The Unexpected Saviour

-Jackson-

Finally, after a half hour of mixed talk about ourselves and a few long, awkward silences after poor humor and love-related topics, we saw ponyville a few miles away. My backpack was starting to hurt my shoulder.

“Hey, Rainbow?”

“Yeah Jackson?”

Can you put my backpack in your saddlebag?”

“Sure, I wouldn’t want your back to break.” She joked.

I chuckled and tossed my backpack to her. She caught it in her teeth and dropped it into the far saddlebag.

“Wow, Jackson, what’s in that backpack?”

“Stuff you probably wouldn’t understand.”

Then I realized she hadn’t talked about her love life yet. I asked her about it. Bad idea . . .

“on another note, was there ever somebody- no, somepony special for the great Rainbow Dash?”

She almost started crying on the spot. She stopped in her tracks, hung her head low, closed her eyes and replied, “Did you think I was joking about no-one loving me? Of course, I had unrequited love but it’s called unrequited love for a reason: it isn’t mutual. Like some of the relationships you told me you had.”

“Please don’t remind me. All those girls were crazy and addicted to sex . . . it was nice being their boyfriend until they cheated on me. That’s another reason why I don’t date anymore. I’m sorry I had asked. I thought a pony like you would have suitors lined up for you, being as popular as you were on earth. I cannot understate how sorry I am”

She brightened a little from my apology.

(Shut up haters. I know you won’t think it’s a true apology. It was! So keep your mouths shut! Stupid haters. . .)

“It’s ok.” She replied.

“Its just . . . having unrequited love sucks.” I said. “I could say I knew but some were just passing fancies. Literally. They pass by and I fancy them . . . not the best way to get a girl. I was too shy to ask them out anyway. I was depressed about half the time of my teen life. . . I would never recommend being alone over being in a relationship. The rush of the moment, the lust in your heart, and just . . . well . . . I can’t explain this last word. It’s on the tip of my tongue, too.” I was getting damn close to telling her I’ve had a crush on her since I was 8, and now I’m almost 18. . . And that’s my secret.

(IRL too . . . not exactly the same age though. Couldn’t remember when I had first seen it . . . back to the story now . . . sorry for the interruptions -hides face and looks away shyly-)

She giggles at my mental struggle.

“Yeah a guy thinking hard is amusing. Ha ha, very funny.” I laugh sarcastically

She replied sarcastically, “yeah it is.” And she smiles and giggles again.

I smile and look at her. She looks back at me and we stare into each other’s eyes for a second, me enjoying what I could see as determination, ferocity and . . . I think I could maybe make out a little lust . . . But I decided I was seeing things and shrugged it off. At that moment, we walked into the outskirts of ponyville.

-Rainbow-

While we were looking into each other’s eyes, I think I might’ve seen a little bit of longing, but I had ignored acting on it.

‘Of course, he doesn’t really love me, love me.’ I had thought when I noticed it. ‘It’s probably another one of his so called “passing fancies”. . . I still desire to have him though. I can’t understand why, either. Anyway, I’m gonna take him to meet twilight and give him the power to control his weight in a spell’

“Ok, Jackson. First, we’re going to Twilight’s house to give you the spell of weight adjustment. Then we’ll head up and over to Cloudsdale, to my house.”

Wait, why weight adjustment? I thought you could’ve just flown me up to Cloudsdale.”

“Well, I guess I could tell you this too: Pegasi can stand on clouds. The only reason they can do so is that they have the magic ability to adjust their weight. It is a skill that can be perfected, but that is difficult for any Pegasus.”

“Ok, now I understand a little more about Pegasi. I guess let’s go, then. . .”

I look around to get my bearings and head off in the direction of Twilight’s house/library.

-Jackson-

I start to follow, a little nervous as to what might happen now that we are in Ponyville. I was glancing around nearly everywhere.

“Umm, rainbow?”

“Yes, Jackson?”

“Why is there no-one out and about anywhere?”

“Aw man. I just remembered, Pinkie Pie was going to have a party this afternoon”

I pull out my cell phone. ‘1 bar . . . figures- wait, what? 1 bar of cell phone service? In Equestria? Whaaat?!’

