I'm Not Scary!
Emotion should be a normal concept for anypony to understand. Most ponies clearly express how they feel through everything they do, such as their body language, facial expressions, or perhaps even some of their work. For the most part, a majority of their heart and soul is put into their special talents and what they do for a living. It is this expression of emotion that can allow the ponies that live in this kingdom to form happy, long-lasting friendships and live together in harmony.
But, there are some ponies that find it difficult to understand emotions, and why others react the way they do to certain things. This inability to understand other ponies in this way can cause major distress in these individuals, making them socially awkward, a little insensitive toward their fellow ponies, and results in some very strong anxiety from having such difficulty in forming relationships. Bear in mind, these ponies are intelligent, and well-educated equines, but they just can’t bring themselves to communicate with others, tend to mostly keep to themselves, and can become very reclusive and isolated from everypony else. They believe that if this much stress is what it takes to have friends, then it wasn’t worth it in the long run, and they avoid other ponies as much as physically possible.
However, that doesn’t mean there is no hope for those ponies. They can be taught to comprehend the feelings of other ponies besides themselves, and can live relatively normal lives.
Gear Gizmo is one of those ponies.
SMASH!
CRASH!
BAM!
“Agh! Ms. Hooves, please be careful! This equipment is very, VERY expensive!”
Derpy looked down at the mess she had made (completely by accident) of her newest client’s boxes, which she kept dropping on the ground below on account of her slight clumsiness. Also staring back at her from the ground was the stallion she was working for giving an angry glare through his glasses back at her. He was a Pegasus with a light purple coat with an even darker purple and brown mane. He wore a pair of light green, rectangular glasses over his eyes, and his Cutie-Mark was three, different sized gears intertwining and working together.
This was Gear Gizmo. Tech enthusiast, inventor, and a new resident to Ponyville.
Now if only his hired help for unpacking could go five measly minutes without nearly killing him by almost dropping his boxes full of electronics and tools on his head, then maybe some actual progress could be made.
Derpy looked again at the mess she made, and then back at the stallion and smiled sheepishly.
“Hehe. Sorry Mr. Gizmo. I just don’t know what went wrong.” Derpy laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her head.
Gear put a hoof to his face and groaned in aggravation. He couldn’t tell if she was trying to be funny, or if she seriously had no clue how this happened, but he honestly couldn’t care less. Either way, he felt it was a pretty lousy excuse. He just wished Derpy wouldn’t make his front yard a major hazard to trot through.
“Well can you please, pleeeeeaase try to be more careful? I’m on a limited budget, and I can’t afford any more of my property being broken.” He groaned with a slightly annoyed look on his face.
Derpy nodded as confidently as she could, trying to bring a smile back to her face, despite the situation.
“Alright! I’ll do the best I c-“ Derpy didn’t even get to finish her sentence, as she had dropped another box in front of Gear. It probably would’ve smacked him right in the head if he hadn’t flinched at the sight of Derpy picking up another box and moving out of its way.
“SORRY!” Derpy shouted with an apologetic look on her face.
Gear wasn’t amused in the slightest. He looked like he was going to flip for a moment, his eye twitching and his eyes going bloodshot. He stopped himself though by trying to stay calm and breath slowly as he rubbed his temples with his now outstretched wings.
‘Ugh. If I had known that the moving company was so understaffed that they had to send this mare to assist me, I think I would’ve just done this on my own…actually that doesn’t sound so bad all of a sudden.’ Gear thought to himself.
“Umm…Ms. Hooves, I think I’ll just take care of my own things from here. Just…go off and enjoy yourself. I’ll still pay you for the work you’ve done already.” Gear said as he waved a hoof towards town to her. Derpy looked at him with a confused and concerned look on her face.
“Are you sure Mr. Gizmo? These things seem awfully heavy. If you want, I could-“
“NO!...Erm…no. It’s fine. Just…go. Please.” Gizmo interrupted before Derpy could find any other reason to stick around. He didn’t think his insurance covered clumsy pegasi messing things up this badly.
