Waking up as something different should shock people, it should make you scream and cry out in agony. A human one night, a pony the other. Things seemed bleak for Samantha, for about a second. She was an adult pony and it was time to have some fun.
Waking up as something different should shock people, it should make you scream and cry out in agony. A human one night, a pony the other. Except for Samantha. How long can she trick the residents of Ponyville that she is a normal pony? How long would it take a care free town to realize something is up with the new pony in town? Considering all the crazy folk that live there... they may never notice a thing.
Her face felt funny. Although considering it always felt funny when waking up so it wasn’t too concerning. Groggy was a new word she had learned recently and she certainly felt it. She tested her ears for a second and they felt off, that was a new one though. It wasn’t as if she was in some form of discomfort up there, but they felt three sizes too big, like something was hanging on them. She cracked open one of her eyes and in a second all manner of senses came flooding back to her, but none was as powerful as sight.
“Ah!” She shielded her eyes but shutting them tight. Why is it so bright? She felt around for a second. Why do I feel dirt…? This time she carefully cracked open her eyes and found that she was lying on a dirt path, she couldn’t see much from where she lay so attempted to get up. This caused her to stumble back and smack her head into the ground. “Ow… what the… oh…”
She had dared to look back at her body, then she screamed. The scream lasted for around a minute before it slowly died down when something came to her, probably the most important thing all morning.
“I’m a pony…”
It was odd to say. Most girls would simply cry and call for their mommies. Most girls would freak and try to wake up from a nightmare they were having. Some may even think a prank had been played on them from a certain nuisance named Billy. While she almost did these things, she simply didn’t feel like it at the moment.
“This… is awesome!” It took the girl several minutes minutes to figure out how to walk again. It was agonizing, because it wasted precious time being a pony! Who knows how long it would last? She had to show off to Billy, or Mike, or someone she knew! They had always said that ponies we’re stupid, but a talking one might just change their minds!
“Now then… where the heck is my room?” It wasn’t as though she had hoped to find her room outside, near a bunch of wooden fences, dirt pathways, trees, grass and mother nature itself. But she did hope to find the building that contained her room, or people, or something. She walked for a bit, still feeling odd on four hooves, but found nothing of use. “Great…I turn into a pony and can’t even find people to show! This sucks.”
She started walking, feeling the sun warm over her coat. It felt good and did it helped wake her up which only increased her senses. “I’m hungry.” With hunger came annoyance, annoyance that she couldn’t simply walk downstairs and make a bowl of cereal. “This sucks…”
Eventually she got bored and started to drag her hooves into the dirt a bit. She couldn’t turn on the TV or go read a book or something, it was dull. “This suuuuu- woah!”
She had accidentally bumped into someone, not paying attention to where she was going at all. Her head felt dizzy for a moment before she shook it and sighed. “Sorry I...uh…” “No problem. Say… are you new in town?”
It was a pony who was speaking, not a girl like her but a pony. This particular pony seemed to have something that she currently lacked, which we’re wings.
“I...yeah...wings…” She stammered.
The pony waved a hoof in front of her. The girl saw nothing but green for a moment and then snapped out of her stupor. The other pony smiled. “You alright there?’
She nodded. “I think so.” She pondered her situation for a split second then felt like she should ask something. “You’re,” she paused and gently prodded the pony in the shoulder with her own hoof, “real, right?”
The mint green pegasus pony blinked a few times before laughing just a bit, though mainly from nervousness if anything. “Of course I am, you sure you’re alright?” The pegasus watched the girl nod and tapped a hoof under her chin a few times. “Well, my name’s--” She paused and turned around to hear a few voices scream after her. “Oh, well this will have to wait.” The girl watched the ponies wings flap a few times and off she flew into the air. “I’ll see ya later!”
“She’s flying…” She trailed off and smiled. “A pony just talked to me, and she’s flying away… awesome!”
Feeling like there was new pep in her step, she found a way to skip her way forward. She wasn’t sure what she would find, but she hoped it was more ponies! She was disappointed when upon skipping up the next hill, she found a massive town filled with ponies. She took in the various colors of the four legged creatures and found, to her annoyance, that her coat seemed to be the most plain out of all of them. Her’s was mainly brown and spotted a bit, while most ponies in town seemed to be every mix and match with colors of the rainbow. She also noticed something else, something that caused her to simply pause and reconsider her awesome situation.
“Are those pony… kids? Other kids! Wait…” She couldn’t be sure, so she walked up closer to get a better look. She was twice their size. She watched the apparent school pony children playing in the street and could only laugh a bit in response. “I’m a grown up… pony.” It was the only explanation that made sense. “Could this day get anymore awesome?!”
Her voice had apparently been heard, but not by the children. “Of course it can, cause I am inviting you to a super fabulous exceptionally amazingly terrific Welcome to Ponyville party!”
It was certainly a girl pony who had spoken, she very much doubted any boy would be caught dead with so much pink on them. Pink mane, tail, coat from head to hooves she was certainly pink… and she was staring directly at her with a wide eyed and very creepy looking grin.
“So?! Will you go? Huh? Huh? Huh?”
“UH…”
“Oh! Well, only if you want to…” She saw the pony dig her hooves into the dirt, looking almost ashamed. “Sorry, Twilight says I should be more careful when visiting new ponies to my parties. In case they don’t want to go. Uh, do you?”
Party… It echoed in her head and the girl couldn’t help herself. Well, almost couldn’t help herself. “Wait a minute! You’re a stranger… uh, I don’t think I should be going to a strangers party.”
“Oh, duh! Silly me, my name is Pinkie Pie! Nice to meet ya!” She held out a hoof and the girl gently tried to shake it, but ended up with only a bump in the end.
“Okay… why are you throwing me a party? You don’t even know my name?”
“Well duh! My Tail Twitched and my ear twitched and that means somepony new is coming here! That’s why.” THe mare exclaimed, as if it made perfect sense. “Will you go? I’ll have candy… and--”
“Candy?!” All rationally went directly down the drain. “Where? I want it!”
Pinkie watched the mare jump up and down in glee and couldn’t help but jump in response. “Well, just follow me sill--” Pinkie watched the mare dash off without her. “--y.”
“C’mon! Candy!” The girl exclaimed, waiting eagerly for the pink pony to catch up and get with the program. There was candy to be had! “Can we go now?!” She impatiently asked.
“Uh, sure. P-party time!” Pinkie was caught off guard for a moment, I mean who gets that excited over candy? Still, there was a party to throw and maybe this new girl just really liked candy.
“Is that for me?” The girl couldn't believe her eyes, there was a massive banner that read ‘Welcome to Ponyville’. It was hanging up inside of a massive tree of some kind, though from the looks of things it may as well be a library. The banner did lack her name, but the part was for her, ergo it may as well have her name!
“Of course silly! C’mon everypony, let’s get this party started!”
The girl did a double take and watched in awe as practically the whole town of ponies was quite literally herded inside by the pink devil herself. She worked so fast that the girl could hardly believe her eyes, that and she was witnessing a herd of talking colorful ponies all gathered around inside of a massive tree. It was just too awesome! Pinkie was just about to flip a record onto a player when a lavender colored unicorn… a unicorn! Walked up to her and stopped her.
“Pinkie! The town’s all for parties, but we don’t even know who this is for!”
Pinkie blinked and smacked a hoof to her head. “Of course! Oh, sorry, Twilight. I guess this is why you said to slow down with surprise parties huh! At least I didn’t spring this on her like I did you.” She whispered the last part and the mare known as Twilight simply rolled her eyes.
“What’s your name anyway?”
Every single pony in the room was now staring at her. “Uh, Samantha.” She felt uncomfortable with the continuing stares and constant blinking, but did her best to ignore it.
“Everypony welcome--” The pink mare stopped herself and ran all the way up to Samantha to whisper something. “Seriously? Your name is Samantha?” She asked rudely.
“Yes…”
Pinkie blinked again but then cracked the same smile as before. “Alright everypony, welcome Samantha!”
With that the entire crowd of ponies stomped their hooves in unison and cheered. It was exhilarating, going from nervous and scared to completely happy and excited in a single second. From that very moment the entire town (or what looked like it) seemed quite happy to simply dance, party , scream and laugh with each other. Some tried to walk up to Samantha and say hello, but they were ignored for something else, something greater than talking.
“Candy!” She made a beeline for the table that held up all manner of confectionery treats, punch and of course candy. The ponies who had attempted to get near her now found themselves knocked over on the floor, being helped up by the lavender unicorn from before.
“Pinkie! I…” Twilight trailed off when she realized that it wasn’t her pink friend that had rushed to the table, it was Samantha. She turned to the other ponies to apologize though they simply walked away from the party. She watched the new pony guzzle down sweets with disgust, until she felt a familiar feeling to her right.
Her friend had laid a wing on her side. “Oh, Twilight… it’s possible she’s nervous. Ponies don’t get parties like this thrown for them all the time, eating can help calm anypony down. Give her a chance.” She smiled at her and nodded. “You’re right, Fluttershy. You’re right… I… Oh, Pinkie.” They both watched their friend match the new ponies in terms of how many things they could eat at once. The two shared a small giggle and Twilight walked up to Samantha and then hesitantly tapped her on the shoulder.
The last time she had seen a grown pony with that much frosting on their muzzle was at Pinkie Pie’s birthday the year before. It was pretty extreme. “Oh, uh, hello. My name is Twilight Sparkle.”
Samantha blinked and mentally smacked herself. I’m supposed to be a grown up! She licked her lips as quickly as possible, cleaning anything off her muzzle and then laughed a bit. “H-hi, Samantha.”
Twilight watched the mare raise her hoof, though she saw it shaking a bit. Fluttershy was definitely right about the nervousness. Twilight thought, but pushed it aside and smiled. “Nice to meet you!”
“You too! Have you tried this stuff? It’s great!” She almost dug back in, but kept her composure and figured she had enough candy for once in her life.
“Sure have, Pinkie Pie makes the best cupcakes in all of Equestria!”
The grin and happy attitude in the air made Samantha as relaxed as she had ever been in ages. “What’s--” She stopped herself, figuring it was probably a bad idea to ask what it was. She figured Equestria was probably a country or something. A country filled with talking ponies! So awesome! “Um, never mind. So… does everyone new here get a party?”
“Ah reckon’ they do.” Both mares turned around to face a pony wearing a stencil hat, the other mare walked up to get some punch. “Name’s Applejack by the way.”
Samantha’s eyes widened in surprise, and she instantly forgot about Twilight. “Are you a cow pony?!”
“Cow pony? Uh… can’t say I’ve heard that phrase before. Ah’m a farmer though. Grow the best darn apples in all of Equestria.”
Samantha nodded. “That’s cool! I’ve been to a farm once, though it was kind of smelly and not all that exciting.” She finished with a smile, confident it was something an adult might say, but unaware of what she had implied to an actual farmer.
“Uh huh, is that right?” The mare muttered something under her breath and then put on a fake smile. “Well, enjoy the party.”
“Thanks, I will!” Samantha called back sincerely meaning what she said. The mare pause,d muttered something else and then walked away. “That was weird…”
“Hey, I’m--”
Samantha spotted three smaller ponies playing one of her favorite games at parties and dashed off, screaming in her absence. “Pin the Tail on the.. Pony? Awesome!”
“--Rainbow Dash. Uh…” The mare tried to get out, but she was sure nopony had even heard her speak.
Samantha rushed over to the fillies with an eager grin on her face. Two of the three fillies quickly noticed her, with the remaining one blindfolded attempting to pin a tail and doing a poor job of it.
“Uh, hi?” An orange colored one said to her, it had wings and Samantha had to bite her lip as to not to scream. She looked too adorable for words.
“Hello! Uh, who’s turn is it?!” She knew that she should be acting like an adult, but who could pass up the opportunity to play such an amazing game?
“Uh, heh, Sweetie Belle’s. She’ll be done in a minute.”
“Cool!”
Applejack joined her Rainbow themed friend near the punch table. “I tried to say hey, that mare moves quicker than Pinkie…. Quicker than me!”
“Yeah… ah don’t get it. Darn mare’s acting like a child.”
Twilight joined them and had to agree. “I’ve never seen somepony so quick to ignore everypony. Or to eat candy.”
“I win! Again!”
They heard the mare in question scream out loud and giggle, they watched the spectacle of a grown mare giggle while three fillies stood off to the side joining in, though perhaps more from confusion. They had never seen a grown up act like them.
Fluttershy joined their friends and did a quick check to make sure the punch she was drinking was in fact punch, you could never be too careful with Rainbow. “Oh, well when I’m a party I try to ignore strangers and stay close to friends. Maybe because she doesn’t know anyone here, she feels like, um, distracting herself?”
The mares featured softened hearing this.
“Ah suppose I’ve said my fair share of stupid things at parties. Maybe she just need some friends?”
“I was trying to be one…” Rainbow muttered.
“Okay, maybe if we all talk to her together and let her know she has nothing to fear in our town she’ll open up!” Twilight’s plan, they figured, was as good as any.
As it turns out Samantha saw the group coming and figured it was time to act more ‘grown up’, no more games or candy. It was time to have some fun!
“Hey!” Samantha quickly joined the four, and before they could say anything she had roped them in for another game that was set up. “Wanna play some games?”
The mares smiled at each other and figured some games would help break the ice. Soon the others saw how much fun the new pony was and figured that certain ponies were just going to be quirky and weird, but nice and fun in the end. It started to get late and Samantha realized that she was, for the most part, not the least bit tired. I can stay up late like the grown ups! This is so… awesome!
“Well, that was pretty fun. It was nice meeting you, Samantha.” The butter creamed colored pegasus yawned. “Excuse me, I’ll see you later!”
The other ponies waved and said their goodbyes. Samantha felt great, having made new friends and had one of the best parties of her entire life. Dancing, games, singing, food and so much more. It was all so awesome! She found herself skipping away from the library, bumming a song that Pinkie had taught her. She noticed other ponies were heading off into their homes and it wasn’t long before she found a quiet pathway with no other living creatures about. It was dark out and that’s when she noticed the issue.
“Uh oh…” The girl turned pony shivered in fear of the unknown darkness. Thing’s were certainly not awesome.
The quieter and darker things got, including houses turning off lights and ponies going to bed, the worse off she felt. She hated night time, it meant stopping play and going off to sleep in a dark room. Sure, others were there with her, but it sure didn't feel like that ever.
“W-well at-atlea-least the stars look pretty…” She tried talking in hopes that it would make her feel better, but no such luck as the last of the houses shut off their lights. The entire town was dark and she had nowhere to go.
“Whoo, whoo.”
“Ahh!” She screamed from the noise of what could only be described as the scariest monster in the universe, and bolted. She wasn’t sure where she was going, she just didn’t want to be scared anymore. After a while she slowed down to a crawl and eventually stopped, she had stopped on top of a small bridge that lead to a cottage in the distance.
She flopped down onto her belly and sighed. “This sucks… I miss my room.”
She was still scared, but looking up at the stars gave her an odd sense of calmness. “That’s a lot of stars…” She trailed off and felt okay to simply stare and watch them sparkle in the night sky, like a painting that was always moving.
Eventually she heard a few chirps from some birds and looked back. Animals were gathering around the cottage, moving about, around the cottage or even under it. It intrigued her enough to stand up and slowly walk over to them. Some of them noticed her and frozen in a synchronized motion, before calming down when they realized she meant no harm. Samantha smiled after laying down in the grass.
“This isn’t so bad…” She had never bothered to go outside in the dark, why would she? But she was a pony now… she knew they had homes, but she figured it would be natural to sleep outside as well. Like regular horses. Eventually she let out a pretty quiet yawn and within a few minutes, she was off to a peaceful sleep.
She felt a nudge to her side, so she brushed it away and turned over. It happened again only a bit more strongly so she cracked an eye open and found Fluttershy staring down at her.
“Samantha? Um, are you okay?”
She yawned and nodded, then smiled slightly. “Yeah.”
“Oh…” The mare trailed off and looked away. Then she turned back with a frown. “It’s just I found you sleeping in my yard and all… I didn’t want to disturb you, and I’m sorry, but could you please tell me why you’re here? Please?”
She blinked a few times and shrugged. “Uh, I was sleepy.”
“Well…I-I can see that. Do you think, if it’s not too much trouble, that you could go… home?”
Samantha didn’t have an immediate answer for that one. She would love to go home, she was hungry after all and she was starting to wonder when she would turn back. It wasn’t as if being a pony was unpleasant, but she missed having hands. She missed her room, but she really missed having food.
“Uh, well, um…”
Fluttershy normally didn’t come into contact with ponies that stammered out responses, she was taken aback but only for a moment. She simply sighed and nodded. “You can stay if you’d like… I suppose. I need to go feed my animals though right now, so please be quiet for a while. Please?”
Samantha, no stranger to adult commands nodded slightly. The mare gave her a quick smile and then cantered off, leaving the girl alone. Again Samantha felt happy to just roll in the grass a bit, pushing her back into it in order to relax. After a while her stomach started to rumble loud enough to notify Fluttershy, the mare panicked and quickly set a bowl of cereal near her then dashed off to feed more of her friends. She figured with food in her, she would quiet down. Fluttershy was wrong. The “mare” quickly devoured her bowl in under twenty seconds flat, she hadn’t even needed to use her hooves, just a now very messy muzzle. Fluttershy sighed in relief when it was all over, though she cringed when the girl spoke from across the yard.
“That was awesome! Can I have more?!”
“Shhh!” Fluttershy called out.
“Oh…Sorry!”
To Fluttershy, it was most certainly going to be a long day.
Samantha had been invited inside, though Fluttershy was reluctant to let her inside at all, she didn’t wish to be rude. They found themselves sitting together, sipping tea. Well, Fluttershy was sipping tea, Samantha was gagging at it though trying to conceal her disgust. Tea was nasty after all, it was for grownups.
“Um, so, did you move here because of a job?”
“Job?” Grownups have jobs, can I get one? A job actually sounded pretty fun! Though she didn’t have one so she shook her head. “No, that sounds like fun though!”
“Oh, well they certainly can be, though they are hard work of course…I didn’t want to say anything earlier, nopony did because we didn’t want to, um…” Fluttershy trailed off and sighed while trying to compose herself. “You don’t have a special talent, you don’t have a cutie mark. It’s just something I noticed, if that’s okay with you…”
“What’s a cutie mark?”
Fluttershy’s eyes shrunk to the size of pin pricks while she tried to figure out if the strange mare in front of her was being serious or not. So far Samantha hadn’t exactly been the definition of solemn. Still, she looked up at Fluttershy with curiosity in her eyes, the same look a child might give. She shook her head, she was a mare and had to be treated like one.
“A- a cutie mark defines somepony’s special talent. Look at mine.” She turned to her side and pointed to the trio of butterflies on her flank. “Mines signifies my affinity for animals, helping them out when they’re in need.”
“Ooooooh…those look pretty! How’d you get em’?”
“My cutie mark? Oh, well it’s a long story, though not too long!” She gave the girl the short version of her tale, how she had fallen from the clouds and was saved by a ton of butterflies and discovered the ground felt more natural to her, so she stayed. From then on it was her duty to help animals in need, which they helped back by helping her build her cottage. She didn’t major in any schooling, so she needed help with that.
“Wow! That was the best story ever!”
Samanatha was practically bouncing in her seat by that point, which was good that it was practically and not literally. Fluttershy didn’t think her chair could handle the abuse. Still, she blushed and smiled. “It was nothing, really…”
“But it was so amazing! How do I get a cutie mark?!”
Fluttershy found herself uncomfortably close to Samantha’s muzzle, not that the girl turned pony minded. It did remind her of a certain pink pony she knew, which would put her at ease had she been the same pony.
“You have to earn one… um, normally by now you would have figured out your talent and then you get your cutie mark. Have you really never thought about this before?”
“Uh, no. Should I… have?”
“It’s kind of important, yes…” Fluttershy was having a difficult time understand just how a pony like Samantha had gotten by for so long. Food wasn’t free, shelter wasn’t free and so many other things could not be easily obtained without some kind of job. Although she had never encountered an adult without a mark, was it possible to find work without one? She supposed non ponies did, so why not her?
“Oh… so, how do I get one?”
The pegasus smiled. “You just have to keep trying new things. You’ll get one, in time.”
That was always grownup talk for pretty much in a million years! “Oh… that sucks.” The would be mare pouted and looked away.
“I… uh… okay. W-well, maybe you should--”
She was interrupted by the mare standing up and turning to the door. “I’m gonna go check out the other ponies, bye!”
The door was slammed shut, leaving behind a confused Fluttershy. “Well, okay…”
Fluttershy was fun, but her usefulness as fun had ran its course. It was time to check out what the other ponies were doing! They could fly, they could do magic! Anything was possible… like a group of school children gathering around her before she could blink.
“You tell her…” She heard a harsh whisper from the pegasus.
