The Surprise in the Backyard
It spat, it sputtered, and then it ultimately shut down. “Dammit,” I said to myself as my lawn mower ran out of gas. I was using it to gather up all the leaves that had fallen so far this autumn. I was only halfway through doing so on my back lawn, and I still had the huge front lawn to go. My house was small, but my lawn was bigger than it should be, in my opinion. The sky was overcast and the November air was being pounded with frequent gusts of frigid, blustery wind, only making me want to be finished sooner.
I was living in a small, 2-story house in a far suburb of Chicago at the time. This was the house I had grown up in, but my parents had just moved somewhere else and I got it from them. It was built in the 50’s and had 3 bedrooms, 1 and a half bathrooms, and hardwood floors everywhere, except for the basement and a few other rooms. I had a detached 2-car garage at the end of a very long driveway, which I hated snowblowing in the wintertime.
I was bored most of the time. A lot of my friends had moved on and some were still in town. I tried to see them as much as I could. I really didn’t have them over to my house because there wasn’t much room to entertain, so I usually met them other places. However, I felt like I wasn’t fitting in whenever we would meet up at the local bar. They would all have beer and cocktails, but I always had a soda. I never drank alcohol. I was afraid of getting hooked after just one drink. It definitely wasn’t a normal life.
I went into my garage to retrieve the gas can, and then I returned to my lawn mower and proceeded to refill it. After putting the gas can away, I went back and got ready to start my lawn mower up again, but right as I was about to pull the start cord, a bright light appeared in the sky above me. My first thought was that, despite all the ridiculous theories, Jupiter had become a second sun and we would all be burned alive in the next 10 minutes or so. But then, the light descended and got smaller and smaller. I looked closer, and I could see the silhouette of a small figure right in the middle of the light. Then, as quick as it appeared, the light was gone.
What was left was a small, purple figure. It looked female at first glance. She had a dark purple tail and hair of the same color, with a few strands being of lighter colors. I could see a horn on her forehead, and I could also see a pair of folded wings. I knew exactly who she was.
“Rats!” she said suddenly after glancing around, “My spell must have malfunctioned!”
“Excuse me,” I said while walking toward her, “Is there something I can help you with?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, “Where am I?”
I smiled and said, “Twilight, welcome to America.”
“You know who I am?!?” she asked in a surprised manner.
“Oh yeah. There are more people around here than you think who know who you are. You aren’t just a celebrity in Equestria, you’re one here, too,” I told her. Her eyed widened from what I assumed was complete and utter shock due to me knowing so much about her. I went ahead and explained to her a little bit more about the Brony fandom. She seemed puzzled, but somewhat intrigued.
“Oh, that’s really fascinating,” the little alicorn said after I finished my short lecture.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what were you trying to do?”
“Well, I was working on a series of teleportation spells, and this one was supposed to take me to the Crystal Empire.” She turned her head to the side and smiled sarcastically, still looking up at me while blushing slightly. “That didn’t work too well, now, did it?”
I chuckled. “Why don’t you come inside? I can make you some tea, if you’d like.”
“That sounds wonderful! Thanks!”
Twilight and I went inside my house. She sat on a chair while I started boiling some water, then I sat across from her at the table. “So,” I began, “What’s it like being a princess? Is it any fun?”
“It has its ups and downs,” she replied, “I have less responsibilities than I thought I would have at first. I only recently discovered my full-time royal duty, and I’ve had no problems so far. I’m just glad I have plenty of time to spend with my friends. What about you? What do you do for a living?” I told her about my recently completed studies at a college in the city and how I was planning to go on from there. “How often do you see your friends?” she asked.
“Whenever I can,” I replied, “Some of them don’t live here anymore, and the ones that do are often as busy as I am. I wish I could see them more often.”
Just then, the tea kettle started to whistle, so I got up and poured some of the boiling water into a mug and gave Twilight a choice of the various teabags I had. She took one and placed it into the hot water. “Aren’t you going to have any?” she asked.
“Nah, I’m good,” I replied. I wasn’t a tea and/or coffee drinker. I just didn’t like the taste of either of them. I instead got myself a glass of water and sat back down at the table.