Derpy stared for a moment before shrugging and preparing to fly off.
“Well…okay then. If you’re so sure, I’ll just be going. Hope I see you in town later Mr. Gizmo!” Derpy shouted as she flew off into Ponyville, and out of Gear’s sight.
“Yeah well, for both our sakes, let’s hope not.” Gear said sarcastically to himself. The last thing he wanted was ponies going all “Social Butterfly” on him. He didn’t know how to behave around other ponies, and whenever one tries to talk to him, it really stressed him out. He didn't need anypony around for him to be happy. He was perfectly fine on his own. The only reason Derpy was around was because it was her job to help ponies unpack their stuff into new houses.
Gear pondered his social status in several of the previous towns he lived in for a moment. In pretty much all of them, too many ponies tried to be all friendly with him. Why? He never asked them to talk to him, and he tried his best to give off signs that said he was never interested in conversation.
Why did they never pick up on them?
For reasons he couldn’t comprehend, Gear didn’t like being talked to. He just didn’t know what to say whenever somepony approached him, and the experience of just being near other ponies was very stressful and gave him a major headache. If all that stress is the price of friendship, Gear figured that it wasn’t worth the effort.
Not to mention Derpy could probably be a potential threat to his safety later on. Best avoid contact with her at all costs.
Gear shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts. He didn’t have time to dwell on the subject of his social life, which probably would’ve looked sad and depressing from an outsider’s point of view. Not to him though. He had boxes to move.
Gear trotted up to one of the much larger boxes and wrapped his hooves around it, trying to lift it off the ground…
Without it budging even a single inch. He tried lifting it over and over, heavily straining his leg’s muscles as he did so, but to no avail. The box simply refused to move. He tried pushing it across the ground from the side, but still found little success in getting the box to move at all.
Gear stood straight up and looked with an angry expression down at the box, his face contorting into a slight scowl. He stretched out his wings and wrapped them around the box, hoping to find some form of success in moving it with them.
He didn’t. His wings pulled him back towards the ground and his face landed on the box, which gave him a slight bruise and his glasses went crooked as a result.
After properly re-adjusting his glasses, Gear’s left eye started to twitch. He was starting to remember why he even asked for a mover in the first place; he was severely lacking in the body strength department. Why did he have to be so physically behind other Pegasi? If he was destined to be a weak flyer for the rest of his life, the least his wings could do was ATTEMPT to be useful.
“So help me Celestia, I will get you to move, even if it kills me." he growled to the box, as if it could say anything back.
It was another glorious day in the cheerful little town of Ponyville. Everypony was happily going about their daily business and overall trying to enjoy themselves. Among those ponies was Pinkie Pie, the town’s resident party pony, who was working at Sugarcube Corner and serving milkshakes to her five friends who happened to be at the bakery themselves.
“Order up everypony!” Pinkie happily shouted as she propelled the milkshakes off the tray on her back by jerking her flank forward, sending the drinks flying and landing on the table in front of the five mares sitting there, all of them smiling in response.
“Thank you very much darling. I really do enjoy just spending quality time together like this.” Rarity said, levitating the milkshake up to her mouth and taking a sip.
“I’ll admit, it is nice to just be able to have fun and not facing down the newest threat to Equestria.” Twilight, the newly entitled, “Princess of Friendship” said with a smile, also taking a drink of her own milkshake.
“Umm, yes. This is very nice.” Fluttershy mumbled, wearing a similar smile to her friends.
Pinkie loved this more than anything in the whole world. Being able to make her friends smile and enjoy her company meant more to her than all the cupcakes in all of Equestria. And considering how much she liked cupcakes, that was really saying something.
Not one to be left out of fun with her friends, Pinkie popped up between Applejack and Rainbow Dash, pulling them close to her shoulders with a huge smile on her face.
