//-------------------------------------------------------// The Lonely Pony -by iMusik- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1 //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1 Chapter 1 Wave was a rather small colt, not yet having earned his Cutie Mark. He had crimson hair spiked forward, and a single vibrant orange stripe running through it. His coat was white, though not as much as those Ponywood actors. His eyes were a unique, yet strange brown. He spent most of his days alone, with headphones in his ears, whether they were playing anything or not. In the schoolyard he sat under a large apple tree, waiting for the day to be over with, every single day, with nopony else sitting with him. He was constantly picked on, for many reasons, but he didn’t care. Insults like “Dirty White”, “Mud Eyes”, and the ever unoriginal “Blank Flank” just rolled off his shoulder. At least that’s what he told himself. Sure he had ponies to talk to, but they hurled insults just the same as everypony else. He didn’t want to be all alone. He NEEDED somepony to talk to, anypony at all that wouldn’t make fun of him, even jokingly. Anypony that would listen to him, and be there when he needed it. It wasn’t healthy for a young colt like him to be alone. He needed a friend. One day, during recess, he was sitting in his usual spot under the apple tree. Other ponies were playing hoofball, very poorly at that. He just happened to look up, right in time to catch a hoofball to the face. The ball slowly rolled around him, coming to a stop at his side. He figured they would just trot over and take it back themselves and totally ignore him, just like they had plenty of other times. This was not the case. Suddenly a blue unicorn with a black mane was trotting up to him, with a less than friendly look on his face. Wave recognized him as the most popular colt in his class, who always got what he wanted. Wave hated ponies like that. The other pony reached him, and began hurling insults at Wave. Not like Wave could hear any, his headphones blaring. Wave just wanted to let it pass. In less than a second the other pony took his MP3 player, smashed it into pieces, and hurled the pieces in a million different directions across the schoolyard. If it was one thing Wave couldn’t stand, it was the interrupting of his music. The blue colt began yelling at him, “Think you’re too good to help us out? Think you’re better just because your dad is famous?” Wave cringed, his father was the famous Mathias Length. Mathias was a master piano player, and for 2 years was even played privately for Princess Celestia herself. Wave didn’t like his father, none the less. He had left him and his mom when he was only a week old, and had never spoken to him. Mathias could have come back at any point, if only to say hi. He never did, leaving Wave and his mother to fend for themselves. Wave simply replied, “I don’t think I’m better. Honestly it shouldn’t be my responsibility to get the ball, seeing as you’re already over here.” This made the other colt even angrier, “You’re just too lazy! You probably think spitting is too much work!” In Wave’s typical smart ass style, he spat in his face. “In hindsight,” Wave thought, “that probably wasn’t a smart idea.” That was an understatement. The blue colt, now absolutely furious, began pounding wave with his front hooves. Over and over and over, Wave took the brunt of the other colt’s strength. The pounding had drawn a large crowd. Several ponies were cheering “Blue Blast! Blue Blast!”, in favor of the other pony, which only fueled his tirade even more. Suddenly, after what seemed like an eternity, the pounding stopped. Wave thought another pony had gotten Cherilee, and she had broken up the battering. He was astonished to see a crimson red pegasus with a bright yellow mane was now kicking the hell out of Blue Blast. This was a weird feeling for Wave. Nopony had ever stood up for him before. He watched as the red pony continued pounding Blue Blast, eventually slowing to a stop. Satisfied with the beating he had just given Blue Blast, which would no doubt go down in the school’s history, he trotted over to Wave. Wave spoke first, “W-Why did you help me? Nopony ever helps me. Especially not like that.” The crimson pony simply smiled. “I can’t stand that guy. He needed a good beating. Besides, he was just looking for a fight, so I gave him one.” He stuck out a hoof, “the names Verve, nice to meet you.” During lunch Wave found himself sitting alone, as usual, with no red pegasus in sight. Wave played around with his food a bit, bored. He was surprised that he wasn’t hungry, especially with the lunch being grilled cheese. He could’ve sworn he heard wing flaps, but pushed it aside as him hearing things. He continued playing around with his food, taking a bite here or there. With a loud thunk Verve crashed down taking his seat beside a now airborne Wave. Verve looked over expecting to see Wave sitting peacefully, as he had been. Wave was in fact not in his seat, eating his lunch. But rather, stuck with his head in the ceiling, attempting to pull himself free, unsuccessfully. After some pulling and pushing and an overall attempt to escape his position, he just let himself hang there until he got help. Somewhere he heard laughter, and a familiar voice yelling “Sorry!”