//------------------------------// // Introduction: Finale // Story: Harvest Moon: Friends of Ponyville // by Rokkurin //------------------------------// The next day Kasey awakes before dawn per usual and gets dressed. He makes his way down the steps and notices that no one is up but him. Not wanting to wake anyone else up, he enters the kitchen, makes himself a sandwich and heads out into the fields. The early morning sun was barely peaking over the horizon as he walked through the never ending trees, munching on his sandwich. He eventually stops at a tree and looks it up and down. He takes note that the bark is normal and the leaves are not changing to any other color. He places the sandwich into his mouth and reaches for an apple. Once plucked, he brings the fruit close to his eye and watches as it begins to shrivel. His eyes widen at the now unappetizing apple. He drops the horrid fruit onto the ground and wipes off his hands. Taking the meal from his mouth, he finishes it in a few bites. He then takes his leave from the trees and heads back to the ranch. Upon arriving at the door, he feels something a little off. He looks around for the source and catches out of the corner of his eyes, a flash. When he looks, he sees Princess Celestia herself walking towards him. Kasey smiles and waves at the approaching monarch of the land. The alabaster alicorn mare returns the gesture. Before long the gap between them closes. Kasey steps off the porch and bows before her. “Good morning your highness.” Celestia bows in return, shocking the other worldly rancher, “It is I who should bow. Before me stands a Hero. A Hero who saved a dying land and brought Harmony to all.” Kasey blushes at her words of praise. “You miss your home, don’t you?” The Hero of Castanet jumps slightly. How could she know? “My sister told me of your dream. She said that you dreamt of your old home and your closest friend. If it is too much, you are able to leave.” Kasey looks down to the ground. It is true that he did indeed miss his home. But remembers the words of the Harvest King. The only reason he was there was to restore the land back to how it was. Full of life and thriving from the land once more. “I do miss home, but I don’t want to go back. I was told that the only reason I was brought there was to make the land livable again. After that, I was nothing.” A small tear slides down his cheek. The pain of being used as nothing more than a tool really turned his world upside down. He really thought that he found a permanent home. But it was more like a stop. Realization hits him like a ton of bricks. “That’s it!” He proclaims, “It was only a stop.” His face brightens at the thought and soon his regular mood has returned. “I may miss my old life, but I found an even greater chance to start anew.” Princess Celestia smiles at his demeanor. It’s contagious, like Pinkie Pie. His heart is pure and his mind is steady. She made the right decision in bringing him here. “Oh!” she says suddenly, “I almost forgot why I came here.” The Sun Monarch’s horn glows like the sun. In a few seconds, a scroll appears in front of Kasey. “This is the dead to your new home. It’s located just up the road before you get into Ponyville. It is not much at the moment, but you can go to town hall and get a permit to build upon it.” Kasey reaches out and grabs the scroll, putting it into his pouch. He bows again, “Thank you Princess.” Celestia smiles and in a flash of light, disappears. The human rancher looked in the direction of the rising sun. It was now just cresting over the horizon. His look lingers a little longer before he turns around and nearly gets crushed by Applebloom. “What’s with you doing that?” he says with a chuckle. “I don’t want yah tah go!” she says as she looks up to him with puppy dog eyes. Kasey smirks and rolls his eyes as he effortlessly lifts her off of him. With the filly in his hands, he spins her around. She shouts with glee and laughs. Applejack looks at the two with her own smirk. Soon it spreads into a smile as she walks over to the now two dizzy beings. “That’s enough Applebloom. Kasey needs to pack up his stuff. Right?” Applejack says as she looks towards him with a tilt of her head. “No, I have everything I need right here.” He points to his rucksack that is strapped to his back. “Everything?” the apple family says in unison. Shocked all among their faces. “Yeah, everything.” Kasey replied monotonously. Applejack looks at him straight in the eyes. His golden globes are hard and unmoving. There is not a hint of a lie anywhere on his features or in his voice. He takes the rucksack off and reaches within, pulling out a gold hammer, gold axe, gold watering