Humans in Equestria

Chapters

A pair of troubled colts
Casa Del La Rich
Dinner for Delinquents
Fancy Mathmatics
Baiting the Hook
The Road Ahead
Packing Snowballs
Reprimanded
A Trip to the Orchard
A Chance Meeting
There's A Trouble Brewin'
One Possible Future
The Fools Leading the Bored
The Torch Runner
Awesome...
An Interesting Afternoon
And an Apologetic Evening
Lazy Monday
An Unpleasant Meeting
How it all began
Measurements

A pair of troubled colts

Well here we were, being floated along behind one very disturbed unicorn mare that had to take time off at her job just to take us to the town hall. Not like there was an actual orphanage in Ponyville, because I bet that would have been the first stop if there was. Matt had finally started to calm down, still didn’t know what the fuck that was all about but the tears had finally stopped and now he was rubbing his eyes clean. Oh and wouldn’t you know it, everywhere we look there are ponies staring at the two new children being levitated away to places unknown by a working member of their society. Yes, things were going just about as well as I could possibly have hoped them to be, next thing you know Pinkie Pie would pop out of nowhere and want to throw us a party; someone please shoot me if anything that pathetically cliche happens. I really mean it.

“What...where are we going...Ash?” Well at least he was remembering to keep the whole name thing up.

“Well if you hadn’t been such a big cry baby you would have heard that we are being taken to the mayor’s office. Apparently, they deal with runaways and orphans around here so good job dropping that bomb.” If anyone was having a hard time telling, I wasn’t exactly in the greatest mood.

“Sorry I just...I have no idea what came over me. I just got super sad all of a sudden,” he said as he wiped the fur around his eyes dry.

I sighed, “Yeah, well we were going to get found out sooner or later. Might as well be sooner so we don’t waste any time starving. Can’t say I’m not interested in which of the mane 6 we get saddled with.” Ha, horse pun.

“The mane 6? Really, that is what you are concentrating on. There are bigger fucking things to worry about!” At the outburst the mare levitating us along stopped suddenly and turned to glare at my friend, though I guess we were playing that he was my brother, I couldn’t help but snicker at the way he wilted immediately. “Sorry,” he squeaked out.

“And you,” she said turning the glare on me. I have to admit she was one scary ass mare, and all my humor at the situation immediately left me. “Stop teasing your brother, crying is nothing to be ashamed about.”

“Yes ma’am,” was my immediate reply. Wow, I’m a little bitch, I really need to work on that. I usually like to think of myself that would just laugh when someone tries to get serious with me, but now I was left recalling just how big of a punk I had been back in grade school. I immediately resolved at that time to make sure that I had more of a spine this time around, or at least as long as we were stuck like this. The mare detaining us began to move once more and we started talking again though we made sure to keep our voices much lower.

It was midday now in Ponyville and the citizens were out doing whatever it was that ponies did around midday. I could kind of make out the town hall over a few buildings in front of us which meant that we didn’t really have a long time to plan or anything so time was definitely not on our side.

“Alright man we need a plan,” I sated as I leaned as far as was physically possible towards him.

“Alright, what’s your idea?” he asked.

“Well since I’m bigger than you, and have a cutie mark already I’m going to say I’m your older brother. That alright with you?”

Matt, no dammit it was Steel now. Steel shrugged apathetically, “Sounds alright with me, means you have to do all the talking though.”

I smirked at that, “Oh you know I love spinning a good story. Don’t worry bro, leave it to me and it will all be smooth sailing.”

“Good, because we’re here.” My head snapped forwards once again at that remark to find that we had in fact reached the town hall. Once again I found myself marvelling at just how huge the buildings were as we entered only to remember that it was me that had become smaller. Inside was what you would usually expect for any bureaucratic building, clerks and secretaries were sitting behind desks working in the back rooms and at the main counter in the lobby sat a slightly older mare who smiled at the one dragging us as we were brought over to her.

“Good morning Quick Note,” our foal napper began, “I have a pair of colts here that I think are in some need of counseling or help.” Oh great, another thing I oh so missed about childhood, being talked about like we weren’t even there.

The elderly mare at the desk, who I was now assumed to be Quick Note, looked around our captor to see us floating helpless there “Oh dear, what seems to be the problem?” she asked.

The mare, who’s name I had still not gotten, leaned forwards and whispered a few words that I strained but failed to hear to Quick Note causing her to gasp. Immediately she was up from her seat and ushering us to a back room which turned out to just be a small waiting room like you would find in a doctor’s office. We were dumped off inside the overly green room, yes all the furniture and carpeting was green, and left alone as the two mares closed the door behind themselves and started talking outside.

“Well...are you ready for the psychiatrist?” I began. “How badly do you think we can freak them out?”

Steel tapped his chin “I don’t know, you do know a ton of perverted shit, and I know for a fact that you have written clop. I myself would lean towards the super gore and serial killer side so you take the rape victim angle, and things should go great right?”

I rolled my hoof in front of me, the gesture came naturally by now which I was grateful for “Sure, I get pitied and put in protective care, and you get locked up in the insane asylum for life. Sounds fun right.”

He seemed to pause for a moment, probably reconsidering and coming up with a new tactic. “Alright new plan,” called it, “we try to play ourselves off as geniuses so that we can get special treatment or something.”

That idea did have some merit “Only problem is we know nothing about pony history, and you never went to high school. How are you going to pull off anything remotely close to super genius. I mean I can show them some calculus level equations and solve integrals and the like, but that probably won’t be enough.”

“Alright well you be the super genius older brother, and I’ll just be the cute one,” he said crossing his hooves in what could only be interpreted as a pout.

“Hey don’t make me Kaiba, dude. Actually nevermind I like Kaiba, so I guess that could work. At least that way they shouldn’t separate us which would be a huge benefit right.”

“Right.”

At that moment the second door in the room opened and a white unicorn with a green suit jacket on entered. She had her hair pulled back into a classic librarian bun, and levitated a clipboard at her side which she was scrawling on. I looked for her cutie mark to see that it was a clipboard that looked identical to the one she was holding, I caught myself wondering for a moment if it was rude to stare at a woman’s ass like that or was it a customary thing to do when meeting someone new. I felt no attraction towards her and I bet she wouldn’t expect me to at whatever age I was so who really gives a shit right.

“Alright you two...looks like we don’t have your names. Can you please come with me inside of my office?” She continued to stand there as we got up off the floor.

“Yes ma’am,” Steel replied as he scurried into the open room. I choose to keep my silence as I also walked inside.

Once we had made it in she shut the door with her magic, seriously how jealous do they want to make me, I want magic! She then proceeded to walk towards a nice plush cushion just off the center of the office that was across from two more cushions, also off the center of the office. Between the two seating spaces were a mass of juvenile toys meant for three year olds and probably put there to make children feel at ease or distract them into revealing more than they want. She waved us towards the two cushions and we obediently crossed the room to sit down.

“Okie Dokie,” she began and it was at that point I could tell this was going to be painful, “what are your names hm?”

“Burnt Steel,” came the immediate reply followed with the puffing out of the chest he had done earlier. I really didn’t understand why he was so proud of thinking up a name, but the councillor or whatever seemed pleased by the reaction.

“Ashen Stroke,” I stoically followed. “And who am I addressing?” Since I was going to try and play the older and more mature of the two I might as well try and channel my inner child genius, even though I didn’t have such a thing.

“My name is Spring Shine.” Of course it was. “I have been told you two are a very special set of brothers that have found their way into our little town. Tell me, where do you two come from?”

Alright it was time for my lying skills to go to work. If Steel over here was unnaturaly gifted in the art of sarcasm then I was just as strong in the way of pulling random shit out of my ass. “We were born in Manehatten, but we haven’t lived there in...a long time.” I mentally congratulated myself on keeping it vague.

“Oh, where have you been living since then?”

“Here and there, we haven’t really had anywhere we could stay for too long.”

She studied me again, perhaps she was trying to figure out my lie, and I was doing my very best not to give myself away. “I see, what is this about your parents that was mentioned to me earlier. Where are they?”

Now this was a difficult stream to navigate “Our parents...they died.” Keeping the vagueness up would probably be the most important thing.

The mare genuinely looked heartbroken, but I guess that would be how most councillors are supposed to look when a child tells them that their parents are dead. “Do you two have nopony to look after you? No family or friends of your parents maybe?”

I had to be fast with my reply this time “We don’t need anypony to look after us! We only need ourselves!”

She shook her head and wrote something down on her clipboard. “That isn’t right, young colts such as yourselves need a grown-up to look after them to make sure they are fed and taken care of.”

I huffed at that, seemed like the right thing to do at the time “Don’t need any adults.”

Spring tittered, it seemed like doing something childish like that just helped to sell the story even more. Was it this really to manipulate an adult as a child because I did not remember it that way. “And when was the last time either of you went to school?”

“School’s dumb.” I said crossing my hooves. Okay new plan, if I can just be as childish as possible then they shouldn’t think that anything is up right.

“School’s dumb.” Steel parroted, I would have been impressed at his acting if I didn’t know that was how he really felt.

“Oh come now, I’m sure that it isn’t all that bad. You get to meet and talk to a bunch of ponies your own age don’t you?” At this I simply shrugged, which caused her to sigh. “Alright now I have a bunch of questions that I need each of you to answer.”

And then began the lightning round of questions, most of which were incredibly invasive and quite frankly really difficult to make up answers on the spot. When asked how old we were I had just about no idea how to answer so I put myself at age ten and Steel at nine, I couldn’t even remember what I said our birthdays were. Everything else was quickly and easily forgotten though Spring made sure to write everything down on that clipboard of hers. It took forty minutes for us to finally finish if the clock I had watched like a hawk that hung behind her was any indication. The toys set out in front of us had actually become interesting after the twentieth minute and I had busied myself with killing a couple of little soldiers while Steel had taken the blocks. I had to say he was doing really well playing a child, or at least I hoped that he was playing a part.

“Okay,” Spring said as she stood up and walked to one of the two exits in the room, “why don’t you two just keep playing here while I go have a boring chat with some other grown-ups hmm?”

I nodded idly and Steel didn’t make any motion so she just simple left us there. As soon as the door was closed I dropped what I was doing to turn and talk with him. “Alright that went pretty well don’t you think?”

He likewise stopped what he was doing. “Great, if I didn’t have to play an idiot.”

I tilted my head at that. “You know you didn’t have to play an idiot right?”

He sat there looking at me stunned for a little while. “Whatever,” he said eventually, “what do you think they will be doing with us now?”

I tapped my chin. “Well if the multitude of stories I have read have taught me anything,” they didn’t, “then the next thing that will happen is we will be dumped with one of the mane 6,” we weren’t.

Steel also took on a considering look at this. “You don’t say. Well which one would you prefer? Obviously given my current condition I would have to go with Rainbow Dash.”

“Wrong, not only would RD never just take in two random kids but her house is also made out of clouds and I have no wings. Ergo, it won’t be her. Looking at it now since we have yet to meet anyone of the Apple family and since they are usually introduced early I think it will be them. They have a big house and probably plenty of space, not to mention that AJ seems like the type that would take in some kids down on their luck.” I thought it was sound reasoning at the time.

“You know I never really understood that, not that I read any HiE of course, but why is the Apple family always such a recurring thing. If the polls are anything to go by then AJ herself isn’t ever really seen as best pony so why do they always come up first. Either way it does sound like a plausible thing. If we used process of elimination then it would probably make the most sense. Rainbow lives in the clouds, Rarity is too invested in her work, Pinkie is...Pinkie, Twilight is probably not fit for it at all, and Fluttershy has too many animals she has to take care of,” he concluded.

“All fair points,” I agreed, “but don’t count out Pinkie so easily. One of my favorite stories has a colt taken in by the Cakes who Pinkie lives with so technically I think that counts. Twilight and Rarity are probably out as well since neither of us are unicorns, and Fluttershy does lack the room. So AJ it is.”

“AJ it is,” he said with a nod. “So we just wait here for them to come pick us up and take us to the farm, so tell me Mr. HiE Expert what do we do once that is done?”

I quickly ran through all I knew of the genre in my head “Well...Twilight or Celestia obviously have the answer to our problem, that much is a fact. I think the best course of action for us once we have been relocated to the farm is to try and search out the library and all available resources for our escape route. Once that is found bam, we are outta here.” Steel just stared at me for a little while. “What?”

“That’s the best you have, really?” he asked.

“You don’t think it’s a good plan? I would love to see what you have that is any better.”

“I didn’t say it was a bad plan, I just thought that since you read so much about it you might have something a little better than ‘we look through the library and hope there is a book about it.’” He even did the little air quotes though that was much more difficult without actual digits.

“Well what do you want me to say, every story is different because people want to be unique you know. Eventually everything always comes to a head with Twilight finding out or something similar so our best chance for survival here is to make sure that absolutely never happens. We also have to work to get home too dick, so if you got something better spit it the fuck out!” Wow I really hoped that nopony else heard that little outburst.

A few knocks were heard coming from the door “Is everything okay in there?” Spring called.

“Just fine Mrs. Spring,” I responded without missing a beat, “isn’t that right Steel?”

“Yes we are all okay in here,” he called back as well.

Her shadow remained on the dark blue glass of the door for a moment before it finally started to move away “Well alright then.”

Steel turned to glare at me. “Way to go dumbass,” he angry whispered, “why don’t you just shout to the heavens and get us found out.”

“Alright I get it,” I shot back, “don’t go yelling stuff like that. So don’t piss me off so much and we won’t have to worry about it douche.”

“Oh I’m the douche?” he said, his voice picking up somewhat. “You got me sent to this fucking place and I’m the douche? You son of a bitch, this is your god damn problem to figure out so figure something out already.” To punctuate his point he punched me in the arm again, it seemed he was getting better at that since this time it actually stung somewhat.

“Don’t do that,” I warned.

“Oh don’t do what? This.” He punched me again, in the exact same spot!

“Alright Matt you are really starting to piss me off. Stop it.”

“Oh I’m pissing you off? I’m pissing you off!” Now he was the one screaming. “I am the one that should be pissed off here!” He punched me again and then it was on.

I jumped his little scrawny pegasus ass and knocked him over. He hit me in the face with a lucky shot so I kicked him in the stomach, and managed to knock the breath out of him. I tasted a little bit of copper in my mouth and glared down at him as he started to get back up. I put my two forehooves on his chest to make sure that he couldn’t move “I have had just about enough of your bullshit.” I raised one of the hooves holding him down to return the punches he had given me but was stopped as I heard somepony clear their throat behind me.

Both of our heads quickly whirled to see Spring standing in the doorway with a tan earth pony stallion whose black mane was combed back over his head. “This is Mr. Rich, you two will be staying with him for a while until we find a better home for you.”

I was kind of too shocked by this new development to even move off of my friend I had pinned to the ground “Oh you have got to be kidding me.”

Casa Del La Rich

“You two really shouldn't be fighting so roughly,” Spring deadpanned as the two of us just continued staring.

“Oh...right.” I quickly let Steel up and moved away, still a bit shaken by this new revelation. Could this be for real? Flithy Rich wasn’t one of the mane 6 so how could this have possibly have come up. He had only been in a single episode, not one of the best episodes even; and he had somehow been selected. An OC could have even been forgiven, or perhaps somepony that the fandom had picked up more with and run on. This just made no sense, everyone knew that when humans go to Equestria they shack up with one of the mane 6 and eventually fall for them. Everyone knows that!

“Why?” Was all I could really manage after a bit.

“Mr. Rich here is a well respected member of our local community and has generously agreed to house a pair of colts that are down on their luck,” Spring said, taking no note of my disbelief.

“That’s right boys,” Filthy Rich piped in as he stepped forward, “we have plenty of room at my house so there shouldn’t be much of a problem. I even have a little girl around your ages so you three should all get along.” Just the way that he spoke gave me terrible Annie flashbacks.

Oh god I had nearly forgotten about Diamond Tiara. “Alright let’s go!” Steel merrily exclaimed. I glanced over to him to see that he was nearly bouncing on his hooves. Damn, I had forgotten about this whole thing too.

“Calm down a little bit,” I whispered to him.

“How can I calm down dude when we are going to meet DT; we will probably even find out her backstory.” It was already too late it would seem, the crazy train had left the station.

“Yeah that’s nice and all, but who really cares. Do you know what this all means? It means...”

“What are you two whispering about?” Spring asked, breaking my train of thought completely. It was probably something really important but whatever.

“Oh,” I said turning back to the mare, “just about how excited we are. We have been living in those creepy woods on the edge of town for weeks so a nice warm house would be great.” Did that fit in consistently with what I had said earlier? Aw who cares it got that sappy pitying look from them that I was going for.

“Well if you boys would like to follow me then the carriage is waiting just outside and we can be on our way.” Rich explained. Before I could even inquire as to what carriage he was talking about he and Spring had already turned to walk away; assuming of course that we would follow just like the good little children we were supposed to be. I sighed and set off after them with Steel next to me, equally frustrated at just being given orders and having really no course other than to follow them.

When we did step out into the harsh mid-afternoon light we found that there was in fact a carriage waiting for us outside with two stallions hooked up to it. It looked like what I had actually pictured for the half minute I knew that it existed. It was made of a plain looking wood, and if I was a betting man I would bet it was applewood though I of course had no idea what that looked like, it had a small set of stairs connected to the door that was standing open. Filthy Rich was already inside of the thing and he beckoned us in as we approached and climbed up into the vehicle. The two seats on either side of the interior were plush and covered in some purple felt or something so me and Steel sat opposite our now caretaker.

Once we were all inside and the door was closed the carriage took off with a simple word from Mr. Rich before he turned to study us for a while. “Well now we have a chance to get to know each other. Why don’t you two tell me a little about yourselves.”

Our transport bumped along the dirt path as I sat there for a little trying to think of what to say. “What do you want to know?” Steel asked.

“Well I learned a lot about your past from Spring Shine so mostly I want to know about what you two like to do or like to eat or do to have fun in your spare time,” he replied with a smile, was it just me or was this guy filling out the way to nice rich guy role perfectly. I bet he has some sort of child dungeon under the house, yea that’s where I’m putting my non-betting money.

“Well,” Steel again this time, “I like to play games and read, that’s about it on that front. I’ll eat most edible things and I relax in my spare time so that I’m never stressed out.” Well at least the guy knew himself pretty well.

“And you?” Filthy asked as he turned to look at me.

“I tend more towards reading and writing than playing a lot of different games. I eat a lot of different stuff, except lettuce or onions. Do not give me lettuce or onions. I’ll spend my spare time writing or doing something new if it should come up,” I said with a shrug.

“We have an extensive collection of books in our study since you boys seem to enjoy reading so much,” Rich said after a moment of consideration. “And as for what you would like to eat, you can tell your preferences to the cook and she will prepare meals accordingly.”

“Cook? You actually have a cook in your house?” I asked.

“Yes we do, the estate is very large and having a cook is just something that makes logical sense after a certain point. I suppose I should tell you two more about where you will be living for now.”

“Please do,” Steel said.

“Well,” he began, “the main house is on a thousand acre estate outside of town a ways. Since you two will be starting school tomorrow you will be commuting to and from school with my daughter by carriage since it is far too distant to walk there. Once we arrive I will be having Dusty show you around the estate and to your separate bedrooms that will be in the main house, and tell you any of the minor details that you require.” The way he said everything made it sound like a rehearsed speech.

“You have planned a lot of this out haven’t you?” I asked.

“Do you think I would flippantly take in two orphans without considering the basics? You will come to find that I am an amiable stallion, but I do always think through my actions. Your life at my home shall be well provided for in every way possible, there are only three things that I need you to keep in mind and do without questioning.” Now that didn’t sound too good.

“Like...” Steel said, probably just to continue the conversation since it sounded like we would need to ask or just sit here in an uncomfortable silence. The feeling of the carriage bumping along the ground changed slightly, we probably moved onto a different kind of road.

“The first thing I need you to do is not besmirch my family name in any way, my family’s reputation keeps my business afloat. Secondly, I need you to keep your studies in excellent shape. I don’t know how long you two have been out of school and if needed I will supply tutors but you will maintain the highest marks possible, that is paramount. Lastly, my Little Diamond means the world to me so while no others can you will look after her and make sure no harm comes to her. Now I trust that you understand these three simple things that I require of you.” He looked to first Steel who nodded and then to me.

“Well... what if there is an important test at school and at the same time your ‘Little Diamond’ is in peril. I could go after the girl and save her but miss the test and fail; that would break one of the tasks wouldn’t it.”

“If that were to be the case then I would judge what would be the best course of action. You have a wild imagination don’t you Ashen Stroke? I would of course like to continue speaking to you two and we will do so at dinner, but now we have arrived and I have business to attend to.” Just as he finished talking the carriage pulled to a halt and the door was opened by an older mare with an apron on that I could only assume was a maid. “This is Feather Duster,” Rich explained, “she will take you two inside.”

The mare backed away from the door and I did once again what was expected of me and climbed out and down the stairs. Steel didn’t fare very well, when he tried to climb down behind me he slipped and fell right on his face earning a chuckle from me, which got me a glare from Feather Duster. The grey earth pony’s eyes were like fire and made me back off immediately apologizing. Dammit, I pussed out again; I really need to work on this.

When we were both out of the vehicle the doors closed once again and it rolled away down the circular driveway and back out onto the trail leading out to the pathway that lead up to the house. Now that I got a look at it the entire place was fucking huge! The driveway extended for what looked like half a mile through a field of well trimmed grass and aesthetically placed rows of trees. The fields extended for as far as I could see either way I looked and the driveway near the house was surrounded by magnificent and lush gardens filled with every kind of flower I knew and plenty that I didn’t. When I looked up at the house I had to crane my neck to stare up at the four story tall mansion, and I really had no idea how big it was since it extended so far either way. The stairs leading up to the main house were also oversized but glinted in the afternoon sun as it reflected off of the marble. Filthy Rich was...filthy rich, there really was no other way to describe it.

“Wow,” Steel managed after he had gotten back to his hooves.

“Yea, it’s pretty sweet,” I agreed.

“That is quite enough ogling,” Dusty said with a perfect pomp british accent, a classic for a maid I suppose. “We have to get you two settled in and changed before dinner with the master this evening.” Before either of us could really say much she had already given us a shove to get us moving. The climb up the stairs was simple enough and once we got to the entrance the doors opened before we could knock to reveal a massive greeting hall with a plush red carpet running down the middle. On either side of the carpet stood four, what I was going to assume to be, servants; stallions on the left and mares on the right. As we entered I also caught the sound of piano playing and immediately moved to cut off the scene before it began.

“No, no, no, no. I am not going to sing a musical number just as we enter the great big mansion. I do not care if it is expected or if this place runs off of songs as much as a Broadway musical it is just not going to happen!” I exclaimed loudly enough for everyone to hear, seriously I was not going to sing and dance for these people that would just be way too cliche.

The servants that were waiting for us just all stared back at me in confusion as the piano thudded loudly off to my left causing me to look in that direction. There on the piano bench sat Diamond Tiara and she did not look the least bit happy that my outburst had interrupted her practice, in fact she looked downright red with anger. I caught the sound of Steel laughing behind me as I just sat with a thunk. Maybe I should try rethinking what I know about this world, it really doesn’t look like any of my predictions are working out for me.

A stallion, not so old as Feather but still old enough to look in his fifties, cleared his throat to get our attention. “If the young master does not wish to sing or dance then we shall not make him in the future. My name is Dusty and I have been charged with showing you both around the estate so if you could pick yourselves up off of the floor that would be for the best as we do not have much time before the meal this evening.” With that the blue unicorn lit his horn and picked us up off of the floor, yes it looked like Steel was literally rolling on the floor laughing his ass off, and set us on our hooves. “Come this way young masters,” he said as he began to walk down the long carpeted path.

I quickly scurried along behind Dusty both to flee from my embarrassment and the infuriated Diamond Tiara; that was such a great first meeting. The path eventually led to another set of stairs which we climbed to the second story before Dusty took a left down the hallways. I chanced a look back at Steel to see that he was having a tough time trying to match our superior pace which made me feel a bit better about the moment just before for some reason.

“Ah, here we are,” Dusty said as he stopped in front of a door causing me to come up short. Using magic once again, dammit I wanted that stuff so bad, he opened the door to reveal a room that looked like it should be on the top floor of the most expensive hotel I could think of. The furniture all looked incredibly plush and expensive, the bed itself could probably fit seven and there was also a desk, vanity, two dressers, a table and chairs, a bathroom, and a huge walk in closet. There was also a giant window that looked out on the estate as well as a ton of room left over in the room. “This will be Master Ashen Stroke’s room.”

I was quite frankly stunned at the sheer magnificence of the space that was apparently just being given to me. So stunned that I didn’t even notice Dusty had moved on to the next door to show Steel his room which was an exact replica of the one shown to me. “Now you two should change out of those....clothes, and dress in something more appropriate before we continue throughout the estate.”

I shrugged and walked into the room without a care, honestly wearing this hoodie this whole time was starting to get incredibly hot, but I caught Steel arguing with Dusty as I closed the door. “Alright, this place is pretty awesome,” I allowed as I looked over the scenery once again.

I took a running start for the bed and tried to jump up onto it, on the first try I smashed my face into the side of it(ow), and on the second I managed to scramble atop of it. It was so soft that my hooves immediately started sinking into the comforter and the pillow top, oh man I love soft beds. With a....definitely not a squee, I started going about removing the hoodie from myself which turned out to be way more difficult than I would have thought. After a good ten minutes I finally managed to take off the garment and stood there on the bed completely nude. I honestly would have thought this would have been a big deal to me, but it wasn’t. I now had fur all over me and I guess that made me feel more comfortable with the nudity.

I remembered that Dusty had said something about changing into different clothes and looked to the closet. The door was open but beyond that it was difficult to make out anything so I hopped back down off the bed and made my way over. I was glad to find a light switch on the wall I could actually reach once I stepped inside. I looked around at the huge closet to see that it was completely empty. “Well that’s a let down.”

A knock came from the door causing me to turn, “Is the young master all finished?” Dusty asked through the door.

“Yea all done I guess, not anything to actually change into,” I called back, and a second later he opened the door.

“We shall remedy that tomorrow afternoon when we have you and your brother’s measurements taken for new attire. Now if you would quickly come with me,” he said before walking off again. I swear, ponies have this annoying habit of just walking away and expecting me to follow.

I followed him of course out into the hallway where he stopped in front of Steel’s door and knocked again before asking the same question. “No, I’m not going to walk around naked,” Steel called back through the door.

“We have no other clothes for you to wear and that garment was most unbecoming. You really should come out so that we can get a move on,” Dusty spoke through the door once again.

“No!” Came the reply causing Dusty to sigh and shake his head.

“Wait here a moment,” he told me before walking into the room and shutting the door behind him. There came sounds of a struggle on the other side of the door for a moment before they ceased and the door opened once again with Dusty levitating a now bare Burnt Steel with his telekinesis. Okay was it just me or do unicorns really enjoy detaining people with magic? “We do not have time to waste, shall we begin our tour?”

I nodded in response and Steel merely pouted as best an immobile child could as Dusty began to lead the way. Seriously, I didn’t see the big deal with the no clothes thing, but everyone has their own hangups I guess. Dusty started leading us through the labyrinth of a mansion showing us the study, dining area, kitchens, living area, lounge, billiards room, guest quarters, servants quarters, and the rest of the west wing. We didn’t even get to the east wing on this first pass and apparently didn’t have time to today, but I didn’t really mind since how could we possibly need anything else. All of the areas were extravagantly furnished like I had come to expect, save for the servant’s quarters of course which were pretty modest. Dusty showed us the back entrance to the wing that led out to a massive garden outside that even had its own hedge maze attached. There was also an olympic sized pool and two tennis courts connected to the back of the house, and a pathway that led out into a prairie that was apparently also on the estate as well as an entrance to the wood that extended out nearby. Luckily, this wasn’t the Everfree as it was explained to us or else I would have bet on a giant monster attack.

The entire tour took more than an hour to make sure that we were quite familiar with the entirety of what we were shown, and Dusty had put Steel down after about ten minutes since he hadn’t bothered to throw a fit. By the time we were done though he was puffing and I was once again feeling a rush from using my legs for such a long time. I started to think about the extent of what earth ponies were capable of, but my train of thought was cut off as we once again found ourselves at the dining hall.

“It has come time for dinner to be served. I hope that the young masters shall have a most enjoyable meal,” he said before opening the doors to reveal the massively long table as well as Filthy Rich and Diamond Tiara sitting and waiting for their meal. Filthy sat at the head of the table and DT on the opposite end; as we entered her gaze shifted to me and morphed into a glare that would kill a lesser man. I could tell already that this dinner was going to be very interesting.

Dinner for Delinquents

“Please, take a seat.” Filthy said as he motioned to the two place settings in the middle of the long table. I didn’t really feel comfortable calling him Filthy, from what I had seen so far the guy was pretty nice so it felt like I was insulting him. Anyways, who would name their kid Filthy? That just seems like you are setting the kid up to be bullied his entire life, and let me tell you I know a thing or two about having a name that is easy to play off of like that. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is. Maybe his parents were trying to get him to be picked on so that it would build character while at the same time trying to make sure that he would become rich. Hmm, if that were the case then his parents must have been geniuses.

“Sure thing Mr. Rich,” I replied as I began to circle around the table, going around his side since DT was still glaring at me from her side, until I eventually reached the place for myself. The doors closed behind us with a loud thud, leaving only the four of us in the dining hall with nothing making a sound.

“So boys, have you been having a good time exploring the house?” Mr. Rich asked, breaking the tension in the room somewhat.

“This place is huge!” Steel exclaimed, I had almost forgotten he was here. “How can you even find your way around, we only looked at the West Wing and the backyard and I can’t feel my hooves. Exploring this whole place would probably kill me.”

Mr. Rich laughed a bit at that. “Well that won’t do, the East wing can wait until you have properly recovered from your venture.” Then came a not so subtle throat clearing from the opposite end of the table. “Oh yes, this is my daughter Diamond Tiara. I’m so sorry for forgetting to introduce you sweetheart,” he said motioning to the pink ball of anger, well actually when I looked at her now she didn’t seem all that angry. Maybe she was just a bit annoyed.

“Thank you Daddy,” in case you were wondering, yes she did sound exactly like the stuck up brat I had expected her to be, no big shocking revelations there. “So, who are these two?”

“Did Dusty not explain this to you properly? I am sure I asked him to,” Mr. Rich asked with an arched brow.

“He said that there were going to be two colts here but that’s it. So who are these two daddy?” Diamond asked once again.

Mr. Rich turned to us now “Why don’t you two introduce yourselves?” While I was glad that I wasn’t being talked about like I was no longer there I wasn’t incredibly comfortable in this situation.

“I’m Burnt Steel,” my partner said happily.

“Ashen Stroke,” I simply stated afterwards, “pleasure to meet you.”

Diamond looked between the two of us for a minute she seemed to be trying to understand some joke that hadn’t been made. “Yes,” she said eventually, “I’m Diamond Tiara, the pleasure is all mine.”

Mr. Rich smiled from his own seat “That is what I like to see, everypony getting along. Why don’t we get out dinner underway what do you guys say.” Before any of us could make a reply, though I don’t think we were supposed to, he rang a bell which caused a set of doors to open and four service ponies to file in, each with a covered platter.

With synchronicity they all removed the covers and revealed to us the salads that had been prepared. Oh salad, how I hate you so very very much. How could I have possibly forgotten to tell them how much I despise the taste of lettuce. It occurred to me then that maybe my diet wasn’t very much in line with what ponies might eat. It also came to my attention that I was incredibly hungry so I should probably just get over myself and take the free meal for what it was. It was in fact one of the better salads I had ever seen, small tomatoes and other veggies decorated the bowl which was drizzled over with two distinctly different sauces: one a coppery brown that seemed to have flecks of pepper in it and the other a smooth grey that looked almost silver. “Thank you, please tell Cookie to begin the second course shortly.” At Mr.Rich’s words the servers all bowed and filed out of the room promptly.

I looked between Diamond and Mr. Rich to see what I should be doing right now, and was unsurprised to see the two pick up one of their forks, yes there were many forks, spoons, and knives laid out for us to use, and begin eating from the salad. I located a similar fork and found myself momentarily mesmerized as I also managed to pick it up with my hoof before spearing a bit of lettuce and lifting it to my mouth for a taste. I was pleasantly surprised by just how magnificent the salad tasted, it had to have been the best salad I had ever tasted, though given that I usually avoid salads like the plague that wasn't really saying much. I was pressed to say that it might have even been...good. I scooped up another bite and greedily ate it, now fully realizing just how incredibly hungry I was as I did so.

Steel on the other hoof seemed to be having a much more difficult time navigating the utensils than I was. He was still fumbling with the fork as it continually fell out of his grip when I was already halfway done with my salad. Seeing his trouble brought a smile to my lips and when I glanced over I saw Diamond also equally amused. I was glad to see that we had at least one thing in common, finding entertainment in Steel's moments of weakness. Who knew we might be able to get along after all.

“Do you need some help with that?” Mr. Rich asked him.

“No I got it,” he quickly replied as he dropped the fork once more into the salad before he gave up and just went about eating without using utensils. This earned him a scowl from the little princess and a bemused smile from the only adult here. I just relished in the fact that there was no attention on myself and Diamond was no longer giving me the evil eye. We continued to watch him eat straight from the bowl for a few minutes longer until her seemed to remember himself and pulled away from it with a sheepish grin. I was just about to make a comment of my own when Mr. Rich rang the bell and the next course was brought in.

This time instead of four ponies eight came in, the four in the front carrying nothing and quickly removing our plates, whether they were empty of food or not, before the next four came in and set the platters down once again. Did they really need eight ponies to serve us dinner or were they just trying to show off how ludicrously rich they were? It’s not like I didn’t know that they were tremendously wealthy given how incredibly huge this entire estate was but this seemed to just be going a little overboard. Before they left the ponies removed the tops once again from the trays to reveal a steaming plate of assorted vegetables. I don’t really know what I had been expecting but this had most certainly not been it.

“Is something wrong with your food? I made sure to tell Cookie what you didn’t like to eat,” Mr. Rich asked me.

I looked up from the plate, “No nothing wrong, I just...”

“Just what?”

“Nothing I guess,” I said as I speared a piece of carrot on a fork, a different fork then the one I had just been using previously of course. It looked decently cooked, not that I was really one that could tell if it had been, so I gave it a little nibble and was greeted with that unmistakable carrot flavor. I caught Steel smirking at me from across the table, no doubt he was thinking once again to the conversation we had just before coming here. Now that I was thinking about it...

“Is the food to your liking?” He asked me, causing me to notice that I had been sitting with a fork in my mouth for a few minutes.

“I...yes it is, my compliments to the chef.” I speared a piece of broccoli and devoured it without much thought. Honestly, the salad had been better. Steel seemed to still be struggling with his utensils; butting up against physics every time that he tried to use one properly.

“You may be glad to know that after meeting with Mrs. Cheerilee earlier today that you two have been properly enrolled in the local school. It’s not a large class but you will be going in the mornings with Diamond, and tomorrow morning you will be taking an aptitude test given at the school to place you.” In true nonchalant fashion he didn’t even bother looking up from his food as he ate with the poise of a rich person.

“When did you even have the time to plan all of this stuff? You only met us this afternoon,” Steel asked, and I had to admit that it was a good point I hadn’t even thought of.

“I was called from my home by the mayor earlier today when you two showed up and instructed Dusty to make arrangements as I left. After dropping you off here I paid a visit to the school to make the particular arrangements,” he stated simply, wow this guy really doesn’t waste time. “Are your rooms to your liking?”

“Very much so, it’s huge,” I said before taking another bite of carrot. Steel mumbled something about his jacket but since I was the closest person to him and even I couldn’t make it out I doubt the others could.

Mr. Rich looked over to his daughter at the end of the table “Well Diamond, while we have everyone here you should probably try and get to know these two a little better. You will be sharing a home with them for the foreseeable future after all.”

The pink ball of melodrama that was Diamond Tiara moved her eyes from her plate to cast her gaze at me once again. She scanned me over, making me wish for the first time that I did in fact have my clothes back, before asking a simple yet impossible question “What is your cutie mark supposed to mean?”

I glanced down at my own flank to see the pen inside of a strange blue spiral and my mind went blank. What the hell was it supposed to mean, I think that the pen meant something to do with writing but I had no idea what the hell the spiral meant. Was it supposed to mean anything at all or was it being there just for show. It took up more space than the pen did so was it supposed to be the main focus even though it was in the background, or did like I originally think was the foreground the important thing. What about my theory with names and relations to talents, did that apply here even though I had completely made the name up out of nowhere. Was there some sort of cosmic over guidance that allowed...

Diamond clearing her throat rather loudly pulled me from my musings “Are you just going to sit there looking at your butt all day?” This of course got a laugh from Steel and even a modest chuckle from Filthy Rich himself.

“No I was just thinking back to when I earned it. The cutie mark depicts the ability to create prose that will stand firm against the test of time and stop itself from becoming dated. A feat that on it’s own isn’t very glamorous though it happens to be my area of expertise,” I said with an apathetic shrug. The two natural ponies seemed satisfied with that answer, apparently not questioning the ten year old that could actually speak like that, while Steel was staring with his mouth agape.

“Oh that reminds me, we should probably get Steel a flying coach, he can’t even manage to get off the ground,” I told Mr. Rich, effectively removing the attention from myself once more.

“Hey!” he shouted at me.

“Is that true, do you really have so much trouble Steel? If so then we will need to find an instructor for you immediately,” Rich said as he tapped his chin.

“Well...yea I guess it’s true.” He allowed after a moment, I caught Diamond smirking again before taking a bite of cauliflower though I think I was the only one that did.

“Then that is what we will have to do once you two are done with your fittings tomorrow,” he replied before ringing a bell once more, summoning the same eight servants to take away our plates and replace them with...no that couldn’t be.

“Is this...” I began as I looked down at the plate.

“Meat? No it isn’t Ashen but it is a meat substitute. We have to entertain foreign dignitaries and businessponies at this house at times and their dietary habits are far different from our own. I asked for this to be served last so we might see how well you two deal with it.” He cut his own small bite and ate the piece without so much as a grimace. Diamond Tiara looked absolutely disgusted as she ate her own small bite but she did it all the same.

I knew it! There aren’t people this nice without something seriously wrong with them. This pony was out of his mind, but I did really want some meat to eat. Perhaps I could forgive the extremely strange choice of food as long as it allowed me access to some sort of meat substitute again. I used a fork and knife to cut my own small piece from the slab of steak and ate it happily, though I made sure to try and look like it was the most disgusting thing I had ever tasted despite it being orgasmicly delicious. It was tough but I think I might have pulled it off.

Steel on the other hoof didn’t care in the least about appearances and stabbed his fork into the steak and brought the whole thing up to his mouth to take bites. He got a look of horror from the little girl and one of confusion from Mr. Rich. I kicked him under the table to try and let him know what he was doing but all I got was a yell and a glare. “Hey, why are you kicking me?!”

“Because you are being an idiot!” I whispered as loudly as I dared, which seemed to get him to see exactly what he was doing.

He dropped the steak back onto the plate with a loud plop and backed away from the table “I think I’m going to be sick...” he said before racing out of the room.

While I hadn’t expected him to do it, that seemed to nullify the other two ponies who pushed their fake meat away from them. I did the same though I really didn’t want to, god that tasted so good. Was I really so hooked that I couldn’t even go a few hours without some meat, that is kind of pathetic.

“Well I think that will be all for dinner, you two have been good so we shall get you some dessert,” Mr. Rich said as he stood from the table and moved to one of the doors leading out. He opened it and went into the kitchen, leaving Diamond and myself in the room alone together.

“Your brother is really weird,” she said after a few moments of unbearable silence.

“Yeah, he can be that way most of the time. He is still a good guy though, so while it’s funny to watch him mess up let’s try not to rub it in too much okay?” I asked, hopefully putting her at ease.

“Whatever,” she said as she sat back and folded her front hooves. A unicorn entered with two big sundaes suspended in the air before her and set one down in front of each of us. We had each been fortunate enough to earn a scoop of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry each topped with chocolate syrup and a cherry. Diamond dipped into the chocolate ice cream first and began eating thoughtfully. “So why were you talking like that?” she asked after she swallowed the bite.

I took a mouthful of the vanilla and was happy to find that it tasted the same, if ponies could eat sweets and still be as slim as Pinkie then I just might have a chance here. “Talk like what?”

“With all of those big words. Are you trying to impress my dad because he won’t be won over that easy you know. I should know.”

“That really hadn’t crossed my mind. I guess sometimes I try to act smarter than I am, I guess it helps to get others to leave you alone.” Fancy that, having to do some semi-deep introspection when talking to a token bully character.

“So you want ponies to leave you alone huh. That’s fine with me, don’t bug me at school or when I’m hanging out with my friends and everything will be fine. And don’t start thinking that you can do whatever you want here because you are some charity case my dad took in,” she said pointedly with her spoon. So this was supposed to be the classic don’t mess with the way I have things speech, I was kind of disappointed that it came up but whatever.

“Want my chocolate ice cream? I don’t like it,” I replied simply as I got up and dropped the bowl in front of her as I made for the exit. “Don’t worry about us Diamond, we won’t be stealing your precious attention so you just do you and we will do us.” With little effort I closed the door behind me and exited the dining hall, I had honestly expected something a little more explosive but it wasn’t too bad of an introduction.

Fancy Mathmatics

There was some nudging on my side followed by a sound. I didn't really get whatever was said but I knew that I absolutely didn't want to get up right now. My shoulder was shaken again and I caught there word "leaving" this time through the bleary haze that is half-sleep. Murmuring, I rolled away and lifted the blanket over my head. This time the shaking wasn't near as subtle as the blankets were ripped off of me and I was taken into the air abruptly. My surprise caused my eyes to shoot wide to find my assailant but all I found was and elderly butler pony long me in the face with his horn glowing, "It is time to greet the morning young Master Stroke."

I'm sure I would have made some quick witted quip if he didn't just drop me back onto the bed where I sputtered for a moment before righting myself. "I am glad to see you are awake," he continued, "your brother and Miss Tiara are already downstairs and waiting on you to join them as the litter is set to leave soon. I'm afraid that since you slept in you will need to eat your breakfast on the way to school." Dusty then turned and started to exit the room, leaving me to jump off of the bed as I processed what he said.

"Ma...my brother is already awake and has eaten? Why didn't you guys wake me up I want breakfast too," I said as I tried my best to keep up with him which wasn't to difficult since he was keeping a friendly pace for me.

"We tried but you could not be roused. The first maid we sent tried to wake you for nearly ten minutes before giving up and allowing you to rest a little longer. It seems that she did not know the importance of today or else she surely would have taken harsher measures," he said ominously. I knew I was a heavy sleeper but that couldn't really be true could it, I mean no one sleeps that soundly unless they're drugged.

"Are you being for real or just pulling my leg?" I asked as we started to descend the stairs to the main greeting area. The front door was open and Steel and Diamond were waiting at it though they didn't seem to be talking. A sheepish looking cyan pegasus maid was waiting next to them with a backpack at her hooves. Now that I took a look DT was wearing a bright pink backpack and Steel a red one. It looked like this tan one was to be mine, I would have preffered black but whatever I guess.

"Indeed, I recommend that tonight you make sure to get plenty of rest so that this does not occur again," Dusty said as he came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs. "Make sure that you are well behaved at school and obey your teacher. Miss Cherilee is a very good instructor so I doubt that there should be any problems."

I turned back to look at him a moment, I had been half expecting him to follow us all the way to school, maybe even follow us around from the shadows to keep an eye on us. "Later," I said simply before turning back to the main door and hurrying over to the three there. "This my backpack?" I asked as I motioned to the article in question.

"Yes sir it is," Blue Fluttershy said as she hoofed it over to me. The mane wasn't quite the right shape as well as being blue but the overall demeanor was there. I bet she's good with kids.

I picked up the backpack and slung it over one shoulder deftly, okay I know I had bitched about the whole Earth Pony earlier but it definitely seemed to be coming in handy with actually being able use this body. I smirked as I wondered to myself just how long it had taken Steel to put his on, him trying to get it off was probably going to be pretty funny too. "Come on you two we need to hurry up or we are going to be late," Diamond Tiara ordered as she made her way out the door. Have to say I was a little surprised to see her in such a big hurry to get to school in the first place but I guess she does have friends there, or a friend anyways.

Steel followed with a shrug and I did as well with a yawn, man I was still pretty tired. The same mare shut the door as we left and proceeded to follow us outside to the litter that was waiting where it had dropped us off yesterday. We duly climbed down the stairs and then back up a few as we boarded, I was a little surprised when the maid got into the carriage with us as well and sat next to Diamond while me and Steel took the other side. Once the door was closed the stallions began pulling us out of the driveway and on our way.

"So," I began to break the silence, "I don't think we have met properly. I'm Ashen Stroke, and you are?" I asked as I motioned to the shy seeming mare.

"Soft Melody," she responded as she glanced to me. "Would you like your breakfast? I brought it." I nodded and she removed a small lunchbox from her bag that I hadn't seen her carrying, wow that thing was concealed. She handed the box to me and I opened it to find a grilled cheese sandwich inside. I thanked the gods(note to self: should probably change over to Celestia and Luna they seem like the patron deities around here) and took half of the sandwich that was cut into a triangle and bit off a mouth watering bite. Surprisingly it was still warm and perfectly cooked.

"So you ready for school?" Steel asked from the seat next to me as I ate. I finished a few more bites of my sandwich before responding.

"Should be fun, been a while since I've been to school." I finish the half of sandwich and unslung the pack from my back to store away the rest of it for later.

"How long has it been since you two went to school anyways?" Diamond asked though I didn't really get the feeling that she cared too much; she was likely just trying to fill the time.

"Don't know," Steel replies before I can get a word in edgewise. Diamond just gives him a look like she isn't fully buying it but she doesn't really say anything against him either. The maid, Soft Melody, just continued to sit there without saying anything, I wasn't exactly sure what the etiquette was with "the help" so I didn't speak to her either.

We continued to sit there for a little while in silence: Diamond staring out the window, Melody staring down at her hooves, Steel was also looking out at the world, and I was sifting through my bag to see what I had been given. Flashes of my own childhood spent in middle and elementary school came to me as I pulled a box of 36 crayons from the bag. School had really captured my interest at an early age and it had been fun to make new friends, but my constant moving from one school to the next hadn't exactly helped me keep them. Still, if you could get past the immense sociopathic tendencies of children, school had been a good experience, and I was starting to get a little bit excited.

It isn't everyone that gets the chance to relive at least a small portion of their childhood, and even if this wasn't exactly the same thing here it was still giving me butterflies of anticipation. Our litter continued to bump along the dirt paths that seemed to decoratePonyville, every time the wheels went over a particularly big rock or divert we would feel the jolt but after a bit that faded to the background. "So what's school like Diamond?" I asked after a whole to break the tension that seemed to be building.

"It's, school. I don't know it's fine I guess, and Miss Cherilee is nice. Some of the ponies can get pretty annoying but other than that it's like any school I guess," she finished with a shrug, still looking out of the window. I didn't really know if I should have been surprised or not, the show did paint Diamond as a minor antagonist after all so she probably wouldn't be too enthusiastic. Other than that though she didn't seem to be too incredibly unlikeable, but I could still see how the show had showed her as authentic.

An uneasy silence fell upon the group once again as we continued down whatever road we were on. The clopping hooves to the front of the carriage kept up a constant pace along the gravel road that began to sound like a steady rhythm after a while. Glancing out the door I saw that it seemed like it was going to be a nice sunny day and I found myself wondering for a moment what season it was. For that matter what was the date even, they don't really make things clear about that in the show and I have only been here a day so I know very little. Judging solely on what I saw outside I would have to think that it was spring or summer since the sky seemed so clear and bright. It occurred to me that since the weather is controlled by the ponies that it could look like that at any time, but the wildflowers along the ground definitely gave it away as being once of the warmer seasons.

Now that I actually cared to look I could see that there were flowers everywhere along the road as we continued down it at our steady pace. Massive fields of Bluebonnets spread far and were interspersed with white Lilies and yellow Daffodils. Actually taking the time to look around at this new world I was in felt a little freeing, kind of like I was exploring a new place never seen before and in a way I was. The swift wind outside our litter would sweep the flowers in soft waves that would break at the edge of a field to start again in the next shore. There was a beauty to this place that I had only really seen a few times before back home, and I felt like I could look at it for a long while.

"We're here," Diamond said, looking out the opposite window as the litter finally came to a stop. I turned my eyes to where her's were locked to see the schoolhouse standing just on the other side of the road from the field. There are many youths running about, entering the school or talking with one another as a few adults mingled. There was a particular slate grey earth pony walking towards the liter we were in, her trademark glasses in place as she approached.

"Wait here for a few minutes before getting out," Diamond said as she left the go join her friend, shutting the door behind her as she went.

I looked to Steel who had been quiet for what seemed like a while, "So should we wait here?" I asked.

"I think that would be a good idea. I guess she doesn't want to be seen with us," he replied. His wings doing a strange twitch.

"Did you just..."

"No!" he immediately exclaimed.

"You did. You tried to do a wing shrug and you totally failed. You are so lame," I said as I started laughing.

"Alright dude, it isn't that funny," he said with a sigh.

"It totally is, you just failed at the whole trying to make me jealous thing. Oh man, I had completely forgotten that one ahahaha." I fell to the floor and started laughing on my back as he proceeded to turn red faced where he is sitting. How he was even able to show a blush beneath all of that orange fur I was not really even able to say, for a moment it looked like the color of the fur on his face started to change slightly but before I could study it long somepony cleared their throat to get my attention. I glanced up to see Soft Melody still sitting where she had been for the past while seeming a little impatient.

"We really should get you two to meeting your teacher," she said as she opened the door and smoothly stepped out. I rolled to my hooves easily enough and forwent using the stair to just jump down to the ground. It was really strange it seemed to me, I had never been particularly athletic or extremely dexterous, though I had thought myself above average in that respect, but now in this body I felt like if I tried to do anything difficult it would just become easy. Kind of like I was now one of those people who was just incredibly comfortable being in my own skin, and I had to admit that I did feel terrific.

I turned and looked back at the litter as I walked back a few feet. "Three, two, one," I start as Steel tried to carefully navigate the steps, his wings spreading a little as he did so to give him some balance. Much against my expectations he actually made it all the way to the ground without falling.

"Ha," he said pointing a hoof at me and once again staying upright.

"You climbed down three stairs, congratulations now let's go find your trophies. Melody where is the teacher so we can tell them?" I asked, turning back to the maid that is just looking at us with confusion. It took her a few seconds but she eventually turned to look back at the school "She will be inside." she turned back to us to find me smiling and Steel glaring up at me from the ground "What happened?" she asked as I started to hurry past her.

