//------------------------------// // Winter Wrap Up, Wolves, and a Concert // Story: Man in a Pony’s World // by Nugget27 //------------------------------// “So, you’re telling me,” Bob said as he got a jacket on. “That because you guys control the weather, that you have to manually take everything from winter down and prepare for spring? And you got a whole day to do it?”  “Yup! And last Winter Wrap Up, I was assigned as the lead organizer after I tried everything. This year you’re going to have to find something you can help out with.” Twilight said as she struggled to get her vest on. Bob chuckled and shook his head. He picked Twilight up, no matter how heavy she was, flipped her back onto her hooves and snapped the vest on her. “Thanks. Those hands sure are hoofy if you don’t have magic, aren’t they?” Bob nodded. “Maybe you can help Rarity build bird nests!” So, that’s where Bob went first upon walking out of the library and breaking off from Twilight and Spike. Well, he would’ve if he didn’t hear some music playing from… nowhere. As ponies got their parts of Winter Wrap up done, they sang a song about… well, Winter Wrap up. About leaving holidays and cheering for brighter pastures or something. When he got to the bird nest making team, Rarity put him to work immediately. “Oh shit, this is just like glue for making paper mache!” Bob quickly got to work and put a few nests together. Surprisingly, none of the ponies nearby even cared all that much that Bob was nearby and helping them… “Darling, those nests are ghastly,” Rarity said, somehow looking over his shoulder despite the disparity in height between Bob and the average pony. “But… These are big enough to fit a robin, maybe even a bluejay and their eggs should they have any. I can guarantee that most birds don’t care about how their nests look as long as they can put their eggs in it, and it keeps their eggs safe.” “But they aren’t stylish, look at everypony else’s nests!” “...Those look cool, but they take longer to make. Don’t we only have a whole day to get shit done?” “Bob, don’t use that language around me, young man.” Rarity glared at him. “Aight then. I’m gonna go… help somewhere else then. Since this was the only thing I could really help with, I dunno where the hell I’m gonna go. See you around, Rarity.” Bob took a deep breath and got out of his chair… When Rarity punched his shin for swearing around her. “I fucking hate ponies for a reason,” Bob grumbled under his breath as he limped away. He flipped Rarity off when he was far enough from her to be able to do anything about it. After a few minute of thinking, and walking, Bob came to a conclusion: Everyone else will probably have a problem with how he does things because he’s not a pony.  “Hey Bob!” Rainbow Dash landed in front of him. “I thought Twilight said you’d be with Rarity this year. So why aren’t you helping her?” She looked him over. “And why are you limping out of town?” “I’m the fastest nest maker out of the group, and Rarity didn’t like that because I wasn’t making nests that looked nice, even if they were perfectly fine and serviceable. I’m walking out of town until Winter Wrap Up is done. Since I’m not strong enough to plow entire fields, I can’t fly, and I don’t want to wake up a sleeping bear by accident. I’m more or less useless everywhere else, so why bother helping anywhere else? And the last time I did help, I got told I’m terrible at it.” “You still gotta help out, Bob. You live here! I’m sure you’ll find something you’re good at-” “All I’m good for is giving mediocre performances of songs from my world, and baking stuff. I’m not particularly strong, I’m not fast, I’m not the brightest star in the night, and I’m not a pony. I’m simply here, wondering why I even bother trying to live with ponies, when I could go anywhere else and possibly be treated better?” “I can get you on the cloud clearing… oh right, you don’t have wings.” She rubbed the back of her head and looked at the ground for a few moments. “Maybe-” When she looked up, Bob was already gone. “Oh no, I have to tell Twilight!” The cyan pegasus took off to find the unicorn in question. Bob walked around the outskirts of Ponyville. As it turned out, there was a section of forest that wasn’t the Everfree Forest in any way. The snow had already melted, and the buds of flowers slowly raised from the grass below as they began to blossom. A small smile formed on his face as he sat down on a damp log and hummed a silly, nonsense tune as he enjoyed the forming of Spring around him. After a few minutes, Bob found himself getting pounced on by… a wolf. It was a normal wolf, only it was… huge. Its tail was wagging and it hopped off of him.  “What the hell?” Bob watched the wolf play bowed and pranced up to him. It pounced again, driving Bob to the ground. It wrestled with him until its teeth caught his nose and he yelled. “Ow!” The wolf immediately stopped and got off of him. “Jesus, your teeth are sharp, be careful with those things!” Bob shook his head as the wolf started looking scared. “You… look like a wolf pup, you’re the size of a german shepherd…” He hummed before shrugging. “C’mere, I’ll play with you as long as you don’t bite me too hard.” The wolf sneezed before it pranced back up to him and the two of them started playing, with the oversized pup being a lot more gentle than before. By the time the two of them had tired out, Bob had the pup laying in his lap, its tail wagged slightly as the human gave the thing a good scratch down. Soon, the wolf was napping in his lap, and Bob just smiled. “Man, so this is what it feels like to be a caveman. Find a wolf, boom, puppy,” he talked to himself as he watched the wolf’s side slowly rise and fall with its snoring. “You’re a cute little fella, I’ll give you that. Now if only Twilight would let me keep a pet in her library… especially one that eats meat more than I do.” Bob hummed. “I can tell Twilight about a crossbow and kill some fucker in the Everfree Forest for this guy.” He continued to ramble on and on. “I’m gonna call you… Eh, Balto. Loved that movie.” Bob scratched the wolf one more time before leaning his back fully on the tree behind him. “Bob! This is where you were?” Twilight and several other ponies from Ponyville stormed into the small clearing Bob and Balto were laying. “T-that’s a wolf! What the buck are you doing with a wolf?” “Wolves are just wild dogs. Back on Earth, humans befriend wolves… some time during the ice age, I assume. It’s how humans got dogs back. This fella here,” Bob lifted the pup with a grunt. It was now wide awake and curiously staring at the ponies around them it sniffed the air and its ears swiveled at every little whisper. “Wanted to play. The moment he thought he hurt me too much, he stopped, looked sorry and started being more gentle. Didn’t bite any harder than he should’ve, since. After he tuckered out, right in my lap he went.” “That’s a bucking Dire Wolf Pup, Bob!” Twilight yelled. The pup lost interest in the ponies, and curled itself back up after Bob laid it back on the ground… then it got up and onto the human’s lap before yawning and flopping over. “Do you have any idea how lucky you are that it didn’t just kill you?” “Yeah, I know. I’m lucky to even be able to pet this bugger, but hey, if he wants to be friendly, I’ll be friendly. No point in chasing somebody away when all they want is to be nice to me.” Bob looked Twilight in the eyes. “This pup ain’t a monster, Twilight. He’s like how I was in a way. Young and innocent.” Bob squirmed when the wolf licked his neck. “Friendly.” The human paused as Twilight looked away for a moment. “Let me keep him. Please. Aside from my guitar, I have nothing to my name. I’ll make sure he’s fed and taken care of.” Twilight sighed. “If he eats anypony, he is gone.” “And that is completely fair, Twilight. However, I’m going to figure out how to hunt so that I can keep him fed. It won’t be too hard; I did it a few times in my time on the road.” Bob giggled when Balto had completely lost interest in the ponies around him, and had started taking another nap. “I always wanted a pet wolf. Some long, stupid dream from my childhood that hasn’t died out yet. Glad to see that some dreams do come true under the shittiest of circumstances.” A few days later, Bob was cooking several pounds of fish in the kitchen. He had just fished up all of what he was cooking, and was preparing his wolf pup’s meal while the kitchen wasn’t being used. He wasn’t a genius when it came to cooking, but he thought he was doing a decent job. After a few minutes, he put the diced up fish into a bowl and whistled. “C’mere Balto! I’ve got lunch ready for you!” The wolf padded into the kitchen and got up on his hindlegs. “Today’s course is some fish, seasoned nicely with salt and lemon with some greens, a few peppers for flavor, and… an egg for some extra protein!” Bob chuckled as Balto got backed away and patiently waited for the human to set the bowl down. The dire wolf’s tail wagged to and fro as he quickly made work of his meal. While Balto ate, Spike and Twilight were sitting out on the main floor of the library. “That’s disgusting,” Twilight’s nose scrunched up. “I still smell raw fish,” she shivered. “I’m surprised you don’t care about him eating meat.” “He’s a wolf, of course he’ll wanna eat some meat! Fish just smells really bad.” “Glad you aren’t mad at me for keeping him anymore,” Bob sighed.  “Bob, you looked so happy with Balto in your arms, that I couldn’t tell you no. That’s one of the few times, aside from any time you spend with Luna where you seemed genuinely happy. On top of that,” the wolf walked in, having just finished his food. He nuzzled his human before nuzzling Twilight. “He’s not as bad as I thought he’d be. There’s stories of dire wolves attacking travelers, but no reports of them ever actually attacking anypony. And it’s a good opportunity for me to study the growth of a dire wolf, and the general behavior of them as well.” Spike was now happily wrestling Balto, and it was clear to everyone but the drake, that the wolf was holding back and allowing himself to be pinned. “So far, he’s a lot like a dog, and seems to shy away from ponies whenever they show up.” “That’s not too different from wolves in my world, well, regular wolves. Where I’m from, dire wolves are extinct, likely due to being too big to feed themselves, while being too slow to catch anything to eat. An outlier here… Balto actually follows commands, without any training which is weird. Most dogs on Earth want to see their humans happy, either by doing tricks, or whatever. Basically, it’s bred into them that they wanna follow their humans, whereas wolves don’t-” “Hold on, please repeat all of that. I can use this in my notes and compare them to my own in the future; it’ll help a lot. It’ll also make me the first mare to take notes about animals from another universe!” Bob chuckled and did as the unicorn asked. About a week later, Bob was sitting alone in the library. After having installed a doggy door big enough for his wolf to fit through, the wolf went out more. Often there was a green flash, but Bob didn’t question it. He was in a land full of magical, talking animals, and if his wolf could use magic, who was he to care? Plus, Balto usually went out, and came back with a stuffed belly, and a little blood. Of course, this freaked both him and Twilight out, only for them both to remember that he’s a wolf, and probably did some hunting. Everypony around town usually reported that the dire wolf was very friendly, and often got baths from other ponies regularly. To the whole town, Balto was their pet. Like a giant dog that was all too happy to please anypony, and the foals loved him. It was only a week, and the wolf was accepted into town quicker than Bob was. Even if it was only because of Twilight technically being the legal owner of the wolf, as Bob didn’t know how to get any of the paperwork to adopt Balto.  Right now, Balto was off doing whatever he does, and Bob was alone. The door clicked open and none other than Filthy Rich walked in. “Bob, I believe you have a concert to perform at.” Bob shot up with a grin. “You bet I do!” Bob grabbed his guitar and met the stallion’s side. They both walked out of the library. “So, where’s the concert?” “A field just outside of Ponyville. I got you a piano, a drum kit, and a violin. I even grabbed a cello and a viola for you. If you want to keep any of the instruments I lend you tonight, I’ll cover the cost. All money we make will be split between us, and I want to make sure you get your full cut. As is, I already have enough money. Paying fifty bits for a violin is no fur off my muzzle, after all.” “That… is generous of you.” “You deserve a future, colt. I see potential in you, just as I see potential in my daughter. If there is one thing I hate, it’s wasted potential. I believe you deserve another chance, a chance to earn an honest living and to enjoy your life. You can’t do that if you remain cooped up in that library with no signs of things looking brighter.” The two of them got to a stage out in the middle of a field just outside of Ponyville. “Everypony will be attending. Ponies such as Dj Pon3 and Octavia Melody. They both agreed to spread the word if they like what they hear. So do well, colt.” They climbed up on stage and Bob’s eyes widened. There were several instruments, as said, there was a drum kit, along with a machine to loop what was played, a violin, and a piano. There was a drum