I'm not sure how long exactly the girls were in there, but I expected it would be quite a while before they could come to a decision. I had left them to talk it over, waiting for them on the porch of my house, looking over the courtyard. It had stopped raining by now, only a few puddles here and there gave any clue to the shower we had the day before.
Otherwise the sky was clear, only a few white clouds gently passing over the farm, and it seemed it would be sunny most of the day. With the sun's benevolent light, my farm and the land around looked breathtaking, and I found myself relaxing, taking in the view.
Not that I could see very far, I was pretty much boxed in from where I was. The farm buildings made a classic square form, house at one end, a barn on the left side, workshop right across from the house, and the stables to the right. Behind the main house was a pretty big garden, and around us, farmland. The workshop were divided into two sections, with an opening for cars or bigger vehicles to drive through in order to get into the courtyard.
In it's prime, this place was one of the most successful farms in the area, now it was old, needed repairs here and there, and it had even lost it's farm smell. But since I didn't keep any animals that would produce such smells, it was understandable. We used to keep horses in the stables, and back then I used to ride a...
A thought then hit me, a reminder to tell them about that. Not only the stables, the whips, the bridles, but also the fact ponies and horses in this world were vastly different from them. That also reminded me, I probably had to break it to them that me, and the majority of the human race was omnivores. Boy was that gonna be fun explaining.
It was kind of unnerving waiting for the girl's decision, not that I had any reason to feel nervous at all. I had barely known them for 24 hours, and I was already offering my home to them. I did feel bad for them though, maybe that was the reason I wanted to help. My mom always told me to treat others with the same kindness and respect that I would want.
Kind of cheesy, not what she said, but what I am doing right now. With any luck, this is one big hallucination, and right now I am being held in a padded cell wearing a straitjacket. Couldn't help but smile at that thought, I knew that was not what was happening, but the idea of me rambling about talking cartoon ponies while a group of medicine students would take notes. 'And here we have the crazed loner who won't stop talking about ponies. Try throwing him a macaroni.'
I was brought back to the moment once I suddenly heard the door opening behind me. Turning around, I saw Twilight and the others standing in the doorway, looking up at me.
"So." I began. "Reached a decision?"
Twilight nodded, a small smile spread on her muzzle. "We have, and we have decided to put our faith in you."
I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding, they had decided to stay, but why was I so nervous about that decision? Having them hiding out with me would surely create problems on their own, and I was not exactly used to having so many housemates, or any for that matter. She must have noticed my slight confusion over their decision, and so decided to explain the reason behind it.
"To be honest, we don't know what else to do. You said to contact your government, but as you also said, we would not know what we are walking into.." Twilight frowned, and the others had the same expressions, a mix of uncertainty and nervousness. "And you said we can always change our minds, so, it's not like we are being held captive here." She tried to make it sound like a joke, but the prospect of them being held against their will did seem to send a small shiver through the group.
I nodded in responds. "I won't hold you here, but you guys know if you stay here, you need to stay out of sight from other humans, right?" Again they nodded, confirming they understood.
"w-We don't want to cause you any trouble.." Fluttershy said from the back of the small group of ponies. The other murmured in agreement, nodding a little as well.
"And we will not stay for free! We'll pitch in and help ya out!" Applejack added, a proud smile on her muzzle. Clearly she had been raised to never take peoples, or ponies, kindness for granted, and she was sure as hell not gonna stay here without doing her part. "Ya don't work, ya don't eat."
"Maybe I could help you with your.. Ahem, attire." Rarity said, smiling like she hadn't just kind of said she thought my outfit was ugly. She meant well, I knew that, but she was living on an old farm, and I had to have work clothes, and this would do the trick just fine.
Pinkie bounced up and down, her fluffy mane bounced up and down like it was cotton candy."Ooooh! And I can bake, i'm a super duper help back home, I can make muffins, all kinds of cakes and pies!" Well that would be nice, but we couldn't eat cake all the time, or, I couldn't.
I noticed Rainbow was the only one left who hadn't spoken up, which was strange, I could see she had something she wanted to say, but was too nervous to say it. Before I had a chance to ask her, Twilight continued.
