//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - Gratuitous Gratitude // Story: Beneath the Mask // by TheDrunkenJinjo //------------------------------// An eerie silence fell over Zecora’s hut like a shroud, so thick that it was almost palpable. On one side of the room were six shocked ponies, and on the other a relatively calm looking human. All of the mares stared at Braxton unblinkingly, each one with a mix of different emotions plastered on their faces. Fear. Apprehension. Doubt. Fascination. And, in the pink one’s case, what could only be described as sheer and unbridled giddiness. ‘Dude, what’s up with that one? That smile of hers is giving me a serious case of the jibblies. ...I kind of wanna take a bite outta that cotton candy hair, though.’ Braxton thought, wondering if the pony’s mane tasted as good as it looked. As he was observing the pink one, he just barely caught the rainbow-haired pony shoot forward in a burst of speed. Before Braxton could even react she was on him, nearly nose to nose and with both hooves slammed into the wall on either side of his head. His eyes widened and he swallowed hard, admittedly a little intimidated by the equine. ‘Damn! This one’s quick... and aggressive!’ “Who are you?! What are you?! What are you doing in Zecora’s place, huh? Were you trying to hurt her? Capture her? Hold her hostage?! Start talking!!” The pony shouted accusations in his face, the look of anger in her magenta eyes growing with each word. Braxton had just about enough. He lifted a gloved hand to her face and pushed her back to arms length. Now that she was farther away, Braxton could see a pair of blue wings flapping at her sides as she struggled to get free. ‘Sea serpents, lion-bat-scorpions, unicorns, and now pegasi, too? Gee, what’s next, dragons?’ He snarked internally. “Listen, Rainbow, as much as I enjoy being screamed at,” Braxton said sarcastically, “I like my personal space much more. And I haven’t done anything to Zecora, nor do I intend to.” He stated. The pony wrestled free of his grasp and flew right back in his face, completely ignoring his previous statement. “What are you, a spy or something? How do you know my name?!” The pegasus interrogated. Braxton’s eyes flicked from her face to her mane and back. “Would you believe a lucky guess?” He deadpanned. Rainbow opened her mouth to retort, but was yanked out of the air before she could do so. The orange pony had Rainbow’s tail between her teeth, struggling to hold the feisty mare back. Her long, blonde mane and tail were done up in, ironically, a ponytail, and a brown Stetson rested on her head, much to Braxton’s surprise and confusion. ‘Where the hell did she...? You know what? Screw it. Not the strangest thing I’ve seen today.’ Braxton thought, throwing his metaphorical hands up. “Rai’ bow Dash, will ya ‘nock i’ ofsh?!” The orange pony slurred through a mouthful of tail. Rainbow turned to the mare with an indignant look. “What? Why?! This... this... thing is probably up to no good!” She jabbed a hoof in the man’s direction. “I’m gonna kick it’s flank before it has a chance to cause trouble!” “No!” Sweetie Belle shouted, jumping in front of Braxton’s legs. “He’s not a thing. He’s a human!” Sweetie looked up at Braxton with a smile. “And he’s my friend!” Braxton smiled in return. Rainbow Dash stopped struggling, completely stunned by what she just heard. “Your... your friend?” She asked. Sweetie Belle nodded her head. “Yes, my friend. He’s the one who saved me from the manticore and brought me here. If it weren’t for him, I don’t know what would’ve happened. I won’t let you hurt him!” She declared, a look of fierce determination in her eyes. Rainbow still wasn’t convinced. “W-Well, what if that was some kinda trick? Maybe saving you was all part of it’s devious plan!” She was grasping at straws now. Braxton simply rolled his eyes at the pony’s stubbornness. The orange pony spit out Rainbow’s tail and glared hard at the pegasus. “Rainbow Dash, will ya listen to yerself? Ya sound like some sorta crazy pony. Now, Ah admit that this feller is a mite strange lookin’, but that ain’t no reason ta' go flyin’ off the handle!” She admonished in a Southern accent, which only furthered Braxton’s confusion. Rainbow Dash scoffed and folded her forearms across her chest. “Fine, whatever! But I still don’t trust it.” She flew back into Braxton’s face. “I’m watching you, buddy.” She stated, poking a hoof into his chest with every word, and then fluttered back to the other side of the room. The orange one just shook