. This was followed by an abrupt pulling on his legs, a snap of the roof, and then falling. They would again get a scolding today. This time, for property damage. Later on, after a lot of discussion with the principal, Cherilee, and a hollow apology from Blue Blitz, Wave was walking home, as usual, except that he had Verve walking along with him. “So, your name’s Wave?” “Yeah.” “You new around here?” “Nope.” “You ever give more than a one word answer?” “Sometimes.” “That’s fine with me, I talk enough for the both of us.” “…..hey, thanks again for today.” “Eh, it’s no problem, really. You live around here? I haven’t ever seen you walking home.” “My house is behind Sugarcube Corner, it’s not really noticeable.” “Really?!? Do you happen to know Pinkie Pie?” “Well I haven’t talked to her much, but I know who she is. Why?” “Man, such a shame. She’s cute.” Immediately Verve stopped in his tracks, and proceeded to facehoof in response to what he just said. Wave managed a small laugh. “Really now? That’s an interesting fact to know. I may use that later.” “Hey now, I’ve seen who you look at.” “and who would that be?” “Oh I don’t know, a certain gray pony with a knack for playing the cello perhaps?” Wave was taken aback by the fact that Verve knew. “Was it that obvious? Really?” “Nah bro, I was just throwing something out there. Apparently I’m a good guesser!” Verve chuckled, now knowing valuable information about Wave as well. “NOT cool.” “Haha, You mad?” “Bro, I ain’t even mad!” Wave stopped in his tracks. The gray pony mentioned just moments earlier, was standing, chatting with another filly. Right in front of him. It took Verve a moment to realize what was wrong. “Dude, you should go talk to her.” “I don’t even know her name!” “So? Ask for it. You’ll never make any progress if you don’t talk to her.” “But-“ “No buts. Now either you go talk to her, and face your nerves, or I will do it for you.” “-Sigh- Fine…I’ll go.” “I’ll be standing by, in case you need help. Good luck bro!” Verve gave Wave a look that said “Go get her!”. Wave thought to himself, “OK, I’ll go over, talk for a bit, and then Verve will leave me alone.” With a deep breath he continued forward, with each step bringing nerves along with it. “---and honestly what’s so “awesome” about this Deadhor5 fellow? I’ve seen much better musicians. Lots of them.” The earth pony was apparently having an argument about taste in music with the blue maned unicorn next to her. “Uh, excuse me.” Wave mentally facehoofed, what a stupid interruption. Quick! Think of something you need! “Oh, hello. You’re that pony from the fight today, right? Are you OK?” With this, Wave was saved from the evils of thinking on command. “Uh, yeah that was me. I’m fine really, I can take a hit or two.” “That was more than a hit or two!”. The blue maned unicorn had butted in, and was now clearly going to be as much of a part of this conversation as the gray one. “Well, I’m fine, really.” “I don’t believe we’ve introduced ourselves. My name is Octavia, and this is my friend, Vinyl.” “ITS DJ PON-3!” “Right, Vinyl intends to be a DJ in the future. I see little chance of that ever happening.” “Thanks for the support, Octy.” “My name’s Wave.” “AND MINE’S VERVE!”, a certain red pegasus yelled while crashing into Wave, knocking him about 15 hoofsteps away. Octavia ran over to check on Wave, while Vinyl was blabbering on about how cool that was to Verve. Both colts were knocked out. “Vinyl! What are we gonna do!?” “I don’t know, but that was AMAZING! That guy was like “WHOOSH!” and then Wave was like “AHHHH!” and then they both went like “CRASH!” and now this!” With both ponies knocked out, Octavia instinctively knew they were hurt. She ran as fast as she could to the nearest house, and banged on the door. “Excuse me! Anyone home?” Octavia could hear a faint sound of pounding techno, but couldn’t tell where it was coming from. The door opened, and revealed a tall stallion with a red mane. “Somethin’ I can help you with?” “There are two young colts passed out over there! Do you know first aid?” The stallion gave a sigh, and