//------------------------------// // Chapter Nineteen: New Life // Story: The Equestrian Venture // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// THE EQUESTRIAN VENTURE Chapter Nineteen: New Life Written by TheCrimsonDM Rita walked through the town with a bouncy pink pony at her side. The morning was quiet and peaceful as usual, but that also meant that it was threatening to become boring as well. Pinkie had been wearing a goofy smile all day, and although Rita couldn’t place a finger on why, she enjoyed seeing Pinkie so happy. Things were going well until Rita came across the one pony she didn’t want to see right now; Applejack. Rita was still concerned about Applejack’s attitude towards her and after receiving yet another glare from the farm pony she decided she couldn’t afford to care right now, she just wanted to be left alone with Pinkie. “Howdy,” Applejack greeted more for Pinkie’s sake than for Rita’s. “How ya doin cousin?” Pinkie Pie asked merrily. “Ah’m doing fine, how are ya’ll doin today?” Applejack asked. Pinkie Pie grinned madly and jumped high into the air. Rita ducked and stepped back quickly as Pinkie’s jump propelled the pink pony more than five feet into the air. At the top of Pinkie’s jump, Rita could swear the Pinkie stopped mid air just long enough to shout, “I HAVE A MAREFRIEND!” After Pinkie Pie landed back on the ground Applejack tipped her hat to the pink pony and said, “Wow, Ah’m mighty proud of ya. Who is it?” Pinkie Pie looked over at Rita and rolled her eyes saying, “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s this really cute human that I know?” Applejack looked at Rita then at Pinkie back to Rita and finally settled on Pinkie. “You two are dating each other? What about Fluttershy? Ah thought that Rita and her had a thing.” Rita stomped her foot down and said quickly, “What the hay are you talking about?” “Look the way you two act around each other, either you and Fluttershy are secretly dating or yer her pet,” Applejack said. Rita crossed her arms and glared at Applejack while saying, “Look I am not dating Fluttershy. She’s an animal, and I’m a human.” “But yer dating Pinkie?” Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow. “Of course not, that would be bestiality. We’re just girl friends, er mare friends,” Rita said in protest. Pinkie looked over slowly at Rita, her eyes were wide and watery as she asked, “Wait… do you think I’m just an animal? You don’t like me that way?” Rita stared flatly into those light blue eyes for a moment before looking away. She couldn’t stare into those sad eyes of Pinkie’s for long. “Yes, no, I mean I don’t know.” Pinkie Pie’s mane drooped over and fell flat against the side of her face, her tail followed suit. Tears began streaming down her face and she closed her eyes. Rita reached out a hand but Pinkie turned and fled away in a fast gallop before Rita could do anything. Rita wasn’t sure how this happened but she now realized the depth of her mistake. “Now see, this is why Ah have a problem with you. All you do is treat ponies like we are underneath you, and you say some of the rudest things Ah have ever heard,” Applejack snapped. Rita gave a quick angry glance at Applejack and said, “Well at least I try to fix the messes I make.” Rita then took off after Pinkie Pie. She knew that she couldn’t keep up, but hopefully she could track the pink pony down and apologize. Rita wasn’t even sure how she was going to make this up to the pony but she now realized that she had been treating these equines like they were less than human, and thanks to that she now had a giant mess to fix. *** Nearly a half hour of searching and running through the town and still with no signs of where Pinkie Pie had run off to, Rita was beginning to think that she might never see her friend again. Feeling fatigued Rita sat down against some bushels of hay and let out a frustrated sigh. “Why, why do I always screw things up and hurt the ones I love,” Rita said to herself. “I can’t believe that I was so dense that I didn’t even consider the possibility that Pinkie could want to be with me.” Rita thought about it though, what did Pinkie actually expect from Rita in a relationship. Surely Rita could never let Pinkie kiss her, she was terrified of being bitten by a horse. But these ponies despite being equine shaped were not quite horses were they now? Their heads were far too round, their eyes huge and intelligent, but most of all Rita had seen Pinkie Pie walking on her hind legs without any trouble in the past. So were these strange creatures truly that close to horses? Rita suspected not. In fact the thing that disturbed her the most about them was also their most redeeming factor, these ponies were far too human. It could be possible that the ponies were actually slowly evolving into humanoids, and over the course of centuries they would slowly become like the animal races of Rita’s world. Rita began to wonder exactly what she would do