The Visitor Series: The Troubled Creature

Chapters

Stitches
Lights Out
Nightmare?
Coming Back
Glowing Bad
Yuckquil
Mental Base and daring plotting
Meet the Apples
Picking Apples or Picking Bones?
Gotta start somewhere
Tapping Memories
Rest is not for all
Verbal Trickery
Twisted Happenings
Thunderous Stampede
Lucky Findings
Moving forward
First Night
Tears and Support

Stitches

Morning came faster than I wanted it to, sleep seemed to only of lasted seconds before a blur of images flashed across my eyes right as they opened to a ray of light coming in from the ceiling above. My body, though for once, have been resting on something that wasn't made of hard cotton, felt numb with no real feeling to my limbs.

I didn't want to get up, I just wanted to keep my eyes closed and pretend that I am sleeping off a bad night at the Red Rock. Just, took on more drunken dumb asses more than I could handle, yeah, that's all. However, there was a feeling coming from the rays of sun light. Like as if they were tugging at my consciousness out of bed as well keeping me awake no matter how hard I wanted to crawl back into sleep.

"Alright." I grumbled, "I'm up morning, I'm up!" I could only open one eye though, the other felt like it had gauze over it (which it was after a moment of painful reminiscing). Even then, my favorite over night dry eye was hard enough to blink out before I cleared my vision to see my hands covering my face. Letting my hands plop outstretched on the bed, I stared up at the empty wooden ceiling, morning light with it's golden lines lit the room.

I hated mornings, everything was fuzzy at first but then that fuzziness drops like a ton of bricks that squishes your memory which in turn reminds you: hey, guess what, let me remind you that you got your ass kicked by wooden dogs, out ran mythological monsters, saved by talking ponies, tackled by talking ponies trying to escape randomly, released by talking ponies, then was later interviewed by a talking pony who had a pet talking toddler dragon and- "Gahhh, stop it brain!" I groaned before trying to muffle my mind with a pillow, which of course didn't work.

Now I felt my everything coming to life as I remembered how I just got home when that mare, Twilight, I think it was, came knocking to talk to me about some basic stuff. Her visit was brief, but there was quiet a bit of info exchanged before she left and I had to crawl off to bed before I fell over from the sheer drowsiness of lack of sleep and the pill.

Thinking about the Pill, my side pulsed with pain, probably my liver telling me it needs water or it will swallow itself to compensate for the painkiller. I slowly rose out of bed, joints ached, crackled and popped before my sore feet found the floor boards. My head swished with faint dizziness as I staggered onto my own two feet.

Tried really hard not to fall back over because I knew what this morning was bringing behind it. My first day in this world, Equestria.

Equestria, Why does it sound familiar?

Shaking the grogginess off, I staggered towards the bathroom, I herd the sound of my boot falls. No wonder my feet were stiff. So that also means I slept in my clothes, oh well, I don't really have a laundry machine handy so I i'll have to just deal with what I got. At least they did scrubbed the blood out of the clothing first before giving them back to me at least. My T-shirt still had the gaping claw marks across the chest and back with tares decorating my pant legs. When I took my seat on the toilet to remove my boots, I noted the gash in the toe end of the left boot, the other had a ripped sole at the heel.

One the right boot's laces snapped when I started to take it off, "God damn it ponies!" I chucked my boot to the floor, "Those were sixty dollar interceptors!" I flung the other boot off before I took my socks off. My healing ribs pinched at my muscles which my body's way in saying, "Shut up and deal with it!"

"Yeah, yeah I know..." I groaned before stepping over to the bath tub, slowly reaching down, I turned the nob towards the hot side. At least their version of English is still legible. I hear the muffled groan of the pipes somewhere, since I figured that it'll take a minuet or so for the water to come on, I might as well remove these bandages to let the skin breath and maybe the water will sooth the aches-n-pains.

However, I wasn't prepared to see how much was done to me for I didn't really look at a mirror since I got here in this world.

I almost froze in shock-n-awe when I simply glanced at my own reflection.

My skin was pale, one eye was covered as part of a head bandage that almost covered my entire scalp; faint splotches of blood lined the bandage above my left eye and parts of my scalp. My only good blue eye was sunken from either lack of sleep or lack of living tissue.

When I looked at my chest, "My god." was all that floated from my mouth out of quiet shock.

Most of my torso was covered in what must of been a whole roll of bandage gauze, again, here there were two long splotches of blood the must of been drying for a while now. in several spots: lower parts of my torso, arms and parts of my legs smaller gauze wraps and bandaids of various colors and pictures.

What didn't warrant any kind of bandage were bruises of various size and depth with minor cuts and scrapes simply left alone to heal on their own.

"Damn it, to many bandages to try to remove..." I grumbled right as I herd the water gurgle then spouted out into the tub, "Let alone try to put fresh ones back on with what little supplies I got..." matching my frustration with a harsh knock on the wall, I walked over then turned the water back off, shower time will have to wait till I can go back to the hospital for a surprise follow up on my recent release.

My mind was printing all kinds of curses while I got dressed.

When it came to my boots again, I remembered that one of the laces had snapped and since I didn't have any spares I had to dig into one of my pant pockets. When fingers found the thin, smashed roll of black tape I kept for just about any kind of small repairs. Taking it out, I set it aside before I started tying my boots up.

Once left boot was tied as much as I could I started finishing the job with strands of black tape till the boot felt it's normal fit. Oh yeah, the flabby heel, honestly, it isn't that bad and there is no real way to tape it up unless I had the almighty silver tape of duct. God, in a world that has prosperous towns with probably many Pseudo-modern items in their stores but here I am, with no real money to use; taping my boots up like a homeless man because of some magical wooden dogs. Fuck you universe, You sure gave me a good cosmic kick in the nuts here.

I was lost in my own mental grumbling while I finished getting my act back together. In some painful passing of minuets, I slowly stood before walking into the kitchen. I hadn't noticed it before but I had been walking on a limp every other step or so, the healing wound a few inches above the right knee twanged with pain during those limping steps.

Getting to the kitchen, I squared my self away with some of those veggies again to munch on while contemplating on one thing: what was I gearing up for again? oh right, that hors-pony had extended a han-hoof in invitation to help me get a better footing in this new world. Where was this kind of help on minecraft?!

With absent thoughts milled into the graveyard, I finished eating the greens before searching for that new citizen bag to at least get the small pouch with the glimmer of hope of getting some sort of currency from this world. The few dollars and some odd cents in my pocket would probably be of no use here.

When I went for my jacket, an M65 Field Jacket in the classic olive drab green, had taken most of the abuse during my nice little run through the woods. Wearable but sadly it won't be the same again. Carefully slipping it on, I took the pouch and tucked it into a pants pocket. A part of my hurting brain had the pull towards finding a weapon but i simply kept it on the back burner till I can get better established here.

Half way across the house I hear a knock on the door, oh great, they're here. Getting the door, "You guys didn't waste time did ya?" I asked aloud when I opened it. I looked around seeing no pony around but- "Hey," I looked down to see the little dragon toddler was there, what was he doing here, and by himself?

"Where's your friend?" I asked looking around the dirt streets behind him.

"Twilight had to take care of some things," the little tyke shrugged, "However, she did asked me to come get you since she hadn't forgotten about what you two previously discussed last night."

"Riight," I paused to think, the stiffness of the bandages reminded me of something important. "Say, before we meet up with her, think we can detour back to the hospital?" I asked absently rubbing one of the chest bandages through the shirt.

"For what?"

"To change my bandages, it isn't healthy to have the same ones since day one ya know?" I recalled from First Aid class, it is true though; it is always a good idea to try to change any kind of bandages before the healing wound starts to suck the wet bandage into the skin.

"Huh, you too?"

"What now?" I stepped out, closing the door behind us.

"Oh, Twilight had headed off to the hospital for something about researching about you." cocking a brow, I can only wonder why she would be doing early morning research on me.

"What a coincidence then. Either way, I need to get these itchy, pieces of crap off me, think we can head that way before anything?" now that I was walking more, I can feel the medical tape shifting on my skin, more likely pulling my hairs. "Maybe she'll help me out with the staff there if anything."

"What do you mean?" Spike looked up at me as we started walking. The day itself still had the morning chill but the sun had started to warm the world up. The skies were clear, a few cotton white clouds. What happened to that stormy weather days ago? Never mind that, at least I'm still alive to see the day. Something tells me I'll regret it thought.

"Well," I paused keeping eyes forward, "last time I was there, I was, um, being difficult." I admitted, a lull of soreness brushed across my body from the thought.

"Being Difficult?"

"I was a pain in the ass to them! I didn't know where I was, what they were and so on."

"You mean-?"

"Well, instead of trying to explain to you now," I glanced to the confused little dragon, "you'll have to see for yourself for I think the staff there will have a lot to tell to your friend." Spike didn't reply nor asked any further on the subject for a while. which is fine because I didn't feel like explaining myself several times over.

Meanwhile, I took the moment to examine and observe the world around me while we walked through this little town, Ponyville twilight called it.

The town was small in comparison to what I'm used to, simple European style, timber framed houses rose all around and along the simple gravel pathways with few shops standing out with their swing signs with an emblem describing what the shop offered. The townsfolk, mostly comprised of ponies of course, carried on their lax but busy lives while some keeping an eye and distance from me while they walked by us.

Wouldn't blame them though, why would a two legged creature be simply walking through their town with out wanting to rob or mug anyone of them. One explanation is because I was in no condition to even think about shoplifting, at least the most docile of these ponies could knock me over with a well placed hoof to the chest.

As Spike and I ventured deeper into town, I took note of the diversity of the ponies: many looked like the standard horse, while some, could only explain as the children of the Pegasus, flew about on their own set of wings. There were fewer ponies in this town that had a familiar horn protruding from their foreheads like Twilight. Guess even in this world, Unicorns are rare.

"I can guess not everyon-I mean everypony here is very welcoming to strangers."

"Nnnot really." Spike replied as we crossed over a bridge towards the center of town, before use was that god awful place they call town hall. That was were I was taken to be crudely introduced to this town as well given small vague tidbits of information about the world.

Strangely, I'm starting to become more anxious about knowing more about this land and who rules over it.

"You should of seen these ponies when Zecora comes to town." I could only wonder, who this Zecora was.

"Let me guess, not a very welcoming feeling, is it?" I asked trying not to look behind me as I could feel glaring eyes burning holes in my back.

"Heh, Not really, you're lucky," Spike replied cheerfully, "They all would hide away in their homes leaving a ghost town feeling when she came to town."

"Let me guess, they must of confused her for some evil witch or somethin' of the sort." I guessed not really caring for the details, I was at least glad that no pony really ran for the hills when they saw ol' beaten up me. While I spoke, I took note of a few unique buildings in this part of town.

"Almost, Pinkie Pie called her an evil enchantress." Spike corrected as we put ground between us and town hall, "She even wrote a song about it."

"At least there wont be any songs about me yet."

"Key word, YET!" an almost squeaky voice stopped both of us in our tracks, "Just need to know what you are!"

On a Simultaneous impulse, we both looked back at the empty ground behind us, "Who the heck-?" When we looked forward again, there was nopony around either, "Who was that?" When I tried to move forward my boot crunched lightly on something. Looking down I found a rather large size envelope on the ground that bore the words scrawled in bright pink ink on the front

Pick up and read me!

Picking it up, I instantly felt the weight of the envelope, "This wasn't here before-" When I turned to look at him quizically;

"-Just open it." he interrupted with a chuckle, he took a few cautious steps back. I could only wonder why he would-

When I tore along the top, the envelope exploded in my hands. Instead of a flash of fire and death, it was a jump-scaring explosion of confetti and party streamers. Filling my hand was a paper with the words:

WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!!

printed in the same ink on the page.

With ears faintly ringing and brushing off the confetti, "The fuck was this?!" I asked snapping a look at Spike who only laughed at my expense.

"That didn't take her long to find you," Spike observed as he walked on ahead of me. I only stood there dumb founded before walking after him, brushing off some of the confetti off my jacket. "Don't get to mad though," he spoke over a shoulder, "Pinkie does stuff like that all the time around here."

"She...does?"

"Yup!"

Oh joy, nothing like a pony that can ninja exploding party letters to keep me on my toes; "I guess it would be nice to thank her for the welcome letter."

Nnnot

When We finally crossed town with out anymore incidents and reached the hospital, I finally got a better look at the place that held me inside for the time I recovered and tried in vain to escape.

The hospital was a two story, Victorian style building that stood out by itself in the middle of a woodland landscape. Outside the establishment was a large, stylish sign that had a large red circle with a white cross with pink hearts surrounding the cross. Despite the welcoming look, I know better than be fooled by the innocent look of the hospital.

"Here we are!" Spike announced as we came up to the doors, "Ponyville hospital."

"It doesn't look as ominous in the day time compared to at night." my only comment as we walked inside with the little dragon holding the door for me. Just like back home, the smell of sanitized floors and rooms filled my nostrils and with it came the memories of my recent stay here.

The lobby, or waiting room, was sparsely occupied with a few ponies with minor injuries or aliments that waited for a nurse to appear to call them back for somepony to see them. When we came to the reception desk, one of the nurses, writing something down with a pen in her mouth, peeked up before setting the pen down, "oh dear, it's you." she grimaced, "What brings you back?" she kept a smile up but I could tell she was worried about my return.

"Nothing special, just need help changing my bandages from the last time I was here."

"oh?" she looked puzzled, "Didn't Doctor Horse send enough home with you so you could do it yourself?" the light blue pony's polite words sounded a little rude, but wouldn't blame her either for being blunt.

"Yeah, but Since, I'm still in pain, miss, I can't really maneuver my battered body around to rework the gauze," I demonstrated by trying to turn my torso one way. The damaged rib bones jabbed gently but painfully into my chest muscles, "See?" I cringed slightly.

"Hm, I'll have to see if somepony can see you, it'll be a bit since some of the staff is busy at the moment." she smiled politely, but she obviously didn't like me being back not one bit, "please have a-" before she dismissed me, she noticed a little purple claw hand wave above the counter top.

"Hey, Nurse tender." Spike caught the mare's attention she stood from her chair and peered over the desk to see the little dragon, "Is Twilight still here?"

"uh, Oh, yeah, yeah she is," she then paused to look between me and Spike, "Um, is he with you?" she asked cautiously pointing a hoof at me.

Spike Nodded with a proud smile, "That is right, Now if you can tell us where she is we can get this Human out of your mane." I noticed how much Spike was enjoying the brief moment of authority.

"Hue-man?" Tender glanced at me, "Is that, you?"

"yes, now, if you excuse us."

"Sure, Sure, just, through the doors and to Doctor Horse's office, shouldn't be that hard to miss."

Spike gave a grin with a polite nod, "Thank you very much!" he then gestured to me, probably caught up in the moment, "Come Patsy!" I was a little perplexed at him calling me that but I followed him anyway.

Deadpanning at the little dragon, "Don't ever call me that again."

Further down the hall, we found the office, Nurse Tender was right about one thing, it wasn't hard to miss. it was the only door with a smoky glass pane with the white, hoof painted letters:

Doctor Gregory Horse, M.D.

Another random thing crossed my mind as Spike knocked on the door: these ponies must have a strong education system to grant the best with doctorates, maybe even more taken that unicorns posses magic.

When the door opened, the cream caramel coat unicorn looked out, "Can I-" he took one look at me then frowned, "-oh." He then sighed, nudging his glasses with a hoof, "What is he doing back here?" he asked keeping a calm demeanor but agitation was starting to take hold of his words.

"More importantly, How did he get back here?!" He asked addressing spike.

"Well, I figured you can help him with something and since Twilight was here, didn't see any problem with it." the little dragon glanced up at me then back at the doctor. The purple unicorn peeked over the doctor's shoulder, "Spike, Jeff, the hay you doing here?"

"If I may," I finally opened up, "Since I wasn't really given the proper supplies to change these bandages and I can't really turn my torso still, so, I thought it wouldn't murder anyone that I came back here for some help." The Doctor looked back at Twilight before looking back at me.

"I'm afraid I can't help you, maybe one of the nurses can help you with-" The Doctor raised a hoof to me then gestured down the hall were we all herd the audible racket of hooves scattering away, "-that..." He lowered his hoof, this wasn't going to make the day any easier.

"Looks like you're out of options doc." I pointed out, making note of the now empty halls, a door a few feet away swayed gently as if one of the scared staff had dashed in there.

"Fine, but you shouldn't be standing here with out a proper escort-" he stepped out of his office, "-Security!" With in a minute, a pair of rather bulky Stallions, decked out in a security guard shirt complete with utility belts. Couldn't help but wonder how they used their flashlights, batons and-oh wait, I remembered one of the night guards brandishing their mag lights in it's mouth.

"For my safety, these gentlecolts will be accompanying us."

"What?" Twilight gasped, "I don't even think he is any kind of a threat," she commented putting her note book (or tome at this point) away. she collected her trusty bag as she watched the Doctor walk down the hall, found the guards at my sides as they escorted me behind the doctor.

Obviously, the doc didn't reply to the confused unicorn as she and spike followed us to one of the operating rooms, "Please Miss Sparkle ." Doctor Horse turned to her as the security guards stationed themselves at the swing doors into the O.R. while I limped over to the operating table to sit on while I could hear the ponies talk outside, "Wait outside while I tend to this creatur-"

"Human," Twilight corrected sharply, "Doctor, why are you treating him like he is one of Equestria's most dangerous?"

"Because Twilight, he has been the most troublesome patient to of ever come into my Hospital!" the doctor hid his growl, "Now, If you excuse me!"

"Then, let me come in there with you!" she quickly exclaimed catching the doctor before he closed the doors behind him, "I can handle my self and this, uh, this will give me a chance to study him while you work." she rushed before catching the Doctor flat hoofed.

"Y-You can't be serious." he blinked at her, "Very well." he sighed in agitated defeat, "come in, but please keep your distance."

As I watch the two ponies come into the O.R., I couldn't tell if Twilight was being a friend or a researcher studying an alien.

"Now," the Doctor levitated a dust mask over to him, "Please remove your rags so I can see how bad it is." he tucked the mask over his muzzle while I looked at the mare who stood off to the side, pulling her tome of notes back out.

"And her?"

"Suddenly shy for a loud mouth thrasher aren't you?" the doctor commented while he glanced at Twilight, "Don't pay any attention to her, just, strip."

I shrugged before I undid my jacket, followed by slowly removing my shirt; note that during this, the doc or the mare didn't help me levitate the tattered clothing off me while I winced and grunted from pain while I struggled with the shirt.

When I did, both Ponies saw the extend of the bandages.

"Oh my." Twilight gasped bringing a hoof to her mouth, "What did this to you?" she asked taking note of the long bandages that stretched across my body.

"Timber Wolves," The Doctor's only words while he examined the blood stained/soaked bandages, "Well, most of them, there are other marks on him, that I can't really explain-"

"Car Crash," I explained interrupting the doc who scoffed at my supposed rudeness, "Got thrown through the windshield then the rest went black when a rock broke my fall."

"A what crash?" Twilight's ears perked up when I mentioned the crash.

"Long story, not to mention the other monsters I encountered." I quickly dismissed the subject, "But, like he said, those things got me really good," I added to the Doc's analysis, "I fought like hell trying to get away from those-" before I continued, the Doctor accidentally tugged on one of my back bandages, pulling on the stitches that dried into the gauze, my words fell dead with a quick yelp came out of my teeth gritted mouth.

"Oh, sorry, trying to concentrate." he then gently pulled the old back bandage off. One could hear the dirty bandage tape peel away as it came off my skin. Twilight had her tome open with a new quill buzzing at the speed of thought across the pages, I looked over to see that she was starting to pale seeing the color distortion the skin around the stitches.

"Can see why you didn't want to attempt to change your own bandages," She commented while the doc removed a second bandage. Despite his renewed efforts, the pain still twinged across my back as he peeled bandage after gauze off me. After a while, I was starting to tolerate the pain because the nerves started to go numb. Soon, a fourth set of gauze and bandages was tossed into a HAZMAT bin that the Doc had previously levitated beside him.

"Yeah, not to mentioned that I might have cracked ribs that stab at my lungs when I try to twist or bend," I slightly exaggerated.

"Hold still please," Doctor Horse ordered as he leaned in closer to examine the stitches, "Thankfully, none of the stitches had came undone between now and a few days ago." he glanced over to some cupboards. Hearing the small doors open then close, I also picked up a set of hooves coming closer. All I could do was sit still and stare at a bare white wall while the doc continued his work.

"Interesting." Twilight's voice sounded closer, I was stupid to quickly glance over to see who spoke as the action caused a flicker of pain across my ribs. "Oh, sorry!" she recoiled apologetically.

"D-Don't worry about it, my bad for moving to fast."

"You don't listen do you?" The Doctor snide as he began to open small packages of medical supplies. He started off by dabbing fresh blood that oozed from the freshly disturbed sutures, "This is going to take a while," he noted flatly, "But I'm sure you don't have anywhere to be today, do you?" he asked aloud, probably me.

"Not really-" Me and Twilight replied simultaneously. Raising a brow, I looked at Twilight as she moved her self around the table to look at the rest of my bandages, she did however froze in mid step out of surprise of us saying the same thing.

"Jinx." the Doctor smirked under the mask as he tossed one cotton wad away, then started opening up some gauze and cover bandages.

"Pinch, poke, ya owe me a coke!" I chuckled before a sharp pain in my chest told me to shut up, "Ow..." The Doctor took his time to completely cover one set of stitches.

"Say, Don't you guys have healing magic that could of made this easier?" I asked aloud, "I mean, you both have magic, sooo-"

"Healing spells are typically taught to Medic ponies in the guard," Twilight frowned as she explained, "Even then, healing magic isn't totally perfected to be as effective as normal medical methods.

"Also, Mr. Human," The doctor was busy cleaning the second set of stitches, "We don't know how any kind of effect magic would have on you." He casually explained as he started placing the fresh bandage on.

"So, aside from the fact that you guys are masters of using your horns, you can't cast one simple anesthesia spell or somethin' on me?" I don't mean to complain, but come on guys, pain is still pain and it likes to remind you that you're still alive; The hard way.

"That is sadly correct." Twilight then looked at the length of the bandages on my chest, "Doctor, How many stitches are there?" she asked walking back around to watch the Doctor carefully use his horn to clean the third set of stitches. It was legit question, more importantly, how many damn times did they stick me with those curved needles?

"Each claw mark you see here, Miss Sparkle," the Doctor glanced up from his work for a moment, "Is about fifty stitches for the longest here." he pointed with a hoof to one of the bandages on my back, "Thirty-five stitches there, twenty-three here," He finished the third bandage, began the fourth, "About thirty-seven for the longest on his front, stretching a little over his right side; Twenty for the second one." The fourth didn't need much cleaning as apparently it didn't take the doc long to put the new bandage on the wound.

"The ones on his head," he explained, "six above his left eye, nine and thirteen across the scalp."

"So, that explains the head wrap." I blurted thinking aloud.

"Which we unfortunately had to shave your mane down to make it easier to get to the scalp gashes." Honestly, I wasn't really worried about my hair, just glad that I didn't lose my brain through my head injuries.

"Pity, I hope I didn't dull your trimmers trying to save my life." I rolled my eyes as the Doctor retrieved more supplies, Twilight hid a quick snicker as Doctor Horse came around to address my chest. He politely gestured Twilight to move out of his way who obliged by backing up and going around him to be on my right while he stood in front of me.

My comment of course was replied with a nice yank on the longest set of stitches across my chest, "Take it easy doc, might have to redo your handy work-I mean hoofy work."

"Now, Sir, You keep it up or complications could occur trying to dress your bandages."

"Sorry Doc," I shook my head as I straightened up to help him with his work.

Twilight had returned to her notes as she watched the Doctor work.

I looked down at my wounds, they were indeed discolored:

The skin was pale, further out you got from the stitches, however, going the other way, the skin was various shades of red while my skin was a bad painting of healing bruises.

Another twenty minutes had slowly passed as the doctor worked on my chest, cleaning and re-bandaging the stitches till my chest was covered in plain white patches of bandages.

"Now, the head." he slowly unwrapped the gauze around my head, I must of sweated while sleeping because the bandage was harder to remove compared to the rest of my body. "Oh dear," Horse grimaced as his magic faded around the flap of end of the strip, "I can't risk undoing the stitching with magic, so i'll have to do it by hoof."

Couldn't he of just done that in the first place?

"Let me guess, blood had glued the bandage to not only the threads but to the scalp too?" I asked using some of my first aid knowledge. To which the Doctor had looked at me with a scowl, "Sorry!" I raised my hands to him.

"Yes, it did, so I'm going to have remove it with-"

"A specialized saline solution."

"Excuse me Mr. fiend," Doctor horse snapped as he floated a pair of what looked like rubber socks and a small squeeze bottle, with a crooked nozzle, towards him, "If you like to do my job, then feel free to do it your self!"

"Doctor, If I may." Twilight had almost jumped from her concentration when the Doctor raised his voice and took the chance to speak up, "He was just extending his know-how of medicine." She got a glance from the doc before turning back to me, "And, he is also human if I may also correct."

He didn't reply at all as he slipped the latex socks on his fore hooves, he then stood up on his hind legs. Mind you, that so far, the doctor had only probably stood about five-six at the shoulder; now standing on his hind hooves, he towered over me. Then again I'm still seated on this operating table.

He had good balance as he held the bottle in his magic while using his hooves to gently tug the bandage, his magic squeezing the solution into the old bandages to dampen the clotted blood under neath, making it easier to lift the bandage off. That would be nice if the stitches weren't still fresh!

When the strip started to give, some clotted blood pulled at the knot on one of the stitches, feeling it gave caused a quick ahow! to pop from my mouth, "Easy doc!"

"Trying to, less you want me to treat this like a band aid."

"NO SIR!"

"Good, now let me concentrate!" The doctor growled as he then continued to work around those painful stitches.

One whole bottle and nearly twenty minuets of painful tugging and pulling the head bandage was completely free from my wet scalp. As watered blood drained down my face, "Towel anyone?" I closed my eyes as I felt the cool liquid drip over them.

"Here," Twilight floated something to me, when I grabbed the towel, I dabbed my face clean as the patch work of band-aids on my face shifted from the towel.

"Thanks Twilight," I placed the towel next to me while the doc continued to work to clean around the stitch work and apply clean bandages. This time around, the Doc had left my eyes free of being covered.

"Eesh, what happened there?" Twilight approached and pointed towards my left eye, I haven't seen it my self since it was covered previously, so I when I reached to touch around my eye, it felt puffy, probably swollen. "Probably given to me by the guards here." I felt the eye lid, swollen. yep, been told once apparently.

The doctor examined the healing wounds on my face before nodding, "That would be about it," he removed the glove/socks before carrying on with the clean up.

As he quietly went about cleaning up the work space and twilight, scratching away in her note book, I had a few moments to think.

First of all, the doctor didn't ask to check my legs, probably because they weren't as bad compared to my head, back and torso but that also led to another break in the silence, "Hey doc," I began, his ears perked in reply while twilight had chanced a glance from her book.

"From my experience back home, wouldn't injuries like these warrant an extended stay here at the hospital?" I asked, at first the Doctor quietly gruffed before closing some cupboards before turning to me with a rather non-surprising reply.

"Truthfully," he nudged his glasses, "We don't know how to properly treat your kind here and with the lack of long term recovery rooms here, we had no choice but to let you go after you were able to walk."

"Despite the fact that I can't really move any which way to keep my stitches from becoming undone." Twilight's violet eyes darted between me and Doctor Horse keeping quiet but her quill did not stop moving.

"Unfortunately, Yes, I was aware that you would not really be able to do much after being released, however-"

"No, doc, Don't need to really know anymore." I glumly started to carefully put my shirt back on.

"If there is anything else, you are free to go, again." Then the doctor turned to Twilight, "Miss Sparkle, did you wanted to continue where we left off?"

"Oh no thanks Doctor," She replied finally putting her tome of notes away, "I believe that'll be all for today, so we'll be taking our leave as well." The Doctor gave a casual glare at me before leaving the operating room.

"So much for fairness towards patients." I grumbled after fighting with my ragged T-shirt to be put back on, "I don't think it was a good idea to come back here." I stood up slowly from the table before heading for the swinging doors, "I guess we'll just take off to wherever you wanted to go today?" I asked looking back at the purple mare as she started following after me.

"Yes, I planned on meeting you back at the Golden Oak Library after talking with the Doctor, learning more about what it was like to take care of you when you where, well-"

"-barely alive?"

"Yes,"

"Well, I'm sure you got one version of my stay here," I pushed the doors open back into the hall, "I take it that is what you are after right?"

"Well, yes and no." She walked passed me and down the hall, only pausing to look at spike who had been seated in the hall reading some magazine, "Come on spike, we should get going." Spike had peeked up at her then looked over at me.

"How bad was it?" He asked looking at his companion, "I mean, I heard something that sounded like a filly getting a shot."

"Excuse me?" I exclaimed dumbfounded by the comment, "I don't think I sounded like a child getting my stitches pulled at thanks to that quack."

"Guys," Twilight shot a scolding glance at me, "Lets not do this here." before she led the way down the hall while spike caught up with her with a smug look on his face while I limped after. Soon, we exited back into the lobby, the receptionist changed hooves to a different nurse while I was in the back getting patched up.

The Nurse at the desk this time was smaller compared to the others: she was short with a dark, bushy brunet mane; Beige coat and a filly face to complement the tiny posture. She looked to watch us enter the lobby, "Have good day, Miss Sparkle ." the cheerful, innocent voice called out to us as we walked by.

"Thank you Nurse Rhyme, same to you." Twilight smiled back before we left. I didn't say anything for the invisible rain cloud had been bumming my mood with F.M.L. rain since the doctor had finished his patch work. The day had advanced some, I checked my watch to only remember that it hadn't been wound since days ago.

"What time is it?" I asked absently as we walked on the dirt road, It felt like ten or so but the sun's location read roughly eleven or so. As we went on, a couple, previously enjoying the day while walking towards the hospital had paused in their conversation to look with curious caution at the three of us (or more at me probably).

"It's about late morning by now." Twilight nonchalantly guessed as we put that dreaded place behind us. "We should probably get back, I think the girls are going to be waiting for us by now."

Wait, girls? as in more peopl-ponies?

"Wait, who else did you told about me?" I stopped in step to look at Twilight as she too stopped, "You didn't plan a party for me or nothin' did ya?"

"Nnnot really." she looked back at me a little nervous, "Just, Sent the word out to some friends who would also want to know more about you and won't freak out being so close to a human." She seemed a little unsure about this change of plans herself, however, I didn't want to push the subject more just simply shook my head before limping forward.

"Lets get this over with, and maybe they'll treat me better compared to the hospital staff." I only commented as Ponyville came insight.

Author's Note

Originally, being tuned to the horse community on earth; I was going to messure the doctor in hands but since he is a unicorn and there are other characters with special features (wings, horns, etc.) It would be a pain to judge the height of them.

sooo I went with the ft-in. messurement system, if you guys think I should go with the hands system later on give me your thoughts on it.

Lights Out

I
Jefferson Revere

The sun had rotated to the noon position by the time we reached the place Twilight had been mentioning. The Golden Oak Library was indeed a towering Oak tree gutted out into a live in business, meaning the owner of the library lives just above the work space. Twilight explained this to me when the ornate, red front door came into sight.

"Soo, this is were you live i take it?" I asked after her explanation.

"Well of course, It was a bit of a fixer-upper when I first move in here from Canterlot," She stated cheerfully, "But I've made it home ever since." She opens the door and went in, with me and spike following after. "Girls, We're back." She called out but no response at first.

"Huh, guess they haven't showed up yet."

"Probably still working, it is only noon Twi." Spike noted looking at the grandfather clock located on the main floor just right of the front door.

"Well, I'm sure they'll show up when they can Twiligh-" before I could finish my thought I herd the growing sound of what sounded like a F22 flying close to the library, "The fuck?" I looked round, "what is that?"

"Sounds like one my friends is coming, but um, you might want stay clear of the book shelves." Twilight gestured backing up towards the middle of the room

"What do you mean stay clear of the-" Again, before I could finish, a Cyan blur burst in from one of the upper windows and smashed into a set of book shelves. I could only look up to cover my self from a shower of books, followed by being drilled into the ground by something heavier than those books.

Not sure what hurt worst, my healing injuries or my pride as I herd another voice cough above me just a layer above me, "Jeeze Twilight, learn how to dust your stuff more often!" was the female's only remark before I felt the weight shift.

"Oh my gosh, get up, get up, Jeff is under there!"

"Who?"

"MOVE!" Twilight shoved a pile of books away with her magic and gripped my exposed hand. Helping me out of the pile up, "Are you okay?" she stood me back up as I slowly dusted my self off as pain had indeed shook my body, I am at least glad that I didn't start bleeding from the impact, "Are you hurt, er, um-" she paused at her own dumb question.

"Obviously not anymore than I am, just add my pride to that list..." I grumbled as I looked around, the book shelf behind me had indeed been completely emptied of it's books, beside me, dusting her self off too, stood the perpetrator that had caused the literature avalanche.

She was Cyan color in coat, her matching wings flapped once before folding at her sides; her rainbow colored mane was rocking the tomboyish mullet. One could also tell her build was very athletic, could explain the Jet noise prior to her crash. "Oh hey, I'm fine, thanks for asking." The Pegasus mare teased as she looked at me, "So this is the human you spoke of." she came over to get a closer look at me.

"Hey, thanks for breaking my fall champ." she gave me a "Gentle" punch against an arm before trotting off the pile of books.

We haven't exchanged names yet and I can tell I'm not going to like her at all today.

"No problem." I writhed holding my arm, "Ya going to need help picking this up?" I asked looking at Twilight.

"Nah, This has happened so many times, I've gotten faster at putting it all back." Twilight Boasted as she started picking up chunks of books off the floor before putting them back, organizing them as she did. "That flying wrecking ball is my friend Rainbow Dash." she pointed to the mare as her wings picked her self back off the floor at a hoover.

"How'd ya do? You got the pleasure of meeting one of the most AWESOME flyers to ever come out of ponyville!"

"Awesome?" I cocked a brow at Rainbow, "If so, then you would've used the front door instead of flying into this tree like a blind, speeding bat." she had a split moment of being stunned by my words but recovered just as fast, I only chuckled at her fumble.

"N-Nah, I was, Just trying to make a dynamic entry is all, Yeah."

"Riiight." My eyes rolled at her, "I've Seen Ninjas make a better entry than that."

"WHAT? whatever, Its just an off day and," she paused to think, "I forgot to slow down okay?"

"Guys, please," Twilight interrupted. Apparently, she, staying to her previous statement, had cleaned up the mess before turning towards us to mainly keep her from probably bucking me in two with her, "Awesomeness".

"I didn't ask you to come here to simply pick a fight with him, I just figured you'll want to meet the human in person while he is still able to walk." She glanced at me a little worriedly where I was only just shrugged off the quiet glare Rainbow shot me with before picking a seat on a lounger, she had a book in hoof but discarded it when she laid back, fore hooves tucked behind her head.

"Oh yeah sure, to bad he can't recover as fast as Yoours truly."

"But you didn't have to face the fury of an entire living forest now did you?" Twilight glanced a scolding look before trotting towards the stairs leading towards somewhere, probably the upstairs apartment she lived in, "The library is technically closed for today, so lets head up stairs while we wait for the rest."

"Ugh, but I just got comfortable!" Rainbow groaned with a stretch before hopping off the lounger.

I only shook my head at the Pegasus as she clambered out of the lounger, she fluttered her wings and hovered up the stairs as I limped up the steps as well, Twilight waited half way up to watch me scale the stairs. I didn't bother to tell her not to worry for i guess she doesn't want her living specimen to get anymore hurt than he already is.

Shrugging the odd thoughts away, "Don't mind her," Twilight appeared at my side, "She can be a little-"

"-Blunt? Obnoxious? head strong?" I added glancing at her.

"Yeeeah," her ears dropped slightly, "Just don't let her get to you."

I waved the subject away, "No worries, I have a friend that smell of ego and isn't afraid to speak the first thing on his brain." I caught her off guard, she giggled at my comment.

"I didn't know Ego had a smell."

"Oh trust me, It does, and let me tell ya, she," I point up stairs at rainbow, leaning closer to speak quieter, "There is no soap in the world to cure that odor." We both tried to stifle our laughter as we got to the top of the stairs.

"Whats so funny?" the Jock mare snapped a suspicious glare at us, She looked between the both of us as we tried to play it cool but the look on our faces that my comment was still plucking at our funny strings.

"Oh nothing, Just something I thought aloud." I covered up my previous comment about Rainbow, she narrowed her eyes at me before turning towards the first door on left on this floor.

"Riight, Just as long it wasn't anything about me, we're fine." she pushed the door open then went inside with out breaking eye contact till the door closed. As the door closed, I looked at Twilight before she started giggling again.

"I"ll have to look into the odor subject later, but if it were true, it would make so much sense!" she then started to regain her composer after another short fit of chuckling/giggling.

Right As I placed a hand on the door knob I herd what sounded like a classic brass bell chiming away near the door, I looked at Twilight a little puzzled, "They heck is that?"

She perked up at the sound of the chime, "That would be my House bell," she explained turning towards the stairs, "You probably didn't see it at first, but there is a pull string beside the library's front door."

"An After hour door bell?" I guessed accurately. Just like the apartments back east (on Earth), some of them have a large panel with buttons that buzz up to the individual apartments, however, sometimes they never really work all that well. That's what happens when they make almost everything electronic.

"That's right!" Twilight confirmed, "Oh, uh go on in and make your self at home." I had the door opened when she told me this.

"You sure about that?" I glanced inside with a smirk, referring to rainbow. She only shook her head with a smile before heading downstairs.

"Just, go in." She said over her shoulder before going downstairs while I went inside.

Pulling the door closed, I looked around the apartment;

It was a quaint little home for being an apartment, the natural coloration of the oak wood complemented the soft, darker color theme of the furniture; half the decorations of this place were han-HOOF carvings of flowery vines stretching across the natural floor board that made the (technical) third floor visible from the living room floor; the other half were thematic plants with the golden curtains rolled open on the sides of the windows. The (visible) bed room had sun and moon bed bedding with matching posters lining the wall in front of it.

Personal bookshelves, carved out of the very wall of the tree, were lined with books of many subjects, further up one could look probably had more personal books stored away from visitors.

As I was wondering about spike's living space, I glanced over to see Rainbow Dash almost tackle the little dragon in a hug, "SPIKE!"

"Hows it hangin' Little guy?" she asks giving the tyke a playful noogie before letting him go. The little dragon dusted himself and corrected his head spines before looking up at the Cyan mare.

"Oh the usual, riding out another one of twilight's crazy science storms," He shrugged before looking over to me, who had found a chair due to the aches building up in their legs, "As well making sure she doesn't do anything over-the-top with him."

"Like what, dissect me like a biology class experiment?" I chimed in from my seat, we all had a short laugh at it but a part of my brain had a back hand poised to smack the teeth out of me with the warning careful with what you say! which also caused me to rethink my humor about myself being a subject of science or whatever, that and/or the knot that briefly twisted up in my gut.

"Oooo Of course! nothing like figuring out what makes you tic." Rainbow teased wiggling a fore hoof at me.

While I was not amused by this, I still thought about it: if Equestria was anything like the U.S. I would've been picked up last night and be ran through interrogations, psychological tests, then probably end the day in a live biopsy operation seeing how my insides function for a few minuets before being snuffed out to cover my existence in this world.

Strangely that kind of thinking made me shutter, where did you go Twilight?!

"Guys, be careful with what you say," I raised an open palm at them both, "One day that might just happened and you'll feel like shit for even thinking about it."

"Naaah, I don't think anypony would do that to you here."

"You sure about that?" I cocked a brow at Rainbow as she lounged in mid air thanks to the fluttering of her wings; before she could say anymore the door opened with chattering voices.

"-and again, darling, How come you did not bring him to me after the hospital?" A rather posh sounding voice came through the door way as Twilight reentered with another unicorn following her in.

She was a pure white coat, with styled violet mane and tail, her soft blue eyes glanced from her friend towards me in which they instantly widened with a matching gasp. "Sweet Celestia, how is he still looking like this?!" She exclaimed (in almost artistic exaggeration) as she rushed over to my side to get a closer look.

"Uhh, because I still got healing stitches?" I answered confused by her equally confusing question, to which her first reply was quick wave of a hoof to dismiss my reply.

"No no no, I mean, look at your clothing dear sir," she gestured towards my ragged remains of my earth clothing, "Why hasn't anypony given you fresh wears to at least hold you over till you came to my shop!?" As she started to lean closer to further examine my torn artificial clothing. I looked over at the others with hands raised with a distinct 'dafuq' look on my face.

Their reply, was of course, stifled snickering as she started to try to tug at my rags, testing their remaining strength. "Um, I think there will be a proper time for that." I gently pulled my arm away from her as she looked at me.

"Pardon me Mr-" she paused, probably hadn't herd my name yet.

"Revere, Jefferson Revere."

"Right, Listen here Mr. Revere, how can a new comer to our beloved town be trotting around in these rags, when one brave pony, such as yours truly, can step forth and at least make you look decent for public viewing?"

"Look, whoever you are, I do appreciate the concern for my...clothes, but When I can at least stand and/or walk I'll make it a priority to replace this crap." I calmly explained, or at least attempted to be calm, "Also, You sound like I'm some pet to be paraded around town, Y-you do know that I'm a human, not an art piece."

The unicorn recoiled as if I had just bitch smacked her with a rubber chicken coated in thousand Islands dressing. She looked away with a preppy scoff, "I would never-at least somepony has to fuss over the newcomer one way or another."

"Rarity, I think I do that enough," Twilight butted in, obviously saving me from the fashion nut. "Jeff, You'll have to excuse her, she can be a little crazy over fashion."

"Gee, I hadn't noticed..." I deadpanned at Twilight as Rarity had taken a chair with a audible 'humph!' as if we had insulted her pride.

"I think Fashion Genius is more fitting if you are going to talk about me like so!" The room rattled with the chime of the beckoning bell down stairs.

"I got it!" Rainbow quipped before vanishing in a blur through the door and down the stairs to answer the door. Twilight had wondered over to continue her conversation with Rarity, or at least calm her down, but the white unicorn's voice sounded a little irked. All the while, I noticed Spike had seated himself next to me; with his head propped up on a knee, he had a half-lid gaze on his face while staring at the white unicorn.

"She is something right?" he sighed, I could almost say if she would to look his way he would swooned, "That's my Rarity for you." I looked down at the tyke. My brain could only compute one thing: HOW? How can a dragon and a unicorn be-no, all the no! oh and nevermind the pictures with all the graphical details that shot across my mind.

I shook my head from that mental mess, then looked back at the little dragon, "You really think she's yours?" I asked looking up at Rarity, she caught my glance then quickly looked back at twilight, as if she snubbed my very gaze. "I mean, do you really have a chance with that?" If your into preppy fashion nuts then go for it little guy, but she isn't my shot of jack ya know?

wait, why are you thinking like that brain?

As I rubbed my face with a hand, Spike simply shrugged, "Beats me, but hey at least I can dream right?" he looked up at me, "I mean, Twilight seems to of taken a liken towards you, at least that's what I've noticed."

really? I highly doubt that kid, "I kinda doubt that spike, I think her fascination towards me is more of scientific curiosity." I dismissed his comment before I could hear noise coming up from the stairs as Rainbow had left the door open. Sounded like more ponies were on their way up.

"Jesus, How many of them did she invite?" I asked aloud watching as Rainbow first came into the room. Behind her were two more ponies, One was another Pegasus like Rainbow but blonde coat with a light pink mane with matching tail. The other looked like a normal horse but had a orange coat with blonde mane tied back in a pony tail (bah-dum-tish) and wore a beat up looking stetson.

"So, where is this Jeff ya kept mentionin'." The orange pony asked as they entered the room, The more timid looking Pegasus looked passed her more toned friend as her turquoise eyes fell on me then almost gasped in shock. Fuck, another one?!