“Hehehe! Isn’t this fun? No magic-stealing baddies, no changelings trying to kill us at every turn; nothing but friends and sweets!” Pinkie Pie said happily, to which Applejack and Rainbow replied with slightly uncomfortable laughs. It was still surprising to them just how happy Pinkie could get. It almost seemed like there wasn’t any extent, not that that was a bad thing, it was just sort of unusual.
“Hehe. Sure is sugarcube.” Applejack said with a slight chuckle.
“Yeah…awesome” Rainbow said, still disturbed a little by Pinkie’s energy.
Almost as if on cue, a grey streak flew through Sugarcube Corner’s doors, skidded across the floor, and smacked into the counter that held the register, where Mr. Cake happened to be standing behind. He looked across the counter and down to the object that had just crash-landed into his shop and was left with an unsurprised, deadpanned expression.
“…Hello Derpy.” He said.
The mare in question had been quite dazed from the crash, her crossed eyes spinning around and around. She quickly shook her head and got to her hooves to face Mr. Cake with a sheepish smile.
“Hehe. Hi Mr. Cake. I’m sorry I crashed in the store…again.” She said nervously, still wearing that same, unsure smile.
Mr. Cake slightly smiled and rolled his eyes. This sort of thing had become routine for the grey mare as of late.
“It’s alright. It doesn’t look like you caused nearly as much damage this time. You’re getting a lot more coordinated it seems.”
Derpy rubbed the back of her neck nervously.
“Umm…I think Mayor Mare’s mailbox disagrees with you…anyway, I was just hoping I could get a muffin.” Derpy said.
“No trouble at all. We always appreciate your business.” Mr. Cake said, reaching into the display case in the counter and pulling out a delicious-looking blueberry muffin. Derpy licked her lips at the sight of the pastry, gave Mr. Cake the necessary bits from her saddlebags, and was given the muffin. She was about to take a bite out of it, when she heard a familiar voice call her over.
“Hey Derpy! Nice entrance! I give it 11/10!” Pinkie Pie squealed. Derpy looked over at Pinkie, who appeared to be hanging out with her friends at a table nearby.
“Hehe…thanks Pinkie…I guess.” Derpy said a little unsure if her crashing into the bakery for the 7th time this week could really be considered a “Nice entrance” or worthy of a rating that went outside a grading scale.
“So Ms. Hooves, how’s things been going for you lately? Is your job treating you well?” Rarity asked.
Derpy shrugged. “It’s alright. It can be a little hard to get through sometimes though. Some of those boxes can be really slippery.” She said.
“Yeah, that’s it.” Rainbow said sarcastically to herself. She hadn’t forgotten how badly repairing City Hall had gone with Derpy around.
“Hang on Derpy…don’t you normally work on Tuesdays around now? What’re you doing here?” Twilight asked with a confused look on her face.
Derpy’s ears folded back and she still appeared to be a little uneasy.
“Umm…I think I was breaking too much of the new pony’s stuff, because he let me go early and said he’d just do it himself.” Derpy said.
That sentence made Pinkie Pie go as stiff as a board. If she heard Derpy right, then there was a new pony in town. A pony she hadn’t met yet! A brand new pony that she could call her friend! This was a rare occurrence nowadays, seeing as some ponies tended to avoid Ponyville lately because of all the crazy things that the town seems to attract, and she wasn’t going to waste this opportunity, not by a long shot.
Faster than anypony could even blink, Pinkie Pie shot out of the doors of Sugarcube Corner like a rocket, hoping to find this new pony as quickly as she could so she could befriend the lucky mare or stallion.
“Huh? Where’d she go?” Fluttershy asked.
Applejack chuckled. “Knowing Pinkie Pie by now, she probably went to go introduce herself ta the new pony in town. That mare can’t ever seem ta have anypony NOT know her can she?” Applejack asked, to which the rest of the ponies shook their heads with slight smiles.
Derpy seemed to be the only worried one out of the bunch.
