Chapter 10: finding your place in the world

I woke up, everything was fuzzy. I looked around, I found myself on a grassy plain that extended for miles around. I blinked and main six were standing in front of me. I looked at all of them, they were smiling at me. Rainbow Dash had her fur fade into the Wonderbolts uniform, she said something and flew away. Granny Smith walked past me, she no longer had a cane and her walking was much more relaxed. She joined Applejack and they walked away, fading into mist. A large building appeared, a red carpet lined with cheering ponies lead to it's entrance. Rarity turned and walked into it, the scene fading into mist as she did so. The building disappeared into another, smaller building. music could be heard booming through it's brick walls. Pinkie Pie cheerfully hopped into it. After that disappeared, Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle were the only ones left. A large park, filled with animals from across the world, faded in. Fluttershy stepped back a few steps into it before fading into mist. The grassy plain turned to the throne room that the two princesses resided. Twilight Sparkle was standing next to Princess Celestia, they were talking about something. Twilight looked to me and I could hear her clearly now.

"thanks for helping us, but now what are you going to do?"

she stared at me, they were getting farther and farther away. I could feel myself falling, everything slowly faded to black as the two became farther and farther away. I woke up back in my hay pile. I was in cold sweat, my heart was pounding. "today," I thought to myself, "today I will find a purpose, I have to find one."

I stood up, my legs felt weak. I took a few steps and collapsed, I felt drained. I needed to find my way in life, I didn't want to spend my whole life in ponyville. I didn't have the energy to get up. I could feel the questions coming. What am I? I'm a pony, that's all I know. Where am I? Inside the barn that I might spend the rest of my life in. Am I happy? Does feeling like I have no real purpose in this world count? What am I doing? Being hopeless. Suddenly I heard a fifth question. What happened yesterday? I thought back, I remembered the old lady who had gotten me to think about all this. But more than that I remembered the talk I had with Applejack on the hill. I couldn't stay like this, I promised myself to never get this down again. I need to soul search, I need to think about where I am and what I truly want. Whatever happens, it can't be worse than feeling like this for the rest of my life. I felt my energy returning, I stood up and looked outside. The sun was rising up over the hillside. I went into the house, Applejack was making herself breakfast.

"you're up early."

"I think I;m going to run away from home today just to let you know."

"you are? Why?"

"I was thinking about what you said yesterday, I think I need to go by myself and try to find my own way in life."

"okay, I won't stop you. If you don't come back want you to know that we appreciated your help."

I made myself some toast and apples, after breakfast I took what was left of my money and went to town. I bought a satchel and a few supplies. I made preparations to leave, I said goodbye to everybody. I was back at the house, planning out my route when Applebloom walked in the room. I looked over at her, she looked sad.

"what's wrong?" I asked

"you're leaving?"

"yeah I'm leaving, I will be sure to visit though."

"but we were supposed to find a big bakery to sell apples to."

"well..."

"you promised that we would go."

she had me there, I hated breaking promises.

"I'm sorry, I made a promise I couldn't keep. I need to get going soon."

she left the room looking disappointed. I felt bad about breaking my promise to her, but I need to get out of town for awhile. Who knows, maybe I would end up right back here. None of this made me feel any better. I decided to go see what Manehattan was like. I was used to city life from my time as a human, plus there was no shortage of towns to pass through. Somewhere along the way I was bound to find something worth doing my whole life. I drew out a little map of my route, I needed to head west for a few miles before reaching the first town. I left and began to leave the town, I stopped when I reached the edge of the town. The road was atop a small hill overlooking ponyville. I recognized the view and found it ironic; the same road I came here is the same road I'm leaving from. A single, lonely tear rolled down my face as I left the town I had become so fond of over the past few months. My journey hadn't even started and I was already feeling homesick. The trip to the first town was rather uneventful, that gave me time to think. I thought of what I would do at the first town, what I would do at Manehattan. I knew nothing of the city other than the name and the idea of it. This trip would be tough but I could pull it off, or so I hoped.

I neared the first town, Arlan. I could see it, it was an incredibly small town. The town was just some houses and stores on the highway surrounded by farms. I walked into the only food place in town. It was a cozy mom and pop place by the name of the empty platter. When I entered I was greeted by a stallion standing behind the counter.

