Changin Life

Chapter 3

"Surprise at Night"

Act V - Just a Normal Day

  And so, a dawn of a new day struck my face as I waited outside the shop for Roseluck. I shivered, as the cold wind passed trough my unprotective body, wandering to myself why I couldn´t just wait for her inside the shop, but my stubborn ways kept me waiting in the freezing cold. After a little while longer, I heard a voice speaking to me.

• Michael, are you trying to catch a cold?! - she said, suprised.

• Not exactly. - said I with a hoof behind my head and a dumb smile in my face.

• Oh, I see. You´re trying to skip work by getting sick, arent you?

• Please, I can think of better ways to skip work. - said I, blinking an eye.

• Let´s just hope you don´t put them into practice, you only have one functioning eye because of those stitches and most of the time you´re actually helpful to me. Now let´s get inside, I´ll make some coffee for us.

• Don´t you worry, even with one eye I can still do this job. - said I confindently - Besides, they´re going be removed next week, so no worries.

• Just get inside and, for your sake, don´t do this again unless you have a jacket or something warm to wear, okay. - she said entering the shop and heading towards the coffee maker.

• Sorry, it´s just I can´t wait to show you my surprise. - said I, as I entered the shop aswell.

• So then, what´s the surprise you can´t wait to show me - she said, handing me a cup of coffee. I took a sip of coffee and said with a smile.

• That´s for later at night, so I can´t tell you, otherwise it wouldn´t be a surprise.

• Then why were you outside in the cold?

• You know, I don´t even know myself. - said I laughing.

• You´re one strange colt, you know that?

• Unfornately, I can´t deny that fact, so yeah, I know I´m strange. - said I smiling. Roseluck smiled back at me and we finished drinking our coffee.

  The rest of the day went as a normal working day at the flower shop. Greeting costumers, making bouquets, of which I had learn how to do, helping colts or mares decide which are the best flowers for their special someone, all that jazz.

Act VI - A Simple Walk

  As the sun perished over the eastern mountains, our work was done at the flower shop and we head off to the forest that was know as the "Everfree Forest". The streets were quiet and almost empty being so late at night. I was leading the way while Roseluck was just a few steps behind me. The beginning of the trip there went fairly silent, until it was broken by Roseluk when she asked a question.

• Can you tell me why do we have to go to the Everfree Forest at this time of the night?

• It´s where I´ll show you my surprise. Why do you ask? Scared? - said I, emphasising the word "scared", almost sounding arrogant.

• A little, yes. - she said with an embarrassed smile.

• Don´t worry fair maiden, I´ll protect thee against any monsters we may encounter in our journey through the forest. - said I with a hoof in my chest, confindently and playfully at the same time.

• My knight in shiny armor. - she said, in an ironic tone - Now come on, let´s go see this surprise of yours.

• You know what, - said I, returning to our normal pacing towards the forest - I kinda like it here.

• Oh really!

• Really, it´s a nice change from the loud, over-crowded city I used to live in.

• And where did you used to live, if you don´t mind me asking.

• I´m sure you´ve never heard of it, but, Manhattan City rings any bells?

• So you´re from Manehattan City. I´ve always wanted to visit it since I went there as a filly. I heard the parks in the Summer are filled with the most beautiful, aromatic flowers in all Equestria.

• I think you misunderstood me, I said Man-hattan, not Mane-ha...never mind, forget what I just said.

• Something wrong? -she said with a worried tone of voice.

• Oh, it´s nothing, really.

• Are you sure?

• Yeah, I´m sure. No need to be worried.

• If you say so. - she said. Our trip faded into silence again for a while. Roseluck broke the silence once more with a question, only this time she sounded more worried - Michael, I´ve noticed since I gave you the key to the shop you´ve been wandering throughout the night, only to comeback around seven o´clock in the morning.

• Your point being?

• Why did you leave the shop at those hours? You must have a reason to do so.

• I was actually planning on going there. C´mon, follow me, we must hurry. - said I as I began running.

• Wait up!

  We ran through corners, parks, dirt and grass untill we reached the location, a nightclub by the name "Bottom of the Barrel".  Like any other nightclub it had loud music, expensive drinks, a long line outside of it, but that wasn´t the case at that time. The club only opened at around four in the morning, so the place wasn´t crowded. Roseluck asked what we were doing there and I casually said I had gotten a job as a bartender there in order to repay her much faster, I opened the door and we went inside. The inside was like the outside, silent, big, spacious and with lots of lighting, except that were some ponies in there, some bartenders, the DJ and the manager, to be more specific. I went to talk to one of the bartenders named Sangria, a friend of mine in the club.

• Hey Sangria. This is Roseluck, a friend of mine and sort of my boss - said I.

