A Perfect Key
Chapter 4 the Road Ahead
By Jonnydash
Time flew by as I talked to each of the ponies and after finding out where I was from they all began to believe I was here in this world for something. Something bigger than us, and they seemed very excited to get on the journey to Canterlot. Pinkie suggested we take the train to Canterlot since it was faster and only a day’s trip. We all nodded in agreement and Twilight and Rarity got the bags and other things ready for us to leave. I on the other hand went back to the room to look at my things and see if I still needed anything or maybe a clue to what was going on and why I was here. On the other side of my phone was the same key from before but it had changed it was still a little tarnished in places but a big revealing “Y” was now embroidered on the left side of the face of the key. “I know that wasn’t there before..” I muttered to myself thinking about why it was there. I decided that this key or whatever it was wasn’t normal it had brought me here and must be my way home. I scooped up the key and my phone and placed it in the saddle bag rarity had sewn. It was nicely decorated and even embroidered with my cutie mark, a yellow pencil crossed over top a crescent wrench.
I wandered back into the common room of Fluttershy’s house, looking at all the nice things she had. It was really a quaint place and her bunny; Angel was nice but seemed to throw carrots at me quite a bit.
“Alright I think we are ready to head on out.” Twilight said as she had placed her final things in her saddlebag.
We wondered outside to a bright and colorful world, the colors of the grass, trees and sky were very bright and vivid and took a little bit of adjusting for my eyes. And we wandered down the path towards Ponyville where Twilight said the train station was. We continued to walk for a while talking and laughing about the comings and goings and much small talk when applejack asked me a question.
“Hey there monkey, so in yer world, what are we exactly?” she asked.
“Uh yes” I responded taken back by the bluntness of her question. “We have these things called TV’s and they show moving pictures with sound and stories with them. And all of you were featured in a show.”
“Huh?? I don’t get it…” she responded with obvious confusion.
I laughed at the response and said “It’s alright, I don’t really get it either.” All the other ponies were now laughing along as we proceeded into town. The town itself seemed like any other small town back home with complete stores for everything except a few oddballs like couches and quills store or a stand selling hay as food. I found this place to be quite a sight and Rainbow Dash watched me as I was gazing around the town, she piped up and said. “So you like our little town?”
“Well I’ve never seen anything like it before.” I responded “I never imagined it to be like this, the pictures back home don’t give it justice.”
Rainbow laughed at this and we continued on though the square of Ponyville and in no time at all we were standing in front of the Ponyville train station. The stations manager, a dark grey earth pony with brown hair and a stop watch as his cutie mark walked up too twilight and they began chatting back and forth most likely discussing the next train to Canterlot.
Twilight trotted back to the group “Ok guys, the next train leaves for Canterlot in 2 hours so what do you guys think about showing monkey around Ponyville?”
Pinkie immediately chimed in with “OH!! We can go to Sugarcube corner! I work and live there! Then we can go make some cupcakes and eat lots of sugar! And meet everypony in town and..” Twilight stopped her there and said “Pinkie I think we should just take it slow and give him a tour of the whole town”
“That’s a fantastic idea Twi!” Applejack responded “He’s only seen a bit a our little town and I’m sure he’d love the rest of it!”
With that said we wandered off towards the next part of town seeing more shops and other pleasant ponies talking and enjoying the day. We stopped at the biggest oak tree I’ve ever seen and twilight told me she lived and worked there.
“Oh so this is the library?” I said with utter amazement.
“It sure is! And my assistant spike and I live here too.” Twilight responded “Come on out spike!” Twilight shouted in the door of her library. A few moments later a small purple baby dragon walked out of the door and looked up at Twilight.
“Hey Twilight I was wondering when you were coming back our quills and parchment arrived already and I picked them up from the store for you.” Spike said he then spotted me and asked “Wait, who’s the new guy?”
“He’s our new friend spike his name is Monkey Wrench.” Twilight responded with a smile and looked at me.
“Yeah, uh hi Spike it’s nice to meet you.” I said hesitantly trying not to be too awkward.
“Hmm uh yeah nice to meet you too Monkey.” Spike replied with an almost unsure look to his face.
He had an arrogance around him and I almost got the feeling he didn’t want me around. I tried my best not to make him feel any different towards me and we moved on to talking about where to go see next. We still had about an hour left and we decided to get something to eat.
Applejack led the way this time taking us through Ponyville past all the shops again and finally leading us to the square in Ponyville. She walked up to her apple stand and began to make something behind the little counter on it. As she worked I talked to twilight and asked her how long she had been in Ponyville.
She responded with a smile “I haven’t been here as long as everyone else I’m actually from Canterlot but I’m here on assignment from the princess. I’m studying friendship and learning as much as I can about it.”
“Oh wow that’s awesome!” I responded as Applejack handed me what looked like a slice of apple pie.
“Go on an try it sugarcube! It’s an apple family recipe for the best apple pie in Equestria!” Applejack responded lighting up with a huge smile.
The first bite was amazing the flavor was so rich and the texture to the apples where just right and the crust perfectly crisp and delicious. “Wow!” was all I could say with a mouth full of apple pie. “I rearry rike it a rot!” I said spitting out pieces of pie everywhere. Everypony started laughing and I joined in feeling right at home with these strange multi colored creatures. We all finished our food and Twilight announced that we should head back to the station to catch the train. We started our walk to the station talking about Applejacks amazing pie and our ideas of what the princess would say. We arrived at the station a short time later; the gray manager came out to meet us again saying “you all are just in time! A ticket to Canterlot will be 20 bits each please.” We each handed the pony 20 bits and boarded the strange looking train being pulled by strong looking ponies at the front of the locomotive.Twilight, Rainbow, and Fluttershy took the first booth from the door. Rarity sat down a little bit in her own booth staring intently at a mirror she brought and adjusting her mane. I took my own booth across from them staring out the window at the strange place these ponies called home I wondered how it would be to stay in a place like this and have friends like these. Then lost my self in my thoughts.
Before I knew it a few hours had passed, I zoned into what was going on around me, and realized Applejack was standing outside my booth. I quickly responded “Oh hey applejack, sorry I didn’t see you there” I laughed as I said this. “I was lost in thought I guess.” I responded with a smile.
“Oh that’s okay!” she said smiling. “I was just gonna see if I could talk for a bit.” she said with a big grin.
“Oh sure” I responded with a slight smile as I was a little taken back from her request. “Go right ahead!” I said giving a big smile.
“So tell me about yourself” Applejack responded with a smile.
“well back home I’m just a normal person, I do anything a normal person would do...” I quickly responded
“Person?” Applejack asked quizzically
“Oh, yeah...” I sighed in realization that she wouldn’t know what a person is. “In my world we refer to each other as people, like how you guys refer to each other as ponies”
“Oh, makes sense ah guess, and what about your cutie mark?” She responded.
“Well, I wouldn’t be to sure, since I arrived in this world with my cutie mark... But back in my world, I had a natural talent of fixing things, I could take almost anything apart and fix it and put it together again. I also loved drawing and doing anything with art I guess that would explain the pencil.” I explained with the little knowledge I knew on the subject.
We continued talking about our previous experiences, laughing and joking for what seemed like hours. Until finally the trains whistle blew and a shout came from the front of the train “Now arriving in Canterlot!!”.
We were finally there...