I enjoyed the walk into town, keeping myself busy by singing a few songs on the way. Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” seemed a bit appropriate, and I kept repeating the chorus over and over. I gave a few casual waves to some passers by, eliciting a few giggles from younger ponies as they had never seen me before. After about a half hour of wandering around, I finally sucked it up and asked for directions. A nice couple gave me advice on where to go, and soon I found myself knocking on the door to the Golden Oak Library. Spike opened the door with a smile and let me in.

Upon seeing him, I immediately felt a familiar relief. Finally! Here it was only guys and no females. I sighed deeply.

“Thanks, Spike. I was sent here to tell you we’re going to have a camping trip in two days.”

“Oh, great! What’s the occasion?”

“Well...I think it’s to give me some time to have a bit of fun while, um, trying to deal with the fact I’m never going home again.”

“Oh, wow. Yeah, sorry about that. I really can’t think what that’d be like. I mean, I’d never want to leave Ponyville with Twilight and Rarity, and...”

Spike went on for a while, listing things he’d miss, but I wasn’t listening. Something in the way he said “Rarity” struck a chord. That and the fact he mentioned her about three times in his list. His face had a Look on it whenever he said her name. (The name also sent a shiver of remembrance down my spine that I immediately suppressed.)

Guess interspecies romance isn’t so rare a fantasy as I thought.

I was struck by an odd train of thought that suddenly bothered me. I knew it had been eating at me somewhere in the back of my mind, and I needed to get it out.

“So, Spike, what’s it like being the only guy around here? I mean, all your friends seem to be female ponies. How do you live with it?”

“Huh? Not sure what you mean. I like it. I mean, yeah, they’re...feminine and all, but you get used to it. It barely bothers me at all now.”

“But, how do you keep your man-card? I mean...damn it, I need to think of something that isn’t just a phrase from my world. Sorry, give me a moment, I want to make sense.”

“Oh. I think I get it. Is it like, different words, or something?”

“Maybe. I mean…” I grasped at something that I thought was manly, or masculine, or...different from these ponies. “Do you like setting things on fire?”

“Huh?! You like setting fires?”

“No no. I mean kinda. I mean...don’t you ever feel the need to get away and just be a guy with other guys?”

“I’m not sure what you mean. Why would I need to do that?”

“Have you been raised around mares your whole life?”

“Yeah, of course!” he said brightly. “Twilight hatched me from my egg!”

“Ah.”

I stopped and thought about what I was trying to tell Spike and again I came across the idea that I was trying to change someone who didn’t need to be changed. This was my crap, and I was desperately trying to find someone who understood.

“Spike, I’m sorry, forget what I said. You seem like a pretty good guy - I mean, dragon. I’m real glad you have such...good friends around you.”

A thought struck me.

“You’ve been on some of their adventures, right?”

“Well, yeah! A lot of them!”

“Have you ever saved them or...I don’t know...really wanted to save them?”

“Ha! I’ve done my part now and then, I guess. I mean, most of the girls, if I’m being honest, are a lot stronger than me. I screw up things at times, but some of the stuff I’ve done has been huge! There’s a statue of me in the Crystal Kingdom!”

“Wow! Way to go man!” I raised my hand, and to my surprise Spike went along with it and we high fived.

Well, what else would a culture do with hands, I guess? Best not think too much about it.

“But I have, umm, dreamed of saving the ponies. I mean, especially one of them. There was this time Rarity had been ponynapped -”

Bingo.

“- and I wished I was all in shining armor and road in to her rescue! And then she’d say ‘My hero!’ and then...and then…”

“I understand, my good man-dah I mean-dragon. I think most guys have had that thought about a female...uh, girl...mare that they liked.”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“Oh come on, Spike. I’ve talked with you for, like, five minutes and already I know you’re head over heels for Rarity.” Head over hoofs? Damn these anthropomorphic phrases!

“No I...I, uh.” Spike’s head drooped down with a deep sigh. He looked up. “Am I that obvious?”

