Newfound Neighbors

Chapters

01- Hello, Neighbor
02- Face to Face(time)
03- Virtual Assistant, Real Headaches
04- I'm sorry, you did what!?
05- Wake Up Call
06- SPLAT!!
07- All Fun and Games (Part 1)
07- All Fun and Games (Part 2)
07- All Fun and Games (Part 3)
07- All Fun and Games (Part 4)
09- Surprise Reunions
10- Fashion Disaster, Aisle Five
11- Taco Tuesday Part 1
11- Taco Tuesday Part 2
12- The Morning After
13- Happy Holidays
14- Resolutions
15- Card Games with Ponies
16- Grand Opening
17- Knock Knock
18- A Royal Discussion
19- What a Fright!
20- The Morning After
21- Conventional Chaos- Part 1
21- Conventional Chaos- Part 2
21- Conventional Chaos- Part 3
21- Conventional Chaos- Part 4
22- LFW
08- What did I get myself into?

01- Hello, Neighbor

It was as I was coming back home from a trip to the grocery store that I first noticed it. The 'for sale' sign that was in the front yard of the house next door had a 'sold' banner across it. In the neighborhood that I live in, several homes around the block had been up for sale several times over the course of the last few years. Heck, some places had changed hands so many times that it was hard to keep track of who lived there currently. One such family that were close friends to mine lived in a house across the street before they moved further inland to a home that was closer to family.

But the house that was to the left of my home? It had been up on the market for so long that at one point, I thought that it would never get sold. The previous owner had tried everything to get it off their hands, going as far as to renovate the whole entire place and also fix any problems the home had. Though, no matter what they tried, nothing seemed to work. So it was rather surprising to see that someone had actually bought it.

Perhaps someone at home might happen to know more.

After I grabbed the groceries I bought out of the trunk of my car and locked it with my key, I entered through the garage. Not a moment after stepping in did I find my mom getting a load of laundry out of the washer. “Hey there. Welcome home, Sam,” Mom greeted me as I set the grocery bag gently on the ground for a moment while I took off my shoes, “How was your trip?”

Personally, I wasn’t entirely sure why she would ask me that. Sure, she wanted to know if I found what I was looking for. Yet, in my mind, she can make a simple errand to get pasta and tomato sauce for tonight’s dinner sound like it was a grand journey straight out of The Lord of the Rings. Not that it bothered me really, but I don’t like it when people over exaggerate about simple things.

“It went well. Got what we need for tonight,” I replied back as I put my shoes away, “Though, before I bring everything in, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Well, when I pulled in just now, I saw that the for sale sign was no longer up in Mr. Rochester’s front yard,” I explained, “Do you happen to know anything about that?”

No soon after I said that, Mom stopped what she was doing and turned to face me, “Actually, yes. I had a talk with him this morning when I was getting the paper. He was… rather surprised about it actually. He didn’t think anyone would still be interested in it, but he got an offer a couple days ago and everything got finalized today.”

Well, that was sudden. Don’t these things usually take a bit more time? Not that I’m complaining or anything,

“Does he have any idea who the buyer is?” I asked.

“I asked him that, though he didn’t really say much. All that he really told me was that the buyer paid more than the asking price and that they’re eager to move in,” she told me, “He was just glad to finally get it off his hands.”

That wasn’t exactly helpful. Then again, I wasn’t expecting mom to try and find out every single detail. “So, I’m guessing that it’s safe to assume that we’ll be having some new neighbors soon?”

“Mhm,” she nodded, “More than likely, they’ll be moving in while your father and I will be visiting your Aunt Marie up in Washington D.C. So it’ll be up to you to make sure to welcome them to the neighborhood.”

All I could do was just nod my head, before picking up the bag of groceries I bought and began to walk inside the house and head towards the kitchen. “Don’t worry Mom,” I assured her, “I’ll make sure that they feel right at home.”

It had been some time after that original conversation and a couple of days after my parents started their trip that the moving truck finally pulled into the house next door. It was still early in the afternoon and I had stepped outside to get a jacket that I left in my car when I noticed the truck. The back of the vehicle was pulled up rather close to the garage, while a man in what appeared to be his thirties was standing by the driver side door. Though, there didn’t appear to be too many boxes in the garage, so my best guess was that our new neighbor only arrived recently.

Originally, I didn’t really pay that much attention since I was focused on getting my jacket. Though, after I got it and locked my car back up, I decided to go over and say hello instead of just going back inside. There was a small wall outside that separated the neighbors front yard from my family’s driveway. So, after tying my jacket around my waist, I walked on over and waved towards the guy by the door. “Hi there, welcome to the neighborhood.”

At first glance, I thought that this guy might have been the new arrival next door. His attire was rather casual and he didn’t seem to be wearing anything that would make me think that he was part of a moving company. Heck, everything was being unloaded out of a fifteen foot Uhaul truck that you can easily rent. Provided that you had the money of course, all things considered.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’m not the person you’d want to talk to.”

That quickly caught me off guard. Though, before I could ask anything, he pointed back towards the garage and spoke again, “I’m just helping with the move. She’s the one you probably want to talk to.”

Wait… she-?

“Oh, hello there!!”

The moment I heard that, I looked back towards the garage door to see who it was. Though, any previous thought that I had about who they might be was immediately thrown out the window. For I was looking at a unicorn… an actual living unicorn. I had seen the stories on the news over the last few months or so about the species of Equestria coming over to our world, their world leaders talking with ours and so on. Yet, I never really thought that I would end up meeting one in person, especially since their head looked to be up to my chest in height.

The unicorn herself definitely stood out in my mind. The equestrians that you would see on TV usually had bright pastel colors like they were out of a saturday morning cartoon. This one though was kind of different. I mean, sure, the colors of the fur and mane did stand out, but it wasn’t like a pony that had cyan fur and a snow white mane. This mare’s fur looked like that of ground cinnamon, while her short wavy mane and tail were a chestnut brown. Her eyes were a golden yellow and she had… I think it was called a cutie mark of a pair of gears on her flank.

“H-hi,” I finally replied back and looked towards the unicorn. She had a brown sparkling aura around her horn and was carrying out a few boxes with that aura, before setting them down inside the garage again. “Uh, do you need some help with unloading anything-?”

“Actually, this is pretty much all my stuff. Aside from a few things here and there. Could you hold on for just a second?” A brief flash went off as she disappeared from view, before the mare reappeared behind the truck and channeled that same aura again to pull down the strap that held onto the shutter to close the back of it. Once it was sealed, she trotted over to the front of the truck and thanked the driver for helping her move her stuff.

As the truck driver began to pull out of the driveway, the unicorn came back over to where I was. “Sorry about that. Wanted to make sure that I told Reggie that I was good to go first.”

“Reggie?”

“That guy you saw earlier,” the unicorn replied, “He knows a friend of mine that lives not far from here and was just helping me move my things,” Around that point, her ears perked up. Almost as if she had realized something as she looked back towards me, “Oh right! I almost forgot. I’m Gizmo. What’s your name?”

“I’m Sam. It’s nice to-” Not a moment after I said, the unicorn started to giggle to herself, “Hey, what’s so funny?”

Gizmo just put a hoof to her mouth for a moment, before looking back at me with a smile, “S-sorry, but I have to ask… Is it normal for human names to sound so strange?”

That… was a first. I never had people ask me about my name the first time I met them. Then again, this was the first time I met an equestrian, so I’m not one to judge. “Why do you think my name is strange?”

“Well, you’re a girl. Though, you have a boy’s name.”

And now I see what might be confusing her. “Well, technically, it’s a name for both girls and boys. My name is actually Samantha, but I prefer being called Sam since it helps keep things short and simple.”

For a moment, I thought that I had to take some more time to explain everything to her. Though, before I had the chance to say anything, Gizmo caught me by surprise, “So what you’re saying is that the name that you have is something that can be used by both genders in human culture, but based on the specific pronunciation, it can be used for either male or female names?”

Okay… I definitely was not expecting that. One moment, she was being friendly and then the next thing I knew, she sounded like a professional scientist explaining what they were working on. Though, staying quiet was probably not a good idea, “Uh, yeah… l-let’s go with that.”

“Huh… fascinating,” though, just as quickly as the unicorn said that, she immediately came back to her senses and looked back at me, “Oh, uh… sorry. I kind of get really fixated on details sometimes. There’s just a lot of things here that are rather new that I’m still learning. Well, new to me at least-”

“Don’t worry about it,” I told her, which had Gizmo let out a sigh of relief as her ears flattened. I don’t know why, but watching her facial expressions and the way Gizmo’s ears acted while she was speaking was… almost cute. Is every other equestrian species like this too, or is it just a select few?

Though, that didn’t exactly seem important right now. If anything, what stood out to me was the majority of unopened boxes that were still in her garage. “Hey Gizmo? Do you need some help by any chance?”

“Huh?” she asked, tilting her head as her ears perked up again, “Help with what?”

“Well, you do have a lot of boxes,” I pointed out to her, “I can help you unpack and put your stuff away if you want.”

“Are you sure?” she now asked me, “I-i mean, a little help would be nice, b-but I don’t want to-”

“It’s fine, actually,” I insisted, “I didn’t really have anything going on this afternoon anyways. Just give me a second and I’ll be right on over.” As I said that, I walked back over to my car that was parked along the sidewalk and unlocked it with my car key.

As I opened the glove box and got out the remote to close the garage door, I was thrown a bit off guard. Mainly, because I realized that Gizmo had followed me and was now standing just a few feet away. Her attention wasn’t on me though, but on the remote in my hand. “What’s that?”

“Uh, this is the remote to my garage door.”

“Garage… door?” She asked again, looking back towards my garage and tilting her head, “Oh! Is that what that metal thing is called?”

Honestly, her question threw me off guard a bit, though I tried to answer her question the best I could. “Yeah, I can just close it with this. Watch.”

Immediately, I began to realize that what I said might’ve been a mistake. After pressing the button on my remote and putting it back in my glovebox, I soon found myself holding onto the same unicorn that I was talking to. The sound of my garage door closing caused the mare to jump like a startled cat. Yet, instead of landing back on her hooves, she instead landed in my arms the moment I was about to lock my car.

“Y-you made it move on it’s own!” she stuttered, “H-how-?”

I blinked for a moment, looking back at the unicorn as I slowly set her back down on the ground gently, “I… just pressed the button,” I honestly told her, “Do you… not have anything like that back where you’re from?”

“N-nothing like that,” she shook her head, “T-the only ones I’ve seen were the ones somepony would have to open it up from the inside. Like at carriage repair shops.”

It was then that a realization hit me. There were a lot of things that humans like me would use on a day-to-day basis that would seem unfamiliar to equestrians. Things like the internet, automobiles, and most modern technology were probably just a foreign concept to them. Though, I rather not immediately jump to conclusions so quickly. After all, I had a feeling that being named Gizmo wasn’t exactly for show.

“I… see,” I told her, “Gizmo, there’s something I have to ask. How… much about Earth do you know? Like, in general?”

“Only that things were a lot different here than back in Equestria,” the unicorn replied, “Though, I never really looked into the specifics before I crossed over.”

That answer pretty much told me everything I needed to know. Though, in my mind, maybe there was a way I could help her out somehow, “Well, if you want, I can answer any questions you might have while we unpack the boxes you have. Try to help make things… well, not so scary?”

Mere moments after saying that, the unicorn gave me a look of disbelief, “Y-you would do that? We only just met though.”

In response, I just let out a sigh and smiled, “Hey. Part of being a neighbor is to help anyone new that moves in feel welcomed. It’s the right thing to do,” With that in mind, I now locked up my car and began to walk over towards Gizmo’s new home, “Now come on. Those boxes you have aren’t going to open themselves.”

02- Face to Face(time)

When I offered to help Gizmo with unpacking the boxes in her garage, I was not entirely sure what was in those boxes to begin with. My first impression was that they contained most of the essential things that you would need to take with you whether you were moving into an apartment or new home. Some of those things included clothes, dishes, an extra pair of sheets as well as furniture. Yet, there didn’t seem to be anything else alongside the boxes that would tell me that anything needed to be assembled.

Though, as we were moving everything inside to where the living room would be, I was surprised to find that most of the home was already furnished with a couple of open boxes already opened. The furniture that was placed around the room contained a few chairs, a table and a couch. All of which definitely did not look like anything that Mr. Rochester owned in the slightest. If anything, the furniture looked more colorful and cartoonish.

“Alright, that should be everything,” the unicorn informed me as I watched her levitate a pair of scissors and begin to cut off some of the tape holding the boxes together, “Time to get everything out. Though, I kind of got a bit of a head start. Can you take care of what’s left in the box I opened?”

“Sure thing,” I replied, “What’s in it?”

“Just some things from my workshop back home. I brought out some of it already, so there shouldn’t be too much left in there.”

When I heard that, I felt a bit relieved at first. Though, when I actually opened the box and took a look inside, what I found was not exactly what I was expecting. Aside from the styrofoam packing peanuts, all that I could see looked like marbles. Numerous spheres of different colors and sizes, yet there was nothing else aside from their appearance that made them stand out somehow.

“Umm, Gizmo?” I asked as I grabbed one of the marbles out of the box and showed it to her, “Why is the whole box filled with marbles?”

“Oh, right! I knew I was forgetting something. Hang on just a second,” she said, before trotting over to me and taking the marble out of my hand as she held it with her magic. Turning it around and inspecting it from every possible angle, “Hmm, this one must be my desk. I guess I’ll place it over… here!”

Without warning, the unicorn threw the marble onto the tile floor in the small office room that was adjacent to the living room and shattered the sphere. A long bang went off that startled the crap out of me as I hurried over to see what happened. In my mind, I thought that some kind of explosive went off given how loud that was. Yet, what threw me off guard was that instead of a broken marble on the floor or some kind of blast area, there was a big hardwood desk with numerous drawers on both sides and what looked like some kind of toolkit inside one of them, “There we go. Perfect!”

“G-gizmo, w-what did you do?” I asked, my brain still trying to figure out what exactly had just happened.

“What? I was just breaking a spell,” she said at first. Though, I think afterwards, she noticed the confusion that was on my face, “Oh, right. I forgot to explain. Sorry about that. Happens a lot when I get carried away.”

“Y-yeah, I might need an explanation,” I admitted, “I don’t really… well, know a lot about magic like you do, from the sounds of it.”

“Well, I’m not exactly a full on expert on magic, per se. I’m good at magic, but I’m nothing like that of Twilight Sparkle,” Okay, either that is some kind of name for a brand of grape soda or that is the name of someone back in her world. Personally, I hoped that it was the latter, “If anything, I’m more of an inventor and tinkerer rather than a mage. Though, some of these spells do help from time to time.”

Before I could ask anything, Gizmo lifted up another marble from the box with her magic and levitated it over. The orb itself was the size of a softball and had numerous different colors around it, “As for these, before I crossed the portal to the other side, I placed a compression spell on all of my belongings. Enough to shrink it down to size without actually damaging anything.”

At first, I found it a bit difficult to try and understand everything. Though, after a couple of moments, it slowly began to make some sense… I think, “So, each one of these is something you own?”

“Pretty much,” the unicorn nodded, “Though, they’re not all the same size. Usually, the bigger ones are the heavier items that have more mass. This one right here has the bookshelf where I keep all my books,” After she said that, she moved the orb to me and dropped it in my hands, “Want to give it a try?”

At first, I wasn’t exactly sure. Even though I did offer to help, I didn’t know that helping her would involve exploding marbles and the like. Then again, nothing was really going to get done if I just sat around and watched Gizmo do all the work, “Sure, uh… Can you show me where you want this to be placed?”

The unicorn nodded, before leading me over to where she wanted it and instructing me on what to do. Turns out, when she said ‘breaking a spell’ earlier, Gizmo meant that literally. The only way to stop the compression spell was to break the orb through physical force and doing so would have whatever was stored inside revert back to its original size. Fortunately, the spheres that contained the items would disappear after being released, which made cleaning up afterwards a bit easier.

After we finished furnishing where Gizmo wanted to set up her personal workshop, we moved on to the rest of the house one room at a time. Though, there was one thing that stood out to me while we were working. A lot of the furniture and appliances that she happened to have brought with her were no different from that of some of the things that were back at my house next door. This came as a surprise to me, because I wasn’t exactly sure how advanced Equestrian technology was like. Even more so when you take into consideration that I didn’t think I would end up meeting one until today.

After what felt like almost an hour, we were finally coming across the last box that we needed to unpack. Though, something about this one was different. Not only was the box smaller than the rest, but it was just listed as ‘tools’. Which was strange since I thought that Gizmo’s tools were with her desk back in the office.

“Hey, Gizmo?” I now asked, picking up the box and setting it on the table in the dining room as the unicorn trotted out of the kitchen, “Do you have any idea what’s in this last box?”

“Oh hey! That’s where I kept my gadgets!” she beamed as she pulled out a chair for her to sit on. With a shimmer of her horn, the box moved closer to her as Gizmo began to rummage through everything inside, before setting the spheres on the table and teleporting the box to the pile of cardboard that we had in the garage.

“Your… gadgets?” I asked.

“I told you I was an inventor, didn’t I?” she replied back with a smile, before cracking open a metallic marble on the floor. From the orb, two silver colored wristbands were on the ground as Gizmo slipped them on her forehooves, before looking back to me, “Unlike a lot of the other ponies I was in school with, I wanted to use my magic to make things that can possibly help somepony who needs it. No matter what it is, I like seeing the joy on other pony’s faces when I see that my inventions can improve their lives.”

Before I could ask, I watched as the underside of the wristbands began to expand and cover her hooves. Around four particular points on the wristband, I could see these spikes start to grow out from the side, almost like they were claws. However, they weren’t exactly sharp and pointy and after a couple of seconds, the ‘claws’ began to move. Each one was moving individually, before they began to form a clenched fist as I looked back to Gizmo. “Well, what do you think?”

“I… wow,” Yeah, this wasn’t exactly the best time to be put on the spot. Especially since I’ve only just met her a couple hours ago, “Gizmo, that’s… very impressive.”

“I know right?” she told me, “I decided to come up with these as a way to help ponies with day to day tasks, without having the need to grab everything with your teeth. I used griffon and hippogriff claws as a reference and just worked my way from there. Only difficulty with this was that the materials to make it and the technology to have it connect to the nerves around the hooves is very hard to come by-”

At that point, she stopped and looked back at me. After a couple of seconds, she began to scratch the back of her head in embarrassment before looking at me. “S-sorry… I kind of get carried away when talking about the details of my work.”

“No no, it’s fine,” I assured her, “In fact, I’m honestly surprised. With things like this, you could help a lot of people who really need it.”

Gizmo, upon hearing me say that, had her ears drop down for a bit and looked away from me for a brief moment, “T-thank you. I… really appreciate hearing that.” Yet, despite sounding rather positive, her body language gave me a different impression. Her tail was moving from side to side and her back legs were shaking a bit.

“Gizmo, is everything alright?”

After hearing my question, her legs stopped shaking and her tail stood in place before she looked at me. The brief hesitation that I saw was immediately replaced with a curious and confident smile as she looked back at me. “I’m alright. Why do you ask?”

I will give you my all!

Oh come on! Out of all times for my phone to go off, why did it have to be now?

“W-who said that?” I heard the unicorn ask, looking around the room like she had just heard a ghost speak to her.

“It’s my ringtone,” I tried to explain to her, pulling my iPhone out of my pocket and showing it to her before getting out of my seat and heading to the door that led to the backyard, “Someone’s calling my phone right now. Hang on just a moment.”

I heard Gizmo say something else, but couldn’t entirely make everything out as I answered the call and put it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Hi Sam!” Oh dear, I knew exactly who that was. But why did she decide to call now of all times?

“Hey mom. How’s your-?”

“Sam? Sam, I’m seeing your ear, sweetie.”

Oh great, this is a FaceTime call? Well, we’re off to a great start…

“Hold on just a second,” I said, removing my phone from my ear and having it face towards me. I can see both of my parents on screen as I let out a small sigh, “That better?”

“Much better,” I now heard my father speak this time, “Though, where exactly are you? You’re not sneaking around the neighborhood and prowling around in someone else’s backyard I hope.”

“Yeah, about that,” Well, I guess there’s no turning back at this point. Either tell them or dad’s going to be suspicious of me for the rest of my days, “Hey mom? Remember when you said that we were going to be having someone move in next door?”

“I remember. The one moving in where Mr. Rochester lived at-”

“Wait, Mr. Rochester’s gone? When was this?”

“I told you last week, remember?”

This continued on for a bit longer than I had hoped for. When it came to my family, it always felt that there was some kind of ‘disconnect’ going on. By that, I mean that some people in the family know about something going on, but there’s always one person that’s out of the loop. Sometimes it’s mom and sometimes it’s me, though it was mostly my dad. I couldn’t exactly blame him though, considering his line of work in IT and Cyber Security.

Eventually, the conversation came back around to me. “So, what does that have to do with where you are now, Sam?”

“Well, they just arrived today and I offered to help them move all their things in,” I explained, “Mom wanted me to make sure that they felt welcomed, so I thought helping them with moving their things was a good way to start.”

“That’s very kind of you, dear,” I heard her reply, before Mom decided to ask a different question, “So, who’s the new arrival?”

Oh dear. How exactly was I going to explain this?

“Hey, Sam. Is everything alright?”

I felt my heart immediately skip a beat once I heard that voice. As I turned around, I found that Gizmo had just stepped outside and closed the door behind her with her magic. I get that she might’ve been concerned, but since the front camera of the phone was facing directly towards the door, both of my parents not only heard her voice, but saw her.

“I-is that… a unicorn?”

“Sam, what was that voice just now?” Gizmo asked, sounding rather confused as she tilted her head.

In my head, I felt as if I needed to say something. Not just to clear up my parents' confusion, but also Gizmo’s. “Gizmo, I’m actually talking with my parents now,” I told her, before turning the front of my phone towards her, “Mom, Dad, this is Gizmo. She just moved in next door.”

Despite both of my parents being put on the spot, they did make the effort to say hello to her. Though, unfortunately, the unicorn was still… processing, from the looks of it, “You’re parents… are in a box?”

“Wha-? No!” I immediately shook my head, “They’re just on vacation and decided to call me.”

“So, wait… You’re talking to your parents, yet they are not actually here right now?” She asked me before tilting her head in confusion.

“Yeah actually,” I tried my best to help clarify things for her. Unfortunately, it seemed that all I really did was just confuse her even more.

“They're not here, yet why can I hear them? Why can I see them?! Just what is that Celestia-blasted thing!?!”

At that point, there was only one thing I could really say as I looked back at my phone and heard the sound of Gizmo’s teleportation spell going off behind me. “Mom? Dad? I’m… going to have to call you back later.”

Author's Note

Poor Gizmo.

03- Virtual Assistant, Real Headaches

It might have been only a couple of hours since I had originally met Gizmo, but there were a few things I was already beginning to learn about her.

First and foremost, let me say this up front. After helping the unicorn with moving all of her belongings inside, one thing became immediately clear. Her capabilities with magic were beyond my comprehension. In the short amount of time that I’ve been with her, I have seen her levitate on various objects, teleport to and from different places in her house with ease and undo a spell she casted on her belongings to compress them to the size of a marble without so much as blinking an eye. Yet, all of this seemed natural to her.

Secondly, for being a unicorn that was as big as a great dane and as colorful as a Saturday morning children’s cartoon, Gizmo was rather smart. If you took the minds of both Leonardo Da Vinci and Nikolas Tesla, combined both of them together and put them in the body of a unicorn, then Gizmo would be the end result. She was an inventor and a tinkerer who wanted to use her creations to help other people who needed it most. Something that felt absent in this day and age.

Lastly though, one thing that I learned immediately was that some of the technology that humans like me use on a day-to-day basis was something that Gizmo was not entirely familiar with. This was demonstrated not just by her reaction to my phone, but also how she reacted after seeing me in the middle of a FaceTime call with my parents. My only guess as to why she acted that way was because technology like computers and cell phones did not exist back in Equestria. So seeing it for the first time, without even being told about what it is or what exactly it does would leave her especially confused.

What was going to be even more problematic was trying to explain everything in a way that Gizmo could possibly understand. The whole situation felt like one of those YouTube videos where a cat gets spooked by some household item and ends up overreacting. Only difference was that this involved a unicorn, whose IQ was more than likely higher than mine, overreacting to something that many other people like me would use on a daily basis. More than likely, this was probably not exactly going to end well.

After going back through the door at the back of the house, I began to look around to try to find where Gizmo ended up. Much to my original surprise, I found her inside the room that we had set up as her workshop and sitting at her desk. The unicorn was looking over what looked like some kind of book as her horn was lit up and pages were flying by every couple of seconds.

“Come on… come on,” I heard her speak to herself, “There has to be something here-”

“Gizmo?”

Just one word was enough to startle the unicorn and have her almost fall out of her chair. Luckily, she was able to catch herself before hitting the floor. “S-sam! Don’t startle me like that!!”

“S-sorry. I didn’t mean to surprise you ,” I apologized, hopefully putting the mare at ease. Though, around the same time, I decided to ask her about something as my gaze turned towards what was on the desk, “What were you doing, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Well,” she replied, looking away briefly before she looked back at me, “You know that… thing that you were using just now?”

“What, my cell phone?” I asked.

“Mhm. I was trying to go through my notes and look at the books I had to see if there was something that was similar to that in Equestria. But I couldn’t really… well, find anything,” Gizmo then closed up the book she had on her desk and opened up a drawer to put it away, “So, what exactly is it?”

Yeah. If you take into account what just happened a couple of minutes ago, then that probably was the case. Though, before I could say anything, an idea surfaced in my mind. It was getting kind of late and it was almost time for dinner, so perhaps it would be a good idea to have this kind of conversation over a meal. That and it didn’t look like Gizmo really had anything in her kitchen that she could eat aside from oats and trail mix.

“Hey Gizmo, I have an idea,” I said, looking back at the unicorn as she redirected her attention to me, “How about you come over to my place and I can answer any questions you have?”

For a moment, the unicorn just stared at me in disbelief. From the expression on her face, it looked like she was having a hard time trying to process what I said. “Y-you mean it?”

I nodded my head to reassure her as I gave her a smile, “Yeah. I was also going to make dinner soon anyway and I think it’s better if you share a meal with a friend.”

Oddly enough, Gizmo heard the sound of her stomach rumbling around the same time that I mentioned that to her. Which had the unicorn blush and look away in embarrassment for a brief moment, “T-that actually might be a good idea.”

When I opened up the front door and let Gizmo inside, the unicorn looked to be… spellbound, if that was the appropriate term, “This place is your home? It’s so much more spacious than mine!!”

“Yeah, my family’s home is a two story house compared to yours,” I told her, “We didn’t have this much space before the remodel.”

“Remodel?” She asked, “Like, rebuild the whole place?”

I quickly shook my head in response as I untied my jacket and set it on the back of a chair that was by the dining room table, “Not really. It was more or less just replacing the old flooring, a remodel of the entire kitchen and a complete overhaul of the backyard. We had to stay six weeks in a hotel while the whole thing was getting done.”

For a moment, it looked like Gizmo was pondering something in her brain, before she decided to ask me a question, “Did your old neighbor do anything… similar?”

“I honestly don’t really remember,” I told her, “I didn’t exactly talk with him that much. Sometimes, it was just exchanging a brief and friendly greeting, but nothing outside of that.”

Though, my mind was already thinking about shifting the conversation a bit, so I instead decided to ask my guest a question instead. “So, was there anything specific you were interested in having for dinner? I was going to start cooking, but I thought I would ask if there was something in particular that you’d like to have.”

“Well, I’m not really that much of a picky eater,” Gizmo replied back, “I mean, I like to get a hayburger every once in a while, but nothing else aside from that.”

Okay… that’s a new one. I mean, I know that there are hamburgers, veggie burgers and those ‘Beyond’ burgers made from plants that you could find at the store. Though, this was honestly the first time that I’ve heard of something like that. Maybe it was some kind of a meal that was unique to the world that she came from?

Now that she mentioned that though, something new popped up in my mind that I should ask about. “Is there anything that… you can’t have? Like meat or-”

“Not really,” she interjected, “I mean, I know that griffons eat fish… and we do eat eggs sometimes since baking is rather common back home. Does… that help?”

Well, it seems like you learn something new everyday then. “I think so… I just wanted to make sure,” I told her as I opened up the pantry and had a look inside. Though, the thing was, the pantry always seemed to be a mess no matter how many times I tried to make sure it stayed clean. Whether things had fallen off the shelves or dad just decided to leave something on the floor and not put it where it belongs, the pantry closet was always in some form of disarray.

As I was looking around this time though, I happened to find something that caught my eye. Angel Hair Pasta. Maybe there’s a recipe I can use with this that doesn’t involve meat? I mean, despite what Gizmo told me, I was thinking that ponies like her would stay away from chicken, beef and pork. If anything, they would probably just be sickened by the sheer thought of humans eating that stuff.

“Hey Gizmo, how does pasta sound?” I asked as I grabbed the pasta box and looked back towards the unicorn.

“Sure, I like the sound of that.” Gizmo beamed happily. That prompted me to get the necessary ingredients that I needed as I moved back into the kitchen. I knew a simple recipe that only required a few simple ingredients, which we fortunately had. Brown Butter Garlic Angel Hair Pasta. Sure, the name was a mouthful, but the instructions for making it were simple. Plus, the fact that there wasn’t too much cleanup afterwards was a bonus to me.

Yet, there was one thing I said as I was setting everything up and put the water on the stove to boil that I ended up making a mistake. “Alexa, set a timer for ten minutes.”

‘Ten minutes, starting now’

For context, my family has an Amazon Echo set up in the kitchen and my dad’s office. When he originally got it, my mom and I really weren't sure if it would be that useful at the time. However, since then, we have found use in it when it comes to managing day-to-day tasks, keeping track of lists like the one we use for groceries as well or just settle disputes. Seriously, when my parents can’t agree on something, I just say ‘Alexa, flip a coin’ and whoever had heads or tails would end up winning.

However, it was immediately after setting the timer that I realized something a little too late.

“W-who said that?!”

Yeah, it didn’t exactly cross my mind until after the fact that Gizmo might not entirely understand what an Amazon Alexa was. Yet, compared to her reaction to my phone earlier, her reaction was… rather tame. Something about this just didn’t feel right-.

“Sam!!” I jumped at the sound of Gizmo’s voice, turning around to see that the unicorn was now directly behind me, “Did you hear that voice just now?! Why didn’t you tell me that your house was haunted!?!”

Well, guess I spoke too soon on that one. “Gizmo, the house isn’t haunted-”

“Are you telling me that you didn’t hear that voice just now?”

“That voice you’re talking about is just Alexa,” I told her, before pointing to the Amazon Echo on the counter. Before the unicorn had the chance to speak, I decided to interject, “How familiar are you with technology? Like from Earth?”

“Well, I only heard about some things from other ponies that have traveled here before. Though, I wasn’t exactly sure if… well, if what they said was true or not.”

Okay, now it seems like we’re getting somewhere. “What kind of things, if you don’t mind me asking?”

For the next few moments, Gizmo tried her best to recall what she heard. As she was explaining it, I could take some of the things the unicorn told me and draw the closest comparison to them. Whoever she heard about this from, they were talking about some of the most commonly used pieces of technology such as computers, TV’s, the internet and even touch screen tablets. Some things that probably don’t even exist yet in their world.

Yet, there was a major difference between hearing about such things and actually seeing them in person. So to someone like her, who had been only seeing such things for the first time, she would definitely have trouble trying to understand everything since all of this was completely new to her. Not to mention that Gizmo didn’t seem to have anyone in order to teach her about these things.

“Um, Sam?” she now asked, “H-how exactly does that… help?”

“I was just curious, though I wanted to see how much you understood about technology,” I told her, “Some of the stuff that you told me just now sound a lot like things that I have around the house.”

“R-really?”

I nodded, turning away for a brief moment to get out the saucepan that I was going to need for later and then turning back towards Gizmo. “Yeah actually.”

“B-but… how does that relate to the voice?”

“Well,” I said as I began to think of a comparison that she could understand without flooding her brain with technical jargon, “Some of the things that you were mentioning can’t exactly do everything on their own. So, they have somebody to help them. Same goes for people too-”

“You mean… like a friend? An invisible friend?”

Heh, now we’re getting somewhere… I think.

“In a sense. Some people just see them as more of an assistant, but you can be friendly with them. Alexa can answer any questions you might have and happens to have a sense of humor if you ask her to tell you a joke.”

Of course, the one thing that I did not anticipate for Gizmo to do at that moment was to put what I said to the test. “Alexa, tell me a joke.”

The blue ring around the Amazon Echo soon lit up as we heard Alexa begin to speak, ‘What did one ocean say to the other?’ For a moment, it looked like the unicorn was actually going to answer. Though, she was soon interrupted as Alexa provided the answer. ‘Nothing. They just waved.’

Personally, I saw that joke as just corny. Though, to Gizmo, she actually liked it. I could hear her giggling in the background while I turned around to see that the water was already boiling. Which had me ask Alexa to cancel the ten minute timer I set earlier before putting the pasta in to cook. While that was happening, I grabbed the saucepan out of the cabinet and set it on the other side of the stove so I could make the sauce for the meal.

“Hey Sam, can this ‘Alexa’ do more than just tell jokes?”

At the time, I didn’t really have any idea where Gizmo was going with this. So, I just answered normally. “Yeah, it can do a lot of things such as checking any messages we might’ve missed, tell us what the weather forecast might be, check the news and so on.”

“Really? A ghost can do that?”

… Yeah, this was definitely going to take a lot longer to explain. Hopefully, it’ll be easier to do so over a good meal. As long as there weren’t any additional hiccups.

04- I'm sorry, you did what!?

For the most part, preparations for dinner and the conversation that ensued afterwards was something I could somewhat handle. Outside of a few different questions that we asked each other back and forth, there wasn’t anything that would be considered too daunting of a question to answer. As for the subjects themselves, they mostly consisted of things that she saw upon first stepping through the portal, but didn’t actually have the time to really ask about them. Most of the things she asked about included electrical appliances that were mostly common knowledge to us such as TV’s, computers and cellphones. Things that we would use on a day to day basis, but probably don’t even exist back in her world.

Luckily, Gizmo didn’t have any freakouts like she had earlier in the day. If anything, she was much calmer than earlier, which was honestly surprising. All things considered, I thought at one point she would freeze up and fixate on something like when you catch a cat’s attention with a laser pointer. The unicorn also helped with cleaning up the dishes after dinner was done, something I told her that she didn’t have to do, but insisted on helping anyway.

“So, what do you plan on doing when you get back home?” I asked, “Do you have any plans on what you want to do for your first night on earth?”

“Well, now that some things feel less alien to me, I was thinking of doing some tinkering. See if all my tools and such are still in working order,” Gizmo replied, before her horn lit up as she levitated something over to me, “Before I go though, I wanted to give you something.”

Give me something? What, like one of her inventions? “It’s not going to blow up, is it?”

“Oh no, silly,” she chuckled, before she had whatever she was holding drop into my outstretched hand, “It’s a key. Whoever had the place before me had an extra key on hoof, so I thought I’d give it to you. You know, for safekeeping.”

Okay, that was… sudden. Not really sure why I would need a key to her place anyways. With how friendly she was, Gizmo would probably be more than open to having me come over all the time.

“Thanks,” I replied, putting the key in my pocket as she looked back to me, “Did you want for me to walk you back or-”

“Nah, I got it. See you again!” With another shimmer of her horn, she was coated in a bright colorful light and disappeared. For a moment, my heart was racing since I was not sure where Gizmo had gone. Though, when I looked outside the window, that was when I noticed the same kind of light shine from the inside of the house.

Huh. Teleportation… who would’ve thought?

For the rest of the evening, I decided to try something different compared to how I would spend most of my nights. Instead of watching TV or playing any games, I decided to try something a little more creative. A couple of years ago, my dad and a few other people he knew had introduced me to different kinds of tabletop games. Though, out of the ones that they showed me, Dungeons & Dragons was the one that kind of resonated with me the most. Not just because of the fact that there were a lot of ways you can customize the character you want to use for a campaign, but because I was already familiar with its setting because some of my favorite books were from the Forgotten Realms series.

