As Keystrokes looked up at his new home, he knew this was a bad idea. He promised himself he would never return to Ponyville or any of the surrounding areas.
The purple stallion unlocked the door with his horn and entered. Inside was exactly what he had expected. An old, decrepit house. In one corner was a cobweb, and another he was sure he had seen a rat scurry into a hole in the wall. He continued through the house to find the bedroom. It was in no better shape than the rest. He realized the bed was missing, and that he would have to sleep on the floor. He sighed. "It's better than sleeping in the forest, I guess." he thought aloud. It wouldn't be comfortable, but at least there was a smaller chance of being devoured alive by a timber wolf.
Heh. 'Smaller chance'. He had grown to be a dark minded person, and sometimes he wondered that maybe the reason he thought of death so much is because he wanted to be free of that life. He felt so alone sometimes. He sighed again.
He decided to check out the rest. It was all in terrible disrepair.
He went to the market to pick up some food. He had hoped that the large bandage around his chest wouldn't attract to much attention. He was dead wrong. The entire time he was getting looks from almost everypony. At least nopony recognized hi-
*SMASH*
"Oh, I'm sorry. I was reading this book and wasn't paying attention to my surroundings. Sorry agai-Wait a second..." He had trotted into a young purple mare, and she seemed to be having a panic attack. "Oh sweet Celestia! You're the famous author Quilliam Keystrokes aren't you!?" So much for that, he thought.
"Sigh, yeah. I'm Keystrokes. But could you please calm down? I really don't want to attract any attention." If she hadn't already been hyperventilating, she was now.
"OH MY SWEET CELESTIA, KEYSTROKES!? What are you doing here in Ponyville? I'm your biggest fan. I-" It was then that the last part sunk in. "Oh, um, yeah okay. I'm sorry. I'll try and calm down." She had already attracted much more attention than he had intended, however. He got agitated, but managed to keep it to himself.
If she had been a stallion he would have kicked her face in right there. He hated some ponies so much. They act like they own the world and do EVERYTHING they know he doesn't want. Like attracting attention.
"So, 'biggest fan'," he said in a slightly mocking voice, "can you suggest a good eatery around here?"
She began to realize just how much attention she had drawn, and didn't respond at first. "Er, yeah. The Cabbage Cafe is just around the corner."
He thanked her and went to go on his way, when she came galloping up to him. "I'm feeling kind of hungry too now that you mentioned it." He decided that he did not like this pony.
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"I'll have a lettuce sandwich and a coffee, please." Keystrokes said, handing his menu to the waitress.
"And I'll have just a coffee, thank you." The mare had decided to say 'A table for two, please,' before he could say anything, which made him feel uncomfortable. He was good with books, but with ponies, not so much. "So, Mister Quilliam Keystrokes-"
"Please, just call me Keystrokes."
"Okay then, Keystrokes. What brings you to Ponyville?"
He quickly responded "I came here to write a book in solitude. I have never been to this town before in my life." He realized only too late that the last part implied otherwise. "But now I have a question for you. Who are you!?"
The mare looked shocked for a moment, then silently scolded herself. "I can't believe I didn't introduce myself earlier. I'm Twilight Sparkle." Now, it was HIS turn to look shocked.
"Wait, you're Twilight Sparkle? Really?"
Looking amused she said "Yes? Yes, I AM Twilight Sparkle. Why don't you believe that?"
His contempt for this pony was slowly fading. "Sorry, I just...didn't expect Princess Celestia's head pupil to be like this."
She looked at him, slightly offended. "How did you expect me to act?"
"I apologize. I meant no offense."
There was a long and awkward silence.
"I tried to avoid the topic, and it probably isn't any of my business, but why do you have that bandage?"
Keystrokes grimaced He had been hoping to not have to talk about it. But there was no ignoring it now.
"I-uh...went into the Everfree Forest, and I got into a tangle with a manticore. It got me pretty bad in the ribs."
The disbelief showed on her face, though it was obvious she was attempting to hide it. He was a bad liar, and he knew it, but he could at least try.
"I am sorry for changing the subject, but do you know how I can find a zebra named Zecora in the forest? I lost something in the forest and I need to retrieve it."
She happily responded "Of course. The path leads directly to her hut. Just take a right when you get to the crossroads."
He nodded. "I'll remember that. What does the left lead to?"
"The temple where I and the others fought Nightmare Moon. Also, I look forward to doing this again. Goodbye Keystrokes."
As the food arrived at their table, he tried to stop her as she exited the building, trying to get her to remember her coffee, but she pretended not to hear him. "Wait...she looks forward to doing this again? She doesn't think of this as a date, right?" he thought aloud.
