Undesired Assimilation

Undesired Assimilation

Chapter Three - And to Think that I Saw it in Ponyville

The sunlight poured over the small town of Ponyville, blasting it with the heat of the day. Only the occasional breeze did anything to cool down the uncomfortably warm environment. Despite the heat, most of the residents were out and about. Some ate lunch with their family, some hawked their wares at the local market, and others just relaxed. Everypony in the town seemed to be enjoying themselves, or at least was in a good mood. Everypony, that is, except for one.

"Everything's fine, it's all fine. He's not even here yet. I can do this. Princess Celestia can count on me," Twilight said to herself nervously. Her voice had a waver in it, making her nervousness more pronounced.

Beside her were a couple pegasus and an earth pony: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie, respectively.

"Don't worry about it. You'll be fine," Rainbow Dash reassured her, lazily doing a backstroke in midair. Her shaggy rainbow colored mane waved under her light blue coat in the breeze. "Besides, how hard can watching a weirdo be?"

"I'm sure you'll do great," Fluttershy quietly spoke in agreement. In contrast to the other pegasus's carefree and almost apathetic tone, the yellow and pink pegasus's voice showed sincerity as she trotted alongside her friend.

"Of course she will! She's Twilight!" The bouncing pink pony interjected. With each bounce she rose up above everypony's head, including Rainbow Dash's. Along with the giant grin she wore, Pinkie's presence made it difficult for any onlookers to keep themselves from smiling.

"Thanks, you guys," Twilight said, giving a little smile. "I'm glad you guys came. I don't want my first impression to be a nervous wreck. I mean, that's the fourth worst thing that could go wrong. The third would be-"

"You're doing it again," interrupted the hovering athlete. She was right, of course. Twilight's voice had started to become more panicky towards the end of the statement and was only getting worse.

"You're right, you're right. Just stick to the checklist, and I'll be fine. Princess Celestia has nothing to worry about."

Pinkie giggled.

"Checklists are for checking, not for making friends, silly. That's what parties are for! Ooh! I should throw a welcome party for whatshisface! That way the rest of us can all meet him at the same time! I need a cake!"

Without another word, the pony bounced off quickly in another direction to organize one of her popular parties that she could throw so well.

"There goes Pinkie," Fluttershy murmered. "Well, no stopping her when she's like that," Rainbow Dash nonchalantly said with a wave of her hoof. After a second, she cocked her head and flipped up into a sitting position, not slowing down one bit. "Hey, speaking of bailing, where's Rarity and AJ? Didn't you tell them about the newbie?"

"I did, but Applejack needs to work the farm because of Big Macintosh's injury, and Rarity had some order she needed to finish," Twilight answered after a moment's hesitation. "I think that's what Pinkie said, anyway. She's a great messenger and all, but she's kind of hard to understand when she's on a sugar high."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Rainbow said with a slight smirk before relaxing her legs and letting them hang loosely. "Anyway, do you have anything else on the newbie? You were kind of vague when you mentioned him."

"Actually, I pretty much just summarized the letter," the unicorn stated. "I didn't leave out any detail Princess Celestia gave me. I don't think she knows much about him herself, which is all the more reason to be prepared for anything and do a good job. It's a big responsibility and-"

"The train's coming!" Pinkie yelled, having appeared next to them. "He's here!"

The other three jumped, Rainbow Dash almost falling out of the air. Pinkie didn't seem to notice, as she simply resumed her bouncing in from of them towards the nearby train station.

"Pinkie!" Rainbow scowled, somewhat annoyed at the fact that she lost her cool demeanor. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

Pinkie turned around to face her accuser and started bouncing backwards. She gave her trademark smile at the scowl and giggled a bit.

"I didn't sneak up on you, silly! You guys were just too busy talking to notice me walking. I know because I had just put the finishing touches on my party and I was trying to remember if I had forgotten anything when I was coming back, but I saw the train coming so I ran as fast as I could back here and yelled "he's here!" and started leading the way, and I never once was being sneaky."

Her friends stopped, trying to process what she had just said. After a couple seconds, Twilight looked at her pink friend and raised an eyebrow.

"You ate some of your 'Super Sugar Treats', didn't you?"

"Well, duh!" Pinkie answered with an exhasperated expression. "It's impossible to make seven batches of cupcakes and not eat a few from each! That reminds me! I need punch! Be right back!"

The party pony sped off once again, leaving the others to ponder the connection between baking and punch. After a moment, they shook it off, deciding it was just Pinkie being Pinkie.

"Aaaanyway, she is right. There's the train," Twilight stated, gesturing down the track. Sure enough, about two miles down, a train was chugging along towards the station.

Rainbow Dash flew up several feet and squinted.

"Is it just me, or is that train a bit longer than usual?"

"Is it?" Twilight asked before looking intently at the oncoming locomotion. "Huh. I think you're right. I think there are some bigger cars towards the front too... I wonder why that is...."

"Oh, that's easy," Fluttershy piped up, earning the attention of the other two. "Rarity's business has been doing so well that a few of her wealthy clients arranged for high quality private cars to be added to the train to Ponyville. That's why she's been so busy. She told me so at our last spa date. I'm not sure I've ever seen her so excited."

"Wow," Twilight said, impressed. "I knew she had some good connections in Canterlot, but I didn't realize they were that good. That's really great!"

"Yeah, real great," Rainbow Dash said, turning her attention back towards the train that was becoming clearer and clearer as it got closer. "Hey, how much do ya it would cost to ride in those private cars?"

"Probably more than you can afford," Twilight replied, slightly peeved at her friend’s apathetic reaction.

The hovering Pegasus contemplated it for a second, then shrugged, deciding flying was better anyway.

"We'd better hurry," Twilight said, starting off in the direction of the station again. "I want to make a good first impression, and being late is one of the worst ways to do that."

As Twilight started walking towards the station, Fluttershy close behind, Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to make a remark, but shook her head and decided against it.  She landed softly on the ground and briskly trotted forward to catch up.

"I wonder if any of Rarity's big customers are on the train," Fluttershy wondered aloud.

"Princess Celestia didn't say," Twilight answered. "She really didn't say much in the letter at all, come to think of it."