“It was your idea…” Another whisper, of course it was pretty loud for a whisper.
“I’ll tell her!” The third one, a unicorn squeaked out. The two looked at each other and shrugged. The unicorn smiled up at Samantha. “WIll you join the Cutie Mark Crusaders?!”
Samantha had no idea what Crusaders meant, not really anyway. She didn’t know the fillies names and didn’t really care. She did know the name had Cutie Mark in it, which was good enough for her! But I’m supposed to be a grown up… She pondered this and spoke up. “Okay! On one condition!”
“What?!” They all asked in unison.
“We do grownup things to get a cutie mark!”
The three, not having anything against the idea all nodded. “Sure! That sounds awesome! Oh! I bet Rainbow Dash will notice me for sure then!”
The other two rolled their eyes, but secretly had ideas of their own.
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Grownups, yay!” The three high hoofed and laughed.
Samantha blinked. “What’s a Crusader?” Then her stomach grumbled. “You got any food?”
“Alright, uh, Samantha.” The girl snapped out of her thoughts and smiled down to the little fillies. “Hop in!”
“Huh?” The girls moved aside and revealed a rather small looking red colored wagon, attached to it was a harness. “You… want me to pull that?”
There was the distinct sound of blinking, followed by three fillies breaking out into fits of giggles.
Samantha’s muzzle shifted to that of a scowl. “Hey, stop laughing! Fine! I’ll- I’ll just head home then!” She stuck her nose into the air and stormed off.
The three instantly stopped. “Hey, wait! We weren't laughing at you! Please stop!” Scootaloo begged after running to stand in front of her.
So she did, it wasn’t as if she had a home to go to at the moment, but they didn’t need to know that. What they did need to know was that she was hungry, it was worth a shot anyway. She could get food and playtime! “Alright, alright, fine.”
“So, you’ll come with us?” She looked to the Crusaders bulging eyes and couldn’t help but chuckle herself, they were good.
“Sure… but why were you laughing?”
“Duh! Cause Scoots here pulls the wagon!” As Sweetie Belle said that, Scootaloo’s wings buzzed slightly, she couldn’t help but stare.
“Woah, do that again!”
“Uh...okay?” Scootaloo looked to her sides and forced her wings to move as quickly as possible.
“Those are so awesome! I wish I had wings…” Samantha looked legitimately sad for a single moment, before shrugging it off. “So where we goin’?”
“To our clubhouse. So hop on!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, and hopped into their wagon. Sweetie Belle quickly joined her while Scootaloo strapped into the harness and jumped onto a scooter which Samantha could swear wasn’t there a second ago.
Samantha slowly climbed on board, causing the wagon to squeak a bit. “Is there gonna be food there?”
“Uh, we have some food in our hide out place.”
Sweetie's face was immediately scrunched up by two massive hooves. “Why didn't you say so before?!” She let them go and turned around. “Quick! Ride like the wind, Bullseye!”
Scootaloo gave her the most perplexed look she could muster. “...What?”
“Just go.”
“Oh...okay.” Her wings began to buzz again while she clenched her teeth together in concentration. That lasted for around a solid minute before all four of them realized it would be quicker if they walked. Or if at least one of them walked.
Around ten minutes later, the would be mare found herself surrounded by countless apple trees, farm tools and dirt pathways. It smelled wonderful, better than candy did! All though candy never smelled particular strong, she realized. Still, candy was better than apples, everyone knew that.
“Sorry you had to walk, Samantha.”
She looked over and found Scootaloo looking a tad ashamed.
“My wings aren’t that… uh strong.”
“You’re just not big yet. They’ll grow.” I think? She assumed so, after all it only took her a short time to become a grown up, all be it not as a human, but it still counted!
“You think so?!”
“Sure!”
Scootaloo looked off into the distance, imagining her wings growing in a days time to even bigger than Rainbow Dash’s. She knew it sounded silly, but that didn’t make it sound any less awesome.
Walking wasn’t something she normally hated, but when her stomach kept rumbling it became a huge chore to keep going. The Crusaders had never heard such a noise, perhaps they hadn't heard adults go hungry before? They couldn’t recall a time until now. It took the four another twelve minutes of walking deep into the trees to reach their clubhouse.
“Huh…” Samantha wasn’t sure what she was expecting, she assumed it would be a simple put together little fort. Like she had constructed one day. Hers didn’t last very long. This place though looked professionally built, painted and structured properly in an actual tree. It looked like a miniature house fit perfectly for ponies, with slanted ladders leading up, it even had more ladders leading to a smaller building that held a telescope pointing off into the orchard and the town.
“You three built this?!”
“Uh, not really…” Scootaloo laughed and rubbed the back of her head.
“It was Applejack’s old club house, but Apple Bloom fixed it up. We helped to paint it… mostly,” Sweetie Belle said.
The farm filly rolled her eyes. “You both helped plenty. But forget that, let’s initiate her already!”
Sweetie Belle saluted her. “Right! Scoots, get your drums!”
“Yeah… I’m not doing that again, my hoof was hurting for days. Can’t we just give her the cape and go Crusading?”
Ordinarily the other two would get into a fight with Scootaloo and argue that it was important, but nothing could be as important as making a grownup a Crusader. Not even cupcakes from Pinkie Pie, not even Candy.
The three zoomed off at such a speed that miniature dust trails had been left behind, they came back quickly with a rather large red looking tarp. She looked confused until she noticed the fillies were wearing their own tarps, only much smaller. The three laid out the tarp on the grass and then flipped theirs around, making them look like capes.
Without thinking she lept forward, eyes bulging out. “I want a cape!”
Two of them blinked, but Sweetie Belle simply smiled. “That’s what we were showin’ you! Now dawn your… uh, towel. So you can be an honorary Cutie Mark Crusader!” The three had tried to make a larger cape but had ran out of time, instead they simply sewed on their symbol to a red towel. It was the best they could do on such short notice.
“Yay!” She snatched up the towel in her teeth and tried to tie it on, but gave up in frustration and simply placed it on her back. “I still don’t know what a Crusader is.”
Three hooves smacked their owners heads. “We crusade for our cutie marks.”
“Yeah,” Scootaloo said then quickly tied the towel around her neck, “it’s what we do when we get free time.”
“What does crusade mean?”
Two heads looked to Sweetie Belle waiting for her to fill in the gap. “It means to lead or take part in an energetic and organized campaign concerning a social, political, or religious issue.” She finished with a bright smile, the other two simple shaking their heads in disbelief.
“Oo, you’re smart.” If there was ever a time where Sweetie Belle go to look smug, that was it. Then Samantha’s tummy rumbled again. “Uh, can we crusade for food first?”
It took Apple Bloom a solid four minutes to return with snacks in tow. “Sorry we only have chips n such, but that should work ...right?” She figured it would considering the mare was now laying on her back, busy scarfing down chip after chip.
“Mhm!”
The three giggled at her peaceful smile and shrugged. “Okay, so now what do we do?”
Scootaloo’s question remained unanswered for another four minutes, while the mare ate a few bags of “food” and pondered it.
“Howdy girls, Samantha,” Applejack said while walking by, a cart of apples being pushed. The four waved and it took the other mare a few moments to realize that Samantha was indeed there. “Uh, Samantha? What ya doin’ here? Don’t you got work?” It was very uncommon to see a grown mare or stallion in the town of Ponyville off work in the middle of the day. It was a farm community after all and ponies kept busy. Not that rent was expensive or anything, it was that ponies typically enjoyed their jobs, it gave them purpose after all.
Samantha panicked for a moment. Grownups work, and I’m supposed to be one. Drat! She didn’t want to be found out so soon, it was too much fun! “I, well… I’ve been busy… moving in.”
“But you’re out here… doin’ what exactly?”
“She’s becoming a Crusader!” Sweetie announced.
“Yeah!” The others exclaimed in unison.
“Ah see. But what about moving in?”
Applejack wasn’t going to let this go, Samantha decided. She needed a lie. “W-well they were going to get their pretty marks in--”
“Cutie Marks,” Scootaloo corrected.
She laughed nervously and smiled. “Cutie marks in house cleaning? Yeah, they wanted to act adult today. So they’re helping me with my new house.”
Applejack wasn’t really buying it, but she turned to her sister with a frown and asked anyway. “That true?” She mostly trusted her sister to tell the truth, but she didn’t trust Samantha yet. She didn’t know her and it was a tad odd for her to hang out with her little sister and her friends, even if they had something in common.
“Yep!” Apple Bloom didn’t want to clean somepony’s house, but it was an adult activity. It was something, and if agreeing to it would get her big sis to leave, then so be it.
Applejack turned to her friends who were nodding, smiling and looking overall relaxed. “Alright, just make sure to watch them. Have a nice day!” She walked off without a second thought, she figured if her sister and her friends were helping her get settled in then it was fine. As weird as it was, a club designed to get somepony their cutie mark sounded like a good idea for a mare like Samantha, even if it was embarrassing. So she didn’t say anything else, or risk causing shame to the poor dear.
“She’s gone, uh, we're not really going to clean your house are we?” Samantha shook her head and the three sighed in relief. “So what are we doing?” Scootaloo’s question repeated itself.
“Adult stuff...adult stuff...adult stuff…” Samantha was busy trying to think up what adults actually did. She knew they had jobs, did lots of chores and generally were the bosses. However, she hadn’t really ever paid close enough attention to one to consider anything specific. Grownups were just weird, but they were extremely helpful. “I got nothing.”
“But you’re an adult!” Apple Bloom’s argument couldn’t be argued without spilling some secrets, so she simply shrugged.
“I don’t do that much… I just like playing.”
“Adults don’t play!” Apple Bloom exclaimed angrily.
“Sure they do, I’ve seen Rainbow Dash prank ponies all the time. Isn’t that playing?”
Sweetie Belle thought about it and nodded, Rainbow was a grownup, mostly.
Apple Bloom scoffed and crossed her hooves. “Well, AJ doesn’t play…”
“That’s cause she’s always working. Duh.”
Apple Bloom stuck out her tongue and snorted. Mah sis is plenty fun! She just doesn’t play… and… buck. Maybe adults do play?
Samantha stood up and accidently popped her back in the process, causing them all to look in her direction. “So, let’s go do some grownup things.”
As it turned out, doing anything adult wise with actual children involved wasn’t always going to work out. They had tried quite a few things before finally settling on grocery shopping. It wasn’t going to be too terribly exciting, considering she was only given five bits from the Crusaders to do so.
“Why don’t you have money anyway?”
Samantha knew the three would be confused, they were giving her odd looks all morning while they looked through random pathways for money on the ground. Five bits was all they found, but it wasn’t like she had money in the first place. She didn’t even have Earth money.
“Uh, well, it’s in the bank. But not this bank, another one.” She carefully explained, the three nodded figuring that made some sense. Then she had a question of her own while looking at the three fillies who were kicking the dirt or looking depressed. “Why aren’t you going inside with me?”
“Cause we keep screwin’ up…” Apple Bloom muttered.
“Yeah, we wrecked the present we were supposed to wrap for one of Pinkie’s parties.” Scootaloo pointed out, it had been an idea that adults did wrap presents, the pink mare had to come up with a backup after they were through with it. “Babysitting didn’t work, I don’t think Spike wants us to be anywhere near him…” They had all made the argument that since Spike was often called a baby dragon by Twilight, that he must be a baby. Grownups took care of babies and that’s when Spike eventually ended up setting fire to any foal supplies they had gotten a hold of. “Plus I don’t think we're supposed to try and run an electrical plant when ponies are on break.” She honestly had no idea how they even got inside, that was weird.
“Yeah, so get in there and shop! Then you tell us how it was so we can learn,” Sweetie said and then literally shoved her forward. She found herself standing in the doorway of a rather plain looking market, it looked as plain as possible. This wasn’t a huge grocery chain that she was used to, no fluorescent lighting (or huge shiny lights as she called them) or endless aisles of food. No, there were two ponies shopping with four aisles in total and one checker. It was severely underwhelming. This is what adults do? Lame…
She started walking and for the second time since she had gotten to Ponyville, she bumped into someone.
“Samantha? Sorry about that, I wasn’t paying attention.” It was Twilight who literally cast some magic on her to help her up, it felt tingly.
Why don’t I get magic?! It was an outrage! She got sent to a magical land without magic of her own, she didn’t even know why she hadn’t realized it until now. “Uh, no problem. Just doing some shopping, yep. Regular adult shopping… yeah.” She was doing her best to sound like other adults, but if she was being honest when in a market she only ever heard them speak but never actually memorized what they spoke about. Grownups were boring like that.
Twilight paused to assess what she had said. With Twilight she had developed two ways of listening, one for filtering out nonsense and another for listening to every single word. Each were equally important and more often than not she would use the latter instead of the former, but sometimes she would just tune things out. She heard every word and couldn’t exactly think of a real response. “Uh, I can see that. Good. Did… you need any help finding anything? I’ve gone here dozens of times so I should know it by heart.”
“No, I was just… looking. Yeah.”
She raised a brow to that. “I thought you were shopping?”
Samantha blinked in confusion. “Isn’t looking shopping?”
“Well, usually that would be browsing. I suppose looking is shopping.” She giggled. “Sorry, I live in a library so just think of me as a dictionary, I can get geeky like that sometimes.”
Samantha nodded, not really getting what she meant but tried to act like she was. “Ok. I need to go look around then, bye!” She waved and ran off, sadly she could only run into another aisle and Twilight could still see her. The other mare shrugged and walked out. Samantha sighed in relief, she didn’t want to get found out so soon, no she did not. The fun was starting to dwindle down, but she just knew if she stuck in there that some amazing grownup things could happen! She could learn to drive a car or something! Do they have cars here? She then realized she had been standing there for five minutes before she grabbed a bag of chips and dropped the five bits on the counter. Then, without waiting for a response or change she walked out with the chips and a smile. Shopping was easy.
“You spent five bits on a bag of chips?”
She felt stupid, there was no doubt about that. How was she supposed to know they only cost one bit? What was a bit anyway? She didn’t get it so she nodded and frowned. “Yeah… oops.”
Sweetie Belle ignored Scootaloo’s scoffing and walked forward. “Did you at least learn something for us?”
“No.” She couldn’t really lie about that, plus she was starting to worry about all the lies she was telling. She wasn’t sure why though.
“Well, ah think ah’m gonna head home. Sorry girls, but I have chores.” They waved Apple Bloom good bye and it was down to three.
“I have homework, c’mon Sweetie Belle. We gotta return the wagon. Uh, bye Samantha!” Scootaloo figured she would be polite. They had made her a member after all, even if it wasn’t the most amazing thing like they had thought it would be, they didn’t want to be rude. The mare was left behind with her bag of chips, at least there was chips.
Twilight was having an odd day, not so much from what had happened to her. However, she kept thinking something was wrong, that something needed investigating. But what? At first she thought it was Samantha, but that was just silly. She was a jittery mare, but she was a regular mare none the less. Well, perhaps she didn’t actually believe she was regular, but she was… something. She pondered it and settled on that Samantha wasn’t hurting anypony, that she knew of. Not that ponies often hurt other ponies, it could happen but she very much doubted it would. She did know that Samantha had acted very oddly at her party, more so than how she had acted at her own way back when she first came to Ponyville.
I guess I was jittery too, but I don’t remember playing any party games. Come to think of it I don’t think most adults ever got that into those games, especially not around other children… It was a passing thought though, nothing would come of it. Maybe she just liked children? Who cared really? Except something was still bothering her about the mare.
Her thoughts would have to wait though, she heard several knocks on her front door and then heard it creak open. “Applejack?”
“Hi Twi’, ah just wanted to return the book I borrowed.” The farm pony dug into her saddle bag and soon it was grabbed over in magical swish and laid on a table.
“Oh, thank you. Was it helpful?”
She nodded. “Very, we took care of our termite problem lickedy split. Heh, just don’t go telling Fluttershy.”
Twilight closed her mouth and ran her hoof along it. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“Right. Say… have you seen Samantha recently? Ah mean since the party?”
“Yes, were you looking for her?”
Applejack grabbed her hat and inspected it, then placed it firmly back on her head. “Not exactly, no. Ah was just wondering if she was actin’ odd to you?” The mare blushed and looked away. “I normally don’t pry into other ponies business, but she was hanging out with the Crusaders today.”
Twilight frowned and nodded. That did seem a bit odd, but she just had to keep reminding herself that Samantha wasn’t doing anything wrong. “Well, what are they doing together? It might sound crazy but a club designed to help ponies get their mark wouldn’t be the worst thing for Samantha.”
“Ah agree… even if it is embarrassing. And she said they were helping her clean her new house.”
Twilight raised a brow to that. “Did you say new house?” Applejack nodded. “That’s strange, the mayor would have told me if any new homes had been purchased. She’s required to, this library doubles as a public record depository. All though I suppose the mayor could have hold off on giving out the forms… yeah, that’s probably it.”
Applejack nodded, but then had another thought. “Well, have you seen any place that she could have moved in? I at least want to know where the Crusaders are.”
“You could try asking the mayor.”
“Ah think I will. See ya around, Twilight.”
She smiled and opened the door for her friend. “Just tell her I wanted to know and she should dig up any forms for you. See ya around!”
“Miss Applejack, no new houses have been rented or purchased in at least three months. Are you sure she didn’t mention an apartment? Or perhaps a hotel? I don’t really over see those so…” The mayor shrugged and slumped into her seat.
“She definitely mentioned house, but ah suppose she could have meant apartment.” The mare sighed and re donned her hat. “Thank you for yer time.”
I need to go check some places out. While she didn’t exactly wish to spend her free time doing so, she knew it was the responsible thing to do. Her sister was with this mare after all, as far as she knew at least.
“Sorry Applejack, no new rents this month.”
“I think I would have remembered a mare like that walking into my hotel.” Applejack sighed and walked away. She was beginning to panic a bit.
She tried a few more places and was in full blown ‘panic mode’ when she literally ran out of them. Samantha had lied! It was the only explanation that made sense to her. She started galloping away from the apartment complex, when she spotted a cyan streak in the sky. “Rainbow, hey, Rainbow!”
The streak paused, but not until it had gone way too far meaning it had to turn around and streak back. Applejack watched her friend speed toward her and quickly stop in mid air, only to do a quick flip and land gracefully in front of her. “Sup?”
How that girl never gets whiplash, I’ll never know… “Rainbow, this is a little emergency,” she saw Rainbow’s eyes widen a bit and she leaned in, “ah need you to locate the crusaders for me. Make sure they’re safe--”
“It wasn’t me!” Rainbow blurted out without thinking.
Applejack paused and raised a brow, her emergency forgotten for a moment. “What wasn’t your fault?”
Rainbow laughed and looked away. “Nothing, nothing. Just don’t open your barn… there may be something the crusaders did…. wasn’t my idea. Nope.”
“Okay… just go find them. And come back and meet me at Twilight’s library.”
“On it!” Dash saluted and literally dashed off.
It took nearly thirty minutes of searching, but they hadn’t actual managed to spot any of the Crusaders or Samantha.
“You just left them with her? You don’t even know her!” For once it seemed Dash was being the logical one. At least for once she was and Applejack was not, Applejack thought.
“Ah didn’t think she was gonna be a liar! She seemed… mostly fine at the party!”
“Yeah she seemed weird at the party… almost like…” Rainbow eyes widened in horror and shock. “A changeling!”
“What?! Rainbow of all the illogical ideas--”
Rainbow waved her down quickly, interrupting her. “Think about it! She just shows up in town and she was acting fishy at the party. LIke she was nervous, afraid of getting found out! She has no cutie mark and she wanted to “hang out” with the Crusaders alone. She’s trying to suck their love dry! We have to get Twilight, c’mon!”
“Rainbow!” She watched her friend fly into the libraries window, before she had a chance to stop her. “Gah!” Applejack hated to think it, but Rainbow did have some good points. It couldn’t hurt to look after all, then again it could easily be all one big misunderstanding. She stood there in the street for a solid minute, before standing up and dashing towards the giant tree that was the town’s library. “Better safe than sorry…”
“You both think Samantha is a changeling?” Twilight looked to the two mares in front of her, one frantically nodding her head and the other shrugging but nodding all the same. “Why?”
Rainbow lunged forward, invading Twilight’s personal space. “You don’t think she’s a changeling? Her name is Samantha! That’s a changeling’s name if I ever heard one!”
“...Rainbow, when have you heard of a changelings name? Other than Chrysalis?”
Rainbow, still invading her space started to blink a few times, then shrugged. “It’s a still a weird name! And she has no cutie mark! And the Crusaders are missing!”
Twilight sighed. “Yes, you mentioned that earlier. Did you two check their clubhouse perhaps?”
It was Applejack’s time to blink, then she quickly grabbed her hat and threw it on the ground in anger. “Ah told you Rainbow, we should of checked my farm first!”
