//-------------------------------------------------------// Man of The House -by Phoenixcolt45- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// CH 1 New World New Friends //-------------------------------------------------------// Author's Note Authors Note Hello all you readers! This is Phoenixcolt45 coming to you now with my first official story that I’m finally posting here of Fimfiction. Now before we begin I’d like to say I’ve worked very long and very hard in perfecting this story to honor my inspiration. SonicBlitz18. And his wonderful story Roommates. Check it out when you can.:twilightsmile: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/twilightsmile.png When I first came on to this site I had no idea what I was doing and only wanted to write for fun, it wasn’t until I’ve read Roommates one day that I said to myself “I could write this a little better” So I find the author, I message him, then we get to talking about the story. I told him I could potentially help improve his story, and that I wished to create my own version of the story with his permission, which he was happy to let me do since I asked. He was also happy for me to help out on his work too, I figured I could use some writing experience too before I tried attempting to write my own projects. :twilightsheepish: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/twilightsheepish.png Ever since then we became best friends, still are today, and I’m really grateful for that because I wouldn’t have met my other best friends here too, Yoshikage Kira, wolfman93, and Israel Yabuki including the many friends I’ve met along the way through this site. :twilightsmile: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/twilightsmile.png:heart: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/heart.png So for the past few years I’ve discussed with Sonic and the others on what we could do for his story, we brainstormed for a while and when I had a breakthrough on what we could do to continue, the problem was by the time it happened, he told me he was beginning to lose interest in working on his project which sucked but I respect his decision and so should everyone else. Thankfully by the time it happened I’ve already been working on my own story that has officially now turned into a spiritual successor and have been trying to get it ready to post, the only thing that kept me was because I was being a perfectionist and laziness too. Now a few years later I’ve finally got the first chapter ready, but don’t expect me to update often, but I will post when I can because I already have an ending planned and won’t stop until I’ve finished no matter how long it takes.:rainbowdetermined2: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/rainbowdetermined2.png I’ve worked long and hard on this story and made it mostly for fun and as an honor to Sonic's first story, so I would appreciate no bashing, no intensely negative criticism, no racism, no disrespect to me, my friends or all fellow writers and readers here that look at my story. I’m fine with constructive criticism and the occasional correction on grammar, if there happens to be any kind of mistake such as that I’ll happily take my time to edit each chapter I’ve posted in the future.:twilightsmile: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/twilightsmile.png But if I find out anybody has been very disrespectful to me or anybody that I know, or decides to bash me or my story, or my friend's stories for fun, YOU. WILL. BE. BLOCKED! :flutterrage: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/flutterrage.png And immediately reported to the admins. I will not tolerate that behavior in any way whatsoever.:ajbemused: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/ajbemused.png Before we begin, I’d like to thank my best friends SonicBlitz18, Wolfman93, and Yoshikage Kira along with my other Fimfiction friends for providing their own insight while writing this story. I'm grateful for your help.:twilightsmile: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/twilightsmile.png So, with that out of the way readers, sit back, relax, grab some snacks or drinks if you feel like it and enjoy the story. I hope you like it.:twilightsmile: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/twilightsmile.png:twilightsmile: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/twilightsmile.png:twilightsmile: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/twilightsmile.png CH 1 New World New Friends Equestria land of the ponies a peaceful country that for many centuries has shown friendship and harmony to all who live within the land. It has been made possible thanks to its rulers Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the alicorn sisters have watched over their beloved kingdom and its subjects for the past three years after Luna's return from her imprisonment. Since that day many strange yet interesting events have occurred and every one of them have involved the Elements Harmony themselves. Tasked with being the protectors of Equestria or as what many ponies in Ponyville and beyond they’re known as the mane six. The six elements are kindness, loyalty, honesty, generosity, laughter, and magic. Together these six bearers help spread and teach the magic of friendship. Where they live is the sleepy yet lively town of Ponyville, ponies moved on about their day, some were working on the weather preparing for a clear sunny day while others were selling their wares in the market or were tending to their farms readying for the harvest in a couple months. While all this went on one pony walked briskly under the bright late summer sun. Her hooves clopped on the dirt, while her wings buzzed in excitement as her stride quickened all the while she hummed a happy tune to herself. “Come on Spike, it's not much further.” She called out. “Easy for you to say, you're not the one who’s pulling a cart that weighs several tons.” He groaned, pulling a cartload full of equipment behind him. “Well, I keep telling you to stop eating all those super triple-deckered sugar-splosion sugar cookies Pinkie makes.” “I can’t help myself around them, Twilight. They’re just as good as those red-hot rubies Rarity found a month ago. Twilight rolled her eyes at her little brother. He may not have been blood related, but she loved the young dragon all the same. Spike was 5’7 in height, had green eyes, purple scales, a long tail with a spade at the end, and wore a green shirt with gray pants and a purple jacket. They crested over the hill and reached their destination, down below Twilight smiled as she saw the rest of her friends had arrived. Her five friends who she loved and were closest to ever since she met them when she first moved to Ponyville. “Hey Twilight, over here,” a brash scratchy voice called out, landing in front of her the two she stood at 5 '5 in height and had a light cyan blue coat while her mane and tail was a rainbow, her magenta eyes showed a sense of pride and confidence. She furled her large blue wings to her back and now watched the pair impatiently as they walked alongside while Spike grunted pulling the heavy cart. “You know you could lend a hand instead of just standing there while I do all the work Rainbow.” He grunted. Rainbow chuckled, “And miss out watching you sweat it out, fat chance.” “Come on Rainbow stop teasing him, he's been working hard the past few months, reckon a helping hand doesn’t hurt, especially since I had ta pull ma share here.” A southern voice told her. She had an orange coat, a blonde mane and tail and wore a worn-out Stetson atop her head. A red shirt covered her torso topped with a denim vest, she walked over to the dragon and lifted one handle of the cart while Spike lifted the other and set the cart down next to a large foldout table. “Thanks Applejack, I appreciate it.” “No problem sugarcube, where do you want this Twi?” “Put those on the table there you two.” She replied pointing towards a set of tables. “Did you get everything I asked?” “Of course, but whut exactly is all this here for?” “I agree with Applejack darling, whatever is the purpose of bringing all this stuff here?” A posh voice asked, she was a white unicorn mare with a styled curly purple mane and tail, she wore a white and pink frilled sundress and was neatly laying down a checkered blanket on the grass under a large oak tree. “Because these instruments will help read whatever this artifact here does.” Twilight said lifting the object in her magic, it was a shiny metallic cube covered in strange grooves that looked like smaller cubes forming a large three-dimensional square. On each square a strange symbol covered every inch of the metal surface. But the most common symbol was a cross dotting most of the squares, it glittered in the sunlight letting off a bronze shine. “Ooohhh sparkly.” A pink mare said popping out of nowhere. “Pinkie Pie be careful, this is a very old artifact given to me by the princesses so it’s very delicate.” Twilight scolded. “Oops sorry Twilight it just looks so interesting.” Pinkie replied sheepishly, she had a light pink coat, a darker poofy mane and tail and had three balloons on her shoulder as her cutie mark. She wore a blue frilled skirt, a pink jacket, and had a barrette in her mane shaped like a balloon. “So, what’s it do, what’s it do?” “Yeah Twi why the hay did we have to log all of this junk out here?” Said Rainbow. “To answer your question Rainbow, I was recently given this item from the princesses earlier this week to figure out its purpose.” She said holding it close to her in her magic. “The princesses mentioned that it’s some kind of relic from a thousand years ago and tasked me to solve it. They believe it’s an old relic from Starswirl the Bearded and he used it to conduct advanced magical experiments.” “We looked everywhere in every library and we’ve found nothing so far.” Spike sighed remembering all the books and scrolls he had to go through and then put back. “Isn’t that exciting, a lost artifact from Starswirl The Bearded himself. Imagine what secrets can be unlocked from this.” She beamed giggling excitedly at learning something new from her idol. “We’re just happy we can help you out Twilight.” A quiet soft voice said, she was a pegasus mare with a light yellow coat and a soft pink mane, she was holding out a few nuts and berries to some squirrels that lived in the tree. Her cutie mark was a trio of butterflies on her shoulder, she wore a large green turtleneck sweater and a pair of light brown cargo shorts that firmly shaped her hips. “So how do we start?” Spike asked, attaching a couple of wires on the cube. “Well first off we need to measure and see what kind of magic it responds to, then we move on and test the strength of the magic within it.” “Ooh this is so exciting, are you excited cause I’m excited, I just can’t stop feeling excited!” Pinkie shouted, bouncing up and down in place. Twilight shook her head smiling, turning towards the drake. “Okay let’s check off the items, ready Spike?” “Ready Twilight.” He said holding a quill and parchment. “Alright, mana gauge?” “Check.” “Magical dampener?“ “Check.” “Mobile safety barrier?“ “Check and check.” “Ok that’s everything, let’s get started everypony.” Everyone nodded and got behind the barrier. Twilight shined her horn aiming at the cube, she concentrated all of her magic and fired a beam at the cube. It struck home, the artifact was enveloped in a bright purple light. Engulfed by a purple aura it began to rise as Twilight continued firing her magic, until after a few seconds she dropped the spell extinguishing it making the cube drop back on the table. Her magic dimmed and she and the girls carefully watched the bronze cube, for a few moments they looked closely but nothing happened. “Huh that’s strange.” “What is it Twilight?” Asked Fluttershy. “I don’t know, but the readings indicate the magic inside it is very powerful, and similar to a teleportation spell.” She mused. “But the structure is all wrong, that doesn’t make any sense, I mean it’s like the magic here is not even equestrian.” “How can something like that be using different magic made from equestrians?” Rainbow added. “I thought alicorns could do all kinds of magic, plus yer the element of magic Twi aren’t ya able to do the same like this lil doohickey here?” “It's not that simple AJ, Sure I can learn almost any spell, but this thing is in a class of its own, the reason why the magic inside is unfamiliar is because it’s never been seen before.” “So shall we move on to the next test then?” Spike asked while writing down notes. “Right let’s get to it then.” Twilight began lighting up her horn lifting up several tools around the artifact while Spike carefully drew protection wards on parchment and placed the parchment on the table and breathed his green flames over the paper activating the wards. “Perfect I think that’s everything here, now let’s see-” “AHM GONNA CLOBBER YA YAH VARMINT!” A loud voice bellowed out, shocking Twilight out of her thoughts causing her magic to dim out. She and everypony else turned to the voice and saw two young mares barreling down the hillside like tartarus itself was after them. One mare had a light pink coat and a white and light purple mane, she wore a white and yellow jacket with a long silver skirt and on her shoulder was a cutie mark of a tiara. The second mare had a silver-gray coat and a silver and white mane in a braid, she was wearing a purple top with a pink skirt studded with diamonds along the rim. She wore a pair of light blue eyeglasses, and her cutie mark was a fancy ornate spoon on her shoulder. And both mares were running down towards the group with utter terror on their faces while a tan colored earth pony with red hair and green eyes, her face bore a few freckles covering her cheeks. She wore a pair of simple denim jeans, a white T-shirt covered by a simple faux leather jacket. She was followed by an orange pegasus mare on her left and to her right a yellow earth pony mare. All three had a deep scowl on their faces and were chasing after the two when a unicorn mare came over the hill and stopped in front of the girls panting. She was wearing a magenta designer coat with a simple white and pink striped shirt. A yellow skirt covered her legs at mid length and had a white coat and a light dark and purple mane put in curls. The yellow earth pony wore a green T-shirt with denim jeans topped with a pink bow creating a ponytail in her crimson red mane. The pony on her left is a purple haired pegasus mare with a plain sweater zipped to her chest while she wore a pair of green khaki shorts. She was currently running at full speed towards the terrified duo who tripped over an overgrown root tumbling over each other in a heap and the angry trio piled onto them. “TAKE THAT BACK YOU SPOILED BITCH, AH’LL SHOW YA!” The tan mare shouted pummeling into the pair. “SAVE SOME FOR ME BABS!” The pegasus added tackling the gray mare to the ground and they began struggling. “GET OFF ME YOU FLIGHTLESS LOSER!” She yelled and then punched her in the face kicking her off but was grabbed by the ankle and dragged back into the melee. “TAKE IT LIKE A MARE DIAMOND TIARA!” Babs' Seed yelled furiously attempting to beat the mare who had her hands up protecting her face. “You get off of me you half witted degenerate!” “No pony calls mah cousin a degenerate!” The yellow mare yelled diving onto Diamond Tiara only to be shoved by her hooves and lifted over her in a somersault landing in a heap on the ground. The two young mares rolled around in the dirt punching and kicking each other while Twilight, Spike and the girls looked on in surprise as Rarity’s sister came running up to them panting. “Sweetie Belle, what on earth is going on here?” Rarity demanded. “W…” ‘Pant’ “We… ‘Pant’ we were over at the school trying to come up with new ideas to get our cutie marks when Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon came up to us and made fun of us again for being blank flanks. Then she goes after Babs about her parents saying they didn’t want her anymore and that she was better off playing with the pigs.” She breathed out. “What, she said that?!” Applejack exclaimed. Sweetie Belle nodded. “Yeah, and then she and Silver made fun of Scoots about her wings and that she can’t fly and said to her that she should be an earth pony instead. They kept at it until Babs punched her in the face and Scoots tried to claw her eyes out too. “Didn’t you try to stop them?” Twilight asked her. “Applebloom and I tried until they said she was no better than Babs and then she started to join the fight. They ran off and the girls chased after them and now we’re here.” She finished taking in deep breaths. They all soon heard a loud thud and a crash. Turning around they find Diamond with her face pressed against the table with Applebloom who was currently twisting her arm behind her back yelling out in pain. “OW! Let me go, you blank flank!” “Not until you apologize fer whut you said.” She growled, twisting her arm further. Their attention was taken back towards Scootaloo and Babs who were on top of Silver rolling around the ground throwing punches, kicks and curses at each other that made some of the girls surprised they knew such words. “You high maintenance piece of shit, how’s it feel now huh!?” Scootaloo shouted as she beat the gray mare in the face while Babs was holding her legs tightly and twisting them to the point the mare whined in pain. “Ow ow ow ow ow… let me go you losers!” She cried and felt another punch to the face. “You’ll be sorry for this when-OW!” “Save it for when we tear you limb from li- whoa!” Babs was interrupted by a lavender aura surrounding her, Scootaloo and Applebloom along with the rest of the group lifted up into the air and immediately placed right in front of the mane six. They were then face to face with an angry alicorn firmly placing them on their hooves. Twilight, AJ, and Rainbow glared at the five young mares. “Princess Twilight, what a nice surprise to see you, me and Silver Spoon were just enjoying some time with our friends here.” She said putting on the fake smile she could muster while the lavender mare looked unamused. “You look great today princess, did you do something different with your hair, because it looks absolutely-” “Save it you two I saw everything and don’t think you can deny it either.” She glared at them. “B-but it’s not what it looks like princess.” Silver Spoon pleaded. “Oh really, it looks like yew two were brawlin like a pack of angry timber wolves fightin fer scraps.” Applejack stated. “And as for you three,” Twilight turned to the three girls who were now covered in scuffs and bruises. “What in Equestria were you thinking fighting would solve anything?” “But they started it!” Babs protested. “I heard’em makin’ fun of mah cousin and her friends, forget about it nopony insults muh family and gets away with it.” “And they told me I was better off as an earth pony playing in the dirt,” Scootaloo added. “That’s not true!” Silver Spoon denied then Diamond got on her knees grabbing at the mare's leg, a look of what appeared to be pity was on her face but Twilight knew better at the moment. “Princess you gotta believe us, they’re just lying, we would never do something like that.” She pleaded. “Horseshit!” Cried Scootaloo. “You’d say and do anything to cover your sorry ass if it meant sucking up to anypony more important than you!” Diamond scoffed. “Says the pegasus who can’t fly, I mean look at those things, do you fan yourself with them or are you just too lazy to get off the ground.” Diamond chuckled cruelly but then faltered realizing she said that out loud in front of the princess and the elements. “That’s it, let me at her, that no-good self-righteous bitch has a five fingered delivery comin for her.” The young pegasus snarled while Sweetie Belle and Applebloom held her back. “That’s enough, all of you.” “But-” “But nothing! Now I’m not going to tolerate seeing you belittle these three. And if this keeps up with you two, I will have no choice but to tell your parents about this.” Twilight glared at them causing the two young mares to shrink back in fear, their ears pinned back against their skulls. “Now we suggest you girls run on home now or else. And that goes to you and your friends too Sweetie Belle, we’ll talk about this later at home.” Rarity stated firmly. “Yes Rarity.” Sweetie replied in defeat as she led Babs and the crusaders back to Ponyville. While Diamond and Silver followed from a distance. Twilight sighed to herself turning back to the worktable. “I thought those two would eventually change, but now it seems they’re getting worse. Maybe I should talk to their parents about this.” “Now don’t fret about it too much Twi.” Applejack smiled at her. “Rare and I will talk to the crusaders and straighten this whole thing out. And if those two bother’em again I’ll personally march on over ta their homes and give a stern talkin to with them myself.” “Thanks AJ but hopefully it won’t come to that.” She then looked back on the table seeing the relic was still there in good condition. Twilight then turned to Spike with a pad and quill in each hand. “Ready to continue that research?” Spike smiled. Twilight smiled in return and headed back to her workstation sighing to herself at the young mares as she watched them walking off. She would have to find some way in helping the girls to get along, but for now her desire for research on an ancient artifact assigned to her from the princesses was quite the temptation. “Okay Spike we start on finding any traces of magic that can tell what its origin is.” “Ok, well from what the notes say it’s very old and nopony knows what it does.” The dragon summarized as he read through Twilight’s notes. “Well not for much longer, hand me that crystal over there, and don’t think about eating it.” Spike sighed as he grabbed the light blue crystal and handed it over to her, she then lit up her horn and began to aim it towards the golden cube as she readied her magic. “RRRAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!” ‘SMASH’! “YOU FUCKING BITCH YOU’RE DEAD!” A voice shouted and a pink, brown, and yellow blur tumbled into the workstation knocking over glass instruments, bottles and notebooks to the ground. “What the?” “Babs, Applebloom, Diamond. Stop this right now!” Twilight shouted but fell on deaf ears. The trio continued to tumble around throwing the occasional punch, curse, and mane pulling on each other, until Babs managed to grab Diamonds head and slam her face against the table. The rest of the girls were shocked at the fight but soon Rainbow and Applejack tried to step in and break it up. Fed up with the three fillies the Twilight flared up her horn and aimed at the tussling trio but failed to