• Published 31st Mar 2012
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Life in Another Pony's Hooves - HonorBound



If given the chance, would you trade bodies with a pony? Even if that pony was Blueblood? I did.

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Chapter 07: First Impressions

Rainbow Dash’s eyes grew large, as her suspicions were confirmed by Spike. She was on me in an instant. “Who do you work for? Are you alone? How long have you been watching us?” Each question was punctuated with a jab to my chest, and her moving further into my personal space.

Not good! Definitely, not good. Gotta think of a way out of this. I’m not going to lie to her and tell her that I actually am a spy for Celestia. There is a difference between lying to someone and letting someone believe something that’s untrue. That, and it’ll most likely cause more problems later on. I can’t tell her that she’s part of a TV show. She’d never believe that anyway. At this point, if I were to tell her that I’m not a spy and set Spike strait on the issue, she still wouldn’t believe me. So, what should I do?

“Hey! Pay attention to me when I’m talking to you.” Dash yelled. “If you don’t start answering my questions, I might have to start getting a little ruff with you.”

I definitely don’t want that. Think damn it! My eyes shifted around looking for help wherever I could find it.

Spike was twiddling his thumbs, clearly sorry for causing the confrontation, but didn’t want any part in it. Pinkie Pie wasn’t even paying attention to us. She was probably too busy planning my Welcome to Ponyville party to focus on the goings on around her. Every other pony in the streets were going about their business, like this was an everyday thing. No one even cared that I was about to get pummeled into the ground.

I focused back onto Rainbow Dash. Her eyes told me that she was clearly set on that particular bit.

You know what? I don’t have to take this. I’m leaving.

I charged the magic to my horn. Rainbow Dash saw this and drew back her hoof in order to punch me before I could cast my spell.

Just before her hoof connected, I was gone. She lost her balance and fell to the ground, not expecting to hit nothing.

I reappeared not too far away behind a building.

I need to work on the distance part of this spell.

I watched her from behind my hiding place, as she shook her head and looked around for where I had gone. Not wanting to be discovered so soon, I pressed myself against the building.

“Well howdy there, partner.” came a southern voice.

I looked next to me to discover a cart filled with apples and an orange mare with a stetson on her head.

“Ya must be the new pony in town. Ah heard Pinkie singin’ that welcome song oh hers a little bit ago.” She eyed me up and down. “Are ya hidin’ from somepony or somethin’?” she asked.

“That obvious, huh?”

“It’s just that you’re shakin’ more than my granny on a cold day.” she answered.

In the distance we could hear Dash shouting at the top of her lungs. “You can’t hide from me! I’ll find you, and when I do, I’m gonna buck you to next Tuesday.”

Applejack looked at me funny. “What did ya do to get Dash all worked up like that?”

“It’s not my fault!” I quickly tried to defend myself. “It’s just a misunderstanding.”

My stomach grumbled, making itself known. I gave Applejack a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I guess I haven’t eaten anything today.”

“Shoot, if ya’ll were hungry, ya shoulda said so, and don’t worry none about Dash. She can get worked up over the smallest of things sometimes. The names Applejack, my family an’ Ah run Sweet Apple Acres. Bein’ new ta town, the first apple’s free.” She grabbed an apple and handed it to me.

I took the apple into my grasp, looking at it like it was some kind of rare jewel.

An apple from Sweet Apple Acers. Every brony wants to taste one of these apples. This is a dream come true.

“Thank you, Applejack, I really appreciate it.”

“Twern’t nothin’.” she replied.

My mouth was salivating as I raised the apple to it. Sadly, before I could savor the splendor that apple had to offer, I was interrupted by a shout.

“Ah ha! There you are!” I turn to find Rainbow Dash rounding the corner of the building.

Oh crap!

“Sorry Applejack. Gotta go! Bye!”

I dropped the apple I had, and ran for dear life past the orange cowpony.

Behind me I could hear Rainbow shout, “You’re not ganna get away from me that easily! Hey!? Applejack? Lemmy go!”

