The Tale of The Stone-turner

As we approached the town hall I started having serious doubts about how good an idea what we were about to do was. OK I had no delusions about it being a good idea, I knew it was one of the dumbest ideas I have ever been a part of. But I had nearly no other options aside from just waiting for Twilight and the others to convince the town I wasn't just some horrible monster, and I absolutely hate to wait.

I followed Pinkie Pie in thru the large doors to town hall and grinned at what I saw. Ahead of us was a large room decorated with pillars, its floor made of light blue carpet, it was obvious everypony in the town was in attendance, or at least enough to fill up most of the room save for about two feet of space away from the walls. On the far end of the space was a small stage where Twilight stood along with Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. On the opposite end of the stage from them was a light brown pony with a gray mane and tail. I quickly grabbed Pinkie by her tail before she could move too far ahead of me and whispered into her ear. With a few overly exuberant nods she bounded towards the stage while I stuck to the wall and slowly moved along it, trying very hard not to be seen or make noise until the time was right.

Once I got into a nicely shadowed position I leaned back and watched Pinkie reach the stage to join the others. They than began to speak with each other and much to my surprise I could hear them very clearly, either that stage was enchanted or I was in one hell of an acoustic sweet spot.

“Is this everypony in town?”

“Everypony plus o~ne” She sang the last word a little and Twilight raised an eye at her.

“Right.” She cleared her throat. “Everypony could I have your attention please. Now I know there has been a lot of panic today and many of you are scared, but I am going to set all records straight.” Twilight then went on to explain to the town just what I was and everything she knew of me from our short interactions. Now don't get me wrong, it was really sweet and I appreciated her trying to convince the entire town I wasn't just some monster that would ruin their existence, but my word it was so boring! It was more like she was listing off a fact sheet than making a heartfelt case for me. Of course things got a bit better when the others joined in on my defense, regardless of the fact I couldn't hear Fluttershy in the slightest. As their speech wound down the ponies in the audience began to ask questions or make comments, many of which involving how they could trust me so thoroughly after such short time. Their response was simple yet effective, The Elements of Harmony left me how I am, so I couldn't be a terrible guy.

I remained leaning against the wall watching silently until the town conference had ended and ponies began to disperse. Fortunately the last ones left were five of the six I had already come to know, so as they began to leave I silently started to move towards the exit, dragging my feet on the carpeted floor as quietly as I could. With a big grin I fell into step just behind the ponies as they were leaving the building. As we stepped outside I slowly raised my hands, only two fingers outstretched on each one. Carefully I chose my victim, Rainbow Dash, aiming for the center of the body on each side just a little ways below the wings I brought both hands together on the flying pegasus as I let loose the name of my attack.

“JUMPER CABL-

The world exploded in bright rainbow colored lights and deafening sound as I was thrown back to the ground just inside the doors of the town hall. Painfully I tried to lift myself up, my head was throbbing and my ears were ringing fiercely. After some stumbling I managed to get back on my feet and tried to peer ahead. As my vision began to refocus and my ears continued with their refusal to work properly I saw the others, Twilight was struggling to stand, Fluttershy was curled into a shivering little ball, Pinkie was staring straight up while resting on her back legs, Rarity was laying dazed on the ground, and Rainbow Dash was missing completely. Staggering back out of the building I noticed a beam of multicolored light shooting up from where Rainbow was last seen and an odd circular rainbow moving out away from the town off in the distance. Shaking my head I first helped Twilight get back onto all fours, steadying her until she seemed able to stand on her own. She moved her mouth but I didn't hear anything.

“WHAT!?” I cleared out my ears with a finger.

“What the hay did you!?”

“Why do you assume I did... whatever the hell that was?”

“Because things have only been crazy with you around.”

“I see your point, but I claim innocence on the grounds that I do not have the power to make random explosions.”

“Whatever. Let's just make sure the others are alright.”

“Agreed.”

With that Twilight trotted over to Rarity and I stepped lightly over to the curled up pegasus. After some prodding it seemed evident she was far too scared to even consider uncurling, so I simply picked her up and carried the timid ball of yellow and pink in one arm while I walked to Pinkie, who was still staring up into the sky.

“Pinkie, are you OK?” She looked at me with wide eyes.

