Chapter 4

"Tyler, why would you ever want to leave?!" Grant said in surprise.

"I don't want to leave, I don't think you get that, but I have too so that my parents aren't going to kill me when I get back, I'm already probably going to be grounded, so, I'm getting out of here, Twilight has made arrangements and is creating a portal as we speak. So if you want to go, tell me now." I argued back, I needed to get home as soon as possible; my family had probably called the cops by now and were waiting to see if they found me.

"I'm going," Ben said, "My family will kill me for disappearing for a day or two, but it would be better than never seeing them again." I always knew Ben for being logical.

"Grant?" I asked him while Ben walked over to my side.

"Fine, I'll go, only because I need to." He said with irritation in his voice.

"Good, I'll tell Twilight were at an agreement." I said walking towards the door.

I quickly took flight and rushed for Twilight's house.

When I arrived I quickly knocked and spike was there to answer the door.

"Good morning Spike, is Twilight here?" I asked the baby dragon.

"Yes, in fact she has told her friends about her portal and they all would like to go and see earth, I'm planning on coming too if that's alright with you, they are all in here if you would like to meet them." Was the dragons reply.

"You're fine to come and I would like to see who else is coming." I said wondering who else was planning on coming.

"Come on in and meet them." Spike said opening the door wider so I could walk in.

As I walked in, I noticed there were six mares in the room, two of each kind of pony. As I looked over, I noticed Fluttershy turn away and hide behind her mane. Rainbow Dash was sitting on the couch by a table, but you could tell she was excited by the way her wings were flapping, Twilight sat in front of the girls, Apple Jack was sitting next to the couch tapping her chin with her hoof, Pinkie Pie was darting around the room stopping only occasionally to say how excited she was to herself. The last pony was one I didn't recognize, was a white unicorn with a nicely styled purple mane, her cutie mark was a diamond from what I could see of it,

"Hello everypony, good to see you, but I don't know who you are." I said, directing my look towards the unicorn.

"My name is Rarity, I've heard about how you came here through Twilight's portal, in fact we were just wondering about what kind of species you were before you were transformed into a Pegasus?" she asked.

"Before this, I was a species called humans, so are my two friends who came here, Grant and Ben." I said, explaining to the six of them.

"I know Grant." Rainbow Dash said, "That's like knowing a human, awesome."

"I know Ben." Pinkie Pie blurted out, "He works at sugarcube corner with me."

"All seven of you know a human, you know me." I said to all of them, including Spike. "Also Twilight, we are ready to go whenever you have the portal ready." I said to Twilight.

"Great, I've already began to make preparations but we should be ready by tomorrow. I'd say by about late afternoon. Also, there has been a formal dance arranged by us, thanks to Rarity's quick thinking, we were able to make the preparations so it will be held tonight, it's more of a going away dance, so take the time today and tomorrow to tell your folks what's going on and spend some time with them, however let them know you will be back within a day or two. Now, let's get any last touch ups on the dance done so we can be sure that it's a good leaving party." Twilight said to all of us ponies.

"Ok, bye Twilight." Everypony said as they walked out.

"Tyler, I need to tell you something." Twilight said before I walked out.

"What is it?" I asked as I closed the door.

"For this dance it would be best if you purchased a suit from Rarity's shop, also, most ponies will have a date, and you should ask someone to go to the dance with you." Twilight said informing me.

"Will do, but I need to know where Rarity's shop is, and I need to go back to my mine so I can hopefully get some bits in order to purchase a suit." I said to her.

"Her shop is right over there." Twilight said while pointing her hoof at a building that was just outside the window.

"Okay, thanks Twilight, you've done so much for me and my friends, I don't know how to repay you." I said to the purple unicorn who I had learned to treat like a good friend.

"Just show me what it's like to live amongst humans and that should be good enough, all of us are so excited to go and see your world." She said

"Well, I need to go; hopefully I can get some ore and sell it for bits." I said, hugging her as I walked out the door, "Thanks again for all of your help."

"You're welcome," Twilight said, returning the hug.

"Bye," I said

"Bye," was her reply

As soon as the door closed, I heard Spike say, "Ooooo, someone's got a stallion friend." He said teasing Twilight.

I didn't hear the rest of the conversation because I took flight, I needed to get mining and pray I could get some bits, and hopefully get myself a date.

When I got back to my shack, I noticed one peculiar thing; there was a note by my tool rack. This is what it said.

Dear Tyler,

If you get this, I hope you accept my offer, I would like to know you better so I'm inviting you over to my cottage at the edge of the forest, you should come at about 3:00, that way there is plenty of time when you leave for you to get ready to leave and to get ready for the dance. There should be a bird there, write your answer on the bottom of this note and give it to the bird.

