//------------------------------// // Chapter #3: Getting To Know You. // Story: My Little Pony: Dark Star // by WestRail642fan //------------------------------// Chapter Three. Getting To Know You. "Do you know how you got here?" Pipp calmly asked, passing a cup of hot cocoa to David. The duo sitting opposite each other in the staffroom, the 'human' as he called himself was covering himself with all the blankets Pipp could find as all his clothes had to be dried due to him being out in the rain for so long. "To be perfectly honest, Princess. I don't even know myself. One minute I'm out driving on the ice, the next minute, I'm nearly crashing head-on into a tree in the middle of a field." The man replied, the cup shaking in his hand as he took a mouthful, "Thank you..." He added, placing the cup down on the table, "Do you know how long Hitch will be? I want to try and get home if you don't mind. My wife will be worried sick." He continued, looking directly into Pipp's green eyes. "I'm sorry Mr..." "Wyne. David Wyne." "Mr Wyne, but until Hitch gets back here with Sunny, I can't let you go out and besides, your clothes aren't even dry yet." Pipp replied, looking back into his blue eyes, "While we wait, tell me about your wife." She added, placing down her cup. "Where do I begin? She's one of the sweetest, most caring ponies I know. She always knows how to brighten your day when you're down." David replied, looking down, "To be honest, I would move heaven and earth for her." He smiled, before frowning. "To tell you the truth, me and her got into a bit of a fight before I ended up here. That's why I want to get home. To let her know that I'm sorry." He looked down and sighed. "Do you have a picture of her?" Pipp asked, looking over at the human's phone that sat between them, She pushed it towards him as he nodded. David picked up the phone and scrolled through the photo gallery before landing on the perfect picture. He turned the phone towards Pipp and moved it towards her face. "May I?" She asked, placing the phone into her hoof. Her eyes studied the photograph. There were two Pegasi in the frame, both of nearly the same colouring, one had icy blue eyes, while the other had the same eyes as the human sitting before her, "Not to sound like an idiot, but which one is your wife?" She looked up at him, an eyebrow raised in confusion. He took the phone back and pointed at each pony. "That one." He pointed to the one with icy blue eyes, "She's my wife." He then pointed to the other Pegasi, "And that's our daughter." He smiled, looking back at the photo before placing the phone back down. "What are their names?" Pipp mused, watching as the phone screen went black. "My wife is named... Harmony Light and our daughter's name Lillian Rose." He replied, a white lie he thought to himself, but he was for the protection of his family. After all, he is talking to the pony who had attacked him and rendered him unconscious after, who knows what she'd do if he used the real names of his family? Pipp's ear twitched as she heard a bell ringing. "Oh! That'll be Hitch and the others, excuse me for a moment would you?" Pipp stood up and trotted out of the room. David looked around the room, it was quite a cosy room despite how small it was. Pipp must have pulled out all the stops when furnishing the room. He looked down at the floor as he heard Pipp's muffled voice returning. "Here he is." Pipp gestured to the human, "Mr Wyne, this is Sunny Starscout." She added, pointing towards the earth pony mare, "That's Izzy." Gesturing to the tall unicorn who was smiling and waving furiously, "And that's my sister, Zipp." She continued, looking down at the floor as she gestured to the white pegasus who was warning shades. "Hello, as you've just been told, my name is Sunny Starscout." Sunny smiled warmly, stepping forwards towards David, a journal in hoof as she did so. "If don't mind me asking, could I ask you a few questions?" She added, pulling out a pen from her bag. "That's Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark." David gestured to the pattern on the flap, Sunny's face lit up with the biggest smile possible. "You know Twilight Sparkle!" She screamed like a giddy schoolgirl. "Knew her? I've met her." He replied, Sunny hastily wrote this all down, "To be honest, I don't think she liked me too much." He added, crossing his arms as Sunny continued to write in her journal. "Ok ok." Sunny breathed in calmly, "Before I run out of pages, let's get these questions out of the way." She sat down where Pipp had been sitting earlier. "Question one. What's your name?" "David Jonathan Wyne." "Question two. Where were you born?" "Carlisle, United Kingdom." "Question forty-four." Sunny yawned a little, finally reaching the last question on her list. "Alright. Enough with the question." David groaned, pushing the journal away from Sunny, "Look, it was nice talking to you. But I would like to get home if you don't mind." He stood up, completely forgetting he was only being covered by blankets. As he stood up, the blankets fell to the floor. Hitch covered his own and Izzy's eyes, Sunny hid her face in the journal and Pipp rubbed the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "Nice..." Zipp grinned, her wings flaring out as she did so. The others looked at her in disgust, "What?" Zipp added, before noticing her wings, "Oh! I did not mean it like that!" She shouted, her face now red with embarrassment. "Sure you didn't." Pipp smiled smugly, tossing a bag towards the human, "Here, they're dry." She added as he opened the bag, pulling out what he called 'pants'. As David proceeded to put his clothes on, Sunny noticed that both of his 'feet' as he called them didn't seem to match. She calmly stepped forward and pointed at the left one. "If I may ask, why doesn't your left foot match?" She tilted her head, he froze in place in response to the very personal question. "If you must know, I lost that foot in an accident years ago. What you're looking at is a prosthesis. It doesn't function like a real foot." He lifted his leg, gesturing to the metal foot as it limply hung down, "But it gets the job done." He added, pulling his shirt down. "Can I paint it?" "What?" David looked up to see who spoke. "Can I paint it?" They spoke up again, he looked over to see it was the unicorn, Izzy speaking. "Why would you even want to paint it?" David asked, tossing the now empty bag back over to Pipp. "Because it's all grey and boring." Izzy replied, her tail wiggling happily like a dog. "That's the point, it's meant to be functional, not pretty." He looked at the unicorn as her eyes sparkled, clearly thinking of what she'd be painting on the foot. "Still, can I paint it?" "The answer's no." "Aww..." "So..." Pipp stepped forward, "Where is your home anyway?" She asked as the small group turned to leave the staffroom. "The Crystal Empire." David said bluntly. The others froze in place, Sunny pulled out her journal and flicked through all the pages in panic, David stopped and turned around, "Why?" "Um... That's not possible." Sunny gulped. "And why's that?" David raised an eyebrow. "Because..." Sunny looked down at her journal, "How do I say this..." "The Crystal Empire has been gone for thousands of years!" Izzy blurted out. "What." David looked down at Sunny as she rapidly flicked through the pages of her journal for a second time, "No, you're mistaken, I was just there hours ago!" He shouted, Izzy jumped behind Zipp in fright. "Hey! Calm down." Sunny spoke calmly, "Look, I know this might hurt, but it's sadly true. The Crystal Empire disappeared when the magic disappeared. According to my father's research, that happened just over two thousand years ago." "What year is it?" "What?" Sunny tilted her head, "Why would you want to know the year?" "What year is it?!" "It's the year 2021 AMD" Sunny said calmly, trying her best to defuse the situation. "2021 AMD? What the hell does AMD even mean?" David pinched the bridge of his nose. "After Magic Disappeared?" Sunny gently tapped her hooves together, smiling nervously. "So." David began. "You're telling me that everyone and everything I loved died two thousand years ago?" "Yes?" A bead of sweat trickled down Sunny's face. David quickly stormed away, "Hey! Where are you going?!" She shouted, running after the human. "I need some air." He said, throwing the doors open and stepping out in the fresh morning air. As he looked around the town, ponies stopped and stared at him. He calmly waved. A yellow earth pony mare began to scream, causing the others to scream and run away in panic. In a blind panic, he took off running down the side alley. End of Chapter Three.