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by Sleestack

Canterlot

He was somewhat surprised by the town, somewhat not.

How could horses build houses? Oh, they probably have one’s with marks of like, buildings or something. And horns let you pick stuff up. I guess it’s not that hard to imagine. I guess.

The sun had barely come out of the sky, and shadows were starting to get shorter. As the two of them carried on, more and more of the creatures came out and were walking around. His natural impulse was to run. He expected them all to attack him, like white blood cells. He thought eventually, they would all realize that he was an unnatural obstruction to their world, and they would all gather up on him and tear him limb from limb and bury his parts underneath a statue or something and move on with their lives. But no one seemed to mind him there.
He kept expecting them all to stare at him. There was a few times some of them would attempt to make eye contact, exchange a hello, and a few times some of them even tried to initiate a conversation.

“Hey there, youngsters!” one standing outside of a shop called out. Of course, Rose stopped.

“Hello!” she said. “How are you today?”

“Well, I’m doing just fine, thanks for asking. Can I interest you two in-”

“No. We’re all out of money.” Trip interrupted. “And besides, we have somewhere we need to be.”

“Oh, well, I’m sorry to have-”

“Yes. You should be. C’mon.” As he walked on, Rose caught up to him.

“Why were you so mean to him? He was just trying to be nice.”

“Because one, I don’t have have any money. Two, we have somewhere to be.” He turned around and made a surprised face. “Wait, didn’t I already say that? Wow! Maybe, if you started actually paying attention, you could answer your questions for yourself.”

“Okay! Gee, are you this mean all the time?”

Trip sighed. “No, I just get like this when I’m stressed out. Sorry, sorry. But really, I don’t think we should talk to anyone. People might start suspecting something’s off about me if they get too good of a look at me.”

“What would be so bad about that?”

Trip stopped in his tracks. “Because, um...” That question really put a halt to all his other thoughts. “Because we don’t know how they’d react if they learned where I’m from.”

Rose tilted her head. “Why, is there something bad about Maryland?”

“Well, kinda. It’s hard to explain, though. A lot of them wouldn’t get it. There might be a big uproar, and to me, that seems like a big waste of time I don’t think we have.”

She looked confused. “Why? What do we have to get done? And by what time?”

Trip looked away, unsure. “I don’t know. There’s usually a time limit on these things, from what I remember.” He looked at her again, with an urgent look on his face. “Eventually, I might not be able to go back.”

“To Maryland? Why?”

“I might end up having to stay like this.” He thought to himself, If she says “why” one more time...

Mercifully avoiding that word, “Like what? What’s wrong with you?”

He continued walking. “Like I said. It’s hard to explain.”

Rose ran in front of him and turned her body. “Well, try.” she said, authority in her voice. “Is there something you need help with? Or did you do something bad?”

He rolled his eyes. “No, it’s just... look! I’ve said enough times. I can’t explain it to you. It’s starting to get old.” From the look on her face, he could see she obviously wasn’t pleased with this answer. “All you need to know is that I’m not on the run from the law, and I’m not from anywhere you’ve ever heard of.”

She stared into his eyes. It kind of made him feel uncomfortable. “You promise?” was all she had to say.

He was taken back by that. “What? Yeah! Trust me, I’m too much of a coward to commit any type of serious crime. I couldn’t hurt a fly.”

“You’ve already hurt my feelings, and probably that pony over there’s!”

“I couldn’t hurt a fly physically. Emotionally is another story.”

She kept her stern look, and sighed. “Fine. I guess I could believe that.”

“Good. Thanks. Thank you.” Trip continued walking. “Now, I have a problem. Where do you go when you have a problem around here?”

“Well, if your problem is serious enough, you’d go to Princess Cel-”

“Which we’re not doing, remember?”

“Okay. Besides, I don’t think your problem is that bad anyway. We could also go to the Royal Archives, if you really don’t want to talk to anypony.”

“Wait, yeah. That’s like the library around here, isn’t it?” Trip’s eyes widened. “And it’s probably got a lot of stuff about magic and sh-stuff. Would there be anything on curses or something?”

Rose contemplated the question. “If there was anywhere you could find something on curses, it would be there. Why? Do you really think you’re cursed?”

“It’s the most logical explanation. And that’s saying something.”

She chuckled at that. “I couldn’t think of anyone who’d want to curse you,” She said, sarcasm in her voice.

“Ha ha.” Trip responded, with equal amounts of sarcasm. “So, do you think you’ll be able to show me to this Archive?”

“Yep, it’s a huge tower and a bunch of buildings. There’s no way you’d be able to miss it.”

“Okay. Well, could you still show me how to get there?”

“Yes! Just follow me!”

The entrance had a few of them standing there, guarding. “Great.” said Trip, as he and Rose stood behind one of the houses across the street from the Archive. “Now we’re gonna have to figure out a way past the guards.”

“Really? I’m sure they’d just let us in, if we asked.” said Rose.

“We can’t let them know I’m here, remember?” He kept his eyes on the guards. “I don’t want to stir up any unnecessary trouble.”

“I don’t think it would cause any trouble at all.”

“Still, I don’t want to take any chances. I think maybe, if you make a distraction, I’d be able to sneak past them. Stuff like that always works in cartoons.” He waited for Rose’s response. But when he turned to where he remembered her standing, she wasn’t there. Then he looked back and saw her talking with the guards.

“Hello gentlemen, I was wondering if we could have access to the Archives?”

“Rose, no, what are you doing!?” Trip whispered to himself.

The guards looked at each other. “For what reason?” One of them asked her.

“Oh, I was just trying to grow a garden, and I was wondering if there was any type of magic I could use to make my flowers grow in more colorful. They’re looking very pale.”
The guards looked at each other again.
“You’ll want the Botanical section, but that’s on the other side of the Archives. You may pass.” said the guard on her right.
“Thank you gentlemen. Oh, and I have a friend who's with me.” She turned around. “Trip! They said yes! Move along, mister!”

Trip couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed. Ponies really were as stupid as he thought. “Come on! We don’t want to make these guards impatient.” Trip stepped out from behind the house. Rose turned to one of the guards. “He’s helping me with my garden. He’s a little embarrassed to admit that he finds an interest in it.”

Trip made his way up to the entrance. Still wide-eyed, he nodded to them. “Gentlemen.”
he said as he walked past them. “Or, gentleponies, I mean.”

The guards watched with a perplexed look as he walked past. “Um,” one of them remarked. “That’s a rather interesting cutie mark you have there, sir.”

“Thanks.” Trip said, not looking back. “My mother picked it out for me.”

No response from the guards to that one.

Comments

[spritefan10]

I'd have to admit, I actually laughed at those last few sentences.

[Halo Prime]

(golf claps for Trip)