//------------------------------// // Agree to Disagree // Story: I Prefer the Term Freelancer // by One of the Crowd //------------------------------// Chapter 2: Agree to Disagree Isaac read and reread the letter trying to be sure that he was seeing things clearly or if he was hallucinating because this letter isn't good news in the slightest aside from the pay anyway. Isaac decided that he had to read this one more time before making a decision on whether or not to agree to the contract. Dear Isaac We request your services in a rather sensitive matter. As you already know by receiving this letter the elements of harmony have come to you and probably mentioned having to hide from something. I did not tell them what they were to hide from but you however have encountered it before. It is with this reason that I am offering you a contract and upon its completion you will be rewarded with five million bits. However you will only receive payment if all of the elements remain safe and sound, and I know you do not wish to look after twilight I am asking you not as a princess but as your friend to please look after her especially as she is the most likely target. If you accept this contract do as asked however if you decline send them back to canterlot so that we may protect them. Signed Princess Celestia "Well, shit. I knew it. I fucking knew it wasn't over" Isaac said again as he finished reading the letter again. Sighing and rolling the letter back up Issac placed it in his belt before walking back outside to give his answer to the awaiting ponies. Pulling the tent's door open he was met with a rather disheartening sight as the six ponies he was asked to protect were attempting to pulverize one of his crew members, and his girlfriend was lying unconscious a few feet away. Sombra had returned from scouting out the cave they were planning on exploring later in the month and had been spotted by one of the ponies. "HOLD IT," Issac yelled getting the ponies to look at him quizzically before Rainbow asked in a rather angry tone: "Do you have any idea who this is? It's king Sombra you know the tyrant that ruled the crystal empire before it disappeared and then reappeared." Sombra had finally gotten his barrings back after a minute of recuperating from having to throw up shield spells repeatedly for the past three minutes. "I am no longer a king and I don't deserve the title after what I've done to those who saw me as their leader" Sombra stated before walking over to Isaac and handing him a piece of paper. "These are all the notes I took while over in the cave. It definitely has potential into leading to some of the old ruins around here." "Good, now Sombra considering your welcome back to camp you wont have to be on watch tonight. I'll take the position as an apology for our new guests." Sombra nodded and gave a thanks before walking off into another part of camp. Isaac then walked over to luca who was laying unconscious on the ground. "Now please explain to me why my girlfriend is knocked out, and do not give me an answer that I don't like because I can still kick your asses to the curb," "Wait she's your girlfriend?" Twilight asked as she walked over to the unconscious body. "I thought you said it was taboo or something back in your-" "Twilight i'm not getting an answer and you are wearing down my patience with your prodding in my love life. Now tell me why she is like this" Isaac said lifting the Pegasus disguised changeling onto his back to take her to their 'doctor'. "She might of gotten in the way when I tried to knock out Sombra" Isaac just sighed before beckoning them to follow with his free hand. This of course did not sit to well with Isaac however the decision on what to do did not lie on his shoulders alone he had to know what everyone else thought of first. Finally arriving at a brown tent with a small cross painted on the door with something, no one really wanted to know. Making his way in Isaac set Luca down on the center table of the room before a zebra walked out from behind a curtain. "What are you doing here Zecora," Applejack asked the zebra who looked at her as if she were insane and began moving as if she were trying to speak without talking. "Wow, I am so sorry Silver. She only knows one zebra so please do not hold it against her." Isaac then turned toward the earth pony. "God damn it, you really can't tell the difference between her and Zecora. Jesus I thought you were racist before but this is just a whole new level." "I ain't racist they look exactly alike, and why are you talking for her anyway?"Isaac pulled the earth pony aside before beginning with explaining why she is in fact being a prick. "First off they do not look the same I mean look at the style of mowhawk, see how it dips with each white stripe that has a meaning to it. Secondly she can't speak" Applejack's eyes widened after being told that the zebra can't speak so she asked: "Why can't she" "It's a little hard to speak when you don't have a tongue anymore but you don't want to hear that story, trust me" Issac finished his sentence in a rather quiet way leaving it just audible in the deathly silent tent. Silver walked up behind the human and gave him a hug before motioning him