She said nothing, and just stared deeply into my eyes.
“Here, have this,” I say, handing out Tavi’s new ice cream.
Instead, the gray mare stared at me, tears pouring down her cheeks. She showed a expression of pure sadness and confusion.
She said nothing, and just stared deeply into my eyes.
“Don’t want it to melt, do ya’?” I say, smiling at the crying mare.
“I don’t want ice cream. I want to die,” she says, obviously not moved by the tasty sugary treat.
“Now why would you want to do that? You have a full life ahead of you!”
“You mean a life full of lies? I mean my life itself isn’t so great! Vinyl and I-”
she said, before stopping abruptly. She stared deeply, a look of horror on her face. She cried even harder, burying her face into her arms.
“Honey, it's alright, we're in this together!” I hugged the poor mare, she was not only dealing with becoming a pony, but identity crisis as well.
“No, it’s not alright! How the hell can you help me?!” She screamed, yet, seemed slightly comforted by the hug.
“Shh, it’s alright.” She pulled away.
“No, it’s not. You can’t even help me!” she said, her voice trailing downward with every word.
“That’s why we’re going to New York.”
“But I will have gone crazy by then! I don’t even know who I am anymore!” She cried, this time, sounding more desperate than confused.
“Hey, aren’t we all crazy? I mean who else would be crazy enough to come all the way here just to meet up with me?”
“I only came here because I thought you could help me,” she said, pausing
“But you can’t.”
“The only way to get help is to help yourself.”
“How can I even do that? I don’t even know who I am anymore,” she said, staring down for what seemed like hours.
“How are we going to get to New York from here?” she asked, quietly.
“Walking, driving, flying...”
“Aaaand your point is?” she asked, rolling her head up to me.
“Hold on, come look at this..” I walk over to a small flyer posted on a wall.
“I dunwanna move,” she slurred, still lying in her cramped position. “What does it say?”
“Something about the... Lunar guard?” I grabbed the flyer and dropped it on Tavi.
“Ack!” She said, as she scrambled the poster away from her face. She studied the poster for a little bit longer than usual. “And, uh, your point is?”
“This interests me... where is it again?”
“Somewhere in California, er, or here. I guess. I don’t really care for it. Isn’t our main task to get to New York?”
“Oh Shush! Were going here first!” I say, dragging Tavi along by her bowtie. I could hear her make out a small audible yelp.
Octavia smacked my hoof away, and scootched back. “Your hypothesis is on the border of stupid. Actually, It’s already crossed the border, had children, so now it’s implanted in your America, uh, er, I mean mind!”
That is when my back hooves met Tavi’s face.
Octavia fell back, and a small trickle of crimson liquid came out of her nose.
“O-oh my god, are you alright?”
Octavia said nothing, and was as limp as a sack of muffins.
“D-did I just... hit Tavi? What is with me?” I say, slouching down.
A small peep comes out of Octavia’s lips. Her eyes open oh-so slightly.
I feel a slight nudge on my leg.
“Huh?!” I turn my head towards the limp body
“Where are we?” The now confused pony asks.
“Are you okay?”
She looks to her left, and notices a large truck hurl past on the road. She scoots all the way back to the wall.
“W...Where are we?!” She asks, her eyes full of horror, and confusion
“Er, near a Coldstone”
“B...but I don’t see any rocks near here.” She says as she looks around even more.
“Umm.. quick question, what is your name?” I say, staring at her with utmost confusion of what she just said.
“Octavia Philharmonica, why?” She replies, still shocked.
“Okay, do you know my name?” I stare at her.
“Ditzy Doo, or something like that.” She says, waving her hoof around in circles. “I don’t really hang out with ponies of your kind.”
“What do you mean by that?!”
“You’re a retarded horse, aren’t you?
“Excuse me, I’m not some retarded horse!” I scream at the shrew that laid before my eyes.
“Then what are you?” She asks in disgust.
“I’m myself, and I don’t need to take any bullshit from you.”
“Well, in that case I wouldn’t want to be near you so you can’t take bullshit from me!” She said, as she snobbly started to trot away
Right at that moment, a human just walked down the street. Octavia clenched to the side of the street in horror. The human reached for Octavia.
