Hit the Ground Running

by Flash_Game

Early Autumn Days

The night were starting to get colder, but apparently I was the only one who could feel it. Everyone else still noticed, but I was the only one closing their jacket, I won't get to wear my hoodie again am I? I guess its Noctis's now...

I stepped outside the house and felt the cold air lick my neck, which encouraged me to lift the neck of my faux leather jacket, "What can I do today?" I said to my self as I wandered towards town hall

As soon as I got to town square, the PKE chimed, It's been a while... I though as I took it out, "Nice! Blue, maybe I won't get a repeated holotape this time," I whispered following the peak. Soon I was standing at the doors to the Mayor's office, SERIOUSLY?? "Ughh... Okay, fine," I reluctantly knocked on the door as I put the PKE back on my belt

"Come in," said the Mayor

I opened the doors and stepped in, "Good morning, Mayor Mare, how are thing going?"

The mayor stopped rummaging through the filing cabinets and hopped over stacks of files, "Oh! Prince! We didn't have an appointment scheduled, did we?" she started to panic and hastily looking through her desk trying to find something, "Oh dear Celestia..." she whispered

"Oh, no! Nothing like that. I wanted to ask you a question, but I see you already have a lot in your hands... Mind if I help?"

"Please! *Ahem* I mean, that would be very much appreciated," she went back to the filing cabinets, "Start ever on the other side. I need to find the file on Twilight Sparkles household. This morning she decided to register an owl of all things as a pet!"

"Honestly, that doesn't surprise me," Apart from the fact I already knew this was going to happen... "Is this document about the library or Twilight?"

"The library"

I stopped in a position where I could see all the cabinets and the files on the floor, Let's see... Any second now...

One of the cabinets turned to a CRT green, like VATS, as the check succeeded. I approached it and looked through the drawers until... "Found it!" I took out the folder with 'Library Living Quarters' written on the lip, Got to love scrapper 2

"What?!! Let me see," I handed her the document, and immediately she went through it, "You did find it! How??"

"My special abilities"

"Thank you. Now what was it that you needed?"

"Before we do that, let's clean up a little," I said looking over all the files on the floor

"Oh, there is no need to worry," she glanced at the floor, "I don't suppose you abilities let you organize this in an instant?"

"No, but a little work never killed anyone," I said as we began to clean

After we fixed up the room, she asked again,"What was it that you needed, Luis?"

I took out the PKE, "I found some readings on this, I was wondering if you would let me look around and see if I find anything"

"Of course, there is no issue"

"Thank you," I began to follow the signal again, and found a smoke grenade behind one of the cabinets, "There you are..." I threw it up and caught it, "Nice"

"It seems every time you are in town those things start appearing. What are they?"

"They are... something only I can make a use of... they hav- give me abilities I can use"

"Like what you used?"

"To find the file? Yes, I got that from one of these," I tossed the nade once more, "Anyways, thank you for letting me look for it"

"I should be thanking you, it took me all morning to go through all those files... Thank you, prince for your assistance"

"I already told you don't need to call me 'prince', anyways, it was no bother, enjoy your day," I started heading towards the door

"I will, and thank you, Luis"

I stepped out of town hall, Where can I go use the nade... Oooh, I know... I fast travelled to the entrance to the Everfree

"Here we go," I said throwing the grenade. After it generated, I opened it, "Two holotapes... it's been a while since I got more than one"

-Quest: Rewards
Allows the spawning of better and unique loot as quest rewards
-Quest: Radiant
Adds a chance of a timed quest activating without interaction with quest giver

"Not bad. Now, what else do you bring?" lifting the foam, I uncovered a box of .38 ammo and an ink cartridge for my pen, I was actually running out of ink, how convenient! Of course the box of ammo only had fourteen bullets, but whatever, it's not like I have a gun to use them

---

"That's the last one, everypony!" AJ yelled as she finished stacking the barrels

"Awesome!" I said walking up to her, "You know, I've never had genuine apple cider. Anyways, it was fun helping. See you later, gotta go back to the family"

"Sorry, sugarcube, but Ah can't let you leave," she produces a mug of cider, "Not without some genu-ine straight from the barrel Apple family apple cider!"

