A Short Tale

Chapter Twelve: Teach the New

Travian had decided that Mayella needed to learn English, which was pony speak, supposedly. He was shooting trees at the time, and Mayella was next to him. "Do you ever miss?"

"Not really, no. I guess I can miss every ten years, but besides that no. Hey, you said you didn't know the pony's language?" She nodded. "Would you like to know it?"

"Why would I need to learn it?" Travian put his bow down and removed his arrow via throwing it.

"If you ever want to walk into town with me, or possibly disguise yourself among the pony's, you'll need to learn their language." He thought of a great idea. Instead of manually teaching her, he was sure his helmet could fit on her. The helmet could teach her within a few days.

"That's... A few fair points actually. Okay, so when do we get started?" Travian started walking back to the cottage.

"When we get back." Thankfully, it didn't take long to do so. When they arrived, Travian dropped his bow and quiver on the dead ground they normally were on. He then picked up his helmet and presented it to Mayella.

"What's that?"

"The thing that's going to teach you." He crouched down and started putting it on her. "Now don't freak out. Trust me when I say it won't hurt you." He then latched the helmet, which it wasn't able to do with him for some reason. The helmet's visor lit up, and a voice came out of it.

"Unknown identity within. Orders, Longshot?"

"Teach the entity English." Suddenly the visor was filled with words.

"Ah! Longshot, I don't like this! It's freaky!" He face palmed. He told her that it wouldn't harm her.

"Suck it up, buttercup." He sat down with a helmeted changeling freaking out next to him. Then his worst nightmare occurred. The wind shifted. He knew the dragon wasn't there. He couldn't take the helmet off without hurting Mayella. He picked up his bow and nocked a single arrow. It would be the only thing that would protect him and her from the wrath of the ignorant ponies.

As he held the bow at the ready, he saw a rainbow mane poking out of a cloud. "Come out, Rainbow. I see your mane." Rainbow Dash didn't just come out. She zoomed out, all the way next to Travian.

"What is that thing?!"

"Do you want my words or the facts?"

"Um... Aren't both of them your words?"

"Yes. Now this thing right here is a friend. Bugger off." Rainbow was of course more stubborn then a mule.

"But what if she could hurt Ponyville?"

"I can hurt Ponyville. And I can hurt you. Now you're going to leave us and tell not a word. I put my trust in you, so you better keep it." Rainbow felt like arguing today. A poor decision, in Travian's eyes.

"But... I-"

"You don't 'but' anything. While yours is nice, I'd prefer to see it leaving instead of standing here, talking to me and trying to say everything foreign is evil."

"I... I don't even... Look, you were at least friendly! She has fangs! She has evil eyes!"

"And I don't?" He crouched down and looked her directly in the eyes.

"You..." He put down the bow. He then slowly move his hand towards Rainbow Dash's ear.

"Let's not talk about me. Let's talk about you." His hand touched the fur behind Rainbow Dash's ear. It then began scratching. "Now what I would love to see about you..." He moved his mouth close to her ear. "Is for you to leave us." He stood up immediately, looking at what his work had done. Rainbow Dash's eyes were wide open, and her pupils were very small.

"You know what, I have something to d-d-do anyways!" She bursted up into the sky and made another rainbow across it in a direction away from Travian. He turned to Mayella.

"Now. You're probably wondering what just happened." She nodded, causing the helmet to bounce. "That was Rainbow Dash. She is extremely racist and you should never try to talk with her. She is my nemesis and constantly annoys me over the smallest thing."

"Um... Did you... Did you really compliment her flank just like that?" Travian didn't like having his methods questioned.

"Yes. Of course I didn't mean it, she just isn't used to guys hitting on her like that."

"Hitting on her? What? You hit her?" He put up his hands, shaking them and his head.

"Oh no no no! No! I would never hit a woman unless she was attempting to kill me! No, I believe the word you people use is flirting."

"... What's flirting?" He really didn't want to answer that. That was until he saw the helmet.

"As part of your English learning, I recommend pulling up the dictionary and checking it yourself." He thanked himself for downloading the dictionary app on his helmet. He spent the rest of the day watching Mayella learn. After a few moments of her standing, she sat down next to Travian. By the end of the day, she learned how to formulate a basic sentence.

The second day of her learning was much like the first. The only difference was the fact that Rainbow Dash wasn't around. Instead of Rainbow Dash, he had Fluttershy to deal with. "Longshot... What's that?"

"Found this thing in the woods. It wasn't alive, so I put my helmet on it. It actually feels really good on my lap."

