//------------------------------// // Chapter ten - Human pride // Story: Falling for a Star // by CCpone //------------------------------// * Big thanks to Ocean Stardust and 121hunter02 who help edited this chapter! Anon's POV: Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn Opening your eyes you're greeted by the rising sun's rays shining through your window. Well it was more like a hole in the wall because there was no glass. Once again you digress, getting up you slide yourself to the edge of the bed wiping away the sleep crud that has appeared sometime during your dreamless sleep. You'll admit last night's sleep wasn't your finest, but not your worst either. You always liked to look on the positive sides of things. Turning your head you look out of the window to see the still present sun in the clear skies. "Especially on a day like this." You say as you get off your bed and head for the window to get a better look. Looking out of the window you lay eyes on a clock tower not too far off in the distance. How convenient. You say to yourself as you read the time it was displaying. "06:00." One hour before work, just like back on earth. You think as you get ready to do your morning routine. First is first. Goes through your mind as you make your bed military style. Was there any other way? You shrug it off knowing the obvious answer and head out into the hall. On your way down to the bathroom you stop by the room that Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash are in. You stand there for a good moment before deciding to let them sleep in. After all this is Scoots first time in a long time in a somewhat proper home. As for Dash you'd probably would of woke her up with some sort of prank. You get off the hook this time Dash. You say to yourself as you head off to the bathroom. The bathroom's here in Equestria are similar to the ones back on earth. There's a sink, toilet and shower, a small part of you wanted there to be a tub in here so you can relax, but it looks like relaxing is going to have to wait. With no time at all you lock the door behind you, strip off your clothes, turn the shower on and jump eagerly into the shower instantly regretting your decision to jump in right away. "FUCK! THIS IS COLD!" You yell to yourself as you reach for the non-existent soap. You mentally face palm when you remember that you have yet to buy any appliances. Your mind races through other objects that you forgot you don't have, like towels, clothes... ect. With this in mind you try your best to rub off some of the grime. It doesn't seem to be working so you give up shortly after and hop out of the shower. Once again you reach out to grab the non-existent towel. You mutter curse words under your breath as you reach for your only clothes which happen to be your pilot coveralls. You didn't mind wearing your coveralls for a day or two, but after a week in them you start to hate their very existence. To dry yourself off you mimic a dog and shake your whole body till you felt somewhat dry. You're pretty surprised when the shaking shakes most of the water off of you. On the other hand it left your bathroom completely soaked. You chuckle at the sight and jump into your pilot coveralls. Exiting the bathroom you head straight outside as you know that you have no food stored in your house at the moment to eat. Sighing you realize that it'll probably take a full week to get the money to spend on your house to turn it into a livable place. As of right now it's only use is shelter from the elements. Opening the front door you're greeted by a warm June breeze, that not only made you feel amazing but, also destroyed any negative thoughts you had flowing through your head. Equestria always seemed to be amazing with its perfect temperature and perfect amount of wind. Closing your door behind you, you take a look at the clock tower once more. Just to make sure you didn't take your time drying off. "06:15" You smile as you realize that you're still on time, in fact you're early. If you were to leave now it would only takes five to ten minutes to walk there. Having nothing better to do, you take this time to take a quick jog around Ponyville. After all you didn't really get to see all of it yet. Turning towards the town you commence stretch time, as per usual you let out a sigh of relief as you hear and feel several pops and cracks erupt throughout your body. As soon as the pops and cracks are heard you take off in a full on sprint into Ponyville. You know you said you would jog, but it has been way to long since you did any form of PT. For all that time slacking off, now was the time to push yourself to the limits and work your lazy ass off. Entering the town you notice that some ponies are out and about doing their early morning duty's. Finally! You say to yourself as you realize that now would be the perfect time to introduce yourself to the town, because last time you were in town everypony seemed to be absent. You slow your sprint into a walk arriving behind the first pony slightly out of breath. Wow! I really need to work on my cardio more. You say to yourself as you move to greet the first towns pony. "Hello." You say in a calm voice as the stallion turns around. "I'm Anonymous. You are?" You ask as the stallion freezes in his spot. You knew you looked intimidating to these ponies being taller and all, but this was ridiculous. The stallion in question has a spiky brown main and tail that matched his lighter colored coat. On his flank he adorned a picture of an hour glass as a cutie mark. "What?! How?! This can't be possible! You're not supposed to be here! This is a different universe, well actually it's still the same, but it's still a different dimension." He looks at you with his bulgy blue eyes. "I must be going mad? Is this what going mad feels like? I need to do some test's! Stay right here!" The stallion then breaks out into a full on sprint away from you and out of sight. What just happened? You ask yourself as you scratch the back of your head. Maybe he really is mad. You say as you move to the next pony. This one is a mare and has a blue colored coat accompanied by a white and dark blue colored mane and tail. The tail and mane kind of reminded you of the toothpaste back on earth. Let's try this again Anon. You say as you engage the mare in a friendly conversation. "Hello, I'm Anonymous. I'm ne-" Your statement was cut short when the mare turns around and her dark blue eyes grow wide. "IT'S THE MONSTER!" She yells and everypony in the town starts panicking and galloping around toppling over food stands in their way. You're quite amused by the whole town running into random shit display, although it was equally frustrating that they think you're a monster even though Celestia herself told them otherwise. Before you can even get out one word to stop everypony, they all disappear from the streets and into their respected homes. You done fucked up Anon. Like there was anything I could do about it. You still fucked up. Yeah well whatever. With the panic of the town over and your little argument done with, you look back at the clock tower to see the time. "06:30" Well at least I have fifteen minutes to try and fix this. You state with a determine voice in your head. Now with a clear goal in mind and a set time limit you head off to the nearest house. Arriving at the front step you knock on the door waiting for somepony to respond. "GO AWAY! YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE!" Well you saw that one coming. You think as you knock again. "I'm not a monster! Just give me a chance!" You yell at the closed door, hoping that the pony inside would hear your claim