Pink Personal Hell and Altering Fate

by DigitalpotatoRoo

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Alternate Universe, Human, Twilight Sparkle, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Pinkie Pie
Length: 24073

Two narratives - an odd couple narrative alongside a slice of life one

Two different narratives exist in this story - "Pink Personal Hell", an odd couple comedy where Pinkie Pie appears to be living in another world, and "Altering Fate", a slice of life story detailing a new Unicorn being shown his place in Ponyville.

A mixture inspired by Haruki Murakami from his work "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World", the narratives eventually become one.

Warnings: Language, length.

Published 2012-12-06 23:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-12-06 23:20:01 UTC

Pink Personal Hell and Altering Fate

Pink Personal Hell

That pink thing from another world showed up in my room one night. It was a freak electrical storm - in the middle of winter. Sounded like a recipe for some kind of disaster, but there weren't any mad scientists trying to make monsters from pieces of peoples' dead bodies. (That I knew of)

Instead, something else appeared in my room. Something that looked like a small horse woke me up. Like the kind you sometimes see as seeing-eye animals - except pink and with an even darker pink mane.

"Hello there, my name is Pinkie Pie. What's yours?" the creature asked.

I then proceeded to jump so high; there is still an outline of me on the ceiling. (also I'm still finding bits of plaster in my bed much later.) The horse proceeded to laugh at me after I fell right on down onto the bed, stars orbiting my head.

"You're funny," The horse said, rolling on her back, "You hit the wall. Like mega boom!"

I pinched myself - I had to be dreaming. Unfortunately it hurt. And then the horse jumped right up on the bed; hoof pushing right on down in my stomach.

"Ooops, sorry. You're super-squishy, you know that?" The horse said.

"Get off my stomach!" I grunted, sitting up, shaking plaster from the ceiling off my face.

"Oooooh you have a comfy bed!" The horse said, walking around in circles on my bed, "What's this made with?"

"What in the hell are you doing here?" I finally asked, sitting up.

"I just found myself here. I'm Pinkie Pie, remember?"

"Uhm...no I don't...but where did you get in my house from?"

"I just found myself in here, of course," the horse that called herself Pinkie Pie responded.

I somehow managed to sleep, despite the hyperactive horse inside my room.

* * *
I walked back in from school. Hoping that was nothing more than a bizarre waking dream of finding a horse that ate all my sugar pop-tarts inside the house. When I opened the door, I was suddenly assaulted with a strangely sweet smell. Something that smelled like a pastry being made of some kind.

"What the heck?" I asked, walking into the kitchen, "I didn't bake a-"

My mouth dropped. In the kitchen was Pinkie Pie again. She seemed to have been making a cake...somehow. Don't ask me how she managed to get it in the oven without burning herself or making a huge mess.

"I made a cake for you. It's boring in here - I had to do something. So I made a cakey-cake."

"Where the heck did you get the ingredients?!" I finally stammered.

"You had them laying around the house. You should use them more - those eggs were old. And the frosting is great, anyways!"

"How the heck did you do this?!" I asked, walking closer and looking around.

"I do it all the time!"

"...How am I going to explain this?" I asked as I picked up a spoon, "Look, there are teeth-marks all over it!"

"Well sorry, I'm not a unicorn so I can't exactly move all these things that easily. Oooh! The cake's ready!"

She dashed over to the oven, opened it, and took out a cake after squeezing my oven mitts on her front hooves. Giggling, the horse placed it on top of the stove and then closed it. Somehow, without damaging the cake, she hopped up and hit a button on the oven.

"Boy, your house is like a minotaur's. Everything's so big!" Pinkie Pie giggled, "So what's your name?"

"I think the better question is, what on earth are you doing in here? And why are you even here in the first place?" I asked the horse.

"Oh, that's simple - I just found myself in here last night, and then you hit the ceiling. Then I found all those sweet things you had and then made myself at home because I'm not going to be leaving anytime soon."

My hand hit my face. Oh lord...of all the roommates in the world, I get one who is not only not human, but insane to boot.

"And why won't you be leaving anytime soon?" I asked.

"Ugh! Look out there!" Pinkie pointed to the window with one of her hooves, "It's too cold out there. It's drab! It's so boring! And everyone else is so boring too! I turned on that scrying device of yours and everyone else is so boring, too."

She turned to face me as she continued to speak, describing what I think was the television.

"I saw someone talking about how her husband was cheating on him. She was all, 'oh my goodness why are you having an affair? Who was it John, who is she?'" When she imitated the TV, her curly mane straightened completely.

"And then, John describes it as his sister in law's cousin's brother's niece's friend's roommate's brother's daughter." Pinkie pie's mane fluffed back up again, "And then she says, 'You mean Sally'? My goodness, you have a lot of depressing stuff in this world. No wonder you need some laughter to brighten things up! Let's frost this cake!" Pinkie pie finished, taking out the frosting and spreading it over the still warm cake.

I just stared at this, flabbergasted.

"If you'll excuse me," I said, "I need to go do something in my room."

"Oh! You have all this disgusting bits of stuff on your floor. It tastes like cardboard! Pleh!" Pinkie Pie said.

Altering Fate

The blue and black unicorn sat inside the room inside the Canterlot palace. He still looked around a bit nervously, fidgeting a bit. As if he wasn't used to being inside such a fancy place, despite having been in there. He was still nervous as heck. He even sat a bit uncomfortably, fidgeting around to find some comfortable position to sit.

What also wasn't helping the unicorn out was the figure in front of him. Princess Luna herself, keeping the same appearance as Nightmare Moon. The alicorn towered over the smaller and younger unicorn, and always seemed to have a stern look on her face. She still kept looking at him with eyes of the night.

"Now, Nickel Steel," Luna said, looking right at him, "What do Cutie Marks mean?"

The stallion stuttered a bit, before finally producing his answer.

"A...A Cutie mark is something that sets a pony across from what a, apart from what others, from others!" the unicorn said, "They're born without it and gain it when they become older."

The alicorn nodded at the answer.

"Very good," she told Nickel Steel, "And what can you tell me about your cutie mark?"

He looked over to his flank, where his cutie mark rested. It was a black spell circle - something that he had been told from a similar unicorn meant an aptitude at magic. Even then he still couldn't exactly understand its justification.

"It's a spell circle," Nickel said, looking back at the alicorn, "It means that I'm-it means that I'm good at magic like Twilight Sparkle."

"Also good. You really are figuring this out. Now, a second question. What are common symbols for your other equine brethren. What are common symbols for Earth Ponies?"

"Uh-Music notes! no! I mean...rocks?"

Luna simply looked at him. He had been incorrect.

"INCORRECT," She said in her royal voice, "THE MOST COMMON SYMBOLS FOR EARTH PONIES ARE FOODSTUFFS OR PLANTS. MUSIC NOTES ARE COMMON AMONGST ALL THREE KINDS, NOT JUST EARTH PONIES."

The force of her voice flew the unicorn back a little, no longer knocking him over after he had learned to brace himself for the royal voice. Every time he got an answer wrong, Luna would correct him in her royal voice. While it may have been a little cruel, the others couldn't help but wonder if Luna might have been doing this for amusement.

"Now," Luna reverted to a normal voice, "What are common symbols for Pegasi?"

"Weather-related," Nickel Steel said.

"Correct," Luna responded, "Now, for Unicorns?"

"Magic symbols or astrological things?" Nickel Steel guessed.

"I will give you that, you are close enough," Luna said, "I believe this is enough for today. Night will fall within a few hours. Next, you will learn how to properly use your magic. Do not worry, for Twilight Sparkle will be helping you there."

Nickel Steel tried to look up at his horn, squinting his eyes a bit before giving up. He had already attempted to do some of that magic, which lead to himself instead getting pinned on the ceiling at first, and then spraying himself in the eye with an orange.

"Do not study too hard that you get no sleep in the night," the royal alicorn said, walking towards the exit of the room, horn glowing as the door opened. "You do not want to be tired."

The royal pony left the room, leaving the door open as if to invite the unicorn to explore the rest of the palace. However, like he did all the time, he never seemed to pick up on this cue at all. Time after time, he simply stayed within the small vicinity of the room he had been given in Canterlot.

Princess Luna quickly walked towards the throne room, where Princess Celestia was there, waiting for her. Several other guards had also waited, standing at attention.

"How is he coming along?" Celestia asked Luna.

"He will soon learn. When do you think he is ready to be sent to Ponyville?"

"Depending on how he learns to use his magic, I would say perhaps the very next day. Living in Ponyville has done wonders to Twilight Sparkle and the others."

"Perfect, I know he has people waiting for him there. Before you inquire, I have left his door open once again. He never seems to have picked up my little hint that he is to explore the palace. Nickel Steel still sits like he has forgotten to walk and stumbles on stairs," Luna said.

"He'll never learn if he simply hangs around that room...perhaps he needs a little guidance."

"Not the crystal empire. Definitely not that."

"I would not dream of making him walk up or down so many stairs," Celestia said, "Shining Armour and Cadence still wonder to this day why Sombra felt the need to place so many stairs in the palace..."

"Them and everyone else."

Pink Personal Hell

"Wake up!" The high-pitched voice said, "I made waffles!"

"MMRGPH," I grumbled, looking at the alarm clock nearby, pressing on the light. It read 6:25 AM, and it was still dark outside.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" I pulled the blankets over my head, "I don't have to be up for another hour!"

"If you do that you won't have any time to eat anything! Especially not the waffles I made for you! They're good! Come on!"

"Sleep is more important," I mumbled.

I thought I won for a bit, until the lights turned on and my comforter flew right on off the bed. What the hell, it was so cold! I instinctively rolled up a bit, hissing as the light hit my eyes. It burned! It burned! You never wake people up when they're asleep unless it's really important.

"Come on, up up up!" The voice said, as the horse from hell jumped on the bed, bouncing me around.

"AGH!" I shouted again, "What the hell is your problem?!?"

"I'm just trying to bring a little more cheer into your life," The equine said, bouncing me around a little more and sending up some more clouds of plaster stuck in the bed, "And give you a better chance."

"You can give me a bit more cheer in my life if you simply left me alone!" I grumbled.

"Come on!" Pinkie Pie said, hopping off and bouncing a little more, "Breakfast awaits!"

I grumbled, and thought it might have been a little less bothersome to simply follow her to the breakfast table and eat something. Maybe I can get some extra sleep before school. Inside my head I was thinking about hurting her in some way, but you know those angry "I got woken up at six-in-the-morning" thoughts.

Altering Fate

"Rise and shine," A polite voice greeted in the room.

Nickel Steel was still asleep on his back in the bed. He turned his head over to where the voice was and spotted a somewhat familiar purple unicorn. Her horn glowed a pinkish colour as the blankets moved.

"Eep!" Nickel Steel said, instinctively curling up again.

"Oh come on, there's no need," The unicorn calmly said, "Did I scare you?"

"A little, I'm not...well, used to being woken up quite like this before."

"Well, we have a day ahead of us, after all. I hope you slept well," The unicorn said, "Come on, they're waiting for you."

Nickel Steel climbed out of the bed and followed the unicorn out of his room. He wasn't looking forward to the stairs, having had a bit of trouble with them already. Thankfully, he was getting a little better there, as he didn't lose his balance at all, walking down the stairs.

"It's kind of funny how you had so much trouble with something as simple as that," the other unicorn commented.

"Well, that was kind of a big one after all," Nickel responded a bit sheepishly. (Almost sheepishly enough to baa his answer towards the other unicorn) "Err...I was told by Princess Luna that you're supposed to be helping me?"

"Of course," the other unicorn said, "Magic is my specialty after all. You already are picking up quite a bit of the basics."

"Last time I tried to use magic I sent an orange in my eye..."

"Oh come on," Twilight turned around and smiled, "We all make mistakes like that. Why...I once tried to teleport my friend Spike across the room and sent him flying in between two portals until I rescued him."

"I still don't think I'm really good at it..."

"Oh come on, don't doubt yourself," Twilight said, "You already have a magic cutie mark. You'll get better, but I can say this...your new friends have quite the celebration planned to welcome you to Ponyville!" she even said it in a sing-songy voice, too.

Nickel Steel looked around the room as he was lead into the hall where breakfast was waiting for him, as well as several others. A few guards gave a little look to the pony shuffling his hooves on the ground, but then went back to their duties. Another unicorn even shot him a bit of a look, before turning back to his own meal.

He didn't really feel like he belonged there at all. The guards at least didn't voice any opinion, or shoot any dirty looks, but he assumed that was their job. Meanwhile, a few other nobles, such as the white unicorn seemed to look at the awkwardly walking pony with disdain. Even if he never got such a look from any of the princesses, it didn't exactly make him feel welcome inside Canterlot at all. (Even if Twilight told him that Prince Blueblood tended to do that to everypony)

"What if I don't fit in, though..." he mumbled to himself, "It won't be that much better than here..."

Pink Personal Hell

I was...very surprised at what I saw. Somehow, the horse managed to prepare quite a large and delicious looking breakfast for the both of us. I don't think I had ever seen Belgian Waffles that pristine since...well, I turned on the food network and saw belgian waffles being prepared by a chef and modeled by a food stylist. I could even smell the syrup and the butter that had been spread - wait, when did I get butter? I only had cheap-ass Country Crock spreadable butter.

The waffles seemed to be in a perfect formation, too, apart from rounded corners that one would expect from such a delicacy as a thick Belgian Waffle. A perfect square exactly as long as it was wide, with similarly perfect squares making up the grooves of the waffle. Over almost every waffle there was another square of butter, already beginning to melt over the warm waffles.

The only thing that tainted such a pristine image of these waffles was the syrup - it had not been put on yet. And even then, it wasn't stored in one of those fancy containers. Pinkie Pie just bit the container shaped like Ms. Butterworth and dragged her over to the table, standing her up. It did sort of ruin the image, but either way, maple syrup was maple syrup.

"How did you make this?" I asked, looking around at everything.

"Not hard after all!" Pinkie pie said, "Dig in! There's plenty for you!"

"Exactly where did you get everything for this?" I asked her, still somewhat skeptically.

"From Ponyville. Earth Ponies make the best food ever. Hey, you should even make a Kway-sa-dilla for dinner!"

"A what?"

"A Kway-sa-dilla! I even got some of the cheese from Equestria too! It's such a nice kind. Well dig in before it gets cold!"

"And what if it's spiked? I'm half expecting that powdered sugar to be crack cocaine," I said.