"Come on Steel, don't want to be late for our first day and get detention do you?" I called back laughing, forced to break into a sprint as he jumped to his hooves and ran after me. I dodged and weaved between the colts and fillies in the playground interacting with each other, turning back to call out taunts every so often. "Come on slowpoke. Is that the fastest you are scrawny? I thought pegasi were supposed to be fast. Buzz those feathers it might help." With each jab he seemed to get a little angrier as I kept just away from him easily. I was turning back to jeer at him again when I slammed face first into a brick wall, a fur covered, warm, brick wall.

I was left dizzied on my back as I heard Steel start laughing next to me. The world around me spun for a little while before I could finally get it to focus on the tall magenta mare standing over me. It took a few seconds for my brain to turn back on fully and register exactly who she was, her looking down to me and speaking helped a bit too. "You must be Ashen Stroke the new student in my class," she said with a smile that doesn't give away that I had just run into her at full speed in the least.

"Ah," I replied as I continued lying on my back and scratched a hoof against my chest, "it seems that my reputation has preceded me."

"Quite," she said with a smirk before turning her gaze to Steel, "and you must be Burnt Steel. If you two will join me quickly we should get you started as soon as possible so we do not have the whole class waiting on you." She stood there for a few more silent moments until I realized she was waiting for me to stand, which I rolled over and up to my hooves to do. Once I was standing once more she motioned inwards and me and Steel went into the interior of the building ahead of her.

She continued to stand at the door waving in children and telling them that class was about to begin as the two of us fumbled around in the entrance hall not really doing anything. Above everything that had been bringing back memories to me of my own childhood the smell of the school practically threw them at me. Every school has the same smell to it; a mix between cardboard, children, and cleaning supplies. As I cast my eyes about the singular hallway with a few doors coming off of it, one of which was open and had the sound of muttering children emanating from it, I couldn't help but compare it to my old school. Sure that building had been several times bigger but this was an out of the way country school where mine had been near a city. Cherilee seemed to be the only adult around, perhaps making her the only teacher in this place. I remembered hearing of schools like this where there is only one class with all different ages, that would likely be our situation.

During my nostalgic rumination it seemed that the rest of the children had finished entering the building and filing into the open room. Cherilee closed the door behind herself and walked over to talk with the two of us once more. "Alright you two, go ahead and make your way inside and find a cubby for your things. There should be a few desks still free so sit wherever you like. I have a test that I need each of you to take so we now where to start you both out okay?" she said as she looked down at the two of us.

"Yes ma'am," we said simultaneously.

"Jinx!" Steel called on me, causing me to growl in frustration, and he teacher to laugh a little before heading inside. I did find an open cubby and tossed my bag into it, making sure to take a pen and pencil from it before I walked back to look for an open desk. There seemed to be only a few unoccupied seats, the two that stood out to me the most being the one in the front and the one in the back.

"Ah, the age old dilemma. Do I sit in the front near the teacher or the back to be...oh look one in the middle." I cut my soliloquy and walked over to the empty desk that was just about smack dab in the middle of the room. I looked back to see Steel taking the seat in the back of the room. The sound of chalk on board brought my attention back to the front where Cherilee was writing something on the board, when she was done I thanked Luna I was able to make out the words easily before she put down the piece of chalk.

"Good morning class, I hope everypony finished their math homework alright last night. You might have noticed we have two new students joining us today: Ashen Stroke and his brother Burnt Steel. Why don't you two stand up and introduce yourselves," she said, motioning to each of as she said our names. I complied and stood there for a moment as I heard Steel clumsily do the same behind me.

"Hey, I'm Ashen Stroke but you guys can call me Ash if you want. I don't like being bored and I like to party." I sat back in my chair as the many heads in the room turned from me to Steel.

"Burnt Steel, I also like to party," he said before also taking a seat.

I grinned widely at that "No I'm the one that likes to party, he doesn't party."

Steel was also smiling now "No, it is me that definitely likes to party. You are the one that is the party pooper."

"I party all the time you don't even know!"

"Pics or it didn't happen." By this time neither of us can really keep up the act anymore and just burst into a fit of laughing as the class looked on at us in confusion. A few of them were smirking or giggling but the vast majority didn't really know what to make of it, Cheerilie looked to have enjoyed the little back and forth a bit.

"Well I don't now how much partying the two of you will be able to do in class but there is some testing I need you to do," she said as she walked forwards and dropped a stack of paper on each of our desks.

"I forgot to study!" Steel exclaimed as the paper fell to his desk.

"Do your best then," Cheerilie said as she walked back to the front of the class once more to begin the lesson. I barely listened and got that it was about geometry or something but I was far too focused on the sheets in front of me. The test was twenty pages of multiple choice questions ranging from subject to subject with no rhyme or reason. I did think ahead a little bit this time and realized that I had never written as a pony before. All of the non-unicorns I saw around me all had their pens or pencils in their mouths and were writing that way so I figure I should as well. I flipped the test over to the blank page on the back and took a few practice tries at writing my new name with the pencil.

Like everything else it seemed that as well began to come more naturally after a little bit and after seven tries I had an at least somewhat legible representation of my name. I did another twenty writings of the name until I was confident with it before erasing all of it and turning the test back over. I quickly scrawled "Ashen Stroke" onto the paper where it told me to put my name and moved onto the first question.

It was some simple arithmetic so it didn't really take me longer than a few seconds to get the answer and circle the correct letter. The next question was about grammar which was insanely easy and I circled that answer as well. Another math question followed before a simple earth science question. Like I had thought previously this test was going to be way to easy for me to ace without even trying, but should I? We were trying to keep a low cover here and me just rolling through all of these questions without even trying might not have been for the best. It occurred to me that I should at least try to miss some of these questions so that we didn't get scrutinized too much, would Steel be thinking the same thing though?

The next question that I came up against was a history one that completely stopped me in my tracks. "When was the Articles of Harmony written?" it asked, and there were four choices outlined below it. I had no idea what to make of the dates and I really didn't have any idea about what the Articles of Harmony were. I smiled and laughed quietly to myself, it seemed that I didn't have to choose because these history questions would just make me look like and idiot either way. I circled an answer at random, not even wanting to try and eliminate answers so that I might find the correct one and moved on.

The next question had something to do with government so I circled and answer at random there and moved onto the math question which I answered easily. The rest of the test seemed to pass in a blur but brought me to an abrupt stop at the last page. There were five questions on the last page, one for each subject that I had been answering questions about throughout the test. These questions though we're incredibly difficult, probably meant for college students and left open ended in a "Bonus Questions" section.

I didn't know the dates for this specific battle and the significance of it, though I did find it interesting that ponies had a recorded history of battles. I didn't know the ways that parliament appealed the the diarchy and set into motion new ordinances. I didn't know the significance of electron spin, nor could I point out all of the literary tools used in the following question. I did however, know how to find the volume of the three dimensional object made by rotating the function around the line y=2 in the last question. Was this supposed to be some kind of trap or just a way to determine genius? Should I answer this question since I did in fact know how to find the answer, or should I have left it blank? I knew how to get the answer, it seemed so simple looking at it now, and without giving the question too much thought I flipped the test over to the back to start graphing.

It took me another fifteen minutes to finish the test since I didn't have a calculator to do any of the actual calculations for me, but with a satisfied smile I laid it back upright on the desk and raised my hoof. Cheerilie was busy teaching at the moment and didn't see me waiting there patiently for her to address me. After five more minutes she turned to find me propping my hoof up with another on the desk before turning her eyes to the closed test in front of me.

"Done already?"

Baiting the Hook

"Yeah, it wasn't too hard," I replied as I sat back in my desk with a smirk. Cherilee put the piece of chalk she was using down and walked over to me desk to see that I was in fact finished before taking the test with a smile of her own.

"Well I hope you did very well," she said as she returned back to the front and laid the test out on her own desk before turning back to her lesson. I looked over to the board to see that the class was learning about isosceles and equilateral triangles. My attention was immediately lost, leaving me to look about the class and the ponies in it. Diamond Tiara, much against my expectations, was actually sitting in the front row looking like a perfect student. The librarian in training, Silver Spoon, was seated just to her left and that tubby colt was to her right. On the other side of that guy however was a particular southern yellow earth pony that everyone knew.

I couldn't really get a good look at Applebloom since she was two rows directly in front of me, but I could see her telltale bow sticking up on her head. I had come knowing that I was going to see this particular pony, I mean, it is shown that she is in Diamond Tiara's class but I was getting a little light on breath. Applebloom was my favorite member of the cutie marks crusaders, baring Babs of course but she isn't often counted, and there she was sitting just a few feet away from me. I caught on that the teacher was talking about angles or something but this was so much more important.

I knew that we were going to get to go outside for recess at some point, would we get nap time because I really wanted nap time too. I was tempted to slap myself to get my mind back on track but I remembered the whole hooves thing, that would have probably hurt. Anyways, we were going to go to recess and I could probably just introduce myself, was that creepy since I was actually in my twenties? No, I didn't think so.

A new idea struck me suddenly, Steel didn't have a cutie mark so I could use him. He was in love with Scootaloo's backstory as much as he was with Diamond Tiara's so he might even agree to it. Yes, this idea was starting to come together, now all I needed was to get to recess without any real problems.

"So Ash?" Was all I heard as I came out of my thoughts. Cherilee was standing at the front of the room looking back at me expectantly. Shit, I had fallen right into the not paying attention question without even realizing it, but I knew how to combat this one.

"I'm sorry I didn't hear you. Can you repeat that please?" I said as I trained my eyes onto her.

"I asked if you could tell me the area of this triangle," she said as she tapped a triangle with three written on each of its sides.

"Of course it's..." Damn, what was the equation again. One half the base times the height, find the height by cutting the base in half and making two triangles, that gives a right triangle which i can take the tangent of, then I have more numbers...

"Were you paying attention?" she asked pleasantly, tilting her head a little.

"No, no give me a second. It's... I...no I can't do that in my head," I finished after a moment of trying to factor the polynomial.

Cherilee turned and wrote three beneath the triangle and drew a line down the center and out a two next to it, she continued to write the way to get to the solution as she spoke to me once more. "Perhaps next time you can take notes or write down your work," she said as she finished the problem. I couldn't see it right now but I just knew that she was smirking.

I face planted on my desk, completely unsurprised that I had gone and made the problem infinitely more complex than it needed to be. The class continued on while I continued to lay my head out on the desk and sulk, Steel was still finishing up his test, or at least I was assuming that he was since I didn’t bother to look back and see. I heard some intelligible whisper to my right, and after the sound came again I turned and looked to the teal unicorn sitting next to me. Wouldn’t you know it, but there was Snips right there and I had taken a seat next to the poor fool without even noticing. Not that anyone ever notices Snips, but right now it seemed like he had taken notice of me.

“Hey,” he said in a low voice, which I was pretty sure had been picked up by Cheerilee with how her ear swiveled at the noise, though she continued to write on the chalkboard. Strange actually seeing ears just swivel like that, I wondered if mine did the same thing. “You are the new kid right?”

“Yes,” I whispered back, “can’t talk or I will probably get in trouble again.”

“Yea, yea. Anyways my name is Snips.” Now he wasn’t even caring to keep his voice very low.

“Okay, Snips, can I please go back to lying my head down on this desk here?” I asked, still trying to conceal my voice.

“Why do you look so down just because you answered a question wrong? I answer questions wrong all the time and look at me,” He continued with a smile and what seemed to be pride.

“Right, I’m going to go back to…”

“Still not paying attention Ashen Stroke?” Cheerilee’s voice rang out from the front, drawing my attention back to the teacher.

“I…” She was giving me that glare, the glare that any woman can pull off and turn you to stone with, but with her being the teacher it was all that more terrifying. “I...no I guess not,” I barely managed to finish.

“Please do pay attention from now on this material is very important,” she said as she tapped a square she had drawn.

“Yes ma’am,” I said as I laid my head across my hooves and watched her continue with the board.

“Psst.” Came another sound to my right, ugh.

“Psst.” Okay so I was supposed to continue ignoring this until it annoyed me so much that I was supposed to explode right.

“Snips, seriously I want to just sit here and pay attention. If you want to talk to me let’s wait until after class okay,” I whispered at him without taking my eyes off the board.

“Alright dude,” I heard in reply. I was stunned really. Had I actually used my knowledge of how this situation was supposed to go to predict something? I looked around for a moment to see if there was any impending doom, but I found everything to be just fine. With a contented smile I sat back in my desk and actually felt a little bit better.

The rest of the morning before break went as you might expect it. Cheerilee taught something to all the grade school students that brought back memories of when I was learning the material for the first time myself. Basic geometry seemed to be the primary focus of this morning’s class since we didn’t even finish triangles completely. The kids, or rather fillies and colts, didn’t really live up to what my expectations had been though. I’m not entirely sure if I had been expecting something great but by the time that the third pony had dozed off on their desk I was rather stunned, though I kept my silence about all of it. I know that some people just aren’t into math, honestly I’m really not that into it myself but it just comes easier than most things so I guess I’m good at it.

This was supposed to be Equestria though, the place that is good and right with all things and here we have young ponies sleeping in the middle of class. Cheerilee to her credit would rouse them periodically, the two main offenders being Snips and Snails, but they would tend to go back to their personal napping time without fail. The math session went on for another hour before the break for recess was called, and all of the children, myself included, hurried out of the classroom and to the main yard.

Steel had finished his own placement test just before the class had been dismissed and Cheerilee had taken it to her desk as she had mine. I waited for him at the door as all the other ponies rushed out of the building to go play, and caught sight of Cheerilee sitting at her desk and putting the tests into a manilla envelope. Steel made it over to where I was waiting without wasting too much time, but everypony else had already left so we walked out of the room and headed for what I assumed to be the recess area.

“What took you so long with that test man?” I asked my orange compatriot as we walked at our own leisurely pace.

“It was kind of hard for me to figure out all the dates,” he said, shrugging his wings. Okay now that he has done it, it is cool, and I am jealous.

“What do you mean figure out the dates? How can you figure out those dates at all?” I asked with an arched brow.

“I have my ways,” he replied simply before pulling ahead and exiting the building into the harsh sunlight.

“Sure you do,” I muttered as I followed through the simple doorway to leave the pungent smell of the school building behind in favor of the fragrance of cut grass and the dust that comes off the loose gravel they place beneath the equipment to make the ground softer. The sun was peeking through the clouds every once in awhile but there were plenty of clouds in the sky to make the day pleasantly shaded as well as a cool breeze that ran across the yard. As the air brushed past my fur I felt positively electrified as all of the individual follicles were stimulated simultaneously and I knew that I just had to run somewhere, but where?

There was a slide, always a good time but a bit tiresome and there was already a line of two fillies and a colt waiting. There was a set of swings, though sitting in those looked completely awkward, and they were all taken. There was a jungle gym, I have no idea how that was even supposed to work, and apparently nopony else did since it was completely abandoned; maybe it was supposed to be a perch for pegasi. Finally there was a round-a-bout that a few of the kids were playing on and having a good time with, but all in all there didn’t actually seem like anything I would want to do. Damn, I was absolutely in the mood to burn as many calories as possible and there was no activity for me to do really, maybe they had a gym around here somewhere, or there could be so boulders for me to try and move.

Without really all that much to do I started to stretch my legs out while I racked my brain to think of something fun to do. I guess any real stretches I knew kinda went out the window since my limbs were near completely different now, so as I stood in the recently shorn grass I invented new ones as I saw fit. It was as I was stretching the calves on my back hooves that a voice broke my concentration, a voice that I could recognize near anywhere.

“Why hello there, wacha up ta?” asked the yellow earth pony that came into vision as I turned my head to the left. Applebloom stood there looking as congenial as I imagined she would, and actually sincerely interested in what it was that I was doing. I pushed myself all the way back up to a standing position, having been doing something that might resemble a crude push-up.

“I was...stretching.” It took me a moment to actually think clearly enough to say the words. Meeting Diamond Tiara had been a pretty strange experience when it had happened, but this was positively surreal. Here was one of my favorite characters in the entire fandom just standing there and being the perfect picture of innocence. Barring all of the metaphysical questions, how was I really supposed to not just completely freak out right now.

“What’re ya stretchin’ for?” I suppose trying to carry on a normal conversation might be a start.

“I was going to...go for a run. Yes, that sounds like a good idea,” I replied with a nod.

“Where’re ya goin ta run to? Oh an Ah’m Applebloom by the way,” she said motioning to herself.

“Ashen Stroke, and I guess I wasn’t really going to run anywhere, just kind of run around you know. You ever just get that feeling like you want to run?” I looked away momentarily to see if there was a course that I could set. I supposed I could just go around the school building a few times until I was feeling a bit tired. That would probably attract less attention than just running around the playground in loops like some crazy dog running around the couch.

“Can’t say that ah have. You’re new to Ponyville aren’t ya?” she asked, slightly inclining her head.

“What gave it away?”

“Well ya don’t exactly talk like yer from ‘round here an’ I’ve never seen ya at school before,” she said, her reasoning of course being flawless.

“Yeah, me and my brother aren’t from around here so we don’t know too much about Ponyville. It’s kinda hard on him you know, he can’t even flap his wings a little bit AND he doesn’t have a cutie mark either.” I began to try and stretch any of the muscles in my right foreleg with limited success.

“Oh wow, really?” Gotcha. “Maybe he could join the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” she exclaimed suddenly. Honestly I wasn’t prepared for the sudden loudness and I felt my ears fold back, incredibly awkward feeling, as I watched her do a little jump.

“The Cutie Mark Whatnow?” I asked after recovering a bit, still trying to play my part.

“The Cutie Mark Crusaders, it’s a club me an’ my friends made to try an’ find out what our cutie marks might be. What does ‘urs mean anyways?” she asked as she looked to my own mark, and expertly changing the subject; whether that was intentioned or not I wasn’t sure.

“It means I’m good at writing stuff. Now about that club, do you think my brother would like it? I know it sounds like a bunch of fun to me, but he kind of wants to hang out with pegasi his own age you know?”

Applebloom looked the air on her left for a second before focusing back on me. “Oh don’ worry ‘bout that. Scootaloo is in the club and she is a pegasus so that should be fine right?” she asked with a slight questioning look on her face, maybe I had committed a faux pa by saying he wanted to hang out with pegasi.

“Well yeah if there is a pegasus he can make friends with that’s great. I think this whole idea sounds like tons of fun, but you should really ask my brother.” I looked around for a moment and spotted Steel standing by himself over near the jungle gym, not all that surprising really, and pointed him out to Applebloom. “We have to get back home right after school, but I think we’re free this afternoon, and make sure you mention this uh…”

“Scootaloo?” she readily supplied.

“Yeah make sure you mention Scootaloo to him and I will talk with him about it later alright. Been fun meeting you Applebloom, but I gotta run,” I said as I began at a jog to the corner of the building.

“Nice meeting you too Ash!” I heard he call behind me as I took off.

I quickly rounded the corner of the building and came to a stop, leaning up against the wall with a huge smile plastered on my face. I had actually competently completed my first encounter with my favorite member of the CMC and I didn’t make a complete fool of myself. If I was right about who Steel’s flying teacher was going to be then it wouldn’t be too long before I met Best Pony, and from there on I just had to find a way to meet Luna. That one was going to be especially tricky.

“Step one: infiltrate the CMC, Step two:..., Step three: The World!” I was feeling so on top of everything that I may have done a little giddy, but very manly, dance for a few seconds before getting myself back under control. “Alright Ash now if all the piece play their parts you will have bettered your situation in a single stroke...ha.” With a laugh I resumed my jog once more and quickly picked it up into a run as I headed for the next corner of the building.

I was feeling so electrified that it made me wonder why I had never really appreciated running before, in fact for the most part of my life I had downright loathed the activity with every fiber of my being. But right there, at that time, I couldn’t imagine near anything being as exhilarating. My hooves smacked the grass that spread out from the schoolhouse and made soft plodding noises with each strike, keeping tempo with my own heart that was starting to race a little faster by the second. Faster than I could even really know I had already rounded the next corner and was heading to the back of the schoolhouse once more where most of the play equipment was.

I picked up my pace once more and was soon running as fast as I thought I could possibly go. I sped past the back of the building and continued along my path, aiming to run all the way to the tree line behind the school before turning once more to run along it. I was starting to feel the strain on my legs now, a slight ache and the occasional twinge that reminded me I was actually mortal and wouldn’t be able to keep this up forever. My breath started to become more heavy as I closed in on the tree line and the slight aching in my “calves” and hindquarter started to become a low burn. It was kind of odd but for some reason the pain actually felt...good. Like just by feeling it I was accomplishing something.

When I hit the tree line I took as hard of a right as I could and I soon found myself running beneath the shade of the trees that reached to block the sun above me. I now found myself running straight into the wind and I pushed against it, the electricity that it had put in me before was heightened and I pushed forwards harder. The waves of force rolling against my exposed fur made me whoop as I hit the halfway mark to my next turn, I’m not sure how long I had been smiling like an idiot.

The burning sensation and the weight of my breath continued to increase, and for a moment I actually began to slow down before I realized what I was doing and picked up the pace once more. I hit the edge of the recess area and turn right once more to head back towards the building, and as I did so the pain in my side seemed to vanish for a second only to start coming back more slowly. I quickly passed my starting point and started on my second lap of the school though this time I was definitely more winded. I continued on my route until I ended up back on the other side of the building panting heavily. I slowly came down from my run to a trot, and made a small circle a few times before coming to a full stop.

My breathing was short and shallow and my side was now killing me, but despite it all I felt good. I looked back out at all of the playing children who were having just as much fun as I just had, others were standing around and talking to their friends. It even looked like Steel and Applebloom were still talking to each other in the distance. Feeling a little too tired to even continue standing there I sat back on my hooves and started to focus on getting my breathing under control first, trusting my heart rate to follow soon after. I sat there alone for the next few minutes, just watching the ponies run around with each other and feeling a little bit bleary after running so hard for that distance. Don’t think I have ever tried to run so hard in my whole life, so at the time I was feeling pretty damn good about it.

It seemed that I had even started to zone out again since I was brought back to my sense by the sound of Cheerilee’s voice. “Alright everypony, recess is over and it’s time for class to start again so come back inside please,” she said from the back doorway of the school before she headed inside herself.

Reluctantly, the ponies stopped horsing around and began to file back into the building with a lot less gusto then they had showed leaving it. I picked myself back up off of the ground as well and found that my fur was covered in grey dust and dried sweat. I took a hesitant whiff and nearly gagged, but there wasn’t exactly too much I could do about it right now so with a shrug I also headed towards the entrance to the school building. Ahead of me I saw the unmistakable pink filly that I had been saddled to live with turn and give me a look I couldn’t place, though I knew that it wasn’t anything good. Now with my running high thoroughly stripped I also reluctantly made my way into the building.

The Road Ahead

“Alright class, now we will continue with our history lesson from yesterday,” Cheerilee said as she started to write some dates on the board. I didn’t know how she managed to talk clearly while holding the piece of chalk in her mouth but I bet it would turn out to be an important skill to learn.

The dates meant less than nothing to me, the incredibly faded outlines of the triangles and numbers that had gone along with them still on the chalkboard made more sense, but I guessed that this might be something actually worth learning. One area that seems to constantly be unexplored within the show is the exact history of the land, but that is probably for marketing reasons, kids don’t enjoy learning history too much. The fandom itself has had many theories over the ages and they very vastly so that was little to no use at the time to me, so I guess learning these things from a reputable source was the only option. Luckily, I had such a source in front of me willing to teach the material so my interest was actually being held by this lesson.

I was still covered in dirt, but luckily enough so were the majority of colts that had been playing outside and more than a few fillies. The stench of smelly children was hanging heavily in the room, but the teacher seemed so used to the smell that she didn’t mind or notice. I on the other hoof was sure that at any second I would be overcome with a case of the vapors and fall right out of my desk. It didn’t help that from what my nose could tell I was the worst one there, perhaps running so hard without access to a shower had not been the best idea.

My legs were paining me significantly, just moving to get a new sheet of paper was agonizing but I kept from moaning and tried to not show any of the pain on my features. Children take any sign of weakness as a reason to attack and devour the individual, or was that wolves, was there really a difference? I blinked a few times as I realized my mind was once again wandering and tried to refocus on what I was supposed to be doing. Up ahead most of the class(yes there were a lot more females than males) were writing down everything that Cheerilee put up on the board, and I found myself struggling as I tried to catch up.

“So once the war was finally over the new Celestial Era came into being and we began to count our years as so,” Cheerilee continued, writing a capitol C.E. after the next date she listed.

Wait a second I had missed something, war? What war was she talking about? Stupid tangent forming brain we missed something important. I quickly wrote down everything on the board though I wasn’t exactly sure what it all meant, but it would be good to have. Things such as “The Incision of Insurrection” were listed as well as a few named battles that probably held some significance. There was even mention of the Articles of Harmony being ratified in 2 D.A. so I guess I now knew the answer to that question.

Cheerilee wrote another date on the chalkboard below all of the previous ones, 0 C.E. “Following the end of the war Equestria was left very hurt and trying to pull itself back together. The ponies were still afraid for themselves and their families and had a hard time trusting one another. Because of the Articles of Harmony, Princess Celestia didn’t have nearly the amount of power that she used to have and wasn’t able to help the ponies get back on their hooves as well as she wanted.

“The separate districts of Equestria had a very difficult time working together since the new government and the princess had most of their power taken away by the new articles. There were no common coins between the districts which made trade difficult, and each of the districts kept their own militant forces which were mostly set along the Equestrian border to protect from advances into our territories, back then dragons would rampage through the countryside without care.

“It didn’t take too long for the ponies to realize that the Articles of Harmony weren’t working out like they wanted. They were afraid of giving all of the power back to the princess but they knew that limiting her like they had been wasn’t helping in the least. Does anyone know on what date the Equestrian Constitution was ratified by all four districts and put into place by Princess Celestia?” Cheerilee asked as she turned back to the class and was rewarded with a resounding silence and a lack of hooves in the air, or at least what I could tell from my seat in the middle row.

“Yes, Burnt Steel do you know?” she said as she pointed to the pony sitting behind me. My head whipped around just in time to see him putting his hoof back down on his desk, and his eyes flick over to see my no doubt stunned expression.

“The Equestrian Constitution was ratified on March 4th 6 C.E,” he simply replied.

“That is correct.” With her question answered Cheerilee turned back to the board and wrote down the dates before she continued with the lecture. “The noble congress reconvened during January of that year to address why the government wasn’t able to help the citizens weather the particularly harsh winter that year. It was Deep Thought that proclaimed that under the current articles Princess Celestia’s hooves were tied, and since we didn’t have a nationalized weather patrol at the time, we were unable to do much to help. The other nobles reluctantly came around to Deep Thought’s point and the joint hearing on the hazards of that winter quickly became the 1st Constitutional Session.”

For some reason this was starting to sound a bit familiar, but despite my memory kicking on and trying to place where I had heard these things before I continued to listen. “The nobles began to draft the new constitution and when they had finished nearly a month later they took it back to their respective districts and the princess for ratification. The new constitution was rapidly approved by the representatives and the ponies and was quickly put into place on March 4th of 6C.E. We still use the Equestrian Constitution today, and it is considered one of the greatest pieces of writing to ever come from ponykind.” All of a sudden it all clicked for me where I had heard this before.

“Oh you have to be fucking kidding me,” I said without thinking, I don’t think I even realized I had said it until the class and Cheerilee all turned their attention to me.

“Ashen Stroke!” I hadn’t seen Cheerilee angry before but damn these women that I kept meeting in Ponyville could go from happy to scary as shit in a second. She quickly made her way between the desks, each of the kids leaning away to give her a wide berth, as she came to a stop at my desk. I remembered how I had essentially just folded in front of all the other adults that had turned a harsh eye on me, and this time I struggled diligently to not do so and actually succeeded. The two of us sat there for a few seconds, neither breaking eye contact until she started to talk once more. “That kind of language is unacceptable in my classroom, please go outside and sit in the hall until I come and get you.”

I hesitated there for a moment, I had honestly expected her to be much angrier but the voice she employed was far more controlled and level than I had expected. I stood from my desk and quickly walked out into the hall, closing the door behind me but taking measures to make sure that I didn’t slam the thing. There was silence for a few more seconds before I heard the teacher’s muffled voice begin to come from behind the door. Like I had been told to do I sat myself down in the bland looking hallway for what could only be called a timeout.

Sure I had just sworn right there in the middle of the class, and if there was one thing that teachers hated it was people disrupting their class. There was an old analog clock hanging on the wall opposite me that informed the time to be 11:36, and after a little bit of quick math in my head I figured that I had just under an hour and a half until class was going to be done for the day. After that I would be shipped back to the Rich family estate to do whatever it was that they had for me to do there.

I was starting to realize just how planned out my days were likely to be from now on, no room to do what I wanted to do. I was supposed to be trying to find a way back to my own home and here I was wasting my time in a school just so that it would seem like I was any other kid. I wasn’t any other kid though, and this was all just a huge waste of time, why should I just sit around here in a hallway when I had much more important things to be doing.

I stood from the floor, my side and back legs were still nagging me somewhat, and with renewed determination I quickly marched out of the front door of the school and off to do things. Stepping outside I was once more greeted by the harsh glare of the midday sun and it took me a few moments before my eyes completely adjusted. I continued walking forwards despite trying to blink the black spots from my vision and made it all the way to the dirt road that ran in front of the school before coming to a stop. I looked down the road to my right to see the countryside that we had arrived at the school from, if I had to bet I would say that most of the farms that sat outside Ponyville would be found along this road. I looked back to the left to catch the sight of a few buildings peaking out over a hill in the distance, this would no doubt lead me back to Ponyville. The only real question was which direction should I go.

Packing Snowballs

I looked down at the town from the crest of the hill and stood there for a few moments in awe. Everything, while not being animated so it did look a little bit different, was exactly the same and could be picked out at a glance. Just like I had expected, Twilight’s tree was right in the middle of town next to the mayor’s offices. I could see the top of Rarity’s boutique peeking out from over a few hovels, next to the library that was probably the tallest building in the whole town. I was having a lot of trouble picking out exactly where Sugarcube Corner was, and I really wanted to avoid that place and it’s pink employee at all costs. Out of the entire mane six Pinkie Pie probably posed a bigger threat to my new identity than Twilight, perhaps even more than Celestia herself.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like Pinkie, in fact she was one of my favorites of the mane six, but at least for now until I had gotten more familiar with the world I was in I wouldn’t be taking many risks. That was kind of ironic I realized with how I had just skipped class. I could see up in the sky that there were half a dozen pegasi flying around about their own business, some were moving clouds, some were kicking them apart, and some were just flying around and intentionally trying to make me ache for wings. I never would have let Steel know, but pegasi are so damn cool and he totally lucked out with the whole body situation. Colorful ponies filled the streets since it was well past time for them to be up and about, I guessed some of them went shopping everyday and worked in their own little businesses.

I wasn’t really very familiar with how small towns actually functioned, and it is never actually gone into in the show. All I really knew was that there were plenty milling about and it was probably about time for me to head down from this hill and see what there was to do. I was on a strict time table here so it would probably be best to try and get in and get out as quickly as possible. Now all I had to do was figure out exactly what I was even here to do in the first place.

Since it was midday that would mean that most of the ponies with a job would be at work. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Pinkie would all be busy with their own work and Applejack would most likely be back at her farm a couple of miles in the opposite direction. I really had no idea what Fluttershy’s schedule looked like but running into her would be pretty fun and probably have a low risk of getting caught in my lies even if I did. The trick, I realized, would be getting into that library and checking out the particular book that I wanted without alerting suspicion from one Ms. Sparkle. I supposed that I could always just try and get Spike to help me out in that area, but even he proved to be uncannily intelligent on occasion within the established canon so I could need to tread carefully with him as well.

“Hey, wacha doin sittin up here all by yourself?” Came a very cheery voice from behind me causing me to turn around just a little too quickly and get a glimpse at the pink mare before I lost my footing and started to tumble down the hill. It wasn’t an exceptionally big hill, neither was it very steep really but once you start rolling down an incline like that it is terribly difficult to stop yourself. I rolled head over tail halfway down until one big bump sent me sideways and I finished the dizzying ride on my back with my hooves in the air. I continued to lie there for a little while as I tried to blink my eyes back into focus and heard a sound quickly beginning to approach me from the direction I had just left.

“Weeeeeeeeee,” Pinkie squealed as she too rolled down the hill, though I bet she actually meant to do it. When she reached the bottom she smacked into me with a thud that sent me rolling another couple of feet and somehow coming to a stop on my hooves. “That was fun, we should do it again.”

I was too busy trying to keep my grilled cheese down to reply immediately but after a few deep and calming breaths I managed to finally speak. “No, let’s not.” Oh Celestia how could I have ever hoped to predict where this pink ball of energy would show up, she regularly defies logic and physics on a whim. I needed to think of a plan quickly before she started…

“Oh wow, are you in new in town because I know everypony in town and you’re not one of them. And if you’re new in town then that means we get to throw you a big welcome to Ponyville party with bunches of ponies and cake and streamers and ponies. Oh yea, I forgot to ask what your name is, my name is…”

I immediately moved to cut her off, but with her the timing really has to be perfect. “Pinkie Pie,” I finished for the energetic mare.

“Yeah! How’d you know?” She never did seem to lose that smile which while endearing in the show was just a little bit creepy here.

“We’ve met before,” I readily supplied.

That got a gasp out of her, and while I hadn’t seen some gravity defying stuff yet I was really let down. It seems that they just play the stuff up in the show and that she doesn’t actually hang in the air for untold amounts of time whenever she does gasp, sorry. “No way, I know everypony I’ve ever met and you aren’t one of em mister.” She sat back on her rump and stroked her chin in contemplation.

“Sorry to tell you Pinkie but we have met before, so yea. No need to treat me special and throw parties or anything, I’m just a regular pony like everypony else.” As I spoke I slowly began to back away from her, but it seemed that my words barely even registered as she continued to stroke her chin and stare out into space. I quickly turned and started to enter Ponyville, hoping against hope that she would continue to stay put there until I had finished and returned to class, at least it should buy me a couple of minutes.

“So where did we meet then, if we did meet at all my little mysterious colt friend that I don’t know but knows me and says we’ve met?” I looked to my left and sure enough there she was trotting along beside me, though her pace was far more relaxed than mine. Stupid adult sized legs.

“How about a game,” I replied after a moment of thought.

“Oh a game I love games! What kind of game is it?” she said immediately, I wonder if ponies had diagnosed ADD yet.

“It’s a guessing game, you guess where we’ve met before and I’ll tell you. I am kind of disappointed that you don’t remember me.” I entered a gap between two buildings that led into the town and Pinkie followed along alternating between hopping and just walking normally. Yes, the hopping was a thing and I could not figure out how she did it.

“I am really good at guessing games whoever you are. Alright let me think.” She continued to hop along next to me as she went quiet, the grin on her face always present as I stopped and looked around for a moment. I really wished that I had remembered where the library was, but after taking a tumble down the hill I had lost all sense of direction really. I did happen to know somepony that knew where the library was however.

“Hey Pinkie, I’m trying to find the library so can you point me in the right direction?” I asked, and as soon I did she stopped bouncing immediately. It was the weirdest thing to see since she didn’t really change what she was doing in the least, she just stopped.

“Oh sure, that’s where I was going anyways so we can go together,” She said happily before she started trotting off in a seemingly random direction, forcing me to quickly scurry after her. We passed the denizens of Ponyville by as we made our way another street over, after finally catching up with the pink mare I matched her pace and made a position for myself to her side.

“Alright, I’m ready,” she announced suddenly.

“Ready to what?” I asked, not really paying attention. I was far more interested in taking in all the sights of Ponyville like I hadn’t really been able to do the last time that I was in town. The colorful buildings were made in neat rows on either side of the street and it looked like the street we were on led straight to the mayor’s office. Ponies went back and forth mostly minding their own business or talking to whoever they happened to be with. There weren’t an exceptional amount of ponies but just seeing them out and about was pretty great.

“Ready for my first guess of course.” I wasn’t looking in her direction but her tone of voice told me that she was rolling her eyes.

“Okay, guess then,” I replied casually.

“Did we meet...at a baking convention in Manehatten?”

“No,” I said simply.

“Drat. Did we meet...In Canterlot?”

“When in Canterlot, you can’t just guess cities until you get the right one,” I said, adding an arbitrary rule to make sure she dwelled on this as long as possible and didn’t realize I was straight up lying to her.

“Okay um, during the wedding? It was wasn’t it, that wedding had so many ponies around and I met a lot of new Canterlot ponies.” She looked so triumphant it was almost too hard to put her down, almost.

“Nope, wrong again.” I stopped for a moment to turn and look at a strange store that seemed to only sell couches and quills, how odd. I shrugged it off and continued to follow my pink tour guide towards the destination that I was heading for. She stopped for a moment and looked up to the sky where several pegasi were passing overhead and waved to a few of them, surprisingly many of them took the time to wave back before continuing doing whatever it was that they were doing.

“Wow, this guessing game is really hard,” she said as once more she began to bounce along. Sad to say, I did in fact try and copy her movements if nothing else just to see how in the world she was doing it but I failed miserably. After picking myself back up off the ground and wiping whatever dirt i could get to on my face away I looked once more to the mare to see her giggling madly at my misfortune.

I sighed before starting ahead once more and leaving her there to catch up even though I didn’t know where I was going. “So how do you do that anyways?” I asked Pinkie who was once again bouncing along next to me.

“Do what?” she immediately returned.

“Bounce like that. You don’t seem to be contracting your legs enough to get that height, it’s just like you are a spring or something.”

“Hehe, Twilight said the same thing,” she replied with a slight smirk. “I bounce when feeling bouncy, that’s what I told her anyways.”

I once more had to try and succeed not to facehoof. I honestly don’t know why I expected a different kind of answer out of her in the first place. Pinkie Pie is Pinkie Pie if I wanted some rational explanation for why something is a certain way then I should go and talk with Twilight. I wasn’t planning to do that of course, but certainly you can see my point.

“Alright I got another one,” Pinkie announced just as I finished my train of thought.

“Shoot then,” I said, stopping for a moment to check landmarks.

“Shoot what?”

I looked back to the mare puzzled for a few seconds before I caught on. “It’s something that you say when you want somepony to go ahead with a question that they want to ask. An idiom that….what’s your guess?”

“Okay so since you say we’ve met and I don’t remember having ever met you then there is only one possible conclusion.” Oh god Pinkie using logic. “You must be from the future, you are aren’t you? You’re from the future and are stranded back in time, oh no wait. You are on a mission from the future to save the world.”

Was this really what happened when Pinkie used logic. Any logical conclusion would have led to the fact that I was just completely lying to her and she would be left to try and figure out why, but she tried to make all the facts fit a theory and this is what she came up with. Wait a second, I could use this to my advantage, or at the very least dig myself out of this guessing game hole that clearly wouldn’t last forever.

“Well...you got it. Good job,” I said nonchalantly as I looked over to the mayor’s office where I had been just yesterday.

“What? Really?” she asked as she also stopped and looked at me with a good bit of disbelief.

“Yes, we meet in Ponyville in about eight years for the first time. I can’t really tell you why I am here as it could change the future drastically so that is all I can say to you Pinkie.” I thought through what I had said and felt that it was vague enough. I didn’t really reveal anything just confirmed something she said and would allow her to continue developing the story however she wanted to.

“Oh my gosh are you being for real right now? That’s so cool, hey do they still have parties in the future?” I was actually pretty surprised that she bought it that fast.

“Um...yes. Look we are here,” I said, motioning to the big tree that we had finally arrived at in order to change the subject. It looked exactly like it had in the show when I had seen it, but now that it was in person it was so completely bizarre. It was a massive tree, probably the biggest one that I had ever seen and it had been completely hollowed out to allow for a library to be built inside. Windows poked out of the bark here and there, and the door that stood ajar before us led back into a well lit room that I could only see a small portion of from my vantage. The leaves, and there were many many leaves, slowly waved in the breeze that had kept the day nice and cool so far and looked completely healthy. I really wanted to ask somepony how they managed to keep the thing alive and still carve out so much of it to live in, there was likely some kind of spell in place to keep it standing. I wondered if plants did feel some modicum of pain in this world since it seemed like most animals had a higher sentience so plants might as well. If so then I felt really bad for this mighty oak.

“Yep, this is Twilight’s house. It’s also a library too, but you probably already knew all of that didn’t you?” Pinkie asked with a smirk. Oh damn, she is going to expect me to know things now isn’t she. Well I did know quite a bit that I didn’t rightly have any reason for knowing so I could still pull off this whole future thing without revealing the lie and getting myself into deeper trouble. “Hey, if you’re from Ponyville in the future then how come you didn’t know where Twilight’s library was?”

Shit, how did she catch onto that so quickly. How smart was Pinkie really, it was very difficult to gage with how eccentric she always acts. “The layout is different in the future after the….thing happened…” Damn, now I had to fabricate reasons.

“What thing?” she asked as she inclined her head to the right.

“I can’t tell you about that. Can we just go inside please.”

“Okie Dokie Loki,” she said, immediately dropping the subject and bouncing her way into the building. I was stunned, again, I really needed to throw away my assumptions with this mare because it didn’t seem like anything I predicted her to do turned out right. Maybe she was doing these things just because I predicted her to do something else. No, that was a little too paranoid to have any basis.

I followed her into the building to building and was hit with the smell of old paper as soon as we passed the threshold. There was a light overhead, that combined with the sunlight coming in through the multiple windows, kept the main room well lit. Many bookcases lined the walls, all filled to bursting with books on all sorts of subjects on anything I could possibly imagine. The whole look of it was very nostalgic and I came to realize that seeing this place relaxed me quite a bit. I had been pretty nervous about coming here in the first place, but it didn’t seem like anything sinister was waiting to greet me, why I had expected something of that nature was beyond me.

“Heeellooooo,” Pinkie called into the library and actually managed to get a bit of an echo, which in such a small and open space was bizarre. I think the show had it right and I should stop questioning anything she did.

“Yeah, yeah Pinkie I’m coming,” a distinctly familiar voice responded from just off of the main room. A few seconds later Spike himself came walking into the main library with a white apron that said “Kiss the Chef” on it. Frankly, I was starting to find that the show was liberal in some of the things that it decided to show and here it really stood out.

Spike was just a little bit taller than me, but the cute dragon thing had been completely lost and replaced by the lizard of death that I had originally expected. His purple scales were actually much closer to being completely black though the godzillaesc ones that lined his back and the top of his head were still a neon green, they even seemed to almost pulse with light every once in a while. His eyes weren’t nearly as large as they had been drawn and focused on the two of us with a harsh reptilian gaze, seemingly contemplating ripping us fleshy creatures apart with the wickedly sharp claws I could on the ends of his hands. All in all Spike was fuckin’ scary, luckily the apron helped to divert from that but the look was still there.

“Oh hi Spike, my new dirty friend here wanted to come to the library so I showed him the way. Hey, you never told me your name or should I just call you future colt?” Pinkie asked, turning her attention back my way.

“Ashen Stroke,” I replied, trying to keep my voice as level as possible with the scaly predator in the room. One false move and my fear might set him off.

“Alright Ashy, nice ta meet ya. Hey Spike where’s Twilight I wanna go talk to her?” ADD, definitely ADD.

“She’s upstairs doing some sort of research project,” Spike said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder to indicate Twilight’s room. “Something about mapping.”

“Alrighty.” With her information acquired Pinkie bounced her way upstairs to the upper level and disappeared from sight, leaving me alone with Spike.

After a few seconds of him just looking at me he finally decided to break the silence. “So...is there something that I can help you find or did you just want to browse?” he asked.

My mind snapped back to the main objective I had when I came here immediately, and I forced myself to say the words despite my fear, which now seemed to be pretty irrational. “Right, um yes. Do you know where I could find a book that covers transdimensional magic or anything along those lines?” That certainly got a quirked eyebrow out of the dragon but he seemed to get over it quickly.

“I think we might have some stuff like that over in the magic section,” he said as he pointed over to said section, “but why do you want to read something boring like that? No offense, but you’re an Earth Pony and the subject isn’t exactly entertaining.”

“Yeah no offence taken, I hope you won’t be offended by me not telling you though, personal reasons and such.” I approached the specified bookcase that now that I looked at it had a sign above it indicating that it held books about magic. “So which of these am I looking for?” I asked back over my shoulder.

There was a bit of scraping against the ground and Spike came to join me in staring up at the massive bookcase. “Well, it will probably be up on the top there where all of the advanced stuff is. If we even have it that is.”

“Alright, and how do we get it?” I had already spied the ladder that he was often seen using to get books but I might as well let him tell me about it.

Without a word he walked over and retrieved the ladder which had been leaning against a random wall and set it against the bookcase. “I’ll take a look and see what we have.” About halfway up the stairs he stopped for a moment and turned back to look at me. “Hey, shouldn’t you be in class right now?”

“Shouldn’t you?” Hey that was childish and petty and I didn’t even have to think about it.

“Touche,” he replied as he began climbing the ladder once again to reach the top shelf. “Eincolt’s Experimental Explanations, Hawk’s Harrowing Hereditaries, Fig’s Fantastic Fabrications, Thistle’s True Transmutations. Huh, it looks like what you’re looking for isn’t here. Maybe Twilight took it to read through or something,” he said, pointing to an empty space between two books on the shelf. “Want me to go ask her if she has it?”

I caught sight of a clock that hung on the wall nearby and realized that I had been gone much longer than I had wanted. I really did need that book, and was pretty amazed that it actually existed in the first place, but I also needed to get back to the schoolhouse before anypony realized that I had left in the first place. Damn, it seemed that this trip had been completely wasted after all.

“Yeah can you ask her if she has it, I gotta run right now and will be back later this afternoon,” I said as I started heading for the door and heard Spike jump down from the ladder behind me.

“Alright I’ll do that then. See ya later then Ashen Stroke,” Spike said as he waved.

“Later,” I said simply before dashing back into the world outside and heading for the schoolhouse.

Reprimanded

Gasping for air, well not particularly gasping but breathing harshly from the exertion of running all the way from Ponyville back to the schoolhouse. My hooves were heavy as I dragged them past the threshold of the old building and into the hallway that I had been sequestered to nearly an hour earlier. I somehow managed to make it all the way to the door that led into the classroom before I plopped down and tried to stop my legs from trembling. I found that sitting there propped up on my front hooves was actually too exhausting and ended up fully on the ground sighing as I stretched out my legs as much as I could.

Walking seemed like it would be agony right now and running was completely out of the question, but despite the pain and burning I couldn’t get the smile off of my face. Why was my cutie mark a pen and a strange spiral when it should have been a pair of sneakers. Well ponies didn’t have sneakers or shoes for that matter so it would have needed to be...something else. Honestly I was far too tired to try and think of some sort of cutie mark that would correspond with my newfound love of running so I just let my mind drift wherever it wanted to for the time being.

Since the door was still closed and I could hear voices emanating from inside the classroom it was safe to assume that class was still in session and my little walkabout hadn’t been discovered by anypony. Not that I really accomplished anything aside from meeting the one pony that I had really hoped to avoid, and confirming that the book I wanted might in fact exist. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to use any information that I got from the book, or if I was going to even understand anything that I gleaned from it. Now that I thought about it there didn’t seem to be anything useful that I was going to get from the book, but doing nothing just seemed completely unthinkable at the time.

I heard a chorus of laughter come from the children inside the classroom, and guessed that the teacher had made some kind of joke; she seemed like the type to do that. I continued to lie on the ground for a few seconds longer before the sound of many sets of hooves getting out of their desks and moving about alerted me to the fact that class was likely over. With a groan I managed to right myself and gain a sitting position once more just as the door opened and the entire class rushed out of the room as quickly as they could. I was completely ignored as the students rushed hurriedly past and out the door that led to the front yard. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon didn’t care to run out of the room with the rest of the children; they instead took their time to exit the room and DT even spared me a look that I couldn’t really place as they passed. Steel was the last out, taking even more time than the two before and sighing once he saw me sitting in the hallway.

“Did I miss anything important?” I asked with a smirk.

“You can get my notes, after your detention of course,” he replied, his smirk matching my own.

“Detention? Why do I have detention?”

“Well I don’t know if you have it, but you will probably get it for running off like that.”

Ah shit, did they really find out about that. “Whaaaaat.” Yeah, I knew that I didn’t pull that off in the least.

“Well about twenty minutes after sending you outside she called for you to come back in, and when you didn’t answer she stepped outside to find you not there. Man, she looked really pissed off.” The grin on his face wasn’t the only indicator of how much he was enjoying this. His smug and superior tone was doing wonders for revealing that little fact.

“Damn, I thought she would have left me out here until the end of class. Swearing seems like it would be a big thing around here.”

Steel sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose somehow. “We had only three things that we were supposed to do and you already messed up big time. Seriously you couldn’t get through a single day of school. All you had to do was sit there and not say anything for the entire class and you would have been fine.”

“I know dude, but come on. When I figured out that date thing it was just too ridiculous and I couldn’t help myself.”

He put a hoof on my shoulder, and in the state I was in at the moment he probably could have easily pushed me over. “Stay strong my friend, I will try and stop them from leaving for a little bit.” With his piece said he left me behind and continued outside.

I sat there for nearly a minute before I decided that this was stupid and started to get up to follow him out when Cheerilee called to me from inside the classroom “Ash, can you come in here please?”

I grunted as I finally managed to make it all the way back to a standing position. I peered into the classroom and saw that she was sitting at her desk writing something down and not bothering to look up at me. I shuffled as best I could into the room, but it seemed that my legs had started to get stiff and I really regretted not spending more time stretching after what seemed like my marathon run back to the school. I did somehow manage to cross the floor all the way over to her desk where I stood waiting on her to finish whatever it was that she was writing.

She didn’t seem to mind keeping me waiting there, and I was definitely picking up some very pissed off vibes from her. It was probably very difficult being a teacher when students just flat out disobeyed you and ignored your punishments. Thinking on it now it was a really inconsiderate thing for me to do. She probably thought that I didn’t respect her at all, but she couldn't lash out at me like she wanted to do. Of course I could be completely wrong and she might be dealing with some kind of school board at the moment and that’s what was frustrating her.

As I was busy trying to figure out the structure of the Equestrian educational system Cheerilee put her pen down and turned to look down at my small and dirty form. “Ashen Stroke,” well this couldn’t be good, “do you understand why I asked you to step out of the classroom?”

“Sure, I swore in class and needed to be punished so you sent me outside to be by myself for a while,” I said with a shrug.

“No Ash, that isn’t why I asked you to step outside.” She got up out of her seat and stood before me with that kind smile on her face that I found her often wearing. “I needed to have a talk with you about what you said, but I needed to also finish the lesson so I asked you to wait outside until I was done. When I did finish however you weren’t waiting in the hallway were you?”

I looked down at my hooves and scuffed one on the short carpet “No.”

“Where were you?”

“I was outside.” Okay now I was really starting to feel like shit.

“What were you doing outside?” she asked, looking genuinely interested.

“I was running and stuff.”

