Shane laid in his hospital bed thinking about his strange dream after his so called rant," How is that possible? Everything felt so real. I know it was a dream, but yet...I felt everything! Every blade of grass, every hoof, even my own! And especially that hit from that stupid pony!"
" Hahaha, look's like someone hit their head a bit too hard," a guy laughed entering his room.
" Mark! I'm so glad to see you! I need your help," Shane said from his bed reaching out to him.
" Anything man, what is it?" Mark asked.
" Don't overreact and I mean it, I cannot stress that enough," Shane emphasized a warning.
Mark sighed," Just tell me."
" Fine, I know you won't believe me but.... I think I was a pony and went to PonyVille, damn that sounds redundant."
Mark stared at him for a few seconds and burst out in laughter," Hahahahaha! Dude out all people, you?! Hahahaha! I mean come on, you hate all things pony related," he then wiped a small tear," Maybe you did hit your head too hard."
" I'm serious! I was a pony and everything! I was a grey pony with wings!"
" You mean a pegasus?" Mark corrected him," Look man, I know you don't like ponies but teasing me that you went to Equestria is hardly going to work."
" You're not listening! I felt and saw everything! That purple unicorn with the OCD!"
" Twilight Sparkle?" Mark questioned his knowledge of ponies.
" Yeah her! And that derpy eyed one, Derpy right?" Shane wondered if he was correct to which Mark nodded," And there were two others! Kinda clothed, a zebra striped one with goggles and also an ice colored, both pegasi."
" Hmm, clothed ponies? You won't usually see that in PonyVille, what were their names?" Mark questioned actually now trying to help his friend.
" I think one went by the name of Graze and the other Lance."
" What kind of pony name is Lance?"
" I don't know! But that Graze, punched me square in the head. Next thing I know, I am awake from my dream with this throbbing pain."
" Everything doesn't quite add up, how do you feel pain from a dream? And why Ponyville?" Mark asked himself.
" Maybe God hates me."
" Maybe God is a brony and he knows what you did," Mark joked," Don't you think I'm not smart enough to know it was you who trolled that site."
" Oh really?" Shane folded his arms.
" Yeah really, I just gave you the site and as soon as I did, bam, trolled, I'm not stupid Shane but you're my friend and I forgive you," Mark said walking away," I'm going to leave you now and give you some rest time, you'll be here whole weekend."
" Wait! It's so boring! Don't leave me here!" Shane begged as Mark stopped in his foot steps," I will do anything! Even talk about ponies!"
" Are you seriously that desperate?" Mark asked holding the door knob looking at his friend, " This may sound harsh but, I hope you visit Equestria again for your sake because, you really do need an attitude change." He then slammed the door leaving his friend to contemplate on his actions.
Shane flinched hearing the sound of the slamming door," Jeez, what's his problem?" He asked to himself laying on his bed as he stared at the ceiling. ' A weekend shouldn't be too long, maybe I should just sleep it off....Wait, what if I see those ponies again? Ha! Doubt it, it was only a dream and what's the odds of it happening again?' Shane's mind raced as he continuously rambled not soon after falling asleep.
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A few hours of sleep later, Shane awoke once again with a yawn and his eyes closed," Ugh, my fucking head still hurts dammit!"
" Well well well, look who finally decided to wake up." Shane turned his head from his fallen stature to the direction of the voice as he saw a familiar ice colored pony sitting ever so calmly on the couch reading a magazine.
" Graze if I'm not mistaken," Shane said.
" Oh, look who remembers my name," Graze said getting off the couch trotting towards the pony," Now let's get one thing straight, you've gotten off the wrong hoof with me calling my mare Derpy. Her name is Ditzy and if I ever find out you called her that again, I will rip you limb from limb."
" Aren't you ponies supposed to be about Love and Tolerance?" Shane question.
" I just loved the fuck out of you when I knocked you out and I am tolerating your shit now," Graze responded," Why do you say 'you ponies'? You're a pony yourself and we haven't even gotten your name."
' Wow, this one is right, I need a name, Shane seems too normal...At least I can make it sound badass,' Shane thought to himself," Alright, fine, call me Tainted Shadow."
" Seems kind of redundant but, to Tartarus with it," Graze said trotting to him lending out a hoof," C'mon get up, we have to meet the others outside."
