I sat alone, reading by the pond I had discovered. The new green shirt I had was a nice change of pace from the one I had been wearing, and I was ecstatic when I found out that overalls existed in this world. Not because I wanted a pair, but because after seeing them and feeling the texture they were exactly like Earth’s, they were made of good old fashioned denim, just like jeans.
Rarity found my request for them odd and had expected my taste to be of much higher caliber, but she understood after my explanation. I was glad that was one thing I didn’t have to give up and it felt like a little piece of home.
Something hard brushed against my leg, breaking my train of thought. A ball had rolled up beside me with some initials on it, more than likely belonging to a foal. I looked around and it didn’t take me long to spot four colts that seemed hesitant to come any further.
I gently rolled the ball over to them and continued on with the book I was supposed to be studying. If the article had done anything positive, it had served to grant me a bit of freedom, though I limited my trips to town as much as possible.
I finally came across other regions being mentioned aside from Equestria. The home land of the griffons made me uneasy and I counted myself lucky that I had been found by a more tolerable species. I looked up from the book, closing it with a sigh, only to frown a bit at what greeted my upward gaze.
Well for the most part anyways. I thought to myself, as I watched a rainbow trail streak across the sky.
I left the pond and headed towards Applejack's to see if there was something else to do. Inactivity had gotten to me again and even if there wasn’t at the very least a visit wouldn’t hurt. I owed her and Fluttershy a lot.
When I arrived I saw Applejack heading into her barn with a basket on her back. She waved to me as I easily jumped the white fence. Big McIntosh was nowhere to be found, he was probably still out in the orchard working.
“Didn’t come here to mess up those clothes did ya?” Applejack asked pointing at my new attire.
“I think it’ll take a bit more effort to ruin these than last time.” I replied.
“Well if ya came to help we’re just bringin’ em in now.” Applejack said pointing to a nearby basket full of apples.
“No problem.” I said accompanying her out to the orchard. I remembered Fluttershy telling me about my arm, but just decided I would only use my good arm instead of both today.
As I got ready to pick up one of the baskets I noticed movement under the apples. I slowly lifted the top apple to see what the source of the motion was only to be greeted by a snake. I screamed and fell backwards knocking over another basket by accident. I absolutely hated snakes ever since I was little after having a bad experience.
“No no no no!” I exclaimed crawling away from the…fake snake?
As I studied my would be attacker more closely I noticed the eyes were stitched Xs, and a fake gaping mouth with a string tongue. My heart was still racing when I heard laughter come from behind a tree.
“That was awesome Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash said, giving away her hiding spot.
“You should have seen the look on your face!” Pinkie Pie giggled holding some sort of device with a wire that I kicked myself for not noticing earlier.
“Ha ha real mature.” I said, picking myself up.
“Lighten up. It’s not our fault you screamed like a big baby.” Rainbow Dash snorted.
I did my best to ignore the jibe. The only one acting like a baby was her, but I held my peace as I started to pick up the apples I had knocked over. I had been patient with her, but my patience was starting to run out, especially with this little stunt.
“Yep, I’m the baby, Skittles.” I said, setting one basket on top of another in order to carry two before picking them up.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Only little foals pull such childish pranks.” I replied remembering to replace kid with foal.
“Who are you calling little? I could fly circles around you!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, zipping from her spot to get eye level with me.
“You probably can, but I don’t have wings so I guess you can’t really go by that huh?” I said, enjoying getting under her skin a bit.
“Anything you can do I can do better anyways.” Rainbow Dash said boldly.
“Really? You want to play that game?” I asked.
“Oh oh I love games! I smell a competition!” Pinkie Pie said making Rainbow Dash’s ears perk up.
“Pinkie don’t add wood to the fire.” Applejack said.
“There’s a fire?” Pinkie Pie asked sincerely which made Applejack face hoof.
“How about it? You and me, one on one?” Rainbow Dash asked with a smirk as she landed.
The pegasus that could perform what was called a sonic rainboom was calling me out. Under normal circumstances I probably would have, and should have, declined. Today though my brain’s advice went unheeded while my ego spoke for me.
“Sure, not like I’ve got anything better to do.” I replied which was a lie. Twilight was going to let me hear it when I told her I had put off studying, again.
---
“I think it’s a great idea!” Twilight exclaimed after I told her what had happened.
“You do?” I asked confused.
“Of course, it’ll be the perfect chance to see the difference in strengths between our two species.” Twilight replied.
“But um Twilight I don’t think he should-“ Fluttershy started to say.