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As he woke up the next morning and groggily pulled himself out of bed, he found his thoughts drifting to the mare he had met the previous day. She seemed to have fallen in love with him at first sight. He had never believed in such things. Love never lasted. It was a foal's thing to get random and pointless infatuations for people. It was a way to ruin friendships. You are buddies with a pony of the opposite sex, you decide you fall in love with them, it doesn't work out, and one of you hates the other for all eternity after it ends. It was stupid and pointless.
He made sure to make sure his bandage was tight before continuing down the stairs down to the main room. He had had an almost sleepless night due to the fact his bed consisted of a tissue thin sheet for a blanket and a hardwood floor for a mattress. Needless to say it was not comfortable, and it was hardly the living space the multi-million bit author was used to. As he was midway down the stairs he heard many unfamiliar voices. His first thought was that somepony had broken into his house. He was about to summon a weapon with his magic and tell them to leave or be punished, but he was cut off as one of the voices, obviously female screamed "SURPRISE!!!"
He certainly was. "SWEET CELESTIA," he screamed as he tumbled down the remaining stairs. Landing with a loud smack against the bottom floor. He looked up in his daze and saw many ponies. Much more than he would have preferred to have entered his house in the middle of the night by most likely illegal means, which was none. "What the buck is going on here!?"
The pink pony was shocked by his vulgar language, but only for a moment. "It's a party silly," she squeaked with pure happiness and jubilation. Now untouched by his curse.
To which he replied through gritted teeth,"A party for WHAT, may I ask?"
"You're welcome party, of course! Come on everypony! Let's get partying!" As if on cue a snow white pony with a dark blue and teal mane came out of seemingly nowhere and put a record on a turntable, which also seemed to have not been there last night.
"How did all you ponies get into my house? The door was locked," he said angrily.
"The door, duh," the pink pony said while doing some strange dance he had never seen before. Then again, he hadn't seen many dances.
Angered even further by the "duh" he asked, "What about the turntable?!" It was about then that he saw Twilight running towards him in the large crowd.
"Hi, Keystrokes."
Ignoring her presence he continued the verbal warfare with the pink mare. "Since when is it legal to break into a ponies home!?"
"We didn't break in! I had Twilight unlock the door with her magic! Wow, you ask a lot of weird questions," she said, looking genuinely confused.
He looked over at Twilight with a fake smile on his face. "Did she now? Well that was very kind of her to assist in breaking and entering into her favorite author's home!"
"Sorry, Keystrokes. Pinkie knew about you and told me she wanted to surprise you this morning with a party. I did unlock the door, but I didn't know it would upset you this much."
The DJ was playing dubstep. Which Keystrokes found to be tasteless. "Could somepony tell her to turn that off?" Nobody heard him except for Pinkie, who ignored him now, and Twilight, who was trying her best to convince him to join in the festivities.
"She means well. We all do. We just wanted to brighten up your day a little. We haven't committed any crimes!"
"No, not besides breaking and entering! Sigh, but you're right. Fine. I'll join in."
Twilight squeed and dragged him over to a clear spot. This mare is crazy, he thought.
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After the party was over Twilight lingered. She asked him timidly, "Do...you want to do something else?"
"What do you mean, Twilight? Isn't a party enough? I still haven't stocked my fridge and I need to go pick some stuff up."
"I can go with you."
"Is picking up groceries your definition of a fun time?"
"It is when I'm around you."
"That was the most cliche thing I've heard in two years. Look, if you really want to come, fine. Don't blame me if you get more bored than a crippled frog."
"Thank you,"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the market, Twilight barely spoke a word until a cyan pegasus dashed by at blinding speeds. She climbed up into the air and made a sonic rainboom...directly above his and Twilight's head. Twilight's face went red. "RAINBOW DASH, WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP THAT!? Oh, eh heh...don't mind her Keystrokes. She's just being a jerk." He laughed. That was the first time he had laughed in a long time. For as long as he chose to remember, his life had been depressing and he had been a flank. And for the first time in a long time, he felt happy.
"Having fun down there you two love birds?" Keystrokes arched his eyebrows at the immature pegasus.
"We are NOT in love with each other," yelled an enraged Twilight, but her voice betrayed her intentions.
"Say whatever you want, Egghead," Rainbow Dash said while flying away.
"You can just ignore her. She's rude sometimes."
"I thought it was kind of funny. That was the first time I've laughed in a long time."
Twilight looked at him, and then lightened up a bit. "Yeah, I guess it wasn't too bad. It was kind of embarrassing, though. But it was what you can expect from her."
Keystrokes was beginning to question himself. Was he getting attached to this pony? Was he actually falling in love? He didn't realize it, but he laughed at the thought. Twilight took that as a good sign, not knowing what was going through his head.
