//------------------------------// // Questions. Lots and lots of questions. // Story: The Truth about Reapers // by MineLittleDashie //------------------------------// Ponyville; 7:20 am Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and I arrived at the edge of town. We could've left earlier, but Fluttershy insisted on getting us breakfast before we left. Although I didn't think the alicorn, (Twilight was it?) would appreciate it. (ASAP and all that). As we wandered further into the town, I began to notice ponies slowly coming out of their houses to watch. But when I turned my head to look at them, they would quickly duck behind something, so I kept my head down, only glancing at them from the corners of my eyes. I heard some urgent whispering, before something slammed onto my head, knocking me to the ground. I heard Fluttershy gasp in fear and Rainbow shout something as they both jumped away from me. Rubbing my head, I looked around to find a grey pegasus with a disheveled yellow mane sitting on my back. I jumped in surprise, pulling myself out from under it, causing the pegasus to tumble to the ground. Fearful that I may have hurt him/her, I moved back and lifted his/her head. "Oh my gosh, are you okay?!" I asked worriedly. After a moment, the pegasus shook its head and picked itself up off the ground. It was then that I noticed the pegasus was wall-eyed. "I-I'm fine." She stammered when she noticed that I wasn't a pony. "Derpy, what happened?!" Rainbow Dash cried as she approached us. "Dunno. Wings must've given out or something. Been feeling pretty tired lately." The mare named Derpy answered, sounding just as confused. Rainbow Dash wrapped her legs around Derpy's body, before lifting off. "Well, let's get you home. Fluttershy, I'm trusting you to get your friend here to Twilight's. No detours." "Alright." The pink-maned pegasus answered quietly. ----- After Rainbow Dash had taken off with Derpy, Fluttershy and I had continued on our way to the library. After a few minutes, my thoughts were interrupted by a quiet voice. "Um, George. Were you hurt any when Derpy fell on you?" "Not really. Why do you ask.?" "Um, well, you just looked like something was wrong. That's all." "Oh, no Fluttershy. I'm sorry to make you think that. I'm just thinking, that's all." "What about?" "Nothing important." "Oh." --------------------------------------- Some time later, we found ourselves outside a large tree house. (Haha, get it?..... Oh shut up.) I was quite surprised when Fluttershy explained to me that Twilight lived here. I also found it kind of ironic that there was a library inside of a tree. But that could be pondered later. Now was the time for questions to be answered. I watched nervously as Fluttershy knocked on the door, only for it to opened a moment later by my interrogator herself. She smiled at Fluttershy, glared at me, but let us in without a word. I had to duck under the doorframe because of how small it was. Once inside, I took a quick look around the place. Most of the lights were off, but reapers have much keener senses than normal humans do, one of which is night vision. There were bookshelves covering the walls. Each was full of books from bookend to bookend. A flight of stairs sat in the corner, no doubt they led to Twilight's place of residence. A table sat in the middle of the room, with a wooden horse head sitting on top of it. My attention was grabbed when I felt something prod me. I turned around and saw a desk and chair off to the side. I was poked again, this time in the direction of the two objects. The meaning clear, I made my way over and sat in the chair, doing my best to slide my legs under the desk. Suddenly, a bright light shone onto my face, causing me to hiss in pain as my eyes struggled to adjust to the sudden change in the amount of light available. I angled my face downwards and realized that my hands and feet had been tied to the chair. But when?! Realization hit me. Right, they had magic here. I forgot about that. But my thoughts were interrupted once again by a female voice addressing me. "State your full name." In reality it was a bit warped, probably to try and scare me, but a reapers hearing is able to separate the actual voice from any disguise tactics. "George Arthur Douglas." (Nice 'original' name, I still hate my parents for it). "Why are ya here?" 'Hm? Oh, they're taking turns talking. Trying to confuse me. No matter, I can easily tell who's who.' "My good friend Fluttershy offered me a place to stay after I saved her life from a banshee, or what you would call a screamer." There was a bit of murmuring. "How?" 'that ones had too much sugar.' I sighed. It was like explaining to a first-year reaper. "You have to drown out the sound of their shrieking with another sound." "how do we know that you're not a spy?". 'Rainbow' "Well I must be a pretty bad one since you caught me already." The questions continued on like this for several minutes, some harder to answer than others, others I was able to answer much quicker. Sometimes I was prodded with something hard if I took too long to answer a question. Eventually, we came to the question I was waiting for... "Why did you save Fluttershy?". 