“Yep. I guess she doesn’t know?”

“Well...maybe? We’ve never...I mean I’ve never…”

“I get it. I get it. I’ll drop it. Sorry to make you uncomfortable.”

“No, it’s okay. Maybe...maybe I need to talk about it more often.”

I shrugged. “Can’t hurt from time to time. You can always talk to me about it.”

“Do you know all about mares?”

“Dude, if we completely understood them, they’d be boring to us.”

“Wow. When you put it like that...well, I guess I’d better start packing. I haven’t gone camping with them before! The last time, I think, was when half of them took the Cutie Mark Crusaders with them? I’m not sure if that’s right.”

“Wait! The what went with who?”

“The Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

My brain pictured some strange superhero team clad with a mixture of medieval armor and sailor moon outfits. Again the cuteness assailed me.

“Umm...who are they?”

“Oh! They’re three little fillies: Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. You see, they’ve never gotten their cutie marks, so they formed a little club to try and figure out how to find their cutie marks.”

Without thinking, I began pulling at my hair in frustration. “I almost can’t stand it.”

“Huh?”

“Ugh! Nevermind. So, you said you haven’t been on a camping trip with them?”

“Well, not for a vacation, I mean. We’ve spent time out in the woods and wilderness for all sorts of reasons, but sometimes when we have a lot of downtime, I like to spend time by myself.”

“I can understand that. Sooooo you can’t give me any heads up on what this will be like or where we’re going?”

“Nope. Not a clue. Probably somewhere that's got a great view, or some huge landmark or...something."

"I don't care if it leads up to a snowy mountain peak, I'm just looking forward to going out there! I haven't camped in...years, I think. Last time was with my brother out in the middle of nowhere. Not a town for miles, just woods and a couple of men."

"Wait, you're a man. So...that's kind of the opposite of this?"

"Oh. Yeah. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all the females around here. What's up with that?"

"Well, you're asking the wrong dragon. I mean, I haven't been everywhere in Equestria, but I've always thought our town was unique that way."

"What? You mean there's more males elsewhere?"

"Ehhhh...maybe?"

Drop this. It's going nowhere you want to go.

I didn't.

"So have any of the others - you know, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Applejack - have they ever had really close stallion, uh, friends?"

"You mean a special somepony, or a coltfriend? Not really. I mean if they do, I don’t really know about it. I mean, Rarity sees the occasional ‘stallions’ and she’s had a few crushes. I mean, she may also have seen some over in Manehatten on her trips...I don’t know. She does like the attention she gets.” Spike got this far off look in his eye, like something a long way away was giving him pain. He shook his head. “Um, I kind of wonder if Rainbow has somepony in Cloudsdale, but she doesn’t talk about it. I could be wrong. But that’s really it. I’ve never seen the rest have any serious interest in anypony.”

Two things I noted: 1) Spike may not be the most observant person to ask, and 2) the way he said "stallions" in regards to Rarity showed not just his disdain but even sounded he was questioning their masculinity.

Feisty dragon. Protective of what's his. Or what might be his? Good luck, big guy.

"And...they're all fine? I mean, they don't mind all being single?"

"Well, no, I don't think so. Should they?"

"Well...umm...I don't know. I mean they don’t talk about it when they get together-?”

“No.”

“Um. I feel like I'm having culture shock. Sorry, hang on a minute, let me think."

This conversation was hitting so many of my nerves, my skin practically crawled at the conceptions. These ponies didn't need to be defined by a relationship. They were fine long before I came around, even Fluttershy. And looking back on my talk with Spike, I realized they probably rarely needed rescuing. I mean, not all six of them. They were...powerful. They had to be, from the few exploits I'd heard from them. But why did this bother me so much in this moment? It didn't do this to me when I was just meeting them.

Then it hit me like a blow to the face. It was me. It was like my dream of being the rescuing hero for a girl could never happen here. Well, that might not be true, but that wasn't really the point either. If I compared myself to them, I could not come from a place of dominant strength to...help...them? The words weren't right. The concept was deeper.

