Chapters My name’s Jacob. I currently attend Northwest University of the Arts, where I’m double majoring in Theater and English. Yeah, I know, that makes me sound smart but trust me i’m pretty normal. In fact everything in my life is normal. I have a normal house, a normal part time job, even a normal school life. That’s why I’m looking to change it. If I can become a famous writer or actor, I’m set! that’s why I’m double majoring and bustin' my arse to get this degree that I’ll be paying off for the rest of my life. Normal that is, until after my firs day of Uni.
***
The first day of school draws to a close and I wander out of my History of Theater class at 4:00. All this double major work had better be worth it. I find my way to my car and jiggle the key until the engine starts.
I own a small, one floor house outside of the campus, it had once been my aunts, but she died and left it to me. It’s not much to look at, but it has a massive yard and working electricity, so it’s good enough. It’s also waaaay out in the country, so it’s nice and quiet.
I park my car outside the garage, I still have yet to find a way to get the door open from the outside without heavy labor, and walk to the front door. In the dark, my foot hits something. I look down; it’s a small box with the words: take care of written on the side in black marker. I look all around, but I don’t see anyone who could have left the box here. Shrugging I open the door and lift up the box, grunting, surprised at how heavy it is.
I place the box in the center of the floor in the living room, and examine it. It’s a big box, big enough to fit me, if I curled up into a ball. The bottom is strangely wet, like it had been dropped in something. And it has small holes, as if there’s something alive inside.
I grab my letter opener and plunge it into the top to cut the boxing tape holding it together. When I do it lets out a little squeak like a frightened animal. I pause then, losing all semblance of my carefully contained patience, I rip open the box with my hands. I cannot believe my eyes.
Inside are six brightly colored baby ponies. (Normally I can’t tell a squirrel from an alligator, but I somehow know these are ponies not horses), I real back in horror, realizing now why the box was wet on the bottom.
One of them, a yellow one with wings and a pink mane and tail, has a small gash on her shoulder. Realizing that the cut is my fault and seeing the heart wrenching expression of fear on its face, I immediately feel like the worst person in the world. Even Satan would be like: ‘WTF man, why’d you shank this innocent little pony!?’
I reach to take her out of the box, but another one, with wings, a blue coat and a wild rainbow mane, steps between my hand and her.
“Calm down,” I say, (hopefully soothingly). “I’m not going to hurt- OW!”
It bit me! The little blue one freaking bit me!
I pull my hand back and examine the bite; it doesn’t look to bad, nothing I haven’t gotten from a cat or squirrel. I get up and walk to the tiny bathroom to put some antiseptic on it.
On the way I think: who on earth left six rainbow colored ponies (two with wings and two with small horns) on my porch, with only the cryptic: take care of written on the side. I shake my head and wrap a bandage around my hand.
I return to the living room to find that the ponies have escaped their cardboard Alcatraz and have begun to wander around the room, exploring. The mean blue one is hovering a few feet above the floor, zipping back and forth across the carpet. Another one, one of the horned ones with purple mane and coat, is beginning to climb up my book case but suddenly falls! I dash under and grab her just in time. But not in time to save the small glass doll that sat on the shelf, which shatters on the floor.
Whatever, those things always scared me.
I place her back on solid ground and she gallops off the join her friends. I count, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… where’s… suddenly a thud echoes from the kitchen.
I sprint into the closet that masquerades as a kitchen to see a small pink pony gallivanting about on the counter. I look to see a broken bowl on the floor. I groan and take the pony off the counter, how did she even get up there!? She squeals and wriggles in protest but I keep a tight grip on her. Just then another crash echoes from the hall.
“NOT AGAIN!”
Two hours later, the six are peacefully sleeping on my war torn sofa snuggled together under a blanket, they are actually quite cute. I sit down exhausted, what am I going to do with these guys? I can’t keep them, can I?! I look at the yellow one snuggled up next to its vampire pony friend; after they calmed down, it finally consented to have its shoulder bandaged. I can’t just throw them out! I think what kind of jerk would do that! I let out a deep sigh.
“It looks like I have roommates,” I say.
***
I wake up next morning to a light weight pacing over me on the bed. I groggily open my eyes to see a pink blur two inches of my face. It appears I have a bed mate. As my vision clears I make out the frizzy mane and joyful face of a little pink pony. Last night’s adventures come rushing back to me.
I sit up and groan, sending the helpless little equestrian tumbling off my moth eaten blankets. But, spunky as ever, she gets up and starts trotting around my room. I get up and exit my room. When I leave the small bedroom and step into the wood floored hall, I immediately step in something wet. Without looking down I take off my damp sock and navigate my way around the accident.
The other five new house guests are romping around, happy as you please, the purple one is even… no… she can’t be reading… HOLY BIG BRASS BALLS! DID SHE JUST MOVE THE PAGE WITHOUT TOUCHING IT?!
She does it again; a glow surrounds the small horn on her head, the page glows, and then moves!
This is getting weird…
Remembering the stain in the hall I usher the six little fillies outside. Luckily enough the house came with 10 acres of (fenced in) land, plenty for the tikes to romp around in. I turn back and stare at the yellow puddle in the middle of the floor.
