Vinyl and I were walking back to her home rather slowly. Not much was being said between us, and I could only assume that she was deep in her thoughts. She was looking down at the ground, looking rather dejected, but I didn't want to break the silence in fear of startling her. Every fiber of my body was yelling at me to say something to her, to make her feel better. Vinyl decided to break the silence first, though.
"Blacksmith--" she started, but didn't finish what she was going to say. She just looked the other direction in an attempt to conceal her face from me.
I edged closer to her as we walked until eventually our sides were touching. She felt cold. Really cold. It was mid-winter, and for some reason neither one of us had coats, so we just huddled to keep our warmth together. I only then started to realize just how cold it was outside, and I felt like I was going to freeze to death just by walking. I thought she was trying to scoot away from me, so I broke the huddle and stepped sideways a little to give her some room, but she quickly huddled back.
"No, don't leave me here!" she said in a rather panicked voice as she brushed up against me to huddle again. She realized just how much emphasis she had put into her demand and she blushed, stammering out an apology.
"You don't have to apologize, Vinyl," I leaned my head onto hers, "I actually really like being this close to you." Her eyes became wide as saucers, and I felt the cheek she had on my shoulder become completely flushed with heat. I couldn't keep myself from laughing, but I cut myself short when I saw Vinyl just staring at me.
"You laugh at a lot of things," she said before smiling, "That's what I really like about you."
She reached up and gave me a kiss on the cheek, stopping me dead in my tracks. I felt a strange emotion, similar to what I had felt when I had woken up with her on my chest, but...deeper. More prominent, warmer. It completely filled up my chest and made me all giddy and happy. Vinyl was giggling at my completely reddened face, and before I knew it I started laughing too. We huddled together during our laughter, and I felt like I could just be with her forever.
There are no words to describe just how much of a spring I had in my step the rest of the way home.
<----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
"So what you're saying is that while I'm waiting for the forge to be rebuilt I should work at a bakery?" Octavia nodded. She told me that I should go work at a place called "Sugarcube Corner", a sweets shop of sorts somewhere at the middle of town. Apparently she had already arranged a job interview, and although I objected to the idea of making pastries she was completely adamant with making me work there. She probably wanted me to stop emptying their fridge while I just laid around all day with nothing to do, which is perfectly understandable.
"We might as well have you do something constructive. Slacking around all day certainly won't help you." I sighed in defeat. Octavia was right, as much as I hate to admit it. She seemed quite proud of herself, as well.
"So where is this 'Sugarcube Corner'?"
...
Sugarcube Corner looked nothing at all like what I thought it would.
"What the hay kind of building is this?!" In front of me was a gigantic gingerbread house-looking building that I was certain was edible. One atrocious taste test proved that wasn't the case.
"It's Sugarcube Corner. It's owned by Mr. and Mrs. Cake, considered by most of Ponyville's population to be the greatest bakers in Equestria." Octavia looked rather excited to go inside, so we walked up to the door, which I opened for her. When she went inside, I heard a high-pitched and hyperactive voice that seemed to be directed at her.
"OhmygoshOctaviait'sbeensolongsinceI'veseenyouwherehaveyoubeenImissedyousomuchI'vegotsomuchtotellyou!"
Woah.
I walked inside to see an extremely bright pink mare with an incredibly curly mane that slightly resembled darkly colored cotton candy. As soon as she saw me, her eyes seemed to grow about nine times their actual size as her jaw dropped like a brick. Her expression suddenly changed into a huge smile as she turned back to Octavia and yelled:
"HE'S SO CUTE, IS HE YOUR COLTFRIEND?!" Octavia's jaw gaped, and I must admit so did mine. Octavia started blushing to the point where I could even see her face redden through her coat as she looked at me and back to the pink mare.
"No, I'm not her coltfriend. I'm a stallion, yes, and I am her friend, but we're not in any form of romantic relationship whatsoever." I explained to the mare. As soon as I was done talking, her expression suddenly dropped, and she looked disappointed, although somehow not embarrassed at all for her outburst, if it were an outburst at all.
Octavia, however, seemed more sad than anything. I would have thought her to just be ashamed from the pink mare's conclusion, but she actually seemed depressed and insulted by something. Was it something I said? Did I hurt her feelings or insult her somehow?
"Anyways, Mr. Octavia's-Not-Coltfriend, I'm Pinkie Pie and I'm friends with everypony in Ponyville, so I'm surprised I haven't met you yet because I usually meet everypony in Ponyville as soon as they arrive because I love everypony and I think you'll love it here!" Although her wording seemed to be slower in a way, I could still only barely grasp what she was trying to tell me.
"I'm Blacksmith, and I've been in Ponyville for about two months now." Pinkie's eyes became huge again, probably because she thought it was ridiculous that she hadn't met me yet. I thought her over-expressivity was kind of cute, actually.