Well, instead of rushing over to my side like Rarity did, the shy Pegasus cautiously came over to me and when she saw that I wasn't going to spring out of my seat with a knife, her entire demeanor changed from being scared to worried. "You poor thing!" she expressed her concern with a matching look, "Are you okay? Does it hurt?!" I was originally prepared to tell her away like I did with Rarity, but since she treated me like a living being instead of a tattered mannequin, I thought against it.

"Well, the stitches are still tender since I had'em changed today," I began explaining with a reassuring smile, "But give a few days I'll be able to walk around with out any kind of escort." or fearing I would keel over from the pain, I would mentally add, speaking of which I think I forgot my pills. I could feel a few twinges of pain as I talked to the blonde pony.

"um, I honestly don't think you should even think about walking right now." she looked at my head bandage, then back at me, "Why are you not at home resting?" Cute, but very concerned about the human here apparently.

"Ask her." I pointed at Twilight who snapped to attention from her conversation.

"Huh-what? about what?" she looked at the both of us, the Pegasus turned then stalked towards the unicorn.

"Twilight, you should know better!" she scolded her with a scowl, "why would you bring him out here when he should be at home bed resting?!"

"Uh, Flutter shy, I invited him here-"

"And she did send me to get him." Spike jumped in, "I didn't think he would even get up today." he shrugged as I glanced at the tyke with brows raised, talk about being doubtful for this guy.

"Sure about that? I knew I was still in bad shape and all," I, again, explained, the mothering demeanor faded seemingly instantly as Flutter shy turned back to look at me curiously, "But it wasn't going to keep me in bed all day, I would get too restless to even want to do that."

"Oh, um." Flutter shy blushed out of embarrassment from her random act of mothering/doctoring, "I-I didn't think that, s-sorry Twilight." her head lowered with ears flat.

"No worries shy," Twilight smiled giving the Pegasus a comforting pat on the shoulder, "Like Apple Jack said, Jeff is more sturdy than he looks." Almost, I would think, I wouldn't consider my self that 'sturdy', taking the fact that I spent two weeks in that hell hole and almost died from it.

"Besides, Doctor Horse mentioned that when-" she paused to look at me, she then drifted for a moment thinking before looking back towards her friends, "-well, Why don't you tell them Jeff." She gestures towards me which brought me out of a moment of absent spacing.

"Wh-Wait-what?"

"Didn't the Doc tell you how bad it was when you first got there?" Twilight asked, then heads turned toward me as everypony waited for a reply.

"oh, well, um," I paused trying to remember how it went; Of course my head started to sting when I tried to recall on the details. "Sadly, I wasn't really told how bad I looked when I first crawled into that place." I admitted, Gee thanks for putting me on the spot Twilight!

"Honestly, No one really told me, how messed up I was when I finally woke and wasn't going to strangle them."

"What? You wanted to hurt somepony?" Flutter shy almost paled at that last part, she took a few steps back away.

"No no no, what I mean is that When I first got there, I was expecting to see other humans, not," I paused looking at everypony in the room, "Well, ponies." I felt a little guilty for swinging at the staff back there now that I"m thinking about it.

"Being approached by talking animals while have suffered heavy blood lose while walking there can freak a guy out." I felt horrible, not guilty horrible, just nausia horrible. Fuck, why is talking about this starting to make me feel like vomiting?!

"ugh, Honestly, I don't remember much after the braver remember of the hospital staff took me down and dosed me with something to knock me out." of course, the last thing I did remember exactly was the final sting of the syringe to take me out of the world of hurt I was literately in.

"I see," Twilight paused, she took notice of the change in my mood before turning towards her friends, before she could speak I opened my mouth again,

"And you know whats funny?" I asked looking at each of them.

"And that is?" one of them replied.

"I forgot my meds." I cracked a smile with a weak chuckle.

"YOU MEAN THESE?!" as voice erupted seemingly out of no where.

Looking around I noticed that It didn't come from no pony in the room, "uh, who said that?" I asked aloud.

"Pills here!" a pair of pink hooves popped up from nowhere next to me, looking at them, I noticed the pill bottle sitting in the middle of the hooves. Grabbing them, I looked at the prescription label printed on the side:

PATIENT, ANON D.
TAKE TWO TABLETS EVERY
FOUR TO SIX HOURS
AS NEEDED FOR PAIN

Ibuprofen, 800 Mg Tab

QTY ~~30~~ 60

They didn't even bother to ask for my real name, niiice; "well, these are my pil-"

"Your welcome!" A pink blur glompped me in a hug. I could only blink in surprise as this new pony held me in a rather painless, tight, hug.

"Thaaanks?" I looked at the pony puzzled as she let go and hopped over to Apple jack's side. Not sure what was more weird, the fact that this multi-shade pink pony with bushy mane and tail had appeared out of nowhere or the fact that I was the only one surprised by this, they only giggled from their friend's behavior. I glance around my chair to see if there was a trap door of any kind, "The fu-How did you get in here?!"

"My secret!" She smiled broadly with a displaced squee, "SO, you're Thee Jefferson Revere?!" she asked excitedly, "The human whopracticallyalkwedoutoftheeveryfreeforestwithsomeNaaastylifethreateninginjuries?!" Jesus girl, breath!

"Holy crap, b-buut, yeah, uh you're right, that is me," I smiled back awkwardly, "Doubt there is-"

"Of course it is you! YOU ARE the only human in equestria," she blurred up close to me, putting a hoof next to her mouth, "Trust me, I've checked."

"Wha-?"

"SO, what brings you out here aside from being invited over by twilight?" She asked abruptly as she put an arm around me, I think I'm going to need those pills now.

"Well, Not sure, this is my first full day outside the hospital," Was all I could reply with as my brain swam with confusion, "Say, Can ya let me up so I can get some water," I gestured by shaking the bottle slightly, "Gonna need these."

"Don't move, I'll get it," Flutter shy was the first to speak up as she took off for the kitchen.

During the pink pony's outburst, Twilight had brought out some seating for her friends, she had long vanished into mentioned kitchen at this point. She then returned with a tray of refreshments that looked welcoming but my stomach cowered in my intestine out of fear of throwing it self out of my mouth.

"Here you go everypony." she chimed returning. over looking the crazy one, I noted the seating had been arranged around the coffee table in the middle of the living room. I honestly didn't expect to be sitting in on a get-together, then again, I AM the center of attention for today. "I see you've made it Pinkie." She greeted her rather bubbly, energetic friend.

"OF course Twilight! Why would I miss out on this little party to welcome the Crash victim."

"Crash victim?" I looked at her again confused on how she knew that, "how did you-?"

"Jeff, Best not ta think 'bout it, could only make it worse." A.J. gestured to me, trying to put me at ease.

"Anyway, girls, If I may have your attention," Flutter shy had returned, fluttering over to me with a cup in hoof, "oh thanks, forgot about that."

"Here you go." She kindly smiled at me before taking her seat.

Taking a moment to open the bottle to dump out two beefy tablets. Twisting the cap back on I took the tablets and chased them down with the water, "I have to ask," I leaned forward to put the cup down on the table, that took some effort though as the obvious muscles stretched stiffly.

"Why was I brought out here? I mean, I don't mind being invited over to someone's house just after being released but," I paused, "Couldn't of at least wait till I was feeling a little more better?"

"Simple, No pony shouldn't be stuck in a rickety place like that," Twilight was first to reply and of course, she had one of her tomes propped up on a book stand facing her with a quill in her levitation scribbling more crap on those pages, "Well, At least not all day." Feeling sheepish, I had to nod in agreement to that logic.

Back there, that house would probably be more like a green house than anything and cook me into a puddle of sweat while I lay in bed writhing in pain, alone and- well she does have a point there! As I felt the water had curbed my need to dry heave I helped my self to one of those glasses of lemonade that was made for everypony in the room.

"Of course, I guess you have a point there and the rest of you?" I looked to each of them.

"Because Darling," Rarity, seemingly forgetting my words from before, was next to speak, "We herd the story of a creature had been admitted to the hospital about a week ago. So when Twilight had said she was bringing you out here, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet someone so, unique, (but very open mouth)." she mumbled something else into her cup before taking a sip of her tea.

"She's riaht though,' Apple Jack nodded, "We've seen and met all sorts of critters in these parts but never had we seen anypony like you." My brain was still grasping their terminology as I tried to stop my self from correcting the Pony on using 'someone' instead of 'somepony'. I simply stayed quiet as I listened.

"I guess, I should be honored to be considered 'unique' then," I noticed Pinkie had reached into her mane and pulled out a perfect looking cupcake before nibbling on it, listening with great interest. Gotta remember to just accept her randomness I guess, "Not often I also get invited to anywhere by complete strangers, if you don't mind me saying that."

"Oh no worries," Shy smiled, "That is one thing we are good at is to make others feel welcome to ponyville."

"Well that is sweet of you guys, however, I think the hospital staff would think otherwise."

"Oh don't sweat it Jeffy," Rainbow finally spoke up, "They tend to be uptight when they have somepony as head strong as me of course."

"You mean me?"

"Right, did I say that, I mean head strong as you,"

"Like your last stay there Rainbow dash?" Twilight asked with a smirk, "Couldn't tell the last time someone broke into a hospital to steal a book."

"HEY, that book was awesome, I just-"

"-Didn't know how to get another copy else where?" I asked as I took a drink of the lemonade, couldn't help but note the perfect blended flavor of the homemade brew, Guess somepony had taken time to prefect it. With a shrug I turned back to listening to Rainbow Dash who currently was caught dead in her words.

"you can it human! I just-just didn't know how to admit something so embarrassing like reading."

"There is nothing wrong or embarrassing about reading, remember that," Twilight pointed to her before returning her attention to me. That quill writing away only periodically dipping into the neighboring ink well before continuing with out a drop or mistake.

"Anyways," I politely interrupted after a moment of silence, "I guess what comes up next is the five W's." I actually dreaded at the thought of telling them what I did before ending up here. Be kinda hilariously mean to mention that I was hunting with several others before-

"-Of right, of course!" The page on the tome of notes flipped to a plank space while the quill dipped it's tip. As it hovered at the ready, those light magenta eyes locked onto me. "If it is okay, we can start with you?" she asked kindly. The others sat casually while they too showed interest in what will spill out of my mouth. Though of course couldn't help but wonder if they day will be spent learning about me more than me learning about them more.

Before I could shift my lips to form a word, "Where did you come from?" was the first thing brought up.

"Now hold on," I didn't want to be rude but honestly, enough about me for the time being; "Let's not just jump onto the subject about me right away, um," I looked at each of the girls sitting around me, Twilight was the only one who cocked a brow out of slight confusion. "I've only met you girls and of course, only know your names, that is about it."

Again Twilight was about to say something, probably what I was thinking, gesturing her for 'one moment', "So, as exchange of knowing more about my hosts, I'll disclose what led up to me being here."

"Well, I'll start," Twilight quietly huffed, she must of had to pull the breaks on her curiosity train. "As you know Jeff, I'm the owner of this library, um, before that I used to live in Canterlot; the Capital city of Equestria." She explained before levitating a glass of that perfect ratio mixed, lemonade towards her for a sip before setting it down on a corner table next to her. "About a year ago, I was originally only sent here to Ponyville to oversee the progress of the Summer Sun Celebration and-" she paused to look over her friends, "-make friends." she smiled warmly before looking back to me.

"Of course, but back then," Rarity chimed in, "You were more focused on getting the inspection done instead of befriending any of us darling."

"Riight, I was more focused on not only that but getting back to my studies with Princess Celestia."

"I guess something obviously changed that?" Was my only penny for the conversation.

"But of course, after Nightmare Moon's return, gaining the elements and Luna's reformation, I ended up staying here." Twilight nodded as she drifted with her thoughts, I could tell that she was reminiscing about something.

"Of course much more happened between then an now," Apple Jack crushed the budding awkward moment almost on que, "Tha rest of us all live and work 'round this little town of ours so-"

"-well, unlike book worm over there," Rainbow Dash butted in, "Flutter Shy and I moved over here from Cloudsdale, Mainly because there is no pony else that can manage the weather like I can."

"Nor do I in taking care of-"

"Yeah, if ya ain't loungin' on them most of tha day." Apple Jack spoke up, over speaking Flutter shy i noticed; Rainbow Dash snapped a glare at the orange mare.

"Buck you! You know as well that this town would match the Everfree's weather if It isn't me keeping those wild clouds out."

"True, but ya have to also realize that is somethin' ta stay on top of otherwise-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Rainbow finally waved the subject away, "I'm still best flyer here." she folded her arms looking away from Apple Jack with a snob nose to the air.

"Anyways girls," I lifted a hand to them, "What were you going to say Flutter shy?" I gestured towards her who almost shrank from my gaze as if she didn't expect me to turn her attention on to her.

"Oh, um," she paused, gaining some courage in her demeanor, "Like Rainbow said, I moved into a cottage outside of Ponyville to take care of-"

"-She takes care of any hurt animals like some anima-"

"Rainbow!!" Rarity and Twilight interrupted the jock.

"Sorry!" she shot her arms to the air.

"Please continue," I nodded to Shy who briefly looked towards the floor bashfully grinding a hind hoof into the floor boards before her wide eyes looked up at me.

"Um, I take care of any stray or Injured wild life that come to me, as well ask for their help when we want to, well uh, organize special occasions."

"So, kinda like a local veterinarian."

"Uh-huh."

"That's Awesome, not everybody can have a hand, or hoof, in taking care of animals." then again, never would I really think that a hors-I mean pony would take care of lesser sentient animals. Kinda kicks "das Uber race" Idea in the face with this fact.

"Thanks." the blonde Pegasus blushed.

"Now how about-" The pink blur appared next to me again.

"I'm in charge of that adorable little place called the sugar cube corner here in ponyville." Pinkie Pie began as she wrapped an arm around me, "gesturing" with the other fore hoof; "I mean sure Mr. and Mrs. Cake are the true owners but I'm the head baker, best stuff around if you ask me (Tee Hee)!"

"Aaand I can guess that you sample your work-"

"Oh every time I just can't help my self ya know? Noteveryponywouldknowgoodhoofworkunlesstheytrytheirmasterpiecesthemselves!"

That's when I believe part of her brain is part flesh and part sugar.

"Hmm, Nah, but at least three fourths sugar."

"Wait what?"

"Oh nothing." She grinned with a shrug, a glint of mischief twinkled in her eyes.

Shaking the confusion away, I looked at the rest, "Never mind her randomness Jeffy." Apple Jack joined in, "We tend to naught to pay attention tah some of her jibber jab from time to time."

"Of course," I gave my self a mental message as I tried to not let it crash from failing to understand any of this, thankfully the eight mils helped numb the confusion, or headache, trying to take hold.

"Now, if anypony would mind I would like to say my part as well." She gave the others a glance before clearing her throat before continuing, "So, if anypony had told ya yet, but I live outside of town on an orchard farm, SweetApple acres," At first, I thaught her accent was faked but naow I'm convinced that she is genuine; great, even my thoughts are starting to catch that accent too.

"Tha finest apples you'll fine anywhere in Equestria." She boasted, "When ya'll walkin' fine again, feel free ta come by and I'll intraduce ya to tha rest of the Apple family; hardest workers ya will evar meet, naught ta mention the long line of apple recipes to cook it up with such as-" she was interrupted with the sound of Rarity clearing her throat.

"I believe that will take till sun down to list everything."

"Well, what ya'll heard bafore was just what I can memorized."

"Right, anyways darling, I think we should move on before we get to caught up in family secrets." Apple Jack gave the fashionista a glaring frown but shrugged it off shaking her head with a slight smile since that maybe she too was interested in what I have to say.

I paused for a second then shrugged, well, got no choice now do I? "Aside from being released from the hospital here in, ponyville was it? I was originally from a no-namer town called Merlin. Located in the Rouge Valley of Southern Oregon." I nodded trying to answer as best as I could, "But I moved up the I-5 into a nightmare of a city called Medford for better work but even then, It was difficult since the Economy had to kick us all in the nuts when they pulled the stamps program."

"Wait, What?" Twilight had been obviously copying everything down since I started, "Hold on, where is this Oregon you mention, and these towns-"

"What's a stamps program?" Pinkie tilted her head to think at first then melded into a look of a concentrated researcher as she stroked her chin as if she had a beard.

"Such words to describe something like the economy." Rarity quipped rolling her eyes at the choice of language.

"Well, Twilight and friends," I raised a hand to them, call for silence and their attention again, "Oregon is one of the West Coastal states of a Country called the United States of America." I explained with a hint of sarcasm when the name of my country came up, "As for the stamps program, I was mainly refuring to a governmental control SN-"

"Kinda like a food-for-all kind of gig right?" The pink mare interrupted cheerfully, "I mean, no real long would let their fellow ponies starve no matter the walk of life they trot."

"Uhhh, yeah, thanks." I then forced my brain to pull it self back together, "Riight, so, like she said, the stamps comes from that and as of late, by some ungodly decision to save money, it was pulled." Thinking about it, politics shouldn't stick it's nastiness into this conversation, "Anyways, long story short, I live in a world decaying into chaos, a shadow of it's former shelf. What I was doing during this was, well after riding out of the storm of the December food riots, me and a few neighbors decide to take matters into our own hands and try to provide food for our selves."

"Oh, you're going to answer one of my questions!" Flutter shy perked up.

"Riots," Twilight pondered, "Sounded like everything just fell apart during those dark times."

"That they did, so," I continued, "what we did was go out into the mountains, set up camp somewhere and just hunt for whatever we can find."

"Whaaat? H-Hunt?" Flutter shy suddenly looked like she was regretting her excitement, "You mean-"

"Yes, We hunted down animals for food, not just for the few us but for whoever needed it."

"Those, poor little things." she paled as she sank in and slowly out of her seat.

"Come on Shy," Both rainbow and AJ gave her a hoof back into her seat, "We know that anypony would do anything to survive if there was a famine."

"But hurting animals-" She quietly whined.

"Settle, Settle, we did our best to not waste anything when we gu-" Twilight cleared her throat nosily,

"Jeff, shall we?" she butted in giving me that move along look.

"Right, Right, Sorry; anyways, when we all had our share and determined that we did find enough to bring back, we loaded up and headed home." I continued, dropping the detail that every animal we hunted was cleaned and smoked at the camp site. "We stayed close for a ways but after we ventured down off the mountains, that's when, well-" I drifted off, "-we got separated." I felt a cold knot in my chest as I tried to remember the events following after that.

The Crash

"And," I paused, I felt my nerves starting to act up, "An-" I couldn't speak, something was wrong, really wrong.

"Jeff? are you okay?" one of the girls asked, couldn't tell who it was as their voices started to swirl into a muffled hum.

"And, that's, well-" My chest felt heavy; I tried to take another sip of the drink but as the glass touched my lips- I was twitching, no, shaking. Why where my hands shaking? Then my mind started to replay fragments of the whole ordeal that occurred while out there in the forest. "The rest is history." I forced out of my mouth as breathing was getting heavy, "Excuse me-" the glass fell from my hands as I shot out of the chair.

The Journey

"Jeff?!"

"Oh buck-"

"Whats wrong?!"

"Are you ok-"

The bathroom was easy to locate and their voices were silenced with the door slamming behind me. I found the sink first, I forced my hands to cooperate as I turned the water then started splashing my face with cold water to maybe snap my self out of it. Boy that didn't work, every time the water connected with my face, I felt the rain. I quickly turned the water off; looking up- oh god, my face was pale, my eyes dilated and were wide.

Widen with fear.

The Wolves

I looked back into the bowl of the sink, adverting my gaze from looking at my petrified self. My mind was racing with a mash of thoughts, my heart pounded, my lungs heaved. Every time I tried to blink, close my eyes or even rub my face, images of muzzle flashes, glowing eyes and large beasts blurred by with each blink.

The Monsters

I felt weak, I felt everything as if I did before, in that fucking forest: racked with starvation, wrecked with pain from barely recovered injuries.
Those, those beasts, the hybrid that almost broke my back. The hydra that almost saw me, then that fucking river snake thing that tried to pull me under.

Surviving, Last Stand

I felt only one familiar sensation in my stomach that caused me to bend over the toilet. As I spilled my gut's contents into the ivory's bowl water, I herd what sounded like thunder to my left before I saw something move in my peripheral. As I looked I saw the world change in an eye blink.

The badly made barricades I threw together where almost destroyed aside by the half of one that stood standing after those dogs attacked me again.

I was back in the Everfree Forest, it was dark, cold and I was with out a single round to fend them off, I had ran hard and they just kept chasing me. Those glowing red eyes peering into me.

The Black Smoke Horses

Thier Smokey exteriors encasing skeletons that I could see under the pulse of lightning.
I simply forced all will into my weak legs and ran for it.

But here, some how they found me. " stay back!" I shouted at them. I grabbed and leveled the high power at them, however when I tried to fire, the pistol clicked on empty. "Stay back you fuckin' monsters!"

"..ff!" I thought I heard something under the crackling snap of thunder, those skeletons blinked through their translucent bodies.
"Nononono. D-Don't!" instead of surrounding me, they remained in a loose single file formation as one of them swapped places with another. This one looked different as it had the body of a unicorn.

"J.ff!" muffled off in the disance, "Ca.......d..wn.....y.....re.....seeing-" my ears pinpointed the source of the noise from the smoke horse that now stood before me.

"Calm d....yo....jus...."

"D-Don't, stay back...."

"Jeff, c..m......Dow......wha...."

"GOD DAMN IT LEAVE ME ALONE!!" I threw the pistol at the horse with a wild burst of strength. The object glanced off the horse's horn. As it backed up, I thought I saw the horse's image flicker before it raised it's head, some sort of magic emanated from it's horn.

"Oh shit, don't you dare!" I scooted back untill my back bumped into something. Now, it seemed that I'm stuck, trapped. Got to get out of here! I forced my self to my feet, I grabbed for the nearest branch off from one of my barricades and snapped it free.

"I, I will not die here!" I seethed before taking a swing at my adversary.
The horse dodged back the flicked it's head towards me. A burst of energy shot towards me.

"No-" was all I could manage seconds before the magic struck me in the face.

********************

II
Twilight Sparkle

I watched as my spell connected with Jeff square in the face. I had little idea on how much ommph was put into the stun spell as the impact alone knocked the poor human off his feet and into the guest bath tub behind him.

He mumbled inaudibly as his eyes rolled gently as they closed; my chest heaved slowly as my breathing regulated back to normal.

As I slumped on my haunches holding my horn as it stung tenderly from the spray bottle he threw at me. For somepony that seemed to of snapped, he had one mean toss. Aside from that, what the hay just happend to this human?

"What in tarterus was that all about?!" Rarity was the first to speak after the dust had settled. I refused to reply at first for I focussed on Jeff even though He was now unconscious (regrettably) thanks to me.

"I haven't the slightest idea sugacube," AJ replied probably as dumbfounded as the rest of us, "but he was wild mad like a bull in a red paint shop!"

I looked back at my friends, each of them, aside from Flutter Shy, who's wide eyes peeked out from under one of the chairs; were shocked from the sparatic change in the human.

"I-I wouldn't nor couldn't explain what happened." I then shook the after shock off and stood up, "But, come on girls, we can't leave him like this." I grabbed him by the shoulders of his shirt with levitation and slowly lifted him out of the tub. By Celestia's mane he is heavy when unconscious!

Trying not to drop him, I eased him up and over the tub before my grip slipped and he thunder face first onto the rug.

"Sorry!" I cringed as I gripped the collar and tried to at least get his already hurt face off the floor. As I struggled with the body, I saw Rarity's light blue magic grip the shirt.

"Let me help you with that darling."

"Thanks." we the hoisted the human off the floor and inched him out of the bath room. As we came further out, Rainbow and Apple Jack helped us carry him over to the lounging sofa; all the while we could hear inaudible mumbling and he would twitch in his forced sleep.

When we got him laid down, "Please tell me he isn't anymore hurt than he is." Flutter Shy's worried voice came from behind us as the little pegasus nudged her way up to the sofa.

Aside from me and shy, everybody else had backed up. I took this chance to examin the extent of his condition:

His breathing was shallow but rapid, he would twitch and flinch with weak groans. It was like he was having a terrible nightmare. The black mark on his face from were my spell had connected with the right side of his entire face emited the faint scent of cinged hair.

"Poor guy, he looks like He is having a rather had dream." Flutter Shy placed a hoof on his forehead to only retract it quickly, "and he is burning up!" she exclaimed worriedly.

"The doctor hadn't mentioned any poisions in his body," I mused partly aloud, "you said he is hot to the touch?" I watched Shy not only checked his head but his arms and wherever his coatless skin was exposed.

"Very," she looked at him then to me, "D-Do you have any idea what could be causing this?"

"No." I stared at him while I mulled over who can help us with this problem. He seemed to writhe in pain as he sqruimed on the sofa, "But we need to start somewhere, starting with Doctor Horse, who orignally took care of him when he first emerged from the forest."

"But didn't ya mentioned that he had a sour additude towards the human?" Apple Jack recited our previous conversation about my first encounter with the hum-I mean Jeff.

"Yes, but at least it'll be a start, Pinkie, do you have-" As I turned to Pinkie Pie, I noticed something off, "-Wait, Where did she go?" Everypony else noticed that she wasn't in the room anymore, usueally typical Pinkie pulling the vanishing mare act but instead of reappearing to cheer us up, she seemed to of just left. In her place, in the chair, was a note or more like one of her trademark envelopes.

"Pinkie," I sighed as I went over to the chair, "What got into you this time?" I picked up the envelope and, with all caution, opened it then braced for it; however, when I opened it completly, it didn't explode like I would expect in a hidden conffety bomb letter, instead a simple letter was inside.

"What? Where's the kaboom?" Rainbow Dash hovered over to me, "Normally there would be a Kaboom of some sort when it comes to Pinkie Pie's trick letters." I removed the letter as I listened, even though it was random to be concerned of a prank not going off when expected, but it can't be the pinkie we knew to just leave a normal letter like this.

"Odd, she wouldn't leave something so generic if she did left to do something else." Way to sum up my thoughts Rairty.

"But she can't just disappeare like this," Rainbow gestured towards the door, "if she did leave, we would of noticed it."

"Girls, shouldn' we remember that its Pinkie we're talkin' 'bout here." Apple Jack pointed out, "I recekon she can be the most quiet when she needs ta be."

"True, but lets not get overworked about her vanishing on us like this." I spoke up after finally speed reading the letter for the third time, "For now, we need to keep track on getting Jeff some help."

"Very true Twilight," Apple Jack nodded, "We should get the doc, like you said it'll be a start to figure out this crazy canumdrum."

"I'll stay with Shy incase he comes to." Rarity volunteered with a raised hoof before turning to Flutter Shy "No offence darling, but you'll need somepony that can handle the human encase he tries to get out."

"None taken Rarity." Flutter Shy peeped in reply.

"Right, and as for you Rainbow?"

"I ain't goin' no where, I'm not passing up the chance to buck the human in the face if he tries to fight any of us."

"Okay, looks like it's just you and me, lets go Jack." I let the letter fall from my magic as we hurried out the door down stairs. As we hurried down the stairs my mind mulled over the words of the letter:

Rain of brass falls upon the darkened land, a lost soul must find its way to not become consumed by the evil within.
fight not the black, run not from the black, but

I couldn't figure out why the rest of the letter was smuged in an illiegable smeer of ink...

Author's Note

Soooo, I think I owe you guys an applogy for the long absence....life kinda drop kicked a double ton brick into my writing efforts.... But I will not give up!! The story must go on!

After scaling writer's block mountain, I managed to write on this with out problem

also, aside from that this chapter was difficult because channeling Cannon Characters (no mater the show/game/etc.) takes a lot of brain power, well, at least to me. The other issue was every time I did write this, the order of the girl's appearance always changed so I had to restart constantly @_@

Nightmare?

Author's Note

first of all, determination has kept me from quiting on this, so here is the result of it.

and introducing an experimental extra description feature
as the first example being the extra details of rainbow dash's exaggerated pose.

I'm thinking about doing these more in later chapters to add extra details to certain moments that are not really story required but are simple eye candy for those who want to read extra.

or if you think it's a little distracting, let me know ;)

also, trying to add BGM into parts of the story for readers to listen to at certain parts of the chapter, if you can dear readers just open the link into a separate page and enjoy!

Nightmare?

I
Jefferson Revere

Cold, cold was all I could feel at first, then heard something faint, was it rumbling?
I just felt trapped behind my own eyelids as I could only hear and feel the-

A Thunderous crack of a rifle caused me to jump into consciousness. Alert, scared and awake, or at least I think I was awake. Half my face felt warm from where I think something hit me. I must of been knocked out and I’m just experiencing a rather weird ass dream.

I heard another sound, the pop of a pistol, then the snap of another, then the crackle of a different weapon. The world around me echoed with each report.

What the hell was going on?

Was a fire fight breaking out somewhere?

The noise of gunfire slowly picked up in tempo as well yellow flashes lit the clouds above me in a sporadic light show. I watched in fear and wonder as I could map out where each gunshot originates with each muzzle flash. Even though I could hear each distinctive sound, I could not tell the type of weapon being fired as three would fire off at once or five or eight or- I felt something bounce off my shoulder.

It surprised me as I look, nothing, then I heard the ting of a brass casing hitting the ground, I instantly looked towards the sound. Shining bright among the darkened dirt, was a indeed a brass shell. Walking over to pick it up, I examined the-
"Holy shit that’s hot!" the spent casing fell out of my fingers just as fast as I picked it up.

As it clinked onto the ground, I noted how it felt fresh, like split-second-out-of-the-chamber fresh. Pondering on how a fresh casing got down here when I heard another casing hit the ground, another ‘ting’ far away, then felt another hot casing bounce off my head.

"The fuck are they coming fr-" I recoiled before looking up, and to my awe, I saw the start of a bizarre rain.

Shells, bullet shells of various calibers, (some I recognized as others I did not) started to rain from the sky all the while the fire fight in the sky became so intense that the noise became an undistinctive mosh pit of thunder. The muzzle flashes now lit the clouds like the more familiar lightning flashes I remember from home. Another casing bounced off my face while I was still looking up, it stung from the hot metal but felt something else, warm ooze ran across my forehead. Looking down I touched the ooze to find that it was- "Blood?" I looked around as the noise of the metallic rain of casings filled my ears. I held out a hand to catch one of these casings; a forty-five shell.

It was hot, but wasn't painfully hot this time around; then it started to melt in my palm like a brass colored snowflake. However, I felt myself starting to shake as the casing started to melt into, not water but blood. The dark red crimson pooled in my hand as I stared in horror as I looked around at the brass litter upon the landscape. Some of these shells started to melt into pools of blood. As some of the brass fell on me, I was starting to become drenched in this. My heart thumped as I looked at myself seeing my skin, clothing, bandages becoming soaked in- I ducked under another kind of sound, that rumble again.

This time I could make out a low but loud chuckle that rolled across the landscape like an evil wind.
"W-Who's there?!" I wiped my eyes clean while trying to look through the now thickening rain of bloody shells, I started to walk, not sure to where, but I felt I had to move. Brass klinked and tinged under foot as it looked like the shells were starting to "stick" to the ground like the metallic snow It looked and felt. My boots would slightly slip under the shells as they shifted while I walked. I heard that chuckle again,

"Speak up! where are you?!"

"FORRRRGET!" Was the frightening reply, "FFFFFORRRFEIT!"

"Wh-Where, WHERE ARE YOU!?" the voice only replied with another low, distorted laugh in the kind of tone that would vibrate the walls on surround sound.

This Bloody, brass slush was starting to intensify as well the firefight in the clouds. I got to find shelter, got to get out from under this madness. I carefully started to remove myself from being buried under the now few inches or so of spent casings; Then I started to walk in a random direction, hoping to find something to hide under. Brass shifted and jingled with every boot fall, Some of it even crunched leaving behind a bloody boot print.

At least I can track where I've been; my poor ears started to muffle from the noise, I hope I don't wake up deafened by this. Every so often I could hear whispers through the brass fall, but every time I try to focus on the brass’s whispering, it would be interrupted by that fuckin’ laugh.

“Shut up!” I finally snapped, my voice sounded dull under the noise, I got no reply but started to feel something watching me. I paused in step to look around, blood was painfully trying to block my vision but I would fight it with a hand but even then, well, you try keeping your eyes clear in a monsoon!

Could hear the deep voice, the bodiless vocals trying to speak to me, but I tried my best to blot it out while trying to trudge through this metallic downpour. The tiny, hot metal pieces grow numb to me every second in this. I don’t know how long I had been walking but I discovered one thing:

There was no chance this shit storm was going to end…

************************
II
Twilight Sparkle

We trotted up the road from the library, my mind still buzzing over Jeff’s unfortunate outburst and now pinkie’s words, but I tried not to the think so much on them as for now, I had to keep reminding myself that I had to get help for Jeff. Poor Human, wish there was more I could-

“So Twi,” AppleJack popped my thought bubble as I had tried pondering on everything, “Ya said we’re seein’ the doc first right?”

“Correct,” I replied shaking my brain free of the thinking cloud, “I could’ve read more into it on my own, but,” I paused to keep my mental problem solver quiet, “but I feel this requires more than just reading into some medical book.”

“Pardon?” AJ cocked a questioning brow at me, “Ya tellin’ me that human spazin’ out like a wet lightning bug is more serious than you can take care of?” she must of had trouble catching on or something but dear goddess, it is pronounced hue-man, not who-man!

Putting a muzzle on my angry thoughts, “To be frank Jackie, I have never seen anything like that before,” I admitted grimly, “He was fine one second, then the next, he was-” I paused, feeling the sting of guilt.
“-Fightin’ us like a pack of timberwolves?”

Then It clicked, huh, never thought of that till she said something, maybe that could be part of Jeff’s problem; but then how to explain the sudden unconsciousness and high body temperature? I mean, sure, the simple stun spell I had casted upon Jeff would only of
“Uh, yeah, yeah,” I pulled myself back to earth for the hundredth time today, “Since you mentioned it, maybe his experience in the everfree had more of an impact on him mentally than physically.”
“You mean-”
“He is suffering more from the inside than anything.” And I picked up the pace, trying to politely end the topic by going at a canter.

Since everypony was used to us being in a hurry almost everyday, most passer-bys and other pedestrians would move aside while we ran through town. I had to keep my mind on track, first was getting a hold of Doctor Horse, maybe he would at least explain what he could be suffering from.

“Besides, Doctor Horse was the one of the few ponies to of ever seen him awake.”
“Whateva ya say Twi.”

----------------------------*Later*----------------------------------

“Oh absolutely not!” Doctor Horse snapped when we asked him for Jefferson’s record.
“But Doc, he had some sort of episode and I had to subdue him my self.”
“Not my problem, if he comes to, make an appointment with-”
“He might naught wake though doc.” AppleJack noted.

I couldn’t help but scowl at his attitude towards us. All I wanted to do was just look into what medical history of Jeff this Doctor had recorded, yet he is being very hostile and obviously stubborn.

“Then Doctor, maybe you can explain to us what is happening to him.” he simply stared back at us with an agitated deadpan, impatiently tapping a hoof on his desk while propped on the other. He was probably in thought when he finally leaned back with an agitated sigh.

“Fine Miss Sparkle, tell me,” he gestured to us frustrated, “Tell me what his problem is?”

“Well, he was just fine not to long ago, talking with us normally then after we tried to bring up what he did and where he came from before surviving the Everfree Forest,” I paused, a tinge of guilt poked at me again, “He seemed to of snapped and started to act like we were attacking him.”

“Like he sahw us like monsters.” AppleJack entered the conversation, “He shouted at us, threw stuff and-”

“Thank you ladies,” Doctor Horse raised a hoof to silence the both of us, like that didn’t aggravate us anymore.

“What I can tell, he is suffering from what veterans of the guard tend to have after their service to the crown.” I didn’t think of it, a face hoof emphasised that.

“Riiight, I totally forgot that he could have-”

”Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.” we both said simultaneously.

“Exactly, its not a matter of could, its certain that he does have PTSD.” The Doctor shook his head, “Then there is nothing really to worry about, if it does get any worse, have him go to the Canterlot-”

“-Then what ‘bout tha fever?” Apple Jack’s words drew the doctor to a halt, he blinked then looked at my country friend with confused curiosity. “He was hotter than a cast iron skillet when we got him off tha floor.”

“Really? Normally after an episode, the patient would typically be disorientated and groggy among other symptoms, but blacking out and developing a fever?” The Doc drifted from his words to ponder.

“That is why we’re here Doctor, I feel that we need to turn to professional help and you were the first we thought about.” I explained to him while taking a glance to AJ. She had a stern look on her, but I could tell when she was starting to get angry.

“I appreciate the consideration Miss Sparkle but I don’t think I’ll be of any help other than help treat the other mysterious symptoms, such as this high fever you speak of-”

“-and the shakes or tremors.” I added (sort of) politely.

“Right, but outside of that there isn’t much I can-”

“Listen here mister!” AJ clapped a hoof on his desk angrily, it caught him by surprise, but I was sort of expecting it; “I don’ take kindly ta that kind talk at all, Doc, so yah’ll gonna either say ya gonna help our friend or point us to somepony who can!” Watching her fling that country attitude at the doctor kinda relieved me. To be honest, I was expecting it for sure, I didn’t like to be the one to force anything out of anypony.

I only thank my teacher that she stepped up to the plate.

“I-uh, Miss Apple, please,” Doctor Horse was out of his chair, “Calm your self a-and I’ll see what I can do,” he slowly recomposed himself, “But (clears his throat), if there was anypony to help you out with this weird case would be either somepony from the Vets Medical center in Canterlot or maybe that Zebra friend of yours.”

Wasn’t once in a blue moon that a medical professional would suggest Zecora for something like this, she was indeed going to be my next pony to visit regardless of this situation.
“That’s odd Doctor, Normally, you and your colleagues would not suggest going to Zecora for any kind of medical help, why now?” I asked prodding at this curiosity.

“Well, it’s one of two things Miss Sparkle,” Horse looked from the scowl on AJ’s face back to me, “First, the Vets center have encountered permanent magic damage on soldiers that go through their door that she had some sort of cure for it.” I would imagine that their were hot branding irons being dug into his flank with that glare of Apple’s.

“She could provide some leadway on this curious case, and-” he sighed, preparing himself for something probably painful, “-I, have came to start paying attention to her wisdom in terms of treating various cases and ‘homemade’ remedies.” I could just see the pride fall off him like he was shedding hair.

“Which one's, too many to list, but since you ladies have come to trust her for advice and treatments of various kinds, then maybe I should too.” he nodded, nudging his glasses back up his muzzle. I felt a little better after hearing that, at least some ponies are starting to get along, and a bonus, sharing knowledge!

“Aaand,” Applejack raised a hoof to him, “Ya’ll visit this would be troublesome human in pony, you saved his life, you patched him up-” she jabbed an accusing off at him to empathise her words, “-and ya released him in this fix.”
“A-an-bu-but why should-”
“Because he was and still is yer responsibility!” The doc fell silent, Apple was right, he had been there since Jeff came crawling through his hospital’s doors. He took him in, fought with him and treated him as best he could. So It would make sense that he would go in pony to check on his patient.

“You're right Miss Apple,” he nodded in defeat agreement, “I may of been a little shrewd to the human, but one wouldn’t blame me-”
“Would they?” we both asked as one.
“Correction, Would blame me if something would happen to the human after I was the last pony to of treated him.
Applejack had came over and gave the Doc a pat on the shoulder,
“Atta’ boy Doc, now ya thinkin’ like a real stallion.” she gave him a “gentle” tap on the shoulder before returning to my side.

The doc didn’t say anything but grimaced while rubbing his sore shoulder. I got up from my seat with AJ holding the door of his office open for me,
“I think that’ll be all for today doctor, should we be expecting you sometime soon today?”
After a moment of silence, “Y-yes, may not be today, but I will a priority for tomorrow.”
“Good, on that note we should get going.” We took our leave, I wouldn’t know what AJ did behind my back, but the sudden slam of his door would of empathized on some silent exclamation she made towards him.

“Thank you Jackie,” I looked to her as we headed down the hall, towards the doors leading to the waiting room, “I don’t think even I’ve ever seen a doctor so stunned by somepony’s words in a while.”
“Nah worries sugarcube, I had my share of lazy docs to know that ya’ll have ta bring the hammer down to get somewheres when somepony you know is in real need.” Huh, curious on why she would put it that way? We both only known Jeff for at least a day and we consider him a friend of ours?
I was stumped at first but then, I realized a few things: first, we did extended a hoof to the human to come over so he wouldn’t be alone in his own house (or shack as he and I came to terms with); He didn’t really know our world and he was taken down by our kind during his stay in the hospital, but yet still trusted us enough to come out and talk with us?
My mind started to buzz once more on questions till it bumped headfirst into the swing door of the lobby.
“You doin’ okay sugarcube?” Apple Jack’s question of concern sliced through my brain storm like a knife.

“Huh-what?” I blinked looking at her rubbing my head, “oh, yeah, yeah, I’m just, lost in my thoughts.”

“Must be onto something big to’ve wandered into a simple little door,” she smirked almost chuckling at me, “Lemme get that.” she pushed the door open for me before we proceeded through the lobby and out the front doors.

Next stop, Zecora's!

************************
III
Spike

“Ugh, what's taking them so loong?!” I heard Rainbow Dash groan after absently tossing the book, she must of been skimming through, aside before stretching. “It feels like it’s been hours since they left!” I too was wondering on that too, how long was it going to be before Twilight and AppleJack got back?

I wasn’t too worried though, I was kept busy between keeping notes for Twilight, changing the cold compess (or was it cold compress?) for Fluttershy; listening to the girls chatter over Jeferson; aaand hearing the jock complain about how she didn’t want to be here. I only shrugged it off, mostly because I get to be around Rarity, who mainly kept Rainbow in check and watched Jef for any signs of life, or something like that.

“Rainbow, darling,” that magnificent white mare gave the cyan pony a look over her glasses sliding down that wonderful muzzle of hers, “If you’re getting impatient on our friends, then feel free to fly off and go look for them.”

“ah nah,” Rainbow waved hovering from her seat then close overhead, does she ever get tired of floating like that?
“I’m stickin’ to my original plan and staying here, you might get overpowered by the huue-man.”
“I believe the correct pronunciation my dear is hue-man?” she nudged her glasses back up before looking back down to her sketch book, I couldn’t help but wonder what my Rarity was doing in that book? she normally doesn’t have it out unless she has inspiration for next season's dresswear. Then again, It’s still spring and I did see she already had the fall wear already planned. so...what is she doing?

“Spike.” Flutter Shy’s soft voice caught my attention from watching Rarity, she glanced up once at us then back over to Jeff who shifted, his head rolled from side to side. I think he’s trying to say something in his sleep.
“Jeff is going through these Compresses like crazy, think you can try and get another cold one?” she hoofed me the surprisingly warm cloth that she had placed on the human’s head just five minutes ago.

“Potato, tomato, potato!” Rainbow rebutted, she wasn’t really that great at come backs as far as I can remember.
“I think Twilight is going to need to get you an improv book, because you need to work on your come backs Dash.” I pointed out holding back a snicker.
“Buck off spike, I can do very well on my comebacks!” she replied, “I got good stuff to snap back at you, that it will even shame Luna!” She boasted grandly while striking an exaggerated pose.

She flapped her wings to steady herself till she was able to point her back hooves towards the floor with one fore hoof on her hip with one jabbed into the air with her wings outstretched in an exaggerated pose to, in vain of course, emphasize her determination.

We only watched as she made a fool of herself, she seemed to of been lost in her own little world for a moment before she looked down at the trio of deadpans looking back at her.

“We’ll believe it when we hear it darling.” Rarity’s words seemed to of cut something more than just the imaginary hot air balloon she was flying off in.

“Riiight, I’ll go get the coldest one I can find Shy.” I used to excuse myself from the room.

“Uhm, thank you spike. Fluttershy smiled before turning back to the human.

