//------------------------------// // Awakening // Story: Does Ponyville Dream of Electric Sheep? // by Xenmas021 //------------------------------// "He's only a pony... I think. What's the worst he can do? Stare at me and say nothing?" With that, Twilight Sparkle sighed out and closed her eyes. She took in a quick breath of air, put her hoof to her chest, and sighed out all her anxiety, letting her eyes relax. Her horn glowed in unison with the door in front of her. The wooden door violently swung open, revealing a quaint café inside. Twilight stood in front of the café's door and surveyed the inside with narrowed eyes. A few ponies looked up at her for a moment only to turn back to eat their meals and idly chat. Twilight’s face didn't move a muscle as she glued her burning eyes onto a certain pony who sat alone at a table. A fresh cinnamon bun rested on his plate and gave off steam that was periodically sucked into his nostrils. The beige stallion wore a pair of huge square glasses that made his eyes look like black dots, while his mouth flaunted an annoying grin. He stared directly in front of him, looking at nothing in particular. He was so still that anypony that confused him for a statue wouldn't be at fault . Twilight silently moved towards him. He didn't notice Twlight until she sat down directly across from him, blocking his view. "Hello. Can I help you?" he asked, tilting his head at an angle. The tone of his voice was enough to make Twilight squirm where she was sitting. His monotonous tone was out of place in Ponyville. "You come here every day, and you always order the same thing. In the same way. At the same time. Why?" "Well, I quite like it here." He smiled. "Have you tried their cinnamon buns?" He sniffed in steam from the pastry, and sighed out, keeping his dead gaze on Twilight. Twilight raised her voice, "No! I have not tried their cinnamon buns because I don't come here everyday like you do!” A few ponies hushed their conversations to search for where the shouting was coming from. “Why," Twilight continued, lowering her voice, "do you like this place so much? Why are you here exactly at 8 A.M. and why do you always leave at exactly 9:30 A.M.?" "I'm a very organized stallion. Have you tried their cinnamon buns?" At this, Twilight leaned back into the mound of hay she had been sitting on. Her mouth hung open as her eyes widened in disbelief. Her target simply sat across from her and smiled that same smile he had on every time she had come to the café. Twilight opened her mouth, and closed it, unsure of what to say. She sat there for what seemed like hours, while the stallion still sat across from her, identical to the way he looked when she first entered the café. He was staring straight at her, yet he wasn't really looking at her. His eyes only happened to be pointed in Twilight's direction. She stood up and moved out of the way. His eyes didn't so much as flicker. "Okay," she breathed. She shuffled to an adjacent table and sat, not taking her eyes off of the pony. She ordered a salad and waited until 9:30 A.M., expecting her target to leave at that precise moment as he had every time Twilight had gone to the café It was a gamble. Barging into a café and interrogating somepony wasn't really considered normal in Ponyville. But Twilight had more than enough reason to do this. She also knew that the stallion wouldn't be nervous or bewildered at all. Nothing seems to perturb that pony. "Are you sure you're fine? There's nothing I can get for you?" Twilight offered a small, polite smile. "No I'm sure I'm okay, thank you." The waitress furrowed her brow and eyed Twilight for a moment before nodding. Without another word, she left Twilight alone. Am I that noticeable? , Twilight wondered as she readjusted her gaze to the freak in front of her. Twilight looked down at her salad she had ordered. It was untouched, and she must have had it just sitting in front of her ever since she'd ordered it. She levitated a fork and began to work at it. She was idly stabbing at scraps of lettuce when she noticed movement near the table. Just as she expected, the stallion was preparing to leave. She checked the café's clock and saw it was not two seconds past 9:30. His meal was left untouched and the steam had long since left his cinnamon bun He got up and darted towards the café's door. Twilight levitated a napkin to her lips, dabbed them, and followed. Just before she reached the door she realized she had forgotten the waitress' tip. She groaned and ran back to her table. Twilight opened her saddle bag, and deposited a couple of bits next her half-eaten salad before thanking the approaching waiter. She then took off, galloping after the stallion. Twilight slipped through the closing door and shot her head to the left. No ponies