The Voices (In My Head Again)by Some Guy Who WritesChapterschapter 1 A Chance Encounterchapter 2 Insomniachapter 3 Awakened at Twilightchapter 4 The Night Courtchapter 5 In the Gardenchapter 6 Early Morningchapter 7 Attempting To Wake the Beastchapter 8 Awakened At Twilight'schapter 9, 56 days leftchapter 11 A Man Without Clothes Is Hardly a Man, Okay, He's Just Nakedchapter 12 Oh Golly Gee My First Job! 55 days leftchapter 13 working at a cafe can't be that hard, right?chapter 14 Business done right, 54 days leftchapter 15 Bookfort One, this is Pillowfort Alpha, do you copy?chapter 16 Sir Yes Sir!chapter 17 Everywhere They Gochapter 18 Hammer Spacechapter 19 Oops Doesn't Even Begin To Cover Thischapter 20 "I'm Sorry," Isn't Good Enoughchapter 21 Forces Beyond Our Controlchapter 23 Kind of...chapter 10 The Pink One Enterschapter 22 So, The Main Character Is Dead...chapter 1 A Chance EncounterThe room is large and crowds of people pour in from all directions, various stalls displaying their goods as passerby's walk around the vendor hall of the noisy convention center. It has beige walls and a red carpet, there are families here among the crowd with their kids. They all gather near the plushie stall to shop for their favorite toys. Sketch, on the other hand, has more interest in the Magic The Gathering table that he had shopped at previously, he bought a few much needed cards for his deck before he came back to do another run through for anything he might be missing out on. After spending what money he has on collectibles and memorabilia he leaves the vendor hall and begins to wander the other convention halls. “I think I’ll hit the dance panel next, those always look like fun, maybe if I get there early I can get in the front row!” Sketch says excitedly, as he runs to the panel with four bags full of con swag. He originally was going to cosplay but there was a tournament he just had to participate in and you can’t exactly fight in a complicated costume with multiple parts, so he just opted for a Guy Fawkes mask for the fun of it. As he enters the panel room he notices it was actually more akin to a small concert hall with a stage, curtains and lights included. It was rather impressive for the hotel he's staying at, it wasn’t great, but at least they took care of the facilities and panel rooms. “Hmm, so this is the ‘You think you can dance’ Anime panel, should be interesting, I hope they do Lucky Star,” he says to himself as he walks the halls, being 6’2” he could see over most of the crowd, thankfully most didn’t have on large costumes, well, other than the RWBY cosplayer with the scythe, something Sketch found very well made. “Wait, back on topic man, keep it together, don’t nerd out too much, it’s only a- Ooh shiny!” He shouts as he sees a chrome Gundam in a display case, “Dear god what have I become… Wait...I-Is that... Q?!” As Sketch attempts to return his attention to the line of people on the stage getting ready to make fools of themselves for some laughs, he sees by far the most impressive Q cosplay he had ever laid eyes on. He is exactly the right height. It is as if John De Lancie had walked right off the set and had decided to spend his time at the convention. But the likelihood of that was incredibly low, John had stopped playing Q when The Next Generation ended and besides that, John no longer had the brown hair, it had become gray and peppered in his age. This couldn’t be John, but perhaps a relative. As he bids goodbye to a child he’d signed an autograph for, Sketch could swear that the man even spoke in the same exact quirky, dramatic and playful tone. “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!” Sketch wants to get an autograph- no, he needs a picture! “Excuse me, sir? I love your Q cosplay, may I get an autograph and a picture?” The cosplayer simply smiles and gives Sketch a toothy grin. “Of course my boy, who wouldn’t want something to remember me by?” His voice copying was impeccable, the kind that could only be related to either a high-end voice modulator or a long time of practice. He slaps Sketch on the back and snapped his fingers, producing a pen and a camera from his own con bag. The man then pulls Sketch into a big, one-armed squeeze, camera in the other hand aimed at the two of them. After a large flash, the older, polaroid-style camera spits out a photo of the two of them. Q leans over to Sketch. “You like being a trickster too, eh?” “Hehe, yeah, I’m a bit of a clown, I even juggle, wanna see?” “Perhaps another time, now then, hold still.” Taking the pen, the cosplayer man writes on the Guy Fawkes mask Sketch was wearing and hands him the photo. “Sweet! Did you make your costume? If so can you email me the patterns?! This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” “Sorry my boy, all my costumes are one-of-a-kind!” The cosplayer chuckles. “And please, this can’t be the ‘coolest’ thing ever. Perhaps close but you really can’t imagine anything more amazing?” “No, I don’t have a good imagination.” “Well, that will need to be fixed!” The incredibly charismatic voice of the cosplayer snickers. “Perhaps... no, not yet. When you no longer need to be here maybe... Yes, when your business is done here, I will happily show you a much more amazing experience!” “Sounds cool man! Anyways thanks so much for this, means a lot.” “Think nothing of it.” the cosplayer gives a deep bow and walks around a corner, sauntering to a tune only he could hear. Sketch attempts to follow, realizing he never got to see the man’s convention pass, something to divulge his true identity, but the man is nowhere to be found. Regaining his focus, Sketch walks down the hall and finds the panel room. There he sees a large Pikachu cosplayer on stage, the Pikachu costume very plush, with extra foam. It looked adorable and huggable, just like Pikachu should be. “I gotta see this.” He says as he walks in, but as he did so he overhears a conversation between two convention staff, something about the stage lights. The show starts without a hitch, they do the Kurutto Mawatte Ikkaiten from Keroro Gunso, Hare Hare Yukai from the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Caramelldansen which isn’t even from an anime but he dances along for the hell of it. Although dancing in his trench coat and holding bags made it a little awkward, especially with all the foam rubber knives he carried with him. They were fairly realistic with small, silverish ‘blades’ and palm-sized black handles, but whenever he was LARPing, they became deadly instruments meant for impaling his victims. And juggling. As the music plays with the video projector showing the anime the dance is from on the screen behind the dancers which comprised of a zombie, Ruby, Master Chef (Master Chief in an apron, a chef’s hat and oven mitts with a spatula) and the bulky costumed Pikachu from before. ‘The costume was well made to be quite honest, looked plush, but hard to move in.’ he thinks to himself. As the panel continues, there are creaking noises emanating above the stage, as he looks up he notices one of the light is beginning to come loose right above the dancers. “Please tell me that isn’t going to fall….” Sketch says to himself, full of worry. Sure enough, with one final creak, the light begins to come loose. With the music blaring, no one was aware of the impending danger as they dance beneath possible crushing death. Looking at the dancers for a split second he determined the Pikachu in the center of the stage was in the most danger, so he climbs on stage to save the Pokemon. He hurriedly gets on stage and pushes the Pikachu out of the way making them fall to the ground on their back. Just as he pushes the dancer out of the way the supports for the light above gave way as creaks could be heard right before it plummeted down onto him. Screams can be heard from the crowd as the light falls, it initially hits him in the head, but as he fell the light settles in his back, the heat from the bulb singeing his coat and skin as one of the light panels from the fixture was now lodged into his back. The crowd is in a panic and the staff quickly take control of the situation the best they can, they quickly get the members in the room on stage to try to dislodge the light from Sketch, but to no avail. He tries to speak but could only gurgle as blood fills his mouth and pools by his head. With restricted head movement his eyes dart around the room in a panic, is he going to die here? Before he can continue his train of thought the darkness envelopes him. “Whoopsies.” Comes a charismatic voice. “I didn’t think it would happen that soon, but... a promise is a promise.” Through the thick fog of near unconsciousness, out steps the Q cosplayer, whose face metamorphoses into one with a long brown snout, a snaggletooth, and burning yellow eyes which were full of apologetic worry for all of two moments. He snaps his fingers and gives a hearty laugh. “Go~od lu~uck!” As the moon rises in the night sky Luna makes her way back to the throne room to deal with more nobles, oh joy. “Even at night these ponies never sleep.” Luna huffs as her work is never done. As she heads back to the throne room a loud noise emanates from the garden. “What in Equestria is that?” Luna asks no one in particular. “Ugh my head, where am I?” Sketch asks aloud with no one to reply, “Why the hell am I outside?” He gets up and begins to wander the garden as he tries to get his bearings. “Stop right there!” Someone shouts, Sketch turns around only to see a white horse with a spear, “How did you get in the garden and why are you here?” “I have no idea, where am I?” Sketch asks. “Don’t play dumb, and what kind of creature are you?” The horse asks. “Put down the spear, and we can talk this out.” Sketch suggests, “I’m no threat to you.” “I still don’t believe you, but maybe the Princess of the night can straighten this out. Come with me and don’t do anything, or else you will face my spear.” “Duly noted, let’s go see your Princess or whatever.” “Finally, all the nobles have been dealt with, I don’t see how my sister does this day in and day out.” “Princess! I found what made that crash in the garden.” “What manner of beast or pony did you find?” Luna asks. “I’m no beast, I’m a human, you’re the beast, or at least a small horse, maybe a pony? Not quite sure, I’m no vet.” “You dare insult the Princess of the night?” Luna stars him down, the glare not really bothering him. “What, are you like the princess except for the night shift? Doesn’t it kind of suck that you work at night when it is so nice out?” “You prefer the night?” Luna asks incredulously. “Yes, no bright sun to get in your eyes, the starry night sky and the beautiful moon and sometimes even an eclipse; the night time kicks the shit out of the day time! Not to mention it is much more peaceful” “I may have misjudged you, although you will apologize for the beast comment.” “Agreed, you are clearly sentient so therefore you are not a beast, that’s my bad.” “What’s your name?” Luna asks. “They call me Sketch.” “Who is this ‘they’ that calls you this? Your friends?” “It is a name I kinda choose myself and people just went along with it.” “I see, so your kind chooses their own names?” “No, but we have screen names, aliases, nicknames, gamer tags, etcetera.” “How many names do you go by?” “I have roughly… six different aliases all for different types of systems but my main one is Sketch.” “Doesn’t that get rather confusing?” “Nah, I have different names for different groups of friends so when I hear a specific name I know immediately who is calling me.” “That could be rather useful.” “Yeah, nicknames are necessary when you are online, you don’t want everyone in the world knowing your real name, where you live, etcetera.” “Online? The whole world??” “We have an interconnected system of devices which we use to talk, to shop and to research things from all over the world, imagine the world’s libraries all at the touch of your fingertips.” “That is rather impressive.” “We like to think we are, most of the time though we fail to meet expectations. So, why are you on night shift?” “You see, I control the moon, and my sister, Princess Celestia, controls the sun and we rest while the other watches over the country.” “Since you are blue and the night sky is a dark blue or black, your sister is yellow?” “No, she has a white coat and a multi colored mane. Where are you from to have never heard of her?” “Earth, specifically The United States.” “States?” “Our country is divided into fifty equal states and we all follow an elected official we call the President.” “How many of you are there?” “Humans? Roughly seven billion.” At this Luna’s jaw hits the floor. “Seven billion?! In the one country?” “No, seven billion on our entire planet. My country, made up of fifty states has three hundred million though.” “You are from another planet? How did you get here?” “No idea, I remember getting up on stage, a bright light, lots of searing pain and then I ended up in that garden.” “Searing pain?” “A stage light fell on me and killed...me…” Sketch’s face goes pale. “You died?” “I... guess I did…” Sketch just looks down at the floor for a moment. “Am I the first here? Is this heaven or hell?” “What is heaven and hell?” “Can I just have a moment, please… I died…” Sketch sits on the ground as he tries to process what happened in his head over and over. Where am I, why am I here? What is going on?! “Are you okay?” Luna asks. “No, I’m not, all my friends, gone, my family, gone, everything I knew, gone. I just lost everything and now I don’t even know where the hell I am.” “Well if this helps, you are currently in the country of Equestria, which is ruled by my sister and me.” “Not much help, but the thought is appreciated.” “Sorry, if you would like to clear your mind you may head back to the garden for some fresh air.” “Thanks, where is the garden again?” “Right this way.” The guard said as he motions for Sketch to follow him. “But before I do, where’s a bathroom?” Sketch asks. “Down the hall towards the garden on your left, you are male, right?” “Yup, thanks, see you later I guess.” chapter 2 InsomniaSketch tosses and turns in his bed as he can’t sleep, he stares at the ceiling as he goes over for the hundredth time in his head how he died . Why am I here? What brought me here? He thinks to himself as if going over it again would change anything about the predicament he’s in. His first thoughts are about his friends and family, if he died that would just crush them, but he wasn't dead, he was here in a world full of sentient ponies. It wasn’t bad but he missed his own room, as small as it was, it was his room with his parents, they would now remember him by his tombstone and at his wake rather than a dreary funeral. He rolls out of bed, the moon still high in the sky, he heads for where he thinks the throne room is, shouldn’t be hard to find, right? He thinks to himself as he opens the large ornate doors to the hallway. “Luna? Are you there?” Sketch calls out hoping to find the princess. “What do you require, is your room adequate?” She asks as he wanders into the throne room. “Yeah, it’s just that I want to talk to you about what happened. Is that okay?” “That is acceptable.” The princess of the night answers politely. “It’s just that I died and I can’t get over it, sure I saved someone but-” “Well, assuming death is not a normal occurrence for you, I fail to see how anyone could possibly ‘get over’ their own death in the span of a few hours. If you saved someone in your death should you not be proud that you sacrificed yourself to save another and will be remembered as a hero?” Luna answers looking back positively on what he said. “I guess so, but I still keep replaying in my head what I could have done to avoid it. Not that you aren’t good company, it’s just that I want to go home.” “I understand the need for kinship as much as anyone.” “Then you see my problem, can I even go home or would my soul just be transferred to my dead body where I would still be dead?” “That... is not for me to know, unfortunately. There is an unorthodox unsummoning ritual, but if it fails, or you are already where you’re supposed to be, you would definitely be dead.” “Okay, but can you do me a favor?” “Yes? What is it?” “Can you keep me company?” “I suppose I can do that,” Luna answers kindly. “Though the night court might be a trifle... boring for you, and I can’t leave my post until morning.” “I’m okay with waiting and being a bit bored, I spent a lot of time in a hospital so the night court as you call it shouldn’t be a problem.” Despite his assumption, however, the next group to enter the throne room are there to discuss politics of the current economic standing of a city Sketch had never heard of and that made it hard for him to follow along with everything. Becoming lost very quickly, soon finds himself drifting off while sitting next to the blue alicorn. As the moon sets and the sun rises Sketch sleeps away the hours in the throne room as Celestia enters. “Sister, who is this?” Celestia asks cautiously as she looks to Luna, then down at Sketch sleeping next to their shared throne. “Tis our new guest, he appeared in the garden last night and couldn’t sleep so he wanted to spend some time in my company.” Celestia blinks as if she might still be asleep. “And... how did he get here? Do you know?” “He said he died and ended up in the garden somehow, neither I nor the guards are quite sure what brought him here but we are sure that he can stay here for a while with minimal trouble, although we don’t know what he eats…” Celestia ponders the possibilities. He looks rather hairless but built like a Diamond Dog for the most part. “Well, it might be best if we tried offering fruit first if he’s starving. Otherwise, we could suggest options to him. Though the extremes of an herbivorous or carnivorous diet would be good to note. So you say he... died?” “Yes, he apparently saved someone and then died, not sure how, but he did have a clear memory of his final moments,” Luna adds. “Maybe his actions brought him here dear sister, did he say exactly what happened?” “No, just him saving the other caused his demise and then his sudden appearance here somehow.” “Okay, but did he really have to fall asleep in the throne room?” Celestia asks as she looks to the puddle of drool on the carpet next to the throne. “He couldn’t sleep so he stayed with me all night.” “Even through the night court?” “Yes.” “Hehe, he must be exhausted from all that then, have the guards take him to his room… it is a he, right?” “Indeed.” And with that, the guards take Sketch to his room and put him on his bed so that he may rest and get some much-needed sleep. chapter 3 Awakened at TwilightAs the sun sets Sketch rises from his bed. “Ugh, my head… Wait, why am I in bed? Did I sleep through the whole day again, damnit!” “Ah ah ah, language mister.” A woman calls out from the other end of the room. “Sorry, wait, you look like Luna, are you her mother?” At this she chuckles. “No, I am her sister, Celestia.” “Oh you must be the one who sits on the throne during the day, why are you in my room, don’t you have some princessly stuff to take care of?” Sketch asks rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “Not at the moment no, I’m here to talk to you as my ‘princessly duty’ for the day.” “Okay, what do you want to know.” Sketch asks as he sits up in the large bed as Celestia walks in the room and sits on the edge of the bed. “Well first, what is your name.” “My friends call me Sketch on account of my drawing style.” “So you’re an artist?” “Not even close hehehe.” “Then what are you?” “Something that I doubt would be useful here.” “You’d be surprised at what we have in terms of technology Sketch.” “Do you know what the internet is?” “...That I do not.” “Point Sketch, my turn now.” “Go ahead.” “Do you really control the sun? Or is it a hoax.” “I do indeed control the sun as my sister, Luna, controls the moon.” “Okay, your turn.” “What is with that strange mask you have and who is this Q person who signed it?” “Oh the mask is a symbol of a hacktivist group that uses their knowledge of technology to knock bad people down a peg or two and Q is my favorite sci fi character of all time.” “Hacktivist? Is that like a terrorist?” Celestia squints at Sketch. “No, what they do is if they find a website full of lets say, illegal material they focus on it and take it down and the bad people along with it.” “Why not let the guard handle it?” “The police can’t be everywhere at once so the group leads the police directly to them and then they get sent away for various times depending on their crimes.” “That actually sounds like a good thing.” “I think it is, anyways. My turn!” “Go ahead.” “Do you guys have any beef jerky?” “You eat meat then?” “Yup, I love me a good steak.” “Well cows are part of our population so I doubt we could serve them to you being that they are sentient, are they not sentient in your world?” “Nope they just eat and poop until they either, A, are big enough to produce milk, or B, are big enough to send to the slaughterhouse.” “That is a bit grim, could you not talk about that to the cows, it might frighten them.” “Can do.” “My turn as it were.” “Shoot.” “Why do you have knives in your jacket?” “Oh, I juggle them.” “Were you a jester or clown at some point in your life?” “No, I just found it fun, i can even juggle up to three knives with one hand, wanna see?” “Maybe some other time, for now *Yawn* I will head to my chambers to rest for tomorrows drove of upset nobles.” “Nice talking to you Celestia.” “You too Sketch.” As the princess leaves so does Sketch and this gets her attention. “Where are you headed off to Sketch?” The princess asks. “Off to see your sister and talk to some guards maybe, but where’s the nearest bathroom?” “The is one right over there.” Celestia points back into the room and Sketch now notices that there is indeed a bathroom there. “How did I miss that?” At this Celestia giggles slightly. “Sometimes the most obvious things hide in plain sight.” “Good point.” At this Sketch heads towards to bathroom and gets a drink. chapter 4 The Night Court“Luna? Luna! Wherefore art thou Luna!?” Sketch shouts as he roams the halls, he forgot how to get to the throne room and is hoping that being loud would get someone’s attention and then they can point him in the right direction. Sadly, the plan is a complete failure. “I am here, now could you please stop shouting? I’m about to start the night court and the nobles have just arrived.” “Oh, can I help? I know a lot about government.” “Really? How so?” “Well after marine biology school was too expensive and I had to quit that then I went for telecommunications, but I always had a thing for history, if telecommunications fell through I would have tried to be a history teacher. The only way man, or in your case, pony, can take a step forward we must learn from our past mistakes to avoid further conflict.” “Hmmm, maybe you could be of some help,” Luna says as she puts her front right hoof to her chin. “ How much do you know about diarchies?” “Quite a bit actually.” “Then we shall give it a shot, yes?” “Yes, I will try to keep up.” Sketch follows princess Luna to the throne room, really, how could he have forgotten already? “So, care to tell me about your kingdom?” “Why of course, first there was…” As Luna began her epic tale of the two sisters rising to power as diarcs and the tale of Nightmare Moon and the elements of harmony and the six element bearers. Sketch just walks in silence as Luna speaks of their culture and how everything came to be. The only odd thing was that she never explains why they were princesses, shouldn’t they be queens or something? Sketch isn’t sure how the whole thing works but he lets that one go. “So… you used to be evil.” “At one point in time, yes, then tantibus tried to take control and made our little ponies suffer in their dreams after we were cleansed.” “And you were purified by Twilight and her friends before this tantibus thing?” “Indeed.” “You think they could try that on me?” “Why? Are you possessed or is something ailing you?” “Kinda, oh, looky here, we are in the throne room now.” “Do you always announce things like that?” “Yeah, but the readers need to know where we are.” “Readers?” “It’s an anon thing.” “Anon?” “Ask your sister.” “Okay then, now onto business.” A guard steps forward. “Now onto the first session, taxes.” “Yay math!” “You actually enjoy this?” “Yup, took calculus in high school.” “High school?” “Yeah, I in my world that is our ninth through twelfth year of school. I think, I kinda don't know whether or not to count kindergarten.” “Mhmm” A noble pony in a suit clears his throat to get Luna’s attention.” May we please begin?” “Of course.” “And what sort of thing is standing next to you?” “I’m a consultant of Luna’s” Sketch improvises. “Now as for the taxes, I feel they are too much for my businesses and I am losing profits as the days go on, what do you plan to do about it, why not tax the lower income ponies in the kingdom and lower them for us since we are t-” “The minority, no, Luna may I make a suggestion here?” “Go ahead Advisor Sketch.” “I say we do a percentile tax on everyone, that way joe everybody doesn't get taxed more than necessary.” “But how will that help me?” The noble pony asked. “It helps you because if they tax you 16% and they tax the common citizen the same percentage they will have more money to buy your wares and then hence making you more money. Works where I come from.” “I see, I see, excellent point good sir, I will await the new taxation request from the Princesses.” “I am impressed Sketch, you managed to solve that problem easily, you seem to be a… What is it called when you are good at many things?” “Jack of all trades, master of none?.” “I wouldn’t say that, oh well, next.” The next pony to step up to be heard looks like a farmer who has worked everyday day of his life, Sketch could tell because sweat matts his coat and he looks exhausted. “Princess Luna, is there a way for you to help with the parasprites eating all of mah crops?” “Luna, can I take this one as well? Please?” “Go ahead.” “Don’t try a pesticide, but rather something similar to ipecac that is specific to their kind that would make the bugs eating your crops sick, then as more and more get sick from eating it. Luna, do you have rat poison?” “Yes, why?” “Humor me.” “But ya’ll didn’t make a joke.” Luna sends off a guard to retrieve the aforementioned rat poison, and Sketch begins reading the ingredients on the box.”Here’s what you need, an emetic. It is in rat poison to make sure that when ponies or what have you ingest it you throw it up safely and it removes the toxins from your system. If you can find a way to make this a temporary effect on your crops and then remove it before you bring it to market problem solved.” “Sounds good to me, thanks whatever ya are.” And thus the happy farmer trots out of the throne room. “Sketch, how do you know all this?” “Remember, jack of all trades, master of none.” At this Luna just laughs a little. After those two Sketch really has no idea what he is doing so he just leans up against the throne like the night before and listens to Luna deal with issues the ponies of her kingdom has. After the majority of them having their problem solved Luna steps down from her shared throne and nudges Sketch who is half asleep. “Are you still awake?” Luna asks kindly. “Wha? Oh, *Yawn* yeah, I’m still awake.” “Care for a walk during my break?” “That sounds lovely,” Sketch says as he stands up and pops his back as the pops echo throughout the throne room getting Luna’s attention. “Are you okay?” “Yeah, it’s just that sitting still for a long time for me gets my body a little stiff so popping my joint helps a whole lot, does it bother you?” “No, not at all, it’s just that I wasn’t expecting so many that loud,” Luna admits. “Sorry. So, where do you want to go?” “I find the garden quite peaceful at this time of night.” “That sounds nice, care to lead the way?” “You landed there not too long ago, did you already forget how to get there?” “Yeah, I have no sense of direction, plus all the hallways here look the same,” Sketch admits as the two meander over to the garden. chapter 5 In the GardenIn the garden Luna escorts Sketch over to a table placed in the center of the clearing. “So, you get a small break in between meet ups with your citizens?” “Indeed, it gives us a little time for myself and to admire the garden in the moonlight.” “I have to say you are pretty impressive.” At this Luna blushes a little bit. “You are a princess, you control the moon and you are a down to earth perso- er, I mean pony.” “Thank you, sometimes it feels like some of the ponies we rule over take us for granted.” “I understand, but one question.” “You may proceed.” “What kind of pony are you, and was that a unicorn noble earlier and then a pegasus, then a normal pony.” “I am what you would call an alicorn, there are only five of us in existence at the moment: Celestia and myself who control the sun and the moon. The lesser Alicorns Mi Amore Cadenza who is the princess of love and then Twilight sparkle who is the princess of friendship. Lastly, there is the baby alicorn, Flurry heart, who is the daughter of Cadence and her captain of the guard Shining Armor,” Luna takes a moment to breathe, “That was a mouthful.” “I bet, so do each of them rules over a certain part of your kingdom?” “Twilight has Ponyville and her friendship studies, Cadence has the Crystal Empire, Flurry Heart is still a baby.” “Ah. So, how are you tonight?” “I’m just a bit tired, dealing with pony’s problems night in and night out, being royalty, and having little time for myself is a bit taxing.” “Seems like it really takes its toll.” “It does, but your company has made if a little better.” Luna smiles a bit.” Thanks for staying with me through the night court, it isn’t that the guards aren’t good company it’s just that they are so...formal. You, on the other hand, are open about what you think and feel and it is quite refreshing.” “Thanks, I am more than happy to be your companion during the night court.” At this Sketch offers a hug ” You don’t mind hugs, right?” “That I do not.” to which princess Luna who happily accepts. “Hugs help a lot.” “Hehehe, that they do.” “So, am I going to live here in the castle with you two?” Luna pulls back from the hug and looks at Sketch. “Probably not, you will most likely be sent to be studied by princess Twilight Sparkle.” “Why her? I like it here with you.” “As flattering as that may be, we know nothing about you and Twilight Sparkle is quite the scholar and will be able to study you better than we could ever hope for, we are just too busy to do an in depth analysis of your kind.” “Oh...Okay, can you promise me something first?” “By all means, what is it that you request?” “Can we keep in contact after I am sent there?” A smile broke out upon Luna’s face. “Why of course we can, so long as you stay the night owl that you are.” A smile breaks out on Sketch’s face at this. “Also can you lead me to the bathroom? I need to do my business and I don't wanna get lost for the third time.” “Follow me, and it seems like our break is over, it was nice chatting with you Sketch.” “You too Luna.” With that, the two head to the bathroom and once Luna shows him where it is she heads back to the throne room to go about taking all the nobles’ complaints and politics and what not. chapter 6 Early MorningWith Luna in the night court and Celestia in her chambers, there really isn’t much for Sketch to do after his bathroom break. He begins to look through his pockets and finds he still has his phone. “I wonder if it still has a charge…” Sketch looks at the little battery icon and it shows that it is still charging yet it isn’t plugged into anything. “Weird… And I’m talking to myself again, great, don’t wanna go back down that road.” “What road?” Celestia asks as she appears behind him. “Nothing important, but why are you awake? Shouldn’t you be in bed resting for your long day of work tomorrow?” “Yes, but I think I should get to know you a little better before I let you get too close to my little sister.” “Why is that?” “Because I care for her.” “I get it, what do you want to know?” “What are your intentions with my sister?” “To get to know her since I might be stuck here for a while and maybe be friends.” “I think you have already accomplished that one Sketch.” “Sweet.” “My next question is how did you get here?” “Like you, I have no idea how I arrived here. All I know is I met a Q cosplayer, got a picture with him and… wait, what’s this?” Sketch says as he digs out the picture of Q where it shows the Q cosplayer and him in the picture, but the mask is signed… “Wait, do you have your own version of Q here?” “Who is Q?” “A character from one of my favorite shows who is a bit of a mischievous character and a bit random at times and is pretty much omnipotent” “Wait...You say this character is omnipotent and a bit of a trouble maker?” “Yeah, then after I met him I saved someone and got crushed by a stage light.” “Hmmm, I don’t know if what I’m thinking is correct but I suggest you make your way to Twilight Sparkle’s castle in Ponyville and begin study on how we can get you home, unless that would end with you still being under the light fixture. If that is the case I am sure you will be more than welcome to stay here so long as you don’t cause any trouble.” “That shouldn't be a problem. But if I may make a request of you?” “Go on.” At this , Sketch walks over to her right side and whispers in her ear. “That serious huh?” At this Sketch nods.”fifty seven days? Okay, thank you for the warning.” “No problem, I just don’t want to cause any trouble.” “Understood, we will cross this bridge when the time comes.” “Thank you.” “Now to get you to ponyville, you will be flown there via chariot by a few guards in the morning, is that okay?” “I guess, just get me a cup of coffee before we go so I can be awake when I meet her? And by awake I mean fully awake not drowsy and half awake, you know?” “I understand, well off to bed with you, you need to be up in eight hours.” “Got it. Good night princess Celestia.” “Good night, Sketch.” And with that, the two part ways and Sketch, for once, remembers where his room is this time and heads off to bed. Sadly all he could do is stare at the canopy of the bed for eight hours running everything over in his mind. Is all of this real? Is he real? Is any of this really happening? Is this a dream? All the thoughts rush in as he lays awake in silence. As the moon sets and the sun rises a loud knock. “Who is it?” Sketch calls out as he sits up in bed, tired as heck and somewhat awake. “Your chariot awaits you, sir!” A male voice calls out. “Ah, yeah…*Yawn* Let’s get to it shall we?” Sketch says as he gets out of bed and walks to the door. As he does a guard opens it up and leads Sketch down the corridors to the awaiting chariot with two pegasi manning it. “So, any inflight snacks?” “No, we like to keep the chariots clean.” One of the guards says a bit too seriously. “Okay, so Imma just gonna *Yawn* Sit here while you guys fly me there, is that okay?” The guards all look at each other and nod in unison, seriously, do these guys have to be that well trained that they have to do everything in unison? As the chariot takes off Sketch falls asleep in the chariot, as uncomfortable as it may be. “So, you really think it’s okay to let him go to Ponyville unsupervised?” Luna asks Celestia. “Twilight should be able to handle him, and if not, I already have something in mind,” Celestia says. “Do tell.” Luna says as Celestia whispers in her ear, Luna’s expression changes from one of curiosity to one of concern.” And you let him leave? What are you planning sister?And why didn't he tell me?” “To see if Twilight can get him home safe and sound before it comes to that. Also, he did not want to divulge something so personally right after meeting you, he didn't want to scare you away.” “I hope your trust isn’t misplaced as well as mine,” Luna says worriedly. “As do I sister, as do I…” Is all Celestia says before the two sisters turn to head back into the castle so Luna can rest while Celestia deals with the never ending stream of problems her subjects have. chapter 7 Attempting To Wake the BeastAs the guards fly Sketch to Ponyville he is still out cold in the chariot but the guards fly a bit slower than usual due to the fact that if they flew at top speed he might fall out or hurt himself. As they fly to Ponyville the guards make their way to Twilight Sparkle's castle and this gets the attention of all the ponies in town because it had been a while since a royal chariot had been seen but a few just brush it off as official princess business and go about their day. "Sir, we have arrived at princess Twilight’s castle.” The left guard announces to no response.”Sir?” As they look back in the chariot Sketch is still asleep as he snores away. As they prod him with their hooves he doesn’t seem to want to wake up, it was about eight in the morning and he usually doesn’t wake up until five or six in the evening. Well, except for when there’s a convention, in which case he can sacrifice a few hours of sleep to go have fun with friends, who were also usually night owls. “Excuse me, why are you two here? Does Celestia need me for royal princess duties in Canterlot?” Twilight Sparkle asks. “No, didn’t you receive a letter this morning about the new arrival?” The guard on the right ponders. “No, Spike is sick and has been sneezing little bursts of fire every few minutes so I can’t tell if I received a message from the princess or if he is just having a sneezing fit.” “Well, then could you come over here so you may ‘meet’ your new guest.” “Where is the said guest?” “He’s asleep in the chariot curled up in a ball.” “Oh,” Twilight says as she walks around the chariot so she can see Sketch sleeping there. ”What is he?” “He isn’t from here and we know very little. The princesses were hoping you could study him and find a way to send him home soon and to figure out how he arrived here.” “I see, so why is he asleep?” Twilight questions. “He spent most of the nights in Canterlot talking with princess Luna and got to talk to Celestia for a bit as she was waking up and he was going to bed.” “How do you know all this?” “You think we wouldn’t notice another being from Tartarus knows where appearing in the middle of the castle grounds?” “Good point,” Twilight says sheepishly. “Ugh no mom, I’m doing fine, you don’t need to call everyday…” Sketch mumbles in his sleep as Twilight watches. “How much do the princesses know about him?” “Next to nothing except what he said about dying before he came here.” “He d-died?” Twilight stammers. “From what he told the princesses he saved someone and before he could explain his actions he died.” “That’s horrible!” Twilight exclaims. “So the princesses are entrusting him to you for study and so on.” “I won’t let the princesses down!” Twilight promises. “Alright well back to the castle with us.” “Okay, thank you for bringing him here.” Twilight thanks the guards. Back at the castle. ”Celestia! We’re here! Where’s the one who calls himself Sketch? He left before we were ready.” “What do you mean? I saw him leave with two guards just an hour ago.” “No, we were knocked out just after we left the barracks.” “Then who were those guards that took Sketch?” Back outside Ponyville The guards leave Twilight alone with Sketch as they fly away, but just as they are halfway to Canterlot out of view from prying eyes the chariot poofs from existence and the two guard ponies merge into one singular being, Discord. “This will be interesting, haha haha.” chapter 8 Awakened At Twilight'sAs the guards fly out of view Twilight uses her magic to lift the sleeping Sketch from where the guards let him off at on the ground. “For being sound asleep he sure is loud.” Twilight says as she carries Sketch into the castle as he loudly snores. “Twilight, Twilight! Celestia sent you a letter!” Spike shouts running to the castle door with a scroll in claw, the seal broken. “A little late for that Spike, our new guest has already arrived.” Twilight states. “Oh, my bad.” Spike says. “Get a bed ready I have a feeling he won’t wake up anytime soon.” “Why do you say that?” “He slept through the ride over here and even when the guards dropped him off he was still sound asleep.” “Wow, talk about a heavy sleeper.” “You’re telling me, he weighs more than I thought.” Twilight groans. With Sketch in the castle, Twilight tucks him into bed, his feet hang off over the edge of the bed but for the most part, he seems just fine. “So what do you think that is? Kinda looks like a big monkey.” “Spike! That could be offensive, you don’t want to upset our guest do you?” Twilight says worryingly. “Sorry, it just he is bi pedal and mammalian so I just thought of the closest thing to that was a monkey. “Actually you are mostly correct, my kind evolved from monkeys over millions of years.” “Ha, I told… you.” Spike stammers as Sketch walks into the main room which was just down the hall from the room Twilight had put him in.” “How can you two expect someone to sleep with your voices echoing through the halls?” “You slept through most of the days and a chariot ride, and talking woke you up?” Twilight asks. “Yup!” “Ugh, fine, we will try to keep it down from now on,” Twilight says. “Too late, I’m up, so princess number three, what do you wanna know about me?” “Well first, is Sketch your real name?”Twilight asks. “Nope!” “Then what is it?” “For me to know and you to never find out.” “Why not?” “Cause.” “Cause why?” “Just cause.” “Ugh...Fine, next question, you said you evolved from monkeys but you aren’t one, so what exactly are you?” “A human.” “What differentiates you from monkeys?” Spike asks. “We stand upright, are sentient and we eat meat, at least, I think monkeys only eat fruit and vegetables.” “Huh, and how do you know you evolved from monkeys, did you travel back in time?” “Time travel is impossible in my world, the closest we have gotten to it is a theory stating that if one were to orbit a black hole time would slow down and if you spent ten years there you might only age half that. Since we have no magic like you have we only have ideas and theories. We based it on thousands of excavations showing similarities between us and monkeys, the neanderthal is a good example, wanna see?” “How? You don’t have a book with you do you?” Twilight asks excitedly. “No, but I have the next best thing, an Ebook,” Sketch says. “What is that?” Spike asks. “An electronic book, I have all of the books from my college days on my phone. Wanna see?” “Yes!” Twilight excitedly shouts clapping her two forehooves together. “Okay, let me open up the files.” “What files?” Spike asks. “The book files on my phone, wait, never mind, they are on my external hard drive.” “Whosawhatnow?” Spike says. “A storage for all my books and other files such as movies, comic books, etcetera,” Sketch says as he withdraws his external hard drive from within his trench coat. “How can you story so many things in something so small?” Twilight questions. “It doesn’t matter how small it is, it’s how you use it, unfortunately, I didn’t have my movie collection on me when I died otherwise I had hundreds of movies we could watch,” Sketch exclaims." And those are just the ones I liked at the time.” “How is that possible?” Spike asks. “We have had over two thousand years of documented scientific study to reach the point to where all the stuff I have costs next to nothing. This phone? One hundred dollars. This external hard drive? Eighty dollars. Entertainment value? Endless.” “Two thousand years of scientific development? How do you know that?” And you said millions of years of evolution, how is it only two thousand years?” Twilight asks, her curiosity piqued. “Well, that is two thousand and seventeen A.D.” “What does A.D. mean?” "After the death of a very important religious figure which I think like one fourth of the world's population follows.” “And you know he exists?” “Yup we have paintings and scriptures of him, they say he was the son of our god who died for our sins.” “He died?” “Yup, crucified.” “Why is your culture so violent?” “I have a theory since we are the dominant species and the only sentient one on our plant we tend to get bored and find problems with each other and we just fight amongst ourselves like children sadly.” “How come you aren’t like that?” “Because that was long ago, plus I like to think I keep an open mind about things.” “Okay, can I see the books now? Please?” “Hehe, only because you said please, what topic do you want? Government, history, biology, networking, business?” “Biology!” Twilight cheers her eyes portraying the amount