notice Silver Spoon and Scootaloo who were also behind her in their own melee and Spike and Rarity struggled to stop them but all four of them knocked themselves into the lavender mare causing her to lose focus and fire off a bolt that started bouncing wildly around the area until it hit the artifact on the table knocking it to the ground. What they failed to notice was several cracks beginning to appear on its surface, soon it began to vibrate as a light glow emanated, growing brighter and brighter, shaking more violently. Spike looked over and noticed, he then turned to Twilight and the girls who now managed to separate all of the feuding fillies. “Uh Twilight?” “I’m very disappointed in all of you girls! You should know better than to think fighting will solve your problems.” “Twilight.” Spike said, raising his voice but the mare still wasn’t paying attention. “And another thing you two shouldn’t be verbally abusing ponies in such a way, it’s very disrespectful and I have half a mind on telling your parents about this.” “Twilight!” “What?!” “Is that supposed to glow like that?” Spike pointed over to the table. The mare then turned to look and noticed the cube began to glow brightly, shaking violently, when all of a sudden it lifted itself up and before anypony realized it, a large flash and the sound of an explosion rings in their ears. When the girls look up they are shocked to see a tear in the place of the artifact and it was slowly pulling them closer to it. “Uh oh.” The pull became so strong that Diamond, Silver and the crusaders were sucked in, Babs went next after she tried to grab Apple Bloom but failed to, soon after Applejack wrapped her lasso around the tree while she and Twilight and the others tried to hold on. “Oh man what’s happening?” Spike cried out fearfully as he felt himself being pulled in, he dug in his talons but couldn’t hold for long as he was sucked into the vortex. Then Applejack after her rope broke, and Fluttershy and Rainbow when they tried to fly away. “Oh myyyyyyyy!” Fluttershy cried out as she went through. “This suuuuuuuuucks!!!” Rainbow exclaimed as her wings gave out and she was pulled inside. Twilight and Rarity went in next while they held on one of the tables but soon both mares lost their grip tumbling through the portal. “Oh this is so going to mess up my haaaaaiiiiiiirrrrrrr!” Rarity yelled as the alicorn and unicorn went through the tear. Lastly was Pinkie Pie who willingly jumped through the portal with her friends not sure wherever it was taking them, but she didn’t care. “WEEEEE!!!” After jumping through the portal, it soon closed in on itself until there was nothing but the cube as it fell to the ground and the golden glow subsided leaving nothing but a quiet empty meadow. */^^^^^^* -Earth, Moorpark California- I sat there as I watched the kids run around on the playground, smiling, laughing without a care in the world. Going through their lives with all the joy and carelessness of the world around them as they laughed and played together. They chased each other around the playground trying to tag one of the kids but failing, and then they ran around on the jungle gym avoiding the one who’s ‘it’. I couldn’t help but smile at them, it reminded me of the good ol days when I was younger. Granted I’m still nineteen but the fact is that those were better days for me. I sighed to myself. “Those were better days.” I turned away from the scene and began walking in an unknown direction, there weren't many people around at the park even though it was Thursday and it was late afternoon so the sun was gonna set soon, but at least I don’t have any classes for the next few days. Until then it was just going to be another boring weekend for me. It was another normal late August afternoon for me and it was a nice partly cloudy day today, but as far as I was concerned, it always felt like a raincloud was hanging over me all the time. I continued walking down the path until I was at the entrance of a small dirt path that led off to the side away from the park and into some bushes and several thick trees. I turned to the offbeat looking path and moved away any branches that were in my way as I continued through until it opened up showing a clearing. In the middle of it stood a large tree stump, it was around ten feet in diameter and on it was one carving of initials on it that read C.T. but nothing else was written in the exposed wood. I stared at the large wooden nub that now stuck out of the ground like some kind of brown growth amongst the grassy clearing as a small breeze wafted over me. I had so many memories at this spot and so many good things, but all it was now was a harsh reminder of what I have lost. ‘Where did everything go wrong for me?’ I sighed to myself, starting to feel the cloud of depression start to sink in again. I kept thinking about that day and everything that followed, how I ended up having a great life, great friends, and a wonderful loving family that adored me. But ever since four months ago I was left completely empty inside. ‘I just wish something good would happen for just once.’ I sighed to myself. ‘Clink’ “OW!” I felt something hard hit my head and when I looked down it was a shiny metal tiara. “What the…” Before I knew it, I heard several loud yells and the next thing I felt was a large heavy mass falling right on top of me knocking the wind out of me. “WWAAAAAAAHHHH!!!” “OW!” “OOF!” “WOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHH!” “OUCH!” “WHOA NELLY!” “AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” “WWWEEEEEEEEEE!!!” (Third POV) “Oh my aching head.” “Ugh my everything hurts.” “Oh Celestia that smarts.” “Anypony know the name of the minotaur that ran over us?” “That was fun, can we do it again?” “No!” The mane six and the rest of the group then proceeded to stand up groaning from the fall, nobody seemed to be hurt which was lucky of them. For all they knew they could’ve been sucked through somewhere where there was no air. “Ugh this is all your fault you stupid blanks!” “Our fault? We weren’t the ones who kept picking on us.” “Oh sure, blame it on the poor innocent rich ponies.” “You’re far from innocent, you manipulate everypony you meet to like you.” “Oh yeah well-” “Stop! That’s enough out of all of you!” Twilight yelled, silencing them. “Bu-” “No buts, right now we have bigger problems to deal with.” “Hey Twi, where are we?” Spike questioned, gaining the mare's attention. “I’m not sure.” She replied as she scanned the area around them finding nothing but trees. “Rainbow, do you mind helping me in taking a look around in the air?” “No prob.” And a moment later she lifted herself off into the air with her booksmart friend joining her, after clearing the treeline they could see a park close by and dozens of unfamiliar buildings not too far. “You see anything?” Applebloom said. “No nothing that we can recognize so far.” Rainbow replied. “Whaddya mean by that?” Scootaloo asked. “Everything around us we haven’t seen before.” Rainbow called out.” The girls down below grew worried at the news while the pair kept scanning and so far they weren’t sure where they were. A minute later they both touched down with the group looking expectantly at them. “What did you see?” “Nothing but a park close by and some houses on the other side.” Rainbow explained. “But it does remind me of the mirror world, so there’s a small possibility we might be there.” Twilight added. “You mean that place where Sunset is?” Spike asked, getting a nod from his sister. “Wait just a pony pickin minute, ya mean that place yew an Spike ran off to just a couple weeks ago is possibly where that magic thingy sucked us into?” “It’s possible A.J. but it would have to have been a place the user is familiar with, so until we know more about where we are it’s only speculation.” The lavender mare replied. “Hey girls, why does the ground feel all squishy and lumpy?” Pinkie remarked, still sitting on the ground. “Probably because you’re sitting on me, now would you kindly get off please.” A muffled voice called out. The pink party mare stood up and looked down to see a strange pony lying face down on the ground, he groaned to himself as he was glad not being sat on and tried to stand up. -Colton's POV- ‘Uuuuggghhh jeez what did that girl eat?’ I groaned as I got on my hands and knees and lifted myself from the grass. I don’t know how long I was under that chick but man she put on some weight. “Ok what’s the big idea...I-”. I dusted myself off and before I could further scold the girl who used me like a throw pillow I looked up and was left utterly speechless. There standing right in front of me were the very beings I have come to know and love from one of my favorite TV shows. At first glance I thought they were just cosplayers but some of their props looked a little too real to me. Then I looked at their ears, tails and wings and my gut was telling me that those were not props mostly because their movements were too fluid and didn’t seem to be mechanical or electrical. But a part of me knew better and my gut was telling me they were the legit real deal standing before me. I was reeling and I didn’t know how to feel at the moment, I didn’t know whether to scream in absolute joy or faint at the idea my favorite characters were standing in front of me in the flesh and not in some cheap knockoff of a costume. At first I went back to thinking this might be some kind of coma induced dream from whatever hit me and I might just be making it all up and I’ll wake up at any moment, or just some kind of hyper advanced cosplayers I’ve never seen before. I pinched myself feeling the slight pain from it but I didn’t feel any change as everyone was still there and I still wasn’t sure whether or not I’m dreaming. I could think of only one rational solution that could help with this problem. ‘THUMP!’ By punching myself in the balls. ‘OOOOOOHHHHHHH... MOTHER OF GOD THAT HURTS!!! Oh fucking shit why did I think this was a good idea!’ I grunted in pain as I held my precious jewels and sank to my knees just waiting for the pain to subside. After a couple minutes of rolling around in misery I had enough strength to stand back up and notice that the girls in question were still standing in front of me, I sighed to myself as a wave of realization washed over me for a second. ‘Ok not dreaming.’ I groaned to myself. ‘… Wait, I'm not dreaming and I definitely remember not taking any medication that causes hallucinations or having anything today that might do that.’ I thought to myself, now I’m the kind of guy who’s pretty rational yet very open minded as well when it comes down to it. And at this moment I was trying everything to stay calm and not freak out at the fact that my idols in friendship were physically standing before me. Not to mention my mind was running a million miles an hour with questions at what, why, or how they got here. I took a few deep breaths as I tried to settle my mind and figure out how I should approach them without coming off as weird or without looking like the biggest idiot on planet earth. “Um, are you ok?” I looked back up and realized it was Twilight who was talking to me. My mind froze and my mouth felt like it was filled with cotton as any words I came up with died in my throat and I struggled to come up with a response. ‘Shit what do I say? Hi nice to meet ya I’ve been a big fan watching you girls on TV and always wanted to meet you in person. That would surely go sooo well.’ I thought sarcastically. ‘Ok try not to panic dude, you just happen to meet your idols from one of your favorite cartoon shows, who somehow fell from the sky right on top of you, it’s no big deal.’ I thought to myself I looked back up to the purple colored pony who was still looking at me in concern. “Yeah I’m good, just… give me a minute.” I groaned as I waited for the pain in my groin to fade away, while I tried to not think of the pain I decided on how I was going to talk to these girls while at the same time not reveal that I was fully aware about who they are and where they came from, much less some of the adventures they may have been on too. Yeah bringing that up in conversation isn’t really the best way to make a first impression. I took a deep breath and tried to calm my now rapidly beating heart and as I stood up while I still felt a dull ache in my groin, I looked back at the mare and noticed her wings on her back, which meant this was somewhere after the events of season 3. Now my question was, how did she and her friends end up here? “Uh…and you are?” Was all I could think of at the moment. Smooth dude, that’s how everyone greets a being from another world. “Oh, I’m sorry, let me introduce myself. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and you are?” I was frozen for a second as I stared at the alicorn mare who was now talking to me of all people. I then realized she was asking my name while holding out her hand, I didn’t want to be rude. “Oh, uh my name is Colton Tobias, It’s nice to meet you “Your name sounds like a pony name.” Pinkie snickered, I couldn’t help but smile at that, considering she actually was right and in the past a few of my friends teased me about it but it was all in good fun. “These are my friends Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Spike, my number one assistant and little brother.” “Nice to meet you,” I smiled as I looked over to the CMC and Babs seed. “And who are you girls?” “These are our little sisters.” Applejack replied. “I’m Applebloom, this here’s Sweetiebelle, Scootaloo, and my cousin Babs Seed.” “Hey.” She greeted me, I then turned to the earth pony duo standing far away from the rest of the group. I never liked Diamond or Silver Spoon in the show because of how rotten they acted, and the fact they felt better than everyone made me frown at the thought they could still be like that, but I knew I couldn’t turn my back on them because they were mean to me, that and I was raised to be better than that. “And you two are?” “None of your business weirdo.” The pink mare snarked and then both giggled at their insult but knowing these two I just had to ignore whatever remarks they made about me for the girls sake. “Diamond Tiara I suggest you show our new friend some manners right now.” Twilight glared, making the young mare shrink back a little, I smirked inwardly as I saw the so-called ‘“most important pony” be intimidated by the princess of friendship. “Heh not so high and mighty now, are ya?” I thought as the pair turned back to me. “I’m Silver Spoon, and this is my bestie here Diamond Tiara.” The gray mare replied, I still didn’t like the two but held it off for now knowing it might expose how much I know them and everyone else here. “And this is my brother Spike.” She gestured towards the dragon. “Sup.” “Hey.” I answered while on the inside I did my very best not to geek out at the fact he was standing there and also because he was a dragon. I was always a fan of Spike, I thought he had a good character and liked the episodes that featured him, plus I loved dragons, if anyone has ever seen a particular series involving a viking and his dragon you’ll know why. “Ok I need to ask but are you really a dragon?” “Yeah, Twilight's family adopted me, and I’ve been living with them ever since.” “Can you breathe fire?” “What kind of question is that, of course I can.” He replied, blowing out a small stream. Much to my growing excitement. “Ok that’s fucking awesome, what else can you do?” I said, I was smiling so hard I felt it could rival Pinkies right now. “Well, I don’t mean to brag, but I do make a mean plate of nachos and can play the piano pretty good.” He said, puffing out his chest in pride. “And he’s the best royal assistant.” Twilight added. “So he’s like an advisor then?” I asked, I had to keep up my ruse that I didn’t know them, or it might make things very awkward between all of us. “Yes, and he has been the very best at his job.” She smiled fondly. “Wow, so cool.” It was then something that bugged me since I met them, I then decided to broach the subject that had been on the back of my mind. “So how exactly did you girls wind up here in the first place?” “It’s kinda hard to explain.” Twilight replied sheepishly. “Oh really? Try me.” Ten minutes later they explained to me how exactly they got here, mainly by a magical artifact, go figure. And so far they don’t really know how it teleported them here only that it was done by an unknown magic they haven’t seen before, I was surprised to hear though it was thought to be an artifact from Starswirl The Bearded which meant whatever it was, it was some serious shit if it came from one of equestrias greatest mages from ancient times. Heh, classical magic mishap. “So let me get this straight, you’re here because you were fiddling with a mysterious artifact from some long dead mage that somehow sucked you through a portal that landed you all here with no way back?” I summarized. “Yeah that’s pretty much it.” Spike replied. “Speaking of which, where exactly are we?” Rainbow asked. “Well you’re on the human homeworld Rainbow Dash.” When I said that everyone stared at me in confusion. “You know, Earth?” I elaborated. The girls looked at me blankly. “Aw geez. Well if you want to be formal on the subject, you're currently standing on the planet Earth in the North American continent which holds the country of The United States of America, and where you are now is the lovely little town of Moorpark California, my hometown.” I finished as each of the girls including Spike looked at me in several different emotions. Some of it was fear, a few was confusion, while the rest of the ponies held a mix of shock, and what I could guess was intrigue. “You mean we’re stuck on another planet?” “To put it bluntly, yes.” “....Well that’s just fucking great, we’re stuck in Celestia knows where on another world with no possible way of getting back to Equestria,” Diamond Tiara groaned. “And to top it all off, we’re stuck with these stupid blank flanks.” “Hey, it’s your fault that we are stuck here in the first place.” “Oh please it’s not our fault to be associated with a lower class like yourselves.” This went on for a minute or two until Twilight and the crusader's sisters separated them. “Enough! We can’t fight against each other, especially now that we’re stuck here.” Twilight interjected. “Twi’s right, no matter how much you girls don’t like it, we’re gonna need to work together to make it back home.” Applejack added. “Well I certainly can’t live in this same outfit, for more than a day darling. And who knows what will happen to my poor, poor opalescence without me there to take care of her.” “Yeah Rares, worrying about how your cat can’t live without you for less than a week is our number one priority here. And not that we’re stuck on another planet with no way to figure out what to freakin’ do!” Rainbow replied sarcastically, placing her hands on her hips. “C’mon now y’all let’s not lose our heads here, the last thing we need is running around like a bunch of cattle with no collie.” The farm pony added. It was then that Twilight turned back to me, she seemed a little concerned with the situation and I couldn’t blame her, I don’t know how I personally would react if I was suddenly teleported to Equestria or some other world unexpectedly. But hopefully I could do something to help in some manner, I just wasn’t sure at the moment. I mean what do you do when you run into a bunch of aliens with no place to stay? Although thoughts of every alien movie I watched related to the subject ran through my mind. One of the few things that came to mind was how incredible this was to happen to me out of all the people on this planet, I was the one that gets to not only make contact with beings appearing from another world. But the actual ponies from Equestria themselves was even more unbelievable for me, it was then I remembered that right now I couldn’t be the brony fan right now, that could wait later. And right these girls were in actual trouble and so far, I’m the only rational person here right now that can do something for them. While I was in my own thoughts it wasn’t until I noticed Twilight approach me, she looked like she was distressed but doing her best to keep it together for the sake of her friends, something I’ve always admired. She then glanced back at her friends as they continued to discuss a plan. “You need something?” I said trying to give my best kind smile hoping to lighten her spirits. “I was wondering, Colton, if there’s somepony you might know who can help us here?” I thought back on the list of people I could trust with this, I frowned already knowing that that list was unfortunately very short and the ones I did know were questionable when it comes to holding a secret as big as knowing aliens that happen to be from the same place your favorite tv show was depicting. “Isn’t there anypony that can help us here?” The alicorn asked me. Her face dropped into worry as I stood there wondering what to do. “Well for a situation as… Otherworldly as this, one suggestion would be to find the nearest police station or news station and let the authorities help you with this, er… issue. But then there’s the risk that they could just as easily take you and your friends away and either lock you up in some lab or psych ward.” “But there’s no way other humans are like that… right?” She said hopefully but I could detect the hint of doubt in her voice at the end. I sighed to myself, thinking over what options would be best for all of them right now. “Look Twilight it’s not as easy as just walking down the street holding hands and singing kumbaya. The world doesn't work like that here, and I doubt most people besides me would be as welcoming seeing you and your friends, believing what you are.” “I’m sure people here are smart enough to handle it.” She replied, but I couldn’t help but sigh again. “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous and I know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody KNEW that the earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago everybody KNEW that the earth was flat. And fifteen minutes ago, I knew that humanity was alone on this planet.” I stated while Twilight looked back at me forlornly, her ears splayed back on her head. “Is it really that bad?” “Well, it’s not like they’ll be running you down the nearest windmill carrying pitchforks and torches. But you need to understand there are some people out there that might not be so open to the fact there’s another sapient race that’s not exactly like them just wandering around like a bunch of lost kittens.” “Oh, I see. But I’m certain if we can show them we don’t mean any harm, they can help us.” “That’s a nice sentiment Twilight, but I think for you and your friends' sake right now is you should stay under the radar for a little while, only until you and your friends have figured out what to do, just so you don’t attract the wrong kind of attention.” “And what about you, you're not the wrong kind are you?” Rainbow glared at me suspiciously butting in the conversation. I don’t know how long they were listening but hopefully it was the whole thing just so they understood a little of the reality of their problem. “Rainbow Dash, how very rude!” Rarity cried. “That’s a horrible thing to say Dash!” Applejack added glaring at the pegasus. “No no that’s ok, I don’t blame her for doubting me like that.” I interjected quickly. Honestly, I was wondering who was gonna say it first to me. “But in all seriousness Rainbow I’m a good person and would never want to do anything bad to anyone for that matter.” I added beseechingly. She peered at me for a moment. “Well… alright, but I got my eye on you.” She replied, giving me the ‘I’m watching you gesture.’ “Well now what? We’re stuck here for the foreseeable future with nothing but the clothes on our backs and nowhere to go,” Spike stated as he wrung his hands while a small frown grew on his face. “What do we do now” “Oh I can’t stay in a place like this without a treatment, I could get wrinkles.” Rarity fretted while holding a mirror in front of her face. “What are we gonna do?” Applebloom frowned. “Forget about that cuz, how’re we gonna survive out here?” Babs replied. “Twi can’t you just wave your horn and magic us back home?” Rainbow asked. “Yeah, you’re an alicorn, can’t you just open up a portal or something?” Babs added. “It’s a lot more complicated than that for me girls, just because I’m an alicorn doesn’t mean I have Celestia or Luna's power, much less their experience. Add the fact we’re in a completely different world with possibly no magic. As for making a portal, that’s out of my element, that’s more in Starswirl's league because he’s an experienced sorcerer, I don’t have any of his notes that could help.” “Well can’t you at least try?” “It’s not that simple, the amount of magic and power I would need would be like trying to tear open a can with a toothpick and even that alone would be difficult itself. “Well, we can’t just sit around and do nothing.” Rainbow exclaimed. While the girls kept discussing, I couldn't help but think about their current problem. They're stuck here with no one so far that can help them, or the fact that they are unable to go home. They had nowhere to go, and at this point I was the only friendly human they met. I’m not saying everyone’s an asshole but me, even I can be an asshole sometimes, what really worried me was what if they ran into either police or someone from a government that might want to imprison them or interrogate them for information on a nonexistent invasion. Or worse being dissected by a bunch of scientists just so they can see what makes them and their magic tick. Call me paranoid or overreacting but for the record I saw way too many movies involving that stereotype so I can’t be too careful, plus it’s not like anyone else in this world I know has technology advanced enough to open a way back to their world, right? I looked at the girls and drake while they listened to Twilight explain what I think was the intricacies of opening a dimensional rift between worlds and the dangers to it, so far it didn’t seem good and every one of them had a look of worry across each of their features, while some of the younger mares started to become more downcast with each second passing. Seeing how at a loss they all were, I came to a decision. “You girls could live at my place.” I blurted out. Everyone stopped and looked at me questionably, which made me a little nervous, but I couldn’t blame them. “What do you mean?” Rainbow asked, raising her eyebrows. “I mean you guys can live at my place, it’s not that far and I might be able to squeeze all of you in if I set it up right.” “You’d do that for complete strangers like us?” Rarity asked hopefully. “Of course I do, I mean who else would?” ’Besides a number of fans around the country.’ I thought drily. “And what makes you think we should be living with some shaved ape like you?” Diamond snarked, but I just brushed off her remark and replied. “First off none of you have any idea where you are or what this place is like, secondly you don’t know anybody that would be willing or rational enough to help you out besides shipping you off to the closest military base or laboratory. And finally, I’m so far the first human around here that took the time to actually talk to you and is willing enough to give you a place to stay for the foreseeable future.” I finished hoping that my logic would shut her up for now. Diamond was about to retort but then Twilight interrupted before she could. “We would love to, thank you.” Twilight smiled at me. “Great let’s get going then, it’s not that far and will take a little while to get there.” “Why take so long?” “Because we need to take the back alleys so nobody can see that I’m walking down the street with pastel colored ponies. Now c’mon I know a shortcut to my place, this way.” I turned and walked out of the clearing away from the park, I turned my head and everyone was standing, unmoving. “Well, what are you waiting for, an invitation? Let's go.” They all looked at each other, shrugged and started following. We left the small clearing and met a tall wooden fence line that went the entire way along a string of houses until it opened at an entrance to an alleyway I knew would quickly take me and the girls to my neighborhood. I poked my head around the corner seeing the entire place was empty. I started off with the girls close behind me, I made sure we were all walking quietly just so we didn't disturb the neighbors. I know it sounds excessive but I’ve seen way too many movies where when the coast looks clear someone always busts the people that snuck around. As we walked carefully, I noticed a certain Stetson and blonde ponytail in my peripheral vision, turning my head. Applejack was walking alongside. “Can I help ya?” “Not ta sound too nosey or anything, can ah ask you a question?” Applejack asked. “Shoot partner.” I joked, getting a look of slight confusion at me. “Why would you do this fer us, ah mean don’t get me wrong I appreciate the kindness of a stranger, but we’re not the usual folk yew see based on what’cha explained. Not to mention from a different world altogether so why would somepony like yerself help us out?” I thought for a minute about what Applejack said and I couldn’t blame her, considering what she represented she just wanted to see why some random guy like me would stick himself up to help a bunch of aliens. But I already knew the answer the second I laid my eyes on them. “To be honest, it’s because I wanted to, it was just the right thing for me to do.” I stated simply. “Heh, yah remind me a little of my brother, who exactly taught ya that, your parents?” “Let’s just say, someone once showed me to be kind and helpful to those in need." I couldn’t help but grin a little to myself but that soon faded when I remembered another person who represented that trait to me. That seemed to satisfy her curiosity for now as she smiled a little at me and gave a little nod falling back to her sister and Babs. We kept walking for under an hour and a half or so as I had to carefully direct them through several blocks of back alleys of the suburbs without anyone noticing me and my entourage. After around a few more blocks of houses we passed behind, we finally arrived near the street sign that read Paradise Grove where my home resided. It was a large cul-de-sac with only three houses inside, my house was in the center and also happened to be the furthest away. It was the largest property of the three and the biggest too. I walked over to the edge of the alley to take a look and that’s when Twilight pulled up beside me. Before the purple pony took another step, I placed my hand on her shoulder to stop her. “Hold up.” “What’s the matter?” “I need to check and make sure ‘Jester Gene’ isn’t at his post.” “Jester Gene?” She asked in confusion. “He’s one of my neighbors, well my only neighbor unfortunately, and is the nosiest person on the entire block. And the last thing I need is him ratting on me or to the authorities that I’m harboring a bunch of alien anthro ponies into my house.” I explained. “Aw c’mon Colton I bet somepony with a name like that can’t be that bad.” Pinkie replied smiling, I shook my head and turned over to the pink party mare. “You don’t understand, one time last year me and my friends were throwing a pool party and when we were all in our swimsuits, he came out complaining that we were ‘flaunting’ our goods at him and disrupting the peace.” “So why call him jester?” Scootaloo asked. “It’s because whenever he tries to be the “authority figure” around here.” He ends up making a total fool of himself, I mean last week he tried to claim that joggers running around in sports clothes was deemed “inappropriate”, the next day neighbor's dog down the next street runs past him and tears off most of his clothes after he was trying to set up a new sign a couple blocks from here. The next thing I see is him running through the neighborhood wearing nothing but his underwear.” I couldn’t help but chuckle quite a bit at the memory, the poor guy didn’t come out of the house for half the week after that. “Pffffttttt bahahahahahaha, oh man seriously, that happened?!” Rainbow exclaimed as she and Pinkie began rolling on the ground laughing while Spike and a few of the girls were giggling, I grew a bit nervous because of the noise they were making, that is until Twilight silenced them. Seeing that I peeked around the corner and towards Gene's house, his sign out on his lawn was up which read ‘DO NOT DISTURB’. He always put that up whenever he wanted to be left in peace, usually he believed putting up that sign would actually teach the neighbors, mainly me, to be quieter or how to be more “decent citizens” ugh. I just thought his ideals of control were full of shit. If you expect to control every little thing in life, you’ll just end up being sad and alone with no one liking you. I turned back over to the girls who were waiting a little anxiously. “Ok we’re good, on my go, we quickly move to my house. Ready?” I got nods from the group and looked out on the tiny expanse of asphalt. “Go!” I said as I fast walked to my house with everyone closely following me, I kept checking Gene's house to make sure he didn’t surprise us with another one of his stakeouts, but so far nothing happened. We made it to my driveway where I led everyone through the front yard, up the driveway, all the way up to my front door. They were a pair of large oak wood with intricate designs with a pair of midnight chrome handles. I pulled out my house key as I unlocked the door. “Here we are, home sweet home.” “Hold on, this is YOUR house!?” Spike exclaimed looking upwards in surprise along with the girls. “Yeah c’mon in.” I opened the door allowing everypony inside, I took one last look at the neighborhood ensuring nobody noticed my ‘strange brigade’ and headed inside after them. It was a large entryway with a dual staircase overlooking it while each stair curled to each respective side while a hallway led further inside below. Not far to the right was the living room, it was very spacious and had plenty of seats including the girls altogether. Over on the left was a big dining room with a long wooden table with a small crystal chandelier hanging over it. Connected to it was the kitchen which was also big and had another large rectangular table that could host ten people. It had a state of the art oven and microwave, along with an island crafted in oakwood. I even had a large pantry that looked like a small closet, which held mountains of food. Past that was a large pair of glass sliding doors that led to the backyard which at one part of the yard had a ginormous pool set up with a small slide the came around in a corkscrew into a section that has an overhang of rocks that make it look like a faux cave and a large hot tub that can hold up to eighteen people or so. Along the back of the yard was a small garden that allowed me to grow a bit of the food I had mostly because I figured the place needed something nice too, and it was a little fun growing exotic fruits and vegetables. Over to the right corner of the yard was just grass, a tree, and a guest house with a large hedge lining the entirety of the yard at about ten feet which provided some privacy especially from Gene. But occasionally I still have to hear his shit about what he deems “Appropriate” for the neighborhood. The second floor was just a bunch of bedrooms set up for guests including my room. While a basement connected from the first floor at the hall that goes between the den and the living room. I had a bunch of workout equipment just to keep me in decent shape. On the third floor was the attic and a few other rooms with it. I then looked at the group as they looked around my house in awe. “Whoa this is your place?” Babs said. “Yeah it sure is, I had this for the past nine to ten months.” A.J. whistled. “It sure is a fancy lookin place.” “Dude, sick pad. Not as awesome as my place though.” Rainbow added. “I must say dear it’s a very nice home you have.” “Thanks Rarity, so would you girls like for me to show you your rooms, you must’ve had a hard day, considering what’s been going on.” “That sounds nice thank you, lead the way.” Twilight smiled as I led them upstairs. We turned left towards what I call the guest wing of the home where nearly a dozen bedrooms were built to accommodate a large number of visitors. At least that’s what I was told by the lawyer who oversaw all the documents I signed when I first got the place. We soon walked down the hall and stopped at a series of doors that were all guest rooms. “Alright ladies, here each of you can take a room. If you want to pair up with someone that’s fine just keep whatever activities you do within your rooms ok?” I grinned jokingly only getting a few blushes from the girls and snickers from the CMC and Spike. “Come on, I was kidding.” I said, getting sheepish grins from a few of the girls and a chuckle from Pinkie and Rainbow. “I’ll bunk with Pinkie.” The blue pegasus said, getting a smile from the party mare. “Yay roomies with Rainbow dash.” She cheered, hugging her close. “I’ll take a room with Fluttershy here.” Rarity pointed to the door next to Pinkie and Rainbows. “I can take a bed with Twilight if that’s alright.” Applejack added turning to the alicorn. “Sure A.J. that’s fine with me.” She smiled. “Alright so that covers you six so now let me show the rest of you where you’ll stay.” I replied as I walked to the door across from the girls' now set rooms. “Ok here is where you three ankle biters will be staying for the time being.” I told them as I opened the door. It was a guest room like the others, but it was larger, the only other difference being that a large dresser stood at the rear with a full-length mirror and over on the other side was a pair of large beds that allowed for two to sleep in. “Sweet we all get the same room.” Scootaloo smiled while the rest of the crusaders and Babs settled themselves in. “Do you like it?” “It’s awesome and the bed here is sooo soft.” Sweetie Belle commented as she laid herself back on the large mattress while the others explored the rest of the room. “Sweet this is where we’re gonna be?” Applebloom asked. “Yeah, make yourselves at home.” I smiled as they began to explore their new room looking around in awe and excitement which was good to see. “And what about us?” Diamond Tiara asked demandingly, I didn’t like her attitude, but I kept my face neutral because arguing with her wouldn’t help anything at the moment. “You two will take the bedroom across from Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. “Hmf fine as long as it’s away from those four.” She huffed. I then led them to the door across from the girls and opened it up, it was generally the same as the other guest rooms but the only difference being, it had a glass door opening up to a balcony that oversaw the backyard. “Seriously this is the best you have here?” Diamond scowled. “Well, there’s a balcony at the end that gives you a view of the backyard and pool.” I replied politely. Trying to resist the urge to bite back at the spoiled girl. “I guess it’ll have to do and look at it this way Dee we get to be roommates.” Silver smiled. “Yeah, sure.” She stated, snorting in what I thought was frustration. “Hey, what about me?” Babs interjected, grabbing my attention. “Well, you can sleep with Applebloom and her friends or take your own guest room if you want?” I replied to her. “Hey yeah, c’mon cuz you can bunk with us, it’ll be fun.” Applebloom beamed. “Yeah we’ll all be roommates. How cool is that?” Scootaloo added. “Please, please, please stay with us?” Sweetie pleaded as she and the other two pulled off the dreaded puppy dog eyes on her. ‘Oh god the cuteness, it’s too much.’ I thought as I couldn’t look away from it until Babs smiled and walked up to the girl's room. “Alright, alright you put away those eyes of yours cuz I think ya almost broke Colton over there.” “Alright, cutie mark crusaders roommates!” Scootaloo cheered while Diamond rolled her eyes and shut the door. “Where am I gonna sleep?” Spike stated gaining the young man's attention. “Oh yeah, well you’ll be taking the room across from mine, we can be across the hall mates.” I smiled and he returned one too. “Unless you want to sleep with Twilight and the girls?” ‘Giggity.’ I thought to myself at my phrasing. “Well, I always wondered what having my own room is like.” He commented as we began to walk over to the opposite wing of the house. “Anyway, I hope you like your accommodations, I know it’s not much but I’m sure it’s a lot better than sleeping outside.” “Yeah, I hear ya it’s a lot better than sleeping on top of some books in a high school library in another dimension.” He replied as he followed me to his new room. “Oh my god did he just say-?” I then shook it off knowing I heard him right as I led the dragon to another door that was across from where my room was, it wasn’t far from where the girls are set up just a few doors down the hall adding the balcony and staircase and had a similar colored white door with a midnight chrome handle. I opened it and I could see the dragon was impressed and began to look around the room. It had a large flat screen tv with a king-sized bed with a couple large dressers and a seven-by-seven tall mirror that was across the room near one of the dressers. He then placed his jacket on a hanger and soon plopped himself onto the bed stretching out his wings sighing out in relief. “Oh man Sweetie was right about these beds.” He commented while placing his hand behind his head. “I’m glad you like it Spike; I mean I never had inter-dimensional beings along with a dragon as houseguests before.” I replied. “Well, you do now.” He chuckled as I was about to leave, I heard him speak. “Hey Colton?” “Yeah?” “Thanks for taking us in man, me and the girls really appreciate it.” He said sincerely. “No problem, I was just doing what I thought was right.” I then left the dragons newly assigned room and headed to the living room for a little tv. An hour later I came to check on the others, I went to the Crusaders newly established room along with Diamond and Silver. And so far, they seemed to be adjusting ok for the moment. I then checked on Twilight and the others and were doing the same thing. I asked if any of them would like some food or drink, but they all replied saying they weren’t hungry, I guess interdimensional travel will do that to people, or ponies in this case. I left them to settle in and grabbed myself a snack from the kitchen, it was basic BLT with the bacon marinated in Coca Cola. What? You should try it out it’s fucking awesome. I went into my room and closed the door, it was fairly big for me. There in the middle was a large bed that could fit five people flanked by a pair of nightstands, on the right side of the bed was a minifridge I had installed. I figured it would be fun to pull out drinks whenever I was gaming with friends or by myself. Speaking of which, I had a large HD plasma screen TV with all of my consoles set up, I had a PlayStation two through five, an Xbox One and three sixty, and a Nintendo Wii and U. I kept a few spares along with controllers stored in case I wanted to have a LAN party which I don't do often anymore right now. And next to my TV was a pair of cabinets, one for all my video games which was on the left, and the one on the right was for all of my movies and TV shows I have gathered. Over on the left-hand side of the room was a set of glass doors that went outside to my balcony overlooking the backyard just like Diamond and Silver's room. Next to the balcony doors was a large desk with my laptop, a big notebook and large binder. Along with a couple of Lego sets I was custom building at the moment. To the right-hand side of the room was a couple of bookcases I had found set up when I got the place, I tried moving them, but they never budged which I found a little weird but just figured the owner wanted to keep his books, which I also happened to have stored there too, along with a few comics whenever I felt bored. I had a few posters of a few movies I saw at theaters that were handed out as they hung around the blue walls of the room, other than that I had a few picture frames of me and my friends too. I frowned looking at the photos, knowing they were no longer here with me, not dead just to be clear but… It’s a complicated situation, and it has been for a while right now. And with my new… guests, I’m even more conflicted about what I should do now. But I couldn’t think about that, not now. Now I had to worry about thirteen people who somehow were teleported to my hometown thanks to some kind of human artifact, and the biggest proverbial monkey wrench to this was they weren’t even human to begin with. But the famous multicolored ponies that I have been a fan of ever since the show itself premiered. I walked over to my desk and sat down, placed my sandwich and drink, and started eating while I kept thinking how much things had changed overall in a day. To think I was going to wake up this morning and meet one of the many heroes I had become so fond of. And now here they were, with me, in my house. I had to pinch my arm just to make sure I wasn’t in some kind of vivid lucid dream after passing out from a restless night's sleep, or lack thereof. Relieved that it wasn’t I took a swig of my soda then finished up my sandwich and stayed at my desk for a while taking the occasional sip, I wondered what I was going to do now that my house had both a dozen extra mouths to feed besides my own and how I was going to let them acclimate to my own world for the foreseeable future since there was no telling how exactly that was going to be done. I looked over to a lone picture frame I had leaning near the end of my desk, it was of me and six other girls all together with smiling faces while each one of us made funny faces, not giving a care in the world. Just us having the best time like every day was not even gonna be our last. I sighed to myself as I stood up, throwing away my paper plate and can in a couple of cardboard boxes where I wrote paper and plastic for the recycle bin. I then headed for my bathroom which was connected next to where my desk sat. Inside was a large custom bathtub that also had a shower head included and a small bench to rest if I just wanted to soak. A sink with a wide mirror sat to the left while the toilet sat flanking the other side. It was one of those water efficiency types of toilets which I liked because it was hardly clogged and easy to maintain. I then pulled out my electric toothbrush and toothpaste then did my usual ritual of preparing myself before bed which included flossing, cleaning my teeth with my Waterpik, then finished with mouthwash. After spitting everything out I stared back at my own reflection, I was a pretty average guy all around. Short brown hair that I sometimes like to go down to just a couple inches when it gets too long, hazel brown eyes, decent 5’7 build and a relatively handsome clean shaven face. I then walked out and reached my bed while shedding off all my clothes and sitting down on the covers. Since I live in southern California it gets crazy flashes of heat from time to time and just outright sweltering humidity when it’s spring, summer, and early fall. So, I just slept nude and got custom bed sheets that allow me to stay cool overnight comfortably. Facing back towards the photo on my desk, me and the girls together, the best of friends. I couldn’t help but feel myself frown, that felt so long ago now all I feel is just a melancholy emptiness inside of me. I laid down on my bed pulling the covers on me waiting for sleep to come to me, it was still surreal the events of today happening, I get dogpiled by alien beings from another dimension who happen to be one of my favorite cartoon characters and they are now currently living in my house, I had half a mind to shrug it off and say it was an intense coma dream but I knew deep down it never was and everything from this moment on was never going to be the same for me again. With that final thought in mind, I slowly drifted away into slumber wondering what possible wacky adventures I’ll be having with these girls. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2 Ground Rules and Awkward Revelations //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2 Ground Rules and Awkward Revelations -Chapter 2- I woke up early in the morning as the sun was rising over the horizon, another clear day from what it looked to be which meant another average day for me. I got out of bed as I retrieved my clothes from the floor. I sleep naked by the way because it’s a lot more comfortable, especially when summer rolls around, and because it feels nice. I pulled over my shirt, put on my boxers and then got a pair of red gym shorts. Usually I wear my shirt and boxers but now that I have magic wielding roommates, I wear my shorts for the sake of decency, or when I have guests that aren’t from another dimension. I then remembered what happened yesterday and grinned widely, I was currently housing the mane six and their friends inside MY house. THE. MANE. SIX! This whole situation was totally insane, I thought this would be something out of a fanfiction novel that somebody wrote, and yet it’s really happening to me of all people. ME! I couldn’t help but grin like a madman, I then headed for the bathroom as I freshened myself up and calmed myself as well. After that I was clean, freshly clothed with my same morning outfit which was a white T-shirt and red gym shorts, then headed down to the kitchen to make breakfast. I pulled out some eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and got some fruit to chop up for later. As I got everything ready for my new houseguests I couldn’t help but think about how I’m gonna break it to them about the fact that here on earth they are famous cartoon characters, I was a little worried they might take it the wrong way but I also knew I couldn’t hide it from them forever, especially since I’m a brony. I figure I could tell them later today after I get them settled just so I can get it over with, hopefully they are just as accepting as the show portrayed them, but for now I just focused on getting their food prepared. While I was cooking everyone’s breakfast I heard the unmistakable thunk of hooves coming from the second floor and a few moments later was greeted by the sight of Pinkie, Applejack, Applebloom, Fluttershy, and Twilight. I figured they were early risers considering what their jobs demanded, which was getting up early in the morning. “Well look who’s up.” I said smiling at the girls as they yawned and took their seats at the counter. “And look who’s cookin.” Applebloom replied, making me chuckle. “Just give me a few minutes and breakfast will be ready.” “Well that's a mighty kind of you sugarcube.” Her older sister smiled. “Thank you Colton, that's very nice of you.” Twilight replied. “You're welcome, here's something for you girls to start with.” I said as I went inside the pantry and grabbed a box of cereal and walked back to the counter grabbing some bowls and spoons for them along with a carton of milk, then laid them on the counter so they could help themselves. “What in the hay is this?” Applejack said as she held up a green cereal box that read ‘Applejacks’ I couldn’t help but grin at the intentional pun I set her up in. “To be fair it does have your name on it, so I thought it would be kinda funny.” I grinned and heard a giggle from Pinkie, Applebloom and Fluttershy, while the earth pony couldn’t help but grin. I pulled out a few plates of eggs, toast, and a side of orange juice and placed it in front of the girls who all smiled and licked their lips at the meal. “Ooohhh that smells good.” Pinkie grinned as she drooled. “Ok you girls have that while I cook up some waffles.” “Ooh you got any whipped cream?” Pinkie asked as I placed the waffle mix into the press. “Sure here ya go.” I said as I tossed the can over to her and sprayed some into her mouth while I made sure the waffles didn’t burn. I then checked on the bacon that was cooking and it looked like it was almost ready. I then heard another set of hoofsteps from upstairs and could only guess that everyone else was soon waking up to the smell of food. A few minutes later I saw everyone else walking in yawning or stretching their arms and wings to a new day. I then noticed Rainbow, Rarity, Diamond, and Silver walking in with a tired sluggishness that all people who don’t like waking up in the morning have. “Morning girls.” “Morning.” Rainbow yawned, along with Spike and the rest of the crusaders. “Just sit wherever and I’ll get your breakfast ready.” “You don’t need any help?” Babs asked me. “No thanks I got this, and since it’s your first day living here I figured you girls should have a welcome to earth breakfast.” “Well that’s very thoughtful of you darling, but you don’t need to overwork yourself just for us. It wouldn’t be fair.” Rarity Insisted. “I wouldn’t be a good host if I wasn’t taking care of my guests.” That got a smile from the girls while I went back and continued cooking. “And besides, you’re the first genuine aliens I've ever met, so I wanted to make it special and make you all feel welcome.” I added while adding some spices. “So does this make us all roommates now?” Sweetie Belle wondered. “Well you're living in my house until we figure out a way for all of you to get back home, so of course you are.” “Oh, just like that one story about a hedgehog made of a bunch of girls living in a guy's home after being magically teleported to his planet and ends up building a harem with all of them.” She stated, and all of the girls stared at her blankly. I was staring at her the same, trying my best not to think too much about it, as what everyone famously said in the show, ‘It’s just Pinkie being Pinkie.’ ’That girl seriously freaks me out sometimes.’ I added to myself. I then decided to quickly change the subject before my brain melted. “Anyway, when you girls are done, meet up over in the living room because there’s a couple things I’d like to talk about since you’ll be staying here.” I told them getting nods all around. A few minutes later we finished with the rest of his and the girls' food and started placing their respective plates in front of each of them. It was a mix of fruit salad with a side of jelly and honey, a piece of toast, some orange juice and a plate of bacon for Spike and me to eat. “Now this is what I call a spread.” Rainbow commented as she dug in. “Mmm yeah this is pretty good.” Said Sweetie Belle. “I’ll say, this is awesome.” Spike added as he drooled over the bacon that sat before him and began to gorge himself, Colton noticed none of the girls reacted to the fact he ate meat, he shrugged his shoulders figuring it was normal for them. He then was about to dig into his own breakfast when he noticed Fluttershy glancing at both him and his plate in intrigue. “What, do I have something on my face?” “N-no, um, it’s j-just that I… didn’t know humans ate meat as well.” She observed avoiding eye contact with him. “Yeah we’re omnivorous so we can eat nearly anything.” I stated simply. And before I began to eat, I then suddenly remembered something I forgot to do. “Oh right.” I muttered as I turned away my head from the table, carefully pulling something out of my mouth. Once it was out a pair of clear plastic looking forms of my own teeth were held in my hand as I then carefully placed them in a small container I had in my pocket, placing them securely inside and putting the container back. Once done I was about to get back to my breakfast when I noticed everyone was staring at me. “What?” “Um, not to be rude dear but what was that disgusting thing you had in your mouth?” Rarity asked, trying to withhold a look of uncomfortableness upon her features. “Oh you mean my Invisalign? They’re my braces, well plastic braces really, and every time I need to eat or drink anything besides water. I need to take them off so I can eat properly or they’ll get dirty and could give me cavities if I don’t clean them or take them off for a while.” I explained. “What happens when they do get dirty after just wearing them?” Twilight asked. “I clean them with dissolving tablets.” I replied and went back to eating my breakfast. “Fascinating, I’m still surprised at the many wonders of human ingenuity and what it can do.” “Trust me Twilight there’s so much more that humans have done that you’ll be amazed by than just some pieces of plastic in my mouth while you’re here.” And with that we continued our meal, I answered a few of their more trivial questions and overall, it felt nice to have people at my place after these past several months. After breakfast I gathered everyone in the living room and made sure each of them had a seat. The room was very spacious and had two large L-shaped couches providing plenty of room. A large flatscreen TV hung in front of them but I left it off to keep their attention on me, I stepped up in front making sure everybody quieted down and started to speak. “Ok so you all must be wondering why I brought you here right?” I got a bunch of nods from the group. “The reason being is since all of you will be living with me that means there’s going to be a few ground rules while you stay here until you get back home.” I heard Diamond, Silver, and Scootaloo groan. “Rule one, no flying around the house unless absolutely necessary, like cleaning up something for example.” “What, that’s not fair!” Rainbow exclaimed. “It is because first off, my house isn’t built for ponies like you, Twilight, Fluttershy, Spike or Scoots here. And secondly, it's for your own safety as well Rainbow, what if you bump into something or crash hurting yourself or someone else?” I explained and could see the realization dawn on her as her ears slightly drooped. “Alright now rule number two, no fighting in the house or magic fighting either, I expect everyone here to find a way to get along since you’ll be living together. Even if that means begrudgingly. I want to see compromise, not combat.” I looked at Twilight who smiled a bit at that. “Unless it specifically involves some kind of cultural thing that I’m unfamiliar with.” I added. “Rule number three and this is the most important, never under any circumstances reveal yourselves to the public when we go outside or if we have visitors.” I then saw Pinkie raise her hand excitedly. “Yes Pinkie?” “But what if it’s somepony that’s a super special super close friend of yours?” She smiled and I couldn’t help but frown inwardly when she said that, I shook my head and smiled evenly back at her. “Unless it’s someone I absolutely trust with you girls then you can reveal yourselves, but when I’m present, last thing we need is someone running out in the street screaming I’m housing magic wielding aliens here.” “So any more questions?” I got a few nods no and didn’t see anyone raise their hand until Twilight had hers up again. “Yes Twilight?” “What if someone that you don’t know and you're not home does visit the house, what do we do?” She made a good point, I didn’t know how good the mare was at magic currently but she’s an alicorn and the student of Princess Celestia, I even remembered from an episode that she changed the girls into breezies to help them out in season four. Which gave me an idea. “Don’t you know some kind of transformation spell that can disguise yourselves as humans?” She put her hand on her chin, pondering thoughtfully. “Actually I might know one now that you mention it, but I’m not too sure if it will work, turning us into humans.” “Ok, we can find out later, but now there’s a couple more things I need to talk about before we’re done here. Before we do anything else I need to bring up the fact that we’re in an earthquake region, now who knows what an earthquake is?” I looked around and most of the girls nodded, which was good, meaning one less thing to explain to them as well. “Anyway we currently live relatively near a fault line which means this entire region is prone to earthquakes, which is rare but they do still happen.” “H-h-how of-f-ften?” Fluttershy asked nervously. “Well the last fairly noticeable one was a while ago, around a year or two so you don’t need to worry too much. But that doesn’t mean all of you should brush it off as nothing, so the most important thing to remember is to find the closest doorway or table and stay under it until an earthquake has passed because you don’t want anything to fall on you and hurt you or worse, everyone understand?” I got nods of agreement all around the room and smiled. “Good now the next thing you girls need to know is that besides earthquakes you also need to be aware that we’re in a region where wildfires occur often. Now don’t worry, they only come seasonally in this neighborhood and last for around a few months or so depending on how bad the weather is, but they sometimes last much longer than that which means they’re still dangerous.” “Pfft please just throw a few rainclouds over and the problem is solved.” “No problem not solved Rainbow, bear in mind that humans can’t control the weather like you can and here we hardly get much rain this time of year, furthermore a wildfire is unpredictable too, sure you get enough rain and it could help. But you’d be surprised how many can pop up during the season.” “And what season would that be darling?” Rarity asked. “Between October and early to mid November, sometimes a little past December, although it has been happening a lot more from time to time the past several years.” “And what can we expect from them?” Applejack inquired. “Well it’s what locals here call the Santa Ana winds which are mainly responsible for the wildfires that occur around here.” “C’mon a few breezes are nothing I can handle.” Rainbow dismissed. I couldn’t help but sigh at the pegasus’s stubbornness. “Rainbow these winds reach at worst over between eighty-five to one hundred miles per hour in some regions. That’s enough to turn over cars if given the chance.” I saw her ears move down slightly at what I explained. “Thankfully they’re few and far between here in this town and mostly happens in places where the wind is funneled, but any day it could suddenly appear before you can even say gone with the wind. So keep an eye and wing out when it does happen, ok?” I got nods of affirmation which rested my concern for now, but then remembered something else that was the most important to mention to them. “Which also brings me to the last major form of weather we get here which are high winds in the middle of the fall to the start of the first month of winter, and why I’m telling you this is to everyone with a pair of wings to be very careful. If any of you think of flying in this kind of weather don’t, the last thing I want is for any of you to get hurt on my watch.” “That’s very nice of you dear.” Rarity smiled. “So does anyone here have any other questions?” I asked, seeing nobody seemed to, I continued. “Ok now with all of that outta the way let’s finish off with one last and most important note that I think we need to broach.” I said, clapping my hands together. “And what’s that?” Spike questioned. “You’re all going to need a new wardrobe.” I stated simply. “And just what is that supposed to mean?” Diamond indignantly stated. “Because last I checked you didn’t exactly bring any carry-on for cross dimensional travel here, plus some of you don’t look like the type to wear the same thing every day either.” I said, glancing in Rarity’s direction. “He has a point, darlings, I mean I don’t think I could survive in the same outfit for more than a day.” Rarity spoke, holding the hem of her dress. “More like an hour.” Sweetie Belle replied dryly, getting a glare from her sister while a couple of the girls giggled. “So where do we go, anyplace you suggest?” Twilight asked. “Well I know of a mall on the other side of town we can try out, there are plenty of shops to see, I even know someone there who can help with some outfits.” “You do? Who do you know that could help us out?” Sweetie said curiously. “I know a gal.” I replied cryptically. Some of the group looked at me skeptically for a moment but then shrugged. “Which reminds me, you’re all going to need to change your appearances because no offense but walking around as anthro horses and a dragon is going to attract a lot of attention, so if I were you I’d figure something out where I wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb.” “Well,” Twilight replied tentatively. “I could use a transformation spell to turn us into humans that could work.” “What are you waiting for then, I wanna see this.” I replied excitedly, hoping to see some real magic in action. “Ok here goes.” She breathed out. She then lit up her horn and after a few seconds it began to glow brightly, I was amazed I was seeing real actual magic happening in front of me, it was the greatest thing to happen besides yesterday. Her horn continued to glow for a minute and then a flash appeared dazing me for a couple seconds but when I looked at the girls once more, I was surprised to see they were all transformed into humans. They all looked very similar to their normal forms, the only differences being now that they didn’t have hooves, muzzles, tails, wings, horns, and their cutie marks were missing. Other than that their hair and eye color were the only features that remained the same. “Ok first off, awesome! Secondly you all look great, and thirdly is it normal that your hair and eye color doesn’t change?” “Wait a minute, our hair didn’t change, is that bad?” Twilight asked in concern. “Oh no, I hope nothing is mussed up.” Rarity said worryingly, pulling out a compact to check herself much to the girls deadpan expressions. I was thinking the same but inwardly chuckled too, some things don’t change I guess. “Well no, I’ve seen people around here dye their hair a lot, so if anybody asks, you’re all cartoon or anime fans, or just like the way it looks.” “Seriously, that’s it?” Scootaloo said, arching a brow in confusion. “Yeah you’d be surprised how many people do it, but if you want to change it, fine. Just make sure it's nothing too flashy or whatever.” Seeing nobody arguing on the matter, some of them shrugged and followed me outside. Walking outside a side door, I led them to the left side of the house where the garage was, along with a driveway that went to the side with a large overhang built to shelter the vehicle we were going to use. “Whoa, this is what we’re riding in?” Spike asked, as he and the rest of the group were in awe when they laid eyes on it. “Yep, this baby is big enough to take all of us and more too.” I smiled, tapping on the side of the vehicle. It was a custom built bus with three axles at the rear, a heavy duty suspension and turning system, and had three hundred and sixty degree sensors to detect any cars that came too close along with front, rear, and side cameras to help me see if any vehicles or pedestrians are in the way while driving. Or just being assholes whenever I tried to get in or out of parking which is a pain in the ass whenever I drive this thing. “We’re riding in that thing?” Scootaloo said in surprise, seeing the size of it. “You sure this isn’t some fancy carriage for royalty?” Applebloom added. “Nah, I had this whole thing custom built, and do I look like a guy who’s royalty?” “No, more like a playboy or something.” Scootaloo replied smugly. I froze a retort I was about to say and then thought to myself for a few moments. “Ok I don’t know whether to take that as a compliment, or an insult.” With that I climbed into the front of the cab opening the door. But before I could even seat myself, an immediate realization slammed into me like a sack of bricks, I scrambled out of the bus stopping Twilight mid step before she could follow me in. “Oh waitaminute, there’s some other important stuff we need to cover too!” “What?” “You guys need to have cover names when we go out in public.” “And why do we need to change our names? Diamond Tiara is a dignified and proud name that shan’t be sullied by whatever your weird human habits are.” She huffed only to be silenced by the elder mares around her. “So why exactly do we need to change