//------------------------------// // Doing A Nice Thing (And Something Not So Nice) // Story: Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth // by Coltsguy //------------------------------// I woke up the next day and noticed a few things. The first was that I was a bit more groggy than usual. The next thing was that I was sporting some morning wood. That would have normally just been annoying and went away on its own accord, but the third thing I noticed definitely didn’t help. The third thing was some pony staring at me while I was in bed. I honestly wished I had asked Twilight to let me stay in the basement. However, I decided to not even acknowledge the pony as I just turned over and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. It didn’t help that I had kept my glasses on, but was an easy enough challenge. However, once that was fixed and I rolled back in that direction, there were then three ponies instead of one. Aw hell… “He’s awake!” Sweetie Belle yelled. “You’re right! He is awake!” Scootaloo parroted. “Of course I’m right. I wouldn’t have said it if he wasn’t awake yet.” “Hey, are all humans lookin’ like you?” asked Apple Bloom. “More or less, yes,” I answered and yawned. “Hey! Maybe if’n we ask him some questions it’ll help get our cutie marks!” exclaimed Apple Bloom. “Hey yeah! That might work!” yelled Sweetie Belle. I was not in the mood for this. I think I should give them a push. “Everyone calm down and put your hooves in my hand,” I said and reached over to them with my right hand. “But we want tah ask ya some questions to try an’ help get our cutie marks!” Apple Bloom almost whined. “I have some special magic that may help you learn what your special talent is,” I said as I sat up. “Do you want some help with that or not?” All three of them went very wide-eyed. Then they followed that by grinning widely and nodding feverishly. However, instead of holding out their hooves in front of him, they all jumped onto the bed near my legs and they each held out a hoof there instead. “Excited aren’t we?” “Of course we are!” they all yelled in unison. They looked like they were about to continue, but I intervened. “All right. All of you close your eyes and concentrate on thinking about getting your cutie marks, alright?” They all nodded and closed their eyes. I then gathered some magic into my hand; making it glow. I was unsure if anything would happen or not, but that wasn’t my real intention. I decided to use my knowledge of canon to point them in the right direction. I knew something might happen if I just told them what their cutie marks might be, so I decided instead to go into fortune teller mode. “I see something…” “What? What do ya see?” asked Apple Bloom. “It’s odd. It’s some kind of play.” “A play?” asked Scootaloo. “Indeed, a play. The three of you are putting on a play.” I chuckled a fake chuckle. “It is quite the funny play.” “That sounds like the play we made a while ago,” said Sweetie Belle. “It does have the flavor of time to it, but it isn’t very well aged,” I hammed. “It didn’t happen too long ago. We put on ah play for the school. It wasn’t what we had planned tah do, though,” said Apple Bloom. “I see. I also see triumph in your tragedy.” “Yeah! We got awarded for the best comedy performance!” exclaimed Scootaloo. “Indeed. It is odd. All I see is the time from when you prepared for the play up until when you walked off stage with your award. The pull in this is strong. It feels like if you think hard enough on those events, then your talents will be clear.” “Really? Ah don’t know ‘bout that. We didn’t get our cutie marks for doin’ that.” “My magic says that this time is the key. Perhaps something you three did during that time, but you were unaware. Whatever the case may be, it seems all three of you have your fates drawn to this time. Think solemnly about this. Sometimes it is easy to overlook what is right in front of you.” I took my hand off of their hooves and let my magic subside. “We’ll try tah think about it some like ya asked,” said Apple Bloom. “Thanks for the help mister.” The three of them jumped down and walked out of the library slowly. It seemed like they were deep in thought, but I couldn’t be sure. I just hoped that they took my suggestion seriously. “That was a really nice thing you did there Seth.” I turned to see Twilight Sparkle standing off to the side in the middle of a doorway. “I suppose. I don’t think it would be a good idea to outright tell them what their special talents are. After all, it’s something that all ponies have to figure out for themselves. Still, a push in the right direction couldn’t hurt, right?” “It might, but I don’t know if they will remember things from the play well enough to help them.” “You want me to tell you what field their cutie marks will be in or are you worried you’ll let out the secret like during Fluttershy’s fashion carrier?” “I think I already know what it is. Besides, I didn’t blurt out that secret.” “No, instead you blurted out the whole Spike likes Rarity secret. Pinkie even scolded you about it. Well, sort of anyway.” “That wasn’t much of a secret in the first place.” “True. However, feelings for another are usually blind to the one they are directed towards as well as the one who has them. When I was younger, I got some flowers for Valentine’s Day, but I never once figured out who they were from and they never came to me to tell me either.” “What’s Valentine’s Day?” “It’s a human version of Heart’s and Hooves Day.” “Interesting. Are there any other holidays that are similar to ours?” “Other than Christmas being sort of equivalent to Heartswarming Day, I’m unsure. I can’t really think of any holidays off the top of my head that are similar to yours. To be honest, I really don’t know of any other holidays of yours that I can think of right now either.” “Well, I have several books that detail the many different holidays that we celebrate here in Equestria from the one’s that you mentioned and many more that you probably don’t know about.” “Yeah, that’s going to be a problem.” “Why do you say that?” “I can’t read any of