//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Stealing candy from a baby // Story: Hatred of the Anti-Brony // by Angrywritingskills //------------------------------// Peter stepped inside and immediately started looking around. I closed the door quickly behind him which shrouded the room in darkness for a few seconds until I turned on the lights revealing the dusty old garage. Quickly I stomped across the room and shut the door that was the entrance to the room where I had my confrontation with Miss Sparkle. Now with that easy task out of the way I’ll have to sound convincing. Here’s goes nothing. “So Peter.” I said walking towards him. He was looking around the shop, probably trying to figure out why it was so dirty. Personally I would be offended if he was. I did try to keep this place relatively clean. But in the past week I admit I’ve been slacking. Not my fault though. I was too busy moping and wondering what to do with my life. “I’m gunna open up the door and you can drive the car on in.” I said walking over to the garage door and pressing the button to open it up. Luckily, even though unused for a while, the door still worked fine. “This place is kind of out of shape don’t ya think?” Peter said as the door was rising. “What?” I asked putting my hand on my ear. For some reason this garage door was noisy when it opened so I didn’t quite here him. And here’s to me thinking that the “whisper quiet” models would be the standards by now. But living in this city taught me that “New” Equestrian architecture is just cheaply reworked human architecture. I’m pretty sure they used old parts from buildings on Earth. This hypothesis leads to multiple conspiracy stories that I’ve heard from underground sources, most having to do with resources on Earth and Equestria and why Equestria isn’t exactly like us as of now. But human generosity on a scale as rebuilding an entire architecture takes time so I don’t really believe anything those conspiracy nuts throw at me. When the door finally opened fully the air was filled with an almost awkward silence. This is what I was trying to avoid. I quickly spoke up again. “Alright so drive your car in and I can begin.” I restated my instruction. “Um alright.” Peter said cautiously. He pulled the car in but I could tell I was freaking him out. Now I can sympathize with him because this is damn sketchy. But I’m not him so I need this to work. If all goes to shit then I’ll have to do something drastic. Just hope it won’t come to that. As Peter got out of the car it was more apparent he was having second thoughts. His expression said he was hoping he would get an excuse to get out of here. But the only way I was going to let him leave would be with me in his car. “Um A-Andy.” Peter stammered. “Yeah man.” I said. “N-no offense but… your shop kind of looks, how do I put this? It looks out of use.” He rubbed his fat fingers together. This was the statement that I knew was bound to come. There is no way in hell I could pass this off as a place of work. But I can try. All I need is a good lie. “Yeah about that.” Think of something stupid. “You see.” Anything should work. Well not anything. Telling him the ghosts of Elvis and Tupac trashed the place last night probably would be a bad excuse. It has to be something mildly believable. “Alright the thing is our place of business actually moved across town.” What? Alright might be a good start. “This is the old garage and we haven’t moved all of our equipment yet. So I took you here because it’s closer and has everything I’ll need.” No way he’ll believe this. “Oh alright.” Peter nodded. I can’t believe this guy, I love him! “But shouldn’t you have told me this earlier? Seems like pretty relevant information.” “Must have slipped my mind.” I shrugged. I got this in the bag. Now I just have to get him out of here and give myself ample time to leave the city. Don’t want to be here when he finds out he was robbed. “Well how much time do you think it will take?” Peter asked. “Oh wait I mean how much money? No, how much money and time?” “Both very important things in this world.” I said. This guy should have stayed home. His speech tells me he wasn’t that sociable as a kid. Well neither was I in my later school years but at least I can hold a conversation without confusing myself. “Well you got insurance right?” Peter looked stumped then had some sort of a revelation. “Yeah I’m still on my parent’s plan.” Jesus, how old is this guy? “What so you’re like still under twenty six?” Personally I think it’s outrageous that twenty six is the limit a person can still be on their parents’ insurance. I don’t even have insurance and I remember being terrified if a cop pulled me over and I couldn’t give them insurance information. I’ve been off insurance ever since I ran away from home. Parents did that to try and lead me back but it didn’t work. They pulled me off months after I left home. Must have thought I would get some of my own. “Yes I’m eighteen.” Peter said awfully happy about himself. “You’re eighteen?” I looked at him again. This guy doesn’t look eighteen. Looked maybe my age or a year younger, but I’ve been told I look young for my age. Still if this is the product of the new Brony generation then I’m glad I’m part of generation Z. At least my generation was only known for laziness and drugs and I’m not some loser in a Wonderbolts hoodie. “Yeah well.” He looked away still smiling. “I took up smoking at a young age and I tried to kick the habit but… it just eases my nerves.” Huh, three day hump bro. That’s all it takes. I’ve never smoked since I looked down on people who did in my school. Which was pretty much my whole group of friends but at least only a few were chain smokers. So even in this state of mine, who should I sink down to their ranks? Also I was gunna be a marine so I was going to need my lungs. “Yeah well your insurance should cover this.” I don’t know that. “But uh what brings you to Equestria anyways?” Wait, why do I care? “Well um. Hold on.” Peter reached