“Surprise!”

Thunder boomed overhead as lightning ignited the sky. I found myself gasping for breath as my back collided against the cold earth. Rainwater was pooling on my brow. No… It was just sweat. The confetti falling from the sky was real, though.

I blinked, and the clouded, grey skies were replaced with a high ceiling and artificial lights. I found that the pressure against my chest was my own palm, clutching at my sporadic heart to vainly calm it down. As the confetti settled around me like dust, I noticed how painfully quiet it was in the room packed with ponies.

“Um… well, come on, everypony; Hunter’s here!” Daisy called. “Let’s get this party started!”

Further back in the room, a band filled the air with lively music, and a dull roar accompanied it as the citizens of Ponyville began to mingle. I was left on the floor and took the opportunity to wipe my face of the sweat and confetti starting to stick to it. It wasn’t long until the familiar faces of my friends appeared above me.

“Congratulations, Lyra, you broke him,” Noteworthy deadpanned.

“Oh, shut up,” she hissed back, but as she looked back down to me, her expression quickly melted into worry. “Hey, you feeling okay?” she asked softly.

“Yeah,” I lied with a croak. “You just… surprised me is all.”

“Are you sure?” Daisy asked skeptically. “You look pale. Like, really pale.”

Everyone nodded with her, and I tried to give a reassuring chuckle. “You, uh, really surprised me,” I smiled, hoping to pass it off. They still didn’t look convinced. I sighed and held up a hand. “Here, just help me back to my feet.”

Zecora and Noteworthy reached out and pulled me up. Fluttershy hovered overhead with a guiding hoof and a worried look. ‘It wasn’t too much, was it?” she pressed. “Oh, I knew we shouldn’t have turned off the lights. Those kinds of surprises scare me, too.”

“Fluttershy, I’m fine,” I assured her as I got back to my feet. “And I wasn’t scared, just… startled is all.” My friends backed away a few steps to allow me to gather my senses and take everything in, and even then it almost wasn’t enough. How many ponies were in here? I couldn’t count; there was almost enough to fill the entire auditorium. Some were even in the balconies high above, and pegasi darted across the air, some even sat together in the rafters. “What… What is this?”

“It’s your party!” Daisy chirped.

“It’s practically a Ponyville tradition at this point,” Noteworthy chimed in. “Newcomers always get a welcoming party. Since your first visit was, well…” He coughed into his hoof and tried again. “Since you never got your proper welcoming party, we decided to throw one for you.”

“And this many people decided to come?” I asked skeptically.

“Do not be so surprised of the display before your eyes,” Zecora pitched in. “I’ve told you before the stories of my early days when my visits to Ponyville were met with frightened craze? Once the truth was uncovered, and we rooted out all misconceptions, I was greeted with the warmest of receptions.”

“Like Noteworthy said, it’s kind of a tradition,” Lyra added. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what anypony once thought of you. These parties are special. They’re meant to bring everypony together.” She studied my face and rolled her eyes. “Come on.” Lyra’s horn glowed, and I felt something tug on my wrist.

She walked into the crowd of mingling ponies, her eyes never leaving mine with that knowing smile. The rubber band around my wrist tried to follow, pulling my arm towards her. I looked back to my friends for support, and all they offered were parting smiles as they went off to mingle. Realizing I was alone on this front, I allowed the rubber band to guide me, trying to ignore my skin crawling around the magical force.

We paused deep in the crowd. The band was playing not too far from here, and the ponies nearby were moving more to the rhythm.

“Why did you bring me out here?” I called over the music.

“So you couldn’t sneak away,” she answered with a smirk. She gave my leg a prod. “Don’t pretend like you weren’t thinking it; I saw that look in your eye. This is your welcoming party. It wouldn’t make much sense to throw it if you weren’t here to enjoy it.” I must have looked as willing as I felt, and she sighed. “Look, I don’t want you to feel like you have to be here.”

It sounded like a lie, or at least as though there was more to it. I raised an eyebrow, “But?”

Lyra hesitated. “But… we did work really hard on this,” she admitted with a sheepish smile. “Like, you will not believe the trouble I went through to plan and throw a party this big in one day.” She glanced behind her towards the band and looked up to me with excited eyes. “Come on, let’s go dancing!”

“Oh, no no no,” I waved my hands as I backed away. “You don’t want to see that; I have two left feet. You… go ahead though; have fun. I’ll just hang around.” She looked at me with disappointment in her eyes as she tried and failed to press a smile. “I promise, I’ll try to stick around and have fun, okay?”

Lyra sighed and shook her head, but this time a more genuine smile showed. “Fine. I guess you lead a human to a party, but you can’t force him to dance.” She slowly started backing into the crowd, her body already subtly moving to the music. “If you ever change your mind, though, you know where to find me.”

Something inside me tugged after her as she left, but my feet were anchored in place. Dancing sounded fun, it really did, but I didn’t need all these eyes staring at me as I made a fool of myself. I was already starting to gather a few looks.

I ran my fingers through my hair and turned to search for a familiar face. Noteworthy was sitting at one of the tables close to the buffet of sweets, talking to another stallion and mare. He saw me and smirked, obviously catching on to the desperation in my eyes, and waved me over to join them. With a sigh of relief I began to wade my way through the crowd. There were too many waist-high bodies. I felt like I was going to trip at any moment.

“Hunter!”

“Sweetie!”

I lunged forward as the filly scurried beneath. My heart was beating like a drum, and I doubled over to help it calm down. I glanced behind me and found a very apologetic looking Sweetie Belle. “Please don’t do that again,” I groaned. “I nearly stepped on you.”

