A Tale Of A Hero

I made my way over to the lump of cyan and rainbow colors,still trying to find out what it reminded me of, but before I could even make it halfway to the cyan lump, an orange colored creature crawled out of the crater and stood in front of the lump, defending it.

"Listen here big fella, we dont want no trouble but if yer looking for a fight..." it said in perfect english, but surprisingly with a southern accent, and taking a fighting stance even though I saw that it had a more fearful and tired look in it's eyes than rebellious.

"Weird..." I thought still dazed from the explosion, "That sounds exactly like Applejack."

" Im not going to hurt you, I just want to help your friend." I said in a soothing voice, but the figure didn't budge an inch.

Three more figures popped out of the hole and lined up next to the one I thought was Applejack.

"Okay, it cant be Applejack, there is only 5 of them at the moment," I thought as I did a quick head count of all the ponies in my head. "Yeah there needs to be 6 to be the ponies."

A bright pink one dropped away from the line and knelt by the cyan colored one. I could make out 'Wake up Dashie, come on rise and shine.' from her words as she nudged her.

"Oh my god there is no way in hell..." I thought as the clouds parted away from the full moon making all of the ponies visible in the pale moonlight. Then another one with a purple horn came stumbling out. At that moment I could swear my jaw dropped,because I could practically taste the dirt.

All six of them,Twilight with a torn up book still in her saddle pack, Applejack with her brown hat and blonde mane, Fluttershy with her pink mane in wavy formations around her face and a scared but defiant look on her face, Rarity with her curly purple mane and majestic horn, Pinkie Pie and her crazy hair all over the place still nudging at Rainbow Dash to get up, and Rainbow Dash with her wings folded against her sides and still lying in a fuzzball of rainbow colors.

"Im a maniac...seeing ponies from some cartoon show." I thought. "So it's finally happened? Ive gone crazy, it ain't that bad really, at least as this is all insanity has to offer." I thought as my head began to drift off. Then I snapped back to my senses and realized just how bad the situation was. It meant that these ponies were real,whether they're from different dimensions or what they are still here, standing right over there, and ready to take me down at a moments notice. Then Twilight walked out of line and up to me.

" Excuse me sir,but could you help us?" she asked with her sparkling eyes and again like Applejack in perfect english.

" Um...Yeah sure." I said dumbfounded.

" Do you know a place where we could stay?" Twilight asked looking tired and beat.

"Come on stupid," I thought in my mind, "She fell over 200 feet from the air,what else is she going to look like?"

"Yeah I do, we could go back to my house if you need a place that badly..." I said aloud, and Twilight looked at me with gratitude. She walked back over to her friends and they all nodded and gave me funny looks. Applejack and Pinkie Pie both propped Rainbow on their backs, but even the best athlete in Ponyville looked like she was going to give out under the weight.

" Let me help you." I said reaching out a hand to carry Rainbow Dash, but Applejack gave me a look like she was about to kick me to the next town over.

" Come on Apple Jack, we are going to need him to help at one point or another." Twilight said walking behind me. Gripping the whole fact that these ponies were real was hard for me to imagine and was surprised at myself at how I didnt just run for my life, off into the middle of the night laughing like a lunatic. So with Twilight's approval, Applejack and Pinkie Pie let Rainbow Dash down and I picked her up and rested her on my shoulders. I could feel her slowly breathing and a steady heartbeat.

"Good, she's alive...Wait why do I care? Random ponies falling out of the sky from little kids show that I watched just to see something happy in this world, and here I am already offering them to stay at my house for god knows how long." I thought as I racked my brain for an answer. We then made our way ,quickly, down the sidewalk to my house looking for any prying eyes, " I know, they find a way to bring happiness into the world, they spread joy and save people from their sorrows. They can save people, but they don't need to do it like a super hero flying around everywhere and saving people in a runaway bus or something flashy like that. They do it in their own way, I guess you could call it the pony way." I chuckled at the thought. " Yeah they save people the pony way, who knows they might save me the pony way, but before any of that I need to help them in anyway I can." With that new found reason to keep me going, I walked with a bit more determination in my step, all the way to my house.

