Glad everyones enjoying this :)
Jacob groaned as he heard this chirping of birds, and really wished he had a shotgun right now. Couldn't they see he was trying to sleep? Unfortunatly the chirping continued, and since the lack of armament was apparent he begrudgingly got out of bed.
He stretched, and his joints cracked especially his back. Jacob hissed as he rubbed his arms, legs and back.
'Damn, we have to get a bigger bed.' Jacob thought.
It was then that the smell of something cooking, and he felt his stomach moan for food. He made his way downstairs, only bothering to put his pants on; he made a note to get some more clothes today. But for now food was the goal.
'Hope they have coffee.' Jacob prayed.
Stepping down the stairs Jacob saw a small family table. Two plates and assorted silverware arranged neatly on two sides. In the kitchen Jacob saw Spike flipping pancakes, and wearing the most frilly pink apron he had ever seen. Jacob snicked slightly and covered his mouth, the image of a dragon in an apron was priceless.
"Oh...morning Spike." Jacob said, after he took some control of his laughter. Though he still felt his lips quiver every so often.
"Mornign Jacob...whoooaa! What is that!?!" Spike said as he pointed at Jacob, or more importently his chest.
"Hmm?" Jacob said and looked at his barechest. The only thing he saw was the tattoo there, and then realized that must be what Spike was asking about.
"Oh this?" Jacob said pointing at the tattoo, "just a tattoo. Lots of humans get them...well I did anyway."
"Whats a...tattoo?" Spike asked as he set a plate of pancakes for Jacob. After he put the now empty pan in the sink to wash, and made his way over to the fridge.
"A tattoo is....how do I explain it," Jacob said as he thought, "well think of it as a form of painting. Only instead of canvas we humans use our bodies. They vary in size and representation, but to the person who gets it it usually has a personal meaning to it."
"Oh..." Spike said, though he sounded as if he was still a bit confused, "So what does it mean?" He dug in the fridge for a moment.
"Well I have two. This is just the front one, and its written in my language. It says, "Soldier of the Immortals'"
"Cool...whats that mean?" Spike asked, looking out of the fridge.
"Eh its a band reference. I'll explain some other time. I have another one if you want to see it....say you got any coffee?"
Spike looked out, "Sure. And yeah, its in the cupboard up there. Twilight keeps it there so I can't get at it, says I'm not old enough. I'm ten years old."
'Praise the lord! I'm saved.' Jacob thought as he got up and made his way to the cupboard and grabbed a bag of Equestrian Coffee. He immediatly got to making himself a cup with eager energy.
"So whats the other tattoo- WOW!" Spike said, finally finding what he was looking for and setting his breakfast on the table.
There on Jacobs back was a large hooded figure wielding a scythe. A bone hand on the handle of the sinister looking weapon. The shaft extended from Jacobs left hip to the top of his right shoulder, and the blade extended out over and down his neck ending just at the base of his left armpit. A large hourglass as held in the free arm of the cloaked figure, and the contents of the sand looked more like black outlines of people. On the top and bottom of the hourglass was more human words that Spike was unable to read, but the picture itself was awesome.
"Cool. What is it?" Spike asked.
Jacob was finaly done making his coffee and breathed in the sweet aroma of good black dark coffee. No sugar or cream for him thanks. He took a sip and sighed before saying, "The Grim Reaper."
"Whose that?" Spike asked.
"He is suppose to be the guide for the dead, and he takes the souls to the afterlife in human mythology. He represents the power of death. The hourglass represents time, and the people acting as the sands represents how our time slowly begins to fade. On the top and bottom of the hourglass is the old latin phrase, Carpe Diem, meaning seize the day." Jacob said as he turned to sit down again.
"Wow...thats deep." Spike said.
"Yeah well...WHAA what is that!?!" Jacob said, pointing at Spikes bowl, or more importantly what was in it.
The bowl held an assortment of blue sapphires, and while Jacob was not an expert on jewels the combined total had to be worth thousands in dollars. He felt a heart attack coming on.
Spike blinked and looked at his bowl, "Uh...breakfast." He then poured some milk into the bowl and proceeded to eat the gems like cereal.
Jacob felt a twitch...he took deep breathes and drank deeply of his coffee to help calm him down. He sat down and picked up his fork to begin eating.
'Just calm down Jacob...remember the lecture from the other day. This planet has higher gem deposits on it...so gems are not as valuable then they were on earth.'
After calming down, though the crunch of gemstones still made his twitch every so often, Jacob cut himself a good piece of pancake and popped it into his mouth and chewed. After about a second of chewing he spat the food out, grass strands mixed in with the chewed mess.