"Would I eat it if it had this crack cocaine on it?" Pinkie said, nomming a waffle down right in front of me.

"...I'm half expecting you to be ON crack cocaine already, so what difference would it make?"

"Come on, eat it! I'm trying to be nice here."

She did have a point after all. I finally decided to bite the bullet, sat down, and took a bite of the waffle. To say that I wasn't surprised was an understatement. I have eaten waffles from some great places like IHOP or Egg & I before, but this was like them cranked up to eleven. Heck, that cake from yesterday was good (and I was probably going to have some for breakfast...) but this was different.

"Well how do you like it?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"This is amazingly good," I said, "Wait, you seriously got this from Equestria? It's gotta have some kind of drugs in it."

"Nope!" Pinkie pie said, bouncing around, "it's all Equestrian Flour!"

* * *

I had to wonder why I even bothered to try and tell anyone that my home appeared to have been infested by a little pink pony. I try and mention it and everyone has to wonder if I'm sleepwalking or not or if I'm just smoking something. I even show a picture of the equine I snapped with my phone and they think I'm joshing them.

So eventually I just gave up before I found myself getting sectioned, really. People already gave me weird enough looks. Nobody seemed to care about me at all, I kind of didn't have that much of a place here. Sorta just that guy in the back. The one nobody really cares about and who sort of orbits around all the other circles.

I almost failed a group project because they made no bloody effort to contact me at all. Damn people....ugh.... Almost all the time I had to do the work myself. It certainly didn't help when I was attempting to do the work and Pinkie Pie hopped into my room and told me I needed to take a study break.

Altering Fate

"Places everyone places!" Pinkie Pie said, "Our new friend is coming soon!"

Sugarcube Corner was being prepared for a party, to welcome the new pony to Ponyville. Almost everyone was there though Rarity would be arriving fashionably late as usual. Some people were already talking, speculating on what this new pony would be like.

"Hope he doesn't piss off Draco over there," a pony said, "Or get him so excited he nearly wrecks the place."

"HEY!" A red alicorn with a white mane said.

"What, it's a friendly jest."

"'Ey! Beats!" Stay away from the food! That's for everypony!" Rainbow Dash ordered.

"Aw come on," A rather rotund unicorn said, "It's so tasty..."

"We don't want you eating every single thing before everyone can even get to it," She said.

"Fine," Full Beats said plopping down on the ground with a loud THUNKing noise, still keeping his eye on the food. However, plenty of other ponies kept their eyes on the yellow one with the cornucopia cutie mark. He loved to eat, for sure, something he was known for in ponyville.

"Say," Rainbow Dash looked around, "Wasn't Zecora also invited?"

"Guess she chose not to come, maybe she was busy," a yellow pegasus hazarded a guess.

"Shame," Pinkie Pie said, hopping over, "He reminded me of her somewhat."

"ACH! BEATS! GET OUT OF THE CIDER!" another voice shouted, bringing attention to a corner, where Applejack had set up a tub of her family's famous cider, where the gluttonous unicorn was standing, chugging from a rather large stein full of cider that he had levitated with his magic.

"What, you said don't touch the food, what if I'm thirsty?" he asked.

* * *

"See that?" Twilight said, "That's Sugarcube Corner."

Nickel Steel looked up at where Twilight seemed to gesture. It was a building that looked almost like a cottage made out of gingerbread, with a cupcake loft. So that must have been where Pinkie Pie lived, huh? He wondered if she tried to eat the house at one point.

"No, it's not actual gingerbread," another voice said, "Sides, gems are tastier anyways...I wonder if they have some."

"Oh I'm sure they do, Spike," Twilight said, "After all, you're one of us, too. Why would they forget you, after all?"

"Yipee...say, is that Rarity?" The dragon said, before smiling.

Nickel looked over at Spike, before following his eyes to another unicorn. Seemingly the only person in town who was out at the moment. Apart from wearing a rather expensive looking getup, she looked to be what Nickel would have thought of as being a classical unicorn, apart from her purple mane. Pure white fur, and a similarly pure looking white horn. She looked over at the three, and smiled, walking over to them casually.

"Why Twilight, I'm glad I'm not...too fashionably late," the unicorn said, "You must beh our new friend - Nickel Steel, was it?"

"Uh, yes," Nickel said, shying away a little bit, but not breaking eye contact.

"I'm Rarity," She said, "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I do quite like being the centre of attention but this is really your day."

"Nickel Steel but you know that, it is a pleasure to make yours too," Nickel said, trying to bow somewhat but accidentally kissing the ground when he brought his head too low. He didn't want to make a scene, so he spat the dirt back out on the ground.

Twilight chuckled a bit before giving the blue unicorn a nudge in the side. Nickel jumped up again, thankfully having removed all the dirt from around his muzzle before Rarity could chuckle at him or comment anything about the dirt. To him, she looked just like some of those fancy ponies from Canterlot. Except someone he might actually want to talk to, who didn't seem to regard him as some lesser being.

"They're waiting for us," She said, "Come on, let's all go in together."

"I'd love to escort you into his welcome party," Spike said in a dreamy voice, small hearts floating around his head as he stared at the white unicorn.

"Aww you're such a gentleman, Spike," Rarity said, "Let's go, we do not want to keep them waiting."

"Yeah, or Full Beats will eat all the food again," Twilight said.

* * *

"He's coming in!" Pinkie said, "Ooooh this is so exciting I haven't seen him for awhile!"

The entire room was silent, apart from a small smack as Full Beats tried to sneak a nearby cupcake into his mouth. The door opened and then Pinkie Pie leapt in front of the four newcomers, shouting "SURRPRIIIISE!"

Nickel Steel was speechless, shying back a little. However, he was nudged forward again with a bit of magic, from both Rarity and Twilight. He couldn't actually tell. Several ponies looked over towards him and smiled, while a few didn't. Maybe it was because they knew several cupcakes went missing down Full Beats's throat when they weren't looking.

"It's my friend Nickel Steel, see?" Pinkie Pie said.

"Heya there, any friend of Pinkie Pie's is a friend of mine," the red alicorn said, "Name's Draco Scales, by the way."

Nickel was a bit silent at the sudden introduction. He hadn't been informed of any other alicorns apart from Cadence and some others, especially not one who looked somewhat odd, too, almost predatory. But he was at least good natured. It was almost like Spike in a way - who didn't have a malicious bone in his body.

"Hey let's show him around!" Pinkie Pie said, "Come on I'll introduce you to everypony! You've already met Rarity and Twilight."

"Hey what about me!" Spike said.

"Hey, you count in your own category - you're everybody's favourite hatchling friend. Come on Nickel! Let's introduce you to everyone." Pinkie Pie started hopping around, gesturing for the blue unicorn to follow. Draco Scales helped nudge him along, leading him around the party.

"He should meet Fluttershy first - he reminds me so much of her." Draco chuckled, leading him towards the yellow and pink pegasus who seemed to be hanging a little away from the crowd.

Pink Personal Hell

I did not have a good day at all. I was still a bit cranky despite having the best breakfast I've ever had in years, and I really really wanted to hurt someone at the end of the day. Some part of me was hoping that there wouldn't be a pink hyperactive equine that seemed to be on a perpetual sugar rush inside waiting to glomp me or something.

Of course, who was I kidding, of course Pinkie Pie was inside. The second I entered the house, I heard the TV running on full blast practically. Great, I knew I didn't leave the TV on - she had to have been watching it.

And indeed she was. Somehow, she had managed to get the TV turned on, and to MTV. As was expected, I didn't hear a single note of music apart from the background riff-raff that was playing whenever someone talked.

"Hi!" Pinkie Pie said, "How are you?"

"I really don't feel like talking about it..." I said. I didn't want to describe how I wanted to hurt all the guys in the group project at school who completely isolated me and did half of it without even telling me. I now had to do a completely different part of the project all by myself, a part that someone else said they were going to do. I barely had any knowledge of how to construct a freaking visual aide, and I certainly didn't have the software.

"Awwww, wanna talk about it?" Pinkie seemed to appear in front of me, almost causing me to trip on her.

"No," I said.

"You need some laughter! Come on! Laughter is the very best medicine!"

"Yeah, I'll remember that when my appendix bursts next week," I snarked.

"Hey this is funny! See!" Pinkie pie seemed to vanish into the kitchen. While this was my opportunity to ditch her and lock her out of my room, I felt this odd urge to follow her. Whatever the hell she was doing it couldn't have been any worse than the mess she made in the kitchen.

Surprisingly, she had taken the time to clean it all up. (Don't ask me how she managed to do it without any thumbs.) She was in there on her hind legs, holding a bag of flour over her head with a silly grin. I could not tell what she was going to do, throw it at me or stomp it on the ground.

"What're you doing with that flour?" I asked.

"This!" Pinkie Pie said, overturning the bag of flour as she vanished in a cloud, completely turning the pony white as a ghost as it faded. "Isn't it funny?"

"It's kind of messy," I said.

"Awww you need to try it too! See?" She picked up another bag and tossed it at me before I had the time to react.

As soon as that fragile bag of flour touched me, it exploded into another white cloud. I coughed as flour went through my throat, some of it even getting in my eyes. Great, what a mess. I looked over myself, now completely white, just like Pinkie.

"Thanks," I said, "I was wanting to change clothes. Now I have to take a shower."

Her eyes widened - even moreso than they normally were.

"No! Don't wash it off with water!" She said, "you know what happens when flour touches water?"

* * *

Well for once I wish I did listen to Pinkie Pie. She waited outside my bathroom, hearing me repeatedly cussing and ranting as I tried to clean all the flour-turned dough out of my hair and off of my skin. What a mess that made. What also wasn't helping was the fact that the dough started to clog the drain. The flour I had managed to get off me touched the water and turned into dough as well, and then I had myself a dough monster to clean up.

"I told you so," Pinkie Pie said outside the door, "That wasn't a good idea."

"You don't need to tell me twice!" I snapped angrily.

"There was another reason I wanted to warn you about washing it off in the bathtub."

"Can it wait until I've cleaned up this mess?!" I asked.

"Well, there's an alligator in the tub."

"What? I didn't see one in here."

"Yeah, my pet alligator is in the tub. I can't reach the sink."

Right as if on cue, I spotted a green head poking out of the doughy watery mess next to my foot. It didn't look too happy at all, probably about having its home disturbed Especially not with having to cope with a dough monster on top of someone that was probably a couple hundred times its size. It simply looked at me with purple eyes.

"Uh oh...."

The alligator immediately opened its jaws as wide as it could and latched onto my leg. I couldn't get it out of the ground to shake it, in part because the dough monster had my feet but also because I didn't want to slip and break my skull on the wall. It surprisingly didn't hurt.

"AGGGGH!" I shouted, reaching down to try and get the alligator off. It didn't seem to react at all, actually sliding off my skin as soon as I brushed the reptile. However, not soon after, he opened his mouth again and bit onto my hand.

"GETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFF!!!"

"Is Gummy hurting you?" Pinkie asked.

"No! This is...I'm afraid I'm hurting him!"

"Put him down gently, and he'll let go of you," Pinkie said.

I put my hand on the edge of the tub, letting all four of Gummy's feet touch it. As if on cue, he let go of my hand and then walked away, still keeping his eyes on me.

"Why in the hell would you put a freaking Alligator in the bloody bathtub?!?" I shouted out, still keeping my eyes on the reptile.

"Because! That's where Gummy normally likes to hang out - and I can't reach your sinks. There's no way I am going to put it in those covered bowls."

I shuddered to think what she might have thought about the toilet. I hadn't told Pinkie Pie not to drink from there at all or do anything else.

"You sure you don't need help in there? You seem quiet now," Pinkie Pie said.

"Uh no! no! I'm fine! Along with this alligator in here!"

Altering Fate

"And this here is Fluttershy," Pinkie Pie said.

Fluttershy was busy standing with a table in between her and the other unicorn. Even if he was only slightly bigger, she still seemed to be somewhat timid as if afraid of him. Nickel Steel shied away from her a tad, too.

"Oh come on, there's no need to be shy, especially not when you're our guest of honour after all!" Pinkie Pie said.

"Uh...well...it's just..I..." Nickel Steel said

"Err, well, he just has so many people to meet, I figure I didn't want to get in the way."

"She seems to be fine just being here by herself."

"Oh come on," Draco Scales said, "You two seem to get along just as much as we do."

"Yeah! You made a Pinkie Promise to make friends in Ponyville before I came ahead of you - so make friends with each other already!" She shouted, standing on her hind legs. The horse stretched her two front legs and brought Fluttershy and Nickel's faces together in a somewhat comical method.

"Ow!" They both said, collapsing to the floor with small stars and planets orbiting above their heads.

"A little too aggressive there, Pinkie," Draco said, looking at the collapsed equines on the floor.

"Hehe, that's funny, how do you do that?" Pinkie asked, flipping upside down and landing on the floor on her back. Unfortunately, this failed to bring about any cartoonish symbols, while Fluttershy and Nickel Steel stood back up onto their four legs again.

"You're lucky you're not a unicorn, or else you'll get your horn stuck in the floor like that," Draco said.

"I'm...uh...do you want to be left alone right now?" Nickel asked.

"Yes uh...no...uh....it's-nice-to-meet-you." Fluttershy said, speeding up a bit.

"Same, you too, er...what do you do?"

"I take care of the animals," Fluttershy said, "What about you?"

"Uh...I actually don't know, I'd have to ask Twilight...I've just been in Canterlot for the past week or so..."

"Oh...well...it can be scary for someone new."

"It's not like I'll just be all by myself," Nickel Steel said.

"After all he's got ALL OF US HERE!" Pinkie said, suddenly grabbing Nickel's head with her arm and giving the pony a noogie, making sure to avoid his horn.

"AGH!" Nickel Steel said.

* * *

After a little while, Applejack had to cut Full Beats off from the supply table. Pinkie was busy showing the newcomer around, and Full Beats had already eaten half of her fritters before she could tell him to let others have a chance. Thankfully, he did develop a bit of restraint - he actually only ate one cherrychanga instead of eating the entire plate before anyone else could get a taste.

She turned her attention from the gluttonous one for a few minutes, just in time to see Pinkie Pie hopping towards her, with the blue stallion in tow. Applejack turned her attention back to Full Beats to find that he hadn't moved at all, or even so much as picked up another glass of water. He really was learning restraint. (He'd need it if he didn't want to start rolling) Even his horn was simply just standing there.

"And this is Applejack!" Pinkie Pie said, "Applejack, this here is Nickel Steel."

