I still had a day left until I had to meet up with Sweetie Drop about the start of my trial run in her candy shop. As for Twilight, she was overjoyed that I was able to land a job. As for my beloved bodyguard, Shadow? Well, she was not that happy about my delicious and very profitable victory, seeing how half her payment for two months, would be all mine.
Nothing else really did change in the day after that meeting. There was Pinkie Pie—who was still trying to get me to have a party—to which I would: either not even answer her; or just give her a blank look until she left with her ears splayed on her head.
Rarity—God bless her—sent me some more clothes, and a pair of shoes. Like the clothing, it took her a few tries until she got them just right. But looking at the bright side, at least now I wouldn't have to wear those sandals; I am not a sandal guy really.
Not a sandal guy as in, at all.
Still, it was nice to have any sort of clothing and footwear of any kind without any sort of payment. She was considered—by the ponies I overheard speaking about her—to be a type that would give just the shirt off her back if anyone needed it. So, at least there was that knowledge.
Looking out my window however, I gazed at a few newspress who were waiting and watching the castle with notepad at the ready. Like I thought alright, they spun a tale of how my race must be very thin tempered, just to stand up and attack the Kidnapper before she had time to explain herself properly.
What was there to explain really, to this scatterbrained news guys that came for an encore of bluntness on my side? And now I bet these Newsponies were here for a follow up report. Of what they want to report, I’m not really sure, but who cares about those damned paparazzi anyways?
I was brought out of my deep philosophical thinking by a male voice asking me, "What are you doing?"
Turning aside from the window, I met the sight of Spike at the doorway of my room. From my sideview, I could tell from my window how Twilight came out to face the lions, and tell them to go elsewhere… and as many didn’t quickly obey, she said something softly that caused them to quickly evacuate the area. Heh. Never thought I’d see that side of her. I wonder what could she have told them to make them leave on their own? This left me to watch them scatter like bugs as I had a piece of paper before me, doodles to all that tried to read them—and plans for me.
"You think it's possible to buy or build a cannon that shoots paper balls?" I asked a question that seemed kinda random, causing Spike to blink… as he clearly looked quite confused at my question out of thin air. He continued blinking a few times while looking at me as if trying to think on what I was talking about. "You know, a cannon that shoots..."
"I know what you said," he answered as he shook his head slightly. "But… why?"
"So I can shoot the newspress with paper balls," I pointed out very cleverly. "Duh."
"But… why a cannon?" Spike asked as I looked back at him. "I mean just throwing balls out would be the easiest thing..."
"Not pinpoint enough," I added as I looked back out the window, a few Newspress dared to stay at a distance for the new scoop on my private life or something.
"Slingshot?" Spike volunteered helpfully.
"Too much like Bart Simpson." I answered again as he blinked from that answer.
"Who?" Spike asked as if he didn’t know how to handle my clever wit.
"Doesn't matter, just not going do it with a slingshot, man!" I proclaimed as he sighed softly.
"So why a cannon?" Spike asked again, while I heard the sound of hoofsteps coming down the hallway. As for how I knew it wasn't Twilight coming to meet me? Well, because she was downstairs outside still dealing with the last few.
"Oh my sweet, sweet little Spike!" I said turning around to pet his head as if he was a lost child, Spike frowning at me because of the petting as I exclaimed lowering my voice in an attempt to imitate the master of badassery. "Bitches love cannons!"
Yeah, the greatest vampire in the history of vampires had that one thing right!
However, I was brought out of my imagine spot of me wearing a red long coat and a nice hat by a feminine yell that drove me back to reality like an eight-wheeler does to a pedestrian in the way.
"Hey!" I heard the yell directed at me, as a rolled-up newspaper covered in a magical glow came into sight and slapped me across the face. Of course, as the student of the badass, I totally didn’t yelped out slightly like a dog being smacked with a rolled-up newspaper. I just glared at the one who dared attack me!
The unicorn in question name, was Starlight Glimmer, a student of sorts of Twilight in Friendship. (I mean really... you need to be taught about friendship...like really?) Either way, she nearly stood about the same height as Twilight, maybe just a tiny bit shorter. (Hey! Don't ask for heights, I don't know, all I care about are they taller than me or shorter than me.) Her coat was that of a pink like hue to it a very pink or almost light purple hue to it. Her mane and tail were that of mixture of purple and teal. As for her choice of attire, apparently she decided to wear today a pair of skinny jeans that allowed her form to be easily seen. Her hips were wide, while her blouse at least covered up her breasts properly so I couldn't see the crack between them.
I raised my eyebrow at her as she frowned back, and pointed the newspaper at my nose pushing it as she walked into the room. "First of all!" she nearly yelled out in a demanding voice, as I rolled my tongue to my right cheek in annoyance. "Don't swear here, it's so unbecoming! And second! Don't swear in front of the baby dragon!"