“Taking into account that you don’t have wings we’ll have to put a limit on Rainbow Dash with some things.” Twilight said.
“That’s just the thing, I don’t know if-“ Fluttershy tried to interject again.
“The main things I’m curious about are speed, strength, endurance and of course wit.” Twilight added writing something down.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked with a small laugh.
“WAIT!” Fluttershy shouted bringing an end to our conversation.
We both turned to the small pegasus who was now staring sheepishly at us. “Sorry, it’s just your arm is still bad, and I don’t know if it’d really be up to the task.” Fluttershy said.
“Oh that’s not a problem.” Twilight said approaching my arm.
I felt warmth encase my injured arm that I had been trying to be careful with ever since Fluttershy patched me back up. It started to glow purple as the heat increased at a surprising rate. When the glowing faded my arm was void of the stitches Fluttershy had given me. What’s more an old scar I had received from a biking accident was missing as well.
“Wow.” I said bending and flexing my arm, it felt amazing.
“A word of caution, I can only use that spell once every three months. If I used it too much it would start to drain your energy in order to heal your body.” Twilight said informatively.
“I’ll try not to pick any more fights with tree dogs.” I said nervously.
“Timber wolves.” Fluttershy corrected.
“My money’s on Rainbow Dash, no offense.” Spike said.
“None taken, to be honest I wasn’t really thinking when I agreed to do this…so what’s the lineup Twilight?” I asked, hoping the shame I might endure wouldn’t be too unbearable.
“Well because of obvious body structure differences, the choices will have to be something both of you can feasibly do.” Twilight said as Spike pushed a chalk board into the room with a scale comparison of a human and pegasus.
Is that really needed? I thought to myself.
“I bet he’d be good at tug of war! That would be super-duper exciting for everypony to see!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed making me jump a little.
“Everypony…no Pinkie I’d rather this not go public because I’m pretty sure I’m going to crash and burn.” I said.
“Tug of war can go on the list along with a leg race.” Twilight said.
“How exactly do you plan on pitting our wit against each other?” I asked
“I have an idea, but I think I’ll keep that to myself for now I wouldn’t want you to have an unfair advantage.” Twilight replied.
I hardly felt as if I had any advantages at all. Even if I had size on my side I still came out as the underdog. It didn’t help that an infant dragon was already announcing who he’d put money down on, it kind of rubbed salt in the soon to be wound to my pride.
“What about a marathon?” Spike asked.
“Spike that takes weeks to train for, I might pass out since all I’ve really done is study since I got here.” I said.
“Really?” Spike asked.
“Afraid so, though that’s something I’ve been meaning to kick off my bucket list.” I replied.
Twilight’s face brightened as she wrote something else down. My mind feared whatever was being written. I hoped she hadn’t taken Spikes suggestion into consideration, that would be absurd.
“I think I can work with this list, I’m still impressed you actually accepted her challenge in the first place.” Twilight said.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Rainbow Dash can be a bit smug at times, but you know it was only a prank right?” Twilight asked.
“Yes I know, but I think the ‘little’ comment escalated things.” I replied.
“I have a question, why do you keep calling Dashie Skittles?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Her mane, it reminds me of a candy I used to eat back home.” I replied.
“You used to eat manes!?” Pinkie Pie asked shocked.
“How did you get that out of what I said?” I asked in return.
“I dunno.” Pinkie Pie said with a shrug and a giggle.
“You’re an enigma Pinkie.” I said with a raised eyebrow.
Fluttershy was asked to find Rainbow Dash to organize a time and place for this event to take place at. The one upside to this ‘challenge’ I now found myself in was that I had gotten out of studying for a while, or so I thought. That was soon taken away from me as a book levitated in front of me with a cough from Twilight.
Sighing I took the book and sat cross legged on the floor and started reading. I felt I had already put my brain through enough but with alicorns it seemed a limit on the intake of knowledge didn’t exist.
“Hey Spike if you went with Twilight through the mirror why did you pass out when you saw me?” I asked.
“Oh that, I just never expected to see a human actually come to our world.” Spike replied.
“Did you ever see Godzilla?” I asked.
“No why?” Spike replied.
“It’s just you’re a dragon and you kind of remind me of him…just smaller. He was one of my childhood heroes when I was little, I used to watch his movies with my uncle.” I said.
“You mean a dragon was a hero?” Spike asked.
“Yep.” I said not having the heart to go into the details of how Godzilla was actually a dinosaur turned radioactive mutant.
