Chapter 9

Fluttershy and I began to walk to Rarity’s store (or boutique, as Fluttershy told me what it was) and along the way I was still getting some stares from the other ponies in town. Thankfully, though, I was able to use my hat to get rid of most of the uncomfortable feelings of being watched. The rest of the anxious feelings were vanquished thanks to Fluttershy, just by her being there made everything feel better. One thing that I did find odd, however, was the fact that some of the mares in the village were talking about me, and how I got two of the most well known ponies to go out with me.

“I must say, that human must be such a gentlecolt if he was able to get such a gentle pony like Fluttershy to go out with him.”

“I agree! And to get Applejack as well must not have been an easy task.” (I gave myself a quiet chuckle upon hearing this.)

“Indeed! They also say that he is quiet the cutie as well!” (That specific comment made me blush.)

“He must be a noble soul as well, did you hear that he beat a Manticore off by just looking at it! And it was all just to save that poor mare Trixie!”

“Pah! I still don’t understand why he saved that mare of all ponies, especially with what she has done to us before.”

“Which, in my opinion, just makes him all the more nobler.”

“What’s the matter, Derpy? You too stupid to even say anything else now?”

“Oh I hope th-”

At this point, I just stopped listening to the idle conversation, and began to listen who the poor soul was that was getting picked on.

“J-just leave me alone, you meanie!”

“And why should ‘eye’, you don’t have anything better to do, you walled-eyed freak!”

At this point, I had enough with the bully’s, well, bullying, so I decided to step in for once and see what the fuss was about. Once I found the source of the location, which was right next to some sort of fancy building, I was able to see the culprit.

It was an Earth pony (Twilight was able to tell me a bit about the ponies of Equestria and what their abilities were during breakfast) with a long green mane and tail and a brown coat. Its cutie mark was a pair of orange hooves pounding each other in what seemed like a bro-hoof of some sorts. He seemed to be a pretty large fellow, but not the guy who took a chance, at least I assumed by what he chose as his victim. The victim was a gray Pegasus mare, with blonde mane and tail, and white bubbles as her cutie mark. She had a mailbag on her and it looked to be empty. The most fascinating thing about her though, was her eyes. The right one was normal, but the left one looked up towards the sky. Both of her eyes were filled with tears. Inside those eyes was a familiar feeling that I have come to hate. It was not fear, anger, or even hatred.

It was hopelessness, the worst feeling that I could ever think of.

I decided that enough was enough and stepped in to help the gray mare. “Hey! How about you pick on someone your own size?”

“Someone? What the buck is some-” he said, turning to face me. He suddenly stopped what he was saying as soon as he saw me, his mouth hanging in horror. I was curious as to why he was so scared of me, and then I remembered hearing the gossip about me beating the Manticore, so I decided to take advantage of it, just this one time.

“You recognize me?” I asked. The Earth pony nodded, his mouth still gapping in terror. “Then you know what I can do to you if you continue this charade?” I said, beginning to give him the evil eye. He nodded again. “So, I kindly suggest that you apologize and leave right now, before you make things even worse.”

He was quiet for a few moments, before turning around saying, “I’m sorry Derpy.” to the gray mare. However this seemed to upset the Pegasus even further, so right as he was turning around to leave, I took my Bo staff, and pinned his tail to the ground. This caused him to fall flat on his flank, with a large “OOF!” as he hit the ground. He turned to look at me, with fear and confusion in his eyes.

“W-w-what, I apologized, now let me go!” Instead of listening to him, however, I turned to the gray mare and said, “What’s your name, miss?”

She looked at me in confusion, and eventually said, in a shivering voice, “D-Ditzy…”

I looked back at the bully, and this time said, “Now, apologize correctly, or else you will be one tail shorter.”

“Ok, ok, ok, I’m sorry Ditzy, now please, let me go! I don’t want to lose my tail!” he said, his voice in a panic. I looked at him slowly, then, leaned down to whisper in his ear, “If I ever see you bullying anypony else around here, you will regret ever meeting me. Do. You. Understand?”

The bully just nodded, and as soon as I lifted my staff off of his tail, he ran away as fast as his hooves could take him. I nodded in satisfaction, and then went to put my attention to the poor gray mare named Ditzy. She backed up in slight fear as I approached her, and then I carefully sat down next to her.

