From Under The Cork Tree

by Muscle_Car_Brony

"Ordinary."

Okay, just gotta move a few of these out of the way, I don’t want to deal with that right now. Gale thought, as he moved a group of boxes and bags to the far side of his bed.

"Knock, knock.” Twilight said, tapping on the doorway for effect.

“Holy shit, she remembered to knock.” Gale called back, before pushing the last box into the corner. “Come on in. Just, don’t touch anything over in the corner there.” he said, waving an arm to the far side of the bed. “That’s all a little too personal, sorry.”

Twilight slowed her pace as she entered the room. Wow, it didn’t seem like this much stuff at Aj’s. . . After a second, she made room for the rest of the group.

As she walked into the room, Charged gasped at the sheer number of boxes and bags that Gale had with him. “Gale, were you moving? This is a lot of stuff for somepony to have with them otherwise.”

“Yet again, still not a pony. As to why I have this all? It’s a rather personal reason. The easiest explanation is that, yes, I was moving.” he replied, picking up a duffle bag, and throwing it onto the bed.. “So, Lucky’s been extremely flighty lately? Hmm, I’ll have to take your word for it. I have no way of knowing.”

Berry took a second to respond, still in awe of just how much he had with him. “Yeah, Like Charged said, she’s probably been having a rough time at her job.”

Twilight gave Berry a puzzled stare before asking “What does she do anyways?”

“Oh, she’s been helping Cheerilee teach at the school.”

As he picked up a box to sort, Gale replied “That, explains a lot actually.”

“Huh?” the three mares replied in unison.

“She’s an assistant teacher? For a group that’s how old?” he asked, momentarily turning to face them.

“I see your point. It still doesn’t excuse her behavior, and I-”

“Eh, don’t worry about it. Trust me, I’ve had worse.” Gale said, with a dismissive hand wave, as he started sorting through things.

“Okay, shirts, socks, pants n’ shit, phone, . . . wait, when the hell did I pack my phone?” he asked as he threw it onto the pile, angrily muttering I thought I left that piece of shit at the police station . . . dammit, that’s how the bastards found me . . .

Pausing to let himself calm down for a second, Gale started continued “Nevermind. Okay, clothes, check. Now onto . . . everything else.” he said, before grabbing a box and setting it on the bed. “Well then, what’s behind door number two, Monty . . .?”

“Who’s Monty? I thought it was just us four in here?”

“Eh, you won’t know where that’s from . . . pop culture reference, and an old one at that.“

“Oh, okay.”

“Okay, so what's in he- dammit.” Taking a deep breath he continued “That’s okay, I’ll get to this one later.” he then moved it over by the stuff on the far side of the bed. Making sure to set a bag on top of it before moving back.

“I forgot one. Just . . . drop it please.” he said, before anyone asked.Ugh, I forgot about the damn ammo box . . .

Though he’d been quick to hide it, Twilight had managed to make out a word on whatever was inside. What she caused her to slowly take a step back, in fear. He has a box of ammunition for something . . . oh Celestia, do I even want to know?

Thankfully for her, Gale hadn’t noticed as he’d picked up another box. “Take two. This should be guitar cables and sheet music.” he said, lightly shaking the box before opening it onto the bed. “Phew, I was wondering if these guys were okay.” he said, grinning as he took a piece of music in hand. “Heh, I forgot ‘Fake It’ was in this folder.”

“What kind of song is that? I don’t think I’ve ever heard anypony play something with a name like that.”

“Well, it’s from back home so I’m not surprised. As for the type of song? Well, here.” he said, handing her the lyrics sheet “I think that would explain it well enough.”

As Berry read down the page her expression went from curiosity, to shock, to disgust “This is the kind of music your people listen to?”

“Well, no, not everyone. Rock music has sort of faded in interest over the years, but it’s the genre I prefer.” he said, continuing as she passed him the sheet. “Not all of it is angry, though it can seem that way. Personally, I prefer the sound in comparison to what’s currently being put out there. Well, mainstream anyways.”

“Huh, I hadn’t thought of that. Do you have any I could listen to? Now I kinda want to know just what type of ‘sound’ is that appealing.”

