‘No, I-I’m fine. Just give me a second.’ Fluttershy sat on the spot, still staring at the place where Lunar’s eyes had been. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to work out which question of the many she had to ask. She debated with herself even while she asked.

‘Where have- Where did- What did- Why did you go?’ She asked, moving her head to look at the fox. It was certainly him! She almost couldn’t believe it. He’d only been gone a week but every pony had missed him. Twilight probably the most of all. She’d seemed so fascinated by his apparent situation, especially how she’d made him talk through an accident. He’d made such an impact being such a foreign element in an almost consistent world.

‘Because I felt like I was putting pressure on every pony. I didn’t want that on my conscience.’ Lunar sighed. He looked upset, as the memories of him ruining every chance he got with these ponies came flooding back. Surely he’d made some sort of good impact on some pony. He just didn’t know who or how.

‘It’s okay. No pony would have minded. You’re such fun company and every pony’s friend.’ Fluttershy smiled, hoping to uplift the rapidly declining mood of Lunar, which actually turned to anger.

‘Lies. You met me for minutes. I hardly ever spoke to you one-on-one and we never became ‘friends’. I fail to see how you could like some pony that ran from your help, hid from your kindness and wasted at least one day of your life. So how can you call me a friend?!’ Lunar shouted. His anger was overpowering him; he couldn’t take it. He’d burst his top and left the room as silent as a gagged mouse.

‘Well, duh. You’re new and we all make mistakes. Every pony I know has wasted my time at some point. I guess you look past it and look at the pony for who they are. In your case, a funny, misunderstanding canine with a slight anger problem. But that’s what we love you for. Being yourself. And we can’t change that.’ Scootaloo lectured, almost sounding like one of Twilight’s friendship reports. Lunar sat, staring at her, speechless. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash sat silent too. Scootaloo sat down after realising this and almost blushed. After a second or two, a clatter and murmurs arose from the kitchen shocking every pony and fox sitting in silence, reflecting on Scootaloo’s speech.

‘What was that?’ Rainbow Dash asked, ears pricking up at the sound. She got up and crept towards Fluttershy’s kitchen. She put an ear to the door to listen to what was happening. That’s when she got a fairly nasty headache, where the door slammed into the side off her face and knocked her half-unconscious.

‘Where is he, Rainbow?!’ the white unicorn screamed, looking for the cyan mare that was concussed in the corner. She found no blue pegasus, but did find an orange fox peering out from behind the yellow mare that sat almost blushing as he was pressed up against her back, tail tickling her flank as it moved from side to side.

‘Over here. Hey, gals. How are you?’ Lunar crept over at a snail’s pace. He expected something to be said as he got a muzzle’s length away from Rarity. He smiled, looking up into the white mare’s face and immediately got a hoof across the face. He was knocked halfway across the room and groaned while she stood over him, glaring. He looked up into her gaze after recovering some of his pride and felt like he’d be dead right now if stares could kill.

‘Where have you been?!’

He was shocked at the power of her voice. It could have pushed him the rest of the way across the room but because he was on the floor, he just recoiled into his neck. Still looking into the eyes of Rarity, he saw anger but also happiness. A void filled. He’d have to play on that. He took a breath and though of the most empathetic answer he could.

‘Away. Didn’t manage to get what I wanted so I came back yesterday morning. Rainbow Dash put me up for the night and we came to Fluttershy’s to meet up with here. We were going to see you tonight at the library. You and your friends were gathering there tonight, am I correct?’

Rarity was left speechless and she backed off, frightened by the almost truthful lie. But she still saw it for what it was. A lie. She raised an eyebrow to signal her suspicion. It was safe to say she’d caught on. She was about to poke holes in his airtight lie, that was until a shout came from the kitchen.

‘Err...Rurrity. We could use ya help here,’ a southern accent called, combined with Rarity sighing as she realised what was wrong; ‘Ah can’t get any higher than ah am at the moment. Hang on, let me just-‘

She was cut off as a clatter of body against wood was heard. She grunted and sighed. She mumbled something inaudible to the ponies in the main room, but it was quite clear to Lunar’s heightened sense of hearing that it was something that she shouldn’t repeat. She stumbled into the room, her trusty Stetson at an unmeant jaunty angle.  She adjusted it to its normal position and sighed.

‘Ah thought you’d been here, Lunar. Couldn’t stay away ah reckon?’ Applejack joked until another clutter from the kitchen became audible. Unexpected by all but Applejack and Rarity, a unicorn stumbled through the door and collapsed on the floor.

‘Thanks for the help up, guys…’ Twilight groaned, not looking at any pony else but her two intruding friends. She groaned once again and looked around the room, right to left. Scootaloo, Fluttershy, Lunar, Rarity, Applejack …

‘Lunar! It’s you,’ Twilight screamed, shocking every pony, ‘We- I mean, Rainbow Dash found you. We’ve been searching all week.’ The unicorn almost threw herself at the fox, overcome with joy at his presence. Even Celestia’s Annual Visit didn’t fill her with this much joy. When he had left, she felt as though she’d lost a major project or a historical book. She’d lost something that had intrigued her and something she felt worth investigating.

‘Twilight, darling, you already went through all this when we told you. Please, calm down.’ Rarity giggled, remembering how Twilight had literally jumped onto Applejack and herself. Twilight, in all honesty, knew she shouldn’t be this energetic. But in the same way, she couldn’t see why she shouldn’t be. But bowing to the awkward concept and social convention of peer pressure, she took a breath and gave some pony else the chance to speak. This gave Dash the chance to stand and shuffle over to the group once more.

‘So, should I leave?’ squeaked Scootaloo, left alone for the most part of this conversation between friends, feeling out of place. All the mares had forgotten that she was there and none of them replied for a second. No pony wanted to break the silence. Luckily, there were more than just ponies in that room.