"Probably because she's busy," Rainbow Dash cut in. "I mean, there is the whole "protesting monarchy" stuff over in Canterlot."

"What?!" Twilight said in a suprised voice with a matching face.

"Yeah. One of the Wonderbolt's agents got in on it too, so they fired him. It was pretty big a few days ago. All over the papers. I'm surprised you didn't know."

"I've been in the library working on my gravity essay all week! I didn't know anything about this! This is huge!"

"Not really," Fluttershy said in a calming voice. "It's only a small movement. The papers tried to play it up, but you can tell the crowds are small in the pictures."

If Fluttershy said any more, she wasn't heard by other two because the train grew louder and louder as it neared until it drowned out the quiet pony. Rather than try to talk over the noise, the trio hurried up the steps to the platform.

With a loud screech, the train slowed down and crept into the station, stopping with a whooshing noise. Steam hovered underneath the relatively new overhang, the fickle wind refusing to swoop in and scatter it. The doors started opening and swirling the cloud of steam started to swirl and dissapate as ponies trickled out onto the station. The bit of silence that reigned after the train's noises died down quickly became overrun by the talk and laughter of unloading passengers. The city ponies made a surprising amount of noise for their number, which was about twenty-five on the platform at any given time. It seemed a never ending stream of ponies flowed from the train for a while, and while a few were recognizable, none fit the description from the letter.

Eventually the platform cleared, but there was still no sign of the anticipated pony.

"Well, I didn't see him," Rainbow Dash said, sounding slightly dissappointed as she turned to leave.

"Do you think we missed him?" Fluttershy wondered aloud, and then went to follow her friend.

"I hope not," Twilight replied, her face beginning to scrunch up in worry as she followed suit.

"See why I said to wait? If we'd left when the train stopped we would have passed these guys right up."

"You said 'no, this seat's too comfy,' then tried to fake snore."

The three turned around to see two more passengers trot out of the train. One fit the description in the letter, a dark blue pegasus almost as dark as Luna with two bright yellow stripes in his mane and no cutie mark, while the other unknown unicorn pushed along an empty wheelchair. For whatever reason, though, he refused to meet the other pony's eyes and instead stared intently at the ground in front of him.

"Details, details," the pegasus responded, still not raising his gaze.

Smiling widely, Twilight briskly trotted toward the pair.

"Hi," she greeted in the friendliest voice she could muster. "You must be Nate."

For a moment Nate froze, looking like a deer in a spotlight. After a second he glanced somewhat expectantly at his companion, who's only response was to raise an an eybrow. He replied back with a quick scowl before taking a deep breath and looking back to Twilight.

"Yeess," He replied slowly with a cracked voice. He cleared his throat and continued. "And you would be...  er...." He darted his eyes back and forth, trying to remember her name.

"Twilight," the pony beside him supplied.

"Right, yeah. Twilight... Saga...?"

"Sparkle."

"That's what I meant."

"I think you won't have to worry about first impressions anymore, Twi," Rainbow Dash stage whispered next to her.

"Well sorry!" Nate said more quietly, his face reddening. He didn't appearing truly sorry, but niether was he upset or apathetic as he quickly looked her over. "Not everyone can have an easy name like 'Rainbow Dash.'"

"So you know my name, but not the name of the pony you're supposed to live with?" Rainbow grinned, obviously amused by his distress.

"Leave him alone," Twilight cut in. She wouldn't deny that it was kind of funny (in both senses of the word), but she wanted him to like them, not feel alienated.

"Fine, fine," She said, waving her hoof. "I was just messing with him."

Rainbow backed off a couple steps and resigned herself for the moment, leaving Twilight room to talk.

"Sorry about that. Some of us don't seem to have an off switch," Twilight said, glaring at Rainbow Dash. "Anyway, Yes, I am Twilight, and that is Rainbow Dash. This is Fluttershy."

Twilight tilted her head toward the direction of said friend, who responded with a much quieter "Hi."

"Hello," Nate responded before giving his trademark nervous half smile; pulling back the corners of his mouth rather than up.

"I should probably introduce myself," the baby blue unicorn with the wheelchair stated. "I'm Moonlight. I helped take care of Nate in the hospital. I'm just going to be here for a little while to help him settle in. It's nice to meet you."

"Pardon my asking," Fluttershy interjected, "but why do you have a wheelchair?"

"Oh this?" Moonlight said, putting her hoof on the chair. "Well, 'Mr socially and physically handicapped' over here had a bit of trouble gettting around this morning and asked for it. Now he's miraculously cured."

"It was Kris Kringle, remember?" Nate commented in the same voice as before. "Put one hoof in front of the other, and soon you'll... be...." He trailed off when he saw the odd looks from other three.

"You know... 'cause Santa does the miracle thing... and he... yeah." His face turned red as he dropped his head and bit his tongue.

“Shall we head over to the library?” Twilight asked, coming to Nate’s rescue once again and distracting from his embarrassment.  “I was thinking that maybe we could sit down and get to know each other before showing you guys around.”

“That sounds great,” Moonlight answered for the both of them. “We’d love to…” She trailed off and stiffened, keeping her eyes locked on something behind Twilight and her friends. Everypony glanced back to see what cought her eye, but saw only the empty station.

"Uummm are you all right...?" Rainbow Dash asked, an eyebrow raised.

Nate shook his head and looked up at Moonlight. He nudged her with his hoof, breaking her trance.

"I'm not sure. She's been doing this all day."

"I'm fine," Moonlight assured, relaxing . She reverted her attention to Twilight, but her eyes kept darting back.

"Are you sure?" Fluttershy asked, sounding concerned.

"Of course. Let's, ah... let's go," she confirmed, putting her slightly wobbly hooves on the wheelchair. It took her several tries to place it on the chair, however, because she had once again locked eyes with something unseen.

"Here, let me get that," Nate offered, starting towards the chair.

"Huh? Oh, no, I've got this," she replied as-a-matter-of-factly. "Besides, you have trouble with walking without pushing things."

"Kris Kringle, remember?" He said in a nonchalant tone. "Besides, I'm more of a bipedal mover anyhow. Think of it as a walker."

"If you say so...." She looked at him as she backed away from the wheelchair and glanced one last time at the empty station.