our names?” The purple alicorn wondered. “Just trust me on this ok, anyway the point being, we need to ensure you girls don’t stick out to everybody that says ‘Hey look at me, I’m a magical alien girl from another dimension.’” “He kinda does have a point, remember when we went to the mirror world Twilight?” Spike piped up. “Spike’s right, this isn’t equestria and I’m not too sure how accepting everyone else would be if they found out what we really are at the moment.” Twilight agreed. “Good, glad we’re on the same page. So who wants to be first?” A few moments passed in silence where nobody said anything until Twilight sighed and walked up first. Taking the initiative as always. “Ok so what do you have in mind?” She asked. “Well first off, err….” I thought for a moment what would sound both normal yet easy to remember at the same time. I mean I always dreamed of making a fake persona for myself. Man, how did Roger Smith keep up with all of his personas, it must have been an existential nightmare for that guy. Anyway I thought for a few more seconds until it hit me. “Ok you’ll be Tarayn Sparks, a foreign exchange student who has moved for a student ambassadorship for the rest of the year with your family and friends, and if anybody asks you all agreed to live here under the condition of paying rent to me.” “Hmm I like it, it also explains why we’re living with you too.” She smiled. “Ok now Applejack,” I said moving to the cowgirl, looking at her from her hat down to her feet I examined her critically. Wondering what would be fitting to the mare. “You’ll be Alice Jane but can still go by your normal initials.” “Wouldn’t have it any other way.” I then looked over towards Rainbow and brainstormed on what I could make up that both fits and defines the prism haired speedster. I then grinned, knowing what would represent her. “Rainbow, in public you’ll be called Raven Dash.” “Sweet.” “Rarity, Fluttershy, you two will go by Rarete’ Belle and Fiona Butterfly.” Seeing them smile I then moved towards the younger apple family member and the trio. “Ok besides Babs you three will be Amber Bloom, Belle, and Sydney Scoots “Hey whatta ‘bout me, don’t I get a name?” Amber colored mare huffed. “No, your name’s actually a known human nickname around here.” “Huh, well that’s convenient I guess.” She shrugged, I then went over to the puffy haired party mare who was bouncing on her hooves in excitement, I couldn’t help smiling inwardly at her bubbliness over the most innocuous of things. “Ok Pinkie Pie, your cover will be Diane but because of your hair your friends call you Pinkie.” “But that’s just using her real name, what’s the difference?” Applebloom asked in confusion. “It’s part of her disguise that will allow her to blend in more efficiently, plus I figured it would be easier to remember when we go out of the house.” I shrugged. “Can I add anything else to my cover?” She wondered while beaming at me. I thought for a second and shrugged at her. “Well, whatever floats your boat. Just don’t make it-” “Ooh, I’ll wear a mustache!” She grinned, having a fake mustache appear out of nowhere, which I did my best to ignore the absurdity that mare embodied. “...Too conspicuous.” I finished, realizing how difficult that would be considering I was talking to someone that could defy the laws of physics, has nigh unlimited energy, and can pull a full blown cannon that shoots confetti out of her hair for any kind of occasion. I internally sighed as I glanced at the girls who all seemed to roll their eyes smiling at their friend. “Look we can use your name in public but I need you to listen carefully and pay attention, ok?” The poofy haired mare nodded excitedly. “There’s a cartoon mouse here named pinkie, which I figured would help make more sense of your name, so if anybody asks…?” I stopped turning to the poofy haired girl, waiting for her to fill in the blanks. “I’ll be a talking mouse.” She finished. “What? No, people will relate to that when it's mentioned, or to your hair like I said earlier.” “Ooooh I get it now.” She replied. “And I’ll add the mustache too.” She beamed. “No, no mustaches. Just stick to the name and backstory I mentioned when we leave the house, that's it, alright?” “Okie dokie loki.” She smiled brightly. “Diane slash Pinkie it is.” I then moved over to Spike. “Question Spike, what’s your last name?” The drake arched a… brow? Ridge? At me. “Uh, Sparkle because I was adopted by Twilight and her parents, but mom thought I should go by Drake as a last name, she thought it’d sound cute.” He replied, rubbing the back of his neck. I grinned inwardly. “Ok dude, then you’ll be known as Spike Drake, the adoptive brother of the Sparks family.” “That’s it? Sweet, I’m guessing my name is common here too then.” He stated. “Pretty much.” I nodded and moved to the last pair of young mares who scowled at me as I faced them. “If you think we’re going to alter our names after already changing our appearances into… this. You’re sorely mistaken here.” Diamond huffed, crossing her arms defiantly. “Yeah, sorely mistaken.” Silver added, mirroring her friend's gesture. I sighed knowing how difficult it’s already going to be dealing with these two. “Then if you’re not going to accept that, the two of you can stay here until we return.” I replied, knowing I would never do that because A, that would be a little irresponsible, and B, I didn’t really trust these two enough not to break something or do something stupid while we were gone. And because it would’ve been a dick move on my part too. “Fine, Silver and I will be just fine on our own.” Diamond snorted. “I’m very tempted in smacking this uptight bitch in the head.” I thought, but sighed outwardly thinking of a different angle to bring these two along. I then had an idea. Smiling to myself I shrugged my shoulders. “Fine then, see if I care. Just know ladies you’ll be missing out on all the new clothes that you can have, and I’d hate to see the two of you suffering in the same outfit every day for who knows how long you’ll be stuck here. What a shame.” I said turning away from the pair. I said it like I didn’t really care, hoping they’d take the bait. Thankfully I didn’t need to wait long as the two seemed to quickly think it over worryingly. They looked at each other for a few seconds before turning back to me begrudgingly. “Ugh, fine whatever, let’s just get this over with.” Diamond grunted. “Excellent, so luckily for the both of you ladies, you got names that fit here, we’ll just need to cook up your last names. Which for you Diamond you’ll go by Rich, and Silver can take Sterling for hers, sound good you two?” “My last name is already Sterling.” Silver deadpanned. “Really?” I said surprised. “Huh, go figure. So, are there any more questions?” I asked. The two rich mares only glanced at each other and shrugged in response. “Ok good, now does anyone else have any more questions before we leave?” I asked, only to get a hand raise from Silver Spoon. “So how come we need to be so careful with our names and appearances out in public, it’s not like we had to before back home.” She asked, still eyeing me with her resting bitch face. “Look it’s very hard to explain right now, it would be better if I show you later after we’re done shopping, ok?” “Fine.” She conceded. “It's not something weird is it?” Added the cyan pegasus. ‘Considering half the shit you and your friends go through on a weekly basis, I doubt it.’ I thought to myself while several incidents from the show flashed through my mind. “That depends on what you define as weird Rainbow.” I replied. She shrugged. “Whatever, are we gonna go or start coming up with costumes too?” I chuckled. “No, none of that or else your disguises would just look ridiculous then.” “Can I still wear the mustache?” Pinkie asked while wearing a mustache on her face, which I did my best not to question at the moment. “Sure, but only during the bus ride.” I sighed as we climbed in and I made sure everyone was seated and secured, with that done I went to the driver's seat of the bus with Twilight sitting beside me looking at the dashboard with great interest. “Wow, I’ve only seen pictures in the mirror world but this is still amazing to see.” Twilight marveled as she looked out the windows of the bus in wonder. “Heh just wait until you see the rest of this town, it’s quite a sight for anyone that’s never been here before.” “Ooh this is so exciting, seeing a whole other civilisation that isn’t our own, isn’t that exciting girls?” Twilight smiled wide as she looked outside the window forgetting the fact I haven’t even started the RV yet but I didn’t have the heart to tell her that. “Alright, and awaaaaaaaaaayyy we go!” Once I started it up, we rolled out of the driveway and on to the mall. The girls were wobbly at first but were invested in looking at all the sights surrounding them in both wonder and mild excitement as we drove down the neighborhood and onto the main road whizzing past shops, houses, and other vehicles. I was glad they were at least enjoying themselves on the ride. It made me wonder though what exactly was going through their minds seeing everything here for the first time. They had a couple questions on things we passed by like what some of the cars were, or what kind of building or vendor we passed which I did my best to answer while driving and continued through town to our destination while my alien passengers oohed and ahhed at whatever new thing gained their attention. We soon arrived at the Oaksfront mall which was basically like any other mall you’ve seen, the lot was packed with cars, dozens of people were walking around moving to and from shop to shop, just another day like usual. But not for me or the group I had with me. Eventually I found a few spaces big enough to park the RV. I then turned it off, pulled out my keys, then looked back at everyone in their new forms. “Ok, we're here, is everyone ready?” I got nods from everybody so I opened the door and we all poured out into the parking lot. “Great now as long as we’re out please don’t try to wander off, I’d hate to see anybody getting lost.” “Don’t worry Colton, if that ever happens we’ll just head back to the bus and wait.” Twilight filled in, which was a relief to hear, the last thing I needed was forgetting someone on this trip. “Wait, we don’t have any money, so who’s gonna pay?” Sweetie Belle piped up. “I got it covered, I have a card on me I can use, so just ask whatever you need. But only important things right now ok? I’m not a walking piggy bank, got it? We can do some fun type of shopping another time.” The girls smiled, nodding in agreement. Although I could’ve sworn Rarity frowned in disappointment, while Silver and Diamond grumbled to themselves at not getting several new wardrobes. “Ok good, now who’s up for some shopping?” I replied, clapping my hands together. “You took the words out of my mouth dear.” Rarity said brightening up. We walked out of the lot and entered through the automatic doors and once we were in they were all in wonder at all the people milling about, the number of shops flanking either side, and the possibly wondrous amount of things they haven’t seen back in equestria. “Woah this is nice. It's certainly bigger than some of the shops back in Manehattan.” Babs commented. “Oh my, I’ve never seen a building this big besides back in Canterlot.” Rarity added. “I’ve seen better establishments with daddy on his business trips.” Diamond huffed, but I just rolled my eyes and ignored it as I focused on leading our group amongst the throng of shoppers. “Alright let's get to it.” So for the next couple of hours we wandered around the place, I showed them some of the more unfamiliar shops, but what surprised me personally was the fact they had television and video games almost as advanced as what was currently made here. Apparently they never knew what a computer was exactly, or what it was for. Besides Twilight briefly explaining what Sunset Shimmer had explained to her in detail a couple weeks ago when I overheard her breaking it down to the girls. “Wow, this looks nice.” Spike grinned as he stared through the glass window of the latest game console, a newly stocked PS5 which I was wondering how long it was gonna stay on shelf before it was swiped off by a customer, or a scalper. Wouldn’t be surprised if it was by the end of the day. “Yeah that’s what a modern earth game console looks like, you guys got stuff like this back home?” I asked, I wasn’t sure what advancement Equestria had because it was all over the place in the last four seasons. From steam locomotives to helicopters flying around, to horse carriages, and gas lit ovens, it was hard to peg down what exactly they did or didn’t have tech wise besides not having cars, planes, or the internet for starters. “Of course, although I think ours is spelled a Ponystation, and it certainly doesn’t look like that.” The drake replied as he stared at the console with wide-eyed excitement. Guess I can say they have tv, though if they got video games and tv. Makes me wonder what kind of shows or games they have back at their home, something I’ll need to ask about later. I pulled the dragon away from the shop promising we can check it out after everyone is more settled. We passed more shops and the girls looked around with awe while I kept glancing back to make sure nobody wandered off and got lost. Thankfully everyone stuck together and didn’t lag behind too much, soon enough I brought them to the front entrance of the store. Once everyone arrived, they all looked at the place in confusion as they looked at the sign hanging above the storefront. “Uh, not to be rude or anything Colton, but are you sure this is the place your friend owns?” Twilight asked, looking at the high end clothing shop we stood in front of. It had pink and red lettering with a purple background and an image of the silhouette of a feminine figure posing seductively. “Yeah it's a very popular spot around here, she likes to spoil her customers, she even has a secondary part of the store connected here that has good lingerie,” I added only to get looks of bewilderment from the girls. “What? It's true, I’ve been here myself a few times.” I shrugged. “Anyway feel free to pick out what you want and then I’ll pay it on my card.” I smiled while the girls glanced at each other, then followed me into the store. “I just hope they are in season.” Rarity said to herself daintily walking with the rest of the group. Once entering the store, the fashionista and a couple of the girls brightened at all the colorful and intricate clothes that were smartly displayed all around the shop while the others looked on in mild interest. I was glad to see them happy as they looked around the shop front, if it helped keep their minds off of their displacement problem for now then I was willing to do what I could to keep their spirits up. “This is where this friend of yours works?” Applejack asked, looking at one of the displays. “Uh, yeah. But don’t worry she’s cool, she can help you out on your own… ahem, personal wear.” “Well I guess you and Spike don’t need to help us in that then.” I did my best not to blush at that while Spike rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Heh, yeah, I’m not so sure how much help we’d be in finding the proper bra sizes or anything.” He chuckled, while I just awkwardly shrugged. At that, the background noise of customers was broken by a cheerful greeting gathering our attention. “Oh, Colton, it's so nice to see you!” A feminine voice called out joyfully. “Hey Lucy, how are you?” I greeted only to be taken in a tight yet welcoming hug, Lucy is the manager of the store here and has been a good friend of mine for the past several years, her appearance is that of a stereotypical busty, blonde, bimbo, with huge HH breasts covered by a thin skimpy tank top with jorts that are borderline inappropriate, hugging a huge bubbly rear that you could bounce a quarter off of it. But under all of that she’s a wonderful person, and has been good to me and my friends in the past. Plus she makes the best white chocolate fudge in the universe. “I’m doing great, it's been a while since I last saw you.” She smiled brightly, letting go of me, she then turned her attention towards the girls who were all wearing looks of both shock and confusion. The blonde saw this and grinned back at me like a shark smelling blood. “And who are your friends?” She said slyly. “Oh, uh well these are my new… roommates, they just came into town just yesterday and were in need of a place to stay. They were in need of some fresh clothes because they lost most of theirs in baggage, y’know how that is.” I shrugged. “So I thought I’d bring them to the one gal who could hook them up with a good deal.” “Ha you have no idea, I hate losing my stuff after a flight. Remember that one time I told you about me and my mom losing our luggage and we had to use our old sweaters.” She giggled while I did my best not to think about the suggestive image. The sweaters were small and because of her and her mothers ‘assets’ they only came up midriff at the time. Waaaayyy over midriff if you ask me. “You mean the ratty old rag that you haven’t worn since highschool and it almost tore itself off after you snagged it on a rosebush?” She smiled letting out a snort of amusement. “Yeah, god the stares I was getting that day.” She giggled to herself. “So what can I do for you and your new friends?” I shrugged. “Just getting some new clothes for them while they begin to settle in.” “Oh, is that all?” She grinned. “Well…” I glanced back at the girls as they stared but Twilight and Applejack seemed to tense only slightly as I did my best to stay cool and just remember this was a day out I was having with hopefully new future friends. Turning back to her I brought the blonde closer so they didn’t overhear. “They don’t have anything except the clothes on their back so please don’t mention it, they’re embarrassed enough today.” “Oh, I gotcha.” She nodded in understanding. “Anything else I can do?” “Just make sure they get the comfiest BP’S you got, kay?” “Ooh, trying to impress someone?” She smirked. “No, I just want them to be comfortable while functional, but with a little bit of flair.” I replied evenly. “Kay you got it, I think I know just the thing for each of them.” She winked. “Oh and one more thing, the girl with the royal purple hair, she’s a seamstress, so she might have some professional critique you can use for her friends.” “Oh really now, just who are your new friends huh?” She smiled. I grew nervous at her question, but kept my cool. “Well, they’re students from overseas and have wanted to scout out some of the local schools here. Yeah.” “Really, are they from Europe?” I did my best to keep a straight face. “Of course, they all knew each other in the same small town and learned English so they could visit America, at least that’s what they told me.” She gave me a thin look that made me nervous, mainly of the fact she probably wasn’t buying my story. Hell I didn’t know what I was thinking blurting it out like that, worst case scenario I’d have to explain EVERYTHING to her but I really, REALLY wasn’t looking forward to that, I stood there internally kicking myself while she continued to stare straight through me. After a few more moments of tense silence between us she relented, giving me a bright smile. “Alright,” She then turned to the checkout desk seeing one of her employees with a customer holding a large amount of clothes while the girl at the desk seemed overwhelmed. “I gotta take this, be right back.” She giggled. “Sure Lucy, we’ll be here browsing for a little while.” “Alright, have fun.” She then turned to the girls, giving them another smile. She then walked over to the counter speaking briefly with her coworker while taking a portion of the pile and setting it down. Then the girl smiled nodding to her and walked away while Lucy headed straight back to us. “Alright, I’ll be at the back next to the change rooms, you girls just ask me for anything and I’ll see what I can do to help.” She said, The girls returned it and the blonde walked towards the back. I let out a small breath of relief turning back to the girls. I gave them my best grin. “Ok girls, who's up first in getting a new outfit?” It was then they were brought out of their stupor, most of them appeared to have been staring at Lucy from our initial meeting with her, which I couldn’t blame them. She grabbed the attention of everyone that first lays eyes on her. Sometimes the second and third time too. Twilight decided to pipe up first. “Uh, not to sound judgemental or anything, but why does your friend…?” She faltered, doing her best to find the right words. “Look like that?” I filled in, getting nods from most of the girls. “Yeah, we were sorta wondering about that.” Applejack said awkwardly. I was expecting this line of questioning, it happened every time I introduced someone to Lucy. And every time they would ask about her… ‘Figure’ and why she is always looking like a walking blow up sex doll. “Well everybody asks the same thing, the reason is she chose to dress herself up like that on purpose because she liked the style. She told me once a while ago that it helps her weed out all the creepy guys she dates that simply just want to use her until she finds the one that loves her for who she is. Or something like that.” “Huh, that’s… unexpected.” Sweetie stated. “She seems happy with it to me.” Pinkie beamed to herself. “Yeah, it may be strange but I think it's kinda nice what she’s trying to do for herself, she’s still cool, she’s actually helped me and my friends out plenty of times in the past. She’s good people.” I smiled to myself. “Really? Who were they?” Fluttershy questions. I frowned after she asked me that, but before they could further enquire about it I did my best not to let my face show anything, doing my best in keeping it neutral instead of a frown. “That’s… another story for another time.” I said quietly, earning confused glances from the group. I sighed to myself, refocusing my efforts on what we came here for. “So with that out of the way,” I gestured to the store. “Have at it ladies.” “Finally! I'm dying to have something to replace this thing. I almost had to sleep in it last night.” Rarity exclaimed. “TMI Rarity.” I stated jokingly making the fashionista blush when she realized she said it out loud for everyone to hear. With that she and the others walked past me as they each began to peruse the shop. As I watched the girls shop and Lucy popping in and out to help them I felt a wistful smile appear while I looked at the group splitting up taking a corner of the store as they examined its clothed wares. I saw a flash of myself standing there with six girls as they were all gathered around