//------------------------------// // Answers // Story: The new arrival in Equestria // by Blazer787 //------------------------------// When I awoke it was still early in the morn, the sun was barely creeping over horizon as it fought an uphill battle. As I wondered why Twilight brought me back here it seemed to click almost instantly. "Twilight brought me here for a reason, if she didn't need me she would've just dropped me off at AJ's, and she needs me for…questioning most likely…Well if she brought me back here, she should've known I'll be hungry." This morning wasn't like others, it wasn't slow and groggy, it seemed like I had a drive to get up. I couldn't figure out what though… I helped myself to a bowl of cereal; I found it more appealing than a salad and a few minutes later Twilight trotted down the stairs. "Do humans always collapse and talk to themselves like that?" She referred to last night. "Om nom nom nom, nom nom." Was my only reply as I wolfed down the cereal. "O…kay…" She stood blankly, as if thinking something over. I don't know how but I knew she wanted to know more about us, as humans. It was like I could sense what she was feeling. "I'll get a board game then." I said as I stood and walked back to the main room of the library. "Huh?" She looked up in confusion. "You wanted to play didn't you? Some sort of pony version of scrabble." "How did you-" "No idea," I called from the other room "now where do you keep your pony games?" As we played she had asked me how I knew that she wanted to play "instinct" I said through a mouthful of cereal. I swallowed and said; "It's like I could just sense what you wanted, without even looking at you. Kind of like when you have a feeling in your gut that you trust." For the next few turns it was just silence as we played, she was still thinking it over that I was some kind of monster though, I know it. "Okay my turn" Twilight finally broke the silence "let's see here…apoplectic, a p-" "Wait, that ain't a word, ponies using apoplectic." I objected. "Michael it's a word." "Use it in a sentence." "I was beating an alien with a limited vocabulary in word game, and he became apoplectic." Twilight had 'smug' written all over her face. "You just made that up. Anyone can use a fake word in a sentence." "You do it." "Uh…I went to the doctor, because my complexion was a bit, apoplectic." "That doesn't make sense." "Does to! Made us words, work fine in made up sentences. So my case is clearly stated, apoplectic ain't no word." "It is a word and you're just angry because I didn't let you get away with fat." "And what's wrong with fat?" "Because p-h-a-t, is not a proper word." "It does back on Earth." "Well this is an Equestrian game." "You don't let me use fat, you don't let me use biatch, can't use mofo! Bootylicious, foshizzle, or even babyfadda. I mean…Everybody use babbyfadda!" Twilight sighed, "Hold on." Her horn glowed and flashed a light blinding me for a second or two. "Argh! Wait…" Something felt different about me now… "Twilight what'd you do? I told you that magic made me act weird." "Well you were already knocked out cold, so I took the opportunity to run a few tests. Just to see how humans think is all." "Here it comes" I thought. "I'm not sure how to put this but…Your mind is very unstable Michael, with that level of damage I don't think you could even understand the basic fundamentals of magic." "Well you're just lucky you didn't go in too deep, some things are never meant to be seen by others Twilight." I said in a stern warning voice. "Wait…What did you take?" "Huh? Take what?" "You took something from me, I can tell." "How can you suddenly tell that I've stolen something from you mister shertrot?" I guessed that was a pun on our version of Sherlock "Well I can see it in your eyes, it's written all over your face, and in your body language. I can just tell that something else that's human is here." Twilight look surprised about how I could figure all that out, then worried like a huge secret was about to be blown. "Come on Twilight," I said and stretched out my hand. "Well…Right after you passed out Michael, something fell behind me. I turned around and I found" Twilight levitated a blank casing for a record over to me "this. I wanted to listen to it first because it's not one of ours. And with everything that's been happening to you I didn't want to-" "How can you tell it's not one of yours? I've seen records around town before." I said pulling it out. "Because of the title" flipping it over I saw the word: Michael in the middle of the record. It was written in cursive and seemed like it was engraved. "Oh…" I said simply. We headed over to Pinkie's because Twilight apparently preferred the silence of the library rather than any music on. Understandable I guess. Pinkie opened the door slowly and peered her sleepy face through at us. I wasn't a surprise that her hair hadn't changed, it always looked bedraggled, the only difference to her this morning was a frilly pink nightcap on. After shaking her head furiously to try and wake herself up she asked: "what're you two doin' here?" Her voice still sounded slightly asleep. "We need to use your record player real quick." I said. "Record player? Why…" After a long, wide mouthed yawn she said "yeah all right." Her tone just screamed 'I don't care just let me sleep'. Well it was pretty early so I can't blame her. We followed her upstairs to a large bedroom, with