Solar Singularity

Chapters

Red
Taking Stock
Delusional
Goggles
Tour of the Village
Making Amends
A Nice Change of Pace
Trick-or-Treat!

Red

Red.

It was everywhere you looked. It infected everything and everyone indiscriminately. It turned the world into a hellish husk that tried its best to infect you as well. The word terrifying couldn’t even begin to express how you felt in such a dire situation.

Red.

They were everywhere. They didn’t stop, they didn’t tire, they didn’t eat or drink. Hell, you were pretty sure they couldn’t even die.

Ɽ Ɇ Đ.

You can’t remember the last time you’ve used your voice for something that isn’t crying or screaming in fear. You can’t remember the last time you’ve seen another human in person. The only things you had to remember anyone by were sparse videos and pictures of your family and friends on your phone.

It was a horrible thought wondering if you were one of the last humans alive. Out of over eight billion people you–and possibly some others–were the last humans alive in this hell. It was an even worse feeling knowing that you would never see any of them for the rest of your life. That you were destined for nothing but eternal loneliness and suffering.

R̶͖͗̄ É̵̯̓ D̴͉̹̰̑̑.

They found you. How could you have been so stupid? So careless? It was supposed to be a normal supply run. A quick in-and-out of the city before sprinting back to your safe haven in the sewers. How they never found you until now is nothing short of a miracle. But you suppose it doesn’t matter now. Not when you're stuck in a storage room shaking as if you're going through a seizure and sobbing until you run out of tears.

“You don’t have to cry anymore. Just come with us. The sun’s beautiful around this time!” one of the voices said, sounding a lot like a friendly grandma trying to calm her grandson.

“G-Go a-a-away!” you stammered as you tightly hugged your legs to your chest, your voice dry and squeaky.

“Please, dear. Don’t make us come in there,” they emphasized their point by slamming into the door hard enough to make it bend under the pressure and cause one of the hinges to snap off.

You winced and whimpered in fear. This was it; this was the end. You knew it was a fruitless endeavor, but you began to pray. Your mother and father were devout Christians, and while you were never really one to care for religion, you still respected their rituals. It was one of the only comforts you had in this world devoid of human life.

And so, you clapped your shaky hands together, closed your eyes, and prayed. You thanked God for allowing you a chance at life. You thanked Him for such wonderful parents. You thanked your parents for raising you as best as they could, and you prayed for peace to come to their souls.

They slammed into the door again, making you cower. Thankfully, the last hinge held.

You thanked God for sending such wonderful friends your way and allowing for many great memories to be made. You thanked Him for all the food that was fed to your belly and all the water that quenched your thirst.

Bang!

Right as you were about to thank God for giving you the strength to survive this long, the door fell to the pressure of the red horde. All the terror and fear you were feeling at that moment skyrocketed as you felt their slimy, squishy hands greedily clutch your arms and legs and start to hastily drag you out of the building.

You screamed, so much that it made your throat burn and your voice crack. Your prayers turned into desperate pleas for whatever God there was to save you from this fate that was worse than death! You writhed and struggled against their grip on your limbs, animalistic desperation taking control of your body as you screeched and twisted and turned. So much so that you probably would’ve ripped your limbs from their sockets had the flesh not increased their restraint on you.

“It’s okay~” one of the contorted faces cooed, “There’s no need to cry, soon you’ll be loving the-“

The voice was cut off by the sound of loud sparks arcing all around you. In your panic, you didn’t notice the blue sparks bouncing around your body until a sudden, bright flash appeared, blinding all in the room. But, just as quickly as it appeared, the flash disappeared, taking you with it, and leaving many voices expressing their disappointment at not being able to bring another person under the beautiful. Red. Sun.

Golden Oaks Library, Ponyville

Twilight flinched as a loud bang of thunder echoed throughout the small town of Ponyville. Taking a deep breath, she refocused her efforts on reading the book that was in front of her, having nothing else to do as she and Spike hunkered down for the storm.

The storm. It was a bit strange actually. Ponyville didn’t even have a storm scheduled for today. It just… appeared, for lack of a better explanation. Some Pegasus volunteers tried to clear the storm before it could start, but the dark clouds didn’t budge. Not even Rainbow Dash could get them to fall under her command. As a precautionary measure, Twilight sent a letter to Princess Celestia, asking for her assistance. Shortly after, the beautiful, white alicorn with a multicolor mane appeared in a flash of white, and Twilight quickly filled her in on the situation.

After getting a grasp on what was happening, the princess used her magic to try and scan the storm clouds, but she quickly realized that it didn’t work. After multiple attempts using different methods and spells, the Princess revealed that they weren’t responding to her magic either. In fact, it seemed as if the clouds were nullifying any attempt to manipulate them using magic.

At first, everypony began to panic, thinking this to be the work of Discord. But Celestia was quick to reassure everypony that Discord had not escaped petrification and was still in the Royal Gardens.

Seeing no other option, Princess Celestia urged everypony to hunker down in their homes and wait the storm out. She also informed Twilight that she would have guards on standby to aid the town should she request it. Reluctantly, everypony canceled all of their plans for the day and retreated to their homes.

At first, the storm started off relatively tame, with nothing more than a light sprinkle. But it quickly began to get worse. A light sprinkle turned into a downpour, and a downpour turned into a cascading waterfall of rain, with strong winds and frequent lightning.

The rain pelted relentlessly against the bark of the tree Twilight was living in. To say the wind was roaring outside would be laughable. It was like a train was constantly blowing its whistle right next to her window. Twilight can only imagine how badly her friends and the other citizens were taking it.

Another bang of thunder boomed outside, making Twilight’s ears instinctively flick away from the direction the sound came from. Ugh, she sure hopes this storm ends soon, she’s not sure if she’ll be able to sleep if it continues through the night.

Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted when she felt two scaly claws wrap around her side and hug her close. She turned her head and looked down to see Spike hiding under a blanket while tightly clinging to her. Twilight couldn’t quite see it, but she could feel him trembling as he hugged her close.

“Spike? Are you alright?” Twilight asked soothingly.

“Alright? O-Of course I am! Wh-Why wouldn’t I b-be?” Spike stammered in reply.

Twilight smiled fondly at her assistant before leaning down and nuzzling him, “Would you like to sit with me?”

“…Y-Yeah,” Spike replied meekly.

Twilight nodded and allowed Spike to sit in front of her and cling to her belly for warmth and protection. Twilight took a moment to wrap a hoof around Spike and nuzzle him once more before turning her attention back to the book she was reading. Twilight let out a happy sigh as a burst of light flashed from somewhere outside. Despite the negative circumstances, this night wasn’t turning out so ba-

BOOM!

Twilight and Spike yelped in fright as their wholesome moment was ruined by a powerful explosion of lightning which left the unicorn-dragon duo tightly cuddling each other as they shook like leaves on the floor.

Twilight changed her mind. This is by far the worst storm she’s ever had the misfortune of experiencing and she hopes it never happens again.

Taking Stock

Somewhere In the Everfree Forest

You began to stir from your well-deserved sleep, the feeling of your muscles being completely relaxed and not ready to jump at a moment's notice was a foreign but welcome change. Gosh, you don’t know how long it’s been since you’ve slept this well. You must’ve been pretty exhausted to be reduced to such a state of vulnerability. You smiled underneath your ski mask and let out a happy sigh, the pleasant warmth that was spread evenly across your body made it hard for you to even think of opening your eyes. It was as if you were-

A sudden rush of panic and adrenaline hit you as your eyes snapped open, and your vision swam with light from the SUN! You screamed, held your arms in front of your face, and shut your eyes as if it would protect you from what would inevitably happen next. This was it. You were outside. They got you. It was only a matter of waiting for you to melt before they absorbed you into their ever-growing blob of melted flesh and conjoined faces.

Except, nothing happened. You waited and waited for the feeling of your body slowly melting like candle wax to hit you, but nothing happened. Hesitantly, you slowly opened your eyes to see your arms held out in front of you, still covered in their thick outer layer of clothing with three layers of fuzzy, thick gloves covering your hands. Seeing that you were still wearing your protective clothing, you jumped to your feet and began frantically looking around for any sign of them.

To your utter befuddlement, you're surrounded by trees on all sides. A forest? How the hell are you in a forest? You were in a city, there shouldn’t be a forest around for miles! You take in a shaky breath as you back yourself into a tree, its shade providing you with a minuscule sense of comfort.

How are you here? Why are you here? Did they bring you here? For what purpose?

Questions you didn’t have answers to raced through your mind as the growing feeling of panic continued to choke you. Your heart pounded against your chest as your lungs refused to let you take a proper breath. Your body trembled, and sweat escaped your pores in droves, leaving you with your thick clothing sticking uncomfortably to your skin. Your pupils shrunk to pinpricks, and your vision began to blur as tears slipped out of your eyes.

Before you could fall deeper into your crazed panic, you were interrupted by the sound of chirping coming from above you. You flinched, before slowly tilting your head up to see what was making the sound. Up above you, sitting on a branch, were two of the most beautiful birds you have ever seen in your entire life.

One was small with a plump belly, its plumage a vibrant shade of green that reminded you of a pear alongside a short, blunt beak.

The other was taller than the green one. It was sleeker with a yellow plumage and a long beak, like a woodpecker.

You stood transfixed on the two birds as they continued to sing their melody. Just how long has it been since you’ve heard something so beautiful? The tears that were already trailing down your cheeks continued in full force as you stared at the two birds as if they were angels who came down from the heavens to bless your soul with their holy choir. Eventually, the two birds stopped, and they chirped to each other for a moment before spreading their wings and taking flight.

Your breath hitched as you watched the two birds fly, “Wait! Stop! You can’t!”

You leaped at the birds to try and grab them before they could ignorantly fly into the sun’s rays, but it was all for naught.

“NO!” you exclaimed as you saw them fly out from the shade of the tree and into the light of the sun.

You collapsed to your hands and knees and resumed your crying as a torrent of loss and helplessness flooded your senses anew.

Why!?

Hasn’t it taken enough away from you!? Haven’t you suffered enough!? Even now you could still hear them chirping in what sounds like… concern? You didn’t know birds could sound concerned. You felt something peck you on your arm, making you jump back in fear before opening your eyes to see the yellow woodpecker-like bird staring back at you.

“Huh?” you mutter, not believing your eyes.

You slowly reached a hand out to touch the magnificent bird, but it jumped back with a squawk before unfurling its wings and taking flight once more. You followed the bird with your eyes and saw it meet up with the chubby green bird in the air, both birds spared you one final glance before flying away to a location unknown to you.

You lay there dumbfounded by what you had just witnessed. It shouldn’t have been possible for them to step into the sun’s light without melting, and yet, they did it. With newfound curiosity, you slowly got to your feet and walked to the edge of the tree’s shade. Despite wearing multiple layers of clothing, you were still reluctant to step into the light. But you swallowed the lump in your throat and stepped out of the tree's shade. Taking a deep breath, you looked up…

And found yourself staring into a sea of magnificent blue.

You don’t know how long you stood there just… staring. The grin that made your cheeks hurt never seemed to fade as you continued to stare at such perfection. Unfortunately, your bodily needs made themselves known in the form of your stomach gurgling painfully, reminding you that it’s been quite some time since you’ve last eaten.

Stepping back into the safety of the tree's shade, you took off the large rucksack that was hanging from your shoulders and began rummaging through it for any semblance of food. Unsurprisingly, you didn’t have any. So instead, you decided to take stock of the items you had on you.

You had your phone with one of those bulky, solar-powered charging banks you managed to snag during one of your supply runs. Your phone was dead unfortunately, and it also seemed like your charging bank didn’t have any charge at the moment, so it was going to be a while before you were going to use your phone.

With a sigh, you checked for your other items which included a med kit, a pocket knife, a flashlight with a lot of spare double A batteries, a silver flask that was half full with water, an Uno deck, a pair of white earphones, a journal that you both draw and write in, a pack of pencils, some worthless cash and coins you’ve been miscellaneously collecting (you were currently $5,121.68 rich), a Wall-E plush, a Freddy Fazbear plush, and a plush of the pokemon Venipede; finally, you had a gun which had been stuffed under all the other items.

You stared silently at the gun for a moment before taking it out and examining it. It used to be your father’s 1911 which had been passed down from your great-grandfather, but now it was yours.

It was completely useless to you despite having a full magazine of .45 ACP. It’s too noisy for you to use and would only bring attention to you.

Even if you did manage to isolate one of those lumps of flesh, you were pretty sure the bullets would do nothing to harm them. It served no purpose other than sentimental value and… when you ran out of the will to live.

Shaking your head, you made sure the safety was still on before shoving it into the deepest part of your rucksack. No need to dwell on those thoughts right now. Zipping up your rucksack, you put it back on before picking a random direction and wandering into the forest in search of something edible.

You don’t know how long it’s been since you began your aimless lumbering through the unknown forest. It was hard to tell since it didn’t look like the sun had moved at all from its position in the middle of the sky. Its burning rays, combined with the humidity of what must’ve been a recent storm, made wearing your multiple layers of clothes unbearable.

But no matter how powerful the urge to take a layer of clothes off was, you never dared to follow up with it. Despite evidence of a thriving ecosystem around you, you didn’t trust the sun at all. Hell, for all you know the sun suddenly decided to have mercy on wild animals but still turned humans into red blobs.

You looked around, taking in the sights. There were birds chirping on trees, bunnies popping their cute little heads out of burrows they’d dug, and a snake or two slithering across the ground; it was amazing. You don’t think you’ve seen so many animals in one place before.

Not only that, but it seems as if the very color of the world was restored. No longer was there a sickening shade of red coating every surface you see. Instead, there was green grass, brown trees, gray rocks, white clouds, and even these weird-looking but beautiful blue flowers that you would often see.

However, the novelty of the forest quickly started to wear off as your feet began to hurt and your stomach continued to rumble painfully. You occasionally came across many foreign-looking berry bushes, but you never grabbed any for fear of accidentally poisoning yourself. You could try to hunt something down, the keyword being “try” since you had zero experience in hunting whatsoever.

The possibility of starvation rang heavier in your mind with each rumble of your stomach. Was this how it was going to end? Aimlessly wandering this forest until you fall over and die? Would one of them find you? You shudder at the thought.

Passing through a thick brush, your thoughts were halted by the sight of a dirt trail. Looking left and right, you see that the trail extends for an unknown distance. The thick trees and canopy obscured most of what you could see, so you hoped that it didn’t take a while to find any kind of abandoned piece of civilization.

Now, the real problem came with having a 50/50 chance of picking the correct direction to go in. However, in a situation like this, there is only ever one real answer. You chose to go right. Why? Because right is always right.

“Man, I’m a genius.”

Yeah, you sure hoped you were.

It took another hour of painfully slow walking before you finally exited the forest. Your legs were aching, and your stomach was in the process of eating itself out. But, at least you had one less problem to worry about.

In the distance, you could see what looked to be a rural village. You grin under your mask but you don’t get your hopes up just yet. All because you found a village doesn’t mean you’ll find anything edible.

Approaching the village, you begin to see a variety of different colors and shades moving about. You brush the strange colors off, assuming them to be some kind of hunger-induced hallucination. You take note that some of the buildings have suffered some form of damage. One of the larger ones even had its thatch(???) roof collapse.

Speaking of thatch, this entire place looks like it got ripped out of the Middle Ages. Just how separated from the rest of society was this place to remain the way it is now? There were no paved roads, no abandoned cars, no power lines, and no street lights to name a few things.

But, despite the strange setting, it wasn’t what weirded you out the most.

No, the thing that threw your food-deprived head for a loop was the large number of small, multicolor horses staring at you with their eyes wide and mouths agape.

You stared back with the same expression (not that they could see it), and you all stood frozen in place while waiting for someone to do something.

The longer you stood there, the more awkward and vulnerable you felt. So you did something you thought a nice and sensible person would do in this situation. You slowly raised a hand and waved at the small horses.

“H-Hello?”

A beat passed by.

Then they all screamed.

Delusional

The small horses all around you scattered. Some decided to retreat into the buildings while others ran further into town, all of them still screaming their heads off as they ran. The ones who ran inside the buildings quickly slammed their doors and closed their curtains, and if they didn’t have doors, they quickly barricaded the entrance with the largest items they could find. Before you knew it, you were the only one standing out on the road.

“What the fuck…?” you whisper to yourself as you scan the now barren streets.

You try to wrap your head around what you’ve just experienced and you find yourself struggling to do so. First, you wake up in a forest; then, you find this Middle Ages ass village; finally, you find that the village is inhabited by many vibrantly colored horses.

Just… What?

You sigh as you trudge deeper into the village, putting the strange experience behind you. You convince yourself that it’s simply a part of your hunger-induced hallucination and that it’s not real. It cannot be real. It’s all in your head. However, despite your denial, you continue to run into more of the tiny horses. You could have sworn you saw some with either a horn or wings on their colorful bodies, but you brushed them off.

They were just more hallucinations.

You approach what looks to be the village square as a circular, two-story building with a large spire comes into view. The village hall, most likely. All around the building were multiple stands, each of them being operated by a horse selling a variety of products. Unsurprisingly, the horses operating the stands ran when they saw you, leaving their precious items behind.

You ignore the fleeing horses and walk around, noting all the different items that are being sold. Scrolls, candles, pottery, plants, and many other little knick-knacks were present, but none were useful to you. Eventually, you made it to a section that seemed to be just for food. Your mouth waters at the sight of many signs with pictures of the different foods being sold.

You approach the closest one to you and you shiver at the wretched sight of red. It was an apple stand, you realized; it had a large tarp over it, and judging by the sign, they sold regular apples, apple pie, and candy apples. Examining the sign further, you note the foreign language present on it. It consisted of many different runes accompanied by dashes and dots which seemed to form the grammatical structure of the writing. If you were going to be honest, it looked like a more complex spin on the Minecraft enchantment table language.

Looking away from the sign, you face the stand again and see the items the sign was advertising huddled in the back. The apples were in a large wagon in the back left corner while the apple pies and candy apples were nicely displayed on a large wooden table in the back right corner.

