//------------------------------//
// Chapter - 2 - Out And About 
// Story: Trojan Pony 
// by Hawker Hurricane 
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Sun shone brightly as I walked out into Ponyville. I had no particular destination in mind but I felt I should at least get to know the town I would be living in for the foreseeable future better. Ponies were already up and about setting up their shops and market stall for the day, though I wouldn't be able to buy much, if anything at all. My hotel room has very limited space and until the necessary paperwork came through I wouldn't be able to open a bank account and buy my own property. According to Princess Celestia it would be around a couple of weeks at least.

The Princess also promised to be a reference for when I apply for a mortgage and a job, not that I want her to be. I would prefer to have my own workshop so I can recreate the engineering genius of my homeland, but supplies and materials won't pay for themselves; and until I can successfully recreate something and sell it, I'd have to make do with a regular job. Preferably something with engineering. I'll check out the train station later and see if there's anything there.

Until then I just looked around seeing what was what. I did bring my saddlebags with me just in case, along with my headphones which were hanging around my neck. I couldn't go out and not take my awesome collection of banging tunes with me. A thought which reminded me of another thing I had to do. Something I had been given permission to do, within reason, from the Almighty Sunbutt herself.

Retrieve some property of mine that had been 'inadvertently appropriated' by Sparkle Butt.

First I would need to view her library and snoop around and try to find out where it is.

Then I'd have to work out how to get my stuff back.

But first I had to visit a shop I saw the day before that specialises in tea.

I only drink black tea though.

I headed for the tea shop and was pleased to see it was already open. I went in and was taken back by the sheer variety of teas available. Teas of all different flavours and colours filled the shelves and my nose was knocked six ways form Sunday from an abundance of pleasant aromas.

"Hey there, can I help you?"

I looked over to the counter and saw a dark purple Earth pony with a lighter purple mane, and a light blue scarf tied around her neck. I walked over to her to answer her, it's not polite to shout across the room.

"Yeah, do you have any black tea?"

"We sure do," she replied, turning around and getting a box down from a shelf, "How many would you like? We have boxes of 40, 80 and 120?"

"Just a box of 80 for now, I'm living in a hotel at the moment."

The mare winced at the unpleasant news, "Oh I'm sorry to hear that. Hope things work out OK for you. I'm Camellia by the way."

She extended her hoof which I gracefully took, shaking it gently, "I'm Apollo. An avid tea drinker."

Camellia giggled, "Good for me, will you be a regular here then?"

"If this tea tastes as good as it smells then definitely."

Camellia giggled again, "Charmer. If you need a tea set then I'd suggest going to Raspberry Vinaigrette down the street. She has the finest tea sets around."

"I'll pay her a visit. How much for the tea?"

"Two bits."

I levitated over two bits and put the tea in my saddle bag.

"Thank you sir."

"Call me Apollo."

"Sure thing Apollo, and you can call me Camellia."

"Great. By the way, what do you make of the creature that appeared in Ponyville the other week?"

"You mean the one half the ponies of Ponyville chased around and later Lyra, Fluttershy and a few others helped free it?"

"That's the one.” 

“I regret not welcoming him myself. Pity, he would have been another customer most likely."

"How can you be sure?"

"I could smell tea from his saddle bags as he ran past me, though he didn't see me. His tea was mixed with milk and sugar, black tea he had. I hope he's OK though."

I like this mare.

"You can tell that just from him smelling it as he ran past?"

Camellia smiled, "Well I am a specialist in tea."

"Indeed you are, my cutie mark shows my talent for illusion magic but I'm really more into engineering."

"What kind of engineering?"

"Aerospace and mechanical."

"Sounds impressive, designed anything new yet?"

"I have some plans for more powerful steam locomotives and longer carriages, whilst working on more powerful diesel engines powered by internal combustion."

"Wow! I didn't know internal combustion was possible."

I nodded, "It is, though I need to buy the parts and materials I need which won't be cheap."

"Well I wish you luck in your endeavours."

"Thank you, I'll see you again sometime"

"I'll look forward to it, goodbye now."

"Bye."

