Wayward Plans 1.8
The last social event I had gone to was a Halloween party at Katherine’s school last week. Katherine had dressed as some teenage book series heroine, which I only knew was some sort of post-apocalyptic science fiction, while I had just picked up a hooded black robe, fake scythe, and fake sword. Given the time to think about my costume choice, it was difficult to say if I had been subconsciously thinking about death, even if the upcoming anniversary had completely slipped my mind.
“So, do you have a job?” I said, and had decided to try unraveling the mystery of Surprise, while she led the way to this concert.
“Yep!” Surprise said, in a happy yet oblivious way, and didn’t seem to think I might want to know what that job was, while leisurely flying toward our destination, or at least I hoped that was where we were going.
The streets had others walking the streets as we got closer to this concert Surprise was so insistent on me going to. I didn’t know who was playing, but that was because I hadn’t asked, and the reason I hadn’t asked was because I didn’t care. My goal was to make sure Surprise was still fine after my coin toss, then abandon her at the earliest opportunity. Any legal things like negligence would be completely nullified and would be one less thing to come back at me later.
A sigh escaped from my muzzle, which wouldn’t be the last Surprise got out of me. “What is your job title, and what do you do?”
My question seemed to spur her to look up at the sky, which was cloudless. “Captain of the Ponyville weather patrol, and I organize the local weather schedule. Ponyville’s weather was a mess before I got here.”
What is up with their world? Is it broken, or are they just able to enforce order on everything? Questioning things too deeply was just a headache waiting to happen, so the weather was added to the pile of topics not needing to be explored further. “So, is the party throwing a hobby?”
She turned around but continued to fly in the same direction backward. “Nope, I’m also the town’s officially sanctioned party planner.”
We turned a corner, and a massive herd of at least a thousand beings came into sight, though it seemed to mainly consist of ponies. On the flat grass covered ground before the concert stage were earth ponies and unicorns, with a group of cows in the mix, while pegasi hovered in the air above. If there were any other creatures in the throng, then they were obscured by the ponies or too few to notice.
“If I ask why you didn’t mention it when I asked about your job title, are you going to say because I only asked about one?” I said, then began to search for a medical tent among stalls and other tents surrounding the central area where everyone was.
“Nope.” She turned back around and flew normally. “Throwing parties is too much fun to consider it a job, even if I do more paperwork for it than the weather patrol. Like this one time my friend Cheese Sandwich and I threw a party, which I had no idea there was so much extra paperwork—”
I spotted the red cross on a tent. “Surprise. Medical tent. Now.”
“Kay!” She looked toward the medical tent, then within a blink of an eye was hovering outside the tent.
I stood stupefied, as I tried to process the fact Surprise moved a considerable distance within a timeframe I couldn’t even begin to process. No need to think. Magic. Anything and everything is possible. I just keep moving for—
Within another blink of the eye, Surprise was hovering back in front of me, which caused me to rear up on my hind hooves, but I quickly found my balance, alongside my anger for Surprise again. “Don’t do that!” I said, before she could say what was most likely going to be asking me if I was coming, while I pointed my left forehoof at her.
A strange look appeared on her face, but she shook her head, which cleared it away. “Don’t do…” She looked back at the tent, then back to me. “Oh, I skipped the space between here and there. Sorry, that just happens sometimes, and I can’t control it like the disappearing thing.”
“Let’s just go get you checked out.” I began to walk toward the medical tent, but Surprise had that strange look on her face again. “What?”
She looked me up and down. “Nothing… but… isn’t that uncomfortable?”
My gaze shifted downward, then I realized I had been standing on my hind legs for the past minute, which also caused me to lose whatever balance I had been unaware of and fall forward. I should’ve put my forehooves out to catch myself, but the confusion from the temporary bipedalism left me too stupefied to do anything other than stare at the incoming ground. Strangely, I stopped falling, then noticed the white legs to the left and right of my vision.
Things had become strange again, but I tried to sort it out. First I looked up to meet muzzle to muzzle with Surprise. Next, I remembered the legs holding me up were forelegs, and that I had a pair as well, so I placed them both firmly on the earth below. Finally, I remembered why I was where I was, alongside proper manners. “Thanks… Come on.” I said, then headed toward the tent again.
Surprise followed without another word, and I was even more confused about her, myself, and the world than earlier.
(0) (0)
Surprise and I stood outside the medical tent, which was simply a rectangle medium-sized white tent, with red crosses on it. From the outside, it didn’t look like it could hold many patients, so it would be insufficient in any major disaster, such as a stage collapse. Still, I was probably just being pessimistic, and nothing irreparable had happened in my time here yet, so anything more than this tent might’ve very well been excessive.
“Okay, what do you say when they ask how you were struck on the head?” I said, and was making sure Surprise made the fact known that the injury to her head was entirely her own fault for sneaking around.
“It was my fault entirely, and you were only protecting yourself from an unknown danger.” Surprise said, with a smile. “We really don’t have to get me checked out though since Twilight says I inexplicably heal faster than most pegasi, and it was just a bit. Now if I had been hit by a sky chariot like that one time as a filly, then I could understand being worried, but even then I bounced back in a couple days.”
“Just do it for me.” And then we are done for tonight, and hopefully forever after noon tomorrow.
“But we could be getting soda, popcorn, cotton candy…”
I led the way into the tent, while I tuned out Surprise’s listing off of every single thing we could get at the stalls and tents. The interior of the tent was lit by white crystals hooked onto bars along the walls, which was a part of the tent’s frame. Twelve blue cots were lined up in two rows of six, with a pillow on each, and asleep on one of the cots in the back next to medical supplies was the nurse pony I had met earlier in the day.
Her again. Out of everyone I had gone off on in the past two days, I felt that the hearts and red cross cutie mark nurse had been the most deserving of my ire. She had threatened me with institutionalization if I didn’t admit to what imagined drugs I had taken, even though their tests had proven at the very least I hadn’t taken anything. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to mend things with her, since it wasn’t like she could do anything now.
“ice— Hi, Nurse Redheart!” Surprise said, loudly, and almost directly into my ears.
Redheart awoke startled, and fell off the cot, then scrambled to her hooves. “What happen?! Where’s the emergency?!” she said, before her panicked eyes focused on Surprise and I. “Berry… what did you do now?” The groaning in her voice told me she was just as excited to see me again as I was her.
“Please make sure she’s fine,” I pointed back toward Surprise. “then you don’t have to see me anymore today. Technically, if things go extremely well at noon tomorrow, then you will never see me, Jack Taylor, again.”
“No, we are talking about earlier today. Doctor Horse and I got an earful from Twilight about professionalism, which I didn’t even deserve, and I know you must’ve said something really hurtful to Doctor Horse for him to say ‘I just let her go.’ without any explanation as to why.” Redheart walked over to a bag on the floor in the back, and reach into it with her head, then came back out with what looked like a crystal wand-like device hanging on a strap from her neck. “Up.”
What I had decided was probably an actual wand was made from a rose colored crystal. Its handle was cut in an octagon and came out to a point at the bottom end of the handle. Set in a gold mount at the top of the wand was a round ball tip. For some reason, I found the device fascinating, and it hadn’t even done anything yet.
Surprise walked past me, and jumped up on a cot, then sat down on her rear. “Do I get a sucker afterward?” she said, sweetly.
Redheart rolled her eyes. “Fine, but you have to sit completely still.”
“Kay!” Surprise said, then looked back at me. “Gotta get them to promise it upfront, or they’ll try to weasel out of it, and finding a monkey to chase them around a mulberry bush at this time of night is nearly impossible.”
“So, what do you have to say about today at the hospital, Berry?” Redheart said, while walking up to Surprise, then took the wand hanging from her neck into her right hoof.
Guess I’ll have to apologize first, and not expect one in return either. “Fine, I’m sorry for yelling at you, and for leaving the hospital.”
“Don’t move, Surprise,” Redheart said, and the top of the crystal wand lit up in a pink glow, and made a whirring sound.
Surprise reacted with an almost statuesque stillness of looking straight ahead, while her breathing was barely visible.
“Berry, I didn’t even see you leave, let alone speak to you.” Redheart was annoyed, but didn’t take her eyes off of Surprise, and moved the wand slowly over Surprise.