“How is there cell phone service in Equestria?” I muse to myself.

“What’d you say, Jackson?”

“Nothing.” I replied quickly.

‘Ok if we are in the same time zone as where I lived, it is about 1 pm. Makes sense, I’m feeling kinda hungry’

I say, “First, it looks to be about-”

“-One PM” she interrupts.

“How did you know the time?” I ask.

“It is another ability all ponies have.”

“Mmkaaay. Second, I’m kinda hungry.” I say, changing the subject.

“Don’t worry, Jackson. After twilight puts the spell on you, we’ll head straight to the party. There will be plenty to eat there.”

I look sheepishly at the ground. “Ok, but I’m not much for parties. I’ll have fun but I will stand out by not blending in. I got da spirit; I just don’t got da skillz. I can’t dance, to put it simple.”

“Oh that’s fine, this isn’t a real party. It’s just a get together where ponies can catch up with each other. It’s ironic that you arrived on the exact day that the party was to happen, don’t ya think?”

“Yeah, I guess. . .”

“Well then I guess there is no point of going to Twilight's house, she’ll probably be at the party”

We then turn to head to what I could barely remember as the Cakes’ store.

~~~~~~~~~~

About 10 minutes later, we arrive at the cakes shop and things are not what I had expected after watching the show. This party was calm and collected. I hadn’t noticed that my jaw almost hit the ground.

“Don’t gawk, Jackson, it's impolite.”

I promptly close my mouth. “Shall we go in?” I ask, slightly flustered.

She walks in and I follow.

“Hey Rainbow. Who’s the human?” Pinkie Pie suddenly appears and asks Rainbow. I jump a little at her sudden appearance.

“Hi Pinkie. His name is Jackson”

“Jackson, hmm? Nicetameetchya. Wanna go play some games?” she asks me.

“Like what?” I ask.

“Like maybe, oh, I dunno, darts?”

“I guess I’ll try. . .” I trail off

I follow pinkie to the dartboard, and Rainbow is right behind me. I then notice how the ponies play darts; with a blow-gun type thing.

“You first.”

I couldn’t show them how angry I get when I lose. I just couldn’t. I can’t be thought of as some pushover human who needs anger management. “Ok but I’m gonna tell ya now: I won dart tournaments since I was five,” I lied.

“Really? I doubt it. I’m gonna go easy on -” and Pinkie’s jaw drops.

While I had lied , I had picked up my darts and, using my knowledge of speed, angle, force, and gravity to calculate the perfect arc, I threw the dart. It hits a perfect bulls-eye, to everyone’s amazement, me included. I hide my enthusiasm quickly. Thankfully, no one notices it.

They were all looking at Pinkie, who was looking at my bulls-eye. “Oh it is so on!”

She gets a blow gun and fires a dart. Figures. She gets a perfect bulls-eye too.

We go at it on the dart board for a few more rounds. In the end, Pinkie and I tie at a perfect 1000 points each.

“How about a draw?” I offer.

“Works for me” she replies. She then bounds off to go do something else.

I hear somepony walking up behind me. I turn and see Twilight Sparkle, who would’ve been my third choice if not for Rainbow being first and Fluttershy second.

“Hello human. That was a good game. Nearly no one beats Pinkie at her party games”

“Hello, you must be Twilight Sparkle. I’m Jackson Tyler. Honored to meet you” I suck up to her.

‘Too far’ I mentally tell myself off.

She replies, blushing only the slightest bit, “Thank you –Jackson, was it?”

“Yep, Jackson’s my name, don’t wear it out” I joke. I noticed she was taller than in the show as well. I realized Pinkie had been taller too.

She chuckled a bit and said, “You got humor, Jackson, I’ll give you that.”

“Thanks” I reply. She must have gotten interested in something else and trotted off to another part of the party.

I'm getting kinda bored by now, so I look around for something to do. I spot Fluttershy edging towards me.

“Hello,” Fluttershy says nervously to me.

“Hi there,” I mumble shyly. I giggle a little.

She blushes a little and giggles as well, and asks, “What’s your name?”

“Jackson, Jackson Tyler. And you must be Fluttershy”

“Yes I am,” she replies.

-Rainbow-

In a corner of the party, I was talking with the other four of the mane six.