“OH COME ON!” I hear over my shoulder, “You buckers are no fun, at least somewhat believe in me!” she whined before the kitchen doors closed behind me. Then the voices were muffled by the oaken walls while I opened the freezer to place the warm cloth in and pulled out one of three freezing cold compress cloth.

I felt my stomach rumble, I think I’ll make me and maybe the girls something while we wait and take care of the human. I’ll go ask them, maybe Rarity would be interested in a glass of-

“Spike, Get out here!” I hear Rarity command, “And bring that compress- an extra at that!” I snapped into action, I darted back to the freezer, snatched up another ice cold cloth then bolted back out of the kitchen, a foot kicking the swing door open.

“What is it?” was the first thing I asked, I first heard grunts and as I hurried over to Fluttershy. Then I saw Jeff; he was stirring in his sleep, his face was knotted up like he was in pain, his legs twitched while his head turned side-to-side quickly. Rarity was over by Fluttershy, her horn was lit up with magic. She was holding the human down with magic while Rainbow tried to hold the legs down while the human started to try to flail.

“Sweet Celestia, this thing is strong!”

“Human, he’s a human!”

“Whatever, he-it is kicking like a-” Rainbow Dash was knocked for a loop with a wild boot to the jaw as her grip slipped making her lean forward just close enough for the boot to connect with her.

She fell to the ground holding her jaw, “Son of a manticore!” Her muffled bellow came from behind her hooves before trying to stand back up but she wasn’t moving anywhere fast as she stumbled around before finding the floor again. That really must of hurt. Seeing Rainbow being “dismissed” by the human, Fluttershy forced her hooves down on the human while he thrashed harder in his sleep.

I only stood and stared at the calamity that went down in front of me, truthfully I didn’t know what to really do at this point. I almost forgotten the cloths in my talons if it weren’t for the icy touch to remind me. Almost dropping them, I looked between the dazed Rainbow dash and the struggling other two, I could only do the one thing I can do.

“W-what can I do?” I asked aloud over the noise, no one responded at first and it was starting to get hectic as they both tried to keep the human still while he tried to flail in his unconscious state. Getting anxious here, I then snapped, what would Twi do?

I put that thought into motion, but squeezing myself in between the girls, “Here, this could help!” I passed the freezing rags off where Shy snatched them up with a swipe of a hoof without looking. She muttered something that must of resembled a thanks before she started applying the cloth to Jeff, one on his forehead and the other over his chest (the shirt had came apart during the thrashing.

“Get ready to jump back Rarity,” she spoke over the wordless rabble coming from Jeff. The human was about to reach out and grab one of the girls, then his talon, arm and whole body went limp slowly. I froze to see the clawless talon slide absently down shy’s chest before the arm slumped over the side of the bed.

I glanced up to see how wide-eyed she was, not to mention how frozen with fear she is currently; I would think that she thought he was about to hit or grab her.

“Maybe you should go sit down for a spell darling.” Rarity reached over to touch the shocked pegasus who jumped upon being touched, she blinked then looked back at Rarity. Rarity nodded towards a chair, Shy only nodded a shaky reply before she slumped into it where she remained while the room went silent.

“I think the worst of it is over,” I guessed right before we all jumped at the ringing of the after residence door bell.

“Oh sweet goddess please be Twilight!” Rainbow dash shot out of the room again, a gust of wind blew around the room while the functional flyer flew down stairs. As the room fell silent we could hear Rainbow as well the knocking of the front door.

“Hang on, Geeze Twilight,” she snipped as she opened the door, “why didn’t you use your house key egg-” she went quiet before we looked at the open apartment door with confusion when we all heard:

”Whoa, who-what are you doing here?!

************************
III
Jefferson Revere

If there was anything I wished would of at least of been brought here with was something to keep from being covered in this crap. I mean, at first I was scared to be drenched in blood, then I kept forgetting that I was and would jump whenever I would absently wipe my face with a stained hand.

Now, well, I can’t help but be annoyed by it now; I need an umbrella damn it!!

Yet, even though most of this was starting to turn black on me (or dry up), I didn’t feel cold, infact I felt like I was sweating the whole time since I opened my eyes to this twisted mess. My ears had grown numb to the noise the monsoon of brass shells was making, also helped the fact that now, this crap was about ankle high to me now.

I must of been walking through this metallic muck for hours by now, with no sign of a stop in sight. No house, no cave not even a small abandoned shack to hide under to get a break from this rain. Sadly, nothing, not a single god damn- wait, what is that?

Out in the distance, somewhat distorted by this “rain” looked like a structure of some sort. A two-story structure, a house maybe, or even a warehouse. I would have to get clos-
Having been distracted by this change in setting, I almost dropped to the dirt to a chest-thumping crash of thunder overhead.

“Son of a-!” when my hand fell into the brass, I felt some of the shells ‘crunch’ under pressure of my hand like snow. “Oh great,” I looked at my hand as I stood back up, chunks of the casings sticking to my hand. Shaking my hand free of the bizarre muck, I continued on towards the structure.

“DOOO NOT GOOOO!” that voice boomed from nowhere, interesting enough, only my blood chilled to the sound but I didn’t cower like I had done before. I only hoped that I’m not going insane by getting use to all of this…

Ignoring the voice I walked on, “What are you goin’ to do about it?” I called out after that voice. “Ain’t nothin’ like you can’t come out after me.” I’ve had enough of this nightmare, about time I started to turn against it.

“Hell, I bet you’re too chicken shit to face me like the loud mouthed sumbitch you-” then I watched the rain slowly come to a stop, the gunfire thunder and lights in the clouds kept up their randomizing pace however; “-Are…”

“YoU are THe OnE whO mussst OBEY... annnnd FEAR!” The voice spoke, about damn time it spoke (somewhat) intelligently.

“Oh right, and I haven’t been losing my shit over this crazy weather we’ve been having?” I inquired loudly, “From where I’m from, this kind of weather is almost an everyday thi-”

”ENOUGH!!” the voice erupted the skies like a cannon shot, that to be honest, made me drop to the ground again.

As my ears rang from the voice, my spontanious cockyness fled from me while I kept my ears open towards wherever that voice is coming from. that structure was coming closer as I got back up to trudge on towards that place. A lonely house in the middle of a brass snow landscape, rightfully drenched after the bloody casing shower.

Not totally ominous at all!

I picked up my pace to a power walk, “Enough what? Me talking like I don’t give two shits about this crappy weather and you throwing your voice like the great and powerful Oz?!” I tried to keep my cool, all I had to do was maybe keep that voice’s attention elsewhere while I try to make it to the house.

Though the rain had stopped that I had noticed but now, i noticed the fire fighting in the sky had started to die down. Something told me that wasn’t a good sign. I paused in step to look at the clouds. When not lit up with muzzle flashes, they were an ash gray.
Still nothing to determin time, no moon or (obviously) no sun, even my watch read twelve on the dot. Even though the last time I had checked it had stopped on three:ten; regardless, I still need to at least get out from under these gloomy clouds before I go nuts.

“FORget THEM, They WILL NEVER AccccEPT yOU!” huh,i was starting to think this joke of a voice or whatever the hell it is; was starting to freak me out, now, this just feels like a bad dream. A really, shitty, bad dream.

“Accept me?” I looked into the emptiness around me, “Well first of all, I need to be awake for that to even matter, right now, I felt like I’ve made the worst first impression in my existence.” I paused in step again to jab an accusing finger at no one, well, at him, or what-wherever they are.

“One minute I was chit-chatting with ponies and now, i’m in this, this, dream with whoever you are.” I continued to walk, I’ve had about enough of this madness, if one would call it that.

“If there was anything I can do right,” I threw my hands up to the sky, “is just wake up and be done with this!”

“Then You should rethink your attitude if you wish to survive this, ‘dream’.” wait, that sounded very close, like it was- I run into something, like a solid wall. Stumbling backwards as my legs suddenly felt stiff from walking in one direction (at one pace as well); I blinked in surprise and I looked at what felt like a sudden wall of-

“What the fuck?!” What stood before me actually cause my skin to ice over. A shadow, a single, man high, shadow that seemed to vibrate like a subwoofer speaker every time it spoke.

“You really expect to just, walk away from this?”

“I uh, I didn’t expect-” I looked around, I felt like I was about to be jumped by either Freddie or the slender man, hell maybe even both! Like a wave overtaking my body, I first felt my heart thumped as I looked into the shadow, then, my skin and blood turned cold. I watched what thought was a shadow, now looked like a solid, floating, flat blob of oil that rippled to match every not only its (or his) spoken words, but mine as well.

“I don’t think you should-”

“Should what?” that calm tone in the voice that, at first, was disembodied and distorted now sounded deep but had a dark politeness about it;
“Go? Go where? You know for a fact that there is nowhere to go,” the voice began, the sound of his voice had a deep base to it as he spoke into my ears;
“Walk, run, sprint anywhere you may like, but you can not out run, me.” I blinked in disbelief at first then I shook my head. snapping my mind out of the fearsome trance I was about to put myself in.

Taking a deep breath, I walked around the blob, I wasn’t going to be stopped by this thing. I needed to get to that house!
“Watch me Mr. Oily.” I told the thing sharply before picking up my pace towards the house. “I got somewhere to be and You will not stop me with your Freddy Kruger act.” Something told me that house was a safe place to be in. I can feel that living oil stare holes into my back but I wasn’t going to let it stop me for I wasn’t going to be afraid of it.

This is my dream and I can say what scares me and what I laugh at!

”HUMAN, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT KIND OF TROUBLE YOU ARE IN!” Mr. Oily shouted after me.

That was when I picked up my feet and started to run, however, that house seemed to draw farther away as I tried to run at it. The ground growled as I heard what sounded like a shotgun blast as something slammed into my back.

I felt the air as I was flung forward for a few feet then met the messy ground with a painful impact. My head spun as I pushed myself off the ground, my legs wobbled, my feet tried hard to get a grip but the brass snow slipped and gushed under boot. This would be the part that I’m starting to feel my nerves starting to shake as that being practically threw me to the ground.

I would be lying that I wasn’t starting to lose my will because as soon as I tried to continue the push, I saw Mr. Oily appear before me. Skidding through the snow to a stop I looked at it. Damn it! It seemed that it changes it’s shape everytime I look at it! this time, instead of a blob, it was human shape.

“Out of my way before I dowse you with kitty litter!” I simmered at the shape before I started to pace around-

”NO!”

I barely caught sight of its arm as I felt it swing into me with a backhand motion, knocking me backward; instead of falling to the ground, I caught my footing, sliding slightly. Screw this, getting nowhere doing this. I looked around us, no real obstacles stood around us, so, I’ll just do this:

I turned then took off into a run off into my right, then looped myself wide from Oily as I then started to sprint towards the house. I heard it snarled, then started the sound of heavy, rapid footfalls as I try to put that house closer to me and Mr. Oily further behind me; However, by judging how close those stomps are, there was no way to out run this monster!

Nevertheless, I shoved my boots into the ground as I sprinted onward, I didn’t want to look back for I could feel that guy right behind me like nemesis, even the foot falls reminded me of him. I only heard a growl as my back, once again, felt a fist sized impact that caused me to fly into the ground, a few more feet ahead; THAT winded me a little bit, but I somehow picked myself up and staggered forward.

My legs felt weak now, not to mention how much my back, face and chest stung with a numbing pain. Even my ears were ringing from the impact to the ground. God, why didn’t I just stopped there and let this nightmare take me so I can wake up the easy way? But NNOOOOO, I had to be a stubborn sonofabitch and deny myself of that fate!

Trying to keep my balance I staggered forward once again, a small burst of will got my legs back in line and I was off once again.This time I was starting to feel numb in most places: Half my face, as well parts of my body, was tingling from the oncoming adrenaline rush as well from the running; I was breathing hard as I tried to keep my distance from this fool. At least I keep feeling a near freezing patch on my forehead to keep the sweat somewhat bearable as it tried to come down my face.

I kept running at a decent pace despite how screwed my body felt, there was no real way to flee or hide. I just knew somehow that house in the distance was the only place to go to get away. I must of ran for another fifteen minutes after getting hit that last time. I couldn’t stop-no I didn’t want to stop because that ‘thing’ will get me for sure.

It took me another five minutes of only hearing my own feet before I slid to a stop to look back despite my gut telling me to not look and keep running. Mr. Oily was far behind me; but, I could still feel his burning stare as his eyes peered through me, felt my head throb as the air around me started to thicken.

The air echoed with dark laughter.

“Keep running Jefferson, YOU, Will only delay the inevitable!

“I’m-I’m postponing the inevitable!!” Just shouting that almost winded me before I took off into a forced sprint as I didn’t want to spare any more air shouting back at that person-thing. I only heard in reply, again, was laughter as the ground started to shake. Finally, that house was starting to inch closer towards me and maybe just in time too.

My legs started to wobble as I drew closer and closer towards the house, I would hope then I would wake- The ground roared as I heard a thunderus boom from behind me; I stumbled and ate dirt as the earthquake, short but violent, cut the ground with a thin crazy line that sliced ahead then across in front of me. I skidded to a stop as the ground violently split open.

Half expecting to see lava, I, instead, saw nothing but a black abyss with only a single foot step away from falling into it. Turning around, I stared down mister Oily only to see his form had sank into the ground for a split moment as he ran towards me. In his place as the form came up from the ground was horse shaped. It, or he, charged on towards me at full gallop.

“Oh great…” I looked into the gab then across it, then back at the oily horse as I had to think fast, or else I was probably not going to wake up, or something, from this nightmare. Taking a deep breath I made up my mind:

I ran towards the horse.

It didn’t matter at this point, time to stop running from it and face it head on. This is my dream and I wasn’t going to let this creature push me around! It was do or die and I will wake from this dream one way or another!!

That would of been nice to of fought this thing head on if I had a weapon of some sort. however, this wasn’t the case so-

I slid to a stop, gave the charging beast a hard stare as I spun around on heel then ran full sprint towards the dream grand canyon. I must be out of my mind, well, i’m in my mind at the moment so, sew buttons to a wet power socket; I was going to do something that this ‘thing’ wasn’t expecting.

or, or at least I hoped it didn’t expect this.

As I threw all brain power into my legs and feet; the edge came fast as my boots felt it’s rough edge. It was either this or the long fall into darkness:

”MIND THE GAP!” I shouted while using the momentum from the sprint to throw everything I got into my legs to jump the gap

I felt no ground, only air and the brief absence of gravity as the opposite edge of the black canyon drew closer. I only hoped that this was a good idea, a little late to turn back don’t ya think?

I flailed my arms as I came within reach of the edge, I shut my eyes as I braced for impact. The ground caught me at the waist as I slammed into the solid surface that almost winded me, my arms, hands and- ah screw it-my whole body rocked with a pulse of pain as I worked my hands to grip onto something but they slid through the bloody slush with no chance to grip onto the ground it self.

“shitshitshitshit!” My hands slipped and arms flailed as I tried desperately to grab the fucking ground in general, “Don’t you-!” my own body’s gravity had been the timer I had to beat if I was going to make it the rest of the way onto this side; and, well, times up.

My fingers felt the edge slip from their tips as I began my fall, this is going to suck for sure. There wasn’t much more for me to do except try not to tense up during this fall toward this pit of death. Now I’ll actually feel how that emissary felt when Gerard Butler boot legged him into the pit.

I closed my eyes as maybe I’ll wake up from the feeling of falling or at least relax to this- My body suddenly stopped falling. No pain, no impact, just, stopped and...floated in something warm. When I opened my eyes, I was surrounded in a light blue aura.

“What the-” I peered around to see the sky above me and the black pit below me, i can even feel the pit’s chilly air licking at my the back of my sweat drenched neck. I then narrowed eyes at the cliff edges, the side that I had not fallen ten or so feet from, had something or someone standing there.

Feeling a gentle pull, I started to float towards the cliff’s edge. Wait, was I being saved from dying in a pitch black horror? Who was rescuing me? wading through the sea of fading adrenalin were questions as I reached out to grab the edge to, with the aura’s help of course, climb back up onto my knees, onto solid ground.

Solid ground, my god, never thought I would miss it so badly as I simply flopped onto the messy ground, never mind the slush splashing onto me or squishing beneath me. I didn’t realize how much my lungs needed a break as they felt like I have ran across Oregon in a matter of hours.

It seemed to of taken forever to pull enough air back into me to manage a, “Thank you.” between gasps my eyes had shuttered out of concentration, oh sweet mother of maker! my body was feeling more numb than ever.

“Thou hath been in trouble,” A voice replied as I didn’t move to look at all, “So, we took it upon us to, save thee from the brink of death.” A gentle chuckle cause an eye to pop back open.

“Wha-wait, what do you mean-” As I tried to snap into prone, my body only translated my thought into a slow, painful roll onto my hands and knees, not without grunting and groaning like a recruit after day one of training mind you.

“-What do you mean ‘took it upon us’?” I looked up to only feel my jaw drop as I looked at another horse standing before me.

“As in, my dear creature, we have seen that thou was suffering from something more than just a nightmare.” The horse that walked closer towards me was obviously full size at maybe sixteen or so hands tall. First thing I noticed was her dark navy coated legs, then her chest then made contact with her teal blue eyes.

“Kinda figured that this wasn’t a normal dream.” I commented before quietly counting:

“One, two,” braced for it, “Ten!” I shoved myself up then slowly stood, her horn glowed as magic gave me a ‘hand up’.

Back onto my two feet, I wobbled a little before I heard what sounded like a roar from behind me.

Turning to look, I stared hard at the beast that was stopped by the gap that I stupidly failed to jump across. Thankfully, this unicorn had caught me before darkness embraced me.

“Indeed, and we hath to say that thou hast done well as thou have managed to outrun the Tantabus.” The unicorn spoke nonchalantly before I snapped a look back at the horse.

“Wait, say what?” I blinked at her, “A Tantibus?”

“Mhm, a living being of dark magic whose sole purpose is to create nightmares to punish the dreamer for whatever deed that have done in the waking world.” My already hurting head buzzed with confusion from that magical explanation.

“What now?” She only replied with a hoof to her lips in an attempt to stop herself from laughing at my blonde response.

“In time you’ll learn of it.” she then looked passed me to see Mister Oily, or the tantibus as she had called it.

“Tis strange though,” she frowned in thought, “How can thou possess such a thing in your subconscious when thouest has not been in our world for long?”

“Pardon me Miss pony for not really understanding your shakespearian chatter but that thing had probably latched onto me while wading through the everfree forest.” I have had no encounter with this thing before, so, how can it be surfacing now to attack me like a living nightmare?

“So it is true!” she smiled at me excitedly, “thouest are the human we’ve been hearing about from my sister!” she then turned to walk away from the edge; I too a moment to look around for a visual explaination of the ‘we’ part of her speech.

“Wait, you’re Twilight’s sister?” that time I heard what must of been the laugh of a rich chick or a royal of sorts. why did I try to make that connection? damn it brain!!

“Oh nay dear sir, We were merely referring to our sister, Celestia.” As I staggered along side her, I finally noticed something else about this horse-pony. Her mane and tail were free flowing forms of what looked like a clear night sky with a skyblue ethereal line outlining the ends of her hair. Also, she had wings tucked at her sides. What is she exactly? Horn, wings, living mane, I hope she is only a figment of this dream because I don’t believe I have ever seen or heard of a pony or horse like this before.

“Celestia huh and who that might be?” I looked back as my ears faintly echoed with dark whispering from probably mister Oily.

”You may have been saved Jefferson, but you will never escape me in your dreams!”

Stopping I cupped my hands around my mouth, “Oh Yeah, we’ll see about that ya faking kruger wanna be!” I shouted back at him, my voice echoed across the gap. I turned to look back at a rather shocked hybrid pony.

“Oh my, What strange but rude language you have.” She smiled with a glint of mischief, “Has thou naught been taught proper language manners?”

“Look lady, I only know two kinds of english, good english and bad english and I’ve been good at the bad.” I shook my head at the apparent fact that I’m chatting with a pony that is trying to call me out on my usage of words, terrible shame that she doesn’t fully understand how much trouble I went through so far. “Miss, whoever you are.”

“Luna,” she said, stopping me in mid step with a nudge of her magic, “We, are Princess Luna.” she introduced herself with a simple bow of her head. Wait, how is she being so calm and collected (not to mention chatty) after saving me from the pit-o-death shortly after I have just ran a cross country sprint trying to get away from that monster.

“Ruler of the night and guardian of the moon.”

Aaand I’m supposed to know what all that means, luna? I only stared at her for a moment before continuing,

“Riight, Well, Luna, I can only ask one thing.”

“Hm?”

“How are you not scared by that, that, that-”

“Tantibus.”

“Tantibus, thank you; that Tantibus?”

She gave me a soft smile before looking forward. Taking a peek into that direction, I saw that house - still far away but now in walking distance without fear of getting attacked or chased by Mister Oily. Of course, with this winged unicorn, who had advanced ahead of me by some odd paces before looking back at me.

“A Tantibus, regardless of it’s form, simply functions off of its host’s fear and-” I looked up at the clouds after a crack of a gunshot with matching muzzle flash blinked across the clouds. I then saw something that almost made me laugh. I have never seen such a majestic looking pony jump then duck so suddenly to the noise.

“-what in creation was that?!” The wide-eyed ruler of the night questioned before the volley of sounds filled the sky.

“Never heard a gunshot before?” I too would've dropped to the dirt with her if I had just awoken into this dream. However, I have been in this nightmare for hours so I have had no choice but to get used to the gunshot thunderstorm that is now kicking back up in pace.

“Wh-whats a gunshot?”

“The sound a gun makes when fired.” the guardian of the night cocked an inquisitive brow at me.

“What is a goon?” I was about to answer, but first of all it’s pronounced G-UN!

“I’ll explain later when I know I can wake up from this.” I looked around to mostly get my bearings before my sights fell upon the only building that I have been chasing after for this whole time! Rubbing my face with both hands before letting them slide off,

“For now, I need to get to that house so I can try to wake up from this dream or nightmare, whichever it is!” I started towards the house again, the thunder of guns was the key in keeping the silence away.

“If there is anything, we may have an explanation towards this,” Luna’s voice came from behind me. oh please sweet princess, do tell me what has almost been the death of me?!

“Please tell me, I would like to at least know what almost killed me.”

“This,” she looked at the world around us, “dream is something far more than just a dream, however, we have yet to observe what your dreams are really are.” she gave a stare to the clouds above,
“To, well, better differentiate the cursed dreams and your natural dreams.”
“Beg your pardon Luna, but what’s with the ‘we’?” my stupid brain finally asked aloud; but it was a legit question, she has been talking as if there are more than her present. Unless she is part schizophrenic- which I doubt by the way; she fully seems to be alone.
“Tis the way we talk,” she replied casually. I can only guess here that she must of been asked that a lot so she didn’t seem to of taken offence to my ignorance.
“we, well,” she yawned, covered with a hoof, “come find me when you awaken; we shall have a chance to educate thee on any wonders that fill your mind.” I didn’t think about that, but I kinda let the subject drop there before continuing on.

I didn’t give a glance back to see if the night pony was following for some time until I finally looked back to see she had been keeping up with me, strangely I’ve also seen her horn had also been glowing brightly for the whole time We’ve been walking together.

“Sooo,” I slowed my pace to walk beside her; her shoulder was about at neck level with me, “What’s with the-” I gestured towards her horn as she watched my hand then looked up slightly. Despite the rattle up in the clouds, no brass came down, but the first ‘shower’ was still caked on the ground, so our steps were still audible.

“Our magic?”

“yes,”

“We’ve been keeping, as it would be put: keeping an eye on things, while we carry on towards your objective.”

“Wouldn’t really call it an objective,” I shrugged, “However, I keep getting the pull to go to that house,” pointing towards the building in the distance, I took another look at the night pony; It took me a little bit to notice, but she would flinch at the more louder reports of the gun fire but after some time of walking with me, she had gotten used to it.

Guess she would do better if we ever got into a firefight with some dream goons or whatever. Typically, or at least I would think about, any horse, who hasn’t been around guns, would buck then bolt at the first discharge of any weapon near them.

Thought about something and was about to speak when the ground itself started to rumble.

“What the hell?” we then heard the sound of Oily’s laugh.

Oh great, not him again!

Looking back I saw that black shadow clear the casim then flew over the ground towards us. He looked like a fast moving black dot, a supernatural speck of blackness that was apparently hell bent on getting me.

“Luna,” we looked at eachother, “Start running.”

“No, you start, we shall stand our ground to hold him off.” Luna turned around to face the demon. There was no point to argue with this pony, obviously, she looked capable of fighting off whatever Oily was- Tantibus, kruger copy or whatever I had to put boots into the ground

and wake the hell up!

My legs complained with stiff muscles from walking the first run off but now, I had to keep everything in line to make one last jog towards my goal. The house was drawing closer and closer with every ten paces or so. Yet, I could still see it was far away. Fuck distance, just keep running!

My boots squished into the slow melting, brass snow as I felt nothing, no wind nor the heaviness of my lungs inflating-deflating nor the liquid feeling in my- what the hell, is my mouth-

I felt my stomach twist suddenly followed by the taste of something awful on my tongue. It caught me off guard so badly that I lost my momentum, hitting the ground hard. what the hell was this?!

Pushing up off the ground, I coughed hard from how it burned on the way down. Between breathing and this crap I coughed on last time before my stomach spewed the dark green liquid back out.

Great! Dazed from puking, tired from running, sore from hitting the ground (several times), now I got Mister Oily flying in hot pursuit after me with Luna putting herself between him and me. Better not put that effort to waste.

After Coughing up the last of the goop, I forced myself to my feet then kept running. Holy Crap, I can’t believe I’m going through this at all. How about I wake up now and be done with it?
please?
Pretty please?

Sadly, it doesn’t work like that because that just how this shit works. First I get dropped into a world of being I can’t fully understand now I get randomly cursed for my efforts in trying to survive!

My complaining mind was silence with a loud boom behind me. Looking back, I saw what looked like a blast of blue light that flashed across the wasteland. With that in mind, I kept running with my mind on mute for the time being. All the while I started to see another snow fall of brass shells while the firefighting in the sky grew more intense; probably due to the fight that broke out far behind me.

I had put distance behind me, there was no going back at all, why would I anyway?

The house grew more and more in detail as I came closer; I can almost jump at it at this range. There was a thunderus shock that shook the world followed by the ground starting to split beneath me.

“Not this time!” I sprinted with all my might. The ground buckled then vanished below me as I lept at the door after it had came within five paces of me. The door failed it’s resistance check and banged open as my boot connected with it.

feeling wood flooring, I rolled over then swung at the opened door with an open hand.

As the collapsing ground outside came right up to the threshold, the door slammed shut in the dreamworld’s face!

When the only sound of me panting hard, filled my ears, I rolled slowly onto my back as I stared at the ceiling above me.

“That, that was to close…” I grumbled as I slowly got back up onto my feet. This house was illuminated by an ambient light of blues, purples and whites. There was no furniture to be seen. The inside of place, was only a large one room floor with plank walls holding up the ceiling. despite the creepy feeling, I felt safe. No real explaining it, but this felt like the only place in my own mind to be safe in.

I only pondered on why i would even think like that, all I need to do is to just lay down. I heard what sounded like wordless whispering that drew my attention back to focus.

“Hello?”

The hum of silence was the only reply, I even almost forgotten about the collapsing world around the house. By the way, wonder whatever happened to Luna? I turned to check the front door, it wasn’t mysteriously locked like I thought it would. So, turning the knob, I would expect to see empty space or something but instead was a solid black wall.

Well, not really a wall, as I check with a hand. The air was cold outside the door, I would watch with confusion as my hand would vanish into the void. Thankfully I can feel my hand still but can’t see it. Pulling back, I looked at my hand; still intact, no signs of anything different: No surprise parasites, black spots, or anything that would turn this quiet moment in another mad minute of imminent death.

Shaking the cold off my hand, I checked around again. Walking around the room, I almost tripped into something, I didn’t see it at first as I almost met the impact of the railing with my face. It was a set of stairs, leading up towards another level of the house or building. Wait; I thought this was originally a one floor house?

Then again, I did see this house as at least two stories tall…

Maybe I should just go out the door and maybe I’ll run into Luna and she can help me out of here. However, I heard the similar growl like I would hear from the ground before it would erupt and split apart. I could hear the sounds of something running hard towards the opening.

“Oh shi-” I turned on heel and sprinted for the door.

I slid to a stop watching a pulsing glow from outside pulling closer towards the doorway as I gripped the knob. In the middle of the mist that was coming at me was a pair of eyes.

The eyes were filled with rage and knotted in anger. The closer they got the more detail I can see; I could hear the laughter and see the dark crimson irises on a backdrop of small fields of darker green, the black mist that emanated from them blended in with the blob that made up the creature.

“Don’t even dare Oily!” I slammed the door hard before it banged from the impact of the monster outside. Having fallen backward onto the floor, I watched at the door rattle and buldge from that thing trying to break in.

“JEFFERSON!!” Thankfully, the magical door didn’t break. Even though my heart thudded from the jump scare, I was relieved that I got away from him.

Turning attention back to the stairs, I walked over to the stairs. They were of simple design with side railings, full steps, the stairs had no side paneling, but in place of that empty space was the same blackness just like outside; being made of wood, it was flush with the same oak brown material just like the rest of this structure.

Taking one step onto the flight of stairs, I could hear the whispers again, almost like a hushed conversation was going on up there. I could only think but to check it out, might as well, I don’t think I’ll be able to get out of here by any other means.

“Hey,” I called up to the stairs, “Anyone up there?” No response but the whispers.

“I don’t know if you can hear me or not,” despite survival horror ruling against checking out the spooky noises, I scaled the stairs carefully towards those whispers.
“But, I need to know how to get out of here, ya know, wake up from this dream?”

The whispers went silent again. Great, for all I know, some dream creeper will be waiting for me at the top. Oh well, at least I’ll wake up from here instead, right? Taking a couple of more steps up,

“HEY, I just need to know if there is anyone up there that can help me out.” I came closer to the top of the stairs, this part of this bizarre structure was blacked out like outside. When I came to what felt like solid flooring at the top I stood in complete darkness.

Looking around, I felt the cold as well the heavy emptiness that blended with the darkness that practically blinded me (again).

“Hey, is there anyone up here?” I had a feeling that it was stupid to call out to ghosts, but come on; How can one not try to claw at the silence but reaching out to someone.

“Listen, It’s dark here and I need some help getting-” I almost said home, which was something else: where was home for me?

Home was in some distant dimension or planet and currently, home was some run down, half assed updated shack in the back end of a town populated with ponies.

“-getting back, so can someone please just turn the lights on?”

A bright light ripped through the darkness. On impulse, I shielded my eyes with a hand trying to look at the source it’s blinding me from. As I looked, the light dimmed, revealing a single lantern hanging from the ceiling down the hallway on my right.

“What the?”

It was black between me and the small chunk of the hall; however, when I took a step towards it, I watched as the blackness faded around my boots as I took one step after another. Thinking that I’m walking a tightrope, I lost my balance and found the wall. Darkness faded around my hand as I then planted a foot close to the wall.

“Whoa, like fog of war…” I thought aloud as every movement between here and the lantern faded the black revealing more of the wooden floors, walls and ceiling. Feeling confidence returning to me, I started to feel my muscles lax with every step as I traversed through the black.

When I cleared the ten feet of black, I stood under the lantern. Looking right up at it, I can make out the detail work while I can look right into the flame of the light without being blinded by it; The lantern was an old century oil lantern with the thick, yellow dyed glass panes that encased the rope whick’s light, creating the matching color glow that enveloped the space around and behind me; it looked like it had been hanging there for a long time as patches of rust tainted the original black painted steel and silver trimmed door.

However, ahead of me was still black until a minute later, I saw the similar flash of light that cleared a hole in the black before. Like the first time, I walked through the fog with comfortable confidence as I can tell, there was no danger in sight.

This time around, instead of another section of hallway, I found-well almost walked into a door. I almost gave myself whiplash recoiling from how close the door came up. Standing before the door, I looked back down the hall. Behind me was empty hallway with the lanterns lighting the way behind me with the black fog making up another, obviously undiscovered part of the building. Yet, I think I need to take my time and- ah fuck it, let's see behind this door.

Looking back at the door, I took the knob in hand then; bracing for probably a jump scare that would kill me for good. I turned and (with eyes shut) opened the door.

I hear the door creak open, then, wait for it, where is it? Where’s the creature that would roar into my face before ending me with an epic one swing finisher?

I stood in silence for a minute or so, then, I slowly opened one eye.

“What the hell?”

Before me was a room….empty...well, with a basic, bare mattress on the floor against one wall. Walking in-more like taking a step in, then another. making sure there is no trip wire to cause the room to cave in. To my amazement, there was nothing here but just me...and the mattress…

“Great,” I muttered, “Only thing in existence than myself I find in this place is a god damn mattress…” I stepped up to the mattress to give it a kick. It was flat, beat up and looked like it had lost its standard white color from constant use without proper sheets. I was agitated and confused, why would this place be here?

Why would I be drawn to this dump?

How does all this fit into what has been happening out there?

“Of all the things, I end up here…”

“There is always meaning to everything in dreams.” Her voice almost made me fall over in shock as her voice was the only sound in the room (aside from my own not a few seconds before). After getting a grip on my heart, I took a glance towards her. Wait, wasn’t the room smaller than- never mind that. Luna stood on one end of the room, I could tell she had a bit of a tussle with Mister Oily out there; her mane had been rustled (even with it being living hair, it still showed signs of being blasted around during the fighting), there was black dust streaks that plastered her coat, hooves and the crest she wore across her chest that bore her tattoo mark.

“Wha-I don’t get it, so what does the matress mean if that’s the case?” then something else came to mind:

“And how the hell did you get here without making any noise?” she gave me a mischievous grin in response.

“Thou shall learn of that in time, for now, this inception shall end.” She gestured towards the mattress-what the heck?! Instead of a hobo bed, it was a simple bed seated in a wooden bed frame.

“Wait, wasn’t that just a-”

“A sign of Your subconscious fighting the nightmare, however,” her face frowned in thought, “We can not say if this is the case, we shall look further into this.”

“Sooo, what? you going to be kinda like the dream police and investigate my nightmare?” I asked with a shrug with Luna raising a confused brow at me.

“Dream, Police?” she moved towards me with a gentle ‘royal’ chuckle, “My dear sir, if thou art referring to us as a meer constable to chase away the nightmares, then we shall have to demonstrate that we can be more than a club wielding guardian of the unconscious.”

“The what now?” she came closer as I stood there with nothing more than confusion. I heard a loud thud outside the room that snapped my attention to the door before-

“Oh, tis nothing Mister?-”
“Huh oh its-” I looked back at her and, holycrapshemovedclose. Startled by how she was practically arms reach of me, my brain crashed for a moment before recovering as in my left lobe gave the right brain lobe a kick in the ass.
“-it’s Jeff.”

“Well then, Jeff,” she cocked her head slightly as she gazed at-into-through me, “If we may, we would like to send thee back to the waking world.” Now it was my turn to almost laugh.

“So, so, How are you going to do that?” I asked taking a step back, “As you can see, I don’t really have that kind of power to just wake up.”

“That is why we had not parted from thee; to assist in waking up.” she moved closer, her horn glowing gently.

“Again, how are you going to-” before I could finish I felt the ivory of her horn briefly touch my head before stepping back. I, on the other hand, felt a wave of heaviness that even caused my eyes to spin.

“-Doooo, thaaat.” I stumbled a bit before bending down bracing myself on my knees.

“HHHow, in the-what-in diiid you do tooo me?” my head was swimming, my limbs were numb (numb, numb just so you know). I was feeling like I had went solo in a ten vs ten smoke-a-thon.

“Simple, we took this chance to help thee relax with an anesthesia spell.” Her voice was fading in and out at this point. Why does this happen to me god damn it?! And where was this magic while I was in the hospital?!

“I,” I stumbled to the ground, waited there for a moment or six, “I thhhink I shhhould.”

“Lie down?” she came up beside me before extending a hoof to me. Lifting the equivalence of a competition bowling ball, I looked up at her with one eye falling shut. Not wanting to take the chance to argue, I forced my hand to move; I found air a few times before Luna caught my hand to help me to my feet.

“Lean against us while We assist.”

“Nnno prob.” my body leaned into her (well almost magnetized towards) shoulder, as she walked slowly towards the bed. One clumsy step after another we made a slow progress towards it.

“Yyya know,” Oh god brain, don’t tell me you went crossfade mode, “Your skin ish, really sofff.” grrreat, not only do I feel like I’m high, I’m talking drunk too!

Either way, my temporarily retarded brain was right though: her coat was velvet soft, the strands of her mane would brush up against me with the feeling of silk. Ahhhh, at least She would be comfy to cuddle wit- oh god now I’m being mind controlled by the softness of her body.

Wait...that came out wrong…

Aside from mapping out how Luna’s coat and mane feels, I was still numb and getting more numb by the second thanks to whatever that spell was. We finally came to the foot of the bed to where she stood me up with her magic.

“Go on, lay down and release thyself into a peaceful rest.”

“Buut what aaabout…..you?”

“We shall be fine, when this world fades from your mind, shall you awaken into reality.”

“Da fuq?” I looked oer to see teh walls shift, an echo of a voice of tht creature screaming for me didn't phase me at all (for once). I looked back at Luna who had a sly smile on that lovely mug ov hers.

“Sleep well, good human.” she then nudged on my chest with a hoof, which of course, was enough to cause me to fall backwar-

“Oh crabcakesnapple!” I flailed as I felt I was falling down that pit again, only except that mattress broke my “fall”.

As I laid there, my vision blurry as hell, my body was shutting down, the last thing I see was Luna watching over me, she said something but my ears had already clocked out for the night before my eyes did so as well.

Then, the darkness came back and all was silent.

THANK GOD!

Coming Back

I
Jefferson Revere

When everything went dark, all that remained were my thoughts and fading conscious. Well, fading in and out to be more like it. During the few times when I was “awake” all I can do was...

Think…

First thing I “thought” about, was what happened during that dream or whatever it was; bullet shells raining down, mystery ghost guy attacking me both mentally and physically? As well to many other details kept running into each other like an over loaded Wifi signal; Collisions of data that would result in either blurred memories or mixed-matched images.

The few things that did stayed persistent however, were the images of the supposed moon goddess as well the handful of images of when I was awake before my episode or at least I think that’s what happened before I was sent into that dream world.

The gap, oh god that gap I had to jump over; wait…

Jumping the gap, running without falling over from fatigue, being able to out pace Mister Oily; All these little feats of inhuman strength and agility I didn’t notice until now, well, whenever ‘now’ is. All the while maintaining my cool while being drenched in blood, can still smell the gory copper from my hands, face and everything else.

Overall, I’ve been seriously considering that maybe what Luna mentioned about my own conscious fighting this thing could be more accurate than I originally assumed. As time wore on, the black remained while the brain ran on and still no dreamscape to wake up into or no real world to wake up to.

“Hhhey.”

What the? Did I really hear that or am I just going insane?

“Umm, III know that you maaay or may not heear me-”

OH nnnooo, I can’t hear this creepy, ghostly voice echoing in my ears, but continue please.

“-buuut, I know you have not been around long enough to know about our world, so, I figure yyyou would liiike to hear about whaaat has been going on while yooou’ve been asleep.”

Huh, can’t really tell who this is, but, at least it’s something than hearing my own thoughts rattle on an on like a numbers station. Either way, I can only wonder who is talking to me while i’m, I don’t know, UNCONCIOUS?!

“Umm, Firrrst, let me at least set this down before IIII forgeet.”

Wait, set what down? Let me guess, flowers with a get well soon card...gotta figure out how to get my eyes to work again.

Let’s see, how did Beatrix restore control to her body in the first movie?

Pure concentration I think it was, let’s give that a try!

I scrambled what brain power I had been using for my empty thoughts and focused on one thought full of various words:

eyes, open, sight, vision

Black faded into white; that’s a start. It took another ping on the thought to reconnect with one eye. Sadly, not the best quality for a natural 20/20. The eye was half lid and unmoving, fixed on the ceiling of what must've been my shack of a house. Wait a second: how was I moved here?

“There.” I saw a blurry form of obviously a pony in my room. I pinged the thought again and my other eye faded back to life, matching the blurred vision of it’s neighbor. Still, can’t move, but I can at least see who is doing what in my room. I think this was my room, right?

“Flowers, piiicked by me and the CMC-” good god, I need to retune my ears..

My unmoving eyes caught a single frame of clarity before fading back out of focus into a mesh of blurs and lights. Sure enough, It was the blond, pink haired, winged pony named Fluttershy. If what scrambled memory recalls, she was the animal lover of the six girls I’ve met before my weird episode. By the way, who where the CMC?

She talked to me at length about quite a lot of happenings around town, aside from their personal discovery of my appearance and sudden “panic attack” that caused me to be like this. There was She mentioned how everypony was trying to figure out how to help me. Which I did appreciate but if I keep this full concentration shit going, i’ll be out of bed before anyone can call me a vegetable.

She continued on how she felt sorry for what has happened to me so far, as well wishing me a full recovery. All the while she was awkward and nervous talking aloud to me. Then again, I would too feel awkward talking to someone who appeared sleeping.

“By the way Jeff, Twilight and Spike have been taking time to check up on you just as I have, more often I think.” Go figure, if I could talk, I would voice how she had already established that everyone-pony whatever, have been doing just that.
“Also, sssome howw, Doctor Horse has allllso been making house caaalls.”

My only question I have been pondering on during her little one-sided chat was how long was I out?

She seemed to of turned around to go do something before vision seemed to of Froze in place.

oh awesome, vision lag….

Everything seemed of stopped shortly after thinking that, eyes, ears. Great, had a grip on my head functions and now, lost them.

It seemed another eternity had gone by until the weirdest thing happened. As if someone flipped a switch, everything came back into place.

I just, woke up….like as if i was sleeping for a few hours.

Blinking, I stared at the ceiling, “Y-Yeeah.” My cracked voice finally spoke, which almost startled me, “I think she is feeling horrible about, what happened-” I lost my words in a harsh dry cough that shook my whole body, then again, I think that was supposed to be a laugh.
“The doc on the other hand, I would think it took some convincing to come out of his office.” another cough seemed to of split my throat.
“Ugh, Say, think you can help me get a glass of wat-” my stiff neck turned to look around to look towards where Flutter was, but, to a sudden shock, no one was there. I sat up with a jolt that had an equal consequence action that meant a painful knot clutched my stomach along with my back.

I couldn’t talk at first as pain held on my vocal cords. God damnit, this whole time ever since crashing into this world has been nothing more than pain, questions, jerks and more pain.
Oh and not to mention that I’ve lost it all: my Truck, my hiking gear, the game meat I had hunted, smoked, salted to bring back home; my collector grade Browning and the most expensive rifle I had dumped everything to hunt with.

Now, Here I am, waking up from what must've been a coma. Beaten, battered, bruised, bandaged up and now I don’t have even the slightest clue of what happened before everything went black.

Last thing I recall was running into the bathroom at Twilight’s place, puking then washing my face then….nothing or at least nothing more until the nightmare world ordeal happened.

After pulling my head out of the clouds, I shifted gears to figure out who, what and where about the world around me. “H-Hello?” I croaked, “Please tell me that-” When I tried to move out of bed, my weak hand slipped and the floor caught me with a painful impact.

Damn it, me and the ground do not get along at all!

“H-Help, anyone help?” I called out, my head felt light, hell, everything felt feather light and stiff. “Don’t tell me that I’m alone…” I couldn’t look up, I just kept my eyes shut while riding out the wave of dizziness. After hearing some sort of quick movement I hear the door to room open.

“Oh sweet Celestia! I didn’t hear you till now.” Really? The first voice to speak to me outside of my medical problem is Rarity’s? Oh well, better than the sound of silence I guess.

I felt the warmth of magic wrap around my shoulders while I tried to stand. Instead I was gently lifted off the ground and seated back on the bed. My head wobbled before I took a look at the white coated, purple haired unicorn.

