Human in Equestria story. Contains light shipping and discovering new found powers.
*Driving in a massive downpour while on a mountain road ain't what I thought it would be like...*, Simon shook his head, peering out from behind the rapidly moving wipers out into the rainy road. "I don't know why I had volunteered to transport our newest R&D product to our new test labs, even though I knew the weather forecast had promised hard rains..." He took a glance to the bed of the company's pickup truck and sitting on it was the newest cutting edge super magnet prototype. A bright flash illuminated the cabin of the pickup and Simon's head snapped back in attention to the road ahead. "1... 2... 3... 4..." He whispered to himself, only stopping after a rumbling noise of the thunder reverberated through the chassis of the car. Sighing to himself, Simon settled in for the cruise.
After what felt like a couple of hours of considerable downpour and Simon's ears still ringing from the lighting strikes. The horizon finally seems to start clearing up. Simon smiled inwardly to himself that he was finally getting out of there after hard concentration on the driving for the past 30 minutes, but as soon as he finished that thought there was a bright flash and the loudest bang he could ever remember.
And now here he was. In some unknown forest god knows where surrounded by bits of what used to be his employers pickup truck and the smoking magnet prototype..."
This story centers around Simon's adventures in Equestria and how he soon finds himself in the middle of an ancient prophecy and new war between the kingdoms.
-Big thanks to "That Gamer", for suggesting better title for the serie
One moment I'm transporting the new experimental super magnet prototype on the bed of my pickup, when the fiercest storm I have ever seen descends over the horizon. Once the rain started to really come down I had really hard time seeing where I was going while there was lighting striking every dozen seconds.
After what felt like a couple of hours of considerable downpour and ears still ringing from the lighting strikes. The horizon finally seems to start clearing up. I smile inwardly to myself that I finally get to relax after hard concentration on the driving for the past 30 minutes, but as soon as I finished that thought there was a bright flash and the loudest bang I could ever remember.
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Ache and pain. That's all I could feel... I couldn't feel any of my limbs. I tried wiggling my fingers, but I wasn't sure that I even got them anymore as I didn't feel any sensations from my arms or my legs for that matter.
*Strange... I could have sworn that I was just driving my pickup.* I thought to myself. I slowly opened my eyes, even that felt like hard work, but immediately I wished that I hadn't. From what I could see, it was night and I was in some kind of forest. The big, dark and scary kind. My back seemed to be leaning against a tree with my legs spread out in front of me. I looked around and saw just endless forest and bush in every direction, but something caught my eye. It looked like a mangled piece of the bodywork of my car, it was no bigger than my hand. Panic started to creep into my mind *Where am I!? What time is it?! AND WHY AM I HERE?!*.
A sudden electrical zap noise caught my attention. It sounded like it came from behind me. I tried turning my head, but the tree trunk was in the way and I would have probably snapped my neck, if I tried to peek around the trunk considering the pain I was already feeling. I turned my attention back to myself. I looked at my hands. Both still here and 10 fingers I smiled, but I grew grim as I saw the left forearm twisted at some sick angle at the middle with what I was sure was bone sticking out. Thankfully it seemed that the wound itself had clogged up already, or maybe I was starting to run low with internal liquids to gush through it. At least both of legs seemed to be okay... Well when I say okay, I mean no bones sticking out from anywhere, but my right ankle looked a bit swollen. Must have sprained it... somehow...
After making sure that I wouldn't pass out from the pain from moving I gently rose up and was reassured on the sprained quality of my right ankle. I almost collapsed back to the ground, but quickly leaned on my right shoulder against the tree and placed most of my weight on my left leg. Starting to shiver I realized it was quite a cold night and my outfit of a t-shirt under a hoodie and jeans weren't quite meant for the near freezing temperatures.
*I can do this! I can make it out of here!* I psyched myself. Slowly I made it around the tree while still supporting my self against it and came to a startling scene. Halfway up a tree was the front end of my car on fire with what seemed to be either motor oil or gasoline dripping out from under the bonnet. The backside of my car was nowhere to be seen. Fortunately this little fire didn't seem like it was about to spread, but thankfully it did give of some light to the surrounding area. Next to the tree with my car was quite a hole. I estimated the size to be roughly three meters across and half a meter deep when compared to the surrounding area.
Right in the middle of the hole though was what I suspected to be the source of the electric noise, the experimental super magnet. The magnet was glowing like hot iron while arcs of electricity surged out from it's core every once in a while. I thought back to the storm and was pretty sure that the flash and boom was a lighting bolt striking the magnet, which had then grounded itself through the bodywork of my car. I could only start guessing what kind of current it had induced into the supra conductive coil of the magnet, which then meant that it must have generated absolutely massive magnetic field fluctuation...
Unfortunately I was interrupted from my pondering by a blood curling howl. And I was sure the perpetrator was not far away considering from the volume of the howl. Suddenly every bush around me started to look quite threatening as they would give quite a good hiding place for any predators hungry for some easy meal. Quickly looking around I tried to decide on what direction to head to, but everywhere I looked I just saw more forest. -Well, here goes nothing" I stated to myself and took off in a random direction into the forest.
Speed surely wasn't my biggest strength, as I was semi limping with my right foot; but at least I was making progress... to where ever I was going. Unfortunately it seemed that I needed to pick up my pace as a growl sounded from behind me. Turning around all I could see a pair of yellow eyes in the dark, but as soon I had noticed them another pair popped into my view. and then another, and another, until there were at least six eye pairs watching me intensely.
Adrenaline started to fill my veins as I bolted to the direction I was going, while a chorus of growls and snarls erupted behind me. I was glad that my right ankle didn't give out on me, even though it hurt like hell every time my weight came down on it, but considering being eaten by god knows what I concluded that it was a worthy price. Better alive than dead right?
I ran while hopping over tree roots and bushes and ducking under low branches, but even though I felt like going a mile a minute the crushing fact was that the sounds of my pursuers kept getting louder. Meaning that I needed either go even faster or prepare to fend off whatever that was on a hot pursuit behind me. My clothes weren't able to escape the situation either, getting quite shredded in my hurry along with nasty cuts from thorny bushes on my arms and legs. After couple of minutes of very intense running my ankle really started to give in even though I was full of adrenaline, it started to look like I would be fighting for my life tonight, in an unknown forest against an unknown predator. If worse would become to pass I just hoped that someone eventually found my body, so that my family and coworkers would know what had happened...
A faint glimmer on the horizon brought my attention back to the situation as the vegetation seemed to thin out slowly. I just hoped I was coming to the edge of the forest and not gotten disoriented and made my way back to the burning wreck of my car. In my small moment of hope I managed to unfortunately get my foot caught on a tree root. Causing me to stumble and hit the ground hard with a solid thud, but now wasn't the time to quit! Quickly I tried to regain my bearings, but it seemed that my luck had run out as I was about to start the final dash to the edge of the forest, something latched on to my arm.
I yelled out of pain and anger and turned to see what had started to sample my flesh for it's dinner. I came face to face with what looked like a wolf, but instead of fur the entire canine seemed to be nothing but tree branches intertwined so that It resembled a wolf's form. I was snapped away from my wonderment as the wolf bit down harder on my right forearm. I started to kick the wolf head and jaw in desperation to let it go! I was too close to the finishing line to become dinner now!
On my third kick I hit the wolf in it's neck and it yelped and softened it's grip on my arm, which was just what I needed. With a violent move I tore my arm out it's jaws and started to make a beeline for the forest's edge. I only got couple of steps when another one of those things started pulling my hoodies left sleeve. Thinking quickly I decided that staying and fighting would be a lost cause as I would be most certainly overrun in seconds, so in haste I pulled the hoodie off of me with my right arm in a great big arch, causing big blood splatters to appear on the nearby bushes and trees.
With renewed burst of speed I shot towards the clearing beyond the treeline, just in time to hear the sound of snapping jaws on my heels. 30 yards... 20... 10... 5... I'm out! I entered a big grass field and looked behind only to see the glowing eyes to stay at the treeline and not coming after me anymore. I gave a big sigh of relieve as the eyes started to disappear back into the forest, but just as I was going to start moving out a again to what now looked like a little town I noticed that my little fight had taken it's toll. I was bleeding heavily from my wounds. My left arms fracture wound had reopened and my right arm was bleeding from the wolf's bite wound. *This ain't good. I'm going to bleed out at this rate* I concluded and were starting to shiver even more violently now that I didn't have hoodie anymore either.
Looking at the town I saw just one building with lights still coming out of the windows, it looked like a giant tree house. Except the whole tree WAS the house. Deciding that it was my best bet for help I limped my way to what looked like the front door. Now low on adrenaline I was starting to near the borderline of consciousness. Add to that my feat of running away from the wolves and the mental and physical stress I was in. I was lucky enough to make my way to it.
Giving the door couple of kicks with my left leg and yelling for help . The fatigue finally caught me and I slumped against the door and then to the ground as I leaned my back against it. I hazily remember hearing footsteps... or more like hoofsteps nearing the door and the handle being turned. As the door opened I fell backwards and laid on my back in the opened doorway. Shouts of panic and confusion filled the air and something purple entered my blurred vision. Just before I lost consciousness the purple thing seemed to yelling something at me, but slowly the voices started feeling more distant and my vision slowly started fading to black as I fainted.
Well at least I wasn't going to be eaten anymore... Hopefully...
I was running again, in the same forest as before. Chased by an unknown force in an unrelenting pursuit. The feeling in the back of my neck was telling me the entity was closing in. The dark forest felt like it was trying to slow me down as every tree branch and possible bush got caught into my clothes. Slowly my progress was being halted as more and more branches and vines were pulling me back to the entity. I tried putting all my strength behind every step I made, but I still weren't going anywhere faster. Looking back I saw an all consuming darkness covering the forest as it neared me. In my desperation I tried to crawl away, but found that instead of hands my arms now ended in stumps. A tear started to push itself into my eye as I tried to get away from the darkness as best as I could, but it was no use.
In horror I turned to see the darkness slowly rising above me like a wave, just getting higher and higher, leaving the treetops beneath it as it covered the starry night sky. and like someone had turned of gravity, the darkness came crushing down on me. As the darkness swallowed me, I felt like I was falling. I looked around to see anything, but everywhere I just saw more emptiness and a gut wrenching feeling of falling encompassed me in it's hold. And I screamed... As loud as I could...
I sprung up screaming in a bed covered in sweat. Glancing left and right I seemed to be inside a room and judging by the fact that the walls, floor and ceiling were all made of wood. I believed I was in the huge tree I made my way to. It seemed though that my vocal outburst had attracted the attention of the homeowner as hurried steps could be heard outside the door, closing in.
The door busted open and what I saw next gave me even bigger shock than being chased by the wolves, or at least that's how I felt, because in the doorway there was a lavender colored unicorn speaking to me... I was flabbergasted. I just sat there on the bed with my eyes wide open and jaw hanging as I tried to comprehend the situation. *Okay, okay... this is some kind of joke. There's a hidden camera somewhere and somebody will soon tell me about it* I tried to rationalize. But as I just kept sitting there while all the words from this joke/fake unicorn just passed through my ears. Being plain confused I tried to bring my left arm up to scratch my head, but stopped as it had a cast around the forearm, while my right arm was bandaged.
Reluctantly the situation started to sink in. I still had the wounds from the earlier events, so that means that I really was bitten by a wolf made out of tree branches. I kept staring staring down at my arms for some time, but movement from the corner of my eye brought my attention back to the unicorn at the door. It started to get closer to me! "Don't come any closer!" I yelled out of fear. In my panic I fumbled on the bed trying to get away. Only managing to get my legs tangled in the blanket and bedsheets and falling down on the opposite side of the bed, straight on my noggin with a solid thud. Left dazed from the hit I just laid there on my back while my legs where still mostly on the bed tangled in the blanket.
"Uuughhhh..." I groaned as I tried to focus my vision on the ceiling. But a familiar purple blur popped into my view from the side. Now being the center of my attention I waited for my eyes to focus on the blur, but as I started seeing more clearly, the more my eyes began to widen again. I was about to scream again, but the unicorn shoved it's hoof on my mouth so I couldn't. The best I could do was a very muffled "MmmFFfffhhh".
"Please don't scream. I won't hurt you." it said in a pleading tone with big round pleading eyes. I just stared at this confused, while my mind was racing over million things at one. *Why is there a unicorn in front me?! How can it talk?! and would somebody please wake me up from this crazy nightmare!*.
Slowly, but reluctantly I started to calm down keeping my eyes hard on the unicorn for any suspicious behavior. The unicorn seemed to notice that I was calming down and removed it's hoof from my mouth, but before I could say anything or scream again it said to me in a calm tone "Relax, you're safe now. You stumbled onto my library two days ago and you were in a pretty rough shape, but I patched you up to the best of my knowledge."
"I was out for two days?" I answered with evident confusion in my voice.
"Well more like a day and a half to be more precise, but may I ask you. What are you? I couldn't find any species like you in my encyclopedia of Equestrian animal kingdom" The unicorn replied, confusion apparent in it's voice now.
"What do you mean you couldn't find any "specie" like me? I'm a person. A human" I stated as if common knowledge, which I was about to find out was something we really didn't share. I must say though, that judging by it's appearance and voice, it seemed to be a female,
"Did you say... A human?!" She almost yelled at my face.
"Yea, a human, but... what are you for that matter?" I asked her in reply, but before I could do anything else she bolted out of the room while yelling "Wait there. I need to check something!". Leaving me still on my back next to the bed to wonder about her reaction. *What kind of mess have I gotten myself into.* I thought while rubbing my forehead with my right arm. Well one thing was for sure. This position wasn't very comfortable, so I gingerly untangled my legs from the blanket and rose to sit on the side of the bed facing the door just in time for her to come back carrying a book. Well... the book was more sort of levitating in the air in front of her, but I just couldn't care at that moment.
"Here! I found it! The mythical creatures of the world!" she practically chirped with a wide smile on her face as she set it down on the bed next to me and opening a specific page.
On the page there was a crude illustration of what I assumed to be some sort of tribal human. Wearing a very crude outfit of a loincloth and sandals, while carrying a large spear. "Soo... Ummm... why is it such a big deal that I'm a human?" I ask sincerely.
"Well humans haven't been seen in Equestria in 3000 years!" She jumped in my face positively glowing with excitement, although the same couldn't be said for me.
"Do you understand what this means! A long lost specie has come back to the land and I'm first to discover it! Just think about the scientific breakthrough! This is..." she started yapping her mouth like a automated turret.
My patience with the situation had run out and I stood up gave a mighty yell of "Stop! just stop. please?"
Well I sure did get her attention with that as her face displayed a little hurt and scared emotion, but at least I had the turn to speak now.
"Please... Consider how I'm feeling right now. I don't know where I am. I don't why I am here. I was almost eaten by wolves. And I seem to be the only human here." I replied with a shaky voice as tears begun to roll down my cheeks and I sat down back on the bed and buried my face in my hands. "I don't even know who or what you are...." I managed to speak from between my hands. The dam walls crumbling, I broke down crying.
I felt something rubbing against my thigh and saw that she was trying to console me with her hoof as best as she could while telling me reassuringly "Hey, hey... It's going to be okay, we'll figure out something." as she looked at me with worried eyes.
Touched by her actions mentally and physically I managed to blurt out between my shaky breaths "I'm Simon... by the way."
"And I'm Twilight Sparkle." she replied with a soft smile.
After I had managed to cry what there was left. I told her about the earlier events leading to my current situation. The storm, the lightning strike, waking up in a forest wounded, being chased by wolves and finally ending up at her door. Thankfully she let me finish in peace, but I could clearly tell that she was intrigued by what she was hearing.
"So this is "Equestria"?" I asked her and she simply nodded. "And you seem to be a... pony?"
"That is correct. I'm a unicorn to be specific, but there are also pegasi and earth ponies." she replied like a teacher answering a students question.
"You mean pegasi, as with wings and being able to fly?" I asked, starting to get interested too.
"Yup and we unicorns can use magic with our horns." She answered, her voice full of glee.
"Uuhhh... could you show me some... magic?" I asked now genuinely interested. At least for a moment I forgot all about my troubles and my predicament, because here I was talking to lavender colored unicorn about to show me real magic and not mere illusions.
"Sure. Let's start with something simple." She chirped and slowly her horn was enveloped by a purplish glow. Next thing I noticed was the book being enveloped by the same kind of glow and starting to rise from the bed, It rose to my eye level while I just stared at it with eyes of full of awe and wonder. I reached out with my hand to touch the book. I poked the book expecting it to fall, but it stayed there hovering next to me. I tried pushing it a little harder to see if it gave in a little bit, but was interrupted by a groan from my new unicorn friend.
"Please don't do that. It strains me if you try to move the book while I'm levitating it." She pleaded, clearly strained by my actions.
"Sorry!" I replied with nervousness in my voice.
"It's ok, you didn't know, but it's stressful to keep something in place, while someone tries to move it by force." She told me calmly. I chuckled awkwardly in response while rubbing the back of my head, which was still sore from the earlier hit against the wooden floor.
We were interrupted by a low rumble and turned our heads in sync toward my stomach and then back to each other starting to giggle slowly which then grew to great laughter. *Oh yeah I haven't eaten anything in two days...* I realized.
"You must be quite hungry I presume? I could have my assistant fix us a little snack." She said motioning towards the door.
"Well having not eaten for couple of days tends to do that." I said with a slight blush on my cheeks as my stomach growled again. "Who's your assistant by the way?" I said raising an eyebrow while starting to move towards the door.
"Oh, his name is Spike and he's a baby dragon. He's my assistant. He helps me around the library and to keep in contact with my mentor" She answered nonchalantly as we got to the door.
I stopped dead in my tracks and looked at Twilight with wide open eyes. "He's a baby WHAT?!" I blurted.
*Magic wielding unicorns, flying pegasi and Dragons! What next...* I pondered as this world started to feel crazier and weirder by the moment...
After hearing that there was a dragon in the house Simon wasn't going to take any chances. He kept near twilight as they moved through the house, but kept looking around for bloodthirsty lizards. His right ankle wasn't gladly too sore anymore so he didn't limp anymore, but he wasn't about to take a part in a race with it either.
Arriving in what seemed to be the main hall. They descended to the ground level by stairs along the circular wall of the room and approached a door on the opposite side of the front door.
"You can wait over there Simon." Twilight said while motioning towards a table and a couch in the middle of the room. Simon took the advice while Twilight opened the door. "Spike? Spiiikee!" Twilight yelled to the kitchen. The air filled with melancholy of metallic banging sounds and soft thuds, as a spooked voice could be heard yelling in the midst of it all.
"Spike! What have I said about sleeping on the kitchen table?" Twilight seemed to scold what Simon presumed to be her assistant. "Could you prepare a small snack as our guest has finally woken up. And after you're done with that, clean up this mess!" She said while rubbing her face with a hoof in annoyance. A muffled "Yes ma'am!" could be heard be heard behind her as she sighed and closed the door behind her and started walking to the table and couch.
"Uuh. What was that about?" Simon asked her with a slightly raised eyebrow.
"Ehh hehe..." She gave a nervous chuckle with a roll of her eyes. "That would by assistant number one, who should learn that the kitchen table isn't a place to sleep on!" She yelled the last part with a little hint of vice towards the kitchen.
"Does this happen often?" Simon queried with an ulterior motive of finding out how dangerous this dragon seemed to be.
"Well sometimes, but usually he's just a great help. I can't blame him too much though as he's still a baby, so I understand his weird sleeping habits." She answered with a soft smile and seeming to fall in thought.
*Well can't be too bad if she doesn't seem worried.* Simon concluded and decided to try to change the subject "So can you tell me more about equestria, while Spike prepares the snacks?".
"Well I do take pride in having a great knowledge about the kingdom." She said with a hint of pride in her voice.
"Well if it's a kingdom, then you must a have king and queen to rule over it?" Simon asked thinking back to the middle ages on earth with all the sword clashing and 'die for your king' chivalry.
"Well we used have a king and a queen, but unfortunately they were killed during the great war 2000 years ago. Currently we are ruled by their daughters, princess Celestia and princess Luna." She replied like reading straight out of a book.
"That's unfortunate. Wait. you did say 2000 years ago?" A weird fact coming up on Simon's head. Twilight nodded in response. "So you're ruled by the same princess' now as 2000 years ago. Meaning that the princess' are at least 2000 years old?" A hint of smirk on Simon's face grew as he was sure she had told an error, but she just nodded sheepishly.
Simon's jaw dropped a little. *This can't be right* thought ran through his head. "How old does the average pony live if the princess' are 2000 years old?" He replied in confusion.
"Well I was reading a medical book just last week. I believe it mentioned the average age for a pony to be about 80 years, but the princess' aren't normal ponies. They are alicorns." She looked back at Simon to see him staring at her with doubtful eyes.
"Okay, you said that there were 3 pony races. Earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns, so could you share some light on these 'alicorns' you said the princess' were." Simon said while still keeping his eyes locked on Twilight.
"Oh, well all alicorns are considered royalty as they possess great magic abilities and are very rare. There's only 3 in the kingdom currently. Physically they have both wing and a horn, plus they don't age like normal ponies." She answered with a hoof on her chin.
"Aaa... ok, I think I get it now, so there's actually 4 races of ponies. Earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns and alicorns, while the latter has the attributes of both pegasi and unicorns, but because they are so rare you didn't mention them earlier. And well they are immortal..." Simon replied a little lost at the immortal fact, his eyes starting to become a little dull as he tried to comprehend this new information. The sound of a door opening and closing snapped him out of his little mental malarchy. *Oh shit!* ran through his head as he had completely forgotten about the dragon! He quickly jumped over the couch for cover as he imagined fireballs to soon start flying all over the place. After a dozen seconds of silence and a lack of fireballs, chaos and general destruction. He slowly peeked out from behind the top of the couch.
The only thing he saw was a Twilight staring at him with a raised eyebrow, while he glanced around the room for the dragon. A knock of teacup being placed on the table made him focus his attention there. Sure enough another teacup was set down on the table and he managed to spot a green and purple claw withdrawing to beneath the tabletop. He carefully started to peek out more from behind the couch in hope of seeing what he was up against. He kept rising and rising and was almost completely standing when a cough and a "Uhhh, what are you doing" coming from his right side made him turn in haste, but saw no one. "Down here." came from below his eye level as he turned towards the voice.
There it was! The murderous dragon! holding a serving tray and dressed in an apron?... Simon's jaw dropped as he took a glance up and down the dragon and guessed that Spike was just a bit over 2 feet tall. With quick thinking Simon tried to think of way how to not make himself look like a complete idiot. "You're Twilight's assistant?" He managed to mumble.