“I agree.” Rarity squeezed past two ponies to catch up with her sister. “You know better than that, Sweetie Belle,” she chimed in with a scold. Sweetie’s ears feel back as she looked to the ground and mumbled an apology.

“Oh, there ya are, Hunter!” Applebloom and Scootaloo wedged themselves into the circle that was apparently forming around me. “Ya know, for a tall feller like yourself, you’re pretty hard to find,” Applebloom chirped.

“Doesn’t help when he falls on his flank when we scare him, either,” Scootaloo snickered.

“Alright, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You startled me,” I corrected.

“Regardless, how are you enjoying your party?” Rarity asked. Her smile seemed genuine. “It’s not too much, I would hope.”

“I, uh, I mean…” My hand scratched the back of my head as I hesitated and tried to take in my surroundings again. The movement and music and chatter was overwhelming. “It was, at first, but… It’s good. They definitely didn't hold back.”

“Well, of course it’s great!” Sweetie piped up with a beaming and proud smile. “Rarity spent all day working on it to make sure it was perfect! She even closed the boutique to work on it.”

“Oh, Sweetie, please. You’re giving me too much credit,” she waved a hoof as she chuckled nervously. A strong blush was beginning to show through her pale white coat. “It was a group effort, really. Lyra was the true mastermind; it was her idea, and she found everypony to help with this. And if Pinkie Pie hadn’t told us where to find the party supplies, we would have been much further behind.”

“These little rascals giving you trouble, Hunter?” Noteworthy squeezed himself into our group with a playful smile, putting himself between me and Rarity. The foals began protesting, and he calmed them down with a wave of his hoof. “Hey, just joking, just joking,” he assured with a laugh.

“Nah, we’re just catching up,” I replied. “Honestly, it’s nice to see a few more familiar faces.”

“Hey, I know! Wanna play some party games with us?” Applebloom asked hopefully.

“Party games?” I echoed.

“Yeah! Come on, Rainbow Dash has been working all day on them,” Scootaloo said excitedly. Red flags fired up in my head. As she jumped up and buzzed her wings and tried to pull me with her, I looked to the back where the games were set up. Sure enough, a rainbow colored mane was bobbing up and down in the crowd, watching over the others as they played.

“Psh, please, more like half of the afternoon,” Rarity waved off disdainfully. “I still can’t believe she was almost late to this. We had been working all day, and she almost ruined it.”

My eyes still hadn’t left Rainbow since I spotted her. “I think I’m good,” I quickly said. “I’m a little too old for ‘pin the tail on the donkey’.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sweetie sounded a little hurt. “That’s one of my favorites.”

“Oh, you’ll understand someday when you’re older, Sweetie,” Rarity assured her with a smile as she pet her mane. She hesitated, though, and looked back to me. “Although, maybe you should go with them. It could be… relaxing,” she offered.

“I’m sure it would be, but he can’t,” Noteworthy interjected. He put himself more between me and Rarity and looked up to give me a reassuring wink. He must have caught on to my growing discomfort. “He already said he was going to tell me and some friends another story about when he was in the Everfree Forest,” he explained, looking back to her. “Something about the time you rode a manticore, right?”

“Wait, you rode a manticore?” Applebloom asked excitedly.

Scootaloo began jumping in place. “That’s so cool! Can we hear it, too?”

I held my hands up in defense as all three of the kids began to swarm me with questions. “Hey, hey, it wasn’t as daring as it sounds,” I chuckled. “Honestly, it was kind of embarrassing looking back; I was scared half to death most the time. It, uh…” I snapped my fingers a couple times to collect my thoughts and motioned to Applebloom. “It was actually that night your brother almost caught me when I was, erm, visiting.”

“Hey now, let’s wait until we’re with my friends before we start story time, eh?” Note offered as he nudged my leg. “Besides, they haven’t heard the story about your run-in with the Ursa, and they won’t stop bugging me about it.”

“My word, you actually ran into one of those dreadful things out there?” Rarity gasped.

“Actually, I think ‘ran from’ would be a better choice of words,” Note snickered.

“Oh, har har,” I scoffed, but I couldn’t help my own smile.

“Hey, we want to hear it, too!” Sweetie Belle piped up.

I glanced between the kids and Noteworthy, and all he offered was an indifferent shrug. “I mean, the more the merrier, eh?” he suggested.

I chuckled and shook my head, motioning for the girls to follow. Their eyes lit up, and they trotted after me and my friend, with Rarity distantly in tow. “Let’s make sure we get a big enough table this time.”

We didn’t find a big enough table.

The party was officially in full swing, and what initially started as a small group of Note’s friends quickly grew into a large chunk of the party over the course of an hour. From eavesdroppers at nearby tables getting sucked in to minglers telling their friends, everyone seemed to want to listen to the adventures of the Beast of the Everfree. I wasn’t used to this many eyes being on me. I was shaking from the attention, but even as anxiety ate away at my nerves, a smile broke through. I was actually having fun.

At the end of one of my stories, Noteworthy would jump in to give me a break. He noticed I was stammering and getting a bit skittish as more ponies started showing up and thought it would be best for me to take a breather every now and then. I couldn’t have been more grateful for it.

It didn’t take long until Zecora found us, or rather the crowd surrounding us, and her presence was both a blessing and a curse. While she provided helpful insight with her experience in the Everfree, I could also tell she was enjoying the stories of my misadventures in the Everfree a little too much, and she wouldn’t hold back the occasional tease.

But for now, all eyes were on me. I stood atop a table above a swamp of eyes, all leaning in to catch every detail, and there wasn’t a waitress to stop me.