Applejack turned around to leave, when the front door slammed open. “Sweetie, why do we even need that book? Our report is fine!” They saw Scootaloo walk up, her head turned and arguing with Sweetie Belle who quickly joined her.
“Our report stinks, Scootaloo. We-- Uh, hi?” She nearly bumped into Applejack who was staring down at them.
“Girls, where is Samantha? And where is Apple Bloom?”
“Apple Bloom said she had chores to do, uh, we kind of ditched Samantha… she wasn’t that cool.” Scootaloo tried to say the last part quietly, but they all heard her loud and clear.
Applejack was relieved to see two of them were fine, but she wasn’t exactly ready to give up on the idea that Samantha was a changeling. “You ditched her? Where at?”
“Near the clubhouse, why?”
Twilight walked up to the two, and figured if she at least humored the mares, then Rainbow would drop the whole thing. “Girls, did Samantha act odd to you two?”
“She’s a weirdo!” Scootaloo blurted out and nodded.
Twilight sighed and turned to Sweetie Belle. “Hmm?”
“Well… she forgot what a cutie mark was called once. She called it a pretty mark. That was kind of weird, oh and she doesn’t have any money.”
Twilight nodded. “Well I suppose that is a bit odd, but she didn’t try and do anything odd to either of you?”
Sweetie shook her head. Scootaloo pondered that question for a bit before gasping. “Oh yeah, she tried to bite Sweetie Belle after jumping toward her! That was kind of weird. Then--” Before she could finish all three mares and darted out of the room. “She turned into a vampony… wait was that in a dream?” She turned to Sweetie Belle who was giving her a confused look. “Are you a vampony? Or was that in my dream?”
“Why would you be dreaming about Samantha?”
She shrugged.
“No, not a vampony, Scootaloo.”
“Huh… hey, where’d they go?” Sweetie pointed to out the door. “Oh well.”
Sweetie Belle then walked up to Spike, who had been watching the ponies with feigned interest. “Hey Spike, how come they don’t call it a pretty mark? I think that sounds better.”
Spike scoffed at that. “I think emblem mark sounds better to me.”
Scootaloo blew a raspberry at the drake. “That sounds stupid!”
“You’re stupid.”
“Oh yeah? Well, you’re a dragon!”
He nodded. “Yes. Yes I am.” Then he walked off with a whistle and a smile.
“Scootaloo, I don’t think you’re very good with comebacks.”
“You’re a comeback!” Scootaloo smiled proudly, even though she knew she wasn’t very good at making comebacks.
“Uh huh, well, c’mon let’s go earn our pretty marks!”
“Are we seriously calling them pretty marks?”
Sweetie Belle nodded. “Yeah! We can get them in library keeping!”
Scootaloo shook her head. “Nopony, ever, has ever wanted a cutie mark in library keeping. Not even Twilight!”
Spike then quickly ran back into the room. “Wait a minute! I’m still mad at you three for trying to baby me! You’re not even supposed to be in here!”
“To baby you? I’m pretty sure I would have remembered that, Spike.”
Spike then opened a closet, revealing dozens upon dozens of baby relating objects from toys to bottles, pacifiers and anything else that had been severely burned.
Scootaloo thought back and then realized that Spike was right, they had tried that. “Sweetie Belle, do you think we’re too distracted to earn our cutie marks?” Scootaloo turned around and saw Sweetie Belle messing with a marker. “Sweetie Belle?”
Sweetie looked up and revealed a heart she had drawn on her flank. “Look! I got my pretty mark!”
Scootaloo smacked her forehead, and then grabbed a book from a nearby shelf. “Let’s just do some homework.”
Samantha was starting to get worried. Her friends hadn’t returned and she could swear they had promised to come back… or did she make that up? She couldn’t remember so she sighed. When being alone she had time to ponder her situation again. “This isn’t fun anymore…” She had no where to go and nothing to do. She also was feeling just a bit shy, she didn’t feel like walking into the town. She wanted to go home now, and she was starting to get really tired of being a pony. It was fun at first, sure, but she liked having hands.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash were hiding in a near by bush, just near the Crusaders clubhouse. “Why aren’t we just grabbing her?!” Rainbow harshly whispered.
“Shush, we wait for Twilights signal and then we walk out and distract her. Nopony’s grabbin’ anypony, got it?” Rainbow pouted but kept quiet.
Twilight was inside the Crusaders house, focusing her horn on Samantha. Very small amounts of magic were being purposely leaked out, to be absorbed by the mares body. If this all works out fine, then she won’t change. If not… then Rainbow and Applejack better be ready to subdue her…do changelings have genders? She made a mental note to research it, if she got the chance.
Rainbow and Applejack shared a quick glance and then walked out of the bushes. Samantha was busy on her back again, trying to imagine herself somewhere else.
“Uh, hey, Samantha.”
The mare looked up from her position and spotted the rainbow pegasus, what was her name? I want hair like that! She thought, completely forgetting about her woes from before. She cracked a smile, though she found it odd she hadn’t noticed it before. “Hey, how’d you get your hair all… rainbowy?!”
Rainbow backed up, and then was forced to continue backing up as Samantha continued to step forward, her eyes glued to the mares head.
Okay, ah’ll admit that is mighty strange behavior. Can’t say for certain if that filly was telling tall tales though…
“I… uh, um, was born that way,” Rainbow said and quickly rejoined Applejack.
“Oh…” Samantha flopped back onto her back and sighed. “So, what’s up?”
Twilight continued to pour more and more magic, but it was a slow process. She needed just enough to get some kind of reaction, Rainbow stole a glance at her and the mare waved her on to keep talking.
“Uh, we’re here to show off some stunts for you! Yeah! Right, Applejack?”
Applejack caught on and nodded. Ah suppose if she does show off something, then it won’t be lying. Ah’m fine with that.
“Stunts? What do you mean?”
Applejack nodded to Rainbow and the mare followed quickly by flying into the air and doing a quick single flip.
“Wow!” Samantha tried to clap her front hands together, only to quickly remember that she no longer had them and was forced to awkwardly rub together her hooves in frustration.
Applejack gave her a queer glance. That is mighty odd, is she… tryin’ to applaud?
Rainbow wasn’t sure what she was trying to do, but she was keeping the would be mares attention. She did a few more flips, and then Twilight waved her on to keep going, causing her to keep doing flips. After five minutes she was sure she would pass out. Samantha, however, was fully enthralled with the tricks.
“More!”
Rainbow face hooved and did just one more stunt. Upon doing so, her right wing gave out and soon she had tumbled onto the ground below.
It was in that very moment that Twilight finished and then Samantha’s body began to glow bright green.
Rainbow's eyes widened in shock and she pointed her hoof at the mare. “She’s changing! She is one! Catch her, AJ!”
Applejack, having no rope with her, decided to shrug and promptly took a seat on the mares chest. “Uh, don’t move.”
Samantha looked up fearfully, wondering just why she was glowing green, but also trying to desperately figure out just why someone was sitting on her! Before anypony could respond, including Twilight who was running down yelling frantically, Applejack leaned down and brought both her hooves together on Samantha’s neck. She pinched her and in a split second she was out like a light.
Rainbow stood there in shock, her eyes slowly sinking to look at Samantha and then she quickly whipped back to Applejack. “What the…”
“Heh, the Apple Neck Pinch, Granny taught me. Never fails.” Applejack’s smug expressiong slowly faded when Twilight reached them.
“What did you do?!” Twilight paced around her in a panic. “Oh, we’re going to be in so much trouble! The green energy meant she wasn't’ a changeling! It was her body releasing the magic! Oh Celestia!” Twilight grabbed her head with her hooves in a panic. “What if Princess Celestia finds out about this? She’ll banish me and then, banish you two and then-- ugh, good night…” Applejack quickly pinched her and the mare quickly past out onto the grass before them.
“Applejack! That’s our friend, what the hay?!”
Applejack rubbed the back of her head. “Well ah panicked! Plus haven't you ever watched Twi when she gets into those episodes of hers? She grows a blastin’ vein on her head! Ah just didn’t want her to hurt herself… maybe that was a dumb idea.”
Rainbow groaned, wondering just how it had all gone so wrong so quickly. She turned around and spotted a red coated stallion off in the distance, not too far away, simply staring at them. “Uh, Big Mac, did you see all of that?”
“Eeyup.”
“We’re in trouble, aren’t we?”
“Eeyup.”
Rainbow sagged into the grass and sighed, glaring at Applejack who wore a sheepish smile and a blush. “Eeyup.”
“Applejack, what were you thinking?!”
Applejack stood in the mayor’s office, looking down shamefully wondering just what in fact she was thinking. The mayor, who happened to be a mare, paced around her. “Because of you, Twilight and a new pony to our town is unconscious in our lobby and we have no idea when the will wake up!”
The farmer pawed the ground. “Ah’m sorry, Mayor. To be fair it shouldn’t be too long before they wake, it never is.”
The mayor stopped pacing and shot her face forward, invading her personal space. “Why did you even do it?”
“Well… we thought Samantha was a changeling. We we’re supposed to distract her while Twilight cast her spell. It turns out she isn’t of course, but Rainbow didn’t know that and shocked me and… you know the rest.”
“Applejack, how dare you!”
Both mares whipped around to find Twilight storming into the room, just after she bucked the doors open.
“Well, ah didn’t want ya to have a heart attack! What was I supposed to do?”
Twilight scoffed and raised her hoof, animating it all over the place while she spoke. “Anything! Talk me down, reassure me, dump water on my head, anything but pinch me until I faint! How did you even do that?”
Applejack took this opportunity to dawn her hat and then flashed a smug smile. “Well, going back generations the Apples have always been able to--”
The mayor cleared her throat. “Ladies, where is… oh.”
Samantha was trailing behind Twilight, looking down. Looking lost.
Twilight gave Applejack one last scowl and turned back to Samantha. “Samantha, we need to ask, do you or do you not have a place to live here in Ponyville?”
Applejack took spoke up as well. “And did ya bite… somepony?”
“What? No! Ew…” Applejack gazed into her eyes for a moment and then nodded.
“Excuse me, ah need to go have a little talk with a certain pegasus filly…darn fibber.” She walked away, but not before apologising.
Twilight watched her leave and then turned to face Samantha again. “Well?”
“Uh…” She knew she had been found out, they discovered she was actually a kid and she was in big, big trouble. She had no way out. “No?”
The mayor stepped forward. “You’re homeless?”
“I guess?” She really wasn’t certain what else to say. She did have a home, but it wasn’t in Ponyville.
The unicorn sighed and shook her head. “I was afraid you’d say that. Mayor, I think we need to hold a town meeting for Samantha. We can’t let a pony go around without a place to live.”
What? She wasn’t caught yet? And they were gonna help her?!
“Well now, I don’t believe a full town meeting is necessary. Why not just you and your friends? You simply all have an affinity for helping others… not to mention town meetings are expensive, heh.”
Twilight blinked. “I suppose that can work too, all though--”
“Splendid! It’s settled then. Have a nice day!” The mayor shoved her out with strength that Twilight did not know she possessed and she and Samantha were soon standing outside, blinking to pass the time.
Twilight waited for Samantha to stand up or say something, but when at least four solid minutes of blinking had passed it became quite obvious that she was not going to do a thing. The unicorn levitated her into the air without warning and walked to her tree. “C’mon, we need to talk.”
Samantha spent the time floating in the air wondering just why floating in the air wasn’t as fun as she thought it would be. She found herself floating into the library from before and was gently laid down on a couch.
“Spike!”
“Up here, Twi. What’s up?”
They looked up and spotted the drake reading a comic, while perched on a tall shelf.
“Spike, I’ve told you not to sit up there. You could hurt your self!” She scolded.
“Aw, Twi, I’ll be fine. I-- woah!”
Twilight’s horn lit up in a split second, even though she realized a split second later that it was unnecessary. As Spike had only wobbled a bit, though he soon wore a bashful smile. “Heh, I’ll come down now.”
“Good, I need you to gather my friends. We have a sort of issue that needs solving,” she said, watching him descent a latter.
“Okay, I’ll try. Though I think they’re starting to get a bit evasive to these meetings you keep holding. I don’t think they like being interrupted at work, or when doing other stuff. They don’t mean anything by it or anything… but...” Spike trailed off, nervously tapping his claws together.
“I know, I know. Everypony needs breaks, even if they like helping out.” Spike nodded. “I’ve tried to put together town meetings so more ponies are helping out with town issues, and not just us six. Believe me, I know how tiring this is getting. But the mayor hasn’t really listened all that much. She thinks meetings are too expensive.”
Spike crossed his arms. “A broken town is kind of expensive.”
“Yep.”
Samantha watched the two argue back and forth, after a bit she spoke up. “I don’t get it.”
“My friends and myself tend to help out when the town is in trouble, sometimes small things like organizing town events, or other times huge things. It’s typically us seven, my best friends, that tend to help out the most. I think they are getting a bit tired of others not joining into assist. It get’s a bit routine for us, but also tiring, you know?”
“No…”
Twilight frowned and turned away from her. “Just, please go gather as many of them as you can. If they are busy then tell them it’s fine.”
Spike saluted and walked off, leaving the two mares alone.
Twilight took a deep breath and then spoke. “Okay, so you do not have a house? And… I take it no job, correct?”
“I guess, no.” She’s had jobs before though, at least her parents called them jobs...
“You guess… okay.” Twilight rubbed circles around her temples a few times. I can’t get too personal here. This is a sensitive subject. “Do you, perhaps, know of any skills you have? Something you enjoy doing?”
Going home- No! Out of no where she felt a new rise, a new strong feeling of happiness. This could still be fun! How often did you get to be a grown up? That was an odd question, she decided, but didn’t care. What kind of skills would a grownup have? She desperately tried to think of something, she at least knew what the word skill meant. “Uh… running?”
Twilight’s face scrunched up to a pained expression and a false smile. How did she even get by… No, Twilight, treat this sensitively and help her. Twilight nodded. “Can you think of anything you’ve done before? Like tasks? Helping other ponies perhaps?”
“S-sure, that sounds like f- something I could do,” She said unconvincingly, ending her sentence with a nervous smile. This can still be fun! All though she wasn’t so sure of herself anymore. Didn’t fun need to end at some point? But then the promise of play and new enjoyment based activities and adventures seemed far stronger. Essentially she was conflicted, but only slightly. Fun was going to happen whether she liked it or not!
“Alright… hmm…” Twilight pondered it and figured that if Samantha was simply given manual labor oriented tasks (while getting paid for doing so) she could at least afford a place to stay and possibly discover her true special talent along the way. It certainly wasn’t the worst idea she had ever come up with, she just wasn’t so sure if the mare was up to it. “Okay, Samantha we could--”
Just then the front door slammed open, startling both of them. It was Rainbow Dash, she flew in looking uncharistically passive. “Yeah, what do you need?”
“Well, um…” Twilight quickly looked back to Samantha who had suddenly found the floor to be rather interesting. “Uh, first off did you apologize to her?”
Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck. “Uh, no?” Twilight glared. “Well you were in on the idea too!”
Twilight remained calm and smiled. “Yes, and I am helping her by finding her a job. Would you like to help her too?”
Rainbow chewed on her lip and looked over to Samantha. “Samantha, I’m sorry about before. Can you forgive me?”
Twilight could sense that Rainbow was doing her best to be sensciere, however she was clearly faking it. Oh Rainbow, you really don’t like apologizing, do you? Twilight thought and shook her head.
“That’s okay.” Samantha figured she did seem sorry.
Rainbow brightened up immediately. “Great! So, what do you need, Twi?”
Twilight smiled, it was the kind of smile where you just knew someone wanted something done for them. Rainbow was a loyal friend and most of the time Twilight’s requests or favors were not too stressful, sometimes they could even be fun, or adventurous! Rainbow really hoped it was the last one.
“Rainbow, you’re going to help me help Samantha find a job!”
Or it could be something that not only sounded boring, but she had no experience in. “Twilight, I’ve never even had to search for a job before! How could I possibly help in anyway?”
Twilight shook her head. “How did you find your job then?”
Rainbow blew out some air, making a ‘pfft’ noise and waved her hoof. “My dad got me it! Knew most of the ponies who worked in Ponyville Weather, and pretty soon I became their captain.” Twilight’s ears dropped down upon hearing this, it meant Rainbow probably wasn’t the best pony to ask for advice from. “How about you? How’d you get this job?”
“Uh, heh. Princess Celestia kind of appointed me the town librarian… well, I guess the mayor did. I didn’t really look for the job.” Twilight sighed. This isn’t going so well…
Spike cleared his throat. “Twi, why don’t you just ask around town? See if anypony needs extra help?” The drake offered. Twilight smiled and was about to agree when he spoke again. “Or you could always check the job board, why didn’t we just check that in the first place.” Twilight nodded and opened her mouth to speak again, but he spoke up again. “Actually, I think they added a second job board since the other one kept getting full…”
Twilight sighed. “Is that all?”
“Yep.”
“Right, let’s go find her a job then.”
Spike, Rainbow Dash, Twilight and Samantha studied the job board for a few minutes.
“Let’s see, the first on the list is Roseluck. She needs extra help at her shop, gardening, “ Spike said.
Rainbow smirked. “Great! Let’s-”
“Hold it!” Twilight called out, causing Rainbow to freeze in mid air, some how without flapping… much. “Samantha, have you done any gardening work before?”
“Uh… I grew a flower once. Does that count?”
Rainbow grabbed both mares, and the dragon with her hooves. “Sounds like it counts to me, let’s go.”
In about ten seconds flat, Samantha decided that she hated flying. Watching it was okay, but actually doing it frightened her to death. It only took them around twenty seconds to land, not that Samantha knew this. No. The poor ‘mare’ was too busy shaking in fear, still perched on Rainbow’s back.
“Rainbow, maybe give us a warning the next time you're gonna do something like that!” Twilight chided.
Rainbow groaned and poked Samantha, who instantly stopped shaking and looked up in confusion.
“She’s fine,” Rainbow said, waving Twilight off who grunted in anger. Not waiting for Samantha to get up, the pegasus walked over to the flower shops door and knocked a few times. “Hey! Roseluck! Open up!”
The door opened slowly, revealing a rather basic flower shop and a confused Earth Pony mare. “Yes?”
Rainbow smiled. “You need an extra employee?” Roseluck slowly nodded. “There you go.” She pointed behind her to Samantha.
Roseluck walked past both mares and dragon. Spike took a look at her, never noticing her in town before. Well, he had simply never bothered to get to know her. Comic Books didn’t read themselves. She had a very light cream colored coat, along with twin colors of red, different shades for her tail and mane. Her cutie mark was, of course, pegged on both sides, along with both sides of her store, a rose.
Roseluck sized her up, walking around Samantha in a few circles. “Can you cut flowers, water them and speak to customers in a friendly manner?”
“Yes?”
The mare studied Samantha some more, never cracking a smile of her own. “Uh huh, are you in touch with your Earth Pony magic?”
Samantha knew she couldn’t lie out of that one, she didn’t even know she was supposed to have magic! “No…”
“That’s fine. You’re an Earth Pony though…”
“Yes?” Samantha repeated.
Twilight smacked her hoof to her head in frustration. “I suppose I’ll give you a shot. You start tomorrow, show up at 8 sharp. Samantha was it?”
“Yeah, it is!”
Roseluck wasn’t sure why the response was so enthusiastic, but she shrugged it off. Perhaps she was just excited to get the job. Then again the mare had acted odd at her own party, which was, of course, where she knew her from. “Right, I’m Roseluck by the way. See you tomorrow.”
With that the front door closed gently. Rainbow flew high into the air and did a mock bow to Twilight. “See ya!”
Twilight smirked. “That went better than expected…” She muttered to herself, hoping it stayed to only herself. “Okay, so you should probably get home soon and get some re… you don’t have a place to sleep…” Twilight trailed off, trying to think up a quick solution to the issue at hand.
“No?”
Twilight groaned, realizing that she did have a spare guest room. “Spike, do you mind preparing the guest room?”
“Sure thing, Twi.” The dragon saluted and ran off.
“No! This one gets water three times a day,” Roseluck explained after pausing and pointing to a smaller plant right next to a group of roses, ”and this one gets no water for today.”
Samantha had tried to remember exactly how her boss wanted things done, for probably the tenth time that morning. It didn’t sound difficult in her head, just memorize the watering schedule for three sets of plants and then memorize another one for another set. Then all she had to do was water some of them one day and some of them another day. Easy. Except she kept forgetting which plants were in whatever ‘set’. This is just like learning my times tables all over again… She thought in ire. Math could sure suck.
It was only half way through the day and already Samantha wanted nothing to do with work anymore. It was so boring, and every time she made a mistake, she got a lecture! It’s not like she meant for one of the flower pots to break, or for one of her roses to mysteriously disappear… or for a customer to march out angrily when he was insulted. It wasn’t her fault he looked fat!