and act positively. Then again should you really expect anything different if you were back on earth. As a matter of fact yeah you would expect something different and that different scenario involved a lot of violence and a lot of blood. You really feel sorry for the first alien to land on earth, boy is he in for something. You sigh as you realize that the pony inside is now ignoring you in hopes that you'll just leave him and his family alone. If that is what you wish, that is what I'll do. You state in your mind as you turn around to head to the next door over. Arriving at the second house you're in awe at how fast these ponies can board up their homes. You were here for like what, five minutes and they already have boards nailed on their windows. Man these ponies don't fuck around when it comes to home defense. However there hiding could use some work as you see one pony hiding under a table. As your hope dwindles on fixing this situation you knock on the second houses wooden door. You're greeted by what you expected to be greeted by after knocking on the first houses door and that's utter silence. Well it was either that or some rude gesture to get you away from them. Your head falls as you turn around to look at the clock tower again. "6:50.... SHIT!" You yell out a bit too loud. Well who cares you're going to be late for your first time on the job. With that being said you say fuck these ponies and make a mad dash to the gilded griffin. The run there was intense as you jumped over objects that were in the way of a clear path to the restaurant. You almost tripped over several market stalls on the way and you did manage to hit your foot when turning a corner. Thanks to these military boots of yours, you felt no pain. Out of breath you come up to the gilded griffin. You slow your sprint to a jog then to a walk. You turn your head to look at the clock tower. "07:00" Just in time! You say in your mind as you open up the door to be greeted by Lyra. "Hey Lyra! *Pant* what's up?" You say as you take your first step into the restaurant. Lyra adorns a confused look on her face, but nevertheless answers you. "Hey Anon! And the ceiling, that's what's above me. Why do you want to know what's above me?" Lyra asks. "Oh no I don't really want to know what's above you." You say chuckling at how weird that must of sounded to her. "It's just some earth lingo for how're you doing." You say as your chuckles subside and you return to your normal self. "Oh! Well in that case I'm fine. Thanks for asking Anon." Lyra replies with a smile present on her face. "So what's up Anon?" She asks trying to use the lingo you have just taught her. "I'm good too, just a bit out of breath. I thought I could solve a problem I'm having before I got here." You say with your panting now gone. "And by the way it would sound better if you replied. 'and what're you up to Anon.'" Lyra pulls out a quill, ink and paper out of thin air and starts to write down some notes. No doubt from the little lesson on greetings on earth you gave her. Lyra finishes her writing and looks up towards you. "What problem did you try to solve Anon?" Lyra asks with a now curious expression plastered upon her face. How these ponies can change expressions this fast is beyond your races knowledge. "Everypony in Ponyville seems to think I'm a monster. So I tried to talk to some of them. Long story short things didn't end out the way I wanted them to." "I'm sorry to hear that Anon. You're a nice stallion you know that. It's just too bad everypony out there is too scared of you to figure that out for themselves." You smile. Why are ponies so nice when they aren't feeling like there life is being threatened when you're around. "I'll try to help you out with that problem myself. Start some gossip if you know what I mean." Lyra gives you a wink. "As for your work here, Bon-Bon is in the back waiting for you. Be warned she loves this business of hers a bit to much if you ask me." "Thanks for the help Lyra I really appreciate it." You wave to Lyra as you enter the kitchen. You can't help but notice when you're entering the kitchen that nopony is dining at the restaurant. You shrug it off and enter the kitchen to see Bon-Bon. "You're two minutes late." Bon-Bon states as soon as you enter the kitchen. The kitchen by the way looks amazing, very high class. All the counters where cleared off and had a fine shine to them, the material looked to be like pearl. They had the huge sinks for all the dishes and a equally huge fridge to go with it. "Oh sorry about that, I got caught up talking with Lyra at the front." You reply as you make your way over next to Bon-Bon. "I noticed that noponies dining here, do you get a lot of business?" You really hate to ask a personal question like this but if there's anything you can do to help you'll do it. These two ponies just accepted you when you first walked through their front doors, it's the least you can do. "Ah Lyra she can be quite the talker." Bon-Bon states with a smile coming to the surface of her face. "As for why noponies here, well we aren't open yet, we open at eight." Bon-Bon moves herself to the sinks of the kitchen. "Here's where you'll be working 'bus boy' for the first few days then we'll see if you can cook." Bon-Bon states with a clear tone. "Yes ma'am!" You give her a quick salute which is rewarded by a small chuckle on her side. "May I say you picked the perfect man for the job. As I was one of the fastest dish washers back on earth between me and my friends. Well I would be when we had to do the dishes manually." Bon-Bon gets a confused look. "Manually?" She asks. "Oh, right, I keep forgetting that you ponies know nothing about earth. Back on earth us humans don't have magic so we use technology and electricity to do things for us. Like how a unicorn can magically evaporate all the water on a dish. Us humans just use a dish washer. When you put the dishes in the dish washer and push the right buttons you can leave and come back in one to three hours depending on how dirty they are and then there done." "That's not really how magic works here, but I'll let that one slip seeing as you never seen magic before." Bon-Bon states as her confused look turns into a look of awe. "You humans sure like to make life easier." She says as she starts the sink. "Well here in Equestria we have to do everything 'manually' so let's see how fast you really are." Bon-Bon passes you a towel, soap and tones of dirty dishes. "You were saving these dishes for a person like me to come along weren't you." You say with a deadpan expression on your face. "Well I guess I'll have these done in a half an hour or two." You say picking up the first dish dipping it into the soapy water and rubbing it clean in seconds. "Looks like those hands sure help out a lot when cleaning dishes. Usually takes me an earth pony one to two minutes to clean one. Looks like your day here might be finished early depending on how much ponies we get here today." She states making you smile at the thought of getting off work early everyday due to you having hands. "Oh and one last thing Anon." Bon-Bon states as she pushes the kitchen door open to leave. "When you're done today would you mind if you left through the back entrance. I have noticed that the Ponies in Ponyville have yet to accept you and I just don't want it messing with my business." She states with a sheepish smile. "No problem Bon-Bon your business comes first." You state as you get back to work cleaning the grime off the dishes. It seemed that when ponies eat they eat without any utensils. You came to this conclusion when you got to the second plate to see the mashed potatoes