Not In Kansas Anymore

Chapter Four

“Who’s that?”

Fluttershy flew closer to Rainbow, gave her a hug, and then turned to talk to me. “Vince, this is Rainbow Dash. She’s a very good friend of mine. Rainbow, this is Vince. He’s new to Ponyville. Actually, to all of Equestria.”

Rainbow Dash took this opportunity to fly (quite quickly, might I add) right towards me. She stopped just short of crashing into me, which blew the large gust of wind that was trailing her right into my face. I flinched, partly because of how quickly she closed the gap, and partly to make sure no dirt that gust had just thrown had gotten into my eyes. As I opened my eyes again to Dash looking at me. Her eyes searched me over and then shot back to my gaze.

“And…just what are you supposed to be?” She asked.

I straightened and dusted myself off. “I’m a human.”

“Never heard of a human before,” she said quite frankly.

I tried to smile. She may seem apprehensive of me now, but if I show myself as a friendly being, maybe she’ll calm down a bit. “Well that’s because I’m not from around here, like Fluttershy said. About two days ago I was pulled into this world by something. I lived in a city where a lot of other things like me live too.”

“And how did you meet my friends?”

“Applejack found me unconscious after I had ran from some timber-wolves. I originally woke up in the Everfree Forest. Applejack asked Fluttershy to help patch me up.” I tapped my hand on my right leg for emphasis.

Apparently something I said had gotten her attention, because her ears perked up. “So you came from the Everfree Forest, huh?” She looked at me suspiciously, then turned to Fluttershy. “Did you know that too?”

“Well, I heard it from Applejack. I helped because he was hurt, and Applejack seems to trust him enough.”

“So, AJ, did you see if he was from the forest or just was in the forest?”

“To be honest, I didn’t see. He was already in our fields when me and Mac found him.”

“So how would you know if he’s not from the forest? He could be lying.”

“Now that’s just not fair, Rainbow. What about giving everypony the benefit of the doubt?”

“Except he’s not a pony.”

Applejack punctuated her mood with a snort and a stomp of one of her front hooves. “Dangit, Dash, you know exactly what I mean. Stop being so stubborn and just give him a chance.”

“Sorry, but I don’t just hoof my trust to just anypony. If they want my loyalty, they have to earn it.” She huffed and crossed her forelimbs, looking away from AJ. “You understand, right, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy shrunk a little bit as we all turned our attention to her. “Well, I u-understand why you don’t want to. But…he does seem like a nice pony…er…human. Just try?”

I finally decide to speak up. “Hey, Dash.” She slowly turned around in the air to face me again. “I get it. I’m strange looking. And I know it seems suspicious that I was found near that forest. I mean, I was only in there for a few minutes, and I got into some deep trouble. If the rest of the forest is quite like that, filled with all that danger, I can understand if you don’t trust me.” I stuck my hand out to try to shake her hoof, as a sort of peace offering. She just stood there and eyed my outstretched hand. “Oh, you’re supposed to shake it.”

“I know what I’m supposed to do. I just don’t wanna.” I frowned a bit.

“I’m a stranger here, so I don’t know how I’m going to survive here while I search for a way home. I’ll have to rely partly on the kindness of others, an attribute I see in those two friends of yours. I understand the value of trust, and I know I wouldn’t want to squander what trust I’ve received so far.” I extended my hand again to her. “I hope to one day gain your trust too. I hope I’m worthy of it.”

Dash contemplated my words and then quickly slipped her hoof in and out of my hand’s grasp, not quite a hand/hoof shake, but it seemed good enough.

“Sure, whatever.” She looked right into my eyes again, her own eyes getting more intense. “Just remember, I’m loyal to my friends first, not you. I don’t want to hear about any funny business about you, or else you and me are gonna have problems. Got it?”

“Sure. I know not to cause trouble.” And at that, she nodded her head and then shot off into the sky, effectively ending the conversation.

“…Well that could have gone better.” Applejack decided to add.

“Could’ve gotten worse, too. She could’ve gotten really mad and try to hurt me even more. At least Fluttershy’s here to patch me up, right?” I laugh.

Fluttershy smiles. “Yeah. Hey, Vince? Sorry about how Rainbow acted. She’s a good pony once you get to know her.”

“Like I told her, I understand. I mean, I’m pretty sure that if I met something almost twice my size, that I know just came from a dangerous place, I’d be more than apprehensive about trusting it myself.”

“That don’t mean nothin’. We trusted you and we’re just fine,” Applejack said.

I shook my head. “You’re just lucky it was someone like me who came here. Most of my kind would be nice to you ponies if they ended up here like I did, but I won’t deny that there are many humans that would take advantage of your trust.”

“Well, I know a thing about honesty. I can usually look into a pony’s eyes and tell if they’re bein’ sincere or not. And I know for a fact that when I met you, your kindness was sincere.”