the called for someone within the house, “Maddy! Bring the first aid kit!” A pink mare soon emerged with a first aid kit. Octavia explained her predicament, and then the pegasus flew on over to them. She checked their pulse, their temperature, and then their reflexes. “They seem fine, no wings broken, no legs injured. If I give you some medicine, will you give it to them when they wake up?” “Yes, I could do that. What do we do until then.” At that moment a small orange pegasus came out of the house. “MOM! My turntables are broken again!” “Not now. Can’t you see there are passed out ponies?” “Woah! Didn’t see em’ there.” He looked around to get his bearings. Then looked over, and spoke to Vinyl. “My names Clank. A one name celebrity!” “I haven’t heard of you.” “A soon to be one name Celebrity!” “Clank, get your father, we can let these colt’s stay with us for the night.” “Where are they gonna sleep?” “In the basement, with the extra beds. Not a problem, is it?” Clank saw the look in his mother’s eyes. The look said, “No arguments, do as you’re told” He did just that. Wave awoke to the smell of pancakes. He knew the smell anywhere. “Was his mom still home? Why did she make pancakes? She only does that for special occasions.” His memory slowly returned to him, and he turned to his side, to see a pegasus sleeping in the next bed over. He trotted over, and started yelling at him. “WAKE UP VERVE! YOU’RE SO STUPID! WHY COULDN’T YOU WATCH WHERE YOU WERE GOING?” “Aw, come on mate, not a good way to wake up the person that lives in this house. Especially after we took you two in.” Clank rose up, and turned to Wave. “Oh, eheh, my bad. Mind telling me what’s going on?” “Well, last night you bumped your head. Actually, speedy over there crashed into your head. Little gray filly came up to our house, asking for help. Mom fixed you guys up, and we brought you in for the night.” Wave was thinking, about Octavia. She’d cared enough to run and get help? “Eh, sorry Wave!” announced Verve from across the room. He stretched a bit.”No harm no foul right?” “You guys were knocked out for hours!” “OK so, my fault. Well Wave, I best get going. Don’t wanna impose on these guys any more than I have already. Thanks, whatever your name is!” “It’s Clank.” “Strange name, but OK!”. He walked up the stairs, and there was a faint “Thanks!” from above. “So….Clank is it? I haven’t seen you anywhere at school, are you new?” “I’m homeschooled. Dad doesn’t like the school system, or any system for that matter.” “I see you have some turntables over there. You a DJ?” “Nah, I’m not much for being the one to spin it. I make the tracks. I’d show you, but 10:00 is a bit early to blare music.” “CRAP! It’s 10am?!” “Uh, yep. Why?” “Sorry dude, but I gotta go. Like, now.” “Why in a rush?” “My mom’s probably home worried sick!” He was halfway up the stairs, ”Thanks again! Hope to see ya around! Thanks Clank’s parents!” He headed out the door, and ran down the block. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2 //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2 Chapter 2 When Wave entered his home, he expected to see his mother, sitting on the couch, waiting, and possibly crying. Instead, he got a note. It read: Wave, I was called in to work early today. I left a meal on the table for later. I was told about what happened yesterday by the nice ponies down the street. I really hope you thanked them. I should be home early, but I can’t make any promises. Hope to see you soon, Mom He dropped his head. This always happens, he thought, she always gets called in early. He didn’t like not seeing her, she was his mom, after all, and anypony his age needed a mom. Truly though, he wanted company, as usual. He sat wondering, for a moment, about the previous days events. He ran through the list, Blue Blaze, fight, principal, Verve, through the roof… he chuckled a bit by recalling the last incident. He hadn’t laughed in a long time, he realized. Walking home, Octavia; he stopped again. That didn’t go as I’d hoped. Just then, there was a knock at the door. Wave sat for a minute, wondering if he’d actually heard it. Nopony ever knocked on their door for a good reason. Then again, nopony should be totally ignored. Reluctantly, he went over and opened it. A small, dark red, unicorn was standing at the door, holding levitating a small book in front of him. He had a dark gray and light blue mane that looked a tad girly. “Good afternoon, my name is Diego, and I am a Ponyscout explorer in herd 54. Are you in need of any assistance today sir?” asked the pony, who was clearly reading out of the book, and upon finishing the sentence looked up with an almost too enthusiastic look on his face. “Not