Chapters Chapter 1 (1st person: John)
Chapter 1
I opened my eyes slowly. That would be one of the strangest experiences I have ever had as a Treasure hunter, and I had many of those. In fact, most treasures do not teleport me into a forest after speaking to me. I looked around at the forest and noticed an interesting sight; all of the trees that I could see looked greener than a normal tree would look like. I also noticed how thick the overhead was as well, sunlight barely could shine through the tree tops, but that was not my worry. My main worry was of course, to figure out where I was. I tried to reach towards my robe that I always had on me, but I found that I am not wearing my robe. I panicked and started to look around quickly. I did not find my robe; I only found that I had no fingers. I did a double take of that discovery, Wait a minute, I have no fingers?! I quickly looked at what used to be my hands, and I found that they are hooves, like a horse. I started to panic once again, was this a trap of the artifact? I thought to myself worriedly. After calming down enough to think straight again, I shook my head, it would be a better idea for me to get out of the woods first, and I could worry about what I am later. I knew I would regret doing this, but I had to find civilization. I barely talked with anyone other than those who were brave enough to talk to me, and even share a drink with me. In my experience most of those friends have died. And one of them is no longer a friend after what he did to me, and I killed him for it. I shook my head out of annoyance; I did not need to recall the past. What was done is done; there is no way to change it. I won't make friends in whatever town I would find, at least I could figure out where I am and how to return home.
It took a while, but I slowly stood on my hooves, I find it hard to try to remember that I had to try to walk with four legs instead of two, but I think I could manage with that for now. When I took a few steps forward, I tripped almost immediately. I would curse to myself as I got back on my legs and tried again. After tripping multiple times, I finally got used to walking with four legs and started off at a brisk but slow pace in a random direction. I had little to no experience of surviving for days in the forests, now couple that with my lack of supplies and no compass and you have the situation I am in right now. I really hate my luck right now, but I knew I could find a way out somehow. The tree's however look the same as the ones I have seen when I regained consciousness so I could not use them as a landmark. I mumbled to myself, "Fucking great, I have to find my way out of a forest where everything looks exactly the same." The best hope I could have right now, is for luck to smile on me and lead me out of this damn forest right away. While I was walking, I noticed a small lake that did not look entirely visible at first, so I investigated the strange lake. The lake shines with an unearthly light, so I decided it would be in my best interests to not attempt to drink or dive in the lake. However I was curious to what I looked like, so I walked to the lake and looked into it. My own reflection stared right back at me: my brown eyes, my ragged brown hair, yellow fur, and a pair of wings. Apparently, all that changed about me was my form and the fact that I had wings now. I did feel sort of naked without my robe on, but then again I had yellow fur in place of that. Hopefully no one would notice me without my robe, because that would be very awkward for me. I decided to continue walking further into the forest. For some strange reason, I wanted to forget that I ever saw the lake at all.
Remember what I said about luck? Next time someone gives me a fortune about luck, I will personally kick that person who tells me I have great luck in the face. In my stumbling around the woods I came across a creature that is very bizarre to me. I was going to study them, but I saw multiples of them appear from the bushes. To me they looked almost like wolves in my world, but instead of fur, they are made from wood like a tree. I knew they were hostile by the movements that they took towards me and I was worried about fighting them. My own style of brawling wouldn't work for me anymore because I have hooves instead of arms and legs. To them, I was a defenseless horse to them, plump and ready to eat for dinner. When one of the wooden wolves leapt towards me, I reacted by attempting to punch a wolf with my hooves. I succeeded in pushing the wolf back, and hurting my hoof as well. "Your skin is made of wood?!" I shouted in pain and anger. The wolves did not answer me and I growled in annoyance, I managed to not break any of my bones since I did not punch at full strength. I have to find a way out of here and hopefully not become a wolf's dinner. I thought to myself bitterly.
Suddenly, the wolves quickly ran into the forest where they came from, and I thought I saw one of the wolves look scared of something, before running away as well. I simply was dumbfounded at the wolves running scared away from me. I shook my head once again, and decided that the best course of action was to attempt to find a way out of this forest again. I noticed there was a dirt path on the ground that I never noticed at first, so I decided to follow the path of dirt. It was the best that I could find for now in the way of navigation, and I had nothing else to follow anyways, that was my best bet of leaving the area. I hope that if I do find a town it would have a bar. I really needed a drink from all of the craziness that I am going through right now. There is only so much craziness that I would be able to stand, before I would believe that I am going crazy. So far I have seen: wolves made from wood, tree's that are greener and look exactly alike, a lake that seemed to have weird powers, and my own blasted luck. All of this was almost too much for a human to take, but then again, I am not really human anymore.
Chapter 2 (John's perspective)
Chapter 2
I was surprised to learn that the dirt path actually lead me to the edge of the forest and not further in. It almost made me want to believe my luck is turning... almost. I looked around and noticed that the dirt path lead straight to a town. I have been to my share of towns when I was human, with the keyword being was. As I looked at the town from afar, I began to wonder to myself. Of all of the towns I have been to, not one of them had no place for people to drink their troubles away. I was resting myself on the fact that towns will never be complete without a bar. Then again, I don't always drink my troubles away, I just drink myself into a drunken stupor and fall asleep somewhere. I made exceptions to myself of when I should be drinking myself to the floor when I either have seen something crazy that I want to try to forget or I have done something that I may regret later on. Most of the time, for me, it's the former option. But the later option does happen sometimes. I decided it would be probably a good idea to stop standing at the edge of a forest and go into the town. It's funny how my head works sometimes, it has both saved me and put me into danger many times. There was no reason to doubt myself this time, because I figured that while in the town I could find out where I am. I also figured that I would not need to talk to the people in the town anyways. Although I kept the option to talk open in case I manage to get lost in what looked to be a small town. Slowly I made my way towards the town by following the dirt road up to the entrance. There is no chance in hell that I will be spotted if I am careful enough to avoid any contact.
As I walked through the town I noticed a peculiar sight: there was no humans in the town. Instead of humans walking around, minding their own business, I saw horses. I can't really call them horses, because they came in many different colors. It looked like they ran through a rainbow and came out in multiple colors instead. They were very colorful. The one color that caught my eye just so happened to be streaking towards me. When I did a double take on the color pink, I got tackled by a pink blur that was going at full speed. so much for not being noticed. I thought. As I looked at the.. Horse(?) that was on top of me as she looked right back at me. Her hair was all pink and somehow looked similar to cotton candy. Normally I would have shrugged it off and kept going, but I was confused at her Impossible hair. I didn't pay attention to little details, such as the fact that she was staring at me. But I did make a mental note of her eye color. It was a light shade of blue. That isn't important to me. I was glad she off of me as I got up on my legs. I decided to not say a word, so I started to walk off. That may not have been a good idea as I thought I heard a gasp behind me. When I turned around I could see a pink blur zooming off to somewhere. I didn't know that anything could be that fast, but I dismissed the sight to my own possibly draining sanity. I really need to find that bar soon, or else my mind may as well be playing tricks on me and cause me to see things that are never real. I thought to myself, Now where the hell is the local watering hole?
After walking through the town for what felt like an hour to me, I decided to do my last resort plan. I didn't like talking to anyone, or anything if I could help it, but sometimes the situation calls for it. My last resort is to go to a place that is full of people (or, at least these weird horse things) and ask them for directions towards the bar. If this town is similar to other towns, then I need to go to the market. I dreaded markets and tried to avoid them when possible, due to some bad memories I had with a merchant in one town. Needless to say, I was kicked out of that town in the end anyways. I hoped that I could hold my anger long enough to get the directions towards the bar. I do, of course, have to try to figure out where the market was first. I had mentally kicked myself because I dug myself into a deeper hole of being lost. I noticed an intriguing sight: an orange horse was standing next to a stand that held apples. Well... better late then never to realize you've walked into the market. I thought to myself as I made my way up to the stand. I opened my mouth to speak for the first time in this world, other than my sparse muttering.
"Excuse me," I said and noticed the orange pony (I couldn't think of any other word for these... creatures) turn her gaze to me after I spoke.
"Howdy there, you lookin' to buy some apples?" the orange pony said.
"No, I'm looking for directions actually."
"You new here?" the pony asked, cocking her head slightly.
"Yes... Never seen someone new before?" I asked with the slightest amount of attitude in my voice
"No, ah've seen new ponies before. This 'ere is Ponyville. Mah name's Applejack." The pony that I now knew as Applejack said.
Well that's a better name then horse I suppose... but really Ponyville?
I kept my thoughts to myself as I spoke once more, "I'd much rather get some directions to a place. Unless you can lead me."
"Sorry pardner, but ah've got to keep an eye on the stand. Why don't yah ask 'round?"
"Right... Thanks..."
I wandered off from what I assumed was a country pony. I could easily tell by the accent and how similar it was to those cowboys that I've met before. That, and the hat was a dead give away. I found it funny that Applejack reminded me of them, but I was more focused on finding my way to the bar first. I had priorities, and the first one is getting a very strong drink in me. I really needed one since I have really just seen two different versions of these colorful ponies. Now, as I walked around the market looking at all of the houses, I noticed something. Up ahead was a pure white pony (so pure that it shined in the sunlight, and was impossible to miss) that was making it's way towards a building. I intercepted her path in the middle and she looked at me confusedly. After her moment of confusion, I noticed that she had something protruding from her forehead.
"Can I help you?" she said. Her accent was far different than Applejack's. It sounded like a mixture of Australian and British.
"Yes... do you know the way towards a bar or something?" I asked, getting impatient with myself.
Her gasp from my question really didn't answer my question.
"Why would you want to go near that horrid place?" she said in disgust.
"To get a stiff drink... I assume you never go there?"
"Of course not! Somepony such as myself should never drink like a barbarian." she said in a very snob-like way.
I just had to groan in my head... Not another stuck up woman... I've met enough of them in my life.
"Right... Sorry to trouble you then."
"Oh it is alright, I was planning on getting to the spa before we crossed paths. I do know somepony who could help you though. His name is Pyro. He works there and I believe his shift starts soon," she began mumbling something about Twilight allowing sparks to work or something like that.
"Ok then, have a great trip then."
"You as well. I do hope you change your mind and find a different way to occupy your time."
Don't count on it... I said in my head as I walked away from the horned pony. Weirdly enough my mind made the connection and called her a unicorn. I decided to stay with that since I needed to call them something different anyways. The way she was so ladylike was almost getting on my nerves in the first place. I shook my head slowly and walked off further in order to look for that very elusive building.
Okay... so I need to find a pony named Pyro? Pyro means fire. Does that mean that he is made of fire?
"This place is screwed up," I muttered to myself, "and I've seen some screwed up crap."
Chapter 3 (Perspective:John)
Chapter 3
As I walked through the town, I cursed the fact that the marshmellow unicorn did not even give me any helpful directions to find the bar. I figured that my last resort plan actualy failed me this time, so I continued to wander the town. As I walked I thought I saw a buttered colored pony with a pink mane out of the corner of my eye, but I dismissed the sight. It was probably nothing I needed to concern myself with. I continued to wander the town when a sudden idea hits me, I should look for the town hall. I was suprised at the fact that I have easily come up with the plan, despite my "final resort" plan failing. Normaly I wouldn't go with plans I made up on the spot, but I had nothing else to do anyways. I decided to make my way towards the building that looked like the town hall. It was in the middle of the town I would guess, I can't complain about building placements because I did not build a town myself. I would have to argue that the buildings themselves looked badly built, but these pony's seem to be okay with living in them so I assumed looks could be deceiving.
As I neared the building that I assumed was the town hall I noticed that the clouds were moving. Normaly I would not look at clouds, but I was watching a weird sight. The clouds were not moving on their own, rather they were being pushed by flying ponys. I noticed that the ponys that were pushing the clouds had wings, similar to mine I should add. At least I am not some rare pony species. I thought to myself in relief. I broke my cloud watching to continue onwards to the town hall, and as soon as I took a step I was tackled by something of the cyan color. I tumbled with that cyan blur for a bit and stopped just short of landing in a puddle of mud. I would be relieved that I didn't get myself muddy, but I was looking straight up at a cyan pony with wings and rainbow hair. I was pretty annoyed at being tackled twice but I shoved my anger away and calmly asked,"Can I help you?"
"Yeah, can you move a cloud for me?" she asked eagerly.
Oh sure, asume I am from around here after tackleing me... I thought to myself annoyed.
"Well... No, I am not from around this town actualy." I said with a hint of anger in my voice. I was only angered by the fact that she assumed I was from around the town and not actualy asking me first if I was. The cyan pony then got off of me and looked embarrassed.
"Oh, I thought you were somepony else."She said. I could easily see the red on her face, but it was mostly because of mistaken identity. Wait... somepony? Doesn't she mean someone? I thought. I pushed my curiosity away for the time being. "Right, can I ask you two questions?" I asked her in a deadpan tone.
"Okay, go ahead." she responded with an eagerness to her voice.
"First, Who are you?" I asked, maintaining my deadpan tone. I thought I almost saw her jaw drop straight to the floor out of shock, though she quickly recovered and she stood up tall and pointed a hoof to herself.
"My name is Rainbow Dash, The best flier in all of Equestria." She boasted proudly. That's nice... Don't care anyways. I thought to myself.
"Right, so do you know the way to get to a bar around this town?" I asked her with annoyance in my voice.
"Can't help you there." She responded in a bit of a sad tone.
"Oh come on! Must every time I ask for directions result in me getting nowhere!?" I shouted loudly.
"I do know somepony who can, why don't you try looking in the park?" She said, looking about as annoyed as I was from my shouting. I calmed down almost immediately because she actualy gave me a proper direction this time.
"Right, thank you for giving me a dirrection to go from. It would help me alot." I said being a bit more cheerful than I was earlier.
"No problem, good luck in your search." She responded. As she flew off I thought to myself, The park huh... better than what I got earlier. I made my way towards the park, hoping that I would find the lead that Rainbow talked about.
As I was walking over a bridge to reach the park, I noticed an intresting sight: A purple unicorn walking with a white unicorn, and a red pony. I figured that one of them may know the direction towards the bar so I walked up to them.
"Hello, can I ask you three something?" I said with almost an eager tone of voice.
"Sure what do you need?" The purple unicorn replied.
"I was looking for directions to the bar actualy. Do you know where it is?" I asked the purple unicorn, silently hoping that she would say yes. Before the purple unicorn could say anything the red pony scoffed.
"You don't know where the bar is? Wow, you must be lost!" He taunted.
"Pyro!" Exclaimed the purple unicorn. I made the connection of him being the pony that Mrs. Marshmallow was talking about, but I was not going to let him get away with that taunt.
"You would be lost if you were new to a town!" I shot at Pyro.
"Well I have a better sence of direction than a pegasus does," Pyro said smugly with a cocky grin, "always have."
I was not going to let him get away with that so I decided to hit him with my front hoof in the attempt of a punch. As soon as my hoof touched him, I pulled it away quickly as it felt like my hoof was set on fire. Ow! Fireboy almost burned me! I thought to myself as I gently set my hoof back on the floor. How in the hell is that even possible?
"Pyro stop taunting him! I'm sorry mister but you should really get going." The purple unicorn responded. She also gave me a map and pointed out where the bar was. I thanked her and silently congratulated myself for actualy finding the bar. Now I made my way towards the bar, expecting to get a very strong drink for my troubles.
Chapter 4 (Perspective:John)
Chapter 4
I walked, folowing the purple unicorn's directions, towards the bar. Suprisingly, I got there without any more incidents happening to me. Mostly because I was half limping to try to keep the weight off my hurt hoof but it was healed by the time I got to the bar. As I entered into the bar, I smirked for a half second. It faded away as I entered into the building. It was exactly as I thought a bar would have: Many people... ponys, a bar with stools, and a shelf behind it full of wines and the water of life. Water of life is just one of my old terms for alcohol. I am somewhat old fashioned, being a treasure hunter and all.
I made my way up to the bar where I saw a pony whose body shined like gold with silver hair, tending to the other ponys at the bar. I walked up to a stool and got his attention, "Excuse me but can you give me one of your recomended strong drinks?" I asked.
"Sure, you look like you really need one." he answered. As he went to get the drink, I looked to my right and noticed another pony hanging around the bar. It was a blue pony with light blue hair. I noticed he wasn't getting any drinks, which was odd for someone who hangs around in a bar. Strangly enough when I turned forward to wait for my drink, I felt like I knew him from somewhere. I shook my head, I did not know any ponys other than the ones who have introduced themselves to me.
As the bartender set the drink down in front of me, I completely ignored the fact that I had hooves instead of hands and picked up the glass and took a good drink out of it. When I set the glass down my mind paused to think. Wait... How did I just pick up that glass? I asked myself in my head. I think I should pretend I still have hands instead of hooves. I answered to myself in my head. The drinks effects then took a hold of me and I started to feel the effects almost immediately. It wasn't enough for me to slur my words, but it was enough for me to have my thoughts become a bit fuzzy. I did not anticipate the bartender speaking to me once again. "Hey, you don't look like you are from around this town." he said. I simply nodded to him and took one more drink out of my glass. As I set it down he asked me a question, "So, what is your name?" I couldn't blame him for being curious so I answered him.
"My name is John." I said with a bit of a gruff tone to my voice. I saw he looked a bit uneasy but he hid it easily.
"Nice to meet you, my name is Sparx." He said to me with an eagerness to his voice. Is that a name for a dragonfly? My snarky part of my head said. I shoved the snarky part of my head into a bed of nails, I was not going to insult the bartender who could hurt me. I saved my snark for certain moments, and this is not one of them.
"Right, Sparx can you give me another drink then?" I asked him with a deadpan tone.
"Right away John." He replied happily, obviously happy to be selling so much to me. As he went to get the drink, I noticed the blue pony walking over to me. He sat next to me, I pretended to not notice him.
"It is good to see that Sparx made another friend." He said to me.
"I am not his friend." I said to the pony in a serious tone. I swore to myself I would not make any friends after what happened to me. I don't care if they are not human. They are all eager to stab me in the back as soon as my back is turned.
"With the way you acted towards him, I thought you would be one." He said.
"It's just common sence to not piss off the bartender. I don't mess around, and I most CERTAINLY would never insult someone unless they deserve it!" I said in a angered voice. I was not loud enough to gather attention, but I was just loud enough to proove my point to the blue pony. As he was going to speak again I heard a scream from behind me. I took a drink out of my glass and turned around. I was suprised to see that the red pony from earlier was trying to get a purple pony out of the building, but the purple pony pulled out a knife. Pyro did not look openly worried but I imagined he was very worried inside of himself. As much as I disliked him at first, I was not going to let him get hurt. So I turn back around, put my glass down, got up, and walked towards the purple pony.
"I ask you again, Leave or else I will have to hurt you." Pyro said with a bit of anger in his voice. I knew that tone of voice was trying to hide his fear. He must have his burny-power thing at a minimum. That, or the other is just extremely drunk.
"How about, no. So why don't you try it then!" He taunted drunkenly at Pyro. Yep. Drunk.
I was not in any mood to listen to an exchange of insults, so I just walked past Pyro. He looked at me suprised, but I did not care of his reaction to me. I walked up to the purple pony, who went through on his threat to Pyro and took a swing at me with the knife. I easily used my left foreleg to block his swing in mid-air, and used my right foreleg to make him drop the knife. As the knife hit the floor I quickly scooped it up and put it in my bag. I was suprised I actualy had my bag in the first place, but I pushed that mystery for examining another day.
"How-!" He started to say, but I uppercutted him to interupt his sentence. I assumed Pyro was releived but I'm sure he would have anger on his face.
"Now that's done, leave me alone." I said for everypony to hear. As they all resumed their business I started to walk out of the building. Before I went through the door, I took a look back at the bar. I noticed the blue pony holding his head like he had a headache, I did not think it was serious however so I walked through the door after opening it. After all that happened I was pretty tired, so I decided it would be better to go back to the park and sleep on a bench. I've slept on benches before, they're actually not the most horrible place to sleep. With that in my head, I made my way towards the park so I could get some sleep.
When I reached the park I looked around for a bench. When I found one I walked over to it and layed down on the bench. I did not know why these ponys had benches, but I didn't really care anyways. I had a place to sleep for now and that was all I needed. Before I closed my eyes I thought I saw something moving, as soon as I looked in the direction of the movement it was gone. I shook my head in a mix of confusion and denial, and layed my head down on the bench. As I closed my eyes to the feeling of wood on my stomach, I thought about how my day went. I met ponys for the first time... I got a drink... and managed to save Pyro from being slashed with a knife... Yep it's just a crazy day for me. I was not entirely sure why I couldn't feel wood below me, but I was more in a dream state so I barely noticed anything happening to me. However, I felt like when I opened my eyes, I would see something that I would not enjoy ever doing.
Chapter 5 (Perspective:John)
Chapter 5
When I opened my eyes after a while. I didn't see the normal surroundings of a park. Instead, I saw bookshelves and wooden walls. I didn't panic at first because I was still tired from waking up recently, and my brain always thinks slowly in the morning. So, when it finally registered in my head that I am not on a bench, I started to panic and almost fell off of the bed I was on. Where the hell am I? Who the hell brought me here? I thought to myself. I then heard voices from behind the door.
"Are you sure it was a good idea to do this? What if he reacts and tries to destroy his surroundings?" I heard a familiar female voice say worriedly.
"Don't worry; he probably will react similar as when I first came here. You remember that, right? Except that he has all of his memories this time." a also familiar male voice said in a calm voice.
"I'm sure he will, I will explain this to him and the other Elements of Harmony." a different female voice said. I noticed that the second female voice was distinctively royal. I would assume she is either a queen or a princess. I started to worry about royalty taking an interest in me. Most royalties I dealt with have either tried to kill me because their heirloom disappears, or have sent me out on this pointless quest to reclaim the lost heirloom. Most of the time it was both, and I really did not like the results of each one of the times I've done that.
"So, who will check to see if he's awake by now?" I heard a different voice ask. I couldn't identify this voice as it was barely in my hearing range.
"We all will check on him when the elements arrive." the royal voice said. I was very sure she was a princess and not a queen because of the way she talked. That took out my worry of dealing with a royal tyrant. I decided that I will see for myself who was outside and got out of the bed. I shook all my drowsiness away and walked up to the door. When I opened it I saw four different ponies: The purple unicorn I met with earlier, the blue pony I met in the bar, a huge white unicorn with wings and beautifully (I try not to let myself get distracted by such things as beauty, but this was astounding) colorful hair, and a huge dark blue unicorn with blue hair and wings. The unicorn and the pony were surprised to see me as much as I was surprised to see the big ponies.
"Ah, so you are awake already." The huge white pony said. I swear I felt smaller around her and the other big dark blue pony.
"Who...Are you?" I asked the big white pony while looking her up and down.
"You were right, Dusk. He really isn't from around Equestria." I heard the purple unicorn say to the blue one. Dusk... That name sounds familiar... I thought but I was pulled out of my thoughts by the white pony's answer.
"My name is Celestia. This is my sister, Luna." The white pony, now known as Celestia, said to me. Her voice was definitely royal, but it had a soothing tone to it as well. She also looked very kind as well, so I was not going to accuse her of being a tyrant.
I sighed and asked her, "How did you figure out that I was here?"
"I sent her the letter about you actually, Dusk told me that you might actually be human." the purple unicorn answered, "he gets... Weird around them."
"Can I please have an answer for how I got here from Celestia herself?" I said to her annoyed. She lowered her ears and I thought I could see Celestia smile.
"I will tell you once all of the elements are here." she said in a calm tone.
"Elements?" I asked, with a raised eyebrow, "as in fire and water?"
"The Elements of Harmony," She answered. Can these elements do anything? It would be cool if they could defeat evil... I thought to myself, not knowing the irony that followed.
"Right.. now, where will we meet and how long will I need to wait?" I asked Celestia.
"We will meet in the library, the building you are in, and you won't have to wait long." Celestia answered to me. I saw Luna look eager to talk to me, but I was more focused on finding out how I got to this place.
"Fine, don't make me wait too long though." I huffed and walked back into the library. As long as my question is answered, I would be fine with that. All I needed to do was keep a lid on my anger until I got my answer. Things won't go badly for me... Right? I thought. I facehoofed because I knew that I jinxed it and it will go badly somewhere in the meeting.
I waited in the library for a whole minute before I saw the door open again. I was really bored from waiting and was semi excited to finally get my answers. From the door I saw ten ponies walk in: Celestia, Luna, A huge yellow unicorn with wings and orange hair that had dark orange highlights in it, the blue pony named Dusk, the purple unicorn, a pink pony, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Ms. Marshmallow, and a butter yellow colored pony. I'm pretty sure I could call the winged ponies pegasai since they look almost like it, just not what they looked like in the old books I had read. I don't know what to call the big ponies yet, I'll make a note to ask that later when I'm not too busy. They all walked in as I sighed in relief.
"So, now can we start?" I said, being very annoyed about waiting for a minute.
"Yes, we can. First let us start with introductions, my name is Twilight Sparkle." The purple unicorn, who I now know as Twilight, answered. I decided it would be best to learn their names anyways, except those I've learned the names of already.
"Ah've already introduced Mahself at the market." Applejack said after Twilight.
"My name is Rarity." Ms. Marshmallow said next. I decided to ask her something so I could make the joke anyways.
"So you're not made of marshmallows then?" I said to Rarity. She gave me a glare of anger that I returned right back, at least until a pink pony took up my vision and startled me.
"Hiya I'm Pinkie Pie! Nice to meet you!" She said in a very fast paced voice. Wow... She seems to be a talker
"Right... Before you continue. My name is John." I said in a deadpan voice. I saw Pinkie Pie do a very wide grin that I could easily recognize as the "I made a new friend!" smile.
"No, I'm not your friend." I told Pinkie Pie in a serious tone. Her smile faded as fast as it had come as the second to last pony that I did not know, introduced herself.
"Um... my name is... Fluttershy" She spoke, getting very quiet near the end.
I turned to Twilight and asked, "Is she always that shy?"
"Sadly, yes she is." Twilight answered, "I had a heck of an awkward time trying to get it out of her."
"I see how she got the name Fluttershy then." I said. I noticed Twilight's surprise that I actually heard Fluttershy in her very quiet voice. I was used to listening to quiet things when I needed to. Most traps have a quiet click that gives away the activation of the trap, and I learned how to hear that. Very quickly.
"My name is Dusk." The blue pony named Dusk said. I heard his name said by Twilight earlier so I sorta knew him already. Then a strange thought hit me.
"Dusk, are you married to Twilight Sparkle?" I asked in my best attempt at sounding curious, it failed greatly, but Dusk still answered my question.
"Yes, why do you ask?" He said to me.
"Oh, no reason." I said. Wow their names are parts of the day... How ironic. I thought to myself with a mental grin. I decided to not make an open joke or comment about it and waited for the final pony in the room to introduce him or herself.
"My name is Flare." She would say. I think she looked similar to Celestia and Luna, but she did not sound royal at all. I had to mentally shrug at all of their interesting names.
"Now that that's all done, let us get to the point of why we are here." I said for every um... pony(?) to hear. "First off, why do you seem to know something of me coming into this world?" I asked Celestia.
"Straight to the point... Just like I remember seeing you." she said to me. I don't remember meeting a huge white pony with a horn and wings... I thought. Then I connected the pieces: the end of the note, the bag of gold coins, the reason she could not see me.
"You were the one who left that note..." I said with slowly growing anger.
"Of course... I could not leave you as you were. You have gone through so much for almost no gain." Celestia said in a calm voice. I slowly walked up to Celestia and stood right in front of her. When I stood up on my back hooves I was tackled by Dusk. How did he know I wanted to punch her? I thought. My thoughts gave way as I hit the floor with Dusk on top of me.
"What happened to you John? You didn't always act this way." Dusk said in a concerned but angered voice. I simply shoved Dusk off of me.
"You act like you KNEW me." I said in a very angered tone.
"I... I did." He replied in a calm tone, then recoiled in extreme pain that lasted for only a moment.
"No you DON'T!" I shouted, and ran at Dusk. I intended to bowl through him, but he avoided my charge. I stopped and changed my direction to face Dusk again.
"I don't want to hurt you." He warned me.
"Go to hell." I shot back. I jumped forward in an attempt to try to catch him off guard. He avoided my crude attack and I decided to keep trying to hit him. He continued to avoid, knowing that right now I was not, nor would I, listening to him. I was too angry to care about what he said.
Suddenly I saw Fluttershy leaping in front of me as I ran at Dusk and she shouted "Stop!" I almost immediately stopped in front of her and she continued. "What did Dusk ever do to you? You don't need to hurt other ponies because of your anger!" She said in an uncharacteristically stern tone.
"Wha-" I started to say, but Fluttershy interrupted me.
"You never need to hurt other ponies because of something you did not know of." she said to me in a very stern way, almost like a parent chastising a little... Filly? Foal? I wanted to move away from her or even look away, but I couldn't. Her gaze literally froze me to the spot at which I stood. I was starting to become scared for the first time in a very long time.
"Now sit down, and think about what you need to do!" she said, again like a parent. I immediately did so, and when I did she slowly backed away and I felt like I could move again.
"What... Did she do!?" I half exclaimed, half asked.
"That is called The Stare . So far the only pony who can do that is Fluttershy. The closest any other pony has ever gotten is my daughter, Dawn. You met her yesterday." Twilight Answered. Now there is a Dawn? What next? Morning? I thought as I started to get angered again, but I decided to not try to punch any ponies now.
"Now, what happened that made you so unfriendly to ponies?" Twilight asked me. I glared at her before I gave my response.
"I'd rather not tell you, you do not need to know my past." I said, my voice growing in anger,"Now I'll be going out... so leave me alone unless you want to get hurt." I warned.
I just simply walked to the door, opened it, and after walking through the door I slammed the door shut very loudly. I wanted to vent my anger, so I decided to go to the place where I came out of the forest.
I walked through the town and the ponies avoided me. They somehow knew that I was very angry and they obviously did not want any part of it. I was glad they left me alone and I got to the place I exited the forest when I arrived in this place. I couldn't calm down easily so I did the one thing that I really liked doing, punching trees. I punched a tree so hard that I may have cut my hoof open and got blood all over the bark. I didn't care and I did the same with the other hoof. The bark had a splash of red in the spot where I punched it, yet I didn't notice it. I just kept punching the tree in the same spot over and over again. When the pain finally registered in my head, I noticed the blood I punched the tree one last time. The blood stained the tree like the tree had a wound. I was no longer angry. Instead I was sad, almost depressed. As I slowly lowered myself to the ground, tears formed in my eyes. "I hate my life... so much now." I said out loud. I figured no one could hear me so I decided to let my tears out. The memory is painful for me to relive. It is also the reason that I am still alive as well. She wanted me to continue to live, so I did. My life would be forever hollow without her though.
