When The Man Comes Around
When the Man Comes
It was a beautiful day. The birds were singing, the people were laughing, and I was making pitiful amounts of money by playing instruments on the street. To be honest I didn't even mind the fact I got 30 dollars on a good day, because I was doing what I liked and nothing would change that. And so, I played on.
I would go downtown, and play my guitar for tips and take requests for songs. Every other day I would bring my violin with me and play it for a few hours giving me a break from strumming. It was on one of these days that something unexpected happened, I was approached by a hooded man and he asked me if I could play a song for him.
"Well, what would you like me to play?" I replied hesitantly.
"It's not something that you would know unfortunately, I actually wrote it myself. I was hoping you could try playing it for me. Trust me, it's not that difficult, I'll even pay you for I-"
"Done."
Now I know it seems like I'm selling out, and that is usually looked down on. But if someone were to give you money for making a fool of yourself for a few minutes, wouldn't you agree?
And so with that I played my violin. It sounded horrible. It started off low and went high, and repeated that over and over in different durations of time. When it finally changed to seething else there was no rhythm to it and It almost made me lose my place on the sheet music.
What really threw me for a loop was that the creepy guy was just standing there smiling at me. At least someone is having a good time.
As I was finishing up with the last measure I thought I heard him say something along the lines of, "Have fun."
The next thing I knew was darkness, and pain. A lot of pain. My body felt like it was being stabbed by thousand of bees. I fucking hate bees. I mean hell, they want to stab you so bad they're willing to kill you just to do it. Especially when your "friends" throw you a ball, and when trying to catch said ball, you fall and land on a bee hive.
Fucking bees.
When the pain eventually wore off I was sore. And not your, "Wow what a run I'm going to be sore tomorrow." kind of sore. I mean wanting to die just to get a good nights rest. That sore.
I spent an unprecedented amount of time in a blackness that could only be described as floating through space with no stars or anything, and I still had no idea of what the hell happened to me. When all of a sudden I could see a light piercing through the darkness to reach me, and my immediate thoughts led to, DON'T GO TWORDS THE LIGHT!
In my defense, screw it. And with that as my death sentence, I did what I could to move my near paralyzed body to the light. It took what I thought was maybe an hour, or maybe five minutes, wait is time even relevant here? Whatever, so I eventually made it to the light.
And boy did it burn. For those that have ever had a large amount of soap enter their eye, you know what I'm talking about. Except multiply it by ten and put it all over your body and stay like that for as long as you can, and then keep going because whoever is doing this to you is holding you at gunpoint and if you stop he will kill you. Some people are weird like that.
After and eternity and a half, I could finally got out of that hell and entered a new one. I landed on a hard dirt road with no idea of where I was. I was, however, terrified, and I showed it by screaming in fear and pain. I still couldn't see anything and my eyes felt like they were on fire. I screamed, yelled, and hollered for someone, anyone to help me.
I must have fallen asleep, or at least I think I did, because the next thing I knew was on the back of something soft and furry, and I could hear the clopping of hooves on the ground. I quickly spun around and landed on the ground with loud grunt.
"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" A feminine voice asked from beside me, as I tried to stand up.
"No, no I wouldn't say I am okay." I replied smartly.
"You can talk?" She exclaimed.
"Why yes I can, that's what typically happens when you ask someone a question. You get a response." I don't think she liked my sarcasm.
"Ugh, just follow me I need to ask you a few questions."
"Whoa. First let me ask you a few things first. Who are you? Where am I? What is your name? And how in the hell did I get here?"
"Okay," She sounded almost exited, like talking to me was the best thing she's done all day. "Well, my name is Twilight Sparkle, I am the Alicorn Princess of Friendship in the land of Equeatria. That's where you are by the way. And I think that you are here because I used a spell to summon a creature from another world, and you are that creature."
I immediately face palmed. After she said, Twilight Sparkle, I knew exactly where I was. And it pissed me off. Now I had read a few Human in Equestria fics before, but I never wanted to come myself. I would have liked to meet the ponies, but never go there. I am not one for adventure. I prefer repetition and an organized routine. Except now I was blind for who knew how long, and in a place I would rather be blind permanently than actually be a part of it.
"Now could you please follow me I need to get you inside as quickly as possible before anyone freaks out about you being here." She said, breaking me out of my train of thought.
"Twilight, why di- Just what were y- Why?" I managed to stammer out.
