Butterflies

Marcus woke up several hours before sunrise and laid in bed, staring at the ceiling. He started thinking about what he and Fluttershy could do today.

“Guess I’ll go for another walk.” Marcus sat up and swung himself out of bed. He walked into the bathroom and took another good look at himself. He wasn’t dirty anymore, due to his little cliff diving adventure yesterday, but his clothes were still little more than rags.

He walked out the front door, making as little noise as possible. Marcus looked out into the early morning sky, it was still dark but off in the distance he could see the faint orange of the sun rising. He smiled and began walking into town.

“Too early to actually do anything....” He looked around and saw that nopony was nearby. He smiled and found his way to the park. He found a nice, comfortable looking bench in the park and began rummaging through his repertoire of songs. He settled on one that would fit this situation perfectly.

He looked around once more and smiled, satisfied that nopony was still around. He cleared his throat and closed his eyes.

”I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom, for me and you. And I think to myself, ‘What a wonderful world.’”

He continued with his singing, shutting his mind off and letting the music control him. Several minutes passed before he finally opened his eyes. Celestia’s early morning sun had revealed itself. He smiled and stood. He stretched and looked up at the clouds that were starting to turn orange. Hanging over the edge of one he saw a pair of tails, one rainbow, the other brown.

Oh snap, somepony heard me sing? Craaaap!

The owner of the brown tail showed his face, he looked over the edge of the cloud. He had a matching brown mane and a pair of glasses were perched on his muzzle.

“Hey dude, that was pretty go- SWEET CELESTIA!” He quickly ducked back behind the cloud.

“Oh geez. Come on, I won’t hurt you, promise. I can’t even reach you.” Marcus stood there, looking up at the cloud. Two pairs of hooves appeared over the edge, one light grey, the other cyan. Two heads appeared over the edge, one was the pony from before and a cyan pony with a rainbow mane, a face he knew quite well. From her ears dangled a pair of ruby earrings.

“Who are you, anyway? I’ve never seen anything like you before.” The cyan pony decided to prod at the creature standing before her... or, under her as were the case.

“My name’s Marcus, I’m staying with Fluttershy until I can get a place of my own. And you two are?”

The grey stallion spoke up, “I’m Quick Wits, and this is my wife, Rainbow Dash.”

“Fastest flier in all of Equestria!”

Both Marcus and Quick Wits chuckled at Rainbow’s boasting. She had an ear to ear grin that showed she took great pride in herself. Quick took this as an opportunity to plant a kiss on her cheek. This made the cyan pegasus blush a bit but grin at her husband.

“Watch it.”

“Or what?”

“Or I might just have to beat your flank in another race.” She pressed her nose against his and Marcus turned around, preparing to give them a little privacy.

“And where do you think YOU’RE going?”

Marcus turned back around and found himself face to face with Rainbow. He stumbled back and landed right on his rear end. She and Quick laughed at him and he soon joined them. Rainbow held out a hoof and Marcus took it. Back on his feet, he dusted off the seat of his pants, which was totally unnecessary, considering there wasn’t much fabric for dirt to cling to.

“Crap, I still need to get those clothes from Rarity.... I wonder if she’s awake....”

“She usually gets up early to work. I doubt she would mind you checking on your stuff.” Quick hovered in front of Marcus, right beside Rainbow.

“Thanks. I guess I’ll see you two later?”

“Sounds like a plan!”

“Sure, catch ya later, Marcus!”

He smiled and turned towards the Boutique, which was thankfully not very far away. He gently rapped on the front door and waited. He heard some hoofsteps come towards the door and a very tired sounding voice come from behind it.

“We aren’t open yet, darling. Please come back in a few hours.”

“Oh, Rarity, I was just stopping by to talk to you for a sec.”

“Marcus? Oh, alright, come in...”

He opened the door and the little bell above the door startled him. Rarity giggled and looked up at him. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days.

