Darkness was met with a growing light when Alejandro's eyes fluttered open. "Oh… Oh shit! I can't feel my fing- oh wait… right." The donkey stopped himself before he finished his statement, remembering what had happened before blacking out. The jack looked at his surroundings, he found himself in a hospital bed, there were bandages over his chest and a curtain to his side. "Yo Dark, you there?" The unicorn heard a ring in his ears "Damn… I can't fucking move... Alex? I'm gonna need you to lower the volume dude, my head is killing me." a voice responded. "Sorry about that… well if we're both still alive and the sun is up, that must mean we lucked out." The donkey said as he tried to sit himself up, but found it too painful. "Yeah if things are back to normal I'm guessing that Moonmare Night- I mean Nightmare Moon was turned back." he responded as he tried to think straight. Not soon after, hoofsteps could be heard walking into the room and around Dark's bed. Quickly a hoof pushed the curtain that separated Dark and Alex, revealing Mort with a bundle of banana in his mouth. Alex stared daggers at Mort as he placed the bananas on a wooden table. "Seriously Mort? Dark can barely construct basic sentences, and I have broken ribs… and the first thing you do is make a reference?" Mort simply pulled a single banana off the bunch and peeled it as the donkey spoke and just as he finished his question Mort responded with a simple "Ye" before he took a bite of the banana. "He's making a reference?! Wait don't tell me I can get this!" Dark said before his hoof managed to move to his head in a pained reflex.
"Anyway… Mort, what happened! Last thing I remember my ribs broke and I ragdolled." Mort swallowed his bite of banana before he opened his mouth "Wel-" before the first word could come from his mouth he was pushed aside from a pink blur. "Well The Princess was like 'hiya!' and Nightmare Moon was like 'Ah!' and then we were like 'Take this!' and then she turned back into Princess Luna." Pinkie Pie said, as she tried to answer Alex's question. Mort looked uncomfortable as he simply nodded his head "That basically covers it… but the two princesses didn't look too happy with each other, even after that whole 'friendship cannon' finisher." Alex looked worried from Mort's addition, he looked toward Dark and whispered "That's not normal…" Dark nodded "Things do be- seem to be a little difference- different." he concluded.
"Sowhereyoufromwhy'dyouhelpareyounewareyouthemayor'sassistan-" Pinkie Pie unleashed a brain melting barrage of questions onto the injured jack and stallion, before she stopped herself. "WAIT, I can just get to know you three better at the party!" Pinkie Pie said as she hopped in place. "Party?" all three stallions said aloud, "You didn't mention a party! Wait, I didn't even see you on the way here!" Mort said utterly confused. "A housewarming party, duh! You can't just move into Ponyville without a housewarming party! Especially after helping us with Nightmare Moon!" Pinkie Pie spoke excitedly. "Housewarming party? Mort what's she talking about?" Alex asked worriedly "Oh right… so as thanks for helping them… Applejack decided to build us a house not too far from the farm for us to live in." Mort said a bit saddened for being forced to reveal the surprise so early. "Oh… wow… that is really generous of Applejack!" Alex said with a smile on his face.
Alex felt a chill across his spine as he looked toward the right side of his bed, only to see Pinkie Pie smile ear to ear as she stared at him. "Uh…" Alex uncomfortably tears his gaze away from the pink pony and back to Mort "So, Mort, how long have we've been out of commission and how much longer until we're out of here?" Mort also kinda stared at the earth pony's odd behavior as he answered "Y-yeah, you guys were out for about two days now, and according to the doctors you guys should be ok to leave today."
Alex was in though about how bad their injuries would be if they were out cold for two days… then again he'd never had a broken bone in his life… wait! "UH!" Alex was almost in a full blown panic "Mort!? How are we supposed to pay for the hospital bill!" Mort blinked for a few seconds before he calmly responded "Don't worry dude, the Princess covered the bills for you two." Alex breathed a sigh of relief as he heard that. Alex turned back to glance back at Pinkie Pie, only to see she seemed to have just stared at him. "Well… ok so… we'll see you at the party Pinki-pink pony… goodbye!" Pinkie Pie simply trotted to the hospital room door and smiled as she did so. "Okie Dokie Lokie! I can't wait to see you guys at the party!" was what the earth pony called out as she left.
