There exist people in this world that are negative by their very nature. They cannot be bothered to truly be objective, looking at others that do not think like them as incurable idiots. Shane is one of these people. He and many others have formed the proverbial battle line against what they would call a plague, bronies. Men that enjoy My Little Pony is unnatural by their standards. What if one of these people, in this case, Shane, were to visit Ponyville?
Would they change? Can you change someone who is so different? What would it take?
Shane stared at the computer screen in front of him with a half glare. He didn't know how to respond to what he was seeing. A long time friend of his had sent him an email. It was mostly business as usual but at the very end he let slip that he had begun watching My Little Pony and had enjoyed what he watched.
He cracked his neck and slowly and deliberately typed, 'If you have become one of THEM we are done. I will disown you.' He meant it with slight humor but had every intention of considering it. In the meantime, it was late. He needed sleep.
When AJ, his friend, received it, he sighed and whispered to himself, "I wish he could understand." AJ turned off his monitor in a bit of anger and pulled the sheets over himself, going to sleep.
It felt like Shane had just closed his eyes when suddenly there was a light shining in his eyes. He opened them groggily and immediately, three things occurred to him. One, he was a pony. The second was slightly more shocking in the fact that a terrified Twilight Sparkle stood frozen in front of him. The third thing nearly made his brain crash. He was in her home, complete with pink walls and book shelves, everything exactly as he had seen from the show.
His brain teetered on the edge on consciousness as he tried to understand this, his face twitching involuntarily, his eyes fixed on Twilight who seemed to recover some semblance of calm long before he could even form words.
She cleared her throat and spoke, causing Shane to freeze if only from his mind starting to come around, "Um, Hello. I'm Twilight Sparkle."
He attempted to speak in return but his vocal cords wouldn't work. He couldn't tell if he was more freaked that this actually happened or that this was the place he was called to. She asked in a concerned tone, "Um, are you alright?"
This question brought a strange calm to him as his eyes glazed over, "You know what, I think I'm not. Maybe I am sick and this is a fever dream."
She laughed nervously and replied, "Actually, Princess Celestia gave me an assignment and I guess it was to summon you." He turned to her, lost in his temporary bout of madness. She continued, "I didn't know that she had a brother."
He looked very confused and asked, "Brother?"
Twilight nodded, pointing to him with her hoof saying, "You are an Alicorn."
Something broke in his mind when he heard that term, knowing what it meant only from hearsay and random crap he had seen on the internet.
The glazed over eyes began to fill with a firey denial. "No no no No No No NO!" He rammed open the door and shouted at the top of his lungs, passing out shortly afterwards.
He came to some time later in the library, seeing Pinkie Pie standing above him. With a smile she cried, "He's awake!" He froze again, realizing this probably wasn't a fever dream. It was more like he died and this was pony hell.
Rarity sighed, "He must be some form of loser. He has no Cutie Mark."
Twilight sighed, "Maybe Celestia wants me to help him get one."
At this he shot up and growled, "I don't need a damn cutie mark."
They all looked at him in surprise, both at his language and his sudden movement. Fluttershy hid behind Rainbow Dash as he moved letting out a small eep.
Rainbow Dash growled, "What is wrong with you?" As Shawn's eyes, full of anger locked with hers she returned in kind.
He shifted to a lower octave and in a menacing tone explained, "I was brought here, in the middle of the night... against my will... and ended up here, of all places. How would you feel?"
Pinkie Pie popped up in front of him and said, "You should turn your frowny-wowny up-sidedowny." His teeth grit as she said that, wanting to punch her. He wasn't sure if a hoof could punch but he wanted to try. She smiled, "Now just move your mouth like mine and you will be smiling."
Twilight cleared her throat and began, "I guess I should introduce everyone."
As soon as she finished that sentence, Shane cut in, "Sadly, I know who you all are. Look, I don't care what the princess wants. Send me back."
Twilight laughed nervously. Rarity explained, "I suggested it after your little outburst but Twilight said that she can't. Something about you having to learn something."
His eyes lit up with rage and through his gritted teeth, he asked, "So where is Applejack in all of this?" If he was going to make clear his stance, he wanted all of the girls here.
Twilight sighed, "She is down at her farm and couldn't hear you. Fluttershy was with Pinkie and Rainbow Dash was helping Rarity for the festival tomorrow."
