Author's Note

Haven't forgotten about this story, just been a bit busy with rewrites and drawing for my other stories. Anyway, with the up coming Dragon's Dogma 2 being announced, might as well make a few chapters for this story for the hype. That and I do love this story the most. XD

Chapter 14: Small But Comfortable Party

Chapter 14

Small But Comfortable Party

There were many things that the arisen had faced before in her past life. Giant cyclops that could eat a person in two bites, one if they were small. Drakes that would control the fire, ice, and lightning. Undead skeletons knights that were surprisingly skilled in swordsmanship. A six-headed Hydra that spewed out poison and would sometimes eat her, though she was able to escape thanks to having an elemental sword on hand to cut her way out. Hell, she even fought against Daimon in the Bitterblack Isle and that proved to be a challenge within itself seeing how he was a former arisen from a long time ago. But never had she faced a lavender color alicorn with a bombardment of questions ranging from how the country was made up to their currency and culture.

Hours had passed since Arisen was forced to try and answer most of Twilight’s questions without diverging from the fact that she used to be human. It’s not like she didn’t mind answering her questions…it was the fact that she ended up wanting more than just the surface level of information. If given the option to fight against a Gore Chimera or listen to Twilight listing off similarities of how her country and Equestria…She would take the option of fighting the monster. Because at least it wouldn’t talk much other than roaring and trying to eat her.

“By the gods, that woman wouldn’t let up. I’ll have to thank Spike for informing her about Pinkie’s party.” Arisen said as she made her way down the street of Ponyville. As she was walking, she noticed that the ponies that were outside glanced at her for a moment before moving away or quickly heading inside their homes to avoid her. “Guess they think I was the cause of both the skeleton and Cerberus attack.” She said before letting out a sigh of disappointment. The moment she took another step around the corner, she was met with a familiar gray color pegasus who ended up bumping and falling on top of the dragon.

“Owie,” Derpy said as she slowly pulled herself up a bit while rubbing her head from the pain she felt. She soon looked down to see Arisen underneath her as she quickly pulled herself up. “Gah! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to fall on top of you Arisen!”

“It’s fine. Not like you hurt me or anything.” She said before pulling herself up from the ground. “I’m a bit surprised to see you out this late. What’s the occasion?”

“For your party silly Billy ~” Derpy answered. “The flier that Pinkie handed out throughout town said it was a party in honor of you saving the town from Cerberus. Isn’t that where you’re going?”

“Yeah, I would've been there sooner, but Twilight wanted to ask me a few questions about my magic,” Arisen said before shivering at the idea of being experimented on by her. “If given the choice of fighting another monster or listening to a long lecture that takes up hours of my time, I pick the monster because at least I don’t have to worry about it talking to me for that long.”

“Yeah, Twilight can be a bit much when something she can’t understand interests her. But she’s nice once you get past that problem she has.” She said before following Arisen to Sugarcube Corner.

“I’ll believe that once I see it.”

“How are you feeling by the way? You’re not hurt or anything after what happened with Cerberus, are you?”

“I’m doing fine. Wouldn’t be the first time I’d face a monster bigger than me. Though I think because of that, the ponies of this town might think of me as the reason behind the monster attacks.”

“What? Why would they think that?”

“Two monster attacks back to back like that, a mysterious dragon appearing from the Everfree Forest from another country? I can tell that I’ll be targeted when they form an angry mob.” Arisen said while placing her hands in her pocket as she looked up at the night sky. “It’s only a matter of time before they kick me out of town…maybe I should-” Before Arisen could finish, she felt Derpy grab her face as she looked at her with a frown on her face.

“Stop that.”

“...Stop what?” Arisen asked as she was taken by surprise by what Derpy was doing.

“I may not know much about what you've been through, but stop thinking that you don’t deserve anything nice. You saved Ponyville not once, but twice. And helped me out when I was stuck in a tree. So stop thinking about what ifs or thinking you don’t deserve this party. Because you do deserve to have fun.” She said before releasing her hold on the dragon’s face. “Now, we're going to this party, and if anypony has something mean to say, then they’ll have to go through me. After all, we are friends…right?” The Arisen couldn’t help but stare at Derpy for a while. As she was staring at her, a slight image of Quina appeared around the gray pegasus. The dragon blinked a couple of times before the mental image of Quina vanished as a small smile appeared on her face.

