A gentle breeze lightly tossed my mane about, flicking a few strands across my face, and making me feel like a serious badass.

Let’s see…Cliff overlooking Ponyville?

Check.

Wind that’s rustling my dark brown hair, and blue vest?

Double Check.

Guile’s Theme playing in my head?

Sonic-check.

Monkey butler with a tray of peanut-butter and banana sandwiches?

…Note to self, get monkey butler and teach him how to make sandwiches.

Wait, what was I talking about? OH, RIGHT!

I stood on a tall outcropping of rock on the side of a mountain that was overlooking what I now considered a second home: Ponyville. After being gone for what felt like…oh, say, three months, it looked even better than I remembered it. Hell, I could even see that Lyra and Bon-Bon were both sitting in their usual park bench, most likely talking about their daily lives, or maybe a new theory about humans that Lyra had found in one of her books.

“Wait a second,” I said to myself as I put a pair of invisible binoculars to my face. “Why are there so many ponies out and about? Normally, they’re busy working at their stalls, or something…”

Scratching absently at my dark, thicker version of a “Gordon Freeman” goatee, I decided it was time I applied my detective skills to this scene. Okay, so let’s see…red and pink color schemes…ponies wandering about in pairs…Hugh Jelly in his usual vat of jam…

“Is it Hearts and Hooves day?” Of course, dump me back here when it’s a romantic holiday. Fate has a weird sense of humor. “Welp, I’m not getting anywhere standing on this cliff!” I pulled out a set of glasses with those weird shutter things on them, and put them on my face, letting out a crazy grin as I did so.

Unfurling my chocolate brown wings, I backed up, and said, “Looks like I’m gonna have to jump!” Oh, if only I had my gun-chuks…

Before my common sense could say anything, I leaped off of the cliff, and plummeted to the ground, reveling in the feeling of wind rushing past my face. Snapping my wings, I pulled up from the dive, and soared across the canopy of trees that made up the Everfree forest. The tips of my hooves barely grazed the tops of the green foliage, and I lazily glided towards Ponyville, trying to figure out what I should do next.

“Well, I don’t wanna go to my house just yet. I wanna say hi to everypony…but it’s a holiday, and they’re probably spending it with somepony…wait, Spike is probably at the library! I haven’t seen the scaly dude in a while!”

My decision made, I picked up altitude, and flew towards the direction of the library, happy to be alive.

Oh yeah. You already know what I’m gonna say.

“It’s good to be The Traveler!”

Landing gracefully (and by that, I mean on all four hooves for once), I opened the door of the library, and said, “Hello, I’m looking for a book on how to realize you’ve gone insane! And so is the little voice inside my head.”

No I’m not.

Quiet you!

“Omnius? Is that you?” For some odd reason, I felt my heart beat slightly faster, and I turned to see a lavender colored unicorn with dark purple hair, accented with a single pink streak, smiling warmly at me from the top of her stairs.

I felt a smile appear on my face, and I bowed, saying, “The one and only!”

“It is you!” Twilight Sparkle, one of my closest friends in all the multiverses, quickly trotted down the stairs, and said, “It’s great to see you again!”

“You too, Twi,” I laughed, wrapping my arms around her in a friendly hug. “How’ve you been lately?”

“Oh, fine,” she replied, returning my hug happily. “You know how crazy things can get around here!”

“Don’t I know it?” I said, holding her out at hoove’s length. “Here now; Why aren’t you out and about? Don’cha know it’s Hearts and Hooves day?”

She blushed, and tried to distract me by saying, “How’d you know that was today?”

“Twilight, I learned from Sherlock Holmes and Harry Dresden. I think I know how to figure things out,” I chuckled. “But that’s not an answer to my question.”

She averted her eyes, and I raised an eyebrow in surprise. Is she actually embarrassed or something? Pressing her for an answer, I said, “Come on, Twi, what’s up? Did you just plan on studying through the whole day again?”