This wasn't feminism, or not my odd definition of it. There was no affront to my masculinity here, no rejection of my opening a door for them; no upturned nose at my lending a hand. It was just that the world would go on if I didn't, and that was...fine. There was something more, but I just couldn't get it. I concluded it was something I needed to work on in my own conceptions. But, I didn't need to do that at any moment before, right? Since I’d landed in Equestria I was fine up until now.

Before I wasn't imposing my thoughts on what was around me. I just took it in and accepted it. Like how all my stupid junk this morning on "helping Fluttershy stand up for herself." She's a strong pony! Why am I trying to tell her what to do?

-There’s truth here, but I'm also beating myself up again.

I shook my head to try and clear it. It was as though a shadow had passed through my brain. All at once there seemed to be this giant, terrifying “Idea” that this world would somehow crush the Man in me, and then it instantly was blown away by a gentle breeze. What was I even afraid of?

Everything is still too damn cute.

But cute wasn't bad. I liked pets, and really, really cute ones especially. I suddenly pictured myself petting one of the ponies and snuggling them like a huge puppy. I smiled. Then I thought of doing that to Fluttershy. I shivered.

Spike walked up and poked me in the arm. "Uh, you okay?"

How long was I out of it?

I shook my head and looked up. I found I had curled up on myself, legs crossed, head in my hand, and when I i looked up I actually felt my forehead relax.

Heh. Was I trying to reenact the statue, "The Thinker?"

-No. "Duh Tinka."

Nice.

I blinked at Spike.

"You know what, Spike? I'm hungry. Want to get something to eat?"

"Sounds great! Where do you want to go?"

"Well, that's the thing. I haven't told anyone else but...we humans eat vegetables and fruit but we also eat -" I looked around quick and whispered "-meat."

"Oh that? Pfffft. That's fine!" He waved it off. "Well, anyway I don’t care. We have visitors from time to time who eat meat. It's rare (Ha! Rare!) but it happens. I hear that several places in Ponyville keep some fish in a freezing spell until someone needs it."

"Makes sense, if I understand you. No point keeping it around all year with a town full of ponies."

"Yeah, I guess."

"What do you eat?"

"Jewels!"

I crossed my legs.

"I'm sorry, say that again?"

"Gems, rubies, emeralds, diamonds. You know: jewels."

"Oh right. Silly me." I felt the pain of trying to hold in my laughter.

"What? What's so funny?"

"I'll explain on the way. Lead the way, Spike!"

* * *

Fluttershy walked through the halls of the Ponyville hospital, looking for Twilight Sparkle’s room while trying to ignore the curious glances of passing nurse ponies. When she’d been with Brendon, she’d experienced very little embarrassment. Now, her cheeks seemed almost permanently pink at the seemingly constant looks.

Earlier she had dropped off her drawings (they were hers now) at her home and stuffed them deep in her underwear drawer. Then she had quickly gone through the house collecting laundry. She grabbed her dirty clothes, thrown them in a basket, and then gone to the guest bedroom. Brendon's clothes were thrown half hazzard all over, but she daintily picked them up and added them to the pile before taking them to the wash room. She also grabbed her sheets and threw his sheets in with her own in a separate basket.

As she was carrying this last load, she could swear there was something funny in the air. What was that smell? Suddenly she was getting very warm. Was she allergic to something? Was she getting sick? All of a sudden, her whole body was-

"Oh my!"

She'd have to get herself checked out, this didn't feel normal. But she had no time at that moment, she had promised to visit Twilight at the hospital. With that she had flown straight over to check on her dear friend. All the while trying to push away the feelings within her. She thought she might be okay. When she'd arrived, the pony at the front desk had said there’d been no change at all, but Fluttershy wanted to see her anyway.

“Please be awake, Twilight,” she whispered to herself. “Please.”