We continued to stand there for a few more moment before she finally caught on that I wasn’t going to elaborate. “So you understand that what you said was inappropriate, and you shouldn’t have said it don’t you. Can you tell me why it was a bad thing to say?” I had to give it to her, she was doing an amazing job at not sounding condescending.

“Those words aren’t supposed to be said because they make ponies angry and uncomfortable,” that was the established theory behind why cursing is so bad, or at least that is what I had learned.

“Yes, but also we aren’t supposed to say those things because they lower what others think of you. If you heard a pony that swore all the time would you think that pony respectable. Would you think that they were intelligent and knew what they were talking about?”

“I guess not,” I replied reluctantly.

“So I won't hear you saying things like that again will I?”

“No Miss Cheerilee,” Damn this in many ways was worse than if she was yelling, that at least I could blow off easily enough. But since she was being so nice about everything and understanding the shame was nearly unbearable. I hate just letting people down as a rule, and letting somepony as sympathetic as this down nearly brought me to tears but I managed to hold off.

“Now I know that you and your brother have been through a lot. You’ve had to deal with a lot for your age and I can understand where you’re coming from so I’m willing to work with you and be lenient, but you are going to have to meet me halfway Ash. When I ask you to do something I expect you to listen to me, can you do that for me?” I looked up to her and of course she wasn’t angry in the least which just made it all the harder to do anything but just nod dumbly.

“Very good,” she reached onto her desk and pulled off the piece of paper that she had been writing on and handed it to me. I looked it over and immediately I recognized it for what it was.

“Is this a detention slip?” I asked, really astounded that she was actually giving me detention with all that she had just said.

“Yes, you left when I asked you to wait outside and that is not only against the rules, but a dangerous thing for you to do. Nopony knew where you were or where you were going which is a very bad thing. Tomorrow you will be staying and making up the lesson that you missed as well as studying with the other students that will be in detention with you.” Her tone completely changed, and now she was in a completely strict teacher mode, it was almost enough to make me swear once more then and there but I caught myself before I could and simply took the paper.

“So, can I get my stuff and leave then?” I asked, now having fully lost whatever disappointment in myself that her talk had inflicted upon me.

“Yes you may,” she said with all the seriousness disappearing from her voice. Man, she really was really good with kids, good enough to manipulate me easily enough and I liked to think of myself as mature and intelligent.

I stomped my way over to the back of the room where my backpack was waiting for me to pick it up, the weariness in my hooves seemingly gone. I pulled it out of the cubby rather harshly and quickly stuffed the detention slip into it before slinging the pack over my shoulder and heading for the exit.

“Have a good day Ash,” Cheerilee called to me from her desk just as I was about to walk out, causing me to stop and look back to her.

“Have a good day Miss Cheerilee.” Sure I was peeved, but that was honestly no excuse for being needlessly rude.

As he had said he would, Steel had kept the carriage from leaving and it was still waiting outside for me when I exited the building. My day so far had been a blurry mix of so many things that I wasn’t really sure how I should feel about it, but one thing was certain, I was happy that I wouldn’t have to walk all the way back to the rich compound. Melody was there standing next to the open door and waiting patiently for me to limp myself all the way over to litter and slowly climb inside before she did the same as well. She pulled the door closed behind her and we were quickly on our way back to “home.”

“So,” Steel began, “did you end up getting detention?”

“Yes,” I replied a little more annoyed than angry.

“Ha, knew it.”

“You got detention? Whatever for?” Melody asked.

“Skipping,” Diamond said flatly.

“I didn’t really skip. More like I stepped out for a moment and came back later. The teacher and I had a really nice little chat about it but she still wants me to stay late tomorrow. Should I like get this slip signed by anypony?” I asked as I took the piece of paper from my backpack.

Melody lightly grabbed it from me and looked it over for a few moments before replying, “I will make sure this gets to Mr. Rich and he looks it over.” With that it seemed that the matter was over and dropped. We continued to bump down the road for a little while longer before I started to open a whole new can of worms.

“So what time are we meeting up with the CMC?” Steel perked up at me using the acronym. I didn’t recall it ever actually being used in the show, so maybe it was a little bit dangerous to do, but there was likely little harm in it.

“I knew you set that up!” he exclaimed.

“Do you hate me for it?”

“No, but still don’t try and manipulate me into things, I hate it when you do that. Anyways, Applebloom said to meet them at the clubhouse around seven I think so we have a while until then.”

“Applebloom,” Diamond chimed in with a hint of disgust echoing in her voice, “why would you want to hang around her?”

“She said that she had a club for ponies that haven’t gotten their cutie marks yet and I thought that might be fun for Steel. Why, is there something wrong with her?” I replied cooly. I felt this might be an interesting look into why DT and Applebloom don’t get along too well.

Diamond Tiara simply rolled her eyes at my question. “You mean aside from the fact that she is an annoying blank flank. What else has to be wrong with her?” No I suppose not a complex reason, just something childish and shallow.

“Well Steel is a blank flank so I would appreciate you not bad mouthing them,” I said sternly.

“Hey I can speak up for myself,” he protested.

“Of course you can.”

Diamond rolled her eyes once more, she was actually pretty good at that, before crossing her hooves and sitting back in her seat. “Whatever, just know that this will make you total losers at school from now on.”

I just simply shrugged and sat back in my seat as well. I occupied myself with staring out the window and watching the landscape roll by slowly. On the trip back I was allowed to see the opposite side of the road which very much mirrored the other side, but was still pleasant to look at all the same. The wildflowers I had occupied my time gazing at were still waving back and forth in the breeze. I still reeked, but strangely it seemed like nopony else noticed or cared so I decided to not care too much about it since I would be able to take a bath back at the house soon enough.

An awkward silence once again settled over everypony in the litter though I found myself enjoying it. The recovery from my self induced torture was proceeding rapidly and ten minutes into the sojourn back to the Rich Estate I was already feeling much better though the aching in my legs still persisted. I figured that a bath would also help a good bit with that as well and so I really began looking forward to my first bath as a colt. I knew that it was kind of strange to be feeling so excited over a bath that I was going to have but I would be very glad to get all this dirt and grime off myself.

The soft bumping of the two stallions pulling the litter ahead of us started to make me feel a bit sleepy. I tried to occupy myself with my gazing out the window but that came with difficulty. I hadn’t really taken too much notice in the path that we had taken to get to the school the first time around, but this time I tried to keep the route straight in my head. It wasn’t very difficult really since there seemed to only be a single dirt road that led away from Ponyville and we happened to be traveling along it at the moment.

Several dirt paths peeled off of the main road and seemed to lead to various farms and fields sown with crops of all kinds. I recognized vast expanses of golden wheat as we passed a particular field and noted the machinery that was being used by the ponies tending to it. One in particular was riding a large tractor off to the far left where the crop met the treeline and seemed to be reaping a portion of the field though it seemed a little early for harvest to me. I would find out later that part of the crop had been tainted with disease and had to be removed before it spread to the rest of the field.

We also passed an orange orchard on the way back, the trees heavy with their fruit and looking just about ready to drop it at any moment. I think we also passed a cherry orchard but the trees were so far off in the distance that I couldn’t really make out if there was any fruit hanging from them or not. I was unfortunately not able to see Sweet Apple Acres, but I had a strong feeling that it was around here somewhere and when we wanted to go over to the clubhouse later it wouldn’t be too difficult to find. I knew that Diamond Tiara knew where it was but asking her might not be for the best, it was a well known place I was sure so somepony was bound to know where it was at.

The gravel beneath the wooden wheels of the litter began to smooth out ever so slowly as we approached the estate. I was able to see this time the large gate and fence as we came into view of the turn off a mile ahead and a few more minutes later somepony opened up the gate for us without a word and we peeled into the long driveway that led up to the main house which was still out of sight. The hill that we began to ascend seemed to be artificially made and the lawn was impeccable, I didn’t know if they had motorized lawn mowers but if they did I couldn’t see the lines that it would have cut in the grass. Unlike I had earlier this time I noticed the shrubberies that were on either side of the path as we made out slow ascent. They seemed to be organized into three different colors of roses: red, white, and pink, and alternated between those colors in a clear pattern.

We pulled into the drive that circled in front of the house and the two stallions at the front of the litter unhitched themselves and quickly made their way around to open the door for us and stand on either side of it. Melody was the first to actually exit and one of the stallions, I believe he was grey with a red mane, lent her a hoof as she got down and onto the smooth pavement below. Diamond made her way gracefully from the litter as well and proceeded to walk on ahead to the entrance of the house where she was swarmed by three servants who took her things and listened to the requests she had. Steel was the next out and he actually bothered to wait for me to climb out along next to him before we both started to head up the stairs and into the house.

There was no team of servants that came to greet us and make sure that we had a good day at school. “Can I get those for you?” I heard Melody ask from behind us as she motioned to the two backpacks that we were carrying.

Steel quickly handed his over as best he could and I simply unslung it and did the same. The maid placed both book bags on her back and began forward with us towards the main staircase. “Is there anything that you two would like before your fitting in an hour?” she asked.

“Yes actually,” I immediately replied, “where is the washroom I need to really take a bath and get all this gunk off of me.”

“That’s what she said.” That earned Steel a thunk in the back of the head from me, but he looked to think it was worth it.

“The washroom is just upstairs and if you require I will have a bath drawn for you,” Melody replied motioning to the indicated room I could just see on the upper level.

I was about to decline when I realized that I had no idea how the tubs here actually worked here and that my small form might not actually be able to work the controls. “Yes that would be very welcome,” I said in my best imitation of a posh accent which gained a little giggle from the maid before she began ahead of me up the stairs and to the bathroom.

Steel was still nursing his new wound when I turned back to look at him. “What?” he asked.

“Can we not make jokes like that dude, I’ve already gotten into trouble for slips like that and we don’t need you doing it too.”

“Sorry, but it was just too good to pass up. You practically set me up for that one,” he pointed out.

“Yeah yeah, just get your shit together and be thankful that she didn’t get it. At least I don’t think she did. We have a big day ahead of us still so lets not lose sight of what is important,” I said as I began to walk away and head up the stairs.

“And what exactly is that?” he asked as I walked away.

“I don’t know dude. You figure that out, I have a bubble bath to take.”

A Trip to the Orchard

The dining room was vacant save for the three ponies sitting at the table waiting on their meals to be presented to them. Steel idly tapped his hoof on the top of the table as he waited; the other supporting his head as he stared out of one of the three massive windows that overlooked the estate. Diamond was reading something, but since her end of the table was twenty feet away from me I couldn’t really tell what it was, it did seem to be some newspaper article though. I was also rather bored and was counting the threads in the tablecloth; I had gotten up to nearly two-hundred before sighing and giving up on the project altogether.

Last night the food had been so prompt that now it was feeling like I had taken it for granted. Twenty minutes, we had been waiting for nearly half and hour and still we had no food in front of us. I really didn’t know what they were cooking but it had better be damn good. I wasn’t really even that hungry either, it was just the waiting around doing nothing that I was having such a hard time with.

“So…” I said, trying to kick up some kind of conversation that might move this along. “Is Mr. Rich not going to be eating with us?”

Diamond looked up from her news article and stared at me for a couple of seconds before neatly folding her newspaper up and looking back at me. “Daddy usually eats in his office when he is here, and that isn’t often. He left this morning for Las Pegasus so he’ll be gone for a while.”

“Oh, so we are like all by ourselves with the parents out of the house then?” Steel asked.

“We aren’t alone, there are nearly a dozen servants at the main house and that doesn’t include the cooks and groundskeepers,” she replied as she opened her newspaper and began reading it again.

I tapped my hoof on my chin thoughtfully “But the servants work for us right? So we are in charge?”

Diamond didn’t even bother looking up this time, she actually held up the newspaper to make a barrier between herself and the two of us. “They work for Daddy not you.”

I sighed and laid my head out on the table. “What are you reading anyways?”

“Business,” she replied roughly.

“What kind of business?” Steel inquired.

“The kind that isn’t yours.” She flicked the paper with her hoof and the room returned to silence.

The sun was shining through the windows and casting rays across the table, each of our seats were in the shade and seemed to have been deliberately placed as such. I didn’t exactly know what time it was, but I guessed that it might be a little after three by now. That left us with a little less than three hours until we were supposed to meet up with the CMC, and then I would need to go and pick up that book from the library all before coming back to the house. Which meant that after all that was done I would have a nice little stint in detention to look forwards to tomorrow. But at the moment all I really had ahead of me was some sort of meal that may or may not ever actually get here.

“Oh my Celestia this is sooo boring,” Steel moaned.

“Pretty boring,” I agreed.

“Then go do something,” Diamond said offhand.

“Like what?” Steel asked.

“Like tennis, or swimming, or go talk to your flight instructor, or something.” she flipped the page of the newspaper, still hiding behind it.

“You got your flight instructor already?” I asked, turning to Steel.

“It’s news to me,” he replied confused.

“Yes, they are supposed to be here later this afternoon so you can get in a session with them before you go to bed or something,” Diamond, who seemed to be our new information booth, informed my orange friend.

“Hey that’s cool right?” I said, trying to keep the conversation progressing as much as possible.

“Yeah cool,” he replied, far less enthusiastic.

“What? You don’t want to learn how to fly? You are a pegasus shouldn’t that be like a real big thing?”

“Yeah, flying would be cool. I bet it takes like a super long time to learn though.” Well he did kind of have a point there. He was pretty damn scrawny, though the one pegasus kid I had seen at the school had a similar kind of build. I wondered if pegasi were naturally really skinny and have a low body fat count so that they could fly better. None of that really mattered though, I was just excited to see him fail miserably at his attempts to fly. If Scootaloo, somepony that was a pegasus all the time, couldn’t even get off of the ground then he really had no chance at doing it.

The doors behind me opened, causing me to pick my head up so that I could look back and see Dusty levitating three trays in ahead of him. Diamond set her paper aside and I caught Steel smiling as the food was finally brought over, a smile that I probably shared. He set the trays down in front of the three of us and removed the lids as he began to walk back out of the room. I looked down at plate in front of me to see what was unmistakably, undeniably, unavoidably, grass. Sure it was grass that seemed to have been roasted a little bit and covered in some sauces with a few vegetables here and there, but it was still grass.

“This is grass,” I complained. Dusty stopped and turned to look back at me as she stacked the tray lids atop each other.

“Is there something wrong with your meal?” he inquired with an arched brow.

“Can I not have...grass?”

“Well Master Stroke you are welcome to make your way to the kitchen and prepare a meal more to your liking.” With his piece said, and me staring at him with a dumb look on my face, he turned once more and left without anything more said. I watched the closed door for a little while longer before turning back to my disappointing meal.

“He sure shut you up,” Steel said with a smirk.

“Screw you dude.” I pushed a small tomato out of the way and scooped a bit of the grass up with my fork. It didn’t look the least bit appetising, sitting there looking all...green. I swallowed my trepidation and brought the weeds to my mouth and took a bite. It was spicy, but that was all the sauce trying to carry the main course which of course it couldn’t. No matter how much they wanted to dress it up it was still a plate full of grass, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to eat it. I pushed the plate away from myself and sat back in my chair. Much against my expectation Steel actually seemed to be enjoying the slop and Diamond was eating it without a hint of care.

My stomach rumbled, just eating a single bite of the ‘meal’ had made me realize just how hungry I was. I had been literally running myself ragged for most of the day and the only thing I had to eat was half of a grilled cheese sandwich. Woefully, I looked back down at the plate in front of me and rolled one of the little tomatoes around with a hoof. My stomach complained once again so I reluctantly picked my fork back up impaled the round fruit and lifted it to my lips. I was by no means a fan of tomatoes but it had to be better than grass right.

I popped it into my mouth and chewed it as quickly as possible before swallowing it down and gasping as I managed to suppress actually gagging. With a frown I repeated the process with a carrot and was much happier as the orange slice actually seemed to be somewhat edible. I poked around the edges of the plate, picking up as many carrots as possible before I was unfortunately brought back to only having tomatoes and grass to choose from. I grunted and brought another tomato up to eat and after quickly downing it pushed my plate away again.

I shivered bodily as I set my utensils aside and sat back in my chair for the final time. I looked over to see Steel had finished his plate rather quickly and had been watching me with amusement clear on his face.

“What?” I asked a little disgruntled.

“I told you that you wouldn’t be able to make it,” he quickly supplied.

“I can totally….you know what you’re right. I’m totally dead and this is the end for me,” I said as laid back as I possibly could.

“You don’t sound very dead and defeated to me.”

“Oh I am, so dead. Done for, finished, kaput, something else that means the end.” I went about straightening the fork so that it was perfectly parallel with the knife next to it.

“You sure you are?”

“Totes bro.”

“Really, I’m not so sure you’re sure.”

“I am so sure that you don’t even know. You couldn’t know how sure I am. How could you possibly know something like this. You don’t know me, you don’t know my life.” We were really getting into it now.

“I don’t know you? Bro I know all about you. I know what there is…”

“Can you two just stop! Jeez I can’t even think with you two here!” Diamond suddenly yelled as she smacked her hooves onto the top of the table. I had to say that seeing the little pink pony so angry was both a little bit threatening and hilarious. She definitely had a blush plain on her face that was giving away just how pissed off she was. Me and Steel shared a knowing look before the both of us just broke out in a bout of laughter. I heard Diamond leave the room somewhere between me banging on the table and wiping a tear out of my eyes, but soon we found ourselves out of breath and alone in the room.

“So,” I began once we had both calmed down a bit, “what do you want to do until we are supposed to leave?”

“Oh I don’t know. We could go swimming like Diamond said, they probably have a really nice pool here.”

I shook my head immediately. “I just cleaned myself off, and besides, I don’t like swimming you know that. We could go check out the tennis court.”

“What for? You think that I could possibly play tennis?” I looked him over again and had to admit that he didn’t strike me as much of an athlete.

“Well what else is there to do then?” I asked with a shrug.

“Don’t they have a library or study around here somewhere? We could go check out the books in this place.” I thought it over a bit and nodded after hopping out of my chair and onto the floor.

“Sounds like fun, let’s go check out the reading material around here.”

Steel pushed his plate away and made his way to the floor, though it was quite a bit less graceful. We walked to the door and after watching him struggle with the heavy wooden portal I pushed against it and helped him open the door. We exited back out into the main hall of the Rich Mansion and stood around for a couple of seconds not really knowing which direction to head out in.

“Upstairs?” I asked my companion.

“Upstairs,” he agreed.

We quickly made our way up the steps and onto the second floor where we took the first right and began exploring the house at our own leisure. I had expected there to be a lot more to the house but as we walked down the hallway and then the first couple that came off it we came to realize that most of the rooms were empty. We continued on our merry way, checking the doors as we went and finding mostly empty bedroom with nopony in them, but after a half-hour of searching the massive dwelling Steel opened a door that led to a massive library.

I had seen depictions of what studies are supposed to look like in mansions and someone took the entire collection and smashed them all together to see what they could make. There were a couple of comfy looking chairs sitting in the middle of the floor and all around the circular room were bookcases filled to bursting with tomes of all sorts. There didn’t really seem to be much of an ordering system to the entire mess but the sheer volume of the books was staggering.

Steel immediately walked over to the bookcases and started browsing the selection, probably looking for something familiar. I continued to look about the room a little bit more, I would have plenty to read later after all. There seemed to be a minibar in the room and scotch in a very nice bottle with some empty glasses next to it on a tray. The bottle was just a little too far out of reach for me to be able to actually get it and pour myself a much needed drink. Sure it would have probably been illegal though I wasn’t really sure what the laws on that were.

I walked away from the bar and inspected a bookshelf a bit aways from the one Steel was pulling books out of and reading the covers of. Most of the books I could see seemed to be about business, and the other ones were in languages that I couldn’t even read so I moved onto the next shelf and began browsing once more. Like I had expected, I didn’t actually recognize any of the titles or the authors. This shelf mostly seemed to contain histories and philosophies, which while interesting, and probably worth cracking open so that I could learn more about this world, didn’t actually capture my interest enough to cause me pause. I kept moving down the line past more histories and some really old books that had some interesting titles. I pulled one off the shelf titled “The Battle of the Ironhoof” and flipped it open. To my surprise it appeared to be handwritten by the author and immediately jumped into a story of a battleship that was besieged in foreign waters. It was a little bit interesting and seemed to actually be a true story, but I was not really big on histories so I closed it and put it back in its spot.

I looked back to see Steel lounging in a chair with a book open in front of him reading avidly. I continued to look from shelf to shelf until I eventually picked up something entitled “Pegasi Avionics” and went over to a chair to read. I usually try and stick to reading material that has to do with a story and that has interesting characters. The nonfiction books and the ones without any story to them usually don’t catch my interest, but I was genuinely curious as to how Pegasi managed to fly. Everything I had heard on the subject had been conjecture from the fandom that was convinced Pegasi shouldn’t be able to fly.

The book did used so much jargon that I was confused as hell just a couple of pages into the text, but I think I was able to get the gist. Of course, the most important part of flying were the wings and there seemed to be some magical component to them, though with the language barrier I wasn’t exactly able to figure out what that was. Suffice to say that when I put the book down at the end of the introduction I understood that the stronger the wings the better the pegasus should be able to fly. I got out of my seat and quickly walked back over to where I found the book and put it back.

I looked a few titles over and found “A Study of Earth Pony Biology” and snagged the book before I could even think about it. I quickly walked back to the chair I was in and opened it up to begin devouring the information inside. It started by explaining the major differences between the three pony races, the unicorns had horns, the pegasi wings, and the earth ponies had neither of these. It said that instead earth pony bones were actually more dense and their muscles a higher weight to strength ratio. Just reading that alone was incredibly reassuring, I had hoped that I had some kind of benefit for being stuck as an Earth Pony, and while it wasn’t that particularly great by itself it was something at least.

I continued flipping through the chapter titles until I came to a stop on one dedicated to magic. I had always been skeptical about the whole magic of the Earth Ponies thing, but if this book was to be believed they did in fact have it. It described Earth Ponies as actually being the most magically diverse of the three races, possessing an innate kind of magic that changed how their bodies interacted with the world. Like the previous book it began to delve into a bunch of jargon that I wasn’t too understanding of, but essentially it said that while unicorns focus their magic through their horns and pegasi through their wings, Earth Ponies have their actual bodies altered by their own magic and then were able to exert their will on the world.

I was eager to read on but the large clock against the wall chimed several times and broke my concentration. I guess I had been trying to decipher something when it rang an hour ago because that was the first time I had noticed it there, and now it was showing that it was six o’clock. I left the book sitting in the chair and quickly jumped down, causing Steel to look up from his seat as I did so.

“It’s six bro we need to get a move on,” I said as I started making my way to the door, only to hear a moan come from behind me. I turned back to see him pull a spare piece of paper off of the small table next to his chair and stick it in the book to mark his page before closing the book. He jumped down and quickly made his way over to the door I was waiting at and motioned for me to take the lead. I opened the door and headed out, doing my best to remember the turns that we had taken to get to the Study so we wouldn’t waste any time getting lost. As we stood at the top of the stairs, about to head down to the main door I saw Melody waiting at the entrance to the house for us.

We quickly made our way downstairs and over to the maid. “Are you two ready to leave?” she asked as we came to a stop in front of her.

“Um, yea. I thought we were going to walk there honestly,” Steel replied.

“Same,” I chimed in.

“Where were you two planning to go then?” she asked.

“Sweet Apple Acres,” I said instantly.

“And you know where this is?” I had to admit that stopped me right in my tracks.

“Good point,” I confessed, “so are you going to take us there then?” Melody turned and held the door open for the two of us as we exited the manor into the waning sunlight of the day. The carriage was once again waiting for the two of us. A quick trip down the stairs later and into the litter later, and we were on our way to our destination. I put most of my concentration into watching the window once more to make sure that I memorized the route so I could find my way back if I needed to.

Really, it was pretty strange that we were being catered around in a carriage everywhere. If the trip was too far to walk then how come two fully grown stallions were pulling us around everywhere? Rationally that didn’t actually make any sense, so there was probably some secondary reason that I wasn’t privy to, or maybe they were just being nice and since we didn’t know where our destination was they were taking us there. Even so, taking three adults out of their own ways to chauffeur children to somewhere when it would be just as easy to write down instructions on a piece of paper seemed like a waste of time.

We turned out of the road that led up to the main estate and onto the main road that we had taken to the school earlier that day. We took a right, heading off farther away from Ponyville and even farther out to the countryside, a turn that I hadn’t really expected but made sense in retrospect. Since we hadn’t passed Sweet Apple Acres, or at least I didn’t remember seeing us pass it earlier, it would mean that it was in the other direction. While I had thought it might take quite a bit to get there the apple orchard wasn’t even five minutes away by carriage.

I had just noted us passing what looked like rows upon rows carrots when we began to slow and take a hard left beneath a large wooden gate. I wasn’t actually able to read the sign but I thought that it was safe to assume that it was the one I had seen in the show many times over. The dozens of apple trees I was able to see out the window as we passed the wooden fence that ran the expanse of the property was also a nice hint that maybe we had arrived at our destination. As we continued to proceed into the orchard the amount of trees just continued to increase dramatically until it felt like we were passing through an actual forest, a very well organized and spaced out forest, but a forest none the less.

Like the path that led up to the Rich main house, this one seemed to just continue on and on and on, so much that just staring out the window and watching the trees nearly lulled me to sleep. I managed to stave off slumber long enough for us to pull up in front of the huge family house that I had seen depicted many times before, though like most of the buildings I had actually come to see since leaving Earth it was much more grand than depicted in the cartoon. The sheer scope of the family home was staggering, though if I were to compare it to the one that I was currently dwelling in it was easily dwarfed. Even so it was still an impressive sight to take in.

Melody took it upon herself to open the door and step out of the litter ahead of us, and wait for us to leave. I exited the carriage next and was immediately hit by the harsh smell of dried dirt and what could only be described as a presence of earthiness. The ground beneath my hooves was very well trodden and packed hard into the earth. The birds were singing, the wind was blowing, and the sun was still trying it’s best to shine over the tops of the nearby trees. Standing there, actually on the Apple family farm, I felt a queer sense of accomplishment, like by merely being here I was succeeding somehow.

The creak of an old wooden rocking chair caught my attention and made me glance towards the front porch of the house where a napping green mare was leisurely lounging. Granny Smith didn’t seem to have notice our arrival in the least and was determined to continue sleeping the day away. I looked back to the carriage to catch sight of Melody climbing once again into the litter and closing the door behind her, leaving me and Steel to stand by ourselves out in the yard. I looked over to the pegasus questioningly and merely received an indifferent shrug in return. I was about to call him out for it when the sound of young hooves on wood pulled my attention back to the front porch that Applebloom just so happened to be rounding at the moment.

She came to a stop on the porch in front of us and glanced between the two of us and the carriage behind us before calling back around the house behind her “Hurry up Sweetie Belle, they’re here!” It didn’t take too much longer for the small white unicorn to also make her way around the house and into view. Just as I had come to expect her colors were a little different than their cartoonish depiction and blended together much better, but it was unmistakably Sweetie Belle that was before us.

“Hello,” I began with a hesitant wave of my hoof.

“Sup,” Steel said.

“Hi, I’m Sweetie Belle. You two must be Ashen Stroke and Burnt Steel right?” she asked as the pointed to the two of us, mixing up our names of course but that was fine really.

“Yes, I’m Ash and he is Steel,” I corrected. “Nice to meet you Sweetie Belle.” Of the two crusaders I had met so far Sweetie was by far the cutest, but that was to be expected really. I was seriously doubting that Scootaloo would beat her out, but Spike had been a surprising depiction so who knew really.

“Well what’re y’all standin’ around for? We got an induction ceremony ta get ta,” Applebloom announced before turning tail and running back the way the two had come.

“Wait for me!” Sweetie Belle called out as she too took off around the house.

“Ugh, running,” Steel complained next to me just before I took off after the two hyper fillies with a laugh. I thought I saw Granny Smith start awake as I rapidly made my way up the two steps leading to the front deck and started to run my way around the house, my hooves clacking heavily against the aged wood that comprised the Apple family patio. Rounding the main building I caught sight of Applebloom disappearing into the orchard, and Sweetie Belle trying desperately to keep up with her friend as she passed a picnic table halfway across the back yard. I spurned myself forwards once more in an effort to catch up to the white unicorn and just managed to as we both broke past the line of bushes and into the orchard proper that led out for miles behind the house.

“So,” I managed to say between large breaths, somehow keeping my voice steady as I did so, “where are we running to?”

“We are…” Sweetie attempted to reply despite it being fairly obvious that running and speaking wasn’t exactly her cup of tea, “going...to the clubhouse.”

“Clubhouse huh, that sounds pretty cool,” I said, slowing my pace to match her own.

“Yeah,” she agreed with a nod as we continued on our merry way. I chanced a look back behind us and way off in the distance thought I saw a small blur of orange enter the orchard path that we were on, so with my mind at rest I turned it back to enjoying the task at hand. The ground was uneven and completely littered with tree roots that would spring up wherever they chose and try to trip me up, but it wasn’t too difficult to keep up the easy pace that me and Sweetie Belle were jogging at.

I had honestly expected the crusader treehouse to have just been a few dozen yards away from the main house, but it took us nearly ten minutes to reach the damned place. By the time we broke into the clearing that the crusaders had established their fort in, Sweetie Belle was panting and I was feeling a bit winded myself. There was really no telling how Steel as doing back there, but he was an independent guy and would join us shortly I was sure. I took a moment to make myself familiar with my new surroundings; just as expected there was a nice looking treehouse before me with a long platform leading up to it. There was a small brook babbling to my left and some old junk lying about in the grass, though I was sure that there was some sort of purpose to all of it.

Applebloom was sitting at a decrepit looking table playing some kind of solitaire, and Sweetie Belle soon limped her obviously tired self over to join her friend. I pulled back a bush to look to the trail behind us and was able to see Steel panting and wheezing his way over to us at a very deliberate pace. I looked back to the crusaders at the table and gave them my best award winning smile, “Looks like my brother will be joining us soon. Didn’t you say that there were three of you though Applebloom?”

It seemed my timing had been perfect because just as I finished asking Applebloom dashed the cards off of the table in an melodramatic rage. “Yeah,” she sighed, “Scoots is up in the clubhouse fixin’ things up.”

“Alright that’s cool,” I nodded as I looked up to the treehouse. The construction was obviously not professional grade, but it was perfectly square and painted very well. From my spot on the ground I couldn’t spot anything particularly out of place with it, and knew that I had no chance of building anything that was near that level of craftsmanship. I looked back to Applebloom once more and after sizing her up a bit more felt assured that construction was to be her cutie mark; though I’m sure there was some kind of rule against actually telling her that.

Steel managed to finally catch up as he fell through the bushes just behind me and collapse on the ground panting. I looked down at his small fragile form and couldn’t help but snicker a little bit, to which I received a glare and a gesture that would have made a lot more sense if my friend still had fingers. I gave in and helped him back to his hooves before we made our way over to the table that the two girls were still at and waited for a few moments before Sweetie Belle realized that we didn’t know what we were doing.

“Oh right,” she piped up. “Scootaloo they’re here! Come outside!” Man that girl certainly had some lungs on her, enough reward me with a slight ringing in my ears. The door of the treehouse was unceremoniously kicked open and an orange and purple blur riding a scooter sailed out of the open entrance to land on the edge of the ramp and start sliding down. Scootaloo grinded down the edge of the ramp on her front hooves until the scooter hit the ground where she did two front flips in the air, using her wings for stabilization, before she landed perfectly poised on the table we were standing around.

“Okay guys, let the 83rd meeting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders come to order.”

A Chance Meeting

“Nice,” I said like an idiot; I had been so dazzled by the display of acrobatics that I had forgotten the basics of pony-based applauding.

“Thanks,” Scootaloo replied, taking the comment in stride.

I looked to Steel who was still standing next to me, though he seemed to have been driven into a stupor by the momentary display of awesome from his personal favorite pony. I waved a hoof in front of his face a few times and after getting no visible reaction fell back to just snickering at his stupidity. Oh man, this was just too great, watching him standing there slack jawed like a deer caught in the headlights was giving me so much enjoyment that I completely missed the girls beginning their own conversation. Unable to snap in front of his face to rattle him out of his comatose state I settled for ribbing him. “Bet you can’t do something like that.”

The elbow to his side seemed to do the trick as he blinked a few times before turning his stare at me. “Well no duh.”

I looked back and forth between the two pegasi within our midst a few times. “Well you’re orange and she’s orange, plus you’re both pegasi. Let’s say we put you on the scooter and roll you down the ramp to see how you do.”

“Yeah I don’t think that will be happening,” he deadpanned.

“Are you sure?” I asked with a smile, “You might discover a talent for stupid stunts.”

“Now I thought that was your thing,” he shot back.

“I will have you know…” my thoughts were derailed by two hoover being planted in my lower back and the sudden sensation that somepony was using me to prop themselves up. I turned my head back to see none other than Scootaloo with her front hooves pressed against me, standing there inspecting my flank. “Can I help you?”

“You’re right, he does have a cutie mark Applebloom. What’s it supposed to be anyways?” Stoocaloo asked as she turned to face me, though she didn’t get the hint and move off of my person.

“It’s a pen, it means I’m good at writing.” I said, taking a step away to let her fall back to the earth though she managed to land easily enough.

She quirked an eyebrow at me and waited a few seconds before speaking again. “That sounds kinda...boring.” I caught the sound of an unmistakable snicker from behind me, but truly I wasn’t too bothered. I was still just kind of spitballing here and assumed that was what the cutie mark meant though I honestly didn’t really know.

“Well that is pretty rude,” I said, feigning indignity.

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle agreed.

“Hey I’m just sayin’,” Scootaloo said in her own defense. “Besides since he has a cutie mark why would he want to join the club?”

I motioned my head back at Steel. “I’m not joining, he is.”

“What!” Steel exclaimed, somehow surprised that was what was happening here.

Scootaloo looked over my shoulder at the orange pegasus standing behind me like she was seeing him for the first time, and since i had been standing in front of him this whole time that just might have been the case. “Oh hey,” she said simply.

He glared at me before looking back to Scootaloo and attempting a simple wave, “Hey.”

I was forgotten as Scootaloo walked past me over to Steel and inspected him as closely as he would allow. She looked closely at his wings, probably finding them small and unusable though I had no real idea. She inspected his backside to see that he did in fact not have a cutie mark, and she even moved incredibly close to his face to put their eyes just inches away from each other. The entire process was a bit bizarre, and something I would expect more of Pinkie Pie, but when Scootaloo moved away she seemed relatively satisfied with the CMC’s new inductee.

“We still gotta vote,” she announced as she moved back to her friends that were standing around the table.

“Of course,” Steel sighed.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders gathered around each other in a huddle and began murmuring to themselves. I wasn’t that far away but I couldn’t make out anything they were saying, and the things I did manage to hear didn’t actually sound like real words at all. I had an inkling that they were just mumbling nonsense words to themselves, but who was I to point this out. The huddle was broken just about as quickly as it had formed up; the crusaders even did a little break as they formed into a little line in front of the table.

Sweetie Belle stepped forward and put a hoof up to her mouth before clearing her throat quite audibly. “A vote has been taken, and it has been decided that Burnt Steel shall be allowed to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders on a probationary trial thing.” She kind of lost her poise towards the end of the announcement, but I was still somewhat impressed.

“So what does that mean?” he asked, taking a step towards the three.

“It means that ya’ll are gonna’ have ta prove that yer Crusader material mister,” Applebloom answered as she took a step forwards.

“And how do I do that?”

Scootaloo took the chance to get her two cents in. “It means you show us that you’re good at crusading and stuff, and that you’re dedicated to getting cutie marks for everypony in the club.”

Steel looked to me somewhat pleadingly, but my slight smirk was the only thing that I was going to give him here. He looked back to the three fillies that were smiling at him as adorably as they could I was sure, but still he didn’t exactly look too excited. I had honestly thought that he would jump at the prospect of joining the CMC but for some reason he was being obstinate, or at least more reluctant than I had expected him to. I pushed him a little farther forward and after regathering himself he glared back at me before sighing and turning towards the CMC once more.

“Alright, sounds like fun,” he said eventually.

“Hooray!” they all cheered far too loudly, making me shrink back a few steps. Scootaloo took the lead and walked forwards to sling a hoof over Steel’s shoulder and start ushering him towards the clubhouse. I watched the two depart and it seemed that I wasn’t alone in finding the new behavior a little out of the norm since Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were also standing there a little bit confused. It was a little funny though to watch Steel being jerked around by the girl pegasus that obviously had some muscle on the guy. A little part of me actually felt bad for him, but that part was quickly snuffed out and removed.

“So…” I began.

“Yeah, I guess we are going to go crusading now,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Yup,” Applebloom agreed.

“Right, what are you guys planning on doing?” I asked.

Applebloom acquired a list from...somewhere and began to read it off. “Stitchin’, Skateboardin’, and Dressmakin’.”

The last one seemed kind of odd, at least compared to the first two. “You guys are going to try and make dresses?” I asked.

“We each get to pick something to do for the day and I wanted to try dressmaking again. I nearly got it last time, I’m sure of it,” Sweetie Belle chimed in, Applebloom’s frown announced to me that she didn’t agree but Sweetie Belle didn’t seem to notice.

“Huh,” I said, awkwardly scratching the back of my neck, “well while that stuff sounds like tons of fun I actually have some stuff that I need to do in town.”

“Awww,” they whined simultaneously, I swear that the cuteness nearly killed me but I somehow managed to hang on.

“Yeah…” now this really was getting awkward. “So, look after my brother and stuff.” I began to slowly walk away as they continued to stand there watching me. “See ya...later.” Without another word I stole away into the bush that held the path on the other side of it. My original intentions had been to actually hang out with the CMC a bit, but after getting here it suddenly dawned on me, they were kids. I hate kids.

I know, I know, we were all children at one point, and for my part in that I apologize. Children just can’t stimulate me intellectually they way an adult can, or at least I hadn’t met one yet that seemed to be able to. Diamond actually seemed remarkably mature for her age at times, though at others she was just a prissy brat. The CMC had been nice enough, though Scootaloo was most definitely a bit too energetic for my tastes, but since I already had a cutie mark it seemed that it was fine for me to take off. I’m sure Steel would hate me for it in the end, but I sure as hell knew that I didn’t want to take part in any dressmaking.

The orchard was actually really nice to walk through now that I was taking my time. There didn’t seem to be any birds living in the trees, but the faint light of the waning day would occasionally peek out through the leaves and cast orange rays to reflect off the multitude of fruit that hung about me. The display was quite wonderful to watch and combined with the rich earthy smell of the farm about me gave a distinct feeling of being on a ranch. I had frequented a few cattle ranches when I used to live back in Texas, and the atmosphere caught me feeling a bit nostalgic for the old days.

I shook away the burgeoning emotion, and proceeded along my route with twigs snapping intermittently beneath my hooves. I didn’t count the time, but it wasn’t too long before I exited the orchard into the backyard of the main Apple family house. I took another look at the massive structure and a moment to reflect on how many it may have been originally built for. It could easily fit twenty ponies inside and still probably feel roomy enough, but my knowledge of canon told me that only four family members actually lived there. I assume at one point there had been at least six, but trying to find a way to broach that conversation would likely be impossible so I would just have to let that lie.

I made my way around the house the same way I had come, and noted that Granny Smith was still rocking laconically back and forth in her chair despite her being asleep. The house was blocking most of the wind on this side so as I stood there for a few moments I was unable to figure out how she kept up a constant motion without any input. Eventually, I decided that it would be better for my continuing sanity to leave logistical questioning to things that had a lot more importance, like Pinkie Pie. Shrugging off the perpetual motionchair, I began to walk down the long drive that led out to the main road I would need to use.

The path was was very well worn, with deep tire tracks running into the dirt from repeated use while muddy and hoof prints coming to and from the house. Some of the tracks seemed to still be particularly deep, which gave me the impression that it had rained recently though now the ground was dry and hard. I realized as I was walking that the litter that had brought us here was gone; I hadn’t actually expected them to wait on us to finish playing, but some kind of warning that we would need to walk back home would have been nice.

Unlike the path that cut through the orchard itself, the country road that led back to the main gravelly path was wide enough to allow a lot of sunlight to shine through. It also helped that I was walking west and the sun was directly in front of me, sprinkling the dirt path with the dying rays of the day. I grew up mostly in the cities, the parents always wanted to live near where they worked, and I didn’t really have a problem with it. Honestly, I had always been a bit wary of the wide open spaces of the outdoors, but here I felt a certain kind of calm.

Perhaps it was because I knew that the only bad things in this world came from the Everfree Forest, and as long I wasn't near there I would be fine. Maybe, it was because this earth pony body had some sort of connection to nature that was making me feel more relaxed than I normally would have, or maybe I just felt that Equestria was a much safer place than the one I grew up in and that it was unlikely for anything bad to actually happen to me here. Whatever it was, by the time that I turned out of the main drive and passed the sign with the words “Sweet Apple Acres” inscribed on it, I was in an excellent mood.

I turned right, heading towards the main town of Ponyville along the gravelly road, and found that I was soon humming a little song to myself. I kept my ears trained for any music that might magically spring up around me to know if I should cease my humming, just in case. I was trotting along for around five minutes when I caught sight of a figure in the distance ahead of me. I couldn’t make out much, but from where I was it looked to be a pony pulling a cart, and as we continued to walk slowly towards one another that is in fact what it turned out to be. Though it wasn’t just any pony that was on a beeline right towards me; it was none other than everypony’s favorite farmer, Applejack.

The great mood that my little walk had put me in seemed to vanish immediately as I tensed at the meeting. I did happen to like all of the mane 6, but if I had to make a list ranking them Applejack would in fact be at the bottom. There wasn’t really any reason in particular for her to be the last on the list, but there also wasn’t much reason for her to be any higher. I could see as we neared that the cart she was pulling was completely empty, and that she was gazing off at some trees blankly, probably mulling over something that was weighing on her mind. It also occured to me as we got closer to each other was that the cart she was pulling was way bigger than she was. It was kind of amazing that she was even able to move the vehicle, but it was by far the least strangest thing I had encountered so far.

We were barely twenty feet away from one another when she noticed my small form heading the opposite way along the road and looked me over. Looking into her bright eyes I felt as if I could feel her inspecting me for impurities or falsehoods. We both continued our steady pace and passed with a simple nod.

“Howdy,” she said pleasantly.

“Evenin’” I replied, mentally slapping myself for slipping into a southern accent for the split second.

It was a couple of seconds after we had cleared one another that I heard the cart behind me come to a sudden stop. I winced at the grinding noise of the wooden axle coming to a rest, and turned slowly to look back at the mare who was now starting me down. She arched a brow at me and I parroted the movement while also tilting my head to the side somewhat reflexively. The uncomfortable silence permeating the atmosphere between the two of us stretched on for a little while longer until I lifted a hoof to begin and make my way back along the path that I had been taking.

“Now hang on a moment, youngin,’” Applejack called to me stopping me mid step, though I lacked the courage to turn around to look back to her. So there I stood frozen in place with probably the most scrutinizing pony I knew existed in this world staring into the back of my head, no doubt her mind fast at work tearing away at the lies I was fabricating in my mind and had not yet had a chance to spew from my mouth. “Are you the little friend that Applebloom said she was bringing to the farm today?” I heard from a few paces behind me.

Somehow I managed to gather the courage to turn back and look at her, and there she stood, her face sincerely earnest. She wheeled her cart around faster than I expected she possibly could with the load that she was pulling. She pulled the cart along as she made her was towards me, and I could do not much other than watch her approach. It wasn’t until she stopped that I actually processed what she had asked, and my brain began to figure out an appropriate response. “Um…yeah…yes, I was there but it was my brother that was going to join their club. I was just heading into town actually.”

She continued looking down at me, and now that she was closer and I was stuck looking at her while I waited, I could see just how big and muscular she was. The fur that all ponies were covered so thoroughly in helped to conceal just how completely ripped she was, but it was still quite apparent that she was stronger than just about any other pony I had run into so far. Her eyes were piercing and continued studying me carefully though I didn’t see anything on her face to give away her scrutiny. “You are headin’ into town all on your own then?”

“Um…yes, I was going to pick up a book at the library and let Steel hang out with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.” I smiled at her as innocently as I could, hoping beyond hope that there was no possible way she could see through it to the fear that was growing inside of me. It struck me that for whatever reason I was being far too paranoid here, sure she was the Element of Honesty, but that was fine as long as I didn’t lie to her. Avoiding the truth and fabricating a new one are two very different things after all, and any expert liar knows that the truth is a valuable ally to have. I managed to subdue the worry that had been growing within me somewhat and felt myself regain control once more.

“The library huh, well that isn’t too far away. Just be sure you make your way back home before it gets too dark outside alright,” she said with a nod.

I turned once more and began to make my way back down the road once again when I heard her call after me once more. “My name’s Applejack by the way, I don’t believe I caught yours.”

“Ashen Stroke,” I called back to her without turning. Suddenly it felt like all of the air and life in the world had been sucked away as I came to a stop on the dirt road. I stood there stock still for a few seconds before feeling an icy breeze blow past me and the sound of the rustling leaves and grasses that grew on the farmsteads on either side of the road began to grow louder and louder. I continued to remain motionless, knowing that I had likely just made a huge mistake without even thinking about it, and expecting to hear Applejack break the silence between us and give some indication that she had caught me, but all my strained senses could pick up was the rustling of the foliage and the low hiss of cicadas coming from somewhere a long ways off. Another few seconds later I did hear the sounds of wooden axels turning and wheels grinding into the soft dirt of the road we were both travelling, but instead of heading towards me once again they began to grow softer and softer as Applejack pulled her cart away without another word or acknowledgement of me.

There's A Trouble Brewin'

The town of Ponyville was bustling as I walked along the simple streets the crisscrossed every block or so, all leading to the main building, which was also the mayor’s office, in the middle of town. The ponies were of course very nice and polite, and it wasn’t so rare for one to give the little charcoal gray colt a smile when they saw him shuffling down the street, which of course he would then return even though he couldn't make it reach his eyes. Yes, I was in a funk, I had to believe that it was meeting Applejack that had put me in such a sour mood, but for some reason since then the world just seemed a little more gray. I couldn’t really explain it, but it was kind of like a wrongness that just sinks down to your bones and makes every step you take just that little bit heavier.

Still, I had something in town that I needed to do, and despite how much I just wanted to return to the Rich manor, or even go hang out with the cutie mark crusaders and my “brother” I was going to get this done. Twilight’s house was all the way across town and I was just feeling drained so by the time that I arrived at the large oak tree that doubled as a library I just wanted to lay down and take a nap, and in the late afternoon with a nice breeze blowing through I was very tempted to do so. I gave three knocks with my pint sized hoof and didn’t need to wait too long before the terrifying dragon Spike came and answered the door.

“Hey, what’s up Ashen. You are here for the book right. Twilight said she would be done with it in like ten minutes so why don’t you just come inside and wait until she is done,” Spike said as he stepped aside and gave me room to enter the building. I gave a little shrug and walked inside, admiring once again the rather impressive collection as I did so, before taking a seat at the table in the middle of the room. The weird craving of a huge unicorn head in the center of the table caught my eye for some reason, I thought remembered it killing Rainbow Dash in some fan fic, or maybe that was a different giant unicorn head. Now that I thought about it, there were a lot of different interpretations of Twilight’s home appeared in various fictions but the place was pretty simple just like it was shown off to be in the show. All of the books were meticulously placed on the shelved, save for the few stacked on the ground near said shelves. It was truly amazing that they were able to keep the tree alive and this carved out, though I supposed that since it was only really the very outside of the tree that was the living part then it could be possible, but still quite the feat. I wondered if…

“Helloooo, Ash…” Spike said next to me as my eyes refocused on the fingers he must have been snapping in front of my face for some time now.

“Hm? Oh what’s up, did you say something?” I asked as my mind began to focus once more on the now.

“Well yeah dude, I wanted to know if you wanted anything to drink but then you were like staring out into space not blinking.”

“Yeah...I tend to space out sometimes,” I admitted a little embarrassed.

“No problem, Twilight does that all the time and sometimes she needs a little water tossed on her to snap her out of it.” I snickered a little bit at that, sure this Spike might look scary as hell, but behind those killer lizard eyes he was a cool guy. It was a shame that I couldn’t get too close given who his roommate was. Or could I?

“That was a neat trick you did with your...claws. How did you do that again?” I asked motioning to his hand.

“Oh this?” he asked as he snapped his claws again, “Just something I picked up you know.”

“Not really,” I said flicking a hoof in the air and producing zero sound. “Digits must be awesome.”

“Well I have to admit that it is probably a lot easier to write than using my mouth, plus I don’t know where those quills have been.” I admittedly had to agree with that one, writing with your mouth was difficult and I was really trying not to think about where those pencils I had been using today had been.

“Quills, can’t even use those. I have to go for pencils or ballpoint pens, and yeah the mouth thing is gross but it’s something to live with,” I replied.

“Ballpoint Pen?” he asked with quirked brow, or at least I assume he did since the scales near the top of his right eye raised as he did so.

“Oh nothing, just something I am working on that will revolutionize writing and make the quill entirely obsolete. Except for when drawing artwork, though I am pretty sure that ink pens are the cornerstone of that medium.” I scratched my chin in thought as he just stared at me with the occasional blink. After a moment I felt the silence had stretched on long enough and decided to break it, “Forgive my occasional ramblings, I am told that I have a very vivid imagination.”

“Yeah, I am starting to get that,” he said with a nod.

“Anyways what were we talking about, oh yeah being a dragon must be awesome. Breathing fire and stuff sounds like the coolest thing ever.”

Spike puffed up his chest noticeably and rubbed his knuckles on his chest. “Well I don’t like to brag but it is pretty awesome.”

“All Earth Ponies got going for us is that we are kind strong, durable, and we can grow stuff,” I listed off as I propped my head up on a hoof.

Spike scratched his chin for a moment, “I thought that some Earth Ponies had like weird powers and stuff.”

“Weird powers and stuff?” I asked, it now being my turn to arch a brow.

“Yeah, like Pinkie Pie can predict the future with her Pinkie Sense. Although that might be just a Pinkie Pie thing and not an Earth Pony thing,” he admitted.

“Well that’s cool, but I don’t think that is a regular thing.” For some reason we both fell into a silence as we became lost in our own mutual thoughts. I was considering what he had said, maybe there was some secret special gene that Earth Ponies had access to and others didn’t, while Spike was thinking about...I don’t really know what Spike was thinking about.

“What are you two thinking about so intensely?” I heard a rather familiar voice call from the top of the stairs, and as I nearly gave myself whiplash I saw that it was in fact Twilight Sparkle looking down upon us. She was lavender of course, though there was a distinct magenta tint to her coat, and her mane and tail were perfectly straight and had their usual colors, and when I say perfectly straight I do mean that there seemed to not be a single hair out of place, probably some magic involved there, and she also lacked any discernible wings which I took to be a good sign. I had expected all this, but what was a little surprising was just how intelligent I could tell that she was just be looking at her. Her eyes seemed to take everything in at once and processes it in an instant, she probably had already formulated some opinion on me just by seeing me sit here. Not so say that she seemed harsh or judgemental, in fact there seemed to be an aura of kindness about her that I would have more expected of Fluttershy, it was no wonder that she was the element of Magic.

