Disclaimer: I don't don't own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I do however own all of the OC's in the story unless stated otherwise. I also don't own Rubik's cubes. Or Xbox.
AN: Welcome back to From Sadness comes Sadness. Wow. That's all i can say. After only 7 hours of being up, this story had received it's first review, 3 favorites, and a follow. I'm so incredibly happy that I released this chapter early as a thank you! If the story seems a little far off the deep end, I apologize. It will get better as the story progresses. Please let me know what you think of the story. Constructive criticism is welcome, but don't go on and on about how much it sucks, even if it does. Enjoy! R&R!
Chapter 2: New Place, New Ponies
When I awoke, I was laying in the same bed as before, in the same room, with the same pony.
"Um... you're a pony."
"And you're a human."
"Ponies can't talk."
"Where you are from, ponies can not talk. Here in Equestria, ponies take up 80% of the worlds population, alongside dragons, griffins, and other sentient species. All of which can talk."
"Uh, okay... Who are you?"
"I am Princess Celestia. My sister Luna will join us shortly."
"Why is your sister a human?"
"She is a pony. She changed her form so she could blend in with your world."
"That sucks, her human form was hot."
Princess Celestia chuckles at me. "I'll be sure to let her know. I assume you have questions?"
"A lot."
"Very well, I will do my best to answer them." For the next twenty minutes, I basically got a crash course in the laws, knowledge, and customs of Equestria.
"So what is this evil exactly?"
"I'm afraid I do not know. It will require more than the Elements of Harmony to deal with though. It is a powerful evil."
"So how am I supposed to help?"
"Long ago, another human came to Equestria. He was unlike many of your kind. He was kind and gentle, smart and caring, and he always respected those who deserved it. He stopped another evil using a magic that humans posses, but I do not know what kind of magic it is. He left for home when the deed was done and became a legend in the eyes of pony kind. Most believe, now, that he was an alicorn, just like me and my sister. He is nicknamed Shadow Slayer. His real name is not known anymore."
Sometime in the middle of the conversation, another pony walked in and waited patiently for Princess Celestia to finish.
"Sister, has Issac accepted your offer?"
"I would hope so Luna, seeing as how he is here and all. Do you accept our request and wish to help us?"
"Uhh..." Well what was I supposed to say. No, I'd rather sit in a corner and watch you all succumb to the terrible evils of the land. "Yeah, I guess. Since I'm here, I might as well."
Princess Luna smiles in delight. "Oh this is truly splendid news! I'm happy you have agreed!" She runs at me and wraps me in a hug. Awkwardly, I pat her head until she let's go. "Now you must tell us, do you have any training in the art of combat?"
"No."
"What about magic?"
"No. The only thing I train with is my Rubik's cube."
"What is a Rubik's cube?" I look around and spot my bag with my crap in it not far off. I move over to the bag and dig around for the plain Jane 3x3.
"This is a Rubik's cube. All of its faces turn, as well as the center axis for all three directions. You mix it up and try to put all of the colors back on their own side. Since the centers never change position, you know what color goes on what side."
A golden aura wraps around the cube and it is lifted from my hand, being pulled in front of Princess Celestia. "Show us."
I take it back from her and mix it up for a few seconds. "Now try to solve it." Both princesses stare at the cube for a few minutes whispering to each other and turning a face every so often.
"It is impossible. No pony could solve this."
"I don't blame you. There are over 45 quadrillion different arrangements that the cube can be in." I look at the cube for a moment before smiling at them. "Just watch." Giving the cube a number of expert turns, in about twenty seconds the cube is solved.
"How did you do that!?"
"Practice."
"But there must be trick!"
"No tricks."
"You must have memorized how you messed it up."
"I didn't do that either."
"Then you had to have-"
"Luna, calm down. We can ask about that later, right now we need to make plans for his living situation."
"But Tia-"
"Issac thinks you are hot while in human form." I look at Princess Celestia, dumbfounded. Did she really have to say that with me in the room. Princess Luna's face lights up with a red blush, but she did stop asking questions.
"Really?"
"Yeah." Well it's not like I can lie to her now or anything. Princess Celestia sold me out.