"Why what?" She responded, with a naivety that made me want to punch her in the face.
"You know what, I'll talk about it later first I want to sleep." It seems being brought from your own world to another one really drains the body.
"Okay just follow me, and we'll head over to my castle."
"Twilight?"
"Yes?"
"I'm blind." She didn't say anything for about a minute, and I was beginning to wonder if she decided to leave me when she finally spoke again.
"Just hold on to my side and I'll guide you to the castle." I did as she told me and we started walking. On our way I could hear some murmured whisperings, and feel eyes looking at me. I assumed ponies were taking a notice of me. Some of them even sounded scared, and believe it or not, I heard an all to familiar "eep!" followed closely by hooves going in another direction.
After a few minutes of walking we finally got to the castle. That as when all hell broke loose. Or would it be Tartarus now? Nope, I'm sticking with hell.
"Okay what species are you? Why don't you have hair all over your body? What kind of technologies do you have? Do you have society or do you wander around? What is your world population? What is in those weird cases that came with you? Do yo-" She stopped due to a bad case of hand to the mouth.
"What was that last one? What cases?"
"Oh, uhh, these two cases came with you, they atually look like instrument cases." Wow, look, she really is a genius. Or maybe she can just see, unlike me.
"That would be because they are instrument cases. The violin and the guitar."
"Wh-"
"And before you ask anymore questions, I'm going to say this. I will not answer anymore questions until I can take a nap, so I find in your best interest to poi- to lead me to the nearest bedroom."
She complied, I was actually surprised she didn't protest it more, but hey it gets me into a bed right? She led me down a hall, took a right, climbed some stairs, took a left down another hall, took a right, and on the left was my bedroom. I already hate this place for its size and I can't even see the damn thing. The bed was very comfortable, but my legs didn't exactly fit on the bed so that made it much harder to fall asleep.
"One last thing Twilight."
"Yes?"
"If I find out you have been experimenting on me while I'm asleep. I suggest you don't fall asleep anywhere near me, it would be very bad for your health."
"Well, how are you going to find me if you can't see?" She replied. I could literally hear the smirk on her face. I didn't respond
"Anyway, goodnight uhh-" She stopped waiting for me to give the information she wanted.
"Jim"
"...Gym?'
"Yeah that's my name." Man she can be really thick sometimes.
"Oh, okay, well goodnight Gym."
"Okay bye." With that final statement she stayed there for a moment, and then I heard the sounds hooves on rock moving down the hall. I curled up into a ball and tried to fall asleep. I was close to it too when I had the most horrible thought enter my mind. I will never have bacon again. I bolted straight up in my small bed, threw my hands to sky, in a great impersonation of Spike, who I have yet to see, and shouted to the heavens.
"NOOOOOOOOOO!"
When The Man Comes Around
When the Man Meets His Friends
When the Man Meets His Friends
I awoke the beautiful sunrise in my first day of equestrian, and it was wonderful, and I felt great with a full nights rest. Is what I would have said if I wasn't lying. I don't even know if I did fall asleep last night, you know, being blind and all. At most I sept for an hour, and when I don't sleep I get real pissy.
I laid on my bed for a few minutes, pondering what I was going to do today. When I realized I couldn't do anything without a certain purple unicorn helping me all day. Shit. How am I going to do this? I pulled the blankets off me, which were surprisingly soft and rather warm, and swung my legs off the bed. I stood to my full height and spread my legs a little, gaining balance I so desperately needed. I took a cautionary step forward trying to find a wall, but fate had other plans.
I kicked a rather hard plastic case and jumped at the shock of hitting something I was sure wasn't there the previous night. At least I think it wasn't there. Being blind sucks. I tried feeling around for what I kicked, and soon found it was my guitar case. Didn't Twilight say something about finding instrument cases with me? Well nothing quite like a morning song to raise one's spirits. Just gotta find out how to open this thing. After struggling for ten minutes I had the case open with the instrument on my lap while I sat on the bed.
It didn't take me long to find what to play, for the song mirrored my emotions to a certain extent. It reminded me of what is now my old life, assuming there is no way back, and of the woman I loved.
"So, let me get this straight. You spent months developing ah new spell tah summon ah some creature from ah world that ain't ours?" My dear friend Applejack asked. Again.
"Yes, but before summoning said creature I devised the spell to grant me the ability to observe the species I'm summoning. That way I can determine whether or not they should be brought to Equestria or not." I replied for the umpteenth time.
