//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: A New Day and a New Plan // Story: Scorched by Fate // by Scorch215 //------------------------------// I’m not entirely sure how long I cried into Twilight’s shoulder, all I’m sure about is that I must have passed out as I woke up to early morning light and the smell of breakfast being made. I slowly cracked open my eyes and looked around the small room I was in, based on how the walls were I was definitely still in the library and from the look of the semi-decorated room a guest bedroom. Twilight must have moved me here after I passed out, I’d need to thank her for not leaving me on the floor or dumping me onto a couch. I slowly sat up and rubbed my eyes before just staring at my hooves. The realization I made last night was still fresh in my mind but after my breakdown and a night’s sleep I was more stable, not ok with any of this by any means mind you, but stable and that is the best I can hope for while I get used to everything. I moved my hooves around a bit, missing how I used to pop my knuckles and wrists every morning upon waking up. However it seemed something’s are still normal as when I bent my wrists all the way to ninety degrees there was a satisfying pop from both of them. While I can’t pop my fingers as I used to, least one of my morning routines was still intact so I hadn’t lost everything of my old body. I should point out I wasn’t thinking I had lost my humanity or anything. Ones humanity is who you are, it’s your thoughts, your memories, your feelings and all that stuff, I have only lost my human body but was still definitely me. Even if I am now female my mind was still my own, the rest is merely physical and so I shall adapt to it eventually. As I stared at my hooves I slowly became aware of my stomach demanding that I seek out the smell of food and let it become well acquainted with it and so I slipped from under the blankets and onto the floor where I stretched. As my wings automatically stretched I heard and felt two good pops from the joints in my back where wing met the rest of me, seems my knuckle popping had only migrated to my wings. After cracking my neck I became aware of the fact I was no longer in my jump suit. Normally I slept in whatever I was wearing unless I did change for bed on the rare occasions I did so but the fact I was in the middle of a mental break down last night till I passed out it meant Twilight had most likely been the one to remove my clothes. To say this caused me to feel as if my face was about to burst into flames was an understatement, I was quite sure you could fry an egg in a few seconds on my face with how much it burned. Taking several deep breaths I calmed myself by remembering everyone else was naked so to her there wasn’t anything to it and she meant nothing by it. Still with embarrassment still present if subdued I found my jumpsuit neatly folded on a small chest-of-draws against the far wall. While I had learned more or less how to dress with hooves I still was not used to it so while it took less time than the first titanic battle it was still at least a skirmish that I won in the end. Fully dressed I made my way to the bathroom and prepare for the day. Once that was done and my hooves washed I stared at my reflection in the mirror. “So….definitely not a dream huh?” I asked it, to which its only reply was to mimic my every action, in this case staring at me waiting for me to blink. While I definitely was not used to the person who stared at me from the mirror it did not have the same reaction as last night, unnerving yes, surprising me when I looked up and saw a dark grey mare staring back, most definitely, but not a runaway freight train anymore, that had been stopped thankfully. “Ok Scorched Wing, you can do this, you’ve been through a lot in life and it hasn’t beaten you yet. No way this will either.” I said and smiled after the pep talk my reflection gave me. “Let’s seize the day and try to figure out what the hell we are going to do about…well…everything…” My reflection said. My stomach growled rather angrily at my delay in following the smell of food and I nodded. “Ok first part of the plan, eat breakfast, and thank Twilight for helping last night, then shower and…..I guess see what I can learn about this place.” I told myself, nodding at the plan for the day I left the bathroom to complete phase one of my day plan. Walking out onto the library’s main floor I looked around. I hadn’t really asked where a dining room was but it shouldn’t be to hard to figure out as there were only three other doors on the main floor, one under the stairs I had carefully made my way do, walking down stairs as a pony is scary as all hell as it forces me to lean forward and I almost felt like I was falling. I ended up walking down the stairs sideways and doubted I’d ever really is comfortable walking down face first. Anyways I assumed the door under the stairs was a closet as that was a normal place to put one. The other door was a little ways away from that one and was a closed door. The last one was a