After Pinkie's departure, the jack and stallions checked in with the nurses to get anything they might need before leaving. Alex was given a chest bracer to make sure his ribs would heal properly. Meanwhile for Dark they simply wrapped some bandages all around his head, even though there were no visible injuries on his on it. As they exit the hospital, the group saw The Hay Burger, and farther away was Rarity's Boutique. "Let's head home guys, my boss would kill me if he saw me around the competition." Mort said looking around nervously. Alex nodded his head in agreement, "I want to be as far as possible from Rarity, and maybe we can finally relax in an actual house for once." Dark took on a grim look "We'll have to surf- survive the party first though." Alex sighs before answering "It's never that easy huh? Alright, let's just get it over with." Alex made sure to stay close to Dark, to keep him from losing balance or falling behind the group.
"I'm guessing that's our new house." Alex said as a freshly painted, and extremely bright, light tan two-story house. "It's bigger than I respect- expected." Dark commented as they were coming closer to the front door. "Whoa there, I think you should let someone else go first." said Alex, as the jack eased Dark back from the door. "I'm fine dude, I'll need to get mower- OVER it anyway." he said, as he pushed Alex away and opened the front door. Thus Dark said his final words as a torrent of noise blasted out of the house, and caused Dark to ragdoll unto the floor via sensory overload. Alex and Mort look down onto Dark's crumpled body, Alex leaned in before speaking. "Yo Dark, you alright?" The only thing the two heard is a quiet response "I'm crinkling…" Alex nudges Mort as he spoke to him "Alright he'll live, but we need to get him to a bed ASAP." Mort nodded his head as he helped the donkey get the unicorn inside. Just as Pinkie Pie jumped out of nowhere to speak to the group Alex raised his hoof to her face before saying "Now hang on, my friend just collapsed onto the floor, we need to get him to a bed. Where would the bedrooms be?" Applejack moves closer to the group before responding "The bedrooms are upstairs, should be nice n' quiet up there." Alex nodded his head before Mort and himself dragged their friend to the nearest room.
"Alright man, stay here until you feel better. I'll handle any of the pony business during this party." Alex said as he and Mort placed him in a bed. Dark raised one of his forelegs and tilted his hoof in a weird gesture. "What is he doing?" Mort said, confused. Alex looked at Dark's gesture with a squinted gaze before he replied "Oh, he's trying to give a thumbs up!" Alex then leaned toward Mort and Dark "We don't have fingers, remember!" the donkey whisper yelled to his friends. "Ok, let's get down there and… try not to screw anything up!" Alex said as he patted Mort's shoulder. "Uh, you do the talking and I'll nod a couple times." Mort said with a not too confident grin.
Alex and Mort walked down stairs to the rumbling from the party below, Applejack waited by the bottom of the stairs alongside a jumping-in-place Pinkie Pie. "How's he doing?" Applejack asked Alex as he made it to the ground floor. "He'll live, just really out of it right now." Alex responded. Before anypony else could say another word, Pinkie Pie interjected "So when'd you three come to Ponyville?" Alex jumped a little, but expected as much from the earth pony "Well we got here… uh? Nine days ago I guess, just doing the math in my head." Pinkie Pie launched another question at the two "Where'd you come from?" Alex calmly restated what he and Dark had practiced beforehand "Oh, we're from Canterlot." "Did you say, Canterlot!" a posh voice rang out interrupting the already interrupted conversation. Alex mentally anguished as he realized whose voice it was. "I've always wanted to go to Canterlot! You simply must tell me all about it darling!" Rarity said getting in-between Pinkie Pie and Applejack. "Rarity! That's too boooring! I want to know what their favorite desserts are!" Pinkie Pie complained to the white unicorn. "Please Pinkie, you can ask all your frivolous questions some other time." Rarity said dismissively. Pinkie Pie gasped aloud before Applejack finally put an end to the argument "That's enough you two, give these boys some breathin' room." Alex simply gave a nod to the orange pony while still reeled from the two ponies' squabble.
