//------------------------------// // Square One // Story: Never Wish // by Ximer //------------------------------// Something smelt good, better than it had any right to. As the strong scent slowly woke me, my still groggy mind tried its best to place a name to the smell. It was too strong to be a fruit and the smell of baking bread had a distinctly sweet smell to it. Was it really meat being cooked? “Can’t be.” I said to myself getting up a bit too quickly. The couch had worked as a makeshift bed, but that was all it had done. It had done little for my back and my constant tossing and turning probably hadn’t helped. Bones popped in protest as I stood up, my neck being the worst. I stretched out my back hearing several oddly satisfying pops which made the rabbit from last night cringe. Even the animals here were strange; at most a dog would have tilted their head and went on about their business. I carefully walked into the kitchen where Fluttershy was humming something. My heavy foot steps alerted her to my presence as an ear swiveled in my direction before she turned her head. “Oh I’m sorry was I too loud?” Fluttershy asked. “No, um question is that meat?” I asked rhetorically upon seeing what was in the pan. “Well, yes I thought you might like some.” Fluttershy replied. “How did you know I eat meat? I mean isn’t that taboo to you guys?” I asked. “You sleep with your mouth open, so when I came to check on you this morning I saw you had canines. Like I said yesterday I work with animals, enough so to know how the circle of life works. I’m no stranger to bears and other carnivores.” Fluttershy said sweetly. A part of me was horrified that this sweet, innocent little pegasus was capable of even handling meat let alone preparing it. I couldn’t help but picture Fluttershy with a chainsaw laughing like a maniac as she shredded a smaller creature. I shook the image from my mind before I dwelt on it for too long. My stomach was less concerned about how she acquired it, but my morals were getting the best of me. While fruit was hardly filling, eating from my favorite food group did little in my case to prove I wasn’t some sort of blood thirsty monster. “Okay Fluttershy you’re right I like meat. Here’s the thing though I really can eat both plants…and other animals. I need you to promise me this will be our secret and I won’t eat meat again, I’ll find something else I promise.” I said dejectedly. “Oh okay, so do you not want this then?” Fluttershy asked. “I do, this will just be for the last time okay?” I asked in return smiling. “Okay it’ll be our secret then.” Fluttershy replied. I felt a little less guilty about eating what she had prepared now. Fluttershy watched me take a bite of the food just as fascinated as yesterday. I nervously swallowed not entirely used to an audience. “Well how is it?” Fluttershy asked. “It’s good; I’m going to miss it.” I said. “I’m glad, I mean not that you’re not going to eat meat anymore. You can still eat other things to get protein.” Fluttershy said trying to cheer me up. “I know Fluttershy. There are a group of humans that eat nothing but vegetation because they don’t believe in eating other creatures so it’s do able it’ll just take some getting used to.” I said. Fluttershy seemed satisfied with my response as I finished the food she had made. She flew over to what looked like saddle bags and put them on. “So what do you normally do after eating?” I asked. “I feed the chickens and other animals. What do humans do?” Fluttershy asked. “Well I’d normally shower.” I said. “There’s a tub upstairs.” Fluttershy offered. “That will work.” I said Fluttershy left me to my own devices, presumably having a great deal of faith that I knew what I was doing. Fortunately this tub didn’t seem too different from the one I had in my house. I was confused when I could only find one container. For some odd reason it took me a minute to remember that a pony’s body was covered in fur, they probably only needed one form of body wash. Opening the cap I was greeted by the very strong scent of strawberries. I was reminded of the cruel pranks my sister would play when she would empty out my shampoo and fill it with hers. I really didn’t want to walk around smelling like fruit all day, but Fluttershy was being nice enough to let me use it. Once I was clean and out of the tub I considered my clothing situation. I had worn the same cloths back to back before, but it was only out of necessity. Twilight would probably be the only one to actually care if- NO! I thought giving myself a mental slap. Giving up meat was one thing, but I was not about to walk around exposed. The fact that I even considered it was disturbing enough. Once I was clothed again I made my way back down stairs to see Twilight with a book floating in front of her. She noticed me and the book lowered itself onto the table. “Why do you smell like strawberries?” Twilight asked. “Because all the cool kids smell like them. Why don’t you?” I asked in return. "Uh huh...anyways I thought we would get the basics out of the way first." Twilight said, my humor apparently lost on her. There was what looked like a scroll on the table that had both the symbols from the article on the wall and letters from the alphabet. I summed up Twilight had put this together to make things a bit easier. "Start memorizing that and writing the letters down. We'll start with the equivalent to your A and work our way through the alphabet." Twilight said as the book occupied her vision once more. I decided to test this little cheat sheet she had made me and started translating the title of the book she was engrossed in. T E A C H I N G F O R B. My brain filled in the rest of the blanks which made me chuckle a bit. "Teaching for beginners?" I asked. "Yes, I've never taught somepony from square one so this is new to me." Twilight said as a quill