Chapter 7:
Ponyville

This second train ride was much more peaceful than the first one, not having the rude interruption from the group of griffins probably helped a lot. That said, it wasn’t as if we experienced much of the ride either as all three of us used the time to get some sleep in, still being tired from the three-day trek through the forest. A couple of ponies stepped out of the train alongside us, though keeping their distance, before the large engine took off again.

“So this is where you two live…” I idly said, checking out all of the unique buildings visible from the train station. “Not going to lie, it doesn’t look like a half-bad place to live.”

Rainbow snorted, “You don’t know the half of it, Ponyville is awesome!”

“Twilight! Rainbow!” The two ponies in question were suddenly buried by four other ponies into a group hug.

“Don’t ya two scare us like that ever again, Sugarcubes.”
“That letter from the Princess indeed had us very much worried darlings.”
“Yeah, that was so not super duper! Did you get away from the meanies all right?”

“Calm down girls,” Twilight laughed. “We’ll tell you all about it at the library. We should get a new friend of Dash and mine settled there first.”

The pink pony gasped, immediately looking over at me with a near manic smile as she shot forward and shook my claw. “HithereI’mPinkiePieIlovemeetingnewfriendsbecauseeveryoneinPonyvilleismyfriend!Whatmightyournamebe?”

“Whoa there Pinkie, turn it down a smidgen. Ya don’t need ta overwhelm the poor griffin,” an orange pony with a cowboy hat said as she tipped it towards me. “Howdy, Ah’m Applejack.”

“Hi there, I’m Jack Grey,” I replied after recovering from the pink pony’s barrage. The white unicorn from the group stepped forward as well, studying my clothes with a very critical gaze.

“Please darling, what is that horrid jacket you’re wearing? It’s like someone spilt paint in blotches all over it!” She whined, tugging at it with her magic, making me jump backwards in alarm.

“Rarity!” Twilight called out, holding back her friend. “I think Jack would prefer if you didn’t use magic on him,” the purple unicorn hissed.

“She would be correct in that,” I pointed out, by breathing slightly increased from the strange sensation once again. The direct application of magic was still… unsettling.

“Oh, my apologies, I just wanted to inspect what you’re wearing,” Rarity apologized though still looking at the jacket.

“It’s a camouflage jacket. It helps with blending into a forest environment.”

Rarity still didn’t look sure about the jacket but at least dropped it for the time being. The final pony of the group seemed to be hiding behind Rainbow, though her buttery yellow coat and pink mane weren’t exactly blending in.

“Come on Flutters, Jack isn’t that scary. Not like Gilda anyway,” Rainbow said pushing the other pegasus forward.

“H-hi t-there, I-I’m Fluttershy,” she said quietly, hiding behind her long hair.

“Hello miss, nice to meet you,” I smiled, not asking further as she seemed to be enough of a ball of nerves. “So, shall we head for the library now?”

Twilight nodded, picking up the chest and leading the group through the village. My eyes wandered around at all the various buildings and ponies that went about their day in the town, noticing some of them glancing towards me in suspicion while I admired the variety of interesting little bits of architecture and small patches of park that dotted the village but the library was another thing itself.

“Your house is a tree?” I blankly said, viewing the thickest tree I’d ever seen in my life.

“It’s one of Ponyville’s original structures, the tree was grown out by the original apple family earth pony settlers to serve as a small town centre,” Twilight explained, pushing into the hollow tree, revealing rows of bookshelves. On the ground floor and a flight of stairs at the back of the room leading up. Placing the chest against the back wall Twilight headed into a side room while I ran my claws over the walls of the tree, marvelling at the piece of natural engineering.

This would be the perfect house for hippies back home.

I chuckled at the thought of how that’d look. Dash and the rest of Twilight’s friends had taken seats at the Library’s central table and talking in hushed tones while shooting glances my way. Placing my backpack next to the chest I took a seat on one of the pillows that lay around the table.

“So Jack, yer the one that helped Twi and Dash here out of their tough spot?” Applejack asked as Twilight came back with some food and drinks from the kitchen along with a very happy looking little reptile that caught my eye.

“Yeah, I did,” I said absentmindedly, my gaze locked on the little being who cringed back as he noticed being my centre of attention. “Are you a dragon?” I asked, guessing the species.

“Yes?” He replied confused,” scooting up close to Twilight, “I’m Twilight’s assistant and little brother.”

“Awesome…” I said in amazement.

“Have you never seen a dragon before? I thought that a griffin would be familiar due to your lands’ closeness to the dragonlands,” Rarity asked surprised, leaning forward on the table and getting one of the snacks Twilight had brought.

“Well…”

“Jack isn’t really from around here,” Rainbow filled in for me. “Like not even from this world,” she bluntly added. The four ponies and one dragon’s eyes went wide at that bit of information.

“Oh my…” Fluttershy gasped, shooting forward and pulling me into a sudden, unexpected, hug. “You poor thing!”

“Uhh, thanks I guess?” I said slightly unsure of what to do next, Twilight luckily coming to my rescue.