"We can all discuss that later, perhaps you could show us around the farm?"
Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise, Rainbow was clearly not one who wanted to always share problems in front of the others. Maybe later today I could try and talk to her, perhaps she would be more comfortable just talking to me? alone Or she could find it weird and creepy, and I would get knocked out again.
"Sure." I finally responded. "But, if you are going to stay with me, and live here, there are probably a few things you should see and know first."
* * * *
So, apparently it was no shocker for them that I ate meat. They had been in my fridge after all, but apparently it was not as big a taboo as one might imagine. Sure, they didn't eat meat, they were not really comfortable with it, but they were okay with me eating meat, as long as it was not them.
That went better than expected, and to be honest I was quite relieved. I wasn't going to buy any of that vegan food, not that it was disgusting or that I had a problem with vegans, far from it, I just loved my steaks too much.
At any rate, next stop was the stables, and once again, I found out I had overreacted. Their reaction was not at all what I had expected, sure, when I told them our versions of horses and ponies, they were a little disturbed, and I could understand that. I mean, if I had arrived in Equestria and found humans being less intelligent species and like an animal, sure, I would find it disturbing as well.
As for the stables, bridles and such, well, it seemed they knew of them, but in a totally other way. Twilight blushed, scratching the back of her head with her hoof, trying not to look me in the eyes as she spoke.
"Well, ahem, the thing is..."
None of them looked at me, Fluttershy's blushing face had pretty much vanished behind her mane. Rainbow Dash looked uncomfortable, along with Applejack who had moved her hat down to hide her eyes. Even Pinkie Pie seemed at a loss for words. Rarity was of course blushing as well, biting her lower lip, and tried not to glance at the things around her, but failed. What the fuck was wrong with them?
Twilight sighed, trying to be an adult and simply answer. "The thing is, these things are mostly used back in our world as..." Her face started to burn even brighter. She seemed to quiver, as if she was trying to force the words out.
"Darling." Rarity cut in, stepping forward. She was visibly embarrassed, but seemed a lot more mature about it. "Let me explain. You see, the thing is, bridles and such, well, there is no tactful way to but this, or subtle. But commonly they are used after you have been married. You know, to tease and to.." Her face grew redder, but she was managing an explanation. "It is like, what should we call it, lingerie, something for the wedding night."
"Wait, do you mean, this is a.." I started to blush too. "A fetish, in your world?"
She glared at me, and I could see she wanted to argue while the others seemed to grow redder and vanish more into the background.
"NO!" She said, but didn't seemed convinced. "It is not a fetish, it is more like.. Symbolic.." She groaned, trying to find the right words. "There is a lot that goes into the outfit, but the main part is..." Once again she hesitated, but taking a deep breath she continued. "There is the bridle of the newly wed bride, attached to it is the leash of, of obedience.." There was clearly more, but at this point I held up my hand, indicating it was enough.
"I get it, my stables is basically a fetish dungeon back in your world." It was clearly a joke, but seeing them blush even more and look at anything else besides me, I decided it was time to move on with the tour.
* * * *
We left the sex dungeon, which I still found funny, and started to walk along the building towards the workshop. Inside was simply where I had my tools, my workbench, a place to hammer and saw wood. I used to carve a lot of wooden swords in here, but now it wasn't used as much as back in the day.
We then walked to the other section of the building, divided by the entry arch that people drove through to get to the courtyard. I opened one of the big doors, that way they could see my truck, an old grey Toyota from 1990, old yes, but it still worked like it should, and I had probably grown to attached to it by now to get rid of it.
"What is this?" Twilight asked, fascinated with my old truck.
Rainbow flew up to the roof, bumped her hoof against it, not hard, but enough to test the material. "Is it a carriage?"
I smiled. "No, it's a truck. Humans drives something called cars, and we have invented them so we can go long distances, or short, in comfort and with speed." I know there were other reasons, but I might as well go easy on the explanations for now.
Not having cars in their world, the girls walked around it, examining everything. I was about to tell them about it in more detail when Pinkie Pie suddenly squealed in excitement from the vehicle parked next to my truck.
