//------------------------------// // Onto Act Four // Story: Hello Equestria // by Mr Lullaby //------------------------------// The study was dimly lit, and the sound of paper and pencil echoed off the walls of the room. He wasn’t used to this. Not at all. But what choice did he have? He was forced into taking up a responsibly far greater than he could even imagine. More so then his past life. The fate of the so many on his shoulders, including his own. And he'll be dammed if he was going to live the rest of his life back down there. He scowled at his latest embarrassment of a plan and rightfully tossed it in the trash where it belonged. Space propellers! What the hell was he thinking?! Propellers don’t work in space! He let out a sigh and rubbed his temples. “What am I going to do?” He sat there consumed in thought. How would he do it? Is it even possible? What if he fails and gets them all killed? So many questions, but not one clear answer. A knock at the door broke him away from his worried mind. Clearing his throat he mimicked the voice of his ex-archnemesis, “Um, yes, who is it?” “It’s Goal, can I come in?” a sweet, calm voice spoke from behind the door. “Goal? Oh, heheh, yes come in!” He picked the pencil back up off the desk and pretended to draw something intelligent. The sound of the air-power door whispered behind him, and he heard the footsteps of his fiancée approaching him. “How are the plans going?” She asked. That was not the topic he wanted to talk about right now, but never the less, he’d decided to follow through, “Not good I’m afraid…” He glanced at his scribbling’s of various plans, all of which in his book were utter failures, “I just can’t seem to find a solution! Every time I think I have one, I put it down on paper only to find that it would never work!” He hunched of over his plans. Hands over his head and elbows on the table. “What am I to do Goal?” Tears began to welled up around his eyes, “This whole situation just seems hopeless.” Goal put her arms around him and spoke softly, “I know it does dear. But it only seems that way, because you choose to look at it like that. Nothing is entirely hopeless.” The man looked back at his fiancée, “But Goal! I’ve exhausted every possibility! I don’t see how-” “Don’t talk like that! You’ve done the impossible. You’ve proved all those who doubted you wrong. You are Rufus, the one who saved Deponia and made it to Elysium. I know you can do it honey; you just gotta stick with it, and use that imagination of yours. I believe in you!” “But-” “I don't want to hear another word. Now if you need me, I’ll be in the engineering helping doc out with some calibrations.” The girl then left the room. “But, I’m not Rufus…” He whispered to himself as he remained focused on the door. He turned back to his plans. Worthless, all of them worthless. If only he was the one that fell. If only it was that incompetent blabbering baboon who was saved! Not him! Then he would be thrust upon this situation. It would be that moron going through this misery, not him! But then again… Goal was right that man could do the impossible. He could’ve probably saved Elysium. His imagination knew no bounds! He was optimistic in an odd cynical way. His spirit could never be crushed. He could do anything once he set his mind to it! And he would never give up! But the one that sat here was not that man. The one sitting here was Cletus, a meticulous, uncreative, and pessimistic snob, whose methods were always by the book. And even though he was becoming more like Rufus with each passing day… His imagination was still just like this room, nothing more than a dimly lit bulb, flickering against the darkness. He sighed and continued his brainstorming. “As much as I hate to say it… I need you Rufus. Now more than anything…” I admit it’s pathetic The way I had end it With Rufus, fated, to die on that day But don’t you show fear Don’t you dare, shed a tear ‘Cause truth is, my story, never ended that way Yeah, there’s still more in store! Before he hits the floor! For a new world awaits for which he shall explore!! So try not to lose your cool Just fill up your popcorn bowl And now, before I bore, let’s move onto act four!! (Huzzah! Onto act four!!) *Groan*……*Grumble*…“Ouch…” Rufus winced as he inched his way out of the human shaped hole. “Out of all my landings that one takes the cake.” Rubbing his sore neck, the man looked back at the impact site, “But the good thing is I’m still alive!” Rufus gazed sadly at the ground, “However; I think my chances with Goal and Elysium died with that fall…” Rufus let out a sigh, “I guess I should make my way back to Kuvaq.” After a few moments, the Deponian broke his gaze with the ground and