Nate trotted forward, placed his two front hooves on the chair, and turned his head toward Twilight.

"Lead the way, Twilight Sparkle," he said with a nod.

Twilight started to slowly walk toward the end of the platform, but was too distracted by Moonlight's behavior to bother correcting the way Nate addressed her. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy followed suit, the former by opening her wings and hovering a few feet in the air with them. All of them had their eyes locked on Moonlight, who walked to the left of Nate, excepting Nate himself who was staring at Rainbow Dash. The concern did not go unnoticed by the unicorn in question.

"I'm fine," Moonlight said, sounding a bit annoyed by the unwanted attention. "Stop looking at me like that."

"Suuure," Rainbow Dash retorted, rolling her eyes. "And Twilight here's a great athlete. No offense."

"None taken," replied an obviously offended Twilight.

Ignoring the statement, she continued.

"All I'm saying is that it's kind of obvious that- ... um, why are you staring at me?"

"... you're flying..."  Nate chuckled, seemingly unaware that all the attention had suddenly diverted towards him.

Rainbow raised her eyebrow at him and gave a blank look.

"Yes, it's something we pegasus do," she answered sarcastically. "Amazing isn't it?"

Nate shook his head slightly and chuckled in response.

"How are you light enough for your wings to carry you?"

"Are you calling me fat?" Rainbow Dash accused, going from condescending to accusatory in the blink of an eye. She hovered a bit closer and narrowed her eyes at him.

"No, no," he replied, a grin forcing its way onto his face. "It's just... a pony couldn't just fly where I'm from. It doesn't... well, you just can't."

"And why is that?"

"Ponies aren't... aerodynamic or whatever it is. Physics must be different here."

A few feet over, Twilight's eyes widened and a smile appeared on her face. This was exactly the sort of thing she'd been waiting for, and there it was, right next to her! Twilight was sure Princess Celestia would love this kind of information.

"What's different about our physics?" She asked hastily so that Rainbow Dash wouldn't be able to cut her off with a smart comment.

"Huh?" Nate looked back down towards Twilight as if remembering she was there. He blinked a couple times and the grin faded away.

"What are physics like where you come from?" Twilight restated.

"Oh," Nate shrugged. "I don't know. I was behind in math. Only ever got to algebra. But if bees are a freak of nature for flying, I'm pretty sure a flying pony would freak everyone out."

Nate grunted the last few words as he had reached the stairs and began attempting to cart the wheelchair down the stairs without letting it escape him and tumble. As he pushed it into the sunlight and out of the shade, he scowled slightly.

"Wait a minute," Rainbow Dash said to him somewhat loudly. "You're telling me that you're a pegasus who is old enough to do that kind of boring math, and you've never flown once?"

"Well I never really had the ability to-"

"What is that supposed to mean? Anypony with wings can fly."

"Um, excuse me," Fluttershy tried to cut in from the back of the group. Unfortunately for her, she was too quiet to be payed any mind.

"You see, that's just it. Up until a little while ago, I didn't have wings."

"So you're telling me you grew wings overnight? Are you kidding me?!"

"Actually it was closer to noon."

Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight with an incredulous expression.

"Are you hearing this?"

"Actually, I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility," Twilight answered thoughtfully. "I mean, he did appear out of nowhere with clothes that didn't fit and covered his wings."

"Thank you, Twilight," Nate said to her in a voice that was less thankful and more like somepony who had just made a point. A second later he registered what she had said. "Wait, you guys took my clothes?"

"You guys, I really don't think we should talk about that where everypony is watching," Fluttershy interrupted, this time successfully.

The others looked around and sure enough, they stood in the middle of the road from the station where a number of ponies had stopped to listen in on the conversation. Unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies of all colors near them had halted whatever they had been doing.

Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Nate all froze for a moment (Nate's hooves slipping off of the wheelchair in the process). Everypony simply stared at each other awkwardly. Finally, Twilight spoke up.

"Let's just get to the Library."

The others nodded in agreement and continued walking down the street, Moonlight grabbing the wheelchair. The other ponies watched them for a short distance, then returned to whatever they had been doing before as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Nate, for once, didn't mind walking through town in the sun. In fact, he kind of enjoyed walking through this new place, seeing all he could from the road. The rustic look of the town rather intrigued him. It sort of reminded him of Skryim, but with no dragon and more pony. On second thought, there were less obvious dragons. If his memory served him correctly (which was questionable judging by his test performance) there actually were dragons in this.

"There's the library up ahead," Twilight announced.

Nate's eyes and mind ceased their wandering and locked onto the most eye catching structure in their path.

"The tree...?"

"Yup!" Twilight confirmed with a tinge of pride audible in her voice.

Nate took a closer look at the tree. It was still a ways away, but at a second, closer look, he saw windows and a door. His first though was Ellesméra, but he discarded that when he remembered that every building was a tree in Du Weldenvarden. Then he couldn't help but smirk at the irony of a tree library.

"It's actually rather brilliant," he admitted after several similar thoughts had passed through his head.

"And it's surprisingly homey," Twilight added.

Nate resisted a Keebler reference he knew would be lost on them and instead said, "So long as it has good books."

"Oh, believe me, there are plenty of those," she told him eagerly. "There's history, fantasy, adventure, horror-"

"Horror?" Nate cut her off with a chuckle. "You guys have horror here?" The question was met with a nod. Nate grinned a bit at the thought of My Little Pony Horror that wasn't from a psyco fanatic. "I'll have to see that."

"If you want, you can ask Spike to find you some," Twilight informed him, either oblivious or uncaring about his amused disbelief. "He's my assistant dragon. Right now he's helping my friend Rarity at her boutique though, so you'll have to meet them later."

Nate perked up a bit at the mention of Spike. He knew the name, but didn't realize that its owner was a fire-breathing lizard who worked at boutiques. That was definitely  an interesting bit of trivia. But a dragon is still a dragon, regardless of occupation, he reasoned.

"Hey, do you guys hear... dubstep?" Nate interrupted himself. He was really hoping the answer would be a no.

"Yeah... I do," Moonlight said, crushing his hopes of escaping wubs for life. Nate suspected that there would be bad music, but he figured that it would carry over from old versions of My Little Pony, not from Skrillex.