her head at the brash pegasus before returning her attention to him. “Don’t pay no mind ta' her, pardner. Rainbow Dash can be a tad bullheaded sometimes, but she’s a nice pony once ya get ta' know her.” She said. “It’s cool. To be honest, I get where she’s coming from. I’m something none of you have seen before just chilling out at your friend’s place. I don’t really blame her for being a little suspicious of me.” Braxton said, shrugging it off. The pony tipped her hat to him slightly. “Well, that’s mighty understandable of ya, pard.” Then her emerald eyes widened a bit as though she had just remembered something. “Oh gosh, where are my manners? Name’s Applejack.” She introduced herself, holding out a hoof. “Call me Braxton.” He said, gripping her hoof with his right hand. He instantly regretted it. The pony had amazing strength, shaking his hand so hard he was sure his arm would pop out of it’s socket. Applejack remained oblivious to his pain. “Nice ta' meetcha there, Braxton! Sweetie Belle called ya a hyoo-man or somethin’, right? Ah don’t rightly know what that is, but ya seem like a friendly sort, so yer a-okay in my book!” She declared, sporting a friendly smile. “N-N-Niceee t-to meeeet-t-t y-you, too-o-o!” Braxton said with vibration in his voice. Applejack finally released her death grip and Braxton pulled his hand back to find it smoking slightly. ‘Welp, that’s probably not good.’ A faint noise caught his ear and looked up to see Rainbow Dash hovering there with a hoof to her mouth, snickering at him. Braxton shot her a narrow-eyed glare, which she all too readily returned. Their glaring contest was interrupted, however, when two baby blue eyes surrounded by pink popped up directly in front of Braxton’s face. “GAH!!! Holy backflipping Christ!!” Braxton shouted, stumbling back a bit but keeping his footing. He realized that the pink pony from before, a wide smile still plastered on her muzzle, had somehow managed to get under his shirt without him noticing. “Hi! My name’s Pinkie Pie! I’ve never seen anything like you before! Are you a monkey? An alien? Some kind of hairless Diamond Dog? What’s a Christ? Do you like cupcakes?!” The pink pony spoke rapidly, seemingly never taking a breath during her barrage of questions. Braxton blinked once. Twice. “Uh... kind of, probably, I don’t know what that is, a dude in a white robe with really long hair, and yeah, but I prefer donuts myself.” Braxton stated, grinning a little towards the end. Applejack’s jaw nearly hit the floor. “How... How did y’all manage ta keep up with all that?” She asked him. Braxton’s smile faltered for a split second, but returned just as fast. “...Let’s just say I’ve had a lot of practice.” He said. Applejack raised an eyebrow at his vague statement, but was interrupted before she could ask him what he meant. “Pinkie!” Another unicorn, lavender this time, trotted up to them. She had two highlights, one a light purple and one pink, running perpendicular down her deep indigo mane. “Get down from there, you’re going to scare him off!” She berated. Pinkie hopped out of Braxton’s shirt with the grace of a professional gymnast, and landed mere inches away from the purple pony. “Sorry, Twilight. I’m just so super-duper excited! I’ve never met a new friend that wasn’t a pony before!” Pinkie said, bouncing on her hooves a bit. Twilight rolled her eyes at the pink mare’s antics and cantered over to Braxton. She then began walking circles around him, wordlessly poking and prodding various parts of his body. “Uh, can I help you?” He asked after being nudged in the arm a few times. Twilight blinked hard ,as though she had just snapped out of a trance, and looked up at him in shock. “Oh, I’m sorry!” She apologized, “That was rude of me. Let me introduce myself. My name’s Twilight Sparkle, it’s very nice to meet you!” She said with a friendly smile. “Likewise.” Braxton said, nodding his head to the unicorn. Twilight’s smile was soon accompanied by an embarrassed blush. “Hehe, sorry again about that. I’ve just never seen or read about anything like you before. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to study a whole new species! Oh, I’ve got so much I want to ask you!” She exclaimed, eyes literally twinkling with excitement. “Twilight, darling, I do realize that this is very exciting for you, but don’t you think that we should be getting back? We don’t want to have Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Spike getting too worried, now do we?” The white unicorn from earlier said, interrupting Twilight’s spiel. “Oh, that’s right! We should get back soon. I’m sure Apple Bloom and Scootaloo are worried sick about Sweetie Belle by now.” Twilight turned her attention back to the human. “Um, Braxton, was it?” She asked him. “What’s up?” “I have so many questions about you and your species, but this isn’t really the place. I would be able to conduct much better research back in Ponyville. So I was wondering..., would you mind coming back with us to town?” Twilight looked up at Braxton with wide, pleading eyes, silently begging him to say yes. “Hold up, Twilight! You can’t seriously be thinking of bringing this thing back with us?! Who knows what it’ll do once it gets to town!” Rainbow Dash said adamantly. Twilight looked at the pegasus with an annoyed expression. “Oh, will you relax, Rainbow Dash? Braxton seems like a very nice pon-- er, human. I’m sure it won’t be a problem. And besides, with all of us together, we can escort him to town without incident.” Rainbow huffed and crossed her forearms, but said nothing else. ‘Twi’s got a point. With all six of us watching, nothing can go wrong. Hah, in fact I dare it to try something, so I can knock it into next Tuesday!’ Rainbow thought with a grin of anticipation. “So, uh, what do you say?” Twilight asked Braxton again with the same puppy-eyed expression. “Sure, I don’t see why not.” He said, shrugging his shoulders. Twilight let out an adorable squee and began bouncing around Braxton shouting “YES!” repeatedly. Braxton simply stared in amusement at the mare’s utterly adorkable behavior. “Don’t worry about her, darling. She gets like this sometimes, especially when she finds something that really piques her intellectual curiosity.” The white unicorn explained. “My name is Rarity, by the way. An absolute pleasure to make your acquaintance.” She introduced herself, daintily holding out a well-manicured hoof. It didn’t take a genius to see that this was one classy pony. She spoke with a distinct Mid-Atlantic accent, wore light blue eyeshadow, and had a perfectly coiffed mane and tail, which somehow looked oddly familiar to Braxton. He got down on one knee so that he was nearly eye level with Rarity, and gently grasped her outstretched hoof, much like how one would take a lady’s hand. He closed his eyes and planted a light kiss on it, before pulling back and looking her in the eye. “The pleasure is all mine, m’lady.” He said with a grin. Rarity giggled and blushed a bit, easily visible through her alabaster coat. “My, my, quite the charmer, aren’t you?” She said as Braxton released her hoof and stood back to his full height. The two failed to see Rainbow Dash off to the side, pointing a hoof to her mouth and making gagging sounds. Rarity swiftly regained her composure, and said, “So, erm Braxton, Sweetie Belle told us that you fought off a manticore by yourself to save her. Is that true?” Sweetie Belle piped up before Braxton had a chance to answer. “He didn’t just fight it! He beat it to a pulp and sent it running scared! It was amazing, Rarity, you should have seen it!” She squeaked. Braxton rubbed the back of his neck in mild embarrassment of the heavy praise. “Well, ‘beat it to a pulp’ might be going a little far but, yeah, that’d be me. It was nothing, really.” He said modestly. “No, it most certainly was not nothing!” Braxton looked down at the unicorn, startled by her sudden outburst, and saw tears forming in the corners of her cerulean eyes. The other ponies in the room, including Zecora, all stopped and listened in as well. “You faced certain danger to protect Sweetie Belle. You braved the Everfree Forest in order to get her to a safe haven. You... you saved my sister’s life. I simply cannot find words to express my gratitude towards you.” Rarity said, dipping into a deep bow as the only means of showing her thanks. The others were shocked by Rarity’s rather unladylike show of appreciation, while Braxton was at a complete loss for words. In all of his travels and for all of his experiences, he had never had someone bow to him before, let alone openly and in front of their friends. After what seemed like years, but in actuality was only a few moments, he finally broke the silence. “...You don’t have to.” Rarity looked back up at him, confusion clearly evident on her face. “W-What?” “You said you can’t find the words to thank me. Then don’t.” Braxton took to one knee again, his dark eyes staring directly into hers. “Look, what I did for Sweetie wasn’t anything special. I didn’t do it expecting to be thanked or bowed down to. I did it