literally somehow more mashed then they were already. With time passing ever so slowly you finally finish up the last of the dishes that Bon-Bon has given you. You open the back entrance of the gilded griffin and looked around for the clock tower. With the clock tower nowhere to be found you re-enter the gilded griffin. As soon as you re-enter the gilded griffin you take notice of a clock on the wall. You withhold the strong urge to face palm and read the clock. "09:45" Wow I was really doing dishes for almost three hours! You sigh as you look out of the kitchen to see Bon-Bon and Lyra serving multiple ponies at the same time. Bon-Bon spots you peaking into the main dining area and heads over to you. "You done with the dishes Anon?" She states and you nod. "Well I got loads more coming your way when these ponies are done eating. How about in the meantime you take a break, say about one hour?" You nod once more and you both go your separate ways. Heading into the kitchen you look once more around to make sure that you got all the dishes cleaned up and all the counters were clean. With the satisfying sight of the spotless kitchen you exit the gilded griffin out the back entrance. You leave the restaurant and head into the deserted streets in search for something entertaining to do, however your body seems to have forced its own opinion on you as your stomach grumbles. "Looks like somepo- ones hungry." You stumble back a couple of steps as you look around for the source of the voice. "Up here Anon." Looking up and with a sigh of relief you're greeted by a hovering Rainbow Dash. "Shit dash you scared the fuck out of me." You say as you regain your composure. "Aren't you supposed to be working or something?" You say as you continue your walk down the streets of Ponyville with Dash in tow. "Well yeah, but I got time off work due to my broken wing." Dash replies "Yeah, that's a REAL broken wing you got there Dash." You say pointing to her flying. "Where's scoots weren't you with her?" "Well you heard the nurse, she said I would be OK to fly today. Today's just a 'recovery' day to get me back in the habit of flying." Dash lands onto the ground and proceeds to walk next to you down the streets of Ponyville. "Don't worry about scoots she's in school." Dash looks around just realizing the empty streets. "Wow I've never seen Ponyville this empty before, it's kind of freaky." Dash states looking around the deserted town. "Yeah well you get used to it around the third time or so. The only reason ponies aren't out and about is because they think I'm some sort of monster." You say rolling your eyes but keeping your heading straight. "Well I know I kind of am a monster, but they don't give me the same slack you or Twilight gave me." "They also weren't trapped with you for a week in the wilderness where their life kind of depends on you." Dash says sheepishly. "But don't get to comfortable saving my flank, that was a onetime thing." You chuckle at her bash response, "sure Dash onetime thing." You say as your stomach lets out another grumble. "You wouldn't by chance know where to get any sustenance around here would you Dash?" You ask looking down towards her. "I know tons of places to grab something to eat." Dash replies "But I don't think their Human friendly if you know what I mean." You slouch your head down. "Now how am I supposed to get something to eat. I guess I could eat at the back of the gilded griffin." You say trying to find more ways you can get food without having to find it and make it yourself. Dash's face lights up. "I got an idea! Come with me too Rarity's. We can solve two of your problems there." You don't know who this Rarity pony is, but it seems like Rainbow Dash is pretty confident in her idea so you'll go with it for now. You and Dash turn around and start heading towards a rather large building. You would say it was the same size as town hall, but as you got closer you realized it was a good ten to twenty feet smaller. The walk there was uneventful, such so that even small talk wasn't even present. Nevertheless Dash was the first to break the silence. "OK here we are Anon. Rarity's boutique. I don't really go here often, but I know Rarity will fix you up with new clothes." You look over to Rainbow Dash that is now knocking on the door. All I really wanted was some food, but I guess this isn't that bad either. You say to yourself. "So how is this going to solve two of my problems at once. I get the clothes one, but what about eating?" Rainbow Dash is silent, however she has a small smile present on her face. "Fine don't tell me." You say as you wait with Dash at the front door. "Coming, just a second." A sing-song voice come from inside the boutique. The voice sounded very high class and ladylike. Then again this is a clothing designer. You're taken from your thoughts as the boutique's doors open and standing in its place is a white coated mare with a purple mane. Definitely right on the high class remark. You say to yourself. The white coated mare stands there in shock looking you straight in the eyes. "What in Equestria is that!" She gestures to you as she turns her attention to Rainbow Dash. "Is it some kind of diamond dog? You know how I feel about diamond dogs Rainbow Dash." Dash snickers a bit before explaining your whole ordeal to her. As she does so Rarity keeps eyeing you, looking up and down your body. Is she checking me out? No Anon she can't be you're a completely different species. Once Dash finishes her explanation Rarity gets up and circles you. "I do say Anon I am very sorry for my behavior at the door." Rarity states as she completes the full circle. "You do seem to have a very... 'interesting' taste in style." She makes sure she puts an emphasis on interesting. You look down to her "Oh this? They're just my pilot coveralls." You say pinching a part of your suit and letting it go to portray your message. "I don't wear this all the time back on earth, I just wear it when I'm flying. Keeps me from blacking out and catching on fire." This seems to catch the Rainbow Pegasus's attention. "What! That suit you're wearing prevents black outs!" She practically yells out. Dash soon catches herself yelling and settles back down. "Well it docent completely prevent blackouts. Just extends your g-tolerance, typically it adds one g to your limit. You know when you do fast turns." You say as you point to the contraption which is your g-suit. "I have to admit it works pretty well, hell it even prevented me from blacking out a couple of times." "That's crazy!" Dash replies "How does it work? and what's a g?" You sigh as you really don't want to lecture her on the g-suit, but it looks like you're going to have to. "G is the acceleration due to gravity, which back on earth is 9.8 meters per second." Oh god how physics class drilled that into your brain. "So when you're experiencing high amounts of g forces this would inflate" You say pointing to the correct part around your stomach. "Once inflated it'll change the blood flow in your body towards your head keeping you conscious." "How much g-forces can you take Anon?" Rainbow Dash asks with a competitive smirk. "You want me to count the amount I experienced in Equestria that should of killed me, or the highest I have gone though on earth?" You say looking at the Rainbow mare. "Just tell me your highest." Dash restates. "I don't know why you care so much you don't even know how big a meter is." You reply "The most I have experienced is 25g's and that was during the fall. I assumed I experienced way more during the crash. I really should be dead because I was in that state for ten minutes. How I managed to stay awake