I took the mug, "Try saying that five times fast," raising the mug, I gave my thanks and bottoms up, "Ahhh, that's a fantastic drink!"

"Eeyup!" Bic Mac said with approval

"I was fun helping you guys, I'm heading hom- Woah!" A bag of bit was tossed at me, "What's this?"

"Payment, of course. We wouldn' have you doin' no jobs with no compensation, now would we?"

"Guess not... Anyways, uhm, see you later!"

"Thanks Luis!!" Yelled Apple Bloom from the barn

I waved at her and made my way down path. Granny Smith was finishing the sign for their stall, she seemed to have no trouble even though the sun wasn't even out yet, "Goodbye Granny, it was fun, and thank you for letting me help"

"Thank you, Sonny Jim. We might have enough cider this here season and all thanks to you," She then eyed me suspiciously, this has been a common occurrence since we met, "I still say you look mighty similar to a gentlecolt I met when I was but a young lady"

Again with this? I sighed, "No... I don't... I'm not even a po- oh nevermind. See you later, Granny"

"Now you take care," she said with a wave

I wasn't really paying attention as I walked pass the fence, I turned a right and immediately tripped over something, "Ow! What the-!" I looked back at whatever just broke my stride, a tent, just a simple tent, Oh, right. Super cider machine episode, I lied on the ground finally realizing that doing the physical excursion I did all night long might have drained me, and I promptly fell asleep on the side of the road

Something stirred me from my slumber. I could tell the sun was out even with my eyes closed

"Luis?!!" exclaimed a familiar voice

"...Hmm... five more minutes..." I turned to my side tucking my hands under my head

"What?? NO! You can't sleep on the ground!" Noctis said a good bit exasperated

"Ugh, fine," I slowly sat up, wiping the sleep from my eyes, "You know, anything is comfortable if you're tired enough," I looked at her and gave a two finger salute, "What's up, Red?"

She wiped some dirt off my face, "How did you end up sleeping outside our tent?"

"'Our' tent?" I said with a raised eyebrow

"HI, LUIS!!!" shouted a pink face VERY close to mine

"AH!"

"I'm with Pinkie"

"I noticed," Wait a minute... "Where is Nimble?"

"He's with Rumble and some other colts from school. They had a sleepover, remember?"

"Oh, right," Pinkie's unusually quiet... I look at the earth pony only to see her sitting excitedly staring at the cider stand, tail wagging lifting some dust. Turning back to Noctis I asked when we had to pick him up, and then made my way home to sleep on an actual bed

==[POV - Noctis]==

I watched him as he sluggishly made his way down the road until he was out of sight, What am I going to do with him...

"Alright everypony! Cider season will open on a few minutes!," AJ yelled, "Please take this time to pack up! Thank y'all kindly!"

Without missing a beat, Rainbow came out of her tent, "OH YEAH! I'm gonna drink so much cider," she looked at me, "Noctis, thank you so much for giving me this idea!"

"It was Pinkie's idea"

"True. But you told me"

"I couldn't leave my boss friend hanging after she talked about cider nonstop for the past week"

RD rubbed her neck with embarrassment, "Hehe, thank you"

Fluttershy came out RD's tent, "Uhmmm... thank you for inviting me, Rainbow..."

"Thank Noctis. If it wasn't for her, we've wouldave been at the end of the line, and dear Celestia I could not stand to not get cider on day one. Not this year"

"By the way Fluttershy, is somepony taking care of your animals this morning?"