"Blagh..Spike...what is this?" Jacob asked as he drank his coffee to get the taste of grass out of his mouth.
Spike blinked, "Grass pancakes. Why, something wrong with them?"
"Grass? I can't eat grass." Jacob said with a groan. Coffee was good, but he was going to have to make it very clear to Twilight and Spike...and perhaps every place that sells food in Ponyville that grass, hay...and whatever other foods that he was not capable of digesting was something he could not safely and healthfully ingest.
"Oh..sorry man," Spike said frowning, "uh want some gemstones?"
Jacob sighed, "Thanks but no Spike. And it ain't your fault, you didn't know."
"if you say so dude." Spike said as he chomped down on his gemstones.
Jacob sighed and just drank his coffee, as he did he noticed something now that sleep was out of his head.
"Hey where is Twilight anyway?" Jacob asked.
"Oh she went to the mattress store to try and get you a bigger mattress. She seemed a bit upset that you had to sleep in a small bed." Spike said.
Jacob nodded, "Ah..well that was nice of her. Well if she gets back before I do, let her know I went to Rarities."
Spike looked at him with a glare, "Why you going to Raritys?"
Jacob blinked, "Oh she offered to make me some clothes. And frankly if I have to wear the same stuff again for a third day I'll probably go insane."
"Oh...is that all...okay. Well you should go then, last thing I need is you going crazy." Spike said.
Jacob felt like chuckling, but then realized that Spike...was actually serious.
'Wait...he actually thinks that I was serious?' Jacob thought with surprise.
He then realized that...it would make sense. With the lack of knowledge on humans on this planet...Spike and the ponies in town would probably believe almost anything he said that humans do or might end up doing.
'I better watch what I say then.' He thought, only imagining what the panic would be if he ever said a certain eat a horse saying.
"Uh right....uh you know I wasn't really serious on that." Jacob said.
Spike blinked, "Oh really? Hmm I guess it wouldn't make sense to go crazy from lack of clothes huh?" Spike gave a chuckle.
Jacob joined in, "Heh. Well I'll be going. See you later Spike."
"Later Jacob." Spike said waving good bye.
With that Jacob headed out the door and stepped out into the morning day. Today seemed like it would be a pleasant day.
How wrong that he was.
Jacob walked through town, and he had to admit that Ponyville was a charming place. Sure he got the odd bits of stares, but for the most part he received from everyone....everypony. Whichever phrase worked.
Following the path that Twilight showed him Jacob soon found himself at Carousel Boutique. He walked over and bent down a bit to knock on the door.
"Coming." He heard Rarities voice call in a singing sort of way.
The door opened and there was Rarity, in red glasses. The unicorn seemed surprise, but smiled when she saw Jacob.
"Oh Jacob, I was just thinking about you." Rarity said.
Jacob blinked, "Really?"
"Oh yes, I have simply been assulted with all sorts of ideas for ensembles. Ever since your visit and telling me that all humans wore clothes I have had ideas come and go." Rarity said as she pulled Jacob in.
Jacob was surprised by the force he was pulled in, "Uh well..you know that human females have different body types to males. So anything you design for me would only work for males."
"Oh well that is quiet alright. I'm sure once your people see the beauty that is Rarity's work I will have human mares coming to model for their own clothes. Oh I'm so excited, this is such a new and bold beginning." Rarity said with a squeal of joy.
"Heh...well glad to see your happy. Now uh...you said could make me some clothes..."
Rarity quickly picked up some papers and showed them to Jacob, "Oh of course darling. Now I have made several prototypes based on the way your current ensemble looks, and I then added my own creative touch. What do you think?"
Jacob had to admit, the designs were pretty good. Though the ones that seemed to have some sort of half cloak going down one side or the other was a bit odd. It almost looked like a mix of modern and medieval bits of clothing in it.
"Well they are all good. If you could maybe make me one of each that would be nice. I'll be sure to give you the required payment for them once I see Twilight." Jacob said.
Rarity gasped, "Oh no no no darling. There is no need to pay me, this is my gift to you."
Jacob was surprised, "Wow...that's very nice Rarity."
"But of course. Now lets get started. I just need you to remove your clothes." Rarity said as she brought Jacob to her work room and began getting out the materials she would need.
Jacob blinked, "Uh...okay."
Jacob saw a changing curtain and immediately went behind it. Even if they were ponies he still had his decency. He quickly removed his shirt and pants and stepped out. He was of course initially hesitant, but realized that this wasn't a human woman he was with and as long as he still had his boxers on he would be okay. right?
