Chapter 6: Different
“I must admit, I always did love books,” Josh stated as he was allowed entrance into the Ponyville library, which apparently was Twilight Sparkle’s home, “Still, the fact that you actually LIVE in a tree that happens to be a library is beyond ironic and it says a lot about yourself.”
“Oh?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow as she observed the human, “Care to enlighten me on your thoughts, Josh?”
“Well, books are basically paper, and paper is made from trees, and thus an entire library is located within a tree itself,” Josh said, “Plus, those who would actually LIVE at a library are naturally bookworms or nerds, which I can already tell you fit both descriptions. Seriously, I feel like I’m in a little kid’s show; what idiot would make this happen? A bookworm herd pony living in a library that just so happens to be made into a tree…original much?”
Twilight sighed and put a hoof to her face, scrunching up her eyes and trying her hardest to not lose her temper. Sure, Josh had some points, even if he did say them rather rudely. Still, she was who she was and she lived where she lived; she was happy who she was, too. Her friends had all said goodbye when they had gotten to the library, so Twilight, Spike and Josh were now all alone inside of the tree library. The dragon, naturally, wasn’t too thrilled about this, and listening to Josh’s insults didn’t help the matter.
“Stop picking on Twilight, Josh!” Spike snapped, “She’s the smartest and most talented pony in all of Equestria! She could easily silence you right now if she wanted to!”
“Silence me, huh?” Josh blinked, raising an eyebrow and looking down at Twilight, “I didn’t know that you little ponies would dare kill another creature just because they spoke their mind.”
“Wait…kill?” Twilight gasped, “That is NOT what Spike meant! He meant I could cast a spell to zip your mouth shut, which I’m honestly THINKING about doing! Why in the world would you even THINK that I would…do what you just said?”
“Uh…well, usually when you say that you’re gonna silence someone, it means you’re gonna kill them,” Josh frowned, “Man, is this whole world just about hugs and friendship and all that girly stuff? Is there seriously NOTHING imperfect about this place? You’re all living in a fantasy world and it’s disturbing!”
“Talk to me, Josh,” Twilight sighed, her horn glowing as she levitated a wooden chair over to her location before sitting down on the cushion that was on the seat, “Your world sounds…well, not to be mean, but it sounds…well…”
“It sounds evil!” Spike blurted, never shy about hiding his emotions, “All you’ve said and explained since you’ve been here sounds completely horrible! I’ll admit, I’m not much into this lovey-dovey girly stuff, either…but from where you’re coming from, I would choose Equestria a million times over.”
The human scratched the top of his head as he looked down at the baby dragon and then over at the purple pony. Even though he was snickering on the inside at being scolded by a cartoonish little dragon, his words seemed so genuine and true. Everything that Josh had seen and witnessed so far in this new world seemed like it was seriously something a little girl would think up inside of her mind. No death, no violence, no anything. It was like the perfect girly world. But, then again, what made something “girly” and what made it “loving” instead? Was this world REALLY what Josh was making it out to be?
“Josh? Hello?” Twilight’s voice rang out, snapping the human out of his daydream, “You were looking a little dazed for a moment there; something on your mind?”
“It’s…it’s just weird,” Josh sighed, turning away from Twilight and Spike and glancing at the large bookcases lining the current floor of the library, “Back where I come from, a place like this would be mocked and laughed at, not to mention being called a few choice names…mostly by punkish males in their middle or late teens. It’s…it’s a culture shock, for sure.”
“Is it really so weird for two worlds to be completely different?” Twilight spoke up, “As much as your world scares me just by what you’ve described, I’m willing to accept it for what it is and make it out to be simply another world with different creatures with different mindsets. Why is it that you cannot accept our world for being different from your own?”
