Live A Life, or Forge It

I think that should not be difficult to figure out what I did with Applejack, while Bernarda frantically looked for a way of opening the closet: while I was cleaning up the “disaster zone”, and taking some disinfectant for be sure of not leaving anything I was surprised by the orange pony in my act.

She wasn't too happy seeing me cleaning up a little mountain of poop, and asked to me if I did it.

I answered no, and told her about the finding of Bernarda, what happened and so on: Applejack sighed, and told me to go in my room a while.

I guessed that didn't believed me.

But, as you heard, Applejack actually found Bernarda, washed her, and said that she was going to stay with us for a while, before giving her to someone else.

And, three days later, this is where I was attacked by my brother Franco.

After the assault, no one, apart form me, Bernarda and Applebloom seemed noticing anything,  or seemed heard anything: in fact, Applejack thought that I had a bad dream.

During a nap.

If only, Applejack : what happened was a true nightmare made real.

But I wasn't still sure about what to do next, thought: the attack of Franco could be a one-time “prank” pulled by the damn Eternal Toddler; or could be the start of a great inter-dimensional haunt for me.

After a bit of thinking, I decided that was time to speak again to Twilight, and see if she noticed anything weird in the last days: who knows if she noticed a magical perturbation going on in Ponyville or somewhere else.

But I was sure that it wasn't the only way to solve it, and I needed a plan B, after all.

And so, I went in the cold wine cellar for get some silence, and gather ideas.

I went downstairs; opened the heavy wooden door diving the underground room from the rest of the world; passed some steps, and took a stool near a shelve full of wine bottles for sitting on it and think about what to do now, since I was attacked and Franco threatened me of coming back with reinforcements.

After I sat, the following options came out:

Do nothing: the easiest option, but...  if all the three older siblings arrive, I was going to be screwed, since I was unprepared.

Prepare myself all alone, and be always prepared everywhere: good idea, but, without ideas where they could hit, I was going to be unusefully paranoid.

Reveal myself, tell my past, and see where it was going to bring: at first, I thought that this was the best option, since, if Twilight wasn't going to help me, another pony will...  but the act itself would not be sufficient, thought: better do it as next step of a talk with Twilight.

And I kept thinking, and thinking, until I recognized that the best course of actions was going to talk about it with Twilight, and cross the fingers, hoping that the purple princess could do something for me.

And so I exited from the cellar, and went in Applebloom's room: when I stepped in it, I saw her with her head bend on a book, likely studying something for Basic Economics, or things like that.

When I saw that, I was going to just ignore her, and go to the Library all alone.

But, as soon I went out the room, the yellow pony closed the book, and said:

“Venicio, where are you going ?”

I said annoyed:

“I am going to the Library: after what happened with Franco, I want to know if Twilight knows something about that...”

She glanced me:

“Do you REALLY  think that she has summoned Franco ? Are you kidding me ?”

“No, Applebloom, but I think she knows something about dimension transportation, and maybe Twilight has intercepted some incoming moves by the Great Ferryman, and the Fate. Hell, maybe she can tell how prepare myself to the eventuality of a portal opening !”

The yellow wanna-be carpenter mare said:

“And how do you think to arrive to her, without any means of transport ?”

“I have my hooves”

“The Library is too far from here for be reached before sunset by hoof, and you can't go alone, since Applejack still sees you as a true colt”

I said with a tip of anger:

“And Appleajck can't go fuck herself for once ?”

“No: after all, she has the power here, and we must obey her”

“Alright, I can't go alone. Get it. And so how I am supposed to go there ? Digging a hole in the floor, and reach Twilight from there ?”

Applebloom stared at me bewilded, and said:

“Well, you will come with me, no ?”

“You are studying: I wished to avoid to disturb you, even if this was a quite important task for me”

She faked a spit, and said:

“I can study later: your protection is more important. Go downstairs, and wait for me”

I smiled, exited from the bedroom of Applebloom; passed in my room for calm down a scared Bernarda; and went downstairs, waiting for Applebloom.

In the Library, Twilight was reading for the nth time a small report about blue lights appearing and disappearing all over Equestria: she was reading said reports because the population started to get concerned about the origins of the lights, and their capability.

At a first glance, Twilight thought that the reports were exaggerations of Sant Elmo's fires that appeared time to time in an area where many unicorns operated at once.

But, reading deeply, it was clear that was something different: first of all, some of these lights appeared in places where no unicorns where present at the moment; second, the Sant Elmo's fires generally appeared on top of the building, or of the trees.

Those lights didn't: they took place of whatever object was there, for then disappear, leaving what was there before like nothing happened. The fires generally burnt the object.

And, finally, some ponies reported that they saw in the lights a bipedal figure similar to a minotaur without horns. A human, basically: only, the existence of humans was hid to the population, for reasons that Celestia refused to clear up to Twilight, even when the purple alicorn became a Princess.

Twilight Sparkle thought hard about what was going on, and tried to think about what to do in this case, apart from placing “dimensional blocks” everywhere, since it was too expensive; and how to deal with the fact that, sooner or later, the humans in the portal will came in Equestria, since only her; Celestia; Luna, and few “hired mouths” knew about them, and only Celestia seemed knowing them deeply.

Then the purple mare thought about a human she knew: Venicio.

Even if it had passed five years, and he was in a body of a colt, he was still quite reliable.