particularly, no.” said Wave, not completely knowing just WHAT had walked up to his door. The red pony flipped through the pages in his guidebook, and after a short time, and lots of page flipping, he said, “Aww…It doesn’t say what to do if they say no.” He flung the book to the side, and sat on the ground, with a hoof to his head, pondering what to do. “May I ask what you’re doing?” “Not now! I’m trying to think of what I need to do!” Not expecting such a snappy comment, Wave was left speechless. He slowly backed up, into his house, and began to creep the door shut. This was cut short by a sudden hole through the door, and Wave being knocked backwards. He hit the ground with a thunk. “Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry! I was only trying to stop it. I’m not very good at magic yet, I guess.” Wave stood. He was fine, a bit dazed, but fine other than that. “Wha- What did you do?” “I was trying to hold the door shut, because I remembered what I was supposed to say next, but I’m kind of bad at magic.” “Bad at magic? Theres a hole in the door!” Diego sat, with a sad look on his face. Obviously this wasn’t the first time his magic had gotten out of hand. “Uh, other than the hole I’d say you’re pretty good at it actually!”, Wave couldn’t stand seeing anyone sad for any reason. He also felt it was his fault in the first place for not letting Diego finish. “-sniff- You really think so?” “Well yeah, anypony that can knock me backwards that far, after going through my door, all on accident HAS to be good at magic.” “Well, thanks I guess. You want me to leave now, right?” “I was wondering if you could help me fix the door, actually.” Wave pointed over towards the door, as a small chunk fell off of it. The hole was big enough to step through. “That’s fair, I guess, but where do we start?” “I have ABSOLUTELY no idea.” About an hour later, the door was fixed. Sort of. Verve and Clank, who had happened to be passing by, stopped to “help”. “That looks JUST like new!” yelled Verve, who was standing next to the door. “You can’t even tell there was a hole in it!” “It looks rather…off, in my opinion.” said Clank, tilting his head to see if it made a difference looking at it from a different angle. It didn’t. The hole, which took an hour to fix, had some plywood taped over it and was painted red. The rest of the door was orange. Wave facehoofed. “This looks terrible. Why is it red again?” “Because that was the only color paint we could find.” said Diego, almost too cheerfully. “I suppose it’ll be fine…I mean, it still does the job right?” Wave said, rubbing his head. “I could try a spell to fi-” Diego started, but was cut off by the other three. “NO!” they all yelled in unison. “-x it…” They heard a slow rumbling coming from somewhere around them. “Anypony else hear that, or is my hearing going?” said Clank, toying with his ear, as if it made a difference. Verve began slowly walking around the house, as if he could tell the exact spot the sound was coming from. “Hey, I can see a light.” As the other ponies came rushing around there was a flash, and suddenly, behind the house, was an emergency call box. Just as Diego was inching up to it, the doors flung open, just missing the pony. Diego looked up to find a light brown pony staring him in the face. The air was tense for a moment. The stranger from inside the box broke the silence. “Anypony mind telling’ me where some food is? I’m starving! Oh, but no pears. No apples either. Come to think of it, never mind, I’m not hungry. Got anything to drink?” “Hey Clank!” yelled Diego, “This guys got an accent like you!” “Meh, forget the drink. Where in the universe am I?” “You’re in Ponyville, Equestria. May I ask who you are?” Clank said, feeling as if he was the only one who found it strange that a call box had just appeared out of nowhere. “I don’t know yet. Should come to me soon enough. Any problems around here?” “W-Well, there was a hole in the door, but we fixed it al-“ Verve started. “Say no more, say no more. I will gladly help with your problem. This way!” said the brown pony as he began to walk away. “It’s this way.” Wave said, deciding to ignore how obviously delusional this pony was. They walked back around to in front of the door, which as mentioned before, was terribly repaired. The brown pony stood in front of the door for a moment, looking it over a few times. Then he pulled out a small, pen like object from seemingly out of nowhere. “Where on earth did you….you know what? Forget it.” Said Clank, still skeptical of this whole situation. He didn’t want to complicate things more than he had to. “Nuh Prblemm herr. Uss immeh ehnte.” said the strange pony working on the door. Then pen like object