"Yep! The one and only, number one assistant!" Spike replied and did a little 'tadaa' motion with his hands.
Simon let out a big whew and bent down to shake the little dragon's hand... or claw. "Name's Simon, nice to meet you Spike" He greeted with a defeated sigh as giggling could be heard coming from the table.
"Haa haa. Very funny." Simon said as he turned back to Twilight who was still giggling at him. He walked back to the front of the couch and sat down feeling like such an idiot.
"Hihihiii *snort haa haha haa.... You thought that Spike was somehow dangerous?" Twilight managed to ask after her giggles lost their momentum.
"Well.... It's not everyday I get to see a real dragon as they're are completely mythological on earth and in most of the myths and stories they're usually involved in quite a lot of maiming and blood... Soooo I was expecting something. little. different." He announced to save himself from total embarrassment while looking towards Spike who didn't really seem so interested in this conversation as opposed to finding a new napping place. Spike glanced back at the two next to the table, but shrugged his shoulders and went to upstairs to continue his nap.
"I see. OH! You need to tell me more about earth at some point. I'm just so excited to hear it from a real human! Oh! I need to write Celestia a letter about this soon!" She said while clapping her hooves together excitedly. Simon on the other hand was looking at the snack Spike had prepared. Unfortunately for him it seemed that there was a cup of tea and some fried hay or grass on a plate.
Not wanting to seem impolite Simon gave a quiet cough. "Uuh. Twilight, I'm not very accustomed to eating grass or hay. Would you happen have any fruit, vegetables or meat even?" He asked a little embarrassed.
"Did you say... meat?!" Twilight looked at him with a shocked expression.
Simon, realizing that he may have come upon a touchy subject tried to do some damage control. "I mean! Fruits and vegetables are fine too! The thing is you see. We humans are omnivores..." He murmured with his head low and slowly twirling with his fingers.
"Whew... I was starting to get really nervous there for a second. Unfortunately I don't think we have any fruit. We could go to the market to get some apples." She suggested.
"You mean you don't feel bothered knowing that I eat meat?" Simon asked. Wanting to make sure that his new pony friend here wasn't scared that he would eat her.
"No it's fine. Besides. You seem too nice of a guy to go around eating innocent animals" She smiled at him with her eyes closed.
*She's actually kind cute when she does that...* Simon watched her with a little dreamy eyes, but snapped back to reality as he was reminded once again of his hunger by his stomach growling. "Thanks for the compliment, but are you sure that if we go to the market that other ponies won't freak out when they see me?" He said while looking at the cast around his left arm and the torn and bloody remains of his jeans.
"No, if we have any problems I'll have a word with them and explain the situation." She reassured.
"Well if you're sure, then let's go I'm starving." He replied accompanied by his growling stomach.
They both headed to the front door and Twilight opened it with her magic. *I need to ask her more about this magic at some point.* Simon thought as he watched the doorknob being engulfed in purple glow and the door open. He squinted his eyes, when he stepped through as the sun shone into his eyes.
"You never said what the town's name is by the way." He mentioned as he tried making out his surroundings.
"Ponyville... Best place ever to happen to me." She smiled with reminiscent tone.
The sun was really shining outside as Simon kept his hand on his forehead to block some of the light, as his eyes adjusted to the brightness. He could make out outlines of surrounding houses. *Hmmm... seems kinda homely infact* He thought as he looked at the wooden walls and hay roofs of the nearby buildings.
"Oh, I nearly forgot my saddlebag." Twilight perked her head up and ran back inside. She came out with a two bags slung around her middle.
"This way Simon." She motioned as they started to walk towards the market. Simon noticing couple of the other ponies staring at him, whispering something unintelligible and decided stay close to Twilight.
"I think I might be getting some unwanted attention" He nodded sideways to the ponies, hanging his head low. Trying to make himself feel smaller, with little success.
"Relax. They're just curious as they haven't seen a human ever." She tried to cheer him up.
Continuing towards the market, Simon started to feel more out-of-place with every stare and whisper he could hear. Arriving to what seemed to be town's center he was slightly baffled at all the different stands selling everything from vegetables to roses to bolts of cloth. The market, was in it's busiest time of the day with ponies everywhere collecting the needed supplies for their shops, dinner and hobbies. The amount of ponies was not something Simon had expected and was starting to regret coming here. Luckily they happened to be passing by a restaurant with outdoor tables.
"Hey Twilight... I'm not feeling comfortable with this many unfamiliar ponies, so would you mind if I waited here at the tables?" He nearly whispered.
"Ok. Here's a couple of bits, so you can order something to eat meanwhile" She looked at him understandingly and pulled couple of gold coins from her saddlebag and hovered them to Simon. "I'll be back in just a bit! Stay here!" She yelled as she let go of the bits and galloped over to the stands. Simon grabbed the falling coins in his hand and walked over to an empty table. After sitting down, a waitress arrived and hoofed the menu over with a very questioning look.
"Hi there. I'm new here, name's Simon." He began, trying to break the ice with a warmest smile he could muster in the situation. Opening the menu he looked at the available dishes. Sunflower toast, no. Fried hay, no. Apple pie, maybe. Carrot soup, don't think my stomach would agree with that. Muffins, YES!
"I would like one blueberry muffin, thank you." He announced as he handed the menu back to the waitress.
"That would be two bits, please." Stated the waitress and Simon handed over two of the gold coins.
"Thank you. I'll be right back with your order!" She said as she headed inside the restaurant.
Alone again, Simon's thoughts turned back to the events two days ago. Leaning his jaw against his hand, *I wonder if I can salvage anything from the super magnet... I need to get it out of the forest first of course... hmmm... Might need some help with that* ran across his head. The magnet seemed to be the key for all of this mess, so maybe with good luck he could try to use it again and get back to earth. There were couple of problems though. One of them being getting the magnet out of the forest, second would be to see if it still worked and third and maybe most crucial one was, where he would get the electricity to power it.
His pondering was interrupted as a small plate with big blueberry muffin was delivered to his table. He said thanks to the waitress who went off to serve other customers. Deciding to inspect the muffin first for any unwanted surprises. Picking the muffin up he first turned it around like a wine taster inspecting the color of the wine; *Looks normal* He concluded and then took a good whiff of it; *Smells normal*, now practically drooling he took a big bite out of it; *Tastes normal!* He praised as tears threatened to leak from his eyes. He kept savoring the texture and taste, *Oh god, this is so good!* he thanked, swallowed, and went for another big bite as "Mmmuffinnn...." voice from right next to his ear stopped him right as he was about to bite down for another chunk.
Whipping around to his right he came face-to-face with a gray face, a blonde lock of hair and two golden globes staring at different directions. Surprised by this Simon quickly tried to pull his chair backwards, but succeeded only at tipping himself over on his back. Letting out a big sigh he took another look at the interrupter. She was a pegasus, with a gray coat, blonde hair along with looked like a mailman's cap, a slingbag with letter's picture on it and two now worried looking eyes.
"You okay there mister?" She asked tentatively, moving closer.
"Yeah... I'm getting quite used to falling on my back." Simon said still lying on his back with his head propped up, looking at the pegasus.
"Sorry about that. I'm Derpy Hooves. I'm a mailmare" She stated while rubbing her head with a hoof embarrassed. She leaned in and offered a hoof to him.
"Well hi there Derpy. I'm Simon." He replied, taking a hold of her hoof and pulling himself back up.
"May I ask why were mumbling something about muffins right next to my face?" He queried, holding his head. Feeling the start of headache.
"OH! I noticed you were eating a blueberry muffin. They are my favorite and I guess I got a little sidetracked from my mail route... eh he hee..." She replied, fiddling around with her front hooves, hanging her head low. Her eyes still looking unfocused.
Simon sighed deeply. "Go ahead. You can eat it." He admitted, looking defeated. His now proper headache making him forget about his hunger for the moment.
"Thank you Simon!" She piped and hug-tackled him back to the ground. Thankfully he didn't hit his head so hard this time.
He looked at the mare on his chest hugging him with a warm smile thinking *Sometimes I think I'm just too nice...".
"Hey! What is that monster doing to that poor mare?!" Came a shout from the neighboring table. Simon looked up to see a angry looking colt moving his way. "You let her go before I kick your face in foul beast!" He yelled storming towards Simon.
*Uh-oh* Was all Simon could think, before quickly getting up and setting Derpy down on the nearby bench. "Hey hey hey" He quickly exclaimed waving his hands dismissively in front him.
"I think there has been a mis-", but was interrupted by another mare who had been walking by.
"I saw it too! He pushed that poor mare to the ground!". Simon could feel the situation start to spiral out of control. He was a mythical creature here in Ponyville, dressed in torn and bloody clothes...
"I saw it myself!", "I think I saw it too" The air filled with more accusations as more and more ponies started to approach Simon, with intentions on stopping this bloodthirsty beast. "GET HIM!" Roared the assembled mob as Simon took of into the town streets.
"Bye Simon!" Waved Derpy at him, as she nommed on the muffin.
Simon unfortunately couldn't hear this, as he was more preoccupied by the uproars of the mob he was running from. His right ankle didn't protest against this race, yet, but he wasn't sure if he could lose them. Especially in their own town, but he wasn't going to find out as he jumped to a back alley and took a quick sprint through it. The mob was following right behind with air still filled with dreadful things they were going to do to him when they caught up.
Bursting through the other side of the alley he quickly surveyed the possible escape routes. Back to the tree house was sort out of question as he didn't know anymore where it was, going back to the town market would probably net only more mob members. He looked around for any buildings he could hide in and noticed a weird gingerbread looking house topped by a, cupcake? There was a 'closed' sign on the door and made a beeline to it. *Please don't locked! Please don't be locked!* He hoped as he turned the doorknob... And it opened! Jumping inside and throwing the door close he crawled to a nearby window to see if he had managed to lose the mob.
The mob ran out of the alley and surveyed the area, but didn't seem to have seen him. Couple seconds later someone pointed a hoof in another direction and the whole mob went storming that way with still evident promises of tar and feathering -malarcy.
Simon hadn't noticed that he'd been holding his breath, but a quick tap on his shoulder made him let out all the air along a big sigh and raised his hands in the air. "I give up! But I assure you, it was a misunderstanding!" He announced with head and shoulders slumping low, eyes shut and hands high in the air. He slowly turned around, expecting couple of ponies to have followed him and about to take him into a dungeon or something. Instead of a hoof contacting his face, a flurry of giggles erupted in front of him. Making him open his eyes and watched a pink pony with a very poofed mane roll around the floor holding her stomach.
"So you're not going to throw me in jail?" Simon's face full of confusion now.
"No silly. Why would I do that?" She suddenly stopped her giggling looking at him questioningly too. She took a couple of looks at him and on her face suddenly grew the widest smile he had seen and her eyes were full of cheer "Hey are you new here?!". She jumped back on her hooves and bounced over to him in a way that defied physics and muscle capability. She pulled his hands down and started shaking them very vigorously, "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie!".
"A-a-and I'm-m S-i-m-o-n." His managed to say from all the hand/hoof shaking. "C-o-u-l-d y-o-u s-t-o-p s-h-a-k-i-n-g m-y h-a-n-d" His cast arm starting to hurt from all the vibrations. "Ok", and she sat down on the floor. Taking a second gander she finally noticed that there was something different about Simon. "You look weird. What kind of diamond dog are you?", She asked tilting her head a little.
"A diamond wh-" He managed, "No, Wait! Twilight told us that she was sheltering a something called a h-u-m-o-n" She rubbed her chin, seemingly lost in thoughts. "You mean a human? Wait, you know Twilight?", Simon raised an eyebrow. "Well sure I do. I know everyone in town! I'm this towns party pony!", she started jumping again in circle, but stopped and looked at him "Why were there such a big mob of ponies after you?".
"Well I was enjoying a nice muffin at the restaurant next to the market, but Derpy popped in unannounced and I then offered her the rest of my muffin and she tackle-hugged me to the ground to thank me and apparently some ponies thought I was doing something else to her. That mob wasn't going to listen for my pleas. And I then ended up here.", Simon shuddered at the thought of the mob chasing after him.
"Well let me welcome you to the most super-duber bakery in Ponyville! The sugarcube corner!" She paraded with confetti and balloons suddenly falling out of somewhere. "Care for a sample?" She asked leaning in on his face.
"Uuuhh... Sure. What's with the balloons and confetti though?" He asked with a bit of a confused and surprised expression.
"Well duh. They don't call me the best party planner in the town for nothing. I'm always prepared!", She explained as she bounced towards the kitchen. Sooner than he could try start making the ends of the situation she bounced back from the kitchen holding a plate with another cupcake and a glass of milk. She set them down on a table by the corner as Simon dusted himself off and walked over to her.
Finally with no other ponies around except for Pinkie, he managed to calm himself down enough to not spill the milk in his shaking hand. Taking a bite out of the muffin his eyes grew wide, the flavor just seemed to explode all over his tongue! "mmMMmmm... These are excellent! Do you know who baked these?", he managed to ask mouth full of muffin. "I baked them. I work here!" Her smile just grew at the compliment. Pausing for a moment He looked at her disbelievingly for a moment, but decided to continue munching on.
"So you work here, huh?" He finished his muffin. "I have always wondered what it would be like to work in a bakery. Do you work here alone? Do you own this place?".
"Nope. This place is owned by the Cakes and I just help them around when they're busy. Oh! and I live upstairs here!" Pinkie pointed up to the ceiling. "Well now that they have foals, I usually babysit them when they're too busy with a big order." Emphasizing the word 'big' with the hoofs. "The foals are just so cute that I wouldn't mind babysitting them forever" Hugging herself tightly along with a giggle.
"That sounds sweet, but I think I should start looking for Twilight" Simon started to get up from the chair, "So we can see how to get me out of this mess.".
"You're going back outside?!" She looked at Simon like a he was a total loonie. "I could go find her and get her super-duper fast here!" Lifting her front hooves on the table with her tail shaking like an excited dog.
"Noooo no no, I don't want to impose myself anymore on you than possible." Simon shook his head. "If you want to come along that's okay, but I'm not going to stay here any longer" Crossing his arms. "Besides. What if the mob happens to find me and barges in and wrecks the place?".
"Hmm... good point." She agreed, thinking even harder now "...I know!" Bouncing at least a meter in the air. "We'll disguise you!" rubbing her hoofs together with a plan in mind.
"And how we're going to do that?" Simon raised an eyebrow. "I'm not exactly conspicuous with my height, and my clothes, and my face, aaaaand my arm" he tapped on the cast.
"Hahaa, you underestimate me!" She ran to upstairs her room. Approaching her equipment closet where she kept all her gag and joke items. Pulling it open, revealing a massive stack of barely organized pile of items, which started to threateningly lean outwards. The sound of items banging against the floor, caused Simon to look up to the ceiling in wonder. "Where are they? Where are they?" Throwing items aside as she looked for something specific "...Found them!", running back to downstairs with two items in tow. Dropping them in front of Simon.
He looked at the items with a stupefied expression on his face. It was a hay bale and one of those cheesy 'masks' with a overly big fake nose, a fake mustache and a black rimmed glasses with huge eyebrows. Looking between the items and her he finally gave up, "Okay, you lost me" rubbing the bridge of his nose, "How am I supposed to disguise myself with these again?".
"Isn't that obvious silly" She rolled her eyes. "You get inside this hay bale and put the mask on for added disguise" she beamed. "No one will know it's you! It's super-duper foolproof!" jumping on the bale and stomping a hoof on it.
Simon wasn't nearly as excited as was the pink counterpart. Looking at the bale, wondering if he could even somehow fit inside; He grabbed the mask of cheesiness and inspected it, sighed, but put it on. "Okay, I'll use the mask, but I'm not gett-" the front door swung open! Panicking, he jumped behind the cash register table for cover.
"Pinkie!" Shouted Twilight as she bust in and spotted her. "Have you seen my new friend who I told you about a day ago?!" Panicking and erratic. "We went to the market together, but he stayed at the restaurant while I went to get some apples. After I came back he was nowhere to be seen and I asked couple ponies around if they had seen anybody different. Weirdly Derpy said he had met Simon and seen him off as he had suddenly ran away, chased by a mob!" The lavender unicorn explained clearly in worry and disarray.
"Oh yea, I've seen him." Smiling nonchalantly, "He took cover here from the mob." She replied. "Hey Simon it's okay, it's just Twilight." She yelled towards the cash register.
Hearing that it was a false alarm, Simon rose from behind the table, the mask still on his face. "Thank god it's you Twilight." holding his chest in relief as he saw the lavender unicorn. "I thought the mob was coming to ge-" Looking down, interrupted by a sudden hug from Twilight, burying her face in his stomach.
"Oh god I feared the worst!" Burying her face deeper, "I thought you had ran out of town!" She yelled in his stomach, pulling away for a moment to look at him with teary eyes. "What's with the mask?" raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, this?" He took the mask off and threw it back on the hay bale. "Well consider it plan B" winking at pinkie, who giggled in response. "But let's be serious for a moment" Looking Twilight square in the eye as he slowly removed her from his mid section. "What are we going to do? Half of the town thinks I'm some kind of bloodthirsty monster, who attacked the mailmare!" Throwing his hands around.
Twilight went from looking teary eyed to lost in thoughts, as she tried to think of away how to rescue the situation. "I think you need do some PR stunts, so the townsponies can see that you aren't a threat." She concluded her train of thought. They needed positive image for him to counter the earlier negative views, and that meant getting rid of his old bloodstained clothes in the first hand. Realizing how important first impressions were. "We need to go see Rarity for new clothes for you" Looking now calmed down and a serious expression on her face, pointing at him with a hoof.
Taking a second look at his clothes, well... rags might be more suiting term. "Yea... these clothes do give sort a bad vibe" He admitted. "So how are we going to get to Rarity? I don't think I should be seen with these clothes." Making a point as he lifted the bloody shredded leg of his trousers.
"Easy, we'll teleport to Rarity's boutique" Smiling at Simon.
Simon's face went slack, trying to comprehend what she just said. "You mean like, here now, *POOF*, there now?" making a explosion motion with his hands.
"Yup" Twilight replied bluntly, a small smile of pride growing on her face.
"No... Way" Simon paused between the words. "Heck yeah, let's do it!" Almost giddy with excitement, "So how does it work? what do I do?".
"Just put your hand on my shoulder and I'll do the rest" She motioned him to come closer.
Simon almost ran, stopping right next to Twilight as he placed his hand on her shoulder. Oh wow her coat is so soft... His hand petting around a little.
"Ready?" Twilight turned to him.
"Ready." Simon replied with a confident voice. "Oh and thanks Pinkie for the muffin!" Remembering to thank her new pink party pony friend. "And the disguises!".
"No problemo" Pinkie threw back, "Pop in some time again soon and I'll throw you a welcome party!" yelling in glee as she waved her hand at Simon.
Turning back towards Twilight, her horn started to glow brighter and brighter as the world was slowly consumed by the ever increasing glow. Suddenly it felt like his body was pulled in every possible direction and his stomach did an internal barrel roll. With a soft crackle the world suddenly appeared in front of him, but instead of sugarcube corner they were evidently in some kind of clothing parlor. Mannequin ponies and unfinished dresses and suits lying around the room.
"Rarity? Are you here?" Twilight shouted as she moved to inspect the connecting rooms.
"I'm in the bath darling" Came a yell from the spiral staircase that lead to upstairs.
"Could you hurry! We have a sort emergency here." Twilight shouted into the staircase.
Simon meanwhile was looking at the mannequins and unfinished clothes. The owner sure seemed popular to have this many unfinished clothes simultaneously. Spotting something sparkling he took a close look at a dress on a mannequin. No way! They were using gems in their clothes?! Spotting a what seemed be a half closed storage box, he walked closer and realized it to be full of fist sized gems of all kind of shapes and colors. This was unbelievable!
He turned towards the staircase as hurried hoofsteps could be heard descending them...
Rarity was hurrying down the stairs as Twilight had just told her that there was an emergency. Her mane and tail were still wet from her bathing. "What's the matter darling? I was just having the most comfort-able... bath" She stuttered as she laid her eyes on Simon.
"You remember the human I told you about day ago?" Twilight asked Rarity.
Rarity just nodded slowly as she looked at Simon, still holding the lid her jewel box half open. Clearing her throat "Ah yes, the human." she went back to her ladylike posture, "Ah, where are my manners! I'm Rarity and It's absolutely charming to meet you..." she reached out her hoof for a shake.
"Simon" He replied, sensing a feeling of aristocracy and elegance coming from the snow white coated unicorn. Kneeling down, he gently supported her hooves and gave a small kiss on the tip her hoof, "I must confess, it's an honor meeting you too, dear Rarity." thinking that acting chivalrous would be appropriate.
Rarity's cheeks flushed from his actions and she dramatically tried to fan herself of. "Oh, I do believe the pleasure is all mine darling, but would you excuse me for a just a minute." backing towards the staircase, "My mane and tail are a bit of mess and I wouldn't dare to show myself in a dreadful state like this with someone as... charming as you" she ran back up to the bathroom to fix up her hair and tail.
Twilight cleared her throat and caught Simon's attention, "Well well well... aren't you acting like a knight in shining armor" she smirked to him.
"Nah, I just could feel the sense of class and elegance from her and thought I should act up a little" He grinned back to her.
Twilight rolled her eyes and took a seat in the couch in the middle of the room and Simon sat next to her. They waited for Rarity to come back down for what felt like half an hour. Turning back to the stairs, they saw her coming down with a obvious spring in her step, which made her curled purple locks to bounce in time with them. "So, what was this emergency you were talking about darling?".
"Ah yes, Simon needs new clothes ASAP." Twilight looked at his rags, " The whole town thinks that he is some kind of bloodthirsty monster!" she turned back to Rarity.
"Oh dear" Rarity hold a hoof in front of her mouth, "Well I haven't ever made clothes for a humans, but I suppose there'll always be a first time for everything. Do you have any wishes for the style of clothing you would want?".
"Nah, I'm not very interested in fashion. Just need something to replace these." He replied. He had never been interested in fashion or what was the trendy way to dress. He was sort of more utilitarian in his clothing, it can look weird, but if it's durable with enough pockets and comfortable he couldn't care less about the way they looked. "Something durable and casual, if it isn't too demanding." Sounding polite.
"Oh no my dear. Anything for a friend and all friends of Twilight are my friends too." She waved her hoof dismissively. She was actually a little excited as she would be the first to make clothes for a human. "Now, could you give me your old clothes, so I'll have a little reference material?" She approached him.
"Right now?" He asked a little surprised.
"Well yes sweetie. You need new clothes as soon as possible!" She tugged a little on his left leg of his pants with her magic. The smell of dirt, sweat and blood filling her nostrils, "Actually, you can go take a bath. You seem to have a little aroma floating about you." She tried to wave the smell away. "Now chop chop! It's the second door on the left at the top." Almost pushing him to go, but getting more of that dreadful smell in her nostrils made her back away.
