//------------------------------// // Faded // Story: Human Roadtrip // by MyAwesomePony //------------------------------// There was something strange about Petunia, but I couldn't just put my finger on it. She was more than welcome to let us stay at the "royal suite" as she calls it. Well, I mean, it is a good thing that she offered a place for us to stay, but she seemed all too nice. But maybe that's just a crazy theory of mine. I slowly opened my eyes to see a certain cotton candy maned pony right in front of my face. My reaction was expected. "Gah!" I cried out. "uum.... hey Pinkie." I said, maintaining myself. "Wake up, sleepyhead." She cheerfully said. "Time to go." "Okay, Pinkie. Just don't ever do that again. EVER!" I got closer to Pinkie's face. "Okie dokie lokie." Pinkie said innocently as I groan. I ripped open the sheets and got my bag ready and walked over to the door to join the others. "Well... it wasn't the worst night of sleep ever." Twilight said as she yawned. "But definitely in the top three... or would that be the bottom three?" Rarity asked. "I think it would be the bottom three." I replied as we all walked through the village. But instead of a warm greeting, everyone looked at us with confused faces. "Why is everypony looking at us?" Asked Fluttershy. "Maybe they recognize Rainbow Dash." Applejack suggested. "Or Princess Twilight." Rainbow added. "But probably me." Rarity looked around, trying to think of a reasonable explanation of why the town looked so lifeless. "No. I think they're staring because we're the only part of this town that isn't... gray." She explained as Pinkie questioned her. "What do you mean." "Look around. All the colors here are gone!" Rarity motioned everyone to look around and as she described, all of the colors had indeed vanished from the village. "That's so strange." Twilight thought as she looked around. "It's just like I noticed about Petunia last night. Everything's mostly gray." Petunia Petals was working at some sort of flower stand and waves to us and we wave back. "Except the stuff that's grayer." Added Applejack. "This reminds me of when we went to Starlight's village." I said. "Oh, my." Fluttershy whispered. "I knew something was different, but-" Before she could continue Rainbow interrupted. "This is so weird," She stated as someone walked by, he looked back at let out a confused "huh" and walked away. "And the way they're gawking at us, it appears they think we're the odd ones." Rarity explained. "Maybe they don't even notice." Fluttershy suggested. "It might be a little rude to point out." I thought. "I wonder what caused this?" Twilight pondered while tapping her chin with her hoof. "We could ask the mayor." Applejack said. "Yeah." Rainbow agreed. "If we ever find him." She groaned as we all tried to look for the mayor. As if Petunia Petals wasn't strange enough, we were walking through a dimly colored village while the citizens looks at us strangely while we try to find the mayor of the faded town and have him try to get him to explain why the town was so colorless. If that doesn't sound unusual, I don't know what will. Maybe I'm right about my theory back on the balloon that this was all just a scam to get us to visit by telling us that the town was the place to be. Suddenly, some screeching sounds interrupted my thoughts, we all looked over and saw two young fillies screeching on the ground towards us and then came to a stop in front of us. Then, their eyes widen and their mouths hung open as they looked at Rainbow Dash, I couldn't tell what they were thinking, but after a while of staring at the rainbow maned pegasus, they backed away slowly and hid behind a wall, they then whispered to each other and went away from behind the wall. We then hear some upper class voices beside us, we look over and we see two high class ponies, one mare and one stallion, walking by, having an argument. "Don't pout, dear. It'll wrinkle your withers." The mare complained. "I'm not pouting, sweetums, but I am hurt by your comment." The stallion replied. "I thought the pie I baked was quite tasty." "I didn't say it wasn't." The mare protested "You didn't say it was." The stallion pointed out. They both bumped into an elder stallion. "Watch where you're goin'!" He grouched. "You don't own the sidewalk, ya know?!" He said as he walked away. They both complained about the elder's attitude, then they looked at us and gasped and ran away. We all exchanged confused looks and then continue to find the mayor. Then, I notice something in the distance. "Hey, there's some color." I said hopefully, finally thinking that there was some color. "I think that's just someone fixing our balloon, sugarcube." Applejack said. "Oh right." I said disappointed. We walked up to the scene and saw someone was indeed repairing our broken balloon while someone else was watching her. "Oh, goodness. This is unfortunate." The stallion in front of her said worriedly as he paced around. "Bad with a side of terribly awful." He then plowed through us, much to our anger. He sighed, not paying attention to us and then realized something. He let out a silent "whoa" under his breath, then he turned to us with a smile on her face. "Well, stuff me in an olive and call me a pimento! It's the Rainbow Dash! Ya made it!" He grabbed Rainbow's hoof and shook it vigorously, much like Applejack. "Uh, it is.. you, isn't it?" "Pretty sure, yeah." She assured him. "Yeah, I mean. Have you seen her mane?" I asked as I flickered her mane. She gave me a stern look. "Oh, thank Celestia!" He said thankfully. "I saw the balloon, thought the worst, and..." He paused for a second and then continued. "Well, you're here, all o' ya! Welcome to the Hope Hollow Annual Rainbow Festival!" "So there is a rainbow festival?" I said under my breath. "What was that?" He asked me. "Oh nothing." I said quickly but he looked suspicious and then circled around me, as if he was inspecting me. "Now that I'm really looking at you. I don't think I've ever seen you before." He stated. "Well this here is Lukas." Applejack explained while putting a hoof around my shoulder. "He is the only human to ever be in Equestria." "Oh really?" He asked me, invested. "Yes sir. She speaks the truth." I told him. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and you must be..." Twilight trailed off, signalling him to tell his name as well. "Sunny Skies, the mayor o' this lovely town, and pleased as a poplar tree to meetcha!" Sunny exclaimed. "We're very sorry about your rainbow billboard, Mr. Mayor." Fluttershy apologized." It was dark and-" "Oh, don't give it a second thought." Sunny said, interrupting the timid pegasus. "That old thing needed repair anyway. I haven't used it since... uh..." She paused for a second but then decides to ignore his statement."Well, never mind. Uh, a-a-anyway." He stuttered. "Once your balloon's fixed up, Torque can take care of the billboard." "Torque?" I asked, obviously not recognizing that name. "Everybody meet Torque Wrench, our town handypony." She introduced us to a pony with a welding helmet on. "She offered to repair your balloon for ya." Torque Wrench then took off the welding helmet. "He volunteered me." She said as she put the helmet back on. "She'll have it fixed in a jiffy." Mayor informed us before she took the helmet off again. "If, by "jiffy", ya mean "this will take all day". "Sooo ya got in last night. I wish I'd known. I would've been here to greetcha. Uh, where'd y'all stay?" Sunny Skies asked us and Rarity replied. "At the Luxury Hotel." "Yeah, you know. The only hotel in town." I pointed out before Applejack covered my mouth with her hoof. "Petunia Petals let us in." She said while I pushed her hoof away from my mouth. "Oh, well, of course she did. She's somethin', I'll tell you what. I'd be lost without her." Sunny cheeks suddenly turned bright red, as if he had said something that he shouldn't have. "I mean, uh, th-the town would be." He said quickly. There was a long silence, then Twilight spoke up. "Mayor, I hope you don't mind my asking, but is there a reason your town is... faded?" "Oh! Heh. Ya spotted that, did ya?" He asked us. "Yeah, it's kind of not hard to spot." I pointed out as the mayor continued. "Well, it's a... long story. Uh, why don't I show you the town highlights first?" He suggested and walked off. We all shrugged and followed Sunny Skies. To Be Continued...