“Well, I’ll have to look but I know I have my old mp3 player somewhere, if I can’t find it, I may have a few cds and I know for damn sure that I brought my cd player.” he said, nodding to the device in question. “I think I only have my duffle bags left, and I already know what’s in both of them, so yeah, I’ll see if I can fish my mp3 player out of one. It has just about everything I’ve got on cds already on it.” he said, grabbing a bag to search.

---

The group spent the remainder of the hour up in Gale’s ‘room’ while he sorted through all of the things he’d taken out. Only once more did Gale find himself quickly hiding something from the ponies around him, though in truth it was nothing major.

“Okay, so how about you guys go back downstairs, I’ll finish up here and be down in a few. “ Gale said, escorting the group out of his room. When he was satisfied that they’d all left the area, he slowly shut the door, and blocked it, so he could sort through the last few items in peace. Phew, I can actually check on the things I wanted to now . . .

After he was sure the door wouldn’t be openable, Gale walked over to things he’d moved aside earlier. The first item he decided to check was the case Twilight had seen him carry back from Applejack’s, his guitar. “Phew, little guy’s alright” he said, picking up the flamed painted Epiphone Special II that he’d owned for half a decade.Turning it over, he reminisced about how the instrument had acquired the small number of scratches it had. “Man, you’re a tough ol’ bastard. I’m glad you’re in good shape, buddy.”

Setting the guitar carefully down onto the bed, strings up, Gale went to open the other guitar shaped case he had with him. Man, I wish I would have gotten the chance to give this to you, babe. I know you’d love ‘er. “Oh I hope she ain’t scratched too bad.” he said, opening the case to reveal a metallic blue Xotic XPJ1T bass guitar. Phew, almost spotless “I wish I could give this to you, Jess, I really do.” he said to no one as he set the bass next to his guitar. It’s a shame I’ll never get to hear you play it.

Those two out of the way, Gale hesitantly went to check on the last three items he’d brought in. The only three he really didn’t want anyone else to see. I hoped I would never have to look at these again. Not after that. Steeling his nerves, Gale grabbed the box he’d been quick to conceal earlier. Opening it, revealed varying boxes of two types of ammunition. And here I was hoping I’d imagined packing this. Damn.

Heaving a sigh, Gale lifted the first case out of the box, revealing three loaded magazines and several more boxes, these filled with 7.92X57mm rounds. I guess it’s a good thing that cop never pulled me over in St. Louis . . . Moving on from the ammunition, Gale took another moment to steel himself before reaching for the larger of bags. He opened the bag slowly, as if what lay inside could attack him at any moment. Get it together, man. It literally can not hurt you unless you do something fucking stupid. After another second, he carefully lifted the rifle from its bag and gave it a quick once over. I will never understand why grandpa kept this after the war, nor how he even managed to kill a German sniper in the first place.“I’ll give it to you grandpa, you kept this thing in good condition for over 70 years.” Deciding it prudent, he carefully double checked that the gun was empty. It wasn’t. . . . I left a 98k Mauser loaded. God, . . . am I really that paranoid?

The last item for him to check sat in a small triangular bag at the foot of the bed. Well, I guess this was inevitable. Grabbing the bag, Gale unzipped it to reveal his father’s standard issue Colt .45. “I hope you’re doing alright out there, dad. Wherever ‘there’ may be.” he said before beginning the same checks he’d done with the Mauser. I hope you can forgive me for the times I’ve had to use this dad, you know I never wanted to. he mumbled to himself.

“Never wanted to what?” Twilight asked, having just teleported into the room.

Her question shocked Gale to the point that he jumped off the bed, spun around, and went to aim the gun. He caught himself before actually aiming at her, though she jumped back as well. “Jesus christ, woman! Don’t do that!” he shouted, breathing heavily and trying to calm back down.

Realizing the position he was in, Gale lowered his gun and sat back down. “Seriously, knocking. Is that such a hard goddamn concept to grasp?”

After a moment of hesitation, Twilight responded “I didn’t mean to scare you, I just wondered if you were doing alright.” she said, before she realized what Gale was holding. Is that what he . . . was he going to . . . what in tartarus is going on here. She walked all the way to the bed before asking “Gale, what is that you’re holding?"