"Firstly," I said grabbing the newspaper from her magical grip and went up and poked her nose with it, making her scrunch up her snout. "Don't hit me like a dog just because you don't like my swearing. I'll swear however and whenever I damn well please. ‘kay, Time Traveler?"
The story I heard about her was a strange one indeed. It seemed that she used to live in a gods-forsaken village in the middle of nowhere, where she took everyone’s Cutie Mark to make them all equal… That is one part strange.
Adding to the weirdness of the story, when Twilight and her friends stopped her or whatever, she… went back in time to try to make it like they never met; Twilight and her friends I mean. Thus each time, the future was brought out of whack. From Nightmare Moon winning, to the Changelings winning, and other such things like that… and all that crossed my mind at the time was: what the hell?
Anyways, when I heard of this—an idea came to mind: what if they could use the scroll used to travel through time to stop the Kidnapper from doing the spell!? But that was shot down quickly along with my hopes, as the scroll was taken in a portal, and got lost to who knows where… or when, leaving me feeling once more beaten.
My one possible chance of returning home and pretend that all this crap happened: gone up in smoke before I could even bother raising my spirit at the idea.
The reason why I only met her yesterday, was because she and her friend Trixie went about on one of Trixie's shows. She was a magician unicorn or whatever, I really didn't pay too much attention to a pony who wasn't there. Starlight also lived here at the castle as a sort of live-in student, so at least now there were more ponies to talk to… rather than the choices being restricted to either the Princess of Friendship, Fang Face, and lastly Spike.
"And secondly," I added as I threw the rolled-up newspaper towards the nearby table, while she wrinkled her nose. "Baby dragon? I mean, come on! He must be a few years younger than Twilight! Wouldn't he be considered a young adult by now?"
I had also heard the story of how Twilight at a young age hatched Spike's egg, which was thought to be 'dead' then, and her magic hatched him out. I'm not sure myself how old he is now, but Twilight told me she was around 7 years old when she went for this test of sort. She was around my age but I didn’t truly know since I never asked around. 25, maybe 27 year-old looking? I mean, it looks like Alicorns could live for thousands of years. At this point I couldn't really care at the age of these Alicorns. But going back on track, if Twilight was indeed 25 years old, he would be around 18 maybe even 19 at this point right?
"He’s a baby dragon in dragon terms," Starlight pointed out firmly as she again crossed her arms as I signed out softly at her stubbornness.
"But in pony terms, I mean come on," I poked his head lightly as he frowned at me for poking him. "This guy can run this castle and library, cook for you two and myself… and possibly been on half the adventures of Twilight and CO. And you're still claiming him to be a 'baby dragon'? I mean, give the dude some credit, will you?" At this statement of mine, she appeared to open her mouth to speak out, but then stopped not sure really what to say to me. I schooled my face to hide my shit-eating grin as I lowered my voice and said in front of her, "Besides, like I said… Bitches love cannons." Of course, the paper roll of whacking found its way to my head again as she stormed out of the room huffing after dealing one point of damage to my pool of health points.
"Did you really have to do that?" Spiked asked me as I laughed out softly at this and shrugged. "I mean you know Twilight's also gonna grill you later for that right?"
"Meh," I said shrugging a bit. "YOLO."
"YOLO?" he asked blinking as I took the paper and wrote down the word and beside each letter I placed the rest of the words. "You, only, live, once?" he asked as I nodded. "What does that mean?"
"Pretty much, dude," I said about to get real with him. "That you only live once and such, right? I mean, we don't know what happens after death… or if this is really your only life. One might as well enjoy it."
"So… why aren't you following and enjoying life right now then?" he asked as we went to sit along the bed, just two dudes talking as I flopped back a bit on the bed, hands behind my head as I sighed softly. "I mean… if you follow this YOLO thing…"
"It's because I came here forcefully." I pointed out, for what seemed like the many times I said already. "I mean… maybe if I had a choice, and maybe if I didn't have anything back home… yeah maybe I would've came here to start a new life, but! I didn't have my choice." I looked over at him and then said as I knew about when he went to see the other dragons, about this Dragon Lord thing or whatever. "Let's pretend that this Dragon Lord… Ember was her name?" when he nodded his head I went on. "Let's pretend because that Dragon Stick thingy makes dragons listen to her order. Let's say that she ordered you never to see Twilight and your other ponies friends, that including Rarity…" I knew about his crush, I mean it as so easy to see that he had the hots for her! "And you have to follow that order, no matter how hard you may try, the choice is taken from you."
He looked down a bit and then his eyes grew wide as he soon looked over at me as I nodded my head. "Oh man… I'm sorry… when you put it like that, it..."