You hummed hypnotically at the sight of the food before climbing over the stand and approaching it. Making sure to stay within the shade of the tarp, you took off your mask and goggles and proceeded to tear through the free food in front of you.

Sharp Steel was bored. When Princess Celestia sent him and several other guards to aid the citizens of Ponyville after a freak storm, he expected a bit more destruction and misery.

Granted, he should be thankful that nopony got seriously hurt and that the town stayed relatively intact; but still, did the citizens really need their help? The only notable damage to the town was the collapse of a couple of roofs and that's pretty much it. Everything else was nothing short of trivial.

“Thank you again for coming out to help you guys! With your help, everything should be good to go in no time!” a brown earth pony stallion said as he hauled over a cart of stone slabs.

Sharp Steel put on his best smile before using his magic to grab half the stone slabs while his partner grabbed the other half.

“No problem, sir! We are here to help after all,” he said with fake enthusiasm.

The unnamed stallion returned the smile before trotting back to wherever he came from. Once the stallion was far enough away, Sharp Steel allowed himself to sigh in contempt before continuing to replace the park’s damaged tiles.

“You still think we’re wasting our time out here?” his partner asked in amusement.

Sharp Steel looked up to his partner with an annoyed look in his eyes, “Come on, Nova Star. How could this not be considered wasting our time? We could be patrolling Canterlot, catching petty thieves, or stopping somepony from trespassing in the castle. But instead, we get assigned to this town that doesn’t even need our help,” Sharp Steel said as he replaced another slab with a bit more force than needed.

Nova Star chuckled, “Hey, at least we’re getting paid extra for this. So it can’t be all that bad.”

A silence descended upon the two as they continued to work on their menial task. Nova Star tried to strike up some more conversation, but he was quickly shot down each time.

Once they were finished, the two stallions began asking around to see if any others needed any help. Fortunately, everypony seemed to have everything under control. So, with nothing else to do, the two decided to report back to Twilight Sparkle.

“Miss Sparkle!” Nova Star said, “We are here to report that we have completed all of our allocated tasks and are wondering if any other areas in Ponyville require our assistance.”

Twilight looked away from the scroll she held in her magic and faced the two stallions with a small smile.

‘Please say no, please say no, please say no,’ Sharp Steel chanted internally.

“Yes, there are still some areas that need assistance. Although it’s nothing major, your assistance should help make it go by faster. Now let me see here…” Twilight said as she looked back at her scroll.

Sharp Steel sighed internally and looked away with an eye roll, ‘Can something happen so I don’t have to do this?’

Not even a second after he finished that thought, screams filled the air and the ground began to quake. The two unicorn guards whipped their heads over to where the screams were coming from and saw a stampede of ponies running away from the town square.

“Monster!”

“Run for your lives!”

“It’s hideous!”

“The horror, the horror!”

The ponies shouted in fear as they ran and hid inside the closest buildings.

One of the ponies, a yellow-coated earth pony mare, ran up to the two befuddled guards and shouted, “Please! Help! There’s a horrible monster near the town hall!"

Nova and Sharp shared a look before sharply nodding, “Go find a safe place to hide. We’ll take care of this monster,” Sharp Steel said before galloping to the town square alongside Nova Star.

“Hey, wait for me!”

Nova and Sharp turned their heads to see Twilight following close behind.

“Miss Sparkle, I urge you to seek reliable shelter while we deal with this,” Sharp Steel ordered.

“No, I'm coming with you! I need to make sure my friends and everypony else are okay!” she vehemently said.

Sharp Steel gritted his teeth but relented, they had a more important situation to deal with.

“Fine, just stick close to us!”

You were in heaven. You had to be. There was no way that these apples should taste this good. You had relentlessly tore through at least ten apples at this point, but the taste never seemed to get any duller. The apples had the perfect amount of sweetness and juice that just made your taste buds explode with absolute bliss anytime you took another bite.

If the apples were this good, then you could only imagine how delicious the pie would be.

Honing in on that train of thought, you looked towards the apple pies, all of them somehow still steaming as if fresh out of the oven. You approached them with a wicked grin, your pupils dilating to the max as you ogled at the delectable meal.

You pick up one apple pie and are about to stuff your face with it (literally) before you are rudely interrupted by a rough animalistic yell coming from behind you.

You flinch from the commanding tone of the yell before slowly turning around to see two… pale white unicorns in golden Roman-style armor glaring at you with their horns illuminated.

…

“Huh…?”

One of the unicorns quickly responded with a hard stomp of one of their forelegs and shouted something else at you, their horn flaring dangerously as they did so.

Frightened, you dropped the pie you were holding and quickly put your mask and goggles back on just in case you needed to run. The sudden movements caused the unicorns to hesitate before they started shouting at you aggressively. Both of their horns began to hum as they flared brighter and brighter before they lowered their heads and directed their horns at you.

Your eyes widened in terror. Were they going to kill you!? You still want to believe this all isn’t real, but you’re genuinely beginning to fear for your life right now!

You raise both hands in the air, palms open, and shout, “Wait, wait! Please don’t vaporize or kill me!”

Before any of the white unicorns could shoot with whatever laser or blast they were going to unleash upon you, they were suddenly stopped by a purple unicorn jumping in the way of their horns.

The purple unicorn let out a whinny at the white unicorns, its voice a notably higher pitch which led you to believe it was female. If that's the case, then the white unicorns were most likely male.

Surprised, the two unicorns quickly deactivated their horns before shouting and neighing at the purple unicorn while pointing a hoof at you.

The message was clear. You were the danger. The purple unicorn is recklessly standing in the way of the danger. The purple unicorn is being stupid.

The three horses continued to exchange unintelligible words while you stood there and tried to wrap your head around yet another hole in your belief that this all wasn't real.

That food sure as hell felt real. If that's the case then one of the horses must've prepared it as you haven’t seen a single human being since arriving in this wacky town. That, combined with the three arguing horses, should be enough for a sane person to realize that this was, in fact, most likely real.

You are not a sane person.

You still believed that this wasn't real in the slightest and that you'll wake up back in that damn storage room or that this is all some fucked up thing they do to keep your consciousness in a kind of blissful paradise while they use your now melted body.

Your hands trembled and your breathing hitched as you considered the possibility. Could it be true? You didn't know jackshit about them so it could be.

You pictured it in your head. Your body, either its own mass of flesh and hair or absorbed into a larger mass when they took you out into the light. Your face contorted into a happy look of pleasure while you moaned praises to the sun and mindlessly wandered the city in search of another unfortunate soul to bring into the light.

You felt your stomach compress and felt bile start traveling up your esophagus as the need to vomit grew increasingly stronger.

It couldn't be true. It.. It can't be!

Before you could vomit through your mask, your thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a soft whinny from below you. You swallowed down the bile that threatened to expel itself from your mouth and looked down to see the purple horse giving you a concerned look.

It was then that you noticed just how small she was. Counting the horn, she only reached up to your waist in height. Meanwhile, the other two were a little taller and reached up to your stomach.

The purple one–which you’ll call Violet from now on–began spouting out a mix of horse and other unintelligible sounds that you think are some kind of language. Once she was done with her spiel, she looked back up to you expectantly, but you didn’t know what she wanted.

One of the white unicorns then said something which caused Violet to squeak and blush in what seemed to be embarrassment. However, the embarrassment was short-lived when her eyes perked up and she let out a short “Aha!”

Violet trotted over to one of the white unicorns and said something to them before holding out a hoof. The white unicorn looked at her with a furrowed brow before nervously glancing over at you. Hesitantly, the white unicorn wrapped his hoof around Violet’s before slowly shaking up and down while Violet made sure you were looking.

A handshake, you realized. Or would it be hoofshake?

Satisfied with her example, Violet approached you with excited eyes and slowly extended a hoof out for you. You stared at the hoof for a long second, perhaps a bit too long if Violet’s increasing nervousness were to say anything.

Slowly, you squat down until you are eye-to-eye with Violet. You look at her, noticing her discomfort before looking back at her unnaturally colored hoof. You didn’t want to shake her hoof, you felt that if you did, you’d be accepting whatever your fate was here. But, you didn’t really have any other choice, did you? You might as well accept the hospitality of whatever this place was before you kicked the bucket.

So, with a sigh, you extended your hand, gently wrapped your fingers around Violet’s hoof, and shook it.

Author's Note

Let me know if you spot any mistakes! :)

Goggles

Twilight Sparkle smiled at the strange creature in front of her as it shook her hoof up and down in a gentle manner. When she saw all those ponies running for their lives screaming bloody murder, she had assumed the worst.

But when she saw what the “monster” was and how the guards were antagonizing it, she couldn't just watch as a worse version of Zecora's treatment played out. Yeah, it wasn't nice of the creature to eat all of Applejack's food, but it could be a simple misunderstanding considering the language barrier that plagued Twilight and it.

“I know you don’t understand me, but I just want to say again that it is very nice to meet you,” Twilight said with a welcoming smile.

The creature responded with a deep grunt, its facial expressions hidden behind its mask and tinted goggles. Twilight briefly wondered if such attire had something to do with its culture, she could find no other reason why a creature would be wearing so much clothing in this weather. It must be unbearably hot in there.

“Well, I believe the ‘monster’ has been ‘defeated,’ would you boys agree?” Twilight said as she turned back around to face the guards.

The guards still looked apprehensive and slightly suspicious, but they both nodded in agreement.

“Yes, Miss Sparkle, but would it be alright if we keep an eye on it? After all, we don’t know what it is and a language barrier won’t stop it from becoming upset at something that may be considered harmless to us,” the guard named Sharp Steel said.

Twilight shook her head, “That won’t be necessary, but I thank you for your concern. Instead, can you inform the citizens and your fellow guards that there is no cause for concern? I’m going to go to my library with the creature to see if I can find a translation spell.”

Sharp Steel’s brows furrowed in annoyance and frustration. He opened his mouth to voice these feelings presumably, but he was stopped when a hoof blocked his mouth.

“Of course, Miss Sparkle. We shall do it at once,” Nova Star said with a sheepish smile before dragging away a grumbling Sharp Steel by the tail with his magic.

Twilight watched the two guards leave with growing relief. Call it a hunch, but she felt that Sharp Steel only wanted to be around just to apprehend the creature for the smallest problem it may cause. Who knows, maybe he would’ve tried to actively bait it into doing something bad.

“Follow me, I believe I have a spell in my library that can help me understand you,” Twilight said while beckoning it over with a smile.

The creature stared at her for a moment before swiftly raising and lowering its shoulders and following along.

Twilight and the creature made it to the library without much issue. There were some other guards the two had passed by who were still uninformed of the creature’s presence, but they were quick to stand down once Twilight explained everything. Opening the door, Twilight held it open and invited the creature inside. Hunching over, the creature shimmied inside before standing to its full height again.

Twilight was still shocked at how tall it was, its height easily allowing it to grab books from the highest shelves in the library with its appendages. She wouldn’t be surprised if it was taller than Celestia herself, even if it's only by a little.

A series of grunts and growls snapped her out of her stupor and Twilight realized that she had been staring at the creature for a little longer than necessary.

Twilight blushed with embarrassment, “Oh, sorry, hehe. Here, have a seat while I look for the book I need,” Twilight said while pointing to a blue couch nestled in the back wall of the room.

The creature followed her hoof and saw the couch. The creature extended its arm and pointed one of its appendages at the couch and looked at Twilight with a tilted head. Twilight nodded and the creature hummed in acknowledgment before walking over and sitting down, its body sinking comfortably into the couch's pillows.

Satisfied with her guest's comfort, Twilight trotted upstairs and used her magic to begin pulling out multiple spell books from her personal study collection.

“Hmm, let's see… nope… not that one… no… aha! Here it is!” Twilight said before grabbing a black-covered book with gold lettering titled Languages and Translations: a Guide for Unicorns.

Opening the book, Twilight navigated to the table of contents and flipped to the page that outlined the process of performing the spell.

“Warning: performing any of these translation spells without both parties having a basic understanding of the language beforehand may lead to certain inaccuracies in understanding and tone. If you want to avoid this problem either speak/write in the simplest form possible or study and learn the language to a general degree.”

This may be a problem. Twilight would very much like to have a full 100% linguistic understanding with the creature. But she doesn’t know how long it will stay here in Ponyville. It’s most likely a traveler considering the large saddlebag on its back, so it’s probably best to simply give it some basic phrases and sentences before it leaves so another misunderstanding doesn’t happen elsewhere.

Twilight was brought out of her musings by the sound of the library’s doors opening followed by three distinct voices.

“Twilight? Are you in here, darling?” Rarity called.

“Hey, look! There it is!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

“Where? I ought to teach it a lesson for eating my apples!” the unmistakably angry voice of Applejack said.

Oh, boy. Twilight should get down there before things get messy.

Without hesitation, Twilight powered her horn and teleported back down to the first floor in front of the couch. Unfortunately, this had the added effect of Applejack ramming her body straight into Twilight. Twilight felt the wind get knocked out of her as she and Applejack tumbled under and over each other before coming to a stop at the foot of the couch in a mess of tangled limbs.

“Owwww…” Twilight moaned painfully as she clutched her head in her hooves.

“Oh, gosh,” Applejack groaned as she untangled herself from Twilight, “Are you alright, Twilight?”

“Y-Yeah, just a bit dizzy,” Twilight slowly stood back up and shook her head.

“Hey, why’d you pop up like that, Twi? Applejack was about to beat that monster down!” Rainbow Dash said before flying up in the air and shadowboxing.

“Well, that’s what I was trying to stop. And it isn’t a monster, Rainbow Dash, it’s a thinking and feeling creature like us.”

Looking back at the creature, Twilight saw it standing on the couch. Its body was hunched over, its arms were slightly extended outward and bent in a V-shape and its appendages were balled up into fists. Twilight assumed it was trying to appear more intimidating, or maybe it was simply preparing for a fight with Applejack.

Well, it's a good thing Twilight stopped it before it could happen.

“Twilight, dear, I don’t think any civilized creature just goes around and eats the labor of somepony else’s hard work. Not only that but look at its attire, it’s hideous! What kind of creature only wears black? Where’s the color, the shine, the pazazz? It’s just horrible!” Rarity said before summoning her fainting couch and promptly fainting on it.

“Yeah! What, uh, Rarity said,” Rainbow Dash said with a confused look.

Twilight frowned, “I don’t think that’s fair for you to say, Rarity. Zecora was a civilized creature, yet everypony still treated her like a monster because they didn’t bother to go up and talk to her.”

At the mention of Zecora everypony looked down in shame and their ears drooped at the sides of their heads. Twilight was right, they were giving this creature the same kind of treatment of isolation and fear they did to Zecora whenever she came to town. But instead of learning from their experience with Zecora, they reverted to their fear of the unknown when this creature arrived in Ponyville. It could’ve been so much worse too considering that some guardsmen were around when the initial panic happened.

Twilight saw the shameful looks on her friend's faces with a frown of her own. While she didn't enjoy the sight, she needed her friends to see the error of their actions.

“Now, why don't we start over girls? I'm going to cast a translation spell, and once I'm done would you all like to introduce yourselves?”

Instantly, everypony's frowns disappeared and small smiles appeared on Twilight’s friends' faces.

“Of course, Twilight! That sounds like a delightful idea,” Rarity nodded.

“Yeah, and I would like to apologize for my behavior. Even though I still don't like that it ate my apples,” Applejack mumbled under her breath.

“I can't wait to show it some of my awesome tricks! Do you think it'll like them?” Rainbow Dash chirped while doing a backflip in midair.

Turning back to the creature, Twilight saw it no longer stood on the couch. It was back in a sitting position, but its body was tense and ready to go at a moment's notice.

Twilight thought about casting the spell then and there, but she decided against it. The creature may not react positively due to its experience with the unicorn guards. Instead, she used her magic to grab a blank scroll and a quill. Twilight dipped the quill's tip in a small cup of ink before drawing some pictures on the scroll.

Once Twilight was done, she turned it over and handed it to the creature. Boxes separated five pictures in a comic-like style. The first box located on the top left depicted a stickpony and a stickman, the stickpony had a bubble above it with Equestrian writing saying “Can you understand me?” the stickman also had a bubble above them, but instead it simply contained many squibbles indicating the lack of understanding.

The next box to the right of it depicted the same two stick figures, except the stickpony now had a book levitating in front of it with its horn shooting a beam at one of the book's open pages.

The third box showed the book now shooting a concentrated beam at the stickman’s head.

Finally, the fourth box had both stick figures with bubbles above their heads, which contained Equestrian writing. The stickpony said, “Can you understand me?” to which the stickman responded, “Yes.”

The creature stared at the scroll for a few seconds. Its hidden face made it difficult to see if it understood, but Twilight hoped for the best. The creature then turned over the page back to Twilight and pointed at the stickpony before pointing at Twilight with a tilt of its head.

Twilight bobbed her head up and down with a grin, “Yes! I would like to cast the translation spell if you don't mind.”

The creature said something in its strange language before showing Twilight a balled-up fist with its fattest appendage sticking upward. Twilight didn’t know what the gesture meant, but it must mean something good because the creature nodded its head shortly afterward.

“Great!” Twilight beamed, “I’ll start the spell now.”

Magically retrieving the spell book, which had been thrown in a random direction when Applejack crashed into her. Twilight opened the book back to the casting page and began powering her horn. Twilight’s horn glowed with a gentle lavender aura before it shot a concentrated beam into the book. The book began to hum steadily as many different Equestrian runes poured out of the book. Then, another beam shot out of the book and connected with the creature’s head.

Suddenly, and anti-climactically, the power in the book fizzled out and it dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

“Uh, what just happened?” Rainbow Dash asked with a perplexed expression.

Twilight furrowed her eyes in confusion, “I’m not sure. The spell just abruptly stopped for some reason.”

“Well, can he understand us?” Applejack tapped the creature on its leg, “Can. You. Understand. Us?” she asked, making sure to speak slowly and coherently.

The creature looked down at Applejack and shook its head before saying what Applejack assumed to be “no” in its alien language.