can, gold sickle, and a gold hoe. Everyone around him were awestrucken. All those large item fit within the confines of a small saddle bag. “How?” asks Applebloom. Kasey puts the items back and places the rucksack where it belongs, “It was a gift from the Harvest Goddess. She gave it to my great great great great great great grandfather. From that point on, it was past down from father to son or daughter.” The faces everyone wore ranged from confusion, to even great confusion. Applebloom was the first to break the stupor, “May I see it?” The human rancher shrugs his shoulders and takes off his heirloom and hands it to the foal. She quickly takes off the top and looks within, only to be pulled out by Kasey, “Be careful!” he exclaims as he takes back the rucksack, “If you were to fall in, there is no telling when you will ever return. If at all.” Applebloom has tears form in her eyes at being scolded. Seeing her face calms Kasey down from his outburst. He was a little too harsh on her for the ignorance. He too made the same mistake when his dad gave him the backpack. “I’m sorry Applebloom. I should have said something earlier. How about I give you this.” he says as he reaches into the rucksack and pulls out a giant shining apple. “This is from my world, I grew it myself.” “Wow, look at it glow Applejack!” Applebloom says with renewed enthusiasm. “It looks almost as good as ours.” Responds Applejack. “Eeyup.” Big Mac adds in his two bits. The foal takes a bite of the red jewel and an explosion of flavor washes over her taste buds. The sheer amount of goodness caused her to drop the apple, which was caught by Kasey. Her eyes grew bigger, almost to the point of taking over her sockets. Kasey ushers Applejack over and hands her the apple, “Try it. And see for yourself.” Applejack takes the apple with hesitation and takes a bite. The same thing that happened to Applebloom happened to her big sister. The apple was passed around from apple member to family member till the apple was just a core. “That. Was. Amazing!” Applebloom exclaims. The little pony hopes around Kasey asking for another apple. Kasey tells her that he only wanted to give it to her to cheer her up. And it did, way beyond his expectations. After a few more words, Kasey was finally able to leave and take the path to his new home. The human is now walking along the path, taking in the sites around him. This world is much more beautiful in scenery, the people are just as nice and the food is even better. To the left of him was a small pond. He decides to take a small detour and wanders over to the pond. He admires the gentle water as a calming breeze pushes against him. The view in front is one that not many will stop to see. Just as he was about to take his leave, a flutter of wings catch his ear. He looks for the source but it was nowhere to be seen. That is, until he looked up. Above him was a blue pegasus flying at high speeds. The pegasus makes sharp turns and loops. After another turn it looses control as a strong cross breeze pushes against the wings, causing them to buckle underneath and for the pony to be sent into a spiral. It made many attempts to regain control, but to no avail. As the figure got closer, Kasey was able to see the color if it's mane. The color was vast, like that of a rainbow. Same with the tail. The rainbow maned Pegasus began to sway back in forth in a ditch effort to regain control. It was then that Kasey realized he was in the path of pain. "Oh shi-" he was unable to finish his sentence as he was hit square in the chest and the two were sent head over tail. Eventually the two stop. Kaseys eyes were rolling as his world spun. “Oh my goodness. Rainbow Dash, are you….” A new pony has entered the area where the two have landed. This pony was buttery yellow with a pink mane and tail. Upon seeing Kasey, she immediately shrinks back. The aforementioned rancher smacks the back of his head to stop his eyes from spinning. Once he regains his bearings, he can see that he is a good few yards away from where he was standing. To be hit with that much speed and only have a few pumps is surprising. As for the blue pegasus, one of her wings was bending at a painfully looking angle. At a closer look, the pegasus is a mare. He was just about to see if she was alright when she bolted upright screaming to the heavens, “OW BUCK! MY WING!” The force at which she used was enough to push Kasey back onto the ground. As for the other pony, a mare, ignored the stranger and ran to her friend, “Rainbow Dash! Are you okay?” The known blue pegasus, Rainbow Dash, just glares at the yellow one with tears in her eyes, “Oh yeah, I’m just fine Fluttershy. Just trying to use a new stretching technique I picked up from the- OF COURSE I’M NOT OKAY! MY WING IS BROKEN!” Fluttershy jumps back at the outburst, already having tears streak down her cheek. Rainbow Dash realizes what she did and softens up, bringing her into a hug. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. It's just, my wing hurts and I won’t be able to fly until it's healed.” Behind the two friends was Kasey, looking between the two with so much confusion. The blue pegasus remembers that she collided with somepony and needs to apologize. “Sorry about that dude, didn’t mean to hurt you like that.” She adds a slight bow at the end. “Its okay. I didn’t get hurt much. My names Kasey!” he says bringing a hand up for a handshake. “Rainbow Dash.” She replies taking his hand. “And this is my closest friend, Fluttershy.” Once she heard her name, Fluttershy hides behind Rainbow Dash and shakes like a leaf. Rainbow rolls her eyes,takes a step to her right and grabs hold of Fluttershy and brings her forth. Holding her in place so she can’t escape. Rainbow doesn’t realize how far she pushed her and she was only mere inches away from his face. Kasey notices that around her face were the stars of a potential bachelorette. Fluttershy’s whole face turns red. The human rancher looks a tad worried, “Are you getting sick?” he questions, bringing up his hand to feel her forehead. As soon has his hand touches her head she passes out and falls limp. Kasey jumps back and freaks out, “Oh my gosh! Is she going to be okay?” Rainbow Dash just burst out laughing, “I forgot to mention she is extremely shy.” The other worldly being just looked at the passed out pony, “No kidding.” he chuckled at the end. His focus is back on Rainbow Dash and the stars appear around her too. The stars lingered a little longer than usual, which indicates he has found all the potential bachelorettes. “It wouldn’t be too much to ask for your help, would it?” questioned Rainbow. Kasey shook his head, indicating that he would be more than willing to help her. He lowered his body to a kneeling position and Rainbow placed Fluttershy onto his back. “Come on, her house is this way.” she said, leading him to their destination. Before long the two eventually make it to Fluttershy’s home. To Kasey, the little shanty looked like it belonged in the earth. There were many among many animals roaming around. Birds of varying colors, little woodland creatures scurry across the lawn, even a bear sat peaceful under a shade giving tree. “This way.” Rainbow Dash gestures to the door and opens it. The two go inside and are greeted by a tiny white rabbit. Said rabbit was looking at the two with a curious look. “Her room is up the steps, the last door on the left.” rainbow points out. Kasey just nods his head and takes the passenger on his back up to her room. After five minutes of making sure she was nicely tucked in bed, he made his way back down to the main floor. The two guests made their way outside of the yellow pegasus and back to the town. During the walk, the two swapped stories. Kasey learned all about Rainbows dream of joining the Wonderbolts and how she is the fastest flyer in all of Equestria. The human told Rainbow about his life on Castanet and how he came to be in this world. “Wow,” Rainbow gasped, “They tossed you aside like you were nothing? What kind of loyalty is that?” It was clear to Kasey that Rainbow was fuming over this. But he calmed her down by explaining how the Harvest King made up for his lack of loyalty by sending him here. Which so far has been way better than his old home. Before long, Kasey arrived at his house after saying goodbye to Rainbow. She told him to shorten her name as to not sound so formal. When he arrived home the day was already about over. Today has been another wondrous day. His house was nothing too special. It is a one story home with a bathroom, bedroom, small kitchen and a family/diner room. To him it felt cramped compared to his home back on Castanet, but like the princess said “You are able to expand. If you so choose to.” The rancher enters his bedroom where a small one person bed, a night stand with a small journal on it, and a calendar on the wall next to the window. He walked up to the journal and found a note. It read, “Dear Kasey, Please use this journal to record your adventure here in Equestria, and to keep track of records, plant info and the info of the residence there in Ponyville. Best of luck, Princess Celestia.” Kasey smiles as he changes and gets ready for bed. He writes in the journal about his last few days, the six ponies that he met and finishes it by putting the date. After that he lays down and falls into a dreamless sleep.