"'Ah hello there," Applejack said to the unicorn.

"Uh, hi, I'm Nickel...but you knew that."

"Yeah, and yah knew I'm Applejack. That walking garbage disposal there is Full Beats."

The other unicorn smiled, as they turned their attention to the other yellow pony.

"Heya!" Full Beats said.

"Hello," Nickel Steel said to Full Beats. Even though they were about the same size, Full Beats had him won in simple bulk. If only because he probably ate enough for three ponies. Given how many people seemed to keep their eyes on him by the refreshment table, it wasn't hard to guess.

"I uh...take it you love food?" He said, not minding about guessing the obvious, for once.

"Ee-yup," a red stallion said as he passed, nudging a cart with a bowl of punch on it.

"What he said!" Full Beats responded.

"Welcome to Ponyville, I'm sure yah'll fit right on in like Twilight, Full Beats, and Draco over there did. Didjah'll know that Twilight used to be pretty well, isolated from the rest of us? She came here and all she wanted to do was just hang in her library." Applejack continued.

"Her?" Nickel asked, looking over at Twilight talking with a few other ponies, and laughing at some kind of joke, "She just liked to be by herself?"

"Not quite entirely to be fair - Spike would almost never leave her side."

"Maybe she's just shy," Nickel said, looking over towards Fluttershy, who had once again gone back to her corner.

"Nah, she just wasn't interested in makin' friends, ya know? Princess Celestia sent her here so she'll learn how to make friends after all. Not always good for somepony to be cooped up inside their home all day."

"It's soooo boring, too!" Pinkie Pie said, suddenly popping up from behind Applejack, stains of a cherrychanga giving her a tasty beard. Applejack quickly jumped to the side, and Pinkie Pie fell to the floor, getting back up again before getting another cherry-chimichanga.

"Ee-yup," the red stallion said, taking away the empty punch bowl.

"Think she might have just needed time alone to adjust to her surroundings?" Nickel Steel asked.

"Yah will adjust to it sooner or later. I should show you how we make cider here in Ponyville!" Applejack said.

"Well, I guess that sounds fine," Nickel Steel said, noticing Full Beats was gone, as well as several more refreshments. "Say, where'd he go?"

Applejack sighed when she noticed Full Beats had somehow managed to leave her sight again. He certainly wasn't raiding the snack table again, thankfully.

"Big Mac, do you think Full Beats vanished to the cider after I mentioned it?" Applejack asked the red horse.

"Ee-yup," Big Mcintosh responded, before calmly walking over to the cider, which was in the process of being drained by the garbage-disposal in Pony form.

Pink Personal Hell

"Say! What was that Crack Cocaine stuff you mentioned awhile back?" Pinkie Pie asked.

My neck turned red, beads of sweat running down my skin. Oops - I forgot she probably wouldn't have known that.

"What is it? Is it like...something you cook with? Is it a kind of sugar? Is it like that stuff on your scrying device like that HeadOn stuff?"

Pinkie Pie then moved her hoof to her forehead and started to rub it clockwise.

"HeadON - apply DIRECTLY to the forehead! HeadON - apply DIRECTLY to the forehead! HeadON - apply DIRECTLY to the-"

"That's enough, Pinkie," I said.

"Well! What is it? Do you think you can get some? Maybe it's like Equestrian flour and is really good! Like Sugary-Sugar-Sweet-Delicious!"

"It's...not exactly something you cook with," I sheepishly said to her. How the heck would I explain narcotics to someone who seemed as innocent as a child, I wondered. (If you have any ideas, let me know - I'd rather say so before she finds Investigation Discovery or Cops and asks what they're doing.)

"Is it a potion? A potiony potion? A sweet crack potion that tastes like your coca-cola?"

I looked over at the empty red cans of Coca-Cola. I never drank that much in a day - she had to have drained all of them when I was out of the house. (To this day I wonder how she got them open without fingers or a broken tooth.)

"Err....no, not that!" I said, "It's...uh...a poison! A poisony poison! A disgusting crack poison that does NOT taste like my Coca-Cola."

"Boooo! Why would I be on it then?" Pinkie Pie asked, bouncing around a few more times.

"...Force of habit."

"But why would you know what it is? Where do you get this poisonous crack cocaine?"

"Because some people like it. It's uh...a MIND poison! That makes you bounce around everywhere!"

Pinkie Pie then appeared to freeze solid. She tried to stand perfectly still, as if trying to show that she wasn't on that mind poison that made her bounce everywhere. I wondered where I got that description from - it was almost like some voice in my head told me what to say.

"AGGGH!" Pinkie said, standing up on two legs and grabbing her head, "SOOOO BOOOORRRING!!!"

Even I had to admit this was somewhat amusing. Pinkie Pie must have been running off of so much sugar and caffeine that it was outright impossible to hold still. Course, I figured out a little while ago that she wasn't on crack at all - she certainly didn't have veins in her eyes. But then again, she didn't follow the laws of physics at all.

Altering Fate

"That was...quite an event," Nickel Steel said, after the party had ended. He still was inside Sugarcube Corner, trying to move some piles of trash out with his magic.

"And you thought you weren't good enough with your magic already," Twilight said, smiling as she saw a pile of trash float by, surrounded by a blue aura.

"I still don't exactly know how anyways," Nickel Steel said, moving some of the trash away.

"Don't doubt yourself," She smiled.

"Thank you two for helping clean this up," Mr. Cake said, moving some of the dirty dishes into the kitchen to be washed.

"Well, Pinkie Pie did party herself into a coma," Nickel Steel said, gesturing to the floor where she had fallen asleep on her back, with Spike next to her.

Pinkie Pie even moved a little in her sleep, playfully trotting against an invisible floor. Pinkie mumbled something about, "Cutest smartest all around best pony!" before going back to sleeping.

"She'll be up in the morning or later," Mrs. Cake said, "If not, the babies will wake her up."

"Mmmm...500 gems...I'll save you Rainbow Dash..." Spike muttered in his sleep.

Spike and Pinkie continued to sleep on the floor, although a blanket had been brought over to them sometime during the clean-up. After what seemed like forever, the store was finally cleaned, and Pinkie Pie had been taken up to bed by the unicorns.

"Just have to put Spike to bed and then I'll take you home, too," Twilight said, "I do hope you'll enjoy it."

"I'm sure I don't have a choice...I'm quite amazed that was set up for me." Nickel Steel said.

"We will see you tomorrow! Thank you for using the store for the party!" Twilight said to the Cakes, levitating Spike with her magic and walking out. Nickel Steel followed, waving again with a hoof before leaving. He tried to close the door behind him but accidentally closed it too fast, sending it right against his rump.

Twilight continued to walk through Ponyville, making a stop at the library where she could tuck Spike into bed. Nickel Steel simply waited outside the library, even though Twilight would not have minded if he simply looked around. (After all, she did tell him that she had almost everything he could have wanted to read in the library. The other pony was too shy to go into Canterlot's by himself.) Once Spike was tucked into bed, Twilight walked out, closing the door behind her.

"Your place is a little down this way," Twilight said, walking towards the direction of Rarity's house. Of course, Nickel Steel didn't exactly know that, taking a look at the odd carousel-like building as they walked past. Only the outside lights were on, Rarity must have been getting her beauty sleep.

"That's where Rarity lives, you actually live fairly close to her," Twilight said, noticing Nickel Steel had stopped to take a look at the Carousel Boutique.

It was only a stone's throw away from the fancy building. The first thing that Nickel Steel noticed about his new home was that, like many of the cottages in Ponyville, it was a two-story building. However, it still had its own unique appearance.

The building appeared to have something like a blue wizard's hat on the second floor, complete with a few half-moon shaped windows and a star-shaped door, opening up to a wrap-around deck shaped like the brim of the hat. The ground floor looked just as normal as any other cottage did, only painted blue like the hat-roof.

"Did a sorcerer's apprentice live here or something?" Nickel Steel asked.

"It's an old magic lab, it's vacant but not anymore." Twilight said, as the lock on the door opened, followed by the door itself.

Twilight lead Nickel Steel into the house. Thankfully, it had been cleaned up prior to his arrival, setting the pony up with all the essentials.

"This is all for me now?" He asked.

"Of course. A bit bigger than your temporary bedroom at Canterlot, but just as nice. Well, I'm off to bed myself. It was quite a long night. Goodnight, Nickel Steel."

"Good night, Twilight Sparkle," The unicorn said as the purple one left the house, closing the door behind her.

The unicorn noticed there was a spiral staircase leading up to the apparent wizard's hat upstairs, where he would reside. Guess that was his place for sure - the resident wizard here. Thankfully he was getting a little better with staircases now.

Nickel Steel noticed that the second floor was all a bedroom and a living space. He noticed that the ceiling actually seemed to have small lights all across it - just like stars. How did they know? Nickel Steel even noticed a small moon up near the tip of the ceiling too. It even reflected the moon's current phase. Some part of Nickel Steel hoped it wouldn't have been something connecting the home to Luna, the mistress of the night, and owner of the voice that acted as an unrelenting force, so she couldn't remotely throw him across the room.

Nickel Steel crawled into his bed and closed his eyes. He was home, he guessed. The people of Ponyville seemed to like him, but even then, time could change a lot of things. What if he was treated with as much disdain as some of those high-class people in Canterlot did. Even then, they never outright said bad things to his face, but who knew what they were saying behind his back.

Pink Personal Hell

I wasn't woken up by my alarm, but from a strange feeling around my nose, like it was pinched. When I opened my eyes, I couldn't exactly see what happened, but I could feel something. I stood up and walked to the bathroom, turning on the lights and looking in the mirror.

Right there, attached to my nose, was Gummy. Sometime during the night, he crawled out of the bathtub, walked into my room, then attached himself to my nose. Like some kind of deformed nose ring from hell, he latched on and wouldn't let go.

I spent about ten minutes trying to pull the reptile off of my nose, except he had a rather...oddly powerful grip on it. I didn't want to hurt the critter after all, but even then, this was just annoying.

"PINKIIIIIIIIEEEEE!" I finally shouted.

* * *

"I don't know why, I know Gummy likes to bite people, but he doesn't have any teeth. It doesn't hurt, does it?" Pinkie pie asked, after having unsuccessfully having tried to pry Gummy from my nose.

"I can't freaking smell, and I'm likely going to be unable to taste anything with a freaking alligator on my nose. Do you have any idea what anyone else is going to think about this?" I pointed at the alligator, who still had his jaws firmly clasped on my nose.

"Maybe they'll think it looks cool? Because you're walking around with an alligator on your nose?"

"No, they'll probably kill it to get it off. I don't want to hurt this thing, despite temptation to the contrary," I looked cross-eyed at the reptile.

"Maybe you can stay home until Gummy decides to let go? You've been out all the time, it must get booooring!" Pinkie Pie said.

"Yeah, imagine that," I said, holding my hand up like a phone, "Hey, sorry I couldn't come in today. What's that? Yeah, my voice sounds funny because there's an alligator on my nose. What, you mean you're going to get me committed for that?"

"What's 'committed' mean?" Pinkie Pie asked, "Is that like when my friend's brother was getting married?"

"It's when they take someone who they think is crazy and lock them away where they can't hurt themselves or anybody else," I explained to Pinkie. Not going to sugar coat it - they were driving me crazy!

"You mean like what happened to Discord?"

"Wudge?" I asked.

"He's the lord of Chaos. He was all, 'RAWR I AM DISCORD! I AM EVIL! I LOVE CHAOS! And I do like chocolate rain and marshmallow jumping patterns!" Pinkie's mane fluffed up even more and her face took an almost comically threatening pose as she mimicked Discord.

"...So he was your father?" I hazarded a guess.

That was probably one of the worst things to say. Pinkie suddenly glared at me, shaking a bit. Bits of steam seemed to puff out of her nose, as she seemd to turn red.

"No! He was NOT my father! He turned me GREY!!! Can you believe it?!" She gave me a smack with a nice hard hoof, shaking Gummy a little, but still he refused to let go.

"Bad idea bad idea...." I didn't want to know what Pinkie Pie meant when she said grey.

"But anyways!" Pinkie Pie snapped back to her normal self, "We used our elements of Harmony and BLASTED HIM with it! Then he turned into a statue as he got committed. He can't hurt anyone or turn us grey anymore!"

"Back up...what do you mean with the elements of harmony and...you turned him into a statue?"

"I have the element of laughter of course!" Pinkie Pie explained, "And we committed Discord so he can't hurt anyone ever again."

"I think they don't just turn people into statues if they commit them..." I murmured.

"What did you say?"

"My brain to mouth filter momentarily malfunctioned," I lied.

"Don't lie to me! I'm not suspecting you to do anything, Dominic!" Pinkie Pie said.

"Fine fine, they don't do that here....but you do some bizarre things where you're from, despite the food. That alright?"

"Oh yes!" Pinkie Pie said.

It was then that I could hear my alarm clock beeping from the other room.

"Maybe if I take a shower, I can get Gummy off?" I asked.

"Maybe!" Pinkie Pie said, "Gummy loves wet showers and baths! Ooooh! Pinkie Sense talking here!" She seemed to stand on her front two legs, tail wiggling a bit as she danced around.

"A bubble bath!" she shouted.

Pinkie Pie immediately turned on the water and then grabbed something that looked like a pink bottle of liquid from under the sink. What in the hell, I thought - how did she get that? I would never have something like that in the house. The equine popped the cap off of the soap and then turned it upside down, pouring huge amounts into the tub.

"Wait! Don't use that much! You're going to-"

I was interrupted by a huge wall of bubbles that surged from the bathtub and filled the entire room from ceiling to floor.

"Oops! I used a little too much!" Pinkie Pie said from within the bubble cloud.

"Must...control...fist of death..." I mumbled, clenching my own fist.

Gummy still kept his iron grip on my nose, undisturbed by the bubble flood.

Altering Fate

Nickel Steel couldn't really believe it when he woke up. He had spent the past week and a half inside a tower in Canterlot, only leaving when someone had come to escort him out. Now, he was completely by himself.

Last night, he was a tad too tired to explore his new home by himself, only looking up at the ceiling where the glow-in-the-dark stars were. The stallion noticed that it reflected the night sky, even having fake clouds that covered up the stars. However, the moon still stayed in its place, as if to act as a reminder to the moon's phase. Nickel steel made a note to check if it updated at all.