“So, there we were, twenty feet up in the air. Now I had never been to a rodeo before, and something told me it was this manticore’s first time, too. Shoot, I was barely even used to bareback riding, er—” Can’t say horses, can’t say donkeys, can’t say cattle. Everyone’s eyes were on me, and I tugged on my collar and coughed. “Well, anyways,” I chuckled and looked to the side, earning a few snickers for something I definitely should not have left up to interpretation.

“My legs were wrapped around its torso, just behind its wings, and I had a deathgrip on its mane for dear life,” I continued, acting out my memories. “And all the while, my eyes are just pinned on the stinger at the end of its tail, just waiting for the manticore to remember that it’s there. Unfortunately for me, after realizing it couldn’t shake me off, it did remember. Unfortunately for it, though, I am much more scared of stingers than I am of falling.”

I squatted low to be closer to my audience, and they all leaned in because of it. I nearly froze from the reaction, but I quickly had my train of thought back on track. “I pushed myself to roll off the manticore’s back as the stinger came down, but the moment my brain realized what I was doing, I started locking up. My right hand closed around its mane as I started to fall, and the stinger, I kid you not, struck the manticore in the back, right between wings. Now, I don’t know which hurt more, getting stung by your own stinger or having the full weight of a teenager suddenly hanging on to the hair around your neck, but we were starting to plummet, like, fast.”

“A manticore’s toxin is truly quite frightening,” Zecora added, leaning into the table and looking to the other ponies. “A paralyzing agent that works fast as lightning. One prick is enough to stop a dozen foals, at which point it usually swallows the victim whole.” She turned to me with a knowing smile. “You were lucky to be quick as to avoid such a demise. I’m sure tricking the beast to stinging itself came as quite the surprise.”

“Yeah,” I squeaked. A cold film of sweat covered my back as I realized just how narrow of an escape I had made so many weeks ago.

“You doing alright there, buddy?” Noteworthy laughed.

I coughed into my hand and tried to recover from the voice crack. “I, uh, yeah, yeah. I just didn’t know that.” I sat down on the tabletop and looked above the crowd to some imaginary place. “You know, it just has me thinking, if I had a bit for every time I ran into a manticore… well, I could probably buy myself a chocolate bar,” I shrugged as I thought aloud. “Which, like, isn’t a lot of bits when you really think about it, but it’s definitely more than I would have liked.”

I laughed at my own little joke as a chuckle came over parts of the crowd. It struck me again how many ponies had gathered around, but most notable was how they looked at me. Instead of the usual distrustful eyes, many of them seemed content, happy even, to hear me talk. I smiled to myself and got back on my feet.

“So, where were we? I was falling, right? Yeah. Well, lucky me, there were plenty of branches to break our fall. I managed to catch a few of them before I got wrapped around one, but the manticore?” I whistled and made a downward motion with a finger. “Straight like a rock down into the brush beneath.

“So there I was, back at square one. Only this time, instead of the Apple sisters’ wonderful older brother, I now had a man-eating beast beneath me; that I didn’t know at the time was probably knocked out by its own poison. I figured I'd take my chances and stick around in the tree for the rest of the night. Finding my food could wait until morning.”

I clapped my hands together, drawing my story to a close. “And there you have it, the time I rode a manticore. Piece of advice; if you ever think about trying it out yourself, don’t. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m a little parched after all that talking. When I get back, I might tell you guys about the time I decided to go fishing in the river that runs through the Everfree.”

“Hearing your tale reminded me of the first time I ran into the beast,” Zecora smirked into her hoof. “But to be fair, it wasn’t as daring as yours in the least.”

All eyes shifted to her as I stepped down from the table, and I felt the weight lift with them. I nearly collapsed as I broke free from the crowd. As I skirted around the edge of it on my way to the snack bar, my eyes couldn’t help but linger on Zecora as she spoke. She was so confident, never stuttered in her words for a moment, and the natural rhythm in the way she spoke was captivating. It was amazing how comfortable she was around everyone, even with the cold reception she originally had like mine. A part of me hoped that I could get to that point someday.

The cupcakes were next to the punchbowl when I arrived at the snack table, and I was more than willing to give in to my temptation. There weren’t very many left, but it looked like somepony was coming to restock the sweets from the kitchen…

I blinked and snapped the rubber band around my wrist.

Slip of the tongue, or thought, I reminded myself. I didn’t want to make a habit of it when I returned home. Still, something festered in the back of my head as the sole, uninvited guest noticed my slip. Oddly enough, it didn’t say a word, although a strange, almost sour taste began to linger in the back of my throat. With a grimace, I threw back a shot of punch in an attempt to wash it away.

“O-Oh, hey, Hunter! Do you like the cupcakes? I told you they were pretty good, didn’t I?”

“Wha- Pinkie!”

“Hey, watch it!” a pony protested as I backpedalled into him. I hastily apologized as the stallion left with his punch, and my eyes shot back to the mare who had been restocking the sweets. How I managed to overlook her bright pink coat is beyond me.

Pinkie Pie lifted a fresh tray of cupcakes off her snack cart with her teeth and placed it on the table. She stole a sideways glance at me, and her hoof brushed away her curtain of a mane to reveal a small smile.

“I… I didn’t realize you were here,” I admitted.

“Oh, you mean the party, right?” Her hoof trailed in a lazy circle, and she glanced behind her with a small, dying hint of glee in her eyes. “Gee, I wish I was,” she said in a longing voice. “Lyra and Rarity really went full swing, didn’t they? Just look at all those balloons and confetti…” She paused for a second before shaking her head and returning to work. “But nope; I can’t. I’m a busy bee: busy busy buzzy.”

