> Love's many directions
>  by Lunasservant1985
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

>  New Guy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------




"Alright you slackers eyes forward." The grey stallion with a sleek and shiny black mane and with fancy vogue shades on practically barked at us humans before him. "Now listen, I know you've been through immigration from your world to this new one, you've been through the process of getting your papers in order to live and work here thanks to the royal order's bottomless generosity, and many of you are still living in migrant camps or even...the human's ghettos, but I want you to listen and understand one thing, you're working for me now. No matter what you've been through before is no excuse to slack off from your jobs. If I had my way, none of you would be even near the suave and class of." Drone drone drone, he was giving us the usual talk most of us had been expecting. Not all ponies treated us humans like less than...Well human but a lot of them; especially unicorns, saw us as beings that had not even the right to an inkling of respect.



He had been talking about the process of being allowed into Equestria, followed by the living conditions most of us humans who cross over to this world, often are left to when you first pass out the gates between the worlds. After which we first are all examined by teams of medical ponies, I remember it all painfully. In theory we all had to undergo what they did to us for health and safety reasons, we were striped down to our underwear (and yes they did separate us by gender) and made us stand before panels of Nurse ponies.



"How do you feel right now? What is your family history? Any mental illness or history of heart disease or diabetics?" They made notes on blemishes or visible abnormalities before moving us along. The whole process was beyond humiliating, and my first time going through it, I half expected some pony in a Southern Colonel's outfit to show up and start auctioning us off. No such thing did happen, the closest was being directed to companies looking for workers, the best days where when places like Sugar Cube Corner in Ponyville or Sweet Apple Acres wanted help, or even places like one called Carousel Boutique which in spite of being a place run by a unicorn, the one in charge was actually quite kind to humans, but that was not meant to be my fate on that day.  






Fate had it I was to be sent to live in the housing complex run by the unicorns know as Prince Blue Blood  and Fleur De Lis. The housing was not too bad, better than the rumors  of the work camps (in the country) and ghettos, (in cities) but it was from the higher standard of living they had. Still it was a relief to finally be able to lay down in a bed after hours of waiting, the unknown and the fear of being sent back deported through the gates back to Earth constantly hanging over my head like a dark cloud.





"Well your settled in and the worst part is over." I told myself, "now all that's left is seeing what job the ponies have in store for you good buddy." Another part of myself deep inside my head had another way of thinking. "These ponies have only just started making your life hell, you and I both know they hate our species, they hate our people moving into their world and most of all they hate you." "Face it buddy boy, this is the end." It was gonna be a long first week for me in my new home, the word hung in my head as I wandered about my apartment to the window, looking out into the cramped and dark streets of the human housing out in the dark and lonesome night...Home.





Which of course brings me back to my first night serving the high society and posh in some restaurant I would most likely never make enough to even order a salad from. My new boss giving me and the other bus boys and waiters our orientation/introductory berating and belittlement.




"So without further ado, get to work, work hard and maybe you'll make something of your selves, be good to me and we'll get along just fine, slack off and cross me?" "I'LL BE YOUR WORST NIGHT MARE!" The snooty unicorn trotted of, leaving us to get to our posts. I had it fairly easy, all I had to do was stand by the rolling belt that brought the fine China back to be washed. It had to shine like new China by the time it got back to the kitchen or else, the boss unicorn's words not mine.






The other guys working the kitchen mostly kept to themselves, for a lot of us there we came to work and nothing more. Few of us save possibly myself had much of an interest in a social life. Be it with other humans or ponies. For the most part those humans that came to Equestria where very sound minded and level people. A majority where grown guys, but a few gals made the trip over as well, very rarely did I see whole families together at the immigration station, a place called Mare-is Island in Manehattan. Every now and then, a guy that came over into Equestria, was not so level in his head. Now and then a lunatic or two would slip in past the eyes of even the most watchful ponies, there. hadn't been nothing serious though...Yet.




As I stood at my post washing dirty dishes that had just moments ago held tiny portions of food that was charged at outrageous prices, A bus boy that had been bringing cups and wine glasses to the sink stopped and stared at me. The guy looked no different than me save in his face, but we had on the same black slacks with a red vest over white shirts and big goofy looking shoes. It was often said they gave us incorrectly sized clothes like shoes or pants to further make us look like fools. He had this empty blank look in his eyes and his face was paler than a newborn foal, as the Equestrians say.





"I swear I'll gonna get back at these horses one of these days, and it wont be pretty, know what I mean? he said with a very disturbed look in his eyes but also a very solemn look, like he was about to cry or at the very least looked like he instantly regretted and felt remorse over saying that, as he set the bucket of cups on the edge of the sink.


"Hey don't even talk like that! you trying to get booted out the country man?"



"Screw this country, these..things are just...I've had to deal with this since I first got here, they've been degrading and dehumanizing me since day one and I'm sick of it all! I'm sick of getting pushed around like a roach, I had enough of that back home on Earth, I came here thinking they would be different here than the screwed up stuff I left behind on Earth, high class and stiff upper lips, real blue blood scum, makes me sick.





"Look pal, I know it may seem hard and quite frankly, you're really starting to creep me out so why don't you just go on home, I'll cover for you and punch out on your behalf OK?"




"Uh sure if you say so, name's Tony Tenor, but why are doing this for me if I sound crazy to you?"





"I didn't say that Tony, I just think you need some time to get your head clear before you do something you regret." To this day I still like to tell myself if it wasn't for me, Equestria would have had a major problem on its hands, though I can never be sure how sincere Tony was in his threat to go on a rampage, and I never asked him. It was better just saying he dodged a bullet and had his friend who was willing to cover his sorry skin that night to thank for that. My first day on the job and it started off...Interesting to say the least.




For the  most part that night I didn't see many ponies, few of them came back there as the cooks in the kitchens received the clean dishes on the belt, the novelty of seeing talking magic ponies had long worn out, it was one those things almost all humans where long used to by that point, we had long accepted, some more reluctantly than others that magic existed and they the Equestrians where all real and used it, they mastered it, they owned it, it was no longer all that big a deal to me to see them. At the end of that first night, my boss looked oddly happy for how he'd been five hours ago, trotted up to me and he said.







"Good news kid, there was a full house tonight and the bits are rolling in, I've decided to invite the human staff to the final concerto performance tonight as a reward, are you interested?" I always had a thing for classical music, thanks to being a major fan of the book and movie A Clockwork Orange, the way a good dulcet tone ring in ears, a soft and harmonious melody that could speak to my very soul...Yeah i watched the movie a lot.



"Got nothing better to do so why the hell not?"



"Watch your tongue boy if you like this job, but I will let it got since I'm in good mood."



"Yes sir." I replied changing my tone."




"That's better, the performance is in the bar section at eleven before we close at midnight, don't be late got it?" I nodded and went to change. I had no idea at the time but my interest in ponies was about to be re-sparked big time.
> Sweet Melody
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Even the fanciest of eateries in Canterlot had a bar attached to them. They where quiet places where the divine could let their hair down, where it no longer mattered what your social status was as long as your bits where good. I walked into the place five after the hour,  and it wasn't quite what I thought it would be. While a far cry from the white linen and candle lit tables of the dining hall just through a set of oak doors at one end, the place was still pretty decent. The tables where all hardwood, a sea foam green carpet and lime green walls. Not too shabby but like I said not exactly putting on heirs or the Ritz.






The bar sat at the farthest wall and took up most of it, even having a section leading to the stage where the "performance" was set to take place. Alcohol wasn't all THAT new to Equestria, its just that until we met them, all they had in terms of hard stuff was brewed cider, they didn't even know how to turn their precious barley and some hops into beer! sorry it's just that always was a bit of a shock to me. Anyway, all the booze at the bar was earth brewed import save for apple cider, (courtesy of every farm from here to appalooza) Budweiser, Busch, and the silver bullet Coors on tap and by the bottle, cheaper wines (no where near the fine stuff reserved for the other side of the door) you got your Yellow tail by the bottle or glass, as well as Sangria by the fruity pitcher, your Sutter Home mini bottles from California, and then there was the stuff you could really cruise on like Elton John's private jet before crashing like John Denver's. There's your prime Wild Turkey, your Fireball cinnamon whiskey, your Bacardi gold rum (flammable not recommended for flaming deserts) your Irish rose, your Grey goose and New Amsterdam in plain, peach apricot, and pineapple, and the choice of old blue eyes himself Frank Sinatra, Jack Daniels old no 7 Tennessee whiskey, in original, Gentlemen Jack, or in Sinatra select. (Rat pack approved, in spite of the fact that The Rat Pack having joined the all dead show a long time ago)



"what's it going to be than?" An apple green stallion with a clashing brown mane asked me as I took my seat as close to the stage as possible. 




"I'm glad you asked me uhhh...Brew." I said reading the tag on his chest, "I've got an unsigned paycheck in my wallet next to two tens and two twenties, and I thought for a second they'd be going to the shop mart for next weeks food shopping list, but if I slip you my unsigned check and a nice big Twenty BIT coin, how bout you set me up with some Sinatra Select, some ice in a nice cold glass and a stein of beer for anyone that walks or trots even cause hell I don't discriminate, up to this bar? so if we understand each other Brew what do you say?"