Lying? Seriously? I had expected not to get an apology, but outright denial of even speaking to me was beyond believable. She was trying to hide the fact she had threatened me, and the fact she had just let me leave right in front of her. “So, that’s how you want to play this while someone is around?”
“You’re the only one playing games here, Berry. I don’t know why you are apologizing for something that didn’t happen on top of what you did do, but I really don’t care. What did you say to Doctor Horse?”
It was time to see if Surprise had been lying about people forgetting about her when she did her disappearing act. “All right, I’ll tell you once you are done with Surprise,” I said, and couldn’t help myself from smiling.
“Fine,” Redheart said, and continued her examination of Surprise, or at least I thought that was what she was doing since I didn’t know anything about the wand in her hoof. After a minute, the wand dimmed out and ceased its whirring noise. “You’re perfectly fine, Surprise. Knowing you, that bruise on your forehead will be gone by tomorrow, so I don’t even see a need for a cold compress. My only medical advice is to avoid further contact with Berry, even though you think what she does isn’t entirely her fault.”
“It really wasn’t her fault this time though. I was phased out, and got in the way of a coin toss.” Surprise said, and sounded much more convincing in her own words, than the ones I had told her to say when somebody asked.
“Surprise,” Redheart turned around, then headed to the back of the tent. “you have to be more focused on not letting that happen. If you were seriously injured and knocked out, then nobody would be able to help you.” she said, then used her head to reach into the bag she had taken the wand out of. After a moment of movement, she came back out of the bag with a wrapped yellow sucker bit between her teeth by the stick.
“Lemon!” Surprise said, joyously.
Redheart returned, then removed the sucker from her muzzle with a hoof, and offered it to Surprise. The sucker was swiped by Surprise from Redheart’s hoof quickly, and I noticed that the wrapper began to deteriorate into sparkles the moment it was removed. By the time Surprise had the lemon sucker in her mouth, the wrapper had completely disappeared.
“I’m still waiting to hear what you said to Doctor Horse, Berry,” Redheart said, and sounded like she was losing her patience.
Huh, guess they don’t have to worry about some non-biodegradable trash. “In a moment. Come here, Surprise. I need to ask something of you.”
“Okay,” Surprise hopped down off the cot she had been sitting on, and came closer to me. “What do—”
I grabbed her behind the neck and pulled her down to whisper in her ear. “Do your disappearing act. Nurse Redheart is lying about earlier today.”
“But—”
“Trust me, please.” I released Surprise from my hold, and she used the opportunity to look back at Redheart, then back to me.
“What are you t…” Redheart said, then began to stutter.
Surprise disappeared in an instant, and the seemingly empty spot strained my eyes to look at. Thankfully, she seemed to recall the discomfort her ability caused me and moved off to the side between two cots.
“t… t… What were we talking about?” Redheart said, and seemed lost.
“Quick question. Who was the last patient you saw tonight?” I said, and wanted to see how far this craziness went.
“I… haven’t seen anyone tonight. Berry, something doesn’t feel right here.”
I so wanted to nag her until she called me Jack, but it wasn’t worth the time. “Another question. Do you know a pegasus by the name of Surprise?”
“No? Why are you asking these questions? Did something happen?” She began to feel her head with her right forehoof, then stumbled upon the wand hanging from her neck. The wand’s presence seemed to confuse her further as if she didn’t remember it being there.
“I’m asking these questions because that is what curious ponies do, and yes something did happen. I have one more question for you.” I pointed a hoof toward the empty space Surprise occupied. “Do you feel your eyes being strained when you look at that spot?”
Redheart looked where I pointed, but there didn’t seem to be any eye strain for her. “No. What happened?” She removed the wand from around her neck, then began to use it on herself.
“Nothing much. Just a pony dropped out of existence apparently, and I’m the only pony who remembers they existed, or exist as far as I’m currently concerned.” There would be more creatures saying certain things were impossible, but I knew they were wrong. Nothing was impossible here, and anyone who said they couldn’t do something just hadn’t tried hard enough.
The wand turned off again, and Redheart gave me a funny look. “Are you feeling alright?”
It took me a moment to realize what could’ve caused her to give me a look, but I realized it was the fact I was giving her a wide grin. I made a quick giggle, with my teeth still clenched in a smile, and wasn’t sure what was so funny. “Yes. What do you have to say about your behavior at the hospital today?”
“My…” The anger I saw on her face earlier today resurfaced. “My behavior?! You mean when I did everything in my power to keep you alive after who knows what you did to yourself?! What about your behavior?! You just walked out of the hospital!”
Her anger was infectious. “I’m talking about when you came to the hospital room! You blew off my entire story, then threatened me with psychological institutionalization!”
“The last time I saw you was when you were asleep on your hospital bed!” Her adamance to be right was infuriating.
I had proof contrary to her lies, and Surprise was going to see this liar for what she was. “Really now?! Are you sure you don’t want to change that story?! Because I can destroy that blatant lie in an instant!”
“Stop insisting I’m lying! Get out of my medical tent while you’re at it!” Redheart braced all four of her hooves on the tent floor and looked like she was just about ready to kick me out of the tent.
I reached back with my head into the saddlebag containing the notepad, then pulled it out to show to her. “Wa…” I rolled my eyes, resisted hitting myself with a forehoof, then removed the notepad from my mouth with my left forehoof. “What do you have to say about this?”
“You stole my new notepad! I was looking all over for that earlier today!”
“Look at it!” I wound my left forehoof back, and was about to throw the notepad at her, but remembered something I had written in it. Pros and cons about Spike. “One second.” I sat down and flipped through the notes.
“Those are private!” Redheart said, but didn’t move to take the notepad away from me.
“Uh-huh.” I found the page I wrote down the things about Spike on, with the big thing being about how he could hear The Seven, or at least six of them anyway. How to get rid of the page completely was an issue, but one I quickly resolved by tearing the page out with a forehoof, wadded it up, then threw it into my mouth. The paper didn’t taste very good, nor was it specifically pleasant going down my throat, but it was gone.
“Why…” I looked up to see Redheart confused again, and her confusion seemed to have also broken her anger. “Why did you eat a piece of paper just now?”
“Surprise Swear.” I gave myself points for not questioning the fact I remembered the note in the heat of anger, and that I chose to eat said note without hesitation. If this was what Surprise Swears were actually capable of, and it wasn’t just some fluke, then I was going to see how creative I could be with them at some point.
Redheart was left speechless. She raised a forehoof like she was about to ask me a question, but placed it back on the ground. Her actions did give me another question to ask before I got our conversation back on track.
“Do you even remember me mentioning a pony named Surprise earlier?” I grabbed the notepad out of my left forehoof with my mouth, stood up, then moved it back my left forehoof.
“No? Are you sure you mentioned this pony?” I could tell she wasn’t lying about this, and I wondered if she thought she was telling the truth when it came to earlier today as well.
So they even forget about Surprise retroactively? “Don’t worry about it.” I walked forward three-legged, then offered the notepad to Redheart. “Now tell me to my face you don’t remember writing everything I told you down in this.”
Cautiously, she reached toward the notepad with a forehoof, took it out of my grasp, then began to read the notes within. Her eyes grew wider with every page she read until she looked confused again. “What is this?” She turned the notepad around to show me the drawing of a human I had drawn for Spike.
“Work in progress drawing of human. That’s what I really am.” It was probably the wrong time to start trying to convince someone I was a human, but there really wasn’t a best time either.
She turned the notepad back around, then gave the drawing another look. “O…kay. Be— ”
“Jack, at least until we sort out who is crazier between the two of us.”
She seemed offended by my words, but there was fear in her eyes as well. “I’m not—”
“Fine. Until we figure out if I’m crazy or if you are unfit to be a nurse.” Something had happened to Redheart earlier today, though I had trouble remembering the exact details due to how angry I had been.
The words ‘unfit to be a nurse’ set off something in Redheart. Her eyes went wide and mouth opened slightly in a quivering motion. “No… there has to be a… perfectly rational reason why I don’t remember writing any of this.” She recollected herself and gave me a hard look. “Tell me exactly what happened earlier today.”