“What did he do?” Spike asked his curiosity piqued.
“Well his main foe was a three headed dragon called King Ghidora, whose goal was to completely destroy the humans.” I said starting to tell him a little bit of the story.
Twilight shook her head with a sigh giving up on trying to get me to study while we waited for Rainbow Dash. It seemed Godzilla had come through for me one more time, saving me from the deadly book worm monster.
“What happened then? Why was he trying to destroy the humans?” Spike asked with a hint of fear in his voice.
So studying turned into story time as I did my best to recall what happened from the movie. Spike would occasionally ask why something happened, but not too often. Pinkie Pie was sitting down with the dragon now listening intently. Their eyes got wide when I described the others monsters from the movie, as if two hadn’t been enough.
As I described the final confrontation a smile crossed Spike’s face, especially when I told him King Ghidora fled the Earth after being beaten and humiliated. I was impressed with myself that I could remember that much of the movie. Then again I had been obsessed with the big guy ever since I was little and I had started collecting old Godzilla figures when I moved out on my own.
“So what happened after that?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Well they all went their separate ways in peace, until the next story.” I replied.
“There’s more!?” Spike asked excitedly.
“Yes, but I think those will have to wait, Twilight might get mad if all I do is tell stories.” I replied.
“Aww okay, but promise you’ll tell me what happened in the others?” Spike asked pointing at me.
“I promise.” I said holding my hands up in mock surrender.
I found it funny how I had become friends with a dragon, a little one mind you, but a dragon all the same. In stories humans and dragons fought constantly and were depicted as sworn enemies in some books and works of fiction.
“Oh did we miss something?” Fluttershy asked having returned with Rainbow Dash.
“Not reall-“ I started to say.
“You just missed the coolest story ever!” Spike exclaimed.
“It’d be pretty hard to top some of mine.” Rainbow Dash said.
“This was about a dragon though, a good dragon.” Pinkie Pie said.
“A good dragon?” Fluttershy asked.
“Spike’s a good dragon, why the fixation on the words “good” and “dragon” going together?” I asked.
“Most dragons are…mean and scary.” Fluttershy replied.
“Daring Do can take him.” Rainbow Dash said.
I couldn’t control myself as I fell into a fit of laughter. After reading a Daring Do book and actually visualizing the sight of a tiny pegasus trying to take him on was funny for some reason.
“What’s so funny?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Godzilla’s like four hundred feet tall and he’s radioactive. Daring Do would fry before she got close enough to do anything.” I replied.
“She’s Daring Do, she’d study him to find a soft spot and BLAM!” Rainbow Dash said slamming her hoof down on the crystal floor.
Well I found this world’s ‘because I’m Batman’ card. I thought to myself.
The conversation soon devolved into a human and pony defending their respective hero until Twilight came and separated us for a bit. It had started to get a bit intense. By the time Twilight had arrived I was already crossed eyed from being so close to Rainbow Dash and trying to stare her down. I questioned why my ego chose random times to surface and get me in stupid situations.
“You two are acting like foals, save it for tomorrow okay?” Twilight asked.
“Fine, just be ready to eat my dust.” Rainbow Dash said.
My mind was blank, after all the smack talk I had done to Daring Do I couldn’t believe I had nothing to come back with. All I could think of were lame or passive aggressive remarks which wouldn’t make any sense.
“Just make sure you’re on time.” Twilight said rolling her eyes.
---
“Oh goodness.” Fluttershy said upon seeing the crowd of ponies that had shown up.
“But how? I didn’t think anypony…Pinkie Pie.” I growled.
“Yer not nervous are ya?” Applejack asked.
“Me? Why would I be nervous? I’m just surrounded by a populace that trust me about as far as they can throw me.” I replied.
“It ain’t like that and you know it. Now be a good sport about it.” Applejack scolded.
“Good you’re here, Rainbow Dash was insistent the leg race be the first event. I can understand why given the circumstances.” Twilight said pointing to a small track.
I noticed Rainbow Dash had a small harness like device on. It seemed strapped over her wings preventing them being used. She wiggled and squirmed clearly in a bit of discomfort with the device on. I could see just the smallest amount of movement from her wings as she tried her best to adjust them.
“I’m not opposed to that.” I said as I heard Applejack mumble something about rope.
“Good luck.” I said approaching Rainbow Dash at the starting line.
“May the best pony win.” Rainbow Dash said popping her neck.