I continued to cry while lying on the ground until I closed my eyes to sleep. As I closed my eyes, I noticed that the moon was rising. I did not notice the time I spent at the tree but I didn't care. When I left the library, the sun was already descending from its peak. When I closed my eyes, I half expected to relive the memory once again. I worked so hard to suppress that memory. Instead of seeing the memory play out for me, I only saw a glimpse of a blue pony. Instead of dreams, I only saw the color of silver and blue swirling around before the colored faded away. I would sleep peacefully tonight.
Chapter 6
I opened my eyes and saw that I wasn't moved to a completely new location from where I passed out this time. As I slowly stood up, I remembered what happened yesterday (I could tell that it was yesterday because the sun is just rising). It was early morning when I got up, and I really loved the early mornings. The night was the only thing that I would say could compare to it with its beauty and peacefulness. As I turned back to the town, I decided to actualy get myself acquainted with the town. I was still new to it anyways, and I don't think I will be going anywhere soon, so I probably should have done it in the first place. As I walked I thought to myself, I over reacted to being pulled here and tried to punch royalty. Perhaps I should try to get her opinion on how I should try to fit in when I see her.
As I continued through the town, I felt like something was folowing me. When I turned around, I noticed a rectangular hay bale. Normaly I wouldn't care about hay bales, but this hay bale had on the silly disguise glasses that reeked of a bad disguise. I naturally didn't fall for that trick and walked straight up to the hay bale. When I was close to it, I could easily tell that who ever was trying to folow me is hideing in it. When I reached in with my head, I felt hair on my face, so I grabbed it with my mouth and pulled who ever was in it out. When I pulled my folower out, I noticed it was pinkie pie. I let go with my mouth and tried to use my hooves to wipe the taste of hair out of my mouth.Mental note to self, Pinkie Pie's hair is *not made of cotton candy.* I thought with an amused grin.
After finaly getting the taste of hair out of my mouth (somewhat), I glared at Pinkie Pie.
"Why were you folowing me?" I asked her in a very stern voice. I couldn't be fully angry because it was still early in the morning.
"I wanted to ask you something!" She said with excitement in her voice.
"What is it?" I asked in a confused, yet deadpanned tone.
"Why were you such an unfriendly meany-face in the Library?" She asked me in that ever happy voice.
"I'm not answering that," I told her as plainly as I could say it.
"Why won't you tell me?" She asked in a confused voice.
"Because it is none of your business, that's why," I said in a very stern tone.
"You can tell me," She said in an attempt of a soothing voice.
"I can, but I won't," I shot back in a half annoyed tone. Although, I have to say, I was sorta touched that she even cared.
"Yes you can!" She exlaimed.
"No," I said once more.
"Yes," She said again.
"No."
"Yes!"
"No."
"Yes!"
"No!'
"Yes!"
"No!"
"No!"
"Glad you agree with me," I said. Pinkie looked thoroughly suprised.
"Aww... You must have been very focused on it," She said sadly.
"Yeah. I am really focused on not telling you," I said in a cold voice
"But, why won't you tell me?" She asked me in that sad tone that little children often spoke in when trying to get their way.
"Because, I hate reliving it," I said in quietly, almost like Fluttershy, a saddened tone. I realised that I just said exactly the real reason of why I hated to talk about it. Oddly enough, I didn't care anyways.
"Really?" She asked me with a curious look in her eyes. I sighed, I was going to tell someone eventualy, might as well be her.
"If you stop bugging me about it so much, I will tell you the truth," I told her with a sigh.
"I will. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." She said while doing motions that ended with her sticking her hoof in her eye. Doesn't it hurt to stick a hoof in your eye? I thought to myself.
"Can I ask you why you did that?" I said in confusion.
"I made a Pinkie Promise!" She exlaimed to me.
"And you won't break that promise?" I questioned her. She gasped pretty loudly.
"Break a Pinkie Promise? NEVER!" She said while giveing me an evil look. I sighed, by the looks of her evil look, she was very serious about Pinkie Promises... whatever they are.
"Fine, I'll tell you... but not here, Someone could hear us." I said to her in a half worried look.
"How about you tell me at Sugarcube Corner!" She exclaims to me.
"And there is no one there?" I asked her
"No, Mr. and Mrs. Cake went with the twins on vacation. I am in charge watching over the bakery," she explained in that eagerly happy voice. I simply nodded in agreement and folowed her as she hopped all the way there. Meanwhile I did notice something was folowing me, but I did not pay much attention this time.
As we arived at our destination, a building that looked like it was made of edible desserts, Pinkie Pie opened the door and hopped in. I wondered for a moment of how she could hop with hooves, but I decided that I could at least trust her to a degree. As we entered into Sugarcube Corner, my nose was assaulted by the smell of baked goods. Muffins, Cakes, Pies, pretty much any kind of baked good you can think of. I enjoyed the smell for a bit, before turning back to the task at hand.
"This is still too open for me," I told Pinkie Pie.
"Don't tell it yet, silly! We need to go to the kitchen first!" She replied to me. I figured the kitchen was as close as I could get to being private enough to tell my story. As I folowed her into the kitchen I noticed her hair was just slightly less poofy than before. I sighed as we entered the kitchen and I picked a spot in the middle of it to sit down in.
"Alright, as I tell this story, I want no interuptions. If you interupt once, I'm going to stop the story and leave. Okay?" I explained to her. She nodded in agreement and I sighed before I started my story.
"I'll start my story from the beginning. It was a long time ago and I was still human. Yes I am human, but that's an important fact now. I had an ordinary life for being a normal eighteen year old. I was going to collage still and I had a relatively easy life. All of that changed when I saw my future wife for the first time. She was very beautiful with her brown hair and her blue eyes. I couldn't help but fall head over heels for her. In your words it would be head over hooves, but I'll use human terms for my story. I would have asked her out, but I figured that because she was so beautiful I had no chance. She was too good for me, so I thought, so I never talked to her during that time. Although I did admire her beauty whenever I got the chance. A week later and I notice her walking up to me in the coffee shop to say hello. I replied back with a simple hello, and one thing led to another. Next thing I know, I was in a very great conversation with her and enjoying every moment of it. We decided to become friends and use the same coffee shop as our get-together spot. It's funny how sometimes things can work out for you in the end."
I paused in my story and smiled at the memory, "It wasn't until a month later that I decided to ask her out. When I did, I not only failed to ask her out properly, but she unexpectedly accepted it. I was in a real panic then, I had absolutely no plans for her actualy accepting. So I took her to this fancy restraunt that plays classical music, and to my suprise, she loved the place. She told me she always went there when she was celebrating something. I was very lucky that I picked the right place to go to. As we ate our dinner, we talked about what could happen our future together, if there was even one. It was mostly her talking about it as I was stuttering a bit too much to form normal words," I paused again to chuckle at the memory, "After the date, I made friends with her friends as she introduced me to them. I was very friendly, but quite shy as well. It took them a while before I started talking. When I did talk, I was perfectly okay with them and we had a lot of laughs together. They noticed how we felt about each other, and some of them were really insisting strongly about me marrying her. I did not really listen to those suggestions at first, but as time passed, I found out that they were actualy right. We were not only hanging around each other so much but, when we could make an excuse, we would kiss. I really was scared of kissing at first, but I think she dragged me into it anyways. The second kiss was the one I did willingly. When I decided to finaly actualy start getting arrangements for proposeing to her, I didn't buy her a diamond ring, like most fiancés do. I didn't have the money to buy the diamond ring, as almost all of was going towards my collage and food. So I went to the shop and bought a plain ring. I took the ring back to my room and worked on it as much as I could. I have this... natural talent for metal smithing. I have since I was a child. My soon to be wife however, became increaseingly worried at how I got very little sleep."
I closed my eyes to remember the days where I was literally trying to keep myself awake. When I opened my eyes I resumed the story, "When she asked me about it, I decided that I will show her. I ran back into my room, grabbed the small box, and ran right back to her. When I got down on one knee and opened it. I saw her look so suprised. Inside of the box was a ring that had a diamond upon it. She asked me, with tears in her eyes, how I got it, as she knew I could not afford an actual one. I told her that I took jewlery classes when I was a freshman in collage. I then asked her the question that she waited for. I proposed to her and she of accepted it by hugging and kissing me quite roughly. I had to try to keep a hold of the box so the ring wouldn't fall and hit the floor. From that day, I focused myself on earning the money to give her the marriage that she deserved. I worked in many odd jobs such as: loading cars, ringing up sales, and even flipping meat patties," I stopped when I saw pinkie scoot back a little, "Oh, sorry. It's just that humans eat meat, but they also eat fruits and veggies. Anyways; it was the day before the wedding, when I entered into her room and saw her on the phone. I was unsure of who she was talking to until I heard her use the term mom . I figured that she was talking to her parents about her marriage, and I was about to put my things down on my bed when I heard her start shouting. I reacted quickly and managed to put a hand on her shoulder before she said anything else. I calmly took the phone away from her and spoke with her family for the first time."
I paused in my story once more to sigh and get a glass of water. I was parched from talking so long. After drinking half the glass and setting it down in reachable range, I began again.
"Turns out her family thought I was just a mindless brute and that I wasn't truly in love with her. After talking with them for a while about their daughter, they could tell I wasn't a brute. They even told me that they would help me pay for the wedding. I told them that they don't need to pay, I earned the money for it myself. Her mother was impressed and she even complimented me on how hard I worked for the wedding, and that she was proud to have me as a son-in-law. I tried to hide my blush from my fiancé, but she noticed it and giggled. I decided to end the conversation there and gave the phone back to my fiancé. She finished talking with her family and as soon as she hung up, she turned to me and complimented on how well I managed to defuse the situation. I could only give her a embarrassed chuckle in responce."
I paused again and finished the glass of water, "I'll fastforward a few years, I was twenty at this time and my wife is twenty one. We were a year apart, but that doesn't really stop love from happening. We were married for an entire year, and happily mind you. I normaly was the one who went out to get the food and drinks, though. I didn't mind at all. In fact I cheerished doing it so much that I made a mark on the calendar days of when I go shopping for food. It was a very great life I lived," My face darkened at this point, "too bad it was not meant to last... I returned from the store and was going to ask my wife to help me bring the bags in, when I noticed the door was left unlocked. We bought our own home so we did not have anyone who took care of the house. We only did that on vacations, and we weren't planning on going to vacation recently. When I opened the door more wider, I noticed a trail of blood starting from the door. It looked like a huge struggle happened. I was extremely worried for my wife and I folowed the trail. The blood trail ended at a closed door to the living room,"
I stopped and visibly grimanced while tears formed in my eyes as the image of what I saw formed in my mind. My breathing grew faint and shaken as I forced myself to say it, "When I... When I opened the door, I saw... I saw my wife on the floor. She was not breathing... and blood was forming a pool around her head. That wasn't what got my attention the most of all. What really got my attention... was the person standing above her dead body. I recognized him as one of my closest friends. And he was standing over her dead body. When he looked at me, I saw the blood on his face. I also saw the blood stained knife in his hand. So I did what I could, I ran out as fast as I could. I got to a phone and called the police. When they showed up, my closest friend was dead. He tried to kill me too, but I snapped his neck before he got the chance. But the damage was already done, my wife was killed by my closest friend, who too, was dead."
At this point of the story I was on the verge of tears. "My closest friend... Killed my wife, and tried to kill me... I killed him. They asked me a few questions. I answered them the best I could, but I was in a deep depression. My wife died at the hands of my closest friend. So I decided to pack up and disappear. From that point on, as I left my house for the final time. I made a promice, to never have this event happen again. So I started to harden myself, I acted harsher towards everyone who tried to be friendly towards me. Even this man named Dusk, who had been my friend for about as long as my other friend. Dusk was actually a paraplegic, which means he was paralyzed from the waist down. I feel bad for shunning him like everyone else."
I finished my story and took a look at Pinkie Pie, who never once interupted me. I saw that she was also on the verge of tears from my story as well. I wanted to go and hug her, but I didn't move towards her. I also noticed that her hair had become slightly flattened. I thought I heard a sob from outside of the kitchen, but I paid it no attention. Eventualy she asked me in a shaky voice, "I... I didn't know you were betrayed...I've felt the same way as you did when I thought my friends were no longer my friends anymore," I noticed that her hair was completely straight instead of her usual poofy hair. Perhaps her mood is reflected in her hair. I thought to myself. I decided to talk to her to at least try to pull her out of her sadness.
"So now you know the truth of why I was so hard on you and everypony else," I said in a simple voice to her.
"But my friends didn't leave me, they were throwing me a birthday party," She replied to me in her sad voice, it was slowly starting to become happy though.
"You were more luckier than I ever was." I said to Pinkie. As she started to become happy again I only noticed that she was truely someone that I may not know as well as I would like to think.
"The ponys here are not as evil as the people you have met. Most of them are not even Meany-faces either!" She said in an attempt to convince me, get me to be more trusting, and cheer me up, all mashed into one.
"To you they won't, not so sure how they will react towards me, though," I responded to her attempt of convinceing.
"Then can you at least try?" She asked me. I was silent for a while before I sighed in a sort of a defeated way.
"Fine, I will try to be more friendlier," I said in a serious tone. I at least owe her that much for her listening to my story. I thought to myself.
"Can you Pinkie Promise?" She asked me in an eager voice. I sighed and looked at her with a grin.
"Alright... Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my- OW!" I said doing the same motions she did, and I hurt my eye by sticking my hoof in it. It stung for a moment but faded away quickly. Next time I close my eye. I mentally Pinkie Promised myself. After I finished my Pinkie Promise I saw her hair poof back to its early stage of looking like it was made of cotton candy.
"Great!" She exclaimed, and bounced right out of the door. Oddly enough, I chuckled as I watched her go out. My chuckles faded away when I noticed that there was a diffrent pony standing in the doorway to the lobby of the bakery with tears in his eyes. I recognized him as Pyro.
"So how long were you listening?" I asked him.
"Long enough," He shot back in an intentionaly weak taunt. I didn't smile at him, I still wasn't fond of him after what happened yesterday. But Since he also listened, I could forgive him this once.
"So, what now?" I asked him.
"Now... you should try to speak with my dad," He told me, "He had a really bad migraine last night after you left and remembered more of when he was a human."
"I guess I'll have to, I'll see you later." I said in a neutral voice. As I walked out a thought came to my head, Who is Pyro's dad? I wondered. I knew I had to meet him eventualy, so I decided to wander the town. I wasn't going to make any close friends with any of the ponys here. At least not unless they save my life and find me a date in this world. Hah, like that last part will ever happen. I thought to myself as I walked through the intresting town. After a while of wandering the town, I realized something. Wait, his dad was a human?'
Chatper 7 [part 1] (John)
Chapter 7(Part 1)
As I wandered through the town looking for one of the ponys I met at the library, I thought back to what Dusk said to me at the library. "What happened to you John? You didn't always act this way." Now why did he say that? Wait... Could he be? I thought. I didn't want to attempt to talk to him again for now, I would talk to him later though. For now, I was just focusing on walking through the town. Oddly enough, the town was strangely empty. Devoid of all activity and life. Where the hell is everypony? I asked myself. I was glad that I didn't see a dead body yet, but I hoped to never see one. Luckily for me, I saw a shadow going off in the direction of Sugarcube Corner. I decided since I had nothing better to do, to follow that strange shadow. I probably might risk myself in fighting some random pony that was supposively evil and wants to possibly kill me. Then again, I've survived worse encounters than a random shadow attacking me.
Supriseingly I was able to keep up with the shadow, I think it might have been trying to lead me somewhere actually. My assumptions were proven correct as I saw the shadow run through the open door of Sugarcube Corner. Wait... why are the lights off in the building? It was perfectly lit when I last checked I wondered to myself. I decided that it would be the bes ' Idea to try to investigate this strange phenomenon. To investigate, I shall enter in the shadows myself! Or maybe I should actually step carfully in I said to myself, deflating my heroic side with a bang. Sometimes I enjoyed deflating my heroric side when I am in a dangerious temple. Mostly because it tells me exactly what NOT to do in the first place.
As I carfully walked into the darkened bakery, I looked around. I couldn't see farther than the door. I was confused, nothing can ever be this dark without a good reason. I had a very uneasy feeling as I stood in the doorway. I really hope I do not have any problems here. I thought to myself. I tried to remain calm and I took a step into the room. When nothing happened I took a few more steps into the room. Then all of the lights went on.
"SUPRISE!" Shouted a lot of ponies. And I mean a lot of them.
"HOLY SHI-" I shouted as I recoiled backwards and landed hard on my back. luckily I did not break anything in the fall (not even my wings, which opened for the first time as I fell.) and I layed there as I saw Pinkie Pie come up to me. As she helped me up, I noticed her smiling.
"I worked so hard to prepare this party to welcome you to Ponyville!" She said excitedly at me.
"How many did you invite?" I asked pinky pie, while looking around.
"Oh.. just about everypony in Ponyville," She said after thinking for a while.
"Oh, you mean the ponies I met in the library," I said in a blatant tone
"Nope... I mean everypony who lives in Ponyville!" She said with a happy tone. I looked around, and I could swear my jaw would have hit the floor by now if I wasn't already suprised once, and if by jaw was made of rubber. She really did invite the whole town...Hope she's not going around telling my story to everypony.
"Oh don't worry about it John. I'll only tell the ponys in the library." She said suddenly.
"Okay... Wait, how'd you know what I was thinking?" I asked Pinkie in a confused voice.
"I read the script!" She exclaimed.
"...What?" I asked in an extremely confused tone, "Script? You mean like an acting script?"
"Sorta... You can't break the wall, can you?"
"I could break one of these walls here... but you don't mean them right?" I said while gesturing with my hoof to the walls of the bakery.
"Nope," She said simply. Then I saw Twilight come over to me. I remembered her from the library, and worried if she was able to forgive me for attacking her husband.
"That's just just Pinkie being Pinkie." She said to me in a quiet tone, glancing worriedly at her as she bounced on her tail.
"This happens often?" I asked Twilight.
"Yeah, it does, a little too often," She answered me with a sigh.
"Best explanation I can get for her so far," I said with a half shrug (Can't do a full shrug since I don't have shoulders).
After Pinkie walked away from me with Twilight, probably to tell my story to her and the other ponies from the library, I wandered around the party room. There was games going on such as pin the tail on the pony (I thought that it was where you actually put a tail on a real pony before seeing the actual thing). I wouldn't engorge myself on cake, I didn't really want any right now. I did have myself upon a few of the muffins. A grey pegasus with a blond mane (They are horses, I think Mane is the proper term now) that would have been beautiful if not for her yellow eyes (one was staring at the ceiling, and the other at the floor), was also at the muffin table basicly scarfing down the muffins. With the speed she ate those muffins at, I swear she could actualy beat me in a muffin eatting contest. I really liked muffins to a degree, but with that pegasus eating at the table, I couldn't reach them. And I really wanted some of those muffins too I thought sadly. I shook my head and decided to walk on.
As I was walking through the party, I met a certain red pony near the punch bowl with his golden friend.
"I'd say hello to both of you, but you obviously know me," I said in an attempt to lighten my mood.
"How convient, we were just talking about you," Pyro said with a grin (a very forced one too, must not be very good at smiling).
"Stow the chat, what do you want?" I asked Pyro in a bored tone.
"I want you to teach me how to be awesome," He taunted at me, "-er," he added. That got a glare from Sparx, but he didn't say anything.
"Be a treasure hunter," I said in a simple but mysterious way. Pyro just looked at me in a You're kidding kind of way and I shook my head.
"Pyro, just ask him already," Sparx said. Glad somepony doesn't like having this pony taunt someone so much. I thought.
"Alright... How did you disarm that drunk in the bar?" He asked me in a serious tone.
"I've done it before... many times," I said, I had to quickly learn that as well. Some bar fights in The Hollow turn brutal, and I get threatened with many weapons, "not in the form I am in now, but somehow it came naturally."
"Can you teach me how to do it?" Pyro asked me getting more interested.
"How about... No," I said in a deadpanned voice. I still didn't like him, but I wasn't about to sour my opinion of him. He did hear my story as well.
"Why can't you teach me?" He whined at me.
"Because, Firecolt... just because you can burn ponies with whatever you have, doesn't mean that you would need to learn every single move. That and you would have to actualy touch them to disarm them," I said simply.
"I can control the fire you speak of," He boasted to me in a very cocky way.
"So? You burned my hoof," I shot at him.
"Well you didn't need to try to punch me for little things like that." He shot back at me. He has a good point... I thought.
"Well, can you at least fight?" I asked him.
"Of course I can fight!" He exclaimed in his boasting way that made me want to punch him in the first place. Bragging won't change my mind any faster. I thought to myself.
"Right... I want to at least test you to see if you can hurt someone without actualy using your fancy burny powers of whateverness," I said to him.
"So is that a yes?" he asked.
"For now..." I told him. He made a deadpanned look, but I'm pretty sure I could guess that right now he is celebrateing in his head of how he got training. Not sure if he actualy is celebrateing, but I didn't really care.
"Now Sparx, is Dusk around here?" I asked.
"He is. he wanted to talk with you actually," Sparx said to me in a worried tone.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt your friend." I said in a reasuring tone. Oddly enough, when I last heard of him in my world, he died... in the shower, no less. But if that is the same Dusk I know or knew, then perhaps I can save something from my old life. I may not ever be close friends again, but I think I can be friends with him again. I said in my head.
"He is actually my dad," he said with a blush, "the legendary Dusk Cloud. "
"Do you know where he is?" I asked Sparx.
"He should be around the table with food. If he isn't there, then try looking for Twilight, who is my mom, 'cause she will probably be talking with him," Sparx explained. Wow... So much for calling him a dragonfly. What am I supposed to use for my witty comment now? I said in my head. I kept that thought to myself as I thanked Sparx and walked away from the two of them to find Dusk. I had a Friendship I wanted to salvage. I was kind of envious of the fact that he was here longer and found love in an unexpected place. I pushed that envy away, I didn't need to cloud my judgement with silly things like that. Love is not a simple thing I would forget though, maybe I could find somepony here who would protect me as I would protect her. Never again.
After looking around the room for a bit, I found Dusk siting with Twilight. I decided to sneak up to them to hear what they are talking about. As I got close to them, I think I heard a bit of my story that I told Pinkie. I figured that Pinkie told Twilight first, and now Twilight is telling Dusk. I wonder how much Dusk has changed since I last saw him. I wondered. I decided to wait for Twilight to finish telling Dusk so then I could speak with him to try to mend the gap between us, that I made myself. I didn't regret telling him off years ago, but I most certainly regret it now.
When Twilight finished retelling my story to Dusk, I could swear that he looked as sad as Pinkie and Pyro were. "So that's why he acted that way... I had no idea that this would've happened to him after I... left," Dusk said sadly. I sighed softly before speaking up.
"Best get used to that, my life was really crap back then," When both of them turned to me, they were suprised at me actualy being there. I had to smile at the fact that my stealth skills were still effective here, even if I had hooves. I refocused on why I was there, "Excuse me Twilight, but could I talk to Dusk... alone?" I asked Twilight. She gave me a look of suspicion.
"Why do you need to talk to him alone?" She asked me in a very careful way.
"Because I am going to fix something that I should have fixed a long time ago, before he came here," I said to her in a saddened tone. I really wanted to talk to him alone, but I'm sure that Twilight is more concerned for him being around me. I think because of all of his migranes and the fact that I attacked him last time.
"You can talk to him, but I want to make sure you don't try-" She started to say before Dusk and I softly groaned.
"Understandable. I know what I did was wrong, yet I at least want to be more friendlier towards the ones who have seen me like that," I responded to her, and she looked annoyed at me for interupting her. Dusk chuckled a bit but not loudly, I'm sure she may have done this before.
"Two things, first off, I came here to appologize for what I did at the library. I was not really happy about someone controling my life and changing it before I ever get a chance to get my own word in," I said to him.
"I can understand why you would act that way," He responded to me.
"Yeah... you understand why I can't be close friends with any...pony, but I can at least be friends," I said in a somewhat uneasy tone.
"That's alright," Dusk responded in a very knowing tone. Yep, He is now the walking genius, just how I remember him when I was still human. Well, except then, he was in a wheelchair. I thought to myself with a smile. Oh! That reminds me, I'll ask after he is done talking
"By the way, since you are married with Twilight here, Do you have children?" I asked with a curious tone, even though I already knew the answer.
"I actualy have two foals and one filly." He said with a smile.
"What's a foal and filly?" I asked, being confused with those terms.
"In human terms, foal is a boy, and a Filly is a girl. Although I call them all fillies because that is what I grew up calling them," Dusk responded to my question.
"Ahh, so what are their names then?" I asked him once more.
"Pyro, Dawn, and Sparx, you met Sparx in the bar and Pyro was the one you saved from that drunk" He said. Wait a minute... Fireboy, I mean Pyro, is his child?! I thought suprised. Perhaps I should try to not taunt his child in front of his father.
"Ahh, funny thing about Pyro. Did you know he asked me to train him?" I said in a somewhat intrested tone.
"I wouldn't be suprised that he would. When did he ask you?" He asked me in an intrested tone.
"He asked me very recently actualy. Would you mind if I trained him?" I asked in a straightforward way.
"I wouldn't have any problems with it," Dusk said, "just don't get him killed."
"Why would you want to train him anyways John?" Twilight asks me.
"Because, if he doesn't know basic close combact to disarm a pony with a weapon, he could get severly hurt in the future if I am not there, even with his fire power thingy," I responded to Twilight in a almost arrogant fashion. At least Twilight cares about him. I thought to myself. I could see her think about what I said for a moment.
"Alright, but could you also teach Sparx?" She said, "They are both very capable. they did save the world, after all."
"I could if he asks me to." I said with a smile. Wait, WHAT!!! they saved the WORLD?! From What?
"Alright, so long as you do not make me regret this decision." She replied with a sigh.
"I'm pretty sure you won't have me train Dawn?" I asked Dusk.
"No, she's actualy blind, but she can still handle herself." Dusk said in a happy tone.
"Wow... that's... cool" I said in an awstruck tone. I actualy was fond of the blind who could still fight and take care of themselves, like Daredevil from Marvel Comics. Mostly because of them being my allies in some of my treasure hunting jobs. They really could put up a fight and still be standing after all of the chaos has passed by. I was pulled out of my memories by Dusk waveing his hoof in front of my face.
"Are you Okay?" He asked me in a worried tone.
"I'm fine... just remembering stuff from my past," I said
"Oh good, I was worried that you zoned out on us," he said releived. I had to smile and laugh. I did feel like this party was missing something though. So I turned around and saw a weird sight. A DJ's turntable left completely open.
"Is there a DJ here?" I asked out loud. I got a series of questioned looks. Even from Pinkie Pie.
"She should have been here by now," Pinkie said in a worried tone. Pinkie is worried, time to suprise the hell out of everypony here I thought to myself.
"While we wait for her, why don't you let me be your DJ for now?" I said with an eager tone.
"Do you even know how to DJ?" Twilight asked me doubtfuly. I simply turned and smiled.
"Yep... I've had to be a DJ at one of my treasure hunting jobs, I picked up a few tricks of the trade," I said in a very confident boast.
"Oh yeah, I remember that!" Dusk said loudly, "You were pretty good at Midnight's first birthday."
"Then get up there!" I heard a pony shout. I grinned and made my way towards the DJ turntable. All I was missing was a pair of shades. I was lucky that there was a pair of purple shades laying on the underneath the turn table, so I picked those up and put them on.
"ALRIGHT EVERYPONY, YOU READY TO ROCK!" I shouted,I could hear the ponys cheering so I picked out a song and put it down on the turntable and cranked up the volume for the ponys in the building to hear.
_____________________________________________________________________________
To be Continued in Part 2
Chapter 7 [Part 2] (John)
Chapter 7 part 2
This is the song that John put on that will play for the first part of the chapter
I put the disk to one of my favorite dubstep songs onto the turn table. I remembered the entire song by heart so I could also sing along with the disk into the microphone that was also on the turn table. I knew my singing voice was good, but it was nothing I would be impressed with. I was turning the dials and switches to match the sound of the music playing. As soon as I heard the words come I decided to start to sing.
Listen to the sound of voices, In the distance calling. Listen to the noise around, It's the raindrops falling. It's the wind in the tree's, inspiration running free, it's something I can't control. It's gift, it's an art. It's the music in my soul.
I smiled as I sang the melody of the song,
I'm breathing, again. I'm taking it in, 'cause you can't take the music from me. I refuse to pretend. I won't let this end, you can't take the melody.
I let the music play for a bit as I watched the party go on through my purple shades. I felt in my element while I was up on the turn table, watching the party unfold. I turned it up to as loud as I could make the volume go without busting a speaker or an eardrum in the party. I then notice the next part of the song kick in and I naturaly sang along without having to think.
There's a divide between melody, and sounds only some can hear. A song, a mysterious force. Yet it's never feared. An unexplainable thought, a shout from those who were lost. A call from the broken hearted. A projection of the mind, but I'm not wasteing time. I'm only just getting started.
I moved right back into the melody again,
I'm breathing, again. I'm taking it in, 'cause you can't take the music from me. I refuse to pretend. I won't let this end, you can't take the melody.
I let the music play once more for a bit as I spun the knobs and the disks to match the sounds that it plays. Because I matched them perfectly, I made it echo a bit for the whole party. I then switched the mic to distort my voice as I said the word Melody and I sang the melody once more. After I finished the melody I listened to the echo of the the music and my voice as it played. Eventualy the song ended with me smiling for everypony to see. I could hear them stomping the ground in applause (since they don't have hands.) and I decided to do something that I would say was a neat trick.
I suddenly turned down the volume of everything, to everyponys confusion. They wondered what I was doing up there. My answer is turning up the bass level to the highest it could go and putting my hoof on a button near the sound board. I smiled as I was ready to see what I could cause now. I pushed the button down all the way.
If you were outside (which nopony was), you would have heard a very loud BOOM coming from Sugar Cube Corner. It didn't sound like a bomb, more like a blast of bass loud enough that I'm almost sure that you could hear it from the mountains.
Inside the building, everypony whole room was knocked down, or knocked into a wall so hard that they stuck to it. I peeled off of the wall and landed behind the turn table. I had to smile very brightly despite what I just did. That was AWSOME I thought to myself. As I got up, I noticed a white pony walk into Sugar Cube Corner and look around in suprise. She was also wearing purple shades, so I could assume that she could possibly be the DJ that was intended to come here.
"Whoa... what happened here?" I heard her speak. I was not suprised about her suprise actualy. Most of them always thought that way when they first see the power of the bass bomb. It's actualy something that Dusk never saw me use before because I actualy did not know the methods of it back then. I then decided to shout to her over the ringing in my ears.
"Bass drop happened!" I shouted loudly enough for her to hear, and she turned to me.
"Whoa, whoever did that did an awsome bass drop!" She said. I barely could hear her over the ringing in my ears, but I picked out the words.
"Yeah! It was something I learned how to do years ago! Now who are you!?" I shouted, the ringing in my ears slowly starting to stop.
"Vinyl Scratch, Otherwise known as DJ PON-3." She said in a very confidant and impressed voice. I could tell she was a DJ by how laid back she sounded as well. Not many DJ's I know of actualy relax enough.
