Chapter 2 (3/3)

"Oh. Hi girls." She opened the door a little wider and her eyes shot open when she saw me.

"Aw! Who is this little guy?" Little? I'm almost twice your height. She was flying all around me now, taking in every little detail.

"Hello Fluttershy," Twilight began," this is Herbert 'Daring' Dashwood."

"Oh, what is he? I've never seen an animal like him before."

"He is a species from another world, they're called Human."

"They're so cute, with their red little cheek and their short hair." She was patting my head, and for some reason I couldn't bring myself to feel ticked off. Twilight obviously noticed my neutrality, judging by her next comment.

"Wow, he lets you get closer to him than anyone else. Spike couldn't even put a hand near his face without getting slapped." I smirked, remembering the feeling of hard scales on the back of my hand, but then I wondered just how badly that hurt him? That was very insensitive of me. I knew he was just following orders, and I beat him... I need to take my actions into more careful consideration from now on. I affirmed to myself in my head. Lately, before I came to Equestria, I was trying to change the way I behave. I’ve become an insensitive, cocky jackass lately and I didn’t like it. Believe it or not, there was a time when I was timid and shy.

"Oh no, he didn't hurt Spike did he? Is he a dangerous animal? Where did you even find him?" She backed away from me a bit, probably worried about whether or not she would be attacked for touching my head.

"Oh no, he just thought Spike was challenging him. He seems to be a docile creature, as far as I can tell. I actually brought him to you because I need help getting food for him. He can't survive off of most food ponies eat; he needs different kinds of plants. He is also a meat eater, and I know you have some way of getting meat for your animals, so I was wondering if you would be able to get any extra for your animals."

"Oh, that would be alright, I guess. How much meat does he eat?"

"Oh not much, about one chicken split up into three meals along with more vegetables and some starches every day." I said; finally glad to get a word into this conversation.

"Oh, he talks? I didn't know that. Does he hunt for himself?"

"Well I could hunt for myself, but most humans don't hunt. We have humans who hunt and humans who stay back to do farming, medical things, political things, or crafting stuff. Then there are people who just sit around all day and eat potato chips. I was studying to be a doctor for the mind back at home, but I should probably learn to hunt for myself. Perhaps I could go with you?" She looked like she was going to accept when Twilight interjected.

"No Fluttershy, he can’t.” She turned to me. “I am not letting you out of my sight for some time. I need to document your behavior. Maybe another day you two can hunt, but not today." I did not like being a prisoner to a horse, but I suppose they would need to keep an eye on a meat eater like me for their own safety.

"I'm going to need to be getting some exercise Twilight. Humans get really sluggish when they don't exercise."

"Don't worry Herbert; there will be plenty of time for you to exercise." I suppose I have put off describing the quiet one. She had a creamy yellow colored fur. Her hair was pink like the sunrise, and her eyes were a blue like the sky. She was now kicking the ground with her hoof, probably a sign of nervousness. I began to wonder just what kind of life had shaped her into the apparently mixed up creature that stood before me. Maybe she’s just naturally shy. I thought.

Twilight made a motion indicating it was time for us to be leaving. Silently, I followed reflecting on the previous events.

I will not question the event with Pinkie Pie, maybe I will find an explanation for that later… Rainbowdash seems pleasant enough, a little blunt for my tastes, but the more friends I have the better I look. Though, I don’t want to be friends with people who annoy the shit out of me… These things should be saved for later, when I actually have established who is a bitch face and who is tolerable. Fluttershy… I’m not very good with talking to quiet people, not that I’m much a talker myself… Well, if she’s going to be getting me food, I’ll want a good relationship with her… Odd, how a herbivore is hunting for the omnivore. I wonder if there is a benefit to being just a carnivore or just an herbivore. I mean, does it take more energy to have the ability to process both types of food? How did I even get to this train of thought? I stopped thinking and looked around me, we were walking alongside the same white fence Pinkie led me by that previous night. On the other side of the fence was a lively little forest of apple trees.

