Finding Freedom

I really dislike shopping in Equestria. Back on earth I just go to the internet and search for what I want. I can see all the prices of things and even where the store is located. Here I have to walk around for ages just to find one thing, then I have to find out its price, then check all the other stores to see what their prices are. In the end just to find out all the prices are the same. It took me the rest of the day to shop for all the ponies, and at the end I was so tired that I just fell asleep after stashing my purchases in a place no one would ever find them. In the tree branches of the library.

The next day started out just the same. With snow ending up in my face. Pinkie must have a really good arm, she manages to hit me in the face every time. Following the daily routine I shook myself and flew to the ground. Preparing to launch snow at Pinkie, I was completely surprised when a snowball hit the back of my head. It hit me really lightly, like a tap. How do you throw something lightly, but still far?

I turned around to see Fluttershy hiding behind her mane, "Oh I didn't hurt you did I? I knew I would be no good at this."

Well if somepony knew how to throw something lightly, it would be Fluttershy.

"No you did good, but you should be helping me take down Pinkie there."

The fight continued, and with Fluttershy's help, I was able to thoroughly soak Lunar and Twilight. However the outcome was still the same and we all ended up in the library. The fire spread warmth and laying down next to a pony helped as well.

"So Rainbow, you never answered our question. When are you going to find somepony to buck with?"

Rainbow sighed, "We're still on that?"

Rarity said, "Well we just want to know if there is a special stallion in your life. It's perfectly okay if there isn't. I am not romantically inclined. My work is much more important."

"Or is it that there is a special mare?"

All the ponies gave me a disgusted look, but then looked at Rainbow curiously.

She gave us all an incredulous look, "I am not a filly-fooler! I guess I've been to focused on joining the Wonderbolts to think about it. For now, I think I'll continue to do so. I don't think a relationship would go well with that life style anyway."

We all accepted that answer and stopped asking. Fluttershy interrupted and said,

"Um… Pinkie it's about time for us to go. If that's okay I mean…"

"Go where?" I asked.

"Oh well… me and Pinkie were going to bake some things."

"Mind if I join, I don't have anything to do today."

"Um… Pinkie?"

"Oh sure! it'll be loads of fun with three people to bake! We can make all kinds of things!"

Why did I just do that? Why would I do that? I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. Now I was going to be cooking all day. Why couldn't I just shut up.

We left the library together, and headed towards Sugarcube corner. Pinkie led the way, bouncing happily while Fluttershy followed. I walked behind them awkwardly. I felt like I had just intruded on their girl-time, but I wanted to do something different today.

I haven't really cooked in my life. I can make all kinds of breakfast foods; pancakes, eggs, bacon, waffles, French toast, even crepes, but that's it. Everything else is boil some water with it.

Pinkie led us into what she called the kitchen and what I called 'ground zero'. It looked like a bomb had been set off inside. Ingredients of all sorts were laid out everywhere. I'm pretty sure I saw what looked like to be cactus on a shelf. Pinkie started by clearing off a section of a counter top.

"Mrs. Cake is out for the day, so she won't be making any treats today. So I thought we could do it for her!"

Pinkie pulled out a cup cake tray and laid it on the counter. She flew around the house gathering the materials for the batter. I didn't even bother trying to keep up with her. Fluttershy ignored Pinkie and began mixing up the batter. While she was doing that, Pinkie zoomed next to me.

"Now we have to put it the mystery ingredient!"

"Uh… What?

"Were making surprise cupcakes! Just grab something from the kitchen that looks good and mix it with the batter! Then we'll put them in the oven. Then we'll have cupcakes!"

Me and Pinkie gathered together random things from the kitchen, including the cactus thing and mashed them up separately. We poured each mesh into one of the holes in the pan. Fluttershy poured the mix in after, and we stuck the pan in the oven.

I tried to clean the kitchen up, but Pinkie somehow managed to keep messing things up. In the end, the chaos looked exactly like it had when we had first started. I guess there was some order to how Pinkie did things, but I would never figure it out.

When the 'surprises' were done we set up a small stall outside and let people sample them. Almost no one took the offer, and I can't say I blamed them. Lunar came by at one point, and asked me about them.

"Would you recommend eating these?"

"As a maker of the muffins, I say that these could be the best cupcakes ever. As a friend, I say that these things need to be buried somewhere."

"Alright… Whatever, I'll try one."

I handed him a random cupcake, and he bit into it. He chewed it, then stopped moving. For a good 30 seconds he did nothing. He just sat there, his facial expression undecided. Then he he turned around and spit it out. He dropped the cupcake and ran away, saying

"I think I'm going to be sick."

I looked at the cupcake on the ground, and saw that the inside was green. He must've gotten the cactus one, unlucky. A little later, Twilight came around.

"Do I want to eat one of these?"

"Are you willing to take a risk?"

"Uh…. no. By the way, Caramel stopped by earlier looking for you."