into his back pocket and produced a cigarette pack. Then he produced to put a cigarette in his mouth and light up. “Oh I’m sorry. Want one?” He said offering me the pack. “Uh no thank you I don’t smoke.” I said. “Oh a straight edge I see. Come on.” Peter gave me a playful nudge. “Need to experience life sometime.” That kind of pisses me off. “Bro I’m twenty three. I’ve got a job and I live on my own. That’s as real as it gets.” “Oh.” Peter could tell he fucked up. “Actually I’m vacationing from college. Came to Equestria to see what I could see.” This guy in college? Equestria has a massive tourist industry. And shouldn’t it? Before the portals you never go to see real live talking horses in a magical land where anything is possible. “Wait do you by chance live here?” Peter asked excitedly. “Yeah I do.” I said with a sigh. Here it comes. “Oh my sweet Celestia. You’re so lucky.” Peter exclaimed. “You must’ve seen so much here.” Not really. Humans having permanent homes in Equestria aren’t too common but there are definitely multiple human communities in the huge cities. Most cities are under construction though. But still we have presence almost everywhere in Equestria. Still I know that we’ll always be minorities in Equestria. There was an agreement to preserve the land of Equestria that humans made with the ponies. We leave some of their landmarks alone and help them anyway we can. So far humans living in Equestria have been living in slums although no one calls them that. I turned to Peter. “Equestria has been interesting. But uh.” I need to speed this up. “About your car, it should take maybe four hours to finish.” Peter looked at me confused. Come on think of some backup! “You know paperwork and everything. Car bought outside of Equestria take a lot of time to process. You know paperwork.” I tried to sound convincing. “Okay that makes sense.” And it worked. “Well I guess I’ll go and check into a hotel. Want me to get you anything sweetie?” Did he just call me sweetie? Well actually there is one thing. “Yeah your car keys.” Again he looked at me funny. “That’s just the way it works. You have been to a car shop before?” “N-no.” Peter admitted. “Well that’s how it works.” I don’t know that either. I know I’ve never been to a car shop to get my car repaired. Peter handed me the keys. I grasped them tightly in my hand. I’m so close right now. “Alright I guess I’ll see you at” Peter looked at his watch. “around three?” “Sounds good my man.” I shook his hand and after that he headed off. I watched him every step of the way. As soon as he rounded the corner I shut the garage door. The last light from the sun disappeared and I was left in artificial light. For a minute I stopped breathing. Did I really just steal from someone? No not someone; a brony. In all seven years of ponies I’ve never done one thing that was intended to cause harm. But I just did. And more importantly, I’m leaving this dumb city. “YYYYYYYYYYES!” I threw a punch into the air. “I’m home free!” I yelled. “All of you faggots! I am leaving!” I ran into the big room where Zayn made his speeches, throwing my hands up and running around. “No more of this shit! I can do what I want! I’m free! Nothing can tie me down now! I’m, I’m.” I looked to the three corpses still in the rubble pile. “I’m all alone again.” The gravity of the situation hit me and I could feel myself sink. I feel so small all of a sudden. I walked over to the bodies. There was something I would need to do before I leave. “Hey guys.” I said to them. “I hope this isn’t too creepy but I kind of want to say goodbyes.” They didn’t respond. “Don’t really know what to say.” I took a whiff of the air and grabbed my nose and backed away cursing. Stupid gross dead bodies! “I’m just gunna stand here if that’s okay with you guys.” Still no response. “Anyways. I just wanted to say thanks for kind of being my friends for the past year. Well friends may not be the right word but you guys were my only human contacts.” I’ve decided calling them acquaintances is too harsh and untrue. Sure they’re not like friendships I’ve had in the past or like how ponies characterize friends to be like but they suit the role fine. “Each of you comforted me in your own way without even realizing it. Kyle you may not realize it but I envied you. You were always so happy even when the others weren’t. You lifted my spirits kind of. Being an outlet for my frustration at times. Also you’re right; you’ve fucked more bitches than me. No way around that fact. And Myriad.” I looked at her. “You made me realize the faults in me. Sure you were rude about it but you help me realize how I can grow stronger as a human being. You worked well with tough love.” Finally I turned to Bill. “Bill my man. Uh you were the one who got me through all of this. Without you bro I would have been nothing but I dead guy who shot himself in a mall. But you showed me that there is always a way to rise above and be all you can be.” Then I remembered something. “Oh and one more thing.” Something I guess I learned from Fallout and any other RPG game. Actually I learned this from being homeless. Looting. I stopped breathing through my nose. “I hope you guys don’t mind but I gotta survive.” First things first I need clothes. My jumpsuit doesn’t really help me become inconspicuous with a crowd since it is kind of an obvious way to tell me apart. And I would need to be very unobvious if I plan of getting away with stealing a car. “Hey Kyle you wouldn’t mind if I borrow that jacket of yours?” Of course he wouldn’t. Like me us Anarchists only have one pair of clothes. Except for Bill who I’ve seen with different outfits but I don’t know where he got them from. Kyle’s yellow and black jacket would suffice for covering me up. “Hey bro don’t mind me.” I said as I slipped Kyle’s jacket off and put it on myself. Well now I smell like weed but give it four hours and I bet it’ll come off me. Now I need some pants. I looked down at my three friends. The fact of dead bodies hit me