That and Critical Role taught me that when it comes to a campaign, anything can happen. Especially if your die is cursed by Wil Wheaton.

Tonight though, I wasn’t taking part in a campaign though. If anything, I was doing something more artistic. I had ordered a bunch of miniatures off of Etsy that had come in some time ago and I thought that now was the perfect time to at least get started. After all, I already have everything I need such as colors and brushes, so there was no time like the present.

At first, things were going well. Though, just as I was putting the finishing touches on the dragonborn barbarian that I was working on, that’s when things started to get weird. The lights from the ceiling fan above me were starting to flicker, before going out one by one. At first, I thought that the bulbs just went bad and that they needed to be switched out. Yet, when I went towards the garage to get a replacement, I flicked the switch for the lights… only to have myself still remain in darkness.

What the hell was going on-?

BOOM!!

Now my heart was racing. Nothing really happened in here, but that was awfully close. If anything, that sounded like it came from…

… next door. “Oh SHIT!!”

Immediately, I grabbed my shoes and bolted out of the house as I locked the door. As I raced out to the driveway, I began to notice that other homes had lost power and some people had difficulty trying to start up their cars. Yet, I was more focused on making sure my neighbor was okay.

Fortunately, since I still had the spare key, getting in through the front door was not too difficult. Yet, when I stepped inside, I was immediately greeted by the smell of smoke and the absence of power as all the lights were off. The closest thing I had to any form of light for me to see was the flashlight that I had on my phone.

Immediately, what I noticed was that the smoke was coming out from the door that led to the garage… and the sound of coughing on the other side, “Gizmo? Gizmo, can you hear me?!”

At this point, I wasn’t going to wait for a response as I forcefully opened the door and stepped inside. The garage was a complete mess, with pieces of melted plastic scattered everywhere along with what looked to be wires and more debris. When I found the unicorn, she didn’t look to be too hurt aside from soot and dirt in her mane and fur. Though, she somehow looked… disappointed?

“Aw man… now I can’t rebuild it,” she said in disappointment, before noticing me as she tilted her head, “Sam? What are you doing here?”

What am I doing here? Power just went out for the entire neighborhood, some people can’t even start up their cars and there was an explosion in your garage! And that’s your first question? … Nevermind, there’s more important things to worry about now, “What happened? Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah, I’m alright… though, I can’t really say the same for what I was trying to make.” the unicorn sighed in defeat.

Which led me to ask a rather important question, “Gizmo, what exactly were you doing?”

“Remember when you told me about some of the stuff you mentioned at dinner?” She asked, which had me softly nod, “Well, when I first arrived on the other side, one of the things I remembered was that one of the humans was watching something on their device. Something with a guy in a lab coat that had a cyan spiky mane, but he had a contraption that could make portals.”

Oh, I have a bad feeling of where this is going.

“So, I wanted to try and see if I could build something like that. I mean, it would be easier to use something like that then go all the way over to the portal at the border if I wanted to visit Equestria. Though, I might’ve gone a bit overboard in the spell that I used to try and power it because before I could even do any tests, it blew up.”

… You have got to be kidding me. The reason why the whole neighborhood was in a blackout was because Gizmo thought that she could create Rick’s portal gun from Rick and Morty!? Not only did that sound insane, but if she even got it to work, I would think that using it to travel back and forth to Equestria would be downright illegal.

“Well, I’m glad you’re not hurt,” I replied, “Though, can’t say the same for the rest of the neighborhood-”

Knock knock

And just when things were starting to somehow calm down. “I can get that.” I said, before heading out to the door to answer it. The first thought that came to my mind was that perhaps someone was coming by to see if everyone was okay. After all, quite a few people were outside their homes when I raced over to see if Gizmo was hurt.

Yet, when I opened the door, I found myself looking at something else entirely. For it wasn’t a human that was at the door, but another pony. They were the same size as Gizmo, but it was definitely not a unicorn. They had a darkened fur and mane, the mark on their flank looked like a misty horseshoe and had wings that resembled a bit. Though, the part that caught my attention was that they were wearing the uniform of a police officer.

“Excuse me, but are you the owner of the home?”

I shook my head, “No, I live next door. Is something wrong, miss…?”

“Mistral Step, officer of the CVPD,” the bat… pony told me. At least, I think that’s what it was. “We got a call about an explosion that was heard when the power went out. I’m here to see if everything’s-”

Before the office could continue, I heard the sound of hooves and turned to see that Gizmo had followed me out of the garage. Though, her gaze was more towards the pony that was at the door than me-. “Misty!! What are you doing here?”

Wait, what now?

“Oh, well this is an unexpected surprise,” the batpony spoke, just as caught off guard as I was right about now, “When did you-?”

“Just today!” she beamed happily, before looking at me, “Sam, this is the friend I mentioned earlier today. The one that knew that Reggie guy and had him help move my things!”

Okay, that was a lot to take in too fast. I remembered her mentioning that somewhat… but my brain was a bit more focused on the fact that the mare in front of me was Gizmo’s friend. Not to mention being a police officer. So, I was rather nervous right now, because I’d rather not have what I say be used against me in a court of law.

“I’m glad to see that you’re somewhat settled in,” she replied, “Though, would you mind explaining to me what exactly happened? And why did we get a call about an explosion from your house?”

… Well, so much for trying to relax this evening. I hope I have aspirin back at the house, because explaining this is going to be a major pain.

Author's Note

Fun fact, the dragonborn barbarian Sam was trying to paint is named Spike. Just... let that sink in.

05- Wake Up Call

“So, let me see if I understand this correctly,” I heard Mistral Step speak as she looked at both of us. We had to take the last ten minutes to explain to her everything that had transpired and led to what exactly unfolded just now in our neighborhood. Not just from my perspective, but also Gizmo’s, “Your neighborhood lost power because Gizmo here was trying to create something that only exists in a fictional cartoon that she got a glimpse of upon arriving here.”

“That… pretty much summarizes it, yes.”

“How was I suppose to know that’s fictional?!” Gizmo then protested, “It was bright and colorful just like Equestria back home! It looked entirely possible!”

“ … Oh sweet Luna, bless your heart,” Wait, was that some kind of curse phrase or something? Who was this Luna that she was talking about? “I’m not going to beat around the bush here. While it wasn’t your intention, you would be in deep trouble if Sam wasn’t here to help you and I wasn’t here to try and understand what happened. People would be quick to assume that this ‘accident’ was something far worse than it actually is.”

Gizmo was silent, processing everything that she said before letting out a sigh of relief. Though, before the unicorn could say anything, Mistral beat her to it. “That doesn’t mean you’re off the hook though. I’m going to need to make sure that you don’t try pulling any more stunts like this again. And just making a promise isn’t going to cut it.”

Then, she turned to me, “Which is why I’m going to have you keep an eye on her.”

Woah, hold up a minute! Did this bat pony, who I only met just a few moments ago, make me Gizmo’s parole officer? Matter of fact, why are you making me Gizmo’s parole officer!?

Before either of us could really ask anything, that was when Mistral spoke up, “Look, the fact of the matter is that what you would’ve seen as ‘normal’ back in Equestria nearly caused a panic on your first day here. So, I think it would be best if there was somepony that could help show you the ropes a bit so that this accident doesn’t become a frequent occurrence. Given how you and Sam are already familiar with one another, I think she would be the best option.”

“With all due respect, I don’t really think that’s something that a police officer can really ‘do’,” I replied.

“I’m not asking as an officer. I’m asking as a friend,” the bat pony replied, “A friend who would rather not have people think that somepony they know is making EMP bombs in her garage and their next door neighbor is their accomplice.”

… Well, shit. When you put it that way, keeping an eye on Gizmo doesn’t really seem so bad compared to the alternative. I mean, the last thing I would want to tell my parents was that while they were visiting family, the two of us terrorized the entire neighborhood by accident.

“You make a rather valid point.”

“I guess my work here is done then,” Mistral said, before looking back at Gizmo now, “By the way, you should’ve received a pamphlet or something when you crossed the border about Earth customs and such. Do you still have it?”

That question was simple, but Gizmo’s reaction to it and how she was nervously scratching the back of her head with a hoof did not really fill me with confidence. “Oh, that thing? I… kind of skipped that.”

You… what?

“ … How in Luna’s name did you just ‘skip’ reading that? You’re supposed to read it upon arriving here!”

“I have a perfectly good explanation!” the unicorn countered, “There was a Kirin that ended up setting her thingy on fire after going all ‘Nirik’ when the janitor rolled their cart over her tail. So, I gave them mine because I didn’t think I would need it.”

… Are we sure that Equestrians aren’t just different variants of oversized cats? Because that’s the kind of impression that I’m getting so far over the course of the last few hours.

At that point, Mistral was trying her best to maintain her calm demeanor, “Gizmo, just… let Sam help you out, alright? It doesn’t take a genius to tell that she’s been living here for quite some time, so it’s okay to ask for help. So please, be responsible.”

“Hey, I am responsible!” the unicorn protested.

“Okay, name one spell that shouldn’t be done under any circumstances.”

“Want it, need it?”

“… That’s on me, I set the bar too low.”

Wait a minute, did she just reference what I think she-

“Anyways, I gotta get going before my partner does anything stupid,” the bat pony sighed, “So please, don’t try to cause any more trouble, alright?”

And with that, the bat pony was now gone… I think now would be a good time to clean things up and go to bed. It wouldn’t be ideal to paint miniatures in the dark.

When I went to bed, I just wanted to clear my mind a bit after some of the chaos from last night. Rest my weary head so that I could be refreshed when morning finally came around. I still had to check in with my parents after yesterday’s debacle, but that could wait. I wanted to at least feel like I was at my best before diving head first into whatever was in store for me today. I mean, the power was probably back and a part of my morning might involve resetting the clocks on most of the kitchen appliances as well as making sure everything was working again before getting myself something to eat-

… Wait a minute, why am I hearing the sound of purring coming from the living room? My family doesn’t even own a cat and I’m hearing this. So what the hell was going on-?

“Oh, dear Celestia, NOT AGAIN!!”

At that, I immediately put on my robe and went downstairs, only to be greeted by the sight of none other than Gizmo sitting on the living room couch. All while the rest of the living room looked like a tornado went through it. Even though I did put away the miniatures I was working on after I came back, some of the paint was now in her mane and fur!

Yet, when she actually saw me, the unicorn was trying to play it off like it was no big deal. “Oh, h-hi. G-good morning, Sam.”

“Gizmo, how did you-?”

“I-i can explain,” Oh really now? Well, by all means, explain then, “You know what Somnambulism is? Like you might be asleep, but your body gets up and trots around?”

“You mean sleepwalking?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s supposed to be something that kind of disappears once somepony has reached their teenage years, though it’s not always the case,” Gizmo admitted, “Though, for unicorns that have to deal with it, it’s… harder. Since even though they’re asleep, they are still using their magic.”

Okay, now I think things are beginning to fall into place. Though, there was one last thing I had to ask, “So… are you saying the reason why you’re here and why part of my living room is a mess is because you teleported into my house while you were asleep?”

Gizmo’s only answer for that was just a nervous nod, followed by a sincere apology. Which probably answered every other question I could think of. Furthermore, it now prompted me to say something else. “Gizmo, you don’t have to apologize. Though, if I’m going to help you fit in and make sure you don’t get in trouble, then there’s a lot of things I need to cover.”

“Like what?”

“Well, to start, I need to know what kind of things do you have back in your world,” I told her, “Like for example, appliances. Do you have stoves, microwaves, washing machines-?”

“You have a machine that bathes you!?”

… To whatever pony god is watching me endure through this, please give me patience. I’m really going to need it.

Author's Note

I think there are days where we all feel like Sam.

Side note, I want say thank you to everyone who has enjoyed the shenanigans at play so far. Your support means a lot to me and I am really thankful for everything so far ^^
-Frost

06- SPLAT!!

Okay, seriously. When Mistral last night asked for me to try and keep Gizmo out of trouble, I didn’t know at the time that I had probably taken on a task that might’ve been too much for me to handle. Heck, I would’ve thought that Gizmo would at least show some level of restraint after what happened last night when she killed most of the power on our block.

Unfortunately, much like a kitten chasing a laser pointer after being introduced to catnip (don’t ask me how I know about this), that did not turn out to be the case. If anything, self-control was seen as more of an afterthought than anything else. For not only did she stare in awe at each of the appliances that I showed her around the house, but she was damn near close to disassembling the freezer unit in our garage when I was trying to look for something to have for breakfast this morning.

Then there was actually cooking breakfast this morning. Because Gizmo wanted to help, even though part of me was worried that if I took my eyes off her for a moment, she might burn the kitchen down. That and I wasn’t sure if she would be too thrilled at the sight of me trying to cook something like ham or bacon. So, I just stuck with some of the basics for breakfast that morning.

That was, until I asked for the unicorn’s opinion on the matter. “Hey, Gizmo. I was going to start making breakfast. Do you have any suggestions on what we should make?”

“W-what we should make?” she asked, unsure what to make of the question I just asked her, “You… want me to actually cook?”

“Well, I was asking what you wanted to eat, but if you want to help, I don’t see why not.”

Gizmo looked back at me with a rather nervous expression on her face, almost as if she was trying to determine whether or not to actually help out. “I g-guess I could give it a go. B-but fair warning, I’m… not that great when it comes to this kind of thing.”

So wait… you’re telling me that a unicorn genius who could put some of the contestants on Shark Tank to shame is not a good cook? Maybe she just needs someone to show her the way? Or at least, something with simple to understand instructions. Which gave me an idea.

“How about we make some pancakes? I remember my family still has a few boxes of pancake mix in the pantry. We can use that if you’re up for it.”

“D-does it at least have some instructions?” the unicorn asked again, still rather nervous.

“Yeah, the mix we would use always has instructions on the box,” I said, trying to put her mind at ease. I mean, since my family uses bisquick, the instructions for pancakes, biscuits or waffles would always be on the back with a simple recipe. So just following them step by step shouldn’t be too difficult of a task to do. I mean, it’s not like you’re being asked to perform surgery or build a car engine from scratch. I mean, despite Gizmo’s many apparent talents, I highly doubt working with heavy machinery was one of them.

Once I had actually gotten the box of mix that we needed, it was time to get the other ingredients. Mainly, we needed milk, eggs and vegetable oil. The recipe in itself was quite simple; just get the right measurements, mix everything together, separate them on a griddle to let it cook and flip when necessary.

Of course, simple to me. To Gizmo, trying to explain it was a bit harder than intended. So, I decided that the best course of action was to have me get the mix ready, while she would handle the griddle. After all, flipping pancakes should be simple, right?

I only began to realize the error in my way of thinking after showing a brief demonstration to the unicorn, before letting her try for herself. Because when it was time to flip the pancakes, she didn’t necessarily ‘flip’ them over like I showed her.

Instead, when she was using her magic to levitate the spatula, they shot straight up and made contact with the ceiling. The impact had pancake batter splatter everywhere, almost as if it was like a Mortal Kombat fatality. And to the unicorn, she saw this as if her worst fears were confirmed.

“I-I thought I did it right,” Gizmo said as her ears dropped straight down, looking away in shame, “I-I did it like y-you told me, but-”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” I tried to assure her, “Accidents happen all the time-”

“Y-yeah, but this a-also happens to me back home,” the unicorn pouted, “I t-try so hard to get it right, but s-something always goes wrong! I m-might get the ingredients right, but-”

“Woah, slow down,” I told her, trying my best to prevent the Gizmo Tear Waterworks from springing a leak, “Maybe there’s another way we could do this.”

“H-how though? How can I cook if I c-can’t use my magic?”

That’s when a thought hit me. There could’ve been a few different reasons for why Gizmo’s magic acted like that, but there might be a solution to the current problem. And surprisingly enough, the theory that was in my head involved one of the inventions that she showed me just the other day.

“Remember that invention you made that you showed me the other day? The two wristbands?”

“Y-yeah, but how-”

“Why don’t you go grab them and put them on,” I suggested to her, “I want to test a theory. If all goes well, we might have a solution to our…” At that point, the pancake that was on the ceiling fell and landed right on my face, “… mess.”

Gizmo was rather hesitant at first, but after a moment or two, she decided to go along with it and left to go get the bands. As for me, after cleaning up what dropped on my face, I began to prepare some smaller sized pancakes. They weren’t as big or fluffy as some of the other ones, but this was so that I could put the thought I had to the test.

Not a moment too soon afterwards did the unicorn come back with the bands fastened onto her front hooves as the claws I saw the day before began to move. “O-okay, I have them… w-what happens now?”

In response, I got out a second spatula from a nearby drawer and handed it to her. “Hold onto this and watch me. I think it was time we went back to basics.”

At the time I thought of my idea, I was very unsure about how well it was going to be. Yet, much to the surprise of both Gizmo and I, the results were much better than I had thought they were going to be. Not only did we not have any repeated incidents of pancakes hitting the ceiling, but we actually were able to cook a few other things alongside that without having any more accidents play out in the kitchen.

The food was rather good as well. Though, when we were eating, Gizmo had a question for me. “Hey Sam… you mentioned that you had a theory earlier. Could you tell me what it was?”

At the time she asked, I was just finishing a sip of coffee as I set my cup down on the table. “Well, let me ask you something then. How do you feel after last night?”

“Like physically? Mentally? You might need to be more specific.”

Fair point, I’ll give her that. “I mean your magic. How does that feel?”

At that, the unicorn tilted her head. Before giving me an answer. “You know, earlier I did feel a bit invigorated. Like… how should I put it…” she then glanced at the coffee mug I had just set down on the table, before giving me an answer, “Like that feeling of being really energized after drinking coffee, but to my magic. Though, that feeling’s kind of gone now. Why?”

Okay, that definitely confirmed quite a few things. “Well; if I had to take a guess, and don’t quote me on this, your magic probably might’ve been feeling some effects from that spell you cast last night. Like it unintentionally made your magic much stronger than it normally was supposed to be. I don’t know for sure, but that’s the only thing I could think of.”

At that, Gizmo’s eyes widened for a brief moment. Yet, it was enough for her to realize that I might have been onto something. “I think that… actually makes sense. I mean, it’s more logical than some of the other possibilities I was thinking of,” Then, I began to notice the unicorn’s eyes as they started to twinkle. “T-then it’s possible! I-I can actually cook!”

I… was just going to take it as a good sign. It made me feel rather happy to see her like this. To give her a feeling of hope felt like I was being more than just a neighbor. I was being a real good friend, one that would do their best to support them no matter what kind of messes they get into. Maybe this was the start of something like that?

“So, uh, can I ask you something? It’s not related to what we’re talking about, but I thought I would ask.”

“Oh sure, go ahead.”

“Well, before we started cooking,” she said, “I had to wash some paint out of my fur and mane. Though, what exactly were you using paint for? I don’t remember you mentioning about being an artist.”

That had me pause for a brief moment, before looking back to her when I had an answer, “Yeah, uh… that was for something I do as a hobby. I play this board game with my dad and a few friends of mine. We have different figurines for the different characters we use in our campaign,” To show her what I mean, I brought out the miniature that I was working on the other night now that the paint for most of it was dried. Just a few details on the axe were missing, but it was mostly done. I also brought out one of the figures that I hadn’t started working on yet to give a side by side comparison, “Of course, since they come like this, we need to do the painting ourselves.”

“Huh… that’s pretty cool,” Gizmo replied, “Kind of reminds me of a similar game back home. What’s the name of it?”

“Dungeons & Dragons.”

A shocked expression now emerged on the unicorn’s face, “Really? Wow… back home, the game we have is called Oubliettes & Ogres.”

Seriously? That’s… surprising. As Gizmo went on, some of these things she was talking about sounded a lot similar to things in the game. Just with some differences here and there. Though, there was one question that she said that I wasn’t entirely prepared for.

“If your game sounds a lot similar to mine, then can we try to play? It would be interesting to give it a try.”

… Okay, forget about what I said before about pony gods granting me patience. I need a blessing from Matt Mercer if I’m going to go through with this. Because even though I have played before, I had no previous experience as a DM whatsoever. That and I was worried that because of my lack of experience, it was going to affect how Gizmo would enjoy the game.

Though, if she really wanted to do this, then who was I to say no. “Sure. Once we’re done with breakfast, we’ll start working on your character sheet and then we’ll get started. Though, fair warning, there’s… a lot of things to cover.”

“That’s alright with me! I think we’re done anyways,” She said, before a flicker of magic teleported our dishes into the sink, “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started!”

… Okay, I think just from that alone, I know what her alignment is going to be.

Author's Note

Next time... Roll for Initiative.

Next chapter's going to need a bit more time, for there's going to be a lot to cover... and things are going to get crazy.

07- All Fun and Games (Part 1)

“So, how should we get started?”

To many people who would ask this, the question would be a rather simple one to answer. However, given my current situation, there was nothing simple about it. D&D was not exactly a game you could just pick up and play. There was normally some preparation that had to take place whether it was coming up with the campaign itself or creating the characters for it. I mean, given the length my dad goes to be the DM everytime we do a game night, I knew that he put a lot of work into them.

So, trying to come up with a lot of this on the spot was something else. That and this would be the first time I actually try to do it myself. I was going to need time to come up with a setting, probably even do something from scratch. Though for now, we can start with something in particular as I got out the player handbook, a handful of other books my dad kept in his office as well as the DM screen and the dice we were going to need. Heck, if all went well, then we might have a new member to join our D&D group.

Of course, we would need to see how things would go here beforehand. “Well, let’s start with character creation,” I told Gizmo, getting out a fresh clean character sheet and a pen as I started to write a couple of things down, “After all, before we can start anything, we need to determine who you want to be.”

“That sounds simple enough,” the unicorn asked, “Quick question first… Is there a job similar to Tinkerer?”

“Tinkerer?” I now asked, really unsure about whether they’re talking about something that sounds like a rephrased class or something purely homebrewed.

“Well, in Oubliettes & Ogres, one of the jobs that was added later on was called the Tinkerer. They were creatures that were knowledgeable with ancient artifacts and fought using various contraptions and things they crafted.”

Just from that explanation alone, I had a pretty clear idea as to what class would be perfect for her as I grabbed the copy of ‘Tasha's Cauldron of Everything’. “So, an Artificer then?”

“An artisan?” She asked, puzzled.

“No no, artificer,” I corrected her, trying my best to recall what I remember, “They’re masters of invention that use their cleverness and capabilities with magic to unlock the true potential of objects, whether magical or otherwise-”

“Oh, that sounds definitely like me! I’ll be that then,” Gizmo quickly interjected, not even giving me a chance to finish what I was saying. I knew that she was eager in order to play, but this… was something else. If all Equestrians are like this, then I would definitely be worried if Gizmo decided to have a roommate stay over at her place.

“Okay, you’re an artificer then,” I told her, before trying my best Matt Mercer impression, “Though, what kind of Artificer are you? Because in D&D, you might have picked a class, but each one of those classes have different subclasses. Each with a different approach and way for you to play.”

“Huh… That’s a bit different compared to what I would play back home,” Oh really? How so? “Back home, there wasn’t anything like that, but players could find these items called spellbooks that would teach their characters new abilities and they can change what abilities they have set at any given time.”

Huh. That sounds a lot like Divinity. Though, now was not the time to get distracted about such things.

“What options do I have?”

Going back through the pages, I began to list her choices and even had her look at the book I was looking at so she could familiarize herself with the three main subclasses for the artificer. Or, as they were referred to as in game, Specialists. Alchemists, if you were wanting to end up being a potion brewer that some adventurer would want to randomly ask if they can be given their strongest potion. Artillerists, for if you wanted to make a battlefield sound like the symphony of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. And lastly, Battlesmiths, for those who wanted to do their best impression of Reinhardt from Overwatch (with some support utility included). There was an additional subclass in one of the other books, but for Gizmo’s first time playing, I didn’t want to make things sound overly complex. I mean, she wouldn’t unlock this until level three, but getting this out of the way would at least make things move along a bit easier.

“If you need some time to think it over, I can wait-”

“I think I like the second one the most.”

… Oh dear god, I live next door to pony Tchaikovsky. I just hope she doesn’t take what she can do in game and somehow try to replicate it in real life. She already tried that once last night and basically rolled a nat 1 on that.

“I see,” I replied at first, before deciding to ask if Gizmo was certain that she wanted to pick that subclass, “Are you sure that you want to have your character be an Artillerist? They’re more of a ranged specialist and don’t exactly have a lot of capabilities if someone comes into close proximity.”

The unicorn nodded her head, “It’s the closest thing to the kind of playstyle I would use in Oubliettes & Ogres. I would have tinkered and created these enchanted crossbow turrets to attack a monster from range while another party member would try to fight up close and personal. Also had a couple of talents that involved being able to identify items and equipment that had hidden potential.”

I’m… not sure if that kind of thing counts, but considering what I mentioned earlier about an Artificer being able to discover the ‘true potential of objects’, I… think that qualifies? … Eh, I’ll roll with it. Doesn’t sound like too much of an issue and if it does, I’ll cross that bridge when we get there-.

“So, what’s next!?” Gizmo interrupts my train of thought, almost knocking over some of the stuff I have on the table with the energy of a very hyper puppy who just found a ball.

“S-slow down, Gizmo, this takes a bit-” Yet, before I could finish, she eyes the player handbook I had left on the right side of the table and picks it up with her magic. Next thing I know, pages were flipping by from one side to the other as I saw her eyes move from side to side. After about two minutes or so, she places the book down and looks back to me with a smile.

“Alright, done.”

“Done?” I asked her, puzzled beyond belief at a few of the things that just transpired, “Done with what?”

“Reading, of course!” She giggled, “I used a speed reading spell to go through that handbook thingy! Speaking of which, I know what race I want to use. Though, I’m still trying to figure out a backstory. There’s two in mind, but I really quite put a hoof on which one.”

… Holy shit. She was able to figure that out in one look? I had not even remotely touched upon those subjects yet! … Let’s just humor her for a moment. See where that might lead.

“Oh? What did you choose for your race?”

“Gnome,” she smiled, “More specifically, Rock Gnome.”

Okay, that made way too much sense. Though, the fact that gnomes were always in a constant state of excitement had me a bit concerned that Gizmo would have me bouncing up the walls by the end of the session. “And for background, what exactly are you stuck on?”

“Guild Artisan or Sage. What would you think is the best choice?”

What would I think is the best choice? It’s your character! It should be you who has the final say on what your character is.

Though, fortunately, it didn’t take long for her to come to a solution, “A-actually, upon looking back, I think Sage is better… Is that it?”

I shook my head, before handing over two different dice. The first being a d8, with the second being a d6. “Not quite. We’re going to need to determine a few things about your character first, which is where the dice come into play. Now, do me a favor and roll the d8 two times for me.”

“D8? Oh, the eight sided one. Alright,” She said, before picking it up using her hooves this time (since she still had the bands on) and rolled like normally. “First one was a six… second was a seven. What does that do?”

“Well, the first roll determines your specialty. Like, you might be a sage, but what kind of sage are you,” I explained as I proceeded to read from the handbook again, “Since you rolled a six, your character is a researcher. The second roll revolves around your character’s personality trait.”

Before I even got started there, I noticed Gizmo shiver a little. “O-oh? W-what did I roll f-for that?”

“Well, a seven means that you are horribly awkward in social situations.”

At that point, I heard an audible ‘gulp!’ come from Gizmo. Part of her looked really nervous, though, she was trying to give off the impression that she was fine with it. “S-so, what’s next?”

Now comes the point where all the numerous chart memes come into play. Alignment. “Next, we’re going to determine your character’s ideals. Take the six sided die and roll that for me two more times?”

Hearing the die hit the table two more times, she then has an answer for me. “One and Three. What the hay does that mean?”

“Well, the first one means that your character believes in the idea of knowledge and that knowledge is the path to power and self improvement,” I told her, “As for the three you rolled, it means that you also value logic as an ideal. That every question has a particular logical answer to it and that your thoughts and emotions shouldn’t cloud your logical thinking. Which means your character is Lawful Neutral.”

“Huh?”

Well, I guess I need to simplify things a bit, “It means that you have a personal code or standards that you follow. Unlike other characters you might come across on your journey, you aren’t so easily swayed by others. Though, this works both ways. While your character might not be so inclined to help others who really need it, it also means that you’re not one who gives into the temptation of evil. Honorable and reliable, yet not a fanatic who would go to questionable lengths to make ends meet.”

“Oh, I see,” the unicorn now replied, “Yeah, I can go with this. So, what’s next?”

“Well, three things come to mind,” I told her, “The first two require two more dice rolls with the one that you just used, while what comes after that is more of sorting out numbers. Though, let’s get the dice rolls out of the way first.”

Gizmo nods her head, before rolling two more times. “Three and Four. Though, what exactly are these rolls for?”

One quick look back at the Handbook and… oh boy. This will be a bit of a doozy to work with. Now to answer her question, “The first roll is about your bond. What exactly you would fight for. Three means that your character works hard to preserve a library, university, scriptorium or monastery and keep the knowledge that they hold safe. Now, the second roll determines your character’s personal flaw.”

Gizmo hesitated briefly, before looking back over to me with a nervous look on her face. “A-and what’s my character’s flaw?”

“When it comes to solving problems, you overlook the obvious solution in favor of something more complex.”

That had Gizmo’s eyes widen for a moment, before letting out a hesitant sigh. “Man, and I thought I had just overcome that phase in my life.”

… I would ask, but I don’t really think it’s that important right now. Plus, it sounded a bit personal.

“So, you mentioned that we had to do some kind of number thingy, right?” she quickly changed the subject to try and get it back on track, “What’s that about?”

“Well, that involves your character’s stats, or ability scores. Stuff like Strength, Intelligence, Constitution. That kind of thing,” I told her, before taking the character sheet I had and showing it to her. Going as far as to point at the box that had the stats I was referring to. “Different DM’s have a way of how players distribute points into these areas, but how we’re going to do it is simpler.”

When it came to coming up with characters, the people I played with stuck with the Standard Array setup when it came to skill points. The players would be given six different numbers (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8) and use them to fill the different slots. Typically, the highest numbers would go to where their class was most proficient at, but there was still some level of choice. There was also the point buy system, but that felt more like an excuse to have people make their ‘perfect’ character without going into Mary Sue territory.

Or as JoCat would put it in his D&D Crap Guide’s, that system was mostly used by people ‘who needs to meticulously make your perfect OC or else it won’t be faithful to your precious self-insert’. God, don’t even get me started-

“I figured out what to put my ability scores in.”

Well, that was fast. Though, I did not expect for her to go as far as to actually take the pen that I had and start writing them down herself. Alright, let’s take a look.

-Strength: 8

-Dexterity: 14

-Constitution: 13

-Intelligence: 15

-Wisdom: 12

-Charisma: 10

… Why do I have the feeling that either Matt Mercer or some other D&D god is somehow playing a hand in this? I mean, I did not even explain anything about her character's proficiencies and yet, this would be the best ideal ability allocation for an artificer. Was it just sheer dumb luck… or was it possible that the game she played back in her world was a lot more like D&D than I thought it would be?

“Okay, that checks out,” I replied, “And just so that I can remember, what’s your character’s name?”

“Primrose.”

So Primrose the Artificer? That is a new one. Though, I’ve heard weirder names on Critical Role and some of those characters have become fan favorites like Grog, Jester and Taryon Darrington. Hell, Grog and his crazy shenanigans were the reason why I wanted to try a barbarian in the first place.

While there were a few other things that I personally wanted to try and straighten out first such as inventory, I didn’t want to make Gizmo wait too long. Plus, I think I might have an idea on what to do for this session. “Alright. Let’s set the scene.”

Author's Note

Trust me... this took a lot longer than expected. Mainly since I was trying to come up with something that not only made sense, but also make it so that Sam didn't quite know what she was doing. After all, she is new to the whole thing.

Also, my personal headcanon on Oubliettes & Ogres is that there are 'preset' classes, but the characters can change their abilities to match what they feel most comfortable with or what they think is cool. Much like how the system is for Divinity (Just started playing Divinity Original Sin II, went with a conjurer setup, but added some of the wizards pyromancer skills to complement what I was going for).

Also, I might not exactly go with one of the original D&D adventures for the rest of the chapter/campaign and more like make up the adventure as I go since the campaign is meant as a one shot.

07- All Fun and Games (Part 2)

So, to begin Gizmo’s journey, I started with something straightforward. I had her character arrive in a town I named Port Lunaris and after a successful history check, Gizmo learned that the town was originally founded by followers of Selûne, the goddess of the moon when they were on pilgrimage. It was a seaside city that was home to many scholars, adventurers and sailors alike and the light of the moon shimmered over the coastline. Given her character’s background as a sage, she had a letter from a dead colleague containing a question that had not been answered and part of her backstory was to come pick up on the research that her colleague was not able to finish.

Unfortunately, her luck at the start was starting to wind down, “You arrive at a dusty old tavern with a wooden sign out front that reads ‘The Royal Flush’. Given how late it is this evening, there are not many patrons around. The only people you would notice as you walk in is a female Tabaxi with light yellow fur and a few brown spots in a four pointed diamond shape pattern behind the bar, cleaning out empty mugs with what you see as a dish towel and a red skinned Tiefling with short black hair. The tiefling is dealing a deck of cards to what look to be a human and an elf as they’re conversing among themselves. The only one unoccupied is the one at the bar. What do you do?”

“One question first,” the unicorn asked. “What’s a Tabaxi?”

“Tabaxi are anthropomorphic cat-like creatures, who have all the different traits of cats while also being bipedal. They’re known to be a rather curious bunch, but it depends on who-”

“Oh, so like the abyssinians back home!”

The… what?

“Oh, right,” Gizmo snapped her attention back to the game before I could inquire more, “Given that the Tiefling is occupied, I’ll try to talk to the Tabaxi at the bar.”

Alright, here we go. Time to voice my first NPC. “The Tabaxi would be surprised when she notices you and sets down the mug she was cleaning. ‘Well, hello there. Haven’t seen your face around these parts before. I take it you’re a newcomer to town or just passing through?’”

“The former,” she replied, going into character on her part while trying to find the sweet spot between professional and uncomfortable, “I-it’s a bit of a long story. Trying to find a place that belonged to a friend of mine that r-recently passed, though the journey here has left m-me a bit weary.”

“The bartender would look at you with a sympathetic glance in her eyes. ‘My condolences. Must be difficult to try and process the passing of a friend.’ Given what you just shared, the Tabaxi would assume that you would want to have something to ease your troubled mind, while also introducing herself. ‘The name’s Jack of Diamonds, though all the locals call me Jackie. Is there anything I can get for you? Maybe a drink?’”

“N-no, I don’t think that would help,” she shook her head, “Just need a place to rest my head.”

“Jackie would smile at that, before stating something else in addition to that. ‘If that’s the case, The Royal Flush does have lodging available. Provided that you have the gold to pay, that is. After all, not all of our funds come from the lack of success most of our guests have at the card table.’ As she said that, you would notice that the tiefling would be counting up how many coins were in the pile that he had just liberated from the two at the table. A sizable amount for sure.”

“H-how much would that be?”

Now was the kicker. Let’s see how Gizmo could work her way out of this. “Jackie would point to a wooden sign along the back counter that would have the word lodging carved in capital letters, along with a list of prices, ‘Since you’re by yourself, one night would be sixty gold, with five gold every other night you stay afterwards. However, unless you have a specific reason for an extended stay, you’re only allowed to stay for roughly a week. Not exactly what I would do, but I’d rather not argue with my boss.’”

For a moment, I watched as the unicorn twitched in her seat, before looking back at her character sheet as the realization set in. Despite the starting items she had for her character's background as well as her class, the one thing that she did not have a lot of was gold. If anything, the price that I had Jackie tell her was six times higher than the amount of gold that she started with. This was intentional though, because I wanted to see if she could be calm under pressure and see how she would do if she had to roll a specific check where she did not have a proficiency bonus. For her only two proficiencies were Arcana and History.

