Stairway to Equestria

by AlexUk


Chapter 6: Pet of a New Home

Chapter 6

Pet of a New Home

Two hours had passed since I started reading the book Twilight gave me, and I was still trying to fully translate the first page of Bellona’s notes. Unfortunately, there were no other references of her previous home or origins. She only described how noble and kind ponies were, and how the whole society back then was better structured and more peaceful than ‘her own’.

I closed my eyes, a mild headache settling in after all that reading and translating. Thoughts about how she ended up in Equestria in the first place were still lingering in my mind, hours after the mentioning of Rome. I even considered the possibility of it being an old city name in this world, but there seemed to be no way of knowing for sure. I had to check for references of that city in other books, and the best way to find a book that might contain that reference was to talk to Twilight.

Soon I was outside of my room and heading downstairs, hoping to find an answer, when I picked up on a discussion that was taking place in the kitchen. It was probably because of the lower, concerned tone of the conversation that I stopped and eavesdropped.

“So what are we going to do?” the dragon asked, with slight frustration in his voice.

“I don’t really know Spike; we can’t keep him here forever . . . I know you two are good friends now but we have to face the truth: we just can’t afford having a permanent guest. I had to cancel my trip to Canterlot where I wanted to get some books I was saving up for, just so we can afford the food for the next weeks. Blink’s a stallion, he eats more than the two of us combined. We can’t let him starve either, since he’s barely recovering from that incident we still don’t know anything about.”

“I . . . I guess you’re right,” Spike admitted, realizing how many sacrifices Twilight had to make. He knew that month or so she would go to Canterlot and get some new books for her and the library, and truth be told, the salary of a librarian was average at best, so every extra expense had to cut from her books wish list.

“Don’t be sad, Spike, I’m sure we can find him a job and a place to live nearby. Plus, you’re going to see him constantly since I became his magic tutor.”

A fast and loud knock on the door interrupted their conversation, and as Twilight went to open it, I went back into my room. Pinkie Pie’s voice could be heard from downstairs. The life-filled pony came early to help prepare the ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party she wanted to throw for me. My mind, however, was not on the party, as I had just found out how costly my stay there has been for the pony that saved me.

I knew how important books were for Twilight, and I realized I couldn’t overextend my stay there for any longer. I had to find somewhere to go and the only thing I could think of was the farm I was found in the first place. I decided that the next day I would go visit Kazooie and ask him if he needs any help around the farm. It would be a temporary solution until I would find some good use for my magic.

The worst part of that experience was that my previous knowledge accumulated through years of study was pretty much useless here, as I doubted Equestria had any sort of computers or advanced technology for that matter.

I suddenly remembered I wanted to ask Twilight if she had ever heard of the city referenced in Bellona’s notes, but hearing her conversation with Spike made me forget about it. Pinkie Pie was now making a racket downstairs, and I started feeling the dread of your ordinary not-very-social pony, thinking about who would be invited to the party and what awkward situation I was going to be put through.

I grabbed another book from the pile on top of the bed and began reading it, trying to forget the inevitable but all so required event I had to participate in soon enough. As I flipped through the pages of the ‘Initiation in Magic’ manual using my hoof, a difficult task itself, I suddenly realized after a while that I was not using my foreleg anymore, but just waving my head. I also noticed a faint glow coming from the tip of my horn, as the pages were turning themselves.

I stopped reading right there and stared at the book, slightly amazed. I concentrated, trying to feel my own magic, as Twilight taught me. Surprisingly, I sensed it immediately, most of it gathered around my horn.

“Heck, the book can wait… or can it?” I thought, a grin forming on my face.

I started practicing the levitation spell with all the books I could find, and every time I picked up a new one in the air, I felt better and better control over them. After a while, I was able to turn the books as I was floating them, and even managed to open one without losing concentration. Soon enough I was trying to levitate two books at the same time, but it was substantially harder to keep both of them afloat simultaneously.

After all that concentration I was beginning to feel spent, not only mentally but strangely enough, physically too. I let the two books fall back on the bed and then gathered them all in the saddlebag. I then lay on the bed, yawning deeply as I relaxed into the pillow. I wanted to get all the rest I could, because starting the next day, my life would get way less comfortable than it had been in the past few days.

*** *** ***

The sound of a door being opened woke me up from my short nap.