“I’m so, so sorry Jeff, I had a feeling that you would wake up sooner or later.” She frowned as she closed the door behind her, “I Just failed to be present to make sure you had a more calmer awakening.”

“No worries, Miss-”
“Rarity.”
“Rarity, right, I’m just wondering why I’m back in...my place and-”

“We tried to take you back to the hospital, but unfortunately, there was no room for you in previous condition,” She interrupted abruptly, she took a seat in a chair; one of the only two in the house that must of been moved for whoever was in here watching me.

“So, we did the next best thing and brought you here, we all would periodically take shifts in watching over you.”

Kinda creepy, but okay, “Huh, well, Thank you I guess.” I was confused by it all, only more questions (damn curiosity) came up about several things:

Who else, aside from Twilight, Spike, Rarity and Fluttershy, have taken time from their day to watch me?

Obviously, the other girls would be another educated guess, didn’t Flutter mention about the doc making personal house calls too? Either way, I’ll still have to get up and face the new world once more...just one more question:

“Saay, How long was I out?” I dreaded for the answer. Rarity looked at me with Sympathy written across her face, which that didn’t help make anything feel better.

“You were out for a week Jeff,” my eye twitched after hearing that, another week spent in unconsciousness? I took a deep breath before looking down at the floor. The aged, planks of mixed wood crudely covered the dirt ground beneath them. In a moment of silence, I randomly mapped out the slivers of brown earth while my mind drifted.

Was this supposed to be how my life is going to be? Random episodes of blackouts followed by short comas? Am I going to get help for this or These ponies gonna just help me till the proper authorities cart me away to some nut house in the backcountry?

Many more questions storms to an fro around my mind-

“Jeff?”

Till she snapped me out of it, “huh?” I blinked.

“Are you going to be okay?”

“Y-yeah,” I shook the dark fog away to think like a normal person again, “Just, still waking up from my seemingly long nap.” I slowly stood from the bed, seeing if my legs will cooperate for a change. With the boards creaking underfoot, they would function like they should.

“There’s the first step,” I glanced up to Rarity glumly, “Now it's a matter of figuring out what to do next.”

“I have an idea.” the change of her tone from calm to happy surprised me, “Come darling, we can start your day off right.”

“Of course,” I wobbled on my two feet and-“wait, where are my boots?”

“Oh those ruined hunks of fake leather?” pardon, what did she just say? Did she just call my interceptors fake? “I had to dispose of them, not after copying their size first of course, but they were too badly damaged to be worn another day.” she spoke over her shoulder without looking back at me.

My eye twitched, “Ya don’t say, huh, I didn’t seem to of noticed.” I shrugged before staggering out of the room and into the bathroom. I had to at least use the half-assed plumping to wash my face before heading- “Huh?” I paused in step to look at the mirror.

No new changes other than looking more dead than alive, but, I checked the new clothing I was wearing. The simple white pajamas were made of silk that I hadn’t noticed the difference till I had looked at what I was wearing. I realized something, well, several somethings:

These clothes were almost too baggy to wear.
How did I get into these?
Who dressed me?
Where are my old clothes?

Something about number three ran through my head several times, who in the hell did dressed me while I was out? Did they- I shook the awkwardly perverted questions out of the spotlight while I skipped the bathroom and wondered from the bathroom into the living room.

“Sooo, who did this?” I asked aloud gripping the crude button up. Rarity had looked over before giggling with a hoof over her mouth.

“Well Darling, the rags you wore before your, your” she stammered, still trying to be polite about my current blight. “Episode.”

“Yeah?’

“They just about disintegrated when we started to move you here.”
“I see,”
“And I had to take quick measurements to at least get something decent for you while you where in slumber.”
“Riight, but that doesn’t explain how you got them on me without...well, you know.”

A faint glint of blush specked her cheeks, “My dear Jeff, If I can sew, hem and prepare three different dresses on a good day, then I can definitely change a human without, looking.” did she just wink at me? My gut pulled at me saying that at least a glance was stolen during that transition from rags to silk. I think i’m just paranoid since she and everyone else is only trying to help me.

“Riiiight.” I awkwardly cleared my throat, “So, can I at least have my coat so I don’t look like a lost asylum inmate?”
“Oh of course,” her horn glowed; the flap to a saddle bag, similar to what twilight had (but more detailed), opened and out came a repaired field jacket with a few obvious additions to it.

“Here you go,” she levitated the jacket to me to which I took it out of her magic and slipped it on in one motion.

“Thanks, I can see you at least fixed this.” I blurted aloud, thanks brain for letting that out...

“At least? Darling, the rest of your attire was a complete wreck,” she placed a hoof to her chest stunned by my words, “I believe I was doing you a favor by at least getting rid of it,” she lowered her hoof before turning back to her bags.

“Besides, I did try to mend what was left, but again, the needle simply caused the cloth to rip more.”

“How they acted like that is beyond me.” I buttoned up the jacket before I trudged into the kitchen to-
“Agh Good god, what the hell is that smell-”

“Oh Pardon the oder darling,” Rarity came over beside me while I stood looking into the kitchen pinching my nose from the lingering smell of compost.

“None of us realized that there was anything in this barren kitchen at first.” she admitted seemingly embarrassed by my discovery.
“It wasn’t till a day of extreme heat bearing down upon this place and oh, my goddess! how it would seem to cook anything that was sitting in here for no more than an hour!” she exclaimed while she levitating a spray bottle of sorts, spraying a scent, that resembled spring flowers and fresh rain, to mask the sour smell of rotting veggies all over the space.

“Aaand what little I had became sour, rotten or started to sprout roots.”

“Eh-heh, precisely,” She set the bottle down taking a glance to me, “I’m sorry.”
“Fuck, what else is new?” I shrugged flatly, “Might as well start figuring out how to get food, as in getting the cash to get some as well the means to get the cash and ugggh-” I held my face with both palms as well muffling the defeated groan. I’m barely awake and Life here is telling me to go make money!

The stress load, I thought, it’s real…

“If I may suggest darling, that you don’t overwhelm yourself so soon,” Rarity assured me with a friendly hoof on the shoulder, “I mean, you did just woke up from a long sleep, but I can not begin to tell you the number of times I had to say something like that to Twilight!”

“Speaking of her,” removing my face from the concealment of my hands, “Where is Twilight?” I looked at her, she paused to think while I hoped that maybe the little interviewer would have some way in helping poor me out of this nothingness that is being broke with no means to provide for myself.

“Twilight?” A brow perked up, “She is currently at home at the library, why?”

“Because she might have a way in getting me the real help I need,”

“But, it’s early still darling, she might not be up yet, I do however think that spike is usually up,” she pondered a moment, placing a hoof to her chin to think.

“Wait, what time is it currently?”

“About eight twenty by now,” Wow, what a guess!

“Eight? It’s almost half past eight and I didn’t get to sleep in?”

“What?”

“Never mind, I think we should get going if we’re to get anything done.”

Before I could turn around she stopped me with a magical ‘hoof’ against my chest. As if she didn’t want me to leave yet. Even though there is nothing more to do here.

“Now hold on darling, how about we do something about,” she waved a hoof at me, gesturing at my victorian style garb, “This?”

“You just gestured at all of me, are you talkin’ about the clothing?”

She nods

“What do you have in mind about it then?” then I felt a mental facepalm, dude! She just made you that outfit, maybe she has a plan on getting some better threads than this!

Good thinking brain.

“Before you go galavanting into the open world looking like that, we should make a stop at my shop.” she went over to collect her bags.

“Let me guess, to make me something better than this? How is that possible if human clothes are not really an object of exsantice?”

She glanced back over to me with that look of ‘really?’ some Curled strands of her purple hair bobbed across her face.

“I-I mean, If you can make this I think you’ll be able to make me something else?”

“Eeexaclty my confused human,” she smiled with a nod as she made her way to the door.

I took a look around the house thinking about whether or not I should stayput despite already sounding like I’m going along. However, I should go, I need to start somewhere. The mix scent of my room, the febreeze like mix of smells did not blend well coming into my nose as I-
“So, are you coming along darling?” my brain stopped thinking for the moment, I took a look towards her before shrugging.

“Why, Not.” I followed her out the door.

Before now, I could only guess how run down this house was until I tried to close and lock the door. A faint pop of the hinges and the door started to come forward and down, attempting to land on me.

“Oh shi-” I dodge out of the way as the hunk of wood slammed onto the ground, spewing up a puff of dust.

“Oh my, I do believe you’re going to need some work done around here.” Rarity commented also startled by the door falling over randomly.

“Well, not like I got some expensive shit in there anyway…” I grumbled as I plodded onward, barefoot mind you, into the street.

“Right... Now, shall we?”

Rarity walked out then up the dirt road towards the center of town, following behind I would take one last look at my increasingly-more-dilapidated house of scrap. Another thing: I am totally thankful that these ponies keep their roads somewhat smooth for their hooves, why? No shoes of course…

What felt like a ten minute walk (and an eternity of being watch by every passerby), We quickly pass through the center of town. All the while, Rarity explains how she’ll help me out by making me new clothes: she went into details about fabric colors, incorporating various styles to fit a human (she showed excitement just at the thought of it). She even carried on about making a fashion statement by making various outfits, not to mention ordering the mannequins to wear them, she brought the tangent to a close by saying something that all she-

“-just need your dimensions so I can accurately make them, yet it’ll still take time since...um.” she paused, probably trying to find more polite words to use.

“I’m smaller than a child in pony perspectives?”

“O-of course, We could put it like that, smaller clothing mean harder to stitch, Right?” so much for the confidence she spoken of before…

“What about all that gab about being able to stitch three sets of clothing on a good day?”

“If I were making them for another pony!” she recoiled like I just stabbed her ego with a toothpick, “A human on the other hoof, thaat might take some getting used to.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard though.” I tried to reassure the mare as we passed through the outer part of the market place.

“I mean, You keep sounding like you’re a master seemstress, so I’m sure you can pull off at least some basic stuff till you can put more time into designs.”

“True,” she mused thoughtfully, “but I wouldn’t expect anything to turn out so fine unlike my other designs.”

“Just think of it as a challenge to better yourself and maybe amaze rivals and peers alike with your newfound art work.” I could see the confidence return to her.

“Your right, if you say this is a challenge of style, then challenge accepted!”

The buildings gaveway to what seemed like a fenced in park with only a few tents and a large building to offset the natural scenery around it. We passed through the gateway into this ‘park’ and headed towards the building. Only a nimrod would fail to guess this is her place ahead.

It was a three story building that had the look of a carousel complete with a flag dotted spire at the top, the second story was arranged with pony mannequins to represent the merry-go-round theme of the building; the first floor featured display windows were probably most of the business operates (duh). The whole building was dressed in bright shades of baby blues, light lavenders, yellows and all the trimmings to pass the place off as an art project than a place of business.

I stood to gaze at this bizarre place and only wonder: why would anyone put a fashion place like this way out here?

“Here we are, The Carousel Boutique!” Rarity introduced as she approached the front dutch style door; it looked like the top half of the door could swing open on it’s own or both could open connected together.

I shook the confusion from my mind before catching up to her. I hope she has a way to let me wash up first, I think my feet resemble that of a resident of Bedrock. I wondered a lot of things while we walked inside the massive place.

Once inside, I looked around to see the layout complete with a set of furniture for multiple uses:

There were several horseshoe shaped tables hugging along the walls with a large mirror in front of a single seat at each of them; make up tables no doubt.

Dressing booths complete with individual curtains for patrons to have privacy to try on dress wear and so on (even though these animals are naked to begin with).

A register counter off to one side of the building where the fashionista sits during opening hours.

Mannequins of ponies, some dressed some not, are arranged throughout the boutique displaying various designs available. Basic, metal frame clothing racks stood around with other sets of clothing hung on their hangers.

Then there was a curtain closed in front of something, which Rarity walked towards.

Again, like the outside of the place, the shades of lavenders gave the calming sense when standing inside here. I can only guess she had an eye for putting the customer first in terms in making them comfortable with not only accessibility to a little bit of everything but a chance to feel at home.

Taking a glance at one of my own feet, “So, You don’t mind me being barefoot do ya?” I asked noting how well kept the place is; the last thing I want is to leave footprints on the polished floor or just treading dirt everywhere.

“Of course not darling,” she replied approaching the curtain that plotted out the stairs to the second floor; “It’s just dirt, nothing I can’t sweep away before opening up.”

With a shrug I walked further into the boutique to catch up with Rarity. As the obvious would expect: I saw stairs as she pulled the curtains back with her magic. Going up!

Upon entering the apartment, one could confuse it for a smaller dressing room, but little by little I could tell it was her place. The living room, the door to her bedroom (which she shut quickly probably from the glimpse of how messy it was), the kitchen adjacent to the living room by a swing door. Pretty much reminiscent of Twilight’s place, just more toned and polished like the rest of the boutique.

A random thought crossed my mind pondering on how trusting these girls are, so far, have been by just letting this strange creature enter their homes. Kinda like how Link can just barge into any house or room to just break, take and steal whatever he wants/needs before just walking out of the place. Of course, here I would not be able to get away with that. Mainly thanks to the fact (again) a unicorn has allowed me entry into her home.

As She closed the door to her apartment, I was hesitant to take a seat on the very clean furniture; Kinda like being a homeless man in a rich bastard’s house one touch on anything and the army of maids would clean and sanitize the ever living crap out of it. Very, very out of place here.

She ventured towards the kitchen while I stood out like a survival horror character in the living room. She held the door open, looking back at me.

“Did you want something?”

“Water?” almost forgotten about my cotton mouth.

“Sure, but oh please, have a seat, you look like a colt visiting the parents for the first time.”

What did she say?

“Pardon?”

“You can sit darling, I won’t be offended, in fact, Apple jack and the rest tend to tread more dirt and dust into my shop (and home) more than you think. Not that I am making offense against the farmer girl or anypony just stating a point.”

“Well, true, but I don’t think I would feel right just sitting in one of these nice clean-”

“Ugh, sit boy!” she rolled her eyes followed by a seemingly well timed yank of her magic on my trousers, plopping my ass into one of the victorian style chairs in the living room.

It didn’t take her long to return with a cup of water and floated it to me with her magic in which I took it out of the air. I nodded a thanks before taking a sip and-holy wow, how come this tastes like it was poured right out of a glacier!? Must be an awesome well underground.

That or I am just recovering from my coma and any water would be heaven right now.

“Very well then, While you sit and relax I’ll have to, um, get my room set up, kinda did not expect you to wake up today.”

“Nor did you think about it in the first place encase you invited me or anyone else over.” I commented pointing at her with that point. She again, rolled her eyes.

“True that Mister Revere,” She flicked her tail into my direction, “and It is just impolite to just let others into your private work space when it is cluttered as so.”

“Wait how did you-”

“You told me remember.”

Oh right, I introduced my full name to those six ponies as well-ah details, details...

As I finished, more like knocked back the pint glass of icey liquid of life; I could hear the mare moving a few objects in her room. Wonder what would cause such a clean, organized mare of fashion have such a cluttered bedroom? Only a few moments would explain.

“There!” she emerged from her room, “Since I have to open soon, we’ll have to utilize this room to produce your first set of threads.” I watched her come out before getting up answering her nod towards her room.

“And you don’t want to mess up the work space down stairs, I get it.”

“Exactly Mister Rever-”

“Jeff.”

“Jeff, Sorry; this shouldn’t take too long, just need to start with the proper measurements as we talked about.” she closed the door behind us. Let us see how well this mare can make human clothing.

II
Spike

“Ohgoshohgoshohgosh!” I panicked as I bolted across town.

Not to long ago, I had just ran from Jeff’s place after discovering that no pony was there! NO PONY! The first one to give watch over the whooman this morning was Rarity. Oh please, don’t tell me she forgotten or something! I know she wouldn’t! I just know she wouldn’t!

Also, I hope no pony had taken the whooman for whatever crazy reason they had in mind, or i had bubbling in my mind. Kidnapping, Ritual possession, sleep walking! Many other possibilities ran through my brain while also noting that I need to not stay up with Twilight so much.

“Hey, watch it dragon!”

“Pardon me, excuse me, Sorry, important business!” I weaved, dodged and ducked through the building crowd of ponies as I cleared through the marketplace. Sweet celestia, I have not ran this much since-

What felt like a wall, I ran into somepony that cause me to bounce back onto the ground.

“Watch it boy!” snapped a dark teal unicorn as I sprang back up.

“Yah okay little tyke?” a peach colored mare looked at me worriedly as she and her three other friends loosely circled around me, mainly to see if I was okay I thought.

“Where’s the fire?” chuckled her male twin.

“N-no fire guys, just in a hurry,” I quickly reply, “I-I need to got check on somepony.” I politely nudged my way through them, “excuse me.”

“Now hold on a minute boy.” the snappy unicorn stood in front of me. I could only look up at him with a mix of nervousness and anxiety. He towered over me, he was clad in leather armor with a cloak draped over his back. Aside from his travel gear, a medium sized, funky looking pouch that hung just over his right shoulder attached to an equally confusing looking strap with small loop holes stitched across most of the strap’s surface, some had metal objects stuck in them.

It didn’t take me long to notice that the rest of his group were dressed in such a matter to.

Before the mad unicorn could get another word, the blue coated, earth mare came up beside him to place a hoof on his shoulder.

“Jagged, dear,” Her accented voice pierced his attitude like scissors through paper, “I do believe the lad was in a wee bit of a hurry.” The unicorn grunted his annoyance but moved out of the way. Those golden eyes seem to bore holes into me as I inched my way passed them.

“Run along deary, Do pardon the delay!” She called after me as I regained my speed.

“Thaaank youuuu!” would echo over my shoulder as I feel their eyes watch me put dirt between me and those strangers.

With that out of the way, the town slowly ended and the former town park

With the tip of the boutique barely in view over the treetops I kept up my pace.

With eyes shut to concentrate; my chest huffed hard to keep my legs running, I couldn’t help but be filled with worry and dread. Those strangers didn’t help any either, as far as I am concerned, they came from Canterlot on behalf of the princess to look into the creatur-

I ran into something only this time it wasn’t a living wall, it was a pair of legs.
“Son of a-!” I heard as I tumbled to the ground again.

“Oh great, what no-” I opened my eyes to look up at what I thought was a ghost.

Seriously, his skin was more white than that funky pink color. Wait…

“J-Jeff?” I watched as the whooman slowly stood back up brushing off the dust from what must be new clothes. New clothes?

“Holy shit little guy, you should open your eyes when running.” I heard his voice spoke from his pale face.

This can’t be real, how is he….awake?

“Jeff, how are you-”

“Awake?” He simply shrugged, “eh, I just woke up this morning, Rarity was the first to greet me and obviously brought me here.”

“Well that is obvious, but, where is she?”

“After fitting me into these, she pretty much kicked me out, so she can open her shop.”

I backed up to take a look at him;

He was dressed in even weirder clothing this time around:

The green thing he called a jacket was the only thing to stay the same from the last time I saw him, with the exception of the thin gold threading and slight discoloration of Rarity’s repair work.

Underneath it was a simple cloth that I would assume was called a shirt.

Then his legs were clad in a pale brown material I think were called pants. I mean, I have heard of clothing before, but never on a whooman, human, whatever.

His feet were again covered in what looks like a darker brown set of, shoes?

The bandage on his head had been recently changed, I know I’ve watched it done. With the exception of both of his eyes behind left uncovered. A slight red mark split over his left eyebrow. Must of been one of the cuts on his face that healed up only leaving a faint white mark where it was.

His face was still pale, probably from the lack of, well everything. He had been out for a week, or so…

“That’s, That’s how she is.” I shrugged, still partially catching my breath, “On and off the past couple of days, she has been opening her shop late, so with you awake she can continue at her normal hours.”

“Huh, so my tiny coma really caused a stir didn’t it?”
“I wouldn’t know really, She was the only one out of all the girls that still stayed on top of her real job.” I saw Jeff look at me puzzled while I explained, “So, again, you’re back, some things can go back to normal; or at least I would think so.”
“Real job?” was his only question.
“Oh yeah, she is also-” I cleared my throat, using the pause for effect aaaand, “Thee proud owner of the Element of Generosity!” I boasted with up stretch arms as if emphasizing some imaginary banner above me.

However, I think I didn’t achieve the effect I wanted as Jeff looked at me even more confused.

“The hell are you talking about?” He asked, “I’ve heard about the mentioning of the elements before my black out, but…”

“Yyyou don’t know what they really are do ya?”

“Nnnope.”
Darn it!

“Anyways, I think we should head to Twilight’s, which is where I was headed before I crashed into you.” he broke the awkward moment before walking around me.

“Uhh, I don’t think she is up yet.” I tapped my chin thoughtfully while the whooman stopped to look back at me.

“Really? And it’s like, what, almost half past nine by now?”

“I don’t know, do I look like I wear a watch Jeff?”

“Not really, but ya should consider getting one. Sooo now what?”

“Normally, since this is kinda like most mornings after a late night of her dabbling over books of magic or other random research, I normally try to start her late day off with a decent breakfast.” I recall as we both started walking back towards town.

I almost forgotten about the strangers that I ran into earlier too, I think I should take a different way back. Maybe that one walkway to take us past that ink and sofa store. Either way, I kept getting a feeling that I should keep Jeff away from those ponies for the time being.

“Maybe I can help you with that,” He offered, “It’ll be kinda like a surprise for her since the last time she must’ve seen me was sound asleep in my own bed across town.”

“True, and she did took you out with a weak blast spell too.”

“Riight, that too…”

We walked and talked as we drew into town more, the town was definitely coming to life for the day.

I just hope this morning goes well…

III
Twilight Sparkle

Last night was rough like nights before. I don’t think I even remember falling asleep either. Ugh, I try my best to stay away, pouring over book after book trying to figure out what had happened to Jeff days ago.

I mean, sure, it was determined that he had a flashback of sorts but the resulting panic attack and the following coma was something else that even stumped Doctor Horse when I explained the situation (when he came by Jeff’s place a day later). Nothing much else came out of it after that. I have sent word of this strange situation to the Canterlot Hospital and still have not gotten a single reply.

I have sent my weekly friendship report to Princess Celestia. Among the usual information, I mentioned jeff, currently labeled as a good ‘friend’, who suffers from a severe medical condition who recently fell into a coma from unknown causes with me and the girls watching over them around the clock to ensure they are safe and sound while they recover.

Not very often does she send a reply however, later that same day, she did:

My dearest student,

I understand your concern over your friend’s condition; You and your friends are not the only ones who is aware of this matter. My sister has met this ‘friend’ of yours in the only dream he consciously had before fading. We can not intervene directly as it was discussed before but we can provide information on whatever we may find.

In the meantime, dare not stray from your daily activities yet do not forget your friend.
Maintain the balance and one day we shall get to the bottom of this.

Sincerely, Celestia

I have no idea what any of that really meant to me, but it did tell me that I was getting help from the sisters themselves on this situation. However, that was the only time they have sent me anything…

I couldn’t wait, i just kept moving foward, looking for at least an explanation behind this strange situation that is happening to Jeff. Yet, I couldn’t find anything, nothing sounds anything close to what is going on with him.

After visiting Zecora the same day Jeff fell unconscious, she came to check on him twice so far; however, both times she couldn’t stay long for there was a very strange aura about him, yet he can’t be of anything evil. RIght?

I have searched him by using various detection spells but yet nothing. Could it be something other than magic or could it be some sort of magic that I have yet to discover? Either way I couldn’t let myself stop for any reason at all! I was determined! I was, I was... buck i’m stiff...Too tired to even shift an inch…I think?

Even sleep was just a black curtain drop to take an intermission from the constant research. Also- wha- what is that smell?

An eye slowly opened to the blurry pages of one of the books that apparently fell on my face when I have nodded off. Teaches me for reading on my back. Removing it-oh bad idea! The sunlight seeping through the curtains of my bedroom seemed too bright to even look at the ceiling. The sting of the light cause a quick clumsy roll onto my side and then-oh floor!

“Owww…” eyes started to blink off beat of each other, trying to moistening them as they were dry as paper; as my eyes reunited, I blinked once more before squinting around my cluttered room. Slowing standing up, I stretched the sleep deprivation from my legs, then back before looking to the door. The smell was that of fresh cooking and, and-”Coffeee…” my dry throat groaned as I hobbled towards the door.

The trip between bedroom to the middle of my living room was such a chore but the odor of breakfast was too strong for my body to resist. I, must, COFFEE! As I approach the swing door to the kitchen however:

“Whoa, the heck is this?!” I hear a familiar voice exclaim followed by the faint sound of a cupboard door shut.

“That, would be twilight’s mug.” I hear spike explain.

“Jesus, She drinks this much?”

“Yup, There are two others of different sizes, but that one is reserved for bad mornings.”

“Well, okay, I think I’ll have to add more grains after filling this.”

Blinking in puzzlement, I ponder who voice that really is. What is this sleep deprivation I thought about? I push my way into the kitchen, sadly, when I came into the kitchen. I only saw spike. Who froze in step carrying a tray of an apparently well made breakfast complete with a stack of wheatcakes, apple slices, syrup in a mini creamer pitcher and the utensils along with a complementary daisy.

Never mind the food for the moment, how in starswirl’s beard did spike get this made so well? Normally I would saving his hide from burning the golden oak down.

“Uh, Good morning Twilight!” Spike quickly greeted me before turning around to deftly step onto a stool to place the tray onto the nearby table. I couldn’t believe he made that, no way, no how he could-
“Coffee.”
“RIght here Twi-” Before I let the voice finish, my horn glowed and my favorite massive mug floated to me, not spilling a single drop. I didn’t even have to look to know where it was.

The mug was a solid white chunk of ceramic carved into a sixty-four ounce coffee mug with the acronym E.M.O.G printed on it which means:

Emergency, Mug, Of, Go

As I took a sip, I was taken aghast by the burst of flavor as the coffee was, was…

Ungodly amazing for this kind of morning!

“Well, Good morning to you too Twilight.” I hear that voice again, I finally took a look at Jeff standing with arms folded shaking his head with a smile on his pale face.

“Oh, sorry, good morning Jeff.” I closed my eyes to take another grand sip before, they snapped back open followed by a second look that could've given me whiplash.

“Jeff?!” The magic vaporised from around the mug. I heard spike’s talons clink against the mug’s durable surface as the little dragon caught the EMOG

“GOT IT!”

Here I am, Standing dumbstruck, staring at what I swear is a ghost of a human, leaning against the counter near my coffee pot, staring back at me. He then stood upright and took a few steps towards me. I was focused on him, his clothes were different, probably Rarity’s hoof work; his beat up jacket was off, must've been set down somewhere else. Eyes drifted up to his face which looked slightly thin from the week or so of his coma. Then, I met his blue eyes with mine; his were sunken in but still open. For once they were open!

“I think your jaw came unhinged.” I felt with a hoof before gently pushing my own jaw shut before slowly looking back at spike for answers.

“How did-”
“He woke up and Rarity took him to her boutique for the new duds you see on him, then I ran into him, (Literally) and now I brought him back here to-” he barely got another syllable out as I dashed at Jeff with a mix of everything feelings: shock, happiness and whatever else i can’t think of right now.

I then found myself wrapping my hooves around him, I couldn’t think I just embrace him happily!

He is awake!

IV
Jefferson Revere

I was almost tackled by the purple blur of the shocked unicorn but I surprised myself more with a quick shift with my feet to brace for the glomp. My arms froze open as her little body clung onto me, her chin resting on my shoulder. I looked down at spike who only grinned at how successful his planned surprised worked. I didn’t quite work how we both planned on, but it still worked nonetheless.

After a few seconds I slowly wrapped my arms around her, bringing the hug full circle.

“You finally woke up!” she said with a crack in her voice to which I’m going to politely guess that is resulting from being up all night; “Thank Celestia!” was that a tear against my neck?

She pulled away slowly as she looked at me with a smile of relief. I can see her eyes water up, a few tears roll freely down her cheeks, yep, she was trying not to cry happy tears.

“I-uh-I-I don’t know what to say, I-I can’t believe it.”

“Well, believe it little miss, because here I stand.”

“H-How, When, you-” I raised an index finger to her to which she stopped talking for the moment.

“How about we start slow, over breakfast perhaps?”

“Did, Did you make this?” she nodded to the meal I did prepare for her.

“He sure did!” Spike boasted, adding to the conversation. I watched the little guy place that massive mug near her meal before hopping back down from the table.

“Apparently, he still remembers how to make food from scratch like he did camping.”

“W-Well, I didn’t say I forgotten, just meant that I haven’t done it in a while now.”

“Sssure, says the one who almost burned his, ‘warm, up’ wheatcake.” He put in air quotes before heading over to the serving platter, I found to put the batch of pancakes on, to help himself. If It weren’t for the emotional mare, who turned to go to her seat at the table, I would of showed the little brat what a dirty bird was!

“But, I always do that when I make something like that!”
“Uh-huh…”
she giggled at us before taking swig off that EMOG of hers.

When we were all seated and began digging into chow, I started off by telling Twilight that I didn’t quite know what exactly she would of liked, so I just winged it with what she sees on her plate and tray.

She thanked me and explained that it was just perfect because she wasn’t a big fan of large meals anyways; Which was a relief for that I almost did just that. After she had composed herself as well nursing that hulk mug, she started telling me how she spent the entire time that I was out to solve what madness stricken me down but was so far, unsuccessful.

“Regardless Jeff, I am just so glad that you came out of it, I was fearing the worst last night before I got lost in my research and-by goddess how is this so delicious?!”

“A couple dabs of vanilla extract to sweeten the flavor.” I shrugged, “I didn’t want to add anything more to blunt the strong wheaty flavor without ruining the batch, sooo, yeah.” she then paused to think while chewing another bite.

“I have to remember this, spike, remind me to add that to the recipe book later.” the levitating fork pointed at him

“Way ahead of you know that Twi.”

I then started the topic about what I can remember and the dream-thing I had before slowly pulling out of that limbo state of body. I recall how I met Luna, Mister Oily; who, I did note, tried to kill me the entire time I was in that dream. Jumping the canyon some how, then finding the house before Luna gently knocked me out.

“So you’ve met Princess Luna?” She looked at me with disbelief at first.

“Yeah, she was surprisingly calm about the whole thing while I was drenched in blood, stepping on squishy brass all the while running from that, that thing trying to get me.”

“Eessh, even I wouldn’t be able to handle just the blood part at all;” she grimaced, “I just find it interesting that neither of the sisters have told me about this, I guess they (like always) left it up for me to discover on my own.”

“Like as if they knew I would wake eventually,” I theorized along with her, frekin’ ESP…

“I’ve known Celestia for most of my life,” Twilight sipped her massive mug, “And I’m still learning more about her every day, even more so since Spike and I have moved here.”

“Really, Soo, that kinda leads to what I have to ask.”

“That is?”

“Who the heck are they? I mean, yeah they are princesses of this land and what not but-”

“What are they is what you mean?”

“Yeeah…”

Taking a deep breath, she took a moment to think then probably started on what mustof been summarized info of them.

“So, Celestia and Luna are the Alicorn sisters, sole rulers of the kingdom of Equestria,” she began, “They have literally been around for years, have watched their kingdom rise from their rough beginnings to what you see it today.”
“Really? That makes them old by, some thirty years or so?” I shrugged the guess.
“Ha, try centuries Jeff.”
They are how old?!
“Damn, so they must've been around since, ever?”

“There is little information determining that the sisters have been here since the beginning of this world.” She paused to finish her plate, which wasn’t much at this point.

After dabbing her face with a napkin, Spike, who also had quickly finished his plate a little bit ago; came around to collect the plates from both me and Twilight. Leaving both of us to my history lesson and our coffee. Sadly, I only sat there in a moment of confusion realizing something.

“So, I had been helped by an Immortal that has the power to travel through a person’s dreams, that has also been in charge of this land for some years. Thaat, has also been around since the beginning of time itself.”

“More or less, yes, but Luna has been banished for a thousand years because she became her nightmare self. Nightmare Moon.”

“And she was like that because…?”

“Her night wasn’t being appreciated unlike her sister’s day; so she tried to take over by plunging the world in an endless night.”

Now my head was starting to rock on this flow of info.

“Wait, so, how is she back and-”

“-about half a year ago, she made her return as Nightmare Moon, to try to take over the world again.”

“That brings to you and your friends that-”

“Made her Luna again and-” as she continued to talk to me my mind became numb to the twist-n-turns of how the topic went from learning who and what Luna was to how Twilight raised Spike from a hatchling.

Before long my face met the tabletop with a thud.

“You okay?”

“Yeah...just, let my brain catch up.” more like let me but the fire out in my skull before it explodes from a processor failure.

“Eh-heh, I’m sorry, sometimes I tend to ramble when somepony asks questions.” She ran a hoof through her mane a little flustered with embarrassment.

“No worries, I just didn’t expect to be on the receiving end of a knowledge vomit.” she chuckled.

“Anyways, I think we need to get down to business.”
“Uhm, What do you mean?”
“Well, After you went under, I consulted with everypony I can think of that would know anything about your condition.”

At least she has described me as a living being instead of a number like the quacks at the hospital would of. I wonder how far she went to learn anything about what has and is happening to me. I could only ponder on when an episode would strike again. On the other hand one can only just brave it and not think about it. If Twilight has found anyway to prevent me from falling into another fear-filled-dreamland.

“Even sent letters to the Veterans Center in Canterlot for any advice but so far, no real reply other than the letter stating that they don’t know what they can do about your condition not without bringing you there in pony.”

“But, once they see me as a human, they might turn me away huh?”

“Well, there has been non-pony patients to come through their doors before, but-”

“A human?”

“Riiight…” She frowned, “And no pony knows the truth behind the creature of the everfree forest.” She glanced away to think before she tipped her huge mug back to finish it off. I could only ponder on what she means by the-

“The Creature of the Everfree Forest?” I looked confusingly at her, “You saying there has been word going around about...me?” I point to myself I suddenly felt worry build.

How far did word of me go?

What do they know of me?

WHO TOLD WHO?!

“Do not worry though, so far most are having trouble believing the stories from the hospital staff.”

“What kind of story is being told of me?”

“Now hold on, no need to really worry about anything yet Jeff.” She got up from her chair and proceeded towards the living room. I looked at what was left on the table, wondering about maybe I should help clean up.

“Don’t worry Jeff,” Spike climbed up my seat to clean my side of the table, “I got this, when she takes off like that, you better follow or you WILL be left behind.”

Nevermind, little dragon boy has a talon on this.

“Jeff, you coming?” I hear from beyond the swinging door before it came to still.

“Yeah, Yeah, be right there.” I grabbed my coat and out the kitchen door we went

Glowing Bad

Jefferson Revere

I kept my eyes forward as we crossed through town, Ponies were everywhere and all eyes were tracking me like a guided missile. Either with curiosity, fear or resentment, they watched us walk through the busy streets. Even when the few pegasus residents of this town flew overhead, I felt eyes on me from everywhere.

All the while, Twilight was carrying on like it was any other day, never mind that her charge was being looked on as an alien from the moon.

“Anyway we could take the side streets, or exit town without running into most of people-I mean, ponies of this town next time?” I could still feel eyes upon me even after leaving the last crowd behind. It wasn’t till we turned a right on another path; we did pass a crossroad sign and I lacked the thought to stop and look at which way we are going.

More or less, where are we going?

“Oh, don’t worry about anypony here in this town.” Twilight, almost-too-cheerfully, replied, completely dodging my question of course!

“They have heard of the creature in their town, but not a single one have seen it-”

“Till now…” I would only grumble because it wouldn’t be nice to straight up freak out some more over being discovered.

“Oh come now,” she gently nudged into me reassuringly, “The girls and I have made it so that anypony, either of our own kind or from countries abroad, we would only welcome them here as a friend and guest to our town!”

Eesh, you would make a good herald for town hall.
“Right, I guess you’re right Twilight, I guess I’m still fearing that what happened to me at the hospital would be just the same on the outside.”

“Riight, still think they should really review how they handled your-”

“-stay there?”

“Yeah…” she frowned faintly

“And besides, it should be me that needs to go over there to set things right.”

Dear god, I haven’t been in this world long and I already sound like them, guess their positive outlook on things has taken hold. I honestly don’t really want to go back there, again, to simply say something along the lines of:
’oh hey hospital ponies, sorry for acting like a shell shocked psycho a few weeks ago, no hard feelings right?’
That would go as well as meeting the president while wearing a toy bomb vest…

I looked back to see the town drop farther away into the distance and the forest ahead of us getting closer. Why does it look familiar? I hope it isn’t-

“Where are we going again?” I asked looking at Twilight who seemed to of snapped out of a thought-filled trance like I did.

“Huh? Oh, we are heading to a friend of mine, Zecora, she lives just near the thick of the Everfree Forest.”

Oh, oh no wonder the forest that is drawing closer looks familiar!

“Oh, Oh really?”

“Yeah and-” she paused and snapped a look at me, her face lit up with sudden shock, “-Oh blast it all, I had totally forgotten!” she stopped in her tracks, she glanced back at the Everfree once more before looking back.

“Th-This should’ve been something that could've waited till-” Raising a hand to her, she fell quiet abruptly. I know what she was trying to do, she was being quickly considerate that it wasn’t long ago that I crawled out of there.

“Twilight, It’s okay, It hasn’t been that long sure, but If you do know someone close to it, then there is someone that knows how to deal with what is wrong with me.”

Then again, if an Alicorn goddess of the night couldn’t just clapped her hooves and banish whatever the hell that thing was out of my dreamspace. Then, I can honestly say that there is probably no chance of curing me of this; but ah, hell, might as well give a shot anyway right?

She nodded at my words before turning back to walking towards the forest, “You are correct Jeff, that is why we are headed for Zecora’s place.” she was hesitant at first but her resolve returned then turned to continue walking towards the forest. I can tell this isn’t going to be an easy-going kind of day. Nodding at what we talked about I followed her onward.

As the first edges of the forest’s canopy came over head, I gazed at how different the trees here are compared to the trees around and near town (not to mention the park Rarity’s place sits in). Those trees, you can tell they have been taken care of. Trimmed and kept, kinda like domesticated plant life that is watched over by someone/pony while still giving them their space to grow naturally.

While here, even at the far edges of the everfree, These trees look like back home in Oregon: Wild, self-treating, and flush with a shade of life of their own. Unlike around here, outside, the underbrush of the Everfree are a messy collage of broken limbs, loose leaves, dead shrubs and broken chunks of bark that blend with the ground, creating natural mulch to provide nutrients for the trees, bushes, shrubs and everything else inbetween.

Yet, I don’t even want to get started on the wildlife that dwell in these woods, for I have already experienced it and I have yet to see any kind of wildlife outside the everfree, aside from birds that I can hear but not see.
Soaking in the dangerous but familiar forest landscape, the only sound was the sound of my boot steps and Twilight’s hooves coming down on the cluttered, ill-kept trail, crunching leaves and twigs as we moved on.

It didn’t take long for it to get dark because of the dense of the trees. It was also not long when I felt something I wish I had forgotten; the feeling of eyes upon me, not ponies either. It was something that would more than likely be forever burned into my senses: The trees, plants, everything else gave me the feeling like they were all watching me as well. Not with timid-curiosity, but with that of angry hunger.

As if they remembered me and they were not done with me but I got out before they-

“Jeff?”
“Huh?” I snapped out of it right as a cheek met a thick branch, hanging right in the path way; It stung my brain back into reality with a sharp jab. Stopping, I checked to see if the stupid branch had cut me. Nope, just a nice scuff that’ll resonate for a while.

“OH, sorry, You just looked like you were off in the clouds for a minute there,”
“Guess I was.”
“Theen, you didn’t really hear what I was saying did you?”
“Nope, guess not, sorry for that.”

Twilight looked at me for a concerned moment with before continuing, “Why is it you run into something when you space off like that?”

“Beats me,” I shrug, “Can’t really say but, Coming even this far into this forest had a hand in it I guess.”

Walking along, I was able to catch up to her. It was getting darker by the second. I started to fish into my new trousers for that flashlight when she stopped again to glance at me.
“What are you looking for?”
“A flashlight or something, its getting dark in here.”
“Hold on, I got this.” she closed her eyes to concentrate. As she reopened them, her horn glowed with a light at the tip. It wasn’t blinding but it illuminated a purplish light about a good ten, twenty or so feet around us.

“There, carry on!”

Unicorns; huh, never thought that they would make good living flashlights…

Our trekking to this place brought us deeper into the woods, the deeper the darker apparently. As well the most despised thing I remember about this forest is the dull, unnerving silence. I wasn’t the best feeling in the world, at some point the brush shook somewhere near by and we both stopped to face the direction.

“Shit.”

“What? Who’s there!”

We both seemed to of held our breath for a minute or two before relaxing, well, at least she must’ve.

“It’s nothing, I hope.”

“You sure?” I kept my gaze in that direction, ready to dash at a moment’s notice, I maybe wearing new clothes but I still got my- wait…

“Jeff? Why are you holding your...hand like that?”

“Do what?” I snapped out of it and looked down at my right hand and It was hovering over where I had worn my holster long ago, where my High Point once hugged my hip. To have it again! I suddenly never felt so naked in my life ever since I lost my guns to this god forsaken place! However, I shouldn’t be like this, I don’t want to worry her anymore than I had so far.

“Sorry, habit I guess.” I let my hand rest at my side before looking at A concerned Twilight.

“You really had it rough in here, didn’t you?” she asked with a glint of sympathy in both her voice and face. I would be lying if I said I didn’t mind you, It was more than hell on earth if you can put it one way. Here, I would only determined that I do not want to be in here any longer than I need to.

“Are we close yet?” I asked, changing the topic, I didn’t want to talk about this place while inside it! The question itself did the trick in making Twilight look around us, she then started to look worried.

“This isn’t good, now that you mention it, we should be looking right at her hut by now.” She quickly looked into every direction probably hoping to find a pathway or something. I could only feel the worry starting to take a hold of me. I battled the thought of being stuck in this forest again as this time I have a local that can drag me out of it if it gets to bad in here.

However, that look of uncertainty didn’t make me feel any better.

“So, we’re lost aren’t we?” I asked flatly.

“Nooo, we should be close to Zecora’s right now.” she looked back at me confused or maybe flustered by the situation. I couldn’t tell, the light from her horn kinda distorted her face. I looked around again hoping to find any kind of trail marking or something to help her out.

Nope, nothing.

I could only stand there like a lump while Twilight started rambling on how it can’t be impossible for anypony to get lost so near the forest’s edge as well hoping to come up with some kind of direction to- what was that?

“DId you hear something?” I asked her.
“Hold on, and-” I hear the noise again, sounded like the brush shuttered somewhere.
“SHH! I heard it again.” she finally went quiet for a moment to look at me in puzzlement, then another noise off to the side somewhere caused her ears to twitch towards the sound. She looked.
“Jeff, I don’t think that- AHHH!” something jumped out of the brush in a snarling blur of dark gray as she reared up in surprise. another shot out from my left that damn near tripped me as it caught the side of a leg.

“Shit!” I spun around to not catch the blur right away. Then they slowed down to reveal themselves.

Wolves, regular wolves; Judging from their size, Timber wolves. Wolves, always fucking wolves in dark forests like the Everfree. There wasn’t just two of them either, just a minute later three more of these dogs came stalking through underbrush. Each of them ravenous and growling at us.

We saw them as threats, they saw us a food; screw that noise! Sadly, being without a weapon of all the times! I could only back up towards Twilight as she faced the three that faced her while I stared down the other two.

“Well, shit, now what?”

“I don’t know, normally these wolves would be near Fluttershy’s house, not sure what they are doing here and watch your mout-” one of them lunged forward with a snap of it’s jaw. She lifted a fore hoof before stomping it back down at it.

“I think my mouth is the least of your worries at the moment.”

“You think?!”

“No, just guessing here sweetheart. Any ideas by the-” I wasn’t paying attention when something leapt at me.
I felt maybe all of the wolf’s eighty or so pounds of body as it tackled me to the ground.