'Hm. Think that's the princess.' "She was being threatened by that monster. It was the thing anyone-" "anypony!" "....anypony would do." There was silence. I heard hoof beats on the floor, followed by the opening and closing of a door. I could tell that they had left me here, probably deciding on my fate. ------------------------------ Hours (minutes) Later The door opened again. Hoof beats. 'Ah, the jury has reached a verdict' "Well Mr. Douglas. We have one more question for you.". 'The posh one clearly.' "Where did you get such a nice suit?" ........."Uh....... What?" "Well even if it is a little dark for my taste, it compliments your almost pale skin tone quite nicely." "Why..... Thank you?" "Now really, you must tell-" *Ahem* "Actually, we wanted to know what species you were." I'm a r-" I stopped. 'Ah crap. Almost gave myself away!' "A human." The light snapped off and shades went up, once again allowing sunlight to flow into the library. I blinked in confusion as my brain registered the six smiling ponies, one of which was an ecstatic Fluttershy. There was also a small purple and green lizard. A dragon? "George Arthur Douglas," Twilight spoke up. "We officially welcome you to Ponyville." She used her magic to unbind me, then stuck a foreleg out towards me. Gingerly, I reached out and shook the appendage. This was followed by introductions and more hoof shakes. The orange earth pony, Applejack, had a western twang and nearly took my arm off when we shook. Rarity was the posh white unicorn. She invited me over to her boutique sometime so we could discuss my suit in more detail. Rainbow Dash shook with me, but glared at me and whispered a promise of decapitation or worse if I hurt any of her friends. I was then confronted by Madame Sugar-high herself, or Pinkie pie as she was known around these parts. I was left with the feeling of too much sugar just by being by her. And I was tackled by Fluttershy in a moment of extreme joy. Once she had been detached from me, I was introduced to Spike, the lizard who was indeed a baby dragon. He apologized for being the one to prod me with the broom handle, which made me start laughing. Introductions were followed by tea and cookies, and a session of more polite questions. I took turns discussing things with the girls, from Applejacks apple farm (I swore I would stop by), to me setting up an appointment with Rarity for new clothes. So much for my earlier dread. Now that I thought about it, there was really no way that this could've turned out badly. Or that could just be my relief talking. ------------------------------------------- It was finally time to head back to Fluttershy's. It had been a great time at the library. I had gotten new friends, who promised to explain my situation to the other inhabitants and get me an official welcome party. Fluttershy and I said our good-byes and set off down the street in silence, marveling at the sunset as we went. About half way home, I noticed that Fluttershy had fallen behind. Stopping, I turned around and made my way back to her. "Hey, what's wrong?" I asked, squatting down beside her. She met my gaze, and I noticed tears in her eyes. "How long until you leave?" She nearly whispered. I started in surprise. "What! Why do you ask that?" She dropped her head and sniffed. "I can tell. You don't like to stay in one place for too long." I knew exactly where she was headed with this. "Listen flutters." I spoke calmly. "I'm not going anywhere soon, and I'll stay as long as you want me to." She looked up again, tears running down her face. "Y-you mean it?" "Every word." I smiled. We embraced each other for a moment, before we continued on our way. ------------------------------------------------- I sat in the armchair that I had slept in last night, my fingers laced in concentration. "Um, George? Are you okay?" I was startled out of my thoughts by the sound of Fluttershy's voice. "What? Oh, yes Flutters. I'm fine." She approached me and lay a hoof on my forehead. "You don't look okay. Are you sick?" "No." I chuckled warmly. "Just thinking." "About what?" "Oh, nothing important." She moved in front of me, I could tell she was close to using the stare. "That's what you said earlier." She said dangerously. "Because it's not." I shouted angrily, causing her to back up quickly, a look of fear on her face. "Oh, god. I'm sorry flutters. It's late, why don't you get on up into bed?" "Okay. But if I find that you stayed up all night worrying about something 'not important', then we're going to have a little talk. You got it mister?" "Yeah, yeah. Night Flutters." "Goodnight." And with that, she left me alone. Just me and a lone candle that I had lit on a side table. I laced my fingers again and stared off into the flickering flame. I had lied to the first friend that I had made in this world. I had told her it wasn't important. But it was important, to me at least. I hadn't noticed it at first, because of the shock and confusion, but I remembered it now. When I had encountered Derpy, I had picked up a scent. A scent that I was quite familiar with. A scent I had learned and memorized from my life on Earth. One that I had very recently encountered there. And if my memory was as clear as it usually was, then there was going to be trouble. Because the scent originated from Derpy herself. 'Vampire.'