A Fresh Start: Tales of an Equestrian Ranger

by TheAndyMac

Chapter 4

I lay still for a long time, enjoying the silence and watching the darkness of night give way to a slow sunrise. As the barn grew steadily brighter around me I found my thoughts drifting. Thoughts of my friends, of my strange situation, of the princess who had walked into my dreams, and I couldn't make head nor tail of anything.

My...outburst the night before had done me some good. The obvious sorrows had been mostly purged, and I wasn't likely to break down into tears any time soon. But the loss of an entire life still lingered deeper inside. It was like I was carrying a lead weight in my chest, weighing me down. Every time I thought back on everything I'd left behind, the weight would shift slightly, just enough to remind me of its presence.

In spite of that, I looked forward with something almost like hope. Applejack had seemed confident that I might find what I was looking for here, and a land without war seemed like the perfect place to settle and leave the cares of another life behind me. My only wish would've been that I didn't have to face a new life alone.

It was strange, to be crushed and uplifted at the same time. I had to remind myself that I hadn't even spent a full day here. I had yet to even meet Princess Celestia, and if she was powerful enough to raise the Sun, then she might well be powerful enough to send me back.

Just as the Sun was dragging itself (or being dragged) completely over the horizon, I heard the steady beat of hooves that I was beginning to recognise as Applejack's tread. Sure enough, she pushed through the doors, bringing a bowl with her.

"Ranger? You up?"

I swung my legs over the side of the makeshift bed and sat up.

"Have been for a while."

"Couldn't sleep?" she asked, cocking her head a little. When I didn't answer, she gave a small shrug and trotted over, holding her head so the bowl balanced on top of it was in easy reach. "Made you some breakfast."

Nodding, I took the warm bowl in one hand.

"Thank you."

I glanced down at the bowl, and almost laughed to see it filled with thick porridge. Though it was served with nowhere near enough milk, it still made me smile fondly. It was a staple food in the North, though it wasn't a dish seen much south of my country; the 'civilised' people of the Drijian preferred gruel, looking down on oats. In fact, one story that Azrael told me was of a noble who nearly caused a war when he turned his nose up at the dish, saying, "Oats are the food of horses; only in the North would they support the people".

He would finish the story by musing quietly, "Where else would you see such horses and such men?"

Such horses indeed, I though, thinking back on Big Mac.

As I was eating, Applejack summed up the day's plan.

"We'll have'ta see Twilight, check and see if the Princess wrote back yet. Well, I'll have'ta see her. Probably best if we didn't take you into town; wouldn't want to scare somepony."

Of course, hide the scary monster from the innocent townsfolk. I rolled my eyes. As different as things were, somehow they could be exactly the same in a few key places. Shove something new and unexpected in the mix, and you've struck a spark in a pile of dry kindling. Idly, I wondered how much worse things could be with ponies instead of people. Horses were naturally skittish beasts. Bang a drum too loud, and if your horse was poorly trained, it would be off like a rocket.

So far these ponies had been calmer than you'd expect, given the circumstances, but so far my 'visit' had been the equivalent of striking a spark against a single twig. The town was more like a set bonfire, and I wondered how big a spark it would take to send the whole thing up in flames.

A tall, man-shaped spark might just do the trick.

In the meantime, Applejack was still talking, although it was more like she was thinking out loud at this point.

"I s'pose you might want to get some proper clothes sorted out, if'n you ain't wantin' to wander around wearin' a piece of sackcloth all day."

"Where would I get clothes to fit me?" I said, spooning up the last of the porridge.

She looked me up and down, tapping her chin with a hoof. "Well, it'll hafta be somethin' custom made, that's for sure. Rarity might be able to whip somethin' for for you, if she ain't too busy."

"That'd be nice, but I don't exactly have a lot of coin on me."

She chuckled and waved a hoof dismissively. "Don't you worry none about that. Once she lays eyes one what you're wearin' she'll probably try an' force it on you for free. An' if she doesn't?"

She gave me a thoughtful look. "You could probably help out on the farm for a few days, earn yourself some bits the honest way."

"You trust me enough to do that?"

"I'll admit, I'm a little leery 'bout what you said last night, but you ain't done anythin' that tells me I can't trust you. So long as the Princess gives you the okay, an' you stay on my right side, I don't see any harm lettin' you do some honest work. 'Sides, we could always do with an extra hoof 'round here."

I gave her a generic thank you, noting that, just like last night, she only mentioned one princess. Idly, I wondered if it was some sort of taboo to mention the nighttime guardian. Or maybe she had just been a particularly odd dream, though I doubted I had it in me to call something like her up out of nowhere.

I was about to say something to Applejack on the matter, when the air became thick with the metal scent of magics.

There was barely enough time to notice it. Less than half a second after it filled the barn there was a flash, a whipcrack and a slight rush of wind, and Twilight Sparkle stood in the centre of the barn, head turning this way and that.

I shot to my feet, dropping the empty porridge bowl. In all my years, and despite all the strange wonders I'd seen, this was the most shocking. Beside me, Applejack jumped a little but immediately scowled at the mess of broken pottery at my feet.