“Hey, Blink, Twilight needs your help with something, could you come down?” Spike asked with an unusual enthusiasm in his eyes.

“Uhm, sure; be right there.”

I got out of bed and headed downstairs, intrigued by what Twilight would need my help for. As I walked into the unusual dark main room of the library, the fear of having another one of those nightmares came to me.

“Twilight?” I barely whispered into the darkness.

“SURPRISEEEEEE!!!!”

The lights switched on and the whole room burst into cheers, balloons and tons of confetti flying around.

It all happened in an instant: my horn started glowing immediately as my heart raced from the sudden screaming and lights. Twilight, who was in front of all the ponies that filled the library, suddenly felt a different kind of emotion inside the room, and saw the surge of magic building up inside me. She acted quickly and rushed to my side, her calming spell already starting to work on me.

“Calm down, Blink. It’s just a surprise party; you’re safe, try to relax now,” she said, quiet enough so only I can hear her, all while giving me a small, unsuspicious hug. “Welcome to Ponyville,” she then added, smiling.

“Thanks, Twilight, my magic just . . . started acting, I’m sorry about that,” I said to her, smiling at the rest of ponies who already started partying, unwary of what had happened.

“It’s alright, I’m pretty sure I was the only one that noticed,” she said, with a little pride for her abilities. She then looked at me with a more serious face. “But we really need to work on containing that magic of yours soon; it seemed that you were ready to blow up the entire library right there.”

“Really?” For some reason, a grin formed on my face. Twilight however gave me a harsh look.

“All right, all right, work on self-control, got it!”

Pinkie Pie suddenly appeared in front of me and hugged me tightly. I felt my spine being crushed, nerve access almost being restricted from the brain to the rest of the body.

“I’m being killed by a pink, energetic creature . . . why?” the thought passed my mind, as my vision began to cloud.

“WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!!!” she yelled happily, releasing the grip.

I was panting hard, trying to regain control of my body, making sure that I could still move my legs after that bone crushing hug.

“Hey Pinkie! Thanks, this is too kind of you.” My voice was a little cracked, and I hoped my vocal chords had not been damaged too much.

“Please excuse our friend, she can get too excited when throwing a welcoming party, especially since the last one was so long ago,” Rarity said, beaming at me.

“It’s all right . . . I think. Thanks a lot for this, I haven’t had a party in, uhm, well, I can’t remember when.”

Pinkie’s jaw dropped in utter disbelief.

“Ohh . . . it must be awful not to remember your past,” Fluttershy said, making her presence felt for the first time during that party.

“Forget about that! Have some cake, it’s awesome!” a blue mare added, approaching our group. Rainbow Dash was hungrily chomping on who-knows how many pieces of cake and cupcakes.

“How coarse of you, Dash,” Rarity added, noticeably disturbed by the pegasus’s behavior.

Rainbow Dash shot her an uninterested look then turned back at me, grinning, pieces of cake still stuck in her teeth.

“Howdy there!” I heard an unfamiliar voice. An orange coated earth pony mare with a long, beautiful golden mane was standing next to me. She grabbed my hoof and gave it a strong shake, her honest smile not dropping at all.

“Name’s Applejack, happy to finally meet ya! Sorry I couldn’t make it earlier, been busy back at the farm!”

“Nice to meet you too, I’m Blink,” I said, still staring at her blonde mane.

It’s so . . . nice.

Even if that was the fourth day I’ve been there, it still amazed me how beautiful and real everything was, especially the ponies. Particularly the mares . . .

I shook those thoughts from my mind and continued talking with everyone, even though I had little to add to any conversation. It felt so bad hiding everything from them, but that was the only solution I thought up at that time, and I had to stick with it.

Pinkie and Rainbow Dash were at the refreshments table set up in a corner at the back of the room and Spike was talking with Rarity and Applejack. I was with Twilight and Fluttershy, our conversation somehow ending up around books.

“So, did the bird encyclopedia I lent you the other day help?” Twilight asked the yellow pegasus.

“Well uhm, it actually didn’t. I still haven’t figured out what kind of bird that black one was, and the book has nothing on it, it’s definitely a new species. It’s so frustrating, I keep seeing it once or twice a day, hovering above Ponyville then flying back into the Everfree Forest. I have never seen birds do that before.”

The animal caretaker certainly looked upset that she couldn’t get to know a new creature, but I shrugged it off as just Fluttershy being obsessed about animals.

