//------------------------------// // I did not sign up for this! // Story: Replay // by Scootaloose //------------------------------// I did not sign up for this! If that is not the same Pegasus in that book, then that's a damn good costume... and coat colour... and mane... "Welcome back, Daring Do.", said Princess Luna. The Pegasus nodded and walked towards us. Okay... it is her... "Keep it together, Twilight...", Twilight started mumbling, looking back at Daring as she approached the princesses and was about to stop next to us ."Keep. It. Together.". She was having a hard time controlling herself the closer Daring Do got to us. As soon as Daring stopped right between us, she was sweating bullets, staring right at Daring. I was expecting Twilight to snap and faint at this point. Either that or freak out like a fangirl... "What's the urgency, Daring Do?", asked Princess Celestia. "There are some very unusual ruins that I found in the Everfree Forest, your Highness", she began. She had a raspy voice, just like Rainbow Dash, but her voice sounded slightly tougher and older. She looked a lot stronger too, her legs looked as strong as Applejack's and I did NOT want to find out how strong she was at that moment... "A lot more unusual than anything I've seen in my life". "What does it look like?", asked Celestia. "I would have brought pictures of it, but I lost my camera when a pack of Timberwolves ambushed my camp while I was sleeping. "This is why we suggested you bring a partner with you at all times, to prevent this type of problem, Daring", Princess Luna said concerned. "Uh... Is this something we should leave you to speak in private?" I asked them. Twilight was way too nervous to speak and i felt that if I let her speak she would look like an idiot. "We were already done here, anyways." "Not at all, Johnny." Princess Celestia answered. "You can stay and look around the room if you wish to." I nodded and went to Twilight, shoving her away from Daring to see if her sanity went back to normal. After a little pushing I got her to the bottom of the stairs. "Omigoshomigosh it's really her!" she started mumbling again, and was slowly pulling out the book I read in the train, along with a quill and ink, "Rainbow Dash will flip out when I send her this book with an autograph from her!" "You should wait until she's done talking to the princesses then..." I interrupted her. She shook a little and let out a little squeal of impatience, then went back to watching Daring speak to the two princesses. "Okay, I might not have a picture of it, but I can definitely describe what it looks like." Daring Do said. "It looks like a metal hollow box with two buttons inside. I didn't mess with it at the moment, so I looked around a bit more and I found this metal plaque with some faint markings. It looked a lot like the ones in Cloudsdale's Rainbow Factory. I can draw it for you if you wish." "Well, it's convenient that Twilight is here then. Would you mind lending us one of your scrolls?" Luna asked, looking at us. "Wh-what?" Twilight squealed, snapping out of her daydream. "Oh yeah! Of course!", she shakily walked up the stairs and stopped next to Daring, giving her a scroll and her quill. Daring scribbled for a few minutes, rubbing her head a few times, and gave the quill back to Twilight. Princess Celestia levitated the drawing to herself and frowned. "Sister, take a look at this", she said while giving Luna the drawing. "Hmm...", Princess Luna said, "this looks a lot like how Johnny described himself a while back." Okay, what the fuck... How did I get involved in this? I thought, sweating bullets just like Twilight. "Johnny, would care to take a look at Daring's drawing?", Princess Celestia asked me. Well what do you think? You mention my name while talking about some ruin I never heard of... I thought. Luckily without spitting it out. I walked up the stairs and Luna turned the drawing to me. The first thing in my head when I saw the drawing was: Holy. Fucking. Shit. It was a safety sign, reading "LAB COATS MUST BE WORN AT ALL TIMES", and next to it was a drawing of a lab coat. But not just a regular lab coat like Nikolai's. This was a full on lab coat designed to be worn by bipedal beings. And I'm pretty sure there aren't any beings that can fit that lab coat other than a human... I was at loss for words at this point. I just stared at that piece of paper for a full minute, until Twilight finally nudged me to snap me out of it. "Are you alright?" she asked. I shook my head violently to get a hold of myself. "How in the world..." I stuttered, "... I have no idea what to say or make of this..." "I could go back there and investigate with a team." Daring said, "I remember the way like the bottom of my hoof, I can get there twice as fast now". "Like you said, Daring. You did find this in the Everfree Forest." Celestia Interrupted. "Taking a group of ponies there is extremelly dangerous as it attracts a lot more attention." "I guess I can take one pony with me", she said to herself. "Who do you suggest I take?" "Why don't you take Johnny?" Luna said. WHY ME? I screamed in my head. "He did recognize the drawing you made of the sign, he might be able to help a lot better than anypony else." I did not sign up for this... "Am I volunteering or am I being volunteered?" I asked. "It's up to you, Johnny. If you wish to go, you may.", Princess Celestia said, "but I suggest you go since this might be of good use for you about how you ended up here." Godammit she's right... I thought to myself. "Alright, I'll go. But let me warn you Daring: my camping skills were zero when I was a human so don't even think of asking for my help setting up a tent." "We'll I guess that's settled then." she said, "We'll leave tomorrow morning at around 7. And we might not even need to set up camp this time." Oh great, more early wake-ups. I seriously am going to end up with Gary's sleep patterns if this keeps up... The door behind us opens again, this time a guard comes in and walks up to Celestia. "The royal guest room is ready, your Highness." "Perfect, show Johnny and Twilight the way.", said Princess Celestia. "Wait.", Twilight interrupted, and walked