Tales from the Everfree RestStop

by FanboyGamer3E

Chapter 2. Half a pig, no I'm not joking.

HELLO PONIES OF THE INTERNET. Bright Eyes here, just like I told you. By the way, feel free to call me Bright. Everypony else does, mostly because it's my preferred name. So then, first off, here's everything you need to know before I continue. A couple decades ago, before the invention of trains, Ponies used a road to get from Canterlot to Ponyville, and that road just happened to cut through the densest, and strangest part of the Everfree forest, an area known as Discord's Dartboard.

A couple years after the road was built, a Pony who's name I honestly do not know, got it in his head to build a RestStop at the halfway point in the road equal distances from both Canterlot and Ponyville. Both the road and the RestStop are still operational to this day and get a moderate amount of service. Which is where I come in.

I work as a cashier at the RestStop. I'm a light gray Unicorn stallion, with a rare case of Chronic Insomnia, which not even the power of FOUR Alicorn princesses can cure, as such I am unable to fall asleep, EVER. This makes me perfect for this Job since the store is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and sometimes longer. If you were to go inside you'd probably see me sitting behind the front desk, doing my best to just mind my own business, I'm real. You may also see somepony else, or someTHING else, if you are curious about the reality of anypony, or anything else, including yourself while inside that small ammonia scented flickering fluorescent collection of off-brand junk food, dirt, four walls, and a roof, may I recommend that you follow my lead, and mind your own business, you will be saner than you would have been if you tried to investigate the anomaly that is that place. Believe me I know. I've been working at that RestStop almost non-stop for three years, and at this point I doubt that I could quit even if I wanted to. But enough about me, let's get back to the interesting things that happen at the RestStop.

I spent a decent amount of time yesterday at the start of my shift, after I made the first post here, trying to decide which story would be worthy of being my first to document to the world, then anytime I tell somepony outside the RestStop anything about what happened there in, I know what to expect. Ponies don't believe it, or the just don't WANT to believe it, I mean imagine the difficulty that "I" had trying to call the sheriff's station in the outlier district of Canterlot, to explain that half a pig broke into the store and is currently running amuck, breaking things, and screaming with the voice of a Banshee.

Here's how the conversation would have looked like to an outside party. "Yeah, I meant "half a pig." Yes a pig, the front half, no this isn't a joke, I'm at the RestStop. What do you mean "Which RestStop?" the shitty one in the middle of the Everfree, you must be new, can I please talk to somepony else?" That's when she finally put me through to Blue Star. Blue Star or Blue as we call him, being the sheriff's deputy, the one that in his words "Drew the short straw" all those years ago and had to come out to the RestStop for the first time back before his hair was all white, now this doesn't mean he's old from what I can tell he's middle aged Unicorn, around 35 to 40 years old, now don't hold me to that I'm just spitballing here, although if his hair wasn't white already I'd expect it be turning grey in some areas, I don't know how his hair turned white but apparently it happened before I started working here. But enough about that let's get back to the Pig.

You see Blue's been in enough times know that all I have to say when he picks up the line is "It's half a pig, it won't stop screaming, and I can't catch it." Then he grunts, mutters something about it being "Pretty frickin weird," then comes out here to help me catch the thing, but Blue's a good guy. Anyway I asked around, but nopony knew where the pig had come from. I should have probably mention that this was back when Farmer Brown was still alive. He came down to take a look and provide his expert opinion. According to Farmer, the pig had somehow been chopped down the middle, but miraculously none of the important organs like the Kidneys and Spleen where hit, nothing supernatural about it just really unusual. Afterwards the pig stayed at the local elementary school as part of the mascot for the summer a scientist and his team from Canterlot Proper offered the school a thousand bits to let them take it, for science I suppose.

Anyway I don't mean to ramble, but my point is that it's hard to believe some of these stories if you haven't been inside the RestStop at least once, maybe you have. I mean we're the only RestStop I know of in the Everfree forest, the road we're on connects two cities where Royalty live, If you ever been traveling from point A to point B, and didn't take the train there, it's not impossible that at least one pony reading this has found themselves at my door. Maybe looking to get some snacks, maybe to make a call, If you have a strange memory of a weird place that somehow doesn't seem to fit with the rest of your memories, then there's a chance we've actually met. Although I wouldn't know your name or remember your face since as I stated in my last entry, I'm not entirely sure whether or not everypony who walks through those doors is real or not.

