Donovan gritted his teeth. He was really starting to crave a cigarette; this job hunt was getting stressful. His time along walking through town and looking for employment vacancies allowed him to put more time than he probably should into thinking about what was happening at his home back on Earth. Did time pass the same as it did here? Were his siblings freaking out? Had Mallory been able to step up and lead the household as the new oldest sibling? The more questions he posed to himself, the more he craved for a cancer stick. He’d always told his little brothers and sisters to never pick up smoking, and he absolutely detested the fact that he was such a hypocrite in that regard. He’d started smoking at a young age, and managed to hide it from nearly everyone he knew for a considerable amount of time, but eventually Mallory had caught him burning through a cig, and he had to own up to it.

Either way, he couldn’t do much to sate his craving for tobacco, at least at the moment. He could only hope that he’d soon be employed, and that the drugstore he’d passed earlier sold Marlboros, or at least some Equestrian equivalent.

Donovan walked a couple more blocks before his gaze was captured by a ‘now hiring’ sign sitting in the window of a building that seemed almost to be made out of sweets, the windows being traced with what looked to be icing, the roof made of something similar to gingerbread. By the looks of everything, it seemed to be a bakery of some sort. What gave it away possibly more so than the building’s ridiculous gimmick was the permanent smell of cake batter that surrounded it. It all seemed very deliciously sweet, and it made Donovan cringe slightly. Nevertheless, he swallowed his pride and stepped inside, wanting to talk to the owner or manager quickly so he didn’t have to be in this fru-fru cake house any longer than-

“SURPRISE!!!”

“HOLY FUCK!” Donovan screamed and readied his fists as several loud pops sounded off and a barrage of voices screamed at him. He was ready to hit the first thing he saw once he was reoriented, but his brain quickly processed what had been said to him. “Uh… Surprise?” He stood there dumbfounded as he scanned the room, recognizing three familiar faces instantly. Twilight, Spike, and Rarity. There must have been at least a hundred other ponies in the room, probably more out of his line of vision, none of which he recognized, but one seemed to stand out from the rest, most likely, Donovan assumed, because they had a toothless baby alligator latched onto their tail. Donovan’s eyes traced the poofy pink tail up to a pink furred body, the pony’s flank marked with its distinct cutie mark, (Donovan chuckled more than once when Twilight explained this butt-tattoo thing to him, finding the whole concept ridiculous; that was the only way he was able to remember what they were called.) two blue balloons on either side of a yellow ballon. He continued up their body, tracing a fluffy pink mane, almost identical to their tail, one stray curl ending in front of the pony’s nose, in between their sparkling blue eyes. In a fraction of a second, the pink pony moved closer to Donovan. He’d have sworn she’d teleported, but grimaced in confusion when he found she had no magical horn that would enable her to do so.

“Hey there!” She said in a high pitched voice, but not enough to make Donovan wish he was deaf, unlike Rarity’s murderous vocal cords. “I'm Pinkie Pie, and I threw this party just for you! Were you surprised? Were ya? Were ya? Huh huh huh?"

“Um… Yeah… So, Why did you throw me a party, exactly?” Donovan asked, slightly off balance by how fast the words left Pinkie’s mouth.

“Well, y'see, I've never saw you before and if I've never saw you before that means you're new, 'cause I know everypony, and I mean EVERYPONY in Ponyville!”

Everypony? Is that even a word?

“And if you're new, that means you haven't met anyone yet, and if you haven't met anyone yet, you must not have any friends, and if you don't have any friends then you must be lonely, and that made me so sad, then I had an idea, which was to throw a great big ginormous super-duper spectacular welcome party and invite everyone in Ponyville! See? And now you have lots and lots of friends!” Donovan was still floored at how fast Pinkie was speaking, and though her voice didn’t annoy him, her unnecessarily sunny disposition was starting to.

“Right…” Donovan turned to Twilight slowly. “So, this is your friend Pinkie Pie you were telling me about yesterday?”

Twilight nodded and gave a proud smile. “That’s right! Pinkie Pie, Ponyville’s very own party-planning pony! And also the Element of Laughter!” Twilight then gestured behind her to four other ponies. “You already know Rarity.”

“Hello there, Donovan, darling!” Rarity said with a small wave and a bat of her eyelashes.

“Then there’s Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness.” Twilight pointed to a rather bashful-looking yellow pegasus, hiding her face behind her pink mane.

“O-Oh… H-Hello there, Mr. Donovan…” She said, barely loud enough for him to hear, before hiding behind her mane completely, her face turning a bright red. Donovan found the display slightly cute, and a tiny smirk crossed his lips.

