The Adventures of Trotter Grey

The First Day

The world is a strange place.  It can be one grand adventure full of excitement and wonder or it could be a relaxing life full of a pleasant calmness and peace.  You could be the pony who wants to see it all or just settle down in a small town with some friends and family.  Neither of these are the wrong choice, they are both amazing in their own ways.  There is only one wrong way to live and that’s living in fear of life.  Never be afraid of the world.  It’s true it can be scary at some points and things might be hard for a bit, but don’t fear it.  All bad things pass, it’s the nature of the world.  There will be good times and there will be bad times, everypony has to face them.

Just remember one thing, even if you’re scared of the world, don’t fear it…because you don’t have to face it alone.

****

“Promise me we’ll be friends forever, Trotter…”

“Of course I will be!  You’ll my best and only friend!”

“Trotter…”

“Yes?”

“If I was going to be your friend forever…then why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you let me die?”

“…what?”

“You let me die, you killed me, Trotter Grey.  You’re the reason I’m dead!”

“I didn’t mean to, it wasn’t…it wasn’t my…fault…”

“Then why did you leave me alone?  Why did you leave me there?!”

“I’m sorry…”

“You’re always sorry.”

“Please, forgive me.”

“I can’t and I don’t think I will, not until you-”

****

Trotter Grey awoke from his nap.  The train had gone over a bump or something and had shaken him awake.  He flinched at the change of lighting and rubbed his eyes.  After a minute they finally adjusted to the light and his sight was back to normal.  How long had he been asleep for?

Trotter Grey was young unicorn on his way to Ponyville from his hometown, Hollow Shades.  Hollow Shades was small hamlet mainly inhabited by unicorns seeking to further their magical talent at the local college.  This had been one of several reasons Trotter had left home.  Unlike most unicorns local to Hollow Shade, he was absolute garbage at spells and magic.  He knew a few of the more basic spells, like levitation or a simple light spell, but compared to the locals he was the lowest grade of unicorn.

Trotter himself was a unicorn of eighteen.  Like his father he had a fine, light brown coat and a short, messy, grey mane.  He had gotten his mother’s purple eyes and a crimson highlight which hung down the right side of his face.  Upon the age of eight, like most foals of his age, he had gotten his cutie mark, a question mark.  However, how he earned it was mystery to him, one day it just showed up.  At this point in his life he just accepted it, he found it pointless to worry about it.

Trotter looked out the window of the train.  The train had just passed over a river and was heading toward the Canterlot Mountain.  It was probably sometime around twelve, though he really had no idea.  He had gotten on the train maybe an hour or so ago at eleven and it was a four hour trip to Ponyville.  He had tried to take a quick nap to pass the time, but now that he was awake it’d be impossible to fall back to sleep.

Trotter yawned.  He was still tired from his long night.  He had spent all night packing his saddle bags and he hadn’t got much sleep.  At least that’s what he wanted to think.  Trotter didn’t have a lot of things, not because he couldn’t afford them, but rather he didn’t have need for them.  He, in fact, spent most of his night staying up in his bed, he had been way too excited to sleep.

The train shook again.  One of Trotter’s saddle bags fell from the overhead and hit the floor.  Something metal in the bag had made large clanging noise as it hit ground.  Trotter poked his head out to see if any other pony had noticed the loud clanging of his bag.  Upon his professional investigation, which he made from his seat, he deduced that he was the only one in the train car so nopony else had been bothered by it.

Trotter let out a sigh of relief and levitated the bag back up to the overhead.  He sat back in his seat and looked out the window.  He thought of his new life in Ponyville.  What would it be like?  He knew what he wanted, a nice quiet life, open a nice café and just enjoy his time, but that life didn’t come easy.  He didn’t even have a house or a job, all he had was the few bits he earned from his old job.

Trotter shook his head.  That wasn’t a productive train of thought.  He needed something to get his mind of the stress of starting a new life, he needed…

BANG!

The door furthest from Trotter slammed open and brown earth pony galloped in.  Trotter quickly jumped out of his seat and into the aisle.  The earth pony slammed the door and then, at least from Trotter’s perspective, whistled at the door.  The brown pony turned around and Trotter was able to get a good look at him.