“So, your name is Ditzy?” I asked her. She nodded, saying, “Yes, sir, Ditzy Doo”

“Well, are you ok Miss Ditzy? He didn’t hurt you now, did he?”

She looked at me, then towards the ground. “N-no, he didn’t.”

I was surprised that she said that, considering her eyes. “Are you sure miss?”

Ditzy gave off a small sigh before continuing. “It’s my eyes isn’t it?” she asked, to which I nodded. “No, he didn’t do this to me, I…I was born like this. And…and it’s these…stupid, ugly eyes that caused me lose my one and only job today!” she said, practically shouting the words at the end. Once she said that, she started to cry. Now, I just couldn’t bear to have none of this, so I decided to help comfort her some more; by embracing her into a hug and holding her as she cried into my bare chest.

She soon embraced me and began to bawl her eyes out. From the looks of things, she has never had anypony hold her like this before, with the exception of her parents I’m assuming, but even so, she cried like there was no tomorrow. As she cried, I noticed that we had appeared to have drawn a crowd, however, with the current situation that I was in, I decided to ignore the growing numbers and instead work on making this poor soul feel better. I did recognize some of the ponies that were here, like a mint green unicorn from the party, a gray earth pony with a pink bowtie, a blue pony with a pink mane and tail, and Rarity, who was standing outside of the fancy shop doors alongside Fluttershy.

‘That must be her boutique.’ I thought to myself, still holding the sobbing mare. After about five minutes of this, she calmed down enough for me to talk to.

“Hey, Ditzy, I’m sorry for what that jerk put you through, truly I am.” I said, getting her to look up at me slightly. It was at this point that I was able to get a good look at her eyes. They were breathtaking; her eyes were such a vivid shine of gold on them it literally made my heart melt by how beautiful they were. “And if there is one thing that he got wrong. It was your eyes. Those eyes of yours are like that of an angel.”

At this she blushed, a confused look on her face. “Y-you really think that m-my eyes are beautiful?”

I smiled and nodded. “Of course I do! They are some of the most beautiful eyes that I have ever seen.” This made her blush even more.

“C-can I ask what your name is, please?” she said in a pleading tone. I was about to speak when Rarity and Fluttershy stepped towards us.

“By Celestia, dear, that was truly such a heart warming experience! It seemed like it was out of a romance novel, what with the knight in shining armor galloping in to save the damsel in distress from the treachery of a horrible monster!” Exclaimed Rarity, seeming to be bursting with excitement from what she just saw. I blushed a bit at this, and then I listened to what Fluttershy had to say.

“Drakalian, that was one of the bravest things that I have seen you do since you got here, and I’m glad to be in your herd.” Fluttershy said, smiling as well, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek, which made me blush even more.

Ditzy was listening as we spoke, and then finally decided to speak up herself. “Wait, so are the stories true, then, you are a human, and that you defeated a Manticore?” she asked. I smiled and nodded. “Yes, they are true, if somewhat exaggerated.” I said, happy that she seemed to be getting better.

Then Fluttershy remembered something that Ditzy told me earlier. “Wait, Ditzy, d-did you say that you lost your job?”

New waves of tears threaten to overcome Ditzy as she spoke about what happened. Apparently, she used to be the mailmare in Ponyville. However, due to some financial troubles that they are having, she was ‘cut loose’ as it were, and pretty much thrown to the curb. After hearing her story, I was beginning to feel the need to cry too; instead I just hugged her tighter to help her feel more comfortable. I then remembered that I still had my appointment with Rarity, but I didn’t want to leave Ditzy alone at the moment.

“Hey, Ditzy. You want to come into the store with me? I need to get some clothing from Rarity, and I think you could use some company right now.” Ditzy gave a cute sniffle, and then nodded. For some reason, I decided to pick her up in my arms and carry her into the store, which caused her to blush even more. So, with Ditzy in hand, Rarity, Fluttershy, and I walked into Rarity’s store of fashion.

Once we got inside, Rarity said, “Welcome to Carousel Boutique!” It was a pretty interesting store, to say the least. I wasn’t able to recall if I was into fashion, but I did remember watching some shows about it. The things that really captivated me were the dresses; they looked like they were made for the princesses themselves. I even said as much to Rarity, which caused her to blush.