let alone walk away from the crash, without so much as a scratch is way beyond my knowledge." Dashes eye's grow wide when you display with your hands what one meter looks like. "No your lying. No pony can accelerate that fast. T-That's.... T-That's... That's faster the ME!" You smile "That's not even the fastest humans have accelerated/decelerated and survived. For example Colonel John Paul Stapp of the US Air Force strapped himself to a rocket sled and reached 45 g's however he ended up with damage to his eyes." Dashes jaw hangs open. "You think that's fast here's the world record. David Purly crashed in 1977, his car going 107mph to 0 in two feet" You show her how big two feet is. "Miles per hour? 1977?" Dash adorns a face of confusion. Sighing again you take in a deep breath and begin to answer her never ending raid of questions. "A mile is five thousand two hundred and eighty feet. So one mile per hour means you travel five thousand two hundred and eighty feet in one hour." You sounded silly explaining this concept to her, but they never heard of a mile before so it makes sense. "And his speed was 107 until he crashed which he decelerated to 0. To make that easier for you that's about 34 seconds for one mile. As for 1977 that was just the year back on earth when he crashed. Now back on earth its 2020 well at least I hope so." Dashes jaw hits the floor. "That's impossible no living being can survive such a crash!" You chuckle while you look at Dashes scrunched up face. It looks like she's going to explode. "That's where you're wrong Dash. He did survive. He broke a lot of his own bones in the process, but he survived. It is said that his deceleration of 178g is the highest ever survived by a human being." *cough, cough*"You two done?" You hear a voice come from beside you. Smiling sheepishly you turn to reply to Rarity "Yes, sorry about that, got a little proud of the human race there for a second." You say blowing a raspberry at Rainbow Dash that now has her hooves crossed and adorning an irritated look. "So I take it you're here about your ensemble." Rarity states pointing at your pilot coveralls. "Yes that's why I'm here." You say looking over your coveralls. What's her deal. I look pretty good in pilot coveralls if I do say so myself. "I would like to acquire some basic clothes." You say as you state the components. "shirt, shoes, socks, pants, undergarments and lastly just in case a sweater." Rarity gets a confused look on her face. "socks? undergarments? Sweater? Pants? I don't think I understand you dear." Well you should of saw this one coming miles away, these ponies don't really wear clothes. "Oh it's OK I guess you ponies only wear clothes for special occasions. Socks go on your feet, well if you were to wear them they would go on you hooves. Pants cover my gentiles, while the undergarments are like a secondary cover and lastly a sweater is what humans wear when they're cold, because we don't really have fur." Rarity seems to get the gist of what you are saying, but still has a confused look upon her face. "Why do you need to be clothed all the time?" Rarity asks. "Yeah, I kind of wondered about that too." Rainbow Dash pitches in. "It's a Human thing, we don't like to display our naked body's to the public. It protects us from the elements as we don't have fur. Lastly it's a social norm among humans and other humans get disgusted if you don't wear any clothes. Though there're a select few that go against it." You're surprised when Rarity gives you the opposite reaction to what you were expecting. "Darling that must mean your fashion must be eons above ours! You must come back here one day and tell me all about fashion on earth!" Did you just hear a rubber ducky? Must be hearing things. "Sorry Rarity but I don't really know too much about earth fashion." You say with a sad expression on your face. "It's OK dear I can't expect everypony to know everything." Rarity says as she gets out a tape measure. "let me just take your measurements, then you can show me what these sweaters, socks, pants and undergarments look like." Without struggling you let yourself get measured. It was way better then a human measuring you because she used her magic not her hoofs to hold the tape measure. With time passing rather quickly you're soon done with the measurements and move onto the explanations of what socks and undergarments look like. This was rather easy as you just drew a simple picture for each of the clothing parts. Rarity being a fashion designer gets the tee-shirt and pant design almost instantly. However for the undergarments, socks and sweater she needed a little more information than a drawing. “How do you stitch these 'Socks' Anon? I don’t see any real place to put them with this odd shape.” Rarity asks. Instead of explaining socks into further detail, you take off one of your boots as well as the sock underneath it. “This is what a sock is.” You say as you hand it over. “Be warned I haven’t washed them properly for a full week, so they will stink.” Rarity takes the sock from your hand with gusto, no doubt intrigued with this new piece of clothing. Within seconds she has the sock inside out and is inspecting the stitches. “This looks fairly easy to replicate.” Rarity says as she heads off to her counter. “Is there anything else you wanted?” “Uh no, but I kinda need that sock back Rarity. It's my only one, other than the one I'm already wearing.” You state standing there with one bare foot and one with a boot on. “Oh sorry dear I just got swept away with the thrill of designing a new piece.” Rarity gently levitates the sock back to you. “Oh and as for the smell you might want to take care of that soon.” She says with a smile “however it's not the worst I have endured.” You smile back to Rarity as you pluck the sock from the air and pull it onto your foot. “Good to hear. You know when you'll be finished? These are after all the only clothes I have.” “Should be ready for you by tomorrow darling.” Rarity replies. “Really that fast! That reminds me what time is it.” You look around the room searching for a clock. Luckily Rarity profession requires her to have a clock to make sure she's on time. Looking over at the clock on the wall you take in the time 11:24. “Oh shit I'm late! Sorry Rainbow but it looks like eating is going to have to wait.” Sprinting out of the boutique at a speed that would make Usain Bolt proud you make your way over to the gilded griffin. Without thinking you enter the front door of the restaurant and make your way to the kitchen unaware that every pony eating is watching you. You only notice that everypony is watching you when one screams out. “IT'S THE MONSTER! EVERY PONY RUN FOR THEIR LIVES!” with little time to react you turn around to see all the ponies running around the gilded griffin pushing tables down and overall making the place look like a hurricane hit it. Before even you're shock settles down, everypony evacuates the building and runs again to their respected houses. “...Shit.” Turning around with a sheepish smile that is now becoming your normal facial expression for anything you do here. As expected you're greeted by a reddened face Bon-Bon. “What the buck Anon! I told you to use the back entrance!” Bon-Bon yells as a confused looking Lyra steps out of the kitchen. “How am I even supposed to pay for all of this damage YOU have caused.” You tilt your head down in shame as you take everything that is being thrown at you. After all it is all your fault. “I knew hiring you was a mistake!” ouch “You want to know why I hired you? Well to be honest I saw potential with your hands, but no amount of dishes can fix what YOU have done.” Bon-Bon