Lead Me To Light
Chapter 8: Welcome the Beast
Previous ChapterNext ChapterSnaps, pops, and cracks were all the sounds that Matt created as he woke up, stretching and twisting his body. After the last crack he stood up from his bed and took the black square object from before. He placed it in his pocket as looked outside the window, behind the house was a empty plain field of grass. Nothing but isolation from civilization or natural mazes. He left the room and into the living room and looked for Fluttershy, but she was nowhere to be seen. "Fluttershy? Fluttershy where are you?" He searched the room but the butterscotch colored pony was nowhere to be found.
Suddenly, a small thwack was felt at the back of Matt's head as he looked behind him, only to find the angry snow white rabbit known as Angel with a familiar sour face. "Oh it's you....do you know where she is?" He asked bluntly as Angel reached behind him and pulled out a paper note that was twice his size. How the little rabbit had pockets or the ability to hide something like that was beyond Matt. Matt took the note and read it.
Dear Matt,
I hope that this is the language that you humans can write...umm....sorry if you can't read this. But I went to the flea market to buy some fresh produce for lunch, in the meantime can you please wait for me inside the house. If it's not too much to ask for.
Also my friends and I are going to discuss about something
discuss about your problems
-discuss about how we are going to introduce the town to you.
-Fluttershy
"Yeaaa....no. I am not going to wait here. It's beautiful outside and I deserve some fresh air." Matt proclaimed as he tossed the note in the trash bin, took his belongings, and simple walked outside and around to the back of Fluttershy's house. He felt something small trying to pull against his leg, but he ignored it and just wanted to be outside. He took his fire arms, machete, and bag with him and proceeded to reach the house's entrance. But a final miniature punch struck him in the foot. He look down to find Angel having a temper tantrum.
The snow white rabbit tried so hard to give the human verbal language of "GO HOME!" or "Don't Go Out!", but all attempts were swept away from Matt's ignorance. As for Matt, well he just kept walking and started thinking.
They want to help me.....but I don't need help........do I?
Matt continued to walk in the plain grass field, but his body became lazy to him. He gave a massive yawn and sat with his legs crisscrossed on the soft carpet like grass. But something kept nudging him under his foot. He lifted his foot only to find Angel still bounded to his foot, trying to drag him back to the hut. Matt, annoyed with the stubborn rabbit, grabbed him and put him to his faced with his teeth snarling out like a beast.
"Listen up you little shit!" Matt started with a ferocious growl, as Angel started to build up fear from the human. "Leave me be or you'll be in my stomach and molded in shit. I know it's your job to enforce her request, but now I'm going to corrupt that. Now leave now or else I'll turn you into stew." The darkness of his words traversed into Angel's thoughts as he unwillingly agreed to Matt's request. Matt let go of his prey and made him scurry off back towards the hut. The darkness of Matt soul then steamed off as his slowly laid back on the soft pillow like grass as he took a few deep breaths.
The grass mentally filled his mind with ease and peace as the smell of cleanliness and anti-pollutants. It eased him so much, it caused the nerves and muscles of his eye lids to slowly shut down and drift him into sleep.
30 minutes later
*tap tap tap*
Matt felt a disturbance against his forehead, something physical, but he ignored it. But the disturbance continued on and on and he began to build up a irritation to the physical annoyance. And after a few more taps he snapped, popping his eyes open, and took a quick deep breath to yell at his irritation but paused right before his scream. Noticing that it was Fluttershy who was disturbing his nap.
"Um....hello.....Matt...."
Matt slowly filtered his anger scream by exhaling slowly and regained his consciousness. He stood up to wonder what Fluttershy would do to him for ignoring her request. "Alright Fluttershy, can I ask why you woke me up? Or is this punishment?"
"P-Punishment? Punishment for what?" Fluttershy was confused as to why Matt thought he was to be punished.
"Punished for going out and not staying inside. Remember that note you wrote?"
"What note? I didn't write any note like that. I like seeing all creatures free and curious of any outside nature."
"Wait.....what? Hang on......" Matt thought for a second. He thought back to Fluttershy's hut and the only other intelligent being in that household was able to write. Or at least understand language. "Wait a minute.....does Angel know how to read?"
"Y-Yes."
"Then I think I found your culprit. He must've wrote that note to keep me isolated from the outside."
"Oooo that Angel, I knew he wouldn't like you." Fluttershy said in a fluster as her feathers ruffled up.
"Its fine, I don't expect him to. And I don't blame him."
"Well....i still don't like the fact that he's being a big meanie towards you. *sigh* Well....can I ask that you follow me Matt? You're not in trouble if you were going to ask."
"Alright, just let me get some defenses ready incase a riot or angry mob forms." Matt said as he predicted the riots in his head. Flaming torches, sharp pitchforks, and signs of denial and fear flowed in his mind as he turned off safety on both of his guns. He placed them aside and pull out his machete, and cleaned the blade for any fresh defensive or offensive actions from the town. "Alright lets go." Matt said as the two walked in the direction of the town.
