We stand together

The house was dark when he walked in and he couldn’t even see his hoof in front of his face. He sighed, it had been a long day and he was tired. Suddenly, the lights flicked on.

‘SURPRISE!’ yelled a huge host of ponies standing around him, scaring him senseless.

‘OH GOD!’ he screamed, disorientated.

‘Oh don’t worry silly!’ said a pink pony bouncing up and down in front of his face, ‘It’s just a party! Were you surprised? Were you?’

‘Whu?’ he spluttered. Looking around the room, he could see dozens of ponies, Rainbow dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Big Mac and loads of others who he didn’t recognise.

‘Oh wow this is so exciting!’ squealed the pink pony, who he now recognised as Pinkie Pie ‘I’ve never been so excited, well, except from the time I saw Twilight walking in and I went HNNNNG! but really, what could top that?’

‘Pinkie Pie, I have no idea what the hay is going on’ he replied, Pinkie gasped.

‘You know my name already? Wow you catch on fast! I mean I know everypony’s names like you’re Bowdler even though you’ve not told me personally but I didn’t know that you knew my name without me telling you! Oh wow! Oh gee! This is amazing! We’re gonna be great friends!’

By this point he had recovered from the initial shock of the party and laughed,

‘Yeah, I’m sure we’ll be great friends too’

The pony squealed and bounced away, leaving him alone in his house, which had been converted into a massive party room. He decide walking up to Big Mac and the stallions he was talking to would be a good idea.

‘Howdy partner!’ he said as he noticed him walking up, ‘Ah don’t usually turn up to Pinkie’s surprise parties but seeing as it’s yours, well, me and some of mah buds decided to mosey on along’ the two stallions stood with him smiled and waved, they were both quite large (but not as large as Big Mac) stallions, both were brown and one had green framed glasses.

‘My name is Dallas’ the one with the glasses stated, ‘and this is the doctor’.

‘Hi!’ said the other pony.

‘Doctor... who?’ asked Bowdler.

‘Exactly!’ he replied.

Dallas and Big Mac laughed, obviously used to the doctor’s rambling.

‘So who might you be?’ Dallas asked after the laughing died down, ‘I’ve not seen you around here before, well, that’s a bit obvious though isn’t it?’

‘I’m Bowdler, I’m new here’ he replied.

The doctor suddenly looked quite worried, but it passed over him quickly.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked slowly.

‘Nothing, nothing!’ the doctor replied.

‘You looked really worried when I said my name.’ he continued, ‘what’s wrong?’

‘Spoilers’ he said, shrugging. Dallas decided to change the subject.

‘This is a nice place you’ve got here isn’t it?’ he said, admiring the furniture.

‘I wouldn’t really know...’ he replied, looking around at the surging party.

Dallas noticed this and replied, ‘Oh, I see, we’ll leave you be for a bit so you can explore, I’ll see you around!’

Bowdler walked away and observed his house. He could see a grey Pegasus at his fridge, gorging herself with babybels. He chuckled and looked away, pretending he hadn’t noticed. The room was spacious and well lit and, he supposed, it would be cosy and comfortable after it emptied a bit. There was a door on the far side of the room which he made towards. He opened it and saw a spiral staircase leading up the top floor, he walked up it and saw a quiet room, with a bed and a few pointless cupboards. He felt a wave of tiredness, similar to the one he felt in Canterlot and flopped down onto the bed, not bothering to put on the covers, and fell asleep instantly.

~

The next morning Bowdler woke up feeling even more groggy and tired than usual. He walked over to the window and looked out over Ponyville, the sun was only just rising over the forest in the distance. He felt as if he could have just gone straight back to sleep, until he felt his stomach rumble and remembered he hadn’t eaten anything last night. He stumbled down the staircase and into the main room. It wasn’t a pleasant sight. There was a white pony with blue spiky hair passed out on his sofa on top of the grey pony he’d seen at his fridge. The said fridge was open and completely empty. There was mess all over the floor, this was going to take a while to clear up. He cleared his throat loudly. The white pony jerked awake and looked around frantically.