I turned my head to find that Applejack had caught Rainbow by the tail and was keeping her busy, while I made my escape.

Once I was sure I was out of Rainbow’s line of sight, I dodged into a random shop to hide from the perusing mare.

Slamming the door shut behind me, I leaned against the door to prevent anypony else from entering. Looking at my surroundings for the first time, I found that I recognized the waiting room that I was in. The two mares behind the counter only confirmed my suspicions.

I had entered the local spa.

“Can we help you?” the blue pony with the pink mane asked.

“Do you mind if I hide here for a bit? I’ve gotten myself in a bit of a misunderstanding, and I’d like to lay low until it blows over.”

The pink one with the blue mane answered, “Not at all, you may stay in the waiting room for as long as you’d like.”

“Thank you.”

In the distance, I could barely hear a refined mare say, “Wait… I know that voice… but it couldn’t possibly be him.”

I could actually feel my pupils shrink as the white unicorn with a purple mane stepped out of the back room wearing an elegant robe.

Crap! Out of the frying pan, and into the fire. Maybe, if I’m lucky, she won’t recognize me.

Once her eyes saw me, her face contorted into that of pure rage. “YOU!” she cried out.

So much for that.

“How dare you come to Ponyville! After what you put me through at the gala, you have no right to show up like this.”

“I.. I’m not who you think I am.”

“Oh, of course you are. Did you honestly think simply changing the color of your mane would keep me from recognizing the most arrogant, pompous, most inconsiderate pony to ever grace the land of Equestria.”

There was a quiet squeak from behind Rarity. I really had to strain my ears, but I was just able to make out, “Who is it Rarity?”

Is that who I think it is?

A long, flowing, pink mane poked out from behind Rarity, covering half the face of the shy yellow pegasus. She looked over Rarity’s shoulder to get a better look at the pony her friend was yelling at.

Yay! It’s Fluttershy. She’ll help me sort this out.

Once Fluttershy got a good look at me, she shied further behind Rarity in an attempt to hide from the strange pony she didn’t know.

Rarity turned to her friend and calmly explained the situation to her. “Do you remember that night at the Grand Galloping Gala?” she rhetorically asked. “This is the blowhard of a prince I told you about.”

Fluttershy, Lily, and Lotus simultaneously turned to glare at me.

Great! I just can’t get a break today.

“But I didn’t…” I tried to explain but was interrupted by Fluttershy.

She was right in my face. Her eyes grew large as she stared into my vary soul. The expression she had wasn’t that of anger or rage. It was actually more of a face that spoke of a mother’s disappointment. The kind of face, that would cause the recipient to want to do whatever possible to please the owner. I was being reduced to a young child again, and as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t look away.

“You didn’t act vary gentlecoltly towards my friend Rarity at the Gala. Did you? I think you owe her an apology. Don’t you?”

While under the influence of Fluttershy’s intense gaze, I was feeling very mixed emotions and desires. I wanted to do whatever Fluttershy told me to do, but at the same time, I couldn’t lie to her because it might make her even more disappointed in me. So that means I couldn’t apologize for something I didn’t do.

I was shaking now, not from fear, or excitement from witnessing the Stare in person. It was simply because I couldn’t give Fluttershy what she wanted.

“I.. It wasn’t… m..me.” I managed to stammer out.

This clearly surprised Fluttershy because she dropped the Stare right after the words left my lips. “Oh dear.” She muttered.

Free from its hold, I collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily.

That was probably… the hardest thing… I have ever had to do… in my entire life. Please God, don’t let me go through that… ever again.

“But of course it was you.” Rarity butted in. “If it wasn’t you, than who; your twin brother?”

“Actually…” I panted. “…yeah.”

“Ha! That is the worst excuse I have ever heard in my entire life. If you had come to Ponyville to apologize, then I might have accepted your apology. As it turns out that you have no intention to even admit that you did anything wrong… Girls…” She looked back to the two spa attendants sitting on the sidelines. “Get him.”