"hey, a visitor! What brings you to town?"

I looked at him, he had a rather scrawny build with bright red fur. He wore the warmest smile I had seen in a long time.

"just passing through, heading towards Manehattan."

"Manehattan? I heard of that place, that's a long ways to go. Where you from?" he spoke with a slightly texan accent

"Ponyville."

"Ponyville, I've been there before. Nice town, why would you want to leave it?"

"I'm just trying to see if I can make a name for myself somewhere."

"you know, I saw a pony like you once. Was just passin' through here looking for a name of his own too."

"who was he?"

"well that pony came back a long time ago, and you know what? Yer talkin' to him."

"you ran off to a big city too?"

"yup, felt I was too big for this tiny ol' town. Went off to the big city lookin' fer fame and fortune. It wasn't until I was all the way in Manehattan before I realized that my place was with the ponies who mattered to me. Sounds an awful lot like you need to go there yourself to find out who you are. That's why they call that city the town of discovery."

"really?"

"well... that and because you can always discover somethin' just by looking at the ground there. Somepony came here with a little piece of metal, says somethin' on it."

"oh really can I see it?"

"I don't know, it ain't no words I've ever seen. But you can look at it all the same."

I walked up to the counter, he placed a small red bottlecap down for me to look at. I hadn't read english in the longest time but I could recognize it as a Coca cola bottlecap.

"where the hell did you get this?"

"he said that it just fell right out the sky, hit him on the head."

"when did he get it?"

"he said it happened while Nightmare moon was making a mess of things."

"this... this is a... it's... could I have it?"

he gave me a loom of bafflement, "now why would you want it? It's not useful fer nothin' you can't even read it."

"I can, it says coca cola."

"now what in tarnation is that."

"it's- it's a soda company where I'm from."

"so-dah?"

"it's a kind of drink. I just want it as a memento of where I came from."

"well sure, I guess. If you want it, I don't need it."

"thanks, it was nice meeting you."

"I could say the same to you."

I grabbed the bottle cap and put it into my satchel, it must've come in the same time as I did. I was glad it did though, I was beginning to come under the impression that I had always been a pony. I walked away from that town feeling good. That was a nice pony, I hoped that I would meet more like him along the way. On the way to the next town I found myself humming winter wrap up. It was odd, when winter wrap up happened the ponies actually did have a big performance. It was awkward for me, I was the only one in the whole town who wasn't running around singing while working. I was also the only pegasus that helped drag the snow plows. I approached the next town. It was bigger than springfield, I wondered how much bigger towns could get. The town was called Talinum, it looked like new york during the 1800s. I wandered through town, it was a maze of roads and brick. The sun was heading down, I had a few hours left of daytime. I needed to find a place to stay. I found a motel, it looked rundown and beaten. I walked in, there was an old wrinkly pony sitting behind a desk looking upon the world with tired eyes. He looked old and grumpy, everything about him seemed to emphasize how little he wanted to be here. Walked up to the desk he was sitting at.

I put on a smile, "I would like to rent out a room."

he looked at me as if I wasn't even here, "get in line, all of our rooms are full."

"ALL of them? Not even one is open yet."

"look, theres only three reasons why you'd be desparate to stay here, if you're hopeless, passing through on your way to Manehattan to claim your so called fame. Or you really are just a tourist. I haven't seen a tourist in years so which one are you, are you hopeless, passing through, or both."

"I will go find somewhere else to stay."

"listen kid, if you're going to Manehattan you won't find any fame. If you go there you will find yourself in an alley without a job and without a friend, I tell you this from experience. Just go back to whatever little town you came from, trust me, you'll be happier."

I turned around and headed for the door.

"HEY YOU!" I stopped, I turned my head to see who called. There was a pony dressed dressed in a suit, he was wearing sunglasses and his fur was a very dark brown. He had a royal flush cutie mark and he was very relaxed. I walked over to him and sat down at the table. He leaned up onto the table and crossed his arms.

"don't listen to that old grump. If it's Manehattan your after then I think we might be able to help eachother out." he sounded like a 1940s New yorker

"how so?" I was beginning to doubt the morals of the ponies in these big cities. I ponyville was full of honest, hard working citizens, but this was different. These big cities had a seedy underbelly that I didn't want to know about.

