hm!’ exclaimed the dopey looking Pegasus in the middle, ‘You sound just like that Fluttershy’

The other Pegasi chuckled at this. Bowdler wasn’t sure whether to feel offended or not, so he just clambered onto the chariot and the ponies took off.

~

The feeling of flying over the grasslands and forests in a chariot was fantastic, the wind rushed through Bowdler’s mane as they swooped over the green landscape below. He truly felt alive. The ride was over much too soon though, as ponyville was less than 10 miles away from Canterlot, and the Pegasi were faster than he’d ever seen.

‘Thanks guys!’ he called after them as they took off after dropping him off at the library.

‘You’re one to be being nice’ said a voice from the library that he recognised, and his face fell.

‘Whatever I did, I’m sorry’ he said as he turned around to face Twilight, who was standing in the open library door, ‘I wouldn’t do a thing to hurt anypony, seriously!’

Twilight frowned at him. ‘I’d better give you the tour then’ and she began to walk out towards the rest of the town, he ran up to her and walked beside her. He noticed that she was walking with a limp and that two of her legs had been bandaged, this made him feel really bad, was he really capable of doing this to somepony?

‘This is the town square,’ she said as she gestured lazily towards a clearing surrounded by shops, ‘this is where most ponies hang out’.

Bowdler noticed some ponies looking at the two of them and giggling, he ignored them and followed Twilight who was heading towards a particular shop called ‘Sugar cube corner’.

The smell in the shop was amazing, he could have just stood there and smelled it for ever, but he was distracted by a bright pink pony jumping out of seemingly nowhere and pushing herself right up against his face.

‘Uh... Hi?’ he spluttered at the pony, whose eye’s were fixated on his forehead. He was sure he’d covered up his horn stump, how could she know? Suddenly she jumped up in the air, gasped loudly and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Twilight giggled but stopped as soon as she realised Bowdler was smiling at her.

‘You just met Pinkie Pie,’ she said, stifling her laughter, badly, ‘She’s a little...’ and she made a strange gesture with her hooves. He laughed and she gave him a stern look, then walked out of the shop towards the edge of town. Bowdler followed,

‘Why is she so determined not to like me?’ he thought.

~

A bit down the path, something bright blue shot right past his ear and raced up to Twilight.

‘Hiya Twi how’re you doing?’ she said gleefully.

‘Not amazingly’ She replied, nodding her head towards Bowdler.

The blue pony landed next to her, ‘Who’s that?’ she asked.

‘I-’ he began,

‘He’s the pony who fell from the sky’ Twilight interrupted and the blue pony froze solid.

‘What?’ she asked as she stared at him.

‘Oh come on!’ he yelled, frustrated, ‘I swear I don’t remember anything! I wouldn’t hurt any of you!’

‘You sure about that?’ questioned the blue pony, who had now flown right up to his face and was obviously trying to interrogate him.

‘Yes! I can’t remember what happened that night and I would appriceate it, if a certain pony didn’t keep bringing it up!’ he looked at Twilight, ‘I can’t actually remember much at all!’

‘Pinkie Pie swear it!’ the blue pony said sternly.

‘What?’.

The blue pony sighed, ‘You say, “cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye” and that’s a Pinkie Pie swear, if you break it, you’ll lose our trust forever’

‘Alright then,’ he said, wondering why Twilight hadn’t just used this in the first place, ‘Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye, I would never try to hurt any of you and can’t actually remember hurting you in the first place’

The blue pony’s stern face suddenly snapped into a look of joy. ‘Hi I’m Rainbow Dash!’ she said friendlily, ‘I’m the best flyer in all Equestria, do you wanna be friends?’

Bowdler could see Twilight frantically shaking her head behind Rainbow Dash.

‘Sure!’ he said, happy to be making friends at last.

Rainbow giggled and hugged him, ‘You seem cool, I can’t wait to hang out more... uh... what did you say your name was?’

‘Bowdler’ he replied.

‘Hm, seems a bit plain, but I can’t expect everypony to have a name as awesome as mine!’ she said with a look of smugness in her eyes, then she sped off.

Twilight began to walk down the road again, obviously a bit peeved that he’d made amends with Rainbow so easily.

They eventually reached a barn building, ‘This is sweet apple acres’ said Twilight gesturing at the barn and the surrounding apple orchard. ‘This is where Applejack lives’.

As if on cue, an orange pony trotted out of the barn and started making towards them.

‘Hey there newcomer!’ she said excitedly, grabbing his hoof and shaking it vigorously, ‘What’s your name?’

‘I’m Bowdler’ he said stuttered, his arm beginning to hurt from the shaking.

‘Nice to meet you Bow-dla!’ she said with a strong southern accent, ‘Ah’m Applejack and I own this here barn!’ she let go of his hoof but his arm carried on shaking, which made her laugh. ‘Haw, that’s exactly what our Twilight did when ah first met her!’ she looked over at Twilight and noticed her sullen face, ‘What’s wrong Twi?’

She beckoned her over and whispered something in her ear. Bowdler prepared himself for what he expected was coming next.

‘What? This pony!?’ she yelled, appauled, ‘he doesn’t look like he’d hurt a fly!’ a wave of relief surged over him, this new pony trusted him.

‘But it really was him! He was the one who fell from the sky!’ Twilight replied.

‘Key word right there, fell! Even if it was him, he probably never meant to hurt anypony!’ Applejack countered.

Twilight looked as if she was about to explode, her hair was flickering with flame like it did the first time he’d seen her. Suddenly, a large red pony stumbled out of the barn, towing a large cart full of apples.

‘Whats up sister?’ he said to Applejack as he walked past, breaking the tense atmosphere.

‘Ah, not much.’ she replied, ‘but there’s a nice pony here ah want ya ta meet!’