I left the store, much happier than when I went in, and headed straight for the Raspberry Vinaigrette's shop. I didn't need anything fancy, just a simple tea set for the gallons of tea I usually drink. It didn't take long to get to the shop and like with Camellia, business was swift and friendly. I bought a tea set consisting of a tea pot, four two cups and saucers, milk jug and mini sugar bowl complete with a small pair of metal tongs. The porcelain set set me back fifteen bits but it was good quality material.

I was on my way back to my hotel room to put my new tea set in a safe place when a certain purple unicorn ran up to me.

"Apollo, I want to talk to you."

"Why?" I asked, turning around to see her confused face.

"Because I want to know more about you."

"Why?"

"Because everypony knows everypony in Ponyville, we don't keep secrets from each other."

"Oh? Well I do."

She began to scowl and puff her chest out, "That's not how we do things in Ponyville, we're open with each other here."

Note to self, do not trust Ponyville ponies, especially Twilight, with anything confidential.

"Well I DO keep secrets. No doubt you will derive many hours of enjoyment trying to work out what they are."

"There's nothing you can hide from me Apollo, I will find out things about you."

"Why is it so important to you that you know things about me?"

"Because I'm studying the magic of friendship and I can only do that if I learn more about you."

"Why so interested in me? What was wrong with the creature?"

"Monster. And the monster was just that, a monster. You are a pony, a civilised being worthy of friendship."

Twilight you are becoming harder and harder to like or respect. 

"How was the creature not worthy?"

Twilight grit her teeth, "The monster, is not worthy of friendship because it attacked my friend and tried to escape justice."

"Or maybe his 'attack' was a misunderstanding and the reason he ran was because a swarm of ponies carrying pitchforks and torches wanted a piece of him."

"Where did you hear that?"

"Ponies around town. It seems certain ponies of Ponyville were the ones acting like monsters."

"Ponies of this town aren't monsters!"

"I never said they were, I said the were acting like monsters."

I could see veins in her forehead throbbing and strands of her mane popping out. Clearly I was getting to her. I got the distinct impression she didn't enjoy being outsmarted by anypony other than Princess Celestia. Speaking of being outsmarted, I thought of a way to take advantage of her intentions.

"Tell you what Twilight, I'll come round to your library in a few minutes with a puzzle. If you can solve it, I will answer your questions about me."

Immediately she beamed with joy, and smugness, "Perfect! You may as well answer my questions now because there's no puzzle I can't solve."

Twilight I can assure you that you will come to hate the name Rubik.

"Then why don't you head back to the library and wait for me? I'm interested in browsing the library's books anyway."

"You like reading?" she asked almost bursting with excitement.

"Yes."

Though what I read would go way above Twilight's head, or she wouldn't understand it. Maybe I should show her Tolstoy's War and Peace, in the original Russian. Yeah, did I mention I can speak, read and write Russian. Courtesy of my Russian father, my mother was English.

The next thing I felt was being hugged tightly by Twilight. As much as I hate to admit it, it felt nice. Pity she couldn't have reacted like that when I first entered the town. 

"That's great! You do whatever it is you're doing while I go and set things up in the library!"

She went off happily whilst I went back to my hotel room. Hopefully I wouldn't regret what I'm about to do.





"So," Twilight said, "What is this puzzle you want to show me?"

I levitated out my Rubik's cube and floated it over to Twilight. She took it in her own magic and began examining it.

"What is it? "

"A Rubik's cube. The object of the game is to get each face covered in one colour."

"Easy," Twilight said with smug confidence.

"There's 43 quintillion different combinations."

Twilight looked up at me and laughed, "Don't be silly, how can something so small have that many combinations?"

"You're right. There's actually 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 different combinations."

"You're making that up!"

"Nope. Do the maths yourself if you don't believe me."

"I will do, but only after I complete it."

"Fair enough, while you're doing that I'm going to nosy round and see what you have."

She didn't answer, she was far too engrossed in the cube. I browsed the library shelves seeing what she had. Most were spell books, some on Illusion magic; some on Destruction magic. Definitely had to read that one. There were also some on history and engineering. After grabbing a few books on these particular topics I put them to one side. I looked over to Twilight and saw she was still engrossed in the cube, thirty minutes later; and from the sounds of all the grunting and groaning is anything to go by. 

