//------------------------------// // a new outlook // Story: the Other Side of the Coin // by Hydradagon //------------------------------// 10:45 A.M., several days ago It was a cool morning under the shade of Manehattan’s extraordinarily tall buildings as a towering brown stallion walked through the bustling crowds, all among the city were eager to get to their destinations. This stallion was no exception as he searched the city through yellowed eyes to get to one specific building. Several more minutes of navigating through the maze of smaller ponies that were too arrogant to watch were they were going; he finally came across the building he was looking for. A rather unassuming hill of a structure among mountains, only four stories tall this one building was adorned with blue outlines in an attempt to force recognition. But this building did not truly need recognition as it was the one kind of place in which all ponies of Equestria who needed an efficient way to communicate; this building, was a post office. Whistling, the stallion lumbered to the same desk he had been coming to for the past several weeks. “has it come yet” the brown stallion irritably demanded as he draped his hooves over the desk, strands of normally combed back black hair falling into his eyes As he brushed his hair back still leaning over the cotton colored mare; she gulped, saying “y-yes yes it is” “haha, finally, the object of great importance has arrived” the stallion shouted waving his hooves in the air before he accepted a small rectangular package labeled “pac-mare” “oh, and a letter too” the mare said as she handed him the slip of paper. Grunting slightly, the stallion grabbed the letter and left, now rushing for an entirely different purpose who could that possibly be, I haven’t gotten a letter in years. The stallion thought as he entered his small one bedroom apartment “a full five years and not any headway in my career” the stallion griped as he set down his newly acquired belongings. That better not be “them” looking for another “visit” the stallion hoped as he opened the letter a smile slowly growing on his face; the letter read: Hey Button Masher Sorry if my hoofwriting is a bit sloppy, you know me and school. Well anyway, I caught drift of how you were doing after you moved to Manehattan; not good huh? Well anyway remember some of that old junk you used to give me is you had made a spare? Well I sent it to college. That one university in Hoofton that deals with stuff that nobody really cares about? Well they thought you would be good for the school and they said they would let you in, the entry stuff is on the back page free board and everything, crazy right? Now I know I didn’t ask you but I figured you’d say no if I had asked you in a more strait forward way, this way you can’t say no as easily, hey who knows you may even run into me there. Stay awesome, Carrier D Turning over the paper Masher saw that there were indeed admission papers to the infamous Gem University. Masher’s smile finally imploding he shouted while still managing to lower the pitch of his voice “The Awesomeness has been completed” thanks D he thought as he began to pack his things. Three days later Masher was well on his way to getting to Hoofton as he marched through weather that he had never seen before with buckets of brown and surprisingly sweet tasting liquid drenching everything that wasn’t covered by a good tarp chocolate rain? Is that supposed to happen? Masher wondered as he came across a sheltered overhang with a fire. “Mind if I come in and dry myself, Masher Inquired; hoping to find out if there really was anypony there “Huh, oh, yeah, come on in” said a voice coming from behind a large rock. Upon further investigation Masher discovered that there was a pony resting on a cot with some belongings “so stuck out here too-oouoahh” the smaller pony said at seeing the sheer size of the other “h-h-how is that possible” “what, me being so tall” Masher said, slightly annoyed that the colt reacted so volatilely to his height. “y-yeah should it be possible to get that tall” the unnamed colt said as he appeared to somewhat relax “it’s a bit uncommon to get this tall, but it’s definitely possible; especially among earth ponies” Masher said, sitting on his haunches now that it didn’t look like the red haired unicorn was about to run away in fear “so do you have a name, or do I have to keep calling you nameless and colt?” “My names Buckfire” the colt said as he sat down with Masher, resting his head on the cot. “Well then Buckfire, nice to meet you kid, named Masher, Button Masher” Masher said, giving a warm smile to Buckfire. “Gamer huh? Never could get a handle for things like that” Buckfire said, gazing deeply into the charred wood that was still lightly burning. “THAT’S GENIUS, HOW COULD YOU FIGURE THAT OUT FROM JUST A GLANCE” Masher said, visibly surprised “Whoa, relax; I just looked at your cutie mark, no need to go insane” Buckfire said, putting his tan brown hooves in front of him and tilting his head “oh yeah” Masher said now sporting a sheepish smile across his face “I usually forget about that thing, I try not to decide who a pony is based on their cutie mark, after all, they aren’t all knowing, what if a pony gets one that doesn’t suit them” Masher said with a large yawn afterwards “well kid, I suppose we should hit the hay, I don’t know about you but I need to travel in the morning and I’m hoping that this Irrelevant storm is over after I wake up” Masher said, crawling on top of a pile of hay “Oh yeah, that reminds me, where are you heading, I mean, if you don’t mind that is” Buckfire said as his eyelids began to flutter open and closed. “I never mind, I’m heading off to Hoofton, a friend set me up with a new life there” Masher said, sleep forcing his voice to become unnaturally soft. “I