“… the matter with you!?”

“Huh?” from the depths of his subconscious, John managed to hear a voice.

“… but… started…”

Bits of conversation could be heard besides him, and he tried focusing more, but as he did, a throbbing pain hit his head like a brick to the face, which in his current condition, it might as well have been. He had been lucky a bag of ice had been placed on his forehead, lowering his pain considerably, but it was still painful enough. He groaned, yet oddly enough, whoever was around had not been able to hear him, as they focused more on their own conversation.

“Spike, what’s the matter with you? You could have killed him!” finally distinguishing the sound, he managed to hear the voice of Twilight, which sounded quite angry for that matter.

“I-I’m sorry Twilight, I didn’t mean it…” the now familiar voice of Spike apologized, sounding miserable as he did.

“Oh, come on darling, it was a spur of the moment. Who could blame him? Especially when a big secret of Spikey would have been revealed?” a voice using a rather sophisticated tone said, defending him.

John already disliked this pony.

“I agree. Besides, he should have dodged!” came the sound of a certain tomboyish mare.

“Oh, Rainbow. Of course.” he thought, rolling his eyes under his lids.

“How many times do I have to repeat this. Broken. FOOT!” the emphasis seemed to have made her point, much to John’s delight in the following silence.

“Well, I don’t mean to interrupt the lovely conversation y’all are having, but maybe you can tell us what this creature is?” another voice with an obvious southern accent joined in.

“Yeah!" yet another new voice said. "It’s wearing clothes, which means it probably does important things, but ponies only wear clothes at parties or gatherings… so does that mean it parties all the time? Or may-" her fast talking suddenly stopped, replaced by muffled gibberish.

“Aaaand the hoof goes back in your mouth,” the south accented pony said, pretty much explaining what had happened.

“I thought I told you that it was a human, human!” another pony joined in with an annoyed tone

“.. Is he okay though…? That seems like big bump…” a nearly inaudible—but clearly new—asked. If he hadn’t been paying attention, he could have probably not noticed it.

“Don‘t worry Fluttershy, he’ll be fine. The ice should lower the swelling,” Twilight assured the low-voiced pony who gave a rather loud sigh of relief upon hearing the news.

“Yes, that‘s fine and all, but what are we waiting for? This is our chance! Let’s check it out while it’s unconscious! Let’s study him… I know! Let‘s remove its clothes so we can get a better view of it…” joined in the earlier annoyed mare, her eagerness giving John goosebumps once he absorbed her intents.

“Nope, nope, nope!” John said out loud, having had enough of his sleep pretending and trying to avoid a potential peek show for the ponies in the room.

“You are awake!” Twilight exclaimed excitedly, and quickly engulfed him in a hug.

John returned the hug eagerly, his fears calmed by the touch of his friend. He began checking what surroundings he could see from his position as he did; he noticed he was laying in a couch, his cast leg hanging in the edge. There was something that quickly caught his attention—piled high on shelves, all around, he figured he might have been in Twilight’s home as he taking notice of the absurd amount of books in his midst.

“Nice place."

“Thank you, but that’s not what I wanted you to see,” she moved out of his line of sight to reveal not only Rainbow Dash and Spike, but also four other ponies looking at him with interest (one of them perhaps with a little more interest than the others).

“Well, howdy pardner!” the pony who happened to be the southern accented mare before greeted him first, graciously tipping her cowboy hat.

“Huzzah, more stereotypes,“ he thought as she approached him eagerly and extended her hoof.

“My name is Applejack, and it’s mighty fine to meet you!” the greeting was mostly ignored, as John held his place, his arm moving rapidly at the mare’s vigorous shaking.

“I-It’s nice to meet you too, Applejack. I‘m John,” he looked at his arm confused. “Why is my arm still moving?” he asked, looking at it and wondering how it moved even after the mare had let go, thankfully, it was stopped by Twilight.

“Heh, thanks,” she nodded and then turned to her friends, awaiting for another one of them to give an introduction.

“Hello!” John nearly fell off the couch, as the moment he had blinked, a pink pony was already standing uncomfortably close to him.

“H-hello there, I’m John…” he greeted the pink pony hesitantly. He stared at her for a good while, noticing her features. It wasn't much of a show, since all of the ponies seemed to share similar features. Almost like they were the same size. After staring at her puffy mane for several seconds, a thought hit him. “Hey! You are that pink pony who was wearing that silly umbrella hat yesterday!” Pinkie nodded vigorously proving his claims. "Yeah, why were you wearing that umbrella anyway?”