I held up a arm as it’s jaw clamped down on my sleeve. Like a trained german shepherd, It yanked and shook its head to drag me as well possibly try to break my arm. I could feel teeth trying to dig through the fabric of my jacket. Why, oh why does this madness happen to me?

I pulled with all my muscle against the hungry, four-legged attacker but it wasn’t working not one bit. I could feel myself sliding across the dirt when I herd the ground shift near my head.
“DUCK!” I glanced up before snapping my head to the ground as I saw a purple leg shoot a back hoof that connected against the wolf. It let go, taking a chunk of my jacket with it though.

It landed back into the brush as I scrambled back to my feet. Man I feel useless without something to at least swing at these muts.

Twilight had a struggle on her own when the trio of wolves started encircling her but she backed up (nearly against me mind you) and she raised her head, “Time to go you pesky wolves!” her horn glowed a brighter tone before she shot what looked like a magic missile from her horn. It missed but it was enough for them to back up and scatter away from her, unlike what she demanded, they didn’t move at all.
“Or not…”

I on the other hand had no current method of killing or shooing these dogs away from me. Another wolf lunged forward to nip at me but I stepped back to kick at it. No hits on either side there.

“Go home dogs!” calling out to them, which of course did nothing but just made me sound more pitfiully helpless.

These wolves reformed their pack and encircled us, these wolves really acted differently than the normal wolves I’ve known about, unlike those wooden wolves weeks ago. We could only ponder on when these wolves were going to move in for the kill. However, I heard something else somewhere in the brush. Great something bigger is headed this way.

Then I heard what sounded like someone calling out in another language, I heard a quick crash in the brush, hear a grunt then something came hurling out from darkness then heard glass crashing into the ground close to us. In the second it hit the ground I looked at what it was before being blinded by a bright flash of light.

The wolves yelped and whined from the surprise, then another bottle came crashing down, making an ear ringing bang that made the wolves coward away from us then something or someone came bursting from the brush off to our right.

It was another pony, or at least I could tell from the four legs and head hidden under a cloak. Whoever this was, came running into our clearing ramming into one of the wolves at full gallop before coming a sliding stop. The wolves turned their attention from us to their new prey.

Shouting something else in that language, she sounded african in my mind, before twilight tugged at my damaged jacket to make me step back with her. When we got out of the way, the newcomer shot a powerful kick into a wolf sending it back into the brush, it yelped as it vanished from view. The others started to attack at once; when one of them leapt at her, she dropped low but her hood was caught by a paw in the process. knocking it off her head, it revealed a black-n-white striped head complete with a short black mohawk. Wait, black and white pony?

Is she a zebra?!

Watching this Zebra looking coolly at the rest of the wolves, she rolled her shoulders to bring around a staff from behind her back before taking a stance to grip the staff;

The Zebra took a spread leg stance to stand completely on two hooves as she took the staff in her fore hooves. Like a martial artist, she twirled the staff till she held it with one hoof, gesturing to the wolves with the other, beckoning the animals to test her might.

When she stood, the wolves encircled her before two of them attacked. One went low at to snap at her back hooves while the other ran up to her side to jump at her. She responded with fluidy: taking the staff, she swung wide at the jumping wolf then redirected a jab at the other. Clacking one on the side then hitting the other on the muzzle.

One wolf retreated the other wobbled from the stun. The remaining wolves ganged up on her but she was faster than them. With more fluid motion of her staff, she smacked one across the flank, jabbed a second in the chest, then smashed one into the ground with a well placed strike on the head.

When the dust settled, she remained on her two hooves while two wolves laid unconscious the rest whimpered in retreat. She then slid the staff into the scabbard across her back before returning back onto all fours.

She took one look at us both shaking her head but still held a smile belonging to a parent who just saved her kids from a surprised danger.

“Marafiki zangu, mimi kuona kwamba, wamepoteza njia yako.” She spoke to us with a polite but mocking chuckle. Twilight frowned in flustered Embarrassment. She must've been trying to do this kind of thing on her own, not sure why, it would of been smart to have sent a note ahead or something now thinking about it.

“Zecora,” she sighed as she approached the ass-kicking Zebra.

“You know I’m still learning your country’s language.”

“So, this is Zecora,” I thought quietly looking noting that now I can add Zebra’s to the list of sentient beings in this world.

“Be that is Twilight,” the Zebra greeted the Unicorn with a friendly hug at last before the Zecora turned towards where she had emerged from,

“Yet, strayed from the path to safety you have,” She mused, “And future advice, stay close to the forest edge would be more suffice.”

“Huh?” I was lost by the jumble of words she just spoke and I thought me speaking engwish was bad.

“She means, we shouldn’t of followed this path so deep into the forest.” Twilight translated with surprising ease, then again, I wouldn’t know how long she had to listen to Zecora talk like this.

“And, I think you’re right, next time I’ll just send a letter in advance.”

“All is fair, yet avoid these ever changing woods for any who dare shall be bait for what hides inside, as any will only be suffocated by the new darkness that resides.”

‘New darkness’? I doubt there isn’t anything new in there other than poor little me crawling out of there like an injured bettel. I looked between Zecora and Twilight before glancing off into the surrounding woods. I don’t think when she means darkness as an obvious observation of how dark it is. Probably something else she is talking about.

“You’re right,” Twilight finally spoke after some moments of deep thought, having known her for this long (which hasn't been long mind you), that she is one of those deep thinker types. I can only wonder why she would be anyone-anypony special to this community aside from the elements thing she and the other girls have mentioned to me.

“I wouldn’t know anything on this new development either, but, I would like to put out one major fire before tending to another so to speak.”

Zecora Instantly looked at me, it wasn’t a look of scorn but one of stoic curiosity, “I see twilight; could this be the blundering creature of thunder?” she asked. It was a little dark aside from Twilight’s horn, I could feel the eyes look me up and down as if determining if i’m a potential threat or something else.

“A creature of such strange thunder, yet, it does not seem to have anyway to make it?”

“Pardon me but what thunder are you talking about?”

“Yeah, what are you talking about Zecora?”

She looked like she was about to say something when she paused to look around.

“As bleak as this place could be, we shall return to my home so we may speak in peace.”

“You are right, let’s get going before something else shows up.”

“Agreed.”

Twilight Sparkle

We arrived at Zecora’s Hut within minutes in comparision of getting lost before hoof. While on the way, I took note of how much the edge of the Everfree has indeed changed, ever since Jeff had appeared the forest has been acting strange.

Not sure if he and the forest are related in the change but I have read tomes that had explained that the Everfree forest has gone through rare but vicious spurts of changes. Such as the trees would, more or less mutate from one breed into different breeds or the wildlife would make sudden massive migrations from the forest and towards a different one. However, those migrations would be violent and “run” over anypony that would be in it’s way.

A shiver ran down my back as the memory of Father telling me a story of one such migration, that ended in a battle between wild animals and two of Equestria’s Legions.

Let’s just say that Ponyville had to be rebuilt and lives were lost that day.

Even Zecora had changed, but her tribal home hasn’t changed a bit, aside from a few new weapons sitting on wall pegs. As well a few new masks hanging everywhere of various new paint patterns.

Especially the one above the front door before going inside. With deep red dual strips going down both sides over the eyes and down the cheeks. Boar tusks jutting out the edges of the mouth adorned in dark green, yellow and teal strips of cloth complete with fur in the similar fashion of a lion’s mane. Whatever would she have this one up for?

And I have not seen her fight before if not at all, even the unique bipedal stance she fought with was completely new to me, she was very impressive in combat. I have to write this down! I opened one of my saddle bags and my Tome of notes floated before me.

Opened the book were I had left off, Quill and ink, aaand notes!

As I transcribed what I seen I began pondering on the “thunder” Zecora kept mentioning. Peeking up, I tuned my ears back in on her talking to Jeff and she describes the thunder to be heard in random, rapid sounds that at one point changed in pitch and volume.

“Huh, Sounds like gunfire.” Jeff thought aloud. He has my attention now, Gunfire? What the heck is gunfire?

“More accurately, That was me making that thunder.” He air quoted thunder, “You may of heard me fighting off monsters with my Colt rifle, then my HP later on as I had ran out of ammo for the rifle.”

“Hmmm, These things that sound like weapons, how curious they are.”
“Yeeah, Jeff you haven’t mentioned anything like these Colts and HPs.”

Jeff folded his arms while looking at the empty caldron in the middle of the house. Probably thinking for a time before he looked between the both of us, Zecora, after resting her staff against the wall near the door; had walked towards one of the shelves full of bottles but she had paused from that to look at Jeff.

“So the rifle, is a Colt LE-nine-zero-one, chambered in the three-oh-eight winchester round, which I mainly use for my trips into the woods to hunt for game if me and the boys can find any.” he began, “I carried only seven twenty round magazines, only because twice our hunting trips had turned into a gun battles with other hunters trying to go after the same game.”

“Game?”

“Wildlife, Zecora.”

She nods before turning back to the wall of bottles and jars, she must of wanted to look for something, not sure what maybe ingredients. However, what an interesting object Jeff was mentioning.

“Anyways, ever since the December SNAPs riots, A lot of people had turned to hunting to get their fresh meat. So there had been many times You read about gunbattles between groups of hunters over deer herds or other wildlife, there had been fatalities in other states but in oregon there had only been a few severe injuries resulted of those battles.”

“The more I hear about your home, the more I dislike it.” I noted aloud. I only felt sorry for Jeff. Here stands a human, who comes from a country whose citizens have to fight each other for food and now, displaced into our world somehow, has to go through the process in getting accustomed to what is probably all Alien to him.

“Trust me, my country has been at war with Terror for nearly eighteen years, so you can see the stress and strain on everyone back home.”

“War on Terror?”

“Ehhh, that’s another story, anyways!” he cleared his throat, “with all that aside, The HP I mentioned is the Browning, Hi Power, Mark three, something called a pistol, something smaller than the rifle but still can pack a punch up close.”

“Another weapon you wield for hunting?”

“Yeah, but I wear it on my hip in a holster so I can keep my hands free.”

“I see, So Jeff, What exactly did you, fight, out there?” my quill froze on a blank space to write it all down. I noticed his eyes glanced down at my tome and smirked while slowly shaking his head. I looked apologetically back at him with a shrug. I think he might be getting used to me pulling this book out or something for he didn’t look annoyed at all this time.

“Let’s see, those wooden wolves or dogs, they kept coming at me for a few days at random, but what was worse of it was this massive lion with wings and a scorpion tail.”

“Sounds like you fought a manticore,” oh my godess, how did he…

“Is that what it's called?” He looked confused but surprised, “That thing was so fuckn’ scary to fight.” He shook his head.

“How did you? With these 'guns’ you talked about?” Now I'm curious, how did this human fight something big like a manticore by himself and win?

“Well, yeah, but it was taking three-oh-eight like bee stings but it wasn't after it got me first before it fled.” His expression shifted to someone drifting into thought.

“A being of bravery I see, tis a shame that you have lost the objects of magic.” Noted the rhyming Zebra, she collected two jars of something by their carrying straps then walked up to the cauldron, she stopped to look at Jeff briefly.

“Oh, sorry,” he stepped to the side letting Zecora pass. She propped herself on the side of the massive cast iron pot. She balanced one on the side while opening the other to pour its contents into the pot.

I didn't see it at first but the second jar slid then almost fell to the ground but Jeff was quick to catch it. “Got it!” He then stood, looking at the jar.

He looked curious but probably didn't think to ask as he handed it to Zecora who had been watching, she took it with a thankful nod before dumping its contents inside.

“But, yes, it does suck that I lost the guns to this forest, one them was hella expensive and the other was a hand-me-down that was a birthday gift to me from my Aunt.”

“that is a shame Jeff,” now that only added to his current predicament, he lost not just his weapons, but objects of sentimental value. Poor human…

I noticed that he was watching Zecora as she went to work putting more ingredients into her cauldron.

“What are you doing if I may ask?” He looked into the pot before pulling back quickly holding his nose. “ And why does it stink?”

“The base of a potion of calming.” She replies, “Once already the creature of the everfree forest has received such foul concoction yet still suffers a blight of unordinary qualities. I shall concoct another to continue the struggle.”

“Shall i get water?” I asked as she finished explaining.

“Yes.”

“Once already? What do you mean?” the human asked puzzled, “All I can remember is how many times I was out of consciousness.”

“Then a conscious receiving of such an aweful foe creation for unconscious treatment.”

Only i would remember what she is making as it was I that helped administer this ugly brew. Well, it was me that gave it to hi m while he was in his micro comas.

When she started the cooking fire, added more water and started adding more ingredients; Zecora worked fast to create the-what did she call it?

“So what are intending to use this for?”

“Should I tell him Z?”

She nods towards me with that sly smile of hers. I really don't, BUT, I will so this poor human will not panic when the shamare gives him the potion.

III

Jefferson Revere

“Tell me what exactly?” I cock a brow at Twilight before glancing at Zecora who was just grinning at whatever mischief was in brewing in her head.

“Well,” she grimaced slightly before looking at me, “Zecora is brewing a potion of magic detection, however…”

“Wait, couldn’t you just cast something like that and what? See if I'm still cursed or something?” It didn't make sense to of dragged me all the way out here, almost getting us killed to just get something that sweet Twilight, a magical unicorn mind you, to just cast the same thing.

“That there is the problem,” she sighed, “Currently, I can only detect curse magic in objects and faintly on living beings, sure i have studied curses as well everything else, buuut…”

“But what?

“This curse, the one affecting you, is-”

“Well? What is it?”

She, looks away with a face of saddened pensiveness. That did not fill me with dread at all, not, one, bit.

“Fear not brave creature,” Zecora spoke finally, “A sudden mystery will be solved with the feature of this creation of harmless magic.”

"So, you are saying that at least this Shit wont kill me, but why are you two not telling me anything more than that."

Both girls went quiet after that, not a real good sign. With a defeated sigh, i watched in agitated silence while the zebra shamare went to work. Of, course it didn't take no longer than some minutes after the tense silence fell upon the room.

With deft hooves, she produced several bottles of this stuff. Then, she came over to me with a goblet, made of smoothed wood, filled to the brim with this stuff.

“A slight pain and unsettling feeling is all would be felt while taking a faithful swig of this foreboding brew.”

I looked at her then at the cup, the back at her again. “Wait, now!? You want me to take some of this green shit now?” i pointed to the cup; she only replied with a smile as she placed the cup into the same hand.

“Jeff,” i felt a soft hoof on my shoulder, “you got to believe me that I have tried everything else and Zecora’s brews are all that can get through without harming you anymore.” Not sure if it was the touch, Twilight’s voice or my ‘fuck-it’ button was finally pushed but i quietly stared into the cup’s contents.

It looked like a thick, warm smoothie of various greens and herbs but reeked with something along the lines of microwaved pepto bismol.

Grimacing, i looked up at Zecora then over my shoulder to twilight then back at this cup-o-medicated-death.

“Well, down the hatch!” I shrugged before knocking the drink back, like a double shot, the cup emptied in a split second. The taste hit my senses like a bus; foul, chalky, with hints of what must've been ginger, garlic and an awful blend of various veggies.

I found a chair to sit while i felt this ooze hit my stomach, “God, you better be right about this Twilight because that was nasty!”

“Well, it wasn't no apple sarsaparilla that's for sure.”

“oh you’re funny; but now what, We wait?”

“That is all we can do…”

“Oh great, waiting for a bomb to go off-ahh-ohh..”

Then the aftertaste came, it had bitter burn of syrupy Nyquil that, unfortunately, numbed my tongue but the sharp bitter taste was still there.

I just periodically contorted and squirmed as my mouth tried to shake the taste out of my mouth like a dog trying to clear his mouth of peanut butter.

“Blach, how in the hell, did you come up with this idea? Glah!” i covered my mouth finally, just gritting the discomfort.

“Recipe that came from many a shapony before me and before them,” Zecora chimed in, i think i'm starting understand her more clearly after listening to her rhyming talk for such short amount of time, “come, stand, see what becomes of those who ingest this ancient tradition.”

I stood and followed her gesture towards a mirror in the room. Nothing fancy other than my pale face looking back at me while the unicorn and zebra watched me. I stood there for a few minutes all the while taking in my own image.

My hair now looks like a month old buzz cut growing back out. Some stubble growing in. My eyes were slightly sunken in but didn't look as bad as they last time i looked at a mirror.

Looking further down i can actually take a better look at the work Rarity did throwing my new clothes together. She did an impressive job patching my jacket back together, aside from the chunk the stupid wolf took out of the sleeve. My new pants looked like a crossbreed of my old jeans and old time trousers. Not too bad but the buttons will get in the way in the future i think; the shirt was simple as simple can get, thin, natural white cotton. Soft and breathable, i kinda like it.

Sadly, my expensive interceptor boots did meet a gruesome fate and had to be replaced with these simple brown leather slip-on boots. Didn't expect her to wipe these into existence but she did.

I looked back up to my face once more, while counting the healing scars on it,

“yah know, i don't think it’s going to work as fast you think.”

“Uhh, you sure?” Noticed Twilight point at the mirrors them i looked at myself again.

Nothing new aside from a faint glow coming from my- “wait, what?-” I squinted at a noticeable glow from the side of my neck. When i reached up to feel it i noticed the same thing on my hand. Gasping, i backed up to look at both of my hands. They started to glow too.

“Is it supposed to do this?” I then felt a cold, painful, burning sensation shooting all over my body.

“Yes.”

“Oh no, Jeff!”

“Do not interfere, any tampering would cause an interference to you as well.”

The feeling was intense and getting progressively more so as i stumbled a bit then wrapped myself in my arms as i cringed at the burning around me. I felt like i was in front of a raging inferno, skin going hot, my insides were on fire and no to mention, when i looked up at the mirror, my face was glowing brighter.

Not thinking clearly, i started ro removed my coat, then the shirt. Every movement felt very painful and everything was so intense that no sound could pass through my vocal cords.

Once off, i slowly stood upright as the burning was causing my muscles to spaz out, and i looked at the mirror.

I looked like volatile stuck out in the sun. What wasn’t covered by clothing was glowing, not a red hot orange, but several colors of dark purple, dark green, blue and red. The trippy part was my skin had become translucent, all my insides was illuminated in this interchanging shades of colors all had a neon style brightness to them. I could see through my muscles and pin point where all my organs were located, all pulsating at a increased rhythmic rate.

Obviously black symbols or glyphs were pulsating at their own rate, but not just a bone or a muscle, but everywhere!

“Wha, does, th-this, m-mean?” My shaky voice finally worded, “does, th-this mean, M-My wh-whole body I-Is-” i slowly turned my whole body towards the ladies as they had moved closer.

“Yes Jeff, your whole body…”

I felt myself free fall for a split second then found myself leaning against someone.

“I got you!”

I couldn't tell with my eyes shut but i must've leaned up against Twilight as i could feel her cool coat against my burning skin.

“Look, its starting to fade, almost over Jeff.” I understood that but i couldn't move i just buried my face and waited for the worst to be over.

After everything a dulled down to what felt like a fever. I finally lifted my head up,squinted at the light in the room for a moment or so before I Glanced over at Twilight who’s eyes were fixed on the mirror. I slowly turned to look at it too.

My body had indeed gone back to normal, aside from the healing scars on my torso; but, a thin plume of steam emanated off the exposed portion of my body as sweat must of fought a short, losing battle against the heat. Then i started to cold sweat profusely. I continued to lean against her before my legs gave out and crumbled to the ground, she dropped down to continue to hold me up, she even used her magic to prop me up temporally before gently resting me back down against her side, or shoulder i think it was.

“It is done, severe this is, very little i know of how to cure this bizarre blight.” A gloomy zecora admited from somewhere in the room.

I stayed silent as i buried my face in my arms and her coat. Not sure if it was because of what i just went through, o i have had enough of this torture, or the comfort of this pony but I felt something different, a faint tinglling feeling around my eyes before i felt water form around the corners. A lump in my throat turned into a sob, then my face knotted up and lips started to shiver.

"I, I'm not just, just-" i choked, "-my whole body has been...cursed!-"

Quickly, i felt the mare shift under me as i then felt an arm wrap around me.

Twilight held me while i lost it all and cried on her shoulder. Not giving a spit if anyone or anypony was watching.

Author's Note

I'm back!
And im determind to continue this story even if im typing from a phone!

Yuckquil

I
Jefferson Revere

After hearing Rarity seemingly gush over how apparently she finds me attractive. I heard them walking towards the kitchen doors.

“Rarity, at least keep it civil while he is around, I don’t think you, or any of us, needs to be distracted by the fact that-” While Twilight’s voice drew closer I quickly dashed across the room, vaulted over the first chair I saw, plopped into it, quickly stood to grab my drink then sat back down with feet propped up on the table.

Poor Fluttershy on the other hand only watched in confusion.

“Jeff, what are you-” the doors bursted open, causing Fluttershy to jump back with an audible ‘eek!’ dodging the door that was swinging right in front of her.

“-We need to focus on getting him better.”

“y-yeah, right, getting him better.” Without looking I could tell she was composing herself from almost melting at the very thought of me just simply being without my shirt on. Kinda hurt that she was more focused on that minor detail over the fact that I was burning like I was on fire during the whole ordeal. Oh well, Got her attention on something right?

I kicked back with one hand behind my head while the other was gently swishing my sarsaparilla bottle, which tasted like an awesome homemade orangesicle; Taking another sip I heard them come back into the living room.

“Fluttershy, what are you doing there?” Rarity noticed Her as she clumsily came back over to one of the living room chairs.

“Oh, uhm, nothing really, was about to enter the kitchen for something before you almost hit me with the doors.”

“Sorry Flutters, didn’t think anypony was right in front of the door.” Twilight returned to her seat as well Rarity took my previous seat.

“Jeff, get those messy things off the table.” Rarity gently moved one of my feet with her magic before I completely removed them from off the table.

“Oh sorry, didn’t think of it, at least it isn’t muddy outside.”

“Yes, fortunately.” She glanced to Twilight before looking back at me.

“I’m sure, you have told Fluttershy about your side of the story.”

“y-yeah, uhm, he told me about how Yuckquil is kinda like liquid chalk.”

“Yuckquil?” Rarity tilted her head in confusion while Twilight almost spat handmade sode all over the nice marble table.

“Y-Yuckquil?” Twilight fought a giggled, “What kind of name is Yuckquil?”

“It’s what I’m calling that shit-Sorry, I mean-” I glanced to Rarity, “-stuff,” Back to Twilight, “Zecora made for me, might as well christin the muck before It becomes my daily regimen of X-ray hellfire.

“Hmm, I think, Detectaphlin sounds more professional Don't you think girls?”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to not call it Yuckquil after hearing it now darling.” Rarity admitted pondering with a hoof on her chin.

“Rarity…”

“Sorry Twi.”

“uhm, I have to agree with her on this.” Fluttershy nodded in agreement, “Yuckquil kinda has a, foreboding sound to it.”

“You are both no help at all!”

All the while I was laughing at them, “Yes!” I did a double fist pump but with rocker signs instead fists. “I’ve officially named a new medicine!”

“No you didn’t, I’m still calling it Detectaphlin!”

“But that’s a mouthful Twilight, who in the right mind is going to go up to a doctor to get a prescription of “Detectaphlin”? I think everyon-pony, anyway- Will get a better kick out of Yuckquil.”

“ugh, but why?” Rarity was giggling away while Fluttershy was having issues keeping a poker face.

“I don’t know, I guess it kinda tickles the curiosity with the mystery of the liquidness of Yuckquil.” Rarity snapped a look at me as if she caught onto my words before looking back to Twilight. I think a very faint glint of blush blinked across her face.

“I guess so, but for public sake, we’ll call it Detecaphlin.” Twilight had gotten up to lift her saddle bags back onto her back.

“Agreed?” she cocked a brow at me seeing if I’m going to comply.

“Sure, but how does this sound?” I cleared my throat, then, holding my, now empty bottle in one hand like how Hamlet would hold the skull of york.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Behold as I hold in my hand, Yuckquil! an Elixir of revealing detection!” I waved my hand over the bottle like as if it was the muck itself. “Feeling cursed? Not sure if you got constipation or a tumor in your stomach? Then fret not, for a healthy serving of this wonderful Detection spell in liquid form will reveal any alliment once invisible to the naked eye! once taken it will temporary strip away the physical shell of your body and reveal to your doctor what is wrong on the inside.”

“Oh wow,” Fluttershy listened in awe.

“Oh my…” Rarity gasped caught up in the pitch.

“Oh Geeze.” Twilight Rolled her eyes.

“So, step on up, take home a bottle of Yuckquil today! Be Warned though, side effects include:

Shot nerves

severe burning sensation

Aaaand-” Pause for effect, “-Awkward Revelations!”

Twilight’s composer fell away as the three of them got lost in a fit of laughs and giggles.

“Oh I’ll take a bottle right now!”

“Rarity-”

“Shut up and take my bits!!” she waved a hoof at me trying to control her laughter. Fluttershy was the only one that didn’t really say anything while lost in a fit of giggling.

“Wow, on that note I think we should be taking our leave, Right Jeff?”

“Oh but of course my Sweet carrier of yuckquil.”

“Detectaphlin!” she was breaking in a smile but tried to keep some sort of serious composer.

“Bravo Mr. Revere, You have me sold!” Rarity continued. We all collected ourselves finally and we headed for the door.

“Maybe you should be an advertiser for my store one of these days.” Rarity stood beside me, the biggest smile one could muster no doubt. Fluttershy had already stepped out, while Twilight stood in the threshold, looking back at us.

“Maybe one of these days. but for now, Take this as free sample.” I handed her the empty bottle to which she took into her magic.

“Oh my, you are too kind good sir, maybe I was wrong about you from earlier.”

“Aaaand we’re leaving, JEFF!” I felt a yank on my shirt as I walked after Twilight.

“Jeff, Almost forgot!” Rarity appeared in the doorway and tossed me the coat she fixed. As I caught it,

“Thank you Rarity, the repair work looks amazing.”

“Thank you Jeff.” she called in reply

“And may you have a pleasant afternoon!” I heard a muffled reply before the door closed. All the while I still felt the firm grip of Twilight’s Telekinesis on my shirt collar.

“I think things turned out better, don’t you think?” I asked Fluttershy as the three of us exited the boutique.
“I think so, I’m glad you aren’t upset anymore.”
“Me too.”
“Uh-huh.” Twilight had let go of my shirt long enough for me to slip my coat on.

“What's the matter Twilight?” Fluttershy asked her concerned, “I think that was a good change of settings before leaving.”
“Right, at least we are not wallowing on the pain of my ordeal.”
“I guess you both are right…” Twilight sighed accepting defeat of some mental battle she was fighting, “I’m just surprised that you out of all of us had switched things around Jeff.”
“It’s what I do” I shrugged, “Back home, we try to keep things light and bright with all the chaos going on around us.”
“I can only imagine.” Fluttershy agreed, “Well, I think I better get back to town and finish what I was doing.”

“Okay, if I need anything, Spike will send you a message.”
“Got it, um, Jeff.”
“hm?” I looked at the winged pony, pegasus I think she and rainbow dash are called.
“Good luck and hope you get better and the curse gets removed, just remember to take your Yuckquil!” she giggled.
“Of course, I’ll brave the painfulness of the stuff!” she giggled again before unfolding her wings and taking off in flight back towards ponyville.

As I waved at her as she vanished over the treetops, I turned to look at a Twilight who had a casual, but scornful look on her face.
“What?”

II
Twilight Sparkle

“You know what.” I started walking back towards town, didn’t expect to be there for so long as I could see the sun was starting to set over the mountains.

“I don’t know, what?”

“You eavesdropped on us didn’t you?”

“Nothing gets by you does it miss detective?”

“Nnnope.”

At least the Golden Oak isn’t that far from here compared to coming back from the everfree forest. I could only wonder how Spike managed the Library while we were away all day.

“Come on, I’m just as stumped as you are on how Rarity of all ponies could be seeing me like that.”

“Now you are just admitting guilty to listening in on us, that’s why Fluttershy was nearly knocked out by the doors.” I jabbed accusingly at him.

“That was not my fault! Fluttershy followed me and the poor thing was only oblivious to the whole thing.”

“True, she is still mostly innocent like that.”

“Seriously?”

“yeah, i’m sure she has no clue on what was really going on with the skit you put on for us.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about!” He smiled mischievously.

“Uh-huh, sure, you're as innocent as Rainbow Dash.”

“Oh that’s cold Twilight, besides I don’t really see her like that-”

“good, wait-” I stopped in my tracks, “-what? what do you mean by that? you two seemed to of hit it off with ease.”

He stopped and took a look at me with a sincere look in his eye. “Sure, but, I lack the ability to see any of you like that.”

I was confused by his statement on that, “uhh, explain?”

“kinda hard too honestly, I think it’s just from all the trauma I’ve been through as of late.”

“Hmmm, yeah, I think anypony that has gone through as much as you have wouldn’t have certain ‘interests’ on the forefront of their minds.”

“Yeah, yeah, sounds about right.” he continued walking, “So are we dropping me back off at my place or is it okay for me to come over for a bit?” He asked quickly changing the subject.

“Don’t see a problem in that, besides, we are going to have to portion out the detectaphlin for you.”

“You mean Yuckquil?”

“Detectaphlin!” I retorted quickly.

“Yuckquil.” he cracked a smile.

“Detectaphlin!” I pointed at him.

“Yuckquil!” he pointed back at me.

“Agree to disagree!” I paused to throw my hooves up to the air before I huffed ahead of him as he laughed after me.

“Very irked by that aren’t you?” he observed as he caught up to me. I couldn’t help but accept that, yeah, Yuckquil sounded easier to remember, but I’m still sticking with Detectaphlin for I hate being unprofessional in front of others!

“Not at all,” I blew a loose strand of hair out of my face, “don’t think it’ll be acceptable to a lot of ponies when they hear it.”
“Kinda like they won’t take it at all if they hear it being called detectaphlin, I mean yuckquil!” Blast it human, you got me all confused now!!
“HA! Admit it, Yuckquil sounds hilariously awesome!”
“N-no, it-it isn’t even a scientific name!”
“Whatever, believe what you want to believe.” he rolled his eyes.

Things seemed to of settled down after that, the natural ambiance of the park and later on the small town, settling down for the evening, took over while we walked it back towards home.

The remaining ponies, heading home after a day’s work. either ignored us, watched us or seemed to of purposely steered clear of coming close to us. A number of things could explain why everypony was acting like such around us.

Jeff, Jeff, Jeff or Jeff. wait what?

“UGH!” I shook my head before facehoofing at my brain, why is it acting so?!

“Alright over there?”

“yes-no, uhm, I don’t know, just tired we had a bit of a long day.”

“oh, okay? Today was a bit of a trip for all of us anyway.” he agreed, not really wanting to banter anymore thankfully.

It was a short amount of time before the Golden Oak was in sight. Yay, home at last! Looks like it just closed too for the day.

“Spike, we’re back!” I called out as we entered the Golden Oak. Within a split second, that wonderful little dragon came running down stairs.

“Hey, Welcome back guys, How did it go?” he greeted us as I locked the door behind us. He looked from me to Jeff.

“Hey Jeff, How was the trip to Zecora’s?”

“Oh very much eventful.” He bleakly replied.

“Was it?!” Spike asked excitedly.

“Let's head upstairs first and then we’ll all discuss about it.”
“Oh sure! I too need to update you on how it was today here at the library.”
“Oh good, some normalcy to listen too.”
“What?”
“You’ll understand here shortly little guy.” Jeff answered for me. Thanks ba-Jeff! ugh!! what the tartarus is wrong with me?! brain explain NAOW!

III
Jefferson Revere

When we got upstairs, I took up the chance to brew a pot of coffee for me and Twilight while the two of us started telling Spike about the whole day in detail.

After Spike told mainly Twilight that rentals and sales today were steady but nothing very special, made a side note of an upcoming overdue book unless the pony that has it returns it tomorrow; The little guy was mesmerized how things went after we had left here this morning. He finally heard my story of how the newly made yuckquil affected me and how I nearly collapsed. Of course I didn’t get a chance to thank Twilight for making sure I didn’t catch the floor when she caught me.

When he heard Yuckquil, he started chuckling at it’s very name. I think it’s going to be a smash hit with Spike from here on.

“Yuckquil, didn’t expect you to come up with that Twilight.”

“I didn’t, HE did,” she glared at me, or at least that’s what it looked like to me. I just think she is just burned out by the debacle back at Rarity’s place. Since I kinda know about Spike’s feelings towards Rarity, I think I’ll leave the details of their private conversation out of this version of the story.

“So, didn’t you say you’ll need to put the batches of Yuckquil into smaller jars or something?” Spike reiterated what Twilight mentioned before our coffee talk started.

“Yes, and it’s actually called Detectaph-oh buck it…” she face tabled into her arms before a groan came out from the mass of purple streaked, magenta hair and folded forelegs.

“YES! I win, yuckquil stays.” I chuckled.

A grumbling mumble came from the unicorn.

“Is she okay?” Spike asked looking worriedly at her.

“yeah, she’ll be fine.” I paused, Thinking about it, she wasn’t doing so well after our talk outside the boutique.

“She is just exhausted from everything today, pretty sure you should get to bed early tonight.”

“iuff muff fuff.”

“What?” Twilight lifted her head from her arms.

“I’ll be fine, still got to organize a few things before bed anyway.” she then rested her chin on her foreleg/arms.

“That’s right, still got to to stay on top of the nightly routines little lady.” Spike cracked a smile at his friend, probably for once, it’ll be him telling her what to do.

“Meh…”

“Oh, did you guys eat at all today?” Spike looked at the both of us.

“Not really hungry.” she grumbled

“Same, the yuckquil kinda ruined my stomach for the day. I think we should agree that it’ll be only when I really need it.”

“Is it really that powerful?”

“yep.”

“Yeah, I think when we need to check the status of my curse, I’ll take a shot of it.” I could hear spike chuckle from the very mentioning of Yuckquil.

I couldn’t help but watch Twilight, she must've been really brain fried from everything today, I think I better tone it down for her sake. I just hope that I didn’t stress her out from my shenanigans today. I began to worry again, well, let’s just take that and redirect it.

“Uhm, Instead of eating, is there anything I can do to help around here before I start heading back?”

“oh not really, I pretty much have most of it done to pass the time while I waited for Twilight to get back.”

“Good on you then kid, staying busy is a good thing.”

“oh yeah, swept the floor, organized the log books with new book loans, as well handled the few customers we got today.”

“Sounds like you had your hands full.” I sipped at my coffee while glancing at Twilight, seeing her not really responding to Spike’s impressive ability to run a slow moving business. Then again, if this little dragon was like the ones i’ve read about, he is really smarter than he makes himself appear.

“Oh it was nothin’!” he waved it off, “strangely, I even started reorganizing the books and-”

“Alphabetically?” Twilight finally chimed in, lifting her head to look at spike. can’t believe that brought her back to life, books? Did remember hearing her constantly referring to of read about something over the few times I was around her.

Then again, today was the longest I have spent with Twilight or anyone period.

“To the best of my knowledge,” Spike smiled big as if knowing that he had maybe impressed his friend/roommate.

Twilight squinted at the dragon, “We’ll have to see about that!” she smiled weakly before looking at me.

“Jeff, you are right about one thing, it has been a long day, maybe enough excitement for one day.” she admitted taking a drink from her E.M.O.G. that was filled with only the equivalence of two whole cups of coffee compared to how it was filled this morning. The amount of coffee that went into that thing shocks me still, even more so towards the little pony that drinks the whole thing like a champ and without the crash later the same day.

“Indeed Twilight, unless you sure you two don’t have anything ya need help with, then I’ll be heading back to my-” I paused, slightly hanging my head in shame, “-shack…”

“Oh i’m sure we got everything.” Twilight smiled softly, “You know the way back?”

“I believe I do, it wasn’t that hard to know which way leads back to that dive of a house.”

“Well then, in that case-” Twilight paused to quickly look at Spike who only looked back at her confused slightly, “-Spike will walk you out, I’m probably going to head back upstairs.”

“Uh, Twilight, we are upstairs already.” spike pointed out confusingly

“Oh, yeah, yeah, thats right….riiight.” she ran a hoof through her main and stopped on the back of her neck. A typical sign of a nervous girl.

“Very well then,” Since it had cooled enough, I knocked back my cup before walking it over to the sink, “let’s get going,” setting the cup in the sink, I headed out of the kitchen, spike was the first to leave as I held the door open for him.

I took one last look at the unicorn who only sat and watched me leave, “Well, I hope you have a good night.” I smiled at her whom returned the gesture.

“Good night.”

As I left with the kitchen doors closing behind me, I could only think of how there was much more that could've been said, but I don’t think anyone is in the right state of mind to talk about anything else.

Once down stairs, Spike unlocked, open, and held the door open. “There ya go.”

“Thanks,” as I took one step out the door I glanced back at the empty library behind me. Aside it from behind dark I could only think of how I still feel like there was something I didn’t explain yet, or something along those lines.

oh well, it’s only been one whole day without any serious problems going on, aside from the wolves of course. With a sigh I look at Spike, “If you guys need my help with anything, Come find me.”

“More like, If you need it, you know where to find us.” Spike corrected with an assuring nod.

“Right, well, either way works, good night Jeff.”

“Yep.” and I stepped out, the front door closed and I could hear both dead bolts lock into place.

I didn’t realize how late it got, it tends to get dark here quick doesn’t it?

Looking around briefly, I ran over my memories of which way to get back was. Let's see, we came in from the right of this place once, so, lets….head that way!

Into the night back towards the house I go!

IV
Whindy Wheel

“I’m tellin’ ya, ain’t no way we can even find the beast in this town less ya simply run inta him!” I scolded Jagged, “Besides, how we even know he or it be walkin’ after how the forest turned him inta Tenderized ham?”

“I just know Windy,” The uniquely clad Unicorn replied flatly as the four of us made a turn towards one of the hoof bridges towards the market center; “Why would that little pipsqueak dragon be in such a hurry and why else would the Mane six be so focused on this creature of the Everfree?” He looked back at me, those blue eyes where as cold as they were icy in color.

I only could judge that he wanted to make sure the job was done and this monster was firmly dealt with. Yet it to be confusing to me as well, If the mane six have been focused on this thing for these past few weeks, how come there hadn’t been any news of a battle taking place?

“The colt has a point,” Quartz blurted out, “How we even know the boss’s magic even worked?”

“SUSH!” Jagged raised a hoof to us both, there was a loud crash close by. I stepped up beside Jagged, I noticed the glow of his magic around that strange leather case he wears across his chest like a sword scabbard. Too small to be one though, let alone be one to hold any kind of blade.

“Hear that?”

“Hear what?”

We hear a sudden crash of something that followed a shriek of a cat.

“Mother fuckin’ shit!” We all hear coming from a nearby building, “Who in the hell throws sofas out like this?!”

“Let’s go check that out.” Jagged lowered his hoof the magic faded from around the strange scabbard, he took the lead we followed after.

“Could that be the one?” I asked quietly.

“Wouldn’t know but I got a hunch, split up two of you come from the other side.”

“Got it,” Quartz Stone and his Twin sister Agate Stone took off around the left side of the building while me,

We turned the corner and neared the building I recognized as the Sofa and quill shop. What kind of creature be drawn here?

When we came around the back of the building, Jagged Illuminated his horn as we both stopped at the back of the building.

“Hold it right there!” He snapped.

“Oh shit!” Jumped the figure that sprang up from the trash heap it found itself in. The figure looked at us, shielding its eyes with a hand.

“You got’em?” Quartz and Agate appeared behind him, Agate’s horn glowing with light.

“Yeah,” The creature stood on two legs, it then looked from us to the other two before looking back and slowly raised his arms up.

“Whoa, whoa, Easy guys, I’m not breaking into this place or nothin’”

“You sure?” Quartz Glared at the creature

“Of course I’m sure, I just got lost in the dark, kinda sucks being without a flashlight or something right?”

None of us replied.

“Riiight, Look I’m just trying to get back to my shack and I guess I got turned around in the dark then-”

“Can it human!” Jagged snapped, “What are you doing here? Why haven’t the Six dealt with you already?”

The creature, or human as he called it, recoiled by his hostility, keeping his hands up, “Hey, I don’t know what you are talking about man, I’ve just walked from the, what is that place.” he gestured towards another part of town behind us.

“The Golden ore-”

“The Golden Oak Library?” I correctly ask

“Yeah, that’s it, the Golden Oak Library.”

“I see, is the owner there still alive?” Jagged asked abruptly, his dark teal magic appearing around that leather case again.

“Still aliv-” he scoffed, “-You gotta be kidding, She has been helping me all damn day, trying to help me figure some stuff out is all.”

“that’s a whole lot of bullshit and you know it Human!”

“Jaggaged! Back up, can’ ya see tha poor lad didn’t do anythin’?!”

The Unicorn let his magic vanish from the case, not sure why, but I think it was a good thing he didn’t open it. He chuffed before disappearing around the front of the building.

“Sorry for that deary, Jagged Hadn’t been himself lately.”

“Can tell,” the Human noted, “Wonder what get his horn in a twist…”

“Can’ really say, but thankfully he left before things got a bit tipsy.”

“Yeah, sooo, you guys are not going to arrest me or anything?” He looked from me to the twins before looking back at me with that wondering look on his face.

“Oh, put’em down lad, ain’t no one’s gonna lock ya up, we be simply wonderin’ by when we heard the ruckus ye be maken.” I approached him. he folded his arms looking at me, Quartz’s horn dimmed to a gentle light for us to see each other better.

“What’s ye name lad?”

“Jefferson.”

“Pleasant to’ve run into ya, Whindy Wheels tha name, these two are Quartz and Agate.” I gestured to the twins.

“hey, good to see you.” Jeff turned to the two

“Charmed.” Quartz deadpanned, the human looked back at me.

“And that cranky pony was, Jagged?”

“yeah, somethin’ has him knotted more than a ball of yarn, we’ve been in town most of the day lookin’ far somethin’.”

“More like all day, looking for y-” Quartz’s magic wrapped around Agate’s mouth quickly.

“Shhh!”

“I see, anyways, I should be heading back to my place,” Jeff dusted himself a little bit more.

“I believe it shouldn’t be far from here.”

“Ahh of course friend, We be headen’ back ourselves ain’t we twinnys?”

“Yep.”

“Sssure.”

Jeff took another glance at them, probably wondering why they are being so stiff with him too. With a shrug he looked back at me one last time, “very well then, I’m glad to of ran into you guys, I’m sure we’ll run into each other again, just wish I can quit meeting others without breaking my self or into things.”

I couldn’t help the chuckle that came out, “As was our pleasure to of met. Ye be havn’ a pleasant even to ya, ser.” He gave us a wave before leaving into the dark on my right.

I faintly picked up a quiet, “What was that all about?” from the human before the dark of the night made him disappear from view.

After a minute of silence, The twins started shuttering and cringing.
“That was the human?!”

“Good goddess, You picked up that scent?” Quartz looked at his Sister huffing through his nose as if trying to shake a horrible oder.

“I didn’t, ye both be smellin’ the garbage here I’d bet.” I pointed to the overturned mess that the Human crashed into in the dark. I would figure that the nighttime ponies had not lit the street lamps yet or are still in the process of lighting them.

“Nope, that’s not it, it was the human,” Agate argued,”surprised he didn’t jump at us or anything of the sort.”
“Probably was biding his time, trying to figure out our weakness, or whatever before he came at us to slit our throats.”
“Or better yet, to take us out while we’re sleeping.”
“Oh thanks brother, never mind sleeping tonight!” while hearing the teasing each other, I could only think how wrong they were because I saw something different when talking to that human.

“Who needs sleep? Sleep is easy mode.”
“You guys don’t get it do you?” Jagged came back from the front of the building, he obviously was listening in on the whole thing.

“That human is apart of one of the most destructive species to date!”
“Wha-how Jagged? I doubt anypony would be afraid of him, he seems he far more harmless than a harmless wee fly.”
“Oh trust me Whindy.” He place a gently hoof on a shoulder, “There will come a day when we all will witness the true power of his kind. Let’s go, the boss will be wanting our report.” I watched the three take off, back towards out of town. I was only lost in confusion.
“His power, his kind? What ye be talkin’ about?”
“I’m talking about the destructive power of mankind, love.” He paused in walking to let me catch up to him.