Things were getting tense, between getting yelled out by her ‘boss’ from not having a baggy lunch to eat for lunch. She had to escape! But how? She knew the purpose of the job, but some part of her also knew she did not wish to be there. How do you stop working at a job anyway? Never having one, she simply didn’t know. To her it felt like a punishment, it had to be! Escaping though seemed like the right word, so she went with that.
Looking around she saw that Roseluck had finally left her side, trusting her to be alone for a little while. The escape was going to be difficult to pull off, she only had one room to work with after all. Everything was going to have to be perfect.
“How’s everything going in here?”
In no time at all Samantha had darted out of the store, past Roseluck and whipped past several dozen ponies away from town. If she couldn’t be found then she didn’t have to work; but what then? Would Twilight be angry with her? Probably. She didn’t know Twilight that well though. After running for near three minutes straight, she stopped and started panting for breath. Looking around she noticed that she had found herself in the exact same spot that she had woken up in. For now she was safe, no ponies were near. Just trees, fences, houses and dirt.
“I’m bored…” She muttered, walking away from the town a bit. Eventually she realized that walking around doing nothing was pretty boring; it had been a running theme that day. She spotted a nearby tree and took a seat at the base of it, awkwardly laying down as she had seen other ponies done before. “Really, really bored.”
Glancing down she spotted something peculiar. A part of the grass shrouded around the tree wasn’t grass, at least it didn’t look like grass. It was green, sure, but didn’t seem naturally green. At any rate it certainly didn’t look the same as the grass right next to it. There was also the fact that it was glowing dimly, a spherical shape surrounding it. Grass didn’t glow, as far as she knew. Without thinking she raised a hoof and touched the glowing surface. Her hoof felt incredibly warm, but not to the point of feeling uncomfortable. “Is that… my bed?” She extended her head in closed and almost instantly she felt a sucking sensation envelop her entire body. The force was nearly impossible to resist, of course that didn’t stop her from trying… for about two seconds.
She fell face forward directly onto a soft pillow that was laying on a green blanket. Her body no longer felt weird; she gasped and looked up to confirm her suspicions. She was human again, and of course in the body of a child. “Huh?” She was back, that was impossible to deny. Her room with the pony posters on the wall and the stuffed animals that had littered the floor. She looked up to the one poster on the ceiling and gasped, it was no longer glowing. She got on her hands and knees and looked past the poster to her window, it was dark out. Out of everything that had been going on. that’s what felt so off. It from being bright as can be, to being terribly dark. She felt around and found she was now wearing her usual pair of pink footed pajamas.
Was it all a dream?
It was a natural question; but if it was a dream then it was certainly the most realistic and fantastic dream she had ever… dreamt. She sighed. “I guess it was fun while it lasted…” She smiled, thinking it was nice to be back in her room. Hopefully her mommy wasn't too upset for being gone for three days. She curled back into bed and yawned, sleep sounded good about now. The last thing she focused on before fully falling to sleep again was the poster with the colorful ponies lining her walls. They didn’t exactly look like the ponies in her dream, the dream ones were better.
Whatever… sleepy time… She thought, being a grownup in her dreams was exhausting. The last thing she heard faintly before finally passing out was a very subtle echo of laughter.
It had been a full month since Samantha had ‘dreamt’ of Equestria, at least she was pretty sure it was a dream. The odd thing was that she hadn’t dreamt since then, she didn’t have many dreams and certainly didn’t remember any of them. She remembered the ponies plane quite well though.
“Honey, did you finish your homework?” She heard her mother call out from the hallway that connected to her room.
“Uh…. no.”
Her mother walked in and gave her a knowing smirk, she was a tall woman who donned a business suit with black hair. “Start on it now or you won't get dessert tonight.”
With being difficult to argue with that threat, she quickly scrambled to the edge of her bed and dug into her red and blue backpack. Her mother smiled and left her alone, all though Samantha knew she would be back. She was always coming back to check on her. Sometimes with cookies! She thought gleefully; usually not though. She sighed and tried to figure out the rudimentary math problems that had been laid out before her, of course for her they were quite challenging.
After trying to finish off the first page (out of three), at one point she looked up. She had glanced at her pony poster numerous times over the last month, there was just something off about it. She had plenty of things on her walls, and ponies weren’t an odd thing to be into (at least she didn't think so). She glanced down to her paper, then quickly back up to the poster. Something inside her wanted her to look closer at the poster. Maybe she would find a clue about why it seemed so weird? It was in my dream… wasn’t it? She didn’t actually know this, she just knew when waking up from it the poster had been staring down at her.
She looked to her door to make sure that the coast was clear and quickly stood up on her bed. Reaching out she felt something familiar nearly reach out for her hands, then her entire body. She nearly yelped and backed up quickly. Memories came flooding back, ones that were hazy before. Samantha knew exactly what the poster did, and exactly why it gave her such weird feelings when glancing at it.
Ponies…
Dessert and homework could wait. It was time to go back, at least she hoped so. Perhaps the sucking motion had just been her imagination? Only one way to find out. She climbed back onto the bed and started reaching out with her hands, after that everything went white.
She felt the foreign body return to her, she was looking down at her hooves, seated next to a tree, a very familiar tree.
“Wha?” She barely expected that to work, let alone end up in the same spot as before.
“There you are!” She turned around and spotted Twilight who made a beeline directly toward her. Before she could even think of something to say, Twilight beat her to it. “Where have you been? Roseluck said you ran out on her? Why?”
“Um…” Was she still dreaming? Or was this real? If it was real then was it on the same day? How was that possible? She didn’t know much about math, but she knew how time worked and it didn’t go backwards! Or freeze! “I don’t know?”
Twilight squinted her eyes in annoyance and seemed to be holding back some anger. “Well, you’re fired.”
“Oh…” She didn’t know how to respond to that. “I’m sorry…”
“I… it’s alright, but we may have found you another job. Just don’t run out on them! If you get nervous then take deep breathes. If we hurry we can get you there now for an interview. Follow me!” Twilight insisted. “We’re already twelve minutes late on my personal schedule. C’mon!”
“Oh, um, okay…” She was still trying to figure out what was going on, however a part of her was ecstatic to be back in Equestria. Her school was so much more boring than a place ran by ponies. “Let’s go!”
“Uh, right…” Twilight could barely make heads or tails on the new pony in town. Shy some moments, happy and excited in others. She seemed almost bubbly, but not the point of even coming close to being a character clone of Pinkie Pie. The unicorn mentally shrugged, she figured eventually she would figure out the pony that was Samantha. For now she had to get her a job so she could move on with her daily schedule, it was already noon and she was behind! Then again she was (at least she felt so) responsible for residents in Ponyville, so she pressed onward.
Practically dragging Samantha along, the two found themselves in the middle of town. The ‘filly’ spotted a massive tree that was stationed next to several other elaborately designed buildings. The one they seemed to be heading toward almost looked like a carousel. Before she had a chance to examine the fluffy design or the wooden horses outside, she was quickly shoved inside.
“Hi Rarity… Oh.” The two found the mare in question concentrating heavily, using the magic flowing from her horn to levitate three dresses high into the air. In front of her was Sweetie Belle, munching on a cracker watching her sister with mild curiosity. “I’m sorry, should we come back later?”
“No..ah!” Rarity panicked when one of the dressed almost fell, but she quickly caught it. Twilight noted that they looked extremely heavy with far too many gems decorating the whole thing. “No… dear, I was just comparing these three. Did you bring Samantha?” Rarity hadn’t bothered to turn around; however Sweetie Belle was shying away from the two.
The filly in the room muttered something then turned around, her ears flattening against her head.
“I’m sorry, what?” Twilight questioned the filly.
Sweetie Belle sighed and turned around. “I said, I’m sorry for ditching you Samantha.. it wasn’t right.”
Samantha blinked a few times, not really recalling that happening. She vaguely remembered the filly that was Sweetie Belle, but that was a month ago! That’s like forever! “Huh?”
The marshmallow colored filly raised a brow to that. “You know? Yesterday? We kinda just… ditched you.”
Then it hit her, that was a month ago to her but some some reason not for them! “Oh yeah… heh.” She laughed nervously, figuring it was best to play along. “That’s alright…” Though things were certainly not alright, something fishy was going on.
“Okay… I’ll see ya later then,” Sweetie Belle said and quickly left the room.
Rarity nodded to one of the dresses and gently but swiftly lowered them to a wooden table centered in the middle of the room. She walked up to Samantha and smiled devilishly. “Now then, Twilight says you need a job? Hmm?”
“Right,” Rarity paused and allowed Samantha to finished her sandwich which had been gifted to her from Sweetie Belle, “when… you’re finished with your food I will have you step into this outfit. Your job will be to model this around town, in the shop and anywhere else you can think of. If asked about it, you’re to say exactly where you got it and who you got it from. Think you can handle that?” Rarity didn't think it was a complex task, however Twilight was clear with her that Samantha might need exact instructions and seemed easily distracted. She also wasn’t sure about this job of hers, it was certainly experimental if anything. Getting paid to walk around, how absurd! However, this could pay off… Rarity may be a generous pony, but she wasn’t above commercial opportunities.
Samantha blinked and slowly started to figure out what the mare wanted. “Huh?”
In an instant Samantha found herself whisked high into the air and before a word could even be thought of to retaliate, she was quickly fitted into a very simple green skirt. Samantha looked around herself and was quickly reminded of a pixie fairy princess like dress. It was very thin yet some how felt natural around her new body. Newish… She thought as she was quickly growing used to her alternative form.
“Hmm… no, hang on darling.” Again she was lifted into the air, fearing this would become a theme for her new job. It wasn’t that it didn't’ feel fun, but after ten seconds of being forced to remain in the air she began to fill just a bit sick.
“Uh… Rarity? Can I get down please?” She didn’t use please often, but she figured if she did then maybe it would work.
Rarity came to a quick realization that her new employee just might not appreciate being lifted in the air after eating a whole sandwich and quickly complied. “Um, sorry. I’m used to quickly fitting my mannequins that way… but you’re not a mannequin, you’re a pony.”
Not really… She thought playfully, but nodded. “Heh, thank you. So, now what?”
“Now… dresses!”
Samantha and Rarity spent the next thirty minutes having her try on dress after dress after dress, the task was so tedious that she noticed some of the dresses had been repeated only in slightly different design or colors. How boring! One was even a sailor suit which was the most uncomfortable thing she had ever worn.
“Um, Rarity…”
“No, no… this wont do…” Rarity continued to mutter to herself; making a huge mess while haphazardly tossing dresses on the floor left and right.
“...Rarity.” Samantha whined, but was unheard for a second time. “Hello?”
“What?!” Rarity was shocked out of her work induced daze and finally focused on what she was actually doing. “Oh my… oops.”
Samantha was now covered in a pile of said dresses, along with a mess surrounding her hooves. “Oopsy…” Samantha repeated, finding the situation a bit more humorous than the unicorn would deem as normal.
Rarity waited for Samantha’s giggle fit to die down before helping her out. “Perhaps I should pick one.”
“How about this one?!” Samantha had picked a pastel colored frock of some kind, she picked it up and frowned. “Oh…” Which is when she remembered that her body was just a bit too big for a dress designed for a little filly. “Rats…”
“Er… yes, it’s a shame such a lovely ensemble must go unused.” Rarity cleared her throat, while doing her best not to say anything rude in regards to a certain mares fashion sense. “I think we will go with this simpler design.” Rarity used a bit of magic and levitated out a very simple green skirt a very familiar looking green skirt.
“But… that’s the…. oh forget it.” She muttered the last part and soon Rarity’s look of confusion vanished.
She was fit back into and the simple design from before. “There we are, that’s perfect! How does it feel?”
Samantha looked at herself in the mirror and resisted the urge to giggle. She essentially looked like a small pony who was in a skirt, all be it one with very large eyes and much more human looking features. It just looked silly to her. “Um… okay?”
“Well, good.” Rarity took in a deep breath before continuing. “So your current job is to strut around Ponyville and to point anypony who happens to ask about your dress to my place of business. You should check in every once in a while to change your dress-- don’t worry I’ll have made up my mind by then. Think you can handle that? You should earn two bits an hour.”
“Yes?”
“Yes it is then, toodles!”
She was gently shoved out the door; her dress whooshed around from the wind but then gently settled back onto her body. What am I supposed to do? She looked around and found nothing unusual or generally exciting was going on so she frowned and choose a random direction to walk in. Nopony seemed to be paying much attention to her; wasn’t her job to garner said attention? Wait, was that what it was? She was really only half paying attention to her new boss. While she did appreciate her not yelling all the time, or barking out orders, it didn’t help things that Rarity seemed to talk quickly without waiting for that many replies from Samantha.
She past by Sugarcube Corner, the hospital, the library, two dozen houses and a few other places of business before tiring out near a tree. The tree was nestled between the schoolyard and a local park. Watching the birds fly by and chirp, feeling the warm sun envelop her coat and feeling the ticking feeling of her dress meant she had almost no choice but to fall asleep right then and there.
“Samantha? Samantha, dear? Could you please wake up?”
The girl turned mare felt a few nudges to her side and instinctively kicked them away. “Three more minutes… mommy.”
“Oh, you’re ruining my dress. Please get up!” The voice from before sounded more distraught, and certainly louder.
“Hmm?” Samantha opened her eyes and looked all around, before rolling onto her back and looking straight up. “Oh…” Everything came back to her, she knew that she was in big trouble. At least she thought so.
“Samantha, how long have you been sleeping here?” Rarity circled her and sighed. “Did you direct anypony to my place?”
“No?” She hated being in positions like this, there was no fun to be had there.
“Very well.” Rarity rummaged around in a sack she was carrying and quickly found a small sack full of coins. “Come back to my shop, we’ll get the dress off and I’ll give you your pay. Your services will no longer be needed I’m afraid.” The coin bag was gently dropped and the mare walked away.
Samantha could only blind and stare as the upside down mare walked away from view. “What?” Had she been fired? Why didn’t she just say so? Why did grownups have to talk so weird?!
Her stomach then choose that moment to rumble quite loudly. Her eyes fell over to the bag of coins and an idea formed. This time I’ll ask how much the chips are.
She guzzled down three bags of chips in no time at all, thankfully she still had several coins left and was left feeling much wiser than before. Her chewing quickly came to an end, and slowly she became aware of another presence in the park. She looked up and found Twilight simply standing in front of her, looking at the messy mare covered in chips.
“Well?” Twilight’s voice rang out, sounding angry.
“Uh...:”
“You know it’s not like I have infinite free time. I spent at least two of my own schedules tracking down jobs for you, and I find you sitting here just.. eating!” Twilight’s voice raised a bit higher and for once Samantha found that she didn’t feel as comfortable in her new body as she had before. “I just… I can’t do this! I…” On the last ‘I’ Twilight’s voice had gone from simply raised to literally yelling at the mare who was now shivering on the ground, looking away. Twilight blinked and took several deep breathes. I probably should have done that before I started… she’s like a child. The insult in her mind came without much thought, and while it was rude to think so, she really couldn’t help but see the resemblance to a small filly. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
Samantha sniffled but nodded. “It’s okay…” She trailed off, not really knowing what to say and knowing perfectly well that confusion had become a theme.
Twilight snorted. “No, that was very rude of me. Uh, why don’t we--”
“Twi!” They both turned around and found Spike, running as fast as his little legs would carry him. Clutched in his claws was a parchment that he was waving around. “Hmm!” Being too excited to speak properly, Spike waved the letter directly in front of Twilight.
The unicorn raised a brow and quickly skimmed the message. “Right now?! Today?!” Twilight’s face squished up against Spike’s and the poor drake could do nothing but nod meekly. “Okay… deep breaths, Twilight. Um, Samantha!”
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry I yelled, I can’t help you find work right now, but if you… well stick around for a while I can come back and we’ll figure this out, alright?”
“Okay.”
Twilight found it slightly odd that Samantha had been sniffling one moment but was happy the next; still she shook her head and before leaving wrapped her hooves around Samantha in an awkward for her hug. “See ya later.”
Samantha could only nod. There was an odd sense of motherly security from the unicorn. She knew that she was supposed to be an adult too, but that was just pretend. Twilight was a full grown adult; it felt good. She saw the two leave and quietly slumped back onto her back. “Now what?” Her stomach rumbled again. She then remembered something rather important and relevant to her situation. She made a mad dash for a certain tree and didn’t look back.
“...Should we really tell her now?”
Samantha looked up to her parents, her father and mother were standing just outside of the kitchen. Occasionally one of them would glance back at their daughter who would smile and wave.
“I know that… but it’s so sudden.”
Samantha’s ears would perk up, but she would only hear bits and pieces.
“Okay… I understand. Alright.” Samantha’s mother turned around and smiled. “Sweetie, we need to talk about something important.”
“What?” It was an innocent enough question, sadly her mother couldn't give her a good reply.
“We’re moving away; your father got a new job. Which means we have to move so he can be closer to it.”
Things seemed to move far quicker from there. Maybe it was time and space making up for the fact that Samantha had essentially froze it more than once, maybe that was just the little girls imagination. Her room was packed up not even two days later, but between the chaos, confusion and sadness of having to leave something important was lost. Samantha took one longing look at her room, the last time she would probably stand in it. Laying under her bed was a bag full of mysterious coins, coins she had put there. Hanging above her bed was a pony poster, forgotten and unpacked.
“Goodbye room.” Samantha waved and left, joining her parents for a final farewell to their home.
So most of the memories of the ponies world were soon forgotten. Samantha could never conclude if the place had truly been the imagination of a silly girl or a real place. She would never give up hope that the place had been part of reality, despite not keeping any evidence. The bag of coins long forgotten. The poster though… the poster would tease her dreams and push her to near insanity on occasion. She tried asking her mother before where their old house was.
”Oh sweetie, that place is long gone.”
She never got a clear answer as to what that meant. Had it been demolished? Was just a figure of speech and her mother couldn’t be bothered to explain? She didn’t know and despite being much older than the silly little girl from before, had no way of finding out (as far as she knew). Her father was not much help either.
”Samantha, did you finish your chores?”
She loved her father (though could never explain to herself why), however that was the extent of an answer she usually got. She drummed her fingers over a school textbook over and over; the book was essentially useless at this point. She looked down and frowned.
‘College Algebra’
“I’ll just put you away.” She shoved it under her bed and sighed. She looked up to her computer and resisted the urge to sigh. “College classes…” She had been staring at the same screen for minutes. It displayed a list of classes, class types, teachers and many many other boring and occasionally interesting facts and links.
“Psychology major? No thanks.” She clicked away from the web tab she had opened and randomly opened a few more. “Computer science?” She thought about that one and eventually decided to leave it open, for now. “I’m pretty good with computers…” Of course, she noted, the actual field of Computer science was pretty vast, which meant even more research. “Ugh. High School was so much simpler.” She grunted and stood up from her desk, she knew it was the fifth time she had done that in the past hour, but she was feeling restless.
Her room was vastly different from the one of the silly little girl she once was. A basic bed it blue sheets and blue pillows, along with a lavender blanket. There was also a teddy bear laid perfectly in the center of her bed which was also lavender in color. The rest of her room consisted of nothing overly complex or colorful looking. A small bookshelf where she kept actual books, a desk for her laptop, a closet with a sliding wooden door and a small window to look outside. It was neat, but also rather boring but that meant less time had to be spent cleaning it. Exploring the outside world was much more exciting after all. She looked up to her ceiling and sighed, a longing feeling overcame her for a moment.
“Briiiiiiiiing. Briiiiiiiiing.” Her phone rang from the confines of her pocket. She fumbled around for it, then finally got a grip on the fifth round of rings.
‘Jessica Calling’
She looked back to her ceiling and rolled her eyes. “Moments over with.” Her thumb flicked to her phones touch screen and swiped to the left. “Yeeeees?”
“Wanna hang? I’m pretty bored and freakin’ Link here isn’t getting any more interesting.”
“Link?” Samantha asked. She knows a guy named Link?
“Zelda, it’s a game. You know, those things I asked you to try.” In the phones background she could hear a familiar tune playing from a certain video game console.
“Oh. Yeah, I guess so. Where to?”
“The movies I guess, it’s too hot to walk around anyway.” Samantha heard the music shift and then was bombarded with noise after noise that to her seemed indescribable. “Not sure what’s playing though.”
“Are you playing the game while we talk?” She asked incredulously.
“Sure. You driving? I have to finish this area here.”
“Oh, thank you for nominating me. Cause we all know gas prices are oh so cheap.”
“Sarcasm does not become you. I’ll pay for the gas, I got work this week finally. Freakin’ game store, the manager is cheap as heck, I swear.”
“Pay for gas, you?”
“I know, right? Crazy day.”
“Alright, see you in a little while.”
Samantha smiled, even though her friend could be quite the character sometimes. She could be very nice in her own right. Yay, I don’t have to pay for gas! To her that was as nice as it got!