“Well, duh! That’s because my tail was twitching, silly!” she said, as if it had been an indisputable fact.

“That… Doesn’t expla-”

“Oh! And I just realized you are new to Ponyville! Which means that you haven’t gotten a welcome to Ponyville party, which means that I have to go plan one! Oooh! This is gonna be awesome!” she said loudly, streamers popping out seemingly out of nowhere, and she ran out the door, leaving a confused John in the aftermath.

“But… I… What… WHO IS SHE!?”

“My name is Pinkie Pie!” she said, popping out behind the couch, causing John to scream, terrified by her sudden appearance.

“H-Hadn’t she just left?” his mind was in shambles as he mumbled to himself and pointed from Pinkie to the open door.

“I think you should go plan that party, Pinkie. Let him recover for now.” Twilight said, presumably unaffected by her ability to seemingly teleport.

“Okie Dokey Lokey!” she said, and skipped out of the treehouse, the door closing behind her as she left. John laid on the couch, a dumb look on his face, while the other ponies chuckled silently.

“… This is nice and all, but if I may interrupt your laughter, WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?” Twilight put a hoof to his mouth, silencing him.

“She is just being Pinkie, you’ll get used to it, trust me.” John sighed unsure, but nodded in agreement.

“Anypony else?” Twilight asked turning to her friends.

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt for me to be next,” said the white pony who approached him cautiously, wearing a neutral expression on her face.

“Hello mister, my name is Rarity, and I am a pony interested in fashion and all trends that follow it!” she said while putting on a rather gaudy scarf.

“Er… Hello… Name is John, nice to meet you?” he said slightly doubtful of the mare and extended his arm to shake her hoof. She grabbed it and got close to him face to face.

“If you dare to upset my dear Spikey Wikey, you and I are gonna have some problems. Understand?” she said rapidly, but in a surprisingly understandable manner, and quietly enough so that Twilight was not able to hear her as she talked with Spike.

“Ah… Ah… Yes, ma’am!” John replied as respectfully as he could, gulping in fear as the marshmallow colored pony returned to her spot on the group, without a trace of her attitude showing on her features. “Such a charmer…” he thought sarcastically, avoiding her gaze.

The group waited a few seconds, but no other pony moved forward. Rainbow crossed her limbs, waiting for any of them to go ahead, already getting bored. While he waited, John stared at the ponies standing there, looking at him with curiosity, and he might even say, a slight pang of fear?

All of a sudden, Rainbow landed and stomped her hooves on the wooden floor causing the ponies to flinch slightly, Rainbow went to the back of the group, and she begin dragging out another pony who John hadn't identified quite yet, having been hidden behind the others.

“W-wait! I’m not ready!” the yellow pony called as Rainbow pushed her.

“It’s alright Fluttershy, just think of him as one of your critters or something,” Rainbow suggested, getting a reluctant look from the timid pony, and a scowl from John himself.

“O-okay…” she approached him slowly, giving John a small uncertain smile while hiding behind her long mane. John waited patiently for her to give the first move, afraid that he would just scare her off by starting first. Timidly, he returned the smile, which seemed to alleviate some of the tension that seemed to be building up.

John stared at her intently, trying to not make her shy away. Something about her causing to just stare intently.

"Why the hell do I think this shy pony is cute?

“I-I’m Fluttershy. What’s your name?” she said in a voice so low that he barely managed to understand after being wrapped up on his own thoughts.

“I’m John Pennick, nice to meet you,” she nodded silently and stood there, her stare piercing his own, then she moved her eyes towards his foot, making him understand what was going on.

“Are you worried about me?“ she jumped in place after being so suddenly startled, she quickly recovered and nodded. “I’m okay, Fluttershy. Trust me, I'll be fine, it’s just a bump, and the doctor said that I would walk in three days, no biggie!” he assured the pony, but he did not get the response he expected, proved quickly by the disapproving look she was giving him.

“Oh no, mister! You have to be careful, what if it had gotten infected or something worse! You have to be very mindful of your own health!” she went on, causing John to groan internally, while the rest of the ponies giggled, all bringing the nagging doctor reminders back to his mind.