Rainbow Dash’s name was being chanted from the crowd that Pinkie Pie had so graciously gathered which only added pressure, something I wasn’t a fan of preforming under. I heard what sounded like an announcer and rolled my eyes. I started to wonder just how much work Pinkie put into this until I heard a whistle.
Rainbow Dash was off the line before I knew it leaving me behind. I bolted as fast as I could trying to block out the crowd. The pegasus was incredibly fast and the distance between us continued to grow at an alarming rate.
It was a hopeless endeavor as I reached the other side Rainbow Dash had already crossed the finish line, even without her wings she was still incredibly fast. I gave up and walked across the field in order to avoid walking all the way around.
Twilight helped the pegasus with the harness which Rainbow Dash was relieved to be free of. She stretched her wings out and flapped them a few times, checking to make sure they still functioned. She gave a small flex as the crowd cheered her name for her victory. While I was disappointed I wasn’t too upset already having an idea of how this would have turned out.
“Next up is Pinkie Pie’s suggestion, Tug of War.” Twilight said taking a few notes.
“You got this.” Applejack said giving me a gentle nudge in the leg as we approached a mud pit with a rope.
Rainbow Dash gripped the rope with her teeth. I could just make out a smirk which looked comical with a rope in her mouth. I picked up the other end of the rope and gripped it tightly with both hands as Rainbow Dash pawed at the ground with her hoof and unfurled her wings in anticipation. She was really getting into this.
“Go!” sounded a voice over a speaker system which I was stunned they had.
I felt a slight tug on the rope followed by several more solid ones. Rainbow Dash seemed to be having trouble. I could tell she was trying her hardest to get me to budge, but her progress was hardly noticeable. I could feel my feet slip a little bit and adjusted myself accordingly to stay balanced.
“Is it my turn?” I asked playing the ignorant card.
“phat er hue halking habout?” Rainbow Dash asked her words muffled a bit.
I took a step back and found it relatively easy. There was some resistance, but it wasn’t enough to make up for the body size difference. A stunned look crossed her face as she dug her hooves into the ground in an effort to stop her gradual advance towards the mud pit.
Rainbow Dash’s body was just too light in comparison. She had to be in order to stay airborne. This seemed more like a test of physics than a fair test of strength and for a split second I felt bad about it, until Rainbow Dash took to the air to try and use her wings to her advantage.
She pulled back making me lose a bit of ground. I gave a rather forceful tug which seemed to have the desired effect of pulling her closer. Rainbow Dash wasn’t about to quit despite the hopelessness of the situation. Two more tugs and the red flag crossed my side.
“That’s one for Daniel.” Twilight said taking a few notes down.
The crowd was silent for a few seconds in disbelief. It was obvious who the crowd favorite was. Applejack looked around before giving a whistle which got the crowd back in the spirit of the game. Rainbow Dash had a stunned look on her face as she relinquished the rope.
“I…lost?” the cyan pegasus asked aloud.
“Told ya you had this.” Applejack said with a tip of her hat in my direction. I gave a nod in return
“So what’s next boss?” I asked my hands were a little sore from pulling on the rope so hard without gloves.
“Pushups, surely you can do those.” Twilight replied.
“Oh goodie.” I said rolling my eyes.
Having a father in the military was not the ideal situation for avoiding the fate of having to endure JROTC in high school to gain his acceptance and endure a torturous amount of pushups, drill exercises, all for it to be for nothing upon finding out you couldn’t serve and never hear the end of it. The word ‘pushup’ put a bad taste in my mouth.
Rainbow Dash was already waiting for us in the middle of the track. Her expression was a little less smug now and more determined than it was before. She had shaken off her loss and I had the sinking feeling this was something she could quite possibly beat me at.
I lowered myself onto the ground and got ready. Rainbow Dash did the same, concentration evident on her face. I was never the best when it came to pushups and usually lost when it came to any debate had in school in JROCT. Our instructors would have us settle disputes with sit-ups or pushups and I resented them for it, band was far more democratic.
“GO!” screamed Pinkie Pie’s voice.
We both started at the same pace while Applejack and Rarity kept count for us respectively. Rainbow Dash didn’t stay matched with me long though, picking up speed as I started to slow down. I was kicking myself for not being in better shape than I was. Despite the growing pain in my arms I forced my body to keep going, each time I tried to rise back up this became increasingly difficult to do.
I couldn’t take it anymore and propped myself up on my elbows, giving Rainbow Dash the win. My arms were throbbing from being forced to carry on past my limit. The cyan pegasus rose up off the ground and the crowd started cheering her name again.