I remember never being as happy to see the beat up building that was my home.

" Is that your house?" Pinkie Pie said with absolute glee. "Its so big! Is there an underground mountain that you can ski on? I bet the skis are made of ice cream cones too so when you go down you have a snack waiting for you at the end! We should go skiing sometime its really fun. My cousin Cherry said it was really fun for her and her fami-!"

"Now now cool it down sugar cube, we should just be thankful that this fella is letting us stay at 'is lovely," she paused for a second, looking at the beat up and run down building that barely kept its shutters attached to the windows on a windy night. "Um home."

" I wouldn't call THAT thing a home, I mean it looks like it can barely stand its own ugliness." Rarity said with disgust, "Although I do see some potential here and there... maybe a little color and a garden...." she said as she went on with her renovation ideas.

"It's okay Applejack, I know how it looks and thanks for the vivid picture Rarity, I guess."  I said chuckling as I unlocked the door and stepped inside. I took a quick look around and saw there were no empty beer cans and plates splattered everywhere so that at least meant my uncle wasn't home for now.

" Alright welcome to my humble home." I said with a smile as I motioned for everyone to come inside. They immediately rushed inside, explored almost every nook and cranny, and were asleep before I could even say "Don't touch that." I started cleaning up the house after the multi-colored tornado had hit it. I was in the middle of sweeping the kitchen when Twilight walked up to me.

"Here let me get that." she said as a faint purple aura covered the broom.

" No I cant let you do that, its fine just go back to sleep." I said trying to grab the floating broom but with no success.

" What are you talking about we're the ones that made the whole mess we, or I, should be the one to clean it up." she said giggling as if the idea of me cleaning up after them was absolutely ridiculous." You know, you can put Rainbow Dash down now right?" she said continuing her sweeping. I just remembered I hadnt taken the cyan pony off my shoulders since the park.

"Oh yeah right." I said as I shook my head, but unfortunately my hair must have whipped Rainbow Dash one too many times and woke her up, and before I knew it I had two hoof prints on my forehead and a very very angry looking Rainbow Dash glaring at me.

"Alright whats the idea big guy?" Rainbow Dash said as she raised her hoof and shook it in my face, " And no funny business or your going to get a matching set of those hooves!"

" Whats is all of this ruckus?" Rarity asked walking in the room with bags under her eyes. " Don't you ponies understand the word beauty sleep?"

" Is everything alright?" Fluttershy said quietly as she flew right behind Rarity rubbing her eyes.

" Yay Dashie is awake now!" Pinkie Pie said as she hopped in.

" Careful guys, I think it's up to something." Rainbow Dash said re-positioning her self in front of her friends without taking her eyes off of me. I rubbed my head trying to come up with something to say, but my head was too fuzzy to even think about what had happened.

" Rainbow Dash, you're really going to treat the pony who carried you all the way here like that?" Applejack said walking in.

" Yeah Rainbow Dash if it wasn't for him, w-we might not have been able to carry you anywhere." Fluttershy said looking at the floor.

" And he's letting us stay at his home, until we're able to get back to our home." Twilight said as the broom finished its work. Rainbow Dash looked at all of her friends ,one at a time, and then back to me.

" Why?" she said silently.

" Excuse me?" I managed to choke.

" Why did you carry me? You could've just let them carry me or you could've woken me up. So why?" she said looking at me with fierce eyes. I didnt want to tell her my ridiculous idea about them bringing happiness into this world, so I came up with the next best thing.

"Well, they needed help carrying you so I offered to." I said. She looked at me as if she knew the answer was a lie, but if she did she didnt say anything about it.She just flew off into the living room and started to fall asleep on the couch.

" Is that all finally straightened out?" Rarity said yawning. "Good then lets please get some rest."

" I could go for some shut eye right about now too." Applejack said right behind her. Soon all of the ponies were back to sleeping, leaving me and Twilight in the kitchen.

" You're taking all of this pretty well." Twilight said staring at me.

" What do you mean?" I said fishing some crackers out of the pantry. I hadn't eaten all day and I was hungry.