“Er… Yes, Fluttershy. I promise I’ll be careful and try not to take this injury lightly,” he couldn’t bring himself to tell off the pony, as unlike the doctor, her stare showed genuine worry.

“Oh, good. I’m glad to hear that!” she said, giving him a big smile.

“I think I just got diabetes… Again,” he thought, returning her a smile of his own. “You are a kind pony, you know?” he blurted out without thinking, and Fluttershy’s cheeks instantly showed her flustered state, as she hid behind her mane once again.

“N-n-n-n-no, it’s nothing really! Oh my…” she pulled her wings out and she was instantly back in her hiding spot.

“My bad,” John apologized, watching her shake in the corner.

“That‘s Fluttershy for you, she is very shy as you can see, but she is a very brave pony when it comes down to it,” Twilight explained as Rarity spoke with the trembling Pegasus.

John chuckled. "I'll take your word for it."

“And that’s everypony! Since you already know Rainbow and Spike,” Twilight exclaimed excitedly, sitting next to the couch and smiling at John who raised his brow confused, looking past Twilight and staring at the mint colored pony standing in the back.

“What about the green one? Lyra, right?” the now notorious squeaking sound was heard as he pointed in her general direction, causing Twilight to groan annoyed.

“Oh… Her. That’s Lyra Hearthstrings, and she is our local lyre player,” she introduced without even looking at her. “And now she has to g-”

“Oh no! You promised that if he asked, I could talk to him. I waited here long enough without interrupting, and I think I deserve it, I mean, since I’m the one that believed in him to be-”

“For the last time, I told you I was sorry already! I admit it was my mistake, and I shouldn’t have insulted you the way I did… But do you really have to do this now, while he is like this?” she replied, pointing at John, and throwing the words out in a somewhat desperately.

“Do I have a say in thi—” John began, but shut himself as both ponies glared at him.

Lyra looked from John to Twilight and back to John again with a scowl. She nodded in agreement and headed to another room, where she begin talking with previously unheard voices. She soon returned to the room, but this time, followed by three even smaller ponies, who of course, instantly began eyeing John, showing the usual signs of awe with their mouths open, one of them silently saying ‘cool’ or other similar words.

“I’ll be coming to check on him eventually, you hear? Don’t try to hide him,” she told Twilight who sighed and nodded in response without even turning around.

“Yes, I promise I won‘t I'll even let you talk to him.”

“Do you Pinkie Promise?” Lyra reiterated causing Twilight to turn to face her.

“Pinkie what?” John asked, but was simply ignored.

“Ugh… Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she made a few motions and finished by placing a hoof over her eye, to which Lyra nodded approvingly, while John got his answer.

“Good. Catch you later, human,” she nodded happily and headed for the door, the three small ponies tried to follow her in tow, but their plan was short lived as they were stopped by Rarity.

“And where do you three think you are going?” the fillies all gulped at the same time, and slowly turned towards Rarity.

“What were you all doing with a stranger?” she questioned the fillies who only stared at the floor, a look on their faces that he himself had seen on his own face before. A look of regret and fear of what was sure to come.

“Don’t,” everypony turned toward the door, just to see Lyra still standing there. “I tricked them into helping me, it’s not their fault.” The three fillies looked at her with shock.

“Wait…You expect me to let you see him? When you trick even the small ones?” Twilight joined in, venom dripping in every single one of her words.

“You don’t have to. But I will find a way to see him, it’s not like he is your property,” Twilight’s horn began to glow, John had decided he had seen enough and was about to intervene, but he was beaten to it by the small unicorn.

“She is lying, we chose to come with her on our own,” all present turned to her, and then the yellow pony with a bow joined in. “Yeah, we chose to go with her, don’t punish her!” and finally, the small orange Pegasus finished it off. “Punish us!”

Applejack and Rarity trotted towards the young ponies and stared at them, unable to find the right words to say.

“Sweetie Belle, go home. We will speak of this later,” she said to the unicorn, while Applejack told the same to ‘Applebloom’ and both responded with the same line. “Yes, big sis…” and they walked out of the house, waving Lyra goodbye.

“And you Scootaloo, I will take you home myself,” said Rarity who began the walk to the door, where she was stopped by Lyra.

“Wait, I’ll do it,” Lyra volunteered, getting a suspicious look from the group.