“Well, I certainly don’t remember THIS in The Guide to Surviving your Roommate.” I get the sponge and get to work.
Half an hour later, I’ve obliterated the puddle (and another small present one of them left on the sofa). I look at the old grandfather clock, 5:45, add an hour… I still have awhile ‘til my first class starts. I amble over to the big glass doors that separate the back yard from the rest of the house. I watch as the little ponies frolic and play with each other in the large yard, you know, they’re actually quite cute when there’s not an imminent threat of puddles on the floor.
I stroll into the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee and notice something on the table. A small piece of construction paper placed on the table, cut into the shape of a heart. I pick it up and examine it. It’s roughly cut, like your average preschool Valentine’s Day craft project. The product is covered in glitter and has what looks to be a hoof print in the center of the paper. This is strange to me until I realize… I don’t own any glitter!
***
I drop the fillies into my car and drive over next door (in the country, next door is about seven or eight miles) to my friend Jon’s house. Jon owns a horse ranch, if I can drop my ponies off there, then I should have no problems!
I drive up the gravel drive and pull up next too a beat up 4x4 truck. Jon is standing by the fence he looks over to me and nods.
“I have a small problem, six to be exact.”
“I can’t loan you any more money.”
“It’s not that, but I do want to talk about that, come over to my car.”
“You kill a hooker?”
“NO!”
I show Jon the six little ponies in the backseat.
“Well, this is by far the weirdest thing you’ve shown me.”
“Can you take care of them?”
He reaches in and tries to grab one, needless to say, Rainbow take’s the opportunity to demonstrate her jaw strength.
“GAWDDAMNSONOFAMONKY’SUNKLE!”
He pulls his hand back and rubs the bleeding wound.
“You try, they might trust you.”
“No, the same thing happened to me!”
“Just do it.”
I look nervously down at the little technicolor horses and carefully reach to pick one up. Amazingly, though the rainbow one looks humiliated as I pick her up, my hand remains unscathed.
“I recon they like you.”
“Why’d they bit you though? you work with horses.”
“I recon they see you as their dad.”
Their dad!?
I fold my arms and hold the rainbow like you hold a baby and she rolls over and falls asleep.
“I can help you on the raising part but, I recon they have to-”
“Jon," done playing along. "You’re from Detroit, stop.”
“Whatever!”
Bloody Theater major.
“Anyways,” he continues. “You’ll have to keep them at your house, I don’t think they’ll behave if you left them here.”
We both watch as the former assailant slowly snores in my arms.
“You gonna’ name them?”
I look down at the pony, I think about the way she dashed over to protect her sister, that way she zoomed six inches off the floor on miniature wings. I look at her colored mane and brush a red strand out of her sleeping face.
“Rainbow Dash,” I say finally.
Author's Note
I am very excited about this story and I can't wait to see what people think about it!http://www.fimfiction.net/user/ROBCakeran53
All the time while I’m at school, I can’t help thinking about the ponies, worrying that they might break something! It had only been a little over a day since I found the six resting in the box on the doorstep and they were already starting to drive me crazy!
After we had returned from our adventure at Jon’s, I let the ponies out into the yard to… frolic, or whatever it is candy colored ponies do, and left for my classes. Out there, there would be no chance that they could break something, hopefully....
I shake my head furiously to try and focus back on my class. I’ll worry about this later.
“You okay Bro?” a voice says next to me.
I turn.
For whatever reason, Lucas thinks I consider him a friend. Honestly I do not consider him or his horribly greasy hair anywhere near that.
“You’ve been spacing out for most of the class, Bro.”
“I guess you could say I have girl problems.”
“OH! I get ya’.” He winks. “There was this one bitch who I had been banging for while and then she went and started saying that the kid she was going to have was ‘my responsibility’ can you believe that?”
“That’s crazy…”
“Yeah, can you imagine how much it would blow to have to raise a kid?”
I turn to him.
“You have no idea….”
***
Late in the day, my classes end and I rush home to find out what mischief the six have gotten themselves into.
On the way to my house I start thinking about some questions that I should have asked earlier. Like, who on earth left these six on MY door step? Where did they come from? Are they some kind of failed experiment? OR maybe… I slow my driving… Maybe they are the six guardians of a magical realm of horses and they were in a battle against the ultimate forces of evil and he was like,
‘I’m going to kill you!’
And they were like,
‘NOO! Our friendship will protect us!’
Then he was all,
‘Haha! Not this time ponies!’
Then they were blasted into this world and lost their ages and memory!
…
I need to stop talking to Lucas...
***
I pull into my driveway just as the sun is going down over the horizon. I step out of the car and walk around my house to the back yard. The ponies are playing running around and… yes that definitely looks like frolicking. One of them turns to me, the small white unicorn with a stylishly curly mane, she bounds over to me and cries out in a high-pitched voice,
“DAA DEE!”
Did she…
No…
No it was my imagination.
She reaches me and starts rubbing against my leg affectionately. I crouch down and awkwardly pat her on the head.
“Hey there, ummm…” crap! I forgot to name her!
I look down at her thinking. She’s pretty (as much as an equine can be). She has big blue eyes that stare up at me. Her coat and mane are soft to the touch and don’t seem to be covered in sweat from running.
