I teleported myself back into my house into the living room and sat down on the couch. I was really steamed and the worst part was that I really had no idea why. Oh wait. I'm pretty sure I'm getting upset about not being able to use magic freely. This was stupid. Applejack didn't deserve the outburst I doled out on her. Fuck, I'm turning into Gollum over this magic power. Pretty soon, I'm going to use it to animate voices that I start hearing in my head.
When am I going to learn not to act like that? That's the kind of behavior you would expect out of eight year-olds. Getting upset over trivial things is not something I should be doing as an adult. I should really learn how to tackle this kind of issue. And now I'm back in self-depreciation mode. I'm just a fucking revolving door of issues. Other than the magic and the setting what's really changed about me? Not a damn thing. I'm still the same boring little man who does nothing.
I snapped a bottle of Pepsi into existence and drank from it greedily. Then I looked down at myself. Same sleeveless shirt. Same speckled gut. Same Velcro shoes. Same look on life regardless of what is different around me.
"You know what? I'm going to do something that I haven't done in ages," I said to myself.
Feeling the need to do something different, I got up from the couch and went into my room. There, I pulled everything from my pockets and set them down on the dresser. I looked at my little stockpile of items and then re-pocketed my coin since I didn't go anywhere without it now. I stuffed my DS into my left pocket along with the games for it. Then, I grabbed the main focus of this little renewed trip; my camera. I kept that sucker nearly pristine and not a scratch could be seen on it. Well, maybe a scuff but I digress. I loved taking pictures and looking at pictures since I was little, but the taking pictures part got lost in the constant moving from place to place like all my other interests did. This time though, I was going to take some pictures that no person on Earth had ever taken before. That little thought was just enough to get me motivated to start the endeavor.
I filed out of my room after putting the camera around my neck and placing the extra film in my pocket. I then strolled out of the front door and took a look around. I didn't see any ponies around despite the fact that I thought Twilight would have brought Applejack over to work things out. It didn't really matter that much when I saw Applejack next. I still owed her an apology whenever I saw her again.
I walked a bit down the small path in front of me and then turned around. I took the lens cap off of the camera and with a quick focus I snapped a picture of the place. A nice little picture to start things off with. I did have to think about charging the flash if I kept going until late. Still, the batteries were still fresh so it could be tabled until later.
I turned back around while continuing down the path and started walking towards Ponyville. I kept looking around for things to take a picture of, but nothing really stood out to me. The only things I saw most of the way there were trees, houses, mailboxes, and grass. None of those scream picture worthy to me. I suppose if I was feeling rustic then the houses would have been interesting, but I was decidedly not feeling that way.
Eventually I got to the outskirts of town and started seeing ponies. I was about to start taking pictures right there, but I just didn't see anything that stuck out at me. Yeah, I could have just took pictures of any pony I saw, but I kind of thought that might have been rude. Rude like I just was with Applejack. I might forget some of the lessons that I learn, but not in that short of a time frame.
And then that lesson was promptly thrown out the door when I spotted the CMC going through the streets with Scootaloo on her scooter driving the other two around in their little wagon. I don't really know how good of a picture I got, but I took two just in case; both from a distance away. You don't really have the time to think about taking a picture or not when you see something that cute/cool in front of you. You just take the picture and see if they like it later. I went on the assumption that they wouldn't mind having their picture taken, but just in case I decided to ask them later about it.
From there, I just took a look around to see if there was anything that I felt like taking a picture of. I wandered around for an hour and a half trying to do that. I ended up taking a nice picture of Sugar Cube Corner. I saw a nice pond with some ducks in it that I snapped a photo of. The third and final picture I took was one of the tree library.
After I took a picture of the library in all it's leafy glory, I put the cap back on and went over to the entrance. For a second, I was about to knock on the door before entering. Then, I realized something I hadn't thought about. While yes it may be Twilight's home, technically it was still a library. It made me think about if I actually needed to knock. Yeah, it sounds stupid, but it seemed legitimate at the time. In the end, I just did what felt naturally and knocked.
A bit of a wait came and went and no one seemed to answer. Getting bored of this I just opened the door and looked inside. It didn't seem like anyone was there. I did remember that I was going to see Princess Celestia there at some point after sunset so I just decided to teleport inside and wait for her to show up.
Closing the door behind me, I looked around for a place to sit. That large chair she had before was no longer there so I just plopped myself over near the stairs. I took another picture after a few minutes of the interior of the library and then figured I had nothing to do while I waited. Thank goodness that I remembered I had brought my DS with me. I set my camera down, reached into my pocket, pulled out my DS while not spilling the games I had brought as well, and turned it on to begin playing it.
For a while, it was just me training my Serperior and Azelf, but after almost an hour of that I kind of wondered where everyone was. Well, everyone meaning Spike and Twilight. The question was answered at that hour mark when the two of them walked in from outside.
"Hey Spike, hey Twilight," I said and looked back down at my game; having Azelf use Extrasensory.
"Seth!" exclaimed Twilight. "Just where have you been? I thought you said you were going home."
"I did go home," I responded matter-of-factly.
"We went over there and you weren't home!"
