Unto A New World

Chapter Four: Friends

I was awoken by a knock at the door, which opened shortly after. Through the door came Celestia.
"Oh, I'm sorry Jackson. I did not mean to wake you" she bowed her head to greet me.
"Thats quite alright Celestia" I smiled to her, which in turn made her smile back.
"I thought you said we don't need to do that anymore?" I asked, pointing to her as she finished bowing. An even larger grin was on her face.
"Ah yes, I did say that didn't I?" She chuckled "My faithful prince, I hope you have rested well. We'll be going to Ponyville today, and I would like you and Luna to accompany me. I have some errands to run, but I will have to leave at the end of the day. You and Luna shall be staying for a few nights at Twilight Sparkle's house. I want you both to make some friends!" she told me "Luna has met these ponies before, but she has not socialised with them. I want you to help her with that"
"Will do Princess! You can count on me" I saluted, making the Princess giggle. "Allow me to pack some things and I will be down in no time"
"Very well. After breakfast, we will depart for Ponyville. I'll meet you in the Dining Hall in one hour" she turned to the door and gracefully walked out.

It had been a few days since that night on the balcony with Luna, and word had gotten out that there was a new Prince of Canterlot. I liked that title, and I had only been here a few days and I was a prince. How awesome is that?
I had found some bags in the cupboard and had begun packing some clothes. The bags were ment for a ponies back, so I was forced to carry them by the leather strap in the middle that connected them together. I picked up my guitar and slung it over my back by the strap and held the bags in my left hand, went to the door and gave the guards my 'saddlebags', as they called them. They offered to take my guitar too, but I refused.
I was escorted to the Dining Hall where Luna and Celestia were seated, deep in conversation. When I had entered the room, I noticed that they had stopped talking and were looking at me, which meant, by human body behaviour, that they were talking about me.
"Good morning" I said to Celestia, and walked over to Luna and gave her a hug. She blushed and hugged back, and then looked to her sister who gave her a secretive wink.
"How are we?" I asked.
Celestia spoke first. "I am very well thankyou" she smiled.
"As am I, how are you Jackson?" Luna asked shyly, but still managed to look me in the eyes. I nearly melted and she was just asking how I was!
"I am great, thanks for caring" I replied, as I beamed a huge smile which made her less shy.
"So Luna and I were talking.." Celestia revealed, who recieved the death stare from Luna.
"Oh?" I asked "What about?"
"You" well she couldn't have been any more straight forward than that.
"What about me?" I became slightly nervous.
She looked at Luna, who was trying to hide in her seat, she was crimson red, but she still stared at Celestia. She wasn't even blinking. "Well.. um.." she started "She told me you sang her a song. I was wondering if you could sing one for both of us?" she asked with an unsure look on her face.
I panicked. "R-right now? Here?" I asked, looking around the room. There were waiters and guards everywhere,atleast twenty other ponies, not including the princesses.
"If that's okay with you" Luna said, looking up from her plate, still bright red. "Y-you don't have to.."
'Is that a challenge?' I thought 'Maybe some crazy test to find my worthiness, some crazy girl thing' "Okay sure" I said, much to their surprise. Celestia clopped her hooves together in excitement. Luna looked at me with a new found respect, she knew I was shy, but she didn't think i'd do this. "I wasn't expecting to play anything so soon, but I guess I'll just play this" I stalled as I started tuning the guitar to a different sound. Once it was ready, I strummed the strings and they let out a lower pitched sound than a few nights ago, when I had played for Luna.
"This one is called Blue on Black, someone else had written in back in my world, and I put my own emphasis on it" I said, even though it was much the same, my version did not include the slide guitar or electric guitar. It was purely acoustic.
I started to play, and the two sisters sat there staring, in a trance from the guitar.

'Night falls, and I'm alone
Skin, yeah chills me to the bone
You, turned and you ran
Oh yeah
Oh slipped right from my hand.

Hey
Blue on Black
Tears on a river
Push on a shove
It don't mean much
Joker on Jack
Match on a fire
Cold on ice
A dead man's touch
Whisper on a scream
Doesnt change a thing
Don't bring you back
Blue on Black'

I continued to play the rest of the song, which went for a few minutes more.
When I finished, I lay my hand on my forhead and looked down. It took me a few minutes to realise that everypony in the room were stamping their hooves on the ground in applause. 'I wasn't THAT good was I?' I thought, beating myself up over it.
"That was AMAZING" cheered Celestia, and Luna galloped up to me and gave me the biggest hug, nearly knocking me over.
"I thought you were good, but not THAT good!" Luna said to me in amazement, before planted a kiss on my cheek. I rose my hand and placed my palm on where she kissed me. Celestia was looking at us, in total approval and joy. She knew just how much Luna and I liked eachother.