“Why, thank you, darling! It’s so nice to have a colt that understands fashion, even if you aren’t a pony.” She said, which caused me to raise an eyebrow. Once we got in, I put Ditzy, who was still blushing, on to one of the chairs. I kneeled next to her so that I could talk to her for a second.

“Hey, Ditzy, I’m going to be right back, ok? I just need to get my measurements done and then I will be right back here. You ok with this?” I asked her. She nodded as her answer, and I left her with Fluttershy, who I knew would help her if anything were to come up.

I walked into the changing room to get out of my shorts and hat. Once I got back to the measuring area, I could see Rarity already ready with a notepad and some measuring tape. She glanced at my direction and then gave me a curious look.

“Uh, darling, I don’t mean to sound rude, but you do need to take off all of your clothing.” At this, I mentally face-palmed myself, remembering that these ponies wore clothes for accessory purposes. So, once again, I had to explain to her why we needed to wear clothing all the time. Once I finished, she had quiet a large blush on her cheeks.

“W-well, that is indeed, um, interesting, to say the least, b-but I must insist that you take the rest of it off.” I looked at her with a quizzical look. “I promise not to stare, dear.” With a sigh of defeat, I just took my boxers off of me and threw them to the side. As I presented myself before her, her blush became even deeper. She was, however, true to her word, and began to measure me without much staring. Thankfully, it went by fairly quickly, and I was able to put my clothes back on, and I did so as fast, but as polite, as I could.

“Listen, Rarity. I’m sorry that you had to-” but before I could finish, Rarity placed a hoof to my mouth.

“Listen, dear, it’s perfectly fine to be embarrassed in these sorts of situations. Why, a few times before when I measured a stallion, they got a little…how should I say this…’excited’ to say the least.” She said. I just stood there, thinking about what it would be like to suddenly get a hard-on in front of Rarity while she was measuring you, and in all honesty, the thought made me laugh a bit. As I laughed, so did Rarity, and we were soon smiling, leaving the whole thing behind us.
Once we were done laughing, her horn glowed, and in came my hoodie, fully repaired. I smiled at the scene and gave a big hug to the fashion unicorn, saying, “Thanks for fixing my hoodie, it truly is my favorite. Also, if you need anything just ask.” Rarity blushed as I hugged her, and then she seemed to remember something.

“Oh, I do have one thing that I want to ask you.” She said, I looked at her with a curious look, and than in floated a small electronic device of some sorts. I took it from the magic field and examined it closely. “This happened to fall out of one of the pockets that was in your hoodie, and I was wondering if you knew what it is.”

I stared at the device before I could remember what it was. It was an iPod Touch, not only that, but apparently it had a lot of music on it, and I meant A LOT of music. The battery symbol was the weirdest thing, though, because for some reason, it said that it was charging, when it wasn’t even plugged in.

‘Hmm, well it could be the magic of this area. Oh well, makes as much sense to me as everything else I’ve seen.’ I explained to her what it was, and she just nodded, saying, “You should show that to Vinyl and Octavia, they would love to see something like this.” I nodded and put it away into my right inner pocket of the hoodie, keeping those names in mind for later. I then placed my hoodie on me, but kept the hood part down so that I could still wear my hat.

Before we left the room, however, I remembered that I told myself to look in a mirror to see how I looked like. “Hey, Rarity? I don’t suppose that you have a mirror on you, do you?”

“Why, of course, darling, I never leave home without it.” As she said this, a mirror floated towards me. I grabbed it out of the magic field and gave myself a once over. I was a pale fellow, with dirty blonde hair, and average looks (I hope). When I looked at my eyes, I could see why Fluttershy thought they were beautiful, for they were a deep emerald green color. My body was of average build; while I didn’t have any abs or anything like that, my arms, shoulders and upper chest area were almost what one would call ‘well toned’. Glad that I could finally get a good look at myself, I handed Rarity her mirror back and we both left to go back to the waiting room.

As we exited the room and entered the waiting room, I saw that Ditzy was still here, but Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen. “Hey, Ditzy. You know where Fluttershy went?” I asked her. She looked at me and nodded.