gallops at you full force “GET OUT!” Following Bon-Bon's directions you leave the completely wrecked gilded griffin. Can't I do anything right. You say to yourself as you open the front doors and walk into the once again deserted streets of Ponyville. “AND DON'T COME BACK!” You hear as the front doors behind you shut closed. The walk back to your home was rather depressing as you realize that you're no longer going to be able to pay the bills for the house. You give it about two days before you're tossed out into the streets. Arriving back at your torn down house you climb up stares to your room and lay on your bed as you have nothing else to do today. Sitting in the silence you think over your current predicament. Shit what about Scootaloo? The last thing you need is for her to go back onto the streets. The silence is broken when you hear knocking at your front door. You get up and sit on the edge of your bed. The knocking continues “I'M COMING ONE SEC!” You yell out to make sure the pony gets the message. Trudging thru your hallway you climb down the stairs and open the front door. As expected a blue bluer races inside. “How did you know I would be here?” You say to Dash as the last time she saw you, you told her you would be going back to work. “Well after you left in a hurry I stayed back to make sure Rarity finished these early.” She shows you your new pair of combat boots. Wow rarity doesn't joke around when she says she's the best. What was it like half an hour and the boots are already done. “After I did some other cool amazing stuff, but as I was finishing one of my errands I noticed ponies running out of the gilded griffin. As a loyal pony to Ponyville I raced over to check what was causing all this chaos. When I arrived Bon-Bon was talking with Lyra about something. I looked around and the whole place was a mess. When I asked what happened the only answer I got was your name. Lyra intervened and try to defend you but I left before she spoke to come find you. What happened Anon?” "Well they're right, I was the one to cause all of the chaos." You say tilting your head down. "Everypony in Ponyville is scared shitless of me and when one of them sees me they all panic and run." You take in a deep breath. "Once I left Rarity's I went back to the gilded griffin to work, but since I was in such a hurry I forgot to use the back entrance." You tilt your head back up to look at Dash. "Well I guess you can figure out what happened next." Rainbow Dash looks at you with a warm smile. This was different, Dash never gave you any kind of sympathy, well at least you never noticed. "So how is this your fault exactly?" You put on a confused look as it seems that the answer is quite obvious. "I'm the one that caused the ponies to run around and smash everything up. It's my fault because I'm the monster they were running from." Rainbow Dash walks closer to you. "You shouldn't beat yourself down Anon, they're just to blame as you are. I would go as far as to say they are the ones to blame not you. They are the ones that are scared of you when you didn't do anything wrong." Rainbow Dash smiles warmly one last time. "Now try these new boots on I want to make sure they fit." Rainbow tosses you the identical pair of boots. "Why are you ponies so nice to me when you aren't running in fear from my very existence?" You ask as you take off your pair of boots and refit the new pair on. You're surprised that when you put the boots on they fit perfectly. She did take measurements but these felt like she was right on the dot. "Don't get to used to me cheering you up. I'm not good with that kind of stuff." Rainbow states as she sits down and watches you as you walk around the house testing the new boots. "Well if I may say so myself you did a fine well job of cheering me up." You say as you arrive back in front of Dash. "These boots are amazing by the way, I will be sure to tell Rarity that her designing is way better then what I am used to back on Earth." "Well I got one more thing I want to show you." Dash states as she leaves the house and you follow in tow without questioning her. "You ready?" Rainbow Dash states as she turns around to face you. "Ready for wha-" is all you are able to say before Rainbow Dash swoops behind you and starts lifting you into the air. "Ummm.... Dash..... What are you doing!" You ask as the ground beneath you gets farther and farther away. "Stop being such a scaredy cat Anon." Rainbow is quick to say. No doubt loving every moment of your reaction. You stop struggling as you realize that if she were to let go now, you would be a pancake within seconds and not the good and tasty kinds either. "I hope you know what you're doing Dash!" You shout as you and Rainbow Dash ascend passed the cloud layer. Admittingly you're quite in awe as how Rainbow Dash being twice as small as you, can lift you up. You know that she is the fastest flyer in Equestria but for her hoofs to be this strong is just amazing. She easily has you beat on personal weight to lifting ratio. "You should trust me more often Ano-ops" Rainbow Dash lets go of you and you start plummeting towards the ground. "AHHHHHH" This is it Anon, this is how you go out. By a crazy cyan mare! You could think of much worse ways to die but this one was surely one of the strangest. *pumf* You burst though the cloud layer on your way down feeling a large force pulling on your feet. Looking around you find that you are no longer falling but floating. How? Wha? Heeh? Mah physics! You're in complete awe as you're completely baffled on what is occurring at the moment. You look down at your feet to see that they are stuck in the cloud and you're hanging upside down. Rainbow Dash soon breaks through the cloud layer laughing her flank off. "Man that was totally worth it! I was like 'ops' and you were all like 'AHHHHHH' it was priceless." Rainbow Dash seems to have trouble flying she's laughing so hard. Rainbow Dash then turns upside down to look at you right side up. "Well it looks like you're in quite the predicament Anon." All she gets in response is you crossing your arms and rolling your eyes. "Now we're even Anon." Rainbow states trying to keep a straight face. "Very funny Dash. So how exactly am I stuck to this cloud?" You ask as you try to lift yourself up but to no avail. "I don't think it's good to have all this blood rushing to my head." You state as you look Rainbow Dash in the eyes. "Oh, you know when I said I did some amazing stuff after getting the boots from Rarity? Well the amazing stuff I did was go to Twilight and have her enchant your new boots with the 'walk on cloud spell'. Oh that reminds me, Twilight said she has some urgent news for you, she claimed it could either be good or bad depending on how you look at it." "So what you're saying is that my boots are the only thing keeping me from falling from this cloud?" You state as you feel your feet slowly slip from the shoes grasp. Rainbow Dash nods. "Pretty cool huh? Twilight said that the spell works because she didn't cast it on you but on the boots. She also said a whole bunch of other egghead stuff but I wasn't listening." You almost break free from the boots but luckily you have just enough time to say "CATCH ME!" Once again you resume your fall towards the ground. To your surprise Rainbow Dash catches you within seconds redefining some sort of law somewhere. Smiling sheepishly Rainbow Dash places you back onto the cloud feet first into the boots. The clouds much to you disappointment feels like concrete rather than the thought of soft and bouncy. Then again that's what it feels like with your feet, If you try to touch it your hand goes right through. "Pretty AWESOME huh!" Rainbow Dash restates. "Yeah this is pretty fucking AWESOME." You say as you run along the cloud acting like a child. The first thing you do is go over to the edge of the cloud and look down at the earth -what would you call it here in Equestria- bellow. "Dash this is a dream come true. It's been my dream to walk among the clouds! It's one of the reasons I became a pilot. The feeling of not needing a machine to be up here makes me feels so..... so.... what's the word.... 