Whilst she was distracted, I walked over to the door with a sign saying 'NO ENTRY'. 

So much for Ponyvillians not hiding things from each other.

I'm guessing that some of my stuff is down there, but how to get it while Twilight is around is something I'd have to work out.

"Hey Twilight, what's in here?"

Twilight turned around, surprisingly, and walked up to me.

"Just my lab."

"Can I see it?"

She looked at me suspiciously, "Why?"

"To get to know you better?"

"I don't know, there's a lot of dangerous equipment down there."

"Like things from that creature?"

"Monster. But yes. How did you know?"

"Just guessing. So can I see it?"

She looked at me suspiciously again, but eventually relented, "Fine. But no touching anything, with either your hooves or magic."

I nodded in 'agreement' and followed her into her lab. I followed her down the stairs and into the main lab area. Equipment was all over the place, most of it antiquated by my standards, making it harder to find my stuff.

"Sorry things are like this, I haven't done much tidying recently."

"It's fine. What do you do down here?"

"Experiments off all different kinds, you wouldn't be interested though."

"I like science."

"Really?"

I nodded, "I did say I was into astronomy and engineering, both of which involve science."

"True. But your special talent is illusion magic."

Yeah, I don't know why but I'm rather good at it. So much so, Sunbutt was very nervous about it. In the few weeks of lessons I had from her in learning how to use magic, illusion was the one I seemed natural at. The spell I was trying hardest to pull off was the invisibility spell; that and the one were I could mentally project thoughts and images into other ponies' minds.

A bit like Professor X.

"True, but that doesn't mean I can't have other interests. Your special talent is magic yet you hoard alien technology."

"Huh?"

I pointed to the alien tech. My tech.

"How did you know that was alien?"

"It's clearly not Equestrian. Why do you have it? Is it yours?"

"No it's not mine. It was in one of the monster's saddle bags. I don't know what it thought they were, it probably tried to eat them, thinking they were food. Stupid monster."

I frowned minutely.

"I have no idea what they are though. They all seem to be black mirrors, but who would be stupid enough to design them?"

I slowly walked over to where my stuff was, dreading the state they may be in. Twilight, I swear to our Lord and Saviour Morgan Freeman if any of my shit is damaged you will feel the full fury of my wrath.

I reached the table my stuff was and was extremely relieved to see no damage had befallen my stuff.

My Nintendo Switch, which still had Breath of the Wild in the game slot and my iPad Pro. They were in the bag that Lyra and the others were unable to retrieve when they helped me escape, they were only able to retrieve one bag and my piano accordion. That bag contained my Nintendo 2DS XL and games, some white chocolate, a metal Thermos full of tea, my Russian copy of War and Peace and some slices of Angel Cake. Which Princess Celestia loved. Fortunately they didn't go through my jeans pockets otherwise they would have taken my wallet, car keys and iPhone 7 as well. 

I really hoped my consoles would last a long time, but Nintendo consoles usually last ages, my mother's brother's old NES and SNES still worked all these years later. Though I'm not sure how I'd react when they no longer work or get damaged, it's not like I can replace them now.

I began to pick them up in my magic but I was immediately stopped by Sparkle Know-It-All.

"Don't touch them! Who knows what they do!"

"Why do you have them?"

"I confiscated them from the monster."

"Why? Do you have authority to do that?"

"No but it's better that they are in my possession than the monster's."

"So you stole it?"

"No, I confiscated unknown objects from a dangerous monster."

She's like a stuck record, monster, monster, monster, monster, monster.

"How would Princess Celestia react if she knew you took something that didn't belong to you?" I asked, hoping to use her fear of disappointing the Princess as leverage against her.

"She would normally be disappointed but in this case she would be supportive."

It must be good being teacher's pet.

Sadly, I knew she was right. Celestia and I in the short time we've known each other have had a bit of a disagreement. Nonetheless, I don't give a fuck if she or anyone else has an issue with me un-stealing my things.

"I'll take them, see if I can get them to work."

"No you're not taking them!"

"Why not?"

"They're not yours!"

"They're not yours either."

"You're still not taking them, they could be dangerous!"

"They could be harmless as well, why are you afraid for me to take a look? Are you afraid of being wrong?"