“Oooooh, that’s pretty,” Twilight said as she pointed out the antique crystal chandelier in the next room. It had around 400 tiny, clear gems hanging from various brass structures.
“I know, right?” I replied, “It was my great-grandmother’s. I’m sure Rarity would like one just like it, am I right?”
“Totally!” she said. She then took a few moments to sip her tea. “So, are there any apple orchards around here?”
“I think there might be one nearby,” I replied, “We also have a few forest preserves around here. I’m guessing you’re wondering if there are places around here that your friends would like.”
“Uh-huh,” she said, sipping more of her tea, “I’m sure Fluttershy would love to see those forest preserves.”
“I’m sure she would, too,” I replied.
“So, can we go see what’s around town?” she asked as she finished her cup of tea, “You’ve made me curious about this new world.”
“Of course we can,” I said, “Let’s go!” We went outside, and as she stood next my car I went to retrieve my lawn mower and put it away. The little princess asked if I wanted to finish cleaning up the leaves first, to which I told her it could wait.
Twilight stared at my car for a little bit. “This looks familiar,” she said. I was driving a 2007 Lincoln Town Car at the time, painted white with a black fabric top. I knew it looked familiar to her because it was the same model as the limousine she and her friends rode in to the Fall Formal in Equestria Girls, except smaller.
“I know,” I replied, “That’s why I’m excited for you to get another limo ride!” She and I giggled at that. We got into the car and drove into town. I showed her pretty much all this place had in the downtown area. There were several restaurants, a couple of banks, and lots of various shops and doctor’s offices.
Then we got stopped at a railroad crossing. A big freight train carrying shipping containers came highballing through the crossing. “Whoa!” Twilight exclaimed, “I’ve never seen a train like this before!”
“Is that because all the trains in Equestria are steam-powered passenger trains?” I asked, somewhat rhetorically.
“Exactly!” she replied.
I explained to her that we don’t just have passenger trains here and that we use engines powered by diesel fuel, which she had never heard of. I also said that steam engines have become obsolete and have either been scrapped or put in railway museums.
A light bulb turned on in my head. “You wanna, maybe, see what our passenger trains are like?” I asked, “And, maybe, head to the big city while we’re at it?”
“Sure!” she replied, “I’d love to!”
I turned the car around and headed back to my house so I could pack a few things into a backpack before our little adventure. We then headed towards the train station. When we got there, we went inside the depot, got our tickets, and then I took Twilight to a far end of the platform.
“This platform seems quite low,” she said, looking down the asphalt surface before looking back up at me. I explained to her that there are built-in steps in the entrance to each coach. “Oh, well then why are we this close to the end?” she asked, “Isn’t this where the engine usually sits?”
“It’s a surprise,” I said, grinning.
“Okay…” she said, drawing out her last syllable and grinning as well.
A few minutes later, I saw a light rounding a bend in the distance. “Here it comes,” I said.
When the train finally pulled into the station, Twilight gasped. “It’s huge!” she exclaimed, “I’ve never seen anything like this!” She felt so small compared to the large, chrome, bi-level coaches, but she could care less.
“After you,” I said as we were about to board the train. She smiled at me before climbing up the stairs. I then followed her. “This way,” I said, opening a door that led to the front end of the train. “Go look through that window at the end,” I said, pointing to the window on the door that would normally lead to another coach, but in this case would lead to open air. She wasn’t quite tall enough to see through it, so she flew up to it.
“Wow!” she exclaimed, “Is this why we waited at the end of the platform?”
“Eeyup,” I said, trying to imitate Big Mac as best as I could, “Hope you enjoy.”
“I never get this kind of view on a train in Equestria!” she said as the train started to leave the station, “This is gonna be great!” She continued to enjoy herself by looking at all the various cars and trucks on highways we were paralleling along the way, and even more as she could see another train that we were about to pass. It was all new to her, and I knew that she loved experiencing new things. I knew she would eventually get tired of having to hover to see out the window, so I gave her a boost by letting her stand on my backpack. Only then was she able to stand on her hind legs and balance herself by placing her front hooves on the door.
