//------------------------------// // 11. Chasing Stallion and Avoiding Mares.. Wait what. // Story: Home of the Ponies and Awesome Bronies // by Lady Spider //------------------------------// Ryku I got up from the guest bed that the Apple family had allowed me to use the night before. I stretched my legs out, then trotted down the hallway into the kitchen, where that same apple scent from the night before was wafting out. Applejack was standing in front of the griddle, making apple cinnamon pancakes. “Mornin’, Applejack. Thanks for lettin’ me stay the night last night.” I yawned. “So, breakfast, then you’ll show me what I’m doin’ for work?” She set the spatula down and turned to me. “Well, yer a bit late gettin’ up, but we didn’t really tell ya a time last night. Figured we’d let ya sleep off whatever the sam hill ya drank last night. Come on, now, Sugarcube. Come get somethin’ ta eat, an’ then Ah’ll show ya the ropes of what you’ll be doin’.” I simply nodded, and sat down at the table in the center of the room. The orange mare set a plate of steaming hot pancakes in front of me and I greedily dug into them. 13 pancakes later...... After breakfast, I thanked Applejack and we headed outside the farmhouse. I’d never seen so many apple trees in one place before. She led me out into a nearby section of the orchard and set some baskets under one of the trees. I watched in awe as she gave the tree one powerful kick with her hind legs, and all of the apples fell directly into the baskets. “H-How... how did you do that?” I asked shakily. She turned to me and grinned. “Ah’ve been doin’ that since Ah was knee high to a grasshopper, Sugarcube. Now, let’s see if YOU can do it.” I was not confident at all that I could do something like that. She set a few more baskets under another tree and backed up for me to give it a try. I gulped, then ran up to the tree, spun around, and kicked it as hard as I could. To my relief, all of the apples fell right down into the baskets, just like Applejack had done. I looked at her to see if she approved, but she had a distant look on her face. “Um... Applejack?” “Huh, wha?” She said, looking startled. “You zoned out for a second there. You alright?” I asked. She shook her head a moment before looking back up at me. “Yeah. Ah’m fine, Ry’. Jus’... watchin’ you made me think of somepony else fer a moment.” She glanced down sullenly for a moment before continuing. “Anyhow, ya know what ta do now. You can start tomorrow. Fer now, how ‘bout Ah show ya around town? Ya should know the place yer gonna be stayin’, after all.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Elise I must have looked like the craziest pony in Equestria. My mane wasn’t brushed from the night before so my black and red strands stood out like someone had electrocuted them. My binoculars were atop my head ready to be pulled down at a moments notice. I slipped behind a building and held the recorder up to my mouth. “Morning, edge of Ponyville, ponies starting to move about, no sign of target.” I snuck around the building and through a maze of assorted flower carts and doorstops. Ponies all around me were walking and chatting and laughing. My mind was set for a certain orange stallion with a ridiculously fiery-like mane. I scanned the crowds and doorways, then held the recorder to my mouth again and whispered. “Morning, middle of Ponyville, ponies about on business, no suspicious activity, no sign of target.” “Why are we whispering?” I screamed and nearly hit my head on an overhang. “Pinkie! What are you doing here?!” The pink pony beamed at me. “Weeeeeell, I saw you sneakin’ around and I thought maybe there was going to be a surprise party!” I took a deep breath. “Well... it’s not a party, but... wanna help me find somepony?” I asked cautiously. Pinkie’s face lit up. “OH! A somepony! Is it your special somepony?! Like your schmoopy-doopy snuggy-wuggy honey-woney wafflebaby?!” I stared at her, my mouth gaping open. “Um. No.” Pinkie was unfazed. “Oh! Okay! Who is it then?” She was bouncing so fast she was almost a pink blur. “Ryan. Except... he’s a stallion. Named Ryku. But he’s really Ryan. In... an orange stallion with crazy-flank fiery mane form.” “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! OKIE DOKIE LOKIE!!” She stopped bouncing and dashed around the corner, leaving me crouched under the overhang gaping after her. “Um...” Before I could finish any sentence the pink pony had returned. Pinkie crouched next to me dressed in a black latex ninja suit. “We got this!” I facehoofed and chuckled a bit. “Okay, Pinkie... Well, let’s go then.” We snuck around corners and through alleyways between houses for nearly a half hour before we spotted our target. The orange stallion was walking down the road into town. Wait... he’s coming from Sweet Apple Acres... geez, even with amnesia, he ended up going to AJ... I thought with a scowl. “There he is, Pinkie. Let’s see if we can’t figure out if he’s