I brought my left forehoof up in the air and started moving it in a circular motion to try and jog my memory. “Well, you showed up, I started explaining my story, you left and returned with that notepad, wrote everything down…” I put my left forehoof back on the ground and narrowed my eyes at her. “and threatened to institutionalize me. Pretty sure I mentioned that last thing earlier, but it is worth repeating.”
“I’m sorry if I said that…” She let out a sigh. “Jack. Did anything else happen?”
“Thank you for apologizing and remembering my real name.” What else happened? I got angry, then… “Well, I think you went catatonic.” It sounded right to me, though I felt that same feeling I got when trying to remember what a human looked like. I desperately need to start writing things down.
“Catatonic?” A worried frown appeared on her face. “I became unresponsive right in front of you? You just left without saying anything to anyone about me?” She focused her eyes on me and left her mouth open in disbelief. “What is wrong with you?!”
“No, the question here is ‘What is wrong with you?’.” The arguing hadn’t gotten me anywhere, so this change was a welcome. Sure, I should’ve probably been a little gentler, but it wasn’t like I had said anything offensive about her possibly onsetting mental degradation. Hell, maybe she is the drug addict here. Not like nurses haven’t been known to get hooked on prescription drugs in my world.
Redheart collapsed backward onto her rear and still held the notepad in her right forehoof. “I filled in the blanks without even thinking about it…” She looked at the notepad, then her eyes began to tear up. “I remember your room’s call button light lighting up and making the noise… walking there…” Tears fell from her eyes along the sides of her muzzle. “I didn’t find your room empty, I found myself in your empty room.”
Seeing the tears made me realize I had gone too far, then another headache began to set in. Not sure what to do, I looked over where Surprise simultaneously was and wasn’t, which I had forgotten hurt to look at. “Stop doing that and help me with this.”
In an instant, Surprise was visible again and wore a frown on her face. “I don’t know how.”
The ears on Redheart’s head stood up at Surprise’s voice, then Redheart looked Surprise’s way. “Surprise?” Redheart’s confusion seemed to help her recollect herself, which allowed her to stagger back up to her hooves, though she almost stumbled back down due to forgetting her right hoof still held onto the notepad. “You know it is rude to spy on ponies when they don’t know you are there.”
“Sorry…” She averted her eyes away from both of us and began idly moving her left forehoof in a circle on the floor. “Jack said you were lying about what happened at the hospital and wouldn’t tell the truth with somepony else around, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt.”
“I…” Redheart turned back to me. “Sorry, I have to go,” she said, transferred the notepad to her mouth, then trotted by me and out of the tent without another word.
“So…” I turned to Surprise. “I was kinda right about her not telling the truth.”
The frown hadn’t left Surprise’s muzzle. “Did you have to say she might be unfit to be a nurse though? That’s like saying I couldn’t throw parties anymore, or you couldn’t mix things,” she said, and sounded as unhappy as she looked.
Was it? It didn’t take long for me to answer that question, “Yes.” I said, then turned to exit the tent.
“You can’t mean that.” The heartbroken tone in her voice almost got to me.
Within a few steps of exiting the tent, I turned around to face Surprise with an angry glare. “I’ll keep trying everything I can think of to convince you all I am a human, at least anything that won't land me in jail.”
Surprise turned her sight upward and raised both her forehooves into the air, while flapping her wings to keep herself from falling. “Argh! That’s the problem!” she said, then returned her angry gaze to me. “You are only doing slightly less than what Berry has been doing for years!”
She has the nerve to be angry?! “I—”
“No!” A quick push from both of Surprise’s forehooves caught me off guard, and knocked me to my rear in the entrance to the tent. “You are going to sit there and listen, missy!”
This felt like when I insulted the importance of friendship in front of Twilight, though this time all I had done was tell someone they might be unfit to do their job, so Surprise wasn’t going to get an apology. “Fine,” I crossed both forelegs and narrowed my eyes at her. “but we are through once you are done talking, and I mean it, so make sure whatever you’re going to say is really the last thing you want me to ever acknowledge hearing from you.”
“Fine…” She crossed her forelegs and used her wings to lift entirely off the ground, while an unhappy frown appeared on her muzzle. “Not like I didn’t get used to being ignored as a filly.” With a deep inhale then exhale, she collected herself. “The problem with this whole Jack Taylor the hueman act is the fact you aren’t doing anything different, less maybe, but not different.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure Berry claims she is an otherworldly being all the time.”
“No, but she argues and makes ponies feel bad all the time. The last three times she did something like this she actually changed how she acted.”
“Come on, tell me what I could do to convince you and everyone else I’m a human, aside from inexplicably being able to remember you exist even when you don’t to everyone else, and being able to relive others’ memories just by looking them in the eyes.”
“Wait, you can do what now?” She dropped out of the air onto all four hooves.
“Didn’t I…” I uncrossed my forelegs and abandoned any look I was purposely giving her, while I tried to remember everyone I had told about my eye ability. Due Process, Corona, Redheart, Spike, and Twilight. Didn’t showcase it for Redheart, and wasn’t able to do it with Twilight. “Guess I forgot to mention that to you, though telling and even using it—”
“Was that what happened yesterday when you spaced out on the bench?” Surprise’s interruption was just as unexpected as the question she used to interrupt.
“Yes?” I raised my left brow at her.
She tilted her head at me. “Does that have anything to do with why your hooves stopped making noise, like mine always do, afterward?”
Damn, she is observant when she wants to be. Maybe partially having a little bit of whatever she has is the reason I can see her? “Yes, and it is probably the reason I’m immune to your thing now. I found out I can temporarily copy things from creatures here and apparently gain odd information like apple names, though it never did this when I was human. Are you actually believing me now, or are you just pretending again?” I said, then stood back up on all four.
Surprise closed her eyes and smiled. “I only pretended because you asked me to,” She opened her eyes and made a puzzled look. “which was kinda weird since I thought you weren’t Berry when you walked out of the police station yesterday.”
“What?!” I left my mouth open in disbelief.
“Yeah, you said ‘Now I want to tell you some things and I want you to pretend we have never met before.’, and I’ve been trying to pretend ever since, but you sure haven’t made that easy. Sorry for slipping at Berry’s house after I found out you were immune to my thing, but I thought Berry might’ve found a fix, and was going to taunt me with it instead.”
“I…” The idea of Berry finding a solution to Surprise’s problem and not offering it to her gave me pause, but I cleared my mind of the cruel idea. “What made you think I wasn’t Berry before we even met yesterday?”
“You don’t walk like Berry. She moves with more of sway to her step. Like this.” She turned around and walked further into the tent, with a sway to her rear and tail that almost reminded me of Corona’s this morning, then turned around to face me. “While you walk so perfectly it’s almost mechanical.” Her walk forward was noticeably different in that each step was placed perfectly in front of each other, with little to no sway to her rear, and even went to the point of copying my limp tail. “And that’s the reason I thought you were a robot at first.”
“A robot? At first?!” I knew a lot of nonsense went through Surprise’s head, but she had to be going outside her own reality with this robot idea. “Are you telling me robots exist in your world?”
“I don’t know, but it always pays to pay attention, especially when you are paid to pay attention to ponies paying for things.” Surprise looked around the tent. “Do you think Redheart will send somepony else to replace her here?”
“Probably, and don’t change the subject. Why didn’t you say anything this entire time?” I shot my right foreleg into the air out of frustration. “You knew I was trying to convince ponies I wasn’t Berry!”
Surprise rolled her eyes. “Duh, I had to make sure you weren’t a robot, then I had to make sure you weren’t a changeling. I swear, Jack. It’s like you aren’t listening to a word I’m saying.” she said, and sounded sure of herself and her reasoning.
“That makes no sense! What I was doing nullified any possibility I was some kind of replacement infiltrating your society!” My left foreleg joined my right in the air. “Not that doing that has gotten me anywhere! At this point, I feel like I should’ve badly pretended I was Berry Punch instead!”
She gave me a scrutinizing look. “Are you sure you aren’t from where Discord came from? Maybe you have draconequus where you’re from? Huh, do you think draconequus is like deer, or would it be draconequuses? Draconequi?”
“The first or third! Second might be etymologically correct, but it doesn’t sound…” Why the hell am I shouting about pluralization? Slowly, I lowered both forelegs to the ground, then tried to remember what I had been going on about.
