//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Finding a Special Talent // Story: This Can't Be Happening // by StayOuttaMyShed //------------------------------// We walked in silence for a little bit, Pinkie Pie pursing her lips in thought. Above us, Rainbow Dash bounced from cloud to cloud. I was unsure of what Pinkie Pie had planned, and held my breath until she decided to break the silence, as she inevitably would. (It seemed like silence is her worst enemy or something.) "Let's see,” Pinkie Pie said, finally. “What do you think your special talent could be, Morgan?" "I don't think I can really do much as a pony that I was good at doing as a human. Besides, I doubt that I can even get a cutie mark in the first place, considering I'm not even from this world and all." "Don't be silly!" Pinkie merrily jumped around as Rainbow Dash hovered above her. "Everypony has a special talent, even ponies from different dimensions!" "You mentioned that you were cool with farms back in your world, right?" said her cyan friend. "Well, yeah. I was born in the country. I spent a lot of free time on farms during my childhood." "Then maybe you'll find your special talent with something at Sweet Apple Acres." Pinkie stopped dead in her tracks and gasped. "That's a great idea, Dash! I bet you're right, Morgan's special talent is just waiting to be found out there." The pink pony merrily jumped in place with a goofy grin on her face. "No time to lose guys, let's go!" Pinkie took off into a gallop, heading off to the farm. Rainbow Dash and I exchanged a glance before she shrugged and took off to catch up to her. I tried galloping to catch up as well, but found myself stumbling and even falling on my face a good couple of times for my efforts. It was hard enough getting used to walking with hooves, how the hell did Pinkie expect me to run with them? "Oh, don't worry about me. I'll just be back here trying not to fall on my ass," I yelled at the two ponies as they ran off. Pinkie Pie started to slow down as she looked back at me, letting my catch up to her. "Fall on your what now?" Pinkie asked. "Never mind. The point is, I'm not exactly good at running with hooves." "Sorry Morgan, I'm just so excited for you to get your cutie mark. Aren't you excited?" I rolled my eyes. "Oh yeah, it's going to be a barrel of fun. I'll finally know my special talent as a pony after being one for all of two days." "Not very positive today, are you?" Rainbow Dash asked as she slowed down to hover above Pinkie and I. "Well I haven't really gotten used to being a pony yet, so all of this is still kind of stressful for me." "That's why we need to get you your cutie mark! What better way to help you adjust to being a pony than finding your special talent as one?" Pinkie asked. "Fair enough," I responded as the three of us continue to make our ways to Sweet Apple Acres. "And you guys said her brother won't be there today, right?" "What is it with you and Big Macintosh anyway?" Dash asked me with her eyebrow raised. "I'd rather not talk about it." "Alright sugarcube, apple bucking is easy as shooting fish in a barrel," Applejack explained as Pinkie, Rainbow, and I joined her at a nearby apple tree. "All ya gotta do is give the tree a good buck, and those apples will fall off quick as a whip." Applejack brought her back hooves back and used them to kick the tree with all her might. The tree rustled a bit as the apples fell from the leaves, down into the buckets Applejack had placed below it. "Ok, looks easy enough," I said as I watched the final apple fall from the now empty apple tree. "Wanna give the next tree a try then? That is unless y'all don't think ya can handle it," the orange pony asked with a smirk. "Bring it on." The four of us made our way over to the next apple tree, which had dozens of the bright red fruits hanging in the leaves. "You can do it, Morgan," Pinkie happily cheered as I turned to give the tree a buck. I swear, she gets overenthusiastic about everything, With my behind facing the tree, I looked back one last time to make sure I could tell my hooves would be lined up to properly kick it. Once I was fully aligned, I prepared to give the tree a buck. I brought my back hooves up in the air and thrust them out as hard as I could...and found myself flat on the ground rather than connecting with the tree. "Nice one," the rainbow maned pegasus remarked as she held back chuckles. "Good effort sugarcube, but yer gonna have ta hit the tree to make the apples fall down." Oh really? I would have never guessed. Holding back my frustrations, I awkwardly picked myself up and prepared myself for my second attempt. I lined myself up, brought my hooves up, kicked them out...and found myself on the ground once again. "Silly pony, the tree was more to the right!" "Thank you for that fantastic advice, Pinkie." "No problem," she merrily responded, my sarcasm obviously going over her head. "Give it one more try, sugarcube," Applejack said to encourage me. "Fine." One final time, I picked myself up and lined up to buck the tree. I hoisted my back hooves into the air and this