"Well, I guess I didn't say I was going to stay home," I said as I kept my eyes on the game. "In my defense, I did think I was going to stay there for a while. Instead, I decided to take a few pictures with my camera here," I said and pointed at the camera to my side.
"That doesn't matter. You need to talk to Applejack about what happened."
"I know. I was frustrated and took it out on her and that was wrong of me. I'm going to apologize when I see her next."
"You should do it now."
"I'm waiting for Celestia here. She's supposed to show up for a chat or something."
"That's not for several hours. You have plenty of time to see Applejack back on her farm and talk to her."
"What's really there to talk about? I was in the wrong and I said I was going to apologize to her later."
Sweet. Azelf leveled up. Let's see... +6 health, +3 attack, +2 defense, +4 special attack, +2 special defense, +3 speed. Nice.
"I still think you ought to talk to her."
"Hey, what's that you've got there?" asked Spike.
"Finally a good question! This, my scaly fellow, is a Nintendo DSi. It has many functions, but the one I use most is the ability to play video games. The one I'm currently playing is Pokemon: White Version. Basically I'm on a journey as a trainer to collect Pokemon and battle against other trainers in friendly combat. Every time I play this now I can't help but think about the possibility of Fluttershy as a trainer. If they were real I have no doubt that she could catch any one of them."
It was then that I noticed two people, er ponies, er, I mean, one pony and one dragon staring at the screens.
"Pretty cool am I right?"
"I've never seen anything quite like this," Twilight said with a hint of interest.
"I bet not," I said being a smart alec. "This was made with the kind of technology that takes years to develop. It's all thanks to science."
"How does it work?" asked Spike oddly enough.
"It works through a combination of circuitry, electricity, programming, and a slew of other things that are more intricate. You would need to delve into a great many different areas of study to understand it all. Suffice it to say I only know the basics and only that way do I know how it works."
"This is so fascinating!" Twilight gasped. "Can I try it?"
"I guess you can. Let me save first."
A quick save later and I let Twilight levitate the DS out of my grasp. She moved it around in the air as she examined it closely. I'll admit that I've put quite a bit of wear and tear into it and it showed. Hell, the amount of times I've dropped it made the bumpers not work almost at all anymore. She saw all of that exterior and took a closer look at the screens.
"So what is it that you do with this then?"
"It's pretty much a device to play games with. You use the directional pad as well as the four face buttons and the select and start buttons. Each of them has a use for the game that is being played."
"Why does it need that many buttons?"
I got a mischievous grin.
"Well, ask the DS and then hit the Y button."
She looked back at the device, spoke her question to it, and managed to depress the Y button. She then read the words and looked back to me.
"I don't understand. Some tree was talking to you and completely ignored my question."
I chuckled quite well at hearing that. Still, I wasn't done. I was lucky I had read that with her or I would've stopped.
"Juniper isn't a tree in this case. It's the name of a person. Also, it doesn't recognize your voice so it thinks you're me."
"Well, I guess that makes sense, but it told me that there was a time and place for everything, but not right then. What is that supposed to mean?"
"I think it means that your question will be answered in time. It can be kind of vague sometimes," I said; lying my ass off in fun.
"So, what am I supposed to do?"
"Well, go ahead and walk around in the grass there," I pointed out.
As she figured out how to move with the directional buttons, I grabbed my camera and took my time to get a good picture of the scene before me. She jumped in surprise as soon as an encounter sprang up.
"Seth! Something happened and this bug showed up!"
I took a look at the screen and noticed that a Heracross had shown up.
"Don't worry. It's a random encounter. Whenever you move around in the grass there is a chance for a wild pokemon to show up. Here, tap this spot with the stylus."
"What's a stylus?"
"Oh right, I was just using my fingernails."
I reached over and pulled the stylus out of the side and held it out until she grabbed it with her telekinesis.
"Now, tap the big button there."
"But that button says fight," she stated full of confusion.
Oh right. Dang, how was I going to explain the nuances of pokemon battling to her? Well, she's been in battles before. The battle for Canterlot in season two is a prime example. I could probably stumble out a way for that to work.
"Basically, Twilight, in the world of Pokemon there exists lots of creatures generally grouped together as pokemon. Each pokemon has abilities and traits that are unique to all others. Sort of like how earth, unicorn, and pegasus ponies are different from each other. In this case there are way more different species. They are usually grouped in types like flying types, water types, steel types, et cetera."
At that point, I noticed that Twilight had grabbed a parchment and quill and had started writing down what I was talking about.
"Pokemon live together alongside humans and they both learn and grow from each other. One of the main ways that this happens is through a system called battling. The people who do this are called trainers. They guide their pokemon in battle against wild pokemon or other trainers. As they do, the pokemon grows stronger and the trainer and pokemon bond together. This leads to better understanding between people and pokemon."
"That's not what it seems like in the game though."
"That's because this is a game adaptation. It takes the battle aspect from that and uses it as the main subject matter. Since there isn't a real person or pokemon it only focuses on that. Just try it out and see if you like it or not."
She kept staring at me warily for a bit. Eventually, she relented and tapped on the screen with the stylus. She kept going and didn't say anything. She just kept levitating the DS and occasionally she would make a face or two. I took this as a good sign and let her absorb the information she was gleaming from my game. I just wished that I had something to do while she worked on that.