A/N: Alright folks heres a new chapter for you to celebrate with the new year. May all your resolutions come true and lets make 2012 the BEST YEAR EVER!
“Before we begin I must ask how you knew this would work.” Luna asked interested in the device she saw before her standing beside her sister.
Eduardo smiled and looked at the screen. “I didn’t. I figure just wing it and see what happens.”
“Is that not risky?” Celestia asked.
“Anything you do in life has some risk associated with it besides a thousand bucks isn’t exactly breaking the bank for me. If anything I was actually hoping this didn’t work so we could try a different method.”
“What would have been the next option?” Luna asked.
“Guess we’ll never know.” Eduardo chuckled.
“I believe we can all agree on that.” Celestia said.
Celestia had a serious expression now. “Now, down to business. Tell us about yourself.”
“Easy enough. I’m a 28 year old mechanical engineer, I live in Miami Florida in the great country of the United States of America. I was born and raised in this fine city and though there are times where this place drives me to the point of insanity this will always be home to me. As you may already know I live alone in this warehouse you see behind me, that was until you sent the three wonderful beings behind me. Other than that I don’t know what else can be said.”
“Do you have any family?”
Eduardo’s expression grew serious. “Just my cousins now. I never met my father and mom unfortunately died from a car accident 2 years ago, drunk driver. I never saw eye to eye with my uncles so naturally as I got older we grew apart. Grandparents passed a long while ago when I was still in college.”
“I was informed you had a family of your own at one point.”
“I did.”
“Forgive me if I am forward but can I ask what happened?”
Eduardo’s hands balled into fists. “I would rather not visit that subject.”
“I understand.”
“Thank you.”
“May I ask a favor of you?” Luna asked.
“Depends.”
“May we see your true form, without your clothing?”
“Trust me, you don’t want to see that.”
“Forgive my curiosity. We have never seen any species from another world.”
“I understand and though many other humans would do the same thing you asked me to do for probably a lot less than curiousity I’m not trying to be rude, there is a reason why I dress the way I do.”
“Can you tell us?”
He thought for a moment. He looked at the 6 ponies on the screen and the three humans behind him. He looked back at the screen. “I have a better idea. I’ll take my shirt off but nothing more. You get your answer and I can keep my mouth shut on one condition.”
The princesses and ponies looked at Eduardo. “Its only going to be us. No one else in attendance, that means everyone on your side except the princesses and these three here are out of sight and out of hearing range.”
“And what are you hiding huh?” Rainbow Dash flying towards the laptop making sure she was in full view.
Eduardo looked at Rainbow. “Trust me, you wouldn’t be able to handle how I look under these clothes. The only reason I’m showing the princesses is because I’m sure they’ve experienced some horrors of their own after being alive for several millennia and would know better than anyone there is always more than meets the eye. I’m sorry but this is a personal matter and I’m not exactly willing to let just anyone see this. But I will admit its impressive how quickly you stood up at the first sign of danger, I won’t blame you, you have every right to want to defend them but I assure you I will not bring any harm to them.” He can see why she bares the element of loyalty. Quick to react at the first sign of danger to a friend. “You’re Rainbow Dash right?”
“The one and only.” She struck a confident pose.
“Well Rainbow I’ve been informed you’re quite the athlete and a speed freak. Its been a while since I’ve met anyone who likes speed as much as I do.”
“Hay yeah, its my life’s calling.”
“I know the feeling.” He gave a warm smile.
After reasoning with her Rainbow settled a bit and went back with the others. He had no doubt that she was still skeptical, hell he would be too.
“Now Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, do we have an accord?”
They looked at each other and back at Eduardo and nodded. He turned back to Spike Fluttershy and Twilight with a smile.
“This won’t take long, in the meantime you guys can hangout in my room help yourself to have a little fun with the guitars just don’t mess with the tuning and don’t be too loud alright? I’ll come get you when we’re done.”
The three nodded and they proceeded to his room, the dogs stayed with their master.
He turned back to the screen.
“Is the room cleared?”
“Yes, the others are outside with the guards.”