Simon looked back to see Rarity furiously waving at the air in front of her and holding her nose, he gave a small chuckle. Making his way upstairs, he peeked in the first open doorway, but it seemed that it was Rarity's bedroom, so he continued to the next door, which was the bathroom. Stripping down, he took a look at himself on a full body mirror on one of the bathroom wall. He was never interested in bodybuilding, but he wasn't out of shape either as he flexed his bicep. A nice sized muscle bulging in his forearm and a small 6-pack on his stomach being hidden by a small gut. Striking a few poses, he nearly jumped as there was a knock on the door. "Could you give me your clothes?" Came Twilight's voice from behind it. He grabbed the smelly pile of clothes and opened the door just enough to slip them through. Closing the door, he turned back to the inspect the shower and bathtub. Might be a bit of squeeze, but I think I'll fit. He sat down on the tub and opened the water and it started to fall down from the shower head above. He relaxed, sighing quietly, slumping down in the tub. *This is nice* Being able to finally wash himself after two days.
Meanwhile, back on the lower level Twilight came back hovering the pile of clothes. "Where do I put these?" She asked Rarity. "Oh just put them over by that table over there darling." Pointing towards a table to the side of the room, while checking her cloth racks for good materials. Choosing a few of them, she hovered them to another table and went to the clothes pile. Taking a couple of big sheets of tracing paper, she started to draw the outlines of the clothes. "Isn't he just wonderful." She said a little dreamily. Twilight just giggled in response, knowing how her friend just had weak knees for chivalry, "Yea I suppose he has his little perks." she smiled.
Simon finished his shower and bath. He had borrowed some of Rarity's shampoos to wash his hair and was feeling like a new person. Keeping his cast dry was a little problematic, but he had managed. Realizing that he didn't have any clothes at the moment, he grabbed a towel off a rack and tied it to his waist and headed towards downstairs. Peeking around the corner he saw the girls working on his clothes, finishing tracing all the outlines. Quietly he inched closer and came just behind the two. "So what's the verdict? Can I still become a model." He joked.
the girls turned around and want slack jawed at the sight of him. Seeing his clean upper body, Twilight inched closer to him, fascinated and poked his ribs and belly. "Wow. Fascinating... So you really don't have fur..." She mumbled between her curious pokes. Simon on the other hand was looking at the lavender unicorn amused. She started to poke lower until she poked him right on the towel where his crotch was.
"Easy there. That area is private property." He crossed his arms and looked at Twilight scoldingly.
Twilight suddenly understood where she had poked him and turned around with a big blush on her cheeks. Rarity giggled at this, knowing how her friend had not ever had that kind of relationship with anybody.
Simon gave a little giggle and turned to Rarity, "So can you estimate how long it'll take for the new clothes? Oh, and I borrowed little of your shampoo to clean my hair, hope you don't mind.".
"No at all dear" She responded sagely. "I would guess that the clothes will be ready tomorrow." Looking back at the traced outlines.
"That's great! although I'm not sure how I'm going to pay for this..." He scratched his head.
"Oh pish posh, there is no need for payment. The fact that I get to make first human clothes in centuries is payment enough." she waved dismissively.
"Oh Rarity you're just too generous. I'll pay this back some day. I swear." He vowed with his hand over his heart. "Now the question is what am I going to wear meanwhile...." He pondered, rubbing his chin.
Twilight had managed to work out the blush from her cheeks, "I could conjure you temporary clothes, that would last a day." turning towards Simon. "I just need some spare cloth to use as a catalyst." She said to Rarity, who went to one of her boxes with all sorts of leftover pieces of cloth and brought it to Twilight, "Here darling, you can use everything you find here as they're too small for me to use anymore.". Twilight lifted the small bit and pieces of cloth out of the box and placed them on a table in the middle of the room, "ok Simon, stand over there" pointing a hoof to a non-particular spot in the room, Simon stood at the spot. "Sorry I'm not very clothing conscience, but I'll try to fix up something to cover you up. and... loose the towel." she smirked.
Simon just looked at her questioningly, but decided to go with it. Although he did turn his back to her and covered his privates with his hands. "Now or never... Ready." He braced himself for the magic.
Twilight looked at his naked butt for a moment and giggled to herself. Lifting the pile of leftovers, she began concentrating on the spell. The pile began to glow softly as the pieces slowly started moving towards Simon, their glow intensifying the closer they got. Soon they were glowing so brightly it was hard to look at them, when the cloths touched his skin the glow just spread along his skin. His body was slowly covered in the brightly glowing sheet, he could feel the pieces moving, changing and arranging to make his new clothes. Slowly the glow started to die off and he opened his eyes to discover that his body was covered in a sort dry suit made out of patchwork of different pieces of cloth. Well, he could deal with it for a day, but it was a little awkward as there was no zips or buttons anywhere.
"So what do you think?" Twilight asked as she walked over to him, inspecting her work.
"Well it's a little rough around the edges, but thanks. At least I don't need to be naked." He scratched her just behind her ear.
"mmMmm, glad you like it!" She leaned against his hand. "We should get going, I want to discuss about the human society with you. Thanks Rarity for the help!" She waved to her white friend.
"Until the next time we meet, my fair lady." Simon bowed deeply, eliciting a little giggle and a faint blush from Rarity.
They teleported back to the library and Twilight went to get some drinks from the kitchen, Simon meanwhile grabbed an apple from her saddlebag and started munching it away. Plopping down on the couch he watched as Twilight brought two cups of juice, guessing from the color it was apple juice. She took a seat next to him.
"So what'cha wanted to ask me?" Simon managed to start first, taking a sip of apple juice.
"Well I was just wondering how the day and night cycle works on earth, as you were quite surprised when I told that the princesses take care of it here with magic?" looking him in the eyes.
"Well I'm not sure how the movements of planets works here, but..." He went on to explain how the sun was in the middle of their solar system, which then caused the other planets to orbit around it because of it's immense gravitational pull and that the moon was orbiting around the earth. All this time Twilight just listened in fascinated and subconsciously inched closer to him. They also discussed about politics and how the power was distributed in both of their societies.
"You also said something about a "great war" if, I'm not mistaken?" Simon pointed out.
"Ah, the war..." She trailed off. Remembering about reading of it in a book, in the royal library at the princess' castle. It told about the horrific battle between the changeling empire and Equestria. It had been a losing war for the equine kingdom, because of all the intelligence leaks in their ranks achieved by the changeling spies. In the end as the war had culminated to the point that the king and queen made the ultimate sacrifice and gave their lives to perform an ancient spell to get rid of all the changelings still residing in the land. The question also resurfaced the hardships she had endured during the recent changeling attack on canterlot during her brothers wedding.
Simon, seeing how she was clearly mulling over about something, put his hand around her shoulders to comfort her. "Hey I'm sorry if I brought up something unwanted." rubbing her coat gently.
"No no it's nothing..." She tried to reassure, but Simon could see that maybe changing the subject would be for the best.
"Nevermind the war. Tell me a little bit more about yourself, your friends and your family." He tried to lighten the mood.
"Well... my brother, Shining Armor is the captain of the royal guard, plus he is married to my babysitter, Cadence who is the third alicorn in existence at the moment and she specializes in the magic of love." She just told nonchalantly like it was nothing, while Simon started to understand how influence she really had. "And well, my parents brought me to the school of magically gifted unicorns when I was just a foal and was then later taken by Celestia to be her protegee." She told him about how socially withdrawn she had been, always just studying, when Celestia had sent her over to Ponyville to oversee the preparations for the summer sun celebration. The crazy experiences she had, meeting all her current friends, discovering the elements of harmony, culminated by the defeat of Nightmare moon.
Simon had stopped rubbing her when she told him about, how she tried to get the others to listen to her warnings about Nightmare Moon's second coming...
"Wow... I think I'm actually grateful for my normal life experiences..." He said after some thought. "I was I had something as interesting to tell in return, but I guess my life has always been a little bit more downplayed, compared to yours that is." he smirked at her. "Well, I guess it's my turn now to about myself." She nodded in response.
"Well I was a little bit like you when I was small. I grew in a small town, went to a small school and later moved out from my parent's house to attend a college in a bigger city. College was very interesting and exciting place and I got many friends while there, but during the last year I suddenly got a phone call telling me that my mom and dad had been in a car accident with a drunk driver and none of them had survived it..." he looked silently at the floor, closing his eyes as the memories flooded his mind. Twilight was the one now doing the comforting, rising up and hugging him from his side. Tear pushed it's way out his eye and dropped, making a little splat noise hitting the wooden floor. "I didn't know what to do, I suddenly didn't have anybody waiting for me to come back home. I receded into my own shell and basically forgot all about my friends. I found it best to distract myself with my studies. I graduated at the top of my class." Managing to smile weakly as the tears started coming in faster. "I went back to my parents house to clean it out and take care of our dog, Spot. We named him that, because he had a small spot around his left eye. I had to take care of their affairs, but in the end I moved out with Spot to a Massachusetts area where I had succeeded to get into MIT." The tears had thankfully slowed down, but Twilight just kept hugging him tighter, "I felt I could start anew there, no connections to the past, no worry about tomorrow. Soon after the beginning of the semester I slowly came out of my shell and started getting friends again. The months tumbled about and Spot started to develop some illnesses. I knew that this day would come sooner or later, I took him to a vet and he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the vet gave him couple of months to live at best. Two weeks later, on a morning I was not waken by his routine facial licking, but by my alarm clock. Rising up, I gave him a soft pet on the head, but noticed how he was cold, so very cold... He had slept away right next me in my bed and I had just kept sleeping never knowing how my best friend's life candle was about to extinguished right there next to me. I sent one of my classmates a text message that I wouldn't be coming to school today. I then went on a walk with Spot's collar and leash with me, I walked our usual route while I just kept crying... I later had him cremated and saved the ashes. Later that year I specialized in electromagnetism as it had been developed far enough to be used to help cancer patients. I felt that I needed to give something back to the world..." Turning to Twilight he hugged him back, a tear or two escaping her eyes as well.
"I'm so sorry for your losses..." She sounded so sincere.
"No point worrying over the past right?" He tried to play off the hurtful memories of the past. "Being motivated by my experiences I spent almost every waking moment to study and was in the end of the university hired by one of the biggest magnet manufacturers in the world to work in the research and development department, where we managed to engineer the world's most powerful electromagnet, which then brought me here..." Releasing the hug and grabbing her shoulders as he held her at arms length, looking deep into her eyes. Her... beautiful eyes... Slowly getting closer to each other as she closed her eyes and he leaned into what seemed to be becoming a kiss.
"What took you two so long!?" Came a annoyed bark from the upper level.
They both jumped and Twilight quickly grabbed Simon with her magic and threw him to the other end of the couch, while quickly fidgeting to the other side. "There was some uuh... complications" She responded back to the upstairs. Simon was looking very confused. Had he just tried to kiss a pony?! What the heck was he thinking! he shook his head while holding it with both arms. Looking outside he could see that the sun had started to set and it was becoming dark. He could see faint lights moving in the distance.
"Is there supposed to be some sort of event going on this evening?" He asked, moving closer to the window.
"Hmmm, I don't think so." She replied. Walking towards the stairs to check on Spike. There was a knock on the door. "Could you get it?" She asked.
"Sure, no problem." He responded and walked to the door. Opening it to see who could be coming to visit the library this time of the evening, but being only met in angry gazes, pitchforks and light from the burning torches. Looking a little dumbfounded he quickly pulled himself back in and slammed the door close. Great barks of anger and vice erupted from behind the door as hoofs started to smash against it.
"Who was it?!" Twilight ran to the railing, seeing Simon sprawled against the door trying to keep it shut.
"The mob! They found me!" he struggled against multiple pairs of hooves kicking against the door.
"Oh that's it! Now they are going too far!" She yelled angrily, Simon looking back to see the end of her mane light up in flames, not sure anymore which place was going to be more safe, the mob or staying here. She walked over to the door, determination evident in every step.
"Move" She commanded with an ice cold voice.
"Yes ma'am!" He dived out of the way as the angry unicorn approached.
The door burst open accompanied with the roars of the mob, but were quickly silenced as the angry unicorn marched outside. The sounds that reverberated from outside could be match for the lighting strike that hit his car, also yelps of help. Couple of ponies suddenly flew in from the open door and tumbled around the floor, disoriented as they slowly got back on their hoofs and then laid their eyes back on Simon, crouching next to the door.
"We got you now beast." They grinned to him.
"Wouldn't you want to reconsider?" He was now backing up along the wooden wall and then shot off in full sprint into the kitchen, throwing the door closed behind him. Looking around he saw the kitchen window slightly open and went for it. Managing to climb halfway out when the door opened. "Laters" He waved and jumped out. Bolting to the now almost inviting everfree forest. Stopping just before the treeline to take a one more look to see if he was still being chased, and sure enough, lights started to move towards him. Still... The thought of being chased by those wolf things or something worse was making him doubt about going further into forest. That was, until he clearly heard something about being hanged. *Okay Simon, time to man up and flee for your life!* He walked slowly to behind the treeline, disappearing as the shadows covered his silhouette.
Moving now carefully and quietly through the bush, he stumbled to a dirt road leading deeper in to the ominous forest. Deciding to stick to the road, he continued forwards while taking couple of glances behind him every now and then, making sure the villagers weren't on his tail or anything else for that matter. Luckily the night was illuminated by almost a full moon as some one the moonlight managed to get through the thick canopy above him. The though of how and where he would stay for the night occurred to him as he kept walking in the one-piece leftover cloth suit.
Stopping for a moment, he thought he heard a noise, silently he turned his head around to detect from which direction it came from. It was becoming louder and sounded like, screaming? He turned towards the direction of noise and looked sharply at the bush. Tensing more and more as the screams just got louder and louder, adrenaline filling his veins again, ready for anything.
A white blur jumped out of the bush and bowled him right in the chest, knocking him on his bottom just to be followed by second, yellowish blur hitting him in the face. Groaning loudly and holding his nose, he looked at the perpetrators and saw two little fillies with stars in their eyes, dazed from the impact. "What are you girls doing here in the forest!? It's dangerous here!" Picking the two up and inspecting them. The white one regaining her bearings first, "Mister! Our friend was attacked by a cock-a-something, what was it Apple Bloom?", "I think it was called a cock-a-trice Sweetie Belle" the yellow one with red hair responded with country accent. Hearing that there was another filly in trouble he quickly got into a very serious mood, "Where?! Show me!" He set them down and they pointed towards the bush where they had bursted out. "Stay here!" He commanded as he jumped over the bush with a big leap. The two looking at each other and wondered, what was that thing?
Simon on the other hand, was now on a mission. There was someones life on the line and he sure wasn't going to give up anytime soon. Soon he heard faint sounds of a scream coming from front of him. Making his way to the source he jumped over a bush and came upon horrific scene. A little orange coated filly was turned to stone from waist downward as this weird chicken headed lizard thing approached her.
"Hey Ugly!" He yelled to the thing and took a fighting stance ready for retaliation. Both heads turned to him and he saw the scared look in the filly's eyes and the fierce red glow of the creatures eyes. They seemed somehow captivating, entrancing, but he was snapped out of it by the filly's yell, "Don't look it in the eyes or you'll turn into stone!". *Great... Just great...* He thought. Glancing down at his feet as he thought he had lost feeling in there, he saw how his toes and table of his foot had discolored to dull grey. Better keep my eyes off of it.
He took quickly evaluated this creature, barely half a meter high, probably quite light, quite long tail. Having never seen one before he just decided to go on the offensive, charging the thing with the intent of kicking the snot out of it, unfortunately the thing dodged his foot and quickly jumped on his back and looped it's tail around his neck, choking him. He tried to rip the tail off, but it just didn't budge. Well the thing sure was physically stronger then it appeared. Trying to grab it's neck he just got his hand pecked, he flopped down on his back trying to crush it under him, but it just moved to the side. Now with tears in his eyes he struggled for breath, hands flailing around wildly. Shutting his eyes tightly he tried to think what to do, but nothing came up. He was angry, so very... very... angry... Tears rolling down his cheeks, a little zap coming out from an electrical discharge between his finger and the ground. He was not going to die by being strangled by some sort of chicken! Opening his eyes he came face-to-face with the thing, immediately he of course laid his eyes upon it's, the feeling of calmness overcoming him.
He felt lost in those eyes, like floating in the middle of the ocean, no cares... No needs... Absolute emptiness... feeling his consciousness slipping away from the lack of air... The world being swallowed by darkness...
"Snap out of it!!" Came a loud yell, he slowly turned his head towards the voice and his eyes fell on the filly's tear filled, desperate and scared eyes as she tried to crawl towards him. Sudden flashes of his past going past his eyes. The car crash, Spot's death, the lighting strike. The air filled loud sparks and crackles as something woke up in him, he rose up, sparks jumping between his fingertips, he grabbed the creatures head with both hands and yelled with untold fury as the space between his hands came ablaze with blinding light as the air was filled with loud electrical cracks and pops! The creature twitched and jerked uncontrollably, smoke pouring out from between it's scales, until finally it's tail slumped off of his neck, a final great bang blowing his hands to his sides as the charred remains of the creatures head fell to the ground.
Simon, barely conscious, turned to the filly and saw her return normal from the waist down. He brought his hand up to her head and gave her mane a little ruffle, "It's ok now..." his hand falling to the ground, he felt the last wisps of consciousness leave him as the darkness took him...
In a picturesque garden next to a pearly white grand castle, with birds singing and critters frolicking around the grounds. Was something that did not belong there... It was Simon.
He laid on the ground next to a walkway, unconscious. His eyelids slightly twitching as the songs of the birds reached his ears. The twitching slowly increased along the growing frown and with a mighty groan he opened his eyes. Looking tired and washed out, he just stared at the clear blue sky above him. Almost mocking him with it's it's clarity, no clouds to be seen anywhere. Turning his head around he took in his surroundings. Birds in the trees, bunnies hopping on the grass and a squirrel carrying a nut to it's home hole in the tree.
"This is getting ridiculous..." he sighed. Rising up, he noted how his hands felt much more lighter and... free? Looking down he saw that neither of his hand no longer had bandages or cast around them AND he was wearing his old clothes!
"Okay, let me correct... This is getting strange..." Turning his hands around, he checked for any marks or scars, but there weren't none. His hands were absolutely spotless. Deciding to figure out what was going on, he set out walking along the cobblestone road leading somewhere.
He marveled at his surroundings as he went on. Everything is so well kept and clean! There has to be someone around here who knows where I am, there just has to! His eyes occasionally catching a deer hopping around and squirrels climbing along the branches and bark.
He arrived to a magnificent fountain just before the road turned towards the castle's entrance. The thing was couple of meters higher than him! He was intrigued by the skillfully crafted etchings along the marble sides of the main water reservoir. They were clearly representing ponies and... humans? Making a full circle around the fountain, he deducted that it was telling a some kind of story, or a legend perhaps. But that still didn't make sense why there were human avatars in it.
Looking around and making couple more rounds, he was pretty sure he had found the beginning point. *Okay... This seems to be where it begins, just hope I can translate this into something sensible.*
He spent a good while inspecting the different scenes depicted in the etchings. There were ten in total.
-1. Seemed to have a bunch of smiling ponies overlooked by an alicorn out on a balcony at side of a castle.
-2. Thunder clouds had appeared in the sky, the ponies were running from something. The alicorn had risen on it's back legs seeming to get ready to fight something.
-3. No more ponies could be seen, the alicorn appeared to be shaking hands and hoofs with a human.
-4. The human was being carried by a big crowd of ponies and everyone looked happy.
-5. A strange pony with insect like wings and a weird looking horn was casting some kind of spell on the human, who was kneeling on the ground, holding his or her head.
-6. Only the human was pictured as flames and lighting was coursing around him/her. A great big arc of something jumping from his/her hand to the other.
-7. A town was ablaze right next to a great castle. Dead ponies seemed to be laying on the ground. An army of those insect winged ponies being led on... by the human?
-8. The alicorn and the human had swords locked against each other, sparks flying from the blades.
-9. The human was laying dead on the ground while the alicorn was being embraced by another alicorn. Both of them being approached by the insect winged ponies.
-10. The two unicorns were encased in some sort of bubble while the insect ponies were flying away, apparently tumbling in air.
Simon was baffled. Why was there a human in the first hand? Why had he/she ended up fighting the alicorn? Was it because of something the weird insect wing pony had done?
Turning towards the castle, he decided to look for someone to ask about more about the story the etchings told. Walking through a great iron gate he saw steps leading in to the front entrance of the castle. "Hello? Hello?! Anybody here?" He hoped to catch someones attention, but was greeted only by silence and wind whistling trough the trees and bushes. He took a couple more steps and froze as a blood curling scream came from the castle.
*I think it came from inside!* he jumped the couple last steps and made his way in, being greeted by a huge hall with multiple corridors leading deeper in to the castle. "Hello! Anybody!" Trying to decide which corridor to head into. No replies came and he spent there wasting valuable seconds if someone indeed was in trouble. Picking one randomly he bolted deeper into the castle.
He kept running along the corridors, passing by many empty side rooms. The corridor managed to branch couple times and he still went by instinct. Running out of breath he stopped for a second to catch his breath and to think of a possible action plan if happened to meet with someone aggressive. Glancing towards his side he looked at the beautiful, red tinted window, depicting a rose. Red light showered the corridor. Turning to see the opposite wall he spotted on the wall a decorative piece of a shield and two swords crossed over it. Walking over to it he tried to pull one of the swords out of it's sheath and to his surprise it slid out. Turning it around he inspected the blade. It was still very shiny and he pressed his thumb against it, even sharp! He grasped it with both hands and gave a couple experimental swings. It carried a nice weight behind for sure, but it was a little on the clumsy side. *Hmm. Maybe I should take the shield too." eyeing the big iron buckler. Throwing the other sword away he lifted the iron piece off of the wall stand and strapped it on his left arm, "I bet this'll help block some attacks".
He continued investigating the castle further at walk pace as he hadn't heard any voices for few minutes, the shield and sword with him. After wandering around for a good half an' hour, backtracking from couple of dead ends. He arrived to what seemed to be the throne room, well more like a hall he thought. On the opposite end of the room, on a raised platform with steps rising to it, was two thrones next to each other. However, even though the room was colorful with many different banners hanging from the walls and light coming through more colorfully tinted windows. Something gave him the chills...
