Fortunate Misfortune

~Chapter 5 - A Breakfast to Remember~

I was sitting at the table in my cell tapping my finger tips against its wooden surface out of a mix of excitement and nervousness. I could barely believe it; very soon, I was going to meet the mane six!

I had an incredibly difficult time getting to sleep last night with my mind actively going over every possible thing that could happen when I finally meet the mane six. Eventually I managed to drift off into a light sleep, though this didn’t last very long since I woke up early… really early, the excitement I felt made me feel like I was a little kid waking up on Christmas morning, and no matter how hard I tried I could not get back to sleep. Giving up on my fruitless efforts, I got out of bed and began pacing my cell before deciding to content myself with my light drumming on the table.

The sun was up over the horizon now and it was just passing the time I normally eat breakfast at, though for some strange reason I didn’t feel very hungry. Even though I usually have just a small meal in the morning I’m always ravenous when I wake up.

‘No one brought me any food this morning… Maybe the Princess is planning for us to have breakfast as a group today,’ I thought to myself.

It wasn’t long until I heard footsteps… or hoofsteps, on the stairs. As expected, whoever was approaching stopped in front of my cell. ‘Well who else are they going to be coming for? It’s not like there’s anyone else down here.’ The door swung open to reveal two of Princess Celestia’s guards, both strong looking stallions armored in gold metal plating.

“The Princess has requested that you join her for breakfast this morning,” one of the guards said while maintaining his stoic expression.

‘Knew it!’ “Alright then good sirs,” I said while pushing myself to my feet and shouldering my backpack and grabbing my jacket, “Lead the way.”

I stepped out of the cell and the two guards took up positions on either side and slightly ahead of me. They guided me up the stairs and out of the castle’s tiny dungeon, and walking through the corridors of the main floor was no less breathtaking the second time.

The clean white stone walls seemed to glow with a radiance of their own, gold trimming lined the corners where the walls reached the floor and ceiling, and made ornate patterns on the walls in between. Here and there hung paintings of Canterlot and some pretty heroic looking ponies. The red carpet we walked on seemed to stretch down every hallway we passed, underneath the carpet the floor was tiled with white and lavender coloured stones, and hanging overhead were elegant crystal chandeliers which provided the lighting when no windows were present.

During our little walk, neither of the guards made a sound aside from the muffled noise of their hooves on the carpet. Eventually we reached a large set of double doors, and my two escorts pushed these open while motioning for me to proceed.

I stepped into what appeared to be a large dining room. Its size was comparable to that of the ball room where everything went chaotic for the mane six at the Grand Galloping Gala. Scattered about the room were various tables made to accommodate all sizes of groups. At one end of the dining room I could see two sets of swinging double doors that presumably led to the kitchen; at the other end of the room I saw a massive window in place of a wall. French doors opened to a balcony overlooking the garden where a few tables stood along with several potted plants. At the back of the room there was a grand piano set up on a small stage, a chestnut coloured earth pony with a short off-white mane and tail and wearing a white collar with a red bow tie sat at the piano and was playing a soft classical sounding song.

Finally, I turned my attention to the center of the room where Princess Celestia stood waiting at a table. As I made my way over, the Princesses horn glowed with a soft golden light and a violet and gold velvet cushion drifted through the air towards the table from one of the many others in the grand room.

Once I reached the table I bowed to Celestia.

“Good morning Your Majesty,” I said.

“Good morning,” she replied, “I thought I told you that you don’t need to bow every time you see me.”

“And I thought I said that I liked to bow to people, to help show my respect,” I returned with a grin.

“So you did,” Celestia said with a smile. She seemed to be warming up to me being here now. “I hope your time in the dungeon wasn’t too uncomfortable.”

“Not at all! The bed was nice and soft; then again, I can pretty much sleep anywhere so the floor would have worked just as well. I can’t complain about the food either. The apples I got for my meals, where did they come from?”

The Princess thought for a moment, “I believe they were grown by the Apple family down at Sweet Apple Acres in Ponyville, why did you want to know?”

