//------------------------------// // 01- Hello, Neighbor // Story: Newfound Neighbors // by FrostTheWolf //------------------------------// It was as I was coming back home from a trip to the grocery store that I first noticed it. The 'for sale' sign that was in the front yard of the house next door had a 'sold' banner across it. In the neighborhood that I live in, several homes around the block had been up for sale several times over the course of the last few years. Heck, some places had changed hands so many times that it was hard to keep track of who lived there currently. One such family that were close friends to mine lived in a house across the street before they moved further inland to a home that was closer to family. But the house that was to the left of my home? It had been up on the market for so long that at one point, I thought that it would never get sold. The previous owner had tried everything to get it off their hands, going as far as to renovate the whole entire place and also fix any problems the home had. Though, no matter what they tried, nothing seemed to work. So it was rather surprising to see that someone had actually bought it. Perhaps someone at home might happen to know more. After I grabbed the groceries I bought out of the trunk of my car and locked it with my key, I entered through the garage. Not a moment after stepping in did I find my mom getting a load of laundry out of the washer. “Hey there. Welcome home, Sam,” Mom greeted me as I set the grocery bag gently on the ground for a moment while I took off my shoes, “How was your trip?” Personally, I wasn’t entirely sure why she would ask me that. Sure, she wanted to know if I found what I was looking for. Yet, in my mind, she can make a simple errand to get pasta and tomato sauce for tonight’s dinner sound like it was a grand journey straight out of The Lord of the Rings. Not that it bothered me really, but I don’t like it when people over exaggerate about simple things. “It went well. Got what we need for tonight,” I replied back as I put my shoes away, “Though, before I bring everything in, can I ask you a question?” “Sure, what is it?” “Well, when I pulled in just now, I saw that the for sale sign was no longer up in Mr. Rochester’s front yard,” I explained, “Do you happen to know anything about that?” No soon after I said that, Mom stopped what she was doing and turned to face me, “Actually, yes. I had a talk with him this morning when I was getting the paper. He was… rather surprised about it actually. He didn’t think anyone would still be interested in it, but he got an offer a couple days ago and everything got finalized today.” Well, that was sudden. Don’t these things usually take a bit more time? Not that I’m complaining or anything, “Does he have any idea who the buyer is?” I asked. “I asked him that, though he didn’t really say much. All that he really told me was that the buyer paid more than the asking price and that they’re eager to move in,” she told me, “He was just glad to finally get it off his hands.” That wasn’t exactly helpful. Then again, I wasn’t expecting mom to try and find out every single detail. “So, I’m guessing that it’s safe to assume that we’ll be having some new neighbors soon?” “Mhm,” she nodded, “More than likely, they’ll be moving in while your father and I will be visiting your Aunt Marie up in Washington D.C. So it’ll be up to you to make sure to welcome them to the neighborhood.” All I could do was just nod my head, before picking up the bag of groceries I bought and began to walk inside the house and head towards the kitchen. “Don’t worry Mom,” I assured her, “I’ll make sure that they feel right at home.” It had been some time after that original conversation and a couple of days after my parents started their trip that the moving truck finally pulled into the house next door. It was still early in the afternoon and I had stepped outside to get a jacket that I left in my car when I noticed the truck. The back of the vehicle was pulled up rather close to the garage, while a man in what appeared to be his thirties was standing by the driver side door. Though, there didn’t appear to be too many boxes in the garage, so my best guess was that our new neighbor only arrived recently. Originally, I didn’t really pay that much attention since I was focused on getting my jacket. Though, after I got it and locked my car back up, I decided to go over and say hello instead of just going back inside. There was a small wall outside that separated the neighbors front yard from my family’s driveway. So, after tying my jacket around my waist, I walked on over and waved towards the guy by the door. “Hi there, welcome to the neighborhood.” At first glance, I thought that this guy might have been the new arrival next door. His attire was rather casual and he didn’t seem to be wearing anything that would make me think that he was part of a moving company. Heck, everything was being unloaded out of a fifteen foot Uhaul truck that you can easily rent. Provided that you had the money of course, all things considered. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’m not the person you’d want to talk to.” That quickly caught me off guard. Though, before I could ask anything, he pointed back towards the garage and spoke again, “I’m just helping with the move. She’s the one you probably want to talk to.” Wait… she-? “Oh, hello there!!” The moment I heard that, I looked back towards the garage door to see who it was. Though, any previous thought that I had about who they might be was immediately thrown out the window. For I was looking at a unicorn… an actual living unicorn. I had seen the stories on the news over the last few months or so about the species of Equestria coming over to our world, their world leaders talking with ours and so on. Yet, I never really thought that I would end up meeting one in person, especially since their head looked to be up to my chest in height. The unicorn herself definitely stood out in my mind. The equestrians that you would see on TV usually had bright pastel colors like they were out of a saturday morning cartoon. This one though was kind of different. I mean, sure, the colors of the fur and mane did stand out, but it wasn’t like a pony that had cyan fur and a snow white mane. This mare’s fur looked like that of ground cinnamon, while her short wavy mane and tail were a chestnut brown. Her eyes were a golden yellow and she had… I think it was called a cutie mark of a pair of gears on her flank. “H-hi,” I finally replied back and looked towards the unicorn. She had a brown sparkling aura around her horn and was carrying out a few boxes with that aura, before setting them down inside the garage again. “Uh, do you need some help with unloading anything-?” “Actually, this is pretty much all my stuff. Aside from a few things here and there. Could you hold on for just a second?” A brief flash went off as she disappeared from view, before the mare reappeared behind the truck and channeled that same aura again to pull down the strap that held onto the shutter to close the back of it. Once it was sealed, she trotted over to the front of the truck and thanked the driver for helping her move her stuff.  