//------------------------------// // A Night of Questions // Story: Three Kings // by MorseCode //------------------------------// Twilight guided Gary through the streets of Ponyville, as he looked on in amazement at the homes and shops that were in the city. It reminded Gary of medieval architecture and even some of the older cities in Europe. Twilight and Gary walked along in silence as Gary continued to smoke his cigarette. "What is that anyway?" Twilight asked pointing at Gary's lit Newport. "And why does it smell so bad?" Gary raised an eyebrow to the lavender unicorn. "You don't have cigarettes in Equestria?" Gary asked. Twilight shook her head in response. "I assume it's like a pipe, but it seems different," "Well, it's like a pipe, but with more chemicals mixed and rolled up. You light it, and breath in the smoke through this filter." Gary said as he traced his finger across the cigarette. "Is that healthy?" Twilight asked with a slightly disgusted look on her face. Gary shook his head. "Not at all." "Then why do it?" Twilight asked slightly bothered by the human's self-destructive habit. "I honestly don't know," Gary said with a sigh. "Its an addiction and I've been trying to quit. I only smoke between two a day or one every two days." He followed up upon seeing Twilight's expression change to anger, unsatisfied with his original response, and the two of them fell silent for the next several minutes. Gary began to rub the back of his neck as he put out the cigarette and began to feel an overwhelming sense of awkwardness. He couldn't tell if it was from Twilight's silence or the glances from the citizens of Ponyville. Every pony they passed looked on for several seconds with emotions varying from fear or astonishment to curiosity or confusion. One mint green unicorn even squealed and ran up to Gary and grasped his hand between her hooves before gasping and quickly running off. Eventually, without any other incidents, Twilight and Gary reached the library. Gary was amazed to see that the library was actually a hollowed out tree. He stepped inside behind Twilight, and he set down his duffel bag by the door. Gary took a seat on the coach that was in the middle of the center room. He looked around the room from the couch. His ice blue eyes darted across the shelves, impressed by the sheer number of books. He also noticed that there were several desks with various writing materials. He jumped slightly upon seeing an owl staring at him from atop one of the desk. Gary gave the owl a small wave to which it responded with a hoot and lost interest in the human. Twilight then came back into the room followed by Spike. "Twilight, you didn't mention owning a giant lizard," Gary said excitedly. "Hey! I'm a dragon, and she doesn't own me I'm her number one assistant." Spike said puffing out his chest with pride. "My names Spike by the way." He continued as he extended a claw to the human. "Apologies, Spike. My name is Gary King." Gary said with a smile as he shook the young dragon's hand. "But please, call me Gary." Spike nodded and left the room leaving Gary alone with Twilight who had taken a seat on a small pillow across from the couch. "I wanted to ask you some more questions," Twilight said as she looked over at Gary. "Did you not get enough information at the hospital?" Gary responded as he raised an eyebrow. "Well in the hospital you only answered questions about your home and humans," Twilight said. "I wanted to ask questions about you." "Oh. Well, I don't see why not." Gary said shocked Twilight was actually interested in learning about him. "As long as I'm allowed to ask questions in return." Twilight nodded and left the room and quickly returned with two small cups filled with tea. "What was that small paper you got back in the hospital?" Twilight asked as she took a sip of tea. "You mean this?" Gary asked as he pulled the playing card out of his coat pocket. Twilight nodded so he continued. "It's a playing card. Do you not have card games in Equestria?" Twilight shook her head and placed down her teacup. "We have dice games, but we don't have cards," Twilight replied. "Well, you use a deck of fifty-two cards which are dived into four houses: hearts, clubs, spades and diamonds and numbers two to ten along with four aces, jacks, kings and queens," Gary said with a smile. "This card is a king of hearts." "Interesting, but why do you have it?" Twilight asked raising an eyebrow. "A few years ago, I had turned old enough to gamble and my father took me on a trip to Las Vegas, a place famous for among other things gambling." "Like Las Pegasus," Twilight said with a smile. Gary chuckled at the similar names and the pun in the Equestrian version. "Yea, I suppose so," Gary said drinking his tea. "When we were there I ended up winning a large amount of money at one establishment and the card that won me the final hand was this." He said rotating the card in his hand. "I managed to convince the dealer to let me keep it." Gary finished his story with a smile. "Okay, what about the other thing?" Twilight said finishing her tea. "This?" Gary said pulling out his zippo. "It's a lighter. You use it to make fire." Gary said as he