Chapter 27

It has been a few days since Hearth’s Warming Eve, and it was currently the morning of a shining day. I was in the library, studying on my new homework assignment, which was to use elemental magic to create a small cloud and move it around for a few seconds before dispersing it. We were able to go through the basic elemental magic since it was easy to do, however this one combined air with water, making it a little harder for me. Trixie already passed it with flying colors, for apparently, she had an inborn ability for it, while I was struggling to maintain a simple fluffy cloud.

I sighed as I reread the part about cloud manipulation; even after reading it for the fourth time, I was only able to understand about half of it. After two more times reading it, I finally thought that I had it down, so closing the book, I placed it on the table and went outside to try and attempt it again.

As I walked outside, I began to scan the sky, and thankfully Dash did a pretty good job today (as of most of the time she does it) and taking a deep breath, I began to collect the energy into my hands again. My hands began glow red as the energy began to build in my hands, and I smiled. It was getting progressively easier to start my energy build up, and I was having no trouble with the early beginner spells any more. I was able to hold the light spell for an indefinite amount of time, and I could manipulate multiple objects at once with little to no discomfort.

Once I thought that I had enough energy, I began to collect the water particles in the air, bunching them together and forming a cloud out of them. After a few seconds, a cloud was starting to form, but I could already feel the strain from it build up inside me, and I knew that I would have to release the spell soon. I began to move my cloud around, and this time, instead of it evaporating on me like every other time, it slowly began to move. I did a silent cheer as I finally passed it, and then, unable to hold it any longer, I released the spell, letting the cloud hover there.

“Wow Drak. That was some impressive stuff there.” I looked up and saw Dash hovering over me before she landed on the newly made cloud, seeming to make herself comfortable. I smiled at her and said, “Hi to you too, Dash. So, what have you been up to?”

“Oh, nothing much, just finished on clearing the sky, then I realized that I had forgotten to leave a cloud for me to take a nap on. Thankfully, you seemed to solve that problem.”

“Well, glad I could be of service.” I said, chuckling slightly. We became quiet after that, neither of us saying anything. After a few minutes, Dash asked, “So, how’s the leg?”

I looked back down at my left leg, which was currently in this magic brace that was able to at least let me walk like normal. Thankfully, the unicorn doctors were able to do a good job at speeding the healing process of my leg, so that I only had a few days until I was able to finally take off the brace and walk without it. “It’s going pretty well, Dash. The doc says that come tomorrow I will be able to remove the brace.”

“Well, you’re lucky that you aren’t stuck in a hospital bed, like I was.”

“Yea, I heard about that, what exactly happened?”

“Well, I was practicing some stunts, when I kind of made a mistake and…crashed to the ground. Luckily, the only thing that I hurt was my wing, though I may as well have been in a body cast for all I cared about, for it was just so boring! I thought that I was never going to get out of there. Thankfully, Twilight was able to introduce me to the Daring Do series, and it was one of the most awesome things that I have ever read.”

“I thought it was one of the only things that you’ve ever read.” Said a voice from behind me, and turning around, I noticed that the Crusaders were coming up to greet me, as well as Dinky. I smiled at them and said, “What do you mean by that, Scoots?” for it was indeed the orange filly that said the comment.

“Well, I have never seen Dash read anything besides the Daring Do series, so I was just curious as to why she said that.” Said the orange filly, cocking her head to the side in curiosity.

“Hey, I have read more then just the Daring Do books, I’ll have you know!” Exclaimed the cyan Pegasus, puffing her chest out. This caused everypony to raise their eyebrows in disbelief, including me, for I have never seen her read anything besides Daring Do. After a few seconds of silence, she deflated a little and said, “Ok, fine, I have only read a flight manual or two and that’s all.”

“Hey, it’s fine that you don’t read as much as other ponies, reading isn’t for everypony.” I said, giving her a smile. This seemed to cheer her up, and she smiled back, nodding her head in thanks. I then turned towards the fillies and asked them, “So, what brings you girls here?”

“Well, you did promise to teach us some of them karate moves, Drak, so we were hoping that you could teach them right now, if you’re up to it.” Said Applebloom, a look of excitement in her eyes. In fact, they all look excited at the prospect of learning some karate from me.