She pushed open the door to her room. Silence filled every corner. Sunlight came in through the windows, revealing a beautiful outside view. She could see the wind wafting the tree branches. But inside all was unmoving cleanliness and stillness. Some nice decorative plants made it seem less rigid, but all Fluttershy could hear was the small breathing of Twilight Sparkle. A blanket covered her up to her neck and, apart from her head turned a different way, Fluttershy thought nothing had changed since last she’d been to visit her friend. She sat down next to the bed, her ears back, her hands gripping her knees in worry.

“Oh, Twilight. I hope you’ll be okay.”

The pause which followed felt as though it needed to be filled.

“I...I wish you could see what’s going on! I don’t know if anyone told you, but a human is here, in Ponyville! His name is Brendon and we threw him a surprise party and we’re going to take him on a camping trip and how I wish you could make it. I’m sure you’d like it. I mean, maybe. If you wanted to go, I mean. It’d be okay if you didn’t. I wouldn’t mind.”

She shook her head. Normally she wasn’t this chatty, but it seemed easier when her audience would never speak back. Or give her looks like Angel did.

“Oh, how I wish you were awake. I’d ask you if you had any books on humans. I’m sure it’d help me be a, um, that is, I mean, umm, a better friend to him. I’m sure a pony like you would’ve taken all sorts of notes on humans when you were over there, wouldn’t you? If only you were awake to tell me…”

“...humans…”

Fluttershy gasped. It was so faint that if not for her own pause, there was no way she would have heard it. For a second, Fluttershy wondered if she had heard anything. She edged closer to the bed and leaned in a bit.

“T-twilight? Did you say something…?”

“...save...research…”

Her lips barely moved, but her eyes squinted as if she was in pain. Fluttershy tried to understand.

“Research? You mean, um, on humans?” A surge of hope almost made her jump right out of her seat in happiness. A wild, reckless feeling crept into her body, warm and a bit familiar; it seemed as though it might take hold of her any second. She had no idea where this came from, but her mind couldn’t focus on anything else but this One Possibility. She tried to force herself to act calm. “D-do y-y-you - I mean, c-c-can you tell me where it is?”

“...desk...under…”

“What? Under what?”

“...sealed...let me open for...uhh…” Her voice trailed off and then there was nothing but silence.

“Twilight?” she whispered.

Nothing.

“Twilight?” she said it out loud.

Still nothing.

Twilight breathed in.

She breathed out.

Fluttershy looked around slowly. She got up, looked out the hallway in both directions, and carefully closed the door. She silently walked back over to her dear friend’s bedside and once again sat down. Sweat beaded on her face. Her hands were clenched in her lap, trembling. An eye twitched. A few strands of her hair suddenly came undone and sprung up like tiny springs from her head. Her gaze would have burned a hole through diamond.

She breathed in slowly. Held it, and let it out.

Silence.

Fluttershy lunged forward, grabbed Twilight by the shoulders and shook her like a ragdoll.

“YOU - HAVE - TO - TELL - ME - WHERE - THAT - BOOK - IS!
"I - NEEEEEEED - IT!”

At every syllable she shook the unconscious pony, Twilight’s head bobbing in time with her friend’s pleading voice.

“I - NEED - TO - FIND - OUT-”

The shaking became a constant vibration, Twilight almost disappearing in a blur of flashing shades of purple.

“HOW-

“TO-

“MAKE-

“HIM-

“LOVE ME!”

The nurse team's response time was surprisingly quick. In a few seconds, a nurse pony burst into the room.

“What’s going on in here?!”

Fluttershy turned to the door. She was seated in the chair next to the bed. Twilight Sparkle lay asleep in perfect peace; the half hazard blanket about her feet being the only evidence that anything had happened. That and the fact that her hair was a giant explosion of fluff around her head. Fluttershy smiled up at the nurse.

“Oh, I do apologize. I’m sorry if I disturbed somepony. I was just so concerned on helping my dear friend wake up again.”

“Again?”

“I’ll go now. Thank you for taking good care of her.”