took a look around. “Let’s see, judging by all the wooden pipes and fungi, I’d say I landed in either a sewer, or some sort of fungus farm.” He focused his attention to one of the wooden pipes, “Hey! I bet if I climb one of these I can find a way out!” The boy stumbled up to the one of the pipes sticking out of the ground. “Wait!” He said with a sudden shock. Rufus leaned in to take a closer look at the pipe, “I swear I seen something like this before!” The man inspected the bottom of the pipe, the structure of the base was gnarled, and continuous, but the feature that stuck out the most was the bark-like coating. The boy’s eyes widened at the realization of what he was looking at. He turned around and looked at all of the other pipes crowding the area. Rufus’s face scrunched up in confusion, “W-What the?!” He glanced up at the roof. It was dense with strange green shapes branching out from the pipes’ extensions. “These are…TREES?!” He shook his head in defiance. “This is impossible, I mean trees grow here and there but never this many in one place!” Rufus stood there trying to make sense of all this when a deep growl that furthered his consternation echoed from his surroundings. He looked about frantically for the source of the sound, though he was unsure if he even wanted to find it. The man nearly jumped out of his skin as another growl sounded; this one louder than the last. “I…think, I can worry about the trees later.” Rufus cautiously started to tip-top away from the crash site, but his sneaking quickly turned into a sprint when the growl became a roar. While trying to lose his unknown pursuer, Rufus begun to notice that his fall left more than a sore neck and a ruin Cletus costume. He was limping… badly…. With each step, he took, a screaming wad of pain. To make matters worse, it seemed that no matter how far he ran, the snarling persisted right behind him. “You know, maybe it’s just my stomach-" Just then a horrific beast leaped out from the trees. “Or maybe not!” The injured man weaved his way through the darkness of the woodland in a desperate attempt for life, but much to his chagrin, the creature was quickly closing the gap between them. The Deponian was now finding himself ducking and dodging the beast’s massive claws, and its scorpion tail. One swipe after another; each time it was a near brush with death. As he ran from the monster he felt his legs begin to give way, “Crap!” the poor man fell to the ground. Rufus flipped himself over to see the pursuer closing in. He staggered backwards with his hands. The beast, now looming over him, snarled hungrily. “N-N-Nice kitty.” Rufus said. The creature let out a roar as it raised its claws above its head, readying itself for the kill. The boy rolled out of the way of the attack into a patch of blue lilies. The beast glared at him and snarled as it paced in circles around the flower patch. “Ahhh great.” Rufus watched as the creature continued to circle him. As he laid there in the flowerbed he begun to feel something odd. He felt his strength returning. “Ha! Well look at that!” He said as he picked himself up off the ground. The Beast let out a roar that reminded the fellow of his situation. He gazed at the angry thing. “Oh, what’s wrong? Is the big kitty afraid of some little flowers?” He teased. The cat snarled and took a step forward causing the man to take a step back in response. The creature looked like it was ready to pounce the Deponian as it neared the patch, but as soon as its eyes fell back upon the blue lilies, the beast stopped its approach. Rufus laughed and pointed at the thing, “HAHA! You really are afraid of flowers!” The beast growled and batted at the air in a fruitless attempt to catch its prey. Rufus stuck his tongue out at the thing as it swiped the air a few feet away from him. “You can’t get me! You can’t get me!” Rufus mocked; the creature grew increasingly frustrated at the man. “Aw, am I’m making the poor kitty cat mad?” The beast then turned around and cracked its tail. The boy fell back as blood trickled down the spot where he was hit. “Ouch!” The cat-like monster snorted satisfyingly as it gazed back at Rufus. It whipped its tail again. The Deponian jumped back barely missing the stinger. The creature continued to swipe at the man for the next minute, but Rufus continued to evade every attack it made. After its tenth failed attack the beast just stood there snarling. “Face it pal,” Rufus snarked, “You, can’t get me. So why don’t you just give up and find some other guy to munch on?” The beast’s ears then perked up, and the monster looked off into to the forest. It let out a low growl and looked back at Rufus before heading off into the trees. “Glad to see you took