//------------------------------// // New Film Buddy! // Story: I am Cinema! (Aka Educating Ponies on Real Entertainment) // by Quake98 //------------------------------// "Seriously, I know I'm not much to look at right now, but to faint? Yeesh, talk about rude,” Ok, I may have been a little rude, but you’ve got to understand. My first meeting with a pony was suppose to be a lot smoother or at I envisioned it to be. Like maybe getting to meet Pinkie and have my very own Welcome to Ponyville/Equstria party from her. Instead I got to meet Zecora, which is awesome I don’t care who/what you are, only to have her faint upon seeing me. Not a great first meeting, but I have had worse. Back to the matter at hand, I looked down on the presently unconscious Zebra. “ Well... I guess there’s only one thing to do my friend. I better bring you inside befo-“ That’s when Murphy decided to make his presence know. How do I know this? Because before I even finished my sentence the weather changed from a nice and actually pleasant day, into a veritable deluge. A deluge! Admittedly a mit bit angry, I screamed to the sky with all of my righteousness fury, “You didn’t even let me finish my sentence you son of a hamster! Let me at least finish,” grumbling loudly at what happened, it was stopped when I heard shuddering. A bit worried I looked back at Zecora and what I saw almost broke my heart. While she was still unconscious, the startlingly cold rain was making the poor mare shiver pretty badly. Knowing my poor heart wouldn’t be able to stand the sight of an adorable pony shivering from the cold, I ceased my mucking about and resolved to complete my new objective, Operation Pony Rescue is a Go! “Now let’s see if I can even lift you.” Hey. Don’t give me that stink eye! Ponies and Zebras in real life are heavy, and I’d rather not destroy my back thank you very much. So with an experimental lift of her barrel after placing my rifle down beside me. Much to my surprise, she was ridiculously light. If I were to quess, she might have been around thirty to thirty-five pounds. With a pleased grin I hefted Zecora into my arms, her head resting on my shoulder and my hands underneath her curled up legs, and briskly walked back to my house with precious cargo in tow. Once again inside my home and out of the pouring rain, I looked around my home to see where I could put Zecora to recover. That’s when I saw the old and broken in love seat in front of the TV. I grinned happily at it, “Perfect.” So with as much care as I could muster, I delicately walked over the the love seat and gently lowered her, backside first, onto the couch cushion. Once I knew her backside was securely on the cushion I gently lowered her front half onto the neighboring cushion while I also placed her head down on her fore hoofs. With that completed I rushed up stairs to find a pillow and blanket to make Zecora more comfortable. Of course since I was living by myself the only pillow and blanket on hand where on my bed. “Well, there for a good cause,” with no hesitation I striped my bed for what I needed and rushed back down stairs. When I reached Zecora again, her shivers, while still present, weren’t so bad now. Placing the pillow on the ground I placed the blanket softly on her back then tucked it under her gently. After completing that task without waking her up I retrieved the pillow. ‘Ok, here comes the harder part, I’ve got to gently raise her head and place the pillow under her head. While also trying not to wake her up. Easy peas-‘ That’s when my ward open her blue blue eyes, while I still had the pillow in both hands close to her face. Her eyes rapidly widened and did the whole pupils shrinking thing, soon after Zecora provided me with evidence of her having a powerful pair of lungs as she screamed in pure terror that was at an uncomfortablely high volume. Dropping the pillow that started the mess, I covered my ears to block out the ear-drum shattering scream. Zecora took this as an opportunity to tackle me to the ground. ‘Murphy, open your ears for a second and write this down as a memo to yourself,go suck on a lemon hand-grenade.’ While I couldn’t tell if he got the message or not wasn’t my biggest concern. The now very awake and flailing mare that tackled me was. Turns out ponies, while relatively light, can pack quiet the wallop when needed to, doesn’t help that her hooves felt like rocks. “Terrible being that planned to do harm, try to do so with a broken arm!” Zecora screamed as she continued to flail her hooves of fury at me, honestly scaring me a little bit. ‘What the heck?! She’s out for blood apparently!’ Trying to dodge blows to the head isn’t easy, having the assailant on your chest makes it basically impossible. “Owowowowo! Stop! I was just trying to get you comfortable so you could recover and dry o-ow!” Despite my valent attempts to defend myself, she wasn’t having any of it as she continued her assault. “I was trying to help! Please listen to m-eee!” Apparently Zecora got tired of hitting with her hooves she resorted to biting. Honestly at this point my options were limited for what I could do, so I did the first thing that popped into my head. So with as much speed as I could muster with my bruised arm and it shot out and scratched behind Zecora’s ear. The effect was instantaneous. Her fore-hoof stopped and mouth opened in an ‘o’ instead of a bite, much to my aching body’s relief. Zecora really liked it as she leaned into my hand for more scratching and closed her eyes in bliss. ‘You know for a pony that was wailing on me not even a second, she’s flipping adorable!’ Figuring that this kind of situation won’t happen every day, I was going to enjoy this as long as possible. Time honestly felt unimportant as I had a cuddly pony on my chest. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and my hand was getting a might bit cramped up, so with much reluctance I stopped scratching behind Zecora’s ear. Without the pleasant sensation of scratching, her eyes slowly fluttered open lazily, like she just took a nap. With an embarrassed smile on her face and a slight dusting of a blush on her cheeks she looked away bashfully, “Sorry stranger of kind disposition , I apologize for my violent thrashing of your person. For had I known of your good intention, it might have prevented this soured interaction.” Chuckling which was quickly followed by me wincing from the bruised chest, I pat her neck gently, “It’s alright, you seemed to have been pretty panicked when I found you, so it’s only understandable. Now would you mind doing me a small favor?” I mustered as friendly of a smile I could do. Zecora’s ears perked up at my question and turned her head back to look me in the eyes, her curiosity almost sparkling in her eyes, “If your request is within my power, I shall say as many ponies say, fire away.” Breathing a sigh of relief, I made my request. “Would you mind getting off me so I can get up? The floor is comfortable and all with your company, but I figured we could talk on the couch if you don’t mind.” My request was meet with Zecora’s eyes widening again and with her rushing to get off my chest back onto her own four hooves. She opened her mouth, mostly likely trying to apologize when I held my hand up as I got into a sitting position. “You don’t have to apologize to me, I’d say exchanging our names would be a perfect apology,” I held my right hand out to her, “My name is Brian Schmidt, a human whose usually looking to have a fun time,” I gesture to her with my currently extended hand, “ And you might be?” “My name is Zecora, and it’s nice to meet cha.” She gave me a small but warm grin as she held out her left forehoof and put it into my outstretched hand. Thus my first friendship in Equestria was made. After shaking her fore hoof a couple times my stomach started to growl very loudly. Nervously I rubbed the back of my neck and grinned sheepishly, “Well now that we have gotten that out of the way, I’m feeling a little hungry. How about you Zecora, feeling a bit peckish?” Zecora modded her head gently, “If you could that would be most kind, for I haven’t eaten in quite some time.” Nodding in understanding, I stood up trekked into the kitchen to make snacks for myself and my guest. ‘Ok. So I have some potato chips, carrot sticks, and some apples. That should be good enough for a snack.’ With two plates filled with healthy and unhealthy food I walked back into the living room to see Zecora settling into the couch. She perked up when she me carrying the two plates of food. “Soups on! Come dig in.” This caused Zecora to giggle slightly at my silly attitude and gladly accepted the plate from my hand. With that done I had one thing left to do, pick a movie to watch with my new friend. So placing my plate on the unoccupied couch cushion and looked through my DVD/VHS tapes to find the appropriate movie. Zecora tilted her head slight as she watched me browsing through the movies. “What are you looking for my new acquaintance, could I give you my assistance?” I waved my hand at her as my focus remained on the movies, “You don’t need to Zecora, I’m just looking for a movie is all.” That made Zecora more confused. “I’m sorry my friend but I don’t understand, can you tell me what that may represent?” Smiling at finally finding the perfect movie, I went to blu-ray player and popped it in and turned on the TV. “It would be a lot simpler to show you than explain.” And with that I grabbed the remote and got ready to push play. Zecora was still very confused but settled into the cushion and was about to eat her carrot stick until the first preview played. The sudden burst of color and music made her jump a little bit and her widen eyes were drawn to the screen where she saw the pictures upon the once black screen and music of what sounded like an orchestra with none but her and me present. “What kind of magic is this, to create such a fantastical display?” I shook my head at her question. “I don’t know exactly how it works, but isn’t magic.” My answer somehow made her already wide eyes wider somehow. “To create such clear images and music to boot, yet you say magic isn’t involve,” she looked at me with wonder, “How did it possibly take root?” I grinned at her and then pat her on the head, ruffling her mohawk-mane. “Oh trust me, you haven’t seen anything quite yet.” That’s when the menu came onto the screen, revealing to Zecora the movie title. She tilted her head in that cute way that ponies only ponies seem capable of. Pushing the play button to begin the movie I turn to Zecora, “Before you ask what the title means, I would like you to just watch the movie and see what you think of it.” She nods in agreement and turns her attention back to the screen to see the movie black screen dissolving into a sunrise that was simply breathtaking, then came the music. Nants ingonyama Bagithi Baba Sithi Uhm Ingonyama