“Don’t be so harsh on yourself, you know there is no animal out there that wouldn’t want to be near you, it’s probably because it comes from the Everfree Forest; just give it some time and it will get used to ponies,” Twilight reassured her, not knowing what else to say.

“And you,” she turned to me. “I have something for you, wait here.”

I gave her a puzzled stare while she went upstairs into her room.

Weird . . .

“Hey there, Blink,” Rarity said, startling me. “I thought that since you are new in Ponyville, I might show you around; you could even visit my boutique, even if I am a dress maker, I always wanted to try getting into stallion clothing and you could be of great help for me!” She was smiling the whole time, with a somewhat awkward spark in her eyes.

Not sure if generous or-

“I’m back!” Twilight’s voice interrupted my thoughts, as I turned to see what she had to show me. “Please accept this as a welcoming gift; I don’t want my first student to have any reasons not to keep up with his training.”

She levitated a small black box in front of me.

“Wow, Twilight, you shouldn’t have . . . thank you. Uhh, what is it?” I asked, studying the peculiar box in front of me. It was actually made out of a strange, dark wood, and had a round lock the shape of a half-sphere on the front side.

“Silly colt, open it and you’ll see. Ohh, you’ll need to use magic to unlock it. It’s meant to be opened by unicorns, and only the first one that does it will be able to open it from then on. Just focus a little bit of magic on the lock, that should do it.”

I felt hesitant about that box but curiosity got me in the end and I closed my eyes, following the steps needed to focus energy into my horn. It was certainly easier now than it was the first time, and almost instantly I felt my horn charging with magic. I focused on the lock and it started glowing a faint blue. Suddenly, it snapped opened and the small strongbox opened. Inside it there were two books, several brown quills, two ink pots and a stack of pieces of paper the size of very small pages.

“Thank you, Twilight; I actually needed something like this!”

Indeed, it was going to be much easier for me to learn spells by writing down details and notes and it would also help me in my further attempts of translating Bellona’s writings.

“It’s basically a kit for unicorns that study magic. It has a notebook and the other one is a symbolism dictionary, you will need it when learning new spells. Quills and ink to note down your findings, and the stack of paper patches is hmm . . . it’s for more advanced stuff, we’ll talk about it later.”

“I really appreciate it, must have cost a fortune! Is there any way at all I can repay you for everything you’ve done?”

“Don’t trouble yourself about it, we’re just glad that you are all right and that we got a new friend. Now stop worrying and let’s enjoy the party.” She smiled at me and I returned the gesture, feeling much better.

We enjoyed the rest of the party, where I tried my best to socialize with the guests. One thing I noticed was that I felt much more comfortable between ponies than I would between people. Here, ponies wouldn’t judge me or care about my past and they were all quite welcoming to strangers like myself. It made me feel bad because I had to hide my true identity, and I realized that someday I would have to tell them about my past. Until that day however, I still had to find out my real purpose in Equestria. If there was one.

After a few more hours, the party was finally over and everyone went to their homes. Spike had fallen asleep on the couch, between several balloons and confetti. Twilight removed the mess from around him with her magic and then levitated a small blanket over his body, partially covering him. She softly kissed the young dragon on his forehead and then we went upstairs, wished each other a good night and entered our own rooms. I quickly fell into a deep sleep, tired from the eventful day.

*** *** ***

The next day started off as what could be described as normal. Spike woke me up and then we had breakfast: a rather simple meal, fried eggs and some cabbage leaves. As we sat down and ate, I noticed my portion was a double one, and Twilight’s conversation with Spike from the previous day regarding the money shortage came into mind. They were giving up on the small luxuries they had just to feed me . . .

“Blink, are you all right? You seem a little bit distant this morning,” Twilight asked, curious about my quietness.

“I’m fine, I was just thinking about what I can do today . . . decided I should visit Kazooie and, you know, thank him about what he has done for me.”

“That’s very nice of you, I know he’ll be happy to see you’re recovered and healthy. Also, there’s one thing I want you to help me with; consider it a replacement for your physical exercise.”

“Sure, anything, it’s the least I can do to repay you.”

“Well, I talked to Fluttershy at the party last night and she asked me if she could ‘borrow’ Spike to help her with one of her chores. Spike’s been so kind and had been helping everypony around, now since he’s almost as strong as a normal pony . . .”