over to Daring Do, taking out the book and quill once again. "Can you sign this for my friend? Pleeease??" she said with the cutest grin I've seen in my life. "Big fan, huh?" she chuckled and took the quill, signing the book at the back of the cover. "There you go.", Twilight contained herself not to jump around like she had spring shoes on. But I saw that she was silently saying 'yesyesyesyesyes'. "Now Johnny..." Daring turned to me. "7 am. Sharp. Got it?" "Yes maam!" "I'm not your CO, no need for that." she chuckled. "But thanks." She bowed to the princesses and walked out of the room. The guard next to us led us to the royal guest bedroom, which was located in a separate section of the castle, and was located at the second highest tower of the castle. as we travelled up the stairs out in the open, there was a brilliant view of the valley below the Canterlot, as well as the city itself on the other side. Far into the valley towards the West was the Everfree Forest, which looked just as massive as in Ponyville. We entered the room, and it was the biggest room I've seen in my life -both this life and my other, though this one doesn't really count since I've been here just a bit over 3 days-. The guard left the room a few moments after we entered. Twilight set her saddlebag at the edge of the bed... the bed... "Uh... Twi?" I said. "Yes, Johnny?" "There's only one bed." Brain, please don't pull a joke right now or Johnny here won't even sleep on the bedroom floor, but outside... "You better think a bit before you say anything..." she threatened. "I'm telling that to my brain as we speak." I grinned. "We should go get something to eat. We haven't eaten since we left Ponyville". And with that, our stomachs decided to pop in and say 'hello'. We had breakfast at the castle's hotel. And because we were royal guests we paid nothing for the food there. That was a seriously delicious breakfast -too bad there was no bacon and eggs... oh god what am I thinking-. We walked out of the castle grounds and went to walk around the city, which Twilight insisted she wanted to show me the places where she use to visit when she grew up, such as the school and libraries she went to before becoming the princess' personal student, the park where she used to go to with her foalsitter (foal... baby... babysitter, yeah... go figure). We walked around the city until around 2 in the afternoon. We stopped in front of a building that looked like a spa house or something... "Uh, Twilight. What do you want to do here?" "I was thinking you wanted to get your green and black hair back. Unless you want to keep your jet black hair as it is." "Oh man! I completely forgot about that!" I smacked my forehead. I was so distracted this morning I completely left that unchecked. "But you'll have to pay for my hair dye, Twilight." I continued, "I don't have the money to pay for that and I don't want you to pay it for me." "Consider it a gift, then." she smiled, and pushed me into the building. I felt like I was taking advantage of her at this point, because I was already living in her place for the time being, and now she is going to pay for MY new hairstyle? Either she's just generous or this is something else... I stood by the window and waited for Twilight to pay for my hair dye, which I now didn't feel as enthusiastic as before. She walked over to the mare behind the counter and asked for a hair dye, and pointed to me while giving the mare the bits. The mare motioned for me to come, so I followed. After a few hours of lying on my belly with my mane and tail being dyed with neon green, we finally walked back to the streets, it was already getting dark and the city lamps were being lit up. "Your mane looks a lot better than when I used illusion spell on it." Twilight complimented. "It kinda glows faintly in the dark..." "Waaait.... you didn't have anything to do with this, did you?" I cocked an eyebrow at her. I can't believe she seriously paid more the necessary just to make me look better. This is definitely something more than being generous... "Maybe..." she giggled. "Let's head back to the castle. You're gonna need a lot of sleep since you'll up and running all day tomorrow." "Okay", Twilight said. Both of us staring at the big round bed in front of us. "I guess we can share the bed." I was about to open my mouth when she interrupted me: "Don't. Even say anything." she said in that same threatening voice. Geez give me a break here... "I was going to suggest we grab an extra bed sheet... because you know... so we don't end up pulling it away from each other." I sighed. "Oh..." she blushed, "good idea... The room service should have left a few extra sheets around here somewhere..." she continued, looking inside the closet in the other side of the room. "Aha! Here it is!" She set the second bed sheet on the bed and jumped onto her side of the bed, quickly levitating the sheets over her. "I think I'll give my brother a visit tomorrow morning, so I'll get some early sleep." "Eh... what time is it anyways?" I asked. "It's half past seven. The clock is right there, Johnny." She pointed to the clock on the wall, right across from where the bed was. "Oh... right. Heh", I chuckled forcefully. Yeah..... I'm definitely going to end up getting Gary's sleeping patterns... I get on my side of my bed, and drag my sheets over myself, snuggling my head and facing the other way. "Good night, Twilight." "Good night, Johnny.", she said sweetly. I wake up, drowsy as usual. I was lying belly side up, looking up at the ceiling, instead of facing sideways when I went to sleep. So I assumed that's what was causing my breathing to be a bit heavier. It was just my own weight pressing down on my lungs... But am I THAT heavy? I thought. This isn't right... I looked down to see Twilight's head resting on my chest. Sleeping heavily as usual, because not even my sudden gasp was enough to wake her up. How the hell did we end up like this? This can head in so many directions it's making me spin! There was a knock on the door, and when the door slowly opened, there was a big, muscular, white-coated and blue-maned unicorn followed by Daring Do. Oh boy... this is not good...