'alive' no whatever you get what I'm saying." You look behind you to see Dash has joined you upon the cloud. You walk over to her and hug her tightly "Thank you Dash, thank you." The emotions are strong but you keep the tears for another moment. Rainbow Dash pushes you away and you go back to looking around the sky. "I'm not good with these mushy kind of stuff Anon. You need to stop doing it." She says with a little bit of red adorning her cheeks. "Well if you keep pulling stunts like this you are going to have to get used to it." You say lost in the magnificent view. The gradients of blue that is the sky, with white patches of clouds scattered as far as the eye can see. You have to admit it is quite cold up here but you don't care, not even death can take away you're feeling of happiness and joy. After a couple of minutes Rainbow's previous words set in. Twilight having urgent news for you? what could that mean? Can be taken either as good or bad news depending on the way you look at it? Then again most problems can be good or bad depending on the way you look at it. "It really is beautiful isn't it. No matter how many times I look at it, it always has something different in store." Rainbow Dash says as she walks next to you at the edge of the cloud. "Yeah." Is all you manage to say before falling victim to the view again. After a couple of minutes you break the silence. "So when did Twilight say she wanted to talk to me?" You ask without turning away from the view in front of you. "She said it was urgent so I guess right away." Rainbow states turning to you. "You want to leave now?" She asks as you stand there motionless looking at the view. "Anon, ANON!" You stir from your thoughts as you look down to Rainbow Dash. "Yeah one second I need to do one thing." You pull out your cell phone that you had in your pocket and start recording what you are experiencing. You make sure to film how you are standing on the cloud and the view that it grants you. With a couple minutes of recording you stop and put it back into your pocket. "What was that?" You hear Rainbow's voice. You look around and find Dash beside you. "Oh it's just my cell phone I will explain it more later, maybe if Twilight asks. I really don't want to explain it twice as it is quite complex. Killing two birds with one stone right." You state. "Why would you want to kill a bird in the first place?" Rainbow asks with a confused look on her face turning to horror. "It's not your part of your 'meat eating' thing is it?" "Oh no its just a saying back on earth. I don't know how it came to be, but it could of originated by killing a bird for food way back when." You pause to look at Dash that adorns the same expression. "I can tell that my eating habits might cause some friendship problems in the future." Rainbow Dash nods "So you ready to go?" She asks. You reply "As ready as I will ever be." With the same carrying system Rainbow Dash gently carries you down to ground level. With a slight sigh you carry on your way with Dash to the library in the middle of Ponyville. "So when does scoots get out of school?" You say remembering that you have to tell her you and her might be vagabonds for a while. "I don't really pay attention to when scoot gets home usually but the earliest I have seen scoots out of school is three in the afternoon." You nod and look around for the clock tower. With little effort you spot the clock tower towering above the rest of the buildings in Ponyville. The clock read 13:00 (01:00 PM). "Wow has it really been an hour and a half. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun." Rainbow Dash nods in agreement and you both close the gap between you and the library in no time. "I really hope I look at this 'news' the good way." Rainbow Dash is first at the door and knocks. Within seconds spike the loyal slave of the pony folk answers the door. "Hey Rainbow, Hey Anon! What's going on?" The dragon asks as he steps aside to let you and Rainbow in. "Nothing much spike, we're here because Twilight told Rainbow to tell me that she has urgent news." Spike seems to get the message and bolts upstairs to get Twilight. "How long do you think it will take Twilight to get down here?" You nudge Rainbow. "Are you making a bet Anon? You do realize who you're talking to right?" Rainbow Dash states in a confident tone. "Well I thought I was to talking to 'EQUESTRIAS FASTEST FLYER.' but now it looks like I'm talking to 'EQUESTRIAS FASTEST LOSER.'" You state knowing you're pulling some strings that are sure to come back with more force then you let them go. "Oh you're so on! What's the bet!" Rainbow Dash asks all rallied up. "Winner gets to dare the loser anything he or she wants." You state "Obvious limitations though, the dare can't kill the other person and it has to be physically possible." You spit in your hand and hold it out. You remember when you used to do this with your friends to show that the deal is sealed. You hope the concept exists in this world. Your thoughts are put to ease when Rainbow spits on her own hoof with a look of determination and shakes your hand. "I guess she'll take another five minutes." Dash states with a confident grin. You know that you're about to pull the cheep card on Dash but seeing her lose in one thing might be the emotional boost you need. Not to mention the power trip. "I guess she will take another five minutes and one second." Dash's eyes go wide as she realizes what that means . Her look could be mimicked by a child when you tell him that the world doesn't revolve around him, but instead the world revolves around the sun. "That's cheating!" Rainbow exclaims. "Well Dash I don't see it written anywhere in the rules that I can't do what I just did." You start counting out loud so you both can agree at what time she arrives at the first floor at. With time passing ever so slowly yet at the same time intensely your counting nears its end. "Four minutes and one, Four minutes and two." You look over at Dash to see that she is starting to get nervous. Keeping your laughter bottled up you continue the counting. "Four minutes and fifty five." You say and you can see Dash thinking options in her head. Soon you start to get a bad feeling as Dash turns towards you and smiles. Oh fuck she has something up her sleeve, if she had one. "Four minutes and fifty six." "TWILIGHT! ANON IS EATING ONE OF YOUR BOOKS!" Rainbow Dash yells. "IT LOOKS IMPORTANT!" You take a large gulp as you hear Twilight upstairs galloping towards the stairs. Looking over at Rainbow you can see she her smiling. "Four minutes and fifty nine, FIVE MINUT-" Is all that is said before a violet blur rams straight into you and you're knocked onto the floor with a loud ommf. Twilight looks around the library frantically in search for the burning book. "Where is it?! SPIT IT OUT RIGHT NOW ANON!" Twilight yells as she continues to hoof you in the chest. "He didn't eat it Twilight, however you just won me a bet." Rainbow says glancing over to you with a smirk. "Looks like I have a wild card now Anon. Better watch yourself." Rainbow states in a playful tone. "RAINBOW! A book being destroyed is nothing to be joking around about, books