“Almost?” The dragon asked, puffing black smoke from his nostrils towards Twilight.

“We’ll you’re still young, Spike, and don’t tell me that you could do Applejack’s work for example,” she responded, coughing from the smoke. “And I told you not to do that inside the library, one day this whole place will burn down. I thought you understood our little talk about fire safety in the library after you got your flame.”

“His . . . flame?” I asked automatically.

“Uhm, yea. Well, to be fair, he has been able to blow out magical green flames that could transport letters to the Princess. Celestia herself trained him while we were still in Canterlot, years ago. But for the rest of dragons, their ability to breathe fire comes at around Spike’s current age. He got his own flame several months ago, and now he is able to breathe both the magical flame and the normal one other dragons have.”

As to demonstrate Twilight’s explanation, Spike took a deep breath, bubbling sounds being heard from the bottom of his throat. He then spat out a short but concentrated column of bright flames for a few seconds, right above the table.

“Spike!”

“Relax, Twilight; I can control it much better now,” the dragon said, quickly putting out a small flame from his nostril. “I still have to work on the secondary air evacuation but I’m pretty much on top of it,” he stated, proud of himself.

“Secondary what?” I asked, confusion mounting up.

“I’ve been practicing with my new flame ever since I got it and Twilight gave me a book that had the whole process explained. It’s much more complicated than it looks,” he grinned.

“And I said you could train for how long you want, but not in the library! You also need to be at least five meters away from the tree house, and I’ll raise that to seven meters from now on.”

“You’re no fun,” Spike puffed at her.

“Anyway Blink, as I was saying before being engulfed in smoke,” her eyes darted at the dragon, who was smirking happily, “I wanted to ask you if you could go by Fluttershy’s house today and help her with whatever thing she needs done. I’m sure you are fit enough now to do whatever Spike would have had to do to help her.”

“Sure, I would be happy to! Could I do it after I come back from Kazooie?”

“I don’t see why not, you can see Kazooie’s farm from our backyard, near that small forest. When you come back, just go along the forest’s edge until you find a small lake. Beyond the lake there’s another forest, the Everfree forest, and just outside of it you will find Fluttershy’s cottage. You think you can do it?”

“Yep, sounds easy enough.”

“But you also have to know this: the Everfree forest is a very treacherous place, so don’t go in it, all right? It has a lot of dangerous creatures and plants and we never go there unless we are in a group,” Twilight said, serious.

“Got it! Now if you excuse me, I’ll be off to see Kazooie. See you guys later!”

“Okay then, take care, Blink!”

*** *** ***

I went out in the backyard and slowly headed towards the distant farm, gladly enjoying the fresh air once again. The sun was shining brightly, without a trace of clouds in the sky. All the trees and plants were blooming and full of life. It had to be the beginning of summer, since it wasn’t that hot outside, despite being the middle of the day.

I quickly reached the farmer’s house, recognizing it by the barn where I was brought to during that first night. I knocked with my hoof at the door and stood there quietly, waiting for a response. After a few moments, the door opened, revealing a yellow mare with blue mane and red eyes.

“Hey there, what can I help you with?”

“Uhm . . . hello, I’m-”

“Dear Celestia! You’re the stallion my husband found that night! I’m so happy to see you’re all right! Please, come in! I’m going to get Kazooie, make yourself at home.”

She went upstairs while I waited nervously in the main room. After a while, the mare and Kazooie came down.

“Hey there, stud, glad ya could visit us!” Kazooie almost shouted. “Please, take a seat.”

We all sat down at the round table in the middle of the room and the earth pony continued. ”Annabelle here and our young filly, Bonnie, were beginning to worry about you. So, how’s life in Ponyville so far? Had any luck with your memories?”

“Well, it’s been great staying here, everyone is so nice and welcoming. As far as remembering stuff, still nothing I’m afraid.”

“I’m sorry to hear about that. I’ve heard from Twilight that you’ve started doing magic again, haven’t you? Isn’t that a good thing for unicorns?”

“It sure is, Twilight even says it could be my special talent somehow. I still haven’t figured what my cutie mark represents so I’m pretty much clueless as to what I am really good at, even though I narrowed it down to ‘magic stuff’.”

“I see,” Kazooie stated, somewhat serious. A grin suddenly crept on his face. “So, how are things going with Miss Twilight?”