there. She then scanned her right to see the stallion speed-walking around a corner. "Gotcha," Twilight said before she galloped his way. She rounded the corner of the building and was glad to see she was right on his tail. He was only about twenty feet away, but she didn't spare any time at all. Her horn lit up as she ran full speed at him. Shutting her eyes and adding that last burst of magic, she prepared to teleport in front of the stallion. Before she could react, she met a solid object that yelped before falling back. "W-what?" Twilight rubbed the blur out of her eyes. In the distance she could make out the odd pony gaining distance between them, before he eventually rounded a corner and disappeared. "No!" she cursed as she sat up, only to stumble back down. "Twilight?" said a voice behind her. Twilight realized that it had been a pony she had run into. She whirled around and saw a white unicorn placing a hoof to her temple. Colored bags, needles, cloths and accessories laid strewn across the grass. "I'm so sorry Rarity!" Twilight said. "It's quite alright." Rarity stood up, shaking her head. "Why are you in such a hurry?" Twilight looked out to the bustling crowd that now occupied the path the peculiar pony she was pursuing took. She sighed in defeat and let her head droop down. "No reason..." Rarity tilted her head and lowered her ears. "But you were running so quickly! I find it hard to believe you were running that fast for no reason." Twilight slumped down. "Don't worry about it." She took a few of Rarity's supplies and placed them back into their correct bags. The brief moment of silence gave Twilight hope that Rarity, of all ponies, would actually drop the subject, However, Rarity soon approached Twilight and loomed over her. No luck. "I'm not letting you go until you tell me, Twilight," Rarity huffed as she stamped one of her hooves down before Twilight. "As friends, we really shouldn't hide anything. Was it maybe a dashing gentlecolt you were pursuing?" Rarity asked in an over-exaggerated, sultry tone. Flustered, Twilight snapped her head up to see Rarity biting her lip trying to hold back laughter. It was only a joke. "Not exactly..." Twilight said before returning to pick up Rarity's belongings. Rarity's sly look dropped. Her mouth opened a bit and her eyes widened. "You really were...? Oh, Twilight. I was only teasing," said Rarity. She started to assist Twilight in picking up her bags and freshly purchased items. Not a second passed before she invaded Twilight's personal space. "Who is it?!" she asked. Her head was within inches of Twilight's face. She was grinning with excitement, breathing on Twilight Sparkle's solemn face. "No, it's not like that!" Twilight sat up and let an annoyed sigh escape her, letting her eyes roll at her friend’s persistence. "Spike and I went to the Hay's Bay a few weeks. That's where I first saw him. That pony kept catching my attention." "Was he handsome? What was he doing?" "That's just it. He wasn't doing anything." Twilight explained, ignoring Rarity's first question. "He sat there for an hour and didn't move at all! He never even touched his food! What kind of pony does that?!" Twilight stood up at let her eyes wander to the ground, her voice becoming very serious. "It was just so unnatural. The other ponies were at least eating or doing something. He just sat there like a statue for an hour." "Maybe he's just a bit...?" Rarity raised a hoof to her temple and swirled it. Twilight shook her head. "Crazy, maybe. But I've still never seen anypony act like that. "Anyways," Twilight continued, "I brushed it off at first. But last week, I went back to the café. As an experiment, I decided to go at the same time I went last time. And he was there again! And just like last time, he ordered the same thing and did absolutely nothing! This pony was crazy! So I went there day after day, only to see that he goes there every day at the same time to just sit in front of a cinnamon bun all day!" Twilight finished with her voice at a high enough level to attract attention. "And get this–" she continued, her eyes focused on Rarity and not the looks she was getting "–he would leave at exactly 9:30 every day I went. He didn't bother to even look at a clock or watch or anything. He would just get up and leave on cue." She slumped back onto the grass, letting an annoyed sigh escape her. "It just doesn't make sense." Rarity stood there, her brow raised as she held a bag handle in her mouth. She set it down and said, "Twilight, that's a bit odd to follow a pony simply because he has a few habits, don't you think?" "No, Rarity, you have to see him. When I watch him, he doesn't even look alive. I'd even say that he..." Twilight stopped herself. She didn't want to say it. "He what?" "He... he acts like a robot."