“Yeah…you’re right. We are friends.” She said before feeling Derpy release her hold on her.

“Good, now let's get going. Don’t want to keep the others waiting on you, right?” Derpy asked as Arisen nodded before taking the lead and continued to walk to Sugarcube Corner with Derpy following behind her. Within a matter of minutes, the two would be in front of the store where they noticed that there wasn’t any light on inside. Derpy was the first to walk forwards as she poked her head inside the entrance. The moment she did that, she was quickly pulled inside and let out a loud yelp. Arisen was taken by surprise by the Derpy being pulled inside of Sugarcube Corner as she quickly runs inside after her. The moment she was inside, the lights within the store lit up as Pinkie Pie and the others jumped out of seemingly nowhere and yelled surprise to the dragon girl.

“Welcome to your saving Ponyville not once, but twice, party!” Pinkie Pie yelled as the girls set off some confetti poppers into the air as they fell onto Arisen. Her attention was soon turned to the room she was in and was taken by surprise by the delicious spread on the table behind the pink pony. From what she could tell, the entire room was covered in streamers, balloons, and other party decorations. In the center of the room was a green and black colored cake covered in green and black colored gemstones with Applejack, Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Spike, Derpy, and Macareina surrounding the cake with smiles on their faces and confetti poppers in their hands.

“Wow…you went the extra mile on this one, huh?” Arisen asked as she admired the detail of the room.

“Well duh? This is your party after all. Of course, I’m going to go the extra mile for the hero that saved Ponyville, not once, but twice.” Pinkie Pie said as Applejack walked over and placed an arm on the dragon girl’s shoulder.

“Gotta say, less than a day or two and you’re already saving ponies. Guest that story about being a hero wasn’t all talk. I’ve never seen anypony or dragon in your case do what you did to Cerberus.”

“I appreciate that, thanks,” Arison said as she scanned the room for Rainbow Dash. “If you don’t mind me asking, where's Rainbow Dash?” She asked which caused everyone minus Derpy and Spike to have awkward expressions on their faces. There was a moment of silence in the atmosphere of the room as Spike spoke up.

“She still doesn’t trust you. If anything, she thinks you’re the reason why Cerberus was let loose.”

“Spike!” Twilight said as Spike deadpans at the lavender alicorn.

“What? She still doesn’t trust Arisen. Doesn’t help that ponies still think she’s dangerous and the reason behind what happened with Cerberus.”

“I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised,” Arisen said as she looked around the room to see no one else but Twilight, her friends, and Derpy. “A small party would be best seeing how it’s with ponies I’m comfortable being around at the moment. But I’m not worried so long as they don’t form an angry mob at me.” Arisen said before moving from underneath Applejack’s arm and making her way over to the giant cake. “Is there a reason why this cake is covered in…gems…rocks?”

“They're gems, I figure seeing how you’re a dragon just like Spike, it would make it even tastier ~!” Pinkie Pie answered as Arisen stared at the mare in confusion. “What? Have you ever eaten gems before?”

“Since when do dragons eat gems? As far as I know, gems were mostly used for decorations, selling, or used for alchemist reasons.” Arisen answered as the pink pony plucked a gem from off the cake and handed it to the dragon girl.

“Give it a try~,” She said as Arisen took the gem from Pinkie Pie. She examined it for a while before taking a bite out of it. There was a moment of pause as the dragon girl’s eyes widened in astonishment at the fact that she can eat gemstones in this body, and how tasty the gems taste as they gave off a blackberry flavor. “So…how does it taste~?”

“...It oddly tastes like blackberries,” Arisen answered as the pink party pony smiled in delight. “Do the color of the gems tell you what flavors they are?”

“Sometimes, though, they usually taste sweet to me. Never had a gem that gave off a particular flavor.” Spike answered as he took a slice of cake for himself. “Guess not all dragons have the same taste.”

“Seems like it,” Arisen said as she took a slice of cake as well. “Bringing a few slices with me after this…Um, you wouldn’t happen to have a small basket or something, would you?”