He opened a door to the deck outside and walked out onto it, hooves clopping against the wood. Nickel Steel now noticed that there was a button by one of the star-shaped windows. Thinking nothing, he pressed it with his nose.

Almost immediately, a staircase seemed to form along the side of the roof, leading up to the tip of the hat. The very tip cracked open and slid to the side like it was on a hinge. Nickel Steel climbed up this staircase again (making sure to be careful not to fall off) to check what this was. As soon as he reached the top, he looked in, noticing a small alcove that lead to a telescope.

"Guess that helps," he said to himself. He looked around again, wondering how he would get down. He tried to walk backwards down the staircase, only to realize he slipped one hoof to the side.

"Uh oh."

The blue unicorn slid right down the roof onto the deck, where he seemed to bounce a tad. He arced over the banister and fell right to the ground with a comedic "Splat"ing noise, leaving a small unicorn-shaped outline on the ground.

"You alright, mister?" a childish voice said.

Nickel Steel was still watching stars and moons in orbit above him. He couldn't make out who this was, until two identical unicorns poked their faces into his vision. Both looked just like Rarity did in fact, just with a mane that was more violet and pink, compared to Rarity's more indigo-looking mane.

The two ponies eventually seemed to merge into one as the stars vanished from Nickel Steel's vision. Oh, that explained it - he must have been seeing double when he smacked his head on the ground.

"Uh, now I am," Nickel Steel responded. The unicorn filly stepped out of the way, while Nickel Steel climbed out of the hole shaped like him. For some reason, even his tail left an impact site, too.

"Saaaay, you must be mine and Rarity's new neighbour! I'm Sweetie Belle!" she said to the taller unicorn.

"Uh, yeah, I'm Nickel Steel...weren't you at that party last night?" He asked.

"I was with my friends, the Cutie Mark Crusaders," Sweetie Belle said, "Plus it was a school night so I couldn't stay up late. Welcome to Ponyville! My big sister can provide you with every bit of clothing you'll ever need! I have to get to school!"

With that, the unicorn walked off. Nickel Steel now made an observation - she did not have a cutie mark at all. He recalled one thing that he had been taught by the princesses, that some didn't have Cutie Marks yet, and that most of them were children.

"Deja vu," He said to himself, looking back towards his house. Would have to be a lot more careful about the stairway on that telescope in the future.

Nickel Steel walked back to the house and opened the door, vanishing inside his house to get a better look around at it. The first floor definitely looked to be what one would have thought from a magic shop. There were books for sale (not nearly as impressive as the collection in the library, of course) as well as certain other things like charms.

Nickel Steel took his attention to the door, which had a sign in the nearby window. He couldn't exactly read it, until he had a eureka moment. Of course - it was backwards. Reading it backwards, he made out what it said.

"Nickel Steel is IN"

"Looks like some kind of doctor thing," he said to himself. Experimentally, he walked out of the house again and looked back at the sign.

"Nickel Steel is OUT"

Suddenly, a grin spread across his face as he propped the door open with a small rock. He walked in and out several times, watching the sign in the window change as soon as he entered or exited the house.

"'Steel comes in, Steel goes out, Steel comes in, Steel goes out, Steel comes in, Steel goes out." He said out loud, watching the sign change back and forth between "IN" and "OUT". Finally, he stopped amusing himself with the sign, kicking the rock aside and letting the door close. Now to explore Ponyville for himself.

Pink Personal Hell

So imagine yourself in this pickle for a second. A toothless baby alligator is clenched on your nose and you can't get it off no matter what you do. You're forced to breathe through your mouth and speak with a really silly sounding voice until you can get the alligator off.

Oh, and at the same day, you also have a presentation to give. So you have to give it with a freaking alligator attached to your nose like a piercing from hell. Think anybody will notice? Oh heck yeah. All day, I had to tell them that I was watching my friend's alligator and that they wouldn't let go.

Do you have any idea how many weird looks I got? I don't think you're even ready to comprehend it. I'm lucky I didn't get sent into the insane asylum for walking around with a freaking ALLIGATOR on my nose after all. Even when I held a piece of a hamburger up to the alligator, he still decided sticking to my face was a better place.

"Okay, listen," I said, after splashing my face numerous times, "I really have to give a presentation, and you're in my way. Gummy, I seriously am not trying to hurt you, but if you're not letting go, then I'm afraid I will have to hurt you. Now GET OFF MY NOSE!"

Gummy seemed to finally listen, and instead seemed to crawl up my face, climbing into my hair and relaxing there. Sweet relief - I could finally breathe through my nose again! However I still did have the issue of an alligator on top of my head, but if it could hang out in my hair, it was a better place than my nose.

"Thank you," I said, still not quite believing I was talking to an alligator that didn't even talk back like Pinkie Pie did at least. I put my hand to my nose to make sure there wasn't any permanent Gummy damage.

Gummy noticed my hand up, and then climbed down my forehead and latched right onto my fingers, surprisingly fast for a cold blooded creature, especially in the winter. I widened my eyes and held my hand out, with Gummy still attached.

"...Well you did technically listen to me," I mumbled, "You let go of my nose, but can you let go of my hand?!"

Gummy once again didn't respond, simply content with just latching onto my fingers.

Altering Fate

"Watch out for that," Twilight said.

"What?" Nickel Steel stopped in place.

"That's Poison Joke."

Nickel Steel looked at the ground, wondering what this Poison Joke was. At first he mostly seemed to just see grass, but eventually his eyes came to something blue. It certainly reminded him of poison oak, something he was a bit familiar with, but it was most definitely different. It was a good thing that Twilight had given him a warning about taking another step - one more step and he would have put his hoof right into the blue patch of Poison Joke.

"What's that do?" Nickel Steel asked, taking a few steps back from the Poison Joke.

"You don't want to know," Twilight shuddered, "Come on - this way. I know a short path to Zecora's."

Nickel Steel took a few steps away from the patch of Poison Joke and continued to follow Twilight Sparkle. He had been told that this 'Zecora' person was someone who would help him out in his new job, and how disappointed they were that she wasn't in attendance at the party last night.

He had been briefed on who Zecora was - a zebra who lived in the Everfree Forest, away from other ponies. She seemed a bit reclusive, and had a reputation as an evil sorceress, before Twilight and her friends dispelled it, showing that she wasn't malicious at all. In a way, Nickel Steel was a bit reminded of himself.

"Here we are," Twilight Sparkle said as they walked into the clearing where Zecora's hut stood.

Of course, Zecora's hut wasn't really so much of a hut as it was a tree. Somewhat of an exotic looking tree, twisted growths and wrinkles here and there. Several bottles of potion seemed to be hanging from the tree's branches, like some kind of decoration. Or maybe they had a purpose. Nickel Steel looked right at the door, and took a few steps back. It looked almost like a face, although the mask hanging atop the door wasn't helping either.

The "mouth" of the face on the side of Zecora's house opened up, showing the Zebra in the doorway. While she certainly looked exotic and otherworldly to the citizens of Ponyville, Nickel Steel had different thoughts. What stood out about Zecora moreso was the amount of gold rings on her neck and front leg, rather than her different appearance. (After all, seeing someone who was black and white probably didn't look weird, especially if your fur was all blue.)

Zecora made eye contact with Nickel Steel, who still instinctively shied away a tad, but not as much as he did last night. If anything, he was afraid of offending someone who he was supposed to help.

"You must be the new pony in town that I have heard of, what, you do not need to frown." Zecora said, looking over Nickel Steel.

"Err...hello," Nickel Steel said, taking a few steps forward, "I'm Nickel Steel, and I'm told we're...sort of helping each other out? I'm...well, running the Magic shop now."

"Indeed you are, since from Ponyville I am quite far," Zecora responded, "I am knowledgeable of ailments and brew, quite different from what you do."

"Uh...I'm just good at magic...I didn't really see any potions there," Nickel Steel said, "Sort of like...trinkets and other such stuff...even though I don't know how good I really am at magic."

Twilight simply smirked and stifled a laugh again.

"He's lying," Twilight said, "Just look at his cutie mark - nobody like that is really bad at magic. You just need to be more sure of yourself."

"It is very bad if you are full of doubt, since when you are asked about a task, all you do is pout. After all Nickel Steel, you should not ignore what Twilight feels." Zecora said.

"I think I can let you two talk amongst yourselves," Twilight said, "After all, you are going to be business partners after all."

"I do not work solely for profit, even if I happily accept a donation of a bit," Zecora said to Twilight, narrowing her eyes at her. Twilight smiled a bit, then took a few steps back.

Pink Personal Hell

While I really wanted to stick Gummy in my pocket so I could conceal him better from everybody else, I didn't want to hurt him or suffocate him at all. I actually tried to walk around outside a bit in hopes that maybe Gummy would get tired, and I could conceal the reptile inside my coat pocket for a bit.

In retrospect, that might not have been the best thing to do. I knew reptiles would go into hibernation if the outside temperature was low enough, but I could have probably caused some kind of irreversible damage to Gummy if I was a tad too reckless.

Well, at least I was lucky that Gummy was quite durable. Because no matter what I did, Gummy kept holding onto my finger and wouldn't let go. I didn't think of trying to dip Gummy in a snowdrift for several reasons. One, I did not want to risk dropping him in the snowdrift and possibly losing him until spring. And two, the snowdrifts were several days old. You know those snowdrifts that stay around a few days, and develop this disgusting layer of almost solid ice, as well as a level of grit? Well yeah, that's what the snowdrifts were like.

I didn't bother to rub him along the powdered snow either, for fear that Gummy would have gotten even more and more nervous and bit onto my hand harder. Since simply taking him outside into the cold didn't work, I figured I'd just put my hand in my coat pocket and let the heat in there warm Gummy up. Maybe he'd get tired and fall asleep in some place nice and warm like my pocket.

That didn't turn out so well either. I figured I might as well just bite the bullet and give the presentation with an alligator stuck to my finger as best as I could. How could it possibly get any worse? Other than if Pinkie Pie suddenly showed up and derailed it, but even then, she didn't like going into our "drab-drabbity-drably-boring world" so I figured I was probably safe there.

"Eh? What the heck is that, Dominic?" a student asked as soon as I pulled my hand out of my coat pocket. Right there was Gummy, still staring at me with almost unblinking eyes, and keeping ahold of my hand like it was some tasty candy.

"It's an alligator, what's it look like?" I asked, simply putting Gummy's feet on the desk. Some part of me was still hoping that he would just let go sooner or later so I could at least hold him with his mouth away from anything to grab on.

"Why do you have a pet alligator in here? I thought only service dogs were allowed."

"You try getting him off," I said.

I had attracted quite a crowd of people who were looking at this alligator attached to my hand by the mouth. Some part of me wanted to toss the alligator off and see who else he'd latch on, but I'm pretty sure Pinkie Pie was going to kill me if I mentioned that Gummy had latched onto someone while I was out.

Even the teacher didn't think it was that amusing. Eventually, Gummy stiffened all his muscles, probably as a result of all the prodding from everybody else. I simply sighed, trying to wiggle him around just to make sure he was still alive. Thankfully he was - just stiff as a board.

I had a thought - maybe I could use this. Since I didn't have a laser pointer with me I could always use Gummy as a pointing utensil. Might as well, since the alligator wasn't going to let go of my finger any time today.

"Alright," I said, "Sorry about the strange thing on my finger, it's this awesome alligator but I'll just use his tail. So as you can see, on figure one right here-"

I pointed to the first figure, only for Gummy to go limp, apart from his jaws. There were a few chuckles coming from the class. I moved my hand up so Gummy's tail would be pointing towards the figure instead.

"So as you can see, on figure one right here-"

Gummy curled his tail up, causing a few more chuckles from amused students. At least they weren't falling asleep during the presentation. I instead moved my finger towards the figure, where it looked like my finger was pointing.

"So as you can see from figure one right here-"

Gummy then straightened back up again, concealing the figure.

"...Never work with animals," I announced, "They never seem to participate when you want them to."

At least I had the audience's attention. They were certainly paying attention to the presentation. My group members were for once actually paying attention to me. That was always nice.

"So, while I attempt to point to figure one but Gummy the Alligator here won't, you can see that this is the area as it is now. So right where Gummy's tail was ten minutes ago, there is an awkwardly placed pillar that is putting these areas here in shadow...and I do not mean from the alligator on my finger."

Altering Fate

Nickel Steel walked out of the Everfree forest, avoiding the Poison Joke along the way. Zecora seemed like a nice pony - after all, she was willing to help share secrets with Nickel Steel. After all, not like they would be ruining any business after all. After awhile, he even started speaking in rhymes like Zecora.

For the moment, he was all alone. Nobody was wanting his attention, and he was still out. For the day, Ponyville was all his to explore. He smiled and begun to trot along happily. Maybe he should go explore something - or perhaps find Pinkie Pie and tell her how much he really enjoyed the party last night.

At least, until Nickel Steel managed to find a rather unusual sight. It looked somewhat like a dragon, but at the same time, it looked somewhat like a pony, too. From what he could see, it had draconic looking horns, lighter red scutes, but a white equine looking mane. He stopped to get a closer look at what this red dragon was doing, wondering what the heck this thing even was. Nickel steel's eyes widened a bit - the dragon seemed to have a pony pinned to the ground.

"What the heck?!" He asked, running towards the dragon and the pony. As soon as Nickel Steel got closer, he could identify the pony trapped underneath the dragon's head. It was Fluttershy, who seemed to be meekly pinned on her side, looking a tad nervous, but not triggering the fight-or-flight instinct, at least.

"Err, hi," The pony-dragon said, turning his attention to the unicorn, "This...this isn't what it looks like."

"Draco, can you let me go?" Fluttershy said.

The dragon lifted his head and sat back on his haunches, finally letting Fluttershy go. Thankfully she wasn't hurt at all - or even dirty. She stood back onto her four hooves and looked at Nickel Steel.

"What exactly is going on here?" He asked.

"I-I-Uh...it's not what it looks like!"

"I thought he was eating you!"

"It's me, Draco," The dragon said.

Nickel Steel looked up at the dragon. He had already seen a dragon before, Spike, but Draco was...a lot bigger than Spike was. Heck, the dragon was even bigger than the other alicorns he had seen. When he looked a bit closer, he could recognize a few features consistent with the alicorn he met at the party - apart from his red scales and his yellow-slitted eyes. Even his cutie mark, what he could see of it, was the same.

The dragon seemed to shrink a bit, gradually covering in red fur until he was back to normal. He was still a bit taller than Fluttershy and Nickel, but at least he didn't tower over all of them like the dragon did. (in fact, he couldn't have Fluttershy pinned to the ground using his head like this.)