‘What?’ she spluttered, ‘Where am I? What happened? Who’s that?’ she looked down at the grey pony underneath her, ‘Oh lord...’

She got up, looking dazed and slightly tipsy and stumbled out of the door without even a backwards glance at Bowdler. With the white pony out of the way he turned to look at the grey pony, who was still fast asleep. He poked her gently. She jumped up and looked around, wall eyed.

‘Muffins?’ she asked.

‘What?’ Bowdler replied.

‘Muffin! Muffin babybel fridge!’ she continued.

‘What the hay?’ he asked, utterly dumbfounded, he shook his head and looked at her sternly. ‘I saw you last night, you ate all my food. You’d better help me clear up!’

She looked at him, sort of, and said, ‘Muffins and cupcakes and Muffin Muffin doop’

‘What?’ he began, but she flew up in the air, smashed his ceiling light and flew straight out of the window.

‘Fuck’ he stated plainly. It wasn’t like there was anypony else around. He decided that the cleaning could wait until later, he might even find a cleaner. He walked outside and squinted as the light burned his eyes. He decided that the town square was probably the best place to go. On his way there he passed the library, he wondered whether he should go and visit Twilight, but, judging by the state she was in after their, ‘encounter’, last night he decided it would be a bad idea. When he got to town square, he immediately ran into Dallas.

‘Mornin’ Bowdler!’ he said cheerily, ‘I didn’t see you after you left last night, where did you go?’

‘Bed’ he replied, Dallas laughed.

‘I s’pose you had a pretty long day then eh? Anything particular you want to do today?’

‘I’m glad you asked’ he replied, ‘I’m looking for a cleaners.’

‘What’d you need a cleaner for?’ he asked, sounding genuinely confused.

‘Well, the party...’ he began, but as soon as he got the jist of it, Dallas chuckled and corrected him,

‘Pinkie Pie always clears up the party mess, even if she comes at about midday, no matter how much mess there is, she’ll clean it somehow.’

Bowdler shrugged, he seriously had no idea how Pinkie Pie planned to fix his window. Suddenly, Big Mac and the Doctor appeared next to them.

‘Morning’ he greeted them.

‘Morning to you too’ they both replied, near enough simultaneously, which made everypony laugh for some reason.

‘Ahm not gonna be able to stay’ said Big Mac after the laughter had died down, ‘Ah’ve gotta harvest some apples, there’s always a few early ones.’ he chuckled as if this was extremely amusing and everypony else joined in so as not to look rude.

‘I’d come and help you if you wanted me to Big Mac,’ said Dallas, ‘it’s not like I’ve got anything else to do’

‘I’ll come along too!’ piped the Doctor, who obviously wasn’t one for missing out on doing stuff with his friends.

‘I’d love to help,’ Bowdler began, ‘but I think I’ve got a few things to patch up’ He had started to feel really bad about not going to see Twilight.

‘That’s just fine’ Big Mac reassured him, ‘We can handle it’ and he and the others made off for sweet apple acres. Bowdler stood there for a moment, watching them go, but as soon as they disappeared from sight, he whirled around and started running towards the library.

~

When he got there, the door was unlocked so he walked right in. Nopony seemed to be around.

‘Hello?’ he called, ‘Is anypony there?’

‘Nopony is here right now.’ came a voice from another room.

‘Really?’ he replied, obviously thinking this was some sort of childish joke, ‘Then who might you be?'

A small, purple, lizard-like creature walked into the main room. ‘A baby dragon’ he replied bluntly, then laughed. ‘I’m just messing around with you man, I’ll take your order’

‘I’m not here for a book...’ he began.

‘Then what are you here for?’ he asked, looking him up and down, then suddenly a realisation popped up in his eyes. ‘Say...’ he questioned, ‘You aren’t called Bowdler are you?’

‘That was my name last time I checked’ he replied in a very sarcastic manner, the dragon giggled.

‘I’ll just go and get Twilight, she’s feeling a bit 'ill' but I’m sure she’d come down to see you’ he said cheekily and ran back into the other room and clattered up some stairs. Bowdler couldn't hear what they were saying and waited nervously. Eventually, he heard somepony come back downstairs, or more accurately, somedragon.