"Sucks?" I asked as he slightly nodded at this as I sighed. "At this point I will have to just… get used to that I'm stuck here, no way of going home. The more I try to think about me going home, the more I'm putting myself up to be knocked right back down the next day I wake up in this room. It's hard, really it is." I went on as I sat up, hands crossed about my lap as I looked down to the floor. "Not knowing what my family is doing right now, it's been nearly a month and I have to wonder, does time move the same here as it did there. If not, how long has truly passed since I disappeared? Did they just wrote me off as dead, or are they still looking, praying that I'll be back to them?"
I closed my eyes and let out a strong exhaled as I sighed, then slapped my legs a bit with my hands as I stood up. "Anyway let's not think of this right now, you doing anything today?"
"No," he answered looking to me as he raised a eye ridge. "Why?"
"Hey… Human!" we looked over to see Fangy at the doorway, a bag in her hand as she frowned and threw it to me, it felt hefty as she snorted and left as I smirked. While looking at the spoils of sweet, sweet victory, an idea came to my mind - and looked down at Spike, and asked him: "Wanna do a guy day?"
After the newspress finally left, I approached Twilight with Spike in tow, and asked her permission about taking her younger brother for a guy’s day out… and got her blessing to take him with me after reminding me that my choice of words around Spike was something I would have to watch out about. To that, I said the same thing to her that I did to Starlight, which of course earned me the same answer and look before leaving, muttering to herself about doing some research about something.
I mean it, I'm really thinking that Spike was near the point of being considered a young adult in human (or pony) type standards due to age and maturity alone. Well, sure! The guy may be young in dragons terms, not really sure how long a dragon could live. If we go by the old stories back home with me and that being ether hundreds, or thousands of years. Upon those standards, then yeah… I guess he would be considered a 'baby dragon.' But I mean, really folks? If you're going to give an individual the responsibility of someone who looked to be the age of the working force, then treat him or her as such, not as a child when you feel like it.
"So what was that about back at the castle?" I heard him ask, as we made our way down the street of Ponyville. I looked over at him when he asked such a question, while looking at a side glance at the few ponies and other beings who lived there—many gazing at us but mostly at me if I had to guess—as we walked down the lightly dirt pathway. There were some stone sidewalks being made as it seemed Ponyville was slowly growing, and not so more as a village, but becoming a small town.
"What was what about?" I asked, wanted to be clarified.
"Well the bits would be a good start," he said as I had tied the bag along my belt as we walked. "And about you talking about my age?" Now that I thought about it, I wondered where Fang Face was… maybe she was just back at the castle not caring about me, or was she around hiding in the shadows like an emo, so that she wouldn't be annoyed by me. Eh, didn't matter, out of sight out of mind I supposed. "I mean, it doesn't bug me that much. I'm kinda use to it."
"But doesn't it just bug you a little bit?" I asked as he gazed at me with confusion. "I mean… you do a lot dude! You cook, you clean—hell! You do laundry! I mean, I don't think I ever had my clothing smell that good so quickly!" He smiled at my explanation and waved his clawed hand a bit as I went on. "And yet… even going on some of those adventures with the girls you told me about! Hell, you are considered a hero in the Crystal Empire right? And they still claim you to be a baby… I mean… that doesn't sound fair, does it?"
He seemed to think for a moment as we slowed down our walking to a even slow pace. His arms crossed about his chest, eyes closed as he seemed very deep in thought. After a moment, he then responded with this. "I guess it would be easy to say that, I've just kinda grown used to the way they treat me. I mean, I AM a baby dragon in terms of dragons—I am very young—so there is no question about that. And yes, I do a lot around the castle and such, but that's because I enjoy helping when I can." He then added as he looked at me with a pensive look in his eyes. "And yeah, I've been on some of those adventures with them, but I didn't really do a lot per say. And, to be honest? I think that, at times when I do help it either turns out to be just good luck on my side, or bad like on the other. They are just worried about me and want what's best for me, I suppose."
I listened and when he was done, I had to agree with him at those points. I mean, back home? My mother would've no doubt told me things I couldn't do, but she was worried about my well-being at the same time. The amount of groundings I got could be the result of that. And I never thought about that he enjoyed doing what he did.
"I mean, I have to cook and clean, because Twilight would at times even forget to eat if I didn't remind her!" Spike exclaimed as he spread out his arms… only for the two of us to share a laugh at this as we went back on with our walk.
"So," He asked after a bit when we left a store and came out with two cold drinks that I bought for us. "Why did Shadow give you those Bits?"
"She lost a bet she made with me," I pointed out before chuckling at that mare’s face of disbelief when I said to her I had landed a job. "Remember how I got a job at Sweetie Drops? I bet her that I could get the job if she didn't come in. She agreed to the bet, and well… I’ll get half her payments. Well, this one and the next one coming."