Pinkie noticed my look from her half-hearted attempt at a pun and coughed in her hoof before continuing. “I’m not technically allowed to attend any parties for a while. The Princess said I need to learn to be more serious about… well, about a lot of things. But it’s not technically attending the party if I’m stuck in the kitchen all the time. I ran it through Twilight, and she ran it through Princess Celestia, and she decided to give me a new friend to make sure I didn’t try to mingle while I restock the party favors!” She accentuated her last line by waving towards the kitchen. My eyes followed and found a rather large stallion sitting next to the kitchen door. I wasn’t sure if it was the stoic demeanor that contrasted the air around him or uniformly kept mane that no other stallion had, but even without the golden armor I could tell he wasn’t the average partygoer. From across the atrium, he locked eyes with Pinkie and made a tapping motion against his fetlock. Pinkie withered slightly at her response and quickly turned back to work.

I saw my open window, and I took the leap. “Well, you seem pretty busy, and I’d hate to get you into any trouble,” I lied, snagging a cupcake as slowly backed away.

“Oh, it’s no trouble!” Pinkie waved obliviously. “Maybe next time we can have more time to talk?”

It’s your party. You told Lyra you’d have fun, I reminded myself. Breathe. Don’t get snappy.

“Yeah, maybe,” I conceded, turning on my heel.

“Oh! Hunter, Pinkie, what a lovely surprise!” Rarity chirped as she approached from the table. “I was hoping I could catch you both at the same time.”

“Oh, hey, Rarity,” Pinkie greeted timidly, looking up from her work once more. “This isn’t really a good time, remember?”

“Oh, nonsense; I’m sure Mr. Bastion over there won’t mind you staying out for just a few more minutes than usual.” Rarity waved at the guard across the room with a bright smile, faltering slightly when she received the same response as Pinkie. She coughed into her hoof. “Right, well… I was really enjoying your stories of your time in the Everfree. Pinkie, I think you would love them, too. Such adventurous tales!”

“A little more adventurous then I would have liked,” I added under my breath.

The two deflated slightly, both having heard my small jab. In the short pause, I looked back to the table full of my friends and realized that Rarity was standing directly in my path. Pinkie was still blocking off one of my sides. Maybe I could use the opportunity to squeeze out the other way. Back towards the table, I locked eyes with Noteworthy, hoping he could play lifesaver for me one more time, just in case. He leaned over next to Fluttershy and tapper her on the shoulder, motioning in my direction.

“Hey, there you are, Hunter!” A cold chill ran down my spine, and the cupcake dropped out of my hand. Rainbow came cantering to cut off my only exit. I was surrounded. “I’ve been looking for you all night,” she continued. “Why haven’t you checked out any of the party games yet?

“Ah, Rainbow Dash, perfect!” Rarity chirped, quickly recovering from earlier. “I was just about to send somepony to get you.”

I backed into the table, my fingertips brushing over its top. It was getting hard to hear my captors over the scattered thoughts that screamed white noise into my ears.

“Yeah, Scootaloo found me and dragged me over; told me about Hunter’s stories and I wanted to hear them for myself,” Rainbow said, turning to me. “No offense, I knew you had a bit of fight in ya, but if anything Scootaloo said was true, I think you had a lot more than I gave you credit for.”

“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity snapped. “That is hardly appropriate!”

“What? He knows I’m just being playful. Ain’t that right, Hunter?” She took a step towards me, and I instinctively lurched pack.

The crash of the table and shattering glass rang in the air, dampened by the music. Most of the party didn’t seem to notice, but I suddenly felt more pairs of staring eyes than the three before me. Pinkie, Rarity, and Rainbow froze with wary looks, and my eyes darted wildly between them, waiting for another to make a move.

“What in tarnation is going on here?” Applejack demanded. A flood of relief came over me as I found her approaching behind Pinkie. Maybe she could get me out of this.

“Nothing!” Rainbow said defensively. “We were just trying to talk, I swear.”

“By backing him into a corner? Again?” Applejack pressed. “Don’t you think we’ve done that enough to the poor stallion?”

“I— That wasn’t— We weren’t—,” Rarity sputtered, trying to wrap her head around the situation. She looked between me and Applejack, seemingly coming to the realization of how close she actually was, and took a few steps back. “I swear, that wasn’t our intention,” she pleaded to me. “We weren’t trying to make you uncomfortable.”

“You could have fooled us,” Noteworthy interjected as he put himself between her and Rainbow. Fluttershy floated in the air close by him, her hooves folded anxiously against her barrel as she watched the scene play out before her. He put a hoof in front of Rainbow and pulled her back. “Seriously, as if the guy ain’t traumatized enough, you three have to hound him at his welcome party, too.”

“Hey, watch it! Last I checked, we’re the ones that helped throw this party,” Rainbow snapped.

“That doesn’t give you the right to crash it,” he shot back.

“I-I wasn’t trying to crash it, honest!” Pinkie protested with a quivering voice. Her hooves tugged at her mane anxiously, and her eyes looked a little wet as she stared at me. “I just wanted to restock the cupcakes. I didn’t want to make you feel any worse!” She tried to worm herself out of the circle she had found herself in, but a bright blue aura trapped her tail and held her in place.

“Pinkie dear, you’re starting to give me anxiety over this,” Rarity said. She tugged her head, and Pinkie’s tail followed the horn. “If everypony could just quit making accusations for one minute, I—“

“Girls!” Everyone flinched from Fluttershy’s sudden outburst, and all eyes were on her. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I’m sorry, but this just isn’t the right time for this,” she continued as she floated over to me. Her hooves wrapped around my arm and tugged. “Come on, Hunter, let’s just go back to everypony else.”