"That is very kind of you." I don't see how, but I nod anyways, hoping to God my face isn't as red as hers.
"I do believe since you will be working with the Elements of Harmony, Ponyville would be a suitable place for you to stay. Would you like a place of your own, or would you rather live with somepony?"
"I don't mind sharing a place, but I do have a few questions."
"You may ask."
"First, is there a legal drinking age? If so, what is it? Second, what am I supposed to do about clothes? Lastly is money. How I am supposed to pay for everything?"
"There is a drinking age, but as long as you are responsible, I see no reason why you can't. You are not a pony after all. Clothes can be purchased from Rarity who also lives in Ponyville. If you have specific items in mind, I might be able to bring them from your world. As to the money problem you have, I can give you the equivalent, in bits, of what you had on Earth."
"Seems fair. Who will I be staying with?"
"Any one of the Elements. It isn't a great deal which one. Applejack or Twilight Sparkle are the most available. They have the room to accommodate another being."
"Good to know."
"If that is all, I would ask that you bring your bag with you and follow me. I will take you to the chariot that will bring you to Ponyville."
Picking up my bag, I exit the room and make my way down the halls, following Princess Celestia with Princess Luna behind me. At some point in the trek, Princess Luna moved up me beside me so we were now walking side by side.
"Issac?"
"Yes Princess?"
"No need to use my title. Just Luna is fine."
"Okay then, Luna, what did you want?"
"Did you really think... I was hot?"
I try my best not to blush at the fact she brought up. "Well yeah."
"Oh." She blushes slightly and looks away from me. "Well if you need anything else from your world, just write a list and I'll make sure my sister gets them for you."
"I will, thank you." Continuing the walk down the hallway in silence, the princesses and myself arrive in the throne room. I can tell from, well, the thrones.
"Your chariot will be arriving soon. Just make yourself comfortable until it arrives." Princess Celestia calls out to me as she takes a seat on her throne.
"Luna, could I get a pen and paper. I can make the list now since I have a few minutes." Her horn lights up and a piece of parchment, a quill, and some ink appear in front of me. "That will do." I quickly jot down a few items that wouldn't fit in my bag, or just slopped my mind.
"Here you are. Whenever is fine, don't rush yourselves in getting anything." I hand the parchment, quill, and ink back to Luna, who grands them with her magic.
"It is no trouble at all. You shall have them tonight."
"Thanks."
Princess Celestia takes the list from Luna and studies it. "You have remarkably good penponyship."
"Thanks. I draw in my free time when I can, so it kind of rubbed off on my writing skills."
"You are an artist?"
"Not really. It's more of a hobby."
Her face scrunches up at something at the list. "What is an Xbox?"
I laugh at her confusion. "It's basically a small portable box that you can play games on."
"Like an arcade?"
"Yes, but it has a controller that is separate from the console and it is much smaller."
"Console?"
"It's what the box is called."
"Ahh. Interesting. Well I have seen enough of your world to acquire all on this list."
"About the money. Can I have that transferred now?"
"Of course. How much did you have on earth."
"Not sure. Last I checked, my bank account was somewhere just north of 62."
"62 dollars?"
"No. 62,000 dollars." Their jaws fell in disbelief.
"That is quite a lot of money." Luna says while trying to close her jaw.
"Yeah. I got it after my parents died."
"I'm sorry, I-"
"Don't worry about it. It's in the past. I'm over it now."
"If you say so..."
"Ahh, the chariot has arrived." True to her words, a golden chariot pulled by four pegasi with golden armor pulls up to the gardens right outside the throne room.
"Riding in style I see." I smile at the princesses. "Will I be going alone?"
"Yes. Unfortunately, we have royal duties to attend to. We will try to stop by some time to make sure you are well adjusted to life here. Oh, and before I forget, this is your money." She conjures up a small green drawstring bag and places it in my hands. "It is enchanted just like your backpack. All of your money is in there, but it will feel like you are only carrying a couple of bits."
"Thank you again princesses. I'll be sure to pay you back somehow."
"No need for that. Your services will pay us back tenfold." I nod at them and walk over to the chariot, taking a seat inside. I wave at the princesses as the chariot takes off, on route to Ponyville.