She set her laptop to hibernate, grabbed her keys and her wallet. Walking down her hallway, she called out to her mom. “Mom! I’m headin’ out!” She stretched her back and leaned her head back to her door to listen impatiently.
Several seconds later (too long in Samantha’s opinion), her mother called back. “Alright. Hanging out with Jessica?”
“Yep!” She knew her mother wished she would make more friends.
“You really oughta make more friends, not that Jessica is bad or anything!” her mother added the last part quickly. “Have fun, and drive safely!” “K!”
Not spotting her father anywhere (and figuring he was at his friend’s BIll’s house) she grabbed two twinkies for the movies and quickly shut the front door. She spotted her car parked on the curb and stared at it for a long moment. Lavender colored (something she had requested as a custom paint job), it wasn’t anything special. “C’mon, Rust Bucket. Let’s get going.” A two seater with a small trunk in the back, it was everything a college (or soon to be) student needed. I’d rather have a Porsche.
Her engine stuttered for but a moment and soon she was driving down street after street. Her eyes would occasionally glance down to her gas gauge, making her feel nervous about not filling up before she picked up her friend. Thinking to the current prices, she shuddered and hoped her friend was feeling more generous than usual. “Stupid gas prices.”
Her friend had on rather short jean shorts. She had black hair that wasn’t particularly long, but it was well kept and Samantha always thought it provided her with a unique style. Well that and her white boots. It was a fashion trend that hadn’t been seen in ages (possibly literally). She waved to her friend who looked around for her.
“Hey, over here, Jessica!”
Her friend snapped to attention and spotted her car parked across the street. Jessica jumped in, snapped her seatbelt on and they whizzed off. “Sorry about the mess back there, I swear my dad owns too many cars. Just stop at any gas station, I got it covered.”
“Still weird to hear you say that,” Samantha said smugly.
“Shut up. I’ve paid for gas before. Did you look up any movies?”
“No, was I supposed to?” Samantha started to bring out her phone, but Jessica waved her down.
“You’re driving, I’ll find something.”
Samantha rolled her eyes but focused on the road, mentally counting the gas stations she usually picked out. “I’ll just get gas near the movies.”
“Fine… how about The Wailing House?”
Samantha took a second longer than she needed in order to stare in disbelief at her friend. She then quickly corrected her vehicles course before any police found her driving on the wrong side of the road. “Seriously?”
“Fine, Mario Bros. 2?”
Samantha didn’t respond for several moments. Something about that being the title of the next movie didn’t sit right with her; like something was wrong. It was just a movie though, what’s so wrong with that? However the tingling feeling in the back of her head wouldn’t leave, wouldn't stop telling her that something was very wrong.
“Oh nevermind, that was an ad for a game… this is a weird app.” Samantha sighed in relief as the foreboding feeling quickly faded. “Only one that plays in the next hour is Scorcher Six: Global Meltdown.”
Samantha took a deep breath and then laughed slightly. “Why not? At least if it’s bad we’ll get some laughs.”
Her friends eyes widened for a second before she smirked. “Excuse me, but his films are awesome. He’s kind of hot too…”
Rolling her eyes was not enough for that moment, as far as Samantha was concerned. She spotted the gas station directly across from the theatres and instantly groaned. “Great… freakin’ people acting like they’re giving it away.” Every station was full, so the two had to pull in and wait for a stall to be emptied.
“Eh, the movies doesn’t start for another thirty minutes. Chill.”
“I just hate waiting.” Her car wasn’t the most comfortable thing to sit in, both because the seats were worn out and because it was stuffy inside. “Jessica, did you pick any of your classes out yet?”
Her friend smiled. “Nope!” She scratched her head and shrugged. “I might try childcare.”
“You hate kids,” Samantha pointed out.
“Yeah, I really do. The pay can pretty good though. Most of those jobs are easy enough; take care of some brats and make sure they don’t hurt themselves.” She tapped her fingers a few times. “Eh, I could do worse.”
“I guess…” Samantha finally got to pull up after five minutes of waiting and her friend leapt out to pay. She waited a few moments and then hopped out herself, and started fumbling with the pump once her friend returned. While filling up Samantha couldn’t help but notice a tattoo on the back of Jessica's shoulder. It was white and for a second she thought she saw a bunny, but after squinting she noticed it was infact a pony. The feeling crept in as if a million things had gone wrong with the world, but she had no way of proving any of them. An echoing laughter seemed to creep into her ears, though, when she listened clearly there was none.
“Hey, you okay?”
Samantha blinked a few times and nodded quickly. Upon closer inspection the ‘pony’ from before turned out to be a bird. She then remembered that her friend had gotten a tattoo the year before. Maybe I need some water. “Yeah, I’ll be right back.”
She stood up and walked inside the place to see if they sold bottles of water. Of course they did have some in the back, though only one brand. She shrugged and grabbed it then paid. Only a dollar anyway. After walking outside she took some big gulps then sighed. “Better.”
“We ready to go?” Her friend asked impatiently.
“Sorry I was dehydrated I guess.” She squinted at her bottle and noticed that most of it was gone.
“You guess?” Her friend laughed and buckled herself in. “We should hurry, movie starts soon.”
The theatre was thankfully close by; surrounding the massive structure were countless parking spaces. Three movie theatres that each held twenty one theatres could easily fit in the area that was simply designated for parking and most of it was full.
“Guess were walking,” Jessica commented.
“Yeah… freakin’ crowds. Oh well.” A part of her knew it was going to be crowded anyway, with the heat and the multitude of movies that were out (that didn’t look boring). It was christmas time for the movie companies, but Tartarus for the rest. “How long do we have?”
“Uh, we better hurry in.” Her friend literally started shoving her away from her car while simultaneously checking her cell phone for the time. “Not long and I am not gonna miss a second of this...”
“Did you just moan? Gross.”
“Shut up.”
After what felt like twenty minutes of walking in the heat, though, it was only around two they made it to the ticket counters. A large crowd consisting of mostly kids had gathered around a few windows, but they were quickly called over to an open one. After reciting out the ridiculous movie name, they were soon entering the very cool building that was their movie theatres. Almost instantly all thoughts and feelings started to speed up for Samantha and she felt more clear with the world. No longer did she have to squint her eyes to block out light or force unnatural amounts of water down her throat in order to feel hydrated. The snack counter was wide and long, the lobby was large enough to hold its own theatre if it needed to and it even featured its own arcade.
“Air conditioning… yes.”
“Mhm.” Samantha hummed pleasantly. The theatre had always been a mysterious place to her. Not that it was creepy or even overly interesting to most, though, the way the windows that lined the front of the place let just enough sunlight in to see in the lobby, but then the hallways that led to the theatres were dark and almost foreboding. She knew it was mainly her imagination, but the place always seemed more interesting than it actually was.
“I’m shocked it wasn’t sold out,” Jessica said while lazily glancing from hung up poster to poster.
Samantha looked back at the dozens of kids who littered the lobby and rolled her eyes. “I think a kids movie just came out. We should be fine. I mean the theatres shouldn’t be too noisy.”
The false foreboding nature of the place quickly left the front of her mind, the back where their theatre was located was very well lit. It also didn’t help that there were countless screaming children who were laughing, playing, crying and generally being loud all around them. Plenty were waiting in line for one of the theatres to re open. She was about to sigh in relief when they spotted their theatres, until she realized that most of the children were in fact waiting for it.
“It’s, uh, not rated ‘R’ is it?” Samantha asked, already knowing that it wasn’t.
“Nope. Oh I hate kids.”
“Noted. Least were inside though.” They found a quietish spot a bit aways from the doorway and waited. “What do you want to do after this?”
Jessica tried to think of something, her eyes casting upwards for a bit until she shrugged. “I don’t know. Get an early dinner or something. Eh, been a bland week.”
She shrugged in response and waited. It had been a rather uneventful week so she couldn’t argue. They quickly found seats once the place had been cleaned and were soon surrounded by the same noisy adolescents from before with one exception: they seemed to lack their parents now. Both young adults tried to ignore them and focused on their phones. Samantha saw they had started to play random commercials as the theatre darkened and knew the previews would start soon. “I’ll be right back,” she whispered to Jessica and ran out to find the restroom.
Outside and back in the hallway the feeling from before came back with a vengeance. No workers walking around and no one else seemed to be outside of their theatres. She could hear people from the lobby, but just faintly. She past a few posters, including one for the movie that they were about to ‘enjoy’ and quickly used the restroom. Washing her hands her mind lingered to college classes which always turned up empty for answers.
What should I do with my life?
On her way back she past two posters and then finally the one for the pony movie.
...What?
It could have easily been a mistake, in her mind or maybe they quickly had replaced the poster? However, something about it quickly stood out (aside from the fact that movies about ponies never ended up in movie theatres). At least not that she could remember. Focusing on it an odd laugher seemed to echo in the back of her mind, though, if she focused on it everything simply stopped. A distant memory almost long forgotten began to flood her mind.
It’s not the same thing. She told herself. She almost smiled and for a fleeting moment it was as if she was no longer a mature adult. She shook her head and rolled her eyes. It’s just a dumb movie poster.
She moved a few steps away and took in the poster overall, but again a sense of foreboding, of something not belonging where it should be overcame her. Finally she focused on the contents of the poster. There were ponies, but something seemed way more off about them than she initially noticed. For one they weren’t hand drawn or digitally illustrated, but they also didn’’t appear to be rendered in some three dimensional way. They seemed real, but looking real and seeming real were obviously two different concepts. It was then that the biggest issue of the poster presented itself. There wasn’t a title. While it was true that some newer films choose to show ‘teaser posters’ early on with no title and nothing but a tiny movie company symbol, it seemed that this particular poster lacked any writing at all. Just some ponies that seemed awfully familiar.
Every fiber in her being told her to just walk away and enjoy a movie. She started to, but then stopped and closed her eyes and sighed. Samantha turned around and touched the side of the poster, everything was white.
So many things didn’t feel right that she swear she was dreaming. The first thing she noticed was the lack of air conditioning in the air, going from a controlled environment to ‘white’ and warm wasn’t easy to ignore. Then she felt her bodys new weight and things certainly felt off, heavier even. Is that grass?
She opened her eyes and shielded them from the sun almost immediately, using her hooves.
...
She blinked and looked down at her body. Certain things responsible for processing information inside of her brain simply shut down. She still took in her whole body, but failed to make the connection. A small horse laying down in a grass field, it was brown and spotted. Then it hit her, she was the it.
“What?!” She screamed and immediately shot up, not being used to the new body her hooves lost their footing and her head smacked down into the grass. Pain coursed through her and it took Samantha several minutes to come to grips and simply open her eyes again. “Why is this happening…?” She whined and felt some tears push through.
“You okay?”
She took a few moments to nod and breath in deeply over and over. “Uh, yeah I… oh.” Looking up she saw another horse, this one had a color scheme that simply made no sense, on top of the fact that it had spoke in perfect english. The mint green horse tilted its head to the side and it was in that moment that Samantha noticed a horn sticking out. There were, of course, more details, but those didn’t matter as much as the horn. The unicorn appeared to smile, stepped back a bit and held out a hoof to help her up. Samantha reached out and was quickly lifted up and placed on all fours.
How did that even work? She doesn’t have anything to grasp with! Pushing that thought aside Samantha’s legs felt wobbly for a second before she got used to her shift in weight. In under a few moments she felt natural; even though she was freaking out on the inside.
“Uh, it’s Samantha right?”
Samantha blinked in confusion and then finally laughed. “Must be a dream…” She mumbled, causing the mare in front of her to rear back in fear.
“Right… you sure you’re okay?”
She giggled again and nodded. “Sure… uh, later!” Samantha awkwardly waved, and almost fell over from the gesture. She quickly plopped her hooves back on the grass and galloped off. It didn’t take long for her to slow down and realize her delusional thoughts couldn’t be founded. You don’t feel pain in dreams. She had remembered pain while asleep and the idea of it while dreaming, but never the full fledged feeling and sensation. She looked up slightly and couldn’t even gasp at the sight before her.
Her mind quickly felt conflicted. On the one hand the town before her couldn’t be real, but why had she dreamed of it so many times before? Not lately… She reminded herself, knowing full well that the memories of this ‘place’ (she was still debating if it existed or if she was crazy) had gone very hazy over the years.
Then she saw the massive tree sticking up in the middle of town and smiled. “No way…” Her voice trailed off and in that moment silence was more beautiful than anything she could possibly utter out. She squinted her eyes and noticed two oddly dressed ponies were stationed in front of the tree. Stating them as odd was a huge understatement, they appeared to be wearing some kind of armor. “They look like a jousting horse.” Gold trimmed armor hung around their white pristine coats, though, the coats almost seemed too white. Like they were faked in some way.
She wasn’t sure what brought her forward, but she started walking. Occasionally she tripped a bit, but quickly steadied herself. “Stupid hooves…” Her memories were hazy, but she never remembered having trouble walking when she was here. She slowed down and found that was much more manageable. Upon being spotted, the closest one to her snapped to attention and pointed a hoof at her.
“Are you the one known as Samantha?”
“Uh, yes, but--”
She was rudely interrupted by the other stallion. “You have been missing for approximately fifteen minutes. Please come inside now.”
“Fifteen…” What? I haven’t been here in years! Before she could object to anything Samantha was quickly shoved inside and quickly helped up by one of the guards who bowed for some reason.
“Presenting Samantha, your highness.”
Two ponies presented themselves to her sight. One was immediately recognized and sent a torrent of emotions soaring through her. It can’t be… It was a lavender colored unicorn, looking up in shock and quickly looking back to the other pony. The other pony was definitely new and was certainly the largest one she had ever seen. She also wore a crown and had wings and a very large horn. ...That’s just not fair, they can have both. I get none. Her jealously quickly vanished when she noticed the unicorn standing up and walking towards her. Out of all of the pinies she had met, she could at least remember her. Twilight…
The mare appeared to be doing her best to not jump out at her. “Samantha, I, uh, welcome back!” Twilight’s face quickly went from a controlled stoic expression to happy and perky, as if lightbulb and been shined all around her. “Did you have a nice walk?”
Samantha had to do her best not back up in fear of the crazed look she was getting. “Yeah, it was… nice.”
“Good, so why don’t you, er, take a seat and I’ll be with you in a few moments?”
She could only nod as it was obvious that Twilight wanted to get back to whoever that was. She looked around the place and found a few seats away from where the big pony was. They were all cushions and felt quite comfortable. The other two were quiet enough so Samantha couldn’t understand them, though, she noticed the bigger one giving her odd glances every once in a while.
“Hello there.” Samantha blinked and looked up, a soft and dim shadow had enveloped her pillow. The bigger one was now standing over her. She did a quick glance and noticed Twilight was currently missing.
“Um…” Samantha paused and noticed the large ones mane (which happened to be made of many colors and seemed to be almost constructed out of some kind of heavily material) was wafting in a non existent air. “Hi, are you okay?”
The larger mare blinked in confusion and smiled ever slightly. “Well, how do you mean?”
“It’s just…” Samantha raised her hoof to point at her mane, but quickly thought better of it. “Nevermind.” Samantha instinctively reached out with her right hand, which happened to be a hoof. She looked down at it and frowned, then shrugged and held it out.
The mare giggled and touched her hoof to hers. “A pleasure to meet you, Samantha. I take it you’ve met Twilight?”
“Yeah, she’s nice. Say, I didn’t catch your name.” Samantha debated if she should ask, the guards outside and her physical appearance told her she should know who she was, but she asked anyway.
The mare stood in front of her for an uncomfortably long time, but very quickly broke out of her stare. “It’s Celestia.” Princess Celestia held back a smirk, she was doing her very best to not smile at all. It was painful.
“Nice to meet you, Celestia.” Samantha smiled and Celestia nodded in return.
This is the most curious mare I’ve met since that mailmare… Celestia thought.
“So… what do you do? I mean your occupation?” Samantha clarified at the end. This time Celestia smiled. “Oh, I’m a politician. The job can be just as boring as it is fun. How… about yourself?”
“Hmm, between jobs.” Samantha looked down feeling annoyed. Stupid college.
“That can certainly be frustrating, but keep trying. I’m sure things will work out in the end.” She winked at Samantha who slowly nodded.
There was an awkward silence between the two. Eventually both had decided to pass the time by tapping their hooves on the floor.
“You’re not a politician, are you?”
Celestia looked at her in false shock, before chuckling. “I suppose the crown does give it away.”
“Yeah… I guess not everyday you meet a queen.” Samantha chuckled and it was in this moment that Celestia looked at her in a different light. She couldn’t quite tell, but was it pity?
“Actually I’m a princess, along with my sister. Equestria is a diarchy after all. I- Ah, Twilight. Welcome back. I take it everything went well?” Celestia teased as Twilight blushed ten shades of pink.
“Er, yes, oh… I see you’ve met Samantha. How are… things?”
Celestia paused and looked between the two ponies a couple times before smiling widely. “Wonderful, she is quite the interesting mare. One such as myself doesn’t meet another pony every day who doesn’t bow before me, it was very refreshing.” Samantha quirked a brow to that and then smacked her head.
Bow before royalty… duh. But she said it was refreshing, was she being sarcastic or…? As Samantha debated on this in her head, Celestia had snuck up on her and whispered something.
“I wasn’t being sarcastic either, it really was nice.”
Samantha nearly jumped out of her skin, when she saw the head of the princess mere inches away from her and she quickly nodded. “Uh, good.”
“Yes; and no, I do not read minds.” She turned back to Twilight. “Well, it’s been a nice visit, but I’m afraid I must depart.” Twilight looked disappointed, but nodded. Celestia then turned to Samantha. “Good luck with the job hunt, young Samantha. Farewell.” The mare then opened the door using some of her own magic and gently shut it.
Twilight’s eyes slowly moved to Samantha who was busy trying to figure out if this was a dream or not. Samantha looked up at her surroundings and then formed an idea. “Hey Twilight, do you have any books on dreaming?”
Twilight’s expression shifted from that of curiosity to simple distaste. “Why would you want to learn about a thing like that?”
“It was just a question, you don’t need to get testy.”
Twilight sighed. “Typically the study of dreams are done by professionals at Celestia School for Gifted Unicorns. Or by Princess Luna, it’s very rarely experimented, studied or even talked about (at least the study of it) outside of those… situations. Nightmares can be a powerful thing after all.”
“Uh, so you're saying it’s illegal to study dreams… or?” Samantha shook her head, as if not understanding.
“No.. it’s just frowned upon. Any books on the matter would be in the restricted archives in Canterlot Castle… probably shouldn’t have told you that.” Twilight laughed nervously and then cleared her throat. “Um, why do you ask?”
I should just drop it, dream or not I don’t want tick her off. Still, what’s the big deal? Deciding it wasn’t a good idea to push it, she simply shrugged. “No reason, just had a funny dream last night,” she lied. “So, what do we do now?”
“Now we find you a job and a place to stay eventually. Rarity probably won't hire you back I’m afraid.”
“Rarity…” A tingling feeling formed in the back of her head and it was in this moment that she could remember her last job in Equestria. Man, I was a lazy bum as a kid… I should apologize to her.
“Where are you going?!” Twilight yelled at her, while Samantha fumbled with the door handle.
“To apologize to Rarity. I was acting like.. well, like a child.” Samantha chuckled. I was a child.
Twilight looked on in disbelief, was this the same pony from half an hour ago? “Well, I suppose that is the right thing to do. I’ll escort you.”
Samantha held out a hoof, just as she got the door open. “I think I can do this fine on my own.” It almost felt like an adventure to her, especially because she didn’t exactly remember what Rarity’s place looked like.
If Twilight felt like being on the fence in this situation, she was almost touching the ground in ‘go help Samantha out now’ country. Still, she nodded and watched Samantha leave the library. She seemed more lucid. Twilight reminded herself. Still, this might not end well. Twilight ran out of her place of ‘business’ a moment later and set the sign to closed.
Twilight followed Samantha directly to Rarity’s home and boutique. Her heart rate increased for the moment, until she remembered there wasn’t much at stake. It’s not as if Samantha still had the job. She skidded to a halt and slowly opened Rarity’s front door using a bit of magic. Inside she saw Samantha waiting at the front counter. Curiously she noticed what clearly appeared to be a broken off door handle laying on her counter.
“Um, Samantha?” Samantha turned around, her eyes wide in surprise. “What happened to that?’
“Oh, uh, it kind a broke off.” Samantha smiled nervously at Twilight, who looked like she wanted to respond, but thought better of it.
Not like I haven't done that before.. though I was a child when I did. Twilight levitated the doorknob away from Samantha and started the tedious task of placing it back on the front door.
Samantha looked up and spotted Rarity walking downstairs, with a few clothing pieces grasped in her magic. “Oh? Samantha? I thought I said you were no longer needed. What brings you here?” Rarity looked to Twilight who seemed to be busy doing something to her door.
