//------------------------------// // I Hear Hoofsteps // Story: Suddenly Starlet // by DerpyStarlet //------------------------------// I walked up to the car calmly, Ron was waiting for me. “what was that about?” he asked. “I had some business to attend to, I took care of it though. It shouldn't be back very soon,” I hopped into the car and instantly regretted it. I pulled myself up into the seat and then I lifted my front Right hoof up, the wound in my shoulder bone (if it could even be called that) was finally getting to me. I turned my head to see the wound and saw that my fur was glistening with blood, the bleeding was slow, but that didn't make it hurt any less. “Something wrong?” he leaned over me and looked at my side. He got wide eyed when he saw the blood, “What was the business you had to take care of?! Are you okay?! I'll get some water to wash out the wound, step out of the car,” he started to rummage around in the bags and found what he was looking for. I stepped out of the car carefully, I shifted my weight so it was mostly on my left side. “It was nothing, I took care of it. Wasn't any trouble at all, I'm fine. Just a little scratch, that's what I get for being a second too slow...” he got out of the car and walked around to me. He was shaking his head in disapproval as he started to clean the wound. “No trouble?! Do we have guys coming after us since you ran?!” he was looking around hastily, I chuckled a little at his concern. “This isn't funny, we could have a serious problem on our hand! Mobsters don't usually like it when you run from them, and you're not exactly hard to find!” he was frantic at this point, I put my hoof on his shoulder to calm him down. “I didn't run, they shouldn't chase after us. Not any more than they were already at least, we should be fine,” I turned back to my wound, it was clean and it had stopped bleeding for the most part. But it still hurt and I wanted a bandage to make sure I didn't get any more blood on my fur, I turned to Ron. “could you get a band-aid on this? I would, but I don't know where they are in that box of yours,” I motioned towards the first aid kit beside him. He reached in and grabbed out a big band-aid and placed it over the wound, he checked it over and looked satisfied with it. He packed up his little box and we both climbed into the car, he started up the engine and we pulled back onto Val Vista. “what do you mean you didn't run? Did you fight them?” he looked a little shocked and scared, I don't know why. “Well, I tried not to. But they kept on attacking, and I can't dodge forever. I didn't severely hurt them, at least I don't think I did. I bucked one, and threw a trash can lid at another. I also threw a rock at one and tripped a guy, But I didn't really fight them. I mostly just dodged, if they are hurt it's not my fault,” I looked over to him and he stared at me. “How many were there? One? Two?” he looked back towards the road and just waited for me to answer. “Three,” I see no reason to lie, its not like they were close to him or anything. “You took on three full grown men and won? Can I hire you as my personal body guard?” he laughed and I joined him. “Yeah, no. I didn't really fight them, I just dodged. If I was actually defending someone it would be a lot harder for me to escape without major wounds” I looked at the band-aid on my shoulder, I was pretty lucky to have escaped without major wounds this time. He nodded, “Well, I'm glad it turned out alright. What were you originally doing anyway? You just told me to wait at the car, did you even get it done?” he looked over to me for an answer. “That was it, I had to get them off of our tail,” I saw him turn his head to me quickly and then put them back on the road. “You knew they were going to attack you? And you told me to wait it out?” he looked a little mad. “I couldn't risk you getting hurt, and if things got sticky I could always teleport back to you. If you got in trouble you couldn't have teleported,” he seemed to calm down a little, but it was obvious he was hurt. “But still, why couldn't you let me protect you? What if you hadn't made it back? What would I do? What would I tell your parents? Sorry but your child died because I wasn't there to help?” I could understand his frustration. He was responsible for me whether he liked it or not, and he couldn't let anything happen to me. I was glad that he cared this much, but I can fight my own battles. “I'm not a baby anymore, I can take care of myself,” I tried to pull off the best Applebloom voice I could, it came out surprisingly well. He still looked a little hurt but he smiled, I smiled too. “Yeah, I guess you can. But promise me you won't leave me out next time?” at least he understood, I nodded. “I promise, I won't leave you out of the next fight,” he smiled towards me and I smiled back. “That was a pretty good Sweetie belle voice by the way, sounded just like her,” we laughed at how similar it sounded. “Thank y'all mighty kindly,” I drawled, pretending to dip an invisible stetson at him. He laughed at my Applejack imitation, when he finished laughing he spoke up. “You're pretty good at voices, who else can you do?” I thought for a moment. I had planned for my pony to be able to do voices, but I had scrapped the idea. Maybe I could do any voice, there is really only one way to find out. “Hello, my name is twilight sparkle,” I