Author's Note
Hello everypony! First of all I want to thank you for reading my very first story. This is my first attempt at writing fan fiction and I have to say I'm really excited to see where this all goes! Comments, critique, and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all again for your time and consideration!
I do not own Disney or My Little Pony.
Prologue: Welcome
“To all who come to this happy place: Welcome.” -Walter E. Disney
*BEEP *BEEP* *BEE-*
The incredibly annoying alarm clock’s beeping was then suddenly silenced by the audible slam of a person’s hand. Attached to the appendage that ceased the sound of the infuriating beeping, is the bestowed upon protagonist-to-be of our story, Nathan Richards. Due to having been awakened from his peaceful slumber by the bothersome pile of wires and plastic, Nathan decides that he has no choice but to start his day. He then throws the covers of his bed off of him, and swings his lower limbs out the side of the bed before stretching his sleepy arms and legs. Once he was properly stretched and somewhat awakened, he pushes himself off of the bed to begin his morning ritual of getting ready for work. You see, most people would decide to be a doctor, a teacher, or even a lawyer when it comes to the topic of employment or occupation, but not Nathan. You see he has a very special job at a very special place. Where you might ask? Well, if have read the title of the story, maybe you would have figured it out by now!
“Man, I hate Mondays.”
Ah yes, back to our hero. Well, “hero in the making” is more like it. Nathan wasn’t much to look at, despite being skinny and a bit of a lazy bum. However, he does have some admirable traits such as being loyal to his friends and family, friendly and fun to others, and generous to those in need. After having dragged his drowsy body from the bed to the bathroom, Nathan quickly gets showered, shaved, and groomed before heading to his closet to get his work uniform for the day.
“Let’s see today’s Monday so that means…yup. Special Activities.”
Nathan reaches out and puts on his white dress shirt, blue and red plaid vest, blue dress pants, and a red tie. Lastly to complete the look, he attaches to his vest his name tag and his golden “D” pin. After having inspected his appearance, he then grabs his Cast Member satchel filled with his basic necessities and then heads out the door of his apartment. Once he reaches his car, he starts the engine, and then begins his route to work. As he signals to get on the 22 freeway, Nathan quickly searches through the playlists on his phone for the one labeled “Morning Drive”. He soon finds it and selects it, letting it play it’s first song on his car’s speakers.
“Heigh ho heigh ho it’s off to work w- CLICK”
Nope, too relevant. It was too early for songs that already sing about what you’re currently doing. He then pushes the skip button, hoping for something better.
“When you wish upon a sta- CLICK”
Not in the mood to be crying happy tears.
“Ariel listen to me, the human world it’s a mess. Life under the sea is better than anything they got up there!”
Ah. Under the Sea. A classic and a perfect song to get the morning started.
As you all can probably guess, Nathan is a Disney-fanatic. However, he’s not only that but a Cast Member as well! To those who do not know what a Cast Member is, they are the employees who work at the most magical place on Earth, the Disneyland Resort. They maintain and operate the Disneyland Resort through several departments such as guest services, custodial, security, entertainment, transportation, merchandise, attractions, food and beverage, and more! They are the ones who make Disneyland the Happiest Place on Earth, and keep it that way for people of all ages.
He soon reaches the Pumba parking lot, reserved for Cast Members, and hops onto the Cast Member shuttle to the park. On the way, there he mentally prepares himself for the long day ahead and also checks his bag for everything that he needs.
"Let's see, got my water bottle, wallet, Cast Member ID, some snacks, decks of cards, my earbuds, and journal. Looks like I've got everything."
You see today Nathan is working as a Tour Guide, guiding guests, celebrities and VIPs all around the park. As he shows them around the park, he is also giving historical and fun-filled facts furthering the Guests' magical visit. Plus as a bonus, he gets to escort them to the front of the rides and sometimes gets to joins them! Despite it’s fun nature, it is a very demanding job, one in which he must be ready to answer ANY questions about the park or Disney itself. He also has to be full of energy and be prepared for his Guests’ every need, as he shows them the wonders that the park has to offer.