“Yes, I just wanted to apologize for my rude behavior when…” Samantha tried to remember what she had been doing for her. Was it work? A job? That must be it. She coughed to continue. “When I was on the job. It was entirely rude and I just hope I didn’t ruin your dress in the process.”
Rarity looked surprised, but nodded all the same. “Well dear, it’s perfectly fine and I appreciate the apology.” Rarity seemed to be deep in thought for a moment while Samantha waited patiently for her to finish. “Perhaps if you come by next week I can have a few tasks for you to do, not as a permanent job, but as some errands for pay?”
“Sure, that sounds fair.” Samantha smiled, though, behind her Twilight couldn’t help but notice that her tail had wagged a few times. Twilight really didn’t know what to think of that so she kept quiet. The two waved and Samantha turned around. “Sup?”
“Sup? Uh, you mean what’s up? Nothing, I suppose.”
She nodded. “Alright, I’ll see you back at the library?”
“Oh Twilight, I’ve been meaning to show you my new dress line.” Twilight’s worried look switched to a smile when she walked away from Samantha and neared Rarity.
Seeing the two were busy and not wishing to intrude, Samantha turned around and attempted to leave. She watched her hoof slip off the doorknob at least four times. “How in the heck do they do this?” She hissed in irritation.
Twilight’s and Rarity’s conversation were quickly interrupted as Rarity looked above Twilight. “Is something wrong with the door?”
Samantha cursed in her head. “Uh, no, just sneezed here.”
Rarity didn’t seem convinced, but nodded all the same. Samantha carefully pressed her hoof on the door handle with as much force as possible, attempting to keep her hoof in one place. Slowly the door handle turned as her hoof turned, making her push harder to keep the hoof on. When she heard a click, she pushed and the door flung open faster than the speed of sound, or so it seemed. She was about to cheer, when she noticed her hoof was stuck to the door handle now and it was not on the door. Nice one… I really hope this is a dream. She turned around, seeing Twilight looking on in astonishment and Rarity simply seemed too shocked for words. Those are the same. She reminded herself. Samantha tried to shake the doorknob free, but it seemed like it wasn’t going to go.
“Heh, sticky door handles?” Twilight facehooved and Rarity quickly helped her out.
When Twilight and her got back to her home, she quickly had Samantha sit down. “Okay, Samantha, I’m sorry to ask this, but I need to know. Do you know how to operate your hooves properly?”
Someone seems grouchy. Samantha noted. “Yes and no. I can walk alright.”
Twilight nodded, taking the situation very seriously “Do you have some kind of disability I should know about?”
“...No. Let’s just call it bad luck, alright?” Samantha pleased and hesitantly the unicorn nodded. “So, about--”
Before Samantha could finish her sentence, the front doors to the library practically slammed open revealing three small ponies.
“Twilight! We’re bored!” A small pegasus called out.
They seem familiar.
Behind the pegasus a small white fluffy unicorn smacked the back of her head. “Scoots! That’s rude. Twilight’s our friend, not our mom.”
The one who seemed to be dubbed Scoots stuck her tongue out at her friend and a third walked in, this one wearing a bow. ‘Oh, hey Samantha.” Samantha smiled. “Hey” Definitely familiar. What were they called?
“Girls, can I help you with something?” Twilight gently berated the two fillies behind the bow wearing one, for trying to slap each other and stopped their little fight before it began.
“Well, we tried Crusadin’ all day, but nothin’ sticks. We’re… kind a bored.” The filly blushed and the two other nodded as well.
Crusadin’... ah, Crusaders! Huh, I wonder where that towel got to? I can’t believe that’s the only thing I remember about them. Some long lost friend I am. Not that they know that.
Twilight sighed. “I’m sorry girls, but I need to help Samantha here find a job. I don’t really have anytime right now. Unless you want a book?”
The three fillies looked at each other, while Samantha stood up and started to sneak past the two. While Twilight was momentarily distracted, Samantha took the opportunity to see what kind of books the librarian had.
Daring Do? Okay.. Starswirl the Bearded’s favorite Rhymes… no, Equestria and it’s Surrounding Territories? That could help.
“Samantha, what are you doing?”
She blinked and turned around, forcing her hoof down away from the books. “Uh, this is a library, right?” Twilight blinked as well and slowly nodded. “Are they off limits right now?”
“No, of course not. I just think checking out books might be a distraction from obtaining a real job is all.”
Or I could learn more about this crazy world. She nodded. “Well, what did you have in mind?” Samantha’s tail involuntarily wagged once, as if it was venting her own frustrations. Though if the mare felt it, she gave no indication.
Twilight clenched her teeth. Does she have an issue with her tail? Just where did this mare come from…? Twilight shook her head. “Samantha is there anything you were good at doing? You know, before coming here. It’s just without a cutie mark, something that is very important, I’m having trouble deciphering just what you…” Twilight trailed off when she noticed the three starring fillies. “Girls?”
“Twilight,” Apple Bloom rebuked, “that was rude, I’m sure she’s great at lots of stuff. Having a cutie mark shouldn’t matter, she’s an adult. You should apologize.”
“Yeah!” Scootaloo piped up behind her, not fully hearing just what Twilight said, but believing she did something wrong none the less.
The librarian sighed. “I’m sorry girls, I just mean a cutie mark defines your special talent. They usually have to do with a ponies job.”
Sweetie Belle raised her hoof, then quickly shot it down when she remembered this wasn’t a classroom. “But, you’re a librarian and your cutie mark isn’t a stack of books.”
“Hey yeah, Princess Celestia runs a kingdom, what’s that got to do with raising the sun?” Apple Bloom pondered out loud.
“Okay, they usually have to do with a ponies job.” Twilight corrected herself.
“Kind of sounds like to me these cutie marks are like a bonus, they--”
“That’s it!” Scootaloo interrupted Samantha, sounding very excited. “Girls, I’ve got the perfect idea on how to get our cutie marks! C’mon!”
Samantha stared at the empty doorway. “Why do I get the feeling something bad is about to happen?”
Spike walked up and sighed, leaning on the door. “Because it probably is, with those three I’m amazed the town is still standing at this point.”
Twilight looked out at the door with a worried expression of her own, though, the ramification of the Cutie Mark Crusaders going on a Crusade was the farthest thing from her mind right now.
“Should we go after them?” Samantha half suggested. “I mean they’re a bunch of kids.”
Spike quirked an eye scale to that. “Kids? What does goats have to do with them?”
“She means fillies, Spike. Uh, I suppose since we can’t think of anything it wouldn’t do any harm if one of us followed them. Samantha? Since you’re a Crusaders, maybe you should for now?”
“Alright, that like a chore, heh?” She joked, but Twilight looked at her seriously then nodded.
“Yes, I think that works. For now your job can be looking after them, at least for today until we find you something.”
Samantha shrugged. “Okay, cool. Uh, see ya later!” She called out and galloped away.
Spike turned back to Twilight with his arms crossed. “Did you just do that so you could get rid of her?” “Not exactly, but it should give me ample time to keep up with my schedule and research work for her! It’s perfect!” Twilight expression reflected a relaxed mare, somepony who hadn’t had the chance to in a long while. Even if it had only been a day or two.
Spike looked to the walls of the library was made out of and spotted a tiny bit of tree sap seeping out. “Yeah… perfect.”
Samantha didn’t get far when she remembered that her mental map of the town was pretty much non existent. Also, it wasn’t as if the fillies mentioned just where they were going. Great. I miss the movies. Still unsure if it was a dream or not, she looked around. It wasn’t as if she was going to find a way home anytime soon. How did I do it before? In the old dreams? Or whatever those were… She slowed to a trot and tried to ponder through her memories, but they were far from clear.
Figuring there was nothing else to do, she looked around for ponies to ask. She quickly found a unicorn ‘couple’ prancing about. The two were fully clothed in rather extravagant clothing, ranging from a suit for the stallion and a sort of white dress for the mare. She ignored this and quickly blocked their path. “Excuse me, have you seen three ki- fillies around here?”
The stallion snorted and tilted his head up, apparently not wishing to associate himself with her. The mare mostly did the same, but she at least said something in return. “Sounds like you should watch your fillies more closely.” The two then promptly left her.
“Real helpful lady. Okay, Samantha, just think. Where would three fillies go in a town like this?” She looked around and spotted a small rather boring park of some kind, then town itself and the numerous buildings and then she noticed a large sort of familiar apple orchard. “Would they go to the boring park that lacks any playground equipment?” Then she tried to imagine small horses playing on swings. “Or would they explore the endless trees in a farm?”
“Ah dunno, Scootaloo. This doesn’t seem very safe.”
The pegasus filly squinted her eyes at her friend. “Apple Bloom, I’ll be fine! I can just glide down if I need to!” She buzzed her wings for emphasis.
“Um, but this is really high up! Besides, we aren’t supposed to be on top of the clubhouse! Applejack said so!” Each time she spoke she was required to raise her voice as Scootaloo was practically two, maybe three stories taller.”
Scootaloo scoffed. “I told you, I’ll be fine. I wanna at least try and get my mark in sight seeing!”
Sweetie Belle didn’t look too sure herself and gave a nervous glance to Apple Bloom. I still think pretty mark is better. She thought.
“Eh, maybe they’re the safe kind of fillies…” She edged toward the park then momentarily stopped walking when she noticed who was there.
“Really, these Ponyville ponies need to watch where they’re going.” She heard the mare from before call out rudely.
“On second thought I’ll check the orchard.”
Weaving through the many pathways was a daunting task. “How these ponies get around here?”
“Hey, Scoots, I think I see your mark from here!”
Samantha tilted her ears, something she just found out her new body was capable of, and listened. “Sounds like them.” She quickly turned around and spotted several trees a bushes, each lined in a way as if to block the current path. She looked down however and noticed the dirt pathway kept going into said trees and around them. She squinted her eyes through the bushes and spotted a large club house perched on a tree. “Bingo… what are they doing?!”
“Really?! I can’t see from here though… Here!”
“Uh… Scoots, maybe you should climb back up?” Sweetie Belle suggested, noticing the odd position she was in.
Samantha quickly crawled through the bushes, watching the small pegasus latch onto the flagpole of the clubhouse. Her flank was sticking down, as was the rest of her body. She looked like she could barely hold on.
“Kid, climb back into that house right now!” Samantha commanded in an authoritative tone. She wasn’t an expert on the ponies at all, but judging by the size of the fillies wings she figured they weren’t good for much yet.
The three went silent for a moment, then Scootaloo awkwardly clambered down and climbed in through the window below. They waited in silence for the pegasus to reach the bottom of the tree. Scootaloo looked up at Samantha, seeing her in a brand new light. As an adult. She blushed and laughed nervously. “Heh, what’s up?”
Samantha snorted. “Hopefully not you for a while. Do you three always do crazy stuff like that?”
Scootaloo quirked a brow and inspected the flagpole from her position. “That was crazy? Huh. Last week I saw Rainbow Dash whoosh through the orchard at breakneck speeds then she did a few corkscrews and then she did a Sonic Rainboom!” Scootaloo breathed in and out a bit, trying to catch her winded breath. “How was what I did cr--?”
“To be fair, Scoots, I don’t think the flagpole was meant for climbing on.” Apple Bloom interjected.
Samantha rolled her eyes. “You still shouldn’t be doing what you did. Pegasus or no, I doubt your folks would appreciate it if ya fell from there.”
“No…I guess not. We’re just so bored!” Scootaloo through her front hooves up in frustration. She then turned to her unicorn friend. “Sweetie Belle, you got any ideas?”
This is it, Sweetie, this is your time to shine! She nodded slowly, while smirking a bit. “Yes! We will be… Draconequus tamers!”
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Samantha blinked in confusion. “What the heck is a Dracon- Dracone- whatever you just said?” Apple Blooms question was mentally shared amongst the group.
“It’s what Discord is! I asked him once and he said Draconequus… actually his first reply was ‘hotter than Sun Butt’. I wasn’t sure what he meant though.”
“Uh, okay. You want us to tame Discord? How exactly?”
Scootaloo’s question raised a good point, she also neglected to ask why. Samantha stood off to the side and watched the three slowly begin to talk out some form of plan, only for one of them to bring up a moot point on how it would never work. Then the bickering and yelling started.
“Kids…” Samantha quickly stood up and placed a hoof on the unicorn which separated the three. “How about instead of trying to tame… um, Discord, how about we try something else?”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo scowled at each other, then their anger quickly vanished only to be replaced by curiosity. “Like what?”
Samantha wracked her brain for an idea. Kids are pretty easy to please… usually. What would my mom do in this situation? Drawing a blank, she quickly decided to take action.
“How about... “ She looked all over, but the only things she was were their clubhouse or countless trees. She caught sight of the inside and couldn’t help but walk closer to take a peek inside. The place was a huge mess. It didn’t help that the front door appeared to not close fully considering all the stuff littered around it. “Cleaning up.” She finally decided.
“Awww…” All three of them chorused.
“Look, your door doesn’t even… look like it works.” Samantha hesitated, but decided to just go for it and stumbled onto the step ladders. She slowly climbed up and tested the door in question. It didn’t budge. She looked back at them with a quirked brow. “How do you expect to do anything in this clubhouse if you can’t even walk in it?”
Scootaloo scoffed. “Pfft, we can walk fine!” Her two friends didn’t seem so sure and gave each other a nervous smile and nod. Scootaloo ran up past Samantha and started to tentatively walk around the occasional trash pile, metal parts from Celestia knew where and random pieces of food. She made it to the other side of their clubhouse in only two minutes time. She turned around and smiled cheekily. “See?”
“Ah dunno, Scoots. Maybe we should do a little cleaning up…”
Scootaloo looked out the doorway to her friends, each giving her hopeful smiles. She sighed and muttered something under her breath. “I better not get a cutie mark in this…”
Sweetie Belle inwardly cheered, she doubted she would ever get her pretty mark with their clubhouse looking and smelly that dirty. The four joined up and Samantha began to bark out orders in an even tone.
“Alright, Scootaloo, sort out those metal parts. Uh, what are they from exactly?”
The filly blushed. “I tried taking apart my scooter once, I thought I could put it back together and earn some kind of cutie mark… my parents had to buy me a new one.”
“...Right, so gather up those parts, since they seemed to have came from you.” Samantha studied the debris and noted it wasn’t too dirty inside. “Alright, it’s a toss up between discarded food and trash. “Apple Bloom, you can help me gather these papers and throw them in the bin here.” The filly smiled and nodded. “THat just leaves you, Sweetie Belle. You can get the food.”
Sweetie watched some pudding (if you could call it that) fall from the edge of their table which came down with a loud splat. “Perfect…” The filly grunted, but nodded.
By the time they were finished the four had exhausted their energy reserves, obvious to all by their panting states.
“Finished…” Sweetie uttered out, shaken and fearful that her hooves would smell like rotten pudding for weeks.
“Yeah, that wasn’t very fun…” Scootaloo nodded, quickly agreeing with Apple Bloom.
Samantha smirked. “I never said it was gonna be fun, I said something else. Least your clubhouse is pristine now. You acted real mature you three.” Samantha complemented, observing their newly buffed wooden floorboards. The place practically sparkled. She actually wasn’t sure why she put so much effort into cleaning the place, but it felt good to help out.
Scootaloo, and soon her two friends examined their flanks. “Well we didn’t earn a cutie mark in that, thank Celestia.”
“We could have at least earned a cutie mark in being mature.” Scootaloo pointed out, the other two simply shrugged.
Sometime later Samantha found her way back to Twilight’s library. Inside she found Twilight busy working on some kind of math equation which was scribbled on several different chalkboards.
“No, that won't work. Already thought of that…”
“Uh, hello?”
Twilight jumped in surprise and whirled around. “Uh, you weren’t suppose to be here for another hour. It isn’t ready yet!”
Her mane and tail looked frizzled, as if she hadn’t actually moved in hours, or moved much. Her eyes were wide in shock and manic. Samantha coughed nervously. “Uh, I could go for a walk?” She half suggested and half questioned.
“Well--”
“Twi? You and Samantha in here?” They both heard a familiar mare speak from behind the door. It was quickly opened. In walked an earth pony mare wearing a stetson hat. She smiled upon meeting Samantha’s eyes.
“When I heard Apple Bloom and her little friends claim they cleaned their clubhouse, ah had to see it to believe it. When they fessed up and claimed you were part of it, ah was surprised. Uh, you were, right?”
Samantha met her worried gaze, but nodded. “Yeah, the place was worse than… well, I shouldn’t say.”
The mare nodded. “Believe me, I know. Ah’m just glad somepony around town did something without us requesting to, or… well, let’s just say folks ‘round here have been gettin’ used to us six doing cleanups and charity work and all sorts of things. It’s nice to help out, of course, but it’s nicer when somepony is generous in return. Thanks again!”
Twilight watched her leave, her silent gaze almost seemed eerie to Samantha. Which is why she nearly ducked under a table when the unicorn suddenly spoke quite loudly.
“That’s it! I know what your job can be!”
I’d rather get home. She quirked a brow anyway. “What?”
She didn’t like that the manic look had returned or the fact that Spike, who had remained silent this whole time, quickly ran out of the room.
It no longer felt like a dream. No. It felt like a bizarre dream. Samantha watched Rarity prepare an outfit of some kind, busy humming to herself with her back faced toward her.
“Uh, you’re just okay with me looking after your kid- fillies?”
“Hmm?” Rarity turned back slightly, then quickly gathered her attention onto her thread and needle. “Well, I must admit I was reluctant to let you be in their club at all. You… shall we say, acted oddly at your party. However, Pinkie pointed out that anypony in a new place could act out of their element. We all wanted to give you a chance.” She chuckled. “After I saw that clubhouse of theirs looking more pristine than my own shop, I was shocked!” She pondered this and then shrugged. “Actually, all of us were even more shocked when those three went a single day without, erm, causing some destruction to something. They are dears… but some actual guidance can only further their education of this world.”
“Yeah… the world.” She muttered, knowing full well that hanging out with her of all ponies would some how hinder their education of it. “But, you all hardly know me.” She pointed out.
Rarity nodded, still paying more attention to her thread and needle. “True, oh and by the way, they are our sisters, not our children. I don’t see the harm in Twilight’s little idea. You may have not done an exemplary job in the task I had given you, but we all deserve a second chance.”
She appreciated the chance regardless of what it entailed. However, she didn’t appreciate the situation. Samantha didn’t wish to cause conflict here, it would only hinder any progress she hoped to make with the ponies. If they turned against her, or she got in trouble then she could kiss any hope of going home good bye. Maybe. There was still the big possibility it was all a dream, though, hunger and thirst and a multitude of other signs pointed to this being not so true.
“Right. So, what are you making for me? I know it’s a uniform…” She trailed off and grimaced inwardly at the fancy dresses that lined Rarity’s shop. “I just don’t know what type.”
“Well, it’s not the exact same situation, but when I was a filly my mother made me join the--”
“Filly Scouts?” Samantha guessed for her. She was starting to get used to the few pony puns she had heard from the others. Judging from the odd uniform, she figured it had something to do with the girl scouts.
“Ah, so you know of them? Good. Essentially me and the others believe if the three had a leader, a “scout” leader, then their activities can be more focused. Oh, and certainly more regulated.”
Somewhere in the pit of Samantha’s soul, she felt controlling the crusaders was not going to be an easy task. So far they seemed like relatively normal kids, but compared to humans she had no idea what kind of trouble a unicorn, pegasus and earth pony could get into. She felt that by asking Rarity for help with getting home, things could only get complicated, she may not want her around her sister at all. Twilight seemed so odd when I asked her about dreams. Defensive even. There has got to be some way home, I did it before… right? In the end, Samantha figured if she spent more time exploring then she may discover a way back.
“Finished!” The entire outfit that Rarity had finished was not what astonished Samantha, it was because the thing was floating. She had still not gotten used to magic.
“So… I see.” It looked no different than a regular scout uniform from back home, mint green plus white. Only it was adapted for her new equine form. There was a tiny brown skirt around the lower end portion, which she admitted looked cute to her. The whole thing seemed overly childish, though. That was one thing she noticed about Ponyville, the charm went so deep that she could swear children designed the place.
Rarity frowned and gently lowered the outfit. “You don’t like it?”
The mare’s eyes widened and she promptly shook her head. “No, no! It’s fine… I guess I’m just not used to everything being so… cute… looking all the time.”
Rarity’s frown never wavered. “I don’t understand, hmm… just where are you from, dear? I’m not sure if any of us ever asked you.”
She didn’t have long to think, not without seeming suspicious anyway. “Well, not from anywhere around here. Way more ponies live where I’m from, plus the roads are all paved.”
Rarity nodded. “Somewhere like Manehattan?” She got a shy nod from Samantha. “Hmm, seems like rustic place for sure.”
Did she say Mane? Not Man? Samantha shook her head and decided to drop it. Though this meant she was lying and that lie would come out in order to get help in the future.
