That One Pony
Joshua Denoncourt
He was sort of a recluse; he lived on the edge of Ponyville and only came out to shop for the necessities like food. He was a light blue Earth Pony with a brown mane and tail and light brown eyes. Nopony knew his name. They just called him “That One Pony”
Twilight Sparkle was practicing flying with her new wings when she noticed that the pony she had only heard rumors about, walking down the street. She landed on a nearby cloud and watched him. His head was down, he wasn’t looking at the ground but he held it close to the ground. She saw something fall out his saddle bag, Twilight couldn’t make it out because she was too high up, but he quickly grabbed it and half trotted to his house and went in.
Twilight once again became a victim of her curiosity. She glided down to the door and knocked four times. She could hear mumbling from behind the door. “Yes?” the pony said with glazed eyes.
“Hello I’m-”
“Recently crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle, student of Celestia, studying friendship in Ponyville, I know. What do you need?” he said.
How did he know that, before today she had only heard of him, how did he know about her? “Um…I was wondering if I could get to know you…”
His look did not change as he welcomed her in. The entire house was empty, no pictures, decorations, chairs, or anything that showed inhabitance. He turned to the right and opened a small trap door and gestured for me to follow.
When he flicked on the lights Twilight saw the basement walls were lined with book shelves. In the end there was a small window less than a foot tall at the top. Below was a desk with a lamp and paper and quills. There were a few books on the desk, but they had covers on them. On the wall by the desk were several drawings, writings, and notes taped and tacked in no particular order. “Make yourself at home.” He said, “Just stay away from the bed.” He walked over and sat in the chair and started writing on a piece of paper.
Twilight looked at the books on the shelves; they were all covered by paper book covers. She pulled one out and thought she saw the pony’s ear twitch. She opened it to a random page and before she could even start reading she heard the pony say, “Diary of Star Swirl the Bearded, page 41. ‘Today I have learned about a strange type of Magic that seems to be powered by interactions between ponies. I am unsure what it is but will continue researching until I either discover how to harness it or die trying.’” He stopped the instant Twilight shut the book.
“Fascinating.” She whispered to herself. “Do you have this whole book memorized?”
“Yes.” He said, “I have them all memorized.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“‘We do not believe except what we see.’ Yes Virginia last page third paragraph. You’ll find it on the top shelf three books to the right from where you got that one.”
Twilight looked skeptical at first but was shocked when there was the book, and on the last page was the quote he had just said. “How is that possible?” Twilight asked in shock.
The facial expression of the pony turned serious and sad at the same time. “Middle shelf, 53 books to the left of where you are now.”
Twilight searched for the book, but instead of a book, there was a binder where he had said. Twilight opened it up. She expected the pony to start quoting, but he didn’t. Twilight looked at the first page which had pictures taped to it of a little blue colt reading books that Twilight had trouble reading herself at the current time. It showed the same colt holding an acceptance letter from the Canterlot School for Above Average Ponies. On the page there were also test results from an IQ test that showed extremely high scores in all but two categories: Communications and Mathematics. The next page had several pink detention slips most all of them stating “Your student has received detention for behavior in class.” And the last one which was circled with red ink said, “We ask that your student start seeing a psychiatrist and be tested for anger control issues.” Twilight turned the page and stapled on to it was a letter written on a typewriter, “After observing your son’s behavior I can conclude that he has very strong Autism and minor dyslexia. I can suggest a specialist to you but that’s all.” The next page was awful there were notes written in foals’ hoof writing and they all said something along the lines of, “Stupid, Retard, Just go die, failure…” Some things Twilight couldn’t believe and was disgusted by them. The next page was full of pictures of the small blue pony. They looked almost like mug shots, but the text on the photos said, “Canterlot Foal Hospital”. When she looked closer she saw bruises on the pony’s face. At the bottom of the page was a newspaper clipping with the headline “Local Father Arrested for Abusive Behavior”
When Twilight turned the page it skipped a long lapse of time and had several pictures on it. The first one showed the colt slightly older wearing a black tie holding a trophy with a newspaper clipping that said, “Youngest Equestrian Chess Champion” The next was the same colt, now a young stallion, receiving a medal for bravery from Princess Celestia, the newspaper clipping that was connected to it said “Young colt receives honors for risking his life in an attempt to save the lives of several ponies during a deadly storm.” The word “attempt” was highlighted and underlined in red. The next picture showed the colt with a young Mare. The mare was yellow with a white mane. She was an Earth Pony like him; they stood next to each other looking at the sunset. There was no caption. The image was so intimate, but there was nothing sexual about it. The next page had three hoof written poems; the first had a trophy plaque taped to it. The second had a medal pinned to it. The third had two wedding bands tied to it. Twilight couldn’t make out the hoof writing, almost like it was in code. The next page had a deed taped to it, the deed of this house. There were several pages filled with the strange code all over it.