“Because it’s so…so…imaginable and fake!” Josh snapped, whipping back around and pointing at the pony, “I’m talking to a purple female pony with a horn on her head and gothic coloring on her hair! I’m surrounded by buildings made out of jewels and candy! I have a little dragon who is more cute than deadly! All I see around me is cheerful smiles, hugging, singing, playing, and much more! The fields and plains are filled with happy animals and bounding wildlife, not to mention beautiful shrubbery! This place is nothing more than a dream world; there is no way something like this could ever be real. So, why should I accept something that I know is not reality?”
Twilight and Spike stared at the human, then looked at one another. To them, Josh was speaking nonsense, since this world was all that THEY knew. The two couldn’t imagine a world with such horrors or strange creatures like Josh. However, the two were trying to be nice, and they weren’t rejecting Josh like he was them. Why could Josh not accept something that was right in front of his face?
“Josh…if this is not reality…how are you standing here with us right now?” Twilight went on, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes slightly, “Do you think you’re dreaming?”
“That’s it! Of course, it’s SO obvious!” Josh gasped, snapping his fingers, “I’m in a coma and I’m dreaming right now! It’s just like Dorothy when she was in the Land of Oz! Wow, I never imagined that I would have a moment like THAT…too bad I don’t have my kitty cat here with me; she could be my Toto.”
“What…are…you talking about?” Spike asked slowly, obviously not understanding a word of what Josh just said. In response, Josh gave a little grin and crossed his arms; the sudden change in his expression scared both the dragon and unicorn.
“Now that I know that this is just a surreal dream, I have nothing to worry about!” Josh snickered, “Soon, I’m sure to be taken to a hospital and put into a bed and I’ll come out of his coma before long. I probably just got a bad bump on the head or whatnot. So, since I’m dreaming, that means I can do whatever I want without consequence!”
“Uh…WHAT?” Twilight blinked, quickly leaping off her chair, “Now, Josh, wait just a minute here! You can’t just go doing what…” However, her warnings fell on deaf ears as Josh suddenly ran right back out the library door and began laughing as he raced through Ponyville.
“Man…do we HAVE to go after him?” Spike complained, peering after the human as he vanished around a corner of the town, “I’m still kinda tired from that walk.”
“You stay here and rest then, Spike,” Twilight said, quickly trotting out the door, “With Josh thinking the way he is, he’s liable to hurt himself or somepony else! I might have to seriously strike him over the head if he keeps this up, but it’ll be worth it to save Ponyville from a crazy human!”
“Good luck! Give him an extra strike or two from me, too!” Spike called after Twilight, grinning deviously to himself as the little dragon shut the library door a moment later.
Josh was already long gone by the time Twilight Sparkle hurried out into Ponyville to find him. The human was convinced that he was in a surreal dream, much like the one the main character in one of his favorite movies back home. Therefore, he wasn’t thinking anymore about consequences and what might happen should he break some few rules. After all, this was apparently HIS dream, so it was HIS rules.
“Yee-haw! Move along, little doggie!” Josh laughed, hopping onto the back of a random pony on the streets of Ponyville and trying to ride her. The green pony, whom Josh had seen earlier, complete with a very interesting cutie mark on her flank, screamed in fear and began bucking like crazy and running in circles, somehow supporting the human on her back. The noise was so loud that it began drawing a crowd, to which more and more ponies began getting freaked out at the sight of Josh, since many of them hadn’t seen him as of yet.
Josh was a very good rider, as he proved to be when he refused to be bucked off. Eventually, after a few minutes, the little pony wore herself out and collapsed under the human, whimpering slightly and thinking that she was gonna be hurt. The crowd was at a complete loss for what to do in this situation, and Twilight still hadn’t managed to catch up just yet to put an end to all this. Finally, an apparent older pony with a tan body, grey mane and tail, and wearing small glasses stepped forward out of the crowd.
“Sir…or whatever manner of creature you may be…I must ask that you please get off Lyra at once!” the pony shouted, pointing a hoof at the human, “I must warn you that we ponies do not take kindly to outsiders harming us!”