The three hour ride was boring. Terribly terribly boring. The guards wouldn't talk. They wouldn't even acknowledge me. Basically I had a whole lot of time to think.
Hannah was on my mind the most. I really wanted to see her again, even though I had just seen her less than a day ago. I can't believe I was already home sick. Except for Hannah, Sarah, and Alex, I despised the place. Well... just Hannah and Sarah now.
Heaving a sigh I take a look at my surroundings. This world is beautiful. I should draw it up in my sketchbook. A memoir of sorts. Just something to remember this place by once I leave.
I go back to my thinking and start to fiddle with my pendant for a while. I must have lost track of time because the rest of the ride was relatively quick.
Before I knew it, I was descending into Ponyville. There were a small croup of ponies gathered in a circle, like they were waiting for me. Well this is the princesses royal chariot, I guess they thought i was one of the princesses.
Coming to a halt on the ground, I step out with my backpack slung over one shoulder and my bit pouch strapped to my belt. I uttered a word of thanks to the guards and they took off.
Turning to face the ponies, I saw that they looked at me with a mixture of fear, awe, and curiosity. Upon seeing the pendant, some of them relaxed and even sported smiles. Others, however, remained how they were.
A lavender colored unicorn pony with a dark blue mane trotted forward with a slightly mad look on her face.
"What are you? Why were you riding in the princesses chariot?" I turned to face her more directly and sheet too saw my pendant. "You have the princesses protection?"
"Yes. I assume that you are Twilight Sparkle?"
"How did you know?"
"Princess Celestia and Luna told me about you. They said to talk to you about acquiring a place to stay. I can pay you if you would like. If you don't have the room, I can simply look for another place, it's no trouble at all."
"Well if the princesses sent you here, then you're mire than welcome to stay with me. You don't have to pay me."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I do have a lot if questions though."
"Those would probably be better answered in private."
"Then let's go to my house."
"Lead the way then Ms. Sparkle." She blushes and trots away from the crowd. I follow her through the streets of Ponyville, noticing that it was not too unlike where I lived.
"Here we are." I look up and see... a tree. She lives in a tree. "Well don't just stand there, come on inside." I walk through the door and find myself in a... library. Okay, so she lives in a tree... that doubles as a library. I've seen weirder.
"It might seem strange that I live in the library. It's where I work. I actually live in the second floor." That makes sense.
"You said you have some questions for me?"
"Yes." She levitates a quill and parchment over to her and stares at me intently. "What are you?"
"Human." Her eyes grow wide.
"A human!?"
"Yes."
"I've read about your kind, but I never knew you actually existed."
"Well we do."
"What are humans like?"
"Depends. Do you want to hear their true nature, or do you want to hear what we believe ourselves to be?"
"True nature of course."
"Humans are vile beings who like nothing more than to be the best at everything. We might try to be kind and peaceful, but that is almost never the case. We start wars with other nations because we don't like the way they do things. We are prejudice against others because they don't believe the same things we do. We are evil. We are despicable. We are not worthy of being at the top of the food chain."
Twilight's eyes grew wider and her mouth opened further throughout my explanation.
"Luckily for you, I am not like that. If you respect my rights and choices, you're good in my books."
"That's interesting. I always thought humans were peaceful."
"No way in hell. The day we become peaceful will be the day we grow to be extinct because no one will be left to fight each other."
"Okay, what do you eat?"
"We are omnivorous."
"...You eat meat?"
"I don't need to, but I can."
"Oh..."
"Don't worry, I'm not going to eat you if that's what you're worried about."
"Well that's good." She smiles and then an idea pops into my head.
I give her a dull fledged smile, showing her my teeth. Then I growl in a very low voice. "No matter how tasty you look."
She freezes in her seat, and her eyes grow wide in fear. I sit back and laugh.
"That wasn't funny!"
"I'm sorry. I just couldn't help myself." I give her an innocent smile, not showing my teeth this time.
"I don't think I ever got your name."
"Issac."
"Okay then Issac, let me show you where you will be sleeping." She leads me up the stairs to what appears to be a small living area. "That room there is mine. Yours will be the one next to it. If you need anything just let me know."