“Good, I’ll warn you now, what you’re about to see is just a couple of products the worst of my kind has to offer. Keep in mind that this bares no comparison to what I lost at the hands of people like that. Regardless though its not pretty and though the physical pain is gone the emotional torment I’m left with still resides within me. Now before I continue I’ll ask you one last time. Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
The princesses nodded. He then turned around making sure the door to his room was closed and unbuttoned his shirt. He took it off and the princesses now able to see his torso, completely awe struck by what they saw. His chest, arms, back, everything from his hip to his collarbone.
“Oh my word.”
“Who would do such a thing?”
That was Celestia and Luna’s response upon seeing the scars Eduardo wore on his body. Both alicorn sisters wanted to get some sort of idea of the kind of life he was living despite his success before the other three showed up. It is worth mentioning that they were not ready for what they saw. Yes they expected scarring but not of such a high degree. He slid his arms through the sleeves and buttoned his shirt back up feeling that was all they needed to see. He wasn’t in the least bit proud of them but if showing them off saved him the trouble of explaining it, he figured that was a fair trade.
“Satisfied?” His face now serious.
Neither of them answered.
“Okay now that we have that out of the way lets invite the girls back in. And remember you both gave me your word, we keep this between us.”
“Yes of course.”
Both parties invited the element bearers back in the conversation. While the princesses fetched them outside of their chamber Eduardo simply went to his bedroom and knocked saying they can come out. He poked his head in the room.
“Enjoy playing with my guitars?” He asked the three.
“Um…well Applejack gave me a couple of lessons on an acoustic guitar but I have no idea how to manage with the electric.” Said Fluttershy
“Same story with the bass I have to admit. But it is intriguing.” Said Twilight.
Spike with a nonchalant attitude. “Meh, I’m more of a piano guy.”
“That’s pretty cool bro, Joseph actually rocks the piano pretty hard, the bass is just for fun.”
As they approach the screen everyone is present in Canterlot. Eduardo and the Princesses continue their conversation.
“So anything else you’re interested in knowing?” Eduardo asks.
“Actually we were considering in going over ourselves to see your world.” Celestia said.
“The six of you? Here? When I’m already housing them?” He moves his head over to the three behind him. “Sure sounds like fun, I have more than enough room for everyone here. Just gotta breakout the inflatable beds and you girls can have one big slumber party.”
“Did somepony say PARTY?” Suddenly in the background behind the princesses Pinkie pulls out a brightly colored cannon out of nowhere and fires several shots randomly in the air covering the chamber in confetti, streamers and balloons.
Eduardo turns to Twilight “I take it that was Pinkie Pie.”
“Eeyup.”
“And she can somehow do stuff like that at will?”
“Every time.” Spike replied.
He turns back to the screen with a smile. “Oh this is gonna be fun then.”He chuckles lightly with the others joining in.
“All right if the six of you are going to be coming here we’ll have to coordinate your arrival so it doesn’t look suspicious. We don’t want a repeat of last Friday.”
“Agreed.” Everyone said in unison.
“One question though.” Eduardo was curious.
“Mhm?” Celestia willing to answer.
“If you’re coming to spend time where which I predict will be possibly days or perhaps weeks whos going to be working the sun and the moon?”
“We have a team of unicorns that are more than capable of accomplishing said task. Before my sister and I they were the ones who did the job of course they had to be amassed in large groups but in the event either Luna or I were ill they would take the job temporarily.”
“So you’re gonna call in sick to play hookey and have a little fun.”
“Precisely.” Celestia said with a smile.
“Well even Royalty needs a vacation. Hey Miami is the place to be for vacation, especially with the holidays around the corner. It doesn’t get better than here.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“Princess in my book you are now 20% cooler.”
“HAY! That’s my line.”
“Is it?”
“Its kind of her trademark darling.” Rarity said with a smile.
“Gotcha.”
“You’re fucking crazy.” Jericho was displeased with the plan Eduardo had in mind for the arrival of their guests. “You almost got into serious shit for the other three how the hell are you going to be able to handle all nine of them?”
“Bro how many times have I housed 20 plus drunk people in this very warehouse?”
“Jackass. You are having royalty from another world here.”
“And they understand they being discreet is necessary so they will comply with whatever I ask them to do because I know it’ll keep them from trouble. Besides whats the worst that can happen?”
“I hate it when you say that.”
“Why?”
“Because ever since we were prepubescent knuckle heads every time you say that the worst usually does happen.”
“Is this about what happened after we came from New Mexico?”
“What do you think? That shit was horrible.”
“That was 6 years ago man you gotta let that go.”
