//------------------------------// // Obstacle #1: The family // Story: Brony Minds // by Neawt Da Pigeon //------------------------------// “Milo…What is going on in here?” my mom demanded as she gazed around my room. “Mom!! I…uh…I can explain” I stammered, knowing full well that I could never explain what was happening. Heck, I didn’t even know what was happening right now! “You cleaned your room without me even asking you to!” “Oh”, I said as I looked where the mane six had been moments before. They weren’t there. “I wanted to clean my room because I was tired of the mess” I lied. “I’m so happy that you are taking charge and doing things that make our home a better place hon!” my mom said bubbling with happiness. “It’s time to get ready for school, hurry up”. My mom then left my room and closed the door leaving me alone once again. “Where did you guys go?” I said to the air as I looked around for the ponies. Then there was a small “pop” and there were once again six multicolored pastel ponies in my room. Twilight was panting slightly as her horn’s glow faded. My room was then filled with chatter. “I thought we were done for!” Applejack said. “My heart almost jumped out of my chest” whispered Fluttershy. “That was a very close call Milo” Twilight said, “I was barely able to cast an invisibility charm and a simultaneous silence bubble around all of us before we were seen”. “Yeah that was a close one, but hey now we know that you guys will be able to hide when it is necessary” I suggested. “Yes I guess that’s good” Twilight said. “Now I will need to start working on the spell to try and take us home. I will try and figure out what exactly sent us here from the ruins and create a counter spell that unweaves the previous spell and reforms it to our needs to send us back across dimensions back to where we came from! This is going to be great! Also when we get home I can write a research paper about it!” exclaimed Twilight as she clapped her hooves together. She then used her magic to levitate a note pad and a pencil from my desk nearby. “Well I know that I’m not good at egg head stuff, so what am I going to do in the meantime?” asked Rainbow Dash. All the other ponies mumbled in agreement. “Well…you guys could go outside and do whatever, like I said earlier, or if any of you would like you can come to school with me so long as Twilight casts the invisibility spell on you first” I offered. “Nah I think we will be good here” Applejack concluded. “I’ll just go outside and practice some maneuvers” Rainbow Dash said. “I want to spend some time with the animals here” Fluttershy chimed in. “I will work on improving your, um, lovely bedroom Darling” Rarity grinned. “Yeah I guess it could do with some improvements, anything to make you ponies more comfortable. Just don’t start moving anything around until my family all leaves the house, which will be around 8:00.” I instructed. “And nothing too extreme”. “I’m going to start working on a welcome to…um…where are we again?” Pinkie Pie asked. “America” “Oh right. I’ll start working on our welcome to America party!!” Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced into the air at the same time confetti mysteriously exploded from nowhere. “Ok. Have a good time while I’m gone. I’ll be back in about five hours” I said. I reached down and grabbed my backpack from where I had shoved it in my hurried cleanup and walked out of my bedroom door. I snagged my keys off of the entry table and hopped into my car to head to school. The whole way there I could not stop thinking about how the entire main six are now living at my house and I get to help them. This was just so awesome. *^*^* I Hurried to my car after school and started the engine so my car could start cooling off on this hot afternoon. I pulled out of my parking spot and set off for home. When I reached my house and parked the car there were no other people in sight. Good sign number one, I was the first one home and there were no FBI people surrounding my house. I hurried into my house and shut the front door. My house was still intact and there was no baking or party materials plastered to the walls. Good sign number two, pinkie hadn’t destroyed my house. I then turned down the hallway and headed to my room. When I opened the door I was pleasantly surprised to find that my room wasn’t changed very much, but still had some great improvements. I half expected rarity to turn the place into a fashionista’s dream studio. The other ponies must have helped guide her…creative…inspiration. She was quietly stitching something as she laid on one of the makeshift beds I had made earlier. I had no idea where she found the needle, maybe she always kept one with her in case of emergencies? “Welcome back Milo” Twilight greeted me as she walked away from my desk where she had been working, “how was school?”