“Do Earth Ponies have special powers?” Spike asked as he turned to face her. I took the opportunity to stand from my seat as well and run a hoof back over my head to make sure that my mane was sleek and perfectly in place, I think she noticed that since her eyes flicked to the movement of my hoof a moment before she looked back to Spike.

“I’m not exactly sure what you mean by special powers Spike, there have been cases when mild magic has interacted with ponies and helped enhance some innate ability they already possessed, or have radically changed them.” She paused halfway down the stairs for a moment before continuing. “Now that I think about it in the cases I have read most of those ponies were Earth Ponies. I wonder if there is some correlation that isn’t purely circumstantial.” She trailed off at the last bit there, but I was able to catch it since she was pretty close now, standing at the bottom of the stairs. Sadly, Twilight was more than twice as tall as me and I felt pretty inadequate standing there in the library, afraid to give any input to the conversation lest it lead to my cover being blown.

“That’s pretty cool,” I said, not really knowing what else to add.

“I suppose it is pretty “cool.”’ Twilight didn’t make any air quotes, seeing as how she was standing that would have been impossible, but I liked to believe that they were there all the same.

I watched as she began levitating the books she was carrying back into place along the bookshelves around the library, and suddenly remembered why I had even come here to begin with. “Oh right, um excuse me,” I piped up, causing Twilight to stop her sorting and look back to me.

“Yes?” she asked, giving me a little half smile, not too unlike the one I had seen Cheerilee wearing.

“I came to check out a book this morning and was told that you were using it. Would you happen to be done with it now?” I asked, trying terribly hard to be as polite as possible.

“Oh that must make you Ashen Stroke then,” she replied, her smile growing fully as she levitated the book from the bottom of the pile over to me which I allowed to land on my hoof. Once the trademark magical aura had dissipated I raised it to inspect the cover.

“Mordakein’s Multidimensional Musings, sounds about right,” I said, tucking the book into my backpack I had been smart enough to bring with me.

“A very interesting read, and it should be particularly useful to a time traveler,” Twilight said.

“Well I hope it’s a good read and...wait what?” I began to reply before my brain fully caught up with what she had said.

“Yeah what?” Spike asked.

“Pinkie told me that a young colt by the name of Ashen Stroke came here from the future on a very important mission; top secret I heard,” She went on to say, I was about to facehoof before I realized that she was just playing along. She probably thought that it was some childish game that I had put on and Pinkie had been playing along with so now she was. I guess that meant that I also needed to play along with it.

“Oh yes, wouldn’t want to give away too much information and bring about a universal collapse would we. Though I honestly think the more likely scenario would be that just by my being here a separate timeline has already diverted from the prime so that the chance of a paradox is pretty much nil. Still, let’s be careful anyways,” I said with a nod.

Twilight looked down at me, her smiling expression morphing to one of confusion. “Yeah...let’s do that.” Spike, who was standing next to me just looked a bit lost. I must have overplayed my hand, and was far too serious about the whole thing.

“...You know I’m not really from the future right. Time travel is impossible.” Here was something I knew would break them out of their funk.

“Actually that’s not entirely true, I have time traveled myself,” Twilight said, hopefully glossing over that stupid thing I had said previously.

“Really? Where did you go? What did you do?” I asked, and as I did so I caught sight of Spike smirking next to me.

“That isn’t really important,” Twilight replied. “So are you new in town, I haven’t seen you around Ponyville before, and I think I would have heard of such a...smart young colt before?” Strange is probably what she meant to say, but you don’t put children down because they internalize that stuff. Not that it would particularly matter to me what Twilight thought of me since I was just playing a role here, but it was nice to see that she was at least conscious with her words.

“Yeah me and my brother got picked up a few days ago and are staying at the Rich’s place, but I bet child services will see to that soon enough. Tell me, do you hear about them splitting up siblings very often, or is that just one of those things that gets talked about but only happens rarely?” I had to admit that I could have easily just said we were new in town, but I kind of wanted to see how Twilight would react to such an uncomfortable confrontation.

“I’m fairly certain that the statistic is actually pretty low, around five percent if I am remembering correctly,” of course she would fall back on statistics. “But wait, are you saying that you and your brother are orphans and were found a few days ago here in Ponyville?”

“Well after we came out of the Everfree Forest, sure.”

“You and your brother were in the Everfree Forest by yourselves? How long were you wandering around in there?” Well she wasn’t confused anymore, but she sure as hell wasn’t happy either. If I had to put my finger on it, I would say that her expression was floating somewhere between angry and concerned.

“Two...three days? Honestly, I don’t know what everypony is so concerned about, it’s just a forest.” Did I stoke the fire? Sure. Did I do it for a particular reason? Not really. Was it just a little bit fun? Yes, yes it was.

“Just a...It’s...Excuse me I need to go talk to somepony,” Twilight said as she quickly left the library, and went off to parts unknown.

“I wonder what that was all about,” I said smirking to Spike, he however didn’t seem to share in my amusement.

“Dude, that was not cool,” he said with a completely straight face.

“What do you mean?” I asked, my smirk vanishing.

“You can’t just lie to ponies and freak them out like that. It’s just...it isn’t cool okay,” he said as he started walking off to the kitchen. “I’m not gonna narc on you, but you should probably go.”

I stood there, alone in the library for a moment. To be totally honest I was shocked that Spike had picked up on the bullshit I had been selling. Ever since I had woken up in Equestria it seemed like my words had the absolute truth behind them, but I guess that had just been a stupid illusion. I had pushed things too far and they had pissed of the only carnivore for miles around, so while it seemed that I had gotten off easy this time I would need to be much more careful in the future.

I turned back to the entrance, the door still slightly ajar from Twilight’s exit, and walked over to it, simply pushing it open just enough to get out, and subconsciously flicking it closed with my back hoof as I left. The sun was just touching the horizon as I looked out to the west, and there seemed to be significantly less ponies bustling about streets, though there were plenty still coming and going as they pleased. With a sigh I set back on my way towards the road that would lead to Sweet Apple Acres, a place that I was more than a little hesitant about stepping hoof into again.

Author's Note

Hello everyone, and sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out to you guys. I know that it has been far too long, but I have been exceptionally busy as of late and will be even more so in the future. Next week I will be shipping off to basic training so the story is going to be put on hiatus for a while as of next Tuesday, I hope you guys understand. If when I actually get back to a computer this story is still interesting to you guys then I will get back into it and keep bringing you guys more of Ashen's story. With what I have already planned out for this story I can honestly say that it only gets better from here.

One Possible Future

Author's Note

Guess who's back,
back again,
Dyon's back,
tell a friend.

Hello all dear readers out there, I have finally returned and brought to you the latest update of this story. Trust me when I say that I got back to this story just as quickly as humanly possible, I still felt a little down about having it take so long between updates so I decided to try something new out that you all might like. Here is a little stab at what kind of future this story may head towards, but of course I am not going to sit here and tell you that this is what you will see for certain. Anyways, enjoy a little break from the norm and know that there are many more updates to come in the future, so you will not all be left hanging again I swear. Until the next time, I am out.

One Possible Future

The carriage pulls into the covered overhang just like it does every single morning, and like every single morning, at least for the past few weeks, I thank my lucky stars that we had it built for my private entrance. Despite the windows being tinted, and me going through the trouble of wearing sunglasses, somehow Celestia's sun always finds a way to aggravate the massive hangover that I have been nursing for the last hour and a half. The trip around the back of the massive RIC building, Rich Incorporated, takes less than two minutes and I peer out the window at all of the ponies just strolling into work.

One or two of them seem to be in a massive rush, one stallion in particular that was racing across the lot as we passed by, I had received several complaints of tardiness about him from one of my VPs. I believe I recall him working in R&R or something of the like, and he certainly looks to be the nerdy researcher type, brown coat with a disheveled beige mane flying in all directions as he races past my chariot, causing my driver to stop short, and himself to drop whatever papers he has with him. The wind carries them a little bit off down the lot and he races after them, no doubt he will be even later than he already is now, but I just nod to Handy at the front of the litter and we once again begin moving on our merry way around the building.

The RIC building definitely sticks out against the Canterlot skyline, it isn't beautiful to most, it isn't extravagantly ornate like most of the old architecture in the business sector of the city, and it most certainly isn't welcome here. In fact I had to fight tooth and nail just to get plans for the massive tower past the Noble Canterlot Beauty and Zoning Regulations board, but in the end when the right incentive was applied here and the correct leverage was placed there, they consented. Were I to look up at the tower, if we were out from beneath the overhanging that was still shielding me from the sun's harsh rays, my eyes would slowly gaze past all seventy-two floors fitted with magnificent reflective glass to the very top floor, where my office lays. Like many others who build such large monuments to themselves that dares scrape the sky, the top floor where I choose to do my business is completely decked out with everything I could need. Up there I have a balcony with a great view so that I can turn my chair around at any time and look out over Canterlot, a pool that I choose to take a swim in every once in a while, and of course a fully stocked bar, which would be the first thing I head towards this morning once we finally get to the door.

We stop around the back of the building, and other than a few maintenance workers there is nopony about. Handy steps down from the reigns in the front of the carriage and quickly walks around to my door to open it. Stifling a groan I step out of the litter and make my way down the single step and onto the cement, I don't exactly know how, but a beam of sunlight manages to pierce my defences, force me to bring and hoof to my aching temple.

"Your coffee sir," Memory says from just to my left. The uncanny ability of my assistant to somehow know whenever I was here, and always get the drop on me, used to startle me at first. In fact for the first few months that I had her on as my assistant I was nearly convinced that she was some sort of government agent sent to keep track of me, but after exhaustive background checks that turned out not to be the case. No, the lovely unicorn mare with an alabaster white coat and scarlet red mane that was always pulled back into a bun, was exactly what she pretended to be; the best damn assistant in the entire business.

I take the cup of coffee from her and also take a not too small drink, it burns as it goes down, mostly from the rum that she knows to put in it on a night after one of my outings, before I hand it back over to her. She takes it easily in her magical grasp, just has she has a hundred times before and the two of us head towards the double doors, which are just being opened by security as we approach.

"So Memory, what is on my schedule today?" I ask, as I nod towards a mare in a black suit holding the door open for me. Inside the building is bustling with activity, there are ponies rushing every way, each with their own little tasks to complete, and none with much any time to stop what they are doing. Despite that they all pause for a moment as we pass and greet me pleasantly, to which I merely nod to each of them in term. I used to think that maybe it was a little rude not to stop and greet them all back, but after two days of trying it I quickly learned that stopping to greet two-hundred ponies individually was just not a sound business plan.

"The first thing you have this morning is a meeting with Austere," Memory says as she stares down at the clipboard suspended in front of her, effortlessly navigating between the throng of employees.

"Cancel it," I say offhandedly, "he already knows what my answer to his proposal is, and I won't sit through another one of his thirty minute presentations on the benefits of expanding banking overseas."

"Yes sir," she simply replies as she crosses the first item off of the list. "Next is a meeting with the VPs."

I sigh, that was a different headache altogether. Funding, all they ever cared to bother me about was funding for their separate divisions. Why does Mocha's division always get dealt the bits first when the annual budget comes around, when all she does is head up R&R? Why are we putting so much money into the Power and Infrastructure divisions when Banking turns such a higher profit right now? That one was of course Austere as well. How come we are pouring countless bits into the Entertainment division to prop up coltbands and idols?

"Cancel that one too, I have no patience this morning to listen to Vice Presidents squabble over money like school children. In fact, cancel all of my appointments today, I think we will be relaxing today." I say as we finally make it all the way through the lobby and reach the elevators. Just as we come to a stop one of them opens up and ponies quickly scramble out and clear it so that we can enter.

"Certainly sir," Memory says as she crosses out the entire page. "That just leaves one last item for the day."

I step into the elevator just as the last employee literally leaps out of the way and onto the floor of the lobby. I take another sip of my morning “coffee” before handing it back over to Memory who doesn’t mind one bit being used as a cup holder. “And what would that be?” I ask, as the doors shut behind the both of us.

I hit the buttons 1, 14, 52, and 23 on the elevator which is the command to take us up to my office. I am pretty sure that far too many of the ponies in the building know the combination, but I like having it anyways, if just to feel a little bit cooler.

“Princess Twilight’s birthday celebration is this afternoon,” Memory replies as she flips over the page on her clipboard. “You made a special note here to remind you not to miss it.”

“It’s her birthday again already?” I could have sworn I had just gone to one of those overblown extravaganzas not more than a week ago. “Didn’t she just have one last week?”

“No sir, it has been exactly one year since her last birthday,” Memory says flatly.

“Then what was that social I went to last week. The one with the drinking and annoying nobles.” I look to the elevator dial and see we are on the 45th floor.

“The Summer Sun Celebration, sir. Your evening was well documented in the tabloids,” She replies, I think I catch a little bit of disappointment in her voice though I am not exactly certain.

“Oh yes, Crystal...Crystal...something. Never did follow up with her.” We reach the top floor and the elevator opens, letting us walk out into the large and spotless reception area. “Send flowers or something won’t you, I think I will be working in my study today,” I say as I begin to walk towards my office doors.

“Yes, a nice card and flowers had already been sent to let the poor mare down easy sir, but there is another addendum to the schedule today,” Memory says, causing me to turn back and look at her. She is smirking, which only tells me that she has a bit of bad news to deliver. “Your brother is here to see you.”

“It is just…no it’s not irresponsible it is stupid!” Burnt yells at me from his pacing spot in my office. Every time he danes come to my office he finds that special strip of tile without fail, I have been thinking about having that little strip painted a different color to make it easy on him.

“Stupid might be a little harsh.” I say, leaning back in my chair.

“Harsh?” he stops for a moment and gives me a death glare. “No, if I were to say that recreating culture from our home, and implanting it here was the most moronic thing I had ever heard would have been harsh. Just calling it, and you, stupid seems to be very appropriate.”

“Well I have to admit that our whole Evanescence project isn’t exactly selling out. A shame because our vocalist is insanely talented. My One Direction knockoff on the other hoof is doing insanely well, you should see our profit margins on ticket sales alone, not to mention the resale for their music.” I start opening one of the drawers on my desk to pull them out, but he stops me with another outburst.

“I don’t give a damn how much money you are making!” He glares again for another minute before standing up straight and taking a calming breath. Some part of my pride is still a little hurt that in the end he would end up being the taller one. Not that he ever really lost his lithe form, but even the casual observer could tell that the pegasus in front of me was built for speed, and the few scars marking him here and there gave away just what kind of experience he had in the air. “Don’t you understand me. You cannot use this kingdom as your own personal playground to make mountains of bits. You can’t just take one world and mash it with another for your own personal gain. You aren’t a god.”

I spend a moment to close my drawer lightly, and to place my hooves together on the desk in front of me. “No, I am not a god. We have a few of those in the city, but as of yet I am not one of them. I am just the stallion of the century, that has spent his entire adult life helping to shape Equestria for the better, at least that is what the Equestrian Times said about me a few months ago,” I reply, casually nodding my head to the framed magazine on the wall.

“And you think…”

“I think, that despite whatever you may say, what I have brought to this kingdom has been for its betterment. I have accelerated Equestria’s development decades by myself, and if I want to start turning my hoof towards pop music just so that I can have what I want playing on the radio, then that’s what I am going to do,” I say, cutting him off from whatever it was he was going to say.

“You are a narcissistic megalomaniac that would rather sit up here in his pretend castle than actually see what is going on in the cities you pretend to benefit,” He says with a sad shake of his head.

“You know that I have seen how bad it really is,” I almost whisper. He looks up at me as I do, and we just sit there in silence for a few moments. “So,” I begin after a minute or two just to break the silence, “how are the kids?”

Burnt smirks and even lets out a dry laugh as he turns his head away to stare out the window behind me. “They are doing well, Platinum starts school in a few days and Jade is teaching her about how she should be acting while they are in school together.”

“Already starting school,” I say turning my head slightly to peer out at the Canterlot skyline. “Seems like just yesterday you were freaking out about settling down.”

Burnt’s smirk becomes a full smile as he looks back to me. “It’s a little cliche to say, but they do really grow up right before your eyes. Maybe you should try and settle down yourself. Find a good mare that isn’t just looking to be with you for a night so that she can get her picture in Equestria Daily. You aren’t getting any younger you know.”

“You know I am not the type to settle for anything. Besides, I have barely any time on my hooves as it is. No, you can live the happy family life, I have my own road to travel down.” There is a knock at the office door and Memory lets herself in.

“Mr. Steel, it is eleven,” She says. Steel sighs and turns towards the door, and begins to leave the office..

“Thank you Memory,” he says as he passes her, “try to talk some sense into my idiot brother won’t you.”

“That is what I am here for,” she replies, earning a laugh from Steel as he leaves.

Memory is just about to close the door and return to her desk outside when I catch her. “Memory, would you bring in the paper for today and give me the highlights?” I ask. She nods and closes the door behind her. I sit back in my chair and spin it all the way around so that I might gaze out at the city. Canterlot really is a beautiful city, most of the buildings are quite old, maintained with spells so that they never fall into disrepair. Still, some ponies, myself for instance, have cleared spots and built modern skyscrapers like the ones you would be more want to find in Manehatten. Many of the nobles see the soaring mirrored buildings as abominations in their midst, but I choose to see them in a brighter light. Within a city built to give reverence to the old ways that Equestria has been stuck in these monoliths throughout the city are an assurance of change.

The door opens once again behind me and I hear Memory enter once more and close the door again before making her way across the office to my desk behind me. “Shall I just dive into it then?” she asks.

“If you would,” I reply without turning around.

“Top story on page 1, Royal Birthday of Princess Twilight. This evening is sure to kick off with a bang as the Princess welcomes all ponies to her birthday celebration at the castle this evening, while all are allowed entrance…”

“Next,” I say simply.

“Next is an interview with Princess Twilight. It looks like she spends most of her time trying to address turmoil in the capitol, but all the interviewer cares about is what she will be wearing tonight,” Memory sums up for me.

“Who cares about what is actually happening when we still don’t know what colors the Princess will be wearing tonight,” I say, laughing a little.

“On the next page we have something you would be interested in. Local Billionaire Ashen Stroke Seen With Lady Morning Sage. For those of you that don’t know Lady Morning Sage is the wife of Baron Red Shrub, a noble railroad tycoon that has a monopoly on the rail industry from Manehatten to Phillydelphia. Last night the wife of the baron was seen entering and exiting the Twisted Leg with our own local playstallion Ashen Stroke. I am sure I don’t have to remind any of you readers, but the Twisted Leg has quite the reputation for… What were you doing with a baron’s wife, sir?” Memory asks, something a little out of the norm for her.

“It doesn’t really matter does it. Shrub is going to be too busy consoling his already shaky shareholders to care much. Is there a picture?” I ask as I turn my gaze to the Royal Castle. It has grown over the years, and the very highest spire is perfectly eye level with my office. Amazing how that happened completely by coincidence.

“Yes, they managed to get your good side as the two of you are exiting the club. Photo by Quick Pic,” she says.

“So what’s up next in the good ole EQD?” I ask.

She turns the page again before reading, “Explosion in Cloudsdale. A local manufacturing building owned by Duke Sleet was completely leveled in a massive explosion yesterday. Just another in a long rash of industrial attacks that have been plaguing our kingdom as of late, and still there has been no answer for how these attacks have been carried out. All we know for certain is that we don’t know anything. Stalwart, a captain in the local guard…”

“Next,” I say, dismissing the story.

Memory sighs but begins reading the next story regardless. “The band Northwest, is halfway finished with its nationwide tour. Record numbers for the coltband have been reported across the board, and as they prepare to play in the massive Canterlot stadium on the eighteenth, some critics believe that not all their fans will be able to get into the arena built to hold 40,000. Despite being completely sold out there are still ponies flocking to the city to see Northwest play in a few days, leaving all of the local hotels completely full up…”

“It is nice to see our little project succeeding,” I say, bringing her to a stop once more.

“Most of your projects do,” she replies. “That is all of the highlights you might be interested in for today’s issue, sir. Shall I go and see if your wardrobe for tonight’s party is ready?”

“Yes,” I say, prompting her to leave. “Oh, and make sure that Quick Pic receives her regular fee won’t you. We wouldn’t want her services to stop.”

“Yes sir,” Memory says from the door as she closes it behind her, leaving me alone in the office. I continue staring out the window, admiring the city from my vantage. Tonight will be a good night.

We pull up to the front of the castle, and the lights start flashing in front of the litter immediately. My sunglasses are already on to help shield myself from the flashes of the cameras, but the dozens of paparazzi standing on the sides of the red carpet leading up to the door are too much for my glasses to handle. I squint behind them as I falsely smile and wave to the swell of reporters. I step onto the carpet, and send my driver off. I am wearing my most dashing suit, since this is such a special occasion, and after I have gotten enough pictures in I begin heading towards the actual entrance of the castle. I see a stallion with a microphone quickly walking towards me down the red carpet with a cameramare trailing behind him.

“Mr. Stroke. Mr Stroke,” he says as he comes to a stop in front of me and cuts me off from proceeding, forcing me to stand there and give him at least a few lines. “You seem to have arrived alone, any hints at who you will be leaving tonight’s party with?”

I find a path around him and start walking towards the entrance, of course he doesn't stop and continues to follow me. “I’m sure you will be the first to know,” I say as I continue walking.

“There has been talk that your investors are losing trust in you because of your evening outings. Is that true?” He shoves the mike into my face, but this isn’t the first time I have had to deal with pushy interviewers.

“If my investors can think of any reason that they should get rid of their golden goose then I am not doing my job am I?” I reply, we are nearly to the door and away from this oppressive atmosphere.

“What about the rumors that you are funneling bits into frivolous projects like Northwest? Is it true that you are trying to build a monopoly in the music business before you reveal some kind of new technology to revolutionize it?” I chance a sidelong glance at the reporter as we reach the door, I don’t recognize him and I usually know all of the ponies that run the Canterlot circuit. I have no idea where he is getting these “rumors” but these questions aren’t good for my image.

“What’s your name?” I ask as I come to a stop in front of the guards that are holding the entrance.

“Whistle Blower,” he says, making me smirk down at him, of course it is. He is pretty young, must be just out of his collegiate studies at whatever university they are recruiting from these days, but something strikes me about the yellow unicorn.

I reach into my jacket pocket and retrieve one of my business cards. “Here is my card, tell Memory that I gave this to you personally and that we need to set up an interview to discuss these ‘rumors’ as you put them.” I flick the card over to him and watch him scramble to catch it. “Now if you’ll excuse me I have a party to attend.”

I turn and enter the castle, the guards don’t give me any trouble, my demeanor is enough to let them know that I am obviously on the list. That, and I may have tossed them a few bits as I passed as well. The reception room of the castle is even more spectacular than it usually is, lavender and magenta streamers hang from the ceiling as well as the walls. Stars of the same colors drift around in the air, illuminating the room where all the nobles from all over the kingdom have gathered tonight. Yes, the party was supposed to be open to anypony that wanted to come, but unknown to the princess there are certain requirements imposed by those that actually put together and run the party that they would never be able to meet.

Caterers were making their rounds through the party while most of the ponies, who had dropped more bits on their outfits than most made in a year, talked and mingled. Not that I could say I was to be excluded from the group, this hoofstitched suit that I so handsomely wore had been ordered from Prance, I couldn’t really recall who had been the one to make it, but as I approached Madam Canary that didn’t really matter. The mare was of course a very bright yellow, and was one of the more interesting social butterflies that would frequent these events, and while talking with the mare was always good to get the latest gossip on the inner circle of the Canterlot elite, it was her daughter that had always brought me calling.

“My magnificent Madam,” I greet her with once I arrive before her, with a little bow.

She lets loose a retrained guffaw “Why Mr. Stroke, you do this old mare such courtesy with your greeting. What brings you over to my little corner of this evening’s festivities?” She levitates a snack from a passing tray and delicately takes a bite.

“Well I had been searching for Lady Bloom, but for the life of me I cannot seem to find her,” I reply.

“Do you aim to put my daughter in the paper this time, Mr. Stroke? Care that my husband not catch you sniffing about or you might find yourself in quite the predicament.” Not a very veiled threat, but I know that she doesn’t truly mean it.

“Now sending the captain of the guard after just a lowly businesspony might be a little overkill don’t you think?” I ask, picking up a glass of wine from a passing caterer.

“In your case I think it would be completely appropriate, besides, Bloom is off with her friends in Cloudsdale so I am afraid you won’t be seeing her this evening.”

“That is too bad.” I sigh with mock disappointment. “Speaking of Cloudsdale, have you heard anything about the explosion that happened yesterday?” I ask as I take a sip of my wine. I swirl the glass a bit and admire the drink, all wine taste the same after a point but I was glad to be starting the night off with something good.

“Nothing more that what I read in the paper this morning. A terrible, terrible thing that has been going on these past weeks. I just don’t know why anypony would be blowing up factories around Equestria. It just makes no sense at all. Sleet is beyond himself, this is the third of his factories to be targeted you know,” she confides.

“I was completely unaware,” I lie. “Is the duke with us tonight?” I ask, looking around.

“He made his appearance early and left just before you arrived. I am sure he has a lot on his mind at the moment, so I don’t think anyone will blame him for exiting before the guest of honor arrives,” she says, finishing off her appetizer.

“Speaking of, when is the Princess arriving?” I ask, and suddenly the stars that play above all of us begin to change their color to white and move towards the staircase.

“Why Mr. Stroke, I believe your timing is just as perfect as ever,” Madam Canary says from my left as all eyes turn to where the stars are gathering together at the top of the stairs. A multitude of the shining lights continue to swirl together until they form a ball the size of a beachball, and then in an instant all of the lights in the room go out.

We stand there in darkness for a few seconds before lanterns placed all about the room spring to life, illuminating the hall once again and giving light to Princess Twilight Sparkle standing at the top of the stairway in all of her glory. Though not quite as tall as Luna, and without the regal bearing of Celestia, Princess Twilight has her own beauty that is quite unique. She holds herself high as she gracefully descends the stairway, every step sending a small trail of light falling from her ever flowing mane. As she reaches the bottom of the stairs spotlights hit her from the top of the room, but she couldn’t care in the least.

“Welcome beloved guests,” she proclaims from her slightly raised marble platform halfway down the stairway. “Thank you all for coming tonight, it brings me great pleasure to see so many in attendance. There could be nothing I would want more that on my birthday that to be surrounded by great ponies such as you, so please, for me, enjoy yourselves to the fullest tonight,” she says, raising a cheer from the ponies watching below. Most stamp in approval, and some of the younger, less restrained, ponies go as far as yelling their praises to the roof. I however, am far filled with joy as I stare at the magenta eyes of the Princess which have been focusing on me for the last twenty seconds. My stomach tightens and somewhere deep inside I know that something has gone very wrong.

“Eloquent as always isn’t she,” Madam Canary says, motioning to the Princess that was now making her way to the main floor to speak with her guests.

“Yes,” I say, taking a sip from whatever alcoholic beverage the caterer passing us was serving. I think it is some kind of bourbon, but my attention is completely focused on the Princess at the moment. I know that look she had just given me had meant something, not that she had ever really shied away from staring me down whenever she saw me, so suspicious even after all these years. That had been something different though, there was purpose behind it.

“You seem to be rather preoccupied all of a sudden Mr. Stroke. Did the Princess’ speech truly move you so much, a simple pleasantry I assure you,” she goes on to say, and I catch out of the corner of my eye her smirking. I down the rest of my drink, and set it aside on a random table.

“I have no doubt, but still the words truly struck deep so I feel compelled to pay my compliments directly,” I say as I begin to move towards the throng of ponies now starting to gather around the guest of honor.

“Well if you do feel that way I suppose it is only right to thank her in person,” Madam Canary consents as I take my leave.

In just the few short seconds that the princess has been talking with ponies, and impenetrable wall flank-kissers has already been erected. Mostly they are wishing her a happy birthday, and complimenting her dress, and oh so unsubtly hinting at some problem they have that could be fixed by a wave of the royal wand. That is, until I hear a mare speak up above the others.

“Princess, why have you not released the identity of the mare that bombed my husband’s factories?” asks Hailstorm, wife of the good Duke Sleet. I find a line of sight over the shorter mares gathered in a circle around the brewing conversation just in time to see Princess Twilight recover from such a direct question.

She looks over Hailstorm, a unicorn mare whose coat and mane are made up of the obvious colors one with her name would have, light blue and white, before speaking to her in a completely level and controlled voice. “Now Mrs. Hailstorm, I don’t know where you have heard such rumors.”

“I have heard from several sources that are currently stationed in Cloudsdale that you have the bomber in custody, but are holding off on saying anything. Who had been doing this to me and my family, I think all of the ponies here who have been affected by this mad bomber deserve to know who it is,” Hailstorm replies, treading carefully not to be demanding or disrespectful. I hear a few murmurs of agreement from those around, but I can’t really make out anything they are saying, it is all I can do to hold a straight face and not pass out on the floor.

The princess sighs, “There is a reason to not say anything, and I am not about to divulge it in a public setting. Until it is a wise idea for any such information to go public I hope you won’t continue spreading these baseless rumors, Mrs. Hailstorm.”

Hailstorm opens her mouth to say something else, but smartly closes it and gives a bow to the alicorn before her. “Of course Princess,” she says before rising and walking off.

As if nothing had happened the princess turns back to the ponies around her, and gives them an award winning smile. “Now I hope we can all return to enjoying the festivities,” she says as the crowd forgets the small episode of tension and returns to their ladder climbing.

I don’t have time for anymore of it as I turn, and immediately head for the door; taking a pace that isn’t too fast as to cause anypony to notice me, but not very leisurely either. I almost make it to the door before out of nowhere a much older red stallion steps from a group I am passing, and blocks my path.

“Ashen Stroke,” Baron Red Shrub says as he pulls himself to his full height, just a head short of me but a purposeful move all the same. “Why is it that when I opened the paper today I find a picture of you leaving a filthy night club with my wife,” he asks, jabbing me in the chest with a hoof as he does so.

“I don’t have time for this right now,” I say, attempting to move around him, but he blocks my path once again.

“I will not be ignored, nor will I allow you to affront my honor by sneaking off behind my back with one of my wives. I will have an answer from you here and now,” he says, forcefully jabbing me again in the chest.

Normally I would have simply let the scenario play out, I might even get a kick out of pummeling this guy, that is until he resorted to using magic and wiped the floor with me, but right now I had zero time to waste. What the Baron really needed right now was a good push onto an undeniable lie. “That wasn’t your wife Baron,” I say, giving my best and most believable smile. “That was the twin that your wife had, but died when they were both so young. It’s a sad tale really, but ever since finding herself alive again she has been in need of somepony to show her around the world, and I felt the need to step in.”

The baron stares back at me straight faced for a minute, and I feel a migraine begin to push it’s way into my skull, but still I maintain my fake smile and look him dead in the eyes. “Oh, well that would explain it. Really, I don’t know where the Equestrian Daily gets their facts but they really need to do more than just scratch the surface of a story,” he says as he takes a step away.

“Don’t I know it my friend,” I reply, laying a hoof on his shoulder. “There is someplace that I need to be right now so if you wouldn’t mind…”

He quickly steps out of my way to allow me passage. “Oh yes of course, sorry to trouble you over such a silly misunderstanding. Have a good night,” he says as he walks back over to the group he was talking with. As he turns I drop my smile, and soothingly rub my temple with my left hoof. I finally get to the door, and begin to head past the line of ponies taking pictures of everypony coming and going.

That had been sloppy, even by my standards, but it would get him off my back for a few hours at least, “Ashen Stroke!” or maybe just a few seconds.

I sprint the rest of the way down the red carpet and jump into the nearest litter, which just so happened to be one that some poor aristocrat had just hailed. “Where to?” the driver asks through the little window that looks back into the main compartment.

“The residential area, uptown,” I reply as I watch a very pissed off red stallion come running out of the party towards where we are pulling away. “And make sure we get there quickly.”

I angrily slam the door of my apartment as I walk inside, calling it an apartment might be a bit of an understatement since it took up three whole floors of the building, but whatever. I toss the suit jacket I’m wearing on the floor along with my tie as I walk past the living area, that has similar pieces of clothing littering the floor. I don’t stop in the kitchen as I keep on my straight path to the bedroom, not that I have even been in the kitchen for a few weeks now. The bedroom is in just as bad of shape as the rest of the apartment, but I don’t pay it any mind as I head over to the left wall of the room, where a picture of Burnt Steel and I laughing as kids hangs.

I put my hoof against the one being held up in the photograph, and runes embedded in the picture spring to life, sending a green spiraling energy out of the photograph to create a glowing outline of a door on the wall. After a few seconds the glowing begins to calm down, and with a loud clunk the hidden passage moves away to reveal the hidden room where I keep my important work. Without further delay I move into the room and kick the door closed behind me.

I stand there looking around my little private workspace for a moment, some old discarded projects lie half finished on the workbench to my right. The lamp on my desk illuminates the small space, and the incredible mess of papers that cover every visible corner of the desk. Above said desk, a spiderweb of photos and newspaper clippings cover nearly the entire wall, connected by strings and tape that have taken me weeks to put together. I walk forward to the wall, and look over my work.

Every newspaper article that has been written about the recent bombings is placed before me, along with the travel plans of various ponies that have been moving in and out of the cities. I look to a particularly flattering photo of Bloom, and follow the line of destruction trailing through the cities that she has been frequenting as of late. There are more photos of various ponies, and more disasters that have been occurring around Equestria, even if the news hasn’t picked up on them yet, but all that draws my attention at the moment is that carefree smile Bloom has as she looks at the camera. This must have been taken right around her sophomore year at Canterlot University, I could tell because she still had that youthful spark in her eyes.

“Fuck!” I yell as I kick the desk near me. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I go on, throwing papers every which way and tearing whatever I can reach off the wall. “Mother fucking god damn son of a bitch. Why! Why did you have to get caught!” I rage, staring back at the picture of her hanging up on the wall, but she doesn’t look to care in the least. “Why would you do this now? What the fuck were you thinking? I told you no go, I said not to fucking do it this time god dammit!” Still the photo remains aggravatingly happy.

I turn back to kicking my desk, only managing to stop myself after I feel the strong oaken side of it eventually give out a crack after my repeated abuse. My migraine has worked itself into full swing and I have to take a moment to catch my breath and recover. I stand there, motionless, illuminated by the light of the lamp that had fallen from the desk during my tirade, but remained mercifully in tact. I don’t know how long I stand there, eyes closed as I try to come up with some modicum of a plan on how to proceed. It’s difficult to pull myself back together, but eventually I succeed enough to look down at the mess I have made around me.

I bend over and lift up a news article about an old apartment complex being condemned in Trottingham due to a rat infestation. Recalling the trouble it had taken to get that one pulled off back then brought a half-hearted chuckle from my lips, and with a sigh I looked back to the half destroyed web that still hung on the wall. I closed my eyes once more, and tried to recall where this had gone. It took a moment, but eventually I was able to remember, and I pinned the article back into it’s proper place. Resigned to the task, I slowly began to reassemble the web. It would be important to help me figure out how exactly I was going to proceed with this unfortunate turn of events.

The Fools Leading the Bored

Tick, tock. Tick tock. I swear to Celestia and any other holy beings that might grant me a small reprieve from this maddening noise, that if someone didn’t turn that damn clock off in the next two minutes I was going to lose it. The classroom at Ponyville elementary was vacant, save the three of us that were serving out our mandatory detention and Cheerilee who was reading a paper or grading something. She might even be doing a crossword puzzle for all I knew, and with the top of her desk being more than a foot higher than mine there wasn’t really a way for me to know. Twenty minutes, I had been sitting in this hell for the better part of an hour and I just had another twenty minutes to go.

I looked over to Snips and Snails who were whispering to each other at the far corner of the room. It didn’t seem like Cheerilee heard them or much cared that they were breaking the whole no talking rule, they were probably veterans of the whole afterschool detention thing so maybe there were a few perks that came along with that. The two colts were completely wrapped up in whatever their conversation, and completely ignored the worksheets we had been given by the teacher. Not that these little worksheets were anything to keep even their attention, two pieces of paper with addition problems on one side and subtraction ones on the other. I had tried, oh how I had tried, to go as slow as I possibly could, but still with going back and erasing answers just so that I could work on my “calligraphy” the math problems only cost me fifteen minutes.

So now the papers were not only filled with answers, and a few examples of geometric proofs as well as some calculus level 2 integrals; hopefully Cheerilee would get the hint and stop giving me simple math problems, but I wasn’t holding my breath. I sighed and looked back to the analog clock once again ticking away on the wall, a whole minute had passed since my last glance so maybe there was some kind of hope that I wouldn’t be in here forever. Not that I was in an exceptional hurry to get back to the estate after what happened yesterday.

I had expected some kind of outburst, perhaps Steel would throw a fit about me ditching him, but much against my expectations he seemed to have had the time of his life when I finally got back to the farm. Apparently hanging out with the CMC had been a freaking dream come true for him, so that whole plan to mess with him had completely backfired. In fact, I think that he even left with Applebloom after class got out today so that he could go hang out with the trio again today, which for some reason kind of pissed me off though I couldn’t exactly figure out why that was.

Diamond hadn’t been much of a fan of Steel’s new club either. Breakfast this morning had been a childish tirade about how weird and freaky the three blankflanks were, and how if he kept hanging out with them he would never be popular. Not that he, or even I for that matter, cared in the least about being popular in a school of less than forty students. While only mildly annoying as that had been, when she finally turned her attention to me and started calling me out for having detention today I had completely lost all sympathy for the filly. Well that may have not been completely true, but I still felt a flare of anger spark up whenever I thought about that smug little pink face of hers.

I groaned and dropped my head onto my desk with an audible thunk. Cheerilee looked up from whatever she was doing for a moment to see that no one was actually hurt, before returning to her own business. I chanced another look at the clock, and swore I saw the second hand not actually move for a little bit before it began ticking ever so slowly in its stupid little circle once more. I was so bored just sitting there that reading the book Twilight had given to me actually seemed like it might be a good idea.

I had started to try and decipher the tome last night, and after an entire hour of reading and rereading the first two pages I gave up. I’m not exactly sure why I had decided to start with that book, but it had turned out to be a terrible idea. It was like opening a college psychology book, that already assumed you read the previous three. So there I was all night trying to piece together what a Ghedrine was with context clues that I also couldn’t figure out. I really needed to go back to the library and grab some beginner level books on this whole magic thing if I was ever going to have a chance to break down the one I already had.

“Psst.” I heard someone say from behind me. Knowing that it could only possibly come from one of the two ponies behind me I chose to ignore it for now and continue staring blankly ahead.

“Psssst.” Came the noise again, and this time my ear swiveled around towards the sound subconsciously. That was kind of annoying since it was a dead giveaway that I had in fact heard them, but still I tried to ignore it the best I could.

“Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst.” Came the bid to get my attention again and this time I couldn’t really ignore it.

“What!” I whisper yelled back at the two of them.

“No talking,” Cheerilee reminded the three of us without even looking up from her desk.

We all sat there in silence for a few moments, the only sound in the room emanating from the incessant clock. It wasn’t even for half a second that I had my head turned back towards the front of the room before I heard another “Psst.”

I turned just in time to catch sight of Snips uncupping his hooves from his mouth and taking a wary glance at the teacher who this time didn’t seem to hear him. “What,” I whispered, this time also looking to see if Cheerilee was going to say anything about it. She seemed a little to focused on her paperwork to hear me that time so I guessed that this volume was fine.

“You’re the new colt at school right?” Snips asked.

“Yeah. So what?” I replied.
“Well like, we heard that you joined up with the Cutie Mark Crusaders? Are you on their team, because that is kinda weird,” Snips went on to say.

“Um...no. That was my brother. I kind of have a cutie mark so I can’t join their club now can I?” When I said it I had expected the two to maybe get a little angry with my dickish ways but instead they actually looked at each other and whispered amongst themselves for a moment before turning back to me.

“Yeah, that makes sense. So you aren’t in anypony’s club right now then?” Snips asked again, it seemed that he would be the main one carrying this conversation.

“No,” I affirmed. I thought a moment about how this felt remarkably similar to a conversation I had in high school, of course that one had ended with me feeling like a loser for not having any real extracurriculars while this one might end with me feeling the exact opposite.

“So he’s not in a club then,” Snips said to Snails.

“Nope,” Snails affirmed.

No, that feeling of being a complete loser seemed to creep up on me once again out of no where. “So what,” I said, childishly crossing my hooves as I did so.

“So like,” Snips spared another glance to Cheerilee, but with the way she still wasn’t bothering to look up I was just about convinced that she didn’t truly care if we talked. “Okay so like, you don’t even have a team you’re on?”

“Team?” I asked.

“He doesn’t even know about the teams,” Snips said to Snails. The lanky unicorn just nodded solemnly.

“Would you like to fill me in then?” I asked. For being the token idiots of the show these two were really good at making me feel like the fool.

“Yeah sure, when we get out of detention,” Snips said, nodding to the clock behind me. I turned and glanced back at it to see that there were only five minutes of detention left. If I had known talking would make the time fly by any faster I would have started off being more sociable.

I sat correctly in my chair and doodled a bit on the worksheets, very poorly drawing a super saiyan pony. I didn’t even fully have time to put enough detail into the hair, obviously the most important part, before I heard Cheerilee clear her throat to get our attention.

“Alright you three, you can go now. Make sure to leave your worksheets on my desk before you leave, and I do hope that you were able to finish filling them out.” She stood from her desk and walked to the door so that she could hold it open for us. I slipped out of my own desk, it was much too small in my opinion, and grabbed my backpack which I threw on my back, before picking up my worksheets in my mouth and bringing them over to the teacher’s desk. I thought that I was actually getting pretty good at the whole grabbing things with my mouth, it was actually easier than doing it as a human, which I had to admit I did every once in a while when I just had too many things to hold.

As I passed by I had to stand on my back hooves to reach up onto Cheerilee’s desk and place the worksheets there; as I did so I caught sight of the crossword she had in fact been working on, she even did it in pen, bold. I took a second to look it over since the other two delinquents were taking their sweet time getting all of their things together, they had stopped to fill in at least some of the answers on the worksheet while they slung their bags, using that cheating magic all the while to multi-task. Cheerilee had finished half of the crossword, and I did catch sight of a stack of graded papers next to it on the desk, so it was nice to know, or at least believe, that she had been just as bored as I had while sitting here. I looked back to the two fooling around in the back before shrugging and pushing away from the teacher’s desk, and heading over to the door.

“Have a nice day Ashen Stroke,” Cheerilee said to me as I began to pass the threshold of the classroom.

“You have a nice day too Miss Cheerilee. Oh, and nine down is dispense,” I replied, taking a look back as I did so. I thought my little comment might have earned me a bemused smirk but instead she frowned at me like I had just spoiled the ending of a movie. So, feeling like a dick, I turned and walked down the hall that lead out of the building and into the afternoon sun that was all too eager to greet me.

I stood in front of the schoolhouse for a minute with my eyes closed, just enjoying the warming sensation that my fur would get whenever I would first walk out into the sun. They weren’t that readily apparent at first, but little by little I seemed to be picking up the nice little things that this body had to offer over my other, though the whole being a child thing was still insanely bothersome. I couldn’t really see an actual benefit to it other than that I wouldn’t really have to work for who knew how long, but that was just a minor thing. We all knew it when we were younger but it still warrants saying, being a kid sucks.

“Oh, you’re still here,” I heard Snips say from behind me, prompting me to open my eyes and turn to look at him.

“Well,” I replied, “you did say that you were going to explain whatever it was that you were talking about inside.”

“Yeah sure,” he said, walking past me with Snails on his left. “But, you need to come to the clubhouse so that we can explain it right.”

I arched a brow before looking to Snails who just solemnly nodded back at me again. It seemed like a hassle, and there were probably better things that I could be doing at the moment, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow, impossibly, this was important. “Alright,” I relented as I fell in line on Snip’s right, “but this better not be a waste of time.”

“Trust me,” he said, firing a smile my way as we turned onto the road into town, “this will be awesome.”

We took the road into the town of Ponyville like I had done on a few occasions already, and it wasn’t too long before we were walking the casually busy streets of the town. There didn’t seem to be too much of a bustle going on right now, and I tried to look out for any ponies that I might recognize as Snips and Snails led me through a couple of streets to their “clubhouse,” but Bon Bon was the only one I was able to pick out. Suddenly the idea of Lyra finding me hit for the first time, and I had to quickly shoot the part of my imagination that was already trying to create worst case scenarios for that outcome. I didn’t believe that the whole Lyra obsession with humans to be canon, but if it was I might have to raise her on the list of ponies that I need to do my best to avoid, not that I was doing a very good job of that so far but whatever.

“We’re here,” Snails announced as we came to a stop in front of a small boarded up house. I did a quick double take down the street we had just come off of, but for the love of Luna I couldn’t remember how we got here; and since when were there boarded up buildings in Ponyville.

I looked over the small one story house, which long ago had most likely been some shade of orange, but its glory days had long since past and was now clearly not fit for anyone to live in anymore. There was a caved in chimney on top, and some broken glass surrounding the base of the windows. The door had originally been two pieces, built to open on top and on bottom, but all that remained was the top portion which still allowed for me to get inside by just ducking my head a little bit. There wasn’t actually any graffiti on the outside of the run down old place, which I thought kind of felt kept the overall look of the place to be incomplete, but I wasn’t going to be the one to write anything on it.

My two companions walked across the overgrown yard, hopping between half buried stepping stones until they reached the porch which creaked eerily as they jumped onto it. “Are you coming?” Snips asked as he looked back to where I was still standing in the street.

“I guess,” I said with a shrug, walking into the tall grass which turned out to be a not so great idea. Pulling my hoof out of a deep pit of mud that I had stepped in, I sighed and leaped to the nearest stepping stone before jumping across them to end up on the porch next to the duo.

“Yeah, there are mud puddles all over the place in the grass, so we gotta jump across the stones,” Snips said simply as he turned and walked into the house. Snails followed him, bumping his head on the top part of the door as he ducked through. After wiping most of the mud off my hoof I ducked under the door and entered the house as well.

It was really dark inside the house, the only light being the light peaking in between the cracks of the boards on the windows, illuminating the dust in the air. Snips and Snails were nowhere to be found in the dark hall by the time that I entered, but the multitude of hoofprints in the dust on the floor let me know which way they had gone. Following the hoofprints and the ever growing sound of talking I walked down the hall and two doors later found myself at the entrance of the living area in the house.

There were a few colts standing around in the living area talking, though I couldn’t actually recall any of their names except for the two that I shared a class with. The old couch and chair sitting in the middle of the room were well worn and had some springs snaking their way through the cushions. Posters of...several things that I didn’t recognize in the least, hung on the walls as well as a few maps of the town and surrounding area with red markings all over them. There were assorted pieces of junk lying around, including paper trash and snack wrappers, various metal pieces that probably came from a million different things, and a pile of clothes.

“Hello, I guess you’re Ashen Stroke huh,” said a little polka-dotted colt, as he started walking away from the small group that was talking towards the back of the room. I thought I might have caught a slight english accent, but I didn’t particularly have a good ear for accents so it might have been nothing.

“Yeah,” I replied, scratching the back of my head, and finishing up my initial take in of the dimly lit room. “though I’m still kind of unclear as to why I am here.”

“I thought you were joining the club,” he said a little confused, looking back at Snips and Snails as he did so.

Snails looked over to Snips, whose eyes widened noticeably. “Oh right, you should probably join the club.”

The small spotted one face hoofed, which didn’t seem to injure him at all. Maybe in the future I wouldn’t need to restrain myself from doing them. “So, I suppose that I can explain things,” he said, extending his hoof towards me. “I’m Pip, it’s nice to meet you.”

I bumped his hoof, suppressing any glee that an actual hoofbump brought me. I was still trying to keep up some kind of facade here, so until I knew exactly what was going on I would have to play this close to the chest. “Ash, but I guess you already know that,” I replied.

He took his hoof back and looked off to the left wall. “Well heh...where should I start. Right, so...Snips was supposed to fill you in on why we wanted you in the club so I guess I will. Mostly we wanted to get you into our club before anypony else asked you.” He continued looking at the wall over to the left, shooting me a sidelong glance every few seconds.

“Okay, then why are you concerned about anypony else getting me into their club?” For some reason this was starting to really capture my interest.

“Because your brother already joined the CMC!” he replied immediately, turning his full attention back to me. “Sorry, it’s just, so weird that fillies would let them in their club.” The other colts behind them nodded in consent.

“Is it?” I asked.

“Well I guess that the CMC aren’t a no-colt club, but all the other filly ones seem to be, and if they started letting colts in then it would be really bad if they got you,” Pip explained.

“Why does what club I join matter so much?”

“Because you are a runner,” Pip said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I opened my mouth to say something, but felt myself at a complete loss for words. I had been mostly following this whole conversation until that last bit, and now had no idea what he was talking about. As I was trying to recover I realized that I was dumbly standing their with my mouth open, and decided that I might want to use it. “What?” I asked.

Pip shook his head and walked over to the left wall he had been staring at just a little bit earlier and slapped a very large map on the wall that held many red circles and x’s all over it. “You’re a runner, so we want you to join our club so you can run the torch.”

The Torch Runner

Author's Note

So I have been reading through the comments recently and noticed that quite a few of you did not particularly like the chapter a couple back where I showed a possible outcome of this story. True, I wasn't completely satisfied with it either, and putting it up before I was turned out to be a mistake. So, I went back and added some more onto One Possible Future so that perhaps it will not seem like filler now. Maybe, hopefully, now it will inspire you to ask the questions that I hope you will ask, and maybe you guys will even like how it is now. If not, well I'm sorry, but it is staying how it is now.

The Torch Runner

“...” I stared back at the polka-dotted colt looking at me with a smile plastered on his face. I scanned the rest of the room where the other colts were likewise smiling in my direction, and I felt utterly and horribly confused. “Okay, you lost me after that first word you said. What do you want me to do?”

Pip waved his hoof back at the map next to him on the wall. “The torch, we want you to be our runner for it.” His smile fell to a slight frown. “You do know what the Ponyville torch is right?”

“No,” I deadpanned, earning an audible sigh from the white and brown colt.

“You’re not from around here are you?” he asked.

“Nope,” I replied.

He scratched the underside of his chin with his hoof. Well I’m not exactly sure if scratching is the correct word to use, more like rubbing thoughtfully, but the gesture was still conveyed. “Alright, let’s start with what the game is then,” he said after a moment of thought before crossing the room to the opposite side where a poster of a classic torch was hung up on the wall.

“This is the Ponyville Torch,” he motioned to the poster though I could have probably guessed. “And all the clubs in Ponyville are constantly trying to get it. Right now the Timberwolves have it, but we figured out where they are hiding it yesterday.”

“Okay, so it’s like capture the flag?” I asked.