of excitement the little pony had for the subject. Sketch plugs in his external hard drive into his phone and opens up the file. “Here you go little lady,” Sketch says as he hands her the phone. “Now please be careful, that is the only one in this world and if it broke I would be very upset with you.” “Understood.” Sketch now turns to Spike.”So… you’re a dragon, right?” “Yeah, how’d you tell?” “While I was half asleep on the ground I heard something about fire and you are reptilian and sentient I just kinda put two and two together.” “Just from that, you knew I was a dragon?” “More like an educated guess... Okay I just took a shot in the dark there...” “Do you have dragons where you’re from?” “Only fake ones and ones in movies that are animated by computers.” “Say what?” “I’ll explain that later,” Sketch says to spike as he turns to see Twilight enamored in the book sketch just gave her, “How are you likin’ the book Twilight?” “I love it! Such detail, such good diagrams, and pictures! This is by far the most detailed book about biology I have ever seen!” “Glad you like it, wait til you get to my favorite sections on marine life, you will lose it when you read about the giant prehistoric fish that are still alive in the modern day in my world.” “Really?! There’s a prehistoric fish that made it through thousands of years of evolution and is still around?” “Yup, I think it is called an Arowana, I even had one as a pet.” “How did you get it? Did you catch it?” “No, I bought it as a baby from a local pet store.” “You sell prehistoric animals as pets?” “If the shoe fits.” “What?” “I mean, it is a relatively interesting fish that can be bred in tanks and sold for profit and a little for educational value why not buy one? Wouldn’t you love to have something like that as a pet?” “I would but...Wait, you said your kind, the uh…” “Humans.” “Yes, humans, were the only sentient species on your planet?” “Yup.” “So it doesn’t mind being kept as a pet?” “I doubt it is smart enough to put two and two together, all they know is that they get a big tank to swim around in and there is no shortage of food for them.” “Makes sense, but here even the wildlife is sentient.” “I heard, makes me wish I had a steak right before I died.” “You eat meat then? Like a gryphon?” “I do eat meat but wait, let me get this straight, you have gryphons? What else do you have here?” “Earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, diamond dogs, gryphons, hippogriffs, dragons, cows, pigs, and yaks. But that is only scraping the surface.” “Okay, this world just got a bit more interesting.” As the day goes on the two continue to nerd out over biology and the differences and similarities between their species. Eventually Twilight hit a dead end in the book and then Sketch falls asleep in his chair, Twilight then levitates Sketch back to his bed just as she is heading to bed as well. Spike, on the other hand, had left hours before Sketch and Twilight decide to head to their rooms and continue their talk tomorrow and thankfully there was a bathroom in his room so he didn't have to share. "No one must know..." Sketch says as he reaches into his coat. chapter 9, 56 days leftSketch tosses and turns in his bed as he dreams of what has happened in the past week, first he planned to go to the convention, then he got there, and died on Saturday of the convention and ended up in a world run by sentient ponies. Honestly, it should have been a bigger shock but then again he did dream up an elf revolution at the north pole. The elves had had enough of Saint Nick's, the patron saint of prostitutes look it up, crap and took over the North pole and took sleighs throughout the world killing all those on the naughty list as well as the ones on the nice list, they were really out for blood that year. Sketch has been tossing and turning even after that dream subsides and his eyes slowly open and he decides to wander the castle grounds but a little voice in the back of his mind told him he should go find Twilight's room, but he pushes that one aside and goes back to sleep. As he lays there sleep finally takes hold and he drifts off to sleep. “Sketch?” a feminine voice calls out, except this one seems familiar. “Luna?” Sketch asks. “You’re correct, we have come to talk with you.” “How are you in my dream and don’t you have princess duties?” “Tonight is when I watch over those with troubled dreams, yours stood out amongst the rest.” “Celestia told you about my predicament didn’t she?” “Yes, why not tell us, er I mean why didn’t you tell me?” “I didn’t want to scare you away like I have many others.” “You are not the only one with a troubled past…” Luna says as she conjures a small or of clouds that eventually shows Nightmare Moon and her reign of terror before Celestia stopped her and how she was sealed and then cleansed by the elements of harmony. “Huh… Didn’t see that coming but then everyone has the part of themselves they wish would stay hidden.” Sketch pauses for a moment “Yeah…” Sketch says as a chest appears within his dream world and it was a chest with chains all over it. “Is this it? Your inner demon?” “In English you are correct, but its name is Daimon.” “You named it?” “It named itself.” “Shall I take care of it?” “Don’t, it isn’t a problem at the moment plus neutralizing a part of someone’s brain can have adverse side effects.” “How do you know that? What if it works?” “Sorry, but I don’t want to be reduced to a potato due to part of my brain or thought processes being annexed.” “Alright, but I will keep watch on you if you don’t mind, we are as they say birds of a feather-” “-Stick together, thanks, Luna, love ya.” “W-What?!” “Like a sister, geez, don’t take it the wrong way, hahaha you’re blushing so hard right now,” Sketch says as he laughs a little trying to get off the serious topic they were just discussing. He never really liked talking about it, whenever he did people would just judge him for it, profile him. Or worse… abandon him like all the other so called ‘friends’ he had made over the years. Still, he did care for Luna, although it might have been too soon to say that he loves her like a sister but he wanted to say it while he had a chance. “Okay, may I refer to you as… b-brother?” Luna asks shyly. “You may.” “Thank you Sketch f-” “Shut up and hug me.” Sketch orders in a joking manner, he really didn’t mean to be harsh he was just being himself, meaning a bit too honest and kinda a caring person while a jerk at the same time. Luna comes close only to have Sketch wrap his arms around her and embrace her tightly and Luna reciprocates the hug and then as soon as she says she cares for him too the dream ends and it fades to black, but before the dreams ends one of the chain links on the chest snaps…. “59 left…” chapter 11 A Man Without Clothes Is Hardly a Man, Okay, He's Just Naked“We’re here!” Pinkie Pie announces “Ugh, where are we and why am I floating?” Sketch asks. “Rarity’s shop and you’re floating cause you’re too heavy to carry.” Twi a “Cool… who is she again?” “The element of generosity.” “What?” “One of the six elements of harmony.” “Who?” “Ugh never mind just come in.” “I would but it seems you are making that choice for me by levitating me in, but it’s cool, I didn’t have any plans anyway.” “Of course you don’t, besides talking with me about your studies you have done nothing but sleep and eat.” “And bury you in pancakes,” Sketch says. “That sounds yummy!” Pinkie cheers. “It was, til she threw all but two away.” “You’re the one who used all our pancake batter in the fridge, now I have to go buy more.” “Yeah, that was poor planning on your part, if anyone should be sorry it's you Sparkle butt.” Sketch apologizes. “I didn't throw them all away just most, we still have some in the fridge, maybe we can have breakfast for dinner,”Twilight adds “Yay pancake dinner!” Sketch says “You sure are easy to please.” “Yup, I’m a simple man Twilight, ain’t hard to keep me entertained. Coffee is also good.” “Good, maybe we can stop by the local cafe and see if they are looking for help,” Twilight recommends. “Yeah, I need something to do while I’m here I guess.” “Yeah, look, we’re here!” Twilight says as they stand in front of a building that read Carousel boutique. “Huh, you’d think a carousel would be looked down upon here.” Sketch ponders aloud. “Why do you say that?” Pinkie asks. “Back home carousels usually have horses to ride on and-” “What’s wrong with horses?” “Let me finish, jeez, they were impaled through the chest and out their back by a large pole used to keep the rider of the horse from falling off as the carousel spins.” “Eesh, that is morbid.” “I know, and I didn’t put two and two together about the idea until I was thirteen.” “What are you two doing standing out there, come in come...in… Twilight?” The alabaster white unicorn asks, “What is that you’re holding?” “Hi, I’m Sketch! Can you let me down please Twi?” Sketch asks politely to which Twilight abides as she sets him down on the ground gently.”Thank you.” “Twi? Only her friends call her that, are you one of her new pupils to study friendship and magic here in ponyville?” The unicorn asks. “Nope, and I think we are friends, right?” Sketch looks back to Twilight as she nods affirmatively.” Yeah, we’re friends.” “Oh lovely, my name is Rarity and I am the element of generosity and a fashion designer for those who want to look chic, unique, and magnifique.” She announces as if she has rehearsed it a hundred times in front of her mirror. “Well, I’m here for some more clothes.” “Wonderful! Let’s get you in and measured.” Rarity says as she leads the group into the boutique. As they measure Sketch Rarity motions Sketch to take off his signature trench coat that he wore twenty-four seven. “Can you measure me with my trench coat on?” “I am sorry dear, but to accurately measure you you must discard that horrid trench coat.” “It isn’t horrid, it is my favorite piece of clothing, it is also good for holding things,” Sketch says as he reveals the insides of the trench coat this elicits a gasp from the mares. “What?” “Why do you have knives?” Rarity asks in shock. “Oh, for LARPing.” “Is that some sort of battle arena?” Twilight asks. “It is fake fighting with foam weapons see?” Sketch says as he withdraws one of his knives and drags it across his throat much to the mares’ dismay he remains unharmed. “But why so many?” “These are called throwies in the LARPing community. But I use them to distract my enemy, first, I juggle them three to five at a time and then while I draw their attention to the ones I'm juggling I throw one at them killing them.” This doesn’t seem to help Sketch so he quickly adds,” Not really killing them, they just play dead til the battle is over.” “Oh, maybe Spike and Big Mac would be interested in that, what do you think Twilight?” Pinkie Pie asks enthusiastically. “Well, they do do fantasy hoofball and DNP,” Twilight says. “DNP?” Sketch asks. “Dungeons and Ponies.”Pinkie Pie answers. “Sweet! Can I play?” Sketch asks in excitement. “First we have got to get you out of that coat.” Rarity orders. “Fine, wait, why measure me when you can just make a pattern from the clothes I’m already wearing?” Sketch asks “He does make a good point rarity.” Twilight agrees. “Fine, now if you don’t mind take off your clothes.” Rarity orders once again. “Whoa Rarity I didn’t know you liked me that way, I mean we just met,” Sketch says jokingly as he disrobes down to only his boxer briefs. “Those too.” Rarity demands. “Sorry but I am not comfortable with being naked in a room full of… mares?” “Yes, that is the correct term,” Twilight confirms. “Well yeah, you aren’t getting me out of these without three dates and lots of liquor.” Sketch informs.” But I doubt even drunk it’d work, I’m not into ponies that way.” “Are you always so crude?” Rarity asks. “Only when I’m in my underwear surrounded by women I’ve known for less than a week who inform me I need to strip.” Sketch answers. “Fair enough.” Rarity says as she takes his shirt and pants into her back room to make the patterns for his new clothes. With Rarity in the back Sketch is left almost naked in a cold shop, this was a sad day for Sketch, thankfully he still had his trench coat to cover up in. “Is your species normally hairless?” “Yes, but in my case, I am a hairy guy, I blame my dad.” “So that’s why you have arm, leg, chest and back hair.” “Stop looking!” Sketch shouts as he curls up into a ball so he could be fully covered by his trench coat. “Why are you so shy? We are naked and you don’t see us freaking out.” Twilight asks. “You have tails to cover your privates and the stallions have a sheath while my genitals are swinging in the breeze! And once again I don’t feel comfortable being naked around women I just met.” “Well you won’t be naked anymore, I will have you a week’s worth of clothes made in one week, here are your clothes back.” Rarity informs as she levitates Sketch’s clothes back to him and he hurriedly puts them back on. “Thanks, but how will I pay you?” Sketch inquires. “Whenever you have the bits.” Rarity states. “What are bits?” Sketch asks “Our currency.” Twi answers “Oh, okay, how many bits will this cost me?” “I’d say for a custom job like this, hmmm, how do fifty bits sound?” “Seems fair, but where will I work?” “Like we’ve pointed out to you before there’s a coffee shop slash cafe in town you can work at.” “Alright, take me to it.” Sketch suggests so he can pay back Rarity back as fast as possible. chapter 12 Oh Golly Gee My First Job! 55 days leftMocha Jon was used by and written by this guy As the trio make their way into town to find the coffee shop Sketch gets a lot of odd looks. “Why are peop-er, I mean, ponies looking at me?” Sketch asks. “Well, humans have never existed in this world so you are one of a kind here so of course ponies are going to stare, for now anyway,” Twilight informs. “Yup!” Pinkie Pie agrees. “Thanks.” Sketch sighs,” So why do you think the coffee shop will hire me?” “Well I don’t know for sure if they would hire you but how else do you expect to make money.” “I take it I can’t live in your castle forever then huh…Sad face.” Sketch adds “You can stay until you get on your feet Sketch, don’t worry I’m not going to make you leave without a place to go to.” “Thanks,” Sketch says sincerely. “No problem,” Twilight adds. As the trio of Sketch, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie reach the coffee shop they are met a note on the door, “Out to lunch be back in five minutes.” “Well, at least it is a short break.” Just as a blue stallion just walks around the corner.”Hey, is that him?” Sketch asks as he points to the cyan stallion eating a bag of what look like to be chocolates. The cyan unicorn looked over and notices the Princess of Friendship and Element of laughter finally by his shop, this is so rare because they always seem to prefer going to Sugarcube Corner. He initially doesn’t notice the human because he is so excited to see such powerful ponies finally come to see him. However he does soon notice the bipedal being and he had only one comment, “Okay... Did Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash sneak into the zoo, free a gorilla, shave it and disguise it again?” He says, sarcastically. “Sarcasm, I like this guy already,” Sketch says. The unicorn wants to shake his hand but he admittedly isn’t sure how to do that. He improvises and just does a hoof bump on his palm. This confuses Sketch slightly but he thinks 'ah close enough' and accepts it. “Okay, gotta ask, who, what when, where, and why…?” He asks, clearly referring. to Sketch. “In order, I’m Sketch, I’m a human, I’m from Earth which is a stupid name for a planet when you consider it translates to dirt and why I’m here is for a job hopefully; maybe delivering orders or working the cash register.” The stallion is initially excited because he was hoping Twilight and Pinkie were going to say they need his help with a super important friendship mission, but his excitement fades when he finds out the real purpose, “Oh… Okay, no comment on most of that… But I suppose I could try it, have you ever worked in a coffee shop before?” “I once worked at a fireworks stand selling the merch and talking people up.” Sketch points out. “What’s your name?” The unicorn rolls his eyes at that response, “Really? How did you know spark powder was my secret ingredient?” The unicorn playfully asks as a joke. “Prince Shining Armor…” He says as he points to his name tag, labeled Mocha Jon. “Okay Mocha, well I know how to make coffee and I know I can sell it, or at least deliver it.” Sketch informs, hoping to get hired. “Also I have an idea for a candy you can sell here that is coffee related.” “Okay… Even though I’m assuming you don’t have a valid Food Handler's’ permit or even a proper Social Security number… I’ll give you a shot.” Mocha says as he looks over at the mares, hoping to make them happy. “Sweet, also the candy I was talking about is dark chocolate or milk chocolate covered coffee beans, they’re my favorite and maybe Pinkie Pie can sell them at Sugarcube Corner.” Sketch informs. Oh yes, Sugarcube Corner, the place they always prefer to spend time there instead of at the coffee shop… “Well since they are probably not copyrighted I doubt he could stop her from doing that,” Mocha says as he looks to the mares, still surprised they actually wanted his help for once. “So what do you say? Can I work for you? I promise to work my butt off.” Sketch hopes. “Well it would be easier if you probably kept your butt on, but never the less I suppose I could give you a shot, the breakfast rush is almost over so this place is gonna be pretty much vacant for the rest of the day,” Mocha says as he dumps the entire bag of chocolate into his mouth and eats it almost instantly, seemingly inhaling the foodstuff. “Okay, since the rush is over can I go to Sugarcube Corner as you guys called it and make some of the candy I mentioned? I promise to not disappoint.” “I can’t wait to try it Sketch!” Pinkie Pie enthusiastically shouts. “I wouldn’t mind trying it either, I have been looking for an alternative to tea as it seems to be wearing thin on me as I drink it day in and day out,” Twilight interjects. “Well if you’re looking for an alternative to tea, you and your friends could come by here more and we could…” Mocha tried to say but he could tell by the looks on their faces they were wanting to leave and go to Sugarcube Corner more, “Never mind, yeah you can go, just make your things quickly and have fun doing it.” Mocha said to them, clearly envious and upset that they didn’t want to spend more time, but he was doing a good job at hiding that. “Alright, thanks for hiring me, come on Pinkie let’s go make some candy!” To which Pinkie Pie squees loudly and she and Sketch run off to Sugarcube Corner to make the aforementioned sweets. With Pinkie and Twilight in tow, they all head to the candy shop that Pinkie had met them at earlier, once inside he draws the attention of everypony in there. "C-Can I help you?" A light blue mare with a pink mane asks nervously, Sketch towering over her. "Yes, I would like ten bits worth of your milk chocolate." "Right away!" She disappears in the back for a few minutes and reappears with five bags of chocolate. "There you go, anything else?" She asks a little less nervous about him since she saw Twilight right behind him, he couldn't be that bad if the princess of friendship was with him. The two talk about candy for forty-five minutes before Twilight tugs on his t-shirt and reminds him he is supposed to be working right now. He thanks the mare named Cupcake and asks if he could use their kitchen to make a new type of candy he doubts has ever been made before in Equestria He gets a large pot of water up to a boil and then puts a smaller pot inside it, he dumps the chocolate into the smaller pot and lets it melt then he throws in the coffee beans Mocha gave him and made his favorite candy ever, of all time. As he mixes the concoction he pulls them out one at a time ready to serve, he lets the chocolate harden and then he puts them back into their respective bags and hurries back to the coffee shop. “I’m back, sorry it took an hour, but they are done, I made five pounds with some milk and dark chocolate the Cakes had on hoof.” Mocha Jon was not paying attention to Sketch as he was drawing on a piece of paper, “Okay no, that foot is too big, the ears are not even, and that nose makes it look like a giant freak!!!” He said as he crumbled the paper up and threw it in anger… Accidentally hitting Sketch in the face with it, which Mocha notices… “Oh… Sorry man…” “You’re not the first to throw stuff at me, anyways like I said, the candy is done, wanna taste test this moderate coffee bean covered in dark or milk chocolate? The dark is my personal favorite because I like my like I like candy my coffee, strong.” Sketch says as he plops down two large bags of candy on the table. “Also we owe the cakes ten bits for the chocolate but if we sell this at ten bits a pound and i made five with twenty that means we make forty bits of profit for each ten we spend, cool huh?” “Okay, first, make it 11 bits per pound because of taxes, and second, I’ll try the milk chocolate, I prefer mild coffee because it has more caffeine,” Mocha said as he grabbed a piece of the candy and took a bite on impulse. After one bite, he shoved an entire hoof-full into his mouth and ate it quickly, “Oh my Celestia that stuff is good!” “I think I just earned myself the job, I’ll go buy more chocolate so we can have some more ready for tomorrow, how much should I make, I need to know how much to buy.” Sketch says. “Bring by like say, fifty bags, and remind me to make it thirteen bits… Something tells me we may not be making as much a profit on your price..” He says as he takes another big gulp himself. The unicorn thinks it could be nice to have another guy around there. “Whatever you say, boss, give me the bits to buy it and I will start making it, also your money is called ‘bits’?” Sketch asks. “Yeah, I don’t remember why we call our currency bits either, maybe there’s a book on it…” Twilight ponders aloud as Pinkie bounces in place, happy she could help a friend. “Okay one, I think she’s had enough for the day… Two, are you guys doing anything later? Maybe there’s something going on or something?” Mocha asks, hoping to finally feel included but not wanting to sound like he was being pushy. “Well, my job for the moment is to monitor Sketch and see how he integrates into Equestrian society so I am going to be here watching him and taking notes,” Twilight informs. “Aww phooey, I have to watch the twins, sorry guys I have to go,” Pinkie says sadly. “See you later Pinkie! So, about the one hundred bits I need?” Sketch asks Mocha “Here, it’s one hundred and fifteen bits, in case the tax increases… or maybe just to get some extra for me… Which ever you think would happen…” He says, trying to hide the fact that he cannot control himself. “How about I get one hundred for the shop and then for you?” Sketch asks. “Your call man, your call…!” Mocha said, trying to make it seem like he didn’t care, but it was obvious he wanted it. “Okay hand me one hundred and fifty bits and I will bring back the change, scout’s honor.” Sketch swears. “It’s in the back room, here’s the key to the safe…” Mocha said with a strange grin on his face as he watches the human go to it. “Huh, okay, thanks,” Sketch says as he takes the key and walks into the now empty coffee shop and goes for the safe, he opens the door only to have a bucket of liquid fall on his head. ”AH! What is this stuff it’s making me….sound….funny….crap.” He says as his voices climbs ever higher in pitch. Mocha Jon looks back and starts laughing to himself, “I knew something weird would happen here if Pinkie Pie was in here for as long as she was!” He says as he starts laughing even harder. “How do I get back to normal?” Sketch asks in a voice that would make Pico from One Piece sound like Morgan Freeman. “Ugh, let’s draw you a bath…” Twilight sighs as she is now responsible for un-poison joking Sketch. Mocha Jon sighs because he never gets to spend any time with the Princess of Friendship and she keeps leaving. He doesn’t like being envious but he is upset that the only reason Twilight and Pinkie came in at all was just for someone else, “Alright, I understand.” Mocha says as he takes out a journal and begins writing in it, and clearly, he does that a lot on his free time, considering the pre-existing text. As Twilight drags off Sketch to give him a bath he raises the question. "Why do I sound like this?" "One of Pinkie Pie's pranks, she dumped water mixed with a little bit of poison joke to play a prank on you." "Clever girl, but why do I need a bath?" "That's how we remove the poison joke's effect is with an herbal bath." "How long will that take?" "About thirty minutes." "Ugh... I will get my revenge on her yet." "Good luck with that anyways let's get you to the spa..." "Welcome to the spa my name is Aloe, how may we assist you today princess and guest?" "He was poison joked by Pinkie Pie." "Second time this week somepony fell prey to her pranks, follow me please." As Aloe leads him to a room with a large tub full of herbs she tells him to soak for anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour. "Twilight!" "What is it, are you okay?" Twilight asks seriously. "I'm fine, I'm just lonely is all." "You've only been in here for ten minutes at the most." "My phone says seven but yeah, I don't like being alone." "Understandable, so, what do you want to talk about." "Science." At this Twilight squees and gets out a notepad and a pencil and begins writing furiously as they talk about biological breakthroughs his world had made, with this time flew by and before he knew it he was back to normal, Twilight pays for the bath and they head back to Mocha. “I’m back and now I don’t sound like a Disney character!” Sketch announces as he holds over fifty pounds of chocolate, however, there was a single little problem… “We owe the cakes a bit more than I anticipated since we cleaned out their shop of milk chocolate, it was thirty more than I expected, dang taxes,” Sketch says as he drops the large sacks of chocolate on the counter in the shop. “What’s a Disney character?” Mocha Jon initially asks as he initially didn’t grasp his concern, but when he catches notice of what he said, he felt guilty. “We cleared them out!?” He yells, because he feels upset, understanding what it is like to get cleared out in a shop. He opens the register and pulled out a few bits, and took the rest from the tip jar, “Here take these, I was saving for a new art set but they need it more.” “Don’t fret, they were more than happy to be sold out, some of it was going to be thrown away anyway, turns out there was a miscommunication in the order and they ordered too much. So it all worked itself out man, they just need thirty extra bits to cover the taxes.” Mocha handed the jar and even though he was envious of the business, he didn’t want to hurt them like that, “They are nice ponies.” He says, feeling guilty about being envious of such good ponies. “Okay, be right back!” Sketch says as he runs back to Sugarcube Corner with the tip jar in hand and rushes to get back there before it closes, he didn't read their hours of operation when he was there the first two times. "Welcome back dear, you know we're out of chocolate, right?" "Yeah, but my employer wanted you to have this as compensation for clearing out your shop for us, think of it as an additional thank you." "Awww, well that is mighty kind of you dear, tell your boss I said thank you for the thank you." "Will do Mrs. Cake." With the money given Sketch runs back to Mocha who he finds sitting in front of his shop “So anyway, the place is about to close, so we can really just prepare to head out.” Mocha says as he finished wiping up tables. “Can I have the key to the shop? I wanna finish making as much chocolate covered coffee beans as possible, plus I wanna show you how much I appreciate your hiring me is to me.” Sketch says as he heads back to warm up some water. “Alright I guess, could be fun,” Mocha said as he was organizing the chairs until an epiphany approaches him… “Oh gosh… Pinkie Pie was here earlier… SKETCH WAIT!!!” He says as he rushes over to the back himself to get in the way of the water himself… After the whole debacle with Pinkie Pie’s pranks, Sketch began making chocolate covered coffee beans using the cheapest beans they had and spent the majority of the day doing so. Not leaving to head back ‘home’ till seven fourteen at night, but as he locked up for the night he saw Twilight asleep outside who had made a whole slew of notes about him: hard worker, trustworthy, inventive. All words she uses to describe him, this brings a smile to his face. He carries Twilight home and so ends the day, now time for him to hit the hay, but not before his nightly routine. chapter 13 working at a cafe can't be that hard, right?“Sketch wake up, Sketch!” Spike shouts as he runs into Sketch’s temporary room. “What is it man, can’t you see I’m trying to sleep?” Sketch asks as he puts his pillow over his head to drown out the noise that is Spike. “Yes but you gotta come see this!” He replies. “You owe me five bits if it sucks.” Sketch says as he removes the pillow from his head and takes his blanket with him, still wrapped in a makeshift cocoon of warmth. As he shambles to the terrace overlooking Ponyville what he sees shocks him. “The empty no customer having cafe has a line all the way down mainstreet?!” “I know right?” Spike replies. At this site Sketch hurries and takes a shower and makes his way down to the shop as fast as he can only to see a line of ponies a mile long, okay not a mile long but still an impressive line of ponies getting their caffeine kick. He runs past them all and heads inside, catching the attention to all ponies in the area as he was still almost double their size but don’t budge from their spot in line. He enters the shop to see a more (apparently…) than happy Mocha Jon. “Dude, how many bags have you sold?” Sketch asks as Mocha hands another pony a bag of chocolate covered coffee beans. The cyan unicorn looks over and sees the human enter his shop and was even more ecstatic to see he finally had some help, “Oh my Celestia where have you been, it’s been crazier than Pinkie Pie in here!” Mocha Jon says as he reaches down to grab more of the candy and is surprised to find out he has just sold out, “Dude… Please make more… I beg you more than I beg to be an alicorn…” He says, humorously, but clearly nervous. “I already bought them out of their milk chocolate, shall I try their dark chocolate? If so give me one hundred bits and I will get right on it boss.” Sketch says as he holds out his hand so he can get the money and run with it, this line isn’t going to end anytime soon and he doesn’t want a riot to start over candy, no matter how delicious this confectionery may be, he must keep the peace. Mocha Jon opens the register with a very complex code and pulls out the money easily, barely making a dent in the profits. “Here, and please take it, I swear I will end up having to sell the frozen bugs we exterminate in the back as a substitution…” Mocha says panting, he was clearly joking though, he has no bugs. “I miss having the free time…” He quietly moans to himself. “You got it, be back in five minutes and I will make another large batch.” “Please do…” Mocha says“Sorry everypony, gonna need to wait for more coffee candy, can I interest anypony in a Reduced Heat Nonfat White Chocolate Double Shot Mocha Latte with whip and cinnamon?” As Sketch runs to Sugar Cube corner Spike and Twilight catch up. “What’s going on? And wait up!” Twilight pleads as she runs trying to catch up to Sketch, whose long legs make his strides much larger than the lavender alicorn barely managing to keep up. “Yeah, wait up!” Spike says as he barely manages to keep up with Twilight. “Remember the candy I made the other day before you fell asleep?” “I wasn’t sleeping! I was resting my eyes.” Twilight retorts in embarrassment. “Sure, and who's this flash sentry I heard so much about while I carried you back to the castle, hmm?” At this, her face turns bright red. “Why are we running anyway?” Spike asks a valid question. “We need more chocolate covered coffee beans to sell at the coffee shop.” “Okay, ew,” Spike replies. “Says a guy that eats jewelry.” “I thought you made fifty pounds of the stuff yesterday,” Twilight asked. “I did, and Jon sold or ate it all. And I don’t think he can eat that much.” “Wow, how’d you know that would sell?” Spike added. “It was popular at my college so why not a small farm town?” “Good point, but won’t dark chocolate make it too bitter?” Spike also wondered. “Nope, it just adds to the robust flavor of the mild bean we use to make the stuff.” “How do you know all this when you’ve only worked there for a day?” Twilight also questioned. “There was a coffee shop on campus where I got coffee every morning and a scone.” “Huh, isn’t that convenient.” “Yeah, the writer of this story couldn’t think of a better way for me to know about it, but hey, it is his story.” “What in Equestria are you talking about, that sounds like something Pinkie Pie would say?” “Oh, nothing, here we are!” Sketch bursts through the door and runs up to the counter huffing and puffing as he never missed leg day but cardio was nowhere near where it should be for someone his age. “Fifty pounds of dark chocolate please!” He said gasping for air. “You’re cleaning us out there, what are you making with all that chocolate? “Can’t say, company secret,” Sketch says as he finally catches his breath. With that said, Cupcake goes to the back and bring out boxes upon boxes of dark chocolate for him. Thanks cupcake how much will that be?” “Eighty-seven bits.” “Heres one hundred, keep the change.” This left a smile on the mare’s face as he went to pick up the chocolate only to have Twilight levitate it for him, “Thanks, Twilight.” “No problem Sketch, now to the coffee shop!” With that said they hurry back to the coffee shop and begin making chocolate as Twilight and Spike watch. “You boil half a pot of water and have another float on the boiling water and put the chocolate in the top pot so it melts and then you dip a bean into it and then let it cool and harden?” “Yup! Learned this method in first grade. Take a small cup of warm water, put an empty cup in it and put chocolate in the top cup and boom, melted chocolate with no chance of burning it.” “Cool, can I try one?” Spike asks. “Here’s a small one for ya,” Sketch says as he gets a small chocolate for the lil guy who pops it in his mouth and spits it out almost immediately clawing off the pieces from his tongue and coughing. “You actually like that stuff?” Spike asks seriously. “Can I try one,” Twilight asks. “Sure,” Sketch says as he hands her one, she chews on it a little bit and her eyes go wide. "Sketch, this replaces Tea as my favorite pick me up! Well, maybe not entirely, but this is really close. Just don’t give it to Pinkie Pie, please.” “Okay, and thanks now to make fifty more batches,” as the morning turns to noon he finishes all the batches for the day and he could swear he had dark chocolate under his fingernails, but it was an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, now to see what the boss thought about all the coffee chocolates and how well they sold out. It was one in the afternoon before he was done cleaning up. “So Mocha, how’d we do?” Mocha looks over, and he is clearly exasperated by what had happened. The store is not as vacant as it was yesterday, but it is nowhere as busy as it was earlier. “Oh gosh… Please stay working for me… I need help Sketch… Please…” He says as he looks over and sees Twilight and Spike, Jon turns back to Sketch looking embarrassed. “Sure thing boss, hows this, I stay in the castle and make about twenty pounds of this stuff a day and bring it to you in the morning as you open up, sound good? I think today was just a fluke with all the business, it will die down eventually once you get some regulars coming in every day, and I will make a deal with Sugarcube Corner for the chocolate.” “Oh, alright, I guess that could work, it would make the transactions between our products easier I suppose.” He says as he looks to Twilight, “You think that’s a good idea?” “I think Sketch can come to an agreement with the Cakes, right Pinkie?” “Yup!” “Oh dear lord Cthulu where did you come from!?” Sketch says as he jumps back in surprise from Pinkie Pie’s sudden appearance in the coffee shop. “Get used to that… She does that a lot… and I mean a lot!” Spike says as he rubs the bridge of his nose with his claw in exasperation. “Alright, there's one more question I have to ask you, how much am I going to get paid for making you the candy?” Mocha Jon yawned and took out his journal and started crunching some numbers, “Well I could start you out on I’d say two hundred bits a week, but you can get half of the tip jar which would be about an extra seventy-five if you are willing to do some counter work, that sounds good?” “Sounds good to me, and I will head over to the Cakes before I go home for the day, maybe if we tell them we need the chocolate on a daily basis we can get a bulk discount for repeatedly buying from them.” “Alright that sounds good, hey Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike, if you guys trust him to go on your own you guys are welcome to hang out here.” Mocha tries to convince them to stay, but it didn’t seem like it was working. “Sorry Mocha, he’s still pretty new to this place and I still want to monitor him in case anything bad happens,” Twilight responds. “Of course, but what’s the wo-” Pinkie Pie is cut off as Sketch puts a hand over her mouth. “Please, never say what you were going to say, it brings so much bad luck it isn’t even funny,” Sketch warns. “Yeah he’s right, heck all of our adventures could have been avoided if we never said that,” Spike adds, Sketch puts out a fist towards Spike who fist bumps him back. Mocha Jon looks down for a very brief moment, not enough for anypony to think anything of it, “Oh, yeah I understand, I hope you guys have fun!” He says as he attempts to put on a smile and be happy for them, not happy that he is envious of their instant bonding. “Alright be back in a bit Mocha, want anything while I’m there?” Sketch asks as Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Spike and him begin to leave the cafe. “Oh see if they have any red velvet cupcakes!” He tries to say but the door closes before they can hear him. “On second thought, how about some peanut butter brownies… Maybe an allergic reaction might get you guys to want to hang out with me…” He says quietly to himself. chapter 14 Business done right, 54 days left“So, it’s a deal?” “Seems so Mr...um, Sketch, right?” “Yup, one hundred pounds of chocolate a week and we will be business partners, we will advertise for your shop as well, but then again, who doesn’t know about your shop, right?” This gets Cupcake to giggle slightly. “I’m just surprised you can go through that much for being a coffee shop.” Carrot cake says in surprise “Yeah, well, things work in odd ways sometimes, see you tomorrow to pick up the chocolate.” Sketch states. “Sorry to say, but we won’t get any more milk or dark chocolate for another three days,” Cupcake says. “What’s today?” Sketch asks. “Tuesday,” Twilight says. “You get it on Friday?” Sketch checks to see if he’s right. “Yes, is that okay?” Cupcake asks. “Could you put in a rush order? We will pay extra for it..” Sketch offers. “I’ll see what I can do.” She says with a smile. “Alright, also do you have red velvet cupcakes? I’d like to buy one.” “Here, take one on the house as a present for our new partnership.” Carrot Cake says. “Thanks, see you guys tomorrow.” As Sketch leaves the couple looks back on him as he leaves. “Honey, do you know what exactly he is?” The husband asks. “I haven’t the slightest, but he is good business.” Cupcake replies. Back at the cafe with the cupcake in hand Sketch opens the door setting off the bell on the door frame. “I’m back with a cupcake and a hundred pounds of chocolate a week, fifty dark chocolate and fifty milk chocolate.” “Dang somepony… or whatever you use, really seems to love this job!” Mocha Jon says as he starts cleaning the bean hoppers. “Alright, you think you can learn the espresso machine?” “Ummm, maybe?” Sketch answers confused, Long story short it was the cheapest coffee he could get to order at the coffee shop back on campus. All he ever drank was black coffee, not anything fancy like that was probably sold at an establishment such as this. “Look it’s very simple, you just put the grinds into this small little handle, press it, hold the cup under the dispatch area, and hold another cup for the frothing milk and out pour the two together. Then you just add the flavorings and you’re all set, wanna try?” “Uh huh...repeat that again?” Sketch asks in utter confusion, why did coffee have to be so confusing. “Alrighty… you just put the grinds into this small little handle, press it, hold the cup under the dispatch area, and hold another cup for the frothing milk and out pour the two together. Make sure to watch for the steam because it is hotter than Applejack’s br…” Mocha begins to say, but his extreme nervousness caught up with him, “Uh, Applejack’s breaded Apple Pie…” Mocha says as he begins to blush. “Who’s Applejack?” “One of the other elements of harmony I told you about after we were done talking about biology, don’t you remember?” “Oh yeah, the one named after the cereal.” “Only in your world, and please don’t compare her to cereal when she’s around.” “Fine…” Sketch says as he attempts to make the coffee Mocha made but as Sketch put a cup to the machine… He forgot to look out for the frother and steam hit him on the chest… And the steam was not cold… “Son of a! Mother, ugh that hurt like hell!” Sketch says restraining himself not to curse in front of a ...how old was Twilight again? Mocha eyes widen at the response and tries to break the tension for the customer, “I’m so sorry ma’am, he’s new here, have a free cake pop to help forget that just happened…” He said as he looks over at Sketch, “I know how breaded apple pies are tasty but I meant negative connotation…” He snarked. “Sorry I just messed up again, kinda happens a lot when I’m in the kitchen. Usually I just accidentally cut myself. Now that I think about it I get hurt a lot.” “So you basically lied about a crucial part of the job during the interview… Wow, your kind must really know how to get ahead in the corporate ladder.” Mocha jokes as he takes the cup and fixed the coffee for himself. “Alright I’ll make the drinks, you just try taking orders, there’s somepony coming in right now,” Mocha says as he points to the door. As he looks around, he notices it is a large red Earth pony with a reddish yellow mane, making Mocha blush slightly… “Quick what’s the name of the cafe? I forgot out of bad memory.” Sketch asks quickly, but before he could get a response the customer rang the bell on the counter. “Hi, welcome to Mocha Jon’s, what will ya have today sir?” Mocha Jon looks a little confused, as the store was not named after him but he figured that could be fixed easily. The red stallion grins and responds in a deep voice with a thick accent, “Howdy, I’ll take a Double Shot Triple pump Caramel Macchiato with Soy Milk and light on the drizzle with Half-Caf espresso please.” “Coming right up sir, that will be four bits.” As he says that the stallion puts down four bits and one in the tip jar. As Mocha Jon makes the order he can’t help but look over at the stallion every few seconds almost spilling the drink on himself. “Oh hey Big MacIntosh, I remember your specialty, just order the ‘Big Mac’ menu item and I’ll make it for you,” Mocha says as he starts using his horn to carry the drink, but due to the small size of his horn and the fact he wasn’t the best magic user, he almost drops the coffee… Big Mac expected this and caught it before it fell on and burned Sketch. “Eeyup.” Big Mac says as he takes his drink and waves goodbye, surprisingly not phased by the strange being at the counter. “How’d I do?” Sketch asks. “Well, you need to be able to read orders back, corporate policy, not mine…” Mocha said as he looks annoyed, hating that rule himself, “But for one of those complex orders you see in the movies I don’t really mind you skipping.” “Okay, well since we aren’t busy wanna chat and kill some time over a cup of black coffee?” “Black? I need a lot of cream and sugar in my stuff, but I can still chat, what do you wanna talk about?” Mocha asks as he starts using the espresso machine like an arcade cabinet. “Alright I’ll go first, do you like that red stallion that was just in here? I know that face when I see it..” “What face? I didn’t see anything?” Twilight says. “It’s the same face Twilight made when I mentioned Flash Sentry.” At this Twilight squees out of nowhere in embarrassment. Mocha freaks out when this subject is brought up and the steam sprayed on him when he flinched, “OUCH! Wait, him, Uh he’s a nice guy and a regular here.” Mocha says as he nonchalantly drinks the unfinished beverage. “Sure he is...Your turn.” Mocha was not ready to admit that to ponies of whom probably don’t consider him a friend yet, “Okay Sketch, I’ve heard rumors that in some world ponies are nothing but farmers, have you heard that?” He asks, referencing a horror comic he once read. “Yup, and if they were a race horse they were put out to stud for the right price, and were non-sentient either. My turn!” “Okay… I didn’t know they had horror comic books on your world.” Mocha responds, missing the point of his answer. “That's horrible Sketch!” “Still true though. Hmmm, what to ask…" And so Sketch asks the most important question ever asked, ever, of all time, but the writer is too lazy to write it so we just fade to black on the scene like in the final episode of the Sopranos. Spike, Twilight, and Sketch head back to the castle for the night, tomorrow was going to be a busy day, fifty-four days left... chapter 15 Bookfort One, this is Pillowfort Alpha, do you copy?