“Well, you’re quite the rarity aren't you? All your sisters are a bunch of monkeys next to you.”
Wait...that’s it!
“I’ll name you Monkey!”
She rams her horn into me, and severely damages mine.
“Joke! I was joking!” I wheeze.
***
I set Fluttershy (the yellow one) down on the couch along with her sleeping companions. Then watch as Rainbow Dash unconsciously covers her with her wing. She’s quite protective of her.
My pocket buzzes angrily and I grab my phone, before it further disturbs my still sore horn. It’s a text from Lucas.
“DOOD you HAV to COM ou dinikin with uss tonite!”
I groan and text back.
“Sorry, I can’t tonight... baby sitting.”
I settle down on the floor and watch the six sleep. What on earth has happened to me? Last week I would have given anything for someone to go drinking with, now here I am, giving excuses so I can creepily watch some ponies as they sleep.
Rarity lets out a delicate sigh.
“Da de…” she whispers.
***
“Now, test the heat on the back of your hand.”
I take the baby bottle that Jon hands me and drip a bit of the contents onto the back of my hand. It’s warm, but not hot.
“Seems good.”
“Alrighty then, I’ll get the others.”
He leaves the front room to squeeze back into the kitchen and returns with an armful of baby bottles filled to the brim with milk.
Earlier today he had called me and asked what I was feeding the ponies.
“I don’t know, grass I guess, don’t horses eat grass.”
Even though I couldn’t see him, I could tell that he was face palming himself.
“You can’t feed a bunch of fillies just grass! You gosh darn horse wrangling…”
“Jon, enough!”
“Just trying to have some fun! Jeez!”
“Anyway,” he continued. “You need to give them some mare’s milk, that’ll help them grow and give them the nutrients they need.”
“And where in the name of Man-o-War’s rotting corpse am I going to get mare’s milk!?”
This time the face palm was so powerful I’m sure that Jon broke his nose.
“FROM ME!”
So now here I am, holding little Pinkie Pie in my arms trying to feed her from the bottle of mare’s milk. If someone had said that this was how I would spend a weekend, I would have slapped them silly!
“Why are you holding her like that?” Jon asks.
I shrug.
“This is how you hold a baby when you feed them, isn't it?”
“If you haven’t noticed, these aren't human babies!”
“But she likes it. Look!”
It was true, Pinkie was snuggled up next to me and was holding the bottle between her two front hooves like a human baby would.
I pull the bottle out of her mouth, can’t let her have too much, or she’ll get mad crazy indigestion. Something strange has happened to the bottle though, the milk has turned brown. Curious, I let a drop fall onto my tongue… it’s… chocolate… I look down at the little filly, she just stares up at me, and grins.
Author's Note
Wow, this story has been SO much more popular then I though.
I stare down at A.J., our eyes locked in competition.
Sweating, bleeding, unending agony!
Then she blinks.
“HA HA! I win!”
“Gawsh dawn it!” she squeaks.
Two weeks have passed since the ponies wound up on my doorstep. Surprisingly not much has changed, I still attend my classes during the week, work on the weekends and in the evening, and then I come home and take care of the ponies. Who it turns out can talk, as if it wasn’t already weird enough that Twilight and Rarity can use magic (did I mention that they can talk?) and RD and Fluttershy can fly!
Oh yeah, and they can talk!
I turn back to my work laid out on the table.
“We’ll play more latter A.J., now I have to do my school work.”
A.J. cranes her neck trying to get a look at what I’m working on.
“What ya’ll goin’ to school fer’?”
I need to make sure Jon stops talking around her.
“Well, I go to school so that I can learn... things and get a nice job.”
“Do other people go to school?”
“Yep, everyone does at some point.”
She’s quiet, thinking, then she says:
“I wanna’’ go to school!”
I nearly fall out of my chair.
“What?”
“I wanna’ go to school to! That way I can get smart an’ be with you all day!”
“A.J. I don’t know…”
“pleeeeeeeeeessssseeeeeeeee?”
I look down at her, she’s giving me the biggest puppy dog eyes I’ve ever seen. I can’t say no to that!
“We’ll see…”
***
“You want them to what!?”
“Come on! Weirder thing have happened!”
Jon just shakes his head.
Jon has started coming daily now to help feed the six, luckily enough he has a mare who had just lost her colt so she had enough milk for six ponies half the size of a normal foal. I had just told him about my idea to try and get the ponies into a school.
“It’s not that,” he says topping off another bottle. “Just think what would happen if the meda found out!”
“Jon, we don’t even have a local newspaper! I doubt that some media tabloid would come up here looking for news stories!”
“But what if the government found out? What if they took them away to experiment on them?”
“What branch of the government would do that? hmm? Tell me!”
He shrugs.
“That’s what the government does isn’t it?”
I rub the bridge of my nose in frustration.
“No… I don’t think that’s what it does, no.”
He shrugs and hands me the last bottle, next week we’ll start feeding them oats.
“Ok, let’s say you do in fact find a school willing to enroll six candy colored ponies as students. Do you know how hard it is to pay for six kids going to school? That’s six backpacks, six lunches, six cases of pencils…”
***
“... six notebooks, six boxes of crayons and six folders!”