“Yes exactly! But this is a game on such a big scale, and it is always going on. Although, we can only steal the flag on the weekend, it still needs to be guarded a lot of the time so that nopony finds it. Now do you see why we want you to join up with us?” he asked expectantly.

I shrugged, “Still a no.”

“You’re a runner right? You like to run?” With that last question it felt like all of the pieces fell into place.

“Okay, I think I’m starting to get it now. You want me to grab this Ponyville Torch thing, and run off with it so that you guys can have it,” I said.

“Right, some of us saw you running around the school the other day, and I knew that you would be awesome to have in our club.” Some of the other gathered colts nodded in approval.

Now it was my turn to rub my chin in thought, strange sensation sure, but it wasn’t all too foreign. This whole pony thing had been coming to me rather quickly, maybe that was my special talent. Of course, I didn’t really see how that had anything to do with a pen, and would being a good pony really be a talent. No, it felt like it was something different from a talent, maybe an innate skill. Maybe it was an earth pony thing, and that was why Steel was having such a hard time. Of course, he had been a pretty uncoordinated guy ever since I had known him, so that could negate the theory completely.

I looked back to the group that was still staring at me like I was about to say something, and realized that my mind had drifted off into a tangent once again. “Let me think on it. What are the rules of this game?” I asked, causing all of the eyes to shift back to Pip.

He frowned again but recovered quickly as he moved onto his explanation. “Simple really,” he said pointing to the map with all of the x’s and circles on the other side of the room. “Whatever club has the torch gets to hide it, but you can’t keep it inside a building, and you have to be able to see it from far away. The clubs usually put it on top of their clubhouse, or in the middle of a field near their clubhouse or something, so that they can keep track of it. Snails found the torch yesterday on top of Sugarcube corner.” He looked to the lanky unicorn how nodded slowly.

“And then what? You just find where it is and take it, and hide it off somewhere else?” I asked.

“Basically, yeah,” he answered.

“And then what?” I prompted, rolling my hoof toward him expectantly.

“Well, you guard it so that nopony takes it from you.” It was here that I began to see the failing of this game.

“So how do you win?” I asked.

He stood there looking at me for a while like the question had never even crossed his mind. Could it have been possible, and his blank expression was making me seriously consider the possibility, that for however long these colts had been playing this game that they had never thought about how it might end. “Well...you don’t really win,” he said. “You just see which club can hold onto it the longest.”

With that I did an immediate about face, and started making my way to the door. “Wait!” I heard him call from behind me before he appeared in front of me a few short seconds later. “Where are you going?”

“Well, first I am going to wander around in the street until I can find my way to the library where I am going to pick up some books. Then, I am going to go home and read said books, and hopefully learn something,” I replied coolly, looking for an opening around the small colt that didn’t involve me pushing him over, though from the difference in our sizes I doubt it would have been difficult.

“You’re going to go read some books instead of playing an awesome game, and joining our club?” he asked, seeming almost hurt as he did so.

“Yeah, I am kind of a busy guy. I don’t want to sound rude or anything, but I can’t really spend much of my time ‘playing’ around right now,” I said as I took the left side of the hallway, forcing him to move aside.

“But…” I looked back at him, he now sitting on the floor looking like I had just crushed some long held dream of his. The look of the heartbroken colt sent a shiver down my spine, but I turned towards the door anyways as soon as I saw more of the youngsters leaving the living area and joining us in the hallway.

I continued walking for a moment before stopping. “I’m sorry, but I really can’t right now I just have too much on my plate,” I said as I exited the run down house into the daylight that was breaking through the overcast. I stood there on the porch for a little while just looking out at the non-functioning part of Ponyville that the clubhouse was located in.

This was the right decision I was sure, it was a no brainer really. If I did go along with their little game then I would just be wasting my time on something that was essentially pointless, and what I needed to focus on right now were important things like finding a way out of Equestria before any real craziness started up. Of course this world was awesome, and compared to my relatively boring life back home the last few days were a whirlwind of excitement; and sure, joining this little club and game would give me an opportunity to lay back and maybe even show off, but I couldn’t do things like that right now, could I?

There was a slight wind in the air, pushing the fur smoothly against my skin on the right side of my body, though all the product in my mane kept it firmly in place. The sky was grey, maybe there was some sort of rain scheduled later today that I hadn’t been made aware of, or maybe it was just this pit in my stomach making everything feel so out of place. I was doing the right thing, the adult thing, so why did it feel like I had just jumped off the train. Why did this feel like a mistake when I knew it to be rationally the right choice? Why, when I turned to look back into the house and saw that they were not in fact watching me, did I start walking towards the door and duck back inside.

Before I could find the answer, there I was standing outside the empty doorway, looking in on the colts that were huddled around in quiet discussion. I held a hoof up to my mouth, and cleared my throat loudly enough to garner some attention from the group. “You know what, I think I changed my mind. My brother joined a club so why should I have to sit out on joining one?”

It wasn’t really an answer that I got back from the group, but their collective cheer was enough to tell me what they thought of my decision to join up. I was still a bit torn, but now that I had taken back my previous denial I was most definitely feeling back on track. Pip stepped out of the group huddle and walked back over to my side.

“Alright then, let me introduce everypony,” he said as he turned back to face the group. “You already know Snips and Snails,” he said motioning to the two. “That over there is Blueberry.” He motioned to a plump earth pony colt that was only a little shorter than myself, who of course was all blue. He didn’t have a cutie mark but, betting on it being a blueberry pie wasn’t too far out of the question.

“That’s Ball and Racket,” he went on, pointing between two identical looking pegasi, save for one being yellow with a red and green mane, and the other being green with a red and yellow mane. Neither had a cutie mark, but their wings looked to be in a lot better shape than I had seen either Steel’s or Scootaloo’s being in, so I guessed they were probably able to fly halfway decently. I hadn’t really paid any attention to who had been pointed out as being Ball and who was Racket, not that it would have mattered I always end up mixing twins up anyways.

“And finally we have Checkers,” he finished motioning to black unicorn with a red mane. Just seeing the clash of colors and the asinine smirk on his face made me want to gag. In fact, I had to cough loudly and turn my head to stop everypony from catching onto my disgust. I couldn’t really blame it on the kid, and now that I turned back to see him he was only smiling pleasantly at me, probably excited that somepony new was joining the club, but come on, red and black. I knew that no matter how much this colt proved himself to be an awesome or cool guy that I would never be able to take him seriously. Sorry Checkers, you aren’t getting anywhere with me, blame Celestia if you want.

“Wait a second…” I said, looking back over the assembled group of colts in front of me. “A lot of you don’t have cutie marks.” Blueberry looked down at that, while Ball and Racket just glared back at me, Checkers didn’t seem the least bit fazed. “No that’s not what I meant. Just that, why did you all join the CMC or something.”

“Psh,” Ball...or Racket said as he stepped forwards. “If the girls never let them join any of their clubs before why would we want to. Since they wanted to be like that we decided that we would make our own club. It’s kinda weird that your brother ended up joining them though…” he trailed off.

Huh, so it seemed that there had been some sort of battle of the sexes going on before I had even stepped foot into Ponyville, and Steel and I had agitated the situation. Cool. It did make a certain amount of sense, with there being so many more mares than stallions walking about every time that I had walked into town, it seemed that the whole fandom idea of the females being the greater sex here held up somewhat. Of course, when you have multiple goddesses running the world you would think that it should naturally swing that way. Though I hadn’t seen any so far, it didn’t seem to be too much of a stretch of the imagination to think that the girls probably hung “no colts allowed” signs from their club windows.

“Alright that makes sense I guess. So Pip,” I said, swinging a hoof around the smaller colt’s neck, “why don’t you tell me exactly what I’m supposed to do.”

He smiled back at me, and slipped out of my grasp to go point back to the map of the town. “Alright,” I said, walking over to where he was standing, “I get that it is at Sugarcube Corner.”

He looked at me like I had just cut him off in his explanation, and for all I knew, I had. “Yeah, but we have a plan to get the flag and take it away before anypony knows what happened,” Snips said, joining us at the map.

“Right…” Pip began.

“You see we are going to come out and distract them,” Checkers said as he stood next to Snips and formed a line with his hoof in front of Sugarcube corner. “While we all block them here, you are going to act as the knight and slip past their line undetected. Once you get the torch and get out the back that will be mate.”

I hummed and looked back to the map, it was a simple plan, a little too simple, but then again these were children coming up with plans here. “Why do I have to go get it, can’t Ball and Racket fly up and get it?”

“Well you see,” started Pip once more.

“That’s against the rules,” Racket...or Ball...the green one said.

“You aren’t allowed to fly or do any magic when you have the torch, earth pony rules,” his, I was assuming fraternal twin brother, added.

“Well that makes sense I guess, kind of levels the playing field,” I said, looking back to the map and studying all of the paths leading to Sugarcube Corner. I even found a little tag on a house on the far side of town that had ‘Us’ scrawled on it, and made a mental map from it to the library so that I would know how to at least get there from here.

We weren’t that terribly far away from the main street that ran down the center of the town, so after following the route with my eyes a few times I felt confident I could navigate the town a lot better.

So basically, these guys were going to distract whatever team was currently holding the torch and it was my job to sneak in and grab it. Not that hard surely, I was pretty monochromatic afterall, with the whole slate gray coat and black mane, the only thing that really stood out about me was the few streaks of light blue in my mane and tail as well as my cutie mark. As long as we made sure to make this some sort of night mission I could probably be super ninja about this, and get in and out Solid Snake style. I needed a box…

“Alright, so two things,” I said after my little internal monologue that didn’t last more than a few seconds. “When are we going to be doing this, and where am I supposed to go after I have the flag...I mean torch.”

Pip stepped forward eager to answer my question, but then stopped and looked behind us to Blueberry who was sitting at the coffee table in the middle of the room doodling something. “Easy…”

“I’m getting kinda hungry, anypony else hungry?” Blueberry asked to the assembled colts.

“I could eat,” Snips murmured in agreement.

“Let’s finish this first!” Pip snapped, but it sounded more like a squeak coming from him. It was very hard not to laugh, even Mr. Yellow twin snickered before being elbowed by his brother. Pip stared at the laugher with his polka-dotted eye while keeping the other looking forward, which was really creepy from my vantage of looking him dead on, but it made Yellowy wilt pretty easily. I was starting to see why this guy was in charge.

“Right, so when you get the torch and head out the back, we want you to circle around the town,” Pip turned to the map and made a long circle around the entire perimeter of the town. “When you get here, we will meet up with you and all return to home base,” he finished, smacking his hoof on a field just off the main road.

“I have to run around the entire town?” I asked in disbelief. I mean sure I did enjoy running, way more than I ever had before, but that had to be at least a three or four mile run.

“Well you have to get to the field, and you can’t go through the town,” Pip explained, though by his tone he felt that he shouldn’t have to. “Everypony is going to be out in the streets, and if you get tagged you have to drop the torch and go all the way back to home base before you can join the game again.”

“You didn’t say anything about that before,” I deadpanned.

“Oh yeah, don’t get tagged,” Snips said, stepping up to the map as he did so. “It’s a while to get here and back from Sugarcube Corner.”

“Yes, thank you, Snips.” Okay, so not only did I have to run a gauntlet, but I also couldn’t let anypony get anywhere near me.

“Don’t worry about it,” Pip said waving his hoof like the little tagging part didn’t really mean anything. “With the way I saw you run at recess, you can outrun anypony on the Timberwolves easily. The tough thing is going to be worrying about their magic.”

“Magic?” I asked, brow arched.

“Yeah, there are five?” Mr. Green asked looking to Snails who simply nodded. “Five unicorns on The Timberwolves, and they use all kinds of tricks to keep the torch away from us. The last three times that we tried to get the torch from them, they had something up their sleeve.” Strange that idiom carried over when ponies don’t tend to wear any sleeves at all.

“I thought you weren’t allowed to use magic with the torch,” I said.

“You can’t,” Pip confirmed, “but they always use their magic to get around the rules without actually breaking them, but as long as they don’t know that you are there we should be golden.”

“The main thing we need to watch out for is their leader Mistep,” Checkers said. “She is homeschooled so we don’t see her much, but she is really smart and always thinking three turns ahead. Plus, she is really good at magic and basically do anything the other unicorns on her team can. She is truly a queen at this game.”

“Still,” Pip said, again trying to reign in the discussion, “you let us worry about them, all you need to do is get the torch.” He poked me in the chest.

“Okay,” I said, taking a step back from the very determined looking mini-colt. “So like I asked, when are we doing this?”

“Tonight,” he said with a smirk, letting the word hang in the air as everyone, including myself, just stood there in silence.

“Isn’t that against the rules?” I asked, after a far too long period of silence. “Didn’t you say we could only take it during the weekend?”

“Right, and since it’s Friday after school, that counts,” he replied.

“It’s Friday?” I asked, honestly I hadn’t bothered to take note of the days.

“Yes…” Now it was his turn to deadpan.

“So, is that all there is to the plan then?” I asked.

“Basically,” he said with a shrug. “We were planning to head towards Sugarcube Corner just as the sun was going down to have the best chance of getting it. Hopefully they won’t have anypony there to stop us and we can just grab it easy.”

“Okay, so now I am all caught up right. Nothing more that needs explaining?” I asked.

“No, I think that’s all of it,” Pip confirmed.

“Good,” I said as I turned and started to head back to the hallway, “because I really do have some stuff that I need to get done. I will meet you guys back here at dusk then.”

“Alright, take care of your stuff, and make sure you get back with plenty of time,” Pip called to me, as I heard him rip the map off of the wall. “We are going to go over our jobs again.”

“Sounds good!” I replied loudly enough for them to hear me as I ducked under the door and once again stepped out onto the porch. I couldn’t really tell where the sun was, and there was a small amount of water soaked into the boards beneath my hooves. I judged that I still had a few hours until I had to be back here, and carry out this little mission that I had apparently decided to be part of. Sure it took away from my whole studying magic in hopes of uncovering something. Sure it was kind of pointless since in the end nopony really won the game, that part was still bugging me a little bit, but in the end it was a way to hang out and relax. I had been trying so hard to stay under the radar, and even if I hadn’t been doing such a good job of avoiding the mane 6 like I wanted, it was still kind of draining. Playing a pointless game with some kids might be just the thing that I needed to pick me up.

Spike stared back at me, scale ridge raised as he probed me with his stare. Now I had admitted before that the guy was definitely one scary looking reptile, but I was confident that I was able to play off his stare pretty well. Or at least keep from wetting myself as his tongue slipped from his mouth in what was probably some kind of effort at concentration, but ended up being a much more threatening gesture.

“Are you going to come looking for some magic books every single day?” he asked eventually.

“Heh,” I laughed trying to seem lighthearted about it as I pushed the literal pile of books I had been browsing behind myself with a hoof. “You know what they say about books...read ‘em.”

That finally got him to break this little staredown we were having and laugh a little. “That was terrible,” he said.

“Yeah,” I agreed, scratching the back of my neck. “I’m not all too good at coming up with funny stuff on the spot.”

“I could tell,” he said as he passed me, and started to look through the books I had strewn out on the floor around me. I don’t really know how long I had been sitting here reading through the material that had been on the bottom shelf, but it had to have been at least an hour or so. While I had pounded wastefully against the high level tome that I had seemed to be a good idea to go ahead and grab the day before, I could have actually been enjoying the learning material that I should have taken in the first place.

I had been skimming through all sorts of beginner magic books, and to be completely honest, they were fascinating. Magic, as it turns out, is very much like a completely different branch of science, falling somewhere between physics and chemistry. It was all about the change of an energy called mana, and how it could be harnessed and channeled into different applications. I was still trying to grasp some of the basic concepts, but the principles that I had read through so far all seemed to be scientifically sound, that is if you are willing to accept that there is a source of energy out there that can be controlled and manipulated through pure willpower.

“I know this is a library and all, but we don’t usually have ponies that just come in here to read,” Spike admitted as he started to clean up the pile.

“Wait,” I said, managing to stop myself from screaming at him before he started to unscramble my perfectly organized chaos. “I want to take some of these with me, and um...how many can I check out at once?”

He turned and stared back at me, his face slowly changing to that slightly suspicious look that he had given me earlier. “I have been working here for a while, and I think that is the first time I have heard anypony still not out of elementary school ask that question.”

I turned to the side and motioned to the cutie mark on my flank. “I love to read and write, and right now I am on a magic kick. That book I pulled yesterday was way to advanced so I figured I needed to start at the basics,” I said.

“I coulda told you that,” he replied with a smirk.

“Yeah, rushing ahead of myself I guess. Anyways, can I take this whole stack?” I asked, motioning to the maybe dozen books laid out on the floor.

“No way man, Twilight would kill me if she saw that the entire bottom row of the magic section was missing. She kind of has a thing for magic ya know,” he said.

“Alright, how many can I check out then?” I asked again.

He stroked his chin, the appropriate way that it should be done, damn him for having digits, I really missed those. “How about five as a limit,” he replied after a moment of contemplation.

“Did you just make that up,” I asked with a frown.

“Yeah,” he answered, smiling widely and nodding his head as he did so.

I opened my mouth to protest, but eventually just had to smile back at him “I’m feeling that arguing with the fire breathing lizard of awesome won’t go my way right now.”

“Probably not,” he agreed.

Grinning sincerely for the first time in what felt like ages I looked over the books on the floor, and pointed to the few that I wanted to take. “Well I guess I will just have to make more runs to the library when I finish these off then,” I said as he collected the few that I pointed out and stacked them into a separate pile.

“That’s not so bad is it?” he asked as he separated the four I had picked out from the rest, and carried them over to a podium near the door. “Carrying around a lot of books is a good way to get your exercise in at least,” he went on as he started writing the titles of the books down in some sort of log.

“Yeah, is that how you got those guns?” I asked as I walked on over.

“What?” he asked, as he set the pen down, and looked back at me more than a little confused.

“It’s a...Manehatten thing, don’t worry about it. Anyways, are we all good to go here?” I pulled the backpack off my back, and started to put the books into it one by one.

“Yep, all done,” he replied as he hopped down from the stool he had been standing on. I finished packing the items into my bag, and zipped it tightly before slinging it over my shoulder once again. As I did so I felt the weight of five heavy tomes press down against my spine, something that I hadn’t been hit with since my university days, and boy did I not miss that feeling in the least.

As I struggled to carry the nearly thirty pounds of books on my back to the door I stopped and looked back at Spike again. “Hey, can you not mention to Twilight that I got these,” I said from the doorway.

He stopped picking up the books that I had left lying out on the ground, and looked back over to me. “Why?” he asked.

“Well I kinda feel bad for what I said to her the other day, and I don’t want to make things any worse than they are already.” I smoothed a hoof over my mane to pat down any loose strands that had found their way out during the day.

“If you feel bad about it you should probably apologize to her,” Spike said as he turned back to his task.

“You’re right,” I replied as I turned back to exiting the building. “I’ll do that the next time I see her,” I called back, closing the door behind me as I did so, and walking out into the dimlight of the late-afternoon sun. “Which will hopefully be never.”

I peered out from the bush that I was told to wait in at the side of Sugarcube Corner. Honestly, it looked like nopony was around, the streets had died down to nothing a little while ago, and I hadn’t seen a pony outside for at least twenty minutes, but still I felt like I should just go along with the plan. It just kind of sucked that Pip was taking so damn long to make his move.

“Wait here he says,” I whispered to myself, “climb the boxes when you get the signal he says.” The boxes that he had been referring to were some crates on the north side of the confectionary that had been placed in a certain way to create a kind of makeshift stairway just short enough for some clever kids to climb up. The Torch, which I noticed was just outside of Pinkie Pie’s bedroom window, stood straight up on a wooden platform supported by some scrawny looking sticks. So when everything hopefully started going crazy it was my job to scale the two story building, and grab the torch before anypony noticed.

I looked to the west, I had lost track of the sun a long time ago as it had disappeared behind the buildings in town, but I could still tell that the last light of day had nearly faded. My eyes flicked back to the street leading up to Sugarcube Corner, where I could make out the distant outlines of my clubmates walking towards the building. I realized that I still didn’t know what the name of our club was; probably a detail worth knowing.

They made it about halfway from the end of the street to the bakery before there was some more movement off to the other side of the small square. I saw a good amount of filly shaped blobs emerge from the darkness, and begin heading towards my group. At the lead of the girls was a dark purple filly with a rose colored mane. The rims on the glasses that she wore on the tip of her nose just gave her away as being one of those smart mean girls you will come across every so often, like a librarian you just happen to run into on a really bad day.

“The Pirates again?” she asked as the two groups stopped to face off with each other. Pirates huh, well that would explain why Pip had seen fit to put on an eyepatch, but surely they could have come up with something better. “Can you guys just go home so we can all get home before our parents find out we aren’t there?” Now that was something that I couldn’t believe had slipped my mind. Well, I was already screwed on that account so no point in worrying about it now.

“No Mistep,” Pip said, taking a step towards their leader. “We are getting the torch this time!” he declared. Taking this little meeting as being my cue I crept from my bush behind the group, and proceeded over to the boxes.

Pip and Mistep continued shooting comments back and forth at each other, but I was so focused on climbing up these very unsturdy and creaky boxes that I couldn’t really care about whatever it was they were discussing. Everytime I would shift my weight to the next one in front of me before pulling myself up, I felt it give a little under my weight and cry out in protest; and every time that I made it up over the lip and stood on the crate I would wait a second to listen for anypony running my way, but as of yet I was still undiscovered. The process was slow going, but after a few minutes, and six decently sized crates, I had arrived at the top of the first story.

I looked down the narrow path that on top of the first story roof that would lead me over to the balcony the torch was on. From the ground, or at least from my small vantage point, it had looked relatively flat, but up here it was easy to see just how angeled the roof was. I looked back down to the front of the building where the two groups now seemed to be circling each other, I honestly had no idea what they were doing, but I decided that I should just try to focus on my own task at the moment. Briefly, before stepping onto the long beam that I would need to traverse to reach my destination, I thought about backing out and telling everypony that I give up. This was probably not worth a very dangerous fall after all.

I only let the thought have a few seconds of breath before strangling it and burying it in the backyard of my mind before I stepped out onto the beam. My hooves were shaky below me at first, but as I took a few steps forward I found my balance quite easy, and soon was walking forward without much trouble. I guess it made sense really, four legs are probably better than two when it comes to the whole keeping your balance thing. I looked back to the group, and even though in my mind I knew that up here against the dark night sky I was probably invisible, I still couldn’t help feeling like somepony was watching me.

Seeing that all those below were still focused on whatever the hell it was they were doing, seriously, now a circle had formed, and two ponies were in the middle going at it, trying to tag each other before the other one did. Shaking of the bizarreness of seeing that display, I turned back to traversing my perilous path, and finding it getting easier with every step, I reached the wooden platform quickly enough. Once I got to the balcony I tried to peer over the top of it to where I knew the torch was, but it seemed that I would have to scale this too before I would be able to.

I pushed myself up to my back two hooves, and for a second I felt my balance leave me as the weight of my backpack pulled me backwards, before my front hooves came down heavily on the edge of the platform in front of me. My heart started pounding in my chest at the near slip, and I stood there for a second until it calmed down a little bit before stretching as far as I could, and pushing my hooves all the way over the ledge to haul myself up. Finally getting over the edge I laid there for a little bit catching my breath and congratulating myself on a job well done.

“Aw man!” came an exclamation from below, making me turn a little too quickly, and rock the balcony that I was laid out on. To my immense relief I still hadn’t been spotted, and Blueberry was just mad about getting tagged out. He started to waddle his way back the direction they had come from, and after a few seconds he had passed out from beneath the glow of the street lights that were illuminating all the other ponies down there.

“Hey what’s going on out here!” Pinkie yelled cheerfully as she flung her window doors open. All at once all the eyes down there turned towards the pink mare that had called them out, before locking onto my grey form that was standing out brilliantly thanks to the light streaming from her room behind me.

“He’s going for the torch!” Mistep yelled, making all of the other fillies completely forget about their standoff with The Pirates, and start racing towards the bakery.

I looked over to Pinkie Pie, with what I was sure was pure terror plastered on my face, and she looked back to me with something more akin to embarrassment. “Heh,” she laughed, looking over to the torch, “you better run future colt.”

I didn’t have time to bemoan this unfortunate turn of events as I turned to grab the torch that was held in place on the edge of the balcony. I had actually been hoping that this thing would have been lit, but all it appeared to be was a very old brass torch that could have been used in the Olympics half a century ago. There was a short glow of purple light from beneath the torch for a second, and then suddenly the wooden support beneath it gave out and it started tumbling off the edge of the balcony. Not thinking, I leapt forwards and bit down on the small tip of the torch just before it went over the edge. Once again, my backpack tried to kill me by causing my hooves to slide far too close to the ledge of the balcony before I came to a stop.

I froze there on the edge of the balcony, waiting for something else to go terribly wrong, when I caught sight of Mistep looking up at me from the ground with her horn still glowing. Off to the edge of the roof I could hear a whole mess of ponies climbing the crates I had come up as quickly as they dared, and here I was standing motionless, an easy target.

“In here Time Colt,” Pinkie called from behind me, snapping me out of my near death experience. I turned quickly to see her waving me into the window that she had opened, and without second thought I turned and sprinted into the safe room beyond. She quickly closed the window behind me, not that it mattered much since the other ponies were smart enough not to risk climbing onto the roof.

“Thanks Pinkie,” I said, as I stood in the middle of what I could only assume was her bedroom.

“No problemo. I remember when I used to try and get the Ponyville torch. Do you want to hear the story?” she asked.

“I think I need to be running right now or something,” I replied through the old metal object that I held in my teeth. Talking with something in your mouth, not as hard as I have seen many fanfics make it out to be, but then again ponies do have bigger mouths so I guess it works out.

“Oh right, you can go out the back of the bakery, come on it’s this way,” she said as she began to bounce to another door that led from the room.

“Hold on,” I said, causing her to stop and spin mid bounce back to my direction. “Can I leave my bag here, it’s kind of heavy, and I think that I will want to be as light as possible.”

“Sure, whacha got in there?” she asked as I began to unsling it from my back.

“Just some books I picked up at the library,” I replied as I quickly made my way over to the door that she had been heading towards. I adjusted the torch in my mouth so that I was biting down on it more like I would a bit, and opened the door. “Tsanks Pinkie,” I managed to get out, now talking was actually kind of difficult.

“Sure thing, just make sure you don’t break anything getting outside kay,” she replied to me as I began to exit. I nodded back to her, and stole into the dimly lit hallway that awaited me just outside of the door. I didn’t know, or to be more accurate didn’t recall, if the Cakes actually lived inside their own bakery, so to err on the side of caution I crept down the hallway as quietly as possible. The stairs at the end were easy enough to go down, with only making a very small amount of sound, and I quickly found myself standing in the middle of the bakery.

I could see the front of the bakery on my left, which would logically mean that the back exit would be to the right, so I turned in that direction and started making my way through the store. I couldn’t recall having ever been inside a real bakery in my life, but as I walked through the barely lit building the smells that assailed me brought me to the verge of drooling. I realized that I had completely forgotten to eat dinner today, not that I was unaccustomed to skipping meals when I was busy, but I couldn’t imagine that it was healthy for a colt my age to go without eating. I immediately stopped in place, and perhaps more forcefully than I should have, slapped myself across the face. The smack rang out in the small and silent room, and I felt my eyes start to water at the burning sensation on my cheek.

“You can’t start thinking like that,” I whispered to myself, “as soon as you do you are doomed. You aren’t a pony or a child dammit. You are a man, so don’t start thinking of yourself as one.” Having said that I stood there quietly and looked around to make sure that nopony had actually heard me admit that. Seeing that the coast was clear, I continued to make my way to the back of the shop.

The door that led outside was pretty obvious, what with the light of the stars visible through the four windows in it. As I reached for the handle that would open it I paused, and thankfully caught myself before I would do something incredibly foolish. It would make sense for me to leave through this entrance, hell even these kids would likely already have the back door guarded for when I made my inevitable escape. Still, going out the front would probably be even more likely to get me caught, and I wasn’t about to brave using a window.

Taking a deep breath, and coiling the muscles in my hind legs I slowly, and as quietly as possible, turned the knob on the door. Holding the doorknob completely turned, I crouched as low as possible before throwing the door wide and sprinting out into the darkness just beyond. As I ran outside it took all of a second for my eyes to adjust to the even dimmer light of the town, and register the several ponies that had turned and were now running towards me.

“There he is! Get him!” The Timberwolves screamed, as all of their heads turned towards me at once. I ducked a magically suspended net that came sailing at me from the right, being held aloft by at least two of the unicorns that were chasing me, and sidestepped a piece of two-by-four that was thrown into my path to trip me. As my eyes caught up fully to everything that was happening I realized that I was completely surrounded by fillies, doing everything in their power to stop me from escaping with the very metallic tasting torch in my mouth.

“Ash! This way!” I heard Pip yell from a nearby street just ahead. The rest of the club was forcing back a small escape route for me, and fending off any of our adversaries just with their presence, I was starting to get the feeling that being tagged was kind of a big deal, which just spurred me on to run faster. A pot came sailing at me from the darkness, and as I ducked my head under it I felt it clip my ear. Why were these fillies trying to kill me!

Juking out a blue unicorn I made my final break to the street, and admittedly laughed a little as she fell over herself to the ground. I finally passed the outer barrier that my team had established, and raced onto the street ahead. “Get to the meeting spot as fast as you can,” I heard Pip say as I passed him, but I didn’t stop to say anything.

I ran on, taking the road I was on directly to the edge of town, where if there was any merit to this plan, I would be safe. It seemed that Pip had been right, as I had run through that group of ponies trying to surround me it came to my attention that they really didn’t move all that fast. Maybe that was an Earth Pony thing, not able to use magic or fly around, but man can we run. That of course wouldn’t make all that much sense though seeing as how Rainbow Dash can keep up with Applejack. Maybe those events had been a little exaggerated or off the mark like I had some of the things I had seen so far had been. Just to make sure, I turned back and could see nopony following me as I reached the end of the road, and made a hard left turn onto the soft grass that surrounded the town.

Running, something that had never really been my thing, was suddenly so easy and, hell, exhilarating. At the pace that I was keeping up as I passed the first block on my circuit, I felt like there were plenty of adults that I would be able to outpace. Maybe that was quite an exaggeration with their strides probably being far longer than my own, but as far as ponies that were in my age bracket went, I was pretty awesome at this.

My front hoof struck a rock, and not the little kind of rock that you kick out of the way easily, no this was the kind of rock that you encounter half-buried in the dirt with a good angle on it so that it sends you flipping, like I did as soon as I made contact. I must have tumbled head over ass at least four times before my chin found a good position on the ground, and I slid forwards another three feet or so before coming to a stop. To my bane, I had managed to hold the torch in my mouth the entire time, and now both my upper and lower row of teeth were protesting the idea of putting a big metal rod in my jaw and then slamming my head against the ground. A rather poor idea in retrospect.

Shakily, I managed to pull myself back to my hooves and dust myself off as I spat the torch out onto the ground. I wiped...definitely not tears from my face and sniffed once or twice as I flexed my hoof that had hit the rock in the ground. Yeah, it hurt a little, but it wasn’t broken or anything. I felt like I could still probably finish the run that I had been given, but as I looked around in the darkness, with the only lights around being the stars overhead and the full moon that would periodically come out of hiding from behind the clouds, there was nopony around. I bent down and scooped the torch up once again in my mouth, probably a bad idea not wiping it off after dropping it into the grass, but my tongue wasn’t doing a whole lot of tasting at the moment.

As I took off once again on my track at a much slower canter, I felt a sting in my right shoulder from where I had initially hit the ground. Thinking it wise, I made sure to keep my pace slow enough that there wasn’t any actual pain, just some mild discomfort. Admittedly, it had been pretty stupid to run through the dark of night with no lights anywhere to give me a clue to where I was going, not that it did me any good now.

I passed a few more blocks in silence, just the sound of the crunching grass beneath my hooves to track my progress. I looked up to the stars overhead, and tried my best to make out any familiar constellations, but I had never been much of a stargazer back home, so I got jack for the effort. I turned my thoughts back to the books that I had been reading at the library, learning some hard facts about magic was actually pretty thrilling. All that I could have possibly done before was speculate on some possible things that magic might be made of, or how it worked, but here there was an entire scientific field devoted to it. I continued recalling the various examples and explanations of the basics that I had been able to grasp in the short few hours I had to read. Truthfully, the books had probably been written for an introductory course in middle school, or whatever the equivalent in this world was, but even with the dumbed down diction I couldn’t stop thinking about it. That is, until I reached the large red house that marked where I was supposed to turn off of the circle around the town and proceed into a field.

I looked out into the darkness on my right, and sure enough saw a large open pasture with a solitary tree standing in the middle. As I stared at the tree, I noticed that there was a dimlight illuminating the darkness around its base. Judging that to be where I was supposed to go, I turned and made a beeline for the tree. The grass I found myself walking through was tall and unkempt, I didn’t think that I had ever seen any lawnmowers in the show, and seeing the grass that easily came up to my eye level, I was putting my money on the belief that there weren’t any yet. Though I suppose ponies can graze so you wouldn’t necessarily need a lawnmower, and you could just have everyone in town take a day out of their month to go shorten the grass around town.

I emerged from the thicket into the small clear space around the tree to find a lamp sitting next to it and nopony around. Squinting at the world around me, and the weirdness of the situation, I still couldn’t see anypony nearby, so with a shrug I proceeded over to the lamp to inspect it. It was a simple gas powered thing, that did its job of lighting up the darkness well, hell it had been enough to bring me over here. Immediately feeling a sense of dread at that thought, I tried to backpedal away, but this turned out to be my undoing. My back hoof kicked over something as I made my retreat, and before I knew it I was suspended in the air inside of a giant net with the torch lying on the ground below me.

“You have got to be kidding me,” I pouted as the branch supporting me creaked under my weight. There was a rustling in the tall grass around me, and four figures emerged into the light under the tree.

“Sorry bro,” Steel said as he smiled up at me; the rest of the CMC didn’t seem as thrilled about tricking and trapping me, that is except for Scootaloo who was smiling even wider than Steel was.

“Are you serious, what is going on with this net?” I asked as I punched the ropes that had me bound.

“You had the torch right, we are just playing the game,” Scootaloo said as she bent over and snatched the torch.

I was so pissed I couldn’t really do anything else, but glare daggers down at the four of them, as I slowly swung back and forth. “Ah’m sorry about this Ash,” Applebloom apologized as she started walking back to the grass. Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement as she followed her yellow friend and disappeared from sight.

“Hey guys wait for me!” Scootaloo called as she ran to catch up with her friends, leaving just me and the traitor staring at each other beneath the tree.

“Welp, I gotta go,” he said, turning around to follow them.

“Wait!” I yelled at him. “You are just going to leave me up here?”

“Oh don’t be a baby, I’m sure you can figure a way out.” Laughing he disappeared into the tall grass to follow the rest of his new club off to Celestia knows where.

I waited until I was sure that the impressionable fillies had gone far enough away before erupting into a tirade of expletives, that would surely shock anypony in this town, especially when coming from a little colt. It took a good three or four minutes for me to finally run out of steam, and just go back to silently swinging back and forth in the net I was caught up in, probing at the ropes that tightly held me in place. The branch above me creaking, and the sway of the net actually was a little bit soothing after a while, and I started to feel myself drift off a little before something occurred to me.

“Wait a second...was that guy making chess puns?”

Awesome...

I woke up sometime during the night, finding myself still trapped within a net wasn’t exactly my favorite way to come back to the conscious world, and honestly I was a little surprised that I hadn’t been found yet. After having been abandoned to my fate by the CMC and Steel, who was supposed to be my brother here, I had expected my new clubmates to find me eventually. As I peered out into the dead of night around me I could tell that had definitely not have been the case.

The world was quiet, save for the occasional cricket that would sing its song to the night, and be answered by another. The sky above was completely clear, and the moon hung fully overhead, giving me enough light to see clearly for a good distance into the grassy meadow in, which the tree I hung from was rooted. Sighing, and seeing no real point in waiting for rescue, as it would probably be before morning before I was discovered, I turned my attention to the rope that I was suspended by.

It wasn’t incredibly impressive, of course after being snared I might have just thought that out of bitterness. The branch the net was hung from was bowing considerably at my weight, and every time I shifted to get a better vantage it would creak a little. I knew the way that I would have to get out of this situation, though I didn’t like it one bit.

“Well, no point in putting off the inevitable,” I said, rolling back over so that my hooves were on the bottom of the net. I found some hoofholds, not an easy thing to on the ropes that comprised the net, but after only slipping through the holes, and smacking my face into the side of the net a dozen times I succeeded. Crouching as low as possible, I quickly jumped as high as I could, hitting the top of the net, before coming down and by some miracle landing in the same place. I couldn’t really get all that much distance while imprisoned here, but my weight hitting the bottom of the net again did cause the branch overhead to shake and groan with the strain of holding me up.

I jumped, and jumped, and jumped, and when I hit jump number twenty-three I finally heard the branch above crack and split. Me, the net, and the rather large branch fell to the ground in a clutter, and somehow, as I lifted my head to inspect the damage around me, I found that I was unharmed. Well, except for the damage that I had done to myself earlier when I tripped over that damned rock. I put my hooves into the mouth of the net, and now that it was no longer taught with my weight, I easily pulled it loose and opened it.

Now free of my prison, I shook myself off like a dog and arched my back to pop it. The audible crack of my spine was a welcome comfort after spending hours cooped up in that confining thing. I looked back to the edge of the grassline, feeling that it had been so much easier to see far away from up in the tree, but I wasn’t about to climb that just to get a better vantage. I looked around the tree, and spotting the gas lamp that had lured me here in the first place, I figured out which way I had come from, and chose my course out. With the lantern swinging back and forth in my maw I began the long trek that would take me all the way back to the Rich Manor, where my certain doom awaited me.

Well maybe not doom, to be honest I actually had no idea what kind of punishment would surely be coming my way, but it had to be severe. Thinking back to my own childhood, I recalled a time that I had absentmindedly stayed out after dark, and my parents went nuts. This was made worse of course by the friend I was with telling them that I wasn’t at his house, when I was over on the couch playing video games. Screw Kirk, he got me grounded for two weeks.

Mr. Rich; at first I had thought that he was the kind of guy that was a strict and strong father figure, but he had been gone ever since the first day that I had gotten to his place. The only ones that I seemed to interact with on a daily basis were the maids and butlers, I wondered if his absence was a usual thing, maybe he didn’t actually care at all. That old stallion though, Dusty, there was little doubt that he was the kind not against using a little spanking to get his point across. I immediately set in my mind that if that was the course he would pursue I would have to fight back to the death, there was simply no other way. A grown man cannot suffer such indignities and continue living, it was impossible, I was pretty sure that there was a rule against it somewhere in the Brocode.

I stepped out of the tall grass just on the edge of town and made an immediate right turn, walking along the outermost buildings in the hope that it wouldn’t take me too long to reach the road I was looking for. After a few minutes, the pasture having disappeared into memory behind me, the sound of calling crickets faded away, leaving just my clopping hooves on the ground below me the only sound in the night air. I wasn’t afraid, seriously, in this situation I would usually be so tense that even the slightest noise might set me off, but this was Equestria and like I had when leaving the Apple family orchard, I felt an immense aura of safety about the world.

The only place in Equestria that actually had anything dangerous in it was the Everfree afterall, and that was still a ways off, though admittedly not as far as I would have preferred. From all the knowledge of this land that I had, which for some reason seemed to not be as accurate as I would have hoped, there was no danger out to get me. Especially not in a land that had two immortal goddesses always on duty, safeguarding their little ponies from all evil. I screwed my face up as an interesting thought crossed my mind, now that I was a pony and very much in Equestria, would I be recognized as a citizen.

Sure I hadn’t been born here, but it wasn’t like anypony actually knew that aside from Steel. To anypony walking around I would just look like a normal little dirt pony...err Earth Pony. Perhaps I would be most correctly placed in the illegal alien category, which still felt a little bit off. Sure I was an alien, wow that was a weird thought, but I didn’t think that accidentally falling through a portal into another world was committing an illegal act. I would have to look at a whatever immigration laws Equestria had to be sure, but I thought that the most accurate term would have been, Visitor.

As I finally reached the road that led uphill and out of town, I marvelled at just how easy it was to keep my mind distracted and off task. I was pretty sure that if anypony ever found something shiney enough I would be reduced to rolling around on the ground like a kitten or something as I played with it. Shuddering at the horrifyingly cute mental image, I doubled my pace as the road began to hit its highest angle of ascension. I looked ahead to the moon just above me and marvelled at it once more, with the clear sky, zero ambient light aside from my lantern, it felt like I could see clearly for billions and billions of lightyears out into the void of space. The stars shone so brilliantly, and feeling courageous, I killed the lantern so that they stood out even more.

There they hung, an infinite amount of twinkling lights in the sky, each surely as beautiful as the sun that Celestia raised every morning. There were no doubt, hundreds of constellations that the ponies had made throughout their history, and in that moment I wished to know what they could possibly be. The moon, the real star on this stage, was far larger than the one that orbited Earth, and far brighter. I could see a craterous surface, but the vast seas that covered the white globe were more defined that I would have expected. One of these days I knew that the ponies would find their way up their. I laughed a little as I crested the top of the hill, that would be a strange day, what with one of their goddesses controlling its movement.

Thinking about Luna, I looked around in the sky, sure that if there was ever a time that I would meet the Princess of the Night it would be now. I stopped at the top of the hill, setting the lamp down since I could no longer use it, and waited for her to descend out of nowhere. After a minute of silence, I laughed at my own silliness, and proceeded once again on my quest. Of course there would be no reason for the Lunar Monarch to show up around the outside of Ponyville in the middle of the night. Hell, if I was ever going to meet her it would probably be in a dream of mine.

That sent a shiver down my spine and caused me to halt once again. I hadn’t even considered the possibility that the Princess who oversaw everypony’s dreams might show herself in mine. I didn’t actually remember any dreams that I might have had recently, but I was sure that there were very telling of my true nature. That just wasn’t fair, I was spending all this time trying to hide myself, and she could potentially just show up willy nilly and find me out no matter what I did. I sighed, something that I noticed I was doing more and more of, there was really no helping it now was there.

I continued once more down the road, determined this time not to be stopped by any random thoughts that would pop up in my head. The still air that had been hanging stagnant around me began to pick up, raking my body with a tendril of cold and sending a shiver down my spine. Then, as quickly as the wind had come it ceased, just in time for me to hear a very dull and meaty thud emanating from a bush to my right. All feeling of safety in the world drained away with that sound, I knew down in the pit of my soul, that nothing good could have possibly made that sound. No, that was the sound of a panther dropping down from a tree, an eagle hitting an unsuspecting rabbit, a navy seal landing on the deck just behind you. That was the sound of the next thing up on the food chain dropping in to see what was up, and finding its dinner standing there like an offering.

Gulping, and feeling a bit like a character in a badly written horror movie, I turned and looked over to the bush that the sound had come from. There in the bush, staring right back at me and meeting my gaze full on, was a pair of red eyes. The yell that I let out even scared me, as I took off running down the road at full speed, screaming my head off like an idiot the entire way. I passed the schoolhouse, I passed several fields, hell, I think I even passed the apple family orchard before I finally started getting too dizzy from all of the screaming to keep it up. It seemed by that time that my legs had also decided it was a good time for a break, and dropped me unceremoniously onto the ground.

I laid in the middle of the road, panting, and looking wide eyed at the way that I had come running, but it seemed that so far nothing had followed me. I coughed, the strain of all the yelling I had just done finally catching up with me, and tried to push myself up into a sitting position, but my body just wasn’t having any of it. It took three good tries with shaking legs to lift myself onto my haunches, and just sit there continuing to stare down the road. I had calmed my heart somewhat, though all of the abuse that I had put my legs through today had completely ground me to a halt. It would be a miracle if I could stand for a few hours, let alone walk to the house, which I realized just then that I had passed.

“Heh, it was probably just a cat,” I laughed to myself as I felt the world around me finally return to normal.

“Naw, I’m a lot cooler than a cat,” Came a voice just to my left.

I turned my head to see the most awesome pony in all of existence, hovering there looking at me with an extremely amused smirk on her face. Out of a mixture of surprise, joy, and the extreme anxiety that came with being scared shitless twice on the same night, I fell back over on my side, probably looking like a geriatric having a heart attack as I did so. Rainbow Dash landed on the ground next to me, and choked back her laughter at seeing my flailing, and to her credit she didn’t laugh in a scared little kids face.

There she was, the greatest pony in the entire universe, standing there right next to me. The trademark colors of her hair were somewhat muted with it being night time and all, but I could still pick up that there was a distinct array in her mane and tail. Her coat appeared to be a much darker blue, and her eyes popped out more in the night time, but I would not have mistaken that voice anywhere. I noticed that she was incredibly built, Applejack had been very powerful looking too when I had seen her for that moment, but Rainbow Dash had the looks of a swimmer or a runner. Like her body had been infused with lightning, and sculpted of marble to do nothing but race and win.

“You’re...Rainbow Dash,” I said, stunned where I lay on my back and unable to do much else.

“You got that right kid, I guess you’ve heard of me, huh,” she replied, polishing a hoof on her chest as she did so.

All of the ache and soreness fled my body as my mind finally caught up with what exactly what was going on, and I jumped straight to my hooves with a move that would make a gymnast green with envy. “Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh. I can’t believe that it’s you. Do you even know how awesome you are? Wait, of course you do, because you are you.” I was glad for the first time since coming to Equestria that my new body was quadrupedal, it stopped me from using two hands to fan my face like a complete fangirl. Though...I may have been doing so with one of my forehooves at the time.

“I mean like, like…” she looked down at me, expecting me to elaborate further, but clearly seeing that my words were failing me she just smiled.

“Thanks a bunch kid, always awesome to meet a fan,” she replied, messing up my mane with a hoof. A little part of me was annoyed that she ruined my stylized mane, that had somehow kept its form through everything today, but that little part of me was drowned in a bathtub and buried somewhere that it would never be found.

“Heh, heh, yeah…” I said, my face heating up to unbearable levels and I ran a hoof back over my head to straighten my hair. “It’s like, heh, it has always been kind of a dream to meet you.” I looked off down the road, a bit embarrassed at admitting that.

“Heh,” now she looked a little bit embarrassed. “Well geez, thanks kid. Now I feel kinda bad for scaring you back there.”

The dots connected in my head immediately, the breeze and thud in the bush had been Rainbow Dash landing, and the eyes had been her’s peering out at me. My head sank at the thought of me actually being seen running through the night and screaming my head off like some prepubescent girl.

“Hey,” she said, “no need to feel bad for being freaked out. That was kinda my bad.”

I looked back to her, and knew immediately the last thing I wanted was for her to pity me. Here I was, standing in front of the only pony whose opinion I really cared about, well that wasn’t entirely true since I knew enough to know that everypony’s opinion mattered. But dammit, this was Rainbow Dash, if she didn’t think that I was cool then I was a failure at life.

“Freaked out, psh,” I said, cutting my hoof sideways in the air, like I could just throw away that thought entirely. “I wasn’t freaked out, that was just...the battle cry I do when I’m about to take a really good run.” That was probably the worst lie that I had told during my entire stay here, in fact just the thought of how bad it was gave me a bit of a headache.

“Oh yeah?” she questioned, in a tone that surprisingly made me feel like she actually bought it. “I do that too sometimes, though it’s usually when I just get out of bed, and do my warm up flight for the morning.”

It took all my restraint to keep my jaw from dropping. “Heh yeah totally,” I replied, trying to recover. “That sounds awesome, like you, you’re awesome...I think I already said that.”

“Yeah you did,” she said with a smirk, “but that doesn’t make it any less true. I don’t usually say this, but enough about me. What are you doing wandering around so late at night kid?” she asked.

I rubbed my temple, that headache seemed persistent. “I got caught in a net by the Cutie Mark Crusaders so I was stuck outside until I freed myself,” I said without thinking. Shit, I hadn’t meant to actually tell the truth, that was a horrible thing to do.

I think I heard her mumble something along the lines of “So that’s what they wanted the rope for,” before she laughed nervously and looked down at me again. “Oh, you don’t say. That sucks.”

“Yeah, it’s whatever though,” I said, still rubbing my temple to subdue the burgeoning migraine.

“Hey kid, you alright?” she asked.

“Yeah I just have this stupid headache...and my legs are so sore that I don’t know if I can walk much anymore...and my shoulder is killing me.” Damn, there was that pitying look in her eyes, why couldn’t I have just said that I was fine like a normal person.

“Wow you sure took a beating kid. Why don’t I help you get on home, where do you live?” she asked.

“Uhh,” I stalled, trying to think if I ever got an actual address. Realizing that of course I hadn’t, and that it probably didn’t matter in this case. I shrugged, “The Rich place. Big mansiony thing with a swimming pool, tennis courts, and a huge driveway.”

Rainbow Dash whistled appreciatively at my description. “Wow, I didn’t know Filthy Rich had another kid.”

“He doesn’t,” I corrected, finally managing to rub some of the ache out of my head, “me and my brother are just staying there until we get shipped off to an orphanage or something.” As soon as the words left my mouth I knew just how dumb and awkward they were. We stood there for a few seconds in complete silence, her probably not knowing what to say to that, and me mentally berating myself for being a worthless, stupid, embarrassment

“I think I’m going to go,” I said, trying to get away before I made myself look anymore like a fool in front of the coolest pony in Equestria. Unfortunately, my legs didn’t seem to want to cooperate and I fell flat on my face after taking a single step. “Oof.”

That time Rainbow Dash completely busted out laughing, and I mean really laughing. I was afraid that she was going to fall over with the way she was going on, but after a little bit she did manage to correct herself and calm down to just a giggle every few seconds. “Okay kid,” she said, walking over to me and tossing me onto her back with a wing like I was a ragdoll, “let me take you back home.”

I barely had time to grab onto her before she took to the air like a rocket. The first thing I felt was the wind smack me in the face like a bad ex, causing me to nearly tumble from my seat atop the fastest flyer in Equestria. The weight on my hooves was a huge strain, but somehow I managed to keep still as we made our ninety degree climb straight towards the moon, her completing a few barrel rolls as we did so for effect. I had to close my eyes to keep the wind from peeling back my eyelids, so I had no warning as we came to a hover a couple of hundred feet off the ground, making me shift almost violently once more.

I opened my eyes and looked around at the world below. It was hard to see much, but I could make out a few sights, and I could even pick out where Ponyville was. Everything for miles around was nearly completely black tonight, but every so often there were some lights to show off some buildings that might still be open for any night owls that wanted to come by for a visit. I was so amazed at this new vantage that it took me a second to notice Rainbow Dash looking over her shoulder at me, probably perturbed by just how much I was shaking.

“Uh, you alright kid?” she asked, worry coating her words.

I couldn’t speak, the adrenaline in my blood was pumping so hard that I couldn’t form a coherent sentence if I even wanted to. All I could do was smile wider than I thought that I ever had and say a single word. “Faster.”