Slowly he walked further into the room, watching his surrounding. He made his way to the steps and gave a good thorough look at the room before making his way towards the two thrones. "Anybody?!" He yelled as he reached the thrones to the back of the room where he entered. Still nothing. Sighing he plopped down on the other throne. "Seems like nobody is home... This place is still though in tip top shape." he ran his finger along the armrest, checking it for dust. "Like everybody had just disappeared..."
The room was suddenly colored deep red for a moment as a bright flash could be seen behind one the windows, followed by couple seconds later by a great rumble and a boom.
"Well glad I'm in here and not out there" He looked towards the window and saw the tinted horizon begin to grow dark. More bright flashes were seen and he decided to try to count how long it took for the sound to reach him to estimate how far away the lighting strikes were happening. Focusing his gaze on the window he readied himself for the next flash. The room was soon painted crimson for a moment again as he started counting seconds to the rumbling.
"1, 2, 3..." He kept his focus on the window, "4, 5, 6..." he could have sworn there was a growing dark blotch on the windows, "7, 8..." the blotch was definitely growing bigger! "9!" *Boom!* The windows shattered into hundreds of pieces as something flew through accompanied by the rumbling thunder.
He brought up the shield to cover himself from the falling glass as something fell into the floor with a great thud next to him. Whipping around he spotted a pair of wings and hooves covered in blood. The brown pegasus was splayed on his back and wore armor plating, which had been torn into pieces in many sections. Hurrying to him, Simon kneeled down to check on him. Taking a hold of his shoulders he gave a firm shake and the pegasus groaned in response.
"Can you hear?" He tried to measure his level on consciousness, his stomach bleeding heavily from the glass cuts.
The pegasus didn't open it's eyes, but managed to say "Kingdom under attack... *wheeze... need to warn *cough, the others... wheeze..." the coughed carried a blood which splattered on Simon's face.
"Calm down buddy, you're going to be alright" He tried to reassure, but was disheartened by the growing pool of blood beneath him.
"Have you seen *wheeze... any other guards?"
"No I haven't seen anybody in here" He took of his hoodie and tied it tight around his midsection.
"Then *cough, *cough.. I may have been already too late..." He crunched his eyebrows.
"What's your name buddy?"
"I'm Rain Shine *wheeze... part of the *cough, *cough, royal guard..." Simon looked at an exposed part of his flank. A mark consisting of a ray of light hitting raindrops which cast a rainbow from it.
"Nice to meet you Rain Shine. I'm Simon. I hope we could have met at a more fortunate time" He turned back to him.
"Hey Simon *cough, could you do me a favor?..." he coughed more blood.
"Yea sure, what is it?" Simon was getting a slightly bad vibe from this.
"Protect anypony *Wheeze... you *cough, *cough... find..." He went limp.
"Hey Rain?" He shook his shoulder, "Rain?!... Rain!!" He tried feeling for his pulse on his neck, but didn't feel any beats. Leaning down he put his ear over his muzzle. He wasn't breathing! "Goddamit Rain! Don't give up one me!" He started doing emergency resuscitation, bending Rain's head slightly backward and breathing air into his mouth. His chest rose and he pulled away and let it fall and repeated one more time. He quickly removed his chestplating and felt around for the rib cage, finding the lowest point where the ribs connected he started the compressions. "Rain!" He continued the with the 2/30 pacing.
Minutes flew by while Simon kept at it. Calling Rain to see if he had any reactions. For those who haven't performed emergency resuscitation and think it will be a peace of cake, it isn't. It's very tiring."Rain..." His breathing becoming ragged, his hands gave out beneath him and he collapsed on the pegasus' chest. It was starting to turn cold.
"Fuck!" he clenched his blood stained fist in frustration and anger. he laid there for a moment, catching his breath. Kneeling back he untied his hoodie and pulled it over Rain's head. "Rest in peace" inserting the iron buckler back around his left arm. His knees covered in blood and as he wiped his nose with his bloody hand, it left a great blood swipe on his face. He turned toward the thrones to retrieve the sword. Reaching down to pick it up something red appeared right on the edge of his vision, right behind the left throne was a bloodstain, which trailed to the back wall and ended.
"Secret passage? Maybe someones still here" He followed the trail to the wall and looked around for switch of some kind. There was nothing apparent anywhere, maybe a hidden one then? He felt around the wall for any kind of odd tile or a bump, but couldn't find any. He tried pushing the part of the wall where the blood trail led and felt it give a little. He leaned back a little for a more powerful push. An obvious edge forming on the wall as the door gave in more.
A small grin formed on his face as he took a couple of running steps and pushed with the buckler. The door swung open, revealing a small passage. Grabbing his sword, he ventured in. "This is pretty damn long passage" he stated a good two minutes after he went in. The passage was very dimly lit and tight, making it hard to make out the ground, having already tripped once he was careful in each step. "Ow!" He hit his head to a tile protruding from the ceiling. Now crouching lower to avoid the ceiling, rubbing the tile struck area.
Making slow progress he started hearing very soft sounds of speaking ahead of him. Moving towards he started seeing light at the end of the passage. he began making out the voices.
"So how does it feel to see your precious kingdom burning down?" This voice had a nefarious feeling to it.
"..."
"Not feeling like talking? That's fine, I wouldn't either if I was you."
"You monster..." The second voice sounded bitter and angry.
Simon arrived at the end of the passage. It lead into a smallish room. Peeking from the exit he spotted two forms. A grey alicorn was laying on the ground, seeming to been beaten badly while one of those insect ponies was holding it's hoof against the alicorn's head.
"Well get ready to be swallowed in a nightmare!" The insect pony yelled. Rearing on it's back hooves, gathering weight behind it's apparent stomp. The alicorn just stayed quiet and clenched it's eyes.
Simon looked around for something to throw. He tore a loose brick of the passage wall and flinged it towards the aggressor. Hitting the insect pony right on it's jaw, it tumbled on it's back, knocked out cold by the hit.
"Whew. Lucky for you I was here." Simon exhaled. The alicorn opened it's eyes at the thud and peered around the room, looking for the source of the voice. Spotting Simon, her eyes grew wide.
"You okay there miss?" He approached her.
"You... You should be dead... My husband killed you!" She tried to scoot away, but her injuries prevented her.
"What" Simon stopped in his tracks. Dead? what was she saying? "Why should I be dead?".
"I saw my husband drive his sword into your body, after which you collapsed!" She almost spat through her gritted teeth, fury and anger bellowing out.
"Hey! I have no idea what you're talking about! I just woke up in the garden next to the castle not hour ago." He tried to explain his perspective on the situation. "Besides, if I wanted to hurt you. You think I would have knocked this thing over there unconscious?" pointing to the aggressor.
"..." She looked him in the eyes and then to her abuser, "They're called changelings...".
"Changelings, eh?" he looked over the fur less pony. He slipped back to more serious mood, "What' going on here? There was a guard named Rain Shine who told me that the kingdom was under attack."
"You saw Rain? Is he okay?" She asked worryingly.
"..." Simon looked toward the ground and shook his head in silence, "He died in my arms..." He looked at his bloody hands.
"I see..." lowering her head in sorrow.
"Are you okay though? Can you move?" He crouched next to her.
"I'm roughed up, but my kingdom comes first." She looked out to a nearby balcony. Smoke slowly rising in the horizon.
"So I guess you were attacked by the changeling empire?"
"Yes we were... And you lead them here!" pointing a hoof at him in anger.
Simon was shocked. He hadn't done anything! "But I..."
"Murderer! Take a look at what you have done!" She lifted him up with magic and threw him to the balcony.
He rose and was met with a horrific sight. A town next to the castle was up in flames. The air filled with screams and shouts as ponies could be seen running in the streets. Multiple siege engines surrounding the town behind it's wall. Catapults were launching fire bombs in the town, resulting in great fireballs where ever they hit.
"No... I didn't do this... It's not my fault..." He slumped to his knees. Out of his sight one of the catapults turned towards the castle and sent it's fiery package flying. Looking up he spotted the airborne fireball coming right towards him. Managing to take only two steps back, the fireball hit the balcony, the shockwave sending him flying back to the room.
He hit the back wall, hard. Getting air knocked out of his lungs and a nasty concussion. He fell to the ground on his stomach, eyesight blurring.
*clop... *clop... *clop... the sound of slow hoofsteps approaching.
Expecting a pair of grey hooves appearing he was surprised when it was something blue. Midnight blue in fact. Rolling to his side he looked up to see dark blue figure standing next him through his hazy vision.
The figure leaned down to his head, but try as he could, his vision wouldn't focus on it's features. The edges of his vision growing dark.
"It's time to wake up Simon"
"Huh?..." was all he managed to reply as the darkness came...
____________________
Location: Zecora's Treehouse
Time: 7:00 AM, April 21st, 20xx
'Air... Air!...' His thoughts screamed. He was having hard time breathing. Feeling like something heavy was pressing down on his chest. Opening his eyes he laid still taking in the surroundings. *I must be at Twilight's* he deducted seeing the wooden ceiling of the treehouse, but as his eyes looked around to the side he soon cleared that possibility. Seeing some kind of tribal masks and headwear decorating the surrounding walls. *Great, I wonder what kind trouble I get into now...* He sighed deeply.
"Mister?" came from below his chin.
He looked down to the direction of the voice. A purple tuft of hair filled his vision followed by two equally purple orbs.
"Uh, hi there", The purple eyes started to fill with tears.
"Bwaaah!" The little filly suddenly lunged at his neck and hugged him with a vice like grip.
"I feared you were going to die mister!"
Simon now on the other hand was fearing for real he was going to die in the filly's tight hug, as she was practically choking him.
"Ah... Knt-- bhhh" He whimpered with what air was able to move through his lungs.
"What?" The filly backed a little and loosened her hug.
Feeling new air rushing to his lungs he inhaled with vigor.
"I said that I can't breath!"
"Oh. Sorry about that, hehe" she rubbed the back of her head.
"Where am I?" He looked at his surroundings.
"Oh you're at Zecora's treehouse. Luckily Applebloom and Sweetie belle had gone get some help and bumped onto Zecora on the way. After you beat that cockratice you fainted and we brought you here." She gave a excited smile and hopped off his chest. Approaching his face she nuzzled him for a moment.
"Thanks for saving me. I'm Scootaloo by the way..."
"Simon, and I'd do the same anytime kiddo" He gave a small grin. His chest feeling light again without any extra weight on it. "Ow, Who's Zecora by the way?" He rose up into a sitting position, cringing a little from the pain emanating from his bandaged hands.
"The one who carries that name, is right behind your frame"
Turning around he came face to face with a... zebra? with a wicked looking mohawk.
"Wow, you're a zebra?!" he looked at her, surprised.
"Looks like your eyes, don't see no lies. Although your hands, we're deeply bashed" a worried look on her face as she nodded towards his bandaged arms.
"Uhh... I can't remember much what happened before I passed out... I was fighting that chicken thing... Wait. Did it escape or what?" Looking at both of them, hoping for any sort of information. "The last thing I remember was a bright flash and then everything went dark after that..."
"Oh you defeated that thing allright!" Scootaloo stepped forwards. "You were like the lightning god or something! All Boom! and Zap!" She playfully threw a couple punches and kicks.
"Care to explain a little more accurately?" Simon butted in.
"Well I'm not sure, but it sure looked and sounded like there was literally lightning happening between your hands." She rubbed her chin.
Simon looked down to his hands and gave tried to move his fingers, but couldn't feel anything. A sick feeling starting to grow in his stomach. "How bad were they?" Turning to Zecora, his expression dead serious.
"They seemed to be burned very badly. The very surface skin seemed to have turned to ash... The cockratice's head was burned down to the bone..." The sick feeling in his stomach making it's presence known.
"Well what about Scootaloo here? She had deep cuts and wounds from the things claws and beak. But there's nothing now on her..." Looking at the orange filly with the fuchsia mane a little dumbfounded.
"Oh that's simple!" She piped "Zecora here is a master of potions! She whipped me one of her healing concoctions and that did the trick!" Showing her wound free body.
"Do you think it would be possible to restore my hands..." He silently asked Zecora.
"Well I can see you mean no harm to anybody, but a powerful elixir needs rare ingredients"
"I'll pay you back someday. I promise it."
"No need for that my friend. I can see that you have a pure heart and I think Scootaloo here can attest to that." She gave a warm smile to both of them.
"You mean you'll do it?" a tear threatening to creep into his eye.
"Yes, for a friend"
Simon rose up on his feet and walked over to Zecora and wrapped her in a heartwarming hug. "Thank you Zecora... I just don't know what I would do without my hands..."
"I'll start preparing the potion right away. It will just a bit over a hour, but I warn you. The healing process will be a painful one."
"As long I'll get my hands back I don't really care" He replied, that sick feeling starting to recede. Everything was going to be allright! Well... Depending if the town still wants me dead... A shiver ran through his spine at the thought. All though I must confess if I hadn't been driven into the forest I might have not run into the kids and something worse could have happened. He looked at Scootaloo.
"Where are your friends by the way? I believe they were Applebloom and... Sweetie Belle?"
"Oh they went back to the town to everyone that we are allright. Thanks to you..."
Simon sat down on a nearby stool, "Hey anytime. You know it's actually a little bit funny how I got into the forest in the first place." He chuckled.
"What are you laughing about?"
"Oh nothing..." he waved her off, "I'ts just that I was driven into the forest by the angry townsfolk who thought I had something to do you with your disappearance"
"Why would they be angry at you? You're a good guy!" She yelled her voice cracking a tiny bit.
Oh she's kinda cute when she's angry, he chuckled, "Well turns out they sort of misread my actions of giving Derpy a muffin, which basically got me flagged as a terrible monster after which I have been on the around the town."
There was a knock on the door of the cabin. "Dear Scootaloo, could you get the door?" Zecora yelled from her great big potion pot. "Sure!" She went to the door. Simon on the other hand was sort of trying to look as small as possible.
"Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo piped from the door. A rainbow color maned pegasus on the other side. "Hi Scoots! Are you okay? Applebloom and Sweetie Belle told me you were attacked by a cockratice." She hold Scootaloo, looking her all over for any marks.
"Oh I'm fine! Thanks to Simon there." She pointed in Simon's direction. Who just gave nervous wave back "Hiya".
"Oh, so you're Simon? You should really get back to Twilight. She is going absolutely mental over your disappearance."
"Really? Actually I'm a bit surprised that you aren't shoving your hoof down my throat. I suspect you're a friend of Twilight?"
"Well I was bit confused when I heard what had happened from the other townsponies, but when I went to ask Twilight about what had happened she explained what had really happened, so you're cool in my books"
"Simon's is super cool in my books! He saved me from the cockratice!" Scootaloo decided to add to the conversation, "But not as cool as you of course Dash..."
"You saved Scootaloo?..."
"Well I guess I did, bit it was more out of lu---" *THUD He was tackled by Dash to the ground. It might have been sort of nice if his hands weren't killing him!
"I don't know why you did it, but... Thanks" She was really crushing him. How can these ponies be so strong?!
"It hurts..." His eyes shut tight.
"Oh sorry!" She released him. He just stayed there for a moment like crushed can of coke or something. I'm gonna die from hugs. I just know it!
"How are the townsfolk reacting to the situation? Did Twilight do something drastic to them? She was sure seemed quite furious at the time when I made my exit."
"Oh she sure made them listen to her!" Dash gave a hearty laugh, "I don't think you'll have any problems anytime soon with them. They actually seemed quite disheartened as Twilight explained your situation to them"
"This is great! If you're heading back soon. Tell Twilight that I'll come back as soon as I get my hands fixed up! Oh, actually could you do me a little favor?"
"Yea sure, what is it?"
"Could fly over the forest and see if you can find the remains of my truck? The surrounding area should be quite singed from the fire."
"Sure thing, I'll tell Twilight the rough position if I happen to find it before you return back!" She opened the door before taking off with powerful kick.
Wow, it sure seemed to be turning out alright in the end. Simon smiled widely. What a crazy day it has been... Resting his back against the wall his legs spread out in front of him, giving a deep sigh out of the comfort he suddenly felt. Closing his eyes for a moment. He soon felt a nudge against his thigh. Looking down he saw Scootaloo resting his head on his leg.
"You don't mind if I stay here?"
"Not at all Scoots... Not at all..." Scratching behind her ears to best of his ability with the bandages in the way, but just a couple minutes later soft snorts reached his ear and he grinned at the now sleeping filly. "Oh well. Might as well try to take a nap myself too" he shrugged his shoulders. Leaving his arm to rest on Scoot's back he let his head rest against the wall and closed his eyes. Sleep had no trouble finding him.
------About 50 minutes later------
A firm tap on Simon's shoulder snapped him out his slumber. "Oh thanks for waking me up Zecora. Is the potion ready yet?" He asked the zebra, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"Ready the potion will soon be, so prepare yourself you must"
"I'm curious... Just how painful will this experience supposed to be?" He felt a little anxious.
"It has been described by mine tribe as dying and being reborn, so you need to be mentally strong during the curing process. I've seen some zebras go insane from the level of pain they've gone through." She looked away shaking her head in effort to rid the awful images from her head.
"Insane huh..." He looked a bit pale, "Well I-I guess n-no pain, no ga-game?" now getting really anxious.
"That is the case here indeed. I'll take little Scootaloo outside for duration. Her eyes too young to see this."
"How long will the process take after I have ingested the potion?"
"It will be over in matter of minutes." She walked back to her cauldron and picked a wooden cup from a nearby table. Simon meanwhile was trying to wake up the little filly still curled up next to his leg. "Come on Scoots." he rubbed her ear.
"mmMMmm... Just a couple more... minutes..." She curled up a little tighter.
He ruffled her mane, "Time to get up. Once I get my hands back we will head back to the town and you can continue your nap there." He reasoned, but only got another murmur in response. "Alright, let's see how you like THIS!" He started tickling her exposed underbelly, which really seemed to end her slumber.
"AAHAHAAHAAAA NO TICKLING!!! NO TICKLING" She trashed around in effort to stop the tickles attacking her belly. "I'M AWAKE NOW. I'M AWAKE!" Managing to halt the assaulting hand with all her hoofs.
"Good thing you decided to get up, or otherwise I would have had to brought in the big weapons" He playfully threatened her, pulling his hand away. "Zecora will take you outside for a couple of minutes." Scootaloo gave a questioning look, but got up as Zecora came back with a cup full of bubbling green liquid.
"Here" She handed it to Simon. "Make sure you drink it all."
Simon just nodded in silence and looked at the concoction. *I think it's better not to even smell this*. Zecora escorted Scootaloo to the front door and before heading out herself she gave a last nod to Simon. Who just nodded back. With that the door closed and Simon found himself staring at the cup, alone in the cabin.
"Well... Down the hatch" He brought the cup to his lips and whipped his head back like he was drinking a shot. "Blehh!" The taste was certainly something... Tequila ain't got crap on this. As the liquid trickled down his throat it left a warm feeling on it's way. Simon sat back down floor, as the feeling of warmth started to intensify. "I think it's starting to wo---" His stomach suddenly felt it was burning on the inside! The burning started spreading out fast to his limbs. Simon hissed in pain through his teeth, sweating heavily. The worst part was still to come as the burning started to close in on his hands. He could have sworn he heard a soft popping sound when the sensation passed over the point where his arm had broken.
"aaaaaaaaaAAAAAaaaa!!!" He yelled as the curing process finally reached his arms. It felt first like someone was jamming hundreds of needles in his hand as the nerves started to regenerate and then setting them on fire as skin started to grow back. He curled up into a tight ball on ground and just wished it would end soon. Out of pain and slight panic he tore the bandages off. What he saw made him retch. His hand weren't completely covered in skin yet and bones and flesh could be seen moving in his fingers. His brain was in total distress as more and more of nerve connections grew back. However, unseen for him, were the small electric arcs connecting and restructuring his hands down on the molecular level.
Simon struggled through the blinding pain and total misery for what felt for him like hours. The only comfort being the sight of his hands regrowing back to their former glory. In the end as the pain and burning sensation started to fade away he just laid on the floor on his back panting, completely drenched in sweat. He heard the front door open and Zecora peek in cautiously, spotting him on the floor.
"Are you in the land of the living or in the land of the insane?" She asked.
"Never better" Simon gave a wide berthed grin and wiggled his fingers in front his face. "Quite thirsty though. Could you get me a glass of water." Feeling a little dehydrated from all the sweating.
"Sure thing" Zecora walked over to the water container.
Meanwhile Scootaloo peeked from the open doorway, "Simon? Are you alright?" She had heard his yell of pain.
"Hey don't worry. I'm ok now" He waved her over, "Actually I feel like a new person" He stretched his arms out. No pain or anything anywhere, *It must have healed all the earlier injuries too*.
Scootaloo looked at his fingers with fascination, "What are these things?" she touched them.
"These are what we humans call fingers" He wiggled them. "And let me tell ya what they're are particularly good at."
"What?"
"TICKLES!" He dove straight for her underbelly with both hands. Zecora was watching this little scene unfolding, smiling at the two as they battled it over. Well, Scootaloo tried battling with Simon's hands, but with his fingers now functional it was pretty much a metaphorical onslaught.
"I give up! ahahhehahaaaaa! I give up!" Scootaloo finally gave in after the nonstop assault of his agile fingers. Zecora handed the cup of water to Simon.
"Thanks" and he downed it in one go. "Aaaaahhh, that really hits the spot. I guess we'll be heading back to the town, to Twilight's" He rose and handed the cup back to Zecora, "But truly. Thank you Zecora. I don't know how I would have gone on." He said while maintaining eye contact with her.
"Worry not my friend, if not for you. We might not be here with little Scootaloo at this moment."
"True. I'll come visit you sometime when I have the time." He dusted himself off. "Come on Scoots let's return to the town." He stepped out of the cabin.
"Okay Simon." She hurried after him shutting the door behind her.
They started trekking down the worn out pathway through the forest. The morning sun was shining down through the forest canopy, illuminating the forest throughout.
"So how are you feeling?" Scootaloo broke the silence, as they continued down the path. "I dunno... It's weird. I don't have any aches or even the old problems I used to have. I had sprained my ankle very badly one time and the ligaments had nearly torn off. My ankle would sometimes basically jam up, but now... It's not even aching like it did before..." He made a couple one legged jumps just to test his ankle out. "The potion must have really regenerated my whole physical body!" He snapped his fingers, which caused a arc of electricity to jump between his forefinger and thumb. He stopped and looked at his hand, "Uh Scoots? Did you see that?".
"See what?" She stopped a couple of steps ahead of him.
He tried snapping his fingers couple times more and sure enough there was a faint, but observable arc jumping between his finger. "I don't feel any sensation from this." he kept snapping his fingers, observing this phenomenon.
"Hey, I can't see anything from down here!" Scootaloo buzzed her wings and tried jumping closer to his hands to see what was happening. Simon knelled down to her level and snapped his fingers in front of her. "Wow! Can I try touching that?"