“Are you sure you did everything correctly, Twilight?” Rarity asked, “Maybe you missed a step?”

Twilight sat on her haunches and put a hoof to her chin in thought, “Yes, I did everything down to the final word. I just don’t understand why it didn’t work. It should have continued and attempted to translate something, even if that something is nothing but nonsense to us. It should be impossible for the spell to just stop like that so why…”

Twilight stopped herself when she saw the creature pick up her translation book from the ground and offer it back to her. Smiling at the nice gesture, Twilight activated her horn once more to take it from the creature’s grip.

“Thank you.”

Twilight tried to grab the book with her magic, but she frowned when she felt her magic being pushed away instead. She tried again, this time she pushed as much magic as she could into trying to grab the book from the creature’s grip which made her horn glow brighter. Twilight felt sweat begin to accumulate as she continued to scrunch up her face in concentration. Her face began to hurt and her teeth were beginning to ache from how much force she was putting into grinding them together.

She only stopped once the sound of snickering filled the air. Looking over to where the sound was coming from, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash rolling on the floor, her snickers now turning into laughter.

“What’s so funny?” Twilight asked with a raised brow.

“You- haha! You looked like you were constipated!” she said before falling into another bout of laughter.

A snort caused Twilight to look towards Applejack who was busy trying to contain her giggles with her hoof, “Don’t look at me. I didn’t say it, she did.”

Twilight then glanced at Rarity who, surprisingly, wasn’t laughing. Twilight did see a faint trace of an amused smirk, however. Bah! Whatever, it didn’t matter.

Turning back to the creature, Twilight simply trotted up to him and just took the book in her teeth, “Fank you,” she said before going upstairs to place the book back in its place.

However, there was a small hole in her plan. The shelf it belonged on was the top shelf, and Twilight wasn’t too keen on trying to climb the ladder and accidentally falling off and injuring herself. With a sigh, Twilight tried to grab the book with her magic again and was pleasantly surprised when her magic did grab it.

Twilight’s brows furrowed in thought as she placed the book back on its rightful shelf. If she could grab the book just fine now, then why couldn’t she when the creature was holding it? Was the creature the cause of it? Was it nullifying her magic?

Twilight’s eyes widened at the thought. If it’s true then was the creature responsible for the sudden storm yesterday? Twilight shook her head. No, she couldn’t just jump to conclusions, she needed more data.

Trotting back downstairs, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash animatedly conversing with the creature while Applejack and Rarity sat on their haunches a few hooves away from them with amused expressions on their faces. Looking towards the creature-

(gosh, if it's going to stay for a while, Twilight really needs to find a name for it/her/him she can’t just keep calling it “the creature”)

-Twilight stifled a giggle when she saw that it simply kept nodding along with whatever Rainbow Dash was saying while occasionally grunting or humming in agreement.

“Rainbow Dash, you do know it doesn’t know what you’re saying, right?” Rarity inquired.

“Duh!” Rainbow Dash answered matter-of-factly, “That just means I can do this! Hey, Goggles, do you think I’m better than Applejack at hoof wrestling?”

Goggles nodded, “Uh-huh.”

Applejack sputtered, “Wha- but- Why you know that’s not true, Rainbow Dash!”

“Oh, yeah? Goggles seems to think so. Right, Goggles?”

Goggles nodded again, “Mhmm.”

“He doesn’t even know what you're saying! Watch!” Applejack approached Goggles and cleared her throat, “Alright, Goggles. I know you don’t understand me, but if I said I was better than Rainbow Dash at hoof wrestling, would you agree?”

“...”

“...Well?”

Goggles slowly shook his head, “Nuh-uh.”

Twilight swore she heard glass shatter.

“Okay, everypony! I’m back and I wanted to try something else due to something strange happening with my translation book when I was putting it back,” Twilight quickly intervened before one of her windows actually shattered.

“What is it that you are going to try, darling?” Rarity asked as she watched Twilight grab a coffee table, the scroll she drew on, a potted plant, and a book. An interesting selection of items.

Twilight set the coffee table down in front of the couch before placing the other three items down on the table.

“I want to test and see if, uh, Goggles is capable of resisting and/or nullifying magic.”

Rarity’s eyes furrowed in doubt, “Twilight, don’t you think that’s a bit of a stretch? Maybe the spell book simply malfunctioned.”

“When was the last time you’ve heard of a spell book malfunctioning? Actually, when have you ever heard of a spell book malfunctioning?”

Rarity opened her mouth to respond, but no words came out. Now that she was thinking about it, it did sound like a ludicrous concept.

“Well, how are you going to test Goggles’ ‘abilities’?”

“Like this.”

Twilight grabbed the scroll with her magic first and levitated it in front of Goggles. Not knowing what was going on, Goggles hesitantly grabbed it from its position in the air. Once Goggles’ appendages touched the scroll, Twilight felt the familiar feeling of her magic being pushed away come back, instead this time it was more of a forceful shove. The phantom force of the shove didn’t knock Twilight over, but it sure felt like it should’ve.

With the scroll now firmly in Goggles’ appendages, Twilight turned to Rarity, “Okay, now try to grab the scroll with your magic, Rarity.”

Rarity nodded and her horn was encased in a blue aura as she activated it. Rarity focused on trying to grab the scroll from Goggles, but she was surprised when the sensation of being pushed away hit her.

“Eugh,” Rarity shuddered as she immediately deactivated her horn, “That did not feel pleasant.”

“What did you feel, Rarity? Was it a sort of pushing sensation?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, and I would very much like to not feel it again if that’s fine with you?”

Twilight chuckled nervously, “Sorry, I probably should’ve told you before you did what I asked.”

“It’s no problem, dear. Though, this may be cause for concern,” Rarity added dreadfully, “What would happen if he touches one of us? Would we lose our magic permanently?”

“I doubt it,” Twilight swiftly denied, “I was able to grasp the translation book with my magic just fine when I was upstairs. So, I think it’s only as long as Goggles is making physical contact will we not be able to use our magic, if not, after a short delay.”

Twilight then repeated the process with the scroll with the remaining two items on the coffee table, all of which had similar results. Twilight then asked Rainbow Dash to see if she could fly while physically touching him.

Rainbow Dash hovered in front of Goggles and held a hoof out while shaking it up and down. Presumably recognizing the gesture, Goggles reached one of his arms out and gripped Rainbow Dash’s hoof with his appendages. This resulted in Rainbow Dash dropping like a fly when her wings suddenly stopped flapping. Thankfully, Goggles managed to catch her and spare her from a painful fall. However, this resulted in Rainbow Dash being incapacitated as she is currently lying across Goggles’ lap and being mercilessly scritched behind her ears.

“Oh, yeah, that’s the spot~” Rainbow Dash hummed as she leaned into Goggles’ master appendages, her wings still drooping at her sides and not having been tucked back in.

Whether this was due to Rainbow Dash being lost in a haze of pleasure or due to Goggles’ nullification ability, Twilight will not know for now.

Having given up on Rainbow Dash responding, for now, Twilight asked Applejack to see if she could manage to pull Goggles from off the couch. Applejack grinned, that would be a piece of cake!

Applejack approached Goggles with a smug look on her face. She was so going to enjoy watching Rainbow Dash tumble out of Goggles’ lap and onto the floor.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.

“Hey, wait your turn jerk!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed before bucking Applejack in the face.

Applejack tumbled backward and flipped over her back before coming to a stop in a seated position. Applejack held her hooves up to her nose as she groaned in pain. Feeling hot wetness dripping down her hooves, she pulled them back to see blood trickling down her fetlocks.

If looks could kill, Rainbow Dash would be nothing but ash.

“Heheh, woops?”

“Why I oughta-!”

Applejack was interrupted by the sound of three hard knocks on the library’s front door. Before anypony could even move to answer the door, the door burst open and a pink blur dashed inside and tackle hugged Goggles. This also had the comedic effect of knocking Rainbow Dash out of his lap which Applejack absolutely enjoyed.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Hi, my name’s Pinkie Pie! When I saw you come into town everypony was like, ”Ahhh! A monster!” and I was all like, ”Whaaaaat!” I didn’t even know you were here until everypony started screaming! It’s like my Pinkie Sense wasn’t even working! How am I supposed to prepare a “Welcome to Ponyville” party for a new creature if my Pinkie Sense isn’t working!? And why are you wearing all that clothes? Is it because you don’t like how you look underne-”

Pinkie Pie was abruptly cut off when Goggles shoved one of his arms in her face and clamped his appendages around her mouth. This did not deter Pinkie Pie, however, and she continued to try and talk through her now-closed mouth.

“Pinkie! Why did you do that!? You could’ve gotten hurt! Or worse, Goggles could have hurt you!” Twilight chastised with a heavy frown.

Pinkie let go of Goggles and hopped off the couch, “His name is Goggles? That’s a cute name! Is it because of those goggles on his face?”

“Uh, yeah, though we don’t know what his actual name is because he speaks a different language.”

“Aw, that’s no good! Maybe Fluttershy can talk to him,” Pinkie said before bouncing out the front door. She returned a few seconds later with a trembling Fluttershy and Spike who was holding a box of cupcakes.

“Woah, is that the monster!?” Spike asked while pointing at Goggles who looked like he still hadn’t recovered from Pinkie’s sudden and energetic intrusion of his personal space.

Twilight sighed, “Yes, but he isn’t a monster, Spike. He’s a sapient creature just like us.”

“Oh… Uh, sorry for calling you a monster!” Spike shouted, “He still looks a little unnerving though.”

Twilight chuckled, “It’s okay, Spike. He won’t hurt you. Here, why don’t I take those-” Twilight grabbed the box of cupcakes with her magic, “-and you can go upstairs and read your comics. How does that sound?”

“R-Really?” Spike asked with a glimmer in his eyes.

Twilight nodded with a fond smile, “Yes, really.”

“Sweet!” Spike exclaimed before sprinting up the stairs to the second floor.

Watching Spike disappear up the stairs with a smile, Twilight turned back around, placed the box of cupcakes on the coffee table, and addressed the current situation.

Applejack was in a brawl with a struggling Rainbow Dash, Rarity was admonishing Pinkie Pie for startling Goggles, Fluttershy was hiding underneath the coffee table, and Goggles was growing increasingly more uncomfortable if the way his chest was rising up and down erratically was any indication.

Overall, It was not good.

“ENOUGH!” Twilight shouted causing everypony and creature to freeze in place and stare at Twilight.

Satisfied that she got everypony’s attention, Twilight began to speak, “Look, I know you all are curious and want to stick around and learn about Goggles some more, but why don’t we end our little get-together here for now? Why don’t you all go home, calm down, and we’ll meet up again here tomorrow at the same time? Does that sound good?”

Understanding that Twilight was essentially telling them to politely “Get the fuck out,” everypony slowly and shamefully left the library. Twilight felt a little bad when she heard Pinkie whimper about not being able to see Goggles try her cupcakes, but that was about it.

Once everypony was out, Twilight closed the door, locked it, and flipped her open sign to closed. Turning around to check on her guest, she saw the Goggles had calmed down a bit, but he was still fidgety and uneasy. Intent on calming him down, Twilight went upstairs and grabbed a spare blanket and pillow before going back downstairs and offering it to him.

Goggles stared at the two items with some hesitation before taking them from Twilight’s magical grip. He mumbled something that Twilight assumed to be some kind of thanks before taking off his saddlebag and laying it on the floor against the couch. Goggles laid the pillow against the couch’s armrest before taking off his hoofwear and getting comfortable. Goggles then draped the blanket over himself, but due to its small size, it left most of his lower body exposed, he didn’t seem to care though.

Twilight smiled when she heard the soft sound of snoring coming from him. She used her magic to turn off the lights in the room before retreating upstairs. She had a letter to send to the Princess.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I hope this letter finds you at a good time and that I am not interrupting anything important. I am writing you today to inform you of a discovery that may pique your interest.

Earlier today a creature of unknown origin stumbled out of the Everfree Forest and entered Ponyville. I do not know whether or not it did something to make everypony panic, but I was only informed of its presence once a wave of panicking ponies passed by me and two unicorn guards I was speaking to at the moment.

I followed the two guards to the market where I decided to split off from them to make sure my friends were okay. Once I was sure they were safe, I attempted to find the two unicorn guards again in hopes that they had found the creature. Thankfully, they did.

The creature itself is something that I have never seen before. It is bipedal, like a minotaur, but it has no visible tail and is much less muscular. It is covered from top to bottom in dark clothing; there was a brief period where its head was exposed, but I was too far away to make out any specific details other than that it had a messy mane on its head. It had long arms that reached below its waist with five thin and lanky appendages. Think Spike’s claws but without the actual claw part. We don’t know its gender, but Rainbow Dash has taken to assuming it's male. She even gave it a name: Goggles!

Moving on, once I de-escalated a situation involving the unicorn guards antagonizing the creature, I escorted it to the Golden Oaks Library to perform a translation spell due to it not knowing how to speak Equestrian.

However, during the process which required the spell to connect a beam to the creature’s head, the spell suddenly failed. Curious, I decided to test what had happened and found something concerning. The creature seems to be null to magic. Intentionally or not, the creature seems to “push” away any attempts to use magic on it or anything it touches. I am not sure if that is the limit to its abilities as I only performed a minor test.

But please don’t let this cloud your mind with paranoia, Princess. If you have already, I too have thought that this creature may be responsible for that strange storm yesterday, but I doubt that it was the one who caused it.

I know this may be a lot to ask, but I am asking you to let me observe it here in Ponyville. I’m not sure how long it will stay, but if it does end up deciding to leave then I will write to you immediately so you can decide what to do.

I will write a report about my observations to you every once a week!

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle.

Author's Note

Please tell me if you spot any mistakes :)

Tour of the Village

Author's Note

This and Making Amends take place in the week time skip mentioned in A Nice Change of Pace.

As always, let me know if you spot any mistakes or if you have any suggestions for me :)

Tour of the Village

“Is he still asleep?” you heard a muffled voice say… something.

“Yes, Pinkie, he has been ever since you all left yesterday,” another voice replied. Jeez whoever they are, they should really just go away.

“Truly? The poor thing must’ve been utterly exhausted. Who knows how long it could have taken him to travel through the Everfree before finally arriving in Ponyville,” yet another, much more posh, voice said.

…

Wait a minute…

Why did they sound so close to you?

With a jolt and a fearful cry, you jumped up from the couch you were sleeping in and backed up against the wall, your eyes scanning your immediate surroundings for the voices you were hearing. Why were there voices!? Did they find you!? What's going on!?

“Nopony move!” you heard a familiar voice shout.

Glancing over to where the voice came from, you spotted six tiny, colorful horses staring up at you with looks of fear and trepidation. Suddenly, all of the memories of yesterday rushed back to your head, causing your panic to slowly ease away, and for shame and nervousness to wash over you. You looked away from their fearful gazes and began to twiddle with your fingers anxiously. You didn’t mean to scare them, you were just a bit startled is all. Surely they’d understand, right?

“Goggles..? Are you okay..?” you heard Violet say as she slowly approached you, being careful not to make any sudden movements.

You whimpered as you felt tears begin to slip from your eyes, “I-I’m sorry… I d-didn’t mean to scare you,” you mumbled as your hands began to shake.

Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed the butter-colored horse perk up slightly, peeking through the wings hiding her face, your whimper catching her attention and bringing concern to her features. You continued to fidget in place, not knowing what to do and fearing that any action you take would scare your hosts.

“Um, I c-can leave if you w-want,” you mutter, pointing a finger at the door of the library.

Suddenly, the butter-colored horse extended her wings and lifted off the ground with gentle, rhythmic beats. As she began to fly towards you, you found yourself a bit too captivated by her presence to question how she was able to fly with such small wings. She continued to fly toward you, stopping just in front of your face. Her soft expression radiated a sense of calm, bringing you an sense of ease. For a small moment, it felt as though everything might actually be okay.

She then began to reach out to your still outstretched hand.

“Fluttershy? I don’t think you should-”

“It’s okay, Twilight. He's just a bit frightened is all.”

Butter gave you a warm smile as she grasped your hand in her gentle hooves…

And immediately started to fall to the floor.

Acting quickly, you grabbed the pegasus by her armpits and held her up as she let out a startled shout, her wings flailing erratically in an attempt to keep her aloft.

“Wh-What’s happening!? Why can’t I fly!?” Butter shouted fearfully as she clutched your arms tightly.

“Fluttershy, calm down! That’s what I was going to warn you about before you touched him!” Violet said, “I don’t think he’s doing it on purpose, but he has some sort of magic-nullifying ability that activates when he touches something or when somepony is touching him.”

“O-Oh.”

Whatever Violet had said managed to calm the flailing horse in your hands, and you took the opportunity to step off the couch and gently place her down on the floor. Once you let go of her, her drooping wings began to move in a more controlled manner and they folded back neatly at her sides.

“Um, thank you for catching me, Mr. Goggles,” Butter said, directing a small smile towards .

You nodded, “Uh, yeah, okay.”

Butter giggled, “I don’t think we got off to a good start yesterday. Why don’t we try again?” She pointed a hoof at herself. “I’m Fluttershy,” she then introduced her other horse friends from left to right, “That’s Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie.”

“It’s nice to meet you again,” Violet waved with a smile.

“Pleasure to me ya, partner.”

“It’s very nice to meet you. Maybe we can pass by my shop so I can design you something more… er, appealing?”

“You already know me,” Skittles said with a cheeky grin.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie, and I’m super-duper-wuper excited to meet you!”

Now, let’s start off by saying that you had absolutely zero clue what they were saying. However, based on the way they took turns speaking, you could make an educated guess that they were either introducing themselves or saying hello. If that was the case, then it only seemed polite for you to say hello in return.

You raised your other hand and meekly waved it, “Hello… It’s nice to meet you all..?”

After your greeting, an awkward silence settled over the group, neither you nor them seeming to know how to continue the conversation—if it could even be called a conversation, given the apparent language barrier.

Thankfully, Violet was there to save the day.

