//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Equestria's Swift King of Coffins // by gundamexia34 //------------------------------// I woke with the sun, as is my habit most days. Stretching, I went to stand, only to stare in confusion at my surroundings. It took a few minutes for my mind to wake up enough that it could remind me of what happened yesterday. I briefly wondered why I never freaked out about any of this, then I realized that it was simply because of the almost nonexistent connection I had to my old life. If you don't really have anything to hold you to something, you can't really freak out about losing it. Nodding my head in resolution and putting it out of my mind, I finally registered the sound of voices. “I thought you said he’d be in here, Applebloom?” A voice said quietly. “Yeah, I’m going to be in enough trouble as it is for sneaking out of the boutique this early. If I don't get to see this ‘Heero Yui’ and get his picture for our reporter cutie marks, I am going to throw you under the cart!” A second voice spoke up at an equally low volume. “This is where we left him last night, so he has to be in here somewhere. Come on!” A voice that I recognized as Applebloom’s replied. At this point, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on. Time for a little mischief. Dropping down from the second floor and using my Air Shoes to silence my landing, I snuck over and slammed the door of the barn shut. Then I flew up before the 3 fillies I caught a glimpse of could spot me and shut the skylight, leaving the barn in total darkness. “What the hay?!” One of them cried out. “Applebloom if this is your idea of a joke then it isn't funny!” Another called. Smirking as Arthur's Devil powers included Night Vision, I put a few of my random skills from YouTube to use and let out sounds from one of the most terrifying creatures in fiction. [A/N: Play in background] After each sound, I would move up a new location in the barn, making the fillies freak out even more as they went back to back, thinking they were surrounded. Smirking even wider, I made my eyes glow red and slammed into the ground front of Applebloom making them yelp and back away in fear. I let an aura of dark energy surround me and spread my coffins wide menacingly. Then I roared! The fillies panicked and let out shrill screams, making me fall on my back laughing as the door slammed open to reveal Applejack and Big Macintosh. As Applejack ran over to her sister, I was rolling on the floor with mirth. “You...You should have seen your faces! Hahaha!” I said as the fillies calmed down before Applejack asked what happened. As I was explaining how I had pranked the fillies when they snuck in, Big Mac was giving the three a firm talking to about sneaking around and asking what they were thinking. “We were trying to get cutie marks in reporting by taking a picture of Heero and writing a story about how he got here like he explained last night. I’d write, Scootaloo would take the photo, and Sweetie Belle would edit and check for spelling mistakes.” Applebloom explained sheepishly while rubbing her arm. The other two looked equally embarrassed. “You three are more trouble than you're worth sometimes.” Applejack said with a sigh, “That said, I think that the scare Heero gave you was more than enough of a punishment. Now get going, except you Applebloom, you’ve got chores to do.” “Aww Crabapples.” the specified filly said as she slumped and sulked out of the barn. I chuckled as I turned back to Applejack. “So, need any help? I grew up on a farm, so it would be pretty nice to get back into it.” I asked, getting a blink. “Umm, sure why not? We could always use an extra hand. Just so long as you don’t use magic or fly. It’s a tradition.” “Eeyup.” Big Mac confirmed with a nod. Kicking the trees to get the apples down was annoying. After the first one, I decided not to mess with it and helped by bringing out a second cart I had spotted in the barn. When it came time to harvest the wheat though… “What in the name of Faust is that?!” Applejack exclaimed as I summoned Caliburn. “It's a sword. What did you think it was, a baseball?” I said jokingly. “That is not a sword. That is a metal tree with an edge.” She deadpanned back. “Eeyup.” Two guesses as to who said that, and the first one doesn't count. “I don’t get what the big deal is. It’s just a little longer than a normal sword, so what?” I continued to joke while taking a few practice swings, “Now, let’s see, how much should we gather? The carts can only hold so much.” After they got over the shock, we cleared just enough for about 20 bales of hay. Wrapping said bales by hand was different but interesting, and we finished roughly around noon. “Yee-haw! Way to go everyone! Especially you Heero, without your help we’d only be about halfway done!” Applejack said. “Ah come on, it was nothing. Just doing what I can to help earn my keep, and the fact I had fun didn’t hurt.” I replied. “What now Sis?” Applebloom asked. “Now you all go off and enjoy your free time.” Granny Smith said from her chair on the porch. “You worked hard, so go have fun.” “Awesome! Hey Heero, what are you going to do?” Applebloom asked. “Well, I wanted to take a look around town. I figure that it's better to get lost on purpose now and learn from it than to have it happen at a bad time.” I explained. “Well, it’d be even better if you didn't get lost at all. How about we give him a tour Sis?” She said to Applejack. “Now that sounds like a good idea. Wanna join us, Mac?” Said mare asked her brother, who shook his head. “Nope. I got something else in mind.” The aforementioned stallion replied. The tour started as soon as we walked out of the gate, with Applejack stopping us while Big Mac went to do what he wanted. “Well, as you probably already know, Sweet Apple Acres specializes in growing some of the best apples you’ll taste in Equestria. We’ve been here since Ponyville was first founded.” She said before gesturing for me to follow. Applebloom and her sister led me through the town at a leisurely pace. I noticed a few ponies that I recognized, but one pony, in particular, seemed very interested in me. A stallion called Doctor Whooves. I figured it was simple curiosity until he asked me a single question while the girls were distracted by Pinkie at Sugar Cube Corner. “Why am I picking up 5 different dimensional frequencies from you?” He asked this after scanning me with a very familiar object. “Holy shit!” I said under my breath, “So the stories were true, you really are The Doctor?!” “Yes, now answer the question.” His Sonic Screwdriver started to whine in a menacing manner. “Geez man, chill the hell out! Zelretch-” “Stop! Say no more, that name alone answers almost any and all questions I had.” He said while putting away his device and pinching the bridge of his nose. “I should really get around to memorizing his signature so I can recognize his antics on sight.” “To be fair, he did help me out. I was living a dead-end life with no hope of it getting any better. I can start over here and not worry about much of anything.” “I wouldn't say that. Your presence has destabilized the time-space barrier of this universe. As is, someone would have to specifically been monitoring it to notice. But if it keeps weakening, then it might catch the attention of someone or something...Unpleasant to say the least.” I shuddered. I had a feeling that if said beings came I might need some help. And since I wasn’t sure if I could find any tokens here, I asked how to re-strengthen the barrier. “The only way I can think of it to provide an anchor point, perhaps several. An object, place, or person that the barrier can latch onto and draw power from. The problem is that it would take an absolutely massive amount of energy to do so, and it would need to be very hard to destroy.” He explained. “Then why not use the sun, not just this galaxy's but several different ones. They're damn near impossible to destroy even with magic, and even if they die they still produce a ton of energy as black holes which are impossible to destroy period as far as I’m aware.” I asked, getting him to raise a finger and open his mouth to speak before he stopped and thought about it. “It could work. Though you do understand that it would be incredibly dangerous.” “Wouldn't you essentially respawn on the TARDIS?” “No, I ‘respawn' where I die. And there's not really any guarantee that I will.” “Dammit, how are we gonna do it?” “I said it was dangerous, not that I wouldn’t do it. Now then, I must be off!” With that, he turned and walked away just as the Apple siblings came back. “Sorry about that Heero, Pinkie was apparently feeling extra chatty today for some reason.” Applebloom said while her sister nodded. “Nah, it’s fine. I had a rather interesting conversation with Dr. Whooves.” I replied. “What about?” “Oh, just this and that. Now, where to next?”