time kicked them more to the right, and actually hit my mark. “YES!” I hollered, my face smug as I looked up in triumph. The tree had been barely shaken. I bit my lower lip in awkwardness as a single apple reluctantly fell to the ground. Behind me, I could hear Rainbow Dash explode with laughter. "Er, nice job Morgan. It was a good start." Applejack almost effortlessly gave the tree a buck of her own that made every remaining apple fall from the tree with ease. "You don't have to be all nice about it. I think it goes without saying that this isn't my special talent." "Well there's lots of things you can do on a farm," Pinkie said, somehow even more energetic than she previously was. "Maybe your special talent is still here somewhere, right Applejack?" "Sure. He could try collecting eggs, baking, picking crops. Plenty of stuff." "If it involves using my hooves, it's probably pointless for me to try. Without fingers, I'm pretty crappy at doing anything with them besides walking." "Clearly," the pegasus remarked while gesturing to the apple tree that I had failed to buck. "Anything else he could do?" Pinkie asked. "I don't know. Milk the cows?" Applejack suggested. "What, with my mouth? How about no. I like animals, but I don't like them enough to put udders in my mouth." "You like animals?" Pinkie asked as she rubbed her chin and pondered. "That gives me an idea!" Pinkie quickly turned to the cowgirl pony. "Thanks for the help, Applejack." Before Applejack or I could say anything, Pinkie suddenly picked me up and placed me on her back, not even flinching from my weight. "Hold on tight, Morgan." Afraid of what would happen if I didn't, I did as Pinkie asked and held on to her as tight as I could. Suddenly, she took off in a quick gallop. "To Fluttershy's!" With me placed holding on to her back, Pinkie rapidly made her was towards what I could only assume was the direction to Fluttershy's house, with Rainbow Dash following us above. I’m not sure how I did it, but I managed to keep my breakfast down while Pinkie shot off like a rocket to Fluttershy’s. As Rainbow Dash helped me off Pinkie’s back, I was so dizzy I nearly fell on her. “Whoa there, loverboy,” she said as she lifted me off and to my feet, “I don’t even know you that well yet!” In a single overjoyed pounce, Pinkie Pie cleared Fluttershy’s front yard and landed gently in front of her door. She reached down, picked up a shovel and began beating the hell out of the door like it owed her money. Rainbow Dash and I shared a surprised glance. She shrugged. Once again, it was just a matter of Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. Fortunately, the shovel broke in half before Fluttershy answered the door. "Oh, hello everypony. Sorry I couldn't make it to the library this morning. The animals are very ill today." "It's OK, Fluttershy," Pinkie responded with a smile. "We actually came here to see if we could help you out a bit. More specifically if Morgan could help you out." "Why is that?" "She thinks I might get my cutie mark by doing it," I said as I tried to shake off my dizziness. "Oh, well I don't see why not. Follow me inside." The yellow pegasus made her way back into her house, the three of us sticking close behind her. She led us to her kitchen where she had something boiling in a large pot. The distinct fragrance of carrots mixed with various other veggies met my nose. It smelt fantastic. "I was preparing some soup for the bunnies before you guys came. You can help me with them if you'd like to." "Sound fine to me. I do like bunnies." Fluttershy placed a ladle into the pot and had Dash help her carry it outside, while Pinkie carried out a bunch of bowls on her back. I followed the three of them close behind. As we got outside, the pegasi placed the pot on the ground while I looked around at the gigantic yard. It was full of animals of all kinds: Birds, butterflies, mammals, and even a pond full of aquatic creatures. There was a chicken coop off to the left of the yard, and on the right side was what appeared to be a newly built shed. "I suppose you want us to stay out of that shed, right?" I said with a chuckle, remembering the video series that was quite possibly the only brony creation I enjoyed. "Um, no. You can go in it if you'd like to. There's just some gardening equipment in there for now. Why do you ask?" "No reason. So where are the bunnies?" "Over here," she said as she flew over to an area near the center of the yard. Indeed, there were countless bunnies around, although instead of looking lively and happy, they appeared to be exhausted and burning up. "The poor things have come down with a bad flu. The soup really helps them feel better." Fluttershy placed a bowl full of soup in front of a brown bunny. "It's OK little guy. This will help you feel all better." Soothed by the sound of Fluttershy's voice, the bunny ate from the bowl. Before long, they had eaten all of the soup. The green tint of their fur suddenly seemed to flush out, returning the bunny's fur to its natural brown color. The thankful critter then happily hopped off. "Wow. Not bad," I said, impressed