//------------------------------// // Locals // Story: An Equestrian Cyborg // by Mr Lightning Bolt //------------------------------// Arin was walking down the dirt path that was next to the yellow equines cottage; he had been walking for around five minutes now. After a moment or two more, a couple of small cozy houses appeared in his range of vision. They were a similar coloration as the cottage from earlier, except that their roofs were brown unlike the green grass like look of the cottage. Their windows were also not circular, but instead shaped square like a normal house. Hope that there are actual people who live in this town, I don't think I ever felt so alone in my life... Thought Arin, Every creature I've encountered so far has been animals. One being a talking one, but that's besides the point. There was no humans to interact with so far, and that was digging under Arin's skin. Arin got closer and closer to the cluster of buildings, minute after minute; the buildings grew more in number giving this upcoming area the right to be called a town. It looked like a nice and cozy town, so he hoped that the locals would be much of the same. A sign was on the side of the dirt path, it read. "Welcome to Ponyville! Home to the nicest ponies in Equestria." "W-what..." Arin said now sounding like a broken record. "Ponyville... ponies... Equestria..." After a moment of flabbergast Arin opened his mouth again. "Ponies... that explains the little horse from earlier, but seriously? I'm I supposed to believe that I have somehow got stuck in a world with sapient ponies, while in the body of Raiden? I think that swords curse was insanity..." Not wanting to enter the town knowing it was full of more ponies who would probably run in terror at the sight of him, he decided to walk on the outskirts of town; see what the locals were doing from a distance. Taking a turn at the sign, he started to walk a circle around the right side of the town. He went from tree to tree, bush to bush in order to make himself less visible. After a good moment of doing that he finally got a good vantage point on a hill, behind a bush on the right side of the town. A whole spectrum of ponies could be seen with all colors of the rainbow. Some of them having horns, and wings. Some less fortunate being basic with neither of the two. A thought came to Arin's mind. He then said it aloud to himself, "now that I think about it. Didn't that yellow pony have a pair of wings?" He continued to look at the ponies, watching them go about their daily lives. Some set up stands at what looked to be the local market. One stand was selling apples, the pony next to it had orange fur and yellow hair. For some reason that pony was also wearing a stetson hat. So they also wear clothes, well it doesn't look like the norm considering the others walking around are completely naked technically speaking. Looking up to the sky, he could see a blur of colors swooping from cloud to cloud. His enhanced vision was able to make at that it was pony shaped, but it was moving so fast it was hard to determine what defining features it had. After knocking away a couple of clouds in the sky, for some reason. It stopped and Arin was able to get a better look at it. It was a cyan coated winged pony, but its most defining feature was its rainbow colored hair. both its hair and tail was every color you could imagine, and that was definitely different from the other colorful ponies; they were colorful, but not that colorful. The pony wiped sweat from its brow, and looked around satisfied at the job it had just done. Unfortunately for Arin, with the pony looking around at her work, she met eyes with him and that made his heart skip a beat. He dove back under the bush in order to hide his visage, hopefully the pony would just shrug it off and pretend to never have saw him. He could hear the wind being disturbed by the flapping of powerful wings; closer and closer it drew, eventually it was right up close to him. Clop, Clop. Sounded hooves that landed on the ground in front of the bush Arin was hiding behind. "I know you're there, show yourself," came a raspy female voice. It didn't sound pleased, and knew that she had him cornered. Arin slowly raised himself up reviling himself to the winged pony. The pony gasped in shock, then blew air out of her noise. "Alright, what type of monster are you supposed to be?" "Monster, I'm no monster I am a human." Protested Arin. "Human... never heard of it. How can I be sure you're not lying, I mean look at you. No matter how cool it looks, that is defiantly not what any friendly individual would look like." She argued. Arin looked down to the ground, "Yeah... I know I look like a freak, but you need to hear me out." The thought of trying to reason with a pony hit his mind; Never thought he would do that in his lifetime. "One minute, that's all you're getting. Then if I still think you are a threat to this town, you are gonna get well antiquated with my hooves. Mr.pain, and Ms.pain." Arin had to act fast, say something to convince her that he was not