Mort and Alex put distance between themselves, Pinkie and Rarity. "Man, that was close. Dealing with one of them is a handful… both of them at the same time is asking for trouble." Alex commented to Mort. "I don't know how you two can stay in character like that, but you did great dude." he responded. "Those two are annoying, but harmless. The one I'm scared of is a certain purple unicorn…" Alex said nervously. The donkey made his way to the punch bowl, to get himself a refreshment, he saw the snack area was filled with all types of potato chips and dip. Although it looked appetizing, the jack decided against it, he wanted to be ready to answer any questions that would be thrown at him. He didn't have to wait longer before a familiar voice questioned him "Mind getting me some punch?" said a grey unicorn that emerged from the crowd. The donkey turned to Dark with a huge grin on his face before he responded "Hey you, you're finally awake." Dark returned the smile "Okay wise guy, now please I would like it if you got one for me, still don't trust my body." he said with a chuckle. "Yeah I gotcha." Alex said as he got Dark a cup of punch.
"Hey, so I know you guys popped in or whatever. But just so you know, I could have handled it." a voice above the trio said matter-of-factly. The jack and two stallions looked up simultaneously to see a blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane speak to them. "Aren't you one of those ponies that I dragged away, while these two fought the crazy lady?" the yellow earth pony responded. Rainbow Dash stretched one of her hooves in front of her and casually responded. "I didn't want you guys to miss out on all the action, since you weirdos followed us all the way out there." After they realized that what they had done did seem a little weird Dark spoke up "When Celestia didn't show we knew something had gone wrong, we couldn't just sit around and do nothing, you six were the only ones who weren't panicking so we thought you knew something." he explained. "I was wondering why you three were there." Another voice called out to them. "Seriously, can we get a break." Alex mumbles to himself. The three turned again to see a purple unicorn with a baby dragon that rode on her back. "Hello stranger number 4, what would you like to talk about?" Alex said in a completely flat and monotone voice, clearly annoyed. Twilight freezed up at Alex's addressal of her, it was noticeable enough that Spike actually waved his hand in front of her face before he asked "Uh, Twilight? Are you ok?" Alex quickly looked remorseful before he spoke up again "Sorry, sorry… It's just that not a single per-pony has taken the time to tell us their names and are already asking us questions left, right, and center. A lot is happening and I didn't mean to come off so rude." Dark and Mort looked at Alex uncomfortable at his outburst, but were more at ease after he apologized. "W-well, yeah… I guess I should know how that feels. I accept your apology." Twilight said with a sympathetic look on her face. "My name is Twilight Sparkle and I hope we can be friends." The unicorn stated while she reached out a hoof to the jack. Alejandro gave the mare a nod while he shook her hoof.
The three friends were given considerable space after they talked with Twilight, which left them to themselves for the rest of the party. As the other guests filtered out of the house, six ponies and a baby dragon remained as the last ones in the house and helped clean up the leftover mess. "We can't thank you enough Applejack." Dark said in a grateful tone to the orange earth pony, Alejandro quickly added "Yeah, seriously I can't believe you and your family made a house for us… if you want us to pay we can start paying you back bit by bi-" Applejack quickly shook her head to the thought "Absolutely not! You three really saved our skins back there, the least I could do was get my family to build a lil' thank ya." After the ten finally finished cleaning up the house they met outside for goodbyes… and introductions weirdly enough. "Me an' Twilight talked a bit and decided now would be a good time to introduce our friends to ya proper now." Applejack said to the three. "Yeah, since you said no one had really introduced themselves before just… well asking pretty personal questions." Dark and Mort looked at Alejandro with annoyed eyes, while the jack nervously tried to look normal. "O-oh that's not nes-" before Alex could try to refuse the offer, Pinkie Pie ran past the unicorn and earth pony and shook the donkey's hoof frantically with a barely audible pop being overtaken by the pony's words. "Hello! My name is Pinkie Pie, I work at the Sugarcube Corner! I hope we can be best friends!" As Pinkie Pie let go of Alex's hoof they were met with complete silence from the donkey. "Uh… Alex are you-" Dark tried to get his attention, but he was met with a calm whisper. "The pain I feel is immense, not only did you aggravate my still recovering ribs, but I think my leg was pulled from its socket."