“What is this?” Twilight asked.
“It’s part of the story…the part made by me.”
“So this is like a journal?”
“Sort of.”
“What’s that weird code?”
“Let me answer your question with a question, ‘A pony stands in a room, there are no windows or doors, the only things in the room are a mirror and a table. How did he get out?’”
“That’s an easy one, He looked in the mirror at what he saw, grabbed the saw, cut the table in half, two halves make a whole, so he crawled out the hole. What does that have to do with this?”
“I asked the traditional question, but the question I want to ask is, ‘How did he get in there in the first place?’”
“Well, um…I don’t know.” She said backing up a little bit.
Suddenly the blue pony shouted at her in rage, “I told you to stay away from the bed!”
Twilight turned to see she was about three feet away from a small bed. “I’m sorry.” She said, moving away from the bed.
The pony just glared at her and snorted, “I think you should leave.”
The next morning Twilight was awoken by a knocking at the Library door. She drowsily walked down the stairs and over to the door. Before she even opened it Rainbow Dash zoomed in. “Twilight, did the new Daring Doo come in today?”
“No considering the mail doesn’t arrive until one in the afternoon.”
“Well it’s one-thirty, so did it come?”
“What?” Twilight looked at the clock and sure enough it was one-thirty. “Oh no, I overslept.”
“You mean you’re just now waking up?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Yeah, I was up late thinking about something…”
“That is so not like you Twilight. You’re always telling everypony how important sleep is.” Rainbow smirked.
“Yeah well-” Twilight froze; standing in the arch of the door was that blue pony. In the light she got a better look at him, he was very scrawny, his eyes had very dark circles under them, his mane was messy and unkempt, his teeth were yellowing, he had scars all up and down his forelegs, his cutie mark was a red puzzle piece, and he looked like a cloud was hanging over him. “Hi there.” Twilight said.
He just nodded and walked past RD towards one of the book shelves. Rainbow Dash and Twilight stared at him as he looked for books, though it seemed to be one particular book. He eventually found it and brought it to Twilight. “I would like to check out this book.”
Twilight searched her memory for the name on the trophy plaque. “Sure thing ‘Big Quest’ mind if I call you ‘Big Quest’ because ‘Big Question’ is sort of lengthy and-”
“Just, 'Quest’.” He said sternly.
“Okay Quest I’ll get this book marked and you can be on your way.” Twilight tried to keep a smile on her face thinking that he would open up to her.
“Twilight,” Rainbow Dash pulled her aside, “How do you know him?”
“I visited him at his house yesterday.”
“He just let you in?”
“Yeah”
“He never lets anypony in his house.”
“Has anypony ever tried knocking and asking nicely?”
“Well…no.”
“Excuse me.” Quest interrupted, “I’m in a bit of a hurry.”
“Yes right away.”
As Twilight was checking out his book the Apple Family (Except Granny Smith) entered accompanied by Fluttershy. The moment Big Mac and Quest locked eyes the air of the room became suffocatingly tense. Quest turned around and stood face to face with Big Mac, who was much bigger, but didn’t intimidate Quest. “What are you doing here? I didn’t know you could read?” Quest said to Big Mac.
“Well that’s a mighty big mouth for such a scrawny pony.”