by how efficient the soup was. "Your turn, Morgan," Fluttershy said as she poured soup into a new bowl. "Take this to a bunny. Be kind and gentle with them. They won't eat from it if they become stressed." "Don't worry, I'm great with animals." As I grabbed hold of the bowl with my mouth, I looked over the herd of bunnies to decide which one I would feed. I noticed one white bunny that was away from the others that looked particularly upset about his sickness. "I pick that one," I mumbled out, the bowl still in my mouth. "Um, Morgan, that's Angel. He isn't exactly too fond of strangers. You should probably try a different bun-" I ignored what Fluttershy was saying and made my way over to the bunny. He looked up with his eyebrow raised as I sat the bowl of soup on the ground. "Hey there little dude. Got some soup for you." The bunny gave me a glare and scooted the bowl away from himself. "Come on now, you got to eat it. It'll help you feel better." I scooted the bowl back towards him, causing him to give me an even more annoyed look. He scooted the bowl away once more, this time with his tongue stuck out in disgust. "Dude, just eat the dang soup. You don't want to stay sick do you?" I started to scoot the bowl over to him again, but he placed his foot on it before I could and tried to push it away. "Morgan, I wouldn't do that if I were-" "Eat the soup you stupid rabbit!" I pushed the bowl towards the bunny one final time. He alternated between looking down at the soup and looking up at me. Finally, he bent down to show that he was about to eat the soup. "Ha, that's what I thought." I turned and started to walk back to the others when I suddenly felt a bowl hit me in the head. The warm soup spilled all over me, tingling my skin, and making me smell like carrots. The bowl was on top of my head almost like a hat. I gritted my teeth and looked back at the bunny, who seemed very amused by the sight. "Why you no good little-" Dash and Pinkie held me back before I could get to the bunny. The fluffy jerk just kept laughing at me while I was restrained. "Um, I'm sorry Morgan, but I don't think animal care is your special talent." "Well how about we find out if rabbit kicking is!" "Pinkie, I think it's best that we go," Rainbow Dash told her friend. "Yeah, I think you're right." The two of them grabbed my front hooves and began to drag me out from Fluttershy's yard. "See you later, Fluttershy," Pinkie yelled out. The bunny waved goodbye to me with his tongue stuck out, making me even more furious. "Stupid freaking rabbit." "So where you want to try next, Morgan?" Pinkie asked as she hopped down the Ponyville street we were on. "Why don't we just go back to the library? I think I've had enough of trying to find out my cutie mark for one day." "We could always go by Rarity's shop and see if he finds his special talent there," Dash suggested. "I most certainly am NOT going to a dress store. I actually like farms and animals back in my world, and neither of those ended up becoming related to my talent. Why the crap would something I disliked even back home be my talent?" "You keep using those weird words. Are they some kind of human thing?" "Sure, Pinkie. Lets go with that." "Well anyway, there's got to be something around here that'll make you find your cutie mark, we just got to keep looking," the pink party pony said. "Could we at least get something to eat first? I'm starving." "I don't see why, Morgan. You just had a bowl of soup earlier," the pegasus said with a snicker. "Shut up." I was already tired enough from the whole ordeal. I was in no mood to joke about it. "I know a great place we can go to eat, Morgan," Pinkie said. "Follow me!" With Rainbow Dash continuing to hover above us, I followed Pinkie to wherever she was walking to. I looked around the sickeningly technicolor city as we walked. I could only hope that Twilight had figured out a way to get me home once we return to the library. She just had to. There had to be a way back. Maybe some sort of spell, or with some kind of ancient artifact, or- "Yeah, take that you stupid Changeling Queen!" A loud voice caught my attention as I shifted my gaze over to where it came from. My jaw dropped at what I saw when I looked over. A couple of feet away from us was what seemed to be the pony equivalent of an arcade. Inside of a small blue building were a good couple of arcade machines scattered around. Wait. Those machines. Those sounds. "Are those...videogames?" "Huh?" Rainbow Dash stopped mid air, and turned to see where I was looking. "Oh yeah, they're pretty cool. I take it you have them back in your world too?" "Heck yeah we do. Playing videogames is my favorite thing to do in my spare time. I can't believe you guys actually have them in this world." "Guess we're not so lame after all then, eh?" the cyan pegasus said as she nudged me. "I got to try this." I shifted my focus to a dark gray teenage looking pegasus with a short brown mane. He was at one of the machines and seemed to be the source of the voice I heard. "Hey Pinkie you said you know everypony in Ponyville, right?" "Yes sir! Every