A party? Really?

"Ugh...I can't believe that I actually have to go to a party. Parties suck."

You know that feeling that you get when you REALLY can't be bothered to do anything what so ever? Well, that's what Sam was feeling like currently. He was also feeling like he might murder a very annoying (and cute) small, blue dragon if she didn't stop her teasing.

"Awh....is the little human scared to have some fun?"

He slapped her claw away from his shoulder like a child having a tantrum.

"Piss off. I absolutely despise parties. The only reason I didn't go on about it before is because I actually sorta want to make a good impression to these equines. I might be stuck here for a while before I can get back home."

He got up and walked to the castle window, sitting on the ledge and peering outside. Ember noticed his change in attutide and grew slightly worried. Had she actually pissed him off this time?

"Come on Sam, you know that I was only teasing, right?"

She flinched a tad bit when he looked towards her and activated his helmet.

Yep. He wasn't in a great mood.

"I know. It's not you. Don't worry about me. Just starting to become a bit homesick, I guess. Hah. It's funny. Never thought that I'd miss dodging death."

She sighed and walked up to him. He felt something touch the back of his shoulder. He turned around, his eyebrows slightly raising behind his helmet, to see that Ember had got her claw on his shoulder. For a second, he expected to turn round to a shit eating grin.

When in actual fact, he was met with a sincere smile.

"Look, I know that you must be missing your world. Trust me, I'd be the same if I got transported to dragon knows where..."

He cringed. "Really, Ember? Dragon knows where?"

"But, listen and listen very closely. Even if I tease you constantly, I've come to...care about you quite fast. And so has Twilight. As long as you're with us, we'll make sure that you're safe. We know that you're perfectly capable of handling yourself. I've seen it first hand. But, it still helps to have someone care about you. I've come to learn that since making peace with the ponies."

He sighed and rubbed her head with his hand, which elicted a surprised look and blush from the dragoness.

"I know. I appreciate that. I really do. And even if I can be an ass to you sometimes, I know that you know that I'm only dicking with you. You've come to mean something to me too...even in this incredibly short amount of time."

Ember looked up at him as he got off of the ledge, got down on one knee and de-activated his helmet, looking straight in her eyes with his own.

"And I also know that you can handle yourself just fine. I assume that Twilight can as well. But trust me, if ANYBODY ever touches you or her, they'll regret it pretty fast. I'm not the soppy or sincere type, so enjoy it while you can."

He smirked and re-activated his helmet, once again covering his face from view.

Ember blushed heavily and smirked. "Heh...I'd certainly like to see that side of you again. It was...nice."

She heard a chuckle from behind his helmet and saw that he was clicking his fingers. "I'm sure you will. Just don't expect it often."

Suddenly, another being walked into the room.

"Hey, guys. You both ready to go? The party starts in 5 minutes."

Twilight walked over to them with a big smile on her face. Sam stood up straight and nodded towards her. "Yes. Ma'am. You ready, Ember?"

Ember nodded towards him and smiled at Twilight. "Sure. Thank you for letting me come, Twilight. Someone needs to watch this one. Otherwise, he might go sit in a corner and cry until the party stops."

She turned to see Sam staring at her. It was actually sorta creepy, considering she couldn't see his face at all. He just turned back to Twilight after a few moments of staring and pointed towards the door.

"Let's go then, you two. I want to get this over with as fast as I can."

Twilight looked at Sam and then towards Ember with worry on her face. "Is he okay? He seemed a lot more...cold. He didn't even reply to your teasing."

Ember shook her head and sighed. "We had a quick...heart to heart. He'll be fine. He just needs some time to think. But thank you for the concern, Twilight."

She smiled and motioned with her hoof for Ember to follow. "Of course. Let's go."

Ember nodded in response and followed behind, sighing to herself quietly.

Sam, Twilight and Ember made it to sugar cube corner quite fast and were currently waiting outside the door. Twilight smiled at them both and opened the door, motioning for them to follow. "Now, you two. Behave yourselves and more importantly, enjoy yourselves, okay? Sam, you sure you're up for this?"

He sighed and walked past her into the sugary building. "Not really, but we might as well get this done."

She nodded and walked closely behind him, having Ember follow behind her. Everything was quiet. Where was everypony?