I was quiet for a while, thinking about their request. I did promise them that I would teach them some karate moves, but with the condition of my leg, I doubt that I would be able to teach them much at the moment. I then realized that I would have trouble teaching them even some of the basic moves that I know, for the things that I know were meant for bipedal creatures, not for four legged ones. As I was thinking, Rainbow Dash spoke up, interrupting my thoughts.

“Hey, I just realized something. Wouldn’t it be difficult for you to teach them anything, since you were taught by other humans, and probably don’t know how to train ponies?” She said. I nodded and said, “I was thinking the same thing. I just wish that I knew a way around it.”

“Well, how about I help you teach them?” I looked at the Pegasus in confusion, unsure as to what she meant by that. “Well, you can teach them the moves, and I could show them how it translates to pony style karate. You think that would work?”

I was quiet as I thought about this for a second, and then I nodded, saying, “I guess it could work, but how will you translate it into your style?”

“Well, I just thought that I would wing it. I mean, you were a pretty good judge for me when I was doing my stunts, and you don’t have wings, so how hard could it be?”

I was quiet again, and then I shrugged, saying, “Well, I guess it can’t hurt to try.” I then turned towards the fillies and smiled, saying, “You girls up to the task of becoming possible Karate Masters?”

“Yes, Drakalian!” they all shouted, smiles on all of their faces. I chuckled at this, and then said, “Well, I think we should start easy first, so we will start by teaching you girls some stances. The first one I’ll teach you is a horse stance.” With that, I got into a horse stance, my feet at shoulder length apart, toes pointing forward, knees slightly bent. They all looked at me for a second before they tried to copy my stance in their own way, though of course there were a few things that they were doing wrong. I smiled at them as they tried to position themselves correctly.

“Um, why do we need to do this, Dad?” Asked, Scootaloo, a quizzical look in her eyes as she shuffled her hooves to get in the right stance. I smiled and said, “Well, if you do it correctly, then I won’t be able to push you over.”

“Ok, ah think ah got it.” Said AB, a confidant look on her face. I smiled, for even from were I was standing, I could tell that she certainly did not have it, for her legs were too far apart, and her knees were straight to the point that it seemed painful. I walked up to her and said, “Well, lets see if you can stand this then.” And before she could say anything, I gently shoved her to the side, causing her to stumble a little.

“The hay, Drak? Why did you mess me up?” She said, a hurtful look in her eyes. I just smiled and said, “I didn’t mess you up you did that by yourself. If you were doing it properly, then that shouldn’t have happened.” I said, giving her a bemused look.

“Then show us how it’s done.” She said, a look of annoyance in her eyes. I smiled and said, “Ok well, try to push me down then.” I got into a horse stance, and the country filly immediately tried to push me over, but she was unable to move me, not even in the slightest. After about a minute, she stopped, panting deeply, and said, “Well, that just proves nothing, ah mean, you’re bigger and stronger then me.”

I raised an eyebrow in amusement, and then said, “Hey, Dash, try to push me over.” Dash nodded and smiled, knowing what I was trying to do now, and flew down from her cloud before she placed both of her hooves onto one of my shoulders and began to push at me with everything that she had. Once again, I barely even moved, the only thing that did move was the top of me swaying a little, but otherwise, my feet stayed put, though my hurt leg was starting to ach a little with the exertion that I was dealing with at the time. Finally, after a good few minutes, Dash stopped her pushing, breathing heavily.

“And that, fillies, is how you do a proper…horse stance, right?” she said, looking at me for confirmation, and smiling, I nodded.

“Yup, that’s how you do it.” I said. I took a look at the fillies again, and surprisingly, I noticed that while they were trying to do it again, Sweetie Belle was the closest one out of the four. I walked up to her and with my help, adjusted her a little, before saying to AB, “If you still don’t believe me after that, then I bet that Sweetie here could hold me up right now if I lean on her.” This caused the unicorn filly to go wide eyed in surprise, and the other fillies to look at me with disbelief, before Scoots said, “Um Dad, I know that you’re awesome and all, but I doubt Sweetie could hold your weight.”