spoke, I had focused my voice on how I would have to speak to sound like that. I thought on how her voice sounded, it must have come out pretty good. Ron was laughing as he pulled up into the park, he parked the car and calmed himself down. “That was perfect, how are you so good? Lot's of practice?” he laughed and I just rolled my eyes. “I had originally planned for my character to be good at voices, years alive can give you a lot of chances to perfect your impressions.” I realized what I had just said and shut my mouth, I hopped out of the car quickly. “let's find us a pony! I exclaimed quickly, he gave me a look. “What was that? Years alive? What did you mean by that?” crap, he had noticed my slip up. Maybe I could play it off, maybe he wouldn't think too much about it. “My mare is, just aged. Yeah, aged! But we have a friend to find...” I turned around to look for the pony, unfortunately Ron isn't so easily led astray. “No, that's not it. What aren't you telling me?” I sighed, there really was no escaping it. It was probably inevitable, even if I had somehow gotten out of answering it now. “Well... I don't have any proof, or even know if it's true, but I think I have become my OC. As in I have all the traits of my OC, I might just have some of her traits though. I have reason to believe more towards the latter, but that just means that I am talented. That's it, I had just gotten a little anxious,” it wasn't a lie, just not the whole truth. He seemed to notice it too, but he just brushed it off. He gave me a look that seemed to say that he believed me, so I turned back towards the park. “Now let's find us a filly! Pinkie Pie style!” I tried to ease the mood with a perfect impersonation of pinkie pie, impressions seemed to be pretty easy. All I had to do to impersonate anyone was think of how their voice sounded and think of making my voice like that, my voice seemed to automatically adjust itself to how I wanted to sound. It was like instinct to my vocal chords, my brain just had to tell them what it wanted to do. We both laughed as we looked around the park, we didn't see any ponies at first. We made our way around, but we didn't see any sign of a pony at all. “She must not be here yet. We can wait for a while,” I turned to see we were near a playground, I walked over to it. I had just intended to wait at one of the benches for our friend, but it had been a bad idea to walk towards the playground at all. As soon as I stepped into view I was assaulted by children, they had all seen me walking up. I could try to push through the hoard of children, but I might hurt them. I saw a couple parents start to make their way, they were trying to pry their kids from me. “Leave the pony alone, I'm sure she's very busy,” some of the kids started to walk away, I spoke up. “Oh, it's okay. I don't mind, so long as their gentle,” the kids all perked back up and ran back over. I saw the parents stay close, they were watching over the children. All of the kids started to pet me, it felt nice. Every once in a while a kid would pull on my fur and I would turn to them, “gentle please,” they would nod and continue to pet me. After a while the kids started to get bored and the crowd thinned out, eventually the children went back to playing. The parents started to walk away too as the children started to walk away, one walked over to me though. I made my way over to the closest bench and looked up towards the parent that was walking over, she looked at the seat next to me and I motioned for her to sit. “That was nice of you, I'm sorry if they were any trouble,” she finally spoke up. “Not at all, they were perfectly behaved,” I smiled to her, she seemed to lighten up. “That's good to hear,” she paused, she looked like she was trying to find the right way to word an awkward question. “If you don't mind my asking, what are you doing here? In Phoenix I mean, weren't you the one from down in Sierra Vista?” she looked at me a little warily. I blushed a little at the scene I made at the Shell station, “Oh, yeah. My standings with the authorities probably aren't the best after that little stunt, are they?” I looked sheepishly over to her. She laughed, “No, I guess not,” she composed herself and I remembered her question. “Well, I'm just passing through, but I need to pick up a friend. She should be here soon, then I'm off to New York.” she gave me a questioning look. “Why New York? What's in New York?” there wasn't really anything there yet, nothing of importance. “Well, the plan is to get the element bearers up there and try to fix this,” I motioned to my equine form, “We aren't exactly sure how to fix it yet, but I have reason to believe the element users will have a big part in it. I am the one to originally come up with the plan, so I am going up to help, however I can,” I looked over to her and she seemed thoughtful. “Oh, I see. Are you one of these, element users?” she was trying to think this through. “No, but I still want to help however I can,” how can I help? I had thought out the original plan, but I don't know how the elements work exactly so I can't really contribute more. “Well, good luck. I am glad I had a chance to talk to you. You're pretty nice, my friend seems to think you all are evil,” I shook my head, her friend must be part of P.A.P.A. “I'm only as evil as any other human,” I looked at the band-aid on my side. “What