“T-that’s definitely high,” I heard her say, no longer speaking in character.

“It is,” I nodded, “So, what do you plan to do?”

“C-could I convince the bartender to make an exception? M-maybe give me a discount?”

I knew what came next. “Roll a persuasion check.”

One roll of the dice and immediately, the results were clear, “Uh oh… I got an eight.”

“Yeah, that’s… not going to cut it,” I had to inform her. At least she didn’t roll a nat one. Otherwise, that would be the worst case scenario, “Despite you telling the bartender that you can’t pay the full price and asking if there was a way to reduce it, Jackie shakes her head. ‘Yeah, that’s not how things work around here. If I gave a reduced price to you, then everyone else around town and passing through would expect the same kind of treatment. Which my boss sees as bad for business since we’re barely keeping our head above water.’ Though, after she finishes speaking, you would notice her look over to the Tiefling at the card table one more time. The two other figures at the table are gone, but in their place is a sizable amount of gold, something that made the Tabaxi grin.”

“Oh dear.”

“‘Tell you what… the amount of gold that Ace was able to take off the hands of those deadbeats that were just in here is more than the usual share and could make up for your stay tonight. However, in order for you to ‘pay’ for your stay, you’re going to have to do us a favor.’”

“W-what kind of favor?” Gizmo asked, trying to stay in character.

“The Tabaxi would look over to the Tiefling for a moment and tilt her head, a sign for the card shark to come over and join the conversation. After a small conversation among themselves, the Tiefling introduces himself as Ace of Spades,” I told her. New character, new voice. Really hope I do well with the impression I’m going for with this, because I’m going for the ‘Twisted Fate’ impression with this. “‘Well, ah’ll be. Ya really think that she can lend us a hand, Jackie?’”

Now for Jackie to speak, “‘It’s not like she has much of a choice. Plus, considering how long the boss has been gone, I would prefer for someone to find him alive rather than a corpse on the side of the road. He’s the only thing keeping this place together.’”

“‘Really? Ya sent that dragonborn to go look for them already,’ The tiefling says, before looking to you, ‘What makes you think your little friend here can-.’”

“I roll for intimidation.”

That… threw me off guard almost immediately. “What?”

“You heard me. Prim wouldn’t stand by and have herself be called out like that, so I roll to intimidate.”

Okay, I was not really expecting this. Though, like with persuasion, she did not have any stat modifiers. “Okay, I’ll allow it, but you’re going to need a very high roll to-”

“Haha!! Twenty!”

Oh my god, are you kidding me? Forget pony Tchaikovsky, I have pony Edward Elric sitting across from where I was at our dining room table.

Well, if the dice say so, “So, how would you ‘intimidate’ him?”

“I would stand up on the barstool and take out the knife that’s in my bag,” Okay, that checks out. Knife is one of the starting items in her background, “Then I would say ‘D-don’t. Call me that. Ever.’”

“Immediately, the Tiefling would raise his hands up, caught off guard by the fact that a stray comment provoked such a reaction from you. ‘H-hey, easy there. Ah didn’t mean to offend. With so many faces in town, it’s difficult to tell what some races see as offensive and others see as you pulling their leg. Didn’t mean anything by it.’ At the corner of your eye, you would see Jackie nodding her head. A possible sign that he was being true to his word.”

“I put the knife away, before looking at Jackie so I can explain myself, ‘S-sorry, it’s… a personal thing. B-bullied a lot as a kid for being small, s-so-.’”

“‘Say no more, I understand.’ Jackie would tell you, ‘Now, before we continue where we left off, would you be so kind to introduce yourself. I mean, we introduced ourselves, so it would be polite for you to do the same.”

“‘Primrose.’” Gizmo replied, with a cute squeak added for extra effect.

“The Tabaxi would fold her arms, ‘What a nice name,’ she replied, before looking over to Ace, ‘Now that we all are familiar with one another, would you care to bring our friend up to speed Ace?’”

“‘Of course,’ As the tiefling speaks, he snaps his fingers as magic flows around him, taking the form of playing cards as he places two of them on the table for you to see.”

“Is there anything on the cards?” the unicorn now asked.

“You see the image of two half-elves, male and female, both with chestnut hair, sky blue eyes and light skin. They’re dressed in casual attire and the female is holding a lute. Both of them were also wearing special silver pendants, with the male wearing the symbol of a club on his and the female had the symbol of a heart. ‘To put a name to a face, these are Erric and Elynas. Though, they’re more commonly known around here as King of Clubs and Queen of Hearts. They’re the proprietors of the tavern and, from time to time, they would have to leave Port Lunaris on business. However, that was a few days ago and they haven’t returned.’”

“‘You t-think something might’ve happened to them?’”

“‘There have been occasions where their stage names have gotten themselves in trouble in the tavern, but not to the point that we can’t handle it. However, considering that this might’ve occurred outside the city, that’s where things get difficult.’ Another snap of the Tiefling’s fingers and the cards disappear. That is, before a new card is drawn and placed on the table. This time, the figure on the card is a massive blue scaled figure with features you would normally find on a dragon. He wore barely any armor, except for a belt around his waist, leather shoulder pads and greaves. The figure also has the skull of a wolf on the left shoulder, something that could be seen as a trophy. ‘We asked a local who was friends with Erric and Elynas to see if he could look into it. Yet, since they’ve not returned, Jackie’s concerned that he might’ve come across something too difficult for him to handle.’”

“‘S-so wait… you’re asking me to find and help him? Where would I even look?’” Gizmo questioned.

“‘We know that they were heading east towards the Capital City of Skystead, but outside of that, the only things we know are what the guards tell us and they claim to have not seen anything unusual.’ Jackie told her, ‘Still, getting them back is more important than you might think. Those two helped us turn our lives around and we would be locked up in a gaol cell if it weren’t for them. They’re that important.’”

“I motion to the card on the table, ‘S-so, I… find him, help him find who he’s looking for… and then everything’s all good.’”

I look back to her, before letting out a small breath, “‘Why yes, that is the arrangement, ah reckon. Unless you have second thoughts.’”

“‘N-no no!! That’s fine. W-works for me! Definitely on board!!’” Gizmo squeaked. I wasn’t sure whether or not she was having her character panic or if she was actually panicking, but she was doing rather well.

“The Tiefling would smile, before using his tail to raise up your arm as he extends his hand to shake yours. ‘Well, ah guess we have an agreement then. Keep the card though. It’ll probably be the only way to convince our ‘friend’ not to assume you’re an enemy. He’s… not exactly one for conversation and solves most problems with either brute force or with the business end of an axe, if ya catch my meaning.’”

By that point, I took a moment to see that a couple of hours had already passed since we started. So, I took a moment to get up out of my seat as I looked back at Gizmo. “Let’s take a quick break first and then we can get back at it. Are you enjoying this so far?”

“Oh yeah, this is FUN!” She smiled, “Can’t wait to keep this thing going!”

Author's Note

So far... well, Gizmo's kind of gotten into some hot water, but nothing too much she can't handle. More parts will be coming soon.

As a personal note, anytime that the characters are talking in italics and/or have apostrophes around their dialect, it's when Sam and Gizmo are speaking in character. Some of the locations are also places that Sam came up with on her own, though there are a few bits that she remembers from DND's lore, such as the goddess Selûne

Fun Fact: The Royal Flush and it's occupants are a reference to different playing cards as well as some other characters too like DC's The Royal Flush Gang. Ace is also a reference to Twisted Fate in League of Legends, for they speak similar accents and have magical abilities that take the form of a set of cards.

Another fun fact: As I was preparing this chapter, this happened to be announced.

A Borderlands Spin Off game set in the fantasy world Tiny Tina created in Bunkers and Badasses. Now I want in.

07- All Fun and Games (Part 3)

Half an hour after we started our break and got a couple of snacks, we were both back at the table and ready to pick up where we left off. I had things transitioned to the following morning and before she went off to head towards the destination I intended, Gizmo had her character go through Lunaris’s marketplace. When I asked why, her answer was simply inventory management, which I didn’t get until after she found another NPC that sold different types of tools.

Now, for this to make sense, there’s something I need to note. The starting equipment for the artificer included two simple weapons, a light crossbow, ammunition, a choice of armor, thieves tools and a dungeoneer’s pack. Though, given the sage background she already has, her character is already in possession of a knife. Not to mention that for some of the abilities of the artificer to work properly, such as Infusion, they needed proper tools. So, Gizmo decided that instead of keeping the two simple weapons around, she bartered the weapons with a merchant in exchange for some extra tools to keep on hand. A smart move, though I’m not sure how long a simple knife was going to last for her.

Luckily, it didn’t take too long for her to reach level 2 as one of her combat encounters involved a pair of bandits that tried to ambush her while she was coming down the main road. Not only was the extra level good, but it also meant that she unlocked Infusions, with the particular ones she chose being Armor of Tools (UA), Repeating Shot, Replicate Magical Item and Returning Weapon. The first three I understood… though the last one kind of confused me. Because outside of her knife, she didn’t have any other weapons that could be considered as throwable weapons. Maybe there was something I didn’t know that she had planned. Guess it remains to be seen.

Now though was when things got interesting, “As you proceed further up the road, you do not see any signs of bandits this time. Instead, you see what looks to be a wooden carriage turned over on its side, with pieces of it broken and wood scattered everywhere you look. What do you do?”

“I approach the turned over carriage carefully so I can look for clues. This doesn’t seem normal, so perhaps something happened here.”

Well, outside of the obvious, I didn’t know that Gizmo was the investigative type. Then again, when I first met her, there were a lot of things I didn’t know about her either.

“Make a perception check.” I instructed, before she rolled the d20 again as another number came up.

“Sixteen.”

Alright, she cleared it. “As you look closely at the overturned carriage, you notice what appears to be the remains of makeshift explosives. Not to do actual damage, but enough to force the carriage onto its side. Someone had planned an ambush. You can also see that the door to the carriage was forced open.”

“I circle around the cart, being careful of where I step,” the unicorn told me, “Once I turned to the point where the top of the cart is facing me, I take a look inside to see if there’s anything in there. Perhaps a clue that could tell me who was inside,” she replied, “Do I roll for perception again?”

“Actually, no,” I said, something that caught her by surprise. “Because just as you reached it, you would spot something in the mud. A wooden box held together by a lock.”

“Can I use my tools to open it?”

I looked back at the guide briefly just to double check on how someone can use thieves tools, before I had an answer for her. Just to be on the safe side. “You can, but you’ll need to roll a dexterity check.”

Gizmo was quick to roll, before looking at her character sheet, “Eleven, but I also have a modifier of plus two, so I think I’m safe.”

If she was a little higher, maybe. Though, Eleven was not quite enough. She’ll get it open, yes. However, those tools of hers won’t be intact. “While you were able to eventually get the box open, your tools were broken in the process. Inside the box though was something you recognize. The two pendants that you had seen previously on the cards of Erric and Elynas that Ace had shown earlier as they shimmered when the light of the sun reflected on them. Not only that, but you also see the words ‘The Royal Flush’ carved onto the inside of the box under the lid.”

“‘This must’ve belonged to the two of them. Though, this doesn’t help at all with where they might be now.’” Gizmo grit her teeth as she tried to think to herself how to proceed. After a couple of minutes, I was beginning to get the impression of that one meme from Invincible. With Gizmo shouting at her character saying ‘THINK PRIMROSE, THINK!!’ because right now, it looked like she was having trouble trying to determine what exactly to do next.

Though, before my mind could wander elsewhere, the unicorn had a new question. “Would I notice anything else? Not within the vicinity of the carriage, but outside of it?”

“Roll for perception again.”

One more dice roll and the results are in. “Fourteen.”

Again, barely made the threshold. Any lower and that roll might not have been successful. Though, now might be the time to keep things going. “You notice that heading north, there are a series of footprints-”

“What’s a footprint? Is it like a hoofprint?”

Okay, that’s the first I’ve heard of that… though, since they sounded similar, I’ll just roll with it. “Pretty much, though it matches the size of the creature's feet. In this case, you see a lot of what looked to be medium sized prints. Yet, the ones that stood out to you were twice the size of that and took the form of claws. However, before you could be able to determine what kind of prints they were, a loud feral roar was heard in the same direction the footprints were headed, loud enough to have birds immediately fly away as you hear the sound of a nearby tree crash to the ground. What do you do now?”

“I head towards the noise, but approach cautiously. After all, for all I know, it could be a monster.”

Oh, it was going to be a monster alright. Just not the kind that she would be expecting. Hopefully, with enough effort, I can pull this off. “As you follow the noise, you would soon find the forms of several lifeless goblins on the ground. Their bodies are twisted and broken, but that isn’t what stands out. What does catch your attention is the sight of a blue dragonborn that is around seven feet tall. It’s axe was on the ground and it’s hand was around the neck of a struggling goblin. But you can tell right away that this is the same barbarian that Ace spoke to you of… and it was not happy. For even though the goblin tried to plead that it knew nothing, the barbarian’s only answer was to slam it to the ground as the impact snapped its neck. By that point though, he would now have noticed you.”

“O-oh horseapples.”

… Seriously, what was it with ponies and their swear words? Is everything something pony related? I’m beginning to think that their world is the kind of one where someone saying peeved off is treated like a cardinal sin.

Anyways, small rant aside and putting my unfinished miniature on the table, let’s keep going. “At first, the barbarian did not say anything as it started at you. Though, when it did speak, it only said one thing to you in a deep and rough voice. ‘WHO. ARE. YOU?’”

Gizmo’s fur was now standing up on end as I watched her try to process everything. I wasn’t sure if she was going to slip out of her chair or what, but I think I left too much of an impression on her. “What do you-”

“IshowthecardandtrytosaythatI’mheretohelp!!”

Okay, too much of an impression. “Uh… could you repeat that?”

Gizmo blinked, before realizing her mistake, “S-sorry, force of habit,” she cleared her throat to calm herself down, “I show the card Ace gave me and try to say that I’m only here to help him.”

Alright, now we’re back on track. “The Dragonborn would narrow his eyes, before getting closer. Yet, he isn’t looking at you directly, but at the card instead. After a moment or so, he looked away and began to speak to himself. Yet, his voice is very thick and what he is saying doesn’t sound like words at all.”

“Well, that’s a bummer,” Gizmo replied. “You sure there isn’t any way that I could try and understand him? Like something with my character’s language?”

I shook my head at that. “Not unless you want to roll at a disadvantage.”

Kobalt was the dragonborn character that I had been working on for some time. A dragonborn barbarian with an outlander background and a lightning breath weapon to compliment his draconic ancestry. The catch with him though was that he was only fluent in draconic and knew very little common tongue. That and his rather thick accent would make it difficult for others to either understand what he’s trying to say or get the wrong impression. That and since most of his problem solving abilities involved brute force, he was almost a complete opposite of Gizmo’s character. Even though he wants to do good things, how he does them makes people question his motives.

As for Gizmo, she was trying to take this slowly. Though, a few low rolls in perception didn’t help her in trying to understand Kobalt any better. If anything, he came off as a draconic enigma to her. Slowly, but surely though, things were beginning to slide into place and her character even had a party member to help. Now though, it was only a matter of-

“Uh, Sam? Why can I hear your garage door opening?”

… You bring up a valid point, why is my garage door opening?

“Sam, I’m home!”

Oh shit! Oh shit!! OH SHIT!! What is he doing back home now of all times!?

“Sam, who’s that-?” Before Gizmo could even finish, we both saw a man that was just a few feet taller than I was with a shaved head and a grey goatee pulling a suitcase with one arm and holding a backpack with the other. Ironically, he was wearing a Critical Role hoodie with a pair of darkened jeans and black sneakers.

At that moment, I could only get myself to say two words. “H-hi dad.”

Author's Note

This is the second to last part and I have a reason for going this particular route because of what part 4 is going to cover. For now though, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I had fun writing it.
-Frost

07- All Fun and Games (Part 4)

Well, this was something I never expected at all.

The last time I heard from dad, he was with my mom on the other side of the country to see my Aunt. Now he had just gotten home to find both Gizmo and I in the dining room playing Dungeons and Dragons. I knew that he had a habit of being spontaneous at times, but I would’ve thought that he had given me some kind of heads up first if there was a change in plans. Though, his focus seemed to be less on what we were doing… and more on the unicorn who was sitting across from me.

“Well, this is… a bit of a surprise,” he said, setting a couple of his bags in his office before looking towards me, “Sam, who’s your friend here?”

“Uh, this is Gizmo. She’s the new neighbor I introduced to you yesterday.”

“Oh,” he now looked over to Gizmo for a moment, who looked rather embarrassed. Having a freakout in front of someone’s parents when they were on the phone was one thing. Though, meeting them in person? That was something else.

“Y-yeah, sorry about running off yesterday. I was getting settled in and… there were just a lot of things I didn’t know about at the time,” the unicorn apologized, “I-it’s nice to meet you, sir.”

Surprisingly though, my dad took all of this in stride. Which was weird since I honestly did not expect for him to be like this. If anything, he was a bit more cautious when it came to meeting new people. “There’s no need to apologize,” he insisted, before extending a hand for Gizmo to shake, “Or for formalities. I’m Robert and it’s nice to meet you as well. Would it be right to say that Sam’s helping you feel welcome?”

Given everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, I’d say-

“Oh definitely!” And Gizmo beat me to it. Though, on the bright side, at least that means it saves me a few explanations.

“That’s wonderful to hear,” Dad replied with a smile, before looking at me, “Out of curiosity, what exactly have you been doing? I tried to call you earlier on your cell phone, yet you didn’t pick up.”

Wait, he tried to call me? When? My phone has been upstairs in my room since this morning!

“Well, Sam helped teach me how to cook breakfast and then she told me about this very cool game that sounds like one of the games I know of back home,” the unicorn beat me to it, “So, Sam’s been helping me go through it.”

“Really now?” he asked, before looking back at me.

“Yeah, though we’re kind of taking it easy. Her first time playing and my first time doing anything DM related so, it’s a bit of a learning experience for both of us,” I replied back. “Not really doing any of the adventures that we have and more likely just coming up with places for her to visit and characters for her to interact with.”

“So homebrew then? I gotta say, that’s a bit of a bold choice to go with, but you do you,” Dad was about to head upstairs, “Hey, I’m going to put some of my stuff away first, but afterwards, are you alright with me watching you two?”

That had me at a bit of a crossroads. On one hand, we would have to catch him up to speed on everything that had transpired throughout the course of the campaign. Though, on the other hand, perhaps he could give us some advice for future campaigns and such. Then again, when it comes to my dad giving advice, it’s… hit and miss. Then again, I personally thought that it was Gizmo’s decision to make-.

“Sure! The more the merrier.”

Well, I guess there’s no turning back at this point.

Once dad had gotten himself situated, it took about more than half an hour to get back to where we were left off. Mainly because we had to bring him up to speed on what had already happened so far and he had to bring me up to speed on why he came back so soon. Apparently, he had this meeting with investors that was supposed to happen in the same city that mom was visiting my aunt, yet it got cancelled at the last minute since some of them got sick. So, he decided to return home as a way to surprise me, yet he ended up being surprised when he saw us instead.

Who would’ve thought?

After Dad joined us though, I was able to pick up where we left off and keep it going for another hour or so and he even volunteered to play as Kobalt so I could focus on being the DM. There were a couple close calls, but Gizmo was not only able to help him find where the goblins were keeping the two half elves that they were searching for, but also stand their ground against the Goblin’s chief. Said chief was under the assumption that the two half elves were actually royalty, even though they just used King and Queen as their stage names, and thought that by holding them hostage, they would get a king's ransom in gold.

Instead, they had two adventurers knocking on their doorstep.

By the time Gizmo’s party was going through the goblin’s lair, she was already level 3 and with it, was able to create an Eldritch Cannon to fight beside her. Which was useful since some of the enemies throughout the dungeon were a bit stronger than the average monster. Luckily, she happened to find a few rare finds in some of the other rooms that provided stronger alternatives to armor and a better crossbow for her.

Of course, the craziest thing that happened was before actually fighting the boss, Gizmo decided that it was a good time to test her infusion ability. Not on any of her equipment, but on Kobalt’s axe. At first, I thought she just wanted to enhance the weapon, yet that was when she said that she wanted to infuse Returning Weapon on it for anytime that Kobalt just decided to throw his axe and have it come back to him.

Without knowing it at the time, Gizmo basically turned my barbarian’s axe into Stormbreaker from the MCU. And I’m pretty sure she hasn’t even seen any of those movies.

Then there was the fight. Which, right off the bat, got to a chaotic start. The chief they came to fight, which I named Brags because pretty much any goblin I’ve encountered in these games likes to brag about their stuff, was elevated on a platform that was high above this box-like arena I called ‘The Pits’. While he had other goblins try to overwhelm the party with numbers, Brags would be casting magic down on us to try and limit how much space the two of them had to navigate. My intention was to try and have Gizmo and dad try to fight off the goblins coming in first before facing the BBEG (Big bad evil guy).

Unfortunately, that was not what happened. “GET DOWN HERE!!!”

While Gizmo wanted to try and narrow down how many enemies they had to fight through the use of her crossbow and Eldritch Cannon, Dad immediately went to try and take down the support pillar like a maniacal lumberjack that was eager to chop down a tree. At first, I thought he was just being a bit too much in character, but he ended up rolling a Nat 20 on a strength check and somehow rolled a rather high number on his attack bonus. Which meant that not only was he able to bring down the pillar, but did it with enough force to nearly kill them.

And this was all on the first turn.

Because of that, I was forced to have to change up how the rest of the actual fight went to the point that I didn’t even have time to think it through. Though, that did not last particularly long because after two more turns in combat, the boss was defeated and both of them rescued the two they came to save. Though, the only upside was that Dad did not have Kobalt murder Brags right away and instead begrudgingly agreed to turn him over to the guards back at Port Lunaris.

When all was said and done though, that was when I asked a simple question. “So… what do you think?”

“I enjoyed it a lot. It was quite fun and you were rather creative with the characters.” Gizmo was the first to speak.

“For your first time at trying to be a DM, you did well,” Dad replied, “Though, I have a bit of a suggestion for both of you, if you don’t mind.”

A suggestion? “Is something wrong?”

“Not necessarily, though when I was watching the two of you play, it felt a bit like you were doing things a bit too much by the book,” he said, before looking at Gizmo, “Like, how did you come up with Primrose?”

“Well, Sam told me that the Artificer was a lot like a class I used to play back home so I went with that. As for some of the other things like personality and such, Sam had me roll-”

“Yeah, uh,” As he spoke to her, Dad was also looking at me, “We don’t really do that here.”

Okay, first Stormbreaker and now Dad almost quoted T’Challa? I have a feeling that an MCU movie marathon might be in the future.

Before Gizmo and I could say anything, Dad took the initiative on the conversation, “Let me try to explain a bit better. When watching you two play, it looked like you were either reading your character sheet or the DM guide like it’s a script to have to follow. This is Dungeons and Dragons. Part of the fun sometimes is doing things out of character or letting things go not the way you planned for it to be.”

“Well, it kind of was our first time and I think Sam was trying to make sure I enjoyed it.”

“I get that, totally,” he insisted, “Though, what I’m saying is that you two would probably have even more fun if you don’t try to do things strictly by the book. Part of the fun in D&D is being creative and that works both ways.”

That gave me a lot to think about. Yet, around then was when I noticed him thinking to himself and scratching his chin. Which immediately, I took as a sign that an idea came into his head. Whether or not it was a good idea or a bad one remained to be seen, though given what he was talking about… No, don’t tell me.

“How about next time we do a campaign for D&D with the group, we have Gizmo come along for the ride? I mean, having an extra party member can’t hurt and perhaps she can learn a few things too.”

I… had a feeling he was going to say that. Though, he did make a valid point on having Gizmo learn a few things. Especially since most of the group he’s referring to have been playing Tabletop RPG’s for years.

“Y-you mean it?” Gizmo asked, “You would be okay with… having me play?”

“Don’t sweat it. I’m pretty sure everyone else would be more than open minded to have some new people join,” Dad told her, before getting up out of his seat, “We’ll be finishing the current campaign we’re doing in a couple of weeks, so you got some time to think on it.”

With that, he excused himself and went into the kitchen as I looked back at Gizmo. For now at least, we don’t have to worry about anything unexpected-

“Hey Sam, why is part of the ceiling in the kitchen discolored?”

… Ah shit, here we go again.

Author's Note

And with that, this completes chapter 7. Next chapter might have a bit of a time skip by a couple of days so we can get back on track to other possible shenanigans, but at least I was able to get this out of the way.

What did you guys think of the chapter... and what future shenanigans do you think should happen? I'm more than open to hearing new ideas for things to Gizmo to interact with and see.

09- Surprise Reunions

Out of all the possibilities for how Brisk actually knew Gizmo, I did not think THAT was one of them.

To be fair, I did not really know what a ‘marefriend’ was at the time he said that. I mean, I had a small hunch, but my attention was more focused on the road and on the cars that were around me. Fortunately, Brisk wanted to make a stop to get some food on the way over and we happened to have found this relatively new pizza place that wasn’t that far from home. Luckily, it didn’t appear to be too busy compared to some of the other nearby establishments, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to buy some food

Yet, it was only when we walked inside that the two of us found out that Smoky’s Firegrill Pizza was a pizza parlor run by equestrians. Specifically, kirins. “Hello, welcome to Smoky’s Firegrill Pizza! I’m Smoky, what can I get started for you today?”

Personally, I was still a bit surprised and a little overwhelmed by what I walked into. I mean, not long ago, I was at a gate crossing building with numerous different species working there alongside humans. Though, I honestly did not expect to find myself in an establishment entirely run by Equestrians. That and, despite the amount of time I spent waiting for Brisk, all I really knew about this particular species was what they were called.

Brisk though seemed to be a bit more relaxed than I was, taking a quick glance at the menu before looking back to the kirin at the counter. “Can I have a medium sized pizza, please?”

As I watched the two converse, I was surprised to see how exactly ordering a pizza here worked. Unlike other places, where you just asked for a specific type and size, this one was more like making your own the way you wanted it. Even going as far as choosing what kind of cheese, sauce and toppings the customer wanted.

Though, another thing I noticed was that there was no sign of an oven anywhere. How exactly were going to cook these if-

“Alright, Wildfire, you’re up!”

At that moment, I realized that behind Smoky, there was a kirin that was sitting on the floor with two concrete sections on their left and right side and a grill above them. They look to be holding something with their magic, but I couldn’t quite tell what it was or what they were looking at-.

Wait… why am I hearing boss music? No seriously, why am I hearing actual boss music from the back of the-?

“Dear sweet Celestia, who are you-?! WHOA HEY!! Stop charging at me like that Artor- whatever your name is!!”

Before I even knew what was going on, the kirin underwent some kind of transformation as their fur immediately darkened and their mane ignited! Flames were coming off all around them as the pizza that Brisk had ordered was placed right above her, while Smoky had set a timer on the nearby counter. “So you use Nirik flames to cook the food you serve? That’s a rather ingenious idea.”

“Why thank you,” Smoky replied, “We usually have somepony take up the spot there at different shifts and have them do whatever it is that makes them angry. The natural flames actually help cook the dough faster and preserve its taste.”

… Okay, I need some clarification right now. Because if this goes on any longer, I’m going to be even more confused. “What’s a nirik?”

Both the earth pony and the kirin looked back towards me with a surprised look on their face, before smiling for a moment. “Let me guess, this is your first time meeting a kirin?” A simple nod from me was enough of an answer to have Smoky grin, “Well, simply put, if you make a kirin really angry, that kind of anger has them take on the form of a Nirik. Which is like a kirin, but on fire. So, we thought of actually using our anger in a positive and productive way. To us, our motto is ‘getting mad makes our customers glad’.”

Okay, I’m now getting some serious Monsters Inc. vibes with that slogan. Not the same as ‘We scare because we care’, but almost.

“But enough about that,” Smoky said, before looking back to me, “Are you going to place an order with your friend here? Or do you need some more time to think about it first? Not sure how long Wildfire’s going to keep it up-”

“OH, THAT’S MESSED UP!!” A flurry of flames erupted from the grill as I looked inside to see a tv screen and the red words of ‘YOU DIED’ in all capital letters.

“Yeah, she might be going at this for a while. Once you get her started with that game, she finds it very difficult to stop.”

At that point, the only option for me was to just go with the flow. “I guess I’ll have the same thing Brisk is having then.”

After about five minutes and hearing the screams of a kirin gamer in rage fighting against Knight Artorias in Dark Souls, our food was finished and brought out to the table that Brisk and I were sitting at. The earth pony was rather quick to start eating through his meal and by the time that I finished my first slice, he had already devoured half of his food. I mean, the pizza was pretty delicious, but I honestly did not expect for him to eat through it so quickly.

Though, now that we were eating, I now had the chance to ask him the question that was on my mind. “So, you said that Gizmo was your… marefriend?”

“Hmm?” Brisk immediately wiped the tomato sauce from his mouth using a napkin around his hoof, “Yeah, that’s right. Why do you ask?”

“Well, technically, that’s the first time I’ve heard that phrase,” I told him, a little bit nervous, “I don’t know that much equestrian terms or phrases, so I might need a bit of an explanation.”

For a moment, the stallion’s pupils shrank a small bit, before taking a moment to clear his throat and continue to speak, “Um… I think I remember the phrase that was used for this,” he said, before I saw him pull out a small book from his saddlebag that looked like a mini dictionary. Though, before I could ask anything, that was when Brisk replied, “Ah, that’s right. What I would say as my marefriend, you would know as my girlfriend.”

When I heard that, every previous thought that I had evaporated as I stared in disbelief. This guy was Gizmo’s boyfriend? Just how did that exactly happen? Well, there was only one way to find out I suppose.

“So, how exactly did you two… well, meet?”

“Well, that’s a bit of a long story,” he told me, “Simply put, we met when she was helping a friend of ours that the two of us knew. I asked if she needed help with her creations, she agreed and things kind of just grew from there. Hay, I’ve even helped make sure she doesn’t go overboard and blow things up… sometimes literally.”

The feeling is definitely mutual, buddy. “I see. Have the two of you gone on any dates?”

“A couple of times, if you consider what Gizmo calls ‘extended field testing’ dates,” Brisk chuckled, “Though, the two of us had been more focused on our move to Earth and trying to get things organized here first before anything else. It’s a bit of a big change for both of us, so we didn’t want to take things too fast. How is Gizzy, by the way?”

Well, aside from the stunt she pulled on her first night, I could say that the first twenty four hours or so have been rather eventful to say the least. “She’s been settling in rather nicely. My dad and I have been helping her get situated and help her out if she needs any assistance.”

The earth pony was surprised at first by my response, before giving me a warm smile, “That’s wonderful to hear. Gizmo does have a tendency to unintentionally go overboard on whatever she’s working on sometimes, so it’s nice to see that you’re helping her keep her impulses in check. For that, I’m grateful.”

Wow… that was honestly not the kind of response I was expecting. Who would’ve thought?

“Anyways, do you mind if I ask you a question this time?”

That almost had me drop the slice of pizza I was going to eat as I looked back at him. I honestly wasn’t expecting for him to ask me a question this time, but let’s see where this goes shall we? “S-sure, uh… what would you like to know?”

“Well, aside from a few things that I was told about before I arrived, I don’t really know too much about what’s in store,” he told me, “When we arrive, what’s the first thing that I should expect?”

That was probably going to take a while. Not to mention that even if I did answer his question the best I could, I had the feeling that there was going to be some kind of surprise waiting for him when we arrived-.

“YES, FINALLY!! VICTORY IS MINE!!!”

… Yeah, I think I’ll give this place a sizable tip.

“Brisky, you made it!! Oh my gosh, I’m so glad you’re here!!!”

Yeah, I had a feeling that something like this would happen. I had just pulled up in the driveway at my house and let Brisk out of my car. Not a moment too soon afterwards were we ambushed by Gizmo, who happened to notice Brisk while she was by her mailbox and proceeded to tackle him like a quarterback at a football game. The stallion hadn’t even gotten the chance to stand firmly on his hooves yet, so the unexpected move from his marefriend ended up knocking all of his stuff from his saddlebags everywhere.

“H-hello Gizzy.”

“Hehe!!” She said, before kissing him straight on the lips… Oh dear god, I should probably step in before they start doing what I think they’re going to do.

“Good afternoon to you as well, Gizmo,” I told her as both of the equestrians looked at me, “I’d hate to interrupt this heartfelt reunion, but you kind of knocked all of Brisk’s stuff all over the place.”

It took her about… ten seconds or so in order to realize that, before she giggled to herself, “Oops, silly me. Let me help with that,” With a quick flash of magic from her horn, she quickly collected everything that had fallen out of Brisk’s saddlebags, before proceeding to put everything back where it belonged. “There we go! Was there anything else?”

“Not really,” the stallion replied. “My saddlebag was all I honestly needed. Why?”

“When I moved in, I brought everything with me and it all went into a massive transport thingy,” Gizmo told him, “I just thought the same thing was going to happen.”

“Well, I just didn’t really think I’d need it, so I left some of the things I couldn’t bring with Swift and Azure,” Wait, who now? I haven’t heard of those names before. “So I just took what I thought I would need and came over. You had to wait for a week without me, so why make you wait any longer?”

I swear, just hearing them talk makes me think of some lines in those cheesy romantic comedies. Either that or the Big Bang Theory.

“Aww, Brisky,” Gizmo smiled as she helped the earth pony onto his hooves, before looking at me, “Thank you, Sam!” With that, the two of them were quick to head back over next door. Just as I heard my dad open the gate to the side of the house.

“There you are,” he replied, before he noticed Brisk as they were heading inside, “Oh, we got another new arrival? Who’s he?”

“That’s Brisk,” I said, “Gizmo just happens to be his marefriend.”

“What’s a marefriend?”

I let out a small sigh, before opening up the back passenger door to grab something I left back there. “Why don’t I bring you up to speed inside? I brought back some pizza if you want any.”

Author's Note

Who else is hungry?

10- Fashion Disaster, Aisle Five

If the last couple of weeks have taught me anything about Equestrians, it’s that they seem to have a habit of just showing up in the most unlikely of places whenever you don’t expect it. This wasn’t just something that applied to only my neighbors, but pretty much to all Equestrians. No matter who they were or what their species was, they always seemed to pop out of nowhere when you least expect it. Kind of like Beetlejuice, except you don’t have to say his name at all for him to randomly show up and mess around with his shenanigans.

Of course, when it came to me trying to learn more about my neighbors and where they’re from, it felt a bit daunting. Because not only were you learning more about them as a person, but also learning more about their culture and their livelihood. Of course, the same could also be said about Equestrians learning more about human culture. We would do things that Equestrians wouldn’t quite understand and they would do things that we would not understand either. Not exactly what I would call a fair tradeoff, but there are times where you just have to work with what you got.

Such was the case with both Gizmo and Brisk. While it was true that nothing crazy had happened since Brisk was finally with his marefriend, that didn’t mean they weren’t going to need me for anything else. Given how they lacked any sort of transportation to get them anywhere and that teleportation magic only seemed to work if somepony knew exactly where they were going, they had to rely on me to show them around and help them get them from place to place, unless one of them learns how to drive.

At one point, a thought came to mind that they would try and possibly ask me if I could teach them how to drive. Though, the thought of trying to explain to my insurance company how a unicorn that didn’t have a license crashed my car was not a conversation I wanted to have anytime soon.

Anyways, today was one of the days where I was helping both Brisk and Gizmo with a bit of shopping. Not just with the day to day essentials like food and water, but also clothes. Which was a bit weird since, from my understanding, Equestrians didn’t really seem to wear clothing on a day to day basis like we did. The only exceptions seem to be when an Equestrian was working at a specific job that requires a uniform to wear, like with the Equestrians that worked at the gate crossing, clothes weren’t exactly mandatory.

Just, try to not think too much about that. It’s for your own good.

As Gizmo was looking at the various jackets and hoodies in the clothes department, I happened to notice that Brisk was counting something. The earth pony had what looked to be a small pouch and inside it were, I kid you not, gold coins. The coins themselves had an emblem of two ponies on both sides, with one representing the sun and the other representing the moon and Brisk had quite a few of these coins on him.

