//------------------------------// // Scary Apologies...Or Not // Story: Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth // by Coltsguy //------------------------------// I swallowed hard. “You want me to apologize.” “Yes, I want you to apologize to the residents of Ponyville for what you did.” “Do you mean the explosion, the earthquake, or the subsequent panic from my magic blast?” “How about all three?” “Pretty much what I expected. You know I’m not good with crowds right?” “Come on. You’ll be fine.” “When I was in a spelling bee once, I misspelled the word chair because I was so nervous.” Spike chuckled at that. I threw a glare at him that made him back up behind Twilight. “I know that I need to apologize to the townsfolk, but I honestly don’t think I could stutter out an apology when facing down that many ponies at once. I’m honestly not sure if I could do that in front of ten ponies.” “We’ll be right there with you if you have any trouble. You need to do this.” “Can I offer a written apology for everyone to read?” “Listen, would ya rather I hogtied ya up and dragged ya up on that there stage?” I paused quickly to think about that. “Honestly, it may be the only way to get me up there without having an episode. Though, the fact that I’ll be tied up will really make everyone stare.” I shuddered quite visibly. “That does not sound any better. Fine. Let’s get this over with.” I cleared a path through the fallen books and went to exit the library. A thought occurred to me as I pulled the door open. “Hey Twilight, did you teleport me back here? I doubt that you could carry me.” “No, I levitated you back here with my magic.” I froze before I went out. “You basically carried me through the town, unconscious, and in front of who knows how many ponies. Is that what you’re telling me?” “I had Pinkie Pie help me get you through the door, but yes the rest of it is right.” Slightly aggravated, I covered my eyes with my hand. “Let me ask you all a question. How comfortable do you think Fluttershy would be speaking to that many ponies?” “Probably about as comfortable as you and we would make her do it as well.” So much for that avenue of attack. “It sounds tah me like you want to weasel your way outta this.” “Just the public part. I’m fine with the apology part.” I finally ducked my way out of the library with my trepidation growing at a rapid pace. As I looked up, there was already a small crowd of ponies waiting there for me. I looked back to the entrance of the tree and saw Applejack blocking my way back in. I squatted down and whispered to Twilight. “Maybe I could just get you to teleport us there. I’m already uncomfortable with all the staring.” “There are only twenty ponies here. If you can’t face them, then how are you going to give that apology when there could be ten times that many?” she whispered back. Needless to say, that number effectively crushed my spirit right there. All I could do at the time was stare straight into the dirt. Two hundred ponies would be staring at me expecting an apology all the while scrutinizing my very existence. I wanted so badly to be invisible right then. “Hey, where did he go?” I heard what they said, but didn’t really care. I doubted there was any way I could do this. I didn’t really care how cool this day had been, I just wanted it to pass by without me. Please just let me go back to not being the center of attention for unknown people, ponies, or anything else. “Hey Twilight! I felt somethin’ here.” I then felt something smack into my face. “Ouch!” I looked up to see Twilight backing up with her hoof on her face. “Twilight, why did you walk into my face?” Her eyes went wide as she heard me. “Is that you, Seth? Why didn’t you say you could turn invisible?” “I’m what?” “What do you mean 'What'? You didn’t notice?” I reached out in front of myself and, sure enough, I couldn’t see my hand. I moved it forward to see it up close, but without any visual of it I accidentally smacked myself in the face. It was disorienting enough that I fell back on my ass. “What happened?” asked Twilight. “I smacked myself in the face and fell on my butt.” I heard some giggling from a bunch of different ponies and from Spike as well. “Alright already. At least this helps a little." And it really did. "Maybe I can do it with this new magic I'm capable of doing.” “Ponies won’t know that you’re the one doing it if nopony can see you.” I had a nice thought come to mind for that. “I actually have a good idea for that. Spike, would you help me out with that?” “Help you with what?” I picked the little guy up and placed him on my shoulders behind my head. Everyone was a bit surprised at that. “With Spike riding my shoulders up here, all the ponies will know where I am and I don’t have to stop being invisible. It’s win-win baby!” “I am not