Simon thought it out for a moment. It seemed pretty harmless, the arc was faint, but did jump between his fingers meaning it was at least couple of thousand volts. Also the it more of a short high intensity pulse rather than a continuous current. It was probably something like getting a supercharged static shock. "Yea, I don't think it's anything dangerous. Put your hoof so that it touches my forefinger and thumb."
"What is your forefinger and thumb?"
"Ugh... These two." He wiggled them. The shock should travel through her hoof rather than air if she touched them.
She reached and put her hoof on his hand so that it touched the before mentioned fingers. "Ready? It should feel like a soft pinch." He said. Scootaloo nodded in response. He snapped his fingers, "Ouch" she pulled her hoof away instinctively.
"Did it hurt?" Simon asked.
"Well not really. It just surprised me... But... what is that?"
"It's called electricity, it's the same as... as a.... uuhhhh..." He tried thinking something to compare it to, but they didn't have electric appliances here..."Lightning! It's the same thing as lightning, but of course not as powerful."
"Sooo... Are you some kind of lightning god?" Her eyes beaming with excitement. She was imagining him shooting lightning bolts and controlling the weather and whatnot.
"Weellll... I don't know about lightning god, but a small spark god atleast." he chuckled, still snapping his fingers. "I wonder what Twilight will think about this?... Oh. Scootaloo you never told me why you, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were doing in the forest in the first place. I thought it was common knowledge that the Everfree forest was a Dangerous place." They continued their trek.
"Well we were crusading and thought out to try our luck as wilderness explorers and sort of wandered too deep in to the forest..."
"Crusading? What's that? Some kind of game of yours?" He had in mind something of the crusades of the christian empires during the middle ages where they basically went and killed and burned other nations people, as they were non-believers or 'heretics' if you will.
"Oh, we belong to the cutie mark crusaders club."
"Ok?... aaand what is that then?"
"You really are new here."
"Indeed, so care to shed some light on your cutie mark crusaders club?"
"Well you know how everypone has a cutie mark."
"Nope"
"Well cutie marks appear on ponies bodies on their flank when they discover the one thing they were destined to do." She pointed to her blank flank. Simon recalled back when he was with Twilight seeing a some sort of emblem on her hindquarters and her mentioning her specialty was magic. The pieces started to come together.
"And we started the cutie mark crusaders with Sweetie Belle and Applebloom" Scootaloo started, "To find out your what your special talent is?" Simon finished.
"Exactly!" She nodded.
"But how does one go about searching his or her special talent?"
"Well the adults have always told us it's just something they find exciting and makes them happy. Rainbow Dash for example has a rainbow colored lightning bolt coming out of a cloud, which means she's all about speed, coolness and being flashy!"
"heh, it's interesting, as humans don't have cutie marks."
"No cutie marks? Well... how do you know then what your supposed specialty is in your life?"
"It's simple. We don't. We just find something that interests us and usually specialize in that, but nothing stops us from trying different things" He looked up to the horizon. A small glimmer of sunlight shining through, it seemed that they were approaching the edge of the forest.
Simon and Scootaloo walked out of the forest into the beautiful meadows next to Ponyville. A narrow dirt road leading into a wider well worn one. The morning sun had begun it's daily trip across the sky, guided by the celestial pony. Uhm... Celestia. But even in the midst of all this beauty and wonder. Simon just couldn't help, but feel a little apprehensive about going back into the town. They continued towards Twilight's tree house at the edge of the town.
"Hey Scoots? Uhh, you don't mind me calling you 'Scoots' do you?"
"Not at all."
"Good. So... How are the townspony in your view? I mean are they nice, mean etc... etc..."
"It's gonna be alright Simon. Relaaax a bit, would you? Rainbow Dash did tell us that Twilight explained the situation to the townponies. Besides..." She stopped and looked down to the ground, "You saved my life..." kicking a random pebble with her front hoof.
"Hey hey I told you it's alright. Things turned out okay, right? You're alive and I'm not injured anymore." He crouched down next to her, "What'cha say you and me became pals, as in the way that if you ever have something bothering you and want to tell someone about it, you'll come to me? And I get another friend here. Cmon, what'cha say?" he playfully nudged her shoulder.
"Really? You still want me to be your friend?" She looked up to him with teary eyes.
"Yes" Wiping a tear away from her cheek, "Let's head to Twilight's." He picked up Scootaloo on placed her on his shoulder, "And you can ride there."
" *Sniffle, Wow I can see so far from here!" She moved so that her front hooves were on his head, while her back legs were on his shoulders. "I think that's Twilight's tree house over there." She pointed to right, towards the big hollowed out tree. They headed there.
Moments later
"Do you see anybody inside?" Simon asked as he lifted Scootaloo to the window.
"I don't see nopony in there."
Simon sighed and let Scootaloo back on the ground, "Weird... And Rainbow Dash said the Twilight would be waiting here...I wonder where she went?", he tried tugging the front door a couple more times, but it was locked shut.* Well this sucks... Plus this suit is really starting to get itchy* he scratched his forearm. "Let's go to Rarity's boutique, I want to get back in to my normal clothes"
"I would, but we have a meeting with the crusaders this morning and I have to head there."
"Ok, have a good one!" He yelled after Scootaloo. "Heh... What a sweet kid" He sighed to himself. He took a quick look around himself and noted how silent the streets were. Well at least the trip to the boutique should be painless...
At the boutique
"CLOSED?!" He exclaimed at the sign on the inside of the door. Where is everybody?! I didn't see anybody on my way here either and there weren't even any windows open on the nearby houses. It's like everyone has vanished into the thin air or something. He felt really alien again as he looked at his surroundings, even though the itching from the suit was starting to slowly get worse, which helped to distract him from the feeling of loneliness.
"Hello?!... Anybody?!... Anypony?..." He yelled to the surrounding area, but was met with silence, until a sudden clang from a back alley opposite of the boutique's entrance caught his attention. "Hey? Hey!" He managed just to see a shadowy figure disappear into the alley, "Wait, stop!" He took chase after the figure.
The chase continued through couple of alleys, but Simon kept up with the pony, which was rather strange considering it was much faster than him, but as soon as he lost sight there was always some sort of noise or glimpse of movement in his peripheral vision, which allowed him to continue the chase. But follow he did and he soon arrived at the town's square and saw somepony run towards what seemed to be the town's hall. "Gotcha" He smirked as the figure slipped inside.
"Time to get to the bottom of this" He rose the small steps up to the double front doors, took a hold of both door handles and swung both doors open in a flashy way, "Okay, what's----" He managed to start was, but drown out by the opposing voice.
"SURPRISE!!!!"The massive crowd shout to him as confetti and party balloons started descending over him from the ceiling. Simon stood there silent, still, motionless as one of the balloons bounced off his head. He surveyed the crowd as suddenly a pink blur shot past the wall of ponies toward him. Next thing he knew there was a spiral striped party hat on his head. "So were you surprised?! Huh?! huh?!" A pair of pink hooves wrapped around his neck from behind.
"Pinkie? What is this?" He inquired, looking up towards the hanging banner in the room which said 'Welcome to Ponyville Simon!'.
" *Giggle It's your welcoming party silly"
"My what?" It was like gears inside his head had jammed up.
"Oh! Oh! Come! The Mayor is about to give her speech!" She suddenly started pulling him through the crowd towards the little stage with a speaker box. Pinkie finally stopped right in front of the stage as a light tan mare with white collar and grey hair stepped up to the speaker box.
"Much better than before?" A familiar voice came from his right side.
"Twilight?... How?..." A couple more ponies stood next to her including Rainbow Dash, Rarity and two unfamiliar mares.
"It's a good thing I'm good negotiator. Last night after you had escaped I gave them a little pep talk and explained your situation to them. They were sort of horrified after they understood how terribly they had treated you and I suggested a public apology in the form of your welcoming party." She explained the situation.
The sound of the mayor cleaning his throat brought their attention back to the stage, "Good morning fillies and gentlecolts! We are gathered here today to welcome our newest citizen, Simon. Now, he has experienced a wrongful hate towards him during the past day..." The mayor went on on her formal speech.
"But how did get everyone here? The whole town was empty when I arrived with Scootaloo."
"Easy, Rainbow Dash informed us you would be arriving shortly so we gathered everyone here in town hall. And we had a couple ponies to lure you here... Hey... where are the bandages from your arms?" She looked at his healthy hands and forearms.
"Well after I had saved Scootaloo from the cockratice, my hands were absolutely torn up." He clenched his fist, "But thankfully Zecora made a potion which regenerated my body. I don't have my former ailments bothering me anymore! Also..." He turned towards Rarity, "Rarity, did you have the time to make a new pair of clothes for me?" the itching was nearing the levels of being absolutely intolerable.
"Yes I did darling! I even have them with me right now as your welcoming present." It sounded like pure heaven to be back in regular clothes.
"Excellent! Thank you so much Rarity!"
"...And we all warmly welcome Simon to our town! Simon, would you like to say something?" The mayor finished her speech followed by stomps and hoorays.
"Uuh, sure" He climbed up on the stage on lifted the microphone stand up to his level. "Good morning everybody and thank you for turning up to this party in my favor" Starting with a very neutral opening.
the next part is meant to be read quite slowly, to really put weight behind every sentence)
Taking a deep breath he put on a more serious expression, "During the last 24 hours I have been chased through streets, forests and alleys. I have been threatened to be hanged, burned and killed in many ways I have never imagined or heard before. I have had to seek refuge from unfamiliar faces and come face-to-face with an unknown world. The events of yesterday are ones of which I will probably never forget" He could see the crowd cringing a little bit.
"BUT. During that time. I have also never seen so much kindness, generosity, cheeriness and understanding from just a couple of individuals I've met.
Had it not been for those selfless individuals, I would most likely be dead right now. These couple of individuals have nursed me back to health, given me a roof on top of my head, given without asking anything in return, cheered me on trough grim times and given me back what I thought was lost." He saw Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie starting to catch on what he was saying.
"I can see the potential in you ponies. I believe in your rightheartedness. I believe you want to do what is right! And I want to forgive all of you who feel that they have wronged me. I want to be able in the future to look back at yesterday's events and share a laugh about it with my friends.
But, even the dark times are sometimes filled with sunlight. Have I not been driven into the forest last night, have I not been hated and hunted unknowingly!" He smacked the speaker box! "A young life could have been lost... but thanks to you I was able to defend a young filly from certain doom...
And... In the end... Everything turned out for the better... No lives were lost... No permanent damage was done...
If I never find a way how to return home... If I never get to see my friends... my co-workers... my dog... my house... my world again..." A small tear was traveling down his cheek, "I'm hoping... That this world will become something...
...That I can call...
---Home---
(The soundtrack should stop right about here)
The hall was ominously silent, as he surveyed the crowd. Then a single stomp from one direction, another from elsewhere and soon the whole hall was filled with cheers and raging stomping. "My name is Simon, and I look forward to living in Ponyville" He smiled and waved to the crowd as he stepped down from the stage back to Twilight and her friends.
"That was absolutely beautiful..." Rarity commented, wiping an escaping tear of her cheek.
"Yea I think I really managed to pour out my feelings about these couple days and---" He stopped as he was wrapped in a warm hug from six different directions. Looking down he saw all six of them surrounding him. He got a nice warm feeling in his stomach, "Yea... this is nice..." Hugging all of them back as best as he could. He swore he could smell a faint aroma of cotton candy from pinkie's hair... The soft and fuzzy coats rubbing against his... skin?
Indeed it did feel like there was a direct skin contact on his midsection. It couldn't be... Could it? He look down and indeed it was! Big pieces of cloth were flaking off of the suit!
"Twilight, what's going on?!" The others opened their eyes and looked at his bare midsection and backed off a little, but Twilight kept her face buried in his stomach, *Aaaahhh... so warm and cozy...* she nuzzled against him.
"Twilight!" Simon yelled again and had to pull her off him. The sleeves shortening at an alarming rate as big flakes of cloth fell from them.
"AAaaaaa! What! What?!" She seemed to snap back to reality, a slight blush hidden under her lavender cheeks.
Simon motioned down to the obvious problem.
"Oh no. The spell's effect must be running out!"
*Need new clothes, fast!* Simon processed the situation, "Rarity! You said you had finished my clothes?"
"Uhh, yes darling. I'll go get them!" She took off into the crowd which had began to disperse.
"I'll go hide behind the stage, just throw the clothes to me after she gets them" Simon scampered towards the back area trying to hold onto the disintegrating clothing piece, but still leaving quite a trail of flakes on the ground. *Fricking jinxed it!* He cursed. Thankfully the back of the stage was quite remote area. Nobody should stumble here unintentionally he hoped as the last remaining piece fell from his upper body. Covering his privates he just wished Rarity would return soon.
Under a minute a pile of clothes landed on his head. Quickly examining the pieces he was impressed, a pair of dark blue jeans with a white t-shirt and a simple grey denim jacket, and they even fit nearly perfectly, but a little running in would fix it. Too bad there were no underpants... Should have given those to her too... Or not... Well I'll manage, he shrugged.
Emerging from behind the stage he was immediately under the stare of six pairs of eyes. "So. How do I look?"
"Well they seem to fit you better than the suit." Twilight answered first.
"Who cares!" Pinkie jumped, "Cmon! Let's get this party started!" she pulled Simon toward the little side room on the other side of the hall. Simon followed in suit of the pink energy ball, stumbling couple of times as he nearly lost balance. "Here!" She opened the double doors to the room.
Inside the room was decorated with all kinds of party stuff, balloons, streamers, tables filled with all sorts of food... Lifting the party hat off his forehead he looked up to the banner hanging from the sidewalls. The banner spelled "Welcome to Ponyville Simon!" in large letters.
"We thought you'd be up to a little party after the apology from the town" Twilight walked next to him, the rest four also standing next to his sides admiring the room while pinkie pie was jumping across the room.
"I... I... just.. don't know what to say..." He looked down to her with a mixed emotions, feeling so happy he could almost cry. Nobody had arranged a party for him in ages! "It's just... I can't remember the last time someone arranged a party for me in celebration of anything." He smiled weakly, not wanting to shed a tear now.
"Cmon Simon don't be like that!" Pinkie bounced to him, "Here! have some cake." She hoofed him a nice big plate of carrot cake.
"I do agree with Pinkie on this one darling. A party is no place to fret around" Rarity added. Simon nodded in response and took a nice mouthful of carrot cake as they moved into the room proper.
"mmMMmm... this is some good cake." Simon was delighted.
"Of course it is! It's my well kept secret recipe for the most delectable carrot cake" Pinkie piped and leaned in, "The secret is super-duber fresh ingredients" she whispered.
"Why are you telling me, if it's a secret recipe?" Simon whispered back.
"Hmm" she leaned back and brought her hoof up to her chin, appearing to think hard, "That's a good question... Oh well" she shrugged her shoulders, "Just don't spread it around!" she hopped toward the pastry table.
Simon chuckled at the pink pony's antics. *Oh yea I haven't met those two over there yet*. He looked towards the cowboy hat wearing orange pony and the yellow pegasus with a pink mane who were in conversing with Twilight about something. *I better go and introduce myself* He headed towards them.
"Well howdy there pardner" The orange one greeted with a profound southern accent. Tipping the rim of her hat.
"Well howdy there" Simon replied back in a thick accent, "I reckoned back there I should come over here and make your acquaintance miss?..."
"Applejack, but don't you missy miss me there pardner. I ain't as fainthearted gal as you might think." She reached out her hoof for a shake.
"Well pardon me then. I didn't mean to go all lukewarm on you." He slightly crouched down for the shake, "Name's Si-i-i--m--o-n" his voice trembled from the unexpectedly from the firm shake she gave him. "Bloody hell that's a heck of a firm shake."
"Well that's what you get from bucking apples all year 'round. We have an apple farm just outside the town named 'Sweet apple acres'. Here" She hoofed him a red apple from the nearby table, "Picked just this morning, guaranteed to be juicy and the best apple you ever had!".
Simon took a bite and set the rest of the apple on his plate, the taste was... so sweet. "Oh wow!" he took another bite, "this is great!"
"Best apples in the neighboring area sugarcube." She crossed her front hooves with a sense of pride, "You should come down to the farm sometime."
"Yes ma'am! Will do ma'am!" He jokingly saluted. Turning his attention back to the pegasi.... Who was nowhere to be seen. He spotted Twilight by the table looking down to the floor at something. "Seeing something interesting?" He poked his head next to hers. His eyes just catching something pink disappearing under the tablecloth.
"It's Fluttershy... As soon as your eyes were off her, she bolted under the table... Come on Fluttershy. Just come say hello to Simon." but she only heard a slight whimper from under the table. She gave a small grunt and rubbed the bridge of her muzzle.
"What's the problem? She sick or something?" Simon just looked at the table.
"No no no... It's just that Fluttershy's really, really shy... I had hard time talking to her too when I first arrived to Ponyville. And seeing how you are the first human she has met, she must be absolute terrified."
"No kidding... Well that's a shame" He frowned, but a sudden thumping down at his ankle caught his attention. There was a little white bunny apparently trying to hammer his leg with all of it's might to no avail unsurprisingly. "Well hi there little fella." He kneeled down to pull the little furball off of him. Taking a solid hold of it's neck fur, he lifted it to his eye level and watched as it struggled and tried to kick him with it's little tiny feet, "wow, aren't you a little fighter" he chuckled at the useless struggle. "Twilight? Do you know who this is?".
"That's Angel, Fluttershy's pet bunny."
"Well that's cute name, but somehow I just don't think it fits the owner. Don't ya think so too buddy" He tried rubbing Angel's nose and happened to turn his head just for a moment towards Twilight with a silly grin. It was sort of cute to see the little bunny displaying such a act.
*Chomp
There was a slight notion of pain in his index finger, as he turned back to the critter in his hold just to see it firmly latched onto his finger. "You little bugger..." He tried pulling him off, but he just bit down harder, "get off'a me" he shook hand with the bunny still tightening it's jaws. "Seriously!" It really was starting to hurt now, a bit of blood trickling from the broken skin. He started swinging his arm in broader moves in effort to throw the bitee off.
Meanwhile Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were rolling around on the floor giggling at the comedic sight of a big man panicking over a small bunny holding onto him with all of it's might.
"AAAhh! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" Simon started running around room, flailing his arms about in his evidently fruitless effort. Even Applejack was starting to chuckle and Rarity gave a couple of muffled giggles from beneath her hooves. Simon was not sharing their laughs though. The thing was like a bloody pair of locking pliers with someone turning the tightening screw tighter and tighter!
"ANGEL BUNNY!", a stern voice suddenly called out from beneath the table.
Simon stopped his flailing, the bunny also loosened it's jaws a little and both looked toward the owner of the voice. "Let go of him this instant." The pegasi gave fierce glance at the little bunny, which hopped down to the floor and scratched it's ears in a very innocent manner.
*Bloody pest* Was all that ran through Simon's head. The gnash on his finger was on the same level of seriousness as a paper cut, but it still stung damit!
"You should know better." She seemed to be scolding Angel after which she turned back toward Simon, "Oh my goodness. Are you alright?" looking at his finger.
"I'll live... Name's Simon" He offered his non-bit hand for a shake.
"I'm... Fluttershy..." Her behavior suddenly changed, hiding behind her pink mane, almost seemingly trying to avoid Simon's eyes.
"What?" He leaned closer.
"I'm...Fluttershy... *Squeek" She whimpered.
"I'll go get you a bandage for your finger Simon." Twilight announced as she exited the room. "I'll come with you Twilight!" Fluttershy suddenly flew after her, leaving Simon kneeling there, confused. Looking toward the others, frowning as they tried to quell the remainders of their giggles. "Don't worry Simon. Fluttershy doesn't mean no harm. She just can't help it" Rarity stepped towards him.
"Yea I get it. She's shy." He looked to the door and back seeing the blue and pink ponies still holding onto their sides, "Oh c'mon..." he raised his arms up in the air, "It wasn't that funny.".
"Ahaha, easy for you to say. You just didn't see a big guy running around the room, flailing his arms around with a tiny little bunny attached to the end... *snort... Bwahahaaaa!" Raindow Dash rolled back on her back, still having some laugh in her.
Simon just sighed deeply, *better just let them get it out...*
"Darling don't let them bother you, but could you tell me what this thing is that was in your old trousers pocket?" She hovered a small black monolith to him.
He lifted his head and paused for a moment when he saw what the item in question was, "My phone!" he quickly grabbed it. Looking it over for any damage. He had completely forgotten about his phone! Rarity stepped closer along with Applejack who had sparked interest in the item. Simon pressed the power button, waited for a couple heated seconds with his eyes firmly locked in, hoping for any signs of life. "YEESSS!!" He roared as the splash screen popped up. Rarity and Applejack jumped at least a couple of feet when he yelled.
"What in tarnation are suddenly yelling about?" Applejack picked up her hat off the floor, dusting it off first.
"Indeed" Rarity straightened out her mane, "How could that little thing be so important?"
"Uuuh, it's a bit hard to explain, but this is one of the greatest inventions of the humankind" He punched in his PIN-number and looked over the status bar, as the phone booted into the menu screen. *No connection bars... Well no surprise there really" He frowned slightly, AJ and Rarity peeking over his shoulder at the the screen.
"Soo, what is that thingamajicker?" AJ asked.
"This, is a phone. It allows us to call other people's phones. For example if you had a phone like this and I had your number. I could call you and have talk no matter where you were." He hold the phone like he was talking into it. "And that's not the only thing they are capable these days. For example stay still a couple of moments and..." He quickly browsed to the camera app and pointed it towards AJ, "Smile" He grinned as he pressed the shutter button, the smd leds flashed bright white for moment as a shutter sound was emitted.
AJ was not knowing what to expect and toppled over as the leds flashed bright in his eyes, "Ah'm blind!" she rolled on the floor rubbing her eyes.
"Ooops, looks like the flash was on" He grinned apologizingly. "Sorry didn't mean to surprise you like that" He helped the filly back on her hooves and popped the cowboy hat back on her head.
"What in tarnation was that?!" She blinked.
"That was me, taking a photo of you." He quickly navigated to the photo gallery and brought up the latest one. "Here, look" He turned the screen to her.
"You're telling that tooting thing is a camera?" She looked the picture over, "And ah' look all silly in it!". Indeed it did look a little funny as she was clearly just toppling over, her hooves high in the air.
"Oh darling it looks *-muffled giggle- very like you." Rarity added as she took a gander at it.
"Hey, are you trying to imply som-"
"Hey what are you guys looking at over there?" Pinkie bounced from behind the food table. "Yea, what's the big deal there" RD added.