"Mister, I'd first have to ask if you've been drinking already to work up a deal like that, second Id have to ask to see your Bits your mouth seems to be cashing a check for to be sure your not talking trash in my bar." Like Clint Eastwood drawing his trusty 44, I took out my vinyl plastic wallet and took out my paycheck. Pay to the order of (unsigned) sum of 250 and no half bits (cents) bits, a big gold twenty bit coin along side it.




"Problem?"



"Not anymore, one bottle and beers on the house for my new best friend." I was his best friend as long as I kept the money flowing. I sat back and the dark brown choice booze slid down my throat, on the stage the last act before the recital got its reception, a blue mare with that classic nail plus ball, gag from cartoons on her flank bombed harder at stand-up than Dane Cook head-lining Gilbert Gottfried. 





"So I says to the animal control people, that's not the lady's cat with the flea infestation, that IS the old lady!" A few pity laughs and sympathy claps from the audience and she trotted away, from some place most likely through magic a booming voice proclaimed."





"Now mares and gentle stallions, human and pony alike, for your your pleasure this night, our finale that's sure to blow you away, The Canterlot symphony orchestra with their new lead vocal cellist...Octavia Melody!"





The curtain rose and first I didn't see much special in the "orchestra," band would have been more a fitting name given how small they seemed to me, then I saw...her. My first guess was she was Octavia Melody because of the cello she had at her side, the bow cradled in her hoof, her coat a dark grey but it had a sleek and majestic charm in spite of the color, it was complimented by her beautiful and well groomed charcoal black mane, it stood in a big pomp with strands freely flowing behind her down her shoulders and back, her mane suited her to perfection, the collar around her neck and spats on her hooves gave the mare a refined but humble feel to her and the icing on the cake that was, no IS Octavia Melody's beauty, her big, round and captivating purple eyes. They where like my soft brown ones had looked into pure gemstones of the finest jewelers in the world. As I looked at her, my heart stopped for a moment before fluttering like a canary set free, as my eyes swam inside my head. 







The first song they played was Ludwig Van (at least in my world he was) and his masterpiece Ode to joy. As Octavia strung the dulcet chords of her cello, she vocalized and sang every lyric in the ode in its native tongue. Her skill unsurpassed as she hit every note in sheer perfection, oh bliss bliss and joy. I got more and more lost in her singing and less and less into the alcoholic haze I had planned to send myself into that night. my glass sat growing warm, and all traces of the humans and ponies around me becoming as distant as the stars above. 





Finally the three act performance ended, after a round of Toccata and Fugue from J. Sebastian Bach they packed up their instruments and trotted away, I would have given anything to hear more but it was late, with a reciting of the saying about not having to go home but not allowed to stay at the bar, I headed out into the night. A Pegasus drawn  taxi pulled up to me at the curb, a bit more costly than earth pony taxis, but faster.






"Hey buddy? You need a lift home tonight?" The driver asked the door opening as if he expected me to say yes.






"No thank you though, but I think I'll enjoy the walking" I said even though storm clouds where rolling in, the thunder heads roaring fiercely. In my bliss, my heart was light enough to float me all the way home as the drops pelted me square in my face.
> Interlude, The first dream
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The music hit me first, its soft and enticing tune felt like whispers of angels in my ears. It started out as a low and subtle call before building and building louder and louder, slowly the world came into focus, I found myself in a room with walls of velvety soft purple and a thick violet carpet, it didn't take me long before I realized just what the shades of violet where a call back too. Before me the night sky outside was filtered through a massive bay-view window, the sky seemed to merge with the ground like a mirror creating a distorted reflection of it, until I realized the room was overlooking the great Equestrian Sea.






Looking down at my attire I found myself in a pressed charcoal black tuxedo with slate gray pinstripes running down it. Polished black shoes with a glow like a lens flare on my feet, the whole thing clinging to my skin and felt as soft as silk, which it most likely was. Someone had left a bottle of wine on a table between two lounge sofas, the kind you could lay back on and still have your head and  body level enough to eat...or drink some wine from.





"Well dear?" What are you waiting for?" Asked a smooth and cool voice from behind me. I turned around and saw her standing there behind me, her half closed eyes in a seductive glance. I hadn't heard her voice beyond the harmonic singing she had done, but it didn't matter when your living a fantasy, didn't it? she had a light purple almost pink dress on with a low cut and a slit cut along her left hind leg, as well as that familiar collar and bow tie from her performance. She had traded her musician's shoes for a pair of sexy white high heels.






"Well," I say, "I've been waiting for you my lovely lady." I said holding my hand out for her, playing into her classy and posh personality and offering to take her hoof in my hand, as if she where one of the royal family and not a common musician that played some restaurant in the Canterlot plazas. She placed her hoof in my grip, the feeling oddly soft and quite delicate for what she had been walking around on, I placed a soft peck with my lips on her hoof and she sat back with a content sigh in the velvet purple chair. 


"Sit down dear, relax with me nothing wrong with that right?" Her voice was like a Bond girl's, soft and cute with a subtle hint of a coo as her equine tongue rolled expertly off her lips.




"You sound like Caroline Munro Ms."




"Who?"





"Oh never-mind," I said with a soft and oddly feminine giggle. That oddness didn't stop me as I sat on my own cushion letting out a relaxed sigh of my own. 



"As if she saw The Spy who loved me idiot," my own thoughts said inside my head. I shook them off and reached over to the bottle in my hands.


"What no cork?" I asked as I undid the screw top of the bottle.



"Oh come now, what kind of a mare do you take me for my silly human?"


"Kind who likes her setting romantic but also classy and very aristocratic."




"Oh dearie there's a lot you don't know about me, after all its just a dream isn't it?"


"Well if it IS just a dream, don't wake me, let me enjoy my fantasy." "Hey wait a second, if your just my mind's version of what Octavia Melody is like, how can you know more about her than I do?"  I said pouring wine into a glass and clinking the glasses together in a toast with her.



"Silly little human, you've got a lot learn about this world, including its dreams." As she said this the image of Octavia was replaced with a mare with big wings, a glowing horn on her head, her coat a deep midnight blue and her mane as ethereal and mystic as if it was woven of the night starry sky itself, and eyes to match.








I woke up before my Saturday alarm at five in the morning, my pillow wet with saliva from making out with it in my sleep and my mouth dry from licking it so much.
> A Lemon crush?....Or...Our hero buys a suit
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a long week for me after that. I jumped through hoops just to make sure by Friday I would be ready to introduce myself to her. The first order of business was to assess my "assets",  which by that I meant a metal Star Wars episode I lunch box I'd had since 1999 full of unspent bits. As a rule Equestria; even after we brought the concept over from earth, refused to adopt a system of paper money. No one ever gave a solid reason why but the best reason we ever got was  because of the metal used in the minting of bits was a precious metal like gold, this backed up its economic value. The bottom line was, we humans (spurred by our natural tendency to carry a lot of money to buy a lot of what we either need or desire) found it very uncomfortable to have to lug Equestrian money around everywhere. for ponies it was no big deal, but to use all that weight piles up on your back and that's never good for anyone.



Why am I mentioning this here? I hear you say. Well from that first Saturday to the following Friday, that little lunch box I mentioned? It got a bit fuller than usual by my shopping day on Friday, and that coupled with other stashes of bits I kept around my house meant...









"Hey every-pony! Look at the human who thinks he's one of us!" Called a rowdy snobbish unicorn as I made my way to the train station. A lot of them pointed hooves at me and laughed, as I had a backpack slung over me, and it was full to to the top with heavy bit coins. I made my way aboard the train with as much pride as I could while being mocked by Canterlot ponies. I paid the fare for a one way to Ponyville.    












I was making my way there because out of principle I refused to use the Canterlot banks, they had a way of making it very difficult for most humans (migrant workers at least) to work with them and keep accounts there, big talk with balances and interest rates and all that jazz, so I wont bore you with the details. After my bits where safe save some I was going to need, I first made my way to a little shop that bore an uncanny resemblance to a merry go round. With its tiled roof in a cone slant topped with a big red flag fluttering in the wind the windows displaying pony mannequins in glass windows that on occasion would indeed revolve and display the hoof made wares...Carousel Boutique










Sure the day was a little overcast, but the Pegasus ponies only called for it to keep the crops from drying up in the sun from over exposure to it. The day may have looked ominous, but that meant nothing when it was merely how things worked here. Why should I worry? I crossed the threshold a big happy confident smile on my face and one word on my lips...










"Showtime!" As I entered the shop I noticed very briefly two mares leaving it, both in...let's call it close proximity to each other, but I'll get back to that later. The Carousel Boutique though a popular place for the equines to buy fashionable clothes, had only recently adopted two changes in order to suit the merging of the two worlds, the first was the new display mannequins of humans, these new displays where set up to indicate to shoppers that, yes the store now did indeed carry clothes made for human customers and the other new change? well it was...












"Greetings valued customer, welcome to the Carousel how may I further make my parents question if they made a mistake?" Said a very unhappy looking guy in a white CB uniform of a pressed white shirt and slacks with Carousel Boutique on the back in blue gemstones. 

"She makes us wear these get ups you know. Goddamn ponies."


" Hey pal, What's your problem with them? They let us live here, they give us work what more could you want?" 

"I just sold a dress to two mares."

"So?"