“Let it go? I still have nightmares about that shit.”
“How the fuck was I supposed to know that chick you hooked up with was a tranny?”
Joseph was nearby falling off the stool laughing while Twilight and the others were completely lost.
“Big brother I’m sorry but that shit was hilarious.”
“I have to say Jerry, I agree with Joe here.” Eduardo responded.
“Umm…” Fluttershy said in an attempt to get their attention.
Eduardo looked over at them. “Oh its nothing guys just a little mishap Jericho had here with a lady friend he met before he met his bride to be. Say did you ever get his name?”
Spike and Joseph burst out laughing with Twilight and Fluttershy looking at him stunned.
“Oh, I never expected him to have such…..preferences.” Fluttershy meekly said.
“And he is married too so that means….” Both Fluttershy and Twilight were wide eyed looking directly at Jericho with Twilight blushing and Fluttershy cupping her hands over her mouth. This didn’t stop Spike, Joseph and Eduardo from laughing themselves to the floor.
“Damn bro, you got burned by two chicks from another planet!” Eduardo said clenching his stomach.
Twilight and Fluttershy soon caught up with the joke and started laughing to themselves at Jericho’s expense.
“You guys are dicks.”
“Least we didn’t make out with one!” Joseph shot back.
“THATS IT! C’MER YOU SCROWNY LITTLE SHIT!” Jericho lunged at his little brother grappling him into a chokehold.
“SAY UNCLE! SAY UNCLE YOU LITTLE RUNT!”
“UNCLE UNCLE!”
With that he let him go and both got off the floor with the laughter dying down around the kitchen.
“Okay now that we got that out of the way how about we figure a way to get these folks here without raising any alarms.” Jericho mentioned.
“How quickly you bounce back.” Eduardo still wanting to be a wiseass.
“I’ll drop you too bitch.”
“Okay heres what I have in mind. We’ll wait till another cloudy night rolls around and we’ll pick them up then. With that flash of light Eddy told us about no one will second guess it and think its just lighting impacting the ground. Only thing is it’ll be in Homestead but theres not enough light out there to give us away and ” Joseph said with confidence in his voice.
“Wow Joe, I’m impressed.” Jericho said with Eduardo agreeing.
“Okay now comes the fun part. Cars.” Eduardo said with eagerness in him voice. “I say we take Jericho’s Excursion and my Super Duty as well as the G8. I’ll take point in the Super Duty. Driving the G8 is Jericho following me and Joseph takes the Excursion. I’ll keep an eye on the scanners checking for any cop activity in the area.”
“Um are we coming too?” Fluttershy asked with Twilight and Spike equally curious.
“Of course you are. Twilight, Spike you ride with Joseph, Fluttershy, go with Jericho. Joseph, I need you to keep an eye on our 6 to watch out for any bubblegum machines following.”
The three had confused faces to which Jericho responded. “Florida Highway Patrol.”
“Oooh.” The three said in unison.
“Okay with that settled I’ll tell the others the plan and when it’ll go down. In the meantime make sure your machines are up to snuff, we wouldn’t want to have any break downs.”
At that moment the familiar sound of an RB26 was descending upon the occupants of the warehouse.
“Ali’s here.”
The GTR slowly rolled backwards inside the warehouse and parked next to Eduardo’s Super Duty. Alison came out happy to see everyone in seemingly good spirits.
“Hello there boys and girls. Did you miss me?”
The girls giggled and greeted Alison with a hug. “How are you doing? Its been a couple of days.” Said Twilight.
“Yeah work has kept me up late but luckly now I actually have a few days off.”
“Excellent then you can help us get the others.” Eduardo said.
“Wait what? I didn’t agree to anything!”
“Sweetheart at this point you don’t have a say in the matter.”
“Do you get off on me kicking your ass?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“NO! NO! YOU TWO ARE NOT DOING THIS AGAIN!” Spike yelled at the two flirtatious adults.
“The kid’s got a point. Right now we have more urgent matters to discuss.”
“Alright I’ll bite whats the plan?”
Joseph explained the plan to Alison and Eduardo picked out the cars they would be using to pick them up. Most of which she agreed and it had been impressive that they came up with all that in about two minutes while busting each others chops. On this occasion the best plan is usually the simplest. That’s how those three men before her were always were when it came to anything that required coordination.