“I just wanted to know who I should thank for the best tasting apples I’ve ever eaten,” I replied nonchalantly. “I need to thank Applejack and her family… speaking of which, where are Twilight and her friends? I thought they wanted to see me today.”

“They arrived fairly late last night so I imagine they just wanted to get a good night’s sleep. I just sent some guards to their room so they should be coming in shortly.”

I nodded as I set my backpack and jacket down, and took a seat on the cushion that the Princess had brought over… and ended up having my head just high enough to look over the table. I gave the chuckling Princess a flat look, and in return she levitated several more pillows over. I stood up so she could pile them high enough for me to sit comfortably. Once that was over with I joined Celestia in her mirth as she took a seat on her own cushion.

I was trying to contain my excitement for meeting the mane six. Sure, I thought it would be awesome if they liked me and wanted me to be a friend of theirs, but it seemed as though in nearly every Human in Equestria fan fiction I’ve read the human in the story always ends up with the mane six. They’re the main characters of My Little Pony but they’re not the only ponies in Equestria, there are so many different individuals I could meet, I didn’t want to force myself into their group, and even if the mane six don’t like me I’m certain to find a friend… somewhere.

“Why so quiet all of a sudden,” the Princess asked.

“Hm? Oh, I was just thinking. You, Twilight, and her friends may be the only ponies I know anything about in this world, but I don’t want them to feel like they need to help me out or anything. I don’t want to intrude on their group.”

Celestia gave me a soft look, “That’s very considerate of you, but whether or not Twilight and her friends want to include you in their activities is entirely up to them. Besides, you should know well enough that they’ll want to help if they can.”

I nodded again, and contented myself with listening to the sound of the piano while we waited for the mane six to show up, ‘I really need to find out how he can play with only hooves and no fingers.’

We didn’t have to wait much longer. My heart nearly stopped as I heard the doors I entered through open once again. I kept my eyes my eyes glued to the piano as I heard several sets of hooves approach the table.

“Remember to keep up your oblivious façade for now,” Celestia whispered to me.

I nodded in response even as I heard one set of hooves gallop ahead of the rest.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight’s voice rang out just before she came into view and nuzzled up against her mentor.

“Twilight, it’s so wonderful to see you again,” the Princess said warmly to her student. “I hope you and your friends all had a good rest.”

“For the most part,” Twilight replied, “Pinkie was really excited last night and kept us up pretty late.”

I chuckled quietly to myself, but instantly stopped the moment I felt something standing right behind me. Whatever it was, it was bursting with energy. Looking out of the corner of my eye I saw that Celestia was trying to hide a grin and that Twilight had brought her hoof to her face. I turned slowly around to gaze directly into the bright blue eyes of the pink party pony. Falling off of my cushion pile in surprise I bounced my head off the table and landed on my back.

“Ouch…” I groaned, rubbing the back of my skull as I started to push myself back up, except I found that I was unable to move when Pinkie suddenly landed on top of me, her face inches from mine.

“Hi I’m Pinkie Pie and Twilight told me that you’re new so I was going to plan a Welcome to Ponyville party for you, but then Twilight told me that you were actually new to Equestria so I decided to change your Welcome to Ponyville party to an even bigger Welcome to Equestria party. But then Twilight said that a party would have to wait since we were going to meet you in Canterlot… are you a monkey?”

I didn’t respond right away, the amount of bubbling happiness being emitted from the pink pony with a darker pink puffy mane and tail stunned me. The first thing that registered in my mind was Pinkie’s question.

“I’m not a monkey, though Twilight thought the same thing when she saw me,” I chuckled, still rubbing the back of my head. “I’m what you call a human.”

“So you’re not genetically related to orangutans?” Pinkie asked skeptically.

Again, Pinkie’s statement stunned me, “How... Never mind, yeah, I am. But I’m still not a monkey.”

“Easy there sugarcube, you don’t wanna go hurting him any more now do ya?” came a Southern American accented voice I recognized all so well.

Pinkie Pie backed up a step and looked at me still rubbing my head. “Oopsie, sorry,” she said with a sheepish grin and bounced off my chest to stand with her friends.

