//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: The Blessing and the Curse // by Equestria Buck Yeah //------------------------------// There was no mistaking what Matt was staring wide-eyed at. He never owned one on Earth himself yet was familiar enough with them since his old friends allowed him to use theirs if he ever needed. But that didn't explain why it was in Equestria. "Apple Bloom?" "It was laying in the bushes around a tree near school. Scootaloo was fooling around and slipped and landed in the them. She bumped into it when she was getting back up," the filly nervously explained, fearing she may have done something wrong. "Why? What is it?" With his jaw hanging open, it took him several seconds to whisper his baffled response. "It...it's an iPhone. But...?" "What's that? Does it have something to do with your eyes?" the elder sister asked. When Matt first arrived and managed to break through his initial panic and talk with Applejack and the others, he told them about where he was from with a lot of emphasis on technology. He loved playing with his toys after all. After accepting that he was stuck in Equestria, talks about what kinds of things Earth had didn't come up terribly often. What reason was there to? He never would be able to show them how it worked before this unexpected surprise. "Err, no, it's just a name. 'I' like the letter, not your actual eyes. I honestly don't remember if I ever heard what it stood for though." "Is it yours?" "No, I never had one. You know the only things that I came here with were–" Before he could finish, a sudden, horrifying idea bombarded his mind. He only landed in Equestria because Discord brought him there. But now, another thing from Earth... In a flash, he got to his feet and bolted for the door, phone still in hand. 'No no no no no no!' "Matt? What's wrong?!" He yanked open the door and shot out into the yard, terror-stricken panic filling his brain. That bastard couldn't be back, he just couldn't! Matt tossed his stone body into space! Things had been peaceful since then! How in the hell could he have come back, and how could Matt fight him now if it came down to it?! Discord wasn't going to fall for the same trick twice! He came to a stumbling stop, quickly scanned the sky, the ground, the trees and found...nothing. The early evening sky was glowing a soft dark blue. The moon and the first few stars were starting to come out. None of the orchard was talking or running around on its own. Everything looked...normal. The livestock! Maybe they saw something! He sprinted off to the pens where the sheep and the cows were held, hoping to God they weren't flying around or anything crazy. When Daisy Jo, Mooriela and the rest came into vision, Matt slowed to catch his breath, relieved to see that everything looked in order for them as well. The bovines stared blankly as he came to a stop near the fence. "Something we can help you with?" He took another long, worried look around, his gaze eventually coming back to rest at the cows. "Uh...n-no. I'm...I'm good." He glimpsed back and forth between the iPhone and the environment, still at a total loss. There had to be something going on. Nothing else had appeared from Earth up until then. Even so, if Discord was back, he'd go out of his way to make sure everyone knew about it. Matt was dead certain of that. He knew what the manipulative freak was like; he did still have his memories. So why was this thing showing up now of all times? Matt was so lost in thought he didn't hear the soft hoofsteps of a concerned cowgirl behind him. Her hoof in his hand brought him momentarily back to his senses. "Matt, what is it?" With one last cautious check, he shook his head and answered, "Nothing." It wasn't anything he truly believed, but there didn't seem to be anything the matter. Applejack too scanned for anything unusual but came up empty. "Come on. Let's head back inside, okay?" "...Yeah. Yeah, alright." As they started their walk back, the farm mare couldn't help but notice how lost in thought Matt was, likely trying to piece things together. He was beyond shaken up when Apple Bloom pulled the device from her saddlebag. As much as she wanted to help, she had no idea what she could do except be there, regardless of what was going on. ----- Their quiet walk back to the house was punctuated by an equally silent entrance. The rest of the Apple family stood patiently in the living room, all wondering why in the world Matt raced out. Without saying a word, he and Applejack made their way back to the dining table with the others trailing a nervous step behind. One by one, they retook their seats and tried to get back to eating, but unsurprisingly, the last thing on Matt's mind was food. He went back to staring hard at the iPhone until Apple Bloom spoke up. "You okay, Matt?" "Yeah, kiddo. I'm alright," he said with a groan. He ran his hand across his face, desperate to relax, lest his dinner come back up. "What was that all about?" "I, uh...I thought someone we didn't