System chapter 3

 

After escaping, Shadow takes a breather and sits on a park bench.

“Finally, I was starting to think I'd get married, have kids, and be buried in the boutique. Though I can't lie, she's good at her job.”

Not far from the bench he hears a loud gasp followed by rapid hooves steps. Turning towards the sound Shadow spots a teal unicorn mare dragging a cream colored earth pony mare in her magic running right to him.

 

“Oh my Celestia, oh my Celestia!! You're a human right?! A real live human?! See I told you Bonnie they really were real!! Can I see your hands please?!!”

 

Startled by the unicorn's intensity he raised both hands in front of him, both of which were then grabbed and closely studied by the unicorn. Her eyes widening even bigger than seemed possible. Squees loudly!

 

“Oh you have magic too?! I always thought that was just a part of myths! This changes my research on humans on its head! You've got to tell me EVERYTHING why do humans eat,where are you from, is it true that humans eat tomatoes, or is—” The Earth pony puts her hand over her friend's mouth and starts dragging her away while apologizing profusely as they leave.

 

“...what the hell just happened?”

 

After a few minutes of complete confusion, Shadow shakes himself off and comes to the conclusion, unicorn mares are nuts. Leaving the bench continues wandering around ponyville occasionally chatting with the ponies. Walking past a literal tree house the door opens and Shadow is grabbed by a pink earth pony mare.

 

[DEX SAVE ROLL]

[ERROR!]

[RE-ROLLING DEX SAVE]

[ERROR!]

[DEX ROLL CANCELED?]

“You don't need a Dex save silly!!

 

“Hiya Shadow you're just in time for your and twilight's welcome to ponyville party!! So walk around and enjoy yourself!!” Once again Pinkie Pie vanishes just as quickly as she appeared leaving Shadow in a crowd of ponies. Deciding not to question the strange mare shadow starts mingling with the various mares and stallions inside the tree. Eventually making his way to the snack table, where he gets approached by applejack.

 

“Howdy partner, enjoying your first pinkie party?” She asked while grabbing herself an apple fritter.

 

“Yep Pinkie is…interesting for sure, but she knows how to throw a party.” Taking a drink of punch the pink menace appears, causing Shadow to spit out his drink.

 

“Thanks Shadow!! I just love throwing parties and oh you're supposed to swallow not spit silly!” As she says this she wiggles her eyebrows at the reader.

 

Coughing his lungs up. “God damnit pinkie…how do you just appear?! Nearly gave me a heart attack!” Looking around pinkie pie is nowhere to be found, though applejack got a chuckle out of this interaction.

 

“You'll get used to her partner.” She tries and fails to suppress another chuckle. “Just wait till nightmare night, THAT is going to be scary.” Before Shadow can respond a loud scream sounds out, turning towards the commotion applejack and Shadow see twilight sparkle running upstairs her face red, a red bottle of hot sauce is laying on its side.

 

Pinkie appears grabbing the hot sauce and starts chugging it down. “What? It's good! Don't blame me if she can't handle the heat.”

 

“I feel like that's happened before. I'm uh going to go and see if she's alright. See you around applejack.”

 

Waving goodbye to applejack grabs a cup of cold juice and follows upstairs after twilight. Hearing sniffling coming from the bathroom knocks on the door.

 

“Hey uh twilight it's Shadow, the uh human from earlier I brought you some juice to help with the heat. Can I come in or do you want me to leave it here at the door?”

 

A moment later the door opens to reveal twilight sparkle looking tired, annoyed, and face beet red either from the hot sauce or embarrassment Shadow couldn't tell.

 

“Here drink this it'll help, don't worry I checked it's apple juice not hot sauce. And you don't look so good. Would you like to talk about it?”

Handing her the cup stands next to her leaning against the wall.

 

Drinking some of the juice twilight takes a deep breath to compose herself she starts.

“Thank you for the juice…and sorry you have to deal with me like this…today has been stressful too say the least. My teacher/mentor doesn't believe nightmare moon is real or a threat. I've been running around all day, getting rained on, trapped in a boutique, and ended up drinking hot sauce. All while trying to figure out what and where the elements of harmony are, and how you, a creature of myth and legend fits into all of this…”

 

“Mmm I'm not going to pretend to understand all that but, maybe there's no fitting into all of this. Such as that your wrong and nightmare moon doesn't exist and isn't a threat, or your teacher/mentor is using this as some sort of lesson and she trusts that if nightmare moon is a real threat you can figure it out. And me? Why should I fit into this? I could just be a random bystander who just happens to be here. You shouldn't worry about every tiny detail, worry about what you know for fact and can control.”

 

“You make it sound so easy, what do you know?”

 

“I know I'm in an unfamiliar land, full of things I've never seen or heard before, on top of the fact that I have no idea how I ended up here or why. Despite all that I'm just taking it step by step, focusing on what I know or can control.”

 

Twilight looks regretful. “I'm sorry I…I didn't think of it like that. The thought of you not knowing where you are, or how you arrived never crossed my mind…”

 

“Eh you're fine…honestly feels good to finally let that out. Though I definitely feel your pain about the boutique.” Shadow shudders at the hours he was trapped inside with rarity.

“Anyway, let's get back to the party. We still have some time before the celebration starts right? Or did I get the timing wrong?”

 

“You're right the celebration starts in a few hours, I suppose I won't be of any use a mess. I'm going to clean up and go and enjoy the party.” Before Shadow can respond she shuts the bathroom door shut. Shadow returns to the party. Somewhere far, far away a certain pink alicorn sits up suddenly.

 

“Oh~ Twily finally has a crush!!”