I just smiled and said, “Well, then this will prove you wrong.” Before I placed my hand on Sweetie’s shoulder and leaned on her with my entire weight. The white filly’s shoulders shifted a little under my pressure, but otherwise she remained firm, her legs not moving an inch. Everypony just looked in awe at the scene in front of them, and after a while, I stopped leaning on Sweetie and said, “Now, that is a proper horse stance, so, you girls willing to try it again?”

The rest of the morning went like this for a while, me teaching them all the basics of karate; while Dash helped by watching me and translating it to moves that the fillies were able to do. We went through stances, blocks, and even a few punches (or in their case a foreleg kick) and I was a little impressed that they were able to learn so fast, and I was also surprised that once the day hit afternoon, they still didn’t get their cutie marks.

I was panting slightly from all of the exertion that I went through, and I could tell that the fillies were tired as well, even Dash looked a little out of breath, though she tried to seem like she wasn’t as tired as she looked. After a few seconds of catching our breath, I smiled and said, “Well, I think that will be all for today. How about we go to Sugarcube Corner for a bit, my treat.”

“That…sounds…nice.” Panted Sweetie, who, besides me, seemed to be the one that was exhausted the most. With a smile, I began to walk to the bakery with the fillies following, and then realizing that I left somepony out, I turned to Dash and said, “Hey, you want to join us, Dash?”

“Yea, I guess I could.” She said. Before she went to join us, though, she went to the cloud that I made and bucked it, making it disappear in a puff.

I sighed as I saw my work fade to nothing. “Well, there goes all my work for nothing.”

“Hey, relax, I’ll tell Twilight that I saw you do the spell, ok?” Said Dash, chuckling a little. I smiled and nodded, and with that, we all proceeded to the bakery shop.

The bell ranged as we entered the building, and as we walked in, I was able to see some other ponies that I have recognized from before. At one table was the minty green unicorn that I saw outside Carousel Boutique, and with her was an Earth pony with a cream colored coat and a dual dark purple and pink mane. Strangely enough, the mint unicorn seemed to go in shock when she saw me, which went unnoticed by her dining partner. I just shrugged it off, assuming that she wasn’t used to a human living in Ponyville yet, and continued to scan the room. The next pair of ponies kind of surprised me, for it was none other then Octavia and Vinyl, both having not noticed me. The fillies, Dash and I both sat down, and in no time, Pinkie was already next to us, with food on a platter already on her back. I was curious as to how she knew what we were going to order, but decided against asking her, and just nodded my thanks before I gave her the bits for payment (Luckily, I keep my bag of bits on me almost all the time now) and in no time, we began to dig in, all of us enjoying our meals. We all chatted to each other, talking about random things that have been going on, and then I heard a small cough coming from behind me. When I turned around, I saw both Vinyl and Octavia looking at me with embarrassed looks on their faces.

“Yes, is there something that you need?” I asked. They were quiet for a moment, before Octavia was the one to speak first.

“Um, well, hi Drak…um, I just…I just want to apologize for the incident that me and Vinyl caused you two during Hearth’s Warming Eve, especially in front of all of your herd mates as well, and we were just hoping that…if it’s all right, you could come over to our house for some…um…d-d-dinner tonight, if that’s ok?”

I was quiet for a moment, thinking about what I had planed for today. Coming up with nothing, I smiled and said, “Well, I don’t have anything planned for today, so how about after I finish my training with Twilight, then I would be happy to join you two.”

The grey mare smiled with relief, and she turned around to leave with Vinyl following her. It was at this point that that the white unicorn hesitated for a second then, looking at me in the eyes. She had her glasses on, so I was able to look back without that much trouble, cocking my head in curiosity, before saying, “Anything else you want to sa-”

Before I could finish, Vinyl quickly places a kiss on my cheek, and then runs out of the bakery, leaving a bemused Octavia in her wake before following her.

I was quiet, stunned at what just happened, and I thought to myself, ‘So, I guess everypony was right, Vinyl does have a thing for me. I’m not sure how I feel for her though. I also remember Octavia saying that she wanted to be in my herd as well. I guess I will just have to figure everything out tonight.’ With a shrug, I turned to the other girls at the table, and noticed that they all had smug looks on their faces, more so on Dash then the others.