“I appreciate that, Applejack, but I just want to make sure you two aren’t too hard on your friend for not throwing her trust in my direction the moment we met. I think I can win her over just by not causing trouble.”

Fluttershy nodded. “It’s just like with Zecora. We never trusted her because she was from the forest too, but once we saw she was nice and wasn’t causing trouble, we were fine with her.”

“Heck, and she’s even a decent part of the community now.”

“So, who’s Zecora, anyway? I remember you mentioning that name when you had that healing salve stuff.”

“Yes, Zecora is a zebra, who lives in a hut in the Everfree Forest. Most ponies stayed away from her because of that. It actually took Apple Bloom to show us that she was just wanting business in town and she wasn’t an evil enchantress, like many believed.”

“See? All I have to do is act normal, like that Zecora lady and I should have no problems with anyone. That’s the plan, at least.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Applejack replied.

I nodded my head to both of them and then said, “Well, not that this hasn’t been fun, but if I remember, we were heading towards town before this all went down, correct?” Applejack and Fluttershy responded in the affirmative. “Good, then let’s get going again. I’m starting to get tired from all this excitement, and I want to introduce myself to the rest of your friends, at least. And I would be lying if I said I wasn’t rather hungry right now.” I finish with an awkward smile.

Applejack just grinned. “Well then let’s get this show on the road!” She looked over to Fluttershy, who then landed on the ground and started to follow her as she followed me.

And with that, we were traveling…again. Hopefully we didn’t meet any more delays before we got into town. Truth be told, I just wanted to get the day done and over with, so I can rest. I felt pretty drained so far, seeing as I had an injury, and I just had to diffuse a mildly tense situation. A little relaxation would hit the spot right about now.

A realization dawned on me. “Oh yeah. Fluttershy, before this all happened you wanted to ask me questions.”

“Oh! Well, I figured now it’d be better to just get to the library first. I think Twilight will want to know about you too. You know, so you don’t have to answer anything twice, if that’s fine with you.”

“Sounds fine to me. Lead to way.”

After walking for a little while longer, we finally arrived at the outskirts of Ponyville.

As we walked through the streets, I stayed silent and took in the sights, as Fluttershy and Applejack told me about several of the important places in town. I figured that if I’m gonna be here for a while, I may as well get the landmarks memorized. It’ll make my life easier.

They pointed out a few specific buildings in particular, like the three-story building created to look like a colorful mult-decker carousel. It didn’t surprise me that it was called “Carousel Boutique”, which was apparently where their friend Rarity lived and worked, making clothes for ponies all around. They also pointed out a building that looked like it was an actual gingerbread house. They called it Sugarcube Corner, which is where their friend Pinkie worked as an apprentice to the couple who owned it, Mr. and Mrs. Cake. They also pointed out places like a general store, a few other specialty stores, and town hall, but they didn’t go into much detail with those.

All the while, we were getting stares from the populace. Scratch that, only I was getting stares from the populace. At least they weren’t running or screaming like if I was Godzilla in Tokyo or something. I guess having Applejack and Fluttershy with me might have something to do with that. I’m assuming those two are pretty well respected members of the community, so seeing them okay with me must have satisfied their suspicion for now.

Doesn’t stop them from gawking though. I wave and smile awkwardly to as many ponies as I can as I hobble along on my one leg and crutch. If I’m gonna be the five hundred pound gorilla in the room, I might as well make a good first impression. My slight torture finally ended as they told me we had arrived at the library. I looked up and was surprised to see a tree.

A tree that had a house in it. And it’s somehow it was still alive. How that works, I don’t think I’ll ever know. All I do know is that it reminded me of the Keebler elves.

Applejack walked ahead of me and stood in front of the door, preparing to knock. I decided to stand beside the frame, out of sight of whoever was at the door. Fluttershy just lingered near Applejack, but a few steps back from the door. As Applejack started to knock, a most sinister idea popped into my head.

Should I? Sure. My laughed a bit to myself at the thought. Applejack gave me an amused look and asked, “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing of interest. You’ll see.” I put a finger to my mouth and 'shhh'd with a smile. My smile apparently didn’t foster much trust.

Applejack was about to protest at whatever I had thought until the top half of the library door swung open. I couldn’t see who was there, but I heard another female voice speak up. “Oh, hello, Applejack,” and then there was a small pause, where I assumed she noticed the pony behind her, “and hello to you too, Fluttershy. What brings you here today?”

Applejack's eyes focused on me for a half second before going back to the door. “We have somepony…for you to meet.”

“Oh, a new face? Where is she?”

Applejack laughed at her assumption. “Oh, he is here somewhere.”

“Oh...He? Who is it?”

Fluttershy amazingly decided to enter the conversation. “Oh, well his name is Vince. We found him…well, Applejack found him, on the edge of the Everfree Forest. Hurt pretty badly.”