opened it and the flame glowed softly. "I guess its one of the things human made to make up for a lack of magic. It was a gift from my best friend from a while back." Gary returned the lighter to his pocket along with the card with a sigh. "Now anything else?" "Just a few more things." Twilight said, "What job did you have on Earth?" "I'm a writer and journalist. I currently have one book published and I've written a number of news articles." Gary said as he stepped over to his bag and pulled out a book. "Here. This is my book." Twilight smiled as she looked over the cover the words 'Dead Man Walking' was in large black letters on the front. On the back, the description 'What becomes of the man when survival is all he has for hope?' Gary took a quill from a nearby desk and opened the book and scribbled his signature on the inside cover. "Go ahead and keep it. Now you have a book written and signed by Equestria's first human." Gary said with a smirk. Twilight rolled her eyes and chuckled as she levitated the book to a nearby shelf. "One last thing. How old are you?" Twilight asked. "Twenty three," Gary replied. In the hospital, they had learned that human's and ponies have similar life spans, and Gary assumed that Twilight and her friends were in their early twenties as well. He wouldn't be rude enough to ask directly, however. "Now as for my questions. Firstly, Rarity has a horn making her a unicorn. Fluttershy and Rainbow have wings making them pegusi," Twilight nodded as Gary continued. "You, however, have both. What does that make you?" "An alicorn. Technically I'm a princess." Twilight replied biting her lip. "I was a unicorn, but Princess Celestia turned me into an alicorn for how well I did as her student and apprentice. Nothing has really changed though. I have no royal duties and my life's the same as it has been." Gary's eyes went wide and he tensed up. He couldn't believe that he had been speaking with royalty this whole time and didn't even know. He also couldn't believe the power Celestia must have to completely change someone's race. He stood there silent with shock for several seconds before he regained his composure. "Well now. My other question," Gary paused finding the proper wording "What are the pictures that everyone has on their sides?" "This?" Twilight asked pointing to her cutie mark, Gary nodded. "It's called a cutie mark. It appears when a pony finds his or her special talent. Do humans not have anything like that?" Gary shook his head as Twilight yawned. "Well, it's getting late we should probably go to sleep now. Let me show you the guest room." With that Twilight led Gary to the guest room where he fell asleep wondering what it would be like to meet an immortal, princess, goddess pony. --------------------------------- Mike followed Pinkie as she bounced happily down the road. He was both impressed and confused by the amount of energy she had. He was also slightly annoyed that she had not stopped speaking since they left the hospital, but he didn't mind too much. She only stopped when a mint green unicorn saw Mike and shouted 'There's two?' and fainted. Pinkie had been hitting Mike with a bombardment of questions and also giving him stories on whatever she was thinking of. She stopped talking as they entered a large building that looked like a gingerbread house. Mike was immediately hit with the aroma of various baked goods and then noticed how hungry he was. He took a seat at a table on the side of the room and Pinkie immediately took a seat across from him. "Hiya." She said happily she said enthusiastically. He responded with a wave. "Why do you have those?" Pinkie question as she pointed to the fish hooks on Mike's visor. "Just because," Mike answered with a shrug. "I got this one from my mom though." He said pointing at the pink hook. "So I guess I wear it for her," Mike said with a sigh as he looked away from the pink mare. Upon seeing the human become sad Pinkie left in the other room to find something that would help. Mike continued to look down as a small tan colt with a brown mane approached his feet. "Hey there little guy," Mike said as the colt punched his shin. Mike winced for a second then looked back at the young colt who was laughing heartily. "Hey now, you shouldn't hit people," Mike said waving his finger and the baby who stopped laughing and began to look very sad until Mike patted him on the head. "It's okay just don't do it again ya' hear." The colt began laughing again and crawled off. "Aww, that was so cute!" Pinkie exclaimed as Mike turned back to see her right beside him holding a cupcake. "Here. This is for you. I made it extra special for you because you're a human and that means you're extra special so you get an extra special treat." Mike smiled and quickly devoured the pastry. He also noticed that it was one of the greatest things he had ever eaten. Upon telling Pinkie this she screamed loudly and began bouncing around on her tail happily. "Pinkie what's all the racket for?" A thin yellow stallion said as he stepped out from the kitchen "Oh is this the creature you told us about?" He asked as Pinkie nodded happily. "Well nice to meet you. I'm Mr.Cake." He said as he