Annabelle shot him one of those ‘are you serious?’ looks, but he didn’t notice or refused to acknowledge it.

“Well, pretty well I might say, I’m making good progress,” I responded unknowingly, thinking he had referred to the magic training somehow.

“Good then, it’s about time that mare got herself a fine gentlecolt, I swear, every night before going to bed I can see the lights still up in that library. She studies day and night that magic stuff of hers, that’s way too much learning for a normal pony. Hopefully from now on, that light in her room will be out more during the nights, if ya know what I mean.” The stallion let out a laugh, while Annabelle’s jaw dropped.

“Whoa there!” I cried out, “I meant I’m making progress with my magic training, we’re not . . . we’re just friends, Kazooie!” I was blushing mad, ashamed of the conversational trap I had fallen into.

“Darn it Kazooie, why must you embarrass this poor stallion like that?” the mare complained with a harsh tone.

“Aww shucks, calm your saddle, dear, I was just messing with the guy . . .”

He gave me a wink and continued laughing, amused by my shame.

The steps of a young pony were heard coming down the stairs. The young filly had been drawn by the laughs and the strange new voice in the house, so she was cautiously coming down from her room.

“There she is,” Kazooie said, still shaking off some laughs, “come here, darling, we have somepony here you wanted to see.”

The young pony came closer and her face lighted up when she recognized me.

“Hey! You’re the colt daddy saved! My name’s Bonnie, I heard yours is Blink, how are you?”

“Hey Bonnie!” I said, smiling at the young filly. “I’m quite fine now, thanks for asking.” It was nice to see that certain filly again, she was the first pony I’ve seen in my life during that first night and she seemed so kind and sweet.

We kept talking about how it’s been for me in the past few days and with Bonnie now there as well, the conversation was sure to not drift away like it did before she came, much to my content.

“Kazooie, before I leave, may I talk to you about one thing?”

“Sure, anything!”

“It’s kind of weird for me to ask you about this, but it’s all right if you can’t help me. I was wondering, since I don’t want to abuse Twilight’s hospitality, would you need uhm . . . some help at the farm? I could work for you and build myself a tree house in the forest near the farm or something. I just need a job until I find out about myself.”

After a moment of thinking, Kazooie smiled at me.

“Blink, you’re in luck! My crops are near their first harvest period and this year I went a little bit too far and planted more than I could harvest on my own, even with muh’ family’s help. So I would be happy to hire you on my farm. But that means working. I know ya’re a unicorn, and I’ll make it easier for you at first, but you will have to get to a good pace if we’re to harvest the entire crop before it dies out.”

“I’ll take it! Thanks, Kazooie, I really appreciate your help.”

“Don’t worry, you seem to be a nice stallion and if Twilight trusts you living with her, I can as well. And I insist you stay in the small house we own near the lake. It’s not much, just two small rooms, but I think it beats making your own tree house.”

“Wow, that’s- that would be awesome!”

“Now, the lettin’ down part. We’re a family of farmers, making our living from the harvest we grow each year. We also have a garden for vegetables and some hens and pigs so unfortunately, I can’t pay you a lot of bits, but I’m sure we can arrange you eating with us at least two meals a day. So, how does that sound for ya?”

“More than fair, Kazooie, I’m pretty much ok as long as I have a place to sleep and a plate of food every day, and I would definitely appreciate anything extra that comes on top of that.”

“Well then, we have a deal: we’ll give ya a place to stay, food and a small amount of bits every week, depending on how much work you’ve done, and you’ll help us with our crop!”

He extended a hoof and I grabbed it, shaking it.

“So, you can start from let’s say, the day after tomorrow if you want; unless you wanna’ spend more nights at Miss Twilight’s,” Kazooie said, winking at me again.

“That sounds good to me,” I said with a nervous laugh. “The part where I start working, that is . . .”

“I’ll have to go and prepare the house then, I can expect you moving in tomorrow?”

“Actually, I would like to do it tonight, if that’s all right with you.”

As much as I enjoyed my stay at the library, the independent inside me was screaming for liberty. Having my own place to stay deeply reassured me, and I felt a little more secure about my future in Equestria, even if for a short term period.

I headed outside with Kazooie and we both walked towards the lake. We talked some more about how my first few days working at his farm would be, and it seemed that the adaptation period was indeed short. We reached a small lake, about five minutes of walking from his house.

