//------------------------------// // Not the best morning ever // Story: A Tommie in Ponyville // by MetalBrony20 //------------------------------// The date, July 18 1944. Location, small cottage belonging to a yellow horse. Condition, minor scrapes and bruising. The Sun had risen once again over the beautiful nation of Equestria. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in sight, the temperature was warm, but not unbearable. Streaming through a small window, a long ray of light was cast over the wooden floor, leading up to a pair of figures lying asleep. One of them was a small pegasus mare, the other a human, dressed in full uniform sleeping under a blanket. The mare slowly pulled open her eyes, groggily looking into the low celestial body that was unceremoniously glaring into her iris’s, causing her to squint as she began to stretch out. Pulling herself to a standing position, she looked down upon the strange creature that had graced her in the night. He was continuing to sleep despite his companion, who had risen off the ground. Placing her hoof to her head, she began to think about what to do next. After a few moments of blankly gazing at the wall, she had came to the conclusion that she had not the foggiest idea in what to do. It was obviously sentient and had a fairly high intelligence, so she could not just keep it here with the other animals. However, what would happen if the went to somepony else, he would be stared at and may even provoke panic in the townsfolk. Letting out an exasperated gasp, she decided the best thing to do was to talk to it over breakfast and see what was what. It was clear, despite that nasty looking knife on that metallic stick, he meant her no harm, otherwise why would he have acted so friendly and calm to her, even going so far as offering he some food from his pack. Her head glanced down suddenly, the creature was making small moaning and grunting noises as his body began to shift and move around. Flinching a little, Fluttershy stood back and watched him twist and turn, stretching out his limbs as he did so. Like Fluttershy before, Bert almost painfully opened his eyes, which he rubbed with his hands. "Good Morning, erm... Bert was it? Have a nice sleep?" Fluttershy asked him gently. "Oh yes. Best sleep I have had in years, and that isn’t an understatement." He responded in a sleepy voice, yawning as he had fully come to his senses. Fluttershy furrowed her brow at the statement."Oh, That’s wonderful to hear. Would you like something to eat? I have bread and oats downstairs if any of that interests you." Fluttershy offered rather kindly to the now fully propped up ape creature. "Yes, toast sounds rather smashing. Would you like me to come and assist you?" "Oh no no, I’ll be fine." Fluttershy calmly responded. "Well in that case, I’ll be down in a few minutes." "OK, see you at the table." And with that she left the room and trotted down the stairs. Pushing himself off the ground with barely any grace, he grabbed his helmet and rifle, then looked through the rooms next door, searching for the bathroom. After a few minutes had passed, Fluttershy could hear the sound of heavy boots on the stairs as Bert slowly descended the steps to the bottom. Having reached the landing, he turned groggily towards the small room opposite the living room he had observed the night before. Placing his somewhat gnarled hand upon the chair, he pulled it back and plunked himself down. He un-slung his rifle and lent it against the table, no more then an arms length away. On the table itself, he carefully placed the dark green piece of metal so that it was as far way from Fluttershy as it could be. Looking over to Fluttershy, he saw she was walking towards the table with two plates; one of them was held in her teeth, the other in one of her front hoofs. Placing one down in front of Bert (Thankfully for him not the one in her mouth) and placing the other in front of herself, before pulling out the wooden chair herself and sitting (rather more graciously) down. Taking some bites each out of their toast, they sat there in silence, just watching the other across the table. Then Fluttershy finally built up enough courage and dropped the ball. "What are you going to do now?". Slowly finishing his mouthful, he placed the half eaten piece of toast back down on his plate. After a few moments of thinking, he glanced back over to her. "Well if you truly say this place if called Equestria and, if I am lead to believe it is populated by small Equines, I have no idea." He spoke in a calm, clear voice to her. "I have no clue where this place is in relation to where I was before. Hell, I could be on another world for all the difference it makes." He looked back down at the table, a somewhat sad look was in his eyes. Some time passed before he spoke again. "What do you think I should do Miss Fluttershy?" Fluttershy placed a hoof on his shoulder, obviously seeing the emotion running through him. "Well, I have been thinking about that too. When I first though of what to do with you, I had no clue. I had to treat