"Name's John, I don't have a fancy DJ name 'cause I only DJ as a bit of a hobby of mine." I said with a sheepish smile.
"I noticed, but since your good at being a DJ, why don't you help around my radio station?" She asked me
"Are you offering me a job?" I asked Vinyl in wonder.
"You don't have a job yet?" She asked me in surprise.
"Not really... I'm still actualy pretty new to this town," I said, my smile fading from my face.
"Well, that changes things actually. Yes, I'm offering you a job at my radio station," She said in a laid back tone.
"Sweet... what time?" I asked her while trying to hide my own happiness.
"I could always use an extra hoof on Tuesdays and Fridays, things always get very hectic around those days with all of the pony's listening to the radio station," She said calmly.
"Sounds good to me, what's today?" I asked eagerly.
"I think it's a Monday... let me check my phone." She said while using her horn to levitate a phone out of her bag. Wait... unicorns can float stuff? I thought in wonder as she checked something before putting it back.
"Yep, it's actualy a Thursday actualy. Sometimes Thursdays feels like Mondays to me, you know," She said.
"I feel you on that subject," I replied in a light hearted way.
"Right, if you are going to work at my station you need to know your way around it and to it. After I give this party the daily dose of Wubs, I want to have you come to the radio station to tour it and see who you work with," She said with a mischievous smile.
"Alright, so do you want the turn table now?" I asked her.
"Yeah, this party needs more Wubs to get it moving!" She said in an excited voice.
As I moved from behind the turn table and Vinyl taking my place, I completely forgot I was wearing the purple shades. Supriseingly, aparantly Vinyl had a spare pair of shades so she let me keep mine. I smiled and lifted it from my eyes and wandered around the party. By now the party goers were recovered from my Bass Bomb and are resuming the party like nothing happened. Pretty sure that not all of them were fond of what I did. Some actualy glared at me for it. I simply ignored the glares and walked on. I saw Pyro, who had the largest smile I have ever seen. While continuing towards the back of the room, I was stopped however by none other than Rainbow Dash herself.
"What the buck was that?!" She nearly shouted at me.
"Bass drop, one of my tricks of the trade," I said to her with a confidant smile.
"Now why in all of Equestria would you want to do that?" She asked me in a very angry voice.
"Why wouldn't I? The whole party needed a big boom to keep it going," I said while smiling.
"How the hay are you even hearing anything by now?" She asked me, calmer than before.
"Question I've been asking myself since I started doing this," I said in a deadpanned tone.
"Right... Remind me to not hire you as a DJ if you'll do that," She said with a hint of a smirk.
"I rarely do that outside for reason, so I am still trustworthy," I told her, and then left.
As I walked to the table with muffins (How the muffins were still on the table, I don't know) I noticed that the Grey mare wasn't there now. I walked up to the table and picked up a muffin. After taking a bite out of it, my mind wandered to the time where I first got a job as a DJ.
"Dude, You certainly know your way around that DJ booth. I almost thought you were someone else," my soon to be boss said. My boss was an average man who had dreadlock hair that was the color of dirt. His clothing was pretty much screaming 1960's hippy because of the colors and the peace sign on the shirt. One would actualy mistake my boss for a hippy at a first glance, but I knew better.
"Thank you sir," I responded in a polite but nervous tone. My boss was the owner of the club named, Club Nectar and was very good at running it. I mainly heard it from the employees though, so I wasn't sure if it was true or not.
"You don't need to be so moddest to me man, you truly rocked the house so much that the roof moved," He said in his trademark hippy sounding voice.
"So... does this mean I got the job?" I asked, more nervous than I was ever before.
"If I told you no, then I would be denying myself of one cool DJ. Of course you got it, now you should really keep coming back man," He said to me in a profesional hippy voice. I let out a soft sigh of releif, knowing that I actualy got the job.
"Thank you So much sir!" I said to my boss.
"You don't need to call me sir," He told me, not in his hippy voice. He had a surprisingly low voice, despite his hippy tone (which was a little higher than his normal voice).
"Ok then, sir." I said again, "no...ah... oops..." and he laughed.
I was smileing broadly at the memory of years ago, when I was actualy not actively trying to keep everyone or thing from being friendly with me. The reason I loved to DJ was because they provide everyone with a song, a dance, a mood to have. I was not one to want to deny that. I was too fond of the music to hoard it all for myself. I also didn't notice a certain pony just walked up next to me until I actualy looked. I noticed the pony was a grey one with what looked to be a treble clef. The only noticable thing that she had was her pink bow tie.
"I haven't seen you before..." She said dully.
"I would say the same..." I said in suprised tone. How did she... oh right, I was not paying attention.
"May I ask you of why you are here?" She asked in a politely professional way.
"Party... and you?" I asked the grey mare.
"I have to keep an eye on Vinyl," She said with a sigh.
"Are you a musician?" I asked her.
"Yes, have you played any instruments?" She asked me back in a polite way.
"Not too much... the only instrument I truly got the hang of was the flute," I said.
"Ahh... I play the Cello," She said while looking me over with a careful look. It made me a bit uneasy of the musican looking me over like that. It wasn't my worry of being attacked, it was just that her gaze looked very criticizing to me.
"Well... I uh.... " I studdered before I closed my eyes and breathed in and out slowly to calm down. After doing that I opened my eyes again.
"Can I ask for your name and music preference?" I said with a questioning look.
"I am Octavia, I perfer Classical music but I do listen to Vinyl and her dubste musics." She said with a bit of an annoyed tone.
"Right... My name is John, and I actualy prefer all kinds of music. Classical is pretty relaxing in certain moments actually," I said and I think I saw Octavia brighten up a bit
"Now I heard that Vinyl was hiring you?" She asked me while I least expected it.
"Yes, how'd you-" I started before she interupted me in her polite way.
"Vinyl sent me a message... did she offer to show you where the station even is?" She asked me with care. I could tell that she was skilled at picking the right words with care. Most profesional musicans do that.
"... I knew I was forgeting something... No she didn't," I admited and she sighed.
"I suppose I can show you the same station I have to work at to put up with her antics," She told me.wait... I'm talking to my co-boss... oh great! I thought in my head with worry.
"Thank you... Can you show me after the party?" I asked her in a nervous voice.
"I can... Sometimes Vinyl forgets the way back to her own station, so I have to remember exactly where it is," She said calmly.
"Alright... Thank you" I said to Octavia before I left to wander around the party. Oddly enough, a strange thought comes to my head randomly. Didn't Dusk have a brother before? I thought. I decided that I would ask him after I looked through the radio station and made sure that I had a job. I would continue to wander through the bakery before I stumbled upon that grey pegasus with the yellow mane and the weird eyes. I would have called her beautiful, except that the eyes would always prevent somepony from doing exactly that. She stood in front of me with one eye looking at me, the other looking a diffrent way entirely.
"Do you like muffins?" She asks me.
"Yes... who are you?" I asked the grey Pegasus
"My name is Ditzy Doo, but you can call me Derpy. Most of my friends do," She said. Isn't that a bit demeaning? I thought.
"Well Ditzy, my name is John," I said calmly.
"Hello John, what's your favorite muffin?" She asks me, Intrigued.
"Anything that's not English," I said.
"Finaly! Somepony that agree's with me!" She said suddenly.
"...What?" I asked.
"Nothing..." She admited and I could swear for a fraction of a second, her eyes both looked at me before they... derped to looking opposite ways. I'm sure they would call her a klutz I thought.
"Can you fly?" She would randomly ask me out of nowhere.
"Fly? You mean flapping my wings so much that I can actualy get off the ground?" I said in a Disbelieving tone.
"Of course!" She said in a cheerful way.
"... right I'll just erm... let you eat the muffins." I said.
"Ok! I'll see you later than John!" She said as she flew off towards the muffin table. What a strange mare... I thought to myself. I shook my head and wandered around the party some more, it was slowly coming to an end anyways so I didn't have much else I could do.
"Hey, John!" I heard somepony call from the other side of the room. I looked over to see Dusk calling me over, "Come over here!"
I made my way over to him to see what he needed, "yeah Dusk, what do you need?"
"I am just wondering, where do you plan on staying?" he asked, concerned.
"Depends, I usualy sleep anywhere I can," I said, not really wanting to answer.
"Well, I think I might have a place for you to stay," he said with a grin.
Chapter 8
"You have got to be kidding me..." I said to Dusk in a very annoyed tone.
"No I am not kidding, she would be happy to give you a home," Dusk said.
"She lives in a tree at the edge of a forest where I appeared because of an artifact, the house is made of wood, and she cares for animals at the same time. Sorry but that doesn't sit well with me," I said to Dusk with a quick rant.
"Well you could live with Rarity," Dusk offered. I sarcasticly laughed but I shook my head no to Dusk's suprise.
"I'm not living with a pony who may possibly want to put me in a dress, I can tell that she makes clothing. I think I can sleep anywhere, but that doesn't mean that I will." I said even more annoyed.
"You can't always sleep anywhere," Dusk said in a concerned tone.
"I've been doing it ever since I disappeared a long time ago, I could even sleep in a tree if I wanted to," I said in a very annoyed tone.
"But-" Dusk started to say but I interupted him.
"Now if you excuse me... I've got a studio to go and tour," I said before walking away. I think I may have heard Dusk mutter something about me being more stubborn too, but I am pretty sure he'll get used to it. I was more focused on finding Octavia and touring my soon-to-be workplace.
It didn't take long for me to find Octavia, as I arranged for us to meet in front of Sugar Cube Corner before I left with Dusk to look at where I would "live". As I walked up to her, she turned to look at me, "Are you ready to go now?" She asked me blatantly.
"Yeah I'm ready, there's not much I can do today anyways," I told her while trying to keep my voice deadpanned as I could.
"Very well, just folow me and, try not to draw further attention to yourself," She said.
"Wait, my bass bomb got that much attention?" I asked, I was almost suprised that it did get attention, unlike back on Earth.
"It has, now we need to get going before Vinyl closes the doors for putting on her radio channel," She said to me in her calm way. I half smiled as I folowed Octavia towards the studio. This will be my best way of earning this world's currency... I probably should have asked what this world's currency is. I thought to myself. I mentaly shrugged as I continued towards a building with a pretty tall radio tower next to it. I was actualy suprised at the size of the radio tower, but the building was also pretty large too.
"We're here," Octavia said to me, I pulled myself out of my suprised state to answer her.
"This shouldn't be too hard for me to remember, that and it's a pretty large building." I said with a tiny smirk. I then heard another voice shout to us from the doors.
"Hey Octy! Hey John!" Vinyl called. I simply lifted one hoof in greetings as Octavia looked a tad annoyed, but was skilled at hiding it.
"Hello Vinyl," Octavia said. I looked directly at Vinyl in annoyance.
"Next time, how about you show me where the studio is," I said. Vinyl suprised me by facehoofing.
"Knew I forgot something, at least you still got here. Now let me show you around and introduce you to the other pony you will be working with," She said with a smirk.
"Wait, other pony?" I asked in confusion.
"Yeah, I hired her a long time ago. She doesn't work well with others but I think you may be able to change that," She said in a surprisingly serious tone.
"Right, what's her name?" I asked, completely ignoreing the detail about her not working with others. I've delt with stuff like that before, in fact I've actualy done the exact same thing while I was a treasure hunter.
"Midnight Song," She said to me, before leading me around the studio.
"And this is the electronic's room where we keep all of the speakers, headsets, wires, and even some turn tables," Vinyl said. I was very impressed with many features of her studio. I thought it was impressive, but the only time I was not impressed was the fact that I learned that Vinyl and Octavia actualy live in the studio. I knew of living where you work, but Vinyl just takes it to a diffrent level.
"Well, so far I think I would enjoy working here," I said
"Another one Vinyl? Didn't you learn your lesson?" I heard a voice from behind me say.
"I did, but this colt is diffrent from the last one," Vinyl replied to the voice. I turned around and found myself looking eye to eye with a pony. She was a blue color and had a smooth hair that was turquoise with a stripe of dark blue running through it. Her tail was a bit of a mess, but I could only guess it was natural for her.
"You must be Midnight Song," I said to the pony holding out my hoof.
"I am, and you must be the next worker who won't last a week," She replied in a very harsh tone.
"Listen here Midnight, I could really care less about what you call me. I am going to work here and I will last," I shot back.
"Really, bold words for a yellow Pegasus," She said to me in half mocking tone. I was trying to keep my anger under control while I talked with her, for some reason I was not happy about her attitude.
"I'm not just going to be called a pegasus, my name is John," I said to her.
"Well John, whatever kind of name that even is, I hope you're not as inexperienced as the last employee Vinyl so foolishly hired," She insulted.
"I'm just going to leave you two alone..." Vinyl said with worry, and left the room in a hurry.
"You have such nerve to call me inexperienced, did he get a cord plugged into the wrong outlet or something?" I asked Midnight in a mocking tone.
"And you think that I am inexperienced?" She said.
"Your words, not mine." I said with a smirk. She looked suprised and angry at the same time.
"How dare you! I will not be mocked by a Pegasus that doesn't even know an insult when he hears one," She said angrily.
"If you mean to call me a chicken, that would be a flightless bird right? Sadly that would have no effect on me," I explained to her. She glared at me with her sky blue eyes.
"So you do know insults, I hope you know your way around your own home," She taunted at me. I glared right back at her.
"Are you saying I have no sence of direction? Because I think that you get lost in your fantasy's more than I do," I shot back. She recoiled in suprised before lifting a hoof and slapping me. I did not even flinch or move, nor feel a thing. my anger was starting to become too overwhelming.
"I will not let you be so rude to me because you can't uphold your earlier boast," She said to me. I felt the burn on my cheek but I could care less about it. I've had girls slap me before and I became numb to the pain. The only thing that made it hurt more is the fact that I was slapped by a female horse . I won't let her get away with doing such a thing.
"Then maybe you should stop trying to insult every single Stallion that whistles at you, maybe then you could learn that what your trying to do is more rude than what I do." I complimented while at the same time insulted with a angry frown.
"Do you think that I am a Mare that wants Stallions to swoon over her?" She asks me in an angry voice.
"No, with the way you are acting, I would say you would rather kick them down than let them be nice to you," I answered her. She was silent in suprise for a moment before returning to her angry state.
"And with the way you are acting, I think that you don't have a love life!" She said to me. I was furious at her for saying that.
"How DARE you think that I have a heart made of stone! You have no idea what I have been through! Have you ever had your best friend betray you? Have you ever woken up in a strange place that you have never been to before, and have no clue how you even got there? Have you?" I shouted at her in a very pissed off tone. her eyes widened in suprised as I continued, "Just because you assume something of a pony, does not mean that they are always going to be what you think! Because of your attitude, I don't think I would enjoy working with you as much as I thought! But I enjoy being a DJ just as much as Vinyl does so I will stand it long enough until I can prove you wrong," I said.
"Go ahead and try, if you can somehow last a full week working here without asking Vinyl to quit, then I MAY be nicer to you." She said softer but still angrily, daring me to take it.
"Fine, starting next week I'll be working here for the whole week. I will prove you wrong and show you that there is someone who can stand up to you!" I said to her with an angry glare.
"No, not next week. Starting from tommorow you will work for a full work day. If you can be able convince yourself to keep working for a whole week, then I will belive you when you say that you're serious about your job," She said with a cocky smile, I was sure she was thinking that she won already, I was really going to prove her wrong.
"Fine, I'll be here tommorow anyways," I said as I opened the doors and stormed out them. As I turned back, I thought I saw her give a look of sadness for a breif moment. But she saw me looking and it switched back to a glare. I turned back around and walked outside of the studio.
As I was outside, I breathed in the fresh air and walked in no specific direction. I just wanted to walk around and try to calm myself before I blow up in front of another pony who doesn't deserve it. As I walked onwards, I noticed a certain red pony walk up to me.
"What do you want Pyro?" I asked with a sigh, being annoyed at him walking up next to me.
"Nothing, I was just wondering what you were doing out here alone," he said.
"I would much rather be alone right now, but that won't get rid of you would it?" I asked in a very annoyed tone.
"No, but if you asked nicely you could get me to leave, but it's too late" Pyro taunted to me in a lighthearted way.
"Fine, please go away and let me find a place to sleep." I said to pyro
"Didn't Dusk show you where you would sleep?" Pyro asked.
"Yes, but right now I am not going to sleep there," I said.
"So you are just going to keep walking?" He asked me.
"Yeah, pretty much," I responded in a deadpan tone.
"And I thought you were more fun..." Pyro said before leaving.
I was glad that he left me alone so I could at least focus and think. I don't know why... but I am sure that Midnight Song is hiding something like me. I act the same way she does because of it. I probably won't ask her until I proved her wrong however. I thought and I walked around the area that is closest to the radio station. Eventualy as the sun started to set, I found a place for me to sleep, a cold abandoned house. I could see that nothing would live in there so I decided to sleep there. When I opened the door (it was supriseingly unlocked) I found the house had old furniture where cobwebs have formed upon them. I walked upstairs to an old bedroom and found that the bed was there next to a window. I smiled at the fact that the bedroom had a bed under a window because I could easily sleep in a way where the sunlight could wake me up naturaly. I walked up to the bed and climbed into it. It was cold from disuse, but I didn't mind. I layed down on my stomach and arranged myself in such a way that when the light shone through the window it would shine on my head. After I got myself into a comfortable sleeping position I made sure that the sun could still shine on my head before I closed my eyes. By the time the last of the sunlight disapeared I was asleep in my bed. My dreams changed between my past life to seeing Midnight Song in the studio. Strangly enough, I couldn't tell the diffrence between the two.
Chapter 9
Friday
I opened my eyes to the sunlight shining on my eyes through the window, I slowly smiled at the warmth. Today was the day I begin my dare against Midnight Song, and I wasn't going to mess it up. As I got out of the bed, I looked out the window. Maybe I did my plan a bit too well, it's very early in the... know what? I'll go in early for work and suprise everyone. I thought to myself. I chuckled as I imagined the suprise on their faces when they find that I was already working so early in the morning.
As I walked through the town, I was actually suprised that I got up very early. Almost nopony was even up or even moving about. I then remembered the fact that Vinyl and Octavia lived in the radio station and I paused in my walking long enough to facehoof. As soon as I put my leg down to resume walking I chuckled softly to myself. At least they don't sleep in something that's quite possibly not theirs. I thought to myself as I continued to walk towards the large radio station. Since there was nopony even up by now, I was unhindered in my walk towards my new workplace.
When I got to the radio station and opened the door, I was suprised to find that it was unlocked. Remembering the tour that Vinyl gave me yesterday, I made my way towards the electronics room to look over the equipment before heading to the DJ room to make sure the turn tables were operational. As soon as I entered the electronics room I saw that it was in a bit of a mess. I sighed and started to clean it up and organize it properly by electronic type and name. I put the stereos in one part of the room; the headphones or headsets in a neat pile in the corner of the room. I arrayed the turn tables along the wall, and I also organized the vinyl records neatly on the shelf. By the time I finished, I heard somepony enter the room.
"John! What are you doing here?" I heard the pony ask.
"Organizing this mess of a room, what else?" I said in a confident tone.
"Normaly I'm the one who organizes this room, but now I think I can leave it to you if you keep doing this," The voice behind me said in a familar tone.
"Ahh, so you are the one who keeps things in order most of the times, Octavia?" I asked. I turned around and saw her look almost as awake as I was (Which was very awake).
"At least this means I have more time to practice playing my cello when the day ends," she said with a hint of a smile.
"You can thank me later, right now I need to make sure that the DJ's turntable and microphone are working properly," I said to her. Before I left the room, she stopped me for a moment.
"Would you mind cleaning up the instrument room? Since Vinyl used it for her storage of CD players I can't even get a step in there," She asked me politely.
"I wouldn't mind, I'll get to it once I finished with checking the radio equipment," I said and left the room.
By the time I finished examining and repairing all of the radio equipment, the sun was pretty high to signal that it is morning. I sighed in releif as I saw Vinyl Scratch walk into the radio room.
"Wow, I knew you were a DJ, but I didn't expect you to be that good," Viynl complemented, obviously very impressed.
"Yeah, everything's working fine. The microphone was on the fritz because of an overclocked energy surge, so I had to wire some of that energy to the turn table, don't worry the mic is still functioning properly along with the turn table," I explained to Vinyl who was looking at me in suprise.
"So that's why the mic kept fizzing like that..." She said to herself before smiling.
"I'm done here, so now I've got another room to go and organize," I said. As I was walking out of the room Vinyl stopped me. Again? I don't know why you and Octavia live in the radio station.
"When Midnight Song comes here, I want you two to be in the electronics room to make sure that all of the things there are in proper order," She told me, giving me my first official assignment.
"That shouldn't be too hard then. I just organized it this morning so I know where everything is," I said.
"Wait, I thought Octy organized that room?" She asked me in confusion.
"Well, I got here early so I did it for her," I said enjoying the suprise on her face.
"Dude, that means you made Octy's day a lot easier now!" She said in suprise.
"Your welcome, now if you excuse me," I said to her before leaving the room.
After I finished organizing the instrument room: it was full of violins, cellos, and all of the other string instruments, plus a few turntables and CD players. I walked out and admired my work. I sighed in releif that I finished another big job.
"So you were here early, that won't be enough to prove me wrong though," I heard a voice from behind me scoff.
"Midnight Song, since your here we need to go to the electronics room and look through the stuff in it," I said with no intent to start taunting her.
"At least you know when we have a job to do..." She said softly.
"I keep organized, and you would be wise to keep your thoughts to yourself, there are a lot of peop-- err... ponies that can use that against you," I said in a stern tone before walking towards the electronics room. I heard her fume for a moment before following me as well to the electronics room.
"Hey can you get me that screwdriver over there?" I asked Midnight Song.
"Can't you get it yourself?" She said in a half taunting tone.
"I'd love to, but I can't float things, and I need to keep my hoof here to hold this thing in place so it won't fall out," I explained in an annoyed tone, holding up a panel of the ceiling that had gotten loose.
"Then why are you complaining about it?" She taunted as she gave me the screwdriver. I picked it up in my mouth and used it to screw the ceiling into place.
"Because I ha'e w'ng's" I said with my voice muffled by the screwdriver. Once the ceiling was screwed back into place I put the speaker back into place and screwed it back on, "useless wings," I said, my mouth now free of the screwdriver.
"So do I, but you don't hear me complaining about it," She said with an arrogant tone. I put the screwdriver down and turned to her.
"That's because you don't look at what you don't have, you always look at the things you have," I said before moving towards the turntable.
"Why do I need to look at what I dont have? I'm fine with what I don't have, horns are over-rated," She said as she helped me to open up the turntable.
"If you understand what you don't have, then maybe you could be able to understand the way you act. Keep an eye on that wire would you?" I said while pulling out another wire and cord using my hooves. I was smart enough to not try to mess with wires using my mouth, because that's a good way to get yourself electrocuted.
"And what if I am fine with what I have? That green wire should go there," She said as I plugged the green wire into the input jack that she pointed out. Her face getting close to mine. I caught a whiff of some really good smelling perfume. I shook the scent from my thoughts.
"Thanks, and if you are truly fine with what you have, then you should stop lying to yourself about it," I said as I continued to work on the turntable cords.
"What makes you think I am lying to myself?" She asked me in a dangerously annoyed tone. I plugged in the final wire before answering her.
"Because you are not the only pers- pony who has acted that way. On three we close the turntable," I said, and I counted to three before I worked with her to close the turntable shut.
"And what makes you such an expert on this?" She asked, daring me to answer.
"Because I've seen it before," I said simply and walked to the headsets. We both didn't say another word to each other because oddly enough, Midnight Song speechless after that. Showed her, didn't I?
By the time the day finished, I was just about ready to relax when Midnight Song glared at me.
"What did you mean earlier when you said that you've seen it before?" She asked me in a very angry tone.
"You aren't the only pony I know who has acted that way," I said vaguely. She did not take that for an answer and blocked me as I was trying to exit the room.
"And you know of any other ponies who acted the way you claim I do?" She asked me in a very angry tone.
"Look, it's been a long day, and I would perfer not to share my personal life with a worker that I barely know," I said to her, equally as annoyed as she was.
"Oh, so you don't want to share your life huh? Then I won't let you leave until you tell me why you think you know me!" She said and quite literly blocked the doorway.
"You've got to be kidding me, I don't want to have to try to barrel my way through you because I don't like to hurt mares," I said in a very annoyed tone.
"Then answer my question, why do you think that I'm lying to myself?" She asked, glaring at me, her eyes filled with hatred.
"Fine, I'll answer you because your being such a damn prick about it! I know because I act the same way, now move!" I said in a very angry way.
"And here I thought you were layed back, looks like you are not a-" She started to say but I got up in her face.
"Look here miss, if you lived the life I have lived then you would actualy see why I would call you lucky. Now move before I change my mind about hurting you," I said to her in a dangerous voice, I fought back tears as the memory once again filled my mind. I was not in any mood to try to deal with her any further because I was tired of seeing my own reminder in front of me, in the form of a Mare for even further insult too.
"Wha-" She started to say but I simply brushed past her and started to walk towards the door. I heard her shout at me.
"Why don't you make yourself more clearer than what you seem to act like! I think you're not the only one who notices!"
"Buck off, I don't need to tell you a damn thing anymore," I shot back.
I barely got to the front door when Midnight Song tackled me in anger.
"Stop acting like your life is such a failure then!" She shouted while on me. I shoved her off and lowered myself to try to suprise her with a tackle.
"Who says my life is a failure! My life is more hellish than a failure!" I shouted. She did not flinch and she noticed what I was planning on doing.
"Then why do you keep talking about it?" She asked me angrily. I responded by switching my stratagy at the last moment and I charged straight at her. She simply side stepped my charge.
"Because you are not my friend! With the way you act, I think you would find I would not be willing to share everything with someone who I just met. That and you are getting on my nerves!" I shouted and charged again. She side stepped it and I narrowly avoided running into the wall.
"Well we are Co-workers though, so we shouldn't keep secrets from each other!" She said with a smirk.
"I'll share mine if you share yours," I taunted at her and she was suprised for a moment before glaring at me. I glared right back at her, before we were interupted by a certain white unicorn.
"You both should really stop fighting..." I heard a white unicorn who I recognized as being Dusk's daughter, Dawn, say. After a moment of silence I heard Midnight Song speak up.
"Your probably right, I don't need to waste time by fighting this yellow Pegasus," She said before walking off. I seethed in anger before sighing. God freaking damn it... I thought to myself. I then noticed Dawn walking up to me.
"Are you ok?" She asked, concerned.
"I'll be fine... Does she know you though?" I asked.
"Yes, I'm her room mate's... um... reallyclosefriend... actualy, I just came to visit her and see how she's doing at work sometimes," She said in a very concerned tone.
"Yeah, well tell your friend to tell her to actualy be able to keep herself from trying to hide something. It retracts from her beauty.... and don't tell her I just said that," I added with a slight blush. I walked off before I could hear Dawn say anything else. I was pretty sure she was blind, but she may have noticed I wasn't there somehow, right now I could really care less.
I walked through the town in another attempt to calm myself before I tried to blow up in front of another pony. I only would hope that Pyro was not around to prevent that this time. Luckily for me he wasn't, but I was still interupted by a mint green unicorn.
"What do you want?" I asked the newcomer.
"Nothing, was just wondering what you were doing," She said before running off, strangely she seemed to be trying to hide happyness. I did my mental shrug, That might probably come back to bite me later. I thought and resumed walking. Since I had nothing else to do, I thought about heading to Sugar Cube Corner to get something sweet to eat. I decided against it however, because I was going to need to head back to the radio station tommorrow. So I started to walk towards the abandoned house again.
By the time I got to what I was beginning to call home, the sun was already starting to set. I decided that now would be a fine time to get rest, since I'll be getting up early for the rest of the week of the dare. As I entered the building, I didn't notice anything out of place, so I figured it really was abandoned after all. I smiled for a moment before walking back upstairs to the bed that I slept in the night before. I used the same stratagy I did yesterday and put my head near the spot where the sunlight will shine down. As the moon rose in the distance, I admired it's beauty from where I was before closing my eyes and drifting off to sleep.
Chapter 11
Sunday
This morning was diffrent somehow when I got up, it felt... warmer than normal. As I got up, I felt something slide off of me. After getting out of bed I looked at the object, it was a blanket. I did a double take when my mind registered that it was a blanket. I remembered I didn't go to sleep with a blanket on me, I didn't even have one anyways. I looked closer at the blanket and noticed that it was a color of dark blue and had music notes upon it. I felt like I know this from somewhere, but I shook my head. I decided to head to work and do my job as I normally as I did for the past two days. As I walked down the steps, I had to avoid stepping on that step that I made a hole in. I'll need to get that step fixed sometime, someone could get hurt. Me. I thought. Sighing when I reached the bottom floor, I made my way out of the building to head to the radio station once more.
I arived at the radio station at the same time as I would usualy do, and entered into the building. As I walked past the electronics room, I stopped and looked into the room. There was an unusual sight: Midnight Song was asleep in the electronics room. I looked at the scene in confusion, before shaking my head and heading to the radio room to make the inspection of the radio equipment. When I got there however, I noticed that the equipment already had marks of them being recently inspected. It takes a trained eye to see the marks, and I have been experienced in looking for the marks. I was confused on who would possibly inspect the equipment at this time of the day. Until I remembered that there were other pony's besides me who could do the same thing, and one of them was asleep in the electronics room. I decided to investigate the instrument room since I couldn't do anything else in the radio room. When I got there, I was glad to see that I still could do something. The instrument room was in a disordered mess, but it still had retained some traces of my organizing. I sighed and then smiled at what I needed to do. So I went through the task of organizing the entire room as I normaly do.
After I finished organizing the room, I looked around before heading back to the electronics room. On the way there, I saw Octavia walking the opposite way I was.
"Octavia, fancy seeing you again," I said politely with a smile.
"And you as well, Midnight Song wanted me to inform you that she did a few of the things that you would normaly do, such as organizing the electronics and inspecting the radio equipment." She said to me poilitely.
"Really? At least she left me the job of organizing the instrument room, I would hate to have nothing to do," I said jokingly.
"She normaly never does things like this for any of our previous employee's however..." She said with a frown.
"I... don't know why she would do this either, but I want to know something, do you know why she so happens to act harshly towards Stallions?" I asked.
"I cannot say why... I actualy don't know myself, neither does Vinyl. The only pony she told the reason to is her roommate," She told me calmly.
"Alright, thank you for at least giving me a lead about this though, and don't tell Midnight I asked you," I said before continuing on to the electronics room. If I ever see Dawn again, then I can ask her who Midnight's roommate is. I thought to myself. I smiled at the plan I made, and went into the electronics room to wake up Midnight Song for work.
