A Jog Through Town - Greeting the Neighbors.

For someone to say Ponyville was a quiet town would have been a blatant lie. Within the first couple of months that you found yourself living with its residents, you had experienced more life threatening situations than you ever thought possible. That is to say unless you decided to make your home in the middle of a war zone, and even then, you couldn’t help but feel the experience would still come up short.

No, by this point in time, Dragon rampages, parasprite swarms, crossed eyed Pegasus mailmares, over powered unicorns, angry gods, and a plethora of fairytale-like creatures had become the norm for you. So much so, that it had even gotten to the point that every day you stepped out of your door, you truly expected to find some new form of mayhem taking place in the small town.

And even then, if you chose to ignore all those life threatening things, there was always something going on in Ponyville.

“Whoa… I didn’t wake up that late, did I?”

Perhaps that is why, when you finally managed to leave your home at a semi-leisured jog, it struck you as odd that everything was so quite.

The sun was already well into the morning sky and, admittedly, this was not the first time you were late for work. Sure, you had never been THIS late for work, usually just a few minutes or so. But even then, there was already a bustle of activity taking hold of the waking town.

It only made sense that the later you woke up, the more activity would begin to take place, right?

You kept your semi-leisured jogging pace as you went through town, looking left and right at the vacant looking buildings and down every vacant alley and street that you passed by. The town looked deserted. No signs of life anywhere.

“Wow…” You commented to yourself as you made a left turn onto the main street of the town. Repetition told you that it would lead you out of Ponyville, and towards Sweet Apple Acres. “It’s almost as if everypony is out of town on vacation or-”

You suddenly came to a stop as you realized something.

“That’s right. Applejack told me to take a 3-day weekend to prepare for the next 2 or 3 weeks. But, that was already 3 days ago.”

Another cursory look around town told you that indeed, no pony was out and about. Perhaps your math was a bit off?

“No…” You turned around to look behind you, down towards the other end of Ponyville’s main street. “I’m pretty sure I was lazy for 3 days. Hmm, maybe the ponies decided to adopt the university student ethic and make it a 4-day weekend?”

A small smile tugged at your lips as you tried to suppress a laugh at that little quip. However, as you turned to look at the front of the road again, that smile came out as a scream.

“KYAAAH!”

Another manly scream to add to your track record, to be sure.

In front you, blocking your path and seemingly having come from nowhere, stood a pony with a cream colored coat and a red mane with pink highlights in it. She was staring at you as if she had never seen you before. As if this was the first time she had ever laid her eyes on you. You knew that was not true though.

“Oh hey, um, Rose, how’s it going?” You managed to push out a greeting as you swallowed back down your frantically beating heart.

You always bought flowers from her and her sisters when you were roaming the marketplace. You felt somewhat obligated to, seeing as her and her sisters had been running around screaming in a panic when you first arrived. You loved to tease them about it though… so that only made her unrecognizing stare more confusing.

“You, um, okay there, Rose?”

The pony in question simply continued to look at you as she slowly cocked her head from one side to the other before she began walking slowly towards you. Your name left her lips in a voice that managed to send oddly enticing chills down your spine.

“Y-you’re a… a male, right?”

Your pride immediately took a hit and those enticing chills died at the source.

“Oh come on! You’ve heard me scream like that only twice! Twice!”

You raised your arms in mock offence.

“I can guarantee you that I’m a male! That I’m-“

“Prove it.”

Your attention suddenly refocused on the pony that had now been examining you from head to toe for a while. She had gotten very close to you now, her head and muzzle easily reaching the top part of your waist. This close up to her, it was easy to notice that she didn’t look like she was feeling well. Her mane had not been brushed, and neither had her coat. Her eyes also seemed distant, and somewhat pained.

“Um, excuse me?”

“Prove it.”

Rose suddenly pushed herself into you and nuzzled the right side of your hip, causing you to jerk to the left side in surprise and circle around behind her to get out of her way. As you did so, her expression changed to excitement, and you caught a glimpse of her tail twitching and flicking as you moved behind her. However, as soon as you moved away from her, that excited expression quickly soured.

You began moving away from her, walking backwards, towards your original destination. She in turn turned around to face you and began following you.

“Um, okay, Rose, I’m sorry I can’t stay and chat but I’m really late for work and-“

You quieted down as you noticed that a few other ponies were coming out onto the street from their homes, attracted by the commotion. You could not help but notice they were all mares.

Your paced quickened slightly.