With a smirk on her face, Violet turned to the pink horse, “Hey, Pinkie. I have an idea. Why don’t you go and start setting up Goggles’ welcoming party, and we’ll give Goggles a tour of Ponyville in the meantime?”

The pink horse gasped and her pupils dilated to the point of almost blacking out her large eyes. You shuddered at the creepy sight. That was going to find its way into your nightmares for sure.

Suddenly, faster than your eyes could see, she disappeared, leaving a cartoonish outline of her body in the dust as the doors slammed open. Peeking outside, you could see a large cloud of dust quickly disappearing deeper into the town.

“Holy shit…” you mutter in disbelief, not believing what you just saw.

Turning back to you, Violet's horn glowed as she activated her magic, levitating a sheet of paper and a quill from the coffee table by the couch. Lightly dipping the quill’s tip in some ink, she began to sketch a series of drawings. You waited patiently for her to finish, curious to figure out what she wanted to communicate with you this time. Once Violet was done, she turned the paper over to you.

The drawings took the form of another comic strip, laid out in four panels. The first panel depicted you and the group leaving the tree-shaped library. In the second, Violet led the group, a text bubble above her head as she addressed the stick figure representing you. The third panel mirrored the second, but this time the group had stopped in front of a building, with Violet seemingly explaining something about it. Finally, the fourth panel showed the group returning to the tree library.

Ah, so it was a tour of the town. You could do that. It's best that you learn the layout of the town with Violet as your guide rather than get lost trying to navigate it later. Though, you weren't sure how Violet was going to explain things to you when you couldn't understand her.

You gave Violet a nod and thumbs up before putting on your boots and slinging your rucksack over your shoulders. You gestured over to the door with your head and Violet smiled.

“Well, girls, let’s give Goggles a tour of Ponyville!”

The moment you stepped back into the heart of the town, the lively hustle and bustle abruptly quieted. Nervous eyes from all the horses present locked onto you. Some looked ready to scream and bolt again, but Violet and her friends were quick to say some reassuring words to the horses. Their words didn’t completely ease the tension present in the air, but they at least managed to stop all the horses from screaming their lungs out and boarding up their doors and windows.

Speaking of doors and windows, was it just you, or had the town already finished rebuilding? You glanced around at the numerous cottages and buildings, noting that not a single one appeared damaged in the slightest from whatever natural disaster had struck just a day ago. Had they truly managed to finish rebuilding that quickly? You chuckled to yourself. If this had been your local government, it would have taken at least a week tops for everything to get back to normal.

Violet resumed the tour, and you watched as all the horses around you made sure to give you a wide berth as you passed, whispering things to each other's ears. Things that were probably about you no doubt. You wondered what they were saying. Maybe that you were some big monster? That you were going to eat all their kids? or maybe that you were going to steal those weird marks on their butts?

You allowed a light chuckle to escape your lips, noticing how it made some of the locals flinch back.

‘This cannot be fucking real,’ you think. And yet, despite your denial, you’re still here.

You can clearly feel the sun’s heat beating down on your body, the steady bounce of your rucksack with each step, and the way your clothes cling uncomfortably to your sweaty skin. You can see the complex little details on the buildings around you—the hundreds of strands of thatch on the roofs and the strong, polished wooden frames. You could even faintly smell the perfume that stuck to Pearl, the white unicorn you’ve named.

All these intricate little details all tell you the same thing: that this is reality, and whether you like it or not, you were going to have to live with it.

“Goggles? Are you there? Equis to Goggles!” Skittles said as she waved a hoof in front of your face.

You jolt back, a bit surprised the action. You shook your head before looking towards Skittles and mumbling a quiet apology. Looking around, you noticed that you and the group had stopped in front of a large building. Around you were some tables and bales of hay for seats. Some horses were occupying them, but it seems like most of them left once you arrived if all the abandoned food on the tables was any indication.

Looking up at the building, you notice a sign hanging above the door which was a stall door. The sign depicted a simple three-leaf clover and nothing else. Peeking inside, you saw what appeared to be the interior of a restaurant with a bunch more tables and actual chairs inside instead of hay bales.

“This is Café Hay. It’s one of the many restaurants we have here in Ponyville. This restaurant mainly serves breakfast and a brief lunch menu before closing for the day,” Violet said before showing you another comic strip.

This time, it was of you and her eating something here in the morning and early afternoon, but there was a big X over you both eating here in the evening.

So it was a restaurant that served brunch. That’s nice to know, even though you probably won’t be eating here anytime soon. You gave Violet a thumbs up, showing her that you understood her drawing. Violet smiled happily before leading you and the group away from the restaurant.

Violet continued guiding you through the town, showing you various shops and buildings. Her friends occasionally joined in, chiming in with comments or explanations, which Violet quickly sketched out to convey their messages to you.

Eventually, you all stopped by a shop resembling a carousel that was owned by Pearl. As soon as you stepped inside, you quickly noticed what kind of store this was, and that fact made you a bit uncomfortable. It was a clothing store, and by the way that Pearl eagerly smiled at you, she was going to want to make something for you. A fact that was confirmed once Violet showed you a picture of Pearl using you as a model to make clothes that suited your bipedal frame.

Yeah, no, you weren’t doing that. Not right now, at least.

Despite your declining of Pearl's offer, she remained persistent and relentlessly tried to convince you through a chain of pictures to make something for you. She went from drawing pictures of you modeling in elaborate suits, to basically begging you through picture form. Her final drawing depicted herself with a sad, puppy-dog expression, a single tear rolling down her cheek. She had her hooves pressed together in a pleading gesture and held a measuring tape aloft with her magic.

You almost broke right there and then. Almost.

You managed to convince her and the other horses that you simply were not comfortable taking off even a single layer of clothing. They gave you weird looks—Butter's being one of concern—but they didn’t press you further. However, you did assure Pearl that you would come around someday when you were comfortable enough, and she was satisfied by that.

And so, the tour continued. However, Apple, the orange horse, took the lead this time. She guided you and the group to an isolated path out of town that was lined with trees on either side to give some shade to travelers. You and the group continued walking for about five minutes until you saw something in the distance.

It was a farm with a large red barn situated at its center, surrounded by numerous chicken coops, animal pens, and a sprawling field at the front designated for growing corn. To the left of the barn, in the distance, stood a carrot-themed building with its own dedicated patch for cultivating carrots. To the right of the barn, past all the chicken coops and pens, stood a just as red farmhouse that was two stories tall. Looking at the porch, you could see a green blotch of color sitting on a rocking chair and watching you all. Judging by the greyish color of their mane, they were probably on the elderly side.

Behind all of this lay an expansive orchard stretching across what seemed to be many acres, its boundaries marked by an extensive white fence that lined the entire property.

“This here is Sweet Apple Acres, the home of the Apple family and the best place to get your apples from,” Apple said in a slow drawl, “This farm has been here for many generations of Apples and I happen to take great pride in the orchard.”

Apple then gave you a serious look, “So I hope you don’t mind me asking for some kind of repayment for eating all those apples you didn’t pay for yesterday.”

Was she threatening you? It sure sounded and looked like she was. But why was she… Oh, was it because you ate all those apples yesterday? Yeah, that’s probably why. You frowned in guilt, feeling only a little shameful about your actions yesterday. You didn’t regret it—it was the first actual meal you’ve had in a long time, and you’d do it again in a heartbeat—but you can understand why Apple is upset.

“Now, Applejack. I know you’re still upset about Goggles eating your apples yesterday, but don’t you think you can give him some time to settle in and for everypony to get used to him? I don’t think he’s going to be able to repay you if he doesn’t have a job to earn bits,” Violet said.

Applejack nodded, “Yeah, Twilight. But I was thinking of something simpler. Why doesn’t Goggles work on the farm here with me and Big Mac for a day to settle his debt? And if he wants, he can continue to work with us to earn some bits. Celestia knows we sure can use the extra hooves to help us out.”

“That’s… a very generous and reasonable offer, Applejack! Here, I’ll tell him,” Violet said before beginning to draw on another sheet of paper.

Your eyes perked up at the sight of Violet drawing on another sheet, and you waited eagerly to see what she would show you this time. After finishing her drawing, she flipped the paper over to you to decipher.

There were six pictures this time. The first depicted you and Apple at the orchard. The second showed the two of you kicking a tree, causing apples to fall neatly into buckets below. You couldn’t help but feel a bit skeptical. Surely Violet didn’t mean you actually had to kick the tree. You could barely kick open a semi-secure door, you doubt you’d be able to make apples fall from a tree by just kicking it.

Moving on, the third one then showed you and Apple hauling buckets full of apples back to the barn before heading out again. The fourth and fifth images mirrored the third but the sun was positioned differently in the sky to show the passage of time.

Finally, the sixth picture showed her talking to you, with a text bubble above her containing a drawing of a coin—perhaps their currency? The seventh picture depicted you leaving the farm, with Apple in the background sporting a silly smile as she waved goodbye. Another text bubble hovered above her, showing an image of you returning at sunrise.

Hmm, was she offering you a job? Or maybe she wanted you to labor for you as payment for all the food you ate from her stand yesterday? Yeah, it was probably the latter. You glanced at Apple and gave her a thumbs up and a nod showing her that you accepted the proposal.

“Alrighty! I look forward to seeing you come by in a day or two,” Apple said with a smile.

After another hour or two of touring, you had finally reached the end of the trip and you and your guides found yourselves back at the tree library. The town was pretty charming now that you had a more in-depth look at it. After all, you can’t say you remember visiting a literal gingerbread house that sold sweets back at home. Apparently, the pink horse worked there, but for some reason, she wasn’t there when you and the group had passed by.

The owners of the place seemed kind enough, though you could easily tell just how nervous they were around you. Despite that, they gave you a free donut! The chocolate donut with rainbow sprinkles was gone in less than three seconds, your ravenous stomach making it so. Ah, eating in a dark bathroom had never been so fulfilling before in your life.

Other than that, the only other notable thing was Butter’s home. The place was Disney Princess incarnate. There were so many animals both inside and outside that you were wholly surprised when you didn’t spot a single shit stain anywhere. Not a single one. Do you know how well-trained all those animals have to be for that to happen?

And if that wasn’t enough, apparently Butter took care of all the animals by herself. She fed them, groomed them, washed them, and gave them a safe place to sleep, among other things. You wouldn’t be surprised if Butter even read them a bedtime story before going to sleep herself. It seems like the kind of things she'd do.

Approaching the door to the tree library, you took a moment to glance at everyone else. Ever since you all left Butter’s home, your guides have been uncharacteristically silent and constantly whispered things to each other. Even Skittles was quiet, and she had been yapping almost constantly during the entire tour. Just what were they up to? You hoped it was nothing bad.

Opening the door, you stepped inside the dark building and waited for Violet to turn the lights on. Once she did, you were met with an unexpected sight.

“SUPRISE!” the missing pink horse shouted as she threw party streamers up into the air.

You looked around in shock as the room burst to life with an explosion of colorful party decorations. Balloons floated gently in the air, banners draped from the shelves lining the walls, and multiple tables held sugary sweets such as cupcakes, cookies, and even frosted cakes. In one corner, a very old record player blasted whimsical music, adding another layer of fun to the party.

Your shock quickly turned to confusion, however. Just who was this party for? You never told any of the horses your birthday, so who was all this for? You wouldn’t get an answer to your questions as a party hat suddenly found itself on top of your head and you were quite literally dragged into the fun by the pink horse.

You played “Pin the Tail on the Horse” instead of the usual donkey version, dabbled in this world’s take on Connect Four, and even had a fun match of checkers against Violet.

To top it off, you introduced everyone to Uno, which quickly turned into a mistake. They say Uno tests your friendships in ways you couldn’t imagine, and that statement was proven true when Apple leaped across the table mid-game to slug Skittles for starting a chain reaction that left her picking up ten cards.

The table flipped over, scattering cards everywhere as Apple beat down Skittles with a vengeance. Everyone quickly moved to separate them, but by God, that had to be the most unexpected and hilarious shit you had seen in a while.

Apple and Skittles were then forced to sit out the next game to cool off, and that’s when Barney made his entrance. He was Violet’s assistant and, judging by the green fire that casually erupted from his mouth when he burped, an actual dragon. Can you believe that!? A dragon! So cool!

He was a bit cautious around you at first, but once he joined the game in Apple and Skittles' place, he quickly turned into a little monster. And that made him the perfect partner for screwing everyone else over in the game. he coordinated +2s with you, switched to colors you needed, skipped others so you could go and vise versa. Though, the best part was when you and him managed to make Violet draw +8 when she was on Uno.

You had never seen so much barely contained rage in a person until that very moment. Violet looked like she wanted to explode on Barney, but she took a deep breath and drew her cards. You didn't win a single round after that. Not a single one.

After the games, you all decided to eat. But you only joined in once you convinced Violet to cover the windows. Even then, you didn’t take off your mask entirely, only lifted it up enough to expose your mouth. Everyone gave you curious looks once they saw your mouth, Violet even went so far as to start taking notes while she watched you eat. It felt pretty unnerving seeing her do that, but as long as she wasn’t planning on experimenting with you then it was fine.

The food was also the highlight of the entire party because it also gave you a name to call the pink horse. That name was Kirby, and it’s exactly why you think I gave her that name. Not only did this pink horse eat a whole cake without chewing once, but that cake just so happened to have multiple layers and was about three Uno cards wide. It was a cake that was meant for multiple people to eat, and she ate it all in one big swallow.

What the fuck…

Making Amends

Author's Note

Let me know if you spot any mistakes or have suggestions :)

Making Amends

Two Days Later…

The early morning heat beat down against your back as you walked alongside Apple toward her family orchard. A gnawing sense of dread began to crawl down your spine as you mulled over the hours ahead. Agreeing to help Apple around the orchard had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now, you were beginning to have second thoughts.

You had left Violet’s tree library wearing all your layers of clothing, and you were beginning to worry that you were not going to last through the entire day. The heat right now made you want to find a nice patch of shade and lay in it for some time, but you could only imagine how bad it would get once mid-afternoon rolled around. Best case scenario, you somehow manage to make it through most of the day. Worst case scenario, you pass out from dehydration, and maybe a bit of hunger.

Coming to a stop in front of the property, you took a moment to glance at the apple orchard and saw just how expansive it was. It stretched on and on, past the multitude of hills you could see and maybe even farther than that. You groaned, maybe this was a mistake.

“Hey, now, don’t start acting all fussy. This was gonna happen sooner or later whether you liked it or not,” Apple said.

You grunted in response, not bothering to try to piece together her speech's tone and meaning.

As you entered the property, you followed Apple toward the large red barn, eventually stopping in front of its doors. When Apple walked inside, you tried to follow, but she quickly stopped you with a gesture, indicating for you to wait outside. You shrugged, figuring she probably didn’t want you messing with anything inside. You didn’t hold it against her; you’d probably do the same if the roles were reversed.

As you waited, muffled commotion drifted from inside the barn, accompanied by the occasional unintelligible word from Apple. Judging by the sounds, she seemed to be searching for something. The occasional frustrated snort echoing from within made it clear she wasn’t having much luck finding whatever it was she was looking for.

The sound of crunching dirt and rolling wood sounded behind you, signaling someone’s approach. The sounds were then followed by a low-pitched voice.

“Hello, you must be the creature Applejack was tellin’ me about,” they said.

Curious as to who was behind you, you turned around to say hello. As soon as you turned around the sight of one of them filled your vision, causing you to scream and stumbled backward, collapsing to the floor in terror. They screamed too, startled, hopping in place and causing several apples to tumble from the cart they were hauling. With your heart pounding, you squeezed your eyes shut and wrapped your arms tightly around yourself in preparation for the moment they would rip away your protective clothing and expose you to the sun’s hellish rays.

“What in tarnation is going on out here!?” Apple’s voice shouted as she burst through the barn doors.

Hearing Apple’s voice, you hesitated before slowly opening your eyes. To your surprise, she was perfectly fine. She wasn’t melting, or screaming in fear. Instead, she just had a perplexed and concerned look on her face as her gaze scanned over you. Then her eyes shifted to something in front of you, and you followed her line of sight. A cart lay overturned on its side, apples scattered in every direction. Hitched to the cart was a large, redhorse, its wide, startled eyes locked on you.

You blinked once. Twice. Three times. But the red horse remained. A shaky sigh of relief escaped your lips as you pushed yourself to your feet, though your hands still trembled from the lingering waves of fear that had gripped you just moments ago.

“Big Mac, what happened? And how’d you spill all them apples?” Apple said.

“I, uh, I don’t know. I was just coming to drop off these apples when I saw him.” The red horse pointed at you, “I walked up to him and greeted him, but when he turned around, he screamed at me, and I, uh, got a bit startled.”

The red horse, whose deep voice led you to assume he was male, slowly lowered his left hooves to the ground. With a steady push, he heaved himself upright, bringing the cart back into position with him.

Apple glanced back at you, noticing your shaking hands, before turning back to the red horse, “Well, I suppose you probably caught him by surprise. You can be pretty quiet when you want to be,” Apple said with a chuckle.

“Anywho,” Apple said, turning to you and gesturing toward the red horse. “Goggles, this is Big Macintosh,” she then turned to the red horse and motioned toward you, “Big Macintosh, this is Goggles. He’ll be helping us out today.”

The red horse smiled at you and you felt a sense of cringe wash over you as flashes of their smiling faces passed through your mind. The red horse then took a step forward before holding his hoof out.

“It’s nice to meet ya, Goggles. I hope you’re ready for a long day today,” he said.

You hesitated, a fleeting wave of terror holding you back from lowering yourself to such a vulnerable position. Despite being larger than Apple, it still required you to at least bend down or take a knee to properly shake his hoof. With a deep gulp, you forced yourself to kneel in front of the red horse, reaching out to grip his hoof with a trembling hand. You gave it a firm shake, your voice unsteady as you began to speak.

“Name… is… G-Goggles,” you said slowly, carefully feeling out the foreign words on your tongue.

The red horse frowned and tilted his head before glancing over to Apple with a furrowed brow.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. Goggles doesn’t understand Equestrian, but Twilight’s beginning to teach him. Don’t worry though, I’ll make sure to show him what needs to be done before we start,” Apple said.