‘She says she’s still feeling tired and ill,’ he said as he walked into the room, shrugging, ‘I doubt it, she was talking in her sleep last night, I think she’s into you’

‘SPIIIIKE!’ came Twilight’s voice from up the stairs, ‘IF YOU’RE SAYING WHAT I THINK YOU’RE SAYING I SWEAR I WILL TELL EVERYPONY’

Spike jumped about a foot into the air, ‘I’m not saying nothing!’ he yelled, logically perfectly truthfully. The shouting from upstairs stopped. ‘Please don’t tell her I told you!’ he begged him, dropping down to his knees, ‘I’ll do anything!’

He laughed devilishly, ‘Don’t worry, I won’t. But could you please have one more try at getting her down?’ he said, ‘I really want to see her’

‘Okay,’ the dragon replied, ‘but don’t get your hopes up...’ he wandered back up the stairs.

Bowdler decided that he’d look around this time, to keep himself occupied. The library was, unsurprisingly, filled with books. He thought about the stump of his horn, could he still do magic with it? He concentrated on a book on the table on the far side of the room, willing it to float. He felt a tingling sensation on his forehead and could see a faint purple glow just above his eyes. The book started to shake violently, but didn’t move an inch. He was starting to get really tired, the stress of it was making him woozy. He stopped looking at the book and staggered around a bit, his vision blurred. When his sight re-focused he could see a familiar purple pony standing in front of him, her mane was uncombed and she was blushing vividly.

‘I saw what you were doing there...’ she said and a sense of dread crept into his heart. Would she still like him if she knew what he was?

‘I’m really not sure what to make of it though... You can’t be an Alicorn, the only Alicorns in Equestria are the Princesses’. He suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to just show her the remnants of his horn and tell her all he knew, but the only thing that stopped him was the thought of Princess Celestia, looking down on him with deep disappointment in her eyes. He didn’t want that at all. He walked up to Twilight slowly and put his head against hers,

‘Twilight...’ he began, but wasn’t sure why he’d started, he couldn’t think of what to say, he was just overjoyed at the sight of the pony he now knew for sure he was in love with. She looked like she felt the same way, he could feel the warmth of her cheek against his. She backed away and looked deep into his eyes and he looked back into hers, they were the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, a deep purple colour, not dissimilar to his own.

‘Yes?’ she asked, obviously intent on getting information of some sort.

He didn’t know what to do, what should he say? He’d started a sentence that he didn’t know how to finish. There were two things he could tell her and he wasn’t sure which one he’d rather leak.

‘I... I...’ he spluttered, his mind on the blink, but suddenly, he perked up a bout of courage. ‘I think I love you Twilight’ he finally said, looking at the floor and digging at it with his hoof.

He looked back up at her, she looked stunned but also, somehow, rather pleased. There were tears at the edges of her eyes. She walked over and threw her arms around his neck.

‘That’s ok,’ she whispered softly, her words choked with tears of happiness, ‘I think I love you too’. Never before did he feel so happy, his heart leaped and he buried his head into her shoulder. He could feel tears rolling down his eyes.

‘Jeez guys get a room!’ came a cocky voice from the doorway, Spike stood there looking utterly disgusted. This completely shattered the moment.

Bowdler and Twilight moved away from each other and looked into their eyes. Twilight appeared to be worrying about something, like she’d just broken an extremely important rule.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, paranoid that this relationship would come to an abrupt end, but she just stood there. He realised that this was an extremely awkward moment as the initial surge of shock and joy passed over him, he felt nervous and dug at the ground.

‘Fine, I’ll go’ said Spike as if he’d just been told to do something completely unreasonable and he walked back up the stairs. This didn’t break the silence for long though.

‘You should probably go now’ Twilight stated quite clearly, but still obviously choking back tears of joy, ‘I’m feeling a bit ill’. He took the hint and turned to leave.

‘When should I come back?’ he asked hopefully.

‘Tomorrow hopefully’ she said with a smile.

‘Ok, I’ll see you then’ he replied, then left, still thinking over what had just happened.