Ozymandias

Funnily enough, another thing I am not overly fond of is being kicked in the ribs by a damned horse. A much more common thing not to like, so I won't bore you with the details as to why I'm not so fond of it. Unfortunately for me, this was how I was awoken after my first night in this new world.

"Wake up, ya fucking bum!" These were the words that accompanied the swift kick in the chest which woke me up, and knocked my breath away. What - OW OW OW!

"I'm up! *cough* I-I'm up!" I managed to get out, sucking in the air to try and recover. Opening my eyes, I shifted my head up to see my attacker. A mare, this one a pale blue with darker blue hair, stood above me, a forelimb raised ready to kick me again, "and I'm not a bum."

The mare scowled at me. "Then why in Celestias name are you sleeping in the middle of a park like one?" Good question. Uh... Taking a few seconds to scan the mare some more, I saw that she seemed to be in some sort of uniform, resembling a janitor or garbage mans. In addition, a trash stick (really just a nail embedded in a long stick) was resting on her side. Kind of glad she chose not to poke me awake with that, now that I think about it.

"I was, uh, walking here last night and sat down to take a break. Must have fallen asleep." It was as likely a story as any that would explain why I choose to sleep outside. The mare hmmed at me, clearly not entirely buying it.

"Well, get up. Sonnova..." She turned and muttered incoherently to herself, taking the stick up in her mouth and continued on her way, swiveling her head this way and that. Massaging my side where the mare had kicked me, I looked around.

It looked to be early morning now, most likely around six, if that. The garbage mare was the only other pony that I could see, the park empty this early in the morning. It was shaping up to be another clear day, with the occasional lone cloud in the otherwise empty sky. It seemed the natural world was also asleep, as I did not hear any insects or bird calls. Sighing, I pushed myself up, careful not to move too fast and upset what felt like was going to be a nasty bruise on my side. Deciding not to push my luck and loiter in the park anymore, I headed back to Ponyville, two goals set in mind: research as much about this world as possible, and get a roof over my head.

Alright, so. Easiest way would be to rent like an apartment or something. But that takes money, I though as I walked through the park, happy to be alone with my thoughts for the moment, and that's something I don't have right now. How to get some, then... I walked, head down in concentration across the stone bridge and into town itself. Glancing around, I noticed that the space where the market had been yesterday seemed to be close by, and seemed to be empty. Deciding my plan to pick up as much money off the ground as possible was a good way to start, I looked around for something to hold the money in. Seeing what looked like a small cloth bag in an alleyway between two homes, I looked around to ensure no one saw me take it. Geeze, loitering first and now theft. Hell of a way to begin a new life, I smiled to myself, sincerely hoping that I was not doomed to actually spend the rest of my life in this place. Blowing the dust off the bag, I took it in my mouth and made my way to the now empty field.

Yet again, the fact that it was very early morning helped ensure no one saw my shady activities. For about half an hour I walked aimlessly through the field, placing whatever I found on the ground into the sack- along with half a dozen coins, I scooped up a feather ink pen and an empty jar with a picture of a beehive on the label. Growing more and more self-conscious that I must have looked like a homeless person, I jumped when I saw a Pegasus pony fly over head. While he seemed to pay no attention to me, my anxiety at that point was overwhelming, so I stopped with my quest and headed into the heart of town.

By this time it was seven (I happened to pass by a large clock, otherwise I would have had to guess the time) and some ponies were filling the streets alongside myself. Many of them seemed to be parents, walking alongside children, or dragging them along in a few cases, while others looked to be going to whatever their job was. Should probably get one of those soon, too, I thought, although what kind of job wasn't quite clear. I had not seen any newspapers or magazines yet, and didn't know if there were many other openings for someone with an English major in this world. There has to be more than back home, I dryly thought, remembering the impossible task of finding a job after graduating from college. But I had settled for a retail job back home, and I thought I could settle for one here.