Sincerely, Fluttershy

I was surprised by the fact that she had the bravery of sending me a letter, she seemed so shy. It was then that a bird flew down towards me; I pulled out my pen, signed my answer and gave it to the bird who immediately flew off.

After sending back the letter, I went back to mining, I dug and dug but the best thing I found, was some iron, which wasn't bad, but wasn't the best thing to find. I came back to the surface level to check the time, and unload the stuff I collected such as stone, iron, some chunks of coal, and dirt. I checked the clock; 1:33 was the time it read, so I went back into my hole and continued to dig. I hadn't dug four more feet, before I hit something really hard, so I chipped the rock from around it until I could tell what it was, I had found an emerald. Its bright green color beamed in the light from the day. So, satisfied with my findings, I flew back up, and then I looked to the clock again, 1:59 was the new time, so I chipped a small piece off the emerald and outlined it in iron, then I made small but strong links to support the emerald, in the end, my result was a beautiful necklace. After I was done, the clock was at 2:30, I was just burning through my time, so I went to a nearby stream, took a quick bath so I could get all the coal dust off of me. Then I put the necklace in my pocket. After I did that, I put the rest of the emerald, and what was left of the iron in my bag and rushed for town.

I ended up getting two-hundred bits for the emerald alone, the rest of the iron got me seventy more bits, Now I was pretty sure two-hundred and seventy bit was going to buy me a suit, but that would have to wait, the clock in the warehouse read 2:54, If I flew fast I could make it in time.

As soon as I got to Fluttershy's cottage I saw her tending to a squirrel that must have had something wrong with it, because she had a pair of tweezers and was pulling cactus spines out of the little creature. I don't know where the spines came from, but I know I hadn't seen any cacti around here.

I just waited until she had sent the animal on its way, that's when I spoke up.

"Hello." I said, she immediately jumped in surprise

"Oh, hi Tyler, you're early." She said,

"Not by much." Was my reply.

"Well, please come in," she said while walking into her cottage, there was a fire going in the hearth and there were a few animals here and there.

"I'm so sorry about the animals." She said apologetically.

"Oh don't worry, I like animals." I said petting a bunny that quickly hopped away after I touched it.

"Well that's a nice trait to have." She said, when she talked, she seemed confident about the words she was saying, personally, just being with her made me forget about the irritation I had felt while I was mining for that ore.

"Tyler, I have a question for you," she said while sitting on a couch.

"I'm ready to answer." I said to her while sitting beside her

"What were you like as a human?" She asked me.

"Well, my life was different than it is here, I mean I went to school where I faced a problem every day, I didn't have a job there, I didn't have wings, and I wish I had. I've made tons of friends here within a few days, that would have taken me a few weeks to make on earth, life is a bit harder there, but it's not overbearing," I said explaining to the mare.

"I have one more question," She said, something about the way she said it seemed different from a normal tone.

"What is it?" I said ready to give her the truth to whatever her question was.

"Do you have somepony special in your life?" The question struck me like a bullet.

"No," I said, I had gone through a couple crushes before, but I had never met someone who liked me the way I liked them, "Why?" I asked

"Just wondering," she said, with a smile

Over the next couple of hours, we sat and talked about the things there are on earth and I told her about the things that happened when I first came to equestria, like the battle with the manticore, and the bridge incident. She told me about how she and the five others defeated Nightmare Moon. She had done a lot of brave things for being so shy.

When the clock struck six, I knew I should be heading out, so I could get some final preparations done.

"I've had fun talking with you Fluttershy, but I have to go," I said to her as I rose from my sitting position.

"Ok, thanks for coming over." Was her reply.

"Thanks for inviting me here." I said back to her, "But before I leave I have a question for you." I asked, needing to get the question I had wanted to ask her the whole time out.

"What's that?" She asked.

"Would you like to go to the formal dance with me tonight?" I said, awaiting an answer.

"Yes!" She practically screamed, startling a lot of sleeping animals.

"Really?" I asked her, surprised by her answer.

"Yes, I was worried you weren't going to ask and that I may have had too." Was her response.

"Also I have something for you." I said to her, remembering the gift I had in my pocket.

"What is it?" she asked as I reached into my pocket and removed the emerald necklace

"This." I said while coming behind her and putting it on her.

"Oh Tyler, where did you get this?!" She asked in astonishment.

"I made it from an emerald I mined out of the ground." Was my reply

"Thank you," she said while giving me a hug, it didn't take long for me to return the hug.

"Ok, I'll come get you at about 7:30." I said to my date.

"I'll be waiting." She said.

"Bye Fluttershy." I said while walking out the door.

"See you in a little bit Tyler." Was her reply.