a baby!” Spike protested. “I wasn’t calling you one, Spike.” “Oh. Heh heh, sorry about that.” “It’s all good. You couldn’t tell who I was talking to from up there.” “And the ponies won’t be able to tell who is talking to them if they can’t see you either,” Twilight interrupted; her voice now with a tone of impatience, “Now, drop that invisibility spell and hurry up! We don’t want to keep everypony waiting!” I sighed and put my hand in front of my face. I concentrated a little and the spell wore off. “Spike is still staying up here for now. It’s the only thing that’s keeping me from freaking out and running off.” “Iffin it’ll get ya to movin, then I don’t see the harm.” “Dead man walking,” I muttered underneath my breath. After starting one way, then getting pointed in the right direction, I began to make my way to the town hall. The fact that I was being tailed by every pony that saw me today was not making the trip any better. The only thing that helped was letting my mind wander on that invisibility spell. I’d never seen any of the ponies use that before. Magic beams, teleportation, levitation; I had seen all of those before. Invisibility was entirely a different story. Maybe it was just a spell none of the ponies had used before. It didn’t necessarily mean that it didn’t exist. It could be that I just stumbled upon it. I could ask Twilight about it. If she didn’t know anything about it, then I bet she was chomping at the bit, so to speak, to know about that. She always did like to learn new spells. It was too bad how she always moved on to something else once she learned a new one. If she refined some of those spells, like she seemed to do with her teleportation and levitation, she could be a true force against whatever was going to come next. I had no doubt that they would make a season three and she would probably be a better force against whatever came along if she just learned to use her magic more efficiently. Of course, that really didn’t mean anything. Multiple universes mean I could be in an alternate universe and there would be nothing but sunshine and rainbows and a never-ending stream of notes about the magic of friendship to Princess Celestia. It would be nice to have a world without conflict; even if it would be boring. Oh who am I kidding? Boring sucks balls. I hate boring. It’s why I’m enjoying this trip to Equestria right now. If anything, it’s definitely not boring. It is pretty cool. Right now, though, it’s a bit nervous. Hell, I’m about two steps away from a total freak out. The dragon on my back was helping me not bolt out of there on the spot. He was also helping me on a different matter. I had been focusing so much on the super special awesome magic that I found out I could now use that I had totally neglected the stuff beforehand. Namely, how I had picked up a hundred and fifty or so pounds with one hand as well as tanked one of Applejack’s patented apple bucking kicks. I knew I could pick up Spike with ease after that display. I honestly did it without even thinking about it. Now, I was keeping him up there as more of an endurance test. I didn’t have much in the way of strength, speed, or endurance. I now had strength however much it was. Testing my endurance was next on the list. The fact that my knee wasn’t protesting my added weight was a good sign. I took a glance at my watch. I had been thinking and walking for what I believed was about ten minutes. That was usually when my knee would tell me I should cut that out. So far, nothing. A good sign for the time being. I decided to keep it up for now since I had no real reason to stop at the moment. Another five minutes and I had arrived at my destination. I knew that from the look of the town hall, or I could just as easily tell from the hundreds of ponies that were crowded in front of the place. I’m pretty sure Twilight took me around the long way to avoid making me go by the crowd. A smart move from a smart pony. At least I was close enough that I couldn’t back away what with the group that was following me blocking my escape route. It really made me wish I knew how to do that teleportation thing right now. Of course, I still went absolutely rigid when the crowd in front of the town hall caught sight of me. I had never been the target of everyone’s attention like that before in my entire life. Well maybe that spelling bee but I doubt all attention was solely on me like it was here. I was absolutely mortified. I was pretty sure I heard one of them talking to me, but I was too preoccupied with what felt like thousands of eyes upon me just staring at me like a side show. Suddenly, there was a flash and I was on stage. I was disoriented for a few seconds before I noticed that fact. I was on a stage, next to a podium, and behind the mayor. The only good news was that