Deciding to focus on what I had actually come into town to do, I wandered around a bit more looking for someplace resembling a library. Picking up another coin or two when I spotted them, I roamed aimlessly for a bit too long before a memory from yesterday came jolting to my mind. The tree! That must have been a library! Or else that sign outside of it was totally misleading. Deciding that was my destination, I aimed for that building. Thankfully, it was kind of hard to miss a large tree stuck in the middle of town like this one was, so I managed to find it without problems.

Golden Oak Library was proclaimed on the sign, letting me give a sigh of relief that I was correct in my assumptions. Pulling open the red door, I felt shivers run down my spine as a wonderful aroma assailed my newly equine nostrils: the smell of books! It spoke of how little of a social life I tended to lead back home that this was one of my favorite smells, and came with an archive of fond memories from growing up. Stepping inside, I glanced around the room: it seemed that the main reading room was here in the entrance to the building, a large wooden statue of a horse head dominating a round reading table. Shelves seemed to be carved directly into the wood of the tree. How the hell is there a building inside of a living tree? At the very least all the walls should be oozing sap, shouldn't they? Shrugging that off, I approached one of the bookshelves, tilting my head slightly to read the spines of the books. Daring Do and the Ring of Destiny, Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone, Daring do and the... Shaking my head, as I did not want fiction, I looked around further, noticing that there seemed to be no filing system for the books. Sighing in frustration, I made my way over to a small room off shooting the main one. Here, the books seemed to be much thicker, and the shelves much more dusty. Grinning, as I knew the signs of the history section of a library, I pulled a book at random. Treatises on the Relationship Between the Northern Griffin Kingdoms and Equestria, Volume Five. Shelving that one, I scanned the spines for what I was looking for: history of this Equestria place, and anything describing it in modern times.

After a few minutes searching, I sat at the small desk in the tight room with my books, and cracked open the first one, Creation Myths of Ancient Equestria. Just skimming it, I read about the legends of multiple societies and what their oral traditions and religions claimed to be the beginning point for the world. Almost all of them seemed to fixate on the sun and moon being divine beings, for some reason. The tales of the Nhorse people told that the universe began in ice, until the spark of life was created alongside the sun; according to the tribes of Girafferica the sun and moon, in an epic clash in their never ending war in heaven created the world. Oddly enough there were several mentions to "daughters of the Sun and Moon" being tasked to ruling the world, to ensure the sparks of life did not rise to the heavens themselves. Intrigued, but not getting much practical knowledge, I turned to Equestria: An Abridged History.

While I was skimming through this volume, which was much more readable than the rather dry myths, I heard what sounded like someone in clogs going down a flight of stairs. Not bothering to look up from my reading, assuming it was another early rising patron of the library, I jumped a little when a voice range out.

"Can I help you?" Glancing up, I saw the voice belonged to a purple unicorn, who was standing at the doorway to my room. It also appeared that she had not had time to brush her hair (mane) straight. Now that I think about it, that's something I should probably do. Might help people not think I'm a hobo.

"No thanks, I'm all set." I returned my gaze to the book, hoping to avoid any conversations that might force me to think on my feet. Thankfully, the unicorn muttered an okay and returned up the stairs. Reaching up and running a hoof through my hair in hopes to remove any knots or twigs that it may have, I returned to my reading.

Going from the union of the three tribes of ponies (Earth, Pegasus, and Unicorn), through the reign of a mad king called Discord (who was depicted as a hodgepodge of various animal parts, hopefully via artistic license and not because he was actually some kind of monster), the book told the story of the kingdom of Equestria. Which conflicted with my last reading, which referred to the planet as Equestria. Skipping ahead to the last chapter of the book, as I wanted to get the most crucial info, I saw that the ruler of this place was someone named Princess Celestia, shown as a pony with both wings and a unicorn horn. On top of her strange appearance, she was often referred to as the Ruler of the Sun. And here I thought these things were civilized. But I suppose a monarchy, even a deific monarchy, isn't the worst thing, I thought.

