Kudalyn

Aqua Drop

"Ooh.... err.... um.... agh...."

A lonely little Hippocamp was stuck. Not physically, but mentally. Aqua paced her way around one of the various crystal clear ponds that decorated the Courtyard, the wheels on her cart already wearing a path into the grass.

"Should I go in? Nah, I would probably get shooed out. But I have a ticket! I was royally invited! But then again, if I got that sort of reaction from Ponyville, who knows what would happen in THERE with all those snooty snobs..." She debated with herself out loud, trying to convince herself to go inside and stay outside at the same time! She looked over to the calm, cool stillness of the pond longingly every once in a while, wishing she could just jump right in and disappear into the depths...

Aqua was NOT in her element. All gussied up, she looked breathtaking in her special Gala dress. That fancy dressmaker in town made her outfit specifically for her - the fabric was enchanted to be perpetually damp to keep her skin moist so she could stay on land for the whole Gala, and was fashioned into simple gown that flowed elegantly over her tail. Strings of natural pearls wrapped around her front hooves, tail and hair, which was braided and tied up in gentle clumps. But her dress, even if it was enchanted, couldn't get wet or else it would disintegrate in the water...

Her Carriage was even decorated too! Pearls interwoven between the wheel spokes, and the seat was covered in a light blue cloth that matched her dress. But the dressmaker had sneakily made sure that Aqua couldn't go hide in the water... her carriage was strapped on under her dress, so for her to take off the cart so it wouldn't get wet, Aqua would have to take off the dress.... which she could not do on her own.

She heaved a huge sigh, starting her laps around the pond again. Aqua usually wasn't this antisocial, but the stuffy atmosphere was getting to her, scaring her. It reminded her of when she had tried to live in that one Hippocamp city by the Gallapocous Island.... stuffy, prim, and eccentrically elegant. Everything Aqua was NOT.

Looks like it was going to be a long night.

Aqua Drop

Aqua looked around as Tempest introduced her a bit defiantly at the gaping townsponies - she didn't blame them for looking at her like that, but she was made of tough stuff. She could handle a couple thousand weird looks.

"Yeah, yeah, Hi. As she said, my name's Aqua. Gawk, while you can, cause I'm not stopping!!" She said gleefully, propping herself on all threes again as she loped forward, grabbing Tempest's tail playfully. "Hurry, hurry, come on, come on! I wanna see the town!!" She said, already on the move down the street as a couple of ponies backed away cautiously from her, a few even running indoors and slamming the shutters on their windows shut!

Aqua just sighed at them and shook her head. Honestly, was she really the wierdest thing they had ever seen? Surely living inland, they had to have seen worse things than a lil' old harmless hippocamp.

Strawberry Orange

"Er... a party? No... My sister and I, like, literally got here this morning. And I'm okay with parties, but most of the ones I've gone to were a bit stuck-up so I'm not too fond of them." Strawberry said, shivering at the memory of her mother primping and licking and brushing her and her sister's manes till they stayed in place with a eerie shine, and the too-tight collars on the stiff dresses their father had crammed onto their flanks.

"But starting anywhere is fine, I'm even okay with a quick fly-over to get a general idea of where everything is. I don't want it to take all day 'cause I have to help my sister set up our rooms back at the shop eventually."

Spike

Spike yawned, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he walked down the stairs into the main part of the Library. Twilight was still snoozing - she had been up late re-categorizing the list of birds that inhabited the trees around Ponyville for Fluttershy.

At the bottom of the stairs, he stretched, wincing as his back and tail cracked at the strain. He sighed, rubbing his back as he walked towards the front door to open it. It was suppoosed to be a nice windy day today, and fresh air was good for the books every once in a while. He picked up a few stray books Twilight had left on the floor in her searching, putting them on the small table beside the door as he stretched up to turn the doorknob. He pushed open the bottom half of the door first, him being short and all.

He swung it open, and a gust of fresh, sweet wind blew into the library, rustling the pages of the ancient books and finally waking Spike up as he took a deep breath in. He sighed happily, reaching up and pushing the top half of the door open with a grunt. Reaching back inside, he pulled out the sign-stand for the library, carefully carrying it outside despite it being half again his height. He plopped it down, opening it so it was propped open.

"Another wonderful morning in Ponyville! It doesn't get much better than this!" He said, clapping his hands together to dust them off, feeling important.

Strawberry Orange

Strawberry floated quietly beside Rainbow, listening to the ponies exchange ideas. Rainbows were kinda like art... like her sister's confectionaries too. She could never understand just how Mallow got her candies to look so pretty - she even designed and made the pretty boxes they were in herself too!