“That’s why he’s staying here as well, I’ll be working on trying to figure out what exactly happened to get him over here,” she explained, pouring some tea for herself. Still being slightly famished myself I took some of the snacks as well, avoiding the food with flowers in them. We went over the events of the past few days again, leaving out a few of the more gruesome details of some of the engagements.

“Well, Ah’m glad ya were there to keep Twi and Dash out of them griffin’s claws,” Applejack thanked after we finished our recalling of the story.

“Those griffins sounded like real meany pants!” Pinkie agreed, “You know what this calls for? A PARTY!” the pink pony shouted before vanishing into thin air, the only thing indicating she didn’t was the sound of the door opening and closing.

“Wait, wha-”

“Don’t bother trying to understand Pinkie, it’s better for your sanity if you don’t,” Twilight bluntly pointed out.

“Duly noted.”

“Well, Ah don’t know about you gals but I’ve got some chores to do on the farm before Pinkie drags me off towards that party of hers,” Applejack chuckled as she got up from the table. “See y'all tonight.”

“Hmm, I should be going as well to get some more work done on my dresses. Glad to have met you mister Jack.” Rarity also apologized, followed by Fluttershy having to work on some things with her animals.

“You don’t have anything to do?” I asked as Dash remained behind at the table, the pegasus shrugging.

“The sky’s clear and the weather team should be fine with me gone for a good while. I make the weather schedule a couple of weeks in advance.”

“Rainbow Dash actually doing work?” Spike smirked jabbing at the pegasus.

“Hey, I take my work very seriously!” Rainbow replied, taking the bait. “Just because I nap a lot doesn’t mean I don’t work! What’s the last time the weather wasn’t on schedule?”

“Well…” Spike tried finding a case where that wasn’t true but couldn’t find one.

“Exactly,” Rainbow smirked victoriously.

“So Jack, if you follow me I’ll show you your bedroom,” Twilight chuckled as she walked up the stairs. Picking up my backpack I followed after her to a small room on the second floor. “It’s a little small but at least it’s better than nothing,” She said sheepily, meanwhile Dash peaked into the room as well.

“Twilight, it’s a double bed. I’m pretty sure this is bigger than what I’d usually have,” I pointed out, the room may have been a little cramped but it wasn’t as if I had the stuff to fill it up.

“Oh, ok. That’s good. I’ll let you get settled then,” Twilight said, leaving me alone in the room though I did notice Rainbow peaking around the corner of the doorframe so every now and then.

“You know that you can just come in here, right?” I said casually without looking at the door frame as she peaked again.

“I-I knew that,” Rainbow stuttered, walking into the room and silently watching me unpack some items from my backpack.

“Alright what is it you want to ask? You’re not a person to just quietly sit and watch.” Dash blushed and looked slightly shocked.

“Well, uhm… I don’t really want to be alone right now…” Rainbow muttered the last part but it was loud enough for me to pick up. I momentarily stopped screwing around with my backpack, and sat down next to dash and wrapped an arm around her.

“Hey, I know we know each other for like a week but if you need someone to talk to about what happened I’m willing to listen.”

Rainbow leaned her head against me. “I… don’t worry about it, it’s lame anyway.” She immediately got herself out of my grip and got out of the room as fast as she could, leaving me alone and slightly concerned.

I should talk to her later, if she's stewing on some of the stuff she’s seen then she’ll tear herself apart.

Returning to unpacking some of the slightly ruined clothes I had, folding and placing them on the cupboard next to the bed for washing and hopefully repair. Hearing somepony come back up the stairs I stuck my head out of the room to see who, coming beak to nose with Twilight, surprising her.

“Oh, Jack. Everything in order?”

I nodded and pointed over my shoulder at my clothes. “Do you have somewhere to wash those and a place where they can be adjusted for my wings?”

Twilight smirked and picked them up from the cupboard, her horn flashing a bit brighter before holding them out in front of me. “They’re cleaned!”

I stared at the clothing, not a spot visible or smell coming from them. “Wow… just like that?”

“Well, not really. That’s not something most unicorns can do,” Twilight said sheepishly while refolding the clothes. “To get it adjusted I’d say go to Rarity’s boutique. She’ll gladly do it without a doubt. Dash is still downstairs, she can lead you towards it.”

Twilight gave me back the stack of clothes and started walking back to the stairs, me hot on her heels with the clothes clamped under my wing.

“Hey Rainbow, want to show me the way to Rarity’s boutique?” I asked, getting her attention from the book she was reading.

“Huh? Oh, yeah sure!” Rainbow quickly put the book away in the appropriate section before leading me out of the library. “So, do you have anything you're planning to do now you've got a place to stay here in Ponyville?”

“To be honest, not a clue. I'd like not to be idle but what to do is something I'll need to figure out at a later date. Let's get this 'party' from yo-”

The pink pony popped up from nowhere and pushed a letter into my claws before disappearing again, leaving me dumbfounded.

Deep breath and don't try to understand

Confetti exploded from the letter as I opened it, Rainbow snickering in amusement at my startled reaction. “It's an invitation to a party at seven o'clock at the Golden Oaks Library… What time is it Rainbow?”

The pegasus briefly shot into the air and looked out over the village before dropping down again. “Little over five, so we've got plenty of time.”

