Did you ever think about what it’s like to be able to breathe easily every single day? How you are able to walk around simply and stupidly, blindly navigating your way through a wayward world of chaos and beauty? I mean, who honestly does that anymore? Deep thinking, I’ve learned, in the past few years, has altogether dissipated in the endless void of forgotten skills and practicing, only being retrieved back into this world by a small few. Very few nowadays truly sit down for awhile and think about everything, and I mean THINK.
I don’t know what it is that prevents others from extending their minds to the cosmic reaches they call science and fantasy, but many have lost that spark to try and extend their knowledge to something more… substantial. Even ponies, in a genius mindset and skillful in the brain, know little about what they actually research in their books. They never know the true experience, since they all only observe, like a child in front of a TV or performer. They observe, watch, record, and revel in what they see. But what they lack is what they can feel from their viewings.
Think about a sad time. A funeral, a death in the family or pet, losing something you lost that you once held dear. Hold onto that feeling, think about it for a moment more… Now, think about the happiest time of your life. Prom, graduation, getting those shoes you always wanted, kissing your first love. Let it soak within you, gush through your body.
Polar opposites. These emotions are felt, aren’t they? You feel, maybe, like breaking up inside when you think of the sadness around you. The happiness throughout you afterwards replaces the dark memory, letting you encompass yourself in something indescribable, something that elates you and wants to send you higher.
Well, basically you have just been viewed, tested, recorded. The observer, that genius beyond genius, knows slightly about your experience. But could they ever feel that same melancholy throughout your body? That same cloud-like high you had afterwards? No, nobody else could. That is YOUR experience, YOUR emotion, what you felt and nobody else could.
When somebody is able to think however, the kind of thinking I talked about earlier, they can start to guess how others feel, even to the point of almost experiencing it themselves. These ponies are far and few between, but most lead very… “interesting” lives to say the least. These ponies are skilled, not just in emotion, but how ponies will react. Reaction is simply an action before the emotion kicks in. That feeling changes actions so much, but never a reaction. Reaction is instant, spontaneous, explosive. It’s never thought over or given much credit… it just is.
Reading reactions is something that is both learned and instinctual. We all know how to react if we are in danger; that’s simply the flight or fight theory. However, some have taken that a step further, a step even better than fight or flight; they can plan out a fight or flight strategy. They have delved into thinking so much they have learned to read others at an incredible pace, their minds a processor with blurring speed and power, unmatched to anything you may dream of. Few know of it, but fewer can experience it.
My name is Pot Luck. This is my reality, and this is how I want to begin my story…
By the way, sorry for being so philosophical at the beginning, it just makes everything so much more inspirational and riveting, don’t you think?
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The situation was intense. Four weathered stallions were staring at each other, sweat coming down from their brows in tiny rivulets. Their breathing was labored and tired, as if they had all just gone through several military drills together. Their breathing sent a cacophony of sound in the oddly silent room. Smoke hung up in the darkened ceiling; a dreary cloud peering down on these souls. A crowd had gathered behind them awhile ago, peering over at each other shoulders to try and see the spectacle in front of them. Suddenly, somebody coughed. Immediately, a ripple of shushes through the crowd at the criminal act. Everyone was focused on one thing at the moment and nobody wanted to ruin the moment. The four stallions however, wanted it to never happen.
Too bad good things had to happen occasionally.
A peal of laughter rang out and the slap of cardboard on wood reached everypony’s ears. “Full house! I win, slack-jaws!”