. “Oh it was fine” I assured her as I walked over to my bed and slid my backpack underneath it. I turned to face Rarity. “So what did you end up improving while I was gone?” I asked. “Well Darling, I cleaned up a tad and I organized your closet to provide maximum use of space and made everything easier to find based on a system of temperature cross referenced with style”. “I also took the liberty of drawing up some plans to make our beds better. I don’t mean to be rude, bit I was also looking at your clothes and I thought I could help with your fashion sense” Rarity admitted. “Yeah that would be great Rarity!” I responded. Some improved fashion advice from a professional, be it that she is a pony professional, could really help improve my self-image. “Where is everypony else?” I asked Rarity. “Oh, well Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy are all outside and Pinkie is probably in the kitchen” Rarity informed me. “Ok, thanks. I’m going to go see how the others are doing and I will be right back” I said, speaking to both Rarity and Twilight who both went back to what they were doing. I hopped out of my bedroom window and walked a little ways out from my house. “Hello, anypony out here?” I called, knowing full well that Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy had to be out here because they weren’t inside. All of the sudden there was a blue and rainbow colored streak across my vision and when I could see again Rainbow Dash was hovering right in front of me. “Hey, what’s up Milo” Rainbow Dash greeted me. “What were you up to while I was gone?” I inquired. “I was just practicing some flight maneuvers and flying over the area to see what’s going on around here” she answered. “That’s great Rainbow, do you know where Fluttershy and Applejack are?” “Yeah Flutters is over by the creek just a little ways over there and AJ is Bucking some trees” “Thanks Rainbow. Can you head inside for me? I want to gather everypony together and have a little meeting real quick” “You got it” There was another colorful blur and Rainbow Dash was gone again. I was really grateful my parents decided to live on the edge of town with a large property. Having this much space and being right next to the woods was nice and provided a lot of entertainment. There was also a creek right along the edge of the woods that was almost like an invisible wall keeping the woods from growing any closer to my home. Of course Fluttershy would be by the… wait did Rainbow Dash say AJ was Bucking some trees?! I hurried over to where I heard the classic apple bucking noise and I found applejack bucking my family’s few apricot trees. “Applejack are you bucking my apricot trees?” I asked, worried. I didn’t know if harvesting fruit like this in my world would work the same. “Sure am. I noticed your trees had reached pickin’ time and I thought I’d help you out a little, seein’ as you’re helpin’ us out so much” Applejack said as she bucked the tree she was standing by. To my amazement all the fruit fell off the tree and into the waiting buckets that were placed around the tree just like in the show. I looked at the other few trees and they had already been bucked. Wow, I wonder what else will work that I never thought would. “Well thank you Applejack that was very nice” I told her. “Sure thing Milo. I always like doing a little hard work” she said. “Applejack could you head back to my room? We are going to have a meeting as soon as I get Fluttershy and Pinkie” I said. “Alright” she said as she started towards my bedroom window. I then headed over towards the creek where I could see some yellow. When I approached the creek I heard Fluttershy’s amazing singing voice as she sang to the animals of the woods. There were all manner of birds and small jackrabbits clustered around her to listen to the concert she was giving. “Wow Fluttershy, you have an amazing voice” I said after a few moments of just enjoying her music. “Ah!” Fluttershy screamed in her whispery voice, obviously startled. All the animals then scattered back into the woods. “Oh I’m so sorry I scared you” I apologized. “Oh…um...hi...Milo. It’s fine. And…um…thank you for the compliment” she whispered, barely audible. “You’re welcome. I just came to get you because we are going to have a meeting in my room ok?” I told her. “Oh alright” she said. She then slowly flew next to me and followed me back to my bedroom window. Once inside I saw all of the other ponies there sitting in a circle on their beds, except Pinkie. Just then Pinkie bounced into the room with a tray full of cupcakes balanced on top of her frizzy mane. How she could balance things on that thing amazes me. “Pinkie nice of you to join us. I see you made cupcakes” I observed as she came to a stop in the middle of the group. “Yeah I made one for everypony!” she said excitedly, “I also made some for your family too Milo, because I’m not going to be a greedy mare and not share these delicious cupcakes with everyone who lives in this house”. “That was nice of you Pinkie, thanks” I said as I reached over and snagged one off of the tray. All of the other ponies did the same either with a hoof or with magic. “Alright everypony down to business” I began, “you all