Hey everyone, I recently unearthed each and every chapter of my first good story. I'll upload a chapter every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until I get caught up on all of them. In the mean time I'll be writing further chapters. If you all like these I'll post more often, enjoy.
i do not own any of this. Except the product of my imagination. That I own.
Chapter 2
I woke from my dreamless sleep to find myself feeling better than I had in days. On Earth I had trouble getting to sleep, but apparently here in Equestria that was different. I walked about my room for a good minute and finally went to the mirror to organize myself for the day ahead. The first thing I noticed was the tattoo of a silver shield that had, startlingly enough, appeared overnight upon my left pectoral. I recoiled from the mirror in surprise and went into my bathroom to take a shower and try to clear the sleep from my head, so I could better handle this situation. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the tattoo to come off. I emerged from the shower feeling refreshed and ready to start the day. My hair had kind of fallen into place after my shower, so I didn't comb it. I put on one of the outfits that Rarity had made for me. It was a simple outfit consisting of a pair of khaki cargo shorts, a blue tee shirt, and white sneakers. Atop it all I put on my swim team sweatshirt and left the room. I had noticed that I no longer needed my glasses or contacts, so I left them both on the bathroom counter.
I looked around the room for Twilight, but didn't see her anywhere. I instead saw Spike walking back and forth along the bookshelves, dusting them. "Spike!" I called out, "Where's Twilight?" He looked away from his chores for a minute to answer me. "She ran into town." he said "She should be back soon though." I briefly considered going into town to find her, but dismissed that thought. We were friends, and I didn't want to seem desperate. "Maybe you can help me with something Spike." I said as I started to take off my sweatshirt. "Umm, ok," he said "but I reserve the right to stop if this gets creepy." "Noted." I said as I finished taking off my shirt. He apparently noticed the tattoo just as quickly as I did. "Holy guacamole! How'd you get that?" "I don't know! It just showed up this morning!" I replied honestly. "Well," said Spike, "that's a cutie mark my friend. Can you remember anything you did that had to do with shields yesterday?" I thought about it, and then snapped my fingers as I remembered the incident in the alleyway. "I had to defend Twilight Sparkle from a mugger yesterday, could that be it?" I asked. Spike furiously nodded his head up and down as he said, "Well duh! If it was something that obvious you should've guessed yourself! Your special talent must be protecting other ponies" I hadn't thought about the possibility of getting a cutie mark, but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, with all this insanity going on.
I got so wrapped up in my thoughts I forgot to put my shirt back on. I only noticed when Twilight walked in, looked at me, gave a little 'squee' sound, and ran upstairs to her room. Spike thought this was hilarious and started cracking up. I was embarrassed at first, but the baby dragon's laugh proved to be infectious, and I ended up laughing alongside him until my sides hurt and my face turned red. As I was putting on my sweatshirt Spike said, "You're a pretty cool guy Matt, how'd you like to hang out with me and the guys tonight?" I didn't have anything to do, so I agreed to go with him later that night.
As me and Spike walked down the road Sweet Apple Acres came into sight. Spike had told me that it was Big Mac's turn to host poker night. We knocked on the barn door and were greeted by Big Mac. The big red pony just stared at me and Spike for a second before he said, "Eeyup!", seemingly unfazed by my appearance. Following Spike into the barn I saw that it had been set up for poker night already, obviously not by Pinkie Pie though. The table was in the middle of the barn, with a couple of smaller tables with some snacks and drinks on them off to the side. Spike and I were apparently the last to arrive. Already seated at the table were Quick Draw and Doctor Whooves. Both looked up and gave quick friendly greetings, that is after the initial shock of seeing a human for the first time, of course. We all grabbed some drinks and waited for Big Mac to start dealing the cards. The game was fun, even though I was losing most of the hands. Poker never really was my thing, I was more of a swimming and tennis kind of guy. It was about 11 when Doctor Whooves announced that he had to leave, something about a call box or something. While everypony said good bye, Quick Draw turned to me and said, "I don't know how, but you and me? We're connected. Do you feel it too?" I gave a little chuckle, deciding not to explain the intricacies of him being a product of my imagination in my universe. Before too long it was time to clear out of the barn. Big Mac gave a resounding "Nope!" when we tried to leave without cleaning, and nobody wanted to try and stare down their big red friend. The cleanup was done in no time, and before I knew it I was in my bed, fast asleep.
When I woke up it was nearing noon on Friday. I scrambled out of bed, trying to get my bearings. I'd had one of those dreams that you know was really weird, but when you try to grab it, poof, away it goes. As I calmed down I remembered that today was my lunch with Twilight in about... 15 minutes. Great. I took what was probably the fastest shower of my life, got dressed in a button down shirt and a pair of jeans, and ran out the door to the cafe. I saw Twilight standing on the line near the door. I decided to sneak up on her, and put my hands over her eyes, saying "Guess who?" She answered "Well the only being I know with hands would be Matt." I took my hands off of her eyes and she turned around with a smile on her face. "So glad to see you! When Spike said you were still asleep I had thought that you forgot about this." I shook my head and said "I wouldn't miss this." She seemed happy to hear this and was about to say something, but just then the host called out "Errm, Greenfield? Party of two!" I walked up to him and said, "That's me." The clearly astonished waiter lead us to our table. He was unnerved by my appearance, but tried not to show it. As we flipped through the menus, the waiter asked us what we would like to drink. I asked for a water, and Twilight asked for the same. The drinks came quickly, and seeing as I had no clue what ponies ate, I let Twilight order for me. She ordered two salads, one for her, and one for me. While we waited for our food we did some talking. "So," she began "About yesterday. I'm sorry I freaked out like that, it's just that it's been so long since I've been near a boy I didn't know how to act, let alone what to do if a boy seemed interested in what I had to say, and seemed to prefer me to my 'beautiful' friend." something about how she said the word 'beautiful' made it sound bad. "I really don't know how a guy couldn't find you interesting," I replied, I lowered my voice and added "And I think that you are prettier than Rarity, if it counts for anything." Apparently it did count for something, because Twilight's face turned a brighter red than any apple that had come out of Applejack's farm. "Thank you. I wouldn't really know what the stallions around here think of me, I've really only talked to Big Mac and Sheriff Quick Draw, and neither of them expressed any interest because Big Mac is taken, and Quick Draw is so much older than me. Other than that, there's been nopony. I guess I was always too wrapped up in my studies." I began to understand why Twilight had seemed so awkward yesterday, and I could totally relate to her. "I know what you mean, I was always shy and awkward around girls on Earth, so I started doing things where I could avoid those awkward situations." Twilight listened intently as I relayed the story of my, nearly exclusively single, life. By then our food had come, so we both dug into it. I never was a fan of salad, but this was great! It was mostly lettuce, with some small bits of carrots, onions, and tomatoes. When we finished we decided to skip desert and leave. Twilight paid, which hit me right where it hurts, the gentleman's honor. I resolved to get a job as soon as possible. The walk back to the library was less eventful than our walk through Canterlot, with 100% less muggings. Once inside the treehouse, Twilight put her head against my chest, and I put my arms around her neck in a friendly embrace. "We should do that again sometime." she said. I nodded my agreement, and shambled off towards my bed. I was a pretty smart guy, and loved talking to other smart people. Until speaking with Twilight, I had no idea how tiring mentally stimulating conversation could be. We had filled each others heads with random, useless trivia about our homeworlds, most of which I imagined my brain filed away in the 'forget this as soon as you fall asleep' folder. I was dead tired as I laid down, and I fell asleep with the image of Twilight smiling in my mind.