I Need You
Chapter 4: I Need You
Celestia’s sun was starting to dip into the horizon, it’s intense white light that warmed all the creatures of the day transitioning to a warm and relaxing yellow. Fillies and Foals fooled around, playing tag, racing, or just talking; doing anything to make the last few hours of daytime count for what they were worth. A few shops began preparation for closing time, some of them sending their employees home for the weekend for some well deserved time off. The clock in the town center rung melodically, its jingle carrying through the breeze so nice and smooth, that even the Apple family could hear it from Sweet Apple Acres. Five ‘O'Clock was the time the majority of the workers at town hall were let out and one particular worker was glad to be left off the clock.
A tall man dressed in a black suit with a blood red tie and light blonde hair walked out of Major Mare’s office, specifically from the accounting office. Many other workers were either packing up their things, talking to other co-workers, or wrapping up the last of their work before they left for the day. Ryan walked amidst the crowd of fellow employees and made his way to the central staircase where the main entrance and exit were located. As he started the slow, calculated decent down the stairs, a co-worker called out to him.
“Hey Ryan! Wait up brony!” the voice called out to him. he stood on the stairs and turned around to face the pony who had gotten his attention.
From in between the crowd of workers, a unicorn stallion popped out and approached the human. He was almost taller than his fellow co-worker, but it wasn’t his height that made him stand out. It was his midnight black mane and tail, piercing forest green eyes, and the long thin scar that went from the top of his face and cut across diagonally to his jaw. His coat was a dark blend of midnight blue that seemed to sparkle slightly depending on the lighting of the environment around him. A friendly smile was wrapped tightly around his contrasting features and he begun to walk alongside Ryan.
“Hello there Midnight Forest.” Ryan greeted with a friendly smile, brohoofing his fellow co-worker.
“Today was a hectic day huh? I’m not sure what was the most difficult part of my day-- filing the compensation claims or meeting with all the ponies who had suffered any sort of property damage after last night’s overkill storm.” he commented with a laid back attitude.
Ryan looked at Midnight Forest thoughtfully before replying, “I have to agree with you there. I got slammed with a lot more work than I ever thought possible. I never want to see another treasury report for the rest of my life. Do you know how many reports I had to fill out?” he questioned the stallion.
“Hundreds?”
“Yep...One for every pony who filed a compensation claim.”
“That’s pretty grueling.”
“Did I ever tell you that I never want to see another treasury report from the insurance department for as long as I live?” he said with a deadpan expression.
“You sure did.” Midnight answered in agreement.
Ryan looked down at his watch and cursed. “Shit! I’m gonna be late to Rarity’s charity event for the victims of last night’s storm! I’m gonna have to cut our conversation short and get going. I’ll treat you to the bar this weekend or something. Is that alright with you Forest?” Ryan asked as he straightened out his tie and smoothed out his suit.
“Yeah Ryan, it’s alright brony. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Best be going now if you don’t wanna be late.” Midnight Forest encouraged with a dismissive wave of his hoof.
Ryan waved at him and ran off, weaving his way through the crowds and running out the door. The moment he had made it outside and away from the other workers, he smirked, “Sucker. I got another half hour to spare. Just didn’t want to talk to you bud.” He chuckled quietly to himself as he fixed his red tie before calmly walking to the Carousel Boutique.
(V) (;,,;) (V)
~Line Break~
Within fifteen minutes of walking, Ryan had made his way to the Carousel Boutique. Numerous decorative banners and streamers adorned the exterior of the building, and the same could be said for the interior as well. In keeping with typical Rarity design, everything had a unique yet relatable appearance, so that the style and color of each decoration served to bring attention not only to itself, but those around it.
The owner of the boutique was in the process of arranging and rearranging some the minor interior decorations, the determination to make everything as presentable as possible was clearly conveyed on her face. She was so absorbed in her last-minute preparations she did not notice Ryan walk up behind her, folding his arms behind his back patiently as he waited to be acknowledged.
With a contented sigh, Rarity stepped away from the wall she had been so intently focused on, admiring her handiwork. The unicorn was startled slightly by a loud throat-clearing from behind her, and turned to see Ryan smile slightly.