"Oh oh! What about this one! It's like a mini house, on wheels!" She exclaimed. I knew instantly what she was taking about.
Walking over to the doors, I opened the other one, letting sunlight lit the garage up more fully, revealing the mini bus parked next to my truck. I couldn't help but smile a little, it had been many years since I had even fully laid eyes upon it. I knew it was there, I had seen it whenever I gone into the garage, but I'd never really paid it much mind.
It was an old mini bus, a Volkswagen from 1966, so it a real hippie bus. I still had fond memories of my grandparents taking me and my cousins to the beech in that, it was so much fun. It was still looked good for being locked away for so long, the red and white paint still shined, only needed a wash.
Smirking, I walked over and placed a hand on it. "It's an old minibus, you can have a lot of people in here, travel across country. It was my grandparent's, I still think it goes, but I have not checked for a long time."
"Can we take it for a spin right now?!" Pinkie asked, her rear wagging like a dog's.
I let out a little chuckle, then patted her on her fluffy mane. "Maybe another time, come on, there is still a lot to see."
* * * *
They had already been in the barn, but never the less I'd let them have a look before we walked around the property. Applejack was fascinated with the farming equipment, mostly the tractor and other tools I don't even know the name of. It was all old, and I did my best to answer all her questions, but in the end, I simply didn't know enough to give her as detailed an explanation as she would want. It ended with me telling her she could read the books in my grandfather's study, there should be plenty for her to learn from there. Of course Twilight was interested in the study as well, and I promised them both to take them later.
I took them on a walk to show the borders of my property, and to tell them about what to expect from other people. Nobody lived near by, so I wasn't really afraid, but they needed to be aware of them. I also told them not too go to far into the forests around us. People did go there from time to time, and I didn't want them to be spotted by accident.
Fluttershy lit up as soon as she saw my bunnies, she was in love right away, and she begged me to let her take care of them. I told her I wouldn't mind her taking care of them at all, but she should not expect them to act as the animals did back in her world. She understood completely, even though a little sad, she still somehow had some sort of connection to the little animals, which impressed me a lot.
Finally, we went back to the house and decided to hold a meeting. We had to discuss house rules, and chores, which Twilight seemed to insist on. I didn't mind, and it was probably a good idea.
We made our way to the dining room, sat at the large dinner table, me sitting at the end and Twilight on my right. Applejack sat on my left, Rainbow beside her, and Pinkie next to Rainbow. Beside Twilight was Rarity and then Fluttershy, and when all got comfy, we started the meeting.
"Okay then." I started, smiling slightly, though a little nervous. "Since we'll all be living together, it might be good if we-"
"Oh, wait!" Twilight suddenly interrupted, jumping out of her seat, and ran to the kitchen. She returned mere seconds later, levitating my notepad and a pencil with her magic. Sitting her rear back down on the chair, she smiled sheepishly. "Well, I thought it might be a good idea to write some of the things down..."
I smiled, nodding, then continued. "As I was saying, it might be good to lay down some ground rules, but first things first. Anyone have anything they wanna say or suggest?"
Applejack raised a hand, shit, I mean hoof. I looked at her, nodding as a sign for her to begin. "Well, ah think this meeting is a mighty fine idea. Coming from a household bigger than all of yours, ah would like to suggest we can all call on a house meeting if we feel something needs to be talked about."
"That's an excellent suggestion dear." Rarity said, and Twilight nodded in agreement while writing it down. I had to agree as well, being one human and six ponies, living together, would certainly create tensions. So a meeting once in a while might be good, and could hopefully prevent arguments.
"Great idea." I replied before looking at the others. "Anyone else?" When no one put their hooves up, I decided to move on. "Well, the most important thing is, don't leave the property. Not many people come this way, but some do, and if someone sees you.. Well, it could be trouble, for all of us."
They nodded, and Twilight wrote it down. Rainbow raised a hoof, and after a nod of confirmation, she spoke. "I would like to know where we will all be sleeping?"