“Aww, wow, I’m being scolded!” Josh smirked, speaking in a mocking babyish voice as he got off the pony named Lyra and walked over to the mare who had spoken, “Maybe if I close my eyes or snap my fingers, I can turn you into a pretzel, or maybe a balloon! Who wants to see me try?” The group of ponies that had crowded around to watch the spectacle got even more creeped out by this.
“Sir…you are…um…please go away?” the tan mare gulped, slowly easing herself backwards as she gazed up at the towering human strutting towards her, “I did not mean any harm…please don’t hurt me…”
“JOSH, STOP!” Twilight shouted out, pushing her way through the crowd and glaring at the human, “YOU ARE WAY OUT OF LINE!”
“Oh, goody, Twilight Sparkle!” Josh laughed, waving at the unicorn and allowing the tan mare to quickly cower behind a few other ponies, “I was wondering when my babysitter would get here.”
“I have had enough of you,” Twilight growled, her horn glowing, “If you’re gonna be stubborn and go around terrorizing everypony, then I’m afraid that I have no choice but to…”
“TWILIGHT SPARKLE LIKES RAINBOW DASH!” Josh blurted out, quickly causing a distraction before Twilight could use her magic, “THOSE TWO ARE TOTALLY IN LOVE!” Instantly, Twilight froze up in complete and utter shock, while the crowd started to murmur and make giggling noises.
“Oh my gosh, did you hear that?”
“Twilight and Rainbow Dash? Who would’ve thought!”
“They’re SO perfect for each other! The nerd and the jock! It’s SO adorable!”
“We totally have to throw them a coming-out party!”
“That’s SOOOOOOOOOOOO cute!”
“N-N-NO, D-D-DON’T LISTEN TO HIM!” Twilight screamed, turning away from Josh as her face was beet red and she looked on the verge of a mental breakdown, “I DO NOT LOVE RAINBOW DASH! Um, I mean, I DO love her…as a FRIEND…but NOT like THAT! STOP LAUGHING! THIS ISN’T FUNNY!”
“TWILIGHT AND RAINBOW, SITTING IN A TREE! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” Josh sang out, grinning deviously as he worked the crowd into an even bigger frenzy, “FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MARRIAGE! THEN COMES TWILIGHT WITH A FILLY CARRIAGE!”
As Josh had hoped, the entire crowd (or at least a good chunk of them) began playfully singing the same little song and continuing to tease, mock, or congratulate Twilight on the apparent revelation that was just revealed. The poor unicorn was so stressed, horrified, embarrassed and angry that she had no idea what to do. Thinking of her reputation before anything else, she continued to try and plead her case to the crowd, giving Josh the opportunity to quickly slip away unnoticed.
“Stupid ponies,” Josh smirked, quickly running around a few more corners as the laughing and singing died down behind him, “But, this is MY dream, so whatever I want to happen WILL happen! It’s a good thing I’m good at memorizing names; why would I WANT to remember the names of horses? But, it just seemed that that rainbow pony was obviously a lesbian, and she was the first one I thought of. The crowd seemed to buy it, so that all that matters. Now…why am I talking to myself?”
As Josh pondered exactly WHY he was talking out loud to himself, he realized that he had wandered out of Ponyville and was now facing a rather large and dark forest. He paused and looked a bit hesitant as he observed the foreboding forest. Even for someone brave like him, and even if this was just an apparent dream, going into a forest like this didn’t seem like such a great idea. Then again, he didn’t want to be caught and be given another annoying lecture by Twilight; that was ALL he needed. So, between potentially heading into something dangerous or facing an angry Twilight Sparkle, the human boy chose to venture into the forest.
“Pony or not, facing an angry girl is like facing Jason Voorhees on his favorite day of the year,” Josh muttered to himself, sliding his hands down into the pockets of his shorts as he began walking along the path into the dark forest.