That seemed to be all the prompting the pegasus needed. She returned the smile and I caught a dangerous look in her eye, my only warning to redouble my efforts to hold on tightly before she went into a complete vertical dive towards the ground.

This time, I didn’t care that my eyes being blasted by the gale force winds as we flew at top speeds towards the ground. We were going so fast, it seemed nearly impossible that we would pull up in time, but for some reason at the moment I didn’t really care. Rainbow Dash pulled out of the steep dive about a dozen feet above the ground, and began rocketing along the top of the road. I let go of her neck and threw my hooves in the air as she continued to pour on more speed. “Wooooooooooooooooooooh!” I screamed, though I could hardly hear myself over the wind in my ears.

She started to climb again, which I took as my sign to hold on once more, just as we approached the turnoff for the Rich Manor. She did another roll as we sailed right over the top of the gates, barely missing clipping it by an inch, and began to zip in between the trees that dotted the landscape. I was sure that she was going to hit one or two of them, as we passed just beneath their lowest hanging branches, but of course she knew exactly what she was doing and we made it through without any issue.

The actual mansion started to come into view just as we rounded an evergreen, and somehow Rainbow Dash started to go even faster. I started to let out another cry of triumph, but as I opened my mouth a bug shot right into the back of my throat, and sent me into a coughing fit. Not that it killed my buzz in the least, but it was still gross.

RD wasted no time in getting to the front porch, and taking a sharp climb once more to burn off our excess speed before she slowly descended to the ground and landed gracefully. I had stopped hacking by then, but the shaking in my body had only intensified as the ride went on, and it took me a little while to notice that Rainbow Dash had been saying something to me.

“You can let go now kid,” she said, looking back at me again.

I did just that, and tumbled to the ground, but it took me only a millisecond to recover, and get back to my hooves. “OHMYGOSH, OHMYGOSH, OHMYGOSH, you are AWESOME! That was the most awesome thing that ever happened ever,” I said, practically bouncing in place. No, I was literally bouncing in place.

“I knew you were awesome, oh man. So fast, you’re so fast, and cool. Man, I wish I was fast like that, and could fly. I mean…” I found myself at a complete loss for words, but it didn’t seem like I needed any.

“Well they don’t call me the fastest flyer in Equestria for nothin’,” she said, puffing her chest out in pride. “And I saw you run kid, you are pretty fast yourself.”

“Really?” I asked, eyes widening as I looked up at her.

“Oh yeah, totally. You had like a whole dust trail going on behind you and everything,” she replied. I felt my heart swell at the compliment, especially seeing who it was coming from.

“Naw that’s just like…” I couldn’t really do anything other than dig my hoof into the porch a little embarrassed. My mane, that was no longer able to maintain its form, tumbled out over my face as I stared down at the ground.

“Heh, well anyways you’re home now right. And I really gotta go so I’ll see you around…” She stopped for a moment just as it seemed like she was going to take off again. “I don’t think I got your name, kid.”

“Ashen Stroke,” I replied, immediately looking back up at her and shifting my head so that my mane was only covering the left side of my face.

“Ashen Stroke,” she repeated, like she was trying to figure out how the name tasted in her mouth. “Yeah, that is a pretty cool name,” she concluded.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s kinda mysterious, but at the same time it sounds like it fits you perfect,” she said, smiling back at me, bringing a smile of my own to my lips.

“Thanks, Rainbow Dash,” I said.

She bent her knees once more to take off, but stopped for a moment to say one last thing. “And kid, I’m touched and all, but you probably shouldn’t dye your mane just so it looks kinda like somepony else’s.” With that she jumped into the air, putting on so much speed that I lost her in the night sky without seconds.

“Wait a second…” I said to myself. “I don’t dye my mane!” I shouted futily after her, hearing somepony laugh off in the distance.

I looked to my left and locked onto the seam of blue that ran through the black of my mane and tail, and scowled at it. I had actually rather liked that little detail that I had, but it had just made me look like a poser in front of Rainbow Dash, so it and I were now officially on non-speaking terms. I tossed my head back, and smoothed my mane back into place over my head where it fell neatly into line, before turning to the door and slowly creeping up to it.

The entirety of the Rich Manor was dead silent, I was sure that there would have been somepony running around at this time of night, but as far as I was able to ascertain, there was nopony home. I walked towards the large wooden portal, and unsure of if it would actually work, pushed against the heavy door. It was hard for me to do, so hard that at first I thought the door to be locked, but after a little effort and grunting I found that the door opened. It let out a loud groan as it slowly swung open to reveal the dark entryway that I scrambled into as quickly as possible, closing the door behind me with some more effort.

Now that I was inside it was very difficult to see where I was going in the dark. So hard in fact, that I smashed my hoof right into the first stair that lead upstairs, forcing me to stifle a yell as I did so. Gritting my teeth, I climbed the stairs one by one until it seemed there weren’t anymore, and I turned towards my room, keeping a hoof on the wall as I did so. Walking along the dark corridor, I passed several doors before I came to mine, and finally reaching it without any incident, opened it carefully and walked into my room.

With the large window on the wall letting light in, I was able to see much better in here, but the sound of snoring was my first indication that I wasn’t alone. I looked over to my bed, where the snoring was emanating from, and walked towards the noise without a second thought. Having gotten the trick down pat, I nimbly jumped up onto the bed, landing with a little grunt as my legs reminded me of just how exhausted they were. Looking to the head of the bed, I had to admit that I was a little surprised with what I found.

There, snoring like a lumberjack, and snuggling up against one of the plushy pillows on top of the bed, was Diamond Tiara. I had to admit, that the sight of her completely passed out, and not being a stuck up little princess, made her almost...cute. Wanting desperately to know what exactly she was doing in my room, I walked across the top of the bed to where she was sleeping and started shaking her shoulder.

“Diamond Tiara,” I whispered, getting nothing but a snort in return. “Diamond Tiaraaaaaaaaa,” I tried again, this time she turned away and mumbled something I didn’t catch. Seeing no other way, well that wasn’t entirely true, there had to be plenty of other ways; though they wouldn’t be nearly as fun, I jumped and landed in front of her face “Diamond Tiara!” I yelled.

The filly sprang to her hooves like a cat, and I swear I heard her hiss as she did so. She looked rapidly around the room before her eyes locked onto my smiling face. “What the hay do you think you are doing!” she screamed, her voice nearly cracking as she did so.

“What the hay are you doing in my bed?” I asked, doing my best not to laugh at the show she had just put on.

She looked around the room again, falling out of her feral pose and adopting a normal stance. “Oh, I guess I fell asleep.”

“Well I could see that,” I said. “So why were you in my room in the first place.”

She yawned and rubbed her eye with a hoof. “I was going to find out where you went,” she said, sleep still hanging heavy on her.

I scowled, “Steel caught me in a net and swiped the Ponyville Torch from me.”

DT rolled her eyes, “Please tell me you aren’t playing that dumb game.”

“You know about that whole game and stuff?” I asked, arching a brow.

“Of course I know it, everypony knows about the Ponyville Torch,” she replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “But that game is for babies.”

“Are you just mad that you don’t have a club to play it with?” I asked, trying to verbally stab the hater.

“Psh,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes again, “when I was in charge of the Diamonds we held the torch for five months straight.”

“Oh,” I said, having fully made myself look like a jackass. “Well, now I know.”

“Now you know,” she agreed, with a nod.

We stood there for a little bit, before I finally built the courage to ask the question I was dying to know. “So, how much trouble am I in for being out late?” I asked.

“None,” she said simply.

“None? Seriously?”

“Yeah, I told Dusty you were staying at a friends house or something. He said it was fine, so you’re not in trouble or anything,” she said, jumping down from my bed. “I just wanted to see what you were really doing, but if you were just playing that dumb torch game I guess I shouldn’t have bothered.”

I jumped down to the floor too, and started to follow her over to the door. “Wow, that was really...nice of you Diamond,” I said, a little shocked the words were actually coming out of my mouth.

“Yeah, yeah whatever,” she said as she opened the door to the room. “Just make sure that it doesn’t happen again. Daddy said to look out for you two dumb colts, but I’m not going to lie for you again.” With that, she stepped out of the room and pulled the door closed behind her.

I stood there alone in the dark and silence, trying to digest what had just happened. Diamond Tiara...had actually done something nice and decent. This Equestria definitely had to be different than the one that I had seen portrayed in the show. I looked over to the bed, that my body so ached to get back to, but I knew that with everything that I had gone through tonight there was no way that I was going to get to sleep anytime soon.

My eyes kept roaming the room until they fell upon the desk sitting all alone against the wall. Remembering something, I walked over to it, and after taking a moment to look for some paper and a pencil, I climbed into the chair with my tools. I laid out the several pieces of paper before lighting up the lamp on the desk, and picking up the pencil in my mouth.

“Okay,” I said, putting the tip of the pencil on the paper, “lets see if I can remember how this works.”

An Interesting Afternoon

Author's Note

Well this one was a beast to get through. The chapter seems to have come out really dialogue heavy, so if that is your kind of thing then great. If not, well try to bear through it for me okay. Anyways, here is the latest chapter in the great tale of Ashen Stroke. If you like the story don't forget to fav and comment.

An Interesting Afternoon

“Excuse me sir,” I heard, a soft feminine voice just a few inches from my ear. “It is time for you to wake up.”

I snorted in reply, smacking my lips as I lifted my head from the desk that I had apparently fallen asleep on. I felt something attached to my face, and found it to be one of the papers I had been working on last night, a corner of it thoroughly drenched in saliva. I looked back to Feather Duster, who was visibly trying to hide her disgust at the display, but I was still pretty drowsy so I couldn’t really be bothered to care much at the moment. I pushed myself back from the desk, discovering that I had turned the chair at some point last night, and sending myself sprawling out onto the ground.

Grunting, I picked myself up and dusted myself off. “Okay, I think I’m awake now. What time is it anyways?” I asked.

“Twelve sir,” she replied, straightening the papers on my desk, “Dusty thought that you should wake up before lunch was served.”

“Stop!” I screamed, jumping up onto the chair and stealing the papers away from her. “These are important.” I looked at the papers, frowning as I went to put them back in their proper order.

I caught Feather’s grin out of the corner of my eye, probably amused that a child would consider a few scratch pieces of paper to be considered important, after all what could a child have made that would actual carry any import, Feather bowed her head and took a step back. “My apologies sir.”

I grumbled under my breath as I put everything back on my desk where it belonged. “Ponies touching my things...I’ll show you what you can touch...not my things that’s for sure.” I still may have been partially asleep, and I was now definitely in a foul mood.

“What time did you go to sleep last night?” she asked, looking at the small clock that sat on my desk.

“Uh, maybe five or six. Why?” I asked, hopping back off of the chair.

“I see,” she said knowingly.

I squinted at her, my sleep addled brain trying to decipher that expression, but I gave up after too long. “Whatever,” I said, grabbing the stack of papers on my desk and carrying them to the door.

Feather Duster followed me to the door, and shut it behind us as we left. The sound of the many ponies moving through the house greeted me as I stepped from my bedroom. I could faintly detect the aroma of some kind of cheese dish wafting up the stairs from what I could only assume to be the kitchen. Feather Duster stood on my right, waiting for me to proceed, and after making her stand there for two minutes I began to head towards the stairs, and down to the dining room that where I assumed we were supposed to head.

Reaching the bottom of the steps, and watching some service pony carry an extremely large vase of flowers through the hall before turning into a random room and out of sight, the smell of the approaching lunch pulled me straight towards the dining room. Feather opened the door for me so I didn’t even have to break my stride as I nearly dashed into the dining hall where Diamond and Steel were sitting at the table, the food in front of them no doubt sorely testing the patience of the two, as they waited for me to take my seat.

“It’s about time,” Steel commented as I quickly scurried over to my chair across the table from him and hopped up into it.

“Yeah, maybe I just had a rough time of it last night for some reason,” I replied, venom dripping from my words.

“Whatever,” Diamond interjected, halting our building argument. “Can we please eat now, I have places to be.” Dusty came from the door that led to the kitchen with a covered platter and levitated it over to the table in front of me.

“Yes, I believe that we should be able to eat now, young mistress Tiara.” He pulled away the cover from my lid, revealing what appeared to at first be a simple omelet, but as I bit into it the flavors exploded in my mouth. There were an assortment of cheeses, ranging from cheddar to swiss, and there was undoubtedly three different kinds of peppers. On top of that, there was some other kind of diced vegetable that I couldn’t identify, but worked to calm the heat from the peppers. In essence, best omelet ever.

“My compliments to the chef,” I managed to choke out as I snarfed down the meal. I realized just as I was licking the last remaining pieces of cheese from my fork that I had missed my last two meals. “Is there anymore?” I asked.

“Of course sir,” Dusty said as he levitated the empty plate in front of me, and carried it back the way he had entered. I looked back to the door that I had made my entrance through to see that Feather Duster had also left, leaving the three children alone in the room.

“Diamond Tiara,” I said, summoning the most disarming smile I could.

She sighed and looked over to me, her own omelet only half finished. “Yes?”

“Do you have any hang-ups about the use of foul or naughty language?” I asked, still trying to maintain my poise.

“I don’t care, but if you don’t like the taste of soap then you won’t want to swear around Dusty,” she replied simply, turning back to her meal as she did so.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” My smile vanished as I stared back over at Steel trying to fry him with my glare. “You son of a bitch, you really were just going to abandon me in the middle of nowhere.”

“Hey,” he said defensively, “it wasn’t the middle of nowhere, and you managed to get out alright.”

“I was strung up in a tree you dick. Left to die.” Just recalling it had me seething.

“Okay now you are exaggerating,” he replied, rolling his eyes.

“I’m going to rip your feathers out you scrawny bastard!” I slammed my hooves on the table as I stood in my chair.

“Woah, woah, woah.” Steel leaned back in his own chair, getting as far away from me as possible while remaining seated. “Alright dude, you need to calm the fuck down.”

I was shaking, the tablecloth bunching under my unsteady hooves. My eyes started to water, and I turned my head to the side to blink back the tears that were inexplicably gathering. Steel may have been right, even if he was a total douche, I felt myself losing control. I just wanted to leap across the table at the red bastard and slam him into the ground repeatedly, and I knew that I could. At least until somepony came back and interrupted me, which no doubt wouldn’t have been very long.

“That thing was more trouble than it was worth anyways. I nearly died myself just trying to hide it. Stupid birds...” Steel commented, bringing my glare back to him.

The sound of approaching hoofsteps made me bite back whatever remark I was going to reply with and sit back into my chair just as Dusty opened the door once more and entered with another steaming omelet. Having the gooey pile of goodness set in front of me did wonders for my outlook, and I picked up my fork to start eating once more, before stopping and catching the unicorn before he left the room once more.

“Dusty,” I called, making him stop and turn back to me.

“Yes?” he asked.

I grabbed the stack of papers that I had set on the table next to my meal and held them in front of me. “Can you make sure that Mr. Rich gets these please, it is pretty important.”

“Of course sir,” he replied, levitating the papers from my grasp and bringing them over to himself. I was glad that he had spared me the condescending smile Feather Duster had given me earlier. If that was even what it was...man I really was in a bad mood.

“Thank you,” I replied, ever the shining example of a perfect gentlecolt.

With a nod the aged unicorn left the room once again, and my glare immediately shot back to Steel. Diamond had finished her meal and was just finishing delicately wiping any remnants of it from her mouth with a napkin. Steel looked to be staring off into space, contemplating god knows what, and before I could ask what was so interesting, Diamond Tiara cleared her voice rather loudly.

“So,” she began, lazily gazing over to me, “what did you want to give to, daddy?”

I picked up my fork and knife and began to cut my omelet into little slices. “Just something that I managed to draw up last night.” I took a bite and was once again brought to the eggy nirvana that the omelet had no doubt spawned from.

“What exactly would that be?” she asked again more pointedly.

“I’ll tell you when you’re older.” She frowned at that. “Oh fine, I had an idea for something that he could sell in his store or whatever he does, and I wanted to give it over to him as a gift for helping us out.”

Now it was Steel’s turn to frown at me. “And what was that?” they both asked simultaneously, causing them to share an annoyed look.

“Doesn’t matter, don’t worry about it,” I replied, taking another bite of my omelet and trying to force my mood to lighten. Something that was increasingly difficult as the two kept pestering me; Steel out of worry that I was going to do something to screw up whatever plan we had, and Diamond probably out of simple curiosity. Eventually by the time that I had finished my meal and set my utensils aside, they caught on that I wasn’t going to answer them and dropped the subject.

An uneasy silence settled over the room as we had all finished our meals. I busied myself lining up my plate and utensils to be perfectly parallel and square. Diamond was admiring her hooves, looking like she terribly longed for a nail file. Steel, was staring down at his plate, contemplating something that I couldn’t really care less about at the time.

“Sorry,” he said, breaking the silence.

“What was that?” I asked, looking up from my plate.

“I said sorry,” he fiddled with the end of his ponytail as he looked off to anywhere that wasn’t me. “It was kind of my idea to set that trap, so you shouldn’t blame any of the Cutie Mark Crusaders…”

“I don’t,” I said flatly.

“Oh,” he paused, looking downcast. “Well, still I’m sorry for leaving you there without like a knife or something. We were actually going to come back to cut you down, but after the whole fiasco that went on with hiding the torch it completely slipped my mind.”

I continued to glare at him, he just sitting there and seeming to wither under my gaze as he avoided making eye contact. Eventually I had to relent though, and sighing, I leaned back in my seat. “Whatever dude, I can get over it I guess. Just tell me one thing, how did you know where I was going to be?”

“I have my ways,” he said smirking.

“No you don’t get to simply say that, and play this off as you being cool. Tell me for real,” I demanded.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” he replied.

I slammed my hoof on the table, now getting a bit irked again. “Tell me the truth Steel.”

“You couldn’t handle the truth!” he yelled, standing in his chair and pointing out of me. We stared intently at each other for a few moments, I could see out of the corner of my eye that Diamond was looking back and forth between us, but eventually I cracked and started laughing.

“Dammit dude, don’t make me laugh when I’m trying to be serious.” He sat back down in his chair and we shared a quick laugh before relaxing again.

“You two are insane,” Diamond said flatly, taking her glass of water and swirling it a little before taking a sip.

“You got that right,” I replied to her, before looking back over to my pegasus friend. “Seriously though, how did you know.”

Steel wing-shrugged in his seat. I hadn’t really been paying attention to his wings, but today they looked...stronger? I couldn’t really put my hoof on what it was, but they didn’t seem to be simple useless appendages anymore. The same could be said for his lanky legs, even though they were pretty scrawny in comparison to even Diamond Tiara, let alone myself, he had definitely put some muscle on.

“It’s weird, and I know you don’t believe me, but over the last few days whenever I think about somepony I can just picture where they are or like where they are going,” he said simply.

“Huh, that’s weird,” I replied, taking a sip from my own glass.

Steel did a double-take. “Wait you believe me?” he asked.

I shrugged, proving that even without wings I could still play things off easily...I really wished I had wings. “Crazy magic bullshit, not hard to believe.” Honestly it sounded like a lazy plot point to me. I smirked, it had been a while since I had thought about fanfictions and HiE and whatnot. I guess when you were actually living it, that stuff kind of slips your mind in lieu of important things.

He stared at me open mouthed, making strange grunting noises as his brain tried to play catch-up. “Yes, very insane,” Diamond Tiara mused to herself.

“Hope I get super powers,” I said, imitating Diamond’s pose and swirling my own glass of water. Of course he was crazy, or lying, though I was certain that he wasn’t since I would have known. I wasn’t exactly sure how I would have known, but I could tell that my friend was telling his version of the honest truth. He got to have wings, and maybe some weird pony gps thing, damn. This was exactly the kind of thing that made me wish to be anything but an earth pony, hell I would have taken a unicorn with little to no magic just for the horn alone. I shivered as the gory image of myself cackling like mad with a stapled horn attached to my head.

Dusty chose that moment to enter the room with a pitcher of water levitating next to him. He walked about the table, heading towards Diamond first since she was the nearest to the door he had come from, and began to refill her glass.

“I believe that I forgot to mention to you young master Steel, but we managed to find you a flight instructor. You are to meet them at three o'clock this afternoon at the bridge just outside of town. I am sure that we can have Feather Duster show you the way if you need help,” he said as he moved on to my glass.

“Nah that’s cool I can find it,” Steel said, waving off the offer.

“Yeah, I think I saw where that is yesterday,” I lied. Honestly I wanted to just meet up with Rainbow Dash again and hang out, so inviting myself along made a lot of sense. Plus I needed to go back into town to pick up those books I had dropped off yesterday.

“Alright, sounds like a plan,” Steel said, jumping down from his chair.

“Yup,” I agreed as I also hopped out of mine, and the two of us started to head towards the door.

“If the two young masters would wait for the carriage to pull around to the front, I am sure that we can get them to their destination faster than on hoof,” Dusty said behind the two of us, making me stop and look back.

I looked over to Steel who just shrugged back to me. “That’s not necessary, plus I think Diamond was wanting to use it today,” I said, trying to deflect. In all honesty I really wanted to stretch my hooves, sure riding around in that litter was a good deal faster and less tiring, but I would still rather walk it all the same.

“You do know we have more than one carriage,” Dusty replied, arching an eyebrow.

“I didn’t actually.” I searched for another excuse to get out of the free ride, but came up with nothing. “I would just rather walk is all. You want to catch a ride Steel?” I asked, turning back to him.

He shrugged again. “Don’t really care,” he said simply.

“Welp,” I said, turning back to Dusty, “we’ll be off then.” Without another word I turned back to the exit and started making my way out of the mansion, Steel right on my heels as I did so. Getting out of the dining hall was all well and good, but it still took a little bit of elbow grease to shoulder open the main entrance doors. After waving Steel off who tried to help me open them, and a few grunts of effort, the door swung open to let the light of the noon sun shine into the hall.

I took a big whiff of the air outside and sighed happily. “Ah, the great outdoors.”

Steel stepped out into the sun next to me, “You hate the outdoors.”

“We have had more time to get acquainted over the past couple of days,” I said as I started to walk down the front steps to the driveway. “She’s not all that bad once you get to know her. Plus, it looks like I don’t get allergies anymore.”

“Thumbs for no more allergies, seems like a good trade to me,” Steel said as he also descended the stairs next to me.

“No, nothing will ever replace thumbs. Except maybe magic, which would actually completely replace them,” I looked over to the foliage we were passing in thought for a moment. All kinds of aesthetically pleasing plants were grown around the estate, Mr. Rich probably had a ton of different gardeners on staff just to keep them.

“I was just making a joke dude,” Steel sighed.

“Never joke about thumbs,” I replied with a smirk. I looked down the long driveway we were traversing, but I couldn’t make out the end of it. The thing had to be at least a mile long, though my ability to accurately measure distance had never been great, and it had only gotten worse recently.

“Burnt Steel,” I began, trying to do the best impression of Aragorn that I could, “what do your pegasus eyes see?” He just turned my way and looked at me with an incredibly confused expression. “How far is it to the main road,” I clarified.

“Oh.” He looked out in front of us and squinted. “.673 miles,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“Bullshit,” I said with a slight laugh.

“Not shitting you dude, that is exactly how far it is until the road. Well, less now since we are still walking,” he defended.

“So you expect me to believe that not only are you a pegasus, you are also clairvoyant, and have some super sight ability that gives you exact distances,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “Riiight.”

Steel stopped and glared at me, forcing me to stop also and look back at him. “Are you kidding me?” he asked.

“What?”

“Can you not see how damn lucky you are,” he accused, pointing a hoof at me in scorn. “Have we come across any pony our own age that could possibly beat you in a hoof wrestling contest? Yea you can’t fly, but you basically got to be the perfect specimen of an earth pony: strong, super athletic, and incredibly good looking. On top of that, everything has come so easy to you, you can fucking write cursive after a couple of hours of using a pencil for the first time. Honestly, I don’t think I have seen you struggle with anything so far. I have been getting this vibe from you for a while, and honestly I am fed up with it, you don’t have it nearly as bad as you like to think you do.”

With his little monologue coming to an end, he started walking along the path once again, leaving me standing there stuck as my mind tried to wrap around what he had said. I guess it was true to an extent, I did have a bit more meat on my bones than I had seen in others, but with such a small sample size it wasn’t entirely an incredibly rare thing. I had been picking up things pretty quick, but that had to be due to some earth pony thing, and being able to learn to write cursive quickly wasn’t exactly an amazing thing; even if I did think I might be able to rival Cheerilee in penmanship. Something else about what he had said struck me and I sprinted after him, catching up in no time at all.

“Incredibly good looking,” I said as I fell into step next to him.

“What?” he asked, not bothering to turn and look at me.

“You said that I was incredibly good looking. Wherever did you get that idea from?” I smiled at my friend but, he flat out refused to meet my gaze.

“Doesn’t matter, just forget it.” He picked up his pace, but it was all too easy to keep up.

“Do you want my bod, Steel? I can’t really blame you since I am a beast that just exudes sexual energy, but don’t you think that would complicate our whole brothers story,” I started walking backwards in front of him so that he had to look straight at me.

“Seriously, drop it,” he said frowning.

“I mean, I know you are a Fire and Ice fan, but we aren’t exactly riding dragons around are we. Plus I can’t really see you like that, we’re besties, and I don’t want to ruin what we have.” Oh man, this was just way too much fun.

“Sweetie Belle and Applebloom have a massive crush on you,” he said, bringing me to a halt and stopping my brain from working. He shouldered me out of the way as he passed, almost knocking me over with the motion. A massive shiver ran down my spine at the mere thought, and I almost collapsed on the ground with all the shaking of my head I did just to stop any mental images from popping into my head. I turned once more and sprinted after Steel to fall back into step again.

“Good one,” I said, laughing half-heartedly, “you really had me going there.”

“Not joking dude, they were having a stupid debate, and I just had to sit there listening.” I shivered again at his words.

“Alright, that is all I need to hear,” I replied, trying to drop the subject so that I could pretend it never happened. I just...no, the crusaders were supposed to be cute little distractions, they weren’t meant to have feelings like that for others. It was just wrong, especially when it was me.

“Oh, so you aren’t so comfortable anymore huh?” He smirked at me.

“So what is being a pegasus like?” I asked, completely ignoring him.

He started to follow up his last statement before deciding that dropping it might be for the best. “Well I still can’t fly,” he said as he stretch out his wings, forcing me to take a few steps away. “At least I can move these things a little bit better now though.”

“Well that’s good, I can only imagine what RD would have thought if you weren’t even able to do that,” I poked one of the extended wings, making him instantly retract them.

“Rainbow Dash? You think she is going to be my instructor?” he asked.

“Um, duh,” I replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Damn, I wish you hadn’t said that.” I saw him actually wilt, his wings drooping ever so slightly.

“Huh, why not?” I asked.

“Because now it is like certain that she won’t be. Dammit, Rainbow Dash is so cool.” Yes, he also liked Rainbow Dash a lot, not nearly as much as I did, but he still gave the element of awesome a high rank on his list.

“What is that supposed to mean?” I walked ahead of him a bit so that I could look at him full on.

“Tell me, when have you ever been right about anything that is going to happen since we came here?” he asked. I screwed my face up as I tried to think back to the past couple of days. True, it had seemed like the universe was going out of its way just to make me look like a jackass, but I had to be right eventually.

“I...was right about getting you into the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” I replied as we neared the main road. It wasn’t too far away now, the walk having not been a little more than a half mile.

“You were right about a club that invites anyone without a cutie mark into it, invited me in because I don’t have a cutie mark. Way to go there Ash,” he said sarcastically.

“Shut up,” I said, pushing him a little. Unfortunately, it seemed that he had learned to use his hooves a lot better and didn’t actually fall over at the shove.

“Seriously though, nothing you have predicted has come true so by the mere fact that you said RD would be my flight instructor makes it impossible for her to be,” he stated as he took the initiative and turned onto the road before me.

“That’s not fair,” I said, keeping up with him. “Just because I say something doesn’t mean the opposite will happen.”

“Basically that is how everything has worked out so far.” He smiled as we walked down the long dirt road that would eventually lead us to town.

“Fuck you,” I replied, using the best comeback that came to mind.

“Nice one,” he replied as he looked down the road before us. “Oh look, there’s Applejack. I need to thank her for those pies she made the four of us yesterday.”

I looked down the road in front of us in terror, and sure enough I spotted what looked like a cart with a little orange speck leading it. I almost fell on my face as my hoof slid out from in front of me, but managed to catch myself. Steel was still smiling dumbly like this wasn’t the worst thing in the world, while I was mentally focusing on stopping myself from shaking.

“Christ, we have to get off the road,” I said.

“What? Why?” Steel turned and looked at me slightly confused.

“She is the element of god damn honesty. She will figure us out before you can even bat an eye.”

“Um, I talked to her for like an hour yesterday dude. She is pretty cool actually, way better than how they show her off in the show.” He kept up his pace towards our approaching doom, forcing me to do the same.

“Are you crazy!” I yelled at him. “The worst thing for anyone trying to keep a cover is to come up against a living lie detector. Come on, let’s just run off into the field or something.”

“Heh, too late now,” he said with a smile. “Hey Applejack.” He waved to the mare in front of us, who was a lot closer than I remembered her having been. She stopped and waved back at us, both of us, dammit it was too late. We all approached each other, me being extremely hesitant to do so, but eventually there I was, having a stare down with the element of honesty. She may have been smiling pleasantly at the two of us, but I could see in those green happy eyes that she was a predator just trying to break down my mental defenses, but I wouldn’t allow it.

“Well hey there Burnt Steel, where’re you headin’ off to?” she asked.

“I have to meet my flight instructor in town,” Steel replied warmly. “So we were just going to go and mess around until it was time.” The farm pony smirked at that, but then looked at me and it seemed like her smile died a little on her lips.

“Yer Ashen Stroke right? I think that’s wat you said yer name was anyways,” she asked as she turned to me, she was still being pleasant, and it seemed Steel wasn’t able to see the true danger in front of us.

“Yes that’s what I said.” Not a lie, that is what I had said. “And uh, we are going into town just like Burnt said.” I tried to crack an innocent looking smile, but it only seemed to peak the farmpony’s curiosity.

“So Ash, how do ya know Steel here?” she asked.

I took me a second to come up with something. “Why, I can’t remember a day in Equestria that I didn’t know Steel. You might even say we’re brothers.” I tried to laugh disarmingly, but I think that I screwed that up too.

“Ya don’t say,” she adjusted the harness that she was wearing to be more comfortable, “well I gotta keep on movin’ so ah’ll probably see ya later there Steel if ya want to come around the farm again.” Without another probing word she just passed us by, pulling a big empty cart behind her as she did so.

I stood there frozen in the road, as Steel waved goodbye to the mare. I wanted to throttle him for making me go through that terrifying moment, but it seemed that we had come out the other side of it by exchanging a few pleasantries. When Steel started to press on once again I let out a sigh of relief, and followed along next to him.

“Man, that was close,” I said after I knew that we were out of earshot.

“You’re just being paranoid dude,” he replied, shrugging off my concern.

I looked back at the cart that was slowly heading away from us. “Maybe, but I don’t think so.”

Ponyville was more alive than I had ever seen it before, of course I hadn’t taken the opportunity to stroll through the small town on the weekend yet. As we passed through the small farmer’s market I couldn’t help but admire the wares of all the stalls. There definitely had to be some kind of magic at work to get all of these fruits and vegetables to look so incredibly appetizing, especially with my dietary habits. I caught sight of Applebloom and Big Mac selling apples from their stall, and expertly guided Steel in the opposite direction before we could be spotted. I was still digesting what he had told me about the filly earlier, not quite sure if I believed him or not, but it would still be best to avoid contact until I had completely wrapped my mind around it.

I nodded towards Sugarcube Corner, the large confectionary sticking out over the rooftops a few blocks over, and we proceeded to head that way. It had kind of slipped my mind at the time that I was supposed to be showing him towards this bridge that he was to meet his flight instructor at, I just wanted to retrieve the books that I had left there last night when I had to run from a pack of angry unicorns. We turned out of the little market and started making our way back towards the main thoroughfare that ran through the center of town.

I caught sight of Carousel Boutique, and found myself admiring the building. Rarity was no doubt in there, stitching together some kind of masterpiece, probably ordered by a duchess in Canterlot for a party or something. She would work herself to the bone, and in the end come up with something far beyond what her customer had expected. I wondered when our own outfits would be completed.

A simple jacket had been what the each of us had wanted, though admittedly I had put much more thought into than Steel had. I was a little surprised that we hadn’t received the orders yet since she was supposed to be so incredibly adept at tailoring, in fact I couldn’t really recall a time in the show that it had taken her longer than a day to make a particular piece. Perhaps she was having difficulty making things that were so out of her usual work, I couldn’t really imagine too many colts concerned with their clothing around Ponyville. Maybe…

I was quite literally knocked out of my ruminations as my face collided with the leg of a mare. I prided myself on not just falling over from the collision, but it did take some work for me to keep my hooves under me. My nose had taken the brunt of the damage, as was probably the case for most head on impacts, and I rubbed it thoroughly with a hoof in order to sooth the oncoming ache.

“Oh my,” I heard a feminine voice say, probably the one that was attached to the leg I had smacked into. “Are you okay?”

I looked up at the mare in front of me, her very gentle voice making me half suspect that it had been Fluttershy that I had run into. Thankful that I hadn’t hit the shy pegasus, and relieved I wouldn’t have to commit suicide tonight, I studied beige unicorn in front of me. She was short, or at least shorter than most of the fully grown mares I had seen were, and her blue mane was tied into a braid that fell over the right side of her neck. Her blue eyes looked intently at me, as if expecting me to say something...oh wait.

“Yeah,” I said, putting my hoof back to the ground, “just fine, ma’am.” I could see Steel out of the corner of my eye suppressing a laugh.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going. This town is just so enchanting that I much have fallen into daydreaming,” She looked around us, smiling happily at the joy that was Ponyville.

“I know what you mean, I was too busy looking over at that clothing place to watch where I was going,” I replied.

“Sure you were,” Steel said.

“Nopony asked you,” I shot back.

“Oh now, there is no reason to strike up an argument boys,” the mare said, cutting off our little back and forth. “My name is South Wind, I would love to hear what each of your’s are.”

I arched a brow at the mare in front of us. “Isn’t South Wind a pegasus name?” I asked.

“What?” she asked, apparently completely caught off guard by the question.

“I mean, the cardinal direction thing could be either pegasus or unicorn, but Wind is definitely a pegasus name. What do you think Steel?” I turned to the orange pegasus on my right.

“Yeah, sounds like a pegasus name to me,” he agreed.

“Heh, well,” she sidestepped and looked off as if she were embarrassed that we had called her out on it. “Both my parent’s were pegasi so they kind of named me along those lines.”

“Well that makes sense,” I admitted. “Hope you didn’t grow up in the clouds, that would have been tough on a young filly that couldn’t fly.”

“It wasn’t exactly...wait a minute.” She stopped and looked back at me, scrutinizing me and Steel. “You are very good at changing subjects young stallion.”

I gave a little bow at that. “Thank you ma’am I try. My name is Ashen Stroke and this is my brother Burnt Steel, and it is a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Wind.”

“Ashen Stroke and Burnt Steel…” she mumbled, almost as if she already knew the names.

“Yes,” Burnt said, stepping forwards. “You can ignore Ash, he just likes to mess with other ponies. I personally think it is out of jealousy that I got all of the awesomeness in the family.”

“Then awesomely fly an inch off the ground,” I replied, turning to the pegasus that thought he was hot shit.

“I don’t even have to dignify that with a response,” he said, huffing and turning away from me.

“You couldn’t dignify it with anything,” I added before turning back to South Wind who was still studying the both of us like we were ants under a magnifying glass.

“Anyways it had been a pleasure miss but…” I was cut off by the loud chiming off a clock tower off somewhere in the distance. It stopped after three chimes, giving me the time, and making me wonder how three hours could have possibly passed since I got out of bed this afternoon. “Well it looks like we have to go.”

Steel looked up at the sky, as if searching for something that my puny mortal eyes couldn’t possibly see. “Yeah, so Ash where is that bridge?” he asked.

I was about to respond when the kindly mare that was still standing there did for me. “Oh a bridge? I passed over one as I entered the town, I believe that you just need to continue down this road and you will reach it quite soon.”

Without waiting for me Steel took off racing, no doubt excited about the prospect of learning to fly. I had to force myself not to immediately take off after him, and give a word of thanks to the mare before I dashed down the road after him. I thought a moment about how it was kind of miraculous how many unicorns I was meeting in this town when it was supposed to be mostly earth ponies, but the thought vanished from my mind as I caught up to the lanky pegasus that was huffing as he continued running.

“Having difficulty?” I asked smugly.

No,” he said between large gulps of air. “I’m just...doing breathing...exercises.”

I laughed at that, we weren’t really even going that fast. I did feel a little bad for him though, seeing how much trouble he was having, but in the end I discarded that emotion, knowing that if he was ever going to have much of a chance at flight he was definitely going to need to be in better shape. We ran, and like South Wind had said it didn’t take us all that long to reach the bridge that was just at the edge of town. I quickly ran over the wooden planks until I got to the center, before turning back and watching Steel come to a halt just a few paces away, still breathing heavily.

“Oh come on,” I chided. “It wasn’t that far.”

“Screw...you…” he managed as he sat there trying to catch his breath.

I was about to reply with a particularly annoying quip, but stopped as a shadow passed overhead. I looked up just in time to see a large pegasus descend onto the bridge, and land with some unworldly grace. It was a grey stallion, not nearly as dark as my coat was though, and his spiky white mane stood straight up from his neck. His tail was cut short, and I could see several rugged patches in his fur where he had some scarring just beneath the coat. His cutie mark was of two iron rings interlocked, there was some sort of writing on the rings in what I could only guess to be latin, I had no idea what it said however.

He looked down at Steel who had managed to catch his breath and was staring back at this hulk of a stallion. The guy wasn’t overly muscle bound to where it seemed like he wouldn’t be able to fly, but he was supremely built. His wings were huge as well, they had to be at least a foot or two longer than Rainbow Dash’s had been, and they caught the sun in the most interesting and vibrant way. It registered in my mind that I had of course been wrong once again, and this was undoubtedly the pony that was going to be teaching Steel how to fly.

“You must be Burnt Steel,” he said as he looked the small pegasus over.

“Yeah,” Steel replied as he climbed back to his hooves.

“Hmm,” the stallion said as he tapped his chin. “It looks like we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

I couldn’t help but snicker at that, which earned me a glare from my orange friend. The large pegasus turned his attention to me, and looked me over as well. I had the sinking suspicion that he was judging my physical stature for some reason, and quickly moved to leave. “Well since it seems that Rainbow Dash isn’t going to be here, I will take my leave,” I said as I began to walk off.

“Ash!” Steel called after me, no doubt feeling uneasy at being left alone with this guy.

“I’ll catch you later baby brother!” I called back as I stepped from the bridge and hurriedly made my way back to town. That guy seemed more than capable of teaching anypony how to use their wings properly, after he had made them do a thousand push-ups of course. I smirked as I got back onto the main road in town and started heading towards Sugarcube Corner.

It wasn’t that long before I caught sight of the bakery ahead, and picked up my pace. I entered through the front door this time, finding that the window hadn’t been particularly to my liking the last time, and heard the bell chime above me as I pushed the door open. I was just about to walk up to the counter, where I could see Pinkie Pie working with a customer that was ordering some incredibly oversized cake, when I caught a familiar voice echoing from the parlor not too far off.

“I know Silver Spoon, I’m just going to miss you is all,” the unmistakable voice of Diamond Tiara said as I stealthily entered the parlor. I could see her and Silver Spoon sitting in a booth talking with each other over a couple of milkshakes, and despite my better judgement I snuck over to an adjoining booth without drawing attention and sat down so I could eavesdrop.

“I know,” I heard Silver Spoon reply.

“Prance will be fun though won’t it,” Diamond said, probably trying to cheer her friend up, or at least that is what it sounded like since I couldn’t actually see the two.

“Yes, dad says that there is so much to do there.”

“And you will only be gone for a little while, so there is nothing to worry about.”

“Seven months Diamond, that isn’t a little while.”

“A seven month vacation in Prance, you are so lucky.”

I heard a sigh echo from the booth behind me. “You are my only friend, and you can’t come with me.”

“Don’t worry, you are the most likable pony I know, you will make friends there no problem.”

“Maybe…”

“No maybe, I’m sure.”

“Thanks Diamond. I think...I think it’s time for me to go. Dad said we were supposed to have left like an hour ago already.” I heard a few sniffs coming from the booth behind me.

“Okay.” The sound of two sets of hooves hopping out of the booth caused me to frantically reach for a menu and hold it in front of my face so that they wouldn’t see me. They two of them walked towards the door, sharing a hug at the entrance before Silver Spoon quickly took off into the main room of Sugarcube Corner, leaving Diamond Tiara standing there by herself. I glanced over the top of my menu at her standing there all alone, she sniffed and wiped her face with a hoof before she also headed out the door, walking much slower than her departing friend had.

I put my menu down once I was sure that the coast was clear, and watched the door for a while longer. Today, or at least the couple of hours that I had been conscious, had turned out to be rather interesting. As I also jumped out of my own booth and walked back to the main room so that I could pick up my books from Pinkie, I couldn’t help but wonder what other events the rest of the day might have in store for me.

And an Apologetic Evening

The bell rang above the door as Diamond Tiara made her exit from the establishment. Seeing her leave, I walked fully into the main room of Sugarcube corner, and walked to the back of the line that lead to the main counter where Pinkie Pie was handing out all sorts sweets. I was amazed at the sheer amount of ponies lined up to purchase their particular confectionaries, but seeing as how it was midday on the weekend it might not have been all that shocking really. I leaned to the side to look past the several ponies in line that towered over me, four of them to be exact, and sighed when I saw Berry Punch at the front of the line having a full blown conversation with the pony next to her while Pinkie Pie waited for them to pay.

Not that the party pony looked irked by the hold up in the least. On the contrary, she would also add her two bits whenever the opportunity seemed to present itself. The stallion behind the alcoholic mare however, some dark green unicorn with a white mane that I don’t think I had ever seen before, looked like he was trying to suppress an aneurysm from the frustration of standing next to the three gabbing mares. No doubt he had somewhere important to be, and now that I thought of it so did I, but as things were I really didn’t have much choice here other than stand in line and wait my turn, all the ponies did think that I was a child after all.

“Wait,” I whispered to myself, “they think I’m a kid.”

Realizing that I didn’t necessarily have to follow the rules of society due to the innate ignorance of pre-adolescence, I immediately raced out of line and straight to the front, making sure to bump rudely into both mares and even knock Berry Punch’s front hoof out from under her, which almost knocked her to the ground. I stood on my back legs between the two and propped myself up on my front legs on the counter, blissfully ignoring the death glares I received.

“Hey Pinkie, you got my bag?” I asked.

Pinkie looked to the two mares on either side of me, and her naturally cheery smile seemed to become much more embarrassed. “Yeah Ashen,” she said as she started heading back to the stairs behind her, “it’s right upstairs. Let me go get it.”

She ascended the stairwell, leaving the counter full of sweets completely unguarded behind. “That’s a bit irresponsible,” I muttered as I dropped back to my hooves.

“Young stallion,” came a slightly enraged voice to my left. I turned and looked up at the irritated face of Berry Punch as she loomed over me. “Do you really just run around, and crash into ponies without apologizing? Hasn’t your mother taught you any manners?”

“I’m…” I began, fully ready to apologize to the giant just to get her to stop glaring down at me. The word caught in my throat, not because I wasn't concerned about lying straight to her face when I was fully unremorseful for my actions. Fuck no, lying was my goddamn forte, and in most situations like this it was my fallback. Somewhere deep down inside however, that little part of me that still held onto my man card told me that I couldn’t puss out again.

“You know what, I’m not sorry,” I said eventually, taking a more assertive stance. “I would have waited in line if it weren’t for you vapidly flapping your maw, and holding up everything for everypony.” The stallion standing behind her snorted at my retort, earning himself a smack on the back of the head from the mare standing next to him.

“What did you say?!” Berry Punch nearly screeched as she leaned down to meet me on eye level. As she got way too close for comfort I was definitely able to tell that the rumors of her being the town buzz keeper were greatly under exaggerated.

I waved my hoof in front of my face as I leaned away from her. “Geez lady, it’s not even four in the afternoon. There is no way that I should be getting dizzy just from a whiff of the alcohol peeling off of you.” I made a face like I was going to puke. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”

Her face contorted in what could only be described as pure unadulterated rage, and she made some choking sounds like she really wanted to make a witty comeback but her body just wouldn’t allow it. I saw my chance and pressed my advantage.

“You know I hear that they have programs for mares like you. I believe that admitting you have a problem is the first step, there are like eleven more after that, but I am certain that is the first one. Who knows, maybe given enough time you can really kick this thing and stop being such a nuisance and burden to everypony,” I said, smirking like a jackass.

The purple mare raised her hoof above her head, and then I knew that I had definitely gone too far. I winced and shied away from the oncomming asskicking that I knew was coming my way, but Berry was quickly intercepted by the mare that she had been talking to.

“Woah Berry, why don’t we just get out of here okay,” the teal mare said as she stepped forwards and threw a hoof around her friend’s shoulder. She started to walk her irate friend from the premises, but as Berry Punch glared back at me I could see a few tears start to fall from her eyes. I returned the glare until the two had finally left Sugarcube Corner, and when they did I finally relaxed and let out a breath that I had been holding.

Honestly, I didn’t know where that had all come from all of a sudden, but I was feeling...really really good. Maybe it was the adrenaline, if that little confrontation had been enough to actually get some into my system. Maybe it had just been putting somepony else down and making them feel just as shitty as I had. Maybe it was the fact that I had been able to make her feel exactly what I wanted her to feel, able to control her emotions like with just my words in the same way I could control the life and death of an ant with just a magnifying glass. I quickly caught myself, realizing that last one had sounded an awful lot like a burgeoning serial killer. It had probably been just the adrenaline that had me so pumped, yes let’s go with door number one.

I felt a chill run down my spine, my “oh shit” sense hitting me as I stood there staring back at the door. The “oh shit” sense being a lot like the Pinkie sense, except for it being completely useless and only warning me after I was already completely screwed. Or maybe it was just the fact that everypony that had previously been waiting in line for their food had begun slowly backing away from the counter while staring at something just behind me. I turned to see the truly most terrifying mare that I had encountered in my short time here in Ponyville, a very angry Pinkie Pie.

“Ashen Stroke,” she said far too calmly, “did you just make a pony cry on purpose?” I saw her walk out from behind the counter, her straight mane nearly dragging along the floor as she did so. Fuck me, her mane was straight!

“I, I, I, I, I,...” I stuttered.

“That was a very not nice thing to do,” she said as she finally stopped in front of me. I quickly turned to look behind me, and saw that everypony else had quickly vacated the store, leaving me all alone with Cupcakes Pinkie Pie. I gulped and looked back at the pink mare that was frowning very heavily as she looked down at me. “I don’t like when ponies do very not nice things to my friends.”

Plain, yes that was the word I had finally decided on. The beige of the wall paper spread throughout the building, and in particular, this corner that I was forced to stare at for the last thirty minutes, was undeniably, unavoidably, uninspiredly...plain. Sure the wooden support beam that ran vertically down the corner of the wall managed to break up the dullness of it all, but the rustic feeling that the three foot section of wall, that was my entire reality at the moment, was still quite boring. Considering where I was, it was strange that there wasn’t any real splash of color sticking out to me, but then again, who really decorates their walls.

I was sure that there was some corner in some building in a far off land that was truly magnificent. Perhaps, at one point or another, some knight had set it upon himself to seek out this corner of legend, only to realize when he found it that he lacked the words to convey its beauty to the world. So there he sat motionless as the years passed around him, nothing but the majesty of this legendary vertex to sustain him, and sustain him it would. He himself would become part of the legend, the immortal stallion who was fated to stare at a single place for the rest of eternity, not that he would mind for the beauty of that one corner was well worth it, and stare at it for an eternity he could. Then, out of nowhere, an evil would appear…

“Ashen Stroke,” I heard Pinkie call from behind me, prompting me to turn around and look over to her. Next to her Feather Duster was standing there, seeming to be incredibly embarrassed to be here, but this is where she found herself none the less. The scratched her left forehoof against her right and looked at the pink mare who had once again regained her bouncy complexion.

“Can I go now?” I asked as I stood from my time-out spot.

Pinkie Pie nodded. “Uh huh. Just as soon as you told me what you learned.”

I sighed, louder than I normally would have just to make sure that the two of them heard it. “It’s wrong to make ponies cry and be mean and junk,” I replied with an eyeroll.

“Right,” Pinkie Pie agreed, seeming to not catch my tone at all.

I grabbed my backpack that was on the ground next to me and threw it over my back in a quick motion, before I started to head out the door. Feather Duster motioned for me to follow her, and since I wasn’t really in a mood to stay here with the bipolar pink pony any longer I just fell into step behind my caretaker. I had thought that it was obvious to everypony that Pinkie had a screw loose, but when she makes you sit and wait in the kitchen as she talks to herself, while making cupcakes with a freaking butcher knife, then it was about time to call the big stallions in white coats. Not that anypony would do that to the poor mare, myself included, because then how would Equestria have its orbital friendship cannon.

I exited the bakery, and had to cover my eyes with a hoof for a moment so that they could adjust to the harsh sunlight outside. Things were proceeding as usual in Ponyville, though I couldn’t really have expected anything else. I tried to look up at the sky to see the pegasi flitting by in the air, but the blinding light of the sun kept forcing me to keep my gaze earth bound. Pegasi had to have some kind of built in sunglasses or something to avoid that kind of harsh glare, I would have to ask Steel when he got back from whatever kind of “training” he was doing.

Feather cleared her throat next to me as I was busy adjusting the weighty backpack that I had. “Are you ready to head back to the manor?” she asked as she waved a hoof towards the carriage parked not too far away.

“Nah,” I began as finished adjusting my bag and started to look up at her. “I was thinking…” My breath caught in my throat as I saw the glare the older mare was giving me. I would have sworn that her eyes were on fire with the intensity of the anger that she was holding back, and I folded like a house of cards. “That heading back to the manor would be the best course of action,” I finished.

“Excellent idea sir,” she agreed as she gave me a little nudge to get me started towards the litter.

I briefly wondered where my man card had fallen as I stepped into the carriage, but quickly got over my cowing as we slowly proceeded forwards. I carelessly tossed my bag on the ground, and propped my head up on a hoof as I gazed out the window. It was only a minute before the buildings of Ponyville stopped passing by me in the window, and the scenery of the country began to replace it. I admired the greens, yellows, and blues, like I had many times as we passed by fields of wildflowers and crops. I supposed that the flowers might not have been as wild as I thought, and could have perhaps been some kind of delicacy. I could just picture Princess Celestia slowly savoring a perfectly groomed Bluebonnet at some sort of fancy banquet.