I numbly nodded at the idea and allowed her to lead me through the minefield of eyes. My heart rate calmed with the tension in the air. Nobody spoke a word for a while. It wasn’t until we were a few steps out of the group that Rarity called after us.

“Fluttershy, wait!”

Fluttershy paused, and I with her. She looked past me to her friend.

“If this isn’t the right time, then I fear there never will be,” Rarity admitted. “These last few days of avoiding each other is only helping so much, and if we keep it up, it’s only going to make any actual confrontation later all the more difficult. Just, please…” Her eyes flickered to mine before returning to my friend. “Just a few minutes, that’s all I ask.”

Fluttershy’s grip tensed ever so slightly around my arm, and she looked to me expectantly. I was reminded that these were her friends, too. This must have been painful for her. A part of me remembered that I did still have some debts to pay off from her. I took in a deep breath to calm my nerves, and it escaped as a heavy sigh.

“Sure,” I shook my head. “Just a few minutes.”

“And I’m staying with him, too,” Fluttershy added by my side.

A hopeful smile showed on Rarity’s lips. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said to her friend. She motioned for her friends to come closer; Rainbow brushed past Noteworthy to join her side, and Pinkie’s tail needed a little more motivation to drag the rest of her over. “Well, I suppose it would help to admit that we may have had some ulterior motives for throwing this party for you,” she began.

“Don’t get us wrong, though, this is still your ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ Party,” Pinkie quickly added. “But it’s also a bit of a ‘We’re really really really sorry for running you out of town and being a bunch of meanies’ Party, too.”

“We messed up,” Rainbow chimed in bluntly. Unlike the others, she seemed to have a hard time lifting her eyes off the floor. “A lot. Some of us a little more than others.”

“What we did to you was horrible, and there is no good excuse for it,” Rarity continued. “After the Princess spoke to us about your situation, it… it gave us a new perspective. To be torn from your home and family, and then to find a safe haven only to be run out of it and forced to live in the wilderness… I can’t even begin to imagine what you must think of us.”

“But we wanted to show you that we aren’t all like that,” Pinkie interjected. When our eyes met, she hesitated, and a look of guilt pulled her stare down to my shoes. “I noticed you were having a hard time making friends around town, and that was probably my fault from all the rumors before. So when I overheard you and Lyra talking about a party, I thought it was a great idea! After all, that’s how I got to meet most of my friends,” she added with a weak smile.

Rarity took in a deep breath and paused, searching for the right words. “I know it’s a long shot, but we wanted to let you know how sorry we felt. Do you think you could ever find it in your heart to forgive us for what we did to you and give us a second chance?”

I didn’t speak right away, and even with the party music still ongoing, my own silence seemed to drown it out in this little group. All eyes were on me, yet I couldn’t bring myself to meet any of them, not even Fluttershy’s hopeful pair next to me.

“I… I don’t know.”

“Wait, what?” Rainbow asked.

“Rainbow Dash, please,” Rarity said in a hushing tone. “It’s not like we’re owed any forgiveness after all we did. We’re lucky he even agreed to talk to us.”

“Look, I… The things you all did to me…” I was struggling to think. I should have been angry; or, more upset than I was now, rather. Here before me were three of the ponies that made my life a living hell, who turned the entire town against me. But when I looked around at the party they threw, the very same ponies I hated, my head was tossed back into a sea of doubt. “I can’t just say ‘forgive and forget’ and then brush it all under the rug like it never happened,” I continued. “It’s going to take a lot more than a party to set things right, if they even can be at this point. But as far as apologies go… This is a pretty good one. I don’t think anyone’s ever thrown a party this big for me, much less to apologize for something. It’s a step in the right direction. So…” Why was it so hard to say? “Thanks. It… It really means a lot.”

I shouldn’t have taken my eyes off them. Before I knew it, Pinkie had closed the distance and had me wrapped up into another bone-crushing hug. My t-shirt was quickly growing damp again, but her cries sounded much happier this time than the last. It looked like part of her mane even sprang up to its usual self a bit.

“Thank you!” she sniffed with a hopeful squeeze. “I’m gonna make this all up to you; you’ll see!” A tremor came over her body, and she pulled herself away with a gasp. “The cake! I need to get it out of the oven now!”

She launched herself off of me and soard over the heads of everyone in the crowd between us and the kitchen, even the head of the guard who had just squeezed his way to our little group. He stood there dumbfounded like me, looking between us and the kitchen entrance. With a groan, he turned back and tried to worm his way through the partygoers once more.

“Hey, I think Zecora finished her story,” Noteworthy pointed out, breaking our silence. He started walking back to our table, but stopped to give me a playful nudge as he passed. “Looks like she’s winning them over. Hope you can one up her mystery story if you’re planning on still being the coolest pony to live in the Everfree.”

It made me feel good, seeing him lighthearted again; it managed to lift my spirits with him. “Come on, no one ever said it was a competition,” I called after him.

“Oh, now this Ah gotta hear,” Applejack chuckled. She gave me a nod as she followed. Fluttershy finally released my arm, and as her hooves touched the floor again, she broke into a prance after her friend with a satisfied spring in her step.

As Rarity tailed after her friends, Note’s words were still hanging in my head, and I was beginning to doubt my coming story. Should I go on with the fishing tale like I said? Sure, accidentally snagging a giant purple sea serpent is impressive by human standards, but I didn’t think that the ponies would be entertained with another story of how I bravely ran away from a monster again. Maybe I could make something up or use something I saw in the movies before, or just tell them a story from my world.

“Hey, Hunter?”

My train of thought crashed, and I looked behind me to find Rainbow still standing by the snack counter.