down to her level and making various motions with her hoof. "It was my fault Silver, If I didn't try to intervene then you wouldn't have-" The zebra pressed a hoof over the mans mouth before motioning toward the table where their companion was lying unconscious. The zebra then proceeded to disappear under the table throwing various bottles over her shoulder and landing perfectly on a table behind her completely unscathed. Finally she pulled out a small container filled with you guessed it smelling salts. *cough**cough*"Chrysalis, Silver do you have to get me up using that every time i'm knocked out." The changeling then dropped her disguise before realizing she was in a room with six ponies that didn't know about her. The ponies got ready to fight when the zebra pulled out a staff and the human rushed into the middle of the groups. "Um, Isaac can you move, I mean there is a changeling there and you might get hurt" Fluttershy said walking up to the human in an attempt to get him out of the way. Isaac looked down at the Pegasus before patting her head and saying: "Yes, Luca is a changeling, and you will take care to remember that she is friendly. Do you understand?" Isaac said toward the group. "But Isaac changelings were the meanies that attacked Canterlot during shiny's wedding. They steal love and hurt ponies and are rude and-" "That whole hurts people and are rude sounds familiar don't it, But anyway you remember Canterlot had ample warning to the invasion, correct?" they all nodded except for pinkie who had a tear forming in her eye. "Well you can thank Luca here. She impersonated a guard and handed the information off. She was against the invasion from the start," The ponies looked at each other, then the changeling and then pointed at her which Isaac nodded to before all there jaws dropped. "Wait she could be lying to you and how do we know you aren't under her spell" rainbow asked getting too close for the changeling comfort. "First part, she could be and second part she can't" Isaac shrugged before leaving the tent with Luca and Silver following. Next stop was the workshop to see how flim and flam were coming along with a special project Isaac had given them. The workshop tent had many holes due to many failures and triumphs of the brothers who had been assigned here. "Flim, Flam, How goes the project?" Isaac asked the two brothers who were incredibly focused on a small contraption on the table. "Aside from Flim nearly having his head blown off pretty good." Flam said rather excitedly as he pulled Isaac over to the table to have a closer look. The girls growing curious as to what exactly these guys were talking about inched closer to them only to be caught when Applejack decided to tell Isaac what she thinks of their inventions. "Isaac don't get to close to them they will take every bit you have if you let them" Isaac looked back over his shoulder and face palmed rather hard as it left a red print across his face. "Sure, I'll take your advice about who to trust definitely not myself who has traveled with these two for at least a year. Yes oh wise one what was I thinking, Flim, Flam, you are up for elimination head to tribal council for the vote." The joke obviously went over most if not all of the ponies heads, however Luca was trying to keep a straight face. Applejack gave a deadpan look at Isaac before muttering "you'll be sorry" "Anyway these two are invaluable here as they can create just about anything you can think of as well as get us the lowest prices possible when we have to head into a town" Isaac continued to say why these two absolutely had to be here for at least another five minutes not because he meant all of it but because Applejack was getting more and more frustrated with the praise the two were receiving. Finally deciding that he had annoyed the apple farmer enough he began to head toward the fire pit that had Sombra sitting on one of the logs surrounding it reading a book. Taking a seat across from him the girls surrounded Isaac and proceeded to let their concerns be heard in the most dignified way possible. "ARE YOU BUCKING INSANE" They all yelled in unison. "Yes, but why do you bring this up" Isaac asked looking up to see Sombra had left a few moments ago probably to get away form his attackers. "Almost all if not all of your group are evil" Twilight said getting closer to the mans face. "They are not evil you may see them as such but they are not" Isaac said rather disdainfully. "Yes they are, Flim and Flam are one thing but you have a changeling and Sombra with you and they are evil" Twilight tried to emphasize the evil bit at the end there but it only served to irritate Isaac. "Alright if you call them evil one more time you are all gone I do not have to deal with you all and neither do they. So please sparkly tell me again what you think of my company." Twilight backed away as the man got up from his seat to tower over the alicorn who was a full two feet shorter than him. Before she could speak Luca spoke up from behind them: "Hey Isaac what do you want for dinner tonight" Isaac looked at twilight with a wicked grin and said "I'm thinking quesadillas tonight" ***That Night*** Isaac was enjoying his extra cheesy quesadilla