Chapter VI
Okay, here I am. I have brought to you your next chapter and the first task. But what is it? How will it be solved? Well, I shall tell you after I say THE FIC IS THE THING!
I own only my OC(s). All others belong to their appropriate owners.
Paul and Fluttershy landed with a thud back in Paul's basement, looks of surprise etched on their faces. Then, Paul jumped into the air. "Awesome!"
Fluttershy looked at him in confusion. "'Awesome?' What part of any of this is awesome?"
In playful mockery, he put his hand on his chin. "Let me think. I met the Fluttershy. Then, I proceeded to go to the Equestria and met the Twilight Sparkle and the Spike the Dragon. And after that, the Princess Luna gave me a quest! You bet your hooves this is awesome!"
"I hope that your 'quest' ends up with my going home and staying there."
"You can count on me, Fluttershy," Paul assured her as he began to do an odd dance routine made up of Gangnam Style, The Cupid Shuffle, and The Cha Cha Slide.
While he was doing his victory dance, the pendant began to glow. Not the same brightness that had sent them to Equestria, more like a flashlight turning on. Then, a voice came from it, saying these words:
If not a friend, who can you trust? If the secret gets out, you are dust. A friend can help the burden bear. A friend, indeed, can help you there.
While Fluttershy had heard the words, Paul kind of missed it. He was still doing his happy dance about his adventure that was to commence. "Uh, Paul?" Fluttershy asked.
He stopped dancing immediately and turned to her. "Yes?"
"Shouldn't we be trying to solve the task?"
He instantly stopped dancing and looked at her. "Uh...yeah. I suppose we should. Um...could...could you tell me the task again?"
She sighed and then repeated what her pendant had said. "So, do you have any ideas?"
He put his hand on his chin. "Well, the friend I already told about you is Tristan. I guess I have to completely and one hundred percent make him believe you are really here."
"But how are you supposed to do that? I mean, I still don't even have walking down."
"Really?"
She nodded, then proceeded to try to lift herself off the couch, but she wasn't having much luck. "I really have been trying, but I just can't do it."
"Well, I guess it's easier to walk on four legs instead of two." He then held out his hand. "But, if you want, I can help you learn."
She reached for his hand and took hold of it. He then pulled her up from the couch. At first, she appeared to be standing, until her legs gave out from under her, causing Paul to wrap his arms around her and hold her tightly. She looked up at him with pitiful eyes. "I told you I can't do it."
He hoisted her back to her feet. "You just have to keep trying. Try to balance your body weight to your center. It's much smaller now that you're human, but it should be easy to find."
"Okay, I'll try." She swayed a little as she tried to find her center of gravity, Paul coaching her gently through it the whole time. Eventually, she got standing under control.
"Perfect. Now, for the hard part." He held her hands out in front of him as he back off a couple steps. "To walk, you just need to put one foot in front of the other. Think of how you used to walk with your back legs and try to mimic that."
Slowly but surely, she began to walk around the room with Paul guiding her. After a while, he let go to let her try to get a feel for walking on her own. It wasn't long before she had gotten completely used to it and was running around the basement. "I can walk!" she called. "I can run!"
Paul stood against a wall, a look of amusement on his face. She's acting like a four-year-old, he thought with a chuckle. And he wasn't wrong. She was dancing around the room with her new-found talent in pure joy.
When she finished, she ran over to Paul and wrapped him in her arms. "Oh, thank you so much! I never could have gotten this down without you."
He laughed again as they broke the embrace. "It was no problem, Fluttershy. Trust me. Now, about getting Tristan over here..."
Her face went from pure joy to worry when he said that. "How are we going to get a letter to him? I mean, we don't have Spike or a mailmare on hand."
Paul laughed a third time when she said that, then proceeded to reach into his pocket and pulled out a cellphone. "I don't need to write a letter. I'll just call him."
"Call him?"
"Yeah. This is called a cellphone. Much like how Spike sends letters to and from Celestia and Twilight, I can call my friends and whatnot on this."
"How does it work?"
He smiled as he unlocked the phone and looked up Tristan's number on speed dial. After it rang a few times, a voice answered. "Hello?"
"Yeah, Tristan? It's Paul."
"Oh, hey! What's up, my man?"
"Listen, can you come down here for a while?"
"I suppose so. Why?"
"Remember what I told you earlier?"
Paul heard a sigh over the phone. "Paul, I think you might be getting conned into something. I mean, maybe we only thought the pendant was ruby."
"What?"
"I mean, maybe she was some kind of prostitute or something that happened to have a Fluttershy necklace. You said she wasn't wearing clothes when you found her, right?"
"Ignoring that comment, can you just come down?"
"Now?"
"When else are we going to escape the wrath of the Beast?"
"...Good point. I'll be down soon."
"Good to hear. See ya soon."
"See ya!"
Paul hung up and put the phone back in his pocket and turned back to Fluttershy, who had a look of awe on her face. "I thought Princess Luna said you couldn't use magic."
"Oh, this is not really magic."
"It's pretty magical to me. We have nothing light this in Ponyville."
"Well, maybe soon you will. I mean, Equestria is pretty much at the same stage Earth was at a couple hundred years ago."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO
It was about a half an hour before Tristan finally got over to Paul's and was sitting in the basement with him and Fluttershy. Paul and Fluttershy were sitting on the couch. Tristan was sitting in an old computer chair. At first, they kind of all just sat there, looking at each other.
Finally, Paul broke the ice. "Well, uh, Tristan, how's your job at GameStop?"
"It's going rather well, thank you. But I don't believe you called me over to ask about my job." he turned to look at Fluttershy. "So, this is supposed to be her?"
Fluttershy ducked behind Paul slightly, causing him to put his arm behind her downy back. "Yeah, this is her."
"Paul, she could be any random girl off the street."
"You haven't seen what I have seen."
Tristan smirked at this. "And frankly, I don't think you would want to share."
Paul's cheeks went bright red. "I'm not like that!"
Fluttershy came out from behind him and said, "Why don't you think I'm really Fluttershy?"
"Well, as much as I would like to, I'm too cold and logical."
Paul then stood up. "If you want me to prove it, I will. Come over here." Tristan stood up and walked over to her. Paul grabbed his hand and placed it on her back. "Remember, I don't own anything made with feathers."
Tristan again had a look of amazement on his face. "Are you really..."
She blushed a little before nodding. "I am."
"I...I...Wow...Paul, you know how much I hate it when you're right."
Paul just smiled widely to himself just as Fluttershy's pendant started glowing again. "Oh, here we go again."
"What?"
"You'll see." He held onto Fluttershy's as the pendant flashed.
Chapter Complete. Okay, so this was only the first task, so give me a break. I promise the next one will be better. And, if anyone is interested, I am accepting OC's now. So, on that note, R&R AND ADIOS!