Your Human and You: Open Eyes
Chapter 1: The Pick-Up
It was nearly that time. Seven years old, turning eight with only less than twelve hours left in the day, Princess Flurry Heart was excited. And who above or below could blame her? She was finally out of adolescence, and finally becoming a filly of eight years of age. She could read, do a few spells like levitation, and do a few princessy things. Yeah, things like tea and cakes, except, she didn't like those boring things. She loved excitement, adventures, and of course a few gushy romances. Not to forget about her excellent voice, singing was becoming something of a talent, but deep down she knew it wasn't it.
After a short and sweet nap in her room, Flurry Heart's eyes fluttered open, and she gave a long yawn. A nap was just what she needed to get rid of a few worries she had that morning, simple filly stuff like who was a better looking stallion; Pelvis Pressly or Stereo Saddles. The nap concluded that Stereo was much better at singing, and dancing.
tttttooooooooooooooootttttttt! Off in the distance, she heard a train. Her ears perked at the sound, her hearing is that of a bat in a cave where echos go farther.
She flew off her bed. With a beaming smile, Flurry Heart ran over to her window looked out of her bedroom, just in time to see a blackish-purple train halts to a stop at the train station. Her own heart beating a mile a minute, she appeared to be excited about the train, watching tiny pale figures walk onto a large wooden platform. She cheered! Of course, her mommy, the Queen of the Crystal Empire had told her to hold back her alicorn sight, but at this time, she couldn't! She was too excited about the coming hours. Her eighth birthday was only less than a day away, and she wanted a human! She'd been asking for two years!
Growing up in the Crystal Empire as the princess had plenty of drawbacks as there were bonuses, not to mention everyone was pretty much scared of her or even to go near her, so she didn't have friends. Unless you call her personal guard her friend, and that Her father was the great King Shining Armor, Protector of the Crystal Empire, with a parent owning such a title, it was even harder for another filly or colt to walk up to her. For days, weeks, even two whole years of begging, the train outside had come to her home so she could pick her very own human buddy.
She felt conflicted of course, she was supposed to stay in her room until they get her 'surprise', but dancing on her tip-hooves, she struggled to keep her excitement inside. Just a few long seconds later, she exploded, shouting,"I can't wait!" She bounded for the door, racing as fast as her legs could carry her. Flurry Heart forced the door open, not really meaning to rip part of the door off from its hinges, and it wasn't like she actually paid any mind to it. Her mind was set on finding her own human. She flew down the halls, guards chasing after her to return her to her room so the surprise wasn't spoiled. It already was, but Flurry didn't pay that any mind.
Eventually, a spell barrier was erected right before her, making her crash right into it. She said some not so nice words, mostly under her breath. Just on the other side of the pink barrier, Shining Armor stood over her with a slight frown on his face. He wasn't happy she had escaped her comfortable prison. She wasn't supposed to leave her room at the risk of getting her hopes up. Shining was sorely upset that she had escaped and knew. The guards behind Flurry looked rather nervous, seeing their King on the other side of his shield. They feared what he'd do for failing their job. Not that he's done anything before other than make them take laps around the Empire as the least of their worries, they'd have to deal with much more for a failure such as this. Failure to protect the princess of their Empire, the sole ere to the Crystal Throne, would be licking the bathroom floors, or something like that.
Shining Armor looked at his daughter, with a rather stressed look. The impact on his shield stressed him more than an entire army of Changelings, or the former king before him ever could hold up to. Taking a few deep breaths he readied himself to try his hardest to gently scold her. "Flurry Heart..." He said with a tone softer than his look he gave her. "What'd I say about leaving your room?"
"I had to see them!" She huffed with a snort. "I don't like being in my room all day, and its bad enough I need a guard tailing me everywhere I go!" Flurry argued with her father. She gave him an annoyed look.
He felt a pang in his heart. Shining Armor sighed, dropped the barrier, and slowly walked over to his daughter. He sat down, and pulled her into a light hug. "That's because your safety is important Flurry, especially to me." His eyes quickly looked at his own cutie mark, then back to Flurry. "When you're older, maybe you can lose the guard."
"I know how to defend myself daddy...and remember that time I dropped out of the window to the Sky Tower?"
"It took six weeks to regrow the crystal that you landed into..." He shuttered at the recalled memory. Shaking his head, he returned his softened gaze at his daughter. "Look, sweetie, I know you're excited about getting your own human and all, but you might not get one."
"I will!" She looked angrily at her dad. "She's going to be the sweetiest little human!"
Shining gulped, he feared her disappointment in him. "W-well Flurry...um...."
"Yyyeeeeaaaahhhh?"