"That was a pretty big gamble, don't you think? Or is that the YOLO motto you told me about?"
"You got it!" I confirmed as we took a swig of the drinks… kinda tasted like coke. "Still, I know now that it was a big stupid gamble … and to be honest? I wasn’t so sure at the time that it would work, but Heh! At least I got some spending money until I get it from up top?"
"Whatcha going to do with the money?" Spike inquired as he took another sip from the soft drink.
That was indeed a good question. I could really just save this for a rainy day, and while I knew I had more money coming in soon from the local government, it wasn't like I had to worry about food and other such expenses. Then there was the job I landed, which would be coming along the corner as well.
What stopped me in my track though, was what looked to be a video game store. In the window showing off the newest home gaming system… which surprised me when it nearly looked like the old Nintendo 64! Of course here seemed it was called the Neightendo… really…? What's next, a Pony-Station 1 or something?
As if hearing my disbelieving tone at the similarities, the whole universe decide to up the ante… and I slapped myself mentally to focus again.
Only to stare at the add next to the Neightendo 64… which was a poster talking about the next high end Home gaming system… with the pun I just made up!?
Dragging my eyes off the poster mocking my sense of sanity, I instead paid attention to Spike—whose eyes light up as he then exclaimed giddily, "Oh sweet it's open today!" He then explained to me, "This lot was bought, and when we found out that it was going to become a game store; many of us were happy!” He exclaimed before then added. “Before, if we wanted games, we had to send for it, with mail, and even that would take a while to get to us!” He added before he looked up to me. "Can we check it out for a bit?"
I thought about it, I knew Spike had a TV back in his room with a older looking game console and games that reminded me of the Super NES. I guess it would have the same name. The games were almost the same, like for one, Legend of Zelda, Link to the Past. The new name or the one for here was, The Legend of Zenta, Hero of the Past.
Beside a few name changes for one, Link was always unknown, the back always says 'You are a hero,' or other things to make the player more wanting or believing it's them. Hell, they even had a character customization! One up for me!
However, when I asked Spike how the TV was powered, or even the game system, he just said that the stuff was magical charged, that you could have them for decades before having to have someone from the gaming store recharge them for a price. Damn… that's kinda cool. And TVS were only used for movies, and the games. No news or anything, though there was talk of that… wondered how they would work around that. I mean, I know back home it was what… well, TV’s and that worked, it didn't matter.
We walked in and Spike went right to the small stack of SNES—which showed with its small number of releases—which because the new system was out, the older games from last gen wouldn't be having any new games.
I knew he wanted the new gaming system, ‘cause I saw him look at the price tag and cringe a bit at it… this, of course, left me wondering: Does he even get a paycheck for everything he does, or is he like me, and spends it as soon as he gets it?
Two ponies were at the front counter, as it was a slow day, one was even playing on the demo system they had—man, this would've been The Job for me.
Going up towards the counter, my movement drew the attention of the one who was not playing… who nudged his co-worker and both saw me as I reached the counter. "Hey there!" one, a earth pony with deep red coat and brown mane spoke. "What can I do for ya?"
"How much for that Neigh… tendo 64?" I had to slowly say it, because I almost said Nintendo.
"Oh, that one? Huh…" he went and checked on some books he had before him and told me the price. After opening the bag of bits, I had more than enough and I smiled.
"Can you do me a favor?" when they tilted their heads I went on. "See the dragon over there?" I said while pointing at Spike, who was looking with barely concealed desire at the stack of games for the new Neightendo, to which they nodded in assent. "Keep him busy away somewhere else, this purchase is for him. I have some games I wanna get as well, but I don't want him to see!"
Both of them looked to one another and smiled as the one playing the game rose up and went to Spike and invited him to join him out back—I overheard him saying something about seeing the latest stuff for upcoming games. This gave me time to buy the system, a handful of games, and a few extra controllers just in case.
Ten minutes later, Spike returned—his eyes sparkling—his face showing how amazed he was as he came over to me. The box with my purchase was beside me, hidden by some games rakes as Spike exclaimed. "Dude, they let me see some cool stuff that won't be on shelf for a few months! I mean, I can't tell you! But, man! I gotta ask Twilight for help saving my bits to get them!"
"That's cool dude," I said as I laughed at myself contentedly. "Only as well, I have something to ask of you."
"What?" he asked looking at me as I faked being thoughtful… before moving my foot over slowly and dragging the box out of its hiding place. Of course, the box of the system and games on top could be seen once it was next to me.
I couldn’t help but feeling happy as I saw his eyes growing wide as his jaw dropped, only for me to ask him:
"Know any purple dragons that want a new gaming system?"
And that was the first time I was ever hugged by a dragon… to the point he nearly broke my neck!