"Yes, thank you for bringing that up." I had the perfect thing in mind. "The house has a lot of rooms, besides my own and the study, there are four other rooms upstairs that we can use as bedrooms for you all."
"Four?" Rainbow asked. "But we are six."
"I was getting to that. The attic used to be a room where me and my cousins played as kids, that could be converted into a room for two of you. You girls just need to decide who you wanna share a room with." The girls looked at one another, didn't seem there was gonna be much of a problem. "Personally I imagined Rainbow Dash would get one bed up there. I figured you might like to be high up."
She smiled, nodding. "Yea! Thanks!"
The other didn't seem to have a problem with it either. Twilight cleared her throat, and we all turned our attention to her. "As Applejack said this morning, we won't be staying for free. You have already done so much for us, and we will help you with the farm in return."
"Oh, i'm not a farmer." I quickly said. "I inherited it from my grandparents, well from my parents, but they got it from my grandpa and grandma." I could see the expressions change around me, but I shook my head. "It's okay, it was some time ago.." My attempt to reassure them didn't seem to work, so I continued in order not to start on that subject.
"I'm an audio engineer, but I mostly play music, work on jingles and write songs. So I work in my studio down in the basement." The topic clearly interested Twilight, but she didn't want to interrupt me. "This hasn't been a farm for years, and even if it was, it would not be able to compete or sell well, not all the way out here with so much of the land sold off. What I showed you, the grass fields, that's all there is left."
It was the truth, this place was no longer an active farm, but there was still lots of work to be done. "I do need help with the house, it is pretty big to maintain myself. And there is lots of chores outside too, I am sure we can divide up some jobs."
Rarity spoke up. "I would like to suggest that we maintain our own rooms. It won't be other's jobs or anything. The rest of the house we clean together."
They all seemed to nod, even Rainbow Dash, though a little reluctantly. I however had another rule. "As I said, I have a studio downstairs. I don't want any of you going down there without me, it's the place I work, and some of the equipment is fragile." The girls all nodded again, agreeing instantly. It was not like they were not allowed down there, but I rather wanted to be with them if they were.
Before we could continue, my stomach started to growl. I had skipped breakfast, and it was past lunch. Since we had walked around outside, talking, showing them the place, we had all skipped lunch. "Okay.." I finally said. "I need to go shopping if we want food for dinner. And we probably need to get started on clearing and cleaning those rooms, if you want to sleep in there by tonight."
Twilight closed my notepad. "Don't worry, Daniel. We can handle that while you go shopping."
I raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"
Applejack chuckled. "Don't ya worry one bit, sugarcube. We ain't as helpless as you might think." I didn't think that, of course, but I was not to happy to leave them alone in my house, working.
"We'll be careful not to break anything.." Fluttershy said, speaking for the first time since the bunnies.
"Well, okay.. Just stay indoors, okay?"
* * * *
I had taken them upstairs, showed them my room, the big bathroom at the end of the hall, the stairs leading up to the attic, and finally, their rooms. We agreed they would start cleaning them, and clear out any boxes or other stuff, then put it in the living room for now.
With that taken care of, they bid me goodbye, and soon enough I found myself driving towards town. As I drove down the road, surrounded by large pine trees, I remembered I had forgotten to talk to Rainbow. "Dammit.." I mumbled, but then shrugged. I could take care of that when I got back. Whatever it was, I could probably wait until I-
"Hey Daniel! Got a minute!?"
Her head suddenly appeared upside down in front of my windscreen. "FUCK!" I yelled, and by reflex hit the brakes. The truck stopped, but not without my tires screaming in strain at the sudden stop.
"WHOA!"
As you might expect, she was thrown off, and as soon as I saw her cyan colored body get thrown through the air, I almost screamed out in horror. But, it turned out there was no reason for panic, while in the air, she simply spread her wings, swung around and landed on the hood of my car, looking smug.
"Easy there, you almost got me killed." She winked, seeming to find all of this funny.
I in the meantime simply stared at her, first in shock, then, in anger. Slamming the door open, I got out and glared at her. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING??!!!" I roared. She almost fell backwards, surprised by my sudden outburst, but I didn't care. "ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?! WE COULD HAVE GOTTEN HURT, OR WORSE, YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN KILLED!!!"