Soon the outfit swiftly floated back towards Samantha. “Alright, what say we try it on?”
Samantha moaned slightly and before even bothering an attempt, she gave Rarity a smile. “Mind helping me in? I’m not really used to wearing--”
“Ah, not used to clothes? No worries.”
Samantha could only blink in confusion at that, but was thankful when Rarity used a bit of magic to help guide her into the one piece combo clothing. It made her feel slightly warmer, almost hot, with all the fur over her body.
“Fit well?”
“Yeah, I think so.” She took a walk around her store a bit and noticed when moving the material could be felt through the fur. That gave her pause, but she considered the possibility of dreaming again and decided to drop yet another thing. She wasn’t sure if ignoring reality was healthy, but it worked for the time being.
“Excellent! I didn’t have time to make the three their own, but do you mind giving these to them?” She levitated over a wooden box and inside were three neckerchiefs, matching her own outfits color and style. Samantha nodded and the box was loaded into a saddlebag that Rarity let her borrow.
“So… do you have any tips? I said I’ve heard of them, I was never in them.”
Rarity’s eyes widened for a moment. “I see. I hadn’t considered that. It’s not overly challenging.” Rarity pondered quietly for a moment before promptly responding quite loudly. “Idea~! Give me a second to find my old scouting booklet, that should put you on the right track.”
Several moments later she found herself seated on a park bench, flipping through the booklet and dreading every moment of it. “Flower picking and eating? Hoofcare? Acting prim and proper? ...It’s like the book is getting more sexist as I read.” Somehow she didn’t think the ‘activities’ in the booklet would go over well with the three fillies. It at least had a neat way of introducing herself as their scout leader. “That shouldn’t be too difficult… what’s this?” At the end she found a few more complex things they could try. “Bird houses? Why not.”
Samantha was staring at their clubhouse nervously. She could sense the three inside, obvious from the constant laughter and noise. “Here goes nothing.” She muttered and quickly climbed their ladder. “Scouts! Front and center!” Feeling awkward even saying it, she waited.
The laughter quieted down and soon three pony faces all stuck themselves to the tiny window to peek outside. The door eventually peaked open.
“Samantha?” She heard Scootaloos voice ask.
“Yep, come on out you three!”
“We told you things were fine, Sweetie. There’s no, er, Discords out here.”
Sweetie watched Apple Bloom leave the safety of their clubhouse. Her frow was burrowed and the filly couldn’t quite figure out why things felt wrong in that moment. “But girls! What if he’s here! I know I heard him!” Sweetie immediately discovered she was now alone in their clubhouse and then quickly dashed outside to join the others.
A few moments later the Crusaders were given a short explanation on what was going on, leaving them more confused than ever.
“Yes, Scootaloo?” Samantha pointed to the pegasus who nodded in return.
“So, are you like our teacher now?”
“Sort of, only when we are you “scouting”,” she exclaimed with air quotes.
“So, we’re crusadin’ and scoutin’?” As silly as her question sounded, Apple Bloom’s expression was quite serious.
“Er, yes, your pa- sisters thought it would help you three crusade if you had better instructions… to do… so.” She was at least ninety percent sure what she said made little sense to them.
All three looked at each other, then promptly nodded.
“That makes sense!”
“Our sisters are awesome!” Two of them mimicked a high fiving motion, causing Samantha to chucklesome.
“Not as awesome as Rainbow--”
“We know, Scootaloo. We know.” Her friends finished for her in an un-enthusiastic tone. The pegasus filly snorted, but couldn’t help blushing in response.
Sweetie Belle’s hoof, which had been raised, lowered when called upon. “So, if Discord was after us, you could stop him or something, right?”
No idea who that is. Must be some kind of ‘boogie man’ to her. She smiled. “I’m sure I could take him. Now, how about we gather the materials for our bird houses.” She motioned for the fillies to follow her, though, Sweetie Belle trailed behind and couldn’t shake the feeling they were being tracked.
Their starting activity was to gather wood and while all three didn’t feel like it was the pinnacle of fun. The activity was welcome as it was different enough to not feel boring. Sweetie Belle took the opportunity to practice her levitation. She had almost gotten a small pile of wooden logs to push forward from the ground, when she heard a noise. It startled her and any magic from her horn fizzled out. She turned around and immediately noticed that she was alone, all she could see was a dirt path and the countless apple trees that littered the orchard. A wind blew through her mane, messing it up slightly. Things seemed quiet, when a moment ago she could have sworn her friends and Samantha were very near by. She shrugged, then turned around.
“Tame me will you…”
An ear shattering scream followed.
“Scoots, did ya hear that?”
Scootaloo swiveled her ears back and forth then shrugged. “Uh, I guess not?”
Samantha came up to them, using her hooves to kick a few wood pieces closer and closer to their gathering pile. In the back of her mind she started to wonder just how safe it would be to even use a saw; she had just gotten the hang of picking stuff up with her hooves. No confidence there. She looked up to two confused filly faces. “What’s up?”
“Uh, Apple Bloom heard something. Hmm, how come you never carry stuff in your mouth anyway?”
She blinked in confusion, surely the non unicorns had better ways of picking items up? She was about to test it out, when all three of them heard Sweetie Belle’s voice. They quickly discovered which direction it came from and darted after it, with Samantha in the lead. Dozens of ideas came to mind, after all the orchard was right next to a foreboding looking forest. Anything could of happened! She sped up and rounded a corner, following the path and where she hoped Sweetie Belle was.
What she saw made her almost turn right around and head for the hills. A large beast taller than any living creature she had seen thus far, was towering over Sweetie Belle. The filly in question appeared to be floating in mid air, surrounded by a giant soap bubble. The creature was more concerning, not only was he laughing like a wild man, but he appeared to be a mixture of a dragon and many other things that should never mix.
“Hey!” Samantha called out and pointed her hoof menacingly at the creature.
The dragon like ‘thing’ paused in its laugher and looked down; Sweetie Belle turned around as well. Before anything could be said the creature seemed to smile upon the sight of Samantha. “What do we have here… that’s weird.” He went to shuffle for something behind his ear, then turned back to Sweetie Belle. “I’m the king of weird, I should know.” Eventually his claw appendage came back in front, clutching a pair of eyeglasses. He donned them and promptly began to inspect the mare. “Hmm, I see, yes…”
“What do you see?” Sweetie asked, much to Samantha’s surprise.
Discord continued to ponder to himself in a trance-like state. It was bizarre to watch the being inspect her. Eventually Sweetie Belle broke out of the bubble, hopped down gently and joined the mare’s side. “So, uh, care to explain what this is about?” If there was ever a moment that made her doubt this was reality, it was a giant dragon inspecting her and mumbling to itself.
Sweetie Belle nodded. “I ran into Discord and he spooked me, so I ran a ton and nearly fell off that cliff over there.” She pointed and sure enough on the edge of the orchard the land sort of ended as it was raised above a lake. “That would have hurt, but Discord sort of saved me in this bubble thingy. I mean I would have been fine, but it was nice of him.. even if he was the one that scared me.”
“Okay, so that’s Discord?” Sweetie Belle responded by looking back at Discord, then nodded. “Alright, why is he looking at me like that?”
“I dunno.” Sweetie turned around again and cleared her throat. “Hey, Discord, what ya doin’ with Samantha?”
“There’s something just… off about her. Give a moment, I’ll figure it out.”
Sweetie smiled and nodded, looking up she noticed Samantha was practically growling in anger. Off about...me?! Her eyes twitched and she was doing her best not to flip out, the stress of her whole situation was starting to get to her.
“I’ll figure it out, maybe it’s just her weird shaped head or something,” he quipped casually.
Somewhere deep inside Samantha she felt the world turn a tad colder. Yes, she was grateful to find this world once again, a place nearly long forgotten. She was grateful to see Twilight again, even if she acted more odd than she remembered. It was like finding a long lost friend, in a long lost home, even if the memories of that home were scattered at best. However, something snapped.
“Hey! You overgrown lizard! Watch who you’re insulting!”
Sweetie Belle giggled at the two, but quickly quieted down when they noticed. “Uh, sorry.”
Samantha sighed. “You, you’re just not fair… of all the things…” She half muttered to herself. Discord seemed even more amused, while Sweetie Belle looked quite quizzical. Neither being fully understood the weight of Samantha’s words. The mare took a seat and sighed. If this was a dream I would have known at this point, woken up from shock. Now what? “Samantha, what’s wrong?”
“Sweetie Belle, I don’t think you can help. I’m sorry, but that’s just how it is.” Sweetie Belle didn’t like the answer, which was why the mare apologised before any response could be given.
Sweetie didn’t bother to respond; Samantha seemed like an adult who wanted to be left alone.
“Ah…. that’s it. Weird indeed,” Discord said solemnly.
Samantha looked up at him, all anger of his casual insults forgotten. “What?” she bothered to ask.
“Oh, look, it’s your little friends. I’ll just be getting out of your mane now, or should it be hair?” Samantha tilted her head. “Whatever, I’ll be seeing you soon!” He pulled on an imaginary beard that literally appeared from nowhere, and his entire body was sucked inside of it in a manner of seconds.
Samantha held the sigh and turned around, ignoring Sweetie’s inevitable question. “Alright, girls, let’s go work on some bird houses…” She walked past Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, not bothering to give them a glance.
All three Crusaders shared a look, then Sweetie Belle tilted her head up and motioned for her friends to follow. “Are ya sad?” Sweetie asked Samantha.
“No, well, sort of. It’s not--”
“Maybe you just need a milkshake,” Scootaloo suggested, then her wings buzzed in excitement. “Always cheers me up!”
“I don’t think--”
She was interrupted yet again by Sweetie Belle. “I don’t know, Scoots. Maybe… she should just talk about it.”
Tell a bunch of kids I’m from a different world. Yeah, that will end well. She decided on a compromise. “Well, I’ve been trying to come up with a way home. It’s… very far from here.”
“How’d you end up here?”
“Good question. I couldn’t really tell you, I just know it was some kind of magic.” Her cryptic reply didn’t dissuade them.
“What kind of magic?!” Apple Bloom’s excitable question was quickly overshadowed by two others.
“Did a freaky unicorn send you here?”
“Was it Discord?!”
“I…” Samantha trailed off. She began to ponder the strange creature's power, and how un-dream like he felt. He seemed to know his way around magic. He also seemed to find me strange. Or was that familiarity in his eyes? She thought about it for a few more moments, then realized that Discord did seem to recognize her. “Girls, how do you all know Discord?”
“Well... we don’t really. He usually hangs out with Fluttershy ah lot, she “reformed” him,” Sweetie Belle replied.
“Reformed? Uh, okay…” To Samantha, Equestria was more than just plain bizarre. It was how the place had forced her to think outside the box; to work for answers and just plain work in general. It was a foreign feeling, not just the physical changes, but almost everything. Even if they seemed far more human in their mannerisms. It was also, she decided, quite annoying. Been away from home for hours and I’m already sick of here. “Could you two maybe take me to Fluttershy’s?” her question was met with confused glances.
“But what about the birdhouses?”
“Yeah, oh! Is that a scout mission thingy? To see Fluttershy?” Scootaloo’s response made Samantha glad that children’s imagination could spiral out of control at the drop of a hat.
“Yes. We need to… gather that wood we’ve collected and bring it to her. She… can help us make birdhouses!” In the entirety of Equestria, it was Twilight she remembered the most. Meaning memories of Twilight’s friends were extremely vague, but in that single moment she realized that Fluttershy worked with animals. She remembered the night she slept near there well enough to know this. If I can’t find anything out about this Discord there, least I’ll have done my ‘job’. She felt calling what she was doing a ‘job’ was stretching things. I wonder if I’m getting paid, well, other than shelter and food.
Thankfully the three fillies offered to carry the wood for Samantha. It was quite easy to command them. Kids...awesome. She chuckled inwardly and slowly followed the three out of the orchard
“Hey, Samantha, does the scout book say anything about animal cutie marks or… cutie marks?”
Why is her name Scootaloo? She shook her head. “Erm, I don’t think so. The book is just meant to guide you. To set you on the right path, I guess.” “Really? Cause I don’t think we’re on the right path at all,” Sweetie Belle said, looking around.
“Huh?” Samantha realized they were in the same spot in which she had appeared in Equestria. They were back in the middle of town.
“Sweetie Belle, we were supposed to be going to Fluttershy’s!” Scootaloo whined.
The little unicorn filly blushed and shrugged. “Well, sorry. I thought it was this way…”
Scootaloo face hoofed, a gesture Samantha noticed seemed to be universal, then sighed. “C’mon, it’s this way.”
The other two went to follow her, but Samantha paused. It’s the tree… Through all of her fuzzy memories, a single solitary tree felt the strongest. As if having an out of body experience, she began to slowly walk toward the tree. THat’s gotta be the way back, I’m just glad it’s in town. I’d feel bad leaving behind a bunch of kids in a dangerous place. Goodbye Equestria. She felt a pang of guilt leaving the place, but she knew she belonged at home.
She reached out to touch the base of the tree, when a voice made her pause.
“Samantha! What ya doing-- woah!” Samantha jerked her head back and found Sweetie Belle had been running after her, only to trp and slide forward causing them both to jerk forward. They both saw white.
Her dizziness wore off quicker than the last time. She looked around and sighed in relief. She was back in the theatre. Would Jessica still be here waiting for her? She hoped so, she checked her pockets and found her phone and things were right where she left them. Things were back to normal.
“Ugh… what happened… wha?”
Samantha’s blood ran cold upon hearing the voice. Shakingly she turned around to find a woman of her age hunched over a broken and ripped pony poster. Even though the voice sounded less squeaky, she couldn’t deny the similarities.
“S-Sweetie Belle?”
Quickly the head of the lady jerked up then she promptly screamed.
During the ten second long scream, Samantha tried to think up a rational resolution to her newest issue. Sweetie Belle had followed her through, that much alone was cause for panic. She wasn’t a pony which would complicate things, she also wasn’t a little girl/ filly which would (thankfully) simplify some complications. The screaming wasn’t helping matters in a flurry of motions Samantha forcefully clamped her hand over Sweetie Belle’s mouth.
“Sweetie Belle, it’s Samantha. Come with me!” Her voice, she suspected, got the young girl to calm down long enough to be dragged into the woman’s restroom. “Please calm down, I need you not to scream, okay?”
Sweetie’s eyes were wide as the pony species she once was a moment ago, but she nodded. Hesitantly Samantha removed her hand. Sweetie Belle awkwardly raised her own and was speechless.
“Uh, you probably have tons of questions and…” Samantha trailed off and feeling of seriousness left her when she caught Sweetie Belle smiling and admiring ‘the view’.
“I’m so tall… this is splendid really. Heh, I almost sound like Rarity!” In a way she was correct, the comparisons were uncanny.
“You’re not… freaking out… huh.” She would have been surprised until she remembered how her experience was. I guess that makes sense… let’s go get her home. She grabbed Sweetie’s hand and walked them out. “C’mon, let’s get you home.”
“How? Where is this anyway? What.. uh, are you? And me? Am I you? A you?”
“Human, we are humans. I’m normally one and you shouldn’t be one. Just grab onto the poster here and you should be fine.” The two walked out of the bathroom and quickly found the poster.
Sweetie Belle, not knowing how to operate her hands awkwardly lowered one down and touched it with all five fingers. Nothing significant happened, except the poster was torn more. Samantha panicked some and felt all over the poster; it wasn't working.
“S-Samantha, what’s wrong? You… can send me back, right?”
The fear in her voice only added to her own stress. Could she? I’ll get her home… oh how I wish this was a dream. Her determination was quickly forgotten, however, when her friend came strolling up.
“Samantha? You okay? Uh… woah, okay. Guess you didn’t like that poster, heh. Me either.” Jessica shrugged.
“Yeah, the poster. Sorry, I ran into a friend on the way back to our theatre. Uh, this is Belle.” She awkwardly pointed to Sweetie Belle who said nothing in response. Samantha then whispered to Jessica. “She’s shy.”
“Right… nice to meet you, Belle.” Jessica waved politely and smiled. “You doing a double feature? You can join us I guess.”
Belle as she was down deemed looked down at her dress. It was white and quite plain. She wasn’t sure where she got it or why, but for some reason felt grateful that it was there. She then quickly looked back at the strange creature, the human and nodded. Out of all the fears she currently felt, not getting home, not being a unicorn and being in the company of strangers, one single thought ran through her head.
A proper mare must always be dressed for the right occasion. She thought and nodded knowing her big sister would be proud. At least she hoped so.
Jessica nodded, wondering just why the girl had taken so long to respond. Must be slow, whatever. “Alright, c’mon, we’re missing the hot action.
Sweetie Belle had no idea what that meant, but action sounded fun! She smiled and slowly grabbed Samantha’s hand, mimicking what she had done to her from earlier. “C’mon, let’s see some action!” A movie made by aliens, Scootaloo is gonna be so jealous! Samantha had yelped while getting dragged, but both of them stopped while Sweetie Belle pondered something. Are they aliens? She saw Jessica speed up into the dark hallway and quickly followed. However, she stopped again. Wait, can I walk on two feet? Hooves? Whatever! The second she thought about it, the more she realized how tricky it actually was. Which in turn made her walking seem more awkward.
Samantha saw she was having trouble and quickly took the lead, making sure Sweetie was keeping up while holding her hand. “C’mon, we’ll watch this and then try and get you home.” I hope. Samantha could have easily explained the situation to Jessica, but she was having trouble understanding it herself. Not having enough information about how to get her home (or how Samantha ended up there in the first place) would simply make her sound like a babbling insane person.
The three quickly found their seats and it wasn’t long before a majority of the three was enthralled by the film.
“Who left the fridge open?!”
Samantha took a glance at Sweetie Belle who was not only captivated by the film, but had quickly gained proper use of her fingers. Obvious by their yellow sticky appearance from buttered popcorn. At least she seems calm. I wonder why? A quick memory told her just why, she was too. At least as a child, in a new pony body. She was calm about the whole thing, being so young her full perception of reality wasn’t fully lucid like an adult or older child. Things were like a dream, everyday. A wonderful dream. I should give those three fillies a bit more credit, they are way smarter than I was as a child. She took a quick glance back over and found the “filly” trying to balance a piece of popcorn on her nose. Maybe not as much…
The whole experience of having Sweetie Belle with them didn’t seem to cause too many distractions. It was after the movie which Samantha worried for. She had no plans and it wasn’t as if her parents would let some random girl stay over. As time went on, Samantha grew more and more nervous. Wild ideas of how to hide her seemed more and more realistic as time dragged on.
I could have her hide in my closest whenever my parents are home… yeah hiding a pony child in a closet who happens to be in an adult human body. Nothing can go wrong there! For a moment she thought it was plausible, until she noticed Sweetie Belle’s loud giggling. Okay, I could have her… just - crap! I can't think of anything! For a second she was angry at Sweetie Belle for making things so complicated, but she quickly calmed down when she thought about it. Not her fault. I barely understand what’s going on. Any one of them could have followed me. Samantha sunk further into her seat, wondering just when her nightmare would be over.
Sweetie Belle felt as if she was having a rather intriguing day. If her new body wasn’t interesting enough, their films were even more. The special effects, sound, scale and size of everything (not to mention the very clear picture) all just seemed so impossible. Quickly an image of educational films that Cheerilee would play in school popped into her head. Never before could she have imagined movies like this!
She examined the hero on the screen who seemed to randomly spit out made up phrases. I wonder if they get cutie marks? She figured only ponies got them, but actor in the film had to have one in… something! She squinted her eyes on his face and giggled a bit, but not before blushing profoundly. Maybe he has a pretty mark… g h
The movie was clearly coming to an abrupt end, the three ladies could clearly see the budget dying off as the effects got cheaper and cheaper.
“I’ll see you next time, we’ll get tropical! Sweetie Belle had no idea what he was talking about, but shrugged and awkwardly clapped her new hands while the credits rolled.
These things are weird… She inwardly complained. She yelped in surprise when her hand was yanked and her body was dragged along as Samantha and her followed Jessica.
“Sweetie Belle, I need you to keep quiet when I speak to Jessica. Got it?”
“Okay, but you’re hurting my, uh, arm?” Samantha nodded to clarify that she was correct. “Please stop yanking.”
Samantha let go and blushed. “Sorry.” She quickly turned back to Jessica while other people passed them. “So, me and Belle here need to head to the college to pick up some stuff. I can drop you off but then we need to go… take care of that.” Samantha glanced back and nearly panicked when she didn’t see Sweetie Belle. Where did she go?!
“I’m gonna tag along, k.” It was more of a statement than question, but Samantha was too distracted to nod.
“Yeah… whatever…” Samantha trailed off and frantically search around for Belle
Jessica stared at her friend as if she went mad. She was looking like she had lost a child or something. “Uh… she your girlfriend or something?”