"you see, I'm in a bit of a predicament. I'm on my way to Manhattan as well."

"then whats keeping you?"

"well you see, I'm in a bit of debt, you see. And I was wondering if you could help me."

"who are you in debt to? Can't you pay them off?"

"heh, well, no. you see, I'm in trouble with, how do I say? Some less than honest horses, What town you from?"

"ponyville."

"I heard a' that place, I heard that it has some of the most kind and helpful horses in the world. Can't you, comin' from ponyville, help a guy stuck in a bit of a jam."

"what do you need me to do?"

"I have a cart, it's an old apple cart, you see. I will hide in it and put some apples on top so that you can carry the cart out of town. There will be some places where some horses that, are eh, looking for me. Might stop you, just act cool and we'll get out of this just fine."
"sounds easy enough, I'll do it if it gets me any closer to Manehattan."

"alright, thanks eh, run your name by me again."

"it's Tommy."

"nice to meetya Tommy, the names Jackson."

"Jackson is an odd name for a pony."

"you're one to talk."

he got up, "follow me." I followed him out into the alleyway. There was an old apple cart it was filled to the brim with apples. Jackson lifted the top layer of apples, revealing a cavity large enough to fit a pony. He climbed into the cavity and pushed the apples back into position. I heard his muffled voice from inside the cart, "okay it's all up to you know, and eh. Go easy on the bumps."

I tied myself into the cart and started walking. Luckily, the highway to Manehattan went right through the town. Unfortunatly, there was a massive traffic jam caused by too many carts trying to pass through a narrow section of road. Two massive carts were jammed into eachother at a narrow section. They were surrounded by ponies trying to pull them out. Night had fallen and I had no intention of sitting around for several hours while they sorted this out. I took a detour, I thought that I could just go around the traffic jam. I was soon proven wrong by two burly ponies standing in the road. One had grey fur and the other had red fur. They both had boxing glove cutie marks. I didn't like this seen at all and it kept getting worse. The one called out to the other, "ey ruffstram, who do ya think this muppet is?"

"looks like an apple pony." replied the one named ruffstram

Ruffstram approached me, "what you got here? Apples?"

"yes, just some apples."

"and why would you be carrying apples down on our turf, they built a highway for yas."

"the highway is jammed, my order is running late so I thought I could shave some time."

"I see, I see. Ey' Lenny, what say we maybe we have a bit of a toll."

Lenny walked to Ruffstram's side, "I say that's only fair. You see, we get very hungry here protectin' the streets all night and I don't see why you couldn't part with a couple of your apples."

"okay, just..."

"just WHAT, I sees it as our street, our rules. You hand over a couple of apples and we won't beat you around too much. Does that sound good?"

"sure."

they walked over to the sides over the cart and began eating apple after apple. There weren't many apples on the top layer and it was only a matter of time before they discovered the cavity Jackson was in. I began slowly unbuckling all of my straps. I finished the last strap when I heard them find it.

"ey Lenny, what's this?"

I looked back, a bit of cloth was sticking out from the apples.

"it looks like a hidden stash. What say we take a peek eh?"

"yeah what you got in here, money? Are you smuggling somethin'?"

I saw them lift up the covers, one of them reached into the cavity. They weren't looking at me so I began sneaking over to the side of them. I was a few feet behind them when Lenny pulled Jackson out of the cart. Jackson was giving a nervous smile,

"so hey ah, fellas what can I do ya for?"

"your that Jackson pony aren't you? Oh boy will our boss ever be happy to see what we found."

Ruffstram turned to face me but not before being bucked in the jaw. He was knocked out instantly and fell to the floor. The other one yelled at the top of his lungs, "TROUBLE!" before joining his friend on the floor. Jackson jumped down onto the street, "jeesh kid I thought ponyville ponies were real pushovers." the street was suddenly filled with thugs of every shape and size. There must have been atleast twenty or thirty of them. "ah hell, kid. I didn't mean to bring you into this."

I didn't respond, I acted. I jumped onto his back and latched onto him. "AH, what the hell is wrong with you kid?"

I spread my wings and let down the hardest flap I could. Dust and wind went flying into the thugs faces as we lifted up ten feet off of the ground. I flew as fast and as hard as I could out of there, it wasn't until we landed just outside of town that Jackson stopped saying thank you. I was breathing heavily, but Jackson was just as out of breath.