I look down at Twilight and Rarity sitting in the shopping cart, surrounded by our newly gathered school supplies.
“I think that’s everything!” I say. Twilight hops up and down excitedly.
“Oh boy, oh boy! I can’t wait to go to school! It’ll be so fun!”
While in my experience anyone who associated the words fun and school was either a complete arrogant bunghole or someone so smart that they didn’t really need to go to school, but Twilight seems genuinely excited.
“What about you Rarity?”
Rarity ignores my question and instead decides to peak over the top of the cart to look at a display of dresses that have been set up along side the aisle. I do have to admit (even with my normal man level of fashion knowledge), they are quite nice.
“Da de!” she squeaks excitedly, she speaks with an accent unlike the other ponies, A.J. just copies what Jon says but it looks like Rarity’s accent is natural.
“Da de! Can please get that dress?” She says pointing to a fluffy red one, I look down at the price tag attached to it…
NOPE! NOPE! NOPE!
I am not spending that much money on a dress!
“Sorry, Rarity, I can't get it. It probably wouldn’t fit you anyway.”
“Oh pleeeeeeeeesssssseeeeee Da de?”
“No!”
As we navigate our way up and down the aisles of the store we get some strange looks from several people but they turn away just as quickly, it’s almost impressive how much humans are willing to ignore things they don't understand.
When we reach the checkout counter I notice that Rarity isn’t in our cart. I dig under all the school supplies to she if she’s hidden herself. I spin desperately hoping that she’s still around.
“Rarity? Rarity where are you?”
No answer.
Damn, where on earth could she have wandered off to? Suddenly all the things Jon told me about come rushing back to me.
‘If the government found out they’d take them away and do experiments on them.’
I shake my head, that’s ridiculous! but some voice in me hisses back, ‘you lost her, now she’s going to be brought to a petting zoo for sixth graders to rub their hands all over!’
I take the cart and pick up Twilight, holding her by one of her hoofs.
“We’re going to go look for Rarity, you need to stay with me.”
She nods and we walk off.
At the service desk a woman clerk with dyed blonde hair and long fake nails looks up at us.
“Can I help you?”
“Um, I lost my...?”
She picks up a phone, without waiting for me to finish.
“Well, what does she look like?”
I hold up Twilight.
“Um, a little like her but white...”
“Hi!”
The clerk stares at Twilight for a moment, dumbstruck, then dials a number on the phone.
“Yeah, I have guy here who says he lost his daughter a white… unicorn… no I don’t think he’s high he has one with him...no I’m not high either… OK thanks.” She hangs up the phone and turns to me. “Don’t worry sir if she’s still in the store they’ll find her.”
IF SHE STILL IN THE STORE!?
***
A while later Me and twilight are pacing up and down the aisles frantically looking for her.
this is horrible, what if she got taken by someone or what if she got locked in one of the display refrigerators? Could she have wandered outside? WHAT IF SHE HAD BEEN HIT BY A CAR?
“There she is!” Twilight shouted, interrupting my train of thought, and points with her other front hoof. Down the aisle, at the same dress stand where we were before is Rarity, trying and failing to put on the red dress she saw earlier. I run over to her and pull her out of the dress by her tail.
“We have been looking everywhere for you!” I shout. “What on earth were you thinking?”
She starts to tear up.
“I-I only w-w-wanted to try the dreeeeeessssss!” as she finishes she starts breaking out into sobs.
There’s that voice again. ‘Dude, you made a baby unicorn cry! You are a horrible person!’
I let out a long sigh.
“Hey, I’m sorry I yelled,” I say putting her down. “I was just scared.” She stops crying and looks up at me. “Were you scared too?” She nods.
“I-I didn’t know where you were.”
I smile and take her hoof in my hand,
“Well I’m here now, you don’t need to be scared anymore.”
She wraps both her front legs around my arm and squeezes tight. It is honestly the most adorable thing that I have ever seen.
Author's Note
Thanks to everyone who like and favored this story, you guy are the reason I keep writing!
I sit out in the hall next to the door leading to the Principal’s office. This all feels eerily familiar. I look up and down the hall, dozens of classrooms, each with two dozen or more red, yellow and orange construction paper leaves. Each of the leaves has a different name on it, signifying one of the students contained within. I wonder if I will see one of the ponies names on them.
The door clicks open and a woman with a mass of grey hair steps into the hall.
“Mrs. white will see you now,” she says interrupting my train of thought.
I step into the office and pass the secretary's desk into another smaller office. The room is well organised, with towers of filing cabinets, a wastepaper basket that looks like it’s regularly bleached, and a desk scrubbed to a shine. behind the desk is a woman with a commanding presence, she has sharp rimmed glasses and hair pulled up into a bun so tight her skin on her face is pulled back like some cheap botox.
“Mr. Mason, please sit,” she gestures to a chair, her words are polite enough, but her tone tells me she more use to dealing with disruptive seven-year-olds than adults. I promptly take the chair and offer out my hand.
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” I say offering my hand.
She ignores me….
“I understand that you wish to enroll your daughters in our kindergarten program.”
“Well they’re not really my daughters they’re kind of… adopted?”