After Waking Midnight up, I worked with her to fix more of the electronics in the room, and the occasional ceiling when a peice of it comes loose. The whole time while I worked, I was trying very hard to not look at Midnight. However I would get a glimpse of her and I notice certain details about her: Her mane's beauty, her graceful movements, her- I need to stop this now, before my narration turns into something that would only complement her! I tried my best to remain focused on my work, but no matter how hard I tried, I always had my thoughts randomly return to her. I then slammed my screwdriver to the floor out of annoyance.
"Something wrong?" She asked me in a surprised tone, then repeated the question in a more annoyed tone, "Something wrong?"
"I can't seem to focus on my work now..." I muttered to myself.
"Something distracting you?" She asked me with a bit of concern.
"No, more like someone, I can't stop thinking about her," I responded with a bit of annoyance and a quick glance in her direction.
"Is it your wife?" She asked me with a mock frown.
"Yes, I mean no, I mean... Gah!" I studdered to her amusement.
"Who are you really thinking about?" She asked, getting closer to me.
"No one you would know!" I shouted, causing her to back up.
"Oh really, tell me who it is then," She said, trying to figure out who I was distracted by.
"Well... Someone did something nice to me this morning... I had... a blanket over me," I said in a very uncertain way.
"Really? Why would you care about that? It is just a blanket after all," She said in a voice that was close to taunting.
"Yes, but I know that I didn't sleep in a bed with a blanket on it though. I actualy didn't have anything over me at all, so of course I was suspicious," I said with a frown, now thinking out loud more than talking to her.
"Someone told me that you sleep with a friend, is this true?" She asked me.
"I don't sleep with anyone, I actualy sleep in an entirely diffrent house," I said with a questioning look.
"Would this house happened to be abandoned?" She asked in a way that evenI couldn't tell what she was thinking of.
"Yes, but how did you even know about that anyways?" I asked, suprised. I saw her look suprised and she turned away for a quick moment. I couldn't see her face but she turned back looking very mad.
"Somepony told me about it!" She near shouted at me. I sighed with a small groan.
"Figures, they do tell other ponies, at least they would leave me alone anyways..." I said to myself.
"So it is true then?" She asked me curiously.
"Yeah, it is true. The only reason I live in that house is because it's closer to the radio station anyways," I deadpanned. I turned to continue working and ended the conversation there before it went further.
The work day ended, and as I started to walk out of the room, when Midnight stopped me midway to the door.
"Can I ask you something else?" She asked in an attempt to look curious.
"Fine, but I won't always garentee an answer for you however," I said in annoyance.
"Do you have somepony who you don't like, but you can't stop thinking about that pony?" She asked me. You have no idea how close you are to my problem. I said in my head. I frowned and answered her.
"Yes, but I don't think you would be able to guess who she is," I said as calmly, and annoyed as I could.
"Would you want to do anything for that pony?" She asked me to my surprise and fluttering her beautiful, beautiful... ey--Okay, this is outrageous!
"I would, Once she stops hurting herself with lies about herself." I said, and walked right out without saying anything else.
As I walked back to the abandoned house that I call home, I heard someone call my name. I looked around and found the white unicorn motioning for me to come over.
"You need something from me Dawn?" I asked, being annoyed at being stopped by somepony I barely knew.
"I wanted to ask you something, A certain pony I know said that you seem to be suffering from your past," She said in a calm way. I did a soft growl,'will they ever learn to not ask me about my past already... I thought angerly.
"Fine, I can say it is true, my past always haunts me and I know for a fact that I cannot escape it. I never could escape it because I always eventualy get reminded of it later on," I said, trying hard to keep my deadpanned look. I also added softly, "I never had a reason to stay happy anymore."
"Why do you think that you cannot escape your past?" She asked me. I looked at her with an angry, but sad glare.
"Why the hell do you care... No one would ever care without their reasons," I said in anger.
"Because-" She started to say, but I lifted a hoof to stop her.
"Dawn, I appreciate your concen and wanting to help me. But I can tell you this, not even a princess can help me. At least, not anymore," I said and I turned away from her and walked away. She said nothing else as I walked towards the place where I sleep.
When I entered into the house that I called "home", I felt safe enough to reveal myself as what I truly felt like. My deadpanned look slowly melted and my tears fell off my face to hit the wooden floor. I continued to let my tears fall as I walked back up the stairs to the bedroom, where I would sleep again. When I entered the room, I became angry and punched a wall of the bedroom hard enough that I would hurt myself with it. I held back my punch enough to not bleed on the wall or punch through it. My punch however didn't help at all, and I slowly slid my hoof down the wall to the floor. I was very angry of what I couldn't do. I closed the door before walking to the bed, I acted strong because I did not want to show that I couldn't even handle my own past. I didn't want to let others see that I was suffering because of it. I eventualy went to the bed and sat down upon it, I continued to let my tears fall onto the bed. I then heard someone open the door and I did not look up.
"Get the hell out of here," I said in a weak threat.
"Is that how you usually treat co-workers?" I heard a familar voice ask.
"What the hell do you want Midnight?" I said in a mix between anger, surprise, and sadness.
"Nothing... are you crying?" She asked me with real concern in her voice for once.
"Why the hell would you care, I'm nothing but a freaking punching bag to you," I responded, more tears falling from my eyes.
"I never used you as a punching bag," She said soothingly and took a few steps closer, it only served to infuriate me.
"Then why the hell did you follow me? So you could get me to admit something to you?" I asked out of anger, but I still could not stop myself from crying.
"I'm suprised that you can actualy cry," She said in a very weak taunt. I lost my anger and looked back down.
"Leave me alone..." I said, hoping that she would get the hint that I didn't want to talk to her. She however walked up to me and put a hoof on me.
"You hide something that you don't want to show others... perhaps you do know more than I would dream of knowing," She said in a voice equaling my sadness.
"I noticed..." I said in a very sad tone, I layed my head down upon the cold mattress that was being soaked with my tears.
"So did I, but I thought you were hiding something like you were royalty or something," She admited to me.
"I was never royalty... Never will be... My life was a peice of crap, so to hell with those who are royal. Having nothing to do because they even get their arses wiped for them," I said with a sad smile, and she chuckled.
"I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't like royalty, you should hear about what happened at the last Gala," She said.
"Perhaps another day, but since your here. It's getting late, so do you want to sleep here?" I offered to her in a show of rare generocity.
"I was going to ask the same thing actualy, would you mind if we shared the mattress?" She asked.
"Yes, I don't want you having a problem with trying to find a place where you can sleep on the floor. I'll give you the bed," I said, and as I got off of the bed she put a hoof on my side.
"Have problems with sharing a bed with another Mare?" She asked me with a small smile. I was silent before I layed down exactly where the sunlight would shine on me in the morning.
"Fine... you can at least sleep there, but don't try to make this a habit," I said with a teasing tone.
"I can't make it a habit because my roommate would panic if I did this so much," She said with a smile.
"Goodnight Midnight," I said and I layed down on the bed. I closed my eyes, but before I went to sleep, I thought of one last thing. I'm glad that I was dead wrong when I told Dawn about nothing being able to help me... Maybe she can finaly help me to heal from the past. I smiled at the thought, and then slowed my breathing down enough to go into a deep sleep.
Chapter 12
Monday
I opened my eyes to the sun shining down directly on me this time. I would smile as I slowly remembered what happened yesterday night, but when I decided to look at where she slept, I saw that the blanket was over me and Midnight Song. She wasn't in the place where I saw her sleep last night. So when my mind finally processed that fact that she was sleeping right next to me, I panicked and fell right out of the bed. The result was me landing hard on the floor and waking up Midnight.
"Are you ok?" She asked, sounding very concerned.
"Wha- Why were you just sleeping next to me?!" I asked her, while trying to stay calm as I could.
"What do yo-" She started, before noticing exactly where she was on the bed.
"Ohmygosh! When did I get over here?" She asked about as surprised as I was.
"You don't know either?" I asked, slowly calming myself down.
"No, did we-" She started to say, but I knew what she was going to say, and my face turned very red. It was about the same color as a tomato.
"Fudge Waffles!" I shouted, seemingly at random.
"What?" She asked, being confused at my random outburst.
"Igottagoseeyouatwork!" I said quickly and ran out of the room, down the stairs, and out of the house. As soon as I was outside I stopped and forced myself to breathe in and out slowly. As the red faded from my face, I started to calm down. I closed my eyes in thought, Ok, recap of what happened... I woke up, saw a mare sleeping next to me, panicked, and now ran out of the house. I can't believe I slept right next to a Mare and a co-worker too! I decided to push my thoughts away so I could go to work. I opened my eyes, calm as I could be, and made my way towards the Radio Station.
I arrived at the station a minute later than when I normally arrive, but it was still early so I could do my work anyways. I entered the radio station and did the daily inspection of the radio equipment. After doing that, I walked to the instrument room to organize it again. It was more of a mess this time but I could still handle it, except that all of the CD players were blocking entrance to the instruments in the back so I had to move them first.
After I finished organizing the Instrument room, which was harder than usual this time, I went to the electronics room. When I entered the room, there was no pony inside of the room. I had it all to myself for now. So the first thing I did was go to a turn table and open it up to look at the circuits inside of it. The whole entire time was me working on as much of the electronics as I could, so I could forget what happened this morning. Every time I remembered, my face would start to turn red until I lightly hit my head against the wall repeatedly until it faded. Why did I fall for that trick...? This morning was so embarrassing to me, but did I really- no I don't want to think about it. I thought to myself, after my mental talk I became extremely focused on my work.
Midnight Song arrived minutes after I made my attempt to settle my thoughts down. We then talked to each other, and Pinkie Promised to not ever tell another pony about what happened. I then took a chance and asked her a question,
"You... were kidding about this morning when you thought we-" I started, but this time, Midnight Song interrupted me.
"Yes, I was kidding, you really should have seen the look on your face when you thought that!" She said with a chuckle. I was really angry at her for kidding about something like that.
"The look on whose face?" A voice asked scaring both Midnight and I so much then I almost jumped. I calmed down when I noticed it was Dusk who was visiting. I wondered why Dusk would want to visit me, until I noticed Rainbow Dash at the door of the room.
"Yeah, she pulled a prank on someone with me... a very funny one too." I said, hoping that whatever higher deity they worshiped here would not have him ask me who it was. By sheer luck, he did not ask.
"Alright then, can you come with me for today though?" He asked me in a calm way.
"What for?" I asked him, being confused about why he would need me.
"Well Rainbow wanted me to help you to learn how to fly, since you’re a Pegasus." He said in a strangely cryptic way. I've got a really bad feeling about this... I thought to myself, but I agreed with him and after telling Midnight of why I needed to go out. She agreed to tell Vinyl about it, after all, I did need to learn how to fly somehow... right?
"You’ve got to be kidding me!" I exclaimed, very worried about how he wanted me to try to fly.
"It was not my idea for this, besides you need to fly sometime." Rainbow said, while making sure she kept on eye on me.
"I am standing at the top of a cliff!" I exclaimed, even more worried than before.
"Yes, but at least you will learn anyways." He said, before walking up to me with the intent to push me.
"Hell no! You are not going to push me off!" I shouted, before doing the most stupid thing I've ever done, jump off the cliff myself. Why the hell did I jump off the cliff myself? I asked myself in my head as I fell. At least he won't push me... but now I think I am going to die! I thought to myself with slowly growing panic. As the ground loomed closer, time seemed to slow around me. I looked around at the slowly passing surroundings until I saw a bird. The bird was flapping its wings in a way that would keep it up in the air. My eyes widened at the sight, and a plan came to my head. Flap your wings; you must somehow flap your wings to slow down! I shouted in my head. I turned back to the ground and closed my eyes, waiting for the ground to hit hard.
After a while and the lack of hitting sold ground, I opened one eye. I saw that I stopped falling, and when my hearing came back, I heard the sound of flapping near me. I opened both eyes and looked around for the source. When I decided to look at my back, I saw that I was flapping my wings. I'm... flying? I thought, being very confused about what I just did. Something in my head was helping me to fly, or at least hover anyways. I smiled and slowly started to lower towards the ground.
As soon as all of my hooves touched the ground, I resisted the urge to try to kiss the ground. I then noticed a certain orange Pegasus walked up to me, looking very impressed.
"Hi Scootaloo," I said to her, and she would keep smiling.
"Hey John, so how was it?" She asked me seriously.
"Well, I may not have flown anywhere, but at least I think I can do that again." I said, with a bit of doubt in my head.
"Well, despite the method that was used to help you learn, I would say you did good for just learning." She complemented, and in response I flapped my wings once to make sure I have the ability to move my wings become stuck in my head. It will probably come to me naturally later however.
"Great, so now what?" I asked Scootaloo.
"Now, we just need to teach you how to fly for real." She said with confidence. Strangely enough, the confidence reminded me of someone.
"Can I ask you something first," I asked her.
"Sure, what is it?" She replied.
"Do you happen to know of someone named Morning?" I asked with a bit of curiosity for if he was here. I then saw her confident manner disappear; instead it was replaced by a sad look.
"Yes... he was my husband," She said sadly.
"Was?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, He died though..." She said, tears slowly coming to her eyes as she remembered the time she heard the news.
"Oh my god... erm... goddess, I'm so sorry to hear that." I said, sounding surprised and sad at the same time.
"At least the one who killed him got what was coming to him..." A voice from my right said.
"I'm glad to hear that Dusk, Anyone who kills a brother of an old friend does not deserve to remain free." I said, with a frown.
"Yes... in fact I only knew because I saw it in a dream, but I couldn't do anything." He said sadly. I know the feeling, because I had to go through something similar to that, only it wasn't a dream, it was reality turning my life into a living hell.
"I see... so how can I learn to fly?" I asked, changing the subject to something more cheerful than the current one. I almost cursed myself for not coming to this world earlier, but I knew that I couldn't have saved him anyways, even if I was there right next to him.
"All I need to do is control my flight path and flap my wings? That sounds easy." I said, after Scootaloo gave me a very detailed lesson about how to fly. I may not do any of the tricks that she mentioned yet, but I'll try them when I become more experienced. I smiled and decided to try it out. I opened my wings and started to flap them and I felt my hooves leave the ground. I could see that Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were proud to see me fly for the first time, and I started to go higher. After I reached a good height, I started to move forwards. I smiled as I flew forwards, I felt so free now...so happy. That feeling ended when I got distracted by pinkie pie zooming past me in the air. I lost control of my wings and started to fall towards a building that had a carousel on the roof. Oh crap... I thought to myself, before I crashed through the roof. I missed the carousel, so I didn't hurt myself badly.
What I did do was crash through a room and knock over a bunch of mannequins and cloth. Some of the cloth fell upon me, and I was very dazed from the crash. When I heard a lady like shriek, I shook myself out of the daze and some of the cloth to see Rarity looking directly at me, I swear that if she wasn't white already I would have seen her face pale. I was still a bit dizzy but I could still be able to see straight. The only thing that was going through my mind at the moment was how much pain I was in from crashing through a roof. My mind then suddenly changed from the pain, to why Rarity was here. When I looked around, it became very clear about the reason. I just crashed into Rarity's house didn't I...? I thought to myself. I grumbled to myself as I got up, and saw Rarity pull up a couch and faint upon it. Uhh... what? I thought in confusion, but it didn't last long when I saw a purple reptile walk into the room.
"Hey Rarity I got the-" It started to say, but then noticed the room having a hole in the roof.
"What just happened here?" it asked, putting down the basket of gemstones, I could tell he was trying hard to not eat one.
"Erm... Sorry for crashing through her roof?" I said, with a sheepish grin. The purple lizard looked me in a very serious way. I decided to make a quick exit, stage left through the window before the lizard could say anything else.
I was very tired by the time I got to my house. I ran all the way there, not even stopping for anything. Oh man, first pony's now lizards in different colors... I think this world just decided to have me think I've gone crazy, and I would if I didn't confirm that it was real. I thought to myself, before sighing and heading into my house. I walked up the steps, stepping on yet another bad step and nearly getting my leg stuck in it. I got to my bed room, only to find that the bed was missing. Instead, there was a note where the bed once was. I walked up to it and read the note to myself,
Dear John,
Sorry, but I think you should actually sleep somewhere that is not abandoned, I've already found a place for you but it's up to you if you want it or not. I wouldn't care if you don't take it, but I would recommend that you do. The way to get there is below.
- Midnight Song
(P.S. Don't tell anypony that I helped you, ok?)
I smiled and picked up the note and folded it, before hiding the note in my mane. I was surprised that Midnight actually decided that I should actually get a home, weather I like it or not. I decided that I had nothing better to do and followed the note's directions to the new place where I would sleep.
When I got to the end of the directions, I was looking at the house in awe. How did she know that yellow is my favorite color? I thought, as I gazed upon a two floor yellow house. The key also hung right next to the front door. It also had a string around it, so I could carry it with me. I smiled and took the key to unlock my new home.
Inside was barely furnished, except with a brown couch and a small brown table next to it. I figured she thought I would furnish it later, but I liked the simplicity of the house already. I also was too tired to try to think of what furniture to get, so I walked upstairs and found my bedroom easily. It oddly looked almost the same as the abandoned house's bedroom, except with the walls being plain wood and the bed actually having sheets upon them. The sheets were a white color and the bed also was below a window. I was tired to look around anymore, so I just flopped upon the bed and made sure that the sun would awaken me as before. I didn't even bother to go under the sheets, and I closed my eyes to sleep once more.
Chapter 13 (John) Tuesday
Chapter 13
Just another Tuesday
I woke up at the same time that I would usually wake up by the sunlight. I got out of the bed and looked around the room. Ever since I got a new home, courtesy of Midnight Song, I had a new place to sleep. I smiled once again, and felt a strange giddiness wash over me for a moment. I used to feel this way when I was preparing to do something interesting during the day. This day is the day where I go and work for the rest of the day, no breaks or anything! I thought to myself with pride. I made my way to the front door and walked outside into the early morning. I had my destination: the radio station.
-------
When I arrived at the radio station, I immediately got to work. I did my usual inspection of the radio equipment, organized both the instrument and electronic room, and started to repair a few of the speakers and turn tables. I worked with a bit of joy, but as I worked, it slowly faded away. It would be gone when it was the morning. When Midnight Song arrived, I was pretty much back to my normal self. I looked at her for a moment, and nodded. When she walked towards a speaker, I turned back to my work again. I only nodded to show her that I noticed her and that I would stay out of her way for today. At least, that's what I hoped that was the message she got.
-------
It was in the afternoon, and I was working with Midnight on removing a speaker that was stuck to the ceiling (how, I will never know), when I felt like someone was trying to jump me. I decided to follow that instinct and ducked, and saw Pinkie Pie fly over my head. She was surprised that she missed me, and hit the speaker. That resulted in her falling with the speaker, and I quickly moved to catch the speaker with my hooves and Pinkie Pie on my back. After succeeding in doing so, I set the speaker down carefully and Pinkie Pie climbed off of my back.
"Next time, don't ever try to jump me," I said to Pinkie Pie in a very annoyed tone.
"Wow! How did you learn to move that fast?" Pinkie said, completely ignoring my warning.
"Experience mostly, and a good amount of time avoiding dart traps and punches," I explained to her in a flat tone.
"You must have really been in a few bar fights to move like that," Midnight complemented in a worried tone.
"Well, I was defending myself or others. Now why are you here Pinkie?" I said, completely changing the subject.
"I wanted to visit you and-" She started to say, but then I covered her mouth quickly.
"Oops, almost broke my Pinkie Promise!" she exclaimed suddenly.
"What Pinkie Promise?" I asked, being confused about what she would Pinkie Promise about.
"Nothing," She said quickly, and I sighed.
"At least your still okay," I said with a small groan, Pinkie just smiled vary widely.
After my work hours ended, I stayed later to work overtime, to Midnight's surprise. So she decided to do the exact same thing, to my surprise. Why would she do this? Does she... no, she's just a friend of mine, nothing more... Right? I thought to myself, and went straight back to work. I didn't dwell on the question because I oddly enjoyed her company while working. It makes my life seem less horrible with her around.
I worked for about an hour past the time when I would usually leave. I just finished putting a speaker back together, when I noticed a large blue pony walk into the room. I would half smile when I remembered her as Luna.
"Need something from me?" I asked her in a curious tone.
"No, I only just wanted to talk with you," She said in a worriedly.
"You sound worried, how come?" I asked, being curious about what could possibly make her concerned.
"We have seen thy past," She said in what I could assume was an ancient language, sorta like the old English language. I figured that she was older than she looks.
"Yeah, it is never pretty for me to remember, also, why do you speak like that?" I said, reminding her of the year in a polite way.
"Sorry, I am still learning to speak more modern," She said with a slight blush and avoiding my question.
"Don't worry, you’re at least learning," I told her in an attempt to encourage her.
"Thank you, now the reason I am here is because Celestia wanted me to give you this," She said, and handed me a very thick book that said, The History of Equestria . I marveled at how thick the book was, but I decided to take it.
"I wasn't aware history books were that thick," I said in a light tone.
"Celestia thought that you could probably use this to study more about our land," She said, while I picked it up with difficulty.
"Alright, Send my... Regards to Celestia, your highness," I said, before walking to the middle of the room and setting the thick book down with a thud. Midnight would bow to the princess as she leaves the room.
--------
"So, that's how this country... land... place was made..." I said to myself. I was reading for the rest of the day, since nothing else was broken.
"You're really going to read that whole thing?" Midnight asked me in surprise.
"Yep," I said simply.
"But it will take you all night to read it," She said in a very worried tone.
"I've stayed up late reading stuff thicker than this, I think I can read this book from cover to cover before the day ends," I said with a confident smirk, but in reality I was worried about how big the book was.
"Alright, make sure you don't fall asleep in the station, like Vinyl, then." She told me, and walked to her home. I sighed after she left the room.
"Time to make due on this," I said to myself and started to read through the thick history book.
About an hour later, I was only halfway through the entire thing. The moon shined through the window, and I was trying my hardest to stay awake.
"Must... stay... awake..." I said to myself, but I couldn't stop myself from yawning. My eyes started to droop closed, but I shook myself awake again. It was hard, but I was determined to read through the entire book.
My fight with sleepiness ended when the time became Midnight, and my head would land right in the book with my eyes closed. My dreams were visions of the past, and some of the events were not exactly as it said in the history book I was reading. Then I noticed a pony that looked similar to me. That pony however, had a light brown mane instead of a dark brown mane. He also had no weapon on him; all he had was his shield. The shield was made out of metal, but it shined like silver, and upon the center of the shield, was the mark of a sun.
Chapter 14 (Midnight Song) Wednesday
Chapter 14
Perspective: Midnight Song
Wednesday
The alarm clock started to ring and I tiredly reached over and hit the snooze button. I was tired, but I knew I would be fully awake by the time I finished my daily routine. My roommate Blitz, a deep ocean blue unicorn with a blond mane and tail, was aware of this routine, and knew better than to try to interrupt it by walking into the bathroom while I was taking a shower. As I made my way to the bathroom for my shower, I thought about my co-worker. I really hope he at least decided to follow my advice and sleep in his bed. The thoughts would fade away as I turned on the warm water and stepped into the shower.
A few minutes later, and I walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my mane. Blitz was already up and she looked at me.
"Morning Midnight," She said cheerfully, as usual, with an oxymoron.
"Morning Blitz," I said in a deadpanned tone. We always start the morning off this way, and I was not much of a morning pony (hence the name Midnight ). That and her greetings became a bit dull to me over time.
"Another day as usual?" She asked me, I sighed.
"Yeah, just another regular day," I responded in a bored tone.
"Do you think John is asleep by now?" She asked me out of the blue.
"He probably would be awake by now, he's always there first thing in the morning. I would say he is more of a morning pony than I am," I responded with a tired tone, "not really hard to do though."
"Well, would you want to kiss him?" She asked me, while acting innocent.
"No, I thought I told you that already!" I exclaimed angrily, "you and your kissing obsession..." that last part I mumbled to myself.
"Sorry, just thought your view of him changed. guess not," She said, but her mischievous smile said otherwise. I rolled my eyes.
"I'll be going to work now. If you need me you know where to find me," I told her, hoping that she wouldn't try to bug me about anything.
"Okay!" She said with a salute as I walked out of the door.
I made a stop on my way to the radio station at a coffee shop. Looking over the menu, I saw that they had coffees of different flavors. Most of it was different brands of coffee, but one of them looked more special than the other ones. "Yellow sunshine? Is that even a coffee flavor?" I asked myself softly, before deciding to walk in and try it. I walked up to the counter and the cashier looked at me.
"May I help you?" He asked me in a tone that shows he's been working here for a long time.
"Yes, may I try the yellow sunshine coffee?" I asked him, and he looked at me in surprise.
"You’re the first pony today that's asked for that flavor, for that I'll give you a second one for free," He said, I smiled but internally face hoofed. I hoped that this coffee was worth getting, but I would have no reason to drink two cups of it.
"Here you go, two yellow sunshine coffees. That will be four bits," He said after putting two coffee cups on the counter. He knew that I was going to travel so he included something to carry the coffee with, and I paid him the price for the coffee with a one bit tip in thanks.
I walked out of the coffee shop with the coffees on my back, and I started my way towards the radio station for work.
When I got to the radio station, I saw Vinyl outside the doors. I said my usual greeting to her, and she responded with a usual hoof wave before walking into the radio station. I entered in myself and walk towards the electronics room. When I got there, I found a sight that I facehoofed at. John asleep with his head in the book. Guess he ignored my advice yesterday about it. I thought to myself with a small chuckle, before going to him and nudging him gently awake. He lifted his head pretty tiredly, and looked at me. His eyes were all crusty with sand from the Sand Stallion.
"Hmm... what time is it?" He asked, being pretty tired from just waking up.
"Around six in the morning," I said with a frown. He snapped his eyes open fully before jumping up to all of his legs.
"Aw crap!" He said with a surprised but angry tone, before running out of the room to work on the things that he did. I chuckled, Wow, I have never seen a pony run at that speed. I think he would make Rainbow Dash proud... or give her a run for her money. I thought to myself. I then set the coffee cups down on the table and took a small sip out of one. The other I figured would be for John, since I think he could use it this morning.
I was working with a few of the electronics in the room, when John entered back into the room. He was out of breath when he entered, but he was calm enough that he wasn't so visibly panicked. He walked over to the table with the coffee cups on it and sighed.
"Which one is yours?" He asked me, and I pointed out which one it was. He then took his own coffee and took a huge gulp of it, surprising me at how quickly he drank it. After he set it down, he started to work on the broken electronics as well. I noticed that he's not even acting nervous from drinking so much coffee. I shook my head lightly, and went back to work on the speakers.
As I worked on another speaker, I saw a pony walk into the room. I did not get a chance to see who the pony was as I was too focused on getting the speaker's circuitry correct again. The pony did not walk towards me, instead the pony would walk towards John. I heard him turn to her and ask her who she was.
"Oh my name is Blitz, can I ask you something?" I heard her say. I figured Blitz would want to talk to John, so I decided to try to listen in.
"My name is John," He said with a bit of confusion in his voice.
"I know your name, Midnight told me about you," She said cheerfully.
"You're her roommate? That would answer that question then," He said with a flat tone.
"Yep, can I ask you something?" She asked him again with a more curious tone.
"Fine, what is it?" He asked, sounding bored.
"Do you like Midnight Song?" She asked, acting innocent and ignoring me all together. The only response she got is silence. I turned around from my speaker to see John blushing a bit.
"Are you making him embarrassed Blitz?" I asked her annoyed, but I was surprised other ponies could make him embarrassed.
"Blooming breakers of a pirate ship!" John said randomly. We both looked at him in confusion. He then glared at Blitz, "Never ask me that again!" John angrily said to her.
"Ask him about what?" I asked, acting like I never heard the conversation earlier.
"Oh I was asking John about his feelings for you," Blitz said before John, which resulted in his face turning even redder, making his face look orange.
"And what did he say?" I asked her, being curious if he said something I didn't hear.
"Oh I think he said something about you-" Blitz started to say, before John tackled her quickly. I glared at him in anger, since I don't like ponies tackling my roommate.
"I was talking about your mane and how great it looked today!" He said quickly to me, before getting off Blitz.
"Really? I thought you were talking about-" Blitz started to say, but he charged out of the room in a speed that would really impress Pinkie Pie. I knew of the elements from the newspapers, but I never actually got a chance to meet them properly, Except Pinkie Pie, she was our resident party goer in town.
"So, what were you two talking about actually?" I asked my roommate as we walked back to our home.
"He was mostly saying complements about you, but most of them were speaking fondly of you, but when I asked him about his feelings towards you, he would turn red in the face and try to change the subject," She said with a smile.
"Ah, I thought I was the only one who could embarrass him like that," I said with a small chuckle.
"In my opinion, I would think that he likes you," she said, chuckling with me as well.
"Everypony likes me in this town," I said with a small smile to let her know I was joking.
"I'm serious, I think John must really like you," She said, sounding serious for once.
"Why do you think that?" I asked her with a small glare, warning her to be careful about her words.
"Well, he does not try to force himself upon you like you said other Stallions would do; he speaks fondly of you instead of trying to stay away from you; he bears working with you, how I have no clue; his reaction was of surprise when you were "accidently" next to him, and the fact that asking him if he likes you can make him embarrassed," She said, naming a quick list of reasons.
"Wait, how did you figure out I slept with John? I thought we agreed to never tell anypony," I said with growing anger.
"Oh, I was looking for you when you were out a couple of days ago time. Took me a while but Dawn told me that I should try looking in the abandoned house. When I got there, I entered in and walked up to the bedroom where I saw you and John sleeping. You did actually cuddle up to him in your sleep, but I thought you knew what you were doing," She said with a simple tone. I couldn't even try to hide my blush from what she said.
"Did I really do that?" I asked her. Ugh... I must have been drunk or something...
"Yeah, it actually inspired me to spend the night with Dawn," She responded simply.
"Are you implying that John actually loves me, rather than likes me?" I asked her carefully.
"Yeah, and I think you feel the same way," She said with a smile, she was always trying to get me to be with somepony but I refused her every time.
"You know how I feel about Stallions," I said in an attempt to remind her.
"Well, one of you has to tell the other or both of you will regret not telling," She said with a small frown. I glared at her harshly, and she ignored it like usual. Why would she do this to me... again? I mean, just because John has feelings for me, doesn't like royalty, and dislikes making... I stopped walking suddenly as I stopped my thoughts. Blitz turned to me in concern.
Oh Celestia, is she right about the fact that I am falling for him? I thought worriedly, but I slowly started walking again.
"Are you okay?" She asked me out of concern as we neared our home.
"Yes, I'll be just fine," I responded to her, but I was unsure if I will ever be just fine. Just who is John, and why did he show up out of the blue? I wondered to myself. I decided that I should try to learn more about John tomorrow while I was working with him. For the rest of the day I just wanted to relax.
When night came, I was actually restless this time. I never was restless like this at night, as I would be going to sleep. Tonight was different, because I couldn't sleep because of all of the thoughts I had about what happened today. I paced back and forth softly, because Blitz was sleeping in her bed and I didn't want to wake her. I was trying to put together John's reactions with what she told me on the way back home. This makes no sense, but if I compare the two, then Blitz must be telling me the truth. My thought would suddenly be interrupted by a soft knock on the front door. I wondered who would be knocking at this time of the night, and went to open it. When I opened the door, I saw John was just standing there.