happened there, that seems like a big band-aid, are you okay?” she looked concerned. “It's fine, I just had a run-in with P.A.P.A. not too long ago,” she looked shocked at that. I guess she did know about the P.A.P.A. “P.A.P.A. did that to you?” so she did know about them, but she was obviously not aware of how they were. “Yeah, I'm not in the highest regards with them. I was lucky to get away without more injuries,” she looked completely shocked. Like I had just revealed the secrets of the universe, I never found it a secret that the world is a harsh place. “Are you alright? I can't believe they would do this to you, you must have run into the worst type of P.A.P.A. All the ones I know are nice,” I scoffed at the word. P.A.P.A. and nice did not belong in the same sentence unless there was a not preceding either words. “I ran into some of the sane ones, I'm afraid that there are people in P.A.P.A. much worse than the group I met. I hope you don't have to see the true P.A.P.A.” she didn't really have anything to say to that. We sat there in an awkward silence before she spoke up again. “Well, what's it like being a pony?” I thought for a second. “it's different, but once you get used to it it's alright, magic is pretty new to me, but I am pretty proficient already,” I demonstrated by lifting up a rock and bringing it over. I thought on the bench across the sidewalk and teleported over to it, I teleported back and looked over to her. She looked impressed and excited, I guess that teleportation is a cool idea. It is pretty cool to teleport, but a lot of the awe is taken out of it when you can actually do it. “It's pretty much regular to me now, I don't have to think about the actions anymore, I am not great with my hooves, but I'm decent with them,” there wasn't much else to it. Not that I could think of, I think I covered everything. “I see, and you don't know why this is happening?” I thought about that. Earlier I had that idea about my story, but that's just ridiculous. Besides, I don't actually know if it's true. I just shook my head in response, she nodded and thought for a while. “Well, good luck. It sounds like you need it,” she got up. “Thank you, good luck to you too. I hope you and your kid stay well,” we smiled to each-other and she left. I watched as she walked back to her child and I saw Ron walking towards me with a pony by his side, our friend must have gotten here. “Who was that?” Ron asked as he walked up. “A friend,” I hoped she didn't mind being called friend, “I see you found our other friend,” I nodded towards the pony beside him. She was slightly bouncing in place, “Oh my god! You're here!” I looked her over. She was a white unicorn with a very colorful pastel blue and pink mane, she had a large bow on the back of her head and wore a necklace adorned with a pink heart-shaped stone. I looked her over, she was wearing a sort of cloak, it had a hood but just draped over her back. It reminded me of Trixies cape, except it was a plain black fabric. The cape wasn't as long either, it only went back to about her tail. She was looking me over too, “Wow, I love her hair!” I looked up at her face to see her admiring my hair. “Thanks! I like my hair too!” I cheered looking over her once more, “your hairs pretty nice too, I like the pastel colors,” she looked a little shocked. “Oh, thanks…” she looked uncertain about something. “I didn’t say anything about her hair,” I was too busy inspecting her necklace to think on what I heard. “That’s a nice necklace, where did you get it?” she smiled nervously. “My Grandma gave it to me before she died,” I looked up from the necklace to see her nervous smile; she looked ready to say more. “Oh, my condolences, I didn’t realize it was a touchy subject. I’m sorry I brought it up,” her mouth opened as if to say something but then it snapped shut and she stared at me. I looked at her curiously, why was she staring at me like that? Did I say something offensive? I don’t think so… I thought back on what I had said and found nothing that might have offended her, I couldn’t think of anything. “Who are you?” I was snapped out of my thoughts by the question. “Oh, sorry. I forgot to introduce myself, I am Skylar, but I am in the body of my OC Starlet mint. You can call me Starlet, I would rather my real name didn’t get out in the public too much.” I nodded to her in greeting she looked at me and I went back to looking at her necklace. It was that heart shaped stone on a pink leather cord. The stone it appeared to be made of marble, it had the look of marble and it seemed smooth just like polished marble. Her grandmother must have been a very good artist, or sculpist, or whoever it was that made this sort of thing. “Did you answer my question?” the voice sounded a little shocked, I looked up to see the same expression on her face. “Did you not want me too?” she was starting to confuse me, it hadn’t sounded rhetorical. So why was this mare so shocked that I answered it. I looked over her cape, the cape had some bad stitch work, but it was hardly noticeable against the dark fabric. “Well, I did want you to answer, I just never asked it…” what is this mare talking about of course she asked it. “Yeah you did, you asked who I was,” I inspected her mane. She had a wavy mane, her pink and blue pastel hair. But the colors were separated into whole strands of the color, unlike my