“Oh, do pardon me, Ryan,” Rarity apologized, “I didn’t hear you walk in.”
The human chuckled, “Well, I didn’t want to disturb you during what I could clearly see was a situation requiring nothing less than your undivided attention.”
“Oh, of course darling. You know all too well that these preparations must be perfect in every way. It wouldn’t do to have such an important event appear so slovenly put together.” Rarity said with a light chuckle, bouncing a stray curl over her shoulder as she looked at the magnificence of her setup work.
Ryan put a hand to his head, a sudden ache coming from the thought of how precise all paperwork in his line of work had to be. Yes, he could certainly relate, “Of course. Perfection is the only acceptable standard. And with that in mind, may I ask if there is anything I can do to assist you?” he asked in a courteous tone.
The unicorn looked around her and felt her eyes widen before facehoofing almost immediately, “How could I have forgotten?! I forgot to put up posters around town letting ponies know about the event. We have an hour and a half before the actual drive starts, and if folks don’t show up, then the sponsors may very well take back their bits, and they are all very high class ponies from companies that I’ve dreamed of working f—” Ryan held up a hand to prevent her from rambling any further.
“Relax Rarity, I’ve got you covered. I know some buds from work that can help me spread the word and get posters handed out and hung up around town. I mean, how hard could it be?” he pondered with a small chuckle, thinking it would be a cakewalk.
“Are you sure you can do this Ryan? I need about five hundred posters handed out and or posted before six thirty this evening...” the fashionista admitted in a quiet murmur.
Ryan’s eye twitched. “Five...hundred? Did you just say five hundred?” he nearly stuttered at the obscenely large number of posters. The human almost wished he could crawl in a hole and never come out.
Rarity smiled sheepishly, “Sorry, darling. I did say five hundred. But you can handle it, can’t you?”
The human looked at her for several moments in contemplation and gave her a small smile, “You can most certainly count on me Rarity. I will do my best to get word of the charity drive out in what little time we have left before it starts.” He grabbed an armful posters and took off with a running start, heading towards the town center.
(V) (;...;) (V)
~Line Break~
Upon arrival at the town square, Ryan noticed a group of stallions from his work clustered together, having a conversation. Getting an idea, he calmly walked over to the group of stallions who acknowledged him just as he approached them.
“Hey there brony, what’cha up to?” one of the stallions greeted.
Ryan shrugged and smiled, “Nothing really. I just have to have to hang a bunch of posters up for Rarity’s charity drive later this afternoon.”
“Later this afternoon?” another asked, “Don’t you think it’s a bit late to be hanging up posters for an event in just a few hours? And how many posters do you even need to put up?”
The human’s smile weakened slightly as he pulled at the collar on his shirt, “Well, you see, that’s the thing...five hundred if you, must know. Would anypony mind helping?”
The group of stallions looked at one another for a few seconds, contemplating whether to help the desperate creature before them. Silent questions and responses flickered between them, and eventually a single, unified consensus was reached. They all turned to face the expectant Ryan, who was sure that his associates would graciously accept his request.
He was rudely surprised when they began to laugh at him.
“Are you mad? There’s no bucking way we’ll get these slips posted all over town in an hour and a half” one of the workers pointed out.
“Yeah, he makes a good point. There’s only six of us and there's five hundred posters. Plus, the towns getting real busy with everyone leaving work and wondering about with today being Friday, specifically Friday evening,” another complained off to the side, taking a swig of a small flask he had on him.
“Come on guys, the time we’ve been spending here arguing is time away from actually getting anything done. You got my back, right Forest?” Ryan pleaded as he looked in the direction of Midnight Forest who stood up from a milk crate he had been sitting on and stood by his human friend.
“Like I’ve said before Ryan. I got your back brony,” he said with a small smile.
“What about the rest of you huh? You can’t seriously be this lazy and just help with putting up posters. This is a relief effort for everyone who suffered property damage or loss from last night’s storm. You can’t seriously think that it's too much work when there are families who don’t have a bed to sleep on.” Ryan pointed out, a fire or ire beginning to burn behind his piercing blue eyes.