doorway with a green curtain over it. Seeing as I could smell food easily I took a guess that lead to the kitchen and since someone was clearly cooking id find someone there for sure. Walking over to the kitchen I poked my head through the curtain as I didn’t know how big the kitchen would be but the library wasn’t that big so I thought it would be a “cozy” kitchen. Needless to say seeing a full size kitchen with plenty of counter space along one wall as well as a decent sized table with four chairs around it and there was still a lot of left over space. Needless to say the library clearly employed some form of TARDIS technology as there was no way the library itself could actually house the books shelves, and this kitchen/dining room combo inside the tree I saw from outside. Come to think of it the second floor contained the halls and my full size guest bedroom and I assumed at least one other bedroom for Twilight. I bereted myself for not noticing that early though I did defend myself with the fact I wasn’t exactly in the best mindsets last night and was still recovering when I woke up this morning so I could forgive myself overlooking the spaceil anomaly that was this building. Anyways inside the room itself I saw the dragon, I’m bad with names and since I met him only last night I have forgotten it, was standing on a stool in front of the stove as he seemed to be making pancakes and whistled some tune. I noticed he had the same apron on I saw last night. Sitting at the table was a Twilight who looked like a member of the undead as her glassy eyes started at nothing, a steaming cup of what I assumed was coffee based on the smell rested in her hoof and she took a large gulp of the drink as I watched. In short my host was not a morning person and ran on coffee. So having found where the food was I slowly walked the rest of the way into the room. “morning.” I said and Twilight mumbled something unintelligible that sounded like “hork fargony” as far as I could tell before she took another drink of coffee. “Morning Scorched.” The dragon said looking back over his shoulder with a friendly smile. “I’ll have breakfast ready in a couple of minutes, there is coffee in the pot if you want any.” he said pointing at a modern coffee pot sitting beside a modern toaster on the counter. Come to think of it the stove looked like a normal gas stove you’d find in any house. “No thanks, I don’t drink coffee, I prefer OJ.”I said as I moved towards a free seat at the table. “Oh well there is some in the fridge.” The dragon said pointing at an equally modern fridge. “Help yourself glasses are in the cabinet beside the fridge top shelf.” He said before looking back at the pancake in the skillet. I nodded and made my way towards the fridge questioning how this place could have thatched roofs while looking like a medieval village while having totally modern appliances. I pushed that question to the side as juice was more important that questions about the world around me. I stood carefully on my hind legs and opened the cabinet where I retrieved a glass and placed it on the counter. Letting the cabinet close I opened the fridge and saw typical fridge items of vegetables, eggs, milk and a pitcher of what I sought. Recovering my objective I bumped the fridge door with my hip to close it as I placed the pitcher on the counter and looked at it. I took a deep breath before carefully pouring a decent glass of the orange drink into the glass, I know I had already poured water before but that was when I was still in denial about all of this and was recovering from initial shock, now my mind was telling me this shouldn’t be possible as my hooves are blunt but at the same time it pointed out that I had picked up many things already so the impossibility argument was invalid. Successfully pouring the orange juice into the glass I opened the fridge once more and carefully placed the pitcher where I found it. Now came the task of returning to the table with my drink without spilling a drop, I mentally prepared for this monumental task. It went off without a hitch and I was now sitting at the table and sipping my juice with a smile, take that lack of coordination! Looking at the other pony sitting at the table I saw she seemed to have refilled her coffee while my back was turned and she looked to be returning to life, it’s a miracle! “It’s alive!” I said and pointed at the mare who blinked in confusion at me, her mug halfway to her lips. “Wha….”she said as her brain seemed to be still waking up. “Nothing,” I waved a hoof. “Welcome back to the land of the living. How did you sleep if you don’t mind my asking?” Twilight blinked as she processed my words and I saw when it all clicked as she took another sip. “Oh, it’s fine.” She said. “I slept fine….what about you?” she asked looking at me with concern. “Eh….I slept well I suppose all things consider.” I said sipping my juice. “Thanks by the way for last night.” I said. She downed a more normal sip of coffee as she woke up more. “Don’t mention it, what are friends for?” She said with a smile. “Are you