my advice.” Rufus said to himself. The Deponian looked down at the flowers he stood on. “I’d better take some of these in case I meet my friend again.” Rufus picked a large batch of the blue flowers, “Now all I need is some rope...” The man’s eyes then fell upon a vine hanging from one of the trees. “Perfect!” He said as he took the vine, “Now I can test out my expert knots-men skills!” Rufus quickly tied the crude messy knot around the bushel of lilies. “Ah, the perfect gift for a lady, and apparently, a great monster repellent!” Rufus walked out of the flower patch and into the darkness of the forest. “I wonder how everyone’s gonna react when they see me? Hmm, now that I think about it, they’ll probably praise me! After all, I did save the world. I can just hear their voices now, ‘Oh Rufus, you’re our hero! Please take anything you want! Give me your autograph Rufus'-hey!” Rufus found himself back at the flower patch. “Wait a minute. I was just here!” He looked about, “Great…” He frowned, “how am I going to get out of here if everything looks the same?” *AHHHHHHHHHH!* Rufus look towards the sound of the scream, “Sounds like someone’s in trouble!” Rufus then took off in the direction of the scream, only to find himself back where he started. “OH, COME ON!!” Rufus grabbed a sharp rock on the ground and went off in the direction of the scream again, but this time he marked the trees as he ran. Rufus eventually came across a clearing with a bridge and a ruined castle. “Looks safe enough.” He said staring down at the rickety rope bridge. The Deponian ran across the bridge as it wobbled and creaked. After crossing the gorge, he walked up to the castle doors. The man peeked through the open doors to find a quivering white figure hiding behind a pile rubble. “Goal! But how did she..?-” Rufus then saw his old friend clawing at the rocks where Goal was hiding. Rufus turn back away from the door, “However she got here it doesn’t matter. Goal is danger, and I have to do something!” He looked back the beast, “I could use my bouquet, but now that I think about it… I’ll probably just be eaten.” He took a step back from the doors, “I need to find a way to get the flowers to him without being spotted.” Rufus glance at the window with a balcony, “Ah, ha!” Thinking quickly, the Deponian grabbed a nearby vine, and took off his headband causing his hair to flopped back into place. “Time to finally, put this to good use.” He tied the vine around the headband, then, giving it a few twirls, tossed the makeshift grapple hook up towards the railing of the balcony. He cheered silently as the headband hooked the railing. “I hope this works.” Rufus grasped the vine and started to scale the wall. Reaching the top he climbed over the railing and hit the balcony floor with an oomph. Rufus grabbed the grapple hook and quietly crept to the other side of the room. He glanced down into the room to find the cat thing still digging at the debris. “Okay, now for phase two.” He hooked the bouquet on the headband. Chuckling quietly he began to lower the flowers down. “Hehehe, special delivery kitty cat, a lovely bouquet of flowers, courteously of your friend, Rufus, hehehe.” As he lowered the bouquet, the vine got caught on the beast’s tail alerting it to his presence. The creature cut the vine with its claws and looked up to find its most hated pray of the day, Rufus. “Uh-oh,” Rufus said. The cat clenched the vine with its mouth and yanked. The Deponian screamed as he was ripped over the decrepit railing. The beast opened its mouth wide waiting for its prey to fall in. As Rufus fell; a blue flower that was stuck to his clothes fell off and into the beast’s mouth. The creature felt its body twist and warp from the inside-out into that of a baby. *Meow?* *SPLAT!!!* Rufus crashed down face first onto the kitty, killing it in the process. “OWwWWww!” he moaned. “Thank you so very much! Whoever or whatever you are!” Goal said with relief. “Are you okay?” she asked him with deep concern. “I think its stinger is in my eye…” was what Rufus thought, but his actual response was nothing more than a thumbs up. “HOPE!!” another voice called out. Hope? Rufus looked up to find five pastel colored horses approaching him. “Girls!” Shouted ‘Goal’ as she climbed out of the rubble to meet them. Rufus looked on with utter confusion, ‘Goal’, was a pony!! “Are ya okay? We lost ya back there, n’ we were ‘fraid somthum awful happen to ya.” The orange one asked Hope. The white pony nodded, “I fine now, thanks to this creature over there.” She pointed a hoof at Rufus. The purple one with the horn and wings trotted up to Rufus. The mare circled him scanning him with her violet eyes. She then stopped and asked, “What