Taint grabbed his hoof standing up on all his fours as he followed Graze walking outside the house. Tainted saw the four ponies beside each counterpart yet again as the red striped one spoke up" Hey there buddy, sorry for my friend's rational behavior, he is just over protective of Ditzy, so please for the sake of your life, don't ever repeat THAT word." He then chuckled," If Graze didn't hit you too hard, my name is--"
" Lance, and I am Tainted Shadow." Tainted introduced himself.
" Welcome to Ponyville Tainted! I am so sorry about Graze," Ditzy apologized as Graze snorted hot air through his snout as she continued her welcome," Want to come with us? We are going to get some dinner!"
" It would be nice if you got to know us better...And also as an apology," Twilight sheepishly smiled.
' I really don't want to, but! Free food!' Tainted thought to himself," Alright, fine but after this I'm leaving."
" Celestia sakes! What the fu--"
" Graze! If he wants to leave let him!" Ditzy exclaimed.
" Yeah but he could be a little bit more grateful!" Graze pointed a hoof to Tainted.
Lance interrupted Graze's rant as he appeared between them," What my friend is trying to ask is, do you have a place to stay?"
" WHAT?!" Graze shouted but was quickly given a hind buck to his chest by Lance.
" Not really, no."
" We have an extra room, would you like to stay with us?" Lance asked kindly with a smile.
' Why are they so kind? Well, except for Graze.' Shadow thought to himself and accepted the offer ," Fine, but can we please get dinner? I'm starving!"
" No problem," Lance began his trot putting a wing around Twilight as Graze did intertwining his tail with Ditzy's.
' I've never seen these two ever! Not even on the internet...Who are they?'
" Hey Graze, Lance, how did you two meet? You both seem to be like great friends," Tainted questioned.
Lance chuckled, "Well, that's a long story."
Graze nodded in agreement, "Sure is."
Lance looked at the two females, "Could you two give us some privacy?"
Twilight raised an eyebrow, "Why? You don't want us to know what you two were like before coming to Ponyville?"
Graze chuckled, "Exactly."
Twilight sighed, "Come on Ditzy, let's go do something."
"Bake some muffins?!" Ditzy yelled out as she followed Twilight out of the room.
Lance and Graze smiled and took a seat across from Shane.
Lance looked at Graze and rubbed his chin, "So, where should we start?"
Graze chuckled, "Well, we could start from the beginning. From when we first met."
Lance pointed a hoof at him while smiled, "Ah, that's a good spot to start." He turned his head back to Shane and grinned, "You ready?"
Shane sighed, "Yeah, sure."
Lance rubbed his front hooves together, "Alrighty then." He cleared his throat before continuing, "Well, you see, me and Graze met each other in middle school. How long ago was that?"
"Twelve years." Graze answered.
Lance chuckled, "Yeah, twelve years ago. We've known each other twelve years, and we've been the best of pals since."
Graze nodded, "Sure have. We've been through a lot together." He then began to laugh, "Hey Lance, remember when we were mare's for a day?"
Lance also began to laugh, "That was hilarious! Remember when we tried to fool our friends and see if they would date us?"
Graze smirked, "Yeah, I remember you making out with one of them."
Lance waved a hoof at him, "Shut up dude, you know it was for a greater cause!"
"Maybe so, maybe so." Graze said while smiling slyly.
Shane cleared his throat, getting their attention.
Lance smiled sheepishly, "Sorry about that. We tend to get off topic." He sighed, and chuckled, "As I was saying, we met about twelve years ago in middle school. I use to be a nerd..."
"Still is." Graze said with a smirk.
"... I use to be a nerd, always reading and trying to keep up with my studies." He chuckled to himself, "I'll make this a little shorter. One day, when I was studying on the front lawn of the school, some local bullies came up and began to pick on me. Calling me names and pushing me around. But, before they could do any damage, a colt came and stood up for me. This colt was Graze here." Lance said, gesturing to his friend.
Graze gave a nod, "Yep, it was my first day at that school. I had just moved to Fillydelphia from Hoofington. I was young, but full of energy... that doesn't sound right but I'll roll with it."
Lance chuckled a little, "Well, Graze here beat the crap out them. After that, me and him became great friends." They slammed their hooves together, "Skipping ahead a few years to when we were in High School."
Graze smiled, "I got it from here Lance."
Lance waved a hoof at him, "Floors all yours."
