//------------------------------// // Chapter Three- Impressions // Story: Manehattan Rose // by MLPxMaestro //------------------------------// Manehattan Rose: Chapter 3- Impressions: I did it; I managed to actually land a job where I had to fend for myself financially. Not to mention, I even landed a job with an adorable pony as my manager. Are ponies as cuddly as people portray and claim them to be? Probably not, since they talk and act just like us humans, them being ponies is the only difference between us like I said before. I now remained in my apartment for the rest of that evening, thinking about how it would be to work for a pony for the first time? I remained still and upright on the couch, flipping through the channels I managed to pick up with my TV antenna. Their was no way I could afford a cable bill with all of this school stuff going on too. The bills for electricity and water were all I could seem to handle at my new personal place of solitude at the current moment. Flipping through those repetitive news channels over the air was nothing but capital B boring. I still wondered about how all of my friends were hanging in there within Kentucky, Tennessee, and even Georgia, now that I am currently living in Manehattan due to the school transfer. Living here was a good opportunity to get away from the same old stuff down where I previously lived, and I had faith in my instincts, that I knew I could pull this off. I wondered about family as well, wondering how they were managing themselves in Georgia and southeast Tennessee with ponies setting up residencies around them too. I went into one of my pants pockets, and pulled out Roseluck’s number that she gave me on a slip of paper, after she said I’d make a good employee in her eyes. “What time is it?” I stretched, as I extended the stretching of my limbs to an extent to where I could see the clock hanging on the kitchen wall. It was eight o’clock now, and she did tell me to give her a call later on tonight for some reason, but why? “Guess it shouldn’t be all that bad at this time of day,” I said to myself, as I made my way off of the couch, and into my bedroom to call the number. The phone rang a few times, making me wonder if she was even there for starters? “H-hello?” a voice answered on the other line, sounding similar to Roseluck’s voice, which made me assume it had to be her. “You asked me to call you,” I said. “Oh yes, I did in fact, well I was actually wanting to ask you something,” Roseluck replied. “Yes?” my mind now switching to an attentive mode. “Well…you know how you’ve heard about ponies and humans in some parts of the country getting together and stuff right?” Her saying this now made me feel a bit queasy now in my stomach. “Er-yeah…why?” I didn’t hear anything else for several short moments thereafter, which made me wonder if she felt okay. “Roseluck, are you okay?” “Wha- oh yes I’m fine, don’t worry about me,” she replied, sounding like she had something on her mind just then. “You seemed to go silent there for a minute there, did something happen?” “Hm? Oh no, nothing down here where I’m at,” she giggled a bit. “Nothing ever happens down here in this part of town,” she adds. “Don’t we live on the same area or district of town though?” “Would you like to go and eat with some of my sisters? They live here in Manehattan too,” Roseluck asked, making me wonder what she was up to now since she looked over my question. “U-uh yeah sure, where did you have in mind?” “Oh, there is this place that you will love downtown! It’s a southwestern bar and grill restaurant, me and my sisters love to go there,” she answered. “I have a bit of a thing for southwestern food, so why not? I suppose it couldn’t hurt all that bad, so let’s do it,” I replied, as the silence then fell on her side of the phone for a few moments just then before she answered. “You will? Oh thank you- thank you- thank you so much, you will love it down there! How about tomorrow night at seven?” Roseluck speaking like this to me almost sounded like she was asking me out or something? I definitely knew better than to not consider it that way, and end up going along with her wishes on that. That is, if she was asking me out to begin with, which I’m sure she wasn’t right? I did know though, that in places across the country, there were human and pony relationships in a surprising amount even within this very city I now lived in. Not that I had any intention whatsoever of getting into one myself, I’d consider Roseluck a close friend, and that’s if it even gets that far on the friendship path. