Fighting Freedom

AN: Just a warning the previous chapters are subject to change. I don't know why, but it was giving me a really hard time. Nothing too major though. Anyways…

AN2: And now they have @_@
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I'm not really sure how, but I managed to sleep through the sun rising. It was probably around 10 a.m. when I woke up. The sun was high in the sky and shone down on me. Obviously Twilight had yet to wake up or decided it was time we go. However, I doubted she would mind if I took a look around without her. I mean what's the worst that could happen?

I started by getting up off the grass. The leafy toga wasn't holding up so well anymore. It didn't smell so great either. Which made my first stop a very easy decision. I walked through the town square and waved to the ponies I saw. Some wave back awkwardly, and others just stared at me. Perhaps they thought Martin had randomly grown in one night. As far as they know, that's normal for humans.

I reached the front door of Rarity's Boutique and was glad to see an "open" sign. I opened the door and a wire bell went off. Rarity must have recently opened up shop because she was still setting up mannequins.

She didn't turn to face me, but said, "One moment please."

I waited patiently for her to finish. It was interesting to watch her use magic. Everything floating every way, going where it needed to go. Once she was finished she finally turned to face me.

"Now how can I help youuuaaaaahh!"

The end of her sentence turned into a gasp of either fear or disgust when she saw me. Obviously my appearance was less than pleasing. I hope it was just the leafy smelly part. I was getting rather attached to the idea of a toga. Lot of freedom if you know what I mean. Maybe I could invest in a kilt.

Before I could speak Rarity began talking again, "Never mind dear, I know exactly how I can help you. You must be the new human that arrived correct? Unless Martin had some growth spurt."

I nodded at her, but didn't say anything.

Rarity looked me up and down before motioning for me to follow her. She walked to the front door and flipped the sign so it read closed.

"Your name is Socrates yes?"

"Nope."

Rarity turned and looked at me. I was looking up at the ceiling, or anywhere that wasn't her. I should never let ponies lead me anywhere. Well unless they decide to wear clothes. I'm just glad we weren't going upstairs.

"I'm sorry that was what Twilight told me. So what is your name dear?"

"That might be because Twilight thinks that is my name."

Rarity seemed annoyed at me, "Why does she think that?"

"Probably because I told her it was."

Rarity didn't say anything, and I simply stared at the ceiling.

"Well why did you tell her that?" Her voice was less consoling now.

"I didn't know what my name was. The toga and beard made me feel like this guy who's name was Socrates. So I kinda just adopted his name for awhile."

Rarity's voice went back to soothing, "You don't know your own name? "

"Well I do now."

Rarity stomped her hoof down in annoyance when I didn't elaborate.

"And…?"

"Oh right. My name is Silver, pleased to meet you Rarity."

Rarity smiled when she finally knew my name. Almost as if she had accomplished something rather difficult. (That moment when you realize your hand has been off by one key the entire time. AHHHHHGGG)

She led me into a back room that looked like it was for makeovers. There was a small bath and one of those standing curtains. There was a desk with several mirrors on it. Plenty of those weird things that girls put in their hair were laying around. Rarity stopped in the middle of the room.

"First things first. Get that horrible contraption off your body."

I looked at my toga and then said, "I'd rather not."

"Don't be ridiculous darling, how could you want to stay in that?"

I looked down again, more for emphasis than anything. "Well if I remove this toga, then I'll be naked in front of you. While I don't want to be rude, we have only just met."

Rarity just scoffed at me, "Don't be silly. I see plenty of naked stallions every day. I'm naked right now if you failed to notice. Now take off that horrible excuse for clothes."

"I've been trying to. Besides I'm not a stallion, I'm a human. We're a bit different anatomically. So I think I'll leave this on. At least give me something to change into"

Rarity scoffed louder this time, "You'll be getting a good wash before you put anything else on. So…"

She stopped talking and her horn started glowing. Maybe if I was had been paying attention I would have noticed my toga glowing. Which would have allowed me to act, but alas, I was not. The toga fell to the floor as it unraveled itself. By the time I noticed it was too late. On the bright side, Rarity's face was priceless. Her eyed had gotten big and her mouth was slightly open. She fell on her backside and just stared blankly.

I won't be a fool and say anything about my physical qualities. I seriously doubt I could compare to a stallion in that regards. However my set was indeed much different from a stallions, and it probably shocked her.

I sighed and just stood there feeling the breeze. I became really interested in the nails on one of my hands and leaned on my staff. Rarity had finally covered her eyes with her hoof, although I could swear she was still peaking.