"You'll see soon when Twilight and Fluttershy return!" He replied, looking back at the door as the two of them had just returned with a small bandage. Twilight looked towards Fluttershy and she nodded strongly in return and took the bandage Twilight had in her mouth and brought it over to Simon.
"Umm... Can I put this bandage on your finger?... I mean... if you want to?..." She looked up in his eyes and Simon stretched out his hand. Carefully she applied it to the little gnash which had actually already clogged up, but never the less it would at least protect it from dirt.
"I'm Fluttershy..." She softly said, still hiding a little bit behind her mane, her eyes shying away from his. Simon guessed Twilight had a little pep talk with her and encouraged her to introduce her this way. "Umm... I'm sorry about Angel bunny... does... your finger still hurt?"
"Never felt better, thanks to that bandage of yours" He gave a little rub behind her ear, which she pushed against with a little *MMMmm.... AH, she was just so innocent and cute!
"Oh by the way you're just in time!" Simon motioned Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Raindow Dash to come closer, "What would say we took a quick group photo?", this only elicited a raised eyebrow from Twilight.
"But we don't have camera here. What are going use to take the picture?" Her eyebrow still high, looking over the room for anything apparent photo shooting equipment, but Simon just waved his phone in front of him "With this".
Twilight glanced between his eyes and his phone, still confused, "You'll see in a second. Uuh, everyone can you move in front of that wall?" He pointed to the wall behind the food table. As the girls moved, Simon set up his phone on the table with a ten second timer. "Leave some room for me in the middle" He asked as they all lined up, leaving a place for Simon in the middle. Activating the countdown he hurried to his place, "Smile everyone!" kneeling down so he was on the same head levels as the other, he took a wide smile and placed his hands on the backs of Twilight and Fluttershy who were next to him. The timer quickly ticked down to zero and the photo was taking with a bright flash.
"Let's see how it turned out." He picked up his phone and brought it over to the girls, "Well I'd say that was pretty succesful" He smiled, bringing up the picture.
"This thing takes pictures?" Twilight was surprised. "I would have worn something more... adequate have I known I would have been immortalized in a picture." Rarity slightly woed. "Well hay, I wouldn't mind framing this over the fireplace" AJ clearly liked it. "Hmm, it needs to be about... 20 percent cooler" RD waved her hoof like she didn't care, but still she leaned back to inspect it. "Oh wowie-zowie! I wish I had a thing like that!" Pinkie bounced excitedly. "It's nice..." Fluttershy smiled warmly.
Unfortunately a message popped up on the screen the telling about the battery level being 25 %, and recommending attaching it to a charger. "Well I guess I'll turn it off for now. I need to be careful with what battery life I have left. I don't think I'll be able to charge it anytime soon.", *Or ever for that matter... Maybe if I learn to control this discharge ability of mine I could produce a stable dc voltage to recharge the battery... Is that a gramophone?*, he put the phone in his pocket.
Pinkie indeed was rolling out an old looking gramophone, "Let's get this party started for realzies!" She cranked the crank couple times and set the needle down on the record. A very upbeat melody started blasting through the speaker, filling the whole room. Pinkie soon rolled on to the middle floor as she appeared to be dancing to the music. Simon did think it looked a bit silly but hey, at least he'd never seen a dancing pony before.
"Wanna try your luck with some apple bobbing there pardner?" AJ bumped the side of his leg. Motioning towards a large bucket of water, with some apples floating in it.
"Sure" They walked to the bucket. RD decided to join them too. "So how does this work?"
"Easy, you dunk your head in the bucket and pickup an apple with nothing else, but your mouth. Like this" RD dunk her head in the water and soon pulled it out with an apple in her mouth. "Eehy".
Simon took off his jacket. No point getting all wet. He knelt down over the side of the bucket and chose his target, a nice bright red apple in the middle. Taking a deep breath he plunged his head in the bucket as he sought to bite down on the apple, but it was a bit harder than he expected. Mainly because he couldn't open his jaw wide enough to just bite down on, so it just slid out of his mouth every time he tried to bite it. *Dang it. I need to press down against the bottom to get some more leverage on it, but before that...* He pulled out to catch his breath.
"Owie, my shoulder's aching!" Pinkie suddenly started rubbing her shoulder.
"Achy shoulder? Wait that means... !!!" Twilight quickly looked around for any sizable container. Pinkie's achy shoulder could mean only one thing....
"Got it now." Simon plunged back into the bucket. Quickly, hold the apple in front of his mouth as he reached the bottom. *Yes!* He finally sink his teeth into the prize, but suddenly the world became dark and he could feel something closing down on his face!
Yanking his head out with whatever was still attached to it, the world still was dark, but at least he could hear everything around him. His hand reached out feel around the unwelcome growth, but as his hand explored the sizable lump, he felt scales?... and ridges?... Was it some sort of reptile! but... He didn't feel teeth or anything biting down on him...
"Ehehehe" AJ laughed next to him, "You sure did get something there pardner".
"Oh good you found Gummy!" Blared Pinkie's voice.
"Get him off of Simon, Pinkie!" Shouted Twilight.
Simon didn't wait for Pinkie as he yanked whatever reptile on his face off with a pop. And soon after the apple flew away with a same sound, splashing the water as it landed back in the bucket. "A crocodile?..." Simon looked half believingly at the small, dotted eyed reptile. It seemed to be straing off into the distance like in a trance.
"Hihi, No you silly. Gummy's an alligator"
"Wha!.. Why... I!... Aaargh never mind!" He threw her pet to her and it latched onto her mane. "I need to sit down.." He rubbed his temple's.
"Maybe ah' can offer something to calm your nerves sonny" AJ rolled an old looking barrel of something onto the table. "This is some special brew of this year's apple cider harvest." She popped the cork off and poured a him a glass of the golden liquid.
"You make apple cider?" Simon asked as he grabbed the glass and took a whiff of the aroma. *Yep, sure smells like apple cider...* Well what did you expect?! He brought the glass to his mouth and took a good sip, "Well at least our world's share something between them. Good old apple cider!" He gave an approving thumb up to AJ. Although there seemed to be a lot more punch, "Quite strong also".
"Well it's from ma'h special wares, meant for special occasions."
"You two lightweights feel up to find out who can drink the most?" Rainbow Dash filled a glass of her own and slammed it down on the table.
"That sounds like a challenge. Heh... You're on pardner" Applejack filled a glass of her own.
"You two better put your on your game faces, if you think you can keep up with me." Simon grinned and took a big gulp.
"Hah, I'll show you rookie" Rainbow Dash downed her glass in one go.*BUUURP she let out a mighty belch.
"Oh my! What manners..." Rarity droned on.
"Ooh! I want some cider too!" Pinkie was suddenly filling a glass for her.
"Pinkie no!" AJ tried to reach her, but as soon she had filled her glass it was pretty much gone down the hatch. "uh-oh" AJ slumped in his place.
"What's the problem?" Simon asked. Pinkie was starting to slightly wobble in her place, as her eyes started glazing over.
"Pinkie... Can't handle alcohol at all" Twilight rubbed the bridge of her muzzle. Pinkie was starting to lose her balance as she started stumbling around, "Hey... Why are you all *Hic looking at me like that?!" Her mane was starting to lose it's puffiness as it lowered straight towards the ground. *Pinkie's a bad drunk?... And a real drunk troublemaker?* Simon realized as she watched the party pony lean against the table for support, but why did her hair loose all it's puffiness?
He watched as Fluttershy and Rarity tried to help their friend stay on her hooves, but to his surprise Pinkie quite vigorously shook them off and fell against her bottom on the floor. "Hey Rainbow. Why is she acting like that?" He asked with a bit of concern.
"I can see NOW how this is a plot against me!" The now straight maned pony raved on the floor, "You guys ARE trying to have party WITHOUT me again!"
"Well it was long ago, but we decided to have a surprise party for her, so we had to lie to her so she wouldn't find out about it beforehand, but it sort took a turn in the wrong direction." Rainbow looked over to her prankster buddy, now laying flat on her back. "But it still turned out allright when we brought her to the party, so most likely it's just that she can't handle a drink as it goes straight to her head..."
"I think she fell asleep" Twilight gave her a little poke, eliciting a little groan from the pink pony, but otherwise continued deep, steady breathing.
"I think we umm... should take her home..." Fluttershy proposed, to which she received nods from Twilight and Rarity. Keeping Pinkie in the sleeping position they lifted her up, as Fluttershy went ahead to open any doors. "Well drop Pinkie at the sugarcube corner and come back." Twilight noted before they left the party room. "Oh and do try to keep the room clean!" Rarity added. The drinking trio just groaned back in response.
"So where were we?" Simon asked from his drinking partners.
"Well ah' might say that ah' just took the lead" AJ licked the remainder of the apple cider from her lips, lowering her empty mug on the table, "2-1-0 for me"
"Just you wait!" Dash beckoned, finishing her glass with a mighty tip. "Don't count me out here yet either!" Simon chugged the rest of his glass down as he reached for a refill...
Later...
Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity were just returning after putting Pinkie in her bed on the second floor of sugarcube corner. Twilight had to unlock the front door with a spell, but they're weren't up to no good, so they thought no harm of it. Dusk had settled down on the town. The setting sun painting the clouds pink, as candlelight shone throw the bypassing house windows. Approaching the town hall they could barely make out muffled shouts emanating from inside. Looking each other with raised eyebrows they closed in with a bit of added speed.
"AAAAAHAAAaaaah STop it!" They recognized the voice to be AJ's. Now exchanging worried looks with each other they quickly sped up into a gallop in the main hall towards the side room.
"NOoo! NOooooo!" She seemed to scream out the top of her lungs. As the trio approached, a cackling noise grew stronger with each step along with a wet slurpish sound, but it did make a sort of wet plop sounds too...
"You give *Hic! up?!" The trio entered the room just when Simon lifted his head off Applejack's stomach, as she laid on her back on the floor, her back legs giving a couple of twitches. His mouth was practically surrounded by drool and bits of orange hair.
"It ain't my style t---"
"You choice" Simon interrupted her, burying his face back in her stomach and started loudly motorboating it. The returned trio just watched the act jaws open, as the maniacal cackling started again on their right side. Peeking behind the table they discovered Rainbow Dash doubled over, laughing her guts out at the sight of the powerless earth pony.
"So you think this is funny eh?" Simon stopped. Turning towards the rolling ball of giggles and rainbow colors, leaving the orange filly on the floor to catch her breath. With a uncertain steps and a devious grin on his face he approached her. RD, seeing the approaching human with wiggling fingers and a grin that would put the devil to shame, she got on her hooves and with a drunken stupor started running for it, giggling along the way. Simon leaned a bit more forward and started to chase the rainbow maned pegasus around the room, still wiggling his fingers.
The clear headed trio watched the two of them go at it, while they moved over to check on Applejack. "You alright there? That's a quite big tower of glasses on the table there" Twilight motioned to the table, on which there was piled up a tower of glasses at least 14 strong.
"Oh that tower. Yea 'at ain't ours. It's Simon's. He sort... took the lead"
Simon had caught up with Rainbow Dash. It seemed that doubling the amount of limbs used for walking doubles the amount of stumbling while drunk. Through his alcohol clouded vision he practically locked on the runner, as he dived in for the kill.
"But... He's still standing!" Twilight looked at Applejack with round eyes.
"Oh, he's doing better than that darling" Rarity looked at Simon.
Simon made contact with Dash's backside as he tackled her, sending them both rolling around floor, Simon holding on to her back. They stopped a little further away with Simon on the bottom holding Dash on top of his chest. "Hahaa! Got you now, we'll see how funny you think this will be." He loosened his grip as he moved his hands right on the side of her rib cage.
"Yea he suddenly started downing that cider like it was the last he would ever have." Applejack rested her head back on the floor.
"What'cha gonna do big boy? Blow me away like miss fuzzy tummy over there?" Dash's legs hanged in the air.
"Oh. Aren't you a little fighter?" Simon smirked behind her back, "I have just always wanted to taste the rainbow..." tracing her back with his nose upwards to her ear, giving it a little lick.
"You need to up your game if you want play in the major league buddy" Rainbow swatted him in the face with his wing.
"And naughty girls... need to be punished" Simon's fingers burst in to action, searching for the tickliest spot along her sides. Their dexterity finding all the right places to dig down and tickle. Dash just couldn't handle it and burst into a hysterical laugh between pleading him to stop.
Meanwhile the girls just looked amused at the sight of their friend being reduced from the fastest flier in Equestria to a helpless mess of twitching hooves and wings in the unrelenting assault of Simon's dexterous fingers. Rarity specially was having trouble containing her laughter. Seeing the troublesome prankster finally getting something in return. Especially since that green mane dye in the shower head prank.
"Umm... You think we should... Stop him?" Fluttershy asked, a very slight blush on her cheeks from the sight.
"AAAAaaaaahaaahaaaaa!! Stop it! Sttoop iiiiiiiiit!" Rainbow pleaded between the giggles and flailing hooves, trying to desperately swat him with her wings to make her stop.
"Just hold on there pardner, I want to see this to the end." AJ smiled at the sight.
"Who's the better drinker?!"
"hhhAAhh aaaaahhhh! you Are! YoU ARE!"
"And you want me to do what *Urp" Simon was suddenly starting to feel sick. Now in hindsight it probably wasn't so smart to chug so many glasses in row. His body was still processing the alcohol, but it had reached it's limits, especially after drinking so much of that sweet cider. He could feel a familiar feeling rising up in his stomach, it could only mean one thing...
Simon's fingers stopped, as he quickly lifted the befuddled pegasus off of him while he rose up holding his other hand on his mouth. 'I'm gonna barf!' He looked for any near object in which he could empty whatever was about to come up. The girls' expression changed from amused to one of wondering what he was doing. Spotting a window on a near wall Simon stumbled his way to it, pushed it open, leaned over and let the floodgates open.
*Just what in the world is he doing by the window?... Oh... OOHHH!* Twilight's question got it's answer, as the flowerbed under window got some fertilizer mixed with some stomach acid...
"You alright there darling?" Rarity tentatively asked, walking over to him. Simon just waved his hand off, thinking it was over, until another wave of nausea hit him. Leaning back against the window frame, hurling more content to the flowerbed. Rarity took a step back with a slight expression of disgust on her face.
"Alright girls! I think the party is over." Twilight announced, "Fluttershy can you take care of Rainbow Dash?"
"Y-yes ma'am!" She went over to see if she could stand up on her own.
"Rarity, you take care of Applejack." Rarity nodded in response. Propping her country friend up against her. "You can stay at my boutique for the night darling. Oh! I have a couple of new dress ideas I want to test in the morning!", Applejack could already feel the surfacing headache just from hearing that...
Simon slumped on his stomach, hanging his head just over the flowerbed. Spitting the remainder of puke out of his mouth.
"You okay?" Twilight walked up to him.
"Ahhm fine..."
"Really? You don't look or sound that good really."
"I've mighta gon' a bit ov'r my limts..." He pulled back and sat down in front of the window, leaning against the wall. Looking at Twilight's worried/annoyed face he just couldn't help feeling like he was staring at the face of an angel, "Anyone ever told you how pretty you are?" He concentrated not to slur too much.
Twilight was a bit taken back from that statement, her cheeks becoming clearly crimsoning up. "Aaah! I'm not nothing special..." She felt really flattered, it must have been the cider talking... Yes. Definitely the cider...
"But you are! You're smart, witty, you love learning, you are the protegee of the kingdom's ruler, you have the most wonderful friends you could hope for!... I just wish I had met a girl like you before..." He looked her in the eyes, his heart feeling lighter.
Twilight's heart was beating like crazy... Had he just confessed to her?... No... Just no way... "Let's go home."
"Home..." He Hmmph'd.
"Can you stand on your own?"
He propped himself up on the wall, taking a couple of steps before stumbling and nearly smashing his face on floor, feeling the familiar pull of magic on the back of his shirt, "Thanks" the trip would take sometime...
They left the room untouched, they would clean it tomorrow. Emerging form the town hall's main door they entered the starry skied night. Simon walked the best he could with a little stabilization help from Twilight every once and a while. After passing a couple of houses, Simon stopped and looked up at night sky, seeing the beautiful full monn and all the hundreds of stars filling it, he lout out a deep sigh. Twilight looked first at him and then towards the sky too.
"It's been a really long time since I have seen a night sky like this..."
"..." Twilight looked at him and returned to the sky
"Just makes you wonder... How many other worlds there are in the universe... How insignificant you are on the grand scale of things... But still understanding how much of a impact you can make on the local scale..." He looked at her, "You ever thought of things like that?..."
"Sometimes... I was really fascinated by Starswirl the bearded's theory of the creation of everything..."
"Heh, I meant in a more abstract way, but that's good too" Simon smiled at her response, feeling the cool night air brushing some the haze away, "Oh! stay there for a minute" he quickly got an idea, pulling his phone out from his pocket and turning it on.
"I want to study your phone tomorrow, if that's okay"
"Sure, but for now I want you to look up at the stars" He booted the camera software up and lined himself so that Twilight's face was visible from the side, illuminated by the sky and rest of the sky filled the picture, *Tap *Shutter sound, "Perfect"
"Can I move now?"
"Yea yea" He brought the phone to her, showing the picture. "You're beautiful"
"Uuh! Uuh! What else can it do it?!" She didn't quite catch the mood, eyes sparkling as she inspected his phone. "Yea I'll let you take a look at it tomorrow, but not for long. I need to save the battery." Simon sighed. Absolute defeat.
"Yay! he hee." They continued forwards.
Rest of the trip went uneventfully as they finally reached the library. Carefully they opened the door, suspecting that Spike had already gone to sleep. Simon knew already that the next morning might have a nasty surprise waiting for him, so he decided to do some damage control.
"I'll head to bed in a minute, but I'm going to grab a glass of water before that. I also want to have a word with you before you go." He headed to the kitchen.
"I'll *Yaaawn, wait for you in my bed." Twilight felt very tired after the day. She hadn't had very good sleep last night since she gave the townponies their deserved pep talk. She slowly climbed the stairs on the side of the main hall to her bed and personal desk. Giving a quick peek she discovered Spike sleeping soundly, curled around himself. Sighing at the sight, she went to her bed and pulled back the sheets and slipped between them. *Aaahhhh... Feels good to finally get some shut eye".
Simon finished drinking his second glass of water, but he still was pretty sure next morning would not be ideal... In more than oneway... *Here we go*, he put the glass down and headed to upstairs. Reaching the top stairs he saw Twilight sitting in her bed, bathed by the moonlight from the nearby window. She looked... just, magical. WELL, she was a magical being, but this was something on another level... Something much more purer. He walked to the bed and crouched down, both of them on the same eye level.
"I want to thank you for today, for getting the townponies to understand me and my situation, for the official apology from the mayor, for the welcoming party and for letting me meet your friends."
"Oh Simon, it's allri-"
"I'm not finished." He interrupted softly. "I just want you to know, that I feel like even if I had insurmountable problems... If you are there, It'll turn out alright in the end." He brought his hand up to her cheek, his heartbeat picking up. He leaned towards her, their faces coming closer.
Twilight was not sure sure what to expect, was he about to kiss him?! I'm not sure if I'm ready yet! What would the others think if they knew? Is there a law that forbids love between different species? Her mind mulled over the different questions and possibilities. His face still coming straight for her's. Twilight instinctively shut her eyes, waiting for his lips to connect with her's, but... It never came.
Simon looked at her, maybe it was too soon... He rubbed her cheek gently, feeling her soft coat run through his fingers. Yeah, still too soon... He gave soft peck at her other cheek, "Good night Twilight", he smiled and left for the guest room.
Had he done the right thing? Yeah sure he liked her, but kissing her?! *I hope I didn't offend her or anything... I... I'll ask about it tomorrow morning... Yeah...* Simon rolled around in the bed, turning from side to side, trying to find a comfortable position. *Aww crap! I forgot to show her my weird electrical finger snap. Oh well... first thing in the morning* He decided to just lay still and silent until sleep finds him.
Meanwhile, behind couple of walls. There was another restless soul searching for peaceful slumber, though the gifts of sleep had trouble finding her. Twilight wasn't sure what to think about the last minute actions, *I mean sure he's a nice guy, but I just don't if we're even... Compatible! Or something... *sigh... There's still so much more I want to know about him... OH NO!!! I forgot to write princess Celestia about him today in the hurry of organizing the welcoming party! She's going to think I'm tardy! I didn't even have anything new to report about friendship to her last week! I need to start immediately!" She nodded to herself in the bed and got up, heading for her worktable. A bottle of ink, quill and paper floated to the desk as she sat down, pondering about how to properly tell her mentor about a human appearing in Equestria for thousands of years!
Dear princess Celestia,
I contact you with heart full of excitement as I have made a discovery of the century...
She continued into the night...
------------------------------------
Location: ???
"Twilight?! Twilight where are you?! Twiiilight!" Simon ran through the burning streets of Ponyville, houses collapsing around him from the weakening of structural supports, whipping burning hot dust and ash in the air. Simon shielded his face, as he continued forwards in the burning tunnel, screams of terror, pain and fear echoing all around him. He did not wonder why the town was burning. He did not have the time, all he knew that he was here, now and Twilight was missing.
"Twilight!...'Cough! Cough!" He coughed from all the inhaled smoke and airborne debris. *This isn't good. It's going to take too long to search the streets by foot...* He shielded his face with his shirt.
"HELP! Somepony!", It came somewhere from in front of him. He got moving again.
"Hello?!" He yelled as he ran.
"SIMON! Over here!" He turned right and saw someone caught under a support beam, probably from a nearby house. He hurried over and was surprised by who he saw.
"Rainbow Dash?!" He was surprised why the pegasus was on the ground in the burning town. Looking at the pillar, which she was caught under. He noticed how badly her other wing was injured, it was twisted at a sick looking angle. "Uuh... I think I can lift the pillar enough for you to get free, but be careful with your wing, it looks like it's broken." He estimated. "Get ready" He moved on to the unlit end of the support, grabbing it with both hands, he lifted with all of his strength, the pillar raising just barely couple of inches, but enough for Rainbow to pull her wing free. She stumbled couple of steps and leaned down on her front legs, Simon let the pillar go and it crashed back down on the rubble.
He made his way to Rainbow, "Don't move, can you feel all your limbs?" He looked her over, a couple of scratches and cuts here and there, but nothing prominently bad looking... Except her wing.
"I... I can't *hic feel my left wing" She stretched her right wing, tears rolling down her cheeks while the left one just drooped on the ground.
"Calm down... I-I'll try to stop the bleeding" Simon felt unsure about how to help her. He tried to use his hoodie to tie the wing to her waist.
"Why..." She whimpered, "Why'd you do it Simon?..." She turned her head sideways to him, her tear-stained and bloodshot eyes, but there was something welling up much deeper in those. An unseen smoldering fire was being fueled, growing in intensity and size by the moments.