I quickly noticed the small lake was actually a huge buildup from a stream. Fresh water was flowing from the Everfree forest into the lake, and on its other side, the excess overflown into Ponyville’s river, several hundred of meters away.

I followed Kazooie, who wanted to show me the place I was going to live in: a small, cozy house, right near the normal forest. It was made out of wood, with a solid rock base. The roof was made out of a thick layer of hay and there was a chimney to its side. We went in and at first I was surprised by how spacious the main room was. It had a small table, a couple of chairs, and to the side of the room there was an open kitchen. There were only two other doors, one linking to a bathroom and the other leading to a small room, with a double bed.

“Sweet,” I said, noticing the bed which was larger than the one I was sleeping in the past few days.

“Ah’ know . . . it sure looks big enough for two ponies and it’s all yours while you work at the farm,” Kazooie said, shooting me a suggestive smirk.

“Just . . . friends,” I grunted in annoyance.

“Sure, stud. Anyway I’m gonna’ fix up this place a little bit, and you can come back later this evening; or tomorrow, whenever you want.”

“Okay. Also, one last question: I saw the bathroom, but it had no bath. So wh-”

“Ahh, that! Almost forgot. Come along with me.”

I followed him outside, naively thinking there was some sort of separate structure or something like that with a larger bathroom in it.

“There’s your bathtub!” Kazooie said, pointing a hoof at a nearby huge willow tree, right beside the lake, where the stream was flowing into the creek.

“But, I can’t see any- don’t tell me . . .”

“Yep, the lake’s your tub, and the willow provides the curtains. Fresh water comes in, what more could you want from nature? I hope that’s okay with you.”

“I guess it is. Heck, why not? I could get used to this. Thanks Kazooie; for all your help,” I said honestly.

“It’s no big deal. Remember, you start work in two days, at noon!”

“I’ll be there, don’t you worry. See you later!”

I went out towards the Everfree forest, giving a last look over the shoulder to my new house.

After just a few minutes I saw a hut right at the outskirts of the unnatural forest, and I recognized Fluttershy straight away. She was spreading some food in front of her for several small rodent-like animals.

“Hey there!” I said to the pegasus, startling her.

She jumped into the nearest bush. I facehoofed right as it started shaking, stray leaves falling to the ground from it. Even the animals looked at the entire situation with various degrees of confusion, and then resumed eating.

“It’s me, Blink. Sorry for scaring you . . . again.”

The yellow mare got out of the bush, putting up a rather embarrassed smile.

“It’s all right. I didn’t know you would come, I was expecting Spike. What brings you here?”

“Well, Twilight asked me if I could help you by doing whatever Spike was supposed to do for you.”

“Oh, I see,” the pegasus responded, almost in a whisper. “I just needed some animal feed bags brought from my shed. They are too heavy for me to carry,” she explained with an innocent smile that somehow made my legs tremor from, for lack of a better word, cuteness.

“Sure! No problem,” I quickly said, trying to regain my composure in front of the mare. “So, bags; Where do you want them?”

“Right there, near my house,” she said, pointing at a small, covered workspace near her hut.

“All right, I’ll get to it!”

The shed was quite close to her house so my work was fairly easy. I used my back to carry the bags, dragging them onto me with my mouth. The thought of using magic passed through my mind, but it would have probably worked for only one or two trips before I would have exhausted myself.

After about an hour, I finished carrying enough bags to feed the animals for the next month. I then lay on the ground, in Fluttershy's garden, relaxing and watching all the animals around. The yellow pegasus had brought me a glass of fresh water, and to my surprise, joined me in watching the animals wonder around.

"Would you happen to like animals, Blink?" she asked with a tentative smile.

"I enjoy their company, I think. Twilight's owl is quite a nice creature although he can get a little creepy some times."

"That's uhmm, nice. I like animals myself; I don't know if Twilight told you but I'm kind of the local caretaker for animals. I've raised and took care of them ever since I found out about their existence, when I was a little filly."

"Somehow, I figured out you were an animal lover. The multitude of creatures around your cottage gave that away to be fair," I said, smiling at her.

And right then, as I was watching some small critters running around in the grass, a question arose.

Why not get a pet of my own?

