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// Chapter 18, World of Loathing, Part 2 
// Story: Meta Gamer in Equestria: Odyssey 
// by reflective vagrant 
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When I woke up, it took me a few seconds to get my bearings and remember where I was.
I cracked a bitter smile for a moment but I just couldn't keep it.  I couldn't keep it in part due to the calming spell, and in part due to the fact I had a strong suspicion that there was still a small group of protestors/angry mob of ponies just out past the property line on the other side of the sign with my face on it.
I looked out the window, crouching, and didn't see any ponies near the sign, but I did hear the murmured voices.  Craning my neck a bit further, I saw about half a dozen of them gathered a good distance away from the property line marked with the sign.   I almost wondered if there was some sort of distance law above and beyond the property line itself for protests, but my question was answered when I saw one of them throw a tomato at the sign.  When it made contact, I saw a large, brown object next to the sign suddenly stir.  A bear, not as large as Ashes but still big, got part way up and roar at the crowd.  A pony that looked to be an upper class pony promptly dropped the remaining tomato in her hoof and scurried to the back of the crowd.

What she said the day before rang through my mind.  "And don't worry, you are more than safe here."  Fluttershy was an animal caretaker in a world where magic could allow oneself to speak to animals.  She didn't need the guards to keep the mobs at bay in her own property.  She had her animal friends.
A bit of a chill ran down my spine at the thought.  I needed to make sure to never get on her or her furry friends' bad sides again.

Breakfast was... there at least.  The oats were a bit more fibrous than the stuff I'd taste from the store back on earth.  I think the chaff wasn't taken out before it was made into the otherwise perfectly fine porridge I found in my bowl.
I also met the white bunny that had kick started my whole adventure into town by trying to steal my walnuts back when.  Angel, as he was called, was her personal pet apparently.   He was the only animal at the table with us, but I saw a few of her more generalized animal friends outside the window looking in at me and a mouse peaking out from the wall as well.
Going out side was difficult, since every single animal seemed to want to have my scent permanently embedded into their brains, there was so much sniffing.  The smaller ones weren't so bad.  Fluttershy was able to get them to behave well enough to where I wasn't getting swamped by them.
That wasn't the case with the larger cats and other fanged animals she had, who seemed to be insistent on bowling over me and sniffing at me on their own terms.   Fortunately, everything with fangs was fat enough to not seem interested in me as a meal and the bear that had been watching the front yard was satisfied with a few quick sniffs while I sat down on a sturdy stump turned bench.  I was doing my best to brave through my innate fears of being eaten in spite of their relatively docile nature around Fluttershy, but that calming spell was definitely the majority of my courage that day.
The hum-buggers outside the property were still a constant sour note, of course.  Every couple hours or so there would be a changing of the guard among them, letting them protest in shifts.  When we considered going out and approached the front of the property, it was clear that any of them were ready to come right up to me and do whatever they could to get me in trouble and out of their town.  The boundary that the sign marked was probably the only thing keeping them at bay, besides the bear.  Going to town to shop wasn't going to be an option for me any time soon.
Instead, I just helped Fluttershy with her animal friends.  I mostly did this by being the new novelty that the more energetic critters that still had to be penned up were distracted by while she went about her task far less unabated that what she said she normally had to do.  I tried to help with hauling or the more manual tasks, but it seemed that the time it took to teach me was less than the time Fluttershy had to spare that day after the meet and greet we had earlier.


* * *


When the chores were done, however, Fluttershy approached me uneasily.  It wasn't out of fear that she was uneasy, but manners.  I could tell she had a question.
"Hey, you've been nothing but kind to me, Miss Shy."  I had made a point to speak respectfully to her.  She was basically my parole officer and hostess. "I can see you need to know something.  So ask.  If this whole thing is going to work, we need to have open communication.  I'll do my best to not be offended."
She  she came a little closer as she gave an adorable smile.  The kind that could only form when a meek person was both grateful, yet still embarrassed.
"Well, I wasn't sure what to make of it at first, but a lot of my little friends with stronger noses were telling me how you smell like a predator.  Are you a meat eater like griffins are?"
I cocked my head and drew a blank for a moment.
"You couldn't tell?"
I then proceeded to explain how humans, and by proxy my current race, water genasi, were both carnivorous and herbivorous, or omnivores.  I further clarified that plants rich in protein, such as beans or nuts, could supplement most our meat needs for a time.  Otherwise, our diets usually did include meat to an extent, but we did need to cook most types first.  When I showed her my canine teeth and said they were our lesser version of fangs, she went wide in awe, then promptly brought me a fish from her feed barrels for meat eaters.
She did ask that I cook it on the far part of the property so as to not force her to gag from the smell, though.






And so my days went by for a while, doing nothing but slowly learning to help around the little animal care area that was Fluttershy's cottage and learning more about each other's species.  Interactions with locals were pretty much limited to the hounding I got from across the property line.  At least, until a few days after I was finally taken off the calming spell entirely.  That's when some of the braver ponies were willing to come in and talk to me.
A few were some of the humbugs just playing nice long enough to get close, but they wised up after the first few times they were "escorted" to the property line by some of those same sizable fanged critters that had grown to accept me at the cottage.  That trick only worked because they were trespassers on Fluttershy's property, however.  It would be a little while before I could walk in town without immediately being tackled and persecuted.  An animal escort outside the property line just wasn't feasible.
Not all the visitors were humbugs in disguise though.  A few braver souls managed to ask me about myself, often repeating questions Fluttershy had asked before.   I had to fudge a few things into not quite white lies. When they asked if I were a blood thirsty monster, I just told them, "although humans, which water genasi are part human, do need to eat meat, it is both immoral and illegal to eat the flesh of any sentient species on my home world.  I don't intend to eat any... anypony."   I just omitted that humans were the only sentient species my home world knew of outside of fiction and theology.  I don't know if I would have been able to make it sound convincing without the luck magic helping me.  Even that little omission made me feel like a liar.
One thing I was able to say with full confidence was that I didn't know anything about the invaders other than they supposedly looked like me and I honestly didn't know if they were from my home world or not.
I couldn't bring myself to say that even if they were... No.  Especially if they were, I would definitely want these ponies to drive them out.  I didn't know if I could bring myself to face my shame.  This particular prayer of mine seemed to be answered, though.  Nopony visiting the cottage ever asked.


Over the first month's time there, I managed to win enough of the town over to finally stop the protesting and get them to put away their torches and pitchforks.  Walking on egg shells was definitely still the standard operating procedure when venturing out though.  If we simply got too many odd looks for the market stall we were in,  Fluttershy and I would make a beeline back to the cottage.  We had simply won the battle to get public opinion of me to shift enough so that the crowds wouldn't be able to get away with persecuting me on sight.  They were still waiting for any little slip up on my part to give them an excuse.