//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Lesson on Humans // Story: Time to go // by MasterHunter55 //------------------------------// Time to go Chapter 5 Lesson on Humans Twilight dreamed of a spell, for some reason that was all she could dream of. Casting that spell, how the spell worked, what to do after she cast it. This seemed to replay over and over again until she knew the spell by heart. Then she woke up. The first thing she really noticed was that she wasn't in her own bed. “Spike, could you start some breakfast, I could use a couple more minutes.” Twilight mumbled into her pillow. Wait a second, this wasn't her pillow, it was softer, and it had a red cover on it. Twilight lifted her head, and she propped herself up on her front hooves. This wasn't her bed, and she looked around. This wasn't even close to her house, all the color was gone! Then the memories flooded back to her. She was in the human world! She was staying in Hunter's basement, and she had slept better than she had in weeks. She must ask Hunter where he got this pillow so that she could get one herself. She decided that given the situation she should probably ignore her sleepyheadedness, and just get to know what was going on. She looked over to the couch where Hunter was sleeping and saw him there, sprawled out on the couch, still in the clothes that he had been wearing the night before. Now that she looked at him, he looked kinda gross. His clothes needed some washing and his mane looked a little greasy. Other than that he was a human, so she wasn't exactly sure if he was anymore out of the ordinary. He did however look really peaceful when he slept, his lips formed an ever present frown, but she thought that made him look more like he was thinking about something serious, more than making him look sad. She then noticed that she really needed to use the bathroom, and she had no idea where it was, or if humans even had one. "Of course they would," She thought. They seemed just as domestic as ponies, the least they could have is indoor plumbing. She hated to disturb Hunter from his sleep, but she really needed to go, and maybe she could clean him up before they went back. “Hey,” Twilight said in her most cheerful voice, poking Hunter in the stomach “Wake up sleepyhead, we have lots to do today and we need to get to it!” A sleepy groan was all that she got as a response, before Hunter's eyes opened wide and his legs swung out off of the couch. Hunter had enough willpower to wake himself up no matter how tired he was, if it was important enough. “Good morning,” Hunter tried saying cheerfully back, but despite his willpower he was still not a morning person and sat for a few moments with his head in his hands. “Well that was fast, I don't think I've ever seen Spike even think about leaving his bed that quickly.” Twilight beamed, she loved mornings and Spike was never one to share them with. Maybe she had found a friend who liked the morning just as much as she did? Other than staying awake until morning, she was wrong. Hunter 'could' get up, but darn it all if he really 'wanted' to. He stood up and stretched his arms. “Was there something you needed Twi?” Hunter said groggily, “It is alright if I call you Twi isn't it?” Hunter said, as he slightly opened one eye. He didn't want to seem rude by using a nickname that her only her close friends seemed to use. Twilight blushed a little, but only to the point that she felt the rush to her cheeks, lucky for her too, because Hunter was very observant. “Actually, Twi is just fine. Now I really need to know, where is your bathroom?” She jogged in place, it was getting to her now. “Ah yes, Meet me at the top of the stairs and I'll lead you to it.” Hunter said as he popped up on the side of the quilt that was open to the exit. Twilight 'blinked' up to the top, and watched Hunter as he ascended the stairs two by two. He then led her around the island that divided the stairs from the walkway and down a hallway to their left. On her way there she was able to get a good look at the pictures. She saw other humans, some small, some not so small, some looked silly, and others were just smiling as they wore what looked to be graduation clothing. Twilight was wondering if humans had a good education system, and that gave her an answer. Some of the pictures were actually paintings, and they were stunning views of beautiful landscapes. Whoever painted them must have been very skilled at it. “These paintings are amazing! Did your grandma paint too?!” Twilight was starting to get excited about humans, they seemed so talented. “Actually that was my great-grandma, she was quite the painter and her paintings are distributed throughout the houses of my grandma's siblings. There are a couple more of them, and I can show you, but I believe you were looking for the bathroom.” Hunter pointed to a door at the beginning of the hallway, “here we are.” Hunter opened the door and she walked in, he showed her how the door lock worked and then closed the door behind him as he left. He might as well start a nice breakfast. Did ponies eat pancakes? Might as well just ask her. “Hey Twi! You ever heard of pancakes?” Hunter said yelled into the bathroom. It was almost midday so he knew his mom had gone to work hours ago. “I love pancakes!” Twilight yelled back, “Do you have any eggs to go with them?” “Of course!” Hunter was excited that he could make her a decent breakfast, “What would you like to drink, milk, water, apple juice, or hot chocolate?” “Melted chocolate is a drink?” Twilight giggled. Pinkie would love to hear about this, sure there was chocolate milk, but this must be different. As the name implied it was hot, and milk wasn't the best when it was warm. “Not 'Melted Chocolate', 'Hot chocolate'.” Hunter said, as he started to