Then, out of nowhere, confetti and balloons came popping out from behind the tables, along with tons of ponies. Twilight jolted back slightly and then smiled to herself.

"Pinkie really knows how to set up a party."

She looked towards Sam to see him staring at all the ponies, clearly making them slightly nervous. Pinkie Pie jumped out from the back and landed just in front of his face.

"Happy party Sammy! Do you like it? Do you, huh huh huh? It took a lot of setting up because I had to get the balloons and then the confetti and then make sure that everypony wasn't going to be terrified of you and then..."

He clamped her mouth shut with his hand and then looked at her with his helmet still activated. "Look, Pinkie, I'm not really in the mood for a party. However, I will stay and I still highly appreciate you going to all of this trouble to set up one for me. I'm going to let go of your mouth now and I want you to promise me that you WON'T talk as fast for a few seconds. Okay?"

She nodded and smiled.

He let go of her mouth and patted her on the head, getting a warm smile from her in return. "I'm glad that you like it. Now, go and mingle. It's your party."

Sam smiled behind his helmet, even if she couldn't see it. "Thank you once again." He looked towards the ponies in the room, especially 4 particular ones. A cyan one with a rainbow like mane with wings, a white one with a purple, curly mane with a horn, a yellow one with a pink mane who was currently hiding under the table in front of him and an orange one with a blonde mane and a....stetson hat?

Before he could start a conversation any of them, he saw Twilight walk past him, gathering the 4 previously mentioned ponies and walking them towards him. They all came up to him and stared in slight awe.

The cyan coloured one was the first to speak up. "When Pinkie mentioned that we were having a party for an alien...I didn't think that she was actually telling the truth. But wow...you look...awesome! The name's Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria!"

He sighed and de-activated his helmet, causing them all to gasp. The orange one now spoke up. "How did you do that?"

He looked towards the orange coloured one. "It's a helmet. I activate it with my mind. None of this is my skin. It's a suit. I would fully explain it, but to be honest, it will have to wait for another time as I am quite exhausted."

The orange one nodded and put out its hoof. He assumed that it was a friendly gesture, so he grasped her hoof and shook it. She smiled in response. "Thank god that I got the gesture right. Wouldn't want to screw up before I've even started."

"Well, nice to meet ya. Mah name's Applejack."

She started pointing to the other ones and started to name them individually.

"Over there is Rainbow Dash"

Rainbow saluted.

"Over there is Rarity."

Rarity bowed. "Charmed."

"And over there is...hey ya'll...where's Fluttershy?"

They all looked around them and heard a timid squeak from behind a table to behind them. They looked under it and saw that she was hiding. Applejack shook her head and sighed. "Fluttershy, darlin'....he's...wait, are you a he?"

Sam nodded.

"Right then...he's not goin' to hurt ya. Come on out and introduce yourself."

Fluttershy came out and looked away from everyone, hiding her face. "Nice to meet you..."

Sam raised his eyebrows. "What was that? You'll have to speak up."

Before she could repeat what she said, a laugh echoed from behind them. They all turned around to see Ember laughing to herself. "Let's not start that again, eh?"

They were all confused about what she meant. All except Sam. Now that made him smirk. She smiled when she saw that she had cheered him up, even if for only a second.

"Ignore her. What did you say?"

Fluttershy walked up to him slowly and smiled at him, apparently regaining some of her confidence. "I said that it's nice to meet you."

He smiled in response and nodded. "Nice to meet you too. All of you. Now..."

He looked around the room, looking at all the ponies who were still staring at him in awe.

"Who else is going to introduce themselves?"

Sam had spent about 2 hours meeting all of the ponies that had turned up to his party and now...he was absolutely shattered. He was currently sitting down with his hand holding up his head. He heard someone sit down next to him and turned his head to the right.

Ember was currently sat down, looking at him with a grin. "Had enough for today, super star?"

He smirked and sighed. "Yup. I was never one for parties anyway as I've said about 10 times today. But at least it's nearly over."

She chuckled and nudged his arm with her elbow. "And you didn't scare anyone, which is a plus."

Now it was his turn to chuckle. He re-activated his helmet. "Yeah, I guess so. They all warmed up to me pretty quickly, especially Twi's friends." He looked towards the ponies and saw them all dancing and chatting away.