"Ummm...okay...so what now?" Jacob asked.
Rarity turned around and blinked, "Darling I said take the clothes off? Why are you wearing clothes under clothes anyway?"
Jacob felt alarms going off, this was not going to end well.
"Uh well I uh...can't you just do the measurements while I'm wearing these?" Jacob asked.
"Well yes, but still darling why would you want to wear those? They look very tacky, and the colors don't match you at all." Rarity said.
"I umm uh..." Jacob stammered.
"You're acting very strange Jacob. Why do you even need to wear a shorter pair of pants under the first?"
Uhhhhhh...." Jacob tried to think of a reason, "hey uh can we just go on with the measuring."
Rarity was confused by Jacobs behavior, but shrugged and said, "Alright. Honestly though you are acting very strange. Now just hold still."
The measuring tape hovered over and began to take Jacobs lengths. Jacob sighed in relief and thanked every god that man has ever worshiped.
After initial measurements, Rarity soon brought over various fabrics and began to lay them on Jacob, inserting pins to keep the fabrics together.
"Alright now stand still. Since I lack a ponyquin of a human I have to use you instead, so this may take a bit of time." Rarity said.
"Sorry to eat up your time." Jacob said, standing stiff as a stone.
"Of nonsense darling. This is a rare and new undertaking. Why I wouldn't care if this took all night. This is the making of fashion!" Rarity said with excitement and glee.
Jacob smirked, and waited till Rarity finished. As she worked he stared up at the clock, watching the hands move down. Didn't it always seem that time went faster with the hands going down then when they were going up?
Finally after a long time of standing still, Rarity finally removed the fabrics, now cut and shaped to the right style, from Jacob.
"There we are. Sorry that took so long darling, but your form is simply unique that I had to rethink several decisions before cutting the fabric. But now we are done, I'll just finish up the designing and the stitching and you will be the most fashionable human in all of Equestria." Rarity said.
Jacob stretched, glad to be able to move again, "Thanks Rarity."
"By the way, I didn't say anything before because I wanted to get to work right away...but what is that?" Rarity asked pointing to Jacobs tattoo across his chest, "I thought you said humans don't get cutie marks."
Jacob blinked and chuckled, 'Guess I'll be explaining this every time I walk around bare-chested.'
Jacob explained the concept of a tattoo and what his two tattoos meant and represented. When he was done the fashonista looked quiet surprised, if not entirely sure she agreed with the idea.
"My words darling, why would you humans allow somepony else to do that to your own body?" Rarity asked.
Jacob put his clothes back on, and called from behind the curtain, "It's a form of art work I guess. We humans like to express ourselves and art was one way of doing so."
Rarity thought on that for a moment, "Well, the way you described what your...tattoo...meant to you was interesting. Still it does seem odd."
Jacob smirked, "So is having a cutie mark on your rear. Is that intentional cause the only way for me or anyone or pony to see it is to be looking right at your ass."
Rarity blushed, "Jacob!"
Jacob laughed as he stepped out, "Oh don't be so uptight Rarity. I'm just messing with ya."
Rarity looked at the human with irritation, her face still red, "That was still quiet uncouth Jacob."
Jacob shrugged, "Well the point is, every ones got their own thoughts on whats strange and whats not. We might not agree but we can certainly learn to accept the others thoughts on it right?"
Rarity blinked and then nodded, "Yes I suppose you are right. I'm sorry if I insulted you at all, though I am surprised to hear such wise words from you."
Jacob smirked, "What can I say. Man of many talents."
Rarity giggled slightly, "So it seems. Though we will certainly have to work on your social graces, you simply cannot say that to a lady."
Jacob chuckled, "Well, if you don't need me anymore I got to get going."
"Where are you going?" Rarity asked.
"Oh well if I was gonna stay here I figured I should look around town. Maybe find a job.." Jacob said.
"Didn't Twilight show you around when you came here?" Rarity asked.
"Sort of, she mostly introduced me to you guys and I didn't really stick around anywhere to see everything. Anyway thanks again Rarity, I'll see you around okay." Jacob said as he waved bye.
"Of course. Take care as well darling." Rarity said as she waved as well before returning to work. Jacob walked out the door and headed on through town. Time to find some work.
Jacob moved down town once more. Here and there he saw ponies doing one task or another, though they always paused to give a friendly wave, smile or even a hello. Jacob would return with a wave, but he felt a bit uncomfortable with the sheer friendliness of the peopl...ponies here.
'Are they all this welcoming and friendly?' He thought, 'maybe its cause this is a small town.'