"Twilight, what do you know of the creature you summoned? Is it dangerous? Is it sapient? Is there anyway to speak with it?" Celestia cut in before another round of questioning from the other elements began. I had told Spike to send her and Luna to come to meet him right after I got the creature in bed. They responded surprisingly fast, taking less than a minute to arrive, as per usual when expecting Alicorn princesses.
"I don't know anything about it personally, but I know a little bit about his species. They appeared to live in large houses on flat land, with a lot of flat land. Probably for farming. I observed some of them work around the buildings, and they didn't seem to show any type of hostility. However I couldn't exactly hear what they were saying. The spell utilizes the scrying spell developed by Starswirl the Bearded, meaning I can see but not hear."
"Umm... Twilight?"
"Well even if that thing is dangerous, me and AJ can buck it into next week! Right?" Rainbow Dash loudly exclaimed.
"Your darn tootin' we can" Applejack agreed almost a little too enthusiastically.
"Excuse me, Twilight?"
"Twilight Sparkle, I believe the element of kindness has something to say." Interjected the Lunar Princess.
I could see Fluttershy suddenly pale at being the center of attention. She tried backing up, but I would have none of that. "Fluttershy, what is it?"
"Oh, well, umm, I was wondering when we might be able to see it. I mean you keep talking about it, yet we have no idea what it looks like and I'm getting really curious." The ever timid Pegasus mare offered. Before Twilight could even reply, the premier party pony of Ponyville suddenly came from seemingly nowhere, and offered her own thoughts into he conversation.
"Yeah! Let's go meet him! Then I can learn his favorite cake flavor, it's favorite drink, and give it a 'Welcome to Equestria/Ponyvillle' Party!"
"Oh! and I could be the first to design clothing for and alien species! Please Twilight you must take us to meet it! Please! YOU MUST!" The fashionista screamed almost into my eardrum.
"Okay, okay, just calm down. It's probably still sleeping, so just try to be quiet, okay?" With that, we started off into the maze that is my castle. I truly am grateful for having this, but I can't help but miss the simplicity that was Golden Oaks library. Although I'm a little surprised it didn't get destroyed sooner, considering all the crazy things that happen around Ponyville.
My thoughts were interrupted as we heard the soft strumming of a guitar, seemingly trying to be tuned. "Twilight, you didn't hire any musicians recently did you?" My mentor now my equal asked me, to which I replied in the negative.
As we rounded the corner to get to the creature's room the strumming stopped, and a song began to be played. We hurried as fast as we could to get to it's door, and when we opened the door we all stood stock sill and let it play on. It seemed he didn't notice us considering he didn't hesitate or stop his strumming.
As the song ended the creature sighed and looked to the ground.
"That was beautiful."
As I finished playing I admired the fading sounds of the notes playing, thanking any deity for muscle memory. That's when I heard it. A warm motherly voice singing praise of the song I had played. No. No its to early for this. I'm not supposed to meet her for at least a week. WHY is she here?
"Why are you here?" I asked slowly, pulling my head up slowly, but still not looking at them. I heard a lot of gasps, meaning the princess wasn't alone. Assuming Twilight wasn't one of them since she heard me speak yesterday, I heard seven distinct sounds. That meant five elements and two princesses.
After recovering from the initial shock, Celestia finally replied, "I was invited to my student's castle to meet you. I hope you don't mind we ask you a few questions while we're here."
"Actually I do mind, Celestia." I replied hotly. Meeting royalty that you don't want to see, and being cranky is not a good mix. Another thing, messing with ponies that you know a lot about yet have never met before is really fun.
"How do you know her name?" Another pony rather rudely asked with her unmistakable voice.
"I know a lot of things Rainbow Dash, element of loyalty, recently accepted into the Wonderbolts." I replied smugly. That shut her up. As well as the rest of them it appeared. All thoughts of the song I had finished palying not one minute ago completely forgotten.
"Twilight, if you don't mind could you show me to kitchen I'm a bit parched and could use something to eat." I asked her finally turning to the group, which brought out another bout of gasps. Which I assumed could only be one thing. My eyes were milky and glossed over instead of their usual deep brown, and that meant I was well and truly blind. I later found out that I was indeed correct. As I looked in their general direction, not actually seeing them, I could feel tears slowly escape what was left of my eyes. So that's were I stayed, and I sobbed quietly not even uttering a sound while they watched on in horrified fascination.
Must be Tuesday.