those books for some reason remember?” “About that, I don’t really know why you wouldn’t be able to read that. It’s the same language as the writing on the cover. Here, let me show you.” Twilight levitated one of the books out from the shelf and placed it in my lap. She followed the book over to me and jumped up onto the bed. She had to since barely her head came over the top of the mattress. “See the cover here?” I looked at the cover of the book she placed in front of me. It was one of her Daring Doo books. The first one if I wasn’t mistaken. She then opened the cover and inside the book was the same as the last book I tried to read. Perhaps there was something I wasn’t quite getting here. “You said it was the same language as the cover. Is the cover in English or is it called Equestrian?” “It’s Equestrian of course. What do you mean by English anyway?” “There are a lot of different languages that humans speak. I speak English which happens to be the same language as Equestrian.” “I see. So why is it that you can’t read the contents of the book? It’s also Equestrian.” “It doesn’t look the same as the words on the cover.” “Well, that’s because it’s cursive of course!” I looked at the book again for a few seconds. I then calmly took my glasses off of my face and quickly facepalmed. “Why is it that I start to think that something is just a little wrong with this place? This looks like something that a doctor would scribe on a prescription pad.” I quickly materialized a pen and paper and the placed them on top of the book. “This is how cursive is supposed to look like where I am from.” I quickly wrote out three sentences in cursive. The rain in Spain flows mainly in the plains. The boy tossed the ball to his friend. Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman saved the day. I had to write the last sentence twice when I realized I had misspelled neighborhood, but I still managed to get all three down for Twilight to take a look at. She studied the sentences for a moment and then responded to it. “These look really nice, but they aren’t in Equestrian cursive.” “And that, my dear Twilight, is the pillar that had driven us apart.” “I see. The different writing styles don’t mesh well together. Perhaps I can see if there are some books in the library that don’t use Equestrian cursive.” “You can take your time with that. I could go for some breakfast right now. Have you had any breakfast yet?” “No, I haven’t had any breakfast yet. The plan was for me to create a list of spells for you to practice. Then, the two of us would have breakfast together, or perhaps you’ve forgotten about it?” “Not really, but I’m used to people not following directions. I guess I shouldn’t have worried about that with you though. Come on, Twilight. I have something that I want you to try out for breakfast.” I got down off the bed and was instantly thankful for the long discussion. My morning problem had gone away by now. Talking about that to a pony would have been really awkward. At least Twilight wasn’t a child like the other three so she could handle talking about it, but I’m still worried she would try to force a little show and tell. I would never put that kind of thing past a scientist. I let Twilight lead me to the kitchen area. I honestly could not figure out where it was until I was shown the way. It was especially odd since I honestly did not see a door there before. I was either completely blind, or the thing had just materialized there all of a sudden. At this point, things were starting to fall into a pattern of me forgetting about asking any questions. I had chaos magic so the world had decided to never make perfect sense again. I bet I would forget this at some point and complain about it again. Yay me. “So, what is this trick you wanted to show me Seth?” “Right. Let me show you something I would like you to taste test for me.” I concentrated my magic and snapped my right fingers this time. On the table appeared a good size bowl filled with Cheerios. I was also right about the chaos magic. It seemed I had excellent control of it when I snapped my right fingers instead of my left fingers. “What are these?” “They’re a breakfast cereal. We call them Cheerios. I thought it would be appropriate for where I am now in part because they have the word cheer in them. The other half of that is because they are made using oats. Back on Earth, horses love oats. I’m not sure if ponies here love oats as well so it’s a bit of an experiment. That sounds right up your alley doesn’t it?” “For your information, ponies do love oats as well. They’re a bit hard to come by is all.” “I see. I guess that this is a bit of a letdown for me then. At least you won’t have to cook,” I ended lamely. “You still don’t have anything to eat and I still need to fix something for both of us to drink.” I gave her a flat look and snapped my fingers again. There on the table now was two bowls of Cheerios, two empty glasses and a pitcher of milk in between them. Next to my bowl was a small plate of bacon and a spoon. I was pretty impressed with my ability to use this magic like I can. “Did you have to make this meat product here too? It creeps me out a little.” “I’m an omnivore. I can eat just the cereal, but I also need protein to function.” “Couldn’t you make a vegetable that’s good in protein like beans?” “Ugh. I hate beans. Besides, you aren’t the one eating this, I am. It isn’t like I’m eating a pony or anything sentient from here. Not even to mention the fact that I created this from thin air with magic. I didn’t actually teleport this from somewhere or kill something myself to fix it. This is probably the first real bacon anywhere that I could say that no animals were harmed in the making of this product and be telling the truth. Heh, I wonder if I could get a vegan to eat this. Wouldn’t that be weird?” “What’s a vegan?” “Pretty much a human that has turned into an herbivore through their own devices.” “If that’s the case, then you could work towards becoming a vegan too! You wouldn’t have to eat meat if you didn’t want to.” “Putting aside the fact that a lot