Anyway back to last night, I was sitting behind the counter with a pen and a book of note paper we usually use for receipts, trying to remember the strangest thing that had happened to me, that still falls within the realm of believability. I'm had plenty of things that happened to me that was strange, but are so unbelievable I won't even waste anypony's time ever trying to tell them. I call those the "Try'n'Forget" stories. I was trying to pick out a story that would be good here when one of the part-timers, a Changeling named BugSpray, interrupted my concentration. Here at the RestStop we have a long list of part-time employees. The Boss likes to hire transients, drifters, hitchhikers, passers-by, and runaways. Ponies looking for a few days of work, and can be easily replaced. He has a little shack for them to stay in out back, it has four bunks, four dressers, a wood burning oven, a fire extinguisher incase of fire, and an axe for chopping wood, or incase something tries to break in. I try not to get to know the part-timers since they're only there for a few days or weeks, never really long enough to form any lasting or meaningful friendship unless your super clingy.

Anyway back to BugSpray. BugSpray's been working here for almost a year now, he started it as a prison work relief program, apparently he was a part of Queen Chrysalis's army that attacked Canterlot, he unloaded wagons twice a week, he was also the only one of the 12 prisoners that didn't straight up disappear during a freak snowstorm last winter. Granted the other prisoners where all Minotaurs and Griffins, but I still respected him for it. BugSpray served his time, and when he was released, he came to work here, cleaning the store and unloading wagons, he comes in six times a day for each of his 30 minute shifts. Actually now that I think about it, I'm not exactly sure what he does during those shifts, the store's never clean and supply wagons only come twice a week exclusively during the daytime hours, as per an arrangement following the incident, maybe one of these day I'll actually ask BugSpray what he does for the Boss. Anyway all I know is that he's the closest thing to a friend I have here, and when he approached me at my register last night I knew something unusual was going on, he was sweating bullets, as pale as his insect like carapace would let him get, and was on the verge of passing out, he kept glancing back at this Pony in a suit that had wandered into the store and was standing next to the frozen drink machine. BugSpray told me that he needed to talk to me NOW. I told him to go ahead, but he refused to say anything unless I followed him into the freezer. I usually hate to leave the front of the store unwatched, like any store we have the occasional shoplifter, plus there was that one time Rocco got in and made off with a jumbo sized bag of chips and two cases of cigarettes, but BugSpray seemed serious, so I made an exception for him and once with were in the sub freezing safety of the walk-in cooler, BugSpray asked me if I had seen the guy in the suit, I said "Yeah I saw him."

He asked me if I knew the guy and I said "Yeah I'd seen the guy around town." his name was Stone Pillar or as some people call him Pillar, he was a dark grey Earth Pony with a Black mane, and he was running for some kind of office, I can't remember which one, but he'd stop by the RestStop every now and then, he drove a big black horseless carriage that somepony named Mustang Steel had invented, which was powered my something called Bio-deasel, which from my understanding was a mixture of boiled vegetable oil and coffee grounds. I didn't know that much about him from in Canterlot, but he was definitely a local, I remember that his picture was framed in my highschool's trophy case for one of those sports competitions that he had won years and years ago before I got there, Canterlot has a lot of things to be proud of but I knew of Pillar. We weren't exactly acquaintances but we still talked to each other sometimes, about the weather schedules and stuff like that.

I told all of this to BugSpray, who shook his head and said, "No, no that can't be Pillar."

I asked,"Why not?"

BugSpray told me, "That can't be Pillar, because Pillar's dead, I killed him two days ago. His body's in my dresser back in the cabin right now."

That's where things started getting weird. I really don't want to do this, I realize how awful it is to pause a story at a place like this and I was only just now taking my lunch break and was down at my house near the Canterlot side of the Everfree to document the last things before I forgot. I still have to eat, change out of this dirt covered uniform, did a lot of digging last night, plus I don't want to leave the part timer alone with all those lawn gnomes until we figure out what's going on with them. Oh shit, I forgot to mention the lawn gnomes. Okay so I'm so scatterbrained right now, like I said it was a very strange night, between the Hoof Plants, farmer Jr. no relation to Farmer Brown, and that friendly cultist that wouldn't leave me alone, I've hardly had any time to collect my thoughts, and of course the BugSpray and Pillar situation, I promise I'll come back and tell you all about it. But first I'm gonna grab some donuts.