The Physics of Gyro Scope

Chapter Two

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That Friday, the rest of Rarity's friends gathered for a dinner party. I'm kind of nervous. I may be able to work with younger kids, but I am not really good with others my age or older. I mostly stay outside, whacking a snowman with the staff. I had poured water on it, so the thing was ice. Every five hits or so, a bit of ice chips off. Eventually the head cracks in half and half slides off, shattering on the cold hard ground. I hear the snow crunching behind me. Somebody is approaching me. I turn around to see Rainbow Dash wearing a scarf.

"What're you doing?" She asks, looking at the half dead iceman.

"Uh, training. Sorta. Not really." I reply, glancing at dented and chipped figure.

"Training for what exactly?"

"Don't know." Rainbow Dash is silent, then asks me a question I dislike to answer.

"So I've noticed you don't really look at Pinkie Pie the same way as us. You don't seem to trust her or like to be near her. What's up with that?"

"I've.....seen things that will never be forgotten about her. Nightmarish things."

"Like what?"

"If I told you, you wouldn't look at her the same way either."

"Just tell me."

You really don't want to know." I hear a sound nearby, like that of three little fillies. My chipped ear twitches. I turn around to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders, wearing little dark red capes with a blue and gold emblem on the side. They seem excited.

"So what's the world you come from like?" Scootaloo asks, looking up at me.

"Uh, nothing like this world."

"What d'you mean?" Apple Bloom says,

"We're not peaceful. We are a world of war."

"Why on earth are y'all like that?" AppleJack demands, coming out into the open.

"I don't know! We just are!"

"Surely you're not like that."

"I don't know what I'm like. Ponies are peaceful. We're not so peaceful. In the year 1939 in our world, the biggest war of the time being started. World War Two. My country, the United States of America, didn't want anything to do with it. But in 1941, one of the enemy countries, Japan, bombed us, killing hundreds of innocent people. The Germans, the big leaders of the bad side, were knocking down countries, one by one. Almost nothing can stop it. But then a group of small little countries says, "No." We launched two attacks on Japan, dropping our most secret weapon. The atomic bomb. We destroyed to Japanese cities and eventually won, along with France, Britain, and a few other countries." I explain.

"What are bombs?" Rainbow Dash asks.

"Imagine a metal capsule big enough for all six of you guys, that when it hits the ground, it explodes. The atomic bomb was the most destructive one ever made. When you split an atom, it create a huge wave of energy, like when you break something like a stick, is makes a 'crack' and sometimes hurts when you break it. The atomic bomb was more than a trillion times that powerfull. That's what the atomic bomb did. Devastated two whole cities."

"Why did you do that?" Sweetie Belle asks incredulously

"Revenge. If you go to the place where I'm from and go to another state, you can see the wreckage the Japanese caused to our country. Do you understand why we did this? It was for the innocents they killed." I reply grimly.

"He's right y'know." Gage says, coming outside.

"Well don't start any wars here." AppleJack growls, pulling her hat lower just to make a point.

"Why would I? I've got nothing to gain!"

"Shut up!" Gage yells, getting up on his rear hooves. AppleJack glares at him but is silent. A blast of bitterly cold wind blasts over us. We all shiver and retreat into Carousel Boutique, where we all bundle up under blankets. I notice that most of the ponies stay away from me, aside from the Crusaders. Actually, one third of the Crusaders. Only one of them seems to not hate me and all humans, and that, to my surprise, is Sweetie Belle. She lightly grabs a blanket in between her front teeth and pulls it over me.

"Oh, thanks Sweetie!" I say, tousling her pink and purple mane. I see Rarity shoot her sister a concerned look. The little filly doesn't notice and puts a blanket around herself, close to me. We eventually all fall asleep to the rattling wind.

Hearth's Warming Eve (or Christmas, whatever) is just around the corner. I see decorations start to come up, such as lights, trees, wreaths and, (for some reason) giant candy canes. Ponies apparently have the same décor as humans. This year, all six are staying in Ponyville. I suspect they don't trust me. Not after my peaceful speech. Only two ponies really respect me. Gage and Sweetie Belle. I find out that ponies aren't like us this time of year. They don't get presents for each other, but that doesn't stop me. The eve of the winter holiday, I come home to Carousel Boutique to a surprisingly warm welcome. I sling my saddlebags off. They're heavier than normal today. I see that the kitchen has been set up for eleven ponies. I smell fresh bread, apple products, and salad. The Cutie Mark Crusaders are bouncing around the dress shop, looking very excited. Hiding my saddlebags, I pull out my laptop and some speakers I had borrowed from the local DJ. Setting it up in an area where the sound carried the best and put on some Christmas music. It reminded me of home and made me sad, thinking of the holidays I would never have with my family. Walking downstairs, I see Gage holding a package, about the size of a small box, about the height of a picture frame, wrapped in a familiar pixel wrapping paper. It seems familiar. Gage hands it to me.