“Hey, Brisk?” I spoke up to catch his attention as he looked towards me, “What are you counting there?”

“Oh, just the bits I have,” the earth pony replied back, “Not that much of a big deal really.”

I-I’m sorry… what? You’re counting gold coins and that’s not a big deal? Gold by itself is very hard to come by and a rather expensive metal. Yet, he’s carrying everything around like it’s pocket change! If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought that he had stolen them off of somebody.

Furthermore, I had one other question. “What exactly is a bit?”

That had Brisk look back at me with a raised eyebrow. “Really? You haven’t heard of bits before?”

“Well, technically, what you would see and what I would see as bits would probably be two separate things,” I replied honestly. Heck, the only ‘bits’ I knew were used as an expression or the bits in computer programming. Though, explaining that would be another conversation in itself.

“That’s a fair point,” the stallion replied, “Well, for us, Bits is our world’s form of currency and it’s used pretty much everywhere. We use it for pretty much anything regarding commerce or trade and coins like these are rather common. Some places here even allow us to use them.”

“Wait a minute, some do?” I ask.

“Yup. It’s how Gizmo was able to buy the house we have,” the earth pony replied, “Though, how is currency here in this world? Is it similar to ours?”

“Oh, far from it,” I replied, “If anything, it’s-”

Before I could continue, I looked back towards where Gizmo was and just stared at her. The unicorn was now having trouble trying to take off a hoodie she put on and got herself tangled up in it. Not only that, but she accidentally tightened the hood to where the only thing that we could see that was sticking out was her horn.

“Uh, somepony help! It’s so dark here! I can’t see a thing-!”

“Gizmo, don’t-!”

Unfortunately, the earth pony wasn’t able to stop Gizmo from frantically moving or casting her magic as the spell hit the bearing in the floor that locked a nearby clothing rack in place and knocked the entire thing over. Which not only caused the display to fall over onto the unicorn like a giant Jenga tower, but the clothes that were on the rack were knocked off the hangars and began to pile up on top of the unicorn like a stack of blankets. Not only that, but the sound of the clothing rack being knocked over was enough to alert anybody that just so happened to be walking by.

Just brilliant.

“What’s going on over here? Is everyone alright-?”

As soon as I heard that voice, I had a feeling this was going to go from bad to worse. One of the employees that was nearby just happened to be the first person to come by and help. Though, in my mind, I was unsure how exactly to explain to them what had just transpired.

“I-i’m sorry about this,” Brisk quickly spoke up, “My marefriend Gizmo was trying on some clothes and when she was trying to get it off her, she ended up knocking over the clothes rack.”

Okay, that helps but… why is that employee looking towards me-? Oh no.

“Are you okay, miss-”

“Uh, I’m sorry but I’m not the one he’s referring to. I’m just a friend,” I said before he could even finish that sentence. Yet, before they could even ask, we heard what sounded like a pop and a few seconds later, Gizmo soon popped out of the giant mess that was in front of her. Now that she had freed herself from the hoodie that she was trying to wear, her fur and mane were standing up on end and almost looked like a ball of floof.

“Holy moly, what the hay happened here?”

I just stared at her, before looking to Brisk as both of us let out a long drawn out sigh. At this point, I honestly did not know what to say to her and was thinking ahead to having to clean up the mess she accidentally made.

Note to self, never let Gizmo wear anything with hoods again. That’s just a disaster waiting to happen.

By the time that we finally got back to Gizmo’s house, I was honestly surprised that the manager of the store did not ban us from ever coming back. We were lucky that security camera footage was able to back up our story and that we were able to buy everything that we came for without any problems. That and the employee that helped us out was able to explain everything to his supervisor better than the three of us could. Otherwise, it would be rather hard to try and explain to my parents why exactly I couldn’t go shopping at our local Walmart again.

Though, as we were unloading the car and I was helping them bring everything inside… something strange happened. “Hey, Sam? Did you want to stay over for dinner later?”

I slowly looked back to Brisk, a bit surprised by the earth pony’s question. “D-Dinner? Uh, I don’t mean to sound rude but… why?”

“Well, Gizmo told me about how you cooked dinner for her when she first came here, so I thought that I could repay you for your hospitality,” the earth pony told me, “That is, if you don’t have other plans with your family.”

“I’m… going to have to check-”

“We’d love to.”

Immediately, I turned back around to find both of my parents standing by our mailbox. Something that I definitely did not see when I pulled into the driveway earlier. I couldn’t even say anything before Brisk spoke. “Why hello. You must be Sam’s parents.”

“And you must be Brisk,” my mom replied, “We’ve heard so much about you and Gizmo. We’d love to come over for dinner.”

… Okay, there are a few things that I can handle at any particular time, including any shenanigans that Gizmo gets herself into. Yet, my parents pulling off something like this? That was not one of them.

Author's Note

The chapter was inspired a bit by this picture from the artist ConfettiCakez, just with Gizmo instead of Rainbow Dash and a lot more panic

11- Taco Tuesday Part 1

For as long as I can remember, my mother always does things spontaneously without giving much thought. I know that both my parents mean well when it comes to raising me. Though, there are times where my mom ends up looking like the personification of ‘Chaotic Good’ because of all the things she does. By that, I mean that she might have good intentions, but the methods that she uses in order to fulfil said intentions is seen as questionable to everyone around her… well, except for dad. He’s the only exception to that rule.

Case in point, the current situation. We had just come back from the Walmart that’s nearby our neighborhood, thankful after an incident with Gizmo had me worried that the manager was going to kick us out. After we finished bringing everything inside, Brisk asked if I would like to stay over for dinner. Yet, before I could even really give him an answer on that, my parents answered for me and just invited all of us over.

I could go on and mention that the whole situation felt ironic because of things that parents taught me while I was growing up, but I would be getting ahead of myself at that point. Besides, aside from my parents accepting an invitation that was only given for me, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Though, to be completely fair, we haven’t quite gone inside their house yet… and I’m pretty sure that both my parents haven’t seen the kind of changes that the two of them have done to the place.

As we all walked inside, I went with Gizmo into the kitchen to help cook. Despite Brisk’s insistence that I didn’t need to help out, I knew from experience that leaving a unicorn with not that much cooking experience alone in the kitchen was probably a bad idea. While it wasn’t pancakes, I didn’t want to roll the dice and assume that Gizmo could handle anything by herself. Besides, not helping out at all right around now would probably make an already bad situation even worse.

“So, what exactly were you and Brisk planning on making tonight? Do you have any ideas?”

“Well, actually, I don’t think we really had anything in particular in mind.”

… Okay, that was definitely concerning. Originally, I thought that there was something in particular that Brisk was going to make. Yet, right now, I was getting the impression that they were just going to simply wing it. Which wasn’t exactly a bad thing if it were just the three of us. Though, with my parents being around, that shit was not going to work.

“Alright then,” I sighed, before looking back at Gizmo, “Let’s take a look at what you have in the fridge. That should be an easy way to get started.”

In my head, I was already thinking of what to do. If I could look at what kind of food Brisk and Gizmo had in stock, then I could try to fashion up something simple that did not require too much effort in order to make. A simple plan, but it all depended on what exactly I had to work with. Though to be fair, our recent shopping trip had us pick up a lot of food for both of my neighbors, so I’m pretty sure that we’ll be okay as long as we don’t have any unexpected hiccups.

“Okay, let’s see here. We have lettuce, carrots, spinach, peppers, shredded cabbage, spring onions and some cheese. That’ll be enough to make a salad for everybody-”

Yet, it was as I was looking through the contents of the fridge that I noticed something. Outside of what we bought today and the ingredients for salad, there was a lot of baked goods in here. There were things like bread and such, but most of them were things you would get at a bakery like pastries and cakes. Not to mention that there was something else in here that… really didn’t sit right with the rest of the stuff in the fridge.

“Gizmo, why do you have a plate full of hay and dandelions in the fridge?”

“Oh, that’s just what Brisk and I happen to have sometimes for food and snacks,” the unicorn replied with a smile on her face, “Don’t humans eat them too?”

Almost on instinct, I shook my head. “N-no… we don’t eat anything like that. At all.”

“Really? I thought humans liked organic foods,” Gizmo tilted her head, “I mean, we got these dandelions by pulling them out of the backyard.”

Just hearing that comment alone was enough for me to almost feel like throwing up in the sink. “Y-yeah, h-how about we try using something else instead? Something that we both could possibly have if possible.”

“Well, we could try to use what we got at the store today,” the unicorn suggested, before her horn lit up as she picked up a rectangle shaped package that resembled the shape used to package ground beef and gave it to me, “I don’t really know what it is, but Brisk thinks we could give it a try and see if we like it or not.”

It was only as I turned it around did I see that what I was holding was a package of ‘impossible’ beef. Something that surprised me because, based on my experience with Gizmo and other Equestrians I’ve either seen or been with, most of them seemed to be strictly vegetarian with the exception of eggs and fish for griffons. Though, that did make me feel a bit relieved. For it meant that a lot of potential recipes that I wouldn’t have considered originally were now options for a main course.

“Huh. I think I might have an idea for what we can do for dinner now.”

“Really?” the unicorn next to me asked, eyes beaming, “What were you thinking?”

“Well, there’s one particular recipe that I think could work well with everything we have here” I pondered as I looked around the kitchen, only to find what looked to be a box of rice, “Though, to do that, I’m going to need to grab something from my place real quick.”

After about five minutes of looking around at my place, I found what I was looking for and brought it back over to Brisk and Gizmo’s kitchen. All I really needed was a small bag of tortillas and some seasoning for what I was going to make. It wasn’t exactly the ‘simplest’ of things to cook, but it was honestly the first thing that came to mind. That and I didn’t want to waste more time thinking of an alternative option while everyone else was wondering how long until dinner was ready.

Luckily, after a few moments, Brisk came to join the two of us. “Hey, Sam. How’s everything going?”

“It’s… going,” I told him, just as Gizmo showed me where I could get a bowl out for the salad, “Figured out what to make. However, it’ll take a bit of time to do so.”

At that, Brisk raised an eyebrow as he watched his marefriend pick up a bunch of the vegetables that we had already gotten out and brought them over to the small table inside the kitchen. “Really? It looks like you’re already doing pretty well-”

“The salad isn’t the main dish.”

“Oh,” the earth pony paused as I watched his gaze shift from the table towards where I was working, “Then what is the main dish?”

“Soft tacos,” I replied, before motioning over to the stove on the far side of the room and to the ‘workstation’ that I had set up with two different pans and a container for the rice to cook it in, “Though, to have everything we need, it has to be broken down into three parts. The first being cooking the peppers and the impossible beef, the second being making sure that the rice is ready and the last one is to heat the tortillas.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Maybe,” I shrugged, “Personally, I’m just wanting to make sure that nothing we do causes a mess-”

RIIIIPP!!!

Immediately, we both turned around to see Gizmo holding a torn open package with her magic and shredded cheese scattered everywhere. Some of it was even stuck on the walls and windows as she just looked back at us with a nervous glance. “Uh… Cheese for everypony!!”

… Mental note: Keep my mouth shut whenever Gizmo is in the kitchen. I’ll just end up jinxing myself every time.

“Hey, is everything okay in there?”

“Y-yeah, everything’s fine!” I impulsively replied back to my dad, “T-there will be a slight delay on dinner, but we should have some salad out soon.”

“Oh… okay then. Well, if you happen to find Brisk, have him come out here. Your mother wanted to ask some questions about the flowers in the backyard.”

“Flowers?” the earth pony looked back to me with a raised eyebrow, “What are they talking about? The only thing we have in the backyards are daffodils and dandelions for when we make sandwiches.”

… I’m sorry, you use them for what-?

Author's Note

This was probably bound to come up at some point.

Also... cheese.

11- Taco Tuesday Part 2

Author's Note

Tried to have this a bit serious and also a bit funny too... Wanted to try and do a bit more, but I try to keep these chapters as simple as possible.

11- Taco Tuesday Part 2

It took almost half an hour in order to finish up in the kitchen, but fortunately, we didn’t have any further hiccups that would’ve delayed our dinner even further. Gizmo herself was quick to try and clean up the mess she made, though I'm not so sure if she knew that making a salad was not just tossing random shit into a bowl and seeing what happens. Something that Brick actually agreed with me on, but he didn’t seem too worried compared to me. Not that I’m complaining, but there were some points where I thought that she picked up some of the cheese that was on the floor and just randomly threw it in because she felt like it.

Luckily, that didn’t turn out to be the case. If anything, once we finally got all the food out onto the table and sat down to eat, no one actually said anything about the food tasting out of the ordinary. In fact, my parents actually liked it. A sign that had Gizmo sigh in relief, since she still seemed to doubt her skills when it came to cooking. Personally, I was glad that Brisk and I were able to help her out.

As we were close to finishing our meal though, and I was preparing my second soft taco for the evening, that was when mom decided to ask something, “So… Sorry if I sound like I’m interrupting, but there was something I wanted to ask, if you don’t mind.”

Both Gizmo and Brisk paused, looking back at each other briefly before the latter looked back towards her, “What did you want to ask?”

“Well, Robert told me a bit about you two, but I’m a bit curious,” she replied, “What did you two do for a living? Before you came to earth I mean. All I remember was that Gizmo was a bit of a… tinkerer?”

A bit? Considering what I’ve seen on her first night here, that’s a major understatement. That and I don’t think Gizmo was really taking it well either-

“I’m really sorry about this.”

Now both dad and I looked back at Brisk, puzzled by his particular choice of words. “Sorry for what? Gizmo hasn’t done anything-”

“No,” he shook his head, “I’m sorry for what’s about to happen-”

“Oh, I was more than just a ‘tinkerer’. Back home, I was an inventor! A magi-neer even!! I built things with my own two hooves to help improve the lives of ponies who needed it the most!” Gizmo proclaimed with a commanding voice so loud that I thought she was going to do her best Napoleon impression on the dining room table.

“U-uh, magi-neer?” my now startled mom asked, trying her best to follow along, even though it was clear that she had already lost control of the conversation.

“It’s a specific job back in Equestria,” Brisk took a moment in order to interject before Gizmo could continue, “Magi-neer is short for Magical Engineer. Those who specialized with constructs or machines that are powered by magic back home. While there are a wide variety of those back home, Gizmo saw that there weren’t a lot that could be used to improve the quality of everyday life for many Equestrians. So, instead of waiting for somepony to make that change, she decided to do that herself.”

“Oh, so like contestants on Shark Tank? You know, the TV show?”

That had Brisk and Gizmo blink for a moment, before the unicorn asked a question, “You humans have a game show about a tank filled with sharks?”

“What? No, no,” Mom shook her head as it looked like she was actively trying to purge those thoughts from her mind, “It’s nothing even close to that.”

“Then if it’s not about sharks, then why is it called a shark tank? Should it just be called Empty Tank then?”

Both Brisk and I collectively facepalmed at that. I get what mom was trying to suggest, but it was clear that it started off on the wrong foot. “Perhaps it would be better to show her an episode after dinner? We’re kind of getting a bit off track here.”

My mom just hastily nodded, before looking back to Gizmo and tried to salvage the conversation somehow, “Oh, you said you were an inventor right? Well, can we see some of your inventions?”

Oh dear god, Gizmo’s eyes are widening like a kid who just heard that she could have whatever they wanted in a candy store. What did you do, mom?

“Well, wait right there and let me show you!” She proclaimed, before a flash of light went off from around her horn and she teleported herself away.

“I should’ve warned you about this but,” Brisk now spoke up, “When you get Gizmo to start talking about her inventions and creations, it’s… difficult to get her to stop. Some of our friends back home know this from experience.”

“Aw, come on. There’s no need to be so dramatic.” Mom, please stop. You’re just digging your own hole at this rate.

Yet, before she could say anything else, Gizmo teleported back in with what looked to be several different inventions. She had the same contraptions around her hooves like the last couple of times. Though, there were also a handful of different ones that were inside the same compression spell I saw when she first moved in with her belongings as well as what looked like a saddlebag on her back. “Okay, here we are!! All of my finest works!! What would you like for me to crack open first?”

“Crack… open?” Dad now asked.

“It’s a compression spell,” I now tried to help explain, “When Gizmo first moved in, she told me that she applied it to her belongings to downsize everything so it's easier to transport everything.”

“Yup, and cracking one open brings it back to full size. Like THIS!!”

“Gizmo, wait-!”

CRACK!

In the blink of an eye, what was once a group of small marbles was now several different mechanical contraptions of various shapes and sizes. However, the sudden emergence of her inventions caused the table to shake and nearly knocked off the remaining plates of food on the table. From there, Gizmo started to go full salesmare on my parents at the table. Going through each particular contraption, explaining how it works and even giving a demonstration. Heck, even the saddlebag she had somehow contained retractable claws for self defense and cup holders… for some weird reason.

Though, there was one thing that I picked up on right away as I looked at the table. A majority of these contraptions… looked to resemble prosthetics. There were mechanical limbs, wings and even tails on the table. Not only that, but they were much different than the ones that you would see nowadays on combat veterans or people who ended up losing their limbs because of injuries or illness.

“Hey, Gizmo?” I tried to get her attention, only for the unicorn to not respond.

“Something on your mind, Sam?” I heard Dad speak as he and Brisk looked back at me.

“Well, there was something I wanted to ask her about,” I replied, before motioning my head to the prosthetics on the table, “When she said inventions, I… honestly didn’t expect these.”

Brisk then grit his teeth for a moment, before letting out a sigh. “Right, that’s… more of something she had been working on before we moved here,” the earth pony replied, motioning his head to the kitchen so that we could leave Gizmo and my mom alone for the moment. Dad even came with us with the dishes as Brisk let out a sigh, “For context, when we first met, I was working as a miner in the Crystal Empire. We were tasked with going into caves, mining ores and crystals, and then getting out. However, with that job comes risks and the two of us have witnessed friends and colleagues get hurt to the point that the doctors would say that they couldn’t walk or fly again.”

Oh… oh shit, that just got dark rather quickly.

“At one point though, when a dragon friend of ours named Azure lost his tail because he chose to risk his life to save us, Gizmo said that enough was enough. She wanted to do something to change that and not have losing something that’s an important part of you be the only option,” the earth pony replied back, “She even took much of the time out of her schedule to study medical science in order to start working on them. When she finished with Azure’s tail and was able to get it on him, he was overjoyed.”

“I would imagine so if I was in his position,” Dad added as he started to wash off the places.

“That’s also kind of the reason why Gizmo is different. She’s not like other ponies, who make things solely so they can fill their pockets with bits and what not,” Brisk explained, “She does it because she cares about who she’s making it for and doesn’t want anyone to feel hopeless. Of course, Gizmo has a weird way of demonstrating such things, but her heart is in the right place. Hay, it’s why Mistral understands Gizmo’s antics.”

“Mistral? Who’s that?”

“A friend of Gizmo and Brisk who’s on the police force,” I answered dad’s question. Though, it was at that moment that a new question popped into my head, “That reminds me… How exactly did you two meet her in the first place?”

“Oh… that,” the earth pony nervously scratched the back of his head, “She was kind of… how do humans say it…? Ah right. For a time, she was kind of our parole officer.”

Hehe… real funny.

…… Oh god, he’s serious.

“How the hell exactly did this happen?” Dad now asked, stopping what he was doing to focus fully on Brisk, “For your world being one of friendship and magic, according to what your leaders say, I wouldn’t expect for there to be any lawbreakers.”

“It’s a bit of a complicated story,” Brisk told us, “It involves our friend Swift Ace. He’s a pegasus who… well, was born into a family of thieves, but went against it and ran away. Something his dad didn’t take kindly to. Of course, we only learn about this much later when he gets framed for stealing something that belonged to Equestrian Royalty and was imprisoned because of it. Unlike most of the royal guard, Mistral was the only one that actually believed our story and worked with us in order to capture the real culprit. Nowadays, Swift actually works in security and uses his knowledge from what his family taught him to catch potential thieves before they can even take anything.”

Wow, that was a lot to unpack. Though, even though this story sounded so crazy and unbelievable, there didn’t seem to be anything with his tone or words that made me think he was lying.

Though, I think I might’ve made my father question my choice of friends after tonight.

“H-hey, Brisk!! Can we have S-Sam’s parents stay around longer!? I want to hear more about this ‘Shark Tank’ she was talking about e-earlier!! It w-would sound so much fun to swim in!!”

“Oh no,” I heard Brisk mutter before he stepped out of the kitchen. When I looked back at dad and shrugged, we then heard Brisk say something that might be stuck in my mind for a while. “Gizmo!! We're supposed to be saving the cider for special occasions!!”

12- The Morning After

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

13- Happy Holidays

It had been only a few months since Gizmo and Brisk moved in next door and since then, life around the neighborhood started to get rather interesting. Every day now had a fifty-fifty chance of either being somewhat normal or going off the rails and sometimes, the latter was not necessarily a bad thing. As long as no property damage was caused and we didn't end up breaking any laws, it served as a nice change of pace from what we do on a daily basis. The only exception being that any ‘experiments’ that Gizmo wanted to do would be done indoors so that way if something went wrong, no one that would be passing by would end up getting hurt.

Though, the thing was, Gizmo’s talents and the work that she put into her inventions didn’t really go unnoticed. One time, I had my friend Ryan come over with me when I was dropping something off for Brisk. At the time, Gizmo was working on some improvements to some of the inventions that she showed my parents when they invited themselves over for dinner. Whether it be slight adjustments or having to put something back together, she was rather focused on her craft and seeing the end results after hours of tweaking and tinkering.

Yet, what was the first thing that Ryan did when seeing this? Get out his phone and start recording her when she was celebrating like Victor Frankenstein shouting ‘It’s alive!’. Not to mention that at the time, Gizmo had her claw-bands still on her hooves. Before I could even try to talk some sense into him, he uploaded the video of the magi-neer onto social media.

The day afterwards, I had to explain to both Brisk and Gizmo what ‘going viral’ meant. Because when I first told them, they thought that they were sick with some unknown disease.

Back to what I was saying before, one of the other reasons why life started to get interesting around the neighborhood was because more people around the neighborhood were starting to warm up to the idea of having Equestrians move in. After the original fiasco when Gizmo first moved in, many of the people around the block were rather nervous at first. However, with time, they started to accept her and Brisk as part of the community. Since then, we’ve even seen other equestrians of different species come by to look at any homes that happened to be for sale in the neighborhood.

Now though, Winter was now here and with it was a subject that I hadn’t really had the chance to touch on much with my Equestrian neighbors. That subject was holidays, and not just learning about Equestrian holidays, customs and such. It also meant teaching Gizmo and Brisk about different earth holidays and traditions. Not just ones that sound somewhat similar to what they know already, but some holidays that they probably might not have heard of before.

Don’t even get me started when Brisk and I had to restrain Gizmo because she assumed that a charity marathon that was being done to raise money for Cancer was the ‘Running of the Leaves’.

Now though, it was the beginning of December, and with it came all the festivities that you would expect aside from Mariah Carey being blasted all over the radio. Though, there was one thing that was absent where we live that Gizmo thought was going to happen. “What do you mean that your neighborhood doesn’t get snow? It’s winter!”

At the time, Gizmo and Brisk were with Dad and I at a Christmas tree lot trying to find the right tree for our living room this year. “Well, where we’re at right now, the temperature’s too warm for snow,” my dad answered her question, “If there was snow, then it would melt too quickly and all we would get would just be rain. The only places that get snow in California are up in the mountains where Julian is, and even then it’s not a lot.”

“Julian? Who’s Julian?” Brisk asked as he walked around another douglas fir that was in the ground.

“No no, Julian isn’t a who, but a where,” I clarified, “Julian’s a town north of here in the mountains. A few hours drive depending on traffic.”

“S-still, that sounds… kind of sad,” Gizmo said, “Like, you would see it all the time, but you never actually get to play in it or have it happen here?”

“Not necessarily,” I shrugged my shoulders, “When I was younger, we used to go to this ‘Winter Wonderland’ that was held at the Wild Animal Park. They would bring in a lot of snow and allow for us to sled down a hillside and create things out of the snow. Yet, that was pretty much it. No actual snowball fights or anything… Then again, I was only eight years old at the time and didn’t really think that much about it.”

“I’m surprised that you actually remember that,” Dad spoke up, “How long was that ago? Ten years?”

“Probably more. Though, we’re getting a bit sidetracked,” As I said that, I looked back over to Brisk, “So, was there any particular type of tree that you were looking for? Any particular size?”

“Something that could at least fit in our living room,” Brisk replied back, “Last thing I think we would want is for a rather big tree to be crammed in our living room like that one movie you showed us last week.”

Oh right, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. My family’s holiday tradition for who knows how long… and my dad’s best idea to introduce Gizmo and Brisk to what Christmas is. Let’s pray that Gizmo doesn't try to recreate the house light scene.

Back to right now though, it seemed like Brisk and dad found something that would work. Though, as I watched them cut it down and bring the tree over to some of the employee’s at the lot, I couldn’t help but notice that something seemed… off with Gizmo. Not like her being upset, but more like she was stuck in thought. Just one glance at her and it would look like she was staring off into space.

“Gizmo?” I said, waving a hand in front of her to see if I could get her attention.

“Huh?” She blinked, before looking back at me with a confused glance, “Sorry, did you say something? I was a bit lost in thought.”

“You were kind of staring off into space. Brisk and dad already got the tree, so all we need to do is bring it back to your place.”

“Oh, okay then.” She said, before trotting back in order to catch up to Brisk. Yet, something clearly seemed off. Though, I’m not sure if she would be open to talk about it right now. I mean, if it’s personal, I shouldn’t try to pry, right? At the very least, I should let Brisk know.

“Hey Brisk, do you have a minute?”

Immediately, he looked back towards me and trotted over while my dad was strapping the tree onto the roof of the car. “Yes, Sam? Is everything alright?”

“Oh, I’m fine,” I assured him, before looking over to Gizmo, “Though, something doesn’t seem right with Gizmo. She’s been awfully quiet and I’m not entirely sure what’s going on. I don’t know if it’s something I said or anything, but this isn’t normal.”

For a moment, Brisk paused as he looked back towards his marefriend for a moment, before turning his attention back towards me, “Thanks for telling me. I’ll try to talk to her later today and see what’s going on. This… usually happens when she’s really deep in thought. Though, what she is thinking about is something that I wouldn’t know until she tells me.”

Well, that’s a relief, I guess. Though, it does make me wonder what exactly she was thinking about. Maybe it was something for whatever gadget she was working on back at her house? Who knows, really?

PoV- Gizmo and Brisk

“Gizmo, are you doing alright?”

When she heard her name, the unicorn couldn’t help but stop her train of thought as she lifted her head and looked towards Brisk. She and her coltfriend were trying to decorate the hearth’s warming tree that they picked for this year. However, her mind seemed to be elsewhere, as evident by the fact that Brisk was doing most of the work. Which, in itself, was difficult to do since this was a task that they agreed to do together.

“Huh?” the unicorn asked as she tried to just shrug it off, “I-i’m fine, Brisky. Why did you ask?”

“Because I had been trying to get your attention for the last couple of minutes and you didn’t hear me until just now,” the earth pony deadpanned as he set the bundle of tree lights down and looked back to his marefriend, “Gizmo, you know that you can tell me anything right? How am I suppose to help you if I don’t know what you’re thinking about?”

“I know, it’s just…” For a moment, the unicorn stopped to let out a small breath and clear her head a bit. Once she had the chance to do that, Gizmo looked back at the earth pony as she cleared her throat, “Do you remember what Sam said at the tree lot? About how their neighborhood doesn’t get snow.”

“Yeah, I-” At this point, Brisk paused briefly. He wasn’t sure what exactly was going on, but the earth pony had a bad feeling that he was going to somehow get dragged into this. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, I… had been thinking of something… something big,” Gizmo told him, “It’s a bit of a long shot, but I wanted to give a gift to not just Sam and her family, but the whole neighborhood. For welcoming not just you and I, but everypony else that calls our neighborhood home. Something that only we can do.”

That caught the earth pony off guard. They had not even finished with decorating the tree and she was already thinking about gifts? If it were anypony other than Gizmo, Brisk would’ve thought that she was going a bit too fast in planning for the holidays. Though, right now, the stallion decided to humor her, “Okay, what exactly were you thinking? Were you wanting to build a gadget for everybody around the neighborhood or-”

“No no, Brisk. Nothing like that at all,” the unicorn interjected, “Bigger than that.”

“You’re… going to need to be more specific.”

Gizmo then let out a sigh, taking a glance over at a picture frame that was on the shelf above the fireplace. The picture inside was of the two of them standing alongside a cerulean dragon with a mechanical tail and a tan brown pegasus. “Do you remember what Azure told me the first time I was doing maintenance on his tail?”

“All I remember was you being a nervous wreck trying to make sure all the adjustments were right. That and when Azure accidentally bumped someone with it, it threw them through a wall.”

“Har Har, very funny mister,” the magi-neer rolled her eyes at Brisk before looking back over to the frame, “Anyways, I was… stressed. I didn’t think he would end up breaking it so quickly and I was too focused on trying to make it so that it wouldn’t break again. But, that’s when he told me something he was taught from the dragon lands. Material items only last for so long, but the memories we make with others last forever.”

After she said that, the unicorn looked back at her coltfriend and nodded, “What I want to do for a gift is the chance for everyone to make some memories of our own. Not just for Sam and her family, but everyone. And I think I know just what I want to do.”

“Well, enlighten me,” Brisk told her, “Just what did you have in mind?”

At that, the unicorn smiled, “I want to have the one thing that doesn’t happen here happen… even if it’s just for one night.”

At that, the earth pony’s eyes widened as he realized what she was talking about. Yet, only one question materialized in his mind, “… And how exactly do you plan on doing that?”

“Remember a long time ago when Misty said that she owed us a favor after we helped her capture Swift’s dad? You know, when we foiled his planned attempt to steal from Canterlot Castle?”

“Didn’t Swift already use that?”

“Swift used his favor,” Gizmo smiled, “Misty said that she owed each of us a favor. I’d say it’s time we cash in ours if we’re going to make this work.”

Back to Sam

On the day that Christmas Eve finally came around, I was relieved to have everything that I needed to take care of done. All the holiday shopping, decorations for the tree and the house, and last minute family parties were now behind me… for the most part. There were still a few things that lingered in the back of my mind and that were making it harder for me to focus as I was getting ready to go to sleep. Most of them were minor things, but one such thing that was irritating me no matter how many times I’ve tried to ignore it.

That thing in particular was Gizmo. Ever since my dad and I helped her and Brisk get their christmas tree, she had been rather… secretive to say the least. On the surface, she was her usual everyday self. Though, anytime I tried to ask her about what she had been doing recently, the unicorn would act as if a friend was trying to not act suspicious when planning an unexpected surprise party. Not only that, but when I tried asking Brisk, he could only say that Gizmo was working on a ‘big project’. Which, at the time, could’ve meant many things… but since I was half awake, I just decided to crash in bed and try to fall asleep.

Unfortunately, my attempt at slumber did not last long. For only a few hours after crashing on my mattress did my phone start to ring. Oh god, who the hell is trying to call me this late?

“Sam, are you there?”

Well, that immediately answered my question, “Ryan, what the hell? I’m trying to get some sleep-.”

“Look, I’m sorry for waking you up, but I think I’m seeing things. There’s freaking snow falling outside.”

As he said that, I was rubbing my eyes in order to make myself stay awake as my vision began to adjust. “Are you sure that you didn’t decide to have a bit too much eggnog tonight? Because what you’re saying sounds straight up ridiculous. You know it as much as I do that only the towns in the mountains get-”

“Sam… before you finish that sentence, take a look outside. Because this isn’t ridiculous, it’s happening right fucking now.”

In my head, part of me wanted to just hang up and go back to sleep. Though, I knew for a fact that if I did, I was not going to hear the end of it. Besides, all I needed to do was just look outside my window and see if Ryan’s claims were true or not. “Okay fine, I’ll take a look. Just… don’t call me this late ever again unless it's an emergency.”

Before Ryan could even get the chance to continue, I hung up the call as I let out a deep sigh. Personally, I had a lot of doubts that Ryan’s claims were true. However, there didn’t seem to be any indication that he was lying to me. If anything, the only way that I can really know for sure was when I opened up my curtains and took a look for myself.

“Okay, moment of truth. Here we go.”

The moment I opened up my curtains to look outside, I was greeted by a small sheet of white on the section of the roof that was outside my window. The sight of snow gently falling onto my roof as well as cars, mailboxes and everything else all around the neighborhood. Even the pool in the front yard of one of my neighbors was beginning to freeze up.

Holy shit, he was actually right. But… was all of this actually real?

In a heartbeat, I began to change out of my pajamas and robe into some clothes that were more ideal for winter weather before grabbing my phone and rushing downstairs. As I entered the garage to grab my jacket and shoes, the air around me began to feel much colder than normal. Even with the furnace going right now and providing heat throughout the whole house, my skin felt like it was going to freeze. Even as I zipped up my jacket and hastily put on my shoes, I couldn’t help but shiver at the cold air on my skin.

God, I really hope there’s an explanation to all this.

By the time that I was outside, several other people around the neighborhood were beginning to take notice of this strange phenomena. A few people were starting to take pictures while others were huddled up inside their garages, just as confused as I was of what was going on. Out of everyone there, I noticed that Ryan was outside his home across the street and went over to him.

“See? What did I tell you-”

“Okay okay, I’m sorry for doubting you,” I groaned, before a different question came up in my mind, “Just when exactly did this start happening?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged, “Mom asked me to help empty the trash from the kitchen and when I was heading back in, that’s when the snow started falling. For a moment, I thought it was going to rain. Yet, as I went inside, that’s when everything began to get colder and… well, here we are now.”

As he said that, I began to take one more look around the neighborhood before looking up at the clouds in the sky as snow continued to fall. Though, as I looked at the clouds, I couldn’t help but feel that something wasn’t right. Something like this does not happen naturally where we live. So, what the hell was causing it-?

Hold on, something just moved… in the clouds. Wait a second.

“Ryan, does your dad still have those binoculars he got when your family went to Yosemite?”

Ryan blinked for a moment, puzzled by my question as he looked back at me, “Uh, yeah, it’s in the garage. Though, why do you need it?”

“There’s something I want to take a look at, but I don’t think my phone’s camera can zoom in all the way on the clouds up there,” I explained to him,“I thought I saw something up there, but I want to make sure first before I assume anything.”

At first, Ryan seemed confused a bit. Yet, he just went along with what I said and got what I asked for. Once he brought the binoculars out and handed them to me, I looked through them towards the clouds that were hanging above the neighborhood. Though, it was as I was trying to concentrate that he decided to ask me a question. “So, what exactly are you trying to find up there, Sam? You said ‘something’, but is there anything in particular?”

“To be honest, I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking for,” I admitted, letting out a sigh as I saw my breath take form and disappear in an instant, “Yet, since these clouds are the only thing that’s different from everything else around the neighborhood, it’s the only thing that I can go off of right now.”

“That makes sense I guess,” Ryan replied back, “I mean, the only other possibility I could think of is if some of the Equestrians from around the neighborhood were trying to give some holiday cheer.”

That had me blink for a moment, before moving the binoculars away from my face as I looked back towards him. “What exactly made you think that?”

For a moment, Ryan blinked as he tilted his head and looked back at me, “Did Gizmo or Brisk ever tell you about pegasus at all?”

“Only that they had a friend that was one, but not really much aside from that. Why?”

At that, he just let out a small breath, “Okay, let me rephrase that question. Did Gizmo or Brisk ever tell you about the different traits that Equestrian species have?”

“No, but I kind of assumed that it was already a bit obvious. Unicorns have magic, Earth Ponies are strong and do well with… well, the earth and pegasus have wings so they fly,” I said, folding my arms, “Why? Am I missing something?

Much to my own surprise though, Ryan didn’t really take that well, “Yeah, you are. I don’t know if anyone forgot to tell you or because you never met a pegasus before, but they can do more than just fly. One of my friends that works at the game shop I visit from time to time, Stuart, told me that his roommate is a pegasus and that they can pretty much control the weather.”