“Oh, you’re still… here,” I worded carefully. It looked like something was on her mind. I didn’t care to pry, but I didn’t want this to drag out, either. “Something you need?”

“Do you think we could talk about… things sometime?” she asked.

My brow furrowed. I didn’t like the vagueness of that question. “Depends on the things,” I said bluntly. “Couldn’t have brought it up when everyone else was here?”

“Everypony else already knows about it,” she admitted. “But they keep egging me to tell you, too. I just… I don’t know. I don’t want to do it here because I’m worried you’ll make a scene over it.”

That grabbed my attention. “Is it something I should be making a scene about?” I demanded.

“What? No, look, I…” She threw both of her forelegs to cover her face and released a frustrated groan into them. Her hooves fell back to the floor, revealing exhausted eyes. “Look, just whenever we get the chance, I need to get this off my chest, and then you can be as mad with me as you want; deal? I just don’t want anypony else to try and drag themselves into it; it’s just between us.”

I didn’t appreciate the secrets, but I was also done trying to fish this out. “Deal,” I sighed. “Sometime, somewhere, somehow… maybe. Can’t make any promises.”

She didn’t look happy with the answer, but she didn’t look like she was going to press, either. “Alright,” she nodded, turning back to the crowd. “Well, I better make sure the foals aren’t drowning in the apple bobbing bucket. Try to enjoy the party. Rarity put a lot of effort into it.”

I watched her trail off and disappear into the crowd. Something wasn’t sitting right in my head, and I racked it to think of what this mystery topic could have possibly been about. After a few seconds passed, I decided to dismiss it. After all, as I looked back to the full table of friends, I realized there were more important things for me to worry about during my own welcome party.

Noteworthy saved me a seat next to him, and a weight was lifted off my chest as I sat down with my friends. Suddenly, it felt as though my little run in with Pinkie and Rainbow earlier was already ancient history. Daisy snuck up from behind and playfully bumped into me before taking the chair to my left, and we laughed together as I caught her up on the stories told so far.

She teased that I was telling all of my good ones too early, hinting at our conversation from earlier today. But I assured her that I was saving the best story for last, whenever then might come, and her interest was piqued, enough to keep her and Noteworthy prying to find out what it was.

They almost had me convinced to tell it then. Luckily a new attraction pulled everyone’s attention away from the table. As the music began to die down, all eyes were pulled to the main stage and quickly gravitated to the monster of a cake that towered over everybody’s heads. I felt a light jab to my side, and Noteworthy waved for me to follow as he leapt from the table and into the quickly growing crowd around the cake.

The towering beast stopped in the middle of the atrium for all to see. I was almost worried it would tip over from the sudden stop. An exhausted Pinkie Pie sat next to it, scanning throughout the crowd. When she locked eyes with me, a bright smile split her face, and she flagged me to come closer. The air was filled with a lively buzz as I waded through the crowd. One thing was the subject of everybody’s thoughts, my own included: that was one delicious looking cake.

I stepped into the small ring the ponies had created around the cake and looked at it with new marvel. It was easily taller than me, even without the cart Pinkie pushed it in with, and stacked like a pyramid. There might have been enough for the entire party to have seconds with generous slices.

“Alright, everypony, you know how it goes!” Pinkie exclaimed over the excited buzz of the crowd. “Guest of honor gets first slice, as big as he wants!”

If they weren’t before, I could tell all eyes were on me now. I approached the cart and reached for the knife, and as I picked it up, I heard Pinkie whisper. “Psst, Lyra told me your favorite is strawberry, so I made the whole base strawberry just for you.” I paused and chuckled, entertaining the idea of just cutting out the base for myself. I dug the knife into the cake, feeling slightly guilty for tarnishing the perfect layer of icing. As I pulled it out and began to work on the second edge, a chorus of gasps erupted around me. For a moment, I had worried that I had cut a piece too generously by their standards, but when I glanced up, the top of the cake was tilted towards me, and it’s whole was sliding far too quickly. I barely had enough time to make one shocked step backwards.

“Oh, sonuva-“

The behemoth collapsed on top of me, and I was poorly prepared to take on the sudden weight and crashed onto the floor with it. The cake had me buried from my knees to well past my head. The only thing heavier that it were the stares I suddenly felt on me. Only one voice dared to timidly break the heavy silence.

“Oops…”

Her voice was all too familiar. After gathering my senses and dignity from the shock, I slowly sat up. Chunks of cake cling to my clothes while larger pieces sifted away. With my cleaner hand, I wiped away the frosting around my eyes, and the world gradually blinked into focus. On the other end of the crashed cart stood a heavily blushing Lyra. The partygoers around her had backpedalled away to leave no doubt in my mind.

“I… Sorry, Hunter. I was trying to squeeze through to see you, but… Well, I guess I squeezed through a little too well,” she apologized meekly as she trotted around the cart. She stopped next to me and held out a hoof to help me up. “Didn’t mean to knock it over on you. This one’s on me.”

Everybody’s eyes were boring into me. It felt as though I was set back to square one, with everyone wondering what the Beast of the Everfree was about to do next. As I had I glanced to Lyra, and in her eyes, I could tell she realized what her little accident caused. As my gaze fluttered between her eyes and her outstretched hoof, a sudden urge came over me. Perhaps it wouldn’t resolve the situation, but it would make me feel a little better.

“Nah, this isn’t on you yet,” I said in the most disarming tone I could muster.

“Yet?” As my hand clasped around her hoof a little tighter than she expected, her look shifted from confusion to dread. “Wait, no!”