"Didn't Pinkie Pie say she was going to throw a party?" Fluttershy offered.

"No..." Rainbow Dash replied, not with disagreement, but rather with a doubting suspicion. "Even Pinkie couldn't have done it that fast.... Besides, she always throws her parties later than this."

Twilight shook her head. "You're forgetting about her sugar level and her party cannon."

"Pinkie?" Nate inquired, confused and trying to picture a pony version of Pinky and the Brain. "Party cannon?"

"Pinkie Pie's a friend, and her party cannon pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a cannon that shoots parties," Twilight answered. "The question is how she got the music and guests in there so quickly. Not everypony has Pinkie's hyperactivity."

"Try nopony," Rainbow Dash corrected with a scoff. "And that's without sugar."

"Oh, goodie," Nate injected with a hint of sarcasm. "Somepony crazier than me." He was extremely self concious of the fact that he said "somepony" without a second thought, and felt a bit uncomfortable.

"Oh, no," Fluttershy disagreed with a shake of her head. "I wouldn't say Pinkie Pie is crazy.  She's just a bit random and energetic."

Nate almost responded with a comparison with Beast Boy, but frowned when he remembered they wouldn't have any idea who he was. He made a mental note to seriously educate the ponies on basic pop culture sometime so he could make references.

The music grew louder and clearer as they neared the library, a sure sign that their suspicions were true. Their steps became slower and more deliberate with each 'wub' (with the exception of Rainbow Dash and her hovering). When the five finally reached the library door they hesitated, not sure what to expect behind it. After a second Twilight enveloped the door in her transparent purple unicorn magic and pushed it open. Immediately the music grew louder, making a few of them cringe after the relatively quiet walk.

Nate turned his head to recommend investing in a "quiet in the library" sign, but before he got a word out a pink blur shot over to the doorway. He snapped his head back ahead to see nothing but two light cerulean eyes in front of him.

"Hi!"

Making some unintelligable exclaimation, Nate stumbled backwards in surprise. Due to the fact that his walking remained at novice level, he immediately fell onto his blank flank. Looking up at the rest of the pony revealed the pinkest, most poofy-haired thing he'd seen in his life (in person anyway).

"...Pinkie?" he guessed uncomfortably as he sat, hardly moving, on the ground.

"That's me!" the brightly colored earth pony responded, the polar opposite of the pegasus in front of her. While he was nervous and uncomfortable, she seemed happy and excited. "How'dja guess? Are you psychic?"

"Aaah, no," Nate responded, suddenly aware he lacked dignity. He awkwardly clambered to his hooves, not bothering to dust himself off. He knew the light dirt would stand out against his darker coat, but he didn't want to try and figure out how to brush himself off with witnesses nearby.

"That's okay, even though that would be super duper cool," Pinkie Pie replied in a voice no less energetic and bright than before. "You know what else is super cool? A party! And guess what? I've got one almost finished right here! Just a few more ponies and it'll be perfect!"

With that she lept over their heads and started prancing around them in a circle. Everypony's heads turned to follow the pink abundance of energy as she circled them.

"Bye blue pony and Twilight and Rainbow Dash and other blue pony and Fluttershy!" She abruptly halted in front of Moonlight and put her face directly in front of the nurse's. Moonlight blinked and pulled her face back a bit, appearing slightly flustered at this sudden invasion of personal space. Pinkie said to her without altering her volume, "Don't worry, this party's also for you. Welcome to Ponyville!"

The party pony bounded off in a seemingly random direction at a relatively fast rate. The five ponies stared after her: three with either a smile or smirk, and the two new arrivals with a blank face.

"That was classic Pinkie right there," Rainbow Dash said, smirking at the pair's expressions.

"And I thought I knew some spontaneous peop- er, ponies," Nate mused.

Moonlight opened her mouth as is to say something, but hesitated and closed it after a few seconds with a shrug.

"Let's go on inside," Twilight suggested.

Moonlight responded by pressing forward with the wheelchair into the library. Rainbow Dash quickly followed by landing softly and trotting inside.

Nate, still staring after Pinkie, motioned for the others to go on inside with his hoof. He watched her bobbing up and down as she grew smaller and smaller. Almost every time she passed a pony, he or she would pause for a moment, look toward the tree-house, and then start walking towards it. Nate began contemplating how much authority she carried and how that would relate to her status in the town. He tilted his head from side to side as if weighing the options and then shrugged, dismissing the train of thought. She was probably just someone that was well liked enough for ponies to trust her just like that, he reasoned.

He carefully turned and stepped inside, taking in the scene before him. Nearly all of the furniture and decorations were simply carved into the tree. The bookshelves were large grooves, the staircase portruded from the wall, and the doors were rounded holes with doors attatched. In the center of the room there stood a wooden horse-head centerpiece with a ring shaped table around it all carved from the tree (although the head looked as if it came from different wood). No sign of a party in this room, however, unless the splotch of pink icing on the floor counted. In the next room, on the other hand, he saw fairly large speakers on either side of a turntable, which was manned by a white DJ pony with neon blue hair and purple glasses.

After taking a few steps towards the door, Nate halted on account of the sound of a crash and hushed whispers from upstairs (which he somehow heard over the music). Snapping his head toward the top visible stair, he saw a large red tome tumble down. It opened and closed and the pages flapped as it attempted to strike every step before conveniently coming to a thud on its cover. Looking at the book, he saw a small head with a large pink bow pop down, see him, and pull right back up out of the corner of his eye.

At that moment Nate decided that he didn't really need to be present during the entire party.

Slowly, he made his way up the stairs, well aware of the bass dropping in the next room causing the floor to vibrate. He tried to narrow his focus on the hushed voices above him, although he had a difficult time focusing on both that and not falling down the stairs himself. The lack of railing worried him, and as a result he gravitated towards the wall with every step. Once he reached the point where the ceiling turned into a wall he relaxed and walked up the stairs more naturally, his steps matching the beat of the music.

When he reached the top he saw three young ponies, a white unicorn with a purple and pink mane, an orange pegasus with a (somewhat unkempt) dark purple mane, and a very light, pale orange earth pony with a red mane and a big pink bow. A short wall of books, only a few inches tall, ran about four feet long on the other side of the fillies. The fillies in question had their backs tuned to him, and  were too absorbed in their stacking to realize he had entered the room.