you as if you were somepony else, not just an animal, which I am not quite as used to I’m afraid. However I think that you should come with me too meet a close friend of mine." "Well, how exactly is seeing a friend going to help me, apologies for the contradiction" Bert said to her in a slightly annoyed tone. He didn’t really want to see some random other horse thing just so he could be studied or screamed at or what not. Fluttershy retracted her hoof from his shoulder. "Well, she is a very special somepony, in that, well...she is a princess." Obviously noticing the annoyed look he had on his face as she said, she added swiftly "She is very smart, she may be able help you with her magic." "Of course she has magic, oh this completes the fairy tale quite nicely. All we need is for her to be a damsel in distress in a tower, with some prince looking to come and save her." Bert sarcastically talked back to her. Noticing the now rather peeved expression she had upon her face he decided to add a few more words as he back peddled hard. "Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to lash out like that. Its just, I’m in some land unknown to human kind, with a winged pony telling me about her magical princess for a friend. Back where I came from, the only part of that description we have ever possessed is the princess part. Magic to us humans is just fiction. Stuff of old women's tales. The only magic is trick magic, like card tricks and sleight of hand." Letting out a small sigh, he continued with his toast, eating the rest in a few bites. Pushing out his chair, he rose to his feet, grabbing his rifle and helmet as he did so. In a swift movement, he pulled the bayonet off the top, placing it inside the top of his pack as he reached his arm behind himself. Slinging he rifle onto his shoulder he looked down at the butter coloured pegasus. "I guess we had better be going." Bert spoke in a now much calmer voice. Composing herself after what Bert had just said, she spoke in her normal voice again."Right, I’ll just finish eating here and then we should be golden." Fluttershy nodded at him. Quickly eating the rest of her slice, he too rose to her legs. Pushing the chair under again, she sidled up to Bert. Gesturing with her hoof, she walked toward to the door, pushing it open. Stepping outside, she waited for him to emerge. Sauntering into the bright light outside, Bert placed his helmet back on, adjusting the straps slightly; After which the two set off towards town. However at the window, a small rabbit had jumped on to the window sill and was waving his arms frantically at a small bowl. He had an extremely annoyed look on his face. After a small while he gave up, glaring in the direction of his owner and her new accomplice. After walking down the dirt track for small while, Bert could now really appreciate the surroundings and detail he had missed the night before. Birds were chirping loudly all around, flying very close to the two individuals, though Fluttershy was most likely the reason why they were doing so. Bert was amazed by this. They were all so colourful and unique, very much unlike any of the birds he had back home, composing mostly of pigeons and sparrows with the occasional robin or blue tit. As they grew closer to the main street of Ponyville, he observed that several flower beds were lining the sides of the now gravel track. Bright blooms sprung up from it, catching the eye with unique shapes, sizes and colours as they twisted towards the sun. Now they were actually in Ponyville itself. Things were turning rather pear shaped very rapidly. The first pony they came across was a short mare about the same height as Fluttershy. Her coat was aquamarine in colour and had a blond mane. Hearing someone approaching her, the pegasus pony turned to meet the newcomers. First she spotted Fluttershy and began beam widely, then her eyes met Bert. Her pupils almost shrank to pin pricks as she looked at him. Jumping up into the air, he quickly flapped her wings and flew away. On her face was plastered a look of terror. Taking no heed of this, the two continued into the centre of Ponyville. Everypony that they came across gave a look of either astonishment or were looked at him aghast with terror. A small pony, who looked to be a foal was just stepping out of a doorway. When his mother emerged she took one look at Bert before grabbing the foal (as well as the door mat), pulling them inside, followed by the door slamming. The friendly chatter that was going around the town began to die down as the two walked ever closer to the castle. Now that he was drawing closer, he could properly distinguish the individual details of the crystalline structure he had seen last night. It rose several stories into the air and was a purple/blue colour. Large green glass windows were strategically lined up along the side of it, in evenly spaced intervals like a group of soldiers on parade. Contrasting this was the balconies, golden in colour which were situated all over the sheer edges. A large spike of crystal jutted out over one of the balconies, on it hung a large magenta flag with a six pointed star in the middle. In fact, the entire top of the structure was overshadowed by large light blue star, which looked dangerously jagged. The first thing that came to Bert’s mind was ‘God how out of place does that look in this town?’ Continuing on their way, Bert could not help noticing a mint coloured unicorn following him. Her mane was a similar colour to her coat, with white streaks running through it. On her side was a picture of a small string instrument, which appeared to be a golden lyre. Taking this as just the townsfolk being curious, he took no heed to it. However after looking over his shoulder, he noticed it was still pursuing him. Her face had the expression of both joy and somewhat of insanity on it as she appeared to be gaining on him. Looking back at Fluttershy, who appeared to be not paying attention, he placed his hand on her side. Reacting to his touch, she looked up at Bert, who had a very concerned look on his face. "Bert? What ever is the matter? I..." She was cut off as she watched in amazement as he was rugby tackled to the ground. Crashing to the ground , Bert rolled over onto his front, a stunned look on his face as he looked up at the almost maniacal unicorn who looked down at him "A REAL HUMAN! AN HONEST TO CELESTIA REAL HUMAN!". At this point, this unexpected violence had triggered something inside of him. In desperation in light of the situation, he ripped open the top of one of his large pouches. He fumbled in his panic before drawing out a pair of brass knuckle dusters, which he she shakily put on his hands, which were moistened by sweat. The look on the unicorns face had turned from glee, into a fearful one, as she began to back away in terror. Jumping to his feet, he prepared to lash out at his odd attacker. However as he tried to lunge forward to get at her, a pair of hooves grasped him around his middle and only just managed to restrain him with extreme effort. "Fluttershy! Let me go and let me have at this cad! If its a battle of fisticuffs you want then..." "STOP!" Bert cringed as he heard the sudden explosion of noise. He stopped leaning forward and faced the pony who had burst out at him. "What in the name of Celestia do you think you are doing!?" Stunned by the outburst of such a timid creature, he just looked at her with his mouth hanging open. "She just tacked me to the floor! I have every right to defend myself!" He shot back at her in defence. Composing herself, Fluttershy nodded slowly. "Yes, I do understand that you wanted to defend yourself. But that is no excuse to whip out some metal things and threaten somepony with physical violence." Fluttershy shot at him, although it was with a bit less anger in her voice, more a kind of teacher like lecturing tone. Slipping off his pointed knuckle dusters, he turned again to face the unicorn that had dived on him, giving her an annoyed look. Seeing as Bert didn’t want to hurt her any more, she just smiled a sheepish grin at him, before trotting off in the direction they had just came. Before she disappeared, a excited grin had emerged on her face. The rest of the journey to the castle was, however, not so peaceful as Bert might have hoped. Apart from the confused or scared looks the pairs received as they moved the once peaceful settlement, the biggest surprise of about to be delivered to Bert as they passed in front of what looked like a huge gingerbread house, although on closer inspection turned out to be painted wood. Standing outside was a chubby pink pony, who was bouncing down the steps with not a care in the world, despite her eyes being firmly shut. Opening them, she looked at Fluttershy, a large beaming smile had grown on her lips (not that it wasn’t large and beaming before). Then she caught sight of Bert. Letting out a large gasp, she bolted at breakneck speed toward the area they were travelling, which appeared to be the market area. Placing her hoof on his arm, she spoke again. "That was Pinkie Pie, another one of my friends. She can be a little over the top sometimes. By the looks of her expression, I’d say you have a surprise coming your way sooner or later." "Noted." Bert said in a dead panned way, annoyed at how he just took a lecturing from some tiny thing that wasn't even a superior officer. None of the ponies they had passes by had come up to him, said hi or even waved, apart from that blue/green unicorn, if you could even call being thrust to the ground forcefully and shouted at hello. Passing a flower shop, the ponies running the store goggled at the strange creature, before they all collapsed onto the floor. "The horror! The horror!" The red and pink haired earth pony cried out rather over dramatically, before she passed out like her counterparts. As well as the occasional scream or cry, he became aware of a low rumbling sound. Blushing slightly Fluttershy gave him a strange look. "Erm... pardon me. I think I may have skimped somewhat on the breakfast course. Do you suppose I could purchase something, like an apple?’" Bert somewhat sheepishly