“Well that was short lived, but insightful.” Twilight said recording my defeat.
“You have a way with words you know that?” I asked rhetorically.
“So I’ve been told, this next one should put you on equal ground though.” Twilight said.
I sighed as I got to my feet and picked up what little was left of my pride. I was thankful I was the only human here, otherwise this would be even more embarrassing. Twilight’s plan to make things even must be the one little event she wouldn’t tell me about.
I was shocked when I saw what exactly she had in mind in order to have a test of wits. Thereon a table was what looked like...Boggle. The gears of my mind came to a grinding halt. I had seen speakers, cameras, and a variety of other things which made me question how advanced the ponies where when it came to technology.
"Boggle...you're going to make us play a game of Boggle?" I asked in disbelief.
"Yeah I'm kind of lost on this one too." Rainbow Dash confessed.
"What's Boggle? This is just a game where you find the words the cubes make." Twilight replied.
"That's what Boggle is." I said.
"Oh...well I thought it would be beneficial for you win or lose." Twilight said.
"So why do I have to do this?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"She thinks this will determine who's smarter." I replied.
"Fine, let's get it over with." Rainbow Dash said with a sigh.
The crowd grew quiet as we got situated for this absurd game. I personally hated Boggle, but was decent at it. While Rainbow Dash was athletic, I had no idea how intelligent she was. I couldn't assume based on interest, some jocks from school had been smart enough to land pretty decent jobs after high school, the key word being some.
"You can write in your language if you want, since there's somepony here who can read it." Twilight offered.
The blocks were in their strange symbols which I had come to have a better understanding of with each passing day. The reading material I had was steadily increasing in difficulty so I felt confident enough to keep up with Rainbow Dash.
"No, you wanted this to be fair so that's how it's going to be." I said declining the offer.
The box containing the cubes was shaken and set down as was a small hour glass. I wanted to know how in the world this existed here. Was it just called the Word Game in Equestria? If so it was kind of unimaginative.
Rainbow Dash had started writing with her mouth looking at the cubes. She was a much faster writer than I was, but she also took a bit longer to spot some of the longer words. The longer ones were worth more points, but shorter ones added up if you could find enough of them.
I started to see the reasoning behind Twilight's choice. This was also the only thing she assumed I'd be able to pick up quickly enough. It was certainly a test for my memory falling back on all of the letters and word lessons I'd had to endure.
I looked up to see the sand in the top of the hour glass almost empty. I started to search frantically for anything I might have missed. There was nothing obvious that jumped out at me at first glance which made me nervous and wonder if I had enough to beat Rainbow Dash.
"Time!" called Spike.
Twilight took our two sheets and looked them over. I had only been able to get twenty down before time had been called. Writing in their language was slow, to me anyways. Rainbow Dash had been putting down words left and right with ease.
"Rainbow Dash wins...by a lot actually." Twilight said impressed.
"Really? Yes!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as her name was chanted by the crowd again.
I stood up and stretched before turning to leave. I was going to tell her good game, but watching her soak up the attention led me to believe it'd be a while before I'd get to tell her much of anything.
As I walked to the pond I had come to call my 'get away from it all' place I couldn't help but think of the story I had told Spike and Pinkie Pie. I chuckled a little at my current situation and associated it to King Ghidora's end result of trying to out do Godzilla. While I hadn't been hit by a radioactive blast, my ego was still pretty bruised.
"Hey." came Rainbow Dash's voice from above.
The pegasus was standing on a tree branch looking down at me. Her face was less menacing than usual which was surprising since she was the one who didn't put much trust in me.
"Come to gloat?" I asked.
"I wanted to know why you didn't write in..whatever you're used to?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Because I wanted it to be fair. I could have wrote much faster and spotted words a lot quicker as well if it was in my language, but I'm not on Earth any more, this is your world. I'm trying to learn to play by your rules, but it hasn't been easy, and I almost gave up." I said.
"I know...maybe...maybe I was a bit quick to judge you." Rainbow Dash said gliding out of the tree.
"I've been told you're just really defensive of your friends." I said making her smirk.
"Do you want to start over?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Sure." I replied.
"One thing though, the name's Rainbow Dash, not Skittles." Rainbow Dash said holding her hoof out.
"Daniel." I said bumping her hoof with my fist.
"Come on, before I left Pinkie had an after competition party started." Rainbow Dash said leading the way back to where our small competition had taken place.
"So why did you call me Skittles anyways?" the pegasus asked.