"TWO mares?!"







"Oh," and here I can no longer ignore the pony in the room. Equestria had and has, a long history of having no gripes with same gender....OK same sex we're all adults here, same sex couples, they have ALWAYS been an aspect of life in their world free from any taboo. Now please don't get me wrong I never directly or intentionally had any problem with two HUMANS that loved the same sex back in my own world. Who you choose to feel love for is not my place to be judgmental over, not at all. 














Though I must admit, I have to make a very controversial confession to make. It's something about myself I'm not by any means proud to say I have. I don't want anyone or any pony to get the wrong idea about me or see me as some hateful, horrible person; so here it goes. Whenever I see two people or I guess in this case two ponies of the the same sex clearly in love, I don't know why but I get an uncanny desire to get angry. Angry at everyone and everything around me, and I get an urge to just lash out, rant and rave at everything like a stark raving maniac for almost no reason. I want you to understand that even though this feeling just surges through me, I have NEVER acted on my sick issues, not ever to my recollection at least, and secondly I don't understand why this happens to me. What is it? Suppressed frustration? Jealousy when it's triggered by the sight of two females because of a subconscious thought of them being unattractive to myself for being a male? Or is my mind trying to unleash suppressed homophobia that could label me a hateful bigot that deserves scorn for my thoughts? 









I cannot stand having this thought, this...problem. I don't want to be angry or hateful, I want to just go about and not care who loves whom, but I can't and its a cycle that is driving me out of my mind.











If it feels like I'm rushing through this bit; I am. It's because in the grand scheme of things, its of no importance, nor is it a matter of major concern, not at this point at least. Shall we resume?




"You know, I just don't get guys like you." "Here you are in a world where the air is almost pure oxygen, the food fresh and grown as naturally as possible, and the equine inhabitants have welcomed us all with open arms, yet after that after all that, you still see this as a place fit only for the childish or feminine and can't accept or move past your first world societal stereotypes or expectations." "So why don't you just go back to earth and bitch and moan about it to someone who cares?"

"You know what?" "I'm gonna do just that." He threw his uniform shirt off nonchalantly and walked away, I never saw him again.


"You don't have to fight our battles for us you know." I heard a small voice with a touch of an accent behind me interject. I turned around and if I hadn't had my eyes set on...somepony (Uh...Celestia this is going to take some getting used too) else, then the unicorn I looked right at would have stolen my heart back. She was alabaster in coat with an indigo mane that was perfectly groomed and bouncy. Her eyes shone back at me a lovely blue that seemed to covey a simultaneous sense of appreciation for what I had done, but also a deep feeling of being too proud and assertive with herself to have wanted it.

"I'm only trying to do what's right Ms. Not be a knight in shining armor, even though there is a saying back in my world, Chivalry is dead."

"Well, I appreciate your nature, but baring my employee loss may I help you?" She said giving her hair...mane a playful flick and flip over her head, and a smile that made the whole room light up. I started giving the unicorn a description of my suit just as i saw it in my dream, as I did the stranger aspects of this world showed it's self. A long roll of tailor's tape flew across the room and almost smacked me square in my face as it unfurled and took my measurements. Waist, legs, feet (with shoes on) shoulders to arms, my fingers. the bridge of my nose, she left no inch unknown. 

"heh, your quite...through with this ma'am." 

"well, you must be new around here to not now I take the utmost care to satisfy my clientele, be it they walk on four legs or two." She happily claimed as the appropriate colored fabrics flew out and she got to work sewing them into my suit. 

"you...don't seem to want to talk too much darling." I had something of a reason for that, back home most people who worked in stores are trained as part of their application process, to ignore politely and get the customers to not talk with them. I know this first hand from this one time I personally tried to apply for a job at a department store just before i emigrated to Equestria. On earth people who work in big name chain stores and other big name merchandise companies are trained as the store is a place of business, they need to shuffle customers in and out of the stores as quick as possible without actually forcing them along to do anything, It was the sad truth, you think they are genuinely friendly and interested in  you and your stories and plans; only to learn its all a fake, just business.


I had to remind myself that this was a very different world, a world that moved at a slower less self or financially motivated pace, and the friendly demeanor and open drive for conversing with a customer in this place, was real. The unicorn making my suit wanted to really get to know me as more than a source of bits. 


"Well Ms.ummm" I began not sure of the tailor mare's name 


"It's Rarity darling, not ummm."

"OK then, Ms. Rarity I've been around for a human, what do you wanna talk about?" I began even though she seemed just about done.

"I'm all ears if your an open book." she replied keeping up her playfulness and cheery nature. With that I sat on a nearby cushion and told her...not my Entire life story for the simple reason that she was almost finished with her work, but also because i didn't want to go too far ahead so soon. One thing of many that i really tried to sidestep was...well.   


"Then there's the whole adjusting to this place, being human and all...." I said before clapping a hand over my mouth realizing what I said. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it....Like that Rarity"


"Like what darling?" She asked only raising her eyebrows a bit a giving me a look.


"I I ummm didn't mean to come off as sounding offensive to you or well...this place...this world. I love it here, but it's just that I'm different. From a different world too. If you only knew what I left behind." She trotted away from the sewing machine and more than ready suit and placed a a hoof over my shoulder.


"What? exactly did you leave in that world dear?" She asked sincere and deeply. 

How do you go over how much of a terrible (for the most part) of place your home is? those solemn but intrigued eyes that expressed an interest in hearing of it, no matter how grim the truth may be. As much as it pained me, I told the unicorn every detail I felt she ought to know, from how there was or is evil in my world more powerful than any she and her friends had ever faced to how some of the worst of my kind don't want to try and make a difference for the better but instead find a sick joy in making the suffering of others into jokes and laughter.


"And they have ridges for ribs that drop off into empty chests as if their hearts are all stolen treasures*" I said to her almost as if making a confession. Looking over to her, I say she wasn't upset or even shocked, but concerned as she looked at me with those eyes of bottomless generosity.



"But dearie, that's not the kind of human you are" She said lovingly placing a hoof on my shoulder.


"Could you look me dead in the eyes and believe me if I told you that personally?"


"If I couldn't, would I be so willing to listen to you opening up like this darling?" She said lifting my head up with her free hoof.


The soft smile and tear in my eye, was the only answer she needed.

        







       
> Hunger Pains
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

           As I made my way outside the shop and down the street, For the first time in forever, I took a good look around. A few of the Pegasus clouds where too heavy and it began to shower lightly, good thing Rarity vacuum packed my suit up. Everywhere I looked the face of the mare of my dreams seemed to be following me. Looking up my eyes where drawn to a billboard; a minty green mare with a harp like instrument on her flank looked back at me, she stood before a red velvety background, words in a fancy scrawl beside her head.


Midas cognac: it's the golden touch. It said as the spokes-mare gazed back at me with a devious smile, a liquor glass in the phantom limb hand ponies seemed to have at the ends of their hooves. The mare changed; her coat became silken grey, her mane charcoal black, and the text shifted like an anagram being solved. Love; it's a mystery no matter where you call home. Billboard Octavia winked and took a drink before swaying her hips out to the side like Mae West, a hoof behind her head. I half expected the board Octavia to say, "come up and see me sometime." 




What was I doing? I knew how I felt about her, but could she ever feel an inkling the same to me? Was I coming on too strong just because of some...dream? It couldn't hurt to try.  I was so caught up in my thoughts, that I didn't see the wood panel I slammed into until the stars cleared from my eyes. I got my bearings and found It was a stand selling farm fresh apples, plump and very ripe.


"Whoa! easy thar partner, I know my apples look good but its nothing to get all distracted over." Joked an orange and blonde mare with a Stetson cow-boy hat on her head. she looked at me with a soft smile and she seemed to radiate a certain charm and an air of hospitality from her.



"Sorry Ms. Just very caught up in my thoughts I guess." I made sure none of the country mare's wares had fallen off the stand and fixed the ones that my...accident had knocked loose, no harm no foul as the saying goes.


"They sure look good Ms." I commented to her.

"darn tootin they do mister, a whole buckin season still to come too, but these windfalls bring in some coin until than."

"Excuse me?!" I said in surprise though I had  in actuality misheard her.

"Oh I forgot, y`all human folk aren't all too familiar with certain things like that...no offense partner I mean that as because your a city boy, I'd have said that even you where a stallion yerself." She said with a witty chuckle in her throat.


"It uh it's not that I thought you said, oh never mind." Yeah running into goofs with dialect, happens more often than you think with us humans around here. I took notice of the apples the lovely country mare had all lined up nice and orderly on her wagon. They all where about the same size, very plump and red, and unlike the ones I knew all too well from the supermarkets and grocery stores from back home, they didn't have the air of being artificially reddened or that waxy coating of fertilizers, and pesticides buildup on their skins. Ah the food of Equestria! I guess if there was one thing everyone...well almost everyone of my people could agree with, it was the food. 

Free from either being artificially modified with a Frankenstein  experiment of Celestia knows what, or being "organic" which was just industry talk for Genetically grown and modified to the point of sheer "perfection" so that only the highly paid A&P shoppers could regularly buy them. None of that existed here, all the food was...hoof raised with the bare essentials, and the vitality the best produce showed was the result of hard work and devotion to the the earth ponies ties to the very soil they labored in, no more; no less. No greater example than the one who was in my very eyes. 

