Well, this was a familiar, yet uncomfortable feeling. The feeling of getting stuck on the back of a train. It sounds exactly as fun as it actually is.
Well, after the fun little fact about being roomies with Discord, Celestia decided to give out some details about the house. Apparently, some pony built it there. Ooooooooh. Well, I guess it turns out that he was a carpenter and wanted to try and build a small house out of the trees that grow from the Everfree Forest. Since no one else wanted to test out their luck with that kind of thing, it took him about eight months to do it all by himself. After it was complete, he lived there for all of two weeks until he left.
You know that guy in the episode where Rainbow Dash is trying to read the Daring Doo book and there’s this one pony who’s literally barking? Well, now I know why. And now, I get to stay in the same place.
Joy.
Once that was settled, and by settled I mean that I actually had no say in the matter, we ate the rest of our breakfast in relative silence. Of course, I still got some looks from some of the ponies. Sure, they didn’t mean to and they looked away whenever I looked back at them. The exception to this was Shining Armor, of course. His gaze never faltered from me at all. Thanks to his unicorn magic, he could do several things at once and in this case he was absentmindedly eating breakfast and giving me the non-Fluttershy patented stare. I decided to tolerate it considering that he still had to help run a country and couldn’t keep an eye on me after I left and of course there was how the last time that I noticed that also factored in.
After breakfast ended, which was apparently signified by both Celestia and Luna leaving the table, I was escorted to a room in the castle that served as the entrance hall. It was a nice, grandiose place that I stayed in for a while. It was kind of interesting in that it just seemed to look like any other hall in the place minus the hall with the stained glass history windows. Apparently, that was the place that I got stuck in while everyone was checking out of Castle Greyskull. As I was told by one of the guards standing watch over me, my belongings were being gathered by a pegasus guard and would be delivered to me shortly. I was going to protest the obvious, but honestly if it saved me from climbing up and down those stairs again then I supposed that I could let it slide.
After about fifteen minutes, the guard in question came down with a small bag that contained my belongings. After making sure that everything was there, the guard saluted us and flew off. I decided to take just the camera out of the bag and hung it around my neck. I then took a look at the bag itself. It was one of those saddlebags that I saw everyone use in the show. It was a plain tan color and was held closed by a silver buckle. There wasn’t anything I could see on it that resembled a cutie mark so I assumed that it was some generic bag that anyone could pick up somewhere.
Another twenty minutes passed and some of the ponies started showing up. First was Rainbow Dash followed shortly by Pinkie Pie. A few minutes after that, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Twilight Sparkle all came down together. I was honestly a bit surprised that Twilight was coming with us. Yes, Ponyville was her home, but she was a princess now. Shouldn’t she be learning some princess etiquette or some other strange thing about it? I wanted to ask her about it, but she was talking with her friends and I didn’t want to break into their conversation. Another ten or so minutes later and I was considering breaking out my DS when Rarity show up.
True to form, she was carrying a large number of bags around her in her telekinetic grip. While all the other ponies had their saddlebags and maybe one other one as well, Rarity was levitating eight extra bags as well as carrying Opal’s cage on her back. Since Rarity isn’t the magical powerhouse that Twilight is, we all ended up taking one of them and we were apparently on our way.
I did end up asking why Shining Armor and Cadence didn’t come with us to the train station. I was told that they were getting the royal airlift back and they had said their goodbyes after breakfast. I was kind of surprised that the royal stick-in-the-mud hadn’t said one last parting shot to me if he knew that he was leaving. I didn’t get to dwell on it long, though. The city of Canterlot had many citizens who wanted to take a look at the strange creature that they had never seen before. The guards escorting us helped to keep their distance, but it didn’t help me any from feeling their eyes upon me. It kind of sucked, especially since there ended up being a few places I saw that I would have really liked taking a picture of.
It took us about twenty minutes to get from the castle to the station. We didn’t have to worry about getting tickets since we were all there for royal business. Well, they were there for royal business. I was there playing dumb tourist. However, just like last time, I was too big to get into the train so I ended up riding outside on the caboose again. Still, my things were placed in the luggage car for whatever reason. What made up for some of it though was that I got a nice picture of Canterlot as the train departed. I only managed to get the top of the waterfall, but I still liked it.
That was a few hours ago. Since then, I had broken out my DS and started playing some Disgaea. No one bothered me back here since nobody wanted to get near the oddity. Aside from the wind blowing by, it was nice and quiet. That silence was soon disrupted by the train whistle. I quick-saved my game and turned of the power. I then held down my hat and peered around the side of the train. Yeah, I didn’t need to take a look. I just felt like it.