walk towards the kitchen. Hot chocolate it was then. After a few minutes Hunter had the stove ready, and the grill was steaming. He cracked the eggs into a pan, as he mixed the pancake mix, and he had already put 2 mugs of milk into the microwave for the hot chocolate. Twilight walked into the kitchen and saw the commotion. “Wow, you sure know your way around a kitchen,” Twilight complemented “I might as well help out though, where's the plates and such?” “They're in the cupboard left of the sink, and the silverware is in the drawer under the island. Don't worry about glasses those are being prepared as we speak.” Hunter said as he poured 4 mini pancakes onto the grill, and mixed up the eggs so that they were scrambled. Just then the microwave went off and Twilight jumped. Hunter chuckled “Thats a microwave Twi, it isn't going to blow up. At least I hope it won't, that's a new model.” He walked over to it and grabbed the two hot mugs with some hot pads and set them on the island. Twilight got the plates out and found where the forks were and set them out neatly out on the table. She noticed an open bag of napkins on a small shelf underneath the island and put a couple on the table with her magic. She wondered where all the food was supposed to be kept. There was a big, white, something in the kitchen that Hunter seemed to put the eggs into. “What is that thing?” Twilight asked. “You mean the fridge?” Hunter asked, as he flipped the pancakes and put the eggs on the table. “What's a fridge?” Twilight wondered, “What's it do?” “A refrigerator, or fridge, is an appliance that almost every human home has that keeps all the food that needs to be cold, cold.” Hunter explained, “Speaking of which, could you go ahead and open it and see if you see any jams you might wanna put on your pancakes, I know my mom likes putting peach jam on hers, because it's really liquidy and it might as well be peach syrup.” “That sounds delightful,” Twilight said, her mouth watering. She hadn't noticed how hungry she really was until she smelled the eggs on the table and thought about having some peaches on her pancakes. She used her magic to pull on the door to the fridge and found that it opened quite easily, as she opened the door wide however she heard something hit the ground. “Oops” Twilight said, Then she picked it up. “'bacon', what's that?” “Oh, uh, it's nothing. I um...” Hunter stuttered, He took the bacon and threw it to the back of the fridge. Hunter knew that ponies never slaughtered their pigs, and that cows were their friends and such. What would she think if she knew that Hunter loved bacon! Let alone hamburgers and subs, and so many things she musn't know about. “It's just a human thing, don't worry about it, oh, here's the syrup and the peach jam. Thank you!” Hunter said as he threw the jars into the air for Twilight to catch with her magic and then immediately shut the door. Twilight was now immensely curious. “You know, I'm only going to be in this world for the short amount of time until I get us back, so I would appreciate it if you could, I dunno, tell me about things. There are just so many differences between your world and mine and I would love to get to know them!” Hunter thought this over as he mixed the hot chocolate. Should he just straight up tell her? What if she got sick? It's not like he was insensitive enough to prepare bacon for her, but still. “Alright fine,” Hunter said as he prepped the table by placing their pancakes on the plates and the hot chocolate next to them. “But only after breakfast. I'm starved” Eventually Twilight's curiosity was overpowered by her hunger, and she sat down at the table. If she sat on the ground she wasn't tall enough so she sat in one of the chairs and let her hooves dangle. Hunter thought this was the best way for a pony to sit, and chuckled to himself quietly. Twilight smothered one of her pancakes with the peach syrup and used her magic to wield the fork. As soon as she placed the pancake in her mouth she was in heaven. Pancakes were her favorite, and the peaches just made it that much better. She glanced over at Hunter who was busy putting marshmallows into his hot chocolate and spreading peanut butter over the top of his pancakes. Twilight remembered that she had wanted to try this new hot chocolate thing that Hunter had created. She decided she should take caution due to the name, and used her magic to get some of it onto a spoon before she blew on it and placed it in her mouth. It tasted creamy but not very chocolatey... “Hot chocolate isn't very chocolatey...” Twilight said, kinda disappointed. “Oh well, we can fix that,” Hunter said, “I like to put vast amounts of chocolate into mine to get that chocolate taste, but my mom usually just has 1 spoonful, I guess you're more of a chocolate fan like me.” Hunter grabbed her glass, took it too the island, and started putting some more chocolate powder into it. “With a friend like Pinkie Pie you can't help but be a fan of chocolate. You have peanut butter too!” Twilight beamed “Of course,” Hunter said, “You should put it on your pancakes, but I don't suggest it with the peaches, just use plain syrup for that.” “Well,” Twilight said, “You haven't steered me wrong yet!” And so she spread some peanut butter on her pancakes with some syrup. It was delicious! The way the peanut butter stuck with the pancake, and the way that the syrup worked to keep it from being too sticky. The peanut butter and syrup was just a great combo of flavors. She must have this for breakfast more often! “It's dewishus!” Twilight mumbled, and then swallowed “How's the hot chocolate coming I need something equally tasty to wash that down with.” “Here you are, careful it's hot.” Hunter beamed, he was glad that she was enjoying herself so much. Twilight once again stuck