“Oh wow... Looks like you’ve been busy.”

“Unfortunately so... Doing paperwork AND getting the orders completed isn’t the easiest thing in the world. But, somehow I get it all done.”

“What kind of paperwork?”

“Invoices and shipping reports... It’s not hard, there’s just sooo much of it...”

“I could help you if you want.”

“No, no I couldn’t. I can’t ask someone I just met to help me out.”

“I insist. It’s all I can do, considering I don’t have any money.”

“Oh my... Oh! Speaking of, your order is done, dear.”

“Oh thank you, God! I desperately need a shower and some new clothes...”

“I.. can see this...”

“Heh... So, where’s your shower?”

“Upstairs and first door to the left, deary.”

“Thanks.”

“Let me get your clothes for you, before you.. disrobe and make it very hard to do so...”

“Oh, right... yeah, that would be smart.”

She left and came back with a bunch of outfits on hangers. Marcus looked at them and raised his eyebrow. He took them anyways and headed off to the shower.

~~~~~~~~~~

Marcus sat in a chair in front of a desk, his hair messy and still a little wet. His new clothes were comfortable, if a bit... frou-frou. They were simple; his shirt was yellow, with a few gems sewn into the back. He had jeans in which the seat of his pants were also bedazzled. He looked back at Rarity after examining the mountain of paperwork in front of him. She looked back nervously but he smiled and she returned it.

“Are you sure about this, darling?”

“Oh, definitely. I’m a little lazy, but if I’m doing something for a friend, I put 120% into it!” He smiled wide at this and Rarity laughed.

“That sounds exactly like my friend Rainbow Dash.”

“Well, well! I met her and her husband earlier this morning.”

“Oh? Well, thats one less introduction ahead of us. Who all have you met?”

“You, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Quick, Applejack, Twilight, Pinkie, and Applebloom.”

“Well! That’s nice to know! Now you just need to meet everypony’s stallions and you’ll be caught up in our friendly little circle.”

“Oh? They’re all married?”

“Oh, no, no. Only Rainbow is, everypony else is just dating. Speaking of which,” Rarity then turned her head towards the stairs and yelled, “Bright! Get down here, you lazy stallion, and meet my friend I was telling you about!”

There was a quiet groan from upstairs and a bit of mumbling before Rarity let out a sigh. “I’ll be right back, darling.”

She turned and walked up the stairs, where she began talking. There was a little bit of back and forth between the two until there was a thud. Marcus flinched a little at the sound but tried to stifle a laugh as Rarity was dragging a stallion by the tail down the stairs. He... He was still snoring. He had a light brown coat and his mane and tail were azure. A spiraling horn poked out from under his bed-mane. A pair of glasses were perched on his muzzle. Rarity must have put them on him.... What was the strangest, though, was the fact that he was clutching a pillow in his hooves and drooling on it. Marcus lost it and burst out laughing.

“Hahahah! Rarity! Oh Celestia! That is too funny! I’ve seen some lazy people, but that just takes it!” He doubled over and held his sides from the laughter.

“Well, he’s only this lazy in the mornings.... If there was ever a pony who wished the morning would never come, it would be this one,” Rarity said through clenched teeth and Bright’s tail.

Marcus finally calmed down and walked over to the sleeping pony. He kneeled and picked up his head. Bright grumbled and tried to lay his head back down, but Marcus wouldn’t let him. He finally opened his eyes and jumped up, backing straight into Rarity and falling on top of her.

“BY LUNA’S BEARD! WHAT THE HAY ARE YOU?!”

“B-Bright.... This is my friend... Marcus...”

“Oh... Woops.” He pulled himself off Rarity and helped her back up on her hooves. They smiled at each other and she kissed him on the cheek. He flushed a little but got a stupid grin on his face.

Marcus started looking himself over again, examining his clothes. He then looked at the rest of his clothes. Every outfit was just as sparkly as the last, if not more so.

“Rarity, it’s not like I’m ungrateful or anything, but.... the gems seem a bit.... excessive, don’t you think?”

“Oh, come on, darling, they look fabulous!”

“By pony standards, I wouldn’t doubt it. But humans don’t exactly wear gems on their clothing... except for the girls... and they usually grow out of that by the time they’re twelve....”

Marcus smiled at Rarity and she smiled back sheepishly.

“Don’t worry Rarity, I’m just asking that you not do something so... sparkly next time, alright?”

“Alright, dear. Thank you again for helping me with the paperwork.”

“Of course. Like I said, it’s the only way I can think to help since I can’t pay you for the clothes.”

“You really don-”

Marcus held up his hand, interrupting the pony. “Enough of that, I’m helping you, whether you like it or not.”

Rarity smiled and nodded. She walked over to Bright and told him to get some supplies from town. He nodded and grabbed a jacket off the coat rack next to the door and left.

Marcus sighed and got to work.

“‘Ship 40 (forty) units to Manehattan.’ A single unit of fabric costs... Holy balls that’s a lot of bits....”

