One Last Chance

"What do you figure he meant, it's happening again?" Twilight was mulling over the strange stallion's question and his response to their answer. He must've known Princess Celestia at some point or another. Perhaps it would be best if they wrote her a letter asking about him. Twilight stored that thought in the back of her head, trying to catch up with the conversation happening all around her. All her friends were abuzz with this latest information, trying to piece together this pony's life story from a few vague words and unusual actions.

"I guess that means he's not new to Equestria." Fluttershy was also helping to piece together this strange visitor's life story. "So where do you think he's from?" She said. The six of them didn't even know what the stallion's name was. Finding out where he lived would be next to impossible. Why did any of them care anyway? He was just a visitor, Ponyville got plenty of them. It was probably just how odd he acted: Not moving for days, breaking into Twilight's castle, not to mention how little he spoke. He was a total introvert from what they could tell, kind of like Twilight before she moved to Ponyville, or Fluttershy... all the time.

"He's probably from Canterlot." Added Rarity. "It makes sense. He knows the princess and he's obviously not used to Ponyville. He's probably better adjusted to high society. I mean, did you see his mane and tail? They looked immaculate."

"Like he had just got back from a trip to the spa." Applejack commented. She didn't know much about spas. She always felt they were a bit too fancy for her liking, but she could tell when somepony had been pampering themselves. It made a lot of sense. Canterlot always did have a reputation as one of the finest cities in all of Equestria when it came to beauty and fashion. Plus, it would make sense that somepony used to wealth and comfort might find Ponyville a little less fancy. That's not to say Ponyville was a bad town or that its citizens were messy ponies. It's just that Ponyville was unique like any other town and things were much different there than in Canterlot. "I suppose he'll be heading back then soon."

"I guess." said Pinkie Pie, bouncing along beside everypony else. She suddenly stopped; a look of dejection on her face, "Awww. And I was almost done setting up his surprise welcome to Ponyville party!" She caught up to the group and changed the subject to ease her suffering. She didn't last long though and decided to simply speed up the party-making process so that their new friend could still have free cake before he headed back to Canterlot. She raced off at a speed that rivalled the Wonderbolts to complete her preparations.

The group of five friends continued to walk along, chatting about various subjects before they all split off and headed for their homes near Twilight's Castle. Twilight entered her home and headed to the library near the back for some light reading. She was definitely starting to enjoy this castle. There was a ton of book space, she dared even say it rivalled the grand collections of Celestia and Luna, and they could be very scholarly when they wanted to. She sat herself down and began reading 'A Tale of Two Ponies'. About halfway through, Twilight decided to write that letter to Princess Celestia before she forgot,

Dear Princess Celestia,

My friends and I came across something strange recently. A pegasus in the main square who was incapable of moving a single muscle, he appeared trapped by some kind of magic. This would've been strange enough on its own but for some reason when we tried to track the magical signal it led us in circles. We had to get Discord to undo the spell in the end. That wasn't what was most odd, though. He seemed set on not going to the hospital but when we finally managed to get him there the doctor said he was in perfect health! He had been frozen for two days and after all that he was absolutely fine. It seems impossible. He's lucky to be alive. He and Discord seem to have some kind of history, and it doesn't look like they're on the best of terms. Maybe you know him? He has a white coat, very neat, and a black mane done in an up-do, splitting along the centre, it falls down along the sides of his head. It's very hard to explain, but it looks hard to maintain. Please let me know as soon as possible, he's not quite acting normal and I'm worried something might be going on.

Thanks,

Twilight Sparkle

It was getting late and Twilight could feel the weight of sleep bearing down on her, she placed the letter on a shelf and decided to lull herself to sleep with some more light reading. That always helped her sleep. But what to read? Well, if she couldn't think of anything off the top of her head she might as well do some research, as she headed for her bedroom she called to her dragon assistant,

"Spike, could you fetch me the Encyclopaedia of Magical Spells and Properties A-Z please?" Twilight could see her dragon assistant's shoulders visibly sag. He sighed and went to fetch the book. He was back within a few minutes with a book many times larger than him. He slammed it on the ground in front of Twilight. If dragons were capable of perspiration, he'd be sweating up a storm.

"Here you go Twilight." He said, gasping for breath.

"Thanks, Spike. You're the best assistant ever."

"Don't remind me." He whispered under his breath. Twilight didn't hear him though as she was already muzzle deep in her book.