want around was paying a visit because of this," Matt mumbled, motioning at the phone. "What is that thing? What does it do?" the youngster asked. He took a moment to think of a good way to answer her but it hit him rather quickly. "You remember that thing I gave to that dragon last year? You could talk to someone on the other side of the world with it like they were sitting next to you?" "Oh yeah, I remember that. That little plastic thing that had the numbers and stuff on it," Applejack spoke up. "Yeah, that's it. Think of this as...mmm...its younger but smarter brother. Y'know, I wonder..." With an tense breath, he pushed the small button below the screen, hoping it would come to life and then not ask for a passcode. Though if it did, Pinkie could probably somehow get through it if he asked her to help, provided she managed to stop gawking at the thing if that were to end up happening. Fortunately, the iPhone came alive with its 'slide to unlock' prompt displayed at the bottom. A smile quickly formed on Matt's face and a giddy chuckle left his lips as he slid his finger across the screen. "Buh! No wonder we couldn't get it to do anything!" Apple Bloom huffed. "Our hooves are too big to push that little button! Ugh, fingers seem so much more useful than hooves!" Giggling at her frustration, Matt looked over the various icons that appeared, seeing the usual options his friends tended to have on theirs. Oddly, the clock that typically appeared at the top didn't seem to be working, likely thanks to a lack of GPS of any kind. Though he didn't want to rule anything out completely. Who knows if other things like satellites were suddenly around that he wasn't aware of before? He noted the battery life: ninety-three percent. Interesting. Apple Bloom said they found it by a tree near the school. Surely they must have passed it plenty of times before as he likely had too. There's no way it'd have any juice left if it was sitting there, somehow unnoticed by everyone in town, for nearly a year and a half. The Apples ditched their food, an understandable newfound curiosity taking them by the hoof. None but Applejack and her friends had seen his original flip phone and they wanted to check the strange device out. Matt's finger went straight for the phone list. May as well see if he knew who it belonged to. It was an extremely long shot, but he was going to look over the contacts eventually anyway. The number at the top showed an area code of 513. No such luck – he came from 251. "What're you doing there?" Applejack asked as he poked around. "Just seeing if I knew where this may have come from. No dice." Another wildly unlikely situation came to mind and he began to scroll through the list of names, stopping at H. Whoever owned the phone put down their home number there as well. Just what he was hoping for. Before he finished his search though, Apple Bloom did a double-take as the names and numbers flew by. "Wait, how does it know to do that?" "Eh, I don't know. Just the way it's designed. I know how to play with it, but how it all works? No idea." He selected the home number and put the iPhone to his ear, turning to Applejack and apprehensively lifting his eyebrows. He simultaneously hoped something would and wouldn't happen. Hearing from another person for the first time in so long would be awesome, but that'd also mean something was very, very wrong. Several seconds went by and the phone remained silent. No dial tone, no whistling, no busy signal – just silence. He checked the screen and it did say that it was trying to dial out but was making no progress whatsoever. "Don't know why I thought that would work," he mumbled as he hung up. "What?" Matt shrugged, a bit disheartened. None of the questions he had appeared to be answerable, at least not at this time. "Tried to see if I could contact someone, see if...somehow there was another person running around we didn't know about. Nothing." He spied the Safari icon and pushed the button. "Eh, not sure why this would work either." Just like his attempt to call the iPhone owner's home, he was met with no success. The display remained blank as it tried and tried and tried to find the internet only to fail. He curled his lips, not really surprised it went nowhere, and returned to the main screen. "That all it does? Just used to contact others?" Applejack asked. "Oh no, check this out," Matt said with a wry grin as he opened the camera. He lifted it up and pointed it at the cowgirl. "Smile!" "Huh?" The shutter sound made them all blink in bewilderment. With a smirk, the human showed her the shot he took, complete with her confused look. "Did you just...take her picture?" Apple Bloom gasped. "Yep." "But, where's the film go?" "Psh, we haven't used that since I was, like, your age. It's all stored in here," Matt explained, patting the iPhone. Wanting to impress the Apples even more, he selected the camera's video option and began recording the ponies around him. "Here, say something." "Err, what do you want us to