Chapter 6: A Strange Dinner
Chapter Note: Unggoy do sometimes speak in broken english, usually among each others company.
"So, what would be a good thing for you to eat?" Twilight asked Wulum and Zapaw.
"Well, it's been long time since we had real food" Zapaw replied
"So, should I just make some daisy sandwiches, or hayburgers? Or maybe just some vegetables?
"I guess some… vegetables? You have anything that has meats in it?" Zapaw asked
"Umm… sorry no, us ponies eat an entirely vegetarian diet. But you said you're omnivorous, so you can eat plants too, right?" She asked
They nodded
"Okay, so I'll just fix up a salad for you two, I'll make some daisy sandwiches for the rest of us."
Wulum and Zapaw walked into the dining room and sat down with the others.
"So…" Wulum said, as he stared around the room awkwardly "any more questions you want to ask us?"
"What do you like to do for fun?" Pinkie asked "what's your favorite flavor of cake? What's your favorite color? Ooh! Whens your birthday!" She continued to fire off questions
"Um…"
"Let's just start with somethin' a lil easier. What sorta activities do yah enjoy?" Applejack asked
"Well, Hunting Rock is pretty fun." Zapaw said
"Hunting Rock?" Rainbow Dash asked puzzled
"Yeah! Hunting Rock!"
"What the hay is a huntin' rock?" Applejack asked
"It's a game" Wulum explained "you play it by throwing a rock at a thing like a scrub grub to squish them! Whoever gets the most wins!"
"Now what in Equestria is a scrub grub?" Dash asked
"It's… like a little bug thingy! Its all fuzzy and likes to chew on power cables and stuff, they are a common pest from our home. "
"Y-you throw rocks at living things for fun?!" Fluttershy asked, obviously upset by the Unggoy's idea of entertainment.
"Yeah, why?" Wulum asked
Fluttershy had a few tears form in her eyes but she looked away and didn't say anything else.
"What? Was it something I said?!" Wulum exclaimed
"Fluttershy is a sensitive pony who has a special place in her heart for lil critters." Applejack said, patting her friends back.
Fluttershy sniffled
"But… how could you do that a living creature? That's so mean!"
"They pests! They chew cables!" Zapaw exclaimed
"But you don't have to kill them!"
"Why? Its easiest way to get rid of them!"
"But… thats… thats mean!"
"Ah understand where you're comin' from sugarcube" Applejack said to Fluttershy "but Ah'm sure they can't get rid of em' any other way!"
"Come on Fluttershy, their just bugs!" Dash said.
Fluttershy took a deep breath and calmed herself down.
There was an awkward pause in conversation
"We play other games to-"
"Maybe we shouldn't talk about then right now" Twilight said
"Soooooo" Pinkie said "What's your favorite cake flavor?"
Wulum scratched his head. He remembered reading about cake in a human book he once bought off the Covenant black market.
"I don't know. Never had it." He said
"Um… am I only one who doesn't know what cake is?" Zapaw asked
Wulum leaned over and whispered into his ear that it was a human dessert.
"Oh. Nah."
"Whaddya mean you've never had cake?!" Pinkie shouted, unable to comprehend this seemingly "outrageous" statement.
"I don't know. I don't get food like that." Wulum said
"Then I'll have to make one every kind for you to try!" Pinkie said, pulling a pencil and notebook from seemingly nowhere and begging to write down every kind of cake she could think of.
"What about quesadilla?" Pinkie asked
"What?" Wulum asked
"What about a cupcake? Ooh I love cupcakes!"
"Um… no." He replied
"What about a pie?"
"No!
"Muffins?"
"No! We haven't had any of these things!" Wulum exclaimed
"You'll have to excuse her dear, she gets excited easily" Rarity said
"Yeah, I can tell" Wulum grumbled
The door opened and Twilight walked in with Spike, carrying dinner on plates.
"Dinner is served everypony!" Twilight said, placing the sandwiches in the center of the table and sitting down with Spike.
"So… I've been wondering…" Twilight began
"Yeah?" Wulum asked"
"What do you really look like under that mask?"