While we were stopped at a station about halfway to the city, I looked out my window and noticed a 747 descending into the airport nearby. “Sweet,” I said to myself, “Perfect timing.” I loved trains and planes when I was a kid, and I still loved planes even then, but trains weren’t as big a part of my life then as they had once been.
“Whoa!” Twilight suddenly exclaimed, startling me slightly, “What’s that?!?”
“That’s an airplane,” I replied, “It’s how we humans fly. We can get from here to the west coast in 4 hours if we fly, whereas it would take 2-3 days to get there if we took the train or drove. They can fly as fast as Rainbow Dash can once they get high enough.”
“Wow! That’s so cool!” she responded, “This really is an advanced society!”
“Oh, it gets even more advanced,” I told her, “Just wait until we get off this train.”
After about an hour and 15 minutes, we finally arrived in the city. Twilight and I could see the famous Chicago skyline from the train. By the look on the purple mare’s face, I could tell she was in awe. “It’s amazing!” she said excitedly.
“I know, right?” I replied, “I love this view.”
“This must be your capital city, right?”
“Nah, even though it looks like a big capital city, the real one is about 4 hours southwest of here by train. And that’s not even our nation’s capital. It takes almost a full day to get there by train. And let me tell 'ya, it’s NOTHING like Canterlot.”
Since I had technically brought politics into the conversation, I taught Twilight a little bit about our system of government – and how it’s different from Equestria’s – for the next few minutes, until we pulled into one of the downtown stations. We got off the train and headed to one of the street-level exits. “Wow!” Twilight said as she observed all the tall buildings and enormous amounts of cars, trucks, and buses going down every street, “This is just like Manehattan!...only a lot busier.” She then noticed the famous Chicago River. “This place has a river?!?” she exclaimed as she ran up to the fence alongside the river, “We have a river flowing through Canterlot, but nothing like this!”
“You know, they dye this thing green once every year,” I told her.
“Really?” she replied, “What for?”
“It’s for a holiday called St. Patrick’s Day. You’re probably not familiar with the concept because you don’t have a leprechaun-themed holiday in Equestria, am I right?”
“A what-themed holiday?” she looked up at me, confused.
“A leprechaun. It’s, well, ahhh… never mind. Let’s just say the holiday is highly associated with the color green.”
Twilight stared at me with a puzzled look on her face. “Uhhh… alright. I guess…”
“Actually, I think there’s one place here I can take you where you can learn everything about this place, and, well, even what a leprechaun is,” I said, chuckling slightly.
“Oh, really? What do you have in mind?”
“That’s another surprise.”
The alicorn sighed. “Alright…” she said with a somewhat fake pout.
Before I took Twilight to where I was planning to take her, I decided that I couldn’t let her leave Chicago without visiting the Willis Tower Skydeck, so we walked for a few minutes and before we knew it, we were on the 103rd floor. “Whooooaaaaa!” Twilight said in excitement, “I haven’t seen a view like this in a long time!”
“Seriously?” I asked, somewhat puzzled, “I mean, I know you went to Cloudsdale that one time, and then flew on your own all the way from Canterlot to Ponyville another time, but I figured you’d fly this high on a regular basis. Is that not true?”
“Nah,” she replied, “I only fly when it’s absolutely necessary. I’ve always been used to walking everywhere and, well, a part of me just didn’t want to stop.”
“Oh, that makes sense,” I said as I took her over to the western wall of the Skydeck, right where the Skydeck Ledge was. I myself had never been on the ledge, but I had been eager to try it. Twilight took one look at the glass enclosure and was out in the open before I knew it. She didn’t seem uncomfortable at all. I figured that, despite what she said earlier, she had flown enough to get used to these kinds of heights.
“Come on out here!” she said to me, beckoning me with her front hoof, “This is fun!” So, I did. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and placed my left foot onto the thick glass. After a few seconds, I put my right foot on the glass as well. “See? It’s just like being on a transparent cloud!... only a really hard, uncomfortable one.”