As the applause died down, the chefs came out and placed some food on the table before the three of us.
Infront of Celestia, they revealed a sea of lettuce and daisies, surrounded by apples, carrots, celery stalks and other colourful flower arangements.
For Luna, the chefs had prepared carrots and hay, ontop of sunflower petals, covered in a sauce which looked like mayonnaise.
Then the chefs had revealed the last dish on the table, mine. It was not as bad as I had expected it to be. It contained mushrooms, beets, and onions, all ontop and mixed with different kinds of herbs and spices. It was an interesting combination. I was glad they managed to keep up the protein count on my meal. I hadn't eaten anything really filling since I was at home.
We all thanked the chefs as they left the room, and each of us started to eat the meal. I had managed to take two sticks that were tied to the flowers in the vase at the center of the table, and use them as chopsticks, whereas the princesses dug their faces into their food and occasionally used their magic to put some food into their mouths.
Luna looked up at me to see what I was doing, and her face was priceless. She had never seen anyone eat like I was, and because I was using the stem supports from the flowers, it made her even more confused.
And then I noticed she had some yellow on her nose from some ground sunflower petal. I had fallen off my chair and nearly choked on the food in my mouth. Nopony knew what I was laughing at. Luna looked towards to Celestia, who caught on and started to giggle, then looked at me again. She couldn't contain her laughs any longer as she let out a loud, hearty laugh which made me laugh even harder.
I couldn't breathe, I had to get out of the room before I feinted.
From Luna's point of view, she was just looking at ponies in the room like she usually would, who instantly saw what everypony else was laughing at. Soon everyone in the hall was laughing, except for Luna. Celestia floated up a mirror to Luna's face, who's cheeks instantaneously went red hot, and starteed laughing with everypony else.
After I heard the laughter die down, I walked back in through the doors. I looked at Celestia and Luna again, who had the guiltiest look on her face and started laughing again. I ran back outside and they could hear my laughs coming from the other side of the door. They started laughing again, along with everypony else.

After twenty minutes of non stop laughing and giggling, we all sat back at the table.
"It has been centuries since I have laughed like that!" Celestia told us. 'She doesn't even look a day over thirty.. How old is she?' I thought, which I decided I'd ask later.
Luna looked at us both and pouted. "And I didn't even know what anyone was laughing at until I saw my face" she said as she chuckled "How was I ment to know there was sun flour on my nose?"

Another good twenty minutes of talking, I managed to find out that Celestia was over two thousand years old! And I also learnt other things, like Luna was once Nightmare Moon, and was banished to the moon.
"It doesn't change my views of you one bit Luna" I reassured, which she looked grateful to hear.
"I suppose we should be off to Ponyville now!" Luna said, changing the subject.
Celestia's eyes opened wide "Oh no! We've been here for hours! We must hurry, quickly now!" she exclaimed as she nudged Luna and I to the door.
As the door opened, two guards moved to either side of us, taking the princesses and myself to a cart, pulled by two ponies.
"Celestia" I said, making turn and raise an eyebrow "Won't the trip take days if we are being pulled?" I asked.
All she did was smile and turn and said "You'll see".
The guards opened the chariot's doors and we stepped in. It was pretty spacey, considering how small it looked. The chariot itself was made out of a metallic, lightweight golden substance, similar to the armour the guards wore.
Our luggage was already loaded. Before I could say anything, We shot up into the air. I was screaming at the top of my lungs, I really did not like flying.
"What's the matter?" asked Celestia, as both her and Luna giggled when I dove under Luna's legs, making her blush at how close I was to touching her underside.
"I am not good with the whole flying thing" I said sternly "When I was young I was in a plane, and the turbulance alone frightened me"
"Celestia please!" Luna begged "Help him! You're better at the sleeping spell than me"
Without saying another word, Celestia's horn glowed and I was sent into a deep sleep.