"What-what exactly was that?" Nickel steel asked.

"It's...a little quirk of his. When he gets worked up, he sometimes turns into a dragon. And uh...he really...really likes me." Fluttershy said.

"I'll do anything to protect you, you know that much," Draco said to the yellow pegasus, smiling even more at him.

"But why were you...pinning Fluttershy to the ground?"

"He was nuzzling me...it's..it's really nothing. Just...somewhat shocking."

"Especially if he's that big..."

"So Nickel Steel, how's Ponyville treating you so far?" Draco asked, changing the subject.

"Well....I met up with Zecora...and well, we're helping each other out sort of...I mean, I am now the town's resident wizard."

"Oooh, you're living in that house? Cool!" Draco said.

"It's been abandoned for a little while...I'm glad someone's using it." Fluttershy said, "I don't suppose you have something for...uh....maybe I should show you."

Fluttershy turned towards her cottage, where many of the animals in Ponyville resided. Draco Scales gestured for me to follow her over. Maybe she had a patient with some kind of magical ailment that he could have helped with. Or maybe she needed something magically moved or lifted.

Either way, Nickel Steel already smiled that someone finally needed his help. Even then, he could have tried to help as much as he could. One thing he learned about magic from Twilight and the others was that it doesn't always have to be orderly. You were free to make your own spells to share with others. (After all, that was how a spellbook was made, after all.)

Pink Personal Hell

I smiled to myself. I thought that presentation on our little landscape architecture project went pretty well. As well as it could when you have an alligator practically fused to your hand. Finally I was free to go home. Maybe Pinkie Pie had something ready to get the alligator off of my hand, like something he liked to eat. (Hey, I'm sure you could convince an alligator to become a vegetarian if it had Equestrian cooking after all. Even Pinkie's tabasco turnovers.)

I noticed that it had started to snow outside. Best drive home as fast as I could. It was even starting to stick to the sidewalks, too. That meant everybody's favourite - black ice. pushed open the door with my other hand and then walked down the stairs outside.

Unfortunately, enough snow had fallen on the cement staircase that I lost my footing and fell right down on my rump on the stairs, sliding down a little bit before coming to a stop. Damned staircases - why did I always have trouble with those? At least I didn't fall on my knee like the last time I slipped down the staircase - I limped for weeks.

I noticed all of a sudden that Gummy had been detached from my hand in the fall. I held my hand up and found the reptile missing. I looked around - I hoped I didn't fall down on Gummy and squished the poor creature. As annoying as he was, I didn't want to hurt him. As if on cue, I felt something land on my head. I put my hand up to it, and felt something familiar and scaly.

"Whew, glad you're alright," I said.

Rather than bite onto my hand, Gummy climbed down my hood and then turned his head upside down, looking into my eyes with his own purple eyes. I stared at the reptile for a few minutes, before he finally made his move again.

Before I could react, he climbed back down onto my face and grabbed onto my nose again, clasping my nostrils shut. I simply narrowed my eyelids, then crossed them at the nose. Just like this morning, there was Gummy again. Damn it....

"...At least it's better than being squished," I mumbled, standing up and walking to my car, Gummy dangling all the way.

* * *

I pushed open the door, still wet from the snowstorm I had to walk and drive home through. If Pinkie Pie had made something while I was out that day, I certainly couldn't smell it. My nostrils had been clamped shut from the alligator's jaws around them, after all.

"WELCOME HOME DOMINIC!" Pinkie Pie shouted. I turned to face where her voice was coming from - and was greeted with the pink horse flying right towards me in a glomp.

"AGGGGGH!" I shouted as she made contact with my chest, knocking me and Gummy right on down. Gummy let go shortly after she made contact, flying off my nose and going airborne. Time seemed to slow down for a little bit as Pinkie pie sent me to the floor, Calvin and Hobbes style.

I landed on my back, with the horse sitting on my abdomen, giggling. Less than a second later, Gummy landed on Pinkie Pie's mane, quickly burying himself in it. (And probably finding something to bite, but at least it wasn't me.) She had already jumped on me a few times - the previous day she even jumped on me to wake me up and tell me I needed to be up for a tasty breakfast.

"Do you mind getting off me now?" I asked.

"Heeeey! Gummy finally let go!" Pinkie Pie said, "Where is he? Did you hurt him at all? I hope he's alright! Did he hurt you at all?"

Gummy emerged from her fluffy mane and quickly bit onto Pinkie Pie's left ear. She twitched it a bit, or at least tried to with the alligator's weight holding it down. Pinkie Pie smiled again.

"Oh good! How did he get there? Come on - let's give you a bath!"

Pinkie Pie hopped off my chest and then bounced off to the bathroom. I got back up to my feet and followed her.

"You didn't perhaps use that bubble bath from hell again, did you?"

"Oh, don't worry - I only used three quarters of it this time."

I was then assaulted by another wall of bubbles that escaped the bathroom and flooded the hallway.

Altering Fate

"It's up there," Fluttershy said, spreading her wings and floating up a little bit.

Nickel Steel looked up at her cottage. He couldn't exactly see what up 'there' was, all he could see was that the roof of her rather interesting looking cottage appeared to be made up of grass. Not just dried grass forming a roof, but actual living grass at that. There were a few birds who seemed to have rested in there, but stepped aside when Fluttershy floated over to the roof.

"I'm kind of ground-bound," Nickel Steel said, still looking up, "I don't think I can actually get up to where you're loo-AGGGGH!"

A scaly hand wrapped around the stallion and lifted him up to where Fluttershy was hovering. He looked around a few times, horn instinctively glowing before he spotted Draco once again. A few of the animals around Fluttershy's cottage ran away when they saw the dragon standing there, but not all of them. In fact some simply watched him with somewhat of a smile on their faces like they knew the dragon.

"Uh, thanks, Draco," Nickel Steel said, as he took a look at what was happening on the roof.

It looked to be something of a brown spot on the roof. Parts where the grass had looked a little dried out. Nickel Steel freed a hoof from Draco's grasp and rubbed it through the grassy roof.

"Well? Can you see anything wrong with it?" Fluttershy asked.

"How do you water this?" Nickel Steel asked her.

"Rainbow Dash puts a raincloud over it."

"Did somebody say, RAIN CLOUD?" A cocky voice shouted, as bits of water started to fall from the sky. Nickel Steel looked up, spotting the blue pegasus pushing a raincloud over Fluttershy's house. It already started to rain, as a drop fell in Nickel Steel's eye.

"Did you have to do it now?" Draco asked.

"Aw come on, I'm just trying to be helpful," Rainbow Dash said.

Nickel Steel took a look back at the roof of the cottage. He still kept his hoof around where the brown spot was. Strange, he couldn't really feel that much water flowing down from the raincloud. He moved it to the left, and felt much much more water flowing down.

"Say, I think I may have found a problem," Nickel Steel said, "There isn't much water coming down here. Something's diverting it away."

"Say what?" Rainbow Dash pushed the raincloud away, ending the localized rain shower.

"Something's diverting the water away, causing a brown dry spot. Maybe I can push it down or something?" Nickel Steel asked, pushing his hoof back around, wanting to feel something like a loose board or a mound of dirt redirecting the water away.

"Yep, I feel something here," Nickel Steel said, poking something that felt a bit hard. His horn glowed, as the object poked out, releasing some pent-up water on top of it. It looked to be some kind of metal disc of something, that had been lodged in the grass.

"Wow, what is that?" Rainbow Dash asked, only seeing the glinting in the sunlight, "How'd that get there?"

As if on cue, a magpie flew towards the cottage and tried to grab on the shiny. Nickel Steel let it go in shock, thus the Magpie flew right away, shiny object in its talons.

"I guess that explains it," Draco said, "Magpie hoarding shiny objects."

"I thought it might have been something a bit magical," Fluttershy said.

"It's not always the case," Nickel Steel said, "Some things where magic may be appear as the cause are in fact mundane, as shown here."

He was met with several laughs from the dragonized pony and the other pegasus.

"Looks like you've been hanging out with Zecora too much!" Rainbow Dash laughed.

Pink Personal Hell

"Soo soooo glad I don't have to do anymore schoolwork for a little while," I sighed, relaxing on the couch. I flipped on the TV and got thrown back from how loud it was. You ever hear MTV blared loud enough to actually move something? Well, that's exactly what I experienced.

"WHAT THE HELL!" I shouted as I dove for the remote and flattened the volume button. I never had the TV turned on that loud before.

This attracted the attention of Pinkie Pie, who must have been off sleeping or doing...something. (I don't know what) She bounced into the room again, and then hopped extra high.

I heard a banging noise, followed by another as she fell to the floor. I looked over at her direction and spotted Pinkie Pie right on the floor, covered in a small sheet of plaster and somehow knocked out. From what I could tell, she had wanted to glomp me and hit the ceiling instead. Out of morbid curiosity, I looked up towards the ceiling and spotted an impact site shaped just like Pinkie Pie. Great - that made two holes in the ceiling now, one shaped like me and another shaped like a horse.

I couldn't help but chuckle somewhat. Okay, that was actually kind of funny. Messy, and probably worth a lot of money in property damages, but still kind of funny nonetheless. I stood up from the couch and walked over to investigate the Pinkie Pie damage.

No sooner had I checked her than she recovered from being stunned. She immediately shook the plaster out of her mane in a cloud, and then hopped right into my chest, sending me backwards onto the floor.

"Yay you're home! You snuck in when I wasn't looking!" Pinkie Pie said, "Are you done with that school place?"

She stood on my chest, looking down into my eyes. Pinkie Pie still had that wide smile on her face. I had that feeling she had something planned. I tried to get a look at her tail. From the past few weeks she had been living in my house, I had learned that her tail seemed to have a mind of its own sometimes - normally it was when she came up with some kind of idea to have fun.

"So! Dominic! What are you going to do with your time off?"

"Uh...relax, get caught up on sleep...that sort of stuff?" I asked.

"I got an idea! Something fun!" Pinkie Pie said, "Ever wonder what Equestria is like?"

"If it's full of creatures like you, I don't think I wanna know..."

"Come on!" Pinkie Pie said, hopping on my stomach a few more times, apparently not realizing that wasn't a good idea, "It'll be fun! Come on! I can take you back to Equestria with me and Gummy. Pinkie Promise?"

I couldn't say anything. Because that darn horse was bouncing on my stomach (Again), I had the wind knocked out of me. It's not painful, but just weird when you can't speak but legitimately try to.

Pinkie Pie looked at me, confused as I mouthed a few words She tilted her head a few times, first left, then right, as I finally got a few words out of my mouth.

"What do you mean 'back' to Equestria?" I asked.

"Think of it as like a fun trip! Or something better! You know what the food's like!"

That was right - someone had to be giving her food or that weird bubble-soap. I certainly couldn't find any of that stuff in the grocery store, no matter how hard I looked. (Not even on eBay or Amazon.) Maybe it would have been somewhat worthwhile to see what all this was.

"So wait, you could go back to Equestria when you want?" I asked Pinkie Pie.

"Yep!" She said.

"And you said you were going to stay a little while...because of how drab it was outside?"

"Of course!"

"Now exactly why were you hanging out here if you could have gone back any time you wanted?"

"You'll have to find oooooout!" Pinkie Pie said, finally hopping off my stomach, "I can explain theeeeere!"

I sighed. Well, what else did I have to lose anyways? I guess maybe I was finally going insane. I'd actually come to like seeing Pinkie Pie around here, for more than just the food. Heck, even Gummy was starting to grow on me a little.

"Well sure, why not," I said.

"Pinkie Promise?" She said, holding a hoof out.

"Alright sure, Pinkie Promise." I put my smallest finger to her hoof.

Pinkie Pie giggled, seeing such a small finger touching her larger hoof.

"What, that's funny!" She said, "I thought you'd touch my hoof with all of your hand!"

"What, you said Pinkie Promise," I said, "And that's my pinkie."

"No, I'M Pinkie!" She said.

Forget shaking hooves with a creature a lot smaller than you. Right now, I just wanted to take my hand and cover my face with it or bang my head in the wall.

Altering Fate

The next day wasn't quite as eventful as the previous one. Nickel Steel played with the magic sign on his door a few times, then simply sat back in the shop and practiced magic a little bit. Zecora had given him a few words of encouragement the previous day, albeit in a rhyme like just about everything else she said.

A few customers actually came in, too. First, an earth pony who was simply looking around, wondering what kind of shop this was. Thankfully she found something she could have used - a charm to ward off snails from her carrot garden. The second customer was a pony who seemed to wear sunglasses all the time, and asked if he had anything to repair a broken CD. Thankfully he had a scroll that could do just that. (And it appeared to have worked.)

A colt came into the magic shop and asked for something to prank his friend with. Thankfully Nickel Steel talked him out of using quick-freeze ice and convinced him to give him a few bits for the itching powder instead. (He made a mental note to take out the itching-cure for later, and to ask Zecora if she had any more anti-itch potions.)

At one point Nickel Steel walked back down the stairs after hearing the bell ring, signaling a customer's entry. This time, it seemed to be three young ponies, an earth pony, a unicorn, and a pegasus. However, Nickel Steel immediately recognized one of the customers - Sweetie Belle, someone who lived nearby.

"Hello there," He said to the girls, "Did...you need something? No, I can't give you something that'd show test answers."

"Why would we need THAT?" The pegasus said, "Do you have something to get revenge on two ponies?"

"...What kind of revenge? I can't be selling dangerous things to just anypony now, can I?" Nickel Steel answered.

"Something to tell Diamond Tiara what a bully she really is!" The earth pony grumbled.

Classic bullying victims. All three frowned and looked around at some of the various things in the shop. Thankfully, the stuff that could really hurt somepony was behind the counter. As tempted as Nickel Steel was to sympathize with their plight and sell something that would have given this 'Diamond Tiara' her just deserts, he resisted anyways.

After all, as powerful of a force magic was, you couldn't just use it to get petty revenge on little children. Even if they really deserved to be taught a lesson about how much of a jerk they were. Only their parents could do something like that, and he wasn't their parents.

Wait a second - their parents.

"I might have an idea," Nickel Steel said, "Have you tried telling Diamond Tiara's parents that she's bullying you?"

"They probably won't care...she has her dad around her neck," the pegasus said.

"I think I know the type," Nickel Steel said, "Let me guess Sweetie Belle - you told your own parents and Rarity about what she's saying, right?"