stallion, mare, donkey, dragon, gryphon, zebra, diamond dog, and-" "Can you tell me who that is?" I asked with my hoof pointed at the teenage colt who was now deep into his game. "Sure! That's Stratus." "Got it." I cantered over to him, getting a better view of the arcade machine as I approached him. It was built almost exactly like arcade machines back home, and was a bright green. It was adorned with a powerful-looking unicorn and what appeared to be black bugs. I then noticed Stratus about to leave the machine. "Hey, Stratus," I said before he left. "Uh, hey. Have we met?" "My name's Morgan," I responded with my hoof held out. He hesitantly shook it. "I wanted to ask you about what you were playing." "Really? Cool." Stratus walked back over to the machine and showed me the start screen. Displayed on the screen was the title, "Princess and Shield." "This game is actually pretty new. It came out after the royal wedding." Stratus then brandished a gold coin. "This game's on me," he said as he slid the coin into the coin slot. The teenage colt pressed a button labeled START which made the machine come to life. I couldn't help but feel impressed as a classic looking 8-bit intro started up. On the screen were two ponies, a white male unicorn with blue hair, and a pink winged unicorn mare with a multicolored mane, relaxing in what appeared to be the inside of a castle. Suddenly, explosions started to go off, complete with classic arcade style sound effects. "Dang, they really got this whole classic arcade game feel down," I thought to myself as the intro continued. A large black creature that seemed to be some sort of splice between a pony and an insect then appears in front of the two ponies. "It's the Changeling Queen," said the white unicorn via the 8-bit text that displayed above him. "Ha! Ha! Ha! Time to get rid of this pesky princess!" As the text disappeared from above the Changeling Queen, several other smaller insect like pony creatures then started to make their way on to the screen, trying to corner the two ponies. Before they could get to the mare, however, the stallion knocks them away with what seemed to be a shield that he created using unicorn magic. "Don't worry, Cadence! I'll do protect you!" Wow, they even got the typos that old school arcade games had. "Not if I have anything say about it! Ha, Ha, Ha!!!" The Changeling Queen then disappeared, and the game started up. The white unicorn was on the bottom floor, while the mare was inside of a window near the top of the screen. Scattered all across the screen were various platforms, stairs, and moving platforms. The background of the screen made it seem like this was taking place in a castle, with two large castle-like towers on each side of the screen, one of which contained the pink winged unicorn. The bottom floor looked like that of a castle bridge between the two towers. "The game's pretty simple. You play as Shining Armor and have to protect Princess Cadence from the changelings that come on to the screen. You knock them away using the shield. They can even be bounced off each other for bonus points." Stratus was playing the game to demonstrate his points, but I was far too busy trying to pick my jaw up from the ground due to how the game appeared. Despite this being a whole different world, let along the world of a girls cartoon, the game looked exactly like how a classic arcade game would. Everything from the graphics, to the sounds, to the way the game seemed to play gave it the feel of a great classic platformer. Needless to say, I was eager to try it out. "I need to play this," I said with my mouth still agape. "Sure, knock yourself out," Stratus said, stepping aside so I could play. I looked down at the control panel. Like the classic arcade games, there was a control stick for movement, the start button, and two action buttons. One was labeled "Jump," and the other was labeled "Shield." Jump was self explanatory, and from what the pegasus had told me, I had a basic idea for how the shield worked. "So I'm just trying not to die, right?" "Actually, Shinning Armor can't die. He has his shield protecting him. The game ends if the changelings make it to Cadence." I looked around the screen some more. At the top left of the screen was a meter labeled the "Shield Meter." Must mean that I can't just spam the shield. Below the shield meter were a bunch of zeros, which was what I could only assume was my score. At the bottom right corner of the screen was a number. At the moment, the number said 10. "I'm guessing that means how many enemies I have left in a level," I said, pointing my hoof at the number. "You catch on quick, don't you?" Before I could answer, a dramatic 8-bit tune started playing. Looking at the screen, I saw the first changeling come into vision. "Lets do this." I placed my left hoof on the joystick while I had my right hoof waiting at the two buttons. Even without fingers, the joystick was relatively easy to maneuver. I tested out the Jump button, jumping up to one platform near the bottom, then jumping off. As I started to approach the changeling, I