“She said something about having to take care of her animals.” Said Ditzy. “Also, I got to go and pick up my daughter, Dinky, from school right now.”

I looked at the clock and noticed that it was thirty minutes passed two. I apparently forgot to have lunch, but I didn’t mind it so much, for I wasn’t very hungry at the time. Rarity did say that she was going to be a while to make my clothing and told me to come back sometime tomorrow, so I had some time to kill.

“Hey, you think that it’s alright if I went along with you? I don’t really have much else to do until I go over to AJ’s farm” I asked her, which for some reason caused her to blush.

“S-sure, you can join me. I mean you did just help me out, after all.” She said, saying the last part to herself mostly.
So with that, we both left the boutique, saying good-bye to Rarity as we left. We were quiet for a few minutes, and then I decided to break the silence with some idle chitchat (Which I was never good at, by the way.).

“So, Ditzy. What was it like, being the mailmare?” I asked her. Bad move on my part, for I could begin to see tears forming from her eyes. I quickly placed an arm around her, which got her to calm down a little. “Hey, if you don’t want to talk about it…”

“I-it’s fine, I don’t really mind talking to somepony about this. Really, I don’t.” She said, sniffling quietly. I didn’t feel convinced by this; however, she insisted that she talk about her previous job anyways. She then went on to explain how it was to be the mailmare around here, and how she traveled around and met with some great ponies, and unfortunately, some not so great ponies.

“I mean, I know that I crash into a few things every so often, but I always was able get the mail on time.” She said, a new wave of tears began to form. It was at that moment, however, that a very loud rumble was heard. It took me a while to process where it came from, but once I figured it out, I smiled at her.

“I think somepony didn’t have breakfast this morning.” I said to a blushing Ditzy, for it indeed was her stomach growling in hunger. Thankfully, I was still carrying the bag that Pinkie Pie gave to me to hold onto the muffin, so I just handed it to her. She was confused at first, but when she opened the bag up to see what was inside it, her face instantly lit up like a light bulb.

“F-for me? B-but what if you get hungry?” I just shook my head, saying, “I’m not going to get hungry anytime soon, so just enjoy it.”

And enjoy it she did, for as soon as I said that, she practically inhaled the muffin in one bite. Now it was my turn to look stunned at what I just saw. Ditzy noticed this and giggled at my expression, saying “What? Muffins are my favorite food.” After a while, I too began to laugh with her. Soon, we approach what appeared to be a red schoolhouse.

Upon reaching the building, Ditzy and I sat outside and talked some more to each other. Soon, the bell rang, and all of the little fillies and colts were running outside to get back to their homes, with four of them running to us. Before I could say anything, three of them quickly jumped up and tackled me to the ground.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Monster Hunters Go!”

“Yay! We got it, do you girls got your cutie marks now?”

“I don’t see one, how about you, Sweetie?”

“No, you Scootaloo?”

“Nothing.”

“Aw, but we caught a monster, doesn’t that count for something?”

“Oh yea?” I said, preparing myself. “If you caught me, then could I do…oh, I don’t know…THIS!” As soon as I finished talking, I quickly flipped us over, causing them to squeal in surprise. Eventually, I got them so that I was the one who was on top of them. Once on top, I was able to get a good look at the so-called ‘monster hunters’. The first one was a white unicorn filly with a dual pink tail and mane that were a bit curly. The second one was a yellow Earth pony with a red mane and tail and a pink bow in her mane. The finally one was an orange Pegasus with an unruly purple mane and tail. They all looked at me with fear in there eyes.

“W-what are you going to do with us, m-mister monster.” Said the yellow filly with a southern accent like AJ. I just grinned slyly at them. “Oh, I’m going to put a curse on you three.”

They all went pale with fear before the white one spoke. “W-w-what k-kind of curse, mister?”

“The worst kind of curse.” I said, getting into the moment. I paused for a second for a climatic effect before I spoke again.

“The curse of the Tickle Monster!” And with that, I began to tickle all three of the little fillies, causing them to suddenly laugh and struggle in my grip to try and escape, but to no avail.

“N-n-no, p-p-please, s-stop t-tickling us! We p-promise to be good l-little fillies, M-mister m-m-monster!” said the orange filly in between spurts of laughter. I kept on tickling them for a few more seconds before I thought that they had enough, and with that I released them from their ‘curse’. The stayed on the ground for a while, panting, before they got themselves up, shaking the dirt off of themselves in the process.