The red horse nodded to whatever Apple had said before turning his attention back to the countless spilled apples all over the floor. Yeah, you should probably help pick all those up.

Despite the rocky introduction, Big Red seemed like a kind horse. He didn’t hold a grudge over the spilled apples and readily accepted your apology for accidentally startling him. Together, you and Apple helped him unload the apples from the cart and sort them into separate buckets. Once the work was done, Big Red gave a polite nod before heading back to the orchard.

Thank God.

You know it’s wrong to blame or push away someone for something they were born with. But you didn’t know how much longer you could stand next to him before you began to freak out again. He was just so… red. You hated it, you hated it so much. You felt like every time you glanced at him there was a chance he was gonna suddenly turn into one of them. Like it was all some sort of elaborate fucking disguise to get you while your guard was down.

You grunted as you heaved a large bucket of apples onto your back, the makeshift ropes attached to it making it work similarly to a backpack. Once the large bucket was comfortably on your back, you slowly leaned down and picked up two more buckets with your hands. With all three buckets in tow, you made your way to the barn to drop off the apples.

Your arms and shoulders ached with pain as you trudged the long distance to the barn. Your heavy cargo slowing you down and forcing you to take one or two breaks before continuing.

After ten to fifteen minutes of walking, you finally arrived at the barn. Using your right leg, you gently pushed open the heavy doors and stepped inside. Once inside, you approached one of the many wooden carts lined up and unloaded all the apples you were carrying into it. With the load off your back, you turned and headed back outside to start the process all over again.

It was very grueling. And boring. And it had you staring at red almost constantly.

However, despite the negatives, at least you didn’t have to worry about passing out from dehydration. Near the orchard, an old well provided you with a great supply of water. You wondered if it drew water from an underground reservoir or if it was pumped from a nearby source. Either way, it worked great at refilling your flask whenever you ran out of water.

And so on you went, picking, walking, and depositing. Over and over again until sunset. You barely saw Apple or Big Red either, only catching rare glimpses of them leaving the barn after dropping off a cart full of apples.

By the time it reached midday, your arms, shoulders, legs, and feet were aching with unbearable pain. Your muscles burned and contracted painfully, your head felt lightheaded, and it was getting slightly harder to breathe. But you pushed forward despite the pain.

You've been through this before, after all. This was just under different circumstances.

As you approached the next tree, you raised your hand and gently began plucking apples from its branches. From a distance, the trees appeared deceptively large, but up close, they were far more manageable. You wondered if it was a natural occurrence or if the smaller size was more magical in origin. Naturally, their smaller size made picking apples easy, though you occasionally had to stretch onto the tips of your toes to reach the higher ones.

Your pace has slowed tremendously since the start of the day. What once took you two to three minutes to pick a tree clean now stretched to at least ten minutes per tree.

How Apple and Big Red managed to, presumably, complete this Sisyphean task all by themselves left you at a loss for words. Surely they hired some form of help to get the job done, right?

But if that were the case then where was said help? As far as you knew, you were the only help that was present in the orchard.

Suddenly, from the corner of your eye, you spotted movement. Whipping your head in the direction, your gaze landed on a well-maintained tree house—an actual tree house this time, not Violet’s tree library. Like all things in this place, the house was small. It was small enough to make you question if you would need to be hunched over to fit inside.

The movement you’d seen must have been the curtains swaying over the windows. You grew curious and wondered what was inside. Putting down the buckets of apples you were carrying, you walked up to the stairs that led to the tree house and experimented putting your weight on them. To your surprise, it held firm under your full weight. Emboldened by the discovery, you tiredly walked up the stairs until you stood in front of the door.

Reaching for the doorknob, you firmly grasped it and attempted to open the door. Your attempt was met with resistance and some rattling of the knob’s latch. Suddenly, you heard movement coming from inside. Was someone in there? You tried a couple more times before you concluded that the door was, in fact, locked.

Normally, you would’ve broken down the door to get in once you made sure the area was clear, but you couldn’t do that in this case. So instead, you circled around to the side of the house, hoping to catch a glimpse inside through one of the windows. But the thick curtains hanging over the glass obscured your view.

You held your breath for a few seconds, straining to catch any sound from inside., but you exhaled once you heard nothing. You shrugged, maybe you were just hearing things?

“Woof woof woof!”

You jumped and let out a startled shout at the sound of barking coming from below you. Looking over the railing of the platform, you spotted a small, brown and white dog barking and growling at you from the foot of the stairs.

Wow, you didn’t think you’d ever see a dog again. You felt a sense of giddiness emanate from your chest and you had a sudden urge to pet and cuddle the dog. But, as much as you wanted to, it probably wasn’t a good idea. From the way it was barking and baring its teeth at you, it would most likely attack you before it allowed you to shower it with affection.

With a sigh, you began to descend the stairs slowly. As you descended, the dog began to back away from you, its growls grew more incessant. By the time you reached the bottom of the stairs, the poor dog was whimpering up a storm with its tail tightly tucked between its legs. You were a bit dumbstruck by the sudden change in behavior before you realized that you were probably the first human being it's ever seen. It would make perfect sense for it to be scared of you if that was the case.

Deciding that the best course of action would be to simply leave it alone, you carefully slung the large bucket of apples on your back and picked up the two smaller buckets before leaving.

Apple Bloom watched from the window of the clubhouse as the… the monster walked away. Her body shook with fear as she closed the curtains and silently crept up to the door. Unlocking the door, Apple Bloom slowly peeked her head out.

“Winona! Come here, girl!” she loudly whispered.

The sound of multiple feet scurrying up the stairs reached Apple Bloom’s ears as Winona dashed up the stairs and appeared in front of the door. Apple Bloom opened the door a little wider and Winona rushed inside. Apple Bloom then shut the door and locked it again before retreating to a corner away from any of the windows.

There, both Apple Bloom and Winona cuddled up against each other and fearfully waited for either Applejack or Big Mac to come looking for them.

Ah, the ground tasted wonderful this time of year, didn’t it? You didn’t know what happened. One moment you were walking back to the barn, and the next you were waking up on the ground. You tried to get your arms under you and push yourself up, but they gave out immediately.

You groaned in pain as your body’s aching and soreness suddenly hit you at full force, the agonizing sensations preventing you from moving in any significant way. With a pained effort, you shifted your head to the side and gazed up at the sky. It was dark—not nighttime yet, but the shadows creeping in told you it would be soon.

Pushing through the pain, you forced yourself to stand up, only to immediately collapse again. You let out a cry once you hit the ground, the impact sending waves of suffering throughout your body. Any further attempts to get back to your feet yielded similar results.

With a defeated sigh, you opted to lay there and wait for someone to find you. If they find you.

As night fully descended, waves of anxiety began clawing at the edges of your consciousness. The realization of just how vulnerable you were sank deep into your mind, urging you to find a safer place to hide. Your breathing grew heavier and your heartbeat thundered in your chest as you stayed rooted to the spot.

You felt tears begin to spill out of your eyes as your panic began to overwhelm you. You needed to move, to find a safe place before they got you. Get up, get up, get up! Why couldn’t you get up!? You needed to hide!

“I found him!” you heard something shout above you.

Glancing up one more time, you saw something circling above you in the air. Said thing then began to slowly descend toward you and your eyes widened in recognition.

It was Skittles.

She touched down next to you and looked over you with wide, worried eyes, “Goggles? Are you okay?” she said before gently kicking your stomach.

You winced and groaned at the sudden contact, your soreness making the sudden pain ten times worse.

Skittles flinched back, her ears splaying against her head, “Woah, sorry, big guy. I didn’t mean to hurt or scare you.”

You let out a grunt in response, simply happy that you weren’t alone again.

Suddenly, the sound of multiple hooves galloping toward you reached your ears and brought a sense of warmth to your chest, so they were looking for you. You shifted your gaze to the multiple hooves getting closer to you, and once they stopped right beside you, you looked up to see who they belonged to.

The sight of a worried Violet, Apple, Butter, and Big Red filled your sight.

“Oh, no! Is he hurt?” Violet said before glancing at Skittles.

“I think so? I gently, er, kicked his stomach to see if he was awake when I saw him. He didn’t seem to take it too well,” Skittles replied.

“Rainbow! How could you think that’s a good idea?”

“I-I don’t know! I was just worried, okay!”

“So you thought kicking him, even if you were gentle, was a good idea!?”

“Can you two shut up?” you blearily said, causing both of them to silence immediately, “Thank you.”

Butter then stepped forward and began to very gently press down on your arms and body. The actions made you groan and moan in pain, but you trusted what she was doing due to her having some medical experience.

“I think Goggles is suffering from overexerting himself,” Butter said, “His muscles are really stiff and tight, and I can feel them twitch and spasm in some areas. I don’t think he’s injured, but it wouldn’t hurt to check once we get him indoors.”

With that said, everyone tried, and failed, multiple times, to get you in the cart Big Red was hauling. Once you had been successfully deposited inside said cart, Big Red began trotting down the path to the barn with you being lulled to sleep from the gentle rumble of the cart.

A Nice Change of Pace

You were home.

It was such a simple observation, yet it confused you. How were you home? You thought you’d left home months ago. Sitting up in your bed, you looked around to see the familiar features of your bedroom.

Your bed was in the back left corner of the room. Looking to your left, you saw your desk, where your high-end PC, monitor, keyboard, and mouse were neatly arranged. Sitting next to it were two large display shelves where multiple completed Lego sets, figurines, books, plushies, games, collector’s items, and many other items you’ve collected or bought over the years sat. On the wall to your right, plastered just above your bed were multiple posters of video games and some music bands. Just above your bed’s headboard sat a window covered in a thick curtain that didn’t allow any light inside your room. At the foot of your bed was a dresser with four drawers and some cologne and deodorant sitting on top. Finally, your closet sat parallel to you with the door leading to your room nestled to the left of it.

Throwing your feet off the bed, you stood up and quickly examined yourself. You let out a relieved breath upon seeing that you’re still dressed in your multiple layers of clothing; however, your mask and tinted goggles are not present on your face. No wonder you could see somewhat clearly in the pitch-black room, if you still had your goggles on you would’ve been stumbling through the darkness like a drunkard.

Looking around your room, you begin your search for your missing equipment. It didn’t take long as you found them stashed away in the top drawer of your dresser.

Putting your mask and goggles on, you carefully shimmied to your room door. You stopped and pressed your ear against the door, listening for movement. You’d left this place for a reason, and you weren't exactly inclined to have an encounter with one of them right now.

After hearing nothing for a couple of seconds you took a deep breath and turned the knob on the door and pushed it open. Sticking your head out the door, you looked left and right before quietly stepping into the dark hallway.

Turning left, you quietly traversed down the hall. You kept your body low and made your footfalls as quiet as possible. Once you reached the end of the hallway, you noticed a lot of noise and many familiar voices coming from the backyard.

Turning to the kitchen, you approached one of the many covered windows and pulled the curtains just a bit to see outside.

The sight left you flabbergasted. There they were, your mom, dad, brother, grandma, and grandpa. They were all outside having a barbecue if what you're seeing is correct. But the most important thing was that they were all okay!

Your heart raced as you rushed to the sliding door in the dining room to run outside and hug them, kiss them, talk to them, anything. Words cannot begin to describe just how much you missed them, just how guilty you felt knowing that you were lucky enough to live and they weren't.

It hurt so much hearing their voices call out to you, begging you to come out and join them in the light. You almost did join them a couple of times, but you got cold feet in all those moments. Your unbridled terror and fear getting the best of you and making you run back to your room and sob in your closet.

You reached the door and attempted to pull it open but it didn't budge an inch.

You tried again, and again, and again, even going so far as to put your foot up against the door frame to pull it open.

But it didn't even so much as bend under your abuse.

Each failed attempt ignited a sense of helpless desperation in you as you tried hopelessly to open the door.

Once it was clear that the door wasn't moving, you rushed back to the kitchen and approached the window.

Maybe you could crawl out through it?

Ripping off the curtains and exposing yourself to the bright yellow light of the sun in the sky, you hooked your fingers on the window gaps and pulled. But it only yielded the same results as the door.

Suddenly, the sound of static filled the air and your eyes drifted to a radio that was sitting on the kitchen counter. It continued to play static for a moment longer before the static ceased and gave way to the unmistakable tone of the Emergency Alert System.

Soon after a robotic, monotone voice spoke.

“The SCP Foundation, under the authority of the U.S. government, has interrupted your standard broadcast to announce an Apollyon-level threat.”

Horror gripped you as you whipped your head back to the window to see the once bright yellow sun start bleeding red.

“The SCP Foundation is dedicated to the protection of the public. So please listen carefully to these next instructions.”

Your family was instantly affected by the sun, their screams filling the air as their skin began to melt into a red, gelatinous substance.

“Stay indoors and lock all doors and windows. Next, block out all-natural light from entering your home.”

Once they were fully melted, they began to combine into a single, much larger mass with their screams devolving into nothing more than moaning and unintelligible babbling.

“Avoid all light emitted from the sun and all light reflected by the moon.”

The now combined mass began to gurgle loudly, and your family's deformed faces began to look around by popping in and out of random places on their new body.

One of the faces spotted you staring at them. You stared back, fear making you freeze in place.

“Do not investigate any unknown sounds or noises. Do not interact with anyone no matter how human they sound.”

The single face was joined by the rest. All of them not saying a word as they stared you down.

“Why did you leave us?” you heard your mother's voice suddenly say.

“I… I couldn't…”

Your meek response was interrupted by your father's voice, “We waited patiently for you to join us, and you just left like the selfish bastard you are!” he roared angrily.

You looked down, not being able to face them. You know the words weren't true, that they weren't your true family, but it still hurt so much.

“Well, at least now the sucker can join us,” your brother's voice remarked.

You could barely even manage a confused response before the sound of glass shattering pierced the air.

You let out a yelp and a scream as you felt their slimy tendrils curl around your arms and start to painfully drag you out the window.

“NO! WAIT PLEASE! I DON'T WANT TO!” you scream fearfully. But your pleas fall on deaf ears.

“Shhh. It’s okay, sweetheart. It won't hurt one bit, I promise,” your grandmother reassured you in that sickly sweet voice she always used whenever you were upset.

Your screams of terror increased tenfold once you felt them begin to tug off your mask until eventually, you met eyes with the sun.

///

You shot up with a gasp and threw yourself off the bed you were lying on in a panic. You face-planted the ground with a wheeze and fought desperately to untangle yourself from the blanket that clung to your body.

In your wild panic, you didn't realize the amount of noise you were making, and as a result, you didn't hear the footsteps approaching the door to the room you resided in.

“Goggles?” a concerned voice said.

You froze and looked over to where the voice came from. Standing in the doorway was Violet, her face morphed into one of deep concern. You tried to stand but found your limbs still tangled in the blanket, the tightness making you feel claustrophobic. You started to hyperventilate as you desperately fought to release yourself from the blanket’s grip.

“Hey, hey! Calm down, it’s okay!” Violet’s said, catching your attention again.

She quickly trotted inside the basement and used her horn to activate the lights. Many lanterns around the room flickered to life as bright blue flames erupted from within. The room was bathed with the soothing light, and you felt yourself calm down as you stared at the blue flames in one of the lanterns. Your breathing slowed and your muscles loosened. Your heart rate gradually decreased and your panic ebbed away under the blue flame’s comforting aura.

The sound of hooves clopping against wood caught your attention, and you looked up to see Violet peering down at you with an upside-down face.

“You… Okay?” she asked slowly.

You nodded, “Yeah, just um… Bad sleep,” you said as you began to untangle yourself from the blanket.

It’s been about a week since you first arrived in this silly little place, and despite your best efforts at denial, you’ve grown to accept that this is real and isn’t some sort of dream or very vivid delusion.

At first, you were worried about your living situation because it was only a matter of time before Violet decided to give you the boot and kick you out of her place. You brought it up to her and after a long game of charades and many drawings, you learned that she was happy to let you stay for as long as you’d like.

How extraordinarily convenient!

You caught sight of Violet’s sad expression as you freed yourself from the blanket, making you frown as well. The poor girl’s been working herself up and down to make you feel nothing but comfortable in her home/library ever since you shot up from a very unpleasant nightmare in the middle of the night one time. You still feel guilty for making such a mess of the library and no doubt scaring Violet to death.

Sitting up on the floor, you turned towards Violet before patting your stomach, “Break… uh… Break-fast?” you said unsurely.

Violet’s eyes lit up and she nodded enthusiastically, “Breakfast, yes! I’ll bring you some right now,” she said before disappearing up the stairs.

While you didn’t understand exactly what she said apart from the word “breakfast” you were making slow strides in learning their language. However, there was quite an unexpected obstacle in the way of learning how to fluently speak horse.

You quite literally couldn’t pronounce some of the words that came out of her mouth.

For example, there was one time Violet tried to tell you what you assumed to be her name, but it was a weird hybrid between a horse-like sound and an actual word. You tried pronouncing it, but you weren't getting any closer by the way her face scrunched at each failed attempt. Strangely, the same could be said for your name. No matter how many times you said it or how slow you said it, Violet could not seem to pronounce it. The only thing that came out of her mouth was the start of the first letter before it all fell apart.

“I’m back!” Violet said while carefully holding a silver tray in her magic.

You got up from the floor and sat on your bed. Violet floated the tray over towards you and you took it by its handles before gently setting it in your lap. In front of you was a simple breakfast: scrambled eggs with toast and a small side of hashbrown.

You hummed in delight before grabbing the top of your mask and taking it off with your goggles. From the corners of your eyes, you can see Violet staring at you with curiosity written all over her face. It’s not like she hasn’t seen your face before, shit, she got the full-course meal when she practically forced you to bathe a couple of days ago.

Ugh, God knows you needed it, the water was pitch black by the time you were done. Though, seeing Violet’s utterly flabbergasted expression when she saw your dick out in the open was funny enough that it saved you from the embarrassment of the situation. Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by the unpleasantly long and boring wait of having your clothes washed and dried the traditional way.

Oh great, you were rambling.

