//------------------------------// // Not Really Sure Whats Happening // Story: Through Rose Colored Glass // by RiotBros //------------------------------// Why a snail, a bucket, and some rope? That'd all come into play later. I had to first wait until night so I could hide all the more easily. I knew that if I didn't get food soon, I'd starve and become too weak to find any, but I did have a large amount of bits, so theft wouldn't be something I'd have to look into. Although, trying to purchase food without having the basic shape of the race you're buying from without rising suspicion is difficult. I definitely had my work cut out for me, but there isn't anything more motivated than a starving creature. Was that all I was though? Just some creature, running around and scavenging food while hiding from the more powerful creatures that ruled the land I lived in? I was nothing more than a rabbit. A weak, helpless whelp. But, I was a rich, weak, helpless whelp, and that made the difference to me. So with a new found source of determination, I wrapped myself in an old blanket and crawled out of the alley on all fours. In hindsight, this wasn't a good plan, but sometimes you just have someone, or somepony, looking after you. And for me, that somepony was Celestia. I knew that she didn't want news of me to reach the other kingdoms outside of Equestria, so I didn't really worry that much about being caught. She probably has some memory erasing spell anyways. I thought. Downtown Manehatten wasn't busy at night, not this part. The other districts, those that actually had bits, were booming with activity. But not down here, there were only about a hundred ponies living here, the others just came down for work. So after all the businesses closed, it got pretty quiet. I was able to make it from my little alley to the nearest apple stand without being seen, but the hardest part was still to come; talking with the vendor. I slowly crawled up to the stand, making sure to look all around checking for others. When I say that there was really nopony else around, I crawled the rest of the way to the stand and spoke. "Excuse me, but can I get some apples?" I asked, I spoke with a groggy and deep voice to mask my identity, although nopony would react to it, I sounded the same as they did. "Ya got bits, sure. Youze' don't got bits, get outa here, I don't do charity work." He had the typical "tough guy" Manehatten accent. I just scooted a little closer and pulled out a few bits. "How much for a dozen?" He smirked and chuckled. "As if somepony as low as youze' could afford a dozen my apples! If youze want to make a real deal, than start talking sane." "How much for one dozen?" I put emphasis on each word, trying to breach the thick skull of the dumb salespony. He puffed out his chest and stared at me menacingly. "Get out. I don't make no habit of selling to ponies who don't have respect!" Dammit! This is harder than it should be. Why are all these ponies so stupid? I just want to buy some apples! "Please, sir. I'm a day away from starving, I need these apples, and I have the bits to pay for them." "Fine, but don't let me see youze' around here again, you here?" I nodded and he said, "Sixteen bits." I turned to grab the bits and my blanket fell off, revealing my human body. "What 'da heck are youze'"? He backed away a little and mumbled something. His eyes were wide and his jaw hung low. But then, a miracle happened. He was just about to turn away and run screaming when somepony small ran up and clocked him. Knocked him clear out. He fell to the ground, unconscious. I looked up to see an orange filly, that's a young mare. Don't even ask how long it took for me to learn that. She looked up at me, then left and right, when she saw we were alone she leaned in close and spoke. "Hey, I'm Scootaloo, and a friend of my dads wants to meet you in Ponyville. I can get you there easy, and my dads friend will pay you. What do you say?" I just stared at her like she was nuts. Who in their right mind would seek me out? Why? I didn't know how to respond, but figured that I better say something before somepony noticed us. "Uh, sure. What does this friend want me for?" She just smiled and whispered, "You'll see." I felt anxiety rising in my stomach, not sure what "You'll see" meant. Did she mean dissection, like some sick doctor pony? Or was it sexual? Oh buck, I'm in for it this time... "O-okay, I'll do it. Just get me there discretely, I don't want anymore ponies to get hurt." Some food wouldn't hurt, either. "Fine, have it your way. Just follow me and we'll be fine." She took me through the sewer systems, they were filthy. Well, that goes without