were amazing while I was gone today so thank you very much. Also tomorrow after school I am going to work with Rarity to make you some nicer beds. Twilight have you made any progress on the spell to get you home?” I asked. “I have been trying to figure out the exact cause and method how we were brought here, once I figure that out it should be fairly easy to create the counter spell. However, it will still take a while because I am having to work off of memory alone because I don’t have any of my books to use to help” she explained. “It’s ok Twi, take as long as you need” Applejack reassured. All of the other ponies agreed with Applejacks statement. “Is there anything that I could do to help you along?” I asked. “Well, having access to some books would be nice” she admitted. I walked over to my desk and opened the cupboards above it. “These are all of the books I own, I’m sorry almost all of them are just fiction” I apologized. “You could come with me to the school tomorrow and pick out some books from the library that you could use to help your research” I offered. I didn't think it would be a good idea to show Twilight the internet because that could lead to a lot of problems. One being the airing of the show My Little Pony, and second I don't know how she would use the keyboard without hands. “Yeah that would be a big help to my studies” Twilight agreed. “Since Twilight will be coming to school with me tomorrow I think it’s a good idea that you all come as well. After all she is the only one who can cast the invisibility and silence spell to keep you all safe” I said. “That’s a great idea, it can also help me see what the styles of your world are to help improve your wardrobe” Rarity declared enthusiastically. The ponies all confirmed that it would be a great idea. “I don’t know if I can do it though Milo” Fluttershy said, “I hate being in a large group of people that I don’t know very well, and I have always had bad experiences with school”. “You’ll be fine Fluttershy. You will be invisible the whole time and Twilight's spell makes it so that no one can hear you” Rainbow Dash reassured. “Oh right. I will be ok then” Fluttershy said. “Speaking of being invisible and silent, Twilight could you possibly make it so that I could see and hear you while still being seen and heard by everyone else?” I asked. “It would require a little tweaking and a little more energy and concentration to cast the spell, but yes Milo I think I can do that” Twilight said. “Alright” I said rubbing my hands together, “tomorrow we go to school”. “My parents and family get home around six so feel free to do whatever you would like until then. At six either stay hidden outside or come inside so Twilight will be able to hide you on short notice. Once the sun sets everypony needs to be inside so I can shut my window. Ok?”. There was then an affirmation from everypony and they slowly left to return to their various activities. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. I did my homework and chatted with rarity a little bit on what I would like my new clothes to look like. I also went out of my room to do my chores and some other daily routine things so my family would know I existed and was safely home. Hopefully after a while of my new routine of spending a lot of time in my room or outside, my family wouldn’t question me and maybe one day soon I could show the ponies to them without life as we know it being completely changed. When the sun set Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy all came in and I closed the window for the night. “Time for bed everypony” I said with a yawn as I shut off the light. All of the ponies had various ways in which they fell asleep. Rarity had fashioned a sleeping mask to cover her eyes all night, though I still didn’t know why she slept with one, perhaps I should ask her about it. Applejack and Rainbow just collapsed onto their respective beds and Applejack began to snore lightly. Rainbow Dash then shoved a hoof in AJ’s mouth to stop the snoring and turned over. Pinkie just jumped on her bed for a while until it became soft enough for her to lay down and fall asleep instantly as well, just like in the episode “Do Ponies Dream of Magic Sheep”. Fluttershy floated slowly back to the ground after her usual hovering and she curled and slowly fell to sleep in a yellow and pink ball. Twilight shut off the desk light and walked over to her bed. She laid down and we talked a little while about magic logistics and human world things until she didn’t respond anymore. It was way past my time to go to sleep. As I laid down and looked at the ceiling, I still couldn’t believe that this is what happened today. Part of me thought that I would wake up in the morning and it all will have been a dream. Another part of me dreaded school with the ponies tomorrow, because I had no idea how they would react to my regular school day. I turned over, closed my eyes, and fell into an uneasy, yet happy slumber as my mind kept pondering what the new day would bring.