When I stood beside him, he had been looking up at the moon as it rose from it’s bed beyond the mountains. Some say when you look at the moon right as it rises, one could see the faint aura of Luna’s magic as she rises it for another beautiful night.

“One day, everypony here will bear witness to the brutality of his kind and then, they will all live in fear of him.”

“I doubt it but-”

“Oh, they will,” He fell silent as we both headed back towards camp.

V
Jefferson Revere

Thankfully, I didn’t tempt fate again with another possible shortcut to get back here. At least The street lamps here were finally lit after the Pegasus Lamplighters glided around to light the streets up as well, some of the residents of some of the near by homes slowly lit up by personal lamps or fireplaces.

The smell of those fireplaces began to fill the air, another reminder of home as some of those homes were built back in the forties, fifties and sixties so they still had the built in fireplace.

home at last, sadly, it was the only place on this quiet street without a light or in fact a front door as it had fallen out before venturing out this morning. That reminds me, I think i’m going to need to fix this place but to do so requires the one thing I lack.

Money!

Seriously doubt everypony here would give out supplies out of charity for one “scary” human. Which also reminds me, what the hell was that unicorn’s deal? I mean, he was acting like I was some criminal or something of the sort.

I came up to the shack and lifted the door back up into it’s frame. sadly, it didn’t want to stand right so I simply leaned it against the wall near the threshold. Fucking fixer uppers…

“Honey, I’m home…” I grumbled to no one as I walked into the kitchen. It faintly still stank of that febreze stuff Rarity sprayed. wait, she sprayed that stuff because of the-

“Wait…” I dashed into the kitchen and searched cupboards and cabinets which all reminded me of one thing:

“Fuck that's right, I don’t have any food now.” I shook my head as reality came kicking the door in like a SWAT team. I had to remember that I have no food, no clothes, no nothing really. It stinks that I’m practically homeless if not for this place that was given to me and the few belongings as well.

Returning to the living room, I found that lamp that was left behind here some time ago. hope it works-nope, the bugs inside were dead after trying to turn it on.

I felt with my hands as I walked down the hall in the dark to find my room. I did after finding a wall with a thud and a twerk of a wrist, “ow!”

With the glow from a neighboring house, I was able to find the flashlight that, with a click, still worked!
“At least it isn’t completely hopeless.” I’m practically mumbling to myself at this point.
Shining the way around I walked into the bathroom once more. I didn't’ know if this thing runs on batteries or something else So bath time, once again, will have to be put up till I can get some better lighting up in this place.

I heard a thunk from outside as I was about to go into my room for the night. Of course, like any potential horror movie victim, I crept down the hall.
“Hello? Who’s there?” God, I feel like an until dawn character at this point.
First spot, which was the front door, I checked and to my surprise there was something that wasn’t there before.

A box.

Riiight, nothing like a mysterious box being dropped off at my lightless house for me to find, with only the help of a flashlight, in the middle of the pitch blackness of the night.

Ominus!!

Shrugging the paranoia away, I walked up to the box and peeked outside with the light shining down both ways of the street. No one was walking either way.

Looking down at the box, I tucked the flashlight in a pocket to collect the box. Some glass rattled inside.

“Thanks whoever sent me this…” I sat down near the table placing the box in front of me. I opened the box to see what is inside. under the light, inside this box: sat four large jars, each filled almost to the brim of this greenish colored-

“What? no shit, did she forget to grab these?” lifting one up I could only think that the pony responsible for dropping this off just now was Zecora.

Bit of a sneak ain’t she?

“Thanks Zecora…” Putting the jar back in and putting the flashlight in the middle of the jars, I picked up the box and walked back into the bathroom. Mostly because, hey personal meds are stored there, right?

Setting the box on the counter near the sink, I left the flashlight on as It dimly light the entire room, which wasn’t impressive as it was large enough to house the pony sized bath tub, toilet, sink, the countertop around it. as well maybe enough space for a washer and dryer.

Lifting a jar out, I looked at it. The liquid sloshed inside, shaking my head I looked at mirror.

“If you act now folks, You can order your personal four months supply of yuckquill all at the cost of shipping!” I held the jar like as if the mirror was a camera.

“So, order today! Yuckquill, the most fucking painful thing any man can experience in their lives!” Gave my reflection a happy smile before looking back at the jar.

“heh, Don’t got food but I at least got this shit to drink.” I set the jar back in the box before grabbing the flashlight and heading back to my room.

At least I still got my bed too.

Author's Note

Gurmpy Unicorn, Yuckquil, secert crushes(?), broke, no food and yuckquil...

What else could go wrong?! XD

Mental Base and daring plotting

I
Jagged Resonance

When we put that pitiful town behind us, Luna’s moon had fully risen, a gentle breeze had started blowing through the countryside. My thoughts were fixed on reporting the discovery to the boss. The human was still alive and active, How in tartarus can he still be standing?

Has the magic failed?

Did the leader of the mane six figure it out?

“I swear, if we have to put up being around that damn dirty human again, I’m going to buck him to the moon!” Quartz snorted as if the human’s scent was still plaguing his muzzle.

“Oh come now, why would you insult Luna like that?” Agate waved it off, “The human would more than likely dirty up the moon and plant a flag on it, claiming it in the name of his people!” she chuckled.

Whindy remained silent the whole time, I was too preoccupied with the human that I forgotten about her. Shame on me for that!

We came to our usual rendezvous, an untouched meadow just within the borders of the everfree forest.

“that’s a scary thought, more than one human in our world?”

“Oh do not even mention the very thought!” The twins shuddered before Quartz’s Horn started to glow, charging his teleport spell.

I was about to call for Whindy but when I looked behind me, I saw her standing in the glow, gazing at the moon. Normally, on most nights, the two of us would linger longer than normal to sit with each other and admire the moon before letting the tree canopy completely obscure the sky.

I, without fail, lost my words as her beauty had stolen them. The breeze had caught a few free strands of her multi toned mane, blowing them out across her face. Her mane was a solid pale ivory, with streaks of two different shades of brown splitting down the middle, her tail would match her mane in a pleasant pattern; I could only adore this sight, I could only let out a deep sigh before walking up to sit with her.

“Luna’s moon looks beautiful tonight, doesn’t it?” I asked her, she slightly glanced towards me before looking back up there.

“It be more sharper in detail than normal, yes.” She agreed simply.

“If I may ask, what’s troubling you love?” I looked at her as she looked to the ground before letting out a sigh

“Do we really have ta inform tha boss abou’ the human?” she looked at me finally, those woodland brown eyes spoke of sympathy and sadness. Probably towards the human. She was more pleasant to the thing than any of us were.

“How can ye be so spiteful of tha poor creature if he hadn’ don’ nothin’ wrong to anypony?”

“Whindy, I-”

“The boss’s hoof work will only torture the poor dear, Ye know he would only ask us to keep an eye on’em or if at the worst kill’em ourselves!” she sounded confused, she blinked a few times as she looked back at the moon.

“If tha princess knew what scheamin’ we be makin’ under her moon-”

“no pony will know, not even the Princess herself has no idea who we are or what we are doing.” I placed a hoof under her chin and gently turned her towards me. Once looking at me, I could see the tears forming around her eyes. She was upset over this ordeal for sure.

“you got to remember what our mission is, even if The Royals have no clue what we are doing, but what we are doing is for the good of not only for Equestria, but of the entire world.”

“Yet, we not have a clue ‘bout the humans, maybe they be friendly like us Equestrians.” She removed herself from my hoofs gentle grasp before looking away.

She presented a good point now thinking about it, What if, this whole time, the humans were capable of being friendly towards us if we gave them another chance. I shook my head away from those dangerous thoughts, my parents had indeed fell for that kind of thinking years ago and look where it got them!

I still can’t get that final battle out of my head.

“Whindy, We can’t be-”

“Don’t “Whindy” me Jagged!” She stood, stepping back as she turned to stare me down.

“That Human has done nothin’ wrong to us nor caused any trouble that would have us involved!” Tears rolled freely

“I, I can’ stand tha fact that we be havin’ ta watch the human encase of such, whatever-” she stamped her hoof.

“Whindy, You got to believe me on this, That human comes from a destructive species and Celestia knows how much this one can do if he gets his hooves on the wrong tools.”

Whindy shook her head and started to walk towards the clearing, she didn’t say nor debated with me anymore. Normally, she goes quiet and refuses to say anything more if her point wasn’t getting across. Tonight, I didn’t want to accept her point that we should just leave him alone, no, if there is one, it shouldn’t take long for more to start serfacing or even worse, fighting each other in our world like they have done years ago!

We have to bring the boss uptodate on what has been happening.

I met up with her and started to charge my spell. The twins have already teleported back to camp.

I was about to speak when she only raised a hoof to me, yep, she is upset not only with me but with the whole operation itself. She did sign up for this, she wanted to be apart of this as a chance to serve and protect Equestria by anymeans.

She just didn’t know that it was going to be like this.

unlike the twins, it only took me a minuet to charge and cast my teleport and with in the eye blink. We reappeared some good meters deep in the everfree forest.

The camp was large enough to hold several Large tents to house our current numbers. a few makeshift sheds for our equipment and the Boss’s tent stood in the middle of the whole encampment with a beat up metal pole just sitting outside it’s door.

The Twins had long ventured off into the mess tent as I can hear their laughter while they chatted it up with the rest of our comrades; while I headed straight for the boss’s tent.

Whindy had stomped off towards our quarters in a fit of angry confusion.

I, I’m going to have to comfort her after i’m done here. For now, need to get this over with. Once outside the oldest tent in the whole camp, I knocked on the support post.

“Ivory Killo, I have returned from the scouting mission with urgent news.”

There was a moment of silence before hearing three different, spaced out clicks. The one thing I knew from the very beginning was to never enter before given the word to-

”Enter”

Pulling back the tent flap I entered what was originally called a commander’s tent but became a permanent residence for the boss. it was furnished with strange furniture and other fixtures. All from a time long forgotten or at least what little my memory could recall, I can tell you what some of it looked like when it was in near perfect condition.

Sitting at a table with a map of the region around us, Sat the boss. He was a pale green Earth pony with a solid dark Ivory mane. Ivory Kilo Also carried the marks of his harsh past. He wore a pair of custom hoof gauntlets that reached up to the elbows, as well a half metal mask; All three pieces covered the disfigurements he sustained when he was my age, fighting the humans out of our world.

“Report.” He leaned against the table with elbows propped up with the metal hoofs gently tapping against each other. Even though I have seen and taken orders from this old war pony, the stare from those pale Brown eyes would send a chill from the tip of my horn to the dock of my tail.

“Sir,” we quickly exchanged salutes, “We have encountered the human walking about in ponyville.”

“What?” He stood now with both hooves planted on the table top, “How?”

“Uhm, We are not sure ourselves, we ran into him so suddenly neither Quartz or myself could scan him if either your spell worked, sir.”

I heard something scratch the metal on the inside of his mask, more than likely his teeth,

“Does he remember you or your team?”

“Negative sir, Whindy and I can vouch that he is currently harmless, but, we can also concluded that he may be getting help from not only the locals but the mane six themselves.”

“Damn it!” he stood on all fours, the metal hooves clinked on the wooden platform, “This does not bode well, I was expecting the Six to destroy him for us, but now…” he shook his head as he started to pace around the room.

“He walks freely.”

“Not entirely a free human though, there is still a majority of the populace that watch him with fear and caution, being nervous around the creature of the Everfree.”

The old stallion paused to stare into a mirror in the room. I could see his old guard armor more clearly as well the modifications done to it over the years, the golden bronze now faded with time. the solar core crest was chipped and damaged; the left pauldron remains of the original set. A strange saber hung from his waist, the hilt and guard was ornate in nature, so finely crafted vines and leaves in the guard that it would seem impossible for any swords smith to put that much detail into the guard. The pomle had a reddish diamond encrusted in the middle of the golden maw of a lion. It was also smaller than any sword I’ve seen, however, it’s current owner has been known to brandish this blade with the skill of a master swordspony.

His scowl meant this disappointment will not settle easily for him, nor for the rest of us.

“He is more resilient than I had previously assumed,” he grumbled to himself, “probably because of the Realm he came from.”

“Sir?”

“Did you not sense any magic of his own on him?” he turned to look at me.

“Hmm, come to think of it, I don’t even believe he has his own core.”

“Yet, he isn’t comatosed by what I slapped him with.”

“It is a strange situation sir, but, what should we do about him now?”

Teeth skiffed along the metal of the mask as he shifted his jaw, a sign that he was thinking.

“Should we continue to observe?”

“I believe you can do more than that,” he walked up to then passed me, moving the tent flap to the side.

“You see, I was able to rebuild this camp with whatever you and my other followers had gathered, not to mentioned recruited the numbers we see before us.”

I turned to stand beside him for a moment before he walked forward standing outside of the tent. Standing beside him, we absently observed the camp before us with it’s makeshift housing, rebuilt defenses and the single spotter’s tower that stood in the middle of the camp.

The barrier that me and the other unicorns have made to hold back the Wild forest around us had been sealed with special fence posts with the same spell matrixs etched into each one from top-to-bottom. They would be periodically refreshed with the patrols that would walk by them.

“It took the power of belief, fear and a common purpose to get to where we are now.”

“What, If I may sir, are you implying?”

“The Citizens of Ponyville so far are wary of the Human, all it’ll take is a well made friendship speech to dispel any negative illusions of him. So, Jagged my boy, you and your team, as well whoever else wishes to participate, to venture back in there and try to put the fear of humans back into the minds and hearts of all pony kind.”

“And, if we can not succeed at turning them against the human?”

“Then move in for the kill, force them to see how destructive the human is then make an example of him before everypony that wishes to witness.”

“Of course sir, he nearly took my head off when we first met, so that would be a pleasure to end his existence.”

“Yet we must stay our hoof and keep watch, the magic given to me to use on him should be working in different ways than we predicted.”

“Sir?”

“As the first phase of this new operation- well, gather the troops, I’ll brief them all at once on this, for now, you are dismissed.”

“Thank you sir,” we faced each other to exchange salutes before I started my way to my home tent.

“Go, be with your mate, tomorrow, We’ll begin the main part of our mission to save equestria from these realm monsters.”

“Y-Yes sir.” I could feel eyes at my back till I turned up a different dirt road.

II
Jefferson Revere

I woke up in a different bed. Wait, i remember this bed. Opening my eyes, yep, I remember this empty room. I pinched the top of my hand, yep, still completely awake.

“Aww, balls!” I slumped back on the bed, realizing one thing.

I was back!

“Just wake up and pretend this world doesn't exist!” I tried to tell myself but as I rolled onto my side I couldn’t go back to sleep. Nope, brain is running at full alertness, body is getting restless. All signs telling me to get the eff up or I’ll drive myself crazy tossing and turning this bed.

Fine, might as well get up and see why I’ve came back to this nightmare. I stood up with a stretch, then I realized that I was fully clothed with my coat on and everything. Great, woke up into this world Silent Hill two style. I walked up to the door, hoping that it’ll be broken, nope, it turned and opened to the lantern lit hallway.

I shook my head in disappointment, I won't be able to wake up in the real world till I find luna to put me back to sleep. which by the way, where is she, I’m sure she can see my dream bubble or whatever she sees while on the clock.

With a shrug, I started down the hall, wondering what Mister Oily has in store for me this time. I’m sure he had plenty of time to stew, plan and strategize in the depths of my now fucked up subconscious. I found the stairs that led back down, wait, don’t remember the cabin being two story. Guess things do change while awake, well truly awake, unless I’m just forgetful.

“Okay ya big bastard,” I walked up to the door, “What do you got for me toni-” I opened the door to only a solid black mass in the door frame,”-night…” I slowly closed the door.

I stood there completely perplexed on one thing, where did the world go?

The bleeding brass shells, The expansive flatlands, not to mention that miriana canyon; Wh-Where did it all go? After I turned around, I simply looked around at the empty cabin room.

“Okay, what In the perpetual fuck is going on here?!” I asked aloud to obviously no one.

“A strange change I believe my mouthy friend.” well, unless you count for her, I looked around again, trying to see if that Alicorn would meld out of the wall or something. After waiting for a few minutes, nothing.

“Oookay, where are you?” I walked by the stairs to only see that there was nothing there, “Luna was it?”

“Yes and over here cursed one.”

Pardon? what did she call me?

I pinpointed the direction of the voice to my right, but when i looked, nothing but empty wall. Damn it, this nightmare world is just screwing with me no- I felt a light tapping on my shoulder which caused me to-

“Holy moon creator!” my mind mashed out of my mouth while I jumped back, spun on heel and presented my hands in a pathetic representation of suddenly-kung-fu in the time span of a heart beat.

Expecting to see Mister Oily I only saw an equally startled blue Alicorn, she looked at me slightly confused but more surprised by my jumpscared reflexes.

“I, I peg your pardon,” The Regal goddess spoke after clearing her throat, “If it wasn’t over the fact that I startled thee, I would of taken offense to that.”

“What now?”

“Come, I think you should see this.” I watched her turn and ventured into a room that I didn’t see before, then again, I don’t recall a door being there period.

As took one step through the thresh hold I felt as if something swam through my brain with everything going blurry and wavy.

“What the-” I stumbled forward then caught myself on what felt like a desk or table. I didn’t want to move for what must've been a good while, just bracing against this object with eyes shut while my mind sailed the roughest sea It can possibly find.

“Jeff, are you well?” I slowly lifted my wobbling head and opened an eye to look at a blue blur standing beside me. I think that must be Luna, but then again, I can barely keep anything functioning while I tried to maneuver myself around this object.

An uneasy groan came from my throat while I slowly felt my way around this object, which progressively felt like a table or something of the sort. I almost fell over when my hand missed the corner of the desk/table’s surface.

“Do you need-”

“I-I think I got this, just need the world to quit spinning on me,” I waved her off lazily before my foot pumped into something that caused me to stumble forward and land into something.

Instantly knew it was a chair, a wheely chair at that! I spun slowly till I felt the top of what is (finally) a desk. I rest my head as it pounded with my heart beat. Good god, don’t think even my trek through the forest felt this bad.

All the while I could still feel that there was someone else in this room. Why do I feel like this night is only just beginning.

III
Princess Luna

I could see and hear the poor human withe in pain while he rested at the desk. However, I had turned my attention to this strange room I had discovered before he awoke.

Before, it was a darkened single space comprised of just this desk and chair, Now, right as he had entered this space; I watched as strange lights flickered to life along the vibrating walls. The ceiling too was vibrating, at first I was ready to grasp the human and make a hasty retreat out before everything collapses.

However, I only hesitated to watch as this room expanded. The low thunder of shifted stone as I watch the Ceiling rise further up while the walls slide backward. As they did, at every few paces apart, more strange lanterns would appear out of the walls to illuminate.

I felt not horror, but only awe and wonder as everything in this place seemed to pulsate with some sort of magic as more detail started to surface around us. book shelves, chairs, small tables, corner tables; various other furniture floated up from the floors, assembled themselves right before my very eyes.

I have known of being able to use magic to quickly build perfect objects, yet, here, I watched an entire room build, furnish and provide light all on it’s own. I would admit, this dream, or dream world is everything I have yet to of experienced. Even have raised, taken care of and ruled the night for centuries (aside from being banished for a thousand of those years); I have yet to witness any of this sort of dreams.

What magic has this poor creature been subjected to? I could only formulate questions that would outnumber any explanations or answers I possessed.

I continue to watch as this, now massive, room slowly fall silent as the walls, ceiling, as well everything else in between, stopped moving. It would of seemed to of taken hours for all of this to move, build and shifted into place, however, I witness all of this progress unfold before me in a matter of minutes.

impressive.

As the silence filled my ears, they flicked to the sound of a groaning human beside me. Looking towards him,

“Are you able to stand?”

“I-I, uuuugh, I think so,” He lifted his head off the desktop, blinked a few times, then slowly sat back in the chair,

“What the hell?” it was obvious that He was seeing this change for the first time, Couldn’t tell what would be running through his mind at the moment, but the look of dumbfounded surprise explained that he was just as lost as myself to any, if not, all of this.

“Luna,” He glanced to me, “you are seeing this right?” he pointed towards the new hallway in front of us.

“How couldn’t I? I just watch everything before us shift into existence.”

“Right, just making sure I’m not seeing things…” He slowly stood from the chair. He walked around the desk, still not taking his eyes off the new details around us.

“How or where did all of this shit come from?”

“No where I could assume, All of it seemed to of manifested itself into existence while you were-” It then clicked for me.

“-resting your suddenly unsettled head.”

“Aww shucks, I missed out on the good stuff I guess.” I didn’t really recognize the tone he was using, thinking it was some sort of humor as he tried to stand.

“Mr. Jeff-”

“Just, Jeff.”

“Yes, Jeff, I believe what had just transpired was another part of your consciousness creating all of this.”

“Well no shit…” He braced himself against the desk as he blinked to look around the new surroundings.

“No,” I paused, refusing to copy the human, “No, Kidding.”

“Luna, if there was any reason I would need a personal mental Library, then please do explain, other wise I doubt I’m going to need-”

”Doubt not what you see human,”

A voice came from everywhere, it sounded like it was not from one direction, but all around us. The Human simply raised his brows with an unamused look while his eyes glanced around.

”If I were you, I’d start using what you can get if you wish to be rid of me.”

“How about you get the fuck out of my head!” He shouted, “I would like to have a normal dream for a change, not wake up to this Stephen King bullshit every time I sleep!” As soon he mentioned that strange name, I heard a faint click then a rush of a flying object, wait, multiple objects.

I turned to look to see something flying towards us from the far left hall, “Stand fast human!”

“What-” between the moment he looked at me then towards where I was watching, “-oh shi-”

“DOWN!” with levitation, I yanked on his clothing to shove him back into the chair before I dropped to the floor, I must of over corrected myself as I watched both human and chair topple to the ground all the while I watched as a swarm of books filled this main hall.

I could only make out the human saying something but the sound of flying books, flapping like bats, encircled us. I was about to ignite the pesky animated objects until they closed in, slowing down.

I held off my strike to watch as these strange looking books organized themselves into two short stacks on the desk with one plopped itself neatly on some sort of pad that faced the space where the chair sat.

As the roar of sound subsided, the human started to get back up, as well setting the chair back up. once he sat down he looked at all the books that sat, rather oddly tidy for magically controlled objects. I believe I have seen Twilight do something similar in her library, but nothing as accurate as this.

He looked at the books, their spines facing him, making it easy to identify at a glance. He read them slightly aloud, “These are all the few horror stories I’ve read over the years what?” he then picked up the book that sat waiting nearest to him.

“Dreamcatcher, by Stephen kin-” He slammed the book on the desktop before looking at me with a rather amusing scowl as he gestured angrily at the book.

“See what I fucking mean?! I’ve only read the book once and seen the movie a few times but what, the, ugh!” he leaned on his elbows groaning his annoyance into his hands.

He slumped back, glaring at the pile of mysterious books on the desk.

“Could they hold some meaning in connection to this place?” I asked as I walked over towards one of the halls. I pondered how this whole place functioned. very Impressive for being in a cursed dream state, yet, I do not think that something like this should only appear once between dreams.

“Aside from the nerdy character in this book-” he lifted the book he slammed down, “-having a similar place in his consciousness, nothing really.” he huffed, “Only difference is that I’m being possessed by a Bendy style, bastard demon, not some mind-melting E.T.” He sighed before he fell silent.

“Not sure what any of that means, but I am sure that-” As I tried to venture down one of the halls, I felt a strong force bounce me back with an improper grunt. By my moon, what magic is this?!

“How convenient,” He grumbled watching me touch the barrier with a hoof, it rippled with a faint pale green glow upon my touch. Draggin along I watched as it simply shifted along like water.

“Convenient storage barrier, objects can come in and out but we can’t go in, how odd.” he shook his head before looking back at the book in his hands. He shook his head again before tossing it aside.

However, instead of it landing on the floor, it stopped inches from the floor, floated there for a moment before flying back down the hall it once came from.

We both witnessed that. After a short time of being left in awe.

“Y-you saw that right?” he looked at me pointing down the hall.

“Aye.”

“That was kinda-” he shook his head again, “-No, no, nope, nope, no, naught-huh, nope, Noo-” he started leaning to both sides, pulling out draws as he spoke, “-no just, just, no, not going to put up with this, no!” he started going through the stacks on the desk, whatever books feel over the side (or whatever he discarded) floated back towards their home.
“May I ponder upon what you are searching for?”
“An instruction book ya know, some sort of a how-to book to this bitch!”
We both heard a distinctive grind then a heavy thud over head before something fell from above. I watched it fly out from a hall on one of the floors. If These barries kept me out on hoof, then I would doubt there would be any access by flight.
As a dusty book slammed down on the desk, Jeff jumped back as the rest of the strange books were knocked off from the impact.
waving away the cloud of dust, “Great, as if on cue…” he sat back down before lifting the cover to the book.
Standing at his side, I looked upon the pages that were-
“What the hell? Blank?” he flipped a few pages, seeing the same thing, “what is this?!” then the big book shifted slightly then the pages began to fan themselves till a cleaner blank page stared back at us.

“Well, that goose bumps crap isn’t getting you anywhere, so what are you?”
Then we both started to see ink bleed up into page.

Greetings, I am your memory, Manifested in this lucid form.

Jeff stared at the page with a slackened jaw out of confusion,”whaat?”

You are in danger,

at great risk

“Ya think?!” Jeff tapped his forehead.

You and your Alicorn friend, stand in what is the last bastion of your real conscious and subconscious.

The final line of defence to determine the difference

“The difference between what If I may inquire.” I asked the book politely, I am familiar with this kind of magic. Books are the most common to imbue with sentient magic, it is difficult for the average unicorn, but for Sister and I, we have several of these to keep quick track of daily changes.

“Probably going to say something about my sanity…” Jeff predicted drumming fingers on the desk top.

The difference between Sanity

and Insanity.

I’m sorry Jeff, but you can’t predict what is already going to be said here, I am you after all.

“Huh, that’s new…”

Here, you are in control of this place, accessing what is needed and wanted.

A center of all knowledge
A record of your waking life
A keeper of skills you know

“And I’ve played too much dark souls to know that I can come back here at night to organize and practice or rehearse whatever I’m going to say or do. Kinda wished I had this back home before I bombed hard trying to pick up chicks.”

I only cocked a brow at the human, How can he be thinking about picking up chicks when his mental and physical life hangs in the balance. I seriously doubt he has even seen a farm in his time.

Precisely, However, your failed romantic life should wait till you can restrain that monster that stands outside this place.

Come, there is much to reconnect with, starting with-

My ears perked up to the sound of something clanging down the center hall.

some old friends.

The book slid to the side of the desk, the pad slid forward as we both looked at where the rattle of metal was coming from.

carefully flying towards us were some strangely shaped objects. the larger one was black, had a metal tube that extended down into what must've been some sort of mechanism that was partially wrapped in a strange cage. It had a grip, the protruded just behind a metallic slit probably designed for the human’s hands. extending out the back end of this device was a curved piece long enough to act as the club end.

“No way,” the metal object rested itself carefully along the desk top while the second object.

A similar metallic mechanism, but much smaller in size, the tube protrudes slightly out of a metal casing while the wooden grip stuck out just below a tiny hammer that protruded out the back.

It too faced the same direction as it laid itself down in front of the human.

“You gotta be kidding me, let me guess, right out of my memory?” he glanced to the book.

Yes, Weapons you have owned or encountered will be forever stored here.

However, they can not venture with you when you wake.

“Damn it!” He cringed slightly as the book flipped onto a blank page.

These weapons will be your only-Correction, forgive me Luna-one of many allies to help you fight back this curse.

“I see, So I can actually shoot Mister Oily in the stupid face the next time I see him?”

Speak for yourself,

Check the drawers...

He looked at each side of the desk before he pulled out the two top draws on the left side.

“Oh my gentle jesus…” I stepped over to look and see what looked like strangely shaped metal boxes, the top one had smaller stick looking ones while the second one held more curvy looking boxes.
“What are these?” I lifted a curvy one for me to examine. As it floated before me, I could see there were pointed, brass looking cylinders compacted inside this metal box. Strange, why was Jeff so excited over seeing these?

“Thank you mi’lady.” He plucked the box out of my levitation that caught me by surprise.
“Beggin your pardon Jeff, but I don’t think that-” he picked up the long device, cupped the club end under his arm then, with two fingers, pulled back a skinny metal stick that caused something to shift inside. After a click, he pushed the stick back inside, peeked into an opening as a metal cover had popped open. With the small box in hand, he slid it into the opening in front of the grip till it clicked into place.
With the same hand he tapped the palm against the left side that caused a rather loud clack of metal. As he lifted the device, placing the club end against his shoulder, he leveled this thing and rested a cheek against the club, squinting an eye to peer down the top of this device.

“Fuck yes, never thought I would see you again.” he spoke to I would assume to the device before he lowered it to look at me with an unmistakable look of mischievous happiness.

III
Jefferson Revere

Whatever angry doubt I had for this place was forever changed being reunited with my rifle. This whole thing was just crazy, too crazy to believe. Was my Mind really acting like a personal base of operations while I slept? No, can’t be, can it?

never would any of this be believable because It’s just too easy to be given the means to ‘fight’ that nightmare outside. Then again, maybe this is because of the Yuckquil I took back at Zecora’s place. Then How do you explain Luna standing with me. Looking at me with pure puzzlement as if I’m child with a loaded weapon.

wait a minute…

“What is this thing you hold in your grip?” She asked pointed to the Colt rifle I so comfortably held against my chest out of memory of it being on it’s one-point.

“This is, or was, my rifle out in the waking world.” I explained, “I lost it to the everfree forest, However, now I can at least use it while here fighting for my own brain.”

“I see, so what does this, rifle, do?” I smiled at her in reply.

“You wanna know?” she nods, I glanced to the book.

Enjoy

I heard a springing pop as I looked up at a silhouette target that popped up from the floor. With out thinking I raised up, pressed the stock against my shoulder, aimed, and fired.

The three-o-eight sounded louder in this place, which caught me off guard, as the round ripped into the target, knocking it flat. I lowered the rifle holding an ear.

“Hoooly shit, forgot how loud this was!”

“I say! Dare not do not do that again!” The princess snapped as she cupped her hooves over her ears. Also failed to take note how horses, or ponies in this case, were super sensitive to noise. Can’t imagine an Alicorn’s hearing to gunfire.

“Sorry Princess, wasn’t thinking.”

“Obviously!” she looked down at the desk, her magic appeared around three of the other drawers, opening each of them, all empty sadly.

“Looking for Ear protection?”

“Yes, whatever that is, if it’ll spare me the torture of this, weapon, then by all means, assist me.” I glanced to the book.

Center drawer, Right in front of you.

I looked down then pulled the drawer open. Inside sat two earmuffs, one very much larger than the one I picked up to put on. I was about to pick the other one up to give to luna but she beat me to it as her blue magic appeared around it and copied how I put my ear pro on.

once on, I looked to the princess, she looked kinda cute wearing those bright red ear muffs.

“You good?” I spoke loudly.

“Huh?” she asked normally still learning the power of noise cancelling ear protection.

“Are you good?” I asked again more louder pointing to my ear muffs. She nodded in reply before I gave her a thumbs up before turning my attention back to the new targets that popped up. I reached down and grabbed a stack of mags to place on the table. Never in my minimum wage life have I seen this much ammo or magazines, EVER!

I raised up, then opened fire upon the targets, this time they reacted like steel targets; pinging and panging to the impact of bullets. Luna still flinched to the energy being expelled from the rifle as well the occasionally visible muzzle flash.

once the last casing was spat out of the action, I dropped the empty mag with a slight bumped before sliding a fresh mag in. bumped the release clasp, the bolt clacked into battery with a round in the chamber.

Needless to say, I dumped this thirty round mag and one more before setting the rifle down. I picked up the Browning, grabbed a stack of pistol magazines before loading the first one. Locking the slide forward, I braced the pistol with both hands, taking careful aim at a new target, that popped up closer for my convenience, before popping forty cal round into the paper bullseye.

The recoil of both weapons was a memory similar to riding a bike, familiar to the mind but still new to my body’s current state but still fared well in holding up against the rifle and now the pistol. Dropped the first empty mag before sliding another in, with a flick of a thumb the slide snapped back forward before taking aim with one hand, letting loose another barrage of pistol rounds into the paper target. I noticed that when brass spat off to my right, some would bounce off the book like as if it was protected by it’s own shield. Whenever magazines or empty casings fell to the floor, they would simply slide across the floor and back down the hall the guns came from, bouncing and tumbling into somewhere.

Two more mags later, I finally removed the mags from both guns before putting them down for the time being with actions open. When the targets slowly lowered themselves into the floor I looked at Luna as I removed my ear protection.

“So, what do you think?” I smiled at her who only looked at me with her mouth hanging open in pure shock. She slowly looked at me, then at the guns then at where the targets stood before looking back at me. She gently removed the Alicorn sized ear muffs.

“I-I’m lost for words,” she managed after putting the muffs down, “I do not understand it. How can a creature, such as yourself, be without magic but yet, use these, weapons, to strike those targets with bolts of invisible lightning?!”

“It’s a simple science actually.” I shrugged, “you have read bookie, you don’t mind me calling you that do you?” I looked at the big book who’s only response was a single page rattling before flipping onto a blank page.

“Right, but as it said, These guns don’t come back with me when i wake up.”

“That is the truth dear human, but, I fear if these were ever found in the waking world…”

“I’m sure they won’t be, if I dropped them in the everfree forest, then they are lost forever.” The now uneasy princess stared into the target’s direction, her mind probably lost in the shock-n-awe she just witnessed. I stepped over beside her and, hesitantly, placed a hand on her shoulder. She flinched but glanced at me as if snapping out of a trance.

“Luna, I assure you, that if I did came upon weapons like these, I will not use them needlessly or with criminal intent.”

“I believe thee, yet, I still fear for others as none are aware of the power that are belaid within these contraptions…”

“I understand, I just hope these guns were the only ones that exist in equestria.” now thinking about it, I don’t even want to ponder upon what would it be like if Twilight was the one seeing this instead of Luna. The poor dear would've lost her shit of the wonders of modern firearms.

Turning a page onto better thoughts, “Hey, let’s get the heck out of here.”

The still silently nervous Alicorn quietly nodded in agreement as she turned to walk out the door that stood open for her. I glanced to Bookie.

“I think that’ll be all for now, I can get the gist of how this place works. The next time I awaken here, I’ll check in to figure out a plan of action.”

Agreed, your chances of surviving only increase as you continue to live in defiance of this curse.

Good night, Jefferson.

I waved at the book before it closed it self. Taking another long look at my new mental base, I took a deep breath before turning to catch up to Luna.

Meet the Apples

Despite her being slightly bigger than me, Luna was able to fit down the hall as we had made our way upstairs and back into my lonely bedroom. Instead of a simple boxspring and mattress on the floor. It looked like a basic wooden frame had formed to lift the bed off the floor.

Sweet, at least I don’t have to feel completely hopeless in this existence at least.

“odd,” Luna noted the changes to the bed, as also the bed was made with sheets, blankets, a single pillow, as well Bookie appeared in the middle of the bed.

“It seems little by little your safe haven appears more furnished for simply living.”

The book gently opened with a couple pages flipping before the ink bled onto the page,

Indeed your highness, As long as Jeff continues to battle the curse in more than just straight up fighting it. This place will grow with him.

However, be wary Jeff, the more you grow, so does your nemesis.

“Oh Joy, So I got to be prepared for anything whenever I’m here…”

Not just here in the dream Jeff, but outside in the waking world too.

You see, as you have previously experienced, this strange curse can strike at you seemingly out of nowhere.

“What does this book talk about?” The princess looked at me inquisitively before looking back at the book. That’s right, she doesn’t know what led up to us meeting here in this ‘dream’ which wasn’t a pleasant experience at all. Still can slightly feel where Twilight’s magic had struck my face.

“You see Luna, Before you saved me from falling into that pit, I had a strange relapse of what felt like a P.T.S.D. flare up, yet, it was more of a hallucination or something like that because I saw shadow Ponies instead of the girls.”

Luna’s brows raised in surprise, “You mean, you saw Shadow ponies in the Everfree?”

“Not quite, I don’t know, fuck my memory is all fogged from the whole experience. speaking of which, Hey bookie.”

The book sat up on it’s own, facing us.

yes?

“Is there, by any chance, a way to replay any of my memories during my, venture, in the Everfree?”

Sadly, no,

well…

not yet.

“Care to explain?” We both asked in unison, we took a quick confused glance at a each other before looking back at Bookie.

Remember Assassin's Creed, Jeff?

“yeah, what about-oh fuck no, don’t tell me!”

Unfortunately, yes, unlike in that game, You have to just simply experience various events in the waking world to regain any kind of control of your memories

what they be, can’t say, sadly we can’t just pop open a strategy guide and see how that’s possible.

“Oh look, a funny book, at least we can read your sarcasm from here buddy.”

Likewise my friend.

Also there is no “pause menu” to see your progress or any of that gamer jargon to assist us.

so, we have to just “play” by mind, eyes and heart if you get the meaning.

at the end of the last sentence an ‘X’ and ‘D’ appeared next to it. Great, he found the texting memories…

“Not very amused Bookie,” I deadpanned at the book.

“I have no clue what you both are speaking about.” Luna chimed in after soaking all of this during the brief moment of silence,

“Yet, I am curious about this ‘gamer jargon’ you both are talking about, sounds like something of entertainment from where you come from.”

“Actually, yeah, Me and my good Friend Alex have been big gamers since as far back as the windows ninety-eight days.”

“Windows Ninety-eight?”

An operating system for an electrical device called a ‘computer’

“I am confused, all of these human things will take time to understand.” Luna narrated herself shaking her head.

“I think there is going to be a lot of time for that.” I smiled as I watch Bookie flip onto a new page.

Indeed your Highness, I would have to agree with the both of you.

…

Jefferson, I think there is something about to wake you soon, Can’t really say when, we all should part for what remains of the night before being woken.

I felt a slight wave of drowsiness rock across my mind, “Yeah, I think so, Well Princess.” as I looked at the Alicorn, my vision did the wave, “Whoa...I think you should be heading out before I collapse.

Luna nodded, I could see that she was still soaking in my conversations with Bookie so far, “Agreed, I can obviously help my self out of here. It is strange though.” Bookie clapped shut before sliding off the bed, thudding onto the floor then slid under it.

“Shoot,”

“I was only able to enter your dreamscape when in close proximity of you, I think that is because the curse isn’t affecting you in that respect.”

“Ob-” I wobbled slightly, taking a seat on the bed, “obviously, I could only determine that because of this house.”

“Yes, I doubt i’ll be able to delve and discover what is causing this, but no matter, this curse is very strange by far, otherwise I would have cured you of it long ago.”

I didn’t really respond because the obvious was just that obvious, that and I was starting to feel a lot of weight increasing on me. my body was starting to call for the comforts of the bed. I lazily kicked off my boots, tossed my coat onto the bed, lifted the blanket, crawled in and covered myself while she spoke to me.

“Yeah, couldn’t say either…”

“Until next time, Jeff, hope you take care and maybe you’ll be able to overcome this madness by yourself if the worst calls for it.”

A grumble spilled out of my mouth in reply,

“Good night, and-” she paused, I think she was about to say something along the lines of ‘sweet dreams’ but that would be a lie in itself.

“Rest well.” she said simply before my eyelids drifted closed.

II
Jefferson Revere

I felt nothing nor dreamt of anything more, just that uneasy darkness. Then I heard a muffled sound, then felt something faint. Probably nothing.

“Jeff,” I heard a voice, “uh, You okay?” It sounded echoey and accented, who the heck could that be- I felt a jolt that rocked my body as I started to feel myself again. Then I heard the gently impact of a hoof against wood.

“Hey, rise and shine human.” I felt the jolt again, is, whoever that is, kicking my bed?

“Ah, buck it.” I felt a heavier kick against the bed. As if being pulled out of a nightmare, I jerked then sprang up.

“Whointhe?” My vision was freaking out from the deep sleep I was in, my eyes stung from the burst of light. I swore I heard a chuckle from somewhere.

“Ugh, Who...who the hell-” I rubbed my eyes trying to get them to water back up from being surprisingly dry.

“Oh, pardon tha rude-awaken sugarcube, but it’s almost noon and ya been talkin’ in between snorin’.” I finally blinked and took a good look at who was propped up against the foot of my bed staring at me.

She was orange coated, blond and wore a cowboy hat. Wait, wasn’t this-

“I Didn’t think, I’ve slept this long.” Then the feeling of sweat soaked clothing came to me while I looked down at myself. I looked up at the pony that walked over to the side of the bed.

“Ya’ll be lucky that I was at least being kind tah let ya sleep this long.”

“huh?”

“Ya see, Twilight asked me tah keep watch over ya while ya’s sleepin.” She shrugged, “Guess that doesn’t need to happenin’ now.”

“So, now what?” I asked her absently, I started to feel a warm hole bore into my stomach, that familiar feeling of hunger oh grrreat.

“Welp, She did mention that she be busy today readin’ more about what’s been botherin’ yah and I can’t really leave ya by ye lonesome, so how about ya come along with me back to the farm.”

Damn, can’t get any more country than that I think. Don’t really see a problem with that either; kinda been wondering about how the rest of the girls lived not to mention carried on their daily lives while i’m stuck fighting my inner demon, literally!

“A sound plan,” I tossed the blanket off me before kicking my feet over the side, “I’ll be a bit, Just need to grab my coat and boots.” The country girl looked me up-n-down before shaking her head.

“Well, that’s fine but don’t be lalagagin’ though, you’ve burned enough daylight as is.” She turned towards the door of my room, “I’ll be outside waitin’,”

After she left, I started to get myself back together, found my only shirt, put it on. found my boots, new long socks, slipped them both back on. Jacket, check. Wait, don’t I have-

“Ha, found it.” I picked up a still, moderately full, horse pill bottle of their version of ibuprofen. Stuff it into a pocket for just in case, then, giving the room a final look over. I was set, five minutes flat and out the door I went.

The day blared right into my eyes as I walked out the doorless threshold. I saw it fell over during the night, well, couldn’t of heard it because well, Mental base…

“Ready when you are, Applejack right?”

“Yup, It’s a bit of a trot human,” The country mare pointed off to the right, “so hope yer legs are workin’.”

“I think being able to get around town yesterday and the day before didn’t say that my legs are working fine then, I don’t know what else would”

“We will see Jeff.” she started walking, I followed after.

“So, answer me this,” I folded my arms thoughtfully looking at her, “How come Twilight has you and the others watching over me still?”

“beats me, I honestly think ya can take care’ve things on yer own, but, taken’ that ya’ll had that conniption fit a while back, I think having any extra pair of eyes-n-hooves to make sure yer fine would be appreciated.”

“Makes sense, however, I seriously doubt you’ll be able to make it out here every morning’ just to watch over some human.”

“Honestly, I really can’t because there is enough work on tha farm to keep me from comin’ ta town, that’s why I think the other girls keep an eye on ya if ya hadn’t risen like ye did this morning.” I didn’t really think I had slept in, doesn’t really feel like I did, but I can only take this cowgirl’s word for it and the fact the sun is resting somewhere in maybe the ballpark range of ten-thirty or eleven.

I think before I can get my hands on a good watch, I’m going to be checking the time the old fashioned way, watching the sun.

Unlike the few days I was able to walk about town, the local ponies seemed to not really pay me much attention to me, but there were still eyes watching me walk through this little town. Then again, i don’t think they haven’t really seen me outside the company of one of the girls.

I can guess it is like I’m under constant guard and they see that as such with some relief. Are they really that special to these ponies? Not to mention-

“Oh no, look out!!” cried a voice from somewhere.