“So who has met Jackson?”

Pinkie and Twilight say that they have.

Applejack suddenly says, “Well, wouldja look at that?”

We all follow the direction her hoof is pointing and see Jackson talking with Fluttershy.

“Well, ah didn’t know it was possible for Fluttershy to go talk to someone of her own will. This human-”

“Jackson” I interject.

“Sorry Rainbow -Jackson- is amazing.”

“I know, Apple, I know” I reply happily.

-Jackson-

“Ok Fluttershy. I guess I’ll maybe talk to you later”

She edged away and trotted off, looking back at me occasionally. I gave her a little wave each time.

I liked her a little. She was sorta like me, shy and vulnerable. Unfortunately for her, I liked Rainbow more.

At that moment I saw Applejack had decided to trot over and have a chat.

“Hi there, you must be Applejack, the strongest pony who ever lived” I said.

“Yep, that’s me. How ya doin’ Jackson?” She asked. “Wanna arm wrestle?”

“I’m okay and I guess I’ll give it a try. . .”

“Great. An’ as for holding off your utter defeat, you can use both arms. An’ I’ll use only one hoof.”

“Ok ill start off with one arm though” I reply.

‘I'm getting a little too cocky. I better tone it down’ I thought.

“Can someone grab the arm-wrestlin’ bench? This human wants a beating from yours truly!” applejack calls out.

Quick as a wink, a table with four pads on the sides and a lightbulb in the middle appeared between us.

“Thanks, twilight,” applejack says.

Twilight bows her head a fraction of an inch and moves out of our line of sight.

I sit down, we set our arms up on the table and I grasp her hoof with my right hand. I feel a force grasp my hand.

‘Huh, must be more magic.’ I noted.

A ref-pony appears and states the rules, slightly modified for what we said/bragged earlier. “If anypony’s arm leaves the elbow pad in front of them, they are disqualified. Applejack may only use one arm. The human is free to use one arm or both. Good luck human.”

He places his hand over ours.

“Start!” he says and he lets go.

I put my entire life and soul into fighting her hoof to the pad on my left. Applejack still makes headway on getting to the pad on her left. It was slow headway but still headway.

I raise my left arm and apply almost all my weight to my right arm. I could feel the bone bending and it hurt like hell! I kept pushing on, though, and my arm was actually gaining distance back.

Applejack noticed and pushed a little harder. We were dead even. All was silent until I let out a battle roar. I gained about 15 degrees until she applied more force. I was groaning in win-lust and pain now. I gave one last arm-breaking push and passed out. I woke up on the ground amid several ponies surrounding me. They all had amazed looks on their faces.

I sat up groggily. “Did I win?” I mumbled.

I saw applejack still standing by the table and noticed where her hoof rested. She looked shocked.

I then looked at my arm dumbly. I saw a scar on the bottom of my forearm and blood on the floor, my shirt sleeve, and my chest.

“Whaaa.  . . wh-wh-wh-wha-what is that?” I stuttered shakily, as I was lightheaded.

Twilight spoke up, “You won. But you passed out from a broken arm. It was a compound fracture. I fixed your bone and sealed the wound”

“Little words, please. My mind isn’t running on all cylinders at the moment”

“Yer arm broke bad an’ Twilight fixed it, her bein’ a unicorn an’ all” Applejack said quietly. I looked at her and she looked ashamed. “An’ the bone broke because of me-”

I cut her off. “It’s not your fault. I was the one with a strong desire to win. Everything else disappeared from my mind. It was my moment of extreme focus.”

Everypony gasped and Rainbow smiled to herself.

One spoke up and said, “The prophecy! . . .”

Everypony else said it and it overlapped until I couldn’t understand anything.

“Can everyone please be quieter? I have a bit of a headache right now.” I wish I hadn’t said that. My headache suddenly became a pounding migraine. It felt like an ice spike was trying to spear my brain through my skull. I groped my head and groaned, then I passed out again.

I got up off the ‘ground’ and looked around what I could only describe as a dreamscape.

“Hello! Is anyone there?”