Nate let out an audible sigh of relief at the sight of them. He was much more comfortable around younger kids than people (or fillies ponies in this case) who were his age or older. Which was good considering he had to babysit his little siblings and their friends back in his non equine days. The trio of fillies, however, heard his sigh and whirled around, looking like deers in headlights. The white colored pony in the middle bumped into the wall as she did so, knocking down a stack of books. They winced at the sound of their work undoing itself as the books hit the floor.

"We didn't-"

"Twilight said-"

"We were studying!"

"What she said!"

They nodded their heads and smiled weakly  after they finished talking over each other. Nate gave them a blank stare, fighting back a grin at the scene before him.

"You know," he said slowly, watching them visibly sweat out of nervousness,  "that wall would be a lot sturdier if you overlapped the books more." This was met with a mixture of confusion and relief, albeit mostly relief.

"Wait, you ain't mad that we're messin' up th' library?" the red maned pony to his right asked. "Usually strangers get kinda upset at our crusadin'."

"Crusading?" Nate voiced his confusion, noting a distinct lack of christian army.

"Yeah!" The orange one piped up enthusiastically. "Crusading for our cutie marks!"

The white filly puffed out her chest and spoke with authority, "I'm Sweetie Belle, this is Apple Bloom, and she's Scootaloo, and we're the Cutie Mark Crusaders!"

"Yeah!" The three said in unison, clapping their hooves together above their heads.

"All right," Nate responded, nodding his head, "so how does stacking books get you your, ah, 'Cutie Mark'?" Truth be told, he had completely forgotten what a Cutie Mark was, and he hoped their answer would enlighten him.

"Well we were going to try and be Cutie Mark Crusader Scholars," Sweetie Belle began.

"But that was really boring, so instead we decided we should be Cutie Mark Crusader Architects instead," Scootaloo cut her off.

"And we were already in a library, so we decided to jus' use th' books!" Apple Bloom finished.

"And this is so important that you'd miss the party downstairs?" Nate asked, his eyebrow raised. He was a bit disappointed that he he still had no idea what a 'Cutie Mark' was, and wished he had paid a tad more attention when the Goddess-Princess explained it to him.

"Getting our Cutie Marks is the most important thing in the world!" Apple Bloom answered, her bow bobbing up and down as she explained with enthusiasm. "Didn't you want one when you were younger?"

"Well- I, uh," Nate spluttered. He had no idea how to answer that question- for obvious reasons. Before he could think of something to say, Scootaloo, who had craned her neck to see his backside, let out a gasp.

"He doesn't have a Cutie Mark!" She exclaimed, which was met with excited (and horrified) gasps. All three sped forward with speed to rival Pinkie Pie's, coming to a abrupt halt to his left. He turned his head to follow them, blinking in surprise.

"Oh... my... gosh," Sweetie Belle said in a hushed tone.

"Does that mean we're gonna have a blank flank until we're thirty?!" Apple Bloom yelled with a horrified espression. She dropped to the floor and covered her head with her hooves as if scared for her future.

"Hey, I'm not even halfway to thirty!" Nate protested indignantly, snapping to attention. He turned around carefully, placing each hoof with care. Because he had been caught red-handed already, he decided to ask them the question bluntly, "And what's a Cutie Mark anyway?" This was met with gasps almost as surprised and horrrified as the last few.

"How can you not know what a Cutie Mark is?" Scootaloo scolded, emphasizing each word with a shake of her hooves.

"It's only the most important thing in the world!" Apple Bloom restated, perhaps unitentionally.

"I'm new here," Nate firmly stated in a loud voice, effectively hushing the crusaders. He continued in a quieter voice, "Humor me."

"A Cutie Mark is a sign that appears on your flank when you discover your special talent," Sweetie Belle explained as if she were reading from the dictionary.

"Oh right, like whole thing with the Goddess-Princess and the sun," Nate said, remembering his encounter with Princess Celestia. "I remember that. Duh."

"So how come you don't have one?" Scootaloo questioned accusingly. She jumped onto his back and put her face a close as possible to his, looking him in the eye.

Rather than give her the fantastic story of his life, he simply responded with a raised eyebrow, accompanied by the retort, "Because I don't have a special talent."

"That's not true!" Apple Bloom countered. Nate and Scootaloo broke eye contact and looked to her. "Everypony has a special talent! Miss Cheerilee and mah big sister Applejack say so!"

"All right then, maybe I just haven't found it yet," Nate responded, trying to take back what had obviously upset her.

Sweetie Belle, who had her hoof pressed to her chin, suddenly snapped her head up, her face one holding an expression of dead seriousness.  "Cutie Mark Crusader Conference!" she yelled. The other two rushed toward her and they quickly huddled together. An exchange of whispers ensued, and Nate politely opted to focus on the music downstairs rather than listen in on the conversation.

I can't sit idly, no, I can't move at all.

I curse the name, the one behind it all:

Discord, I'm howlin' at the moon,

And sleeping in the middle of a summer afternoon.

Discord whatever did we do-

"Hey, what's yer name?" Apple Bloom inquired, popping her head out of the huddle and above the other two.

"Nate," he responded with a nod. Apple Bloom pulled back into the huddle and resumed whispering. After a moment, the three separated and stood in a row.

Sweetie Belle cleared her throat. "We have come to a decision!" she declared with as much authority as she could muster. "If you want, you can be an Honorary Crusader."

"We can help each other find our special talent!" Apple Bloom said with a grin.

"You can't be a real Crusader because  it'd be weird to have an old guy on our team," Scootaloo interjected. Apple Bloom stuck out her hoof and roughly nudged the pegasus, forcing a quiet "ow" to escape her lips.

"It couldn't hurt to find what I'm good at. I would be honored," Nate answered with a slightly (very) pathetic pun. He looked at them expectantly, but was only met with unamused expressions. "Yeeeaaah.... So anyway, I hear Pinkie Pie's throwing a party. Wanna take a break from crusading and do unproductive stuff? You can blame collateral damage on me." This joke brought a smile to their faces, and even a few chuckles.