“what in tarn-heads up Jeff!” Applejack shoved me to the side of the street with some force; I almost tumbled into another unicorn as something came crashing into the dirt road, right where I once stood.

“What in the hay are yah thinkin’?!” Applejack snapped to someone.

“Sorry, kinda, didn’t expect to see you this close so soon.”

“Excuse me creature, Do you mind?!” snapped the unicorn as she lifted me off the ground and shoved me away from her once I was on my feet. She trotted along while looking away from me as if insulted by my existence.

Who pissed in your coffee? I could only ponder while I dusted myself off. I looked at who almost crashed into me.

The pony, that stood up dusting herself off was a pegasus, solid gray with a blond mane and tail. she was wearing what looked like a postman’s cap and had the matching iconic messenger bag slung around her torso.

“Well, ya could’ve hurt somepony by doin’ that, be a bit more careful next time will ya?”

“Yeah, of course,” sighed the pegasus sadly, “By the way, do you know If I can find a, Jefferson Revere?”

“You mean me?” I asked raising a hand to the mare, when she turned to face me I was startled by how her light amber eyes were...off centered, looking in different directions, in fact they were simply, derpy.

“Oh good, apparently the pony that wanted to give this to you-” she walked up to me, digging into her bag, “-was just swamped at her work so…” she produced a-what the fuck, another pink envelope?!

“Here you go.” I politely took the envelope from the mailmare gritting my teeth,

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it, well,” she glanced from between both me and Applejack, “if you excuse me I gotta get back to my route, have a good day guys.” she took flight headed, well, right into a swing sign of a nearby business before shaking the impact off to fly towards another part of Ponyville.

“See ya later Derpy.” Applejack waved before looking back at me.

“Who would send that to you-”

“Pinkie…” I grumbled as I carefully opened the envelope as it blew up into a cloud of confetti with a perfect, unfolded, letter appearing in my hand.

After noon, Jeffy

Congrats on making base
A simple step towards beating that
that meanie, meanie, Mister Oily’s face in

Keep up the fun and don’t
overwork yourself, for farmwork
is really, really rough

but you’ll make it through
You are a tough guy
so I know you’ll be just fine

See you soon!

“How in the fuck does she even know?!” I smacked a hand across the paper.

“Beats me, but I tend naught to think too much ‘bout it.” Applejack had walked over to read over my shoulder.

“Not sure what even half that means, but I can see she’s been looking out for you too.”

I was about to question how if I haven’t even seen her, but then again, how the hell does she know about mental base? I haven’t even bare started walking and my head was starting to throb with pain.

“Either way-” I crumpled the paper before tossing it off to the side, “It’s really getting on my nerves, can’t she just see me in person or something?” I shrugged as I watched Applejack continue her walking towards probably the road towards her home.

“I’ve known her for a long time and she has doesn't strange things before.” Well at least I’m not special in that department.

“But her sendin’ ya letters is a little odder than most of her shenanigans.”

“Splendid…”

With that note, I could only ponder upon why the method of letters to communicate with me while we walked out of town. We didn’t speak much after leaving town, it felt awkward, but I can take that Applejack isn’t really much for small talk.

Neither am I, but damn she stands out when it comes to the rest of the girls. I mean, Rarity can talk my ears off while Twilight can incite a migraine by simply speaking factually. Then, there is Applejack, short, to the point country girl.

I doubt there isn’t much for her to say to me either. That is probably going to change when we get to the farm. All the while, something ran across my mind.

“Wait, that pegasus’s name is Derpy?”
“Yup, kinda fitting for a pony that is bit of a clutzy flyer.”
“Never thought I would hear Clutz and flyer be used together either.”
“Nope, but she tries her best not to be so-”
“Derpy?”
“yeah.”

Score one for irony there folks!

III
Applejack

We moved on down the familiar dirt road, I tried to keep up a decent speed as to not lose anymore daylight while there was any. Though the sun was maybe hour-n-half away from noon, there was much to be done.

The summer season was only a few months away from over and there was much to be done, maybe to many I could list right away but the fact of a matter is:

Why in burning tarterus would I be foalsitting this human when there is so much to be done?!

I can understand Twilight’s concern for him but there isn’t much else I can really see in needin’ to watch over him since he seems more than able to stand on his-well-two hooves? What the blazes did she call those things he walked on?! Never mind that!

“So, aside the obvious being the obvious, what goes on this farm of yours?” The human asked after some ten minutes or so of walking.

“Oh, We ain’t like any other farm ‘round these parts.” I replied with a shrug, “We have the largest Apple orchard in anywhere here in Equestria, we also are known for making the best foods out of the apples we grow right outside our backdoor.”

“Wow, didn’t think i’ll be seeing an organic farm in person,” Organic? The hay is that?

“You see, back home, such farms have been getting hit hard by the BLM and the industrial farms,” I shook my head at Jeff trying not to put to much thought into what he is talking about.

“Sweet farm families like your get pressed hard by either steep maintenance costs, land taxes or even falsely made lawsuits that rob them of their hard earned livelihood.”

“I see, well, here at our farm, we ain’t no industrial whatevers you called it, but at least we enjoy watching our hard work put a smile on everypony’s face when they take a bite out of one our apples or one of our homemade Apple based treats.” I stated with a sense of pride, no other pony could beat what we can give to the kind folks of ponyvile or anywhere for that matter.

“Cool, maybe I could give you highly praised goods a try when we get there.”

“Oh sure, just be mindful though, we don’t normally get that many guests out our way for how far we are planted,” The human waved the subject off.

The open field progressively melded into the small patch of forest that stood between town and home.

“Oh no worries AJ, like we discussed back there, I can handle this walk like no-” He Stumbled over something,”-what the shit?” he stopped to look at what his strange hooves tripped over.

“What is it?” I stopped to watch him kneel down, taking a closer look at something.

“Looks like I almost tripped over a, wire?” He reached out with I think is called a finger and plucked at a thin wire that vibrated with that single pluck.

“Who would set something like this out in the middle of nowhere?” I started backing up, I only rolled my eyes at what that was.

“I can take an easy guess, My little sister and her friends…” As soon as I said that, he plucked at the string again,

“-but why?” the third pluck snapped the string and something popped over head along the tree branches that hung over the road. When we both looked up, I saw something coming at us, more like swinging at us.

“Oh shit, look out!” I felt something shove into me before I watch a white blur crash into the human, picking him off the ground by only three hooves before hitting the ground.

Having stumbled out of the way, “What in tarnation?!” I looked over to see that the human was enveloped in a what looked like a white bed sheet with ropes attached to it.

“The fuck is this?!” I heard the foul mouthed creature blubbered from underneath the mess. Wasn’t long before I heard the crashing of brush around us and watched as three little, camouflaged, fillies come galloping towards the human.

“WE got’em!” cried the blond filly with the red mane, “WE defiantly caught one of those meanies!!”

“Sure looks too big to be just one…” The orange pegasus filly with light, magenta(that the word was?) mane noted as the surrounded the lump that was the human underneath their crudely made trap.

“Maybe we got’em both!” the white, multi-shaded purple maned unicorn filly suggested taking a stance, a stick floating in her magic close by her.

“We sure got ya now didn’t we,? Ya big bully!” Apple Bloom boasted proudly.

“Who’s there?!” Jeff asked as he stopped moving, “I’m not a bull-”

“AHH! Sounds like one of them for sure!” Scootaloo recoiled, taking a step back with a flap of her tiny wings

“Their trying to trick us, let’s not let’em escape!” Sweetie Bell Glared getting ready to strike.

“That net won’t last forever girls!” Apple Bloom pointed out before they paused to look at eachother, seeing who will say or do something next before the looked back at the bed sheet net.

“Uhhh, can you help me out of this-”

“Get’em!!” The Cuite Mark Crusaders cried at once

I could only facehoof as I watched the fillies, brandishing fragile sticks and a wiffle bat, started swinging into the mass. Though of course, being just school fillies, they didn’t pack that much of a punch to their swings.

Then again, watching them struggle with taking down their “Adversary” and the human under the sheet trying to get out, was very funny. I couldn’t help but laugh at the whole scene as it happened right in front of me.

“We gotta knock’em out before they es-” The sheet moved suddenly and a hand caught the bat that Apple Bloom was using, “-cape?”

The other two stopped swinging as they watch the Human slowly emerge from under their trap, “You- ffffffreaking mind?!” He noticed the kids and corrected himself on the spot.

IV
Jefferson Revere

Aside from feeling the faint sting of getting hit from three different attackers or fillies apparently. I was kinda confused and agitated from being snared up in what looked like a bed sheet with rope laced through it.

Standing around me were the three that are responsible for this.

“I uh-uh,” stammered the little unicorn.

“Oh snap, we thought ya was-” the normal looking pony, had dropped the bat in shock, pointed a hoof at me.

“-a bully?” I finished looking at each of them, the little pegasus had fluttered a few paces away from me but still carried the stick in her hooves.

“W-We’re sorry mister, didn’t mean anythin’ by the-”

“Yeah, yeah uhh.”

“You’re the human aren’t you?” the unicorn blinked at me as she let the stick drop from her magic, “You look different standing up.”

“Wait, that’s him?!” the other two looked at their friend.

“Well, duh, it is, we helped Fluttershy taking care of him, don’t any of you two remember.”

“I-uh-well.” the normal pony rubbed the back of her neck nervously.

“So who are you guys anyway?” I asked cutting into their conversation, I wasn’t going to stand here forever letting them trying to figure out if not to talk back or run.

“We, Mister, are tha Cutie mark Crusaders!” The Blond coated filly boasted, i can honestly say it was a bit adorable for such a little kid try to make her self and her friends look bigger as stood before me.

“Right, and may I ask why such brave crusaders would be setting a trap out in the middle of nowhere?” I knelt down to pick up the sheet they managed to ensnare me in, this whole set up looked like it was thrown together on the fly.

“Uhhh.”

“Yes Apple Bloom,” AppleJack finally stepped in, “Why did ya and your friends risk hurtin’ somepony with another one of ya’ll crazy contraptions?”

“At ease AJ,” I raised a hand to her, “I’m sure they got an explanation for this, besides, what harm was a bed sheet going to do to someone who already been through hell-n-back?”

The look the little filly glanced a thanks to me.

“To be frank mister,” the Unicorn tossed her stick aside, “The local colts have been tormenting us because of our lacking of a proper cutie mark.”

Why does she sound like another mare I know?

“Meaning?” I ask confused.

“Sweetie means that we don’t have our cutie marks.” The pegasus translated flatly, “So every other pony around here has been giving us grief for being-”

“The one thing we try to correct everyday now.” Apple Bloom added

“And seem to fail at correcting it,” Sweetie nodded

“Correcting what girls?” I asked shrugging at Applejack who didn’t look enthused at any of us talking away about what must be something mundane to her.

“Our blank flanks.” the three finished simultaneously.

I was a little stumped at this. How can having a tatoo looking mark on your thigh be so important to these little fillies. I shook my head in confusion while Apple Jack glanced up at the sky.

“As Much as we can morne another unsuccessful day, we oughta be headin’ back to the farm b’fore the sun gets down.”

“But, what if-”

“I seriously doubt those little varmints are goin’ to be comin’ ‘round here anytime soon, so let's hop to it girls.”

“Okay…” The slightly defeated crusaders started to follow the adult while I still stood on top of the ruined trap, watching at least one of them walk by with their head’s low and ears folded back.

That one was the Blond earth pony (i think the normal looking ones were called) with the red mane and tail. The other two didn’t seem to be too affected by this little mishap but there must be something up.

“Hey, It shouldn’t really be anything to worry about,” I spoke to her walking up beside her as we all started to continue towards the farm. I didn’t really mind much of how anxious the farm mare was being, having to spend more time away can get under one’s skin. I didn’t pay much mind to that but this little filly drew my attention.

“What now?” she blinked looking up at me, she stood no higher than my hips, but her bow tie brought the height to my waist.

“I said that little confusion isn’t really worth getting worked up over, You see you three didn’t really hurt me at all.”

“Yeah, I know,” she sighed, “it isn’t that, didn’t expect much of it when the girls wanted to throw somethin’ together all quick like.” she explained, she didn’t really wanted to make eye contact with anyone aside with the ground, “It’s just-” she stopped to look up ahead, probably at either her friends or AppleJack for a moment before shaking her head, “ah, Never mind me, Just didn’t expect things to go the way they did I guess.”

Cocking a brow at the kid, the things you tend to stumble into these days and I have only been awake for only a few days now I’m coming across stuff like this so far. Kinda like tuning into days of our lives right in the middle of cliff hanger friday. Nnnot that I did that on purpose or anything. ANYWAYS! I watched the filly hurry up to catch up with her friends while I watched pondering. Maybe I’m thinking too much into it, just a matter of everypony’s takes failures differently I guess. I noticed the three little fillies walking a little ahead of us, they turned slightly towards the orchard.

I shrugged as I followed on after the group, just beyond the trees I could barely make out what looks like a large barn in the distance.

It looked like any farm at a glance,

A large barn in the middle of the lot, another some short distance away, a carrot themed place towards the back of the property, a fenced in chicken coop and several smaller storage sheds. Aside from the carrot tower house, most of the buildings were painted a apple red complete with white trim.

Surrounding the buildings were various fields of corn, hay, the carrot field surrounding the carrot tower; but what must of gave the farm it’s name sake was the massive Apple Tree orchard that practally encompases the other half the property.

A “wow” slipped out of my mouth as me and the ponies came up to the archway that was connected to a white picket fence stretching in both ways, more than likely outlining the property line. Yet, one thing seemed to be missing from this picture…

“So, where’s your house?” I asked aloud stopping under the archway. Applejack stopped to look at me, slightly confused.

“Come again?”

“I see two big barns and that stranger place towards the back, but...where’s your house?”

She blinked at me before tipping her stetson over her eyes for a moment with a sigh, “Yer lookin’ at it, Jeff.” she smiled slightly gesturing a hoof towards the closest barn.

“Wait, so, you’re tellin’ me that you literally live in a barn?” That stirred a giggling chuckle from the fillies as they passed us. Even Applejack had an issue keeping a smirk from appearing, probably not trying to be offended by or laugh at my ignorance.

“No Sugarcube, that is the main house.” she nodded with her head, “come’on, ya just need tah see for yerself from the inside.”

Don’t know why, but the way the farmhouse is designed is tripping me out. I shook the confusion out of my head before following the farm mare towards the house. As we drew closer, could make out the details of the outside commodities of a family house, aside from the massive barn door on the side that was currently wide open. Could park a fancy RV in there, damn!

A fenced in yard that had a smaller, similarly themed, archway that led up to what must of been the front door of the “house”. The front porch looked like it was a recent addition to the house, the paint on the pillars looked slightly brighter compared to the rest of the building.

“Whoa, someone’s burning green.” I observed with my nose.

“Do what now?” Applejack glanced at me confused by my Oregonian slang.

I picked up the scent right as we stepped onto the lawn towards the front porch. I glanced around to only spot the source of the familiar odor. There sat a pale green coated, pure white maned, old mare relaxing in a rocking chair and in one hoof was a rather cool looking antique tobacco pipe. Getting closer to the steps, the pipe was made out of a carved out of what looked like a light, russet red wood, the bowl had two images carved, one on each side. One depicting an old tree, the other, a strange figure standing on two legs leveling what looked like a metal rod pressed against its shoulder. Obviously humanoid with a rifle of sorts, or i think that what it looked like…

The stem was, at least from where I stood, could almost be as long as my entire hand from middle to wrist. Made out of what looked like ivory or marble. Eh, leaning towards ivory taking how humble these ponies looked.

The old mare took a drag from the pipe, watching us as we stepped onto the porch, Applejack walked up to her.

Exhaling, the old lady’s eyes narrowed at her, “Yer late jackie.”

“I know, I know Granny, but we ran inta tha girls on tha way here.” Applejack removed her stetson and waved it in front of her face, probably fanning the fresh smoke away from herself.

“Where are they, ya know how I get a bit antsy when yer sittin’ here-”
“Oh ye don’t be frettin’, They be headin’ off into the orchard, playin’ with ‘nother half cooked idea on how tah get their cutie mark no doubt.” the old mare, Or granny (how fitting), looked passed Applejack and at to me, couldn’t tell if she was glaring at me or was just simply pie-eyed.

“Is that the friend Twilight been yammerin’ ‘bout this whole time?” she asked pointing the pipe at me, if it weren’t for the fact that I’m still a stranger here, I would of confused that as an offer for a hit.

“Yeah, he was the reason we was late gettin’ here.”
“Uhm, you know I’m standin’ right here AJ.” pointing an index at her.
“Point being?” Granny cracked a grin, “I take it ya slept most’ve the mornin’ away didn’t ya?”
“Ehhh, you can say that.” I shrugged walking up to the two, dear god, at least i’m familiar with the odor. While Applejack coughed slightly as the smoke dissipated I was breathing in the “tainted” air just fine.
“Should’ve warned me you was gunna smoke today Granny.” Applejack had to back up as the intensity of the smoke was a bit much for her, however, I should probably do the same, the rare case of second hand might actually happen to me taking how much i have not been around this stuff.

“Well, though’ tha smell would’ve given it away miss sensitive nose.”
“It did,” Applejack grimaced, “when we were just outside the yard!”

A laugh clicked in my throat, “The winds didn’t want to share I guess.” I mused aloud, no one caught it though, “then again, the winds have been really calm today.”

“Fine day for workin’, find day for smokin’.” Granny chuckled before taking the pipe, flipping upside down in her hooves then tapped the ashes out against the arm of the chair before setting it on the small corner that stood next to the chair. On that table top sat not only the pipe but what looked like a fist sized jar. Must be legal here in Equestria,
“But, I think fer miss featherweight’s sake here, I’s just finish my routine later.” she got up with a stretch before standing. She didn’t stand no taller than just my stomach where Applejack stood an inch or so taller than Twilight, which was either chest or neck level, mainly gauging from the top of their heads to my body height, which wasn’t much, just five foot-ten.

Hell, I’m not surprised that I have yet to really meet anypony taller than me that stood on their own four hooves. Aside from Luna of course.

“Where’s Mac?” AppleJack asked as Granny began to meander towards the front door, as she opened and held the door open to think, “Believe he’s on his way back from tha orchard, goddesses bless him, he managed tah get three carts dun while ya was fetchin’ this lazy human.”

“Hey!” we both chimed at once.
“Ain’t my fault he was sleepin’ tha day away!” Applejack protested.
“Ain’t my fault that I was sleeping half the day away, wait a minute…” took me a second to notice that we had both spoke at the same time; I looked from Applejack then to Granny who simply cackled that old lady laugh at us as she went inside.

As the old door swung slowly shut on its own.

“Ugh, Pony feathers! Now I have tah catch up with mac to at least get somethin’ done.”
“Let me guess, harvest seasons runnin’ slow for all of you?”

“What’d ya think?!” I put my hands up to her in the manner of whoa now!.

“I don’t know, obviously yes?” she placed a hoof on her face with an aggravated sigh.

“Look Applejack, If anything I can offer whatever help I can give if it means getting some shit caught up.”

“Not sure, ya not gunna freak out on us out there?”

“Nnope,” I deadpanned at her for that remark, “In fact, If need be, I’ll personally fill one of those damn carts myself!” she raised her brows at me in a doubtful expression tipping her hat up.

“Welp, if ya say so, I’ll definitely hold ya to that-”

“After chow!” Granny’s voice came from inside the house, “Ya don’t need be makin’ ya selves sick caus ya skipped eatin’ and baking ya selves unda Celestia’s sun!” while we listened, I looked at Applejack confused while pointing a thumb next to us.

“H-How does she even knew we-”

“Can hear yas from in here, now get ya sorry, whinny hides in here!”

It was at that moment, when AppleJack’s ears twitched, she looked over towards the orchard, “Can hear tha cart, think Mac is showing up in time for lunch.” I turned to look over to see movement coming from the treeline of the orchard.

Indeed, I saw what looked like a solid red coated pony hitched up to a impressively loaded cart full of apples of varible colors. The only other distinguishing marker of the pony as he drew into the yard towards the other barn, was a bright green tattoo (or cutiemark i think everypony keeps calling them) on his rump like Applejacks mark.

“Come on, lets at least help him get tha cart done so we all can get off our-” she paused to look at my boots, “-hooves.” she shook her head before heading back down the steps, lept over the small fence and bee-lined towards the barn to meet up with this mac pony.

As I made my way around yard to catch up to them, I started to notice this pony more vividly. He had short, carrot orange, mane, had what looked like a customized yoke around his neck and most of all. He looked built like a clydesdale and is the tallest pony i have met that wasn’t an Alicorn.

He looked like he was talkin’ to Applejack as she caught up beside him to help him unhitch from the cart.

“Sorry ‘bout not being here most of tha mornin’ Big Mac, couldn’ get the human out here fast enough.”

“No worries,” He said simply, “ran inta issues myself gettin’ out there anyways.”

“Really? So today wasn’t our best was it?”

“Nnnope.” after the cart was unhitched, the muscular pony walked towards the house. He took a look at me as he passed me. Holy shit, wasn’t kidding on the height, his chin could pass over the top of my head easily.

“Take it ya gunna help out?” he simply cut to the chase, absently chewing on a wheat stem.

“Yeah, of course, gotta show how sorry I am for holding progress up today.”

“Eeyup, ya betta, ain’t know idle hooves today. We start right ‘way afta lunch.” he nodded in agreement. Applejack followed Big Mac towards the house, she still had a look of doubt on her face but probably had no choice but to agree with the big guy.

Why do I feel like I’ve been a hindrance to this bunch, I’m not lazy folks, just, troubled....

Author's Note

I think the apples had gotten the wrong first impression of him... heh, we'll see how he does in fixing that.

It seems that I have trouble working on chapters that require a lot of detail and/or slow paced, but eventually, I get it done sure, but, I think I have tendencies to stall on writing these kinds of chapters.

Picking Apples or Picking Bones?

I
Jefferson Revere

After, letting Applejack and Big mac into the house first by holding the door open for them. I walked into a mixture of both scenery and smells. The living room we walked through was pleasantly furnished with a couch, table and a few lone chairs as well some display cabinets with a tea set neatly arranged and stored behind their glass doors.

Everything here was hoofmade out of matching wood, I could only determined that each of these pieces of unique, country style furnishing are made of the very trees they harvest from. Talk about being dedicated to the lifestyle.

I didn’t pay much attention to anything else here as I could only think on the awkwardness I’m currently feeling because of how I was introduced to the members of this household. Even the lack of no one really holding a conversation with me didn’t help much. Did I really disrupt the flow of the day with these folks? Oh well, time will tell me.

I watched were they walked to and I followed.

We came through a archway that led into a dining room, in the middle stood a long, dark stained table with six matching chairs arranged up against the edges. Standing against the wall were a series of cabinets with display doors featuring a variety of dishes that probably was the dinnerware for the whole house. Not bad, very old fashion.

I glanced back at my two hosts as they went through a swing door that obviously led into a kitchen. Following through, my nose was slammed with the odor of home cooking, looking around, I saw more of this storage cabinets this time with cookware inside them, pretty sure there are more stored in the drawers and lower cupboards.

“Very organized in here.” the comment slipped out as I looked over to see Big mac, who i’m just guessing is how he is called at this point, step over to what must of been the most amazing piece of appliance i’ve ever seen.

Taking up most of the wall stood a large wood stove, complete with four burners, two warmers, two main ovens and two smaller ovens one underneath each main oven and a center door that was obviously the compartment for the wood to be burned to power the whole stove. I’m impressed at first glance, this must be a figment of history just sitting right with granny probably just finishing up with whatever deliciousness is on the menu today.

The more used utensils and cookware either hung over head above the stove or sat on shelves.

“Eyup.” the big pony replied, as he plucked what looked like a fresh biscuit off a tray.

“Of course,” Apple Jack replied as well, “We may be simple ponyfolk, but we ain’t living in a mess now are we?”

Never assumed, I would only ponder, well, also trying not to vocalize the fact they are talking about living in a house built into a barn.

“Not at all, could only guess you all got things down to a-routine?”

“You betcha’!” Granny piped up as she turned, taking off the apron she had worn and hung it on a peg off to the left of the stove; to the direct right of this cooking beast was the storage bin for the fuel for this stove. Probably all chopped from fallen apple trees too.

“LIke a fine tuned clock, we get things dun ‘round here, but ya’ll better be ready to jump to it too mister-”

“Oh, um, Jeff, just Jeff.”

“Eh? Well, Jeffy, we’ll find somethin’ for ya to do, but first, fix ya self somethin’, bet sleepin’ so long has burned a hole in that stomach of yers.”

“Oh you have no idea-” I looked around while remembering how long I have been in-n-out of sleep without really eating anything decent.

“-um, are the-” I pointed towards the dining room.

“Already got a stack here, help yerself.” Granny gestured to a countertop that indeed had a small stack of what must be polished ceramic plates. I didn’t really have time to be shy and awkward, my stomach was screaming at me to feed it!

“Right, um, thank you.” I walked over, grabbed a rather massive “normal” plate, Jesus, a man can pile a thanksgiving dinner on this thing! gotta keep in mind that what ponies perceive as normal size for them is large or extra large for humans, even the basic utensils looked bigger in a human’s hand.

As I turned around, the two younger farmers had already vanished from the kitchen, the dinner room door was swinging idly as one of them had just walked through it. “So, what do we got here?” I asked feeling awkwardness trying to weight down my words. I could even feel a tightness in my throat as if I was some socially handicapped basement dweller.

“Oh nothin’ too fancy,” Granny shrugged, “A quick bite consisting of apple drizzle oatmeal, honey biscuits and cold cider.” she explained while I stood over the pot of, oh man, strong, fresh smelling oatmeal.
“Hmmm, simple indeed, but uhm, shouldn’t I have a bowl for the-” before I could finish the old mare used a ladle to scoop up some of the apparently thick meal and plopped it onto my plate, it didn’t ooze around like the instant stuff would back home, it instead looked like a sizeable scoop of quaker oats ice cream dotted with small red chunks of probably apples.

When she placed the ladle back into the pot,
“Never mind, I think I need to not question some things around here.”
“Mmm-hm!” She nodded with a smirk.
“Right, um-”
“Oh don’ be a Fluttershy, help ya self!” she nudged me along as I shrugged and grabbed up two of these biscuits, then, looked over at one of the preparation tables to see what looked like a wooden barrel keg with a spicket tapped into the side that peered over the side of the table, next to the keg was a small arrangement of wooden mugs.

Again, these looked like wooden steins to my hand as I picked one up, setting my plate on the table, I placed the mug/stein under the spicket and carefully pressed the small lever, releasing what looked like darker colored apple juice, it even smelled sweeter than the juice too.

Releasing the level I looked into the mug, “Is this homemade cider too?”
“Oh what kind of question is that young mister?” Granny laughed, “of course it is, hoof pressed right here on the farm!”
“Impressive…” I set the mug on my plate before picking it up, being careful as to not spill any of it’s contents.
“Wait tell ya gives it a swig, ya’ll be dashin’ back in here fer more!” I nudged my way through the door back into the dining room.

II
Applejack

I watched as the human came out of the kitchen, can’t see why Granny smith had taken such a liking to him. I didn’t expect to bring him all the way out here, neither did I expect Twilight so hastily ask me to keep an eye on him like he was some damn foal.

I’m not really complaining but today of all days though!

He felt (and looked) out of place when he stood looking for a seat, I wasn’t really in a friendly mood today so I didn’t bother thinking about offering him a seat near, not next to, me. So I watched as the human took one of the seats directly in front of him. Don’t really feel a smidge bad for him today at the moment, he, Apple Bloom and her friends held me up from getting back to work today.

I almost lost my appetite thinking about the timing of everything but I was automatically eating lunch so, buck it!

“Oh wow…” I looked over to see the surprise on Jeff’s face after me must’ve taken a bite of the oatmeal.
“What is it?” I asked him, trying to be civil.
“Oh nothing, just never had anything this good in a long while.” he commented taking another bite, “Then again, One, I haven’t eaten anything decent in ever since I’ve been in this world and two, this IS the first time I’ve had home cooking in years.”

I looked at him puzzled by his statement, “come again? Ya never made ye’self anythin’ before?”
“Oh I have, but it was either something frozen from Walmart or take out from Mcdonalds or somewhere.”
“What in the what?”
“Oh, right, those are places from my world and speaking of which, the last time I had home cooking was before I left home to move to Medford.”

“I see, well, I would consider this a chance to have it again.” That, for some reason, finally made me cool my mood to think. I honestly lost track on how many Ponyfolk my family and I had stunned with our home cooking.

Didn’t really think about it, guess, since we’ve been doing it for so long it doesn’t seem that special to us at all.

“You’re right, uhm, I guess I should thank you guys for taking me in on short notice?”
“Pardon?” Big Mac looked between the both of us.
“Oh don’ mention a worry ‘bout it sugarcube,” I shrugged, “Ain’t nuthin’ just be ready ta follow on through with what ye offered.
“Of course!” He smiled awkwardly, “Don’t want to seem like a freeloader now do I?” He chuckled nervously as both me and Big mac Looked at each other for a moment before going back to our food without a single reply to the human.

After what felt like forever, I managed to clear my plate,
“Ya got the dishes last time,” Mac suddenly spoke after the ten minutes of silence,
“My turn to do’em.”
“Oh thanks big brother, the dinner dishes mine then.”
“By the by Sis, what’d he mean by ‘short notice’?”
“Eh-heh…” Not sure how to reply to that to be honest.

“Well, apparently,” Jeff spoke drawing attention onto him, which was a big relief on my part!
“Twilight had other things going on, and didn’t want me to be by myself or somethin’, Applejack was asked to drag my sorry carcas out here to, “keep an eye on me”, whatever that means.”
“I see, reckon Twilights’ not thinkin’ on a full barrel again when she said it.” Big Mac speculated as he grabbed my plate, stacked it on his then carried the stack back into the kitchen.
“She tends ta be like that when she is being smarter than her own noggin’ allows.”
“Noticed that too?” Jeff noted, “Huh, very observant…”
“Eeyup.” Big Mac disappeared into the kitchen. The door swung gently in then when it swung back out,
“Knew that was just enough for ya squirts.” Granny came out as if perfectly timing the door’s movements.
“I reckon ya almost done?”
“just finished actually.” The human smiled before taking a drink from his mug.

“Very good, now, hurry and hoof all that to Mac and meet me outside, I’ll show ya how we do things ‘round here.” chuckled the old mare as she
“Uhm, Granny,” I raised a hoof to her, “Ya sure you want to be doing that after-”
“Oh hang it AJ,” she waved it off, “I was more thinkin’ ‘bout ya’ll youngsters, ya don’ be frettin’ over me while there’s trees needin’ pickin’.” she laughed as she started to go back outside.

Damn it Granny, of all the days to be stubborn!

Jeff looked between the both of us while we talked but as Granny started to walk out, he must of took that as a hint to drain the mug that looked like a adult mug in a foal’s hoof.
“I think we should get back out there, less the grandmother starts whippin’ on us.”
“I heard that!” We both hear from the living room.
“wha-How the hell does she-”
“Ya comin’ two legs?”
“Yeah, yeah, be right there Granny.” He knocked back whatever was left of his mug before setting it on his plate and carried it into the kitchen.

Not wanting to wait for him, I went outside myself, once outside, I noticed Granny Smith standing on the porch, obviously waiting for the human to come back out. I wonder what the old mare has in mind for Jeff, I honestly think he should be put to work tending to the live stock or at least the minor tasks of tending to the other fields.

“What’d ya think He’ll be doin’ while we buck apples Granny?”
“Oh, the same, takin’ what season it is.” she smiled looking towards the orchard.
“W-what?” I was and was not surprised by Granny’s words, “Ya have been lookin’ at’em right Granny?”
“Oh I have and I think he be too clumsy to tend the chickens or the hogs, and Ye both need ta get more than what Mac brough back before sun down.”

Running a hoof down my face, “Ya also realize he is still recovering from-”
“Ain’t no better way to heal the boo-boos than work’em off.” She turned towards the house.
“Ye done fartin’ ‘round two legs?!” she called out. No seconds later I could hear the heavy steps of those things he wore coming up to the front door.
As it opened, “Sorry, Big Mac stopped me for somethin’ and-”
“Good, Let’s get a movin’ we ain’t got all noon.” Granny started walking as soon as Jeff could barely close the front door. I too didn’t feel like waiting for there was work to be done and this human ain’t holding me up for another second!

“Applejack,” I glanced over to her, “Ya just head on over to the barn to get a cart and start headin’ on out, Big mac will catch up to ya soon.”
“Alright, but, what ‘bout him?” I pointed over to Jeff who had caught up to us and was walking on Granny’s right side.
“You don’ fret over that, just git on out there, Mac will hear where ya started.”

I gave them both an uneasy look before venturing off towards the barn and they towards the orchard.

III
Jefferson Revere

As the Apple trees drew closer, I was astonished at how massive these trees are. Unlike back home when your standard apple tree is about maybe twenty or thirty feet tall and maybe one to two feet around. However, these trees varied in size and diameters, the youngest looking trees about maybe around the average while the older looking bastards looked like oaks that produced apples from their expansive web of branches.

We were approaching one of these old giants.

“Ya familiar with apple buckin’?” Granny Asked me as we stopped at the base of the trunk, scattered around the short grass were apples that had fallen freely, some dried up and rotting away while some still looked fresh; well, at least the side I could see did.

“Apple bucking?” I echoed the words, the heck was she talking about, “Not really, apple bucking sounds like a sport at a family reunion.” The old mare chuckled at my obvious ignorance.
“Close, but it’s how we harvest these here trees.”
“Soo,” I looked up at this tree, hand sized red apples dangled from their branches, very ripe for the picking, “do we need lader to get up there, that’s a bit of a climb to get there.”
“Oh no, no young Jeffy, we buck the trees to get’em down.”
“Buck the trees? You mean kick’em?”
“Yuup.” I was lost for words at that acknowledgement, “Ye catch on quick.” she turned her back to the tree, “want me ta show ya or ye think ya got it from here?”
I stepped up and gently planted a foot against the bark of the tree, It was very dense; well, no shit! How was kicking this tree going to bring those apples down without breaking something? Even for an old timer like Granny, I’m very certain it’s an impossible endeavor.
“Uhm, you sure we can’t go and try this on a smaller tree?” I asked lowering my foot, “This beast maybe too thick to kick.” The only reply she gave me was a blank, deadpan with a cocked brow before one of her back hoofs snapped back in a blurred buck.

Her hoof connected with a solid crack against the bark that must of sent a decent shiver up the trunk, I could hear the leaves rustle to the shiver. Caught by surprise, I watched in awe as she lowered her back off. Around the same time something solid thocked off the top of my head before thudding along the ground. With a sharp tinge of pain I ducked down holding my head as I watch a freshly fallen apple, definitely bigger than my fist, roll away from me with a decently sized dent in it’s skin on one side.

“Any more questions smart ass?”
“No, ma’am…” I groaned as my head began to pulseate with a painful migraine, “N-None at all.” I blinked the briefly blurring vision back to normal.
“Now, yer turn, give it a good buck.” she stepped away from the tree and watched me like an instructor would a student.

“Okay, okay…” I stepped up to the tree then, taking a breath I shot my boot out against the tree. My footing wasn’t very stable so the first kick bounced back, almost laughable tipping me off balance. I quickly glanced to Granny who only gave no reaction to my first attempt. Looking back at the tree again, I positioned my footing better. Then, picturing a door instead of a tree trunk, I gave the tree a better solid kick but the entire bottom of my foot felt the equally solid trunk of the tree.

A spark of hurting nerves and a twinge in my ankle, I clenched my teeth as I brought my boot back down.

“Well, ain’t seen no apples down yet, try again.”
“I will, I will,” I nodded to her before thinking how to do this, then, I remembered my brief training in MMA, the kickboxing lessons. I snapped my fingers before taking a better stance, then, taking a breath, I exhaled quickly as I swung my best side kick. While It would of been perfect if it was against a kick bag, this was no kick bag.

I heard some sort of shifting in the tree while I felt my shin, ankle and foot cry out in agony, while I held in a shout in my mouth,

“Ssssson of a-” I started to hobble around trying to walk the pain off, while quiet “ow”s and curses fluttered freely from my lips, curses all starting with ‘F’.

“There ya go, just walk it off,” Granny then looked up at the tree while I paced a small circle close by, “Hmm, maybe we should pit ya with somethin’ easier after all.”

“Ya think?” I asked with a hint of agitation, It felt like I broke something, then again, that was a tree I just kicked. A Fucking, God damn, Apple Tree! One, that is the size of a god damn oak!

“Tell ya what sunny, since we ain’t got a whole lot’ve sun left, we’ll catch up with tha others and maybe ya can help in fillin’ the carts with apples that missed’em.”

“Do what?” I had stopped while she spoke to check my hurting leg, nope, nothing broken, just very shocked at my stupidity in attempting to “buck” a tree. We humans, on the other hand, do the intelligent thing and use ladders to pick these stupid things and not kick’em all day. Sure, that would make an awesome addition to a training montage for a martial arts movie, but FUCK, not a method of harvesting Apples!

“When somepony actually bucks a tree, most of tha apples falls and a good sum land in the cart parked right underneath.”
“I see, at least you guys are using carts…” I muttered shifting weight onto my less-in-pain left leg.
“It’s a bit of an extra chore to buck the tree then round up the remaining apples into the cart, normally that’ll be Applebloom’s job when she ain’t runnin’ ‘bout with her crusader friends.”
“So, since I’m here, I’ll take up that job?”
“Precisely what I was thinkin’, at least ye usin’ ye noggin, lets get a move on.” She looked around in a moment of silence before her ears twitched to a distant sound of another tree getting bucked.
“This way two legs,” she started off towards the sound.

As I started to follow-well, hurry after the fast walking farm pony, I could only think about how long today is going to be even though it’s half over. We traversed under the canopy of the orchard for what felt like another five minutes of walking, the pain in my leg started to subside as we walked towards the sound of trees getting kicked, almost sounded like a sledgehammer hitting the bark instead of a living pony’s hoof.

As We turned right at another tree, we both stopped to hear a grunt and a solid loud crack of a tree getting bucked. Then, as I looked I could see Applejack stepping away from a tree as what looked like a shower of apples rain down, some did land into the cart, but another portion tumbled and bounced on the ground.

“See what ya mean about the cart thing.” I nodded to Granny’s previous statement, then again, it looked like it wasn’t slowing Applejack down any. Using her front hooves, she grabbed and tossed the remaining fallen apples into said cart.
I felt a nudge, more seemed like a tap of a hoof against an arm, “What ye waitn’ fer?” the old mare asked, “git over there and lend a hand.”
“Right!” I started to jog on over towards her, “Applejack.”

She looked up, squinted then frowned, “What’d you want?” she asked abruptly stopping in the middle of tossing apples into the cart.

“Granny sent me over here to help.”
“With?”
“Pickin’ up the loose apples,” her frown turned into a broken smile, “She tells me that-”
“Just keep up, no need to explain,” she shook her head before turning back to tossing apples into the cart.
“Uhhh-” she looked up at me again,
“Don’t just stand there, get to it Jeff.”
“Oh right, right.” I hurried over, knelt down and started to grab any apple that looked like to be among the ones that just fell.

“Also, make sure ye don’ grab anyone of the ones that have been on the ground fer too long-” As soon she said that my hand grabbed one that looked good but was half rotted as it partially collapsed into mush in my grip, “-That’ll be obvious, just check’em to make sure before ye toss’em in.”

“Riiight…” I shook apple mush off my hand before examining the ground around the cart. Found one, tossed it in, found another two, four, five, eight-jesus! Each one I took a moment to examine before giving them a toss into the cart. Of course, as I drew further away from the cart I picked up an apple, examined it, then gave it a good toss.

However, as I watch it land, it bounced right out of the other side of the cart, kinda over shooting it I think. I switched to filling an arm load of apples before walking over to the cart to drop them in. It felt like a short while before-
”Alright, got enough, move on to the next one.”

she looped herself into what looked like a simple short rope tied to the grip ends of the cart’s handles with a leather pad in the middle. When she pressed her chest up against this pad, the cart lifted off it’s two front peg legs and rolled along with it’s puller.

I hurried up along the cart to drop the last arm load I gathered before hurrying up alongside Applejack.
“We keep going till the cart’s full right?” I asked as she trotted on pulling the cart with ease,
“You got it,” she nodded, “Then we head back, unload it into the wagon, then do it again till either tha orchard is rightfully harvested or tha wagon is full.”
“Eesh, you do have a way to unload it all at once?” I glanced back at at the cart, it wasn’t even half full from the tree we started with, I can only think that she had been out here as long as we have. Which was just obvious thinking taking that she had just barely started working around the time I almost broke my poor leg, kicking that damn tree.

“Oh we do, ya’ll just have to see it when we get there, if we get there…” I noticed her ears folding back as she looked down with a sigh. I noticed that, I couldn’t help but feel guilty if not partially responsible for the delay. If I can recall about farm work, it’s all about working around the farm from sun up to sun down; yet, she pulled herself away from her work to get me. I got to say something about it at least!
“Applejack, I have to at least say sorry for holding you up, I can see this was important to you.”
“Oh don’t Fret it sugarcube, Ain’t entirely yer fault,” she glanced back at me, the cart idly squeaked and creaked as we walked towards the next tree. Despite the fact that we are surrounded by trees.
“In fact, to be honest, I was mainly headin’ inta town for some supplies when Twilight caught up with me.”

“Figures, can only guess she stopped you for somethin’ right?”
“Oh you bet, she started yammerin’ on ‘bout how she needed to look into more about yer experience in the everfree forest and went on ‘bout there should be more than what ya told her so far, so she was headed back to Zecora’s to talk to her ‘bout things like strange thunder or somethin’ like that.”

Why was Twilight planning on going back to the everfree alone? I mean, didn’t Zecora explain enough about the gunfire she heard? My memory on the whole two weeks was indeed fuzzy, but why go to great lengths to solve a mystery that may or may not really exist. The “thunder” was only me fighting for my life against all manner of beasts.

Unless-
“And I can only guess she was lost in her research that she absently asked me to find ya and bring ya out here.”
“Does the poor girl ever slow down or even sleep at all?”
“As far as I’ve known her, not really, in fact, there isn’t a single thing she does unless she has read it from a book or previously researched it.”
“My god, a literal by-the-book kind of girl…” I thought aloud.
“Exactly!” the farm mare chuckled, “Couldn’ of said it any different myself, I mean, she tends ta have her face in a book more often than an actual bookworm.”
“More like, she is the bookworm in pony form!” we both shared a laugh at Twilight’s expense, “Of course, I haven’t been awake long enough to really know if that’s even true.”
“Nah, nah, Yer about right ‘bout that Jeff, She can’t even have a proper slumber party without diving into a book ‘bout how to host one.”
“What the fuck? A book about having a sleepover?”
“Yeeup.” she approached another apple tree. This one was medium sized and had a canopy full of apples.
“It drove me and rarity nuts the first time we did it, of course, we simply accepted it after a whole hash-up occurred between me and Rarity.”

“What?” Applejack lowered herself out from the quick harness, gently bringing the cart down on it’s legs before walking up to the tree.

“Oh yeah, during a rather harsh storm, thanks to them cloudsdale folk-” she turned and bucked the tree, this time, I was able to notice the tree quiver with it’s branches shaking with the impact. I stepped far back to not get pummeled by the ensuing downpour of apples.

“-It all started over the branches that had been trimmed ‘round ponyville, ya know, to keep’em from falling onto ponies houses when the storm hit.” she too had stepped away, turned around in time to watch the fall of apples quickly stop just as it started.

I took that as a chance to step up and started picking up the ones that missed the cart and tossing them in. surprisingly enough, this conversation was a sudden change from the awkwardness I’ve noticed and felt before this.