"Ms? I'm a little busy right now but..I was wondering if you could spare a few of your time for some...well..."

"Ahh shucks bucko, I'm always all ears, especially on slow days, still I reckon y'all best be a trifle quick, I'm only sayin on account of the possible downpour the Pegasus said may be in order today." 

"Hey, what's a little rain to us?, and I was just wondering would you happen to know anything about?" And I gave her a description of the her, Octavia. Just her name was enough at that point to send my brain through the roof, but...was it for all the wrong reasons? I say this because and you'll hopefully pardon my saying this here and now, but I feel it's a necessity that ought to be addressed better now than never. I loved her yes; and you can say you love someone all you want, but there's always both a limit and fine line line between love and well...let's just say I want you all to understand that I wasn't than nor am I now or ever only thinking about that mare with only wanton desire and selfish lust on my mind. I was fully aware that no matter who...or what you are, you firstly never go into your love with someone full force and strong from the staring gate if ever, and secondly that Love isn't something that can be rushed into, even more so if someone or somepony doesn't feel exactly the same way, if she didn't feel the same way as I did, I was more than willing to back out and leave Ms. Melody be. 

My apologies if I've stalled my narrative, but it would take even longer to explain why I've gone into detail like this, I just, don't want any of my dear readers to get the wrong impression of your humble if not hapless romantic friend and narrator. so moving along...



"And that about sums it all Applejack, I really like her and I think she's talented and seems nice, but what do you think? am I trying too hard?" I finished and looked right back at her wondering just what she would say.



"Partner? I don't know much about upper-class musicians like this Ms. Melody ya'll are speakin of, but I do know this. The way to a mare's heart, is in my opinion, being honest about yerself and don't go around foolishly trying ta be what ya aren't." She said this her eyes on my Rarity made new suit sealed up and ready-to-wear. 

"Oh no it's not like that, I just bought it to make a good first Impression is all." I said with all the integral wit I was able to muster. With that I could then see AppleJack  was still eyeing me; as if she suspected something was off about me. Can't say I wouldn't have blamed her thought. A lot of my fellow humans where notorious for being the strange and bizarre ones in this world, but I always had a strong belief that it wasn't all our fault things, even now where very...Rocky.


I always figured the adjustment period was not such a smooth transition if for only one major change  coupled with all the others that we all had to face equally in our struggle to find a place among the equines that called this world of magic and mystery home. With my money dwindling from all the shopping I'd been doing, I paid for a bag of Applejack's windfalls and thanked her for everything, her demeanor being more genuinely friendly and open to my situation having seen somewhat through me.





"And hey, even if things don't go as your plannin, just member; In Equestria there's always somepony...to love somebody." She said emphasizing the "somebody" and chuckling in her throat happily. I made my way around town uncertain where to go or what to do next but with a somewhat regenerated sense of fulfillment, that got even more so as I sunk my teeth into the tender, soft skin of the windfall apple. The juice was sweeter than anything I'd ever tasted, it seemed as if that first bite was rejuvenating me, and filling the empty pain in my stomach, even though it was only doing minimal for my lorn feeling in my heart. 



The earth ponies claim to never use magic or human kinds methods of growing food, and it truly showed in how the apple I munched on wasn't anything like the ones from home. Equestria seems to have its own form of magic, not the kind unicorns could pull almost out of thin air and bend the well established laws of humanity's world, but its the magic that our eyes and they're eyes couldn't see; the magic that let the Pegasus fly and build homes on bubbly clouds, that unseen sense of peace the whole land seemed enveloped in, and best of all, the way the crops the earth ponies raised just came to life with almost no input from the growers save for delicately caring for the fragile fruits and vulnerable vegetables. 


Maybe it was like this here because Equestria unlike earth, didn't unceremoniously suffer a "Forbidden fruit" or "Pandora's box." All the ills and wickedness the likes of my people, the ones that happened and ever would happen, contained in a single cataclysmic event that would forever alter the pax and nirvana of a perfect world that existed before. Not that there wasn't ANY evil in they're world and it wasn't unanimously perfect, but rather such a downfall akin to the fall of human grace had ever occurred to this land...or perhaps...maybe...it did.



my thoughts almost ran away from me as I turned a corner near a humorously designed shop built to appear like a gingerbread house made out of sweet treats. My heart sank; she was there. She sat at one of the tables outside the shop a steaming mug of tea on her table top and some shortbread cookies too. To see her there just casually sipping and eating away there she was, Octavia Melody as just a normal...mare. (it's still awkward to talk this way) Even so she was dynamite drop-dead beautiful. I then noticed not far...at the same table actually another mare was seated, and it almost seemed like she was the total opposite to the apple of my eye.




The other mare had a coat of pure white; and an electric blue mane, which she styled to be slightly spiky and a bit on the bushy and bedraggled side, she covered her eyes with big red and black rimmed shades, and she had a cool laid-back attitude to her as she sat casually leaning back in her chair. A mug of cider and frosted strawberry donuts on her side of the table. 



"OK, she has a friend." I said inside my head to only myself.  "It's no big deal, lots of women hang around with gal pals right?" The white mare scooted over to Octavia closer, she whispered into her ear blushing, "That happens a lot too." my heart sped its pace but felt like it was starting to sink, my palms grew sweaty but also cold. The other mare made Octavia giggle and give a look of surprise but also intrigue "c'mon you can do this, just go up say high maybe mention how you love...liked her show, this means nothing beyond her having a..." The white mare placed a soft kiss on the other mare's cheek, noses rubbed together, Even I knew that was how ponies showed love and affection. even if they hadn't done ANYTHING to show it, I had a feeling that my quest ended there and then, because there was no chance of me forming any sort of bond to her, Octavia was spoken for...with another mare...




so many feelings surged through me then, it was like the stages one faces when the end is near and the final destination is just around the bend, but unlike THAT instance, I felt not acceptance...well not at first but beforehand...anger. A great and insatiable anger that set my skin ablaze and red. It was an anger at the other mare, she had taken her, Octavia angelic voiced and sweet girl that she is from me. Anger at Octavia, who could never see me as I did her, all because of what she felt for the other mare. It was an anger that made me reach for my hip, teeth grinding and spittle spraying in a hiss past the barrier of clenched teeth, as if... a pistol was holstered at my side, ready to send a single shot flying at the two mares and silence them both forever. That was the anger that tore through me and tore my heart asunder and in two.





BUT, in the next instant as I got up from burying my face in my hands, new emotions took hold. My anger seemed to melt away and in its place, I felt a great sadness. I fell into a park bench not more than twenty clicks from the sweet-shop, hands buried in my face again, the knowledge that I was out in public the one thing that kept me from sobbing uncontrolled in front so many ponies and so close to them. It was a sadness at what Instant had felt and thought under my anger, coupled with a shame and remorse so great, it made tears stream down my face with softly muffled sobs, like a child who lost a loved relative. At last the final emotional blow struck me, softly this time. Acceptance, if this is how she is than who am I to judge who loves whom? They appeared to be in love, I had no right to take that from anyone or anypony, and the least I could do was try and be happy for her.







HEY besides, even if it as what....exactly what it looks like, that didn't mean I couldn't still talk with her, at least be her friend right? so what if the mare of my dreams couldn't be anything but my dreams? that doesn't mean she would think any less of me as a person would it? would it?...The tension passed albeit my heart still a bit broken....OK very broken I dried my eyes as much as I could and adjusted myself, got up...and when I looked back the table...what I saw stunned and perked and stoked that tiny spark deep inside me...Again.




        

       

              
> Malfunctions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

          The White mare was leaning on a stallion that had joined the pair at the table. Not romantically by any means, but more casually. She was leaning into the dark grey chest of a stallion with a shaggy black mane and shades of his own, fittingly a shade of blue to the mare's red ones. Which where lowered just a bit exposing her eyes. I also noticed how the stallion had a hoof just on her mane and was slightly giving her a soft stroke. Perhaps the love of the Equestrians isn't as black and white as I believed...but how?






"Yo! Two legs!" she called over too me with a whistle. "c'mere for a few will ya? We got room for one more you know." I was a bit hesitant, had they seen me? Think I was completely off my rocker? Oh well it was now or never. Making my way over as casually as I could I took my seat just off to the side of Octavia, trying to make it seem like it was the closest seat and play it cool.






"I saw what you did back there," a moment of panic. "You one of those artsy types? havin yourself a little...inspirational strike for a piece or a poem your working on?" She asked grinning ear to ear and bobbing her head to an invisible beat. 










"Well, you could say that, I kinda think of what to work on a lot and nothing comes to me, but just strolling along and BOOM! Inspiration hits me like a brick wall." I said in pale imitation of the mare's own almost hipster like mannerism, but also relived.








"Always alone." I heard a voice whisper as if from an icy, watery grave inside my head.






"cool," you're pretty hip for a leggy one."







"They're all gonna laugh at you, they all hate us." Again the voice called in the dark back of my skull, just barley contained from being softly whispered out my lips.








"I'm sorry what?" I asked placing my remaining apples on the table for them to have. 