Twilight chuckled softly and moved on to the next pony. “...Rainbow Dash, Equestria’s fastest flier and the Element of Loyalty.”

“Sup, big buy! Nice to meetcha!” The blue pegasus said in a raspy, tomboyish voice, her rainbow colored tail following behind her as she did a few slow rolls in the air. Donovan’s smile grew slightly as the rainbow-haired pony greeted him, he had a feeling she was a pretty cool person. Err… pony.

“...And finally, Applejack, the Element of Honesty.” Donovan followed Twilight’s hoof to an orange-furred pony with a lazy smile, her blonde mane and tail secured at their ends with red hair ties, a brown stetson cowboy hat on her head. “Howdy there, sugarcube. Y’sure are a different lookin’ feller, that’s fer sure. Pleasure t’meetcha.” Donovan smiled even wider as the cowgirl smiled up at him. He always liked country folk. The accent was easy on the ears, too. Much unlike Rarity’s… anyway…

“Well, uh… Thanks for the party, I guess…” Donovan said, rubbing the back of his neck. Before long, Pinkie Pie thrust a foreleg into the air.

“Let’s get this party STARTED!” As the words left her mouth, Donovan turned his head just in time to see a pony sitting at a DJ booth put two records on their turntable and begin playing some rather upbeat tunes. Several ponies began dancing, and only then Donovan realized how many ponies were in the building. It seems Pinkie really did invite the whole town.

Only seconds later, Pinkie Pie shoved a glass of punch into Donovan’s hand, which he slowly accepted. The six elements then stood with him in a circle and began talking.

“Well, I’ve gotta say, I didn’t expect this.” Donovan said with a chuckle. “You got me good, Pinkie.”

Pinkie responded with a gigglesnort. “Hehe, I’m glad you liked it, Donnie!”

“And since everyone’s here right now, it shouldn’t be too hard to find out if anypony’s hiring!” Twilight added with a smile of her own.

“Yer lookin’ fer work, Donovan?” Applejack asked happily.

“Uh, yeah. Why, are you hiring?” Donovan asked with an intrigued expression. He’d be happy to work alongside someone with an accent like that.

“Actually, yeah! We’re runnin’ low on farmhands back on Sweet Apple Acres, m’family’s farm on the outskirts a’town. If y’all don’t mind honest work, Ah’d be mighty grateful. We can’t pay much, but we can get you settled into the spare room in the attic, and we’d love to feed ya three meals a day, too!”

Donovan’s face lit up. He no longer had to be living at Twilight’s expense, and he got to work alongside soft spoken country folk. It was a win-win. “Sounds great to me. I can start as early as tonight!” He said with a smile, holding out his hand.

“Y’got yerself a deal, sugarcube!” Applejack replied happily, laying her forehoof against Donovan’s palm, shaking it eagerly.

Donovan and the elements talked for about an hour before he decided to head to the refreshments table to refill his cup. After doing so, he turned only to find his path blocked by the pony that was DJ’ing earlier. “Hey there.” She said, an almost cocky, but still friendly smile on her face. “Name’s Vinyl Scratch. Heard you’re looking for work.”

“Uh, well… I guess it depends on what days and times. I just snagged a job at Sweet Apple Acres.” Donovan was used to working two jobs back on Earth, he figured he could handle two jobs here just as well. “I can’t do anything from early mornings to about noon. On any day except Sunday.”

“Well, the club I usually play at is looking for a bouncer, our last one just quit and we can’t really do anymore shows until we get a new one. You’re a pretty big guy, so I figured it’d be an easy job for you.”

Donovan smiled for the umpteenth time that day. Things were falling into place for him. “No shit? I actually worked as a bouncer back home, I’d love to work nights for you guys!”

“Bucking sweet, brah.” Vinyl said with a nod of her head, her two-toned mane shaking loosely. They spoke about the details for a bit, and before long, Donovan found himself thoroughly enjoying this party. Once Vinyl ended the conversation, claiming she had to get back to her turntables before her playlist ended, Donovan looked around Sugarcube corner with a thought he hadn’t had before, his smirk turning into a grin as Pinkie and Rainbow Dash waved to him from across the room.

‘They may be some weird fuckin’ ponies…’ He chuckled to himself as he made his way towards the party pony and cyan pegasus.

‘But this might not be so bad, after all.

Author's Note

This chapter wrote itself, I'm happy I got it out so fast! I hope you guys enjoyed it, despite how short these first few chapters have been. Next chapter's coming soon, so stay tuned!

Deuces, guys!