“Fluttershy helped me patch him up as best we could. Oh, and before you meet him…he’s not exactly a pony.”

“So, a griffin or something? What do you mean? I mean, 'Vince' doesn't exactly sound like name for anything I know of.”

“Well that's the thing. I'm meaning that he’s none of those things.”

“A new species,” spoke Fluttershy.

Her voiced picked up at that. “Wait, a new species? Now you’ve got me interested. I’ll have to get my scientific equipment. Where is he? Can I see him?”

This was it, the perfect moment for me to enact the idea I had a moment ago. I quickly leaned over (as fast as one can with crutches) so that my face was exposes to the owner of the voice in the library. I gave a quick smile and said “Hi!”

She yelped at my sudden appearance and quickly slammed the upper half of the library door. This was all too good. I started to let out an uproarious laugh. Applejack looked on me with an unamused look, but my laughter must’ve gotten to her, because she started to chuckle as well. Fluttershy let out a few small giggles as well. After my mirth died down, Applejack spoke up.

“That wasn’t too nice, you know.”

“Sorry,” I tried to seem as innocent as possible with a sheepish grin. She wasn’t buying it. “It seemed like a great idea at the time.”

She just shook her head. “What are we gonna do with you?”

“You could always throw me in jail like all the troublemakers.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

I just stuck my tongue out again and knocked on the door myself this time. A little more time passed than I would have liked, but eventually I heard a voice speak from the other side of the door. She didn’t open it this time. “Hello?”

“Hi,” is all I could think to say.

Another pause. “Who’s this?”

I chuckled again. “This would be Vince, the guy your friends were talking about…and the one who scared you too.”

“Oh, well sorry about slamming the door. You sort of scared me. A lot.”

“Sorry for that. I used to scare my younger brother and sister all the time, mostly because they would do it right back. It just felt like the right thing to do at the moment, seeing as there was someone who actually didn’t expect it. But yeah, I have a tendency to act without thinking. And like I said, I’m sorry to have frightened you. Chalk it up to childish stupidity.”

She opened the top half of the door again a crack, and as she looked at me yet again, standing in front of the door in full view, I waved. Her eyes floated over to her friends, and she seemed to calm down, opening the top half all the way. She then looked at me with a puzzled expression, since she now had a good look at what I looked like.

The first thing that I noticed about her was the color. She was purple. Everywhere. Her coat, her mane, even her eyes had different shades of the same color. The only thing not purple was one of the highlights in her mane. That was pink. The second thing I noticed is that her bangs were parted with a horn. A unicorn.

So not only talking ponies, but pegasi and unicorns too. It was like a fairy tale book had come to life and I was in it. I have a feeling I was wearing the same perplexed face she was, so I shook my head to snap myself out of it.

“Hi, again…I’m sorry, I forgot your name. I know your friends have said it a few times, but for the life of me I've just blanked.”

“Oh, my name is Twilight Sparkle.”

“And hello to you, Twilight Sparkle," which I accented with a slight bow. "I'm Vincent Martin. Most just call me Vince, though.”

“Nice to meet you, Vince. You know, I’ve never seen anything like you before. What are you, if I may ask?”

I grin. “I've gotten that a lot, recently. And I'm a human. The only one here, from what I can gather.”

Her eyes floated towards me and then back to her friends, then she noticed the crutch under my right arm. Her eyes lit up like she just had an idea. “Oh, I’m sorry. Why don’t you three come on in? You can sit down somewhere, if you'd like.” And with that she walked further in. And the door’s bottom half opened. By itself.

How does that even work? I just shrug to myself. I figure I’ll find out later. Until then I just resigned to say, “Oh, I definitely need to sit down. Get my weight off this leg and all.”

“That’s fine. There’s a sofa right over there.” She pointed to the small couch (small to me anyways) on the right side, in front of the only not-shelved wall on this floor. I looked about. There was a decent amount of books here, for a place this small. I remembered living in a small town about ten, maybe eleven years ago. Its library was about this size, but it’s book selection kinda sucked.

“Thanks,” I finally said as I limped over to the couch and took a load off. I sighed instantly in relief of getting off my feet. I started to massage my legs, starting with the bad one.

I decided to start some small talk. Might as well make up for that dumb prank deal from earlier. “This library has an impressive amount of books. Especially considering the library’s size. Are a lot of them yours?”

She seemed to light up. I figured talking about books was something she liked, living in a library and all. “It’s nice that somepony is impressed by this little library, but no, most are not mine. Most of these were here when I arrive here a few years. I just tend over the library, lending books to other ponies who need them. Although most of the time I think I’m the only one who seems to read them.” She ended that with a sort of sad look on her face.