"Oh, it's nothing personal, just my pet name for you humans, I think its kinda cute, like them in general." She said as the stallion placed his hooves around her waist to keep her from sliding off. "I'm Vinyl by the way, Vinyl...Scratch." she added a slight screech like a record needle on the last bit. "These are my friends, High Fy," She gestured to the stallion behind her, "and..."






"Octavia Melody," Octavia finished for her. "Have we...met?" She asked with slightly furrowed brow. 



" Anger, guilt and sadness coming to haunt me forever, I can't wait for the cliff over the river." It was getting irritating now but I did all I could to suppress the voices.



"I saw your show in Canterlot, the orchestra performance of Ode to joy, Toccata and Fugue, and such right? Interesting choice of music, is it the Human world's version?"



She giggled cutely and nodded, "why yes it was actually. You see, because most of the audience would be humans that night, the orchestra thought a few pieces from their home seemed appropriate."



"He bangs his fist against the post and yet he insists he sees the ghosts, it puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again." Was what surged through the labyrinth of dark and unwelcome recesses of my mind.

"Despite the fact that not many there even knew the pieces names Octavia." Is what I said.


"Oh really? and would you happen to be one those who recognized the music?" She teased with a dapper flip of her mane.




"J.S Bach, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and 18th century Russian ballet, correct?" I said smugly and in an almost Canterlot manner myself.




Break you like you broke my heart, I'll take her apart and  be forced to rewire the damaged parts.





"I kinda like this one Octi, he's got a...unique charm, hell he kinda reminds me of you a few times while also making me think of myself at others, he also doesn't seem like most other human dudes, and after last night's concert I can tell you that first hoof."


The voices got quiet, but didn't stop...just yet. It still baffles me too no end the nature of these sudden psychological attacks that border the line of schizophrenia, and psychopathy, but I've said enough on that regard.    


"So, do you two Live around here?" I asked giving my all to sidestep bluntly asking at best, "Are you both an item?" To at worst "Are you a Lesbian couple?" Yeah the elephant in the room and I was this close to saying it, deep down I knew it wouldn't bother me in any way if it was too be true, in any shape or form if only leave me disheartened and disheveled.


"Huh?" Vinyl began looking up from a fizz float she'd ordered foam on her lips quickly licked up. "Oh yeah we Live right in town, though Octi has to take the train to Canterlot for gigs, I prefer to do DJ jobs locally, makes the hard-line job just a bit more easy"


"Vinyl, I told you, We don't call them "gigs," it's recitals, concertos, or if you must performances, but not "gigs," understand?"


"Awww lighten up Octi, you know I love to tease," she said a grin and lowering of her glasses. Her playful nature, quite charming...to say the least. Time past like this for quite a while. Questions bounced back and forth between us; I'd give my own background on myself and the mares seemed to follow my every word, listening intently. As I did to them, some time passed as the conversations turned to topics like, why I emigrated to Equestria, What the girl's talents (ergo careers) where, from the bass and dubsteping Vinyl; DJ-ing for parties and concerts, to my own struggle with busing and waiting on tables after the first half of my trip here. 








I didn't expect them to open up to the more personal stuff so soon as Octavia, when I asked about her youth after telling the girls of mine.










"When I was just a filly, not even with my cutie mark yet, my parents where...a bit, well."













"It's OK Tavi," (two nicknames?) "I think he's on the up to know, you can tell it like how you told me." she said placing a hoof on her hoof, though the sight still stung the tiny deep part of myself, it seemed to do so a lot less...for more reasons beyond, "A stallion was also holding her."









"They were born and raised in a strict, traditional Prantonese....uhhh  Prina you're equivalent to China or Chinese, upbringing. They felt that in spite of moving to Ponyville when I was born, they didn't want me to become...like the spoiled foals of Ponyville and soft, even more so after my mother read a book,"









"Battle hymn of the tiger mother?" I asked all too familiar with that book for my own personal reasons.







"Close, Battle hymn of the tarpan mother."


"Oh, I get it, please continue." I told her, my interest now quiet perked. She went on saying that for the most part; Octavia's talent came from being raised in a strict environment. It was never an abusive or an unloving home, She picked up her cello and held it close to say.




"And to this day, I can't help but shake the feeling that, the memories of being told to get it right, Told that I'd...well you get the idea. Even now I think that's the real reason I strike the notes and chords in just the right ways, from the fear of being a failure." She strummed the large instrument delicately and it gave off a low solemn note.




"Octavia?, if I could be so bold as to ask..can I get behind you?...TO SHOW you something with your cello? I said with haste given the nature of my comment. 


"Really? what do you mean by that?"



I got up from my seat and with her still upright in hers the cello in position; hands to hooves, purely in the interest of the instrument, not that she was objecting.




"Your not on the leash of those two anymore, your own...pony, I want you to picture all that repression and fear as the wispy winds, or a will o the wisp, can you see that?" I whispered into her round ears as they waggled excitedly.  








"Yes actually...I can." Her breath slowed to a few huffs and puffs, but not short and gasping as if she was out of breath, but more like soft and gentle breaths of relief.







"Now think about you favorite piece of music, the one you turn to to really show stop the crowds but also the one you love to play in its own right, tell me what it is if you want."


"I'll show you." she whispered back into my own ear, before strumming a soft low chord that must have only had meaning to the musician mare. 


"Now just, throw that negativity away to the winds." I told her, so close I felt the warmth of the soft coat against my skin, the bare sections not covered by my clothes anyway. With that the chord became softer, more vibrant, and seemed to have a lot more passion for the music as it was strummed.



"whoa, this is some heavy stuff right here." Vinyl chimed snapping us both back to reality and out of the daze and haze that seemed to have enveloped us both. We both blushed hard and spring apart chuckling nervously.   


"Uh well thank you dear, I appreciate that a lot." She said her face right and looking like she was caught in the act. 

"Hey anyone that can help Octi get over her anxieties like that is a friend of mine, you're alright in my book." She said placing a hoof on my shoulder.

"Octavia? are you...doing anything this weekend?" I asked with a hand going behind my head before I snapped it back down to my side.


"Well, not exactly, why do you ask?"she asked giving me a smug and "knowing" look


"I was just wondering if maybe you'd like to grab a bite to eat, my treat...as friends you know." The look of my awkwardness seemed to suggest otherwise but I held on to the notion that i just wanted to "hang out again," my breath in my chest. 



"I think I could work something out, say the Walnut tree cafe here in town tomorrow?"

"Just us?...Not that I Wouldn't mind having your friend Vinyl and her friend showed up."


"Hey don't mind me, I've always said Tavi need to find someone to spend time baring me." 


"You'll have to wait and see about that, who's going to there but I wouldn't worry about it just now." Her eyes giving me a flirty vibe as she spoke, a playful demeanor like I hadn't seen before. The three ponies left, the sweet-shop grew quiet, with only my thoughts for company. 


The voices finally stopped.
> Second Interlude: The Nightmare.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

		"One of the most spectacular sights in the world of birds is a kill of another bird by a stooping Peregrine Falcon. The falcon plunges steeply downward, wings partially closed, at speeds that can exceed 150 miles an hour. It was long thought that falcons and other raptors struck with their feet clenched like a fist. High-speed cinematographic studies, however, have shown that they strike their prey from above with all four toes fully extended. The Peregrine's victim is often ripped by the falcon's talons, producing a shower of feathers. Usually the prey is picked up off the ground afterward, although occasionally the falcon will stoop again and gather the tumbling bird before it falls to the ground."*





"Oi mister! Nice Costume" Called a tiny pinto colored colt trotting up to me. A single turn to me and the jovial look on his muzzle and playful nature became one of fear and unease, he backed away before breaking into a full on gallop back to the little colts and fillies he'd been out with. Little brat, disturbing my "work." I was clad all in black with a grey scale like detailing on my chest, a strange cross between stripes and diamonds almost....feather-like. A long black trench coat on my shoulders flying behind me in the strong wind, the lower portion slightly tattered but it along with the grey scale gave me the appearance of a large peregrine falcon, the king of the vicious birds of prey, beautiful and noble to look at but deadly and merciless in its savage quest for food.  



My face was hidden behind two large brass framed goggles, the piece an extension of the mask on my face, it joined a short but sharp, bright yellow and black beak attached to the mask, the black frames blank and  without expression or emotion. My hands covered in thick black leather gloves, the low moonlight glinting off their tips, the tips of the four solid titanium curved claw-like appendages attached to the four fingers on each of my hands, thick and strong but razor sharp.. and thirsty. 




My head tilts up, looks into the window of the house, the house they share, all quaint and cozy, a big tree just off the town square.  I see them both, muzzles locked together in a loving kiss, hooves around each other close and lost in their own world, behind the glass of those cold, almost dead eyes, my real ones shed only one single tear, and even so; its practically a crocodile tear at this point. My Talons scratch and chip the paint of their fence as I watch, they finally part, all short of breath and sweaty, I do my best not to imagine why.


"So what ever happened to that guy Octi?" Vinyl asks, her voice distant and distorted as if its heard through the ears of something...not of this or any civilized world.

"You know I have only eyes for you my love." She replied trotting off into another room, tail flicking about for the other. 




"I'm gonna grab a shower, feel free to join me" she added with a wink behind her glasses. before making her way in the other direction to a small bathroom.



"She's first."