‘Oh boy. Mr. Gizmo really didn’t seem like the social type. He was pretty quick to just get me out of there, so who knows what’ll happen when Pinkie gets to him…Oh gosh.’ Derpy thought to herself. She looked back at her muffin and smiled a little inside, hoping for the best with Pinkie Pie’s attempts at befriending that stallion. Maybe she could manage to get him to chill out a little, because he did seem pretty anxious and a little irritable.
Muffins make everything seem better.
Alright, this officially sucked major plothole.
Gear had been straining himself for the past half-hour trying to just get this stupid box off the ground and into his house, but made literally zero progress in such a long amount of time. He was starting to sweat heavily now, and to make matters worse, his glasses kept sliding off his face from the sweat. He kept having to push them back to his face just so he could see three feet in front of him.
“Urgh! COME ON!” Gear yelled. He was having half a mind to go into town and find Derpy again, but decided against it. What the heck was he supposed to say to her anyway? He’d already basically told her to piss off once, and he wasn’t signing up for…ugh, talking.
Gear laid himself on his new front lawn, breathing heavily and giving himself a break from his battle with the box.
“Urrrgh. This is humiliating. A pony with an IQ of 160 beaten by a frickin’ box…well, at least nopony else is around to see th-“
“HI!” an unfamiliar, high-pitched voice squealed. Just as fast as the voice chimed in, the figure of a pony’s face came into Gear’s view.
As you could imagine, Gear was not ecstatic about this.
“GAH!” he yelped, pushing himself across the ground and to the door of his new house in a combination of fear and confusion. Now that he was in a proper position to see what was happening, he found the source of his fright. In his yard, staring him down with cheerful, cerulean eyes was a pink coated, poofy-maned mare with a huge smile on her face.
Much too happy for Gear’s taste.
The mare, still wearing that gigantic smile, came trotting closer to him and began to talk at a pace that Gear thought was impossible for anypony to achieve.
“Hiya! I’ve never seen you around here before, so that must mean you’re new! And I know everypony in Ponyville, so I need to introduce myself to every new pony that moves in! My name’s Pinkie Pie! What’s yours?” the mare asked.
Gear’s breathing came in very short bursts now, and his sweating was starting to increase. See, this is exactly the type of pony that Gear was hoping he would never meet when he moved to Ponyville. He could barely handle it when normal ponies tried to “make nice” with him. This mare seemed like his worst nightmare from just how forward she was.
And the fact that Pinkie was directly looking into his eyes, just mere inches from his own face was definitely not helping him. Not helping at all.
“I-I…uhh…I-I ummm…” Gear stuttered. This situation was pretty familiar. Pony talks to him, and Gear inwardly freaks out, although this seemed to be a rare occasion where it was outward as well. That was the norm with him. He just wanted to be left alone. Why was that so hard for so many ponies to understand? Is it too much to ask to just have some privacy once in a while?
Did once, any of these inconsiderate equines ever think “Oh, maybe he doesn’t want to be bothered so we should leave him alone and just let it be?” What a concept.
Pinkie tilted her head to the side, now wearing a genuinely confused face.
“Umm…are you okay? You aren’t looking so good Mr…?” Pinkie kept dragging that last word out for quite a long time, still waiting for a name, and a reason why this new pony was looking so freaked at the sight of her.
Gear still kept quiet, but quickly opened the door to his new house and rushed inside, slamming the door behind him, which now had a sign hanging from the doorknob with “Do Not Disturb” written on it in big red letters.
Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was left in Gear’s front yard staring at the door, trying to comprehend what just transpired.
“…What just happened? Did I say something wrong? Why did he just run away from me like that?” Pinkie thought to herself. Very few ponies didn’t want to be friends with her. In fact, this had only happened to her one other time with a certain, grumpy donkey. Even that turned out well in the end though.
This stallion however, didn’t seem to be grumpy at all. Just really, REALLY anxious and stressed.
“But…why would he be scared of me? I’m not scary, am I?” Pinkie asked nopony in particular, still very confused on the subject.