“Nothing.” Quickly hiding the weapon behind him, he added “It’s nothing, really. Please don’t teleport in here like that though. You about gave me a heart attack.” And I almost shot you by reflex . . . what the hell happened to my life?

Unfortunately for him, Twilight wasn’t buying it. “That didn’t seem like ‘nothing.’ Especially with how quick you were to hide it.” she said, pointing out Gale’s, failed, attempt to place the weapon back in its case undetected.

“Look, it’s not important. Okay? I’m never taking it out of it’s case again anyways.” I ought to just bury the damned thing.

As he reached for the case, Twilight took note of the other items he’d unpacked in private.

'So, what’s that?” she asked, nodding towards Gale’s rifle.

"That one I don’t mind talking about. It’s basically the last thing I have from my grandfather. It’s an old German Mauser. 98K to be exact.” Picking up the rifle, Gale continued “He picked this guy up about 70 years ago. Kept him in good shape, too.” Getting lost in the memory, Gale failed to notice Twilight’s expression as he went on. “Yeah, he told me this was given to him by his squad commander after they found it on the body of the sniper it belonged to. A sniper gramps managed to shoot first.”

“Why would somepony keep something like that? That’s completely morbid!”

“For the nth time, we’re not ponies. Yeah, I’ll admit it’s a tad bit morbid, but when you’re in the midst of a fight for your life, you’re not gonna be thinking about things like that. Hell, as far as I know the man never even shot this thing. Not once in 70 years.”

“I’m starting to see why Lucky was nervous.” Twilight unintentionally said to herself, though Gale could hear it perfectly clear.

“Yeah, I figured as much.” he sighed, standing up to put the guns away. “I’m just gonna put these guys over here.” picking up the case, Gale deftly replaced the weapon inside and proceeded to move it to a nearby closet. “Keep these nice and out of the way. Even I don’t really want to see them.” Turning back to Twilight, he could easily see that she was still acting scared. This is why mom always said I needed to lay off the war documentaries. I think I started to enjoy them a bit too much . . .

“Okay, so, how about I put up my guitar and we both go back downstairs?” he said, intentionally diverting her interest to something completely different.

“Guitar? Is that what those are?” pointing at the instruments, she added “Hmm, why does one have more strings than the other?”

“Well, they’re not both standard electric guitars. The one with four strings is a bass. Though that one’s not really mine so I think I’ll just put ‘er back in ‘er case for now.”

“Not yours?” Twilight backed away in shock, once more. “Why would you have something that’s not-”

“It’s for a friend, Twilight. Jesus, calm down.”

“Wait, what?”

“I bought this. For someone . . . close to me. As a birthday gift. It’s a shame I’ll never get to hear her play it.”

“Her?” Twilight intoned.

“So yeah, it’s not mine. The one painted with flames, however, is.” he went on, completely ignoring her question. “I think I paid maybe $75 for this guy at a swap meet down in Atlanta. I didn’t even intend to buy him either. Hell, I didn’t even know how to play.”

“You bought it when you couldn’t play it?”

“Well, I can’t really learn on air, now can I? Here, let me see if I remember this.” Grabbing a pick out of his guitar’s case, he went about playing the beginning of Pantera’s ’Cemetery Gates’. Reverend, Reverend, is this some conspiracy?

Twilight opted to sit and listen as he progressed through the song for a minute before asking “Is that what those normally sound like?”

“Not really. It sounds better if I have an amp to play through, but I never packed mine so I guess that’s a bust.”

“Actually, I may know of someone who could get you a new one. She’s a friend of Pinkie’s, real good with electronics.”

“Hmm, maybe. If I’m gonna be here I may as well find a way to use this ol’ guy.”

His saying that send a stab of guilt through Twilight, as she quickly remembered the idea that started all of this. “You know what, I think I may have Spike cover the library today. I need to go do some research on a few things.”

“Hmm? Research on what?” Gale asked, mimicking Twilight’s tone from earlier.

“Don’t worry about that for now, but if I can, can I ask you to help Spike reorganize the shelves today? I’ve been meaning to do it myself but haven’t had time.”

“Sure, I don’t see why not. It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do.” Well, I have several things I’d rather be doing, but I can’t really do any of those at this point . . .