Soon the shuttle stops at Harbor Pointe, and all of the morning shift enter the park to start the day. However before Nathan enters into the park itself, he first makes a quick stop at the Starbucks located just inside of the employees' entrance to the park, getting a well-needed cup of joe to get his motor running. With his nearly finished Caramel Frappachino in one hand, and his Cast Member informational packet containing showtimes and character meet and greets' information in the other, he was ready to start the day.
After navigating around the costumed characters, parade floats, and custodians, Nathan finally reaches Main Street U.S.A. As he walks across the Town Square, he watches the American flag get raised up on the flagpole and the shops of Main Street open there doors. Everything was being getting ready for another day of Disney magic for the incoming Guests. As he makes his way up the steps to City Hall, Nathan stops and turn around to look longingly at the place of prestidigitation across the street from him.
When he’s not a Tour Guide at City Hall, Nathan is a magician at the Main Street Magic Shop performing shows of magic for visiting Guests and demonstrating skills of sleight-of-hand for excited kids. The Main Street Magic Shop holds a special place in his heart for it was the first place he worked at in the park, and was where he found his inner calling to be a Cast Member. Nathan then shakes his head to clear those distracting thoughts, and continues walking up the steps of City Hall to get his assignment.
"What am I doing? I should be focused on getting ready. Okay, I haven't been given any information about who today's group is, but from what I can gather it's most likely going to be a VIP."
When a Tour Guide isn't told who they're given a tour to, it is usually an important person like a celebrity, an executive, or politician. Today however, after Nathan talked to his superiors at City Hall, he will be giving a tour to a very special group of Guests who have never visited the park before. Who these Guests were, Nathan had no clue.
All that he knows is that the group has booked the VIP Tour for seven days, and will be meeting him in front of the Mickey flowerbed. After his meeting with his supervisors, Nathan leaves City Hall and walks under the Disneyland Railroad as he looks at the informational packet containing the little details regarding his group.
"Wow. Seven days? For someone to afford that many days definitely has to be a celebrity or a VIP. Let's see here, it say's that the leader and planner of the group is named...Soleil? Hmmm sounds French."
Nathan soon arrives in the Main Entrance area, where he readjusts his tie and puts away the informational packet into his satchel for safekeeping as he waits patiently for any sign of the group he is supposed to meet. He then raises his right arm and glances down at his Mickey Mouse watch, to see that see the smiling mascot pointing it’s arms at 7:55 AM. Only 5 minutes till the park opens, Nathan notices as he turns to look at the bed of flowers arranged to look like the beloved mouse, and sighs in contentment. Nathan loved this place, and he loved this job. For it is where he could be himself, and share his love of magic and Disney to those around him.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for a Nathan Richards? He's supposed to be our tour guide for the day."
Nathan smiles and turns around to greet his soon-to-be introduced group.
"Why yes! It's a pleasure to meet you Miss-...."
Before Nathan could finish his greeting, he becomes completely awestruck and dumbstruck by what he sees before him. Nine creatures stand in two rows in front of him, two being particularly taller than the rest and four being the smallest ones. Before he could say anything, one of the tallest beings steps forward. However this wasn't just a being, it was a horse! At least Nathan thought it was a horse, it was white and had a crown atop a flowing rainbow-colored mane. It then bowed it's horned head slightly and then began to open it’s mouth as though it were about to say something to him. Yeah right, like horses can-
“Good morning, my name is Princess Celestia. Mr. Richards I assume?”
"Welcome to our family time
Welcome to our brotherly time
We're happy giving and taking to the friends we're making
There's nothing we won't do..."
“Is everything alright Mr. Richards?”