But... how to explain to Applejack that she needed him for a while ?

The orange pony could tell if Twilight was saying a lie, and she could not let her know.

The purple mare was going to give up, when she heard the door opening, and a high-pitched voice saying:

“Ave, Sullucis Scintilla”

It was Venicio ! A part was eliminated, and that caused much rejoice by Twilight's part.

Twilight Sparkle kept her self in line, thought, and answered:

“Hi, Venicio. What brings you here ?”

Venicio went upstairs, and said with a little frown:

“It happened: the Fate got angered with me, and it's sending my brothers for kill me. I don't want to get killed, and, since they can arrive here only by magic portals similar to blue lights.

Since  you knew about travel across dimensions, I thought you had the solution for stop them from appearing. Or, at least, weaken them, so I can fight them even if I am in a body of a colt”

Twilight gasped: the bipedal figures in the lights were actually Venicio's brothers ?

And they were looking for him for kill him ?

Really ?

She said:

“Are you serious ? Your brothers are arriving form magical portals resembling blue lights ? I thought it impossible !”

“Yes, I'm dead serious.”

Twilight was even more disturbed: the events of the past weeks were, basically, omens of death for Venicio.

She said:

“I've received reports of blue lights appearing everywhere... do you know something about them ?”

“Yes: the Eternal Toddler, namely, Fate, is pissed off with me, and sent my brothers to kill me. Since the damn Toddler doesn’t know my position, he sent my brothers a bit everywhere, for see where I was. He finally got me while I was sleeping in Applejack's house. Luckily, Applebloom could send Franco away... but he, my other brother and my sister will return. And they want my head”

“Fate” ? “Eternal Toddler” ?

What Venicio was saying was confusing Twilight, since she never heard about “Fate”.

She asked politely:

“Fate ? Who is ?”

Venicio sighed:

“The higher force that rules without begin seen the worlds. He decides the course of life of everyone... unfortunately, begin a toddler, apart from few lucky exceptions, most of the toys who play with are made of wood, lead, or copper, meterials that tends to broke easily, meaning that they are destined to be forgotten.

How I know that, if he is invisible ? Simple: between dimensions, there is an entity called 'Great Ferryman', tasked to carry the living things between dimensions: said entity talked with me, and told about what the Fate was doing, and said that, lately, he was playing mostly with the toys that represented me as a pony and human.

And so I heard that my destiny on Earth was the one of despair and oblivion, while here, in Equestria, it was one of fulfilled life and great legacy for the future generations.

The Fate decided that I was going to come back home.

I decided to stay here.

And now, it seems that Fate wants to kill me.

Since he had at hand my brothers, it's likely that made a deal with them, for changing their statues made of fool's gold, meaning a fake glory, into statues made of silver, which is, as you can guess, a better memoir of them, and, in exchange, they are going to kill me. “

It was now a bit more clear for Twilight what was going on.. but she was still unsure about what Venicio wanted to do.

“I know, and understand that you are concerned for your security. But what I can do ? I don't know what to do !”

Venicio shaked his head, and said annoyed:

“Well, if you know a spell or something for avoid to get a portal opened somewhere, it would be useful !”

“I know a way to avoid the creation of a portal in the range of three kilometers. Problem is, it's very expensive, and it will cost too much cover Ponyville with that things only for you !”

Venicio said angered:

“I don't want to cover the whole city, I want to cover my house so I can sleep without  fearing of getting my throat cut ! For the rest, we have two options: either turn me into a human, so I can fight them any moment, but losing my cover; or you can ask to your brother Shining Armour if he can give me some fighting lessons, so I can effectively counter-attack !”

Twilight felt unsure about Venicio's proposal: yes, she could cover Apple's house, and that wasn't a problem.

But turn Venicio back into a human ? Before that a program for soften the contact with them was deployed ? Unthinkable: between the fanatical cospiractionists; the xenophobes and such, reveal him just now was plain madness.

And the other option ? His brother, even if he would do anything for her sister, surely was going to take it as a bad joke, and say that he had no time for teaching an everyday foal how to fight like a soldier.

But the latter was the only sane choice: after all, if Shining Armour wasn't going to trust her right there, she could prove that it wasn't trying to fool him, and that the apparent colt was REALLY an alien creature needing training for combat his blood lusting brothers.

After two minutes of thoughtful silence, Twilight broke it, and said:

“Venicio, you had a quite good idea, about your self-defense. I will look for the interdiction spell against the portal; I will cast it on your room; then I will try to contact my brother for see if he can left apart for a while his duties, and give you some combat basics.”

Venicio did the military greet, and said: “Yes, madam !”, and exited.

Twilight sighed at the sight.

As soon I was out the Library, I started to bounce around happily like a child in a candy shop: not only I was going to get my ass covered while sleeping, also Shining Armour was also going to teach me how to fight as a pony.

My day could not go any better.

While I was walking, I tried to greet every pony that I knew: Sweetie Belle, who now sings in pubs and bars for money; Scootaloo, who generally wanders around the world doing stuns; Rarity, a never-chaing pony as it was Pinkie Pie.

Fluttershy seemed more open, compared to five years before, and now hangs out with other ponies that I didn't knew.

Rainbow Dash was still doing her job as weather controller, even if she did it with less interests and more annoyance.

When I finally arrived at home, my happiness was noticed by Applejack, who asked me what caused my happiness.

I didn't answered.