“Morning sleepyhead, wakey wakey eggs and wheaty!” Twilight chants as she opens the curtains in Sketch’s room. “Noooo the light, it burns us!”Sketch says in his impression of Gollum and Smeagol. “What are you talking about?” “Movie reference lost on a talking farm animal, why didn’t I see that coming.” “I am not a farm animal, I am a scholar.” “Still the joke has failed to reach you.” “And what was that voice you said it in?” Twilight asks. “I have a few movies I need to show you later.” “What kind of movies?” “Awesome ones.” “Fine, but first I need to talk to you about something.” “Okay, shoot.” “Your species is unknown to our world and I want to learn all about it, not just it’s accomplishments but its downfalls as well.” “Well To sum it up we were the dominant species on the planet and the only sentient species as well, meaning ponies like yourselves were nothing but pets for little kids.” “And I take it the putting them out to stud was a real thing, not just something you made up on the fly?” “Yup.” “Wow, that’s so...wrong.” “Yeah but the animals didn’t care, to them it was just another way of having foals that were later used as racing horses, we did the same thing with dogs. No animal was safe from our kind.” “That’s horrible.” “Wait til you hear what we did to each other, that will make the animal killing look cute and fluffy.” And so Sketch explains the whole of the history of the human race from a scientist’s point of view and focuses on the most recent years, eighteen hundred to twenty seventeen. “You elected a businessman ruler of your country, and by extension, the most powerful military in the world?” Twilight asks incredulously. “I didn't vote for the guy, but hey, he is a businessman so he knew how to sell himself to the American people.” “I guess, I just hope that never happens here .” “With Luna around I doubt it.” “Why her, why not Celestia?” “Cause Luna, from what I saw, dealt with the worst of it, weird ponies come out at night and she’s the one who deals with them and all the other nobles who think their petty little problems matter but when in the grand scheme of things nothing they do will matter, we all die, and that’s about it. Except for Luna, she’s awesome.” “Celestia's better.”Twilight mumbles. “Anyways, so anything else you want to know?” Sketch asks now fully awake due to the impromptu history lecture. “Well I was interested in the video games you mention, so you created worlds and controlled people and made them do things like drive cars-” “Or drive the wrong way on the road and cause a seventeen car pile up.” “Why would you do that?! You’re crazy!” “It’s a video game, everything in it is fake, nothing is real, there are no repercussions for what you do, no one really gets hurt.” “Are you sure?” “Yeah, I am, plus if causing car accidents in games did affect living things I doubt they would’ve been legal.” “Good point.” “Sorry I didn’t mention that first.” “It’s okay, I should’ve asked.” Twilight points out “Yup.” Sketch replies.” So can we have eggs for breakfast again?” “Fine… But you’re cooking them this time.” “I can live with that.” He says as he stands up, popping his back as the blanket fell off of him. “I’m kind of glad your people wear clothes twenty-four seven, I don’t think I want to know what you got down there.” “Nothing you haven’t seen before, stallions don’t exactly hide their junk you know.” “You look?!” “Bad habit, seen a few things I wish I hadn’t and others, well, let’'s just say there are a few that keep me up at night in terror.” Sketch adds “you guys really should wear pants too.” “Fine, just don’t look at me.” “Don’t worry, no interest.” “And why is that?” Twilight for some reason takes offense to this. “Simple, you may be sentient but to me, you are still a spitting image of a pony from back home, minus the color pallette and human-esq face. I’m only interested in making friends with you guys while I’m stuck here, example one, Luna.” “Oh, right, sorry.” “It’s okay, you just stay adorkable and you will find somepony who thinks of you like that.” At this Twilight blushes slightly. “Now for food!” Sketch shouts as he picks up Twilight by her barrel and carries her to the kitchen. “Why do you pick me up every time?” “Cause you are like a soft stuffed animal except for the fact that you're sentient, plus I like cute things.” “Aww, thanks.” “No problem, after I make the candy for Jon wanna build a pillow fort?” “For someone older than me and just as smart you are highly immature” “Yeah and it is really really fun to be immature, I’ll help you build Bookfort One.” “Really?! I er- mean, no we have experiments to run and-” “Too late, we are building Bookfort One and Pillowfort Alpha.”And so the candy had to wait for they were building their epic domiciles from which they would rule over their respective kingdoms and govern their people as they see fit. For years to come the regality of book fort one would be known through all lands, and the military might of Pillowfort Alpha would cause even the most fearsome dragon to cower in their wake. But alas Bookfort One and Pillowfort Alpha could only last so long before a war broke out and- “What are you doing in here?” Spike asks as he watches Twilight hurl novels at sketch who retaliates via a pillow to the face at Twilight. “Fighting a war that will be known throughout the ages as Pillowfort alpha and Bookfort One wage an epic war beyond the scope of common man.” Sketch dictates. “Weird, cause all I see is you throwing pillows at Twilight and her throwing novels at you, just clean up when you’re done, I am not cleaning this mess up.” “You can be the leader of Dragon Keep and rule over the people of your land with comics.” Sketch points out. “Okay, I’ll play along…” And so the war between Bookfort One and Pillowfort Alpha was ended as Dragon Keep entered the world stage, peace was made, lives were spared and a lot of cider was to be had by all chapter 16 Sir Yes Sir!With all the silliness of the book on pillow conflict resolved and neatly put away Sketch gets to making the candy for Jon like he meant to last chapter. He spends the next two hours making the candy sampling one out of every hundred to make sure the quality is good. Afterward, he begins bagging the candy in one pound bags for Jon and put the bags into a large sack to deliver, he picks up the bag and heads out for the cafe. As he walks through town he isn’t getting as many ponies’ attention now that he has been in town for a couple days, he is still getting the weird look every now and again, but for the most part, he’s a daily case. He arrives at the shop and notices a decent sized line for the coffee and candy he makes. He gets a few waves and ‘hey how are ya’s’ as he is a regular at the coffee shop for the past couple days so he is slowly integrating into this town’s general population. “Hey, Jon, got your daily supply of candy!” He shouts from outside the cafe as he can’t get in due to the line.”This batch turned out really good today.” “Well just stand out there with em and I’ll teleport them inside.” “Really?” Sketch asks. “No, now get in here, we ran out of yesterday’s batch thirty minutes ago.” “Okay, here you go Jon.” “Thanks, your candy has brought in a lot of business, here, take this week’s pay,” Jon says as he hands Sketch a bag of two hundred and seventy-five bits. You earned it.” “Thanks, see ya tomorrow, I’ll go pick up the chocolate now.” Sketch announces as he leaves the shop only to hear the cash register ding in response and Jon makes another sale. With that job done for the day he looks at his phone and sees that it is only eleven thirty-seven. “I guess it is time to go house shopping.” He says to himself as he heads back to the castle to ask Twilight about the housing situation for him. “Sketch!” Twilight shouts as he enters the castle’s table room, you know the one. “Hey Twilight, I enjoyed our war earlier.” “I did too surprisingly enough, what are you doing back here so early?” “I dropped off the candy and was wonder how the housing market is around here.” “Well you can get one for around six hundred bits a month, but for someone your size you would be paying seven hundred.” “Crap looks like I need another job.” “I would say so.” “Any ideas?” “Well you could always work at the library, but it really doesn’t need a librarian because it is so small, hmm, well are you strong?” “I like to think I am, I can bench one hundred and forty pounds, one hundred and the forty-five pound bar.” “Yeah, there goes apple bucking then.” “What’s that, it sounds gross, is it gross?” “No, you basically kick trees and knock the apples loose and then collect them in buckets.” “Couldn’t I just, y’know, pick them?” “Too slow.” “Um. I was good in shop class with minor welding and metal working.” “Oh, that doesn’t require you to be strong, just good with your hoo- I mean hands.” “Can we stop insulting me already? I’m not built like you ponies to do heavy lifting.” “Yeah you’re even weaker than pegasi, and their bones are hollow so they weigh less and can fly easier.” “Like pigeons?” “Kind of? I-I guess, but that’s not the point, the point is we need you to get the job at the local smithy.” “Fine.” And so they make their way out of the castle and into town to see if the local blacksmith needs a helping hoo-hand, I meant hand, come on, it may be six a.m. after an all nighter but you gotta get this right, get into it! Oh and while the writer had a little moment of lack of sleep induced brain fart they arrive at the smithy. “Anyone home?” “Yeah, what do you want, I’m busy.” A stallion answers from deep within the forge. “Well, I was looking for a job, Twilight here told me you needed someone to help you out around here?” “I did” Twilight confirms. “Well she isn’t wrong but what are you exactly?” “I’m Sketch and I’m a human from Earth.” “Who names a place Earth? Don’t you know that is another meaning for dirt?” “I know I have pointed it out but no one seems to get how stupid it is.” “Yeah, well what do you know about forging weapons and armor?” “Nothing.” “Can you carry heavy equipment and deliver goods?” “Yes, but nothing over two hundred pounds and I know a little bit of welding from my friend Jayme, he went to school for it.” “Well that will count for nothing here, you have to earn the right to work with me and your first job is delivering this pile of equipment to the guard’s outpost, now.” “Okay, where is that?” “Hurry up and deliver it.” The Unicorn blacksmith orders as he works the forge. “I’ll show you where it is.” Twilight offers a helping hoof. “Okay, thanks, Twi.” “I said hurry up maggot!” The unicorn orders. “Yes, sir!” Sketch says as he takes the cart full of spears, swords, and armor to the guard’s post. “Let’s hurry,” Twilight suggests as they take the cart out of the smithery as fast as they can. “So while we deliver this what’s the guy’s name and what’s his story?” “Well his name is Steel Pride and he is the oldest and most successful blacksmith in town.” “Cool, why is he such an ass?” “Sketch! Language mister.” “Sorry…” Twilight clears her throat, “Anyways, he lives alone on the outskirts of the town, about a twenty-minute walk from Fluttershy’s cottage, and a widower, his wife passed on a few years before I got here.” “Awww, now I wanna be his friend.” “You can be, just be patient and work hard, he respects a working stallion, uh, I mean, man, right?” Sketch nods.” Okay, the terminology for your race is taking some getting used to.” “So is saying everypony instead of everyone. Also, can I point out something I am amazed by?” “Sure.” “What are the chances that I would end up in a magical world full of talking magical ponies that speak and write in my language yet be nowhere near my home, where the language originates that we developed from a dead language thousands of years ago.” “That is bizarre now that you mention it, the chances of this happening are infitssimaly small now that I think about it.” “I know, right?” “Yeah, oh wait I forgot, I was supposed to experim- I mean study your physiology, after you’re done working.” “You were going to say experiment on me weren’t you…” “No, I wasn’t” Twilight denies. “Sure you weren’t, and how are your notes going?Am I evil enough for you?” “Quite the contrary, you seem to fit in well with pony society, you are a law abiding citizen and you are going out of your way to help others. A prime example of that would be you working for Jon at the cafe, you doubled his business in a single day and made a deal with the Cakes for chocolate deliveries to make the candy for him. More than anything I am just impressed how you are handling the situation. And I haven’t forgotten about you wanting to go home, but why the time limit? Celestia told me about it but she won’t tell me why not even Luna will spill the beans.” “That’s for us and for you to not know, privacy and all. But I need to get home in less that fifty-four days from now.” “Could you please tell me? As a friend?” “Nope.” “Alright…We’re here!” “Oh, looky there, we are,” Sketch says as he knocks on the door to the small post. “Yes, sir?” The generic guard asks as he opens the door, not surprised by Sketch at all, must’ve seen him around town earlier followed by Twilight. “I’m here with your new equipment.” “Ah, very good.” The guard looks over the equipment and finds the bill stuck to one of the spears, he walks back into the post and comes back with a small pouch full of bits.”There you go, the payment for the order is there, thank you for the delivery, fare well.” “No problem.” Sketch replies as he and the guard nod at each other and then the guard goes back to work as Sketch and Twilight leave to head back to Steel Pride. “That was fast.” Steel pride says as he appears right behind them in the middle of town square.”Where’s the money?” Sketch offers the unicorn the pouch full of coins, he opens the small bag and begins counting.”All one thousand and three hundred and thirty-seven bits, good, you didn’t take any for yourself.” “Of course not, I’m no thief.” “Yeah, I watched him.” Twilight states. “Even if the princess of friendship vouches for ya I’m still skeptical hiring you, but if you really want to work for me you must do anything and everything I ask of you without question, is that understood?” “Yes, sir!” “Good, you start at six a.m. tomorrow.” “Guess that means I’m making the candy at night.” “Candy?” “I also work for Mocha Jon, I make candy in the morning and drop it off for him before the morning rush.” “Do that on your own time, you work for me now.” Stell Pride says matter of factly. “Okay.” And so Sketch now has a second job working for Steel Pride, how will he fare with the stubborn old smithy? Will he burn himself countless times doing the simplest of tasks, most likely, will he get enough money for a place of his own, probably. To find out the rest you must read on! End of the day fifty-three left. chapter 17 Everywhere They GoWith his job as Steel Pride’s apprentice slash errand boy, Sketch heads back to the castle along with Twilight. “You really want to get out of the castle and on your own huh?” Twilight asks dejectedly. “Yeah, I don’t like mooching off you and the princesses.” “Oh, okay, well it was nice having you as a guest-” “Oh I’m not out of your mane yet, I still need to find a place to live and I am not living in a tiny house where I hit my head on the doorway.” “Okay, after your work with Steel Pride we can do some research on your species.” “Just nothing weird, okay?” “What do you think I’m going to do to you?” Twilight asks. “Just nothing like a mad scientist would do, a okay?” “You have my word.” “Okay, well, I gotta go make the candy for Jon tonight and drop them off at five thirty so I can get to Steel Pride’s shop by six.” “I’ll set an alarm for you.” “No need, my phone has one.” “What can’t that device do?” “Depends if you have the right application to run, wanna help me make the candy? It is fun eating the leftover chocolate.” “Sure, what do you do when you make it cause I always hear some sort of music when you’re in the kitchen.” “Oh I hit shuffle on my phone and it plays one of over two hundred songs at random, most are pretty good but some are just sad.” “You have sad songs? Didn’t expect that from you.” “Yeah, I will play you a few of them when we get there.” “Well, get your phone ready, we’re here.” “Hey you two, how is your research going Twi?” “Apparently I’m a good subject.” “Well yeah, you are the only one of your kind here so of course you are.” “Yeah, I’m special.” Sketch agrees. “Okay mister special, let’s get to the candy making.” “Let’s go.” The three head inside and make their way to the kitchen and Sketch prepares the coffee beans and pots and pans. “So how exactly does this work exactly?” “The water in the pot beneath it heats up the water in it and the top pot warms up slowly and gets hot enough without touching the hot metal directly and metals without burning. Oddly enough I learned this trick in first grade, except we used small plastic dixie cups. We filled the bottom cup with hot water, put another in it and put the chocolate in it and it melts without burning.” “You kinda repeated yourself there.” “Yeah… Bad habit” “Okay, so what about that music?” “You only want me for my phone don’t you Twi?” “No, but it is an interesting piece of technology I would like to know more about.” “Alright well, you wanted a sad song how about… Gorillas?” “What do apes have to do with music?” “Gorillas is the name of the band, and the song is El Manana, or in English, it means the tomorrow.” “Oh, what’s the song about?” “How about we listen to it and you try and guess it.” As the three listen to the song, Spike relaxing at the table is tapping his foot to the beat of the song as Twilight bobs her head slightly and Sketch prepares the chocolate. As the song goes on Twilight starts to contemplate the song’s meaning. As the song ends Sketch finishes the first batch of chocolate treats. “So Ms, Sparkle, what do you think that song is about?” “Well he kept saying ‘maybe in time, you’ll want to be mine.’ so his mare-friend left him and he’s sad about it?” “Close, but a good try for hearing it once, the song is about how a girl dumped the singer and he keeps hoping that if he get’s enough money maybe she’ll want to be his again.” “That is kinda sad.” “Yeah, wanna hear one that isn’t sad, but is still pretty epic?” “Do you have any rock?” Spike asks as he walks up to the counter and reaches for a piece of candy.”Can I try one?” “They are pretty bitter so be careful.” Sketch advises as Spike grabs one and pops it in his mouth, he chews on it and spits it out immediately.”Warned ya.” “How can you eat that stuff?” “It’s an acquired taste, you’ll probably like it more when you’re older...How old are you anyways?.” “Sixteen.” At this Sketch makes a face of utter confusion at this.”What?” “How are you so tiny and sixteen years old?” “I’m a baby dragon...I don’t mature for another thirty years or so, well, that’s what Ember said.” “Ember?” “She’s the new dragon lord thanks to Spike helping her through the trial for the scepter.” “Ah, that’s pretty cool, is she like Spike’s girlfriend?” “No, I have somepony else in mind,” Spike says as he smiles a bit. “Rarity?” “How’d you know?” “A guess, every time we mention her you smile and make a face.” “He’s got you there Spike.” Twilight agrees, at this Spike’s face turns red and he awkwardly makes an exit, probably back to his room.”He really likes her so let’s avoid teasing him about it.” “Agreed. So now that I have one batch done, wanna hear another song?” “Sure!” “I’m going to honor Spike’s last request before he left and play a rock song.” “Okay, that should be interesting,” Twilight says. “How does hard rock sound to you?” “What’s that?” “It’s like rock music you probably have here, wait, you have it here right?” At this Twilight nods,”Okay, it is like that but a bit more hardcore.” “How hardcore?” “Some are about suicide and others are about tragedies, and some are just great head banging songs, something you can't help but get into the groove with. Sometimes at home, I would get groovy in my chair and move to the beat of the song.” “Pfthahaha, you’re an interesting one Sketch.” “Thanks.” “Now for some rock!” Sketch decides to play inside the fire by disturbed, possibly one of the better songs in his library of music, but this, of course, is just his opinion. “That song was rather… dark, what was it about?” “When he said ‘Devon, one of eleven' he was referring to one of his past girlfriends who committed suicide and he didn’t notice til he came home one day and he found her hung by a noose in the main room. The guy saying ‘take your place inside the fire with love’ was the devil saying if you kill yourself too you can spend the rest of eternity in hell with her. “That is dark and tragic.” “Yeah, but it is a promotional video for those who are struggling with suicide. They urge anyone thinking about it or who knows someone who is to call a help line and get the help they need so it is good overall.” “At least it does some good in the end.” “Wanna hear some rap?” “What’s that?” “People rhyming to a hip hop beat mostly and I hate most of it except a few gems.” “Did someone say gems?” Spike asks as he pokes his head around the corner as he re-enters the kitchen from the hallways. “Wrong type of gem man.” At this, he seems a bit disappointed but he walks back into the kitchen anyways and stands next to Twilight.”Anyways let me go to my HU folder and hit random.” “HU?” “Hollywood Undead.” “Say what?” “It’s a band, their name was actually an accident.” “How so?” “Their name was originally just Hollywood but the producer misread the song and band name so instead of reading it, Hollywood which was the name of the band, and Undead, Undead being the name of the song he read it as Hollywood Undead as one name.” “That is interesting.” “Yeah, anyways, pick a number one through ninety-six.” “Forty-two!” “And you are now my favorite pony Twilight.” At this, she squees a little bit. “Okay, this song is...Oh god...You picked ‘Everywhere I Go’ You are in for a treat.” “What’s it about?” “Nothing but partying.” “Okay?” Twilight hears the song and immediately blushes at what the band sings about and Spike can’t help but laugh at Twilight's reaction. “I warned ya.” “Why are they singing about that?” "It is nothing but a fun song for them and it has no hidden meaning or anything, I like the beat more than most of their songs.” “But who is that guy that exposes himself? That is just inappropriate!” “Charlie Scene.It may be inappropriate, but it’s funny too.” As Sketch makes his candy he plays various songs by Disturbed since they were his favorite rock band, hard rock, but they still did the trick. The two talk about varying songs whether they be rock, sad, or even rap Twilight likes most of them and after two hours of making candy the two decide to head off to bed, fifty-three days left. chapter 18 Hammer Space“Sorry I’m late Mocha, Steel told me I need to make the candy at night and I made candy at night, made Twilight blush with music about genitals, and more than I can explain in one breath!” Sketch breathes heavily as he runs in with four large bags full of the candy covered coffee beans. Mocha didn’t seem to mind that the new employee was late, “Oh don’t worry about it, business hasn’t been slammed today cause there’s another party going on somewhere in Ponyville.” He says as he climbs across the counter, “Just glad to have a friend over!” “I can only stay for an hour til Steel Pride needs my help… well, he doesn’t need it but it makes things go faster.” Mocha sighs a little and he tries to hold in his loneliness, but he does understand that he has other commitments “Oh, okay, I understand.” “Okay what’s wrong, I can hear it in your voice.” Mocha looks nervous and stutters, “Oh, it’s nothing… I just like having you around.” “Then you are going to want to come to an event I am planning and can you keep something a secret?” Mochas surprised and doesn’t know how to respond, nopony had ever really tried to invite him to something special before, “Really? What is it?” “When I went to bed last night I found out something about my trench coat, when I was crushed by the light that killed me initially it should have torn the coat and when I jumped into bed carelessly I heard it tear. I looked back at it in terror as I tore the last one of its kind in Equestria yet I saw it mend itself with my own eyes! Also, I am planning a party when I will introduce you ponies to my kind of music.” Mocha is a little perplexed by this, he wasn’t sure how to react because he has a bad track record with trying new things… But somepony actually wants to share his personal interests with him and then invites him to a party! He can’t turn this down, “Oh yeah sure!!! Sign me up!” “Also you’re going to be singing along with me!” “Really?” He is more than excited at this opportunity, he has always wanted to be a famous pop singer, “I love singing and I know this spell that can make my voice do this! ” He said as his horn lights up and his voice suddenly becomes auto-tuned. “Not bad, I’m just going to sing along with my palm top, also another discovery I made last night, and this one is a little freaky.” “Really? What does it sound like?” He asks as he cartoonishly hops over the countertop again and goes to the espresso machine to make himself a drink. “Ignoring your statement and assuming you asked about the freaky one, I have hammer space powers…” “What’s that?” “Well I reached in my pocket my hand didn’t reach the bottom until I jabbed myself on one of my knives I left back in my apartment, the only thing I can think of is that whatever force brought me here altered my trenchcoat with minor enchantments for my convenience since I’m in a new world. Of course, I’m pulling most of this speculation out of my ass and have no evidence to support my claims.” Mocha just stares at the man with eyes wide, blinks a few times, and just nonchalantly sips his coffee… “Oh… Okay… I’m not really sure how to respond to that... “ He says nervously, “I guess the important thing is you tried?” He jokingly adds. “Well wanna see something to prove my point?” Sketch asks rhetorically as he reaches his whole arm into his trenchcoat pocket and pulls out a long katana and places it on the counter. Mocha gasps in excitement as he snatches the sword and starts swinging it around like a kid, “Oh my goodness that is so cool!” He says as he leaps past the counter again and acts like a samurai, “Can you do that with other stuff?” “I tried something bigger like my laptop but I can only pull out things that can physically fit in and out of the pocket’s five inch opening so larger items are a no go but I was able to get my palmtop, a few knives, some swords and various other items to decorate my room, and apparently they can be altered to fit in the pocket. Like for example, a poster on my wall is thirty-six by twenty-four, too big to my pocket, so I imagined it rolled up into a cylinder and boom! New poster!” Mocha carelessly tosses the sword away from him, not bothering to look where he's throwing it… And rushes right over to the human, “Okay I gotta try this!” He says as he reached his own hoof into his pocket, “Okay, I’m thinking of… Um, Uh, Oh! A packet of my favorite cotton candy flavored gum!” He says as he pulls out… Empty hoofed… “Ah man…” “Yeah, I’m going to have Twilight study my coat and maybe we can find out through that how I got here and how I was resurrected.Hey, while I’m here wanna listen to some music or shall I make a fool of myself and do karaoke? Don’t worry, I Have no shame or dignity.” “Oh, I would love to try that…” He says as he tries reaching again, pulls out again and was also empty hoofed, “But we may need to wait, we have a customer…” He says as he points to the door and revealed Big Macintosh walking in… And reaches into his pocket one last time… “Hold on I got something…” He says as he pulled out a pack of gum, “Hey there we… Oh man… It’s a knock off brand…” He says as he throws it away. “I hate most gum...except unnecessarily large amounts of bubble gum, then I can blow huge bubbles.” “I have a bad habit of swallowing after only thirty seconds of chewing.” He says as he lunges back behind the counter and rubs his mane to straighten it for Big Mac. “Let me see if I can pull out some condoms from my pocket…” “Condoms? What are you talking ab…?” He nervously questions until he saw Big Mac come in, “Oh hey Big Mac! How was the trip outta town?” He says as he started making Big Mac’s usual order, looking annoyingly at the human for what he just said. “Eeyup.” He says as he takes the drink and was completely oblivious to the tension between the two. “I met a special somepony.” Mocha’s face widens in surprise… “Oh really…?” He says as he turns on the steamer on the espresso machine, “Got a name? Or is it one of those hipsters who chooses to identify only using the pronoun ‘I’?” “Sugar Belle, Eeyup she’s pretty and sweet like sugar cane.” He says as he wipes the steam from the air. “Good for you big guy, when’s the wedding?” Mocha bumps him on the shoulder for making that comment, “Ignore him, he’s crazy and likely to fall into a never ending vortex in his pants…” He says as he turns the steamer off, “Well, I’m, well, I’m glad you found your special somepony, you deserve it.” Mocha says as he looks down and scratches the back of his mane. “Maybe we could meet her someday.” He says with a clear tone of his voice that he is disappointed. Sketch leans down to Mocha’s ear and whispers “Maybe he might consider a three-way.” Mocha rolls his eyes and shakes up a can of whip cream and points it at Sketch, “Your next move will have consequences…” He whispers back. “Does talking count as moving?” Sketch quotes. “So Big Mac, remember when I invited you to maybe go ice skating later, you never answered me, but I’m guessing the answer is gonna be…” “Nope.” Mocha sighs, “Saw that coming.” “Sorry there Jon, I got plans with ma sisters then we gots ta make plans for Sugar Bell’s visit Sweet Apple Acers, maybe some other time." Big Mac replies as he takes his drink, waves goodbye and leaves. “Hooray…” Mocha cheers as he takes a deep breath, “Okay hold on one moment, I need to get something from the walk-in fridge…” “Maybe you can you can find another guy, ah who am I kidding this place is the exact opposite of a sausage fest.” Mocha does not hear what he said as he closes the walk-in door, at first there is complete silence until suddenly a loud, ‘AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!’ can be heard through the walls… Following, Mocha walks back out with a more straight face, “I’m sorry, you were saying?” “Damn man, loud much?” “I’m sorry but everypony I think is cute never finds interest back in me!” Mocha yells as he takes out a jelly packet from the bagel shelf and places it on the counter, “Is it too much to ask for a nice stallion to want another stallion for once!?” He asks as he smashes his hoof on the packet and purple goo flies across the room. “Trust me I know the feel bro, one example of my affairs ended after 3 years, she got her friend to break up with me for her through a letter and then I never saw or heard from her again. Ever since that day I have been alone...Life sucks.” “At least you had a marefriend, I can’t get a stallion to even notice me and I’ve been trying for moons…” He says as he cartoonishly bangs his head on the counter, “Okay I want to change the subject, are you and Twilight still getting along?” “Yup, but I wanna prank her so bad her foals will remember it.” “Okay pause!” Mocha yells as he flips and turned around, “There’s a prank going on, tell me everything!” Sketch leans down and whispers the details in his ear and a huge grin appears on his face as he does so. “Okay, Pause!!!” Mocha says as he flips over the counter and grabs the katana and somersaults back, “Okay I want NO part in this!” “Man, you are one acrobatic party pooper, you still up for singing in the concert before hand though?” “ You know it! “ Mocha says, again using his horn to auto tune his voice. “Yeah plus the ink will stain your coat something awful, plus how would I fake both of our deaths?” Mocha swings the sword around to silence Sketch, “I said I want NO PART in it!” He says as he lungs back behind the counter and starts blending a frappe, “Seriously, Twilight barely knows I exist, if she knew I helped you with THAT, she would never let me hang out with her and her friends.” “Eh, I’m just in this for the lulz.” Mocha rolls his eyes in response, “Fine, just leave my name off everything, I have nothing to do with it.” He says as he pours the frappe into a cup, “And also, please don’t mention to anypony, especially Twilight and her friends, that I’m a Colt Cuddler, I just know they’ll think I’m a freak.” “Dude, they probably care about that as little as I do.” “Okay, so if I told your friends you liked dating men, they wouldn’t make fun of you?” Mocha asks with a mixture of sarcasm and genuine concern for his self-esteem. “Mine didn’t.” “You told them you’re gay? I thought you’re straight?” "Nah I go both ways I keep my options open, but if I had to be with a guy they would have to be feminine or androgynous and human, no ponies.” “That’s… Good to know…” He says while thinking about how another male isn’t attracted to him at all, “Just know I wouldn’t date a human either…” He sarcastically adds. “Good to know you won’t take advantage of me when I’m drunk, speaking of which…” Sketch says as he pulls out a flask and drinks heavily from it. Mocha rolls his eyes and takes the flask, “No drinking on the job please.” He says as he dumps the liquid out of the flask into the sink. "Haha! Jokes on you!” Sketch says as he pulls out another flask and this time keeps it out of the stallion’s reach. “Haha, jokes on you, I’m a unicorn…” He says as his horn lights up and the flask begins to fly away… Only for the magic to short out much before the flask could get very far… “Dangit, curse this small horn…” “Suck it, I got more, let me tell you how this happened…” Sketch says as he takes a swig of vodka from his flask and leans down to pony level. "I was digging through my coat and when I reached in I could feel a lot of stuff so I grabbed and just started pulling stuff out, and and I have an infinite amount of things I can pull out so hence infinite vodka.” .”Okay, Pause!” Mocha says for the third time this hour as he lifts his hoof up like he's giving the pause hand, “You already told me that.” He says as he reaches back into those pockets and cartoonishly falls into them arm deep… “Going in arm deep aye?” Sketch narrates as he wiggles his eyebrows. “I know what this looks like… But this was an accident…” He says as he pulls back. “And I know all about accidents, I myself was one.” He jokingly says, once again not being afraid to make jokes about himself. “So?” “So what?” “Also wanna hear something you will like?” “No, I was hoping to hear that my pet badger has rabies and had to be put down by means of electric shock…” He sarcastically responds. “Reach deep in my pocket and go for the lower left-hand side and push aside the vodka bottles and grab the first thing you can.” “Uh… Okay…?” He says as he reaches again… cartoonishly falling in again… “Woah…!” He yells, but eventually after rattling, he did manage to find something and pulled it out… “Okay… if this is one of those spring snake can pranks I’m gonna be mad… Then laugh.” “I promise it is something that you specifically will like.” Mocha finally pulls it out and looks at the mysterious object… “Open it up and take a whiff.” Mocha is afraid the thing would be a bag filled with old socks or something when he was told to smell it (which admittedly he would like…) But when he finally sniffs it, he recognizes the sweet flavor and knows it is one of the hardest to find, “Oh my Celestia! You have White Chocolate Coffee!?” “Yeah my friend worked at a coffee shop and I had him order it special for me, they would add in a few extra bags to their order every month and I would pay for the bags at wholesale value and the shipping cost, way cheaper than ordering it direct.” “So you’re saying I can get free White Chocolate Cappuccinos whenever I want now?” He inquires as he takers the bag and instantly starts a batch, “Okay you’re never getting fired!” “Ha and like I said it is an infinite supply so before I’m late navigate your way through my pocket and pull out as much white chocolate coffee as you can.” “I don’t know which parts of that offer sound better!” He jokes as he reaches again… This time reaching down so deep that he completely falls into the pocket yelling in shock, before bouncing out completely from the other pocket in a cartoonish manner, knocking over a chair upon landing. "You fell in...the pocket isn’t even that fucking big, how the hell did you manage that? Pony physics?” Sketch asks scratching his head…”What was it like in there?” “All I can say is…” He says as he stands back up and brushes himself off, “I can finally understand how Pinkie Pie works now…” “Oh yeah, Pink pony...Please don’t tell her or anyone else about this yet. I have plans for this.” “Don’t worry, I’m worried if SHE finds out about those, she’ll go mad with power!” He says as he jumps back behind the counter, “Hey, I gotta ask, does Twilight or her friends ever, you know, talk about me?” “I don’t hang with them much, I do my own thing, plus I wanna prank em so the less I’m near them the less they will suspect anything, it will be out of left field.” “But you live with Twilight, I mean hasn’t she ever at least asked anything like, ‘That sounds fun, you should invite Mocha Jon’ or ‘Hey that reminds me of when Mocha once…’ or anything?” “I dunno. Wait...I think I know what’s going on here.” Sketch says as a grin forms on his face. “What? I don’t have a crush on Twilight! I’m more likely to have a crush on Spike!” He says rather defensively. “One that’s creepy, and B you wanna be her bestest friend don’t you?” “What? No! I mean sure I would like it if she and her friends would maybe I don’t know, invited me to hang out with them and maybe go out bowling or ice skating or rock climbing or… Okay yes, I imagine being part of her group all the time!” He says as he defeatedly slams his head on the counter. “I’m not in that group either, right now she is just studying me like I am some exotic animal, we aren’t really friends.” “But she’s the Princess of Friendship and she’s been spending more time with you in your few days being in Equestria than they ever spent just even being in this shop! I mean how can I make friends if the Princess of Friendship doesn’t think I’m friend worthy…?” “Talk to her during the cultural exchange concert I’m hosting in two weeks, get drunk and party with her.” “What should I bring up? I doubt she’d be interested in some nerd who loves comic books and can only sing by autotuning his own voice.” “I have no musical talent either, I use a voice changer and mix it with the singer’s voice to get it to match the pitch, technology kicks ass.” “I mean I write to her brother all the time but we aren’t that close, he didn’t even invite me to his wedding, and it’s a shame cause I was totally jealous that he got controlled by those bug things!” “Why?” Mocha responds by taking out one of his comic drawings that shows a different changeling, presumably a king, using the same spell in Mocha… “Speaks for itself.” “It turns you on...what the fuck?” “Wait, what!? No… Okay well yes, but not enough to actually make me want to try it, I meant it just would have been kinda fun to have a bad guy try and use me as a weapon and have that special somepony who loves me bring me back to reality.” “My god you are a kinky bastard, well on that note I’m gonna head out, I’m going to be late for my other job if I don’t leave now.” “Bye, have fun…” He nervously says, while inside thinking ‘Dangit, I just ruined that friendship…’ After all, he didn’t choose to have that fantasy, he was always kind of ashamed of it and thought Sketch would be understanding… “Also don’t look so down, I have heard worse, I had a girlfriend with a really weird one I’m not even comfortable talking about.” “The sad thing is Shining Armor also knows I’m a Colt Cuddler, so it was awkward when we write.” “Want me to make it more awkward when he meets me? I can think of a way to make you seem more normal.” “Uh… Do I want to know?” “I could wear assless chaps and a cowboy hat and not give a fuck, I have done worse.” “If you do that I will be unable to resist you…” He jokingly responds. “Sorry, no ponies for me, also what the fuck is a changeling? Are they like mimics that eat people?” “I’m not really sure myself, but they’re like these half pony half bug things who have the ability to shapeshift. They don’t eat ponies, they eat love… Though honestly, I’m not really sure how that works, I mean all they do is scare ponies which kinda takes away their love, honestly, I say Changelings should be pets, we treat them nicely, they treat us nicely and we naturally feel the love that they can eat.” “Are they sentient? If so they shouldn’t be pets, also they eat love? Do you mean the emotion or…” “I don’t mean like obedient slaves, I mean kind of like roommates that are not afraid to do favors every now and again, I mean they’d be living rent free so they gotta do something nice, and I never really knew, though the queen was apparently able to hypnotize Shining Armor when they were just talking so I assume emotion.” “That makes it a lot less pervy,” Sketch adds as he looks at his phone, unfortunately, he is now ten minutes late to his other job and Steel Pride will have his ass, and not in that way you perverts. ”Shit...Can you teleport me across town real fast? I am late for my other job as an apprentice.” “Well I can try, but I’m not very good at magic…” He says as his small horn lights up… “Lol your forehead is like a mini glowsti-” And before he can finish his quip he is gone. “Oh my gosh! How did I do that?” He says as he looks up and sees smoke coming from his horn… “Oh…” He tries lighting it up but it won’t light up… “Huh? What’s wrong?” He questions as he tries again, but it still wouldn’t light… “Oh boy… This will be fun…” He sarcastically says. The voice says as he lands in the forge of Steel Pride's smithery and lands in the molten metal upon contact with the forge, as he tries to climb out in desperation only one metal covered hand makes it to the surface before he dies again and sinks to the bottom. And then Sketch never made it to his next job with Steel Pride and a voice echoes throughout Sketch's head right as he dies... "You are a reckless one aren't you?" Author's Note Yup, he's dead, have a good night everybody! chapter 19 Oops Doesn't Even Begin To Cover This“Where is that slacker!? He’s three hours late!” Steel Pride shouts as he paces back and forth within the shop growing increasingly annoyed at the tardiness of his new employee. As he continues to pace Twilight trots in. “Hey Steel Pride, how’s Sketch doing? I came to do a check up on his progress today.” Twilight says with a smile. “The damn slacker hasn’t shown up yet and he is one hundred and eighty-seven minutes late now!” Steel Pride emphasizes by pointing towards the clock on the wall. “Weird, he is usually very punctual…” She ponders as an idea