The nurse looked dumbfounded at the calm scene before her as Fluttershy walked serenely out. Her stride became just a tiny bit faster as she left the hospital, and her tail would not stop swishing. The wild, reckless feeling was still there, but for now it had gone back to sleep. No, that wasn't quite right. It was waiting.

* * *

Spike and I had enjoyed a filling, enjoyable meal with great conversation. Even after we finished and made our way back to the library, he was enthralling me with tales of his time with his good, pony friends.

“So then Fluttershy says, ‘I’d like to be a tree!’”

I laughed, picturing the polite face of that yellow pegasus trying to make everything okay by volunteering to be a tree. For some reason I practically giggled.

“I’d like to be a tree! Ha!”

It was with these smiles on our faces that we opened the door to the library, and were greeted by the bizarre scene within.

"What happened?!" Spike exclaimed.

A desk on one side had been tipped over. Next to it was a rug that had been ripped up to reveal a wooden trap door. It was open, revealing a rather small passageway with a very narrow staircase winding down.

"Where does that lead?" I asked Spike.

"I-I don't know! That's not the normal door to the basement!"

"Well...we'd better check it out."

"No, we don't."

"Yes, we do."

"No, we don't-"

"You're a fire breathing dragon! What could you possibly be afraid of?"

"Do I look brave? Look at me! You're way taller than me. You go first. I'll be right behind you."

"Me?! I don't know what even lives in this world! I don't have magic, or wings, or...something! What can I do?"

"So...we're not going?" Spike couldn't hide his delight.

I glared at him. "Ho, yes we are! You're coming with me, and you are not running away. Here: take my hand."

"What?"

"Hold-my-hand! I'm not taking the chance you'd leave me behind."

"Hey! Do I look like a coward?"

I squinted at him in silence, my hand still outstretched.

"Oooooh, fine!"

And with that, we boldly went down the dark passage in single file, holding hands like any two brave males should. Sure. We'll go with that.

Awkward yet effective. That's what I'll file this under. And never think of it again.

It turned out our fears were completely unfounded. After about half a minute we encountered a stone wall blocking the entire width of the passageway.

"Huh? That's it?" I said.

"Wait," Spike said as he pushed past me to inspect the wall. "Look here! This wall was magically sealed, and I bet my scales it was Twilight that did it!"

"How do you know?"

"Right here in the middle, that symbol is her cutie mark."

"Huh. So whomever came down here must have been looking for something but couldn't get to it because of this seal?"

"I guess. Seems silly, really. I can't imagine what it would even take to break this down."

"Well, we got a little mystery. I guess we'd better let the others know. Lord knows I wouldn't know where to start."

* * *

Fluttershy was…"frustrated."

She'd flown into The Golden Oak Library through a window, thrown aside the desk Twilight mentioned, ripped up the small rug, torn open the door, and then found a wall. A Wall! She pushed, prodded, and even begged it to move. All to no avail. She got so fed up she just screamed with all her might.

(Meanwhile, a passing bird happened to rest for a moment on the lip of the library's open window. The sounds of what might have been a tiny mouse squeak echoed up from a small hole in the floor.)

After that moment of unimaginable rage, she kicked the wall with all of her might.

(The scuttling mouse wandered across the floor and heard a small Tink! as though a pebble had been disturbed. )

Feeling herself begin to calm, Fluttershy was very disappointed in herself.

"Oh no," she softly moaned. "What's come over me? I should never acted so rude and violent. Maybe I'm sick? Yes, that must be it. I'll go see Zecora. Maybe she can give me something to fix me. Ooooooh, I've been a very bad pony."

With that, Fluttershy flew away, shame burning her face. She turned to the Everfree Forest, planning on delving deep within to find the hut of a very wise somepony.

Author's Note

Oh I'm such a tease. Seriously, though, sorry this is, like, the shortest chapter ever. More to come, but wanted to squeak out this one for now.

(Did I just compare my chapter to a fart? Ugh...)