At that, whatever train of thought I had was derailed immediately, “Wait, you’re serious? What, like Storm from X-men or something?”

“Well yes, but actually no,” he shook his head, “To be fair, I haven’t seen it happen myself. However that same pegasi I mentioned, the one that was my friend's roommate, did end up accidentally short circuiting Stuart’s cell phone because of static electricity that was built up in their fur. As for right now, that’s my only guess as to what exactly could be doing this.”

“So you’re trying to say that one pegasus… is the cause of this?” I asked.

“Something like this? I doubt it,” he replied as he shrugged his shoulders, “Look, it’s the only possibility that really makes sense in my mind and-” Yet, as Ryan looked back at the clouds, he stopped speaking as I watched his eyes widen.

“Uh, Ryan? Are you okay?”

He said nothing, but instead pointed in the direction of the clouds again. As I moved the binoculars back up to my face and looked in the distance, I could now see what he was seeing. A pegasus with his back turned towards us was talking with what looked to be somebody else on the ground while they sat on top of a snow cloud that was in the air. There were a few others too, but this one for some reason felt familiar. I couldn’t tell if they were male or female, but I could see their cutie mark; a pair of folded wings with an ace playing card-.

Wait a minute…

“Well, that confirms one thing at least. Did you want to wait a bit or-”

Before he could finish, I tossed the binoculars back to him and started to run. If this pegasus was who I thought it was, then perhaps they could explain what’s going on… or for that matter, who’s bright idea was this? At least, that was what I was hoping for.

“Excuse me,” At that, the pegasus’ ears twitched as he turned around. He looked a little bit surprised to see me at first, almost like he had never met a human before.

“I’m sorry, is there… something I can help you with-”

Before he could finish his question, that was when I asked mine, “Are you Swift Ace by chance?”

Immediately, they were taken aback by my question as their eyes twitched, “How do you-” Then, a look of realization dawned on the pegasus’ face as he looked back down at me, “Oh, I get it now. You’re the one that is Gizmo’s neighbor, Sam right?”

“That would be me,” I nodded back at him, just as the thought of Gizmo entered my head as I looked around for a moment. When I was sure that I didn’t see the unicorn anywhere, I looked back at Swift, “Speaking of Gizmo, do you have any idea where she is? I… haven’t seen her in the last couple of days and-”

Before I could even finish, the pegasus moved one of his wings and motioned one of his feathers to silence me as he let out a sigh, “Has Brisk told you anything about what she’s been up to?”

“Only that she was working on a big project. Why?”

At that, Swift extended his wings and began to idly fly in place, before motioning his feathers as if a human were snapping their fingers. When he did, the clouds moved a bit… but as they did, that was when I saw that Swift wasn’t the only pegasus here. There were others all around us in the sky, each one on different clouds that were snowing around the neighborhood as I heard the stallion trot up next to me.

“Well, to put it simply… you’re looking at it.”

I’m sorry, WHAT?!

“Gizmo… has a habit of trying to go above and beyond when she sets her mind to things,” Swift said, before looking in the distance as he gave off a smile, “Though, I think it would be better if you heard it from her yourself.”

“Oh come on, Swift! You’re going to ruin the surprise!!”

At that, I immediately turned around to find the unicorn herself hastily trotting towards where I was standing as her scarf was blowing in the wind. When she finally reached me, that was when the pegasus sighed, “Haven’t you already surprised the entire neighborhood by this point? Besides, I didn’t say anything so that you could at least bring your friend here up to speed on… well, everything.”

That could at least help. Though, as the unicorn looked back at me, she seemed rather nervous despite trying the best she could to stay composed. “So um… I believe you might have some questions.”

“That I do,” I told her, before I got down to her level, “Though, after everything that’s happened over the last few minutes, I think there’s only one thing for me to ask. Why… well, this?”

Immediately, I realized that she didn’t really take what I said well as her ears dropped down. “Y-you… don’t like it-?”

“No, NO! Nothing like that at all,” I quickly retorted to dispel any doubt that she might’ve had, “It was just all… unexpected, that’s all. I think the whole neighborhood was a bit caught off guard since they never really expected for snow to start randomly falling from the sky. So, I just wanted to know the reasoning behind your project.”

“W-well,” she nervously replied, “A-after you told Brisk and I about how snow never falls here, I… wanted to do something special as a gift for you. B-but the more I thought about it, t-the more that it seemed selfish to do something j-just for you. S-so, Brisk and I called in some help as well as our friends so that e-everyone can experience it, even if it may be brief. I-i… thought it would be a great way to celebrate our first … uh… what was your holiday called again?”

“You mean Christmas?”

“Yeah, that!!” Gizmo quickly answered, “I t-thought it would be a great way to celebrate our first Christmas. T-together, with everyone!”

At that, I couldn’t help but gently place my hand around the back of her head and be careful not to touch her horn. I wasn't sure what to make of it at first. Though, if she was doing this as a gift for everybody, then she must’ve put a lot of effort into this. “Gizmo, this is… beyond words. I’m amazed that you and your friends were even able to do this for us. T-thank you very much.”

“R-really?” she asked, “S-some of the neighbors weren’t really… Well, they looked worried. I-it made me wonder if I did something wrong.”

“No no, you didn’t do anything wrong,” I quickly tried to dispel any doubt she might’ve had, “I just think that they were shocked and had no idea as to what was going on since this hasn’t really happened before. I’m pretty sure if we just told everyone, then they might have a better understanding.”

At that, the unicorn seemed a little more relieved as her ears perked up and she gave me one of her… well, I wouldn’t say ‘signature smiles’ like Sidon in Breath of the Wild, but something similar. I was just glad that she didn’t have to stress out or worry. I mean, her heart is definitely in the right place. Not only that, but she was able to get other Equestrians to take part and help with this as well. It just makes me wonder how much time did she put into coming up with something like this-

“Hey, you two. Brisk just finished making Cocoa and-”

Who the hell-?

“Azure, really? You were kind of interrupting a moment here buddy.”

As I heard Swift say that, I looked in the direction where the newfound voice came from. Much to my surprise though, instead of a pony, I found myself looking directly at a dragon that was around as tall as I was. Their scales were… well, Azure and their eyes were light yellow in color with scales along the back of the head that were flat in appearance. If anything, his appearance looked like that of a young dragonborn in Dungeons and Dragons. The only difference was that he had a zipped up jacket over the upper half of his body, had a mechanical tail… and they were carrying a tray that had some mugs of what looked to be hot cocoa.

“Oh, uh… if now’s not a good time, I can just-”

“No point in heading back now, man,” Swift chuckled, “Besides, it's rude to just show up and not introduce yourself.”

Now, the dragon’s gaze drifted towards me as he flinched for a moment and stuttered. “O-oh, uh… I’m sorry about that. I’m-”

“Azure, right?” I spoke up as I rose back up onto my feet, “Brisk told my family and I about both you and Swift.”

As I said that, the pegasus that was originally airborne now dropped down to the ground to join us. “Really now? Now I’m curious. What exactly did he happen to say about us?”

At that, I chuckled a bit before looking back to Gizmo briefly, “How about we go inform everyone else in the neighborhood about Gizmo’s special gift first? Then we can share stories afterwards? It would probably do better than sitting around in the snow.”

All three of the Equestrians looked towards each other for a moment, before they nodded their heads and began to follow me back to my house. It might take a while to sort all of this out, but it’ll be worth it in the end.

For this was one of the best gifts I was ever given.

Author's Note

Decided to try a few new things with this one, so tell me what you guys think. Thought that it would be good to try and write something from Gizmo's perspective as well, but maybe that's for another day.

Also, to further explain it, the whole part about Sam's neighborhood not getting snow is actually based on the fact that the only place you'll ever see snow in Southern California is up in the mountains since at night, the lowest the temperature can get is around the 40's to about 50 degrees farenheit. So, Gizmo got the help of some pegasi to decrease the temperature further so it could actually snow. However, since this can only be done at night, there was a limited amount of time to work with.

Happy holidays everyone!
-Frost

14- Resolutions

When it comes to the holiday of New Years Eve/Day, I see the whole thing as a bit of a love-hate relationship. Personally, I love the fact that you get to leave anything shitty that happened in the previous year behind and just focus on what lies ahead. However, there were two things that I hated about it. The first being that too many people set the bar for the upcoming year really high to the point that it ends up disappointing a lot of people when it doesn’t quite meet their expectations, myself included. The other was the tradition of New Year's Resolutions, which is basically of promising yourself that you’re going to fulfill some kind of big life change for the better… only to completely forget about it or ignore it a few days later.

Personally, I don’t see the point in making promises to yourself that you will never fulfill. However, somebody should’ve told Gizmo that. I didn’t know what kind of resolution she made to herself at the time, but shortly after New Years Day, some of Ryan’s neighbors were telling us that there was a lot of commotion coming from their house. Honestly, when I first heard of this, I wasn’t sure if said commotion was from Gizmo or someone that happened to be visiting them.

Luckily, as I was outside the house to get the mail, I heard a familiar voice greet me, “Good afternoon, Sam.”

“Hello there Brisk,” I replied with a familiar smile as I used my mail key to open up the door on the mailbox for my house. “How is everything going for you and Gizmo? Is the new year treating you guys well?”

“Yeah, sort of,” the earth pony shrugged, “Things have been going well. Though, I’m a little bit concerned for Gizmo as of late.”

“Aren’t we all concerned for her to some degree?”

“Fair point,” he replied, “Yet, I’m a bit concerned that Gizmo is taking one of this world's customs a little too seriously if you get what I mean.”

“How serious are we talking about exactly?” I asked, getting the last of the mail as I locked the door on the mailbox. “Like serious in a productive manner or serious as in she might end up going overboard on whatever she’s working on?”

“The latter, I’m afraid,” as he spoke, Brisk let out a deep breath, before he looked back towards me, “Before I continue though, there’s something I want to ask you. On Earth, how exactly do New Year’s Resolutions work?”

Oh boy. I have a bad feeling of where this might be going. Still, just play along for now. “Well, that’s the thing. Many people make new year’s resolutions as a way to try and commit themselves to do better or reach a particular goal that they set for themselves. Though, the thing is, many of those same people that make new year's resolutions end up not following through on them and stopping altogether a few days or so after they started.”

“I see. So it’s much like the traditions back home,” I heard him say to himself. At first, I would be surprised by what he said and ask for some clarification. But before I could do that, Brisk had another question for me, “And it’s just one resolution per person, right?”

Hold up a minute. One resolution? What exactly gave him the idea that we did multiple resolutions? Unless… Oh no.

“I’m just going to assume that the shock on your face right now means a resounding no,” the earth pony said, “For some reason, Gizmo thought that the new year's customs on Earth were much different than the ones back home. That and I believe when she was watching that one television program when we came over to celebrate with your family, Gizmo got the idea that humans would take on multiple new year’s resolutions. Much like how someone would have more than one goal.”

“Yeah, no,” I shook my head, “Given how it’s already difficult enough for people to remember and stick to one resolution, having multiple would just be a nightmare,” then, a different thought crossed my mind as I looked back at Brisk, “Please don’t tell she actually started doing some… did she?”

“Fortunately, that’s not the case,” Well, that’s… good. I think. “However, she’s already made a list for herself and last time I checked in on her, it was a rather lengthy one.”

Okay, I take that back. That’s definitely not good. If anything, we should probably stop her before Gizmo does anything drastic. Just leaving her alone for ten minutes unsupervised is asking for trouble. Though, at the moment, there was only one particular question that came to my head, “Should I even ask what’s on that list?”

“Last I checked, some of her goals were, and I quote; make this the best home ever, explore other potential uses for inventions, make a lot of new friends and be open to trying new things,” Brisk told me, “Though, yesterday, she was talking to your dad after we came back from the Post Office.”

Ironically though, just as he said that, I heard footsteps from the garage as we turned to see that Dad was standing not that far from us. “There you are. I was wondering why it was taking so long for you to pick up the mail.”

“Sorry about that. Though, your timing is rather convenient actually,” I replied, “Brisk told me that Gizmo wanted to talk to you yesterday. What was it that you two were talking about?”

At first, it looked like he had to take some time to think to himself. Though, after a little bit, he had an answer, “Well, she was telling me that she was looking for some advice. From what I could gather, it sounded like she was trying to come up with some new ways to use her inventions. So I told her that practicing hands on was a good start and don’t be afraid when you end up breaking something. Because if you do, it ends up teaching you what not to do and you learn from the experience.”

“ … Oh dear Celestia.”

“What? Did I say something wrong?” my dad asked, before looking back at me, “What’s all this about? I was just giving her advice-”

Before he could even finish his sentence, we all heard a loud rupture come from Gizmo’s house. Next thing we knew, something that I could only describe as a missile came flying out of the garage and crashing onto the street. Even though the garage door was open at the time and whatever was launched didn’t create any massive holes, water immediately began to surge out like someone opened the floodgates at a canal. Not only that, but I could see some of the items that they stored in their garage spill out as well.

“Was that… your hot water heater tank that flew out just now?”

“Agh, somepony help! I can’t shut this off!! It’s everywhere!!”

Oh dear god, Gizmo. What the hell were you thinking?

It took a long while in order to sort out everything after Gizmo’s most recent mess. While cleaning up the whole garage after this most recent mess took a lot more time than any of us expected, we were fortunate that it didn’t end up being a whole lot worse. Not only that, but it took a while for us to try and explain to her where exactly she went wrong as well as clear up her misconceptions from before.

However, Gizmo wasn’t exactly out of the woods yet. For despite her experience with tinkering and gadgets, none of her inventions would be enough to replace a functioning water heater tank. And those did not come cheap.

“W-wait, how much are they?!”

“They usually set you back about anywhere between five hundred to even a thousand dollars,” Dad told both ponies, “Of course, there’s also the option to have a tankless heater, but your house has to meet specific qualifications.”

“Which we possibly won't meet?” Brisk asked.

“I’m not entirely sure, honestly. I know that our house doesn’t meet it, but it might be different for you guys. However, what I do know is that until you get a replacement, you guys won’t be having water for a while because if I turn it back on, it’s going to flood all over again.”

Both Gizmo and Brisk took a moment to converse among themselves, trying to figure out what the best course of action was. Though, after a few moments, Gizmo spoke up. “I-i’m really sorry about all this… though, is there a way for us to still have water in the meantime?”

I looked back to where the pipes were, before looking over to the unicorn. “Maybe? I’m not entirely sure, but the last time we had something like this happen, the plumber reconfigured the pipes to where we still had water, but it was cold. Though-”

Immediately, Gizmo’s horn lit up as she picked up some pipes that she wasn’t using and some tools. “I think that’s that can work-”

“WAIT!” I interjected, “I was trying to say that you should let a professional handle this. If you mess up, it’s going to cause more harm than good.”

“We probably still have enough bits in order to cover this,” Brisk said with a smile, “The only question though would be how soon could we get somepony out to fix it-”

That comment had my dad look back to Brisk with a raised eyebrow, “Wait a minute. How much exactly is the conversion rate of bits to-?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” the earth pony quickly shot down, “Swift told us when he was here for Hearth’s Warming. And I’m telling you… you don’t want to know.”

As he said that though, I took a seat on the wet floor and looked over at the unicorn to see if she was doing alright. “Hey, Gizmo? Are you doing alright?”

“M-maybe,” she admitted, “I-I just… wanted to start off the new year right… Now look. I made another mess.”

“Hey, easy. Don’t blame yourself now,” I reassured her, “There have been a lot of times where I wanted to do what was best, but ended up making mistakes. The only thing to do is to learn from them so that you don’t repeat them. Not only that, but if something looks too difficult, we can always help you. That’s what friends are for.”

The moment I stopped speaking, Gizmo almost tackled me to the floor in a full body hug as I felt her head against my chest. “T-thank you so much, Sam. You’re a true friend.”

… Well, guess my clothes are going to smell like wet unicorn for who knows how long.

Eh, as long as Gizmo’s happy, it’s worth it.

Author's Note

Based on some IRL events near the beginning of last month, but this version's a bit more dramatic. Enjoy.
-Frost

15- Card Games with Ponies

If there was ever one day that I always look forward to the most out of any day in the week, it had to be fridays. Back when I was a kid, Fridays meant that it was not only the end of the week and that the weekend was right around the corner, but it also meant family game night. It used to be that our family would play different kinds of board games after we had dinner and try new things. Though, as I got older, my dad introduced me to two particular games that I still happen to play with not just him, but also friends that both he and I know.

The first one was Dungeons & Dragons. Though, that usually happens most of the time in the comfort of either our own home or the home of someone else we knew. The second one though was Magic- The Gathering, and at the game store Ryan and I would go to, they usually hold something called ‘Friday Night Magic’. Although it’s meant as a way to introduce newcomers into playing Magic with other people, a few of us still come over to not just meet other players, but also play a few rounds with decks that we constructed. Namely for the commander format.

Today though, a friend that happens to work at the game store that we go to told us that there was a bit of a surprise waiting for us there. I was honestly not sure what to expect, but as it turned out, there were quite a few Equestrians in the store too. Some of them were looking at other games that were available, while others happened to be playing some of their own games from their world.

Though, out of the crowd here, there was one equestrian I recognized that I honestly did not think would be here. “Oh hi, Sam. What are you doing here?”

I looked over towards the tables where a few others were playing Magic, only to find that my neighbor was here of all places. “Gizmo? What are you doing here?”

“Well, Swift decided to visit us and your friend Ryan told us that we can rent out and play games here,” she replied, “Swift was checking out some of the other games, and I just happened to notice these guys playing here. Funny enough, what they’re playing reminds me of Sorcery- The Galloping.”

Hold up. Reminds you of what now? “That’s… Magic- The Gathering.”

“It is?” the unicorn tilted her head, “Huh. Well, whatever they’re playing, it’s the same as the game I’m familiar with. Only difference is that a lot of the names and everything aren’t the same. Really want to try for myself, though…”

She then motioned over to the tables, where there weren’t that many open spots. Either some people were just playing by themselves or they were playing within a group of four, but there didn’t seem to be any openings. Though, perhaps there was a way that we could fix this.

“If you want, you and I can play.”

The unicorn looked over to me with a bit of shock and confusion. “R-really? But wouldn’t I have to learn how to play your game?”

“I don’t think so,” I told her, before setting down my bag and getting out the deck box of the deck I recently built, “You said that the game that you’re familiar with is similar to the one I am familiar with. So why don’t we try this. You’re best Sorcery- The Galloping deck against my best Magic- The Gathering one. Whoever beats the other wins.”

At first, she seemed rather open to the idea. However, it looked like she still had some questions. “I’m interested. Though, what’s the format that you play?”

“Well, with some of my friends, we usually play a format called ‘Commander’,” I explained as I pulled out the particular commander I have for my deck and showed her, “Where we have a particular card that serves as a commander and we build the deck around them. The only catch is that you can only put in one copy of any card in the deck aside from basic lands, unless the text says otherwise.”

“Oh, that sounds exactly like Mastermind,” Gizmo quickly replied back, before sitting across from me as I began to shuffle my deck, “Yeah, maybe we can give this a go.”

With her magic, I watched as she took out a deck box that almost looked similar to the one that I had, but gave the appearance that it was a mechanical contraption of some kind. Though, it was as we were preparing to get things set up that Swift happened to join us as well as Ryan. “Well this is unexpected. What are you two up to?”

“Gizmo and I were going to give something a try,” I told Ryan, “She told us that one of the games from Equestria plays exactly like Magic- The Gathering. So I thought that maybe we could play a game where she took her best deck, I took mine and we see who wins.”

“Huh. Well, color me intrigued,” Swift remarked as he sat down next to Gizmo, “If you’re playing the format I think you’re playing, then that would usually involve four players right? Mind if you include me too?”

“I never knew you actually played.”

“Heh. There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me,” Okay, I hate to admit it, but he has a point. “Perhaps this can change that. That is, if your friend wanted to join us and make it four?”

“Do I?” Ryan chuckled, before he sat down next to me, “Count me in. This will be interesting”

We all took about a minute or so to get ourselves set up. Each one of us shuffled our decks and I used my phone to set up the life counters. For Commander, each one of us would start out at about 40 Life and go against each other in a full on free-for-all. The last person who ends up still being alive at the end of the match wins. There are a few other things to point out here and there, but perhaps we should start at the beginning.

“So, what is everyone’s commander going to be?” Ryan asked, “Because I already know what I’m using for mine.”

“Well, mine’s going to be Bright Spark, the Brilliant.” the unicorn across from me proudly proclaimed, before I looked over at the card she just set down using her magic.

“Can I have a look at that?” I asked, wanting to get a better look and see if the card was somewhat familiar to something I had seen before.

“Sure, go ahead.”

Once I picked up the card, I noticed a couple of things. First off, the card was their game’s version of a Planeswalker… or Realmwalker, as the card phrased it. The second was that loyalty counters were referred to as trust counters as well as there being mechanics on the card that just sound like a synonym for something I’m familiar with. Finally, this particular card could be a Mastermind, or in our case a commander. Now, what exactly are its abilities?

Name- Bright Spark, the Brilliant
Cost: 2 BR
Legendary Realmwalker- Bright Spark
Unicorn Artificer

+1: Summon a 1/1 Colorless ‘Idea’ artifact creature token
+1: The next spell you cast will cost 1 less for each artifact creature you control as you cast it
-7: For each artifact you control, create a token that’s a duplicate of it. These tokens gain swiftness. Banish them at the beginning of the next end step.

Base Trust Counters- 4

Bright Spark, the Brilliant can be your Mastermind

Holy crap, this thing is Pony Saheeli, the Gifted. If I don’t keep an eye on her stuff, this could get ugly.

“What about you, Swift? Who are you playing as?”

“One of my better picks, honestly,” the pegasus replied as he placed his Commander out on the table. “When Gizmo got me into the hobby, I wasn’t really that good. Though, when I started playing with this one, I’ve been able to stand my ground a bit.”

“Mind if I have a look?” I watched as Ryan took a look at what he placed on the table, “Nimble Wing, the Rascal. Legendary Creature, pegasus thief… Huh.”

“What? You were expecting something else?” the pegasus replied as Ryan placed the card back down. “I know that it seems kind of ironic that I play with this deck because of my… well, family history, but I’ve tried playing with other creature types and they just don’t really do it for me. So, that’s why I stick with my thief deck. That way I can still fight and have many different tricks depending on what you guys bring to the table. Speaking of which, who or what exactly are you two going to have as your… Well, Masterminds?”

“You mean Commanders?” Ryan asked with a smirk on his face that gave me an idea of just how overconfident he was right now, “Well, mine is a little bit different from what I usually play, but I think I got a game plan for this one. My commander is Breena, the Demagogue.”

Both of the equines took a moment to look at the card, but I already had an idea of what his plan was going to be. It was a politics deck that insisted on having other players attack each other and he reaps the rewards from it. I’ve seen a strategy like that work before, but you need a level head for it to work. Which is hard for Ryan because once you get him going, he overreaches and ends up making mistakes… not that I’m complaining. There are times where he did that and I actually was able to win some games.

“Guess the only one that’s left is Sam,” I heard Gizmo speak, “So, who’s your Ma-. I mean Commander. Who’s your commander going to be?”

“Tovolar,” I simply replied, as I pointed at the card in the ‘command zone’ that I set him at. “Tovolar, Dire Overlord.”

“Ah shit,” I heard Ryan curse, while both of the equines looked back at him in confusion, “That might be a headache for me to keep up with.”

“What do you mean by that? It seems intimidating enough,” Swift stated.

“I built this deck based around one of the new mechanics that was introduced into Magic a couple months back with some of the newer sets,” I said, before giving a faint smile, “As for how that mechanic works. Well, perhaps it would be easier if we got started and I showed you.”

With that, all four of us drew our opening hands and it was time to for us to get started.

For the first turn, Gizmo and Swift started by placing down their own lands to start. Gizmo placed a mountain, while Swift put down a blue/black land that was called a Temple of Deception; with the latter having to come in tapped because of the description on the card and him scrying the top card of his Library. Ryan went through by playing Silverquill Campus tapped. However, as I looked back at the cards in my hand, I had something that I could go with… and given how my deck works, I think it would be good if I got this out now.

“Okay, I’m going to play a forest and then tap it to play Sol Ring.”

“Seriously? Turn one and you’re already bringing that out?” Ryan asked, “That’s rather quick, don’t you think?”

“I’m not planning on using it now,” I deadpanned. “With that, I’ll pass the turn. Go ahead, Gizmo.”

“Alright then,” I watched as the unicorn pulled another card into her ‘hand’ with her magic, “I’m going to play an island and then tap both of my lands to play a Mystical Artificer. With its effect, any artifact costs one less. And before I finish, I’m going to cast Idea Factory, which thanks to Mystical Artificer costs no mana.”

Oh no, if that card is supposed to be what I think it is, then that’s definitely not good. And with her commander, she can flood the board with artifacts way too fast if I’m not careful.

“With that, I pass the turn and now Swift is next. Go ahead.”

Swift nodded, before he used his wing to draw his next card. As he was looking at what was in his hand though, I noticed that a few of the people around the shop had taken notice of our game. Some of them even went as far as to try and watch us from both sides of the table. And we only just started turn two for crying out loud!

“Alright, my turn,” Swift nodded and drew his card, “I’ll play an island, and then I’ll tap it to play Griffonstone Cloud-Thief, which comes in with flying. Though, since I don’t have anything else, I’ll pass to Ryan.”

“Thank you for that,” he replied, before he untapped his only land and drew his card, “I think I got a way to get this started. I’m going to play a swamp and then tap it for a black and Silverquill Campus for a white to bring out Oreskos Explorer. And when it enters, its ability triggers.”

“Uh oh,” Gizmo muttered, “It’s not… bad, is it?”

“For you no. Though, for me, it’s good,” my friend smirked, “Thanks to it, since you and Swift are two players that have more lands than I do, I can find up to two plains from my library and then add them to my hand. Once that’s done, I reshuffle everything.” Oh, so a way to get him more Mana when he’s up… I’m not quite sure if I’m really comfortable with this. I know that he’s not playing a mono green, but if left unchecked, he could catch all of us by surprise. “And because my creature has summoning sickness, I can’t go into combat, so I’ll pass to Sam.”

Alright, let’s hope that I can draw something I can work with here. “Okay, I’ll untap and draw.” Okay, so I got another land and only a couple of creatures. Though, I think I got something to help me get set up. “I’ll first start by tapping my Sol Ring to float two mana and use it to play Gruul signet. Then, I’ll tap one of the lands so I can use my signet for a red and a green and play Kessig Naturalist.”

“Oh, here we go.”

“And when Kessig Naturalist come onto the battlefield, it becomes Day,” I added, before placing a card on the side that indicated whether it was day or night. My deck, being a werewolf one, relied a lot on the Day/Night Cycle mechanic that was introduced in Innistrad- Midnight Hunt. To simplify things, if certain conditions are met, my creatures can change forms depending on if it was day or night. Not only that, but certain cards had bonuses depending on this. Only question was, would Gizmo or Swift do anything to have those conditions be met.

“Both of my creatures have summoning sickness and can’t attack this turn, so I’ll pass. Gizmo, you’re up”

“O-okay,” she replied, before she untapped her things and drew a card, “I’ll play a Foundry of Concepts as my land for turn.”

Okay, a colorless land. I’ll need to pay attention because that can get scary.

“Then, I’ll tap three and play Ikari Tinkerer.” As she said that, I noticed that she was holding two cards instead of one as she placed them both on the field. The tinkerer itself looked like that of an earth pony that was a scholar/artificer and what looked to be something that resembled a thopter, but couldn’t quite tell. “When I play Ikari Tinkerer, I get a colorless Concept Token, which is an artifact creature with flying. Not only that, but any artifacts I gain have swiftness!”

“Uh, do you mean Haste?” Ryan asked.

“If that’s your game’s way of saying ‘can attack on the turn you summon it’, then yes it has that.”

Okay, Swift’s remarks didn’t really help here. If any and ALL of her artifacts have Haste, that can get out of hand rather quickly.

“Okay, I can attack, however my artifact will just die if I do,” Wait, what now? What’s Gizmo doing now? “So I’ll go to my next phase. Because of Mystical Artificer, my artifacts cost one less. So for zero mana, I’ll cast Soluna Band.”

Oh great. Equestrian Sol Ring. Not like this could get out of-

“And I will immediately use the two from it to cast Magnifying Glass. Then I’ll pass my turn.”

Okay, hold up. In three turns, not only does she have three lands, but a creature that can make her artifacts cost less, two artifacts that give her mana and another that can just create more tokens?! Scratch what I said before, this is definitely getting scary and I’m not sure if I can keep up with this.

“Alright, my go.” Swift said as he untapped and drew his card, “I’ll draw, play a swamp, tap a swamp and island to play Aerial-Dream Thief. Then, with my last remaining mana, I play Coercion. I’ll pick Gizmo as the target for it.”

“What-? Come on!! I’m just getting ready-”

“Oh, you look a little bit more than ready. Too ready if I say so myself,” he deadpanned, before the unicorn showed him his hand and pointed at one particular card, which was soon put into Gizmo’s graveyard. From what it looked like, he just used Duress to try and tone down what she had in her hand-

“Then, I’ll have my Cloud-Thief attack you.”

“Dang it… Fine,” she groaned, “I’ll not block, so I’ll take one?”

“Yes,” with that, first blood had been drawn in this game. Even though it was only one point, it seemed like Swift had another trick up his non-existent sleeves, “Because you took combat damage, both of my thieves trigger. Cloud-Thief would have you take the top card of your deck and put it in your graveyard, while Dream-Thief will add two more to that because another thief did combat damage.”

Oh, for the love of. Swift’s deck is not only a thief deck but a Mill deck as well? God, I really do hope that he doesn’t have his sights set on me later in this game. Otherwise, it’s going to be the bane of my existence.

“Okay, I guess it’s my turn now,” Ryan added, “I’ll draw, play one of the plains that I picked up last turn and then, I’ll play my commander, Breena.”

And now things just went from bad to worse. If this continues to happen this way, who knows what will happen?

“Then… I would like to go to combat, but I would rather keep the things I have, so I’ll kindly pass it to Sam.”

“Kindly now?” I chuckled, before noticing that a few others have now gathered as I looked back at my hand, “Alright, my turn. Untap, draw… first things first, since I already have two lands in play, I can play Rockfall Vale untapped as my land for turn. Then, I will tap my Sol Ring to use one of the mana and Rockfall Vale for a red to cast Cathartic Pyre on your Mystical Artificer. It’ll take three points of damage.”

“And it’ll perish.”

“With the remaining mana from my Sol Ring, I tap my Forest and Mountain to bring out my Commander, Tovolar. Then, I’ll go to combat and have my Kessig Naturalist come for you, Gizmo.”

“I… don’t want to lose my concept, so I’ll not block,” the unicorn sighed, “I’ll take two and go to 37.”

“After this, two triggers happen,” I added, “First, because of my commander, when a wolf or werewolf deals combat damage, I draw a card. Second, when Kessig Naturalist deals damage, I get either an extra red or green mana. I’ll use the spare red mana to play Fearless Pup and then end-.”

“Before you do,” Oh, right. Ryan’s Demagogue. “Since you attacked Gizmo while Breena’s out on the field, you get an extra card draw while I get to add two +1/+1 counters on my Oreskos Explorer. They’re now a 4/4.”

I sighed, before drawing the extra card as I looked at Gizmo, “Your turn.”

Even though she tried her best to stay positive, Gizmo looked like she was going to murder me with a cards game when she looked at me. After she untapped her lands and drew her next card, I watched her grit her teeth, “Okay so, Swift messed up my original plan. So here we go with plan b. I’m going to put in an island, then tap my Soluna Band and my Idea Factory to create a second Colorless Concept Token. Then, since I don’t have anything else I can do at the moment, I will go to combat and send my concepts towards you, Sam.”

Figures. “I won’t block, so I’ll take two damage and go to thirty eight.”

“And I’ll pass my turn.”

Wait, did she…? Oh, she did! Well, this works out in my favor. I’m surprised

“Gizmo… You just made a big mistake,” Ryan told her. Something that confused not just Gizmo, but also the Equestrians that were watching the game play out.

“What? How come-?”

“Since you didn’t cast any spells or played any creatures on your turn, it switches to Night,” he told her, “And because of that, Sam’s werewolves transform into their nastier side.”

Exactly. Now my commander is Tovolar, The Midnight Scourge and my Naturalist is now Lord of the Ulvenwald. Not only that, but my wolves are now tougher than they were before. Now, I know that Gizmo still has mana on the table and she probably might have a counterspell in her hand. Though, since that the turn has passed, it fell on Swift to see if he could change things now.

“Okay, with that frightening thought in mind, I’ll untap and draw,” the pegasus replied, “I’ll play an island for my land this turn, then tap one to play my own Soluna Band, then I’ll tap it and my temple of deception to play Infiltration Briefing.”

Wait, what now?

“Please don’t tell me that’s what I think it is,” Ryan grumbled, before he looked over to Swift, “What’s the effect?”

“For any non-creature spell that any of you play, you have to pay one more mana to cast it. If you can’t or refuse, I get to draw a card.”

“Yep. Basically Rhystic Study,” he grumbled, “Fun when you play as Blue, but not when you play against it.”

“I’ll play the card Honor Among Thieves and then I’ll pass,” the pegasus nodded, “Also, would it be right to say that it’s daytime now?”

“For the moment, yes.” I heard him say as I switched my stuff, he untapped his lands and drew a card, “Okay, I’m going to do everyone a favor. First, I’ll play Study Hall as my land, then tap it and a plains to float one white mana. I’ll use that and my swamp to play an Orzhov Signet. Then I’ll tap my Silverquill Campus and the signet for one black and one white to cast Fracture on your Infiltration meeting to exile it.”

Okay, I feel a little bit relieved at that. Though, personally, given how powerful Fracture was, I think he honestly should’ve saved it.

“You do realize that will trigger it right?” Swift asked.

“It’s a trade off that I’ll take.”

The pegasus looked back at Gizmo and I, before looking towards Ryan and letting it resolve. “With that, I’ll have both my creatures swing towards you.”

“I’ll block the Explorer with my Cloud-Thief and it will die, but I won’t block Breena, so I’ll take three and go to Thirty Seven.”

“And with that, there’s nothing else I can do. Sam?”

Here we go, “I’ll untap and go to my upkeep. Because of my commander, if I have three or more wolves/werewolves out on my side, it automatically becomes Night.” Then, I drew my next card. In my hand were a couple of good creatures that could help me and mana wasn’t an issue right now. However, the problem I had was that there was something specific I was looking for in my deck that I haven’t found yet. Which would be a problem if Swift started to set his sights on me and force me to mill my deck.

Hopefully, this can help me find something. “Okay, I’m going to play Pinecrest Ridge as my land for this turn. Then, I’m going to tap my signet and my two basic lands for four mana and play Howlpack Piper. However, since it’s night, they’ll come in as Wildsong Howler and their ability triggers.”

“Which is?”

“I look at the top six cards of my library and if I find a creature I like, I reveal it and add it to my hand. Otherwise, they are put on the bottom of my library in a random order.” I let out a deep sigh at that, before setting my hand down and counting out six cards. Hopefully, I can find what I’m looking for-

… Nope, scratch that. I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I did find something else that can be just as helpful. “Okay, for my pick, it will be a Daybreak Ranger and I’ll place the other cards on the bottom of my library. Next, I’ll tap my Sol Ring for two and then tap Rockfall Vale for a green to play it, but it will come in as Nightfall Predator. Lastly, I’ll tap Pinecrest for a red and Nightfall Predator to activate its ability and have it fight another creature I don’t control.”

That had Gizmo look at me nervously, before she asked a different question. “W-who are you going to pick?”

“I’ll be targeting Breena actually.”

“Wait, what?” I heard Ryan say, caught off guard by my choice, “Why my commander? I haven't messed with you!”