The twin spa owners had no problems siding with their most loyal customer over some stallion off the streets. Before I knew what happened, I found myself being thrown out of the spa and into the dirt road.

Rarity stood in the doorway of the establishment, looking down on me in disgust. “I don’t know why you came to Ponyville, but I recommend that you leave before one of us does something she regrets.”

Before I could attempt to explain my situation to her, a very tomboyish voice shouted from above us, “Found You!”

This is just not my day.

I look up to find Rainbow Dash closing in on me from her vantage point in the clouds.

Crap!

Scrambling to my hooves, I ran for it. In the distance I could hear Rarity yelling, “Rainbow Dash!? Save some of him for me, I’m not done with him yet!”

I wasn’t moving nearly fast enough. Dash was going to catch me in a matter of moments, if I didn’t do something soon. Looking around for anything to help in my escape of the speedy mare, I decided to dodge into an ally, off to the side, at the last second. Rainbow sped past, only to come back around with a vengeance.

Lucky for me, this ally had a lot of clothes lines in it. All were full with drying laundry hanging on them. I passed under them unharmed, but Dash was moving too fast overhead to stop or dodge the obstacles. I could hear the twang of the lines as well as a few articles of clothing being ripped, before she tumbled to the ground in a heap of cloth.

I paused for a moment, fearing that she had hurt herself. The explosion of clothing, and her heated expression, was enough to tell me otherwise. Chuckling at the lingerie hanging from Dashes ears, I redoubled my speed to get away.

In the distance, I could see the top of Twilight’s tree library poking out from behind a building.

Perfect! I should be safe once I get to the library. Twilight will help hide me, especially since I’ll be living there from now on.

Dodging in and out of other ponies’ ways, I made my way to the tree house, coming to a large intersection.

I paused, once I glanced down each street.

Rarity was charging down one avenue with Fluttershy following overhead. It looked to me that the timid pegasus was trying to calm Rarity down, but Rarity was too focused on me to pay her any mind.

“You will pay for the embarrassment you caused me!” she cried.

Looking down another path, I found Applejack coming at me with a lasso in her mouth, ready to hog tie me if necessary.

Crap! Looks like Dash convinced her that I’m the bad guy.

“Get back here, so I can pummel you!” Dash shouted behind me, as she charged.

Ahead of me, I saw Pinkie Pie hopping towards me happily humming a song. She waved to me innocently, completely oblivious to the fact that I was being chased by her friends.

My last option was the street leading to Twilight’s house. Using what little strength I had left, I teleported to the front of the local library, and opened the door in a flash. Quickly slamming the door shut behind me, only to peek out of the little window built into it, at my pursuers.

They met in the intersection. It seemed to me that they were talking with each other for a short while. Pinkie pointed a hoof to the library, than at the same time, all of them looked directly at me through the window. I quickly ducked down, hoping fruitlessly that they didn’t notice me.

“Can I… help you?” asked a very uncertain voice.

My eyes widened at the prospect of who it was standing behind me. Turning slowly, I came to gaze upon the object of my affections.

Twilight.

I found myself completely speechless in front of the bookmare. She looked me up and down trying to deduce the cause of my frantic entrance.

“Do you… need a book?” she prodded.

Shacking out of my initial shock, I realized how odd I must have been acting.

“Oh. I’m sorry. I’m Hon…”

Without warning, the door behind me flew open, with all of my pursuers tumbling into the room in a pile. I was clearly standing too close to the door, because the force, in which it opened, slammed me into the wall behind it. Effectively pinning me there.

“What is going on here?” Twilight demanded.

Dash shot out of the pony pile, and darted everywhere in her search. “Where is he? Where did he go? I swear when I get my hooves on him I’ll…”

“You won’t do nothin’ ta him til we know the truth. Ah say we hog tie him til he tells us what he’s doin’ here.” Applejack says as she crawls out from under her friends.