Graze cleared his throat and smiled, "While in High School, we got into some deep shit." He snickered, "Hey Lance, remember that Vine chick?"
Lance nodded and rubbed his back, "Yeah, I remember her beating the crap out of us... all I did was drink her coffee."
Graze shrugged, "Beat's me. Remember Ms. Anarchy?"
Lance shuddered, "I remember her and Mr. Charge dating. Ponies that old shouldn't be dating!"
"You got that right. There should be a age restriction on dating." Graze said while he looked out the window.
"OH! Remember the time we got drunk and woke up with all those mares?" Lance said before laughing like crazy.
Graze also burst out laughing, "Yeah! I remember that! Wasn't there like thirty three of them?"
"Thirty four." Lance answered, still laughing.
Graze slapped his knee, "Remember that party?"
"Which one?" Lance said, calming down a bit.
"The one at Old Hickory."
Lance nodded with a grinned, "Oh yeah, I remember."
"We got so drunk that night, remember when you thought I was your mom, and I thought you was my sister?"
"That was a disaster, but funny! Remember when we sang karaoke and just began to scream random words into the mic?"
Graze chuckled, "I remember you jumping into the crowd and breaking your snout."
Lance shook his head, still smiling, "I was drunk."
Again, Shane cleared his throat, "Guys, get back on topic."
Lance facehoofed, "Sorry Tainted. After High School, we decided to stick together and roam all over Equestria. We traveled far and wide, trying to find the place that suited us."
"We got into so much trouble! *Sigh* Those were the good days." Graze said with a chuckle.
Lance gave a nod, "Well, we finally came upon this small town. It was so out of the way, we almost missed it. Luckily, Graze here had to use the bathroom."
Graze raised a hoof, "In my defense, I did eat a lot of chill peppers."
Lance chuckled, "Alright, time to shorten this down, since this next part would take forever to explain. We arrived in town, after a while, we met two mares. We dated them for a few months, got married to them, and soon got jobs. Graze's sister, Aroma, soon followed and joined up with us. We put our bits together and bought this house, which is pretty nice if you ask me. Yeah, that pretty much sums it all up."
Graze nodded, "Almost, but I'll go into detail later."
Shane looked between them till he was sure they were done, "That was a... interesting story."
Lance smiled, "Wait till we tell you all the other wacky adventures we've been on."
Shane sighed, already tired of talking, "Not now. I've got a massive headache from sitting here."
Graze brightened up, "Oh Lance! We go to take him to Little Pub!"
Shane tiled his head to the side, "What's that place?"
Lance chuckled, "The only bar for miles."
Shane rubbed his chin and thought to himself, 'Bar? They have bars in a little girls show? Man, that's messed up. When I get back home, I'm going to mess with those bronies about this.'
Graze jumped up and pulled Shane to his hooves, "Come on dude, this will clear that headache up!"
Shane sighed, 'I doubt that.'
None the less, he allowed the two ponies to lead him out of the house and down the street.
Seven minutes later, Little Pub
Shane stood by the bar, watching Graze and Lance order a few drinks and chat with a few of the other ponies around them.
Shane didn't like it here. The ponies were so colorful and cheerful, it made him sick to his stomach.
Moments later, Graze trotted over to him with two glass mugs on a tray that was positioned on his back.
He sat one down next to Shane and sat the other one down in front of himself. Lance was making his way over to them, balancing his on his head.
Shane turned and looked at the drink. It had many different colors swirling around in it.
'This drink looks toxic... how can there be so many colors?' Shane thought to himself as he picked it up in his front hoof, 'Okay, how do you use a hoof to hold a mug? That's just unrealistic!'
Shane looked over at Graze, "What's this drink called?"
Graze chuckled, "Skittles. This drink will knock you on your flank after one sip."
Shane furrowed his brow, "Really?"
Lance stepped between them and put his drink on the counter, "Yep, almost knocked me out once. It's the strongest drink on the menu!"
Graze raised his hoof into the air, his drink held firmly in it, "To new friends!"
Lance also raised his, "To new friends!"
Shane hesitated, 'Do I really want to be friends with them?' He looked at their smiling faces and sighed, 'Not really... but what can I do?'
He raised his hoof, "To new friends."
They all clanged their mugs together and began to chug the strong liquid.
" Oh fuck. I think I can smell colours," Shane said a bit tipsy from his first shot.