again. Yolo. Undoing Bill’s belt I ripped his pants right off him. Looking into them I was relieved to see they were unsoiled. Thank god. I quickly got redressed. In the yellow jacket and blue jeans I could blend in perfectly now. But it kind of felt incomplete. I cast my vision to Myriad. Perfect. I took her fingerless gloves and put them on. Now I looked like I’m from the eighties. With my now completely changed outfit, complete with my trusty trucker cap. I look like a dork by back in my day standards. But today I would be rather fashionable. Nerd/Brony culture took full effect with Equestria’s introduction so dressing kind of odd isn’t odd anymore. “Well I guess this is goodbye my friends.” I said with a sigh. “I’ll miss you guys but you’re all in a better place now. You’re free like me. But you’re better than me because you’re away from them. Don’t worry I intend on continuing my fight, I will avenge you somehow. It will be easy, kill the mane six. That’ll shake things up.” Easier said than done. “But one more thing.” I shamelessly went through their pockets trying to find something of use. I found nothing in Kyle’s pockets, figures, but in Myriads I found a small pocket knife. Don’t know what I’ll use it for but I’m sure it’ll come in handy. I dove me hand into Bill’s jeans and felt something metal. I pulled out a small key and I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Did Zayn really trust you that much?” I asked out loud. Walking over to the cabinet in the corner of the room, I inserted the key and turned it. My hands shook as I took my prized weapon out of its dark prison. We’ve been apart for so long I just wanted to hold it in my hands and rock it to bed slowly. With I could do anything. Use it as an intimidation tool and maybe rob some people for money. It would be better than diving through dumpsters. “Zayn you dumb motherfucker!” I yelled happily. “See now I got a tool of destruction to unleash on ponies. So actually maybe you ain’t dumb. But you’re still a motherfucker.” I laughed and took the three magazines of ammunition. Walking to the door I looked back at my friends. “So long guys. Maybe one day, I’ll see you again and we can really get to know each other. But I’ve got a mission to do.” I slowly closed the door. “So loooooog.” I whispered shutting it quietly as to not disturb their rest. My life restarts now. Taking a one year break helped me get my head straight again. But I belong on the road with all the freedom it offers. I tossed my jumpsuit in the car with me and collected a bandana from the garage just so I could have something to wipe my hands with. I would need another garment in my travels so the jumpsuit can still be used. Diving into the car I proceeded to go through what was in it. Checking all the compartments, I found a pair of sunglasses, about nine dollars in spare change, and just random crap such as napkins and receipts. So nothing of real value but I guess that’s good because I won’t have to carry much when I will inevitably have to abandon this car. No way I have money for gas and when the law comes after me I’ll be long gone. I cautiously exited the garage and got on the main road. My first objective is to get under the radar and escape attention from local authorities. I’ve never been pulled over in my life but that doesn’t mean I never will. I ran away from home at eighteen and such have never renewed my driver’s license since then. So for two years I’ve been without a driver’s license. Actually I lost it somewhere but that’s not important. If the cops pull me over I am done for. That means I have to go somewhere there are no cops. Out in the country where the population is just old men rocking on their chairs is where I’ll be heading. Of course I’ll be avoiding ponies so I hope I’ll get lucky and find a small town to hide out in. I scanned the street and sidewalks looking for both Peter and cops. I found none as I navigated the streets of this city. These streets are well known in my mind since I walked them so heavily in those walks Zayn made me do. Now it was paying off as I came close to the exit onto the freeway I’ve been dying to take for the past year. Anxiously I accelerated off onto the highway. Relief struck me as I merge into traffic. Relief that I hadn’t gotten caught yet, after all I had about three hours now at least but more of relief that I was free of this accursed city. No more ponies just me and the open road. After a while I noticed I was exited the city. That’s when I noticed something amazing. Zooming by me was a sign saying I was now leaving Las Pegasus. But that couldn’t be right because any town that was mentioned in the show was usually gushing with tourists and if I was there then why were there so much less volume of people than normally in cities notorious as this. As I thought about if however it made sense since I lived in a slummy part which meant it was away from most traffic. Still in the whole year I’ve lived in the city I never knew its name. After about an hour I exited onto a long stretch of road. Soon there wasn’t a car in sight. I was alone and there was desert on my left and right. Using my memory of an Equestria map I’ve seen I must be in the San Palomino desert. Well hopefully this would be away from most of civilization. Maybe I’ll find a small town and lay low until I find what I’m going to do next. After all I have two hours left until Peter comes looking for his car. In the meantime it is time for some tunes. I turned the radio on. Now some may say radio is dead but there is still FM channels out there. Especially in Equestria where it was introduced since satellites haven’t been shot up into the sky yet to broadcast their satellite radio. No Pandora for Equestria, what will the brony hipsters do! Eventually a channel did tune in. “And now bringing you those hit classics from the nineties.” An enthusiastic radio host spoke. Oh hell yes. I turned up the volume and rolled down my window as the song started to play. “Bye, bye, bye!” I sang along.