machine, which shocked him, and… there was an electric guitar and bass. “Holy fuck…” Bob whispered. “You ponies have electric guitars?” “We do, why do you ask?” Filthy Rich asked with a smirk growing on his face. “Holy shit… holy mother fucking shit! I never thought I’d see one ever again!” Bob gently set his guitar down and looked over the electric guitar. “And I can keep one instrument after the show’s done?” “Of course. Or all of them. I have friends in higher places who sponsored this concert; they’re who I got the instruments from.” Filthy Rich shook his head. “Don’t hug-” “Thank you, thank you so much. You… you genuinely don’t know how much this means to me. I-I-I…” Bob started crying a little. “Sorry about intruding on your personal space,” the human backed off of the shocked stallion. “I always, always wanted to perform on stage in front of an audience. Now I can do that. It’s all thanks to you.” Filthy Rich smirked again as he nodded to himself. “I knew giving you a chance would be worth it. It’s rare that you see a pony genuinely that grateful when you help them out. You’re going to go far kid. Go test out some of those instruments, the concert starts tonight at six. I’ll be back with my family later… I even heard that Princess Celestia and her sister will be attending the show. No pressure.” Bob nodded, before running to check out the drum looper. It was a pretty simple thing. It had a mic plugged into it, which hung over the drum kit, which recorded it and played it through a gramophone. First, Bob noticed various other mics plugged into the speaker system for all the other instruments. He walked around and waved to a few ponies who were setting the speakers up. Within minutes, Bob traced back where every instrument’s mic went and pulled them out. He walked over to the loop machine and plugged them into it. “It’s currently ten in the morning… and I have until six at night. Oh… I have an idea.” After playing bits and pieces of Carol of the Bells as a test, his eyes widened.  “This thing’s cool!” Bob grinned as it played each instrument recording. The piano, the xylophone that was also on stage… The violin and the cello. His grin got even bigger. “You know,” one of the ponies said. “I’ve never seen anypony do that before. It usually records everything onto a gramophone disc so that it can be copied and sold later…” The mint green unicorn said with a grin. “I see what you’re thinking. As a fellow musician, I want to see what you try.” “I have a bunch of instrumentals to record,” Bob said with a grin. “Who are you?” “I’m Lyra, a local musician. I’ve never made it big like my friends Octavia and Vinyl Scratch, but I think I’m pretty knowledgeable with music. After I heard that you played several instruments at that school play, of all things, I’ve been a bit interested. Aside from interesting me, due to my own interests…” Her eyes flicked to his hands. Bob could see that the unicorn was barely containing herself. “Well, I’ll leave you to record what you gotta record. I’ll see you on stage at six!” So, Bob spent the next few hours recording songs that required several instruments onto various gramophone discs, after learning he didn’t need to have a disc for every instrument, as the drum looper had an option to record constantly; it loops after every part until you tell it to stop. After a few hours, Bob had several recordings, without any vocals. The only songs he wanted to play, but didn’t record into the machine, were songs that didn’t require more than one instrument. The human smiled as he set the discs aside after testing each one, each had their own labeled casing. “I fucking got this-” It was six, and Bob was sitting behind the curtain. The field was packed. With a peek outside, Princess Celestia and and Luna were given a private booth that was built on the spot, along with a gray, snobbish looking earth pony, and a white unicorn with a pair of goggles. He took several breaths and tried to calm himself down. “Oh, I am so fucked. Why did I agree to this?”  “Tea? It’ll calm your nerves,” Filthy Rich offered the cup. “No. That'll mess up my throat and I’ll sound worse. I’ve got a technique.” Bob closed his eyes and giggled. “Okay, I’m good.” His voice held strong and he was no longer jittery. “Aight, I’ll go break a leg, cya when the show’s done, Rich!” Bob went out on stage. “Isn’t that a bad thing?” Rich asked as the human went to address the crowd. “Howdy Ponyville, I believe you all know who, and what I am at this point, but I was told to say this by a certain, lavender unicorn. Hi, I’m Bob, and I’m what’s known as a human being. I can play various instruments, which you will see me play at several points during the concert, but not now. I went ahead and used a special piece of equipment, that was lent to me by Filthy Rich, to record a lot of the instrumentals I’ll be using for this performance. Some of the songs will be serious, some will be silly, I wrote none of them. They’re all going to be songs my kind has written throughout the thousands of years we’ve been alive. Without further ado… let’s get on with the show!” Bob walked over to the piano. “As tradition,” Bob started. “For anyone who figures out that I am a musician, you all will hear this first song of mine…” Bob took a deep breath. “A World On Fire by Bo Burnham!” Bob slammed his fist into the piano and screamed like a man that was burning alive. That caught a lot of the ponies off guard and they started cracking up. “Okay, that’s going to be the best performance of the show.” Bob chuckled as he played a few extra notes. “So, here’s a song about why the chicken crossed the road.” That got a couple of chuckles from the crowd once more. Bob decided to put his heart into that performance.  And by the end of the song, everypony was crying. Bob could even see Luna tearing up in the booth. Bob took a few deep breaths. “So that’s why she did it, moving on!” Bob chuckled at how everypony’s jaws dropped. He walked over to the drum looper and put a disc labeled ' Refrain Boy’ into it. “Don’t worry, fillies and gentlecolts, I only recorded the drums, the bass, the violin, and the cello for this one. I’ll be playing the guitar and actually singing.” Bob grabbed his guitar and started playing an acoustic version of the song.  This was the one song Bob wanted to get right, as he had been practicing for months, and while it would’ve worked better to use an electric guitar, he wanted to play the song on his guitar. No matter how old it was. There was only one reason why Bob did not record the guitar part, and he showed it by doing the solo. In the booth, Vinyl Scratch was nodding her head, while Octavia Melody nodded to the beat. “He is pretty good, if he played both the cello and violin for this.” “He’s using electronics to help perform,” Vinyl commented. “That’s sure to piss off a few nobles… I like him.” She then took her goggles off, her eyes were wide. “Hey Tavi,” she pointed a hoof at the human. “He just swapped to an electric guitar halfway through that solo almost flawlessly.” The two musicians were interrupted by Luna cheering like a very proud mother. “Somepony is already a fan,” Vinyl chuckled. “So, what do you say? Wanna spread the word in Canterlot?” Bob was in the middle of singing about a fairtyale. Octavia’s jaw dropped when he did a live violin solo. “By the Sun, he can play a lot of instruments. I can’t even imagine remembering how to use a guitar, and that… child is switching between a guitar, a bass and now a violin? I’m hearing a xylophone in the recording, Vinyl. I’m more than impressed! Granted, his violin and cello skills could use some work, but he’s doing just fine and it isn’t so bad that it makes my ears bleed… It has an amateurish sound to it, but it’s a pleasing amateur sound. I definitely am going to spread the word about this.” Eventually, Bob set himself right back on the piano. “Well folks, I would like to thank you all for coming on out here. I know it’s not everyday that you would come out and waste an hour or two of your time with a weird, clothing wearing monkey that can sing, so I greatly appreciate you all coming out. I’m glad I got to make you laugh a few times with the silly songs, and I’m happy to know that when I threw my heart into what I played tonight, that it made some of you tear up just a little.” Bob took a deep breath. “I have one more song to play. Now that the show is done.” After the song, Bob stepped off stage around back and fell in his chair. He was breathing heavily, shaking a lot, and overall… Happy. For once he stood in front of a crowd of ponies without getting hurt, not one scowled. Not one tried chasing him out of town. The entire crowd was happy to be there. They wanted to be there. Maybe, just maybe with time, he could truly find happiness on Equus. He nearly fell while taking the stairs off the stage. He spent an hour signing greeting ponies and signing autographs, having just made an entire town’s worth of fans… he passed out from the stress of it all.