The walk was mostly silent, but soon evolved into chatter and small gossip about their lives. Matt would talk about how easy human life was with technology that sounded like a fantasy to Fluttershy. And Fluttershy would fantasize about the easy life of magic here which sounded like a fairy tale towards Matt, but it was real. Matt would also talk about how music was so portable and light, along with memories with just a tap with a finger. As Fluttershy would also share of how strong imagination or tamable physics are in the world, especially when she told Matt that the pegasi control the weather.
"Wait hang on......you can control the weather? CONTROL THE WEATHER!?" Matt exclaimed loudly as Fluttershy squirmed down cowardly, holding her eyes closed with her hooves, from the loud voice Matt had within. Matt noticed how loud he was and how Fluttershy was hiding behind her hooves as he scratched his head. "Eh heh.....my bad. So what do you mean you control the weather?"
"I mean that uh...we...make it?"
".....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................What?" Now Matt was really confused. The skill of making weather was extremely impossible in his world, but possible in this. But Matt wanted to see this for myself.
"I mean we make weather. Like we hoof craft snowflakes, we can move clouds around, we make rainbows, we create wind patterns. In a long story short, we have a weather schedule." Matt stopped in his tracks, confused eyes and open mouth locked onto Fluttershy as a simple word emphasized his expression; flabbergasted.
After the walk of sharing, confusion, and bonding concluded with the entrance of the town. Although Matt stopped, a thorn at his side prevent him from further entering the town. Fluttershy who was worried for the human, flew in front of him and wondered what ensnared his steps. "Matt....is something wrong?"
"Something is wrong Fluttershy." He sighed, imagining thoughts of riots and anger. He could already see pitchforks and torches in motion, although he mainly imagined them. "Can you just tell me where to go so I can meet you there instead?"
"W-Why?"
"Because, I don't want to humiliate you or embarrass you in front of the whole town. Seeing as they view me with a scary and horrifying mask, but I don't care about them. Although I do slightly care of what I'm involved in." He said as he placed his hand on Fluttershy's hair and gently fluffed it. "Now can you tell me where to go?"
"O-Okay. There is this tiny bar not too far from here. Its a small building with a vinyl record and a white feather on the door. And the title for the bar is called Modal Feathering Soul."
""Modal Feathering Soul"? A strange name for a bar don't you think?" Matt asked, scratching his head.
"I....guess...but I know you'll like it. It was.....uh....my idea." Fluttershy said as she flew close to Matt's ear and whispered a few words. "Its just left from here and straight. Its at the edge of town, you won't miss it." Fluttershy said as she walked in the direction she instructed Matt to follow. Matt waited a few minutes until Fluttershy was out of his sight, making it easy for spectators to lessen hypothesizes of him as a stalker or beast.
After a few more minutes, he decided to walk in the direction of Fluttershy's path and search for the "tiny bar" she had spoke of. Unfortunately, it did not take long for inappropriate spectators to observe the beast. A few feebly yelped profanity or names at the beast, such as "monster" or insults such as "get out of our town", they never stopped. During the walk a pony called out to the monster, Matt heard the words "Hey Monster!" to his left to find two small ponies.
Both were unicorn colts and were contrasting in size and color. There was a smaller and chubby one with a baby green coat, orange mane and tail, a pair of scissors for a cutie mark. The other pony of the duo was a taller colt with a carrot orange coat, a swampy green mane and tail, and a snail as a cutie mark. The chubbier one of the due held an egg in it's magical grip as he made a sour face towards Matt, while the other one had a goofy smile on his face.
"Hey monster, we're sick and tired of you scaring our town." The colt held up the egg high and was ready to throw it. And so he did, but not as expected. The throw itself was weak as the unicorn failed to notice that the human was 10 yards away from him. And to make matters worse, the throw was so weak that it only flew 5 feet in front of him. The unicorn looked at his weak throw and then looked at the human, who's expression had no words to parallel. His eye brows scrunched together as burning anger attempted to weld them together.
The colt, realizing his mistake and the monster's anger, quickly turned to his companion in panic. "Quick Snails, get the rolling chair of doom!"
"Guhhh Okay." The orange colt used his magic and brought in from behind, a simple wooden stool on wheels. The orange colt then turn around and bucked the stool, causing it to roll towards Matt at a good speed. Although physics won this battle as well as the stool rolled slower and slower at Matt as it simply just patted his shin. "Uhhhh Snips....I don't think it worked."
"No it worked. It should have hurt him!"
Matt, who had an irritated face, reached for his machete and slowly pulled out the steel blade, imitating all spectators and the two childish colts in front of him. He gently placed the tip of the blade on the stool, then he quickly raised it up, and forced it down like a meteor. The blade stuck to the wood of the stool like glue, strong enough that he lifted up the stool from the blade and slammed it down on the ground. It shattered to chips and chunks as his invisible audience all gasped within their own homes.