“Um.. sir, could you please let go of my imbecil of a friend?”
“I’m anything but your friend, retard!” Octavia yells back at me
“Oh shut up you moron! How dare you call me a retard, you think youre ‘Octavia’ of all things! We are on EARTH. Not Equestria, we live on EARTH! ” I scream at the pain in the ass that sat on the ground.
“W...what?” she asks, her eyes full of horror. She looks around in a panic, and starts to hyperventilate.
“It took you that long to notice?”
“B..but I was.. just in... I can’t..” She says as her eyes flitter down, and falls limp in the human’s arms
“Second time today” I murmured.
After a while, the bystander left and Octavia woke up.
“That would have had to have been the craziest dream...” She mumbles to herself as she opens her eyes, and not too soon after, they land on me
“No! Nonononono!”
“Good morning, pain in the ass”
“I want to be back in Equestria, now!” She screamed, having a temper tantrum
“If I could I would”
She actually started to tear up a bit, and stared me in the face.
“Where the hell are we?!”
“We are in Redding, you traveled here so we could meet up.”
“I most certainly did not!” She pouted back at me.
“Yeah, you did. You just don’t remember it.”
“How can I remember something I never did?” She scolds back. She mumbles something under her breath.
“Let me inform you on what is going on, people are turning into ponies.”
“What are... people?” She asks in confusion
“Er, humans. Remember the person who tried to pick you up? That was a human.”
“That... thing?” She asks, looking back.
“Uh, yea that thing was a human.”
She is silent for a while. “Why?” She asks, simply.
“Nobody knows, that’s why I’m taking you to New York”
“New What-now?” She asks, back on the confused boat.
“This big city, don’t ask”
“Like Canterlot?”
“Uh, more like Manehattan, but close”
“Wait, why are you here? Shouldn’t you be delivering mail?”
“I’m not Derpy, I don’t do that.”
“But you are, you’re right here, and you are you, aren’t you?
“My name is not Derpy, it’s Danielle. I’m glad to see that you're catching on.”
“Oh, so Derpy, er, Ditzy is just a nickname around ponyville?”
“T-that’s not my name”
“Yes it is”
“That’s not my name, Danielle is my name.”
She just stared at me with a dumbfounded look.
“I don’t understand...”
“I’m not Derpy, or Ditzy, or anything like that. I’m not a mail mare from Equestria or anything like that.”
“Then what are you?”
“I’m Danielle, thats who I am.”
“I think I'm starting to get this,” She says, pausing for a while. “but I’m Octavia, though.”
“Yea, I know that.” I rolled my eye.
“So what’s wrong?”
“This is what’s wrong: I shouldn’t be a pony.”
“Well why not? You were born in Ponyville, weren’t you?”
“No, I wasn’t. I was born here on earth.”
“But you’re a pony...”
“Since yesterday morning, people have been transforming into ponies.”
“Thats impossible!”
“Exactly!”
“So how is this happening?!” She asked, astonished. She peeped up not too soon after.
“Discord.”
“Eeyup”
“Am I... Is this reality?”
“Sadly...yes.”
“So... I think I’m starting to understand this.” She says as she slowly looks around.
“Where’s my cello?” She asks, coldly
“You..don’t have one”
“Yes I do. I always keep it with me.”
“Not...here”
“Yes I do.”
“This is another dimension, you became a pony yesterday, just as I did.”
“No I didn’t, and I need to know where my cello is!”
“What is the last thing that you remember?”
“Falling asleep”
“No, what do you remember?”
“I remember going to bed after a show, and falling asleep.”
“Dreams?”
“Uh, not really. I don’t dream much. Though, I did have a flashback in my dream, er, if that was the dream.”
“Dreams are messages from your brain to remind you what happened the day before. What was the flashback?”
“A fight.”
“Tell me more about this..fight.”
“It was between me and Vinyl... say, where is she?”
“I have no idea, she... kinda doesn’t exist here”
“She what? Thats just not possible!”