The stallions all groaned in defeat, shoving their lost bits over to a fifth stallion who casually added the rest of their piles to his one gleaming golden pyramid, shining brilliantly in the dank lighting of the room. Laughing haughtily, he smiled and cheered along with the rest of the crowd, enjoying the moment while he still could. He started to run a hoof over his dark blue mane and ran the odds in his mind…
Stallion One, or Burly Blast the Earth pony, hates to lose indicated by the slight twitch of his eye right now. Either that or he really needed the money. Either way, he is angry and has a 5 to 1 chance that he will attack, most likely with strong, brutish moves. Stallion Two, or Iron Beam, also an Earthy, came in with Stallion One, so is most likely his friend and will fight in a similar fashion. Defense type 2 would work well with those two. If Stallion One attacks, so will Stallion Two. Stallion Three, Cross Road the Unicorn, has no guts to him. He cringed nearly every time that Big Blast or Iron Beam glanced at him. 7,043 to 1 chance. And lastly Stallion Four, or Desert Wind the orange Pegasus, I convinced to play and made a deal with him. So he will most likely either try to swindle me or help me out. 4 to 1 odds on the helping part. If he does attack, aim for his left back leg as it is sorely bruised indicated by his limping earlier…
I think I got it down.
The stallion smirked as he finished running the length of his hoof over his mane. He let the world resume the cheering of his victory for a bit more and fixed his loosely opened brown cotton jacket, making sure to zip it up after his tidying. On an adrenaline high and his mood at the same altitude, he smugly wrapped his hooves around his large sum of bits.
“Well, this was a cheery good game, I must say. I’ve never played Blackjack before but I must say, I do like it a lot! We must play another-“
A meat-brown hoof smashed itself on the table, making everypony, especially Cross Road, jump a mile at the sudden explosion of noise. The original stallion calmly looked at him however, not even flinching from the slam, and bluntly looked at the stallion. He smacked his lips as if suddenly tired and casually yawned.
Burly Blast only growled at his antics and grinded his teeth together slightly. The room had gotten incredibly silent since his outburst of movement and all eyes were on the table. His hoof raised accusingly at the yawning stallion, barking out at him from across the table. “Oi! There is NO way that someone could have flushed us ALL out of this table in one fell swoop without cheatin’ in some way!”
“Are you calling me, moi, a fraud?” The stallion gave a look of mock shock at the musclehead, leaning backwards to shovel a few bits into his saddlebag.
Iron beam was the one to answer, cracking a few bones in his neck as the smart-aleck stallion continued to shove bits into his bags. “Yeah… My frien’ says ya were cheatin’. Whatever Blast says, I say toos!” Both of the stronger stallions had their hooves on the table, leaning forward on their side.
The winning stallion simply smiled and leaned back in his chair now, pausing his money grabbing. “So… if he called himself an idiot, or pink, would you call yourself that too?”
The second meat head looked puzzled at the statement and put a hoof to his chin. “Uh… no… I don’t think I would...” His face brightened for a second and he exclaimed, “But dumb dumb! If he called himself dumb dumb I would too, since other ponies already called me that before!”
Burly Blast looked at his friend in shock and anger. “Wha- Why you! Why would I ever call myself dumb dumb?!” He slammed a hoof on the table, leaving a small dent.
The construction pony looked confused as he stared at his partner and stammered, “Bu-but Blast! You know I don’t like lying… so I had to chose something we both shared!”
“Yeah, but dumb dumb? Really?!”
“Yeah ya dumber dumb dumb butt!”
“Uhm… guys?”
“Dumber dumb dumb butt?! That isn’t even a good comeback!”
“Yes it is! That’s how dumb you are, see?!”
“Guys…?
Blast roared with rage and slammed another hoof on the table. “Why you little idjit Iron! Why you gotta go and be hurting my feelings like this?! Tain’t right you know, doing that to a stallion with his problems-“
“GUYS!”
Both of the muscular ponies were shocked as a particularly loud voice cut between them, a stirred up Unicorn looking bravely at them for a moment. However, Cross Roads soon returned to his natural state and stammered. “Uh… They… they booked it just a b-bit ago out th-that way…” The shaken stallion pointed a quivering hoof towards the still-swinging doors, creaking slightly on un-oiled hinges.