"kid, were you for reals back there. You just knocked out two guys twice as big as you and flew me out of there. Are you sure you're from ponyville? 'cause I don't know anypony in that whole town who knows how to do that."

"all I did was kicked a couple thugs and flew you out of there."

"you sure? Cause when you kicked those two idiots you looked pro, you know what I'm sayin' you looked like you had a plan. Who taught you to kick like that."

"Applejack back at ponyville took me in and taught me to applebuck when I was new to the town. I worked for her for a few months before leaving to live in Manehattan."

"sounds like one hell of a gal, why'd you ever wanna leave a place like that?"

"I wanted to find a place of my own, to find my own place in the world."

"damn, why on earth would you give up a shot with a gal like that for the city life. Not many get to live the high life on Wall Street."

"wait a second, earth? Wall Street?"

"eh don't worry about it, I don't feel like explaining."

"wait, does this mean anything to you?" I reached into my satchel and pulled out the Coca cola bottlecap and showed it to him.

"now where the hell did you get one a' those."

"I grew up in the suburbs around Los Angelos, perhaps you've heard of it. Were do you come from?"

I could see his bafflement, he stared in silence for a few seconds before snapping out of it. "eh, right. Born and raised in New York, I was the luckiest poker player in the whole damn city. I was in a bit of a fight over who cheated when I got thrown into a wall, but when I hit the wall I fell down into the streets of this city. What's more, I was a horse. Now I have gotten used to the town and being a talking horse but I still find it odd that theres someone else like me."

"what year where you in?"

"I got into the fight in June of 1941."

"I come from the year 2011, I think you'd be happy to know that the Allies beat the Axis powers."

"heh, who woulda thought that the europeans would sort that war out themselves."

"America helped."

"we did?"

"yeah we didn't enter until december 1941 when hawaii was bombed by japan."

"now why would they do that?"

we continued walking to the next town. While we were walking I explained all of his questions about America and the world all the way up through history until finally stopping at my time period. I explained to him My Little Pony, I told him about the show and it's fanbase.

"so, what you're sayin' is that this world... is the same as a show for little girls."

"yeah but a lot of adults and teenagers and guys watch it."

"I don't know why anything meant for little girls would act like those horses back there did."

"they're called ponies, you should start calling them that."

"anything else I need to know?"

"replace body with pony. Anypony, somepony, everypony, so on and so on. Also you know that mark on your flank?"

"yeah that little ass tatoo I have."

"it's called a cutie mark, you get it when you figure out your passion in life. Have you ever gotten a royal flush before?"

"sure have! Easiest 500 bucks I'll ever get."

"if you are so good at poker then why did you get into so much debt?"

"I don't understand this pony money, the poker here is rigged or somethin' and I can't read a damn thing. I thought ponies here spoke english."

"no they speak equestrian, it just so happens that it sounds exactly the same as english. Remind me to teach you to read one of these days."

"okay, well, think I need to go to sleep. I'm getting' tired."

"it's miles before we get to the next town. If we sleep now we might not make it there tomorrow."

"I can live with that."

"I only have enough supplies for myself to last a couple of days, I don't think it will last as long with you around."

"do you have any other solutions?"

"hop on my back, I'll carry you there if I have to."

"eh eh, I don't intend on riding my friends like horses, even if they are horses."

"don't worry about it, I'll make camp when I get tired and when you wake up we will be a lot closer to Manehattan."

"fine."

he stood over by my side for a second, trying to figure out how to approach this.

"forget about how people ride horses, if you can't figure this out then I'll figure it out for you."

I lowered my head and walked underneath him, lifting him up as I did so.

"waah, I don't know if this is such a good idea."

"I lifted barrels of apples heavier than you."

I continued walking, I soon heard him snoring. I walked long into the night, It wasn't until the moon was beginning to make way for the sun that I put him down and set up a little camp. I set it up at the side of the road behind a large log. I figured that if anypony was still chasing us, we wouldn't be easy to spot. I thought of my busy day, and I thought of my true motives for being here. I wondered why I left at all, I was perfectly happy in ponyville. Maybe I didn't need to be famous or anything, maybe none of that mattered as long as I was happy. I felt like I was onto something but I fell to sleep before I could figure it out.