hold valuable knowledge that I need for my studies." Twilight looks over to you and helps you up with one of her hoofs. "Sorry about that Anon." Twilight apologizes. "It's OK I'm quite used to ponies crashing into me." You say as you look over at Rainbow Dash that has a blank face on. "Who me? Nah I don't crash." Rainbow states. "You know me Twilight I never crash." "Well there was that one time where you tried to do a trick and ended up breaking one of your wings and you had to stay at the hospital for a couple of days." Twilight replies to Dash. "Anyways what news do you have that was so urgent it couldn't wait." You say looking over to Twilight. "Well first I want to know more about earth and also the people that live there." You sigh as you hope that was not all she dragged you here for. "And after you tell me about your planet I will give you the important news." "Can't I tell you about earth after you tell me the news." You ask. "No." Twilight is quick to say. "What I mean to say is that the news might be a lot for you to take and I rather hear from you when you have a clear mind then one filled with thoughts." Twilight states in a matter-of-fact tone. "Wont my mind be cluttered with thoughts anyways about what the news is that you are going to tell me." Twilight sighs but it doesn't look like she's giving up the fight just yet. "Just trust me, you'll have way more thoughts in your head that can skew your results if I tell you now." "Fine." You say giving up. You look over to Dash that is making her way towards the door. "Where do you think you're going missy." You say as you grab Dash by her tail and yank her back into your small group. "You brought me here and now you're going to sit here till I'm done." "You know I can just dare you to let me go." Dash replies with a smile. "If you really want to waste the dare on something that small go ahead." You say smiling back at Rainbow Dash. "But you guys are going to be talking about egghead stuff!" Rainbow sighs and succumbs to her fate. "This is going to be so boring!" You smile at Twilight and Dash "Who says learning about human history is going to be boring." You state pulling out your phone. Dash and Twilight look at one and another with confused looks before looking back at you. "How is that box going to make learning human history fun?" Rainbow asks. "Why don't I show you." You say as you make your way over to Twilights couch and place the phone upon the table. You really want to 'wow' these ponies so you enabled the voice recognition software. "Ready to have your minds blown." You say as you tilt the phone so it faces all of you sitting on the couch. "I will warn you Anon, many ponies have tried to amaze me yet the only one that succeeded is Celestia and Luna." Twilight says confident that she will not so much as slow clap thought your kick ass presentation of human history. "We will just have to find out at the end." You say to Twilight. "I must say though that I myself isn't very good at human history, but I do know some of it. As for this device well let's just say I saved some videos I thought displayed human history pretty well." Twilight horn glows purple as she pulls over a quill, ink and scrolls to write notes down on. "I hope you can take notes fast Twilight because these videos go through a lot of VERY important events fast." "I think I can handle this, stop stalling and 'blow my mind' already." Twilight says sounding a bit energetic. You smile and proceed to start your phone. "Phone wake up." You say in a clear tone. Your phone vibrates, the screen lights up and your password screen pops up. "2593" You speak again with a clear voice so the phone can understand you. Once again the phone obeys and the password screen fades away and it now shows your desktop. Taking the moment in you look over to Twilight and Rainbow Dash. You almost lose your composure when you see Twilights mouth wide open as Rainbow Dash is up and looking around you and the phone. "HOW DID YOU DO THAT! YOU DON'T HAVE MAGIC!" Twilight turns to you. "I told you I can blow your mind." You say as you turn your attention to Dash. "And what may I ask are you doing?" You ask with a smile present on your face. "Looking for mirrors or wires." Dash states as she waves a hoof in front of you and feels around the phone eventually picking it up and setting it back down. "How.... Whaa...." You're really trying now not to burst into laughter. "Sit back down Dash and let me continue my presentation." Dash feels around one last time before sitting back upon the couch. "OK so now for the main show, get your quill and ink out because here it goes nothing." You clear your throat "Show videos." The phone makes a ding sound telling you that it got your message five by five. The phone then proceeds to show you your rather large list of videos. "Search civilization five rap, by Dan Bull." Within seconds the phone finds the video and pauses it at the beginning of the video. "Before I start this video I just want to tell you that this 'rap' is for a game called civilization. I found this video to show a lot about the human race both good and bad things. Even if it's made from the idea of a game this rap is fairly accurate, but most of all I love how this rap portrays human ambition." You look over to Twilight and Rainbow Dash and they both nod in agreement. "OK here we go. video play." The video ends and the phones screen returns to the video library. You look over to Twilight that is still frantically jotting down notes onto her scroll. However Dash seems to have a smile going from ear to ear. "YOU CAME FROM THERE!" Dash states "That 'video' was bucking amazing." Twilight finishes her notes and joins in "You were right Anon when you said that there was a lot of information! This is a gold mine for technological advancements! However I have a lot of questions to ask you like what is this 'nuclear fission' and 'electricity'?" You smile "Save your questions till the end Twilight." Twilight seems to bounce up with joy. "THERE'S MORE!" Twilight yells not caring about anything at the moment. "Well yeah that was just a basic overview of our accomplishments. I have two more videos that I think fit this category well." You say as you turn your attention to Dash. "You still regret staying?" Rainbow Dash shakes her head. "I can't believe I'm saying this but I have some questions to ask you after your presentation if you don't mind." You chuckle at the thought of Rainbow Dash wanting to know more about human history. "Well Here's the second one." You say turning to your phone. I hope you can write faster than you did before Twilight because this one goes through fifty years in under five minutes. You can hear Twilight gulp. "I'm going to need more papers!" Twilight turns around and grabs the rest of the scrolls off her work table and places the filled scrolls to the side while she has the empty scrolls in front of her. "OK Anon ready when you are." "Search we didn't start the fire, by Billy Joel." The phone once again dings to let you know everything went smoothly. "Now for this video I don't expect you ponies to know any of the people they display however the tune is quite catchy so I guess you do get some entertainment out of it. If you want to know any of the people displayed or events I can try my best to tell you at the end." With that all cleared up you say in a calm and sturdy tone "Play." Once the video ends you can hear Twilight writing last minute notes. "I might need to listen to that again." She says sheepishly. You nod understanding that the events he spoke did go by fast. Faster than you can write for sure. Here I will play the same thing but with a