"But... Um... You have... You have a dead animal on your lap... And... Oh my gosh, is that a pony?" Travian looked down only to find a cute little body.

"No. At least, I don't think so. And trust me, I'm used to having dead animals on me." Leather was great, light protection. What could he say?

"But... It looks so much like a pony..." Travian put on a massive grin.

"Do I look like I care?" Fluttershy stared at him with what he thought was disgust. "It's dead, so I thought I should use it. I'd never want anything like this to go to waste." Suddenly, Mayella moved. That did not support him at all. "Oh. It may have been alive, I dunno."

"Oh my gosh!" She fluttered over to it. "Are you hurt?" Mayella remained silent and kept 'dead'.

"I think it officially died Fluttershy. Just go away and let me do my thing."

"But... But... How can you just witness something dying like that and not be effected? I mean, it's like you just don't care!"

"This brings me to my previous point." He put on the same smile. "Do I look like I care?" He was getting tired of Fluttershy pestering him. Honestly, can't a love-stealer learn a language in peace?

Fluttershy examined his face, and then sighed. "Fine... I guess you don't care..." He smiled as she left around the side of the cottage. Mayella then brought her head up.

"Do you know how hard it is to be dead?"

"Do you know how hard it is to die?" He was seriously frustrated by this fact. He's been impaled multiple times, been cut, been burned, almost everything imaginable. He seriously wondered how hard it was to die. With that little question, Mayella went back to studying. Once he was done sitting and actually ready to head into the village without permission, he got up. "I'm going to go to Ponyville for fun."

"Wait! Can't I come with you?"

"Do you know this language?" He said in English.

"I think I know enough." She replied in English.

"Wonderful!" He unlatched the helmet from Mayella. "Now turn into anything you want." She turned into Rainbow Dash. "That... It'll be weird but I think I can do it."

"I hope so!" She said that in Rainbow Dash's voice. Changelings not only changed their form, but they changed their voice too. He was incredibly interested in them now. Too bad she was an outcast.

When they arrived in town together, everything went slightly as planned. Some ponies were confused, some were frightened, and some were uncomfortable. All except one. It was the minty one. "Hi!" Travian had a moment where he was frightened for his life. Then he remembered she was obsessed with humans, not him. "I've been waiting for you to show up." Now he was terrified.

"Oh. Is that so?"

"Yes! You said you would answer my questions if I had any, right?"

"...Riiiight. Well. I'm actually doing something right now. Again."

"Awww... But... Can I just look at your hands again?" He held out his hand for her. She examined it for quite some time. He pulled it away from her after a while. "I guess this is goodbye then."

"Yes it is." He looked to Mayella who was giving a rather fierce look to the minty one. When they walked away from the pony, he turned to Mayella. "Are you getting possessive of me?"

"What do you mean?" She was still rather grumpy.

"Oh. Nothing." He moved his way through town. Of course, his life had to a massive joke because Twilight showed up. Hopefully, she didn't know about how Rainbow Dash hated him and he hated her.

"Oh hey Longshot. Why are you in town... And with Rainbow Dash? I thought she didn't like you?" He had to create an excuse, and quickly at that.

"Well..." He was out of ideas. Then one popped up in his head. "Dash and I had decided that we started on the wrong foot... So we started talking to each other. As it turns out, we had more in common than I thought. So... Now we're taking a walk together." He gave it his winning grin. He thought about what he said and thought about how horrible it would be in the future for him.

"That... I don't know how to take that. I really thought you two didn't like each other." She was almost able to detect his lie. Thankfully, Mayella butted in right there.

"Well I was wrong about him. I really do like him, even if he is a little bit of an egghead." Travian did not take that insult well.

"I don't even read books!"

"Yeah, but you're still so much more book-smart, or whatever they call it." He couldn't deny that.

Twilight was buying it, however. She gave her awkward goodbyes to them and left. Travian was gonna have a word with Mayella about that insult, but for now... "So why Rainbow Dash?"

"Why not?"

"Don't you give me that response! That's my response!" She sighed.

"I guess it was because I needed a disguise, and you always complimented Rainbow Dash... And..." She murmured something.

"What was that last part?"

"And I was kind of... Hoping that Rainbow Dash would show up and you'd be confused on who to compliment and touch..." His comfort zone was officially breached.

"Oh. That's awkward. And weird. If you wanted to be touched, you should have just asked me. Then again, I'd probably say no because I only do that to get her out of my way, not for fun." Though that was an added benefit. "So now that we went through town,  I think it would be best if we headed home." Together they went back to the cottage, but it was in an awkward silence.