“I don’t know…” said Twilight, already questioning her motives.

“Let her do it,” all ponies turned to John who had been oddly quiet during the exchange. “She obviously cares if she was going to take the blame for them.”

Twilight shot him an annoyed glanced, but sighed in defeat, realizing he was right. “Fine. But tell her parents about it, got it?” Lyra nodded and called Scootaloo who soon joined her, leaving an awkward silence for the leftover party.

Using the silence, John decided to ask the obvious question plaguing his mind.

“So, anyone care to explain how I even got this?” he asked, pointing at his ice covered forehead. As in cue, Applejack moved to the side, and grabbed Spike who had been hiding behind her, and pushed him towards John.

“Spike did it when you threatened him,” the culprit stopped a few inches away, poking the floor with his small feet, shuffling in place nervously.

“It’s alright Spike… I just want to know what the heck happened,” John grabbed his temples as he said this, just wanting the events of the day over with.

“Well, truth be told, we were here because of Pinkie,” admitted Applejack.

“Why were the lights off then?” he asked, continuing his line of questioning.

“Well, Pinkie decided to throw you and Twilight a party,” continued Rarity while John and Twilight stared at each other.

“Whatever fo—oh, that’s right…” Twilight finished knowingly, while of course, John continued being confused.

“Hello?” he asked utterly lost.

“Pinkie throws parties.... A LOT of parties. She knew from the meeting that you were here, and so, she was going to throw us a surprise party, which is why the lights were off, but you then threatened Spike, and upon hearing your threat, he instinctively threw a book to quiet you down. Anything I missed?"

“Ah… My bad, Spike,” John began turning towards the small dragon. “Guess we are even then.\,” Spike nodded relieved, and bumped fists as a sort of mutual understanding.

From then, he spend the following hour with Twilight, explaining her task in John’s world, how she had come to meet him to her friends, and how he had made his decision. John stared at Twilight, smiling as he saw the excitement she showed while talking to them.

“So… how long?” John was startled out of his thoughts as Rainbow hovered over him.

“Eh, what do you mean? And why are you here? Aren't you interesting in her story?” he asked Rainbow who gave him a sly smile.

“I was never one to listen to her overly complicated explanations," she shrugged it off and continued. "But back to the point, don’t act dumb, you know what I mean!” she said poking his arm and whispering to him.

“So… how good is she?” John raised his brow, growing even more confused by the second.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, Rainbow.”

“Hmm… I think somepony is kee—” she was suddenly interrupted, as the door was suddenly opened by a grey blur smashing through. It sped through the room, hitting a confused Spike who held a tray of tea at the moment. It kept going, dragging the unknowing dragon along, and crashing on a shelf, causing books to fall on them.

“Spike!” Twilight was the first on the scene, and she quickly used her magic to remove the books off the pair, finding the young dragon on the pile, groaning in pain.

“Are you alright?” she used her levitation and pulled him out, bringing him to her hooves, checking him for any other potential injuries, and engulfing him in a hug when she found none. “Oh, thank Celestia you are alright.” The other ponies joined her, checking up on Spike.

“Wait… Why aren’t they helping her?”

John grabbed his crutches and got on his foot, the ice bag simply fell off his forehead as he slowly walked towards the pile of books and sat down carefully, avoiding Fluttershy’s worried gaze while trying to avoid another potential injury on himself, then began to move books from the spot, in search of the other pony.

“Ditzy, are you alright?” the mare in question slowly crept out of the mess seemingly undamaged, she looked around bewildered at her surroundings and her current situation.

“Oh no! I did it again!” she lamented loudly, and began to pile the books together, only to be stopped by John.

“Hey, what are you do- oh, John!“ as soon as his eyes fell on hers, she turned her back on him “Oh, I’m sorry! Did I hurt you again!” she turned around and checked him quickly before stopping suddenly. “And sorry I was so late, I forgot, but I’m here now, and this is for you!” he stared at the bag she was holding and grabbed it, putting it aside for later.

“Don’t worry about it, I‘m okay. But more importantly, are you alright?” he asked her, to which she responded by just giving him a confused stare.

“Me? But I’m the one wh—” she stopped talking as a hand was placed oh her muzzle.

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it. it was an accident,” he turned to Twilight who was holding Spike protectively at the moment, and only pleaded with his eyes, hoping that Twilight would catch on.