“Look Ryan, we just got out of work, we’re tired, and we earned some layback time,” a stallion grumbled to him as he tried to pay attention to the card game he was playing.
“Yeah, come on brony, give us a break,” another piped up, tossing a card in between the himself and his opponent.
“Come on, guys, help a brony out here!” Ryan begged, nearly on his knees in desperation. “I need you to make this work!”
“Forest, if you want to help this sap, that’s your problem,” the first stallion said, waving his hoof dismissively.
Ryan’s face immediately lost its playful demeanor. Offence was not something he took kindly to, and now he was done asking nicely.
“Put up the damn posters,” he said lowly, a threatening tone covering his words.
“No means no,” the second repeated. “Didn’t you go to any Iron Will seminars lately?”
The human angrily slammed his foot down, startling everypony. Now he wasn’t going to ask at all.
“Take these posters and hang them up, NOW!” he yelled, throwing most of the rolled up papers at the group of stallions, who only cringed in fear of their co-worker’s explosive rage.
Each of them quickly took a mouthful of posters before running away to hang them up, hoping Ryan would not direct any more anger towards them. The only two who stood there were him and Midnight Forest who seemed calm despite the explosive outburst from his friend.
The human breathed deeply through his mouth and slowly exhaled out his nostrils, brushing some loose strands of blonde hair out of the way before he spoke, “I’m sorry there Forest, I was just getting so bucking fed up with their bullcrap.”
“Don’t worry about it Ryan. All you did was ask for help with a good charitable event and they were being lazy. They need somepony to keep ‘em motivated, and you're just the brony for the job.” Midnight Forest chuckled lightly to himself, remembering other occasions when his group of friends needed to be motivated to complete a task.
“If you insist Forest, although we might as well get cracking with our piles.” Ryan nonchalantly said, bending over and grabbing his pile of posters. He stretched for a moment or two before he set out in a light jog out of the alley, Forest quietly trotting behind his human friend.
(V) (;...;) (V)
~Line Break~
The two friends ran sporadically all over the southern part of Ponyville, handing flyers out to citizens, glueing them to posts and buildings, and even spreading news of the event to as many passerby ponies as they could manage. Once they had peppered the southern part of the town in posters, they jogged back up towards the town square to finish handing out their piles of flyers.
They walked towards a bench near their town office and sat down to take a break. To say it was relaxing was an understatement, it was relieving. After resting for a couple of minutes, Ryan stood up and approached a nearby walking citizen.
“Excuse me ma’am, but would you be interested in attending a charity drive of Rarity’s over at the Carousel Boutique and help with the relief effort from last night’s storm?” Ryan asked a cream colored unicorn mare with poofy caramel colored hair that went down to her shoulders and striking hazelnut eyes that looked at him with mild curiosity.
Gently, she grasped one of them with her magic and levitated it in front of her face. Almost instantly, her hazelnut eyes widened in joy, tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. “Thank you so much sir! There’s no way I could have afforded to replace everything we lost in the storm. Words cannot express just how much you’ve helped!” The mare looked beyond relieved at just how lucky she was to receive such generous help, from one of the Elements of Harmony nonetheless.
His pale cheeks light up at the raw praise he was receiving. He dug at the ground with his shoe and tried to look away in embarrassment, “It was n-nothing ma’am, just trying to help out and do the right thing.” Ryan said in a humble tone, not wanting to take credit for all the hard work that Rarity had put forth for the event.
The mare looked at him, her eyes on the borderline of over brimming in tears. It was as though her true thoughts on the matter wanted to leap out from the inside and be heard. Suddenly, she leaned and whispered gently in his ear, “It really does mean a lot...If not for Rarity and your kindness to spread word of this charity drive; I would have had to make a very difficult choice…either spends weeks without a bed for my sweet little filly and I to sleep on...or starve myself so we could have something to sleep on and at least have my daughter well fed...” she leaned back while he stood there in mute shock, though it didn’t show. This mare was willing to go to the ends of the world to not only keep her daughter furnished, but also well fed, even if she had to ration herself.