“Yeah, this isn’t so bad!” I said, “I finally did it! This is such an amazing feeling!”
We stayed up on the 103rd floor for about an hour before we went back down. After we left the building, I decided we should get some lunch before I take her to the surprise I had planned. It took a while, but I finally managed to find something vegetarian for her to enjoy. After that, we walked a few blocks to our final destination.
“What’s this place?” Twilight asked, staring up at the large brown structure before her.
“Twilight,” I replied, “Welcome to the Harold Washington Library.”
“Library?!?” She started flapping her wings in excitement, “Oh thankyouthankyouTHANKYOOOOOUUUUU!!!!! This is gonna be so great! Let’s go!” She was about to burst through the doors when, “Oh, that’s right,” she said softly with a squeak while dropping to her hooves, “This is a library…” She quietly trotted in, and I followed her.
“Go ahead and browse around as long as you want. I want you to learn as much as you can about this world,” I told her.
She giggled at me. “Well, you’ve already taught me a lot, haven’t you?”
“Maybe…” I replied with a smirk.
“But, I’m sure there’s still a lot more to learn.”
“I’ll just wait at that table over there. Come get me when you’re done, okay?”
“Sounds great!” she said as she walked off, looking at the wide selection of books on all the shelves. I went ahead and sat down and did some random things on my laptop. After a while, I started to feel drowsy, so I put my laptop away, and then rested my head on my backpack.
…
The library will be closing in 5 minutes. That was the sound I woke up to all of a sudden. I looked at my watch. It was almost 5:00. It was a Friday, and this library closed early on Fridays. As I continued to regain my composure, I looked around and saw Twilight trotting towards me, looking very delighted.
“Oh my gosh!” she said, excitedly, but quietly, “You wouldn’t believe how much I’ve learned about this place! Did you know that the land we’re standing on used to be one big piece of land that split overtime? And that there were over 500 species of these huge creatures called dinosaurs? Or that the galaxy we’re in is going to collide with a bigger galaxy in 3 billion years?”
“Sounds like you had a wonderful time here, Twilight,” I replied nonchalantly, still trying to wake up completely.
“So, what can we do now?”
“Ummm…” Even in my semi-conscious mind, I drew a blank. I didn’t know what to tell her. “I’m not really sure. Think we should get going back to my place?”
“Oh…” she replied. Her ears drooped while her face sported a disappointed look, “Alright.”
Her sad face made me feel sad, too. I wanted to stay in Chicago for a little while longer, but I hadn’t really had time to plan anything for us to do. It was Friday. There had to be at least SOMETHING to do.
As we stepped out of the library, I looked to my left and saw a college-age looking man standing a few feet away from me. He was wearing Chicago Blackhawks fanwear and was talking on his cell phone. He sounded disappointed. “You still haven’t left Minneapolis?!?” he said loudly, “Wow, just great.” I had heard earlier that despite it being early November, the Minneapolis area was getting pounded by heavy snowfall.
Twilight and I stepped to the right, out of the way of the doors to the library. I stopped and leaned against the outer wall and pulled out my Smartphone. “What are you doing?” Twilight asked.
“I’m looking up other possible things for us to do,” I replied, “I’m having second thoughts about heading home.”
As I looked on my phone, I could still hear that man talking on his. “Well, maybe you can catch the game on the TV’s at the airport. I guess I’ve got two extra tickets for the game tonight. Alright, hope you can get here soon. Bye.” He hung up his phone and started to walk in our direction. He stopped and noticed my Blackhawks t-shirt under my half-unzipped hoody. I had worn that shirt today for no particular reason, but I had no idea that it was probably the best choice I had made today. “Hey,” the man said, “You goin’ to the game tonight?”
“I wish,” I replied, “My friend and I here have nothing to do, but those games are so damn expensive I can never get tickets.”
“Well, I was supposed to have two friends fly in from Minneapolis today for that game, but they’re snowed in. So, I’ve got two extra seats. You want them?”
“Seriously?” I asked, nearly flabbergasted. I felt like I had just won the lottery.