“I kinda get that, don’t want a big branch falling into some kid’s bedroom in the middle of the night now do we?”
“Exactly; Well, Rarity wanted to make some sort of decorations out of them but I only wanted to clean’em up so we can get it over with before the storm came.”
“And she didn’t really agree with you on that did she?”
“Not the slightest, of course, as she started to argue with me, the storm, right on schedule, blew in and it started to rain on top of us.”
“Taking how she can be somewhat demanding about somethings, I can see how she just stood her ground for no reason at all it sounds like.”
Applejack shrugged, “Not really sure ‘bout that, but thankfully Twilight, in all her good nature, took us both inside the Golden Oak. Now mind ya, I didn’t much care to be in that diva’s very presence at tha time.”
“Well no shit, I wouldn’t stand being in any person’s presence unless I wanted to kick their teeth in if they were being a douche canoe to me.” She glanced up at me with a confused look on her face, as if trying to figure out what I was talking about, but she shrugged it off.
“Twilight didn’t really notice at first, but she still took the opportunity given by the storm to have a slumber party.”
“You know,” I dropped off an armload of apples and looked at her with a cocked brow, “For a country girl, I don’t really see you as a slumber party type of pony.”
“Ya be surprised,” she replied without looking from gathering apples. ‘You be surprise’- What else is this mare hiding?! I had dove back into the litter of apples on the ground, filling an armload of apples. I was starting to sweat, which was starting to make my skin itch underneath the bandages. Not to mention, sweat was starting to irritate the stitches, but I tried to ignore the sting for the time being.
“Right, but anyway-”
“Anywho, Twilight pulled out this book ‘bout hostin’ one of these quiet shindig, and we did some of the strangest, girliest stuff I’d neva though’ I’d do stayin’ at another pony’s house.”
“Like, let me guess, face masks, painting nails or I mean, hooves; that kind of stuff?”
“Yeah, how did ya know?”
“I lived with my two sisters growing up…”
“Oh wow, bet that wasn’ tha best time for ya.”
“Eh, can’t really complain nor agree with you on that, just can only say, that it wasn’t easy trying to game online while I can hear teenagers giggling up a storm just on the other side of the wall through my headphones.”
“I don’ really know what ya talkin’ ‘bout headphones, but as I was saying.”
“Right, continue.” I dumped off another armload, this wasn’t getting the job done fast enough, time to come up with a better way to do this. I remembered the coat I was still wearing and removed it.

The air was cool as soon as I took the coat off, my new cotton shirt was damp from being pinned against my skin but still felt like it was breathable, why didn’t I invest in one of these medieval shirts before? Draping the coat on the cart, I started to roll up my sleeves while keeping my ears open for Applejack’s story.

“We didn’t really get along to anypony’s dismay, even though It really was a fun time, it just didn’t seem to be a pleasant evening for the both of us. We both kept bickerin’ like an old dog chasing and old cat.” she paused from her clean up. The look on her face telegraphed her guilt over that evening.
“We even tried gettin’ back at each other durin’ a game truth an dare.”
“Oh god, truth and dare!” I laughed at my own memories of the pranks that were pulled on me during those games.
“Right? So, I dared her to stick herself back out in tha rain, while she got me to wear the most ridiculous outfit we could scratch together.” she chuckled at what probably was the image of that popping into her head.
“I mean, I was poofy and colorful like a brand, spankin’ new circus tent!”
“Oh geez,” my mind was confused at trying to imagine how that would of looked for this hard working lady.
“Ain’t the worst of it, eventually, our bickerin’ lasted long after we went to bed, well tried as she kept yammerin’ at me while I simply tried to ignore her.”
“Obviously, that didn’t go well, did it?” then something very faint clicked in my mind, a wisp of familiarity as she told her story.
“Not the slightest, of course, it kept Twilight up enough to hear it all go down then the storm got angrier than Granny with out that green stuff.”

In the distance, I could hear what sounded like a loud crack as if something was being snapped.

“A tree close by the Golden Oak snapped and fell, right into the bedroom we ended up in.”
“Oh shit, all three of you were okay though right?” It took me a moment to realize that we had already cleaned up around this tree and were already headed to the next one. She replied with a laugh at first. We parked the cart against the tree and she bucked the tree unleashing it’s apples onto ground below.

“Oh ya betacha, yet, that was when Twilight flipped the gilt bucket over us and told that our fightin’ had ruined her slumber party.” I rolled my eyes at that, it was obvious that the party was ruined the minute they started to fight over something pointless to begin with in the first place.
“So, after cleaning the mess up and patchin’ the hole the branch made, we saved the rest of the night by telling ghost stories and eating s’mores’.” I’m for some reason shocked to hear that they actually know what a s’more is.

“Sounds like,” I had dumbed another arm load of apples, I wasn’t paying attention to the quality of some of them and started to pick them out, “You girls are a bit of a...interesting bunch.” I tossed out three bad looking apples back out of the cart before Applejack started flicking apples into the cart.

“Oh, you can imagin’ how it’s like when all of us are together.”
“I have, only once though.”
“Riiight.” she paused to chuckled awkwardly, “That one time…” she then shook her head, “either way, do pardon my gushin’, ain’t that often I get somepony else to help with the apple buckin’”
“Not at all, Didn’t take you for the talkative type.” I walked over to help her pick up the rest of the apples, “I’m still kinda lost on how the six of you became friends.”

“You oughta talk to Twilight ‘bout that,” she tossed up the last healthy apple off the ground. She went for the cart to hook herself back up again. We didn’t go too far this time, we went straight across to another tree. I was starting to notice that this orchard was indeed naturally grown unlike the uniformed orchards back home. This orchard would put all of those ones to shame.

“That’s a story fer her to tell because she’s responsible for it mostly.”

she removed herself from the cart then proceeded the routine with the harvest once more. As the sound of bark getting bucked filled my ears. My mind began to drift. I pondered upon her story, then each of these girls, how did six unique ponies meet? My mind drifted towards Twilight in particular, wonder why she would be heading back to Zecora’s place for the thunder thing? I know for a fact that this “thunder” was only gunfire from my guns, right?

“Stubborn piece of-” she gave the tree another buck. The thunderous crack of two hooves hitting the trunk only sank my thoughts more.

Twilight Sparkle

“A brave, foolish mare ye be if not for having sent word to me.” The Zebricain remarked as she held the door open for me, I trotted on in before the door was closed. I stood once more inside her hut with more questions than pleasantries in mind. I have to know if there was really more than what was described, I felt something down deep that plucked away at my scientific curiosity.

Thunder, surviving a manticore attack, deep cuts from shadow ponies, the PTSD flare up. Everything did added up but two things stood out that didn’t blend with the story.

One was surviving in the Everfree alone for two weeks and secondly,

The Curse...

There was-no has to be more to it than just having whatever he had on him to survive as well these weapons, or “guns” he described, during that time. I have been in there myself, heck, me and the girls have at one point or another, as well all of us at once too. This forest is ever changing, no matter how many times one would trot through and map out their route. It would be completely gone the next day. Danger at every turn not to mention there hasn’t been any Shadow Pony sightings this far south in Equestria in years. How would more than one be suddenly here in this forest to attack a lone human?

None of it made sense, then there is the curse; Why would it behave in a way that makes it seem like a turmatic, genetic disorder that turned it’s target, in this case being Jeff, Into a complete lunatic?

Let alone figuring out how somepony designed such a brutally complex, chaotic hex or curse like that?!

“I see one has floated away in a sea of thoughts dearest Twilight.” Zecora’s words sliced through my mind like Celestia’s sun through Ice.

“Huh? Right, Sorry, I’ve just been working myself very hard at trying to solve the gaps in this mystery…” I glanced over to see Zecora had walked up beside me.
“A mystery? The human has been a lingering curiosity for having been a victim of another’s monstrosity of magic?”

“Sounds about right, Just about sums up about what I was going to ask you too…” I also still felt the guilt of having been trying to help the human in everyway I can think of so far. Even bringing him here only seemed to make things worse. Well, at least for me, I should of at least allowed him to rest instead of trying to solve this debacle as soon as possible.

“But, I have to ask Zecora, how many times did you hear the strange thunder, let alone when or where.” She had walked over to another side of the room that was mostly her living room that doubled for her work space. She went over to a shelf that was occupied of the various objects and nic-nacks that made up her collection.

“Tis strange noise the thunder was,” Zecora begin, “the thunder was the racket of the human’s guns, it would be a blunder to not think twice to confront these weapons.”

“Of course, I still think there is more than just Jeff’s weapons that was making the thunder, so-”

“Indeed young Twilight,” Zecora turned back around to look at me, her hazel-teal eyes gazed at me, she looked like she had more to tell for sure,

“This thunder, though made by the troubled visitor, was not made by him alone.”

“What?!” Faster than a captain’s quick draw of a sword, my notebook filled my vision, the quill trail blazing new notes onto it’s pages.

Why didn’t she come out with this sooner?

Why wait now?

What was this other thunder?

More importantly who made it?

“Explain Zecora, this could help all of us in this puzzle!” The Zebra only chuckled at my excitement.

“Twilight, in do time a tale I’ll tell but excitement would only sparkle more anxious reactions.” She caught me there, both book and quill sank a little before taking a deep breath.

“Rest your hooves and this tale of more than one thunder will take place.”

Keeping everything in my magic floated beside me while I moved across the room close to the cluttered table that sat between the kitchen and space. Taking a seat, I watched the Zebra with carefully fixed eyes as she casually went into the kitchen space to put a pot over a smoldering cooking fire that sat in a hoof carved space that split a four hoof gap in the counter space that was carved out of the original walling of the old tree that is now her home.

“You see, I was venturing out into the forest to collect ingredients to replenish my dwindling stock when, to my sudden shock, I heard the thunder.” It took me a moment to realize that she started telling me, I flatten the book on some (abruptly cleared) table space and the quill returned to the pages to record my notes.

“Not familiar with this, I held my ground to listen when I heard it again. Then again thrice in one direction to the left,” she tapped on a nearby countertop three times in rapid succession. “Then twice to the right,” she tapped the tip of her hoof on the countertop then clapped the back of her hoof, she did it again. I noticed that she was describing the noise with her hoof as she spoke.

“I care not to move fearing to be heard myself, I could not dare to advance but contemplated retreat when I heard it again four times more from the right.” she did the tap-clap again.

“There was a response with the rapid thunder of the left.” she had walked over and sat down opposite of me.

“Interesting, but I can guess that one of these ‘thunders’ is Jeff, but the rest I’m not sure off…” I thought aloud jotting down notes and side notes.

“Then it all got stranger from there, all of the thunder moved around, echoing around the forest as if the heavens themselves are cracking open. Then I started to see the thunder.”
“Wait, How do you see it?”
“For every thunder, there was a flash of light.”
“Soo, like as if you were watching a lightning storm over ponyville?”
“Correct you are, yet even more so when the noise began to grow louder as it grew near me.”
“Oh dear.”
“Before I ran, I heard the thunder of the right one of many times then something hissed right by my head like an angry bee before it made that-” She pointed towards something. I looked up, then followed her hoof to see it, there was a hole in the wall. I set everything down to get up, I walked over to examine this strange hole.

It was indeed small enough for a large marble to fit through but nothing else. Why didn’t I notice this before?

“Then something cracked that-” she pointed across the room opposite of the hole. I glanced over to her then followed her hoof to something that looked like was on the wall but fell. I walked over, looking around then my hoof almost stepped on something covered in a cloth.
“Why did you-” she nodded to me with a sly smile.

Looking back I moved the cloth, my eyes widened to see one of her masks, on the floor before me, with indeed a large crack with a deep dent in the mask’s hardened wood that made the epicenter of the crack. The dent was square on the nose too, the hardest part of the mask I would presume.

“Here, I believe the piece of this thundurus puzzle would be this strange object.” I turned to be startled by her standing behind me so suddenly, in her hoof was a small box. Puzzled, I looked at it. Taking it in my levitation, I opened the box.

I gasped upon seeing it’s contents before clapping the box shut.

“I have to have Jeff see this, like NOW!” I started to run for the door.
“Oh little Twilight.” I froze in step and snapped a look back at her,
“To go back out is the same as to come in, so please, settle over tea before becoming a cautionary tale.” I huffed in brief frustration before walking back over to the table.

As I sat down I heard the kettle starting to whistle with steam.

Gotta start somewhere

Spike

I was ahead of schedule, Twilight had left behind a list of things to do around the library while she was out; However, I had to filter out most of oddies that were typically written onto a “to-do” list whenever she was in a hurry to get somewhere and felt randomly obligated to keep my claws busy while she was out.

Now mind you, I don’t mind working around home, just, dusting the couch?
Recounting the rings of the tree?
Brushing the leaves?
Vacuuming the stairs?

I don’t even think we had a vacuum in months, she mostly used her magic to get that done...

So, doing the tasks I knew were logically correct (like organizing loose books, cleaning up the apartment upstairs, etc.) I managed to get it all done before the sun started to sink over the horizon. I remember how quick everything happened too: While I was writing the letter to give Zecora the heads up, Twilight was absently making that task list right before Applejack came knocking to simply say “Hi”, however, the frantic Twilight was buzzing with something about getting to bottom of the “Thunder” she kept wondering aloud about.

Both me and Applejack were confused by it all but I was used to Twilight whenever she is in complete scientist mode. Yet, this time, she was even more troubled by whatever she was delving into this time around. I shrugged it off knowing that she can get a handle on things. Just hope that it’s something that can help Jeff.

Speaking of which I didn’t pay much attention to it at first, but the smell of home cooking caught my senses before the Sweet Apple Acres farm was in view. Sound like I’ll be catching up with them just before supper. Boy, I hope they don’t mind me coming by, I have forgotten to grab something before leaving earlier.

Recently, Twilight and I have found out that I’ve been growing more of my dragon attributes with each passing day. However, nothing really special at first, denser scales, slight growth in height but the most recent notable feature now, I could pick up some scents from a distance. Can’t really say what exactly but anything foodlike is first. Go figure right?

The farm appeared right where it always was, all but the main Apple house was dark. As I approached the archway into the front yard, I could hear voices inside. Even Jeff’s voice was mixed in. I can guess the blunt, honest Apple Family have welcomed the human into their home nicely.

I hope..

When I knocked on the door,

“Can ye get that, probably Spike or somepony.” I hear Granny Smith speak up, “I’ma bit busy here if ye can’ see.”

“Alright,” I hear the deep drawl of Big Mac’s voice that accompanied the deep hoof falls of the big pony. When the door opened, I looked up to see the Apple red stallion fill the doorway as he looked down at me with a smirk.

“Eyup, It’s spike,” He spoke over his shoulder, “Come in Spike.”

When he moved out of the way, I started to walk in,
“Great to see ya folks, I take it things have been okay since I was last here?” I asked cheerfully as the big earth pony closed the door.

“Nnope, been a slow harvest, Don’ think we’ll gunna make the cut this buckin’ season.” Couldn’t tell if Big Mac was frowning or his face was just that stoic.
“Not ta menntion’ the human that came by today...” He pointed outwards in the living room, i looked over to see Granny Smith was sitting with Jeff. Good at least he didn’t get broken or something while hanging out here at the Apple farm.

“Oh dear, I think I’ll pass the word on and see if anypony will step up to help out if you need it.”

“Ayup…” Big Mac replied as he vanished into the dining room. Now, turning my attention to these two and, why does Jeff have his shirt off?

“Hey Jeff how are you-” I walked over to the Couch they sat at and I could see Granny with a pair of scissors, snipping away at what must have been his stitches. Doesn’t seemed that bad since only a little blood was coming out of the- Wait, STITCHES?!

“-Sweet Merciful Celestia! What happened?” I Dropped the new comic I was carrying with my mouth hanging in shock as I could see Granny Smith dabbing away the droplets of blood that came out as she cleared away his stitches.

“Oh, hey spike.” Jeff waved to me while he held himself still, he was hunched forward while Granny was carefully snipping the remaining stitches and removing them with the care of a nurse.

“A few stitches popped out, didn’t notice till Applejack pointed out the blood stains on the back of my shirt.”

“Oh, but why is Granny-” I pointed to her in confusion.
“She said she was a Medic in the volunteer unit out of Ponyville, so, she dug that out-” he gestured towards a strange looking medical kit on the table in front of them,
“-and started taking the rest of the stitches out.”
“B-but why Jeff? Shouldn’t we go see the doctor-”

“Ah Hang it Spikey,” Granny finally spoke up as she gently pulled another small section of stitches out of one of the two massive cuts on his back. They did look like they were healing nicely.
“I noticed his wounds were healin’ better than I assumed compared ta what he told me, so instead of fixin’ this crap work, I just insisted on takin’ them out.”
“Riight.” I sat down beside them.
“Of course, I didn’t realize how big these sword cuts were till he took his shirt off.”
“AH, wait, Sword cuts? Aren’t those claw marks?”
“Yea, if these were done by a beastie with two, very wide mandibles, and ta my knowin’ there ain’t such a creature in existence.”
“But...how?”

“I don’t know either spike.” Jeff sighed looking forward at the table, “If I remembered how they got there, I would tell you, but-” he winced when she started on the second scar, snipping and removing stitch thread with ease.

“So that means you’ll be removing the rest from his body right?”

“Eh, just tha chest maybe, but his face he’ll have ta see the Doc if that is to be-”
“So that means the doctor lied about these cuts being claw marks.”
“Eyup.” she snipped a few more stitches, removing them then carefully cleaned away the blood that oozed out of them. I began to notice Jeff didn’t really flinch with the thin threads being pulled out with care. I think, after what Twilight had told me about him before, I think he can handle this kind of pain like a boss.
“That must mean he knows more than he lets on.”
“Obviously.” I chimed in.
“Ye nailed it on the head there sunny.”

“That lying piece of shi-” I watch Granny causally bop him up the back of his head, that was when I watch the human finally grimace with either pain or humiliation.
“Language Jeffy.”
“Yes, ma’am…” He grumbled.

I watched the human go quiet while granny worked her way down the second back cut. It didn’t take her long before she got up to move around the human.

“Scooch back Jeffy; spikey, please move so I can finish this.”
“Oh yeah, no problem.” I got up from my spot on the couch while I watch Jeff slide himself back some before Granny Smith sat back down, this time she started on the two more nastier looking marks on the front of his body.

One that could almost reach around the right side of his body, the other clearly straight down his left side of his chest down to just above the stomach.

“Now these two, one looks like he was thrown through a window the other, a grapple from a real monster in the forest,” Granny Observed apparently more accurately as she started the process of removing the surgical thread again.

“I think this one.” Jeff Pointed to the one over his chest, “Was when I crashed the other when that thing, you guys call a Manticore, grabbed me and threw me into a tree.”

“Who took on a Manticore?” I heard Applejack’s voice as her lighter hoof steps came into the living room.
“That would be me,” Jeff raised a hand as he leaned back some more allowing more clearance to the stitches. I was only thankful the power crystal bulbs Twilight had installed in the farmhouse made everything very well lit. Can’t imagine Granny Smith working on Jeff like this by Lantern light.

“I did hear ‘bout that, didn’ think you-uhh…” she went quiet, I looked over to see she had come over beside the couch and there she was, staring away at Jeff.
“My gosh, Twilight went on ‘bout yer injuries sugarcube; but-but didn’t expect it to look like you’ve gone rounds out there.”

“Not surprised myself, taken what I went through.”
“Yeeah…” Applejack trailed off while Granny removed the last of the stitches from the second wound.

“There ya go, Jeff, since yer shirt is hangin’ out to dry, ye should be fine with it off.” I watch Granny started to put her tools away into the strange metal kit before closing it up. Jeff slowly stood up to stretch.
“No biggy, Need to let the scars air out anyway.” He turned to start walking around the couch when he stopped to look at Applejack with a puzzled look on his face. I too looked back at Applejack.

“Uh-oh.” I noticed it too.

Jefferson Revere

“Uhh, Applejack?” I asked her, moved to the side to let Granny walk by with the kit in her mouth before venturing upstairs with it. I walked up to Applejack who had her jaw slightly slack as she was staring at me. I could see her green eyes shifting slightly as if she was looking me over. Didn’t think taking my shirt off made that much of a difference.

I walked up to her, whose eyes only slightly widen as I slowly waved a hand in front of her face, “Uhm, Applejack? You lost or somethin’?” I stood in front of her with a hand on my waist, confused on why she staring at me like as if she was looking at something incredibly hot.

I shook my head before waving my hand in front of her face again, “You like what you see or something?”

“Uh-wha- beg ya pardon?” she snapped back to sentience shaking her head, “I uh, I don-don’ know, right, supper should be ready, I’ma check on Mac to see if it is-” she took a quick step to the side, bumping into a side table. She chuckled after quickly catching the flower vase that almost tipped over.

“Careful,” I smirked at her while she sheepishly smiled back.
“Right.” she paused, about to be lost in staring at me again. As if this was the first time she saw any male with our a shirt, even though her kind was naked twenty-four/seven.

“Uhm-” Could almost map out the blush that started to fade through her weathered face.
“If ye done gawking at that human, get ye hide in the kitchen befer ye burn the barn down!” Granny’s voice came from up the stairs. Spike, Applejack and I all snapped a glance up the stairs, in a moment of puzzlement.
“Right, on it Granny!” she called back before quickly turning around to hurry into the kitchen.

After watching the swing doors close, I looked down at Spike, who, like me, was standing with arms folded. looking on shaking his head at what he too just witnessed.

“Was that what I think it was?” I pointed towards the dining room.

“MmHmm.” he nodded looking up at me before nudging me with an elbow, “I think you caught another pair of eyes on you buddy.”
“Right, Like catching the eye of your Rarity?” He turned sharply, stamping a foot into the floor.
“Hey, Don’t you dare think about that again Mister.” he pointed at me with a glare, “She may have dressed you while unconscious, but doesn’t mean she is into you like that.”
“Oh bull little guy, I heard her the other day while trying to talk to Twilight about not looking at me like that.”
“What?” he blinked after I mentioned Twilight as if I was talking about his mother or something.
“Yeah, she was acting Like Bones, not really taking any care in my body in an attracted matter, she even watched Doctor Horse put stitches in these,” pointing to my now healed scars, “and did not blush once at my shirtless appearance.”
“Who’s bones?” He tilted his head stuck on the name.
“Oh yeah,” I covered my face with a palm before waving the subject away, remembering that they don’t exist in this world, “A TV show character, that’s a whole can of worms to not get into right now.”

For some reason, I can picture Twilight being a fan of that show too. Hell, she’ll be picking apart the on-screen science knowledge with her own scientific knowledge. Then again, there are a number of other shows she would like to watch-and why am I thinking about this?

“Whats a TV?” The confused little dragon asked aloud. By now, Granny Smith had returned from upstairs. She headed into the Dinning room to enter the kitchen. I could smell the odor of home cooked foods filling the house. It was a very filling feeling in both nose and stomach. It growled with excitement.

As I started to walk into the dining room with the little guy walking along with me, I looked down to him, “Something that doesn’t exist in this world yet.”
“True, but I’m curious about the whole “TV show” thing, sounds like something that could replace boring comics or books.” In the threshold between dining room and Living room. I stopped to kneel down to look level with the dragon.

“My boy,” I placed a hand on a shoulder, “There are better things than TV, the comics back home would blow what you know out of the water.” since I noticed the comic under his arm, I decided to bring this up.
“Really?”
“Yup, in fact, once you discover those, you’ll nerd the shit out of any comic shop you come across.”
“JEFF!”
“Ah Shi-Sorry Granny!” I called out before standing up. Right as I did I heard the front door bang open with three chatty little voices coming in. I looked back to see those three little Fillies from before.

“-and when you-SPIKE!” Applebloom rushed over to give the little dragon a hug, the other two came over to him while I stepped around them to close the front door.

“Good ta see ya, Didn’ think ta see ya here tonigh’” the little pony, like her friends, were full of smiles.
“Likewise guys, what kept you out there this time?”
“Oh the usual…” Sweetie Bell, i think it was, rolled her eyes, “Plotting another way to get back at those miscreants as well getting our cutie marks.” It was humorously cute to hear a child’s voice talk like that as if the little unicorn was trying to be another Rarity. Which was kind of terrifying to imagine more than one of her in this world.

“Yeah, since the human ruined our last trap, we had to figure out where and how to set up another bully trap.” The pegasus filly, Scootaloo it was, nonchalantly mentioned me like as if I wasn’t standing there.

Stepping up, I looked down at them before clearing my throat.

“You mean me, right?” I asked with a smirk, two of the three almost jumped in surprise. They must of been so excited to see spike they forgot about the two-legged creature in the room; “Because I can give ya three at least an ‘A’ for effort on the trap earlier today.”

“So that's what that stuff was on the way here…” Spike noted aloud.

“Well, Thanks for that mister.” Apple Bloom then lowered her head in brief embarrassment, her eyes looking up at me, “Still sorry for that though.”

“Aww, don’t worry about it, Your trap was really nothing compared to what I’ve been through beforehand.” I shrugged it off, “so why did you girls set that up in the first place?”

That perked the attention of the three “crusaders”.

“Well, ya see mister-”

“Please, Jeff.” I gestured to her.

“Well, Jeff, We’ve been facing a bit of a problem in these past few days.” Apple Bloom tilted her head in thought. Spike shook his head with a smirk before walking into the dining room to take a seat.

“More like a pest problem!” Sweetie Bell chimed in placing a hoof to her chest, “A complete nuisance, all of them I think!”

“Still think we should just return the favor for what they did to us…” Grumbled Scootaloo, her stubby wings fluttered slightly to back up her frustration.

Looking at each of them, “What did they do If I may ask?”
“They trashed our clubhouse then, then-” Apple Bloom stammered.
“Got us with a mud bucket prank.” frowned Scootaloo.

That sparked a chuckle before covering my mouth, hiding the growing smile on my face.

“It’s not funny!” The little unicorn stamped her hoof, “That gawdawful mud was such a pain to clean!” could almost tell that was such a big deal, She would hate it out where I originally was before the crash.

“I’m sorry,” I tried to regain composer, “So you’ve been trying to get back at them since?”
“Yup, but I think we are goin’ tah need to go further out since setting traps and pranks aroun’ the farm ain’t really working.” Apple Bloom pondered aloud glancing off into space to think.
“Can tell…”
“What?”
“Oh, I mean, I can tell you might need a little bit of help taking care of these punks. Have ya’ll try simply talking to them?”
“Nope,”
“I dare not even want to look at them!”
“We’ve tried Jeff, but every time we did, they would laugh at us.”

That brought a deadpanned scowl on my face. I’ve been in the equivalent of middle class of students back in high school. I’ve watched as kids would get “kicked around” to the stronger kid’s heart's content. I’ve stepped up a few times to help the unfortunate, but that always resulted in a fight but they failed to realize that my Marine uncles where stronger Instructors compared to their self-defense teacher.

I remember the shocked look on their faces every time I counter their sorry excuse for martial arts (or their redneck brawling) with my harmonious home blend of MMA and MCMAP; However, at times all it takes is to just walk up to them, show them you’re not scared of them and they will back down.

“I think, I can help you, little girls.” I folded my arms nodded to them, “I think If I have words with them, then maybe they’ll even say sorry to you three as well beg for forgiveness.”

“I doubt it, I don’t even think they are scared of the Creature of the Everfree Forest.”
“Oh really?” I cocked a brow at them, “You don’t say?” Even though I hated the title, I would think it did scare some folks since no one has ever really seen a human before.
“Yeah, they even said so a few times.”

“You don’t tell us what to do!” Scootaloo mockingly mimicked these bullies, “We are with the Ponyville Ravens, and we Ain’t scared of no pony!”
“Really…” I facepalmed at the mentioning of the name of the gang, “The Ponyville Ravens?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen them around town before, they dress in black and travel in a small group that hangs out wherever they see fit.” Scootaloo nodded and grimaced, “Rainbow Dash and the rest of the six have confronted them before, but they would only pretend to listen.”

Geeze, taking the stories that I have heard of them, I don’t see why they haven’t put them in their place? Nevertheless, I’ll figure out how to deal with these punks.

“I seriously doubt they could do anything anyway, they don’t really pose a threat to the town at all.” I shrugged, keeping my thoughts to myself.
“Yeeah, but-” Apple Bloom was about to say more when we all heard the kitchen doors open with Applejack stepping out with something balancing on her head before quickly setting it down on the table.

Nudging what looked like a mini-dutch oven closer towards the center of the table, “Supper is done y'all, come and get it!”

The wonderful scent of home cooking invaded my nose again. I turned to see something else being brought out.

It was only a few minutes before serving trays and open pots of steamed veggies (mostly carrots), garlic toast and the mini-dutch contained what smelled like a chili of sorts.

When the girls and I entered the dining room, I could map out that it was an indeed a chili, inside the reddish stew looked like it had beans, chopped green beans, chopped potatoes and it looked like onion was chopped up into it too. Either way smelled great, I wonder how it tasted.

As I walked to find a seat, I noticed Applejack hesitated before moving out of my way,

“Beg ya pardon,”

“Sorry,” we said to each other before making our way to our seats.

Once at our seats, I watched as a stack of bowls was brought out and placed beside the dutch oven, as well plates began to be filed out to everyone seated, even two empty seats were prepared with a plate and utensils.

I picked up what must have been a salad fork for even the butter knives and spoons were slightly bigger compared to what I’m used to. Which caused me to wonder how sentient ponies eat, I mean, they obviously are civilized enough to not simply eat like animals but, explain how they eat with their hooves?

After quietly watching the rest of dinner being prepared, as in the condiments like homemade butter, pepper and- wait, where's the salt? Oh right, I can only guess that salt is like something of a desert of sorts to ponies.

I noticed a mug of that cider was being served to all of us as a beverage to accompany the meal.

After dinner was finally ready, “Alrighty!” Applejack was last to be seated at the table, opposite side of me.

“Granny, should we try again with the-”

“Dig in, I think Celestia receives ‘nough praise from us as is.” Applejack blinked before nodding her head in agreement.
“Well, ya’ll hear her, enjoy everypony.” She smiled as I watched not only her but everyone else begin to fill their plates with the home cooking, occasionally passing food around so every pony and dragon got a serving.

“Veggies?” Big Mac’s voice almost made me jump when I looked to my left to see him seated next to me.
“Oh sure, uh-” I was about to reach thinking that I was going to take the small pot from him but instead I held back to watch him casually scope some onto my plate for me,
“Uh, thanks.”
“Yup, here.” He placed back on the table with the handle facing Applejack who took it to server herself some too. Not sure if he was being nice or didn’t want my human hands touching the cookware.

Aside from that I also noticed how they were using their hooves. Handles, utensils and even cups were effortlessly attaching themselves to the bottoms of their forehooves as if magnetized to them. It looked weird but it looks like that how things roll around here.

But still…
“Sooo, dumb question,” I reached to grab one of the small bowls, while filling it up with help of a ladle, “How are you guys...uhm, able to hold things like-” I had placed the ladle back in the dutch oven to gesture to Applejack, who was holding a fork in her hoof, “-that?”
Even though it silenced some the table for a moment before everypony seated continued, Granny was the only one who stared at me with a doubtful look.
“Ain’t too bright are ya Jeffy?” well that was blunt!
“Granny!” Applejack snapped a look at her while the fillies giggled in reaction.
“Nah stuff it AJ, ye see, we gots what is called magic in these here hooves, we all has it.”
As I sat down listening, I had to hold back my thoughts for the time being for I was kinda confused if she was being serious or making fun of me.
“Indeed, idle magic that resides in every forehoof of every pony alive,” Sweetie Belle chimed in with a smug before taking a bite of her food.
“So says you miss Telekinesis.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes before the unicorn finished chewing to stick a tongue back at her.
“So, this idle magic acts like a magnet with whatever you try to grab things then?”
“Ayup, Ain’t no reason to think too much ‘bout it though, only magic smart folk would fret over it.” Big Mac’s voice keeps catching me off guard, it was the only other adult male voice in the room.

“Ah okay, just, for a human, that looks odd when there are items stuck to your hooves like as if magnetized or glued to them.”
“Get used to it Sugarcube,” Applejack shrugged, “that’s just how things go in this world.”
“Right,” we trailed off while we all continued eating before the room came to life again with chatter between the crusaders and Applejack.

I didn’t really pay that much attention to them for it was simply talking of cutie marks, bullies and other things I didn’t really catch on. I glanced over to see spike was quietly reading the comic while eating. I then looked back at my dinner, I took a spoonful of the chili, when the warm taste of veggies and beans blanketed my taste buds.
“Holy Wow,”
“Pardon?” Big Mac glanced at me puzzled,
“Oh nothing, this is just amazing,” I looked over to an amused Granny Smith, “What did you put in this?”
“Ah, nothin’ much, just onions, carrots, sweet potatoes and black beans; all stewed in thickened tomato juice.”
“Wow, can’t even tell half that stuff is in here.” I helped myself to a healthy spoonful of the stuff. I reached across to grab a piece of garlic bread before returning back to my plate to maow down on the veggies.

“Easy there feller,” Chuckled the old mare, “Ya actin’ like ya haven’t eaten in days.”

“That’s the thing,” I spoke after finishing my mouthful of veggies, “I haven’t, in fact, I don’t even have anything in my place at the moment.”
That was when I noticed Applejack’s ear twitched before she snapped a look of shocked confusion, which caused the subject change towards me as even the Crusaders looked at me.
“You said what now?”
“What I remembered what happened to my "starter kit",” I finger quoted the starter kit, “The foodstuff given to me was okay, but then I went through that spout of sudden medical problems so, without me eating it for a few days or weeks or whatever, it went bad…”
“That’s awful!” Applebloom at least voiced her concern.
“Sounds like ya be in a bit of a pickle there Jeffy.”

I took a drink of cider before continuing, “Yeah, It is, and since I’m just now stable enough to function like a normal person again, I’m going to have to do something about getting that ramshackle of a heap to work for me.”
“Well, to be fair,” Granny squinted an eye to think, “We ain’t got much ourselves othawise we could give ya something to hold ya over till then.”
“No worries really, I’m not really trying to ask for a handout or nothin’ I know you got your hooves full with the harvest and all.”
“Yup, which thank ya for the help when you showed up today.” Applejack smiled as she looked back to Granny Smith with an inquisitive look.
“Not a problem, I feel bad for holding work up as long as I did, so I had to do something to make up for it, but as I was saying, I’m just going to have to find another way to make ends so I don’t wind up on the streets so to speak.”
“Hmm, we may not got much, but I can see yas got potential,” Granny Smith nodded in (first time) approval,
“If ye can’ get yer hooves inta anythin’ then feel free ta come on back and we’ll send ya back home with somethin’, as long yas keep them strange hooves of yers movin’.”
“Oh, that’ll be great!” I looked back at my plate thinking about how I can only assume that as long you can look past the rugged country exterior to see the familiar hospitality that would be normally rare back home.
“I’m sure picking up Apples wouldn’t be the only thing I’ll be helpin around here correct?”
“Well of course,” Applejack rolled her eyes, “just prepare for anythin’ whenever you come out this way.”
I nodded in acknowledgment before returning to what remains of my dinner, which it didn’t take long as I was starving.

When the inevitable time came around for dinner coming to an end, I volunteered to help with the clean up while Spike had been swept up in conversation with the little fillies again. Despite the fact that Applejack did say she’ll do the dishes, I stepped up to at least handwash the dinner dishes while she dried and sorted the dishes and utensils away.

Of course, I didn’t think that washing dishes shirtless was that big of a distraction, however, Applejack was caught watching while the plates and what not was piling up in the other sink that was simply filled with water that acted as the rinse.

I glanced over within seconds of her turning back to her side of the work as if trying not to be caught staring.
“Waiting for me to fill the sink before putting it away?”
“Huh-what?” she was lost in that trance again before shaking the “fog” from her head, “uh-of course, I think I’m workin’ a little too fast, so I think I’ll-”
“Wait and stare while I fill the rinse some more?”
“Whu-I, uhh-” What has gotten into her? One minute she was a rugged farm mare now, she is a blushing little country girl. she quickly tried to disguise it by quickly grabbing a platter, shaking the excess off then drying it with one of the three drying towels hanging close by.
“I’m kidding,” I smirked, “Ya know, I was a dishwasher at a popular Restaurant back home for a few years.” I nudged the topic into a different direction, trying not to pick on the pink-faced cowgirl too much.
“Oh really?” it worked, she perked her ears in interest as she dried and stacked the dishes as she got a hoof on them.

“Yeah, I had to use a dish machine and do this kind of work as well. It was hard work since Me and at least one other guy had to bust out dishes and everything else to keep the restaurant running while it provided service to nearly three hundred customers a day or something like that.”
“Wow, so you do know what it means to work hard then?”
“Ehh, you can say that, since the lack of applicants wanting to apply for DMO or Dish Machine Operator, it gets harder when there are only three or four guys working a whole week.”
“Gosh, I’d take up that kind of work if it meant puttin’ food on the table.”
“Exactly, taking if the hours are good. Aside from that,” I grabbed one of the pots, set it gently in the scrub sink before walking over to grab and bring over a waste bucket to set it beside me while I worked,
“You have to stay on your toes and work your memory on where what goes where while making sure your pit is pumping clean dishes at a steady rate.” I dumped the water out of the pot before scrapping what was still stuck on the bottom into the waste bucket before taking a fist-sized ball of steel scrubber, sinking both pot and scrubber into the scrub wash to work the caked on crud on the bottom of the pot.
“All the while doing this solo.”
“Really? Can honestly say workin’ alone is a pain when workin’ on a farm, but sugarcube,” she picked up the pot and swished it around in the water before pulling it out of the water, dumbing it out before drying it,
“That sounds like tough work in its own right.”
“Yup, it was…” I grabbed the dessert dishes then placed them in the wash to soak for a moment before standing back with arms folded, remembering the other half of the story.
“Then I got fired from that place…”

Applejack walked halfway to put the pot away before she stopped to look back at me,
“Fired? For what cause?”
“Beating the shi-” I paused to look behind me at the swing doors, before looking back at the sinks, “-the snot out of a bunch of no-gooders trying to raise hell by any means.” I heard the clunking noise of the pot being returned to its hook close by the stove. She returned to the rinse to add a couple more plates to the stack.

“A bunch of dips, skinny punks too, decked out in red and black came into the Restaurant one Sunday noon armed to the teeth with bats and what not ready to go to town on the staff and patrons there, saying that some BS about too many white people being here or somethin’.”
“I take it ya whooped them and sent them runnin’ for their ma’mas?”
“Oh yeah, I busted out with my ASP, a collapsible baton, that I keep in my car, went back inside and proceeded to kick those bastards out of that place. I mean I did have help from some of the kitchen staff but it wasn’t without seeing nearly eighteen people being sent to the hospital with variable injuries.”
“But yet, y'all did what was right in terms of protecting those folk from getting beaten down by those varmints.”
“Oh explain that to the Police when I and five others were almost arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, of course too many people witnessed a different story and vouched that we were acting out of self-defense.”
“Not sure what half that meant but I think y'all were at least let go being seen a heroes.”
“Oh sure, we were let go for sure, some fff-freakin’ repayment…” I took a cleaning rag and started on the small dishes,
“That was a sixty dollar ASP I broke that day, should’ve looted their pockets since they owed me that much!”

“Sounds like ya came from a harsh world.”
“Eh, nothing much to it really, like you’ve heard before, I’ve spent nearly twenty years putting up with that kind of crap, me and my buddy Alex had fought in most aspects, with everything that was going on before ending up here was just another stage in the game of life.”

By the time I finished talking the stack of dishes had been placed in the rinse, collected, dried then had been put away.

“Wow, hmm,” Applejack returned to her spot next to me while I worked on the last of the dinner dishes, the large pot, and cooking sheets.
“Well, we ain’t kiddn’ when we said Y'all welcome to come on back if you need some work to do, it ain’t easy to start with nothing.”
“Right, not to mention-” I briefly pointed to my head, “-With that going on too.”
“Riiight.” we trailed off while we quickly finished up the rest of the dishwashing.

As I drained the sinks, I noticed Applejack had taken two mugs down and filled them with that cider. It dawned on me how many small kegs they had sitting on a rack in the kitchen. She walked over and offered me a mug before going back to get hers.
“Huh, thanks.” I looked up at her then back at the mug.
“Don’t mention it,” she had walked back over to me while I leaned against the counter near the sinks. Drinking from my mug I looked over at her as she adjusted her beat up stetson since she had placed it on a hook earlier before working on the dishes.
“And, Thanks, Applejack, Not often someone, or somepony, to just throw down an offer like that, especially since I’m a, well, a human in a ponies world.”
“Well, taken what ya has been through, you gotta have a hoof up to at least set the ground to stand on.” She drank from her mug too.
“True that; you, Twilight and Rarity so far you’ve been nothing but helpful towards me despite whatever they say at the hospital.”

“Also despite Twilight probably been draggin’ you around to crack the riddle of that stuff goin’ on with ya.” Applejack quipped in nonchalantly, which caused me to laugh at how accurate that has been so far with Yuckquill coming back to mind.

“So true,” I took another sip before looking at my mug before glancing at her before holding up my mug towards her.
“Hey,” she looked up, noticing me holding my mug up.
“To starting somewhere,”
“Tah startin’ somewhere indeed.” We clanked mugs before draining them.

I took both mugs and put them in the sink before we towards the kitchen door.

As I was pushing the door open,
“Whoa, door!” I didn’t notice the sound of running before I heard the sound of someone skitting to a stop. I held the door then peaked around to see the girls had been running around the dining room. Applebloom was looking up at me,
“Sorry about that-” then I felt something, more like someone, bump into me. It had enough push to make me stumble out the doorway and into the dining room.
“Oh geez, sorry Jeff I didn-” Applejack followed me but she failed to notice the little filly trying to get by.
“What the- Apple-” she lost her footing(?) before stumbling forward.
“Oh shi-” without thinking, I quickly caught her before she, fell, into, me…

Before we both knew it, I was back up against the table again with my hands braced up against her chest. Our faces were inches from each other. This time around, she failed to hide the pink fading back through her orange coat. Didn’t think her green eyes had the human eye styling, I think they called it starburst Till now; I’ve always thought these ponies had horse eyes but nope, human. Which, fits pretty well if you think about it…

It was a few moments of awkward silence before giggling caught our attention then, as if not missing the beat,
“Oh geez, if they start kissin’ I’ma gunna puke!”
Applejack snapped an embarrassed glare towards the living room,
“GRANNY!” I couldn’t help but laugh too as the rest of the house erupted in a fit of laughter as I looked over to see most of the household had turned to look at what Granny had obviously seen.
“Nah, Nah, ye youngsters got ye flings and such, kids these days,” I could see spike was the only one trying to control his laughter, “I’ma just take myself outside, there be a bowl with my name on it!”

“Ya know,” she looked back at me, this time she wasn’t as close to my face as she was before.
“For a mare who works on a farm, your chest fur is quite sof-”
“JEFF!” her forearms blurred to swipe my hands away before she backed up,
“Where did ya manners go?” she pointed an accusing hoof at me.
“South for the summer!” Granny Smith answered before the front door swung closed.
“Oh my sweet Celestia-” she dipped her hat over her face as the faint pink was practically glowing red at this point,
“Pardon me, gonna get some air.” she excused herself before rushing outside.

As the front door banged closed, I walked into the living room, Spike was shaking his head while the fillies ran upstairs in fit of hushed gossip and giggles, mainly about what they just witnessed happened.

“Way to hit then miss mister.” Spike nodded cracking a smile.
“Oh I’m just good like that.” I stood briefly in a superman pose, kinda proud that I’ve now made two mares blush at my awesomeness.

“‘ey, Jeff,” I hear from my now right, Looking over I see Big Mac peeking his head from around the back door,
“I think yer shirts done, Been hangin’ outside for a while now it seems.” I then threw my hands up at the irony here.
“And that would’ve saved us from some of the awkwardness a while ago!” I started to walk towards the backdoor to get my shirt.

“Ayup.”

Author's Note

A slight change in writing style, a natural flow of exposition or whatever its called...AAAND awkward moment between characters. also, slap an easter egg reference or two in there for good measure!

these slow-paced chapters are troublesome to write, but I'll get the hang of it, just need to NOT put'em off for so many days X_X

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