This Princess intrigued me, however. The book spoke of her as if she was a perfect, benevolent ruler, but in flipping through the pages of the book I found more than enough evidence against that claim just in the illustrations. In one she held a sword to the neck of what looked like a Griffin in what I would call Mongolian clothing, in another she sat atop a great chariot at the head of a great army of ponies, rushing against another equally large number of ponies. In a large, two page spread, it showed this "Benevolent" ruler banishing her own sister, referred to both as Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon, to the moon, never to be seen from again.

"Maybe I was too quick to think this wasn't such a bad world to be stranded on." To make matters worse, even after going through every index I could not find one single mention of humans. Apparently we were as mythical in this world as unicorns were in ours, but we weren't even in myths! Taking all this information in, I pulled another volume out and idly flipped through it, not paying much attention to even the pictures. Drifting off into my own mind, I was brought back to reality when the front door to the library opened, and in walked another unicorn, this one white. In fact, it was the same one I had had to dodge yesterday at the hat store. Looking out the window behind me, I saw the sun was at a much, much higher position than it had been when I came in. Rushing up and out of the room, I approached the mare.

"Excuse me, but do you have the time?" I asked. I certainly hadn't meant to spend so long here! The mare smiled at me.

"Or course dear," Suddenly, a pale blue aura came from her unicorn horn. Holy shit. Before I could react any more, a pocket watch floated to the mares face, it too enveloped in a shimmer of what I knew to be magic, "About 11:30, dear."

"Th-thank you." Stammering, not wanting to cause a scene because I was freaked out at seeing magic, real magic, be performed in front of me, I quickly made my way out of the library and into the streets.

* * *

"Well that was certainly odd." Rarity said aloud to herself, watching as the door to Twilight's library closed behind the strange mare. Before she could further react, however, the sound of hooves on stairs preceded Twilight Sparkle down the stairs.

"Hi Rarity! Ready to go to lunch?" She said, her saddle bags pack with money for the meal and some 'light' reading.

"Yes darling," Rarity said, "who was that mare, though? I don't think I recall seeing her in town before."

Twilight raised an eyebrow, "The one who was sitting in the history section? She left?" Rarity nodded, "No idea. She was in here when I woke up. Been in there all day." Looking at the small room, Twilight harrumphed at the sight of the unshelved books. Making way to them, she lifted them up. Curious about what had the stranger so enthralled, she examined one of the books. Why in Celestia's name was she so interested in this? It's basic history. Shaking her head, she levitated the books back to their proper places on the shelves, and rejoined Rarity, "Sorry. Let's go!" With that, the two unicorns made their way to lunch.

* * *

That was kinda awesome, now that I think about it, I thought after I had calmed myself down. Considering everything that was happening, I was dealing extremely well, but seeing that magic was real in this world had just been the straw that broke the camels back. Rushing away from the library, I had slowed to a walk after a minute, and had been strolling around for a while, getting my nerves settled back down. I had known that magic existed, it was mentioned extensively in all of the books I had read, but that was something else. While I wanted to think about how useful magic must be, especially with no hands, my body had other ideas. I felt a stomach rumble almost reverberate through my entire body. Lemme guess, watermelon guy is around.

Thankfully, despite waiting a beat for the stallion to show up inexplicably, he did not. I was just hungry. Obviously, given I had only had a snack since entering this world. Thankful that I had found the money I had, even if it was so little, I decided to actually buy some food for lunch. Not seeing any restaurants or food shops, I resume walking. Hmm, if that guy was selling a whole watermelon for ten doll- Bits, I guess, so what can I buy with, I tried to remember how much I had on me, I think I actually have ten. So that might get me a loaf of bread, maybe some cold cuts. Wait, that's right, we're vegetarians. Well, I guess if my body doesn't know what it's miss-

SMASH!

Jumping at the sudden sound, like some big glass object breaking, I looked around for the source of it. Thankfully, it was almost immediately followed by someone, a stallion, yelling.