"You're lucky I'm a chill guy. Otherwise we would be having some issues here." (I think that counts as like a quadruple entendre)

Rarity just stammered at me, "Just-- just get in the bath."

I barely fit in the bath. At least the shower head protruding from it was a hose like one. I pulled the standing curtain around the tub. As I began washing up Rarity threw several things over the curtain. Bottles of shower stuff came close to hitting me.

"Oi, watch where you're throwing things. Just hand them to me next time."

Rarity's high pitched voice called out, "Sorry!"

She must still have been deathly embarrassed about the whole thing. Which is odd as I was the exposed one. After I felt I had cleaned myself more than I ever have, I stopped the water flow. Rarity flipped a towel over the standing curtain. I grabbed it, and dried myself off. I wrapped it around my waist and stepped out. Rarity began looking me up and down for longer than necessary.

I sighed and drawled, "Are you done ogling me yet?"

Rarity turned bright red again and walked off. She returned with a measuring tape and began taking measurements. We didn't say a single word throughout the entire ordeal. When she was finished measuring me I did point out that I had no money.

In response she said, "I think I owe you this darling."

Not sure if to call that luck or not. Whatever free clothes are free. Of course I had no idea what she would be making.

"Uhh Rarity, what exactly is it you are doing."

Work seemed to be a safe topic as she began talking right away, "Well from the clothes I got from Martin when he got here, I was able to make some decent clothes for him. Now I just need to write down the adjustments I need to make, and I'll make a pair for you to wear. I suppose for now you'll need something to wear though… wait right there."

Ya, don't worry. I'll just go run around outside in only a towel. When Rarity came back she had a fairly long piece of green fabric. She handed it to me and went back to work. I made another toga out of the material. Looks like I wasn't giving the Greek look up yet. I didn't bother asking about shaving. I rather liked my beard like this at the moment.

Rarity looked at me when I was finished and said, "It'll have to do for now. If you come back later today I'm sure I'll have these finished."

Before I left I said, "I know we got off to a bad start, but I think we should try this again sometime. Hopefully with a little less of you forcibly removing my clothes eh?"

With those last words I left Rarity red faced again. I laughed as I walked back into the town square. Several ponies gave me odd looks, but apparently they had remembered that staring was rude. There was a fountain on one section of the square and I went to examine it. There was a white pony with a reddish mane next to the fountain who was with a cart full of flowers.

I walked up to the fountain and stuck my hands in the water. The water was cool and felt good. I cupped my hands and splashed it against my face. It didn't feel refreshing. I always see people doing that, and I thought it must be the best feeling ever. Well it isn't, especially when the water is freezing. I shook my head attempting to get the water out of my beard. The white pony let out a small chuckle at my actions.

I looked over and gave her a glare. She covered her mouth with a hoof, but I could tell she was laughing even harder now.

"I'm glad someone here thinks I'm funny. I'm Silver if you were interested."

Stifling some more chuckles the pony said, "I'm Roseluck, and I think it's fair to say I'm quite interested. I don't mean to be rude, but are you another one of those who-mans?"

I gave my beard a good squeeze and said, "Nope. I didn't even know this place had who-mans. I'm what they call a human. However I don't mind the term hairless ape if you feel it necessary to compare me so."

Roseluck laughed again. It was a sweet laugh that seemed to chime in the air. I liked the way these ponies laughed. Of course they've got nothing on pirates, but they have a special charm.

"I hadn't even thought of that."

I sat down on the side of the fountain and motioned for her to join me.

"So Mrs. Roseluck, what are you doing out here so early in the day?"

She just looked at me confused, "Early? It's nearly noon."

I pretended to look at a watch on my arm. "Well what do you know!"

Roseluck just giggled again. I couldn't tell if she thought I was actually funny, or was one of those giggly types. She seemed nice enough though, so I decided to chill around the fountain for awhile. All I needed was a dove or pigeon now. If I found one I was going to name it Archimedes. Once again I had yet to eat a meal. I was always bad at remembering to eat. I was lucky if I got two meals in a day. Although I don't think my stomach has ever made so much noise.

Roseluck heard my stomach and let out another laugh. I know laughing is good for you, but this girl was over doing it. I don't think I've ever heard of someone ODing on laughter. Roseluck looked at her cart of flowers and then back at me. In the distance I could see a restaurant. One of those that has the outdoor section in front.

To my disappointment Roseluck decided to ignore the situation. Instead we sat in silence for a few seconds. Eventually she opened her mouth and asked,

"So Silver, what do you think of Ponyville?"