Sweetie Belle nodded.

"Well I got something that might help if they think you're exaggerating or your parents don't believe you. Lemme get it. Don't touch anything - especially not that paper flower on the counter."

Nickel Steel vanished behind the counter and went into the back of the store. A few noises of things falling down and banging were heard, while the three ponies looked towards the paper flower on the counter.

It looked pretty simple, actually. LIke a peach and white-coloured rose, masterfully folded out of some kind of soft paper. Attached to the base was a green stem, looking to be made out of some kind of synthetic material, and resting in a glass cup, the way one would put a real rose. All three looked at each other, and back at the rose. Then back at the door, where they could hear more and more banging and fizzling. (What in Equestria was going on in there?) Then they looked at the rose.

"I don't think it'll hurt...it's just a fake flower, right?" the pegasus said.

"Scootaloo, he did say don't touch it."

The earth pony gently poked the glass with a hoof. It moved ever so slightly, and nothing happened. Except that the rose started to fold back up into a bud. All three took a few steps back, as the rose unfolded into its bloom again.

"Well, didn't I tell you NOT to touch me?" a fake voice said from the rose. All three ponies just looked at each other and started laughing.

Nickel Steel walked out of the back, with a small box of something, smiling.

"And that's exactly what it is, it's a fake paper flower that records a message. You know, like a greeting card," Nickel Steel said, putting the box down on the counter, "If she says something bad to you, you can just record it and play it back to her mother."

"Do you have anything in purple?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Pink Personal Hell

I had a bit of thinking to do, really. Maybe you can say I chickened out a bit, but I basically spent the day out. Pinkie Pie wanted me to watch movies all night with her so I did. (And Gummy bit onto my hand a few times but at least he didn't hold on the whole time.) For once I woke up before Pinkie Pie did and snuck out.

So I had a bit of second thoughts. These past few weeks really were weird. First there was that freak electrical storm that brought her into my home, then she starts bringing in food that is...admittedly delicious. Even when I went out and got a salad from a salad bar it didn't taste nearly as good as the salads that I made with Pinkie Pie.

So maybe I didn't want to go to this Equestria place quite yet. I mean, I certainly didn't know how that was going to work, after all. There was no other way to explain a pink horse with balloon marks on her arse who seemed to cause us to break the laws of physics whenever we were nearby. (I mean, how else do you think I walked away from hitting the ceiling like that?)

It started to get dark out again. I was out literally all day. I figured I might as well have just gotten it over with and be done with it. I should have told Pinkie that I was getting second thoughts, after all. Almost everywhere I go, I kept getting reminded of Pinkie Pie. It was snowing once more, and the sky was turning pink again. (Like it normally did in the winter.)

When I walked back in the house, I wasn't as nearly discrete as I was the previous day. It was...surprisingly dark inside. The lights weren't on, I wasn't hearing the TV. I didn't hear anything. Apart from my own shoes clopping on the ground. I kicked them off and looked around. No sign of that pink horse around at all.

This was starting to get a little bit unsettling. Normally I had grown to expect hearing Pinkie Pie's hooves clopping on the ground, or hearing the water running as she filled the tub with warm water for Gummy. Or something like the stove running as Pinkie Pie made something like a special surprise.

I took several more steps in and looked around. Did she leave without me? If that was the case, I'd have felt awful about it, and tried to find wherever on earth this magical land called Equestria was just to know she was okay.

There was something weird behind me. I turned around, half expecting to see Slenderman. However, what I found was much much worse. It was Pinkie Pie, and she did not look happy at all. I had never ever seen her angry before, expect when mimicking something she saw on the TV. Steam blew out of her ears as she breathed a cloud of white smoke. Oh shit.

"YOU PINKIE PROMISED!!!" Pinkie Pie shouted, "NOBODY BREAKS A PINKIE PROMISE! NOBODY!!!"

"Wait! I can explain!" I said, backing up.

"YOU BROKE A PINKIE PROMISE!!"

"...oh shit...OH SHIT OH SHIT!" I shouted, turning around and started running, eventually running out of the house, without even stopping to put my shoes back on. I don't think I ever ran that fast. Unfortunately, I couldn't run too fast because of the snow outside. The horse was faster, unfortunately, and I was glomped from behind, falling face-first into the snow. But then we started rolling. We both started twisting, eventually barrel rolling on our backs.

"NOBODY BREAKS A PINKIE PROMISE!" Pinkie shouted, as we started rolling down a hill. Unfortunately, because it was winter, we were starting to pick up snow. We continued to roll and roll more down the hill, picking up snow until we hit a tree at the bottom of the hill, sending all the accumulated snow flying out into one drift.

"I know I know! I'm sorry!" I said.

"WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?" She huffed, putting her muzzle against my nose, glaring at me.

"B-But you didn't -HAVE- Pinkies!" I said.

This seemed to do something to her. At least it kept me from getting another mouthful or being reminded that I broke a Pinkie Promise to head with her to Equestria today. Her glare turned from a frown into a smile as she started laughing.

"Ooooh, you mean your little fingers!" She said, before laughing again, "Just be glad I'm not Rarity! She would be much less forgiving!"

"Who's Rarity?" I asked.

"You'll have to find out. Pinkie Promise you'll see Ponyville?" She said, "As in, your whole hand and not your little finger this time?"

"Yeah...Pinkie Promise...I won't go out all day, okay?"

"GREAT!" Pinkie Pie said, "Let's get warmed up!"

Altering Fate

"Heeeeey! What happened to my Quesadila?" Somepony said out loud.

Nickel Steel looked up from where he was sitting outside. All he could see was a somewhat familiar unicorn from his "Welcome to Ponyville" party walking by. He remembered something about cupcakes going missing nearby him. Then he looked down at his own quesadilla, and found that it too was missing.

"What the-?" he asked, looking back up. He immediately guessed it was that unicorn who had done it. After all, everyone else seemed to be looking over at Full Beats when he walked by.

Although not everything edible vanished when Full Beats walked by. Someone had a cupcake made out of Marzipan that didn't seem to go missing. Nickel Steel had to wonder if that might have been the rotund looking unicorn doing all of it.

He made it his small mission to look for that gluttonous unicorn Just to confirm himself if it really was Full Beats doing it. (He kept stealing food and his walk would be more of a roll, after all.) Nickel Steel followed the unicorn through down, eventually making his way to the Sugarcube.

"Uh oh," He thought as the unicorn entered the Sugarcube. That probably wasn't going to end well.

He half expected the house to vanish, but nothing happened a few minutes later.

Nickel Steel finally walked into the Sugarcube, and looked around. Strange, it looked as normal as it ever did. No gluttonous unicorn stealing everything in sight.

"Huh," He said.

"Can I help you at all?" Mrs. Cake said, causing Nickel Steel to jump.

"Oh, I'm just looking, thanks," Nickel Steel said. Guess that was good after all. Maybe it wasn't Full Beats stealing food after all.

They were then interrupted by a sound of music. It sounded like ten instruments were being played at once, some of which were even being in unison. He jumped in surprise, all feet landing on the ground. Mr. and Mrs. Cake didn't seem disturbed at all by the sudden intrusion of noise.

"What is that?" Nickel Steel asked.

"Just Pinkie Pie - she's watching the babies and Full Beats came in. They do like playing music with each other," Mrs. Cake said.

"Pumpkin and Carrot can be such a hoofful, can't they? They love bouncing on Beats like that." Mr. Cake laughed.

The music stopped a few minutes later.

"So that's what he's doing in here? Just making the perfect song?"

"What else do you think he'd be doing?" Mr. Cake asked.

"...Nothing, nothing. Say, I do have some bits around." And one of those cupcakes did look pretty tasty to him. Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting - perfect!

* * *

"Hm, I really should find Pinkie Pie some time," Nickel Steel said to himself, as he walked back towards his shop

"Hi!" A familiar voice said from behind him.

The shock sent the pony flying into low orbit. Pinkie Pie had walked right behind him, with another one of her friends in tow. Full Beats had also been with her, and had somehow managed to sneak up behind Nickel Steel without making any sound at all.

"Wow, I don't think I've ever seen anyone go quite that high," Full Beats said, still looking at the blue dot in the sky.

"Oh that's nothing - Rainbow Dash can do high all the time!" Pinkie Pie said.

The two waited for a few minutes, until Nickel Steel started to fall back towards the ground. Rather than landing and making a huge pony-shaped hole on the ground, Full Beats's horn glowed. The Yellowish aura surrounded the unicorn stallion, stopping him in mid-air and gently gliding him to the ground. The aura vanished, although the blue unicorn still collapsed to the ground.

"You alright?" Full Beats asked.

"Thanks, and yes," He said, getting back to his hooves again, "You just shocked me, is all."

"Mr. and Mrs. Cake told me you were looking for me and Beats here!" Pinkie Pie said, standing on her hind legs and wrapping her front leg around Full Beats's neck, bringing the pony close to her, all the while smiling.

"Err, well I was wondering what happened to my Quesadilla earlier - I thought maybe you took it."

Full Beats turned a bit red...and then blue when Pinkie Pie grabbed him a little more tightly. Before he suffocated, she let him go, letting the fat one collapse onto the ground. Pinkie Pie fell back to all four legs again, while Full Beats gasped for air.

"Oh you know what happens! Some things tend to just vanish around him. Did you wanna do something?" She bounced a few times, "I've been looking for something fun to do all day now!"

"Err, well what were you doing earlier?"

"Trying to create the perfect song," Full Beats said, "You see, Pinkie Pie here is probably one of the best musicians in Ponyville."

Pinkie Pie seemed to vanish out of Nickel Steel's line of sight for a moment and then came back with ten instruments attached to her. He blinked - how the heck did she move with such speed like that?

"How the heck do you-"

"Hey! She does it without magic. See?" Full Beats said.

Pinkie Pie bounced around a little as she played all of them at once. Nickel Steel's eyes were almost glued to her - some part of him was wondering how in the heck she was able to do that.

In fact, one other thing that surprised Nickel Steel about Pinkie Pie's skill at playing multiple instruments at once was the fact that they all didn't sound...discordant at all. It was like listening to an entire small orchestra with only one pony playing. Everything was in almost perfect rhythm with each other. The music finally stopped, and Pinkie Pie smiled at Nickel Steel.

"Well what do you think?"

"I'm wondering how you do that..." Nickel Steel asked.

"We're trying to get it to sound juuuust right!" Full Beats said, "See here?"

Nickel Steel turned towards the other unicorn, whose horn was once again glowing. Out of seemingly nowhere (Probably the same space Pinkie Pie kept her instruments), a saxophone appeared alongside a small trumpet. Full Beats then started tapping his hoof on the ground to an invisible beat, as the two instruments started playing. Pinkie Pie joined on in, not playing all of her instruments loud enough to overshadow Full Beats's.

Nickel Steel simply took a few steps back and sat on the ground, as they started to play some kind of jazz-ish sounding music. Full Beats didn't even put any of the instruments to his mouth, magical aura simply guiding the instruments' notes through. He was certainly impressed for sure.

"Hmm, that didn't sound quite right, I think it needs something else," Full Beats said.

"What about a violin, Beats?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Perfect!" Full Beats said as a violin appeared to come out of this hammerspace, and they started playing their songs again.

By now, a few other ponies had overheard this strange cacophony and had come to investigate. Even a few shopkeepers who didn't leave their stores popped open their windows to investigate. A few pegasi flew over, some hovering, others taking a rest on the roofs.

Neither Pinkie Pie nor Full Beats seemed to even notice that they were beginning to attract a crowd. Or maybe that was what they intended to do in the first place. The ponies had already been used to Pinkie Pie and her ability to play ten instruments simultaneously, but even then, it was quite an unusual sight to see.

Full Beats seemed to simply be keeping his eyes closed, tapping a hoof on the ground to the unseen beat. At the same time, Pinkie Pie coordinated her own hops with this beat. It was a perfect synchronization, too. No matter how many times Pinkie Pie moved around, she would always have all four of her hooves on the ground when Beats's hoof did.

After a little while, they finished their song, earning a bit of applause from the crowd, while a few people even whistled. It was now that they noticed how everyone was watching them. He turned somewhat red at first, but then smiled when he realized that they were actually enjoying it, and not just himself and Pinkie Pie like he normally did. It was the first time he actually performed in public and not around the Cake family, after all.

"That's...amazing..." Nickel Steel said.

"I'm...glad they enjoyed it," Full Beats said, levitated instruments gradually lowering to the ground, "I...never really get to do that."

"Well you should do it more, I'm surprised at how good you are," Nickel Steel said, "So what got you into doing that?"

"Uh....I don't...really..."

"IT'S MUSIC! YOU JUST LOVE IT!!" Pinkie Pie shouted, the force of her voice managing to knock Full Beats onto his side. Given his size, this was quite an impressive feat.

"It's not just that!" Full Beats said, swinging his legs to try to get back up on his hooves. He was surrounded by a blue aura as Nickel Steel lifted him up and placed Beats back up on his hooves. He gritted his teeth, struggling to lift the rather large pony. Full Beats weighed a little more than he thought.

"Thanks," Full Beats said, now back to his hooves.

"Come on, tell him that thing about uh..." Pinkie Pie told Full Beats, "That thing where you put things together!" She hopped a few times again.

"Uh...I...uh..." Full Beats tried to speak something again, but he just couldn't seem to spit it out.

"Maybe some place where you're not being looked at? I got some space in the shop open." Nickel Steel said.

"Uh! Sure! Sure sure!" Full Beats said, following Nickel Steel to the cottage with the wizard hat.

"Hey! Where'd my carrot go?" A pony asked as the two walked by her.

Pink Personal Hell

The next day, I didn't do anything that required me to leave home at all. I figured that way I wouldn't be distracted at all and wouldn't go back on the Pinkie Promise at all. Even if she didn't have pinkies and I had technically already gone back on that Pinkie Promise once before, I wasn't about to do it again. (Seriously, Pinkie Pie can be QUITE Scary when she's angry!)

Pinkie Pie had simply waited inside my bedroom after I had gotten everything cleaned and ready. I didn't see Gummy in the tub at all - maybe she had already made a small stop back to Equestria yesterday when I was busy outside. I guess that did make for less baggage after all.

I walked into the bedroom and dragged my red suitcase outside of the closet, right in front of my dresser. Pinkie Pie simply looked at it and giggled.

"You're not gonna need that, Dominic."

"Wudge?" I asked.

"You're not going to need that." Pinkie Pie repeated.

