//------------------------------// // 6- Dilly Dallying For A Door // Story: Applegate // by Flutters Is Shy //------------------------------// Twilight made the Rainbow dumbass apologize, which she did with as little effort as she could muster. "Yeah. Sorry. My bad." I think she was just pissed that she had not only made a mistake, but the SAME mistake, more than once in the same day. She definitely struck me as one of those 'I'm perfect now praise me for my awesomeness' types. Fluttershy also apologized, as profusely as she could. Just an endless stream of 'sorrys' and 'are you all right'. This place was starting to get to me. Why the heck was everything so violent one second, then so dang apologetic the next? It didn't make sense to me. Not to say I didn't appreciate it. And the candy that she gave me from a bowl she had on her countertop. Seriously, these horses acted to much like humans it was scary. Once all the hubbub had died down, Dumbass left saying "Well if you don't need me anymore, I have important stuff to get back to. Like, crucial to my becoming a wonderbolt stuff." Purple had tried to make her stay, but apparently the only reason she had come along is because she knocked me out and felt guilty. Now that I was awake to walk around on my own, she felt she didn't have to stay. Maybe if she left I could keep my face as far from the ground as possible for the entire day. Fluttershy left me and Purple alone in her house to go calm down her animals(apparently I wasn't the only one upset with dumbasses stunt) and I was suddenly witness to a very...weird event. Purple had gone through three notepads of paper(she had them neatly stacked to her side) and was unresponsive to any of my attempts to communicate with her as she scrabbled furiously away with her quill. So, at a lack for anything to do, I went outside. Wherever outside "here" was. That's the problem with travel when you're sleeping. The feeling of confusion as you realize you went to sleep in one place, and woke up in another. From the outside, Fluttershys house was...rather pathetic. It had a homy vibe to it, but it looked like it was about to fall in on itself. I honestly felt a little bad for her, having to take care of so many critters and living in what a third world citizen would consider a hovel. Speaking of critters, Fluttershy's get seemed extremely interested in me. Looking back between me and the real Fluttershy( who at this point was trying to comfort a group of...bluebirds.and greenbirds. and redbirds.) every animal I looked at had a look of confusion on its face. "Real Fluttershy," I said, (more out of curiosity of the level of intelligence these animals had than anything. The ponies spoke, so why wouldn't the little varmints understand? Maaagic.) watching with interest as each and every pair of eyes followed my hoof to point at Fluttershy. "Fake Fluttershy." I stated, tapping a hoof in the center of my chest. Each and every single dang animal there nodded once (IN FREAKY UNISON.), and returned to whatever the heck they had been doing, effectively ignoring me. Hyper intelligent animals. Why not. Looking around, I saw I was actually in a semi-familiar spot. This was the house thing at the end of the road I had been traveling two days ago(if what Spike had said to Purple about being 'at it for two days' was anything to go on.), and farther on down the road was where I had turned off and headed into the 'I want to kill you' forest. Lord knows I'd be avoiding that place like the plague. It was then a thought wormed it's way into my head. I knew where I was, in relation to the farm. The farm was where I woke up, so that's where I wanted to go to try and see if I could find any answers to this whole crazy mess. I would have just left, (and I sure as shit wasn't going to wait for Purple to snap out of her 'notes' frenzy) but I guess I felt a little...vulnerable. Just a little. I was in a place I'd never been, and constantly attacked to boot. I didn't want to just leave the only people that had been nice to me. "Hey, Fluttershy." I called to Fluttershy, who at this point was consoling the seal I saw earlier(told you, I KNEW I saw it!). "Um...yes?" she asked me timidly, trying to hide as much of herself as she could behind her wall of hair.(seriously, she was an animal caretaker, wouldn't such long hair only get really really caked in mud or other...things?) "Imma head out to the farm, would you mind telling Purple Smart when she breaks out of her notes...whatever it is she's doing?" She looked back at her house, where we could see Purple still scribbling away, through a window, presumably on another notebook by now. She looked back at me, and gave me a heart stopping gaze of cuteness. Such large eyes, how and WHY would such a character trait survive in a species??! "Um...are you sure you're all right? I could go with you...if you wanted..." Dear god she was laying it on, if this is what she acted like all the time no wonder my sister was so enamored with her. "Yes! Fine!" I belted out, tearing her eyes from my view with a quick pivot(not easy to do with four limbs. I can only assume that if I tried to do it under normal circumstances, I wouldn't be able to.) "I mean...yes, I'm fine, I don't need a babysitter, I