see that’s actually where I’m traveling to as well” Buckfire said as sleep also caught him. Oblivious to the fact that his last statement had fallen on deaf ears as Masher had already fallen asleep. Rising with the sun had always been ingrained into Masher’s psyche; as such he woke up much earlier than the younger stallion. “seems as if the rain’s finally stopped” Masher said before taking a second glance at the brown liquid, “If you can call it that, could that possibly be, chocolate milk?” looking up into the sky, Masher saw a few remnants of pink cloud lingering in the sky, still moist with the sweet liquid. “By god, this better go well with mac and cheese” Masher said before grabbing his belongings and placing them back into the cart that he was using. Upon entering Hoofton Masher was astonished to see how few ponies that there actually were at the town, he wasn’t expecting very many considering the fact that despite the university the area was still fairly rural. “I’ve seen lesser” Masher said to himself as he continued down the dirt road “I suppose after living in Manehattan for a half a decade will have that effect on a pony” now then, all I have to do is go to an area called Commodore Dormitories. After the discovery that he was required to find his board rooms first; Masher began looking for a map of some sort of map to direct him until he formulated a foolproof way to reach the dorms if I remember right based on the known laws of our universe, if I run as fast as I can in a random direction I have a fifty-fifty chance of either getting to the Dorms, or breaking several limbs doing a silent nod Masher had decided “It’s a chance worth taking” Taking a ready stance Masher decided a direction and prepared to run “CHAAAAAAAAAARGE” Masher shouted as he took off in full sprint. About a mile ahead in the direction that Masher was charging in a red griffin inside a large blue tiled building was forming the preparations he was required to complete every morning to maintain the building and at that point was busily making breakfast for the inhabitants of said building until he heard the distant rumble of hooves that were quickly making their way closer to the building with each passing second until the silver-ware itself had begun to shake more and more violently until “BONZAI” shouted a stallion that was unknown to the griffon “hmmph, I wonder if this is the place I should be at, I didn’t break any limbs, so it should be” Masher stated as he examined himself “YOU, YOU JUST WRECKED MY KITCHEN AND DESTROYED MY PANCAKES” the seemingly livid griffin shouted as he bared his claws and took a battle-ready stance “I AM GOING TO MAKE CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP OUT OF YOUR ENTRAILS” the griffon stated as he launched himself directly at Masher Unable to dodge, Masher was caught underneath the griffon; unable to kick him off for chance of really becoming soup. Remaining calm Masher asked “Soooo, would this happen to be Commodore Dormitories” Still seeing red to match his feathers the griffon yelled about to strike him “YEAH, WHAT’S IT TO YA”. “You see griffon man, I am actually the new boarder here” Masher said with a nervous look on his face. After hearing this, the Griffon calmed down immediately and appeared as if he had never been angry in the beginning. “Oh my, I am terribly sorry to have done this, it’s my entire fault, here your room is the first one upstairs on the left, and I’ll stay and clean up” As Masher left the kitchen he heard the griffon mutter “damn’t Lance, your such a klutz” “Wow, that was a fast change” Masher noted as he gathered his games and found a large spiral staircase. “Well, he did say upstairs” but as Masher began to take the first step, a pale lavender Pegasus flew down the stairs; nearly causing him to drop his games “HEY, could you watch where your going” “sorrygottogoby” the Pegasus shouted back as she left the dorm. “That was a close call, I almost dropped my games” Masher said as he wiped a bead of sweat off of his forehead and finished making his way up the stairs, only to come across a Pegasus stallion that was even larger that he was. The hallway being too small for the both of them the silver stallion had crashed into Masher only to shout something unintelligible and fly away. Time seemed to slow down as Masher watched one of the few known copies of Pac-Mare fall to the ground and shatter into several hundred pieces. “Wha-what, that didn’t just happen, did it?” Masher said as a single tear was shed looking at the sharded game. “Lance, who were those to ponies that just left the dorm” Masher demanded “Oh my, that was Pastel and Maestum, why, they didn’t do anything did they?” Lance asked hoping they weren’t in too big of trouble “Yes they have, and I will bring them to justice, I swear by the sticks of Tartauros” Masher dictated getting ready to force two criminals to see justice “do you know where they went?” “I believe they were going to the library, its left of here, just go straight, and try not to crash into it please” Lance chimed in a voice that was much too pleasant for Mashers taste. Running in the general direction that Lance had told him to masher eventually came across a fairly large stacked log building with a sign that announced “LIBRARY, so Lance was right, now then let’s see if they’re thei- they are there” Masher began gritting his teeth as he snuck up behind them and shouted “I WILL RIDE A BICYCLE OF NIGHTMARES INTO YOUR FACE” Masher shouted as he shoved himself into the silver stallion, unaware of the unicorn behind him. Hearing shouting Masher looked up just in time to see the same brown unicorn he had seen the day before, and saw a large burst of magic come from it which quickly consumed the wooden library with the books being used as mere kindling, no match for the powerful spell.