a large pink bed on the back wall, it looked around king size and most of the covers had been shoved off. . I quickly spotted the record player sitting by a window which leaked light through the thin curtains. As the sun bathed the room in a golden ray Pinkie pulled herself through a door on the right and kicked the door shut, after a few seconds the sound of spraying water echoed through the door. After a few more seconds Pinkie came bouncing out with long straight hair and was dripping wet, leaving a water trail where she landed. "So why do need the ol' record player? You auntie Pinkie pi eyes here to help!" She swung her arm around my shoulders, with a hug e Pinkie styled grin on her face. "You know in human years I'm probably five or six years older than you." Pinkie shook her head violently like a wet dog sending water everywhere, mostly onto my face though and went back to a huge smile. "Yeah thanks for that" I said in an annoyed tone. "Anyway we found this record and I know it's human." I held up the record in my hand which was back in its file. "So why come here this early?" "Well Rainbow is pissed at me, Fluttershy is probably asleep, Applejacks' place is too far, Twilight didn't have a player, and Rarity probably wouldn't like human music…Plus you're the only person I could think of who would be up this early in the morning." "Let's get this over with Michael." Twilight said, magicing (Oh snap new word!) the record out of my grasp. "Heh heh, ponies or humans we're all the same in morning." As Twilight took the record out and lowered it onto the player a thought came to me, "I pray it's not some screamo or emo crap." Twilight lowered the needle and it began to spin, the whole moment seemed like slow motion with a million thoughts racing through my head at once. "Is this really going to be music, or just that guy on my IPod? Is it going to be any good? What will they think of me after they've heard our music?" A mix between electronic and guitar came through the speaker as the record slowly spun. "I remember tryin' to talk to you in high school, Couldn't even get a look cause you were too cool. But now we're older and we're playin' by the new rules. We lived and learned!" "Sounds legit" I said as the music clawed to drown out my words. "Is all human music like this?" Twilight asked, I couldn't tell if she hated it or was just curious. "Not really, but rock is a lot better than some of the other stuff we've got." "Why, what's so bad about the other humany music?" Pinkie asked, still having that grin on her face. "Believe, you don't wanna know." "You know, Vinyl would love to play this at a club sometime. The first human music ever heard." "Well why don't we go show her now?" "She's in Canterlot silly." Pinkie said with a bubbly voice as always. "Well…there is one way to get there, but I don't think I should…" "How could you get us to Canterlot, then backstage to see Vinyl?" "Because I could just do this" I pulled the side of the scene across like a roll of film to put us in behind stage in Vinyl's room. "Huh?" Vinyl startled back in surprise, "how did you-" "Because appearing in this story came with an oath, because doing this" I pulled the scene sideways again and we were next to a police box "can break the fourth wall too much. And if we break it completely by doing this," This time we were on your computer screen, yes yours. "Then the whole universe will blow up. So that's why I can't do that…Or this." I reached to the top of the page and pulled it down and we were back inside Pinkie's bedroom. "HELLO!" Someone screamed in my ear. "Gaah!" I stumbled back and tripped over Pinkie. That ended up with Pinkie lying on top, and damn was it awkward. "Oh dammit it's you again" you can probably guess by now that the pirate there, hanging upside down from the support beam of the roof. Cracking up laughing he crashed to the floor. "Who are you talking to this time?" Twilight stopped the record and trotted over. "Twilight it's occurred to me that I might have a very minor case of seriousbraindamage." "I'd say…" Twilight muttered. "So are you serious about not seeing this psychopath?" "Hey I'm not a psychopath; I'm a highly functioning sociopath. Honestly do your research" he protested from across the room. Looking over he had somehow gotten a cap with a Canadian leaf on it, a TV and gaming system somehow. "What you're a Canadian gamer now?" "Nah, but you know you do look silly talking to yourself." Looking back around Twilight had a concerned look on her face, and throughout this entire time Pinkie was still lying on top of me. "Pinkie, do me a favour." "Yeah?" She asked, swinging her head back around. "Get off me already." "Oh right, sorry" she chuckled uncontrollably while she helped me up. "Not until your married you two" the pirate said, now back to his original outfit. "Michael, do you mind if I keep this for study, human music seems much different than ours." "Yeah yeah sure, just don't break it and I'll be back. Heh heh, terminator reference…" As I walked through the cool morning air that pirate still bothered me every step of the way, and he wasn't even walking now, he was just floating on his back that made it even more mocking. "Gah, I can't find Rainbow anywhere, it's not fair that she gets to freaking fly while humans are grounded. Literally!" "Why are you being so difficult? Just leave her for a few days and she'll come down." He swirled around