is it?” “I don’t know.” Replied Hope, “But whatever it is, it saved my life.” “OOO!!! That means I can throw it a ‘thank you for saving Hope’ party!!” The pink one squealed, bouncing up and down. “Pinkie dear, I hardly think that a party would be in order after all she’s been through. And besides we don’t even know a thing about that creature, for all we know it could be dangerous!” The white unicorn replied. “Well, um, if it saved Hope’s life, then, uh, maybe it’s not that dangerous…” The yellow pegasus softly suggested to the group. Rufus, who was still trying to comprehend what he was seeing, saw a blur of color tackled him, pinning Rufus to the ground. He found himself staring at a cyan blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane. The pony glared at him with hostility. “I don’t know Fluttershy, it’s a creature of the Everfree Forest after all.” The mare stated while not breaking eye contact with the man. “Rainbow Dash and Rarity are right.” The purple one said to the others, “We don’t know what this thing is or what it’s capable of. It would be foolish to give this thing the benefit of the doubt.” “But Princess, It saved my life and when I asked if it was alright after its tumble off the balcony, it responded! That also means it’s intelligent!!” “Hope,” the purple alicorn gave a concern look, “just because you got a response from it doesn’t mean that that thing is-” “Excuse me!” All the ponies jumped in surprise, “This ‘thing’ has a name!” Rufus shouted finally coming back to his senses. The rainbow one jumped off the man and into the air. All of them look at Rufus in awe. “I-It can TALK!?” The orange one spoke in bewilderment. “Yes, I can talk!” Rufus said. The seven mares stepped back as the creature rose from the ground. “Now,” He said angrily, “tell me what you did to Goal!” “G-Goal?” The lavender colored one said, still in shock. Rufus pointed to Hope, “Yes Goal! What did you do to her?!” He said accusingly. The purple mare, who finally recovered from the shock, look back at Hope then tilted her head in confusion, “You mean Hope?” “No, Goal!” The orange pony with the thick accented spoke up, “’fraid ya have her mistaken for somepony else, pal. That there is Hope.” “What are you talking about? She’s Goal!” Rufus turned to Hope, “Go on, tell them!” All the ponies fixed their gaze on the white earth pony. Hope’s face became increasingly uneasy. The mare let out a weak chuckle, “I’m terribly sorry, but I’m not this ‘Goal’ you’re talking about. Are you sure you’re okay?” The purple alicorn looked at the creature. His face displayed a mix of confusion, anger, and unease. She then looked back at her friends whose expressions ranged from hostility to downright frightened. It was evident that if either side didn’t start getting answers, somepony was going to get hurt. “Um, excuse me but perhaps I should introduce ourselves?” “Perhaps you should…” The boy narked. The mare let out an uneasy laugh and forced a smile, “I’m Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and that pony you’d mistaken as this ‘Goal’ is one of Equestria’s royal diplomats, Hopeful Spirit.” The creature stared blankly at the Twilight. She widened her already awkward smile. “Sooo… Why don’t you tell us your name?” The man crossed his arms and smirked. “I am the super cool, unbelievably awesome, Rufus!” Rainbow Dash flew right up into Rufus’s face, “Super cool huh? Prove it!” “Now Dash, don’t provoke the thing.” Rarity said out fear of what it might do. “Too late!” Rufus took a step closer to the pegasus, putting him nose to nose with the thing. All of the ponies save Hope took an aggressive stance ready to take the boy down. Rufus snorted slyly then said, “I saved the world from being blown up.” He pulled himself back and posed smugly in satisfaction. The group broke the stance. The cyan pony fell to the ground and stared blankly at him for a moment, then it started to laugh. “Bwah-ha-ha-ha! You, saved the world? Hahaha, Even Trixie’s stories are more plausible than yours. And besides, even if that was true, we saved the world like three times!” Rufus shot the pegasus a glare, “Hey! It is true! I saved the world!” The rainbow haired pony laughed even harder. “I’m serious!” Rufus noticed some of the others were joining in on the laughing, including the Goal look-alike. “Stop laughing!” The boy was getting more and more frustrated by the contestant crackling, “I SAVED DEAPONIA!! DAM IT!!” “De-Deponyia?” Rainbow squeaked, “Oh! Now I get it! You like to play make-believe! W-Well if that’s the case!” The pegasus flew up into the air and turned around to the group. Throwing her hooves up she shouted, “All hail the great and mighty Rufus!! Savior of