‘Please don’t, Scootaloo. I probably couldn’t do this without you.’ Lunar almost blurted, breaking the silence almost involuntarily. It was a shock to every pony; it was surprising no pony had fainted from the amount of gasping that had been going on, especially Rarity, whose gasps were fairly overdramatic.It was obvious from his involuntary blurting that Lunar was friends with Scootaloo. She was one of the few ponies he seemed to trust. Scootaloo realised this and blushed. She had been told of Lunar’s hardship since arriving in Equestria, by Lunar himself. She enjoyed his company and vice versa. Except for School and Sleep, Scootaloo spent most of her time with her friends ‘crusading’ for their cutie marks. But since Lunar, she had found less and less time for them and more for him. But before any pony could realise this, Twilight decided to speak.

‘Y’know. Pinkie’s the only one who doesn’t know at the moment.’ It was true. Of the 6 mares that he had found, Pinkie’s presence was lacking. Something they should fix.

‘How about the meet up tonight? I’m sure Pinkie would be happy to find out,’ Rainbow interjected, knowing that every pony was thinking of telling her, ’Besides, Pinkie knows every pony and could probably tell that we’re hiding it from her.’ Rainbow’s mind drifted off to the day where she was almost replaced by a bucket of turnips. Only Pinkie and Dash knew of this as they hadn’t told the other mares. Crazy Pinkie, or Pinkamena as Dashie referred to her as, was something any pony and every pony would be frightened of.

‘A vote perhaps?’ Rarity piped, always one for an excuse to avoid uncouth chaos, ‘All in favour of telling Pinkie, say I.’

‘I.’

‘Ah.’

‘I.’

‘umm…I.’

‘I.’

‘I’m not old enough to vote but what the hay. I.’

.....     .....     .....     .....     .....

Pinkie stood waiting for every pony at the library. The meet up was meant to be planning for an upcoming event. But, as usual, she’d tossed convention to the wind and set up streamers and a bowl of punch. It was something Berry Punch had told her about herself. She was the Ponyville AA. Whatever that means. All she knew was that it was a super-secret society that Berry didn’t want anyone know about. So Pinkie as usual Pinkie Promised and hadn’t told a soul since.

‘Pinkie, where is every pony?’ Spike called, the purple dragon residing in his bed, getting a rare chance to lie in bed for an extra hour or two. He was happy to lie in bed for another hour but he knew that he’d have to get up by the time Twilight returned. He still had chores to do.

It was a few minutes until any pony arrived. Rainbow, in style, burst through the door first, doing a loop-de-loop to slow herself down and impress her friends. Twilight strolled in behind her, with a smile adorning her face. All four other ponies walked in, huddled together.

‘Oh, are you playing a game? Can I play? I’m gonna call that game, ’Twenty-hoof-tie-up’ ‘cause it looks like you have twenty tied up hooves between the four of you.’ Pinkie squealed, hyperactive and with happiness beyond belief. Pinkie hadn’t noticed yet, but had.

‘Pinkie, do you realise what you just said?’ Spike had caught on to the four huddled ponies that were smiling at the two of them.

‘What? Is it not a game? Aww, I really wanted to play.’

‘No. About how many legs there were…’

’Twenty hooves? Well, duh, there are four ponies…’

‘Pinkie. Ponies have four legs and there are four ponies… whose hooves are the remaining four?’

‘Oh, silly me. ’Sixteen-hoof-and-four-paw-tie-up.’’ Pinkie was yet to realise ponies don’t have paws but in true Pinkie fashion, she burst with excitement at an unexpected time.

‘Lunar!’

The pink mare almost flattened the fox when the orange, white and yellow mares broke apart, hoping he would do the same. He didn’t but, to the surprise to every pony and dragon, he stayed standing with the party mare draped over his back.

‘What the hay?!’ was the cry that came from all the mares, except Pinkie Pie, who sprawled out on Lunar’s back, waving her hooves, whooping.

‘How is that physically possible?’ Twilight exclaimed, jaw hitting the floor at laws of physics being broken in front of her. She looked directly into the eyes of Lunar who was currently wore a mischievous grin. He couldn’t believe his strength and as he looked around the room, he saw that no pony else did either.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash were mouthing words of amazement. Rarity and Applejack were still standing to the side and were speechless. Fluttershy was actually smiling and leaning towards him, opposed to her habit of receding into her neck, to avoid conversation. Leaving Scootaloo hidden slightly by Twilight, smiling at her friend’s strength.

‘Wow. I’ve never seen any pony manage to stay standing after that.’ Scootaloo giggled, knowing in her childish mind, she had practically called Pinkie fat but the joke was missed by all others in the room.

‘Ah don’t even think Big Mac stayed up after Pinkie jumping on him like that.’ Applejack muttered in disbelief. Pinkie had jumped on several ponies before and they’d all collapsed to the floor, including herself and her brother. But for this fox, only half the size of herself, to manage it and still have the pink mare lying on him even now was beyond her comprehension.

Pinkie, still giggling, put her hooves on the four and walked off Lunar’s back. She walked around to stand with her friends, who were all looking at her.

‘Why so serious?’ Pinkie looked into the eyes of each of her friends, all with straight faces, ‘You’ve all seen me do things that defied your understanding. Why is he so special?’ Pinkie started to pout. It was true. Every pony in the room had seen Pinkie Pie do something that defies the laws of physics, the whole town probably had, but for some pony else, an animal no less, to do something like that was special. It made little sense, but Pinkie and her actions rarely ever did at first. She usually explained it afterwards. But in this situation, no pony could explain it.

Luckily, there weren’t just ponies in the room…