“Aww.” Surprise said, and her disappointment further confused me.
Things need to be simplified here. “Surprise, please answer my next question as straightforward as possible,” I said, but knew I was asking the impossible of her.
“Kay!” The smile with her tongue poking out was less than reassuring.
“Do you believe I am a human?” Regardless of the answer, I would be done with Surprise right then and there for tonight.
She pulled her tongue back into her mouth, then stared into my eyes intently. “If you believe you’re a hueman, then I do too.”
“Great!” The smile I gave her made her smile as well. “Show up at Twilight’s castle at noon tomorrow, so you can back me up alongside Spike since Spike alone is for some reason not enough to convince her. Goodnight.” I said, then turned around and exited the tent.
“Alright, let’s go… Goodnight?! Rainbow Thrash hasn’t played yet!” Surprise said, and began to follow me.
It looked like I would need to ditch her after all.
(0) (0)
Ponies went about their business around us with very little attention paid to the confrontation between Surprise and I. The reason for the lack of attention was probably due to the fact no shouting or violence was being conducted, though a couple vendors looked our way in-between their sales of food and drinks. Between the two of us, Surprise was the only one with the energy to win, but I wasn’t going to let her win easily.
“Come on. Please,” Surprise said, while hovering in front of me.
I tried to go around her, but she blocked the way, as she had several times before. “Surprise… I don’t care about hearing your friend’s band play. Just let me leave,” I said, and was about ready to just lay down on my side, and try silent protest.
“Just stay for one song, then I won’t try to stop you from leaving anymore. I Surprise Swear it.” She went through the hoof gestures, though omitted the words, which I almost cared enough about to bring up, but decided not to.
That promise was enough, and I would hold her to it. “Fine. When are they playing? I feel they should’ve—”
“11 minutes and 22 seconds from now, if they start on time. Yay!” Surprise did a quick flip in the air, then alighted to the ground. “This calls for something to celebrate with.” She looked around for something, seemed to spot it, then disappeared, but it wasn’t the kind of disappearing that made my eyes hurt, and that meant she had to have done that skipping thing instead.
I looked around for any sign of Surprise, but I didn’t spot her anywhere, nor did I notice any spots that strained my eyes. “Huh… I did say I would stay for one song.” The idea of trying to ditch Surprise crossed my mind again, but one song wasn’t asking much of me.
There didn’t seem to be any reason not to look for a nice spot where the stage speakers would be in front of me. I wasn’t going to go anywhere near the massive congregation of creatures currently situated in front of the stage, so that meant I was headed to behind the back of the crowd, which was also conveniently closer to where the park ended and the dirt roads of the village began. Surprise could fly and spot me easily as well, so staying where she had last seen me wasn’t that big of a deal, and I could easily wave her down due to her easily identifiable colors.
As I trotted past ponies, I saw the looks again, though the looks were mostly of the judging or annoyed variety. They might’ve been giving me the looks when I was with Surprise, but the nice thing about Surprise was that she garnered almost all of my attention when she was around. Overall, I didn’t really care what they thought of me at the moment, since by noon tomorrow they would see me for what I really was, and just paid enough attention to avoid them, while they did the same.
Will I become a government coverup once Twilight sees inside my mind? Probably, since everyone apparently thinks it is impossible for things from outside their reality to get into it. Do I get to see inside my mind when she does her magic? What does my so-called mindscape she mentioned even look like? An art gallery? Something more personal like the family house? I probably shouldn’t have even been trying to logic out anything to come, but there were few things to occupy my mind with in the present, and I didn’t want to get my hopes too high by thinking about what I would do when I got home.
In an attempt to take my mind off the possibility of unforeseeable delays in getting home, I paid a general attention to the mix of creatures around me, while continuing my way past the vendors to the fringes of the concert area. Most of the concert goers were gravitating toward to center mass in front of the stage, but a few had taken to the idea of not joining the herd and choosing to lay out on blankets on the outskirts.
The first beings I noticed were a couple of what looked like a male donkey and a female donkey, though they seemed to be an older example of donkeys, and were too interested in each other as I drew nearer to the outskirts of the park to notice me. They were both brown coated, though the female was lighter than the male, and their manes differed greatly from the female having a dark brown mane, while the male had an orange mane, with yellow streaks going through it. The oddity of seeing the new race was short lived, and I paid them no further mind.
Another pair I noticed out of all the pony pairs laid out on the outskirts was one that consisted of an unusually large, red coated, orange maned, earth pony stallion, alongside the rose cutie mark earth pony mare I tried to ask for help earlier in the day. The strange thing about the large red coated pony was that a name came to mind when looking at him, and that name was Big Mac, which was a name I had only heard in that one memory from Fluttershy, but as I adjusted course to go further back I noticed the cutie mark on the stallion was a large green sliced to show the inside of the apple, and felt certain he was who I thought he was.
First I’m naming apples in the Harmony Sphere I’ve never bothered to learn the names of, and now I’m naming ponies I’ve never met? Did I get some knowledge from Fluttershy’s memory that wasn’t directly in it? I let out a sigh as I walked further back past everyone. It doesn’t matter. When I get back home, I can just go back to pretending my ability doesn’t exist, alongside this entire world.
Far in the back, my eyes were drawn to a combination of colors I had seen three times, and they belonged to the very same mare I had been thinking about at that moment. Standing alone, and turned toward the town, was the butter yellow coated, pink maned, butterflies cutie marked, earth pony mare I had learned to be named as Fluttershy. It didn’t take much to guess she was waiting for someone, but I didn’t see thanking her for saving my life to be that much of an intrusion, so I angled my trot straight toward her.
The noise of my hooves made Fluttershy’s ears stand at attention, then she casually looked my way. The sight of confusion appeared on her face, which was no doubt due to the fact she expected me to still be in the hospital. As I came to a halt a next to the red and white checkered picnic blanket she stood on, she turned around to face me entirely. “Berry?” Fluttershy said, and sounded as confused as she looked.
I opened my mouth to inform her of my name, but closed it before I uttered a single word. What’s the point? No need to complicate this beyond the gesture of thanking her. “I see you are waiting on somepony to arrive, so I’ll try to keep this short as possible. Thank you for apparently saving my life from whatever happened to me earlier today, and you have my eternal gratitude for what you did,” I said, sincerely.
She blushed and shirked away from me, which caused a large strand of her mane to fall in front of her left eye completely, then she looked down at the picnic blanket. Her mouth opened to mutter something, though I failed to understand a single word she said. After she finished saying whatever she said, she looked me back in the eye.
“Sorry, I didn’t catch any of that. My ears don’t seem to work properly.” I quickly tilted my head to the right, then the left, which flopped the non-functional ears about. “Could you say that again at the same level you said ‘Berry?’?”
The blush increased, then she looked to the side away from me. “Um… I… just did what anypony else would do…” The mare’s modesty was about the same as her naivety.
“No, I’m pretty sure I would’ve died on that street, with everypony who walked by thinking I was passed out drunk. I’m just lucky you came along when you did since that was when whatever I was suffering through became worse.” My words elicited a look of shock on Fluttershy’s face, and I knew I should’ve chosen my words more carefully. Movement on a dirt road in the town far behind Fluttershy caught my attention, though I couldn’t make out what it was.
She quickly brushed the strand of hair in front of her left eye back behind her left ear, which allowed me to see her horrified wide-eyed stare. “Don’t say such horrible things! Somepony else would’ve helped you!” I wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince me what she was saying was true, or herself.
Diffusing the situation before it got out of hoof needed to be done quickly. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. Look,” I pointed my left forehoof at the figure trotting their way toward us. “I think whoever you were waiting for is coming.”
Fluttershy turned her head to look, and I took that moment to turn around completely, then began to trot away. My pace wasn’t one of outright running away, but I had said my piece, and didn’t want to deal with any new creatures tonight, though the shape of whoever Fluttershy had been waiting on had looked like a pony.
“Berry! Wait!” Fluttershy said, and her shout drew the attention of several of the ponies laid out in the area.
Big Mac made the motions to get up, but the rose cutie mark mare stopped him by placing a forehoof on him and saying something, then he stopped, though he stole glances our way every now and then. No one else seemed particularly interested in us beyond Fluttershy’s shout, and most continued what they were doing before the interruption.