"Oh good, I needed an excuse to get away. Here you can try this one."

I handed her another random cupcake, and she looked at it for awhile. She handed it back to me and said,

"I think I'll pass. I don't feel like spending the rest of the day sick."

"Probably the right choice."

Twilight left and headed back to the library. Pinkie ate the cupcake I was holding out of my hoof.

"mmm! Apple cupcake!"

We stayed there for a little bit, but apparently Lunar's experience had traveled. Only a few brave ponies tried the cupcakes, and they usually went away running. After a while, Pinkie packed up and moved everything back into the kitchen.

I left to find Caramel, who hadn't decided to stop by Sugarcube corner. I stopped by the house he share with Chance and Storm, but only Chance was there.

"Hey Chance, you seen Caramel anywhere?"

"He was out looking for you. Storm said that he went to check Fluttershy's house."

At that moment, Caramel and Storm walked inside.

"Oh there you are Silver. Me and the guys are going to chop some wood, wondering if you wanted to come."

"You're going to chop wood?"

"Ya, the mayor wants some more houses to be built, and we need wood to do that. So before she hired some carpenters, she offered us local guys a chance to make some money. I know you don't have a job right now, so I thought I would get you in on this."

"Well sure, why not?"

"Alright, I knew you would want to. Big Mac is already waiting by the forest. I'll explain it to you on the way."
We left the house, with Chance locking the place behind us. We walked towards the forest, as Caramel explained my job to me.

"Well Big Mac and Chance here are going to be bucking the trees down. It's our job to clear off all the branches. When that’s done you and storm will fly the log back to town. Leave it by the construction zone. I'll get started on the next log. Once we have enough, Big Mac, me, and Chance will help drag the rest of the logs back."

We arrived at the forest where Big Mac was waiting for us. He took us in a little, and showed us where he had already started. A few trees already rested on the ground. We started clearing the branches off, while Chance went to help Big Mac.

It took them several bucks to get the tree to fall, as these were thicker than the apple trees at the farm. They took their time, making sure the tree would fall in the right direction. While we stripped the tree, we began talking.

"So who would win in a fight, Big Mac or Chance?"

"That's like asking the difference between water and water. I think they would exhaust each other and tie."

"I can understand Big Mac, he spent his entire life bucking apples. How did Chance get so much muscle?"

"I don't know, he never really talks about what he did before coming here. I know that he has to work with heavy machines a lot, but we don't talk a lot about work."

"What about you Storm? What did you do before coming here?"

"Promise not to laugh?"

"When have I ever made fun of you?"

"All the time."

"Point, I'll try."

"Well I worked as a bouncer at model shows. I kept out all the people who tried to get in without permission."

"Why would I laugh at that? You get to wear a suit, some awesome shades, and push people around."

"I didn't like all the moving around. I know most Pegasi love traveling, and for awhile I did, but eventually it got to me. I wanted to stop and live in a house that I actually owned. I wanted to have friends that wouldn't disappear the next day. The road is a lonely place."

"Fair enough."

Caramel interrupted us, "Well if you two are done trading stories, this log is ready to go back."

I grimaced, moving the logs wasn't very easy for us. They set the log on our backs and we held it at each end. We would then fly the log to the construction site. We had to go slowly, so we wouldn't drop it on somepony. We couldn't even really talk either, we had to focus on flying in sync.

We took off slowly with the log, and made our way to the construction site. It was on the road towards the tower, but a lot closer than the tower itself. They planned to build a little neighborhood with the road running through it.
We continued this way, until Big Mac was satisfied with the amount of logs that had been cut down. While they cleared the logs, we delivered the ones that had already been cleared. Then when we had finished with that, Big Mac and Chance got hitched up to a large cart that we put the rest of the logs in.

We delivered them to the construction site, where they would apparently make planks and stuff out of them. I'm not really sure how they would, but that wasn't part of my job. Caramel got the money form the mayor and counted it out between us. I took my share and after saying my good byes, left for the library. It was nearly nightime and the work had been exhausting.
I walked inside, muttered a hello to Twilight and took a shower. I came out feeling much better. I handed Twilight my money and said,

"Keep this safe for me. "

She huffed and walked off to wherever she kept the rest of my money. I really just paid her to let me use her shower. I don't think she even took my money to be honest. Maybe she thought that one day I would use it for something.

I left without dwelling on that for too long. I flew up to a nice fluffy cloud and laid down. I let my tail hang off, and looked down on Ponyville. It was nice now that things were back to normal. No weird adventures today.
______________________________________________________________________

AN: I was given advice today by a fic writer who is also an irl friend. He told me to always have a set limit of words to reach ,and to always have a chapter prepared in case i have to leave for awhile. After he told me this, i decided i must be horrible at this. I just write a chapter until it feels done, and i always post them as soon as the chapter is done. Also this morning (2:30 a.m.) i went for a run. It's winter and i live in Michigan. You can probably guess how that worked out.