mylittlejamjar | 1 Pizza [text]

Sure! I don't mind at all. You want to meet somewhere first and then go down there?

Yeah. I mean if you don't mind.

You don't have to do me any favors or anything if you don't want to.

No, not at all! Just give me a heads up when you're ready.

You say the word and I'm ready man.

I got nothing going on. Like way too much nothing. I could fill a warehouse with how much nothing I'm doing.

How about an hour from now, by the boutique?

Works for me man. I'll see you there.

[And indeed Surprise will be there. And looking ridiculous. She's dressed up as if she was ready for a heavy storm: heavy, bright yellow galoshes with a garish yellow hat and rain slicker.

Clearly she is ready for any wetness the sewer might provide when she goes down there. Nothing's getting on her!

She smiles over when she sees Don approach.]

Oh hey! I'm ready to go!

Hey there!

[Don, meanwhile, looks surprisingly dry.]

Come this way. Its not too far.

[Surprise isn't entirely sure why he looks so dry. It's a sewer, right? That thing has to be all kinds of wet and nasty. Still, Surprise trusts Don, at least a little, and follows willingly behind the turtle.]

So, like, are turtles the dominant species in your world then? I know you said you were one, and I heard about the weird hairless monkeys that a lot of the ponies here seem to have been.

Actually, humans are the dominant species in my world. There are only a few poni--er, people like myself.

[The manhole is magically lifted off, and Don hops down.]

Oh, so it's like the different types of ponies?

[Surprise does a small leap in the air, letting her wings flutter a bit before fluttering down through the manhole and landing on the paved part of the sewer.]

...Or I guess not. I mean turtles and monkeys aren't too alike. You guys get along in your world?

Man you weren't kidding! I didn't think a sewer could be clean like this!

Well...we could get along better.

[At the clean comment, he nods.]

Definitely. I was surprised how many dry tunnels there were here!

[At this, his horn glows, and a pipe lever suddenly pops down, revealing a secret brick door.]

Down this way!

Whoa.

[Give her a minute Don. She just kind of stares in surprise at the secret door you've got going on down here. She wasn't sure what she was thinking when you said you lived in the sewers, but she didn't necessarily think that would've meant a secret passage would be part of the deal.]

How long did it take you to even get that set up?

[But she's still going on down the path like Donny asked.]

A couple of hours. It was no biggie.

[And lo and behold, the passage reveals a completely abandoned and dry old sewer room! There's definite signs that Don has been working to renovate it. Piles of wood and bricks, some saws and paint and welding and solder equipment are scattered around the floor.]

[Surprise trots around the room a little bit, looking it over. It's kind of fascinating really; she didn't care for the sewers even if they were clean, but she had to admit it was obvious Don was putting some love into the place. Or at least trying to to get it all cleaned up.

She looks over a bit of the soldering equipment as she talks.]

Hey.

...You gonna need some help down here?

Probably. I still have to wire electricity, socket and ground the walls, do some plumbing, insulate and weatherize the place...

[Heee's...just going to babble a little, don't mind him.]

[Man. He is really into this and Surprise doesn't really know how to respond. She takes a small moment to think before speaking again.]

Man how're you going to pay for all of it? I mean you won't be paying for labor, but you still gotta pay for all the materials right?

You'd be surprised how you can find this stuff. Dumpster diving can be pretty rewarding like that.

[...He's totally serious.]

Man you're going to find that much electrical wiring just by dumpster diving?

[Shes a bit hesitant to accept that.

But at the same time...]

...Think you could show me which ones later?

How big are you going to make this place anyway?

Like I said, you'd be surprised by what people throw away. And yeah, I can definitely show you.

[Hey, nothing wrong with recycling!]

I'm going to knock out the wall over there, since I think that's a false wall which was meant for cosmetic buttressing when they changed the sewer system around-

[Yeah he's babbling on again.]

I guess so! All I've found are clocks and those stupid drinking birds man. I might as well open a hotel with how many of the little suckers I found.

[Man, she is a little intimidated to hear Don keep talking about renovating the place. It isn't because she can't follow but rather by the fact that she herself has just never had that kind of gumption.]

Man anyone ever told you you got a lot of energy?

Things like clocks and drinking birds are perfect items to start with, though! Think about it - they are machines. All mechanisms work because of the little things inside of them. Together they work a little like a recipe but...sciencier. You take one item apart and you get the individual parts and pieces. And those parts and pieces are just what you need to build other machines!

[Nodnodnod!]

Well, I do drink a lot of coffee, I'll grant that. Though making and tinkering with things and learning new stuff always makes me excited!

...It's kind of funny, you know? How there seems to be parts of everything in everything else sometimes. It's like the world is this big machine just kinda grinding on.

Man, I-I dunno.

[Surprise shakes her head a little. It isn't a sad gesture, more an uncertain one.]

Like, I'm just a pony with a wrench, you know? I do what I'm told. I haven't really gone outside the lines of thinking on how to build or work things for so long sometimes I dunno if I really can anymore.

Heh. You wouldn't have any coffee now, would you?

[He...can sort of relate to that. Being told what to think. What to say. How to look. What to do.]

...Yeah! I've got some coffee. Right over here.

[And behold! There is a pot of coffee on top of a refurbished hot plate.]

[It's odd. Surprise would never expect that Don would understand. Not that she thinks Don is selfish or unemphatic, but that he just seems so chirpy she hopes he doesn't understand. She feels selfish, really, even talking about it at the moment.

Still, she laughs a bit as she goes to get some of the coffee.]

Thanks man. I didn't get any sleep at all last night. Whoever said counting stars gets you to sleep is a liar.

[It was better that way. Don wouldn't - couldn't - subject the people of Equestria to his experiences. It was better to pretend, just like in Panem, and Kon Ran, and home. Pretend that he was totally fine and little-to-nothing was bothering him.

~~Right?~~]

Same with counting sheep, too. Though I didn't get any sleep myself. I just drank coffee.

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