“Did you see that Stoney!? Dashie was so amazing! She shot up all 'woosh!' or maybe 'zoom!' 'kerswoosh?' Yea! KERSWOOSH!”

“That didn't rattle your brain did it?”

“No my fain is brine.” With that she returned to watching the sky.

“Riiiiiiight..... Anyways, did you see where Rainbow Dash went?” She pointed a hoof to the sky and I followed it until I spotted a spectrum of color bound into pony shape descending slowly towards us.

“That. Was. AWESOME!” Dash exclaimed cheerfully as she landed before us. “I mean, did you SEE that? I went straight from zero to rainboom and I don't even know how, it was just like... like...”

“KERSWOOSH!” Pinkie added.

“Yea!” I shook my head a bit.

“OK, what was that? And.... rainboom?” Rainbow seemed a bit proud of herself as she spoke.

“A sonic rainboom, is what happens when a pegasus goes so fast they break the sound barrier and make a giant rainbow wave. I've done it before, but I had to try to do it I never just went from barely flying to rainboom. And it was so weird the way it happened! I mean first everything was fine, then there was this tingling in my sides like I had just passed between storm clouds, then just....”

“KERSWOOSH!” I rubbed the bridge of my nose with my free hand.

“So this tingling, it felt just like static electricity right?”

“Yea, that's it!” I sighed and looked towards the other ponies, Rarity was now able to stand without Twilight helping her up.

“Twilight, looks like this was my fault, sorry.”

“Huh?” I looked back at Rainbow. “How is this your fault?”

“Well I jumper cabled you.” She looked very confused. “Well you see a jumper cable is..” I frowned and looked down at my occupied arm, I would need both hands to fully illustrate this. Using my available hand I spread out Pinkie's mane a bit and set Fluttershy in it, it looked a lot like a yellow egg in a pink nest. Returning to Rainbow I continued. “A jumper cable is when you build up a static charge and then using both hands,” I held up my hands and only extended two fingers on each, “you poke someone in the sides as you pass the static shock on to them.” I motioned by bringing my fingers together on an invisible body.

“So you can make me rainboom on the spot?”

“Apparently” Dash began to grin, and not just any grin, this was MY grin, ol' wide and dumb.

“No!” She lost the grin. “We are not ever doing that again.”

“Why not?”

“Because for one it'd be dumb even by my low standards, and for two because I don't think the town's population would be able to handle these sonic rainbooms if they were to become a recurring event.” I motioned towards the rest of the town.

Even with just a glance it was obvious the ponies had not taken the sudden rainboom very well. Those who weren't frozen in terror or had outright fainted were now in even greater panic than they were before, most of them running about and spreading the fear. I heard a small groan and turned to Twilight, smiling sheepishly.

“I'm reaaaally sorry?”

Twilight just grumbled as she trotted into the town, presumably to calm the citizens again. I chuckled lightly as I turned back to the others just in time to see a confused Fluttershy hopping down from atop a Pinkie Pie, her hair springing back into its normal position.

“Well then, maybe we should find some way to keep me out of both trouble and Twilight's mane for the rest of the day.” The others nodded in agreement.

“But what are we going to do with you?! Just you being out and about is enough to send everypony into a panic!” I shrugged to Rainbow.

“Beats me, I'm the one new in town here.”

“Hmm, perhaps everypony would be a little less wary of you if we were to exchange those tattered rags draping off you for something a tad more... civilized.” I narrowed my eyes at Rarity.

“Is something wrong with my choice of clothing?” She seemed to become just slightly panicked, hah.

“No, n-nothing at all it's just that they make you seem a bit...... savage?” I laughed lightly, crouching down to pony level.

“Don't worry, I agree with you completely. However, the issue of clothing made to fit my human body and finding a pony who wouldn't be too terrified to make such clothes stand in our way of that.”

“Well, if those are our only issues I don't believe we are going to have nearly as tough a time as you might think.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, for you see I am a creator of fashion! So it should be no trouble at all to get you something that will make the town more at ease with your walking about. All we must do is get you to my boutique and we shall create you a look that says just how friendly you truly are!” I couldn't help but smirk.

“Alright then Rarity, lead the way.” And as she began to trot thru town with the rest of us following behind a thought occurred to me. “I think I would like this new look to include a cloak.”

Wow. That was the most horrified look I've gotten yet. Let's see how long it'll take me to top it.