Twilight grit her teeth hard and picked me up in her magic. She ran up the stairs, taking me with her, and dumped me unceremoniously on the library floor. I think I struck a nerve. I looked over to her to find out what her problem was and saw her writing in a log book of sorts and stamping the inside of the books. She picked up something in her magic and trotted over to me.

"Here is your library card. Take your books and leave," she said firmly, opening the door with her magic.

"There's nothing wrong with being wrong," I said as I left, the books and library card in my magic grip.

I walked out and headed back to my hotel room. 

I needed to plan a rescue mission for my beloved technology.

It would have to be at night though, mainly to reduce the risk of being seen.





I stayed in my hotel room for a few hours, reading the spell book about illusion magic, even practising a few spells. But it would be a while yet before I could cloak myself like a Romulan Warbird, or Klingon Bird of Prey; whichever you prefer. 

It was just after lunch and I had yet to eat. I decided I would go into town to get something as there was no lunch at the hotel, and I had nothing in to make a sandwich with. I grabbed my saddle bags again, putting in the Illusion Spell books and my bag of bits.

My iPhone 7 and 2DS XL were hidden in my saddle bags as well, I didn't want to risk leaving them in my hotel room unattended just in case Twilight was suddenly overcome with the impulse to snoop around. My wireless headphones were around my head, which surprisingly fit despite the change in ear placement. I was listening to some Dragon Force when I spotted a bakery.

I wondered if they did sausage rolls but if I asked for anything with meat I'd probably cause a mass riot.

I'll just get a sandwich.

I went in, Dragon Force still blasting away into my ears, and waited in the queue.

Whilst I was waiting I browsed what was available and how much each thing cost. I decided to buy a few things and put them in the mini fridge in my hotel room, rather than buy something every day. Looking around I also noticed some of the ponies in the bakery were a mix of those who chased me before, and those who didn't.

But I couldn't think about that now.

My stomach required my attention.

After a minute or so it was my turn to be served. I approached the mare who called me over and began to give her my order.

"Hi, I'd like a plain cheese sandwich in white bread, a dozen cheese straws, three iced fingers, an egg sandwich in white, four caramel crispies, four chocolate coated flapjacks, two cinnamon buns, four yum-yums, two cheese scones and two plain scones. Please."

I finished giving her my order only to be given what I can only describe as a 'WTF?' expression, by the sales assistant and other customers.

"What?" I asked.

"That's a lot of food for one pony," the sales assistant said.

"I'm stocking up for a few days, I'm living in a hotel a the moment."

"Oh," everypony chorused.

It took a few minutes but the mare got my order done, not forgetting anything either. Twelve bits it cost, more or less what it would have cost back home so no complaints from me. Hopefully it would taste just as good as it smelled. I paid for my order and carried my order, which the mare had put in a large box, and headed back to my hotel room to put them away. No need to carry them around all day.

After a few minutes I had put my food in the mini fridge or cupboard, whichever was more appropriate, and went back outside; taking the egg sandwich with me, along with my saddle bags from before and a full Thermos of tea.

I was back outside again and decided to head for the park to enjoy my sandwich. Surely that was possible, even in this town.

I found an empty bench in front of a pond and took my sandwich out, British power metal still blasting my ears away.

Half-way through eating my sandwich I was joined by another unicorn mare with an electric blue mane and cutie mark showing a backwards double quaver.

And a cool pair of shades and headphones.

I nodded to her and she nodded to me.

I lowered my headphones and she lowered hers.

There was silence for a few seconds as she discreetly scanned the area with her magic to see if the coast was clear.

"So," she started, "How are you doing?"

"Well enough. I'm assuming Princess Celestia filled you in?"

"Yeah. Me, Octy, Lyra, Bon Bon, Thunderlane and Fluttershy. Those of us who helped you escape."

"Thank you again for that."

"Any time pal, what Twilight and the others did was wrong."

"What about Rainbow, where does she stand?"

"Twilight filled her in with her version of things, oblivious to the fact that Rainbow remembers everything."

"I take it Twilight is dismissing everything she says, and putting Rainbow's version of events down to her concussion effecting her memory?"

"That's more or less it."

I sighed and face palmed. Face hoofed.