because it was right. And while I’m humbled by your display, believe me I am, the fact is it’s unnecessary. I’m glad that you’re grateful, but... please, Rarity, don’t bow to me.” Braxton had averted his eyes by the end, unable to meet her gaze any longer. Rarity, however, was still staring at him intently. After another long pause, Rarity did something that no one was expecting. She raised her hooves around his neck and pulled him into hug. Braxton’s still downcast eyes widened in surprise, but he didn’t pull away. Instead, he tentatively raised his left hand and put it to rest on Rarity’s back. They stayed that way for a few moments, until Rarity finally released him and fixed her gaze on his once more. “Thank you.” She whispered, giving him a grateful smile. Braxton nodded his head firmly. “Don’t mention it.” He said with a smile almost as broad as hers. After seeing the exchange, the other ponies in the room also had warm smiles gracing their faces. Even Rainbow Dash who, while still more than a little skeptical of the human, had to admit deep down that maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t all bad. Rainbow shook those thoughts out of her head. ‘What are you thinking?! It may act all nice now, but I bet it’s just trying to win us over! Then when we least expect it, WHAM! It springs it’s trap! Well, I’m not gonna be fooled that easy. I still got my eye on you, pal.’ Rainbow Dash thought, narrowing her eyes at Braxton, who remained blissfully unaware. “Well, now that that’s out of the way,” Rarity turned her attention to her little sister, “Sweetie Belle, are you ready to head back to Ponyville?” “Yeah!” Sweetie Belle squeaked, “Thanks to Zecora, my leg feels great! Even better than before!” She said, shaking her formerly sprained leg a little to prove her point. Rarity flashed the zebra a thankful smile. “Yes, thank you, Zecora. If there is anything at all I can do for you, do not hesitate to ask.” She said. Zecora waved a hoof dismissively. “Your generosity knows no measure, but helping you all has been my pleasure." She said, trotting over to the door and opening it. The ponies began filing out one by one, with the human bringing up the rear. As they walked by him, Braxton noticed that there was still one pony left that he had yet to speak to. A butter yellow pegasus with a long, flowing pink mane and gentle looking turquoise eyes. Braxton put on a friendly smile and went to a address the pony. “Hey there!” The pegasus looked up at the human and her eyes shrank in fear. A startled “eep!” was the pony’s only response. But Braxton would not be deterred. “I don’t think I’ve met you yet. My name’s Braxton. What’s yours?” He asked. The pegasus seemed to shrink even more. “Um, F-F-Fluttershy.” She whispered almost inaudibly. “Sorry, but I didn’t catch that.” Braxton said, leaning in a little closer. “My name's Fluttershy.” “Uh, one more time?” “...I’m Fluttershy...” Braxton sighed heavily, realizing he was getting nowhere fast. He walked over to Twilight and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. “Yes, Braxton? Is there something you need?” Braxton jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “Yeah, um, is she always like that?” He asked her. Twilight craned her neck around Braxton’s side to see her friend pawing at the ground with a hoof, with one eye covered by her pink mane. Twilight understood instantly what Braxton meant. “Oh, don’t worry about her. Fluttershy’s just a bit well... shy around new ponies. But, she’ll start opening up a little once you get to know her. Believe me, she’s one of the nicest, kindest ponies in all of Equestria.” Twilight assured. Braxton glanced at Fluttershy once more, who was still pawing at the ground. She looked up sheepishly at Braxton, but immediately averted her gaze when she saw him looking back. Shrugging his shoulders, Braxton decided it was probably best to not force it, and let her open up to him on her own terms. Braxton turned to address Zecora one last time. “Thanks for everything, Zecora. I really appreciate you getting Sweets back on her fee-- er, hooves, not to mention patching me up, too. You really are a great doctor, y’know?” Zecora blushed a little at the compliment. “Your praise is very welcome indeed. Remember to come back if you are ever in need.” She offered. “You got it, and thanks again. See ya, Zecora.” Braxton said with a smile. After bidding farewell to their zebra friend, and with their business concluded, the seven ponies, and one human, began their long hike to the forest exit.