“Is there something that you would like to talk about, young master Ashen Stroke?” I heard Feather ask, prompting my ears to perk up and turn towards her.

“No,” I replied boredly.

“I know,” she began, only to stop and ponder her words a moment longer before continuing. “I know that you must have been through more hardships than are to be expected at such an early age, but you simply must stop getting yourself into trouble.”

I looked at her reflection in the window I was staring out of. This mare was odd, I decided eventually. Sometimes I could almost forget her age, and she would seem to be just starting her twenties, while other times she spoke like my grandmother. Not literally of course, my grandmother’s accent would put Applejack to shame, but I could definitely hear the concern behind her words. That same concern shone in her eyes as she gazed at me, apparently unaware that I was observing her as well.

“Hardships,” I said eventually. “Yes I suppose you could say I have been through my fair share of those.” I paused, trying to find the perfect wording. “I don’t set out to cause trouble, most of the time, but I will work on changing my attitude in the future.”

I watched her a moment longer, trying to gauge her reaction. She looked for an instant like she would continue the conversation, but eventually she just turned her head to gaze out of the window opposite mine. I pulled my eyes away from focusing on the glass and looked to the passing fields of wheat, golden waves peeling down the rows as we kept up our moderate pace.

If I listened for it, I could distinctly hear the clopping of the ponies that were pulling us down the road, and could even catch a few words of a muffled conversation. They were talking about something mundane, a mare that one of them was dating or something of the like. It may have been useful information, or at least distracting information, but I turned my ears away from it and placed my attention once more in the view before me.

It wasn’t difficult to set my mind adrift, thinking about what I would be doing in the near future. Maybe I would be able to garner some incredibly pieces of information from the books that I was carrying. No, I was certain to learn something incredible, magic was after all some entirely new branch of knowledge that I was now finding myself delving into. Useful information, that is what I would have to be on the lookout for. I would have to compile some kind of glossary across these many tomes that would help me break the cypher on the much more advanced one that I had back in my room.

I itched to begin reading them, but I stayed my hoof anyways. Trying to read in a moving vehicle places a lot of stress on one’s attention and would probably make me miss something important. Additionally, I was planning to take copious notes as I read through these and since I had no paper here I couldn’t. No, I would just have to wait, despite the ever building tension in the back of my mind that urged me to forgo my planning and just crack them open right here.

My mind snapped back to the present as we made a turn onto the long drive that lead up to the Rich Manor. I wondered briefly if I would be receiving some kind of additional punishment for the disturbance that I had caused earlier, but I highly doubted it. As far as I could tell, the staff weren’t allowed to mete out punishments to Diamond Tiara, which would explain her painfully obvious belligerent nature, and I felt that would extend to Steel and I as well. Of course, if they did find it a good idea to ground me or something, that wouldn’t really disrupt my plans for the afternoon, so I really had nothing to worry about.

We pulled to a stop, and Feather Duster opened the door on her side of the carriage, before gingerly stepping down the stairs and onto the drive. I turned, tossing the backpack onto my back with a flick of my head, not bothering to secure the straps, as I also exited the litter. There were two ponies holding the doors open for us as we made our way up the stairs and into the manor proper. The large wooden doors closed loudly behind us, and the light in the reception area cut considerably, though the large green drapes had been pulled away from the windows and gave the room plenty of light. I sniffed at the air, delighting in the improved sense of smell I had attained with this new body of mine, as I caught the scent of some kind of spices wafting through the house.

“When will dinner be?” I asked as I began to head towards the stairs that led to my room.

Feather Duster looked to an aged grandfather clock, metronomically ticking away against a wall. “In just over an hour,” she answered.

“Alright,” I replied as I started up the steps.

“I will come and fetch you when it is time to eat,” she called after me.

“Sounds good,” I droned as I turned into the second story hall and exited the hall. I couldn’t stop myself from nearly sprinting to my room once I was sure that I was out of sight of Feather Duster downstairs. The door the my bedroom flew open, audibly slamming against the backstop as I raced into the room and threw the backpack down next to my desk. I quickly ran back and shut the door, closing it much more softly this time, before racing back and jumping into the chair in front of my desk.

I spent a few seconds to grab paper, ink, and a quill from the desk drawer before unzipping the backpack and dumping its contents out onto the desk. Making sure to stack all of the books in the proper order, the ones I would be reading first on top of course, I spread out three sheets of paper next to each other in front of me and placed my quill in my ink. Grinning like a maniac I reverently lifted the first of the tomes and set it next to the pieces of paper that I had laid out. I clapped my hooves together in excitement at what I was about to discover hidden in the book before me before I opened it to the cover page.

“Simple Ways to Learn Simple Magic,” I read. “Alright, let’s begin.”

Clink. The metal utensils scraping against the plates was somewhat grating. Especially when I was trying to concentrate on something else, but I suppose that it was unavoidable. I gazed over at Diamond Tiara, attacking her salad with anger. I had a good idea of what she was so upset about, but I kept my silence, feeling that it wasn’t really any of my business. Steel however, sitting there with his wings hanging down around him, looked like he could barely lift his hoof. In fact, he had chosen to forgo using forks and was just nipping at the salad without them.

I smirked, taking a drink to cover my grin, but I was definitely feeling better about my own situation with him being so down. If that was what it took in order to get into the proper flying shape as a pegasus then I was definitely feeling at least a little less screwed over by destiny or whatever with being an Earth Pony and all. He noticed me looking over at him and arched a brow at me while he chewed his lettuce.

I had opted not to even try the salad in front of me. I had told Mr. Rich on my first day here that I didn’t like it, but it seemed that he had neglected to tell the cook about it, and so now food was going to waste. I did feel a little bit guilty that nopony was going to eat this food, that is unless the cooks finished off whatever was left after dinner, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to eat it.

Clink. My ears folded back over my head as I heard Diamond savagely impale a tomato with her fork. I rolled my eyes and set my drink down in front of me.

“So how was your day, Steel?” I asked.

He groaned, laying his head out on the white tablecloth in front of us. “It sucked dude. Ace had me do wing push-ups. Think about that, push-ups, but with wings.”

“Ace?” I said as I rolled around some of the tomatoes in front of me.

“Aerial Ace,” he replied with a deadpan, making me snicker.

“Yeah he looked like a flying type.” I tapped my chin with a hoof. “Now that I think about it you have Steel in your name. Should I call you Skarmory?”

“Please don’t,” he replied. Apparently too exhausted to care enough to emote.

“Alright,” I said shrugging. “So he made you do wing push-ups. Anything else.”

Steel held up a hoof like he was going to list off something before realizing that he had no fingers and setting it back down in the chair he was sitting in. “Push-ups, sprints, some weird flapping training, more push-ups, more sprints, and finally stretches. Also he said that I needed to get my feathers taken care of because they need to be preened or something.”

“Sounds like more trouble than it’s worth. You should probably just get a doctor to remove those things from your back.” I heard a fork drop and looked over to Diamond who was staring at me like I had just said the most horrifying thing ever.

“What?” I asked.

“Did you seriously just tell your own brother that he should get his wings chopped off?” she asked incredulously.

“Hmm, I suppose I did,” I admitted.

The room fell into a deathly quiet, which was quickly broken by the doors to the kitchen being opened and Dusty walking in with three trays of food. He passed them out with ease, using his magic to levitate one to each of us before he turned on a dime and exited the room once more. I watched him go, a little bit surprised that he hadn’t seen fit to say anything, but with a shrug turned my attention to the steaming plate in front of me.

“Grilled cheese?” I asked, looking at the long sandwich that smelled strongly of american cheese. How did they have american cheese?

“My favorite,” Diamond as she picked up the sandwich and took a hungry bite from it.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like grilled cheese. In fact it was an easy meal to make, and one of the only ones that I actually knew how to make well, but something about it didn’t sit right with me. They had to get the milk for the cheese from somewhere right, and I think I had seen Twilight get some milk from cows once on the show. Although, in another episode it was shown that cows are clearly intelligent, so as I stared down at the grilled cheese in front of me I felt that eating it would be something like breast feeding from a woman I didn’t know. With that creepy ass thought making itself known in my mind I gently slid the plate away from myself.

“Not hungry?” Steel asked, already halfway done with his own sandwich.

“Umm...yeah.” I replied, thanking my stomach for not betraying me. I was feeling a bit peckish, but it wasn’t anything that couldn’t wait until morning. The realization with the cheese had thoroughly killed my appetite, and I had to think about what other weird food things I had missed so far. Dusty mercifully distracted me before my thoughts could turn on me by entering the room once more.

He held a letter levitating in his magical grasp in front of him, and was still reading it over as he approached the table and came to a stop. “It seems,” he began, eyes still scanning the paper, “that Master Rich will not be returning to the manor until next Saturday. Apparently he has been held up by work and will be unable to make it back.” Seeming to be done with what he had been saying he gave the note to Diamond Tiara before he turned to head off once again.

“Seems like it will take a while before you’ll be able to really talk with anypony. Kind of sucks that your only friend left, but those are the breaks sometimes I guess,” I said offhandedly. Looking up as I heard a chair being pushed roughly away from the table, I saw Diamond Tiara glaring at me like a certain purple earth pony had not too long ago, before she hopped out of chair and hurriedly exited the dining area.

I watched her go, she slammed the door harshly as she made her way out, causing me to wince. Dusty gazed at me with his stoic eyes before he also turned and left the way that he had come in, closing the doors behind himself much more quietly. There was a harsh pain in my chest, knowing that I had just said something cruel to a child for no particular reason, even if she probably deserved it in some cosmic way.

“What happened with Silver Spoon?” Steel asked.

I sighed and looked over to him. “She is going on some really long trip somewhere. Seven months from what I heard.”

“Damn,” he said with a nod, “you’re a douche.”

I let my forehead collide heavily with the table in front of me. “Ow.”

“Injuring yourself won’t make it any better you know,” he went on as he took a bite from his sandwich. “You gonna eat that?”

Without looking up from the ground that I was now staring at, I hit the edge of my plate hard enough to send it sliding across the table to Steel. “It’s weird,” I said.

“The grilled cheese?” he asked between the food in his mouth.

“No not the cheese, dumbass. Although when you think about it for a minute you will find out how weird that is for yourself. What I was talking about is how I have been pissing ponies off for no reason today,” I replied.

“Don’t you usually do that?” he went on, completely ignoring my comment about the grilled cheese.

“Most of the time I am trying to be funny or make a point. Today though...it’s like I am trying to hurt them for no real good reason.”

I distinctly heard him licking his hoof, which opened up a whole different world of bad eating habits that I wasn’t in the mood to indulge at the time. “Yeah, well maybe there is some kind of dark magic effecting you,” he said unhelpfully.

“Psh,” I dismissed as I lifted my head and looked up to him. “It’s probably something a lot simpler than that.” I rolled my shoulder and jumped down from my seat in a graceful bound.

“Where are you going?” Steel asked as he picked up my grilled cheese and began to chow down on it.

“I’m going to apologize before Pinkamena finds me again,” I said as I opened the door back to the main hall.

“Pinkamena?” I heard him ask as I closed the door behind me.

I walked over to the stairs that led to the second story and began to ascend them. Unlike earlier, there seemed to be no servants bustling through the halls, I supposed that once dinner had gotten under way most of them left to go back to wherever they lived so that they could eat with their own families. Dusty and Feather seemed to be the only two that really stayed at the mansion the whole time, I wondered briefly if they had any family before shaking my head and getting my mind back on focus. I didn’t know where Diamond Tiara’s room was so I just had to keep passing doors that I had already seen until I came upon the right one.

It took a little bit of doing. Not really, I just really had to look for the room with a tiara emblazoned on the front, before I was standing in front of her door. I lifted a hoof and knocked on the front, waiting for a reply or some kind of indication that the pony inside had heard me. When none came I knocked again, and then after that I knocked again.

“What?!” Diamond Tiara shouted from the other side of the door.

“Uh…” I stalled, “I uh, I came to apologize for what I said downstairs. Can I come in?”

There was silence from the other side of the door for a while, so long that I had almost decided to just walk away when the door slowly opened to reveal the pink filly. She still looked obviously pretty pissed, and I was happy to see no tears. She moved away from the door and allowed me inside before she quickly closed it behind herself and set a chair in front of it so that nopony could get in. I looked around at the incredibly pink room, everything unshockingly reminding me of a barbie dream house, but pulled my attention away from the overwhelming pink to look back at the girl in front of me.

“Well,” she said.

“Right,” I replied, scratching the back of my neck as I looked off. “I’m uh, sorry for being mean.”

She huffed and walked over to her bed. “That wasn’t a very good apology,” she chastised.

“Okay, seriously though I am sorry for pissing you off and saying something like that. I saw you and Silver Spoon talking at Sugarcube Corner, and I was a total dick when I said that to you. So yeah, I’m sorry,” I said as I took a step towards her.

She continued to look me over with a harsh glare, before it suddenly just disappeared. “Alright,” she said.

“What? Just like that you aren’t mad anymore?” I asked.

“Well, it’s not like you were wrong. My only friend in the whole wide world left, and daddy is never here so I’m alone and don’t have anypony to talk to. School is just going to be terrible now.” Okay now she looked to be heading towards that teary place that I really didn’t want her to be in.

“Well I mean, you aren’t really alone, Steel and I live here, and you have all of these servants around all the time,” I said, trying to steer her off in some other direction.

She just rolled her eyes at my words. “Servants can’t really be your friends, and I know you two don’t even like me. Don’t even try to lie about that.”

I was just about to do exactly that, and I was sure that I could convince her that I was on her side, but something just felt wrong about it. I continued to look at her, standing there, her big eyes telling me that she was vulnerable right now and on the edge of just breaking down. I had to give it to her for not already having broken into tears, she was definitely stronger willed than I had at first given her credit for.

“Fine,” I said after a moment. “You aren’t exactly my favorite pony, but I am willing to give being friendly acquaintances a try. Plus your father would probably have me out on the street again if I wasn’t willing to go that far.”

She smiled at that. “Yes, daddy might do something like that.” She gave a laugh that made me uncertain as to if she was actually joking.

“Heh,” I laughed along, before I extended a hoof into the space between us. “Acquaintances then?” I asked.

She looked at my hoof for a few seconds, before she cautiously reached towards it with her own. “I suppose we are.”

Author's Note

3,000 views Wooh! Finally got this story up to the benchmark, so all of you readers have my sincere thanks. I will keep writing if you keep reading, so if you like this story don't forget to fav and comment.

Lazy Monday

I was tired, well I am usually tired when I first begin to wake up in the morning so that isn’t something too out of the ordinary. I smacked my lips as my consciousness began to rise from the depths of sleep, finding something strange stuck to my tongue. I opened my eyes to see the writing end of a quill sticking out of my mouth, and after failing to spit it out a few times, reached up with a hoof and pulled the ruined writing utensil off of my tongue.

“Gross,” I said as I tossed it on the desk, and pushed myself up into a sitting position in the chair I was in. I yawned and stretched my hooves over my head, popping my back a couple of times, before I wiped the sleep from my eyes, and looked about the room.

It was dark in here, the curtains had been pulled closed, and really gave me no way to track the passing of the day. I gazed down from my seat at the abundant amount of books and loose leaf pieces of paper around me. The mess extended in a circle around me for a few feet, the books that I had gotten from the library mixed with some I had nabbed from the study yesterday morning. I stood in my chair and vaulted over the books and notes to land on a clean patch of carpet a few feet away.

My stomach rumbled, reminding me that I did in fact need to eat at least once every couple of days, so with a yawn I turned and headed over to the chair I had propped up against the doorknob. Without care, I kicked it aside and let it fall onto the floor with a loud thunk, and opened the door to find a dark and deserted hallway beyond. I made sure to stretch out my limbs as I walked towards the bathroom, while also trying to recall what I had been reading over last night.

I had spent the entirety of yesterday just scanning through a dozen different books, and writing down everything that seemed to stand out to me. It had taken a little while, but eventually all of the magic mumbo jumbo had started to slowly click into place. Or at least, the crazily rudimentary stuff had, I was still having an incredible time trying to decipher that advanced magic book I had picked up from the library first.

I pushed open the door to the bathroom and walked inside, stifling another yawn, and went about relieving myself. Once finished, I propped myself up on my hooves to look at myself in the mirror. A few stubborn strands of hair were poking out of my finely groomed mane, making the grey colt in the mirror frown. It took me a few jumps and swipes, but eventually I was able to hit the bottle labeled “serum” close enough to grab, and dab out some onto my hoof. The clear goop on my hoof reminded me a lot of hair gel though it smelled much better, and after taking the time to apply it to my mane, it was once again in excellent condition.

I washed my hooves in the sink before exiting the bathroom and making my way down the stairs. Halfway down, I looked out the front windows of the manor to see that the sun was only just rising into the sky, baking the world outside in the warm orange glow of dawn. I felt the strong desire to go back upstairs to my room and continue sleeping until somepony felt the need to come and rouse me, but my stomach’s protestations pulled me ever forwards towards the kitchen downstairs. I did hear somepony a few rooms down walking on the tiled floor, but other than that the manor seemed to be vacant save for myself as I made my way through the dining hall and into the kitchen.

I hadn’t taken the time to admire the huge kitchen within the Rich Manor, and as I walked in and saw all the shiny cooking equipment I still failed to appreciate it. I wasn’t really somepony that knew how to even boil water correctly, so I was sure that the magnificence of it all was completely lost on me as I wandered my way around until I discovered the pantry. I pushed the two way door open easily, and took a moment to find the light switch, before I examined the shelves in search of something nice to eat.

Luckily for me, there was a step ladder in the fully stocked pantry, and once I had discovered a box of cereal I quickly moved it so that I could get at the “Oat Flakes.” Sure it seemed strange, and even a little unappetizing, but at the time I didn’t really care and picked the box up in my mouth as I hopped off the ladder. I was walking out of the pantry and over to the refrigerator to grab some milk to go with my cereal when the cheese incident Saturday night hit me and brought me to a stop.

I frowned, turning and walking into the dining room, and taking my usual seat before I popped open the box and began to eat straight from it. Scooping up the tiny little flakes was more difficult without fingers, but somehow I managed. I sat there, looking out the windows as I ate my morning cereal, and waited for the day to start around me. The flakes weren’t very flavorful, in fact they were the most bland cereal that I had eaten in a long time. I found myself wishing for something with little marshmallows, maybe with some fruit flavoring for the main cereal, and of course a few little games on the box to keep my interest.

Though, since I lacked such attention grabbing games, or even a colorful mascot, I had to occupy myself with staring out the window at the slowly blooming morning. I couldn't see the sun, but if the slowly building radiance of the blossoming dawn was anything to go by, then sunrise had come just a few minutes ago. As the morning continued to grow brighter outside of the large windows that I stared through, slowly shovelling bland flakes of cereal into my mouth as I did so, I slowly began to be able to make out vague shapes in the distance. The vantage wasn’t particularly excellent, the many trees and bushes that dotted the estate blocked most of my view, but if I strained hard enough I felt that I could make out some outcropping of trees in the far distance.

It was still too dark to be sure however, the tall dark masses just on the edge of my vision slowly growing brighter as the sun continued to climb higher. Actually, they were growing much brighter than they should have. In fact, as I strained to see the far off mass of trees I could tell that some of them were already practically orange, shining with a radiance that they shouldn’t have had. Others had taken a darker tone, a frightening shade of crimson, and the light continued to sweep across the tall and proud trees faster than I could account for. It wasn’t too long before all of the ones I could see were glowing in various shades of red, orange, and yellow, expelling whatever blackness that they had found within their midst into the air.

There was somepony out there also, I no longer felt the need to strain my eyes to see, and sat back in my chair as the figure made a slow and steady approach towards me. No that was wrong, there were two coming towards me, the first was a woman, not a mare, and she was running from the other one. The second one, just now languidly making their way from the glowing trees, the orange and red radiance spreading around her with every step she took, was after the first.

The woman, I was more and more sure that she was human as she continued her mad dash towards the estate, wore tattered clothing. She was bleeding, stumbling, as she continued forwards, and the fear on her face shone so brightly in the world around her that was slowly growing brighter and brighter, that I felt some small part of me start and grow frightened as well. Still, despite her injuries, and the tongues of red that licked her heals and caused so much obvious pain, she spurred forwards in a mad dash for the safety of the mansion.

The pony, more detail becoming apparent about her as she continued approaching, chasing the woman. She was a great figure, made of the same red and orange energies that were seeping out about her into the world. She had no eyes, or more accurately, where she should have had eyes were only pure orbs of gold that were locked onto the woman’s back. She chose not to move quickly, enjoying the small game of cat and mouse that she had involved herself in.

The air around me started to grow warmer, it was suffocating, but I dared not look about. I kept my gaze straight ahead of me on the two approaching figure, the first making it past some of the trees of the estate as the red radiance sped on past her. It was covering the whole world now, burning it, I realized with a start. The mansion was not being spared whatever fiery wrath had been handed down from the heavens, I could hear a beam break overhead and crash thunderously into the table I was sitting at. The long table rocked and broke just as loudly at where it had landed, but still I did not dare look away.

The woman was trying for all that she was worth, but the burning grass had already overtaken her, and the flames about her continued to pick at her bare feet until she would be unable to press on. Then she stumbled, she fell to her hands and knees and I could see her cry out in anguish, though I was unable to hear it. In some herculean show of willpower she managed to push herself to her feet once more, and take a single step before her legs gave and she fell to her knees. She kneeled there, defeated, as the rags that she wore began to burn even as they clung tightly to her skin. She gazed toward the burning house, through the window that I was watching from, but she did not see me. Her eyes were vacant as I stared into them, there was nothing left of her any longer, and it wasn’t long before she fell forward into the burning earth around her never to stir again.

The red mare continued her approach, gazing at the fallen woman the entire time that she did so. A door to my left exploded into the room, spreading flames around me as it did so, but I still sat unharmed in my chair, watching her loom over the corpse of the woman. She looked down for a long while, the smile on her face slowly spreading, before she lifted her head in triumph and let a cry out to the heavens. Still, I could not look away. That was until she looks away from the flaming sky overhead and locked her gaze with mine, the glowing golden spheres bearing into me. She took a step away from the woman on the ground, and started towards me. Her eyes…

“Ash,”

Her eyes saw me, saw me truly for what I was.

“Ash!”

She didn’t take such a sedate pace this time though, she stood back on her hooves and spread her wings wide, preparing to overtake me before I could have the chance to run. I tried to force myself to move, the burning air inside the manor already making it impossible to breath but…

“ASHEN STROKE!” came a forceful yell just to the left of me.

I sat up with a start, spilling the box of cereal that I still had in my lap all over the floor around me. It took me a moment to realize just where I was, and whose orange hoof was still stabbed securely into my ribs. I looked down from my seat as Steel who was staring at me with something akin to worry or amusement, I couldn’t really be sure.

“Dude, you were freaking out,” he informed me.

I blinked at him a few more times before I finally found my voice. “Really?” I asked.

“Yeah you looked like you were hyperventilating or something.” No, I could tell now that he was most definitely worried. I put a hoof to my head, aware now that I had some a fearsome headache. I squinted, rubbing my temple as I tried to recall just what had happened.

“I guess I fell asleep,” I said after a while. “Can’t really remember what the dream was about though.”

“Must have been a pretty bad nightmare,” he said as I hopped down from my chair.

“Yeah, I guess so.” I shook my head vigorously, not really helping with the pain pounding against my skull, but it helped to wake me up just a little better.

I heard the doors open and looked up to see Feather Duster walk into the dining room. “Well there you are,” she said as she made her way over. “It is nearly time to leave for school.”

I recalled faintly that today would be Monday, and that school usually took place on the weekdays. I yawned, and stretched my back again as I started trotting towards the door she had just entered the room from. I said nothing as I headed towards the front door, taking my backpack from one of the servants that was holding it open as I exited. Diamond Tiara was already seated inside of the carriage as we made our way out to it. Me, shielding my eyes from the harsh morning sun that aggravated my headache, and Steel, practically skipping as he made his way down the stairs.

He seemed to be in an extremely good mood this morning, though I had neither the ability or inclination to try and figure out why. I was far too busy with introspection to consider anything else as we began to sedately make our way to the elementary school we would be attending today, that was, until Feather Duster decided to ask how our weekends had been. Diamond and Steel both gave simple one words answers while I instead lapsed into a lecture on all of the different magical principals that I had been reading and learning about over the past few days.

To the mare’s credit, she did a much better job at pretending to be interested than I would have expected. My other two companions just tuned me out completely, trading a few quips to each other, between bouts of gazing out the window at nothing in particular. It didn’t take too long before we had nearly arrived at our destination.

“Nearly an infinite amount of classes and subclasses,” I informed Feather Duster. “Though one thing seems to remain constant throughout, the will of the pony manipulating and shaping the energy. Though, I suppose, it doesn’t have to be the will of the actual pony that is actually crafting the energy into a spell form. The will could come from just about anywhere, and apparently, from even non-sentients. From what I have read, it seems that though there are even elemental forces that can cause spells or spell like properties to arise using the mana in some given vicinity, and apparently this still counts as some kind of willpower input.

“Now I know, how can something like a blizzard or thunderstorm actually create a construct? I was asking the same thing too, but while looking over the equations and double checking the math, though I suppose that was kind of redundant since these were in publications, there is a proof to explain it. Apparently, these phenomena have been reported to actually connecting to the Astral Plane, and collecting some amount of turbulent emotion from there, which then gave rise to a spell form. The documentation of these events is pretty clear, and I don’t particularly have any reason to doubt that they happened, but still it is strange.

“Truthfully, I have always kind of been a proponent for the lack of what is commonly referred to as ‘free will.’ In my mind, for at least the last while, I always felt that we just function off of some predetermined programs. The programing having been established either by our genes or by the vast amount of experiences that we have been through. I think, or at least I thought before getting my hooves on all of this literature, that we can actually know how anypony will react in any given instance if we take a look at their past behaviors.”

“Master Ashen Stroke,” Feather Duster interrupted, just before I was about to go into another shpiel.

“Yes?” I asked.

“We arrived some time ago, the other two have already left the carriage.” I looked out the open door to the schoolyard where colts and fillies were racing to get into the classroom before they were late. I caught the sound of Feather snickering as I just straight out of the litter and landed in the grass, already sprinting to make sure that I didn’t end up tardy and earn the wrath of Cheerilee.

As I ducked into the building and raced down the hall, I caught sight of the door to the classroom slowly coming to a close, Cheerilee not seeing my rapid approach as she called after some other colt. With barely enough room, I jumped and dove face first into the classroom, sliding a little bit on my stomach, and feeling one of my rear hooves clip the doorframe as I just barely squeezed through.

“Safe!” Steel called loudly, earning a round of laughter from the students in the room as I got back to my hooves.

Cheerilee finished closing the door, her mouth open to chastise me for my reckless behavior, as a smack resounded from the now closed door, and she turned away to address the pony that had just run full tilt into the door. I took the opportunity to head over to my cubby and tuck my things inside, but as I did so I noticed that there was an unusual visitor in the back of the class, sitting in a comically undersized chair. The beige unicorn with a blue braided mane that I had met just a few days ago, South Wind, turned and waved at me.

“Good morning,” she said pleasantly.

“Um, good morning,” I replied as I finished grabbing the things I wanted to class and started heading towards my desk. I hopped up into my seat, laid out my pencils and my notebook on top of my desk, taking a minute to make sure that everything was perfectly straight and square, before turning back around to look at the unicorn that was for some unexplained reason sitting in on our class today. When she saw me looking back she smiled and waved at me again, to which I simply nodded and turned back around to face the front. “Weird.”

Cheerilee finished making sure that all of the ponies were in the classroom, having stopped and scanned the hallway before closing the door for a final time. She walked up to the front of the classroom, and put on her winning smile as she turned to us. “Good morning class,” she said...cheerfully.

“Good morning Miss Cheerilee,” the class droned back to her.

“You have probably noticed, but we have a visitor to our class today,” she said as she motioned to the unicorn in the back. “This is Miss South Wind, and she has come all the way from Canterlot to visit our class today, so make sure you are all on your best behavior.”

South waved to the class, some of whom were murmuring something about Canterlot, obviously impressed for some reason that there was a pony from there. I was just left wondering as to why she was actually here, sure the teacher had said that she came to the class for some reason, but never actually told us what that reason was. Was there some reason that she was keeping that a secret, or was it just not important to tell us since we are in an elementary school class, and we don’t need to know those kinds of things. That line of thought had the headache, that I hadn’t noticed had disappeared, come back in full force. Wincing, I turned back to the front to see that Cheerilee was handing out some worksheets to the class.

As the stack of papers made their way to me, I took the top one and handed the rest off to the foal behind me. Staring down at it, I noticed that they were some incredibly simple math problems. I looked back up to where Cheerilee was starting to go over the first few on the board, demonstrating some principal or another, but honestly I had lost interest before she even finished the first problem. Sighing, I looked down at the sheet, turned it over to see that there were in fact half a page of questions on the back, before flipping it back to the front and starting on it. It wasn’t the least bit difficult, in fact, it was mind numbingly easy.

I was halfway down the page when my right eye started becoming too heavy to stay open. I shook my head, trying to blink away the tiredness, to no avail, before I continued to grind through the paper. By the time I was finished with the front and flipped it over to the back my headache had once again faded, but my ears picked up some far off whining that I couldn’t quite pinpoint. I finished the rest of the paper quickly, and even wrote out a few more harder problems on the bottom of the page, following the same format as the rest of the paper, before my weariness grew too much for me and I laid my head down on my desk to give myself just a little bit of a rest.

I hadn’t even noticed that I had dozed off until somepony shook my shoulder lightly to rouse me.

“Hmm?” I asked whoever was trying to wake me up.

“I wouldn’t want to wake you, but I believe you are missing recess.” I opened an eye to see that the pony disturbing me was none other than South Wind. She was smiling gently, something that reminded me a whole lot of Cheerilee, and as I sat up in my desk I noticed that we were the only two in the room.

“Oh?” I said.

She smirked down at me. “Yes, you should probably hurry off, you wouldn’t want to miss lunch now would you?” she asked.

I sat up, focusing on my stomach and finding that I was in fact pretty hungry, which was strange since it seemed like I had just eaten not too long ago. Of course, with all the sleeping that I seemed to be doing today I wasn’t surprised.

“Yeah,” I said as I lazily got out of my desk.

She picked up the worksheet that I had completed, apparently hours ago, in her magic and began looking it over. I looked at her, those blue eyes scanning over the page furiously before flipping it over and looking at the other side before the paper was rolled up by her cyan magic field. “This is really good work,” she said, smiling at me once more, the concentrated and scrutinizing look that she had just a second ago completely disappearing.

“Sure,” I said with a shrug as I headed back to where my bag was to retrieve my lunch. I hadn’t actually looked this morning, but I was fairly certain that somepony would have packed me a lunch. That was their job right?

“I noticed that you don’t show your work,” she continued as she followed me.

I located the brown paper bag and pulled it out of the backpack, unrolling the top and looking inside to see what I had. “Never show your work. They think you are smarter if you don’t.” I paused, frowning at the lettuce that was sticking out of the side of my sandwich. “Until you mess up that is.”

I looked back at her in time to see a quill floating in her grasp next to my worksheet. She noticed me looking at her and the pen magically disappeared in an instant. I frowned, trying to decipher just what she had been doing, it seemed that she had noticed my mood change since she quickly tried to move the conversation on.

“Who’s they?” she asked.

“What?” I replied, arching a brow at the random question.

“You said that if you don’t show your work ‘They think you are smarter.’ Who’s they?” she floated the rolled up paper back over to me, and I snatched it away from her magical grasp.

“Ponies that look over your questions and do mysterious magical things behind you back. Also the teacher.” I unrolled the paper, seeing that she hadn’t actually written anything on it, making me even more curious as to what that pen had been for. I glanced to her flank, seeing that her cutie mark was a magnifying glass on a clipboard, and found that my curiosity about this pony was growing even more. As was my need to get away from her.

“Well,” I pressed before she could get a chance to reply, “I need to go to recess.” I quickly walked past her, pointedly ignoring the startled look that she was giving me at having dropped our burgeoning conversation so quickly.

As I got to the front I tossed the math worksheet onto Cheerilee’s desk and quickly exited the room. I didn’t turn back to look at the mare as I left out the back and headed towards the playground where all of the other children were playing. I stepped out into the bright noon sunlight, thankful that my headache had disappeared and I didn’t have to shield my sensitive eyes from the light, before I found an open spot on the stairs to sit and eat.

I opened my brown paper bag, pulling out the sandwich first, and opening it so that I could toss out all of the evil lettuce I had been given, before I put it back together and took a bite. It was a daisy sandwich, something that sounded completely unappetizing, but and I chewed on it, I found that it wasn’t actually too bad. Flowers, something that I had tried to eat before, were flimsy, but tasted good enough to keep my interest. That, and my stomach informing me that I was even hungrier than I had originally thought.

The last bit of the sandwich had soon disappeared down my gullet, and as I started to look through the bag for my sides I noticed somepony approach me. I pulled a pear out of my bag and found myself face to face with none other than Applebloom.

“Hey,” she said, somewhat dejectedly.

“Hey?” I replied.

“Ah, just wanted to say Ah’m sorry ‘bout that whole net stuff,” she went on, taking a seat next to me.

“Don’t worry about that I don’t blame you for it,” I said, waving off her concern. How could I have possibly been mad at the little bundle of cute that was Applebloom, even if she did leave me tied up in a tree with little chance of escape.

“You don’t?” she asked, ears perking up hopefully.

“No, I blame Steel,” I said, biting back a little bit of bitterness that bubbled up. I wasn’t still really mad at him about it, but it was still a dick move.

“Oh,” she said, looking a little relieved.

“Yeah, I will get payback on him eventually so don’t worry about it.” I took a bite from my pear and smirked.

She looked pretty uncertain about how to feel about that. “Okay,” she said hesitantly after a minute.

I was about to go on, asking her about what other kind of crusading shenanigans that she had gotten into recently when somepony cleared their voice loudly near me. I stopped, turning to see Diamond Tiara looking very irked as she glanced back and forth between Applebloom and I.

“Ashen Stroke,” she began, “can I speak to you in private please.”

“I was kind of having a conversation here,” I replied, making her glare grow in intensity.

“It’s important,” she said between clenched teeth before she turned and walked away. I watched her go, looking back at Applebloom and shrugging my shoulders before I got to my hooves.

“Well, I better go see what all of that is about,” I said.

“Alright, we’ll talk later then,” she said as she also stood.

“Cool,” I replied before taking off after Diamond Tiara. She had made her way towards the very rear of the playground, the other children keeping a good distance between her and themselves. I didn’t fail to notice a green filly trip over herself as Diamond shot her a nasty look.

“Okay, what’s up?” I asked as I finally made it over to her and took a seat in the grass next to her.

“Why are you talking with that blank flank Applebloom?” she asked, cutting right to the chase.

“Because I happen to like her and she’s friendly,” I deadpanned.

“But...didn’t you say that she and the rest of her friends tied you up in a tree over some stupid game?” she asked.

“Well yeah,” I replied with a sheepish smile. “But that’s not really as big of a deal as I thought it was.”

She scowled, obviously not very pleased with my answer. “You can’t be friends with her,” she said.

“What?” I asked, a bit taken aback at her sudden sanction upon my social life.

“You can’t be her friend,” she repeated.

“Why not?”

“Well for one she is a blank flank, which should be obvious reason enough. Two, she and her little club friends are just absolutely terrible.” I was about to ask exactly how they were terrible, but she cut me off. “And three! You said that you were going to be my fr...acquaintance. You can’t be her friend if you want to be my acquaintance, so you can’t be her friend.”

She crossed her legs and huffed, finishing her little tirade and staring at me. “So I can’t be her friend and yours?” I asked. “Why not?”

“Because I hate her,” she spat.

There seemed to be more to this than something as simple as Applebloom not having a cutie mark, but I wasn’t exactly going to push at that right now. I knew that Diamond Tiara and Applebloom didn’t get along, hell, in the show the two are basically polar opposites, but I didn’t think that my being friendly towards Applebloom would get this big of a rise out of her. I continued looking at the fuming pink filly that was glaring across the schoolyard at Applebloom as she played without a care.

“You know, that’s the kind of attitude that will make ponies think you are nothing but mean,” I replied after a few moments.

“I don’t care what other ponies think. Why should it matter at all, it’s not like they’re important or anything,” she huffed, tearing her gaze away from the pony that had somehow earned her ire and staring off at some distant trees.

“Well that’s dumb,” I said simply, bringing that death glare back to me.

“Did you just call me dumb?” she said angrily.

“No, I called what you said dumb,” I replied with a smirk. “You can’t not care what other ponies think, and they are all important. You aren’t the only one in this world you know, everypony does things that affect the world around you, so what they think about you matters.” I stood, seeing that the children had started heading back inside, Cheerilee holding the door open for them as they came back in from recess.

As I started heading back towards the door, leaving Diamond Tiara behind, I stopped and looked back at her. “You can not care what anypony else thinks, but if one day you find yourself alone and destitute then you would have nopony to blame but yourself.” She just continued staring back at me angrily, so knowing that nothing could be said at this point, I turned and galloped back to the schoolhouse.

I snatched my half eaten lunch up in my mouth as I got back inside, several of the other students taking their merry time getting back inside and back to the classroom. As I came back inside I hurried back over to my bag, and tossed the lunch back inside. I noted that South Wind had left the classroom, which was a small comfort to me as I headed back over to my seat just before Cheerilee entered with the rest of the stragglers. Once everypony had taken their proper seats, Cheerilee started off class once more, this time going over some grammar and literature that the class had been assigned to read one or two weeks ago.

Despite not knowing the reading, I found myself interested, or at least not listing into another impromptu nap as the lesson continued on into the day. I even raised my hoof once or twice to answer a question every now and again, only missing one because I didn’t realize some obscure proper noun rule that was used in Equestria for some reason. Still, the class wasn’t completely tedious and I managed to make it to the end of the day without losing my focus completely.

I had hardly noticed the time fly by, but when the final bell for the day rung, and all of the students quickly raced out of the room, I looked out of the window to see that it was a bit later in the day. I stretched my two front hooves out on the desk before I also jumped out of my seat and retrieved my things from the back. I was just about to call out to Steel, who was waiting for me near the door, when Cheerilee called me from her desk and asked me to stay a little while. Steel shrugged and left, and a few seconds later, I was alone once again in the classroom with a fully grown mare that wanted to “talk.”

“Ashen Stroke,” she began, “are you okay today?”

The concern in her voice caught me a little bit off guard. I knew that that she was supposed to be concerned for all of her students, but I couldn’t quite put my hoof on why she was concerned about me.

“Um, yes. Why?” I asked.

“You fell asleep in the middle of class this morning,” she explained. “And while I appreciate you finishing your work and putting it on my desk, you really should try to stay awake for the lesson.”

“Oh,” I replied. “No, I’m alright I just didn’t get too much sleep last night. I ended up falling asleep at breakfast this morning too.”

“A growing colt needs plenty of sleep Ash,” she said. “Make sure that you get plenty of sleep at night or I will have to send a letter home to your…” she trailed off for a moment and quickly recovered, but I was able to catch her lapse easily enough. “Or I will need to send a letter home with you.”

I smirked and gave a mock salute. “Yes Ma’am.”

She smiled at that. “Alright, run along now. I wouldn’t want you to be late getting back.”

Being formally dismissed by the teacher I headed out of the classroom quickly. Steel hadn’t waited for me outside, having instead already made his way over to the carriage and climbed in next to Feather Duster, leaving me to sit next to Diamond who still seemed to be quite peeved with me. Feather gave a word to the driver and we were quickly off on our way.

The ride was much quieter than this morning, I no longer feeling in the mood to babble on about my studies, and the other three having nothing to say either. I lost myself looking out the window once more, so lost that it took a particular lime green unicorn walking past the window and waving to us before I realized that we had made our way into Ponyville. The town was busy with activity, and I wasn’t exactly disappointed to be here, but I had not been briefed on this change of schedule so I was a little worried.

“Hey,” I said as I pulled away from the window and looked over to Feather Duster, “why are we in Ponyville?”

She looked...concerned. Like I had just caught her with her hoof in the cookie jar, but only that she had been planning to give the cookies to some orphans that I didn’t know. “There is something that we need to take you and Steel too,” she replied sheepishly.

Steel looked up at somepony saying his name. “Huh, what?”

“We’re going to the doctor to get shots. I hope you like shots,” I told him.

“Gah! No way!” he yelled. Yeah, he kind of had a thing about shots.

“It’s nothing like that,” Feather Duster said. Throughout all of this Diamond just continued to stare out the window, not caring what we were discussing. The carriage came to a sudden stop, and I looked back outside to see that it was now parked in front of the Mayor’s Office. “You two just need to...talk to somepony here today.”

She opened the door and stepped out, beckoning us to come on out after her. I was hesitant, a dark sense of foreboding welling up in me, but I pushed the emotion away. These were ponies we were talking about after all, I highly doubted that I had anything to fear from whatever it was that they had planned for me. Steel didn’t seem to share my reservations at all, after being told that he wouldn’t be getting a shot today he gladly made his way out of the carriage behind me.

Once the three of us had exited, Feather Duster closed the door and said something to the driver before it started moving forwards once again, no doubt taking Diamond back to the manor. She turned back to the two of us and smiled pleasantly. I was really starting to get sick of all the pleasant smiling that was being directed towards me.

“Well then, shall we?” she said before she started off ahead of us. Once again I found myself just expected to follow along behind somepony else, and once again I had no other choice but to obey.

Once inside the Mayor’s Office, I saw that there was practically no activity. The only pony around was that same mare behind the front desk that had been here the last time that the two of us had been dragged here, and Feather quickly hurried over to exchange a few whispered words with her.

“You know, I’m starting to feel that I might not like whatever is coming next,” Steel said as he looked around.

“You don’t say,” I deadpanned.

He was about to reply, no doubt with something snarky and sarcastic, when Feather called us over. “Alright boys, come this way please.”

I turned away from my “brother” with a sigh, walking towards the elderly mare that was standing in front of a door near the rear of the lobby. We walked over, making sure to take up as much time as possible as we did so. She didn’t seem to mind, putting her hoof on the door handle and turning it before she opened it and started to usher us into the room.

“Okay you two, I want you to be on your best behavior,” she said as we entered.

“For what, you still haven’t told us what we are here for,” Steel complained, and I had to admit that I felt the same way.

Somepony cleared their voice from a chair on the other side of the room. Steel and I stopped and looked across the office space, decorated with a few pieces of furniture and some nice inspirational posters along its bland and uninspired walls.

“Hello boys,” South Wind said from her seat, a quill and notepad levitating next to her. “I was hoping that we could have a talk.”

An Unpleasant Meeting

“Ummmmmm,” I said, trying to catch my brain up to the situation. The sound of the door closing behind me made me turn to see that Feather Duster had just left us all alone with the mare, still pleasantly sitting in her chair. This was it, we were dead.

She was using that fake pony smile that I had seen way too many times before. What had I done? My mind raced, trying to track down the instance that lead to this exact moment. Had I inadvertently let something slip, tipping off whomever it was that this mare obviously worked for? I had gotten too relaxed, that had to be it. I had let my little mask slip at some point, raised suspicions, and now somepony was here to investigate.

Canterlot! Cheerilee had said that South Wind was from Canterlot. A government investigator. She had to be, it made too much sense. She had run into the two of us yesterday as well, that was just too coincidental. Had she planned that to happen, so that she could scope out her targets beforehand, get a baseline about what the two of us were like. She had even sat in on one of our classes, and I had been dumb enough to just ignore her reason for being there. Why did I ever think that I could just pretend to be some kind of prodigy and not raise a shitload of suspicion? I obviously didn’t belong, you would have to be blind not to see it and the worst part was…

Steel jabbed me in the side, bringing me back to the present, and making me realize that I had just been staring at South Wind for the last minute or two. “Dude, you need to calm down,” he whispered to me.

I looked between him and the mare in the chair. Who was now writing something down on that pad of hers! “How can I calm down,” I whispered back. “We’re screwed, this is the end for us. Oh cruel world and all that bullshit.”

“Why don’t we actually find out what is going on before we dig our own graves, hm?” he deadpanned. Before I could reply he walked over to the couch just in front of South Wind, and jumped up onto it to take a seat.

I stared at him furiously before I too walked over to the couch and jumped up into it. I sat down, alternating my glare between South Wind and Steel. I didn’t have any idea what was going on, but I knew for a fact that it couldn’t be anything good. An assumption that was only proven all the more true as South Wind’s horn glowed just a little brighter than it already was just before a rush of blue washed over Steel and I, leaving me feeling strangely tingly and more than a little panicked.

“Hey what was that!” I shouted at her, standing on the couch to try and gain a more intimidating stance. I doubted that it affected the mare how I wanted it too though.

“It was just a simple scanning spell, it is nothing to worry about I promise you,” she replied, still trying to wear that fake mask of kindness. I could swear that I saw it breaking piece by piece.

“Simple scanning spell. Simple scanning spell! That was assault lady! You have no permission to do whatever you want to me!” I screamed.

“Ash, calm down,” Steel pleaded, trying to force me into sitting back on the couch, but I just wrestled myself from his grasp, and pushed him away to create a little bit of distance between us.

“I will not calm down!” I yelled back at him. How could he not see what was happening here!

The pad and quill that South had been levitating were gently set down on the coffee table between where she was sitting in her chair, and the couch that the two of us were on, as her horn also stopped glowing. She held up her hooves in a submissive manner as she sat back in her chair once she had finished disarming herself.

“Okay Ashen Stroke, no magic. I won’t use magic in here if you do not want me to. I am not here to make you uncomfortable,” she said with all of the mock sincerity that she could muster.

I pointed my hoof at her, ready to follow it up with some kind of declaration, only to find that no words would form in my mind. I had no ingenious and witty thing to say, so with a simple gesture of moving my hoof back and forth between my eyes and her I sat back down on the couch. “I’m watching you lady.”

“I will have to remember that,” she said, stifling a giggle behind one of her hooves.

I crossed my legs in front of me and turned my head to look out the window. It was certainly far more interesting, and it was highly unlikely to try and zap me with something, although that pane in the top left corner did look awfully suspicious.

“I’m sorry about Ash,” Steel began, “he’s just...well. I guess that’s just how he is.”

“No need to apologize,” she replied very diplomatically. “He did nothing wrong by expressing himself. I hope you know that I don’t hold it against you at all, Ashen Stroke.”

I continued to look through the window. There was a pair of blue jays happily doing bird things in a tree just outside of the office. They would chirp at each other, and since this was Equestria I had to assume that they were actually able to speak with one another somehow. I was sure that whatever they had to say to each other was far more fascinating than any of the words I was hearing at the moment.

“So, Mrs. South Wind…” Steel said.

“You can just call me South Wind, or South if you prefer Steel, if I may call you Steel that is,” she said, cutting him off mid question.

“Uh yeah, sure. Anyways South, I was going to ask what you are doing here and what you wanted to talk to us about,” he replied. My ear may have swiveled in her direction at the question.

“A very good question Steel,” she complimented. “I work for the kingdom, and it is my job to go all around Equestria and speak with little colts and fillies that are found, and do not have a home. When Mayor Mare sent word back to Canterlot that there were two colts found near the edge of Ponyville, I was contacted and made my way here as quickly as possible so that I could speak with you two.”

“Oh,” Steel said simply, as he sat back against the back of the couch.

“So Steel, Ash, I was hoping that you could…”

“What was that scan for?” I purposefully and rudely interrupted.

“What?” she asked, trying to seem like she didn’t have any idea what I was talking about.

“That scan. You know, when you pushed your blue magic all over me and my brother without asking for permission. What were you looking for? You had to be looking for something, so what was it?” I pressed.

She picked up her quill and pad once again, making sure not to use her magic to do so since she seemed sure that would only agitate me more, and it most definitely would have. It seemed that the quill was also magic, since she just picked it up in her hoof and was able to scribble something down on that pad of hers. She didn’t even have to dip it in ink or anything!

“It was just a simple scanning spell like I said, I just wanted to make sure that you two were healthy so…” she tried to explain.

“DON’T LIE TO ME!” I exploded, jumping up from my sitting position on the couch. I wasn’t exactly sure how I knew she was lying, sure the explanation was flimsy and could easily be disputed, but I was entirely certain that she had just been trying to lie to me. It was almost like I could just smell it on her, hear it in the way that she inflicted her voice towards the end of that sentence, see it in the way that she flinched back from me when I screamed at her.

“Don’t lie to me,” I repeated, calming myself somewhat and sitting back in the couch. “I can tell when you lie.” Her quill flew over the pad she was holding once more, her eyes never leaving me. I heard Steel whisper something under his breath, but I didn’t quite make out what it had been.

“Very well, Ash. As a show of good faith I will tell you, even though I am not supposed to,” she said after she finished writing.

“Yeah we’ll see about that,” I replied.

She sighed. “That was a spell to see if you were a changeling or not. Obviously the two of you passed, but it is protocol for me to do that spell whenever I am meeting with new children,” she explained.

I stared back at her for a few long seconds, trying to decide on whether or not I believed her little explanation. I turned to Steel, arching an eyebrow at him while he looked back at me and shrugged. The explanation did make a bit of sense, and the more that I thought about it, it would probably be a good idea to make sure that orphans wandering around weren’t just changelings in disguise trying to get some sympathy. Not that I actually had anything against changelings, but orphanages and foster homes were likely their biggest targets.

“Alright,” Steel said, breaking my reverie. “Why weren’t you supposed to tell us about that then?”

“Good question,” I agreed.

“Well for one, we don’t want to needlessly scare children that have already been through a great ordeal,” she replied. “But that is a conversation that can be had later. What I originally asked you two to be brought here to talk about is much more important.” I flinched back at her words. She flipped over a page on that pad of hers before setting her quill against the new page.

“Okay, I have what Spring Shine wrote down when she talked to you two, but I was hoping that you would talk to me yourselves. You two grew up in Manehattan, is that correct?” she asked. I glanced at Steel, and he just stared back at me. I knew that our story would be put under scrutiny eventually, even though I had sincerely hoped that it wouldn’t, and now it seemed like I was going to have to try and fool another pony with some fake sob story.

“Yes,” I said slowly. “We uh, yeah we grew up there.”

“Thank you,” South said as she scribbled something down on her pad. “Where did you two live in Manehattan?”

I of course had no idea how to answer this. I had only been to Manhattan once so I had no idea what any of the streets actually were, or if they paralleled any similarities between this world’s metropolis or the one that I came from. I shrugged, “South Side,” I said simply. The south side of any city was always the poorest right? Being from the wrong side of the tracks might earn us some more sympathy as well as helping us build a better cover.

The momentary frown that South gave me told me that I had likely been right with the south side of town not being the greatest. That, or whatever I had said was an obvious fabrication and she knew that I was flat out lying to her now. Either way, there wasn’t any taking back of the statement so I would just have to try and build a better story around that one detail.