The forest itself was incredibly creepy. The trees were dark and scraggy and crowded together, barely allowing anyone to see past them. The path was overgrown by vines and shrubbery. Weird animal noises screamed out from deep within the forest, most of which Josh couldn’t identify. Now that he thought about it, he racked his mind and seemed to recall one of the six ponies from before mentioning something about this forest during the tour. What was it they called it? The Evergreen Forest? The Never Free Forest?
“Oh, right, the Everfree Forest!” Josh snapped his fingers, “Quite a stupid name, if I do say so myself, but still an interesting place. I do love exploring, so let’s just see how far I can go before I’m forced to turn back or that annoying Twilight finds me and starts nagging me to death again.” The human found a good-sized stick along the path, which he picked up and began using as a walking stick, not to mention using it as a sword for fighting invisible beings in front of him.
The human continued to walk through the forest, whistling a little tune to himself and not showing any fear about where he was. Of course, this was just a dream, so anything in the forest that was potentially deadly couldn’t really hurt him even if they wanted to. It wasn’t long before he suddenly came to a huge patch of blue flowers, which were no bigger than daffodils.
“Hello…what do we have here?” Josh mused, bending down and poking at some of the flowers with his walking stick, “Pretty little things, aren’t you? In a weird place like this, seeing something pretty and colorful is actually kinda refreshing. Huh…colorful…in a place like this…” The human paused and closed his eyes for a moment. A strange thought had crept into his mind. It was almost like these flowers were the color to an otherwise black and grey forest. Sure, the forest weren’t those colors at all, but Josh couldn’t help but think of how something so colorful and jubilant was located within a place so dull and foreboding. It was so out of place and odd.
“…kinda reminds me of how I’m stuck in a dream world that I don’t belong in,” Josh sighed, looking up at the sky and shaking his head, “I’m just like these flowers. I’m something different located in a place that I don’t belong…it makes you wonder why you even exist. No one cares or even knows about these flowers being here, just like no one really cares about why I’M here in this world. All those ponies care about is getting me to see ‘their way’ of thinking and making sure I ‘behave myself’…I’m not wanted, so I’m gonna make it clear that I do not like it here. Why like a place that doesn’t want you?”
The human shook his head again and reached down with his hand to gently stroke one of the pretty blue flowers. As his fingers grazed the petals, he felt a weird tingling sensation spread throughout his body. It was a sensation that he had never felt before; almost like a feather was slowly creeping its way from the top of his head to the bottom of his toes, but from the inside and not the out. When he removed his finger from the flower, the feeling went away.
“Weird…so weird…” Josh muttered, standing back and stretching, “Well, whatever…see you later, flowers.” He smiled weakly down at the patch of strange, blue flowers before politely going around them to continue on with his walk, since he didn’t want to step on or wreck the pretty plants.
While continuing to walk along, Josh noticed something resembling a house coming up rather quickly. Slowing up his pace, Josh hesitated upon going any further. It seemed that, even in this deep and dark forest, that he wouldn’t be able to avoid ponies. This instantly drove him crazy, since he was seriously tired of colorful talking ponies that were always telling him how to act. He seriously considered just turning around and heading back the way he came, but something seemed to be telling him to check the strange house out.
“I KNOW I’m gonna regret this, but…oh, screw it, may as well make another pony freak out at the sight of me,” Josh grumbled, using his walking stick now like a cane as he ambled slowly towards the house. As he got closer, he realized it was more like a hut rather than a real house, and the decorations were incredibly strange. The colors were very different from the ones he saw in Ponyville. In fact, the entire hut itself seemed so out of place from what he had seen thus far. This got Josh very intrigued as he drew himself closer and closer to the door.