ok? Last night you weren’t making any sense.” “Yeah, just….a side effect of my concussion.” I said. “I was sort of confused last night and it freaked me out.” Not a total lie, but if I told her the truth I could expect a one way ticket back to the hospital and from there an asylum most likely. Much as I’d love to get back home I would need to bide my time for now and get my life together and become more than just someone people met yesterday, they would be more inclined to believe me if they knew me longer. I know if I met someone one day and they suddenly told me they were from a different world and were the wrong species and gender I would be hard pressed to believe them, even less if I met them in a hospital after a blow to the head. I’d take them back as something would clearly be wrong. So I decided the best course of action would be to keep aspects of my former life on the down low till things were more secure. Thinking of that I would need to set up somewhere and seeing as I only know a single town’s location and that town had the only person I would call a friend in it, it looked like Ponyville would be my new place of residence. Once I found a residence that is, and a job to pay for it. This was going to be a real pain and it looked like my plans to research this world would need to wait as I needed to prioritize finding a place to live and a way to earn money. While I am sure I could stay here for a few days I did not want to live off Twilight after she was nice enough to let a total stranger sleep in her guest room so the next few days were booked in finding a job and either renting a room somewhere or renting to own a house. I didn’t want to take up the library’s only guest room even if living in a library would be beyond awesome. The only issue was I had zero references or job history here, not that I had much of any of that back home really I had even less here; I didn’t even have an ID. I’d need to ask Twilight for help as people seemed to know her so she could vouch for me with any potential employers. I was brought out of my thoughts by Twilight speaking up. “So what do you have planned for today?” She asked as she used her magic to pour a third cup of coffee, that mare definitely ran on coffee. “Well I figured after a shower I’d go look around town and maybe look for work.” I said. Twilight blinked at me. “You don’t want to see about heading home?” She asked. I shrugged. “I like here better.” “But what about your friends and family?” Twilight asked in shock. “Don’t have a family.” That hurt to say as I left behind my mom when I ended up here and I know she is probably panicking finding out I’m missing but if I want any chance of getting home I need to move slowly. “As for friends I’ll send them a letter, they know I’ve wanted to move for a while.” I said, I so wished I could actually write my friends and family but I doubt letters can travel to other worlds. Twilight seemed to accept this as she nodded. “Alright, what you going to look for?” She asked. I shrugged. “No clue, I mostly did odd jobs to pay rent back home so I don’t have much in the line of skills.” Twilight looked at me confused. “Why don’t you get a job based on your special talent?” “My what?” I asked blinking. “You know your special talent, the thing you found that gave you your Cutie Mark.” Twilight said staring at me with a bit of confusion. I stared back with a blank expression. “How can you not know about Cutie Marks, every pony gets one when they learn what their special talent is.” She said. I taped the side of my head. “Hit my head remember so refresh my memory if you would be so kind.” I said, this blow to the head was turning out to be a blessing in disguise. “Right, sorry.” Twilight said. “A Cutie Mark is something that appears on your flank whenever a pony finds their special talent.” She said and it took me a few moment to figure out what flank meant as I don’t think she was using the same definition I knew, plus this wasn’t a first person shooter but the image of some picture sudden appearing to flank an enemy team was very amusing. I nodded. “Right, I’ll check that after breakfast.” I said as breakfast was almost ready. A couple minutes later the dragon places plates of pancakes on the table before taking his own seat once he retrieved the syrup. Now breakfast was a simple affair once I was able to butter and syrup my pancakes, Twilight used her magic to heat the syrup up inside the bottle so that was a very nice. Eating had been interesting as Twilight had her magic to use her utensils and the dragon had claws with opposable thumbs while I was stuck with my illogical hooves. After a bit of trial and error I managed to figure it out and I must say those were some of the best damn pancakes I ever had. Breakfast was quiet as I didn’t really have anything to talk about as I doubted it would make any sense if I started talking about the latest Xbox game or some random TV show and the like seeing as there didn’t seem to be anything like that here. I wasn’t surprised when despite starting to eat late I was finished eating