“Ha…ha…well, girls, that could have been better then I thought.” Said the yellow filly. The other two simply nodded too tired to speak. I smiled at them before I got up and gave off a fancy bow. “The name of this ‘monster’ girls, is called Drakalian, and he is what you would call a human.”

The three fillies stood there in shock, looking at the living myth in front of them. Finally, the yellow one spoke. ”So, you’re the one that’s dating mah sister?” she asked.

“So, Applejack is your sister?” I asked back, to which she nodded. “Well, in that case, yes I am dating AJ, as well as Fluttershy right now.”

“And you’re the one that beat the Manticore as well, right?” Asked the orange filly.

“Well, more like scared it off, but yes, I did ‘beat’ this Manticore that you do speak of.”

“That’s so cool!“ she exclaimed. “Oh, by the way, the name is Scootaloo.”

“I’m Sweetie Belle.” Said the white unicorn filly.

“And I’m Applebloom.” Said the yellow country filly.

“And together we’re…” said Scootaloo, as they all bunched up together.

“THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!” they shouted,

I blinked at the loudness of the voices. “Well, that’s interesting. So, what do you girls do, exactly?”

“We do all sorts of things in search of our cutie marks.” Said Applebloom. I realized then that none of them had a cutie mark. ‘I guess cutie marks are something that you earn. ’ “So, what are you girls going to do now?”

“Well, I was going to go back to the farm, and Sweetie was going to see if Spike was back from his trip from Canterlot.”

I gave them a questioning look. “Is he your coltfriend or something?” I said, laughing at my joke. To my surprise, however, both Sweetie Belle and Applebloom nodded to this.

“Yup! Me and Applebloom are both dating our little Spikey-Wikey!” said Sweetie, a grin on both her face and the country filly’s face. I just nodded, deciding to go with it, thinking ‘Hmm, maybe the ponies here mature faster then humans, at least mentally wise.’ Realizing that they were in their own little world at the moment, I decided to go and speak to Ditzy and her daughter.

The fourth mare that was with the CMC was another unicorn, with a pink coat and a blonde mane. She even had the golden eyes of her mother. She also lacked a cutie mark.

I saw the little filly hug Ditzy, and I could easily see the resemblance in both of them. As I got closer, both ponies separated from their hug and turned to face me.

“Hey, Mommy said that you were the one that protected her from that big meanie? Is that true” She asked. As soon as I nodded, she quickly jumped onto me and embraced me into a tight hug. “Thank you for protecting mommy! There are a lot of big meanies that always make fun of her because of her eyes, and I’m glad that you’re not one of them.” I was frozen for a second, and then I finally embraced the little filly in a hug. Once she released me, she went back next to Ditzy’s side, a huge smile on her face.

“T-thanks again for helping me out there, and thanks for the muffin as well.” Said Ditzy, a smile on her face. I simply shrugged; a little embarrassed at the attention that she was giving me. I then saw the pink filly, whom I’ve come to the conclusion was Ditzy’s daughter, Dinky, whisper something into her mother’s ear. Whatever it was, it made her blush, and she seemed to be shaking her head against whatever Dinky was saying to her. Finally, she sighed, and walked up towards me. What happened next came as a surprise; she reached up and kissed me on the cheek.

I just stood there, frozen, with Dinky giggling like crazy at the scene. Ditzy was still blushing like crazy, and she wasn’t the only one blushing this time, either.

“Um, I got to go home, now, so, uh, I’ll…I’ll see you later, I guess?” Ditzy said nervous. I just nodded nervously, not trusting my own voice. With a smile and a wave, both Ditzy and Dinky left to go back to where ever it was that they lived at. I looked back at the CMC, and I noticed that the three fillies were getting ready to leave. Luckily, I was able to stop Applebloom before she left for the farm.

“Hey, Applebloom. I was wondering if you could bring me to the farm. AJ said that she wanted me to come over once I was done with today.”

“Of course, Drak! Come on, let’s go!” and with that, she began to gallop at full speed towards the farm, and I had to run as fast as possible to keep up.

For a filly, she can run really fast if she wants to.