"If only I wasn't so jumpy at the time, had I just not done anything for a few more seconds....."

"Hey don't blame yourself. Your reaction was understandable considering your situation, even Princess Celestia accepted your side of things."

"I'm glad she did, otherwise I might be occupying one of her dungeon cells right now."

"Not likely, given that Rainbow remembers what had happened and you had some of us to back you; she would've given you the benefit of the doubt."

I simply nodded, "I suppose that's fair enough."

There was a few more seconds of silence as Vinyl looked of my pony form.

"How does it feel to be a pony?"

"Weird. I didn't want this, but if my encounter with Twilight and the others is anything to go by, then it's safer for me to be like this. It was either become a pony and live as normally as possible, or remain human and live in seclusion and secrecy to avoid the racist natives."

I sighed tiredly and unconsciously slumped my shoulders. I felt Vinyl wrap a foreleg around me comfortingly, pulling me into a hug.

"Don't feel like that Vlad, I like you regardless of what you are; it's just that Ponyville tends to be very close minded."

"So I could have remained human?"

"Maybe, but look at it this way. You can use magic now and if you get hurt, it's easier to treat you than if you were human."

If only she knew the truth.

I would have preferred to go home, but unfortunately that wasn't possible. Without knowing how I got to Equestria, the Princess couldn't send me back. And for other reasons.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Head's up, Twilight's coming."

"Дерьмо ," (der'mo - shit) I muttered.

Twilight trotted merrily up to Vinyl, somehow not noticing me.

"Oh hi Vinyl," then she turned to me, "Oh, it's you."

"И тебе привет, самодовольная сучка! " (I tebe privet, samodovol'naya suchka! - Hello to you as well you stuck up bitch)

Twilight just looked at me, completely dumbfounded. 

"What?"

" Я сказал, и тебе привет, самодовольная сучка. Не понимаешь по-русски ?" (YA skazal, i tebe privet, samodovol'naya suchka. Ne ponimayesh' po-russki? - I said, hello to you as well you stuck up bitch. Do you not understand Russian?)

"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?!" Twilight screamed.

I spoke only a few words of Russian and already she's throwing a massive temper tantrum.

I smirked evilly inside. I am so going to enjoy annoying the hell out of Twilight.

"What do you want Twilight?" I asked.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm sitting on a bench, eating my egg sandwich and talking to Vinyl here."

"You know her?"

"I do now. But surely you won't mind, after all....I was under the impression you wanted me to make friends."

Twilight pinched the bridge of her nose with her hoof (I never knew that was possible) and sighed, "I do."

"Then why do you have a problem with me?"

"Maybe because you tried to take off with items I confiscated from the monster."

"No, I offered to find out what they were. You stole them off the creature."

"Monster, and I did not steal them."

"You took them without permission, that is stealing. Haven't you worked out what they do yet?"

"No, I haven't; and if I can't how could anypony else work it out?"

"Well if you gave them to me I'd show you how."

Twilight shook her head, "No, that's not happening. I've told you before."

I huffed forcefully, "Why did you come over here?"

"I was just walking through the park. You just happened to be here."

"My apologies for intruding into a public park."

"Don't get all sarcastic with me Apollo."

"Or what? You'll write a letter to Princess Celestia?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow, "I think I will. In fact, I'll go and do that now."

She stuck her muzzle up into the air, turned around and walked away. Myself and Vinyl watched as she went away. We waited until she was out of earshot until we spoke.

"What the bloody hell does Princess Celestia see in her?" I asked.

"I don't know," Vinyl shrugged, "But I've never seen Twilight act like this, even when you first appeared. I thought that she would at least show some level-headedness in dealing with the situation."

"She's just after revenge after what happened to Rainbow. She won't be happy until I'm rotting away in a deep, dark dungeon somewhere. If she ever finds out who I really am......."

Vinyl put a comforting hoof around me again, "That won't happen-"

"But what if it does?"

"Then you'll have your friends at your side to support you."

I put a hoof around her, pulling her into a hug, "Thanks Vinyl."

"Any time pal."

"Hey Vinyl?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you busy any night this week?"

"Why?"

"How do you feel about joining me in re-obtaining 'inadvertently appropriated' items from Sparkle Butt's lab?"