I opened the wooden gate noiselessly and closed it behind me, my coat now only fluttering softly, as my steps trailed across the path to the house, I did a quick turn into the dark shadows of the hedges, as Octavia turned to look out the window, somehow cloaked in the ebony of the night, I vanished from sight, and she looked back without a second thought. I followed the shadowed path up to the back door of the house, a window lattice granting me a slight vista into the mudroom. I tried the knob; locked. I gently placed a talon on the square of panned glass on the door, and raked and scratched at it cutting through to the other side,  my talon's curve getting a grip on the square of glass before it could fall through the hole. I reached into the now glass-less little square; my hand snaked inside slowly and found the lock on the other side, it turned and I opened the door. 



Inside the unwelcome guest's silvery metal claws clicked and creaked ever so softly, only the sharpest pony ears could accurately pick the sound up, as he stepped across the threshold, a purple haze trailing behind him, a fog from the night following the inhuman being into the house. He made his way across the carpeted room to the next door, opening it quietly and stopped, his head tilts in all directions; Has he been spotted? No; the hunter moves on. His sharp eyes locked on his prey, a strike from up on high with his talons out; one strike, one chance. The bird of prey takes his perch, in the front foyer he intrudes into is a stair case, he moves to the top of it, perched on the railing over the second floor landing; just above the hallway his prey will have to traverse down once she's cleaned herself. he sits on his perch for what feels like forever, his plumage tucked in ever ready to catch the breeze when he strikes on the equine, his sharp ears pick up the sound of the water, his mind sees it hitting the white coat; like rinsing away evidence of some crime.

A creak as the bathroom door finally opens his limbs aching to spring and lunge at his target, just a bit longer. She trots down the hall her mane in a towel, her eyes closed blissfully as her head bobs and bounces to an invisible beat. closer she gets now, closer....His talons spring open with a soft *CHINK* she looks up to the sound and her muzzle opens to let out a cry at the horrible perched creature atop the stairs, but it's too late! the single lunge with the the eight open and ready talons, and the falcon makes contact with his prey. the only sounds, are the loud slamming into the mare's body followed by the sickening sounds of tissue being torn, ligaments, tendons, muscles, all are lacerated in a flash of claws leaving eight trails of a clean cut along her shoulders, flanks, and white equine belly, the cuts just missing being deep enough to cause evisceration.



A door upstairs opens. "Vinyl? what's going out....OH SWEET CELESTIA!" She cries out seeing just what I've done. I seem to realize it too, I'm in honest to God shock and awe myself, I try to cry out that its not me doing this, but all that leaves the break is a sharp and scratchy cry of a bird of prey. I reach to take the mask off as she cries and backs up the stairs away from me in shock, but its no longer a mask, the brass has become a solid bird of prey beak, the eyes of the hunter are now my eyes, my hands are feathered wings, all tattered and filthy, the gloves my talons never to come off, stained and tainted with....I cant bring myself to say or think it. I bolt through the door, smashing it to splints as I do, taking off into the night where a fowl creature like myself belongs, ponies scatter and stampede away from me their screams piercing the night as lights go on in houses, and they see me, the hideous half-human half- avian monster dashing about wings and tail feathers flapping in the breeze as I charge with my body out in a position to....I open the new wings Iv'e been cursed with. As filthy and tattered as they are, they catch the wind and lift me into the air amidst my fleeing I hear cries of. 

"Somepony get the Wonderbolts to kill that monstrosity!" and, 



"No, lets kill it before it eats us all!" Followed by angry shouts as they make for their torches and tools, and nooses and if they had them, they'd surely grab their guns. The angry ponies follow my shadow, the night sky has betrayed me, it casts a shadow on me aided by the bright glow of the moon as if, some-pony's controlling it to do so. The winds seem to have turned against me as they slow me down and I struggle to stay in flight. The hunter now is the hunted. I see their angry faces bellow, a wave of them all colors and sizes ready to have me plucked and beaten with their farm tools, the nooses of some lasso's just barley managing to catch my foot talons. 



"Getalong everypony we've almost got em!" a Country mare calls as her lasso snares and she pulls with her great strength, I flap and give everything I have to get away, but more snares catch me, and I'm caught, taken to the mob of ponies. I hit the ground and look up. All I see are angry face in glares and sneers, their tools and weapons ready; and her, Octavia my love, I'm sorry; I don't know what got into me if I could I'd trade my life for Vinyl's. She looks saddened, almost as if...no a monster like me? I diverse only this, with no pity or sympathy not even from her Majesty the princesses. For the horrible thing I've done, let your justice be swift Equestria. 


"BE STILL!" "AWAKEN!" A loud voice seems to shout over everything, as the world around me seems to dissolve and melt, it flashes by, angry ponies, tools pounding into my body, flashes of my feathers. a green haze spinning  and spinning. I feel sick...I feel hot...I Fall.










I Wake up covered in a cold night sweat, on the floor in a heap with my bedding beside me, my body slightly sore from both the fall and from being on the floor most of the night, It's still dark out, my clock reads Two in the morning. I feel something warm and stick on my fingers BLOOD?! I shout inside my head in a panic only to realize its only from a nosebleed, I got it from hitting the floor face first, but luckily my nose isn't broken nor is the injury serious. I get up and feel the night air on my skin my window's been opened. 


"I think It's time you and I had a little talk." A soft and gentle voice calls to me. In a panic I turn and see her, the large winged unicorn that I saw last time, only it's no longer a dream, or is it? she doesn't look angry, but not happy to see me either. More concerned. Her midnight blue coat, her flowing almost other-worldly mane, billowing behind her, her eyes like big blue sapphires twinkling like the stars with a loving sympathy for the dreamer.


"Am I in Trouble?"


"No...But I feel you will be soon enough if you don't let me help you, this world, is changing you in more ways than you realize." 



She said nothing else as she trotted up to me, a hoof landing softly on my shoulder before tilting my head into hers, her other one, it wiped away the tear at my eye; A real one. 



	
> Before The Dreamstride, A Princess Intervenes.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So why come to me Ms. Midnight? Am I a danger to your little trotters and border-lining on going psycho on each and everyone of them?" I said to the mistress of the night standing in my bedroom. I made my way in the near darkness of my apartment to a loose board, just under my night-table. Working it loose and open to pull up my prized possession; a two hundred dollar black velvet boxed bottle of Sinatra Select Jack Daniels. Then currently the most expensive thing I had ever bought in my life and was just barley able to get through the Equestria customs officers. 



"Do you drink to solve your problems often sir?" She asked so nonchalantly I at first thought it was a joke.



"Shut up, I don't tell you how to live your life don't butt into mine, but what kind of a host would I be if I didn't offer the princess of the night a drink of her own...we don't have to tell the king and queen, you know?" 




"Very amusing, " she told me with a huff and sarcastic roll of her eyes. "Listen to me, and listen well. I know where these mixed feelings in you are coming from, and I also know that you are taking no pleasure in the machinations of your mind. I can help you overcome them; even more so than any bottle of liquor or self pity can, IF...you are willing to do as I say and cooperate with me to the later."


I took a out a CD from my collection that I kept on a dresser near the window. The thing about me you may not know is, I have a very...unusual taste in music. MY collection that I knew so well that it didn't matter in the slightest that I could barely see around my apartment in the low light of just the moon, consisted of the Rat pack next to Oingo Boingo's Dead man's party; or Kenny G mixed in with the entirety of "The Eminem show" albums. I also had the uncanny belief that; even the worst of times and problems seem less impacting when you have your best songs playing. The princess of the night and I never once took our gaze's off each other; but it was purely because she probably thought I kept a gun stashed someplace and was looking for it (not that even if I did it wouldn't matter giver her being an immortal goddess and all) and me? Hey you try being woken up at one AM and tell me how you deal with moonlighting visitors.


I snapped a Sinatra CD in the old styled player, (the kind you'd swear was a boom box from the 80's or 90's if the manufacture date didn't say 2011) hit a few buttons, dialed the volume reasonably up and hit play.



 



"You sure I can't offer you a drink princess?"

"I appreciate both the gesture, and your...eye for details if I follow your choice in music." She said turning to look at the marks on her shapely but bigger than most equine's sides. "But this doesn't answer my question."




"Hey, c'mon now just thought you'd be more receptive if I was, whatever you want your majesty...I'll do it. I'm both dead serious on that statement," I said while dumping my Smoky, full bodied (and posthumously endorsed) Jack down the drain. "And dead sober."


"You know, the deceased crooner you admire, who's name is on that fire water you call a beverage; he would never have approved of it. He drank ordinary Whiskey that doesn't cost ridiculous amounts of coinage for just a taste. What you see as homage...It's really exploitation."



"You think I don't know that " I said trying my best to play it cool, what I thought was suave and slick only made me look like a grade A idiot. "Only I'm amazed you do too." 


"Now focus subject; or I will be forced to take measures more akin to what you know as..."tough love." She said her demeanor growing icy a bit, and her face looking less like a concerned Mare-friend and more like an intervening mother.


"Yes; your majesty"




"It's Luna subject....just Luna or princess Luna." "Now, without any Alcohol, or influences." She proclaimed turning my tunes off. "I need you to sleep. a long peaceful, natural sleep, and hurry as the night grows short in the morning hours, and while I will do everything I can, I hope not many sessions will be necessary of you." I laughed a hearty laugh at her request. I wasn't too big on the whole "Little Nemo" shtick she seem'd to be going for. I sat on my bed and looked over at her, she trotted over and sat beside me, a hoof lovingly on my shoulder and a solemn glint in her big eyes. Only the wind whispering through the window audible until she finally spoke. 