on his little cloud bed, circling me as he said. "Difficult? I'm being so difficult, because I've had you on my back through this whole chapter!" "Well look at it this way then, Twilight will probably get sick of you asking for that spell, Rainbow won't want to talk, and since you're out of hospital you late." "Late? For what?" "Quit your job then did you?" "Oh crap I'm late, later pirate dude!" As I started to run I turned back and asked "what's your name anyway?" "Is that really important now?" A smirk smeared across his face. I gave up trying to use logic in this world and bolted back to sugar cube corner. After all, what sense was left in this utopian world? None, and with pinkie even less than that, in fact I'm surprised that the whole forth wall hasn't completely shattered yet. As I opened the door trying to be casual as my heart raced I opened the door and strolled in. "Hey pinkie, sorry about-" "Ahh Michael!" One look and it turned out I'd somehow gone from the front door, to walking in on Pinkie bathing…Okay I think I've broken the universe at this point "a little privacy please!" "Wait what?" Looking around outside it wasn't any illusion, the front door of sugar cube corner somehow lead all the way upstairs to Pinkie's bathroom. "But…This is…What!" I just stood there sticking my hand through the doorway, steeping through it and the whole thing was solid. I stepped back outside, closed and re-opened the door, the same picture, Pinkie staring angrily at me in a bubbly bathtub. "Hmm…" I stepped through and closed the door behind me. "Hey don't come in here!" Pinkie protested. "Ah please you're naked all the time anyway." I turned and looked at the hinges on the door, and the tiny gap in between the door and wall. "Yeah but…Uh oh. "What's uh oh?" I said, turning around. "Twitchy tail again" Pinkie dived under and popped back up with a colourful rainbow umbrella hat. "Pinkie I've told you, I don't really believe in that whole twitchy tai-"suddenly I felt a huge heavy weight collapse on my head that knocked me to the floor. It turns out the door had fallen on me and as I rolled it off Pinkie stared at me from the rim of the tub. "Wait…" I sat up in a flash and pinkie toppled back into the tub to avoid getting head butted. I stared back at the door and it went straight to Pinkie's room. "Well that's fixed…Can't say that much about the door…Ah well I should probably get out anyway." "How did that happen anyway?" "No idea" I picked up the door and tried to edge it back onto its hinges, they reconnected and worked perfectly again. "But the door's fixed so everything's back to normal…Well not so crazy…actually never mind." Just as I was about to close the door told Pinkie "you never told me that ponies had coconut conditioner." Work was pretty awkward that day, we didn't really talk much and I almost ended up burning a whole batch of bagels. I got the idea that pinkie thought that I was some sort of pervert now, but these ponies walk around naked all the time, what's the big deal? Not much else happened that day; I went back to the farm to help make a lot of apple stuff. Apple pie, apple cider, apple jam, anything to do with apples. But as I dozed off to sleep that night, another strange dream came. I awoke staring into the treetops of a strange new world, sitting up I stared at this whole new canvas of a world. Rolling red grass across spanning hills, dark red wood coated the trees, a flowing crystal clear river, and silver leaves swayed with a slight wind, all under a burnt orange sky. Looking to my right I could see a human sitting on a rock, back turned, and looked like he was playing a flute. As he started to play though the sound was anything but a flute, guitars and drums, and a voice all without stopping to breathe. Moon river what you do to me, the drawbridge is closing. I saw the devil wrapping up his hands; he's getting ready for the showdown. I saw the ending when they turn the page, I took my money and I ran away. Then I managed to snap out of it, the world fell apart around me and I woke up. Some people say that dreams are meant to be symbolic, I didn't believe them until this happened. Not just the dream but everything else, until Equestria happened. I helped Applejack on the farm; she wanted me to go easy on the apple bucking, worried that I was weak from getting out of hospital. Ironically I was stronger than before, leaving dents in the bark and snapping branches off along with apples. Then came another awkward day of baking with Pinkie, oh so awkward… As I walked out of sugar cube corner Twilight ran up to me "Michael, I have to show you this!" "What, where, who-" "No time" Twilight picked me up and levitated me back to the library. I tried to convince her to let me down but she insisted that it was for 'safety', don't ask me what she meant by that. "This is bullshit" I thought. "You can't just take a human hostage like this…I wonder if ponies have the Geneva Convention…" I followed…Well more like go dragged up the stairs and let down on Twilight's bed. She picked up a book set down on a nearby table. "I've finally figured out what's been going on with you." "Still think I'm some kind of monster?" I chuckled. "I've found a case that has all the symptoms that you're showing." She set the book down of my lap. I sighed and passed it back to her. "I know where you're going with this Twilight." I shuffled up the bed and laid my head onto a pillow "nighty night." "This is serious Michael, and you've been sleeping for a whole week." She magiced me back to the edge of the bed. "Cut me some slack Twilight, I have two stalkers on my back, I've been dead for a week, and I saw a little too much pony today than I'd want to." "Are you sure the stalkers aren't just your brain damage?" Twilight laughed as she flipped through the pages. "That's was supposed to be a joke but now I'm not so sure…" "Ah here it is; Lycanthropy." Que Poker face on me… "You don't know what that means do you?" "Lycanthropy, the study of…Werewolves…" You know if fan fics had commercial breaks this would be a dramatic time to have one so…Go grab a hot pocket or something. "Oh, so you do know what it means." "You're really convinced I'm a monster aren't ya? Maybe humans and ponies aren't all that different." "I'm serious Michael; you have almost all of the symptoms. Hallucinations, passing out, increased senses, rapid healing, and even your teeth." "The stalkers are real, and the teeth are just a normal thing that humans have. As for the passing out, healing, and the better instinct well…You might be on to something." "You see, I'm not making all this up. The only symptom you don't have is waking up in forest like areas." "Well…" "What?" "The day before I went into hospital, I did wake up in a little den of apple trees for some reason." "Even more evidence then, we need to find this out." "Well…Even if I am a monster…How can we prove it?" "We can take you to Canterlot; the princess has wanted to see you for a while now." "Oh yeah you told your government…" I tried my best to mutter so Twilight wouldn't hear but I have no idea how good pony hearing is. "But there is a simpler way to find out without going all the way over to Canterlot." "And…" "It says here that ponies, well humans in your case, can change when put under extreme physical stress. And I know just the pony for the job." "RAINBOW!" Twilight shouted up at a huge cloud house, dripping with pools of rainbows. "Twilight?" Rainbow poked her head over the edge "what're you doing here? It's getting late out." She said as she glided down and softly landed on the dirt trail. I stood in the shadow of the house. As Rainbow landed I crept up behind her on the souls of my feet, hoping not to make a sound. But as I was walking a twig cracked and rainbow spun around, interrupting Twilight. "Oh, what do you want?" "Twilight needs me to do something physically exhausting so we can prove a theory that may or may not be true…" "And I'm here for…" "Twilight wouldn't tell me either…Twilight…" "Well…it is late and all, and even though Michael is a human. I was wondering if you…" She trailed off. "Come on Twi, tell me already." Rainbow pestered. "We need you to race Michael." What? What did you think she was going to say? "What's so bad about racing that you wouldn't tell me?" I asked, "Also why are you so mad at me?" "What am I going to get out of racing this egghead?" Rainbow objected in a harsh tone. "Well, you can be the first pony to beat me in a fair race." "First fair race?" Twilight asked. "Yeah I blacked out in the one I had with AJ." "So why do you need me to beat this chump? I bet even Scoots could do it." "Because Twilight here believes I'm a werewolf, just from a few things in a book. And who's Scoots?" "Hmm…Twilight did that book say anything about stopping pain?" "No but it did mention faster metabolism…Why?" "Good" a smirk lit up Rainbow face as she lashed out and bucked my nose with her back hooves. "ARGH! God dammit!" I stumbled back with a lot of muttered curses, and then repaid her with a swift kick to the wing. As Rainbow slammed to the ground and stood back up, the threatened "oh that's it!" "Come at me bro!" Rainbow shot towards me as I ran, I ended up rugby style shoulder tackling her. Soon after it was a flurry of kicks and punches, I think I even started growling at one point. And at another I managed to get her in a headlock for a few seconds. With a sigh and seconds on concentration Twilight and managed to pull us apart using a strong magic blast back spell. "Break it up you two!" Twilight held us in a strong magical grasp, I could barely move as the tight aura surrounded me. "If you two want to beat each other so bad then you can race it out." Looking down at myself, I barely had a scratch on me. "Fine" I agreed. "But if I win Rainbow has to tell me why she's so damn mad at me." "Oh yeah, what if I win?" Rainbow objected. "I could teach you how to fight" I taunted. "Fight like a real man." "I'm a girl you dunce!" "Hey! Stop it!" Twilight shouted, "You two. Race. Now." So after a few minutes on insults being slung back and forth, we both agreed to race, and for Rainbow not to use her wings. But she couldn't anyway because I'm pretty sure I damaged one with a shoulder barge. And personally I think I won that fight, and the insult battle. "GO!" Twilight let off a loud bang using a sound spell. Don't ask me how many spells she has, but there's a whole lot of 'em. The race started out as a sprint; somehow I was keeping up with Rainbow though, maybe I damaged one of her legs, but she still ran with all her heart. As we both slowed to a half jog half run pace Rainbow sped up again, as did I. Shortly after gaining speed my eyes became heavy, I found it extremely hard to just barely keep them open. But the more they closed, the faster I seemed to run, until I finally blacked out.