Simon gave a deeply worried look, *She doesn't make any sense... Is she in shock?!*, "Alright, calm down Dash. You're in shock Can you feel pain anywhere else except in your..." He looked at her wing and back at her eyes. She gulped deeply and shut her eyes, turning away. "Actually I think there is a slight pain in my back hoof..." she said in quite dull, cold way, hiding away her emotions for a moment.
"Let me take a look, which hoof?" she nodded toward her left side. Simon crouched down right behind her and inspected the limb first for obvious external injuries, cuts, bruises etc. "Where is it hurting? I can't see anything obvious wrong with it?" Seeing nothing obvious.
"I think it's coming right from the bottom of the hoof" Unseen by Simon, she was gritting her teeth hard, her eyes still shut tight and her brow furrowing lower.
"Oh, okay. Just say if it hurts too much" He carefully lifted the hoof.
"Oh you're about to get an idea how much it hurts...." She whispered under her breath
"What now?" Simon looked at her questioningly.
"Nothing... Just cleared my throat"
Turning back to the hoof he lifted it backwards to him, so he could see the bottom of it. No blood, no cuts or even scratches visible. He brought his face right up to it, in case it was something very small embedded into the hoof, *Maybe it's a hairline fracture somewhere...*, "I can't see anything wrong with your hoof, but let's get out of the town and have doctor check it" He still held it right in front of his face.
"Oh you're the one who's going to be needing a doctor!" She let the fire inside her explode! Something shot towards his face from the right side and then he just saw stars. His body momentarily lifted off of the ground from the force of the kick, even though it was just one hoof. He flew couple of meters backwards, landing on his back. Dash walked over to him and gave a firm kick to his side, eliciting a groan from him "Don't you dare to pass out!"
Simon's head was absolutely swimming as he opened his eyes from the kick. Everything was a complete blur and his right eye was aching like a bastard. A big blue glob entered from the bottom of his vision, letting the situation sink in for a moment, "Why did I deserve that?" He groggily asked.
"WHA-! YOU!... YOU BASTARD!" She kicked him again in the side, "HOW DARE YOU AFTER WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!" She yelled in complete fury.
Simon was holding his right side, "I... I... I don't understand" fearful that another kick was coming his way, but it was about to get a little worse than that.
Instead of quelling the fire, the comment just added fuel to it. Dash was completely enraged by what she was hearing. "Well let me refresh your memory then" Her voice full of sarcasm. She climbed on top of his chest, "First you arrive in Ponyville and we take you in!" she reared up on her back hoofs and stomped hard on his chest, knocking the wind out of him. "You gain our trust and princesses' !" She stomped on his chest again, the taste of blood filling his mouth. "You go missing and we search desperately for you, but find nothing!" He swore he broke a rib as the hooves came down again. "You suddenly emerge as an ally for the changeling empire and try to usurp the throne!" He coughed blood now, the little pony summoning fierce strength for her size. "And after failing to take the throne you attack Ponyville! AND THEN SAY YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" Tears of anger and sadness rolling down her cheeks, falling onto his face.
Simon didn't say anything, I mean, what could he say?! Maybe the prophecy was real and true after all! But why couldn't he remember anything? How could he have gone along with such a terrible thing!
"I'm putting an end to this, right here and now" She steeled her gaze, "I cannot allow you to continue your path of destruction any further..." the surrounding flames glimmering in her eyes. "Goodbye Simon" She raised once more on her backhoofs, but this time her target was higher on his torso, his head.
"Please... no" Simon weakly pleaded, lifting his arms to cover his face, just in time to see those hooves starting to come down carrying their deadly power behind them, the fire crackling in his ears, the smoke burning his nose, the taste of his blood on his tongue. He shut his eyes... and was plunged into the darkness.
The sounds of crackling fire disappearing around him, replaced by complete soundless void... The gut wrenching pain of his broken ribs fading away, leaving a feeling of tranquility behind... The taste of blood washing away, like seawater bashing the beach's sand, leaving a slight taste of salt in his mouth... *If this is what dying feels like... It ain't so bad actually... I feel at peace now... I guess there is afterlife... my soul just floating here...*
He took a deep breath through his nose, smell of smoke no longer present, but a filling feeling of something shooting down his nasal tunnel and straight into his lungs. He was suffocating! But how could one suffocate in the afterlife?! He exhaled and bubbles came out of his mouth as he covered it with his hands. Looking around he did not detect any kind of light anywhere. He was essentially floating in the darkness suffocating or I guess drowning was more accurate at this point, inhaling again just to feel the faintly salty water rush into his lungs. Coughing by reflex he exhaled the inhaled water and the rest of the remaining air in his lungs, bubbles again filling his vision, but the bubbles didn't stay still for long as they started lazily floating in a direction. *Wait! Bubbles float to the surface* He whipped his head towards their destination and saw a small glimmer of light! Doing the world's fastest breaststrokes he shot towards it! Passing his bubbles along the way, the light grew wider and wider, blotches starting to form from the uniformity.
Next to a pristine white grand castle was a small garden bathed in moonlight. The garden followed the curvature of the castle, built upon a mountain, the sight over the guardrail revealing beautiful views to far distances. The garden itself was kept spotless, a small walkaway made from cut pieces of marble snaked through it, either end going back into the castle. The bushes along the path were sheared into forms of animals and walls, a gap every now and then leading into a small clearing with a bench in the middle. No dead leaves or twigs anywhere to be seen.
Nested in the middle compared to the path, was a pond. The water's undisturbed black surface mirroring the moon. Anyone staring into the pond would see their own image reflected back, the dark water seemingly depthless. Suddenly, something started to rise from the inky depths, rising to the surface, breaking the mirror like calm of it, the moon's reflection distorted by the ripples radiating outwards from the point where first bubbles had breached the surface. Soon another rose to the surface, then another and another! Something big coming up from the pond!
Simon's hand broke out from the pond's surface, grabbing the side of it and yanking himself out! Coughing couple of mouthfuls of water he draw a lungful of the fresh and cool night air. Taking ragged breath on his knees and hands next to the water feature. "Bloody hell! I wasn't sure I'd make it *Cough *Cough"
"You are quite intriguing, young human" Came a voice from the garden.
Simon rose to a crouched stance, he scanned the surroundings. "Who are you?" He yelled back.
"Oh young human *soft giggle, who I am is not important right now, but rather... who you will become in the future."
"Meaning?" He wasn't feeling like figuring out riddles.
A dark blue hoof, covered in darker shade regalia, emerged from behind a tree, walking towards him the cloak of night retreated from the hoof upwards, revealing a big dark blue alicorn, at least the height of himself and eyes glowing bright white was standing in front of him. A night of crescent moon decorating her hindquarters. Simon took a step backwards, reading himself for anything.
The alicorn cleared her throat, "The real question, Simon, is that will you be one they predict in the prophecy to be the catalyst for the destruction of Equestria, or will you be able to defy your future and become the savior of Equestria" She spoke with a calm, authoritative voice.
"How do you know my name?" Simon lowered his hands
"I have been keeping an eye on, as the keeper of dreams I have the ability to enter a person's dreams. I usually guard our loyal subjects from nightmares, but once I detected something different from a pony having a dream, I decided to investigate and found you." She pointed a hoof at him.
"Keeper and protector of dreams, eh? Well I would have to say you've been sleeping on the job" He rubbed the bridge of his nose, "I have never had more horrible nightmares and the ones before, so thanks for nothing!"
"One must understand that we were just observing the situation first, before introducing ourselves." She actually bowed her head just a little bit.
"Soooo... Care to tell me your name?"
"Who I am will be revealed in due time, but I have a feeling we will be meeting very soon face-to-face. As for telling more about ourselves, I decline as one can only make so much of prediction what kind of a person by his or her dreams."
Simon felt annoyed that she didn't tell him anything other than that she was the keeper of dreams. *I think I have heard that phrase before somewhere...*, "You said you have been watching my dreams earlier? But I haven't seen you before?"
"I watched your dream of the Canterlot and the castle being seiged by the Changeling empire, I stayed hidden while watching you enter the castle and roam the halls. How unfortunate that you couldn't save Rain Shine" She lowered her head.
"Well whatever, it was a dream right?"
"Sometime we should take our dreams more seriously than just a mere illusions"
Maybe it was more than just a dream... Maybe what he saw really was the future of Equestria, except that Twilight said that the current kingdom had two rulers, which both were princesses. So it couldn't be the future, as the female unicorn had said that he had killed her husband. Could it be?... "My friend Twilight told me that there was a great war 2000 years ago, and that the king and queen had perished before the war ended, doesn't that correspond more to what I saw?"
Her eyes widened for moment before she crunched her brows in thought, "I believe you might be correct, human. So why would you see the end of the great war? For some reason we feel that something is missing, something doesn't line up properly... So Twilight told you about the war, that means for a certain that she had read it from a history book..."
In their deep thoughts and conversations they both missed the moon starting to disappear behind the horizon, the sky starting to turn light orange on the other side.
"You know Twilight?"
"Young Twilight Sparkle? Of course we do! She is our sister's esteemed protege." The sentence didn't click in Simon's mind for now, but he started pondering about it. "But we must go for now, as we have something to research."
"You're still not going to tell your name?"
She turned toward the behind horizon disappearing moon and back to him, "The answer is closer than you think, but I must investigate something" she just replied and continued back into the garden out of his sight.
"Closer than I think?" He watched the moon completely disappear behind the horizon, as rays of light started to raise from the opposite direction. The tops of the trees started to lighten up as the sunshine hit them. Simon shielded his eyes, as he turned to the sunrise. His eyes saw something unsettling. The landscape was vanishing away! The shining becoming brighter and brighter until everything he could see was just complete white.
------------------------------------
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle
Twilight settled down the the quill and yawned widely, she had been awake for couple of hours writing the message to Celestia. Dark pockets beneath her eyes she grabbed another piece of paper and quickly wrote a note on it: 'Spike, send this letter to celestia as soon as you awake.'. Wrapping up the important letter and putting a seal of royal letter on it, She set them both next to the Spike's sleeping basket, where the little dragon was snoring happily, "Sleep well my number one assistant" she caressed his cheek.
Wobbling towards her bed, she hardly managed to keep her eyes open as their lids felt like they were made of concrete. Reaching the bed she just tipped over the side and rolled happily in the middle of it, not even bothering to pull on the blanket. The warm summer night air still keeping the air warm enough inside the library. She nuzzled against the pillow contently, not caring about the problems for a moment. She drifted into deep, peaceful slumber.
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Time: Morning
Sunlight trickled through the window into the room. The ray just perfectly aligning itself on Simon's closed eyelids, as they suddenly jerked open. "God damit!" He swore, rolling onto his other side away from the blinding light. Pulling the pillow over his head like someone would have been jackhammering concrete outside his room. Holding the position for a moment before groaning out, peeking out from under the pillow. "Still here..." He muttered under his breath, as he rose to sit on the edge of the bed, the pillow dropping off of his head before tumbling first into the bed's side and then to the ground.
Simon looked like death incarnate. Big bags under both of his eyes, unshaven stubble dotting his jawline, under the nose, sideburns and neck. Even somehow his long buzzcut looking disheveled, like every hair had it's own mine about what direction to point. He rubbed his eyes, shaking the last of the sleeping sand off, "This is gonna be one of those days again..." he sighed to himself and got up and grabbed his new shirt and jeans.
On his way to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, tea or something. He had to pass right next Twilight's quarters to get to the stairs leading down, a tinge of panic running over his head. Fortunately the purple mare was still dreaming away on the bed, the blanket splayed over the end of the bed. He smiled to himself, seeing her sleeping like that. He went and pulled the blanket up off of the end and tucked it over her body, ending very close to her face. He watched her sleeping face, bringing a hand up to it, he pushed a couple of hairs to the side off her face. God he wanted to give her a quick peck on the head! But managed to distract himself with the thought of hot, fresh brewed, sweet... COFFEE. He left the bed and headed to the kitchen.
He opened the door the door to the kitchen and saw Spike making breakfast on the stove, "Morning Spike" He greeted the dragon and pulled a chair from under the dinner table.
"Oh, good morning Simon" He turned to just greet him and went back his cooking.
"What'cha cooking there?" Simon smelled the air trying to guess what it would be, but nothing distinctive was floating in the air.
"I'm making a pot of oatmeal. Twilight asked me to cook it guessing that you could eat it too"
Simon rubbed his empty stomach, which growled back in response. "Yea sounds good, too bad Twilight won't be able to eat it with us"
"What do you mean by that Simon?"
"When I was coming to the kitchen I saw her still sleeping, looking cute as-- I- I MEAN STILL SNORING LOUDLY" He quickly covered his ass, as blush creeped up his cheek's. Spike thankfully still concentrating on the still bubbling porridge.
"HA! I don't know how many times I have told her that she snores, but she doesn't believe me!"
"haa haa haaaa, that she does" Simon fake laughed, gulping silently. "Aa Spike, you wouldn't happen to have any coffee in the kitchen would you?"
"Coffee, hmmm... Check in that cupboard in the corner" He pointed a claw to the wooden cupboard, "The porridge is almost ready, but I have something I need to do before I can brew the coffee"
Simon reached up in the corner and opened the cupboard. The sweet aroma of herbs and spices flowing into his nose. *Coffee coffee coffee...* He went through through all the little packets of different herbs, finally coming to a packet that said 'Sunshine coffee, the finest coffee in Equestria!' a little mare in the middle of a wheat field decorating the front side.
"The porridge is ready" Spike pulled the pot of the stove, "Did you find the coffee yet?"
"Yea I found something" He pulled the packet out of the cupboard and went back to the table, setting the coffee on it and sitting down. "So what did you need to do before brewing it?"
"Oh I just need set one letter, which Twilight had written in the night. Help yourself to some porridge meanwhile, bowls are in the cupboard over the sink and there's some milk in the fridge." Spike grabbed the letter from a stool.
*Oh that's why she was still sleeping, I wonder what she wrote about... and to whom?...* He grabbed a bowl and a spoon from a drawer and filled the bowl with some hot, steaming oatmeal. Setting the bowl down on the dinner table, he opened the fridge for some milk. Surprisingly it was in a classic glass bottle. "Hey Spike, how does this fridge work? I mean how does it stay cold?" He looked at the fridge's inner back wall, no pipes or anything in there.
"It gets it's energy from a special crystal that is connected to the back of it" Simon took a peak behind the fridge, a fist sized red crystal glowing softly was in a compartment at the top of it, "The crystals runs out of power every month or so, but Twilight recharges it with magic when it does".
*Crystals as energy storage device, fascinating... I need to ask Twilight to get me one for experiments* He poured some milk into the porridge and put the milk back in the fridge. Sitting down he took a spoonful of it and was delighted, surprisingly it tasted somehow much sweeter and tastier than back on earth. He set about munching on the breakfast.
Spike lifted the letter up, "Watch this" Spike puffed out a green wisp of flame, which engulfed the letter and carried up about two feet before disintegrating away.
"Why'd you burn it?" Simon raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't burn it! That was special flame that sends the letter to whoever it was appointed to. You see any ashes on the ground?"
Spike was right, there was no traces of the letter at all, no ashes or other residue. "Who do you think it was appointed to?" he went back to the porridge.
"Probably to princess Celestia" He nonchalantly replied and grabbed the coffee packet Simon had dug out of the corner cupboard.
Simon's mouth stopped, a bit of porridge trickling out from the corner of it, "You mean Celestia, the ruler of Equestria?"
"Yea Celestia, I mean Twilight is her protegee, so it's nothing unsusual" He poured some coffee ground in a stove top coffee pot.
Simon went reluctantly back to his porridge, suddenly feeling a lot less hungry, the words of the alicorn from his dream haunting his mind. "Twilight, my sister's protegee..." he left that sentence to turnover in his brain.
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Location: Canterlot Castle
The goddess of the sun was busy handling the daily affairs, arranging meetings and hearings. Reading important documents and signing contracts and permissions. The sun already following it's daily route across the sky, drawing only a minimal amount of magic.
"We're heading to bed dear sister" A dark blue alicorn announced from the entrance of her office.
"Goodnight Luna, sleep well" Celestia wished her sister who continued toward her own room through the halls.
She turned back to the paperwork, but before she managed to start again a small crackle of fire caught her attention, green smoke materializing in the air, collecting together and floating towards her, a letter dropping as the smoke finished, she caught it with her magic. "I wonder who this might be from?" She removed the seal and enfolded the scroll. She started reading it...
Ponies in the canterlot market who were going about their business, others buying and looking for their daily supplies and items, while others were hard at announcing their wares and prices to the by goers. Everyone could have sworn that the day got a little dimmer suddenly, couple of muzzles rising up to the sun, confirming that it was still there while no clouds were in sight. It was like somebody suddenly turned down the power to the lights...
The end of the goddess' magical mane was bursting into flames every now and then, as she reached the end of the letter. "Guard!" She yelled toward the door.
A armor clad earth pony ran into the room "Yes your highness!?" he made honors.
"I have received distressing news. I am raising the alert level of the guard to 3 from 0 and tell the captain of the guard to meet me in my quarters, now!" She barked at the guard, who honored her again before running out into halls in hurry. She turned her back to the door and bit her lip, "How could they have come back?... I sent all of them into oblivion..."
"JAB! BLOCK! COUNTER!" The castle's inner yard echoed as multiple rows of guard ponies repeated the moves with a spear. More well armored unicorn with a blue mane and a shield and swords crossed on his flank patrolled through the rows, inspecting the training. "Put your weight behind it!" He yelled towards a particular guard, who he clearly saw wasn't performing the move like intended. "This is not fun and games!" he continued through the rows, "This will be the base of your future combat skills! If you slack here, it might get you killed when the real deal comes!" He shouted reminders why they were here.
Close to the yard, a guard ran out of doorway, "Captain! Captain!" He ran yelling towards the armored unicorn.
"At ease guard" He commanded, as the guard did honors to him. "What is it?"
"Her royal highness has ordered the alert level of the guards to 3 as well as summoning you to her quarters!" He announced.
"All right everybody, we have just entered a state of heightened security, so look sharp! Everyone of you get your armor and weapons and go to your designated positions!" He ordered the training guards. "You two and you" He stopped two guards before they left and also addressed the messenger, "Go tell the other companies about the announcement and make your way after that to your designated positions!".
They did honors and went their way, while he headed towards the sun goddess' quarters.
Not far away though, one of the guards that were training stopped, "I need to inform the higher ups that something is happening..." he looked around first making sure no one was there to see him, he pulled a small green orb out of his armor, muttered something and it started to glow.
"What is it henchman?" Came a gruff voice from the orb.
"Something is happening at the castle, our alert level has been raised and the captain was summoned to Celestia's quarters. With the guards in position the amount of them around the outer wall of Canterlot will be greatly reduced."
"This presents us with a chance to deal some fear into the snobby dwellers, slink back into the guard and keep us posted on future developments. It's time to strike back... hahaha... HAHAHA... HAHAHAA!" The voice laughed maniacally in it's deep voice.
The guard picked up put the orb back inside his armor, "Bloody heck this thing chaffs so much" he cursed as he emerged from the dark corner.
Celestia paced backwards and forwards in her room, going over how a human could have gotten again into Equestria in the first place. Well, no matter. She was going to put an end to it before anything could happen.
The door opened, "You summoned me your highness?" the captain did honors.
"Shining Armor, glad that you could come so fast"
"I have already sent the guards to their positions and alerted the other companies as well. So what is the matter your highness?"
"Something ancient and evil has come back to Equestria, something that I personally had banished thousands of years ago..." She grinded her hoof against the intriguingly patterned carpet. "The human scourge..."
"Humans? But didn't they all disappear back when the great war ended?" The captain asked.
"Indeed they did, because I sent them off into another dimension, so they could never spread their plague. Nothing good ever comes from humans captain, don't forget that" She walked to the open balcony with the captain in tow. "What is even more distressing, is that I got a letter from your sister Twilight, in which she told how a human was living with her. She seemed very excited and happy in it, but I'm afraid she has already fallen under the human's brainwashing..."
"Twily is in danger?! Oh I'm going to show that no good human!..." Armor punched his hoofs together in anger.
"Oh yes the human is a master of turning those against him, onto his side. They are never to be trusted, everything coming out of their mouth surely just meant for skewering your mind onto their side, but with haste we can still save her! I want you to gather five of your most experienced and skilled guards and meet me in the royal hall in ten minutes!" The captain shot out of the room, already knowing which five to pick.
*The humans are the masters of lies and deception...* Celestia walked confidently out of the room, behind the captain.
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Location: The Library
"I'm sorry!" Simon was begging with his hands clasped, on his knees in front of the now awoken Twilight. "I went overboard last night, I shouldn't have done what I did!" Spike glanced upstairs, hearing the racket, but went back to arranging the books to the shelves. "If it's any consolidation, I had terrible nightmares last night... also weird".
Twilight was having hard time to get a turn to say something before Simon interrupted with more apologies, but as the aural flood continued, she grabbed a flower vase from her night stand and poured the water from it on his head, "Can I get a turn to say something now?".
"Yes ma'am..." He turned his gaze down.
"Now now, I'm not mad at you" She put vase back on her night table. "What happened last night happened, no changing that, but maybe try to be a little more reserved in the future,but not that Ididn't enjoy it..." A slight blush creeping.
"WHAT!? I think I got water in my ear!" Simon tilted his head to the side, trying to get most of the water out.
"Sorry about the water... Need help with that?" She offered, levitating couple of fallen petunias back into the vase.
"I think an everything-is-cool-between-us hug would help tremendously" He looked at her sideways with puppy eyes, pleading.
"*Sigh... You humans are weird sometimes" But she still walked up to him and crossed her front hoofs behind her neck, hugging him.
"I try my best..." He said back embracing her back, get a new whiff of her coat's scent, "you're cute..." he tightened the hug for moment.
"HMmm?" Twilight hummed, not able to make out what he said.
Simon jumped out of the hug back on his feet, "I MEAN YOU SOUND LIKE YOU'RE CUTTING WOOD WHEN YOU SNORE!".
"You tell him Simon!" Spike piped in from downstairs.
"I sound like what now?..." Simon couldn't see her face as it was turned straight towards the floor, but the wisps of flame rising from the end of her mane and tail served as a good enough indication about her emotional state.
"Uh-oh" Was pretty much all that Simon managed to say before he ducked out of the way of earlier vase, which smashed against the bookshelf behind him. Already more items floated behind Twilight, as steam blew from her nostrils.
"I DON'T SNORE!" A barrage of sorted items shot towards Simon's direction.