“No worries,” I said as I stood up and took my first look at the group of six familiar ponies.

Pinkie was still bouncing slightly beside Applejack, the pony who had called Pinkie off of me. Applejack wore her signature light brown stetson hat and her blonde mane and tail were tied up at the ends like a human styled ponytail. Rarity was next in line, her stylized royal purple mane bounced slightly whenever she turned her head. And beside her stood Rainbow Dash, her rainbow coloured mane and tail were, like in the show, sort of messy. Twilight had returned to the side of her friends after greeting the Princess.

All of them aside from Twilight and Pinkie were looking at me with varying degrees of uncertainty, Pinkie was wearing a big grin and Twilight looked as though she was about to say something. As I regarded their expressions I noticed that one of them was missing. I was about to say something when I noticed a long pink tail poking out from behind Rainbow Dash, seeing Fluttershy like this was too cute to describe, the moment was just so perfect, I couldn’t resist doing what I did next.

“Hnng!” I made a grunt as I clutched my heart and fell backwards over my cushion pile.

This elicited gasps from everyone present, except Fluttershy, who, disregarding her previous shyness immediately rushed over and nearly tackled me off my soft perch in her haste.

“Oh my, what happened? Are you hurt?” she frantically asked as she held her head to my chest to listen for a heartbeat.

It seemed like I was getting stunned a lot today, it took me a moment to comprehend what had just happened.

“What? Oh sorry. No, I’m fine,” I said to the panicked yellow pegasus.

Fluttershy looked at me with big blue confused eyes.

‘Must… resist… urge to suffer from fake heart attack…’ “That was just a little joke some people do back where I’m from when they see something incredibly cute,” I awkwardly explained.

“Oh, you… um… think I’m… cute?” she timidly asked while blushing.

‘Very, very awkward!’ “Uh, yeah… I do.”

Fluttershy backed up quickly and took up a position partially behind Rainbow Dash once again, though this time she remained mostly in sight and began digging nervously at the floor with her hoof.

“Anyway…” Twilight began, “Let me introduce you to my friends.”

Each pony in line said hello has Twilight introduced them.

“This is Rainbow Dash.”

“The one and only!” the cyan pegasus held her head high.

“Next is Fluttershy.”

“H-hello,” she said, quiet once again.

“Beside her is Rarity.”

“Charmed,” the white unicorn said with a flick of her mane.

“And finally there’s Applejack, and Pinkie Pie who you’ve already met.”

“Howdy,” Applejack said with a tip of her hat.

“I can’t wait until we get back to Ponyville! I’m going to throw you a big party and invite everypony in town!” Pinkie piped in with an enthusiastic bounce.

“It’s nice to meet you all,” I said as gentlemanly as possible while dipping into yet another bow. “My name’s Matthew, Matt for short.”

A subtle grin snuck its way onto Rarity’s face as she said, “Twilight, you didn’t mention that he was such a gentlecolt.”

At the same time I noticed Applejack’s head lower slightly, she mumbled just loud enough so I could hear, “Great, that’s exactly what we need. Another fancy pants pony struttin’ ‘round Equestria.”

“Wait, I was just trying to be polite,” I said while crossing my arms. “I can act like a gentleman… err, gentlecolt, when I want to, but I’m usually not a fan of all that fancy stuff.”

“Then what was the bow for?” Applejack asked while she chuckled and lifted her head again, casting a glance over to Rarity, who was now pouting in Applejack’s place.

I shrugged and responded, “It’s just a little habit of mine.”

Rainbow Dash chose this time to say something. “Twilight here said that you were pretty smart, are you an egghead or something?”

Twilight stared incredulously at her friend, “Rainbow, don’t you think that was rather rude?”

“What?” Rainbow replied with a shrug. “I just wanna know if he’s a boring egghead like you, or a fun pony to hang out with like me.”