pops into her head, “I got it! I can do a locating spell on him, did he leave anything of his here?” Twilight beams with excitement as she wants to try to play hide and seek with her tardy friend. “Yeah, he left a bottle of liquor over in the break room, he works hard and drinks harder, but after today I don’t think I’m going to suspend his drinking privileges.” He states as he points a forehoof to the adjacent room where the stench of vodka permeates the store. Twilight happily trots over to the empty bottle and closes her eyes, as she does her horn and the bottle begins to glow and then her eyes open to show glowing orbs. “T-This can’t be right...it says he’s here.” “That is impossible, he’s too big to hide anywhere here, try again.” “It is correct, I just don’t understand where he could be, maybe I could track him more closely.” “Then get to it, we need to get to work here, no offense princess.” “None taken Steel Pride.” She says as her horn glows a faint purple as she follows her senses, She walks around her horn glowing brighter then dimmer until she ends up at the forge with the molten metal with a puzzled look on her face. “Why did you stop here?” “This can’t be right, it says he’s in there!” She shouts as she points a forehoof towards the forge, and at close inspection, they notice the smell of burning flesh in the air, when a stallion quickly enters the shop. Mocha Jon enters at that moment, wondering where Sketch was, “Hey, is this the place where Sketch works?” He asks as he notices the inquiry on their faces, “Everything alright? Oh hey, Twilight!” He says, unaware of what was happening. “W-Well, apparently Sketch is um... “ Twilight looks nervous at the chance that somehow Sketch, who was appointed to her for integration into society, has had an….accident. “The last time I was him was this morning and he left some of his things at the shop. He was in a hurry to get here so he asked me to try and teleport him here with my horn. I didn’t want to do it but he was so adamant and begging me to do it.” “Oh no...No-no-no-no.” Twilight says as she begins to panic at what Mocha Jon is saying. Mocha is clearly worried about what she is saying, but he still doesn’t grasp the situation, considering how Twilight has yet to say what scares her, “Uh… Is there a problem...?” “Jon, I have some terrible news, Sketch is… You teleported him into there.” She says as she points towards the molten metal, as Twilight says this Steel Pride’s face changes from one of concern from when he and Twilight were looking for Sketch to one of sadness. Jon naturally does not know how to respond, and initial denial seems to be his reaction at first, “Wait, what?” He said as he rushed over to the pots of metal, “Oh no… Please no… Sketch…? Sk-ketch! Sketch!!!!” “It seems when you teleported him here you were too close, we should clean this out…” She says looking to Steel Pride who nods and pulls a lever off to the side, the forge begins to drain and the three look on in horror as the charred remains of the human and his clothes, Twilight looks away and audibly gags and Steel Pride just looks down. “Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!” Mocha screams out loud in a mixture of panic, disgust, and guilt, he feels as if he did the worst thing ever, “Oh, Celestia this is all my fault!” After this Twilight calls the local guards and informs them of the accident and at this they all look to Mocha in suspicion. They interrogate him for two hours and all he does is cry for the loss of his friend and tells them what happened before the incident, and it all matches up and seems believable so he is let go. The following week the little bit of his body they could scrape from the bottom of the forge is put in a foal sized coffin as that was large enough to hold his remains. The day of the funeral all of those who knew Sketch, or who were aware of him, attend the funeral, the service is led by Twilight as she and the others all don black dresses, of course, made by Rarity. “We are here today to mourn the loss of a friend, companion, and the only one of his kind.” Twilight begins, “He was brought into this world accidentally and left the world before his time, leaving many of us saddened by the loss. Though he may not have been here long, he did leave an impact on our lives, he was blunt, to the point, and most of all honest. He was a hard worker and an even better friend, I sadly don’t have much more to say as we didn’t have much time to spend together, but what little time we did spend together I will cherish forever.” With this Twilight wipes the tears from her eyes and steps down from the podium and then the only pony he was close to takes the stand. Mocha Jon is reluctant to take the podium considering the situation, he would be nervous speaking at any funeral, but this is a funeral he caused, so he naturally does not want to face the crowd. He looks around and shrugs his shoulders, he knows it’s time to face the music. “I never imagined myself speaking at a funeral of anyone close to me… Because I never got close to anyone before, but all that changed when I met Sketch… Sketch was the closest thing I ever had to a best friend, he shared my sense of humor, my blunt sarcasm, and he was someone I could tell my deepest secrets too… I remember that day I discovered what happened to him, all I could do was cry… I know he is in a better place now, but because of me, he never got the chance to see if Equestria would be a better place than his world… I don’t know much about his world, but if there are more people or ponies like Sketch, it’s the world I want to be in…” Mocha says as he steps down crying, making sure not to face anyone there. From this point on there were only slight glances in his direction, nopony making eye contact for more than a second, afterwards the funeral came to an end as Twilight and her friends carried the coffin to his grave site to be lowered by the family that owns the funeral home, the hole was the size of a foal to match the coffin’s dimensions and with the coffin lowered they begin to bury it and this drew tears from all, especially Twilight who kept thinking to herself “This is my fault! I should have kept a better eye on him if I did this wouldn’t have happened and he would still be alive! I’m a terrible friend, he didn’t deserve this! I-’, she stops mentally berating herself as she notices a large white wing cover her. “Such a tragedy, if only we were more careful this could have been avoided,” Celestia says as she looks at the fresh grave as Luna walks up next to her. “Indeed, even with his problems he did try to be a good po-er, human. Luna says in mourning of one of the few that shared her internal struggle. “It’s all my fault! I was a terrible guardian!” Twilight cries as she begins to break down, the princesses have nothing to say and just hold her as she lets it all out as Mocha just sits near the back. chapter 20 "I'm Sorry," Isn't Good EnoughA week after the funeral Twilight finally is ready to pack up Sketch’s belongings, but she is shocked at how much she found in his room. “What is all this stuff?” She asks Spike who was trailing behind her with a large cardboard box in hand, ready to pack up Sketch’s belongings for storage in one of the many back rooms of the castle. “Oh, well, I wasn’t supposed to tell you but considering what has happened lately you six should know,” Spike says solemnly. “Six?” “Yeah, he had gifts for all of you, he even gave me his comic book collection!” Spike announces as he waves around what Twilight thought looked like a bigger, yet thinner, version of his phone and all the bright white screen displayed were… “Titles?” “Yeah! He said his friend helped him collect all of these there are thousands!” “And he gave that to you?” Twilight asks. “Yup! He wanted to thank us all for being so nice and putting up with him for the time being so he got me, you, Pinkie, Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, and the lovely Rarity gifts from his world!” “H-How did he do that? If he could go back for his things couldn’t he have gone back home?” “No, apparently there was some weird magic he found that let him grab stuff from his world, specifically his home, he was talking to himself about it for hours, I heard him talking to himself about it quite loudly. Then when I poked my head in to ask he just shut it on me and locked it, talk about rude.” “Alright, I guess I’ll get the girls…” One hour later the girls arrive at the castle confused as to why they were called, Twilight remains silent and leads them to Sketch’s room, the girls stand alone at his door as Spike returns to his room to read up as much as he could on the adventures of Deadpool and friends. “Um Twilight, did you need help cleanin’ up this room er somethin’?” Applejack asks in confusion. “Yeah Twilight, Why’d you interrupt my second mid-afternoon nap to help you clean?” We know you feel bad about it, but it is just his stuff.” “Rainbow! How can you be so insensitive? She clearly needs us, otherwise, she wouldn’t have brought us here, right dear?” Rarity asks. “Actually I’m not the reason you’re here, Sketch is, before the a-accident he planned on getting us all gifts, but didn’t live long enough to give them to us.” At this, the group’s jaws are on the floor, including Rainbow Dash’s. “But we didn’ do anythin for him.” Applejack points out. “Not in his eyes, apparently we were the first people to accept him and take him in, he was abandoned by even his own family and wanted to thank us for being with him. I went through the piles of stuff and I found some unique items.” Twilight says as she levitates out six boxes full of items, each box taped shut with packing tape. “I’ll go first,” Twilight says as she moves her box, which was strangely lighter than the others and she could her something small moving around in it as she sets it down. With a quick rip, she removes the tape and she finds something similar to Spike’s gift inside with a note taped to it. “Dear BookHorse Thanks for putting up with my shit, giving me a place to live, and most of all, being my friend for you I give you my world’s library…” “Well, what’d he give you Sugarcube?” Applejack asks. “It says he gave me his world’s library, but he couldn’t have pos-” Before she can finish her sentence the tablet bleeps to life and a web page opens up for an online catalog of ebooks numbering in the hundreds of thousands which he had acquired through many subscriptions to various ebook sites and a few audio book sites which he downloaded for later reading, even knowing he could never read them all, of course not all are available at once, she could however download up to four at a time. “Woah! T-This is amazing! There are more books on here than the Canterlot library!” Twilight exclaims, practically bouncing up and down with joy but is stopped mid hop by Rarity. “Sorry,” Twilight says sheepishly, ”Okay, next is Pinkie Pie.” “Ooh ooh ooh my turn, my turn!” Pinkie says excitedly as she pronks over to her box which was, of course, covered in pink tape. She tears open the box with wild ambition and finds a book inside, she opens it up and gasps loudly. “What is it?” Fluttershy asks poking her head out from the rest of the mares. “It’s, it’s a baking guide for every kind of cake he could think of!” Pinkie cheers. "It even has something called "Milk-cake" in it, sounds yummy!" “Let me see what the monkey got me!” This just earns Rainbow Dash a glare from Twilight and the others, “Heh, sorry.” She opens her box quickly and finds another book, “What was with him and books?” She thought to herself. Once she opens it she sees why he gave her this time, “It’s a book about aerodynamics and how to increase efficiency for less drag! What does that mean?” She looks to Twilight as she holds the book in her left forehoof. “It means it will give you tips on how to be as fast as possible featherbrain.” “Oh, sweet!” “I guess I’ll go now.” Rarity says as she steps up to her box and using a pair of shears from her saddle bags she delicately opens her box and finds yet another book accompanied by, ”Bottles of chocolate milk?” She peers closer at the bottles and her eyes go wide, “They aren’t bottle of chocolate milk, they are bottles of chocolate wine! And a book on...Cosplay?” “Sketch told me about that! It is where fans of certain shows, groups, comics or books dress up like their favorite characters, some spending years perfecting their costume.” At this Rarity’s eyes light up, he may not have known much about fashion but this was a great gift. “Well, it seems he put an awful lot a work into these gifts, wonder what he got me.” Applejack says as she opens her box, in it she finds a large farmer’s almanac. “Uh, Twilight, what the hay is this?” It’s a large blank covered book with a note on it, Twilight levitates it over to her and reads it. " "It's a farmers almanac from his world, it show’s his world’s farming expertise developed over many generations.” Applejack simply smiles and holds the book to her chest. “I-I guess it’s my turn then,” Fluttershy says as she hovers over to her box, inside she finds various grooming supplies for various animals and a note. Dear Yellowpony I know you like animals as much, or even more than I do, so I thought why not give you some of my old stuff I used to take care of my pets with? I know it isn’t much but I think you have enough animal care books so this is the best I could come up with, sorry. -Sketch" “Awww” Fluttershy squees as she closes the box and pushes it near the door. “I can’t believe he was so thoughtful, and all this just because we were friends with him?” Rarity asks. “Well he may have been a bit rude, and had a terrible sense of humor but he was good on the inside.” “Like me!” Discord shouts as his eyes float above the group, he had been watching them the entire time. “Discord! Why are you here? He didn’t leave anything for you, and we aren’t in the mood for jokes right now.” Twilight announces to the draconiquis as he appears above them in the hall. “Yes, but I have a deeper connection to him than you all might think.” “How? Did you know him?” Fluttershy asks as she approaches him. “Yes, in fact I brought him here after a similar accident cut his life short in his world, and since he knew me I didn’t want him to see me so I have been in disguise around town keeping an eye on him to make sure he behaved.” “So that’s why you weren’t at our weekly tea party,” Fluttershy says. “Indeed, sorry by the way, but it seems I don’t have to hide anymore as he is...was, as accident prone her as he was back in his world.” “Discord just leave.” Twilight seethes. “What? I am merely just pointing out he has the worst luck of anything I’ve ev-” “Leave!” Twilight orders, and with that Discord just poofs from existence. “Oh, my…” Fluttershy squeaks. With that done the girls all sit and talk for a bit and then go their separate ways but not before there is a knock at the door, and with Spike too enthralled in his comics Sketch gave him Twilight had to answer it herself.” “Yes who is i-Oh, hi Mocha, what brings you here?” Twilight hiding her dislike for the irresponsible unicorn. Mocha was nervous to see them all, he knew they must hate him, but he didn’t want to keep it from them, “There were a few of Sketch’s things he left at the coffee house, and I figured you would be the one who inherits them…” “Oh, okay, thanks, just put them in the hall next to his boxes and let yourself out.” She says as she turns to leave. Mocha expected them to pretty shaken up by his presence, but he didn’t expect them to be as blunt as that, after all, losing Sketch probably hurts him more than the rest as he was the closest he had to a friend, “I deserve that…” Normally Mocha would make some snide comment in defense of himself, but he just can’t this time… Twilight just ignores him and walks heads down the hall to her room to read Sketch’s tablet, he even had made a top twenty list of books she should read. Mocha tries holding back as much as he can there, but he needed to say something if she wouldn’t, “You think this was easy for me? This was the first time since the funeral that I had even left my house, I haven’t even gone to work since what happened!” “We all feel bad for what happened to him, but you’re the one who caused it! Teleportation is a high-level spell, you don’t learn it until university or even later due to how dangerous it is! Without the proper planning, you can end up right where you want to be or but hundreds of feet up in the air, what were you thinking?” Twilight asks rhetorically, knowing he probably wasn’t thinking when he cast it. Mocha reaches into his pocket, pulls out a red stress ball and squeezes it hard at the comment, “You really want to know what I was thinking? Cause if you really want to know I will tell you, but you won’t like it!” “What? That you thought it would be cool to poof him to work so he didn’t have to walk, just so you could show off?!” Twilight’s getting mad now, but she still isn’t looking at him as she stands at the opposite end of the entrance hall facing away. “I did it so for once I could probably prove to myself that I wasn’t a failure and so that you would finally see me as more than a barista and and maybe want to-” “You wanted to prove yourself to me? That’s why you did it?! You killed someone in your recklessness you daft foal!” “It wasn’t my idea to teleport him! He was the one who goaded me on! Do you know what it’s like to know you are terrible at something you should have known as common knowledge and then someone actually tells you they believe in you? Cause, news flash, due to my small horn nopony ever taught me magic, including the danger of it!” “So besides being reckless and being uneducated in a dangerous art you decided to go along with it? He didn’t even know about magic until he got here less than a month ago, but, you did! And just because you have an inferiority complex due to a small horn, which has little no effect on your magical abilities, you decided to try something just to prove something!?” “What would you have done in my position? Someone asks you for an important favor and is the only person who ever showed any interest in you! What was I supposed to do? Tell me, and my inferiority complex isn’t about my small horn, it’s because I can’t get friends or boyfriends in a town where I am neighbors with the Princess of Friendship!!! Someone finally believed in me and I was supposed to automatically know he could die when nopony ever taught me that it was dangerous? I know it was a mistake and I’ve been-” “Just leave his things there and never come back.” Mocha squeezed his stress ball so hard to the point that it pops, “I thought the Elements of Harmony would understand how traumatic an event like this could be, but don’t worry princess, you won’t see me again… Nopony will, ever…” He says as he storms off, he has something in mind as he knows nopony will forgive him, and he can’t forgive himself… Twilight just stands there tears streaming down her face, as Mocha slams the door shut as he marches out. chapter 21 Forces Beyond Our ControlAfter Sketch’s death everypony in town return to their usual routines, Applejack keeps up with her farm, Twilight buries herself in the library with her studies, Pinkie stays pink, Fluttershy tends to all the critters in ponyville, Rainbow keeps flying circles around all the other pegasi, Rarity designs the summer line, and Spike, well, Spike found something from Sketch to keep him occupied for a while. “Spike! Spike! Number one assistant, where are you?!” Twilight calls out as she roams the castle looking for Spike. She eventually finds him in his room staring intently at the tablet except for this time it isn’t displaying the heroics of heroes and the downfall of villains, it is…. “Spike, what are you reading?” Twilight asks, her curiosity piqued. “Some guide book to making an adventurer for a game called Pathfinder, there’s also another book in here for Dungeons & Dragons, it is really cool! It is like our tabletop game except better!” Spike cheers as he shows Twilight the various monsters from the bestiary along with some pictures of famous heroes. “Huh, too bad you two didn’t get to play it together, anyway, I need your help, I can’t find the book on ancient light magic.” “The third to top shelf on the bookshelf fifth from the far back right corner and it has a white a gold binding.” Spike answers without even looking up from the tablet, Twilight doesn’t know how he does it but is always appreciative of his help. “Thanks, Spike,” Twilight says as she trots off back to bury her muzzle back into ancient times. As Spike, went through the tabletop game books he’s intrigued by the various creatures that one can fight in these games, one actually scares him, the beholder, to him the only thing he could think of is a unicorn with dozens of horns each casting spells at random in various directions. That isn’t the thing that scares him, it is all the eyes on the ends of tentacles and the giant mouth that could swallow you whole. Meanwhile, in the library Twilight is researching ways to figure out how Sketch first ended up in Equestria, this book, in particular, contains spells known as multi-dimensional doorway spells letting you see other worlds. Only the princesses, mainly Celestia, had any form of success with this spell due to its insurmountable difficulty and raw power needed to cast it. Twilight is reading this book for hours on end without rest, she’s determined to find out what caused his appearance here, sure Discord said he brought him here after a similar accident but how? After reading the spell tens of times she thinks she understands it, maybe if she cast a time travel spell and then cast it maybe she could disrupt Discord’s casting and let Sketch die in peace in his world instead of dying in this one. Or, maybe if she was really good at it she could stop him dead in his world altogether! “Ah, ah, ah, Twilight, you shouldn’t meddle with forces beyond your control.” A voice echoes throughout the library startling her as she looks around for the source.Before she can find the source of the voice the book glows brightly and when she looks back down the pages are now blank. “No, no, no, no, no, no! I was so close!” Twilight panics as she tries to recall all the components for the spell but some of it eludes her. “Twilight, what’s wrong?” Spike asks as he walks in and immediately notices a look of defeat on her face. “What happened this time, the wrong book?” “No, I was trying to find a way to prevent Sketch from dying the first time before he got here and dies again, but when I found a spell I could use to look into his world something stopped me and erased the book!” Twilight explains as she levitates the book and shows Spike the blank pages. “Huh, what do you think happened?” “I think I have an idea…” Twilight replies as she puts on her saddle bag and slips the book into one of the bags and heads out of the library. “Oh Fluttershy, this tea is simply delightful!” Discord cheers as he sips the tea, the cup slowly pouring down his throat before setting down the tea on the table. “I am so glad, I really do enjoy our tea parties, want to host the next one?” “I think the first one was a disaster enough, so why not again?” Discord chuckles as there is a knock at the door. “I’ll get that Di-” Before Fluttershy could finish her sentence Discord waves a claw and the door opens upward, slamming against the ceiling. “Oh, hello Twilight, what brings you here?” Discord asks nonchalantly as he eats a cucumber finger sandwich. “I think you know why I’m here,” Twilight says as she gets out the white and gold book from her saddlebags and shows it to them. “It’s a book, did you want me to sign it?” discord asks, his right pointer finger turning into a yellow pen. “No! I was trying to stop Sketch from dying in his world so he wouldn’t be brought here and then die in a magical mishap but the book’s text faded after some voice from beyond told me “Ah, ah, ah, Twilight, you shouldn’t meddle with forces beyond your control.” and then poof, it's gone!” “Why do you suspect me? I’ve been here the entire time, right Fluttershy?” Discord asks as his head spins to face Fluttershy who simply nods in response. “B-but then who, how? If it wasn’t you then....” Twilight just plops down on the floor in confusion wondering what in Tartarus is going on here. “Twilight, this may be hard for you to understand, but there are other forces out there more powerful than me, Luna, or even Celestia, maybe someone doesn’t want you meddling in their business?” “All I wanted to do was save Sketch, who would want him dead?” Maybe it isn’t the fact that they want him dead, maybe they need him to die for some reason we can’t comprehend.” Discord explains. “What makes you think that?” “Do you know how much trouble I got into for going there and bringing someone back?” “You got in trouble? But you’re Discord, you are the personification of chaos! Who could possibly punish you? Did they threaten you with something similar to the elements of harmony?” “Oh you silly pony, there are much worse things than the elements.” “Like?” “Never existing, heed my warning Twilight, let this be, just go about your business as usual and forget about him.” Discord suggests as he returns to his tea on the table where he takes a bite of the remaining tea. Twilight is more confused than ever right now, someone punished Discord with something worse than the elements of harmony? What is going on here and who is behind it? chapter 23 Kind of...As Twilight sped to the guards to tell them something was horribly wrong she ran into none other than the Princess of the Night which due to the earlier happenings didn't even blip on her radar. "Twilight, what art thou doing in such a panic, we merely came to see the first hoof what was reported of mister Jon," Luna explained as she chased after Twilight. "It's true, he's dead but someone else isn't!" Twilight nearly screamed. "Who art tho-" "Sketch is back! Somehow Mocha used his dying words to warn me about him or something I don't know and I need to get the guards who found him to come with me, it's urgent!" "Calm down, we are here with you, we will aid you in this endeavor Ms. Sparkle, but what gives him his credibility to this claim? We all saw what remained of the poor man." "Why would he say that if it weren't true, he isn't one to lie, especially on his deathbed." Twilight reasoned. "Ah, well I am more concerned with something else." "What could be worse than this?" "What could've brought him back this discretely and quickly?" This caused Twilight to stop and go wide-eyed for a second... Anoither version of him did something similar to...HE BETTER NOT HAVE! "Discord!" Twilight shouted into the night only for a large rubber ducky to appear in front of her and pop to reveal discord apparently had just gotten out of his bath. "Twilight, why are you shouting at this time of night? I was relaxing in my bath." Discord said in a whiny tone as he tried to look saddened by his shortened bath time. "Answer this now, no funny business, what did you do with Sketch?" She asked looking him dead in the eye. "Why, did someone graffiti his grave? That's so no-" "Not his grave, him!" "Uhhhh, Twilight, I don't know what you think I've been up to lately but resurrecting people isn't one of them-" "Then this just got a whole lot worse!" Twilight replied now fully freaking the hay out. "Something dug him up didn't they?" He asked no in a serious tone despite his butter yellow pajamas and pink sleeping hat. "Yes!" "Well, if you suddenly came back to life after death where would you go?" "To see my loved ones," Luna answered immediately. "Oh no, Spike!" Twilight cried as she bolted back towards her castle only to find footsteps leading back to it and it looked like whoever it was dragged something along with them. When they all got to the castle they heard sobbing from the front steps, it was a mare. "Ms.?! Are you okay, please come out we need to speak to you immediately it isn't safe here!" "Princess! Please, help Sketch!" She cried from within, none of the lights on so no one could see who it was but it was not someone from Ponyville to Twilight's knowledge. "Sketch?!" Without hesitation Twilight bolted into the front room, seconds after entering her eyes began to adjust and she saw something kneeling over something, Twilight lit her horn to see who this was and she almost couldn't comprehend what she saw, a light orange unicorn mare in armor kneeling over the charred but living remains of what she could barely make out as Sketch's body. Luna and discord followed and later did many guards, the bipedal mare was taken in for questioning and Sketch was rushed to the hospital, something was going on and Luna and Twilight didn't understand any of it and Discord for once was silent. As the mare was taken in Twilight noticed her armor was a bipedal variant of the royal guards Celestia commanded in her royal Canterlot guard but Luna couldn't place somepony with the name May Weather, let alone a bipedal one, Twilight only knew one thing about this, it was going to be a long night. Author's Note sorry for the long delay, other parts are nearing completion, over 300 pages worth so now I can start posting on my end! chapter 10 The Pink One EntersAs Sketch awakens he yawns and pops his back, his morning ritual, he heads to the bathroom to brush his teeth but realizes he doesn’t have any tooth brushes or toothpaste for that matter…. Yet another thing he wishes he had with him at the time of the convention but sadly it was at the hotel he was staying at. “Maybe Twilight can get me a toothbrush and toothpaste.” “You rang?” Twilight says cheerfully as she brings Sketch a toothbrush and some toothpaste. “Oat flavored?” “Yup!” “Man I miss my bacon flavored toothpaste already.” “That sounds disgusting.” “Once you get past the weird plasticky aftertaste it isn’t too bad, I’m surprised you aren’t put off by the fact that I like pork products.” “Wait, you eat meat?” “Yup!” “Why?” “My species is omnivorous, we need protein to survive but meat is the best way to get it and-” “You can get it from other ways, right?” “Yeah, I guess…Peanut butter is a good source of protein, as well as eggs, please tell me you have eggs.” “We do have eggs, you know we aren’t savages.” “I never used that word...tiny purple horse.” “I am not tiny!” “You’re four feet tall, but still an adorkable little horse.” “I don’t know whether I should be offended or flattered.” “It’s okay Parum Equus.” “What’d you just call me?” “It is latin, a dead language in my world and I just called you little horse.” “You know a dead language and have it memorized, yet you use it to insult me?” “Not to insult, just giving you your own nickname. Do you see any other pony with a dead language nickname?” “He’s got you there Twi.” “Thank you purpura, ac Lacerta.” “Let me guess...little dragon?” “No, purple lizard. There is no word for dragon in latin.” “How and why do you know so much of a dead language unless you only use it to insult ponies.” “I needed to memorize a good chunk of it for my zoology, biology, and botany classes in high school and college.” “Oh, how many years of school is that equivalent to?” “Twenty years.” At this Twilight’s jaw drops. “Twenty years?! How old are you?” “Twenty four, I started early and skipped a grade.” “You skipped a grade?” “Yeah, I’ve been doing algebra since fifth grade.” “Why?” “Because despite my childish nature lies the brain of a scholar, but being smart all the time is no fun. After all, ignorance is bliss.” “I’m not ignorant I just don’t know everything.” “That isn’t possible, I bet Celestia doesn’t even know one percent of everything, the scale is just too massive to comprehend.” “You…*Sigh* Have a point there...Can we just switch topics al-” “Do you like waffles or pancakes better?” “Waffles, definitely waffles,” Spike says as he...did he just eat a gem? “Did you just eat a solid gem or is it like rock candy?” “Nope, it’s a real gem, emeralds are my favorite though.” “Nice, so Twi, what’s your preference, pancakes or waffles.” “Uhh, pancakes?” “Ok, I will make both.” Sketch stops and looks Twilight in the eye with the most serious face he could make without laughing,” You better have a waffle iron or so help me god I will bury you in pancakes.” And so Sketch then proceeds to make pancakes and then he literally made one hundred and twenty-seven pancakes, almost enough pancakes to bury her, almost…. Almost…Once Sketch finishes cleaning up the pancake apocalypse as he calls it the three head out to meet the rest of the elements of harmony, not that Sketch knows because he was too busy singing Rap God by Eminem while she was explaining the day's itinerary. First was some pony named Pinkie Pie the pink premier party pony, what’s with him and alliterations? As Sketch looks around he can feel something behind him and just as he turns around he is ‘greeted’ with a large cannon pointing directly at him.It goes off… “Pinkie! What have I told you about doing that to new ponies?” “Hehehehe sorry Twi, I just had to do… it… are you okay mister?” “Don’t you dare ever sneak up on me again.” “B-But I thought ponies liked surprises, I-” “Few things, I’m not a pony, two, I’m a first dan if you sneak up on me like that my first reaction is to kick the person sneaking up on me, you could’ve been hurt.” “Sketch don’t you think you are being a bit harsh?” “And another thing I got confetti in my eye because of that blasted cannon.” At this Pinkie Pie’s face turns from one of joy to one of sadness as her eyes begin to tear up. “Awww don’t cry little one come here,” Sketch says as he kneels down to hug the sad pony, this immediately cheers her up but Sketch still feels the need to apologize, which he does profusely. “Sorry, Unum Rosea I didn’t mean to be so harsh it’s just that I don’t like surprises.” “That’s okay, I can throw you four more types of parties that don’t involve surprises or cannons!” “Nice, I look forward to them, also I called you Unum Ro-” “It means the Pink one I know that silly willy!” “How do you know a dead language from a different world?” Twilight asks. “Just a guess!” Pinkie Pie says as she smiles. “How?” Sketch says wondering how the pink one could’ve guessed, it was nearly infinitesimally small chance of her guessing right yet she did just that. “It’s just Pinkie being Pinkie.” Twilight offers as an answer, Sketch doesn’t care enough to press on and the three, wait where’s Spike? Back at the castle. “Twilight! I'm ready! Where are you?” Spike shouts as he searches the halls for his friend. Back in town. The three spend some time at Sugarcube Corner and chat it up as PInkie and Twilight talk about their friends and blah blah blah, Sketch just zones out for most of it until he falls asleep sitting upright in his booth seat as he couldn’t fit into one of their tiny chairs. And with that, he’s out like a light. chapter 22 So, The Main Character Is Dead...One year after Sketch’s death everypony has moved on as if he had never been there, Twilight still has her duties, Spike is forever loyal to his “sister” Twilight, and Owlicious and Spike still argue over who gets the last apple tart. But the accident had bothered her more than she would ever admit, the site of his burnt corpse, or what was left of it, in the forge was mentally scarring, she had been having nightmares when he would crawl out and ask her for help as if she could save him, she kept telling him she couldn’t but the dreams kept coming. All but two have forgotten him, one being Mocha Jon had attempted something drastic... “Is he breathing?!” A nurse shouts as Mocha’s gurney bursts in through the door from the ambulance bay. “He’s barely got the capacity to do so. Celestia’s sake, I can’t believe he tried it with a broken horn.” a doctor replies. 2 hours earlier Mocha Jon stood alone in his empty shop, ever since the incident with Sketch everypony laid blame on him and since then has become the pariah of Ponyville, everyone avoiding his shop and him at all costs. His business had died along with the only person to accept him, and he killed him. Sure it was an accident but the guilt was overwhelming. He had done self-harm when he was younger but what he had done the past year would make most ill. With no one to even acknowledge him, his business dying, and no reason to live he decided to end it all. He was too much of a coward to try the toaster in the bath trick, couldn’t tie knots to save, or in this case, end his life, so he fell back on the only option he could, incineration. He closed shop early, as if it mattered, and charged his horn with as much magic as he could muster. The way he was attempting to euthanize himself was to charge up enough raw energy in his horn over a small period of time without expelling it, the heat would build and magic overload would happen, thus turning him to ash.That was the plan but due to his magic overload when he teleported Sketch to his demise, by accident, his horn crack as due to its small size he couldn’t hold a very large charge, or so he thought, and the damage to it only made it more unstable. As he charged it he began to think of how things went so wrong so fast, one moment he had a booming business, a friend who cared, he even had the bucking princess of friendship in his shop, he had always wanted to be among her inner circle and with Sketch as his friend he was hoping it might come true. As he thought of this he realized that he might have been using him to get close to the one he admired from afar all these years. As he thought of how he might have been a worse pony than he thought the magic began building to painfully high levels. Magic sparks were crackling in neon blue from his horn, it was so bright and hot to him that he honestly thought this is what thermite felt like, or at least that is how Sketch described what it might be like. With the spell almost complete the front door chime rang out through the store, and a mare walked in. “Excuse me? Is anypony he-” But before she could finish her question there was a bright flash from the back room and a scream, the mare ran back to where she heard it from and found Mocha Jon burnt all over. Scorch marks lining the walls of the small storage room, a bag singed and some paper filters burning. She screamed and within moments more townsfolk broke in to find the suicide attemptee on the ground bleeding heavily. The spell misfired and instead of an incineration effect, it was more like being struck by lightning. Normally only unicorns of immense power or alicorns could cast a spell of that power, one of deadly force, but he had been planning this for a while. He had been avoiding the use of magic so he could save up the energy from a few months and unleash it in one blast to end it all, but due to his previous spell that damaged his horn, it was unable to kill him since he couldn’t accurately cast the spell. It should have just turned him to a pile of ash, but instead it released it all around him, think single target damage versus area of effect spells as for why it only nearly killed him and not ‘poof’ no more unicorn. Back at the hospital at the current time The staff brought him to the Intensive Care Unit and put him on life support. “I know what he did, but I can’t believe anypony would try that!?” One of the nurses said as they looked at the report from the scene and were horrified that he tried to cast illegal magic on himself as a suicide attempt. “Well I can, it may have been an accident, but he is still guilty of ponyslau- ehm, manslaughter, so he deserves this at least.” One of the male nurses replies as he looks apathetically at the stallion in question before walking away to do literally anything else. After an hour Twilight shows up, she may not like him because of his misuse of magic, but when the guard told her what happened she was horrified, she never thought he would go as far to kill himself. She waits patiently for him to wake up and stays the night waiting for him to rouse from his self-induced coma. Morning comes and he is still out like a light, except this light bulb’s fuse was nearly broken. “Ugh…” He moans as his right eye cracks open, the sunlight through the window blinding him momentarily as his eye slams shut, only to re-open as it adjusts. “Mocha?” Twilight says, trying to catch his attention. “Twi-light?” “I shouldn’t have blamed you for what happened, none of us should have...I-I’m sorry.” “Twi-light...He’s...n-not….dead….” “What?” She leans in closer to see if he can repeat himself only to hear his heart rate monitor start blaring, she looks over to see he has flat lined. Various nurses and doctors rush over and begin resuscitation, for fifteen minutes Twilight watches on in disbelief as she watches them try to revive him to no avail after they stop he lay in sanguined bandages. “What did he say?” Nurse RedHeart asks Twilight as she turns from Mocha Jon, Twilight herself has her eyes locked onto his now dead body “I-I don’t know, I think he said someone’s not dead, but the only person who’s died recently from something other than natural causes was Sketch, and we buried him!” Twilight panics, she has no idea what is going on, why would Mocha Jon say that when he was there to see him dead? Was he hallucinating? Yeah, of course, he must be he- Later, across town at the cemetery The graveyard was silent and covered in a blanket of fog, she makes her way past the gate to see if her insane theory is wrong, it had to be, right? She was there when they buried him, he has to be dead, right? She finds the back left corner left for those with no family to be buried with and she finds the middle row last grave site on the...left… “Oh no…” She whimpers as she backtracks before turning 180 and galloping out of the site. What made her run? The spot where Sketch’s tombstone was? There a large hole, not from a grave robber with a shovel, but a perfectly rectangular hole exactly big enough to lift the coffin out. The coffin, nowhere to be found, only left a foal sized casket shaped hole in front of his tombstone. Where is his body? What did Mocha Jon mean? Find out on the next episode of DRAGON BALL Z Author's Note Welp, here's where my fun begins, also I debated on the look of this next part for a while but thanks to a music video I downloaded a few years back I didn't need to be original, thanks to youtube! (JK I just really like the character design in it and it fits what the character is about and what not)