"Oh... no, Angel helps me on days like this," she said with glee

"That's good to hear, I was worried we dragged you here and left your animals without food"

"Oh, no. Angel knows what to do"

We then proceeded to pack up our tents, somehow Pinkie stuffed them into her mane... Still not sure how she does half the things she has done. Not too soon after we finished, cider season was officially opened and so we got ourseflves mugs of the ember gold. It was so good I couldn't help but to get a second mug. As soon I was done with my mug, I heard something mechanical in the distance, so I flew up to see if I could manage to identify it. Some sort of machine was approaching the farm but it was too far to know what it was, it would probably take it a couple of hours to get to the gate, probably less. I rocketed home to get Luis, thinking that maybe he'll know about this

==[POV- Luis]==

I yawned while being dragged along by Noctis back to the farm, Flim and Flam... great... Maybe I could do what I've seen some people write in their fanfics and hire them for something... nah. You can't tame a conman, specially two. I should've set a trap or something, automate the process... oh, well

"Are you listening to me?!"

"Huh? Oh, no sorry. I was thinking what to do with them," I said while coming up with more ideas

"With who? The ponies using the machine? So you do know!"

"Yeah. We're here, let's wait by the post over there," I pointed to the fence post next to the stand

"Hey there, Luis. What ar' you doin' back? I thought you'd be sleepin' by now. What can I do you for?," AJ asked a bit surprised

Guess she thought I couldn't take the physical exhaustion, "I'm just here on, uhm, 'patrol'. Noctis here thought she saw something or, actually, someone approaching the farm and got worried, and asked me to give some insight"

AJ waved at Big Mac to man the stand, and approached us, "What in tarnation is coming our way?"

"Not much, just a couple of conmen," Fun fact: conman is short for confidence man, they make others trust- ... Why am I thinking this to myself?

"Wait. Are you tellin' me Ah'm supposed to get scammed?!" AJ got really worried

"Nah. They lose in the end..." And then you act really cocky, AJ... "Anyways. I've noticed some major differences from the version of your world I know and this one, I'll make sure things don't go south here. I'm not going to do much ortherwise, unless you want me to"

"Luis, why won't you do much?!" Noctis nearly left me deaf with her exasperation

"Believe me, I don't like it either, but... what if... what if I make things worse if I intervene?"

"Still on that?" she asked with disappointment hanging in her voice

"I... ... Yeah... I just..." I reached across and held my arm looking down at the ground

"If this is about savin' mah farm, Ah don't care what changes"

I looked up to face again, This isn't about you... too many variables. I want... It feels good to know what's coming for once. To have control, "Fine..." I said as the sound of the super cider machine began to get closer

"Here they come," AJ said with angst

I turned around to look at the approaching conmen, Flam was lying on his side on the couch at the front of the SSCS 6k and Flim was leaning on the podium. Their blue barbershop quartet clothing didn't look that bad

Maybe I should get myself some, in case of an acapella musical number... that magic is still weird...

The machine started to come to a stop, but it still seemed like it was going to hit the fence, so I did what I could and used the force to shift the Super Cider just enough to leave a few inches from the fence. The sudden jolt cause Flim to fall completely off the platform

Flim got up as casually and inconspicuously as he could, and both noticed that the cider was still flowing like water, which caused the brothers to share a weary look

"Well, stage one worked," I whispered to myself

"What do you mean stage one?" Noctis asked after hearing my whispers

"There is enough cider for everyone"

"Is that the only reason you helped me?" she asked with a hint of betrayal, "Just to stop them?!"

"Nah, I helped because I wanted, it also helped that more people would enjoy the cider. The thing against Flim and Flam was just a plus on top of the other things," I said with confidence causing some experience points to come my way, So close to level up...

"Oh, I see... Sorry, sugarcube"

I turned my attention back to the brothers, who have been huddled over the couch, planning, for the past minute or so.

Then, Flam got up to the podium and started a speech, "Citizens of Ponyville! My name is Flam, and this is my brother Flim. We are the Flim Flam brothers. Now, now we have come to offer you a better option in CIDER!! We realize that the cider you have is in abundance, but I must ask: is it of quality? And is it the most stupefying flavour?!"

I took a step foward, "As a matter of fact: yes. It is of the utmost quality"

He then looked at Flim with confusion for a breif second before returning to me, "And who might you be my coatless fellow?"