pen and piece of paper were levitated towards me. She was serious about this even if I felt it was a tad ridiculous I was certain she had some line stored away that would relate to taking things one step at a time. I reluctantly took the quill and started writing, though for a while it felt like drawing. Fluttershy finally came back inside noticing us and giggled a little. Once I was through the repetitive writing two more scrolls were placed in front of me. The first was blank, the next one had basic words on it. Twilight looked up at the clock and sighed levitating her things back into the saddle bags she had brought with her. Her behavior made me wonder if I had done something wrong or if I was taking too long which I didn't think I was. "We'll have to pick this back up later today. I have other matters to attend to I'm sorry." Twilight apologized as a smaller book placed itself on the table. There was a picture of a pegasus in an explorer outfit. "I'm going to assume this is a book geared towards kids?" I asked unable to keep my face from displaying my displeasure at the situation. "You have to start somewhere. I know you're not stupid if that's what you're worried about, I just don't think handing you a history book with only a basic understanding of our written language is a good idea, and no it's not just for colts and fillies" Twilight explained. "You're the boss." I said dejectedly as she left. "Daring Do huh?" I said aloud after relying on the letter sheet once or twice. There was a noise outside that sounded like a crash. Looking through the small window I saw a yellow maned pegasus rubbing her head with her hoof before sliding a letter into Fluttershy's mailbox. With a shrug I returned to the mundane task I had been given. I was already relying on the sheet Twilight had made for me and I was only done with one page. It was hard to get into the story at first, but I found learning what each page said and rereading it helped. Perhaps learning a new language was different for each person on Earth. "Is it hard?" Fluttershy asked checking in on me as I neared the end of chapter one. "Well I've come to my own conclusions about some things. The symbols are a result of using 'mouth writing' as opposed to hands. Oddly enough your alphabet is an exact copy to the one I'm familiar with so this is more of a matching game that shouldn't take the ideal ten thousand hours to achieve fluency." I said recalling how much grief my french teacher had given me in school. "Goodness that sounds like a long time, how many languages are there on Earth?" Fluttershy asked wide eyed. "Too many for me to name them all off the top of my head, but that's the beauty of it. It'd be boring if everyone back home was the same. Nothing new would be created because everyone would think the same thing." I replied. "I guess that's true, it looks time consuming though." Fluttershy said. "It is but I've done something similar before. There was a book series about a detective named Sherlock Holmes, and one of the stories had a code that had to be deciphered. It was called the Dancing Men. A few of my friends thought it would be cool to try and re-create the code and use it in school." I said smiling at the fond memory. "I think that's the first time I've seen you genuinely smile." Fluttershy said. I was starting on chapter two when several rapid knocks came from the other side of Fluttershy's door. Twilight hadn't been gone long so it was unlikely it was her, not to mention the alicorn hadn't knocked so rapidly the first time. "Hey Fluttershy!" a voice called that was a bit more pronounced than Twilight's or Fluttershy's. "Oh no, Rainbow Dash! I forgot she was coming today!" Fluttershy said in a panic. "Oh that's cool I-" I started to say before the yellow pegasus shook her head. "No you don't understand! Rainbow can be a bit, defensive. Besides Twilight said you weren't ready." Fluttershy protested. "Fine, so where exactly do I vanish?" I asked as another round of knocking came from the door. "Um..in here!" Fluttershy exclaimed leading me to a closet. It was small but it would have to do. Fluttershy threw a sheet over me for good measure making me sigh in frustration. Just as Fluttershy closed the closet door I head the front door open startling her. I grew quiet and stared into the darkness of the small room. "Fluttershy are you okay?" asked whom I assumed was Rainbow Dash. "O-oh yes I'm fine just doing some cleaning." Fluttershy lied. You're very bad at this. I thought to myself. "I came to bring Tank by like you asked me to." Rainbow Dash said. "Right, his check up." Fluttershy responded. Their conversation soon shifted to small talk until a gasp came from the other pony in the room. I head the rustling of paper which reminded me I had left my things out on the table. "Fluttershy, are you coming up with a secret code?" Rainbow Dash asked. Crap she found it! I thought. "Oh um...Twilight was here earlier, she must have left it." Fluttershy said. "So this is some secret princess code then?" Rainbow Dash asked excitedly. "Maybe, I'm not really sure." Fluttershy said. I could here something that sounded similar to when someone pressed a pen or pencil harder than necessary onto a piece of paper. There were irritated grunts followed by a spitting sound and something hitting the floor. "How are you supposed to write this?" asked Rainbow Dash frustrated. "Tank's finished." Fluttershy said with an underlying hint of urgency. "Oh cool, I'll see you around Fluttershy, tell Twilight that code of hers is kinda lame." Rainbow said before she left. "Mister Daniel?" Fluttershy called out to me as she opened the closet door. "One of your friends?" I asked. "Yes, oh no! I forgot Applejack is coming over too!" Fluttershy exclaimed starting to shove me back in as if she would arrive any second. "Whoa easy, I've already met