extended his hoof towards Mike. "Mike. Same." Mike said bumping his hoof. "Honeybunch, come out here and met our guest." Mr. Cake called back to the kitchen. Soon a slightly pudgy blue mare with a pink mane stepped out. "Nice to meet you, dear. My name is Mrs. Cake." Mrs. Cake said smiling at the human in front of her. "Same to you. My name is Mike." Mike replied with a smile of his own. "Well, the shop's closing soon so why don't we have Pinkie show you the guest room." Mr. Cake said as Pinkie began to bounce up the stairs motioning for Michael to follow. He obliged and she showed him the room he would stay in. Pinkie sat on the bed and patted a spot next to her as Mike sat down. "Pinkie whats the picture of balloons mean?" Mike asked as Pinkie began to giggle. "That's my cutie mark silly. It means I'm great at throwing parties and making ponies happy." Pinkie replied. "What's yours?" "Humans don't have cutie marks," Mike replied flatly which caused Pinkie to gasp and jump up from the bed. "Then how do you know what your special talent is?" Pinkie said "We just do I guess," Mike said with a shrug. "Huh. Some humans must be confused. What if they never find their talent?" Pinkie said with a frown. "I don't know. Maybe travel everywhere and not talk to their old friends or family." Mike said with a shrug, placing a bit of sadness and venom in the second part, as Pinkie began lightly sobbing. "Hey, it's alright most humans find a thing they like to do and make money doing them, like me," Mike said with a smile. Which caused Pinkie to perk back up. "Well, that's nice. We should go to sleep now though." Pinkie said as she began to exit the room. "Good night." "Good night, Pinkie," Mike said as he laid down and began to sleep. -------------------------------------- Danny's walk with Applejack to the Apple family orchard was rather uneventful. It was long but quite boring. The two of them had to walk a considerable distance out of Ponyville until they reached the apple orchard. Danny remained fairly quiet throughout the walk, only speaking when Applejack would ask him a question. Most of her questions involved human farming technology which Danny was completely clueless about. His answers were not very helpful and he began to think it may have been better to go with Pinkie and let Mike go with the orange farm pony. Danny noticed the sun had begun to set and he checked his watch which fortunately was still working. "Where'd ya get that watch?" Applejack asked looking over to Danny. "It seems too fancy fer your taste." "It is," Danny said with a small laugh. "It was a gift from my dad. Gary recommended the design, though." Danny then placed the watch back in his pocket as it gave out a soft glow in the sunset. They walked up to the home of the Apple family and Applejack stepped inside as Danny followed quickly behind her. From the middle of the room, a large red stallion approached Danny. "My sister has said a lot about you and your brothers." He spoke in a deep voice. "Nice to meet ya. Name's Macintosh, but you can call me Big Mac." "My name's Danny. Nice to meet you." Danny said as Big Mac nodded and gave a quick 'eeyup' before leaving. "Well let me show you where you'll be staying." Applejack said as she walked up the stairs motioning for Danny to follow. As they reached the top of the stairs an elderly mare approached Danny. "Hey there sonny. Nice to met you. I'm Granny Smith." Granny said smiling at the human. "Boy how you are a tall one ain'tcha?" "Nice to meet you, ma'am. I'm Danny." Danny said with a chuckle as she smiled and entered a room to the side which he assumed was her bedroom. Applejack opened a door on the opposite side of the hall. "You'll sleep in here for the night. The bathroom is across the hall, my rooms next door if you need anything, but we have an early start tomorrow so goodnight." Danny replied with a soft 'night' and laid down on the bed and began to think. He let his mind wander as he laid on the bed in the quiet until he heard the door creak open. "Yes?" Danny asked as a small yellow filly came in from behind the door. She had a large pink bow in her mane and looked to be pretty young. "Can I help you?" "Who are you?" the young filly said attempting to appear intimidating. "I'm Danny. Who might you be?" Danny asked the small yellow filly. "I'm Applebloom," she said proudly. "Are you the huma-thingy my sister was talkin' about?" Danny nodded and the filly gasped with amazement as she began to look him over. She suddenly stopped and had a confused expression. "Where's your cutie mark?" "Cutie what?" Danny asked confused. "The thing that tells you what your special talent is," Applebloom said. "Everypony has one." "Well, humans don't," Danny told her. "We just have to figure it out on our own." "You don't have a cutie mark?" Applebloom asked him to which he simply shook his head. Applebloom gasped. "You should join the Cutie Mark Crusaders." She said excitedly. "I'd like, but I won't be here long." Applebloom frowned. "We can still be friends, but now it's late so I'm going to sleep and you should as well." Applebloom perked back up and left the room happily. Danny sighed and began to drift off to sleep.