Though perhaps the town was smaller due to his own size. Jacob felt sure that if he felt too big in a pony house, then a pony would feel very small in a standard human sized house.
"It's gonna take some getting use to..." Jacob said.
"What is?"
Jacob jumped back when Pinkie Pie just appeared right infront of him, "Yikes....Pinkie? How did you do that?"
"Do what?" Pinkie asked tilting her head slightly.
"How did you appear there in front of me." Jacob said.
"I walked silly." Pinkie said with a giggle.
Jacob blinked but shook his head, "Never mind. How ya doing?"
"Oh I'm doing great! What about you?" Pinkie asked.
"Eh fine. Just taking a look around, I didn't really get a chance to see what the town has to offer yesterday." Jacob said.
Pinkie gasped, "Oh I could show you around. I know everypony and where everything is in Ponyville. Come on!"
"Wait I- Ahhh!" Jacob screamed as he found himself yanked by Pinkie Pie through town. It was like the party all over again.
"And this is the Ponyville Cafe. They serve an amazing hot chocolate." Pinkie said as she hopped up and down with a big smile on her face.
Jacob held a hand over his heart as he took deep breathes. His pulse was racing from the sheer amount of running he had just recently done just to keep up with the excitable, and he was sure, meth taking pony.
'Seriously....is she one speed or something?' He thought.
"Great.....are we done?" Jacob said as he sat on a bench.
"No silly. We still got to see the school, then the spa and so many other places." Pinkie said with a giggle and began to hop off.
Jacob groaned and followed, he had originally tried to slip away from Pinkie before but the pink pony seemed to just appear out of nowhere. The last time he tried he had gotten a look with big puppy dog eyes that looked ready to cry, and just hearing her ask if he didn't want to spend time with her was just soul killing.
So Jacob was left to follow after Pinkie, or risk going to hell or purgatory for making her cry. Still....he didn't have to enjoy it. A man could only take so much info on a place and already he was getting a headache just trying to remember everything.
'How does she do it?' Jacob thought looking at Pinkie with a mixture of curiosity and fear. Maybe he shouldn't know.
"If this is just from one of her....what would six be?" Jacob said to himself.
"What was that Jacob?" Pinkie said as she looked back.
"Nothing. So where are we going again?" Jacob asked.
"To the school silly. Oh you can meet Cheerliee and all the fillies and colts. They'll love you I just know it." Pinkie said with a smile.
Jacob smiled slightly, "Great."
Questions! Too many questions! Jacob was battered by questions by what seemed like hundreds of small tiny ponies, fillies and colts for proper reference, and they just kept asking questions!
"Why are you so tall?"
"Where's your cutie mark?"
"Hey hey, remember me from the party!?!"
"Where are you from?"
"What's it like being an alien?"
"What do you like to eat?"
"Will you play with us?"
"Why are you so tall?"
"Are you part giant?"
"Are all humans this big?"
The sheer amount of questions and the tide of ever closing in herd of fillies and colts had Jacob pressed up against the blackboard, a look of sheer horror as he tried to figure out a way out of this.
"Children!" Cheerilee said, "don't crowd around him. Now get back to your desks and you can ask Mr. Jacob questions one at a time."
"Yes Miss Cheerilee." The young ponies said as they moved back to their respective desks.
"Thanks." Jacob said.
"No problem, I figured you were starting to feel uncomfortable I'm very sorry about it." Cheerilee said.
"Eh don't worry about it." Jacob said with shrug.
Pinkie just giggled, "Aww it wasn't that bad. See I told you they would like you."
Jacob looked over at the smiling pony and just shook his head, "Yeah, well might as well get this over with."
Jacob moved up to look at the class, Cheerilee and Pinkie stood to the side and watched with smiles.
Jacob looked at the students, and gulped slightly. He hated speaking to a crowd...even if they were small ponies.
"Well uh.....Hi." Jacob began.
The class all gave cheerful greetings, some even waves. This helped ease Jacobs tension a bit, but only just a bit.
"Yeah....hi...well uh...I've never had to do something like this so I guess I'll just answer some questions. So uh...whose first?"
Hooves all shoot up into the air waving, some making audible suggestions to call them first. Jacob sighed and picked one at random.
"Okay you in the back there." Jacob said.
A filly with ruby colored mane and color, a unicorn Jacob guessed from the small horn on her head, said, "Where are humans from?"
"Oh that's an easy one," Jacob said, "we came from a planet thousands and thousands of light years away from this planet. Earth it was called, looked alot like Equestria only with different organisms living on it."