Simon took off in clockwise direction of the upper floor. Maintaining an unpredictable movement pattern, as he watched books, curtains, quills and seemingly anything that wasn't fastened down come sailing past him. Cringing as he passed a feather quill that had embedded itself into the thick wood wall at least an inch. I mean if that thing or a book hit him with that kind of force, it was not going to be pretty!
"AND EVEN IF I DID, IT WOULDN'T SOUND LIKE I'M CUTTING WOOD!"
Spike looked at the stampede going around the upstairs. He was going to need to clean that up, he sighed to himself.
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Location: The Royal Hall
Celestia kept tapping her hoof against the marble floor nervously, *What is taking them so long?! They were supposed to be here 10 seconds ago!* she kept glancing toward the main doors. *I wonder if I should tell Luna about this... No. She doesn't need to concern herself with menial things like this. I'l take care of it swiftly and quietly*.
The doors burst open with thrumming of hoof steps, the captain in the front of different types of guard ponies, 2 earth ponies, 2 unicorns and one female pegasus. Hurrying to her, they quickly formed a row in front of her, "Special guard force assembled as you requested your highness!" they did honors.
"Excellent! We will be leaving to Ponyville immediately! Gather around me, quickly now!" She stood in front of them.
"But don't we need to get the royal chariot, so we can leave?" The captain asked.
"The urgency of the situation urges us to make haste, so we will be teleporting to the tree library. But we must approach the situation delicately, so no engaging in combat before I give the order."
A question popped in the captain's head "How will we get the human trash out of there, if we don't have a containment chariot?"
"I have already sent one on it's way, it'll arrive soon after us. Now gather around"
One the earth pony guards raised a hoof, "What is it?" the princess inquired.
"This teleportation... Does it hurt?" He asked a bit awkwardly.
"Just get in a circle around me" She commanded. The captain practically pushing the poor guard toward her, shaking his head at his subordinate's comment. They formed a hexagon circle around the princess, her horn glowing as the last guard got in place, "But yes, the first time might induce some ill feeling" she added just as the glowing whited out the world around them, before vanishing from the royal hall with a pop.
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Location: The Library
Simon was holding on to the table in middle of the ground floor, hiding his face behind the carved horse head on top the table. A still angry looking unicorn being still on the other side, darting left and right to try to get to Simon, while he kept mimicking the moves in the opposite direction, staying on the opposite side.
It was then when Twilight stopped and her horn lighted up brightly, the wooden horse head starting to glow as a groaning sound of wood emanated from the tables legs. Simon guessed she was trying to rip off the head and hurl it at him, worthy adversary indeed... He didn't feel very concerned yet, but when instead of just the horse head, the whole table ripped up off of the floor along with the horse head still attached he felt a twinge of panic strike his heart.
The table rose higher, revealing a ragged breathing unicorn behind, a fiery mane waving around behind her. Simon looked at the sighted and leaped behind the couch next to him, peeking from behind, watching as the table turned in the air, until the horse head was pointed at him like the head of a spear. Maybe it was time to put an end to this...
"Okay okay! I forfeit!" he threw his hands in the air, "You don't snore when you sleep!".
"Oh I think you can do a bit better than that, Simon" Twilight said with a cheeky grin, while shaking the table expectantly.
"And I meant to add that when you sleep, it's in fact like requiem of angels coming down from the heaven's to calm the mind's of everybody in the immediate vicinity, while Spike wokes himself up by his own snoring" The sugarcoating of the sentence nearly causing Simon a diabetic shock.
"Traitor!" Came a yell from upstairs. Spike had moved there when the duo in run and pursuit had moved downstairs, leaving a very sizable mess behind, which the dragon was now cleaning up.
The floor shook and thumped when the table was lowered back down on it, "We cool?" Simon rose from behind the couch, giving a careful thumbs up to the unicorn, who had by now reverted back to her normal, non-flamey state. Actually thinking about, do ponies even have anything equivalent to the thumbs up? Maybe the meaning was just completely lost to everypony...
"We two are very cool at the moment, so cool in fact that you should start concerning yourself how cool you're with a certain dragon in the household" She turned toward the kitchen, "Now why don't you help Spike clean up this mess, while I go eat some breakfast" oh she looked just way too merry on her way to the kitchen leaving the two in charge of cleaning up the mess.
"Sorry about that last thing I said buddy, but I thought I was going to end up as hood ornament for that horse statue" Simon rubbed the back of his head while giving a sorry grin.
"If you're really sorry, come up here and say it again" The owner of the voice still not showing himself.
*Maybe I should straighten my act up, before I say or do something I'll regret later* He sighed as he took the first step of the metaphorically long feeling stairs, "Buddy?" he tentatively asked at the top of them.
"Not. Cool" Came a stern voice from behind him. Turning, he came face-to-face with a annoyed looking little dragon, "Man, I thought you had my back on this" he pouted with crossed arms.
"ahhahaa... Sorry about that Spike" He patted the grumpy dragon on the head, "Fear of death is quite a powerful thing you see... I'll make it up to you somehow".
"Promise?" The dragon looked up to him, sniffling just a bit.
"Yea I'll come up with something. So we cool or what" He grinned.
"You bet!" The dragon suddenly very upbeat.
"Put it there pal!" He laid his hand open in front of him, palm up. The dragon giving a questioning look, "Give it a slap." Simon nodded to it. Spike gave it soft slap *slap, "now you" he motioned to Spike's hand to flip it around, *SLAP, the room almost echoing to the sound.
"Ouch" The dragon pulled his hand back and gave it a shake.
"Aaaand to finish it" Simon offered his closed fist to Spike, "bump it with your fist" he kept his hand still. "Bros?" He asked as Spike slowly approached with his own fist.
"Bros" Spike grinned, Simon moving his fist to meet his. Both of them smiling widely at the exchange.
"Okay you go downstairs, I'll clean the upstairs" Simon suggested, which Spike did not refuse, as the downstairs was in much neater condition even though he had been cleaning the upstairs.
Minutes passed by as the dragon and the human cleaned up the tracks of the calamity known as Twilight. Sweat was shed, as deeply embedded quills were pulled out of the walls, repaired with a piece of tape and glue and placed bank on the writing table. Thrown books were collected and assorted back into the shelves around. The table was nailed back onto the floor, before someone accidentally tipped it over and the floors were swept clean from the dust and whatever dirt had dislodged from the ceiling, from the rumbling unicorn.
*Knock *Knock, The sound of somebody knocking on the front door disrupted the duo's cleaning trance, "I'll get it" Spike hollered to SImon on the second floor.
Simon turned back to the bookshelf, missing the hoof that grabbed Spike when he opened the door and pulled him outside.
"Uh, Simon" Came Spike's muffled yell from the ajar door. Simon turned to the door, "Someone has come to see you, could you come here?". *Hmm, I wonder who could come to see me?* He pondered as he made his way to the door.
"Who is it Spi-" He asked opening the door, but stopped, as half a dozen of different weapons rose up to point at him. He looked over the offenders, different specie ponies glad in full body armor were surrounding the front door, a pegasi hovering almost above him, holding a pair of sharp looking daggers. Two earth ponies with crossbows fastened to their back armor, stood at the back, while three unicorns were the most close to him in the front. A sword floating next to the right one and a spear next to the left one, but the third unicorn seemed more special than the two. Glad in more colorful and covering armor than the rest.
Simon was starting to put his weight on his back leg when the unicorn in charge spoke out, "Are you Simon the human?".
Simon took a second take on the ponies, "Maybe be I am... What is it to you?" He grasped the door's handle tighter.
"I SAID ARE YOU SIMON?!" The unicorn snarled, the other guard's taking a step forward, readying their weapons.
They seemed too angry to be the town's guards and Simon was not sure how to deal with this situation, because they sure didn't seem to be wanting just a friendly talk. "Aaah, just a second" He shut the door in front of the flabbergasted guards and held on the handle, "Twilight! TWILIGHT! Trouble!" he yelled to the kitchen.
"What? What's going on?" The purple unicorn emerged from the kitchen.
"I don't know! There are some kind of armed guards who are asking if I am a human!" He told her, but still held hard onto the door handle. A glow shone through the door's little window, getting brighter slowly.
"Simon" Twilight said with cold voice, watching the glow get brigther, "Get away from the door!" She rushed toward him.
Of course instinctively Simon looked to the door, but was blinded by the bright flash through the door's window, as it suddenly blow off of it's hinges into the room. The shards of glass from the window cut into Simon's face. Luckily missing his eyes, as he flew against the couch. Twilight jumped aside as the door impacted into the table's horse head, ripping and knocking it off from the table.
Through the smoke left behind from the blast in the doorway, charged in 5 guards, quickly surrounding the still disoriented Simon, while the looming shadow of the sixth guard cast a long dark shadow on Simon, walking slowly into the room.
"Simon the human! You are hereby placed under arrest by the order of the Princess Celestia! We have been given the authorization to use lethal force if necessary, so you're advised to come along quietly!" The unicorn announced, as he walked in. His voice devoid of sympathy or remorse.
"Big brother?" Twilight asked from behind one the guards, who was holding her back from being able to go to Simon.
"Twily?" The unicorn's head turned toward her voice. The smoke settled down, allowing him to see her little sister. "Twily!" He quickly rushed over to embrace her, "I was worried about you!".
Simon coughed a couple times, clearing the smoke from his lungs. The guards around him readied their weapons, ready to strike if he did any fast movements. Simon carefully rose to a sitting position against the couch, *Ughh, why do I taste blood?* he wiped his face, cringing as sharp tinges of pain shot through his skin at some points. He tried to look at his hand, but his eyes stung horribly. Blood seeped into both them from a large cut, "Twilight?" he spoke, while holding a hand out, trying to feel out his surroundings.
Twilight looked over to him from her brother's shoulder, "Simon, oh my god!" seeing his bloody face, she wrenched herself off her brother to get to him, but an earth pony and an unicorn stepped in her way, "What are you doing?! He needs medical attention! Brother!" She pleaded for him.
"Twilight?" Simon reached to the direction of her voice.
"I'm here Simon" She reached to him, despite the guards blocking her.
"Guards" Shining Armor said sternly, "Take ms.Sparkle to her quarters".
The two guards holding her back, took hold of both of her front hoofs and started pulling her towards the stairs, "Why are you doing this brother?!" she yelled to him. Simon, hearing that Twilight was being taken away, dropped his outreached hand and clenched it in a tight fist. Anger starting to bubble up inside him, small sparks jumping inside his fist.
"I'm sorry Twily, but I'm under the direct order of princess Celestia herself" He coldly replied. "I've got no choice, but to follow them. National security is i----".
The captain stopped, as a faint laughter was heard, as it grew in volume he turned towards Simon who was holding his head. Visibly shaking as he kept chuckling louder and louder, the laughter turning more maniacal until he whipped his head upwards and laughed so hard that the 3 guard ponies took couple of steps back from him. "You know you're a sorry sack of shit for a big brother" He suddenly stopped and turned to the captain with open eyes, which looked like tears of blood were streaming from them. Coupled with the cuts on his face he looked like something out of a horror film, blood dripping down to the floor.
"What did you say?..." The captain gritted his teeth, how dare this creature say such things!
"I said you're a sorry excuse for a big brother" Simon rose up to his feet, "How could you do something so distressing to your little sister?!" He motioned toward the teary eyed unicorn, hurt by her brother's rash actions and her mentor's orders. "I should kick your ass for that"
Shining Armor looked at him with despise filled eyes, "Guards, move a bit more further away... I'm about to show this creature it's place in the world" he snarled through gritted teeth. The guards looked at each others, but when they saw the captain's horn start infusing with magic so strong that it was creating sparks as it gathered, they pleasantly backed away. Any of them haven't seen the captain this riled up before.
"Bring it" Simon lifted his fists up into a fighting stance.
"No! Please stop you two!" Twilight fought against the guards, she didn't want either of them hurting the other.
As Shining gathered more magical energy in his horn, a purple astral tentacle started to snake toward Simon. The tip only floated about a feet away from Shining's horn and stopped there, like it was inspecting it's prey. Simon watched the tentacle writhe about, like it was looking for the best spot to strike. He thought about trying to circle around it to Shining's backside, but the other guards would have probably try to prevent it. *Crap* He cursed as it pretty much meant the only direction for offense would be a head-on charge. Clenching his fist tighter, he could feel the faint tingling sensation of the electricity jumping between his fingers and palm.
Just as he was about to crouch down for a sprinting start, he noticed how the tentacle had coiled up a lot of it's length behind it's tip. He remember one time at his grandparent's house at their pool, there was this little shed next to the pool that housed the water filtration unit and one morning when he went to check the chloride levels in the water, he heard a hissing after he had stepped inside. It turned out that local snakes liked to use shed's like that as den's. He saw the snake also coiled the same way as the astral tentacle just before it... *Shit!*
The tentacle shot forward, Simon raised his hand's to guard his face, but through the little crack between them he saw how with incredible speed and agility the tentacle snaked it's way right through it. It kept going past his neck, "Hah! I think you should learn to aim a bit better next time!" he grasped the tentacle feeling it had general substance to it.
The captain lifted his head and smirked at the comment, "Or maybe I didn't miss?".
Simon's eyes shot wide with dread, as he felt the tentacle start twisting around his neck. Before he could even try to start yanking it off, it had coiled itself at least three times around his neck. It's grip getting tighter and tighter, constricting his windpipe and not only that, it started to lift him up by his neck, his feet lifting off the ground. The combined weight effectively cutting his airways completely shut, while forcing increased amount of blood into his head. Simon grabbed the middle part of the tentacle for support. He felt his eye bulge out as the blood rushed into them from the increased pressure.
"No! Stop! You're gonna kill him!" Twilight pleaded to her brother, who completely ignored her, concentrating on his objective. "Brother please..."
Simon managed to catch a glimpse of her at the corner of his eyes. The sight and feeling it produced flipped something on inside him, he grabbed the part of the tentacle in front of which lead down to the captain. Feeling the surge through his body he concentrated it on his hands, his arm hairs standing up from the charge which flowed through his arm to his palms. The air filled with low buzzing noise, as the charge built up. Sparks started to jump between his fingers, but not between his hands. As the charge built up, the air around his hands started to became ionized, the sparks no longer jumping just between his fingers, but into the surrounding air as well. Creating a fearsome display as he had effectively a ball of lighting in both of his hands.
The captain had been watching the situation progress and decided to end it. The tentacle started to coil up even tighter around Simon's neck. Was the captain trying to snap his neck or rip his head off? Well it didn't matter anymore, as Simon felt the charge reach a level so high that any higher and it would the gap between his hands, so with the hand closer to him, he grabbed the astral tentacle. The air filled with electrical chirps and zap's as his irises turned to electrical blue for a moment when he released the charge into the appendage. The room was filled with a bright, white flash and an ear shattering bang, like lightning had struck the inside of the library.
The floor shook as something hit it right after the flash with a good *THUD!. The captain could feel something happen to the end of the astral projection, but he still clearly felt it was touching and holding onto something. He blinked and narrowed his eyes, trying to make out what had made the thudding sound, not having enough time to close and shield his eyes from the flash. As his eyes slowly adjusted back to the room's lighting he could make out a hazy form in front of him.
"You're gonna get it now" The form spoke as it came back into focus. Simon stood there with the tentacle drooping on his shoulders, a great part of missing from where his other hand had been. The severed part of the tentacle started to evaporate back to it's original dimension, nasty chaff marks left on his throat, but what worried Shining was that he was still holding onto the end of the shortened tentacle with his other hand, which was still charged up.
"You lose" Simon simply said as he released the charge on his left hand, the tentacle writhed between his fingers as the electrons started looking for their way down to lower potential, namely the ground, which the captain's metal armor provided nicely. The particles shot towards Shining Armor's horn, the captain having no time to react as the current started to flow through him. The muscles in his body clamped down, causing him to stumble onto a kneeling position. The shear amount of current causing his coat to start smoking up, not even being able to shout or yell, because his lungs were seizing up, so he was just writhing on the ground.
This time Twilight was scared for her brother, "Please Simon, don't hurt him..." she was a bit taken back by Simon suddenly turning the tables, on her brother. I mean he was the captain of the royal guard and one of the most skilled fighter's in the kingdom.
Simon looked to her, still holding onto the tentacle, which was starting to evaporate away, cutting the flow of current. Simon turned to the smoking captain on the floor in front of him, no real damage done to him really, except for the couple patches of singed coat here and there. He walked over to the downed stallion, the guards staying away from him, not daring to get close after what they saw him do to their commander of forces. Simon crouched down and grabbed Shining by his shoulder armor, and lifted him up so he was face-to-face with him. Shining's eyes half lidded, as they lazily followed Simon's movement.
"You're lucky you have such a loving little sister, because if it weren't for her, right now you would be in a lot worse shape" He spoke eye-to-eye to him. "I would suggest you start appreciating her a little more as she is quite smart. You should listen to her more often. You really don't understand the gift you have right now before it's taken away" He lowered him back to the floor, "One more thing" he straightened up the collar of his jacket, "That tentacle thingy made a lousy conductor". He started walking to Twilight, "You might want to check on your captain" he off-mindedly mentioned to one the earth pony's, who still kept his crossbow aimed at him, but as he passed next to him, he quickly rushed to his superior officer to make sure he was okay. "You too up there, ms.pointy" He pointed a finger over his shoulder at the angry and pissed off looking pegasus, clutching at her daggers.
As he was about to tell the two unicorn guards next to Twilight to sod off, something flew in from the open front door. Simon saw a slight glint of something flying towards him, jumping backwards almost by reflex. The shining bolt of magic hit the kitchen door, leaving singe marks on it. Simon turned to the front door with his fist's up taking a fighting stance, ready for a new challenger, charges already building up in his hands.
As a new shadow casted itself through the doorway, it almost reached Simon's feet. Due to the sun setting down behind whoever was approaching the door, Simon could only see a dark figure come closer, but the closer it got, the wider everypony's eyes grew and the lower and tenser Simon's fighting stance got. Whatever the figure was, it was massive! It would barely even fit through the doorway itself!
"Princess Celestia!?" Twilight yelled in disbelief, as the darkness of the shadow pulled back over the figures head. Simon turned his head slightly towards her, *Celestia?... !!" he suddenly remembered her telling him about the rulers of the kingdom, he turned back to meet the stare from two of the most intense eyes he had ever seen. The light purple colored eyes looked down upon him with scorn and hate behind them. Combined with the fact that the big alicorn was at least a head taller than him created a dreadful presence.
The alicorn looked at him, eyes darting from place to place until they ended up on Twilight, "Guards, take miss Twilight to her room. She is placed under house arrest until further notice." the comment wiped the slight smile from Twilight face, which turned into confusion and disbelief. The two guards secured her back into their hold and were about to continue upstairs.
"You're not taking her anywhere" Simon said with an ice cold voice, "and you!" he shot back a glare toward Celestia that nearly challenged her own stare at the human, "I don't care if you're the ruler of the kingdom or that you might be the most powerful being existing. You're not taking Twilight away!" he said through gritted teeth, his hands lighting up.
"You should know your place in the world human" Celestia said dead calmly, still looking at him with despise. "Whatever you think is going to happen is going to end either you dead or locked in the dungeon." She started collecting magic in her horn. Simon crouched down, ready to charge.
"No Simon don't fight her!" Twilight tried reach for him, he couldn't beat her! Simon looked undeterred, both him and Celestia readying themselves. No! He'll get killed! She desperately struggled at the grip's of the guards, managing to knock the other off-balance and kick the other in the back of the head. In the split second their hold let go, she jumped toward Simon. Darkened dots appearing on the wooden floor, as tears fell from her eyes. She gripped Simon's middle from behind him, "Don't fight her! You'll get killed!" she yelled in his back, tightening her grip.
For couple of seconds Simon kept her eyes locked on Celestia, "Can I trust you?" he asked Twilight, keeping his voice low enough to keep the others from making out what he was saying.
"What do you mean?..." Twilight sniffled and looked up to him.
"If I go along them, will you help me get out of this mess?" His eyes turned to hers.
"Yes, I'll help you get out of this anyway I can" Her eyes showing the sincerity behind her words through the tears.
Simon looked back at Celestia, took a big breath in while letting the charges dissipate away from his hands. "Allright, you win. I give up, I'll come along with you" He raised his hands above his head, as sign of surrendering.
Celestia raised her eyebrow at this, she had expected for the human to charge at her, "Guards, detain him and take him to the chariot" with that she turned back to the door.
Simon sighed deeply, closing his eyes. Twilight let go of his middle and backed away. Couple of guards quickly ran up to him and tackled him to the ground and seized his movement, while he just stayed silent, gritting his teeth. A unicorn guard walked up and cast a binding spell on his hands, tying them together behind his back.
"Get up!" The pegasus commanded him. After an undignified effort to get back on his feet, the winged pony gave him a rough push on the back, "now get moving!". Twilight felt helpless, as Simon walked between the guards out of the library, stopping just for a moment to look back at her. His eyes basically saying "It's all up to you now. I trust you." before a guard pushed him along. The door slammed shut behind them, leaving Twilight, her brother and two guards in the library.
"Thank Celestia you're safe little sis" Shining Armor approached Twilight. One of the earth pony guards leaned against his shoulder supporting him. Shining lowered his head down to give small nuzzle to his little sister, who still just looked at the front door, unmoving. "I was so worried about that human doing something terrible to you" Even though her brother was sincerely worried for her, the comment sparked a hint of anger in her. "I swear if he had hurt I would have- *SLAP" The sound echoed in the room, the two guards semi-shocked to see someone slap their captain.
"How can you such things about him!? You don't even know him or what he has had go through!" Twilight cried out. Her brother held a hoof on his cheek. "You suddenly barge in here, weapons swinging, demanding him to come quietly!?" She motioned at the upturned table and chairs.
"But Twily I only did it because I was so worried about you..." He weakly explained.
"You were worried about ME!? Well why didn't you come see me or send a letter instead of bursting in here with a full frontal assault!?" She was absolutely beside herself.
"But I just-"
"Get out!" She yelled, "Get out I don't wanna see you ever again!"
Shining was taken back by her outburst, but decided against it to try to change her mind. He motioned to the supporting guard, and they headed to the door. Just before leaving Shining looked back at her sister, "I'm sorry..." he held his head low, the door closing behind them. Leaving the quietly sobbing unicorn behind.
"I'm sorry miss Sparkle, but you're still under house arrest for the moment." The last unicorn guard left to stay in guard outside the front door. Twilight was now all alone in the library, the eerie silence filling it, as she tried to reason out what had just happened. Simon being placed under arrest, her brother and mentor coming to get him. It just... Didn't make sense! Tears welling back up on her eyes, she ran upstairs and jumped straight into her bed, burying her face in the pillow...