“They?” Blast cocked an eyebrow suspiciously, looking at where there were two formerly occupied seats, now left spinning around lazily in the parlor. Grinding his teeth, Blast roared out in anger. “POT LUCK YOU DIRTY CHEATER! IMMA GET YOU BACK FOR THIS!” Immediately he bolted out of his chair, bolting out of the parlor and out into the desert scenary
Iron seemed shocked for a second, and it took him one more to comprehend that his buddy was going on without him. “Wa-wait for me!” He called out to Blast, catching up with his receding dirt trail and escaping the hoots and hollers of the mocking ponies still inside of the building.
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“Har har HAR! From the nimbus to the cumulus, I can’t believe we got by them guys without so much as a scratch! Har har!” Desert Wind cackled gleefully, gliding smoothly next to Pot Luck, who was grimacing slightly, his gaze forward and barely paying attention to the pegasi beside him.
“Yeah, but I didn’t account for this… everything has gone awry…” He mumbled grittily, his brain whirring at a mile a second.
Even though they had outran the two stallions for the moment, the dust clouds left by the two of them would be sure enough a trail for them to follow. He had honestly hoped to simply knock the ponies out and simply walk out of the parlor, but his snide comment had given him a better option, leaving out the violent acts. Although this appeased the pacifist side to him, the blunderheads may have gained some IQ points if he tussled around with them a bit.
Mainly, they would learn to never try and cheat out Pot Luck.
It was obvious to Pot Luck and anypony who was watching them close enough to see how the pair of them gained up on whoever had the smallest amount of bits in the games and stacked the deck with surprisingly sneaky hoof movements. Though neither of them were terribly bright, Pot Luck knew they were trained to cheat and cheat well.
Desert Wind chuckled and shook his head, directing the pair to the right towards a large building, long and rectangular. It was particularly old, but everything in Appleoosa was thoroughly rustic in Pot Luck’s opinion. A large clock loomed over everypony in the small town. It chimed with three define bongs as it struck the hour. This made the pair only run faster as a colorful train could be seen starting up its engines
Pot Luck smiled, lowering his head and letting the wind streak across his tan colored coat. “Perfect! Right on-”
“POT LUCK! GET YOUR BIG UGLY YELLER MUZZLE BACK OVER HERE!”
“…Horsefeathers.”
A thoroughly red and enraged Burly Blast was barreling across the town’s desert road, his eyes only set on the fleeing Earth pony in front of him. Iron Beam was directly behind him, kicking up his own debris as he ran, although he was mostly covered by the dusty cloud Blast was putting out.
“Pblth! Aack! Burly! Gack! Dust cloud! In my face!” Burly rolled his eyes, ignoring his dumber friend’s antics and pushed on, slowly gaining upon Pot Luck.
A low whistle blew from the light brown-maned pegasi as he took a peek behind them. “Dannnnnng! You really tickered off them fellers!” He thought for a second and reached two hooves out towards Pot Luck, a mischievous smile on his face. “Here! Gimme the saddle and I will meetcha at the station! I can fly faster than ya, even with the bits, and-“
A sudden body check to the side bombarded the pegasus by surprise, one of his wings getting smoshed between him and the other pony. The resulting mixture ended up with a shocked-faced pegasus spiraling out of control, hitting a cabbage cart, and an older green colored stallion cursing ponies for hating the cabbages at the foot of the disaster.
Pot Luck simply smiled at the destruction he had caused and the double crossing of the double crosser. “And that’s what you get for trying to swindle ME, Desert Wind!” The Earth Pony laughed haughtily and blasted through the doors, into the train station.
Burly Blast and Iron Beam, who had figured out to simply run beside Blast, slowed their run enough to check on the fallen pegasus, his head ridiculously replaced by a cabbage. Iron looked at the scene worriedly and shouted out, “You ok, Boss?!”
Desert Wind finally roused himself enough to pull the veggie off of his head with a loud POP, smashing it against the wall beside him violently. Growling and glaring at the train, which had started to pull away, he pointed a forehoof at it. “Get him! Get him NOW!”