"I can't believe you! You're crazy, no one believes that type of shit!" Running up to the sounds, I saw that a pair of ponies were standing across from one another at an outdoor restaurant, a large pitcher broken on the ground amid a newly formed puddle. A pegasus stallion was staring daggers at a pale pink mare, who looked to be on the verge of tears. The only other pony around, what looked like a waitress for the place, was heading inside, a panicked look on her face.

"Y-y-you don't know what y-you're saying. Th-the Prince-"

"SHUT UP, YOU RETARDED BITCH!" At this point, the stallion was leaning on the table, his weight causing it to tilt slightly towards him, making two water glasses fall off of it, adding to the broken glass around the two. Feeling the fight or flight instinct about to kick in, I drew in a breath. Don't get involved don't get involved don't-

"Hey jackass, leave her alone!" I think the words surprised me more than it did either of the two at the table. Almost without knowing it, I found myself marching up to the stallion, my eyes narrowed. Shit, well, now you're involved! Damn it! Snorting almost like a bull, the stallion glared at me.

"Why don't you get lost, you-"

"No," I cut him off, "why don't YOU get lost before I cut your dick off, then see if the police want to even deal with your worthless ass!" Again without thinking, I swooped my head down, grabbed the largest piece of broken glass I could with my teeth, and stepped up to him. As I get closer he backed away, eyes wide.

"Y-you- all you mares are crazy!" Turning his eyes from me to the mare, he continued, "it's over, y-you psycho." At that he returned his gaze to me, still advancing on him with the glass shard, and turned tail. Spitting in the direction of his former companion, the chocolate brown stallion galloped off and around a corner.

Okay, that went we- ow! Son of a bitch!Feeling a prick, I opened my mouth and let the glass fall to the ground. Moving my tongue to where I had felt the pain, I tasted a small bit of blood coming from my upper lip. No shit Sherlock, you fucking held a piece of glass in your mouth.

The mare, who seemed to have watched that exchange in stunned silence finally spoke up. "Th-thank you so much miss!" Standing, she began to approach me, but backed away, "You, uh, should probably get off the glass."

Looking down, I saw that I was standing on top of the pile of broken glass. The mixture between the adrenaline and the having hooves must have let me not feel what I was stepping on. Backing off, breaking the glass into smaller pieces in the process, I stepped around the table towards the mare. "Y-you okay?" Looking her up and down, she certainly looked okay: her hair, which was a much darker shade of pink than her fur, was a tad messed up, and left over tears were still streaming down her face, but other than that she looked none the worse for wear. At least physically.

"Oh, yes yes. He didn't do anything but yell," the mare said, "you got here so fast it was like a miracle! Oh, I know, I should pay you for helping me." Digging into a bag she had at the foot of her chair, I shook my head at the mare.

"No no, no need. You don't have to pay me anything. I was just doing what I thought I should." For a second the mares face looked defeated, but it quickly picked up again.

"Then at least let me buy you lunch. I insist!" Not believing my luck, first that I had come out of that whole thing with only a minor scratch on my lip (at least from what I could tell by my tongue probing the wound), and that I now had someone to pay for my meal. Again not denying free food, I assented.

After the staff of the place came out and ensured that no one was hurt, and that the mare didn't want to press charges, they simply cleaned up the glass and sat the two of us at a different table. Being careful not to sit on my newly acquired tail, I wondered what she may ask me so that I could start formulating a response.

"Thank you so much again. That was so brave of you!" The pink unicorn said, smiling at me.

"It's not a problem." I replied, glancing over as a waitress brought over two menus and a pitcher of water, carefully balanced on her back. Well that's impressive, I thought at I opened the menu and pursued the options. Daisy salad, bean salad, melted cheese sandwich, apple burger... I suddenly became aware that the mare was talking, and focused in on what she was saying.

"... and really I don't know what got into him. He never got that upset when we talked about it before. Oh, I absolutely forgot," she extended a hoof towards me, "I'm Peony Bloom, but please, call me Peony, Miss...?"