Upon stepping up to the door, Josh hesitated to knock or make himself known, so he eavesdropped a little bit first. He laid his ear to the door and tried to listen to what was possibly inside. At first, all he could hear was the slight bubbling of something, possibly a pot of water or a cauldron. Then, he thought he could hear someone chanting or murmuring something. Once again, the voice sounded so…different. Something was telling him that this might not be a pony at all, but if it was, it was certainly not like any of the others. This got the human even more intrigued.
“Okay…you can do this, Josh…” the boy sighed, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, “You’re just gonna knock on the door and say hello…nothing wrong with that. It’s probably just a stupid pony who is obsessed with being weird…wouldn’t shock me to see one of those types in a world such as this. Just knock on the door, introduce yourself, and then be on your way…you can’t run from that stupid Twilight forever. Until you wake up from this dream, she’s all you have to rely on.”
Very slowly, Josh made a fist with his right hand and lifted it up to the door. He softly made some taps on the door, before increasing them to be a bit louder and heavier. He had no idea why he was so nervous and why he had lost all his bravado from before. Plus, why was he so worried what others thought of him? He was who he was, after all, and no person or pony could change him; it was up to him to change, if he ever wanted to. He glanced down at the doorstop and muttered to himself, just before the door slowly creaked open.
There, standing in the doorway, was…what WAS she? Josh immediately guessed that she was a zebra, but…she also looked like a pony, too. She was basically the same size as a pony, but she had the colors and looking of a zebra. She had a weird Mohawk for her mane, which was a first for Josh to see in this new world. She had shiny yellow rings around her neck, around one of her legs, and for earrings. She also appeared to have a cutie mark on her flank, which seemed to be a sun or something. Still, as soon as he laid eyes on the girl, Josh realized that she was very different.
The zebra stared up at the human, who stared back intently at the zebra. Since this was the first time either of them had seen the other, they were both honestly shocked to see that neither of them seemed to be scared or even weary of what the other was. In fact, the zebra looked a bit fascinated at seeing Josh, and soon she was smiling up at him.
“This is quite an interesting surprise,” the zebra spoke, “May I ask who it is that has graced my eyes?”
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great stoy but what bothers me is how much of a douche Josh is.....
wow josh is such an ass its making it hard for me to love and tolerate that he's picking on Twilight
cliffhanger detected! prepare the orbital moar cannon!
aim!
fire!
MOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!
Twilight is going to Love and Tolerate the shit out of Josh.
35560
She is going to something the shit out of josh, but I don't think it will be love and toleration.
files.diagonalfish.net/lolpix/approval/brilliant.jpg
35827
That's creepy
I really want to see 1 of the 3 things happen to Josh:
1. The flower he smelt causes his personality to change and his heart to open, Poison joke I think was the flower he smelt
2. He bonds with Zecora and she opens his eyes to the pony world,
3. Josh has an emotional breakdown where all of the feelings and sadness pour out of him as tears, acting as the turning point in his douchery
It's really hard to explain, I hope you guys can see what I'm trying to say.
I hate the way he's acting, but man, this is what makes it an interesting story.
RD is not lesbian.
NOT AFTER MANLY SPITFIRE.
godfuckingdammit.
35429What? thats what makes this story so good, Im sick of all the same old story's of a goody goody protagonist, this is a refreshing change
37862
Although those endings will bring a conclusion to the story, they would feel cliché if portrayed incorrectly. I wish something different. A rushed change would make the lols fade away.
lol
I laughed so much at Josh's distraction technique.
Oh god... Dash is going to kill him.
i feel like doing this to josh for being such a dick
Oh goody, he got poison joked. I wonder if he's going to have a tea party with Zecora?
Just finished reading this chapter...I skipped half...I CAN'T FACE WHAT HE WAS DOING! I'M LAUGHING TO DAMN HARD!
I wonder if the Poison Joke will turn Josh into a pony; that would be weird, but I got to thinking that after the sentence "It was a sensation that he had never felt before; almost like a feather was slowly creeping its way from the top of his head to the bottom of his toes, but from the inside and not the out."
Uh. Oh.