her spoon into the glass and blew on the now dark brown liquid. Then she put it in her mouth and swallowed. “That was more like it!” Twilight said happily, as she picked up the mug and began slurping chocolatey goodness into her muzzle. It wasn't like chocolate milk, it was creamy like it maybe, but this flavor of chocolate was more potent and it was warm and made her feel like she was back home, by a fire, cuddling a baby dragon. “Wait, don't drink it all yet! You haven't tried it with marshmallows yet!” Hunter told her, bringing back the bag of sweet white edible pillows. Twilight stopped sipping for just a moment to let him add a few little marshmallows to her drink, she let them dissipate a little before she took another sip. Now it was even sweeter than before, and the marshmallows seemed to regulate the temperature. Twilight and Hunter finished their delectable breakfast, and Hunter cleaned up the plates and things while Twilight put away the syrup and jam. “Now don't think that just because you've stuffed me with delicious food that I've forgotten about your mystery bacon.” Twilight said with a smirk. Then she proceeded to pull it back out of the fridge. “What's so strange about it anyways? It just looks like strips of... something, I have no idea what that is.” “Alright, I'll tell you what it is, but you have to promise me that you won't freak out.” Hunter pleaded. “Alright, I won't freak out.” Twilight said Hunter grinned “Pinkie promise?” “Pinkie promise,” Twilight giggled, making the motion of sticking a cupcake into her eye. “Alright, now has Lyra told you much about humans?” Hunter inquired, he knew that at least one pony besides Luna knew what humans were. “Only a basic description of what you looked like and a little of your history.” Twilight responded, "Just how many other ponies did Hunter know about?" Twilight thought, taking a seat on the kitchen floor. Hunter brought in one of the chairs from the table and sat in it backwards so that he could lean forward on the back of the chair. “If you learned a lot about our history then I would like to apologize, there isn't much in our past to be proud of and there were some downright evil things that happened. Aside from that note let me tell you about bacon. Now I know this is going to seem downright evil, but I might as well just tell you. Humans are omnivores.” Twilight thought for a moment. “So you eat meat?” “Yes, and more specifically in the case of bacon. Pig meat.” Hunter said. Twilight put the bacon back in the fridge. She didn't want to look at it anymore, she had wondered why Luna didn't exactly enjoy humans. “You mean you slaughter pigs!” Twilight said, raising her voice slightly, instantly thinking of the pigs that lived on AppleJack's farm, and how she would never hurt those innocent creatures. “No! Well, not me directly, I've never hurt a pig in my life. But my race does. Humans kill to survive, this is why I was trying to apologize for our history. It isn't the prettiest thing, and not only have we harmed the creatures, and the earth, but we've harmed each other as well. You see, here where I live, food is always available. However there are children who starve without relief in worse places. Adults will feel the helplessness and loss as their children fade before eventually fading themselves. Don't you see Twilight! Everything humans do is for their own survival, only for their own selves to rise as close to the top as they can get while on the backs of others.” Hunter slowly went from being quiet to a loud tone. As he reached the end of his speech his eyes began to leak. Hunter found that he had stood up, and sat back in the chair putting his face in his arms. “Now you know why I want to leave this place, sure there's good here, but the good is too far apart. Everyone is always trying to gain something, and the hearts of man have turned towards selfishness and greed.” Here Twilight really didn't know what to do. This conversation had really gotten out of hand from where it had started. “Look, I forgive you, it isn't your fault. I understand that your world is filled with selfish people, but no matter where you go there's going to be somepony looking to take advantage of ponies to rise to the top. You just have to enjoy those bits of happiness and the kindness of others when they come and believe that things will get better.” Twilight said reassuringly. She walked over and put her hoof around him. “Don't worry about it Hunter, I've come to take you away to a better place.” At this Hunter seemed to chuckle through his tears. Comedy was one thing he knew well and it was never lost on him, no matter how sad he was. “What's so funny?” Twilight asked, grinning. “Nothing really,” Hunter said sitting up “It's just that the way you phrased that made it seem like I you were going to kill me.” Twilight giggled. “I guess my wording could have been chosen a little more carefully huh.” “You got that right” Hunter said, wiping away the tears with his already wet sleeves. “Sorry about yelling at you just now, I've just felt so lost with the direction humanity has been headed recently, and it doesn't help that I've been going through a lot lately.” “Don't worry about it,” Twilight said “You won't have to worry about it for very much longer.” “Said the murderer” Hunter joked. “Har har,” Said Twilight, “Well you know what, I guess we shouldn't stay here for very long, but you should teach me some about your world before we leave!” “That's not a problem,” Hunter said. Then suddenly his eyes turned sad “There are few things I should do first as well. I do have lots of people that I like to think care about me, and I shouldn't just leave without a trace.” “Of course, take all the time you need Hunter” Twilight said. It wasn't yet time to go, and so they started to prepare.