“Why does everyone think I’m smart?” I said exasperatedly to no one in particular. “Sure I sleep with a massive encyclopedic dictionary under my bed, and sure I know a bunch of random facts and some basic knowledge in a bunch of topics, but I’m not the smartest tool in the shed… I’m too lazy to study.”

When I mentioned the dictionary Rainbow fell to the floor in a fit of laughter.

“But, you sounded like you knew so much when we were talking back in the Everfree forest,” Twilight said slightly crestfallen. “I don’t see how you can possibly not study when you sound like you know so much.”

“You look too fit to be lazy anyway,” Rainbow interjected between giggles.

With a shrug I replied, “Just because I’m lazy doesn’t mean I’m not healthy. And sorry if it sounded like I was a genius or something Twilight, all the questions you asked me were of things I happened to know. About my laziness towards studying… well, I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“How come?” Applejack asked. “It’s best not to hide things, you should share your feelin’s with others.”

“I just don’t feel like talking about it right now, it’s kind of…” I trailed off. “Anyway, Princess Celestia told me that you helped run Sweet Apple Acres in Ponyville. Is this true?”

“Sure is,” Applejack replied while shifting her hat on her head. “Why do you wanna know?”

I smiled, “Well, the Princess said that the apples I was eating came from your farm, so I just wanted to thank you for the best apples I’ve tasted in my entire life!”

Applejack grinned, “Thank ya kindly for the compliment,” then she turned to grin at the other five mares present. “Did ya hear that? Not only are my families apples the best in all of Equestria, they’re also the best in another world!”

“I hate to interrupt, but the waiter is here to take our orders,” Princess Celestia called over to us.

Turning around I saw a grey unicorn levitating a small notepad and quill in front of him, he wore the usual fancy black and white waiter outfit you’d expect at high class restaurants. He stood there looking rather impatient as he waited.

“Sorry,” Twilight said as the six ponies positioned themselves around the table.

I sat back on my cushion pile on Princess Celestia’s left while Twilight sat at her other side. Directly across from me sat Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy positioned herself between Twilight and Rainbow while Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack took their places around the table with Rarity sitting at my left.

The waiter took our orders starting with the Princess, everyone ordered variations of flower and hay containing foods so I had no idea what I was going to get… that is until Pinkie Pie placed her order.

“Can I get a daisy quesadilla with chocolate cake for desert?” Pinkie requested, fidgeting as she tried to stay still while the waiter took the orders. “And I want the cake before the quesadilla.”

The waiter wrote down her order, and after taking Rarity’s which was a simple daisy salad and toast, the waiter turned to me.

“What do you put on your quesadillas?” I asked.

“Daisy petals, cheese, diced up green and red peppers, tomato, jalapeño peppers,  and cucumber. The quesadilla also comes with a side of hay fries,” was the waiter’s immediate response.

Pinkie quickly interrupted, “Oh! Can I get extra hay fries with my meal?”

The waiter looked at her impatiently before scribbling the request down on his notepad, and then he turned back to me.

“Could I get the quesadilla without the daisy petals, jalapeño peppers, or hay fries?”

The waiter wrote down my order, and after bowing to the Princess he left for the kitchen.

Looking around the table I noticed everyone was looking at me, Pinkie with her jaw hanging open.

“What?” I asked, not sure what they were so interested in.

“Why aren’t you having daisy petals on your quesadilla? They’re the best part!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“And no hay fries?” Applejack added. “That there is half the meal itself. Are ya sure that’ll be enough for you?”

“I’ll manage,” I replied. “Besides, I can’t eat hay or flowers. Aside from those two things, this quesadilla is almost the same as the ones I ate back home… but there’s just one small difference ingredient wise.”

“And that would be?” Twilight asked.

’Great… walked into that one…’ “I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to jump to conclusions until I’ve finished.”

The expressions of six ponies turned serious as they regarded me with suspicion. Fluttershy seemed to shrink a little as she lowered herself behind the table, almost as if she knew what I was about to say.

I gulped, the noise sounding louder in the tense silence. “Well… the quesadillas I eat normally have chicken in them.”