chapter 1 A Chance EncounterThe room is large and crowds of people pour in from all directions, various stalls displaying their goods as passerby's walk around the vendor hall of the noisy convention center. It has beige walls and a red carpet, there are families here among the crowd with their kids. They all gather near the plushie stall to shop for their favorite toys. Sketch, on the other hand, has more interest in the Magic The Gathering table that he had shopped at previously, he bought a few much needed cards for his deck before he came back to do another run through for anything he might be missing out on. After spending what money he has on collectibles and memorabilia he leaves the vendor hall and begins to wander the other convention halls. “I think I’ll hit the dance panel next, those always look like fun, maybe if I get there early I can get in the front row!” Sketch says excitedly, as he runs to the panel with four bags full of con swag. He originally was going to cosplay but there was a tournament he just had to participate in and you can’t exactly fight in a complicated costume with multiple parts, so he just opted for a Guy Fawkes mask for the fun of it. As he enters the panel room he notices it was actually more akin to a small concert hall with a stage, curtains and lights included. It was rather impressive for the hotel he's staying at, it wasn’t great, but at least they took care of the facilities and panel rooms. “Hmm, so this is the ‘You think you can dance’ Anime panel, should be interesting, I hope they do Lucky Star,” he says to himself as he walks the halls, being 6’2” he could see over most of the crowd, thankfully most didn’t have on large costumes, well, other than the RWBY cosplayer with the scythe, something Sketch found very well made. “Wait, back on topic man, keep it together, don’t nerd out too much, it’s only a- Ooh shiny!” He shouts as he sees a chrome Gundam in a display case, “Dear god what have I become… Wait...I-Is that... Q?!” As Sketch attempts to return his attention to the line of people on the stage getting ready to make fools of themselves for some laughs, he sees by far the most impressive Q cosplay he had ever laid eyes on. He is exactly the right height. It is as if John De Lancie had walked right off the set and had decided to spend his time at the convention. But the likelihood of that was incredibly low, John had stopped playing Q when The Next Generation ended and besides that, John no longer had the brown hair, it had become gray and peppered in his age. This couldn’t be John, but perhaps a relative. As he bids goodbye to a child he’d signed an autograph for, Sketch could swear that the man even spoke in the same exact quirky, dramatic and playful tone. “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!” Sketch wants to get an autograph- no, he needs a picture! “Excuse me, sir? I love your Q cosplay, may I get an autograph and a picture?” The cosplayer simply smiles and gives Sketch a toothy grin. “Of course my boy, who wouldn’t want something to remember me by?” His voice copying was impeccable, the kind that could only be related to either a high-end voice modulator or a long time of practice. He slaps Sketch on the back and snapped his fingers, producing a pen and a camera from his own con bag. The man then pulls Sketch into a big, one-armed squeeze, camera in the other hand aimed at the two of them. After a large flash, the older, polaroid-style camera spits out a photo of the two of them. Q leans over to Sketch. “You like being a trickster too, eh?” “Hehe, yeah, I’m a bit of a clown, I even juggle, wanna see?” “Perhaps another time, now then, hold still.” Taking the pen, the cosplayer man writes on the Guy Fawkes mask Sketch was wearing and hands him the photo. “Sweet! Did you make your costume? If so can you email me the patterns?! This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” “Sorry my boy, all my costumes are one-of-a-kind!” The cosplayer chuckles. “And please, this can’t be the ‘coolest’ thing ever. Perhaps close but you really can’t imagine anything more amazing?” “No, I don’t have a good imagination.” “Well, that will need to be fixed!” The incredibly charismatic voice of the cosplayer snickers. “Perhaps... no, not yet. When you no longer need to be here maybe... Yes, when your business is done here, I will happily show you a much more amazing experience!” “Sounds cool man! Anyways thanks so much for this, means a lot.” “Think nothing of it.” the cosplayer gives a deep bow and walks around a corner, sauntering to a tune only he could hear. Sketch attempts to follow, realizing he never got to see the man’s convention pass, something to divulge his true identity, but the man is nowhere to be found. Regaining his focus, Sketch walks down the hall and finds the panel room. There he sees a large Pikachu cosplayer on stage, the Pikachu costume very plush, with extra foam. It looked adorable and huggable, just like Pikachu should be. “I gotta see this.” He says as he walks in, but as he did so he overhears a conversation between two convention staff, something about the stage lights. The show starts without a hitch, they do the Kurutto Mawatte Ikkaiten from Keroro Gunso, Hare Hare Yukai from the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Caramelldansen which isn’t even from an anime but he dances along for the hell of it. Although dancing in his trench coat and holding bags made it a little awkward, especially with all the foam rubber knives he carried with him. They were fairly realistic with small, silverish ‘blades’ and palm-sized black handles, but whenever he was LARPing, they became deadly instruments meant for impaling his victims. And juggling. As the music plays with the video projector showing the anime the dance is from on the screen behind the dancers which comprised of a zombie, Ruby, Master Chef (Master Chief in an apron, a chef’s hat and oven mitts with a spatula) and the bulky costumed Pikachu from before. ‘The costume was well made to be quite honest, looked plush, but hard to move in.’ he thinks to himself. As the panel continues, there are creaking noises emanating above the stage, as he looks up he notices one of the light is beginning to come loose right above the dancers. “Please tell me that isn’t going to fall….” Sketch says to himself, full of worry. Sure enough, with one final creak, the light begins to come loose. With the music blaring, no one was aware of the impending danger as they dance beneath possible crushing death. Looking at the dancers for a split second he determined the Pikachu in the center of the stage was in the most danger, so he climbs on stage to save the Pokemon. He hurriedly gets on stage and pushes the Pikachu out of the way making them fall to the ground on their back. Just as he pushes the dancer out of the way the supports for the light above gave way as creaks could be heard right before it plummeted down onto him. Screams can be heard from the crowd as the light falls, it initially hits him in the head, but as he fell the light settles in his back, the heat from the bulb singeing his coat and skin as one of the light panels from the fixture was now lodged into his back. The crowd is in a panic and the staff quickly take control of the situation the best they can, they quickly get the members in the room on stage to try to dislodge the light from Sketch, but to no avail. He tries to speak but could only gurgle as blood fills his mouth and pools by his head. With restricted head movement his eyes dart around the room in a panic, is he going to die here? Before he can continue his train of thought the darkness envelopes him. “Whoopsies.” Comes a charismatic voice. “I didn’t think it would happen that soon, but... a promise is a promise.” Through the thick fog of near unconsciousness, out steps the Q cosplayer, whose face metamorphoses into one with a long brown snout, a snaggletooth, and burning yellow eyes which were full of apologetic worry for all of two moments. He snaps his fingers and gives a hearty laugh. “Go~od lu~uck!” As the moon rises in the night sky Luna makes her way back to the throne room to deal with more nobles, oh joy. “Even at night these ponies never sleep.” Luna huffs as her work is never done. As she heads back to the throne room a loud noise emanates from the garden. “What in Equestria is that?” Luna asks no one in particular. “Ugh my head, where am I?” Sketch asks aloud with no one to reply, “Why the hell am I outside?” He gets up and begins to wander the garden as he tries to get his bearings. “Stop right there!” Someone shouts, Sketch turns around only to see a white horse with a spear, “How did you get in the garden and why are you here?” “I have no idea, where am I?” Sketch asks. “Don’t play dumb, and what kind of creature are you?” The horse asks. “Put down the spear, and we can talk this out.” Sketch suggests, “I’m no threat to you.” “I still don’t believe you, but maybe the Princess of the night can straighten this out. Come with me and don’t do anything, or else you will face my spear.” “Duly noted, let’s go see your Princess or whatever.” “Finally, all the nobles have been dealt with, I don’t see how my sister does this day in and day out.” “Princess! I found what made that crash in the garden.” “What manner of beast or pony did you find?” Luna asks. “I’m no beast, I’m a human, you’re the beast, or at least a small horse, maybe a pony? Not quite sure, I’m no vet.” “You dare insult the Princess of the night?” Luna stars him down, the glare not really bothering him. “What, are you like the princess except for the night shift? Doesn’t it kind of suck that you work at night when it is so nice out?” “You prefer the night?” Luna asks incredulously. “Yes, no bright sun to get in your eyes, the starry night sky and the beautiful moon and sometimes even an eclipse; the night time kicks the shit out of the day time! Not to mention it is much more peaceful” “I may have misjudged you, although you will apologize for the beast comment.” “Agreed, you are clearly sentient so therefore you are not a beast, that’s my bad.” “What’s your name?” Luna asks. “They call me Sketch.” “Who is this ‘they’ that calls you this? Your friends?” “It is a name I kinda choose myself and people just went along with it.” “I see, so your kind chooses their own names?” “No, but we have screen names, aliases, nicknames, gamer tags, etcetera.” “How many names do you go by?” “I have roughly… six different aliases all for different types of systems but my main one is Sketch.” “Doesn’t that get rather confusing?” “Nah, I have different names for different groups of friends so when I hear a specific name I know immediately who is calling me.” “That could be rather useful.” “Yeah, nicknames are necessary when you are online, you don’t want everyone in the world knowing your real name, where you live, etcetera.” “Online? The whole world??” “We have an interconnected system of devices which we use to talk, to shop and to research things from all over the world, imagine the world’s libraries all at the touch of your fingertips.” “That is rather impressive.” “We like to think we are, most of the time though we fail to meet expectations. So, why are you on night shift?” “You see, I control the moon, and my sister, Princess Celestia, controls the sun and we rest while the other watches over the country.” “Since you are blue and the night sky is a dark blue or black, your sister is yellow?” “No, she has a white coat and a multi colored mane. Where are you from to have never heard of her?” “Earth, specifically The United States.” “States?” “Our country is divided into fifty equal states and we all follow an elected official we call the President.” “How many of you are there?” “Humans? Roughly seven billion.” At this Luna’s jaw hits the floor. “Seven billion?! In the one country?” “No, seven billion on our entire planet. My country, made up of fifty states has three hundred million though.” “You are from another planet? How did you get here?” “No idea, I remember getting up on stage, a bright light, lots of searing pain and then I ended up in that garden.” “Searing pain?” “A stage light fell on me and killed...me…” Sketch’s face goes pale. “You died?” “I... guess I did…” Sketch just looks down at the floor for a moment. “Am I the first here? Is this heaven or hell?” “What is heaven and hell?” “Can I just have a moment, please… I died…” Sketch sits on the ground as he tries to process what happened in his head over and over. Where am I, why am I here? What is going on?! “Are you okay?” Luna asks. “No, I’m not, all my friends, gone, my family, gone, everything I knew, gone. I just lost everything and now I don’t even know where the hell I am.” “Well if this helps, you are currently in the country of Equestria, which is ruled by my sister and me.” “Not much help, but the thought is appreciated.” “Sorry, if you would like to clear your mind you may head back to the garden for some fresh air.” “Thanks, where is the garden again?” “Right this way.” The guard said as he motions for Sketch to follow him. “But before I do, where’s a bathroom?” Sketch asks. “Down the hall towards the garden on your left, you are male, right?” “Yup, thanks, see you later I guess.”
chapter 2 InsomniaSketch tosses and turns in his bed as he can’t sleep, he stares at the ceiling as he goes over for the hundredth time in his head how he died . Why am I here? What brought me here? He thinks to himself as if going over it again would change anything about the predicament he’s in. His first thoughts are about his friends and family, if he died that would just crush them, but he wasn't dead, he was here in a world full of sentient ponies. It wasn’t bad but he missed his own room, as small as it was, it was his room with his parents, they would now remember him by his tombstone and at his wake rather than a dreary funeral. He rolls out of bed, the moon still high in the sky, he heads for where he thinks the throne room is, shouldn’t be hard to find, right? He thinks to himself as he opens the large ornate doors to the hallway. “Luna? Are you there?” Sketch calls out hoping to find the princess. “What do you require, is your room adequate?” She asks as he wanders into the throne room. “Yeah, it’s just that I want to talk to you about what happened. Is that okay?” “That is acceptable.” The princess of the night answers politely. “It’s just that I died and I can’t get over it, sure I saved someone but-” “Well, assuming death is not a normal occurrence for you, I fail to see how anyone could possibly ‘get over’ their own death in the span of a few hours. If you saved someone in your death should you not be proud that you sacrificed yourself to save another and will be remembered as a hero?” Luna answers looking back positively on what he said. “I guess so, but I still keep replaying in my head what I could have done to avoid it. Not that you aren’t good company, it’s just that I want to go home.” “I understand the need for kinship as much as anyone.” “Then you see my problem, can I even go home or would my soul just be transferred to my dead body where I would still be dead?” “That... is not for me to know, unfortunately. There is an unorthodox unsummoning ritual, but if it fails, or you are already where you’re supposed to be, you would definitely be dead.” “Okay, but can you do me a favor?” “Yes? What is it?” “Can you keep me company?” “I suppose I can do that,” Luna answers kindly. “Though the night court might be a trifle... boring for you, and I can’t leave my post until morning.” “I’m okay with waiting and being a bit bored, I spent a lot of time in a hospital so the night court as you call it shouldn’t be a problem.” Despite his assumption, however, the next group to enter the throne room are there to discuss politics of the current economic standing of a city Sketch had never heard of and that made it hard for him to follow along with everything. Becoming lost very quickly, soon finds himself drifting off while sitting next to the blue alicorn. As the moon sets and the sun rises Sketch sleeps away the hours in the throne room as Celestia enters. “Sister, who is this?” Celestia asks cautiously as she looks to Luna, then down at Sketch sleeping next to their shared throne. “Tis our new guest, he appeared in the garden last night and couldn’t sleep so he wanted to spend some time in my company.” Celestia blinks as if she might still be asleep. “And... how did he get here? Do you know?” “He said he died and ended up in the garden somehow, neither I nor the guards are quite sure what brought him here but we are sure that he can stay here for a while with minimal trouble, although we don’t know what he eats…” Celestia ponders the possibilities. He looks rather hairless but built like a Diamond Dog for the most part. “Well, it might be best if we tried offering fruit first if he’s starving. Otherwise, we could suggest options to him. Though the extremes of an herbivorous or carnivorous diet would be good to note. So you say he... died?” “Yes, he apparently saved someone and then died, not sure how, but he did have a clear memory of his final moments,” Luna adds. “Maybe his actions brought him here dear sister, did he say exactly what happened?” “No, just him saving the other caused his demise and then his sudden appearance here somehow.” “Okay, but did he really have to fall asleep in the throne room?” Celestia asks as she looks to the puddle of drool on the carpet next to the throne. “He couldn’t sleep so he stayed with me all night.” “Even through the night court?” “Yes.” “Hehe, he must be exhausted from all that then, have the guards take him to his room… it is a he, right?” “Indeed.” And with that, the guards take Sketch to his room and put him on his bed so that he may rest and get some much-needed sleep.
chapter 3 Awakened at TwilightAs the sun sets Sketch rises from his bed. “Ugh, my head… Wait, why am I in bed? Did I sleep through the whole day again, damnit!” “Ah ah ah, language mister.” A woman calls out from the other end of the room. “Sorry, wait, you look like Luna, are you her mother?” At this she chuckles. “No, I am her sister, Celestia.” “Oh you must be the one who sits on the throne during the day, why are you in my room, don’t you have some princessly stuff to take care of?” Sketch asks rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “Not at the moment no, I’m here to talk to you as my ‘princessly duty’ for the day.” “Okay, what do you want to know.” Sketch asks as he sits up in the large bed as Celestia walks in the room and sits on the edge of the bed. “Well first, what is your name.” “My friends call me Sketch on account of my drawing style.” “So you’re an artist?” “Not even close hehehe.” “Then what are you?” “Something that I doubt would be useful here.” “You’d be surprised at what we have in terms of technology Sketch.” “Do you know what the internet is?” “...That I do not.” “Point Sketch, my turn now.” “Go ahead.” “Do you really control the sun? Or is it a hoax.” “I do indeed control the sun as my sister, Luna, controls the moon.” “Okay, your turn.” “What is with that strange mask you have and who is this Q person who signed it?” “Oh the mask is a symbol of a hacktivist group that uses their knowledge of technology to knock bad people down a peg or two and Q is my favorite sci fi character of all time.” “Hacktivist? Is that like a terrorist?” Celestia squints at Sketch. “No, what they do is if they find a website full of lets say, illegal material they focus on it and take it down and the bad people along with it.” “Why not let the guard handle it?” “The police can’t be everywhere at once so the group leads the police directly to them and then they get sent away for various times depending on their crimes.” “That actually sounds like a good thing.” “I think it is, anyways. My turn!” “Go ahead.” “Do you guys have any beef jerky?” “You eat meat then?” “Yup, I love me a good steak.” “Well cows are part of our population so I doubt we could serve them to you being that they are sentient, are they not sentient in your world?” “Nope they just eat and poop until they either, A, are big enough to produce milk, or B, are big enough to send to the slaughterhouse.” “That is a bit grim, could you not talk about that to the cows, it might frighten them.” “Can do.” “My turn as it were.” “Shoot.” “Why do you have knives in your jacket?” “Oh, I juggle them.” “Were you a jester or clown at some point in your life?” “No, I just found it fun, i can even juggle up to three knives with one hand, wanna see?” “Maybe some other time, for now *Yawn* I will head to my chambers to rest for tomorrows drove of upset nobles.” “Nice talking to you Celestia.” “You too Sketch.” As the princess leaves so does Sketch and this gets her attention. “Where are you headed off to Sketch?” The princess asks. “Off to see your sister and talk to some guards maybe, but where’s the nearest bathroom?” “The is one right over there.” Celestia points back into the room and Sketch now notices that there is indeed a bathroom there. “How did I miss that?” At this Celestia giggles slightly. “Sometimes the most obvious things hide in plain sight.” “Good point.” At this Sketch heads towards to bathroom and gets a drink.
chapter 4 The Night Court“Luna? Luna! Wherefore art thou Luna!?” Sketch shouts as he roams the halls, he forgot how to get to the throne room and is hoping that being loud would get someone’s attention and then they can point him in the right direction. Sadly, the plan is a complete failure. “I am here, now could you please stop shouting? I’m about to start the night court and the nobles have just arrived.” “Oh, can I help? I know a lot about government.” “Really? How so?” “Well after marine biology school was too expensive and I had to quit that then I went for telecommunications, but I always had a thing for history, if telecommunications fell through I would have tried to be a history teacher. The only way man, or in your case, pony, can take a step forward we must learn from our past mistakes to avoid further conflict.” “Hmmm, maybe you could be of some help,” Luna says as she puts her front right hoof to her chin. “ How much do you know about diarchies?” “Quite a bit actually.” “Then we shall give it a shot, yes?” “Yes, I will try to keep up.” Sketch follows princess Luna to the throne room, really, how could he have forgotten already? “So, care to tell me about your kingdom?” “Why of course, first there was…” As Luna began her epic tale of the two sisters rising to power as diarcs and the tale of Nightmare Moon and the elements of harmony and the six element bearers. Sketch just walks in silence as Luna speaks of their culture and how everything came to be. The only odd thing was that she never explains why they were princesses, shouldn’t they be queens or something? Sketch isn’t sure how the whole thing works but he lets that one go. “So… you used to be evil.” “At one point in time, yes, then tantibus tried to take control and made our little ponies suffer in their dreams after we were cleansed.” “And you were purified by Twilight and her friends before this tantibus thing?” “Indeed.” “You think they could try that on me?” “Why? Are you possessed or is something ailing you?” “Kinda, oh, looky here, we are in the throne room now.” “Do you always announce things like that?” “Yeah, but the readers need to know where we are.” “Readers?” “It’s an anon thing.” “Anon?” “Ask your sister.” “Okay then, now onto business.” A guard steps forward. “Now onto the first session, taxes.” “Yay math!” “You actually enjoy this?” “Yup, took calculus in high school.” “High school?” “Yeah, I in my world that is our ninth through twelfth year of school. I think, I kinda don't know whether or not to count kindergarten.” “Mhmm” A noble pony in a suit clears his throat to get Luna’s attention.” May we please begin?” “Of course.” “And what sort of thing is standing next to you?” “I’m a consultant of Luna’s” Sketch improvises. “Now as for the taxes, I feel they are too much for my businesses and I am losing profits as the days go on, what do you plan to do about it, why not tax the lower income ponies in the kingdom and lower them for us since we are t-” “The minority, no, Luna may I make a suggestion here?” “Go ahead Advisor Sketch.” “I say we do a percentile tax on everyone, that way joe everybody doesn't get taxed more than necessary.” “But how will that help me?” The noble pony asked. “It helps you because if they tax you 16% and they tax the common citizen the same percentage they will have more money to buy your wares and then hence making you more money. Works where I come from.” “I see, I see, excellent point good sir, I will await the new taxation request from the Princesses.” “I am impressed Sketch, you managed to solve that problem easily, you seem to be a… What is it called when you are good at many things?” “Jack of all trades, master of none?.” “I wouldn’t say that, oh well, next.” The next pony to step up to be heard looks like a farmer who has worked everyday day of his life, Sketch could tell because sweat matts his coat and he looks exhausted. “Princess Luna, is there a way for you to help with the parasprites eating all of mah crops?” “Luna, can I take this one as well? Please?” “Go ahead.” “Don’t try a pesticide, but rather something similar to ipecac that is specific to their kind that would make the bugs eating your crops sick, then as more and more get sick from eating it. Luna, do you have rat poison?” “Yes, why?” “Humor me.” “But ya’ll didn’t make a joke.” Luna sends off a guard to retrieve the aforementioned rat poison, and Sketch begins reading the ingredients on the box.”Here’s what you need, an emetic. It is in rat poison to make sure that when ponies or what have you ingest it you throw it up safely and it removes the toxins from your system. If you can find a way to make this a temporary effect on your crops and then remove it before you bring it to market problem solved.” “Sounds good to me, thanks whatever ya are.” And thus the happy farmer trots out of the throne room. “Sketch, how do you know all this?” “Remember, jack of all trades, master of none.” At this Luna just laughs a little. After those two Sketch really has no idea what he is doing so he just leans up against the throne like the night before and listens to Luna deal with issues the ponies of her kingdom has. After the majority of them having their problem solved Luna steps down from her shared throne and nudges Sketch who is half asleep. “Are you still awake?” Luna asks kindly. “Wha? Oh, *Yawn* yeah, I’m still awake.” “Care for a walk during my break?” “That sounds lovely,” Sketch says as he stands up and pops his back as the pops echo throughout the throne room getting Luna’s attention. “Are you okay?” “Yeah, it’s just that sitting still for a long time for me gets my body a little stiff so popping my joint helps a whole lot, does it bother you?” “No, not at all, it’s just that I wasn’t expecting so many that loud,” Luna admits. “Sorry. So, where do you want to go?” “I find the garden quite peaceful at this time of night.” “That sounds nice, care to lead the way?” “You landed there not too long ago, did you already forget how to get there?” “Yeah, I have no sense of direction, plus all the hallways here look the same,” Sketch admits as the two meander over to the garden.
chapter 5 In the GardenIn the garden Luna escorts Sketch over to a table placed in the center of the clearing. “So, you get a small break in between meet ups with your citizens?” “Indeed, it gives us a little time for myself and to admire the garden in the moonlight.” “I have to say you are pretty impressive.” At this Luna blushes a little bit. “You are a princess, you control the moon and you are a down to earth perso- er, I mean pony.” “Thank you, sometimes it feels like some of the ponies we rule over take us for granted.” “I understand, but one question.” “You may proceed.” “What kind of pony are you, and was that a unicorn noble earlier and then a pegasus, then a normal pony.” “I am what you would call an alicorn, there are only five of us in existence at the moment: Celestia and myself who control the sun and the moon. The lesser Alicorns Mi Amore Cadenza who is the princess of love and then Twilight sparkle who is the princess of friendship. Lastly, there is the baby alicorn, Flurry heart, who is the daughter of Cadence and her captain of the guard Shining Armor,” Luna takes a moment to breathe, “That was a mouthful.” “I bet, so do each of them rules over a certain part of your kingdom?” “Twilight has Ponyville and her friendship studies, Cadence has the Crystal Empire, Flurry Heart is still a baby.” “Ah. So, how are you tonight?” “I’m just a bit tired, dealing with pony’s problems night in and night out, being royalty, and having little time for myself is a bit taxing.” “Seems like it really takes its toll.” “It does, but your company has made if a little better.” Luna smiles a bit.” Thanks for staying with me through the night court, it isn’t that the guards aren’t good company it’s just that they are so...formal. You, on the other hand, are open about what you think and feel and it is quite refreshing.” “Thanks, I am more than happy to be your companion during the night court.” At this Sketch offers a hug ” You don’t mind hugs, right?” “That I do not.” to which princess Luna who happily accepts. “Hugs help a lot.” “Hehehe, that they do.” “So, am I going to live here in the castle with you two?” Luna pulls back from the hug and looks at Sketch. “Probably not, you will most likely be sent to be studied by princess Twilight Sparkle.” “Why her? I like it here with you.” “As flattering as that may be, we know nothing about you and Twilight Sparkle is quite the scholar and will be able to study you better than we could ever hope for, we are just too busy to do an in depth analysis of your kind.” “Oh...Okay, can you promise me something first?” “By all means, what is it that you request?” “Can we keep in contact after I am sent there?” A smile broke out upon Luna’s face. “Why of course we can, so long as you stay the night owl that you are.” A smile breaks out on Sketch’s face at this. “Also can you lead me to the bathroom? I need to do my business and I don't wanna get lost for the third time.” “Follow me, and it seems like our break is over, it was nice chatting with you Sketch.” “You too Luna.” With that, the two head to the bathroom and once Luna shows him where it is she heads back to the throne room to go about taking all the nobles’ complaints and politics and what not.
chapter 6 Early MorningWith Luna in the night court and Celestia in her chambers, there really isn’t much for Sketch to do after his bathroom break. He begins to look through his pockets and finds he still has his phone. “I wonder if it still has a charge…” Sketch looks at the little battery icon and it shows that it is still charging yet it isn’t plugged into anything. “Weird… And I’m talking to myself again, great, don’t wanna go back down that road.” “What road?” Celestia asks as she appears behind him. “Nothing important, but why are you awake? Shouldn’t you be in bed resting for your long day of work tomorrow?” “Yes, but I think I should get to know you a little better before I let you get too close to my little sister.” “Why is that?” “Because I care for her.” “I get it, what do you want to know?” “What are your intentions with my sister?” “To get to know her since I might be stuck here for a while and maybe be friends.” “I think you have already accomplished that one Sketch.” “Sweet.” “My next question is how did you get here?” “Like you, I have no idea how I arrived here. All I know is I met a Q cosplayer, got a picture with him and… wait, what’s this?” Sketch says as he digs out the picture of Q where it shows the Q cosplayer and him in the picture, but the mask is signed… “Wait, do you have your own version of Q here?” “Who is Q?” “A character from one of my favorite shows who is a bit of a mischievous character and a bit random at times and is pretty much omnipotent” “Wait...You say this character is omnipotent and a bit of a trouble maker?” “Yeah, then after I met him I saved someone and got crushed by a stage light.” “Hmmm, I don’t know if what I’m thinking is correct but I suggest you make your way to Twilight Sparkle’s castle in Ponyville and begin study on how we can get you home, unless that would end with you still being under the light fixture. If that is the case I am sure you will be more than welcome to stay here so long as you don’t cause any trouble.” “That shouldn't be a problem. But if I may make a request of you?” “Go on.” At this , Sketch walks over to her right side and whispers in her ear. “That serious huh?” At this Sketch nods.”fifty seven days? Okay, thank you for the warning.” “No problem, I just don’t want to cause any trouble.” “Understood, we will cross this bridge when the time comes.” “Thank you.” “Now to get you to ponyville, you will be flown there via chariot by a few guards in the morning, is that okay?” “I guess, just get me a cup of coffee before we go so I can be awake when I meet her? And by awake I mean fully awake not drowsy and half awake, you know?” “I understand, well off to bed with you, you need to be up in eight hours.” “Got it. Good night princess Celestia.” “Good night, Sketch.” And with that, the two part ways and Sketch, for once, remembers where his room is this time and heads off to bed. Sadly all he could do is stare at the canopy of the bed for eight hours running everything over in his mind. Is all of this real? Is he real? Is any of this really happening? Is this a dream? All the thoughts rush in as he lays awake in silence. As the moon sets and the sun rises a loud knock. “Who is it?” Sketch calls out as he sits up in bed, tired as heck and somewhat awake. “Your chariot awaits you, sir!” A male voice calls out. “Ah, yeah…*Yawn* Let’s get to it shall we?” Sketch says as he gets out of bed and walks to the door. As he does a guard opens it up and leads Sketch down the corridors to the awaiting chariot with two pegasi manning it. “So, any inflight snacks?” “No, we like to keep the chariots clean.” One of the guards says a bit too seriously. “Okay, so Imma just gonna *Yawn* Sit here while you guys fly me there, is that okay?” The guards all look at each other and nod in unison, seriously, do these guys have to be that well trained that they have to do everything in unison? As the chariot takes off Sketch falls asleep in the chariot, as uncomfortable as it may be. “So, you really think it’s okay to let him go to Ponyville unsupervised?” Luna asks Celestia. “Twilight should be able to handle him, and if not, I already have something in mind,” Celestia says. “Do tell.” Luna says as Celestia whispers in her ear, Luna’s expression changes from one of curiosity to one of concern.” And you let him leave? What are you planning sister?And why didn't he tell me?” “To see if Twilight can get him home safe and sound before it comes to that. Also, he did not want to divulge something so personally right after meeting you, he didn't want to scare you away.” “I hope your trust isn’t misplaced as well as mine,” Luna says worriedly. “As do I sister, as do I…” Is all Celestia says before the two sisters turn to head back into the castle so Luna can rest while Celestia deals with the never ending stream of problems her subjects have.
chapter 7 Attempting To Wake the BeastAs the guards fly Sketch to Ponyville he is still out cold in the chariot but the guards fly a bit slower than usual due to the fact that if they flew at top speed he might fall out or hurt himself. As they fly to Ponyville the guards make their way to Twilight Sparkle's castle and this gets the attention of all the ponies in town because it had been a while since a royal chariot had been seen but a few just brush it off as official princess business and go about their day. "Sir, we have arrived at princess Twilight’s castle.” The left guard announces to no response.”Sir?” As they look back in the chariot Sketch is still asleep as he snores away. As they prod him with their hooves he doesn’t seem to want to wake up, it was about eight in the morning and he usually doesn’t wake up until five or six in the evening. Well, except for when there’s a convention, in which case he can sacrifice a few hours of sleep to go have fun with friends, who were also usually night owls. “Excuse me, why are you two here? Does Celestia need me for royal princess duties in Canterlot?” Twilight Sparkle asks. “No, didn’t you receive a letter this morning about the new arrival?” The guard on the right ponders. “No, Spike is sick and has been sneezing little bursts of fire every few minutes so I can’t tell if I received a message from the princess or if he is just having a sneezing fit.” “Well, then could you come over here so you may ‘meet’ your new guest.” “Where is the said guest?” “He’s asleep in the chariot curled up in a ball.” “Oh,” Twilight says as she walks around the chariot so she can see Sketch sleeping there. ”What is he?” “He isn’t from here and we know very little. The princesses were hoping you could study him and find a way to send him home soon and to figure out how he arrived here.” “I see, so why is he asleep?” Twilight questions. “He spent most of the nights in Canterlot talking with princess Luna and got to talk to Celestia for a bit as she was waking up and he was going to bed.” “How do you know all this?” “You think we wouldn’t notice another being from Tartarus knows where appearing in the middle of the castle grounds?” “Good point,” Twilight says sheepishly. “Ugh no mom, I’m doing fine, you don’t need to call everyday…” Sketch mumbles in his sleep as Twilight watches. “How much do the princesses know about him?” “Next to nothing except what he said about dying before he came here.” “He d-died?” Twilight stammers. “From what he told the princesses he saved someone and before he could explain his actions he died.” “That’s horrible!” Twilight exclaims. “So the princesses are entrusting him to you for study and so on.” “I won’t let the princesses down!” Twilight promises. “Alright well back to the castle with us.” “Okay, thank you for bringing him here.” Twilight thanks the guards. Back at the castle. ”Celestia! We’re here! Where’s the one who calls himself Sketch? He left before we were ready.” “What do you mean? I saw him leave with two guards just an hour ago.” “No, we were knocked out just after we left the barracks.” “Then who were those guards that took Sketch?” Back outside Ponyville The guards leave Twilight alone with Sketch as they fly away, but just as they are halfway to Canterlot out of view from prying eyes the chariot poofs from existence and the two guard ponies merge into one singular being, Discord. “This will be interesting, haha haha.”
chapter 8 Awakened At Twilight'sAs the guards fly out of view Twilight uses her magic to lift the sleeping Sketch from where the guards let him off at on the ground. “For being sound asleep he sure is loud.” Twilight says as she carries Sketch into the castle as he loudly snores. “Twilight, Twilight! Celestia sent you a letter!” Spike shouts running to the castle door with a scroll in claw, the seal broken. “A little late for that Spike, our new guest has already arrived.” Twilight states. “Oh, my bad.” Spike says. “Get a bed ready I have a feeling he won’t wake up anytime soon.” “Why do you say that?” “He slept through the ride over here and even when the guards dropped him off he was still sound asleep.” “Wow, talk about a heavy sleeper.” “You’re telling me, he weighs more than I thought.” Twilight groans. With Sketch in the castle, Twilight tucks him into bed, his feet hang off over the edge of the bed but for the most part, he seems just fine. “So what do you think that is? Kinda looks like a big monkey.” “Spike! That could be offensive, you don’t want to upset our guest do you?” Twilight says worryingly. “Sorry, it just he is bi pedal and mammalian so I just thought of the closest thing to that was a monkey. “Actually you are mostly correct, my kind evolved from monkeys over millions of years.” “Ha, I told… you.” Spike stammers as Sketch walks into the main room which was just down the hall from the room Twilight had put him in.” “How can you two expect someone to sleep with your voices echoing through the halls?” “You slept through most of the days and a chariot ride, and talking woke you up?” Twilight asks. “Yup!” “Ugh, fine, we will try to keep it down from now on,” Twilight says. “Too late, I’m up, so princess number three, what do you wanna know about me?” “Well first, is Sketch your real name?”Twilight asks. “Nope!” “Then what is it?” “For me to know and you to never find out.” “Why not?” “Cause.” “Cause why?” “Just cause.” “Ugh...Fine, next question, you said you evolved from monkeys but you aren’t one, so what exactly are you?” “A human.” “What differentiates you from monkeys?” Spike asks. “We stand upright, are sentient and we eat meat, at least, I think monkeys only eat fruit and vegetables.” “Huh, and how do you know you evolved from monkeys, did you travel back in time?” “Time travel is impossible in my world, the closest we have gotten to it is a theory stating that if one were to orbit a black hole time would slow down and if you spent ten years there you might only age half that. Since we have no magic like you have we only have ideas and theories. We based it on thousands of excavations showing similarities between us and monkeys, the neanderthal is a good example, wanna see?” “How? You don’t have a book with you do you?” Twilight asks excitedly. “No, but I have the next best thing, an Ebook,” Sketch says. “What is that?” Spike asks. “An electronic book, I have all of the books from my college days on my phone. Wanna see?” “Yes!” Twilight excitedly shouts clapping her two forehooves together. “Okay, let me open up the files.” “What files?” Spike asks. “The book files on my phone, wait, never mind, they are on my external hard drive.” “Whosawhatnow?” Spike says. “A storage for all my books and other files such as movies, comic books, etcetera,” Sketch says as he withdraws his external hard drive from within his trench coat. “How can you story so many things in something so small?” Twilight questions. “It doesn’t matter how small it is, it’s how you use it, unfortunately, I didn’t have my movie collection on me when I died otherwise I had hundreds of movies we could watch,” Sketch exclaims." And those are just the ones I liked at the time.” “How is that possible?” Spike asks. “We have had over two thousand years of documented scientific study to reach the point to where all the stuff I have costs next to nothing. This phone? One hundred dollars. This external hard drive? Eighty dollars. Entertainment value? Endless.” “Two thousand years of scientific development? How do you know that?” And you said millions of years of evolution, how is it only two thousand years?” Twilight asks, her curiosity piqued. “Well, that is two thousand and seventeen A.D.” “What does A.D. mean?” "After the death of a very important religious figure which I think like one fourth of the world's population follows.” “And you know he exists?” “Yup we have paintings and scriptures of him, they say he was the son of our god who died for our sins.” “He died?” “Yup, crucified.” “Why is your culture so violent?” “I have a theory since we are the dominant species and the only sentient one on our plant we tend to get bored and find problems with each other and we just fight amongst ourselves like children sadly.” “How come you aren’t like that?” “Because that was long ago, plus I like to think I keep an open mind about things.” “Okay, can I see the books now? Please?” “Hehe, only because you said please, what topic do you want? Government, history, biology, networking, business?” “Biology!” Twilight cheers her eyes portraying the amount of excitement the little pony had for the subject. Sketch plugs in his external hard drive into his phone and opens up the file. “Here you go little lady,” Sketch says as he hands her the phone. “Now please be careful, that is the only one in this world and if it broke I would be very upset with you.” “Understood.” Sketch now turns to Spike.”So… you’re a dragon, right?” “Yeah, how’d you tell?” “While I was half asleep on the ground I heard something about fire and you are reptilian and sentient I just kinda put two and two together.” “Just from that, you knew I was a dragon?” “More like an educated guess... Okay I just took a shot in the dark there...” “Do you have dragons where you’re from?” “Only fake ones and ones in movies that are animated by computers.” “Say what?” “I’ll explain that later,” Sketch says to spike as he turns to see Twilight enamored in the book sketch just gave her, “How are you likin’ the book Twilight?” “I love it! Such detail, such good diagrams, and pictures! This is by far the most detailed book about biology I have ever seen!” “Glad you like it, wait til you get to my favorite sections on marine life, you will lose it when you read about the giant prehistoric fish that are still alive in the modern day in my world.” “Really?! There’s a prehistoric fish that made it through thousands of years of evolution and is still around?” “Yup, I think it is called an Arowana, I even had one as a pet.” “How did you get it? Did you catch it?” “No, I bought it as a baby from a local pet store.” “You sell prehistoric animals as pets?” “If the shoe fits.” “What?” “I mean, it is a relatively interesting fish that can be bred in tanks and sold for profit and a little for educational value why not buy one? Wouldn’t you love to have something like that as a pet?” “I would but...Wait, you said your kind, the uh…” “Humans.” “Yes, humans, were the only sentient species on your planet?” “Yup.” “So it doesn’t mind being kept as a pet?” “I doubt it is smart enough to put two and two together, all they know is that they get a big tank to swim around in and there is no shortage of food for them.” “Makes sense, but here even the wildlife is sentient.” “I heard, makes me wish I had a steak right before I died.” “You eat meat then? Like a gryphon?” “I do eat meat but wait, let me get this straight, you have gryphons? What else do you have here?” “Earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, diamond dogs, gryphons, hippogriffs, dragons, cows, pigs, and yaks. But that is only scraping the surface.” “Okay, this world just got a bit more interesting.” As the day goes on the two continue to nerd out over biology and the differences and similarities between their species. Eventually Twilight hit a dead end in the book and then Sketch falls asleep in his chair, Twilight then levitates Sketch back to his bed just as she is heading to bed as well. Spike, on the other hand, had left hours before Sketch and Twilight decide to head to their rooms and continue their talk tomorrow and thankfully there was a bathroom in his room so he didn't have to share. "No one must know..." Sketch says as he reaches into his coat.