She stares at me over the rim of her glasses, then turns and opens a drawer in one of the wall of filing cabinets and takes out a folder, dropping it unceremoniously onto the desk. She then begins rifling through the mass of papers stored within.
“In your application you said you had six… adopted daughters. Is this correct?”
I nod stiffly. Sitting in a principal’s office for so long is bringing back too many horrifying memories!
“Well, if they are all entering kindergarten together as you say, I’m afraid we may not have the space to fit them all.”
“What do you mean?”
She looks at me again as if to say: ‘Are you really that stupid?’
“Well, unfortunately there is a waiting list Mr. Mason. There are only a few spots left for this year. And we only take the best.”
Only the elite in coloring inside the lines, I think. I can’t help but let out a barely contained snicker. The Principal glares at me.
“Did I say something funny Mr. Mason?”
By the gods of Olympus! Jon was right, this woman really was terrifying!
Taking my silence as a message of defeat she turns back to the folder and examines a few papers.
“We will be conducting a lottery on the 14th, we will let you know then if your charges made it into our school.”
I walk out of the school. A lottery? Not unheard of but, really? I throw on my jacket to gain what little protection it provides against the ever colder winds.
I shove my hands in my pockets as I walk over to my car. What will happen if none of them get in? This is the only elementary school within driving distance! NO! SHUT UP BRAIN! That won't happen!
I furiously jiggle the key around in the lock until my car clicks open. I slide into the freezing interior and turn on the heater, letting the car warm up a bit before I drive out of the empty parking lot.
A lottery? Really?
***
I tighten the bow in Rainbow Dash’s tail ignoring her cries of anguish.
“I don’t waaaaaaaaaant it!” She wines squirming in my arms.
“I won’t have you looking like you spend you time in the woods all day!” I reply taking a twig out of her mane.
“But that IS what I do!”
I set her down on the couch and clutch the still unfastened bow in my hand.
“OK, how about this?” i sigh folding my arms in front of my chest. “You wear the bow, and after the lottery we’ll all go get dinner!”
She stares up at me and narrows her eyes.
“Ok….” she replies cautiously. “But I don’t have to wear the earrings!”
“Fine.”
“And I want to chose where we go!”
I laugh, kid’s gonna’ be a lawyer!
“Deal!” I say, then tackle her and strap the bow to her wildly flapping tail.
“Is everyone ready?” I ask to the group gathered at the door of the garage.
“Ready!” They all reply.
Rarity channeled her disappointment at not getting the dress into making clip on earrings for all the ponies. Red apples for A.J., purple stars for Twilight, blue balloons for Pinkie, pink butterflies for Fluttershy and little rhinestone diamonds for herself. She even made Rainbow Dash a pair of rainbow lightning bolts (even I would were them)! But RD seems uninterested.
They clamber into the back seat of my car, scrambling over each other in excitement. I shake my head in amusement, never in all my life have I seen kids so eager to go to school. The drive there is loud and boisterous, the ponies squealing and giggling with excitement like a group of teenagers going to prom.
When we exit the car the six of them bust out and start running towards the big stone school building. They have way too much energy for this.
The lottery will be taking place in the school’s gymnasium, several hundred folding chairs are set up in rows facing the stage where the small device that will decide. when we enter and sign in, I’m given six tickets, each with a number and letter on them on them, the girl at the desk explains that if the caller says the number on the ticket, that means that that person has gotten in.
“Good luck,” she adds as we make our way into the rows of chairs.
“We’re going to need a lot more then luck,” I reply under my breath.
The lottery starts with the same humorless principal coming out onto the stage and explaining what we all already know. There are 126 places in the classes for incoming students, but there were almost 200 applicants. They will decide who gets in tonight, by lottery. Then she begins
“A23.”
YES! That’s Twilight’s number, first pick, first kid, not bad…. Kid?
“F30.”
Nothing.
she continues to call out numbers until almost all the spots have filled up, after all that, only Rarity has had her number called. a small timer on the stage shows that there are six spaces left. I take a deep breath, there’s still plenty of room.
“K12.”
Another miss, this isn’t looking good.
“G21.”
Yes! I look over at Pinkie and smile, three down three to go!
“R11.”
Another miss. I fold my hands in front of my face only three spots left, we have to get all of them.
“K19.”
Rainbow Dash’s number comes up, good, good, almost there!
“L21.”
That’s Fluttershy, just one more.
the small bingo machine seems to move in slow motion as the principal turns it and pulls out the last number. Every muscle in my body tenses, my insides feel like they trying to rip out of me and see what’s going on.
“K09.”
my body goes slack, all sound leaves me except for the pounding of my heart, I slowly raise my head and look at A.J.
She didn’t get in….
“How about these? These beds are nice,” there is no response from the mound of orange
fur curled up in my bag. I let out heavy sigh and examine the bed more closely. It’s a bunk
bed, made of whitewashed wood, a small detachable ladder sits on the side. Two display
mattress rest snugly in the slots allotted for them.
I came out eight miles to this Ikea so that I could find the ponies a bed, they’ve been
stay that way. I dragged A.J. along so that she would get her mind off not getting accepted.
A.J. stures listlessly in the massive depths of the blue Ikea bag.
“Can we go home now?” She mumbles.
“We can go home once we find you and the other’s some beds.”