After we bit each other farewell, I pushed my wings as hard as they would go; I needed to tell Ben and Grant that they needed suits and dates.

I found Ben at work at sugarcube corner. He immediately asked Pinkie Pie then and there. She responded with a yes. I found Grant drinking apple cider with Rainbow Dash, so when he was finished, I told him what needed to happen, surprisingly, he had already asked Rainbow Dash who was now his date, and he had a suit he just needed to change into it.

When I had my friends taken care of, I rushed over to Rarity's shop and purchased a nice white undershirt with a black suit, I tried it on and it was perfect size and color, I gave her the bits needed, afterwards, I flew like lightning to Fluttershy's cottage.

When I arrived, I knocked on the door, I hadn't waited for more than three seconds before Fluttershy opened the door, she was wearing a white dress, the necklace I gave her was hanging around her neck.

"Ready to go?" I asked the stunningly beautiful mare who I was lucky to have as a date.

"Yep, I've taken care of the animals and had time to get cleaned up and dressed; I mean my hoofs were flying." She said.

"Well, let's go, onto the dance." I said, we both took flight this time.

She wasn't the strongest of flyers, but we stayed together. When we arrived, the dance was just starting to get underway, when the music started, I started to dance, but I noticed Fluttershy was on the side, so I brought her on the dance floor, and showed her how to shuffle, pony style. We just danced for a while, occasionally I'd check on my buddies who had their dates, Pinkie Pie was wearing the largest dress there, from what I could see, it was like one of those dresses that the queens would wear in England, Ben had a suit similar to mine but in more of a gray. Grant's suit however was exactly like mine, Rainbow Dash's dress was similar to Fluttershy's dress, but was a large assortment of rainbow colors.

After dancing for a couple hours, they began to play some slow songs, Ben, Grant, and I didn't know what to do, so we watched a few other couples dance and asked our dates to dance, we tried to copy the moves they were doing, but I only seemed to try and step on Fluttershy's hoofs.

Later after the dance was over, I flew Fluttershy home, tomorrow was the day we all left, and we needed our rest.

"Good night Fluttershy, thanks for coming with me to the dance." I said to her, I didn't want to leave her, but I know I had to, in order for my family to live on.

"Good night Tyler, thank you for asking me to the dance." She replied to me

"The honor was all mine." I said to her, she blushed slightly, but I still notice.

She just closed the door, and I flew through the night sky happier than anything else could have made me.

The next day was spent saying farewell to those we knew, except to the seven who were coming along with us.

By the time the clock read 5:30, Twilight came to the barn to get us, we all met at her house and were lead to her basement, where the others were waiting for us, I saw Fluttershy and smiled, she smiled back.

"We're all here, I'm going to begin opening the portal," she said, while drinking an elixir of some kind.

She seemed to shudder with power; her horn shone a bright green color. That's when the portal opened, that feeling of hair standing on end came back.

"Let's go first," I said, holding my hoof out to Fluttershy, she accepted and together, we jumped through the portal.

The colors were familiar to me, but this time, my body didn't spaz out.

When we came out, I caught Fluttershy to prevent her from falling and set her on her hoofs. I then looked up, what was there wasn't supposed to be there, there were trees everywhere, not only that, but neither Fluttershy or I had changed, we were still ponies.

While I was lost in thought, the others came through.

"This is earth?" Twilight asked.

"No, we would all be human if this was earth, something's not right" I said, noticing that there was a figure in the distance, it had the shape of a pony, but it's legs were twice the size they should have been, I almost thought it was an illusion, until I saw it move.

To be continued…..

Next time on My Little Brony: Friendship is Survival:

I then looked at slender mane, behind him was a shed, and that's when a beautiful plan began to form in my head, I stood up with every ounce of strength I had left, kissed Fluttershy on the top of her head, and ran for the shed, my right leg was screaming in pain the whole way, but I did not stop, I had to get to that shed. Slender mane followed, when I got into the shed, I stood there breathing heavily, he approached, and as soon as his head was almost in the door, I bucked the door, balancing on my one leg as I kicked, the door came into contact with his head and he stumbled backwards, but he wasn't down yet, a battle cry came from somewhere close, and that's when I saw Ben, he had a club looking stick that he used to hit slender mane, until he was on the ground, that's when I hobbled out of the shack, the others were there too, Twilight immediately ran to my side.

"Help….. her." I managed to choke out, looking towards Fluttershy, who was starting to stand up, but I couldn't go on, my adrenaline had run out, and I collapsed then and there. I saw Twilight heal Fluttershy's wound, but my vision began to get weak.

"Tyler?" Ben asked, his voice echoed as though it was far away, then my eyes closed, and I couldn't feel anything.