Wulum and Zapaw reached up to the sides of their masks and series of clicks were ehard as they unfastend them, with a small hiss of blue-green gas escaping ask they pulled them off, with a bit of saliva dripping from the mask, revealing their true face, which had no lips, and short sharp teeth.
They all had different reactions to their face.
Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack and Spike all gazed intently, taking in the details of their strange face, while Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie both looked mildly perplexed.
"EW!" Rarity said, quickly looking away "that's disgusting!"
"Hey! What?" Wulum asked, looking at Rarity.
He could already taste the alien feeling of the oxygen in the air.
"Your mask… it's all…slimey! Thats gross!
"Well duh! It's been in my mouth for months! Probably years even!"
Rarity took another glance at the masks before making a "ugh" face turning away once more.
They placed their masks to their face and took a deep inhale again, before removing them and beginning to eat their dinner.
Wulum and Zapaw picked up bites of their salads with the forks Twilight gave them, which she typically kept for Spike. The Unggoy then placed it in the mouth and put their masks back on as they chewed and swallowed, and inhaled before taking them off again and repeating the cycle.
The rest of the table began to eat in awkward silence, as both sides observed the others seemingly foreign eating styles.
From what Wulum could tell, they ate in a similar fashion to humans, only except instead of using utensils they either levitated their food to them with magic or ate their food directly with their mouth up to the bowl.
Wulum cleared his throat
"Um, how you do that?" He asked, pointing at Twilights magical aura around her horn.
"Unicorn Magic" she explained "I can tell you a bit about it later.
They nodded and continue eating, finishing every last scrap of food.
"Good food! More?" Zapaw asked. It had been some of the finer food the Unggoy had eaten in a long time, as it had more flavor and a better texture than the nutrient paste of a food nipple.
"Um…" Twilight began "I gave you two all I had, I'm sorry, I thought it would be enough. Are you still terribly hungry?"
Wulum was still a little hungry, but he had eaten more than normal rations would allow, and he didn't want to be a problem.
"No, we okay, your food just really good." He said
"Alright, then, I'll clean up dinner, Spike, could you show them to the guest rooms?" Twilight asked
Spike nodded
"Right this way Gentlecolts-erm, gentle-aliens?" Spike said, trying to figure out the right terminology.
The Unggoy didn't care and simply followed along on their stubby legs in their waddle-like walk.
Spike led them upstairs and opened a door revealing a small room with 2 beds, a window, a dresser, a bookshelf and a rug on the floor, as well as a candle on the windowsill.
As the Unggoy expected, there were no methane tanks for them to be supplied by, but they stepped into the room.
Zapaw and Wulum set down the methane canisters they were carrying on the floor, but kept their plasma pistols holstered to their belts, ready if they needed them.
"Is that all you two got?" Spike asked, pointing to the gas canisters.
"Yep!" Wulum replied, truthfully, they didn't have much else other than a few personal belonging back on High Charity.
Spike was surprised, usually when a pony (or any sentient creature for that matter) came to Ponyville, they usually had at least a suitcase of belongings.
"Alrighty then" he said "give me a shout if you need anything, I'll be downstairs" he said, closing the door.
Wulum sat down on the bed, and Zapaw sat down next to him.
"This is a fine mess we've gotten ourselves into." Zapaw said
"Well, they seem nice, what's so bad about that?"
"What's so bad? Well, how about the fact that were alone on an alien planet in Prophets-know-where, with only 3 days worth of methane!" Zapaw said, before taking a deep breath to calm himself down
"Okay, now that you put it like that, I can see why you feel that way." Wulum replied,
"It all my fault that we here…" Zapaw said
"What? How? That not fair to you!" Wulum said
Zapaw sighed
"Before my deployment here, me and Tilm were engine room security. We were… part of the…accident that brought us here." He said glumly, feeling intense guilt.
Wulum placed his hand on his new friends shoulder
"Aw don't feel so bad! At least we're alive! We could have all blowed up, like boom!" He said, making an explosion gesture with arms.
"Gee, thanks…."
"No really, we lucky! It must have been our destiny to wind up here!"
"What?! That crazy!"
"Yeah… I know, just trying to help."
"Thanks anyway."
The 2 Unggoy continued to chat alone in their room...