some evil scary monster. Okay, the scary part may be true, but that's besides the point. "If I really wanted to hurt these ponies, don't you think I would have done it by now. Monsters don't sneak around towns. They go into them and slaughter everyone, no remorse." The cyan pony still held her dagger glaring gaze at Arin for a bit, but it was wavering. A moment later she finally let her defense down, and relaxed her muscles. "I guess that makes sense, but why are you snooping around this town for?" "Same reason you accused me of being a monster, the looks." He replied to her question. "Yeah, sorry about that." "No problem, I don't blame you just look at me." She let out a little laugh, "Yeah... so what's your name anyway?" She asked him. "The names Arin, and yours?" "My names Rainbow Dash, fastest pegasus in all of Equestria." She boasted proudly. Looking at her hair he said, "Rainbow Dash, huh. Makes sense considering the hair." "Mane, and I think that's where my parents got the inspiration for my name. That, and that I love to fly around very fast." "Speaking of flying fast, when you were wacking those clouds away earlier it was hard to see you moving. Could only make out a pony shaped rainbow blur in the sky." He said with a bit of awe, "Hey, don't put yourself down too much, like I said. Fastest pegasus in Equestria, and you seeing my movements at that speed is pretty impressive. Most ponies can't keep their eye on me when I'm going that fast." "That is a pretty cool skill, wish I could fly. That would be awesome." He complimented her "It is awesome, you feel so free when you are in the sky... you know you're a pretty cool guy Arin. We should hang some other time." She turned around, and continued to say. " have to get back to work, still a couple of clouds left in the sky, and all." "Wait!" Arin reached out, and grabbed he shoulder. "Don't leave just yet, I have a couple important questions left. Foremost being that I need a place to lay low. Ponies are more than likely gonna react like you did when you seen me, either that or be scarred into a coma." She turned around, and looked at him again. "I think I know one place that should work for the time being." Rainbow and Arin were walking through an apple orchard for about three minutes now. They took the long way around town to get here in order for Arin not to be noticed. "These trees seem to never end, who owns all this?" Asked Arin. "My friend Applejack, she along with her family run Sweet Apple Acres; best apples in all of Equestria. Any apple related product you may want, they have it." Rainbow Dash replied. "With this many apple trees, I don't doubt it. Also, Applejack? Surprised she hasn't be sued by Kellogg's" Arin let out a soft laugh. "What do you mean by that?" The pegesus asked. "Oh, nothing you wouldn't understand." he replied. "If you say so, anyway we're almost there." They continued on their trek until they came across a nice little tree house. "This tree house belongs to three fillies I know, but they are out of town right now. Something about visiting their friend in Manehatten. My friend Rarity got a fashion deal there, so she though it would be nice to bring the little squirts along for the trip. Said it would be a excellent place to get their cutie marks, city of opportunity after all." Arin had many questions to ask her about what she just said, but thought to just save it for later. He had had such a ridiculous long day, and thought some rest would do him some good. He didn't feel all to tired, but he knew it was good for him. "There should be couple of sleeping bags in there somewhere. Heard Scootaloo talking about it being there for slumber parties." "Thanks, this means a lot to me." Arin thanked Rainbow Dash. "No problem, always willing to help a friend in need." "Friend?" Arin questioned letting the thought linger in his mind. "Yeah, friends. You're cool enough, so I guess that we're friends and all." She replied. "I'd like that, thanks." "Again, no problem don't need to be so sappy." He let out a little laugh, "Yeah." "I got to get going now, the boss is gonna flip when he hears about me leaving my post." She turned around, and said to him. "You gonna be okay with me gone?" "I'll be fine, you can head off to your job." With that Rainbow Dash took off into the sky, becoming just a blur on the horizon. Arin then turned around and made his way up the ramp to the tree house. "Nice girl, who knew ponies could be so nice." He opened the door to the tree house, and stepped on in. The tree house was small, only having a singular table with a pair of chairs, a couple of small chests, and a pedestal where someone could give a speech. "Eh... It'l do for now." With that he set out to find the sleeping bags, first looking in the chests. To his luck, they were there. They were really small for him, so he decided to just lay them down on the floor to sleep on, hopefully making it more comfortable. It wasn't the greatest, but it worked. Before closing his eyes, he thought of his friends Claire and Steven, and finally his new one Rainbow Dash.