Nathan stands there at a loss for words, seeing that the crown wearing, rainbow colored horse is actually speaking to him, and is displaying a show of worry upon it’s face. Not wanting to look like a slack jawed buffoon, especially in front of a Guest, Nathan quickly composes himself and smiles to show that he was indeed alright. He then clears his throat and mind of the lingering shock, and nods in acknowledgement to the announcement of his name.
"You have assumed correctly…Miss...Soleil, I presume?"
Now that he has broken his state of muteness, he can now take a moment to properly analyze the group before him. The newly acquainted ‘Miss Soleil’ is definitely an equine, with a stunning white porcelain coat, pale pinkish eyes, and a multicolor mane that seems to flow like it was underwater. He also notices that she has a horn poking out of her forehead, and two wings folded against her back comfortably. Perhaps she’s a unicorn or pegasus hybrid?
“Tia! You can’t let this cicerone address you like this! It’s unheard of!”
The Cast Member’s eyes then switch to the other tall being, noticing that it too has a horn and a pair of wings. However, it has a dark blue coat, a sapphire blue mane also flowing majestically, and two cyan eyes staring at him in a displeased expression. ‘Tia’ chuckles, clearly amused for some reason as she turns to the other unicorn-yet-also-a-pegasus.
“Luna, we talked about this. Not everyone on this world knows about us. How is he to know of our positions? Besides, it’s nice to not be constantly greeted by formalities and titles. Remember, we decided to have this vacation so that we can relax and enjoy ourselves without having to worry about the kingdom.”
“You say leaving Discord in charge of Equestria and our subjects is not a circumstance to be worried about?!”
“Now Lulu…”
“Do not ‘Lulu’ me Celestia, I told you that this is not a good idea. In fact I’m…”
As Nathan continued to watch with mild amusement at the sisterly quarrel, his attention is directed to something tugging on his right pant leg. He looks down to see a nervous, yet curious dragon with purple scales and green spikes look up at him with a small smile. How does he know that it’s a dragon? Well, when you’ve been working with fairies, princesses, and all sorts of characters that belong in fairy tales, you tend to learn to pick up on a few things.
“Um...excuse me? Mr. Richards? May I ask you a question please?”
Nathan could clearly see that the small drake was tense being this close to him, as his lime green eyes would look down briefly at his claws with a bashful look. The Cast Member smiles softly, having met many children who were a bit shy of him, and slowly gets down on his knee so that he can be at the dragon’s level. Now that he was no longer looking down at him, the anxious dragon began to relax and show a smile of relief.
“Sure you can, but my name isn’t Mr. Richards. It’s Nathan, see?”
He gestures to the name tag on the upper left side of his vest, showing in bold black letters “NATHAN” with his hometown “Los Angeles” underneath it. Nathan then places his hands upon his bent knee and looks at the drake with a soft smile.
“So, what was your question? And what’s your name?”
The dragon smiles widely as he puffs his chest out in confidence, before jabbing one of his claws to himself.
“My name’s Spike! And I have got to ask you, do you really have...diamonds here?”
Now Nathan was truly confused, having not expected a question like that. Diamond? Why would there...Nathan lets out a short chuckle, as he looks down at Spike with an amused grin.
“Oh you must mean the Diamond Celebration that we had a while back. Well, sorry to tell you this Spike, but that event ended a while ago and we really don’t have diamonds around here...except maybe on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride-WOAH!”
Just as he nearly finished his sentence, Nathan is greeted abruptly with three grinning faces with huge, widened eyes. After a moment readjusting his vision, he sees that they are smaller equines than the ones he’s seen. One of them decides to get up into his face, where he notices it to be a young pegasus with an orange coat, light purple mane, and a set of animated purple eyes.
“Did you say pirates?! That sounds awesome! Do you get to meet Blackmane? Or walk the plank? Or even get some buried treasure?!”
Before the hyperactive filly could continue, one of the other small equines pulls her aside before taking her place. This one did not have any wings, or a horn, but did have a yellow coat, orange eyes, and a bright red mane tied up by a pretty dark pink bow.