of vegans or, to a lesser extent, vegetarians get ridiculed for being that way, I could never see myself becoming that. I love eating bacon, cheeseburgers, burritos, chicken, meat lover’s pizzas, and other things that are like that. I honestly trend more to the meat side of omnivores than the vegetable side. It is who I am. Of course that doesn’t mean I’m going to go out and kill some chickens or cows to eat them. I’m not a monster after all. I’m more of a self-defense pacifist. I’m not going to hurt you unless you try to hurt me first. That’s something of a creed I’ve developed from once being a bully and then being the one who was bullied. Having been on both sides of that coin gave me quite the perspective on it. Of course, hearing myself out loud like this reminds me that even though you understand that I’m an omnivore, that doesn’t mean you want to see me put it into practice.” I snapped my fingers again and the plate of bacon disappeared. “I suppose I can eat that later when you aren’t around.” “I’m glad you decided to do that, Seth. The not eating in front of me part not the eating it later part I mean.” “I understand Twilight. Although, there is something else I want to do instead.” “What would that be?” I snapped my fingers again and in my right hand appeared a can of soda. “What is that?” “This is my sweet, sweet vice. The source of my greatest pain and sweetest pleasure. A can of Pepsi.” I popped the tab and literally chugged the twelve ounce can all the way down to just drops. The carbonation burned a bit, but I was so happy to have it that I powered through it. Once finished, I crushed the can in my hand and then snapped my fingers again to make it disappear. I then covered my mouth and let out a nice solid belch. “Excuse me,” I said as I blushed a little. “Well, that was a bit horrifying and disgusting. Let’s just get breakfast out of the way so we can get to our work for the day.” “I concur,” I said with a faux British accent. We both walked to our respective seats and ate out breakfast in silence. Well, for the most part. I did get scolded once for chewing with my mouth open. I almost expected her to follow up with an old moniker that my mom used whenever I did that back home. You know the whole ‘were you raised in a barn’ shtick? Then I remembered who was telling me this and almost started to chuckle. Thankfully, I caught myself, apologized for doing so, and the rest of breakfast went by in relative silence. After we had finished, cleaning up was a breeze. I simply snapped my fingers and everything I created had disappeared. Both of us then walked back into the main room of the library. I then noticed that the bed was still there. I snapped my fingers again and the bed turned back into the couch. “Alright. Time to start your magic training and to begin studying this coin,” she finished by holding up the coin in question. “How did you get a hold of that?” “You left it lying on the floor after Pinkie touched it last night. I simply grabbed it then and have kept a hold of it since.” So much for me keeping track of it. Then again I’m glad she had it instead of Pinkie Pie. I might never have seen it again. Not that she would have kept it from me, but I was willing to bet she would’ve put it somewhere and then forgotten about it. “I have the list of spells that I want you to practice today on that table there.” She pointed to the table in the middle of the room. Then, she levitated it and brought it over to me. I grabbed it out of the air and unfurled it. “I want you to go out to that area where you unleashed that massive magical blast and practice them out there where it’s safe.” “Can’t I practice them here? I’d rather not be too far away from that coin if it’s all the same.” “It’ll be fine, Seth. I want to study this coin without any interruptions or distractions.” “I honestly don’t think I’ll be a distraction and I’m not going to interrupt your work here.” “Some of those spells will make things very distracting. I want you to go practice elsewhere.” “Oh come on Twilight.” She gave me a glare of annoyance. I matched her glare with one of my own. Suddenly, her horn started to glow and before I knew what was happening, there was a flash and I was standing outside of the library door. I blinked a few times and then got a little upset. “Twilight!” I yelled as I tried opening the door. It was magically sealed. “Open up and let me in Twilight!” “Go practice your spells!” she yelled back. “Come on Twilight!” I said as I started knocking on the door. She didn’t answer me. “At least let me get my shoes and hat!” Still no answer. I began pounding harder on the door. “Twilight!!!” Still nothing. “WILLLLLLMAAAAAA!!!” At that, something fell on top of my head. I looked down and saw my shoes and hat. I quickly shook my head and put them on. As I finished, I looked up and noticed all the stares I was getting from the ponies of Ponyville. Making a scene like I did will earn you some stares. I quickly became uncomfortable with the attention I was receiving. I didn’t want to become invisible in front of them or else I might make them panic a little. That was when my brain kicked in a bad idea. It was a mixture of being stared at combined with the frustration of not being allowed to stay in the library to practice the spells she gave me. It revolved around her not wanting to be distracted and my not wanting to be the center of attention. Unfortunately, I didn’t think this idea through. I ended up just acting upon it. I brought forth my magic and kept it coming. My entire hand started to glow instead of just the area around the tattoo. Then, with a yell, I punched the ground with my fist. “Ground Pound!” As my fist connected, a giant wave of light engulfed the entire town and quite a ways away from it as well. I didn’t actually see it, but it was the image I had in my mind when I used it. If that was the case then it most likely mirrored what I was thinking then. Eventually, the light subsided and I looked around. The magic had unfortunately worked. There were no more ponies in Ponyville. It was now entirely populated by humans.