say?" Granny Smith asked. "Well, there you go!" He faced the phone at Applejack once more and waved. "Hi, A.J.!" "Uhhh...hello," she said, feeling a bit silly as she waved back. Satisfied with what he captured, he stopped the recording and brought the beginning back up. He pressed the 'play' button once it appeared, bringing the speakers and the screen to life. "Here, say something." "Err, what do you want us to say?" "Well, there you go! Hi, A.J.!" "Uhhh...hello." Four jaws nearly hit the floor. "You can shoot movies with that thing?!" Granny Smith hollered. "Short ones, yeah. You'd never believe how much information and stuff some of the things we had back home could hold. Hell, this little thing can probably hold more information than Twilight's whole library. Oh, watch this!" Switching back to the single photograph, Matt zoomed in and out on Applejack's startled face, garnering a chuckle from the smallest audience member. "That is so cool!" "Heh, y'know Matt," A.J. interrupted, "ever since you came here and told us about all that crazy stuff you had back where you came from, I've always been a bit curious about it. Now that I see this, I almost wish I could see more of what your world had. Heck, I'd love to see everything this can do." "Kind of impossible, unfortunately. I'd love to show you, but in order to do some of the things it can do, it needs, like...well, treat it as if Granny Smith was trying to toss you a ball here, but I had to take it for her and then give it you. Without me in the middle, it can't happen. I'm oversimplifying it, but it's basically like that. I'm sure I probably told you a little about it when I first landed here." "You probably did, but it was so long ago I just can't remember. I think I understand what you're saying though." "Now that I think about it, if those middle things start showing up, then...I don't even know. I just hope this iPhone is nothing more than a fluke or something," he muttered nervously. "You're not happy to see something from your old home again?" "I'd just like to know why it's here. I mean, it's nice, but...something feels wrong about this. It doesn't belong here." He could only shrug. He technically didn't either, but there was an obvious reason behind his presence in Equestria, even if that reason was barreling through the emptiness of space. "I hear you. You don't think Discord has something to do with this, do you?" "That's why I ran out before. I thought he somehow came back and was messing around again." Matt pursed his lips. "But...I don't honestly know. If he got free after everything we did to him, we'd know, wouldn't we? I mean, with all the stuff he likes to do." "I'd think so, yeah." Applejack studied the small electronic in front of them, mostly looking over her terrible picture. "You realize Twilight's going to blow a gasket when she sees that." "Oooooh yeah. Curious, do you know if she can detect magic on things like how the Princesses did with me when they checked to see if Discord was still in me? Just in case there's some trace of what may have brought it here." "I don't know but I can't imagine it'd be hard for her to learn how to." Mat nodded though he wished he got a more definitive answer. Ah well, no big deal. He knew how gifted Twilight was. "I'll stop by her place tomorrow and see what she can do." "Why not on the way home tonight?" Applejack asked. "I've got a thousand and one questions on my mind about this thing," he stated, setting the iPhone down and sighing. "Would rather sleep on it and go see her in the morning before I head out to do that little job I have tomorrow than talk to her now." He glanced over at Apple Bloom. "I do want to pick you three up from school tomorrow though. Can show me where exactly you found it. Maybe something weird is going on in just that one spot for all we know." An uncertain moment passed as Matt pondered what all he was going to find, if anything. He searched through his thoughts, curious if he may have missed a part of Discord's plan with him in the first place. The draconequus wasn't exactly honest about anything. An impatient young voice made him forget about the implications the iPhone may have, even if only for the moment. "Come on, Matt, show us some more things it can do!" With a grin, he poked at the screen again and spotted the battery strength again. It had already gone down one percent. He wasn't aware how fast the phone could burn through its own power since he never had one of his own. "Okay, a couple things. I don't want to drain it completely though just in case I end up needing it for something." "What all could you need it for?" "I'd prefer nothing, but you never know." ----- Matt hadn't slept so uncomfortably in quite a while, nightmares involving draconequi notwithstanding. "Twilight." Needless to say, the next morning wasn't exactly a picnic either. "Twilight." Especially when a particular unicorn and her assistant couldn't stop gawking at the most advanced thing in Equestria hovering in front of them while gently