chapter 9, 56 days leftSketch tosses and turns in his bed as he dreams of what has happened in the past week, first he planned to go to the convention, then he got there, and died on Saturday of the convention and ended up in a world run by sentient ponies. Honestly, it should have been a bigger shock but then again he did dream up an elf revolution at the north pole. The elves had had enough of Saint Nick's, the patron saint of prostitutes look it up, crap and took over the North pole and took sleighs throughout the world killing all those on the naughty list as well as the ones on the nice list, they were really out for blood that year. Sketch has been tossing and turning even after that dream subsides and his eyes slowly open and he decides to wander the castle grounds but a little voice in the back of his mind told him he should go find Twilight's room, but he pushes that one aside and goes back to sleep. As he lays there sleep finally takes hold and he drifts off to sleep. “Sketch?” a feminine voice calls out, except this one seems familiar. “Luna?” Sketch asks. “You’re correct, we have come to talk with you.” “How are you in my dream and don’t you have princess duties?” “Tonight is when I watch over those with troubled dreams, yours stood out amongst the rest.” “Celestia told you about my predicament didn’t she?” “Yes, why not tell us, er I mean why didn’t you tell me?” “I didn’t want to scare you away like I have many others.” “You are not the only one with a troubled past…” Luna says as she conjures a small or of clouds that eventually shows Nightmare Moon and her reign of terror before Celestia stopped her and how she was sealed and then cleansed by the elements of harmony. “Huh… Didn’t see that coming but then everyone has the part of themselves they wish would stay hidden.” Sketch pauses for a moment “Yeah…” Sketch says as a chest appears within his dream world and it was a chest with chains all over it. “Is this it? Your inner demon?” “In English you are correct, but its name is Daimon.” “You named it?” “It named itself.” “Shall I take care of it?” “Don’t, it isn’t a problem at the moment plus neutralizing a part of someone’s brain can have adverse side effects.” “How do you know that? What if it works?” “Sorry, but I don’t want to be reduced to a potato due to part of my brain or thought processes being annexed.” “Alright, but I will keep watch on you if you don’t mind, we are as they say birds of a feather-” “-Stick together, thanks, Luna, love ya.” “W-What?!” “Like a sister, geez, don’t take it the wrong way, hahaha you’re blushing so hard right now,” Sketch says as he laughs a little trying to get off the serious topic they were just discussing. He never really liked talking about it, whenever he did people would just judge him for it, profile him. Or worse… abandon him like all the other so called ‘friends’ he had made over the years. Still, he did care for Luna, although it might have been too soon to say that he loves her like a sister but he wanted to say it while he had a chance. “Okay, may I refer to you as… b-brother?” Luna asks shyly. “You may.” “Thank you Sketch f-” “Shut up and hug me.” Sketch orders in a joking manner, he really didn’t mean to be harsh he was just being himself, meaning a bit too honest and kinda a caring person while a jerk at the same time. Luna comes close only to have Sketch wrap his arms around her and embrace her tightly and Luna reciprocates the hug and then as soon as she says she cares for him too the dream ends and it fades to black, but before the dreams ends one of the chain links on the chest snaps…. “59 left…”
chapter 11 A Man Without Clothes Is Hardly a Man, Okay, He's Just Naked“We’re here!” Pinkie Pie announces “Ugh, where are we and why am I floating?” Sketch asks. “Rarity’s shop and you’re floating cause you’re too heavy to carry.” Twi a “Cool… who is she again?” “The element of generosity.” “What?” “One of the six elements of harmony.” “Who?” “Ugh never mind just come in.” “I would but it seems you are making that choice for me by levitating me in, but it’s cool, I didn’t have any plans anyway.” “Of course you don’t, besides talking with me about your studies you have done nothing but sleep and eat.” “And bury you in pancakes,” Sketch says. “That sounds yummy!” Pinkie cheers. “It was, til she threw all but two away.” “You’re the one who used all our pancake batter in the fridge, now I have to go buy more.” “Yeah, that was poor planning on your part, if anyone should be sorry it's you Sparkle butt.” Sketch apologizes. “I didn't throw them all away just most, we still have some in the fridge, maybe we can have breakfast for dinner,”Twilight adds “Yay pancake dinner!” Sketch says “You sure are easy to please.” “Yup, I’m a simple man Twilight, ain’t hard to keep me entertained. Coffee is also good.” “Good, maybe we can stop by the local cafe and see if they are looking for help,” Twilight recommends. “Yeah, I need something to do while I’m here I guess.” “Yeah, look, we’re here!” Twilight says as they stand in front of a building that read Carousel boutique. “Huh, you’d think a carousel would be looked down upon here.” Sketch ponders aloud. “Why do you say that?” Pinkie asks. “Back home carousels usually have horses to ride on and-” “What’s wrong with horses?” “Let me finish, jeez, they were impaled through the chest and out their back by a large pole used to keep the rider of the horse from falling off as the carousel spins.” “Eesh, that is morbid.” “I know, and I didn’t put two and two together about the idea until I was thirteen.” “What are you two doing standing out there, come in come...in… Twilight?” The alabaster white unicorn asks, “What is that you’re holding?” “Hi, I’m Sketch! Can you let me down please Twi?” Sketch asks politely to which Twilight abides as she sets him down on the ground gently.”Thank you.” “Twi? Only her friends call her that, are you one of her new pupils to study friendship and magic here in ponyville?” The unicorn asks. “Nope, and I think we are friends, right?” Sketch looks back to Twilight as she nods affirmatively.” Yeah, we’re friends.” “Oh lovely, my name is Rarity and I am the element of generosity and a fashion designer for those who want to look chic, unique, and magnifique.” She announces as if she has rehearsed it a hundred times in front of her mirror. “Well, I’m here for some more clothes.” “Wonderful! Let’s get you in and measured.” Rarity says as she leads the group into the boutique. As they measure Sketch Rarity motions Sketch to take off his signature trench coat that he wore twenty-four seven. “Can you measure me with my trench coat on?” “I am sorry dear, but to accurately measure you you must discard that horrid trench coat.” “It isn’t horrid, it is my favorite piece of clothing, it is also good for holding things,” Sketch says as he reveals the insides of the trench coat this elicits a gasp from the mares. “What?” “Why do you have knives?” Rarity asks in shock. “Oh, for LARPing.” “Is that some sort of battle arena?” Twilight asks. “It is fake fighting with foam weapons see?” Sketch says as he withdraws one of his knives and drags it across his throat much to the mares’ dismay he remains unharmed. “But why so many?” “These are called throwies in the LARPing community. But I use them to distract my enemy, first, I juggle them three to five at a time and then while I draw their attention to the ones I'm juggling I throw one at them killing them.” This doesn’t seem to help Sketch so he quickly adds,” Not really killing them, they just play dead til the battle is over.” “Oh, maybe Spike and Big Mac would be interested in that, what do you think Twilight?” Pinkie Pie asks enthusiastically. “Well, they do do fantasy hoofball and DNP,” Twilight says. “DNP?” Sketch asks. “Dungeons and Ponies.”Pinkie Pie answers. “Sweet! Can I play?” Sketch asks in excitement. “First we have got to get you out of that coat.” Rarity orders. “Fine, wait, why measure me when you can just make a pattern from the clothes I’m already wearing?” Sketch asks “He does make a good point rarity.” Twilight agrees. “Fine, now if you don’t mind take off your clothes.” Rarity orders once again. “Whoa Rarity I didn’t know you liked me that way, I mean we just met,” Sketch says jokingly as he disrobes down to only his boxer briefs. “Those too.” Rarity demands. “Sorry but I am not comfortable with being naked in a room full of… mares?” “Yes, that is the correct term,” Twilight confirms. “Well yeah, you aren’t getting me out of these without three dates and lots of liquor.” Sketch informs.” But I doubt even drunk it’d work, I’m not into ponies that way.” “Are you always so crude?” Rarity asks. “Only when I’m in my underwear surrounded by women I’ve known for less than a week who inform me I need to strip.” Sketch answers. “Fair enough.” Rarity says as she takes his shirt and pants into her back room to make the patterns for his new clothes. With Rarity in the back Sketch is left almost naked in a cold shop, this was a sad day for Sketch, thankfully he still had his trench coat to cover up in. “Is your species normally hairless?” “Yes, but in my case, I am a hairy guy, I blame my dad.” “So that’s why you have arm, leg, chest and back hair.” “Stop looking!” Sketch shouts as he curls up into a ball so he could be fully covered by his trench coat. “Why are you so shy? We are naked and you don’t see us freaking out.” Twilight asks. “You have tails to cover your privates and the stallions have a sheath while my genitals are swinging in the breeze! And once again I don’t feel comfortable being naked around women I just met.” “Well you won’t be naked anymore, I will have you a week’s worth of clothes made in one week, here are your clothes back.” Rarity informs as she levitates Sketch’s clothes back to him and he hurriedly puts them back on. “Thanks, but how will I pay you?” Sketch inquires. “Whenever you have the bits.” Rarity states. “What are bits?” Sketch asks “Our currency.” Twi answers “Oh, okay, how many bits will this cost me?” “I’d say for a custom job like this, hmmm, how do fifty bits sound?” “Seems fair, but where will I work?” “Like we’ve pointed out to you before there’s a coffee shop slash cafe in town you can work at.” “Alright, take me to it.” Sketch suggests so he can pay back Rarity back as fast as possible.
chapter 12 Oh Golly Gee My First Job! 55 days leftMocha Jon was used by and written by this guy As the trio make their way into town to find the coffee shop Sketch gets a lot of odd looks. “Why are peop-er, I mean, ponies looking at me?” Sketch asks. “Well, humans have never existed in this world so you are one of a kind here so of course ponies are going to stare, for now anyway,” Twilight informs. “Yup!” Pinkie Pie agrees. “Thanks.” Sketch sighs,” So why do you think the coffee shop will hire me?” “Well I don’t know for sure if they would hire you but how else do you expect to make money.” “I take it I can’t live in your castle forever then huh…Sad face.” Sketch adds “You can stay until you get on your feet Sketch, don’t worry I’m not going to make you leave without a place to go to.” “Thanks,” Sketch says sincerely. “No problem,” Twilight adds. As the trio of Sketch, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie reach the coffee shop they are met a note on the door, “Out to lunch be back in five minutes.” “Well, at least it is a short break.” Just as a blue stallion just walks around the corner.”Hey, is that him?” Sketch asks as he points to the cyan stallion eating a bag of what look like to be chocolates. The cyan unicorn looked over and notices the Princess of Friendship and Element of laughter finally by his shop, this is so rare because they always seem to prefer going to Sugarcube Corner. He initially doesn’t notice the human because he is so excited to see such powerful ponies finally come to see him. However he does soon notice the bipedal being and he had only one comment, “Okay... Did Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash sneak into the zoo, free a gorilla, shave it and disguise it again?” He says, sarcastically. “Sarcasm, I like this guy already,” Sketch says. The unicorn wants to shake his hand but he admittedly isn’t sure how to do that. He improvises and just does a hoof bump on his palm. This confuses Sketch slightly but he thinks 'ah close enough' and accepts it. “Okay, gotta ask, who, what when, where, and why…?” He asks, clearly referring. to Sketch. “In order, I’m Sketch, I’m a human, I’m from Earth which is a stupid name for a planet when you consider it translates to dirt and why I’m here is for a job hopefully; maybe delivering orders or working the cash register.” The stallion is initially excited because he was hoping Twilight and Pinkie were going to say they need his help with a super important friendship mission, but his excitement fades when he finds out the real purpose, “Oh… Okay, no comment on most of that… But I suppose I could try it, have you ever worked in a coffee shop before?” “I once worked at a fireworks stand selling the merch and talking people up.” Sketch points out. “What’s your name?” The unicorn rolls his eyes at that response, “Really? How did you know spark powder was my secret ingredient?” The unicorn playfully asks as a joke. “Prince Shining Armor…” He says as he points to his name tag, labeled Mocha Jon. “Okay Mocha, well I know how to make coffee and I know I can sell it, or at least deliver it.” Sketch informs, hoping to get hired. “Also I have an idea for a candy you can sell here that is coffee related.” “Okay… Even though I’m assuming you don’t have a valid Food Handler's’ permit or even a proper Social Security number… I’ll give you a shot.” Mocha says as he looks over at the mares, hoping to make them happy. “Sweet, also the candy I was talking about is dark chocolate or milk chocolate covered coffee beans, they’re my favorite and maybe Pinkie Pie can sell them at Sugarcube Corner.” Sketch informs. Oh yes, Sugarcube Corner, the place they always prefer to spend time there instead of at the coffee shop… “Well since they are probably not copyrighted I doubt he could stop her from doing that,” Mocha says as he looks to the mares, still surprised they actually wanted his help for once. “So what do you say? Can I work for you? I promise to work my butt off.” Sketch hopes. “Well it would be easier if you probably kept your butt on, but never the less I suppose I could give you a shot, the breakfast rush is almost over so this place is gonna be pretty much vacant for the rest of the day,” Mocha says as he dumps the entire bag of chocolate into his mouth and eats it almost instantly, seemingly inhaling the foodstuff. “Okay, since the rush is over can I go to Sugarcube Corner as you guys called it and make some of the candy I mentioned? I promise to not disappoint.” “I can’t wait to try it Sketch!” Pinkie Pie enthusiastically shouts. “I wouldn’t mind trying it either, I have been looking for an alternative to tea as it seems to be wearing thin on me as I drink it day in and day out,” Twilight interjects. “Well if you’re looking for an alternative to tea, you and your friends could come by here more and we could…” Mocha tried to say but he could tell by the looks on their faces they were wanting to leave and go to Sugarcube Corner more, “Never mind, yeah you can go, just make your things quickly and have fun doing it.” Mocha said to them, clearly envious and upset that they didn’t want to spend more time, but he was doing a good job at hiding that. “Alright, thanks for hiring me, come on Pinkie let’s go make some candy!” To which Pinkie Pie squees loudly and she and Sketch run off to Sugarcube Corner to make the aforementioned sweets. With Pinkie and Twilight in tow, they all head to the candy shop that Pinkie had met them at earlier, once inside he draws the attention of everypony in there. "C-Can I help you?" A light blue mare with a pink mane asks nervously, Sketch towering over her. "Yes, I would like ten bits worth of your milk chocolate." "Right away!" She disappears in the back for a few minutes and reappears with five bags of chocolate. "There you go, anything else?" She asks a little less nervous about him since she saw Twilight right behind him, he couldn't be that bad if the princess of friendship was with him. The two talk about candy for forty-five minutes before Twilight tugs on his t-shirt and reminds him he is supposed to be working right now. He thanks the mare named Cupcake and asks if he could use their kitchen to make a new type of candy he doubts has ever been made before in Equestria He gets a large pot of water up to a boil and then puts a smaller pot inside it, he dumps the chocolate into the smaller pot and lets it melt then he throws in the coffee beans Mocha gave him and made his favorite candy ever, of all time. As he mixes the concoction he pulls them out one at a time ready to serve, he lets the chocolate harden and then he puts them back into their respective bags and hurries back to the coffee shop. “I’m back, sorry it took an hour, but they are done, I made five pounds with some milk and dark chocolate the Cakes had on hoof.” Mocha Jon was not paying attention to Sketch as he was drawing on a piece of paper, “Okay no, that foot is too big, the ears are not even, and that nose makes it look like a giant freak!!!” He said as he crumbled the paper up and threw it in anger… Accidentally hitting Sketch in the face with it, which Mocha notices… “Oh… Sorry man…” “You’re not the first to throw stuff at me, anyways like I said, the candy is done, wanna taste test this moderate coffee bean covered in dark or milk chocolate? The dark is my personal favorite because I like my like I like candy my coffee, strong.” Sketch says as he plops down two large bags of candy on the table. “Also we owe the cakes ten bits for the chocolate but if we sell this at ten bits a pound and i made five with twenty that means we make forty bits of profit for each ten we spend, cool huh?” “Okay, first, make it 11 bits per pound because of taxes, and second, I’ll try the milk chocolate, I prefer mild coffee because it has more caffeine,” Mocha said as he grabbed a piece of the candy and took a bite on impulse. After one bite, he shoved an entire hoof-full into his mouth and ate it quickly, “Oh my Celestia that stuff is good!” “I think I just earned myself the job, I’ll go buy more chocolate so we can have some more ready for tomorrow, how much should I make, I need to know how much to buy.” Sketch says. “Bring by like say, fifty bags, and remind me to make it thirteen bits… Something tells me we may not be making as much a profit on your price..” He says as he takes another big gulp himself. The unicorn thinks it could be nice to have another guy around there. “Whatever you say, boss, give me the bits to buy it and I will start making it, also your money is called ‘bits’?” Sketch asks. “Yeah, I don’t remember why we call our currency bits either, maybe there’s a book on it…” Twilight ponders aloud as Pinkie bounces in place, happy she could help a friend. “Okay one, I think she’s had enough for the day… Two, are you guys doing anything later? Maybe there’s something going on or something?” Mocha asks, hoping to finally feel included but not wanting to sound like he was being pushy. “Well, my job for the moment is to monitor Sketch and see how he integrates into Equestrian society so I am going to be here watching him and taking notes,” Twilight informs. “Aww phooey, I have to watch the twins, sorry guys I have to go,” Pinkie says sadly. “See you later Pinkie! So, about the one hundred bits I need?” Sketch asks Mocha “Here, it’s one hundred and fifteen bits, in case the tax increases… or maybe just to get some extra for me… Which ever you think would happen…” He says, trying to hide the fact that he cannot control himself. “How about I get one hundred for the shop and then for you?” Sketch asks. “Your call man, your call…!” Mocha said, trying to make it seem like he didn’t care, but it was obvious he wanted it. “Okay hand me one hundred and fifty bits and I will bring back the change, scout’s honor.” Sketch swears. “It’s in the back room, here’s the key to the safe…” Mocha said with a strange grin on his face as he watches the human go to it. “Huh, okay, thanks,” Sketch says as he takes the key and walks into the now empty coffee shop and goes for the safe, he opens the door only to have a bucket of liquid fall on his head. ”AH! What is this stuff it’s making me….sound….funny….crap.” He says as his voices climbs ever higher in pitch. Mocha Jon looks back and starts laughing to himself, “I knew something weird would happen here if Pinkie Pie was in here for as long as she was!” He says as he starts laughing even harder. “How do I get back to normal?” Sketch asks in a voice that would make Pico from One Piece sound like Morgan Freeman. “Ugh, let’s draw you a bath…” Twilight sighs as she is now responsible for un-poison joking Sketch. Mocha Jon sighs because he never gets to spend any time with the Princess of Friendship and she keeps leaving. He doesn’t like being envious but he is upset that the only reason Twilight and Pinkie came in at all was just for someone else, “Alright, I understand.” Mocha says as he takes out a journal and begins writing in it, and clearly, he does that a lot on his free time, considering the pre-existing text. As Twilight drags off Sketch to give him a bath he raises the question. "Why do I sound like this?" "One of Pinkie Pie's pranks, she dumped water mixed with a little bit of poison joke to play a prank on you." "Clever girl, but why do I need a bath?" "That's how we remove the poison joke's effect is with an herbal bath." "How long will that take?" "About thirty minutes." "Ugh... I will get my revenge on her yet." "Good luck with that anyways let's get you to the spa..." "Welcome to the spa my name is Aloe, how may we assist you today princess and guest?" "He was poison joked by Pinkie Pie." "Second time this week somepony fell prey to her pranks, follow me please." As Aloe leads him to a room with a large tub full of herbs she tells him to soak for anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour. "Twilight!" "What is it, are you okay?" Twilight asks seriously. "I'm fine, I'm just lonely is all." "You've only been in here for ten minutes at the most." "My phone says seven but yeah, I don't like being alone." "Understandable, so, what do you want to talk about." "Science." At this Twilight squees and gets out a notepad and a pencil and begins writing furiously as they talk about biological breakthroughs his world had made, with this time flew by and before he knew it he was back to normal, Twilight pays for the bath and they head back to Mocha. “I’m back and now I don’t sound like a Disney character!” Sketch announces as he holds over fifty pounds of chocolate, however, there was a single little problem… “We owe the cakes a bit more than I anticipated since we cleaned out their shop of milk chocolate, it was thirty more than I expected, dang taxes,” Sketch says as he drops the large sacks of chocolate on the counter in the shop. “What’s a Disney character?” Mocha Jon initially asks as he initially didn’t grasp his concern, but when he catches notice of what he said, he felt guilty. “We cleared them out!?” He yells, because he feels upset, understanding what it is like to get cleared out in a shop. He opens the register and pulled out a few bits, and took the rest from the tip jar, “Here take these, I was saving for a new art set but they need it more.” “Don’t fret, they were more than happy to be sold out, some of it was going to be thrown away anyway, turns out there was a miscommunication in the order and they ordered too much. So it all worked itself out man, they just need thirty extra bits to cover the taxes.” Mocha handed the jar and even though he was envious of the business, he didn’t want to hurt them like that, “They are nice ponies.” He says, feeling guilty about being envious of such good ponies. “Okay, be right back!” Sketch says as he runs back to Sugarcube Corner with the tip jar in hand and rushes to get back there before it closes, he didn't read their hours of operation when he was there the first two times. "Welcome back dear, you know we're out of chocolate, right?" "Yeah, but my employer wanted you to have this as compensation for clearing out your shop for us, think of it as an additional thank you." "Awww, well that is mighty kind of you dear, tell your boss I said thank you for the thank you." "Will do Mrs. Cake." With the money given Sketch runs back to Mocha who he finds sitting in front of his shop “So anyway, the place is about to close, so we can really just prepare to head out.” Mocha says as he finished wiping up tables. “Can I have the key to the shop? I wanna finish making as much chocolate covered coffee beans as possible, plus I wanna show you how much I appreciate your hiring me is to me.” Sketch says as he heads back to warm up some water. “Alright I guess, could be fun,” Mocha said as he was organizing the chairs until an epiphany approaches him… “Oh gosh… Pinkie Pie was here earlier… SKETCH WAIT!!!” He says as he rushes over to the back himself to get in the way of the water himself… After the whole debacle with Pinkie Pie’s pranks, Sketch began making chocolate covered coffee beans using the cheapest beans they had and spent the majority of the day doing so. Not leaving to head back ‘home’ till seven fourteen at night, but as he locked up for the night he saw Twilight asleep outside who had made a whole slew of notes about him: hard worker, trustworthy, inventive. All words she uses to describe him, this brings a smile to his face. He carries Twilight home and so ends the day, now time for him to hit the hay, but not before his nightly routine.
chapter 13 working at a cafe can't be that hard, right?“Sketch wake up, Sketch!” Spike shouts as he runs into Sketch’s temporary room. “What is it man, can’t you see I’m trying to sleep?” Sketch asks as he puts his pillow over his head to drown out the noise that is Spike. “Yes but you gotta come see this!” He replies. “You owe me five bits if it sucks.” Sketch says as he removes the pillow from his head and takes his blanket with him, still wrapped in a makeshift cocoon of warmth. As he shambles to the terrace overlooking Ponyville what he sees shocks him. “The empty no customer having cafe has a line all the way down mainstreet?!” “I know right?” Spike replies. At this site Sketch hurries and takes a shower and makes his way down to the shop as fast as he can only to see a line of ponies a mile long, okay not a mile long but still an impressive line of ponies getting their caffeine kick. He runs past them all and heads inside, catching the attention to all ponies in the area as he was still almost double their size but don’t budge from their spot in line. He enters the shop to see a more (apparently…) than happy Mocha Jon. “Dude, how many bags have you sold?” Sketch asks as Mocha hands another pony a bag of chocolate covered coffee beans. The cyan unicorn looks over and sees the human enter his shop and was even more ecstatic to see he finally had some help, “Oh my Celestia where have you been, it’s been crazier than Pinkie Pie in here!” Mocha Jon says as he reaches down to grab more of the candy and is surprised to find out he has just sold out, “Dude… Please make more… I beg you more than I beg to be an alicorn…” He says, humorously, but clearly nervous. “I already bought them out of their milk chocolate, shall I try their dark chocolate? If so give me one hundred bits and I will get right on it boss.” Sketch says as he holds out his hand so he can get the money and run with it, this line isn’t going to end anytime soon and he doesn’t want a riot to start over candy, no matter how delicious this confectionery may be, he must keep the peace. Mocha Jon opens the register with a very complex code and pulls out the money easily, barely making a dent in the profits. “Here, and please take it, I swear I will end up having to sell the frozen bugs we exterminate in the back as a substitution…” Mocha says panting, he was clearly joking though, he has no bugs. “I miss having the free time…” He quietly moans to himself. “You got it, be back in five minutes and I will make another large batch.” “Please do…” Mocha says“Sorry everypony, gonna need to wait for more coffee candy, can I interest anypony in a Reduced Heat Nonfat White Chocolate Double Shot Mocha Latte with whip and cinnamon?” As Sketch runs to Sugar Cube corner Spike and Twilight catch up. “What’s going on? And wait up!” Twilight pleads as she runs trying to catch up to Sketch, whose long legs make his strides much larger than the lavender alicorn barely managing to keep up. “Yeah, wait up!” Spike says as he barely manages to keep up with Twilight. “Remember the candy I made the other day before you fell asleep?” “I wasn’t sleeping! I was resting my eyes.” Twilight retorts in embarrassment. “Sure, and who's this flash sentry I heard so much about while I carried you back to the castle, hmm?” At this, her face turns bright red. “Why are we running anyway?” Spike asks a valid question. “We need more chocolate covered coffee beans to sell at the coffee shop.” “Okay, ew,” Spike replies. “Says a guy that eats jewelry.” “I thought you made fifty pounds of the stuff yesterday,” Twilight asked. “I did, and Jon sold or ate it all. And I don’t think he can eat that much.” “Wow, how’d you know that would sell?” Spike added. “It was popular at my college so why not a small farm town?” “Good point, but won’t dark chocolate make it too bitter?” Spike also wondered. “Nope, it just adds to the robust flavor of the mild bean we use to make the stuff.” “How do you know all this when you’ve only worked there for a day?” Twilight also questioned. “There was a coffee shop on campus where I got coffee every morning and a scone.” “Huh, isn’t that convenient.” “Yeah, the writer of this story couldn’t think of a better way for me to know about it, but hey, it is his story.” “What in Equestria are you talking about, that sounds like something Pinkie Pie would say?” “Oh, nothing, here we are!” Sketch bursts through the door and runs up to the counter huffing and puffing as he never missed leg day but cardio was nowhere near where it should be for someone his age. “Fifty pounds of dark chocolate please!” He said gasping for air. “You’re cleaning us out there, what are you making with all that chocolate? “Can’t say, company secret,” Sketch says as he finally catches his breath. With that said, Cupcake goes to the back and bring out boxes upon boxes of dark chocolate for him. Thanks cupcake how much will that be?” “Eighty-seven bits.” “Heres one hundred, keep the change.” This left a smile on the mare’s face as he went to pick up the chocolate only to have Twilight levitate it for him, “Thanks, Twilight.” “No problem Sketch, now to the coffee shop!” With that said they hurry back to the coffee shop and begin making chocolate as Twilight and Spike watch. “You boil half a pot of water and have another float on the boiling water and put the chocolate in the top pot so it melts and then you dip a bean into it and then let it cool and harden?” “Yup! Learned this method in first grade. Take a small cup of warm water, put an empty cup in it and put chocolate in the top cup and boom, melted chocolate with no chance of burning it.” “Cool, can I try one?” Spike asks. “Here’s a small one for ya,” Sketch says as he gets a small chocolate for the lil guy who pops it in his mouth and spits it out almost immediately clawing off the pieces from his tongue and coughing. “You actually like that stuff?” Spike asks seriously. “Can I try one,” Twilight asks. “Sure,” Sketch says as he hands her one, she chews on it a little bit and her eyes go wide. "Sketch, this replaces Tea as my favorite pick me up! Well, maybe not entirely, but this is really close. Just don’t give it to Pinkie Pie, please.” “Okay, and thanks now to make fifty more batches,” as the morning turns to noon he finishes all the batches for the day and he could swear he had dark chocolate under his fingernails, but it was an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, now to see what the boss thought about all the coffee chocolates and how well they sold out. It was one in the afternoon before he was done cleaning up. “So Mocha, how’d we do?” Mocha looks over, and he is clearly exasperated by what had happened. The store is not as vacant as it was yesterday, but it is nowhere as busy as it was earlier. “Oh gosh… Please stay working for me… I need help Sketch… Please…” He says as he looks over and sees Twilight and Spike, Jon turns back to Sketch looking embarrassed. “Sure thing boss, hows this, I stay in the castle and make about twenty pounds of this stuff a day and bring it to you in the morning as you open up, sound good? I think today was just a fluke with all the business, it will die down eventually once you get some regulars coming in every day, and I will make a deal with Sugarcube Corner for the chocolate.” “Oh, alright, I guess that could work, it would make the transactions between our products easier I suppose.” He says as he looks to Twilight, “You think that’s a good idea?” “I think Sketch can come to an agreement with the Cakes, right Pinkie?” “Yup!” “Oh dear lord Cthulu where did you come from!?” Sketch says as he jumps back in surprise from Pinkie Pie’s sudden appearance in the coffee shop. “Get used to that… She does that a lot… and I mean a lot!” Spike says as he rubs the bridge of his nose with his claw in exasperation. “Alright, there's one more question I have to ask you, how much am I going to get paid for making you the candy?” Mocha Jon yawned and took out his journal and started crunching some numbers, “Well I could start you out on I’d say two hundred bits a week, but you can get half of the tip jar which would be about an extra seventy-five if you are willing to do some counter work, that sounds good?” “Sounds good to me, and I will head over to the Cakes before I go home for the day, maybe if we tell them we need the chocolate on a daily basis we can get a bulk discount for repeatedly buying from them.” “Alright that sounds good, hey Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike, if you guys trust him to go on your own you guys are welcome to hang out here.” Mocha tries to convince them to stay, but it didn’t seem like it was working. “Sorry Mocha, he’s still pretty new to this place and I still want to monitor him in case anything bad happens,” Twilight responds. “Of course, but what’s the wo-” Pinkie Pie is cut off as Sketch puts a hand over her mouth. “Please, never say what you were going to say, it brings so much bad luck it isn’t even funny,” Sketch warns. “Yeah he’s right, heck all of our adventures could have been avoided if we never said that,” Spike adds, Sketch puts out a fist towards Spike who fist bumps him back. Mocha Jon looks down for a very brief moment, not enough for anypony to think anything of it, “Oh, yeah I understand, I hope you guys have fun!” He says as he attempts to put on a smile and be happy for them, not happy that he is envious of their instant bonding. “Alright be back in a bit Mocha, want anything while I’m there?” Sketch asks as Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Spike and him begin to leave the cafe. “Oh see if they have any red velvet cupcakes!” He tries to say but the door closes before they can hear him. “On second thought, how about some peanut butter brownies… Maybe an allergic reaction might get you guys to want to hang out with me…” He says quietly to himself.
chapter 14 Business done right, 54 days left“So, it’s a deal?” “Seems so Mr...um, Sketch, right?” “Yup, one hundred pounds of chocolate a week and we will be business partners, we will advertise for your shop as well, but then again, who doesn’t know about your shop, right?” This gets Cupcake to giggle slightly. “I’m just surprised you can go through that much for being a coffee shop.” Carrot cake says in surprise “Yeah, well, things work in odd ways sometimes, see you tomorrow to pick up the chocolate.” Sketch states. “Sorry to say, but we won’t get any more milk or dark chocolate for another three days,” Cupcake says. “What’s today?” Sketch asks. “Tuesday,” Twilight says. “You get it on Friday?” Sketch checks to see if he’s right. “Yes, is that okay?” Cupcake asks. “Could you put in a rush order? We will pay extra for it..” Sketch offers. “I’ll see what I can do.” She says with a smile. “Alright, also do you have red velvet cupcakes? I’d like to buy one.” “Here, take one on the house as a present for our new partnership.” Carrot Cake says. “Thanks, see you guys tomorrow.” As Sketch leaves the couple looks back on him as he leaves. “Honey, do you know what exactly he is?” The husband asks. “I haven’t the slightest, but he is good business.” Cupcake replies. Back at the cafe with the cupcake in hand Sketch opens the door setting off the bell on the door frame. “I’m back with a cupcake and a hundred pounds of chocolate a week, fifty dark chocolate and fifty milk chocolate.” “Dang somepony… or whatever you use, really seems to love this job!” Mocha Jon says as he starts cleaning the bean hoppers. “Alright, you think you can learn the espresso machine?” “Ummm, maybe?” Sketch answers confused, Long story short it was the cheapest coffee he could get to order at the coffee shop back on campus. All he ever drank was black coffee, not anything fancy like that was probably sold at an establishment such as this. “Look it’s very simple, you just put the grinds into this small little handle, press it, hold the cup under the dispatch area, and hold another cup for the frothing milk and out pour the two together. Then you just add the flavorings and you’re all set, wanna try?” “Uh huh...repeat that again?” Sketch asks in utter confusion, why did coffee have to be so confusing. “Alrighty… you just put the grinds into this small little handle, press it, hold the cup under the dispatch area, and hold another cup for the frothing milk and out pour the two together. Make sure to watch for the steam because it is hotter than Applejack’s br…” Mocha begins to say, but his extreme nervousness caught up with him, “Uh, Applejack’s breaded Apple Pie…” Mocha says as he begins to blush. “Who’s Applejack?” “One of the other elements of harmony I told you about after we were done talking about biology, don’t you remember?” “Oh yeah, the one named after the cereal.” “Only in your world, and please don’t compare her to cereal when she’s around.” “Fine…” Sketch says as he attempts to make the coffee Mocha made but as Sketch put a cup to the machine… He forgot to look out for the frother and steam hit him on the chest… And the steam was not cold… “Son of a! Mother, ugh that hurt like hell!” Sketch says restraining himself not to curse in front of a ...how old was Twilight again? Mocha eyes widen at the response and tries to break the tension for the customer, “I’m so sorry ma’am, he’s new here, have a free cake pop to help forget that just happened…” He said as he looks over at Sketch, “I know how breaded apple pies are tasty but I meant negative connotation…” He snarked. “Sorry I just messed up again, kinda happens a lot when I’m in the kitchen. Usually I just accidentally cut myself. Now that I think about it I get hurt a lot.” “So you basically lied about a crucial part of the job during the interview… Wow, your kind must really know how to get ahead in the corporate ladder.” Mocha jokes as he takes the cup and fixed the coffee for himself. “Alright I’ll make the drinks, you just try taking orders, there’s somepony coming in right now,” Mocha says as he points to the door. As he looks around, he notices it is a large red Earth pony with a reddish yellow mane, making Mocha blush slightly… “Quick what’s the name of the cafe? I forgot out of bad memory.” Sketch asks quickly, but before he could get a response the customer rang the bell on the counter. “Hi, welcome to Mocha Jon’s, what will ya have today sir?” Mocha Jon looks a little confused, as the store was not named after him but he figured that could be fixed easily. The red stallion grins and responds in a deep voice with a thick accent, “Howdy, I’ll take a Double Shot Triple pump Caramel Macchiato with Soy Milk and light on the drizzle with Half-Caf espresso please.” “Coming right up sir, that will be four bits.” As he says that the stallion puts down four bits and one in the tip jar. As Mocha Jon makes the order he can’t help but look over at the stallion every few seconds almost spilling the drink on himself. “Oh hey Big MacIntosh, I remember your specialty, just order the ‘Big Mac’ menu item and I’ll make it for you,” Mocha says as he starts using his horn to carry the drink, but due to the small size of his horn and the fact he wasn’t the best magic user, he almost drops the coffee… Big Mac expected this and caught it before it fell on and burned Sketch. “Eeyup.” Big Mac says as he takes his drink and waves goodbye, surprisingly not phased by the strange being at the counter. “How’d I do?” Sketch asks. “Well, you need to be able to read orders back, corporate policy, not mine…” Mocha said as he looks annoyed, hating that rule himself, “But for one of those complex orders you see in the movies I don’t really mind you skipping.” “Okay, well since we aren’t busy wanna chat and kill some time over a cup of black coffee?” “Black? I need a lot of cream and sugar in my stuff, but I can still chat, what do you wanna talk about?” Mocha asks as he starts using the espresso machine like an arcade cabinet. “Alright I’ll go first, do you like that red stallion that was just in here? I know that face when I see it..” “What face? I didn’t see anything?” Twilight says. “It’s the same face Twilight made when I mentioned Flash Sentry.” At this Twilight squees out of nowhere in embarrassment. Mocha freaks out when this subject is brought up and the steam sprayed on him when he flinched, “OUCH! Wait, him, Uh he’s a nice guy and a regular here.” Mocha says as he nonchalantly drinks the unfinished beverage. “Sure he is...Your turn.” Mocha was not ready to admit that to ponies of whom probably don’t consider him a friend yet, “Okay Sketch, I’ve heard rumors that in some world ponies are nothing but farmers, have you heard that?” He asks, referencing a horror comic he once read. “Yup, and if they were a race horse they were put out to stud for the right price, and were non-sentient either. My turn!” “Okay… I didn’t know they had horror comic books on your world.” Mocha responds, missing the point of his answer. “That's horrible Sketch!” “Still true though. Hmmm, what to ask…" And so Sketch asks the most important question ever asked, ever, of all time, but the writer is too lazy to write it so we just fade to black on the scene like in the final episode of the Sopranos. Spike, Twilight, and Sketch head back to the castle for the night, tomorrow was going to be a busy day, fifty-four days left...