Dash snorted, "I don't know why I bother. It's so boring."
He stood and spoke clearly, enunciating each syllable with his rage, "I don't like any of you. I think you are all two dimensional, cutsie-wootsie, Childish, Idiots that can rot in the ground for all I care." He stormed out, hearing Twilight's door slam behind him.
As he walked to who knows where, Dash flew out in front of him and landed. Standing firm in her position she went off on him. "Where do you get off insulting us and thinking you can just walk away?"
He replied, his rage on an ice cold burn, "Because none of you honestly give a crap about me, I don't give a crap about you, and I was effectively kidnapped."
Dash sneered for a moment and in a demeaning and dissapointed tone said, "Your right. It's the middle of the night. Go out in the woods and get lost for all I care."
He stormed past her, not even brushing her as he went for the woods. She was right in one way. It was as good a place as any to escape this horrible horrible place. He walked in, the dark overcoming him quickly. He didn't honestly care where he was in the woods, he was just going to find a nice soft spot further into the woods, find something to vent frustration on, and get as much sleep as is possible in the wilderness.
He kept walking, hearing things following him. The creatures moved slowly, quietly, like a jungle cat stalking it's prey. He knew a few things about real animals but this worlds animals were something else. He found a nice soft patch of grass and stood on it. Turning back towards the creatures that were following him, He set a sizable patch of grass on fire, his rage over flowing towards the beasts as his outlet.
The beasts were visible for a second and then yiped, dissapearing into the woods once more. He lay his head down, hoping he wouldn't be woken up in the middle of the night again.
He awoke to a group of rabbits having gathered around him during the night. At least these were like his home, if a bit more expressive. He moved slowly so as not to wake them, petting one with his jaw. It was weird but very comforting.
As one of the rabbits came to, he decided that if he had already lost his mind, what harm could there be in talking to a rabbit. He opened up with, "I don't know what to do with myself. Those ponies can't send me home so I'd like to keep my distance, but I know that they mean well. It's not like I had a choice in coming here but Twilight made it sound like she didn't know what she was doing either."
He continued to talk the the rabbit, others sitting next to it and listening to him. He opened up about the shock of being here, his reasons for not liking or trusting bronies, and his now, more calm, opinions on the characters on the whole, the kind of thing he would say when trying to be reasonable when telling a brony he is wrong.
It was only once he had finished and regained some semblance of sanity that he heard Fluttershy's voice. "I am sorry. I didn't want to eavesdrop but you didn't seem to hear me before."
He sighed, "How much of that did you hear?"
Fluttershy kicked the ground he had burnt last night a bit, "Well, I heard the part you just said about us."
He stood, "Look, Fluttershy, It's nothing personal per say. Heck, I think you guys are sweet, but that is the problem. You guys are too sweet, too innocent. I can just tell that you guys always have it easy here."
Fluttershy looked at the rabbits and spoke quietly. He could hear her but only just barely. "That's not true. We have a lot of things to do."
He nodded, "And you have adventures. I am not saying that you guys are boring, just that you have never truly had death knocking on your front door asking for a cup of sugar."
Fluttershy looked at him confused. "So death is a person where you come from?"
He thought for a second and then nodded, "He might as well be."
Fluttershy sighed, "I don't think you are a bad guy like the others do. The bunnies wouldn't have trusted you to keep them safe if you were."
He smiled, "Thank you, Fluttershy. I guess I should get moving to find a way home."
She held up a hoof and stopped him from leaving. "If Twilight was told to summon you, then Celestia brought you here. You could ask her how to get home."
He thought about it and in all reality, his rage had blinded him to so obvious a solution. He asked kindly, "Where can I expect to find her?"
Fluttershy smiled, "At the festival today. If you help set up, I am sure the others will forgive you."
Shane looked at the ground, deep in thought. He hated the idea of staying here any longer than needed but if he could keep himself busy, maybe he would forget about where he was. Probably not but maybe. He sighed, "Fine, who should I go see first?"
Fluttershy looked at the ground herself and replied, "Rainbow Dash seemed really mad at you. You should apologize. She is helping with the weather."