poking at it and sliding a hoof up and down the screen like Matt just showed them. "Oh for God's... Twilight!" "Huh? Oh! Err, sorry Matt," she muttered sheepishly. He figured she was going to act this way, but that didn't mean he still couldn't be a little bugged by it. "Please?" "Sure, sure! Um, you don't happen to have any idea if this is going to damage it, do you?" "I do not." "Alllllright then. Here goes nothing I suppose." The glow on her horn intensified just slightly and her eyes radiated a white light. A few moments passed as Matt let her do her thing, slowly turning the phone in place so she could scan over it entirely. When she finished, the device floated over to its new owner and he took it from her magical grip. "Anything?" She shook her head. "Sorry." He sneered as he gazed at the screen. Wonderful. Didn't answer a single question. "That's a good thing, right?" Spike asked. "It just means that Discord probably didn't have anything to do with it...right?" "We still don't know what it's doing here," Matt clarified. "Oh. Yeah." "Plus, Spike, if something is going on, we don't yet have any way to approach it. If this is just a one-time thing then I suppose we can forget about it eventually, but if there's something bigger going on, how do we prepare for it? And what do we prepare for?" Twilight interjected, a touch uneasy that she couldn't find a problem. "Exactly," the human said. Groaning, he turned for the door. "I gotta run. Cherry Berry wants me to fix up a few things at her place and I need to pick up some supplies. I just hope I can cut out a little early on her. I told Apple Bloom I'd see them after school so they can show me where they found this. Thanks anyway, Twilight. See you later, Spike." "Take care, Matt." ----- It was simple enough for him to get out of finishing up Cherry Berry's project. An offer to stop by the following afternoon and do what needed to be done was fine with her. Was nice living in a place where most people...err, ponies...were fairly reasonable and understood that things can rear their ugly heads at a bad time, thus throwing your schedule for a loop. Matt followed right behind the Crusaders to a tree barely half a block away from the school, informing Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo of what his little gizmo was capable of. Apple Bloom couldn't stop gushing about it. The whole scenario almost felt like old times when he was first introduced to them. "Well, this is the place," the tiny pegasus said. "And where exactly did you find it?" "Over here." Matt got to his knees and dove right into the bush. They may have been a third his size, but he still wanted to get a good look. He clawed at the leaves and branches but everything seemed fine. He patted and tore at the ground, half-expecting to find a hole in reality but thankfully found nothing there either. While he was relieved that things appeared normal so far, he still felt frustrated that it was looking like he was going to still be left without answers. His frustration escalated when a pair of voices spoke up from behind him. "Look, Silver Spoon! It's the Dork-saders and their pet monkey!" "Aw, did the monkey fall out of his tree?" "Oh, get lost, you two!" Scootaloo snapped. "Yeah, if it wasn't for Matt, the whole town would've been destroyed!" He was so not in the mood for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's bickering. He had heard it all before, and though he rarely ever did so to anyone or anything in Ponyville, he couldn't help but flip them the bird this time. "Tsk, and what is that supposed to mean?" Diamond Tiara snarled. He shot her back an equally menacing scowl. "Nice hat." "Hat?! This isn't a hat! Her country bumpkin sister wears a hat!" she yelled, pointing at Apple Bloom. "Hey!" "This is a diamond-studded tiara and it's probably worth more than that crummy little house the mayor decided–" He flipped them off again. "Ugh, come on, Silver Spoon. Let's just leave the monkey to play in the dirt with his loser friends. Celestia knows that's where he belongs anyway." The two weasels stomped off, mocking Matt with imitations of their pet name for him. Rolling his eyes, he resumed scouring through the other bushes, still finding absolutely nothing. Once the bullies were out of earshot, Sweetie Belle spoke up. "So what does that gesture mean?" "It means–" He quickly cut himself off, realizing what he almost blabbed. "–something your sisters would probably kill me over if I told you." "Aw, now we want to know even more!" "Me and my big mouth." "Come on, Matt! Pleeeeeeease?" The trio turned on the puppy dog eyes but he wasn't buying it this time. "Maybe later, okay?" he lied. "Yay!" Dodging eye contact with the fillies, he sat up against the tree on one of its bare sides, once again trying to put together what was happening. He hadn't done so much thinking in his life. Maybe there really wasn't anything to worry about? "Well?" Apple Bloom asked. He said with a shrug, "Nada." "So now what?" He shrugged again.