I examine the price tag. A little too much…. I let out another sigh. I need to start working
more than 15 hours a week… I can barely afford to feed seven mouths, let alone buy some
Later we sit in silence eating, the small food court hums with activity around us. A.J.
remains curled within the cloth bag, ignoring the slab of corn bread that she would normally
I pull my cell phone out of my pocket, three new messages. First one is a rejection note
from another school, they’re full, it says. The other two state the exact same thing. I snap it
“Well look who it is.”
I turn, I’m greeted by a man who think’s he’s still a kid playing cowboy.
“Jon? What’re you doing here?”
“Needed some new chairs for the barn, one of the horses gone and broke all of ‘em!”
A small orange head peeks out of the blue bag, A.J. always liked Jon, she visited his house
Jon looks down at her and ruffs up her mane.
“Hey there sugar cube, how are ya’ll doin?” He turns to me. “What’s she doing with you?”
“She kind of lives with me, if you’ve forgotten.”
“Har har, you know what I mean.”
I lean over and whisper into Jon’s ear.
“She didn’t get accepted into the school, I thought getting out of the house would help her
“When was the first day?”
“Three days ago.”
Jon looks contemplative, he rubs his chin like an old scribe pondering the meaning of life.
“So she’s been doing nothing for three days?”
“Didn’t take you long to figure that out did it, Plato?”
“Did ya’ll try another school?”
“I’ve been doing nothing but that, all the schools have filled up for the year.”
He leans back in his chair.
“Poor rascal, she use to be such a wild thing to.”
Just then his eyes light up and he springs from his chair!
“HOLD YER HORSES! I’m about to be plum brilliant!”
I start to interrupt but drop my hand, finally surrendering to the inevitability of my defeat
where it comes to Jon’s dialect.
“Why don’t ya’ll let the little devil help out on ma’ ranch?”
I look up at him, that was out of left field….
“How so?”
“I have twelve horses I need t’ take care of, I could use the extra help.”
“How will a horse help you take care of horses?”
“She’s not just a horse, her talking should have shown that to ya’ll.”
“I don’t know… I still want her to get a basic education.”
“My sister's coming up from Calli, she’s a teacher, she can smarten her up after her chores
are done.”
I look down at A.J. she’s been listening to the entire conversation, it’s the most energetic
that i’ve seen her in months.
“Do you want to work with uncle Jon?”
She nods. I let out another sigh, this has been an exhausting day.
“I’ll drop her off tomorrow.”
Jon slaps me on the back and bounds off.
“Pleasure do’in buiznes with ya’ll!”
***
Me and A.J. wait in line, a trio of unassembled bunk beds resting in their boxes on a flatbed
cart. while we’re waiting, I notice that there's a small bin of used clothes with small sign
Sitting on the top of the pile, is a old cowboy hat, I pick it up off the top of the pile, A.J.
“There, now you’re a proper cow girl.”
Author's Note
Sorry for the long wait on the chapter, Christmas week is crazy around my house.
I hope you all enjoy what I've concocted, this story has been far more popular then I anticipated.
I wave goodbye as Jon’s truck putts along on my gravel driveway, watching as it gets smaller and slowly disappeared around a bend. Jon said that all of the chores should be done by 3:00 later today, then his sister would be getting to his house around 4:00. So I would have the house to myself until the evening.
I go inside, remembering that I still have classes to get to. Inside I am shocked by the silence, I assume that it had been their before, before the ponies arrived, but it feels so much more present now... it’s a little sad. Shaking it off I grab my backpack and keys and head out to the garage.
All during school I thought about the ponies, what are they doing, are they making friends, what kinds of chores is A.J. doing? It’s like I don’t know what to do with my free time without taking care of them all the time. I need a hobby, maybe there's a fun show I can get into. breaking my concentration is my professor's request for a paper that is not in my backpack.
At home it’s not much different. I sat silently, writing papers or browsing the internet in silence, waiting with bated breath for the alarm to go off telling me that it’s time to pick them up from school. I look down at it, half an hour left. halfway down some random Tumblr page that I can’t even remember how I got on I groan, push my chair back away from my desk, breaking from the arcane power of the computer to waste hours, and head into the small side room. Sitting on the floor are several sets of half built bunk beds, I promised the ponies I would have them built by tonight. Letting out another groan I set to work on the pile of the piles of 4x4s.
Screw this here, attach this to this, move this, super glue the broken bit. I shake my head, they made these too confusing, the instructions don’t even have English on them I’ve been here for so long! I look up at the clock and it agrees, saying that I have been slaving away for an hour on these! Wait… an hour. My heart leaps into my throat! I’m late, I am very very late! I yank the keys off their hook by the door. I can’t believe that I ignored my alarm! I even remember turning it off, How the hell did I forget what it meant?
As I drive all the horrible thing that could have happened to them come into my mind. The school was broken into at they were kidnapped, a gas pipe broke after hours and they choked to death on the fumes, or one of those shut ins were wandering around and took them to do… I don’t even want to THINK about that!