Ember smiled. "Yeah, it's one of the few things that I envy about the ponies. They're incredibly accepting with nearly anyone. I sometimes wish all of my race were more like that." She sighed and leaned her head to rest it against his shoulder, slowly closing her eyes. He turned his head and looked at her, his helmet still activated.

"Erm...what are you doing?"

She snapped open her eyes and realised what she was doing. She quickly jolted back to sitting up and coughed to clear her throat. "Er...nothing! Nothing."

He looked at her for a few more moments before chuckling to himself. "You're extremely cute when you're flustered, you know."

She knocked his arm with her claw and he smirked behind his helmet. "D-don't try and embarrass me! It was nothing!"

He grabbed her head and got her in a noogie, scratching her head quickly. She squirmed until she eventually set herself free. She looked at him with an incredibly annoyed expression. "HEY! What was that for?!"

He laughed and patted her on the back. "Nothing. Just wanted to see you blush again. It's adorable."

She started to produce smoke out of her nostrils as she stood up, turned around and walked off, mumbling to herself. He laughed and looked towards Twilight, who was looking at them in amusement. "Hey, Twi, mind if we go now? I'm quite tired and to be honest, I just want to have time to think."

She nodded and smiled sincerly. "Of course, Sam. Let me just say goodbye to everyone and we can head off."

He nodded and watched as she walked towards her friends. He went to say his own goodbyes to all of the ponies before he walked outside to get some fresh air and to wait for her to finish.

Smoke was still coming out of Ember's nostrils when Sam got outside and sat down next to her.

"Bet no one would ever think that a dragon of all things is one of the most adorable things ever."

They both heard the door behind them open. He expected it to be Twilight, but instead, he saw the cyan coloured pony from before.

"Oh, this one. What was her name again? Rainbow something?"

He stood up and motioned towards Ember to stay. She nodded and he walked over to the pony to see what she wanted. He looked at her and stook out his hand. She looked at him in a cautious way for a few seconds before she accepted and shook his hand.

She was the first one to speak up. "I just wanted to get another look at you. You look so cool in that suit. Can you fly?"

He chuckled. "Sadly, no. I wish I could. I can jump quite high with the thrusters in my suit, but I can't fly."

She smirked and knocked him with her hoof. "That's too bad. Guess you'll never be as fast as me then."

He raised his eyebrows towards her, which elicted a giggle from her.

"Only messing with ya. Say, you want to have a race, one time? No flying. Just straight up running."

Sam rubbed his chin with his fingers in thought until finally, he nodded.

"Sure. Should be fun."

The sound of the door opening reached his ears once again. He looked towards it to see that Twilight was there with a bright smile on her face.

"Sam, Ember, you two ready to go?"

Ember got up from behind him and nodded. He gave Rainbow's hoof one last shake and nodded at her before also nodding at Twilight.

"Sure. Let's go."

He looked towards Rainbow and smiled. "Was nice to meet you, Rainbow?..."

She looked at him in annoyance. "You really forgot my name already?! How can you forget the name of the fastest flier in Equestria?!"

He chuckled and waved it off. "Sorry. I'm terrible with names. In anycase, we better be going. See ya, Rainbow."

She smirked and saluted. "See ya when we race, Sam. And don't think that I'll go easy on you just because you're new around here!"

She got a smirk from him in response. "I'm sure that you won't." He looked at Twi and Ember and waved. "Come on. Let's go."

Twilight and Ember both nodded, both of them saying their goodbyes to Rainbow as she walked back into sugar cube corner. As they were walking back, the sky now nearly pitch black, Sam pulled out a cigarette and lit it, feeling the comfort of the smoke in his mouth.

Ember and Twi were both looking at him now. Twilight was the one to speak up after a few moments of silence. "Was what that thing again? I can't remember if I asked..."

He chuckled and kept smoking. "Eh, I'll tell you some other time. I just need some rest now to be honest."

They both nodded. Ember walked up next to him and tapped him on the arm. "I might join you. I'm quite tired myself."

He laughed and threw his cigarette on the ground, making sure to stomp the flame out.  He looked towards Twilight's castle what was slowly coming closer and smirked. "Don't blame you."