"Okay," Apple Bloom responded. "We can always crusade some more later." The others nodded in agreement and the three crusaders trotted off down the stairs (surprisingly orderly), followed cautiously by the honorary member.

The fillies traveled down the stairs easily and rapidly, as it was second nature to them. Nate, on the other hand, opted to descend sideways. He didn't feel comfortable at all with his head below his tail, and thought it convenient to move uniquely. This went unnoticed by the crusaders, and they continued in the natural style.

By the time Nate reached the first floor in his unusual style, the three had already assimilated into the crowd in the other room. The song had ended as well, and was now replaced with a blend of techno and strings. He noted a significantly fancier-looking gray pony standing next to the DJ as well and guessed she had some influence on the alterations. Upon walking into the other room, he discovered that the number had increased by far since he first arrived, and still more stood in adjoining rooms. All told, about one-third of the area in the room was occupied by ponies, and tables took up another quarter. The tables, square, rectangle, and circle, all held  an assortment of cakes, cupcakes, sandwiches (many with flowers poking out), and several bowls of punch in different colors.

"Well, this 'Pinkie Pie' sure can throw a party," Nate said, sure no one would hear him over the noise of overlapping conversations combined with the music. Though hardly the first time, Nate was mistaken.

"Yeah, she really has outdone herself this time."

Nate looked around for a few seconds before halting on a pale brown stallion just a few feet away. The smiling unicorn had a brown mane styled similar to a bowl haircut. Stealing a glance at his flank, he saw a pink doughnut Cutie Mark.

"Based on the assumption that you've never been to one of Pinkie's parties, I'd say you're the reason for the party," the unicorn yelled, making an effort to be heard over the commotion. "It'll make sense if you get to know Pinkie better, which you probably will. Everypony does. Anyway, I'm Ian. Well, Ian Heclops, but nopony calls me that. And you are...?"

"Nate," he answered. Something about Ian was familiar, but he couldn't put a hoof on what.

"Jake?" Ian shouted, taking a step forward. "Sorry, I didn't quite catch that over the everything."

"Nate," he repeated, raising his voice. "And yeah, I got here about an hour ago."

"Oh, Nate. I gotcha," Ian nodded in understanding. "Hey, you should come check out the comedy show me and a buddy do. It's on Friday evenings in the town square.  We do little plays on what happens in the town every week, so you can learn stuff about the town there."

"I'll try to remember that," Nate responded with his half smile accompanied by a nod of his head. Ian grinned in return.

"Cool. See you around then," the unicorn said as gave a brief wave of his hoof. He then turned and jumped longways onto a nearby pegasus of the same color. They both collapsed onto the floor. The victim pegasus shoved him off and lifted himself up into the air with his wings, blowing rasberry at Ian all the while. He flew off, leaving Ian in a grinning pile, who picked himself up a second later.

Nate walked away from the unusual pair towards a door on the other side of the room murmuring to himself, "That wasn't too bad. Maybe this whole 'meeting new people-' er, ponies. 'Meeting new ponies.' Maybe that's not so bad. Maybe-" Nate bumped into a bright pink body that had seemingly materialized in front of him. For a moment he fought to keep balance, and then he spontaneously dropped his flank to the floor in a sitting position, anchoring himself. With a startled face he looked up at Pinkie Pie, who stood grinning in front of him.

"I'm back!" She yelled so enthusiastically it justified a small hop, which she gladly provided. As Nate stood up she started quickly talking and moving her head along with her words. "It's kind of funny because I told you to not leave, but when I came back you weren't there, but then when I saw you talking to Ian I realized that you were at Twilight's house, so you hadn't really left in the first place! Then I remembered I'd promised Vinyl I'd get her some punch, and since you were so busy I decided to go get some now, and so I did and then I saw you walking away and not being busy, so I decided to go say 'hi' again. Hi!"

Nate nodded his head in silence for a second, absorbing her rushed speech. After his brain processed everything he answered, "That's... ah.... Hi."

Pinkie giggled and tilted her head. "You know, I haven't thrown a welcome party like this since Twilight came to Ponyville, and she really didn't want to be friends with anypony, but now she's friends with lots of ponies, so even if you don't really want to make friends, don't worry, cause you will eventually! Well, actually she only wanted to make friends after Nightmare Moon came down and me and Twilight and Applejack and Rarity and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy turned her a lot less scary, but that's not what I mean. What I'm trying to say is-"

Before she could tell him what her point was, she dropped to the floor as quickly as only a cartoon character can. For a brief moment Nate tensed and started to panic, thinking she dropped dead. As soon as he realized she was snoring, he relaxed and started to breathe again. After he calmed down, he nudged her cheek with his hoof in an attempt to wake her up. She flopped her head in the direction of the nudge drowsily, but remained asleep. He nudged her a bit harder, but without effect.

"How do you even crash this fast?" Nate muttered, not expecting to get an answer. "And how much sugar did you eat?" He looked from side to side, searching for someone who noticed. Unfortunately, everypony seemed to be absorbed in whatever they were doing, be it talking, dancing, or whatever the heck Ian was doing with his three cups of punch.

After a moment Nate discarded that idea and started to walk away. Only a few steps later, he hesitated and looked back over his shoulder. Nothing had changed; she still lay on the ground, unnoticed by anyone else in the room. He couldn't leave her in that exposed position, easily stepped on, and simply walk away with good conscience. For a few seconds Nate leaned back and forth, then he turned and went to move the pink pony, grumbling about his "stupid OCD conscience" and its attention to detail.

After quickly scanning the room for a place to put a sleeping pony and finding none, he scanned the room for an out of the way location. The only one he could find was under a table pressed up against the wall a few feet away. It was still better than the middle of the floor, he reasoned.  Nate dropped closer to the ground, stretching his front legs out in front of himself and leaving his back legs bent and ready to push. Placing his front hooves on Pinkie Pie, he pushed with his hind legs, moving her bit by bit towards the table. As soon as he couldn't stretch his back legs anymore, he pulled them closer and started again. In doing this repeatedly, he slowly approached the temporary sanctuary.

When he finally got her to the wall, he attempted to stand up but instead slammed his head on the underside of the table. The table didn't budge, but Nate dropped his head to the ground and grabbed his head, hitting his head again  with his hooves in the process.