It was too late. I dragged her into the remains of the cake with me and smeared a layer of frosting into her mane. Her surprised squeal drowned out the onlookers’ surprised gasps. I quickly pushed myself off the ground and left Lyra behind as I took a few teetering steps away. She eventually pulled her head out of the cake and gave me an incredulous glare, but even beneath all the frosting, I could see the corners of her lips pulled up.

“Now this is on you,” I laughed before looking down to see the damage dealt. There was more cake than clothes covering me. My chuckles died down as I tried to wipe some of it off without staining it in. “And me, and my clothes,” I admitted, resigning to taking at least my jacket off as damage control. A narrow strip of cake still ran down my gray t-shirt, but it was better than what I had to begin with. “Good grief, this is going to take forever to get out. Don’t suppose anybody has a spare napkin… or twelve?”

Something soft and heavy slammed against the backside of my head and stuck as I turned around. I scoffed, already knowing all too well what it was, and pulled the cake out of my hair. For a moment, I stood there staring at the cake in my hand before turning to face Lyra, standing defiantly still where I left her. The few snickers fluttering among the crowd around me only fueled my response.

“Alright, Heartstrings, I’ll play your game,” I challenged with a sneer. I winded up and lobbed the cake back at her. She was quick on the dodge, though, and my projectile found new targets in the crowd behind her.

I winced as it struck and their peers laughed. A unicorn who had taken the most damage stepped forward, horn aglow. Three hefty chunks of cake rose around Lyra, and the nameless unicorn’s eyes stared daggers into me.

“Hey, that’s— that’s cheating,” I squeaked.

My words fell on deaf ears, though. I barely had time to drop to the ground. One of the projectiles still struck my shoulder, and the other two went soaring back into the crowd, provoking a chorus of objections.

The party stood still. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut. Everyone eyed their neighbors maliciously while flicking their gaze back to the ruined cake. Lyra and I suddenly realized we were caught in the eye of a fast-brewing storm.

“Alright everypony, let;s all settle down,” Pinkie tried vainly. “Let’s get this mess all cleaned up, and I can bake another—”

Her attempts to quell the crowd were abruptly cut short as a pie exploded in her face. Near one of the snack tables, Noteworthy shouted at the top of his lungs, “Everypony for themselves!”

Chaos erupted within the town hall as a stampede of ponies rushed to whatever pastries they could find. Lyra and I were swallowed whole in the ocean of bodies as many of them rushed to the cake for ammunition. I fought against the current, knowing full well that ground zero was about to become a no man’s land. If I wanted to survive the night, I needed allies.

Pastries were already flying overhead before I made it even halfway to the snack table where I last saw Note. I hoped he was still there somewhere; I lost sight of him among the moving bodies. It felt as though I had a target on my back with the amount of food thrown directly at me. It was hard to tell if this was what the proper Ponyville welcome was after all, or perhaps everyone just wanted to see if they could snag the Beast of the Everfree to brag about it later. I had never seen them all worked in so much of a frenzy. It was terrifying, and yet I couldn’t help but share the contagious smile that so brightly showed on everyone’s faces. I was actually having fun.

By the time I had reached the table, most of the desserts had disappeared, save for a raspberry pie already missing a slice and a handful of cupcakes. I couldn’t find my friend anywhere, but I didn’t have time to stand out in the open. Grabbing the pie, I vaulted over the table and hid on the other side to give myself a chance to think.

What was I doing? Did I have a plan? A part of me was hoping to have back up, but it seemed as though I was running solo for the rest of the fiasco. I looked at the pie and tried to think of a good face for a target.

Daisy? Maybe; I couldn’t think of anything she had done to warrant singling her out. Zecora? Was she close? I peeked over the table and had just enough time to spot her black and white stripes before having to duck back down from a flying cupcake. She was close, and I could already come up with a few good jokes for it later. I sat there for a few seconds trying to psych myself up, but my concentration broke as Lyra slid beneath the table and stopped next to me.

“Oh, hey!” Lyra panted, sounding just as surprised as I was. “I was wondering where you went. How’s the cake?”

I snorted. “Oh, it tasted great. Pretty sure I saw a hair in it, though. Don’t recommend it.”

“You sure it wasn’t yours?”

I waved her off with a hand. “Details.”

We laughed for a moment, and she shook her head. “Real sorry that had to happen. That cake sure looked nice, a lot nicer than I was expecting.”

“Yeah, well, we humans have a saying about having cakes and eating them,” I shrugged. “Albeit a weird one if you asked me.”

Lyra fidgeted. “So... you’re not mad?”

“Mad?” I chuckled. “Why would I be mad? It was an accident, right?” She didn’t respond, and when I looked to her, her guilty eyes were trying desperately to look anywhere other than me. “It was an accident, right?” I pressed.

“More or less,” she said dismissively. When she caught on that I wasn’t satisfied with her answer, she quickly continued. “I haven’t seen you at all since you left. I checked the games, and Rainbow said she never saw you there. I was worried you were having a hard time getting everypony to know you better, so I took a page out of an old book and tried to recreate my welcoming party with you.

“Pinkie rushed the cake out during mine, and it spilled right on top of me when she stopped. Everypony laughed, we had a few jokes about it, and it felt like I grew a lot closer because of it. But when I did it to you…” She rubbed her foreleg embarrassingly. “Well, there wasn’t a lot of laughter going on. I realized I made a big mistake. So…” She finally gathered the nerves to look me in the eye. “Not mad… right?”

Seeing her like that made my heart drop a bit. I playfully slugged her in the shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. “Hey, come on. Quit acting like you don’t know me. I can take a few pranks gone sour,” I reminded her. “I’m not mad at ya.”

Her classic smile quickly returned, and she reached out and pulled me into a quick embrace. “Thanks,” she said with a small squeeze.