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The school bell had rung once again this morning, signaling it was time for Roseluck’s second class and I for the day. Strangely enough, she swapped out her previous class, which was math, to my english class. Why did she like being around me so much? I didn’t want to think the unthinkable, as I didn’t have time for that. All I simply wanted to do, was to resume my freshman year learning on my basic classes, like math, science, english, etc. Roseluck found her seat next to mine, and when a literary project had come up, she decided to partner up with me. “Okay class, you all now have your partners, so please approach my desk, and pull a slip of paper from the box. That slip of paper will be what you and your partner have to research on,” our literature teacher stated. After a few minutes, everyone now had a slip of paper, as we were all asked to open them together. I opened mine, as Roseluck’s eyes then lit up for what our project was. “War and Peace?” she gasped before looking at me with a bit of a sarcastic smile, causing her expression to make me smile. “Never heard of it?” she trailed off, pondering over what the story was even about. “It’s a book from Leo Tolstoy,” I replied. “I’ve never done anything on it myself either,” I laughed a bit. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The day continued on, as the hours drew near to Roseluck’s little hang out plan with me would occur. The bell rang for one last time, as the flood of ponies and people once more stormed out of the exit like they were all still in high school or something. “Hey, wait up Matthew!” I heard Roseluck say as she caught up to me making my way out of the building. “I have a question,” I said to her. “Yes?” “Why did you swap out your second class to mine?” “Because you’re a funny and cool guy to be around. You don’t have that typical sense of humor that most do,” she replied. “So…you don’t like me or anything?” She then looked at me, and acted like she was about to laugh in my face. “Don’t be ridiculous! Did you seriously think I liked you or something? Oh no no no, that’s not the case for me. I just like being around you is all, and I think we could be good friends,” Roseluck smiled up at me. Smiles from a person were one thing, but for many pony just about, it would make someone’s heart melt with adorableness. “Plus I wont lie, but I will say that you certainly look handsome for a friend,” she added with a wink. I was not the biggest guy around, but I could hold my own with someone. I was only about five feet, and seven and a half inches, and weighed about a hundred and forty two pounds. In my high school years however within my senior year, I was one of the strongest within my weight class. I could squat three-fifteen, benchpress two hundred and five, and powerclean about one ninety-five. If only I went another year in my school with my weight training class, who knows what numbers I could have accomplished. Obviously ponies were not heavy, despite their size. Roseluck was about four feet tall when standing, which was normal for a pony. For stallions, they would stand a little taller than that, or even closer to five feet for larger and better-built ones, such as Big Macintosh for example. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I felt like I would dress a little nice to make a good first impression for her sisters, should they even arrive. Though Roseluck still told me they would be there, I still wasn’t going to take any chances. I freshen up, put on a nice pair of pants, and a white button up shirt, with a dressy looking gray vest. I rolled the shirts sleeves up to just under my elbows, letting some of me breath in case adrenaline kicked in a bit around a bunch of adorable ponies asking me questions and stuff. The phone then rang while I was situating myself before I head out the door to the place she told me about. “Hello?” “Hey Matthew, it’s me again!” Roseluck exclaimed, happy to hear me on the other line. “Hey listen, one of my sisters won’t be able to make it. My other sister though, Lily, said she would still meet us both there. Well hey; I will be making my way down there right now okay? I’ll see you then!” The phone then clicked off, as I decided to make my way down there. I closed my apartment door, locked it, and followed off by a distinct ‘click’ from the lock firmly in place where it should be. My mind, knowing how it was, decided to make a little game out of it, as I then tried to get there before she did. I quickly ran down the stairs, jumping about the last four or five steps on each row on my way down. I gave a wave to a pony taxi, knowing how rude humans were sometimes with taxis. “Well hello sir, I don’t get very many humans on my taxi at all,” said the taxi driver pulling the cab. “That’s good and all, but I need to get to this southwestern restaurant,” I said to him. After telling him the place, the stallion then made his way back out into the pony taxi lane. Thank goodness for these new lanes they designated onto the roads, since it made getting around town for ponies much easier on them and even humans on occasion.