“Thank you very much for the flyer. I’ll see you around mister...” she let her sentence hang, waiting for a proper introduction.
He offered his hand shook her hoof, “Ryan Marcinko. A pleasure to make your acquaintance miss?” Ryan mimicked with a small smirk on his face.
“My name is Butterscotch and this is my wonderful daughter Lilly Springs.” He hadn’t even noticed the little unicorn filly who had hid behind her mother the entire time. The filly was a teal blue color with a baby blue mane with a white and gray stripe through her straight mane. Her eyes were a striking mix of the colors of her body, almost like an aurora borealis.
Ryan knelt down onto a knee and scooted closer to the shy filly before gently patting her over the head with a small smile, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Lilly Springs. I must say that the name is both beautiful and suiting for you.” Lilly Springs’ face lit up in an intense blush at the compliment that even her mother and Midnight Forest laughed at the cute scene playing out in front of them.
“T-thank you mista’!” Lilly Springs said shyly as she ran over to the safety of her mother.
“You're very welcome sweetie.” Ryan answered back with a chuckle.
“Will you be at the charity drive Ryan?” Butterscotch asked while she settled Lilly Springs on her back.
“Yes, I will most certainly be there, but first I need to finish handing out the last of these posters here with my friend Midnight Forest.” he pointed over to Midnight Forest who picked up his stack and walked over to Ryan and politely waved over to the mare and filly, “You’ll definitely see us there so no worries.” he assured.
“Then we’ll see you at the drive Ryan and Midnight Forest.” and with that, Butterscotch and Lilly Springs went on their way, leaving the two friends to their thoughts.
Midnight Forest walked up to Ryan and tapped him on the shoulder, “You alright Ryan? Ever since Miss Butterscotch whispered in your ear, you’ve been looking off into the distance. Was it something bad?” he inquired, beginning to feel concerned for his human friends’ odd behavior.
Ryan stood there, still not quite acknowledging his friend, his mind in a place farther away than the ends of Equestria. ‘That mother...to be willing to starve herself for the comfort and nourishment of her own kid...she’s strong. Very strong indeed...Why does she remind me so much of—’ his thought were interrupted when a hoof shook him back to reality.
“Brony, you alright? You look like you're about to cry or sumthin’.” Forest pointed out in concern.
“Yeah...I’m alright Forest, just had some things on my mind.” Ryan admitted quietly.
“Wanna split up the last twenty or so flyers between the two of us and get going?” he suggested with a small smile.
“Sure. We got another half hour to spare at most before the drive starts; though I honestly believe all of us have managed to get word around. Why not just leave them outside of town hall for passerby’s to see.” Ryan’s plan seemed simple and a smart way to get out of finishing the last of it.
The two slowly walked across the town square before going up one of the principal roads on the way to the Carousel Boutique. They were just shy of a couple of blocks when Ryan noticed a rather downtrodden looking pink mare.
“Pinkie Pie?” Ryan called out in a questioning manner, not really believing he was seeing the same mare.
The quiet pink mare approached and looked up at him with sad eyes, “Yeah, it’s me.” it almost perturbed him just how unlike herself she sounded.
“Are you okay?” he asked the party pony who looked off into the distance, her sky blue eyes clouded behind a veil of haze.
“O-of course! Why w-wouldn’t I b-b-be?” She shakily replied, mustering up a trembling smile. Tears began to form in the corners of her eyes. Ryan stood oblivious to her true state.
“Well, … I guess I don’t really know.... You just seemed kinda of, how do I say this, ...off....” Ryan nervously began rubbing the back of his neck with his palm. Pinkie’s smile wavered then solidified, her eyes, however, shown of her true emotion.
“Oh, so I’m off, well, maybe YOU are off, Ryan! Why is it you are so nervous?” Pinkie demanded, staring directly into Ryan’s eyes. He shifted uncomfortably, dodging the daggers.
“Oh! I am trying to get these flyers up before Rarity’s charity drive for the townsponies.” Ryan said matter-of -factly producing the flyers as proof. A small flicker of life shown behind the dark lenses of the Party Pony.