All the ponies at the table aside from the Princess gasped. Rarity nearly fainted; Fluttershy’s eyes went wide as she darted under the table, and Rainbow Dash looked like she was ready leap over the table to tackle me.

“You eat meat?” Rainbow said accusingly. “If you so much as touch any of my friends I swear I’m-“

Waving my hands I cut her off, “Wait, let me finish!”

Glowering at me, she grudgingly stood down. Once I was certain that I was safe from being flattened by a very protective pegasus- for the time being at least -I continued.

“Humans are omnivores. We do eat meat, but we can also eat fruits and vegetables, nuts and berries. We don’t need to eat meat; there are plenty of humans who get by just fine without it. Now that I’m here I plan on giving up meat completely.”

There was silence. Finally someone spoke, and I was surprised that it was Fluttershy who spoke first.

“Well, um… I guess it’s fine then… I mean, I’m glad all my animal friends will be safe,” she said quietly as she slowly rose from her hiding place.

“And ah guess it doesn’t hurt that ya like my apples so much,” Applejack added.

“You can’t eat flowers… but can you eat cupcakes and ice cream?” Pinkie cautiously interrogated, and when I nodded my head she excitedly exclaimed, “Then I don’t see a problem!”

Twilight asked, “Am I correct in assuming that, um… that was the main source of your protein?”

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Well it shouldn’t be too difficult for us to find an alternative source,” she responded positively.

“I am relieved that you will be adopting a sensible eating habit,” Rarity said. “But we simply must do something about your appearance. It looks as though you haven’t bathed for days.”

I shrugged, “Well I did spend the last few days in the dungeon.”

Rainbow grumbled, “Well if everypony else is fine with you, I guess I am too… wait, did you say dungeon?” she suddenly took up a defensive stance. “What the hay did you do, you are dangerous aren’t you?”

Face palming, I replied, “I didn’t do anything other than wake up in the Everfree Forest and rest in my cell for the last few days. I don’t want to have to think about that sort of stuff anymore, but Princess Celestia knows about it so she can probably answer most of your questions.”

Before anyone could say anything I stood up and said to the Princess, “Sorry, I’ll be right back. There’s something that’s been on my mind for a while that I need to look into.”

“Where are you going?” Celestia inquired with a slight tilt of her head. “Breakfast should be ready soon. Besides, I don’t want you wandering around unaccompanied quite yet.”

“I’m not going far, there’s just somepony that I want to talk to,” I said as I left the table and headed towards the pony playing the piano.

As I approached, the pianist stopped playing and regarded me with a somewhat nervous expression.

“Hi, I’m Matthew. And you are?”

“Frederic Horseshoepin,” he replied somewhat hesitantly at first. “Can I help you? As you can probably see, I’m in the middle of practicing for a particularly important social event.”

“Yeah, can I ask you a question?”

“Be my guest.”

“I don’t want to sound rude, but how can you play the piano like that with hooves?” I asked as I held up my hand and moved my fingers. “I can easily hit notes with my fingers,” I quickly played a scale, “Can you tell me how you play without fingers?”

Frederic smiled, “Ah, a fellow pianist I see. Sure I can tell you, you see…”

Back at the table, the mane six all shared looks of confusion after I had left. Rainbow was the first to break the sudden silence.

“What did he mean by that? What sort of stuff.”

Celestia sighed, “For the most part, humans tend to be destructive by nature. In his world there’s plenty of political corruption, greed and violence, and their lifestyle is slowly killing the life on their planet.”

Twilight and her friends all looked at the Princess in horror.

“But he seemed nice enough, I don’t see how he could be like that,” Twilight stammered.

“That ain’t anyway to live, why-“ Applejack started before being cut off by Rainbow Dash.

“I knew he was dangerous, I say keep him locked up!” she said with a snarl.

“Princess Celestia, if he’s so dangerous then why are you giving him so much freedom?” Rarity asked.

Celestia gave the group a small smile, “Originally I intended to do just that, but this human seems different. He told me that he hates the human race and their violent ways, and he’s done nothing to make me believe otherwise. I even gave him the option of staying in a guest room in one of the less frequented areas of the castle, under watch from the Royal Guard of course, yet he still chose the dungeon.”