Twilight spent the rest of her short night mulling over the shields section of her massive book, using her horn as a makeshift candle. Unfortunately, her search was in vain as she found nothing of any particular interest relating to the mysterious stallion. Oh well. She guessed it was just one of those unusual things that couldn't be explained. She placed the book back on the shelf herself as Spike had fallen asleep while she was reading. She pressed her hoof against her horn to extinguish it and headed back for her bedroom. She climbed back into her bed, letting her eyes rest as sleep welcomed her…

Twilight was up soon enough, clutching the letter she had left on her shelf and headed out to find Spike. She walked round the castle, searching for a while until she finally found him in the library, reorganising the bookshelves. She was so proud of him, taking the initiative like that. Or somehow he had already figured out today was a surprise reorganising the bookshelves day. Either way she had a letter to deliver.

"Hey Spike, could you send a letter to Princess Celestia for me?" She asked, handing over the letter she had just finished. Spike climbed down the ladder he had been using and clutched the letter in his claws,

"Sure Twilight. What's it for this time? It must be important considering you wrote it yourself." He said, not bothering to investigate further into the content of the letter. Twilight took a second to think about that, it was strange. Why didn't she ask Spike to write the letter? That was normally what she did whenever she needed to contact somepony far away.

"Well, you know. I just felt like writing this one myself." She said. In reality, she had simply forgotten that Spike usually wrote the letters to the princess. She never forgot. It was something she prided herself in. This was certainly shaping up to be an odd week. Spike sent the letter away to Celestia and Luna's castle in Canterlot, engulfing it with green flames before it was whisked away. With that all said and done, Twilight and Spike went about their usual days, a singular thought lingering in Twilight's mind. 'how did I forget?'

The mysterious pegasus was walking about town, taking in the scenery. Ponyville was a very lively but surprisingly peaceful town. He could immediately gauge that the town had a low crime rate and a strong sense of community. Whenever there was an issue, the people of Ponyville obviously went to the six ponies in the castle, Twilight was probably their leader. Well, not necessarily their leader as in commanding officer, friend. Yes, that was it, their friend. It was obvious, however, that she handled major concerns, being a princess and all. Overall Ponyville was a quaint place but definitely more important to Equestria than it let off. Maybe he should investigate, but for now he needed to find a motel or something. He heard there was a particularly nice one a few blocks away. Yes... no. He didn't need anything fancy. He decided to just stay in the first one he found. That would be much easier.

Princess Celestia was bored. No other word could describe how she felt at that particular moment and tending to her royal duties of sitting around, doing nothing, had not left her in any better a mood. She let out a long, drawn out sigh. She was a princess, there must be something she could do. The day had been very slow and it was getting to her. Luckily something would soon break this endless silence, a letter from her former pupil and fellow princess Twilight Sparkle. The letter materialised, dropping right in front of her. She caught it with her magic and unscrolled it. What could this be about? Twilight occasionally wrote letters about friendship to her, but not as often as she used to. Was there a problem? She opened the letter via magic and began to read.

It seemed there was not a problem, thank goodness. But; what was this? It seemed Twilight and her friends had come across an injured pegasus acting a bit unusual. It was strange that of all things for her to write about- wait. Oh, that made more sense, an unusual spell. Twilight often struggled with magic she didn't understand. Wait, he had been gifted magic? Celestia had been alive thousands of years and very rarely had she ever came across a unicorn with the power to force magical energy into somepony's body. She was one of them, then again she was an alicorn, not exactly a fair comparison, and besides, she never used it. The pegasus she described sounded familiar, though, but the princess couldn't quite put her hoof on it. It kind of reminded her of… It couldn't be, she hadn't seen him in years! She picked up a quill with her horn and began writing, wanting to get the letter to Twilight relatively quickly. This could be a wonderful opportunity.

Five ponies sat around a large table in the centre of a patio. They were just outside a very popular local eatery that regularly got visitors, even in the frigid winter when there was half a meter of snow coating the ground. Rainbow Dash had invited everypony out for shakes on a much nicer summer day so they could all catch up, with the exception of Fluttershy, who was overwhelmed with sick animals she needed to care for at the moment. It had been a while since everypony had been able to talk as a group, and thankfully today nopony had any bad news and Applejack was getting everypony up to speed on the state of the farm. The harvest had been particularly good that year and the price of most of their products hadn't dropped anymore since last year's dry summer. In fact, if everything went well they might be able to expand their pasture. Rarity decided to jump in on the conversation and talk about her shops. The boutique recently got a new shipment of fabric and Rarity was going to have to sort them all out later that day. Rainbow Dash was being considered for a permanent position on the Wonderbolts and Pinkie… had a lot to say. Nopony really paid attention. Something about frosting? Their chat was shortly interrupted when a certain purple dragon was spotted on the horizon with a letter in his hand.