"Art is nice, but I can never really understand it, just because I can't draw myself. I'm a practical pony." She said. "And not to sound rude... but could we get to seeing the town as we talk? I just want to get a mental map of where everything is so I can report back to my sister about any supply shops there are in town."

Aqua Drop

Upon seeing the small village spread across the horizon, Aqua lost all apprehention upon meeting the villagers. It was simply adorable! Bright colorful little houses with cobblestone streets weaving to and fro between them. Little flowers blooming in every corner, and from here she could see the other ponies trotting back and forth, or flying from place to place.

Giggling happily, Aqua took a step forward... and slipped. Tumbling forward, she started barrel-rolling right down the hill, head over fin! She curled herself into a loop, still giggling as she rolled right down the hill at high speed, rocketing past very surprised ponies as she rolled right into to the middle of the street, coming to an exhausted, but happy, halt. She uncurled herself, her eyes crossed a little as she dizzily looked around waiting for the world to stop spinning. She shook her head, sitting up as she curled her tail around herself like a cat to prop herself up.

She whipped her head back and forth, trying to take in all the sights and sounds. The surprised ponies around her were giving her confused and slightly apprehensive looks at the strange creature that literally rolled right into town, but she didn't care! She knew Tempest would be right behind her to support her, ahd she was too happy to really care what the townsponies thought!

Spike

Spike's tummy rumbled slightly at the mention of gemstones... with Rarity so busy, he hadn't gotten a chance to tag along on one of her jewel hunts in a while, and his stash of snacks had long disappeared.

"Well, I don't eat just gemstones. There are some nice treats here in Ponyville. Muffins... cupcakes... hay fries... fruit... they have lots for me to eat here. I'm not so partial to the daisy-and-cucumber sandwiches though. And, I'm friends with a unicorn who's special ability is to find gemstones, so I often go with her on her gem hunts, and get some snacks as a reward." He said, blushing as he though of his precious, beautiful, and generous Rarity.

"A-anyways. There's lots of excitement here in Ponyville, surprisingly. Just last month we had a Parasprite infestation, and you wouldn't BELIEVE the wacky, but effective, way another of my friends got rid of them! And, another friend is the best apple-bucker you've ever seen! She owns a huge apple farm just outside of Ponyville. Oh, and I'm also friends with a pegasus who won the Young Fliers Competition a few weeks ago! She spends lots of her time here in Ponyville with her - and my - friends!"

Spike rambled excitedly on, spouting out good points about all of his wonderful friends, so excited that he was practically dragging poor Truffle out of the crowd, finally getting to the edge of the Marketplace where there was some space and fresh air.

Strawberry Orange

Orange watch the strange pony try and start two conversations at once.... and somehow succeed in a odd way until her bungee snapped. Even though she landed on the ground with a loud thud, she brushed it off and zipped back into the tree, apparently unhurt.

"Yeah..... I can see that." She said, shaking the befuddled expression from her face. She sidled up closer beside Rainbow, leaning her head close to her ear.

"Is.... is she always like this?" She whispered to Rainbow, still looking at the smiling Pinkie with an eyebrow raised. If Pinkie was this crazy ALL the time... her sister was in some serious competition for the oddest pony Orange ever knew.

Aqua Drop

Aqua immediately started hopping eagerly towards the direction Tempest pointed, already pumped to see what exciting stuff was over the hill.

"Well, let's get going! I can't wait to see what your buildings look like, what your food tastes like, what your ponies do all day! All I used to really do was swim in circles, eat seaweed, and bash up some sharks. I've heard of land ponies having different jobs, but I've never seen them in action!"

She kept hopping eagerly, but she couldn't go any faster than a normal land ponies' trot. Aqua figured this might be a problem later on, but right then she didn't care. She never took the time to look for land ponies on any islands out in the sea, but since she was right inland, she may as well make some new friends! She also enjoyed watching the ponies walk and fly - It was just so different from what she was used to! But so ingenious - they could walk and run as fast as they wanted on four legs, and weren't inhibited by a big lumpy tail! Instead, they had elegant tails of hair trailing from their spines, absolutely crazy and beautiful!

After a while Aqua got a little tired and slowed down a bit as she got closer to the top of the hill, taking longer hopping strides. "Hey Tempest... I've been thinking... Aside from the odd island pony that may have moved inland... no other pony has seen anything like me, have they? I mean, I can stand up for myself.... but won't you get odd looks for hanging out with a weird thing like me?"