“I have some, but why would you need that when you can just put it in the refrigerator?” Pinkie Pie asked as the arisen tilted her head in confusion.

“Refriger…what?” She asked which took everyone by surprise.

“Y’all mean to tell me you don’t know what a refrigerator is?” Macareina asked as the arisen shook her head. “What, you live in the stone age or something?”

“Well a lot of the stuff that you guys have, we didn’t have where I come from. We mostly just walk from one place to another or use teleportation stones. But getting your hands on them is a rare thing, and buying them costs an arm and a leg given how rare they are.”

“So you don’t have TVs, internet, cars, or anything like what we have?” Macareina as the dragon girl shook her head.

“Nope, we have none of that back in my country.”

“...We have to educate you on modern pony society,” Applejack said before noticing an energetic expression on Twilight’s face. “I get the feeling that you want to be her tutor, don’t you Twilight.”

“Well of course! This would be a perfect time to teach someone like her about pony culture. Not to mention to learn more about her country’s magic and culture!” She said before summoning up a notebook into her hand. “I mean, dragons that can use magic just like a unicorn and an alicorn. How can I not want to learn more from her?”

“As much as I would love to learn more about Arisen’s country as well, I believe we might want to wait a bit before doing anything like that. I mean, Arisen just survived an attack from Cerberus after all. So maybe she wants some time to unwind and focus on herself for a bit.”

“She’s not wrong, that and I still need to find a job around town…which might be even much harder given what happened today.” She said which caused Applejack and Macareina to look at each other for a moment before Applejack spoke up.

“Tell you what. Stop by the farm in the morning, and I’ll introduce you to Grandpa Smith. If we can butter him up a bit, then we might be able to get you to work on the farm.”

“You’re serious?” Arisen asked as they both nodded.

“Can’t let a hero like you go without being rewarded. Plus with what you just pulled on the farm the first time you went there, it’ll make things less of a hassle on our hands.” Macareina said as a small smile appeared on her face.

“I do appreciate this. But are you sure you won’t get in trouble?”

“I’m sure we might get a lecture or two, but it’s no big deal,” Applejack said as looked over at the other ponies enjoying themselves. “For now, just enjoy the party. You might not get a chance to do so given how you’ll be busy on the farm for some time.”

Arisen was about to say something to Applejack's comment but thinks back at what Derpy said to her. Looking over at them enjoying the party, she couldn’t help but feel at peace from seeing this. A lot of them remind her of the friends she made and helped back in Gransys. Her only regret was not saying anything to them before she left, but what could she do at the time? She was the god of that world, a god that could only watch and barely interact with people. Just sit there, watch, and govern the world to continue the cycle of death and rebirth. That was a hell that she couldn’t do, nor could she place it on another person. Hence the reason why she broke the cycle by killing herself. The dragon girl shook her head as a means to clear her thoughts before looking over at Applejack.

“You’re not wrong about that. Especially given how this town is.” Arisen said as she felt Applejack pat her on the back.

“There you go, now you go and enjoy yourself, you deserve this,” Macareina said as the dragon girl walked over to mingle with the others. The dragon talked to Derpy Hooves as she was enjoying the cake she was eating, though handing the gemstones over to either Arisen or Spike, the country ponies would be watching and talking to each other about Arisen. “You sure Grandpa will let her work on the farm?”

“He should. Especially given how we’re a bit short-handed and need help around the farm where we can’t pick up due to other work around the farm or town.” Applejack said before walking over to a nearby table and picking up two mugs of Apple Cider for her and Macareina. “Hence why we’re going to butter him up a bit by playing to his…other side.”

“...You didn’t tell him that Arisen was a girl, didn’t you?” She asked as Applejack took a sip from her drink while handing the tall mare her drink.

“You know how he gets when it comes to asking for help from outside of the family. The moment I mention that we have a new person in town, he flat out says that he better not come here looking for a job.”

“...Fair enough. So how are we going to butter him up with the idea of letting Arisen work on the farm?”

“We’ll just introduce the two to each other after making him his favorite breakfast, then let things play out,” Applejack said, which caused Macareina to raise an eyebrow at her. “Well if you’re so smart, what ideas do you have in mind?”

“...I might have an idea, but we need Rarity’s assistance.”