Getting my own visual confirmation, I put my DS in my pocket and waited for the train to roll to a stop. A few minutes later, the train arrived at Ponyville’s train station. I hopped down and walked around the train to the side with the platform. Since the train was still deboarding, there were only a few ponies around to take notice of me.
One group of ponies I didn’t expect to see there, but maybe I should have, were the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I would have thought that they would be in school right then. Instead, they were watching the train; waiting for everyone to exit. Surprisingly, they had yet to notice me.
Seeing them there, I decided to be a bit goofy. I moved around the platform quietly, despite my size, and simply stood behind them and waited while looking forward. It didn’t take long.
“Do y’all feel funny?” asked Applebloom.
“Yeah, I kinda do,” replied Scootaloo.
“It’s kind of like something’s standing over us,” chimed Sweetie Belle.
I didn’t look down as I heard a trio of gasps. Instead, I waited to see if they would follow up with anything. When nothing came, I looked down into their eyes.
“‘Sup?”
Their mouths went wide at hearing me. I smiled and resisted the urge to start giggling like a mad man.
“You all waiting for somebody?” I continued.
“Uh, yeah,” answered Applebloom. “Ah’m waitin’ for mah sister.”
“That’s nice. I just got off the train and am waiting for some ponies I came with.”
“But we were watching the train the whole time. We didn’t see anypony get off the train at all,” stated Scootaloo.
“I was on the caboose. I jumped off when the train stopped,” I answered.
“Does that mean you’re a stowaway?” asked Scootaloo.
“What? No!”
“Then where’s your ticket?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“I don’t have one.”
“Then you’re a stowaway!” yelled Scootaloo.
“No, I’m not,” I said defensively.
“Oh yeah? Then what are you?” she continued.
“Too big to sit in the train,” I said. “Because of that, I had to sit-”
“I found him!”
I was interrupted by a shout from Pinkie Pie. It was a good thing too because my attempt at being goofy was short lived. Pinkie Pie hopped off of the train and over to me.
“Did I win?”
“Yep. You get the prize.”
“Oh boy! What’s the prize?”
“A hug!” I exclaimed and wrapped her up in a hug.
“That’s a superriffic prize! What did you want to play next?”
“He doesn’t have time to play anything Pinkie,” I hear Twilight interject. “We need to unpack out things and take him to his lodging place.”
I let go of a sadder Pinkie and stood back up.
“You know who this is?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Yes, we do,” responded a now present Rarity. “He is going to be temporarily residing here in Ponyville while we are waiting for certain problems to be resolved.”
“What kind of problems?” asked Applebloom.
“Nothin’ that none of y’all need tah be concerned about,” added a recently arrived Applejack.
“Awww,” they all chimed in unison.
“Don’t sweat it,” I replied. “It’s all pretty boring stuff anyway. At least for children.”
“Really?” they asked me in an ‘Oh my God, that’s so adorable!’ look.
“I’d squee if it wasn’t so uncool and yes really.”
I wanted to try another attempt with them for some unknown reason to me, but I was interrupted by Twilight again.
“Like I was saying, we have to get our new acquaintance-”
“Twilight!” interrupted Pinkie. “He’s not an acquaintance. He’s our new friend!”
“Well-”
“And,” she continued, “he’s new to Ponyville too! You know what this calls for?”
“Ah don’t think that now’s the time for a party sugarcube.”
“Of course now’s not the right time for a party. We still have to send out invitations!”
“Sad, but true,” I said, and instantly started thinking about the song by Metallica.
“Besides,” added Twilight, “we need to get out of the way so that other ponies can board the train.”
I looked around and noticed only two other ponies on the platform.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t look like there’s much of a rush to get on this midnight train to Georgia.”
Yeah, that went over about as well as you might expect it to.
“Uh, hon, it ain’t midnight and I don’t right know where this Georgia is.”
I softly facepalmed and started shaking my head.
“Let’s just go.”
After getting my things from the others, the ten of us started walking off into Ponyville. By then, it was getting into the afternoon. Again, not sure what time it was. However, this time I made to rectify the situation.
“Does anyone know what time it is?”
“It’s the afternoon,” answered Rainbow Dash.
“Do you know what time specifically?” I followed up with.
“Do I look like I have a clock on me?”
“I swear, someone needs to have a watch to let me know what time it is.”
“I have a watch,” replied Pinkie.
“Really? Can you tell me what time it is?” I asked full of hope.
“I can after I get home.”
“But I thought you said you had a watch?”
“I sure do! I have to watch the Cake twins tomorrow!”
I wanted to facepalm hard, but needed to take off my hat and glasses to do it and my off hand was holding my bag. I suppose I could have carried both, but I didn’t want to. Instead, I just groaned.