He smiled and bowed awkwardly, it still being the best he could do as a pony, "Thank you, Fluttershy." He galloped a bit before shakily jumping into the sky and flying. As he did so, he felt the wind in his wings. Once he was about 100 ft off the ground, he even stopped noticing how far up he was and was paying more attention to the air. Flight here was everything he dreamed of whenever he watched the birds as a child.
He remembered eventually that he was supposed to find Dash. He chuckled to himself, figuring that she would be the easiest to spot pony in the world. Sure enough, he saw her moving some clouds for a scheduled rainfall. He waited for her to be done and then flew over to her, calling out, "Hey, Rainbow Dash. Can we talk?"
She looked at him with the same look from that night, disappointment, rage, and disgust. She looked like she wanted to ignore him but against her better judgement, she asked, "What do you want, dirtbag?"
He sighed, "I wanted to apologize. I wasn't in the best of moods considering the light night abduction and all."
Dash growled, "Twilight didn't mean to kidnap you!"
Shane nodded, "When you are right, you are right. She didn't mean to, but she did." Dash didn't flinch so he continued, "Just like I didn't mean to offend you, but I did."
She seemed to relax a bit. She eventually grumbled, "Well, I guess I can forgive you..." She then got a mischievous grin. "If you can beat me in a race."
Shane sighed, not sure if he liked or hated the idea. She mocked, "What, is the mighty alicorn afraid of losing?"
He looked a bit disturbed, jolting at the reminder of his status. He knew that to any outside observer, this would be a very questionable form to be. He stared down at the ground, eyebrow twitching in frustration. He would have to add this to the list of questions he had for the princess.
Dash laughed, "I knew you weren't man enough to face me."
Shane looked at her, unentertained as he sighed, "Your on. What is the course?"
She laughed, "One lap around Ponyville. Ready? GO!" She flew off in a flash of color. Shane sighed and darted after her. He knew he couldn't beat her speed but he hoped that maybe he could out pace her.
As he got halfway around he felt her dart up behind him and stop at his side panting. "Your slow."
Shane chuckled, "I wasn't going as fast as I could. I knew I couldn't move faster than you. You are the fastest thing around."
Dash smiled at him, "How could you tell? Was it my super fast way of doing my job?"
He rolled his eyes, "Yeah, sure." He didn't have the heart to tell them that they were a TV show where he came from. It just felt wrong on so many levels, mostly like if he did tell them, the entire world would implode with him inside. It had been a long time theory of his but it had always been a joke. Now that the risk was quite real, he decided against it.
She laughed, "Well, I'd still like to see how fast you are. I haven't seen an alicorn race. Besides, I think it would be good for you, mister stick in the mud."
He sighed, "Fine, I guess. I'll push myself as hard as I can." He was surprised at how flying all by itself was coming so naturallly to him. Maybe it was because this was a dream realm and he would often dream of flying. He quickly realized however that many of his flying dreams included plummeting to the ground when the alarm clock rang.
He flew as high up as he could, Dash looking at him with a smile. He then began his dive bomb. If he was going to move as fast as he could, he was going to need gravity's help. His speed increased slowly at first but eventually, he could see the scenery melt as he shot down. He could feel the wind perfectly matching the force he was using. Was this the sound barrier? How was it possible for a living being to go this fast without assistance?
No matter how hard he pushed, he couldn't break the barrier before him. It was right about then that he noticed the ground was getting dangerously close. He tried pulling up, redirecting his momentum but that wasn't going too well. Right as he was about to hit the ground, he was tackled out of the air by Dash.
He lay on the ground for a moment, dizzy from the collision and trying to piece together what had happened. Dash groaned and stirred, lifting herself from off of him. "You need to pay more attention. You were nearly 6 feet under."
He woozily stood up. "Sorry, I felt something that I wanted to get past."
Dash laughed, "Yeah, you were almost as cool as me. I am impressed."
He looked at her oddly and shook his head, deciding not to comment. "Well, I guess I should get going to help the others."
Dash sighed, "Well, I would suggest avoiding Rarity. She wants boring help, nothing fun."
He nodded and rolled his eyes, realizing that helping a fashion designer would be the most demasculating activity he had ever participated in. He really hoped she wouldn't want a replacement mannequin.
He wandered aimlessly looking for the somewhat recognizable shape of Sugar Cube Corner.