Opening my eyes, I found that I was lying on my back, in a bed. This bed was nowhere near as comfortable as the one in my chambers, but it was more like 'home'.
I could hear voices coming from outside of the door. With a quick study of the room I was in, I managed to pick up that I was in a bedroom, but this bedroom was scattered with books, and the bed I was on was ontop of a bookshelf. Stairs led down and around the room to the main floor of the large room.
I listened to the voices, one was Luna's, the other was a female's, who sounded smart. She probably owned this room, and the bed I was sleeping on. There was also a male voice, which seemed to say things like "If he tries anything funny, I don't know what i'll do" and "Him? A Prince?" Which was usually followed by a "Shush Spike, you'll wake him" or "That's enough Spike".
The voices died down, and I got up out of the bed. Following the staircase down to the main floor, I crossed the room to the door. I opened it and the room was dark. I couldn't see much, and I found what seemed to be a railing, which I held onto as I found some stairs, and nearly fell down them. "Shiii-" as I was about to finish, the lights flicked on, and the next thing I heard was "SURPRISE!" and streamers and glitter exploded into my face and eyes. Coughing and gagging, I looked down the flight of stairs to see another main floor, but this floor was full for ponies, of all different colours. Up on a wall, there was a banner saying 'WELCOME JACKSON!', and to the side of the room, there was a massive cake that had four layers.
Out of the crowd, I spotted Luna and started to make my way down the stairs to get to her. Before I even touched the floor, I was being bombarded with questions and greetings. Everyone I walked past bowed to me and moved out my way.
As I reached Luna, I saw the ponies from the window painting that I first noticed in the Dining Hall.
Rarity, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were all looking at me, bowing. Fluttershy had hidden behind Princess Luna, who moved out of the way so I could see the yellow coated, pink maned pony. "Um.. hi" she said as she found a new place to hide.
Almost out of nowhere, a pink pony jumped up right infront of my face. I couldn't make out what she was saying, but of the few words I caught, I managed to piece together what I could. Her name was Pinkie Pie and she made this party just for me. She heard that I was coming to town and she was all like 'HHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUHHHH!' and then she ran off to plan my party. The rest I didn't listen to.

"Hello Prince Jackson, It's a pleasure to make your aquaintance" said the orange earth pony. Luna had told me what the ponies species were not long ago. The pony sure had an arm on her, she nearly pulleed it out of it's socket. "My name is Applejack and I run the farm down at Sweet Apple Acres!"
"It is quite a pleasure to meet a prince as handsome as you, i'm sure we'll be the best of friends!" a white unicorn told me, her flank picture consisted of three diamonds, who recieved a secretive death glance from Luna "I am Rarity and run the Carousel Boutique, Be sure to come by and i'll see what I can do about those gahstly clothes you are wearing!" "I think his clothes are fine Rarity" said the purple unicorn standing next to her, giving Rarity a nudge. "My name is Twilight Sparkle and this is my Library. You'll be staying here until you leave back to Canterlot"
Then a blue pegasus took the spotlight "BOOOOOORRIIINNGG!" she shouted, by looking at her mane and tail, this was obviously Rainbow Dash. "How about I show you some of my cool new flying maneuvers!"
"Okay girls thats enough!" called a voice from behind me, I knew it well enough to know it belonged to Celestia. I ran up to her and hugged her, looking back at the rest of the ponies, Twilight walked up and hugged her too. "He is new to our world, and has not seen any ponies except for guards, servant and Luna and I, and you've given him a shock. How would you feel if you were in his world and you were surrounded but his kind, making fun of what you wore or looked like?"
"Gosh, I'm so sorry darling! We didn't mean to scare you! And I will make you some new clothes free of charge" apologised Rarity, along with the rest of the ponies. Even Fluttershy, who didn't do anything wrong.

After a few minutes, I calmed down. 'This is just like the castle' I told myself.
I walked over to the punch bowl and poured myself a cup. I slowly began to relax as the music took away all my nerves. This was nothing like the music we had back on my world. sure it was similar, it had bass and a good beat, but it was mainly techno.
I walked around for a bit, answering questions that anypony asked me. I had learnt the names of many ponies, but I couldn't remember half of them. 'Why do they have to have such weird names?' I thought in anger. The main pony that I remember though, was the DJ.
"Vinyl Scratch, at your service" said the white unicorn. She took off her glasses and slid them up to her short blue mane to reveal her crimson coloured eyes. "What can I do for 'ya?"
"You're a pretty good DJ!" I yelled so she could hear me over the music. "I was wondering if I could come into your studio and record something? I would pay you heavily"
Vinyl's eyes lit up. "You don't have to pay me Prince!" She replied energetically "I would do anything for anyone that needed help with music! I'll be free tomorrow afternoon, if that's cool with you?"
I was dumbfounded that I could see her so soon. "That would be awesome thanks!" I replied, giving her a huge smile "I'll see you tomorrow"
"Alright sweet, Catcha PJ!" She replied, putting her glasses back on.
'PJ?' I chuckled to myself.