decided to test out the Shield button next. I pushed down the shield button, and as I expected, the shield expanded further the longer you held it down. Shining Armor seemed to slow down with the Shield button held down, and couldn't jump. The Shield Meter started to deplete every couple of seconds I kept it held down. Finally, the shield hit the changeling, bouncing him off of the screen, giving me 100 points. My shield meter had gone down a few notches. "Way to waste that much of the shield meter on a single changeling," Stratus said with a chuckle. "Got to get a feel for how the game works first, my friend. Now it's time to make magic happen." I focused on the screen as two more changelings entered, one from each side of the screen. I ran after the one nearest to me. Waiting for when I was close to it, I pushed the shield button. The shield meter only went down by a single notch. "Not bad," the impressed pegasus said. "So if I can't die because of the shield, let me see what happens when I do this." I had Shinning Armor run over to the next changeling, who was beginning to jump up the platforms. Timing my jumps well, I quickly caught up to it and ran straight into it. As I thought it would, it fell off the screen, dead-Mario style, as soon as I made contact with it. However, the shield meter seemed to deplete by another couple of notches. "Well they still get beat by that, as you can see, but it's not recommended if you want to conserve your shield meter." This backseat gamer stuff was already starting to annoy me, but I ignored it as I saw the Princess begin to do what seemed to be blowing kisses. As she blew a kiss, a pixelated heart floated down to a nearby platform. "Let me guess what this does." I quickly jumped over to the heart and picked it up. I grinned as I saw my shield meter refill. "Nice." "Yeah, the hearts can refill up to half of the meter, but the changelings will try to keep you from getting them." After knocking away three more changelings, what looked like an 8-bit cake appeared. I quickly ran over to it to pick it up. I was rewarded with 500 bonus points. After grabbing the cake, three more changelings appeared on screen, two from the right, and one from the left. I made short work of the one on the left. Wasting no time, I went after the ones on the right. One jumped up to a platform, while the other stayed on the ground floor. Once I was near it, I hit the one on the floor with the shield. It flew upward into the air and knocked into the changeling that was standing on the platform. Both changelings suddenly fell off the screen, and I was rewarded with 500 points, rather than 200. "Whoa, you can bounce them off each other?" "Pretty cool, eh?" I noticed that bouncing the changelings off of each other only cost me a single notch of my shield meter, making the method all the better. Now only a single changeling remained. The final enemy finally appeared on screen and found itself quickly becoming acquainted with my shield. With the level over, an arcade style victory tune played before the screen went black. It quickly reappeared with a screen that said, "Wave 2," in white text. Shining Armor and Princess Cadence ran across the bottom of the screen, with Cadence exclaiming "Lets Go!" in white text. "Now that your beginners luck is over, have fun trying to beat it as the game gets harder." "Oh I will." The next level loaded quickly loaded up. The background was the same as the first level, and Cadence was still in the same spot, but the platforms were rearranged. They must be randomly generated each wave. Wasting no time, I made mince meat out of the enemies in wave two, utilizing the shield bounce twice. Wave 3 was almost identical in performance. "Dang. You sure you've never played this game before?" an impressed Stratus asked as Wave 4 was loading. "Nope, never played before in my life," I responded with a smirk. "Next level Morgan! Next level," Pinkie happily cheered as the next level loaded. I must have failed to notice that she, along with Rainbow Dash, had joined the teenage colt in watching my gaming. I focused on the screen and noticed two blue colored platforms near the middle of the stage. "The heck are up with those?" I had Shining Armor jump up to on of the platforms. As soon as he landed on one of them, he began to slide. "Ice platforms, eh? Neat." After stopping Shining Armor from sliding around, four changelings appeared on screen. The enemy counter was now at 20. "Lets rock." The first couple of changelings were taken out rather quickly. I found myself having to expand the shield quite a bit in some spots, but the Princess' hearts helped keep my shield meter high. However, I then soon found myself faced with almost six changelings on screen at a time. "Holy crap there are a lot of them." "You should probably get rid of them before they transform." Before I could ask what he meant by this, I noticed a new item appear on a high level platform. It was heart shaped, like the one Cadence blew, but it was a shade of white, rather than red. "A jewel heart? Well aren't you lucky." Curious by what Stratus meant by