“Um… girls?” Fluttershy mumbles as she climbed off of Rarity.

Rarity stands up and addresses the mares present. “I, for one, already know what he is here for. I am curtain that he simply wishes to try to get some sort of revenge, from me, for embarrassing him at the Gala. That uncouth pony has much more to answer for, if you ask me. And Dash… I won’t stop you from doing whatever you want to him.” she says with a wicked smile.

Rainbow Dash acknowledges Rarity with an evil grin and a nod.

“Girls, I don’t think that…” Fluttershy tried again.

“What are you guys talking about?” Twilight demanded.

Pinkie Pie pops out of nowhere from behind the purple mare. “Oh, there’s a new pony in town, and I need to throw him a party for being new to Ponyville, because every new pony in Ponyville gets to have a party thrown for them, and it’s always so fun and I MmMMmmfff…”

Pinkie was swiftly silenced when Twilight shoved her hoof into the pink pony’s mouth.

“I don’t think that he’s as bad as you think he is.” Fluttershy finally says a little louder this time, only still not loud enough for her friends to take notice.

The door that was pinning me to the wall, slowly swung closed. I came into full view of all the ponies in the room. Their gazes turned to me, as I fell to the floor with a thud.

Ow, my head. What hit me?

I looked up at all the ponies in the room.

Oh… Shit. This isn’t going to end well.

Before I could get off of the floor, Applejack tied me up in the blink of an eye. I was upside down with my hooves tied, and pointing in the air.

You know… This can be either really bad, or really good.

Dash landed and walked smugly towards me.

“There. Now that you can’t escape, who do you work for?” Dash asked through clenched teeth.

Not good it is then.

“Dash, darling, he doesn’t work for anypony. This is just Prince Blueblood in a pitiful excuse for a disguise.

“What? No it’s not, this is a spy, here to steal our secrets.” Dash waved an accusing hoof at me.

Pinkie Pie started giggling. “Aww, Honor Bound isn’t a spy, silly.”

“What? Of course he is. Didn’t you hear Spike earlier, when we were in the street?” Dash argued.

“Nope, he’s Celestia’s nephew, and Bluebloods twin brother, Prince Honor Bound.” Pinkie counters.

“Yeah, that’s me.” I chime in.

Wait…

“How do you know that, Pinkie?” I ask, angling my neck awkwardly to get a better look at her.

“Huh? Oh! It’s right here, in this scroll I found in the middle of the road. You know, you shouldn’t leave important papers lying in the street. You never know who might find them.” she informs me as she pulls the scroll in question out of her tail.

“Let me see that.” Rarity says as she levitates the document over to her. Her eyes darted across the paper as she read its contents. “I don’t believe it.” She whispers. “I don’t believe it.” she says once more looking right at me this time. “Another p..prince, a..and I…” Rarity’s eyes rolled back into her head, and stumbled around for a moment, before promptly fainting.

Twilight brought the letter up to her and read its contents aloud.

“To my most faithful student; Twilight,

"It has been some time since you began your studies on magic, as well as the magic of friendship. To this extent, I believe you are ready to make the transition from student, to teacher.

"The pony, who has delivered this letter, is Prince Honor Bound. My nephew, and Prince Blueblood’s twin brother. I have taken the liberty of appointing him as your new student. He is rather talented when it comes to performing new spells. Though, sadly, his duties have prevented him from learning much more than a yearling at this point.

"Take this as another assignment in addition to your friendship reports. I have the utmost faith that you will be able to teach him many things, and he may be able to teach you a few things as well.

"I look forward to hearing from you soon.

"Your mentor,

"Princess Celestia of Equestria

"P.S. I am sure that there will be no problems with him living with you. The library is big enough for one more after all.”

Once Twilight had finished reading the note, every conscious pony looked over to me lying on the floor. All had varying degrees of shock on their faces.

“Um… A little help, please?” I asked sheepishly, wiggling my hooves around to clarify what I wanted.