I was angry, I might have overreacted, but in that moment I simply let it all out. I didn't care she had broken the very first rule we had set, she could have gotten seriously hurt, she could have died, just like... Sighing, I looked away for a moment, trying to collect myself and calm down.
My attention returned to Rainbow when I heard small sniffles, did she cry? When I looked, I saw tears in her eyes, I had probably really shocked her. However, when she saw me looking at her, she shook her head, glaring, trying to look tougher than she was in this moment.
"Fine! I just came to talk, you don't have to be, to be..!!" Her lip quivered, she looked like a child who had just gotten scolded, and I did feel bad for yelling, but she did scare the living shit out of me, and she could have gotten killed, which was why I reacted as I did.
"Rainbow.." I started, speaking to her in a milder tone. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled, but you scared me.. And you could have gotten hurt, badly.." She did her best to keep the tears back, which only served as an reminder she hadn't counted on me yelling at her. I walked over to her, not sure how to deal with this, again, I had not even known her for 24 hours.. But I didn't want her to think I hated her, or anything like that.
I took a chance, moved forward, and hugged her. She was a little taken aback, I could feel her body tense, then squirm a little. "I don't want to see you hurt, okay?" Her body relaxed, and soon enough she returned the hug. She wasn't full on crying or anything, but I did hear those small sniffles.
When our bodies parted, she quickly wiped her eyes, as if to conceal any clues of the tears that had been so close to reveal themselves to the world. Thinking of a way to lighten the mood, I did the only natural thing, punched her shoulder.
"OW! What was that for?!" She asked, glaring a bit.
"For breaking rule one, for flying after me, out in the open, and for fucking scaring me you stupid pony." I then chuckled and leaned against my truck. She rubbed her shoulder, then smiled a bit too. "So, what's up?" The road was pretty secluded, so I wasn't worried anyone would see Rainbow, not out here.
"Well.." She sighed. "No, it's stupid.."
"Spit it out already, you broke rule 1 to talk to me, so it must be important somehow."
She let out another sigh. "This is so uncool..." Groaning, she finally confessed. "I was just.. I'm a weather pony back home, soon to be Wonderbolt." She quickly added that last part as if to reassure me, but I had no clue what a Wonderbolt even was. "When we talked, about our options, Twilight told me that staying here, with you, would be, well, restricting for me, and I probably would not be able to manipulate the weather here.."
I raised an eyebrow. "Why would you do that?"
"You know, to help.."
"Ah.." The picture was starting to come together. I had to admit, seeing her like this, she was kind of cute. "You're worried you won't be able to help?"
She didn't look me in the eyes, simply sighing again, and nodded. "I'm a flyer, the best and fastest.. So, what good can I do if I can't even fly around?"
"Are you kidding? It's not like you can't fly, I just want you to be careful, and there is night and morning flights. No one is there that early or late, so you have all the time there. And, I wish I could fly, it will make a lot of chores easier around the farm." I smirked, nudging her a bit. "You'll be a great help."
She looked at me, and I could see the gears in her head turn, then suddenly, like a switch, she smirked. "I mean, yea!" She flew up, hovering in front of me. "Of course I will be a great help, I'm Rainbow Dash! There is nothing I can't handle, you should feel lucky to have such an awesome pony helping you!"
I simply chuckled. "Yes yes, i'm very honored, but would you mind going back home now? You're still breaking rule 1, and i'm sure Twilight is fuming by now." I had no clue how right I was about that. Rainbow seemed to realize it too.
"Oh, uhm, yea, I better.." She was about to turn around and fly off, but then she stopped, turned back, and gave me a quick hug. "T-thanks for, you know.. You're a pretty cool guy.." And without another word, she flew off.
"Heh, thanks.." I felt a little cheesy, but, it seemed to do the trick, and I did mean what I said. Having her around would be pretty helpful. Though, if this meeting was an indication of anything, it was that life with these six was certainly going to liven things up.