"What, you say that like Equestria is pretty close to here, like...down the street or something."

"It is!" She said, "It's just through that window out there."

I simply looked at the window. I didn't see anything that looked appropriate for some kind of oddly-coloured horse-filled land outside. It simply looked like a bunch of snow had fallen outside the previous night. The same place I had always known to be outside the window.

"You've gotta be kidding me," I said, "Equestria is outside?"

"Noooo! Through the window, silly."

"What, you want me to jump out the window and kill myself? Who are you, a car GPS?"

"No no and no! See? This is supposed to be a window that leads you to Equestria. It's inside Canterlot, too, shame we couldn't have just placed it in Ponyville."

"...Yeah, you first," I said, "I still don't know if I'm going to crash through the glass and kill myself."

"Here, lemme show you!" Pinkie Pie said as she hopped right towards the window. Instead of crashing through it like I assumed she would, she seemed to jump through it like the mirror was made out of some kind of liquid. I gulped hard and then walked closer to the window.

I poked the glass, half expecting it to just be standard glass, only instead, it had a bit of give to it. Like I was actually poking something that wasn't glass. My jaw dropped, as I poked it several more times, sending ripples through the strange thing my window had become. Was it always like this? I certainly hadn't checked since fall when it started to snow.

"I'm crazy..." I said to myself.

Altering Fate

Nickel Steel had walked back into the shop with the two ponies in tow. Pinkie Pie seemed to bounce the whole way, while Full Beats's trot was more of a wobble. When he opened the door, he half expected for the other unicorn to get stuck trying to get through the frame.

To his surprise, Full Beats didn't get stuck at all. That was somewhat of a relief - for a minute, Nickel Steel was afraid that the fat unicorn would block the only exit into the house on the ground floor and he'd have to find some way to get him out. (Preferably one that didn't involve putting him on a crash diet until he lost enough weight to be pushed or pulled through.)

"Think maybe you can explain in here, where you're not in public?" Nickel Steel asked the unicorn.

"Well, I love making instruments work together, you know, even ones that don't-"

"He just loves music! Even playing with me!" Pinkie Pie interrupted the unicorn.

"What I meant to say is, I like to just make sounds that play off of-"

"Say! Remember that time I made a silly face and you blew so hard on your trumpet you nearly blew the whole thing up?" PInkie Pie interrupted.

"I meant something more that-"

"Ooooh! There was even that time I had the idea to pour fudge into a breath instrument so you can eat liquid fudge while playing an instrument! The problem with that was that while it was chocolatey, it didn't play the instrument well! And I accidentally covered Full Beats in Chocolate! Remember that time?"

Full Beats simply closed his mouth and sighed. He never could explain something when Pinkie Pie was constantly interrupting. Sometimes, she had the attention span of a cream puff.

"...And then I blew on a trombone that I flooded with chocolate and it made a huuuge bubble!" Pinkie Pie stood back on her hind legs and motioned playing a trombone, and followed by widening her hooves as if a bubble was forming in between her hooves. s

"Pinkie, do you mind?" Nickel Steel asked.

"Sorry," She said.

"I really just try to get the majesticness. I mean, it's like you're the conductor as well as the orchest-"

"And then there was this one time, I accidentally poured bubble bath inside the trombone and sent a stream of bubbles right into Rarity's window! It's a good thing that I didn't destroy any of her-"

"Pinkie!" Nickel Steel said.

"Sorry!"

"Go...uh...occupy yourself with something like...I don't know, look over at that Prank Bit over there, or those chattering teeth."

"Yay!" Pinkie Pie said, running over to try and catch the chattering teeth that seemed to bounce away as soon as the pony came over.

"Okay, while she's distracted...what were you trying to say?"

"Honestly, I make music because I like hearing the different instruments come together. I like hearing the magical combinations of instruments that you'd never expect would work together. I love hearing each sound play off of the others, working together to make a majestic harmony that works together in a beautiful-"

"CAUGHT THEM!" Pinkie Pie said, immediately hopping between the two with the chattering teeth balanced on her front hoof. No sooner had she interrupted the two than the teeth started chattering again. They hopped a few times, before and bouncing right towards Full Beat's horn, latching onto it the way Gummy normally would.

Full Beats didn't even bother to say anything, just let a resigned look spread across his face. No matter what, every time he'd try to describe why he'd like music, something would happen.

Pink Personal Hell

I still hesitated just a tad. My window had appeared to have turned into some kind of liquid. I bit my tongue and thought, what the hell, after all. So I pushed the rest of my hand through the window. I half expected it to shatter and send bits of razor sharp glass through my arm. But instead, I simply felt my hand go through.

However, my hand felt weird on the other side. At first, I thought I clenched my hand into a fist somehow. I couldn't feel any of my fingers at all. I tried to unclench my hand but nothing seemed to happen. That was weird. I pulled my hand back out of the window, and found that it indeed was clenched into a fist.

I put my hand back through the window, feeling my fingers seem to clench into a fist before vanishing once again. I pulled it out, and unclenched my fingers. This was actually kind of funny, I thought. I repeated this numerous times. Hand goes in, hand goes out. Hand goes in, hand goes out.

However, my hand didn't come out the next time. Something seemed to grab onto it when I put my hand in the window. I tried to pull it out, but I couldn't. Some strong force was pulling me back into the window. It started to pull me deeper and deeper through the window.

Eventually my whole arm was taken through the window. It didn't feel cold on the other side, simply room temperature. I tried to prop my other hand against the window to pull myself back out, only for that hand to quickly vanish on the other side, fingers clenching into that strange numb fist. Oops, that didn't work. I pulled it back out again.

Before I could grab onto something to try and pull again, that force gave me another pull and I lost my balance, falling forth onto the window frame. What should have knocked me out as I hit the wall didn't, as I instead fell through the window.

It was now that I really noticed what was on the other side. Instead of a drab snowy world, I saw some kind of room. It looked like it was painted with pastels, and quite huge at that. My entire house could fit within just the whole room.

I noticed another strange sensation as my torso fell through that window. There was some strange blue void in my vision where my nose should have been. I looked cross-eyed at it. Wow, weird - blue. What the heck happened? Did I get covered in paint of some kind? My mouth also felt a tad weird.

"Come on, don't struggle," a voice said.

Another strange sensation wracked me. I felt my ears twitching. Now, I don't know if you can wiggle your ears, but that's sort of what it felt like, except somewhat stronger. And at the same time, my ears seemed to be at the top of my head, too. Like Pinkie Pie's were.

I looked towards my waist, and gasped. I could see that my torso was being poked out of a mirror somehow, like the same consistency as my window had become. What I saw in the mirror was most definitely not something I was familiar with at all.

For one, my hair had changed to a complete black, and had grown quite a bit. It even fell over some of my face, too. There was also something strange, like an ice-cream-cone in the middle of my head, but it was coloured blue. Like the rest of me.

I held up my left hand and nearly gasped. It was covered in blue fur - just like my face. But my hands had completely vanished. All that remained of my hand was a solid black hoof. I gulped hard - whatever this was, it was turning me into a horse, just like Pinkie Pie.

"Come-ON! You weigh a TON!" That voice said.

I turned my attention towards that voice, and spotted another horse there. Just like me, she seemed to have a horn poking out of her head. An aura seemed to surround it, something a bit purple and pink-looking. I took a look over at my immobilized right hand - or rather, my front leg, and gasped once more. It was surrounded in the same sparkling aura.

The unicorn gave another big tug, as my legs finally lost balance, slipping off the carpet on the other side. The rest of me quickly followed suit as I flew out of the mirror, landing right on the floor. My arm-I mean, foreleg fell down to the ground, as I looked over my bottom half.

It too had changed, into the lower half of a horse. My legs now bent at a ninety degree angle naturally, forcing me into a quadrupedal stance overall. On the sides of my flank, I could spot something odd - something like a black magic circle, something like a hexagram. My eyes looked a little, towards a foreign sensation around my rear. There was an equine tail right there, black, just like my hair.

"Woo hoo! See! I told you you'd have fun!" I heard Pinkie Pie's voice say.

I looked towards where I heard Pinkie Pie's voice, and for once, actually looked up at her. She loomed over me with a smile, before bouncing around again.

"You look cool! Somehow I knew you would be a unicorn with your habits!" She said.

"Wait, what the hell?" I asked, trying to stand up, only to fall right back down when I lost my balance.

"Pinkie Pie, I think I need to explain," that other unicorn said, walking over to me. I was suddenly surrounded in that aura again as my body was lifted off the ground. I was flipped about ninety degrees again, and placed down on the ground with a few clopping noises. The aura vanished, leaving me standing there. Funny, I was only slightly taller than Pinkie Pie and this unicorn now.

"Welcome to Equestria," the unicorn said with a smile.

"I-I'm a horse?!" I asked.

Pink Personal Hell and Altering Fate

"Horse? No, you're a unicorn," the other unicorn said.

"But why in the heck am I like this?" I asked, still flabbergasted.

"Turn around," The unicorn said.

I tried to turn around, only to lose balance again. I wasn't used to walking on all fours. I got lifted back up to all four legs again, this time, I got turned around by the other unicorn.

I looked right at the mirror, and spotted that blue and black unicorn looking back at me. Instinctively, I opened my mouth a few times. The unicorn in the mirror opened up his own mouth. I moved my tail a few times, and the unicorn did so as well. No doubt about it...that unicorn WAS me.

I mouthed out, "What the fuck?" as the purple unicorn in the mirror spoke up.

"See this?" She said, "This is something we found somewhat recently while cleaning out the basement. It acts as a portal into another world. Where ponykind doesn't really exist."

"Then why wasn't Pinkie Pie here-"

"If you happen to represent one of the Elements of Harmony, that world's strange magics don't work on you and allow you to retain your form."

I suddenly thought back to what Pinkie Pie said about Discord and how she blasted him with the Elements of Harmony and turned him into a statue. That must have been what she meant by the Element of Laughter.

"I can't imagine looking like you did as that 'man'," Pinkie Pie said, "Blegh! Uh...no offense."

"...So it lead into my room? Were you guys spying on me or something to take me in here and...I don't know, seduce me or something?"

"E-E-E-EW!" Pinkie Pie said, "Gross! No! We wanted to alter your fate so you wouldn't end up some boring guy with no friends!"

"Fate Alteration?" I asked, "What is this - Vision of Escaflowne?" I checked around to make sure there wasn't some white horse with a demented look on his face jumping out to kill us. But for some reason, I had that feeling of this world being too...saccharine for that to happen.

"Mirror to the other world," the unicorn said, "Show me the one who is alone, the one who does not fit in."

Our reflections vanished from the mirror, as it seemed to swirl. It looked like a whirlpool, somewhat, or what you would expect to see when you looked into the magic mirror. All of a sudden, it started to show something clear. I got a massive sense of deja vu.

I could see someone in a winter coat walking alone. That person had brown hair, and pale skin. He would sit down and watch TV or read something. I saw various footage of groups, where he was the only person who was not talking with someone or dancing.

This TV show started to show various scenes from this person's life. Him being beaten up at school, and nobody coming to help. Him sitting all by himself, with nobody coming by. People avoiding the boy, scene after scene of him avoiding the crowds, always by himself.

I made that stunning realization - that boy was me. I recognized everything. The time I was stuffed head-first into a trash can. The time I was forced to do an entire project by myself. The time I was rear-ended and the person just drove away, leaving me to fix the damage by myself. All the times I was alone, all the times I didn't fit in.

"Stop," The unicorn said. The world itself seemed to ripple as my eyes started to close a little bit. I was forced to squint, as it all wavered. I felt several tears leaving my eyes...what, was I crying?

"Aww don't cry! You're here now - that's all that matters! We can throw a party for you to welcome you to Ponyville! Come on! Let's tell the princesses!"

"What, princess-"

I got interrupted by Pinkie Pie suddenly nudging me and pushing me out of the room. I couldn't even drag my hooves - after all, they had less traction on the floor.

* * *

I had a lot of trouble trying to climb up the stairs. Do you have any idea what it's like to walk on all four legs again? It took a little practice just for me to be able to walk on my own - and even more for me to get up the stairs. Several times, I lost my balance and even hit my horn on the stairs. Pinkie Pie felt it was a little funny.

Eventually, I was brought into this room with a red carpet, after we passed several other horses who seemed to be dressed in armour. I thought it looked somewhat romanesque in design, but I never got a good look on it. When I fell behind, Pinkie Pie would run behind me and start pushing me again.

We passed by a door that was far far too big for any of these creatures to ever possibly open by themselves. (Seriously, who needed doors that big?) Stained glass windows lined the walls, overlooking blue and light blue checkered floors. I noticed a small staircase leading to a platform of some kind.

"We're heeeere!" Pinkie Pie announced, "And we have Dominic with us too!"

Two other ponies seemed to appear out of seemingly nowhere. Or maybe I did not notice them. Maybe they were already there to begin with. They towered over me - and not just because of their standing on the platform. I didn't know what to call them at first - something like a pega-corn. Both of them had horns like me and this purple one, but wings like a pegasus. Both of their horns were even longer and more pointed.

If there was anything to describe these two, it was other worldly. The lighter coloured one had a flowing mane of four colours. Pink, Blue, Mint green, and Teal. She also had purple eyes that looked somewhat calming. The other one, the darker horse, was more indigo. Similar to the lighter horse, her mane seemed to flow completely differently, but it was a dark blue, surrounded by a corona of a slightly lighter shade of blue. In contrast, this horse's teal eyes seemed to gaze into your own being. (She did have a...sterner look on her face, after all.) Some part of me was a bit relieved that the more friendly looking one was taller, but size didn't mean everything, after all.

"You stand before the great Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna," the unicorn said.

"Well done, Pinkie Pie," the white horse said, "He has chosen to come after all. I feared after yesterday, he might not have."

"The question is," The darker horse said, "Will he stay?"

"Dominic here has become my friend!" Pinkie Pie said, "Of course he will! Give him time!"

"Err, what do you mean by staying?" I finally managed to ask, "I uh, Pinkie-Promised I'd come to Equestria, but I didn't say anything about staying..."

"You have seen your potential fate, haven't you?" The darker horse said, still seeming to glare at me, "Of being alone, separated from your own peers, as I was in the moon?"

That I did not hear about. I nervously nodded a bit, eyes watering somewhat at the old wounds that had been opened up by that mirror.

"You have been given a chance, Dominic," The darker horse said, "To alter your own fate, and become someone who knows what friendship truly is. That is why we sent Pinkie Pie here to your world."