“I think he’s just trying to earn our trust so he can do something sneaky,” Rainbow grumbled.

“Well what if he’s telling the truth and your positions were reversed, wouldn’t you want somepony to trust you?” Celestia asked.

“I guess…” Rainbow muttered, momentarily defeated.

“Did he tell you anythin’ else Princess?” Applejack asked.

Celestia thought for a moment, “Only that he was studying to be a marine biologist.”

“A biologist, really? So he likes animals too?” Fluttershy perked right up.

“Perhaps, but you’re going to have to ask him about that yourself,” Celestia replied with a slight chuckle.

“Goodness, what is he doing now?” Rarity said as she pointed to the piano.

Everypony around the table looked over to the piano in time to see me sitting at the bench shaking out my hands and cracking my knuckles.

“That’s incredible, I never would have guessed!” I exclaimed at Frederic’s revelation.

Frederic nodded and smiled, “Truthfully, other races such as the griffons don’t have a clue how we manage to play either. So I’m not surprised that you asked, nor that you find the fact that ponies have the ability to grasp and manipulate objects slightly to be incredible.” Once he finished his head popped up as a thought came to him.

“Would you mind playing a song or two? I would like to hear what sort of music your species came up with,” he said with an eager look.

“Sure!” I happily replied as Frederic got up and allowed me to sit at the piano.

Sitting down I shook my hands to loosen up my fingers, and out of habit I cracked my knuckles, this action elicited a small flinch from Frederic. I took no notice however and began to play one of my favourite pieces, Fur Elise.

Losing myself in my playing I began to sway to the melody. This being a grand piano, it had a vastly superior sound compared to my old upright back home, and it was much easier to play so that made getting swept up by the music all the more simple. Finishing the first theme and moving into the second lighter theme I sped up slightly faster than it’s normally played just because it was fun. Coming out of the more lively part I moved back into the original theme and flow of things. As I approached the end of that section I slowed to a near stop.

I heard stomping hooves from across the room, and looking out of the corner of my eye I noticed the mane six and Princess Celestia stomping in applause. The one thing I don’t mind interrupting my playing, as playing the piano is one of the few things I ever receive any sort of praise for.

With a small smirk I immediately brought out the repeated base note of the next theme, as the volume increased their applause stopped. After the high point and return to the original theme I began to slow the song and finally brought it to the end.

“That one is called Fur Elise, what do you think?” I asked turning to Frederic.

“That was outstanding! A beautiful piece if I ever did hear one,” he replied with a flourishing motion of his hoof. “Although, don’t you think you played certain parts a little loud for that form of music?”

I chuckled a little, “You could say that if this was a different song, but I think the music you’d compose would be a bit louder too if you were going deaf.”

“Deaf?” Frederic wore a look of disbelief.

“Yeah. Ludwig Van Beethoven, one of the greatest composers in human history, started to go deaf pretty early in life. But that didn’t stop him from writing music. Actually, I think he composed his most well known symphony after completely losing his hearing.”

Frederic just stood there in shock, so I turned back to the others. They were all smiling except for Rainbow Dash, she looked sort of bored.

“You didn’t mention that you were a musician dear. That was quite the performance,” Rarity called over.

“Uh, thanks,” I replied. Again noting Rainbow’s expression I said, “I get the feeling that not all of you like classical music though.”

“You got that right,” Rainbow huffed, “It’s too lame for my awesome tastes.”

“So you want something different… I got it!” An idea came to my head and I called over to Rainbow Dash, “When you hear this one, picture adventure on the high seas.”

Rainbow’s expression changed from that of boredom to anticipation, and turning back to the piano I said under by breath so only I could hear, “Or the eccentric actions of a certain pirate captain.”

As I started playing the well known intro to ‘He’s a Pirate’, I could see Rainbow Dash out of the corner of my eye. From what I could tell she was already enjoying the song, ‘You think that’s good? Just wait a few more seconds for the real song to start.’