“What?” I said, unsure as to what was so amusing. Instead of explaining, everypony just went back to their meals. I just sighed and shook my head, deciding to just finish my meal as well, all of us in an awkward silence. Once we finished, I was about to head on out and leave with the others, but then we were again stopped by another pair of ponies, this time it was the mint unicorn and the cream Earth pony.

“Uh, yes?” I said, unsure as to what they wanted. They were quiet for a moment, and then the Earth pony spoke.

“So, I’m assuming that you’re a human?” Said the cream mare. I nodded and said, “Last time I checked I am. Why do you ask?”

The Earth pony was quiet for a moment, a look of surprise on her face, and then she sighed and, turning to the unicorn, she said, “All right, Lyra, you win, humans do exist.”

“See, I told you that I was right!” exclaimed the mint unicorn, jumping up and down in excitement. I just raised an eyebrow in curiosity, wondering what was going on, and then, seeming to realize her forgotten manners, she said, “Oh, by the way, the name is Bon Bon, and I own the sweets shop here in Ponyville. I must say I never expected to see a living human in front of me before.”

I smiled, saying, “Well, the pleasures all mine. The name’s Drakalian, and may I ask who your friend is?”

“Well, her name is Lyra, and she’s my roommate, and she can be a bit of a…hoof full.” She said, glancing at the unicorn. Lyra smiled and extended her hoof to me, and smiling, I took it her hoof to shake it with my hand, but suddenly, she grabbed my hand with both of her hooves, and brought it closer to her, seeming to examine them. I raised an eyebrow at this, but otherwise didn’t pull away, letting her look closely at my hand, and turning towards Bon Bon, I asked, “Uh, what is she doing?”

Bon Bon sighed at this, and said, “Well, she has always had this fascination with humans, particularly…their fingers. I never figured out why, so…” She said, looking at the unicorn, who was still examining my hand, and has started to move my fingers individually with her magic, seeming to be entranced by it. While it did feel a little nice having her move my fingers with her magic, I was getting a little embarrassed by the whole situation at the moment, so I cleared my throat to get Lyra’s attention, which worked, for she looked up at me, her magic and hooves still holding my hand.

“If it’s all right, Lyra, I would like my hand back please.” I said, giving her a small nervous smile. Realizing what she was doing, she started to blush madly, and released her hold on my hand. We were quiet for a few seconds, and then, I said, “Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you two around then.” They both nodded, Lyra was still blushing, and with that, I proceeded to walk outside, where the fillies and Dash were waiting for me. Before we could get back outside, though, I heard Lyra call out for me.

“Hey, uh, Drak. If it’s ok with you, maybe we could…you know…hang out a little more? It has been one of my dreams to talk to and hang out with a human.”

I was quiet for a second, and then I said, “Sure, that’s fine by me. If you ever want to talk with me, I’ll be at the library.” With that, Dash, the fillies and I began to leave the store. As we were leaving, I could hear Bon Bon saying, “Now hold on, he just told you were he lives, and you’re going to go there now? I don’t think so, I mean, at least give him a day to get ready.”

‘Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to tell her were I live. Oh well, too late for me to do anything about it now.’ I thought to myself. I then realized that the others were looking at me with strange looks, and upon closer inspection, I found out that they seemed to be amused by the whole scene that happened, all of them with smiles on their faces.

The biggest smile was Dash’s, who seemed to be giving me a smug look as well, which confused me, so I said, “What’s with the look, Dash?”

“Oh, nothing.” She said, looking away from me, just smiling to her self. I was quiet for a while, and then I heard Applebloom whisper to Sweetie, “Hey, ten bits that Lyria asks to join Drak’s herd.” Sweetie smiled at this and nodded, before both fillies proceeded to give each other a hoof shake. I just raised an eyebrow at this, but otherwise stayed quiet, unsure as to what I should say or do to that. We walked around for a while, none of us saying anything, until suddenly, we wound up at the spa, and with nothing else to do, I decided that a nice hot bath would help me out immensely, for I was feeling a bit stressed out as of late, especially with the work that Twilight and Luna were giving Trixie and I.

We walked into the spa, the bell ringing as we entered the building, and inside, we saw both of the spa sisters chatting to each other at the front of the desk. As we approached them, they noticed us, and smiling, they stopped their chatting to patiently wait for us to reach them.