Even if I used to live alone back home, a companion in that small house near the lake would have definitely been good for me. Thriving for independence didn’t have to imply living in loneliness, and I actually enjoyed the presence of animals as a child.

“Hey Fluttershy . . .”

“Uhm, yea?”

“I was thinking about getting, you know . . . a pet.”

“REALLY?” The yellow pegasus jumped out in excitement, startling me this time. “Ohh, I’m sorry!”

“It’s ok. So, what do you think I should get?”

“Well, I don’t know . . . hmm, come with me.”

Fluttershy walked to the back of her garden where she had the chickens shed and other shelters for different animals.

“You could get a cute little bunny.”

“Yeah, not sure about that,” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“But they are so nice and soft!”

She picked one from the ground and brought it up to me. Strangely, the small critter started shifting and kicking its legs, eventually escaping Fluttershy’s hooves and running away.

“That’s strange,” she said, worried. “Don’t worry, I can find you another pet.”

The pegasus then called an eagle, and it swiftly came to her, landing on her extended foreleg. “How about this one?”

As she turned the animal towards me, it suddenly panicked and flew away towards the sky.

“I’m so sorry about this, the animals must be scared of you because they had never seen you here before.”

“I don’t know what to say . . . you’re probably right, Fluttershy.”

Another lie; inside, I was beginning to fear the worst. What if the animals could feel that darkness inside me? What if they felt that I’m not from this world? My fears were slowly confirmed, as Fluttershy desperately tried to find an animal that wouldn’t run away from me as soon as I came close to them.

A sudden caw drew my attention. Far up in the sky, a black bird was circling around us. Fluttershy had also heard the noise and looked in the air, immediately recognizing the bird.

“That’s the one that I started seeing a few days ago!” she exclaimed, “I still couldn’t figure what kind of bird it is.”

The feathered creature started descending, getting closer and closer to us. Fluttershy got up into the air and slowly headed towards it. As she would do with all birds, she raised her foreleg, waiting for it to come and sit on it.

The bird however had other plans, and continued her descent, passing the pegasus without giving her any attention. It landed on a small fence, right in front of me. Fluttershy came back down and just stood there, watching the bird.

“I guess it likes you,” she said in a murmur, not able to believe that there was a creature in Equestria that would not befriend her first from all other ponies.

“What kind of bird exactly are you?” she asked the animal, as if it could speak back. The bird cawed again, looking at me and tilting her head.

“I’ve never seen something like her in my life,” Fluttershy admitted, turning towards me.
I looked at the bird but couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary with it; I had seen plenty if birds like it in my life. Maybe they didn’t live in Equestria. But that meant . . .

“Fluttershy, when did you say you’ve seen it for the first time?”

“Uhm, that would be around three or four days ago.”

“That’s when I arrived here…” I thought. And then I realized that was no accident. For some unknown reasons at that time, it was sent after me into that world. The bird was meant to be my pet and I had to admit, the choice was highly . . . symbolic.

“Can I keep it?” I asked flatly, my mind already decided.

The pegasus stared at the both of us for a moment and then nodded in agreement. “I don’t see why now. How are you going to call her?”

“Hmm, how about Raven?”

As soon as I said that name, the bird (an actual raven) flapped her wings and cawed again, louder that time. She flew from the fence straight to my back and cleaned her beak against my coat a couple of times.

“That’s a quite a strange name for a pet . . .” Fluttershy said, a little reluctant to approach the bird.

“I thought it might be,” I admitted, smiling. “Anyway, thanks a lot for helping me find a pet.”

“Uhh, no problem,” the pegasus responded rather disappointed.

“Hey, don’t worry! I can bring her anytime you want if you wish to study her or anything like that.”

“That would be lovely,” Fluttershy’s face suddenly brightened.

We eventually said our goodbyes and I headed back to the library, with a new friend by my side. Actually, on my back.

“So, Raven, guess you can’t tell me why you’re here, can you?” I asked the bird, as we crossed a bridge, the tree house now in sight.

Her response was just another loud caw. After a while she started climbing further on my back, and then onto my head. She stopped right at the tip of my horn, holding herself in place with her claws. The bird could now see above my vantage point, studying all the houses and the occasional passing pony, cawing at them and drawing strange looks. From time to time, she would clean her beak by rubbing it against my horn.

“Oww, stop it!” I said, laughing, “That tickles as hell.”