“Oo! Do-you-need-any-help?I-would-love-to-help!I-can-put-up-flyers-sooooooooooo-fast!” She spit the words out, almost faster than her lips could follow. Ryan looked at her, replaying the sentences again slower in his mind.
“Actually Pinkie, Forest and I pretty much have it covered.”
“Butbutbutbutbutbutbut-Im-so-good-at-it!” She began to bound around the two in a tight loop. Suddenly, she came to an abrupt halt right in front of Ryan, “Let me show you!” She leaned forward and reached for the flyers with her mouth. Ryan ripped them away.
“I said we have it covered! Calm down! Can you not take no for an answer?!” Ryan raised his voice as he chided her. Pinkie became rigid and her eyes began to glaze over.
“no... I guess I can’t...” Her head fell slowly at these words.
“Wow... that was pretty insensitive.” Forest commented to Ryan. A tremor rocked through the pink pony’s body as her hair fell flat around her, falling eerily straight. The words of Aramis echoed through her mind.
‘Insensitive, heartless, BITCH!’
“No.” came a calm voice, originating from nowhere.
“What did you say, Pinkie?” Ryan asked, leaning closer.
“NO! I’M NOT BEING INSENSITIVE! ALL I WANT TO DO IS BUCKING HELP BUT YOU’RE ALL SO DAMN SELF-RIGHTEOUSLY HYPOCRITICAL, YOU. WON’T. BUCKING. LET ME!!!!!”
“Wait... What!? What are you tal—”
“I HOPE YOU RUN OUT OF BUCKING HOOF-TACKS!” She spun around and ran off, leaving only a small, imperceptible trail of stains on the ground in her wake.
“Well, that was a bit of a nasty run in.” Midnight Forest commented with a wince.
Ryan huffed indignantly, “I don’t get what her fucking problem is. Good fucking grief, because of her we’re gonna be late. We better get running if we want to make it on time.” He said, holding the papers tightly to his side as he began to run towards the Carousel Boutique, Midnight Forest in tow.
(V) (;...;) (V)
~Bathroom Break~
Neither of them were expecting people to arrive early for the drive or for the initial crowd to be large. However, both were terribly mistaken to just how important the charity drive would end up being.
So many ponies had shown up that a vast number of citizens were standing around the sidewalk, since the area Rarity had set up for the main event was just not large enough to contain everypony. Ryan and Forest pushed their way through the crowd.
“Holy cow! This has gotten to be a big event!” Ryan turned towards Forest, “Most of the town must be here.” His eyes shone a little brighter than before as he began to search for Rarity in the mass of ponies.
It was not difficult to do, Ryan simply had to follow the throes of ponies thanking her for the event. In a sense, he needed to only “go with the flow.” But that was not his style.
“RARITY!” The cry broke through the weeping ponies and found the mare in question; Rarity turned to see her friend towering over the sea of bodies.
“Over here, dear!” she replied, waving her hoof towards him. Ryan smiled.
“Ooh... never again will I listen to you...” Midnight Forest groaned as Ryan stepped down off his back to the sigh of relief from the stallion.
“Oh, Forest, you’ll be fine! Get yourself some punch and be merry!”
“Is there even punch here?”
“Hell if I know, see you later!” Ryan waded through the waves of ponies, making his way to Rarity. Midnight Forest simply sighed and shook his head, becoming one with the mares and stallions among him.
(V) (;...;) (V)
~Charity Drive Break~
All the ponies who had attended or volunteered to help with the charity event had slowly dispersed until only Ryan, Midnight Forest, and Rarity remained. The fog lights they had helped set up as the event went underway came in handy as it took several hours to provide everypony with the help they needed. Luckily for Rarity, she had not been short on help. Her close friends had volunteered to help run the drive the moment they found out about it, knowing full well that it would have been nigh impossible for Rarity, even with the help of Ryan and Midnight Forest, to run the event without difficulties.