“Hello Drak. Why are you here, we let you take the time off for you to heal your leg.” Said Lotus, a curious look in her eyes.

“Well, I thought that I would like to have a little bit of relaxing, so I decided to pop on in.”

Aloe nodded at this, and she then looked at the others and asked, “Will they be joining too?”

I looked at them and waited for their answers. After a while, the fillies nodded, and Dinky said, “Well, I always wanted to try a hoofacure, so why not.”

I smiled at them, and then turning to Dash, I asked, “I know that you normally don’t hang out here, but you want to give it a shot?”

Dash was quiet for a moment, and then shrugging, she said, “Well, I guess I could try it.”

“Excellent, if you all will just follow us.” Said Lotus, and with that, both of the spa sisters went into the room, with the rest of us following them. Once inside, I looked at the fillies and said, “Now, I’m going to go into the hot tub, and I hope that you girls will behave yourselves with the spa sisters, ok?” they all nodded solemnly, with Dash and the spa sisters giggling at the response. I just nodded myself, content with the answer that I got, and with that, Dash and I headed to the tub to get us ready.

I began to strip out of my clothing, but I then realized that Dash was here, and she was staring intently at me, making me hesitate. I was going to say something, when Dash said, “I don’t mind you getting undressed in front of me, don’t stop at my account.”

I chuckled at this and said, “I’m sure you don’t mind this, but I do.” With that said, I still was able to get down to my boxers (with difficulty, cause of my brace), but before I got in, Rainbow said, “Wait a sec, what about the rest of your clothing? Won’t it get wet if you go in with it?”

I smiled at this and said, “It will, but Rarity enchanted my boxers so that they can dry pretty quick when they get wet.”

“Gee, I wonder why.” Said the cyan mare, chuckling at her own joke, I just rolled my eyes at her and then proceeded to go into the tub, making sure to keep my brace out of the water, which made it a little uncomfortable for me, but otherwise it was fine, and then Dash followed suit, giving a content sigh as she slipped into the water.

“Ah, this feels really good.” Said Rainbow, closing her eyes at the feeling. I chuckled at her expression, and then closed my own eyes as well, letting the feeling take me over. After a few minutes, I felt somepony place their hooves on my shoulders and begin to massage them, and giving a sigh of relief, I said, without looking, “Is Aloe keeping the girls company, Lotus?”

Lotus, who was indeed the one massaging me, giggled and said, “Yes she is, I just came over her to see how the two of you were doing, and you just looked so tense, so I thought it would help if I gave you a little massage.”

I opened my eyes and looked up at my marefriend, smiling. She smiled back at me, and, leaning towards me, she whispered, “Besides, I love massaging your muscles.”

“I’m sure you do.” I whispered back, before I gently placed my hand on her cheek, caressing the side of her face and looking into her eyes as she continued to massage me. Without breaking the massage, she placed her lips on mine, and we slowly began to kiss each other. Our lips flowed across one another, and I felt more then heard her moan as she licked my lips, asking for entry. I parted my mouth and slid my tongue between our lips to meet her tongue, both of our muscles flowing in our mouths. Before we could do anything else, though, I felt something clamp onto my foot, making me break the kiss with Lotus. The spa pony gave me a curious look, pausing in her massage, wondering why I broke the kiss, but I just stayed quiet and reached down with one of my hands to grab whatever was holding my foot. After a few seconds of searching, my hand got hold of something scaly, and then I felt it release its hold on my foot and clamp on my hand. Starting to panic slightly, I pulled my hand out, and when I did, I was staring at a very unusual sight.

Holding my hand, well, more like biting on it, was a small green gator with purple eyes. As soon as I saw it, I began to panic, and I started to shake my hand to try and get it off, but the gator was persistent, not releasing its hold on me. I was starting to get very worried, for I didn’t want to lose any of my fingers, but before I could do anything else, I heard laughter, and looking around; I saw that both Lotus and Dash were laughing. I was even more worried that the girls weren’t taking this seriously, but before I could say anything, Lotus, who noticed my panicking expression, said, “Relax Drak, does it actually hurt?”