“Scootaloo, mind your manners! Howdy! My name’s Applebloom, please’d to meet ya! Do you know any good places to grab some grub here? Also I’m sorry about my friend here, she can be kinda…rambucktious? Am I sayin’ that right?”
Applebloom turns to the last of the group, who was a unicorn with a light gray coat, light purple and pink mane, and pale green eyes. The unicorn holds a hoof to it’s forehead before sighing in disappointment, clearly not liking something Applebloom said.
“It’s rambunctious, not rambucktious Applebloom. Come on, that was on last week’s spelling quiz with Ms. Cheerilee!”
Applebloom blushes in embarrassment as she backs away from Nathan, while the surprisingly well-read unicorn looks up at him with a smile.
“Hello, my name is Sweetie Belle! I can’t tell you how-well, I mean we can’t tell you how excited we are to be here! Twilight was telling everypony about how cool this kingdom is, and how there are DOZENS of princesses here! I have never met a princess before! I mean, I already have met some princesses like Princess Twilight and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna-but I can’t wait to meet some new ones here!”
When Sweetie Belle finished her energetic introduction, Nathan couldn’t help but laugh at the fillies’ enthusiasm, knowing all too well how Disneyland can make anyone get really excited.
“I am sure you will meet a lot of them here Sweetie Belle. Also yes, I do know some of the best places to grab some food Applebloom, I’ll be sure to ask for your preferences later. As for buried treasure Scootaloo…who knows what you might discover?”
Nathan leans forward and gives a small wink to the filly, who can’t help but squeel in excitement. As he leans back, he turns to the dragon who has been left out of the conversation.
“So Spike, what are you looking forward to on your visit here?”
“I...I actually don't know.”
The drake admits with a shrug before walking up next to the three fillies.
“I wasn't paying attention to what Twilight was saying about the park, and the trip, and the statistical amount of water we will needed to stay hydrated, and such. Needless to say, I started to tune out what she was saying.”
“What was that about tuning me out?”
Spike then freezes and slowly turns around to see a not-too-amused unicorn with a light purple coat, dark blue, moderately purple, and rose-colored mane, and fiercely violet eyes looking down at him with a displeased expression.
"Spike, the reason that I gave that lecture was to make sure that you and the Crusaders don't wear yourselves out, go wondering off, or get hurt during our trip. Especially since we are in another world entirely!"
Twight's horn then begins to glow, and from her saddlebags floats out a glowing piece of rolled up parchment. The gravity-defying piece of paper then unrolls itself to reveal a long list of items.
"That is why I have made a list of every possible outcome that can probably happen during our trip. Look, there is a 57.8% percent chance that you could be trampled by a herd of humans. 57.8%!!!"
As Spike is getting grilled by Twilight, Nathan is standing there staring at the levitating list of seemingly ridiculous outcomes. Except for the being attacked by an Abdominal Snowman, but he will not say anything about that now.
"Um...excuse me? Twilight is it?"
The lecturing unicorn, no wait, pegasus? As Twilight turns around to see who called her name, Nathan sees the pair of wings upon her back for the first time. He wonders if it's a common thing to have both wings and a horn, seemed to be handy with the flying and making things float.
"I know that you are worried for Spike's safety, but you can be rest assured that we here at Disneyland take every precaution for our Guests' safety."
While Spike smiles gratefully at Nathan's interruption, Twilight frowns at Nathan's proclamation at being prepared for anything before showing a smug smile.
"Is that so Mr. Richards? You seem pretty confident in your ability to be prepared for anything. Tell me, what do we do if we get separated?"
Nathan smiles as he holds his hands behind his back before speaking in a knowing and practiced manner.
"Guests are recommended to designate a meeting place and time, just in case the group gets separated for any reason. The most popular locations include City Hall or the Baby Care Center. If you believe that you are lost, you may consult a park map or ask a Cast Member for assistance. Once a Cast Member has reported their status, I would receive a notification by my cellular device and we would redirect our tour to retrieve the member of our group."