Twilight, meanwhile, was growing ever more frantic by the second.

"Ranger?" she called, catching sight of me. Her mane was wild, her movements panicky. "We may have a bit of a problem."

"Woah, Sugarcube, take a deep breath and calm down, 'fore you blow a gasket!"

Twilight fell back onto her haunches and gasped like a drowning man breaking the water's surface. I watched with no small amount of concern, but after a few seconds she took a single, calming breath and let it out slowly.

"That's better. Now, why don't you tell us what's got you in such a twist?"

She looked over at me, smoothing out her mane with a shaky hoof.

"Princess Celestia sent a letter a few minutes ago. She's summoned you to Canterlot Castle, and there's a chariot arriving at eleven o' clock to pick us up."

Applejack blinked.

"Aw, horseapples! We're supposed to get him ready fer a royal meetin' by eleven? Now how in the world are we supposed to do that?"

"It can't be that difficult, right? All we need to do is let him get washed, and give him some pointers on appropriate behaviour."

"And get him an outfit sorted," added Applejack.

All Twilight could do was respond with a confused, "...huh?"

Applejack sighed. "Or were you gonna march him up in front of the Princess wearin' a bit of old sackcloth?"

"Can't you just do without?" she asked, looking back at me, panic starting to well up again in her eyes. "The Princess wouldn't mind you not having an outfit."

I fixed her with a hard, serious look. "I'm not going in front of any princess, in any world, naked."

One of the few advantages of having a dead eye is that it makes your glares that much more intimidating. Twilight quailed under my gaze, shirking back a little before recovering herself and taking a bolder step forward.

"Fine. AJ, would you run into town and bring Rarity? I need to talk to our friend here."

We watched Applejack go, grumbling as she went, before Twilight turned back to me. The panic in her eyes was steadily morphing in to an irritated, but determined scowl.

"I'll let you be stubborn about this, but you'd better be on your best behaviour when we meet the Princess," she hissed. "And if you make me tardy, I swear I'm turning your head into an orange!"

Good gods above. That irritated scowl was rapidly turning into something much, much more. I swallowed nervously.

"You can do that?"

"Given time and the inclination, I can do a lot more," she said with a surprisingly vicious smile.

Once she'd gotten past that initial fear, and stopped asking so many damn questions, it seemed Twilight Sparkle could be quite the terror when she chose to be. Were it not for the events of the night before I might have been defenceless before her. But I guessed I had something I thought might be able to turn the tables on her.

"So, Twilight, why didn't you tell me about Princess Luna?"

As I watched, an impressive range of expressions ran over Twilight's face in a very short space of time. The irritation drained away to be replaced by shock, then confusion, realisation, and finally guilt. I cheered to myself, partly because it seemed my guess had paid off, and partly because I was glad to know that I wasn't mad. Luna was real, after all.

"I take it you had a night time visitor," said Twilight. She was already shifting uncertainly. It was amazing how she could go from angry to contrite in such a sort space of time.

"You could say that," I said shortly. "Not exactly how I'd have chosen to find out that there's a princess who can dream-walk."

"I know, I'm sorry," she said, shuffling on her hooves with her face turned down. "But I was just so excited that I didn't think."

"And as much as I hate to pile this on you, it would've been nice if you'd mentioned that they have horns and wings. I thought you said there were only three races."

"Oh, well technically that's true."

She wasn't fooling me, and we both knew it, but she pushed on regardless. "It's not like they're a separate race, more like they're all three in one. Pegasus wings, earth pony strength, and unicorn magic. It's the only way to have a completely unbiased rule. Pre-Discordian leaderships were either heavily biased towards their particular race, or else had to be made up of a ruling council of three, and that tended to make it harder to rule with all three races disagreeing over everything."

She looked like she was set to go on, and I might have been happy to simply tune her out and let her go on until she ran out of breath, but we had things to do. I held up a hand, cutting her off and drawing her attention back to me.

"If you're so worried about being tardy, maybe we should get started."

"Right, of course. Well, to start with..."

She gave me a look over and sniffed gently. "I think we might want to start with a shower."

A shower? I blinked a few times, trying to make sense of that.

"What does rain have to do with anything."

It was Twilight's turn to act confused.

"You don't have showers on your world?"

"We have showers of rain. Light rain, that is. I assume you're not talking about that?"

"No, I'm... Well, it might be easier to show you. Here, grab my mane."

...what?

Fighting back the knowledge that I was about to look extremely foolish, I reached out with one hand and grasped a handful of Twilight's mane, firmly but taking care not to pull too hard. The strands of hair, far from being course and dirty as I had expected, were sleek and smooth in my hand. I took a cautious, subtle sniff, and suddenly that oddness of the smells around me made perfect sense. But before I could think on it, Twilight was looking up at me with an odd smile.

"You might want to take a deep breath."

I did, if only to ask why.

There was a spark of purple light, and the world went away.

For something less than a part of a second I think I didn't exist. It wasn't a very nice feeling.

Then the world reappeared with another bright spark, and we were standing somewhere else.