mane. My mane had only a portion of each strand dyed, and it wasn’t really wavy, my mane was a mess. Well not completely, it was a stylish mess. My mane is ruffled, that’s it, it’s ruffled. But it’s still neat; it just sticks out into spikes at certain points. It’s hard to describe how my hair is messy, but it’s still styled. Think of an anime guy’s hair, how you can tell where groups of hair stick out. If anyone knows kingdom hearts, my mane is like a female and pony version of Sora’s hair. Except only towards the ends, it’s not spiky all throughout. “Can you stop that? It’s confusing me!” her loud yell shook me out of my inspecting, I looked at her startled. “Stop what? Looking at you?” she was looking at me like I was clueless, which at this point I guess I was. “No! Answering questions I’m not saying! Actually, no. stop reading my mind!” it took me a while to process what she had just said. “W-What?! Oh, I am s-so sorry! I-I h-had-dn't r-realized!” I stuttered, my face was burning up from embarrassment. I couldn’t believe I had done that without even noticing it, I was trying to avert my eyes to avoid hers. “What was up with that? Are you a psychic?” she was looking at me incredulously, I checked to make sure her mouth had moved. “N-No! I-I mean, I don’t think so. I didn’t use to be, I don’t really know how it works. It only works sometimes…” I looked over to her and she was staring at me. I could still feel my embarrassed smile and blood still heating my cheeks, I averted my eyes when I saw her looking at me. “She looks pretty cute when she’s embarrassed…” I let out a gasp and a took a step back. “I-I’m sorry, but could you not… I already had a weird experience with that…” she looked at me with a confused stare, then she laughed. She finally was able to gasp through the laughing, “Ow my sides! That’s just too funny! Well it’s true you know, your blush isn’t helping your case,” she finished laughing and pointed a hoof towards my cheeks. I felt like if I blushed anymore I would pass out from blood loss, it would all just go into my cheeks and leave my brain. My blush didn't let up and it got worse the more she laughed, but eventually she stopped. “You know, I had a friend who had a sister named Skylar. Is yours spelt with an A or an E?” she finally let up with that whole embarrassment. “It's uh, it's spelled with an A,” I was still recovering but I could feel my cheeks cooling down. “No kidding? So is hers!” it seemed like there wasn't a thing that could bring this mare down, she just seemed so happy. “It's always a she isn't it? There's no guys ever with this name...” I muttered it, but she heard me. “It's a girls name though isn't it?” she was looking at me curiously. “No, it's a gender neutral name,” I was getting used to correcting people about that. “Have you ever met a guy with the name? Spelled exactly like that?” she was obviously going to make a point of this. “Well... no, but–” I was cut off by her before I could finish. “There you go, I bet there isn't even a single guy with that na–” I cut her off like she did me. I needed to tell her before she finished that thought. “I was a guy with that name,” she stopped what she was saying and looked me over. “Seriously?” why is that so hard to believe? “Seriously, I don't like to talk about it...” she looked at me for a second before bursting out in more laughter. I grimaced as she continued to laugh at my expense, it was bad enough being mistaken for a girl multiple times throughout my life, but what really takes the cake is the fact that I was one now. There wasn't much I could do about it, I just accepted the fact. But it didn't sit well with me when people try to use that for their entertainment, hence me shushing Ron so much. I didn't want to be reminded of it, it just doesn't sit well with me remembering my masculinity. What I had of it anyway, it's not like I was using it. “Don't mention it, I don't like to be reminded...” she looked up and was about to say something. She froze when she saw my gaze, she shrunk back a little. “Okay, okay. Just put away the death-glare, its really freaking creepy...” I returned to my normal smile and returned to my normal joy. “Okay, well Leandra, I have a proposal for you,” I looked at her expectantly, but before I could finish she halted me. “I never told you my name was Leandra,” I thought on this, she hadn't. It must be that weird psychic power I keep stumbling upon, why does it only work sometimes? “Well, that doesn't matter. What's important right now is whether your coming with us or not,” I looked her over and she seemed to be thinking. “Well where are you going? I kinda have to get home too, I'm sure they're worried about me...” I looked at her, I agree family is more important. “Well, were going to New York City. But I understand that family should come first,” she perked up at that. “That's perfect, I live in a city not that far from New York City. If I could come with you to New York I can get the rest of the way home easily. Also I kinda don't have any way to get anywhere yet, so this would be best,” I was amazed at how much of a coincidence it was, but that's not been the most shocking thing yet. “Well then that's great. Welcome to our little group,” I watched as she bounced a little in excitement. At least now I have another pony to talk to, Ron is great, But he doesn't have experience with being a pony.