//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: The Lonely Pony // by iMusik //------------------------------// Chapter 3 He heard them coming, quickly charging after him. A group of stallions were chasing him in the dead of night, with the moonlight seemingly following him. He turned to look at who his chasers might be, but as with his previous looks, they were shrouded in darkness. He kept running. He ran so far he didn’t know if he was still in Equestria or not, let alone still on Earth. He rounded a corner, and stood facing the thing he feared most at that exact moment, and possibly the most stereotypical way to end a chase, a dead end. He looked around for an alternate path, or a hiding place, all the while hearing his followers growing closer. Then he saw it. It was a long shot, but there was a hole in the side of the wall, covered with boards, just big enough for him to squeeze through. He rushed over, hearing the quickly approaching hoofsteps coming after him. He got stuck for a moment. A moment that seemed like forever. The sweat was now pouring over his face, blurring his sight. Then, he was through. A loud crash came from outside, followed by vulgar screams. He took a moment to recover, and allowing the screams to settle, and the sound of fading hoofsteps to arise before looking about where he was. He began walking, slowly. He tripped over a wire, sending him face first into the floor, and sending the lights in the building into a blaze of light. For the first time he could look at where he was, and he was happy to see light, if even for a moment. Only, a moment. The horror of what he saw suddenly crashed down on him. His breath grew heavy, and his eyes grew wide. Thousands of him, in various stages, floating in vats of water, wearing breathing masks. He looked on even more, as he noticed the mutilated bodies of the ponies resembling him stuck onto the walls. A large red light began to flash, followed by the horn blaring. The vats were emptying. The thousands of clones sprang to life, and stepped down from their places. He realized they weren’t purely ponies. What he thought was a breathing mask on them was metallic, and was under their skin, as opposed to being over it. Robo-Ponies. Thousands of Robo-Ponies. That all looked like him. They slowly marched towards him, in perfect sync. The pounding of their synchronized hoofsteps sent chills down his spine. They all chanted, “ALL TRESPASSERS SHALL BE ASSIMILATED. NO WITNESSES SHALL BE LEFT,” repeatedly. The were closing in on him now, and he suddenly snapped back to reality. He darted for the hole where he entered, only to find himself get stuck in the doorway. He was trying to pull himself through, all the while hearing robotic sounds growing closer. He pulled and pulled, but couldn’t break free. There was a sudden sharp tugging of his rear hooves, and then a sharp pang. He looked up, into the alley, through the pain. He saw what seemed to be one of the robots. As it moved closer to him, he saw that there was no metallic face. It spoke with a non-metallic voice, “You almost made it. A pity. I thought I’d perfected the process, but I may have to work out a few bugs. You were close,” it said, leaning forward, revealing his whole face, “very, close.” He realized who he was staring at. Himself. Then a fast moving rear hoof caught his face, and it went black. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wave woke up screaming, and sweating heavily. He hated that dream, needless to say. It did bug him, though, since it was reoccurring about every week. He knew it meant something, but didn’t know what. Why was this happening to him? Was his body rejecting something? Was there some meaning in this? Was it a vision of the future? The thoughts terrified him. He sat there for what seemed like hours, just thinking. He peeked out of the curtain in front of the window and looked outside. Everypony was smiling and happy, having no cares in the world. Just as he closed the curtain again, he heard a loud thunk on the window. He jumped back, startled, and then slowly crept back to the window, peeking out. A blue flash came inches from his face, and was accompanied by another loud thunk. Upon regaining his composure, again, he looked outside. Verve was standing outside, waving his hoof. “WAVE! COME OUT! I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU!” Wave turned around, rubbed his head as if to pre-maturely soothe an oncoming headache. He got out of bed and headed for the door, slowly. “What on earth could he possibly want…” He opened the door to see Verve, holding a sign in his mouth that said “Lemonade. 1 Bit,”. He spat out the sign and said, “Wave, you remember those fillies from when I knocked you out?” “Uh, yeah. Octavia and Vinyl. Why?” “They said they could use some help, and I happened to walk by their stand. I figured since you have a thing for the gray one then you wou-” “Let’s go.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ When they arrived to the lemonade stand, a poorly made one, at that, Verve rushed over, “Hey, I got some help. Just tell him what to do and he’ll do it.” Octavia trotted over to Wave, “You’re that pony that was knocked out. Are you OK?” “It’s OK, I’m fine now.” Vinyl spoke up, loudly, “WELL GREAT!” She heaved a brightly colored costume at him, “PUT THIS ON AND GO ADVERTISE!” she said with a smile. “OK, I guess. Why are you yelling?” “WHAT?” “Why are you yelling?” “WHAT!?” “Nevermind…” As he took the costume and unfolded it he realized his suspicions were correct. It was a lemon suit. He didn’t even want to know why they had it, much less where they got it from. He really didn’t want to do this, but said to himself, “For the pursuit of love and happiness, I will gladly be a lemon.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ After he had put it on, and been standing for a solid 15 minutes, he saw the first pony. “Hello, sir. Would you like some lemonade? It’s fresh?” “Wha? Oh, no thanks kid. Maybe on my way back.” The stallion trotted off. Somehow Wave knew he wouldn’t be seeing him again. A short time later, a familiar face came by. “Hello miss Cheerilee!” “Oh, hello Wave. Why are you a-” “A lemon? We’re selling lemonade. Would you want some?” “I suppose I could buy some…” “Oh Good!” yelled Vinyl from behind the counter. She had a cup full by the time Cheerilee could say anything else, “That’ll be 1 bit!” Cheerilee quickly paid. Mostly to get away from Vinyl, who was trying to offer multiple cups at this point, and Wave, who didn’t exactly look “normal” in the lemon suit. The rest of the day passed, relatively with the same pattern. A customer would come by, Wave would do a dance in the costume, Octavia would pour a cup, Vinyl would rush it over and shove it into the customers face, and Verve would hold the sign. The customer would then pay to get the ponies to stop crowding, and then it would repeat itself. Suddenly, a brown spec was moving towards them from quite a distance away. “Didn’t that guy leave already?” said Verve, through the muffling of the sign. “I thought he did. What does he want now?” Wave said, curiously. “ ‘Ello. Nice to be seeing you again. Oh, look at that, females about your age. ‘Ello! Wave, wait a minute, you‘re a lemon now? How strange.” The Doctor said, not helping anypony think he was sane. “Er, Hello.” Octavia responded, wondering how far this guy had fallen upon being born. “Now, quickly, I need you two, Wave and Verve. Come with me, NOW.” They did as they were told, not so much wanting to listen, but wanting this guy gone. He was a loon. They arrived at the TARDIS door. “What are we doing here?” Verve said, breaking the silence. “Tell me, boys, care to help me with something?” “I guess so. Why us?” Verve said, not stopping to think of the insanity that would come from assisting this guy. “Because you boys were the first to meet me, that means you’re involved in the major event that’s going to happen soon. Now, step into the TARDIS and we must go.” “Wait, you also met Diego and Clank too. Why not them?” “Oh, silly me. They’re already inside.” “HEY VERVE AND WAVE! COME IN! THERE’S A SWIMMING POOL!” came from inside the TARDIS, in the voices of Diego and Clank. “What exactly are we doing?” “WE are stopping an evil.” “What EVIL? This is Ponyville. There’s no evil here.” “Had any bad dreams lately?”