with Pinkie if they had gone into a relationship. They could cuddle, that was something they’ve already done and it didn’t scare Rita despite how much bigger ponies were then her. They could enjoy each other’s company over dinner, and keep one another from being lonely, that was a certainty. But what could Rita really offer Pinkie, what did she have that Pinkie couldn’t get from anypony else? Rita could never be physically intimate with Pinkie Pie, not as long as Pinkie was still a… no Pinkie was pony not a horse, a person not an animal. It was so hard to look at these ponies and not think of them as being anything other than intelligent animals. This would be like the humans who decided to have relations with dragons in her world, it was weird and wrong, but it happened a lot. “Ugh, why can’t I just make everything okay,” Rita said again while trying desperately to find a way to make this acceptable. What she really needed to do was talk to Pinkie in person and discuss this in more detail. “I need to find her and talk to her. Maybe if I know more about what she wants from me… maybe I can make this all work out somehow.” Suddenly Rita heard a sniffling sound from her right. Very cautiously Rita peaked her head around the corner and found Pinkie Pie lying down and looking up at her with those big, sad blue eyes. Rita’s heart hurt to see her friend like this and suddenly everything she was trying to understand vanished from her mind. “Pinkie, can we talk about this? Please?” Rita asked with as kind of a voice as she could muster. “What’s there to talk about,” Pinkie Pie said. “You’re just another pony who can’t love me.” Rita opened her mouth and started saying, “But I’m not a p-“ she stopped herself as she realized that Pinkie Pie didn’t see Rita as being different from her; in Pinkie’s mind Rita had to be a complete equal this entire time, hadn’t she? Rita took in a slow steady breath and forced herself to ask a dreadful question. “If… if we were to be in a relationship, marefriends as you call it. What would you expect from me?” “Nothing, I wouldn’t expect anything because I wouldn’t know what to expect,” Pinkie Pie admitted. “I’ve never had a special somepony before, I guess I still don’t have one either. Look I know that you’re scared of ponies because we are a little bigger and stronger then you… but I wouldn’t ask you to do anything other than love me. That’s all I want, is somepony to love me, somepony like you?” Rita’s heart throbbed in pain as she heard those words. Someone who actually wanted Rita, someone who didn’t care what Rita looked like, scarred, broken, different, none of that mattered to Pinkie did it? No, Rita knew that Pinkie didn’t care about looks, she just wanted a companion. Rita looked deeply into Pinkie’s eyes and said, “I’ve been broken, I’m scarred all over my body, I only wear so much clothing to hide it. The only person I ever loved I scared away and ruined our friendship, and I’ve killed people before. Do you still want someone like me to be with you?” “Your beautiful, Rita. I mean I don’t know what other humans look like but I think you’re pretty. And I don’t care if you have killed before, me and my friends have killed changelings so I understand. Rita, you… you actually listen to me and respect me, you think I’m more than just a crazy, childish pony, right?” Rita smiled softly she could couldn’t help but feel her heart lift at Pinkie’s kind words. “No I don’t think you’re a child. No more than I am… but I guess that I am a little childish huh?” “But you won’t be with me will you?” Pinkie Pie asked voice was shaky. Rita reached out a hand and gently wiped away a few tears from Pinkie’s cheeks. Pinkie’s fur was damp from crying, and it broke Rita’s heart to know that it was all her fault. Rita knew that she had to do something to make this better, and there was only one option left at this point. It didn’t really prove to be too out of the realm of possibilities when Rita considered the fact that even if she did build a new portal, without proper understanding of coordinates she was never getting home. This world, Equestria was her new home, and the sooner she accepted it and started building a real life here, the better. Rita forced herself to say some of the hardest words that had ever came out of her mouth, “If you still want to, I’m willing to give this, to give us a shot. Will you be my special someone, my special somepony?” Pinkie’s eyes lit up like fireworks and her hair suddenly inflated and became bouncy again. Rita felt as though a heavy weight had just been lifted off of her heart. Pinkie Pie smiled brightly again and said, “I’d love too!” “Well, this might not be how I imagined doing it, but I guess this is the start of me actually building a new life here. I wonder what kinds of adventures we’ll have,” Rita said. “We’ll have all the best kinds, forever, because we’re special someponies!” Pinkie Pie said excitedly. “Yeah, Pinkie, we are,” Rita agreed.