"Yeah. Do you have a few outlets in the room?"
"Outlets?"
"Yeah, the things that let you use electricity."
"Humans have those!?"
"Umm... yeah? If you don't have something like that, then do you have something that produces power? Something that I can put a plug into?"
"I'm afraid not. I might be able to make you a box that can contain magic though. It would produce power, but you would have no way to draw upon that power."
"I have an idea. Once the box is finished, can you make two small incisions on it, about a quarter inch long each and about an inch apart? There should be four of them total."
"I can do that."
"Thank you Ms. Sparkle." She blushes again when I call her that.
"Just Twilight is fine. No need for the Ms. You make feel like an old mare."
"Nonsense, you can't be more than seventeen from the looks of you." She blushes again and paws the ground with her hoof.
"Well, let me know when you are done putting your stuff away. You should meet with some of my friends, I'm sure they will like you."
"No problem. I'll be down in a few minutes." She nods and trots back downstairs.
I push open the door to my new room. It's bare except for a bed and dresser. The bed is for a pony, so that will have to be fixed. I'll need something larger. Taking the bag off my shoulders, I empty the contents into the drawers and place the bag on top.
Before leaving, I grab the 2x2 cube and pocket it. Might as well have some sort of entertainment while downstairs.
Arriving in the actual library part of the library, I see Twilight at a table looking at a book. I take the seat opposite of her and start to mess with my cube.
"What is that?"
"A puzzle." Her eyes light up and she stares at the cube like it's a sandwich.
"I love puzzles!"
"I don't know about this one. Even the princesses couldn't do it."
"Really?"
"Yep."
"Well how is it solved?"
"Put all of the colors on their own side."
"That's it?"
"That's it." She takes it from me and stares at it. She moves some of the faces around with her magic before giving a look of exasperation.
"This seems impossible." I reach over and take the cube back. I hand it back eight seconds later solved.
"You were saying?"
"What! How... how did you do that?" She is obviously dumbfounded at how quickly you solved the cube.
"Practice."
"I'll get it. I'll do it myself. Mix it up again." I give her a smile and mix it up quickly.
"Here you go." She takes the cube again and starts to turn the faces. I take to just watching in amusement at just how easily she gets frustrated at the little piece of plastic.
A knock rings out from the front door. Twilight sighs before placing the cube down and trotting to answer it.
"Hey Twilight. I heard that there's a new pony in town. Have you met them yet?"
"I have met him, and he is not a pony. Come in, he's here with me right now." She opens the door and a light blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane flies in. Upon seeing you, she stops.
"Woah. What the hay is it?"
"I'm a human. Also you may ask me of you have amy questions. I am sentient."
"Well okay. Who are you?"
"The name's Issac. I take it that your Rainbow Dash?"
She places her hooves on her hips and lifts her head into the air. "The one and only. So you've heard about me then?"
"Only from the princesses."
"You talked with the princesses?"
"Uh Dash?" Twilight points at my chest, right where the pendant was hanging. "He is basically an honorary royal family member."
Rainbow Dash's jaw drops. "That... is... so... awesome!" She squeals and flies right up to me, her face only an inch or so from mine. "So did they say anything else?"
"I'd I didn't know better, I would think that you wanted a kiss Rainbow Dash." She immediately turns red and floats away quickly, landing as she does.
"No! That's just weird. We just met."
"Okay, maybe later than." She starts to sputter causing Twilight to chuckle.
"He's just joking Rainbow. He did the same thing to me earlier."
"He said he was going to kiss you?"
"No, he said he... was going to eat me." Rainbow Dash's mouth falls open again.
"You..." I smile at her, showing my canines.
"I can eat meat. I'm an omnivore."
"Okay." Rainbow Dash seemed pretty cool about it, so I didn't say anything else. "Hey Twilight, Rarity wanted to talk to you about something too."
"Why don't you bring her over with the other girls. We can talk, and they can meet the newcomer."
"Sounds good. I'll be back in a flash." With that, she speed out the door, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake. Well it sure had proved to be an interesting day.