Applejack." I said tensing so she couldn't move me. "You have? Oh thank goodness." Fluttershy sighed in relief. I was starting to feel more and more like an inconvenience to these ponies. This feeling was only intensified by my inability to go outside without the risk of being seen. I decided to see what Rainbow Dash had tried to write and found a multitude scribbles. If I ever did see this mysterious pony this would be something I could have up my sleeve as a joke. With a sigh I resumed reading with the sinking feeling Twilight would be on my case if I didn't make any progress. I stuck to the same pattern I had now with recognizing a few symbols more easily than others. I was starting on chapter three when Applejack arrived and looked shocked to see me. I waved and turned my attention back to the book. "So this is where ya ended up?" Applejack asked. "Yeah I'm a big secret though so don't tell anypony." I said rolling my eyes. "Oh so you have already met each other, that's good." Fluttershy said. "Yep, strange critter, but a nice one s'far as I can tell." Applejack said. "A bored one too." I commented. Three hours had passed and there was still no sign of Twilight. It must have been something involving a court or some other national matter. Applejack looked at the scroll that was on the table clearly just as baffled by it as Rainbow Dash must have been. She then noticed the other pony's failed attempt at replicating the English alphabet. "What the hay is this?" Applejack asked. "Those are the frustrated scribblings of Rainbow Dash." I said turning the page. "Has Winona been feeling better?" Fluttershy asked drawing Applejack's attention away from me. "She's get'n there. With what you've been given her I bet she'll be back to her ol self in no time." Applejack said. Their idle chitchat faded into the background as I listened to my thoughts more than what was going on around me. They were certainly social creatures, humans were too but there were introverts as well. "So is that all ya'v today?" Applejack asked breaking my train of thought. "Yeah, I don't want Twilight on my case about not learning how to read and write your language. Still, I'd give just about anything to get outside and do something." I said putting the book down. Applejack narrowed her eyes in concentration before speaking "How much can you lift?" she asked. "I don't know if it would be an accurate number, since size seems to be a bit different here." I replied. "Can ya lift this at least?" Applejack pointed to the table. I stood up and lifted the table with little effort. Its smaller size made it laughably easy and I wondered how she could really get an accurate gauge of what I could and couldn't lift from this little exercise. Fluttershy had covered her mouth with her hooves in horror. Those eyes sank like needles into my heart and I quickly put the table back down. The pegasus sighed once she saw her furniture was no longer in danger. "If yer really bored I can try talkin' to Twi, but it can be hard to change her mind sometimes." Applejack said. "Sure, what did you have in mind?" I asked. "Well I wouldn't wanna be takin' ya away from learning what ya need to. If you're serious though I think it'd be a good way to get some exercise, not to mention help your image a bit." Applejack said. "Not that image, I mean of how the ponyfolk in Ponyville might look at ya." Applejack said when she saw me looking at myself questionably. "Oh, yeah that sounds cool. I don't see why Twilight wouldn't be for that." I said. I was later corrected when Applejack submitted her idea to Twilight when she arrived back a few hours later. It seems Applejack knew her friend a bit better than I did. "I'd still be reading and I've felt bad not doing anything all day except read." I said. "I don't think it's wise, there's a lot of things to take into consideration." Twilight said. "I'll be more exposed to your culture outside than inside. I can read until I pass out, but unless I'm around it and utilizing it nothing will stick." I said. "I think what he's try'n to say is books can't do everything Twi." Applejack said trying to calm her friend down. "Um, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea. He has been kind of down today." Fluttershy said siding with us. "Ugh, fine...tomorrow you can go with Applejack, and...if you can finish five chapters then we'll see if this revision works." Twilight said with a defeated tone. Twilight could have pulled the princess card and had the final word, but I was surprised by the level of maturity. Most politicians wouldn't hesitate to pull some sort of string to get out of a crisis. I had to admire her for that. *** Celestia sat on her bed reading a letter that had appeared in a puff of green smoke. She had little doubt who sent it and pushed her other matters aside for the moment. Dear Princess Celestia Today was the first day trying to prepare Daniel for Equestrian citizenship. While I have little doubt in his abilities to comprehend and retain the information I fear he feels undermined by what I have given him. I'm sure there is a lingering resent of being stuck in Equestria even if he will not admit it. He has already met Fluttershy and the two seem to have gotten along well. I can only hope this means that if a human can earn the trust of the most timid pony in Ponyville he'll be able to gain the trust of others as well. Tomorrow, with some persuasion from outside sources, I have agreed to let him spend the day with Applejack in the hopes that some time spent around her farm, and family, will have a positive impact. Sincerely yours Twilight Sparkle. Celestia giggled a bit when she noticed Twilight didn't add the word student. It was fitting, she seemed to have one of her own now and the mare felt the circle was finally complete, even if it was in a way she had never imagined it would be.