I opened my mouth to say yes, but then paused, for I realized that it actually didn’t hurt at all. Now I was more curious then worried, and I took a closer look at this gator. As I looked at it, I saw that, to my surprise, there wasn’t any blood around the mouth, making me even more curious. After a few more seconds of careful looking, I noticed that not only was the gator not hurting me, but he seemed like he was unable to hurt me, for at this point I realized that he didn’t have any teeth, and was just seeming to hold on me by just it’s gums. I began to breath a little easier, and then I saw some bubbles forming from the center of the tub, and out popped Pinkie Pie, wearing a pair of goggles and a snorkel. No pony said anything, and then, looking at me, Pinkie said, “There you are, Gummy, I have been looking for you everywhere!”

I raised an eyebrow at this, not sure as to what I should say at this point. Pinkie then took the gator that I now know as Gummy from my hand, and once he was off of me, he proceeded to clamp down on the pink pony’s mane, making her giggle with glee before she got out of the tub and said, “Sorry for that, he can be a hoof full sometimes. Well, seeya!” and with that, she began to bounce out of the spa, humming a wordless tune. I just sat there, unsure as to what in Equestria just happened, and then both Dash and Lotus began to laugh again. After a while, I too began to laugh, for it was indeed a bit funny.

“Well, I can see why she has the Element of Laughter. No matter what happens, she is always there to put a smile on everypony’s face.” I said, once I calmed down a bit. Both ponies nodded in agreement, and with that, I proceeded to relax in the tub again, letting Lotus continue to massage my shoulders, and I sighed, content with life so far.

We soon reached back to the library, everypony relaxed and happy with the treatment that we all got at the spa. As we entered the building, I noticed that we had a guest, for there was Twilight, sitting next to a hooded figure, both of them chatting with each other. I didn’t see Luna, so I assumed that she was still at that royal meeting that Celestia called her over for. Both ponies turned when they heard the door open, and Twilight smiled upon seeing me.

“Drak! How was today?” Asked Twilight, walking up towards me.

I smiled as I hugged the purple unicorn and said, “It was pretty good, thanks for asking. I was finally able to get that spell up and running, and then I taught the fillies here a bit about some karate, with the help of Dash, of course.”

“Hey, it was nothing, dude.” Said Dash, blushing a little.

“Well, I still appreciate it.” I said. Twilight smiled at this and then gave me a kiss on the cheek, saying, “Well, I’m glad that everything went so well. Oh, by the way, have any of you seen Ditzy around lately?” I shook my head, for I haven’t seen her since yesterday. Then Dinky spoke up, saying, “I think she went to look for a new job, though I don’t know were she went specifically though.”

At this point, I heard some shuffling from upstairs, and looking up, I saw Trixie coming down the stairs, wearing her hat and cape that she got at Heart’s Warming Eve. I smiled at seeing the magician pony and said, “Hey Trixie, how have you been doing?”

Trixie smiled, and gave me a kiss on the cheek, saying, “Well, I have been doing pretty well, though it has been a little bit boring, waiting for you to catch up with me.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes at her. “Well, sorry if I need a little more time then you to learn my magical abilities, geez.” This cause everypony in the room, including me, to laugh, and when we calmed down from our laughter, AB said, “So Twilight, What is Zecora doing here?”

Twilight was about to open her mouth to say something, but was stopped by the hooded figure shaking its head. The purple librarian seemed to understand what it wanted, and said, “Well…I can’t really say anything until Ditzy comes here. I also sent Spike to get AJ, Rarity and Fluttershy as well, since I think that this is important.”

“Well, you don’t have to wait for us anymore, Twi, cause we’re back.” We all turned our heads, and there stood Spike, along with my other two herd mates. I smiled at them and proceeded to give them a big hug, to which they responded in kind.

“Hi guys, how are you?” I asked them. They both smiled at me and gave me a kiss on the cheek before Applejack answered.

“Well, ah’m doing fine, sugarcube, though ah have been a bit lonely, and was hoping tha’ ah could have ya come over for a bit just ta…ya know…hang out.”

I smiled at the country mare and gave her a kiss, saying, “Sure, I think that I can come over, but it will have to be after my dinner with Octavia and Vinyl.”

“Oh, well, w-why are y-you going over their h-house for dinner, Drak?” Asked Fluttershy, a confused look in her eyes.