"Ohmygosh I should totally show you around Ponyville! Have you gotten a tour yet? Haveyouhaveyouhaveyou?" The more she talked, the more jittery and bouncy she became. She was literally jackhammering the floor with her jumping in place so quickly.
"Yes, when I first arrived here Octavia and two of her friends gave me a tour." I just wanted to be able to get to the interview without this pink mare getting all over me.
"Oh. Okay." Her expression straightened out a bit.
"I'm actually here for a job interview, do you know where I'm supposed to be headed?"
"Yeah! Just head on over to that door behind the counter!" She pointed to a set of swinging doors like those at saloons in the back of the building.
"Alright, see ya Octavia." I looked over to her and saw she had her head up again.
"Good luck with your interview." she smiled and then walked out the door.
Why did she have her head down like that? She couldn't have only been embarrassed by Pinkie's comment. What was going on with her?
<----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
"Wait, so you're working here because somepony destroyed your house?" Pinkie looked rather dumbstruck from my tale. Pinkie was the one interviewing me, and she had quite a bit of cupcakes on a platter while we talked. In between questions she would eat another one with a single bite. We were just about done with the interview when she asked me why I had left my old job, and I had told the whole story.
I'm certain that I was much, much too open, but it felt wrong to leave anything out.
Pinkie just stared at me for a few moments. I found that she had bright blue eyes that really complemented her personality; she was a really cute mare overall.
"I'm only intending to work here until I can get my home and forge rebuilt, if that's alright."
"Actually," she had a little twinkle in her eyes, "How about we also find out who did this while we're at it?" I had no idea how she intended to actually help out in the whole situation, but I really needed any and all help I could get, and I graciously accepted her offer.
As soon as I said yes, she ate all twenty of the remaining cupcakes in one shot, grabbed my hoof, and dragged me outside at a ridiculous speed. Ponies were staring at us as Pinkie dragged me along with her, and I saw a few mares giggle a little at the display.
Before long, Pinkie had managed to drag me all the way to Twilight's library.
"Pinkie, why did you bring me here?" Pinkie looked at me, dumbfounded, seemingly because to her the answer was so obvious.
"Twilight knows everything, silly!" she said with an adorable little chortle, "I'm sure she can help you out a little!" She then just sat down in front of the house and stared at me. I got the hint after a while that she wanted to wait for me outside.
When I walked in, I saw Twilight at a round table in the middle of her library, a bunch of books scattered all over the place around a single tome that she seemed to be concentrating heavily upon.
"Hello, how may I help you?" I heard a voice say from below me. I looked down to see a small purple dragon standing on his hind legs. He had green spines on his back, and two green fins that seemed to act as a form of ears.
"Yes, I'm here to speak with Twilight, if that's alright."
"Well, I don't think she'll be able to talk to you at the mo..."
"No, it's fine Spike, I can talk to him right now," Twilight interrupted the dragon as she walked up to me with a smile like she was particularly glad to see me, "How are you Blacksmith? What did you need to talk about?"
"I was actually wondering if you knew anything about who might have ransacked my home." Twilight looked shocked at my request, but eased up before long.
"I do have some official Ponyville citizen profiles. Maybe you could look and see if you know any of them? Has anypony been acting suspicious around you lately?"
"Actually, only one that I know of, but I won't be naming any names." Twilight starting leading me back. As we passed the round table, I looked on it to see what she was reading.
I noticed that the tome she had was reading had a strange, black, and withered cover. The pages were yellowed, as if they had been either centuries old or made from some foreign substance. I found it to be curious, so I walked closer to read what was inside.
It was my hoofwriting.
It was written in Chiddish.
...
Twilight had my journal.
"Hey, Blacksmith, is everything all right?" she said from behind me. I could barely hear her over the sound of my own internal rage.
I felt betrayed, and two prominent questions pierced my mind. Why did she have this? Was she the one who destroyed my home?
"...Blacksmith?"
"Where did you get this?" I tried my best to keep a straight and calm voice. I'm certain I was doing a rather poor job.
"What do you mean?" I turned around to face her and closed the distance between us so our snouts were touching while I glared at her. My height easily gave me an advantage in regards to intimidation, and I could see in her eyes that she was nervous. My more bestial instincts took over as I kept glaring at her, making her back away into a wall.
"What I mean is that this book is mine and I want to know how you got your hooves on it." A small spark appeared in her eyes as realization finally struck her.
"No! No! I didn't steal it I swear! There were a few stallions with weird silver ornaments in their manes who came in with this book and asked me to translate it, I had nothing to do with your house getting destroyed, I swear!" She was trembling in fear, and I suddenly felt a pang of guilt as my conscience suddenly kicked me in the face. I backed away and she let out a gasp, as if I had been restricting airflow.