saying, but I mean properly sick, like there was rotten food, digested and undigested, and animals, some dead, some alive, and even a pony or two, both alive. I was amazed at how filthy it was allowed to be. The walk was long, and by the end I was started to get sick. The smell was so foul, I imagine if I was down there any longer I'd have passed out. The filly must have mapped out our path, that or she really loved the sewers. She didn't make one wrong turn, and trust me, there were a lot of turns. Whoever designed these tunnels had to have been pretty awful at their job. After an hour or two of walking, we finally made it out. I was relived to be able to breath again, and she just looked accomplished. I wanted to ask her some more questions about what I'd be doing in Ponyville, but we had come out a block from the train station, so I opted to keep quiet. I was able to get a better look at the filly, she had a purple mane, not really brushed in any specific way, and her coat was orange. She looked really young to be running around big cities with an alien, but I guessed she was trained for this. But what training could one go through for this? She had said that her father had sent her, so I assumed he had shown her a few tips on fighting and how to lose somepony during a chase, but I wondered why he hadn't come instead. Surly he would have been better suited for the job. I began to put together situations that would explain sending the filly my way. The only one that made sense was that the father was working and had no time to spare, but even that left a sour taste in my mouth. Which reminded me of my hunger, which started an ache in my stomach. "Hey," I whispered, "Do you have anything to eat?" The filly looked at me for a second, then back at the station, and finally spoke. "Uh, yeah, hold on." She rummaged through her saddlebag for a moment before pulling out a small bag, much like the one Celestia had dropped the day we met, only much, much cheaper. "Oh, no, I can pay if you're going to buy something, it's just that I haven't eaten in, well, almost two weeks." I don't know why I offered to pay, maybe it was just the hunger making me think strange, but she smiled and pulled me out of the alley. The train conductor yelled something about the train leaving, but I was too focused on hiding behind the filly to notice what exactly he said. The train was pretty empty, our car had nopony else in it but us, and after a minute of sitting quietly, the train started chugging off. Finally, the filly spoke. "Alright, I'll go get some food, then we can talk about Ponyville." I handed her thirty bits and told her to get as much food as she could carry. She fluttered her wings in excitement, obviously hungry, and ran off. I sat back and sighed, it had been a long, strange day, but it seemed like I was finally drawn a good hand. "Okay, so they really didn't have all that much there, but I got a good amount of food, I think." The filly walked slowly, carefully balancing four trays of food on her back and wings. I noticed that her wings were small, much smaller than any filly I had seen before. She sat down and licked her lips hungrily. We ate in silence until the mountain of food was a small pile crumbs. I looked over to the train's schedule and saw that there was still an hour until we arrived in Ponyville, my time was running out. "So, care to explain what I'm to expect when we arrive?" I would've been more angry, but with the amount of food I had just eaten, I was too content. Her ears fell back on her head and she frowned. "I, uh, don't really k-know." She winced as soon as she finished the sentence. I guess she thought I was going to hit her, whatever, I'll never understand pony logic. "Okay... do you know what your dads friend wants me for, or how they knew I existed?" She let out a sigh knowing I wasn't angry. "Sure, she wants to have, oh what did he call it? Uh, oh right! She wants to have sex with you!" My eyes shot open to the size of dinner plates, and my mouth hung down several inches. I knew she had no clue what that meant, but it didn't make me feel any better. Sex?! I thought, With a human? What the hell kind of pony is this? "I don't think I'll be able to do that..." I trailed off, I couldn't even think. This whole situation was so strange, I had no idea that ponies acted like this. My only interaction with them prior to Celestia was with homeless, crazy drunks. I had never thought of ponies like that, not anywhere close. But I did a home. No, no, no. I can't do this, I'll just try and sneak back to Manehatten. "Why not? She'll pay you, and feed you, too!" I just groaned, which confused the filly even more. "Listen, uh, I