“This isn’t Equestria, this is America.”
“But, she still exists though”
“Not here, not yet. If you didn’t know, people have been turning into ponies.”
“Oh, yeah right. I guess it’s not that bad, though.”
“You need to watch the news.”
“How do I watch news?”
“By using a T.V., imagine tiny flashing lights making pictures.”
“W...What? Like a photograph?”
“Eeyup” I said, doing my best Big Mac impression.
“You irritate me on so many levels”
“Well sorry for trying to help”
“How are you helping?”
“Thats not the point, now is it?” She replied back, after thinking for a bit
“I hope you get hit by a bus!”
“Well I’ve rather had enough of this,” Octavia says as she stands up “I wish the same for you, too.” She said as she started to walk away
“I wouldn’t go running out if I were you!”
“And why’s that?”
“How stupid are you?”
“I would very much like to ask the same towards you”
“Okay then, have you ever seen a ipod?”
“A what now? A ‘Eye-Pod’?”
“Exactly!”
“How is that relevant to what we’re in right now?”
“It’s dangerous to walk in a world you know nothing about.”
“And we’re in this so called ‘America’ now, right?”
“Yes, do I need to give you a map?”
“I think I can make it through here without a map, thank you.”
“Actually.. you can’t. Doing that is just like asking to be stuck in the middle of nowhere!”
“Well if I get lost I can ask for some help, right?”
“From who?”
“Any of these walking two-leggers, thats who!” She says, turning around, and smacking face-on into a large telephone poll
“Great...” I sighed, “Tavi, are you okay?”
“Owowowow!” She said, clenching her nose
“Okay.. that answered my question..”
“My nose! Or, snout, whatever! Is-is it broken?” She asks, awkwardly trying to show me her snout
“Nope, not that I can see.”
“Frack! Then why does it sting so much?!”
“It might be... bleeding.” I gave an awkward smile. “I guess I have to take you to the Doctor, huh?”
Octavia stares at her hoofs before clenching them back to her snout, “Damnit! Thats the third nosebleed in the past two days! Where’s the nearest doctor, anyways?” She asks, her voice snuffled from the blocked airflow in her nose
“Uh.. I think there is one over by Coldstone...”
“Well we’re about 10 feet from it, dummy” She says, still clenching her nose
“Uh, I have Derpy’s brain...”
That’s insulting!
“I think I can tell from the, uh, slow thoughts you are having
“Hold on, did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“I heard Derpy’s.. voice..”
Oh, me?
***
While leading Octavia to a place to get some care, I figured it would be best to go to a veterinarian clinic, though, she wasn’t very fond of the idea of being treated as an animal.
Entering the building, it held a bit of the same monotone sanitation feeling as a standard medical center. The waiting room was pretty much right through the door, thankfully, although I could have done without the tile floor making my hooves click every time I took a step.
As we walked in, we got a few weird looks and one... hug from a guy named Fred.
“How about getting some help, Derpy?” She asked, still clenching her snout
“Shh, I’m filling out the paperwork!” I retaliated, attempting to write with my mouth.
“But it hurts like living hell!” She said, almost too loud for comfort
“Then you fill it out!” I screamed at Tavi, hoofing her the pen and clipboard.
Octavia kicked away the clipboard from my hoofs “You think I can do that when I’m holding my nose?!” She screamed back
“Perhaps I can help.” Said a kind feminine voice to my side.
“Oh! Um.. hello.” I gave her my nervous smile, did she hear all of that?
“So, your nose hurts, right?” Says the lady as she kneels down and takes the paperwork. “Looks like some minor blunt force trauma. We’ll get this paperwork filled out and get you in for some scans just in case there’s damage to any hard tissue that we can’t see, okay? Should be nothing to worry about.”
“Thanks Miss...” I looked at her nametag. “Thanks miss Sarah J. Smith.”
“Can we just get this over with?” Asked Tavi, obviously not in a good mood.
“Sure, Ms. Phillimonica, right this way. We’ll clean up the bleeding and get those scans.”
Once Octavia left, I was all alone with Fred. Today is going to be a long day.