“So where exactly are we going now?” I asked. “I think this is where Pinkie took me when she kidnapped me last night.” It was then that I realized Pinkie Pie was no longer accompanying us. Perhaps she had left our group while I was thinking to myself.

“That’s odd… I wonder why she would bring you over here. It’s an awful long walk. What is it she did to you last night again?”

“She threw me a welcome party in a tree house.” She nodded to herself.

“Makes sense now. She wanted a quiet place to welcome you. Anyway, I’m bringing you here to secure a source of plant matter. The Apple family owns this farm, and one of them is a very close friend of mine. I’m hoping she will be willing to lend us some of her excess harvest.” As she told me this, we approached a red barn. “Oh shoot.” She said.

“What?” I asked.

“I actually have something private I need to talk to her about; maybe you could wait out here?” I nodded and walked over to a fence near a big ass mud pile and leaned on it. As I sat out there, I heard some pig noises, I recognized them from the times I’ve visited a farm stand to pick up some herbs for my garden back home, and realized something. They have freaking pigs here? Do they eat meat? In retrospect, I realize that not all residents of Equestria are ponies, and so some of them are probably meat eaters. Sweet Apple Acres is probably just trying to be diverse.

Apparently, it was a short talk as Twilight came out not too long after.

“Alright, we’ve secured your food source.” She stated, leading me down the dirt road. “Now I have some questions about your exercise habits. Firstly, though, do you spend much time outside?”

“I probably should spend more time outside, and I will if you let me, but most of my time at home was spent reading, studying other people’s behavior, or just lazing around.” That’s not going to benefit me in this world… I’ll need to get in better shape. I noticed Twilight had a good sized smile on her face. I wasn’t sure why at the time. There were no more words spoken between us, though I noticed the unicorn was humming a song as we walked.

"When we arrived at the library, I had taken note of some of the odd glances I got from ponies as I walked through. They didn't seem overly surprised to see me, but they obviously weren't expecting me. It seemed they were accustomed to seeing strange creatures, I can only imagine why.

"I need to get to writing out the activities we did today. I'll be sending them to Princess Celestia later today. Why don't you hang out in your room? I'll come for you if I feel I need anything from you." She began trotting off. Oh God, I'm using pony verbs now, what am I becoming? Anyway, I just walked back into my bedroom, and began browsing through the books on the shelves, looking for anything on medicine. I found two books: 'Alchemical Anomalies'; and 'Medical Magic: A Primer'. I was actually kind of interested in the idea of practicing alchemy, I mean, who knows how much free time I will have. And the primitive medicine they would probably have here could definitely use some work. As for the other book, I was rather interested in how the unicorns played a part here in medical society. I can't imagine a doctor having to use stumps to work on a patient, so most doctors are probably unicorns anyway. I set down the medical book, as it would probably not do me as good a service as the knowledge of using plants to survive. I began reading the table of contents to know just what kind of things I would be learning, and decided it best to gather some knowledge on flora and fauna and the world around me before going into how to use them. So I set that book down next to the bed and began searching around the room for books related to the known ecosystems and different kinds of wild life. I found plenty more books about locations and types of plants than I did about animals. Obviously these ponies don't have much curiosity, or there aren't that many wild animals around.

I set to reading about the different types of ecosystems, and found that there was an even greater diversity here than on Earth, as magic seems to influence how places will grow. That was interesting, so I set that book down and went to find books about magic. I'm not going to bother going into how long I spent looking for books related to magic, but I found some of them, and I was yet to start reading when Spike opened the door and peeked in.

"Hey Spike, what's up?"

"Twilight sent me here to see if you needed someone to keep you company." He was stuttering slightly, so I knew there was something he wasn't telling me.

"No, I'm cool. You go hang with Twilight." I got an unexpected reaction.