“Yes Derpy, it’s alright,” she replied without a sign of emotion in her voice. She put Spike on the couch and began fixing the mess of books on the floor while John sat with Ditzy.

“I didn’t think you would come, Ditzy,” she turned her head to the side, trying to avoid his gaze, but only found Twilight there, causing her to turn her head back to John’s worried stare.

“Hey Twi, do you have a kitchen?” he asked Twilight, noticing the awkward stares of the others mares in the room.

“Yes.”

“Er, can we use it?” he reiterated.

“I guess so,” she pointed with her hoof, not even moving from the spot while magically putting books back in their places. “It’s over there, just go through that door and you’ll find it,” he ignored the way she delivered the words and headed there, not bothering to look at the other ponies sitting there, Derpy miserably following him in tow.

------

The streets of Ponyville carried on its usual busy fare, everypony minding their own business, and unaware of each other outside of some minor interaction, and perhaps a minor desire to help others. This was helped by the fact that there was a very welcoming pink pony whose privilege caused her to cheer all ponies up, having the need for others to do this, a bit redundant. So it was surprising how two ponies who seemed down hadn’t been cheered up by a single pony, the obvious sigh of frowns and sighs contrasting with everypony else’s otherwise happy demeanor.

“This sucks…” began Scootaloo, breaking the silence as they headed home.

“I know, and I’m sorry that I got you and your friends involved in this, Scootaloo,” Lyra stopped and apologized to the filly.

“Don’t apologize. We had fun!” she exclaimed excitedly while doing minor tricks on her scooter.

“I can just ignore what Miss Egghead said and not tell your parents, you know?” Scootaloo stopped and placed a hoof on her chin, but quickly removed it with a quick dismissal.

“Nah! It wouldn’t be fair to Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, you know?” this act of friendship brought a smile to the unicorn, who ruffled the young filly’s mane playfully in response.

“Glad to hear that, kid.”

They proceeded along in silence, just enjoying each other’s company, until Scootaloo broke it with a comment.

“You are pretty cool, Ms. Lyra,” she stopped once again, eyeing the pony with an amused glance.

“How so?”

“Well, you tried to pin the blame on yourself for us—I guess that’s very cool in my book,” she finished, giving her an awkward smile.

“You know? You are pretty cool yourself, even brave for taking some of the blame,” Lyra complimented her, while she beamed in return.

“Well… I’m a bit scared… But I wouldn’t want to leave my friends hanging, you know? I guess I just know that they would be a bit hurt if I wasn’t grounded myself when I also did something dumb…” Lyra stared at the filly, thinking over her rather mature way of viewing things.

“So… what you are saying is that you have to take your friend’s feelings at hoof?” Scootaloo only shrugged in place.

“I don’t know. I guess?” but Lyra was not paying attention anymore, as she delved into her own thoughts, replaying the events that transpired just a few hours before.

“You just don’t get it…” the voice of Bon Bon replayed the words in her mind.

“Scootaloo!” the young filly flinched a bit at the sudden change in tone in Lyra, but obliged her.

“W-what is it?”

“I really have to go… I trust you to do this, so do you promise to that you will tell your parents about what you did?” Scootaloo looked surprised at her request, but wasted no time in grinning.

“Of course! I’m loyal to my friends!” this brought another smile to Lyra’s face.

“I’ll catch you later, kid.”

“Got it! And let’s play together again, Ms. Lyra!” she hoped her words were caught by the mare, who was already lost among the crowd of ponies.

Author's Notes:

Hey guys! I'm back.

I hope you liked this chapter! And don't you worry, I already started work on the next one!
(if you count 200 words as started, but I digress)

Notes 7 4/3/2018

“So… how good is she?”

Oh my god, I seriously wrote that.

Also

The streets of Ponyville carried on its usual busy fare, everypony minding their own business, and unaware of each other outside of some minor interaction, and perhaps a minor desire to help others. This was helped by the fact that there was a very welcoming pink pony whose privilege caused her to cheer all ponies up, having the need for others to do this, a bit redundant. So it was surprising how two ponies who seemed down hadn’t been cheered up by a single pony, the obvious sigh of frowns and sighs contrasting with everypony else’s otherwise happy demeanor.

My god, it took me a bit to understand what I was going to do with that. It's almost nonsense.

Boy, this is a journey.