“Well, they said that they were sorry for embarrassing me like that in front of all you girls, so that wanted to apologize to me by having dinner with them, though I do have a feeling that it might end up being something…more, you know?” They both nodded at my question, and then Fluttershy said, “Well, they are very nice ponies, so if that does happen, then it’s alright if they both join…if that’s ok with the rest of you, that is.”

“Well, ah’m ok with it, partner, so if they ask, then let them join.” Said AJ, a smile on her face. I nodded my agreement.

“So Spike, where’s Rarity?” Asked Twilight. Spike looked at her and said, “Well, she said that she would be here later. Something about finishing something.”

Twilight nodded her understanding, and then, AJ said, “Hey Drak. Ah’m glad that you will be able to come on over to the house, for I have really been missing you.

I smiled and said, “I don’t mind it at all, AJ, for it has been a while.” AJ smiled at this, and then I said, “Well, with that out of the way, now we only have to wait for Ditzy and I’m assuming Pinkie Pie and Rarity.”

“Why are you waiting for us, Drak?” I looked at the entrance, and there stood both Pinkie Pie and Ditzy. I noticed that they grey mare seemed to be particularly happier today, but that could mean anything if she was hanging out with Pinkie. I smiled before I hugged Ditzy and gave her a kiss on the nose, saying, “Well, somepony looks very happy today, can I ask why?”

Ditzy nodded, and then said, “Yup, with Pinkie’s help, I was able to get a job at Sugarcube Corner to help bake the muffins.”

“YAY! Mamma’s got a job!” Shouted Dinky, tackling the both of us into a big hug. We all laughed at this and brought our daughter into the hug, before I released us from it and said, “Well, congratulations, Ditzy, I knew that you could get a job sooner or later.”

“Well done, sis.” We all turned around at the voice, and I was surprised that it came from the hooded figure in the room. By the sound of their voice, I was able to figure out that they were at least female, as well as probably being a bit tomboyish (I’m assuming). At the sound of her voice, Ditzy seemed to freeze up in shock, though in surprise or fear, I was unable to tell.

“What happened to your voice, Zecora? Did you take a bad potion?” Asked Sweetie, cocking her head slightly.

“Sweetie, I don’t think that’s Zecora. When was the last time that you heard her not speak in rhyme, or say that she was Ditzy’s sister?” asked Scootaloo. Sweetie was quiet for a moment, and then she shrugged, saying, “Well, if it isn’t Zecora, then who is it?”

“You guys really don’t know me? I’m surprised, cause I would have thought that you would have told them about me, Ditzy.” Said the hooded figure, cocking her head to the side.

“Well, I had my reasons not to tell everypony that I met about you, and when I was going to talk to them about you, it kind of…slipped my mind.” Said Ditzy, blushing slightly.

At this point, the hooded figure turned towards me and said, “So, I’m assuming that you are the human that I have been hearing so much about?” I nodded, wondering were this was going. “Well, I heard about my sis joining a herd with you, and I was going to come on over for Heart’s Warming Eve to check for myself, but I kind of got a little delayed by some…old acquaintances. May I ask for your name?”

“Of course, the name is Drakalian, and it is a pleasure to met you, Miss…” I said, waiting for her to say her name. This caused the figure to chuckle a little. “Well, I guess I can tell you who I am now, just as long as Dash doesn’t have a freak out, then we should be good.” She said, starting to take her hood off.

Dash gave a confused look, saying. “Why would I freak-” but before she could finish, she saw who it was under the hood, and her mouth dropped open, along with Dinky, both of their eyes bulging out with surprise.

Underneath the hood was what I would say was a tan pony, possible dirty yellow, with what appeared to be a mixture of greys for her mane, making me think that it was grey scale, her mane in the same style as Dash’s, and they even had the same colored eyes, both of their eyes were red wine colored. I thought that she looked familiar, and I could have sworn that I saw her from somewhere, and then I remembered were I saw her from. I remember seeing her on the cover of the books that Dinky has been reading, and once I made the connection, I knew exactly whom this pony was. After a few moments of silence, the mystery pony spoke up.

“Well, the reason I say that is because I know what you are like when you met an idol of yours, Rainbow Dash.” Said Daring Do, a bemused look on her face.