this, I wasted no time in having Shinning Armor climb a stair case to reach the platform. I jumped over to the item and grabbed it. Suddenly, every changeling fell off the screen. My score counter received a hefty boost due to getting 100 points from every changeling. I sighed in relief as the counter showed that only one enemy remained. "I wonder what he meant by transform," I thought to myself as the final changeling walked on screen. Instead of killing it immediately, I stood still and let it jump around. "What are you doing?" Stratus asked. "Experimenting." Roughly ten minutes later, the creature started to flash green and white. The flashing began growing more rapidly until its body finally morphed. I watched the enemy closley as the flashing slowed down and turn into what appeared to be a large orange dragon. "Oh dang. What does that do?" Almost as if in response to my question, the dragon began to blast balls of fire at me. Thinking that I could deflect them into it, I activated the shield. However, instead of bouncing off of the shield, the fireball hit it, and depleted part of my shield meter. "Well that answers that." Dodging the various fireballs, I made my way over to the dragon as soon as I could and rammed into it. It reverted back into a changeling and flew off of the screen. The victory tune played once again and Wave 5 began to load. "I don't know how you're doing this good, but Wave 5 is when things start to get really intense. Good luck getting much farther than here." "I don't need luck," I said with a grin as the level finished loading. The number of changelings were bumped up to 25, but I made short work of them, especially thanks to the shield bounce. My score grew more and more as Wave 6 began. Before long, I was dominating the game and on my way to Wave 10. After mowing through a bunch of changelings, a large greenish glow started appearing near the top of the screen. "That's not good." "What's not good?" Stratus was unresponsive as I watched the glow take form of the Changeling Queen from the opening cutscene. "Yeah, she'll appear randomly from time to time. She'll try to hit you with her spell." I looked at the screen and as Stratus had said, the Queen did appear to be building up a spell, her horn growing brighter and brighter as time went on. "If she's successful, she blows a black heart at you that slows you down and disables the shield bounce. Basically make things really easy for the changelings." I took a deep breath before starting to make my way up the platforms to reach the Changeling Queen. "Good luck getting to her. Witb the changelings still out there, trying to knock you away, it's almost impossible to get to-" The backseat gamer was cut short as I made it to a platform near the Changeling Queen and held down the shield button. The shield expanded out and reached the Queen, knocking her from the screen. Stratus' jaw dropped as I was given a full 5,000 points for my efforts. "You've got to be kidding me," the dark grey pegasus said as I started taking out the final regular changelings. Soon enough, the level was completed. "That was awesome, Morgan," and impressed Rainbow Dash commented. "More like, that was impossible," Stratus added. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself at his comment before turning my attention back to the game. While going through more Waves, the platforms became increasingly spread out, making them more difficult to jump to and from each other. The changeling also grew quicker, and transformed more often. Thus far, they had only taken two other forms other than dragons. There were dogs, which simply took away portions of platforms as they walked along them. They were still weak in this form. There were also gryphons, who kamikaze dived at Shining Armor to knock him off of platforms. One gryphon in particular that knocked me off on the way to a jewel heart annoyed me. Eventually, I found myself reaching Wave 35. I had encountered the Changeling Queen a couple more times and racked up an insanely high score, but was starting to get tired out. With 50 changelings now included in the waves, I found myself overwhelmed. Soon enough, the changelings knocking into me caused the shield meter to fully deplete. Shinning Armor wouldn't move and seemed to be in a state of exhaustion. "Why won't he move?" "When the shield meter runs out, Shining Armor gets stunned for a bit and you have to wait for him to recover half of the shield meter, but it takes a bit. I've never even got to a level this far with so many changelings so-" Before Stratus could finish his statement, the changelings reach Princess Cadence's window. The Changeling Queen then suddenly appeared on screen and laughed. The screen then went black and said, "Game Over," with a 10 second counter below the words to give the player time to insert another coin to continue. As the timer went down, the Changeling Queen flew across the screen with Cadence on her back. Shining Armor was chasing them close behind. Once the timer hit zero, the Queen exited the screen and Shining Armor fell flat on his face. "Darn. I was on