Possibilites

“Did you find Dashie?!” Said a shrill voice from behind the purple one, making me wince. A pink pony with a fairly curly pink mane jumped out from behind the purple one, smiling. Gaining the expression that she was about to cry, she lunged at Rainbow Dash and hugged her tightly. She looked up at Rainbow Dash and rambled, “We thought you were dead! We didn’t know where you were and that maybe you got stuck in the Everfree forest and got lost! Or eaten! Or even just died right there in the forest! Just like that! Boom! Dead! I’m so glad Twilight found you! Did you get hurt? Are you injured? I’ll give you a great welcome home party just to celebrate you’re A-OK! Do you wa-?”

“Pinkie, I’m fine! I just saw something in the Everfree Forest worth investigating. Sheesh…” Rainbow Dash said, cutting off “Pinkie.” Immediately she stopped wailing and let go of Rainbow Dash. Clearly she was not firing on all cylinders.

“Oh, okay!” She said, smiling once more. I leaned over to Rainbow Dash and whispered,

“Is she bipolar…?”

“No, she’s not she’s just very…” She paused for a moment, looking at “Pinkie,” “eccentric.”

“Ah.”

“Who’s your friend Dashie?” The purple one asked, looking at me.

“Oh, this is…Uh…” She leaned over to me, “What’s your name?” I chuckled a bit.

“My name is Xavier.” I told her.

“This is Xavier.” She told the purple one.

“Nice to meet you Xavier,” the purple one said, “I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle, but you can just call me Twilight.”

“Pleasure to meet you, your majesty,” I said warmly, bowing. I didn’t know the customs in this place, but I’d prefer not to get my head cut off because of indecency to royalty.

“That won’t be necessary to do every time you’re in my presence.” Twilight said, giggling as I stood back up.

“Aye, but I believe respect is still due.” I said. In all honesty, I just didn’t want to get killed by some corrupt government official.

“Well, thank you, that’s very humble of you.” Twilight said. “Pinkie” walked up to me and got uncomfortably close, examining me as carefully as the finest example specimen. I tilted back a bit as she squinted at me, seemingly looking at every detail of my complexion and looking for some error in it.

“This here is Pinkie Pie, but everyone just calls her Pinkie.” Twilight said. Pinkie finally gave me some breathing room and turned to Rainbow Dash, saying bluntly,

“He’s a handsome one, isn’t he? Where did you find him?”

“Oh come on Pinkie, that’s awful rude.” Twilight said, giving Pinkie a small nudge.

“You’re awful straightforward aren’t you?” I asked Pinkie.

“Not always! I can walk straight forward, side to side, and even backwards!” She said, unfazed by Twilights reprimand and walking around in all directions while still facing me.

“Not what I meant, but okay…” I said, slightly confused at the sheer ignorance of this particular pony.

“Come on, Twilight, let’s go find the others.” Said Rainbow Dash.

“You’re right,” she replied, “we’ll have them all meet Xavier and give him a great big Ponyville welcome.” The three of them set out of the town hall and begin walking down the street with me in tow not far behind, avoiding anyone else’s gaze. The din of the town slowly faded as we entered a part of town that was little less populated, but still had a resident here and there walking to run errands or talking to someone on the side of the street. I felt plenty more comfortable here. While we walked, Rainbow Dash and Twilight were talking about something, but it was too hushed for me to hear it. It probably wasn’t important for me to know anyway.

“Is that them up there?” Rainbow Dash asked. Ahead, I spotted a small fountain with three more ponies hanging around it chattering amongst themselves.

“It looks like it.” Agreed Twilight. We reached the fountain and the three looked over to see the four of us walking toward them. “Hi girls. How’ve you been today?” Twilight asked. They each responded in their own separate fashion, but I wasn’t really paying attention to notice what they each said. I was too busy thinking of how to get these ponies off my case.

The leftmost pony had a white coat and a curled indigo mane. She had a sort of shimmering and sparkly look, like the sun was glinting off of her. The middle pony had a coat of a light orange and mane a simple blonde color. She had the ends of her mane and tail wrapped in a red ribbon and was also wearing a Stetson. The rightmost and last pony had a light gold coat and light rose mane. She seemed kind of timid and I felt a slight pity for her, while at the same tie curious of her mental condition.

All three of them seemed to look at me at the exact same time and the white pony bit her bottom lip and appeared rather keen on keeping her eyes locked on me. I shifted left and right slightly, but her eyes continued to follow me. This is about where I began to break down, whispering “oh god” under my breath. Never before had I ever had this reaction from anyone—let alone by members of a different species. My system flooded with enough adrenaline to kill a full grown man, making me feel like I was going to vomit and shake involuntarily.

“And who is this with you?” The white one asked batting her eyelashes at me. I gulped quietly, still shaking.

Her eyes were the most troublesome.

“Everyone, this is Xavier. He’s Dashie’s friend.” Twilight said. “Xavier, this here is Rarity,” pointing to the white one, “Applejack,” pointing to the orange one, “and Fluttershy,” pointing to the gold one. Fluttershy seemed to shrink back a little at the mention of her name. I would’ve felt bad if it weren’t for my current situation.

“N-nice to meet you all,” I said as I stepped back a little and looked for something else to occupy my mind with. Music tended to calm me down in times of duress, but I had left my acoustic guitar at the camp. I looked around for a guitar or any other musical instrument I could play. I spotted someone talking to someone else, a guitar propped up against the building next to him. The odds of this occurring was highly unlikely, but I didn’t have time to question the odds, quickly trotting over to him and nabbing the guitar. The others watched as I broke off from the pack and walked over to the man, some with more interest than others.

“Now what’s he up to?” Pinkie asked out loud, thoroughly interested. The man who was previously busy conversing suddenly looked behind himself to see me grasp it, making me freeze in place. He looked at his guitar, then at me.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He asked with deep hostility. I looked at him and folded my ears over my head in an attempt to show I was no threat.

“Please, I just need this really quick… It’s an emergency…” I said. He raised an eyebrow.

“What could be so important that you would need to steal my guitar for it?” He asked. He really didn’t want some stranger to take his stuff and I couldn’t blame him—I would react the same in his situation. I quickly tried to think of some reason in which he would back off and allow me to use it.

“It’s for…uh…therapeutic reasons.” I said, becoming increasingly unstable the more time progressed.

“Well why didn’t you just say so? Just make sure to give it back.” He said, finally opening up. I grinned.

“Thank you so much, I’ll give it back as soon as I’m done.” I said. I picked up the guitar and took it over to the opposite side of the fountain to the girls. I removed the pick that was stuck under the low E string and sat in front of the fountain. I started strumming with no clear direction, just something to calm my nerves. At first it was just a discord of noises, but soon an upbeat and warm melody finally found its way through, something akin to the beginning of “Stairway to Heaven." I have no bloody idea how I did this with hooves. I slowly stopped shaking and smiled as I forgot the world and the situation I was in, simply listening to the strumming of the guitar and feeling the vibrations of the strings. I thought I heard someone talking to me, but I couldn’t be sure at that time, I was too engrossed in my music. It sounded like someone was talking to me again, so I cut off the middle of my riff and looked up, jumping a bit to find Applejack standing in front of me.