“I see.” More writing on that pad of hers, it didn’t seem she was likely to stop anytime soon. “Tell me about your life in Manehattan. What was it like at your house, what were your parents like?”

I paused for a minute, the air in the conference room weighing heavily on me as I tried to organize my thoughts. I caught sight of Steel just staring at me forlornly, obviously not intending to jump into the middle of this conversation at any point, which I was immensely grateful for. This tale that I was about to spin would be what made or broke us, if I messed up even one thing then that would probably be it for us.

“It was…” I began somewhat hesitantly, “it was not that bad. I don’t remember dad, mom said that he was in the guard or something and had died a long time ago while undercover on some mission. Mom was awesome though, she would take care of me and Steel all the time, even on nights that she had to work extra late for Mr. Biggs.” The story had just finished crystallizing in my mind, and I had to try really hard to suppress a grin. To say that I was more than a little pleased with myself would have been an understatement. Still, the telling of the story would be the most important part.

“Oh, really? Who is Mr. Biggs?” she asked. Biggs was the easiest name that had come to mind, and since it was something that could have easily been an alias I didn’t think that there would be too much of a problem when they never found him.

“Mr. Biggs was mom’s boss,” I replied simply.

“Yes dear, but who is he. What is he like or what does he look like?”

“Oh, he is a big mean unicorn that would come to the house and yell at mom about money.” Painting the villain of our little story as a unicorn might make her feel a little bit guilty, which would only pay off for the two of us. “He would throw stuff around all the time, he even hit mom with a vase once.” I glared back at South trying to make her see some of the fake anger that I was trying to muster. “But he didn’t do that again.”

“And why is that?” she asked, seeming far too comfortable with the question than I would have expected.

“Because I wouldn’t let him!” I answered immediately. She looked back at me, and then over to Steel, prompting me to do the same. He was just sitting there, staring at me in the most bored fashion that I could imagine.

“I see,” she said as she began writing something down on her paper once again. As soon as her eyes left the two of us, turning her attention to her musings, I elbowed Steel in the side.

“Look upset you idiot,” I whispered, my voice just barely audible so that they pony across from us wouldn’t hear me. “That’s all you have to do, just look upset.” He blinked at me a few times, before it dawned on him that this might be an emotional scenario for a couple of children to be in. He bit his lip, and glanced back at South Wind uneasily. He would need to do a bit more than that to help us get through this, but it wasn’t too bad for a start.

She looked up again once she was finished writing. “And what did your mother do for Mr. Biggs?” she asked.

“Um, she said that she gave ponies massages. She would go out at night and wait for a pony to come ask her for a massage, and then go to someplace else to give them a massage, and sometimes she would bring ponies back to our house to give them massages. It never really made sense to me, mom had to be really good at massages if she got so many stallions to pay her for them. I don’t really know though since she always locked the door when she brought somepony back to the house to give them a massage,” I said, shrugging as I ended my little insinuation. Drop a little bit of information and ponies will most likely draw the conclusions that you want them to.

“I...see…” South said slowly.

“And why did she have to pay Mr. Biggs. If he was her boss then he should have been paying mom!” I tried to look angry, and glanced at Steel who had managed to work up a much sadder face. In fact, he looked like he might actually break into tears at any moment, which would immensely help us out here.

South continued to look at me for a few seconds before returning her attention to her little pad and starting another session of writing. I didn’t mind, these frequent little breaks that she was giving us helped a lot for me to think up what I might say next. I felt confident that she wouldn’t try to dig too much deeper into the whole mother situation with what I had just thrown at her. Now, I would need to figure out how it was that we got all the way from Manehattan to Ponyville. How long ago had we left the city exactly? What had we been doing, and where had we been to have survived so long on our own?

“Ashen Stroke,” South said solemnly, breaking me from my reverie. “This may be a very difficult question, but I would like for you to try and tell me. How did your mother die?”

“She…” I paused, trying to stretch the moment on for what it was worth. I bit my tongue, my now flat pony teeth doing an absolutely terrible job at gnashing into the soft muscle of the pink appendage, but after I applied enough effort it started to hurt enough to get my eyes to well up. I looked down at my hooves, fortunately I wasn’t tasting any blood, but it still took a few more seconds of pain to force a tear to roll out of my eye and down my cheek. “She fell…” I managed to choke out eventually. A few tears rolled off my muzzle and onto the couch I was staring down at.

I would have smiled, I probably would have even looked Steel in the face and called him out for his bad acting skills, but I was genuinely feeling really terrible at the moment. I blinked rapidly, trying to reign in my emotions that I felt slipping away from me as I wiped a hoof over my face to clean it off. I didn’t dare look up, something told me that if I did at the time I would just lose it, so instead I continued to stare down and dry my face off with the back of my hoof.

Steel nudged my side, forcing me to look at him. It was obvious from his expression that he was actually concerned for me. I wanted to brush off his worry, tell him that it was all a facade and that it meant nothing, but of course I couldn’t. Instead I continued to sit there and bear it for a while longer until Summer Wind finally felt like the awkward silence had gone on long enough, and that she had to interrupt it.

“Thank you Ashen, I know that couldn’t have been easy for you,” she said, the sincerity in her words almost making believe that she cared.

I sniffed and finished drying my face off before looking back to her. “No big deal,” I replied, putting on a fake, fake, strong front. It was a lot harder to pretend to pretend to try and hide some emotions that you didn’t really have than I thought it might be, but she didn’t seem to notice.

She nodded. “Okay, I just have one last question and then you two can run along alright?”

“Okay,” I sighed.

“Your cutie mark, did you get it while you were living in Manehattan?” she asked.

I arched a brow, thrown off by the seemingly random question. Who cared where or when I got my ass tattoo, I had just spun an incredibly depressing story about two foals living under a single mother that was a prostitute, who may or may not have committed suicide. That last part was obviously up to interpretation, but maybe South would find that it suited whatever narrative she was constructing, and latch onto it.

“Uh, while we were living in Manehattan,” I replied. “There wouldn’t really be anything for me to write with after we left.” It sounded logical at the time, although a little bit of thought on the matter might have saved me a lot of trouble in the future.

She hummed, tapping the edge of her quill against her muzzle. She flipped through the pages of her notebook, using her magic, and putting me on edge. I scooted to my right on the couch, putting an insignificant amount of distance between her and myself, but it helped me at least feel a little better. She stopped eventually, scanning the page several times before looking back up to me.

“There doesn’t seem to be any record of your cutie mark in the Manehattan Registry. Do you have any idea why that is?” she asked.

I sputtered, they had a cutie mark registry? Of course they would have one, it made complete sense as a way to track equestrian citizens, that was if I assumed that each cutie mark was truly unique. And there I was, having just completely blown my own story out of the water with some stupid thoughtless answer. We had to leave. We had to find a way to get out of here before it was too late and something truly horrible happened, so I latched onto the only thing that my panicking mind could think of to get us out of the room.

“You used magic!” I yelled, pointing at her still lit horn.

She looked up to her horn as well, going a little cross eyed as she did so before sheepishly grinning at me. “I’m sorry Ashen, I kind of did it on reflex,” she replied honestly.

I stood once again on the couch, and deciding that I needed to take a little more action this time around, jumped onto the coffee table between the furniture. “You lied! You’re a liar! Liar!” I screamed as childishly as possible.

She cut the magic to her horn and dropped her quill and pad onto the table once again, holding her hooves up placatingly like she had before, but I would no longer be swayed by the now obvious she of submission. “I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to do it. I wasn’t lying earlier when I said that I wouldn’t do it if it made you uncomfortable.”

“Liar! You lie like all the other adults! Lie about everything! I don’t believe you, and I don’t talk to liars!” I continued hollering as loud as my little lungs would let me, which as it turned out was quite loud.

“Ash, calm down,” Steel said as he put a hoof on my shoulder. I stared back at him shocked, couldn’t he see that I was trying to extricate us from this situation that I had just lost hold of a moment ago. Or maybe he did see, and was just trying to play into my display of childish angst by trying to stop me. He wasn’t being very forceful after all, but then again he wasn’t often forceful about anything. Either way, I couldn’t stop the tantrum even if I wanted to now, stopping now would certainly doom us both.

“Please Ashen, I know you are upset but…”

I cut her off with a harsh glare, and by blowing a raspberry in her face, close enough to get a little spittle of her face and make her flinch back. “I said I don’t talk to liars. I’m leaving, lets go Steel,” I said as I jumped down from the table.

“Ash we can’t just leave,” he said as he followed along next to me.

“Both of you,” South started as she also got up and moved to block our path, “we aren’t finished speaking and I need you both to retake your seats,” she said, bearing an authoritative tone that I didn’t know the small unicorn had.

“You need to let us out of here now,” I said between clenched teeth, staring her down as hard as I could, despite the incredibly strong urge to go and sit back down in the chair so that we wouldn’t get punished. Our stare down continued for only a few seconds before her horn sputtered a few spark of blue, giving me a chance to break in once again.

“You did it again! I can’t believe it! Let me out of here you big magic liar! You have to let me out!” I screamed, breaking the levels that I had reached before. Steel shirked away from my side as South Wind took a step away, the sparks of her horn dissipating after no more than a second.

“No, that was just a ward malfunctioning,” she pleaded.

“No!” I pressed, advancing towards her and maintaining my glare. “I won’t listen to more lies! You lied and now you have to let us go! Let me out! Somepony help!”

Finally, though I had to wonder why it had taken so long, Feather Duster burst into the room. She took a look around as she entered, and after taking in what was going on, turned to South Wind. “What the hay is going on here?” she demanded.

South looked between the two colts whose exit she was blocking, and the irate earth pony, before sighing and stepping out of our way. “It seems that we won’t be able to progress any further today,” she said as she motioned for us to leave. I wasted no time in making my retreat from the torture chamber, Steel tagging along at a more sedate pace behind me. We came into the waiting room just outside the door, and I turned back around, expecting Feather Duster to be just behind us, though I wasn’t too surprised when South stopped her by placing a hoof on her shoulder.

“May I speak to you in private?” she asked.

Feather looked over the two of us, now patiently waiting for her to exit so that we could get the hell out of here before turning back to the mare next to her and nodding. “Be good colts and wait patiently for me while I go and speak with Mrs. South Wind here, and we will get some ice cream on the way back home,” she said to us, waiting for our eager nods at the mention of ice cream before she headed back inside. The door closed and immediately I nearly pounced on Steel, pushing him as far away from any of the office workers as possible so that we wouldn’t draw the attention of any bored ponies.

“Quick,” I whispered desperately to him, “what are they talking about?”

He just tilted his head at me. “How the hell should I know,” he whispered back.

“You said that you were a freaking psychic!” I quietly shouted. “Use your third eye or whatever the fuck it is to spy on them, idiot.” I took a quick look around, seeing only a few ponies that seemed to be completely happy with their tedious paperwork as they typed up or signed whatever it was that they were typing or signing.

“It’s kind of really hard dude, and it gives me a headache like you wouldn’t believe,” he replied.

“You headache,” I said exasperated. “I have had a fucking migraine for most of the day, and then I had to pull our ass out of the fire in there. It’s your turn to take one for the team.” Now that he mentioned it, the pounding in my head was starting to return. It was probably from all of the yelling I had done earlier, not that there was anything that could be done for that now.

“Okay okay, seriously dude you need to chill.” He took a few steps, all the way back into the corner that we were near, and I moved to make sure that he would be blocked from view. I didn’t know what was about to happen, if anything was going to happen at all, but I was certain that I didn’t want anypony knowing about it. The whole race already had too much of an advantage on the two of us.

I looked back to my orange friend, his brow furrowing in concentration. He squeezed his eyes tighter shut and grunted a few times as he made some kind of effort to do what I had asked of him. He strained against an invisible enemy for a few moments before finally letting out a sigh of relief and relaxing back onto his rump, though he kept his eyes shut.

“Okay I got something,” he said.

“Alright, what do you see?” I asked, still plenty skeptical.

“They are standing in the room and talking near the door,” he replied. “Well, more like South Wind is talking and Feather Duster is just listening,” he amended.

“What are they saying dammit,” I spat in frustration.

“How should I know, I don’t read lips.” I raised my hoof in the air, completely ready to beat his unsuspecting head in before thinking better of it. If worse came to worse, maybe I could give Steel up to the princess and she would let me go, deciding to dissect him instead.

“You’re useless,” I commented as I walked as quietly as possible back over to the door and pressed my ear to it. Now it was my turn to concentrate, trying to set the pounding inside my skull aside as I desperately listened to the faint voices just on the other side of the door.

“...isn’t what I meant,” South said.

“Then what did you mean?” Feather retorted, she seemed to be more than a little bit irritated with the unicorn.

“I merely meant that these two have obviously been through a lot, and need some serious help. Burnt Steel seems to be well enough off, though he is completely submissive to his brother, and may be suppressing some emotions. Ashen Stroke on the other hoof obviously has anger issues, and a very deep mistrust for unicorn magic, both of which are probably a result of some trauma. At this point it is all just conjecture, which is why I need them to come in more often.”

“So you want me to bring them here everyday? I know that you have your pretty degrees, but I still don’t trust all of this head shrinking mumbo jumbo. Why should I force these children to come here when they obviously do not want to.” I had to admit, I wanted to break the door down and give Feather a giant hug for that one.

“You might not trust psychology Mrs. Feather Duster, but I also doubt that you have as much experience with dealing with children like these two. While every case is different, I have seen things like this many times before, and let me be frank. If these two do not receive the kind of help that they need the effect could be disastrous and leave them emotionally crippled their entire lives.” There was silence on the other side of the door for a few moments until it seemed that Feather finally relented, though she hadn’t even really tried to take all that much of a stand.

“You’re right, I don’t know how to help them like you might. I am an old mare Mrs. South Wind, and I don’t have the education that you do. I am used to dealing with the normal foal problems like scraped knees or detention. I don’t know about all of this trauma stuff.”

“That’s perfectly alright. That is why I am here after all.”

“Very well then, you wanted me to bring them around more often. How often exactly?”

“Everyday after school for now. I still need to gauge where the two of them are at.”

“That sounds easy enough to work out, anything else you want to speak with me about?”

“Yes actually, I feel that Ashen Stroke…”

“What is it?”

“Just hold on a moment.” There was a brief flash and then nothing. As I continued to push my ear against the door I could hear nothing, not a single sound coming from the other side of the door.

“What happened,” I asked, turning back to Steel and not caring if I drew any glances from the ponies around us.

“South Wind did some kind of spell, don’t know what it did though,” he replied immediately.

I sighed and walked over to where he was sitting, and took a seat as well. It seemed that South had caught on that I we would be spying on their little conversation, or at least she wanted to prevent us from doing so. “Silencing spell I think,” I explained. “Can’t hear anything now, but keep an eye on them anyways, might be that something important happens.”

“Oh, so you actually believe that I can see inside that room right now?” Steel asked, and not completely to be an ass about it.

“Well you knew that South did some kind of magic with your eyes closed, so either that was some incredible luck on your part, or you aren’t lying about weird psychic bullshit,” I replied.

“Makes sense,” he said, lapsing into silence for a few minutes. We continued to sit there, completely silent as we waited for the two mares just inside the office to finish up whatever they were talking about. “Um, what is the plan?” Steel asked as the minutes drew on.

“First, we are going to have some ice cream,” I explained.

“Sounds good.”

“Then,” I continued, “we really need to get our story straight.”

Author's Note

So this chapter took me a little longer than usual to finish up. I apologize for my tardiness, but am happy with the finished product. To all of those that wished for the plot to get its sorry but in gear, I hope you are happy with this latest installment. More updates to come, and I can happily announce that we have most definitely gotten through the halfway point for this little saga.

How it all began

“I don’t know dude I really don’t like HiE,” Matt said over the skype call. Though we were separated by several hundred miles the miracle of technology allowed us to chat instantly. Something I always found awesome.

“I understand that you don’t like the genre, and I can’t fault you for that. But, if you had to, what way would you toss a character into Equestria.” I often went into tangents like this. My mind being a seriously warped place I often found myself having trouble not daydreaming.

“Well I wouldn't want it to be painful.”

“I just think that a multidimensional trip should take a lot out of a person. It’s not like I ALWAYS try to seriously injure the character,” I defended.

“I don’t know, man. Everytime I read one of your stories the main protagonist always gets injured, ” he replied.

“Two times!”

“All I’m saying is if I got stuck in one of your stories, it would really suck.” I didn’t think that I would try to seriously harm my friend in that circumstance… probably not.

“Who are you kidding? You wouldn’t last a day there.”

“What,” I heard him dismiss over his mike, “I could totally make it.”

“You would have no one to bring you food twenty-four seven. You would starve in a day.” I pointed out.

“Pfft, I could provide for myself, unlike someone. Not enough fast food,” he shot back.

“I love apples man. Equestria is full of apples, ergo I would have an easy time of it.”

“You would also have to work. Your lazy ass would be a homeless bum on the side of the road.” Ugh, work. My old enemy.

“Well this argument could go in circles for hours.” I reclined into my chair. “You still avoided the question. How would you shoot someone into Equestria?”

“I would just use a portal.” I could practically hear him shrug on the other side of the call.

“So you would just go with the simple toss them through a portal answer? It seems to be a tried and true method, Matt, but not one I am particularly fond of.”

“Well, how would you do it, you amazingly awesome author?” Oh, now the sarcasm was making an appearance.

“Well for this analogy lets use you as the subject.”

“If you are gonna toss me away I’m dragging you down with me,” he replied.

“You are all the way in Texas. How are you going to get to me?”

“I have my ways.” I rolled my eyes at his response.

“Anyways… since you are such a fan of portals, I would have one just show up out of nowhere and drag you off to places unknown.” Maybe there would be a little pain involved.

“That’s pretty considerate of you. I doubt I would mind though. I hear Equestria is nice this time of year.” A random thought struck me, and I started to laugh lightly. “What?”

“I was just thinking. If the laws of the multiverse are really true then we just sent some poor bastard to Equestria by having this conversation.”

“I don’t think that’s how the multiverse works, bro. I’m pretty sure you speak of parallel universes.”.

“The multiverse is the culmination of all parallel universes so, ha!”

I didn’t hear the quick retort that I had expected. Instead, from the other side of the call I heard a little bit of static followed by silence. “Matt, are you still there?” I asked.

I closed my browser, and opened the skype tab on my computer, and saw that the call had ended a couple of seconds ago. I glanced to the bottom corner of my computer, and noted that it was already 4:35 AM. It wasn’t unusual for me to stay up this late, and Matt was usually awake for far longer. He might have gone to bed, but it was really strange that he didn’t tell me first.

I shrugged and reopened Google Chrome. I was about to go back to surfing reddit when I heard a low rumbling sound start emanating behind me. I took off my headphones, and turned my chair around to see a black orb hanging over my bed not three feet away.

“What the fuck…” I started, but was cut off, as the orb rapidly expanded into what I could only assume was a black hole.

I jumped to my feet, and immediately tried to make a break for the door. I had no idea what was going on, but I wanted nothing to do with it. Just as I ran past my bed, a black gloved hand shot out of the hole and grabbed my jacket collar. Panicking, I grabbed a glass that I had sitting on my desk and started beating the offending hand with it.

My struggling was in vain however, as the black hole began to pull the arm back into it with me still attached. I braced my legs against the metal frame of the bed, but with a final yank, my leg slipped and I was pulled over the rails, and into the dark void. The last thing that I thought before plunging head first into the spiraling black sphere was how much having my body ripped apart hurt.

“Wake up.”

“Get up.”

“Wake up!”

If the kicks to my ribs were any indication, someone really wanted me to stop lying on the ground passed out. Slowly, my mind started to float back to the conscious realm, and I cautiously opened my eyes. I found myself staring up at a thick canopy overhead.

The morning sun had just started to peek over the horizon, and the first rays of light shone through the leaves. It would have been a really beautiful sight if I didn’t loathe the outdoors so much. My allergies would always start killing me if I got within a hundred yards of the wrong kind of tree.

I felt another kick hit me in the ribs, causing me to yelp as I flipped over to avoid my assailant. I glared back at my attacker, and suddenly my mind stopped working. In front of me stood an extremely scrawny pegasus, and he looked really pissed. His coat was burnt orange, and his black mane was tied into a ponytail that hung over one side of his neck. For some reason he was wearing a black trench coat, which was perfectly fitted, and allowed his wings to stick out of the sides.

“What. The fuck. Did you do?” Wait a second I recognized that voice.

“Matt?” I asked, causing the pony to just become more enraged.

“Yea it’s me, asshole.” He pointed an accusatory hoof at me, but in doing so lost his footing and fell on his face. “What did you do to us?” he mumbled through the dirt.

I chuckled lightly at his flailing; this was certainly my friend. Something he had said struck me and caused my eyes to widen in panic. I looked down at myself, and confirmed what I had feared. I… was a pony.

I was still wearing my hoodie, which I thought was odd, but there were much stranger things going on at the moment. The coat under my jacket was very dark gray, almost black. I couldn’t see my mane, but if my tail was any indication then it was black with two streaks of azure running through it.

I held up a hoof in front of my face and examined it. A part of me had expected to find it to be one pastel color, like everything else I had seen in the show, but as I looked at the appendage closely I found that it looked very much like a normal hoof that I had seen on horses before. It came to my attention that I was still laying on my side, so I shakily began to try and stand up. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be, and I soon found myself standing in the middle of the dark forest.

I looked back at Matt who had managed to find a way to a standing position again. I hadn’t actually expected him to have turned out to be a pegasus. If I had to assign a race to him solely based on what I knew about the guy then I would probably have to go with unicorn.

Another wave of panic, significantly less intense this time, washed over me and I quickly turned to look at my side. I noted the distinct lack of wings so I raised a hoof, very carefully, from the ground and held it to my head. After searching for a few seconds I put my hoof back to the ground and sighed.

“God dammit,” I muttered, barely above a whisper.

“What now?” he said, as he struggled to get used to standing on four legs..

“I wanted to be a unicorn.”

“Don’t care, not my problem.” Ah, his tone was becoming more aggressive. “What do you plan on doing about this?”

“I don’t know, because I didn’t do shit!” I yelled back at him.

“I’m sitting at home minding my own business when a magic portal opens out of nowhere, and then sucks me in. Since you were talking about sending me through a magic portal not ten seconds before that happened then it stands to reason that this is all your fucking fault.”

“Then why the hell am I here? Did you really find a way to come to drag me here with you?” I was extremely curious about that point.

“I have my ways,” he shrugged casually and replied with a slight grin, causing me to facehoof, which was actually pretty awesome.

“Now who is the asshole!” I pointed a hoof back at him, and was proud when I didn't fall flat on my face. One point to me. “You have to pull me into your shitstorm?”

“Hey, if I had to get screwed, I’d rather not be alone. After all, what are friends for?”

“THATS THE WORST FUCKING ARGUMENT I HAVE EVER HEARD!” I know it is one of my few negative traits, but I do tend to get worked up pretty easily.

Matt looked at if he was going to reply, but paused and looked around. “Hey, uh, not that I don’t love arguing because I really do, but you really shouldn’t be yelling.”

“AND WHY THE FUCK NOT?”

“Really, stop that.” He warily started glancing at the bushes that surrounded us. “I think we should get out of here, maybe?”

“What are things getting a little intense for poor little Matthew?”

He shot back the glare that I knew was coming. “Don’t call me that. Not cool.”

“And screwing up my life just because your’s got messed up is? What the hell, Matt! What the actual hell!” The screaming was back on.

He shakily started marching up to me. “You think I wanted this? Really now, I would rather be back home in my chair instead of in a fucking forest! This is your fault and I’m not going to be fucked alone,” he said, his voice rising with each step.

I really don't understand the weird thing that he has with being called by his full name, but I knew that he would now not let it go. The guy could be really obstinate sometimes. He was still standing in front of me with that expression, which could not be mistaken for anything except contempt. The forest around us had gone deathly silent, which any fan of horror out there would know, is a very bad thing.

“Wait, Matt. I think we are in the Everfree Forest.” Now I was the one glancing at every shadow as if expecting them to come alive and eat me.

“I mean, for—” He went silent while staring at me. “What did you say?”

“I said shut the fuck up, and don't make any sudden movements,” I replied as I began to inch away.

“Are you sure it’s Everfree? I mean, there ARE other woods and forests,” he said skeptically.

I looked up to confirm my suspicions, and then motioned for him to do the same. “The clouds in the Everfree...”

“Move all on their own,” he finished. I saw his abnormally large eyes dilate in fear as he also began to hesitantly follow me.

Of course it was an evil thing to do. I know that I shouldn't have done it to a friend, especially not the only one that I had in this world. Looking back on it now I probably wouldn't have gone through with it, but at the time I was really pissed off at the guy.

“Oh my god, Matt, don't move,” I said as I froze and stared behind him.

He stopped immediately and sighed. “I know how this ends. There’s something behind me, isn’t there?”

I slowly approached him, and put a hoof on his shoulder. “No.” With minimal effort I pushed him over, and ran into the treeline behind me, laughing like a maniac. “Fuck you, asshole!” I yelled back as I got too far away from him to hear what his reply would’ve been.

I raced through the trees looking frantically for some kind of trail. Knowing that the Everfree Forest was the one wild territory in all of Equestria I had little hope of finding one. As I ran through the trees I noticed the distinct lack of animals around me. Maybe I would be lucky, and the animals would catch on that I was actually human and leave me alone.

With some significant measure of fortune I broke through the treeline, and found myself standing in an open field. I looked around to make sure that this wasn't just a large clearing, and sighed in relief when my fears were laid to rest. Somehow, I had actually managed to make it out of the Everfree Forest without running into any wildlife.

I turned around, and gazed back into the dark foreboding forest. Maybe I shouldn't have deserted Matt in there. He would have probably have been eaten by a rogue manticore by now.

“Oh, Matt,” I began, “You were such a valiant friend. I know that you didn't really mean to trap me in this world, and then leave me all alone. From now until my dying day I shall live for you, and share your heroic tale of sacrifice.” To my left an orange pegasus came bumbling out of the trees in much the same fashion that I had. “Well it took you long enough.”

He caught his breath from all his running. “Oh, sorry that I wasn’t fast enough. You didn’t even have time to regale anyone about my heroic tales.”

“Sure I did,” I lied. “I already met with Twilight and solved a massive crisis in Equestria in the time it took for you to get here. I was coming to pay my final respects before I set off to scour the globe for a way home.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m sure. Very nice move back there, I was impressed. Just wait for my turn.”

“How are you going to push me over?”

He stomped over to me and stared. “I have my ways. Just you wait.”

“Get out of my face, Romeo.” With another slight shove he was sprawled on the ground again. “You know, being an earth pony seems to have its perks.”

“You know, karma's a bitch. I happen to like the ground, it’s very soft.”

“Good. You can stay there while I go to Canterlot.” I turned away from him and started walking. Behind me I heard him get up and quickly trot up along side me.

“That sounds pretty stupid.”

“Yea well, so does your face.” I was the master of comebacks.

“Seriously though, wouldn’t you be banished or exiled. I assume you mean to go to Princess Celestia with your problem.”

“Our problem, and no, now that would truly be stupid. I’m going to Canterlot to completely avoid the princesses finding out.”

“Wouldn’t have thought you’d do that. Doesn’t everyone in HiE fanfics do that?”

“No, idiot. They go and talk to Twilight, and then she tells the princess. And every single time that happens they end up having to fight some super evil villain. Do you want to fight a villain? I know I don't. So I am going to break the rules, and go completely off story.” This had been something I had thought over many times before I had even found myself in this world.

“Glad you planned on coming here, really makes you seem like you didn’t want to,” he said. The sarcasm was always strong with this one. “Anyways, shouldn’t we stay in the nearest town or Ponyville? Get our bearings and become not homeless ponies, or something. We’re kinda broke.”

“This is true.” It seemed like I would have to change my plans. “Since we just exited the Everfree then I can assume that we are near Ponyville. From everything I’ve seen it seems like it is relatively easy to find work there.”

“Well, easy enough to find Ponyville. Travel along the border until we see it.”

“Is that really what you want to do though? It seems so cliche to go to Ponyville first thing.” I really hate cliches

“Says the cliche master. I said nearest town, I’m not a fan of walking. Especially not for a long time, and even more so when it’s dark.”

“Fine, fine. I will bow to your rationality this time.” I took his advice, and began to hug the treeline. I doubted it would take long for us to reach the small village. “So what is going to be our cover story then?”

“You read too much. First off, we don’t need some stupid cover story. Tourism is pretty common everywhere, but if you want to make up some silly story or background, feel free to do so. If anything, we should come up with names.”

“Those are very important. You know my theory about pony names after all.” The names seem to be the key to everything.

“Stupid theory, but it makes sense.” He suddenly stopped walking and looked at his trenchcoat. “Wonder what my cutie mark is.”

He prompted an interesting point. I also turned and tried to look at my flank. Much to my surprise, I actually had one. It was a blue pen crossed with a weird spiraling line. I had absolutely no idea what it was supposed to mean so I shrugged and looked over to Matt. “What do you got?”

He lifted the trenchcoat to check, somehow managing to keep his balance this time though it was somewhat shakily. “I...got nothing,” he said with a sigh before dropping the coat.

“Ha, blank flank!” I exclaimed, sure it was childish but I found it insanely funny at the time.

“Not cool dude, plus what the hell does your’s even mean?” It was a fair question since I had absolutely no idea, and since I couldn’t answer I did the only rational thing and simply ignored the question.

“Is that a building over there?” I asked pointing to the very far off obstruction that I could barely make out. No, I wasn’t simply using this as a way to change the topic, that was an added benefit.

Matt squinted to where I was pointing “Yea, Merripony Hotel, never heard of it but that’s probably where we will find the town.”

I looked at him with what I could only expect to be shock, how the hell did he see that? “How the hell did you see that?” I doubt anyone has ever blamed me for being indirect. “Don’t you wear glasses normally?”

He looked back at me then once again to the apparent hotel in the distance “What you mean you can’t see that?”

I looked back over “I can see...a really far away purple thing. You can actually read the damn sign?”

He smirked back at me “Seems earth ponies aren’t the only ones with special benefits,” he replied smugly.

“Still wanted to be a unicorn,” I mumbled as I began moving once more, heading towards the Merripony Hotel.

The building was probably only a mile away by what I could have judged but it took us so goddamn long to get there(mostly because of my partner’s slow pace) that I bet a good forty minutes had passed, plus Matt was nearly collapsed on the ground by the time we did reach it. I on the other hand, well I guess it is hoof now, was feeling fine if not a little invigorated by the journey, okay maybe being an earth pony wasn’t too bad. What did stand out as we crested the final hill that let us peer down at the building was how huge it was, who would need a hotel that damn big. The Merripony Hotel did happen to sit just on the edge of town and a short dirt road led to the town that was another two miles away as best I could judge. I couldn’t really make out the individual buildings of the town that well, but the one thing that did stand out to me was a giant oak tree right in the center, which gave it away as undoubtedly being Ponyville.

I looked down to my friend that was panting on the ground next to me and decided that he needed a breather. “Sooo, looks like we are in Ponyville,” I informed my panting cohort.

“Oh yea,” he said between his wheezing, “what gave it away?”

“Twilight’s library. By the way when was the last time you left your house, you’re not going to have a heart attack on me are you? Because I don’t know where the hospital is so I would just have to sit here and watch you die, which doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun.”

He once again pushed himself up into a shaky mockery of the sitting position I had taken “Just need to get my hooves back under me.” He continued to breath heavily for a few more seconds while I stared at him again, he eventually caught on and turned to me “What?”

“You said get your hooves under you. Are you already going native on me man?”

“What I...no. Well shouldn’t we speak the lingo? I mean as long as we are here we should talk like they do. When in Rome right?” he hastily defended.

“Alright, I guess that makes sense dude, but if I see you eating grass I’m going to have to put you down.” I earned a punch in the arm for that remark, and in case you were wondering if ponies can punch, yes they can though not very well. The hooves do hurt a lot though. “I guess you are ready to go again?” I asked as I rubbed my arm.

He stood once more and surprisingly wasn’t shaking this time “Waiting on you.” With that he began to walk down the hill and I quickly followed after. Once again I found myself marvelling at just how freaking huge they had built this building. From where I was looking up at it the thing had to be at least eighty feet high, they had even made the door twice as big as it needed to be. I guess they did that so they could get furniture in and out, like pianos?

We reached to bottom of the hill and Matt was the first to ask the obvious question “So now what?”

I looked about and honestly couldn’t really pick out anything we should specifically do. “I guess we go inside this big ass hotel and see what’s up,” I said, shrugging as I headed for the open door.

Matt was right at my side, though I was considerate to keep my stride slow enough for him to keep up without much effort “Yea I know right, what’s up with that.”

As soon as we stepped inside it was pretty obvious why it was so huge, they had built the place for giants! The ponies walking around had to be at least three times as big as us, there had to be ten of them of all different races and colors just going about their business. There had definitely been none of this in the show, how were we supposed to deal with this?

“Hello there little ones,” said a giant mare dressed in what was probably the hotel uniform, “are your parents here with you or are they already checked in?”

It took a few seconds for my brain to process all of that information, and when it did I nearly fainted. I mean I definitely felt the head rush and the overwhelming desire to just check out, but I somehow managed to stay on my hooves. Damn now I was doing it too. “No...they uh...are in town?” I half asked the mare who was staring down at me. Matt to my left was still deciding if he wanted to just faint right then and there; I couldn’t really blame the guy.

The mare continued to smile, which brought back oh so many painful memories of dealing with adults as a child, god I hated being young. Well since I had just been thinking this whole time that I had been the same age as I had been only to discover that I was not, I had no idea how old we were now. “So you two must be new in town huh? What are your names cutie pies?”

The question caught me completely off guard, I knew we should have picked names earlier but we had gotten distracted by something. “Names? Names!” Oh it seemed like Matt had finally recovered. “Why care about names when....” I cut him off by wrapping my right hoof around his neck and my left over his mouth, when I actually tried to do something with this new body it didn’t actually seem that difficult.

“What he meant to say...was that we aren’t supposed to talk to strangers. Yep, that’s what our parents said.” I quickly cut in to try and ease the situation. The mare didn’t seem convinced in the least, though I doubt she had any inkling towards what we, mainly me, were trying to hide.

Her smile faltered a little, but like a seasoned pony that worked in the service industry her training kicked in and it remained plastered on her face “That is a very wise thing. Why don’t you two wait here in the lobby until they arrive okay?” she began to usher us to a couch in the lobby, and we were really unable to refuse. Only once we were seated, and I had let go of Matt’s mouth, did the mare leave us to go attend to her duties.

“What the fuck dude.” Was all he could really say.

“I know, this sucks. We won’t be able to go anywhere now, or possibly get jobs to earn money. We are so screwed.” I held my head in my hooves, again it was a lot easier to do than I would have thought.

“Who cares about that, we might have to go to school! There is a reason I didn’t go to high school. I fucking hate school. And think about it, if they find out we don’t actually have parents coming for us then we might get placed into foster care or some shit.” That actually made me shiver, the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind but now I was practically shaking, oh wait, no I was literally shaking.

“What are we going to do Matt, I am not prepared for this.”

“Alright get a hold of yourself. First thing we need to do is actually get names, we almost screwed ourselves over there. I think I will be...Burnt Steel,” he said puffing his chest out a bit and causing me to laugh. “What I like it.”

“No problem Steel, you just don’t seem quite manly enough for that name. You have a point though we need names so how about...Ashen Stroke.” That name sounded good to me, yea I liked it.

Matt continued looking at me for a while longer not saying anything “Alright that is a pretty good one, still I like mine. Guess we should try and call each other by these names huh.”

“Yea probably, Steel. Anyways I really think we need a backstory, how did two foals end up here all on their own huh? What if someone asks that?”

“Somepony you mean,” he corrected, “but yea that’s a fair point. Okay how about this, we are two brothers and our parents died in a train accident and we have been taking care of ourselves ever since.”

“...”

“What, you have something better?” he asked indignantly after my silence.

“No it’s just...you watch way too much anime dude. But fine whatever, we can go with that since I think it will play well.”

“Alright good, now we need to get out of here,” he continued.

“Yea that is probably a good idea, don’t want to be still sitting here when they close and have to deal with that mare asking us questions. Best to leave before that.” With that we both hopped off of the couch and stealthily moved between covers to make sure that we weren’t seen. I for one thought we did very well. We waited behind a potted plant, really how could we have not noticed that we were children at the start of this whole fiasco, until we saw the mare at the door turn her back to talk with some customer.

We raced as fast as our little hooves could carry us for the door and freedom, but we came up against an impenetrable shield of purple energy. “Damn cheating unicorns.” I heard Matt say as we were tugged into the air by the same force and made to turn and look at the doormare. Of course now that I was actually looking I could see that she had a horn beneath that mottled mane on top of her head.

“And just where are you two going?” she seemed to scold, ah scoldings how I have missed you fondly. “Won’t your parents be worried if you run off somewhere?”

I didn’t really have a reply ready but luckily(or unluckily seeing as how things turned out) Matt, or should I say Steel, stepped up immediately “Our parents are dead!” For some reason, probably being in a child’s body and having little control over your emotions, he started bawling right then and there. Tears were running heavily down his cheeks and the mare that had us immobilized quickly looked both nervous and ashamed.

All I could really do was facehoof for the second time that day at just how tangled the situation had become “We are so fucked.”

Author's Note

If anyone has a better cover image let me know because I couldn't find anything I liked.

Measurements

I was cold, legitimately it was the first time that I had really been cold in this new pony shaped body and no matter what I tried it would just not stop shivering. My fur was dripping wet, and the towel that I was standing on wasn’t designed to soak up that much moisture, though it seemed to be trying its damnedest. Melody had taken my invitation to draw a bath for me as one to fully bathe me, which I had justly refused as soon as she closed the door behind her and left the two of us alone in the washroom. While that had probably seemed as a regular thing for her to do, and who knew maybe DT did have her servants wash her, now that I thought about it that seemed pretty likely, I wanted to preserve some modicum of independence.

So now here I was, finished with my forty minute soak and with my mane hanging down over my face obscuring most of my vision. My dark grey coat had been thoroughly soaked through and was now black; aside from the few streaks of blue that my mane and tail possesed I probably looked like a drowned rat, and I felt like one too. I continued trying to scrub the water from my fur with one of the monicured towels that were in the washroom, I believed that the pink one belonged to Diamond Tiara so it was the one I chose to stand on. I was really getting nowhere, I wasn’t tall enough to reach up onto the back of the sink where I barely caught sight of in the mirror above the sink. After trying and failing to get anywhere with drying myself for another ten minutes I sighed and walked over to the door and gave it a knock.

“Hello,” I called out without too much hope that I would be heard, “is anypony still out there?”

“Yes,” came Melody’s immediate reply.

“Can you…” I really couldn’t believe that I was about to ask for this. “Will you help me dry off I seem to be having a bit of trouble.”

I backed away as she gently pushed the door open, that was when I realized that ponies didn’t seem to have locks on their bathroom doors. Melody stepped into the room quietly and just as silently closed the door behind her before she daned to look down on my small wet self. She stood there as we both stared back and forth at each other for a few moments before she turned her head away and let out a small fit of laughter; I have to say that it was very unprofessional of her.

“Something funny?” I asked a little bit indignant.

Melody turned back to look down at me and after a second or two was able to wipe the grin mostly off of her face. “I’m sorry, so you need help?”

I stared up at her for a while longer before just giving in, damn I hated asking for somepony to come and dry me off. It really made me feel my age. “Yeah...I’m completely soaked and I can’t reach the blowdryer up on the counter.”

She nodded and walked to a hangar where she retrieved a dry and perfectly pressed white towel. With somepony else doing it I have to say that it was much easier actually getting myself dried off. Sure it felt a little strange being scrubbed like that, but it was a little bit nice to be taken care of like that. Where I had expected it to take a good twenty minutes to get all of the water off of myself Melody accomplished the feat in a mere three. When she finished with the towel she even took the time to fold it neatly before she put it in a nearby hamper before turning back to me.

“Alright, now do you want to do anything specific with your mane, or just leave it like it is?” she asked as she walked towards the counter to retrieve the blow dryer. My mane was pretty long, longer than my human hair had been at least, and it was kinda bugging me at the moment. Now that I thought about it, my mane had actually been slicked back when I first woke up in the woods and I know that I wasn't the one that put it like that. On that matter how did we get these bodies in the first place, that had never really been addressed and the whole ‘It happened because we talked about it’ thing didn’t actually make any sense. Had someone purposefully…

“Do you not know? I know that manestyles are a girly thing, but I could help you choose something if you wish,” Melody said, trying to be helpful.

“Um, if you could just slick it back like I had it that would be great,” I responded uncertainly.

“As you wish.” With a simple nod she sat next to me on the floor with a blowdryer in one hoof and a brush in the other as she began to work on my blue and black mane. Much against my expectations it actually seemed that unlike my coarse and curly human hair, my new mane was easy to work with if you knew what you were doing. It co-operated very easily with my new stylist and after a few minutes it was mostly dry and pulled perfectly over the back of my head and down my neck. Melody quickly retrieved a bottle of something called ‘Serum’ from atop the counter and put a small bit on her hoof before lightly spreading it over the top of my head. I didn’t really know what the stuff was for, but it smelled nice and I wasn’t about to go questioning a woman on proper hair care.

When she was done spreading the clear gunk on my prim and proper mane she stood once more and put everything back in its place before washing her hooves in the sink. “There you are, now you look quite dashing,” she said without turning around. I looked to one of the several full body mirrors in the washroom and sized myself up in it. Sure, I was no longer caked in dirt and grime, but dashing might be pushing it a little bit. Not that I would really know what qualifies as good looking in pony terms, but if it was symetrics and tone I definitely had that. Another thing I had noticed when looking the different children over at the playground was that Earth Ponies did seem to have an inherent beefyness to them that the other two races lacked.

Now that of course seems like common sense: unicorns have magic to get them whatever they need so why would they be in shape and pegasi needed to be light to fly, but seeing as how I was probably the tallest in my class, discounting Snails, I also seemed to be a likely candidate for strongest. I didn’t really see being the strongest as something to brag about, I had been a big guy my first go around at elementary school and it didn’t really get my anything. But here and now when I didn’t really have much it was pretty cool, yea being an Earth Pony was pretty alright. I mean Steel got to be a Pegasus and he didn’t get anything out of it.

“We should head downstairs to the drawing room, the tailor is waiting for you and I believe that your brother may already be in there getting measurements taken,” Melody said as she held the door open. With my ruminations once more broken I shrugged before turning and walking out of the door and back into the hallway. When Melody didn’t immediately follow me out I turned back to catch her minutely adjusting where the blow dryer was before she quickly followed me back into the main hall. She cleared her voice as she once more regained a proper pose and began to walk on ahead of me.

I did feel much better now, and the shivering had subsided once the blow drying had started. Being clean just kind of did something for me that I couldn’t really explain, but I loved it all the same and found myself walking a little taller. Since I found myself living in this fabulous mansion and surrounded by servants I thought that I might at least try and act the part; so after a few minutes of studying Melodies poise as she walked in front of me and down the stairs I attempted to copy her canter. This turned out worlds better than when I was trying to copy Pinkie’s particularly perplexing mode of movement and I think that I may have even pulled it off.

After descending the main staircase and taking a left towards a room that I had not explored yet we found ourselves in a sort of parlor where there were several different rolls of cloth lying about everywhere. Two more maids were standing off against a wall and there were quickly joined by Melody who stood next to them silently. The maid ponies all exchanged a nod before looking ahead once more to where I assumed the action to be, but I really couldn’t see anything with all of the furniture in the way. Using my considerable powers of deduction, I figured that I should walked around the couch in order to get a look at whatever was going on, and after doing so I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Steel was standing on a small platform looking thoroughly put out as tape measures and other strange tailoring things circled about him. It didn’t look so bad except for the pair of sheers and several needles that were also spiraling in the mini-blue tornado that was doing its best to look threatening but inflict no harm. There, just a few feet away from my orange friend who looked like he might pee himself any moment, staring straight through him with a calculating gaze, was the pony that every so often would knock Luna off of my #2 favorite pony slot. Rarity, was actually standing in this greeting room and seemed to be fluctuating between boredom and serious concentration with ease.

My heart started thudding deep in my chest as I first laid eyes on the physical perfection that she so effortlessly displayed in the mere action of standing there and focusing. Every curl of her mane flowing in long waves about her with not a single strand of hair out of place, and she sheen of her coat enough for anyone to think it may be metallic in nature. The way all of her utensils operated in perfect harmony with one another as they conducted their symphony in the air about my friend who was lucky enough to be at the epicenter of her artistic musings. Now, I realize that it might seem like I find Rarity attractive, but I’m not into her the same way Spike is. I just happen to love the hell out of her character, and now I was going to have an even bigger fangasm than I did when I first spotted Applebloom.

I realized that she still hadn’t noticed me, her concentration was truly incredible, and that I had a few moments to regather myself and calm down before I made a fool of myself. I took a deep breath and held it for fifteen seconds before slowly letting it out and taking another long and slow one, after a few breaths my heart started to slow down and the tingling that had been spreading through my legs began to subcede somewhat. Rarity was still focused on whatever brilliant thing she was doing with Steel as I finished my breathing exercise and that allowed me time to once again adopt the perfect poise I had been working on in the hallway just a moment before.

The telekinetic storm of tailoring supplies abruptly came to a stop and everything floated back to a resting place as Rarity raised herself to her full height and nodded. “Yes, I think I have what we need. You can step down now darling.” Without wasting a second Steel quickly jumped off of the platform and onto the ground with a relieved sigh. She picked up a clipboard and began mumbling to herself as she walked over to some fabrics and started lifting them and inspecting them independently. Steel approached me ready to unload his troubles.

“Man, that was sooo boring,” he said woefully. It took all my willpower not to thunk him on the head again.

“Are you serious? You just got to meet Rarity and now she is designing clothes for you or something. How can that possibly be boring?” I tried to keep my voice down, as it was obvious that the maids directly behind us would probably like to listen in since they didn’t have anything else going on.

“Well Rarity is kinda...meh. Plus I had to stand there for fifteen minutes doing absolutely nothing.”

“I...I don’t...how can you...seriously?”

“Oh yea I forgot that you were totally a fangirl for Rarity,” he said with a sigh.

“I am not!”

“Oh man you totally are.”

“Must I reacquaint you with the ground again?” I threatened, trying to regain some of my masculinity.

“Oh calm your tits,” he said with a smirk, waving off my threat as empty, “I was just messing with you a bit.”

“Yeah yeah, I’m sure I will get plenty of opportunities to pay you back in kind. Maybe even on this very day.”

“What are you going on about,” he asked, brow arched with suspicion.

“Well aren’t we…”

“Alright I believe that we have a direction to go in. I have a few ideas that I’m going to get started on, would you like to give me any suggestions of what you want?” Rarity said, beautifully and artfully interrupting what I was saying.

Steel sighed, “Can I just get my jacket back? That is all I want.”

Rarity frowned, or more closely she seemed to flinch at the mere thought of the garment. “I have seen that particular article and...how to put this delicately...it was old and ratty. There were several holes in it, and it wasn’t very well constructed. We had it donated to a goodwill organization.”

Steel looked like his brain had just stopped working, sure I knew that he loved that jacket, he probably almost always wore it whenever he could, but it was just a jacket. I used the opportunity to politely shove him aside and enter the conversation. “Hello Miss Rarity, my name is Ashen Stroke.”

Her eyes followed Steel to wherever he landed before coming back to me. “Oh yes, I believe that I was supposed to take measurements and get started on some clothing for you as well. Are you ready, Darling?” Oh god, Rarity called me Darling and it was amazing.

I nodded eagerly. “Of course Miss Rarity.”

She smiled at that. “Well aren’t you just a perfect gentlecolt. Come over here and stand on this platform for me would you please?” She made her way over to the middle of the room where I had seen her standing before and her horn began to glow as all of the objects that had been floating previously started to levitate once more.

I wasted no time jumping up onto the short platform and pulling myself to my full height. I was still woefully small in comparison to any pony around, Steel seemed to have left while I was talking to the most talented seamstress in town, which made me the smallest in the room. The measures and other devices that I had no hint as to what their function was twirled around me and went to work. Tape measures were placed over me in several different places, and each time Rarity marked down something on her paper before they were moved to somewhere else, but I didn’t really mind it in the least.

Pieces of cloth were pressed against my fur, all different colors and materials as she tried to narrow down what would look good on me it seemed. My very limited knowledge of anything clothing related prevented me from having much of an idea of what exactly what was going on, but Rarity seemed to be concentrating very hard so I did my best not to move a muscle. About five minutes in I started to understand what Steel had been talking about as my hooves started to ache for some movement. Despite that however, I continued standing there until she was finally finished a couple of minutes later. She set aside everything she had once more and walked forwards to the platform that I was standing on.

“Alright Ashen, I believe that I have several ideas for you as well. Is there anything in particular that you would like?”

I thought about it for a few moments. Asking Rarity to make another hoodie for me would be a complete waste of her considerable talents. “Is there anyway you could make me like a really cool jacket?”

She cocked her head to the side. “What kind of cool jacket?”

“Well I don’t know, like bright red with a sharp collar and stuff. I don’t really know that much about clothes and stuff really.” If I could get a jacket like that all I would need was a pair of awesome and pointy sunglasses.

She looked pensive for a second before replying, “Red is not a very good color on you, Darling.” She said Darling again, damn I loved that.

“Then what do you think would be a good color?” I asked.

“A very nice blue would go beautifully with your mane and would make the color really pop out. I think a nice cyan or aqua with maybe a purple or white accenting color.” She stared off for a second before she levitated her pen back to the paper and scribbled something more down. “Yes, I think we can get something like that done. Anything else?” She continued to look down at me for a little while longer as I scrunched my brow in concentration. Really I hadn’t thought too much about what I would want as clothing when I didn’t need pants or shirts.

“Um...no. Just some cool stuff if you can make it,” I replied.

She patted me on the head and her horn lit up again. Suddenly, all of the cloth and items she had been using before floated into the air once more and quickly began to pack itself away in the a couple of suitcases that had been in the corner. The entire procedure didn’t take more than twenty seconds and soon she had five suitcases near the door which the maids quickly grabbed and started to carry out. “I think that I can certainly make some ‘cool’ things for you and your brother.” She levitated the papers she had been writing on in front of herself as she too began to make for the exit.

I stood there and watched the greatest unicorn that I knew depart the room. Melody was the last one left with me in the room, and it took me a while to recollect myself enough to realize that I was just standing here awestruck. I blinked a few times before looking over to her. “Alright that was fun, what am I supposed to go and do now?”

She looked down at me with kind yet scrutinizing eyes. “We were informed that you and Master Steel wished to play with your friends later so your dinner has been prepared early. If you wish we can go to the dining room and eat now.”

It didn’t really take me too long to consider it, and I nodded to her as I began walking to the door. “That sounds good, what’s for dinner?”