“Yeah, but giving your creatures power buffs because of everyone else fighting each other is going to be a problem I don’t want to deal with, so I’m dealing with it now. And you used your mana already, so you can’t counter it.”

I only heard him let out a groan, before he looked back at me. “Okay, fine. Breena goes back to the command zone. Happy?”

“Almost,” I said, “I’ll swing my commander at you and swing Ulvenwald at Swift. Thanks to Ulvenwald, Tovolar’s a 5/5.”

Both Swift and Ryan didn’t like the sounds of that as they took no blocks. Which led to me passing my turn since I couldn’t use the spare mana from Ulvenwald for anything and back to Gizmo. As she untapped and drawed her next card, I took a quick glance for where we were at life wise after four turns. Ehh, it still seemed like a relatively close game right now, so anyone could take control at some point, right?

Fifteen minutes later

Okay, scratch what I said before. So far, it’s been very difficult trying to keep up.

Ryan was the first one that lost. Not only because of Swift milling our cards, but because Gizmo found a way to use both of her commander and her Idea Factory and creatures to not only create a lot of tokens, but to sacrifice them and create a massive army of tokens on the battlefield to overwhelm us with sheer force to the point that I had to be careful with attacking since I needed creatures to block them. Now, I only have a few wolves on the field and the two of them have an army of tokens and thieves. Not only that, but I had roughly two life while the two of them had about ten to twelve each.

And right now, it was Swift’s combat phase. “Okay, I will swing my commander at you. You would take two.”

“I block with one of my wolf tokens, so no damage taken this turn.”

“On your end step, I cast Infuriating Dissonance and you will be forced to mill eight cards.”

Oh for the love of-. If I don’t do anything now. This is… Oh, hold up. Wait a minute. This actually might be good this time.

“Alright. Oh and let me remind you that one of the cards that you had me put in my graveyard was Anger.”

Some of the people that were watching were now kind of excited at that as they whispered and spoke among themselves. However, Swift and Gizmo weren’t quite sure what that meant. “What the hay is Anger?”

“One of the creatures in my deck where the effect activates only when it’s in the graveyard. Something that I actually want to thank Swift for,” I grinned, “Because that means that all my creatures that I have and that I bring onto the battlefield have Haste.”

The shock on Swift’s face when he realized that was brief, but also priceless. For somepony who had a deck centered around milling cards, he didn’t seem to think that one such card could come back to bite him. Now it was my turn to see if I can come up with an answer to capitalize on this.

“Also, on your end-step, I’m going to crack the Evolving Wilds I placed down two turns ago and use that to put in a Forest. I’ll untap all my stuff and draw,” Only problem was that right now, I only had a few other creatures out right now, but not my commander. So, it couldn’t turn to night automatically. Instead, all I had was a couple of werewolves that couldn’t transform and in the current state they were in, it was going to be very difficult to find a counter for this.

Luckily, I just drew a card that could help me… if luck was on my side. “I’m going to start by playing a mountain and then tap four to cast Into the Night.”

“Wait, like the song on the radio thinga-majig?”

I had to resist the urge to facepalm at that as I let out a sigh. “Nope. Not even close. With this, it automatically becomes Night and I can discard any amount of cards that I have in my hand to draw new ones. I’m going to discard three.”

“And because of Honor Among Thieves, I get to draw three as well.”

Okay, I think I have a plan now. One creature, a sorcery and an instant. I think I know how to do this now.

“First off, because it’s night and my Huntmaster of the Fells transformed into Ravager of the Fells, it deals two damage to both you and a target. I’ll target one of Gizmo’s tokens for the target and Swift for the two. So that will bring you down to ten life. After that, I’m going to cast Hull Breach and target your Honor Among Thieves. Since it’s an enchantment, it gets destroyed.” Swift immediately looked at me with what could only be described as a ‘shocked pikachu face’ as he had to place it in his graveyard. But I wasn’t done yet. Not by a long shot, “Next, I’ll tap my Gruul signet, Sol Ring and a Forest to play Avabruck Caretaker. But since it’s night, she comes in as Hollowhenge Huntmaster. And because of her, all my creatures not only have their power and toughness increased by two each, but also have Hexproof. Making them untargetable by any spells or abilities.”

“Okay, but I got a whole army set up over here and you only have like… four werewolves. How does that help-?”

“Lastly, I tap the rest of my mana to cast Chain Reaction.”

“Oh shit! You had that in there?” I heard Ryan comment. “Where was that when I was still in the game?”

“Wait, doesn’t that harm your creatures too?” I heard Gizmo ask.

“It would. But because everything on my board has Hexproof now, it protects them from ANY spells, including my own. I have four creatures, Swift has three and how many do you have Gizmo?”

The unicorn, shocked by everything that was transpiring at first, before she gave me an answer. Though, I can tell that it was one that she didn’t want to admit. “T-twenty.”

“So twenty seven to all of your guys then.”

With that, everything on the other side of the board was cleared out and it left for me an opening to go all in. “Now to combat. Before we start, my Storm Charged Slasher’s effect kicks in and it boosts one of my creatures. I will place it on them and it’s power, along with the boost from Huntmaster, will have it be a 7/6 with Trample. Huntmaster herself is an 8/8. Terror of Kruin Pass is now 5/5 and Ravager of the Fells is a 6/6. I will send my first two at Swift and my last two at Gizmo.”

At first, I thought that either of them had something since they still had Mana up. But after the two of them looked towards one another, they both let out a sigh in defeat. “Guess that’s it, then,” Gizmo said, before I saw her ears twitch upward as she looked back at me, “That’s was fun… and the first time I ever lost.”

“Yeah, because you had some kind of idea as to how everypony else played back home,” Swift told her as he started to put his card deck away. “Still, that was an experience… and we seemed to draw quite a crowd too.”

At that point, everyone else that was around us was either minding their own business or doing the same thing we did where they found a couple of Equestrians and played a match or two. Honestly, I didn’t think that an idea I offered Gizmo and Swift just to pass the time would lead to… well, this.

Of course, that was when Gizmo asked me another question, “So, did you and Ryan want to play again? I mean… how long do we have until the shop closes?”

… Well, I guess we’re going to be here for a while.

Author's Note

So, for this chapter, I decided to do something a bit unique with it. Instead of doing a chapter like the DND one where they talked about the similarities between a game on earth and one in Equestria, I thought that a chapter showcasing both games in action would be neat. So, I thought that the best example of this would be with the card game Magic- The Gathering. It's something that I have gotten into over the last few months alongside Dungeons & Dragons and I thought that writing something like this would be cool.

Of course, I didn't want to write a whole match, so I chose to work with a few different bits. Now, as for the cards, I did Gizmo and Swift's decks based on who they are as well as their backstories a bit. Gizmo being an inventor was pretty much an Artifact centered deck while Swift's was a Rogue Mill deck because of how he used to be a thief.

To go a bit further, here are the descriptions for the cards that I came up with for both Gizmo and Swift. Based on FanOfMostlyEverything's Friendship is Card Game blogs and using terms from MTG. The first set will be the cards Gizmo used while the second one will be Swift.

Bright Spark, the Brilliant- 2 UR
Legendary Realmwalker- Bright Spark
Unicorn Artificer

Base Loyalty Counters- 4
Bright Spark, the Brilliant can be your Commander

'To make a possibility a reality is the most mesmerizing creation to ever exist.' -Bright Spark

Mystical Artificer - 1U
Creature- Unicorn Artificer

Artifact spells cost 1 less to cast
'The Greatest Craftsponies don't use tools at all, but solely rely on Mind and Magic'

1/2

Ikari Tinkerer- 2R
Creature- Earth Pony Inventor

When Ikari Tinkerer enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 colorless 'Concept' token with flying. All artifact creatures you control have Haste
'Think of the kind of advancements our work can create! Soon enough, we can create wings to visit our Pegasi friends in Cloudsdale.' -Ikari, the Earth Pony that attempted to fly

1/3

Soluna Band - 1
Artifact
Tap- Gain two uncolored mana

'The earliest artificers dedicated their greatest work to the Royal sisters, representing the sun and moon in perfect harmony'

Idea Factory- 1
Artifact
3- Untap Idea Factory
2- Tap. Create a 1/1 Colorless Concept Artifact token with flying
Tap. Sacrifice a Concept Token. Create x 1/1 Colorless Idea tokens, where X is equal to the highest number of creatures your opponent controls (Max 5).

'Welcome to the home of our great work. Here, we are hard at work to make dreams a reality!' -Tour Guide of Illuminous Idea Factory.

Magnifying Glass - 3
Artifact

Tap- Add 1 uncolored Mana
4, Tap- Investigate Create a Colorless Clue artifact token with the following: 2, Sacrifice this artifact, Draw a Card.

'When it comes to investigating strange things in Ponyville, always take it upon yourself to look at things a bit more closely'

Nimble Wing, The Rascal 3-BU
Legendary Creature- Pegasus Thief

Flying, Flash
When Nimble Wing, The Rascal deals combat damage, target a permanent in your opponent's graveyard and return to the battlefield under your control.
2BU- Target a thief you control, it gains Shadow until the end of your next turn. (Shadow: Can only block or be blocked by creatures with Shadow)

'You think you can catch me with sheer numbers? That's cute.' -Nimble Wing

Griffonstone Cloud Thief - 1U
Creature- Griffon Thief

Flying
When this card deals combat damage to a player, that player mills a card (Takes the top card from their library and places it in their graveyard)
When your opponent have eight or more cards in their graveyard, you may sacrifice this creature and draw a card

'In Griffonstone, you should always watch your head... as well as your coinpurse'

Aerial Dream-Thief - BU
Creature- Pegasus Thief

Flying, Flash
As long as your opponents have eight or more cards in their opponent's graveyard, Thief's you control gain +1/0
When one or more thieves you control deals combat damage to a player, that player mills two cards.

'Most of the victims that have everything taken from them don't even think that there could be somepony hiding in the clouds.'

Infiltration Briefing - 2U
Enchantment

When an opponent casts a spell, you may draw a card unless they pay 1 mana

'Planning and preparation before a heist not only let's you study what you want to know, but also need to know'

Honor Among Thieves- 3BU
Enchantment

On your upkeep, if you have three or more thieves under your control, they gain 2/1 and Menace until the end of turn. (Menace- Can't be blocked except by two or more creatures)

'Never forget about the code we follow. That separates our gang from the rest of the scoundrels in this city' -Nimble Wing

Infuriating Dissonance- 1U
Sorcery
Kicker- 3B

Each player mills 8 cards. If the spell was kicked instead, each opponent mills half of their library, rounded up.

'Okay, who the BUCK was the one that tripped the alarm!?' -Jade Clover

Temple of Deception
Land (Dual- BU)

Temple of Deception enters the battlefield tapped.
When Temple of Deception enters the battlefield, Scry 1 (Look at the top card of your deck. You can either keep at the top or place at the bottom)
Tap- Add one Blue or Black Mana

That's all I have for now. Until next time!
-Frost

16- Grand Opening

If I was completely honest with myself, out of all the possible options for how to spend an afternoon, I did not think it would be this. Though, after two weeks of trying to find myself a job and getting nothing but silence, scam emails and messages telling me that the employer is ‘looking for other suitable candidates’, I thought that going to an art museum would not only help me get out of the house, but also clear my mind a bit. It wasn’t exactly how I would try to relax, but this in particular was different. Not just because Mistral invited Gizmo, Brisk and I to join her, but because today was the grand opening of the first ever Equestrian art exhibition on Earth.

Now, when it comes to art, a lot of people that I know or that I see wandering around would just take a look at something and see a pretty picture or a well crafted sculpture. Yet, I see things a bit differently. Each particular piece allows you to look into someone else’s art and culture and learn more about them in the process. Some works of art allow you to glimpse into their history and learn more about events that made them who they are, while others allow you to see things from a different perspective and learn more about their society.

Of course, if I continued rambling on, I would begin to sound like Grand Admiral Thrawn. Besides, I’m just someone in their mid twenties trying to enjoy my Sunday afternoon, not a military tactician that served the Galactic Empire.

One of the first things that we happened to find as I first entered the museum was a portrait gallery. While it didn’t seem that big of a deal to a lot of the attendees, this helped me out with one particular thing. Gizmo and Brisk always kept on talking about certain ponies such as Princess Celestia and Luna, but here, I could actually put a name to a face and see who it was that they were talking about. And to be honest, I was a bit surprised to see what the royal sisters actually looked like given how much I had heard about them.

The two princesses weren’t the only creatures that had portraits in this gallery though. Other prominent figures from Equestria history were also hanging along the walls from leaders of different species to heroes from both past and present day. Hell, there was even a giant portrait that was dedicated to the first graduating class of the School of Friendship, which was actually a legitimate school over in Equestria somehow. Even more surprising was that some of the actual students in that picture were walking around the halls and talking with some of the other attendees.

By the time that I was out of the portrait gallery, Gizmo and Brisk went off to continue exploring the rest of the exhibition. Unlike me, I had a feeling that the unicorn pretty much wanted to try and ‘speedrun’ the whole thing with how fast she trotted throughout the museum. Why that is, I’m not quite sure to be honest. However, I wanted to take this at my own pace. Besides, if this could help me get a better understanding of Equestria in the process, then this was an opportunity that I would rather not pass up.

At least, until I felt something bump into me.

“Oh, my apologies.”

When I turned around to see who it was, I couldn’t help but find myself looking at a pony that was somehow taller than all the ones that I had met previously. Their fur, mane and overall appearance looked like that of a night sky, they had a moon as a cutie mark and there were even what looked like twinkling stars in their tied back mane. If anything, they looked like I was staring at Princess Luna herself, based on the portrait I saw a few moments ago.

Wait a minute-

“My lady, there you are,” I turned around to find a familiar bat pony hurrying towards us, “I know that you’re eager to see the exhibits, but-” Before she could finish, her eyes shifted towards me, “Oh, hello there Sam.”

“You know this one, Mistral?”

Okay, am I the only one who has no idea what’s going on right now?

“Yes, actually. She’s… an acquaintance of mine, so to speak. I actually invited her to come here along with a few other ponies that just so happen to be her neighbors,” Misty replied, before looking towards me, “Sam, may I introduce you to my old boss and one of the Princesses of Equestria, Luna.”

Holy… shit. This was… not what I was expecting at all. “H-hello! Nice to meet you, your majesty-”

“Please, there’s no need for formalities,” she insisted, “I retired from my duties some time ago, so I’d prefer if you just called me Luna.”

“Oh, uh… okay then, Luna,” I said, before glancing over at Misty, “So, what brings you here… if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Well, Luna was invited here by the organizers of the exhibition as a special guest,” Misty told me as we began to walk away from the entrance, “Given that I used to be part of the Royal Guard, specifically the Night Guard that served Luna, I was asked to be her escort for the afternoon.”

So, she means bodyguard duty then? Seems reasonable enough, I guess. Though, I can’t really think of anyone who would want to actually harm her. Especially if half of the magical capabilities that were described on the plaque by her portrait were true.

Before I had the chance to say anything to Misty though, that was when I heard Luna speak up to me, “So, Sam. Mistral here says that you happen to be here with some friends of yours?”

“I was,” I clarified for her, looking behind me to see if they were nearby. With Gizmo and Brisk nowhere to be seen, I let out a sigh and turned back around towards Luna, “That is, before one of them decided to just go on ahead without me, much to her coltfriends dismay. I don’t really know why, but I’m under the impression that they think that I was going ‘too slow’ for their liking. Personally, I’m just trying to enjoy the exhibit and maybe learn a few things while I’m here.”

“Learn, you say? About what exactly?” The princess asked.

“Well, a little bit of everything if I have to be honest,” I shrugged my shoulders, “I only know a little bit about Equestria from my friends that live next door to me, so I thought that by coming here, I could learn a thing or two and understand what they talk about sometimes. I know it doesn’t seem like a lot, but to me, every little bit helps.”

“I see… Mistral, would it be okay to have her join us?”

Wait, what?

“Wait, what?” the bat pony blinked, “A-are you sure about this, my lady-?”

“Why not?” Luna told her, “It won’t interfere with us touring the exhibition. In fact, I believe this might be a benefit. Especially with someone who’s rather interested to learn more about Equestria. If that is so, then who are we to deny her intrigue and curiosity to learn? My sister surely didn’t do that when it came to Twilight.”

At this point, Misty could only let out a deep sigh and facehoof herself. “Well, it’s hard to convince you otherwise when you put your mind to something,” she said, before shifting her attention over to me, “So Sam, would you like to join me in showing Princess Luna around?”

“Well, this is… quite sudden,” I honestly admitted, “Yet, I’m alright with it I guess. Maybe we can find Gizmo and Brisk while we’re at it-”

“Hold on a moment… Gizmo? As in Gizmo Gadget, the tinkerer? You know her?”

That had me look immediately at Misty, before looking at Luna, “Y-yes, she’s my neighbor… Do you know her-?”

“Well, I haven’t met her personally,” she admitted, “But I have heard a lot about her from both my sister as well as Mistral. How she and her companions were a real hoof-ful to keep an eye on, especially for those in the royal guard. I was hoping to have the chance to meet her and ask her more about their escapades, but then I heard that she traveled across the border between our home and yours after Mistral joined your… what was it called again?”

Oh god, why do I have the feeling that Gizmo had gotten into more trouble back home in Equestria than she wanted to admit?

“The police department, my lady,” Misty answered, “Besides, perhaps we should tour around the exhibit first and then search for her as we move around? We are sort of blocking the entrance way for those that are coming in”

… My afternoon just got a lot more hectic now, didn’t it?

By the time that we finished going through the entire exhibition, I ended up learning a lot more about Equestria than I thought I would. With each section that we visited, Luna happened to inform me more about each piece whether there was some kind of historical significance or just a form of creative expression. From what I understood, each species had their own forms of art to not only tell the story of their species, but to express who they are. One such piece was called the ‘Fire of Friendship’, which represented the unification of the different Equine tribes when Equestria was founded as well as their six founders.

Of course, that wasn’t the only thing that we were discussing. For since it was Luna’s first time on Earth, the princess had a lot of questions about… well, pretty much everything. Unlike Gizmo though, Luna had a bit more restraint when it came to asking me the questions that were on her mind. Yet, some of the questions that she asked were not exactly easy for me to answer given that the subject was rather complex.

We tried to keep an eye out for Gizmo and Brisk while inside the exhibit, yet we only happened to run into her and Brisk as we finished up and went back outside. Yet, as we left, I could overhear a lot of whispers from the people that were still trying to get in. Most of it being disbelief that an actual princess from Equestria was here, but some of it was people wondering if everything that was said about Luna was true or not.

However, that wasn’t quite our main focus. When we finally found them… we found that Brisk looked to be worn out and Gizmo’s fur was standing up on end and she looked a little bit woozy. “Oh, hi Sam!! H-Hi Misty!! Hello-” her eyes widened as she looked at the alicorn next to us, “S-Sam, am I seeing things… or is Princess Luna right next to you?”

“Gizmo? Are… you alright?” I asked, briefly looking back at Misty before I tried to approach her. Right about now, I was beginning to smell… burnt fur? “Why do you smell like your fur got singed?”

“Oh, it was just an accident, really,” she tried to assure me with a smile. Yet… I wasn’t entirely convinced.

Around then, that was when Brisk caught his breath and began to fill us in, “Gizmo desperately wanted us to go visit the Science Museum while we were waiting for you. Despite me insisting to her that we didn’t have the time for it, I… eventually agreed to go with her. However, when we were inside, she ended up getting too close to one of the displays and she ended up shocking herself.”

“That… explains a few things-”

“We also were asked to leave because somehow, there was electricity in her fur and it was causing all the electronics in the building to short circuit. Now the museum’s closed until further notice.”

Oh god, please don’t tell me we need to static ground her so that she doesn’t end up zapping any electronic device that comes close to her.

“This is your friend, Gizmo, I assume?”

At this, Brisk looked towards Luna as he finally now noticed her, “O-Oh my goodness-. Sam, how did you-?”

“I kind of bumped into her and Misty when looking around in the exhibit. Next thing you know, I was asked if I could join them and since I didn’t know where you guys were.”

“O-Oh,” he said, before looking over at Luna, “I-I’m sorry, t-this is kind of unexpected-”

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” the princess insisted, “To be perfectly honest, I actually enjoy your company. Before I arrived, I wasn’t sure how long it would be until I got bored just wandering around. However, I must say that after meeting your friend Sam as well as both of you, this has been a rather enjoyable experience and I got the chance to learn much about all of you.”

Holy shit, I did not expect that. Then again, I honestly did not expect to be spending my afternoon with a Princess either, so this is a bit of a new experience for me.

“I’m… sorry to interrupt this heartwarming moment,” Misty spoke up, “But we have to go. Apparently, my boss is a bit upset that we took a little bit longer than expected and wants to make sure that we come back.”

“Well, that’s a shame,” Luna admitted, before she looked at the three of us, “I was hoping we could have some more time to converse. But alas, that is unfortunately not the case. Perhaps we can pick up on this conversation another time?”

“W-wait… you’re coming back?”

“Oh, absolutely! There are so many interesting places that I wish to visit and with my sister and I being retired, it’ll be better to come visit new places rather than just go to cities that we’ve already been to several times before. Hay, we might even make this ‘bucket list’ I keep hearing about.”

With that, both of them trotted off and left, leaving the three of us looking at each other with a sense of shock and confusion at first… before we all realized something.

“Holy crap, we’re friends with a princess now.”

Author's Note

Sorry that this one took a while, but I had a lot going on IRL and this had to go through a lot of different revisions and rewrites since I was unsure about what I wanted to have the chapter be about. However, I think I got something you might like.

Also, for one point near the end, here's a definition for what was going on in Sam's head in terms of 'Grounding'

Electrical grounding is the process of directing excess electricity to the ground via a wire. Known as a grounding wire, it's an essential safety component in most electrical systems. The grounding wire will discharge excess electricity safely to the ground so that it doesn't cause injuries or fires

17- Knock Knock

Author's Note

One small misconception... can blow things way out of proportion.

Done as a buildup for something to tackle in the next update. Hope you like it in the meantime
-Frost

17- Knock Knock

It had only been a couple of days after our trip to the museum and since then, things ended up getting a bit weird. The day after the exhibit, everything seemed fine and there wasn’t any trouble or anything. However, when I left my house to go buy some groceries, almost anyone that I passed by would look at me with some sense of recognition. To me, they were complete strangers, and yet, they somehow saw me as some kind of celebrity. It wasn’t just humans either, but also a couple of Equestrians that I happened to meet as well. At first, I thought they just recognized me for being around the neighborhood, but as this kept going, it felt kind of creepy.

After about a day or two later, when I was back at Smoky’s Firegrill Pizza with Ryan and my neighbors, that was when Ryan asked me a question that I was not mentally prepared for. “So, how do you like your newfound fame?”

Anything going on in my brain just stopped at that moment as I stepped inside, before looking back to him, “ … I’m sorry, what? What fame?”

“Seriously? You don’t know?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I told him as I walked up to the counter and placed my order. The same Kirin that was there as the oven last time was there. Yet, instead of journeying through Dark Souls, they were going through the Lands Between. Something that I noticed right off the bat when they stepped out into the world and was greeted by the sight of a golden tree.

“Well-”

“Excuse me? What did you just call me, you mask wearing punk!? I’m not maidenless, you are!!”

“- Do you remember that museum and the exhibit you went to earlier in the week?” Ryan asked, “Well, an article for it came out in the paper the other day and guess who just happened to be on it?”

As he said that, Ryan brought up his phone and turned it towards me. It was a web page that had an article for the county newspaper and… wait, what the fuck? “Is that-?”

“Apparently, one of the photographers that was there when you went caught a picture of you at the front of the exhibit while you were with Princess Luna,” he told me, just as we reached the front counter to pay, “Next thing you know, some people online are starting to believe that you’re like some ambassador from the United Nations or something because up until this point, Princess Luna hasn’t been seen in the company of other humans before.”

Oh god, this sounds like a story straight out of some random episode of TMZ, but a lot worse. “Please tell me that this is some kind of joke-”

“Oh hey, Sammy!” I heard the familiar voice of Smoky from behind the counter speak up, “You’ve been a rather busy bee, it seems.”

“Y-Yeah, I guess,” I could only stammer as I got out the cash to pay, “I’m still trying to make sense of it all.”

“Come on, you should be proud! Being the friend of a princess is a huge honor! It’s so rare to actually meet a figure of royalty aside from Princess Twilight, let alone befriend them,” she replied, before popping open the cash register and giving me change, “So, how did it happen? Did you win some kind of contest to meet her or-?”

“Honestly, I just happened to run into her by chance. That’s all I can say,” I said, before taking my receipt and making my way over to the table where Gizmo and Brisk were seated. “So, can I ask you two about something?”

“Is it about when we were at the Museum?” Brisk asked.

“… It’s somewhat related, yes,” I sighed as I looked back at the Earth Pony, “Apparently, everybody is making a big deal over me being friends with Luna after everything on Sunday. So, I have to ask. Is being friends with Royalty really that big of a deal?”

As the stallion took a sip of his drink, he now looked back at me and just shrugged, “It’s a matter of perspective, actually… and it depends on which princess. If it were Princess Twilight, it would be kind of commonplace since pretty much every creature has met her at least once somehow before Princess Celestia had her take over and lead Equestria in her place. Celestia and Luna, on the other hoof, are a different story.”

“How so?”

“Well, until they decided to retire, Celestia and Luna weren’t often seen outside of the Castle unless they were attending some kind of celebration or event. Since they were the prominent figures of society and government for a long time, many ponies would think that being friends with royalty meant that they had something to gain from it. Like a ‘You scratch my back, I scratch yours’ kind of deal. So, even though we encountered her by chance and her taking a liking to you was by chance, many would probably assume that there was some ulterior motive behind it.”

Oh great, we’re going down the rabbit hole of politics just because I asked about friendship… brilliant.

“Well, it can’t be too bad now, can it?” I asked, assuming that he and Gizmo kind of already know about the current situation, “I mean, wouldn’t something like this just settle down after a couple days.”

“Have you checked the internet lately?” Ryan then spoke up as if he was a fictional senator from Colorado as he sat down next to me, “Shortly after the article was published, someone on Facebook happened to recognize you and mentioned you by name. Since then, your unwanted fame immediately started to grow skyward to the point where some are now calling you ‘The Princess Whisperer’.”

“Okay, that sounds excessive,” I groaned, before looking at all three of them. Being friends with the princess is nice, even though it sort of happened on the spot. However, being followed around by people acting like a pack of hyenas and having everybody know who you are without any sense of privacy? Not so much.

“Well, if you ask me, I think all of this will just die down in a couple of days,” Gizmo said, “I mean sure, this is all that people are talking about now, but it’s possible that something else would just happen to distract them-”

As if it was right on cue, I heard something from behind me as I felt it hit my head and fall onto my plate. “Oww, what the-” When I realized what it was, I found myself staring at the strangest of things. It looked like a scroll, held together by a red cloth like it was a letter from Hogwarts or something. “How-?”

“Don’t look at me,” Ryan was the first to speak, “One moment, we were just talking with you. Next moment, a flash of green fire appeared and a scroll hit you in the head.”

My gaze shifted to the scroll for a short bit, before looking to the two Equestrians that were across the table from us, “Do either of you know what just happened?”

“Dragon fire message.”

I blinked for a moment, just trying to process what was said as I looked at Gizmo, “Uh, what? Doesn’t fire… burn things?”

“It does, but if you have enchanted parchment and the right kind of ink, dragon fire can be used as a way to quickly send letters to creatures no matter how far,” the unicorn explained, “You know how you humans have email? Well, in Equestria, we have d-mail. Dragon mail.”

Huh… okay, that actually sounds rather handy. Yet, there was still one other question that came to mind. “Well, who do you think might’ve sent this then? Can either of you tell?”

“Well, it’s not Azure, that’s for sure,” Brisk was quick to answer, “The color of the flames we saw was green, while his is more cerulean.”

“And how does that prove anything, if you don’t mind me asking?” Ryan retorted.

“Well, depending on the type of dragon and their scales, the color of their fire changes with it.” the earth pony added, “However, that won’t exactly help us with trying to figure out who sent this. I mean, outside of us and that one meeting with Luna, I’m not sure who would try to reach out to you.”

Well, when he put it that way, I guess there was only one option. Slowly, I began to undo the scroll and read what was written.

Dear Samantha Axle,

I understand that this may seem a bit sudden, but I hope this letter finds you well. My sister has told me much about you after your chance encounter with her not long ago and I was rather surprised to learn how you happened to become friends with her so quickly. Not only that, but some of the other things she shared with me about not just you, but the equestrians that live in your neighborhood that you see as friends. So, instead of hearing more recollections from Luna, I wished to reach out to you instead.

Truth be told, there are many Equestrians who think that starting a new life in your world and leaving their old life behind is scary and that no creature would welcome them with ‘open arms’, as your kind would put it. However, I believe that your story and how you came to be friends with your newfound neighbors can be inspirational to anypony who takes the time to listen to it.

Yet, I believe this will be a better conversation for us to have in person. I look forward to meeting you as well as your friends very soon.

Sincerely,

Celestia

“Uh… please tell me that I’m not misreading this,” I said, before handing the scroll over to the Unicorn, “Because if this actually is who I think it is, how exactly would they know it would reach me?”

Gizmo took one look at the letter, before her pupils shrank as she reached the bottom of it. “T-The ink would automatically send the scroll to whoever it's written to when a spell is cast on it.”

“Okay, but how would she know my full name? I only told Luna that my name was Sam.”

“Maybe Luna got Mistral to look into some records or something?” Gizmo added as Brisk took a look at the parchment now, “I would also think that she could’ve cast some kind of spell on you, but there isn’t any kind of leftover residue on you-”

Before she could finish, I got a ring on my phone as I went to see what it was. Lo and behold, it was a text from dad… with a picture attached?

“Hey, uh… Sam? There’s a visitor here that wants to see you.”

In the attachment, all I saw was an all too familiar princess wearing what could only be described as a Steve Jobs turtleneck as she stood outside the house. “Okay, guys, I think we need to go back like… now.”

“Huh? But didn’t we just get here a short while ago?” Ryan asked.

“Plans changed unfortunately,” I told them, before showing what dad sent me, “Because apparently, there’s a former princess at my front door that wants to see us.”

18- A Royal Discussion

By the time that I pulled up in the driveway and all of us got out of my car, all of us probably had several thoughts going through our heads. I mean, it’s not exactly an everyday occurrence to have a figure of high stature arrive at the front door of your home. I mean, the only people that my family and I normally have knocking at our door would either be people delivering packages, door-to-door salesmen, people trying to run for public office when it’s voting season and family friends from time to time. So, by comparison, having a retired princess from another world entirely just show up at your door sounded a bit hard to believe by comparison.

“Hey Sam,” I heard Ryan speak, “I don’t want to sound like an ass or anything, but I think it would be safe if I sit this one out.”

“What-? Why?” I asked, “You just want to ditch us now?”

“No, nothing like that. It’s just… the letter was written specifically for you, so I’m just under the impression that she only wanted to speak with you,” he nervously shrugged, “That and my folks will chew me out if I’m not around to help around the house, even though I told them I would be with you.”

I could only sigh as I brought my palm up to my face, before I looked back at him. “So, you’re ditching us because of family then? Okay, fine. However, please don’t make a habit of this in the future.”

By the time that I finished what I was saying, Ryan was already gone and the three of us were left with who was waiting for me at my front door. As I unlocked the front gate, Celestia’s ears twitched and she turned to face us just as I had opened it and we all walked in. The alicorn had a warm and welcoming smile on their face as well as a look of recognition when her eyes glanced over all of us.

“Why, hello there.”

“H-hi,” I tried my best to speak up, even though my brain was having trouble focusing on everything that was happening. “P-princess Celestia.”

Celestia couldn’t help but giggle as I was still trying to obtain some manner of focus, “There’s no need to address me by old titles. Celestia’s fine,” she said, her gaze shifting a small bit to the rolled up letter that was sticking out of the pocket in my jacket, “And you must be Sam then. Luna has told me a lot about you.”

Wait, she has? But… I wasn’t with Luna for too long that day. What exactly did say about me-?

“H-hello again, Prince- I mean, C-Celestia,” Gizmo nervously said, looking just as nervous as I was. I mean, I personally couldn’t blame her for acting this way either.

“Hello there, Gizmo. I see that you and your coltfriend are adjusting to life here quite well,” the former princess replied in response, before motioning a hoof towards me. “Would it be safe to assume that your friend here helped with that?”

Okay, this… was still a bit of a surprise for me. I remember Gizmo and Brisk mentioning that they had met Celestia once before when their friend Swift had gotten into trouble. But from how they were acting now, it seemed like Gizmo and Brisk weren’t merely just acquaintances. Then again, I could possibly be overthinking this. I mean, I don’t exactly know the full story behind that-.

“Oh, yeah. Sam’s been a big help with Brisk and I!” the unicorn was quick to remark as she gestured to me.

“If you mean by big help, you mean making sure she helps you get out of trouble?” Brisk chuckled, “And don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about, Gizzy. If Sam wasn’t there to help us out when we needed it, we might’ve been kicked out of a few places because of the ‘accidents’ that happened there.”

“Hey, come on Brisk! That’s not the only thing that Sam’s been helping us with. I mean, both of us would probably not know the first thing about how anything in the house would work without her showing us how.”

Uh, is now really the right time to be having this conversation? I mean, I’m pretty sure that Celestia didn’t come by my place at random just to hear the two of you bicker with each other.

“Well, it’s good to hear that the two of you are doing rather well from the sounds of it,” Celestia said. As she was speaking, I watched as the alicorn’s gaze shifted away from Gizmo and Brisk and back towards me, “However, there was another purpose for my visit aside from seeing how you are doing.”

“There was?”

At that, I finally decided to speak as I turned to Gizmo and took the letter out of my jacket, “Yeah, it was in the letter, remember?” As I turned to face the former princess, a different question began to surface instead, “Though, if I may ask, why is it that you’re so interested to learn about our story in particular? Was it because of Luna or something else?”

“My sister’s recollection did leave me curious, yes,” the alicorn admitted, “But there is another reason as to why. However, I think it would be easier for me to explain once I have a better understanding of how you ended up meeting Gizmo and how things have been since she moved in.”

It took quite a bit of time as well as one long phone call to my parents, but once I was able to explain why a pony princess just happened to show up on the ring cameras set up on the outside of my house, we finally got around to sharing our story with Celestia. Though, given how much had happened in the time that Gizmo and Brisk were here, our explanation to her kind of centered around a few key parts. Some of the main highlights included when I met Gizmo and Brisk for the first time (even though they didn’t exactly arrive together), some of the ‘accidents’ that happened when running errands and also the ‘surprise gift’ that Gizmo put a lot of effort into for Hearth’s Warming.

Of course, Celestia found each one of these stories as… well, from what I could assume, either rather interesting or just saw this as just amusing. If I have to be completely honest, it was rather hard to tell. “Wow, getting that many pegasi to help you sounded like quite the endeavor. If I may ask, how did you manage to pull that off?”

“Well, back before we left, Misty said that she owed each of us a favor after the craziness with Swift and his family,” Gizmo was quick to respond, “So, both of us used our favors to not only round up a lot of pegasi to make the possibility of snowfall on that night even happen, but also to have Swift and Azure join us. We kind of told her that holidays like Hearth's Warming are meant to be celebrated with family and since we saw the four of us as our own family, that it technically counts.”

“Part of me thinks that Mistral said yes because she was somewhat stressed with the amount of work she had to do,” Brisk added, “Like, she didn’t quite understand the full extent of what we were doing until after we did it. Either that or she was extremely tired.”

“If I’ve learned anything from the captains of the guard that served me over the years, it was that working in that kind of field can definitely wear somepony out if you overdo it,” Celestia replied as she took a sip from a cup of tea, “Though, Mistral is… how do you put it?”

“Stubborn?” I asked, recalling previous encounters I’ve had with the bat pony in question, including when I ended up meeting Luna at the art gallery.