Anyway!

What you were trying to say is that you are quite the strange creature in Violet’s eyes. Imagine being raised surrounded by others just like you when all of a sudden this tall, black, two-legged thing just walks into the town you live in. Now you understand why all those horses ran away from you; not that you blamed them, you’d probably have freaked the hell out too if you were a cute, tiny horse.

Dispersing your thoughts with a shake of your head, you grabbed the comedically small fork and knife resting on the tray and dug into the food in front of you.

///

Pony Town, as you’ve come to call it, is a small and homey village. You could easily walk a couple of laps around the place before it hit midday. Such is what you were doing at the moment to clear your head. You chose the less-traveled paths of town, preferring to avoid unnecessary tension with the residents. They still cower at the sight of you. But instead of running away from you, they just act overtly cautious whenever you’re around as if the wrong move will suddenly send you into a crazed frenzy.

You didn’t like it, but it couldn’t be helped. The best you can do is keep your distance and wait for them to slowly get used to you.

You come to a stop near a children's playground and take a look around. There are a few benches along the path, but the thought of sitting in the sun doesn't particularly appeal to you. As your gaze drifts over the park, you pass over the slides, swings, and other play structures, instead focusing on the large tree standing nearby.

It was close to the playground, yet far enough away to reassure horse parents that their kids could play unmolested by the big alien. Not that you would try anything anyway, you were quite keen on not getting trampled by a bunch of angry mares and/or stallions.

Walking over to the tree, you plopped yourself down on the soft grass and took off your rucksack. Leaning your back against the tree’s rough bark, you opened your rucksack and fished out your journal and a pencil. It’s been a little while since you’ve written in it, so you intend to add another log along with some doodles.

Flipping to an empty page, you began to write.

///

Day two-hundred and something. Log #43

Finally got around to writing in this thing again. Let me tell you, a lot has happened in the time between this log and the last log. Apart from almost dying, the biggest thing that’s happened is that I’ve been isekai’d into ponyland.

Yup, the Japanese definitely knew some shit, man.

A part of me wants to be grateful for this, but the other part of me just keeps wondering why. Why me? What did I do to get sent into what is arguably considered paradise compared to what’s going on at home? I… I don’t know, and I probably will never know.

I probably shouldn’t think about it too much. Who knows, maybe God or whoever or whatever sent you here might just send you back for being ungrateful. Hehehheh… That’s not a fun thought…

Anyway! Why don’t I just leave all that heavy baggage behind me and just talk about all the fun and good stuff that’s happened here?

First, there’s Kirby—a tiny, very pink horse who threw me a welcoming party on my second day here! Now, you’re probably wondering why I nicknamed her Kirby instead of something more obvious, like Pinky. The answer is simple: I’m pretty sure she has a bottomless stomach (just like Kirby!) I watched her devour an entire cake. Yes, an entire cake. No cuts, no slices—it was a fresh, whole cake straight from the kitchen. But that’s not all. Somehow, she managed to pull an entire cannon out of her puffy mane. I know it sounds unbelievable, but I swear, she’s got some kind of Looney Tunes-style powers, and honestly, it freaks me out a little.

Secondly, I’ve managed to befriend a dragon! At least, I think Barney’s a dragon. He’s missing the wings, but he breathes green fire so that’s got to count for something, right?

Similarly, I believe I may have accidentally domesticated Skittles, a rainbow-haired pegasus. Ever since the first day when the pegasus ended up as a melted puddle of affection in my lap, she’s been consistently seeking me out during the afternoon to receive more pets. It was undeniably adorable and served to somewhat boost my rep as a harmless person amongst all the other horses.

///

The sound of many voices and the cacophony of many hooves approaching made you stop writing and look up from your journal to see what was going on. Approaching from the path you used was a single dark fuchsia-coated mare with a rosy pink mane and tail leading a group of baby horses. You can hear the tones of excitement and restlessness in the baby horses as they talk to one another and you were left wondering just what exactly they were doing here.

Your question was answered once the fuchsia mare pointed to the playground, said a few words, and allowed the gaggle of kids to run into the playground while she stayed behind at a distance to supervise.

You tilted your head in thought. Was she some kind of dedicated babysitter or something? No, that doesn’t make sense, no sane person would willingly want to babysit that many kids unless they were getting paid a lot. Eh, whatever she was, it doesn't seem like she or the kids know you’re here.

You felt a smile creep up on your face as you watched all the kids play with carefree abandon. Their laughter and joy were infectious, and it honestly left you feeling a bit sentimental about your childhood as well. You felt a bubble of laughter creep up your throat, you probably looked so fucking creepy right now.

Holding in your laughter, you directed your attention to the fuchsia mare who was sitting on her haunches and diligently watching the kids. Softening your grip on your pencil, you began to create a small sketch of the mare in your journal.

///

“Tag, you’re it!” Rumble shouted before quickly running away.

The newly tagged Scootalooo grinned before setting her sights on Snips. Snips’ eyes widened as he realized he was Scootaloo’s target, and he began to run away as fast as his small legs could take him.

“You can’t get away from me Snips!” Scootaloo exclaimed as she began the chase.

As Scootaloo chased Snips, the other foals made sure to keep their distance lest Scootaloo decided to change targets. Scootaloo chased Snips through the park, making sharp turns and using his smaller size to squeeze through narrow spaces. Groaning in frustration, Scootaloo looked around for some potentially easier targets.

“Nngh, come on…” Scootaloo heard a voice say.

Turning to the direction it came from, Scootaloo spotted Apple Bloom struggling to squeeze herself through the bars of a dome-shaped jungle gym.

With a grin, Scootaloo charged at her new target, “I’m gonna get you, Apple Bloom!”

Apple Bloom’s eyes widened with panic and her struggle increased in intensity. Right as she was about to escape from the bars, Scootaloo came and tapped her on the head.

“Hah! You’re it now, Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo announced before quickly scurrying away.

This process repeated, with many foals being tagged as the game went on. The sounds of laughter permeated the air with the occasional playful shriek of somepony being driven into a corner before being tagged. Eventually, the large game of tag died down and the foals dispersed into their own friend groups.

“Whew, that was fun!” Apple Bloom said with a big smile.

“Yeah, but it was so tiring,” Sweetie Belle mumbled as she lay on the floor, breathing heavily.

“Tiring? Ha! I could practically go all day!” the two heard Scootaloo say as she swung from the seats on the swingset.

“Well, what do you want to do now? I’m open to doing whatever,” Apple Bloom said.

Waiting for the swing to reach the peak of its momentum, Scootaloo let go of the ropes and flew out of the seat before landing perfectly on all four hooves.

“Why don’t we go play in the sandbox? Who knows, maybe we can get our Cutie Marks in making sandcastles!”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes lit up in excitement, “And if we get Cutie Marks in making sandcastles, then we can enter sandcastle-making tournaments!”

Apple Bloom furrowed her brow and tilted her head, “That’s a thing?”

Sweetie Belle nodded, “Yeah, I remember reading about it in one of the newspapers Rarity brought back one day. The winner got a trophy and everything!”

“Shoot, you don’t have to tell me twice. Let’s give it a shot!” Apple Bloom said before galloping to the sandbox.

For several minutes the self-proclaimed Cutie Mark Crusaders tried and failed to make a somewhat decent-looking sandcastle. They tried many different designs and even went about trying to make a simple box castle. But no matter how hard they tried, their attempts always ended up as nothing but a lump of sand.

“I guess we aren’t cut out for sandcastle making are we?” Sweetie Belle asked dejectedly.

Apple Bloom sighed sadly, “Nope, guess not.”

The sound of hooves approaching made the Crusaders lift their heads to see who was coming, only to roll their eyes and groan in annoyance.

“Well, if it isn’t the blank flanks,” Diamond Tiara stated mockingly.

“What do you want, Diamond Tiara?” Scootaloo asked with an irritated expression.

“Oh nothing,” Silver Spoon said, “Just wondering what you three were trying and failing to do this time,” she said with a grin.

“Why do you care? Don’t you have anything better to do right now?” Sweetie Belle said with narrowed eyes.

"Well, we were going to tell you about something that might help you get your Cutie Marks," Diamond Tiara said, her tone dripping with faux concern. "But since you obviously don’t want us around, we’ll just go." She turned sharply on her hooves, walking away alongside Silver Spoon, smirks plastered across both their faces.

The Crusaders exchanged glances. Despite not liking Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon, they were curious about what the two bullies had in mind for them, and they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to potentially get their Cutie Marks.

“Wait!” Sweetie Belle shouted.

Diamond Tiara stopped and turned her head, “Yeees?”

“Listen, I’m sorry for acting like that to you. It wasn’t very nice. But, we’re curious about what you were going to suggest for getting our Cutie Marks.”

Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara shared wicked grins before the two walked back over to the Crusaders.

“Oh, it’s nothing too hard. I bet you’ll get your Cutie Marks on the first try,” Diamond Tiara said.

Now that got the Crusaders’ attention.

“Awe, c’mon. Stop leaving us in suspense!” Scootaloo said with an excited buzz of her wings.

Silver Spoon snickered, “In that case, we think you could get your Cutie Marks from talking with the big monster living in Twilight’s library.”

“W-What!?” the Crusaders sputtered.

“Are you crazy!? No way we can talk to it, no way!” Apple Bloom fearfully said, her legs quivering.

“Yeah, don’t you know how big and scary it looks? You can’t even see its face!” Sweetie Belle added.

Scootaloo smirked, “Hah! That thing isn’t so scary. Rainbow Dash told me herself,” she said with faux confidence.

“Oh, really? Then why don’t you go talk to it if you’re so sure,” Diamond Tiara challenged.

Scootaloo didn’t meet Diamond Tiara’s stare, her confidence beginning to wane, “Well, uh, that’s just because I haven’t had an opportunity to!” she said with a nervous shuffle.

“It’s a good thing your first opportunity showed up then,” Silver Spoon said before pointing somewhere behind the Crusaders.

The Crusaders turned to see a large tree, the one Silver Spoon was pointing at. More importantly, however, was the creature sitting in its shade, silently watching them. The three fillies nearly jumped out of their skins when they spotted it. How long had it been there? Had it been watching them the entire time? Should they tell Ms. Cheerilee?

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon laughed at their reactions.

“What’s wrong? I thought you said it wasn’t scary, Scootaloo,” Diamond Tiara taunted.

“Yeah, are you going to chicken out?” Silver Spoon said smugly.

Scootaloo glared at the Silver Spoon, the insult ringing heavy in her head. Grr, she hated being called a chicken.

“No way! I’ll do it, I’ll show you I’m not scared!” she said before marching over towards the creature.

“Scootaloo, hold on! Just think about this for a second,” Apple Bloom pleaded as she stood in her friend’s way, “What if you get hurt?”

“Apple Bloom’s right, Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle nodded, “Don’t let them get to you, they’re trying to make you do something stupid.”

Scootaloo had to agree. Her friends made very good points about why this was a bad idea. But she had her mind set on this, and she wasn’t going to let Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon get the best of her.

“Listen, girls, it’ll be fine. Like I said, Rainbow Dash told me herself that it isn’t all that bad. And if Rainbow Dash can be friends with it, then so can I!”

Apple Bloom sighed in defeat, “You aren’t going to change your mind, aren’t you?”

“Nope!”

“Well, if you aren’t going to change your mind, then I suppose we could help you,” Sweetie Belle said, “While you go and, uh, meet the creature, Apple Bloom and I will distract Ms. Cheerilee.”

Scootaloo nodded, “Sounds like a plan. Just give me a signal for when I should go.”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle nodded before trotting off toward Ms. Cheerilee, leaving an increasingly nervous Scootaloo behind.

“Heheh heh… This is such a bad idea…”

///

Scootalooo watched from behind a bush as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle approached Cheerilee. The teacher turned her attention to the two fillies, and they began talking. Before long, the conversation led to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle guiding Cheerilee away, out of Scootalooo’s line of sight. Just before disappearing, Apple Bloom glanced briefly in Scootalooo’s direction and made three quick circular motions with her head before facing forward again.

Seeing the signal, Scootaloo stepped out from behind the bush and looked toward the tree the creature was sitting under. She gulped nervously before slowly starting to approach. The closer she got, the more fearful she became, though she was silently glad that the creature seemed distracted by whatever it was writing in its book.

Eventually, she got close enough to make out its finer details. The creature was covered from head to hoof in dark clothing, its face obscured by a mask and dark goggles. It sat in an unfamiliar criss-cross position, with a large saddlebag(?) resting beside it. Scootalooo could hear the faint scratching of its pencil against the paper and, despite her lingering fear, she found herself growing curious about what it was writing.

Suddenly, it looked up from its book and Scootaloo froze in terror. It was looking at her, oh Celestia, it was looking at her! What should she do!? Should she scream, run, or both!? Was it going to eat her!?

“H-Hello,” it said softly, “How… er… How are yous?”

Scootaloo balked at the creature, “Y-You can talk!?” she blurted out before quickly slapping a hoof over her mouth with a startled “eep!” Squeezing her eyes shut, Scootaloo curled in on herself, fearfully hoping her outburst hadn’t angered the creature.

“Erm… Not good. Still, um, pracuxing,” it said unsurely.

Scootaloo frowned before hesitantly looking up at the creature, “Huh?”

“Still pracuxing,” it said more confidently.

Scootaloo giggled at the creature’s poor Equestrian, “That’s not how you say it, silly! It’s ‘prac-ti-cing’ practicing.”

“Pracuxing.”

“Practicing.”

“Pra… Practucing?”

“Pract-i-cing. With an ‘eh’ not an ‘uh’.”

“Pract-eh-cing.”

“Yeah! One more time. Practicing.”

“Practicing.”

Scootaloo clapped her hooves together with a grin, “Yeah, you did it! Just like that!”

The creature repeated the word a few times, testing the pronunciation on its tongue. Amazingly, that short interaction managed to snuff out all the fear Scootaloo had of the creature, and she fearlessly approached its side.

“What’s your name, mister? My name’s Scootaloo!”

“Name? Name is Goggles,” Goggles said before tapping the visor of said goggles.

“Cool! Are you from somewhere else? You don’t seem to be able to speak Equestrian very well. Uh, n-not that I mean anything bad by it,” Scootaloo quickly added.

Goggles didn’t respond for a second, and Scootaloo grew nervous again, but it quickly washed away when he spoke again.

“Sorry. Not understandings. Ask… where me come?”

Scootaloo nodded.

“Me come from… far place.”

Scootaloo frowned. That wasn’t very specific. She quickly pushed aside her disappointment. Goggles doesn’t understand a whole lot of Equestrian, so maybe he still needs to learn before he can properly tell her.

Casting a glance at the book in Goggles’ grip, Scootaloo pointed at it, “What were you writing?” she asked curiously.

Goggles looked at the book before shifting his grip so that he was holding it by the top before turning it and showing Scootaloo the page he was on. Scootaloo’s eyes widened, and she let out an awed sound at the sight of the foreign symbols present on the page. The symbols were a weird mix of straight lines, curves, and the occasional circle. They were grouped into many different clusters of varying lengths, and those clusters were further grouped into larger sections that ended with a pronounced dot at the end. Words and sentences, probably.

Shifting her eyes downward, Scootaloo noticed the small sketch Goggles made of Ms. Cheerilee sitting on her haunches.

“Hey, that’s Ms. Cheerilee, our teacher!” Scootaloo said as she pointed at the sketch.

“Teacher? What teacher mean?”

“Oh, right, uh, do you know what the word ‘learn’ means?”

“Learn? Yes,” Goggles said with a nod.

“Okay, well a teacher is somepony who helps us learn things, like math and science. She teaches us at the schoolhouse.”

“Teacher… Learn… Hmm,” Goggles tapped his book, “Teacher learn book?”

“Uh, something like that. Ms. Cheerilee gives us books to read when we’re in class.”

“Oh. Oooh. Teacher! You learn from teacher, yes?”

Scootaloo nodded with a grin, “Yeah! And Ms. Cheerilee is the best teacher ever!”

A comfortable silence descended upon the two as they both mulled over their interaction. Scootaloo had done it, she had befriended the creature! Ha, that’ll show Silver Spoon for calling her a chicken! Speaking of which.

“Hey,” Scootaloo said, catching Goggles’ attention, “You wanna meet my friends?”

///

Apple Bloom wasn’t sure how much longer she and Sweetie Belle could keep up the act. They had been asking nonstop questions about the topic they were focusing on for the week, which was the early days of a newly formed Equestria. Ms. Cheerilee was practically eating up every question they asked and providing well-educated answers that left the two fillies with fewer and fewer questions to ask.

“I think I have one more question,” Sweetie Belle said.

Cheerilee smiled good-naturedly, “What would it be, Sweetie Belle?”

“In some of the books Princess Celestia’s mane is just pink, but now it's all flowy and has a bunch of colors. Why is that?”

Cheerilee brought a hoof to her chin and thought about it, “That’s a really good question. I don’t know the answer to that, but tell you what, tomorrow, if you’d like, you can stay after class for a little and I can help you write a letter to the Princess so you can ask. How does that sound?”

“That… sounds good actually! Do you think she’ll write back?”

“Maybe, maybe not. Princess Celestia is a very busy mare, but let’s hope she can spare some time to write you back. Now, do you two have any more questions, or is that all?”

The two fillies shared a glance before shaking their heads, “No, Ms. Cheerilee,” they both said.

“Great! With the amount of questions you fillies asked me, I have no doubt that you’ll pass the test I have scheduled for you all with nothing but straight A’s. I still recommend that you study when you get home, however, it’ll help all the information stick in your mind better.”

A sudden ear-piercing screech filled the air and Cheerilee whipped her head over to where it came from. Her eyes widened and her breath hitched with fear when she saw the monster from the Everfree following Scootaloo into the playground. Oblivious to the danger she was in, Scootaloo only smiled excitedly as she approached the playground.

The foals scattered while screaming and babbling fearfully. Half hid under the tight spaces of the play structures while the other half ran and hid behind Cheerilee.

“Wh-What do we do, Ms. Cheerilee?”

“I want to go home!”