The red pony looked at him, ‘Howdy!’ he said, sounding tired but also slightly dumb.

‘Hi’ Bowdler replied, thankful to him and Applejack for breaking the mood, ‘Who are you?’

‘Ahm Nicolas Macintosh, but most folk just call me Big mac,’ he replied, ‘You?’

‘My name is Bowdler, I’ve sort of only just got here though...’

‘Well you’re gonna need some friends ain’t ya? I’m sure Pinkie Pie will be sorting that out,’ he chuckled, ‘I’ve got to deliver these apples to town square, I’ll see ya around Bowdler!’ and he walked off.

While he and Big Mac had been having this conversation, Twilight and Applejack seemed to have sorted out theirs, Applejack waved goodbye to him and Twilight turned and started to walk back towards Ponyville.

~

The journey back to Ponyville went slowly, Twilight refusing to speak to him during any of it. He was glad that he was making friends already, he’d always imagined it as a really hard task but it seemed quite easy. They arrived at what looked to be a giant cake, with windows and doors.

‘This is the clothes shop,’ Twilight began, but was suddenly interrupted by a white pony with a long purple mane seizing Bowdler and dragging him inside.

‘OH GOD WHAT!?’ he yelled, scared out of his wits.

‘Don’t worry dear!’ the pony squealed, sounding just as scared as he did, ‘I’ll have you all fixed up in a jiffy!’

‘What!?’ he yelled, but his voice cracked and it came out as a high pitched squeak, ‘What’s wrong with me!?’ The pony had dragged him up the stairs into a large room full of models of ponies.

‘Your mane! Darling it’s horrible!’ she screeched back at him.

‘what.’ he said, sounding slightly disappointed, but then he remembered his stump, ‘oh god, don’t touch my mane!’ He wrenched himself out of her grip and backed right up to the wall.

‘But dear! It’s hideous!’ she cried.

‘Look I appreciate the offer’ he replied, ‘but I like it how it is!’ suddenly, Twilight decided to run in.

‘Rarity what are you doing!?’ she asked.

‘Trying to fix up this poor pony’s mane!’ she replied, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world, ‘have you seen it?’

Twilight looked at him as if she was about to say something but thought better of it.

‘Rarity, don’t you think you should ask ponies permission before you start giving them makeovers?’ she queried.

‘You’d know wouldn’t you,’ the white pony replied, sounding frankly quite smug. She turned to face him and cleared her throat, ‘Would you like a free makeover?’ she asked, almost pleadingly.

‘No thanks,’ he replied, actually quite shocked that Twilight had just saved him, ‘but I appreciate the offer’.

‘Okay...’ she said, looking thoroughly disappointed, ‘I do believe I haven’t introduced myself, my name is Rarity, I’m Ponyville’s very own fashion designer.’

‘oh?’ he replied, trying his best to sound at least slightly interested.

‘Yes, I’m very proud of it!’ she went on, and if you could power a city on pure smugness, she’d be a nuclear power plant.

‘I think we should probably get going,’ Twilight said quickly, predicting where this was going, ‘Bowdler’s still got to see the rest of ponyville!’

‘Oh that’s his name! Alright then... Come and see me whenever you want that makeover Bowdler!’ Rarity said, sounding quite put down.

~

They exited the shop at a quick pace and headed to the edge of town where there stood a cottage, wrapped in ivy and looking completely let out to nature.

‘This is Fluttershy’s house, it’s also the animal rescue and care center for the region’ Twilight explained, ‘It doesn’t look like she’s in at the moment’ they peered in through the window and saw that the house was full of wild animals, bunnies, squirrels, birds and even snakes but there wasn’t a pony in sight.

‘Twilight?’ said a quiet voice behind them, ‘Who’s this, and why are you looking in my house, I mean, it’s OK for you to do that but, you know...’ they turned around and saw her, a yellow pony with a pink mane, she looked like she was scared out of her wits. She squeaked as Bowdler looked at her and tried to avoid eye contact.

‘This is Bowdler,’ Twilight explained, quite (to Bowdler at least) uncharacteristically, ‘he’s new in town’.

‘Hi’ he said, but this appeared to terrify the yellow pony even more, ‘it’s ok, I won’t hurt you’

Twilight snorted.

‘I’m... I’m...’ the pony whispered, barely audible, ‘I’m Fluttershy’

‘Well hi Fluttershy! Glad to meet you’ he said and smiled. This seemed to make her feel a bit better and she managed a faint smile back.

‘It’s getting late...’ Twilight stated suddenly, ‘we’d better get to your house Bowdler’. This made him feel a bit put down, as he wouldn’t be able to converse with Fluttershy anymore, but he was longing to see his new home.

~

They walked back down the road towards Ponyville and stopped at a quite sizable house.

‘Well, here it is’ she said and turned to leave, ‘Enjoy your new life in Ponyville’. She began to walk away, but Bowdler suddenly didn’t want her to, he wanted to make it up with her.

‘Twilight?’ he asked quietly and she stopped and turned around. ‘Twilight, can you ever forgive me?’ he said pleadingly, ‘Whatever it was that I did, I’m truly sorry. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you, or anypony else here, you’re all so kind. I would feel terrible’

Twilight looked right at him and started walking back towards him. ‘You shouldn’t be the one apologising,’ she said quietly, ‘I’ve seen the real you today and I’m ashamed that I ever accused you of anything. I’m sorry for the way I treated you and I forgive you for what you did, even if it wasn’t really you’

She nuzzled him on the neck and, for a moment, he felt like his life was complete.

He nuzzled her back, but then she realised what she was doing and jumped back. They looked into each other’s eyes for a moment and then she turned and ran away, towards the library. Bowdler stood there for a second, unable to believe what had just happened. He walked into the house.