I stopped in place and didn’t bother to turn around. The sound of a set of hooves was heard behind me, and within a moment Fluttershy galloped into view, then stood a few feet in front of me. A tired look was all I could muster in response since tired was what I was of everything.
We stared at each other in an awkward silence for at least a minute before Fluttershy opened her mouth to speak. “I… wanted to talk about… some things.” Fluttershy said, and her meek behavior was beginning to annoy me.
I looked around, then decided that where I stood was good enough. One song was all I was staying for, and hopefully, the band would begin to play before I had to listen to another pony berate me. Surprise was still nowhere in sight, but that hardly mattered due to the fact I hadn’t said I would listen to the music with her. “Say what you want, but leave when the music starts,” I said, and stared at her. If she got too annoying, then I would just see if my ability was back to normal.
“Alright.” She closed her eyes for a couple moments, then reopened them to look me in the eyes. “I was coming to talk to you this morning about your recent behavior concerning Twilight, but now I want to talk about what happened this morning. What happened to you?”
I looked toward the herd in front of the stage for any sign of the band coming on stage, but nothing seemed to be happening there yet. Everyone else laid out in view had forgotten about us, even Big Mac had ceased his glances our way. Depending on Fluttershy’s next few words, I would either be having a pleasant chat, or I would use my ability the same way I used it to convince Spike I wasn’t Berry, though the lack of evil voices would probably lead to the failure of the attempt. “No clue and the hospital couldn’t figure it out either.”
Fluttershy frowned, looked down, seemed to steel herself for whatever she was going to say next, then looked back into my eyes. “Was this morning you being careless, or…” She adjusted her gaze behind me and seemed hesitant to say whatever it was she wanted to say, but seemed to overcome whatever held her back, then returned her gaze to me. “or was that some sort of suicide attempt?”
Anger was what I felt toward this mare. She had the nerve to surpass everyone else’s accusation of lies, alcohol, and drugs, with the idea of suicide. “You don’t know me!” My feelings about suicide were strong from a personal experience.
I gained everyone’s attention with my shout, which spurred Big Mac to stand up and face us, though he didn’t make a move toward us yet as if he were analyzing the situation. I didn’t care if the draft horse-like pony got involved or not, since I could say what I wanted to say to Fluttershy before he could reach us.
“I’m not some emotionally unstable weakling, nor an inconsiderate ass who doesn’t think taking their own life will affect others!” The orange maned donkey stood up and faced us as well, with a disgruntled look on his face, though I didn’t care what I had said to draw his ire. My shouting didn’t seem to affect Fluttershy at all, as she just stood there looking at me and listening. Tears began to collect in the corners of my eyes. “Those that commit suicide should just be forgotten instead of—”
“Hey, Berry!” I heard someone shout behind me, and finally realized I had been hearing the sound of a gallop since my first shout.
I quickly turned to face whoever had the nerve to interrupt me. The who was a light orange earth pony mare, though it took me a moment to notice her actual coat color since a navy blue suit covered her coat from hoof to neckline. Her long pale yellow mane billowed behind her as she galloped straight at me, while her striking green eyes intensified a furious look on her face. The name of this mare popped into my head from seemingly nowhere.
Applejack. I stood and stared at her as she continued to head straight for me. It was like my eyes were drawn to her by some force outside my control. Only one thought occupied my mind, and it wasn’t what I would do when she reached me, nor did it make much sense. What am I missing?
“Applejack! No fighting!” I heard Fluttershy shout behind me in a more authoritative tone than she had used so far, which confirmed my foreign and unexplainable knowledge I had about the apple related ponies, though Applejack didn’t show any signs of stopping.
Applejack closed the distance between us and stopped within inches of our muzzles colliding. “Shut up,” she said, with a refined southern American accent, then quickly turned around. It wasn’t until I saw her back legs tense up that I realized what she was about to do to me, and it rhymed with the word that came to mind upon my realization.
Fuck. With only seconds to react, I brought both forelegs up to protect my face and closed my eyes in preparation of the pain I was about to experience. The feeling of a force of air hitting me from the front was felt, but no pain or contact of any kind came with it. Sounds of something hitting the ground multiple times in front of me came to my attention, so I opened my eyes and lowered my forelegs back to the ground. The sight in front of me was a strange one now.
On the ground, a few feet away laid Applejack, who had her eyes closed in pain and a forehoof to her forehead. There were several scrapes on Applejack’s face red with blood, though none of them bled much, while the navy suit she was wearing had torn in several places. I looked around in front of and behind me for what or who had caused Applejack to end up on the ground, but no sign of anything or anyone beyond me presented itself. Everyone behind me was standing, seemingly in shock and awe at what had happened, while I tried to figure out what had happened.
Does it really matter what happened? I had somehow escaped any physical harm from a pony’s buck and that was the only thing that mattered. All I needed to do was file away whatever I or someone else had done as magic and forget about it.
“Applejack!” I heard Fluttershy shout again, but this time, it was in a more distressed tone. She ran past me toward Applejack, who was attempting to stand and grimacing in pain, then tried to stop her from moving.
The sound of galloping was yet again heard behind me, though I noticed the clip-clopping was much heavier than either Fluttershy’s or Applejack’s had been, which gave me a pretty good idea which pony it was. Upon turning my back to Applejack and Fluttershy, my guess of Big Mac was confirmed, but I noticed something different in his eyes compared to Applejack’s fury, and that difference was fear. I smiled and relaxed my posture since I knew he wasn’t going to attack me.
“Fluttershy! Let me up! Big Mac is gonna get himself hurt!” Applejack said, behind me, and the sounds of struggling followed right after.
“No, and he isn’t,” Fluttershy said, and the certainty in her tone was so absolute it was unsettling how right she was.
The ponies and two donkeys nearby were looking at me, with the same fear I saw in Big Mac’s eyes, though the disturbance I was causing hadn’t reached the attention of the herd in front of the concert stage. The fear made me strangely feel good and in control of the entire situation, which allowed me to realize I could turn this into an opportunity.
Big Mac finished his gallop a few feet away from me and made a gulping motion before opening his mouth. “Le-leave,” he said, though even his deep voice didn’t hide his fear, but bravery was doing something even when you are afraid, and that made me respect him.
“Alright,” I said, very chipperly, which caught him by surprise. “However…” What confusion I had caused him was replaced with fear again. “I would like to say something to everyone here before I do. Is that fine?” I was going to say it anyway, but I was enjoying being polite.
“F-fine.” he said, then backed away in a hurry.
I thought what I was going to say through, then cleared my throat. “Hello, ponies and donkeys of Ponyville! I address you tonight to enlighten you to something you all will undoubtedly enjoy!” Confusion began to spread throughout the crowd. “All of your collective annoyance, disgust, and hatred toward Berry Punch has finally come to fruition! You see, since noon yesterday, I, Jack Taylor, have assumed the role of Berry Punch in your community.
“I have no plans to play the drunkard, nor the pitiful daughter who can’t just accept her parents are dead and move on. Quite honestly, I’m surprised you’ve dealt with her existence for as long as you have. If we could alter the minds of others where I come from like you can here, then we would just reprogram the degenerates of society into more useful beings.” They seemed somewhat horrified by my words, but that was my goal. “Oh! Sorry, I’m getting off topic here, though I bet ‘sorry’ isn’t a word you’ve heard in Berry’s voice for quite some time!
“In closing, I ask you all to rejoice and spread the good news! Berry Punch will be gone for as long as no creature in this world cares she is gone, and from what I’ve learned so far, I doubt even her own sister will object to the alternative I am offering! Thank you, and enjoy the show!” I said, finishing the reverse psychology filled speech, though I truly wondered if anyone would believe my replacement speech, even with the part pretending to be so candid about basically murder.
Nobody said anything, though the crowd was full of different looks that suggested I had at least planted the seed for discussion, which was all I could ask. I moved forward toward the oblivious mass of creatures still waiting on a concert within minutes of starting, if not less. The ponies on the outskirts in my path moved out of the way without a word, and it didn’t take long to move past them into the empty grass field that separated them from the main herd.