I turned all my concentration to the song as my fingers slammed into the first chords. A wide grin crept its way onto my face as my fingers bounced from note to note, my hands from chord to chord. This was the song that I enjoyed playing most, the liveliness of it, imagining scenes from the movie, and I could almost hear the instruments it was originally made for playing along.

Finishing the song I stood up and shook out my arms, I always play that one with too much energy and now my fingers feel numb. Looking back at the table made me laugh, everypony was staring at me with the same slack jawed expression. Finally Rainbow Dash shook her head and exclaimed.

“That was awesome! I’ve never heard the piano played like that!”

Before heading back to the table I turned back to Frederic who also wore a similar expression.

“I guess you’re not used to that sort of piano playing either, are you?”

He slowly shook his head.

“Well thanks for letting me play,” I said and gave a little bow.

Frederic just nodded silently, so I turned around and hopped off the stage. I got back to the table just as breakfast was being brought out of the kitchen.

We all started eating; I took a bite out of my quesadilla and frowned, it was good, but it just didn’t taste complete to me. Luckily everyone else was too engrossed in their own meals to take any notice.

“Why didn’t you tell us ‘bout that there talent of yours?” Applejack asked.

“None of you asked,” was my response.

“But why hide it? After all you seemed to be enjoying yourself so much up there.” Celestia commented.

Shrugging, I said, “I don’t play in front of very many people-“

“Ponies,” Pinkie quickly corrected.

“Err… yeah, ponies. It’s just one of the few things I still find any joy in doing.”

Everyone at the table stared at me.

“You’re not serious are you?” Twilight asked with a concerned tone. “You can’t expect us to believe that, you don’t seem like the depressed type.

‘At least that guise is convincing,’ “It’s nothing, forget about it,” I said with a smile.

“Now there ya go again,” Applejack said sounding somewhat irritated. “What’d ah tell you ‘bout hidin’ your feelings?”

“Well there are some things that I’d like to keep to myself… for now anyway,” I sighed, fidgeting with my sweater under the ponies scrutinizing gaze.

My fidgeting came to an abrupt stop when I noticed Rainbow Dash, her eyes wide open and her expression was one of… anger?

She launched herself across the table, wings flapping as she tackled me off my pile of cushions and pinned me to the ground.

“Rainbow, what the hay do ya think you’re doin’?” Applejack yelled.

“If he’s from some other world then how come he has that on his clothes?” Rainbow responded with equal aggression, though her anger was directed at me as she pointed her hoof accusingly at her cutie mark which was emblazoned on my shirt.

Everyone gathered around us. The rest of the mane six gasped in shock, Pinkie gasping the loudest, and Celestia just frowned and shook her head.

“Why are you here? Are you a spy? The truth this time!” Rainbow Dash was furious.

‘Looks like I’m caught.’ Letting out a slow sigh, I said, “No I’m not a spy.” I thought that it would be funny if that ever happened, but I didn’t feel even the slightest chuckle. “I’m a fan. A fan of you and your friends, a fan of your two Princesses and of Equestria. Waking up here made me beyond happy, I guess it was a stroke of luck getting hit by that…”

I trailed off as the memory came back to me. I clutched my side remembering the pain I felt when I had first arrived, the pain that came from getting run into by a car on my way to the bus stop. That feeling of drifting in emptiness, that ever present nothingness… it was a chilling thought.

“Fan? What do you mean?” Rainbow inquired, much of her anger replaced by a mix of pride and curiosity.

I didn’t give her an answer. Instead I delivered a quick and light strike to the back of her leg and swiftly rolled to the side, knocking Rainbow off balance as I escaped from underneath her.

Standing up and grabbing my things I said, “I need some time alone.”

With hurried strides I made my way over to the balcony overlooking the garden. I heard the Princess try to call me back, but I kept going. Pushing open the French door I stepped outside and took a moment to look at the sky. Not a cloud in sight and the sun was nearing the peak of its arch through the field of blue. Ending my brief stop, I put my hand on the railing and vaulted into the empty garden that lay nearly fifteen feet below.