---

Berry and charged stood, watching as the rain died down, when Gale and Twilight finally came down stairs. The duo turned to the stairs as they heard the pair approach. “Oh, there you are.” Charged called out, as Berry went off with Spike to find to find whatever book she’d been looking for.

“So, yeah, Twilight, most of the artists I listen to have been making music for over 20 years.” Gale said, continuing an unheard conversation.

“20 years? That seems like a long time for somepo- someone to be making music.”

She’s learning . . . “Well, yes and no. Hell, most of them started way back in the 70’s, some even earlier.”

“Wait, over 40 years? How old are they then!?”

“Probably late 60’s. What I’m trying to say though, is that you shouldn’t take my music taste as an indication of every human’s. Honestly, there aren’t too many people out there that enjoy the same music as me.”

“Was that song you played earlier very old?”

“What, ‘Cemetery Gates’? Nah, a little over 20, or something like that.”

“Is that what it’s called? Oh, and that’s a long time for such a short song to be popular, Gale.”

“‘Gates’, short?” eyebrow raised, he then remembered that she couldn’t have known. “No, I was only playing the intro. The whole song’s like seven minutes.”

“Really? Hmm, do you know how to play the rest of it?”

“Yes. “ he deadpanned “I probably won’t though.” Before she could add anything, he called out “Hey, Charged, it finally done raining?”

“Yeah, it just stopped. What took you so long, anyways?” she said, turning to face the two.

“Nothing.” Gale said, before Twilight had a chance to say anything, he added “I was looking through some things, and Twilight decided she had to know what they were. I told her, and we came back down here.”

“Ah, okay. So, are you doing anything else?”

“Well, I was going to go look through my private collection of spell books for a few hours, I want to see if I can find something.”

“And I’m probably going to see if Spike needs help organizing things. I think it’s fair to say that I’m the tallest one of us all in here right now, so I can probably get to every shelf in the place.”

With that said, Twilight went off to a back room, leaving Gale and Charged alone by the large front window. “You know.” Charged started, staring to the sky outside “I think the schedule called for the rest of the week to be sunny.” Turning back to him, she asked “What do you think of that?”

“The mere fact that you have ponies who can control the weather is like witchcraft to me. Humans can’t manage that, and we’ve been trying for decades, centuries maybe.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah. I mean, we have naturally occurring seasons like you do, but predicting the weather past the next three or four days gets quite hard, especially during Spring. It’s why I planned to never move to Kansas. Screw that.

“Kansas?”

“One of the states in my home country. About middle of the continent. The landscape is very flat and the area gets a lot of tornadoes during the Springtime. We had them back in NC, too, but nowhere near as bad.

“NC?”

“North Carolina, yes. That’s the state I’ve spent most of my life in.”

“Hmm, okay. So, how many states are there?”

"50.”

“And they’re all part of a single nation?”

“Yeah. Things don’t always go so well because of that, but it generally works out.”

As their conversation continued, the pair moved to the couches and Gale told Charged about the systems humans use to determine the weather patterns. He also started absentmindedly drumming on the arm of the couch.

After a few minutes, Spike called out “Hey Gale, can you come get this for me?” Turning to face him, Gale saw that the book Berry was after sat atop a shelf that neither could reach, and Twilight had moved the only ladder to an unknown location.

“Yeah, give me a sec.”

---

An hour or so later, Berry and Charged decided to leave, which left Gale and Spike with little else to do, as none of the ponies in town seemed to need any books. Since they had nothing better to do, the two sat around discussing their, or rather Spike and Twilight’s, friends. “So let me get this straight, you’re telling me that miss tye-dye mane over there can actually break the speed of sound?”

Spike looked him dead in the eyes and said “Yes.”

“I don’t believe you.” he shot back, both of them unaware that Dash herself had walked in just a moment before.

“You want me to prove it?” she said, strutting over to the couch.

Are all these ponies freaking ninjas?“Yes.”

“Why don’t we step outside then? I don’t think Twilight’d be too happy if I broke all the windows again.”

“Again?”

Spike answered for her “Yes, ‘again’. That sort of stuff happens when you break sound.”

“Still not believing you.”

Following her outside, Gale went on “There’s no way you’re gonna pull it off. No way in hell.”