“Sure! I mean, you’re already dressed for the occasion! Why not?”
“Thanks!” I said in excitement as I was handed the two tickets.
“No problem! See you guys there!” the man said as he walked off.
I looked down at Twilight. “Well, it looks like we’re going to a hockey game tonight!”
The little alicorn looked puzzled. “What’s hockey?” she asked.
I was a bit surprised. I figured she’d learned about a whole bunch of sports while in the library, but at the same time I knew that she wasn’t really into sports back in Equestria. “Well, it’s basically two teams skating on ice trying to shoot a little piece of dense plastic called a puck into a goal.”
“That’s it?” she asked in reply.
“Yep. That’s it. If you don’t think that’s exciting, just wait until we get there. Everyone’s gonna be going nuts.” I then reached into my backpack and pulled out a red scarf. I had initially packed it for Twilight just in case the weather got colder than it already was, and all because she would have nothing to wear. “Here. You’re gonna need this.” Her horn then lit up and she took the scarf in her magic, wrapping it comfortably around her neck. It was amazing to see Equestrian magic happening right in front of my eyes.
“Shall we?” she asked.
“We shall,” I replied with a smile.
…
The familiar sound of a loud horn signaled yet another goal scored by the greatest hockey team in the league. Fans all around were screaming at the top of their lungs in excitement, and almost immediately afterwards started to sing the Blackhawks’ theme music, “Chelsea Dagger” by The Fratellis. As the screaming died down, Twilight, the dude who gave us these amazing seats and I sat back down along with the rest of the fans. Throughout this game, Twilight, to my surprise, had seemed more excited than she was when we arrived at the library earlier. I knew she wasn’t into sports, but she seemed mesmerized by everything going on. I felt that she had a somewhat decent understanding of the game by now. There had been multiple icing and offside calls, as well as a few trips to the penalty box for some players. I had no idea what was making her focus so intently on the game, but she seemed to be enjoying herself very much, and that made me very happy.
At the same time, I wondered why our new friend hadn’t been bothered in the slightest that I had a creature from another world with me this whole time. I turned my head to face him. “Hey, can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” he replied, “What’s up?”
I motioned with my finger for him to bring his ear a little closer. “My friend here isn’t making you feel, well, you know, uncomfortable, is she?” I whispered.
“Why would she be?” he replied while chuckling slightly, “She’s best pony!”
I replied by laughing back at him in a friendly way. In my opinion, Rarity was best pony, but having Twilight here was absolutely perfect. Throughout my time as a Brony, I had always dreamt of spending time with the Mane 6, or even with just one of them. I felt extremely fortunate to have this opportunity. It was an opportunity that I knew few Bronies would ever have. I was about to drift away into more wonderful thoughts when the crowd suddenly went crazy again and the horn blasted loudly.
“Woo-hoo!” Twilight exclaimed, “They did it again!” She and our friend were both cheering madly, so I joined them, seeing nothing but excitable chaos inside the arena and a victory on the horizon.
…
“Wow…” Twilight said softly, exhausted from the day’s events, “That was amazing.” Her head was resting on my backpack, which I had sitting against my upper left leg.
“I know. What a great game,” I replied, equally as drained of energy.
“No, I mean, everything we did today was amazing. The library, the Skydeck, everything. I never knew a world could be so advanced. I can’t wait to tell my friends about this.”
“Hang on. Are you sure you’re gonna be able to get back home?”
“You’re right. I’ll have to remember exactly what I did, and then I can just cast a reversal spell to send me back to Equestria. I can’t really do that right now, though. I’m too tired.”
“Don’t worry. The guest room’s all ready.” I said before giving her a pat on the back.
As the train back home rolled through the night, I realized that the heater in this car seemed to be in overdrive because it was warmer than I felt it should have been. With that in mind, I unzipped my hoody, took it off, and laid it over Twilight’s back. She hummed softly as the pre-warmed fabric graced her backside. I knew she was close to falling asleep. “Good night, Twilight,” I said softly.
“Good night,” she replied. “Oh, and by the way…”
“What?”
“Leprechauns are cute.”
THE END