We reached the library and went inside, finding Twilight rearranging some books in the main room.

“Hey there, Blink! Already back from- uhm, what is that black bird on your head?” Twilight looked at me, her eyes widening at the sight of the creature.

“This right here is Raven, and she’s my new pet,” I stated rather proudly.

“Well that’s a rather strange name for a pet.”

“I know, Fluttershy told me the same thing. For me it just felt . . . well let’s just say it felt natural.”

“Oh, so this has to be the one that she couldn’t recognize. How did you get stuck with it as your pet?”

“I don’t know, she just came to me.”

“How strange. What else have you been up to?” Twilight asked, still giving the bird second looks.

“Well, I guess I’m moving out today.”

“What? But where?” She asked, looking somewhat disappointed.

“Twilight, I am extremely grateful for all that you have done for me. I owe you my life, in fact. But I can’t stay here forever, that wouldn’t be right. I talked to Kazooie and he offered me a deal: I work at his farm and get food and shelter, plus some bits. I’m going to live by the lake between the two forests, in my own house and work on his farm until I figure out what this means,” I said, pointing my head towards my cutie mark. “Don’t worry, Raven’s gonna keep me company, and I’m still coming by on our magic training sessions, right?”

Twilight seemed glad for me, and that was indeed the right thing I should have done. It was hard though to ignore the fact that my departure seemed to make her feel a little sad.

“All right. I’m glad that you found a place to stay, but I insist on having one last dinner with us.”

“That would be great,” I responded, trying to hold a laugh.

“What is it?”

“Raven . . . pffhahaha, she tickles my horn. Off you go, pesky thing,” I said, waving my hoof above my head. Raven instead jumped to my ear, pinching it. I yelped from the pain and shook her off. She flew to the nearest chair and then just stared at me, cawing from time to time.

“That sure is a strange one,” Twilight said, taking a liking to the bird’s behavior.

“Funny until she bites your ear off, that is,” I added, rubbing my ear.

I got to my room and started packing. Quite an easy job, considering everything I had was a saddlebag, a magic ‘student kit’ and a nice diamond Spike gave me when I met him. I put the diamond in one of the saddlebag’s pockets and squeezed the box in the other one. I also packed the rest of the books I had to read, including Star Swirl the Bearded’s copy of ‘Mastering the inner magic'.

I then headed back downstairs and joined Twilight and Spike for dinner. We talked about how the day went by for each of us and laughed at how Owloysius and Raven ‘cawed’ and ‘who-ed’ at each other.

“Blink, I almost forgot, I’ve got a letter from Princess Celestia, she told me it would be great if we could come and visit her tomorrow, with that occasion I could show you around Canterlot and give you a tour of the castle.”

“Oww, not the tour…” Spike pleaded, faking a faint, “He’s going to die of boredom. I’m going to die of boredom!”

“Don’t worry, Spike, I would definitely enjoy seeing the castle. Plus, it’s my last free day before starting work on the farm.”

“Perfect then, we’ll leave tomorrow at ten in the morning.”

“In that case, I’ll probably be heading out to my new place, I’m really exhausted from today.”

“See you tomorrow dude!” Spike said, somewhat saddened by my departure.

We wished each other good nights and then left, heading towards the lake. The sun was barely visible on the skyline, as the night’s darkness slowly crept in. Raven was on my shoulder, watching the sun’s last waves of light. We arrived at the house and I went straight into the bedroom, dropping my saddlebag somewhere on the floor.

Finally, a large bed I could be comfortable in. I noticed it had fresh sheets on and I made a note to myself to thank Kazooie again for his generosity. Inside the room was a proper desk, with drawers and everything, and also a small, empty shelf. For a fleeting moment I wondered what purpose that building served for Kazooie’s family in the past.

Raven flew into the room after me and landed right on the desk.

“Suit yourself, but the bed is mine,” I said to her.

I climbed into the soft bed and for a while I just stared across the new room. It felt good to have a place of my own, even if just temporary. I looked at Raven, who was already dozing off on the desk. I chuckled, remembering something I never found out, and probably never will, given the circumstances.

“So Raven, why are you like a writing desk?”

Raven looked at me and cawed gently, after which she put her head under a wing, quickly falling asleep.

“That’s what I thought . . .” I said to myself, and closed my eyes, falling into my own, deep sleep.

End of chapter 6