With a simple nod, the two stallions began to book it towards the long train, its metallic wheels slowly picking up speed as it screeched along the railroad tracks. Desert Wind glared at the contraption ruefully and muttered under his breath. “Son of a mule, he knew the whole time, didn’t he?”
Getting his adrenaline back, he kicked off the ground and sped through the air, slowly catching up with the train. He smirked madly, his eyes focused on the prize. “No matter!” He called out into the wind. “We shall catch up with him soon and he will be a dead horse! MWAHAHA!”
Iron Beam grimaced and worriedly looked at his dunce friend. “He’s talking to himself again, Blast…”
Blast sighed, a similar expression on his face. “I know Iron, I know…”
=================
Pot Luck struck a golden bit into the vividly red vending machine before him, humming a short tune as he did so. He could hear the machinations at work inside of the machine and thought out loud for a second. “Do I want some Cranberry Splash or Strawberry Fizz? Hm…”
He smiled as a silly thought came to his head. Putting his forehoof in front of his eyes, he waved his other hoof around whimsically at the varied button selection before him. “Eeeny meeny miney-“
Ka-chunk! Plop!
The pony chuckled as he looked at his choice, wondering why he hadn’t simply chosen it in the first place. “Wonderful choice, Pot Luck! Apple juice is ALWAYS the way to go!”
With a crisp snap of the can opening, he silently gulped it down as he watched three ponies hastily try and catch up with a receding train in the distance. They were catching up with it, and by the way they were running, would catch it in about 7.52 minutes…
A screeching sound bombarded his eardrums as he watched them and absently, Pot Luck smirked as he boarded a train heading in the opposite direction.
Just enough time to get on this train in the opposite direction!
With the way things had been for him with Desert Wind and company, he wanted to be as far away from that trio as soon as possible… and hopefully wherever this train brought him was far enough!
The train conductor bounded out of the cart, barely letting the door open, when he panickingly shouted out to the few ponies on the platform. “The train is running late! Is there anypony going to Ponyville today?! This is a one way train to and back!” Silence permeated the platform for a few seconds, nobody saying anything. The conductor shifted in his stylized blue suit and hat, eventually confirming nobody was going to Ponyville.
Just as he turned around to get back into the train however, he shouted out in surprise as Pot Luck had a ticket in hoof looking directly at the conductor with a small, witty smile. The older pony exhaled explosively and shook his tawny head, clearing his throat. “Alright, get on board sir.”
Pot Luck gave a slight nod and put the ticket into his jacket, getting into the carts. A small foal’s crying bombarded his eardrums as he climbed inside, making him wince slightly, but the cooing words of its mother seemed to calm it somewhat. Pot Luck smiled and nodded his head at the mom, who gave a sheepish smile as he passed by.
Without pause, he brought himself to the rear cart just as the engine started up again. As he closed the door, he was thanking Luna that he had the cart to himself. Reclining in a soft chair, he paused and contemplated his destination for a second.
When he had bought the ticket in advance earlier today just for this occasion, he had asked around the rustic town about the other small town he was going to travel to. Apprently they had had very good relations with several of the town’s residents, fixing up a problem with the Native Buffalo in these parts. There had been a small scuffle, but after a bit, they seemed to have resolved most of the problem. The mares from that town had been a great instigator and problem solver to the situation… Although Apploosa’s residents said they were a trifle bit abnormal. One was at the very least.
“Really, the Can-Can? Why?” He muttered to himself, shaking his head at the obscene image of a pink pony dancing. A small smile crept across his grin however, and he stroked a nonexistent beard on his chin. “Well, either way, this ‘Ponyville’ sounds like it could provide me with some adequate…” A few chinks rattled within his saddlebags, which he had placed on the seat next to him. “…profit.”
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A/N:
Alright, this is SO not my best work but I was REALLY lazy and I didn't feel like editing this at all so... whatcha get is whatcha see honestly~ sorry ^_^;;
Anyways, any errors, critique, etc. you may see... please just tell me and i will fix it up :)