D-DEPONYIA!!!” She then bowed at the man’s feet and choked out the last of her laughs. “I like you Rufus, your riot. But you really need to come up with something more creative than Deponyia.” “It’s Deponia, not Deponyia!” He shouted at her. Dash rolled her eyes and smiled, “Oh, of course! Sorry, my bad.” “You know what-” Rufus was about to verbally, and possibly physically, assault the mare, but something she said stopped him. ‘Make-believe…’ “Wait,” Rufus said quizzically, “What did you mean by make-believe?” “Well, obviously that you’re pretending, duh! I mean there’s no such place as Deponia.” the cyan pony responded dumbly. Rufus looked off into space, piecing together his thoughts. He remembered the trees and the flowers. He walked over to the window and looked out; it was then that he noticed it. There was no garbage… He wasn’t sure how he missed it. Maybe it was because he was so custom to seeing it that the thought never struck him, or it was that he’d purposely tried to ignore it so he wouldn’t be bothered by the sight. Either way this world was definitely NOT Deponia. He took a whiff of the air. There was no foul odor nor that burning sensation in his throat or lungs. Rufus closed his eyes and smiled softly as the clean air filled his chest, it was the most refreshing thing he had ever experienced. He took another breath this time deeper. The ponies watched as the Deponian exhaled and inhaled at the window. “We’re am I?” He asked calmly. The group, puzzled by his expression, looked at each other. “You’re in Equestria.” Twilight replied. Equestria… he thought that had a nice ring to it. “Is that the name of this world?” “No, dear the world is called Equuis.” Rarity answered. Another moment past before she spoke up. “Um, are you okay dear?” Rarity asked the man. Her words echoed in his head. Are you okay? He had gotten what he dreamed of, but… Rufus looked at the sky. That gilded city was nowhere to be found. Rufus closed his eyes and shook his head with a frown. “No… I’m not.” He turned to face the group. “Oh my, what’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked trotting up beside him. Rufus looked down at the frail thing and replied, “This isn’t my world… I-I shouldn’t be here.” “What do you mean?” Fluttershy replied. “Yeah silly, what other world is there other than Equuis?” Pinkie said. “Deponia.” Rufus answered bluntly. Rainbow gave an annoyed expression, “Oh, come on! Don’t start that again.” Applejack looked at his sorrowful expression and frowned. Hope saw it too. “Girls,” The orange pony spoke, “I think he’s tell’n the truth ‘bout comin’ from ‘nother world.” “Applejack don’t be absurd.” The purple alicorn laughed, “There’s no such thing as other worlds.” The student then held a hoof to her chin, “Now other universes on the other hoof…” Her eyes suddenly shot wide open, and the mare let out a gasp. The next thing Rufus knew was that there was a flash of light followed by the lavender pony appearing right at his feet. Twilight grabbed the man with her magic and hovered him at eyelevel. “OH, MY GOSH!! Are you really from another universe?” Rufus nodded hesitantly, and the mare dropped him to the ground. “OwW! Hey! That’s the third time I fell today! Can we not try to kill me?” He hollered in pain. “S-So this Deponia really exists?” Twilight asked. “And you really saved it from being blown up?” Dash added. “Yes, and yes.” Rufus rolled over on his back wincing from the pain to find the whole gang looking down at him. Before he knew it, all seven of them were bombarding him with questions. “What’s it like there?” The purple one asked “How’s the food? Do ya eat apples?” The cowpony said. “Do you throw parties? OO! OO! Are they big? If so how big? Are there balloons? What about cake?” The pink one added. “How did you save your world? I’d bet you had to fight through an army of bad guys didn’t you?” The cyan pegasus replied boxing the air for emphasis. “Who’s this Goal? Is she your fillyfriend? What she like?” Hope asked. “What kind of animals are there in Deponia? What about the plants?” The timid one said. “Do all you Deponian’s smell and dress as bad as you do?” The white unicorn questioned. Rufus, while normally liking the attention, felt overwhelmed. A pain welled up in his chest. It was as if the pressure of the pile of questions was pressing down on him. Crushing his chest, then his legs, followed by… Uh-oh… Rufus said in his head. It seemed the pain from his injuries was returning. The ponies begun to notice it too, the injuries of cuts, broken bones, fractures, and lesions were appearing, or reappearing as it were, all over his body. Rufus tried to suppress the pain, but it became too much, and the world faded to darkness…