“I think I should come along and bring the Skyline. I think it’ll be a little weird to come to a new world and see nothing but a few dudes.”
“Alright you're in.”
“Yay! So when are we doing this?”
“I checked the weather reports this morning, theres gonna be a small thunderstorm somewhere over at homestead by Krome Ave in about 2 days. I’m sure we can pick a good spot there, nothing but farm land anyway.” Jericho said.
“Alright, Joseph I’ll go with you to scope a spot out for the meet, Alison you enjoy shopping right?”
“Yeah why?”
“Our guests are going to need clothes. Take Twi and Flutters with you I’m sure they can help a great deal.” He passes his debit card to her. “The pin is 1911 take the F-350 with you. The three of you can fit in the front and can load all the stuff either in the bed or in the back seat. Jericho?”
“Yeah.”
“Did the tranny use tongue?”
“Leave it to Eddy to piss the cop off.” Alison said laughing along with Fluttershy and Twilight.
“Have they always been like that towards each other?” Twilight asked.
“Oh you have no idea. Those three stooges together is just a laugh every time.”
The three were halfway through their shopping spree. Having already shopped for Luna, Celestia, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity Alison figured it would be a good idea to shop for Spike, and the girls who were already here. Fluttershy sat in the back seat looking out the passenger window deep in thought about the difference between how Eduardo was today and the night she observed him.
“You’ve been awfully quiet back there Fluttershy. Something on your mind?”
“Um…Alison?”
“Whats up?”
“Theres something I want to know, but I don’t want you to be mad at me.”
“You have a crush on Eduardo?” She said jokingly.
Fluttershy blushed at the thought. “Oh no nothing like that.”
“I’m kidding sweetheart, whats on your mind?”
“Um….a couple of nights ago I kind of sort of spied on Eduardo and I saw some things.”
“Don’t tell me you caught him masterbating.”
Both Twilight and Fluttershy looked at Alison blushing.
“You did didn’t you?” Said Alison in a serious tone.
“Um….no.”
“Oh thank god, I caught him once and to this day I still got on his case about that. But still why were you spying on him?”
“Um…I kind of notice that he acts differently when he thinks no one else is around.”
“Like how?” Alison asked.
“Fluttershy did Eduardo do something bad?” Twilight asked.
“No, but its just that, sometimes at night he looks at that car that has the tarp on it. I decided one night to see what he does around it. At first it looks like he was just inspecting it, like he was looking for any imperfections on the bodywork. Everything seemed normal then he sat inside of it. I couldn’t see the expression on his face but he seemed upset.” She then thought about the engine in the GT500. “Alison, I saw the look on his face when he opened the hood of the car. The look in his eyes was not the same from when I first saw him or when got really sad. I felt that he was furious at it. After that he closed it up and covered it again. He went to the kitchen to drink some strange golden liquid and he went to his room.”
“Did you see what happened afterwards?”
“No I waited till I felt it was safe to go up stairs to bed.”
“I see. You know if you got caught he would be really mad but don’t think for a second that he would intentionally hurt you. Hes not a monster. Just really sad is all.”
“Was there some reason he built that engine? With the other cars I knew they were built for racing and this one looked like it did too, but I got the feeling that theres a lot more to it than that. Hes not acting the way he did around the others. Just that one.”
“I couldn’t tell you. The first time I saw that Mustang I was headed home from shopping. I can tell you this though. The sound it makes is scary. Everything around it literally shakes. Its got more horsepower than my Skyline and that’s about 750 horsepower and its got a lot of torque easily about 1000 per foot pound. And its loud when its at full throttle even idling its scary. But that’s just the way he is. Every car he builds reflects how he feels at the time of building it. Every engine he has ever built was always associated with joy or courage or hope. But that car, that supercharged 427, it was probably built with a lot of hatred and anger behind it. Not a pleasant history behind that car.”
“I was afraid of that.”
“You know that Supra he has?”
“Yes?”
“That’s his most recent attempt for him to be happy again. I’ve seen him in action when I drive behind him. Hes not reckless, everything he does in that car is stable and deliberate. For about 6 months he was building that car. He recently hit about 246 mph in it. But that’s not the most amazing part.”
Twilight and Fluttershy looked and listened.
“Every time he drives it, It looks like he is finally starting to move on and let go of his past.”