really Ryan or not.” I said confidently. “Okay! I’ll go ask!” Pinkie suddenly started bouncing towards Ryku. I grabbed her tail and dragged her back into my hiding spot. “Pinkie! We’re trying to SPY on him!” I whispered. “Oh yeah! Oops. Sorry!” Pinkie said happily. I sighed and watched as the target looked in our general direction for a few moments before shaking his head. He continued down the road, passing right by us. I overheard him say something like “I must be seeing things” as he walked, so I knew we’d just barely stopped our little mission from being over before it started. “Pinkie... we should split up. You go up ahead of him. I’ll stay behind and follow him, okay?” I explained calmly. She nodded furiously with a determined look before dashing around the corner at near-impossible speeds. I glanced around the corner to see where she’d gone, but she was nowhere to be found. I sighed, and looked at my target instead. Except. He wasn’t there. “What the....” I craned my neck over the manes of other ponies but saw nothing. I lowered my binoculars with my magic and scanned the building windows. I returned the binoculars to the top of my head and scowled. The recorder was lifted to my mouth and I began recording. “End of morning, Ponyville, target had been spotted but has been lost. Hoping Section Pinkie hasn’t lost track of target.” “Section Pinkie huh?” came a voice from behind me. For the second time today I jumped, nearly hitting my head on the same overhang. And guess who was standing behind me with a smirk on his face? “Wha-a-a!! How did you- You were- AJ- Gaaaaaaah!!! I wasn’t stalking you!!” “Two things. One. A Pink mare comes out dressing like a bucking ninja and then is dragged away. You think I’m not going to check that out? And Two. WHY ARE YOU STALKING ME?” Ryku said angrily. (~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~) Ryku I was staring at that crazy unicorn from the day before. She had a tape recorder in one hoof and binoculars on her head, and her mane looked like it hadn’t even been brushed though once with the way it was sticking out all over. “Seriously? Can’t you just leave me alone? I’m not this Ryan-pony everypony keeps saying you think I am!” She shuffled her hooves on the ground in front of her and avoided looking up. “Um....” “What is wrong with you? How long ago did this stallion bail on you anyway?!” I said, starting to lose my temper. “Um... he … he wasn’t a stallion...” Elise looked up a little at me with a bit of her mane in her eyes. I snapped at her, “Then how in the hay could I possibly be him?! I’M A STALLION!” “I.. I …. I don’t know!” Tears swelled in her violet eyes and her lip started to quiver. I stopped. I hadn’t meant to make her cry, and I half expected the crazy mare to start flinging magic at me for telling her off. Honestly, I felt really bad... “Listen... I’m sorry I yelled. But you need to accept this. I’m not the pony you’re looking for. I don’t know what else to say.” I reached out and put my foreleg on her shoulder. Something must have snapped in her at that. The look in her eyes changed from sorrowful tears to flames of fury in less than ten seconds flat. “And you listen here Ryku. I’m a mare. I KNOW I’m right.” She shrugged herself out from under my leg. “And I will prove it to you before today is up.” I cocked my head at her before grinning widely. “Haha! You KNOW you’re right, huh? Good luck proving to ME that I’M another pony!” I wave her off. “AJ was wrong. You’re crazy even when you’re NOT drunk!” I say, starting to walk away. I didn’t get far before the blue unicorn was right in front of me. “HOW DARE YOU?! I’m. Not. Crazy!” Her hoof flew up from the ground and slapped me across the muzzle. I fell back on my haunches and rubbed my stinging muzzle. “Ouch. You’ve got quite the slap there, miss. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to forget you exist.” I spat angrily and started trotting away again. “No! Wait...” Her voice called from behind me. I could tell from her tone that she was on the verge of crying again but I was in no condition to deal with her mood swings now. But I stopped. I dropped my sarcastic side that I’d been holding and got serious. “You gonna stop flopping back in forth between sad and super angry and actually explain this whole thing to me if I do?” I said without turning my head. I heard her stamp her hooves into the ground and sob. “I did explain it... you thought I was crazy. Hay, you STILL think I’m crazy... Can’t you understand why I am how I am?” She sniffled. “Who do you think you are?” “My name is Ryku. Short for Ruddy Knuckles. I’m not sure why I’m here, and I’ve only got broken memories, but I’m a stallion. I’m not whatever a human is. Though... Applejack said I remind her of somepony this morning...” I said suddenly, thinking. “Now, Ryku. Broken memories. Don’t you wonder WHY you don’t remember anything?” Elise urged, her voice becoming pathetically desperate again. I stopped