“Well…not exactly…” she hesitantly said. “I wanted to try and go out with somepony, but, uh…”

My eyes widened in realization, and I stated, “You didn’t know who to ask. Either that, or they were already taken.”

She smiled sheepishly. “Uh, maybe something like that.”

“Well,” I nodded. “It’s settled. Pick a restaurant; we’re goin’ out to eat!” I grabbed the door, and held it open for Twilight, giving her a mock bow.

“What? But-”

I interrupted her by putting my hoof over her mouth, and saying, “No buts. We eat, we dine, we feast!”

She rolled her eyes, pushing my hoof away from her mouth. For a moment, it almost felt like a tingle of energy passed through my arm, where she touched me. Huh. Must be some static electricity or something.

“Alright, alright,” Twilight giggled. “We can go and grab a bite to eat.”

“Great!” I shouted, giving her a wide smile. “Where do you wanna go? That Three-Leaf clover place? Or should we just go to the market place and pick up stuff for a picnic?”

“I like the idea of a picnic,” she said, heading towards the direction of said market. “But what will we bring? Oh, maybe I should get one of my books and see if-”

“Twilight. Food is food,” I grunted. “We see something that sounds good, we get it. Simple as that!”

“Are you sure?” Twilight’s stomach then grumbled, and I stifled another set of chuckles. Oh, stomachs. You always betray us at the exact wrong times. That’s why we love, and hate you.

“Yes, I think I’m sure,” I answered. “Come on: IT’S FOOD TIME!”

With that, I strode forth, walking with Twilight to the land of good foods, and horrible vendors.

“Well, howdy there, Omnius!” A familiar southern-drawl called out over the crowd of pony couples.

“Applejack!” I shouted back, pushing a way through to her, while making sure I didn’t lose sight of Twilight. As we made our way to the orange and blonde cowpony, she grinned mischievously at us, looking like she had just thought of something funny.

“What are you two doin’ out here?” Applejack asked the two of us as we finally came to her stall. For once, it seemed as if we had managed to get to the front of the line with relatively little trouble, and she still had some of her best looking apple-related treats for sale.

“Well, I just got back, and found out that Twilight didn’t have any plans for Hearts and Hooves day! Can you believe it?” I shook my head, tsk’ing in mock shame. “So I figured, why not go out for a picnic? Good way to catch up, right?”

Applejack shot Twilight a look, and said, “Now that’s a real nice thing to do. Hey, tell ya what, I’ll give y’all some apples on the house!”

“Really?” I asked. “Thanks, A.J! I owe you one!”

“Nah, it’s nuthin’. Say, why don’cha go over to that cherry seller? I heard she’s got some real good deals on cherries today!” She said cheerfully, gesturing to a long line in front of that infamous cherry vendor.

“Mm…nah, I’m not big on cherries,” I confessed. “Unless you want some, Twi, then I’ll go grab us some.”

“Oh, uh…” Twilight’s eyes darted about, and Applejack coughed into her hoof, giving Twilight another pointed look. “Oh! I’d love some cherries. I’ll just get the apples, and maybe something else while you get them!”

I shrugged, and trotted over to the line, silently lamenting the fact that it was freaking LONG. “I’ll be right back!” I called, before I started to whistle the Super Mario Bros. tune.

“Alright, Twi,” Applejack said as soon as Omnius had left them, “admit it.”

“Admit what?” Twilight asked, confused.

“Oh, come on now, tain’t nuthin’ ya need to hide from me,” she replied, giving Twilight a reassuring pat on her shoulder. “Why, I think everypony else knows it! Ah mean, Ah’ve seen the way you two look at each other!”

“Applejack, are you seriously implying that Omnius and I…” Twilight blushed, embarrassed by the question, before saying, “Like each other?”

“Sugarcube, it’s pretty dern obvious,” She chuckled, putting a small load of apples into a bag, before hoofing it to her red-faced friend. “Ah reckon you two are just too stubborn to say it!”