“Sort of. More like… persistent,” the alicorn said. “She’s a good pony and is well recognized in the Night Guard. However, if she has to get something done, she wants to make sure it's done right and not cut corners. Of course, that makes it to where she ends up making things inadvertently more complicated for herself in the attempt to ‘get it right’ the first time. Reminds me a lot of Twilight back when she was still my student.”

Oh, so Mistral’s something of a perfectionist? That… explains quite a few things. Though, Gizmo seemed to take it for something else.

“That just sounds like what Sam said, but with extra steps.”

Celestia couldn’t help but chuckle at that small remark. “Well, to be completely fair, all of you seem to know her in more of a professional capacity. Mistral’s a bit of a different pony when she isn’t on duty. Luna happens to know more about this than I do, but she’s not quite as rigid as you might think.”

As the conversation continued, I happened to notice that every once in a while, the alicorn seemed to focus her attention away from Gizmo and Brisk and briefly pay attention to me. Not like she was staring at me, but more like watching me as I engaged in the conversation. It didn’t really feel weird, but it made me wonder what she was doing and more importantly, why-?

“Is something on your mind, Sam?”

Oh crap, she’s looking right at me. Come on, say something! Don’t make this weird.

“Yeah, there’s… one thing and please don’t take this the wrong way,” As I was speaking, Celestia looked at me with a puzzled expression as she tilted her head and waited for me to continue, “We’ve been telling you our story, but what I’m trying to wrap my head around is why you wanted to know our story. I thought that it was wanting to know about how we were with Luna. Though, since we’ve been discussing more than just the gallery visit, I’m curious as to why you’ve taken an interest in us. Aside from you having met Gizmo and her friends before. Does that make sense?”

At first, I wasn’t entirely sure if I said that right because the whole room got dead quiet rather quickly. Gizmo and Brisk looked as if they were in disbelief at what I was saying. However, Celestia… just gave me a warm smile as she lowered her teacup.

“I was wondering when you were going to ask me that,” Wait a minute… she expected that? “To answer your question, there’s two reasons why. The first being curiosity after my sister spoke so highly of you, and how she mentioned that Gizmo was your neighbor.”

“And what would the second one be?”

“The second is that I think your story would be something that those from Equestria who are considering to cross over should hear. Despite the presence of my kind in your world, many of my former subjects have considered coming here… but are hesitant to do so. The Kingdom of Equestria is known for harmony and friendship. But wherever they hear something about Earth and its denizens, they hear the stories about bad and terribles things that have been done and what humans do to each other… and think that something like that is going to happen to them or they are going to change in some way.”

At this point, I’m slowly beginning to realize what she meant, but I’d rather hold off until she was done speaking as I watched her gaze shift to Gizmo and Brisk, “But after hearing about your time here and how you not only welcomed them with open arms but also helped them settle in to their new home and living in the neighborhood, I think a lot of creatures can learn a thing or two from your story. That not everyone that they meet would be likely to hurt them if you give them a chance. Otherwise, you’re just being afraid of someone for who they are.”

… Woah. Okay, that was… much deeper than I expected. Even more so because Brisk and Gizmo looked like they weren’t expecting Celestia to say that either. But, I think we have a better idea as to why she came to visit us today.

“So, you think that by learning about our time here that it can somehow change the narrative for why some equestrians are hesitant to cross over?” Brisk asked.

“In a sense,” Celestia remarked as she looked over to both him and his marefriend, “I know that I can’t speak to my subjects in an official capacity like we did before our retirement, but my sister and I still wish to help them in any little way I can. Because even though you’ve been here for a short amount of time, you’re still the same ponies I remember that stood before me when I met you and your friends for the first time. If anything, I think your presence in this neighborhood has had an impact on your neighbors and the community as a whole.”

Well, that I can definitely agree on to an extent. Despite Gizmo’s early antics when she first arrived and all the attention that she inadvertently brings to herself, she and Brisk have definitely had a rather positive impact on the neighborhood. Maybe sharing our story can leave that same kind of impact over in Equestria too. I mean, one can hope, right?

Of course, Gizmo herself seemed nervous by that. “C-Can we take some time to think about it, first? I-I think it’s good, but… I think Brisk and I want to talk to Swift and Azure. T-they’re just as important to us and we don’t want to make things harder for them back home with all the extra attention if we do this.”

Celestia didn’t respond at first, but soon nodded her head as she rose up from her seat. “Very well. In that case, take as much time as you need,” the alicorn’s horn began to glow as an object began to take form on the table. It was a silver handbell with the symbol of a sun, yet even though the bell component was missing, it still made a jingle when it moved, “When you’ve come to a decision, just ring this three times. That will let me know where you are and allow me to teleport to you.”

She then looked at me, giving me one more warm smile, “Thank you for your hospitality. I look forward to hearing from you soon.” Within a flash of light, the princess was gone as all three of us were left in the dining room to process everything.

The silence was broken though when Gizmo asked a different question, “So… where do you think she is now?”

Elsewhere…

When it comes to customers at her establishment, Smoky was no stranger to having a few oddballs visit her pizzeria. Whether it be strange humans, strange ponies or any other creatures, she would provide them with the best of service and always knew the right thing to say.

Yet, today, things were different. “Welcome to Smoky’s Woodfired Grill! How can I-?” Immediately, an audible record scratch can be heard as she looked up and found that the next customer that was right in front of her was none other than bucking Celestia herself, “O-Oh my. H-hello, y-your highness. I-”

“Please, Celestia is fine,” she said, while looking behind the counter, “Did my sister ever come here today, by chance?”

“A-actually, she’s b-been with Wildfire in the b-back for the last… two hours? N-not sure what they’ve been doing back there-”

It didn’t take long before they heard the combined cries of confusion and panic in the back of the room as they turned to see that on the television in the back, the princess and the kirin cook/oven were fighting alongside each other in a game with their characters frantically rolling out of the way of some multi-armed madman named ‘Godrick’. Neither of them realized that Celestia had stepped through the door because they were too focused on trying to stay alive.

At one point, they thought they had beaten them… and then stage two happened. “Forefathers, one and all… BEAR WITNESS!!”

At that, Celestia just sighed, before she looked back over to the kirin that was at the cash register, “Do you happen to have any dessert options? I’m getting the impression that that this might take a while.”

Author's Note

There are times where I try to balance out how serious a chapter is and how much of a chapter is just comedy. So, without trying to make everything sound too depressing, I thought the scene at the end would balance it out.

Have a great day
-Frost

19- What a Fright!

In the first couple of days after Celestia’s unexpected visit to my home, we had a lot going on in our minds that desperately needed to be sorted out. Not just with Gizmo, Brisk and I, but also with Swift and Azure. While everything that the alicorn told us seemed like a good idea, there were still a couple of concerns some of us had. For me, I wasn’t quite sure if my family and I would be ready for such unexpected publicity, especially with how the whole situation with Luna at the museum caught me by surprise. That and I wasn’t quite enthusiastic with how some of the stories turned out afterwards.

Gizmo and her friends were in agreement with that, but none more so than Swift. His concern with the princess’ offer was that since he and his friends were not exactly for being ‘friendly’ with certain groups, the pegasus was concerned that if their story went public, it would cause trouble on Earth and Equestria. Given that in their old life, they were basically the Equestria equivalent of the Sly Cooper Gang, I can see why he would be concerned with having their names go public after a life of thieving and secrecy.

Eventually, we got back to Celestia to voice Swift’s concerns and arrange an agreement. In exchange for letting her share our story with the rest of Equestria, she agreed to two things that we asked of her. First, to leave any mention of Swift out of it, and second, it would be postponed for a bit and published two weeks from now. Both of them were things that the former diarch was actually okay with, and after our meeting, she immediately started to make preparations.

Ironically enough, there was something that we, and by proxy the rest of the neighborhood, also had to prepare for. For it was now the month of October and with it came candy, costumes, jack-o-lanterns and random props in the front yard of every couple of houses you would happen to pass by.

For most of us on earth, we called this holiday Halloween. For Gizmo and her friends, they called it Nightmare Night. And if I have to be honest with you, despite both holidays sounding exactly the same, what the Equestrians called it sounded a lot more accurate. Because with how fast things sold out in stores and how quickly the end of the month was approaching, it was becoming an actual nightmare to make sure we had everything ready.

So, mom had the idea that instead of having our house and Gizmo’s house do trick or treating separately, we instead combined everything that we had and set up shop at Gizmo’s place. Not just to help with handing out candy and such, but also help celebrate her first ever halloween in the neighborhood among friends and those she’s comfortable with. That and if she needed any help, any one of us could take over for her and show her the ropes.

A good idea, in theory at least. However, in preparation for the festivities of the night, there were a few things that we didn’t prepare for… and absolutely did not anticipate when the night finally arrived.

“Sam, are you sure you don’t need any help with your costume at all?”

“No, mom. I think everything’s good,” I insisted for what felt like the third time as I was looking at the bathroom mirror. I had already changed into my costume for the night and was not only doing the final touches with the makeup, but also with my hair as well. To say that there were a few different parts to make it work was a bit of an understatement, but at least I didn’t have to wear a wig. That and I had a proper excuse to have my hair be a complete mess today.

As I picked up the prop sword that went along with the rest of my outfit and went downstairs, that was when I saw Mom and dad waiting for me. Dad was going to stay at the house because he needed to take care of a few things tonight, so it was just mom and I going over to help out Gizmo. Though, he did give me a smile as I reached the bottom of the steps. “Well, what can I say? That looks rather impressive.”

“Yeah, but, who exactly is it?” I heard mom ask, who was wearing what looked like a standard witch costume, minus the typical broom you would see with it, “Are you sure you’re not going to be cold in that outfit?”

“Mom, I’ll be fine,” I reassured her, “Besides, this was something I wanted to try for a while. It’s one of the characters on that D&D show Dad and I watch on thursdays. I know people aren’t probably going to get it, but if tonight’s supposed to be a night where we can pretend to be someone else, then I want to do this.”

I watched mom glance over at dad, who just gave off a shrug, before she looked back at me. “Well, can you at least tell me that character's name?”

“Yasha Nydoorin,” I said, before placing the sword on my back, “Let’s just say that explaining her story is not exactly easy and we don’t have the time for it right now. So, let’s not keep Gizmo and Brisk waiting too long.”

At that, Mom couldn’t help but shrug her shoulders as she followed me out of the house and towards our driveway. Compared to all the other houses around the neighborhood, ours didn’t quite have a lot to stand out in terms of decorations this year. In fact, considering the plans for this year, the only decoration we did have was just a plastic tombstone on the front gate with a piece of paper taped to it to tell anyone that walks over to come over next door instead. Because it was more than likely that somebody was going to try and come by anyways.

By the time that we just made it to our neighbor’s driveway, the garage door had opened up as Brisk stepped on out. Much to my surprise, the earth pony was wearing… well, normal looking clothes. Business casual suit with jacket, collared shirt and tie. “Well, well. Your costumes are different from what I picked, that’s for sure,” the earth pony greeted us, “Happy Nightmare Night.”

“Happy Halloween,” Mom smiled and tipped her hat, “I must ask though, what exactly are you dressed as? It doesn’t exactly look… well-”

“Scary?” Brisk asked, “That’s odd. Because when I asked Ryan about it, he told me this was the scariest thing he could think of.”

I let out a deep sigh as he looked back at him. If my friend Ryan was known for anything, it was his… well, ‘unique’ sense of humor. Something that I think was on full display here if Brisk came to him for costume advice. “And what would that happen to be?”

“A debt collector from that one human agency… I think he called it the ‘IRS’?”

… Okay, in hindsight, that is terrifying. Yet, something tells me anyone that’s coming by to trick-or-treat here tonight are just going to end up getting more confused than scared.

“Well, that certainly is an interesting choice,” I told him as I looked around the garage. There was a giant plastic tub that looked like a witch’s cauldron in the center, along with a portion of all the candy that we had for the evening and a few folding chairs for us to sit in while we waited for trick-or-treaters to come to us. However, despite everything that we did have, there was something that was… missing. “So, where’s Gizmo? Is she getting her costume together?”

“She is,” the earth pony replied as mom began to open up the bags of candy and put them in the fake cauldron, “However, word of warning, Gizmo might be a bit… panicky. Last night didn’t really help with that.”

Both mom and I looked at each other with a puzzled expression. “What do you mean?”

“Well…”

“Are you sure about this, Gizmo? I mean, we could just as easily ask Sam and the others about what we’re going to expect when they come by tomorrow.”

“Come on, Brisk! It’ll be fun. Mr. Axle gave us all these ‘DVD’s’ for a reason. Perhaps watching some of them could help. I mean, this one is literally called ‘Halloween’. It should be safe for us to learn a few things.”

I… found myself twitching a bit at that, contemplating what the earth pony just told us. “You’re telling me that you two saw a horror movie and she thought it would be educational?”

“We did not even know it was a horror movie until part of the way through,” Brisk told us as he let out a deep sigh. “It didn’t help that we had most of the lights out at the time. I know that the whole thing was fictional, but I’m warning you ahead of time just in case someone in the neighborhood happens to dress up as that Myers guy. The last thing we probably need is for her to start panicking.”

And just when I thought her attempts at trying to create Rick’s portal gun were a bit extreme. If Gizmo was trying to come up with last minute home defense, then that might spill bad for all of us.

“Yeah, I can see why,” I grumbled, before looking over at mom, “I’m going to go have a talk with her. Try and see if I can calm her down a bit so we can enjoy our evening tonight. Can you help Brisk with… um…”

“Final preparations?”

“Yeah, that.”

Mom could only chuckle as she looked back at me. “Funny, since your dad did the same exact thing when you were little. Go ahead, we’ll get things ready over here and keep people busy if we happen to have any early arrivals.”

Aside from reminding me of something I rather not remember right now, that gave all the incentive I needed as I left my sword on one of the chairs and walked on inside. As I walked in, most of the place looked the same, but I could see some of Gizmo’s inventions nearby every one of the windows as well as the front door. I wasn’t sure if they were supposed to be deterrents or an actual security measure that was made by a frightened unicorn, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

Of course, it was around the time that I made it to the living room that I felt something fly past my head and a panicked squeak of sorts from behind me. “W-wait a second… Sam?”

Right behind me, halfway down the stairs was Gizmo herself in a costume that I can only describe as one part steampunk, one part D&D artificer. She wore a simple dress, yet there looked to be metal or something similar around her forelegs and shoulders. Not in a ‘Hey, I’m royalty! Look at me,’ kind of way, but something that was a mix between elegance and lethality.

“H-hi, uh… sorry if I startled you,” I told her, scratching the back of my head where I felt that thing fly past me a few seconds ago, “You look rather nice.”

“T-thanks,” the unicorn blushed at the compliment, “You look… uh…”

“Rough?”

“I was going to say something different, but I think you said it better,” she admitted, nervously glancing left and right as she came down the stairs. “Where’s-?”

“Brisk and mom are in the garage, but I wanted to find you first,” I said before walking over to her, “He told me that you two tried something last night to prepare and… how it didn’t go so well.”

Her pupils shrank a bit at what I said as the blush on her face was now replaced with a look of embarrassment, “Yeah, I… really wanted to know more about this ‘Halloween’. I mean, it sounded similar to Nightmare Night, but I didn’t want to assume anything if there happened to be something different.”

At first glance, that almost sounded reasonable. Yet, there still seemed to be a few pieces missing. “So you thought that the movies that dad gave you guys were the best bet?”

“Well, telling us about some of these things doesn’t entirely help,” she said, before trotting over to the entertainment center and pulling out the dvd that started this whole mess, “The best way I learn things for myself is to see it with my own eyes. That and trial & error, but the latter one is more than likely to burn off your fur. That and it literally said ‘Halloween’ on the box.”

“Yeah, but the box art also had a hand holding a knife,” I pointed out to her, “Gizmo, if you’re just nervous about something, you don’t need to be afraid about it.”

“That’s not what I’m trying to say,” the unicorn sighed, putting the dvd away and taking a seat on a couch, “It’s… very difficult to try and understand what others are thinking. It’s… like you’re looking through a telescope, but you’re only seeing what they see and perceiving things from their point of view. They’re not the same as me and what they might like and dislike are different from what I like and dislike. So-”

Before she could continue, I just went up and placed a hand on her shoulder, “Hey, relax. There’s no need to overthink anything. There’s no other things to worry about or ‘what ifs’ to consider. The only thing to focus on is making sure we have a good time tonight and not let yourself get intimidated. The only ones coming by would just be people from around the neighborhood, alright? Nothing too serious.”

At first, Gizmo felt rather stiff to the touch. But after thinking things over, she began to loosen up and feel like putty in my hands as she let out a breath and smiled, “Are you sure?”

“Everything’s going to be fine,” I reassured her, before removing my hand from her shoulder and walking over towards the garage door with the unicorn slowly following behind me, “Besides, mom and I wanted to make sure that you and Brisk have a great first Halloween. Even Ryan and a few other friends we know are going to be coming by as well. I’m pretty sure everything’s going to be fine. Just enjoy yourself and we’re going to have some fun tonight.”

I did not know it at the time, but when I assured Gizmo that everything was going to be fine, I think I unknowingly jinxed us.

When the night started, things were going fine. Our neighbors from around the block, including some Equestrians that had moved in a couple of months ago, came by to visit us one by one. Some were there with their kids to do trick-or-treating, while others just wanted to talk a bit and see how we were doing. Some even inquired about our choice of costume since they either didn’t know what we were or had seen the outfit before, but didn’t know the character. Other people that came by like Ryan decided to give us a helping hand by providing some snacks and also some halloween themed music.

Just as we were about to finish up for the night, that was when we got an unexpected visitor. “Sam? Were we… expecting anyone else to show up?”

“Not that I can think of,” I shook my head as I helped Brisk move the last of the props we had out front back into Gizmo’s garage. I looked back to Mom, who originally asked the question, before turning my gaze over to Ryan. “Are we expecting anyone else?”

“I don’t think so. I mean, I think everybody and everypony in the neighborhood has already come by at least once,” he added, still wearing his improvised costume of Doc Brown from Back to the Future as he was putting away some of the other stuff he brought along. “Plus, it’s still going to be a while before midnight and we already gave out most of the candy we had in the witch’s cauldron. Seeing that everyone else has closed up shop, I think it is a bit late for unexpected guests.”

“Well, Misty said she was going to come by and see us, just to make sure that things went smoothly,” Gizmo said as she shrugged her shoulders and came to join us, “Maybe it’s her?”

“Unfortunately, Mistral had prior obligations and could not be able to make it this evening.” Oh no… I knew that voice. That could only come from one particular pony we met. “So, instead, I chose to come by for her.”

As I slowly turned around, I found myself looking at a tall midnight colored pony with a mane that looked like the night sky. They were dressed up as Ranni the Witch, and not just the outfit, but also the magical effect to match the same appearance. Even though their costume mostly concealed their appearance, I knew who it was just from their voice alone.

“Luna? Is that you?”

“Indeed, it is,” she said, “A pleasure to see you again, Sam. And among friends no less.”

“Wait,” I heard mom speak, “Isn’t that the name of the pony you met at the Museum some time back? That’s her?”

I didn't even have the chance to say anything, for Luna's eyes shifted away from me and to her instead. “I don’t believe we’ve met. Are you another one of Sam and Gizmo’s friends?”

“Princess, I… hate to be rude,” the unicorn next to me, who looked just as shocked as I was about everything that had happened so far, spoke up, “But that is Sam’s mom.”

It took Luna a moment or so for that to sink in, but once it did, her tone sort of changed. “Oh… My apologies, I-”

“T-there’s no need,” Mom interrupted her, “Sometimes, not everything is what it appears to be. But if I may ask, what… exactly brings you here?”

“Well, when I heard that this was to be Gizmo’s first… well…”

“Halloween?”

“Yes, that,” the princess nodded, “When I heard that it would be Gizmo’s first Halloween, I thought I would take it upon myself to help with the celebrations. Back when I was in a town similar to what you call home, a dear friend chose to help me when I celebrated my first Nightmare Night. Though, it seems that you have just finished.”

It was at that point that I… couldn’t help but feel bad. Luna’s intentions were good, but she just came at the wrong time. But maybe… things did not have to end so soon.

“Actually, we don’t have to end things just yet. Perhaps, there’s more that we can do to celebrate.”

That had Gizmo, as well as practically everyone else, look back at me, “Really? But what can we do?”

I could only just give Gizmo a smile as I looked back at her, while also glancing at Luna, “I’m sure we can all figure something out. Besides, the night’s still young and we still got a bit of candy to go through. I’m sure Luna wouldn’t mind.”

“Why of course not! Nightmare Night is meant to be celebrated among friends,” the lunar alicorn smiled, “And I’m happy to be a part of it and celebrate with you. After all, the night is still young.”

When I felt my eyes opening again, I felt the mother of all headaches come to greet me personally. Last night was… still a bit of a blur, but it was rather enjoyable. I mean, with Luna around, we found a way to keep things going all the way to midnight.

Though, I don’t remember my room looking like this… or my pillow feeling this… fluffy… wait-.

“Oh, hello Sam,” I heard, before looking up to stare directly into the face of the lunar alicorn that came to visit last night… and now I realize two things. One, I was still in Gizmo's house. And two, what I was sleeping on was actually one of Luna's wings. “You’re finally awake.”

… How the fu-!?!

Author's Note

Despite the somewhat serious tone in the beginning, this is meant as a chapter to celebrate Halloween. With a little bit of extra silliness.

Anyways, have a Ranni pony.

(Credits to assasinmonkey on Deviantart)

20- The Morning After

Author's Note

This is meant to be a short chapter since I have been busy with trying to do some schoolwork and passed the exams I had been studying for over the last few months. So, I meant this as a follow up of what happened in the last chapter, with a little bit of extra silliness.

I'll try to come up with another chapter for this eventually. Though, I got a number of things going on, so it might not be so immediate. Anyways, hope you guys enjoy it.
-Frost

20- The Morning After

I had only been awake for about a minute and right now, my head felt like a rubber ball bouncing rapidly off the walls. Originally, I thought that mom and I went back home after we were done with the Halloween festivities for the night. Yet, instead, I found myself waking up in the middle of Gizmo’s living room with a raging headache. At first, that seemed to be the only issue that I had.

Then, I realized that I woke up next to Luna… and basically had a princess as a head pillow. Which left me with only one question.

How the fuck did I get here?

“Are you alright, Sam?” she asked, “You seem to be bothered by something. Did you not sleep well?”

I slowly rose up from the floor, blinking a couple of times as I rubbed my eyes. It took a bit for me to actually feel as if I was somehow awake, but personally, I had one question on my mind that I didn’t want to wait for an answer for. “L-Luna, what… happened last night?”

“You don’t remember?”

“My memory is very hazy right now,” I told her and let out a low sigh. With how my mind was, I decided not to try and stand up right now. I need to come back to my senses and feel somewhat normal first, “I remember us handing out candy and then deciding to go back inside with you guys so we didn’t have to finish Nightmare Night too early. Mom was okay with it and went back home. But, it becomes a bit of a blur after that.”

“Well, the rest of the evening was rather entertaining. We shared stories, had what was left of the candy, played some games, watched some of those… I think they’re called ‘movies’. Yes, that. Oh, and since Gizmo had saved a lot of leftover Apple Cider, we decided to partake in it and asked if you wanted to try it as well.”

Wait, hold on a second. Apple Cider? Isn’t that supposed to be some kind of alcohol back in Equestria? Did Gizmo somehow get me drunk last night!? Oh god, please don’t tell me I did something embarrassing!

“After about an hour or so, you just fell asleep and rested your head on my wing,” the alicorn continued, her words not doing much to really have me be ‘at ease’, “I didn’t want to be rude and wake you up, so I had Brisk talk with your mother and she was okay with letting you stay over for the night. I haven’t moved from this spot since.”

At that, I couldn’t help but feel a bit of warmth run through my cheeks as I tried to not pay attention too much. Everything she said sounded rather… tame. If I was being honest, I expected something rather different and more embarrassing. Oh, who am I kidding? If I say those kinds of things now, I’m going to end up jinxing myself sooner or later.

“Really? That’s… all that happened?” I hesitantly asked.

“Well, yes. Why? Were you expecting something else to have happened? It was just the two of us by ourselves. I don’t see how that could be a problem.”

Honestly, I had no idea how to respond to that. I mean, there are a number of stories out there of someone doing something incredibly stupid while intoxicated. So, when I first heard that I got drunk, I thought that I fell in the same category. To make matters even more problematic, I had not even had alcohol before until this point.

Perhaps it was better not to say anything right now. The last thing I want to do is make things more complicated than they should be. I mean, crime drama TV does that already, “Hey, Luna? I-”

“Oh, good morning Sam! Morning Luna!” Oh great, even more loud voices. Just exactly what I needed this morning.

“Good morning to yourself, Gizmo,” I heard the alicorn say, “Can you bring us a glass of water? Sam’s having a bit of a headache this morning after last night.”

“Sure thing!” As the unicorn trotted into the kitchen, it felt like each hoof step she took echoed throughout the house. Like if you heard music from a concert at full blast without earplugs. If this is what a hangover feels like, then I am not a fan of it.

No less than ten seconds later did she bring out the cup of water Luna asked for and levitated it to me. “Here you go. Just don’t try to spill it all over your costume.”

Oh right, I was still wearing that. Crap, it’s one thing to feel like a mess, but looking like one just makes everything feel worse. God, it would be more embarrassing if my parents saw me now-.

Knock knock.

“I’ll go get the door. Hang on,” Gizmo said, trotting to the door as I slowly began to drink some water. The feeling of dizziness from before was beginning to subside now, so that was a start at least. Though, I was really hoping that I didn’t have to feel the lingering effects of this throughout the rest of the day-.

“Oh hi, Mrs. Axle!”

Oh no, that’s bad. Out of anyone that could be knocking on the door right now, it had to be mom!? What did I do to jinx myself?

“Good morning, Gizmo. You’re up bright and early this morning,” I heard her voice as the hairs on the back of my neck began to stand up on end. Any sense of calm I had was thrown out the window and replaced with panic as I looked at Luna. “Is Sam still here? I was coming by to check on her.”

Gizmo, I swear to the alicorn right next to me, don’t you-!

“She’s just waking up now. We’re gonna make breakfast soon, so she’ll be helping us in the kitchen. Did you want to join us?”

“Oh uh, thank you for the offer. But I’m afraid I can’t. My husband and I were going to see some people for brunch. I was wanting to know if she wanted to join us, but I didn’t know that Sam had other plans this morning.”

“Well, after we had so much fun with her last night, I think it would be best for Brisk and I to do something to return the favor. Take it easy after the fun we had last night.”

The silence that came afterwards felt like the longest ten seconds of my life. I was expecting for mom to follow up on that and ask about what she meant. Instead, all I heard was just a brief chuckle, “Well, I guess I can just ask her about the fun you guys had later. Have a good day, Gizmo. Tell Sam I said hi, alright?”

Shortly afterwards, the door closed as Gizmo trotted away and back towards us. However, Luna had a few choice words for the unicorn afterwards, “While I am not one to encourage dishonesty among others, I do believe that was for the best.”

“I just thought that Sam needed a little bit more time to perk up first,” Gizmo smiled, “I wasn’t lying about breakfast though. I remember Swift saying once that getting some carbs in your system can help a bit, so let’s give it a go and see.”

If I’ve learned anything over the past few months from Gizmo is that if there’s anything in particular that stood out, it was her optimism. While the unicorn was looking out for me, I’m taking any health recommendations from her with a grain of salt. Besides, from what I was told, she was the one that got me unknowingly drunk in the first place!

Still, at least she’s trying to be helpful, I’ll give her that much. Though, with everything that’s on my mind, I had to ask her something. “So, uh… Gizmo? I know I asked Luna about this already, but do you remember what happened last night?”

“Not all of it, but I do remember a few things,” I heard her reply. “I think Brisk might be the right pony to ask about that since he didn’t have any cider like we did.”

“Somepony called me?”

Much to my surprise, or probably my lack of awareness, the earth pony that Gizmo was talking about had just trotted down the stairs and entered the kitchen. “Good morning Brisky. Sam was just asking about last night, that’s all.”

“Really?” he raised an eyebrow, “What did you tell her, if I may ask?”

“That we were just having fun, drinking some cider, playing games and what not,” Gizmo shrugged, “Why, did I miss something?”

Oh no. The look on Brisk’s face was not quite filling me with renewed confidence. He was giving us the same expression that Ryan would have if there was something that he wanted to tell us, but was unsure how to react. “Not really, except for… how can I put this delicately,” he paused, before looking back at Luna and I, “Aw, buck it. At one point in your drunken charades, you two kissed each other.”

Immediately, both of us had the exact same response.

“We WHAT!?!”

21- Conventional Chaos- Part 1

Author's Note

Part 1- Planning and Preparation

The next part will consist of the event itself. Though, as a disclaimer, I have not attended Babscon before and can't this year because I found out last minute as I was informed that my family would be going to San Antonio this easter weekend.

In the meantime, I hope you guys like this and I'll see you around
-Frost

21- Conventional Chaos- Part 1

In the months after I woke up drunk next to the retired princess of the night, things slowly began to come to some particular sense of normality. While we did happen to see Luna a few more times for other occasions, it didn’t quite end up being a repeat of what happened that night. On one hand, I was a bit relieved by this since the events of what happened was something I didn’t fully remember and didn’t want to repeat. However, on the other hand, I couldn’t help but feel that I should say something to her. Not to make it awkward, but to make sure that things were okay.

Much to my own surprise though, about a couple of months after that night, I found her at my doorstep again. Only this time, she had a bit of an odd request. “Can you tell me more about these gatherings called ‘Conventions’?”

I almost spilled the coffee I was drinking at the question. “Uh, sure? I mean, don’t you have something similar in Equestria?”

“There are. Though, from what I was told, the ones on earth tend to have a bit more variety compared to Equestria. The only ones that I’ve heard of are the conventions on the Daring Do novels in Manehattan, a Power Pony based one in Ponyville and an annual show held by the Geological and Gemological Society.”

I had to just stop for a moment to collect my thoughts, before looking back at Luna again, “And who was it that told you about this?”

“Why, it was your father. I happened to notice his collection of figurines & pictures in his office and he told me a bit more about where he got them from. By the way he described everything, it sounded like the places you went to with him were rather enjoyable.”

“Of course he’d tell her that,” I groaned as my forehead met the flat surface of the dining room table. As I raised my head to look back at her, she seemed a bit puzzled by how I reacted to that. “And do you know about any of the things that these conventions have?”

Immediately, she shook her head, “Nope, none at all.”

Oh, you sweet summer pony. This is going to be a future headache, I’m calling it right now. “So, you want to go to one to see what it’s like for yourself?”

“Oh, not just by myself. I believe such occasions are best shared among friends. So, I would like to go to one of them with you.”

“… You mean, like a date?” I nervously asked as my brain was preemptively jumping to conclusions on where this might be going.

“By the stars, no,” she retorted, while also giving me a small chuckle, “What gave you that idea?”

“Sorry! I-I just didn’t know if this was something you wanted to do with just the two of us or if you wanted to include some of our other friends as well,” I shrugged, really hoping that the caffeine from my morning coffee would kick in soon. Because right now, my brain was still trying to slowly process things and Luna was talking a mile a minute.

“The thought did happen to cross my mind, but I didn’t want to assume that they would always happen to be available. Despite their differences, one similarity between your home and mine is that things do have a tendency to come up when you least expect it.”

Okay, fair point, I’ll give her that. However, another thought soon crossed my mind as I looked back at her. “That’s true. Which is why sometimes we have a tendency to plan things in advance for such things.”

“Really? I wasn’t aware that such fun times require preparation in advance.”

Yeah, I’m calling it now, this is going to take a bit of time. “Well, before you can even have fun, you need to be able to get tickets. Depending on the event itself and how many people would be expecting to come, they sometimes can sell out rather quickly. Like, for the one that happens here every summer called San Diego Comic Con, all the tickets for that usually sell out within a number of hours after it becomes available.”

“Well, perhaps it’s because the tickets were cheap-”

“Oh hardly,” I countered, “For one ticket alone, it cost over three hundred dollars to go to all four days and preview night. If you included Ryan and I, that’s near a thousand dollars. Which is a lot, all things considered.”

Luna just stopped for a moment, her eyes looking around the room as it looked like she was trying to process this. Though, before I could ask if she was okay, that’s when I heard her reassure me in the weirdest way possible. “Dear me, that’s a lot. Though, I think I can make some arrangements on that. Just give me a moment.”

“Hello?”

“Is this Princess Celestia I’m speaking too?”

“... It is. Who’s this?”

“My apologies, but I’m one of the ponies that works at the Royal Bank of Canterlot. Recently, there was some activity with the joint account with you and your sister and I wanted to make sure this wasn’t suspicious activity.”

“What sort of activity?”

“Apparently, a new fund has been opened in your account and nearly three thousand bits were transferred into it just a few moments ago. Would you happen to know who might be responsible for this?”

I wasn’t sure what Luna meant, but everything was happening a bit too quickly for my taste. “Maybe it would be best to try something on a smaller scale first,” I suggested, “Like a trial run to see if such things would be interesting for you, and also not as expensive.”

The alicorn paused, before putting a hoof to her chin as she began to ponder in thought. “That could be possible. Do you happen to know about such events?”

“Not off the top of my head, but I can ask Google-”

“And who is this… Google that you speak of?”

Oh right. I forgot about that. Come on, keep it simple. I'd rather not be going down a rabbit hole I can’t get out of this morning, “Let’s just say that it’s a place on the internet where if I ask it something, it can provide numerous results. It might take a moment or so, but I think I can find a few options.”

At this, I went upstairs to grab my laptop real quick and fire it up. Once I plugged it into the wall socket and I was logged in, I got Google up and started my search. Much to be expected, I didn’t quite find the search results I was looking for at first. While I was intending to try and find a simple list of conventions going on, I instead kept finding pages for trade shows and events that I knew would just end up boring us more than actually being fun and entertaining.

When local results didn’t bear any possibilities aside from the obvious, I began to expand a bit outward. Some possible options came up in places such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. Though, none of them specifically seemed to stand out as Luna and I looked at the descriptions. There were a few that might’ve been possible, but if we were considering travel-

“What’s this one?” the alicorn asked, almost touching my laptop screen with a hoof. At first, I wasn’t sure what she meant. But after I clicked the name, what looked like a symbol of a pegasus underneath one of the arches of the Golden Gate Bridge soon appeared on my screen.

“Babscon,” I read the title, before scrolling down the page, “A pony fan convention held at the Hyatt Regency hotel in San Francisco. It’s a three day event that consists of panels, workshops, meet and greets, live music… Quite the numbers of things to do here if I say so myself-”

“I want to go to this one.”

Looking at Luna with a baffled expression, I just stared at her, “I… didn’t even finish reading-”

“All the things you did say were enough to pique my interest. Besides, it sounds like a lovely event to attend,” she said with an insistent look on her face.

Oh god, I guess we’re doing this. And to be completely honest, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting ourselves into. Though, in the meantime, there were other things that I needed to think about. Hotel reservations, tickets for our flight, having to explain this to my folks. Pretty much an ordinary Tuesday to some people.

Though, I’m not sure if there’s anyone else that I know who would be interested in going to such an event.

Remember what I said previously about nobody else being interested? Well, scratch that. Turns out, Luna told my neighbors about what we were going to be doing and because of it, Gizmo was intrigued by it to the point that the unicorn insisted that she should join us for that weekend. Not because there was anything that related to her interests, but because she wanted to see the city of San Francisco itself.

Not to be outdone, there was Ryan. Though, in his case, he wanted to come along because he thought that having to babysit two Equestrians who knew absolutely nothing about where we were going and how we were going to get there was something that couldn’t be done alone. Something that, much to my own surprise, I can actually agree with him on.

Over the next few months, all of us made various preparations for what we wanted to do up there. Some were simple things, like hotel reservations, where we were going to eat and so on. Others were for outside of the hotel, such as a tour along San Francisco Bay and also looking around downtown.

Then, there was an idea that Luna had that I was… well… hesitant on. “So, let me get this straight… while we’re at this convention, you want me to cosplay as your sister?”