Giving her best, albeit unintentional, Maverick impression, she replied “Well, I guess you could say I’ve got the need. The need for speed.”

Did, did she just? No. No, she can’t have . . . he thought, as he watched her fly up over the library.

“Still wanting to take that bet?” she yelled down, her demeanor staying just as cocky as before.

“Screw it, why not?” he called back, wondering if she was actually bluffing or not. There’s no way she can actua-

The sudden boom that rang out broke his train of thought, and he was left even more confused when he looked up to see a rainbow like wave emanating from where the pegasus had done what he thought impossible.

Holy shit. “Okay, I believe you now. But, I have one question.”

“That is?” she inquired, floating back down to the ground and enjoying the look of shock on his face.

“How the hell did you just do that!?”

“Um, flapping my wings?

Her comeback snapped him out of his shock, and he replied “Okay, smartass, you know what I meant.”

“That’s speciest.”

“What?” he asked, before facepalming as he realized what she’d meant. “Ugh, it’s a figure of speech.”

“Still speciest.”

“I don’t give a damn.”

“Wow.”

“Figure. Of. Speech. No malintent behind it aimed at anyone save for the person I call one.” Note to self: Calling someone a jackass here is much more insulting than back home. Cool.

“Whatever you say.” floating up to him, she went on “So, what were you two talking about when I came in?”

“Nothing much, Spike was just letting me know a bit about the area. It seems I’m gonna be here awhile . . . “ Gale knew that his saying that would hurt to her, so he quickly added “Other than that, I was thinking about getting my guitar out. Yeah, I don’t have an amp for it but I can still practice a few of the tougher songs I know.”

“What’s a guitar?”

“Human instrument. Not too hard to play, but a pain to learn. I bought one a few years ago and sort of self-taught myself how to play a few of my favorite songs.”

“Hmm, that sounds lame. I mean, who wants to sit around playing some dumb instrument all day? No offense.”

Dumb instrument, eh? “You wouldn’t be saying that if you heard some of the stuff you can do with one. You know what, I’m gonna go bring mine down. At the very least, I’ll have something to do for the rest of the day.”

---

Rainbow and Spike stood idly chatting as Gale went upstairs to get the instrument in question.

“So, what do you think of him, Spike?”

"Rainbow Dash, I don’t have an opinion on that. I barely know the guy!”

They halted their conversation when Gale came back downstairs. It took him a few moments to reach the couch, since he was carrying his guitar and a box of sheet music. “Geeze, I never realized just how much I know and or am learning to play.”

Setting the case down he opted to spill the box onto a table, and started filling through all the songs. The collection of varying pieces was somewhat of a shock for the other two, since they didn’t know how one could possibly play them all.

Wow, so he knows how to play a lot of different stuff, huh? I may need to get him and Thunderlane together someday. Dash thought, remembering about how her co-captain liked to just sit around and drum on anything.

As she sorted through the music, she started to notice a pattern. “Gale, some of these songs, there names are kinda dark.”

Glancing up, he asked “How so?”

“Well, there’s this one.” she said, passing him a sheet labeled ‘The thing that should not be.’

“Yeah, okay, I’ll give you that one. Metallica are known for their darker themes. It’s fun to play tough, if you have the endurance.”

“Oh?”

Gale chose to respond not by talking, but rather by taking his guitar and playing a slowed down version of the solo.

Gasping, Dash said “Sweet Celestia, that’s fast.”

“That’s a slowed down version. Maybe ¾ speed.”

"Holy hay.”

“Okay, I can not take you seriously if you’re gonna keep saying things like that.”

“What?”

“Ugh, nevermind. I’m just gonna be over here practicing this for now. Let me know if you need me, Spike.”

The rest of the day went by without incident, though many ponies came into the library, not all strictly for books, most left Gale alone when they saw he was preoccupied. The rest of the week went by in this fashion, with Gale and Spike manning the library while Twilight went off to do some research.

Author's Note:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrMbkbTPrPA
(For the record, I'm referencing this.)

Comments

[Dolomite]

He's really hung up on the 'somepony' thing. Gale, dude, it's their culture and linguistics. Take a chill pill and stop being a such a dick.