As the truck driver began to pull out of the driveway, the unicorn came back over to where I was. “Sorry about that. Wanted to make sure that I told Reggie that I was good to go first.” “Reggie?” “That guy you saw earlier,” the unicorn replied, “He knows a friend of mine that lives not far from here and was just helping me move my things,” Around that point, her ears perked up. Almost as if she had realized something as she looked back towards me, “Oh right! I almost forgot. I’m Gizmo. What’s your name?” “I’m Sam. It’s nice to-” Not a moment after I said, the unicorn started to giggle to herself, “Hey, what’s so funny?” Gizmo just put a hoof to her mouth for a moment, before looking back at me with a smile, “S-sorry, but I have to ask… Is it normal for human names to sound so strange?” That… was a first. I never had people ask me about my name the first time I met them. Then again, this was the first time I met an equestrian, so I’m not one to judge. “Why do you think my name is strange?” “Well, you’re a girl. Though, you have a boy’s name.” And now I see what might be confusing her. “Well, technically, it’s a name for both girls and boys. My name is actually Samantha, but I prefer being called Sam since it helps keep things short and simple.” For a moment, I thought that I had to take some more time to explain everything to her. Though, before I had the chance to say anything, Gizmo caught me by surprise, “So what you’re saying is that the name that you have is something that can be used by both genders in human culture, but based on the specific pronunciation, it can be used for either male or female names?” Okay… I definitely was not expecting that. One moment, she was being friendly and then the next thing I knew, she sounded like a professional scientist explaining what they were working on. Though, staying quiet was probably not a good idea, “Uh, yeah… l-let’s go with that.” “Huh… fascinating,” though, just as quickly as the unicorn said that, she immediately came back to her senses and looked back at me, “Oh, uh… sorry. I kind of get really fixated on details sometimes. There’s just a lot of things here that are rather new that I’m still learning. Well, new to me at least-” “Don’t worry about it,” I told her, which had Gizmo let out a sigh of relief as her ears flattened. I don’t know why, but watching her facial expressions and the way Gizmo’s ears acted while she was speaking was… almost cute. Is every other equestrian species like this too, or is it just a select few? Though, that didn’t exactly seem important right now. If anything, what stood out to me was the majority of unopened boxes that were still in her garage. “Hey Gizmo? Do you need some help by any chance?” “Huh?” she asked, tilting her head as her ears perked up again, “Help with what?” “Well, you do have a lot of boxes,” I pointed out to her, “I can help you unpack and put your stuff away if you want.” “Are you sure?” she now asked me, “I-i mean, a little help would be nice, b-but I don’t want to-” “It’s fine, actually,” I insisted, “I didn’t really have anything going on this afternoon anyways. Just give me a second and I’ll be right on over.” As I said that, I walked back over to my car that was parked along the sidewalk and unlocked it with my car key.  As I opened the glove box and got out the remote to close the garage door, I was thrown a bit off guard. Mainly, because I realized that Gizmo had followed me and was now standing just a few feet away. Her attention wasn’t on me though, but on the remote in my hand. “What’s that?” “Uh, this is the remote to my garage door.” “Garage… door?” She asked again, looking back towards my garage and tilting her head, “Oh! Is that what that metal thing is called?” Honestly, her question threw me off guard a bit, though I tried to answer her question the best I could. “Yeah, I can just close it with this. Watch.”  Immediately, I began to realize that what I said might’ve been a mistake. After pressing the button on my remote and putting it back in my glovebox, I soon found myself holding onto the same unicorn that I was talking to. The sound of my garage door closing caused the mare to jump like a startled cat. Yet, instead of landing back on her hooves, she instead landed in my arms the moment I was about to lock my car. “Y-you made it move on it’s own!” she stuttered, “H-how-?” I blinked for a moment, looking back at the unicorn as I slowly set her back down on the ground gently, “I… just pressed the button,” I honestly told her, “Do you… not have anything like that back where you’re from?” “N-nothing like that,” she shook her head, “T-the only ones I’ve seen were the ones somepony would have to open it up from the inside. Like at carriage repair shops.” It was then that a realization hit me. There were a lot of things that humans like me would use on a day-to-day basis that would seem unfamiliar to equestrians. Things like the internet, automobiles, and most modern technology were probably just a foreign concept to them. Though, I rather not immediately jump to conclusions so quickly. After all, I had a feeling that being named Gizmo wasn’t exactly for show. “I… see,” I told her, “Gizmo, there’s something I have to ask. How… much about Earth do you know? Like, in general?” “Only that things were a lot different here than back in Equestria,” the unicorn replied, “Though, I never really looked into the specifics before I crossed over.” That answer pretty much told me everything I needed to know. Though, in my mind, maybe there was a way I could help her out somehow, “Well, if you want, I can answer any questions you might have while we unpack the boxes you have. Try to help make things… well, not so scary?” Mere moments after saying that, the unicorn gave me a look of disbelief, “Y-you would do that? We only just met though.” In response, I just let out a sigh and smiled, “Hey. Part of being a neighbor is to help anyone new that moves in feel welcomed. It’s the right thing to do,” With that in mind, I now locked up my car and began to walk over towards Gizmo’s new home, “Now come on. Those boxes you have aren’t going to open themselves.”