a roll." The screen then switched to a high score screen. I smiled as I saw that my incredibly high score was by far the top one. It was at least 3 times as large as the score in second place. Using the joystick, I entered in my initials and proudly looked at my score being displayed at the top of the screen. "That was crazy. I've never seen anypony handle that game so easily." The teenage colt was dumbfounded. "Nice going Morgan," Rainbow Dash said. "That was pretty sweet." "It wasn't even a challenge," I confidently responded. "This is so cool. I can't believe this world has videogames. And you guys are still back in the old school arcade era. You haven't even gotten to the Playstation and Nintendo 64 yet! This world has barely scratched the surface for-" I stopped when I noticed a sudden bright light coming from...my flank? I looked down at it in confusion when the light suddenly faded away, revealing a picture of a joystick on my flank. "Morgan, you got your cutie mark!" Pinkie tackled me in excitement, nearly knocking the breath out of me. "I told you you'd find it!" "I know Pinkie, I know. Now please get off me before I suffocate." The pink pony stepped aside, but didn't stop jumping up and down in joy. "Well no wonder you were so great at the game on your first try," Stratus said, also looking impressed. "It's your special talent after all." I couldn't help but grin. Even if I didn't like this world, I couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction seeing the picture on my behind. It was comforting to know my videogame skills even existed in the world of My Little Pony. "I got to say son, that was pretty impressive." I looked up to see an older looking stallion with a deep brown coat and gray mane. He was sporting a mustache and had a large golden coin for a cutie mark. "The name's Coin Slot, I own this here arcade. Saw your little performance. I ain't never seen somepony with such a knack for these games than you. And I'm mighty glad you got to get your cutie mark here." "Thank you sir. It feels pretty good to have it." "So what's your name?" He asked with a smile. "His name is Morgan," Pinkie happily exclaimed before I could speak. "Well Morgan, you're welcome here in my arcade anytime." "Thanks. Glad to hear it." I shook hooves with him before he walked off to check on the rest of his arcade. "Hey Morgan, this place is full of games just waiting to be played," Stratus said. "Want to play some more?" For the first time since being here, I could feel myself feeling being genuinely happy as the thoughts of playing more games crossed my mind. "You bet I do." Roughly an hour later, Rainbow, Pinkie, and I found ourselves making our way back to the library. I sampled a lot of the games that the arcade had to offer. One game was about a dragon protecting its treasure from thieving dogs (Pinkie Pie called them Diamond Dogs), while another game was a maze like Pac-Man… except it took place in a creepy abandoned town and I was trying to escape these horrible skeleton horse things. (I think the name of the game was “Blanks”. Not sure why.) We also came across Rainbow Dash’s personal favorite: “Daring Do and the Time Travelers”. “It isn’t as good as the first game,” she claimed, “but it DOES have multiplayer!” We all played simultaneously, finding treasures, defeating monsters, solving puzzles, and so on. It actually kind of felt like a mix of Gauntlet and strangely enough, that old Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers NES game. Naturally, I was an ace at all the games we tried. "I'm so excited! I knew we'd find your cutie mark for you today, I just knew we would!" Pinkie was absolutely giddy. Although I usually found her acting in such a way annoying, I still found myself proud of my cutie mark, so I was kind of happy about it myself. "It's like you're becoming an honorary pony now!" "Whoa now, Pinkie. I wouldn't go that far. After all, I'll be going as soon as Twilight find me a way home." Suddenly, Pinkie seemed to lose her energy and ceased her hopping as she pondered on what I had said. Her smile faded, and she looked at the ground sadly. "Oh yeah, forgot about that." The tone of her voice was depressing. She and I both knew I couldn’t stay here. I had friends and family back where I’m from. Still, I could understand her plight. She had only just made a new friend, and suddenly, she had to say good-bye. "But hey, that's probably a while from now," I said, trying to cheer Pinkie up. "And you're right, this cutie mark IS pretty sweet, isn't it?" Pinkie flashed me a wide smile. "It sure is! I can't wait to see what Twilight thinks of it." "You know Morgan, you may have your cutie mark, but I don't think you're completely adjusted to being a pony just yet," Rainbow Dash said as the library started to come into view. "What more could I possibly have left to do?" "Fly. You ARE a pegasus after all." That got me to thinking. Ever since Pinkie brought up the notion of me being able to fly when I first got here, it's been something I've been interested in learning. Unfortunately, making my wings awkwardly spasm