The corners of my mouth twitched upwards. I don't think I could even describe the things I felt about this place.

"Well it's a lot cheerier than where I come from. Although where I come from is a bit debatable now that I think about it. However if we're talking about Earth then that statement still stands. Everyone here seems to be nice enough."

To be fair on Earth, there used to be a time where life was like that. Before technology really took off. Even during WW2 there was a good neighbor feel to most neighborhoods. Back when travel wasn't so easy and you lived next to the same people for most of your life. However, as we all know, that changed quickly. Everyone is suspicious of everyone else nowadays.

Roseluck looked at me as if she was trying to read my mind. When that apparently failed she said, "So you really are from a different world. Forgive me if I'm being rude, but I never really got what was going on. A week ago this strange creature shows up. Then we had that town meeting where he introduced himself and told us all that he wasn't here to harm us. Beyond that I don't really know anything."

I looked up in the sky, "Well when you put it that way, it makes me feel like an alien. Which in truth I really am. Creature from a whole different world. I suppose to you it isn't that big of a deal though. I mean you guys have magic so this can't be that weird."

Roseluck eyed me curiously, "You didn't have magic where you were from?"

I shook my head, "Not a single drop. Although to be honest some of the stuff we had might as well have been magic to simpler species. I won't go into too much detail about how humans as a species started off because there's a lot of debate about that. However man eventually established himself as top of the food chain by using tools. Way back tools used to be bone hammers. Now we have tools that can send messages across the planet instantly."

Roseluck replied, "I didn't really need the history of your race you know. I only asked if you had magic."

Roseluck giggled a little bit after finishing her sentence.

I shrugged, "Sometimes we get more than we ask for. Sometimes we don't get what we ask for. And sometimes we get something completely unexpected."

"Wow you just got all serious on me."

"Me? Serious? I don't think such a thing exists. It was the toga talking. It requires that I make a philosophical (Hate that word) statement at least once a day."

Roseluck giggled again. I was starting to lean towards her being the giggly type. She seemed nice enough though.

It was my turn to ask Rose something as I said, "I'm curious Roseluck, are you scared of me? Does my appearance frighten you or disgust you? You can be honest with me, I won't judge your judging of me."

Roseluck shook her head, "Not at all. So you look funny, big deal. I've met some other funny looking creatures that are nice enough. Some dragons can be incredibly nice. On the other hoof, I've met ponies who can be really nasty. My mother used to tell me that it's what's on the inside that makes someone beautiful. Not that outward appearances don't help."

I've heard that saying before, but never so seriously. I never really thought about it like that before though. I mean I applied it to humans in general, but never between two races. Then again it wasn't like there was multiple intelligent species on Earth for me to compare. Not like I can strike up a conversation with a dolphin. Besides he would probably want to talk about fish, and I hate those. Rose interrupted me by asking,

"Do humans usually wear togas?"

"They did a very long time ago. Now they only do it if they get really drunk."

Again she giggled. The way her body vibrated a little each time made me think she was going to fall into the water. I don't feel bad knowing that I would enjoy seeing that. But I don't think we were on 'you can push me into a lake and still by my friend' terms. I mean if she did it I would be fine. Then again as long as nothing valuable was broken, anybody could push me in and I wouldn't care.

As much as I was enjoying this discussion with Roseluck, I wanted to do a bit more exploring. And possibly find a snack. Depressing that meat was out of the question. That isn't to say if bacon magically fell from the sky I wouldn't eat it. No one should ever refuse free bacon. Unless it's turkey bacon, but I might be a bit prejudice.

"Well thanks for chatting with me Roseluck. Hopefully I'll see you around and we can do this again." I got up from the fountain and picked up my staff. I didn't really use it as a walking support, but I did make it look like I did.

Roseluck got up and said, "Wait just a moment Silver, I want to give you something."

She walked over to her cart and picked out a flower from the cart. I'm not really much of a flower person, I doubt many guys are, but this one did look really good. It had a deep red bulb surrounded by yellow leaves. Black dots spotted the yellow leaves. She carried the flower in her mouth and dropped it in my open hand. I tried to avoid the saliva on the stem, but it was everywhere. I took the flower making a mental note to wash my hands.

Roseluck said to me, "That's a very special flower. I call it the Red Spring Blossom. Only give it to someone who is special to you."

I looked at the flower and thought this over in my head. On one hand she was giving it to me implying that I was special to her. On the other hand she could just be being nice and thought I would give it to someone else. Which of course brings focus to the idea of someone special. Did that mean a romantic interest? Roseluck was looking at me expectantly, so I stopped thinking and took the safe course of action.