"Please subject, not for me; do it for yourself. Learn and realize that their is more to love than what you where raised to believe in. That one is never truly sure of who they feel a bond to, but that there's an entire spectrum to love than..."


"Being attracted to either the opposite or same gender, with it being set in stone that the one you are is the one you are." I finished for her. "I'm sorry princess.....Luna, I guess...it's harder for me to come to terms with what your suggesting." I took a deep breath and lay back collapsing into my pillow a blue aura covering me in my blanket. "I'm Ready. " 

She got beside me, her coat on my skin even softer and warmer than the afghan blanket. She held me in her hooves, but also let me hold her in my arms. Like a teddy bear to a little boy. purely in the interest of making the journey into her realm where she was the absolute rule of all, the sleepers. And making it as comfortable a journey as possible, the perfect princess; performing her "royal duty."








There was a total; dead silence, followed by a rushing in my ears, finally a warm and easy peace, and I found myself floating above myself.   My first thought? This must be what it's like to be dead. My second?



"WHAT DID YOU DO TOO ME?!" I shouted over to my glowing blue companion in the strange new world. 


"Subject, please calm down! you're only sleeping." She informed me sternly, most likely because I shouted practically in her ear. "You are asleep; but unlike when you sleep back in your world; you're not just in a deeply relaxed state of mind, you're in my domain now subject....you're in the dreamstride." she said taking a sort of great pride in it. 
> You only hurt the one's you love
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I looked down at my arms and almost fainted at what I was seeing. My arms where now transparent and glowing a soft purple, my whole body was completely see through, and I had the appearance of a walking, unfinished animation outline. As if they had my outline drawn and animated but forgot to add decent color besides a neon purple outline. Astral projection? Not very original but effective Princess.



"So now what?" I asked her doing a few tricks in the air in my new weightless  form.



"We return to where your anxieties and fears last manifested themselves," I'm sure you know what that means. She said not amused by my floating/flying and instead taking it upon herself to nudge the window open,  "Come."


I followed her to the window; outside there where a lot more astral projections like us, it was like looking at a ghost version of Ponyville as transparent glowing ponies trotted, flew and mingled around, a mixing of so many of the almost ghost like ponies. glowing and shimmering of various colors and shades. 


"Dreams, what you see are the dreams of every sleeper in Equestria all playing out as every individual dreamer sees them, mixed up and combined to you and I...But each dreamer sees their own independently....mostly," She told me as we moved among the masses of dreams. There where several varieties; outside the dentist office, a mare with a blue and white glow and a mane that looked like a dollop of toothpaste, was picking her teeth off the ground as more and more of them kept falling out of her mouth,  A stallion with a brownish-yellow glow fidgeted with a strange device that looked almost electronic in the square while muttering to himself about "blasted K-9," (saying the k and nine separately) and as we made our way back to the house where my guilt lay, The one who lassoed me, Applejack was looking smugly and pridefully with a group of tired farm hands resting against their tools. I heard her softly mutter something about "having bagged that critter good," and I knew what she meant.


"She and I where having the same dream Luna?" I asked trying not to shudder at the thought of what a mare like that would be like awake. 



"In a way; your dream attracted a lot of other dreamers to it, some of them having completely different dreams before your own became the spectacle of the "killer falcon creature from the woods," In some ways, the roles they played in destroying you was a nightmare to you, but a good and satisfying dream to them." she said almost oddly enough...amused at the thought.



"sounds pretty sick to me, this how they get their sick kicks when their short of dragons or Minotaur's attacking the towns? Or some washed up wizard trying to  use them as an alchemy ingredient to turn them into gold?" I asked making my way back to the haunting path around the tree the DJ and Cellist called home, where just an hour ago I killed one of them.  



"More like a call to arms, and a dutiful servitude..but I'd be lying if I denied that a few more...ambitious dreams didn't enjoy it." she said phasing through the gate. Crumpled in a heap on the lawn in the dark was another astral being, only this one had a fiery red and jet black glow, it didn't move much until I got close to it, it turned its head to me and i gazed into an abyss of two large, birdlike eyes. 


I was looking at the falcon like form I had taken in the dream; now a shadow of itself lying in a crumpled, broken heap. If projections could bleed; I'm sure this thing would have been. I cautiously made my way over to it...me? myself?



"IT..can't see you, it can't even speak, it's like unto a being that is dead but not dead...because you..."


"can't kill emotions," I said finishing for her. "You can only either shutter them away or face them." I finished gazing into those eyes; the cold un-moving eyes that where a gateway to a gazing pool of anger, frustration, confusion, and a hint of jealousy. A Repressed history not worth (for my own reasons) going over. Beyond just how they made me feel remorse and shame for who I used to be and how I used to feel, and maybe in a little tiny way still did. I just wanted to get the damned thing out of my head.


Luna wasn't angry, not with me. She seemed to understand that I hadn't meant to become this...thing. She trotted over beside me and one of her allicorn wings landed as gently as a fall leaf from the treetops on my shoulder. A warm gesture of genuinely caring for me.



"What is it that you really want to dream about little one? I know you inside and out...this creature...it's not the real you....think hard, focus and create what you truly desire, put all those notions and negative thoughts away, throw them to the wind." As her words ran through my head, the red creature seemed to come apart' its lines that made up its astral body unwinding like bits of yarn, and the bits flew away in the breeze. As it did so, something else seemed to change. 




The surroundings of Ponyville started melting, everything around me just seemed to dissolve like a watercolor picture being washed away because the artist was unsatisfied with what he had painted. until I was left standing the total blackness, an empty void where I had the silence to final contemplate and let my mind find peace and tranquility. It wasn't long before the light returned; and I was back in the middle of town the night slowly giving away to the dawn the membrane that separates the dream-stride and the real world dissipating, Luna the only one that seemed to stay solid even with the sisters changing domains. 




"The sun of my sister is rising, time's almost up." Is all she said, not coldly or harshly but more...concerned.




"Take me home Luna, I'm feeling...a bit better, reassured at the very least."


"Do you still feel like?"



"Less so." I answered her. Just like that I was no longer standing the middle of Ponyville, but I was home. Soundly awake in my bed, sunlight streaming in the window and giving the room light. I sat up in bed feeling quite refreshed and rested when two objects  fell out of my blanket. one was A note I unfolded and scanned through carefully.



My dear Subject



Hope this finds you well, hope I helped you prepare yourself for this evening...oh surely you haven't forgotten?



As if by magic of reading the note three rectangular pieces of paper fell out of the back of the note, turning them over in my hand showed they where tickets for the grand opening of an amusement plaza on the waterfront.



Thought it be a nice change of pace to your plans if your interested, I'm sure they will be more than happy to join you there, 

feel better, hopefully you have a clearer sense of mind now. Also get back to me and let me know how things went ok?



PRINCESS LUNA




ps disc one track 2.



I didn't get what she meant by that as another piece of paper feel out of the not seemingly out of nowhere it was blank save for a few words scrawled across the top.


	Dear Princess Luna...


I picked the other object up and looked over it in my hands, suddenly her P.S made a lot more sense, for the object was a CD. A CD of the Frampton Bee Gee's Sgt. Pepper's lonely hearts club band. 











I put the first disc in my old reliable CD player and skipped to track two, it was very fitting.




As I stood there in my room the morning sun and the crisp morning air seemed to come into the room, mixing with that music of a long bygone era I had never personally seen. The feeling of being rejuvenated all the more present; from out my window I could see the still empty but slowly waking streets of Canterlot, and beyond that far but not too far in distance ponyville, and I couldn't have been any happier if Octavia herself was there with me and singing the melody personally.
> A lesson in love.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Looking down into the streets of Canterlot, everything looked a lot...better. I mean; you had the lovely sun shining down on everything casting a halogen like glow on the white cobblestone streets and sides of buildings, the morning breeze crisp and cool as it made the flag of the regal sisters flutter in the wind,  I saw ponies leaving their homes ready to face the day and open up their shops, even the people leaving their apartments for work and crossing the bar (like the ones you go through to get into a parking garage/lot) that separated their district by guards constantly watching the other sides seemed perkier, the Pegasus guards even offering up warm smiles and hearty good mornings as the residents walked out to their side of the city.


I got the hoof stitched grey and pinstriped suit out of the bag and slid into it; I tucked a pair of aviator's into the breast pocket, made sure my shoes (thanking Celestia while wondering if I should have been that I only needed two) where air-freshened out and shined of course, and made my outside to the train station. The stand owners opened the umbrellas to their stands selling fruit and nick-knacks; hooves waving , warmly smiles on their faces, I returned those smiles to each and every one of them. I didn't look at the equine inhabitants with resentment and they were just as warm and welcoming to me as well.


"Good morning sir, fresh hot coffee to start your day, and the Equestrian Daily?" A bright orange stallion with a jelly purple mane and a mark of a steaming mug and a poppy seed bagel; who was running a cart loaded with an assortment of breakfast foods, and a large red metal device that even with all the hot water and steam dripping from the pipes connected to the main part that looked like an old torpedo shell, I hoped was a steam powered coffee machine.