I looked back over my left shoulder to see any effect I had on anyone that had heard my speech. Some continued to stare at me, while most couples returned to laying or sitting next to each other. Big Mac had returned to rose cutie mark mare, who was saying a lot more to him than he did to her, and I got the feeling she was enamored with him after the bravery she had witnessed him seemingly commit.
Applejack was now standing, and although I couldn’t hear her, I could tell from the way she was speaking and waving her foreleg in Fluttershy’s direction that she was angry. After a minute, Applejack turned, then walked away. Fluttershy hung her head low, walked back to the spot where her picnic blanket was laid out, then laid down. I felt somewhat bad that I had caused so much with a simple attempt to say thanks.
Turning back toward the main herd, I was met with the sudden sight of Surprise hovering in front of me. The shock of her being there was short lived, and I recollected myself almost instantly. She had an unsure expression and holding what looked like three milkshakes, which going from left to right were colored white, brown, and pink, to her chest with her forelegs. Knowing what I knew of her so far, I was sure she had been hovering just out of sight for some time.
“Well? When did you get back, how much longer till the concert begins,” I pointed my left forehoof at the milkshakes. “and is one of those for me?” Being as direct as possible with her was a necessity by this point.
“Um…” I appreciated that she gave time to answer my questions, but it wasn’t like I was asking her anything that required much thought. “Around the time Fluttershy told you to wait… one minute and 42 seconds from now…” She looked down at the milkshakes within her possession. “Yeah, which flavor do you want?”
“Which do you like the most?” I didn’t care about myself in this situation, but I did see something nice I could do.
“Chocolate is my favorite. Do you want it?” The smile and enthusiasm she showed in offering me her favorite was heartwarming.
“No. Which flavor would Fluttershy like the most?” Will she pick up on what I’m going to ask her to do before I even say it?
“Oh, well, Fluttershy likes vanilla the most out of the big three. Is that the one you want?” She was completely oblivious to where the conversation was going.
“Nah, I’ll take the pink one.” I moved forward, then moved my right forehoof under the pink milkshake since that one was closer to and easier to grab the milkshake with. Surprise released her forelegs’ grip on the milkshake, which allowed me to lower it down to be held atop the hoof. “Could you do something for me?”
“What is it?” She continued to smile and hover in the air.
“Go deliver that vanilla milkshake to Fluttershy and keep her company. I ruined her… date with Applejack?” I didn’t get the feeling their relationship was anything more than sisterly, but I could’ve been wrong. “Are they lesbians?” It was time to see just how blunt I could be with Surprise.
Surprise giggled at my insinuation. “No, they aren’t marefriends.” The amusement she was having about my blunt inquiry was unexpected. “They just usually end up where the couples are because of Applejack’s—” She stopped speaking suddenly and blinked her eyes several times. “Because Applejack and Fluttershy both don’t do well in crowds, but Fluttershy is always trying to get Applejack to socialize more and thinks they should at least be near other ponies.”
What did she omit about Applejack? It was strange how Surprise changed the subject like that but in the grand scheme of things it didn’t really matter. “Please, just go keep Fluttershy company. I need some alone time.”
“You promise to stay for at least one song? I know you didn’t Sur—”
“Surprise, I don’t need some magical promise to keep me to my word. I said I would stay for one song and I meant it. Now then, thank you for this milkshake and tell Fluttershy I’m sorry for the trouble I caused,” I said, and meant it.
She hovered in the air with a blank expression for a few moments, then a pleasant smile formed on her muzzle. “You’re good at being a pony,” she said, then flew past me without another word.
I sat down, then held the milkshake between both forehooves and took a sip through the straw in it. Cherry?
The massive herd a fair distance away erupted in a chorus of cheers, then I heard the sound of a microphone being adjusted.
“Hello, everypony!” A somewhat raspy female said. “Before we start tonight, I would like to thank you all for showing up to see the coolest, awesomest, most radical peg—” The voice stopped suddenly when the mic picked up an incomprehensible shout from someone. “band in all of Equestria! Rainbow Thrash!”
The crowd cheered again even louder than before.
It was nice to just relax and enjoy the moment. Ever since I woke up in this world, it had seemed like I was hitting a brick wall over and over again, though a brick wall wasn’t probably the best analogy for what I had dealt with so far since an actual brick wall seemed like an easy thing to hit with the body I had been given. I couldn’t do anything else tonight, or at least anything constructive to my situation, so enjoying the break was the best thing to do. Nothing could ruin this time alone.
A fast tempo and aggressive music began to play.
“Metal?!” Almost nothing could ruin this time alone.
(0) (0)
As I walked the deserted streets of Ponyville, the sound of the concert distant and incomprehensible, I thought about Rainbow Thrash. I had stayed for more than the one song I promised to Surprise. Initially, it was just to finish the milkshake Surprise had given me, but the band had showcased a unique sound that kept me around.
First, the singer, who was the same female I had heard before the music began, was very passionate and even instilled fear in me with the songs about manticores or changelings. Second, the guitarist was so perfectly in sync with the vocalist I had the feeling the vocalist was also the guitarist, though I hadn’t bothered to find out if that was true. Third, the bassist was passionate, accentuated the guitar and vocals, and was even the driving force in one song. Fourth, the drummer’s drumming was complex and distinct. Lastly and most surprisingly, the band had a keyboardist, which left a mystifying effect on the music.
Overall, Rainbow Thrash wasn’t bad, just outside my taste of music. I probably would’ve bought some of their music for times when I wasn’t in the mood for the usual. Thinking about owning any of their music made me wonder where this world was at technologically, and if the music would be stored on something as old as a vinyl disc or something more magical; not that I hadn’t known a few people in California who thought listening to vinyl was a magical experience in itself.
What had made me leave before the concert was probably even half over was simply the fact I was tired. I just wanted to get back to the closest thing I had to a home, then sleep away the hours that were between me and getting home. All I had to do was show up at Twilight’s castle tomorrow for it all to end.
A strange soft noise from nearby broke me from my thoughts. The sound built up to a hum before receding back down the sound spectrum, then began to build back up again. Searching around me for the source of the sound proved fruitless, but just as I was about to ignore it I noticed a faint pink light radiating onto the ground below.
Looking down, I was met with the culprit of the sound and light, which was the pendant on the necklace I had found in Berry’s saddlebags earlier today, but I noticed something else odd about it as well. The necklace, along with the bow and arrow shaft, remained silver, but the ruby colored heart shaped tip and fletchings had inexplicably turned pink.
The light and sound coming from the pendant were oddly comforting. Why in the world is it doing this now? Heh, isn’t glowing blue, so orcs aren’t— A hard hit to the right side of my head interrupted me from my thoughts and knocked me to the ground. The sound and light my pendant was emitting ceased.
My vision was blurry. The punch, or at least I thought it had been a punch, left me more than in pain; it left me drained to the point I was barely able to move. I had a good guess as to who it was that had attacked me and strained myself with a roll onto my back to see if I was right; I was.
Standing over me, in a pinstripe suit, was Applejack, and had applied several adhesive bandages to her face where there had been scrapes earlier. Anger radiated from her face and stance. “I don’t know how or what you did to take me down in one hit earlier, but you ain’t gonna get so lucky this time!” Applejack said.
I probably should’ve been scared, since I was probably about to be beaten up, but I could barely muster enough energy to move let alone be scared. With great difficulty, I managed to move my left forehoof up to my chest and lifted the pendant into my line of sight. The tip and fletchings of the arrow in the bow of the pendant had gone completely clear. “This is your fault,” I said, and didn’t feel the least bit silly for talking to an inanimate object; I felt that all things should know my disdain for them regardless of their state of animation.
“You brought this on yourself! Now get up!” She kicked me in the side with the side of a forehoof.
The kick made me groan, though something strange happened for a moment. It had been something visual, like one of those subliminal message images flashing by in a video. I couldn’t be sure, though I swore I saw myself, or at least me in Berry’s body, from another angle somehow.
Why couldn’t she just knock me out with that first punch? I looked at her and into her eyes to see if I could escape the initial effects of a beating that way, but I didn’t even feel the faintest sign of my ability. It looked like I was going to have to talk my way out of this; I was as good as beaten up already with my track record in conversations. “Before you hit me again, could you tell me exactly why you are doing it? I wish to avoid repeating any transgressions Berry has committed in the past.” If I was lucky, the droning of my voice would at least dampen her need to inflict violence.