chapter 15 Bookfort One, this is Pillowfort Alpha, do you copy?“Morning sleepyhead, wakey wakey eggs and wheaty!” Twilight chants as she opens the curtains in Sketch’s room. “Noooo the light, it burns us!”Sketch says in his impression of Gollum and Smeagol. “What are you talking about?” “Movie reference lost on a talking farm animal, why didn’t I see that coming.” “I am not a farm animal, I am a scholar.” “Still the joke has failed to reach you.” “And what was that voice you said it in?” Twilight asks. “I have a few movies I need to show you later.” “What kind of movies?” “Awesome ones.” “Fine, but first I need to talk to you about something.” “Okay, shoot.” “Your species is unknown to our world and I want to learn all about it, not just it’s accomplishments but its downfalls as well.” “Well To sum it up we were the dominant species on the planet and the only sentient species as well, meaning ponies like yourselves were nothing but pets for little kids.” “And I take it the putting them out to stud was a real thing, not just something you made up on the fly?” “Yup.” “Wow, that’s so...wrong.” “Yeah but the animals didn’t care, to them it was just another way of having foals that were later used as racing horses, we did the same thing with dogs. No animal was safe from our kind.” “That’s horrible.” “Wait til you hear what we did to each other, that will make the animal killing look cute and fluffy.” And so Sketch explains the whole of the history of the human race from a scientist’s point of view and focuses on the most recent years, eighteen hundred to twenty seventeen. “You elected a businessman ruler of your country, and by extension, the most powerful military in the world?” Twilight asks incredulously. “I didn't vote for the guy, but hey, he is a businessman so he knew how to sell himself to the American people.” “I guess, I just hope that never happens here .” “With Luna around I doubt it.” “Why her, why not Celestia?” “Cause Luna, from what I saw, dealt with the worst of it, weird ponies come out at night and she’s the one who deals with them and all the other nobles who think their petty little problems matter but when in the grand scheme of things nothing they do will matter, we all die, and that’s about it. Except for Luna, she’s awesome.” “Celestia's better.”Twilight mumbles. “Anyways, so anything else you want to know?” Sketch asks now fully awake due to the impromptu history lecture. “Well I was interested in the video games you mention, so you created worlds and controlled people and made them do things like drive cars-” “Or drive the wrong way on the road and cause a seventeen car pile up.” “Why would you do that?! You’re crazy!” “It’s a video game, everything in it is fake, nothing is real, there are no repercussions for what you do, no one really gets hurt.” “Are you sure?” “Yeah, I am, plus if causing car accidents in games did affect living things I doubt they would’ve been legal.” “Good point.” “Sorry I didn’t mention that first.” “It’s okay, I should’ve asked.” Twilight points out “Yup.” Sketch replies.” So can we have eggs for breakfast again?” “Fine… But you’re cooking them this time.” “I can live with that.” He says as he stands up, popping his back as the blanket fell off of him. “I’m kind of glad your people wear clothes twenty-four seven, I don’t think I want to know what you got down there.” “Nothing you haven’t seen before, stallions don’t exactly hide their junk you know.” “You look?!” “Bad habit, seen a few things I wish I hadn’t and others, well, let’'s just say there are a few that keep me up at night in terror.” Sketch adds “you guys really should wear pants too.” “Fine, just don’t look at me.” “Don’t worry, no interest.” “And why is that?” Twilight for some reason takes offense to this. “Simple, you may be sentient but to me, you are still a spitting image of a pony from back home, minus the color pallette and human-esq face. I’m only interested in making friends with you guys while I’m stuck here, example one, Luna.” “Oh, right, sorry.” “It’s okay, you just stay adorkable and you will find somepony who thinks of you like that.” At this Twilight blushes slightly. “Now for food!” Sketch shouts as he picks up Twilight by her barrel and carries her to the kitchen. “Why do you pick me up every time?” “Cause you are like a soft stuffed animal except for the fact that you're sentient, plus I like cute things.” “Aww, thanks.” “No problem, after I make the candy for Jon wanna build a pillow fort?” “For someone older than me and just as smart you are highly immature” “Yeah and it is really really fun to be immature, I’ll help you build Bookfort One.” “Really?! I er- mean, no we have experiments to run and-” “Too late, we are building Bookfort One and Pillowfort Alpha.”And so the candy had to wait for they were building their epic domiciles from which they would rule over their respective kingdoms and govern their people as they see fit. For years to come the regality of book fort one would be known through all lands, and the military might of Pillowfort Alpha would cause even the most fearsome dragon to cower in their wake. But alas Bookfort One and Pillowfort Alpha could only last so long before a war broke out and- “What are you doing in here?” Spike asks as he watches Twilight hurl novels at sketch who retaliates via a pillow to the face at Twilight. “Fighting a war that will be known throughout the ages as Pillowfort alpha and Bookfort One wage an epic war beyond the scope of common man.” Sketch dictates. “Weird, cause all I see is you throwing pillows at Twilight and her throwing novels at you, just clean up when you’re done, I am not cleaning this mess up.” “You can be the leader of Dragon Keep and rule over the people of your land with comics.” Sketch points out. “Okay, I’ll play along…” And so the war between Bookfort One and Pillowfort Alpha was ended as Dragon Keep entered the world stage, peace was made, lives were spared and a lot of cider was to be had by all
chapter 16 Sir Yes Sir!With all the silliness of the book on pillow conflict resolved and neatly put away Sketch gets to making the candy for Jon like he meant to last chapter. He spends the next two hours making the candy sampling one out of every hundred to make sure the quality is good. Afterward, he begins bagging the candy in one pound bags for Jon and put the bags into a large sack to deliver, he picks up the bag and heads out for the cafe. As he walks through town he isn’t getting as many ponies’ attention now that he has been in town for a couple days, he is still getting the weird look every now and again, but for the most part, he’s a daily case. He arrives at the shop and notices a decent sized line for the coffee and candy he makes. He gets a few waves and ‘hey how are ya’s’ as he is a regular at the coffee shop for the past couple days so he is slowly integrating into this town’s general population. “Hey, Jon, got your daily supply of candy!” He shouts from outside the cafe as he can’t get in due to the line.”This batch turned out really good today.” “Well just stand out there with em and I’ll teleport them inside.” “Really?” Sketch asks. “No, now get in here, we ran out of yesterday’s batch thirty minutes ago.” “Okay, here you go Jon.” “Thanks, your candy has brought in a lot of business, here, take this week’s pay,” Jon says as he hands Sketch a bag of two hundred and seventy-five bits. You earned it.” “Thanks, see ya tomorrow, I’ll go pick up the chocolate now.” Sketch announces as he leaves the shop only to hear the cash register ding in response and Jon makes another sale. With that job done for the day he looks at his phone and sees that it is only eleven thirty-seven. “I guess it is time to go house shopping.” He says to himself as he heads back to the castle to ask Twilight about the housing situation for him. “Sketch!” Twilight shouts as he enters the castle’s table room, you know the one. “Hey Twilight, I enjoyed our war earlier.” “I did too surprisingly enough, what are you doing back here so early?” “I dropped off the candy and was wonder how the housing market is around here.” “Well you can get one for around six hundred bits a month, but for someone your size you would be paying seven hundred.” “Crap looks like I need another job.” “I would say so.” “Any ideas?” “Well you could always work at the library, but it really doesn’t need a librarian because it is so small, hmm, well are you strong?” “I like to think I am, I can bench one hundred and forty pounds, one hundred and the forty-five pound bar.” “Yeah, there goes apple bucking then.” “What’s that, it sounds gross, is it gross?” “No, you basically kick trees and knock the apples loose and then collect them in buckets.” “Couldn’t I just, y’know, pick them?” “Too slow.” “Um. I was good in shop class with minor welding and metal working.” “Oh, that doesn’t require you to be strong, just good with your hoo- I mean hands.” “Can we stop insulting me already? I’m not built like you ponies to do heavy lifting.” “Yeah you’re even weaker than pegasi, and their bones are hollow so they weigh less and can fly easier.” “Like pigeons?” “Kind of? I-I guess, but that’s not the point, the point is we need you to get the job at the local smithy.” “Fine.” And so they make their way out of the castle and into town to see if the local blacksmith needs a helping hoo-hand, I meant hand, come on, it may be six a.m. after an all nighter but you gotta get this right, get into it! Oh and while the writer had a little moment of lack of sleep induced brain fart they arrive at the smithy. “Anyone home?” “Yeah, what do you want, I’m busy.” A stallion answers from deep within the forge. “Well, I was looking for a job, Twilight here told me you needed someone to help you out around here?” “I did” Twilight confirms. “Well she isn’t wrong but what are you exactly?” “I’m Sketch and I’m a human from Earth.” “Who names a place Earth? Don’t you know that is another meaning for dirt?” “I know I have pointed it out but no one seems to get how stupid it is.” “Yeah, well what do you know about forging weapons and armor?” “Nothing.” “Can you carry heavy equipment and deliver goods?” “Yes, but nothing over two hundred pounds and I know a little bit of welding from my friend Jayme, he went to school for it.” “Well that will count for nothing here, you have to earn the right to work with me and your first job is delivering this pile of equipment to the guard’s outpost, now.” “Okay, where is that?” “Hurry up and deliver it.” The Unicorn blacksmith orders as he works the forge. “I’ll show you where it is.” Twilight offers a helping hoof. “Okay, thanks, Twi.” “I said hurry up maggot!” The unicorn orders. “Yes, sir!” Sketch says as he takes the cart full of spears, swords, and armor to the guard’s post. “Let’s hurry,” Twilight suggests as they take the cart out of the smithery as fast as they can. “So while we deliver this what’s the guy’s name and what’s his story?” “Well his name is Steel Pride and he is the oldest and most successful blacksmith in town.” “Cool, why is he such an ass?” “Sketch! Language mister.” “Sorry…” Twilight clears her throat, “Anyways, he lives alone on the outskirts of the town, about a twenty-minute walk from Fluttershy’s cottage, and a widower, his wife passed on a few years before I got here.” “Awww, now I wanna be his friend.” “You can be, just be patient and work hard, he respects a working stallion, uh, I mean, man, right?” Sketch nods.” Okay, the terminology for your race is taking some getting used to.” “So is saying everypony instead of everyone. Also, can I point out something I am amazed by?” “Sure.” “What are the chances that I would end up in a magical world full of talking magical ponies that speak and write in my language yet be nowhere near my home, where the language originates that we developed from a dead language thousands of years ago.” “That is bizarre now that you mention it, the chances of this happening are infitssimaly small now that I think about it.” “I know, right?” “Yeah, oh wait I forgot, I was supposed to experim- I mean study your physiology, after you’re done working.” “You were going to say experiment on me weren’t you…” “No, I wasn’t” Twilight denies. “Sure you weren’t, and how are your notes going?Am I evil enough for you?” “Quite the contrary, you seem to fit in well with pony society, you are a law abiding citizen and you are going out of your way to help others. A prime example of that would be you working for Jon at the cafe, you doubled his business in a single day and made a deal with the Cakes for chocolate deliveries to make the candy for him. More than anything I am just impressed how you are handling the situation. And I haven’t forgotten about you wanting to go home, but why the time limit? Celestia told me about it but she won’t tell me why not even Luna will spill the beans.” “That’s for us and for you to not know, privacy and all. But I need to get home in less that fifty-four days from now.” “Could you please tell me? As a friend?” “Nope.” “Alright…We’re here!” “Oh, looky there, we are,” Sketch says as he knocks on the door to the small post. “Yes, sir?” The generic guard asks as he opens the door, not surprised by Sketch at all, must’ve seen him around town earlier followed by Twilight. “I’m here with your new equipment.” “Ah, very good.” The guard looks over the equipment and finds the bill stuck to one of the spears, he walks back into the post and comes back with a small pouch full of bits.”There you go, the payment for the order is there, thank you for the delivery, fare well.” “No problem.” Sketch replies as he and the guard nod at each other and then the guard goes back to work as Sketch and Twilight leave to head back to Steel Pride. “That was fast.” Steel pride says as he appears right behind them in the middle of town square.”Where’s the money?” Sketch offers the unicorn the pouch full of coins, he opens the small bag and begins counting.”All one thousand and three hundred and thirty-seven bits, good, you didn’t take any for yourself.” “Of course not, I’m no thief.” “Yeah, I watched him.” Twilight states. “Even if the princess of friendship vouches for ya I’m still skeptical hiring you, but if you really want to work for me you must do anything and everything I ask of you without question, is that understood?” “Yes, sir!” “Good, you start at six a.m. tomorrow.” “Guess that means I’m making the candy at night.” “Candy?” “I also work for Mocha Jon, I make candy in the morning and drop it off for him before the morning rush.” “Do that on your own time, you work for me now.” Stell Pride says matter of factly. “Okay.” And so Sketch now has a second job working for Steel Pride, how will he fare with the stubborn old smithy? Will he burn himself countless times doing the simplest of tasks, most likely, will he get enough money for a place of his own, probably. To find out the rest you must read on! End of the day fifty-three left.
chapter 17 Everywhere They GoWith his job as Steel Pride’s apprentice slash errand boy, Sketch heads back to the castle along with Twilight. “You really want to get out of the castle and on your own huh?” Twilight asks dejectedly. “Yeah, I don’t like mooching off you and the princesses.” “Oh, okay, well it was nice having you as a guest-” “Oh I’m not out of your mane yet, I still need to find a place to live and I am not living in a tiny house where I hit my head on the doorway.” “Okay, after your work with Steel Pride we can do some research on your species.” “Just nothing weird, okay?” “What do you think I’m going to do to you?” Twilight asks. “Just nothing like a mad scientist would do, a okay?” “You have my word.” “Okay, well, I gotta go make the candy for Jon tonight and drop them off at five thirty so I can get to Steel Pride’s shop by six.” “I’ll set an alarm for you.” “No need, my phone has one.” “What can’t that device do?” “Depends if you have the right application to run, wanna help me make the candy? It is fun eating the leftover chocolate.” “Sure, what do you do when you make it cause I always hear some sort of music when you’re in the kitchen.” “Oh I hit shuffle on my phone and it plays one of over two hundred songs at random, most are pretty good but some are just sad.” “You have sad songs? Didn’t expect that from you.” “Yeah, I will play you a few of them when we get there.” “Well, get your phone ready, we’re here.” “Hey you two, how is your research going Twi?” “Apparently I’m a good subject.” “Well yeah, you are the only one of your kind here so of course you are.” “Yeah, I’m special.” Sketch agrees. “Okay mister special, let’s get to the candy making.” “Let’s go.” The three head inside and make their way to the kitchen and Sketch prepares the coffee beans and pots and pans. “So how exactly does this work exactly?” “The water in the pot beneath it heats up the water in it and the top pot warms up slowly and gets hot enough without touching the hot metal directly and metals without burning. Oddly enough I learned this trick in first grade, except we used small plastic dixie cups. We filled the bottom cup with hot water, put another in it and put the chocolate in it and it melts without burning.” “You kinda repeated yourself there.” “Yeah… Bad habit” “Okay, so what about that music?” “You only want me for my phone don’t you Twi?” “No, but it is an interesting piece of technology I would like to know more about.” “Alright well, you wanted a sad song how about… Gorillas?” “What do apes have to do with music?” “Gorillas is the name of the band, and the song is El Manana, or in English, it means the tomorrow.” “Oh, what’s the song about?” “How about we listen to it and you try and guess it.” As the three listen to the song, Spike relaxing at the table is tapping his foot to the beat of the song as Twilight bobs her head slightly and Sketch prepares the chocolate. As the song goes on Twilight starts to contemplate the song’s meaning. As the song ends Sketch finishes the first batch of chocolate treats. “So Ms, Sparkle, what do you think that song is about?” “Well he kept saying ‘maybe in time, you’ll want to be mine.’ so his mare-friend left him and he’s sad about it?” “Close, but a good try for hearing it once, the song is about how a girl dumped the singer and he keeps hoping that if he get’s enough money maybe she’ll want to be his again.” “That is kinda sad.” “Yeah, wanna hear one that isn’t sad, but is still pretty epic?” “Do you have any rock?” Spike asks as he walks up to the counter and reaches for a piece of candy.”Can I try one?” “They are pretty bitter so be careful.” Sketch advises as Spike grabs one and pops it in his mouth, he chews on it and spits it out immediately.”Warned ya.” “How can you eat that stuff?” “It’s an acquired taste, you’ll probably like it more when you’re older...How old are you anyways?.” “Sixteen.” At this Sketch makes a face of utter confusion at this.”What?” “How are you so tiny and sixteen years old?” “I’m a baby dragon...I don’t mature for another thirty years or so, well, that’s what Ember said.” “Ember?” “She’s the new dragon lord thanks to Spike helping her through the trial for the scepter.” “Ah, that’s pretty cool, is she like Spike’s girlfriend?” “No, I have somepony else in mind,” Spike says as he smiles a bit. “Rarity?” “How’d you know?” “A guess, every time we mention her you smile and make a face.” “He’s got you there Spike.” Twilight agrees, at this Spike’s face turns red and he awkwardly makes an exit, probably back to his room.”He really likes her so let’s avoid teasing him about it.” “Agreed. So now that I have one batch done, wanna hear another song?” “Sure!” “I’m going to honor Spike’s last request before he left and play a rock song.” “Okay, that should be interesting,” Twilight says. “How does hard rock sound to you?” “What’s that?” “It’s like rock music you probably have here, wait, you have it here right?” At this Twilight nods,”Okay, it is like that but a bit more hardcore.” “How hardcore?” “Some are about suicide and others are about tragedies, and some are just great head banging songs, something you can't help but get into the groove with. Sometimes at home, I would get groovy in my chair and move to the beat of the song.” “Pfthahaha, you’re an interesting one Sketch.” “Thanks.” “Now for some rock!” Sketch decides to play inside the fire by disturbed, possibly one of the better songs in his library of music, but this, of course, is just his opinion. “That song was rather… dark, what was it about?” “When he said ‘Devon, one of eleven' he was referring to one of his past girlfriends who committed suicide and he didn’t notice til he came home one day and he found her hung by a noose in the main room. The guy saying ‘take your place inside the fire with love’ was the devil saying if you kill yourself too you can spend the rest of eternity in hell with her. “That is dark and tragic.” “Yeah, but it is a promotional video for those who are struggling with suicide. They urge anyone thinking about it or who knows someone who is to call a help line and get the help they need so it is good overall.” “At least it does some good in the end.” “Wanna hear some rap?” “What’s that?” “People rhyming to a hip hop beat mostly and I hate most of it except a few gems.” “Did someone say gems?” Spike asks as he pokes his head around the corner as he re-enters the kitchen from the hallways. “Wrong type of gem man.” At this, he seems a bit disappointed but he walks back into the kitchen anyways and stands next to Twilight.”Anyways let me go to my HU folder and hit random.” “HU?” “Hollywood Undead.” “Say what?” “It’s a band, their name was actually an accident.” “How so?” “Their name was originally just Hollywood but the producer misread the song and band name so instead of reading it, Hollywood which was the name of the band, and Undead, Undead being the name of the song he read it as Hollywood Undead as one name.” “That is interesting.” “Yeah, anyways, pick a number one through ninety-six.” “Forty-two!” “And you are now my favorite pony Twilight.” At this, she squees a little bit. “Okay, this song is...Oh god...You picked ‘Everywhere I Go’ You are in for a treat.” “What’s it about?” “Nothing but partying.” “Okay?” Twilight hears the song and immediately blushes at what the band sings about and Spike can’t help but laugh at Twilight's reaction. “I warned ya.” “Why are they singing about that?” "It is nothing but a fun song for them and it has no hidden meaning or anything, I like the beat more than most of their songs.” “But who is that guy that exposes himself? That is just inappropriate!” “Charlie Scene.It may be inappropriate, but it’s funny too.” As Sketch makes his candy he plays various songs by Disturbed since they were his favorite rock band, hard rock, but they still did the trick. The two talk about varying songs whether they be rock, sad, or even rap Twilight likes most of them and after two hours of making candy the two decide to head off to bed, fifty-three days left.
chapter 18 Hammer Space“Sorry I’m late Mocha, Steel told me I need to make the candy at night and I made candy at night, made Twilight blush with music about genitals, and more than I can explain in one breath!” Sketch breathes heavily as he runs in with four large bags full of the candy covered coffee beans. Mocha didn’t seem to mind that the new employee was late, “Oh don’t worry about it, business hasn’t been slammed today cause there’s another party going on somewhere in Ponyville.” He says as he climbs across the counter, “Just glad to have a friend over!” “I can only stay for an hour til Steel Pride needs my help… well, he doesn’t need it but it makes things go faster.” Mocha sighs a little and he tries to hold in his loneliness, but he does understand that he has other commitments “Oh, okay, I understand.” “Okay what’s wrong, I can hear it in your voice.” Mocha looks nervous and stutters, “Oh, it’s nothing… I just like having you around.” “Then you are going to want to come to an event I am planning and can you keep something a secret?” Mochas surprised and doesn’t know how to respond, nopony had ever really tried to invite him to something special before, “Really? What is it?” “When I went to bed last night I found out something about my trench coat, when I was crushed by the light that killed me initially it should have torn the coat and when I jumped into bed carelessly I heard it tear. I looked back at it in terror as I tore the last one of its kind in Equestria yet I saw it mend itself with my own eyes! Also, I am planning a party when I will introduce you ponies to my kind of music.” Mocha is a little perplexed by this, he wasn’t sure how to react because he has a bad track record with trying new things… But somepony actually wants to share his personal interests with him and then invites him to a party! He can’t turn this down, “Oh yeah sure!!! Sign me up!” “Also you’re going to be singing along with me!” “Really?” He is more than excited at this opportunity, he has always wanted to be a famous pop singer, “I love singing and I know this spell that can make my voice do this! ” He said as his horn lights up and his voice suddenly becomes auto-tuned. “Not bad, I’m just going to sing along with my palm top, also another discovery I made last night, and this one is a little freaky.” “Really? What does it sound like?” He asks as he cartoonishly hops over the countertop again and goes to the espresso machine to make himself a drink. “Ignoring your statement and assuming you asked about the freaky one, I have hammer space powers…” “What’s that?” “Well I reached in my pocket my hand didn’t reach the bottom until I jabbed myself on one of my knives I left back in my apartment, the only thing I can think of is that whatever force brought me here altered my trenchcoat with minor enchantments for my convenience since I’m in a new world. Of course, I’m pulling most of this speculation out of my ass and have no evidence to support my claims.” Mocha just stares at the man with eyes wide, blinks a few times, and just nonchalantly sips his coffee… “Oh… Okay… I’m not really sure how to respond to that... “ He says nervously, “I guess the important thing is you tried?” He jokingly adds. “Well wanna see something to prove my point?” Sketch asks rhetorically as he reaches his whole arm into his trenchcoat pocket and pulls out a long katana and places it on the counter. Mocha gasps in excitement as he snatches the sword and starts swinging it around like a kid, “Oh my goodness that is so cool!” He says as he leaps past the counter again and acts like a samurai, “Can you do that with other stuff?” “I tried something bigger like my laptop but I can only pull out things that can physically fit in and out of the pocket’s five inch opening so larger items are a no go but I was able to get my palmtop, a few knives, some swords and various other items to decorate my room, and apparently they can be altered to fit in the pocket. Like for example, a poster on my wall is thirty-six by twenty-four, too big to my pocket, so I imagined it rolled up into a cylinder and boom! New poster!” Mocha carelessly tosses the sword away from him, not bothering to look where he's throwing it… And rushes right over to the human, “Okay I gotta try this!” He says as he reached his own hoof into his pocket, “Okay, I’m thinking of… Um, Uh, Oh! A packet of my favorite cotton candy flavored gum!” He says as he pulls out… Empty hoofed… “Ah man…” “Yeah, I’m going to have Twilight study my coat and maybe we can find out through that how I got here and how I was resurrected.Hey, while I’m here wanna listen to some music or shall I make a fool of myself and do karaoke? Don’t worry, I Have no shame or dignity.” “Oh, I would love to try that…” He says as he tries reaching again, pulls out again and was also empty hoofed, “But we may need to wait, we have a customer…” He says as he points to the door and revealed Big Macintosh walking in… And reaches into his pocket one last time… “Hold on I got something…” He says as he pulled out a pack of gum, “Hey there we… Oh man… It’s a knock off brand…” He says as he throws it away. “I hate most gum...except unnecessarily large amounts of bubble gum, then I can blow huge bubbles.” “I have a bad habit of swallowing after only thirty seconds of chewing.” He says as he lunges back behind the counter and rubs his mane to straighten it for Big Mac. “Let me see if I can pull out some condoms from my pocket…” “Condoms? What are you talking ab…?” He nervously questions until he saw Big Mac come in, “Oh hey Big Mac! How was the trip outta town?” He says as he started making Big Mac’s usual order, looking annoyingly at the human for what he just said. “Eeyup.” He says as he takes the drink and was completely oblivious to the tension between the two. “I met a special somepony.” Mocha’s face widens in surprise… “Oh really…?” He says as he turns on the steamer on the espresso machine, “Got a name? Or is it one of those hipsters who chooses to identify only using the pronoun ‘I’?” “Sugar Belle, Eeyup she’s pretty and sweet like sugar cane.” He says as he wipes the steam from the air. “Good for you big guy, when’s the wedding?” Mocha bumps him on the shoulder for making that comment, “Ignore him, he’s crazy and likely to fall into a never ending vortex in his pants…” He says as he turns the steamer off, “Well, I’m, well, I’m glad you found your special somepony, you deserve it.” Mocha says as he looks down and scratches the back of his mane. “Maybe we could meet her someday.” He says with a clear tone of his voice that he is disappointed. Sketch leans down to Mocha’s ear and whispers “Maybe he might consider a three-way.” Mocha rolls his eyes and shakes up a can of whip cream and points it at Sketch, “Your next move will have consequences…” He whispers back. “Does talking count as moving?” Sketch quotes. “So Big Mac, remember when I invited you to maybe go ice skating later, you never answered me, but I’m guessing the answer is gonna be…” “Nope.” Mocha sighs, “Saw that coming.” “Sorry there Jon, I got plans with ma sisters then we gots ta make plans for Sugar Bell’s visit Sweet Apple Acers, maybe some other time." Big Mac replies as he takes his drink, waves goodbye and leaves. “Hooray…” Mocha cheers as he takes a deep breath, “Okay hold on one moment, I need to get something from the walk-in fridge…” “Maybe you can you can find another guy, ah who am I kidding this place is the exact opposite of a sausage fest.” Mocha does not hear what he said as he closes the walk-in door, at first there is complete silence until suddenly a loud, ‘AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!’ can be heard through the walls… Following, Mocha walks back out with a more straight face, “I’m sorry, you were saying?” “Damn man, loud much?” “I’m sorry but everypony I think is cute never finds interest back in me!” Mocha yells as he takes out a jelly packet from the bagel shelf and places it on the counter, “Is it too much to ask for a nice stallion to want another stallion for once!?” He asks as he smashes his hoof on the packet and purple goo flies across the room. “Trust me I know the feel bro, one example of my affairs ended after 3 years, she got her friend to break up with me for her through a letter and then I never saw or heard from her again. Ever since that day I have been alone...Life sucks.” “At least you had a marefriend, I can’t get a stallion to even notice me and I’ve been trying for moons…” He says as he cartoonishly bangs his head on the counter, “Okay I want to change the subject, are you and Twilight still getting along?” “Yup, but I wanna prank her so bad her foals will remember it.” “Okay pause!” Mocha yells as he flips and turned around, “There’s a prank going on, tell me everything!” Sketch leans down and whispers the details in his ear and a huge grin appears on his face as he does so. “Okay, Pause!!!” Mocha says as he flips over the counter and grabs the katana and somersaults back, “Okay I want NO part in this!” “Man, you are one acrobatic party pooper, you still up for singing in the concert before hand though?” “ You know it! “ Mocha says, again using his horn to auto tune his voice. “Yeah plus the ink will stain your coat something awful, plus how would I fake both of our deaths?” Mocha swings the sword around to silence Sketch, “I said I want NO PART in it!” He says as he lungs back behind the counter and starts blending a frappe, “Seriously, Twilight barely knows I exist, if she knew I helped you with THAT, she would never let me hang out with her and her friends.” “Eh, I’m just in this for the lulz.” Mocha rolls his eyes in response, “Fine, just leave my name off everything, I have nothing to do with it.” He says as he pours the frappe into a cup, “And also, please don’t mention to anypony, especially Twilight and her friends, that I’m a Colt Cuddler, I just know they’ll think I’m a freak.” “Dude, they probably care about that as little as I do.” “Okay, so if I told your friends you liked dating men, they wouldn’t make fun of you?” Mocha asks with a mixture of sarcasm and genuine concern for his self-esteem. “Mine didn’t.” “You told them you’re gay? I thought you’re straight?” "Nah I go both ways I keep my options open, but if I had to be with a guy they would have to be feminine or androgynous and human, no ponies.” “That’s… Good to know…” He says while thinking about how another male isn’t attracted to him at all, “Just know I wouldn’t date a human either…” He sarcastically adds. “Good to know you won’t take advantage of me when I’m drunk, speaking of which…” Sketch says as he pulls out a flask and drinks heavily from it. Mocha rolls his eyes and takes the flask, “No drinking on the job please.” He says as he dumps the liquid out of the flask into the sink. "Haha! Jokes on you!” Sketch says as he pulls out another flask and this time keeps it out of the stallion’s reach. “Haha, jokes on you, I’m a unicorn…” He says as his horn lights up and the flask begins to fly away… Only for the magic to short out much before the flask could get very far… “Dangit, curse this small horn…” “Suck it, I got more, let me tell you how this happened…” Sketch says as he takes a swig of vodka from his flask and leans down to pony level. "I was digging through my coat and when I reached in I could feel a lot of stuff so I grabbed and just started pulling stuff out, and and I have an infinite amount of things I can pull out so hence infinite vodka.” .”Okay, Pause!” Mocha says for the third time this hour as he lifts his hoof up like he's giving the pause hand, “You already told me that.” He says as he reaches back into those pockets and cartoonishly falls into them arm deep… “Going in arm deep aye?” Sketch narrates as he wiggles his eyebrows. “I know what this looks like… But this was an accident…” He says as he pulls back. “And I know all about accidents, I myself was one.” He jokingly says, once again not being afraid to make jokes about himself. “So?” “So what?” “Also wanna hear something you will like?” “No, I was hoping to hear that my pet badger has rabies and had to be put down by means of electric shock…” He sarcastically responds. “Reach deep in my pocket and go for the lower left-hand side and push aside the vodka bottles and grab the first thing you can.” “Uh… Okay…?” He says as he reaches again… cartoonishly falling in again… “Woah…!” He yells, but eventually after rattling, he did manage to find something and pulled it out… “Okay… if this is one of those spring snake can pranks I’m gonna be mad… Then laugh.” “I promise it is something that you specifically will like.” Mocha finally pulls it out and looks at the mysterious object… “Open it up and take a whiff.” Mocha is afraid the thing would be a bag filled with old socks or something when he was told to smell it (which admittedly he would like…) But when he finally sniffs it, he recognizes the sweet flavor and knows it is one of the hardest to find, “Oh my Celestia! You have White Chocolate Coffee!?” “Yeah my friend worked at a coffee shop and I had him order it special for me, they would add in a few extra bags to their order every month and I would pay for the bags at wholesale value and the shipping cost, way cheaper than ordering it direct.” “So you’re saying I can get free White Chocolate Cappuccinos whenever I want now?” He inquires as he takers the bag and instantly starts a batch, “Okay you’re never getting fired!” “Ha and like I said it is an infinite supply so before I’m late navigate your way through my pocket and pull out as much white chocolate coffee as you can.” “I don’t know which parts of that offer sound better!” He jokes as he reaches again… This time reaching down so deep that he completely falls into the pocket yelling in shock, before bouncing out completely from the other pocket in a cartoonish manner, knocking over a chair upon landing. "You fell in...the pocket isn’t even that fucking big, how the hell did you manage that? Pony physics?” Sketch asks scratching his head…”What was it like in there?” “All I can say is…” He says as he stands back up and brushes himself off, “I can finally understand how Pinkie Pie works now…” “Oh yeah, Pink pony...Please don’t tell her or anyone else about this yet. I have plans for this.” “Don’t worry, I’m worried if SHE finds out about those, she’ll go mad with power!” He says as he jumps back behind the counter, “Hey, I gotta ask, does Twilight or her friends ever, you know, talk about me?” “I don’t hang with them much, I do my own thing, plus I wanna prank em so the less I’m near them the less they will suspect anything, it will be out of left field.” “But you live with Twilight, I mean hasn’t she ever at least asked anything like, ‘That sounds fun, you should invite Mocha Jon’ or ‘Hey that reminds me of when Mocha once…’ or anything?” “I dunno. Wait...I think I know what’s going on here.” Sketch says as a grin forms on his face. “What? I don’t have a crush on Twilight! I’m more likely to have a crush on Spike!” He says rather defensively. “One that’s creepy, and B you wanna be her bestest friend don’t you?” “What? No! I mean sure I would like it if she and her friends would maybe I don’t know, invited me to hang out with them and maybe go out bowling or ice skating or rock climbing or… Okay yes, I imagine being part of her group all the time!” He says as he defeatedly slams his head on the counter. “I’m not in that group either, right now she is just studying me like I am some exotic animal, we aren’t really friends.” “But she’s the Princess of Friendship and she’s been spending more time with you in your few days being in Equestria than they ever spent just even being in this shop! I mean how can I make friends if the Princess of Friendship doesn’t think I’m friend worthy…?” “Talk to her during the cultural exchange concert I’m hosting in two weeks, get drunk and party with her.” “What should I bring up? I doubt she’d be interested in some nerd who loves comic books and can only sing by autotuning his own voice.” “I have no musical talent either, I use a voice changer and mix it with the singer’s voice to get it to match the pitch, technology kicks ass.” “I mean I write to her brother all the time but we aren’t that close, he didn’t even invite me to his wedding, and it’s a shame cause I was totally jealous that he got controlled by those bug things!” “Why?” Mocha responds by taking out one of his comic drawings that shows a different changeling, presumably a king, using the same spell in Mocha… “Speaks for itself.” “It turns you on...what the fuck?” “Wait, what!? No… Okay well yes, but not enough to actually make me want to try it, I meant it just would have been kinda fun to have a bad guy try and use me as a weapon and have that special somepony who loves me bring me back to reality.” “My god you are a kinky bastard, well on that note I’m gonna head out, I’m going to be late for my other job if I don’t leave now.” “Bye, have fun…” He nervously says, while inside thinking ‘Dangit, I just ruined that friendship…’ After all, he didn’t choose to have that fantasy, he was always kind of ashamed of it and thought Sketch would be understanding… “Also don’t look so down, I have heard worse, I had a girlfriend with a really weird one I’m not even comfortable talking about.” “The sad thing is Shining Armor also knows I’m a Colt Cuddler, so it was awkward when we write.” “Want me to make it more awkward when he meets me? I can think of a way to make you seem more normal.” “Uh… Do I want to know?” “I could wear assless chaps and a cowboy hat and not give a fuck, I have done worse.” “If you do that I will be unable to resist you…” He jokingly responds. “Sorry, no ponies for me, also what the fuck is a changeling? Are they like mimics that eat people?” “I’m not really sure myself, but they’re like these half pony half bug things who have the ability to shapeshift. They don’t eat ponies, they eat love… Though honestly, I’m not really sure how that works, I mean all they do is scare ponies which kinda takes away their love, honestly, I say Changelings should be pets, we treat them nicely, they treat us nicely and we naturally feel the love that they can eat.” “Are they sentient? If so they shouldn’t be pets, also they eat love? Do you mean the emotion or…” “I don’t mean like obedient slaves, I mean kind of like roommates that are not afraid to do favors every now and again, I mean they’d be living rent free so they gotta do something nice, and I never really knew, though the queen was apparently able to hypnotize Shining Armor when they were just talking so I assume emotion.” “That makes it a lot less pervy,” Sketch adds as he looks at his phone, unfortunately, he is now ten minutes late to his other job and Steel Pride will have his ass, and not in that way you perverts. ”Shit...Can you teleport me across town real fast? I am late for my other job as an apprentice.” “Well I can try, but I’m not very good at magic…” He says as his small horn lights up… “Lol your forehead is like a mini glowsti-” And before he can finish his quip he is gone. “Oh my gosh! How did I do that?” He says as he looks up and sees smoke coming from his horn… “Oh…” He tries lighting it up but it won’t light up… “Huh? What’s wrong?” He questions as he tries again, but it still wouldn’t light… “Oh boy… This will be fun…” He sarcastically says. The voice says as he lands in the forge of Steel Pride's smithery and lands in the molten metal upon contact with the forge, as he tries to climb out in desperation only one metal covered hand makes it to the surface before he dies again and sinks to the bottom. And then Sketch never made it to his next job with Steel Pride and a voice echoes throughout Sketch's head right as he dies... "You are a reckless one aren't you?" Author's Note Yup, he's dead, have a good night everybody!