me trying to force a bra on my shirt while I did my best to resist their advances as they struggled to put it on me. A cringing smile on my face. I couldn’t help chuckling to myself as the memory faded, soon after my mood switched to remorseful as other memories flashed through my mind. When things were much better, more joyful. But now it was just days to weeks on end of bitter loneliness and resentment whenever I left the house. It was unfair. I almost let the depression overtake me when I saw Twilight, AJ, The Crusaders, Babs, and Rainbow walk out from the change rooms with a few sets of clothes, as I watched I perked up a little, quickly dropping the growing frown with a small smile as I focused on the few outfits everyone picked out. “You guys got everything?” “Yep, ah’ think we got enough ta wear fer a while right now.” Applejack smiled “Great, where’s Rarity and Fluttershy?” I then remember who I was talking about. “Let me guess she’s deciding on what goes best while Fluttershy is too embarrassed aren't they?” “Pretty much.” Rainbow filled in. “That girl takes forever when she’s trying out clothes.” It wasn’t until she grew a suspicious look on her face as she peered at me. “Wait, how’d you know that?” I shrugged to myself. “I’ve experienced this kinda thing before.” I sighed to myself, not surprised in the least considering how much of their cartoon counterparts they embodied, I just hoped they didn’t stay too long in there. But knowing better I decided to move things along, I just hoped Lucy had moved things along herself. Walking over to the change rooms I searched for the potential pile of clothes, which wasn’t too hard to find seeing the pile of fancy clothes set up outside one of the change rooms. I walked in and stayed outside of the booths, hearing the mutterings of both mares in their neighboring change booths. Lucy was there waiting, I approached her wondering what was going on. “Hey Lucy, how’s it going with those two, no trouble right?” “Of course not, that Rarete of yours is quite the professional, if I didn’t know, I’d think she owns her own business.” I chuckled nervously, speaking in a low voice. “Yeah, I think she mentioned something about working at a boutique back home. Not sure if she owns it but between you and me she looks like the kind of person who owns the place wherever she goes.” I said, hoping that my white lie would drive off her suspicion. One other thing about Lucy, she certainly knows how to draw out information from people. Which was one of the things that made her successful in her job. “Anyway, how’s Fiona, is she doing ok?” The blonde nodded. “Yes, although she’s been very shy, but nothing I haven’t handled before.” “I nodded, well I was going to tell them everyone else is ready thanks to you. Maybe that’ll hurry things along.” I said getting a nod from her, I then approached the change room door knocking on it. “Hey girls, are you almost done there yet, the others have just about finished their shopping.” I said getting their attention. “Ah darling so glad to have you here, Lucy has been wonderful in helping us out, I think Fluttershy and I need a stal-I mean, a male's perspective on our outfits though. Do you mind?” She said, slipping her use of their cover names. I shrugged to myself not seeing the harm. “Sure, why not. “Splendid, just give me and Flutter-” “Ahem!” I cleared my throat loudly, reminding them of their personas. “I mean Fiona and I, a moment so we can show you.” “Alright, just try not to take too long, ok?” “You can’t rush art, nor perfection darling.” She replied while I rolled my eyes at her, leaning against the wall. Lucy giggled smirking at me while I just rolled my eyes at her. ‘Exactly what you’d say girl.’ I thought smiling to myself. After a couple of minutes waiting I hear her say. “Alright darling, prepare to be dazzled.” “C’mon Rarete, let’s see it.” I told her, wondering what she and Fluttershy had picked for themselves. A number of stories and art I looked at online ran through my mind as I thought about their preferences from the show. No doubt it was going to be something flashy and elegant for the fashionista, while in Fluttershy’s case, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was something more conservative like a giant turtleneck she came out wearing. A few moments later, the disguised unicorn walked out of the booth in a very nice white blouse with blue trim, a light blue undershirt paired with a black cocktail skirt covered in a sparkly material I couldn’t recognize. When I glanced toward Fluttershy, she had on a green baggy turtleneck with a pink skirt that went past her knees, paired with high knee socks topped off with low heeled shoes. Totally called it. I whistled, impressed with their selections, I had to admit I never fully understood Rarity’s fashion choice in the series, but seeing it in person I could now see why she has a special talent in making clothes. And fashion wear. “Wow girls, nice. So is this what you wanted or what?” The dressmaker mulled it over for a moment while the animal lover stayed silent. “Well there was this nice looking floral dress, then there was this cute bikini over by the swimwear, ooh and this smashing cocktail dress that simply just-” “Hold your horses there girl, let’s just stick with what we have for now, then we can plan a shopping spree in the future. Sounds good?” She sighed. “Alright, at least I procured some elegant ensembles. I can’t wait to try out human clothes.” Rarity beamed. I smiled at her, then turned to Fluttershy. “You got what you needed too?” I said pointing to the bag in her hands. “Um, yes, just a few dresses and a couple new turtlenecks in here.” She replied quietly. “Cool, ok Twilight and the others are near the cashier.” I said, the girls following me back to the rest of their friends. “So, everybody got what they needed?” “Yep.” “Yeah, got me some good shorts too.” Rainbow replied. “And ah got some swell pairs of jeans fer me and Appl- ah mean Amber.” Applejack added. “Great, let's get’em to the checkout and go.” We walked out of the shop five minutes later with several bags in tow, one for each pony that held several new sets of clothes for them. “My, that was quite a wonderful shop you led us to, thank you so much dear for allowing us to acquire some new clothes. Rarity beamed. “Yeah, it's interesting that all of it looks so similar, well minus the wing and tail holes of course.” Twilight added examining herself. “Well you have magic right?” She nodded at me. “Can’t you just use it to modify your clothes to change with you without damaging them?” I asked. “Well I’m sure Rarity and I can do something about that when we get back to your place.” “Sweet, now that we got that done. Who wants lunch?” “Ooh ooh me!” Pinkie exclaimed, waving her hand up in the air excitedly. Soon enough, we were all heading for the food court, as we walked past the throngs of people moving about the main floor and secondary like schools of fish. I wasn’t so sure but I think I noticed a couple people glancing to full on staring at the group, but nobody really seemed to care besides the rare person that walked by to stare for a few moments. I was relieved at that, it just meant that some crazed fanboy wasn’t going to jump out recognizing the girls and outright say that these were the real mane six walking amongst us like some wacky Pony on Earth fiction I’ve read. The group continued to look around the mall in wonder until we got to the main food court near the center of the mall, dozens of stalls and restaurants lined the surrounding edge and empty floor space not taken by tables. Grabbing a couple long tables that were thankfully empty we placed ourselves down with our purchases filling out almost both tables with our entire group. It still felt surreal that I was here, sitting down having lunch in the mall with the actual heroes of Equestria and their friends! I was sorely tempted to pinch myself to check if I was dreaming. Once everyone had set down their stuff Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Applejack, The Crusaders and Pinkie followed behind me as we revolved around the court letting them choose what they wanted from each stall that caught their attention. As I paid for each of their food, a thought ran through me, wondering about what exactly was going through their minds as they processed their new surroundings here while we perused the food court. (TWILIGHTS POV) I followed Colton with my friends as he led me, Spike, Fluttershy, AJ, Rainbow, Pinkie and The Crusaders inside the court he was showing us. He said we could choose what we wanted and he’ll help cover it himself afterwards. To be honest, I was very grateful for his generosity, moreso our luck my friends and I had in running into him. It felt weird that two weeks ago Spike and I were just in the mirror world helping out Sunset fight off a group of sirens that were somehow banished there. Now we find ourselves in a very similar situation, but now the rest of our friends have been included as well to the equation. So far everypony seems to be ok, but I could tell whenever our human host wasn’t looking that they’d all look towards me for guidance, hoping that I could find an answer that would help us out of this mess. The problem was, I had absolutely no idea! And that thought both frustrated and terrified me to no end. But I couldn’t panic now, we just landed on this world, this Earth, like the mirror world, which had plenty of similarities between the two. But one of the few differences I noticed was everyones skin color were not as pastel colored back there. Just varying in shades of brown from almost pale white to darker shades. The fact that most of the things technology-wise was pretty much the same as the mirror world and matched some back in Equestria was definitely a relief there, meaning I can hopefully use a computer thanks to Sunset showing me after Spike and I’s latest adventure. That would have to be for later, for now, I still had to worry about finding a way to get us home. I was brought out of my thoughts when I felt a nudge, shaking my head. I glanced to see Colton looking at me with a gentle smile gesturing to the menu board in front of us at one of the shops. Which was decorated in green, white and yellows all around with the name Subway in yellow lettering. “You see anything you like Tarayn?” He asked. I then realized what he was asking me and focused on what he was pointing at. Taking a quick glance at the items I was intrigued by the selections, interestingly there was plenty of meat based foods including vegan dishes too, which I was glad to see. “I’ll take the veggie sub with extra peppers, wheat bread, and some ranch please.” Getting a nod from the vendor I watched in fascination as they assembled it just like at one of the shops the girls showed me back in Ponyville. Once done they handed the food to us in bags. Paying the man, Colton took the bags in hand and led us through the rest of the court for the others based on their likes, which surprised me. If I didn’t know better it seemed like he knew our likes and dislikes very well. Even though he’d only just met us. I shook that off thinking it silly, he was probably just good at reading people or something, once we got all of our food I sat down at our table with Spike and the others, who had a big greasy burger with actual meat instead of hay. Digging in his eyes brightened as he devoured it while I looked at my food and took an experimental bite. “Hmm, not bad.” I was glad to have something substantial for today, I just hoped the others were fairing ok in adjusting like the rest of us. (Rainbow’s POV) Man this sucks! I haven’t flown in almost two days and my wings were just itching to spread out and take some serious air. I can’t believe that human told us we couldn’t fly in public, and for what? Just to not attract any attention, I’m ALL about attention for Celestia's sake! And now I’m told I can’t because we have to stay hidden, why? We’re celebrities back home and yet we can’t show our faces here just because everypony will freak out seeing us in our natural form. What do we have to hide for? But Twilight was rather insistent when Colton laid down the rules earlier, after her first adventure to the mirror world she and Spike explained that things were very different there compared to Equestria, and that this place here was basically the same but without magic as far as she could tell. Which by her assessment meant that if we decided to go outside without our disguises we could attract the wrong kind of attention like Colton warned us about yesterday. I still didn’t like it though. I mean my wings have been going crazy not being able to fly, how does Twilight handle not using her wings that much when on the ground? Probably because of her nose being in a book as usual. Well at least we're finishing all that boring shopping with some food, I’ve been starving since we got here, plus I’ve been curious what humans ate besides that breakfast Colton made us. I didn’t really get the guy, he said that we were aliens to him the other day and yet he takes us into his home no questions asked, just like that? I mean I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth having a roof over our heads, but something tells me that he was a lot more accepting than he let on when he first saw us. Whatever, it was a win in my book, what mattered was he helped me and my friends out in a pinch and was even generous enough to buy us clothes and food for us too. I might have my suspicions, but overall I respected the guy for his actions so far and that he was willing to let complete strangers into his admittedly really awesome mansion. I mean the place looks as big as mine back home for crying out loud. Hopefully while we stay with him, Twilight can find a way to get us back home soon, I wasn’t sure how long I could last without being able to fly while disguised like this. Especially if I have to go out like this on a daily basis in public without the chance to actually spread my wings. Ugh, I wonder how the others are taking this. (Applejack’s POV) “Good golden delicious, this place is bigger than an apple family reunion barn dance.”[i/] I thought as I looked around the crowds of people moving about like flocks of sheep. It sure was overwhelming here, and I thought Manehattan or Canterlot was bustling. I didn’t understand much of what that feller Colton showed us besides that humans apparently had a lot of the same fancy gizmos that I saw whenever making deliveries outside of Ponyville, they had tv, video games and what not, but that’s where some of the similarities ended. What I was surprised about was that everything here that was made was entirely without the use of magic whatsoever, only with the power of their own two hands and ingenuity. I gotta say I felt some respect for that. Although this whole mall was still confusing for a country gal like me as my friends and I looked at the different menus from each stall we passed by. Stopping at one I picked up an apple and yogurt salad with plenty of berries, Applebloom picked the same while Babs got a veggie sandwich of sorts. Even though it was bad that she got sucked in with the rest of us into this mess, I was personally a little glad that she was here to keep my little sister and her friends occupied until Twi figures something out for us to get home. Celestia knows how worried Big Mac and Granny are right now when they find out we’re missing, who’s going to take care of the farm now? I fidgeted with my hat in worry trying to focus on the food in my hands as I watched our new kind host buy it for us and carry it. Soon enough we were heading back to our table where the other’s were patiently waiting for us. I looked at him, thinking back on what he told us yesterday. I don’t know why, but when he first met us yesterday something was… off. Not the kind of bad feeling off whenever I was off on a friendship adventure or selling my apples, more like the kind where he was tellin the truth, but not entirely either. Maybe it had to do with what he said this morning, I wasn’t so sure. But for now I was thankful for his hospitality, which went a long way for me and my family, and whatever he was keeping to himself I was sure as cider he had his reasons for it. For now I had to put my trust in him, Twilight, and the others. (Pinkie’s POV) Oooohhh, everything is so cool and interesting, I was walking behind my friends and our brand new super special alien friend on an alien world. It was all so colorful, so amazing, so superfantabulous I could just explode with excitement! It was super fun going through that big sparkly portal with all my friends, and we even got to make a brand new friend too at the same time! I loved this place. The shops were new, the places were new, even the people here were new! I couldn’t wait to meet everypony when I got the chance. Speaking of which, hold that thought dear readers. With my hands I pulled out a remote from my pocket, then hit the pause button freezing the entire scene with me only moving. Then I grabbed a corner of the fourth wall and pulled it back just a teensy bit until I was able to climb through and leaped out of the scene until I was inside a bedroom with the writer looking back at me in surprise. “Gah! What the?! Pinkie! What are you doing here, you’re supposed to be in the story!” “Yeah about that, when’s it getting to the good part already, I’m so full of excitement I could just burst into confetti right now.” “Ugh we’ve been over this before already like I’ve posted to all of my fans. You’ll get your good part when it’s been paced correctly the way I like it.” “But that’s so boring, can’t you just skip ahead a bit? I want to get to the really fun part.” I complained. “And write like some two bit hack that’s rushed too fast for his own good. I don’t think so.” “C’mon, can’t you at least get to the part soon where you get to fuck Twilight and I get a turn at that new year’s party and you gain- “Ah duh, duh, duh, duh! No spoilers! It’ll happen when it happens alright?” “Ok.” I frowned, nodding. “ Can we at least keep this scene of me breaking the fourth wall?” I then gave him my best puppy dog eyes knowing he wouldn’t be able to resist. “Oh… fine, but you need to wait until I’ve properly written out the filler chapters needed for them.” “Okie doki loki, I Pinkie Promise!” I said while doing the gesture. “Good, now that that’s taken care of, get back into the story you’re cramping my space here.” He said, turning back to his computer. “Okie doki loki.” I saluted, pulling back the fourth wall again, I cannonballed inside. “Whee!” Once back inside and standing back in her original spot, he called out to me. “Pinkie, aren’t you forgetting something?” It wasn’t until I remembered the remote I had, pulling it out I smiled sheepishly. “Whoopsie.” “I’ll take care of that.” He said and a moment later the remote disappeared. “I can start things off from here, and please no more wall breaking like that Pinkie. It’ll strain the story enough as is.” “Yes sir mr writer sir!” I saluted. “Good.” He sighed. “Now where were we?” (Colton’s POV) After we had lunch I showed the girls briefly on the wonders of our modern internet with my phone, it turns out they had their own phones too and showed me. They were like a smartphone but appeared to be a little more primitive in comparison, but were definitely more advanced than a flip phone. We dialed in our numbers figuring it could come in handy should we ever get separated or if they needed something when I left the house. We walked back to the RV and had everyone board back on with their purchases with them. Once that was done I made sure everyone was seated and then started the vehicle as we pulled out of the parking lot. “So how was your first time inside a human mall?” “It was pretty interesting.” Spike stated. “I never thought I’d see so many stores stacked together.” Added Applejack. “There were so many amazing things to look at, I didn’t know where this place ended or began.” Twilight mused. “I’ve been to more tolerable establishments than this place, but at least they have some decent shops for a mare of my standards.” Diamond said. “Tolerable? Darling please the only thing tolerable were some of the bathroom stalls.” Rarity said, blanching at the memory of coming out of there. I couldn’t blame her or the girls, some of those toilets. Two words. Nas,tee! “I’m there with ya girl.” I added while keeping my eyes on the road. The girls were talking quietly with one another and occasionally had their attention on whatever passed by the windows as they glanced at all of earth's wonders. “You know, there’s something I don’t understand.” Spike wondered out loud, gaining my attention. “What’s that?” “How is it that you have all that money along with a freakin mansion, are you from some rich family or somethin?” “Not exactly, my folks are average in their lifestyle and in their jobs, so no I don’t have a rich family, sort of. To answer your other question it was actually an inheritance I received from one of my great grandfathers, the craziest part is though, I never even met the guy.” “What?” Everyone asked in surprise. “So how exactly did he know about you then?” Scootaloo asked. I shrugged. “Don’t know, that’s the weird part, one day I was hanging out with my friends at home when someone knocked at the door, it turns out he was my great grandad's lawyer. Said that he specifically requested me to be given everything he had pending his death.” “Sorry ta hear that sugarcube.” “Eh no big deal, although I was a little disappointed to never really know him. Anyway the lawyer told me my great grandad wanted me to inherit his house which is the one you girls are currently living in, and take all his money, he said to me I was the only person he believed I was worthy of. So we settled all the paperwork and within a month or two I got the house and money.” “What about this bus dear?” Asked Rarity. “Oh this thing?” I swept my arm gesturing to it. “This was the first thing I bought, figuring it would be fun to take on roadtrips with my friends and family.” I grinned. “Hold on just one second, how much money does that inheritance have?” Rainbow asked. “From then to now?” I pondered for a few moments. “Uuhhh about two hundred I think.” “Thousand?” “Million.” “WHAT?!” Everyone shouted. “You have all that money?!” Exclaimed Rarity. “And a mansion that can fit dozens of people. All from some obscure relative of yours who just gave it to you?!” Twilight added in equal surprise. I shrugged in reply. “Yeah but I used a small portion of the inheritance to buy this beauty along with paying my and my parents bills as well, other than that I just figured having that much is no big deal. Unless you're one of those rich assholes over in L.A.” “No big deal?!” Rainbow yelled. “You’ve got more dough than you know what to do with!” She said incredulously. “I mean I doubt Twilight is that rich now that she’s a princess, no offense of course.” “Yeah, I mean you’re fucking rich dude.” Spike added in awe. “So what, it’s not that different from you living with a princess, obviously you get some kind of benefits right?” I retorted much to the dragon's sheepishness. While I wondered if they ever did actually get something when Twilight became an alicorn. I mean it’s not like they could have that castle, being national heroes, or become a new princess without some kind of financial backing. “Well actually we do get a stipend twice every month from the crown now that I’m an official princess.” Twilight smiled but it soon faded, her ears and tail drooping after a few moments which I noticed through the mirror. “What’s wrong?” “I just remembered that Celestia and Luna might not even know we’ve gone missing, or won’t know what has happened to us! Oh I hate to think what’ll happen when they find out.” “I’m sure everything will be fine, they’re the princesses after all. I’m sure they’ll be able to find a way to get us back home too.” Spike replied, patting her shoulder. “So back to the fact that you're rich, what else did you do with it?” Scootaloo asked from her seat, thankfully changing the potentially gloomy subject. “Yeah, tell us.” Sweetie Belle added. “C’mon you're asking what an eighteen year old kid did with over two hundred million dollars?” I said while everyone seemed to be wondering what exactly I did. I rolled my eyes. “Ok I took a little bit out of the inheritance and me and my friends went out on a mega shopping spree,” I felt a genuine smile curl on my lips as I thought about the looks on everyone's faces when I told them I was now rich. “You wouldn’t believe how crazy that was.” I laughed to myself at the memory, but my smile slowly turned to a frown as I began remembering the good old days. “Hey you alright?” It was Babs who asked, seeing her look of concern through the mirror. I did my best to put on a smile, hoping she didn’t catch it. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” I said, frowning to myself as I looked out in front of me trying not to be distracted by the pit in my gut. After that things quieted down a bit, and soon we were driving back to my street where I opened the gate and rolled the RV into the lot, parking it carefully back in its rightful place. Once done I helped the girls out with their wares and brought them inside. While doing so, I was preoccupied by the growing weight of the fact that they eventually would find out one way or another about the truth of who or what exactly they represent here, especially me of all people. I was nervous, I didn’t know whether or not they’d think I’m some weird perverted shut-in that stares at them through a screen all the time, or take it like the others did in Equestria Girls. Whatever the case they still deserved to know, and I wasn’t planning on keeping this hidden any longer. It just didn’t feel right doing that considering I openly welcomed them into my home, they deserved far better than dishonesty like that. Well that and one of my roommates happens to be the actual element of honesty and could possibly tell a lie better than a polygraph. At least that’s what I was assuming. We moved over to the living room where the girls ate their food while I removed myself and headed up to my room and sat myself at my desk eating away at my sandwich. As I chewed, it gave me time to think about what my plans will be with my new houseguests. My house was big enough to hold everybody comfortably, but for an extended period of time there was the issue of food, utilities and other necessities. But money wasn’t really an issue for me though, I’d rather just not want to have to spend thousands of dollars every week just to keep everyone fed and my fridge and pantry filled. Do I sound like a cheapskate? Yes, but I’m just simply trying to be proactive now that my once empty house has been filled with aliens from another world who just happen to be bipedal equines and a dragon. But what I was gonna do to keep these girls fed or entertained was a footnote in comparison to the much bigger issue I am going to have living with them. The fact that I am a current fan of an animated series for kids that depicts their lives. I glanced at the photo frame at the end of my desk, seeing all those smiling happy faces of me and my friends without a care in the world. We were so happy, so well put together, so full of life. What would they tell me to do, what to say in this situation if they were here? I chuckled lightly to myself, they’d probably tell me to either bring them into it gently or drag my ass and they’d outright tell them themselves. I couldn’t help smiling knowing they would have done the latter anyway and then they’d force me into telling them. I felt my moment of nostalgia fade and be replaced with sadness once more, it wasn’t new for me to be happy like this one minute, only to then turn depressed the next. These past six months have been very lonely and trying for me. Ever since the day when I realized the majority of people I knew and got along with suddenly acted like I was the biggest piece of shit to ever walk the earth. I sighed to myself, I couldn’t dwell on those thoughts now, as much as I was tempted to just crawl into bed and wallow in self pity for several hours, or days, again. I now had much bigger responsibilities than my current social status. Especially when that includes me being host to literal aliens while I mulled over how I could broach a possible case of worms drizzled by the most intense type of existential crisis to them where they have tv counterparts, a personal website dedicated to writing about them, a toyline, and an immense fan base of varying ages around the world dedicated to their once thought fictional lives. Don’t even get me started on how much porn there is involving those ponies. THERE’S SO! MUCH! PORN! Laying my forehead against the table, I knew that I couldn’t hide my own involvement of my liking to them as a brony. Much less the fact that Twilight is smart enough to figure out how to use a computer thanks to a currently displaced red and yellow haired unicorn that was once upon a time in their exact situation right now. So they would eventually find out the truth anyway no matter how hard I try. Lifting myself from my seat, I made my decision. They needed to know, and the sooner I told them, the sooner I got it over with, plus I did remind myself that I told them this morning that there was something I needed to explain. Although how exactly do you broach to some magic wielding aliens that they happen to be portrayed on a television series, comics and all other kinds of memorabilia. To be honest, I had no fucking idea. I walked out of my room tossing my finished lunch in the nearest trashcan and headed back downstairs to hear everyone still sitting together as they undoubtedly finished up their lunches. I took a deep breath to settle my nerves. “Here we go.” I thought to myself as I entered the room seeing the girls lounging together. “Hey guys, do all of you have a minute right now?” “Of course, what is it?” Twilight questioned, her ears perking up in intrigue. “There’s… there’s something important I need to tell all of you.” I said, everyone looked at each other in confusion, then shrugged as they watched me place my computer down in front of them. Once everyone settled in their seats while the rest took a spot. I sat down in front with my laptop, I felt my stomach turn in knots as I built up whatever courage I had. Taking a breath I faced most of the group who each had established themselves a seat around the room, steeling myself for what I needed to do. “Since you girls might be here a while, there’s something important I think you all need to know right now about me and earth here.” “What’s that?” Spike wondered. “Well…” I rubbed my arm in discomfort. “There’s no easy way to say it, so I’m going to be blunt.” I then took a deep breath mentally preparing myself for this moment. “I already knew who you girls are.” After saying that I felt relieved to myself, but all of the girls and Spike looked at me in confusion. I could already feel myself internally sweating at my poor start. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Twilight questioned, arching her brow in confusion. “Yeah what are you getting at?” The dragon added. I took another breath to mentally steady myself. “What I mean is Twilight, that before yesterday I already knew who you all are.” Once I said that I cringed to myself awaiting for the eventual blow up, but after several tense seconds nothing happened. Everything was quiet for several moments, none of them said anything for a while and the tension was killing at what their reactions were. Finally the silence was broken when the purple mare herself responded in one of the few expected reactions I had thought of. “I’m sorry, what?” It was Babs who said it, she wasn’t frowning but was definitely confused. That seemed like a good sign so I elaborated. “Oh boy, how do I start? Well, ok Twilight, do you know about the multiverse theory?” “I think I’ve read up something like that in my studies, so yes.” She nodded. “The what now?” Applejack and Rainbow said simultaneously. “Ok then so to put it this way for all of you to understand, imagine there’s a bunch of bubbles and-” “Ooh I love bubbles, are they color coated?” Pinkie asked, smiling. “Yes Pinkie they are, so each bubble is a single universe and in each one is either a near similar to radically different outcome, like say your world is one version of how you girls exist, while here on earth it has a counterpart of you.” “Oh I think I get it now, just like when Twilight and I went to the mirror world with Sunset. But what’s that got to do with this?” Spike asked. “Exactly Spike and I’ll get to that in a sec, the place you call the mirror world is just an alternate universe where you and the girls exist.” “So how do you know about us then exactly, and this whole multiverse thing? I don’t get it.” Applejack questioned squinting her eyes in suspicion. “In other words, to put it in the most basic of terms girls, you’re in a separate dimension where you sorta have counterparts of yourselves here. Only difference is that they’re nothing more than a bunch of cartoon characters created to entertain people on a television show meant for kids.” I chuckled nervously. “And I happen to be one of your fans.” I added. “Wait a minute, is that the reason you’re so ok with meeting us yesterday?” Diamond asked suspiciously. “Well mostly that, but honestly I was desperately trying not to go all crazed fanboy with you guys either and figured you needed someone to help you instead of some bumbling fan drooling all over himself.” I laughed awkwardly at my own words. “What show did you say these counterparts of ours are from dear?” Rarity asked. “A show called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.” I heard a few snickers from mainly Rainbow, scootaloo, Babs and Spike at the mention of the title. They each got a glare from the others to quiet them down which only did so much. “Really a TV show? With us in it? How long has that been around?” Babs asked, doing her best to keep a straight face. “Which generation do you want to start with?” “Generation?” Twilight said confusedly. “Well the series itself has existed for around forty years now, and has renewed itself with a new generation several times too, and you lucky gals happen to be the fourth.” They all stared at me in a mixture of growing shock, confusion, and I think I noticed Rainbow grinning to herself, of course she’d be thinking of all the fans out there watching her, she was as much a lover of attention as the show depicted her. The silence went on for another painfully long minute until one of the girls finally broke it. “So you mean to tell us that we have millions of adoring fans who watch us on a TV show every day?” Rainbow stated incredulously. “Well, when you put it like that, then yes.” I replied mentally bracing myself. “That… is… awesome!” “Huh?” “What?” Everyone asked. “Ain’t ya a little creeped out that millions of people all over the world know about us and what we’ve done. Not to mention watching our every move?” “Pfft please A.J. that’s just what celebrities go through in their lives.” “Well we are technically celebrities too back home, so it’s not too weird that we happen to be famous here. We just technically are TV icons.” Spike added. “See? Spike gets it, I mean come on guys, when's the last time we were truly appreciated for everything we’ve done the past several years, it wasn’t till we beat Discord, not to mention kicking Tireks ass a few weeks ago, everypony has started to notice us a lot more.” “You know, now that you mention it I remember getting a few letters of gratitude from the neighboring kingdoms, hay I even got one for all of us all the way from the minotaur royal family after we defeated Tirek.” Twilight added. “Huh, didn’t realize the word was that widespread.” I thought to myself, but wasn’t that surprised considering the villains they faced off against the past four seasons. “So what else is there about us besides a TV show, ooh is there anything about me?” Spike asked excitedly. “Dude there’s a whole fanservice about you, I along with the rest of them say you're their favorite nonpony character.” The drake couldn’t help but smile and puff out his chest in pride. “And what about us, what do they say about us?” The crusaders wondered as they bounced in their seats. “Yes there is also a whole group that love you girls too, I remember reading some comments online saying how much of an inspiration each of you have been in their lives.” “Really? We inspired people?” Scootaloo said, her wings buzzing excitedly. “Yeah you sure did, a lot of kids and adults followed your example that you don’t need to worry about being different. Or who you are and where you come from.” After saying that I could see the three had mile wide grins on their faces. “Alright! Cutie mark crusaders' inspirational characters!” They shouted together while Babs just remained seated and smiled to herself. “There anythin’ in there ‘bout me?” She asked. “Well there’s a song about you in one of the episodes, but it’s kinda about you as a bully before you became friends with the crusaders.” I said awkwardly, seeing her face frown just a bit. “Is it any good?” She then asked. “Well… it’s a pretty catchy tune if that helps.” I chuckled nervously. “Ooh, can you play, please, please, pleeease!” Pinkie begged, giving me her puppy dog eyes. “How about another time Pinkie, ok?” “Ok.” She brightened up while I noticed Babs and the crusaders smile appreciatively. “So other than songs made from each of us, what else have these humans made in honor of us and our adventures?” Twilight asked. “Well…” I thought about this carefully but decided to just power through on the brutal truth. “You would be surprised, there’s comic books, toys, games, even cosplay of all of you. Not to mention how many weirdos there are foaming at the mouth over your characters.” “What do you mean?” Fluttershy wondered. I felt myself internally sweat at the question. “Uuuhhh, I’m not too sure if you girls should know.” I said uneasily. “What, some of these people are obsessed with us or something?” A.J. joked. I didn’t say anything for a while at that, the girls noticed while I wringed my hands nervously. “Well… depends on your definition of ‘obsessed’ to some people, Applejack.” “What do you mean by that?” Twilight wondered, arching a brow in confusion. Taking a deep breath to myself I debated whether or not I should tell them, but then it came back to me that they were going to be living with me for possibly a while, so it would be better to just as the saying goes, rip it off fast like a band-aid. “Ok I’m going to be totally honest here so don’t take it too personally please, buuut other than a popular tv series, comics, and toys…. There’s a huge following of pornography involving all of you girls online as well. Including Spike.” I said quickly feeling my face redden in a massive blush when I admitted the fact. I waited for several painfully long and awkward moments hoping to god and heaven above that I don’t get a fist, hoof, or beam of magic, or all of the above to the face. Until one of the girls finally broke the pregnant pause in the room. “...Excuse me?” It was Rarity that spoke up first. “Uh… come again?” Applejack echoed while the rest of the girls remained silent. “You said there’s porn about us?” Rainbow added evenly. ”Oh god.” I thought, gulping to myself, bracing for whatever kind of unimaginable pain, literal or otherwise, I might’ve just brought down on myself. “The… uh, fanbase has a bit of adult content made about all of you. So, um… yeah.” I said wringing my hands and not looking up at the girls, I was so afraid that they were gonna lash out at me. Or worse, think that I’m the most disgusting perverted son of bitch in all existence. “Wow… ok then.” Spike said, but didn’t add anything more. Another long, painful silence started after that, none of us were sure what to say next, I tried not to look at any of them, avoiding my direct gaze. Afraid that at any moment it would set them off in some kind of rage or panic, so I just sat there as the tension in the room seemed to grow and grow like a pile of steel girders placed right on my back. “Can we see it?” Pinkie asked out of the blue. “Huh?” I asked. “HUH?!” Everyone else echoed looking straight at the party pony in complete bewilderment. “Yer asking to look up porn of us in an alternate world?” “Made by Celestia knows who?” Rarity added. “Were you hit on the head or something?” Scootaloo remarked in exasperation. “Oh c’mon you silly fillies,” She smiled standing up. “He just told us all this stuff in confidence because he wants to be friends with us after just meeting us in pony for the first time. Besides, it's not the first time I had somepony staring at my chest balloons or my bubbly tushy.” Pinkie added shaking her ass towards the girls while jiggling her noticeable bust for emphasis. I blushed at that but did my best to compose myself from the party ponies rather impressive display. But was warmed by her defense of me. After that everyone remained silent for a near minute, I sweated internally hoping to every deity out there that I don’t get blasted to the floor, or worse, be completely shut out by my idols in friendship. Like everyone else. “Weeelll… I guess I’m curious how I’d look if I were drawn by somepony.” It was Rainbow who started much to my surprise. “I’ve always wanted to be drawn by a handsome artist like out of one of my romance novels.” Rarity sighed while most of the group looked at her questioningly. “What? It’s not too much for a girl to dream.” She huffed exaggeratedly. Smiling to myself I rolled my eyes while feeling reassured at the girl's words, knowing that they didn’t think less of me yet was certainly a relief on my shoulders. “I actually wanna see whut these humans have drawn me into. I bet I look pretty good in all of them.” Babs boasted. I was surprised to hear some of them voice their curiosity at seeing such art of themselves though, but seeing that I wasn’t going to get a hoof, horn, or fist to the face, or groin. I figured they’d be open in seeing what they wanted, to a certain extent. “Well if the lady asks.” I said to myself.” Booting up the search engine on my laptop I opened up Derpibooru figuring that’d be the best site to start with, plus I could change the filters there if I wanted to. I turned back to the group as they hovered behind me, looking at the screen in curiosity as they waited for me to open the link. “Are you sure you guys want to see this? I’ll warn you right now there’s a lot of strange, gruesome, to just full blown pornographic stuff on here, well if I change the filter of course.” “Yes we’re sure, c’mon we’ve seen Pinkie pie change her hooves into feet just by blowing into them, what’s more scary than that?” Rainbow snorted impatiently. I let out a breath. “Alright but don’t say I didn’t warn you. If you feel uncomfortable with what you're seeing, you're free to change the filter or the site whenever you want.” “Darling please, we’re not some innocent little girls from an ivory castle.” Rarity huffed. “You're one to talk Rarity.” I muttered hearing her snort at my remark. I then turned back to the screen, then the rest of the group, feeling a little apprehensive at the potential can-no fucking case of worms it could open up for the ponies and drake with me. “Last chance girls.” “Oh for the love of Celestia and Lunas tits just get on with it already!” Babs exclaimed impatiently. I shrugged, turning back to the screen. “Ok, don’t say I didn’t warn you then.” As I clicked the link, opening up the window for them to see. Then when it opened I changed the filter to the adult section. We then spent the next hour looking at fanart and a few stories on Fimfiction that I bookmarked. I was surprised at the girls' interest in seeing how me and the rest of the world viewed them. Overall they liked a lot of the stuff they saw but I made sure to filter out any gore or other hardcore content, but after a bit of pestering from both Pinkie, Rainbow, and surprisingly Rarity I relented and showed them several artists but insured me and Spike kept our backs turned from that. The last thing I needed was to make things very awkward between me and the girls, including the fact that they were currently looking at pornographic art of themselves. After around ten minutes of that Spike and I were told that they were done looking and I could see they were all pretty flustered, I couldn’t blame them. If you look at enough of the drawings it will definitely make you hot under the collar, to pass the time I asked him a couple things about himself and I was surprised to know he actually knew several instruments he could play, I only knew he could play piano but that was it. I was also surprised he actually had the guilty pleasure of watching Romcoms when he’s alone. I knew if he divulged that to Rarity it might score him a few points of interest for her but decided for the moment to keep that to myself mostly because she and the others were in the same room. I next asked what the most his scales could take a hit from and told me he accidentally stabbed his foot with a knife while cooking one time and hardly felt anything, well at least that helped on the theory of his durability from the show. After an awkward amount of time, I took over on the computer and decided to show the dragon some art of himself too after he insisted. Mostly because