picture on each event. "Search we didn't start the fire, by Billy Joel number two" The phone dings and the video loads up. "Play." Once the rerun of the video is done you turn to see Twilight with a satisfied expression on her face. "I think I got all that I wanted from that video. You said you have another one correct?" You smile and nod your head gaining a grin from Twilight and surprisingly Dash to. "This one is more of advertisement then a video but it never seizes to make me feel proud to be a human. Search D.C.T.W.I.J.A, play" This time the phone doesn't ding back instead it talks back "Could not find D.C.T.W.I.J.A in your video play list." Twilight's jaw drops as the phone talks back to you. "IT CAN TALK TO!" You look over to Twilight that looks like she is going to faint any minute now. "Yes it can but its programmed to, remember save the questions for later." You say as you talk back to the phone. Apparently you didn't name this one by its acronym like you thought you did years ago. "Search Discovery Channel The World Is Just Awesome, play" The phone returns to the video screen for the last time. "Phone shut down." As commanded the phone shuts down with an audible groan from Twilight and Dash. "Well that's it for today." You say with enthusiasm. "Any questions?" To your surprise Twilight passes on the questions. She said something about organizing her notes first before asking you any questions. As for Rainbow Dash she can't seem to stop asking. "THAT GUY LIT THE OTHER GUY ON FIRE! AND THAT TUBE THING LEAVING THE PLANET! AND THEN THE SAME GUYS MAKING SOUP OUT OF ONE AND ANOTHER!" "Woh, woh Dash calm down." Rainbow Dash blushes slightly and stops with the questions. "The people lighting each other on fire are called the 'mythbusters' they are very sciencey and would never put their life's at full risk. However they do get injured quite a lot. As for that tube thing that was a rocket ship heading off to the ISS (international space station) as for the physics and math behind it I am clueless." "What about guy that said he loved adrenalin on that train ride going in loopty loops?" Dash asks "Because I'm all for adrenalin!" "That guy was talking about a roller-coaster and they are essentially what you said. A fast train carrying people doing all sorts of crazy maneuvers. Although the train doesn't take you anywhere it's just for fun." You state. "That sounds awesome!" Dash says hovering in the air from excitement. You turn your attention back to Twilight. "So now you have to hold up your end of the bargain." You say looking her dead in the eye. "And it better be as important as you led it on to be." "Yes you're right, OK just be warned that It might affect you very negatively." Twilight says with a sad expression. "Because if I was told what I'm about to tell you I would probably break down into tears." Twilight states her warning with the up most care that starts to worry you. "I'm ready." you say. "I may or may not have found the cause of how you got here to Equestria." Twilight says with a serious expression. "WAIT! You're not saying what I think you're saying Twilight?!" Twilight grins "Yes Anon, You'll be able to go back to earth." "THAT'S FANTASTIC NEWS!" You practically jump in the air and hug Twilight then move your way over to Rainbow Dash that is looking rather down at the moment. Maybe this hug will cheer her up. You say in your head as you hug Dash that seems to hug you back rather tightly. "But...." Twilight says breaking your hug with Dash. "Oh no here comes the horrible part." You say bracing yourself for the worst. "But you can't stay there." Twilight states with a sigh. "WHAT SO I'M STUCK IN EQUESTRIA FOREVER!" You practically yell as this was way worse then what you prepared yourself for. "Yes..." Twilight tilts her head down. "Why.... What's preventing me from staying there permanently?" You ask Twilight. "It seems that you have come from another dimension. When you traveled here you broke a barrier so to speak. Right now as we speak the barrier is healing. The most I can do is push you through it while its healing, but it's like a trampoline you can go down but eventually the springs push you back up." Twilight says with a sadness present in her voice. "But if you have enough weight you can break the trampoline!" You tell Twilight in hopes that she overlooked the easy solution. "Yes, you could do that but the amount energy required to accomplish such a task would require immense amounts energy, that we do not have." Twilight looks at you eye to eye. "If I somehow harvested the suns energy it still wouldn't be enough to break you through, it's impossible Anon." Tilting your head you accept the predicament you are in. After all getting over a problem fast is better than dwelling on it for years. You're not saying you won't but you might as well move on. "Can I at least say good bye to my family and friends?" You ask with your voice getting raspy. "Yes Anon that is why I said you can take it one of two ways. Like I said before it's like a trampoline, you can go down for a short amount of time before it pushes you back out." Twilight continues to talk. "I don't know how long it will take for the tear to push you back out again but it could be a day to a month. Neither do I know where you will land on Earth however it is a chance to at least see your kind one last time before the tear completely heals." You nod "So when can you send me back?" "I can do it at anytime but it has to be soon as the tear is healing fast." Twilight says looking at you again eye to eye. She must know how hard it is to give up everything you loved and everything you cherished in your life. "C-can I get a quill and ink" Twilight nods and hands you over the quill, ink and scroll. You take a seat on the couch and start to right a letter to Scootaloo. Once finished you give it to Twilight "Give this to Scootaloo." You say as you step into the middle of the living room. "Can I ask you for two favors Twilight?" "Yeah sure what are they?" Twilight asks. "First is too do it now." Twilight steps back surprised at your willingness to go through with it so early on. "Second, take care of Scootaloo while I'm gone." You turn to Dash. "I would of asked you but Scootaloo can't fly up to your house yet, so it's easier on her and you." Dash nods "I understand, thankfully you asked Twilight I have plans for when you're gone." You're taken back by her response but nevertheless turn back to Twilight. "I'm ready." You say with a sad expression. "Do it now before I try and stop you." Twilight nods and her horn begins to glow a bright purple almost white. Twilights eyes go full white as large beam comes out of her horn and hits your chest. Yet you don't feel anything but a slight weight on your back. Your vision becomes white and soon black. Slowly but surely you start to regain some vision. Your head is already turned to the right and you can see the sky and the clouds. Then out of nowhere you can start to feel Twilights beam take its effect. "HOLY SHIT THIS HURTS!" You yell out as the pain subsides. "YOUR TELLING ME!" You hear another voice come from your lap. You turn your head to look what is talking to you. "RAINBOW DASH WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!" You yell as you take in the familiar cramp surroundings. "I jumped onto your back when you got hit with the beam. Its weird because now I'm on your lap." Rainbow states as you start to hear a familiar noise that does nothing to settle your nerves. *BEEP* *MISSILE LOCK* *BEEP* *DEPLOY FLAIRS* *BEEP* *MISSILE LOCK* *BEEP* *DEPLOY FLAIRS* "......Fuck" “Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary.” ― Oscar Wilde