“Well, that’s part of it,” the alicorn told me, “Think of it. If I were to show up as myself, there’s no doubt that I would have crowds of both humans and equestrians following me everywhere. But, if I were to go as a human pretending to be me, would anypony really notice the difference?”

“Okay, couple questions,” I lifted a finger, looking towards her as I continued to speak, “First, how exactly are you going to pull that off? And second, what exactly am I going to need if we’re doing this?”

Wait, why is she grinning at me? Oh god, I’m seeing magic now. What is she even casting-?

“To answer your first question, why don’t I just show you?”

With a flicker of magic, the alicorn of night transformed in front of my eyes into a human version of herself. She was tall as I am with clothes that looked like that of a regal dress like something out of ancient greece… and felt somewhat familiar for some reason. I wasn’t even sure if I was looking at the same pony I was with earlier or this was someone completely new.

“Okay, how-?”

“A simple transfiguration spell, with a few minor adjustments,” Luna explained to me. Though, I personally doubted that completely changing species was anything but ‘simple’, “The only catch is that I can only stay in this form for about a few hours before the spell fades and I change back. I took inspiration from a trinket my sister would use from time to time and even consulted her former protege to come up with it.”

“And how does this relate to my second question-?”

Immediately, I was presented with what looked like a gift bag that had a logo of what seemed like a merry-go-round, yarn and a sewing needle. The words ‘Carousel Boutique’ were on the side and when I looked inside, I found a matching dress similar to what Luna was wearing, but colored white and looking like something Celestia would… Wait… don’t tell me she-

“Go ahead and put it on.”

Okay. If it were any other time that someone randomly just brings clothes to me and tells me to put them on, I would be greatly uncomfortable. Though, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Luna had a surprise in store for me that was somewhat related to this. Ehh, probably better to just go along with it rather than question anything at this point.

Huh. This… actually fits rather nicely. Nothing felt excessively tight or loose at any corner. In fact, it felt rather comfortable.

“So, what do you think?”

“This is… a lot different from what I was expecting, if I have to be honest,” I said, “Where’d you get this?”

“My sister and I know somepony who’s a well talented seamstress and runs her own business,” she explained, “The last time that she was here on business, I had the chance to talk with her over tea. When I mentioned the idea I had for you, she insisted that she wanted to help make the gown you’re now wearing.”

“Huh… I thought a process like this would require me to meet her so she can get measurements and the like.”

“Normally, that would be ideal,” she looked back to me, “But we had a… I think the term is ‘frame of reference’, based on one of your other dresses that I see you wear normally.”

My other dresses? I’m pretty sure I don’t have… Wait a minute. Don’t tell me she means…

Shortly after I mentioned that response, Sam immediately went upstairs without a second thought. At first, I honestly thought that it was to check something.

Then, the shouting started.

“Mom? Where did the dress that I wore for prom go?”

“Oh that? I thought you didn’t fit in it anymore. So, when Luna told me of her idea for your trip, I decided to give it to her.”

“You WHAT-!?!”

21- Conventional Chaos- Part 2

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

21- Conventional Chaos- Part 3

Author's Note

So, partway through working on this chapter, I decided to shift the focus of it a little and add something that I'm... unsure about.

I didn't want to try and have this drag out excessively long as a 'play by play' of the whole weekend, because that wouldn't exactly be fun. So, I tried to change it a bit to where Sam would have to help Luna overcome some unexpected hiccups that came with their stay.

As for the events themselves, such as panels and other things, I want to try and have that be its own chapter that comes next.

Thank you guys for your continued support as I try a few new things with this from time to time. I hope you like what I got right now and keep things going along.

Until next time
-Frost

21- Conventional Chaos- Part 3

The moment that the doors opened and we all stepped inside, we could tell that this place definitely had their hands full.

From the crowd that was in the waiting lobby alone, we could see what I could only assume were either confused tourists that just so happened to be in town, people who definitely seemed like they were either attendees or organizers of what we were here for, as well as staff members of the hotel that were just trying to do their jobs. I mean, this sort of thing had been planned out a few months in advance, so I wouldn’t think it would be too much of a surprise to those who were working here.

“I’m going to go check us in,” I looked over at Ryan.

“Alright. We’ll find a place to wait in the lobby,” he told me, having Luna and Gizmo follow shortly behind him while I walked over to the front desk. There was a man there in what I could only assume was about twice my age with short hair alongside a rosemary colored unicorn at the front desk. If I had to take a guess, maybe he was training her or something? There wasn’t much information to go off of and I didn't want to assume anything.

“Oh, hello. Welcome to the Hyatt,” he greeted me, “Are you here to check in?”

I nodded, holding out my phone to get the confirmation email, “Yeah. It should be under the name Axle?”

As I was speaking, the unicorn used her magic to type on the keyboard, before turning the screen to show him. “Okay. So to confirm your reservation, you booked one of the Bayview rooms on the eighth floor. Is that right?”

“That should be,” I nodded.

“And you’ll be staying for today, Friday, Saturday and also Sunday?”

Another nod in confirmation, followed by more keys being pressed as the man handed me two envelopes with keys inside them as we began to sort things out. “Okay, here’s your room keys. Checkout time should be around noon on Sunday. If you have any other questions, we can gladly answer them for you. Otherwise, enjoy your stay.”

Okay, that’s one thing out of the way. Now to just-

Bump

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t see you there-”

I turned back around briefly, only to see glimpses of what looked like purple scales and a brief amount of green. Some dragon, probably the same size as Gizmo’s friend Azure if I have to take a guess. Though, I didn’t really get a good look at them. And honestly, I was just trying to make my way back over to my friends.

“Okay, I got the keys,” I handed one of them to Ryan, while also putting mine in my pocket, “Why don’t we go see what our rooms are like first, get everything put away and then figure things out from there?”

“Why would a key need to be a piece of plastic?” Luna asked, “Shouldn’t they be metal and on a ring? Or does this establishment work differently?”

“Hotel keys like the ones we have don’t exactly work like house keys,” Ryan insisted, leading us over to where the elevators were. As we got inside, there was a scanner module or something by the number pad on the doors. So, all he had to do was put his key to the door, press the number for the floor we were going to and then the elevator began to move.

“What sorcery did you use just now?”

“Oh, it isn’t anything to do with magic really,” he insisted, looking towards Luna as we continued to ascend the next few floors, “It’s more technological. Something in Gizmo’s field of expertise I think. Our guest keys would allow us to not only get inside our own rooms, but also access basic functions like the elevator. Of course, we can’t use them to go to places that are staff only or other people’s rooms-”

Then the elevator stopped, and the doors opened. “Floor 8.”

“Oh hey, that’s our stop.” Ryan awkwardly said, almost as if trying to leave the conversation on the elevator that was going back to the lobby as we all stepped out. “So, what’s the plan for tonight now that we’re here? The fun doesn’t start until tomorrow anyways.”

“Why don’t we just drop off our stuff in the room first?” Gizmo suggested, “I don’t know about you guys, but trotting around all day has been killing my hooves.”

Well, I guess that settles it. I mean, it at least beats walking around while carrying our bags everywhere.

By the time that we had gotten the chance to settle down in the room, all of us felt a slight sense of relief… but none more so than Luna. After having to keep up her spell for most of the day to ‘blend in’, the alicorn was relieved to finally be her regular pony self for the time being as she chose to acquaint herself with one of the beds in the room. All the while, Ryan was trying to figure out what to watch on TV and Gizmo was reading a book on the bed near the window to the balcony.

As for me, I had just gotten on my laptop and connected to the Wi-Fi. Not sure why, but that brief bump in with the dragon I saw in the lobby had been stuck on my mind. It felt as if I had seen them before, but I’m not entirely sure as to where. So, I thought that a quick search on Google could help clear things up a bit.

Though, I soon realized that just simply typing ‘purple and green dragon’ didn’t get me anywhere. If anything, all I did get was either art pieces on Pinterest, some LED light figurine from Walmart or that one two headed dragon from that old PBS cartoon that I saw when I was… I think four years old? I can’t remember. Point is, it was not exactly what I was hoping for.

“Is something troubling you, Sam?”

The sound of Luna’s voice had me look away from my screen as her face was now a few inches away from mine. “Not really. I was just looking into some things.”

“For tomorrow?”

I could only shrug as I cleared the search bar and prepared to try again. “Sort of. I kind of bumped into someone as I checked us in. I thought I had seen them somewhere before, so I’m trying to see if they’re like a special guest or something.”

“Really now?” she asked, “Do you remember what they looked like?”

“Uh, not entirely,” I shrugged, “I mean, I only saw them briefly. Looked like a dragon I think. Purple scales with a touch of green and sounded friendly. That’s all I can-”

Immediately, Luna’s face froze. Not in the sense that she was cold, but more like… recognition and concern. “Luna? You alright?”

She didn’t even seem to acknowledge my question. Instead, she just said one word. “Spike.”

“Huh?”

The moment she heard me voice my confusion, Luna realized it and attempted to try and clarify things, “T-that dragon you just described… It sounds eerily familiar to somepony my sister and I know back in Equestria.”

Even though she was trying to be calm, something about the subject seemed to really throw her for a loop. Maybe it was the whole thing with her wanting to just blend in and not stand out or something, but it was really getting to her. “Can you tell me more?”

“H-his name is Spike. When my sister and I were still ruling Equestria, he was the assistant of my sister’s protege and also the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle. He’s been by her side since she hatched him and raised him since he was a baby.”

Well, that’s a name I’ve heard before. The grape soda pony that Gizmo talked about when she first moved in.

“After we retired, Princess Twilight appointed him as her royal advisor and has been that way ever since. Though, I-I don’t know why he w-would be here. I-Is he-?”

Okay, before it gets to the point that she’s going to have a panic attack, I need to step in. “Honestly, I don’t know. I only saw him briefly once. If I had to take a guess, then he either got invited here to be a speaker or guest at Babscon… or he’s just here for vacation and did not learn about what was going on here until he walked in through the door. I can do some research and look up a couple of things, but I doubt he’s here intentionally because of us.”

“P-please do.” She said, briefly sighing… but it still seemed like she was somewhat taken aback by all of this. Personally, I didn’t quite see what the issue might be. But still, I wanted to make sure that Luna had a great time.

Let’s see, Babscon special guests… no, not last year. Who are the guests for this year? Hmm. Okay, some well known voice actors, artists, writers for the series and comics… anything on any Equestrians here? Would they be listed under guests of honor or community guests?

Huh… Well, that just makes things stranger. “Okay, so… it doesn’t look like he’s on the special guest list. In fact, there’s… nothing about him on the website here. Weirdly enough. Doesn’t seem like there’s any last minute changes or surprises either.”

Still, it didn’t seem like what I told her gave her any sort of confidence. “Luna, if something does come up, we’ll be here to help alright. Let’s just be open minded.”

“I-I guess you’re right,” she said, before letting loose a light chuckle. “Thank you, Sam. Sorry if I was a little hasty in assuming the worst. It’s honestly rather silly, now that I think about it.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I assured her, before powering down my laptop and closing it, “Besides, I think we should get some rest. We have a big day tomorrow after all and we’re going to need as much energy as possible.”

I don’t know why, but no matter how much I tried to sleep last night, it felt like it wasn’t enough. By the time I was awake again, I still felt drowsy and the amount of sleep I got was minimal at best.

To be completely fair, the lack of rest wasn’t exactly Hyatt’s fault. Instead, it was because I woke up to find Gizmo curled up in the middle of the floor with our blankets and some pillows as if she constructed a makeshift fort. Even more so when she left Luna and I with just a bedsheet.

Luckily, this was not that big of an issue. Not only that, but the rest of the morning went by a little bit more smoothly. We still had enough time before Babscon got started, so all of us took advantage of that to do a handful of things to get ready. Mainly, it was to get breakfast. Though, it was also a chance for us to try and see where everything was set up, what the schedule was like and who was already here.

In addition, if we just so happened to notice the dragon from yesterday, then I’d say that’s a bonus. Especially if it can help Luna feel a bit more at ease if we learn why he was here.

By the time that we finished eating, we had roughly an hour before the fun was about to begin. Enough time for me to ‘get into character’ at least since I did agree to go as Celestia for this. I mean, when Luna went so far as to get a dress ready for you that fit you, you had to commit yourself to the bit. As for the hair, I didn’t have the time or materials to dye it, so I went with a wig that was as close as I could get to the actual thing.

At first, I didn’t think anyone would notice us as we came back down to the ground floor after changing outfits and Luna casting her spell. Boy, was I wrong.

“Daddy, look! Those two look like mommy’s friends.”

Mere moments after stepping off the elevator, I turned around to see what looked like a young filly pointing me out and racing over to us. But this filly was different compared to the other Equestrians I’ve seen… Well, ever. They were on all fours like a pony, but had draconic features and two horns on her head. The only thing close to fur that I saw was a small mane along the head and a little section at the end of the tail.

And not far behind them was the same figure I ran into yesterday. Tall purple dragon with green fins and eyes that was definitely taller than me. Alongside him was a unicorn whose fur was the same color as my dress and a purple mane that was immediately noticeable. “Crystal, what did we say about staying together? You’re going to scare your mother like that.”

The young filly looked over to the two of them, pouting a bit as her ears dropped. “S-sorry daddy.”

“It’s okay, darling,” the unicorn spoke, “It’s just much busier than we anticipated-”

Against my better judgment, and possibly Luna’s, I responded back, “Oh, it’s no trouble really. Are you here for the event today?”

“No, actually. It kind of surprised us,” the dragon answered, scratching the back of his neck, “You see, we're kind of here for a family vacation. We were going to meet a couple of friends that lived nearby. Though, we had no idea something like this was happening.”

The response sort of eased the tension Luna had slightly, but she still seemed a bit nervous. As for me, I was a little bit more focused on the young filly. “Well, we have some time before the convention starts. Does your daughter want a picture with us?”

The filly looked back to her parents, who seemed a bit surprised by that. Though, it didn’t take long for them to agree as the filly stood in between us while her parents took a couple of pictures.

“Now Crystal, what do we say?”

“T-thank you!” Crystal said, her eyes beaming with excitement. As the three of them went to the lobby, both of us started to make our way over towards what was called ‘The Party Floor’. Along the way, I looked back at Luna.

“So, was that who you were expecting?”

“… Yes and no. I thought of Spike, but I didn’t expect to see the rest of his family there.”

“Would it be safe to say that you jumped to conclusions a bit too early.”

“I… guess.”

I smiled, before putting an arm around Luna’s shoulders. “Don’t worry too much about it. That’s the fun about these kinds of things. You don’t know what’s going to happen and sometimes, that’s the fun of it. Heck, we probably made that little girl’s day a lot brighter because of it.”

Luna couldn’t help but give me a small smirk, “You know, you sound a lot like a particularly chaotic friend my sister and I know when you say that.”

“In a good way?”

Now the alicorn in disguise just rolled her eyes. “Yes, in a good way.”

“That’s what I’d like to hear. Now come on, let’s go find Ryan & Gizmo. It’s time that we have some fun.”

21- Conventional Chaos- Part 4

If you've ever been to a convention, you probably know the feeling you get when the organizers finally open the doors, right? That adrenaline rush to hurry inside and explore? To run over to where you want to go first before the lines for something get extremely long?

Well, that wasn’t quite what happened here. For one thing, the venue was much smaller than other conventions I’ve been to. In fact, I was honestly surprised how they managed to fit everything on one floor. There were art booths, vendors for plushies and toys, event merchandise and a handful of other things here. I think there was even a karaoke stand where people were just singing songs.

While I was slowly getting acquainted with how things were set up on the first day, Luna and Gizmo seemed to be diving headfirst and enjoying the experience. Every few steps, they were either striking up conversation with attendees that happened to notice us or talking with some artists. Heck, one of them even offered to draw a picture of Gizmo for her to keep because they weren’t expecting an actual unicorn to show up at their booth today.

Aside from the artist alley and vendor halls, there were also game rooms that were set up as well. Three specific halls for everything, including an arcade, a board game area and also cards. Apparently, there was a collectable card game that I didn’t even know about until we found some kids trading cards with one another.

It was as we were going through everything that Luna pointed out a couple of areas that were off to the side of what we’ve been seeing so far. One was labeled ‘Lunar Hall’ another was labeled ‘Solar Hall’ and the last one was called the ‘Magic hall of Magic’. “Strange. I could hear some things from inside. What could be going on in there?”

“Probably panels, if I have to take a guess.” Ryan shrugged, while watching Gizmo go to what looked like a plushie vendor to browse.

“Panels? Like the ones you would have on walls?”

Quickly, I shook my head, “Not quite. At conventions, panels are like open discussions between a group of people in front of an audience. Sometimes, the people discussing such things are rather famous and it gives the chance for people attending to ask questions or just watch and see what happens. Though, they’re not short by any means.”

“Intriguing,” she looked at each of the doors again, before looking back to me, “Which of these ‘panels’ would be going on now?”

I was already a few steps ahead and getting out the program guide the moment she asked that. My eyes started to go down the page to try and read some of the other ones. Though, the further I went, the more that I realized that some of them were not quite as ‘family friendly’ as some of the other ones listed on here. And that was just for the first day.

Problem is, I’m not quite sure if any of these would be up Luna’s alley. I mean, I don’t mind sitting in on them and watching a bit. But I want to make sure that she doesn’t feel… well, bored. It was really difficult to tell if Luna was actually having fun at all and I didn’t want to do anything that would hamper the experience, per se-

“What’s this one here about?” she asked, pointing to a section on the guide that was a bit farther down. Now, what exactly was she looking at-

Wait. There’s something here called… Cosplay Chess? That’s a new one, even for me.

I was going to ask her why she wanted to do this particular one, but the more I think about it, the more that it kind of seemed a bit obvious where she was going with this. We went through the trouble of getting dressed up, so I guess she wanted to have some fun with it today.

“We can do that. Only thing is, since it’s happening right now, we might want to hurry. Hey, Gizmo. Do you-” I was going to say, only to see that Gizmo and Ryan were nowhere in sight. Damn it, why is it that I’m beginning to think that they’re leaving us alone on purpose?

“Hey, uh, Gizmo?”

“Yes Ryan?”

“Do you think there’s something important that we should be doing right now?”

“Not really. I’m sure I told Sam that we were going to be looking around while she and Luna were figuring out what to do.”

“Okay, um… Was there anything specific you’re trying to find?”

“Nah. I just thought that while they were busy, I thought I should buy them a gift to go along with their costumes. You know, to surprise them. I mean, they’re the ones that invited us, so now’s the time to repay that kindness.”

“What exactly do you mean by-?”

“Excuse me, hi. How much for the extra large plushies of Princess Celestia and Luna? Oh really? Well, here you go then and keep the change. Have a nice day.”

“Did… you just drop a bag of bits on their table? How much was even in there?”

“Enough. Besides, that’s only half of the money I brought this weekend.”

“ … How much did you even bring? You almost broke the table.”

“Like I said… Enough.”

Much to my own surprise, out of everything we did on the first day, Cosplay Chess was probably the thing Luna and I enjoyed the most.

The whole way that this game was set up was that two of the main staff members would have anyone that attended be broken up into teams like they were being picked for playground dodgeball. Once the teams were made, each cosplayer was to represent a chess piece on a giant board while the staff members acted as team captains. The whole idea was to try and outsmart the other team as a group and have fun in the process.

Of course, when the staff members saw our particular costumes, they decided to have a bit of extra fun and have our whole match be a ‘battle of the sisters’. Which put Luna and I against each other. On the surface, this seemed okay. I mean, a friendly game wouldn’t hurt right?

Then I realized two particular things a bit too late. First, I know absolutely nothing about chess. Second, Luna can get rather competitive when she wants to be. So much so that it seemed less like the captain of her team was really doing anything and more like she was taking charge of everything. Which… was kind of scary, not gonna lie.

Luckily, the high stakes ‘match’ of ours somehow ended up being a draw. Don’t ask me why, I’m not too familiar with the rules of chess or why it turned out this way.

After that, things slowly began to get back to some sense of normalcy. At least, for the time being. Yet, even as we were getting dinner and returning to our rooms, the party downstairs did not end for a long time. Like, a few hours after falling asleep, I woke up to hearing music still being played downstairs.

Now, I know that there are some people who would want to hear the full details of how the entire weekend went. But to avoid things getting too complicated and making my brain feel like a melted tub of ice cream, I’m going to try to keep this as brief as possible.

After what felt like a trial run on the first day, we all tried to put in a bit more of an effort on planning out what exactly we wanted to do for day two. Like yesterday, Luna and I decided to do the same cosplay routine we did before because around noon, there was a cosplay walk on the mane stage (And yes, that’s what it was called). It wasn’t a contest or anything, but since Luna did go out of her way to have these costumes for us, we decided to try and make the most of it. Heck, even a lot of Equestrians took part in this event as well and based on what Luna told me, one unicorn’s costume was almost completely identical to the dress that Princess Twilight wore to her coronation when she first became an alicorn.

Funny enough, we were pulled aside by a lot of people that wanted to do photography after the walk was done. Including a few of the special guests that happened to be invited here. So, that must be a plus, right?

Anyways, after we did that, we did some more walking around and happened to partake in some other activities. Some crafts, some shopping and a few other things. Though, the main highlight for the second day of the convention was a couple of games that we decided to sit down and play.

The first one was a tabletop game called Tails of Equestria. It was like Dungeons & Dragons, but… well, different. It wasn’t a game from Equestria, that was for sure. But it was a game made here on Earth based on Equestria in the TV show. The characters we made for it were based on the different types of creatures over there and the stories that were set in it honestly would make me wonder if something like this actually happened over there. It wasn’t like DND, where there was a lot of fighting involved, but instead was a game based on exploration, problem solving and of course, friendship.

The second game we played that night was the Jackbox Party Packs… and I think you probably might have an idea where this was going.

“So, you just vote on whose answer is the best?”

“Pretty much. Though, do be warned, Quiplash has a tendency for players to not really pull any punches. Anything is considered fair game.”

“Pfft, please. I’m sure it can’t be that bad… Oh… Oh dear. Oh MY! Dear sweet me-”

Compared to the first two days, day three was a bit shorter by comparison. Not just because it was the last day of the convention, but because it was also the day that we were going to catch our return flight to come back home. But that did not mean that it wasn’t eventful. Oh, not by a longshot.

For starters, after cosplaying the first two days of Babscon and asking Luna if she was okay with it, I decided to go in normal clothes on the last day. Nothing too fancy or complex, just a simple t-shirt, jeans and so on. I didn’t want to have the dress get damaged after a couple close calls the other night and I’m pretty sure that there were some stains on it by now.

Ideally, what I wanted to do was go around the hall one more time, see if there was anything else that was going on and then check out. Most of our stuff was already packed, so it probably wouldn’t hurt to go around one more time, right?

Well… not quite. As I was just about to finish up, I had a bit of a surprise interrupt me before I could reach the front desk.

“Excuse me, darling.”

I turned around, only to find myself looking at somepony that I had only seen once throughout this trip. Remember back on the first day, where we had that young girl point out Luna and I? Well, this was the same mare that I assume was her mother. Though, it was a little strange to see her here this early.

“Yes, is… there something I can help you with?”

“Would you happen to be Sam?”

Now, my heart skipped a beat. “That… would be me. How do you know my name though?”

“Let’s just say a dear friend of yours and mine happened to tell me about you. In a good way, of course. That and you were wearing a particular dress that she asked me to make for you.”

Okay, I think things are starting to click in my head. But just to be sure, “Are you the seamstress?”

“Well, that’s one way to phrase it,” the mare replied, before extending a hoof like if someone offered a hand to shake, “I’m Rarity Belle. Owner of the Carousel Boutique, Element of Generosity and a dear friend to princesses both past and present.”

I… honestly had no idea what to say as I went to shake her hoof. Though, I had to do something or else I’ll end up making a fool out of myself. “S-Sam Axle.”

“What a wonderful name,” she complimented, “Though, I know that you have things you probably want to do. Though, I wanted to take a moment to thank you.”

Thank me? That’s… a new one. This is my only real time meeting her, so what exactly is there to thank about? “I’m sorry, but I’m a bit confused. What are you thanking me for?”

“Well, when we first came here, our little girl was… very nervous and scared about going somewhere new. Though, after running into both you and your friend, Crystal’s been happier than ever.”

“I’m happy to hear that.”

“I must say though. I would’ve thought that your friend would be down here with you too, so I could thank both of you. Would you happen to know where I could find her?”

All I did was just give her a smile. “I’ll pass along the message to her. She would be happy to hear that.”

“Really? She said that?”

“Mhm,” I told Luna, who was sitting right next to me on the plane ride to come back home, “I guess we really made their weekend and she wanted to thank us.”

“Well… that’s unexpected,” the disguised alicorn replied, “I find it odd that she didn’t think I was with you.”

“Ehh, to each their own. But… can I ask you something? Like, honestly?”

She raised an eyebrow, “What is it?”

“Did you have fun this weekend? I… know it’s weird asking but-”

Calmly, she set a hand down on one of mine and gave a reassuring smile. “I did. But if I have to be honest, I had a lot more fun being with you and your friends.”

Any sort of tension or concern that I had in that moment dissipated. All I felt was relief as I let out a sigh. At least I don’t have to worry about that now-.

“Maybe next time, we can get my sister to join us.”

22- LFW

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

08- What did I get myself into?

It had been a few days after Gizmo had moved in next door and from what I could tell, she was settling in rather nicely. After what happened on her first night here, my dad and I were lucky that there weren’t any repeat incidents that would have Mistral knocking on our doorstep. Heck, there were even a couple of times that Gizmo had asked for us to come over because she needed some help with setting up some old electronics my dad decided to give to her as a housewarming gift. Such things included an old TV that he once decided to use as a computer monitor, a dvd player and a few movies that he considered ‘timeless classics’. However, there were a couple of movies I had to personally ‘remove’ from the gift because I thought that Gizmo seeing it would do more harm than good.

Case in point, the first Godfather movie. Never let her see that under any circumstances. For those of you that have, you probably might know why.

Though, it was when we were over to help her set all of this up that we actually found out a bit more about Gizmo, as well as why she might’ve decided to leave her world to come to ours. Back in her homeworld, she was a brilliant unicorn who wanted to create inventions that could improve the lives of many. However, despite several ponies being amazed by what she could do, what she had been working on all her life ended up becoming overshadowed by two other unicorns. A pair of brothers that tried to recreate what she had done, only for the creations to break and the two con-artists to get away with the money of ponies who believed they could help them. Gizmo had tried to convince them that she was not like them, but the damage had already been done.

Shortly after first contact between Equestria and Earth, Gizmo saw what many would consider as an accidental discovery as an opportunity. An opportunity to start over with a clean slate. So, with the help of some of the friends she knew back home as well as Mistral, Gizmo took all of her savings and any other money she could find to not only come over to Earth, but to have a place to call home. It just so happened that Mr. Rochester’s home was the first and only one she ever considered, because she was so eager to get out of there and start a new life.

It was a story that Dad and I were not expecting, but it wasn’t something that I could just ignore. Gizmo gave up everything she had before just to come here, so I should be able to find a way to help her outside of just being neighborly. I mean, living in that house by herself can get rather lonely and I don’t think she’s the kind of pony that can handle taking care of pets.

Then, a thought hit me. Perhaps there is somepony I can ask that might point me in the right direction.

“You want my help with what now?” Mistral asked as she sat across from me at a table in front of Jamba Juice. She wasn’t on duty and was in the middle of drinking a large mango smoothie when I met her. “Gizmo’s not giving you any trouble now, is she?”

“No, no, not at all,” I insisted, “In fact, she’s settling in well… though, that’s also why I’m a bit concerned.” From there, I began to recall everything that Gizmo told Dad and I, as well as mention that it was because of her friends and also her that she was able to come to earth in the first place. Though, it did little to help.

“I fail to see what the issue might be.”

“Well, back home, she had a supportive group of friends that helped her come here, yourself included. However, after arriving here and such, I’m worried that Gizmo won’t be able to find that same group of friends, aside from me, that can help her here,” I told her carefully, “It doesn’t help much that there are a bunch of things that are still new to her and have probably terrified her in the process. Hell, just the other day when the garbage people were coming to get rid of our trash, she tried to pick a fight with them because she thought that the garbage truck was a monster wanting to consume her recycling bin.”

That had Mistral blink for a moment as she tried to process what I just told her. Yet, afterwards, she narrowed her eyes, “So, are you saying that you’re not up to the task?”

Immediately, I shook my head, “No, that’s not even remotely what I was trying to say-”

“Then, what are you trying to say,” Mistral retorted, her teeth biting down on the plastic straw as she was growing more irritated by the second.

“What I’m saying is that I think Gizmo needs somepony that she knows to keep her company. Like a roommate,” I told her, “Being in that house all by herself with no one to talk to seems… rather depressing. So I thought that having a friend that she’s familiar with could make things seem less scary for her.”

At that, the bat pony paused. I wasn’t sure if what I said was enough to convince her to take what I was saying seriously or if she thought of what I said as some kind of joke. Especially since her expression didn’t really change. Though, after a moment or two, her expression began to change as Mistral let out a light chuckle.

“Funny that you mentioned that, because when it came to her coming to earth, she wasn’t suppose to come by herself.”

Huh? What do you mean by that?

“Gizmo told you that some of her friends helped her out, didn’t she?” The bat pony asked, to which I nodded my head, “Well, there was somepony else that was supposed to be with her. However, their passage to earth got delayed because somepony at the clerical office in Equestria screwed up and scheduled them to cross over a week later. I’m surprised that Gizmo hadn’t brought it up considering how close the two of them are.”

I’m just as surprised as you are, if I’m going to be honest. Though, I’m not entirely sure how this related to me.

“Alright, I’ll bite,” the bat pony spoke, which made me feel a bit relieved. Though, that was only for a brief moment “However, I’m doing this for Gizmo, not because you asked. Which means we’re doing this my way.”

“Okay, that works for me,” I told her, “Though, what exactly are you thinking about doing?”

Now the bat pony had a smirk on her face as she looked back at me with a gaze that made me think that I was going to regret asking that. “Remember when Gizmo told you that I had Reggie help her with her things? Well, this time around, you’re Reggie.”

Two Days Later

Out of all the places that I thought that Mistral was going to have me head too, the last place that I expected to end up driving too on a Sunday was a facility that I didn't know even existed. From the outside, the main building looked like a hanger from one of those private airports given its size. Though, as I parked my car in the parking lot and walked towards the building, the sign that was on the building gave me an idea of what I was about to walk into.

Equestrian Gate Crossing- Canterlot/California Junction

If memory serves me right, these crossing sites were seen as sanctioned zones where Equestrians that were coming to our world would come through and anyone that was traveling to Equestria would do the same. If anything, they gave me the impression of border checkpoints that would be along the northern and southern border of the country. Only thing was, unlike border checkpoints, there were only two of these crossing sites in the United States as far as I know. The other one was in Southern New Jersey on the east coast and from what I had seen on the news, that site was much bigger in scale.

As I approached the door though, that was when I heard another voice. “Excuse me, ma’am. Do you have a scheduled appointment?”

I turned towards the voice to find that a griffon was sitting behind a hard plastic screen that resembled ticket booths at stadiums and concert venues. “Uh, no. I’m actually here to pick up someone that’s supposed to be arriving here today. Am I in the right place?”

The griffon, who’s name was Gary if I read the ID card that was attached to his lanyard correctly, pointed a claw farther down to my right. “You would be looking for arrivals right over then. This section here is for departures. You’ll see someone else that can help you get inside.”

Huh, guess it’s more like an airport than I thought.

After thanking the griffon, I began to walk back over to the other end of the building, where there was another booth. Though, this time around I did not get a griffon to greet me. Instead, I found myself looking at the last thing I expected. Even though there was a pegasus mare behind the counter, they also had a yak that was standing out front as a security guard. Which was weird because on Earth, you could only find Yaks around the Himalayas and Siberia, not a parking lot in southern California.

“Hello there, welcome to the gate crossing!” the pegasus replied in a lively and positive voice, “I’m Paper Checker, how can I help you today?”

“I’m here to pick somepony up that’s going to be coming in around noon,” I told her, getting out some papers that I kept in my pocket for her to take a look at. “Should I wait out here or-?”

“No, that won’t be necessary. We have a waiting area inside,” she replied, before giving me the papers and looking towards the Yak, “Brümar, go ahead and let them through. They’re here to pick someone up today.”

Of course, before I could even take a step inside, the yak was having trouble with the door. “Rrgh! Brümar hates fragile doors!! Brümar SMASH!!”

I’m sorry, wha- HOLY SHIT!! This Yak just threw himself at the door and shattered it!! What the fu-!?

“Brümar, really?!” The pegasus that I was just talking to scrambled out from her desk and out to the front door. “I told you that you need to pull open the doors, not push it! This is the third time today!!”

“Is… everything okay?” I asked, hesitant to even go inside because of the scattered glass and debris. Even though the Yak just shrugged it off like nothing happened.

“My apologies, but my colleague always seems to solve problems with nothing more than sheer force,” the pegasus replied, “Not to worry though. It’s not something that can’t be fixed.”

Before I could even ask what she was talking about, the glass that had scattered everywhere was now floating over back to the door frame and reassembling itself. After all the pieces were arranged, there was a brief shine and the doors were back to normal.

“W-what was that?”

“First time seeing magi-glass?” Paper asked, before pushing the door open so I can come inside, “It’s a type of glass enchanted with a special kind of spell. That way if it happens to break, it can fix itself.”

Before I could say anything, Paper was insistent on guiding me over to the waiting area and had me follow her. As I sat down in a chair, I began to take a look around and notice that here, there were a lot more Equestrians compared to humans. Not just ponies, but many other species too. There were even complimentary pamphlets in the waiting area for those who might’ve been like me and didn’t really know much about different Equestrian species.

Though, as for the equestrian that I was specifically waiting for, that was something that I only knew a couple of details on. They were an earth pony stallion named Brisk Tundra, whose fur and mane made me think of a snow covered mountain (And ironically, a snow covered mountain was his Cutie Mark). From what Mistral told me, he was somepony who’s talent specialized with Mountain Climbing and even once climbed up the side of the mountain that the city of Canterlot was on because of a dare. Yet, the one thing that she didn’t tell me was how this guy and Gizmo knew each other.

After about twenty minutes of waiting and reading headlines off of Google News to pass the time, I looked up to find that the earth pony was waiting for had just trotted out of the portal and was greeted by some of the staff. Even had a saddlebag that I assumed carried some of his belongings. As if on cue, I emerged from my seat and began to walk over to him. “Hello there. You must be Brisk, right?”

“That would be me, yes,” the earth pony replied, looking at me with a raised eyebrow, “Though, who are you though, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Oh, um, right, my apologies,” Real smooth for first introductions, it seems, “I’m Sam. Mistral wanted me to make sure that you got picked up when you arrived.”

Shortly afterwards, his expression changed as he greeted me with a smile, scratching the back of his head with one of his front hooves. “Oh, you must be Gizzy’s neighbor. Sorry about that, for a moment I wasn’t sure if you were a friend or just a stranger.”

Gizzy? If he’s talking about Gizmo, then I bet there’s some kind of story to that. “Yeah, I kind of give that impression,” I told him, before looking around a bit, “So, did you have any other luggage you brought with you or-?”

“No, everything I need is right here,” Brisk motioned to the saddlebag on his shoulders as he looked at me.

“Alright. I guess we’ll hit the road then.”

Now came the question of whether or not a stallion like him can actually fit inside my Honda Fit. Though, there was one question I wanted to ask first.

“Hey, out of curiosity, how do you and Gizmo know each other?”

While it was a simple question… I was not prepared for the answer I got in response. “You mean Mistral didn’t tell you? Gizmo’s my marefriend.”

Author's Note

Well, that escalated quickly

Fun Fact- The location of the portal on the East Coast is a reference to the story 'Mr. Jones Goes to Equestria' by AlwaysDressesInStyle, the same Author of stories such as 'Business Trip' and '16'. I highly recommend checking them out