he pointed out he’s 19 and had seen porn before. So I showed him some good pieces but made sure to filter out the ones that involved any of their friends in Ponyville and the princesses, just for the sake of avoiding any further unnecessary awkwardness. To say he was as flustered as the others when finished, lets just say we both did our best to keep ourselves from ‘rising to the occasion’ and after a couple minutes of waiting for the two of us to calm and showing some more cute PG art we recomposed ourselves while the girls awkwardly sat away from the laptop screen but rejoined when I invited them back over to watch a few fan made videos of themselves on Youtube, which they loved. I then changed sites over to Google Docs and began to show the girls a couple of my stories I was working on along with some that weren’t connected to Fimfiction. Twilight had a great interest in the work and the fact there was an unlimited source of reading for her online she looked like she was about to soak her panties at the thought, hmm maybe sometime I can ask her to critique some of my work later on, it would be nice to get an outside source. While the others were impressed with how I portrayed some of them, I couldn’t help but blush and just kept showing them more and more PG rated art afterwards. Rainbow, Pinkie, and Spike were laughing when I showed them a few comics featuring them in comedic fashion. And the others enjoyed some of the fan animations that depicted them. And when I went to the OC’s section they were impressed with how many people had made their own characters, the creepy part though was some of the girls recognized seeing those ponies back in Equestria, especially Button Mash, his mom and Milky Way. Talk about The Twilight Zone. But a part of me was also overjoyed that they existed, and it made me wonder what they were like in person. Hey, a guy’s allowed to daydream too you know! “So this is all of your work?” Spike asked after I finished showing them a couple of personal Spike fics I’ve been working on. “Um, well just a few stories I’ve worked on so far. And thanks to a few of my friends as well for helping me out here.” I replied nervously, I was feeling uncomfortable showing the girls my fanfiction about them, but they didn’t seem to mind too much so I was relieved seeing that. “Wow you sure must have a lot of time on your hands.” Applejack remarked. “And this is just one of thousands upon thousands of stories inspired from us?” Rarity added. “Tens of thousands I think.” I replied making the mare who beamed and stared off into space, I think the idea of thousands upon thousands of people adoring her began to go to her head, she stared at nothing and a dreamy look formed on her. “Houston we lost Rarity.” I joked. “So a lot of these people write stories related to us and the show?” “Yeah, there’s even a whole section on thousands and thousands of crossovers too, some I’ve read are pretty great while others, eh are ok.” I said waving my hand in a so-so gesture. “Wow, so they’ve written some all about each of us?” Twilight asked in wonder. “You’d be surprised at how many stories there are of just each of you girls.” I grinned. “This is so cool, and you’re saying that they all are fans of us and create stories about us every day?” Scootaloo asked excitedly. I nodded. “Yeah and there’s more they’re making every week too. So there’s always something new going on here.” I replied as the girls continued to peruse the site both to their curiosity and enjoyment. This went on for a little while until I decided to close the window for a moment, getting everyone's attention. “Hey listen everyone I uh… thanks… for not judging me too quickly over this.” That got their attention, and they all smiled at each other. “Of course we wouldn’t, what did you think we’d do, just shun you outright over this?” Spike stated. “Well…” I said awkwardly. “That was one of my concerns.” “C’mon dear, we’re not that shallow or judgemental, I thought you’d know us that well.” Rarity stared gesturing towards the open page on Fimfiction, I couldn’t blushing in embarrassment at that knowing she was right. “Fair point.” I replied.” You’re really ok with the idea of millions of people knowing about you girls and most of your lives?” Twilight and the others mulled this over for several moments before responding. “Well… It’s definitely very odd seeing ourselves as cartoon icons, but not the craziest thing we’ve seen over the years.” “You have to admit, it’s not as weird as seeing physical counterparts of your friends running around in a school.” Spike added. The other’s nodded in agreement. “Is this why you asked us this morning to come up with fake names and disguises, just so nobody can recognize us from our counterparts on tv?” Asked Applebloom. “Well, yeah. The last thing we needed was some crazed fans fawning all over you guys while trying to do some simple shopping.” I shrugged. “Or the press over the fact you're from another world.” “Huh, well that explains a lot.” Babs commented. “While I don’t appreciate being deceived in such a manner, I can very much understand your reasoning darling, and we’re grateful of your honesty with us.” Rarity smiled. “I can’t believe I’m an actual celebrity in another world, totally awesome!” Rainbow beamed, her wings fluttering in excitement. “I knew all along.” Pinkie smiled, while I and everyone else just looked at her in confusion. “Since when?” I asked. “Since the perspective change back to you in the first chapter.” She stated matter of factly while all of us just stared at the earth pony in like she had grown a second head while she just smiled like it was the most normal thing in the world. I shook my head ignoring her while the others rolled their eyes at their friend, I reminded myself once more that it was just Pinkie being Pinkie. “Anyway, does that mean we’re friends?” I asked hopefully. “Of course we are, why wouldn’t we be?” Twilight said in confusion. “Honestly when I mentioned the porn I was afraid you would lose all respect for me, especially since I offered you girls to live here with me.” I said dejectedly. “That’s ridiculous, sure it's super creepy with some of the stuff we saw, but it’s not enough to hate on the guy who freely opened up his house to us until we find a way back home. That would just be rude.” Scootaloo said, putting on a grin “And besides it's a little nice to know a lot of people including me and the crusaders find us so attractive.” She winked. I blushed at that but shook it off. “Uh r-right, anyway I’m just really glad to hear that I get to be friends with you guys, this is like a bronies dream come true here!” I grinned. “Well I’m happy we make you feel so super special Colton.” Pinkie smiled brightly. “Then this calls for something extra special.” I said as I stood up and jogged back up to my room and into my mini fridge, pulling out a dozen cans, one for each of the girls. It was a black colored can with Rainbows character on it, I headed back down placing the cans on the coffee table much to everyone’s interest. Twilight and Rarity picked up the rest in their magic and passed them around to everybody until each of my new roommates had a can in hand. “What is this?” Applebloom said, looking at the can in confusion. “Soda.” “Rainbow Dash Cherry Fizz Splash.” I heard Spike read from the label. “Whoa so you mean to tell me I’m on a soda can?” The blue pegasus grinned widely. “Yeah, pretty sweet right?” “More like awesome, are there any other flavors with the others on them?” “Strangely enough, no, I looked everywhere online and so far, nothing. I never understood why.” I shrugged. “Huh, weird. At least I get to be on one.” She boasted while seeing the girls roll their eyes at the daredevils antics. “Well, this calls for a toast then.” I stated raising my can. “What are we toasting?” Fluttershy asked. “To new friends and new adventures.” I said raising up my can. “I can dig that.” Spike grinned, raising his can. I then saw Twilight roll her eyes, smile, then raise her can saying. “To new friends.” We then all took a swig as I reveled in the light cherry taste of the carbonated drink, seeing the others' reactions. They all seemed to like it. “Well how’s it taste?” I asked the cyan mare as she tasted the drink. “I taste awesome.” She smiled and downed the rest of it. ‘Heh phrasing.’ I grinned to myself taking another sip from my can. After we emptied our drinks I threw them in a cardboard box I left for the recycling bin. With that done I faced my new friends with a big smile on my face, feeling happy, which was something I hadn’t felt in a while. “So who’s up for watching a tv show about yourselves?” I asked only to get several hands raised in excitement, smiling brightly. I brought the girls downstairs into the living room and had them all assembled in front of my tv while I pulled up the site I usually watch on the flatscreen and booted up the show. We watched a few of my favorite episodes from the first season and every one of us enjoyed seeing their past adventures. They laughed at some of their memories displayed on screen while cringing at some of their more embarrassing moments. Overall it was fun to see some things happen from those times that the show could never tell. The girls actually explained to me some of the things that happened offscreen in some of the episodes and I was a little surprised at some of the stuff they told me. Like one time in the Swarm of The Century episode, it turns out Celestia figured out the “parade” Pinkie had done when she lured the parasprites out with her instruments, and helped Twilight round up all the ones that had their appetite magically changed by her earlier that day and turned them back to normal to prevent any further incidents like with what happened to Ponyville. Seriously what was she thinking using her magic to make them not eat food like that, it could’ve done something worse had she done differently. Like making them crave pony flesh for example. After that the princess then helped fix up most of the town with some ponies she called to assist too, apparently with their combined effort it only took a couple weeks to fix up most of the damage left behind. Another thing they told me was the time in the Dragonshy episode after the dragon Fluttershy stood up to left, it left behind most of its hoard much to Rarity’s delight of course. And the girls brought in several carts to collect it. Apparently though, there’s a particular law involving dealing with a dragon hoard where all the items are cataloged by the kingdom, dispersed back to their rightful owners and if any of it doesn’t belong to anybody, can be claimed either by whomever found it or released to kingdom if left unclaimed. The girls took what they could and gave the rest to Ponyville for charity. Then there was the time from the Castle Mania and Power Ponies episodes where the reason behind the girls going to the castle besides from the former adventure, was that Celestia had convinced Luna to allow the girls to begin the process of preparing the castle of the two sisters for preservation. She explained to Twilight later that she wanted to not only preserve just another historical site of Equestria, but a founding reminder of where the country’s most significant moments in it’s history have happened, such as Celestia banishing her sister a thousand years ago, her return and reformation a few years ago, the place where The Elements of Harmony rested and chose their new bearers, and The Tree of Harmony’s resting place as well. She told the new princess of friendship that she wanted to let the ponies and other races see where the age of friendship and harmony had started. After that we watched some more episodes together, Twilight and I happened to agree about how confusing it was to constantly see all of the characters interacting with their hooves or mouths, the unicorns and alicorns we could understand because of their ability to use magic, but every other creature that didn’t have hands like me or Spike was just something that bothered me whenever I watched the show. We actually joked around at how unsanitary it would be using your mouth as a hand on some episodes. After another couple hours of watching we finished up after I showed them one of the specials Rainbow Rocks and some fan animations they were very impressed with. They even liked the songs I showed off to them, although everyone was bawling, including me, when I showed them “Lullaby For A Princess”. “Man I’m a little surprised at how much they got right there.” Spike stated after we were done watching the Vinyl and Octavia animation, you know? The one with a hole in the middle of their apartment? “I still can’t believe we’re TV icons in another universe.” Rainbow said. “At least it’s good to know they have our looks right.” Rarity stated brushing her hair aside. “I think we look totally cute as four-legged ponies!” Pinkie beamed. “Yeah, but I’d rather not touch everything where my feet have been, thank you.” Scootaloo added glancing at her hands. “So, what did you girls think?” I asked. “Great, how many seasons did they make?” “Four, and the two specials involving Sunset Shimmer, which I think were totally awesome.” It was then after mentioning the unicorn something occurred to me. “By the way, has she gone back to Equestria and reconciled with Celestia yet?” “No, the last time we saw her was after those three sirens showed up and us defeating them, which was three weeks ago if I’m certain.” Twilight confirmed. “Damn I was hoping for that to happen, how is she anyway?” “She’s been doing great. Last we heard she did say she was considering visiting Equestria before we left.” Spike grinned. “Well that’s good, hey whatever happened to those three sirens anyway? Last I checked they just ran away offscreen but nobody really knows where or what happened to them after that concert you did.” Twilight shrugged. “We’re not sure, we never saw or heard of them again after the battle of the bands.” “Shame, I wonder what happened to them anyway.” I wondered. “I don’t know,” Spike shrugged. “But I’d rather not think about it.” “Hmm, I wonder what they’re doing right now anyway?”[i/] I thought to myself, hopefully for their sake and everyone else’s they weren’t causing trouble. I then remembered something that had been on my mind since the girls arrived, a popular theory on Fimfiction I kept hearing about all the time, knowing how uncomfortable a subject it was though required being subtle. “Ok so I have another question, an odd one, is scootaloo an orphan?” “Huh?” Everyone said in unison. “Dude what the fuck does that have to do with my life?” The young pegasus snorted indignantly. But in some cases being blunt was much better on those rare occasions. “Hey don’t blame me, blame the fanservice coming to that conclusion.” I replied, raising my hands defensively. “But… Well, is it true?” She snorted once more in annoyance. “Of course not, first of all my parents never died or ditched me in some foster home, they have jobs where they travel around the world a lot and left me with my aunts because they hardly have time to look after me.” “Have you ever seen them?” “Sure, during holidays but most of the time it’s through video call, but I do get sweet presents they mail to me occasionally.” “Oh yeah, didn’t they give you a portrait of themselves painted by some street artist?” Applebloom added. “Or when ya got that modified scooter a few years back on Hearths warming?” Said Babs. “Or that stuffed animal of a manticore several months ago?” Replied Sweetie Belle. “Yeah all of those were gifts they shipped over to Ponyville.” The orange mare confirmed, her wings buzzing in what seemed to be happiness. “So what is it they do for a living then?” I asked. “My Dad does photography while my mom works with exotic plants and animals, I don’t know a lot about what they do exactly, but from what I gathered is they basically study new plants and animals together while traveling around the world.” “Wow really?! That’s amazing, I didn’t know they were so cool.” Sweetie Belle added. “What are their names?” “Mane Allgood and Snap Shutter.” The second I heard the first one, it took me a second to process it until I lost it, I wheezed out in sheer laughter at the comparison and fell on the floor pounding my fists as I nearly coughed out my lungs at the pun and continued doing so for the next couple of minutes. I finally managed to control myself mostly because I was coughing by the time I stopped laughing, once I controlled myself the girls were giving me deadpan looks while Fluttershy seemed to have a look of wonder at the mention of the name. “Whoo… hehe… oh fuck, I’m sorry that hehe, that was just too funny for me.” “You’ve got a weird sense of comedy then dude.” Spike commented. “Ok… whoo, so let me guess, she works with animals then?” She nodded and I noticed Rainbow, Twilight, and Fluttershy perk up at the confirmation. “Wait, your parents are Snap Shutter and Mane Allgood, the world famous naturalists?! That’s awesome! I thought you were cool before kid, but you’re twenty percent cooler now.” Rainbow grinned. “Really?!” “Really.” The prism mare nodded. “I didn’t know your parents were such famous adventurers, I look through their articles on animals all the time.” Fluttershy said animatedly. “And I always read their latest research they publish every few months, it’s something I look forward to so much in the mail!” Twilight added excitedly while almost everyone else rolled their eyes. “Wow that sounds like an amazing set of talents to have, how long have they done their research?” I asked, my interest growing. “Well, about twenty years or so, they stopped for several years to raise me then went back to work when aunt Lofty and Holiday offered to look after me.” Her mood then shifted from nostalgic to solemn, her ears and tail drooping. “I wonder if they even noticed I’m gone?” She said quietly. Seeing this I placed my hand on her shoulder in reassurance. “Hey, I’m sure they’ll notice. If not them then your relatives will make them.” I said trying to give off my best smile. It seemed to do the trick because she perked up a little. “Oh please, who would notice a bl-” Diamond was about to say before I interrupted her. “One more word out of you Diamond and I won’t hesitate to punch you in the nose. If you’re going to be living under my roof, you’re going to be living under MY rules. And I’m not going to tolerate any of you and Silver Spoons bullying anybody while you're here, do I make myself clear?” I said putting on my sternest tone. Both mares looked at me in surprise for a few moments before nodding. “I want to hear you say it.” “We hear you crystal clear.” They answered quietly, their ears pinning back to their heads while their tails sagged in subduement. “Good.” I smiled while the others looked at me a little impressed. Sure they were ok, but one thing I wasn’t going to allow while they were here was the crusaders or anybody else being tormented by those two. I then thought of something else to ask them, it wasn’t until I looked at Pinkie's mane and tail that it came to me. “Ok next question, is it true that Pinkie's mane and tail can hold a lot of stuff inside?” “Of course, I keep a bunch of stuff in here, where do you think I keep all my party supplies?” “I dunno, it was either there or… uh someplace else.” “What? You mean my party supply hole?” She said innocently, most of the girls blanched while I almost lost it right there in that sentence. I took a moment to compose myself before risking bursting out laughing at the innocent part pony’s phrasing. “The… what?” “Y’know my party supply hole, it’s a hole where I keep all my spare party supplies in case of a party emergency.” “Since when would… you know what, who am I kidding it’s you I’m talking about. There’s always a party emergency for you somewhere somehow.” I sighed. “And let me guess the party supply hole is a literal hole in Ponyville where you stash your supplies right?” She then gasped. “How did you know, are you psychic?” I chuckled. “No, I just have a very good way of understanding someone as eccentric as you.” “Thanks.” She grinned. I chuckled to myself, then wondered what other burning questions I could ask. Nothing came to mind at the moment yet, but I was willing to bet I’d find out eventually all of the secrets of the mane six when they were ready. Secrets that people in the entire MLP fandom would kill for! But for now, I was just content having them here living with me until they figured out a way to get back to Equestria. “So, who wants to see what you look like as stallions?” I asked, turning to the girls, grinning. “Ooh, me!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly, while the others agreed too. And with that I introduced the ponies and drake to the wonders of not only their worldwide fame as tv characters, but the vastness of the internet itself as we spent the rest of the afternoon watching and listening to my favorite videos online, to showing them my streaming service on my large flatscreen and a couple of episodes of my favorite shows. They loved all of it. If it was going to be like this with these equestrians as my roommates for the foreseeable future, then things were not going to be dull in the slightest for me from now on. This was going to be the start of a whole new adventure. Author's Note AUTHORS NOTE: Hello guys thanks for reading my chapter! And happy holidays! I’m very sorry for the delay and my promises of updating. I’ve been busy with other projects, sidetracked playing video games and mainly had to combat my laziness too. LOL! Anyways I’ve worked long and hard in getting this chapter right and I'm happy with the result, now I just need to figure out the next couple chapters at the moment and how I want to play them out. Don’t worry I’ll keep you updated on things going on with me when I can, and right now I’ve got plans for the next year on what I plan to write and post when they’re ready. For now I can tell you I’m still writing my main projects which are Man of The House, Legend of The Phoenix, and my Fanfiction project Fairy’s Advocate, including a future MLP crossover I’ll talk about soon in the future. As for how I’m doing, better to let you all know. I’ll still be writing and my collabs with Sonicblitz are still going, we’re just busy on other projects right now. Uh, what else? So far that’s all for now I can think of, I’ll update anything else on my next blog to catch you guys up. For now I’ve got lots in development personally and can’t wait to tell you soon, see you pony fans soon.:heart: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/heart.png:heart: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/heart.png:heart: https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/heart.png