I was not expecting that question... "Umm... I... what??" I stared at their faces expecting them to realize, but they still looked confused, "Holy sh... I've been in this country for over- what? Four months? Three? Something like that. And not only that, I was adopted into the royal family"

They shared an other glance, "Brother..." said Flim in a bit of confused realization, "This might be the one we heard about in Vanhoover..."

"The hue-maann, you say? Hmmm"

"It-it's human actually," But they seemed so well informed in the show... The- the friendship university and the- and the... oh, never mind

Flim took a step foward, "Whoever you might be, we are not here for any trouble"

Flam, "Indeed, we're here for a simple reason"

Flim, "We would just love some simple competition!"

Flam, "What we have here is a simple machine"

Flim, "The Super Cider Squeezy 6000!"

Flam, "We offer a spectacle!"

Flim, "A battle of wits if you will"

Flam, "Industry versus tradition!"

I took a step foward with my hand up, "I'm going to stop you right there. Industry isn't as good as you might think, believe me, I know. Sure, mass productions sounds great, automation! But... it just creates overstock, so much waste! The great Pacific grabage patch, it's bigger than some countries. Don't you enjoy the clear blue skies? There are some counties where the air is literally toxic some days. Do you want that?" I sighed, I blew up, didn't I..., Flam tryed to say something but I stopped him, "Nope. Just go. Just... go..."

The brothers shared a look of concern that then turned to the SCS 6K, but then they turned back to me, "It's just cider," said Flim condescendingly and a bit of a grin

I turned to AJ and suggested, "They are in YOUR private property. You could, you know, kick them out and by law they would have to comply, otherwise... you could act in self defense"

"Technically it's Granny's land, sugarcube"

"She let's you manage it, right? If that doen't work, tell them I'll carry them away myself or something"

"I see where yer goin'," she winked and walked towards the brothers and gave them a piece of her mind

I took this time to sneak around the back of the machine till I found a panel. Before doing anything, I made sure I was still unnoticed and managed to spot the brothers' slighty scared look, That's funny... I popped open the panel to reveal some wires, Now: Sabotage I activated my skill check ability to try to ruin the machine, I'm not intelligent enough, well that's embar- I'm so dumb!! I have a magazine! I quickly activated the magazine in the pip-boy, And there we go, one 'Magic Weekly' magazine used and plus 2 INT gained. Just enough, after sabotaging, I snuck back into the crowd and to the entrance of the farm by AJ

"So, what did you do?" Noctis whispered

Not surprising that she noticed me, apparently she can pay attention to me sneaking if, and only if, she's in my party, "I made sure that the machine is useless from now on, can't be repaired without dismatling everything," At least that's what the prompt said

"Wasn't that a bit mutch?"

I noticed her glasses bing a bit crooked, so I adjusted them, she blushed a little, "Nah, just insurance," I turned back my attention back to the feud just in time to catch the end

Flam, "I guess we'll just have to come back when you are in a more agreeable mood. Brother?"

"Indeed, brother. Besides, it's not like that coatless hue-man can do anything without a horn"

I guess AJ used me as a threat

They hopped back on the SCS and tried to turn it on to leave, "What the...!!!" smoke started pouring out the back

"I told you he scammed us, brother!"

"That coocky old-! Flam I told you to be careful of his offer!"

"You were the one that inspected this thing!"

They continued their bickering for a little brief moment, but I interrupted, "Let me help you there," I lifted the brothers and the machine using my force powers and started heading for the outsides of town, As much as I would like to see them figth... they're just a nuisance at this point

Author's Note:

After another wave of writer's block, I finished this chapter

Best part? I'm finally a couple of chapters ahead!

Comments

[jen_lee_hattie]

Fluttershy came out RD's tent, " Uhmmm... thank you for inviting me, Rainbow... "

Ship!

[jen_lee_hattie]

" Oh, I see... Sorry, sugarcube "

aj get a bit of pinkie in her.

[Flash_Game]

10404531
Thanks for noticing that, I fixed it