“Ya know what you did, so cut the act and fight me!” Applejack said, then struck me in the stomach with the bottom of a forehoof.
It happened again. Alongside the pain and gasp from me, an additional view appeared for a second, and I knew the perspective had been from Applejack’s point of view. For that brief moment, it was like I had been in two places at once, with two different bodies; the experience was the most disorienting thing I had encountered in this world so far.
Guess I’ll just have to pretend I am Berry. I broke eye contact with Applejack by closing my eyes, then relaxed on my back. “Sorry, I get so blackout drunk sometimes I can’t remember anything. Would you please tell me exactly what I did, so that I can mentally connect the pain you have and are going to inflict upon me to the misdeed? Whatever lesson you are trying to teach me will be lost on me otherwise.” What I said was as close as I thought Berry spoke, or at least what I picked up from the notes in her bedroom and photo memory.
The background noise of the concert was the only sound that filled my hearing for a minute. “Fine,” Applejack said, in an unsettling calm voice. “This,” She struck me in the side hard enough to flip me over onto my stomach. “is for preying on Twilight when she was emotionally vulnerable.”
The perspective shift happened again. It was a lot less disorienting with my own eyes closed, but feeling like I was in two different places at once was still very jarring. I didn’t know what was going on, but a sense of dread overtook me as I watched Applejack calmly take another few steps toward me from her eyes before it cut-out again.
“This,” I felt what could only have been both of her forehooves come down on my back. “is for being callous about suicide.”
Yet again, Applejack’s perspective was added onto my own. I tried to focus on Applejack’s senses over mine, which dulled the pain, but not by much. Trying to rationalize what was happening was futile in this world, so I focused on something more realistic, like the fear Applejack might just kill me. I watched Applejack move over me so that I was in between her legs, move her right forehoof under my right side, turn me over to face her, then opened my own eyes to stare up at Applejack, but felt too weak to say anything. The sight and other senses from Applejack’s body cut-out again.
“And this,” Instead of another attack, she placed both forehooves on my chest. “is for ruining my favorite suit.”
I gasped as I regained Applejack’s senses. I didn’t know what she was doing, other than the fact I was losing my sense of pain and vision in Berry’s body, but I could see from Applejack’s side that Berry’s coat, mane, and eyes dulled as she continued doing whatever it was. The focused look on Applejack’s face told me she wasn’t going to stop.
Applejack! Stop! That strange energy I was feeling earlier is her soul! I heard a new female say, with an unrefined southern American accent, or at least thought I had heard before realizing the words hadn’t been heard through either my or Applejack’s ears.
The colors of Berry’s body continued to fade and I had lost all feeling in it. Applejack was seemingly consumed by anger and didn’t react at all to the distressed voice that she had apparently been in contact with.
Suddenly, a third perspective was added on top of mine and Applejack’s. It was the sight of two hands on the steering wheel of a moving car, but it wasn’t just any pair of hands on any car’s steering wheel, they were both mine. I didn’t have the time to think about how Berry had learned to drive a car in no more than four days, as I noticed Berry’s sight blur, head droop downward, then the car drifting into the oncoming lane and on a collision course with an 18 wheeler truck.
The horror of my situation left me unable to think of anything I could do. I was about to die in one world, while a pony in control of my body was going to get into an almost certainly fatal car crash in another.
You’re gonna kill her, Applejack! Like you killed me! The unknown female said.
Those words broke her out of whatever trance she was in and caused her to take her forehooves off of me, then stumble over her hooves as she distanced herself from me.
Berry’s vision refocused, then she noticed the danger she was in and turned the steering wheel a hard right to avoid the now heavily breaking and horn blowing 18 wheeler. Her attempt to correct her course was too much though and sent her off the road into the snow. After a few tense moments of the car plowing through snow, it stopped. I was safe in one aspect, but I still laid half dead, if not more, on my back in Ponyville.
Applejack’s perspective was focused largely on my breathing, though I saw the color was slowly coming back to my mane and coat.
Applejack! What the hay was going through that cotton-picking mind of your’s?! Not only did you try to start a fight again, but you kept attacking somepony who couldn’t even fight you back, then almost killed them in the process! What part of ‘soul’ made you think it was okay to keep draining her?! Whoever she was, and I was sure it wasn’t any of The Seven, she was livid with Applejack.
Berry had recollected herself and seemingly put figuring out what had happened to her as a secondary problem to the primary one, that she couldn’t reverse back onto the road. “Guess it's time to figure out who to call for stuck cars,” Berry said, then as she was pulling out my phone the perspective cut out.
Tears distorted Applejack’s vision. “I-I don’t know. It was like the in-instant I put both my f-forehooves on her I lost c-control of myself.” Applejack said, then moved a foreleg up to her eyes and wiped her tears on her suit’s sleeve. “I felt that she didn’t m-matter anymore. That e-everything would be b-better without her around.” A sob escaped Applejack’s muzzle. “I’m just a m-monster the E.P.A. should’ve l-locked away in T-Tartarus after I k-killed you as a filly. No, I shouldn’t have even been b-born, then you w-would still be alive.”
I tried to move, but I could barely lift a forehoof; the only help I would get any time soon would be from the same mare that almost killed me only moments ago. My eyelids felt heavy, but I tried my best to stay conscious by paying attention to Applejack and the unnamed female voice.
Applejack, you know how I died wasn’t your fault, so pull yourself together. Should’ve would’ve could’ve never did nothing for nopony. You hurt Berry and now you’re gonna help her to try to make up for what you did to her. She might think of you as a monster after tonight for the rest of her life, there might even be some ponies that get the same idea once what you did gets out, but the only thing that matters is you do the right thing, right here, right now.
More sobs came from Applejack. “Wh-what if I accidentally t-touch her and it hap-happens again? Granny, I couldn’t l-live with t-two deaths to my name. Not even Flut-Fluttershy could talk me out of en-ending things at that point.”
Granny? Applejack’s first use of any name for this female voice didn’t quite fit. The voice I heard sounded fairly young, though there was the possibility she had been a young grandmother, or even that what I had decided was a ghost could alter the sound others heard.
I know, Applejack. One is already too much for you or anypony else to bear alone, but you have your family and friends to help shoulder the weight. Just trust in yourself and you’ll get through this day like every other day up till this point.
“Alright,” Applejack said, then took a step forward. “Just like—” Applejack froze and the perspective from her flickered.
What’s wrong? Why’d you stop?
“A four… no… five-way struggle…” Applejack’s voice had gone monotone and she stared at me blankly.
Applejack? Say something to me!
“Limitless…” Applejack said, then collapsed the ground, while I lost her perspective as well.
It was nice to only be seeing out of my own eyes, though I could’ve done without the growing pain I was feeling as my nervous system regained strength. I didn’t feel good, but I decided I wasn’t going to die tonight, which in a world of magic I was pretty sure I could will to be true. All I needed was a nap, then I would become friends with Applejack by Surprise Swearing not to tell anyone about any of this.
The slow and steady sound of two sets of hooves getting closer to me came to my attention, but whoever they were would have to wait until after my nap.
Tomorrow will be the end. As I felt a pair of forehooves touch me, I lost consciousness.
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You love leaving unanswered questions and cliffhangers, don't you? Good thing I'm a literary masochist.
Nice touch. Most people forget about the sword.
The ironic thing is, with the sheer degree of contrived willful disregard that everyone has shown towards any actual proof he has offered so far, this probably would actually have worked better.
-equi, -equorum, -equis or -equos, depending on grammatical cases that English... actually doesn't have, come to think of it.
God, the edge. That guy just becomes more of a complete cunt every time he opens his mouth. I swear, it's really hard to like anyone in this story.
I love this story! It's so intense. I can't wait for more.
I always think that it's really stupid when people try to write accents, so i appreciate that you didn't. There was a great article about writing Applejack to sound like herself without resorting to made up words, and it was mostly about word choice, Rarity has a distinct accent too, yet people never write hers, so seeing this kind of consistency is refreshing.
7607409
I agree to a certain point, the degree to which characters will go to disbelieve Berry-Jack is amazing and since that generally results in them looking like inflexible assholes they don't come off too well.