before Twilight and the dragon, even when I am relaxing and taking my time I have always been a fast eater without noticing it. So when done I excused myself from the tables, rinsed my plate off before setting it in the sink and left a somewhat surprised unicorn and dragon behind to finish the last fourth of their pancakes while I went to shower. I tossed my jumpsuit onto the countertop in the bathroom before turning on the shower, how creatures without thumbs end up designing their plumbing to look exactly like back home I do not know but I’ll just roll with it. Looking at my clothes as the shower got up to temperature I made a mental note to see about getting some other clothing as I couldn’t wear the same thing every day without washing but I didn’t know how long it would take to get a job and get paid. I’d need to see if I could borrow money from Twilight to buy some other clothing and then keep track of the interest to repay her. Actually I was supposed to investigate that Cutie Mark stuff to find my “special talent” This plan consisted of me of looking at my ass, or flank as it seemed to be called. Sure enough there was indeed a tattoo there. I looked it over and what it was, was simply a dark blue hard back book with a blank cover and two feathers crossed behind it, as I looked closer I could see the feathers somewhat looked like quills….so my “special talent” had to do with books, I would say reading as I was an avid reader but the presence of the quills made me think it might have had something to do with writing. While I had done some writing in my early high school career on a website I never became very popular except with a few people only, granted those people absolutely loved the small bits of writing I had done but with schooling and friends I ended up falling out of writing and hadn’t ever gotten back into it do to time, lack of motivation and lack of any idea what to write. I mean I had several groups and characters I have developed years ago and would love to have written about but could never come up with any stories that were thought out enough to even attempt writing them so I hadn’t written anything in years. Yet here was a magical tattoo on my ass telling me that that is what I should be doing. While I know being a writer can pay well the fact is you have to have a name before then and a random no name guy…..mare who hasn’t written anything in years and has no history in the world definitely doesn’t have a name. Which means if I were to follow this special talent business I’d need a day job to pay the bills. As I noticed the mirror was fogging up due to the fact I was standing there staring at my own ass while my hot shower continue to run down the drain unattended I figured I should ponder this all while actually showering, besides some of the greatest ideas of mankind were thought up in the shower. Carefully getting into the show so as not to shock my system with the sudden temperature change I let the water run over my head as I thought. I supposed I could get a job connected to writing in some way, I first thought of editor but then thought of the fact my high school English class had focused more on reading and understanding stories and how a simple paragraph can have a lot more meaning do to for shadowing, subtlety, implications and what isn’t said rather then things like grammar and spelling. Basically I was taught to be a storyteller and not a writer as I could read between the lines and understand what sentences are implying and predict what was going to happen in a story just based off a handful of sentences, but writing that down with correct grammar and spelling was another matter. In short editing was way out so I needed another idea. My mind then jumped to the writing I had done throughout my high school life, this being my publications class which was the fancy way my school chose to say writing for the school paper and making videos for pep rallies and other types of entertainment media. In short I generally knew how to be a reporter and write for papers even if my only experience was a school newspaper I had heard that while the other kids in school didn’t care for my articles as I chose to report on events going on not just in school but elsewhere in the country. Those kids’ parents read my articles’ and it was actually the only reason they read the school paper when their kids brought it home so whatever I had been doing must have been at least somewhat correct. Ponyville may have been a small town but every town had a newspaper, the only questions were did they have a space open and if they would hire someone off the street with no way to prove experience and a total lack of references. Still it was a plan at least and there was no harm in looking into it, if it didn’t pan out I could look around town. With a plan firmly in mind it was time to actually do what I came into the bathroom to do, and you lot get your minds out of the gutter because if you think you get to watch me in the shower then you’ve got another thing coming as I am definitely not that type of mare.