Checking my watch I found it showed the same time on there, satisfied that my wristwatch was most likely still accurate I let Dash lead me the rest of the stretch to the boutique. Another building that amazingly depicted the variety of architecture in the town. A little bell rang as we entered the main room of the shop.

“Be right down,” Rarity's melodic voice called out from upstairs, the sound of hooves coming down the stairs announcing the unicorn's arrival. “Oh, I wasn't expecting to see the two of you until Pinkie's party, darlings. What can I do for you?”

“Well, I have some clothes that got torn up real bad, Twilight said you'd be able to fix them and give them holes for my wings,” I said, pulling the clothes from under my wing and surrendering them to Rarity's telekinesis.

“Oh dear, those are in really bad shape… but I'm positive I can make something work!” Rarity exclaimed cheerfully, floating over a tape measure and looking at me. “May I?”

Stepping forward I allowed her to swiftly do her work, getting all of my measurements within a minute. “I should not forget to mention that I don't have anything to pay you with yet”

“That's no problem, darling. You helped my friends so I'll gladly help you out with this,” Rarity dismissed my concern, “Now I'll leave you two to it because I've got some more work to get done. See you tonight!”

With that Rainbow and I left Rarity's boutique and got back onto the streets of Ponyville, the only thing I was now wearing being my beret after having given up the rest of my clothing to the seamstress.

Guess I'm a nudist now. Not like anyone cares regardless around here with their fur.

“So, any good places here to hang out? Since we probably shouldn't crash my party prematurely,” I smirked to the mare walking beside me.

“Oh definitely, follow me!” Rainbow exclaimed, shooting off into the village. We spent the next hour or two checking out all of the landmarks and activities Ponyville had to offer, eventually finding ourselves walking down the main street back towards the library.

“We really should check out that disco back there at some point,” I laughed as we'd ran all over the place and had checked out practically the entire town.

“Heck yeah! Usually, only AJ's up to go there, it'll be way more awesome with a third person there!” Dash exclaimed laughing. “But before that I'm going to teach you how to fly, Derpy already fills Ponyville's crash quota.”

“Heyyy, I'm not that bad,” I whined playfully, getting some dirt out of my hair.

“Can it rookie, you weren't able to even get into the air. Pretty lousy flying for someone who claims to work in the airborne infantry,” Rainbow smirked as we arrived in front of the library. All of the lights in the building… tree… were out and curtains covered the windows from the inside. “You first.”

“That's totally not suspicious at all,” I grinned but did as she told, finding the main room of the library to be shrouded in darkness. Stepping forward I prepared myself for the jump-scare I assumed was about to happen.

Bang!

It was probably best that I carried no weapons as I was doused in a spray of confetti, all the lights springing on to reveal a completely decorated library.

“SURPRISE!” The five present ponies and single dragon shouted.

“Welcome to your 'welcome to Ponyville' and 'thanks for saving Twilight and Rainbow' party!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing around.

“Well, thank you, miss Pie” I chuckled, stepping in further to allow Dash to enter as well. “What are we waiting for? Let's get this party started!”

After having helped clean up the last of the bits of confetti from the floor I said goodbye to Twilight's friends, having played all types of games throughout the evening and eaten out fill of pastries. All in all, it had served to put me in much-needed ease as it kept my mind from wandering.

“There, that was the last of it. Thanks for staying to help clean Rainbow, I honestly am not used to seeing you giving a hoof like this,” Twilight said as she levitated the remaining bits of confetti into a trash can.

“Hey, just thought I'd help out for once!”

“Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, just surprised,” Twilight chuckled, placing the trash can back in its intended space. “We're done now though.”

“A-Are you sure? Nothing else that needs cleaning? The kitchen maybe?” Dash stuttered, making Twilight raise an eyebrow.

“Are you okay, Rainbow?”

“Y-Yeah, why wouldn't I be?” Dash replied trying to nonchalantly lean on the main table.

“I think it might be a bit late out, I'm sure that if she had to go home as well now, Rainbow would get little sleep,” I cut in, remembering the short, awkward, conversation we'd had in the afternoon.

“I guess she could take the couch, unless you don't mind sharing your bed, Jack?” Twilight said in slight confusion.

I waved off the concern. “We shared a sleeping bag, I'm sure we'll be able to find space in a large bed like the one upstairs.”

Twilight looked between us two for a moment before sighing. “I guess it won't hurt. You can stay Rainbow,”

Dash smiled brightly as she followed Twilight and me up to the first floor where we quickly took turns in the bathroom to get ourselves ready for bed. Dash was already under the covers by the time I entered the bed too.

“Hey Jack?”

“Hmm?”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“Sleep well.”

“You too.”

Author's Note

I picked up Horizon Zero Dawn for PC and well... I might have binged through it in two days. It's an immensely engaging and interesting game, well worth the story and very decent gameplay.
I heard there were some issues with the initial port but I have only had one instance where I got charged and pushed into the terrain, other than that the only gripe I have is that it takes quite a beefy machine to run.
Well worth a playthrough in my opinion.

On the chapter: Jack getting some breathing time to get more used to stuff.

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