Spike was still on my shoulders. I looked over to where I was standing and saw Twilight giving me a shooing motion with her hoof. “Hey! You’re up!” Spike half yelled in my ear. The volume hurt a little, but at least I didn’t ignore it like I had been. I put my head down and walked over to the podium. From there, I foolishly looked up. It looked, to me at least, like every pony there was examining my very worth all the way down to my very soul. Despite my much larger size, I felt like an ant looking up into the face of an elephant. I briefly saw Spike waving his hand in front of my face. It really didn’t register to me. The fire, however, did register quite well. I don’t know when he did it, but after waving his hand in front of my face, the little dragon jumped down and lit my pants on fire to get my attention. I quickly realized that while I had strength and endurance for the first time in years, I was still aware that fire was very hot. I quickly dropped to the ground and rolled around to put the fire out. Once it was out, I threw a fierce glare at the dragon. Oddly enough, he simply shrugged. The shrug actually diffused my ire and I simply smirked. It was a not so simple act that broke me of my apprehension in a minor way that I desperately needed. Once that moment was over, I got to my feet and returned to the podium. The ponies in the crowd were all whispering amongst themselves. I decided to use the non sequitur moment to break the ice. “Hello all you ponies! My name is Seth. I’m a human.” I gestured at Spike. “You all know Spike the dragon I hope. He is helping me with my speech today. Though I’m not sure about his methods, I’ll trust that it will be helping me today in some fashion.” I heard some chuckles come from the crowd. I had no idea how much that would help until I heard it. “Anyway, I doubt any of you know what a human is so I’ll just say that I’m a mythical creature and that you probably will never see another one of me. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it’s likely.” I looked around and it seemed like they were less enthusiastic about this as I talked on. I chose to switch topics before I lost my nerve again. “Moving on, I’m currently studying magic with Twilight and while I was training outside of Ponyville, I ended up releasing a large magic blast that ended up causing a large explosion and made the ground shake for a bit. I didn’t expect that to happen and was glad that I asked Twilight to take us to a place to practice where no ponies would get hurt. That being said, I hereby apologize to all of you for causing the earthquake and the subsequent panic that that itself caused. I didn’t mean to frighten any of you. I hope that you all can forgive me. Thank you all for your time.” I quickly made my way off the stage; not even waiting for any reactions. I absolutely did not want to be there anymore. I then scooped up Spike, who was following me, and placed him on my shoulders again. Then, I went and picked up Twilight right off her feet and made my way back to the library carrying Spike on my shoulders again and Twilight under my arm. “I hope you don’t mind me picking you up as well, Twilight. I also hope you don’t mind me saying that you were helping me by teaching me magic.” “I don’t mind the magic part, but I don’t really like the fact that you keep sweeping me off of my hooves.” I quickly suppressed the urge to make a snide comment on her choice of words and continued on. “Sorry, I just wanted to leave an impression that wasn’t me being lit on fire or scared in front of a bunch of ponies. I’ll let you down now.” I squatted down and placed Twilight on the ground. “How about you, Spike? Do you want on the ground too?” “Naw. I’m cool up here.” I stood back up and we continued on our way away from the eyes of the ponies. “See now? That weren’t too bad of a time now was it?” I had honestly forgotten that Applejack was tagging along with us. I looked over to her and saw that she was sporting a nice grin. “Yeah, well it’s too bad my pants had to be a casualty of it all.” Everyone looked down at my pants. There were holes all around the calves of my pants. “And before you say anything, Spike, I’m fine with what you did. It helped me with soul crushing stares that they were giving me.” I looked at Twilight. “Please don’t make me do that again,” I pleaded. “Only if you agree to two things.” “What would those be?” “First, don’t be so careless using magic from now on. If you’re going to be learning magic from me, then you are going to follow my instructions to the letter. Got it?” So she is going to be my teacher in magic. That will definitely help me in the long run. “That’s fine. I'll agree to that. What’s the other thing?” She then sported a wide grin. “I want to know how you turned invisible.” Yeah. I called that one.