Towards the end of the party, I was fully relaxed. I had started dancing on the floor. I started a 'bus', which nopony was keen on at the start, but soon enough, after Luna and Twilight were copying my dance, the others joined in. There were a good twenty of us dancing, and every pony who was not made way and watched in awe. I felt so good, this party was amazing. The DJ was highly impressed with how I could handle a party.
At the end of the bus, every pony was stamping their hooves on the ground.
Slower music had started and the couples got on the floor, or the people who could get their friends to dance with them.
"May I have this dance?" I asked the princess, holding out a hand. Luna nodded and we made out way to the dance floor. It was awkward at first, but the we both got into the rhythm and were following eachother's lead. It was an amazing feeling.

The very last thing that night, was somepony in the crowd, most likely Luna hiding somewhere shouted "PLAY SOME GUITAR". And ofcourse, everypony had seen it sitting there in the corner where two bookshelves met. With a sigh, I picked up the guitar and started walking up the stairs, before turning around to see the faces of the crowd. There were atleast fiftey ponies crowded into the small room.
Luna came up and sat next to me, giving me a supportive wing and leaned in and nuzzled my cheek. The crowd let out an 'awwe' as we both blushed hotly. With Luna here with me, I could do anything.
"This song was written by a good friend of my father's, who recently passed away" I said as I let out a small weep, luna dug her head into my shoulder.
"You can do this" she told me, boosting my confidence.
"It's called Lonely Boy, and it goes a little something like this"

I started to create music with my fingertips, and I saw many of the ponies were bobbing their heads to the tune, I had only just started.

'Well I'm so above you
And it's plain to see
But I came to love you anyway
So you tore my heart out
And I don't mind bleeding
Any old time to keep me waiting
Waiting, waiting

Oh, woah oh-oh I got a love that keeps me waiting
Oh, oh-oh I got a love that keeps me waiting
I'm a lonely boy
I'm a lonely boy
Oh, woah oh-oh I got a love that keeps me waiting'

The crowd was dancing to the tune, I kept playing and singing.

'Well your mama kept you but your daddy left you
And I should've done you just the same
But I came to love you
And I want to flee
Any old time you keep me waiting
Waiting, waiting

Oh, woah oh-oh I got a love that keeps me waiting
Oh, oh-oh I got a love that keeps me waiting
I'm a lonely boy
I'm a lonely boy
Oh, woah oh-oh I got a love that keeps me waiting'

I broke out into a small solo, and continued. I gestured Luna to join me. We both sang the last chorus together.

'Oh, woah oh-oh I got a love that keeps me waiting
Oh, oh-oh I got a love that keeps me waiting
I'm a lonely boy
I'm a lonely boy
Oh, woah oh-oh I got a love that keeps me waiting'

The crowd went wild and the ground stomping roared the library. Rainbow Dash looked incredibly impressed.
Luna leaned over and kissed my cheek, which gave me even more confidence. This was the best night ever, new friends and a new found confidence?
'This place keeps getting better and better' I thought to myself.

The party ended and everypony went home. Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie all said they would see us in the morning. Which left Luna, Twilight, Spike and I alone in the library.
Luna and Twilight went upstairs to bed, while Spike and I slept on the couches in the loungeroom. Spike wasn't that bad of a guy, and I think he thought of me as much. Eventually, we got to sleep, on a night that might have been the best night ever.

Luna's POV (after walking upstairs with Twilight):
Twilight pulled out a bed and made it for me. I chuckled as I told her there was no point in making it as I'll just pull the sheets off during the night anyway.
We stayed up for a while talking, like girls usually do. Twilight and I had become close friends. Every few nights, she and I would write to one another telling eachother how things were going. She'd keep me informed everything, and came to me when she needed help. I trusted her as much as I trusted Celestia and Jackson.
I was highly embarrassed to talk about the subject we stumbled onto; Love.
She asked me about Jackson and Myself. I simply replied that I had feelings for him, which had grow over time. I told her my heart belonged with him, and that Celestia and I would talk for many hours at a time about him and my feelings. She let it slip that he liked me back, but I already knew that. He might not show it as much as I'd like, but he's just simply amazing. Right when I think he is perfect, he goes and does something that makes me find something else to love about him. I need to tell him that I love him, but I don't know how he'll react. Twilight was snoring away, which made me smile. I can fall asleep when somepony snores, but all these thoughts in my head dont make it very easy.
It wasn't until three hours before sunrise that I finally fell asleep.

'Tomorrow is the day I tell him' was my final thought before I entered a deep, dreamless sleep.

A/N:
The songs used in this chapter were 'Blue on Black by Kenny Wayne Sheppard' and 'Lonely Boy by The Black Keys'. I do not own any of these songs, they belong to their respective bands. Don't sue me, fanfiction is just for fun!