“Ish it going to gobble ush up?”

“I’m scared!”

Cheerilee tried to calm the foals down with no success, they were too ridden with fear to properly listen to her. Looking back at the creature, she saw that it and Scootaloo had stopped in the middle of the playground. Hesitantly stepping forward, Cheerilee spoke in a soft tone.

“Sc-Scootaloo, I want you to s-slowly walk towards me, okay?” she said, keeping her eyes on the tall beast.

“Why? What's going on?” Scootaloo asked innocently.

Oh, Celestia, please help this poor filly.

“Scootaloo, just please s-step away from the monster,” Cheerilee pleaded.

“Hey, don’t say that about Goggles! He's my friend!” Scootaloo said with a stomp of her hoof.

Oh, goodness, she named it too.

“Wait, you befriended it?” Apple Bloom asked as she and Sweetie Belle peeked around Cheerilee.

“Yeah, and he's not a monster! He's just a bit misunderstood is all.”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stepped out from behind Cheerilee and cautiously approached Scootaloo and Goggles.

“Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, what are you doing!?” Cheerilee harshly whispered.

Ignoring Cheerilee’s desperate pleas, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stood in front of Goggles, curious expressions etched on their faces.

With a smile, Scootaloo introduced them, “Goggles, there are my friends, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. Girls, this is Goggles.”

“Hello,” Goggles said with a wave of his arm.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle gasped, “It can talk!?”

“Yup! But he doesn’t understand Equestrian very well right now,” Scootaloo said.

“Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Goggles. I hope we can be friends!” Apple Bloom said while looking up at Goggles.

Goggles stared down at Apple Bloom for a moment before crouching down to the fillies level and extending a balled up fist, Apple Bloom tilted her head at the gesture, was it supposed to be a hoof bump?

“Friend?” Goggles asked.

Going on the presumption that it was a hoofbump, Apple Bloom brought a hoof up and gently bumped it against Goggles fist.

“Friends,” Apple Bloom stated confidently.

Goggles repeated the process with Sweetie Belle, while Scootaloo filled her friends in on what she had learned about him during their earlier conversation. The other foals in the playground began to grow curious about Goggles. Their fears gradually faded as they watched the supposed “monster” interact with their classmates without a hint of aggression.

Eventually, their curiosity won out and a colt named Pipsqueak stepped forward and approached Goggles.

“H-Hello, my name’s Pipsqueak. It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Goggles,” he said with a Trottingham accent.

“Nice to meet!” Goggles then held out his fist again, “Friend?”

Pipsqueak nodded excitedly, “Yeah, we can be friends! I never thought I would be friends with somepony who wasn’t a pony!” he said before hoofbumping Goggles.

At the clear display of friendliness from Goggles, it didn’t take long before all the foals gathered around him, babbling all sorts of questions while eagerly poking and prodding at his body. Goggles remained completely unbothered by all the attention, in fact, he seemed eager to interact with the foals despite the language barrier.

“Why are you so tall?”

“Why do you wear so much clothes?”

“What are those things on your hooves called?”

“Do you have a face?”

“What’s in your saddlebag?”

Cheerilee watched as the foals she was supposed to be supervising awed at the creature named Goggles. While her fear had greatly decreased, she was still cautious about him. Things only need one moment to go from good to bad, and she’d like to minimize that risk as much as she could.

“Alright, everypony! Why don’t we give Goggles some space so he can show you his items properly?”

Surprisingly, the foals listened to her without complaint, and they all huddled around Goggled in a small half-circle, their eyes sparkling with excitement.

Goggles first showed them his journal, and while it was interesting to see what a different language looked like in writing, the foals were quick to lose that interest. Cheerilee, however, didn’t know if she should feel flattered or creeped out that Goggles decided to draw her without her knowing.

Goggles then began showing the foals his other items. Among them were his plushies, with the favorite being a cute little box-shaped robot. He also showed them a strange color-coded card game, several green pieces of paper and circular metal bits—which Cheerilee assumed were currency from his homeland—and a strangely shaped light emitter.

All in all, it was surprisingly simple compared to what Cheerilee was expecting, then again, she wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The foals, however, seemed to be losing an increasing amount of interest the longer this went on. It seems they too had some expectations which were, unfortunately, not being met.

Seeing the bored expressions on the foal’s faces, Goggles decided to bring out something that would most definitely catch their attention. There’s a reason you always have to save the best for last. Pulling his phone from out of his pocket, he held it out for them all to see.

The foal’s eyes widened at the foreign object, and they all gasped and awed at it when Goggles turned it on with a press of the power button. On the device’s screen was a picture of a strange swirling mass of purple and blue with a bright light present in its center, the object itself was surrounded by a bunch of other smaller lights that Cheerilee assumed were stars. As the foals exchanged excited whispers about the device, Cheerilee found herself reeling at the implications this picture had.

How had Goggles snapped a picture of this swirling mass? Nopony other than Princess Luna has gone to space before, and even then, Princess Luna was only banished to the moon. What even was the swirling mass? Was it some kind of undiscovered variant of a star or something else entirely?

Cheerilee’s train of thought was interrupted when she noticed Goggles fiddling with the device. After a moment, the glass screen suddenly shifted to another, similar-looking page, but instead of only the picture, the screen was now filled with many different looking icons.

Flipping the device back to himself, Goggles pressed down on one of the icons before holding the device up horizontally in the group's direction.

“What’s he doing?” Rumble asked.

“I don’t know,” Button Mash replied.

Bringing the device back down, Goggles pressed on it once more before flipping it over and showing it to the group. The screen now showed a picture of the group, but Cheerilee wasn’t sure if her vision was playing tricks on her or if the picture was actually mov-

“What’s he doing?”

“I don’t know.”

Rumble and Button Mash’s voices said from the device, their mouths moving in sync to the moving picture.

“What!? How’d it do that!” Button Mash exclaimed.

“It can take pictures and moving pictures!? That’s awesome!” Rumble said, equally as dumbfounded.

The foals then exploded with excitement, and they all wanted a turn being in a moving picture, Goggles was more than happy to oblige.

For the next couple of minutes Goggles took video after video of the foals either doing or saying something in front of his phone camera. Some would say something witty, while others made a silly face or did some kind of trick. Even Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon participated, even if it was only to brag about how much better they were than everypony else.

Suddenly, a high-pitched whistling filled the air, causing Cheerilee to frown in confusion as she looked up to find its source. A blur of rainbow colors flashed past her unexpectedly, making her yelp in surprise. Not even a second later, a heavy thud echoed in front of her which was quickly followed by a pained groan from Goggles.

“There you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere, big guy!” a familiar, raspy voice said.

Turning toward the voice, Cheerilee saw none other than Rainbow Dash herself, firmly perched on Goggles’ splayed-out chest while grinning down at him playfully.

“Alright, you know the drill, big guy,” Rainbow Dash said, laying her head down and placing one of Goggles’ hands on her head. “Scratch,” she ordered.

Goggles immediately obliged, and Rainbow Dash’s moaned happily as her world was turned to nothing but mush while she melted under Goggles’ ministrations.

All of the foals present exchanged glances before Scootaloo stepped forward and pawed at Goggles’ other hand. Goggles glanced at her and took in her silent request. Lifting his free hand, Goggles placed it on Scootaloo’s head and began petting.

///

It did not take long at all before you were buried under a pile of sleeping foals and a teacher who slept peacefully at your side. Your hands absentmindedly pet all the foals they could reach with equal care, and you couldn’t help but silently squeal like a girl whenever one of them would flick their cute little ears or make an adorable sound.

You’d wish this moment could last forever, but such isn’t the case for a mortal like you. So you resigned yourself to enjoying the moment as best as you could before you were eventually forced to move on.

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait. I had to rewrite some sections of the chapter multiple times because I didn't like how they turned out, but I hope you enjoy the final product!

Feel free to point out any mistakes you see :)

Trick-or-Treat!

Author's Note

Let me know if you spot any mistakes or have suggestions :)

"Hello." = English
"Hello." = Equestrian

Trick-or-Treat!

Day 284

Log #44

October 31, 2029 (SPOOKY DAY!!!!)

Ah, it feels so good to finally be able to put a date on this thing again. I don’t know if “Day 284” is exactly the time I’ve been alive after it happened, but I do know it happened sometime in March, so it’s somewhat accurate.

I’ve been getting along somewhat well with the local populace lately. They don’t actively cower at the sight of me now, and they only give me second glances as I pass by. Some of them even say hello and wave at me! And I believe it’s mostly because I’ve won the hearts of the baby horses ponies.

(Saying tiny horses just feels stupid and redundant at this point.)

Ever since I met the babies during recess that one time, they’ve been practically glued to my legs. Anytime one of them spots me in public, they come running with those adorably excited faces and begin babbling to me in their language.

Naturally, their parents were, understandably, pretty horrified seeing their kids running up to and bothering the “big monster.” The first couple of times it happened, some parents actually charged me with the intent to do severe bodily harm. Luckily, the babies managed to stop them before I could get too hurt, but there were some bruises left behind from the attacks.

Eventually, it happened enough times that the parents just kept a keen eye on me whenever I interacted with the kiddos. However, Violet and Ms. Teacher communicated that I was now refrained from visiting the school. For now. The parents just wanted to make sure that their kids were safe from me at some point in the day, and I was completely alright with that!

Speaking of Violet, I don’t know if Ms. Teacher or one of the kids told her about my phone, but I woke up in the middle of the night one time to find her stepping away from my rucksack with it in her mouth.

The rest of that night was spent satiating Violet’s curiosity and poorly explaining to her just how exactly my phone worked. It was kind of hard to communicate how a satellite worked to a creature who had no previous conception of it, you know? Eh, I suppose it comes with the package of interacting with a slightly primitive society. Not that I mean anything bad by it.

What was easy to communicate though was math.

Once I managed to explain the numbers 0 through 9 and the meaning behind some of the simpler mathematical symbols on the scientific calculator app on my phone, Violet spent a solid 30 minutes experimenting with a plethora of equations with an ear-to-ear grin on her face that only grew wider with each equation. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if she figured out how square roots, f(x), sin, cos, and tan worked.

Then again, she’s, like, Einstein-level smart, so maybe she already knows how they work, and we humans just happen to use different symbols.

Heh, I can almost imagine Violet frothing at the mouth once she gets her hooves on a book about quantum physics, language barrier be damned.

“Come on, Twilight! We’re gonna be late for the Nightmare Night festival!” Barney said, making you look up from your journal.

You couldn’t help but find Barney’s costume pretty amusing. He was a purple dragon dressed as... well, a slightly darker shade of purple dragon. It was the equivalent of putting two baseball caps on your head facing in opposite directions and saying you were a cowboy. That’s peak comedy right there.

The sound of jingling bells drew your attention to the stairs leading up to Violet’s room. Standing on the steps, Violet was dressed in a sophisticated wizard costume—beard and all. She paused dramatically, striking an elegant pose before descending the rest of the stairs. You started clapping at the masterful display, noticing how it made her smile a bit wider.

“Uh, are you that one cooky grandpa from Ponyville Retirement Village?”

You frowned at Barney, “No, not grandpa,” you said, shaking your head. Setting your journal and pencil down, you stretched your arms out toward Violet and started doing jazz hands. “Wuzard!”

Violet giggled into her hoof. “Goggles is right, Spike—I’m a wizard! But not just any wizard, I’m Starswirl the Bearded!”

Barney blinked twice, a severe lack of understanding present in his facial expression. You snorted, finding his face rather funny.

“Father of the amniomorphic spell?”

Barney blinked twice again, his face not changing at all.

“Did you even read that book I gave you about obscure unicorn history?” Violet said with a frustrated point of her hoof.

Luckily, before Barney was forced to answer, there were some knocks on the front door.

“Uh, that sounds important!” Barney said before dashing past Violet and toward the front door.

You chuckled before getting up from the couch, grabbing the bowl of candy sitting on the coffee table, and heading to the front door as well.

Hunching over, you peered through the door to see who was waiting outside. To your surprise, it was three ponies covered head-to-hoof in dark clothing with goggles perched over their eyes.

Holy shit, they were a bunch of mini you’s!

Unlike your goggles, theirs weren’t tinted, allowing you to see just how excited they became when you appeared at the door. A wide smile spread across your face as the kids started hopping in place, their excited shouts filling the air. You gestured for them to calm down, and once they did, you reached into the bowl you were carrying and gave them one candy each.

“Thank you!” they all said.

Suddenly, a fourth pony dressed up as a pirate squeezed through the other three, a toy dagger in his mouth. After a closer look, you realize it was Spot.

“Pipsqueak the Pirate at your service! It’s my very first Nightmare Night!” Spot said with a salute.

“Happy Halloween,” you said as you saluted him back.

Spot tilted his head at the unfamiliar word, about to ask what it meant when Kirby suddenly appeared wearing a chicken costume.

“Becawk! Enough chitchat! Time is candy!”

Violet furrowed a brow at Kirby, “Pinkie Pie, aren’t you a little old for this?”

You frowned at Violet before wagging a finger in front of her face, “Never old for candy,” you said.

Kirby nodded fervently, “See! Goggles gets it!”

Twilight groaned with a roll of her eyes before gesturing for you to give Kirby a candy. Reaching into the bowl again, you dropped a lollipop into Kirby's bag.

You then watched with mild amusement as Violet once again tried to show off her costume.

“Do you like it?” she said.

Kirby nodded, “Yeah, great costume, Twilight! Oh, you make a fantastic weirdo clown!” Kirby said before quite literally pecking every single piece of candy in the bowl you were carrying.

Looking down at the bowl with wide eyes, you saw that not a single piece of candy remained. Looking back up, you saw that Kirby was nowhere to be seen.

“Rude…” you mumbled.

Violet sputtered as she glanced at herself, “A clown!? How does she get a clown from this!?” Violet then grabbed her costumed robes and waved them around at you, “Look at the borders of these robes. These are hoof-stitched!”

You nodded at her slowly, “Yes..?“ you reply, not knowing what else she might have wanted you to say.

Barney shrugged his head and walked ahead of Violet with a mischievous smirk, “Sure, it's a great costume, heh, grandpa,“ he said with a chuckle.

Violet snorted in frustration before rolling her eyes and following Barney. You closed the library’s door behind you, and you were about to follow Violet before you felt a tug on your pant leg.

With an uncomfortable shiver, you glanced down to see the four baby ponies looking up at you with joyful eyes.

“Mr. Goggles, do you think you can come collect candy with us?” one of them asked.

You crouched down and took a moment to process the words you understood, “Candy… collect?” you asked as you pinched the bag around the pony’s neck.

The pony nodded, “Uh-huh! Can you?”

You spared a glance back at Violet who was quickly disappearing into the crowd of ponies walking around. You shrugged, might as well.

“Yes,” you said with a thumbs up.

Immediately, your response was met with excited shouts as the baby ponies tried to drag you away from the library by your pants. You chuckled nervously as you gently pried them off with your quivering hands, their incessant tugging bringing you back to the storage room.

“No pulling, please. Me no like,” you say gently.

Thankfully, your request was respected, and the ponies apologized before leading you away from the library.

As you trick-or-treated with the ponies, you took in the many decorations around the town. There were things you were familiar with like skulls, candle-lit pumpkins, ghosts, and some pony skeletons rising from the ground. But there was also an unfamiliar penchant for eyes, stars, moons with a unicorn imprinted on them, and a helmeted unicorn staring down at ponies who passed by.

You hummed in thought and wondered what the cultural origin was for that.

“Thank you, Ms. Cheerilee!” a chorus of voices said.

Looking down from the helmeted unicorn decoration hanging from Ms. Teacher’s house, you couldn’t help but marvel at how much your party had grown. It seemed like nearly every kid in the village had joined your group by now, and to your surprise, a majority of them were dressed up as you. Heh, talk about popular, you might as well be considered a celebrity to these kids.

“You’re welcome, everypony! Make sure you don’t eat everything tonight so you can have some in the morning,” Ms. Teacher said with a sweet smile.

Waving bye to Ms. Teacher, you and your gaggle of ponies continued your quest for candy. You felt a sense of happiness envelope you as gazed down at the joyful ponies surrounding you. It brought you back to when you were a kid trick-or-treating with the only thing on your mind being how much candy you could get and how much you were going to eat when you got home. You smiled, finding solace in this wonderful moment.

BANG!

You flinched and let out a scream as a deafening thunderclap exploded mere feet away. The sheer force of the sound sent a painful ringing through your ears, leaving you disoriented and helpless. Instinctively, you clamped your hands over your ears, desperate to muffle the relentless, high-pitched whine.

As the ringing in your ears subsided enough to allow you to hear faintly, the first sound that reached you was an obnoxious, raucous laughter echoing from above. Squinting upward, you spotted Skittles perched smugly on a dark cloud. She was dressed in a sleek, dark, skin-tight costume that clung to her frame as she rolled across the cloud, clutching her sides, and cackling uncontrollably as she pointed a hoof at you.

Grumbling under your breath, you made a point of ignoring Skittles' relentless cackling and turned your gaze downward to check on your entourage. However, to your dismay, they had vanished—every last one of them. You were alone, left to endure Skittles’ mocking laughter echoing throughout the street.

With your mood thoroughly soured, you jammed your hands into your pockets and began skulking away from her, your shoulders hunched in frustration. Unfortunately for you, Skittles wasn’t about to let you leave in peace. Catching sight of your retreat, she grinned and followed you on top of her cloud.

“Ahahaa! I got you good! Admit it, nobody could’ve scared you as bad as I just- woah!”

Skittles’ cackling was cut short as you, without a shred of hesitation, reached out and gave her a light tap on her shoulder. The touch sent her unceremoniously falling through her cloud and crashing to the ground below. It was a bit tempted to laugh at her in her stunned face, but you held yourself back, you were better than that.

And so, with your hands shoved deep into your pockets, you let out a frustrated sigh, hoping that maybe, just maybe, you'd run into Violet and salvage what was left of the night.

You grinned under your mask as you found yourself the winner of yet another game of Spider Toss. You were currently 14-0 in terms of win/loss and stood as the undefeatable champion of the game. You have your undeniably great skill to thank for that.