Rarity levitated a box with her magic into a closet near the entrance of the Carousel Boutique before grabbing a couple of bottles of water and returning to the front steps of her shop and home.
“Here you go dearies, a bottle of water for each of you to cool off after all the hard work you have done for me!” She offered with a dazzling smile.
“Thanks a bunch Rarity.” Ryan said tiredly, grabbing a bottle from her telekinetic grip.
Midnight Forest grabbed the other bottle with his magic and held it against his forehead, sighing comfortably at the feeling, “Thank you very much Miss Rarity!” He said happily, glad to have found a way to calm the throbbing in his head.
“It’s no problem at all! If you two need a new outfit or two crafted by yours truly, don’t be afraid to stop by the Boutique and let me know. Consider that a bigger way of me repaying you two for all the effort you’ve put in to this event.” Rarity said with a delighted swish of her tail.
Ryan turned around to face her from where he sat, “There’s no ne—” He was interrupted by Rarity before he could manage to finish his rebuttal.
“Ah, ah, ah! I shan’t hear none of it good sir. You and your friend have earned and I will not take no as an answer to a fair reward.” She finished with a smile, her blue eyes locking with his as if challenging him.
They stared at each other for several moments before Ryan rolled his eyes and chuckled, “All right Rarity, you win this time since you insist, but you know how I feel about always accepting such nice gifts from you gals.” He pointed out as he stood and stretched his back, “Anyways, I’m gonna get going back home. I’m about as tired as a dog and I have a wonderful gal waiting at the house for me.” He said with a small smile.
Rarity’s smile softened at the way he had addressed Rainbow Dash, “Completely understandable. She may be hard headed, but I know that at heart she’s a great mare with a good heart.”
Ryan gave a hearty laugh, “I swear it’s the way she smiles that caught my heart. I’ll see you at work on Monday, Forest.” He bumped his fist against Midnight Forest’s hoof before he set off towards his home, walking near the town library, where he saw Twilight Sparkle about to enter her home before she spotted him.
She galloped the short distance between them and he turned to address her, “A good evening to you Twilight.” He said in his typical courteous manner.
“Likewise, Ryan.” She replied with a nod of her head.
“Is something up?”
Twilight looked at the ground before sighing and look back at him, “I want to help Aramis out, but I need some more advice on how to help him deal with his problems.” She admitted.
Ryan gave her a light hearted grin, scratching the back of his head in a pensive manner while on the inside, he seethed with disgust at the mere mention of his former best friend, “I’d help you out this moment, but I must confess I am very tired after helping out with the charity drive. All those assignments you handed out weren’t exactly the easiest things to do you know.” He chastised playfully.
Her ears splayed against her head as she chuckled embarrassingly, “I’m sorry about that Ryan, but I didn’t really have a lot of time to really plan out everything so I could distribute the work in a way that would be easy for everypony to do.”
“It’s no problem in the slightest Twilight. How about we meet at Sugarcube Corner tomorrow around lunchtime with the rest of the group, my treat. We can all discuss how to handle the situation and whatnot. It’ll also give me time to sleep on it and give it thought.” He explained, straight to the point.
Twilight nodded her head as she thought it over, “That makes perfect sense,” She started with a smile. “That would also allow me to write notes on it and come up with a efficient way of helping him.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow then Twilight.”
“Have a good night!” she merrily said, walking towards her home.
“Likewise.”
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So, the whole premise of this chapter was "No means no?"
Also, I love how you are adding the Zoidbergs in there to lighten the mood a little.
833031 That wasn't the premise of the chapter, though its one of the things one can learn as a reader. Do keep attention to Pinkie Pie, it'll pay off.
833037 Ahh, I get it. Okay then. Still love the story.
833041 Glad to hear it. Don't be afraid of making suggestions for the story at all.
758359 Really appreciate all the support!
833058 Uuuhhmmm. Okay then, uhmmm...Uhmmmm. Okay give me a minute here...I...think it needs improvement in the...hrmmm. Oh screw it, I give up.
833068 Haha XD Hit me on PM if you wanna talk about it for realz or anything really.
indeed, this chapter is good.
now for some pie to celebrate!