“Don’t mention it,” I chuckled as we pulled away. A pony squealed on the other side of the table, reminding me of where we were. The raspberry pie was still in my hand. “Besides,” I continued nonchalantly, “I’m sure you’ll get your just desserts for it sooner or later.”

Lyra was peeking over the table as I spoke, but she blinked and looked back to me. “Wait, was that supposed to be a—”

Her question was abruptly cut off as I swung the pie into the side of her face. I didn’t give myself time to relish the aftermath of my handiwork and quickly vaulted back over the table. It must have taken Lyra a second to come back to her senses, and she soon called after me.

“You’re dead, Hunter!”

A childlike giggle escaped me. I was probably in more trouble than I was willing to admit. I spotted Zecora where I had last seen her, along with Daisy. They were both hiding behind a couple of chairs, throwing their own stockpile of desserts deeper into the battlefield. If ever there was a chance for allies, they would be my best bet right now.

I slid to a halt behind them, plucking up one of their cupcakes for myself. “Guys, I need your help.”

“Hunter!” Zecora jumped. “We’ve been looking for you! After the cake fell, you disappeared from view.”

“Where have you been?” Daisy chimed in.

“Look, I can explain everything later,” I said quickly. “But right now I need more firepower. Lyra’s gone crazy, and I’m pretty sure she—”

“Gotcha!”

The wind was knocked out of my lungs as Lyra tackled me into the ground from the side. I glanced up and struggled to contain my laughter. Half of her face had disappeared behind a layer of raspberry filling and chunks of pie crust. She gave me a malicious smirk and held a hoof out behind her. “Daisy. Pie.”

“Wait,” I wheezed. “No, no, let’s talk about this!”

No sooner than when Daisy put the pie in Lyra’s hoof did she swing it into my face. The world suddenly had an eerie smell and taste of pumpkins. Her weight rolled off of me, and as I peeled the aluminum pan away from my face, she laughed next to me.

“Alright, now we can be even,” she smiled.

“Fine, fine,” I chuckled. “You got me good. Truce for the night?” I asked, holding out a hand. She reached out and shook it, still giggling to herself, and her laughter was contagious. Zecora and Daisy stood over us, giving each other a knowing look and smile. I could only shake my head. “It’s been a long night.”

The food fight eventually died down, with all ammunition and energy fully spent. The party slowly began drawing to a close with it. Some ponies had already began leaving, admiring their “battle scars” with their friends as they tiredly shifted out. It seemed as though no one was left unscathed, not even Pinkie’s stoic overseer.

Zecora was the first of our little clique to suggest returning home, and I couldn’t blame her. I had spent enough nights in the Everfree to even think about treading its hazardous trails. The thought of getting a good night’s rest seemed to resonate in all of us, too, and we decided to accompany her on the way out. Only Fluttershy stayed behind, offering to help her other friends clean up from the mess the town had made in the hall. If I had any energy left, I might have offered to help, too.

A clear, starry night welcomed us back into Ponyville, accompanied by a cool breeze. My jacket was draped over my arm like a soiled rag, and after tonight, I feared it would soon become just that. Daisy offered Zecora a room in her house for the night, to which Zecora seemed more than grateful. They were the first to depart from out group, and soon Noteworthy bid us good night as he left for his home.

“I can’t wait to get some sleep,” Lyra yawned once we were alone.

“Yeah, me, too,” I nodded lazily. I glanced at my jacket and chuckled lazily, holding it out. “Think I might need to borrow a pillow though.”

Lyra snorted and shook her head. “Just borrow half the bed while you’re at it,” she offered. “I don’t think either of us could use the hardwood floor after tonight.”

“I don’t think I could argue even if I wanted to,” I said tiredly. “Still, I’d hate to get cake on the sheets.”

“You think it’d be any cleaner if it was just me?” she challenged. I glanced her over and realized she was just as bad as I was. Raspberry filling kept her mane matted down in some areas, and though she had brushed away most of the crumbs, her coat was still covered in a patchy layer of frosting.

“Eh, touché,” I chuckled.

“Besides, I was already planning on changing those sheets out anyways,” Lyra continued dismissively. We carried on for a moment in silence, and she eventually looked up to me. “So, good party?”

I smiled to myself and looked up to the full moon with heavy eyes. “Yeah,” I whispered tiredly. “Best night ever.”

Author's Notes:

Time for everyone's favorite game of "Oh fuck, that one story posted again. Better re-read everything and remember what happened!"

In all seriousness, thank you guys for your patience (and lack thereof in some cases); it really helped me come back and push through again. I have a lot of good news and bad news with my re-re-return from the dead (just in time for Sp00kmas, too). I have enough chapters to post once a day from today to Halloween, and I plan to do just that to make the wait up to you guys. I'm currently working on the fourth update as well, though it will be taking longer and will be posted before the year's end. After the fourth chapter is posted though, I am going to be taking a "break" from this story and devote more of my time to Their Very Own Suns, which has also suffered from my sudden disappearance. The goal is to post these three and focus the rest of the year on Suns, and by New Years, I will begin working on both evenly again.

I know I promised that I would deliver on the "punishment chapter" in the last update, but to be honest, and I'm quite ashamed to admit it after all the build up, I'm afraid I won't be posting it until much, much later, if at all. It was the main reason for my delay, as I did not want to post this chapter without it, and I struggled finding a way to write it in a way that I enjoyed. I hope you don't mind, but I will instead be sprinkling hints (some more obvious than others) about what they were.

Confound these ponies. They drive me to write, even when I try my best to stay away from them. Hope you all enjoy!

Happy Nightmare Night,
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