"So that all happened, huh?"
"Yep."
"No embellishments?"
"Heh, not as far as I'm aware... mostly."
The sun is dipping low over the horizon as Cheerilee and I recline against the side wall of the schoolhouse. I just finished telling her my entire six year journey. I have to admit, she was a really good listener. She gasped at all the right parts, she laughed when I did, and we generally had a good time while I told the story.
Did I tell her that I am part changeling now?
Uh... no. Not really. I kinda want to keep that on the down low. I know Ponyville wasn't a place where the changelings attacked, but that doesn't mean that all of Equestria wasn't majorly paranoid when Canterlot was invaded. There isn't really any reason to tell her.
Whatever.
Well, now that the story is done, the two of us are sitting in silence. My face is still a little sore from when she punched me, but nothing too bad. I'm sure that I have a noticeable bruise. Twilight probably won't be too happy about that. Well, maybe I deserve it a little after not letting them know where I was, but hopefully Cheerilee has gotten it out of her system.
After a few more moments of silence, I decide that it might be a good time to catch up on her end. "So... what's new with you?"
Cheerilee scoffs quietly and shrugs. "Nothing as exciting as you. I've tried the dating scene a few times but never came up with anything more than a few months." Cheerilee grimaces and shakes her head. "One of my coltfriends looked like he would work out longer than that, but he wanted to move to Manehattan for work in the middle of the school year."
"And it goes without saying that you would never leave your students, especially not then."
"Exactly," Cheerilee says with a nod. "Of course, that ended that one. My life has been pretty much the same ever since." A small smile crosses her face. "But I like it. If I wanted to teach in a big city I could, but I prefer the small town feel."
"Same. I've been to a lot of those big cities outside of Equestria. I like it here more." I scratch Oswald's head feathers and shrug. "And now I'm here for good."
Cheerilee glares at me and crosses her forelegs. "You mean it this time, right? I'm not going to wake up one morning to find out that you've left again."
I smirk at her and do the motions that go along with a Pinkie Promise. "Pinkie Promise that I won't. If I do leave, I'll tell you, and I'd only leave to re-visit some of the nicer places that I went to for a vacation, or something like that. I'd come back to Ponyville. I'm..." I take a deep breath and run a hand through my hair. "I'm here for good now."
Cheerilee puts a comforting hoof on my shoulder and gives me a small, sad smile. "It'll be okay, TD. I know that you really wanted to get home, and I'm sorry that you couldn't."
My face goes neutral and my gaze travels to the floor. "Yeah."
Cheerilee leans against my shoulder and gives me a comforting nuzzle. "You're going to do alright, TD. I think that things are really going to start working out for you now that you're back."
I chuckle and lean my head against the back wall. "I'm going to have approximately fifty percent fewer assassination attempts and death matches."
Cheerilee snorts at my joke. "Yeah, well, one can only hope."
"I just have to get through the inevitable Pinkie Pie party celebrating my return. I know I didn't quite want one, but..." I shrug. "It's going to happen, so I might as well get it over with."
"I think that some ponies around here are going to be really glad that you're back, TD, my old students in particular." Cheerilee smiles at me. "They missed you, you know? They're going to be really excited to have you back."
"Well, I'm glad to be back... in Ponyville, at least." I grimace. "The rest of the world is a little too unstable for my taste. I know you guys have Ursas coming through town every once and a while, but at least they're not targeting me directly."
Cheerilee snorts. "Yeah, well, knock on wood there, TD."
Oof. I can't even imagine what it would be like if one of my old political enemies sent an Ursa to kill me. Having said that, my three enemies were all dead, so I guess I don't have to worry too much about that.
"So what are you going to do now exactly?" Cheerilee asks. "I mean, how easy do you think its going to be to transition to being on the move constantly for six years to settling down in a small town just like that?"
I grunt and wave my hand. "Pretty simple. I'm going to get my old job back as an all around worker for the city then move into whatever house Twilight can find for me."
Cheerilee cocks her head. "And you'll just do that for the rest of your life?" She shakes her head and puts her hoof on my shoulder again. "I meant more long term. You don't want to be a window washer for the rest of your life, do you?"
I pinch the bridge of my nose and extend one of my palms in her direction. "I hadn't exactly thought about that. I only just got back, you know. Let me at least find out what my new house looks like first, okay?"