"What... how did you-" I started to say but John lifted one hoof.
"Dawn told me, I wanted to apologize for tackling your roommate. I was so embarrassed that I couldn't think clearly," He said. I could tell that he was sincere about it because he looked just a bit sad while saying it.
"So you came all the way here to apologize?" I asked him in confusion.
"Yes, I mean no, I mean..." He said, before sighing.
"Are you okay?" I asked him, being very concerned about the way he was acting.
"No... I'm not, because I think I might be driving myself crazy over thinking about a certain per- pony," He said in a sad tone.
"Would you tell me who this pony is? I think I can help you with it," I offered to him.
"Alright... I'll come clean about this then, it's..." He said before saying something softly at the end.
"I'm sorry, could you say that again?" I asked him, but he said it softly again.
"I can't help you if-" I started to say but then he looked at me.
"It's you okay!" He said in a worried tone. I wanted to say something, but I was too shocked to say anything. He then looked at me sadly, "I know you think I'm not kind, but that's only because of the way I lived my life, there was no other way I could see. That was all until I met you, and you showed me myself and how harsh I really acted," He explained to me.
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
"I mean that... that I am glad that you can help me, but I can't help but fall for you," He said with tears in his eyes. He's... admitting to me that he loves me? I wondered but then I saw him sadly turn his head.
"I'm sorry, but if you don't want me around anymore, then I'll-" He started to say, but I wanted to tell him something first.
"Wait, I'm surprised that you could openly tell me this, but I want to tell you something," I said calmly. He turned to me and looked at me with those brown eyes.
"And what would that be? To tell me to leave?" He said very strongly.
"No, I have to admit this as well but... you are not the only pony who felt that way," I said to him, as I gazed into his eyes.
"Get to the point, please," He said, before looking away from me.
"You came here to admit you loved me, and were afraid I wouldn't say the same?" I asked him, trying to put off saying it for just a little while longer.
"Yes..." He said simply.
"Well, I have to say I have thoughts of a pony who I helped at work. I normally hate Stallions after what one almost did to me, but because of my co-worker, I've slowly changed my views on them," I said, trying to keep myself from crying in front of him.
"I see... So I guess you are saying you feel the same way?" He said, saying what I was going to say next.
"Yes, you may be a bit weird, but I do have feelings as well, I've tried to hide them for as long as I could because I was afraid, afraid of it happening again," I said, and he turned back to me.
"I can promise you this, I will never do that, what ever it was, to you and if I have too, I would protect you from the dangers of it , even if it means that I have to sacrifice myself to do so," he said to me.
"Would you really do that?" I asked him, I wanted to be sure he was not trying to lie to me and break my heart. He gazed directly at my eyes.
"I will do it over and over again if I had to," He said to me in way that I could tell that he was serious about it. I looked at him in surprise that he was actually serious.
"You really are not kidding... are you," I said in a state of shock.
"I'm not the one who would ever kid about something like that," He said to me in an annoyed tone. Not annoyed at me, but just annoyed in general. I would have smiled because I was so happy that both of us are not going to try to betray each other, or at least, I hoped that we wouldn't.
"I shouldn't be keeping you up all night, so I'll just be-" He started to say, but I walked up to him and hugged him before he could say anything else. He was surprised at first, before slowly returning the hug back to me as well. The moon was full tonight, and we both found something that we both did not expect to find again.
Perhaps love will always find a way to heal certain ponies who have been broken by it.
Chapter 15 (John) Thursday
Chapter 15
Thursday (The last day of the dare)
The final day of my dare finaly swung around, but I couldn't really care less about the dare now. I was up as early as usual to go to work and fix the radio equipment. I got out of my bed, that I actualy slept in this time, and made my way towards the radio station for another normal day of work. I actualy kept the events of last night in my head, because I was suprised that we both found something new from each other. Perhaps I should tell her about what I truely am. But only when she asks or when I absolutely have to. I smiled and decided to stop distracting myself with my own thoughts, and actualy get to the radio station.
I got to the radio station and the first thing I did was go to the radio equipment room. Vinyl was a bit worried about some of the radio equipment malfunctioning, but at first I didn't think it was anything too bad. When I inspected the equipment however, I saw exactly why it was having problems. Looks like it's not overclocked this time, rather it seems like some of the wires have started to become loose. I thought to myself. I turned off all power to the equipment before replacing the faulty wires with new ones that I got from the electronics room. I had to double check the wires to make sure everything is in place before turning on the power. The electrical current flowed through the wires normaly and I sighed in relief and closed the panel. Since the equipment was fixed again, I decided to actualy organize the instrument room since I missed doing a proper job yesterday.
I entered the instrument room to find that the whole place was almost an absolute mess. I don't know how it got that messed up, but I was sure that I had a lot of work ahead of me to fix this. I sighed and started to move the CD players out of the way and line them up against a wall first. I couldn't get anywhere else before I moved the players out of the way so once I moved them out of the way, I started to organize the instruments and the few electronics that were in the room.
It took me longer than usual to clean up the instrument room, but I did it eventualy. I looked over the room and sighed in relief that it is finaly done. As I turned to leave the room, I noticed a peice of paper lying on the floor. When did that get there? I wondered to myself. I shook my head and decided to investigate the paper. I was more confused on how I missed seeing it the first time than what the paper actualy was, but when I looked at the paper closely, it looked old and faded. I carefuly picked it up as if it would turn into dust if someone hoofed(?) it improperly. I turned it over as carefuly as I picked it up and noticed that it had a faded mark of some sort of emblem. The emblem was a sheild with a sun put on the center of it. It was odd, but I decided to keep it as it may be important. As I turned to walk out of the room I tripped on something that I couldn't see. Oh hell. I thought, before hitting the ground face first. The force of the impact was enough to knock me out, but I was glad I didn't land on anything that could have hurt me badly.
When I opened my eyes, I could not see anything of color. The whole place I was in is colored a blindingly bright white. As my eyes slowly adjusted to the bright light, I looked around.
"Where... am I?" I asked myself softly. I would only become more confused when I saw a shape of a pony in the distance. Since I couldn't see anything else, I stood up and headed towards the shape, wondering if this was a dream.
When I got to the shape, I looked at him in suprise. He looked almost like me, except his mane was a lighter color.
"Excuse me, but who are you?" I asked, blatantly ignoring the fact that he could possibly hurt me although not likely. He turned around, and then look at me in confusion. I smiled sheepishly, being as confused as he was.
"What art thou doing hither?" He asks me in a language that I recognized as being similar to what Luna spoke. I was semi confused at what he said, but I guessed he was asking me of what am I doing here.
"I have... no idea," I said, resulting in him being more confused.
"I hath naught seen nary a fellow pony," He said in suprise.
"Really? Guess that makes me the first," I said flatly.
"Art thou living?" He asked me cryptically.
"I may have knocked myself out by tripping, so yes I think I still am alive," I said, being mildly annoyed.
"Then I beseech you. I prithee, could thou assist me?" He asks me, sounding eager about meeting me.
"Um... Sure?" I said, being unsure about what he wants me to do. I got that question answered by him running towards me and disapearing before he even touched me. I was confused for a moment, but I didn't have time to be confused as the floor disappeared from below me. I fell into the blackness below.
I opened my eyes with a start and was breathing hard. What the hell... I thought in confusion. I decided to push that weird dream away and I turned to look at what I just tripped on. I expected it to have been a stray electronic or something, instead I found a shield. I simply looked at the sheild, being absolutely dumbfounded about it being there in the first place. I decided to prevent other pony's from tripping on it and picked it up. Strangly enough, it came with a leather strap behind the handle where one would hold it. Don't know how a pony could hold a sheild like this, but I think I'll keep it with me, it may be usful. I thought to myself as I strapped it to my back. I turned back to the door and walked out of the instrument room, closing the door softly on my way out.
I headed to the electronics room, where I would be working for the rest of the time, and started working on another speaker. I have absolutely no clue of how there's always a speaker broken, but I didn't question it too much other than figuring that Vinyl may have blown a fuse in it from all of the Dubstep, rock, etc. songs she plays on them. Midnight came in a bit later, and I smiled as I thought back to last night, where I found out the truth about our feelings.
"So thine fair maiden loves thou?" A voice would ask in my head. Startled, I almost dropped a wire into the speaker. I managed to recover the wire before it fell into the speaker and pulled it back to where I once had it. What the... I thought in confusion, but I didn't hear anything else, other than Midnight working as well. I shook my head, thinking it was just a weird event that happened. I went back to work on repairing or replacing parts of the speakers that would not work properly.
By the time the work day was over, I sighed and walked up to Midnight.
"Done," I said simply as she finished what she was doing.
"With what?" She asked me with a questioning look.
"With the dare... and work. But I like this job, so I'm not going to leave even though I managed to prove you wrong," I said to her in a fat tone. I actualy enjoyed working with her, despite the fact of the dare, and I wanted to continue to work with her.
"Oh, that dare? I wouldn't want it to be any other way, since your the only pony who will work with me," She said with a smile.
"It could change, but for now I am the only pony who you know is patient enough," I said, returning the smile with my own, "well except for Blitz, who has to live with you," I added, hoping it didn't offend her.
"I would hope not, or else you would have competition," She said jokingly with a chuckle.
"Would you rather I be the sole holder of this rare event?" I asked her with a mischevious grin.
"If I say yes, would you beleive me?" She said with a beautiful smile. I think that sometimes, nights do have happiness in them.
"Probably not, but I wouldn't give it away for anything," I said with my own mischevious grin.
"Can't you two just kiss and get it over with already?" A voice asks suddenly. I would be suprised and turned around.
"What? I can't flirt with a lady without kissing her Pyro?" I asked him, trying to hide my annoyance.
"Oh dear Celestia, you've fallen for her but won't kiss her yet," Pyro said with a facehoof, "even I have kissed a mare before! And you both know how impossible that is."
"What do you expect? A romance that would sicken children if they watched?" I said with a half smirk.
"Yes, because there's no children even here," He responded snarkily.
"Dang, You are legal age... aren't you?," I said, frowning about Pyro outsnarking me this time.
"Yeah, but I think I'll leave you both to continue," He said, before walking out. Although I knew that he was watching from behind a corner or in a window or something.
"I think that thy fere is a bit evil..." The voice in my head said in confusion.
Oh bloody hell... You actualy do exist. I thought, being annoyed.
"Aye, but dost thou know my title?" He asks me.
Not really, I thought, being less annoyed.
"Oh, I thought..." It started to say, but I decided to tune him out and turn back to Midnight.
"Do you want to go to the library or something? I think I would like to read today," I said in an excuse to bring her along with me to see Twilight.
"Sure, Blitz needs to have some books anyways," She said in responce.
"Great, I'm sure that I could introduce you to Twilight Sparkle then," I said, and I walked out with Midnight, a small spring in my step.
We both arrived at the same library I had been at eight days before. I think that it is ironic about books being held in a tree, but I'm pretty sure everyone in the town already knew that. Midnight knocked on the door.
"Hang on a moment," A voice said from behind the door. I felt like I recognized it from somewhere. That question was be answered as I saw a purple lizard answer the door.
"Hello, do you- Hey it's you!" He said, pointing a claw at me. I decided to stand my ground, but I was worried again.
"I swear to the deities, I did not mean to crash through the roof of her house! I got distracted by a flying Pinkie Pie!" I said quickly.
"Don't worry, I belive you since Twilight told me what happened," He says and I sighed in relief, although I could still sense some weariness in his voice.
"Right, in my panic there I forgot to ask your name," I said, slowly becoming calm.
"Oh, my name is Spike, Twilight's number one assistant. Well, her only assistant," He said proudly. I didn't say anything in responce, other than walking in the library with Midnight folowing me.
"Alright, Spike do you know where ancient history books are?" I asked as soon as we entered the library. The whole place had bookshelves line the walls, but I was more focused on trying to figure out who the voice was. Based on the fact that he spoke something of ancient english, he would probably be in one of those history books.
"No, but Twilight does. She is always reading them to try to find some more information about the past. If you want I'll get her," He said in a friendly way.
"Good idea, I'll just wait here," I said, and promptly sitting down on the floor.
"Why would you need to read books like that?" Midnight asked me in confusion.
"I'll wait until Twilight gets here before explaining it," I said simply. Midnight wasn't too happy, but she decided to wait. Spike left through a door that probably led to the area where She and her family sleep.
It was not long before I saw Twilight come through the same door.
"Hey John, what do I-" She started to say, but I interupted her by carefuly pulling out the paper I found and setting it on the table.
"I want to look through ancient history books for an emblem like this," I said, making everyone confused about why I would want to look for something like that. I noticed their confused looks and decided to explain, "I managed to find these in the instrument room, before I managed to meet this spirit. I don't know what he did, but whatever he did he-" I explained, but suddenly I couldn't talk. It was as if my mouth was not my own anymore.
"Sorry, but dost ye know the yore?" The voice asks through me. Luckily, the voice was not my own so there wasn't much more confusion than need be. I was scared that he could actualy control me, but it seems like he wanted to speak with her. The result was Twlight looking at me being confused, and suprised.
"Did you just speak ancient Equish?" She asks me curiously.
"No, that was not me... I think that was the spirit I was talking about," I said, becoming worried.
"Did you get possesed by a spirit?" Twilight asks me, sounding more worried about my safety.
"Somepony call the Ghost Busters..." Midnight muttered softly. I ignored her comment for the time being.
"Aparantly so, I don't know why but-" I started to say, but then the spirit intrupted my Sentence and spoke through me again. Better not make that a habit. I thought bitterly.
"I did besought this noble soul, but I do not hath a sence of time in the midst of that area," He said calmly.
"Could you say that again in equish?" Spike asks, being confused of his fancy words.
"He asked me for help and I agreed, but he has no sence of time so he wants to know what year it is now," I said in a quick explaination.
"It's around 2:13, why do you ask?" Midnight says simply. I felt the spirit speak through me, in absolute shock.
"How hath I been trapped there for many a yore?!" He exclaimed, being suprised.
"What do you mean trapped?" Twilight asks him in confusion.
"I hath been trapped in a timeless room, left for dead with nary a companion," He said sadly.
"Before you go on about this story, can I ask you for your name?" I asked him, he would answer through me once more, showing that he could hear me.
"I have a name, Golden Shield, but it is for naught since I've failed," He said sadly
"Failed to do what?" I asked him.
"To protect the princesses," He said, becoming more sad with each word
"You mean princess Luna and Celestia?" Twilight asks him, and he would perk up.
"Dost thou say they survived?" He asks curiously, "What of a third?"
"Yes, but I think it would be better if they come here, I'll write a letter to her," Twilight said, and she talked with Spike about something. Meanwhile I thought about what he said, unsure if what he said was true.
"Alright, Spike take a letter," She says as spike took out a quill and paper. I was unsure of how he got them, but I didn't care too much about that. She than began to dictate how the letter would say.
"Dear Princess Celestia,
I'm writing to you to inform you that a certain pony seems to have been possessed by a spirit from ancient times, he seems to know you and claims to have been protecting you before. I would appriciate it if you could come to the library as soon as you can. And please bring your...um...Partner?
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."
Spike wrote everything down as fast as she said it, before rolling up the paper and setting it alight.
"Did thou just sayest that thou are Celestia's proby?" Golden Shield asked in confusion.
"I am the student of the princess of Celestia, why?" She said with eagerness.
"I am suprised she would take up one..." He said to himself, but I was bored of letting him talk through me.
"While we wait, could we look through your books?" I asked, being eager to look through a book.
"Sure, I think we could find something about him in one of the books," Twilight responded with a happy glee.
"I think I should help you with this, I would want to know if it would hurt John or not," Midnight said out of concern.
"I'm sure we can find something in them... Besides, what's the worst that we could find?" I said, before my instinct kicked in and I had a feeling that one of the books will not be pretty.
"Get down from there John!" Twilight shouted.
"No! I am not going to come down from here! Hell no!" I shouted back.
"You're going hurt yourself!" Twilight said out of concern.
"Why are you even up there anyways?" Midnight asked.
"Why would Twilight have a book like that in the library!" I shouted down in responce. I am standing at the top of a very tall book stack.
"What book?" She asked, being curious.
"The book on the table there!" I said, pointing quickly at the book I left open on the table before putting it back down to keep balanced.
"What's so bad about- Oh Celestia!" Midnight said, after she walked over and looked over the book
"See why I don't want to come down now!" I shouted.
"I don't see what's so bad about- AHHH!" Twilight exlaimed, before using her magic to shut the book.
"It's horrifying! Why would you even have that!" I shouted down to her.
"I didn't even know I had a book like... that!" She said in fear.
"What book?" I heard Dusk ask from behind Twilight.
"Oh, nothing," She said, trying to keep Dusk from looking at it. But he turned around and notice the book on the table
"Hey, that's an intrestesting book on the table," He said, and walked up to it.
"Don't do it Dusk!" I shouted, and Dusk became even more curious and opened it.
"What is.... oh my....." Dusk said, before slowly closing the book, "PYRO! PRYO,WHERE ARE YOU?!" he walked off trying to find him.
"Someone should burn that horror! No pony could ever bend that way!" I said in fear.
"Agreed, that is just sickening," I heard Golden Sheild say, It may take time but he will learn our way of how we speak soon enough.
"What is going on here?" I heard a royal voice ask. Activity in the room stopped for a moment to see that Luna just entered the library.
"Luna! Heeeyyaaah!" I said, falling down with the stack of books.
"Why does everypony look so worried?" Luna asks curiously
"Horrifying book, your majesty," Midnight responded.
"What could be so-" She started to say, before looking in the book.
"Oh..." She finished with a bit of suprise.
"Somepony please burn that book already!" I would say, being more worried about anyone else reading it.
"Isn't this one of Flare's books?" Luna asks, being confused about the nature of the book.
"Isn't what one of my books?" I heard another royal voice ask. I turned and saw Flare walk in with Celestia.
"Why would any one have a book like that!" I would say, being pretty mad about royalty walking in. I dislike royalty, but I won't ever disrespect them... too much.
"Ahh, there you are!" Flare said, sounding relieved and teleporting it someplace else.
"I want to burn that book for the horrors it contains," I said to Flare with a frown.
"Sorry, but I need this book," She said in responce simply.
"Why would you ever need a book like that?" I asked her.
"Where else would I get idea's about pleasuring my partner then?" She asked me with a Mischievous smile. I would give her a blank stare in response. Perv.
"Right, now lets get to business, do you happen to know of anypony named Golden Sheild?" I asked Luna and Celestia.
"He was actualy one of our best soldiers, but he died to protect us from the invasion of the griffons long ago." Celestia said, with a bit of sorrow in her voice.
"So thou have vanquished thine enemies," Golden Sheild said, with happiness for seeing the princesses alive and well.
"Is that old equish?" Luna asked me, being confused about why I spoke like that.
"Sorry, Golden Sheild is the spirit who is currently speaking through me, and lives in me apparantly, and I think that you both would know him and can help him to understand about what happened. As for me, I just hope that he won't live in me forever," I said, explaining the best I could of the situation to the new royal arivals. Flare then had her smile fade.
"Perhaps I could help you with that," She said in an eager tone.
"Really? Because I would rather not have a ghost look through my thoughts," I said, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, does the body still exist today?" She asked Luna.
"Yes, it oddly has never decayed over time, we thought it was an enchantment, but it turns out the spirit was put in a time holding state," Luna explained to her.
"I think I have an idea, but we need some pretty powerful magic to make it work," I said in a serious tone.
"The Elements of Harmony! I think those would be powerful enough to actualy suit the needs right now." Twilight said with a bit of glee in her voice.
"Should I look for Sparx and the others?" Dusk asks, returning after Spike left to tell him the news that it wasn't one of Pyro's books.
"No, I think the Elements of Harmony would work for this matter," She responded. I was wondering of why Dusk would ask that, but I guessed that there was a diffrent group as well.
"Alright, I'll look for Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie," Dusk said, and walked out of the library.
"I'll get Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy," Twilight said before also going out of the door.
"Great, again with the waiting game," I said out of sheer boredom.
"It won't be that bad this time, at least I think it won't be," Midnight responded.
"Well, I want to know something... Flare, what do you and Celestia do in your spare time?" I asked, completely ignoring the fact that she got her idea's from a book that had to do with a certain pony's anatomy.
"Well, first I have to get Celestia into bed..." She started on her story, and I listened to it with mild intrest. 'Probably never going to use any of her idea's when I sleep with a gi- Mare here.' I thought to myself
It took around a full hour before I saw Dusk and Twilight enter with the other elements, plus Luna carrying a certain body that I would recognize.
"Luna, next time, don't do grave robbing," I said out of sheer boredom. Flare's tale about what she does was intresting to a point, but now it's something I do not want to think back to.
"We did not grave rob because he is still alive," Luna said with a frown upon her face. I rolled my eyes.
"Good point, anyways, now that the elements are here I am going ot make this simple for everyone," I said, and the six ponies would look at me.
"I need you to blast me with the elements, if we manage to succeed, we can bring Golden's spirit back into his body and 'revive' him," I said, using my hooves to make air quotes around revive.
"That's it?" Twilight asks me, sounding a bit disapointed that it would be that simple.
"No, I need one of the royalty here to actualy make sure that Golden's spirit goes into his body, so they may need to use their magic to help guide him," I said with a frown, and I stood right in an open area of the library. The elements would circle me and put on their elements, except pinkie pie, who kept bouncing up and down in her spot.
"Pinkie, I need you to calm down!" I said as she bounced.
"Sorry, but I am just too excited to throw a party for a new pony!" She said with a big grin on her face.
"That's nice..." I said, not really caring so much about her excitement. The best explaination about her thinking is that it's just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.
"Can I beseech something?" Golden Shield asked her.
"Sure, what is it?" She asked, stopping her bouncing for just a moment.
"What is a party?" He asked simply. I could see Pinkie freeze in place, with her mouth hanging open in an attempt to gasp. Instead of gasping, she remained silent. I walked up and waved a hoof in front of her face. She didn't even react to it, so I closed her mouth for her.
"Wow, I can't believe anyone could suprise her like this," Twilight said, but in reality, she was as equally shocked about Golden Sheild not even knowing what a party is.
"Right, this makes all the more of the reason to get him back in his own body." I said, and I walked back to the center of the circle.
"Okay, everything in place?" I asked Twilight for quite possibly the fourth time.
"So far so good, I think we are ready," Twilight said.
"Then start, for the time being I won't be able to talk until the ritual is over," I said for what would be the last time before the ritual started.
"Alright, here goes," Twilight said, and used her magic to focus all of the elements of harmony, including her own element, on me. I could only see colors for a moment before blackness overtook my vision. I knew that it was a part of the ritual, so I wasn't too worried about blacking out. I was more worried about if I would be still the same after it was over. I couldn't hear or speak, so I only saw blackness. I easily got bored of the blackness, and played creator by making impossible things. From the ground grew Yellow flowers, but I decided I didn't like the color black, so I made pink grass. I questioned why I made pink grass and decided that it would work better with blue grass instead. I continued to change the colors to my amusement until they started to fade away, signaling that I was waking up again. I sighed and let the colors drain away into darkness.
I opened my eyes, to find myself face to face with a yellow pony with almost the exact same hair style as me, except that his mane looked more of a lighter brown. While mine looked like the color of dirt, his looked similar to to the color of chocolate.
"Judging by the way you are looking at me... it worked?" I asked, being carful in my word choice.
"It was actualy easy, but Golden Sheild wanted to wait until you woke up," I heard a voice say.
"How nice of him," I said, being pretty bored from sleeping for a period of time.
"Yes... Since thou helped me... I have agree'd with Luna to... try to learn thy language of today." He said, being as simple as I was.
"Sure... But I can't teach you alone," I said, being mostly confused about him wanting to teach me.
"I think it would be best if you wait for doing that tomrrow," Suggested Midnight.
"Good point, you will need to get used to being alive again, and I think I'm going to need sleep too," I said. I then turned to the royalty in the room.
"Thank you for helping with this, I'll contact you myself should anything else happen," I said, before walking out of the room. I was more tired than before, so I used what was left of my energy to get to my home and into my bed to sleep. 'It has been a long day, I think I deserve this rest now.' I thought to myself, before falling asleep on my own bed.
Chapter 16
Since when do plans ever turn out to be okay?
I was awakened, not by the sun, but by the sound of knocking. I grumbled to myself softly as I got out of the bed and walked down the stairs, wondering who would be knocking on my door at this time of morning. When I opened the door, I saw a familiar looking pegasus with a mailbag. She looked at me with one eye, since her other eye looking a totally diffrent direction. I figured that I knew this wall-eyed pegasus, but she held out a letter.
"Letter for you!" She said in a happy tone.
"Hello... Do I know you from somewhere?" I asked her, faintly recalling her from somewhere.
"Ditzy Doo, we met at the party," She said looking at me confused... or is that just her eyes?
"Ahh, I forget stuff sometimes... Anyways thanks for the letter," I said to her and taking the envelope. She saluted before flying off to deliver more mail. I figured she was the mailpony around, a tad clumsy, but she's the best they got. I decided to stop standing at the door and closed it.
I first sat down on the couch, but then switched to laying down on the couch because sitting like I used to just feels weird now, and painful. When I was in a good possition on the couch, I opened the envelope. I saw a weird sigil, but I disregarded that for a moment and took out the paper it came with. I opened up the paper carfully and started to read.
Dear John,
I have Heard about you and how you have just suddenly shown up out of the blue, but I have a request for you. Inside the envelope is a map to the badlands, I have marked where you would want to go to meet me. We shall discuss more when you get there."
I was confused at the fact that there was no return address, there wasn't even a name on the letter. I shook my head and took out the map that the letter talked about and opened it. The first thing that shocked me was the fact that it was very detailed about every landmark, mountain, area, there even was a few of the plains with names. I decided to stop focusing on the details to find the mark, and after searching for a few seconds I could not find it. I decided to investegate the sigil that also came with the letter. I figured that it may help me, so I put it upon the map. A green dot suddenly appeared on the map, and I figured that the dot was where I needed to go. It was strangly near a mountain that was seperate from the other mountains, but I didn't think it was anything important. Now that I had a location, I needed to prepare for a days journey to the area. I rolled up the map and set it down to pack a travel bag that I would use for travel.
I put the final item into my bag, before picking up the map and carefully putting it into my bag as well. As I walked out, I noticed a pony walk towards me.
"Hello John," Midnight said to me.
"Hey Midnight," I responded and put the bag on my back, using my wings to make sure it stayed there.
"You're traveling somewhere?" She asked me, being confused about why I had a bag.
"Yeah, I packed enough provisions in this bag to last me for days," I said with a confident smile.
"Would you mind if I come with you?" She asked, suprising me once more with her questions.
"I wouldn't mind, but do you really want to come with me?" I asked her, trying to keep myself from flat out telling her no.
"Yes, I do want to come with you because otherwise, you could get hurt. Where are you even going anyways?" She asked me suspiciously. I sighed and decided to let her come with me.
"The Badlands, that's why I have my provisions," I told her with a frown. She looked at me in shock.
"Why do you want to go there? The Changleings are said to live in that area," She told me, being openly worried about my safety.
"Changelings?" I asked, as this was the first time I heard the word.
"They basicly look like insects, except that they can disguise themselves as other ponys," She explained to me with a frown, she probably was confused about why I haven't heard of them.
"Sounds like fun then, I'm really eager to go now," I said, letting my reckless side take over for once.
"You do know-" She started to say, but I interupted her.
"It is probably dangerous as hell and would quite possibly result in me either: being captured, or running away from something. Like I said, sounds like fun to me," I said, smiling as wide as Pinkie Pie would.
"You have an odd sence of fun," She told me with a raised eyebrow.
"If you have been a treasure hunter for as long as I have, then you can see why I do," I told her, before handing her an extra bag to pack any provisions she would need for the journey.
We would get started on our journey to the Badlands in the early afternoon. Midnight packed more than the bag that I gave her, she has an extra bag that was full of scarves, courtesy of Rarity of course, and an empty bag.
"Why do you need an empty bag?" I asked her in confusion.
"Blitz wants me to get her a souvenir while I am there, hopefully the changelings won't try to capture us so I can get one," She said, being mildly annoyed.
"Good point, you'll probably get one when you travel with me," I said, and we started off on our journey to the Badlands through the feilds of grass. As we walked, I smiled at the fact that adventure awaited me on this journey. Perhaps if I wanted to, I could unretire and be a treasure hunter. 'Nah, there's probably no treasures for me to even find here." I thought to myself, and we continued on.
By the time we reached the Badlands, I could see that it was full of dust, loose soil, and a lot of wind blowing around.
"I think we should put on facescarves, so we don't breathe in anything harmful," I told Midnight.
"You're right about that, the wind may be blowing some of the loose soil and dust around," She said and took out the bag full of scarves. I was not very pleased that she packed mainly blue scarves, but I found a yellow one at the bottom of the bag. I took it out and wrapped it around my head in a way that it would protect my face and let me still be able to see. I saw Midnight do the same thing, and I smiled. 'If I ever do have a kid here, I'm going to teach him or her of being a treasure hunter for the right reasons. That and I could always use the exercise.' I thought to myself.
As we walked through the Badlands Midnight got my attention
"By the way, where are we even going anyways?" Midnight asked me curiously, her voice somewhat muffled by the scarf.
"An area that is near a mountain or something, someone sent me a letter and wanted to meet me there, I want to see who it is before I take that request since it was without a name," I told her through my scarf.
"Alright, I hope it isn't anything that could hurt us," She said out of worry.
"Don't worry, stay with me and you will be okay," I told her with confidance, but in reality, I was not so sure myself.
"What would happen if we get attacked by changelings?" She asked nerviously.
"If that should happen, I can fight them off myself," I told her proudly, but I was still unsure about that as well.
"I hope you can... for both of our sakes," She told me.
When we arrived at the area, I could see a big mountain nearby. I removed the scarf carefuly and looked around.
"Alright, I'm here," I said out loud, hoping that whoever wanted me here was actualy here.
"So you have actualy come folowing the letter," A distinctively female voice said.
"Yeah, now who are you?" I asked, hoping that she wouldn't try to jump me.
"To answer your question, I'll have to surround you first," She said, before I heard a buzzing sound and black insect like creatures surrounded both of us. I slowly moved closer to Midnight to protect her.
"Changelings!" Midnight yelped in fear. I however glared at them, ready to attack at a moments notice if I need to.
"I'm suprised you know of us," I heard the voice say before I saw a big changeling emerge from the circle that surrounded us.
"And who might you be?" I asked her, figureing that she was royalty.
"I would appologize for surrounding you, as it was necessary to ensure our safety from you ponys," she said, not answering my question.
"I asked who are you?" I asked her again, being annoyed.
"My name is Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings," She said, sounding a bit annoyed.
