The Incantation

The next morning, I woke up to a wonderful smell – pancakes.

Fluttershy had taken the time to make breakfast for the two of us, a thoughtful gesture I wouldn’t soon forget.

I hopped off the couch, tossing the blanket on it, and headed into the kitchen to confront the source of the mouthwatering aroma.

Fluttershy stood at the stove, making a batch of strawberry pancakes. A stack also sat on a platter on the counter beside her – a multitude of fruits infused within.

“That smells really good,” I said as I approached her. She looked over at me and smiled warmly.

“Oh, you’re awake. I thought you’d sleep until noon. You were even snoring,” she said, flipping the pancake in the pan with a spatula.

I snore? “Haha…no, I usually wake up by dawn, but I guess I was just extra tired last night.”

“You did help me so much yesterday. Maybe you did get all worn out.”

“I sure did. Glad to help you anytime.” I watched her finish that pancake, place it on the top of the stack, and pour the batter for another in the pan. It sizzled and gave off a heavenly scent. “So…pancakes,” I said, trying to initiate a conversation. Never was good at that, especially with mares.

She remained silent for a moment as she watched the pan, making sure our breakfast didn’t burn. “Um…yes – pancakes. Do you like them? Oh, I hope you do. I wouldn’t want you to go hungry because I made you a bad breakfast…”

“Oh, of course I do. I love pancakes. But yours just might be the best I will ever have. Almost done? I can help you if you want,” I asked helpfully. What kind of guest would I be if I didn’t? What kind of stallion would I be?

“You’re fine, this is the last one,” she replied, flipping the current pancake. “You’re more than welcome to help yourself to the ones on the platter, if you’d like.”

I looked over on the counter and spotted plates. Beside it, a bottle of syrup.

“Uh, sure. Thanks.” I counted how many there were, including the one she was cooking, and took an even half. There were quite a few flavors here – blueberry, strawberry, cherry, chocolate chip…I lathered mine in way too much syrup. It almost overflowed off my plate.

Fluttershy frowned at my syrup abuse. “Isn’t that a little much?” she asked, pointing at my heaping, sopping mess.

I had to agree with her – I did go a little overboard with the syrup. This is one of those times that my hunger embarrassed me. “Probably. I’ll still eat it though, just because you made it.” I gave her a wink.

I got her to blush again. “Oh, my…thank you.”

I went back into the living room, holding the plate as if it were made of gold. It held food that practically was. At least, it tasted like it. I sat on the couch and dug in.

Fluttershy joined me moments later and appeared amused at the site of me having cleaned my plate already.

“My goodness – tired and hungry,” she said amiably as she sat beside me. Her plate was built perfectly – a little syrup, and a little square of butter on top. She smiled over at me. “So I take it you liked them?”

I nodded. “Like nothing I’ve ever had before.”

She grinned modestly and took a bite of her top pancake. When she finished chewing and swallowed, she said, “We should go into town today. I can show you around. I can introduce you to my friends.”

Knew this was coming. “Yeah, I suppose that’d be a good idea. I need to familiarize myself with this town if I want to live here.”

Although I had to at one point get to know Ponyville, I was still afraid that somepony would recognize me and things would get ugly. Fluttershy didn’t know this, of course, but sooner or later truth would prevail.

“You’ll love my friends,” she went on, finishing up another bite. “Twilight would especially like to meet you. After all, she is the Princess of Friendship.”

I nearly choked on my own saliva. “Princess?” I managed to utter through coughs.

Fluttershy looked over at me, her eyebrows knitting. “Is there something wrong?”

“It’s just – I’ve never met a princess before.” Terrible liar. Always was, always will be.

She relaxed. “Oh.” But then she thought up a good point. “You lived in Canterlot and never met Princess Celestia?”

Yup. “Uh, no. But that’s okay. I’ll meet…”

“Princess Twilight.”

“…Princess Twilight, whom I’ve barely heard of,” I said, also a lie. “Plus your other friends.” Who I hoped didn’t know me.

Fluttershy finished up her top pancake in the time it took me to eat all eight of mine. “They’re wonderful friends. Pinkie is our party planner. She throws the best parties in Equestria. Rarity makes designer gowns that win contests all the time.” She perked up suddenly. “That reminds me – the gala is next week. You can come with me…with us, if you’d like. I’m sure Rarity would have no problem making you a suit.”

I gulped. No way out of this one, either. On a positive note, I was bring asked by this mare to accompany her to the gala, which, in itself was quite the accomplishment in my life, sadly. “Uh, yeah, that sounds nice. Sure.”

She flashed me another dazzling smile. “Great! We’ll see her today, I’m sure. We’ll just ask her then.”

I watched her eat another bite and thought to myself, what have I gotten myself into? It was too late to turn back now, I was in too deep. Certain aspects of the situation were okay with me; others had me on edge. And now that I knew my cover might be blown, I had to physically alter my appearance at the gala. Maybe this “Rarity” character could be of some help. Only time will tell.

We talked while Fluttershy finished her pancakes. She was giving me an extensive background on her friendship with somepony named “Rainbow Dash”. She had more friends than I ever had in my whole life.

When she was done with her meal, she got her saddlebag and led me out to the town.

        Ponyville was pleasant.

        I can't tell you how much nicer - albeit smaller and much simpler - it was than Canterlot. The differences were major: Ponyville possessed an aura of quiescence, whereas Canterlot was frustratingly overcrowded, noisy, and ever-dangerous. It felt great to finally be away from all the nonsense in the Royal City.

       And everypony was friendly. Normally, the rich folk would walk through Canterlot as if they owned it. But here, humbleness was an epidemic. Not once did I have to move out of the way for somepony without them apologizing or excusing themselves.

       In what seemed to be the grocery district, Fluttershy spotted one her friends and brought me over for introduction.

       "Well, howdy Fluttershy," the orange earth pony greeted her with a tip of her cowgirl hat. "Who's yer friend here?" She looked at me with distant curiosity, in which I returned. I'd never been around a country pony before. It was interesting.

       "Oh, just somepony I'm helping back on his hooves. He just moved here from Canterlot," Fluttershy said. "He came here through the Everfree Forest."

       "He went through the Everfree Forest ta git here? Why? Ya coulda taken the train," the friend said, as if I didn't know.

       We were taking up space in the middle of the path, and somepony asked us to move, which we did, off to the side, between stands.

       "Well," I began, watching some ponies walk by laughing and conversing loudly. "It kinda wasn't my fault. Some rowdy kids got the better of me, they ended up tossing me overboard, into the forest."

       "Oh - this is Applejack, by the way," Fluttershy interrupted politely.

       "And I'm Emerald Mist," I told Applejack as she tipped her hat at me. How long could I keep up this spiderweb of lies?

       An awkward silence followed, finally broken a few long moments later when Applejack said, "Well, nice meetin' ya, Emerald." She patted her saddlebag and looked at Fluttershy. "Granny Smith has me busy all day doin' shoppin' fer her. I'll see y'all later."

       "Okay, then. See you later!" Fluttershy waved a hoof goodbye as Applejack left to go finish her errands.

       Fluttershy turned back to me, smiling. "So? What'd you think of Applejack?"

       I wasn't sure what to say. "Well...um...she certainly is an interesting character."

       "Then you'll just love my other friends. They're all unique and interesting." She grabbed my hoof without warning and led me away to her next friend.