" Random ,colorful ponies fall into your world, and you just offer them a place to stay without any kind of question whatsoever." Twilight said, "It just sounds, well, weird. Im thankful for your hospitality and all but still it just doesn't seem like the normal thing to do for a group of strangers like us."

" Well I guess we should talk about it then." I said walking over to the kitchen table and sitting down. " Go ahead and take a seat." she walked over and took a look at the chair and gave me a look that said "Are you seeing the problem here yet?" Unfortunately my uncle had a thing for bars and he made almost every chair, but his favorite recliner, in the house a bar stool, so there was no way for Twilight to get to the top of the chair.

" Right right forgot, ponies short, chairs tall sorry." I said standing up and kneeling to get eye to eye with her. " In my world, you guys are a , god how do I put this, kids show." I paused expecting for her to tell me I was crazy but she just nodded her head. " And well I've seen the show a couple of times and it just felt natural for me to help you know? Help you get back into your world and all." She stared at me for a couple of seconds with those big eyes of hers then she finally spoke.

" Is that your only reason? Just because we're in a show that you barely like, means you want to help us get back to our world?" she said.

" Of course not." Rainbow Dash said trotting inside the kitchen. " He's obviously just using us to get out of this world and go back to ours."

" Rainbow Dash please keep it down the others are trying to sleep." Twilight said.

" Oh right," Rainbow Dash said brushing her hoof against the floor. " But its still true about what I said. Your just using us to get out of here, theres no reason anyone would WANT to be here anyway." she said in a loud whisper.

" Rainbow Dash mind your manors!" Twilight said sharply.

" Not untill HE gives me a real answer." she said right back at Twilight. I looked down at the floor silently as the two of them went back and forth at each other. When my parents were together, I could remember the fights, and somehow I just got it in my head that it was always my fault and I hated causing them so much trouble. It was all I could to do curl up into a corner and cover my ears.

" Rainbow Dash you just cant for-" Twilight almost got through saying but I interrupted.

" No Twilight, it's fine." I said with a grim tone as I made my way to Rainbow Dash standing in the doorway. " Rainbow Dash, I dont know why you cant trust me, but i'm only trying to help you all, anyway I can." I said looking her straight in the eye.

" But why are you helping us? What could you possibly gain through it all?" Rainbow Dash said.

" I promise my reasons for helping all of you are in no way devious or evil. It's just the right thing to do for.." I paused trying to come up with the right word to pin the idea I had. "For friends." She had looked at me with puzzling eyes as if she never wouldve seen this answer coming, and personally I didn't think I would be able to see it coming either. She just stared at me for minutes on end until finally she walked away with her hooves clattering against the wooden floor.

" I have no idea what's gotten into her." Twilight said.

" It's okay, I think I understand why she's doing all of this. Why don't you go back to sleep now?" I asked as I walked to the sink and started washing the dishes.

" I could help you if you want." she said.

" No it's fine, I kinda got a lot to think about anyway." I said.

" Oh okay then." Twilight said as she started for the door. "Thanks again sir." and she was gone.

I guess I might have lied to Twilight. I didn't have all that much to think about, I just needed something to do, something to waste my time. All of this happened in just one walk and it was a bit hard to take in fully. Or was there not much to think about, just some ponies from another dimension come into the world and I invite them for a sleepover. That will last about god knows how long. Okay so there were things to think about, but I know im not much of a thinker anyway. One thing is made clear though, I have to see this through to the end. They are counting on me to help them after all.

I finished the dishes and walked out of the kitchen to see all of the sleeping ponies sprawled out everywhere making themselves comfortable, even Twilight had fallen asleep within seconds of lying down. I was walking out quietly but I caught a glance of a peeking Rainbow Dash. I grinned, turned around, and set myself in my uncle's recliner. Of course when I looked to Rainbow Dash her eyes were shut tight but I knew she was still awake and was listening. I let my head rest on the chair's soft cushions for a minute and I realized I was just how exhausted I really was. You don't really carry a 60 pound pony around for 18 blocks and feel like a million bucks afterward I guess. Then another thing hit me. This was the first time I even tempted a smile since my mother's death.

" Well look at that," I thought as I drifted off to sleep. " They're saving me already mom."