"Twilight, I..." I couldn't put together any words to apologize to her. I felt terrible. I had just intimidated one of my only friends almost to the point of her passing out.
"Just take the book and go." Twilight didn't look at me, and she was still trembling. It seemed that I didn't move quick enough, because she screamed, "GET OUT!" I started a little, took my journal, and ran out of her library. The dragon looked quite dumbstruck at me, and before I closed the door behind me I could swear I heard some sobs coming from the back of the library.
<----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
It was quite dark outside when I came out of the library. Pinkie was still there, and she looked at me expectingly.
"Well?" She asked with a huge smile. I felt a bit of pity for her strange giddiness and innocence, but I couldn't help but feel a little happier on the inside. Although, I would still have to tell her what had just happened.
"Well, I got what I wanted, but it seems I may have ruined my friendship with Twilight." I walked past her and she started scurrying up next to me, bouncing along instead of walking.
"What did you do? Did you make her mad? Did you call her an egghead?" She wasn't smiling anymore.
"No, I lost my temper when I saw that Twilight had my journal, and she just got mad at me and kicked me out. That's all." I didn't look at her as I kept walking.
"Do you want me to talk to her?" She asked me. She seemed like the kind of mare who was always willing to lend a helping hand, and that in itself made me smile.
"Yes, I'd appreciate it." I finally turned around to look at her with a small smile on my face. Before I could say anything else, she darted off in the direction of Twilight's library.
I only then realized that I had no idea if I had been accepted for the job at all.
I sighed in defeat, but decided to go check back at the Corner the next day. Either that, or Pinkie would come tell me herself.
<----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
That night I made a very bad decision. It was a decision that set off a chain of events that would lead to the most life-changing moment I have ever experienced. To this very day, I regret this decision. This decision was something that I replay in my head every night, thinking of how it could have been changed. What would have happend if I didn't walk through that alley that night. I still wonder to myself every day: If Only...
I knew my way around town pretty well at this point, and I knew where all the buildings were in accord to each other. However, I had never tried taking any road other than the roads spanning off from the town square. However, since Twilight's library wasn't anywhere near the town square, I decided to take a different route.
This "route" was really an alleyway between two buildings. It didn't look too desolate as it was rather well lit, but it was an alleyway. There was a dumpster, a bit of garbage here and there, some cardboard boxes, and a couple scattered tin cans.
I didn't pay much thought to this, though. I only wanted to get back home, simple as that.
I was stopped dead in my tracks by a hoof on my shoulder.
"I suggest ya hand that back to me." I knew that voice.
"Big Macintosh, this is my journal, and I don't care what you want with it, destroying a home is no way to take anything from anypony." I didn't look at him, fear overtaking every fiber of my body despite my desperate attempts to remain calm.
"Why, 'Smith, ya don't actually think I'm the one who destroyed yer house, now do ya?" Big Macintosh wasn't the only changeling hunter in Ponyville? I should have known. My foolishness kept me from looking out for members of his organization, and it cost me dearly. "I got a few of my associates to do the dirty work. All we needed to do was translate that ghastly tongue of yours and finally expose who you really are to everypony, and we would all be safe from your soul-suckin' kind."
I broke his hold on my shoulder, jumped forward, and whipped around to face him so there was about five feet of distance between us before hissing and rattling my vocal cords. My Changeling instincts had taken over for a split second, and I had performed a gesture of challenge. Against a pony, no less! I cursed my heritage under my breath as Big Macintosh pulled out a silver knife.
"Although, I think killing ya now would be a relatively simple alternative." I looked into his eyes and saw a glimmer of guilt, fear, and remorse.
I could tell Big Macintosh didn't actually want to kill me. Was he ordered to do this by one of his superiors?
Was he trying to trick me into attacking him?
"Big Macintosh, I don't want to fight you. I just want to live a life as a normal po--" I didn't get a chance to finish my sentence before the red stallion charged at me while squeezing his eyes shut. We barely had a difference in height, but his strength easily toppled me. The fact that he had his eyes closed did nothing to hinder his accuracy or strength.
However, I had learned enough magic to be able to push him off with a single shockwave. He didn't fly far at all, but it gave us enough distance for me to be able to get back up and in turn pin him down. I had fully shut off my rationality at this point as I simply let my more violent side take over as I pummeled Big Macintosh's face repeatedly with my hooves. I was strong, but so was he. I had only managed to create a single welt on his forehead before he pushed me off and pinned me down once more, this time with the knife in hoof. He swung it above his head, ready to stab me straight in the heart.
"Now you won't be able to torment this town any longer..!" Big Macintosh hesitated. His hoof trembled as it held the knife. I closed my eyes, accepting my fate and looking back at my brief existence as a pony.
I could only think of Vinyl. The beautiful, albino mare that I had quickly befriended despite our differences. Her face was all I could think of. Her amazing magenta eyes, her infectious laugh, her compassionate and kind smile. All I could think about was how much I wanted to see her again. But what was this feeling I got from her? Was it truly what I thought it was?