with Luca doing the same beside him when Sombra decided to ask "Why is Twilight hiding over there" Isaac looked over to the cowering alicorn who was hiding behind one of the cart used to move the camp from place to place. Isaac grinned and simply stated that he didn't know. He actually had no idea why but he did know that twilight was scared of quesadillas for some reason and jumped on the opportunity to mess with her. Finally Luca decided it was time to get some questions answered since she could now get confirmation on their truthfulness by Isaac's past acquaintances. "So Isaac I've been wondering for awhile now, how exactly did you get into Equestria anyway" Isaac chocked on his food after being asked that question so suddenly which forced luca to smack his back in an attempt to get it out of his throat. When it came up it got a lot of air and laded in Rarity's mane causing her to run around in panic trying to remove the cheesy substance. "Well, uh, you see, can I get some water" Isaac asked trying to get the changeling to back away from the question. The changeling expecting this to happen already had a cup of it ready and handed it to him before saying "ok, spill" "Fine, kick back you are going to hear all of this not just the entrance but the exit as well or at least what was the exit plan" Isaac glared at twilight at the end of his sentence. *** 2 years ago*** "Yeah I...I know...alright i'll be there in a minute just passing by the lake near your house now. Ok see ya soon" Isaac hung up his phone as he passed by the lake near his friend mason's house. It was relatively late at night but Fireworks wait for no man especially when they were mason's. While passing the lake Isaac saw frantic splashing toward the middle of it which were punctuated with pleas for help. Isaac was a man who would stand by when it wasn't his problem, however when the situation was life or death he was one of the first to charge in. Not taking the time to bother removing anything he dived into the water and swam as fast as he could toward the middle of the lake to save whoever was in danger. When he got to where the splashing was however there was nothing. Fearing that they might have gone down he dove under the surface and went as deep as he could go when he suddenly felt something grab him from above. Issac busted out of the fountain in the Canterlot Gardens taking in deep breaths not even caring to look around him when he heard a scream come from behind him. Upon turning around he saw the strangest thing in his day, a unicorn. He climbed out of the fountain and proceeded to walk away from this in the direction of masons house because he believed he was hallucinating. However when he slammed into a rather tall white alicorn he froze and said "Well, shit. Did old man Jenkins fish me out of the lake cause I think he should chill with his horse fetish" The princess stared at the creature before her for a minute before smiling and saying: "I have no idea who this Mr. Jenkins is, but no my maid over there fished you out of my fountain" "Yep, definitely hallucinating. Maybe if I shove my head back into that fountain I'll see clearly again." The alicorn chuckled at the mans idea to help recover his vision but surely no one would actually... never mind he did. Celestia yanked the man back out of the fountain and turned him to face her. "You are not hallucinating, and you probably shouldn't submerge your head in water to long you still need to breath, I think" "Ok, I am in Narnia now obviously since you are talking so...um.. I am a son of Adam" Celestia just blinked once, twice, three times before giggling and asking: "What are you talking about" "FISSION MAILED, FISSION MAILED, ABORT ABORT" Celestia began to think that whatever this creature was it was clearly insane. So deciding that enough was enough with playing with this creature she decided it was time to investigate. It was a long boring process of explaining what he was and attempting to answer any questions she asked about the human race. The whole process took at least a solid month before finally Celestia's thirst for knowledge was quenched for now anyway. However they did not realize that they did not have a plan for how to get Isaac home after the fountain seemed to just be that a fountain. Celestia couldn't stand the look in Isaac's eyes when he was told she didn't know of a way home but she did have a back up plan. "Isaac I believe I know someone who can help get you home" With that Isaac was sent to Ponyville where he was to stay with twilight sparkle until she could find away to send him home. ***Back to now*** "I'd rather not talk about everything that happened those few months I was there Luca so I'm just going to skip ahead to why the exit strategy didn't work out" Isaac took a deep breath. "The way home closed my third month in Ponyville and I didn't know for another two months because helping me wasn't on Twilight's schedule for longer than three minutes a day." Twilight was looking at Isaac with guilt on her mind as if she had just done as she was asked she could avoided all this trouble with him. "Oh, i'm sorry Isaac. I didn't know" "Don't be Luca you helped me out of my depression from that remember" "Yeah I do"