“Alright then, are we all just headed to the place where I’ll be staying now or should you all head to your own homes and drop off your stuff?”
“We should probably do the latter choice,” said Twilight. “It wouldn’t make any sense for us to carry our belongings all over the place. Why don’t we all head home, put away our things and meet up and the library?”
“Do I really need to?” asked Rainbow Dash. “I mean I don’t really care where he is staying all that much.”
“I think we all should in case we need to tell him something and the rest of us are busy with another thing.”
“That doesn’t really make much sense,” Rainbow added.
“Ugh, just do it please Dash.”
“Fine,” she replied and quickly flew off.
I kind of wanted to question why she was insistent about it, but I couldn’t find the right question to ask.
“Seth, you’ll come with me to the library and wait for everypony there.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said rather unenthusiastically.
“What about us?” asked Applebloom.
“None of us have time to help you with your crusading today. We’re helping Seth get settled in.”
“Can we come too?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“I don’t mind,” I said, “but it’s going to be boring. Just a lot of walking around and I doubt anything else.”
“That does sound pretty boring,” said Scootaloo. “Come on. Let’s go do something else.”
We all went our separate ways and I followed Twilight along to the library. I hung my head as I ended up getting quite a few stares from the townsponies once again. I did briefly wonder what it was that they were doing at the train station waiting for their sisters. I doubted I’d find out now. At least it didn’t take long to get there. About five minutes according to my watch.
“Spike! I’m back!” Twilight yelled as she went inside.
“Twilight! You’re back!” I heard Spike yell from the other side of the library.
“Spike, you shouldn’t yell inside the library.”
“But didn’t you just yell it out?” I asked.
“I was heading into the library. I wasn’t actually inside yet.”
Cop out. I then got down on one knee and looked inside.
“I’m going to wait here since I can’t get in there easily, okay?”
“That’s fine. Just make sure you don’t go anywhere.”
I rolled myself over and sat up against the side of the tree to the left of the door. I sat my bag down and started looking through it to bide my time. I was surprised when I came across one of those parchments that Twilight and Celestia use. I pulled it out of the bag and took a look at it. I then slid the ribbon undone and started reading it.
Dear Seth,
I have asked the guard to put this in with your belongings in order for you to read later since I did not have time to discuss this with you privately. The reason I am sending you to Ponyville with the girls is so that while you are there you can try to help them regain their memories from when you were here before. I have told Twilight to tell the others to keep an eye on you since you can get into trouble without trying. While true, it should give you the presence needed around them to help with this task. Since we both know that you feel bad about them forgetting you, this will hopefully help to resolve the situation. I am uncertain as to how you can attain this goal, but I feel that your presence may help in ways that a simple spell could not. I wish you luck on this endeavor.
Best Regards,
HRM Princess Celestia
P.S. Do not worry about clothes as I have also taken care of that.
I wasn’t sure what she meant by clothes, but that wasn’t really what I was focused on anyway. The reason she was doing things this particular way was to jog everyone’s memory. She was right about that. It sucks when someone completely forgets about you. It makes you feel that you weren’t important enough for them to try to do so. If I could get their memory of me back, then I know I should try.
“What have you got there?”
I turned and looked at Twilight who was standing there and almost looking over my shoulder.
“It’s a letter that the princess left me in my bag. It’s just some task that she wants me to do while I’m in town.”
“Really? What kind of task?”
“She wants me to aid in some recovery effort,” I said vaguely.
“That sounds odd. Why would she ask you to help in some recovery effort when there are lots of ponies who could do it?”
“Apparently, I’m the only one who has a shot at making it work or something. I’ll see about working on it tomorrow. I’m not pressed for time and I think we all need to work on what we’re currently doing.”
“Are you sure that’s the way you should be taking a task given to you by Princess Celestia?”
“I think it should be fine. I’m going to be here for a bit so I can afford to settle in today and get working on it tomorrow,” I said reassuringly.
“I hope you’re right. I don’t want you to get into trouble after all.”
We waited for another two minutes before everyone else started showing up. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash showed up well before the others did. Of course, that made sense considering that Fluttershy and Applejack’s places were well out of town. Eventually, after about another twenty minutes of waiting, the other two showed up and we started off to my new place.
It was times like that in which I really wished they still had their memories of me. The whole time, and really almost any time for that matter, whenever I was around them they seemed very subdued. Even Pinkie Pie seemed different. Sure she still had her grin on her face, but it just felt like she wanted to do something and she just didn’t. It just felt wrong. That time, more than most, made me feel out of place.