In the midst of my thoughts, I heard a clatter on the pavement as I snapped my eyes open. The knife was right next to me. Big Macintosh was looking down, shaking his head.
"What in Tartarus am I doin'..." He laughed a little. It wasn't a happy laugh, though. More of a disappointed laugh. He looked up at me before continuing, "Why am I trying to kill ya when ya haven't done anything wrong? Ye'r only tryin' to live among us..." Although it was unexpected, his sudden change of heart was a huge relief to me. I knew already that ponies were peaceful creatures; killing me would be going against every single one of his instincts, and Applebloom had described him as a "gentle giant". I shouldn't have been so scared of him.
But there was one thing I was still afraid of, and rightfully so.
SHCRSHK
Big Macintosh's eyes widened as his mouth started leaking blood. A few drops landed on my forehead. He tried speaking, but no words came out. Instead, all I heard was a raspy, chittering voice.
"It's just so much easier when they bleed, isn't it? Their love just goes out through the blood, and you can just lap all of that right up! The sound is so comforting, too... well, unless they start screaming."
No, this can't be happening...
Big Macintosh had a pleading look in his eyes. I could see his soul slowly leave his eyes, and I felt sickened at just how much pain and sorrow this would cause those he held dear. To think this was my life before I became a pony...
I was disgusted with myself.
"Come on, now, you've been doing this sort of thing your whole life! Don't tell me you've grown a soft spot for these creatures!" I heard the sickening sound of a weapon exiting a wound before Big Macintosh keeled over and landed in a pool of his own blood. I looked on, shocked at how the Changeling had his right hoof completely changed into something resembling a short sword.
He had somehow managed to do something no Changeling had ever achieved before. He had managed to polymorph a single part of his body into an object of his choice; in this case, some sort of twisted sword with holes in it. He chuckled a little at my dumbfounded expression before continuing, this time in Chiddish.
"I think you've succeeded pretty well in disappointing the Hive. It flew into quite a rage when it found out one you had betrayed us." So they did know. Rain started falling down, wetting my mane and coat and bouncing off of the Changeling's skeleton.
"I hold no allegiance to the Hive." I stated bluntly. The Changeling looked at me curiously before bursting into a cruel, raspy laughter.
"You've fallen in love haven't you?" He said in between laughs.
"What?"
"Oh, don't tell me you're too stupid to realize it yourself? You've fallen for a pony!" He started jumping in place, his hooves clacking against the pavement and splashing puddles of rain, "Ooh, ooh, I can just imagine her-- white coat, nice, huge magenta eyes, blue mane, perfect flank... Damn, she fine. You got yourself a nice one."
Was he talking about Vinyl? It couldn't be, she was just a friend of mine, a roommate...
But what if he was right? What if I had been hiding my thoughts from myself all along?
He continued, "Hold on, let me guess her name... uh, hold on... ooh! I got it! Vinyl Scratch!" I stared at him, dumbfounded. How in Equestria was he able to read my thoughts? What sort of powers did he get with his sentience?
"We're friends, not lovers, you prick." He laughed uncontrollably at my comment. He wasn't taking me seriously enough. Then again, why should he?
"You're lying to yourself, my friend. I can read your heart like a book. You're making me hungry...but I digress. I'm looking forward to having a bit of fun with you. We'll get along quite well, I believe. Don't worry, I won't tell anyling that you're here." He turned around, took a few steps, and before I knew it he was gone.
I felt my legs go weak. I just collapsed, and as I lay on the cold, wet pavement all I could think of was him saying I was in love with Vinyl.
Was he right? No, that was nonsense. Vinyl and I were friends, I couldn't possibly harbor any feelings for her.
My mind tried to cover for my heart, but it was useless. I could see nothing but Vinyl. I only saw the beautiful mare I had grown so attached to.
It became clear to me then that my sheer stupidity and ignorance had hidden me from this fact all along. My stubbornness had kept me from seeing the truth. There was only one word to describe everything I felt. To describe the warmth in my chest every time I was near her. To describe my giddiness when our sides were touching. To describe my heart melting when she woke up on my chest. To describe how I could just stare into her beautiful eyes for all eternity.
Love.
I was in love with Vinyl Scratch.
Look at me go, I'm sounding like I've got an elementary school crush, don't I?
In the midst of my thoughts, I looked over and saw Big Macintosh. He wasn't dead...but he was close. I crawled over to him, and as I did he wheezed out only a few words.
"Don't let me leave my family..." He was gone. His eyes had become dull. There was nothing left in him.
Big Macintosh was dead.
I managed to shakily get back up on my legs. Using as much magic as I could muster, I put the stallion on my back and attempted to start a long trek to the hospital.
I passed out before I even left the alleyway.