My mouth was still open, about to ask why I needed to take a deep breath. All that emerged was a dry, creaking sound as a lungful of air escaped in a horrified rush. The world was spinning crazily around me. The sudden change of location, the moment of non-existence, the blinding sparks of magic... I staggered away from Twilight, slumping against a nearby wall. I could feel the grain of the wood beneath fingertips that were overly sensitive.

After a few moments catching my breath I was able to gasp out, "What was that?"

"Teleportation spell," replied Twilight. "It moves the caster instantly from one location to another. Are you all right?"

She was eyeing me with concern and made a move to help support me, but gestured to her that I was fine. "I probably should have warned you that I was about to do that."

"No, it's fine. I've been through worse. You just caught me off guard."

I took one last deep breath and pushed myself away from the wall. "Where did you take us, then?"

"My home. The Ponyville library."

She flicked her head for me to follow. "Come on, I'll show you the shower."

As I followed Twilight I took the opportunity to cast my eyes around the library. We were walking on a wide, circular balcony that looked down on what I assumed was the main level below. Bookshelves covered a circular wall, looking as though they'd been carved right into the wood. Scattered here and there were tables and soft looking chairs, and a few doors leading out to other rooms. It had a very rough, homespun feel to it. Not at all like the vast, stone-floored libraries I'd seen in the larger cities on the Drijian. No, this was the type of library a village or town might have had, if they ever had libraries.

Through open windows I saw a few thatched cottages and a well tended, paved road. This was Ponyville, then. Quiet at this hour. Ahead of me, Twilight was pushing a door open with her magic.

"We have to be quick, so just get in the bath, use the handle on the left to turn it on, handle on the right controls the temperature, soap is in the rack. Don't take too long."

With that she stepped behind me, butted me through the door, and slammed it shut behind me.

I was left looking at one of the oddest rooms I'd been in yet. Most of the features were recognisable, but looked bizarre. There was a basin to one side, and a bath against the other wall, but both seemed to be made of pure white stone, rather than the wood or copper I was expecting. Above the bath stood a long, metal pipe with a strange device at the top. Below that were two handles. Recalling what Twilight said, I reached out and twisted the left-most one.

About five minutes later, soaked to the skin and glowing faintly red, I pulled a towel from a nearby rail and stood in front of the sink, drying myself. The name 'shower' was surprisingly apt, even if real showers weren't so damned hot. Or so cold, unless you had the misfortune to be caught in a rainstorm north of the border. Nor were they so liable to change temperature when you least expected it. At least it had settled on one towards the end, even if it was 'scaldingly hot'. The little room was still filled with curls of steam, and the mirror above the sink was covered in a layer of fog.

Like most of this house, everything in this room was built for a pony who stood no more than two-thirds my height. Washing under the shower had been tricky, and I would have been thankful for something to make the task easier, but the so-called soap I had found in a bottle on the rack was so flowery I had decided it was worth the extra effort just to avoid covering myself in it.

There was a loud clop of hooves against the door, and Twilight's voice sounded from the other side, telling me to hurry up and finish. I rolled my eyes, but quickly towelled off and tied my sack back around my waist. As much as I hate to admit it, I was worried I might take too long and wake up somewhere with a fruit for a head.

"How often do you use this shower?" I asked as I emerged out into the library amidst clouds of steam.

Twilight let out a quiet, irritated sigh, but answered nonetheless.

"Every morning. More, if I need to. Why?"

I nodded, speaking more to myself than to her.

"I thought something smelled wrong. Too clean."

"Ex...cuse me?"

Thankfully, there was more confusion than irritation in her tone now, but I realised I might have been setting myself up for a fall.

"I just mean, uh, that it smells very clean here. There are none of the normal scents for a town. Especially for a town full of horses. I would have thought there would have... been..."

I trailed off, suddenly aware of a cold glare boring into me. That would be the irritation. "No offence meant, it's just... People don't wash much where I'm from. And they don't wash their horses very much, either. It leaves a funk in the air, and I'm not used to it not being there."

Damnit, why was I so nervous around her all of a sudden? She's a talking pony whose shoulder is barely past your waist! Start acting like a man!

Then again, she was also a mage. It was healthy to fear a mage; they could do unspeakable things to a man. And if Twilight was anything like mages I'd known before, then I definitely didn't want to offend or anger her too badly.

So I gave a sigh, and held my hands up in contrite surrender. "I'm not trying to insult you. You don't smell bad. You smell... very flowery. Like that soap."

For a few seconds her gaze held firm, but then she chuckled lightly and shook her head.

"That hole you're digging is just getting deeper. Come on, we should get back to the barn. If I know Rarity, we've only got a minute before she arrives."

A minute. I didn't know how far we were from Sweet Apple Acres, but I could guess how Twilight planned to be back before anyone else. With another soft sigh, I took hold of her mane and braced myself.

Comments

[TheAndyMac]

2269377

You know, that's an excellent point. Funnily enough, I was considering how relations with other species might affect how ponies viewed a visiting human, but clearly this case slipped by

Nevermind, I'll have to think harder next time.