"That's nice..." I said, being suddenly more bored with talking with the queen of them. I really don't like royalty because they always seem to act in certain ways that would make me want to gag.
"John, she attacked Canterlot with most of her changeling hive, I don't think it is a good idea to taunt her," Midnight told me, becoming more worried.
"I see you remember that, I can say that I have my reasons to do such a thing," She said with an evil smile. I really wanted to facehoof right now, but I didn't because I was going to do the most stupidest thing to ever try.
"Okay, that's just stupid, I know you have your reasons, but to attack a royal capital? That's just dence!" I said to her.
"You would not have any other choice if you needed food," She explained to me.
"Right, now what do you eat?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow.
"Love, we changelings actualy feed on the emotion," She explained. Wow, so she surrounded us to trap us because they really don't have enough food. I thought to myself.
"Alright, so let me get this straight, you attacked a capital in order to get food to stop your changeling hive from starving, in my opinion, that's even stupider, plus it would make all changelings look evil since by the sounds of it, you failed to do it successfully," I explained to her, the changelings bristled at how I talked to their queen.
"And you would know of another way to save my hive?" She asked me in curiosity.
"As a matter of fact, I do. First off, since you introduced yourself it would be polite to introduce ourselves, so my name is John, that is Midnight Song." I said, pointing a hoof at Midnight when I introduced her.
"And what was the point of doing that?" Chrysalis asks me in annoyance.
"Just a step towards diplomacy, now that we all know each other and that you feed on love, however you don't have enough of that to spare so your hive is starving. So you trap anyone that is giving off love and feed of off that," I explained knowingly. In reality I was hoping she was going to listen.
"Yes, but-" She started to say, but I held a hoof up.
"Let me finish first, I understand now of why you attacked, but let me be a represenitive of the pony race, rather than just a normal pony that you called here for a request, and let us talk about what can benefit both of us," I said in a way that would clearly state my intentions.
"Go on..." She said, sounding intrested in what I could come up with.
"There is a simple solution, let me work with you to get a reasonable deal between you and the rulers, no fighting and most certainly no single sided deals," I said like if I was a diplomat.
"You already know we require food," She said in bit annoyed tone.
"Well, that shouldn't be to hard to do then, you could live with the ponys in the same society while you can pledge support in times of need. Now you can also become soldiers of the army should you ask for it as well," I offered to her.
"The ponys would never accept that, most of them still remember the events at canterlot and are very biased against us," She explained to me. I frowned in frustration because I figured that that would hurt any chances of a true peace
"Well, the best plan I can come up with is to show that you are not truely evil, and that you had reasons to attack canterlot." I said, offering her a way to change their ideas.
"And how do you propose that we do that?" She asked me in confusion. I smiled because now I have something to work with, and if I pulled it off correctly, we could have a species for support.
"I want you to at least promice me a one time deal of support, I will use that deal when I manage to get into a situation that I cannot do alone and the ponys are not able to help me either," I said, explaining my plan briefly. I saw the queen pause for a moment to think, before she pulls out a very odd instrument and holds it out.
"Very well, use this when you need us, the magic in this instrument will teleport us directly to you or to a distance, depending where you want us to appear," She said, explaining what it would do. I took the instrument and looked it over, thinking that it looks familiar to something.
"What is this instrument anyways?" I asked, being confused about it.
"This is what you ponys would call a flute, some cannot play it because they don't know the way to even use it, but all you need to do is use one note to call us," She explained.
"Okay then," I said, putting the flute in my bag.
"Now then, before you go..." She said, and took a step towards Midnight. I walked right in front of her and stopped her before she took another step.
"Try to hurt her, and I will use your wings to choke you to death after ripping them off," I threatened, before realizing I was threatening royalty. But she laughed in a way that I didn't like.
"I was wondering if you actualy did care about her, very well then," She said, and then attempted to cover me in a very sticky green goo. In my panic, I decided to try to eat my way out of it. Oddly enough, it actualy worked and I managed to get out.
"Bleck!! That stuff tasted like green Jell-o that sat in the sun for an hour," I said, while attempting to use my hoof to wipe off my tongue of the taste. Everything that was watching looked at me in suprise.
"Did you just eat some of that?" Midnight asked me in confusion and disgust.
"Yeah, this is just one of the many reasons I love being a retired treasure hunter, I really do weird stuff and don't regret it later," I said, smiling wide again. Then I saw all movement halt in the circle of changelings that surrounded us.
"Wait... like Daring Doo?" One of the changelings asks me in what sounds like a star struck tone.
"I... Guess so?" I said, being confused about who Daring Doo was. I was very suprised when I heard many of the changeings, including the queen, Squeal in happyness.
"What?" I asked, being even more confused about their reaction.
"You are an actual treasure hunter?" Chrysalis asks me.
"Yep, would you like to hear a tale of mine?" I said, smiling at the huge stroke of luck. What are the odds that they would be fond of treasure hunters? I thought to myself. I would be pulled out of my thoughts as I saw all of the changelings sit down, and the queen joined them. I smiled for a bit before starting my tale.
"Well, let me tell you about the time where I went with a group to find this city of gold," I said, and I told the tale of one of my best moments as a treasure hunter.
"They were really fighting each other in an attempt to get the city of gold, but I ended it by finding a note on a pedestal, the note said that the whole entire city was NOT made of real gold, instead it was made of what we called fools gold. I even checked it and found the image of a jester upon the gold as well. I realized what happened, we all just got tricked by a city full of jokesters, and that this was their final joke. When I told them that, the fight stopped and they all checked the gold to find that I spoke truth. We were really disapointed, but I look back at that and laugh when I need to cheer up because I learned that even the ancient people have humor. That was the time I found the City of Fools... Gold," I said, and then I burst out laughing and many of the changelings joined in.
"I can't belive you did all of that for a city made of fake gold!" one said while laughing.
"I know! It is so funny to me this day!" I said, while trying to calm down.
"Perhaps it was good idea to agree to help you, I apologize for trying to trap you," The queen said.
"Why would you change your mind?" I asked, being curious about the reasons.
"We are all fans of the book series "Daring Doo", so meeting an actual treasure hunter is almost the same as meeting the actual character," She told me simply.
"Ah I understand now," I said, and I finaly understood why they reacted the way they did.
"So what now?" One of the changeling asks me.
"Now, I think I should be headed home. I have done this fun trip, but now it is time for me and Midnight to return home," I said, feeling sad about leaving. It almost felt like I was leaving a group of old friends.
"Would you ever come back?" One of the changelings asks me curiously. I looked around, and sighed.
"Maybe not, but just know that I won't ever think lower of you all," I said, and pulled up my scarf for a face mask.
"Very well, then allow me to at least help you make the journey back easier. Oh and if you ever meet my son, tell him his mother misses him," Chrysalis said, before a magic envelops both of us and I saw green fill my vission for a while. When I finaly could see again, I noticed I was with Midnight near the place we entered in the first place.
"Remember what happened last night?" I asked Midnight,
"You mean the time that you proclaimed your love for me in front of my house?" She said in responce.
"Good, your not a changeling. That was fun!" I exlaimed happily. Midnight simply facehoofed.
"You really do have an odd sence of fun, but I think we should let Twilight know about this," She told me.
"We'll tell Twilight and Dusk tommorrow, by the time we get back it would be late," I explained to her, and she sighed.
"At least I got something to keep," She said in a soft way.
"Really?" I asked, being curious about what she just got.
"I got a bit of that slime that used to cover you and this symbol of them." She said, holding out the small bag for me to see the exact things inside of it.
"Told you..." I said tauntingly, Midnight used her hoof to lightly punch me on the front leg. We both laughed and started to make our way back home.
When we returned home, I was tackled by Pinkie Pie.
"Oh not again, what do you want Pinkie?" I asked her, being extremely annoyed about being tackled again . If I had a bit for every time I got tackled in the past week, I would possibly be rich.
"I want you to help me gather everything for a great party!" She said exciteidly.
"Can't it wait? I just got back from a place that is very far away," I told her.
"Really? Where did you go? Manehatten? Canterlot? Apploosa? The editors house?"
"No, no, no, what? No, I went to the Badlands." I said, being confused about Pinkie's guessing.
"Oh, isn't that a place full of the Changelings?" She asked in wonder.
"Yeah, it'll make for a great story to tell at your party tommorrow," I said, getting up after finaly noticing that she wasn't on me.
"That would be perfect!" She exclaimed before bouncing off. I remained silent for a good while, before turning to Midnight.
"Well, Good night then, I'll see you at work tommorrow," I said, and walked off to get back to my house.
After arriving at my house, the first thing I did was take a nice shower. I was really messy from the green ooze and the dust from the Badlands. I really had to work hard, but I finaly got cleaned and I got out of the shower and dried myself off with a towel. I looked in the mirror at my reflection, before smiling. I once thought I would hate my life as a pony, but now I think my life has turned into something new. I thought to myself, my smile would disapear when I thought about how I lived my life in the past. As I walked to my bedroom, I thought to myself. Will I forever be a pony? Or is there some way that I would be able to turn back into a human. I don't know, but I don't really care right now.
I decided that it would be a really good time to rest, rather than think about depressing subjects. I would simply flop onto my bed and closed my eyes to sleep. My dream was however nothing but blackness. And I couldn't see anything, not even myself. I could hear one sound though, and it was the sound of crying. I wondered in my dream of who would cry, but then I would reconize the sound as it being... myself. I haven't had reasons to cry in a long time... I wonder what caused it? I thought to myself, but the sound faded away and I could hear nothing else.
Chapter 17
I awoke this morning in a cold sweat. Another dream, but this one did not have anything other than sound. The sounds of crying, death, fighting, and it ended with the sound of something breaking. I looked around to make sure nothing was broken. I was relieved to know that I did not have anything broken around the room, so I decided that it would probably be a good idea to take a shower. Not many things scare me, except when I have these weird dreams. The dreams almost looked real, they even sounded real, and that worries me.
Before I stepped into the shower, I took a look in the mirror. A reflection of a yellow pony with brown eyes gazed back at me before it slowly faded away and turned into my face when I was a human. I shook my head and looked at the mirror again. It reverted back to what I looked like right now, but I knew that I was slowly going crazy. I need to calm down; after I finish this shower I'll figure out what I want to do. I thought to myself. I sighed and stepped into the shower and turned on the warm water.
After getting out of the shower and drying myself off, I looked into the mirror again. I would still see myself as a pony, but my mind went back to remembering the time when I was still a human. I frowned, feeling disappointed at myself. I knew I was conflicted about who I truly was, so I know the only way to cure that is to tell someone. I cannot run away from what I was forever, and I am tired of never telling anyone. I have friends again, and I know for a fact that I don't ever want to lose those again, that would include Dusk. I thought about how my life finally started to heal, but a small thing in my head hated the fact that I fell in love again. We both found each other... but why do I feel like I don't have much time now? I thought to myself. Perhaps I was indeed slowly going crazy. I need to calm down... I think I'll make due on that promise then. I thought, and remembered that there was a party today for Golden Shield. To hell with secrets, I'm never good at keeping my own. They need to know, and I will be the one to tell them. I thought to myself with pride. That plan will work, and I hoped they don't think any lower of me for it. I smiled and walked out of the door to head to Sugarcube Corner, where the party was going to be located.
I would arrive at Sugarcube Corner to a very big surprise: the party was going in full swing. I opened the door and saw that Pinkie Pie invited all of the ponies in the town to this one (Again). The first thing I noticed was Pinkie Pie trying to convince Golden Shield to dance with her.
"Nay, I do naught dance," He said to her.
"Come on, you won't know unless you try it!" She said to him in an attempt to convince him.
"I still won't do it!" He said fiercely.
"Wow, I have heard of uptight, but this just is almost sad," I said, surprising Golden Shield.
"Oh... Hey John," Golden Shield said after calming down.
"I think I would recommend that you try it, unless you know for a fact that you can't dance," I said with a small smile.
"Thou art... I mean you are crazy," He said with a bit of anger in his voice.
"I see that Luna has been teaching you how to speak in the modern world," I complemented.
"Actually, she used a spell to have lightning shoot through me if I speak too long in the old tongue," He admitted with a sheepish smile. I could only face hoof, knowing that Luna probably lied to him to get him to practice speaking in the current language.
"Right, how's the party?" I asked him, being curious about his thoughts.
"Better than the gala's at the palace," He said with a smile.
"I still think that the Gala needs to learn how to throw a proper party." Pinkie Pie chirped.
"That they do Pinkie... That they do," Golden shield said while shaking his head. He was smiling so I can't say he disagreed with her.
"Alright, now I have something I want to tell everyone here," I sound loudly. The music playing stopped with a record scratch, as every pony in the room turned to look at me. I would look around and sigh, I was prepared to tell them now and I would regret it if I told them later.
"I know you have wondered for days about who I am, where did I just come from, and why am I here, I am going to tell you the truth instead of trying to hide it any longer, it is hurting me now to try to hide it because you have all been so kind to me," I paused and looked around to try to see if Midnight Song was around. I would find her near a table with Dawn and Blitz. I smiled and closed my eyes for a moment, when I opened them; I was ready to tell them.
"I want to tell you the absolute truth about me. I am going to start with this, I am not an actual pony, I am what you would call a human, and I'm assuming that someone here told you about them," I said, hoping that Dusk really did tell them. I sighed once more before continuing on.
"I am not going to bother lying to you anymore, so I will say that I am a human, and a treasure hunter. But when I hunt treasures, I give them to the right people. Always have and always will. Since you all have been nice to me and haven't stabbed me in the back by now, I will be here to stay in this town,"
I heard some cheering from the crowd but it would fade away quickly when they saw that I had more to say.
"Now that's over with, I have an interesting tale to tell you, it happened to me just yesterday actually, so who wants to hear it?" I asked them. For a moment, I saw no one raise their hoof. Then I saw Pinkie Pie raise hers in excitement, followed by Pyro, then Sparx, Ditzy, Dusk, Twilight, Golden Shield, and Dawn. Pretty soon, I saw the whole room have one hoof raised. I smiled, half out of excitement, half out of relief.
"Alright, take a seat while I get ready to tell you," I said, and they cleared a path for me to walk up to the place where Vinyl set up her DJ equipment. She moved it out of the way and as I stepped onto the stage, she handed me a headset with a microphone on it. I only stepped down to pull out a stool to use as a table, and put a glass of water upon it. I looked around, and decided to stop stalling to build up tension.
"Alright then... Is this thing on?" I asked them. They nodded to me to show that they can hear me.
"Perfect, now I will say this first, this tale is true. There are no events made up, nothing sugar coated, and absolutely not made up," I then made my way to the center of the stage and began my tale.
"Alright, it all started with a letter being delivered to me in the early hours of the morning, The letter would contain a map of a land you know of well, the Badlands, now the letter requested that I meet at the base of a mountain and did not really offer me much in the way of who sent the letter, So I decided that being the retired treasure hunter, to go to the location. As I set out on my way to the Badlands I met Midnight, who also wanted to come with me as well. Who was I to refuse? I almost did refuse, except the fact that she would probably be very helpful to me," I paused for a moment to chuckled softly and take a gulp of the glass of water.
"Now you all probably know of the Badlands, and the fact that there are Changelings living there. When I went there, I was actually unaware of it, so I had no clue what to expect. We weren't attacked by anything on the journey there, and I reached the place where I was going to meet this mysterious pony that sent me the letter. Turns out it wasn't a pony, instead it was the queen of changelings, who surrounded us to be safe," I frowned at the sound of gasping coming from the crowd, but it was to be expected.
"Instead of attacking me outright, they let me be able to talk to them and I found that despite what you pony's think, they are actually not evil as you would portray them as," A female voice would then interrupt me.
"But they attacked Canterlot deliberately!" She exclaimed, I sighed and shook my head.
"You would do the same thing if you were very short on food," I said out of annoyance. Mostly out of being interrupted while I was telling my tale.
"Alright, Continue the story then," She said, before being silent.
"Thank you, now I worked out a deal with them, but before we could leave, they attempted to encase me in their weird green goo, Naturally I panicked and did the one crazy thing," I would pause for dramatic effect, and I could see every one of the ponies at the edge of their seats except that they don't have seats.
"I actually ate my way out of it, and I tell you, that goo tastes exactly like it were green jelly sitting out in the sun for a few days," I shivered at the memory of the taste.
"Never going to do that again," I said with a frown. The ponies were having a mixed array of reactions: some where actually disgusted that I did that, some would be surprised that I ate my way out, some were just confused about why I would do that, and a hoof of them were actually curious about if it actually does taste like that.
"You heard right, now Midnight was also disgusted that I did that and would ask me, why I just did that, I told her because I was a retired treasure hunter, and that I've done weirder things than that. That halted all activity around us, and get this, one of them asked me if I was like "Daring Doo", I still don't know who this "Daring Doo" was, but I figured that she may probably be a treasure hunter, so I answered yes. That resulted in every one of the Changelings squealing in delight, including the queen of them, and not in delight out of the best food, more of a fan squeal of delight," I couldn't remain composed as I chuckled at my massive stroke of luck at that time, it was unlikely to have people who are fans of a certain group. My chuckling would end at the outburst of a certain pony with a rainbow mane.
"You don't know who Daring Doo is?!" Rainbow shouted in shock.
"No, but I assume I could relate to her," I said with a small smile.
"You need to read those books to understand," She said, face hoofing as she did.
"Duly noted," I replied and then walked forward to the front of the stage.
"Now, because they were fans of treasure hunters, almost like Daring Doo, they changed their minds about trying to turn me into food, so I told them one of my favorite tales about the city of fools gold. Pft," I tried so hard to not laugh when I said fool’s gold, but I utterly failed and hit the stage laughing so hard that my sides started to hurt. The ponies were wondering why I was laughing so much, but I quickly got up and started to drink the glass of water quickly until it was empty.
"Sorry, I'll tell it to you some other time, anyways after they gave me a gift, the queen was nice enough to teleport me back to where we entered the Badlands in the first place, now she did mention a message... If you see my son, tell him his mother misses him, I don't know who her son is... but at least she said something about him, just not about who he is, or what he looks like anyways..." I said, and I muttered a few swear words to myself silently. I then calmed down to resume speaking.
"Basically I returned home with Midnight, safe and sound, and I am sure that Midnight is not a Changeling, I checked myself. Now, any questions?" I said, finally finishing my tale. One pony would raise his hoof.
"Who sent you the letter in the first place?" He asked me.
"If you would believe it, it was the queen herself, little miss Chrysalis, the royal queen of her hive," I said, and I saw some of them look at me in surprise.
"Also, she's a fan of the Daring Doo series." I said using my wings to show that I shrugged.
"Really?" I heard a voice from behind me ask. I turned around and saw Rainbow Dash on the stage behind me.
"Yes, now get the hell off the stage!" I said out of annoyance.
"Make me," She challenged. Bad Idea I thought with a happy glee, and I quickly charged her and before she could move, grabbed her in my hooves and threw her off of the stage. Before she hit the ground, she was surrounded in a purple aura.
"Next time, don't try to challenge my strength and speed," I said, trying hard to not boast about it.
"Next time, you shouldn't throw me off the stage," She said in a retort. I glared at her for a moment, before we both started to laugh.
"You are really one piece of work, you know that?" I complemented.
"You are not so bad yourself," She said in return. I smiled and turned back to the stage.
"Any other questions for me?" I asked the crowd. A grey hoof would shoot to the air.
"Did they give you a recipe for any muffins?" Ditzy asks me.
"Sadly they did not, but I could tell you one that I use myself," I said with a smile.
"Derpy!" I heard a brown pony shout.
"Sorry Time Turner," She said, sounding sad. Time Turner? Out of all the names I heard, that is not an actual name. I thought to myself, but I decided it may be wise to not ask.
"Alright, I'll take one more question before we can resume this party," I said, and I saw a mint green hoof.
"Do you even know how many times you hunted for treasures?" The owner of the hoof would ask.
"To be exact, I would say around fifty times, only thirty of those times I've walked out of it with a treasure, the other twenty I left it there." I said, sounding pretty proud about it. Not many of the ponies looked even remotely impressed.
"Well... to be fair most of those had deadly traps and I can't do those often," I admitted.
"Alright, I've wasted enough time that should be spent partying-" I started to say, before being interrupted by Pinkie Pie appearing out of nowhere next to me.
"EVERY DAY WE'RE PARTYING!" She shouted, and then some music started to play. I held out a hoof to show that I wanted it to stop.
"If you wanted to sing that, why didn't you say so?" I said, and tossed her a headset. The music would start from beginning as I started to sing with Pinkie Pie.
PONY ROCK!
(It's optional to listen to it, but you don't have to in order to enjoy the story)
When the song ended, I heard every one of the ponies stamp the ground very loudly. That's one way to kick off a party. I thought, as I made my way off the stage. I would hand my headset to Vinyl as I walked off, and she would take her place with her trusty DJ booth on the stage.
"That was some pretty good singing there John," I heard someone say to my right. I turned my head to see that it was Golden Shield.
"Yeah, can't really follow my hobby of being a DJ if I can't sing with some of my music," I replied.
"You are right about that, so what will you do now?" He asks me.
"I'll enjoy the party, what about you?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow.
"I may leave early... it's starting to get loud for me," He said with a small scowl.
"Come on, you'll get used to it," I said in an attempt to get him to stay.
"I would much prefer the quiet peace," He said flatly. I was trying hard to get him to actually enjoy the party, but then I came up with an idea.
"How about you help me with something, a bit of a joke on a certain pony," I said with a smile.
"I'm listening..." He responded with interest. My smile turned mischievous.
"Perfect... now what I need you to do is..." I whispered my plan into his ear, and he slowly started to smile too.
"Alright, I'll do it," He said with a smile.
"Good, this is going to be fun!" I said, rubbing my hooves together in glee.
I was in position above Pinkie Pie, ready to do my prank upon her. It took me a while to climb there, but I managed to do so, despite having hooves. I have agreed with Golden Shield about a certain word phrase to say before I would let go of the support and hit the ground like if I were dead. I thought about their reaction to that, and started to regret coming up with it.
"There can't be a falling pony, there's a roof above us," I heard Pinkie say from below.
"That may be true, but does that mean that a ghost can't fall down by now?" He said, and I then let go.
"Ghosts don't exist silly!" Pinkie said, before I hit the ground in front of her. She shrieked loudly, and then stared at me. The music stopped again to look at the event that just happened.
"You were saying something about ghosts?" Golden Shield said, trying hard not to laugh.
"Where did it come from?" I heard Twilight ask in confusion.
"I don't know..." He said, trying to act innocent.
"I do," I said, slowly getting up like a zombie.
"AHHH Zompony!" I heard Twilight shout.
"Close, but it's just John," I said with a huge smile on my face. Pinkie looked at me once, before she started laughing hard and I joined with her. The music would resume playing once again, since the event turned out to be a prank.
"You should have seen the look on... on your faces!" I said, trying to stop laughing long enough to say something.
"That was a good one John!" Pinkie complemented to me, not even angry or breathing heavily (like Twilight) as if nothing had happened.
"Thanks, now I'm a bit tired by now so I'll head home for an early sleep," I said, and waved to them as I walked out.
When I was outside, I saw Dusk and Midnight talking to each other. I couldn't hear them, so I decided to walk up to them.
"So what do you think?" Dusk asked Midnight.
"I think that he has his charms, odd ones, but charming anyways," She said to him. I decided to listen into this conversation just a little while longer.
"At least Blitz is happy about it though," He said with a small smile.
"Yeah, but I really hope she will stop trying to tease me about how she was right," She said with a frown. I then cleared my throat to let them know I was present.
"Oh, hello John," Dusk said.
"Hey Dusk, what are you both talking about?" I asked out of curiosity.
"Oh nothing much, just about each other's days," Midnight replied quickly and blushing impossibly over her fur.
"I see..." I said with a small frown.
"So when's the wedding John?" Dusk asks me suddenly.
"Wait... what?" I asked him, doing a double take of what he just said.
"The wedding, aren't you going to propose to any certain pony around the town?" He asked me with a grin.
"W-w-what the hell are you talking about?" I asked, stuttering just a little bit.
"I'm asking you if you have a ring for any pony," He said with a grin.
"Who- I don't even- when- w- what- AGH!" I said, my brain just fizzling out on trying to give him a snarky reply because his question was so sudden.
"You don't have a ring yet?" Dusk asks me with an even wider grin on his face.
"Stop taunting me! I'll make one myself!" I shouted at him.
"I'll hold you to that promise," He said, and walked off. I then realized what he just did.
"Damn it Dusk..." I muttered softly. I heard Midnight chuckle next to me.
"Remind me to dump a bucket of water on Dusk," I told Midnight, trying to hide how embarrassed I was, "or Pyro when he is next to him."
"I suppose you're serious?" She asked me with another small chuckle.
"Yes, I was serious on both accounts," I said with a small scowl.
"So when can I expect it?" She asked me.
"Why would I tell you?" I said, with a small grin.
"Touché," She said with a frown.
"Yeah, anyways I'll be going now, enjoy the rest of the party," I said, and walked off.
Before I headed home, I decided to make a quick stop at a store that sold plain gold rings. I convinced the owner to sell me one for two bits. I was lucky that I did, because the next place I went to was Rarity's house. She wasn't there, so I entered into the building. I would almost immediately regret that decision when I heard something nearby. I decided to not take any chances and slowly walk out of the building. I will wait for tomorrow for getting that gem. I thought to myself, and made my way home.
When I got home, I would open the door and enter into the house. I sighed softly, and started to walk up the stairs. I paused on the final steps when I heard something coming from the bedroom. Because this was my house, I was actually curious about what was in my bedroom. And opened the door to a rather interesting sight. Apparently, I don't know how, I saw Dawn and Blitz just making out on my bed. What the hell... Was my only thought as I watched. I decided to end it by knocking on the door. The result was Dawn becoming scared and falling off of the bed with Blitz ending out on top of her.
"As much as I enjoy your company, could you please not do it in my Bedroom?" I asked them, being a bit annoyed about what they were doing.
"Sorry, we got a bit bored waiting for you." Blitz admitted with a small smile. I gave them some time to get up from their placement on the floor.
"Yeah... What do you want?" I asked her, trying hard to keep myself from getting angry at her.
"I have a favor to ask of you," She said to me in a serious way.
"If it is to ask me to join you in whatever your doing, I'll pass," I said with a frown, "I'm like... twice your age."
"No no, not that, Dawn's more into mares anyways," She said. Wow, why am I actually not surprised... I thought to myself.
"You’re a mare?" Dawn said jokingly, obviously still in the moment.
"Alright... what is this favor then?" I asked curiously. I really did not like the way she was smiling, along with how Dawn was smiling.
"I'll tell you," She said, and then whispered what she wanted me to do in my ear.
Chapter 18
"Let me get this straight... you want me to get a ring to propose to Midnight Song, on a hill, at night for a beautiful romance?" I asked Blitz with confusion in my eyes.
"Well... You don't have to do exactly that, you should still propose though," She said with a smile.
"But I don't have the ring finished yet," I admitted to her, "and plus, I've only known her for a little over a week!"
"Yes you do, its right there," She said, pointing a hoof at my bag, knowing for a fact that a ring is in it.
"I told you, I have not finished the ring yet," I said once more, but with more force.
"Why is it not finished then?" She asks me.
"Because it does not have a gemstone upon it, and I don't like rings being a plain old ring," I said, hoping that they will get the hint. I was sure that they did, as both Blitz and Dawn looked to be deep in thought.
"Did you ask Rarity for one?" Dawn asks me.
"Was going to, except that I heard some weird sounds coming from the floor above," I said, feeling bad for not investigating. But at the same time, I was glad that I did not investigate. Just in case it was more... private.
"Then why don't you seek the Gemstone of the Night?" Blitz says confidently.
"Gemstone of the Night?" I asked, looking visibly confused.
"Yeah, rumors say that the gemstone was made during the night of a full moon," she said. I face hoofed at how obvious the answer sounded.
"No pony actually knows where it is though," Dawn said in sadness.
"Sounds interesting now, where would it be rumored to be located?" I said, my treasure hunter instincts and excitement kicking in.
"It is rumored to be around the palace in canterlot, but why do-" She said, but she never finished her sentence because I walked out of the door. Alright, I have a nightly train to catch. I thought to myself, and made my way to the train station.
It was almost midnight when the train pulled into Canterlot. I was the only passenger on board, since it was so late at night. I got off the train and took a look at the fancy buildings that made up the entire capital. Heh, sometimes I have to love the way that nobles build their houses, almost always ends up to be as fancy as possible. I thought to myself with a chuckle, before focusing on the task at hand, or, as these ponies would say, hoof. I looked around for a moment to take in my surroundings before thinking on where the Gemstone would be hidden. Almost always, the gemstone is hidden in the biggest of buildings. I looked around for the biggest building, before promptly face hoofing. The castle is the biggest build- I thought, before being interrupted at noticing how large the castle was at this range. Ing... I finished, and for the first time, I actually worried about how to actually find the Gemstone. I closed my eyes for a moment. This will all be worth it in the end... I thought, in an attempt to try to motivate myself. As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw a pegasus wearing a dark blue armor fly towards me.
"Finally, you've arrived; I was getting bored of waiting for you!" He said. I looked at him in confusion.
"What?" I asked him, my confusion obviously showing on my face.
"I'll explain on the way there, right now, I need you to follow me," He said, and took off. I raised an eyebrow about why he would want me to follow him, before shrugging and opening my wings to follow him.
As soon as I caught up with him, he looked at me with an intention of talking.
"My name is Night Streak, one of the night guards, no doubt you are wondering why I am escorting you to a location, to make a long story short, the princesses are expecting you," He explained.
"How did they-" I started to ask, but he interrupted me.
"Golden Shield told them you would possibly be looking for the Gemstone, so they agreed to help you on your way to finding it. As for why they are going to help you? I think you will find out when you ask them," He said, before flying a bit faster towards the royal garden. I was even more confused than before, but I figured that I would get some answers from the princesses themselves, so I picked up the pace to trail Night Streak.
As soon as my hooves touched the floor, I saw Night Streak bow to Princess Luna, before flying off to somewhere. I walked up to them and before I could ask them anything, Celestia spoke up.
"I would like to apologize for all of the secrecy, but so far, you are the only pony who we would trust with the Gemstone," She explained.
"Why? Does this gemstone hold some power that could destroy everything as we know it?" I asked, with a gleam of excitement in my eyes. Luna giggled behind her hooves before answering me.
"Sadly, no it does not have any special powers. We... I made that Gemstone a long time ago as a present for my sister," She said, and I gave her a look of disappointment.
"We would have asked Daring Doo to obtain it, but she was too busy to get it," Celestia said. I then snapped my head to look at Celestia in surprise.
"Wait, Daring Doo is an actual pony?" I asked her in surprise.
"Have you read any of her books? Despite the stories, they are indeed real," She said with a soft smile, remembering the past.
"No, I haven't had the chance to yet, but they are true?" I asked her with excitement, I really wanted to meet another Treasure hunter in this world, and she was by far, the closest to being one.
