Not In Kansas Anymore

Chapter 2

Morning came sooner than expected and reminded me of something important: that I am not a morning person. Stupid rooster waking me up at sunrise…

Last night had taken a toll out of me, and Applejack suggested that I get some much needed shut-eye. I thanked her, and asked if the bed was anyone’s. She nodded and told me it was Big Mac’s, seeing as it was the biggest bed they had in the house. This bothered me, and I told her that I wasn’t comfortable taking someone else’s bed.

Applejack just chuckled and said “While that’s mighty considerate of ya, ya’ll will need the bed. Besides, we got another bed for guests. Mac’ll sleep there for tonight, until we can get everything situated.”

I still wasn’t convinced, but a few words from Mac telling me that he didn’t mind at all and that I did need it more tonight got me to let the issue go. So I laid there and tried to get to sleep, which was difficult since my right leg hurt like crap and both were practically hanging off the bed anyway. I also found it hard to sleep simply because the day had my mind spinning. I was in a different world. It didn’t matter if it was a different planet, dimension, or universe…I was a far ways from home. I thought back to my family and friends: all the people I was leaving behind while I was stuck here. I wondered how long it would take until people noticed I was missing. Would my family think I was dead? I couldn’t destroy their lives with that.

No, I was going to find a way home no matter what. Sure, these ponies seemed nice…well, Applejack and Big Mac seemed nice, at least. I wonder if most of these ponies are. Regardless, I wasn’t planning on staying. I still had family I’ve known for over two decades and friends that I’ve gotten to know that I want to return to.

Even as I kept running these fears and ambitions through my thoughts, I still eventually succumbed to the peaceful embrace of sleep.

After the rooster crowed and woke me up, I glared out the open window to my left. The sun was up, but not very high in the sky at all. Assuming we had similar seasons, and with the height of the sun over the horizon, I guessed it was…7 in the morning? Surely enough time for me roll over and get some more sleep. And that’s exactly what I did. I rolled over on my side so my back was to the lit window and managed to get back to sleep.

It didn’t seem that the rest lasted that long. Whether it had been 30 minutes or a few hours, I was awoken to someone poking the back of my ribs with a hoof. I groaned and threw the blanket over my face in protest. Darn it if I wasn’t going to get more sleep.

“Come on, sugarcube,” I heard Applejack quietly say, “I know you’re tired and had a rough day, but even noon is a bit pushin’ it for the sleepin’ department.” She chuckles to herself and continues, “Get up, we’re fixin' up lunch right now. I bet yer hungry after all that happened to ya.” No argument to that. I was so hungry right now I could eat a…well, let’s say I could eat a whole lot right now.

“Alright, you’ve convinced me. Point me to where the food is.” As I pulled the covers off of myself and sat up, the first thing I heard was the loud popping of my stiff back. The next thing I heard was Applejack laughing. I turned to see what she was laughing at, and I saw she was looking at me, but a higher than my eyes. “What’s so funny?” I asked.

“Oh, ‘taint nothing’. Just got some serious bed mane going on there.”

“Mane? What do you mean by- …oh.” She must’ve been talking about my hair. I tend to get some nasty bed head when my hair is longer. “Heh, yeah. Do you have a mirror and comb I could borrow?”

“Sure thing, partner. Just use the wash room up the stairs to the right. Should all be there for ya.”

“Thanks, Applejack,” I replied with a smile. At that I hobbled as best I could out the door and down the hall. I found the stairwell pretty easily, but the stairs themselves were a different monster altogether. The steps were steep. Very steep. I mean, even with the fact that I have pretty small feet, I could barely could fit a whole foot on any step. I figured the only reason I could fit a foot on one at all was because they needed steps wide enough for ponies like Big Mac to climb them.

I managed to get up the stairs with minimal problems, except a few times where I had slipped and stumbled. My knees would take the brunt of those impacts. And they hurt. But all in all I survived my second enemy of this new land I was in. First, wolves, and now stairs. I was on a roll. I opened the door to the wash room and was glad to see it looked mostly like one in my world. Toilet, sink, tub. They were all there. Sure the toilet was a bit longer and wider than ones I’m familiar with, and everything is closer to the ground than I would have liked, but I was glad to see there were still similarities.

I walked to my left and found a comb near the sink, which I preceded to use to wet down and comb my hair until the ugly bed head had been vanquished for today. Satisfied, I dropped my arms down to my sides and turned to go back downstairs.

“Wait, that’s weird…” I said aloud to myself. I dropped my hands down on my pockets again, where they had landed on my sides previously. My pockets were empty. I panicked just a tad. Did I lose my stuff during my flight from the timber-wolves last night? I hoped not. I didn't plan on going back into the Everfree. Or did Applejack or somebody else remove them when I was unconcious? I decided to go downstairs and ask…it wasn't like I wasn’t heading downstairs anyway.

I returned to my old nemesis, the pony-sized stairs. I quickly decided against trying what I did to go up. Especially with this limp I have in my right leg. All that would equal out to would be me falling down a flight of stairs. So I sort of…sat down and skooched myself down the stairs. Sure, it looked retarded to any bystander, but I made it through this battle to fight another day.

