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// Chapter 12. Something Weird came into the Reststop today. 
// Story: Tales from the Everfree RestStop 
// by FanboyGamer3E 
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Hello Everypony I am back working at the Everfree RestStop, and let me just say one of the very few perks of working here is that there's not many things out here important enough to get stressed about. I'm speaking from my own experience and in no way am I recommending you go out and try to get a job here. You have to have a certain mindset to work here, I learned that early on and fortunately for me I had that mindset on default, said mindset being calm and apathetic about everything. In my case I have that mindset due to my condition, for those of you who skipped to this chapter or who haven't been paying attention, I have a rare form of Chronic Insomnia which not even Alicorn magic can cure, the basic premiss of it is that I never sleep, ever. However I have been known to go into a kind of trancelike state where my body just autopilots everything, but that's not technically sleeping since my body stays wide awake. I wasn't always like this, when I was a little kid I would sometimes worry about living up to my own expectations for adulthood, which I now realize was completely absurd when you consider that the town I grew up in is the capital of lowered expectations, whose only claim to fame is being the most rural and low tier section of Canterlot, and the place where it rained frogs that one time, don't ask. It's not nearly as interesting as Canterlot Proper or where I work.

I work at the only 24-hour RestStop in the Everfree forest, and as far as jobs go, it's not the best, but it's not the worst either. I work as a clerk and I don't have any ambition to climb the corporate ladder, it's a family owned business and I rather work on as the clerk instead of being the actual manager, since even if I do become the manager I still have to take orders from the boss, and I rather have him work as hard as me instead of just sitting on his ass and reap my rewards. Anyway back to the explanation of the store. Some days churn by without incident, moving the world one step closer to oblivion or whatever, those days are my favorites, when I can pass an entire shift by reading a book and minding my own business. I don't need to climb a mountain or visit a canyon to know what Zen feels like, for me tranquility is a quiet empty RestStop at 4 in the morning.

Of course somedays aren't as uneventful, I've experienced rude customers, drunkards, vicious raccoons that fall on the chaotic evil spectrum of the DND alignment, a handful of armed robbers, and about a hundred other things I can only classify as weird. I had one the last type of days yesterday.

Now for clarification I should mention that there was a period of time where the RestStop was open, but the local wildlife of the forest hadn't taken root since the whole Tree God thing happened. We've still got Rocco's brood and Scar to worry about, but at least I don't have to worry about a mad pony hunting me down. Oh I probably should have mentioned this earlier, the authorities actually managed to catch Slasher. They found him stuck underneath a boulder, apparently that's where he ended up after the Tree God jumped ship. But back to the story.

We had been busier than normal in the days leading up to this, some of the wildlife and fisher agents form Ponyville and Canterlot Proper had been patrolling the woods pretty heavily, and considering the location our little reststop is the only place for miles to get food or fresh coffee. I'm not exactly sure what the hubbub was about, but I would guess everypony's been on edge ever since those cows were mutilated. Okay, I think maybe "mutilated" is too strong of a word to use. Let me explain, lately somepony has been sneaking into cattle farms and shaving the cows bald, who knows why, small towns get bored. I wasn't paying attention to the time because I never do anymore, not since the time the clock tried to steal my soul, but it was late in my shift in the middle of the night when the deer poked his head inside the Reststop.

I had just finished my book and was checking my phone for weather updates when it happened, the glass door was pushed slightly ajar and deer with an eight-point rack of antlers was slowly inspecting the store, scanning its gaze form one corner to the other, nostrils flaring with each sniff. It stopped moving and pointed its giant black eyes right at me. I remained perfectly still, except to put my phone down because this was simply more interesting than the possible snow storm headed our way in the next few weeks. 

We stared at one another for just a moment longer before the deer pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped one foot inside. Now whatever you're imagining right now, it's wrong, and I know that's my fault because I'm telling you the story, so I apologize. There were a few key details to this "deer" that I haven't mentioned yet. First, the deer's head was about seven feet off the ground, and second, I could see through the glass of the front doors that this deer was standing upright. From antler tip to pelvis the deer was just like any other ordinary whitetail that I had ever seen in the woods, tan fur, long neck, confused expression, the works, but at the legs he turned into something else. If "Kangarooish" was a word, I'd call his legs Kangarooish. He stepped a Kangarooish foot into the store and waited, like he was making sure the ground wasn't going to fall out from below him. When it didn't he put the next foot forward. The door shut behind him and the deer started walking down the RestStop aisle, his antlers barely missing the fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling by mere millimeters. That's when something that had happened earlier came back to me.