"As strange as they may seem, they are indeed true, she even told us herself," Luna said, trying to suppress her giggles behind her hooves.
"Alright, now to a few questions I have, how do you know why I come here, and why are you helping me?" I asked.
"To answer them, Golden Shield wanted to assist you, but he was focused on getting training from our captain Shining Armor," Celestia said.
"Huh... so what now?" I asked her, noticing Luna really straining hard to keep from bursting out in laughter.
"Now," Celestia said with a chuckle, "We help you get into the entrance,"
"Great, where is it?" I asked, being excited for gaining entrance to what I was searching for.
"Look down," Celestia said simply. I raised an eyebrow, and looked down. I then saw exactly why Luna was trying hard to not laugh, as a hole was under me the whole time, and a blue veil of magic was holding me up. I looked up and glared at Luna.
"You son of a-AHHHHHhhhh..." I started to say, before the veil vanished from beneath me, dropping me down the hole. I swear I could see Luna laughing before I vanished down the magical rabbit hole.
"Ahhhhhh- OOF!" I exclaimed, hitting the floor pretty hard. I was lucky that I did not break any bones, but I was not happy about being dropped, literally, into the area where the Gemstone was located. I took a look around at the surroundings. Most of the walls and arches were crumbling over time, but most of them have already crumbled away. That was a tell tale sign of the halls being extremely old, perhaps even older. I got up slowly, making sure I don't break anything in my body, or pull any important muscles. When I was fully standing, I saw torches light up the old hallways, leading me in a certain direction.
"Torches lighting my path... yep this has deadly traps in it," I muttered to myself, before smiling at the prospect of risking my life. I followed the torches, and along the way down the hallways, I looked at the wall to see an image in the likeness of Luna upon it. It looked like Luna in every way, except that it was larger, darker, and sinister than Luna looked like now. I stopped to examine the odd image, but I could not examine it for too long. The reason was because I heard a soft click, and the torches flaring once. I was confused by the click, until I looked behind me and saw a boulder rolling at me. I would not waste any time running away from the boulder, yet the only thought I had at the moment was: Great, now I'm running away from a boulder like Indiana Jones...
I dived into a room, as the boulder hits the doorway of the room very hard. I sighed in relief for not turning into a pancake and stood up, resulting in yet another audible click . "Oh hell..." I said out loud, as holes formed in both walls. The holes started to shoot darts out of them rapid fire, and I was working hard to bend my body in ways to avoid them (not easy to do in the body of a pony). I weaved my way towards the open door, and dove right into the doorway. Before I got out of the room, a few sneaky darts would embed themselves into my leg. I hissed in pain, and landed pretty hard outside of the room. As soon as I touched the floor outside, the darts stopped firing from the holes. I frowned, and turned to look at my leg. Three darts decorated my leg with a thin trail of blood dripping from each of them. I scowled, knowing that I needed to remove those darts from my leg, just in case they were poisonous. It will be painful, but I need to do it anyways. So I took a few deep breaths, before I used my hoof to pull out one of the darts. I hissed in pain as the dart left my leg, and I immediately dropped it to the floor. Two left... I thought, and reached for the second one. I cried out in pain as I removed it quickly, dropping that one to the floor as well. God... damnit! I thought angrily. The pain was not unbearable, but it really did hurt. I looked back at the single dart left in my leg. I decided to not spare myself another second, and grabbed it. I waited for a moment to prepare myself, and then slowly pulled it out of my leg. It hurt a bit less than the first two, because of how I removed it, but it still hurt like hell when I finally got the dart out. I dropped that dart to the floor, and immediately pulled out bandages to wrap my leg up. It wasn't serious, but I would have to hope that I don't wait around for too long. Wounds tend to be the main cause of making simple things harder than they should be.
As soon as I wrapped up my leg, I stood up carefully, keeping the weight off that leg as much as I could. I looked down the hall and saw a doorway with torches. I smiled and took a step, and another click was heard. I really can't get a break while standing up... I thought to myself bitterly. The door where the torches were lit started to slowly close shut. I knew that I had to pick up the pace, and started to run towards the closing door, my leg screaming in pain. As soon as I got to the door, it was too low to run through it normally, so I lowered myself into a slide. My slide would result in me barely getting under the door, and my leg screaming in agony from the motion. I thought about grabbing a small item that had fallen from my bag, but it was just out of hoof's reach. The door slammed shut behind me with a loud thud , and I did not even move. I was waiting for my hurt leg to stop hurting first before trying to get up again. I... hate... dart traps... so... much... I thought in anger, while waiting for the pain to fade away.
When the pain finally dulled enough for me to get up, I just go up and walked straight through the next room, Ignoring the beautiful gemstone that was set upon the alter. I did not even care about looking at it, as I was too focused on my pain to try to investigate. When I did chance a look, I saw that the gemstone turned into a black piece of gravel as soon as I crossed the room. I hate illusions... I thought, before continuing onwards. I did not even see what the gemstone actually looked like, since I took a quick glance over it. I felt somewhat bad for avoiding a trap like that easily without actually seeing the trap itself. But I at least was glad that I did not have to avoid yet another trap.
Click
"God... Damn... Law!" I said, and started to run again.
After narrowly avoiding yet another boulder trap, I finally entered a room that was as black as night. Upon the alter at the center of the room, was the prize I sought after. I smiled, knowing that my pain is almost over. Except when I took a step, I almost fell down a hole in front of me. I scrambled back up from the hole, glad that I have not fallen down. I looked around, and the floor was as black as the room was, saving for a single torch glowing near where I was. I carefully moved to the torch, and picked it up. The floor was revealed to me more brightly as I carried the torch. I walked forward, holding the torch in my mouth. I was stopped just short of the alter by a hole in front of it. Muttering muffled curses, I tried to look for a way around. I then saw another path going to the left of the alter, looking back, I saw that where I walked with the torch, the ground remained revealed in light, so I was glad that I could use that to track where I have been. I turned and followed the path.
After being lost in the night maze for a chunk of time that I will call an hour, I finally reached the alter. Setting the torch down carefully at the base of the alter, I would slowly move to the Gemstone. Before I picked it up, I examined it in awe; it looked exactly like the colors of the night. It would fit perfectly with the ring I plan to give to Midnight Song. I then reached out to pick up the gemstone, and found that the size was deceptive. As soon as I lifted it out of the light, the whole room lit up, and the Gemstone suddenly felt heavy. I could not hold it up, and it would land on the ground with a thud. As I attempted to lift it back up, I noticed that the Gemstone was now larger than it looked before. "Wow... how am I supposed to get out of here with this Gemstone?" I wondered out loud. That question was answered with a wall opening opposite of the way I came into the room. "Close enough..." I muttered, and tied the Gemstone to my back with difficultly. It weighed almost a ton, but I could still walk with it. I made my way to the recently opened doorway, and entered into the dark entrance.
I would surface a few seconds later from a statue. As soon as I exited the doorway, it would close shut with a soft thud. I turned around to admire the statue, before looking at it in absolute confusion. The statue looked like as if a snake sprouted wings, arms, and legs. "What the..." I said in confusion.
"You’re alive!" I heard someone shout from behind me. It was Pyro. Geez, he follows me a lot more than I realize.
"Of course I'm alive... what did you expect?" I said in a confidant way.
"Nothing I guess... John, your leg!" He said in concern.
"What about it?" I asked, turning around to see the owner of the voice.
"You're wounded," Pyro said, concern really showing in his voice.
"This is why I hate dart traps..." I said, giving him a look that would show my hatred of those traps.
"We really should get that looked at," He said simply.
"It's just a le-agh!" I said, when Pyro decided to poke it.
"Relax, I didn't burn you," He taunted.
"Son of a ghost coming out of hell!" I shouted, showing my pain in that leg as clear as newly cleaned glass.
"Yeah, you need it looked at," he said knowingly.
"Yeah... you find someone... I'm just going to pass out now..." I said, and before Pyro could say anything more, I closed my eyes, hit the ground, and drifted off to sleep, far away from the pain that I felt currently. Yep, it's poisonous...
I saw nothing but the color black. I knew I passed out again this time, but only because of what I just went through. I thought I could hear faint voices in the darkness, and they would slowly get louder until I could hear them as clear as the day. I realized that I was watching a memory of the past.
"Hey John!"
"Yes Jake?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah... I am okay,"
Wait... this is the day when I disappeared. I thought, but I continued to watch it anyways.
"You don't sound okay," A different voice says from the darkness. That is when the black vanished entirely to show the entire scene of the memory.
"Who are you?" I asked him. The man was wearing a brown fedora and a similar colored business suit.
"Detective Chris, you can just call me Chris though," He said.
"I thought the detective look died years back," I responded with a small taunt. He would frown before speaking.
"That does not matter right now, what does matter is that I figure out what happened, he said, pulling out a small notebook.
"What more do you need to know? I just saw my best friend betray me and kill my wife," I said, sorrow clearly showing through my angered voice.
"Do you know why?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, I... know what? Screw it," I said, and stood up.
"Hang on a moment, I have some more questions to ask you," He said, but I wanted to be alone for a while, so I ignored him and walked off. I thought that the memory would end there, but strangely enough, it continued.
"Damn it..." Chris said disappointedly.
"Leave him, he needs to have some time alone," Jake says to the detective.
"I wanted to ask him if he knew about this," He said, pulling out a letter.
"A letter?" Jake asks, wondering why he would ask me about the letter.
"Not just any letter, the contents of the letter lead to the fact that his friend might have been blackmailed to kill the victim," he explained confidently.
"You’re saying that someone actually blackmailed Greg into doing this?" He asked in shock.
"Exactly, but John walked off before I could show it to him, no doubt he's going to hold everyone at an icy distance from here on out," He said, looking disappointed again and somehow predicting the future perfectly.
"You can show it to him next time you see him," Jake says, trying to encourage him.
"I highly doubt that I can be guaranteed another time to see him, I have this feeling that he might disappear instead, but when he does disappear, I will do everything I can to find him again," He said to Jake.
"Nah, John won't disappear," He said, waving it off and walking away. Chris reaches into a pocket of his coat and pulls out a necklace that contains a picture. I couldn't see the picture, but I saw how he looked at it sadly.
"I will help you John, one way or another, because you are my brother after all," He said softly, but I heard him. As he puts the picture away, everything faded back to black.
Brother? Whose memory am I looking at anyways? This is for sure not my own memory. I thought to myself, but I started to hear different voices.
"Are you sure he's okay? I mean, he did just go through a dangerous temple," I heard a voice say.
"Nonsense, he will be just fine, along with his marvelous gem..." A lady like voice said.
"I think you should stop fawning over that gem, it weighs about a ton," A third voice said.
"I've never read a book that told anything about this gem though..." A fourth one said to herself.
"Ah don't reckon that he could have carried that gem in his current state," A country voice says. I realized that I could finally move and open my eyes. I did so with a loud groan.
"Well ah'll be, your awake!" I heard Applejack say.
"Yeah... where am I now?" I asked, looking around the room.
"You’re in Ponyvile Hospital, Pyro had to carry you here after you passed out in front of him," Twilight explained to me.
"Why am I not covered in burns now?" I asked, looking over myself for burns, just in case.
"Because he did not want to actually hurt you, so he had to get some help to get you here, he did manage to stabilize your leg while you were out though" She explained.
"That was nice of him, now why are you all here?" I asked, mentioning the fact that there are six ponies in the room, counting Applejack and Twilight.
"We wanted to make sure that you were okay silly! I was going to throw a "your alive! Party" but you got up before I could think about doing it," Pinkie said out of excitement.
"Well I just wanted to make sure that you were going to get back up again," Rainbow Dash says confidently, but I knew that she was as concerned as the others were.
"Well... I'm awake now; how bad is it?" I asked them.
"Um... the doctor..." Fluttershy started to say, but she got interrupted by Twilight.
"The Doctor said that you were very lucky enough to not damage anything major in your leg, but you did loose quite a bit of blood," Twilight explained. I was not happy about her interrupting Fluttershy, but I let it slide for now.
"So I'll be fine then," I said, putting it simply.
"Maybe," She says, uncertain of why I thought I would be fine.
"Maybe? What makes you think that?" I said, being worried that I may have hurt myself more than I thought.
"Actually, your perfectly fine, it's just that the doctors are unsure if your leg will heal perfectly, so they want to have you stay here until it heals," She explained.
"Ahh," I said, but I was annoyed at the fact that I had to stay in the bed for longer than I thought.
"I have a question, why do you do things that can be considered dangerous anyways?" Rainbow Dash asks me.
"I thought I answered that? I am a Treasure hunter, I do this almost every time when I need to find a treasure," I said to her.
"Don't you even think about any others? If your okay with answering that though..." Fluttershy asks.
"I do, which is why I put myself in danger so often," I said, getting a sad look in my eyes. I sighed and made an attempt to get out of the bed, but I was stopped by a purple aura holding me back down.
"You should rest," Twilight said, being concerned about my attempt to try to walk around with a bad leg, "Last time I let something like this happen Pinkie ended up sprinting, foal strapped to her back, to the middle of town to see if the Sugarcube Corner was okay."
Pinkie blushed and somehow sunk into the floor.
"I will, once I finished one last thing," I said, being determined to finish making the ring.
"What is it that you want to do?" She asks me, being curious about what is making me so stubborn now.
"That gemstone I have there? That is for a ring," I admitted. I was sore that Twilight wouldn't let me up, but I did not blame her for being so concerned about a friend of her husband.
"You mean to put that gem on a ring?" Rarity asks me with a sparkle in her eyes.
"Yes, so I could give it to Midnight, as a... proposal ring," I said, regretting that I ever wanted to tell them. I was right when I saw Pinkie Pie jump up and down so excitedly. Where she popped up this time, I have no clue.
"Woo! I need to get the Getting married party planned for when you propose!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
"Why would you need a ring that special?" Rainbow Dash asks.
"Rainbow!" Twilight exclaims at Rainbow.
"It's just a stupid gemstone anyways," Rainbow says, giving it a light poke.
"That stupid gemstone is the Gemstone of Night," I said in a small boast. I saw all of the mares in the room turn to me in shock except Fluttershy, who turned her head to hide her eyes.
"Did you just say... Gemstone of Night?" Rarity asks me, not sure if I was bluffing.
"Yes, now let me back up so I can put it on the ring," I half pleaded to them. Rarity and Twilight would look at each other for a moment, before nodding.
"Alright, but if you have problems on walking, you are going right back into the bed," Twilight said.
"I appreciate your concern, so I'll agree to it," I said, not telling her that I was able to withstand pain for a long period of time.
I pushed the covers off of me and rolled off of the bed with a thunk. I then stood up and turned back to my leg in surprise. It didn't even hurt, not even a dull pain was coming from it. I imagined that the girls were as surprised as I was.
"What... the..." I said, being in awe of this event. I could not even believe it myself, but here it was.
"That isn't possible... no pony could heal that fast, not even Dusk can heal that fast..." Twilight said in confusion.
"Did one of you heal my leg while I was out?" I asked the two unicorns in the room. They would shake their head.
"Other than the magic I used to keep you in bed, no, we did not use magic," Twilight said.
I decided to stop wasting time in staring at my leg in awe and start working on getting the gemstone on the ring. I walked over to the gemstone and Rarity helped me to take a piece of it out of the big gem. I thanked her and with a few tools, I fixed the gemstone upon the ring. As soon as I closed the box, the door opened.
"Twilight, I thought I told you that he is not supposed to be walking around," The doctor said, before noticing that I wasn't even wincing in pain.
"I'm actually more concerned on how my leg is perfectly fine like nothing happened," I said in response.
"Alright, I'll just examine-" He said, before pausing in shock.
"What is it?" I asked him, being concerned about why he would pause.
"Medically... you should still be hurt, but the wounds have closed now... and there's no trace of scabbing," The doctor said in awe.
"I can perfectly say that no pony here used any form of illusion or healing magic," I said. Before the doctor said anything, a nurse walked into the room and whispers something in the doctor's ear.
"Really? Interesting..." He said, and the nurse left.
"What is it?" I asked, wondering about what the nurse just told him.
"Apparently, you have built up an effective system that would allow for faster healing times, normally that does not happen, but as we were examining your blood, we noticed a green substance healing all of the damaged tissues in your leg," He explained.
"So you’re saying that that changeling ooze that I ate, it still tasted bad... somehow sped up my healing?" I asked, trying to confirm my suspicion.
"Why would you do that?" The doctor asks me in confusion, not sure if he should be impressed, or absolutely disgusted.
"I'm a treasure hunter, I always do really odd things, like the one time I bypassed a trap using a swallow and a coconut, don't ever ask me how I did it, I don't know either," I explained to the doctor.
"I didn't know that swallows could even carry coconuts..." Pinkie Pie said, thinking about what it would look like.
"Right, so am I good to go now?" I asked the doctor.
"Unless you have something else that's wrong with you, yes you can go early," the doctor said, unsure if he should change his mind or not.
"Great, if I get hurt badly ever again, I'll just come right back to this hospital; you offer great service here," I said, hoping that he will take it as a complement, and walked out of the room and the hospital.
As soon as I was outside, I breathed in some fresh air. Feels good to be outside once again. I thought to myself, but the calm was broken as quickly as it came.
"John! Thank Celestia your okay!" Blitz said, almost tackling me again.
"Blitz, what's wrong?" I asked, being concerned about why she was panicked.
"Some weird ponies wearing masks just fillynapped Midnight!" She said in shock, I turned to her with a hard glare.
"Did you see where they went?" I asked her, anger slowly starting to show in my eyes.
"I think they went north, but what are-" She said, but I interrupted her quickly.
"Get the elements together, both of them, and follow them. I am going after them myself," I said, and took off in the direction that Blitz told me that they traveled in. Hang on Midnight; I'm going to return the favor and save you this time. I thought to myself, as I flew faster to make up for the distance.
Chapter 19
Perspective: John
I managed to catch up to the ponies who took Midnight as they entered into a cave. I knew I had to follow them in, so I flew as close to the ground as I could possibly go without my hooves touching the floor. I started running as soon as I landed on the ground, and quickly went after them. I was not going to let them get away with doing what they wanted to her. As I followed the masked ponies that carried Midnight with them, I made marks in the cave walls or stalagmites to show the others where to go. Hang on Midnight... I am almost there. I thought, and continued my pursuit.
________________________________________
Perspective: Chris
"Here are the newspapers that you wanted Chris," My assistant said, plopping another stack of newspapers on my desk.
"Thank you Cliff," I ask, taking a sip out of my cup of coffee as I read through the newspapers.
"It has been years since he disappeared, are you sure that you will ever find him again?" He asks me. I smiled in response.
"I promised that I would find him, and I won't rest until I find him once more," I said, putting the newspaper down and pulling out another one. I read the headline upon this newspaper out loud, "Mysterious Yellow robed man finds an ancient artifact, and graciously donates it to a museum for no charge. More on page A3," I looked at the picture below, and would slam it suddenly to the desk, surprising Cliff.
"I finally found a lead!" I shouted out of happiness.
"Does this mean that I don't have to bring you more newspapers?" He asks with excitement. I knew that he was tired of finding old newspapers for me by now, since he didn't believe that I will ever find a lead. That and his ADD made it hard for him to do the same thing for too long.
"Yes, this article may have been from months ago, but I can still figure out where he has gone," I said.
"And where would that be?" He asks me out of curiosity.
"A place that is not well known, it is known to people as: The Hollow " I said with an eager smile. I knew exactly where the location was because of my travels. I started to pack up my stuff.
"Where are you going?" Cliff asks.
"Out, don't follow me because I need to do this alone for now," I said, and I picked up my bag and walked out of the door.
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Perspective: John
After following the group for a while, I saw them walk through a gate. The gate had a single lookout upon it. As soon as they entered through the gate, I quickly took out a knife from my bag and threw it at the patrolling guard. It landed in his head with a soft thunk and he drops to the floor, dead. I was aware that killing them may not have been the right choice, but they kidnapped Midnight, so I could care less about it. My own morals about killing can come later after saving her. I then entered through the gate myself and surprised four guards upon my entry.
"What the... INTRUDER!" one of the guards shouted. I reached into my bag and pulled out another knife. Three of them charged at me, and the fourth was cowering, scared that I was armed with a knife. I focused on one of the charging guards, and with a swift movement, killed him. After killing one of them, I pulled the knife out of his head as the guards started to back away.
"Oh... Celestia," One of them said in shock. The other guard started backing away from me in fear; they were not trained to fight armed ponies.
"Where did you see that group that had your latest captive?" I asked them in a stern voice.
"To the alter; please don't kill us!" The fourth guard shouted out of fear. I then turned to him with my gaze, and he looked more fearful than before.
"Where is it?" I asked him, pointing the knife at him. He would quickly raise a hoof to point me in the direction of the alter, before fainting out of fear. I ignored the other guards and opened my wings to fly. I figured that it would be faster to fly there, rather than run. While in the air, I noticed a big monument of a pony. I ignored it and started to fly in the direction of the alter. I could tell where it was by the fact that there were many steps leading up what looked to be a huge pyramid. I will kill you all if you lay one hoof on her. I thought angrily as I made my way towards the place that they were taking her too.
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Perspective: Chris
I arrived at the town after a week of traveling. I made entirely sure that Cliff did not follow me by checking the boat I arrived in multiple times before taking off. As soon as I made my way to the gate, a man would walk up to me.
"Welcome to... Hey, yer not a bounty hunter, and you sure don't look like a treasure hunter either!" He exclaimed. I saw that he had experience in battles, so I did not want to make him too angry at me.
"What gave you that idea?" I asked him politely.
"Well, yer clothin' for starters, and the fact that you look like one of them detectives," He said, giving me a toothy grin that was missing the “toothy” part.
"I can say that much is obvious; I don't want to cause trouble, I'm looking for a friend who may be here," I told him.
"Ahh, then yer good to go in then, hope ya find yer friend," He said, and walked away from me to where he normally stood.
Odd, at first he was not happy to see me until I told him that I was searching for a friend here. I thought, but I decided to shrug it off. I have access to this town now, and I don't want to waste it away by standing around the entrance. I decided to search for the nearest bar, as I figured that he would probably be in one of them. Even if he wasn't in it, there would be bound to be information anyways.
I entered into the bar after finding the entrance, the whole building was a bit confusing as it was different from the rest. As soon as I entered, all activity stopped to look at me, before resuming what they were doing. I raised an eyebrow at what their reaction to me was, so I decided to listen around for any information by sitting at the bar. I walked up to the bar and sat down on a stool, but not ordering anything for now. I needed to have my head clear as I listened; even if I don't hear any information, I can easily ask around.
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Perspective: John
I arrived at the base of the place of the giant pyramid as they tied her down to a stone alter. I was tired of flying, so I started to run up the steps. I barreled through some ponies that were walking up the steps.
"Get the hell out of my way!" I shouted as I ran through them. Some of them got surprised and tried to attack me, but I killed those who tried with a knife to the head. I was not in any mood to stop, not while I was this close. A unicorn attempted to block me with magic, but he failed to even cast the spell as my knife sunk into his head.
"I said; get the hell out of my way!" I shouted again, and most of the ponies moved away from me. I charged as fast as I could up the many stairs leading to the stone alter at the top. I took a chance and looked at the altar, to see that they had a knife above Midnight.
"No!" I shouted, and started to run up the stairs faster than what I think was possible for ponies to do. The ponies were quick to get out of my way, but the guards did not want to take a chance to attack an armed pony.
When I was at the final steps, I saw the knife descend. Everything slowed down as I watch the knife move down. I also moved up the last few steps as fast as the time would allow me. By the time I reached the floor of the stone alter; the knife tip had already reached Midnight. I charged at the one who held the knife, but he plunged it into her neck. Blood flowed from the wound as I managed to finally knock him away. I pulled the knife out quickly, and used my hooves in an attempt to stop the blood. But I watched her life drain away before my eyes. She attempted to say something, but all that came out was a gurgling sound.
I was too late to save her... I was too slow.
________________________________________
Perspective: Chris
I heard nothing that could help me find John in the bar, or from the loud activity nearby, only some really strange stories. None of them came close to helping me to find him. I decided to take a chance and ask the barkeep first.
"Excuse me," I said, getting the bartender's attention.
"Sorry, I don't sell to foreigners," He said to me with a deadpanned voice.
"I wasn't going to ask for a drink," I said, surprising the bartender.
"You’re the first person who has ever walked in here and say that to me, why are you even here anyways?" He asked me, being curious about what I was looking for.
"I'm looking for a yellow robed man, his name is John, if he ever gave his name," I said. For the second time, all activity stopped again and I felt all of their gazes on me.
"You’re looking for John?" He asked me, not minding the sudden silence that happened.
"Yes, are there any problems with that?" I asked him.
"No, you’re just looking for someone who is pretty much famous around here for being able to take down the best bounty hunter with ease, that and he disappeared," The bartender explained to me.
"You’re saying he's missing?" I asked him.
"Yep, ever since he went on his latest treasure hunt, he's been missing," He answered.
"Do you know where he went?" I asked him.
"Yeah, he went to this island," he answered. Activity slowly started to resume.
"And where would this island be?" I asked, finally getting a solid lead on him.
"I don't know, but only that it is around... hang on," He said, and pulled a map out from under the bar.
"Here," He told me, pointing at an island on the map.
"Thank you for your help," I said, and he put the map away.
"No problem, John is my best customer anyways," He said, and went back to selling drinks. I made my way towards the docks. Before I left the bar, a shiver ran down my spine. I wondered why that would happen, but I ignored it and walked out of the bar.
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Perspective: John
As soon as I lowered my hooves, I picked up the knife that was used to kill Midnight. I turned to the one who stabbed her, and he looked at me in absolute fear. Before he could move, I ran to him and stabbed him through the throat with the knife. My vision turned red out of anger.
"Damn you to hell! All of you!" I shouted, and pulled the knife out. He gurgled something before falling to the ground in a pool of blood. I turned to the next pony nearby and stabbed him through the head as well. As I turned to the next one, my vision faded away to black, and I heard nothing.
"John! Oh Celestia, what did he do to them all!" I heard a voice shout in the darkness. I managed to stop myself where I was, and color started to slowly fill my vision again, first the color red, then the normal colors. The sound would then come back in a ringing noise. I looked around, and saw all of the dead ponies lying around in blood that coated the floor. I looked down at my hooves, and they were painted red over my yellow fur.
"Why..." I said softly, my sadness finally catching up with me again. I slowly ascended the steps to where Midnight lay.
By the time I reached the top, I heard soft voices behind me. I did not pay any attention to them, as I was more focused on the body of the one I intended to save. I walked up and used the knife, stained red in blood, to remove the ropes. Earlier, the only thing I felt was anger. Now the only thing I could feel right now, was pure sadness. No, depression. It was as if I was in a whole different world... I looked at Midnight's face one more time, and tears filled my eye for the first time.
All I could do was break down and cry over my love's slowly cooling body... I cried without any intent on stopping, because I have failed to save her.
I wasn't there for her when she needed me.
Chapter 20
Everyone was silent while I cried. I heard no one say a single word as my tears fell on Midnight Song's body. I did not even care about the fact that I never cried in years, well until I came here. I made myself so hard hearted ever since my friend's betrayal years ago. I could only think about how I failed to save her and the memories of us together.
"John..." I heard Dusk say, but I did not give him an indication that I ever heard him.
"Damn it all, why did it have to end this way...?” I said in a soft voice.
"I'm sorry for your loss," I heard someone say, and I turned around in fury.
"Sorry?! I failed to save her, and all you can say is sorry?!" I shouted.
"John calm down!" I heard Pyro say.
"No, Hell no! You don't know how I feel right now, this is no dream right now, even if it was, it hurts too much to be one! So you don't know how the hell it feels like to lose someone you love, other than a sibling!” I looked at Dusk, “Or an uncle!” I looked at Pyro, “I just lost someone close to me, and all you ever do is just give me condolences!" I shouted at them, tears in my eyes again. I was angry once again, so I pulled out a knife from my bag.
"John!" Dusk shouted at me, concerned about how I was acting. But I didn't care about him anymore.
"No, just shut the hell up!" I shouted, pointing the knife at him.
"Leave him alone!" Twilight shouted at me with her horn glowing, I knew she was going to try to cast a spell at me, so I threw the knife at her instead. In his surprise, Dusk managed catch my knife before it even touched her. I pulled out another knife, ready to attack again.
"John, please listen to me!" Dusk pleaded. I only looked back at him with the intent to throw a knife at him
"Unless you kill me, I'm not going to stop trying to kill you!" I shouted at him, and threw the knife. Pyro managed to react quickly enough to catch the knife at the hilt while it was in mid-air.
"Just listen to him!" He shouted at me the air getting hot, like the inside of a volcano. But I pulled yet another knife out of my bag and charged at him.
"Please don't hurt him too badly," Dusk said to Pyro.
"I will try not to," Pyro said in a confidant tone, and easily sidestepped my swing. I tried to swing at him once again, but he took a page from my book a week ago, and hit me in the leg. The burning feeling in my leg would cause me to drop my knife. I glared at him again, with the intent to tackle him.
"So much for not hurting me..." I taunted at him, holding my leg where he touched it.
"I had to do that, it was the only way I could think of to disarm you. I did like how you saved me from that drunk a week ago, so I wanted you to train me in doing things similar to that," He said.
"I don't need all four of my legs to fight you!" I shouted, ignoring what he said, and attempted to brute tackle him. It failed because Twilight managed to use her magic to pin me to the floor before I even reached him.
"John, don't ever think that we don't care about you!" She shouted at me, mostly out of concern for me instead of anger.
I only glared at her, and reached into my bag to pull out another knife with my good leg. Instead of a knife, I pulled out the glass artifact that I found in the temple. I stopped myself from trying to throw it to gaze at it in surprise. I felt a strange power radiating from it, like if it were asking me to make a choice.
"What is that?" Rainbow Dash asks me in confusion.
"The artifact..." I said, and wondered why it would show up now. I then realized what the choice was.
"Twilight… can you please let me up again?" I asked her, with a sad excitement showing in my voice.
"Will you Pinkie Promise to not attacking any pony here?" She said, worried that I was still wanting to attack them. I sighed.
"I'm done... Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake... in my eye," I said, hesitating on the last part. Twilight then released her magical hold over me, and I looked back to where Midnight laid. I walked to the alter carefully with thoughts running through my head.
________________________________________
I am tired of suffering, tired of suffering from my past, from the present. I have the chance to save the one who saved me. Now it is my turn to save her, for everything that we have gone through, for every time that we have been hurt or hurt each other, and for all of the memories that we made together. Now it's time for me to make one last promise in this world.
________________________________________
"I Pinkie Promise you... I will return again," I whispered into her ear. I knew she may not be able to hear me, but I wanted to say it. I then set the glass statue onto the floor and raised one of my good legs up.
"What are you doing?!" I heard Dusk ask.
"I am saving her!" I shouted, and stomped on the statue hard enough to make it shatter. As it shattered, a light would shine over Midnight like the sun.
"What is happening?" I heard him ask.