Matt simply sighed, sheathed his machete, and continued walking in the direction of his location. Everypony in the atmosphere all felt chills crawling down their spines, the two colts turned to goats, falling down on their sides frozen as a popsicle.
As he was walking, he gave a pause to his pace. He stopped and looked around him, still seeing all his spectators and gave a devilish grin for all to see. "I hope you think I'm a monster! Because I wasn't the one who drew the first pen!" He announced, as he continued walking his path with the building mere yards away from him. He could see the bar Fluttershy had talking about, along with the very record and feather tied to the door. He walked up to it and gave it a gently knock.
*knock knock knock*
The door opened as Matt looked down, only to find a single whitish peach stallion pegasus with a jet black mane below him with half opened eyes. But for some reason, his eyes looked familiar, but he hasn't met anyone like him before. "Oh uh....hello." He welcomed, smiling as he opened the door wider. "Are you Matt?"
"Um yes, who are you?"
"Oh I am Jinuu Hane, pleasure to meet you. Please, come in." His accent, fast but strange at the same time.
"Alright....is Fluttershy here?"
"Yes, she is here, please come in." Matt entered the building and looked around him, and it was bigger on the inside. A whole zen garden surrounded him, looking bigger than a institution. Bamboo everywhere, mist slowly flowed around him, a large river surrounded him with koi freely swimming in the shallow waters.
"Please tell me this whole place is a wall paper."
"No, all real. I don't know why, simple." Jinuu explained as he trotted off to a small amphitheater. Matt, still dumbfounded, returned outside of the hut to check it's exterior size. And sure enough it was small as a shed, but bigger on the inside.
"Wah how......ugh magic is gonna destroy my knowledge of physics." He said, sighing heavily for his brain.
"Come Matt, follow me!" He heard Jinuu exclaim as Matt quickly rushed to catch up with the pony. As he reached the amphitheater, he noticed a few ponies sitting around the theatre. All had smiles on their face with a relaxed sitting position, and they all greeted him. Actually greeted him instead of fearing him.
"Hello, you're Matt right?" A dark blue pegasus stallion asked.
"Yea...." Matt answered confusingly, as he looked around the group and noticed a bright pink mane. It was Fluttershy and it seen a group of small animals were with her as well, but something was different. She was wearing a pair of white headphones as she slowly bobbed her head up and down, like a bamboo fountain. Matt sat next to her and attempted to gain her attention, but her eyes were closed and it imaged as if she was in a whole new world. "Uh...Fluttershy. You there?"
But no resistance came from Fluttershy, she continued to slowly paint the music's theme until Matt finally caught her attention by tapping her head. Her eyes opened slowly as she took off the headphones. She looked above to find a curious Matt, confused of where he is. "Oh, hello Matt."
"Hey Fluttershy.....can I ask where I am?" Matt asked, but felt a tap on his shoulder. By survival instinct, he snapped around and reached for his machete but noticed that it was Jinuu who caught his attention. "Oh shit....sorry. Instincts." Matt excused weakly as he calmed down his flinching rage.
"No no no its okay Matt, you are just you. And I am just me, but we are the same. I am just a normal pony and I can feel angry, but that's normal." His words, so single and formed in thin syntax, but it slightly made sense to Matt. "Now please sit, and uhh...... feel free to take a drink." Jinuu informed, pointing to a small table with a few drinks labeled in strange symbols.
Matt was about to walk to the drink table, but a bottle and small cup appeared in front of his face held by unicorn magic. He looked to his side to find one of the unicorns in the small bunch was being generous and got his drink for him. "Thanks." Matt accepted the gift with grace as he sat down and poured himself a drink. Matt took a sip and smiled, easily recognizing it as sake.
As Matt was drinking, Jinuu took his stand on the main stage which was fully decked with a bunch of DJ equipment. Big loud speakers, turntables, a few laptops, and even a professional looking set of headsets. "Soooo.... what are we-"
"SHH!" Fluttershy snapped, shushing him as he instantly shrinked into silence. Jinuu placed his headphones on his head, but very alien than what you'd expect. He had the headband part under his chin and wore only one muff.
Matt was still completely confused at what was going to happen.
Eh whatever, he still got his free booze. He was about to pour himself another drink but stopped as soon as music started to flow through his ears. Fluttershy and the rest of the ponies all were mesmerized and looked upon Jinuu, who had a flat, closed expression on his face. And then, the music started to play.

Author's Note
Yes I'm ending this chapter with some music. Deal with it
For those of you who don't know about the music. This is the soul touching music of Nujabes, one of my favorite DJs in history. His music completely touched my soul and changed my perspective of rap (which i didn't like before). If you haven't listened to his music please do.
May Nujabes rest in beats and peace. (Yes he's dead, it makes me sad, but I'm sure he's happy where he is)
Also if you're wondering why he kinda talks weird, here is why. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjOshjApono, I tried to make it as allegorical as possible.
This was like the only I found of him actually talking.
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