“No, it’s not like that!” Twilight argued. “We’re just really close friends!”

“Then why the hay did he come to see you first, hm?” Applejack shot back. At Twilight’s flinch, she continued, saying, “Twi, you like him. Why don’cha tell him?”

Twilight was quiet, as she tried to think of a good answer. She knew that Applejack could be trusted with any secret, but…how could she explain it? Finally, she just sighed, and said, “I don’t know. Sometimes I think it’s because I don’t know how to say it, or maybe it’s because I’m scared of how he’ll react.” She closed her eyes, and continued, saying, “What if he doesn’t like me back? What if it ruins our friendship, and he leaves forever?”

The Farm-pony’s eyes softened, and she gave Twilight a small hug. “Ah, don’t you fret none. Besides, ya know that Omnius ain’t the type to let something like this push him away from a friend, and I’d say you two are as close as can be.”

Twilight giggled, and said, “He feels the same way about you and the others though.”

“Nah, we’re just his friends. You, on the other hoof…” Applejack stopped, and tried to find the right words. “Well, you two know each other the best! You’re like…uh…”

“Best friends?” Twilight supplied.

“No, it’s kinda more than that…well, you’re special to him! Don’cha remember how mad he got when he saw that Discord made you cry?” She said, internally wincing as she remembered that fiasco.

Twilight flinched too, and said, “I remember...”

“There ya go then, Twi! You’re his special somepony, but you just don’t know how to say it to him!” Applejack said cheerfully.

“I don’t know…I’ll have to think about it,” Twilight said uncertainly, her thoughts conflicting with one another in her head.

“Alrighty then…oh, look, here he comes now!”

XHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHX

“Rip-off artist!” I shouted back at the cherry vendor, before trotting back in the direction of Twilight and Applejack. At the strange looks they were giving me, I set the basket of cherries down, and gestured at the vendor, saying, “You would not believe the nerve of that cherry mare! She tried to make me pay for an entire cherry orchard!”

“Yeah, she does that every now and then,” Applejack said, grinning. She then pushed the bag of apple treats to Twilight, and said, “Now y’all better get movin’ iffin you want to enjoy the rest of the day! Nice seein’ you again, Omnius!”

“You too, Applejack,” I said, picking up the basket of cherries again. As we trotted off, I glanced over at Twilight, and frowned slightly. She was looking a little nervous, for some reason. Concerned, I asked her, “Is everything alright, Twilight? You look a little jumpy there.”

She gave me a small grin, and said, “Oh, no, it’s fine. So, where do you want to have our picnic?”

I thought about it for a moment, and then smiled. “I know! There’s this really nice little hill that has a great view of the sky! Wanna go there?”

“I’d love to,” She said, nodding.

“Alright! Esperanto!” I shouted, running off down the path. “Follow me!”

“Omnius, wait up!”

Preview of Chapter 2:
When Do You Know?

“So…nice weather we’re having?”

“Oh, yes, it does look nice.”

“You look nicer though. Wait, that was supposed to be a thought bubble!”

*^*^*^*^*

“Hey, guess what?”

“What?”

“I’m going out with Octavia tonight!”

Hey folks! I'm just gonna say a couple things real quick:

First off, the chapters in this story will be typically shorter than in, "Omnius' Travels: Equestria". So, this will be updated sooner than you think, and the next chapter will hopefully be done by Saturday or Sunday.

Secondly, I didn't mention this earlier, but this story will take place three months after the original, "Omnius' Travels: Equestria." So, if things mentioned in this aren't in the first one yet, consider it a free hint of things to come.

Thirdly, there will only be around 8 chapters of this. That means it will hopefully be done within the month!

That's all for now!
~Traveler out!

P.S: Search for "How I Met My Pony" DO IT!

Next Chapter: 2) When Do You Know? Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 51 Minutes