//------------------------------// // Hyper and Shy // Story: Life, Death, and Ponies // by thunderclap //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash walked at your side with a huge grin on her face. You chuckled a little at seeing the pony who had greeted you by yelling at you, was now welcoming your presence. “What’s so funny?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Nothing really,” You replied with a small smile. “…you just seem to be in a good mood for somepony who just had their stunt routine ruined by a, weirdo.” “What can I say; beating somepony in a race when they give me a challenge just puts me in a really good mood.” “I’m guessing the fact that I can put in a good word for you with the Wonder Bolts helps too.” You suggested. “You know it!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her grin getting a little wider. “I gotta say, even though I lost, I still had a lot of fun. Not only that but I got to see how effective that spell was.” “Yeah, what was up with that? I’ve seen Twilight do a lot of spells, but that was different from anything she does.” “That’s because I made that spell myself.” You stated, feeling a hint of pride as you did. “And you wondered why I called you an egghead.” Rainbow Dash said with a short laugh. “What’s wrong with being an egghead?” “Nothing really, unless somepony thinks that being smart makes them better than everypony.” “Hmmm, and that’s different from thinking that being fast makes a certain somepony think she’s the most awesome in all of Equestria, how?” You said with a sly look at Rainbow Dash. She was taken aback at the statement, and put on a rather defensive demeanor. “Hey, I mean that I’m the most awesome in general. I know that there are things that I’m not good at.” “Yeesh, I was joking. You’re not gonna get emotional on me are ya?” Rainbow Dash perked up a little at your comment and even laughed a little. A few minutes later you managed to get back into town and once more you noticed a few of the mares looking at you again, only this time they were whispering occasionally. “Looks like somepony’s pretty popular.” Rainbow Dash said with a nudge of her elbow. Your cheeks turned an impressive shade of red and you lowered your head a bit. “What do you mean by that?” you asked quietly. “You’re not shy are you?” She asked with a slight grin on her face. “Not really just… uncomfortable, I’m not really used to having this kind of attention.” “Uh huh, and all I heard was “Blah, blah, blah, yes Rainbow Dash I am shy.”” “Fine, whatever, I might be a little shy. Happy now?” “Yes, and I’ll be even happier when I’m eating my victory meal.” Rainbow Dash picked the restaurant which was fine with you because you didn’t know what places were good or not. She got something that looked like the pony equivalent of a cheeseburger and you ended up getting the same thing. You were still fairly uncertain about what would taste good to you now that you were a pony. All of your meals had been picked for you at the castle (Not including the desserts you ordered on occasion.) and almost all of them incorporated fruit which was something you were used to. And you of course ate apples with Applejack and her family. Now you were dealing with something that you had tried to avoid up until this point… …Hay. You took a quick sniff of the burger, hoping it would put your mind, and stomach at ease. Your stomach gave out a quick growl as you did, and you slowly took your first bite. You learned that you did in fact enjoy hay now that you were a pony. A bitter feeling began to nag at you in the back of your head. ‘I’m sitting here, enjoying something made of hay, just another sign that I’m not human anymore. Another sign that I can never look at my real face in the mirror again. Even though this world has been great so far, and everyone that I’ve met has treated me so well.’ You thought, your mind focusing in on an image of your parents. ‘It’s just not my world. It’s not the world where my parents cared for me and raised me. I know that everything fell apart in my old life but I still had certain things I wanted to do. I wanted to be able to go to my parents’ graves and show them how I turned out. Maybe I would’ve bought another violin and play it for them. Maybe I could have become a doctor and found a way to cure that heart disease that took my mom. Could I have found some way to have been happy despite my thread?’ ‘If I had never walked out of that politician’s door that night, would things be different? Or would I be the same miserable kid that I was?’ Thoughts like this continued clawing at the edges of your mind. You didn’t know how to feel about being a pony anymore. And not knowing was killing you. “Hey, Blackstar, are you alright?” Rainbow Dash asked. You looked up and the look on her face instantly brought you some relief. Concern. It was an expression you had seen feigned numerous times before, but on her it looked genuine. You managed to smile a little and told her, “It’s nothing. I just thought I forgot something for a minute.” “That’s good, for a second there you didn’t look so good.” “Don’t worry, everyth…” “HEY DASHIE!” an extremely energetic sounding voice called out, nearly giving you a heart attack. You turned your head to see a bright pink pony materialize next to Rainbow Dash. She had a big mess of a pink mane that reminded you of cotton candy. The only things that didn’t seem to be pink on her were here light blue eyes and her bright white teeth that were currently displayed in a huge smile. Her cutie mark probably wasn’t pink either but you didn’t plan on checking. The warning Applejack had given you that morning suddenly played back in your mind and you knew who this pony was. “Hey, Pinkie.” Rainbow Dash replied, seemingly unfazed by the pink pony’s arrival. “I’ve been hearing a rumor that there’s a new pony in Ponyville. And when I heard that I thought, “Ohmygosh! There’s a new pony in Ponyville! If they’re new then they probably don’t know anypony, and if they don’t know anypony then they must be lonely. And if they’re lonely then they must be sad.” And then that made me sad. Then I thought, “I better find this pony and welcome them to Ponyville!” But I’ve been looking all over the place and I haven’t been able to find any new ponies. I did find some new flowers in Cheerilee’s garden but that doesn’t count. So can you help me Dashie? All you have to do is fly around and tell me when you see something that looks like a new pony!” Pinkie explained, each word flying out of her mouth at speeds that put Rainbow Dash’s Sonic Rainboom to shame. “Uhh, Pinkie, turn your head a little.” “Okay, but I don’t see how that’s gonna… Ohmygosh it’s the new pony!” Pinkie squealed as her eyes met yours. Then she rushed over to you, her face mere inches from your own. ‘Personal Space! Personal Space!’ you cried out in your thoughts.“Uhh, hi.” Was all you managed to say to her. “Hey there, I’m Pinkie Pie, but you can just call me Pinkie, almost everypony does.” “Okay, I will, I’m Blackstar by the way.” “Oooh that’s a …” All of a sudden Pinkie Pie gasped at an ear shattering level and jumped in the air. She rotated herself in midair and stayed in place as she looked at Rainbow Dash. “I just realized that you two are alone together! Is this a date?! Dashie, is Blackstar your certain spe…” Rainbow Dash clamped a hoof over Pinkie Pie’s mouth muffling the rest of her question. You looked at Rainbow Dash to offer her a look of gratitude and noticed something odd. It was only for a fleeting moment but you were almost positive that Rainbow Dash had blushed. “Pinkie, don’t get any crazy ideas. Blackstar made a bet with me and lost. This was part of the payment.” She said taking her hoof away from Pinkie Pie’s mouth. “Wow a bet! What kind of bet?” “He challenged me to a race and he lost.” “A race,” Pinkie Pie said with a confused look. “, wait is that why you did the Sonic Rainboom?” “Yeah,” “That’s Amazing! Starry here must have been super-duper fast to make you use that.” “Umm, Starry?” You asked, arching an eyebrow a little. “Yeah, it’s my new nickname for you.” Pinkie explained returning her attention to you. “Blackstar is a nice name and all, but Starry is just a lot more fun to say.” “I would kind of like it if you stuck with calling me Blackstar.” You said with a nervous grin. “You don’t like my nickname?” Pinkie asked, appearing to be on the verge of tears, and her mane deflated slightly. “No, no, no, that isn’t it at all!” you replied frantically, trying to defuse the situation. “In fact, I love the nickname, it’s perfect.” You finished with a weak smile. “That’s great to hear!” Pinkie exclaimed, her mane returning to its normal shape. “It was nice meeting you, Starry; I gotta go do something super important so I’ll leave you two alone.” And just like that Pinkie disappeared in a cloud of dust, leaving a pink outline of herself in her place for a few moments. Rainbow Dash looked back at you with barely contained laughter. “Nice save there, Starry.” “That was insane.” You said with a sigh of relief. “She’s always like that around new ponies.” Rainbow Dash explained. “Once she gets used to you she’ll calm down… a little.” “Well, how long does it take for her to get used to a new pony?” “It varies from pony to pony. It only took her a few days to get used to Twilight.” “I guess that’s a relief.” You said, weakly smiling again. “You know for somepony who’s supposedly shy, you handled yourself surprisingly well with Pinkie Pie.” “Oh that, I’m used to dealing with peo… ponies that are bubbly. Not to the level of Pinkie Pie obviously, but still close enough to where that kind of energy doesn’t bother me.” “You are definitely one of the strangest ponies that I’ve ever met.” Rainbow Dash said with a chuckle. “You say that as if it’s a bad thing.” You replied, returning the gesture. “Well I got to go. I’ll see you later, Blackstar.” Rainbow Dash said, taking to the skies in an instant. You payed for the meal, which barely put a dent in the reserves of money, that the princesses had given you and continued your tour of the town. ‘This has been the strangest day ever.’ You thought while walking through the town square once again. ‘I’ve been given a free jacket and violin; I took a nap on a cloud, crashed through said cloud, and talked to a pony that is obviously well acquainted with sugar and caffeine. And despite all of this I can’t stop thinking how… peaceful and calm I feel most of the time. The ponies here don’t seem to have a care in the world. And now, I’m one of them.’ You brought yourself back into reality in time to notice that you were no longer in Ponyville. Instead you were on a cobblestone path that led to a small cottage in the distance. The roof appeared to blend in with the tops of the trees in the forest behind it. The cottage also seemed to have an assortment of animal pens around it. You couldn’t resist the urge to smile at the sight of the modest structure. ‘Hmm, a cottage on the edge of the forest away from the town, add that to the fact that the place seems to have at least twenty of every animal ever conceived and you’re left with two possibilities: The former being Noah’s summer home; and the latter being the home of the last of Applejack’s friends.’ You thought with a grin. ‘And I was told that the story of Noah’s ark is complete nonsense so I guess that means that it’s the latter.’ You continued to walk down the path when you saw something strange. A light yellow Pegasus was chasing after a small white rabbit with a half-eaten carrot in her mouth, her long pink mane was whipping behind her face as she did . “Pweefe Angel, eat the carrot.” She called out, still holding onto the carrot. But the rabbit didn’t listen, if anything the rabbit was enjoying itself as it sprinted away from the mare you thought to be Fluttershy. After a while it stopped and sat on its haunches as the Pegasus mare caught up. “Oh, please Angel Bunny, eat the carrot.” She said getting down to eye level with the rabbit and placing the carrot in front of it. The rabbit crossed its arms and turned away from its offered meal. An idea came to you in that instant and you made your way to the strange duo. “If the rabbit won’t eat the carrot, can I have it?” You asked gently approaching Fluttershy, remembering what Applejack had told you about her being shy. Despite your attempts, Fluttershy still made an “eep” noise at your intrusion. She avoided looking at you and whispered something. “I’m sorry I didn’t catch that.” You replied with a reassuring grin. Again Fluttershy said something you couldn’t quite hear. “I’m sorry but could you repeat that?” You asked. “I said that that’s Angel Bunny’s carrot, I’m sorry.” Fluttershy replied, barely audible. The rabbit turned away from her and made a noise like a huff. “He doesn’t even want it. Please, I’m very hungry.” You said, using your levitation to bring the carrot towards you. “Oh, please don’t, he really needs to finish that carrot!” Fluttershy pleaded, her cyan eyes growing wide. You pretended to ignore her and brought the carrot close to your mouth. All of a sudden a fluffy white face came into your vision as the rabbit slapped your cheek, making you drop the carrot. “I’m so sorry!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “Don’t be that worked perfectly.” You said with a grin. “What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked, confused. “Why don’t you take a look over there?” Fluttershy followed your gaze over to the rabbit, which was now gorging on what remained of the carrot . “He’s eating it! Angel’s eating the rest of his carrot!” “Yeah, it looked like he was running away from you to get your attention so I came in and took your focus away from him and that made him go after the carrot in an attempt to get your attention back.” You explained giving a triumphant grin to the rabbit that was staring daggers at you. “Thank you so much…” “I’m Blackstar.” “And I’m Fluttershy.” She said weakly, still averting her gaze from you. “Why won’t you look at me, I’m not that ugly, am I?” Fluttershy laughed a little at your joke and offered you a weak smile. “No, not at all, I’m sorry I just get nervous around somepony that I don’t know.” “It’s perfectly fine, I’ve been known to be a little hesitant around others myself.” “It was very nice meeting you Blackstar, and thank you for helping me with Angel Bunny, he can be so fussy sometimes. But I have to get back and take care of the rest of the animals.” She said turning to leave. “Maybe I could help you with that, taking care of animals, was something that interested me since I was a foal.” Fluttershy looked unsure of what to say about your offer for a moment but eventually replied, “Well if it’s not too much trouble for you, then I guess it’s okay.” And with that the two of you made your way to the little cabin you had noticed, closely followed by a suspicious rabbit.