"Just a coffee would be nice, decaf. light and sweet if you please...and a good morning to you too my good stallion. " He twisted a few Valves and some PSI gauges went to the MAX then down again as steam hissed from the pipes and a cloud of it was vented from the machine. Making me wonder how the papers of his stayed crisp and dry and the fruit didn't go rotten quickly from all the humid steam. As he filled a paper cup with cream and sugar and placed it under an orange handled tap and filled it up nice and steaming for me. 




"There you are sir; just as you ordered it." He said as his Wacky brewer gave one final blast of vented steam to the ground. 


"Thank you, but isn't that a bit a much for a coffee machine you got there Mr.?" I asked noticing just how the thing was almost like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, but than again; almost everything in this world was. 



"It's the design that makes the brew all the more tasty to the last drop Mr." He replied giving me a look that suggested I questioned the quality of his life's work, which I noticed.



"Oh I meant nothing by it sir, it's just; you see I'm not all that familiar with the way the design in the machines and gadgetry of this place, I think it's actually pretty nifty the way you got it all set up with all those pipes and gauges and all the other things it does. I mean most of the machines in my world that make coffee....well they pale in comparison to yours." I said in my best apologetic way if I had insulted his shop. He almost seemed to be sizing me up as he looked at me; almost as if he was "evaluating" my words.



"Why thanks Mac, I don't compliments like that too often. Here have another donut on the house." He said handing a chocolate frosted with sprinkles wrapped in plastic too me. 

"I...I don't know what to say except...thanks."


"Anytime." he said with an ear to flopping ear smile.




The Walnut tree cafe was just a short walk away from the train station. True to its name; the cafe was built from a hollowed out walnut tree that in its prime must have yielded a haul of the nuts, as the tree was several times thicker and bigger than any walnut tree from home, the trunk stretched as high as the adjoining houses but the branches were long since dead and lifeless. As I made my way to the tree; I stopped and looked at the bark. It had a solid; glossy shine to it and felt as smooth as glass,  the whole tree was petrified; a fossilized tree. I opened the door and stepped past the threshold; the place was quaint and simple, but I think that's what gave its charm as I went in. 



Wicker lattice tables and chairs had all been set up and where seating a mostly equine clientele; the floor and walls like the bark of the tree, gave off a very shiny look with a mirrored gloss, ponies sat comfortably at their tables, among the faces on the first level, I couldn't find Octavia. I made my way across the room looking from table to table, at first I felt a sudden fear that She wasn't here; had she changed her mind?had this all been a ruse from the get go? 


"Ow!" I cried out a bit as I bumped my head into the winding gold bar of a spiral staircase. It was in the very center of the room to save space, given how the cafe was built in a circular structure. rubbing the pain out I heard a soft giggle come from up above.

"It's about time you got here, I was begging to think you canceled our luncheon together." The grey and black mane minx called down to me me with a hoof over her mouth in a fruitless attempt to hide that adorable giggle she let out. "Come on up luv, the food here is just divine."


''Not as divine as you''. I said inside my head and went around the winding stairs up to the second level of the cafe; it was noticeably less crowded than the first. Octavia sat at her table just next to the stairs; a mug of earl grey tea and a plate of shortbread cookies, just how she liked them right there on the wicker surface, her friend Vinyl right next to her; and very close to her. 








"Hey girls," I said casually taking my seat and helping myself to a cookie; as I did however A mare with a poofy purple and pink mane and a cream coat trotted up to the table a cordless handset (or hoof set if you prefer) cleared her throat and placed it on the table next to me.  







"Excuse me? But I have a call for a Mr. Harris, first name Jack; the caller said he's human and given your the only one who walked in here today I presume that's you." she said handing me the phone. 





"Yes, that's me, thank you miss." I thanked her and answered the call; just work confirming my day off. "Yeah, uh huh, That's right sir off today, yes we agreed on it, Ok sir, I'll see you monday, thank you goodbye." I hung the phone up and the mare who brought it, took it away.


"Sorry bout that girls, These things always seem to happen at the strangest times." I said taking my coat off and resting it on the back of my chair. 

"Eh I've seen worse." Vynil said with a casual flick of her hoof. We all sat back and mostly chatted casually; sipping drinks and chewing on the treats the girls saw fit to order for the occasion. I finally cleared my throat and a almost reluctantly, asked.


"What do you two think of me?" the question passed through my lips as I felt inside my backpack for those tickets. Both of them turned their heads to each other in a bit of confusion before letting out hearty laughs, my face turned bright red as I got ready to only hand them two tickets. Vinyl was the first to break the silence.

"Well, I think your cool, have a great personality, even if it's a bit...strange at times, like yesterday in the park, but I think you're overall a cool guy, better than most guys...well human ones anyway." She said with an ear to ear smile.


"What do you mean most human guys Vinyl?" I asked nervously looking into my cup even though it was empty.


"Well Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make any harsh generalizations or nothing. It's just; most guys I've know mostly the one's that hang around my performances, they only do so because they...well think just because my life's calling is DJing and because I'm a pony i guess that makes me..." she pauses trying to get it out.


"Easy?" I finish for her hoping with everything I have, she won't take offense to the notion.


"More or less yeah; they pissed me off so much,always thinking I was an easy mare to snag" she huffed a lock of her mane softly and folded her hooves across her chest. "You, I'm glad you're different dude, you're actually cool because you are who you are, not what you think you need to be to be cool. That, and the fact that you're like the first human guy I've known to actually treat me and Octi with some decency for once."


"Did...did you always have a disinterest in guys?...not just human ones I mean" I said this with almost a sense of regret in doing so; after all, who in their right state of mind would ever ask such a thing only a second meeting. 





"Who said I was uninterested in guys Jack?" She replied lifting an eyebrow at a mix of puzzlement and curiosity. "I don't mind guys so long as they mind themselves and not make presumptions about the sorta mare I am, and from what I've seen not a lot of human guy's mind themselves around me."





I couldn't beat around the bush anymore but i had to put it as delicately as possible. "Vinyl? please don't take what I'm about to ask the wrong way, and don't think I was BEING presumptuous." I solemnly rested my hands on the table and took a deep breath. 


"It's about me and vinyl isn't it Jack?" Octavia asked taking a nonchalant sip from her tea, "you're curious about if we're "an item" aren't you?"


"Please, I don't mean for it to be like this; Octavia, I've liked you, really liked you since that night I saw your performance and heard your singing, I've wanted to know you for who you are ever since, beyond just a voice with a skill for dulcet tones."


"Well I'd be lying if I said I'm not a bit flattered at your approach Jack," She said with an adorable blush and cute giggle. 


"I saw you and vinyl and you both looked pretty close to each other, and please don't be mad at me for thinking you too are like that and it turns out you're not.'


"And if we are like?" Vinyl asked with a soft chuckle, clearly getting some kinda enjoyment out of my awkwardness. 


"I won't think of either of you in any different way, but I'll be honest with you both in saying I wouldn't be a bit...disheartened at it."


The girls both let out hearty laughs and gave their sides a soft slap with their hooves; before both mares slid close to their sides and rubbed their cheeks together, soft cute little sounds emitted from their muzzles, and they each softly kissed each other with soft pecks on the lips, soft but enough to give me my answer. Then just as I was about to hand them both two of the boardwalk amusement tickets; Octavia placed her hoof in my hand and looked at me with her soft set of amethyst eyes. 


"Your something, you know that Jack?" she asked me giving my hand something of a grip. "I think I like you too, and I admire how you were honest with both yourself and us; so if you must know, I love Vinyl, she's been a good friend to me ever since I was a filly, and she really loves me, but you see me and her, we..."


"Have an open relationship," her no questions about it anymore "marefriend" said finishing for her. "Octi and I have felt that just because there was this...spark between us, its something special nopony else can really come close to feeling, but at the same time, We agreed that what we have is a new way of thinking, like you don't just pick that one special someone and stay with them for your whole life, know what I mean Jackie boy?" she said giving me a sly little amused smile.


"I kinda don't to be honest." I said with a tilted head and look of my own puzzlement. Another set of hearty laughs and giggles from the mares. 


Vinyl got her laughter under control and continued."It means that if you're cool with us and you more than are in my book," 

"and mine as well," Octavia finished for her.

"Then I think maybe there's something of chance that somewhere down the line...we could...go places in our relationship." The White DJ said now with a playful hint of deviousness in her voice but only momentarily. Before she let out a happy sigh into her marefriend's ear.


"Well...I don't know what to say to be honest girls." I said rubbing the back of my head and chuckling nervously. I never heard of your way of thinking and putting it that way; but I think I like it. I said blushing trying not to look like a fool. 


"Now come here and join us in a group hug cutie." Octavia said with a soft giggle.

"Yeah, I always wondered what that skin of yours would feel like sandwiched in pony fur." Vinyl added with a chuckle.


They didn't have to tell me twice, I cuddled between the soft coats of the two ponies and blushed red as an apple, they let out soft cute little sighs and the world of the cafe just died away under the warmth of the mares as they held me close in their hug. I was so elated in the borderline softcore cuddling that the tickets sat in my backpack on the floor; ''I'll tell them once the novelty wears off.'' I said happily inside my head.