• Hey Michael, Roseluck, what´s up? - she said, cleaning the bar counter.

• I was wondering if you could cover my shift for tonight?

• Sure, I wont let a friend miss his date because of work, but dating your boss, c´mon now.

• It isn´t a date.

• It isn´t? - said Rosleuck behind me. Upon hearing that, surprised by the question, words spewed out of my mouth as I tried to explain to Roseluck it wasn´t a date, realising, a few seconds later, she was joking with me. Roseluck stood in front of me with a grin on her face, Sangria laughing so loud anyone in there could hear her and I with a tomato colored face.

• Will you cover my shift or not? - said I facing Sangria.

• No problem. Enjoy your date.

• Don´t worry, we will. - said Roseluck, laughing.

• It´s not a date. - said I, before those two bursted into laughter once more. I turned to Roseluck - Shall we go?

  She agreed and with that we began leaving the club to head towards the Everfree Forest. We went through thick vegetation, trees, and darkness in that forest, thankfully, I knew where I was going and finally lead Roseluck to my surprise. Somewhere in that forest there was a small patch of flowers, almost in a shape of a circle, the vegetation and the trees grew around the patch and we could see the moon and stars up in the night sky, but that wasn´t all. As the moon was directly above us, it´s light shined in the numerous flowers on the ground making they light up like lightbulbs beneath and around us as we laid down on our backs looking at them.

• I´ve never seen flowers like these, how did you find them? - Roseluck said.

• I came across these flowers on one of my night strolls. From what I could figure, they glow like this when the moon light hits them, as to why it does that I don´t know, I guess I was just lucky to find these.

• This is beautiful Michael, but why couldn´t we just fly here instead of going through the forest? I´m not that heavy you know. - Roseluck said, still laid down on the flowers.

• Hum...there´s a good reason for that. I sort off don´t know how to fly. - said I, a little embarrassed. Roseluck was more astouned than anything.

• You don´t know how to fly? But you´re a pegasus, you should know how to fly. - she said. I hesitated a bit, but then said,

• I rather not talk about it. - said I , looking the opposite way of Roseluck, trying to hide the sadness in my voice.

• Sorry, I didn´t mean to insult you. It´s just, you caught me off guard with your answer.

• It´s okay, I´m just glad you like my surprise. - said I, facing her again.

• How did you figure out I would like this? - she said, ironically.

• Lucky guess, althought that tatto of yours helped a bit.

• You don´t know what a cutie mark is?

• Cutie...mark? - said I, confused.

• Michael, answer me this. - she said in a serious tone - What are you?

  Caught by surprise by her question I remained silent, hesitant on wheter I should´ve told her the truth or not. She asked the same question and I remained silent again, until I was able to muster some words to ask.

• Wh-What are you-u tal-talking about? - said I, stuttering some of the words as they tried to leave my mouth.

• I wasn´t born yesterday Michael, you can´t fly even though you´re a pegasus, you don´t know what a cutie mark is even though you´re a pony just like me, so I ask a third time. What in hell are you?

  I sit up, looking to the flowers in front of me. I wasn´t sure of what was going to happen if I told her the truth, in the end, I guess I was just afraid, even though I didn´t wanted to believe the reason as to why I was afraid of telling her the truth.

• Michael! - she screamed.

• Alright I´ll tell you, but please hear me out from start to finish.

• I´ll listen.

Act VII - Believable Truth?

  I explained to her how I came to her world, or at least what I knew about that topic, that I was a human and not a pony and that some sort of mistical being had told me to fulfill a purpose in order to leave her world. She remained quiet, absorbing every information in my explanation. When I finish she stood up from the ground and as she was standing up she said.

• You know something Michael. I trusted you when we met first met, I trusted you when you said we were going to this creepy forest this late in the night and I listened to your made up story from start to finish. The least you could do was tell the truth, so I ask you one last time, what are you?

• I´m telling you the truth. Look. - I stood up in two legs, only to immediatly lose balance and fall to the ground. Roseluck left after that, alone, through the forest leaving me alone as well.

  The next day, at the flower shop, Roseluck asked if I could leave her shop and that I didn´t had to worry about paying her back. I left without arguing, for I knew what I had done. She gave me a place to stay and a job, she gave me her trust and I couldn´t trust her back. If only I had told her sooner, maybe she would´ve believed me. I left her shop sadden by that fact and with a broken heart.

  I continued my job as a bartender in the "Bottom of the Barrel" where I made enough money to buy a small house in Ponyville. I tried to live a normal life in that pony world, but I couldn´t, for three months after I stopped seeing Roseluck, the spirit came back to me in a dream. My adventure was only getting started.