“Well, I do dabble in reading a little bit. Besides, I’ll probably have to learn a good deal of stuff about this place as quickly as possible. Maybe you could help?”

“Well, sure! I’d be happy to help somepony else learn new things…even when they aren’t a pony,” she smiled sheepishly at how she ended that sentence. “Anyway, I was wondering if I could learn more about you and where you’re from. How about we sort of…trade information of sorts?”

“I wouldn’t be against that, though it’d be better if it were tomorrow. I’m bushed.”

“Most certainly. I’ll have many questions, wouldn’t want you falling asleep in the middle of it all, now would we?”

“Most certainly not,” I finished with a laugh, which was interrupted by a ruckus from outside the library door, in the form of furious knocking.

“Who is it? Everypony should know by now that the door is always unlocked during business hours,” Twilight said.

A pink pony slammed the door open with a crash. “Twilight! I heard about the new thing that walked into town and was headed this way so I ran to tell you an-” she suddenly stopped her torrent of words as her eyes quickly spotted me in the room. What followed was the most overly exaggerated gasp I have ever heard, followed by the rush of air of the pink pony dashing towards me. She stopped just short of my face, not unlike Dash from earlier. Only this time the pony in question had an even lesser grasp on the idea of personal space.

“Omigosh, you’re real! I heard there was some tall creature! Well, some didn’t say creature, some said ‘thing’ or ‘strange fellow’. Maybe one or two ‘monster’s in their but now that I see you, I know you’re not a monster, you’re just different! And new! And if you’re new that means you need to meet as many other ponies as you can so you can have friends, and do you know what calls for?”

“Um…no?” was all I could pathetically say. No words could describe how uncomfortable I was right now. In the corner of my eye, I could tell the others knew what she was going to answer her own question with.

“A…party!” she practically bellowed in my face. I checked my ears absent-mindedly for hearing damage.

“Pinkie?”

“Yes, Twilight?” she said as she held the largest smile she had from earlier.

“A…party might not be the best idea.” Before she could even finish that sentence, I saw Pinkie’s face lose a bit of that smile, but Twilight quickly recovered. “And by that, I mean not now! He’s pretty tired right now. Maybe tomorrow would be better?”

“Well that would be rightfully fine-a-roony with me!” She dramatically jumped off the couch seat next to me onto the wooden floor of the library. “Well, I’m off to venture forth on my quest to make…wait, what’s your name again?”

Even though I had never said it once to her, I let that issue drop. “I’m Vince-”

“-Vince’s day-after-I-showed-up-in-Ponyville party is the best party he’s ever had! I hope you like cake and ice cream, because there’s gonna be a lot of that.”

“Sure, I love those. I like vanilla cake the best. Chocolate ice cream, though.”

“Wise choice. I like you already.” She flashed yet another huge smile and bounced, not ran, but bounced outside.

“…Well that was the strangest experience I’ve had so far. Let’s hope it stays that way.”

Applejack just laughed as she slapped a hoof into my shoulder. I winced a bit, but kept my outcries of pain to myself. “Well that’s just Pinkie Pie. She gets some getting’ use to. Besides, around here, I’m pretty sure that’s gonna be the least weirdest thing by the end of the week.”

“Your ability to inspire confidence astounds me. Is…she really gonna throw a party for me?”

“Yep,” was the general consensus of the group.

“And she’s gonna invite everyone in town?”

“As many who usually decide to show up, yeah,” Twilight said. “That’s about thirty regulars, usually. More, if it’s a special occasion.”

“Joy. I’m gonna really need that sleep. Mind if I take a nap, now?”

“No problem at all. You can use the guest bed. It’s downstairs.” As I got up to follow her downstairs, I turned to the others. “Well, see you girls later. Hopefully I'll wake up early enough to do something around here before nightfall.”

“Seeya later, Vince!”

“Um…bye. It was nice to meet you today.”

I nodded to them and slowly continued down the stairs. Evil nemesis, we meet again. But this time I have a crutch! Haha!

“My little brother Spike is out helping Rarity with her monthly gem-finding venture,” Twilight said as she stood at where I considered my destination. “I’ll tell him that you’re here so he won’t freak out or something.” She laughed at what I could only imagine is the mental image of that event. “Anyway, you’ll be able to meet him when you wake up, and then maybe Rarity later today or tomorrow. But here you go! I hope the bed isn’t too small…”

“Trust me, I slept on a small bed yesterday. With the amount of fatigue I have now, sleeping shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Well good, I’ll let you get right to that. Sweet dreams!” And then she walked back up the stairs and closed the door.

I plopped on the small bed, and felt instant relief, like the craziness of these last few days were finally oozing out, through my skin. I took a deep breath and shifted to get myself confortable. It took no time at all for me to drift into subconciousness, maybe about thirty minutes.

Hopefully what I’ve got here doesn’t get any crazier, which means that it probably will be.