I turn onto a main road and am immediately stopped by a massive traffic jam. I can’t believe this! there are usually like three cars on this road, what’s, happening? I lean out of my window to get a better look ahead. There are two cars blocking the entire street no one can get through! I collapsed back in the seat, this is what I get for being late!
several eons later the cars are moved and they allow the traffic to move through… slowly. the drive their takes far too long and I pull into the parking lot an hour and a half after I should have. I take the stairs two at a time and burst into the main office. Their is a very frustrated looking secretary and five little ponies.
“DADDY!”
The five stumble over each other trying to get to me I squat down and pull them all close.
“I’m sorry I’m late guys,” I say. I look at the glaring principal.
“Mr. Mason, it is not unusual for a parent to be ten to twenty minutes late, but an hour and a half is unheard of. What kind of a father does that?”
I stand up slowly. I want to punch that bony face of her’s so bad! you try going to school all day, realizing you haven finished a paper and then having to go home and build three bunk bed with a page of instructions in German! then see how well you memory works!
“Thank you for watching them,” I say instead, thinking that i’d rather not have an assault charge. “I’ll be going now.”
“Wait one moment young man-” she starts.
But I’m already out the door.
Dropping the ponies off at home I start to head to Jon’s. it took me so long to get to the school and back that I have to go right back out to pick up A.J. this has been the most exhausting day ever. I have barely enough energy left to stay awake on the drive to Jon’s. My subconscious takes over driving as I turn down the driveway.
I arrive at Jon’s house at 5:30, well past the time I said I would pick A.J. up at. I slam the car door closed behind me and head into the house, Jon, as usual has left his front door unlocked.
“Anybody home?” I call into the house. A shuffling sound comes from a hidden room and a bolt of orange streaks out and tackles my leg. A.J. bounces up and down around my leg and lets out an incoherent babble about how much fun she had. Jon comes out into the hall from the same room.
“‘bout time you showed up!” He says with a half joking half serious expression.
“It’s been a long day,” I reply.
“Is someone there?” another voice calls. Jon turns and calls back.
“Come see fer’ yer’self!”
Out of the front room comes a young woman, she has the same blonde hair and blue eyes that Jon does. But she also holds an heir of sophistication about her, something her brother sorely lacks. she offers her hand out to me.
“Hi, I’m Janice, Jon’s sister. You must be little A.J.’s daddy.”
I take her hand, it’s warm and soft. It looks like this day just got a little better.
I glare down my nose at the pile of scum sitting across from me on the couch, he rubs his hand nervously on his pant leg to clean of the sweat. He’s scared... good.
“So,” I say, startling the little dirt bag. “What are you two planning to do?”
“W-well…” he starts, shaking like a leaf. He gulps and continues. “She’s been talking about this author for quite a while now and I thought it would be fun to go to her book signing.”
I raise my eyebrow, the kid’s hiding something, I know it. I open my mouth to accuse him, but I am interrupted by the sudden entrance of Twilight.
She’s wearing a dress custom made for her by Rarity, two amethyst earrings are set on the sides of her pointed ears. The styling of her mane alone must have taken the other at LEAST a half hour.
“Sorry,” she pants, then looks up at the boy. “Ready to go?”
“Yep!” The boy rockets out of the couch and falls in step with Twilight, I follow the two of them to the front door and stop them before they leave.
“You’ll be back no later than 9:00, understood?”
“But the book signing doesn’t start until 8:00.”
“9:30 then.”
Twilight rolls her eyes and shrugs at the boy. He nods.
“9:30.”
“Have fun then.” Twilight props herself on her hind legs and kisses me on the cheek. I open the door and let the two of them leave.
As they do I head over to the window and watch through the curtains as they enter the boy’s car and leave. My pensive melancholy is interrupted though by a car that comes up the driveway almost as soon as they leave. Loud rock music booms through the cool winter air and the car barely avoids crushing the mailbox!
Just as suddenly, Rainbow Dash careens out of the bedroom a piece of paper clutched in her mouth as she uses her front hooves to put on a heavy leather jacket.
“Just where do you think you’re going?” I ask as she grabs the handle of the door. She groans and turns to me.
“The concert is tonight, remember?” she hold up the peace of paper, it’s a ticket printed of the computer.
Ah yes, that infernal rock music should have reminded me. I sigh and stare at Rainbow, out of all the six she is the most independent, as much leeway as I give her she always seems to be restricted. I chuckle to myself, she not the same little filly she once was.
“fine, don’t stay out to-.”
“thanksdadloveyouby!”
“late…”
She gallops across the front lawn and launches herself into the open car that spins around and rockets back onto the main road.
The house is quiet now, Twilight, Dash, and A.J. are all away. Rarity is busy with her fashion school prep work, that Fluttershy’s helping her with. And Pinkie is doing whatever Pinkie does. It’s just me now. Well there's one other person.
Janice wraps her arms around my waist and rests her head on my back.
“You worry too much,” she says.
“It’s hard not to, I don’t know who these people are or what their going to do, or if what the girl’s told me wasn’t true-.”
“It’ll be fine, Twilight’s a smart little girl, she wouldn’t let herself get mixed up in anything dumb, and Dash can handle anything that comes her way.”
She leads me to the couch and sits down next to me.
“What on earth happened?” I ask. “Last I remember, they were all half an inch tall and could barely form sentences!”