"God-dang frizjh flubberty jeebeez!" he exclaimed in an intake of breath. "Who designed these hoof things?! Stupid natural selection!"

"I think there's something fishy about him," Rainbow Dash accused, her arms crossed and hovering above the punch bowl that Twilight was currently ladling punch from.

"Of course there is," Twilight replied, sounding as if she thought it was obvious as she poured the drink into a cup. "I mean, he appeared out of nowhere, had no idea where he was, apparently had a completely different anatomy, and he's eminating something. You can't see it, but I can sense it."

"Oh... well, I was talking about how he says he can't fly, but that's weird too."

"You you do know you could-" Twilight started, then cut herself off and shook her head. "Never mind, that's not important right now. What is important is that Nate is eminating strange energy in the middle of Pinkie's party. What do you think; could it be dangerous? I didn't really think this through..."

"Yeeaah, I don't really know what you're talking about," Rainbow Dash responded with a roll of her eyes, "but if you're talking about his uncoolness, don't worry, that doesn't catch. I mean, I've spent a bunch of time around you, and-"

"Wait, you can't feel it?" Twilight interrupted with a confused and concerned look.

"Obviously not," Rainbow answered, landing in front of Twilight. Fluttershy, who had been sitting with Owlowiscious in the corner, saw Twilight's expression and trotted over.

"Is something wrong?" Fluttershy inquired. Twilight turned to her friend and asked with a tone matching her face, "the energy Nate's radiating; can you feel it?"

"Oh, well, no. I mean, I can't, but Owlowiscious says he does."

Twilight quickly scanned the faces of the ponies in the room. As far as she could tell, nopony seemed to be bothered by anything. Quite the opposite, as everyone was happy and talking or horsing around. She tilted her head down and frowned, metaphorical gears grinding in her brain.

"This doesn't make sense," Twilight though out loud. "Why can Owlowiscious and I feel it, but you two can't?"

"Maybe it's because of Owlowiscious's instinct and your ability with magic," Fluttershy offered. She flinched and let out a squeak as a cup flew by her head. Rainbow Dash zipped forward, catching the cup before it touched the floor.

Twilight, on the other hand, was too deep in thought, trying to comprehend the nature of the energy signature. Questions and suggestions flooded through her head in a torrent of ideas. She envisioned herself in the castle library, surrounded by books and notes representing her facts and theories respectively. She read through the books repeatedly at an incredible pace, as only she can. With the aid of her magic, several quills furiously scribbled and scratched out theories. After what seemed like an eternity, she arranged her notes in a seemingly unorganized array. The words on the pages all together formed two large words: Inconclusive Data. Frustrated, Twilight opened her eyes, abandoning the sanctuary of her mind in favor of reality.

Rainbow Dash, hovering just above Twilight, threw a cup at someone in the crowd yelling, "Watch it, buddy!"

"My bad!"

Twilight slipped nearer to Fluttershy, who now stood upright, ready to protest Rainbow's less than peaceful response. Before a single defensive word slipped out, Twilight cut in, saying, "I'm gonna go keep an eye on Nate. I need you to see if the animals have any more intuition about his energy."

Fluttershy bit back her forgiving and condescending remark and nodded her head.

"Got it."

"Thanks, Fluttershy," Twilight responded as she trotted away in search of her "guest". She displayed a calm demeanor, but was mentally kicking herself for overlooking something like this. She had been so focused on the world Nate came from that she had neglected to pay much attention to Nate himself. With that in mind, she resolved to inconspicuously isolate him from everypony else until she was sure his "aura" was harmless. Now to find him.

Finding Nate had proved an easier task than she had thought. She needed only to walk into the next room and look at a party table Pinkie had laid out. Both Pinkie and Nate were curled up underneath- the former sleeping and the latter cursing in unintelligible gibberish.

After hearing a strange explanation (though knowing Pinkie, believable), she convinced him to leave fairly easily, telling him he should meet Rarity and Spike (where an emergency letter could be sent to Celestia if need be). It was so easy to pull him away from the party, she suspected he'd rather not be there anyway.... At any rate, Twilight had moved Pinkie to a more suitable sleeping location, and Nate and she walked toward her friend's boutique.

"Sooooo," Nate said to break the awkward silence that had prevailed over the trek. "Is my whole, ah, not-cutie brand thing noticeable? Or do people not usually look at other people- er, ponies' butts?"

Twilight made a note of both his tendency to use foreign words before correcting himself, and the words themselves as she replied, "You'll be fine. It depends on who it is, really. Most ponies will usually only pay attention to your cutie mark if they're trying to figure you out, but there are some ponies like Rarity's little sister who don't seem to think of anything else."

"Oh, okay," Nate nodded. As he realized the imminent awkward silence, he attempted to continue the conversation. "I asked because there was this little group of girls who made a point about it. The, ah, Crusaders for Cutie Marks or something."

"You've met the crusaders at the party? That's weird. I didn't see them anywhere..."

"Well, not exactly at the party. More just outside it, not making any sort of mess."

Twilight rolled her eyes and turned left, almost causing him to run into her.

"Okay, they made a bit of a mess, but they did make me an honorary member of their little cult."

His companion raised her eyebrow. The three little fillies had initiated a total stranger into their group of already dangerous stunts, albeit honorary, with no outside approval? She made a mental note to ask Cheerilee about a stranger danger lecture.

Nate glanced at Twilight's face and made a guess at what she was thinking.

"Okay, I see your point, but in defense, I find it easier to talk to younger kids than me, and I'm a lot less... uneasy," he reasoned. He had no idea if she was thinking accusingly of him or the crusaders, but either way, her face accused somepony.

Seeing Twilight change her face to a more surprised expression told Nate he had hit the nail on the head with his guess. He was proud of his accuracy, though perhaps he should have remembered some jedi proverb or something because not five seconds later, he walked right into the door Twilight had led him to. Crumbling into a pile of uncoordinated wings and legs, he forgot his inner victory.

"My apologies," a voice came from beyond the door. It sounded muffled, but some sort of upper class sounding accent  applied to the voice, which continued, "The door handle has been a bit stuck for the past few days, and I just haven't had the time to get somepony to fix it. I'll be there in a moment."