don't really want to explain this, but I can't have... sex with this pony. Yeah, I want a home, and yeah I want food, but that is not an option, it is never an option." She gave me a confused look, but I held up a hand, telling her to drop it. "So what are we gonna do now? I can't keep you at my house without my dad noticing." Keep me? I'm not a dog. Whatever, not like she even cares. "Listen kid, this is a whole lot more complicated than you think. If Celestia finds out that I'm just waltzing down the streets of Equestria, she'll banish me, and then I'll starve. Heck, I almost starved with a bag of a hundred bits! I appreciate you trying to help a, um, creature, in need, but there's nothing a young pony like you can do." She scrunched up her face in disappointment. "Ponies are always telling me I can't do stuff cause I'm too young, or too small. I can't give you much food, but my friends and I can let you sleep in our clubhouse! We can help you, just let us. The ponies in Ponyville are really nice, they can help, even if they don't get sex. Whatever that is." I put a hand on her shoulder and looked at her with a smile. "Alright, I'll give you a chance, but you can't tell anypony who won't keep me a secret, wait a minute. How many ponies know about your dads friend and me. I mean, about her, uh, proposition." She thought for a moment, and put a hoof to her chin. After a minute she gasped happily. "Well, my dad obviously, and Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rosebud, Carrot Top, the quill salespony, Mayor Mare, oh! And Big Mac and Granny Smith. Who else?" She kept listing names for a while, and I realized that the entire town must have known that I was coming. Great, I thought, Might as well throw me a welcoming party, too. "Okay kid," I interrupted, "I ge-" "I have a name, you know!" That's great, how was I supposed to know it if you never told me? "Okay," I said, waiting. After a few moments of silence I rolled my eyes and sighed. "What's you name, kid?" She smiled widely and said, "Scootaloo, my friends call me Scoots, you can call me Scootaloo." I looked at her with a 'Are you kidding me?' face. She held a serious face for a while, but soon enough let it crumble into a fit of giggles. "Well Scootaloo," I said, she nodded in approval, "If everpony in this town knows about me coming, why did you have to come and get me? Why not an adult?" "That's simple, everpony else was too afraid. They said you had 'dark magic', and were dangerous, but I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid of anything!" I wonder why nopony stopped her if they were so afraid? I thought, but dismissed it as I didn't really care about her, and I knew that I wasn't dangerous. Maybe I should have cared, but at the moment I had more important things on my mind. Just then we pulled up to the Ponyville train station. The brakes of the train screeched and screamed loudly as we stopped. I looked out the window to see something very, very strange. "A party? Oh, no." Outside of the train were streamers, ribbons, and balloons, and a huge banner that read, Welcome Hewmane! "It's gonna be a long day." Scootaloo giggled beside me and ran out of the train. "Hey everypony, come and say hi to, uh, wait here a second." She ran back into the car and up to me. "What's your name?" I never thought about that before. I had no name, mainly because I had no parents. I was never really addressed by any of the drunks I hung out with, but when I was they just said "Hey", or "You". "I don't really... have one." Scootaloo gasped loudly and ran back out of the car. I really hope the rest of them are less energetic. I was never a fan of social gatherings, the one I had been to as a teen ended rather poorly. But more on that later. "Pinkie, come here!" A pink mare jumped out of the crowd, which was pretty dang big. It looked as if the entire town was waiting outside the station. Scootaloo and Pinkie ran into the car and up to me, Pinkie with a huge smile on her face. I had never seen such a happy pony before, it was actually pretty unsettling. She was too happy. "He doesn't have a name, Pinkie. I thought you could pick one out for him!" And what makes me incapable of choosing a name? "Oh no! I've been waiting forever to meet you and now I can't even give you a proper welcome? Don't you worry hewmane, I'll have you a name in no time!" She began tapping her chin while mumbling to herself. I just watched from my seat and waited. After a few minutes she jumped up and gasped excitedly. "I've got it! How about, John Doe?" For some reason I felt a little offended, but with no other real options, I accepted. "Why not, my name is John Doe."