But, it’s pretty lonely at the top, and being really good at a game means that nobody wants to play against you after a while. So you were once again left with nothing to do as you strolled the streets of Ponytown.

Suddenly, screams filled the air and the ground began to rumble slightly. Looking around, you saw the baby ponies—which were now being chaperoned by Kirby—running away from something while screaming their heads off.

One of the ponies dressed as you noticed you and began running toward you.

“Mr. Goggles! Help! Protect us from Nightmare Moon!” they shouted as they hid behind your legs and shook fearfully.

Before you knew it, you were surrounded on all sides by baby ponies looking to you for protection instead of, you know, their parents? You feel flattered by the absolute faith they have in you to protect them from whatever they were running from, but how were you supposed to fight something when you couldn't even take a step forward without fear of accidentally stepping on one of them?

Your thoughts were interrupted by a sudden darkness enveloping the area as thick clouds rolled in above you. Glancing up, you caught sight of a flying chariot being pulled by two ponies with bat-like wings (bat-ponies?)

From the chariot, a figure dressed in a black cloak jumped out and landed gracefully on the street. Raising their head, they allowed the hoodie of their cloak to fall back and expose who was under it.

Your gaze landed on a dark blue unicorn mare with beautiful cyan eyes. Perched atop her head was an onyx black tiara, complementing her regal appearance. Her flowing blue mane and tail shimmered as they danced in the breeze, dotted with countless pinpricks of light that reminded you of the stars scattered across the night sky.

All the ponies around you began to bow deeply, and you mean deeply. They were practically trying to bury their heads in the stone path while also laying on the floor.

Eventually, you were the only one left that was standing. And you watched as the unicorn took several steps forward, her cloak dissolving into… bats? What? Oh, she has wings t-

“CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!”

“GAH! WHAT THE FUCK!?” you shout as you clutch your ears in pain again. While it wasn’t enough to make them ring, it still hurt a lot.

“We have graced your tiny village with our presence, so that you might behold the real Princess of the Night! A creature of nightmares no longer, but instead a pony who desires your love and admiration! Together we shall change this dreadful celebration into a bright and glorious feast!”

“Did you hear that everypony!? Nightmare Moon said she’s gonna feast on us all!” you heard Kirby shout before screaming and running away.

Some of the baby ponies went to run with her, but most had decided to stick with you. Looking back at the pegacorn, she was frozen in surprise with her hoof suspended in mid-air as she watched the fleeing group.

“What?No, children, no! You no longer have reason to fear us! Screams of delight is what your princess desires, not screams of terror!” she said, punctuating her words with a powerful stomp of her hoof that cracked the ground beneath her.

While you couldn’t understand most of what she was saying, you understood that she was pretty upset about the children running away from her. But how could she be? She didn’t give the most friendly entrance into town with the whole lightning and dark clouds stuff she had going on.

Either not noticing you or just ignoring you, the pegacorn turned towards the only politician in the town who was dressed as a clown. You snorted, the jokes just write themselves, don’t they?

“Madam Mayor, thy Princess of the Night hath arrived,” she said while sticking her hoof out to the mayor.

Did she want the mayor to kiss her hoof? If she did, she wasn’t getting it anytime soon.

“What is the matter with you?” the pegacorn said before sticking her hoof out in the other pony’s faces.

Completely unsuccessful in being shown the respect she so desperately wanted, the pegacorn stuck her head up to the sky, “Very well, then. Be that way. We won’t even bother with the traditional royal farewell,” she said before trotting away.

“Hm, that was something,” you muttered before glancing down at the shaking babies around you. “All okay?” you asked.

Gathering the courage, some of the kids peeked past their hooves and looked around before standing up. Crouching down, you gently pet the still-shaking kids in an effort to calm their nerves.

“All okay?” you asked one more time.

You got multiple nods and hums of agreement which made you a bit happy.

“Mr. Goggles?”

Turning your head to the voice who called your name, your eyes landed on Spot, “Yes?”

“Aren’t you afraid that Nightmare Moon was going to eat you?”

You tilted your head, “Eat me? No, me too big.”

Some of the kids giggled at your response, their fear slowly fading away as they pulled themselves together. Standing back up, you glanced around to see the other townsponies getting back up to their hooves and shaking off their terror.

From the corner of your vision, a dash of purple caught your eye, and you turned your head to see Violet walking in the direction the pegacorn had gone in. With the intent of following her, you carefully detached yourself from the clingy kids and assured them that you’d be back before following Violet.

Walking through the dirt path, you cast wary glances into the dark forest around you. While this area wasn’t the entire brunt of the forest you woke up in, it was still a part of it. You were silently glad that you had managed to come across Ponytown before it turned to night, being a mythological animal’s dinner was not on your bucket list.

You were sure you were getting close to wherever Violet and the pegacorn were talking because you were beginning to hear Violet’s voice. It wasn’t hard to follow considering the-

“Change our approach?”

Shouting you heard… Well, it was extremely loud this time, so you must be only a couple of steps away.

Stepping into a clearing, you saw both Violet and the pegacorn talking to each other in front of a menacing pegacorn statue. Giving it a once over, you noticed that it was the same pony whose head was being used as a decoration around the town. Maybe the pony was an important figure in the holiday?

You shrugged to yourself before approaching the two ponies, your footsteps grabbing their attention and turning their heads toward you.

“Oh, Goggles! Great timing,” Violet said, “Princess Luna, this is Goggles. Goggles this is Princess Luna. Say hello.”

You obliged and waved your hand, “Hello. Nice to meet,” you said with a nod.

The pegacorn looked at you with interest, “So this is the creature our dearest sister told us about? We must ask, what is thou called?”

While she wasn’t yelling at you per se, she was still screaming at you in your face. So, it threw you off a bit as you tried to piece together what she said. Thankfully, Violet came in for a save.

“Oh, uh, I’m sorry, Princess Luna, but Goggles is still learning Equestrian so he might not fully understand what you’re trying to ask him.”

The pegacorn nodded, “We see… But why does thou cover themselves up in an enormous amount of clothing?”

“Uh, Goggles hasn’t told me anything about why, but I hypothesize that it may play a strong role in his culture because of how uncomfortable he is whenever he takes some off.”

“A strange set of customs, but we shall respect them. Now, does thou have any questions for us?”

At the tilt of your head, Violet clarified, “Goggles, want to ask anything?”

With a sense of understanding, you nodded before pointing at the statue, “Is mom?”

“Pardon me!?” the pegacorn shouted in horror, her wings unfurling as her head flinched back.

You winced at the unexpected response, “Uh, no?”

The pegacorn’s horror quickly turned to anger and she opened her mouth to let out many choice sets of words. But before she could, Violent once again came to your rescue.

“Wait, Princess Luna! Goggles didn’t mean anything by it! He only appeared shortly after Discord was petrified again, so he probably doesn’t even know about Nightmare Moon or the legend!”

Violet’s words served you well, and the pegacorn’s anger swiftly shifted to realization and then regret. Looking at you with sincere eyes, she spoke, “We apologize for our undignified outburst! Would thou be so kind as to forgive us!?” she said while holding a hoof out.

Even though you somewhat understood that she was asking for forgiveness, her yelling at you was really beginning to throw you off. Does she speak like this all the time?

“Is okay,” you said, reaching your hand out and gently grabbing her hoof to shake it.

Like Skittles before her, the pegacorn’s wings drooped unceremoniously at her sides, as if she had lost all muscle control of them. And once-flowing mane and tail also stopped their ethereal motion and hung limply, completing the look of utter dejection.

Oh, you had completely forgotten about that. “Sorry,” you said before quickly retracting your hand, her wings perking back up and her mane and tail regaining their ethereal flow.

“Well, that answers one of my questions,” Violet suddenly said.

“Yes, our sister did warn us about thy’s concerning ability, but she trusts your word that Goggles shall do us no harm! If our sister trusts you then we shall also place our faith in you, Twilight Sparkle!”

Violet beamed at the pegacorn before chuckling, “Thank you for putting your faith in me, Princess. But, let’s go visit my friend about learning how to lower your volume, you still want to win the hearts of Ponyville, right?”

“But of course! Lead the way, Twilight Sparkle!”

And so, you followed Violet and the pegacorn—who you’d decided to nickname Lunala—over to Butter’s house. You weren’t entirely sure why they were headed there, but you were more than happy to tag along anyway.

“Don’t worry, Princess. Fluttershy can give you some great pointers. She’s delicate and demure with the sweetest little voice,” Violet said before knocking on the door.

“GO AWAY! NO CANDY HERE! VISITORS NOT WELCOME ON NIGHTMARE NIGHT!” came a booming voice from inside.

You blinked in surprise, not thinking that Butter was even able to shout that loudly due to how quiet she was.

Violet chuckled nervously and glanced at an unimpressed Lunala before leaning into the door, “Fluttershy, it’s me. Twilight.”

The door slowly opened, and Butter peeked out, “It is you.” Opening the door a little more, she spotted you and Lunala, “Ah, and Goggles and Nightmare Moon.”

Butter gasped fearfully, “Nightmare Moon!? Ahhh!” she screamed before slamming the door.

You frowned and furrowed your brows, taken aback by Butter’s apparent lack of respect in the presence of royalty. Violet let out another nervous chuckle before gesturing for both you and Lunala to wait outside. Moments later, a cacophony of crashing pots, pans, and all sorts of chaotic noises erupted from within the cottage. You jumped at the sudden commotion, your eyes widening as you stared at the door, wondering what in the hell was happening inside.

Eventually, the door opened, and out stepped Violet who was forcing an unwilling Butter outside, “Fluttershy, you remember Princess Luna?”

“Charmed!” Lunala replied while holding a hoof out.

Butter dashed inside the house once more, but she was quickly dragged back out and held in front of Lunala with the use of Violet’s magic.

“Likewise…” Butter murmured with a fearful smile.

“Twilight Sparkle hath spoken of the sweetness of thy voice! We ask thou teachest to us to speak as thou speakest!”

You grumble, all this screaming is really starting to get old. Butter, meanwhile, was utterly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of Lunala’s voice. With every booming word, her form shrunk further and further until she made a desperate dash for the safety of her house.

Unfortunately for her, Violet was quicker. She swiftly shut the door before Butter could slip through, and the poor mare collided face-first into the solid wood with a loud thud.

“A little quieter, Princess,” Violet said with a supportive smile.

“How is… this..?!”

“Better, right guys?” Violet said as she glanced at you and Butter.

You nodded, and Butter replied with a meek “Yes.”

“How… about… now..?!”

You nodded once more, “Uh-huh, good.”

“And… how about now?”

“Yes! Well done,” Violet said as you gave Lunala a thumbs up.

Butter’s form was suddenly enveloped in a blue aura, and you watched as she was dragged over to Lunala’s hooves, her horn also glowing blue.

“I thank thee, dear Fluttershy! Our normal speaking voice shall surely win us the hearts of thy fellow villagers!” Lunala said as she hugged Butter tightly.

You heard the sound of galloping hooves coming behind you, turning around, you were surprised to see Kirby and the group of children that ran off with her approaching the cottage.

“Fluttershy, you’ve got to hide us! Nightmare Moon is here and…” Kirby cut herself off with a dramatic gasp as she took in Butter’s “lifeless” form in Lunala’s hooves.

‘Oh, dear…’ you thought as you watched Kirby scream in fright before running away, the children also screaming as they followed close behind.

“Nay, children, wait! I-I mean… Nay, children, wait,” Lunala said dejectedly.

You sigh. One step forward, but two steps back.

Violet was determined, however, “Come on, Princess. Time for plan B.”

‘This is hopeless,’ you thought as you watched yet another failed attempt to get Lunala to be liked by the townsponies.

It was going great at first, and she showed her expertise at playing Spider Toss and Pumpkin Catapult. She even managed to beat you a couple of times. The townsponies had steadily lost their fear of her, and it was set up to be a great night.

Until Kirby showed up and ruined it again.

Now everyone was running around like headless chickens as plushies turned real spiders crawled along the floor. Funnily enough, they turned back into plushies the moment they touched any part of you.

“BE STILL!”

You flinched as Lunala’s booming voice rang out once again, freezing everyone around you in place. All eyes turned toward her, their fear palpable as she raised a commanding hoof into the air.

“Princess, remember! Watch the screaming!” Violet said.

“No, Twilight Sparkle! We must use the traditional royal Canterlot voice for what we are about to say.”

Turning to address the rest of the townsponies, Lunala spoke in an angered tone while rising into the air, “Since you choose to fear your princess rather than love her, and dishonor her with this insulting celebration, we decree that Nightmare Night shall be canceled... forever!”

15 minutes later, you were still trying to console the distraught children as they cried to you and their parents about what happened. You couldn’t fully understand them because of their sobbing, but you put together that the holiday was cut short by Lunala, unfortunately.

Honestly, you couldn’t help but feel like you were just a spectator during the whole debacle. You wanted to help Lunala in some way, but your less-than-great understanding of the language and her rather temperamental nature prevented you from coming up with a solution. Not to mention that the townsponies were genuinely afraid of her.

“Come now, everypony. Now don’t you all fret. Nightmare Night's not over yet. We still have candy left to give, so Nightmare Moon might let us live,” a zebra dressed as a witch said as she approached.

You had seen her around town a few times before and even spoken to her on occasion. She was always kind and patient with your struggles to communicate. However, her weird way of speaking often made conversations challenging. It seemed like she was rhyming, but the subtleties of her tone were lost on you, leaving you puzzled more often than not.

“Yes, little ponies. What's Nightmare Night without the annual candy offering? You don't want Nightmare Moon to gobble you up, do you?” the mayor said spookily. The clown costume wasn’t helping her though.

And so, you found yourself following the kids back to the statue in the forest where they proceeded to dump a portion of their candy to it. An offering you realized. You wonder what the reason behind it was. Maybe its for good luck?

You watched as the final pony, Spot, sadley dumped a portion of his candy before muttering something you couldn’t hear and turning away. You didn’t blame him, kid-you would be distraught at having Halloween be cut short and having to sacrifice some candy for a superstitious tradition.

As you all were about to walk away, the wind around you suddenly began to blow fiercely and a familiar voice boomed around you.

“Citizens of Ponyville! You were wise to bring this candy to me. I am pleased with your offering. So pleased that I may just eat it... instead of eating you!”

Without warning, the statue sprang to life, unleashing a deafening roar that echoed through the air. The unexpected jumpscare sent a jolt of adrenaline through you, and you yelped loudly, stumbling backward and landing hard on your ass. You clutched your chest, feeling your heart pounding against your ribcage.

The stature then flashed a bright white and faded to reveal Lunala wearing fake vampire teeth and an uncertain expression on her face.

You chuckled, “Got me good, hehe,” you say as you sit up.

Lunala gave you a perplexed expression and opened her mouth to say something before Spot approached her with a hopeful face.

“Um... Princess Luna. I know there's not gonna be any more Nightmare Night, but do you suppose maybe you could come back next year and scare us again anyway?” he said.

Lunala brought a hoof up to her mouth in surprise, “Child. Art thou saying that thou... likest me to scare you?”

Spot smiled with a nod, “It’s really fun. Scary, but fun!”

“It… is?” Lunala asked in disbelief.

Smiling, you decided to throw in your two coins, “Is fun to be scared sometime. Scary day is scary fun.”

Lunala grinned, “Well then. We shall have to bring Nightmare Night back!”

Spot giddily hopped in place, “Really!? You’re my favorite Princess ever!” he said before quickly hugging Lunala’s leg and running off into the woods. “She said yes, guys!”

“Yay!” you heard a bunch of kids say in reply.

Shifting your gaze to Lunala, you gave her a thumbs up, “Happy Halloween,” you said before rejoining the kids in festivities.

The rest of the night was filled with laughter, and cheerful faces as Lunala joined in on the fun after un-canceling Halloween. The joy was infectious, and you couldn’t help but smile as you watched the kids run around with gleeful energy. You got to say, this may be one of the nights of your life so far, and you are definitely looking forward to more days or nights like it.

Unbeknownst to you, a mint-green unicorn dressed in a mummy costume was closely monitoring you. She had been ever since you showed up here. You had pretty consistent interactions with her due to how obsessed she seemed with your anatomy, but you didn’t think anything else of it.

Slowly slipping out of the festivities, she headed back to her home and grabbed a scroll and quill. She had a letter to write.

S.M.I.L.E. Observations

Letter # 4

Entity Classification: Dangerous Critical

Containment Procedures: Non-applicable. For now.

To her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia,

This letter carries urgent and significant information regarding a recent discovery about the entity known as "Goggles." I trust you will take this matter into consideration, as it could have far-reaching implications.

As you may have noticed at the beginning of this letter, I have updated the classification for “Goggles.” While your student, Twilight Sparkle, may send a more detailed report later this week, I felt it necessary to alert you immediately to a troubling development I observed.

As documented, "Goggles" possesses the ability to nullify various forms of known magic, which Twilight has been diligently experimenting with. However, at approximately 1:03 AM today, I witnessed "Goggles" physically make contact with your sister, Princess Luna. During this contact, I observed what appeared to be a disruption in her innate magic. Specifically, her mane and tail—normally in constant motion as a visible effect of her immense magical power—ceased to "flow in the wind" for the duration of the contact.

While I cannot definitively conclude that "Goggles" fully nullified Princess Luna’s magical abilities, the visual evidence of the disruption is concerning. I am aware that the flowing nature of both your and Princess Luna's manes and tails is a direct byproduct of your vast magical reserves. This incident suggests that "Goggles" might pose a potential threat to the intrinsic magic of alicorns.

I recommend verifying this matter with Princess Luna directly to assess the extent of the interference caused by "Goggles." Additionally, I will strongly encourage Twilight Sparkle to experiment with more advanced and powerful spells in her ongoing research on this subject. I also intend to participate in some experiments to compile a more detailed and comprehensive report.

I thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and I urge you to consider potential long-term containment protocols for "Goggles" as a precautionary measure.

Yours in service,

Agent Lyra Heartstrings.