"Twilight! Celestia wrote back." He jogged up to the table and handed her the letter, pulling up a seat from a nearby table to listen to her read it out. Twilight studied the letter carefully, glancing up halfway through as a shadow on the paper caught her eye. All of her friends were leaning over, trying to catch a glimpse of what they assumed was an urgent letter or special request. Twilight realised she was being a bit inconsiderate, ignoring her friends like that.

"Maybe I'll just read it out loud. That way you don't all have to crowd me." She said. Everypony nodded and frantically sat back down at their seats. "I wrote a letter to Princess Celestia the other day about that stallion in the square. So, this is just her response probably." She didn't want to get her friends all worked up only for them to be read a boring response letter. She cleared her throat and began,

"Dear Twilight,

I do indeed know the pegasus you are referring to. He is, in fact, an old student and close friend of mine. He's known me ever since he was a colt actually. It's a long story and I won't bore you with the details. Also, don't worry about him being a threat or anything, he's just a normal pegasus, he isn't dangerous, quite the opposite. He is a very nice stallion and incredibly docile. You have nothing to fear. He is a bit shy, though, so if you could make him feel welcome that would be greatly appreciated. I'm not sure if he'll be staying, but he might be. Even if he isn't I'd still appreciate it if you could have Pinkie Pie throw him a party or something of the like, I'm sure he'd enjoy it, even if he doesn't quite know how to show it. Please make him feel at home in Ponyville.

Best of wishes,

Princess Celestia"

Twilight looked up to see that Pinkie Pie was already gone. That pony. She hears anything about a party and everything else takes a backseat to her primary driving force, planning parties. Everypony else was simply sitting, digesting the information. The first one to speak was Rarity.

"Oh the poor fellow!" she exclaimed. "He must be so lonely! I'm going to help Pinkie with the party. He's going to be welcomed whether he likes it or not!" She galloped off to go help Pinkie with her welcome party planning. Applejack and Rainbow Dash quickly followed suit, as they wanted to pitch in too, leaving Twilight and Spike alone at the table, the letter still in Twilight's magical aura.

"Well, they sure did leave fast." Spike said.

"And the streamers go over there, and- oh! The balloons go over there! And make sure someone picks up the cake from Sugarcube corner!" Pinkie Pie was zooming around the castle, overseeing the preparations for the strange stallion's 'welcome to Ponyville' party. She was desperate to make this party perfect, their new friend needed it. She was going to have to ask him about his name later, but for now, she had a party to plan. The party was being held in the foyer, everything had been cleared out and decorations had taken the place of the furniture. It was extravagant. Pinkie Pie was really putting her back into this party. When somepony needed welcoming, that was her job, and she took it very seriously. This was going to be the greatest party he'd ever been thrown, she'd make sure of it. She got back to looking over preparations. After all, how was this going to be the best party ever if a professional wasn't overseeing the operation?

"Hey Pinkie. Where should we put this banner?" Rainbow Dash asked, accompanied by Fluttershy, who had finally finished tending to the injured animals at her cottage.

"Put it right out front, where everyone can see it!" She said cheerfully, bouncing along as she hung some streamers on the wall. The party was shaping up nicely, now all Pinkie had to do was find their new friend.

The nameless pony was walking along the road, heading to a cafe for something to drink, little did he know he wouldn't make it, as the greatest threat to his peace and quiet ever conceived was bouncing towards him at breakneck speeds.

"Hey, Mr. Frozen Pegasus!" It was Pinkie Pie. "I need your help with something down at Twilight's castle!" Mr. Frozen Pegasus was a pseudo-name Pinkie had given him since he had been quite reluctant to give up his real name. "Can ya help me with something? I left something at Twilight's Castle and I need help moving it." She said. He thought about it for a second. Tea sounded really nice right now, and he was right next to the cafe, but the pink pony... Pinkie, yes, Pinkie needed his help and she was probably the persistent one in the group.

"Sure." He said, getting up and heading in the direction of Twilight's castle. He had a sense that was where the 'problem' was. Chances were he was being led thee for another reason, and he knew that. He walked down the street, not bothering to knock on the door of the castle. He opened the door, and was met with a thunderous cheer,

"SURPRISE!"