Squeezing his eyes shut he rubbed his snout. "All we could find were males. Most of the female humans were bought off for labor and to make more tiny humans." He answered. "So...yeah. You're going to get a male, but from what we've seen...If this train doesn't have a calm enough human, I don't think we can get you one."
Flurry huffed in annoyance. "No, I'm going to get a human. He's going to be awesome, kind, sweet, and maybe cute like a puppy."
Shining looked down at his daughter with a confused look. "Then why don't you want a puppy?" He tried to question her logic, but that was like trying to understand Pinkie Pie, and the thought hurt thinking about thinking of how to think out how Pinkie Pie herself worked as a pony and not some kind of spawn of Discord. She was just about as weird as the Chimera was.
"They're loud when they bark, and humans are better anyways." Flurry replied with her usual logic. Shining couldn't, and wouldn't dare to try to rebuke her statement and left it at that. In some ways, he wished he was a foal again too, it was so much easier then. Foal logic was so much more simpler, even if the foals themselves didn't understand. If it made sense to them, it was right, adults were the wrong ones.
With a defeated sigh, he felt the call of his wife. Shining Armor stood up and pulled Flurry Heart up with his magic and set her on his back. "Mommy wants us. I guess they found a few humans after all."
"Yay!" She had won again, but she didn't like seeing her daddy sad. Flurry wrapped her hooves around him and squeezed him as lightly as she could, knowing of her strange strength. Giving a quick nuzzle she whispered, "Thank you daddy."
Shining's chest felt light while a smile grew on his face. "You're welcome sweetie." He felt a little bit better.
She blinked. Flurry Heart had no idea what to think. Six humans stood in a line, five of them were slumped over, picking their noses or scratching their butts. One human, who stood straight, his eyes looking straight out. His mane was long, but looked much neater than the other humans. A small brown beard covered much of his chin, but even that looked well kept.
Flurry trotted over to the human who looked nicer than the rest. For a flash of a second, she saw him recognize her, then his eyes shot back. She noticed how he had greenish-blue eyes, and long brown hair. His skin was a little paler, perhaps he was a little sick? The human moved his arm and moved a few strands of hair from his face, folding it along the right side of his head. He didn't more much more than that, which even made Cadence a little curious as to why he was so still.
Flurry turned her head at the strange human, thoughtful of him. Something felt strange deep down to just look at him. Finally he lost his ability to see what the filly was doing. She had noticed him look down at her, and their eyes locked onto each other. Cadence gasped while Shining was ready to act when the human moves. He got down on his knees, looking at her with a strange look on his face. It moved around a little, and then his lips moved with no sound coming out of it, like he was chewing. His arms opened out and he wrapped them around her.
Shining still ready to act, he watched just as intently as Cadence. Cadence was shocked for the most part, just as the two guards behind them. After that short minute, he stood back up, smiling, something that was hard to see behind his beard.
"So what'dia therk littah gal?" The owner said with a cocky smile. "Found'm aloung the borders of Equestria and dem Griffuns. Eh ruan fera whale tilla mer pegas kert'em"
"Why is he so much better looking than the rest?" She asked him.
The stallion rubbed his chin and shrugged. "My's think'n he'a runnahwer, but Ahn donna know. Heh'a fighter dats fer derm sher. Donna sea ah mark ohn'em whean weh ferd'm. Ner marks mern no orner"
"Would you watch your language around my daughter sir?" Shining almost snapped his neck right off. Nopony talked to her like that.
The stallion gave a quick nod. "He'ah twenta-neih buts, der uddas er twenta-two."
"I want this one!" She said, pointing to the nicer looking human.
The human looked rather confused for a moment, something only Flurry had caught on to. He quickly went back to looking rather dull as a collar was placed around his neck. He tried to take it off, but it shocked him a little. She heard him whimper and shake his hand.
"Congergalershuns gal, ya gert ah hermun." The stallion gave him a toothy grin, that's of course if he had more than six teeth. His gums were nasty and brown looking, most likely from chewing tobacco.
Cadence herself cringed inwardly, careful not to let the stallion know. He was rough looking, his train worse by the looks of it. Rusty wheels and carts, the humans themselves looked rather malnourished. She wished that ponies would take better care of these mindless animals, but the humans were also violent when they had the energy. At least they weren't actually starving, then she would have to do something, it was against the law to starve humans.
The walk back to the castle was quick and rather short. Cadence just wanted to return and not get the whole Empire excited about her leaving her castle, and not in a good way. Even a few of the older guards, those who were from a thousand years in the past didn't like her leaving the castle unless it was for official business. With the human in tow, Flurry felt happy she got to have her new friend.