and turned to her finally, uncertainty in my eyes. “Yes. I do. But what you say doesn’t make any sense at all. How could I change to a completely different species?” “I did. And I don’t know how either.” She eyed me. “And seriously. Even when I’m drunk, there is no way I’d be able to come up with that good of a story.” “What do you mean you did? You don’t seem very different from any other pony. You know, besides being a bit on the stalker side.” I look at her skeptically. “I was a human too. Female, five feet seven inches tall, average build, and dark features. I remember everything.” Elise recited as if she had reminded herself every morning. I scowled. “And what proof can you give me to show me this is true?” The unicorn stared at me for a moment, almost in terror. “P-proof?” “That’s what I thought. If you can’t prove it, then how can I believe you? All I know is that you are good at telling stories.” I said with venom in my voice. Her violet eyes narrowed at me. “I can too prove it.” Suddenly she lit up. “TO TWILIGHT’S!” Before I had a chance to react, I found myself in the grasp of Elise’s pale blue magic. She was galloping through Ponyville, dragging me behind her. I struggled for a few minutes before giving up and crossing my forehooves in front of me. She was dragging me by my tail, so that end was in the air and my front half was on the ground, and every now and then, I’d hit a stone much to my chagrin. “Ugh... whoever this Twilight pony is, she better solve this in a hurry... Ouch!” I said as I hit another pebble. She lifted me higher and nearly threw me into the ground in front of her. I glanced at her face. She was beaming happily. “We’re here!!” I stared up at the building with blurry eyes from being tossed. When my eyes came back into focus, I saw a large tree that seemed to have a house built inside it. A nearby sign said ‘Golden Oaks Library’. “You’re kidding me, right?” Elise simply smiled wider, ran up to the door, and nearly broke it down knocking. “TWWWWWWWWWIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHT!!!! Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight TWWWWIIIIIII-” I covered Elise’s mouth with a hoof and knocked on the door tiredly. “Ugh... Anypony home?” A little purple dinosaur-thing appeared at the door. “Hey! Don’t break the door down! Uh....” Elise pushed my hoof off her mouth and went face to face with the little creature. “SPIKE!! Where’s Twilight!? I need some major magic here!” Spike, as Elise called him, looked at her cautiously. “A-Alright, alright! I’ll get her! Just come in and calm down a little!” “Um... what is Spike, Elise?” I ask as we walk into the library tree. She didn’t even glance at me. “A dragon.” Elise looked eagerly around the library, searching for this ‘Twilight’. While we waited, I looked around for myself. The inside of the tree was amazing. There was a main support in the center, and on every wall in the entire place up to the ceiling, there were books, all organized and in alphabetical order. “Geez... This place looks like it’s bigger on the inside...” A lavender unicorn came trotting down the stairs. “Elise! What’s the matter? Spike said you were acting strange.” Elise took a deep breath. “Okay. So I found this stallion in a field the other day and he has no recollection of who he is but he looks and acts and goes by the name of the pony that Ryan had created when we were human but Ryku here doesn’t believe me and thinks I’m crazy and I’ve been stalking him for the past day because I know this stallion is just Ryan in another form but no matter what I say Ryku thinks I’m insane and so I told him I can prove it to him but you have to help me because I don’t know how to show other ponies my memories.” I stared at Elise. I could have sworn she said that on one breath. I started to ask, but decided against it and looked at Twilight instead. “So can you ‘prove’ she’s telling the truth?” I smirked. “Hmm... let me think... Oh! I know just the spell. There’s a memory tap spell that will allow any pony see any memory that the other wishes them to. Does that sound like what you’re looking for?” Elise just about jumped out of her fur. “YES THAT’S IT! Let’s do it now!” “Sigh. If it’ll end this whole situation then fine. Show me what you’re thinking, you strange mare...” I said before looking to Twilight. “Okay. I just need you two to be in direct contact; preferably forehead to forehead. Then I can start the spell.” The bookworm said confidently. Elise and I both obliged and the blue unicorn placed her horn lightly on my forehead. (~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~) Elise Automatically my eyes closed as Twilight began her spell. I could feel my fur tingle and warmth spread through my body as Twilight’s spell covered the two of us. When I opened my eyes again I was in my own home, in the kitchen. The smell of chocolate chip cookies filled my nose. “Oh! They’re burning!” I ran over to the oven and pulled