~~~~~~~~~~

The hours passed, Marcus had been working since about 7:00 AM and the grandfather clock in the hallway just chimed 12:00 PM.

“Phew! Finally done with the paperwork.” On the floor around the desk lay stacks of papers that Marcus had been filling out since morning.

He stood and cracked his back, it let out a few nasty sounding pops. “Ow...”

Marcus began digging through the clothes Rarity had made for him again and found a black jacket with light blue swirls and patterns on it. The pullstrings matched the blue on the front and back. The hood was a bit large, but that just made it even cooler. The best part about this article of clothing was that it didn’t have any gems in it.

“Huh... Didn’t know she made clothing without something sparkling on it... Not that I’m complaining. This thing looks pretty cool.”

He pulled it on over the shirt whose colouring was suspiciously close to Fluttershy’s coat. He walked over to the large mirror standing in the front room and examined himself. It didn’t look half bad.

“…..I might make this jacket my thing... Hey Rarity! I’m done with the paperwork! Is it okay if I head out for the day?”

“Sure, thank you so much for your help, Marcus!” Rarity yelled down the stairs.

“Sure thing, Rarity!” Marcus replied. He walked out and closed the door behind him. He was then greeted by Celestia’s magnificent sun, blinking his eyes while trying to readjust to the daylight. “I need to get out more...”

Marcus, against his better judgement, began walking into town. The closer he got, the more ponies he saw. Many stared but hardly any looked freaked out. Word must have spread. Well, that’s good!

Marcus looked around once he was in the town proper. There were buildings of all shapes and sizes, made from all sorts of different materials. Mostly brick and wooden structures lined the dirt road. Marcus began walking, hands in his new pockets as he whistled a song, a generic, light-hearted tune.

He looked skyward and saw a few ponies moving several large clouds into place. They must be getting ready to do something with the weather. Marcus shrugged and continued walking, looking around at all the different ponies in town. Every colour he could imagine was present. Ponies of all shapes and sizes roamed the street, going about their business and sneakily stealing glances at the lone human.

He had to admit, he kind of liked the attention. He wasn’t very popular back when he was alive, but that was mostly with his slight obsession with a children’s show. He sighed softly and rubbed the side of his head. His flesh still burned when he touched where the bullet went in. When he did that, he could feel the emptiness on the other side of his head, a constant reminder that he is no longer of the living world.

Marcus dropped his hand to his side and looked to the ground.

How would he tell Fluttershy? What about everypony else? Would his new.... Could he even call them friends..? How would they react to that fact that his brains are all over the wall at his school? He let out a soft groan and kept walking.

Marcus stopped dead, finally realizing something. Fluttershy has been acting a lot different from what the show portrayed.... It made him a bit uneasy.

He would figure that out later, for now, he has a date to get ready for.