As Twilight shows a look of slight surprise, the Crusaders and Spike giggle to themselves as they watch Nathan show his resourcefulness in terms of preparation and safety, clearly being more prepared than Twilight's list can predict. However, the surprised look on her face changes to a look of fierce competitiveness.
"That may be so, but as you can see we are not like human beings walking on two legs. How would we be able to ride attractions designed specifically for human?"
After that question, the trio of fillies and dragon become saddened at the realization that they may not even be able to go on certain rides. Nathan, however, does have a response that will hopefully wipe away those sad frowns.
"Many of the attraction's vehicles are made to accommodate specially sized people. Due to the nature of your form, you may be required to sit up straight with your back against the seat and your hooves firmly on the floor below you. Is that alright?"
Before Twilight could answer, Sweetie Belle throws her hoof into the air excitedly as though she wished to be called on by a teacher, and answers the question.
"Miss Lyra does it all the time, we should be able to do it too!"
Nathan smiles in gratitude to Sweetie Belle's response before turning his attention back to Twilight, who was currently trying to think of another problem that needed to be solved.
"Ah hah! Food! You cannot expect us to believe that you are prepared with meal suited to our special diets now can we?"
Just as Twilight was about to what seemed to be a trotting victory dance, Nathan smiles as he nonchalantly looks at his fingernails and recites what he knows from memory.
"Special dietary requests - including food allergies, food intolerances, kosher meals and medically restricted diets - can be accommodated at most table-service restaurants and select quick-service locations. All you have to do is notify me of any special accommodations you may require and I will be sure to have it prepared for you in advance. Now if you will excuse me, I believe I left the two sisters enough time to figure this out."
With that done, Nathan leaves an eye twitching Twilight and a laughing heap of fillies and a dragon to go and see Celestia and Luna about what they wished to have planned for the day. As he walks up to them, he notices that they have already finished fighting, with Luna looking a bit agitated, while Celestia continues to smile happily. Once he was in front of them, Celestia looks at Luna expectantly only to see that she doesn't react to the tour guide's presence. With a small nudge from Celestia's elbow, Luna looks up and smiles extremely wide.
"Forgive me Mr. Richards for my rude behavior...I do hope that we can be...be...friends."
After Luna finished her sentence she drops her smile and looks at Celestia with a menacing glare, which appears to not faze the smiling white unicorn and pegasus mix.
"Mr. Richards, as you can clearly see we are not from this world. We have journeyed from a far off place to visit this magic kingdom, and hope to see and experience the magic and wonders that live here. We understand if you wish to deny us this opportunity, not only for our appearances but for the safety and wellbeing of your...Guests as you call them? If you do indeed wish to cease our appointment, please take this."
Celestia's horn then glows a soft yellow as a tied brown bag appears before Nathan, making him reach out and catch it before it hits the floor. It certainly was a heavy bag despite it's size. What was in there bricks? Nathan carefully sets the bag down and slowly opens it before closing it as he saw something yellow flash in his eyes. He opens the bag once more to see a small bag filled to the brim with gold coins. This bag could easily pay his entire salary, for a year or more! He closes the bag and picks it back up as he lowers his head in thought, thinking about what to do now. He already knew what he was going to do. The question was, how would they respond? With a determined nod, Nathan holds out the bag and drops it before Celestia who captures it in her glowing aura. Once that was put out of the way, Nathan bows slightly before the two equines with a soft smile.
"My name is Nathan. Celestia and Luna, it would be my honor and privilege to be your tour guide today. Welcome..."
He turns around and gestures to the incoming locomotive slowly coming into the station, the fantastic flowerbed where the smiling mouse can be seen, and the rest of the park that has yet to be explored.
"To the Happiest Place on Earth."
Author's Note
It begins! Now all that's left is to decide where they should go first! Next chapter will be Main Street though, after that who knows?