“At least I recognize the brain as a muscle.”
Big Mac pushed his head harder against Quest’s “You sure you want to have this conversation with me.”
“Not really,” Quest replied snorting, “Because my words go in one ear and out the other because there’s nothing to catch them.”
Big Mac reared up on his hind legs and slammed his hooves down on the ground again, cracking the wooden floor boards. “I don’t want to hurt you but you’re testing my patients.”
“Try me.” Said Quest with a smirk, “But you won’t land a single hit on me.” Infuriated Big Mac tried to hit Quest in the muzzle with his hoof, but Quest raised his own hoof and hit Big Mac on the foreleg causing him to writhe in pain. “Pressure points come in handy when you know where they are.” Quest smirked. He raised his hoof and at lightning speed jabbed Big Mac at three places in the foreleg. “They can heal to.” Quest said, his smile gone. “You should be able to move it now.” He turned around, grabbed the book from Twilight and left.
“Big Mac what in tarnation was that about?” Applejack asked her brother who was getting up.
“That no good stallion is one big puzzle, but since he’s been in Ponyville he ain’t been nothing but trouble.”
“Does this have anything to do with the fact that he beat you in cart pulling?”
“He cheated! There’s no way a scrawny pony like him could have pulled that much.”
“I get that you have a grudge, but you can’t just get into fights all willy nilly like that.” Applejack scolded.
“HEY!” there was a loud scream from…Fluttershy? “I’ve been trying to tell you something important but you are not listening!” Fluttershy looked surprisingly angry.
“What is it?” asked Twilight.
“You didn’t notice? Quest is showing major signs of depression, in its final stages.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“The intense mood change, the risky behavior, when he healed Big Macintosh the look in his eyes was of pure sadness. When he left, he had that ‘Goodbye forever’ look in his face and his whole body is screaming ‘suicide’!”
“I think you’re over reacting Fluttershy.” Twilight said. “Why would he check out a book then?”
“What was the book about?”
“Chemistry, why do you-” Twilight had a thought for just a few seconds but then dismissed it.
“See? Are you starting to make the connection?” Fluttershy asked.
“No he just wanted to learn about invisible ink or something.”
Fluttershy looked at her blankly, “Fine, I’ll help him myself.”
“That no good varmint doesn’t deserve no help!” Big Mac bellowed.
Fluttershy ignored her ignorant friends, somepony needed help and as the Element of Kindness, she would give it.
Fluttershy had gotten her bear friend to knock down the door of his house and open the trap door. She walked down the steps into the dark, dank, basement. “Quest?” she called “I’m Fluttershy, you don’t know me, but I am here to help you.”
“Go away!” said a voice that could only be described as sounding broken.
“You need help.” Fluttershy looked for the light switch and when she found it she flicked it to the “on” position. The basement was trashed, torn papers everywhere, books with torn covers covered the floor, and in the back corner was a small bed with Quest sitting on it shivering and crying. “Oh my, are you ok dear?”
“What do you think?” he snapped. Fluttershy took a step towards him, “Stay away!” he screamed and jumped off the bed. He had fresh cuts that were still bleeding on his forelegs. He held a pill between his teeth. “You can’t stop me, I’ll do it!”
“Do what?” Fluttershy asked concerned.
“This pill is a little home-made cyanide I threw together.” A tear started to form in his eyes; he trembled, dropped the pill, and fell to the ground in tears.
Fluttershy flew over to him and embraced him with her forelegs and wings wrapped around him. “It’s ok. Let it out, let it all out, I’m listening.”
“Nopony ever loved me, not my parents, my peers, even my fiancé was just using me to get money.” He burst out between sobs.
“Don’t worry; those things are in the past.”
“I got a letter a couple weeks ago. It said that it’s great to be different. But it’s not. When nopony respects you, treats you like a freak, you can never learn to think better of yourself.”
“Now listen to me.” Fluttershy said sternly, “I’m living proof that you can learn to get confidence in yourself. It’s a long and hard process and you will start to remember things you would rather keep forgotten. But let me tell you, it gets better.”