"Please don't make me go back to her! She is going to make me help her write a summarization report! Those always take hours and I have to stand and hold papers and proof read and proof read my proof readings. It is awful, please let me stay!" When I heard him mention the report, I started paying more attention. Sure, earning the trust of as many people here as I can was my top priority, but this was an opportunity to gather information. If I could convince this child to leak information to me, then I could have a potential advantage. This was a gamble though, if I fumble with my words the wrong way he will become suspicious of me. If he tells Twilight that I asked him to tell me what she was reporting to her princess, then she would no doubt keep a tighter leash on me. I would need to be careful.

"You really don't like helping her with those reports, do you?" I said, trying to sound sympathetic.

"No, I love helping her with everything else but those are just the worst."

"Well then, I'll make a deal with you. If you go with her this time and stay help her with her report, and come later and tell me what she reported, I’ll let you hang out with me whenever you want after-" I didn't even get to finish my sentence.

"You've got a deal; I'll come back in a few hours." Wow, that easy? He scurried out of the room, his tail scratching the floor behind him. When he closed the door behind him, I began organizing my books in sets, so that once I had finished with one set, I would know what set I was reading those for. I immediately began reading 'Fundamentals of Magic'. I was finally getting my head wrapped around what their concept of magic was when the door opened and Twilight strode in. At first, I thought Spike narked on me, but I was wrong. She just wanted to double check some questions with me.

"Herbert, I have to double check some things you say, I have noticed something that seems contradict- what are you doing with all those books?" She was looking at my lines of book stacks set across the floor in groups of three to five. I smiled sheepishly and tried to formulate an answer that wasn't entirely a lie but didn't draw too much suspicious either.

"Oh, well usually when a human discovers something we haven't encountered before, our first instinct is to gather as much information about it. I am doing that with magic, and I think I'm starting to understand just what it is. I don't understand any of how it works or how it is manipulated, and I'm not really interested in that. I just want to know what it is."

As clumsy as that sounded to me, she seemed to accept it. The part about me not being interested in manipulation was a shit-faced lie. If I could find a way to harness it, you can bet your kid's life I'm interested.

"Well that sounds very interesting; I may put you through some tests to see just how far that instinct can drive you. Would you care to answer a few questions?"

"Why not, what have you for me?" She shuffled through some papers with magic and looked up to face me.

"You say humans are docile, and yet you have conquered your planet. How is this possible?"

"Well to say that all humans are docile is a dramatic exaggeration. Many humans are docile, but there are some less docile than others. If one human is passionate enough, they can, for lack of a better term, ignite passion in others. Intelligent humans are better at igniting than non-intelligent humans usually, because they can pick their words better. Less intelligent humans tend to be easy to manipulate, but occasionally hard to predict because of their lacking in reasoning. That is just taking intelligence, I haven't even begun to pick into the effects that heritage and life time experiences can have on whether or not a person acts in certain ways. There are also some birth defects that can occur that can alter all sorts of things in the human mind. I don't fully understand all of it, as I was just a student when I was brought here." I was careful not to say ripped away, as I really wasn’t in the mood to hurt her again. Maybe I’d abuse her emotions later.

"Ok, so humans are docile until they are provoked, and how long can a human stay provoked?"

"Well, that is an interesting question. Some humans can feel passionately against something their entire lives and are constantly building up anger to release when it is called upon. There is a common misconception that anger makes a person stronger, when in actuality it is the desperation for success that comes with the anger that causes a person to tap into their reserved energy. The strong emotion is what causes the adrenaline rush, a person can be just as lethal when overly happy, perhaps even more so, than when their logic is clouded by sporadic anger and impulsive desires to commit violence." I didn't want to give her too much information, but I have always had a habit of droning on about these things and tended to lose myself in a vortex of information. It excited me to no end, and it does to this day.

"That is very interesting. I will be sure to include that in my report to the princess. Thank you Herbert." I grinned at the title, thinking about listening to GNR on the Pip-Boy in Fallout 3. My nostalgia was short lived, however, as my logical side took over. I directed myself to the books I was reading and began absorbing as much information as I could. This would all be useful to me. After reading for a few hours, I slowly passed to sleep.