was still all I could accomplish with my wings thus far. "Tell you what, how about I teach you how to do it some time? Give me a day, and you'll have it down easy." I smiled. "I think I'll have to take you up on that offer." The rainbow haired mare smiled back at me as we made it to the library door. Pinkie opened the door, while Dash and I followed her in. "We're back!" Pinkie happily bounced over to Twilight who had dozens, maybe even hundreds, of books scattered all across the floor. She was at a table reading one of the books when Pinkie approached her. "Hello everypony. How was today?" "See for yourself!" Pinkie pointed her hoof at my flank. Twilight's jaw dropped. "You got your cutie mark!" "He sure did," Rainbow responded. "He aced those videogames like they were nothing." "That's great, Morgan," Twilight remarked. "I didn't even think you could get a cutie mark, what with you being from a different world and all." "Believe me, neither did I. But somehow, someway, here it is. Pretty awesome, ain't it?" As I finished my sentence, I noticed snoring coming from upstairs, I raised my eyebrow in confusion. "Oh, almost forgot. Spike got back from Canterlot today, not too long after you guys left. He's been helping me research today. Tired him out so much that the poor thing just dozed off here in the main room about an hour ago. I went ahead and moved him to his bed upstairs." "Neat. So speaking of your researching, have you found anything yet?" I asked, curious to know if Twilight had already found me a way home. "Well, I've been reading up on human mythology and theories of different dimensions. I've been trying to find any sign of how to travel between worlds like how Pinkie was able to do." "Any luck, so far?" I asked. "Um." Twilight seemed to hesitate, as she nervously looked down at all the books she had scattered around the room. "I'm really sorry, but none yet. However, when Spike returned today, I had him send a letter to Princess Celestia that detailed everything. I was hoping she would know something about all of this." "Jeez Twilight, calling in the Princess' help for this?" Dash asked, a bit surprised. "Well, the books don't have anything on it, and who else would be more likely to know about the subject than on of Equestria's own rulers? Anyway, it didn't take long for her to respond." The lavender unicorn then picked up a letter on her desk, using her telekinesis. She levitated it up to her face and opened it so that she could read it. "My most faithful student, I regret to inform you that I have not heard of such an occurrence happening before in Equestria's history, and thus am not particularly sure what to make on the matter myself. However, I will look into it and will be sure to write back to you once I have found any information that could be of use to you. From, Princess Celestia." Twilight placed the letter back on to the table to signify that she was done reading. "Guess that means I'm at least here for a few more days, eh?" "It would seem so. I'm sorry about the inconvenience." I felt...oddly conflicted by hearing Twilight's news. Normally, hearing this would have made me feel like going on a rampage, but for some reason I couldn't be fully upset. After all, the thoughts of learning how to fly and playing more videogames actually made me want to smile. But still, knowing that I was still stuck here in this cartoon, away from my friends and my family made me frustrated. Not wanting the other to have to see me in a distraught mood after such a good day, I decided it was best to be alone for a bit. "I'm going to take a walk," I said as I walked toward the door. Once I reached the door, I struggled trying to turn the door knob. The annoyance of not having fingers for things like these didn't make me feel any better. Before I could further fight with the door handle, it was caught in purple aura and turned. "Thanks," I said back to Twilight as the door opened. I stepped outside and closed the door behind me. Once outside, I let out a deep sigh. "It'll be OK, Morgan," I told myself. "You're only here for a little bit longer. You get to learn how to fly and get to play videogames for now, and soon enough, you'll get to go home." I looked up at the sky. The sun was beginning to set and soon enough it would be night time. Back home, my loved ones were probably looking up at the sky too, hoping they'd see me soon. I sighed once again. "Don't worry guys, I'll be home soon." As Morgan began his walk, trying to calm himself, he did not notice that he was being watched. In fact, he hadn’t noticed he’d been followed all day. In the bushes, a mint green unicorn looked up as her target walked away. After looking about to make sure she was alone, she lifted a voice recorder using her telekinesis and spoke into it. "Observation Log: Day 1," she said as she spoke into the device. "After a day of watching the suspect, suspicious behavior has persisted. I may not be able to say it's a guarantee that my suspicion is correct, but the plausibility is high. This can only call for one thing. It's time to begin Operation: Human Investigation."