Though Berry-Jack is quite self-centered in an odd way as well, as shown most recently in the "I'm the only one who has ever been affected by suicide, so do as I want." scene.
I still think this story is worth reading though.
7607384
Well, I'm glad I've been able to sate your hunger. Hopefully, I don't starve you for too long with my slow writing. Knowing what I'm going to write with certainty may be what helps me write more than other writers, but my actual writing process is still at a novice level.
7607409
Sorry, my inexperience as a writer seems to be showing. I need to get back to reading and pay attention to what makes a likeable character, or actually read something on fiction writing, such as this site's very own guide I've only ever skimmed. At this point though, I'll just have to roll with it, at least until certain events happen,
7608554
Thank you. I promise the intensity will increase next chapter, stabilize at some point in it or the next, begin to build again, then explode at just the right point.
Ah, good. Guess I'll keep it that way and remove the first instance of its use back in chapter three, when I get to it in the proofreading sessions I've decided to conduct on my story, so that future readers will not suffer through some of my earlier grammar choices.
7608902
Thank you for your input and kind words.
My intention when planning and writing the story was at times focused on "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", which is even referenced in the story itself. It was the simple idea that a level headed protagonist human would would end up in Equestria, try to get help, but be constantly stonewalled at every turn. I guess at some point developing it from the initial idea of a rudimentary, mundane, slice-of-life into a dark, alternate-universe, serial drama I lost sight of having likable characters.
If things go as I plan, then Jack and everyone else should become more likeable over time, but only time will tell how capable I am of doing that.
7609023
For what it's worth, there is nothing wrong with that kind of thing so long as it's intentional. You can write a very good story in which nobody is honestly sympathetic, so long as they are unsympathetic for a reason that directly plays into the purpose they fulfill for the story. That it apparently isn't intentional here is what makes it a problem. For what it's worth, though, I'm commenting on it, but I'm not really criticizing it, as such. It's what I've come to expect from the story and the premise of the story itself kind of makes this a necessity - a story in which everyone arbitrarily stonewalls the protagonist and ends up looking good for it is very, very difficult to write.
of
I believe the proper form of this is 'in and of itself'.
It's always a good day when I get an update email for this story. It almost needs the Mystery tag, because every new chapter with weird shit in it gets my curiosity burning more and more.
I'll weigh in and say that I don't think Jack is all that unlikable as a character. He is callous with his words, but not unreasonably so given how his past experiences color his view of the world. Stories where the main character is always nice and reasonable are fun and all, but they get boring after a while. Don't do away with all your characters' flaws.
Yup, Jack is a bit of a train wreck here, and he's lousy at interacting with people. Add to that he's in the body of the most hated pony in town, so it's not surprising that meetings with even nice ponies turn sour. Overall I don't really blame or sympathies with him.
What did make me like him was how he handled the The Seven Sins. He was level-headed, intelligent and witty. That is what made him a likable character. Having an asshole protagonist can also be refreshing, so long as he doesn't abandon common sense.
7609615
Thank you, I'll apply these right away.
7609653
I don't mean to say his unlikeability isn't entirely intentional, but I also feel I may have gone overboard at certain points. Still, a major event is going to happen at the end of this arc that will change him to a degree, which I suppose is true and a given for proper character development and story arc endings.
7609854
Yes, yes it is, though I decided to go with "in itself" instead. Thank you for the corrections.
Yeah, but they aren't the core of the story, so the tag wouldn't apply.
Oh of course, his flaws will never completely disappear, but he is going to go through some things very soon that will change him and those around him.
7609966
Fair enough.
Jack will learn something all too soon. When something evil has no intention of killing you, be afraid of what it does intend to do to you or others, especially when that evil something wants you to work for it afterward.
7610050
Well, I'll be looking forward to where you go with this, then. I haven't seen anything yet that would make me stop reading this, which puts you a fair bit ahead of the majority of people here in the "telling an interesting story" measure of success at writing. Don't take it too harshly when I mention what stuck out to me negatively. I only keep complaining because I'm still invested in what happens.
7609966
Important thing worth mentioning. A protagonist who is interesting to read about and a protagonist who is sympathetic are not necessarily the same thing or even related to each other at all.
7610100
Of course. I just try to take all comments into consideration and hopefully keep them in mind when writing. I'll have to see how well I've been doing that by looking back through them at some point.
7620982 You planted the seed in my mind and now I can't help doing it as well. You have made the grammar touch-up I'm doing to my story so much more fun than it was initially going to be.
This story makes absolutely no sense to me, and I never have any clue what's going on...
...show me more
7629612 Good to hear. I'm intermittently working on the next chapter.
I see you've renamed the chapters... Interesting... Smart move...
7647392 Yeah, the story will look less daunting further down the road full of twists and turns that is my story. Also, I quite like the streamlined look.
7648370 It's too bad in one way though. Personally, I like cryptically named chapter. I still think you should've called the first chapter 'someone poured Jack into this Punch'
I'm just waiting for when everypony finally starts believing Jack, or at least have him interact with someone who isn't Twilight , so we can stop having all these scenes of everybody being jackasses. That and moving the plot along would be nice.
What's got me curious is what's going on with Redheart, something noone else in the comments is thinking about. Is her deal possibly connected to the Sins, or is there something else going on here?
How much HAS Twilight, and everyone else, failed to see before Jack came along? Because let's face it, all these questions and reveals are because of Jack, as an outsider, happening upon some hidden truths of this world.
I'm enjoying this, if you can't tell.
Been quite a bit of time since my dose of Jack Tailor. Please bring this back!
7787615 Yeah, I've been slacking off and ceased to have a schedule of any kind for the past two months. The worst thing is that the entire next chapter is plotted out, but I just haven't made the time to write it. Really, I have everything up to the end of the arc clearly thought out, which is either two or three chapters away counting this next chapter.
As always, I'll try to be a better writer, or actually, a writer in any sense of the word for a change.
7673642
Wow, I missed the notification for this comment. Sorry about that. Shows how much I've been neglecting my story.
Heh, well, the plot will be moving along soon... once I get back into the swing of things, and I can say most of the characters will change how they act toward Jack, though it'll be a less than ideal behavior.
That'll come up again soon, with a reasoning of sorts, though the real reason will not come to light for a bit.
I wouldn't say there are that many things they've failed to see, but the few things they have failed to see will be life changing. Heh, an outsider's perspective can be a powerful thing in its own right.
Thanks. Hopefully my absolute failure to make time to write hasn't destroyed what interest you have/had at the time you posted this. Thought about a blog post saying exactly what's been going on, but ultimately the things going on in my life are my own fault, and what free time I've had was spent playing one video game or another. Any blog post about that stuff would just be whiny and time better spent on my next chapter.
Decided to try setting a personal deadline again, with the initial optimistic deadline for the next chapter being December 21st, and the more realistic deadline for the next chapter as January 3rd. We'll see how that works out.
Jeez, I just realized I started this story on January 3rd over a year ago and haven't even finished the first arc. That realization alone might spur me on more than these deadlines I'm setting for myself, though I'm pretty sure the end of the first arc is three chapters away and I could only realistically get the next chapter written and edited before January 3rd.
7790078 man its fine, I can be patient : 3 at least you haven't abandoned the story or cancelled it
I feel like this deserves a thumbs up just for going to the effort of being non-cryptic about the tags in its description.
7790078 I very much enjoy this story, and I would like to see more. I'm actually about to reread it, as I write this, and would like to know if there is a solid deadline for the next chapter (1.9, 2.1?) yet.
8141586 No, sorry. The next chapter has been sitting at 25% done for a while now. Been doing just about everything except writing pretty much. Been worried somewhat about getting a job and healthcare of some sort, but those still do not explain away the fact I haven't set a time to write daily for the past year.
Hopefully I can at the very least finish the first arc of this story before my days are truly filled with real things taking up my time.
8148075 I understand fully. Writer's block aside, I haven't really felt the will to carry on my own stories due to the slight pressure of college, even though I still have more than enough time to work on them. Well, by them I mean it currently, but still.
Damn, this was honestly a really good story. The world building was superb.
God, I wish this story wasn't dead. I love this type of story where the main character is inserted into a being with a horrid reputation and having to deal with that.
God, this story is so good.