"I will tell you... I am bringing Midnight back to life, but at a cost," I said, sorrow showing in my eyes.
"What cost... John, what's happening?" I heard Pyro ask.
"The cost is that... I go back to Earth," I said. The ponies in the room were shocked at what I did, at my noble deed.
"Will… You ever remember us?" Dusk asked me, knowing that I wanted to do this, for Midnight.
"I hope I do... and I promise you all... no, I Pinkie Promise you all, that I will find a way back, no matter what it takes," I said, and I slowly started to fade.
"I wish you never needed to go... I still want to learn from you," Pyro said, trying not to cry, but failing miserably. But instead of tears, his eyes began to steam.
"If I return... I will train you, I swear it to myself... now I want you to tell Midnight one thing when she wakes up," I said, smiling as I was almost gone.
"What is it?" Blitz asked me, being close to tears about me leaving.
"Tell her... that I'm sorry... and that I love her..." I said, and vanished from the world of Equestria. All I could see was darkness.
________________________________________
I opened my eyes to see that I was laying face down on the floor. I groaned, and pushed myself up off of the floor. I looked at myself to find that I was human again, but I felt a deep sorrow instead of happiness. Was that a dream? I wondered to myself. I took a look at where the statue was, only to see that it was gone. I frowned and checked my robe to see if I still had everything. When I looked in one of the pockets, I pulled out a yellow feather. It did not come from any bird I know of, and then I started to hold my head in pain. I remembered everything that happened in that world. When the pain faded away, I moved my hands away from my head and looked at the feather again. It never was a dream... it was real! I thought in excitement, before calming down in sorrow. I first had to get out of this old temple before I could work on finding a way back. I will never give up until I find my way to my real home. I thought, and I walked up the steps.
________________________________________
As soon as I stepped outside, I had to use my hand to block out the bright sunlight that shone down. My eyes adjusted fairly quickly to the light, and as I removed my hand from my forehead, I saw a man walk towards me.
"John! By god you are alive! I finally found you!" He exclaimed in a weird glee.
"Who... are you?" I asked him in confusion. I was a bit disoriented from stepping outside again.
"My name is Chris, remember the detective from years ago?" He asked me. I shook my head and he sighed.
"Figured, it was years ago... I want to tell you a few things though now that you are listening," He said.
"Speak, I have something to do," I told him, crossing my arms. It took me a few tries to remember how to use my arms, but I relearned it again.
"First off, I need to tell you that your best friend never did betray you, he was blackmailed and forced to kill your wife," he said plainly.
"That was years ago... how do I know you’re not lying to me?" I asked him with suspicion.
"Good point... I still have the letter if you want to read it," He said, and pulled out the letter.
"I believe you..." I said, causing the detective to be surprised.
"But you didn't even read the letter," He said, being surprised at how fast I said that.
"I don't need to... something tells me that you are not one to lie to me," I said, giving him a confidant smirk.
"You are right, I would never lie to my own family... not even to my own brother," He said, giving me the same smirk.
"I don't recall ever having a brother..." I said in confusion.
"I did not know either, until I found out that my real parents have died on the day that you disappeared. I lived in a foster home for many years; I became a detective to try to help others who needed it.
"I don't want to suffer from the past anymore, I just want to find something right now," I said, giving him a smile that told him that I still believed him, despite how odd it would seem. I was only not surprised because of that memory I had after I retrieved the gemstone, but I wasn't going to tell him that.
"What is it that you are looking for now?" He asked me in confusion.
"A way back to where I know I belong," I said, and for once, I smiled genuinely.
"And where would that be?" He asks me, wondering about why I would be smiling.
"Equestria," I said, and started to walk towards the dock. As I passed him, he looked at me like he thought I was crazy, but he followed me anyways.
I promise you, I will return. I thought, remembering the promise I made to them. I then kneeled to untie my boat.
"I don't know what happened, but you have changed," he said, getting in the boat that I was untying.
"For the better," I said, and looked out towards the sea. I saw the sun setting at the water's level.
"I thought you were going to hold people at a very icy distance," he said in wonder.
"I was, until I met a group that made me change my mind about it," I said, getting into the boat myself.
"What group?" He asked me in curiosity. I looked at him again, and smiled as I remembered the time I spent with them.
"Why are you smiling?" He asks, being worried about my sanity because of the smile.
"Because I want to tell you a story... A story that I am pretty sure you will never believe," I said, and pushed off from the dock.
Epilogue
Two years later
I was looking through the current newspaper as I waited for someone to arrive. He's late again; just like always, I thought, chuckling to myself as the door opened.
"You're late again," I said the newcomer in a simple tone.
"You need to stop changing the looks of your house so much... it makes it harder for anyone to find you," He said, glaring at me as he straightened his fedora.
"It's not an excuse for a detective like you to be so sloppy like this," I said jokingly.
"Well John, you did insist on living here," He said, giving me a grin to show me that he wasn't fooled this time.
"You know I'm not going back to my old house Chris," I said, giving him a disappointed look. He was intentionally late to try to get me to raise my hopes about beating him in his own game.
"At least make your home more recognizable, it looks like a hurricane just tore through the house," he said, looking disappointed at the mess.
"I'll get to it when I can," I told him.
"You said that same exact thing last week, and it is still as messy as it was last week," He said, giving me a harsh glare.
"Not my problem now," I said, giving him a sly smile. He realized what I just did.
"Wow... anyways, I think I found something that you would be interested in," He said.
"What is it about?" I asked, looking interested in what he found. He would then put down a drawing of a statue of a horse that had wings and a horn.
"Rumors have it that this artifact is strangely not from this world and many treasure hunters have attempted to find it, all of them came back home empty handed," He said, and pulls out a small map of the world and puts it on the table.
"Go on..." I said, sitting down in a chair at the table.
"I found the location, but you know, people say that you have officially retired," he said with a sly smirk.
"I'm in my 20's by now, haven't they figured out that I was actually kidding?" I asked him with a small chuckle.
"Nope, that's what made it easy for me to get this location anyways," He told me. I would look at him.
"I think I can do one last treasure hunt," I said, and looked at the area that he circled.
"Just like dad..." He whispered under his breath.
"I heard that," I said.
"Oh right... forgot that you have trained your hearing," He said, using his hat to hide his embarrassment. I gave him a soft pat on the shoulder and resumed to look at the map.
This is my best chance on returning back to there... I never forget my promises. I thought, and immediately face hoof palmed.
"What is it?" My brother would ask me, being confused about why I face palmed.
"I never will forget my Pinkie Promises," I said, correcting my thought.
"Pinkie Promise?" He asks me in confusion.
"Just something with one of my friends," I said with a smile. I knew Pinkie would possibly hurt me if I keep calling it a normal promise
"Right..." He said. I knew that he would probably still think I am crazy and go along with it.
"Let’s just get going to the area," I said, picking the map up off of the table and rolling it up.
"Are you sure you are ready for doing this?" Chris would ask me out of concern, but in reality, I knew he wanted to know if I was sane.
"Of course I am, I am a treasure hunter after all," I told him.
"Alright, I'm convinced, I'll just get the plane ready and tell the pilot where we are headed," He said, and walked out. Before I followed him, I pulled out the yellow feather from my robe and looked at it.
"I am coming back for you Midnight... because I have something left to say to you," I said softly. I smiled and put the feather back into an inner pocket of my robe and walked out of the door. Instead of slamming it hard, like I usually do, I closed it softly.
I was not planning on ever returning back to the house if this artifact worked like the one I found years ago.
________________________________________
Adventure will always await, it's just up to you if you choose to seek it out.
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The End(For now).
For those of you who have favorited this story, thank you SO much for this. Even though this story has ended, it doesn't mean that I have decided to stop writing John's story now.
THE SEQUEL IS HERE! Courage is Magic
I am putting this here so you can have easy access to the story if you are looking for the fun filled sequel to this story.
And again, thank you for favoriting this story and helping me out. I'm going to press further on through this and I will make sure that this one gets a better start. I can't garentee any promices, but I feel like it will be possibly better.
See you in the comments of the Sequel!
Raizuo
Prolougue (3rd Perspective)
Freindship is Recovering
In an unknown part of the world near an ocean, there is a village. The village is a relatively small village, but its houses were large enough to hold a crowd of people within them. The wooden sign at the front gates read, "Welcome to The Hollow". Anyone who has heard of the town was either treasure hunters or bounty hunters, so it was understandable of why it was full both of those kinds of people. The whole village has its buildings arranged in a circle to allow easy navigation to all parts of the town. The bounty house was on the left side of the village, it was made from wood from the strongest tree that grew up high in the mountains, and most of the other houses nearby the bounty house were made from the exact same wood. The buildings across from it however, were not the same. On the right side of town was the building known as the Treasure Hunters Guild, where most treasure hunters, famous or not, always flock when they are in town and looking for a job. The building itself is made from solid gold that was obtained from years of treasure hunters paying for the building to be constructed from. They only wanted the guild to look different from the other buildings, so the houses nearest to the building are made from different materials instead of solid gold. Those buildings are made from a very sturdy wood that is white as the snow upon the ground. It was unknown of where the wood came from, but no one really cared about it because they were very beautiful to look at.
Between the two houses and across from the entrance gates, was a building that stood proudly and looked very different from all of its neighboring buildings. Instead of the special wood that is used in the buildings surrounding town, it was made out of simple wood that one could get from any of the trees in the world. That building is known to be the bar, where both Treasure hunters and Bounty hunters flock to either celebrate, or get a drink after a successful job.
Inside the bar were crowds of people gathered around tables. Some of them are talking with their friends and singing songs with them, the rest were either arm wrestling, or crowding around a table that had a drinking contest going on and chanting. But out of all of the activity in the bar, there was only one man who sat directly at the bar itself. He was separate from the entire merry goings happening around him. The bartender knew he was a regular, he knows all regulars by heart. The strange man would sit on the stool with as straight of a posture as he could manage, but he did not even show the sign of being drunk like the rest of the bar was.
The bartender knew the man and how well he could hold his drinks, when the man first walked into the door; he was a height of 6 foot 4 inches. He was taller than an average man would be, but only by a few inches. He wore a robe that was the color of a darkened yellow. Despite being indoors, he would never take off his robe. Many of the men asked him to take off his robe, but he refused every single one of the requests. When they got mad and tried to force it off, he knocked them to the ground with a single well placed punch to the face. The men around would surround him, in response, he took a fighting stance of an experienced brawler. He would expertly avoid the bounty hunters punches and duck below the treasure hunter's swings. He danced as smoothly as if he is a swallow flying through the air. During the fight however, his hood slid off his head to reveal: ragged brown hair, his eyes are as brown as his hair was. When the bartender looked into those eyes, he could see that they had a story. His glare however, is ice cold, and the people who challenged him immediately started to back off. The man would then pull his hood back over his head once more, before walking to the bar stool and ordering a drink.
Back in the present, the bartender got his attention.
"Excuse me sir but could I have a moment of your time?" The bartender asks the man, after handing him his drink. His favorite drink so far was his famous scotch that the bartender created himself. He took a large swig out of the bottle, before responding.
"Make it quick," He said with a hard voice. At the time, he had his hood down so his face and eyes are clearly visible.
"Very well, a certain person walked into this bar and gave me a note, she specifically told me who to give it to." The bartender would say.
"And who would that be?" The robed man growled in annoyance.
"I think by the description she gave me, it would be you. She did say to give it to a yellow robed man actually." He responded with a shrug.
The robed man put his fingers to his chin and thought for a moment, before he looked at the bartender with those hard brown eyes.
"Fine, give me the note." He would say in a mix between a growl, and a huff.
The bartender nodded once, and put the small piece of paper down on the bar. In the background, a table would be smashed to pieces by an arm wrestling match, causing the bartender to sigh. The robed man picked up the note abd skim over its contents. He then puts the note in one of his robe pockets, His other hand reached into the other robe pocket and pulled out a sum of money for the drinks, he left it on the table before getting up and walking out of the bar, pulling his hood over his head. Based on where the note said for him to go, he would make his way towards one of the wooden houses that was close to the bounty house.
When the man arrives at the area where the note said to meet, he looked around the house for an ambush. He was in too many ambushes to not be too careful about it. One of the ambushes was from other completive treasure hunters that wanted him dead, so that they would get more people to hire them. He hated those who profited from stealing treasures for money alone. When he found that no one was going to ambush him, he walked into the house. In one of the rooms lay a note and a leather bag on a wooden table. The man walked up to the table read the note,
I apologize, but I cannot meet you because I was busy. To make up for being unable to come, I will pay you half of the price now to make up for it. What I need you to do is find an artifact of great importance to me and bring it to me. I will give you the rest of the payment when you give me the artifact intact.
~C
The man frowned and opened the brown leather pouch. His scowl however melted away very quickly when he looked inside the small leather bag. There were golden coins with the symbol of the sun on them. The man changed his mind about the job, and looked over the map that was drawn on the underside of the table. He located the area with relative ease. After he found where the area was, he took the payment and put it in his upper robe pocket. When he turned and walked out of the building he smirked to himself. He knew would have enough to retire after all, when he was done with this job.
The man traveled for a day by boat, before he arrived at the area where the treasure was said to be located on the note. He got off of the wooden boat and secured it to the dock with rope. After he got off the docks, he looked around the relatively small island. He would see an old stone temple in the distance, and assumed it was almost a thousand years old, maybe even more based on how crumbled it looked outside. He figured if the treasure would be anywhere; it would always be in the most abandoned places. He sighed, knowing it was too easy to find the temple. He didn't like it when things were too easy. The man took a walk to the temple through the dense forest, and prepared to defend himself from anything that would attack him.
A minute passed, and the man arrived at the temple entrance looking very paranoid. He worried about if he was going to be attacked by anything at all. He knew for a fact that if there wasn't something attacking him that means that whatever it is that is guarding the treasure must be extremely dangerous. However his paranoia vanished when he saw there was a lack of any bones of any kind at the entrance. Instead it exploded into a full blown panic, He almost wanted to leave this island, but he had to get this job over with first. So he entered into the grey crumbling temple, feeling very uneasy as he entered.
The man was right to be watchful for any dangers, because the first encounter he had with a trap was a simple pressure trap. As he walked down a hallway one of the tiles in the floor depressed downwards, the circles in the right wall then became visible to him. The man had very quick reactions, and he was able to avoid being speared to death by the darts that shot out of the wall. He weaved through all of the darts with skill, but was unable to avoid a few darts from grazing his arm or leg. He then quickly made his way towards the exit of the hallway, and he managed to avoid becoming skewered to the wall in that room. He would sign in relief, and tended his wounds. After he rested for a moment, he looked over the room he entered.
The floor had certain colors: red, yellow, green, and blue. When the man took a step onto one of the green tiles a green gas rose up from the floor. The man quickly covered his mouth in response and stepped backwards. Just as quickly as it came, the gas vanished. The man made a note in his head to never stop on any of the green tiles. He then stepped upon a blue tile. The blue tile had a chilling air come up from below, and the man quickly stepped back once more. Similar to the green tile, the chilling air vanished as quickly as it arrived. The man frowned and decided to try his favorite color this time and stepped upon a red tile. He was lucky enough to step on the edge of it, as a fire rose up from the tile making the man jump back very quickly. He put out the small fire that started on his robe after he returned to where he started. He figured the yellow tiles were safe enough and stepped upon one. When nothing happened he made his way across the room quickly by carefully choosing his jumps. He would make it to the door it after jumping on the yellow tiles, the door would swiftly open for him when he reached it. The man sighs and mutters to himself, "That was kind of stupid; I mean who would make a room where you step on yellow tiles?" He did not complain any further, and he swiftly enters the next room.
The man stopped at the entrance and looked over the room like he did before. He knew it looked too simple to be an easy walk to the exit with no traps activating room, and looked over the floor and walls. He noticed that the walls were very smooth at the top and bottom, so he would assume it was a wall trap. He knew from experience that if he stepped into the room, the walls would start to close in on him unless he found a way to stop them. Also from experience, he found that sometimes the odd thing off from the whole entire room may help him with stopping the walls from crushing him. If he could not find one, then he would stand as close to the exit as one can, and wait for it to open. His eyes gazed over the floor and walls, while he was mumbling to himself. His eyes slowly stopped on a certain crack in the wall, he focused his eyes and then took out his mini binoculars to see the crack better. He saw that it contained a lever inside of it, so he knew exactly what he was going to go towards immediately. He would lower into a runner's stance, before immediately running towards the crack in the wall. He heard a soft click in the floor as he ran; the walls then start to move closer to him. What he did not count on happening, was the walls having spikes adorning the once flat surface. He worried for a moment that he may actually be killed by a wall trap if he did not disable it quickly. When the man got to the crack, he quickly reached inside the crack and grasped the lever. The lever stubbornly remained upright and the man reached into the crack with his other hand and pulled at the lever with all of his might. When the walls were halfway to their destination of crushing him in the middle of the room, the man successfully pulled the lever down. The walls would slowly groan to a halt. By the time the exit door opened, the man sighed in relief. He was glad to not become a bloody pancake in the room and made his way through the exit door and to the next room.
He could see a room with an altar inside of the room, but he could not tell for sure what was upon the alter. He knew he had to get through the room he was in to reach it. When he took a step however, the middle of the large room opened up into a very deep pit. The man did not move from his spot as the pit expanded to the point of where a normal man could not jump over the blackened pit normally. The pit would then stop expanding, and the man looked at how wide the pit was. He would throw a rock down into the pit and listen for the rock landing. After what would feel like a minute later to him, he heard the soft tink of the rock hitting the floor. The man knew he could not fall down the pit because the fall will kill him if he did. He did what he did best in this situation and looked around the room for anything he could use to cross the pit. After some looking around, he saw one thing he could use. It was a piece of old wood lying against the wall nearest to him, but he noticed there was mold over the wood. He would decide against trying to use it as a bridge, mold on wood means that either the wood is weakened, or that the wood was very slippery with water. He continued his search as calmly as he could when he saw some vines. There was problem with the vines, they were too high up for him to jump and grab one of them to swing across. He grumbled to himself as he continued his search for a way across the pit. Finally he noticed that there was a small ledge that was along the left side of the room. He knew that it could be very dangerous, but if he was careful enough in his steps, he would be able to shimmy his way across the ledge. He decided the ledge may be the best way to cross over the large gap, and walked towards the ledge. Before he would take a step on the ledge, he tied the bottom part of his robe around his waist. He did that to allow his legs freedom of movement as he crossed. He took a deep breath and slowly edged his way across the ledge on the wall.
When he crossed the entire pit and put both of his feet on the floor, he would sign in relief. He untied his robe from around his waist, and it fell back over his legs once again. He moved his way towards the door to the room that contained the altar. Upon the alter, he would notice a little glass horse with wings. It looked very similar to a Pegasus in Greek mythology, only smaller. He smiled because he knew for a fact that it was the treasure that his client wanted him to find. He looked around the room like he did with the previous rooms for any form of trap. When he could not see anything that looked remotely close to a trap he took a cautious step. When nothing happened he took another careful step, and then another step. When nothing dangerous happened, he carefully made his way towards the altar. He knew from his experiences in temples that if he picked up the artifact, it would almost always activate a trap that would possibly kill him there. So the man did what he knew from experience, and that was to check the altar itself for any form of trap that would activate when he removes the artifact from its resting spot.
After finding that there was not anything visible to stop him from picking up the artifact, he became annoyed, "Really? That's all I need to do? No more traps that I have to avoid? Well that blows..." He said with disappointment in his voice. He walks up to the alter and checks it closely for any pressure traps that could activate after he picked up the artifact. A lack of finding any of pressure traps really did not help the man with his disbelief; he could not believe his last job would be as simple as picking up the artifact. As he reached for the artifact he heard a small ringing noise. He would stop and look around for the source of the ringing, but it would stop when he stopped reaching towards the artifact. He would shrug and reach again for the artifact. Once the man touched the glass artifact, he heard a soothing voice, "John, it is time for you to find a new life away from your own." He would vanish, along with the artifact in a bright flash of light. The man known as John vanished from his world and unknowingly entered another world.
It is a world full of Color, peace, harmony, and quite possibly contained his own salvation from his troubled past
Chapter 10 (John) Saturday
Chatper 10
Saturday
I awoke at the same time as I did yesterday, and got out of my bed. I looked out of the window for a moment to admire the beautiful colors of the sunrise. I only looked away when I walked out of the room and down the stairs to head to the radio station once more.
I arrived at the radio station, without incident, and made my way towards the radio room. When I got to the radio room, I was surprised to see Vinyl Scratch asleep near the mic. Luckily, she wasn't drooling so the equipment wasn't being messed up. I chuckled to myself. She must have really been working late to have fallen asleep at the mic. I then went through my routine of examining the radio equipment. I didn't fully examine all of the radio equipment however, because I did not want to disturb her sleep when she really needed it. I smiled and finished my inspection.
After I finished examining the equipment as best as I could, without disturbing Vinyl, I walked out of the room silently and went to the instrument room. When I looked inside, I saw that it wasn't as messed up as it was when I first organized it. I still went through the work of making it fully organized though, since there was only a few things out of place.
After I finished organizing the instrument room, I walked back out and looked at it once more from the doorway. I smiled as everything was in place, where it should be. I walked out and made my way to the electronic room, where I would work for the rest of the work day. I strode into the room and started to open up the speakers to look over the sound boards and circuitry, when from behind me I heard a very soft 'click' of the door opening and closing. I turned my head towards the sound and saw that Midnight Song entered the room.
"Your early this time," I complemented her.
"Just because I can't have a rookie show me up so much at my job," She responded while yawning.
"Right, if we're going to argue again, at least we should keep it quiet, Vinyl is asleep at the microphone last I checked," I said.
"Again? Why does she work that hard anyways?" She asked with a sigh. I know she didn't expect me to answer that question, but I did so anyways.
"My guess would be because she would want everyone to be able to hear music," I said in a thoughtful tone.
"And how would you know?" She challenged quietly, waiting for me to answer.
"I don't, I was just making a guess about it," I said in my deadpanned tone.
"Well why don't you take your guessing and-" She started to say, but I interrupted her before she finished.
"Could you get me a working sound board? I need something to compare these speaker's soundboards to," I said simply. She looked at me in annoyance for interrupting her, but she went and gave me the sound board anyways.
After about an hour of working in the room in silence I heard Midnight Song say something to me, "is it true when you said to me Thursday that you were betrayed by your closest friend?" She asked me. I sighed, remembering that I shouted that at her when I got very angered with her.
"Yes, it is... something I would rather forget however," I said to her sadly.
"What did he do? Sleep with your love?" She taunted at me, but with more... how do I put it? Pity, maybe?
"He killed my wife in cold blood, then attempted to kill me when I found him," I said with growing anger and sadness from the memory. My anger vanished quickly when I saw her surprised face.
"I... Killed him in self defense, I had no other choice... he attacked me with a knife," I said with growing sadness. I ended my sentence with a soft click as I closed the speaker cover. Her reaction was not of anger, but of sadness. I sighed and left the room, taking a break for the time being.
As the time went by, I continued to work with Midnight Song in silence. Oddly enough, we had no reasons to argue, Even though Vinyl woke up hours ago. The silence ended when I saw two ponies walk into the room. I looked up from my work and looked very annoyed at who walked in. I saw that it was Sparx and Dawn who just entered. Dawn went over to Midnight as Sparx walked over to me. I finished fixing up the circuit board and plugging it back into the turn table and setting it into place. After I closed the turn table I turned to look at Sparx.
"Now what is this visit for, Sparx?" I asked him, hiding my annoyance.
"Dawn wanted to visit Midnight song actually, I came along to ask you something," He said calmly.
"Go ahead," I said to him.
"Where do you sleep?" He asked me.
"With Fluttershy," I said, I was not even trying to hide the fact that it was a lie anyways, "Well not wi--"
"We both know that is not even true." He interrupted in a concerned way.
"And you are keeping tabs on what I do?" I asked with a glare.
"No, Fluttershy told Dusk that you haven't really been near her house at all when he asked her about it," He said, sounding really concerned.
"Well, I have a reason of why I don't sleep with her. Her house is too far away from the radio station where I work," I explained to him. He, however, didn't like that answer so much.
"Why do you need to be close to the radio station?" He asked me, being concerned about my real reasons.
"None of your business," I told him with a frown.
"I thought you were going to be more friendly, guess you need to work on that," He said, in an attempt to make me remember my Pinkie Promise. I figured Pinkie told him about it or something.
"Well I have something I need to do here, and I can't be late for my job," I said, muttering that last part to myself.
"Alright, I'll at least help-" He started to offer, but I interrupted him.
"No, this is something I will do on my own. I don't need anyone's help to do this," I said. I didn't want to reveal to anyone that I was actually doing a dare from Midnight Song, and that I actually liked seeing her despite what I said. I also wanted to learn more about Midnight Song before the dare ended, I knew for a fact that she was hiding something. She didn't seem eager to tell me, so I took her dare in a bold attempt to find out eventually. If I figured out her problem, then I could try to help her with it. I then halted on thinking on my reasons, Wait... why do I want to help her? She has done nothing but insult and taunt me.. I thought to myself. Sparx snapped me out of my thoughts however,
"Alright, Since you don't want to tell me where you sleep, then can I ask you of what you think about Midnight Song?" He asked, curious about my relationship with my co-worker.
"She is hiding something, and internally suffering for it too. I want to try to help her because I acted the same way." I whispered to him sadly.
"So... you like her?" He asked. I sputtered for a moment before answering,
"No! No, I do not like her! Now stop asking!" I near shouted at him.
"Alright, alright, calm down." He said in an attempt to calm me down. I saw him smirk a little.
"If you keep being so curious like that I won't let you get anywhere further with that!" I said before quickly walking out of the room. I was hiding my blush from him, because I really was not sure.
As I walked back to my "Home" as I called it, I thought about Midnight song, She needs to get help from somepony, but she seems hostile around any kind of Stallion. I can only help those who can ask for it. I suddenly stopped where I was and interrupted my line of thought again. Wait, why the hell am I thinking like that? She's just a Co-worker, nothing more!
But what if that is just my excuse to hide myself from her? I wondered to myself, before lifting one of my hooves and hitting myself on the side of the head. I don't like her... or do I? Argh, I'll just go and sleep on it. I thought to myself and started to make my way back towards to the abandoned house.
I arrived there to find that the door was left wide open. I would not have been worried, if I left it open when I left. I carefully entered the building through the open door, and as soon as I was inside I heard voices from the floor above me.
"Ah keep tellin' ya, there is no ghost livin' 'ere!" A voice said.
"I don't know... What if it just hasn't got here yet?" A second voice said.
"Good idea, perhaps we could wait and ambush it when it's not paying attention," The third voice said.
"Aren't ghosts incop.... incorp... not able to touch anything?" The first voice said.
"True, but we could be Ghost Busters!" The second voice said.
"Just like old times right?" The third voice said.
"Juust lahk old tahms," The first one said, then I heard movement for a moment before it stopped. I raised an eyebrow.'Why are there three... mares here? I wondered to myself. I then shook my head and started to walk up the stairs to the room. On my way up, I stepped on a bad step and my hoof went clear through it. The loud crack sounded through the entire house.
"Ah think Ah heard somethin'!" The first voice shouted, as I struggled to pull my leg out of the hole.
"Yeah, I did too. Hide!" The third voice said, and by the time I got my leg out, the room was silent. I frowned at my misfortune, but I decided to try to find out who the three voices were. I got to the top of the steps, and noticed that the door to my bed was left wide open. Whoever they are, they leave an easy to see track. I thought to myself with a silent chuckle. I then moved to the doorway and looked in, only to see that my bed was there and nothing was out of place. Huh? Where did they go? I wondered, and then I entered the room.
Suddenly I was attacked by a yellow blur.
"Ah Got 'im!" She shouted, before I was also attacked by a orange pegasus.
"I got his legs!" She shouted.
"AGH! Get off me!" I shouted in surprise, and started to run around the room with a yellow pony on my back, and an orange pegasus holding on of my legs.
"Whoa! Sweetie stop 'im please! The room's gettin' all whirly!" Shouted the yellow pony.
"I'm trying to but he's moving too fast!" The third voice shouted. I then screeched to a halt.
"Wait... your not trying to kill me?" I asked outloud for them to hear.
"Wait... you're not a ghost?" The orange pegasus asks. I looked around and chuckled.
"And here I thought you were trying to kill me," I said.
"Wait... if your here, then who's the ghost?" The voice, known as Sweetie, asks.
"Well, I actually sleep here so... I think I am?" I said in confusion.
"Aww, Ah thought we could nab ourselves an actual ghost," The yellow pony said and got off of my back.
"Well, I have seen ghosts but they were mainly trying to kill me actually," I said with a shrug
"Wait, Ah've seen ya at Pinkie's latest party!" The yellow pony exclaimed.
"Well, since we haven't met... My name is John," I said in a calm, but tired way.
"Mah name's Apple Bloom," The yellow pony, who had a pink bowtie on her head, said.
"I'm Scootaloo," The orange pony said in a confident way. She reminded me a bit of Rainbow Dash.
"And my name is Sweetie bell." The white unicorn asks. I then looked at her in confusion.
"Wait... are you saying your made of candy or marshmallows?" I asked, all of them groaned.
"Sorry but that joke is old," Scootaloo said. I sheepishly smiled.
"Sorry, anyways I'm pretty tired right now, so could you let me sleep?" I asked them in a polite way.
"Sure, we have a story to tell others though," Sweetie said in a happy way.
"Don't tell Dusk or his family, ok? I'd rather not have them come bearing down on my door," I told them before making my way to the bed.
"Ah can Pinkie Promise ya that, wouldn't do to make a new pony mad at us," Apple Bloom said.
"Forever!" I thought I heard a voice that sounded like Pinkie say. I looked around in confusion before shrugging.
"I must be very tired. Anyways, could you at least close the door when you leave? I'd rather not have some pony be able to sneak in and do something to me in my sleep," I said. They all nodded yes and as they left my bedroom, they closed the door. I sighed in relief, but smiled at the event. Maybe I could settle down with somepony and... no I probably won't do such a thing. I thought to myself.
"He sorta reminds me of Morning," I heard Scootaloo say in the distance.
"Every pegasus you see reminds you of him," I believe Sweetie Belle said.
I yawned and looked out the window, and saw the sun was almost behind the hills afar. I sighed and climbed into the cold bed. As soon as I lied my head down, my eyes began to droop. It took me a while for me to finally fall asleep. My dreams this time were more interesting than usual. I was staring down a dark creature in an attempt to protect somepony next to me. I couldn't tell who it was, but I knew I had to protect him or her. I had a shield made of metal and it had the emblem of the sun upon the center of it. I knew the shield was a guard's shield, but I did not know why I have it. As the creature charged, I used my shield and bashed it so hard that a normal pony's skull would have cracked. When it hit the floor, it vanished in a puff of black smoke. I sighed and put my shield down, but before I could see who the pony was. My dream changed to something else, My memories of when I enjoyed myself as a treasure hunter.