I didn't think much of it at the time, but when I got to work one of the other workers said something interesting. I was taking over the safe from the only other full time clerk, Lucky. Who according to what I heard from a pretty reliable source, has been pretty salty ever since his cult went and had a mass suicide without inviting him. Before he left he told me that the lag was getting worse and maybe it was time we did something about it. You see there's something wrong with the mirror in the Reststop bathroom. There's a delay in the reflection by about half a second, sometimes if the weather's acting up it gets much worse, or at least more noticeable, we had plans to replace the mirror but couldn't do it because we're lazy and mirrors are expensive, and besides how important is to see your exact reflection in real time anyways? It's a bathroom in a shitty Reststop, not some fancy salon or boutique. But that wasn't the weird thing he told me, the weird thing was that a pony wearing hunters camp had come by earlier and left his number, telling Lucky that it was imperative that he contact him incase we see anything unusual.

Given where we work, I had dismissed that as being too vague to have any meaning at all. What is unusual in the Everfree Forest? A solar eclipse? A bipedal deer? A completely normal day? Besides I don't work for him and if he's looking for the deer creature he can find it on his own, back to the story. I watched the deer walk slowly towards the bagged chips display an put his nose to it, sniffing voraciously before stepping back and scanning the entire store again. His arms, or forelegs, whichever they were dangled at his sides with cloven hooves as he walked over to the refrigerated drink case. He tapped the glass a couple times with his antlers before figuring out how to reach out and pull the door. It was like watching a toddler figure out a puzzle, it's frustrating. I almost got up to help him but finally, mercifully, he got his hoof around the handle and the door creaked open. I had to hold back my laughter as the deer fumbled with a bottle of water and somehow managed, barely, to pull it out of the case before sticking it in his mouth and chewing at the cap until it ripped open. He then leaned his head back with the bottle sticking out of his mouth and stared right at me as he guzzled the whole thing down in one continuous stream. Next he sauntered over to the coffee machine and gave it a whiff, the smell apparently agree with his disposition and he reared back and shook his head fiercely, probably for the best. Finally the buck finished his round and walked right up to me and stopped on the other side of the counter. From this close I could smell the creature, and surprisingly he smelled like grape soda. He tapped his hooves on the counter a couple of times then looked back to where he had dropped the bottle of water, then back to me.

"Okay." I said, not knowing what else to do.

He tapped the counter again so I went ahead and punched in the code for a bottle of water at the register.

"That's gonna be 3 bits."

The deer took a step back, looked down at himself and started patting his body where his pockets would be if he were wearing any pants, then he looked up at me and blinked a few times.

"Look you're putting me in an awkward spot here." I said.

Right then the creature started belting out a strange animalistic noise that I can only describe as some sort of unholy combination between donkey and dolphin.

"I don't know what that means." I deadpanned over his noise but then he just got louder and louder before throwing his head back and emitting this weird call into the ceiling. 

"I don't know what you're saying." I said back. "I don't speak deer."

The creature threw its head back down and barfed up a total of five coins before using his tongue to put two of them back in his mouth and swallow them like menthols, and then I was silent. We both looked at the coins, then to each other, then  back at the coins. After thoroughly processing what had just happened I picked up the coins in my magic and inspected them to find that they were indeed legal currency.

"Okay."

I wiped the coins off and added them to the till with the rest of the money. The deer turned towards the door and flicked his tail at me a few times before I noticed the strange group outside the Reststop. At least half a dozen other deer were out there, each standing tall on two Kangarooish feet, and staring right at me. There was another stag, a pack of does, and at least one four feet tall fawn. The buck struggled to get the door open, I ask about to ask if he needed some help but before I could he had it wide enough to slip outside. Then they all left, walking proudly to the forest line, it wasn't until five minutes later that it occurred to me that I should have taken a picture or something, without any proof I guess it's just going to turn into one of those weird stories that nopony ever believes. I dug through my backpack and found a book that I hadn't read yet, I opened to the front page and began reading, It was another hour before I had another customer come into the store.

So yeah that's basically it. I'm not going to put timestamps on different occurrences anymore, because I'm still not entirely trusting of the clock yet. But don't worry I will keep posting stories as they occur, and feel free to send me some of your personal stories, just note that they have to real and they have to be weird.

Until next time guys. This Is Bright, signing off.