was glowing, and he was flashing it around the outline of the piece of plywood stuck to the door. After a while he made the object disappear, again seemingly into nowhere. He turned and looked at the group. “Alrighy, should be perfectly fine. Looks good to me.” “Are you insane? Nothing changed. It’s the same as it was before you waved….whatever that was in front of it.” said Clank, pointing back to the door. Just as he began to point, the piece of wood began to glow very brightly. It lasted nearly a minute, and the light was blinding, even in the daylight. When it started to settle down, the wooden board had vanished, and there in its place was the door just as it was before. Clank stood staring at the door, wondering how an earth pony, especially an insane one, could do this magic. “How did you…” “Sonic Screwdriver. Never leave the TARDIS without it. Now if you’ll excuse me for a moment I have a certain blue call box to tend to.” He said, walking around the house again. He slid open the door of the blue call box, and began to walk in. “Must be uncomfortable in there. It looks small from the inside.” Said Diego, chiming in. “It’s bigger on the inside.” “Who did you say you were again?” “I’m the Doctor.” //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3 //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3 Chapter 3 He heard them coming, quickly charging after him. A group of stallions were chasing him in the dead of night, with the moonlight seemingly following him. He turned to look at who his chasers might be, but as with his previous looks, they were shrouded in darkness. He kept running. He ran so far he didn’t know if he was still in Equestria or not, let alone still on Earth. He rounded a corner, and stood facing the thing he feared most at that exact moment, and possibly the most stereotypical way to end a chase, a dead end. He looked around for an alternate path, or a hiding place, all the while hearing his followers growing closer. Then he saw it. It was a long shot, but there was a hole in the side of the wall, covered with boards, just big enough for him to squeeze through. He rushed over, hearing the quickly approaching hoofsteps coming after him. He got stuck for a moment. A moment that seemed like forever. The sweat was now pouring over his face, blurring his sight. Then, he was through. A loud crash came from outside, followed by vulgar screams. He took a moment to recover, and allowing the screams to settle, and the sound of fading hoofsteps to arise before looking about where he was. He began walking, slowly. He tripped over a wire, sending him face first into the floor, and sending the lights in the building into a blaze of light. For the first time he could look at where he was, and he was happy to see light, if even for a moment. Only, a moment. The horror of what he saw suddenly crashed down on him. His breath grew heavy, and his eyes grew wide. Thousands of him, in various stages, floating in vats of water, wearing breathing masks. He looked on even more, as he noticed the mutilated bodies of the ponies resembling him stuck onto the walls. A large red light began to flash, followed by the horn blaring. The vats were emptying. The thousands of clones sprang to life, and stepped down from their places. He realized they weren’t purely ponies. What he thought was a breathing mask on them was metallic, and was under their skin, as opposed to being over it. Robo-Ponies. Thousands of Robo-Ponies. That all looked like him. They slowly marched towards him, in perfect sync. The pounding of their synchronized hoofsteps sent chills down his spine. They all chanted, “ALL TRESPASSERS SHALL BE ASSIMILATED. NO WITNESSES SHALL BE LEFT,” repeatedly. The were closing in on him now, and he suddenly snapped back to reality. He darted for the hole where he entered, only to find himself get stuck in the doorway. He was trying to pull himself through, all the while hearing robotic sounds growing closer. He pulled and pulled, but couldn’t break free. There was a sudden sharp tugging of his rear hooves, and then a sharp pang. He looked up, into the alley, through the pain. He saw what seemed to be one of the robots. As it moved closer to him, he saw that there was no metallic face. It spoke with a non-metallic voice, “You almost made it. A pity. I thought I’d perfected the process, but I may have to work out a few bugs. You were close,” it said, leaning forward, revealing his whole face, “very, close.” He realized who he was staring at. Himself. Then a fast moving rear hoof caught his face, and it went black. Wave woke up screaming, and sweating heavily. He hated that dream, needless to say. It did bug him, though, since it was