chapter 19 Oops Doesn't Even Begin To Cover This“Where is that slacker!? He’s three hours late!” Steel Pride shouts as he paces back and forth within the shop growing increasingly annoyed at the tardiness of his new employee. As he continues to pace Twilight trots in. “Hey Steel Pride, how’s Sketch doing? I came to do a check up on his progress today.” Twilight says with a smile. “The damn slacker hasn’t shown up yet and he is one hundred and eighty-seven minutes late now!” Steel Pride emphasizes by pointing towards the clock on the wall. “Weird, he is usually very punctual…” She ponders as an idea pops into her head, “I got it! I can do a locating spell on him, did he leave anything of his here?” Twilight beams with excitement as she wants to try to play hide and seek with her tardy friend. “Yeah, he left a bottle of liquor over in the break room, he works hard and drinks harder, but after today I don’t think I’m going to suspend his drinking privileges.” He states as he points a forehoof to the adjacent room where the stench of vodka permeates the store. Twilight happily trots over to the empty bottle and closes her eyes, as she does her horn and the bottle begins to glow and then her eyes open to show glowing orbs. “T-This can’t be right...it says he’s here.” “That is impossible, he’s too big to hide anywhere here, try again.” “It is correct, I just don’t understand where he could be, maybe I could track him more closely.” “Then get to it, we need to get to work here, no offense princess.” “None taken Steel Pride.” She says as her horn glows a faint purple as she follows her senses, She walks around her horn glowing brighter then dimmer until she ends up at the forge with the molten metal with a puzzled look on her face. “Why did you stop here?” “This can’t be right, it says he’s in there!” She shouts as she points a forehoof towards the forge, and at close inspection, they notice the smell of burning flesh in the air, when a stallion quickly enters the shop. Mocha Jon enters at that moment, wondering where Sketch was, “Hey, is this the place where Sketch works?” He asks as he notices the inquiry on their faces, “Everything alright? Oh hey, Twilight!” He says, unaware of what was happening. “W-Well, apparently Sketch is um... “ Twilight looks nervous at the chance that somehow Sketch, who was appointed to her for integration into society, has had an….accident. “The last time I was him was this morning and he left some of his things at the shop. He was in a hurry to get here so he asked me to try and teleport him here with my horn. I didn’t want to do it but he was so adamant and begging me to do it.” “Oh no...No-no-no-no.” Twilight says as she begins to panic at what Mocha Jon is saying. Mocha is clearly worried about what she is saying, but he still doesn’t grasp the situation, considering how Twilight has yet to say what scares her, “Uh… Is there a problem...?” “Jon, I have some terrible news, Sketch is… You teleported him into there.” She says as she points towards the molten metal, as Twilight says this Steel Pride’s face changes from one of concern from when he and Twilight were looking for Sketch to one of sadness. Jon naturally does not know how to respond, and initial denial seems to be his reaction at first, “Wait, what?” He said as he rushed over to the pots of metal, “Oh no… Please no… Sketch…? Sk-ketch! Sketch!!!!” “It seems when you teleported him here you were too close, we should clean this out…” She says looking to Steel Pride who nods and pulls a lever off to the side, the forge begins to drain and the three look on in horror as the charred remains of the human and his clothes, Twilight looks away and audibly gags and Steel Pride just looks down. “Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!” Mocha screams out loud in a mixture of panic, disgust, and guilt, he feels as if he did the worst thing ever, “Oh, Celestia this is all my fault!” After this Twilight calls the local guards and informs them of the accident and at this they all look to Mocha in suspicion. They interrogate him for two hours and all he does is cry for the loss of his friend and tells them what happened before the incident, and it all matches up and seems believable so he is let go. The following week the little bit of his body they could scrape from the bottom of the forge is put in a foal sized coffin as that was large enough to hold his remains. The day of the funeral all of those who knew Sketch, or who were aware of him, attend the funeral, the service is led by Twilight as she and the others all don black dresses, of course, made by Rarity. “We are here today to mourn the loss of a friend, companion, and the only one of his kind.” Twilight begins, “He was brought into this world accidentally and left the world before his time, leaving many of us saddened by the loss. Though he may not have been here long, he did leave an impact on our lives, he was blunt, to the point, and most of all honest. He was a hard worker and an even better friend, I sadly don’t have much more to say as we didn’t have much time to spend together, but what little time we did spend together I will cherish forever.” With this Twilight wipes the tears from her eyes and steps down from the podium and then the only pony he was close to takes the stand. Mocha Jon is reluctant to take the podium considering the situation, he would be nervous speaking at any funeral, but this is a funeral he caused, so he naturally does not want to face the crowd. He looks around and shrugs his shoulders, he knows it’s time to face the music. “I never imagined myself speaking at a funeral of anyone close to me… Because I never got close to anyone before, but all that changed when I met Sketch… Sketch was the closest thing I ever had to a best friend, he shared my sense of humor, my blunt sarcasm, and he was someone I could tell my deepest secrets too… I remember that day I discovered what happened to him, all I could do was cry… I know he is in a better place now, but because of me, he never got the chance to see if Equestria would be a better place than his world… I don’t know much about his world, but if there are more people or ponies like Sketch, it’s the world I want to be in…” Mocha says as he steps down crying, making sure not to face anyone there. From this point on there were only slight glances in his direction, nopony making eye contact for more than a second, afterwards the funeral came to an end as Twilight and her friends carried the coffin to his grave site to be lowered by the family that owns the funeral home, the hole was the size of a foal to match the coffin’s dimensions and with the coffin lowered they begin to bury it and this drew tears from all, especially Twilight who kept thinking to herself “This is my fault! I should have kept a better eye on him if I did this wouldn’t have happened and he would still be alive! I’m a terrible friend, he didn’t deserve this! I-’, she stops mentally berating herself as she notices a large white wing cover her. “Such a tragedy, if only we were more careful this could have been avoided,” Celestia says as she looks at the fresh grave as Luna walks up next to her. “Indeed, even with his problems he did try to be a good po-er, human. Luna says in mourning of one of the few that shared her internal struggle. “It’s all my fault! I was a terrible guardian!” Twilight cries as she begins to break down, the princesses have nothing to say and just hold her as she lets it all out as Mocha just sits near the back.
chapter 20 "I'm Sorry," Isn't Good EnoughA week after the funeral Twilight finally is ready to pack up Sketch’s belongings, but she is shocked at how much she found in his room. “What is all this stuff?” She asks Spike who was trailing behind her with a large cardboard box in hand, ready to pack up Sketch’s belongings for storage in one of the many back rooms of the castle. “Oh, well, I wasn’t supposed to tell you but considering what has happened lately you six should know,” Spike says solemnly. “Six?” “Yeah, he had gifts for all of you, he even gave me his comic book collection!” Spike announces as he waves around what Twilight thought looked like a bigger, yet thinner, version of his phone and all the bright white screen displayed were… “Titles?” “Yeah! He said his friend helped him collect all of these there are thousands!” “And he gave that to you?” Twilight asks. “Yup! He wanted to thank us all for being so nice and putting up with him for the time being so he got me, you, Pinkie, Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, and the lovely Rarity gifts from his world!” “H-How did he do that? If he could go back for his things couldn’t he have gone back home?” “No, apparently there was some weird magic he found that let him grab stuff from his world, specifically his home, he was talking to himself about it for hours, I heard him talking to himself about it quite loudly. Then when I poked my head in to ask he just shut it on me and locked it, talk about rude.” “Alright, I guess I’ll get the girls…” One hour later the girls arrive at the castle confused as to why they were called, Twilight remains silent and leads them to Sketch’s room, the girls stand alone at his door as Spike returns to his room to read up as much as he could on the adventures of Deadpool and friends. “Um Twilight, did you need help cleanin’ up this room er somethin’?” Applejack asks in confusion. “Yeah Twilight, Why’d you interrupt my second mid-afternoon nap to help you clean?” We know you feel bad about it, but it is just his stuff.” “Rainbow! How can you be so insensitive? She clearly needs us, otherwise, she wouldn’t have brought us here, right dear?” Rarity asks. “Actually I’m not the reason you’re here, Sketch is, before the a-accident he planned on getting us all gifts, but didn’t live long enough to give them to us.” At this, the group’s jaws are on the floor, including Rainbow Dash’s. “But we didn’ do anythin for him.” Applejack points out. “Not in his eyes, apparently we were the first people to accept him and take him in, he was abandoned by even his own family and wanted to thank us for being with him. I went through the piles of stuff and I found some unique items.” Twilight says as she levitates out six boxes full of items, each box taped shut with packing tape. “I’ll go first,” Twilight says as she moves her box, which was strangely lighter than the others and she could her something small moving around in it as she sets it down. With a quick rip, she removes the tape and she finds something similar to Spike’s gift inside with a note taped to it. “Dear BookHorse Thanks for putting up with my shit, giving me a place to live, and most of all, being my friend for you I give you my world’s library…” “Well, what’d he give you Sugarcube?” Applejack asks. “It says he gave me his world’s library, but he couldn’t have pos-” Before she can finish her sentence the tablet bleeps to life and a web page opens up for an online catalog of ebooks numbering in the hundreds of thousands which he had acquired through many subscriptions to various ebook sites and a few audio book sites which he downloaded for later reading, even knowing he could never read them all, of course not all are available at once, she could however download up to four at a time. “Woah! T-This is amazing! There are more books on here than the Canterlot library!” Twilight exclaims, practically bouncing up and down with joy but is stopped mid hop by Rarity. “Sorry,” Twilight says sheepishly, ”Okay, next is Pinkie Pie.” “Ooh ooh ooh my turn, my turn!” Pinkie says excitedly as she pronks over to her box which was, of course, covered in pink tape. She tears open the box with wild ambition and finds a book inside, she opens it up and gasps loudly. “What is it?” Fluttershy asks poking her head out from the rest of the mares. “It’s, it’s a baking guide for every kind of cake he could think of!” Pinkie cheers. "It even has something called "Milk-cake" in it, sounds yummy!" “Let me see what the monkey got me!” This just earns Rainbow Dash a glare from Twilight and the others, “Heh, sorry.” She opens her box quickly and finds another book, “What was with him and books?” She thought to herself. Once she opens it she sees why he gave her this time, “It’s a book about aerodynamics and how to increase efficiency for less drag! What does that mean?” She looks to Twilight as she holds the book in her left forehoof. “It means it will give you tips on how to be as fast as possible featherbrain.” “Oh, sweet!” “I guess I’ll go now.” Rarity says as she steps up to her box and using a pair of shears from her saddle bags she delicately opens her box and finds yet another book accompanied by, ”Bottles of chocolate milk?” She peers closer at the bottles and her eyes go wide, “They aren’t bottle of chocolate milk, they are bottles of chocolate wine! And a book on...Cosplay?” “Sketch told me about that! It is where fans of certain shows, groups, comics or books dress up like their favorite characters, some spending years perfecting their costume.” At this Rarity’s eyes light up, he may not have known much about fashion but this was a great gift. “Well, it seems he put an awful lot a work into these gifts, wonder what he got me.” Applejack says as she opens her box, in it she finds a large farmer’s almanac. “Uh, Twilight, what the hay is this?” It’s a large blank covered book with a note on it, Twilight levitates it over to her and reads it. " "It's a farmers almanac from his world, it show’s his world’s farming expertise developed over many generations.” Applejack simply smiles and holds the book to her chest. “I-I guess it’s my turn then,” Fluttershy says as she hovers over to her box, inside she finds various grooming supplies for various animals and a note. Dear Yellowpony I know you like animals as much, or even more than I do, so I thought why not give you some of my old stuff I used to take care of my pets with? I know it isn’t much but I think you have enough animal care books so this is the best I could come up with, sorry. -Sketch" “Awww” Fluttershy squees as she closes the box and pushes it near the door. “I can’t believe he was so thoughtful, and all this just because we were friends with him?” Rarity asks. “Well he may have been a bit rude, and had a terrible sense of humor but he was good on the inside.” “Like me!” Discord shouts as his eyes float above the group, he had been watching them the entire time. “Discord! Why are you here? He didn’t leave anything for you, and we aren’t in the mood for jokes right now.” Twilight announces to the draconiquis as he appears above them in the hall. “Yes, but I have a deeper connection to him than you all might think.” “How? Did you know him?” Fluttershy asks as she approaches him. “Yes, in fact I brought him here after a similar accident cut his life short in his world, and since he knew me I didn’t want him to see me so I have been in disguise around town keeping an eye on him to make sure he behaved.” “So that’s why you weren’t at our weekly tea party,” Fluttershy says. “Indeed, sorry by the way, but it seems I don’t have to hide anymore as he is...was, as accident prone her as he was back in his world.” “Discord just leave.” Twilight seethes. “What? I am merely just pointing out he has the worst luck of anything I’ve ev-” “Leave!” Twilight orders, and with that Discord just poofs from existence. “Oh, my…” Fluttershy squeaks. With that done the girls all sit and talk for a bit and then go their separate ways but not before there is a knock at the door, and with Spike too enthralled in his comics Sketch gave him Twilight had to answer it herself.” “Yes who is i-Oh, hi Mocha, what brings you here?” Twilight hiding her dislike for the irresponsible unicorn. Mocha was nervous to see them all, he knew they must hate him, but he didn’t want to keep it from them, “There were a few of Sketch’s things he left at the coffee house, and I figured you would be the one who inherits them…” “Oh, okay, thanks, just put them in the hall next to his boxes and let yourself out.” She says as she turns to leave. Mocha expected them to pretty shaken up by his presence, but he didn’t expect them to be as blunt as that, after all, losing Sketch probably hurts him more than the rest as he was the closest he had to a friend, “I deserve that…” Normally Mocha would make some snide comment in defense of himself, but he just can’t this time… Twilight just ignores him and walks heads down the hall to her room to read Sketch’s tablet, he even had made a top twenty list of books she should read. Mocha tries holding back as much as he can there, but he needed to say something if she wouldn’t, “You think this was easy for me? This was the first time since the funeral that I had even left my house, I haven’t even gone to work since what happened!” “We all feel bad for what happened to him, but you’re the one who caused it! Teleportation is a high-level spell, you don’t learn it until university or even later due to how dangerous it is! Without the proper planning, you can end up right where you want to be or but hundreds of feet up in the air, what were you thinking?” Twilight asks rhetorically, knowing he probably wasn’t thinking when he cast it. Mocha reaches into his pocket, pulls out a red stress ball and squeezes it hard at the comment, “You really want to know what I was thinking? Cause if you really want to know I will tell you, but you won’t like it!” “What? That you thought it would be cool to poof him to work so he didn’t have to walk, just so you could show off?!” Twilight’s getting mad now, but she still isn’t looking at him as she stands at the opposite end of the entrance hall facing away. “I did it so for once I could probably prove to myself that I wasn’t a failure and so that you would finally see me as more than a barista and and maybe want to-” “You wanted to prove yourself to me? That’s why you did it?! You killed someone in your recklessness you daft foal!” “It wasn’t my idea to teleport him! He was the one who goaded me on! Do you know what it’s like to know you are terrible at something you should have known as common knowledge and then someone actually tells you they believe in you? Cause, news flash, due to my small horn nopony ever taught me magic, including the danger of it!” “So besides being reckless and being uneducated in a dangerous art you decided to go along with it? He didn’t even know about magic until he got here less than a month ago, but, you did! And just because you have an inferiority complex due to a small horn, which has little no effect on your magical abilities, you decided to try something just to prove something!?” “What would you have done in my position? Someone asks you for an important favor and is the only person who ever showed any interest in you! What was I supposed to do? Tell me, and my inferiority complex isn’t about my small horn, it’s because I can’t get friends or boyfriends in a town where I am neighbors with the Princess of Friendship!!! Someone finally believed in me and I was supposed to automatically know he could die when nopony ever taught me that it was dangerous? I know it was a mistake and I’ve been-” “Just leave his things there and never come back.” Mocha squeezed his stress ball so hard to the point that it pops, “I thought the Elements of Harmony would understand how traumatic an event like this could be, but don’t worry princess, you won’t see me again… Nopony will, ever…” He says as he storms off, he has something in mind as he knows nopony will forgive him, and he can’t forgive himself… Twilight just stands there tears streaming down her face, as Mocha slams the door shut as he marches out.
chapter 21 Forces Beyond Our ControlAfter Sketch’s death everypony in town return to their usual routines, Applejack keeps up with her farm, Twilight buries herself in the library with her studies, Pinkie stays pink, Fluttershy tends to all the critters in ponyville, Rainbow keeps flying circles around all the other pegasi, Rarity designs the summer line, and Spike, well, Spike found something from Sketch to keep him occupied for a while. “Spike! Spike! Number one assistant, where are you?!” Twilight calls out as she roams the castle looking for Spike. She eventually finds him in his room staring intently at the tablet except for this time it isn’t displaying the heroics of heroes and the downfall of villains, it is…. “Spike, what are you reading?” Twilight asks, her curiosity piqued. “Some guide book to making an adventurer for a game called Pathfinder, there’s also another book in here for Dungeons & Dragons, it is really cool! It is like our tabletop game except better!” Spike cheers as he shows Twilight the various monsters from the bestiary along with some pictures of famous heroes. “Huh, too bad you two didn’t get to play it together, anyway, I need your help, I can’t find the book on ancient light magic.” “The third to top shelf on the bookshelf fifth from the far back right corner and it has a white a gold binding.” Spike answers without even looking up from the tablet, Twilight doesn’t know how he does it but is always appreciative of his help. “Thanks, Spike,” Twilight says as she trots off back to bury her muzzle back into ancient times. As Spike, went through the tabletop game books he’s intrigued by the various creatures that one can fight in these games, one actually scares him, the beholder, to him the only thing he could think of is a unicorn with dozens of horns each casting spells at random in various directions. That isn’t the thing that scares him, it is all the eyes on the ends of tentacles and the giant mouth that could swallow you whole. Meanwhile, in the library Twilight is researching ways to figure out how Sketch first ended up in Equestria, this book, in particular, contains spells known as multi-dimensional doorway spells letting you see other worlds. Only the princesses, mainly Celestia, had any form of success with this spell due to its insurmountable difficulty and raw power needed to cast it. Twilight is reading this book for hours on end without rest, she’s determined to find out what caused his appearance here, sure Discord said he brought him here after a similar accident but how? After reading the spell tens of times she thinks she understands it, maybe if she cast a time travel spell and then cast it maybe she could disrupt Discord’s casting and let Sketch die in peace in his world instead of dying in this one. Or, maybe if she was really good at it she could stop him dead in his world altogether! “Ah, ah, ah, Twilight, you shouldn’t meddle with forces beyond your control.” A voice echoes throughout the library startling her as she looks around for the source.Before she can find the source of the voice the book glows brightly and when she looks back down the pages are now blank. “No, no, no, no, no, no! I was so close!” Twilight panics as she tries to recall all the components for the spell but some of it eludes her. “Twilight, what’s wrong?” Spike asks as he walks in and immediately notices a look of defeat on her face. “What happened this time, the wrong book?” “No, I was trying to find a way to prevent Sketch from dying the first time before he got here and dies again, but when I found a spell I could use to look into his world something stopped me and erased the book!” Twilight explains as she levitates the book and shows Spike the blank pages. “Huh, what do you think happened?” “I think I have an idea…” Twilight replies as she puts on her saddle bag and slips the book into one of the bags and heads out of the library. “Oh Fluttershy, this tea is simply delightful!” Discord cheers as he sips the tea, the cup slowly pouring down his throat before setting down the tea on the table. “I am so glad, I really do enjoy our tea parties, want to host the next one?” “I think the first one was a disaster enough, so why not again?” Discord chuckles as there is a knock at the door. “I’ll get that Di-” Before Fluttershy could finish her sentence Discord waves a claw and the door opens upward, slamming against the ceiling. “Oh, hello Twilight, what brings you here?” Discord asks nonchalantly as he eats a cucumber finger sandwich. “I think you know why I’m here,” Twilight says as she gets out the white and gold book from her saddlebags and shows it to them. “It’s a book, did you want me to sign it?” discord asks, his right pointer finger turning into a yellow pen. “No! I was trying to stop Sketch from dying in his world so he wouldn’t be brought here and then die in a magical mishap but the book’s text faded after some voice from beyond told me “Ah, ah, ah, Twilight, you shouldn’t meddle with forces beyond your control.” and then poof, it's gone!” “Why do you suspect me? I’ve been here the entire time, right Fluttershy?” Discord asks as his head spins to face Fluttershy who simply nods in response. “B-but then who, how? If it wasn’t you then....” Twilight just plops down on the floor in confusion wondering what in Tartarus is going on here. “Twilight, this may be hard for you to understand, but there are other forces out there more powerful than me, Luna, or even Celestia, maybe someone doesn’t want you meddling in their business?” “All I wanted to do was save Sketch, who would want him dead?” Maybe it isn’t the fact that they want him dead, maybe they need him to die for some reason we can’t comprehend.” Discord explains. “What makes you think that?” “Do you know how much trouble I got into for going there and bringing someone back?” “You got in trouble? But you’re Discord, you are the personification of chaos! Who could possibly punish you? Did they threaten you with something similar to the elements of harmony?” “Oh you silly pony, there are much worse things than the elements.” “Like?” “Never existing, heed my warning Twilight, let this be, just go about your business as usual and forget about him.” Discord suggests as he returns to his tea on the table where he takes a bite of the remaining tea. Twilight is more confused than ever right now, someone punished Discord with something worse than the elements of harmony? What is going on here and who is behind it?
chapter 23 Kind of...As Twilight sped to the guards to tell them something was horribly wrong she ran into none other than the Princess of the Night which due to the earlier happenings didn't even blip on her radar. "Twilight, what art thou doing in such a panic, we merely came to see the first hoof what was reported of mister Jon," Luna explained as she chased after Twilight. "It's true, he's dead but someone else isn't!" Twilight nearly screamed. "Who art tho-" "Sketch is back! Somehow Mocha used his dying words to warn me about him or something I don't know and I need to get the guards who found him to come with me, it's urgent!" "Calm down, we are here with you, we will aid you in this endeavor Ms. Sparkle, but what gives him his credibility to this claim? We all saw what remained of the poor man." "Why would he say that if it weren't true, he isn't one to lie, especially on his deathbed." Twilight reasoned. "Ah, well I am more concerned with something else." "What could be worse than this?" "What could've brought him back this discretely and quickly?" This caused Twilight to stop and go wide-eyed for a second... Anoither version of him did something similar to...HE BETTER NOT HAVE! "Discord!" Twilight shouted into the night only for a large rubber ducky to appear in front of her and pop to reveal discord apparently had just gotten out of his bath. "Twilight, why are you shouting at this time of night? I was relaxing in my bath." Discord said in a whiny tone as he tried to look saddened by his shortened bath time. "Answer this now, no funny business, what did you do with Sketch?" She asked looking him dead in the eye. "Why, did someone graffiti his grave? That's so no-" "Not his grave, him!" "Uhhhh, Twilight, I don't know what you think I've been up to lately but resurrecting people isn't one of them-" "Then this just got a whole lot worse!" Twilight replied now fully freaking the hay out. "Something dug him up didn't they?" He asked no in a serious tone despite his butter yellow pajamas and pink sleeping hat. "Yes!" "Well, if you suddenly came back to life after death where would you go?" "To see my loved ones," Luna answered immediately. "Oh no, Spike!" Twilight cried as she bolted back towards her castle only to find footsteps leading back to it and it looked like whoever it was dragged something along with them. When they all got to the castle they heard sobbing from the front steps, it was a mare. "Ms.?! Are you okay, please come out we need to speak to you immediately it isn't safe here!" "Princess! Please, help Sketch!" She cried from within, none of the lights on so no one could see who it was but it was not someone from Ponyville to Twilight's knowledge. "Sketch?!" Without hesitation Twilight bolted into the front room, seconds after entering her eyes began to adjust and she saw something kneeling over something, Twilight lit her horn to see who this was and she almost couldn't comprehend what she saw, a light orange unicorn mare in armor kneeling over the charred but living remains of what she could barely make out as Sketch's body. Luna and discord followed and later did many guards, the bipedal mare was taken in for questioning and Sketch was rushed to the hospital, something was going on and Luna and Twilight didn't understand any of it and Discord for once was silent. As the mare was taken in Twilight noticed her armor was a bipedal variant of the royal guards Celestia commanded in her royal Canterlot guard but Luna couldn't place somepony with the name May Weather, let alone a bipedal one, Twilight only knew one thing about this, it was going to be a long night. Author's Note sorry for the long delay, other parts are nearing completion, over 300 pages worth so now I can start posting on my end!
chapter 10 The Pink One EntersAs Sketch awakens he yawns and pops his back, his morning ritual, he heads to the bathroom to brush his teeth but realizes he doesn’t have any tooth brushes or toothpaste for that matter…. Yet another thing he wishes he had with him at the time of the convention but sadly it was at the hotel he was staying at. “Maybe Twilight can get me a toothbrush and toothpaste.” “You rang?” Twilight says cheerfully as she brings Sketch a toothbrush and some toothpaste. “Oat flavored?” “Yup!” “Man I miss my bacon flavored toothpaste already.” “That sounds disgusting.” “Once you get past the weird plasticky aftertaste it isn’t too bad, I’m surprised you aren’t put off by the fact that I like pork products.” “Wait, you eat meat?” “Yup!” “Why?” “My species is omnivorous, we need protein to survive but meat is the best way to get it and-” “You can get it from other ways, right?” “Yeah, I guess…Peanut butter is a good source of protein, as well as eggs, please tell me you have eggs.” “We do have eggs, you know we aren’t savages.” “I never used that word...tiny purple horse.” “I am not tiny!” “You’re four feet tall, but still an adorkable little horse.” “I don’t know whether I should be offended or flattered.” “It’s okay Parum Equus.” “What’d you just call me?” “It is latin, a dead language in my world and I just called you little horse.” “You know a dead language and have it memorized, yet you use it to insult me?” “Not to insult, just giving you your own nickname. Do you see any other pony with a dead language nickname?” “He’s got you there Twi.” “Thank you purpura, ac Lacerta.” “Let me guess...little dragon?” “No, purple lizard. There is no word for dragon in latin.” “How and why do you know so much of a dead language unless you only use it to insult ponies.” “I needed to memorize a good chunk of it for my zoology, biology, and botany classes in high school and college.” “Oh, how many years of school is that equivalent to?” “Twenty years.” At this Twilight’s jaw drops. “Twenty years?! How old are you?” “Twenty four, I started early and skipped a grade.” “You skipped a grade?” “Yeah, I’ve been doing algebra since fifth grade.” “Why?” “Because despite my childish nature lies the brain of a scholar, but being smart all the time is no fun. After all, ignorance is bliss.” “I’m not ignorant I just don’t know everything.” “That isn’t possible, I bet Celestia doesn’t even know one percent of everything, the scale is just too massive to comprehend.” “You…*Sigh* Have a point there...Can we just switch topics al-” “Do you like waffles or pancakes better?” “Waffles, definitely waffles,” Spike says as he...did he just eat a gem? “Did you just eat a solid gem or is it like rock candy?” “Nope, it’s a real gem, emeralds are my favorite though.” “Nice, so Twi, what’s your preference, pancakes or waffles.” “Uhh, pancakes?” “Ok, I will make both.” Sketch stops and looks Twilight in the eye with the most serious face he could make without laughing,” You better have a waffle iron or so help me god I will bury you in pancakes.” And so Sketch then proceeds to make pancakes and then he literally made one hundred and twenty-seven pancakes, almost enough pancakes to bury her, almost…. Almost…Once Sketch finishes cleaning up the pancake apocalypse as he calls it the three head out to meet the rest of the elements of harmony, not that Sketch knows because he was too busy singing Rap God by Eminem while she was explaining the day's itinerary. First was some pony named Pinkie Pie the pink premier party pony, what’s with him and alliterations? As Sketch looks around he can feel something behind him and just as he turns around he is ‘greeted’ with a large cannon pointing directly at him.It goes off… “Pinkie! What have I told you about doing that to new ponies?” “Hehehehe sorry Twi, I just had to do… it… are you okay mister?” “Don’t you dare ever sneak up on me again.” “B-But I thought ponies liked surprises, I-” “Few things, I’m not a pony, two, I’m a first dan if you sneak up on me like that my first reaction is to kick the person sneaking up on me, you could’ve been hurt.” “Sketch don’t you think you are being a bit harsh?” “And another thing I got confetti in my eye because of that blasted cannon.” At this Pinkie Pie’s face turns from one of joy to one of sadness as her eyes begin to tear up. “Awww don’t cry little one come here,” Sketch says as he kneels down to hug the sad pony, this immediately cheers her up but Sketch still feels the need to apologize, which he does profusely. “Sorry, Unum Rosea I didn’t mean to be so harsh it’s just that I don’t like surprises.” “That’s okay, I can throw you four more types of parties that don’t involve surprises or cannons!” “Nice, I look forward to them, also I called you Unum Ro-” “It means the Pink one I know that silly willy!” “How do you know a dead language from a different world?” Twilight asks. “Just a guess!” Pinkie Pie says as she smiles. “How?” Sketch says wondering how the pink one could’ve guessed, it was nearly infinitesimally small chance of her guessing right yet she did just that. “It’s just Pinkie being Pinkie.” Twilight offers as an answer, Sketch doesn’t care enough to press on and the three, wait where’s Spike? Back at the castle. “Twilight! I'm ready! Where are you?” Spike shouts as he searches the halls for his friend. Back in town. The three spend some time at Sugarcube Corner and chat it up as PInkie and Twilight talk about their friends and blah blah blah, Sketch just zones out for most of it until he falls asleep sitting upright in his booth seat as he couldn’t fit into one of their tiny chairs. And with that, he’s out like a light.
chapter 22 So, The Main Character Is Dead...One year after Sketch’s death everypony has moved on as if he had never been there, Twilight still has her duties, Spike is forever loyal to his “sister” Twilight, and Owlicious and Spike still argue over who gets the last apple tart. But the accident had bothered her more than she would ever admit, the site of his burnt corpse, or what was left of it, in the forge was mentally scarring, she had been having nightmares when he would crawl out and ask her for help as if she could save him, she kept telling him she couldn’t but the dreams kept coming. All but two have forgotten him, one being Mocha Jon had attempted something drastic... “Is he breathing?!” A nurse shouts as Mocha’s gurney bursts in through the door from the ambulance bay. “He’s barely got the capacity to do so. Celestia’s sake, I can’t believe he tried it with a broken horn.” a doctor replies. 2 hours earlier Mocha Jon stood alone in his empty shop, ever since the incident with Sketch everypony laid blame on him and since then has become the pariah of Ponyville, everyone avoiding his shop and him at all costs. His business had died along with the only person to accept him, and he killed him. Sure it was an accident but the guilt was overwhelming. He had done self-harm when he was younger but what he had done the past year would make most ill. With no one to even acknowledge him, his business dying, and no reason to live he decided to end it all. He was too much of a coward to try the toaster in the bath trick, couldn’t tie knots to save, or in this case, end his life, so he fell back on the only option he could, incineration. He closed shop early, as if it mattered, and charged his horn with as much magic as he could muster. The way he was attempting to euthanize himself was to charge up enough raw energy in his horn over a small period of time without expelling it, the heat would build and magic overload would happen, thus turning him to ash.That was the plan but due to his magic overload when he teleported Sketch to his demise, by accident, his horn crack as due to its small size he couldn’t hold a very large charge, or so he thought, and the damage to it only made it more unstable. As he charged it he began to think of how things went so wrong so fast, one moment he had a booming business, a friend who cared, he even had the bucking princess of friendship in his shop, he had always wanted to be among her inner circle and with Sketch as his friend he was hoping it might come true. As he thought of this he realized that he might have been using him to get close to the one he admired from afar all these years. As he thought of how he might have been a worse pony than he thought the magic began building to painfully high levels. Magic sparks were crackling in neon blue from his horn, it was so bright and hot to him that he honestly thought this is what thermite felt like, or at least that is how Sketch described what it might be like. With the spell almost complete the front door chime rang out through the store, and a mare walked in. “Excuse me? Is anypony he-” But before she could finish her question there was a bright flash from the back room and a scream, the mare ran back to where she heard it from and found Mocha Jon burnt all over. Scorch marks lining the walls of the small storage room, a bag singed and some paper filters burning. She screamed and within moments more townsfolk broke in to find the suicide attemptee on the ground bleeding heavily. The spell misfired and instead of an incineration effect, it was more like being struck by lightning. Normally only unicorns of immense power or alicorns could cast a spell of that power, one of deadly force, but he had been planning this for a while. He had been avoiding the use of magic so he could save up the energy from a few months and unleash it in one blast to end it all, but due to his previous spell that damaged his horn, it was unable to kill him since he couldn’t accurately cast the spell. It should have just turned him to a pile of ash, but instead it released it all around him, think single target damage versus area of effect spells as for why it only nearly killed him and not ‘poof’ no more unicorn. Back at the hospital at the current time The staff brought him to the Intensive Care Unit and put him on life support. “I know what he did, but I can’t believe anypony would try that!?” One of the nurses said as they looked at the report from the scene and were horrified that he tried to cast illegal magic on himself as a suicide attempt. “Well I can, it may have been an accident, but he is still guilty of ponyslau- ehm, manslaughter, so he deserves this at least.” One of the male nurses replies as he looks apathetically at the stallion in question before walking away to do literally anything else. After an hour Twilight shows up, she may not like him because of his misuse of magic, but when the guard told her what happened she was horrified, she never thought he would go as far to kill himself. She waits patiently for him to wake up and stays the night waiting for him to rouse from his self-induced coma. Morning comes and he is still out like a light, except this light bulb’s fuse was nearly broken. “Ugh…” He moans as his right eye cracks open, the sunlight through the window blinding him momentarily as his eye slams shut, only to re-open as it adjusts. “Mocha?” Twilight says, trying to catch his attention. “Twi-light?” “I shouldn’t have blamed you for what happened, none of us should have...I-I’m sorry.” “Twi-light...He’s...n-not….dead….” “What?” She leans in closer to see if he can repeat himself only to hear his heart rate monitor start blaring, she looks over to see he has flat lined. Various nurses and doctors rush over and begin resuscitation, for fifteen minutes Twilight watches on in disbelief as she watches them try to revive him to no avail after they stop he lay in sanguined bandages. “What did he say?” Nurse RedHeart asks Twilight as she turns from Mocha Jon, Twilight herself has her eyes locked onto his now dead body “I-I don’t know, I think he said someone’s not dead, but the only person who’s died recently from something other than natural causes was Sketch, and we buried him!” Twilight panics, she has no idea what is going on, why would Mocha Jon say that when he was there to see him dead? Was he hallucinating? Yeah, of course, he must be he- Later, across town at the cemetery The graveyard was silent and covered in a blanket of fog, she makes her way past the gate to see if her insane theory is wrong, it had to be, right? She was there when they buried him, he has to be dead, right? She finds the back left corner left for those with no family to be buried with and she finds the middle row last grave site on the...left… “Oh no…” She whimpers as she backtracks before turning 180 and galloping out of the site. What made her run? The spot where Sketch’s tombstone was? There a large hole, not from a grave robber with a shovel, but a perfectly rectangular hole exactly big enough to lift the coffin out. The coffin, nowhere to be found, only left a foal sized casket shaped hole in front of his tombstone. Where is his body? What did Mocha Jon mean? Find out on the next episode of DRAGON BALL Z Author's Note Welp, here's where my fun begins, also I debated on the look of this next part for a while but thanks to a music video I downloaded a few years back I didn't need to be original, thanks to youtube! (JK I just really like the character design in it and it fits what the character is about and what not)