“An-and um, you know how disappointed Applejack gets if I’m late for work. And I hate seeing her like that. Plus I-I think you-“

You quickly noticed that more ponies had made their way onto the street. All of them were still mares. And all of them were looking at you with the same expression Rose had when you bumped into her.

“Y-you aren’t feeling well. Maybe go see a doctor? Like I said, I’m running late, otherwise I’d totally take you-”

“You can take me right here, right now if you want.”

This time she did not even have to say your name, her tone of voice alone was enough to cause your spine to tingle pleasantly.

Wait, is she implying that I should…? Your mind raced to catch up with the signals your body was sending.

Out of the corners of your field of vision though, you caught sight of her two sisters, both moving-in from either side as if to cut off your escape route. An unpleasant chill quickly replaced the prior one, causing you to wonder why you just thought of it as an escape route.

“But, I’m p-pretty sure your sisters here, Daisy and Tulip would-”

“It’s Lily.” Lily corrected you.

“Right, sorry Lily.” You said apologetically.

“It’s alright…” Lily said your name in that same tone that Rose had said it in. The effect of it had not been diminished in the slightest.

“Umm… right...”

The sight before you had changed drastically. You had no longer been moving back, away from one single mare, but you were sure it was now the entire encroaching mare population of Ponyville. The whole scene was unsettling, but not as much as the murmurs you had begun to hear.

“He’s a male, right?”

“I think so, yeah.”

“How exotic.”

“But can we?”

You suddenly came to a dead stop. Not because you wanted to, but because you had just retreated back straight into the side of a building.

You had been pretty sure you were retreating down the main road.

The thought of being herded into a pen suddenly played across your mind.

“Umm okay, well, this has been a nice chat and all… but I should really get going to work and umm, so excuse me…”

You tried to move off to the side, but one of the many mares blocking your path, Aloe if you recalled correctly, simply began nuzzling into your hip as you tried to push past her. You immediately cancelled your retreat and moved back into your cornered mouse position, but unfortunately Aloe’s head followed. You now found yourself pressed against a wall with a pony sighing contently as she nuzzled further into your hip.

You were beginning to blush, and your face wasn’t the only thing that was suddenly having an increase in blood flow.

Suddenly your head jerked up from the scene in front of you as you caught a glimpse out of the top of your field of vision. On top of the roof of the building across the street from where you were currently being surrounded, a pony’s head was sticking out looking down at you.

You immediately recognized him.

“HEY CARAMEL!”

Caramel’s head suddenly shot up from its hiding place, quickly followed by the rest of him. Every mare there, including Aloe, jerked their heads around in unison to look at the top of the roof. You couldn’t be sure, but you could have sworn he blanched a bit.

“YOU MIND TELLING ME WHAT’S GOIN-”

“GET HIM!”

It all happened so fast. No sooner had those words left your mouth that every mare around you stampeded towards the house Caramel was standing on top of. To his credit, Caramel vanished as quickly as he had appeared. You swore you heard the sound of trashcans being tipped over as something heavy fell on them. You couldn’t be sure though. It was hard to tell among all the thundering hooves and screaming mares as they rounded around the back of the house and vanished from sight.

All that was left was a cloud a dust.

And you covered in it, of course.

“Okay…” You commented to yourself as you spat out a crunchy bit of dirt and spittle, and began to try and pat yourself free of dust. “Not sure what’s going on, but if this is another one of Ponyville’s weekly disasters… I think I’m going to sit this one out.”

A breeze blew by and carried with it an all too familiar scent that snapped you out of your thoughts for a moment. It smelled of apples. You slowly looked off towards your destination, and let out a loud sigh.

“Maybe Applejack can let me spend the night in the barn like I did when I first got here. Only while this whole… whatever this is, spends its fury and blows over. But…”

You let out another heavy and loud sigh as you finally finished patting yourself down, and noticed what a shoddy job you had done. Applejack was going to be disappointed. And that was something you could not bear.

Not disappointed because you were dirty though, but because you were now later than ever.

You began jogging towards Sweet Apple Acres again, hoping that nothing else would make you later than you already were.

“GYAAAAAAAAAHHH!”

A blood gurgling scream that sounded oddly enough like Caramel’s voice, suddenly echoed through Ponyville. Your jog immediately turned into a full blown sprint.

Better late than never, right? Your thoughts spurred you on as you tried to put as much distance between you and what you had just heard.

Author's Note

Disclaimer - All characters presented in this work of fiction are owned by their respective creators and owners. In short, all the wubs go to Hasbro.