Cheerilee laughs and nods. "Fair enough, TD. I can always help you get a teaching post if you want."
I shrug and stand up. "Maybe. I'll have to think about a career that I want. Teaching does seem like a likely option, but on the other hand, you're the resident elementary school teacher around here."
"You could be a secondary education teacher."
"Could be."
I take a deep breath and shrug. I grab Reginald and Oswald takes that as the cue to take off and land on my shoulder. "Well, it's been fun... and a little painful, but I've got to go about getting my old job back and getting a new house. I'll let you get back to work, okay?"
Cheerilee gives me a warm smile and stands up. "Well good luck with all of that. I know that there are some good houses around here. I know you'll find one that you like."
With one more round of goodbyes, I walk out of the Ponyville schoolhouse. Well, that was interesting, to say the least. I didn't expect Cheerilee to punch me, but, you know, a lot of things happened to me that I didn't expect over the past six years. Why would stuff like that stop now?
Well, it's time for me to get my old job back. I know it's late, but Mayor Mare should still be in her office. She doesn't tend to leave until well after sundown if I remember right, and Twilight did tell me that she's still the mayor of Ponyville. I suspect she runs every year unopposed... if she allows elections to take place at all.
Wouldn't that be hysterical?
Anyway, I'm coming up on Town Hall, and I'm starting to see townsponies going about their daily lives. most of them are packing up their stalls for the day. At least, until they see what used to be Ponyville's resident human walking down the street. Then they stop everything that they're doing to stare.
Huh, you know, that reminds me of when I first came to Equestria. Walking down the street and having the entire town stop so that they could all stare at me like they hadn't seen anything like me. Well, they hadn't but in this instance they probably thought that I was dead or something. That's ignoring the fact that I have a phoenix perched on my shoulder, of course.
I smile to all of the townsponies and tip an imaginary hat to them. I greet them all by name as I walk by the individual ponies. None of them say anything. They're all too busy staring dumbly at me, which is just fine with me. It'll hit them soon enough, and they'll talk to me, maybe read the book, and they'll move on. You know, just like what they did when I came to Equestria the first time minus the book.
I reach Town Hall and open the door to walk inside. It looks very much the same as it always has. The entrance hall has had some touch-ups, but nothing too extensive. Just something to make it a little neater. Mayor Mare's office is up the stairs. I take the stairs two at a time until I see the large oak door with her name emblazoned on it. I reach it and knock on the door.
"Come in."
Yep, it's still her. She does sound a little older, and I'll bet that some of her mane is actually gray this time around. Maybe the whole thing. I don't know, I never actually bothered to ask how old she was when I came to Equestria the first time. I guessed in her forties or fifties, but I didn't think it polite to get specifics. Having said that, it was a sobering thought that given how long ponies lived, she would still probably outlive me.
I open the door and see her sitting at her desk, leaning her head against one of her hooves and scanning some paper or other. "Just a moment. I want to finish this up. I'll only be a second."
"Take your time."
I lean against the wall and cross my arms. My position means that Oswald can't comfortably perch on my shoulder, so he flies to the back of a nearby chair. We stand in silence while Mayor Mare reads the paper, but after a few more moments she sighs and shakes her head. She pushes the paper aside and looks up at me.
"Now, what can I do for..." Her eyes widen when she realizes who she is looking at, and she lets out a loud gasp. "By the grace of my twelfth term! TD?! What are you doing here?!"
I smirk and shrug. "Oh, you know: my global quest to find a way back home failed in every way possible so I'm back in Ponyville. I came to ask for my old job back." I straighten up and walk over to a nearby window. I run a finger down it and examine the finger. "Whoever has been cleaning these hasn't been doing as good of a job as I did. These are rather dusty, don't you think?"
Mayor Mare blinks a few times to clear her head before shaking said head and blinking a few more times. "Er... y-yes. If that's what you want then I think that we can do that." She pulls a piece of paper over to her and jots a few notes down on it. "I think that I still have your contract around here somewhere. I just have to pull that out and get it notarized again and you can begin work on Monday."
I give her a two-fingered salute. "Kind of you."
* * * *
Well, now I have my old job back, so that is a plus. When I get my house, I can now start paying the mortgage and paying back whichever one of the Mane Six paid the down payment so I could start living there right away.