reoccurring about every week. He knew it meant something, but didn’t know what. Why was this happening to him? Was his body rejecting something? Was there some meaning in this? Was it a vision of the future? The thoughts terrified him. He sat there for what seemed like hours, just thinking. He peeked out of the curtain in front of the window and looked outside. Everypony was smiling and happy, having no cares in the world. Just as he closed the curtain again, he heard a loud thunk on the window. He jumped back, startled, and then slowly crept back to the window, peeking out. A blue flash came inches from his face, and was accompanied by another loud thunk. Upon regaining his composure, again, he looked outside. Verve was standing outside, waving his hoof. “WAVE! COME OUT! I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU!” Wave turned around, rubbed his head as if to pre-maturely soothe an oncoming headache. He got out of bed and headed for the door, slowly. “What on earth could he possibly want…” He opened the door to see Verve, holding a sign in his mouth that said “Lemonade. 1 Bit,”. He spat out the sign and said, “Wave, you remember those fillies from when I knocked you out?” “Uh, yeah. Octavia and Vinyl. Why?” “They said they could use some help, and I happened to walk by their stand. I figured since you have a thing for the gray one then you wou-” “Let’s go.” When they arrived to the lemonade stand, a poorly made one, at that, Verve rushed over, “Hey, I got some help. Just tell him what to do and he’ll do it.” Octavia trotted over to Wave, “You’re that pony that was knocked out. Are you OK?” “It’s OK, I’m fine now.” Vinyl spoke up, loudly, “WELL GREAT!” She heaved a brightly colored costume at him, “PUT THIS ON AND GO ADVERTISE!” she said with a smile. “OK, I guess. Why are you yelling?” “WHAT?” “Why are you yelling?” “WHAT!?” “Nevermind…” As he took the costume and unfolded it he realized his suspicions were correct. It was a lemon suit. He didn’t even want to know why they had it, much less where they got it from. He really didn’t want to do this, but said to himself, “For the pursuit of love and happiness, I will gladly be a lemon.” After he had put it on, and been standing for a solid 15 minutes, he saw the first pony. “Hello, sir. Would you like some lemonade? It’s fresh?” “Wha? Oh, no thanks kid. Maybe on my way back.” The stallion trotted off. Somehow Wave knew he wouldn’t be seeing him again. A short time later, a familiar face came by. “Hello miss Cheerilee!” “Oh, hello Wave. Why are you a-” “A lemon? We’re selling lemonade. Would you want some?” “I suppose I could buy some…” “Oh Good!” yelled Vinyl from behind the counter. She had a cup full by the time Cheerilee could say anything else, “That’ll be 1 bit!” Cheerilee quickly paid. Mostly to get away from Vinyl, who was trying to offer multiple cups at this point, and Wave, who didn’t exactly look “normal” in the lemon suit. The rest of the day passed, relatively with the same pattern. A customer would come by, Wave would do a dance in the costume, Octavia would pour a cup, Vinyl would rush it over and shove it into the customers face, and Verve would hold the sign. The customer would then pay to get the ponies to stop crowding, and then it would repeat itself. Suddenly, a brown spec was moving towards them from quite a distance away. “Didn’t that guy leave already?” said Verve, through the muffling of the sign. “I thought he did. What does he want now?” Wave said, curiously. “ ‘Ello. Nice to be seeing you again. Oh, look at that, females about your age. ‘Ello! Wave, wait a minute, you‘re a lemon now? How strange.” The Doctor said, not helping anypony think he was sane. “Er, Hello.” Octavia responded, wondering how far this guy had fallen upon being born. “Now, quickly, I need you two, Wave and Verve. Come with me, NOW.” They did as they were told, not so much wanting to listen, but wanting this guy gone. He was a loon. They arrived at the TARDIS door. “What are we doing here?” Verve said, breaking the silence. “Tell me, boys, care to help me with something?” “I guess so. Why us?” Verve said, not stopping to think of the insanity that would come from assisting this guy. “Because you boys were the first to meet me, that means you’re involved in the major event that’s going to happen soon. Now, step into the TARDIS and we must go.” “Wait, you also met Diego and Clank too. Why not them?” “Oh, silly me. They’re already inside.” “HEY VERVE AND WAVE! COME IN! THERE’S A SWIMMING POOL!” came from inside the TARDIS, in the voices of Diego and Clank. “What exactly are we doing?” “WE are stopping an evil.” “What EVIL? This is Ponyville. There’s no evil here.” “Had any bad dreams lately?”