"But what if it's the same here and I...What if I want to go back?"

"Then we will let you return to where you originally come from, and to alter your fate yourself," The white horse said, "We are not forcing you to stay here. However, we do ask that you at least give it a chance. You have already made a friend in Pinkie Pie. And we are very willing to accommodate you until you are ready to make your decision."

"I can tell you this," The purple unicorn said to me, "You will not regret staying in Ponyville even for a little while."

"What is your decision, Dominic?" The dark horse said, "Will you at least accept our generosity, and give yourself a chance?"

I thought for a minute, looking at Pinkie Pie. She seemed to be smiling in anticipation. How could anyone say no to a face like that? Even then, I owed it to them, for doing all this for me. That was...easily the nicest thing anyone has ever done to me before in my life.

"I'll...I'll do it." I finally got the words out.

Altering Fate

Nickel Steel had walked back to Zecora's hut, by himself this time. Already he was getting settled in officially. Several ponies had asked him for various bits of advice, and he even had plans to meet some of his new friends for a bit of a get-together later that night.

Already, they had somewhat of a plan to help their friend Full Beats out. He still had somewhat of a problem wanting to share his music to the rest of Ponyville, instead of just him, Pinkie Pie, and the Cake family. He was somewhat like Fluttershy that way.

He had already helped Fluttershy out, not just tracking down several shinies that had gone missing from the magpie she and Draco Scales took care of. Draco Scales himself was even willing to try teaching Nickel Steel some shapeshifting magics, which he picked up a bit easily. (However he wasn't ready to show that to everyone else yet - especially since he actually did shift into a minotaur and was warned to avoid Fluttershy the way he looked.)

Heck, he even heard Diamond Tiara got a little talking to from her mother after she and Silver Spoon got recorded making fun of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They certainly thanked him for it, and even pranked Applejack with the Prank Bit. (Gave her a bit of a workout trying to chase it, after all.)

Nickel Steel raised a hoof and knocked on the door to Zecora's hut. Not long after, he heard her voice telling him to come in, surprisingly not even rhyming.

"Ah, Nickel Steel, tell me today how do you feel?" Zecora asked when she recognized the blue unicorn. He smiled back at her.

"Great," he said, "Say, do you suppose you can answer a question for me?"

She nodded, not even bothering to rhyme a response to that.

"Well," he said, "Do you perhaps have something to help Fluttershy? I think her grass has somewhat of a fungal infection in some areas. I spotted some mycelium. Don't want to make her animals sick."

"I can make an anti-fungal potion with ease, but tell me this, do her or any of her animals cough or wheeze?"

"Nope," Nickel Steel said, knowing she would ask about that.

"Then all that she'll need is a potion to make the fungus recede from her roof," Zecora said, "I'm quite glad that you too keep her health on top of your hoof."

"Yeah, do you need me to gather the ingredients, too?"

"When it comes to mold, often you only need copper which some already hold."

"Oh yeah, of course," Nickel Steel said, "Thank you again, Zecora."

"Any time you need my aid you do not need to be afraid, my friend," Zecora said.

A smile spread across Nickel Steel's face after her rhyme. She didn't seem to immediately understand why such a simple rhyme would touch him so, and made a note to ask Twilight. After all, the letter she had been given had mentioned he was rather special.

* * *

Full Beats walked into Nickel Steel's shop. At the same time, a passing pony noticed that one of the turnips from his grocery bag seemed to have gone missing. He looked around and didn't find anything, apart from the yellow unicorn walking into the new magic shop.

Pinkie Pie wasn't around thankfully for Full Beats. He had tried to talk to Nickel Steel only for Pinkie Pie to appear from the middle of nowhere somehow. At one point, she had told them she was doing something with Rainbow Dash, only for her to appear right in between the two and talk about a time she did something funny.

"So, do you think Pinkie Pie will find some way to interrupt us again?" Full Beats asked.

"Well, I gave her a Prank Bit. That might be able to occupy her for...a little while, until she finds something else fun to do."

* * *

Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was running through Ponyville, chasing a Bit that seemed to bounce away every time she tried to grab it.

"I'll get you sometime! Some time!!" She shouted, chasing the Bit even further.

* * *

"Well, have you ever noticed something, that every time food is nearby you, it seems to vanish?" Nickel Steel asked the unicorn.

"Wha?" Full Beats asked in a rather muffled voice. His cheeks were full of something, something he was chewing.

Nickel Steel looked over at a small table, where he had placed devil's food donut to use as an example of Full Beats's strange quirk. He looked back at the unicorn and identified bits of chocolate crumbs sticking in the fur by his mouth.

"Like that, see?" Nickel Steel said, smiling, "I had a donut right here and it seemed to vanish. Now I see crumbs by your mouth."

"I didn't notice that..." Full Beats said, blushing a bit, "Are you yelling at me?"

"Nope, not at all, I actually find it quite intriguing."

Nickel Steel took another donut out from a concealed package and placed it onto the small saucer. Full Beats eyed the chocolate donut, but turned them back to Nickel Steel. They were all good donuts after all...but he had to resist.

"I don't exactly know what you mean...I know I have eaten a lot more since I came to Ponyville."

"Really, where did you live before?"

He responded with another muffled noise. The chocolate donut vanishing from its perch and appearing in his mouth. His eyes widened a bit, suddenly noticing that he tasted chocolate...and sugar. And glazing. Sweet sweet glazing.

"Uh," Full Beats swallowed the donut, "I stayed in Canterlot for a little while after I came from...far away...is that what you mean by food randomly vanishing?"

"Yeah, see?" Nickel Steel gestured towards the now empty saucer.

"Well I have been eating more...I mean it is so good after all."

"Well, where're you from after all? Didn't you stay in Canterlot too for awhile?"

"Yeah, although I don't think I've developed such a...miraculous ability to make food disappear from across the room."

Another donut was lifted onto the perch. This one didn't even last more than a few minutes before Full Beats swallowed it. (Though at least he never forgot to chew, thankfully for him.) Full Beats smiled sheepishly, almost baaing as he did. What could he say - he loved chocolate a lot. Almost enough to say chocolate chips in slow motion.

"What, I never ate this much back home. I don't think I even notice it sometimes." Full Beats said.

"Not to be rude or anything but," He looked over at the rather rotund looking unicorn, "Were you always that round?"

"No," Full Beats sweatdropped, "Sort of happened, I guess. I mean, the food here is certainly great. I mean...I don't think I ever ate a whole cake in one sitting before I came to Ponyville."

"Yeah, that is kind of true, isn't it?" Nickel Steel said, "And Pinkie is a great cook. Even some of her...weird stuff like the Cherry-changa or whatever the heck those things are."

"That reminds me! There was this one time, she caramelized a whole salad with a frosting and made it into a pastry filling like a pie! It tasted so good!" Full Beats said.

Nickel Steel raised an eyeridge - he never heard of that before. He had seen some caramelized onions in the Sugarcube corner before, but never heard of a salad pie before.

His thoughts were interrupted by a small metallic pinging noise on the floor. Both Nickel Steel and Full Beats looked towards the source of this noise, spotting a small shiny Bit on the floor. They looked towards each other somewhat nervously.

"That's a Prank Bit, isn't it?" Full Beats asked.

Not more than a few minutes later, Pinkie Pie came charging through the store after the shiny bit she never seemed to catch, practically flattening Nickel Steel and Full Beats in the process of chasing the shiny thing.

Pink Personal Hell and Altering Fate

"What exactly is your name?" I was asked by Princess Luna.

"Dominic," I answered.

"That will not do at all," she answered, "What do you think is a more appropriate name for him?"

"I'm thinking," Princess Celestia said.

"What about Sour Steel?" Pinkie Pie spoke up.

"No, doesn't sound very befitting of him," Luna responded.

"Something that still sounds like your original name, perhaps?" Celestia spoke up.

"Domination Steel?" I hazarded.

Pinkie Pie started laughing at the suggestion. Definitely wasn't a good idea there.

"I know, Nickel Steel perhaps?"Luna added, "It still sounds like 'Dominic'."

I nodded - I guess that sort of fit. My fur did look rather blue, like cobalt after all. Guess that did give me a very metal sounding name.

"He seems to agree," Celestia said with a smile, "I grant you with the name Nickel Steel."

"Hi Nickel Steel! I'm Pinkie Pie!" The Pink Pony said to me.

"But I already know you!" I said.

"You don't know me as Nickel Steel after all."

"You will be called Nickel Steel solely until you truly recognize it, refrain from referring to him as Dominic, please" Luna said, turning her attention to Pinkie Pie as well.

I nodded again - this was going to be a bit of work. But I guess it did sort of sound like my name before. Around now, the purple unicorn stepped in front of me.

"We have not officially been introduced - my name is Twilight Sparkle."

"Err, hello Twilight," I said, "You know me as Do-I mean, Nickel Steel."

"For the moment, you will stay in a tower in Canterlot we have set aside for you, where you will be taught the essentials," Celestia said, "Twilight, do you wish to show him to his quarters?"

"Let's go together! We can have a little welcome party there!" Pinkie Pie shouted.

Luna smiled just a tad at that, and then spoke up.

"PINKIE PIE, YOU ARE FREE TO ESCORT NICKEL STEEL TO HIS CHAMBERS AS WELL, YOU ARE ALSO FREE TO RETURN TO PONYVILLE AT YOUR DISCRETION." She shouted.

The force of her voice sent all three of us falling right to the floor. I slid back a tad at the sheer volume.

"Luna, please don't use your royal voice so recklessly, you'll scare people," Celestia said. All three of us were still on the floor, stunned, but I could make out what Luna's response was.

"Grant me a bit of entertainment every now and then," Luna smiled.

* * *

The door to the magic shop opened up, ringing the bell. Nickel Steel walked out of the back to the counter, wondering who these new customers might be, figuring he could put off stacking some boxes of no-stick glitter for a little while. After all, the customers came first.

It was none other than Twilight Sparkle and her dragon friend, Spike. Accompanying them was Pinkie Pie, who looked quite anxious. She was waiting for something, although the unicorn couldn't immediately guess what.

"It's time," Twilight said, "I have to write a letter to Princess Celestia once a week, but I'm sure given your situation,she wouldn't mind hearing from you instead."

A scroll was levitated over to the counter, along with a quill pen that Spike had carried. Pinkie Pie still waited with a smile, hopping a few times with excitement.

"Has it really been that long?" Nickel Steel said.

"Yep," Twilight said.

"Boy has it flown by, well sure thing," Nickel Steel said, "Okay, I'll have to be a little patient."

His horn glowed as the scroll opened up, quill levitating over to the paper as he begun to write. Out of habit, he instinctively left a few scribbles on the edge of the paper before remembering you didn't have to make sure the quill was working, just like a real pen full of ink.

Nickel Steel wrote slowly, so the princesses could read his writing. He had already tried a few times, only for the results to look slightly better than his handwriting before - something resembling a drunk epileptic spider that fell in an inkpot and had a seizure on the page. He also read what he wrote out loud, figuring the other ponies had a right to know what was being written. (And so they could remind him of anything he missed.)

"Dear Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

This has been quite the amazing time in Ponyville. I met all sorts of people who accepted me for who I am. They don't just look at me like I am the person running the magic shop, or someone who is just there to do stuff. I've learned a lot about friendship the past month or so, when I first met Pinkie Pie.

You have told me to at least give it a try, and I have decided to stay in Ponyville."

"YIPEEE!" Pinkie Pie said as she hopped right at the unicorn, interrupting his letter as he was knocked to the ground.

"AGGGH!" Nickel Steel shouted as she glomped him. Twilight and Spike ran to the counter and looked over it to investigate the Pinkie Pie damage.

"I knew you'd do it! I knew you'd make the right choice!" Pinkie Pie said, hopping up and down excitedly, "We can do all sorts of fun stuff! We can throw parties, we can play music, we can race, we can try on Rarity's clothing, we can go bowling, we can do magic things, we can visit Cloudsdale with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, we can visit the Crystal Empire and meet Twilight's brother, we can go to this year's Galloping Gala, we can..."

"Pinkie, I think Nickel Steel has to finish writing his letter," Twilight laughed.

"Oh, sorry," She said, taking a few steps back. Nickel Steel's eyes were still spirals, small stars orbiting his head, being chased by miniature Pinkie Pies hopping on invisible floors.

"When he wakes up," Spike laughed.

Several minutes later, Nickel Steel finally got back up lifting the quill back up again after giving it a few more dips of ink.

"I feel more at home here surrounded by ponies who accept each other for who they are. I thank you so much for giving me that chance to alter my fate in Equestria, and for sending Pinkie Pie to my house. Even though she started to annoy me at first with her hyperactivity and eagerness, she meant well. She's become one of my best friends ever, as odd as it was that somepony slow and grumpy like me and someone like Pinkie Pie."

"Awwwww!" Pinkie Pie said, "That's so cute!"

"Anything else you want to say?" Twilight asked.

"I also thank you for giving me a job. I'm getting better at magic, thanks to Twilight, Zecora, Draco, and the others. I look forward to learning more and more about myself in this land that should be new to me."

"Thank you again

-Nickel Steel."

"There, how's that?" Nickel Steel asked.

"They'll be delighted!" Twilight said, rolling the scroll up with magic and holding it to Spike. The dragon held it in his claws and then breathed his fire on it, appearing to burn the letter out of existence.

"Wait, did you just burn it?" Nickel Steel asked.

"That's how I send letters," Spike said.

"Oooooh....OOOOOH!" Nickel Steel responded.

"Let's party!" Pinkie Pie said, "You chose to stay after all!" She hopped up and down again.

"Yeah, let's burn some of that energy off," Nickel Steel said.

The four left the magic shop, gently laughing.

* * *

"So he has decided to stay," Celestia said, as she read over Nickel Steel's letter.

"I had faith in him," Luna answered, looking over the letter as well, "It was a healthy decision after all, just like sending Twilight to Ponyville."

"Do you perhaps think, that there could be others like Nickel Steel in that other world, who may deserve this opportunity?"

"Don't ever doubt yourself," Luna answered, "After all, Nickel Steel was not the first, and he most certainly will not be the last. You didn't doubt any of them like Full Beats or Draco Scales."

"Correct," Celestia said, "I'm so glad that mirror was found by us. Who knew what could have happened if it were discovered by somepony else, who didn't wish to use it to help other beings."

Pink Personal Hell and Altering Fate - The End