I open the door to Twilight's house and see her laying on a large pillow and reading a book. She looks up when she sees me come in and smiles at me, but her smile quickly falls when she sees the rather spectacular bruise on the side of my face. "Uh, TD? What happened to your face?"
"And a good evening to you too, Twilight. Might I say that you're looking fine."
Twilight frowns at me and stands up. "I'm serious, TD. That looks like it hurts."
I shrug. "Eh. Not too much. As for how I got it, well, let's just say that Cheerilee was less than pleased that I just showed up out of the blue and was all ‘hey, Cheerilee.’"
Twilight's eyes widen, but then promptly narrow. "Cheerilee did that to you?"
I frown and hold out a hand. "Hey now, let's not declare any jihads before we've considered her perspective, yeah? I did kind of leave her hanging with a bunch of upset foals to give an explanation to when she had none herself."
"That doesn't justify hitting you!" Twilight retorts.
"She says to the guy who has punched the princess of the sun not once, but twice."
Twilight rolls her eyes and uses her magic to shut her book. "I still don't like it." Twilight walks over to a bookshelf and slides the book into its proper spot before turning back to me. "And what does jihad even mean?"
I snort and lean against the wall. "Emotional crusade for an idea or principle or a holy war."
Twilight rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "Whatever. I guess I'm not going to chew her out, but she'd better not do it again!"
"Oh, I doubt she will. She just acted out of surprise and a little repressed anger." I shoot her a sly grin. "You had some too if I recall correctly."
"Yeah, well, I didn't punch you in the face."
"You wanted to, though."
Twilight huffs and waves a hoof and I know she doesn't want to discuss it anymore. Fair enough. "So, my house, then. We got everything taken care of?"
Twilight nods and uses her magic to levitate some papers over to me. "These are the details. It's a few blocks away from your old one. About a block from the market and Town Hall, so you don't have to walk too far to shop for your food. It's a little farther from the lake, but with all of the walking that you've been doing I don't think you care, really."
I take the papers and shake my head. "No, not really."
"It's a little bit bigger to account for Oswald. That does mean that the mortgage is a little higher, but you should still be able to afford it."
"I live pretty cheap."
"Well, then I assume you want to move in as soon as possible?"
I nod. "No offense to you, but definitely."
Twilight returns my nod and takes the papers back from me. She puts them in her saddlebag which she puts over her back. "No offense to you either, but I think that's a good idea."
* * * *
Well Twilight rounds up her posse and leads us all to my new house. It is in a more residential area, so I'll actually have neighbors this time around. The sun is just about to set, so we really have to get going, but I don't have much to move in, so we know that it wouldn't take very long.
My new house is pretty simple, just like my old one. It has a light blue paint job and is one story. One window on the front, another on the back, thatched roof, just like most of the Ponyville houses, a small basement, a kitchen, bathroom, single bedroom, all the stuff that a bachelor with a phoenix needs. Rarity rents a cart and gets all of my stuff out of storage, which again isn't much. Just a bed, desk, chairs, table, and fridge. With all of our help we have that moved in within twenty minutes once we reach my new house.
By nine-thirty the sun has set and I am now officially moved into my new house. All of my furniture is settled, my papers are in order with a payment plan, Reginald is leaning against a wall, my fridge is running, and I have named my house Manderley. Why? Because I say so.
I have to say, having a house that I am now tied to makes the whole thing seem so much more... final. Like I can't deny it at this point if I wanted to. I have a house and a job in Ponyville now. I can't leave. I'm here. It's over. I... failed, I guess. I'm a Ponyvillian now.
Well, okay, heh, maybe I won't go that far. I was still born and raised on Earth, I'm just... going to be living here for the rest of my natural born existence unless portal magic or technology really advances in the next sixty or so years. Ug. My head is starting to hurt just thinking about all of it.
Well, I say my goodbyes and thank yous to the rest of the group and they all leave for their respective homes. I shut the door and Oswald perches on the chair next to my bed. I take off my shirt and slide into said bed. It has been a long, interesting day, mostly filled with talking to Cheerilee; my favorite part. As for what life has in store for me in this "quiet" village, I don't know. It's got to be better than what I came from around the world.
I decide to table those thoughts. I'm tired right now. I settle into my blankets and close my eyes.