out the tray of almost-burned cookies. “Damnit.. I never burn cookies...” I grumbled. The doorbell rang. Irritatedly, I set the tray down on the counter and walked down the hallway to the door. There at the door was my friend Ryan. He’s 6 feet tall with medium brown, shaggy hair and a light five o’clock shadow. He was wearing his orange Applejack shirt with her cutie mark on one corner, and a pair of loose blue jeans. On his feet were his usual black and white Nikes. “Hey, Elise!” He said, his blue eyes meeting my brown ones, “I could smell you bakin’ your cookies two blocks over! Mind if I come in and join ya?” “Well.” I pretended to consider. “Sure!” I opened the door wider and allowed him entry. As soon as the boy entered, he made a beeline for the kitchen. “Hey! Get outta my kitchen!! They’re not ready yet!” “But Ah want ‘em noooooow~!” He said, doing an impression of Apple Bloom and giggling. I stomped into the kitchen behind him in mock anger and slapped his hands away from the tray with the spatula. “Okay...” He said with fake sadness. He smiled and me with his toothy grin and leaned against the fridge. “So, what’s new, Elise?” I continued to take cookies off the hot trays and putting fresh cookie dough into the oven. “Well, I finally got around to making my OC!” “Really?! Does that mean RYKU has a friend?!” He said as he almost squee’d from being so happy. I giggled. “Elaruki isn’t going to be his friend. She’s gonna be his annoying-bitch-from-the-bar buddy!” “Aw, but that’s Satin’s job!” He smirked. The oven timer dinged again and I pulled out the last of the cookies. I rolled my eyes. “Come lookie!” I placed the tray onto the stove and nearly dragged Ryan into the next room where my laptop was sitting on the dining room table. “Look look.” I shoved Ryan into a chair next to me and pulled up two windows on the laptop. “The one on the right is the pic of Ryku you sent to me and the one on the left is Elaruki!” On the screen were two very familiar ponies. Oh look! It’s me! Or at least what I look like now! And there’s Ryku. Look’s just like him. I told him! Ryan smiled and looked up at me. “That looks amazing, Elise! Nice work!” He said, looking into my eyes in a strange way. I beamed at him and turned as I heard footsteps in the kitchen. “Dziadziu!” My grandpa was tiptoeing over to the trays of chocolate chip cookies. “Get away from my cookies!” “Oh just one.” He took a cookie and walked away, slowly, from the trays as I ran into the kitchen. Ryan followed. Dziadziu laughed and went back upstairs. I sighed. My cookies were never safe. “Want a cookie, Ry’?” I never should have asked. Ryan snatched up a cookie and nommed it before I got to say goodbye to it. “Well. That made me sad.” I picked up a cookie and brought it to my mouth... ...Right as Twilight ended her spell. Everything blurred and swirled to darkness. The warmth I had felt from the magic faded away. My eyes flew open. “You have GOT to be KIDDING me! Everyone got a cookie but ME! And I BAKED THEM!” I growled. Then I remembered what the point of that was. “Oh.” I pulled my head back as I realized I was still touching Ryku’s forehead. He glared at me. “Hey. Maybe next time you wanna yell at somepony, do it AFTER your horn isn’t jabbing me in my forehead?!” “Sorry!” I said, blushing. “So, do you taste my memory cookies? You are Ryan.” “All I got from that is that some two-legged creatures were eating cookies and looking at pictures of us. And the stallion... I think it’s a stallion, anyway... mentioned my name. I still don’t see how I’m him.” He said calmly. Twilight’s brow furrowed. “Really? You don’t see a connection?” I dropped my jaw. “You. You can’t be serious.” I shook my head. “What, you think I made that up too now? Even Twilight saw the connection!” “I just don’t see it. I’m a pony. Not one those human things.” He stated stubbornly. I facehoofed. I just shared a MEMORY with this stallion and he STILL didn’t believe me. I started laughing. “You are bucking stubborn! Here’s a deal for you, you ask around and see what the other ponies around here have to say about ‘those human things’ and I’ll come up with some other way to prove I’m right?” Ryku looked at her for a moment and sighed. “Fine, if only to get you off my back.” He said with a hint of boredom in his voice. I growled. “Pinkie Promise on it.” “Pinkie what?” He asked, puzzled. “Pinkie Promise. Twilight. Let’s demonstrate.” Twilight and I got together and recited the promise. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” At the end, we both said ‘ouch’, after touching our eyes. Ryku watched us. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.” I shook my head. “No. Now do it!” “Ugh. Fine.” We recited it again, and he jabbed himself in the eye a bit too hard. “OUCH!” I beamed at him. “Okay. Get going!” He didn’t move. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” I pushed him out the door with me. “OKAY!!” The orange stallion roared at me.