Nate untangled his limbs and clambered to his hooves as rapidly as possible to avoid further embarrassment. No sooner than he had stood up, the door opened to reveal a white unicorn with the best kept hair (well, mane) that he had ever seen firsthand. As soon as she saw her visitors, her eyes locked onto the familiar face.

"Hello, Twilight! What brings you here? And who's your friend with the, ah," she gave him a once-over, "interesting color combination?"

Nate frowned. He had grown somewhat fond of his non-negotiable style (though the first thing that came to mind when he though of this was stockholm syndrome).

"Hi, Rarity," Twilight replied, either unknowledgable or indifferent of her somewhat insulting comment. "I just wanted to stop by and introduce you and Spike to Nate, the pony Celestia told me about."

"Well you were only a few minutes shy of perfect timing," Rarity smiled warmly. "Fancy Pants just left to go see the 'charming' town. All Spike and I have left is to get the outfits ready for him to take back to Canterlot. Won't you both come in?"

Surrounding the door with a light blue aura, she took a step back and opened it wide, gesturing towards the inside of the boutique. Twilight stepped right in, Nate following behind her with a nod at Rarity and and regret at not coming up with a name like Fancy Pants when he had the chance.

As Rarity closed the door behind him, Nate looked around at the room. A bit grandois (and pink) for his taste, but as a boutique it looked fairly high quality for this town. Small wonder she was taking distant orders. Even though there were ribbons, jewels, and materials strewn about on assorted chairs and tables, there was a sense of professional order in the place. Jewel encrusted pony suits were placed on several mannequins as if to show them off, a tea set was sitting on a table in the middle of the room, and there was some lizard assistant, scurrying around and cleaning up dropped items from the floor. Wait a second...

"Spike!" Rarity called to the "lizard assistant". "Could you come over here, please? Twilight wants to introduce us to her new friend."

Spike, holding a pile of excess suit parts in his stubby purple arms, hurried towards her, answering, "sure thing!" Rarity's smile faltered as he approached with the mound. She cleared her throat and levitated everything out of his hands and placed them behind a chaíse lounge.

"Spike, Rarity, this is our guest, Nate," Twilight spoke up. "Nate, this is Spike and Rarity. He'll be staying here for a while as Celestia instructed."

"Hi, Nate, welcome to Ponyville."

"Pleasure to meet you."

It took Nate a moment to realize he was supposed to say something in return.

"Oh, uh, nice to meet you too. It's *ahem* a nice place you've got here."

"Thank you, Darling," Rarity replied, her warm smile returning to her features. "I do try to keep it homely, considering it is my actual home."

"Speaking of homes," Twilight interjected as the thought stuck her, "What was your home like back in Texas?" She fully intended to discover everything she could about him that could prove useful to Celestia and herself as quickly as she could.

"Oh, ah..." Nate was a bit caught off guard by the question. "Erm, pretty good I suppose. Suburban, clean, I don't know. It's hard to compare with here. To be honest, the biggest difference that comes to mind is that everyone wears clothes. Probably because I'm in a clothing shop, but-"

"Hang on a moment," Rarity interrupted, her face wielding an expression of dead seriousness. "You mean to say that where you're from, everypony wears clothes?" He nodded, and all at one she exploded in excitement. "Oh, wouldn't that be just fabulous? Most ponies here only dress for a formal occasion, but everyone, all of the time? Oh, imagine all of the dresses I could sell! Oh! Wait a minute, you belong there, so you usually do wear clothes of some sort, and probably feel a bit uncomfortable without them. Aha! I shall make you a wonderful outfit to match your coloring and solve both your color problem and your comfort! It's perfect! Now, I'll just need-"

"Hold on a second, I don't have any money," Nate interrupted. He didn't want to interrupt (both because he wanted to be polite and he lacked social graces), but he really didn't want to be embarrassed when she asked for payment.

"Don't worry about that, we'll figure something out later," she dismissed his worry with a wave of her hoof, then added under her breath, "to be honest, I'm doing us both a favor."

"Fillies and gentlecolts, the element of generosity," Spike supplied with a grand sweeping gesture towards Rarity, not having heard the muttered statement.

The mare in question was about to disclaim her action as common courtesy, but something clicked in her mind first.

"I almost forgot! I need proper containers for Fancy Pants's order! He can't just carry it all the way to Canterlot, after all."

"I'm on it!" Spike hastily volunteered, obviously eager to please. Nate, wanting to help out the pony who just offered to make custom clothes for him without worrying about money, volunteered as well.

"I could probably help."

Twilight hesitated to comment. She wanted to keep an eye on Nate, but she also wanted to ask Rarity her opinion of Nate and his potentially dangerous energy radiation. Besides she trusted Spike to handle it if something happened, or if he couldn't, then let her know. After weighing her options, she said, "You two go on ahead. I want to talk to Rarity about something."

"You got it," Spike replied, already heading towards the door. "C'mon! I know just the place."

Nate hurried after the little purple dragon, pausing only to push the door closed behind him. Spike hardly bothered to let him catch up before he started talking.

"Rarity's pretty particular about what her clothes go into," Spike started, then hesitated, "and her clothes in general. And her food. And a lot of other things. But anyway, she only wants the best. Normally that would make it hard, but I know a pony who's got just what we need. She used to work for a mailing company, but they fired her because of some accidents. She still has some stuff from her job, so she's been helping me out whenever I need a a professional. Pretty sweet, huh?"

"Useful," Nate commented. He really wasn't sure what to expect from a dragon, but whatever it was, it wasn't Spike. Not that that was a bad thing. Quite the contrary, Spike seemed easy to like and trust.

"I'll say," Spike agreed. "She's a bit weird at first, but she's a good friend when you get to know her."

"I can handle weird," Nate grinned, "I deal with myself, don't I?"

Spike chuckled.

"In my opinion, you're pretty normal compared to some ponies. Have you met Pinkie Pie yet?"

"I've had the pleasure. But I bet she didn't come to Equestria by falling from the sky."

"I dunno. I'd believe it."

The two continued laughing and joking like old friends until they reached their destination, completely unaware of the nature of the conversation they had just walked away from.