"Thank you Rose." I kneeled down and put the flower in her mane behind her ear. I continued speaking,

"I'm only supposed to give this flower to special people. A good friend told me that. I may have only just met you Roseluck, but that has been enough time for me to know you're very special."

Rose looked away from me blushing, but smiling. I can be such a charmer when I want to be. Only problem is that I rarely want to be. Unless its snake charming. I've always wanted to try that out. I stood up and began walking away.

My stomach made its position known to me again. I think it has made more noise today than ever before. Must be something in the air. Deciding to please my stomach I headed to where I was pretty sure I could get a free snack.
On my way I ran into a light brown pony. I nearly bumped him on the head with my staff when I wasn't looking. He ducked in time and said to me,

"Watch where your swinging tha…."

Oblivious to his words trailing off I said, "Sorry about that. Have my head in the clouds so to speak."

I continued walking towards my destination looking up at the sky. The mention of clouds had me looking out for pegasi. The pony trotted up to me and kept pace with me.

"Is that you Martin?"

I looked down at the pony and said, "Do I look like a young teenager to you?"

I wasn't trying to be mean, but come on. If I knew one pony, and then I saw another one, I wouldn't assume they were the same.

"Well no, but…"

I stopped walking and looked down at him, "Then I'm most likely not him. Name's Silver if you were interested."

"I'm Caramel. I didn't realize there was another one of you big guys walking around. Are you from the same place? Is there more of you coming? When did you even get here?"

He wasn't talking fast, but he was talking loud enough to making it hard to talk over him without shouting. When he was finished I said,

"First of all I'm really not that big. I'm average height for a human, and probably a bit on the scrawny side. Secondly yes, I am from the same place that Martin is. Personally I think it's just coincidence, but I have been wrong before. Thirdly I have no idea if more are coming, there could be, or maybe not. Finally, I got here yesterday at about noon."

He nodded his head, "Well that explains why I haven't seen you around. I was out of town until just today. Still have a few days off from work though. I was visiting some family out in the country. My Uncle and Aunt live out there and they just had a new born foal."

This was one of those moments that I was talking about. Where you get a bunch of information that is seemingly random. However, I listened to him talk without interrupting. He was nice enough to walk the road with me, so I decided to be nice to him. When he stopped talking after mentioning the foal I said,

"What did they name him?"

Caramel laughed then said, "They still haven't decided on a name. He's a tough little fellow though. Doesn't have wings or a horn, but he was walking upright on his third day."

He stopped talking again, but seemed more in thought. After a little bit he said,

"Why am I telling you all this? I don't even really know you."

I shrugged, I seemed to be doing it a lot, "I doubt you'll believe that it's my charming personality and dashing good looks. My best guess is that you're just so excited you want to share the news with everyone. I can't imagine what you'll be like when you have your own kid."

Caramel just stared at me, "That kind of makes sense. Well thanks for listening Silver. Nice to talk to you!"

With those final words he turned around and headed back home. If I could remember correctly he worked at the farm. Wasn't sure if he was related or not though. I filed that question in a find out later folder. I had arrived at my destination. I looked up at the sign and read 'Sweet Apple Acres'. I walked through the archway and down the path. After the entrance disappeared from view, I walked off the path.

Most of the trees around here were empty of apples. Hopefully it was just the middle of Applebuck season. After walking in for a few minutes I found the perfect tree. It had a low enough branch that I could reach, and it was full of apples. I reasoned that they wouldn't miss just a few apples. I plucked one from the tree and sat down to enjoy the snack.

I don't want you to think I'm a horrible person and steal anything I want, but I'm not exactly the greatest guy ever. I can't resist all the temptations in life. Besides these apples looked just too good to be left alone. One could argue that I was planning on thievery since I deliberately headed here, but whatever. Better than eating at a restaurant and not paying.
I threw the core from the apple on the ground and had started on the second one. When I was about halfway through it a I heard a voice,

"Just what in the hay do you think y'all are doing?"

I looked up from my snack to see Applejack only a few feet from me. My first thought was to wonder how she had snuck up on me. The second came out vocally as,

"Oh bugger."

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AN: I like this much better. I'll probably be going back and editing the other chapters. If you were wondering, I don't have anything pre written. This is a fic after all. Something that I do in my free time. Although it might be a good idea to have someone check over it for errors for you guys. Remember to comment! I do so love them... even if I'm not sure what they mean.