"Look at who it's from." He says seriously. I look at the tag. In familiar, neat, curved handwriting (I say handwriting, because this was wasn't written by a pony" it says:

To: Aidan, From Aspyn. I know we haven't talked in a while, and I wanted to say goodbye, because the police and your parents say you aren't coming back. I wish I'd gotten to know you better.

Love, Aspyn.

I nearly drop the package. I remember that name. Along with the feeling of almost every negative emotion there was. I look directly at my friend

"How the hell did this get here?" I growl at the turquoise maned Unicorn. He looks down.

"It just appeared on my way here. Fell out of a tree," He says, "Go on. Open it." I do and a pair of steel steampunk-type wings with gears at the base on a pedestal a familiar crest in the middle. It was the symbol that was a v crossed with a capital a without the crossbar, an I in the middle. I recognized this crest and so did Gage.

"Remember this?"

"Yup. Sixth Grade, Tech Ed. Paper stages, we failed. This was our logo. Ironclad Inc. was the name of our company." I reply, a glint of sadness flickering across my face. Aspyn was the girl I had crush on for a while. Years later, she'd found someone else. Sad? I think so. This letter changed my personality for a while. I keep hold of the statue and walk away, face blank, but mind racing. I feel lots of things. I feel, off. I've never felt like this. I walk up to the laptop and place the statue six inches from the wood-paneled machine. I feel a tap on my foreleg. Looking down, I see the younger Unicorn looking up at me.

"Is something wrong, Gyro?" She asks,

"No."

"Oh, come on. I know an upset pony when I see one. You can tell me!" the little filly says, her emerald eyes filled with thought, moving so quickly that I can barely follow them.

I give her a reply of silence. Silence and that's it.

"Oh, okay. You don't have to talk." She says, looking back down to her level. I click on a song that starts to play and I hum along. "Come All Ye Faithful" was a bit religious, but I liked it. Sweetie Belle looks up at me in confusion. Ponies don't have the same religions as humans. I change the song to something a bit different. Not Christmas related but still a good song. Kid appropriate, unlike some of my other songs. It was Demons, by one of my favorite bands, Imagine Dragons. I sing along to it softly and look out over the laughing ponies. That used to be me when I was little. Now, I had changed and I wasn't really the festive type. Rarity approaches her younger sister.

"Sweetie Belle! What did I tell you about /him/?" She keeps the last word quiet so that I couldn't hear. I also hate people talking behind my back or saying things about me that I don't know about.

"What about me?" I demand, normally calm eyes narrowing.

"Nothing, nothing!" The older Unicorn says.

"You are a terrible liar." I growl, grabbing Vondr with my mouth.

"You are dangerous."

"Me? I can't say I haven't defended myself under extreme circumstances, but I wouldn't go to dangerous." I reply defensively, Vondr sliding back into place just to make a point.

"You talk about these wars, and bombs as if you know them."

"We studied it in school!"

"You studied violence in school?!" Twilight asks, seeming scandalized. She had flown up (with difficulty) to see what this argument was about.

"Yes we did, because we need to defend ourselves. My kind live in a cold world. Not everybody is nice. If you'd seen the news a couple years ago, you'd know," I say, raising my voice for this first time in a while, "So don't think I'm violent."

"Quiet!' Sweetie Belle pipes up, her loud voice carrying throughout the dress shop, "All of you! This is a time for kindness. not anger and blaming! We need to not argue and we need to be nicer to each other!"

"Very inspiring, Sweetie." Rarity replies dryly.

"I agree with Sweetie Belle. We shouldn't argue." I say, then under my breath, "Much less over me."

"Thank you!" Sweetie Belle replies in an exasperated voice. I smile and hide a laugh. Rarity sighs and walks downstairs, along with Twilight. After dinner, I have all of the ponies in the house gather in the living room. I hand out wrapped packages to each of the ponies.

And Christmas came to the household