Shitshitshit! Uh, think of a name... uh... "Sonnet, but you can call me Sona." I said, returning the gesture and shaking hooves with her, mentally wiping the sweat off my brow.

"Pleasure to meet you! Oh, I recommend the salads, they are really good here!" Opening her menu with magic, Peony scanned it rather quickly before closing it again, "I eat here all the time, so don't feel rushed to pick something."

"Oh, don't worry about it!" I began to look up and down the list of salads, looking for something that I thought I could actually eat. It seemed 80 percent of the things on the menu had hay or some other oat that I didn't want to risk eating on my first meal, "so, uh, how do you know that guy, anyway?"

"Oh, he's- well, I guess now he was my coltfriend for the past few months. He was always- he never- we always... well I guess I could have seen this coming, now that I think about it," Peony said, stopping her sentence short a few times as she seemed to reconsider what she was saying, "but at least he was good at paying his half of the rent. Now I have to find somepony to share my apartment."

Oh, you have got to be kidding me. This day is just shaping up perfectly. "Well, I uh don't want to take advantage of the situation here, but I'm, uh, new to town and I need a place to live, so-"

"Oh by Celestias good graces, that is perfect! I thought that I didn't recognise you from around here. I would love to- oh, sorry!" Peony stopped short, noticing that the waitress had come to our table, and looked to be waiting for us. Peony ordered the hay burger, while I ordered a salad that seemed to have food I was accustomed to from back on Earth. Once our orders were placed, Peony continued on, "Anyways, I would love to share my apartment with you. As long as you're not some kind of crazy axe murderer, of course! Hahahaha!"

"No, I'm not." I laughed along with her, "but I actually got here today, so I don't have any money for a little bit."

"Oh, darn it! But I'll think of a way to help cover it for the first month for you. Lemme think..." Peony stared at the table, a thinking face on. Racking my brain for ideas as well, a metaphorical light bulb went off, and an evil grin came to my face. You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch!

"Well, since that guy-"

"Dumb-Bell." How fitting, I thought as I continued on.

"Since this Dumb-Bell is clearly a real jerk, let's get revenge and some cash in one fell swoop. We should sell off all his stuff!" Shocked, Peony stared at me for a few seconds, before breaking out into giggles.

"You are evil! Evil! Let's do it." I smiled, getting a feeling that I was going to like this Peony.

Over the remainder of the lunch, we talked about me moving in with her and the living conditions. Saying that I was having my stuff shipped via train (as I recalled a train station on the side of town), we worked out that we were going to sell off whatever we could that day, which had the final benefit of freeing up some room for my (nonexistent, of course) things. Peony eventually went onto telling me this Dumb-bell guys life story, and how she had only started to date him because they had been friends in highschool. Apparently there were some major warning signs Peony didn't really pick up on, but I wasn't going to berate her for being an airhead. She kind of was, to be honest, but I felt that wouldn't be a great way to start off our new relationship.

Once the food came out, the topic shifted to more mundane things, like what time I usually woke up, how loud I could be at certain parts of the day, and the general things people usually discussed before moving in together. It sounded like the apartment was pretty small, but it was in the good part of town, and wasn't a wallet breaker, at least according to Peony.

"Moh! Ah," Peony paused to swallow her mouthful of burger, "I totally forgot to ask you. What do you do for a living?"

"Me? I'm a writer." I said without thinking. It was true, I was a writer, but that was back home on Earth. Hoping she let it slide, I sighed as she just nodded her head.

"Cool. I work at a flower shop in town. See?" Maneuvering herself so that I could see her flank (and thankfully showing nothing more risque considering I was eating), I saw that her ass tattoo was appropriately enough a white peony bloom, "I think my Cutie Mark knew that it'd be weird for me to have a different flower than my name. Imagine if I had gotten something like a daisy!"

"I can't imagine." So these things are Cutie Marks. Well, better name than ass tattoo that's for sure.