It took about fifteen minutes for us to get to the place Celestia put aside for me. It wasn’t a very big place, but it looked like somewhere I could get comfortable in. Well, until I noticed something I should have to begin with. It wasn’t built in the same manner as the ones in town were. This one was an actual log cabin. Unfortunately, my mind instantly drew a different comparison. That comparison was basically ‘The Cabin in the Woods’. I mean it was a cabin, next to a dangerous forest, whose previous occupant was now in a mental hospital.
“This house is a place born from many horror stories,” I said oh so eloquently.
“It is pretty creepy,” I heard I think Rainbow Dash say.
“There’s nothing wrong with the building. Celestia told me so herself,” Twilight said calmly.
“Then what about the story she told us?” asked Fluttershy.
“She was just being dramatic. The pony who lived here before had problems well before he started building this house.”
Despite hearing that explanation, I still felt a bit uneasy. Still, I stayed silent as we all approached the cabin. In retrospect, I think Celestia was just playing a trick on all of us. Of course, That was the impression I got when we all made it to the door and went inside.
The inside was in very good shape. The front door opened onto the right side of the main room with no furniture or anything else in it at all. It was just a rather medium-sized rectangular room about forty feet wide by thirty five feet deep. The room had three windows that were settled on two sides of the house; two on the front and one on the side. The floors had been treated, but were still wooden like everything else in the house save the doorknobs and windows.
“Well, this place certainly is quite dreary,” commented Rarity.
Ignoring her, we proceeded into the house. Along the wall on the right and in the middle of the back wall, there was another doorway which led to other rooms. The one on the back wall led to the kitchen. It was the same size as the front room and there wasn’t much in this room either. Other than what I believe was a wood fire stove on the left side of the room, a door leading out back, and a window near the door, it was also pretty plain. I did note that there was a small opening in the roof to let smoke out of the room from the wood stove as well.
I went back into the front room and went into the doorway that was on the right side of the room. There was a small hall that split into three doors. Two were on the left and one was on the right. The first door on the right led to a bathroom. Surprisingly, the bathroom was still intact. It was about eight feet wide by twenty feet deep or so. There was a sink directly to the left followed by a toilet. On the far wall, there was a bathtub big enough to fit a regular sized pony quite easily. Again, the walls and floor were made of wood which still was throwing me off quite a bit. Even the cabins I had seen back home looked more up to date than this. I was just glad that the other things were all porcelain. It was weird that there wasn’t a mirror, though. A quick test of the sink showed that there was no running water as of yet.
Exiting the bathroom, I took a look at the other door on this side of the hall. This door led to a guest bedroom about twenty five feet wide by deep. At least that’s what I believed anyway. Again, the place was empty. There were three windows on the two sides of the room that you could see outside from. In the far left corner of the room, there was a small, hollowed out area that I assumed was a closet. It didn’t have anything within it either and had no door on it.
I left that room and took a gander at the room across the hall. It appeared to be the master bedroom. It looked to be about thirty five feet wide by twenty five feet deep. Like the majority of the rooms, it was completely empty. The window arrangement in there was a mirror reflection of the main room with two windows on the front and one on the side. The difference between this room and the others was that the wall dividing this room and the main room was blocked off by swinging wooden doors. When opened, it turned out to be a closet that went all along the wall. Extravagant, yet utterly pointless.
“Talk about bare bones,” I said aloud. “This place must have been gutted after the previous owner left. Well, except the bathroom for some weird reason.”
“The princess wants you to live here?” I heard Rarity ask. “Why this place is absolutely dreadful! I wouldn’t even wish this place on the most evil of ponies!”
Dramatic much Rarity?
“I absolutely insist that you stay with me until this place looks more like a house and less like a horrid hovel!”
“I don’t know. Celestia wasn’t exactly kidding when she said that I can be a bad guest. I mean, yeah a bed would be preferable, but I could get a bedroll or a sleeping bag and I could sleep here just-”
“Oh heavens no!” she interrupted. “This place as it is right now is barbaric! You simply must stay the night with me so we can work on this absolutely dismal residence.”
You know, I really hoped that place wasn’t alive like in Monster House or else this could really end badly.
“Besides, I already need to have you come over today,” she added.
“You do? What for?”
“Why, to get you sized of course! Princess Celestia told me that the clothes you are wearing are your only pair. You need to get some fresh clothes and luckily for you I happen to be the best designer in all of Equestria!”
Annnnd there’s the ego.
“That may be, but I don’t have any money to pay you with.”
“Oh pish posh! The princess said that she would pay for them. Now, let’s hurry to my boutique and get you properly sized.”
Yeah, that sounded fun.