Applebloom, Jacob remembered her from the party, raised her hoof and without waiting asked, "What's a light year?"
"A light year is a unit of measurement for distance. Not to be confused with time despite the word year in it. A light year is about ten trillion kilometers, or six trillion miles. So take about a thousand light years and you got yourself a very, very long distance between here and where Earth was." Jacob said.
The entire class went "Oooohhh." though from the look on their faces, Jacob was sure they weren't fully clear on what he said. Even Cheerilee seemed a bit lost, and Pinkie Pie....well it was difficult since she just stood there with a look of pure amazement on her face.
A thin and skinny orange colt with freckles and a snail shaped cutie mark, what was up with that, lifted his hoof, "Uh, what was earth like?"
"Well it looked a bit like this planet, though perhaps a bit bigger in mass. The creatures that lived there were vastly different as well. Actually I can show you." Jacob said as he reached into his pocket and removed his CellComm from his pocket.
He placed the thin device on the desk and turned it on. All the ponies in the room gasped with awe and stared at the projected hologram screen. Jacob smirked and dug through his files till he found what he needed. Pushing a button the screen vanished and was replaced with a slowly rotating figure of planet Earth, just the size of a basket ball.
"Wow."
"So cool."
"Awsome."
The kids were going crazy with amazement, and Pinkie was just a hopping frenzy as she moved this way and that looking at the hologram of earth. She touched the hologram with her hoof and gasped when it shifted and gave a view of an ocean, little holographic images of various bird or sea life showing up every so often. She practically squealed when she saw a whale jump out of the water. Jacob made the image a bit bigger so all the class could see clearly and expanded it back to the globe image once more.
"This is Earth. This image was what it looked like before the planet was destroyed many years ago and forced us humans on our exodus." Jacob said, "now it didn't look like this all the time. In fact the planet had gone through several serious makeovers in its history."
"Oh what did it look like before?" Scootaloo asked.
"Oh the differences are various. Once it was nothing but molten magma and later barren landscape and at other times all the continents were a single landmass and all sorts of things." Jacob said.
"Wow." The class said with amazement, they all quickly jumped out of their desks and began to press on the globe making it zoom to all the locations they pressed. Jacob smirked and let the kids have their fun as they looked at random land features of Earth.
"How does this thing do that?" Pinkie asked as she looked at the CellComm.
"Technology my dear Pinkie." Jacob said.
Pinkie just blinked and looked at Jacob before smiling and say, "Okie Dookie Lookie." Then she joined the rest of the kids in looking at the earth and whatever they zoomed in on.
"Amazing Jacob. This has been very interesting and the kids seem to really love that strange item, or at least the picture it makes." Cheerilee said.
"It's a CellComm. Its a communication device along with a music and video player and a whole bunch of other things. That's just the interactive hologram screen." Jacob said.
"Well I hope you come by more. I think my other classes would love to meet you as well." Cheerilee said.
Jacob shrugged, "Sure why not. Just name a date and I'll see what I can do. I should probably get going, I've eaten enough of your time and you got kids to teach."
Cheerilee looked at the clock and was surprised by how much time had passed, "Oh dear. You're right, but still thank you for stopping by this has been most educational."
Jacob nodded and turned off the CellComm and pocketed it. The kids expressed disappointment when the holorgram disappeared.
"I'm sorry children, but Jacob has to go now and we still have much to do today." Cheerilee said to her class.
"Awwww." The class went.
"But I want to know more." One student said.
"Yeah I want to know how that thing worked." Another said.
"I want to know more about Earth." Another filly said.
Jacob chuckled, "Sorry kids. The history of earth and all that other stuff would take a long time to tell you, and you still have school work to do."
The kids all frowned, some kicked the ground as they moved back to their desks.
'Dang....well....maybe...' Jacob thought and he walked over to Cheerilee and whispered something to her.
"Oh that would not be any trouble. How does thursday sound?" Cheerilee asked.
"Sure that works." Jacob said with a smirk.
Cheerilee smiled and looked to her class, "Well class. Since you have all shown some interest in what Mr. Jacob has to say he and I have agreed that this Thursday he will come to class and answer more questions and even teach you a bit about where he came from. Does that sound agreeable?"
The students were silent before giving a collective cheer, Jacob couldn't help but chuckle a bit.
"Alright then, I'll see you kids on thursday. Till then bye." Jacob said, as he and Pinkie Pie headed out waving farewell.
"Bye." All the kids said.
Jacob smiled and followed Pinkie Pie, "Well that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."
Pinkie giggled, "See silly, I told you they would like you."