suggested to Fluttershy. Nodding slowly and smiling, she lead Bert towards the group of stalls ahead of them. At the first one they came to, Bert saw it was indeed a apple stall, with a large wooden cart piled high with shining juicy red apples. Behind it stood a muscular mare. She was bright orange in colour and wore a large brown Stetson hat that covered most of her short cut blonde mane. At the ends of her bangs they were done up with a small red ribbon. Approaching the counter, she began to lift her head to face the new comers. "Oh hello Fluttershy, how are ya doing...." Just noticing the towering figure of Bert. She stood there in silence, just taking in the new comer. Eventually she fixed him with a suspicious look before continuing. "What in the name of Celestia is that? Is it one of ya more unusual animal friends here Fluttershy?" She spoke in a Southern drawl, not unlike the Americans Bert had met before D-day. "I would prefer it if you would stop referring to me as an 'it', thank you very much." Bert retorted at the insult just thrown at him. "Woo we, well lookie here, it talks.' The orange mare said back at him in an almost mock tone. "Well yes, I do as a matter of fact missy. I again ask you to quit talking to me in your somewhat condescending manner if you would please." "Well, if ya say so. By ta way, ma name's Applejack, how about your's" "Bert Atkins, at your service." He bitterly responded. "Well that's a mighty strange name you got there." "I could say the same for yours Miss Applejack." "Ah think I'm beginning to like your style." Applejack punctuated this by jabbing his side with her hoof in a friendly manner. "Well, what is that suppose to mean?" Bert shot back, pushing her hoof away from his side. He was starting to get quite annoyed by this 'Applejack', constantly making remarks or somewhat small insults. "Well, ah like your attitude. Ah think your sound like a nice sorta guy." She now spoke in a more carefree tone, ignoring the building frustration in Bert. Giving him another nudge, she studied his clothing again. "Besides, I think your helmet makes ya look rather cute." "Thanks..." Bert glowered at her. This newcomer was not helping him to stay positive, that's for sure. "So listen, I would like to purchase one of your apples, if you please." Taking an obvious hint to his tone of voice, she gestured to her cart in a irritated manner. "So, wadda ya want? Ah got Golden Delicious's, Braeburn's, Cox's. What do ya have in mind?" "Erm... If I could make a suggestion, I think you should get a Braeburn. I get one most days." Speaking up after what seemed like ages, Fluttershy decided to make herself be heard. "Fine, I'll take a Braeburn." Bert acknowledged in now even more annoyed fashion. "Well that'll be two bits. Hopefully that'll calm your mood. Ah don't want you to get too worked up, otherwise you might hurt somepony. "Fine, but I need Fluttershy to pay. I have no 'bits' as you call them." he shot back towards her. "Well, that's mighty generous, but I still wanna see you pay back Fluttershy as soon as you can, seeing as you can't pay and all. Besides, what do you do? I mean shoot, if ya can't pay for a measly apple you mustn't do anything important or worth while. Do you just sit around in ya mother's basement and..." "SHUT THE HELL UP! WHAT THE FUCK WOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT WHAT I DO!? YOU'RE JUST SOME SIMPLE FARM HORSE! WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT FIGHTING A WAR, HUH? NO, OF COURSE YOU DON'T! YOU LIVE IN A BLOODY FAIRYTALE LAND WITH FUCKING PRINCESSES AND MAGIC!" Bert was livid. Breathing heavily, he just glared across the counter at the orange mare, who was shocked by the out burst. Instead of backing down, however, she grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him close. "DON'T YA USE THAT SORTA LANGUAGE AROUND ME! I AM NOT A SIMPLE FARM HORSE AND AH WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF YA WOULD CALM THE HAY DOWN. I DON'T LIKE TO SEE THAT SORTA' ATTITUDE BEING THROWN AROUND!" Grabbing her hoof in his left hand , he wrenched it off himself with a massive effort. Balling up his right fist, he aimed at her face, still un-relenting from the situation. Fluttershy was cowering on the floor, shaking like a leaf, not that Bert noticed anyway. "YOUR ARE NOT MY SUPERIOR! DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT TALKING BACK TO ME!" With that said, she turned around and kicked him hard in the chest. Applejack had expected him to fall to the ground from the impact, however he just staggered back, shocked about the sudden attack. He clutched his chest, his eyes shut in what appeared to be extreme pain. Slowly his face turned from shock back to one of anger and hatred. ‘YOU ORANGE GIT! YOUR BLOODY FOR IT NOW, YOU BLOODY YANKEE!’ With his right hand, he sent it in up in an arc, which sent a brutal upper cut under the chin of Applejack. She was lifted off the ground from the blow, causing her to fly backwards. After she impacted the cobbles below, she just lay there, blood oozing from her mouth.