It wasn’t until I was about halfway through the original hallway that a wall of tantalizing smells punched me right in the face. I smelled apples. And well, more apples, but it was different kinds of apple-y smells as well. Made sense that if you grew so many of them on a farm, you’d eat them a lot too. I just wondered how you could keep from getting sick of them if that's what you ate most of the time. My stomach decided to voice its opinion of “go get some freakin’ apples, stupid!” and I sped up my pace to locate the source of these odors. It wasn’t like I was going to ignore such a good argument from one of my best friends. I mean, really.

I rounded the corner through an open arch and found the kitchen. Jackpot. But then that all fell back on my priority list when I heard a young voice perk up from the table in the room.

“Applejack wasn’t kiddin’. Ya’ll do look pretty strange.”

“Applebloom!” Applejack scolded, “That's not a nice thing to say to a guest. Now apologize.”

“Sorry, mister.” Applebloom said lower with a bit of a blush on her face. Even with that, I had to smile. She must be the youngest sibling of Applejack and Big Mac. I could tell she was really young just by looking at her size compared to the others. But obviously I was assuming Applejack was an adult, or at least pretty near that. Applebloom was just a kid. And like any kid, she wouldn’t know tact if it bit her in the rear. I could understand that. I walked up to the table and kneeled in front of it, to make myself shorter. It was time to cheer someone up.

“Yeah, I can understand that I look strange to you,” I smirked, “But to me, you look pretty strange too. How about we strange friends?” I softened the smirk to a regular, old smile and held a couple of fingers to shake her small hoof with. She looked at me, puzzled, for about a second and then put her hoof in my hand. I shook it up and down gently.

“Applebloom, was it?” She nodded her head, “I’m Vince.”

“Hi, Vince.”

"Oh, and by the way, no hard feelings. If I was held completely accountable of what I say before I think it through, I'd probably be in a lot of trouble by now." She seemed to get a kick out of that.

“Well ain’t this guy a sweetie. You can tell a lot about somepony by how they treat kids.” I turned around at this new voice and saw an elderly green mare with a white mane enter the kitchen. She had a big, but weathered smile on her face, wrinkles tracing where she’s laughed, cried, or gotten angry.

“Ah, you must be Granny Smith!” I turned around to meet her, “I heard it was those pots and pans you use to make noise around this time that saved my life. I just wanna’ say thanks.”

“’Taint no problem, dearie. I’ve been scarin’ off dem darg-tootin' timber-wolves for decades. Ever since I ran into them when I was a young’n, I learned they don’t like the loud noises of metal clangin’.”

“So, where did you learn that?” I asked.

“Now that is a story.” She smiled as I had apparently just open the story floodgates, “Now why don’t ya sit down and eat while I tell ya all about it?”

And so I did. I sat down and began to eat the simple lunch that had been prepared. All I had was a few pieces of bread with apple butter on it, but it was filling and, more importantly, delicious. As I ate, Granny Smith regaled me with the tale of how her family originally traveled all across the land looking for a permanent place to call home. I learned that this place was controlled by a monarchy, specifically when she mentioned they had met Princess Celestia, who granted them an unused but fertile plot of land next to the Everfree. Granny Smith had ventured into the forest alone to find food. I thought that was brave. I don’t think I would be going into that forest again anytime soon after what happened to me in there. However, she was desperate for food back then, and it was in the forest she found a kind of fruit she later named zap apples.

She told me that after she found them, she was discovered by the timber-wolves and chased out of the forest. She must know somewhat what I went through then, being chased by those terrifying things. But unlike me, she did something other than running. She told me how grabbed a nearby pan from outside their house and made noise to warn her family of the danger, which inadvertently seemed to scare the timber-wolves away. But what truly amazed me was when she recalled how the zap apples’ popularity in foods is what brought more settlers and business to the area, and eventually resulted in the founding of Ponyville, the town near where we were now. She helped found this town? How old was she, anyway?

I sat there as she finished the story, and she smiled as she must have noticed the awed look on my face. I looked over to Applebloom. She was smiling wide at her granny. You can see a lot of love there. Next to her is Applejack. She has a smile on her face, but I can tell from her eyes that she’s probably heard this story about a thousand times already, so it was old hat to her by now. I looked around and noticed Big Mac was missing. I decided to bring it up.

“I know it’s kinda’ late to ask now, but where’s Big Mac?”

“He’s outside, working.” Applebloom spoke up, “He usually likes to wake up and eat breakfast and lunch earlier than us so he can plow the fields.”

“Ya’ll can talk to him later after he’s done. Now, Vince?” Applejack saying my name got my attention, “I figured that as long as yer stuck here and all, I’d think it would be good for ya to meet my other friends. I’m planning on us going to the library to meet Twilight and Spike first and having the rest meet there too.”

I must have had my apprehension written all across my face, “How many friends are we talking about? I'd like for it to not be a big group. Big groups make me kinda’ nervous.”