All searching for ‘Belle’ ceased immediately. “What?!”
A few people in the hallway glanced at that. Jessica chuckled. “Chill out, it’s fine if you’re gay. I mean I didn’t see it coming, but…”
Samantha smacked her hand into her face and sighed. “Jessica, shut up please. Also, did you see where she went?”
Jessica shut her mouth and smiled, then comically pointed to her lips. Samantha groaned.
Sweetie Belle watched Samantha converse with Jessica while doing her best to remain quiet. Suddenly she felt a plethora of people scrunch up behind her. Before she could even yelp she was dragged along out of the darkening hallway and into the growing sunlight. She saw a massive lobby with dozens up dozens of people all gathered in various groups. That’s a lot of… not ponies.
Her fascination of them soon ended when she noticed all they did was talk. She looked down and spotted something quite colorful on the ground. “Is that a doll?” She leaned down and spotted a small oddly constructed miniature equine. It looked to be a cheap toy. Tentatively she knelt down to pick it up, upon touching she felt as if she was leaving her own body. For a moment she felt giddy and light headed, but it soon past. The light around her shifted from her view from dark to light impossibly fast. After opening her eyes from being shielded, she gasped.
“I’m back?” She questioned. Sweetie quickly looked down to her body to confirm things were okay and she sighed in relief. “Samantha? You here?” Looking around she found it curious that she wasn’t where she was before, not when she left Ponyville.
“She’s not here.” She heard a familiar voice claim.
She looked up to find a floating lord of chaos just above her. “Oh, okay, thanks.” She quickly did a double take when she came to her actual senses. “How do you know she’s not here?”
He appeared to ponder her question greatly by taking his beard and stroking it a few times. “A decent enough question. What is here anyway?”
“Ponyville…” She replied irritably.
He smiled wickedly down on her, then leaned in as close as he could possibly get. “Are you sure? Are you absolutely positively… positive?! Last I checked you were here…”
For a moment Sweetie Belle’s vision wavered and in that single solitary moment she saw the theatre, she saw Samantha and she saw her body change. She quickly shook her head then promptly knocked it into Discord’s. “Back off! What was that?!” She demanded, her voice squeaking so everypony could hear.
Discord pouted and shook his head. “You have a hard head you know.” The tiny filly fumed as her marshmallow colored cheeks turned crimson. “Oh fine, fine. I know all about Samantha and that other world of hers. You were just there, weren’t you?” His smirk returned.
Sweetie Belle’s anger vanished, she tilted her head curiously. “Did you bring her here? Why?” The unicorn couldn’t think of a single reason for wanting to do so. Other than he was Discord and he likes to have fun.
He scoffed. “Well, not intentionally. You could say I had the sniffles… and I may have misplaced a part of me. A very important part…” Quickly his expression shifted to one of a serious lord of chaos. One Sweetie Belle wanted no part in. He saw her quick retreat and attempted to teleport right next to her. He snapped his talons and half expected to vanish in thin air, only to reappear behind the panicked filly. Instead he found all it did was cause a rain cloud to appear above his head, one that was not shy about spewing out endless bits of chocolate milk.
Sweetie Belle slowed down when she saw Discord appeared to be having trouble. He would snap his talons several times then something bad would happen. By the end of it all he was covered in cotton candy and soap bubbles. He fumed on the ground with his ‘arms’ crossed and sighed. She tentatively walked up to him and took a seat. “What are you doing?”
“I can’t… “ He fumed even more and seethed out his response. “I can’t… teleport anymore and once more I’m not sure why.” Sweetie Belle could only nod. “Well, I have an idea. But I need your help.”
“Why mine?”
He scoffed again. “Oh, think about it. A mysterious mare appears out of nowhere then disappears and reappears, along with you. I know of where she is from and where you went. It has to be my magic!” Without warning he picked her up and cradled her like a young foal. “Just thinking about my magic with her, all alone! What if it gets lost? What if it catches a cold…”
“Uh, can you put me down now?” Her wish was granted when he threw her up in the air and she landed promptly on her side. His magic shifted around him, granting the lord of chaos an odd get up made of black. He began to weep. “What if I never see it again?!”
Sweetie stood up and dusted herself off. “I’ll help you I guess…” In a split second all crying ceased and he began to frantically shake her hoof up and down.
“Excellent! So, where do we start?” Another snap of his magic and a familiar looking outfit was placed on Sweetie Belle, one she had seen Pinkie wear when she was out “solving riddles”.
“Well, you think Samantha has your magic?” She questioned.
He waved his talon. “Or something like that. My magic has always been difficult to tame, it could be anywhere really.”
“But if it’s in her then how did I travel back without her? All I did was touch this doll and--” Her face became scrunched up against his in an instant.
“Doll?! What doll? You never mentioned a doll!”
She shoved his face back for a second time, wondering why it had became a going trend. “I was in that movie theatre then I found a pony doll? Yeah, that was it. I touched it and I was back!”
“Inanimate objects… it’s worse than I feared!” He tapped his beard once and his whole body vanished into thin air, only to reappear right on top of the unicorn’s back. He then brought out a saddle and a muzzle for her face. “Quickly, Watson, to Twilight’s place!”
“But you just said you couldn’t teleport…” Sweetie Belle trailed off when she noticed something very familiar about Discord, his smile and eyes seemed eerie familiar to Pinkie Pie’s. It was in this single second that she decided it would be best for her sanity to not question his logic. She sighed and walked ahead the ten feet required to reach Twilight’s front door.
“We’re here.”
Discord climbed off, but Sweetie’s hoof stopped his claw from ever reaching the door. “Discord, what is going on? Just… be serious for once.” His face shifted to a dark and depressing frown. “But not that serious!”
He smiled slightly. “You really want to know?”
She nodded frantically.
He giggled like mad, then quickly tapped the door three times. “I have no idea!” When his giggle fit died down he sighed and smiled. “Oh, it feels wonderful to not know something. Mysteries are so rare to me. So rare…”
Sweetie Belle shook her head, wondering if she could possibly sneak off and just maybe help him out later. “Are you ever gonna make sense?!”
He scoffed yet a third time, and shook his head in disgust. “Now where’s the fun in that?”
“Alright, open your mouth,” Twilight commanded. Discord was comically laid out on top of a rather small bed. The three had gathered down in Twilight’s basement. Sweetie Belle was off to the side, doing her best not to look at all of the librarian’s inventions and gizmos. A flashback ran through her head of only a few moments ago.
“Okay, she can come,” Twilight said to Discord, much to Sweetie Belle’s displeasure. “But she and you are not to touch anything down there!” She insisted, her voice raising just a few notches.
Sweetie Belle nodded, but before she could even finish her gesture, Twilight’s face was inches before hers. The mare had an eerie serious expression plastered on her muzzle.
“I’m being serious!”
“Okay, okay!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, nodding her head even faster.
Twilight glared at both of them, then quietly let some magic flow from her horn then the door quickly unlocked.
When the filly snapped back to reality she found Discord currently had several dozen wires sticking out of him, each connected to a rather bulky machine.
I should really stop daydreaming… She shook her head and did her best to focus on Twilight’s experiments. Even if she didn’t understand a single thing that was going on.
“Hey, Twilight, is he even sick?”
Twilight took a single minute to look up from her machine. “Honestly, I have no clue.” Twilight’s face scrunched up to disgust when one of DIscord’s claws detached itself and crawled away. “Not that he’s being much help!” She raised her voice and Discord merely chuckled.
“Oh, I’ve been very well behaved. Honestly, Twilight, you should be kinder to your friends.”
Twilight sighed and her pristine mane appeared to deflate twenty percent. “Discord, I’m still not exactly sure why you think something is wrong with you.” Twilight looked up to Sweetie Belle who merely shrugged as if to say “don’t look at me”.
“I can just feel it in my bones!” He gave Twilight a begging look, then his eyes shifted to Sweetie Belle. “Besides, you should really be asking her what’s going on. After all I wasn’t the one that got sent to another dimension.”
Sweetie’s eyes widened in shock while Twilight simply nodded a few times. “Okay so-- wait, what did you just say?”
Discord scoffed. “I said “I wasn’t the one that found Samantha acting strange earlier. Twilight, you really should clean your ears more often.
Twilight held her tongue from saying something nasty then nodded. “What does that have to do with anything?”
Discord promptly stood up, and yanked all the wires off of him. “Well, think about it. Anypony acting strange could easily be linked to my illness.” he explained casually. He then narrowed his eyes at Twilight. “Do you even know what could happen if I was, indeed, sick?”
“Hopefully bed rest and nothing chaotic happening?” she questioned in slightly cheerful tone. Discord slowly shook his head. “Well, you just don’t seem sick.”
“My dear Twilight, appearances can be oh so deceiving. Oh…” Discord trailed off when they all noticed he had began to walk away from the exam table, with his body trailing behind as well. His arms, legs and face looked behind him and he sighed. “Oh, poo, don’t you just hate it when that happens?”
Twilight and Sweetie stared in wide eyed shock at his stationary floating body. After a couple moments of this, they saw the color literally drain from it. Red, brown and grey mixed together to form an ink like material on the basement floor. When it was over his body appeared to fall down quite quickly, like a rock.
“Well, I guess you’re right, Twilight. I feel fit as a fiddle!” he announced with a wicked smile.
“Samantha, you’re starting to freak me out… like, a lot,” Jessica said while staring at her friend's hand who happened to be moving all over a cardboard cutout pony ad.
“Yeah, well, so am I. Just give me a few minutes, then we can forget about my sudden bout of craziness and go home,” she replied while digging around. She was growing more frustrated as time grew on, but she didn’t want to give up on Sweetie Belle. She knew the one way back to their world seemed to have something to do with pony related things, she just didn’t know why. Well, she didn’t exactly know it had everything to do with pony paraphernalia, she just knew showing up in Equestria had happened from a pony poster of all things. After ten minutes of searching all around, she sighed. Samantha looked back up at her friend and smiled shyly. “Uh, okay let’s go home.”
“Hmm, I dunno, you seemed pretty sure of yourself. You said that girl was from… another “place”. Right?” Jessica questioned in a rare moment of sincerity.
“Yeah… I know that’s not much of an explanation to go on.” Samantha wasn’t even sure why she had told Jessica; with Sweetie Belle gone she had no actual proof to back herself up. She could be lost out there… she thought worrying. I doubt she randomly made it back to Equestria somehow, so where is she?!
“Are your clothes glowing, or am I high?” Jessica asked, feeling all over her body. “I mean, I don’t do drugs or anything, but your clothes really look like they’re glowing…”
Yep, I’m glowing.
“Discord! You will explain to me what is going on and you will make sense while doing it! Do you understand?!” Twilight half screamed and half commanded at his floating disembodied eyes and mouth.
Twilight demanded this while Sweetie Belle attempted to sweep up the remains of Discord’s body with a broom. The child was acting frantically and wasn’t exactly sure if it was one of the creature’s tricks or not. Better safe than sorry… better not be a trick. Or he’s gonna play a certain game with me. Sweetie Belle thought, thinking of just the right pink pony to call on if the Element of Chaos needed punishment. Pinkie Pie > Discord.
“You know it’s funny because, for once, I honestly don’t know what's been going on. At least not when it comes to be detached head and all,” he replied swiftly, while doing his best to concentrate in order to keep his mouth together.
Sweetie Belle stopped sweeping and gave him a glare. “You’re lying! Earlier you said--”
“Ah, I know that something is going on, I just don’t know why I’m like this… not exactly anyway. Meaning I did not lie to dearest Twilight.”
“But you kept information from us?” Twilight questioned, her anger threatening to boil.
“Well, specifically I kept information from you,” he said while pointing to Twilight. “Not Pint Sized Marshmallow over there.”
Sweetie Belle promptly dropped the broom and walked over to Twilight, joining the unicorn’s glaring contest.
“Oh don’t give me that look, Twilight, you have a tendency to blow up over the smallest things. I can only imagine what would happens when you’re told a dimensional travelling pony breached our boundaries, stole my magic and is doing Celestia knows what with it,” he quipped casually.
Twilight did a double take and scratched her mane. Sounds like something from one of Spike’s comics… “You wanna run that one by me again? I don’t understand.”
Sweetie Belle went to the other strange planet, she was there, and she felt she didn’t understand.
“You know what a dimension is, yes?”
“Yes, what does that have to do with anything? It’s just the measure or length of--”
“Not that kind of dimension! Stop thinking in dictionaries!” Discord chastised by causing a newspaper to appear into his still working claw, then he beated it over the head of Twilight.
“I do not!” Sweetie Belle blurted out. Both Discord and Twilight paused and stared at Sweetie Belle for several long (and extremely awkward) moments.
Discord snorted. “Didn’t that old Princess teach you anything about dimension pathways? I mean you can teleport! That--”
“It’s not really teleportation, I simply speed up the passage of time relative to me then run over to where I wish to “teleport” to, then slow it down again,” Twilight explained swiftly, as if everypony knew how it worked.
Discord blinked and stared at her for a single tense moment. “I don’t believe you.”
Twilight sighed, and focused a familiar spell, only this time she focused it over both Discord and herself. In a manner of seconds time appeared to slow down immensely for both Discord and Twilight. Discord watched Sweetie Belle’s body move, but very slowly. Meanwhile Twilight cantered over to his side, then unfocused her spell. Upon doing this a single flash appeared over her, and time was normal again.
“See?”
“Interesting, when I teleport I open a hole in space and time in two different locations then I merely travel between them…”
Twilight reared back in horror. “Why would you do that?! Just follow the book and the steps on teleportation!” She levitated over a book to him, which Discord threw away in disgust. “The way you’re doing it is so reckless! You could tear a hole in the fabric of space time, in our magical barrier that surrounds and penetrates all of Equestria and its inhabitants!”
Discord scoffed. “Oh please, when I do I always make sure to put magical dampening fields around me and the holes that I make. That way when they are reabsorbed no damage is done to any “magical barriers”. Honestly, Twilight, you should really take more risks in life. So much more chaotic, but so much much more fun!” To emphasise his point he tried to teleport himself, but fell flat on his face. “Well, usually it is. The way you do it… it’s like you're a big stick in the mud!”
“I am not! Speeding up time for myself is just as fun!” she countered, sticking her tongue out childishly.
“Then why not stay that way? Keep time speeding up, you could play pranks on even myself!”
“That’s dangerous! I could be stuck that way! Then my magic would keep draining forever until-”
“Uh, Twilight. I think we’re getting off topic,” Sweetie Belle pointed out.
Discord nodded. “Quite right. As I was saying dimensional travel (something Celestia should have taught you)-” he paused to add, causing Twilight to pout “- is something Samantha is very much doing, and has been since she got here.”
“How did you even know she was in the first place?” Sweetie asked, rounding on him.
He considered how to answer before sighing. “Well…”
“I wonder what ol’ LuLu is up to these days?” Discord asked himself, then cracked his claws and summoned up a familiar spell. Opening up a rift between two places was, by no means, easy. But he had done it so many times, it was practically second nature. Imagining Princess Luna in her chamber (and the various things he would soon do to her toilet and possibly bathtub) and imagining the spot he was (Fluttershy’s home) he summoned up the spell.
“One, two, a three, achoo!” The final statement was accidental as he sneezed just as the spell was cast. What opened before him in a vastly swirling portal like opening was not what he had expected. Instea of “Moon Butt” he saw what could only be described as an alien creature.
“I had been trying to get to Luna’s room, when instead I opened a… sort of rift to another realm. Another planet. I was going to go in there and really explore when I noticed a pretty big problem, I had almost no control over the opening.”
Twilight rubbed the temples on her head over and over. “Ignoring the fact that you planned on sneaking into Princess Luna’s bedroom, control how?”
“Well, ordinarily I would be able to cast aside the portal on a whim, but it was being stubborn. It wasn’t going away when I told it to.” To emphasis what he meant, he summoned up a similar portal before the two ponies, it floated in mid air and shimmered all around in a circle. Inside they both saw Princess Luna walking around her bedroom. Before Twilight could throw a fit, Discord waved his claw and it vanished. “But mine wasn’t doing that, it was then that I noticed that it failed to go away due to time dilation. It was going away, just not very quickly.”
“You know, this is the most “science” I’ve ever seen you do, Discord.”
“Oh I am very scientific, Sparky.” Discord now donned several outfits befitting of a scientist, each thicker than the last. He also had on eight pairs of glasses for no apparent reason. “Anyway, it had to go and fast. I couldn’t just leave something like that up. I had to dispose of the evidence… I mean I had to cover it up so that little alien couldn’t see through here and nopony on this side could see into there. Problem solved!”
Twilight was furious. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle stood off to the side and pondered all of what Discord claimed.
“You… you just left it there?!” she asked in horror as she had already began to pace back and forth frantically.
“What was I supposed to do? It wouldn’t budge. I hid it behind a rock or tree or something on our end using a bit of illusion magic, and behind a poster or something on her end. It should have worked!”
Twilight immediately stopped walking and then promptly pounced on his remaining body. “What if that alien touched the poster, Discord? What if somepony stumbled onto your rock, Discord?!”
“Well, they obviously did or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” he replied with a quick chuckle of his own.
Twilight Sparkle spent the next ten seconds of her life doing her best to not incinerate Discord on the spot.
“Uh, Discord? You keep saying your magic is gone or something, did it get sucked into your portal thingy?” Sweetie Belle asked, while tiptoeing away from Twilight and her inevitable breakdown.
For a moment Twilight and Sweetie had assumed Discord has turned to stone as well, he remained frozen in place. Suddenly he twitched and sighed. “You know it’s funny, I really thought what would do me in was Sun Butt. Not a sneeze of all things, how boring.”
“Discord… what are you saying?” Twilight’s expression seemed solemn, her anger quickly forgotten.
“Sweetie is right, my magic is connected to that portal.”
“So?”
“So, the portal isn’t disappearing, not yet anyway. It will, eventually, but first it must take something with it… uh, everything with it.”
Twilight shook her head and chuckled. “That’s not…” she trailed off and saw that Discord, for once, seemed deadly serious. “Even if what you were saying was true, that would take… wait, how fast is it… sucking?”
Sweetie looked between the two of them, feeling as though she more lost than ever now.
“It would take centuries, Twilight. Eons even for all of Equestria, but for poor old me… I don’t have long. By the time I’m… gone, I’m sure you’ll have figured out a fix, just not for me.”
“Okay, so the alien--”
“It’s Samantha, Twilight. Try to keep up,” he reminded her.
“Right, wow, I guess it is her. Samantha is absorbing your magic?”
“Yes.” he answered plainly, growing a little less enthusiastic about the whole thing.
“What was “absorbing” it before she had discovered the portal?”
He started to tap his claws over and over, trying to consider her question as carefully as possible. “I honestly have no idea. It must have simply been sucked into her world somewhere, probably still lingering about; I had simply assumed she got it all, but you’re thinking no?”
“Do you honestly think she even has half of your power? She’d go insane!”
“I’d take offense to that, but I see your point. Hmm… if I was my magic and floating around in another world, where would I go?”
Sweetie Belle, feeling she had mostly caught up with their conversation, cleared her throat. “What if it’s in the poster?”
Both Twilight’s and Discord’s eyes turned to her in shock. “What? You said your magic was in the portal thingy, how come it can’t be absorbed into other things?”
Discord nodded and turned to Twilight. “See? That’s why you always go with children, they always have the best ideas. Plus if I get turned to stone again, maybe she and her loud friends will have another fight and I’ll be free as a bird!”
Twilight smacked her hoof into her face and slowly ran it down. “So, we are assuming your magic was absorbed into Samantha but mainly into a… advertisement piece of paper?” Twilight questioned hesitantly.
“That makes about as much sense as anything that’s been said all morning!” Discord exclaimed in a sincere voice. “All so obvious…”
“Uh, yeah. How do we find the poster then? And Samantha?”
Sweetie Belle raised her hoof and waited patiently to be called on.
“Uh, Sweetie Belle this isn’t a classroom. You can just speak,” Twilight said, wondering why she randomly decided to raise her hoof all of a sudden.
“Oh yeah. Uh, why don’t you just go back to the portal thingy and check for it?”
Discord shrugged. “Well, I would but not only does it change where it ends up on the other side randomly, but it is on our side as well. It could be in Princess Luna’s chambers by now for all I know.”
Twilight began to foam at the mouth. “You didn’t mention that part, how complicated is this portal?!”
Sweetie placed her hoof on Twilight’s head and began to pet it over and over. Twilight felt so confused in that moment that her anger was momentarily forgotten. “Okay, so we just wait for you to… uh, die?” she asked fearfully.
“Either that or Samantha to show up out of the blue. Though, the odds of that happening are approximately thirty seven hundred and twenty to one. Give or take twenty or so.”
All of a sudden they all heard the front door of the library slam open, Twilight used a bit of magic to open the basement door and then ran upstairs to see who it was.