Finishing lunch, Peony paid and led me to the apartment building. Located near the center of Ponyville, it looked to me a three-story building, with a small wooden sign outside that said Ponyville Apartments. Leading me in, Peony continued on down a side hallway, stopping to open door number 105.

"Home again home again!" Peony chirped, stepping into the room. Following her, I almost stopped dead as she stepped to one side, and I saw it.

It was a shrine, and a rather large one at that. Mounted on the wall seemed to be a large oil painting, at least two feet tall and a foot across, of who I recognized to be this Princess Celestia, looking down so that she would be staring at someone who was right in front of the shrine. Around the painting was a wreath of flowers of all colors, drawing even more attention to the painting itself. On top of a small table stood two candles, one dark blue, the other white. Between them sat a worn out looking book, opened with a ribbon resting in between the pages. Uh Oh. I wasn't about to bash on someone for being religious, but having a full blown shrine in one's home generally did not speak well of them.

"Something wrong?" Realizing I had been in almost a trance, I quickly looked away from the shrine and glanced around the room.

"Just taking it all in." I realized that I seemed to be getting better and better at coming up with lies on the spot, but I suppose what that spoke of my character was not important. The rest of the room was mundane, especially compared to the shrine: a few paintings and photographs on the walls, a large plush couch on top of a rug, a potted plant in the corner, bookshelves dominating one wall, and a bay window looking outside.

Peony nodded, and stepped further into her- our apartment. Her horn glowing, I watched as several flattened cardboard boxes floated into the room from what look like a kitchen. Levitating one to me, Peony smiled, "Well, let's get to work then! Don't want him to have any of this stuff, do we?"

The next few hours were a blur of activity: packing boxes full of Dumb-Bell's belongings, deciding what to sell things for and organizing them by price, and finally getting the impromptu yard sale arranged and underway. The activity was helpful, but everytime I moved through the main room of my new apartment, I couldn't help but let my eyes wander over to the shrine. Debating whether to bring it up or not, I decided to keep my mouth shut and focus on selling the jackasses stuff ASAP, all the while hoping that he did not return and catch us in the act. Thankfully, he never showed up, and at the end of the day we got most of his things sold off, and what we didn't we kept in boxes to throw away the next day. We got about 400 Bits out of the whole thing, which Peony assured me was more than enough to pay my half the bill for the first month. Eating a light dinner of carrot soup, I slumped over onto the couch and was on the edge of sleep before I woke up to what sounded like praying coming from behind me, and what looked like candle light.

"-hear my prayers, Oh High Celestia, and bring harmony to myself and my new friend Sonnet in this time of great change. You who are our God made flesh, make our passage through this mortal life smooth and bless us with your holy light eternal." Not making a move, I listened on as Peony prayed, hoping she didn't figure out I was awake. Thankfully, she quickly blew out the candles and went to her bedroom, leaving me to my mind in the darkness. Not sure what to think, I tried to put the shrine that was just behind me out of my thoughts, but I could feel the paintings eyes, Princess Celestias eyes, looking down on me, judging.

That night I had a dream of being chased by a great ball of flame, and being caught by it just before I woke up.

* * *

"So Jacob," the stallion said across his desk, shuffling around various papers strewn about it, "have we had any luck finding our friend in Ponyville?" The unicorn mare shook her head.

"No, Ma'am. Whoever it is, they managed to keep their head down so far."

"Good, good. We don't want an incident like the last time one of us spoke up immediately. What else?" The stallion pulled at his collar, the clothing tight around his neck.

"One of our local supporters, a pegasus, almost blew his cover in a public argument in Ponyville today. What makes it worse is that a mare leapt to the defense of his Celestine girlfriend, threatened him until he ran off."

At that the stallion ran a hoof through his mane. "Hmm, odd. Sounds like something-" Suddenly the stallion slammed a hoof into his desk, making the unicorn jump, "Quickly, bring me this stallion. I think," a grim smile spread across the stallion face, "that we just found our comrade..."