“Time flies when you're having fun.” She quips. I laugh.
“Fun? I guess you could call it that.”
Janice leans against me and sighs deeply. It’s been over four years now since I found that box on my doorstep. Collage has ended and my life as an adult has begun. Although I think I was forced to grow up faster than many of my peers. I place my hand on the little lump that is Janice’s stomach. It’s too early to feel the baby’s heartbeat or kicking, but I think I can feel something else.
Just then pinkie wanders into the room, streamers strung through her hair, which is flat, something that only happens when she is completely broken.
“What’s wrong,” I ask.
“Rarity yelled at me for distracting her,” she sobbed. “I just wanted to show her that I thought what she’s doing was cool!”
“Rarity’s really stressed right now,” I reply leaning back and sighing. Last time pinkie deflated she was small enough to fit in my pocket. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate your support later.”
“I guess,” she replies sitting on the floor dejectedly. i glance at Janice then look back down at pinkie.
“Hey, do you want to listen to the baby?” Pinkie looks at me as if i just asked her to try and fly. “Just try it.”
She shrugs and puts her ear on Janice’s stomach. As she does, her hair re-inflated and a smile burst across her face.
“I hear it!”
Author's Note
Even though this is the epilog I still feel like this story isn't finished (and I will leave it mark so), I feel like there were so many ideas that i didn't get to use, that the story's structure was chaotic at best. Regardless I want to thank every one who Favorited and liked this story, your support kept me going. I also want to thank everyone who has been rude or sarcastic to me as i have written this story. Your bruising has given me a thicker skin.
“The gentleman always pays for dinner on the first date,” Rarity pipes helpfully from her position on the toilet seat, reading from a fashion magazine.
“It’s not a date Rarity,” I say whacking at my hair fruitlessly with a comb. “I’m just meeting with Janice to discuss A.J.’s curriculum.”
“Is that why you’ve been playing with your hair all evening?” She quips.
“Don’t you have a art project to work on?” I snap back. She sighs dramatically and exits the bathroom with her head held high and her tail swinging like the pendulum of a clock. As she does I throw up my hands in surrender, this is as good as my hair will get.
I exit the bathroom and am immediately assaulted by confetti. Balloons tumble from an unknown crevice in the ceiling and something heavy lands on my head.
“Yay! Party!” A high pitched voice squeals. I casually take the tiny pink assailant off my head and place her back onto the ground.
“It’s not a party, Pinkie, daddy’s just meeting with a friend.”
Unfrazzled the pony dances up and down the hall giggling excitedly.
“And there'll be balloons, and dancing, and cake and-”
“Who gave Pinkie sugar!?” I call out into the house angrily. A snicker sounds from around a corner and I see a blue and an orange flank retreat into the bedroom. I groan and take pinkie into the kitchen. Taking down a glass I fill it with water and hand it to the babbling pink pony. She drinks heavily from it and passes out like a light. I learned this trick from Jon. I picked up the pooped out party animal and plop her into her bed. She smiles and hugs her ragged little stuffed elephant.
I turn and glare at the two offending ponies. Rainbow Dash and A.J. hide on the top bunk of the middle bed, barely controlling their laughter.
“That wasn’t funny you guys,” I lie. At this Rainbow completely loses face and rolls on her back with uncontrollable laughter. I glare at Rainbow Dash and she freezes, a look of terror on her face. Unable to hold it in any longer I let out a laugh and the two join in.
Later the five remaining ponies line up to send me off.
“Uncle Jon will be coming over to check on you guys, don’t watch too much TV, don’t use the oven, don’t touch my computer-.”
“Daddy! We’ll be fiiiiiiine!” Pipes Twilight from the middle of the group. Always the leader.
“Yeah!” Agrees Rainbow Dash swooping up into the air. “We’re not foals!”
I sigh.
“You sure aren't.”
***
I sit alone at the table, the coffee shop has only a few other patrons at this hour. The door swings open and a frantic Janice careens toward me.
“I am SO sorry!” She pants “I completely lost track of time!”
“Not a problem,” I reply, pulling a chair out for her. She thanks me and sits down.
“Shall we get started?” She asks, getting right to business. I nod and we begin. Janice pulls out a folder in which she has all of A.J.’s work written out.
“She’s a smart kid,” she says “…or horse, rather.”
“I want to know that she’ll get a good education until I can find a school for her to go to.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” she reassures me, showing me all the plans that she has for the year. The amount of detail and organization….
“You’re amazing!” I say.
“Thank you,” she replied smiling. “I’m studying to become a teacher, so when Jon said he had a student that I could tutor, I thought it would be a great opportunity.”
“Little did you know, it was a talking horse.”
She nodded.
“Admittedly I was a little put off at first, but after a while I got used to it.”
“Believe me, living with them, you never get used to it.” She let out a laugh at my little joke.
We talk for a bit more about the ponies and their daily schedule. Honestly I think I could talk about the six all night and into the morning, but Janice has other plans.
“Do you have a girlfriend, Jacob?” She asked, abruptly changing the subject.
I blush, admittedly my last girlfriend had been in middle school but i still had female friends.
“Well no….” I awkwardly admitted.
“Do you want one?” she gave me that smile of hers. How could I say no to a face like that?