can get by fine on my own" I huffed as I walked away. I didn't hear her following me, so I can only assume she decided to stay behind. Thank god. The trip back to the farm was mostly uneventful. Save for one small orange horse with wings (pegasus? that's what they're called?) pointing at my butt, gasping and then buzzing her wings to make her zip away on her scooter. Yes, scooter. A device made for a being with two legs was present here in the world of horses. At this point, I wasn't that surprised. As I came down the road, eventually I found myself surrounded by the scent of apple trees, and soon enough the familiar sight of the barn filled my sight. That annoyingly red barn. I walked around to the side, placing myself exactly as I had been when I came to this stupid world. Well, slightly lower, but you get my point. There was...nothing here. It was just a normal, wooden wall. I placed a hoof on it, and scraped it up and down a couple times. Felt like wood(yeah, I know, I could feel THROUGH my hooves and sense texture. It was weird.)I couldn't feel or sense ANYTHING out of the ordinary. Well, that wasn't exactly true. There was ONE sense that was picking something up, but not anything to do with...this. One thing I forgot to mention. This morph felt...almost exactly like the morph of Purple or the wonder twins. Save for one wholly different feature. My hearing was AMAZING. I could pick out the sounds of random squirrels in the trees, I could hear voices of the people in town(As I was skirting it, I couldn't hear them now.) Point is, my hearing was now above and beyond anything I had ever had before. Which is why I could hear someone trying to sneak up on me. Poorly. I turned and caught the bugger red hoofed. Seriously, it was the male part of the wonder twins from when I first got here. He was here before, I guess it wasn't all that surprising he'd be here again. Maybe he even lived here. I dunno. He got wide eyed when he noticed that I saw him, blushing with such intensity that I could see it even through his red tinged hair. He scuffed at the ground, and I realized an uncomfortable thing. He was apparently taken with Fluttershy. Embarrassingly so. That was all good and well for him, but If I didn't do something to dissuade him from the mindset that I was Fluttershy, this could get mondo levels of uncomfortable suuuuper quick. "I'm not Fluttershy." I stated plainly. He apparently didn't get it, tilting his head like a confused dog. Looks like I would have to get even more blunt. "I'm the guy, you had tied up in your barn?" There. No way he wouldn't get it past that poin- "Braeburn?" He asked. Wait...why would he be tying other-NOPE NOPE NOOOOOOP. ABORT! ABORT! ALL PASSENGERS ARE TO THROW THEMSELVES OUT THE NEAREST WINDOW, WE ARE DERAILING THIS TRAIN OF THOUGHT! CHOO CHOO, ALL STOP FOR NEVER THINKING ABOUT THIS EVER AGAIN!!! "No. Two legs. Backpack. Turned into a mix of you and your sister?" Okay, crisis averted. The spark of understanding finally filtered through his head. He then blushed an even darker shade of red(seriously, I was almost worried about his blood pressure or something) and turned away. He mumbled some sort of apology and shuffled away, never looking at me. Hopefully I didn't break the big guy. I turned my attention back to the barn wall. I'd worry about his mental state later. I searched the wall, but I couldn't find what I was searching for. No...sparks of magic, no clearly labeled map of "you are here" with directions back to the food court. Not even the ever optimistic giant friggin door. I couldn't find a dang thing. Apparently my new super hearing only functions on the outside world when I'm actually paying attention to it, cause at that moment Purple menace startled the bejesus out of me. "Find out anything interesting?" she parroted, copying my comment from earlier. She was sitting right next to me, a giant grin on her face. How the hell did I not notice her sneak up on me? "Besides the fact that Big Red fancies Fluttershy and some dude named 'Braeburn', I got bupkiss." I said, noting with satisfaction as her face was overtaken by the dreaded evil known only as...the blush. Seriously, I didn't even know horses COULD blush, now I find a whole damned town of the emotional buggers. "Soooo," Purple started, "The barn...Applejack said this is where Applebloom first saw you...what were you doing here, If I may ask?" Friggin scientist had another pad out, hovering it off to the side(maybe she was hoping I didn't see it) "This is where I woke up. I was somewhere else, and then all of a sudden, I was standing here, staring at this stupid barn." I told her how 'I' personally didn't find anything out of the ordinary, so she set her pad and quill down and lit up her horn. She dragged the light from her horn all around the wall, me, and the surrounding area. "Well...I'm sorry," she said with a frown "But I can't find anything out of the ordinary. No pockets of energy, no wrinkles, no reason for why you might be here." Why is it that a persons entire world can come crashing down on two simple words? She said them with sadness in her voice, and I knew I wasn't getting home any time soon. Or at all. Two words, spoken with earnest by the Purple menace at my side. "I'm sorry."