He was a taller, light brown stallion with a darker brown mane that was gelled up.  He had bright blue eyes that seemed to smile at Trotter, but they also seemed so old.  He was wearing a green tie and had a sliver pen in his mouth, at least it looked like a pen aside from the blue end of it.

The brown earth pony spit his pen into his hoof and smiled at Trotter.  “Hello there!”  He said quickly and in accent Trotter had never heard before, “Are you alright?  Have you seen anything weird, maybe a strange pony in a suit of armor that’s kind of not armor?”

Trotter shook his head, “Um, no?  Was I supposed to?”

“I’m not sure yet, but anyways I’m the Doctor and we should probably get going!”  The Doctor grabbed Trotter’s hoof and started to pull him down the aisle.

“Whoa! Wait a minute!  Wha-why, no, yes, what do you, mean?”

“We really don’t have ti-”

BANG!  CRASH!

The door the Doctor had come through exploded violent torrent of electricity.  Shards of jagged wood spat out from the explosion severely scratching and wounding the Doctor and Trotter.  The cuts stung deep and Trotter was sure that he was bleeding, he could feel it run down his back legs.

In the wake of the doorway a pony in sliver armor stomped in.  All around his armor were weird patterns, almost like his armor fit together like puzzle pieces.  The pony seemed more like a robot rather than a pony in armor.  His horn was still glowing a blackish blue color and above it was a trail of whitish grey smoke.  What really scared Trotter were these pony’s eyes, they were two black circles and below them was the symbol of a tear drop.

“Doctor.”  The metal pony said in a deep robotic voice, “You are compatible, you must be assimilated.”  The voice was very monotone and artificial.  “If you resist assimilation you will be deleted.”

The Doctor turned and faced the metal pony.  He had a pained expression on his face.  He gritted his teeth and looked at this metal pony as though he was the disgusted with it.  “Cybermare!”  The Doctor shouted, “You’re the last Cybermare in this galaxy, I’m giving you this one chance to transport back to your ship and leave this world in peace!”

Trotter looked surprised.  He looked at the Doctor in pure shock.  “That thing is a mare?!”

The Doctor looked back at Trotter and shook his head, “There’s a robotic cyber pony who I just said is from space and THAT’S you question?!”

Trotter shrugged, “Sorry, but that was the first question I thought of.”

The Doctor chuckled, “Heh, you’re funny, I like you.  What’s your name?”

Trotter tried to smile past the pain in backend, “Oh! Th-Thanks, I’m-”

“Doctor.”  The Cybermare said again, “Will you come without resistance?”

The Doctor rolled his eyes and looked back “Excuse me for just one minute!  I was talking to this nice pony and didn’t you listen to anything I just said?!  I’m giving you one chance to leave!

“Do you decline the assimilation?”  The Cybermare asked again.  The Cybermare took a few steps forward, her hooves clanking as the stomped a crossed the broken door.  Her horn began to spark and the blackish blue glow grew brighter.

The Doctor frowned, “How come nopony ever takes my offer, they always make it so difficult for me.”  The Doctor took out his sliver pen and placed it in his mouth.  “Mmow then,”  The Doctor said, muffled by his pen, “Ooh ight ant to tand ack!”

Trotter took a step forward.  “What did you say?”

The Doctor spit his pen back into his hoof, “I said, Now then, you might want to stand back!”  The Doctor put his pen back in his mouth and faced the Cybermare.

There was a long moment of silence.  The horn of the Cybermare grew brighter and brighter.  The blue of the glow had almost completely faded, all that was left was the black.  The Doctor’s pen lit up and emitted a strange whistling noise.

Trotter had completely forgotten about the pain in backend, the anticipation of what was about to happen completely overpowered the pain.  Every beat of his heart seemed to pound in his chest, if it beat any faster Trotter would have sworn that it would pop right out of his chest.

“Delete.”

There was a flash of light from the Cybermare’s horn followed by a loud whining sound.  Trotter flinched at the light and covered his face with his hoof.  He kept them closed for what seemed to be forever.  Every feeling in his body had left him.  There was just nothing.

****

He could slightly hear the chatter of ponies around him, but they seemed so distant, he could pick out a few words.  The voices seemed to be referring to a hospital or somepony who got hurt, but it was hard to say.  Within his endless sleep one voice seemed familiar.

“Don’t worry Trotter Grey, everything will be okay.”