To many's surprise, the quiet yellow pegasus was the one to step up to the donkey. Fluttershy hesitated when she went over and grabbed Alex's dislocated leg. With a swift motion Fluttershy popped the limb back into place. "Oh jeez!" Alex quietly exclaimed as he felt the sharp pain, but quickly felt relief. "Oh wow, thank you so much. What's your name?" the jack said calmly, knowing of her gentle disposition. "Fl...hy." her voice was so quiet only the beginning and end of her name was even audible to the closest person, though it didn't matter to Alex. "Fluttershy? That's a nice name, thank you for your kindness." Fluttershy was a little shocked that he could hear that, but gave a smile before she rejoined her other friends.
"Ok, who's next?" Alex said with a renewed tone. The haughty blue pegasus landed in front of the jack and spoke "Rainbow Dash is the name, and being cool is my game!" Alex nodded his head "Right, Rainbow Dash, got it." The blue pony smirked as she responded with "You better, you're looking at a future Wonderbolt!" the jack hummed as he acknowledged her comment. "Alright I think that's every-" the jack said as he tried to wrap up the greetings… when Rarity interjected. "Oh, how rude of me! I almost forgot to introduce myself, I'm sure you were dying to know who I was. I am Rarity, and I make the most lavish dresses at my Boutique… perhaps even suits if you three could tell me more about Canterlot." The jack cursed in his thoughts as he responded "Ah, thank you for the offer." Finally at the end of the greetings, Twilight walked up to the group, but before she could speak Spike, who sat on Twilight's back, reached out to Alejandro. "Hey, my name's Spike!" Alex with a smile on his face shook the baby dragon's hand. "I like your style kid, nice to meet you." Twilight shot an annoyed look at Spike, to which the dragon gave a half-hearted smile and a shrug. Twilight gave an eye roll as she smiled and began her sentence. "I can't thank you three enough, without your help…" Twilight's voice trailed off for a second before Dark spoke up. "I'm sure anypony would do what we did. You don't have to thank us." The donkey pointed toward Dark as if to confirm the sentiment "Absolutely, we were just in the right place at the right time." Mort stood there unsure, but when his other two friends looked toward him he just froze, and barely choked out a response "Owa! Yeah absolutely!"
Applejack looked at the group skeptically, "I'm not sure ab-" Applejack tried to argue but Alex cut her off. "Oh man, it's getting late. I have to check in with Mayor Mare tomorrow, same with you and your boss right Mort?" Mort quickly nodded. "Sorry to shoo you guys, but we really need the rest." The jack said as he pushed the others back through the door. "Oh, well get better soon." Twilight said as they started to squeeze through the front door. "Thanks!" the jack said as he closed the door.
The crowd was silent for a moment before Spike spoke up. "Those guys seem pretty cool."
"Dude we fucked up big time!" Alex said to Mort and Dark with worry on his face. "I wonder who's fault that is huh?" Dark said sarcastically. "Not the time Dark!" the jack said as he paced around the living room. "Ok, this is fine. Sure they know OF us, but they don't know much. As for what we did… I'll have to ask the Mayor how much information of what we did went out and see if we can minimize our impact. We don't need exposure." Dark nodded his head "Yeah, let's just hope we can try and keep the timeline similar." Alex and Dark sit onto the couch mentally exhausted, Mort on the other hand stared at the two for a moment. "Hey guys'' Mort said, as he tried to get their attention. "Yes Mort?" the two responded. "I was meaning to ask you guys for a few days now, what are we supposed to do for fun? They don't have TVs, Phones, or the Internet." Alex and Dark sigh "Yeah, we're pretty limited on things to do. It's not like we can play Smash Bros on Alex's Switch or anything." Dark responded. "The only thing we could do is buy a board game, or something else physical." the jack said. "Hmm, do you think we could play Dungeons and Dragons?" Both Dark and Alejandro stared daggers at Mort, but then they thought about it more. At first two looked ready to shoot it down, but then looked at each as they pondered it and nodded at each other. "That's not the worst idea, Alex is usually our DM and has a lot of access to paper with his job." Dark said. "The only thing we need would be dice, which… if we can find a woodcarver we can get them to make a few sets of them for us to use… This could be really interesting! Time to use all the borderline useless memorized D&D mechanics for something!" Alex said with a chuckle.