She smiled a knowing smile like she knew just how I felt and replied, “Oh not many at all. Just six others. Twilight and Spike live in the rooms above the library, and like I said, yer gonna’ meet them first. Then I’ll go get Rarity, Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie and bring them on over later. They’re good friends. I doubt ya’ll will have problem talkin’ to them at all.” She looked at me expectantly. She even gave me a sad face. Drat. Double Drat. Confound this pony, she drives me to get out of my comfort zone. I caved.

“Fine, fine. I’ll go. But just because I trust you.” I think she appreciated that. I meant it, too. To be fair, I'm a normally trusting person. “Oh, and before I forget, would you happen to have my shoes and all the stuff I had in my pockets? I found out they weren't with me a while ago. ”

“Sure, they're on the counter right here and yer shoe’s are right outside.”

I nodded and headed over to the counter. I took a hold of my cellphone and shut it off. It’s not like I can really use it. Plus, when I finally get back to my own world, I’m probably going to need it then, and it being dead wouldn’t help at all. Applejack looked at the phone like she wondered what the heck it was. I ignored it and put it and my wallet alongside my keys in my pants pockets. I said farewell to Applebloom and Granny Smith as I followed Applejack out the door and then slipped my shoes on out there.

Sufficiently prepared, her and I set out towards Ponyville. We both walked down the dirt path to the outskirts of their property. I looked to my right and I could spot Big Mac working the field. He wore a pulling collar around his neck which was hitched to an old-style plow. I yelled out to him, “Hey, Big Mac!” He stopped and looked my direction. “Me and your sis are gonna’ head toward town! Talk to ya’ later!” He nodded to me and continued what he was doing.

“It should just be about a ten to fifteen minute walk from here,” Applejack spoke up we returned to our walking.

“Great,” I said. But as we continued on, I noticed she was getting further and further ahead. I just couldn’t keep up with my injured ankle. A snail could have passed me at this pace. “Applejack, can we slow the pace a bit? I can only limp so fast…” I tried to smile to cover the fact that I was hurting pretty bad right now.

Applejack looked back and noticed how far ahead she was. She laughed like she was embarrassed and replied, “Heh, I’m sorry, sugarcube. How about ya’ll set the walking pace?”

“I’d like that very much.” She walked back to where I was and matched my deathly slow pace of a walk. “I guess this means that it’s gonna’ take more than fifteen minutes now, right?”

“I reckon,” she smiled back. As we walked, it started to get a little quiet. That wouldn’t do at all. If we were gonna’ be walking as long as we were, I was gonna’ make sure that time went by with us talking.

“I was thinking…”

“Yeah, Vince?”

“Is this a good idea?”

“What wouldn’t be a good idea?”

“This whole ‘taking me into Ponyville’ thing. I mean, I’m not exactly from here, if you couldn’t tell. What if people, er- ponies freak out because I show up?”

“Freaking out isn’t a whole lot of what the townsponies would do. Well, except for the flower sisters, but they do stuff like that all the time." She laughed at a memory. "The worst most do is just stay in their houses. At best, they’ll stare. But I doubt it’ll be a problem, seein' as yer nice and all.”

“You mean that?” I looked over with a surprised smile.

“Yup! I gotta’ confess, I was kinda’ afraid of ya when we first found ya, but seein’ ya there all hurt…I couldn’t leave anypony, or…well, what exactly are you kind called? Seems like I’ve known ya forever and I’ve never asked.”

“Oh, we call our species ‘human’.”

“Okay. So, as I was sayin’, I couldn't leave anypony…or in this case, anyhuman there all hurt, so we took ya in and bandaged you up. I came up later on ‘cuz I heard ya screamin’ and all.”

“Yeah, I sort of had a bad dream. Timber-wolves will do that.”

“When I opened the door and saw that you were looking my direction, even with yer eyes covered, I figured ya'll were intelligent, so I went on a hunch and decided to try talkin’ to ya. I was kinda’ glad ya talked back.”

“I’m glad that you guys can understand me too. I think I would go insane otherwise.”

She nodded to that. “But then when we all got to talkin’ before you could see again, I noticed how you didn’t seem bad at all. Ya'll didn't act vicious, just curious and confused. Totally acted just like anypony I’ve met. And then this morning I noticed that ya weren’t just okay, ya’ll were pretty nice. I saw that with how you reacted to Applebloom's talkin' and Granny Smith's story. Ya didn't get angry at my sis for speakin' with out thinkin' and ya listened to my granny's story. I just wanted to say that I think ya’ll will do fine with my friends. And I know Ponyville will come to accept ya when they get to know ya.”

All I could do was smile at what she just told me, “Thanks, Applejack. That means a lot to me.”

“Think nothing of it. It’s the truth, and if there’s one thing I always do, it's that I say it how I sees it.” I put my hand on the top of her hat and patted down on her head with a smile. She returned the smile and patted me on the back with her hoof. We walked and talked all the way to the outskirts of Ponyville.

I may be far from home, but making a new friend along the way can always help.