[Chapter 4]
[Magic]
All Alex could think at that moment was what he put in his drink. It seemed too farfetched to have sneaked something else other than soda in his drink form earlier and had just taken this long to kick in. Or maybe it was a very clever fabrication of his mind playing him for a fool. Even though the headache and bruises were real, he may have just fell of the porch and his head.
After rushing his mother back to her room without answering any of her silly questions, he quickly made his way to the bathroom to check for extended damage in the mirror. So far all he got was a minor bump to the head and muscle pain in his lower hip. Other than that he was fine. No major blow to the head nor loss of IQ.
But it still doesn't make any sense.
Alex flushed out the blood from his face with cold water. For some reason, his breathing was more labored. Certainly he couldn't imagine that. Shock and awe has that affect. Perhaps the best idea was to go back outside to see it's they're still there. Perhaps it's silly to do so.
Yup, silly. It's all in his head. Nothing good will come of this if he loses his mind a second time.
He wasn't in the mood to prepare himself for bed like brush his teeth, change into pajamas, or even shower. As worked up as he might be, this night was killing him inside for all the wrong reasons.
Alex splashed one last handful of cold water on his cheeks and exited the bathroom. He went back downstairs to the kitchen to grab himself a late night snack before lights out. His usual was granola bar, but he felt an apple would do the trick. After all, fruit had more nutrition, and after what he has seen, maybe that's what he needed more of.
He turned out all the lights his parents had left on and ascended the staircase. With the whole house in darkness and ambient outdoor light just enough to see, it was unnerving to say the least. Something didn't quite feel right.
As soon as Alex reached the top of the stairs, he stopped to listen as something buzzed around in the air. It sounded like a faint tingle, a high pitch unheard by aging ears, slipping from somewhere around him. Before he could follow the source, it stopped. For a few seconds afterward, the sound did not return.
Again, he shook his head free of more nonsensical thought and shrugged. He took a slow bite and walked over to his room.
The moment his hand reached his doorknob, there it was again. The sound far more noticeable than before. He swore it was familiar, but couldn't quite put a finger on it. Both curiosity and annoyance struck him as a reason to find where the sound was coming from. First he had to get his flashlight.
Wasting no time, Alex practically ran burst in his room like the first man in a police raid, but upon doing so, he was met with a shocking discovery. The boy froze, dropping the apple and his jaw at the same time.
Standing in the middle of his room side by side were the two ponies he met earlier. Their curious stares were more visible from the light as tall blue one with the self-flowing hair seemed to be performing a magic spell with that horn of hers.
“Greetings young one,” she said. “I take it these are your accommodations?”
Alex forced back to reality—or at least empirical reality—and quietly slammed his bedroom door shut. Back in the dark hallway again, he leaned his arm against the door while his breathing took a toll.
How the hell did they know where my room was? Precognition or plain luck?
“Come on you wimp,” he whispered to himself over each fast breath. It didn't take long for him to calm down to a safe level. “They're not real.”
Another moment to rethink his plans for the night, which involved changing into pajamas and going to bed, led him to believe that this might be the end of a sick dream. For all he knew, he fell asleep on his desk and reconstructed a scenario in his dreams in which sentient mini horses of all colors take over the world. All he had to do was end the dream by going to sleep or killing himself.
There's no way he'd do the latter, so the former option remained. He deliberately hit his head on the door twice before reentering his room.
The ponies were still there, only this time the teal colored one held out the apple he had dropped in her hoof. With the mindset that this was still a dream, no matter how real it felt, he locked his door and waddled past her.
“Keep it,” he muttered. “I'm not hungry.”
The teal pony retracted her offer and looked at the apple. Before taste testing it, she levitated her journal from her saddlebag and observed the apple before taking a quick note. She then cautiously took a single bite, and when she was satisfied with its flavor, the whole apple disappeared inside her mouth. Alex watched with awe and disgust. The smile on her face made him smile for some reason.
“Dear human,” began the navy unicorn known as Luna. “This is where I bit you farewell. I leave you with my student Lyra Heartstrings to rest here for the night. I must tend to the night.” She looked down to Lyra. “We leave first thing in the morning. When we get back to Equestria, we will discuss the consequences of this ordeal in detail. For now, rest. I must do my duty as princess.”
With that, she closed her beautiful eyes and bowed in the direction of the human, whose suspicion and fear of her matched that of Lyra. Her horn glowed briefly, and just like that, she was gone.
Alex violently flinched, knocking over several of his books on the shelf beside him as he tried to regain balance as if he had lost it for a second. In reality, he couldn't quite control his reaction to flashes of bright light. It was all just a painful reminder.
Lyra tried to go to his aid, but he held out arms offensively. She kept her distance as she was forced to watch the poor human struggle to find his breath. Once she was sure he was alright, she sat where she stood and waited. She couldn't take her eyes off of the human, despite there being alien objects on what she assumed was his work desk.
There were no posters on the wall, no mountains ranges of clothes rising from the carpet, and not a single toy littered the room. He had outgrown toy long ago, but still had some action figure under the bed. In fact, that's where most things went when he wanted the room clean. Alex preferred to keep his room as minimal as possible.
The only evidence of hobbies and interests were on the small bookshelf next to the short wooden desk with some comics and light novels and a couple of video games. He hadn't touched them in weeks, having lost interest to pick up his controller and waste away five hours a day.
From Lyra's perspective, the room was no different than what she was used to, minus the mess. However, her analysis of the room couldn't compare to the analysis of his features, which was met with a mix of confusion and wonder. The first thing she noticed was his left eye. There was what appeared to be a scar on his eyebrow and the color of the pupil was different that that of the left. Were all humans like that? Did something happen? Perhaps it was the result of the magic mishap with his brother he told her about.
Following the silence was a rhythm of conscious breath Alex took to settle his body and mind. Like the trauma councilor said, long . He didn't like his councilor, but the advise helped. He laid on his bed, his gaze fixed on the ceiling, ignoring the mini unicorn left in the room.
Lyra couldn't contain her glee. Her nervous and lighthearted expression bled through her cheeks as she did what she could to remain calm. Every thought she had was a reflection of her joy.
Seconds turned to minutes. She waited for him to do something. Anything. She wanted her learn everything there is to know about a human's behavior, anatomy, and culture. She didn't care how long it would take, just so long the exchange of knowledge was best for both worlds.
The human began to snore. Not unlike ponies, Bon-bon used to snore. She sighed. There goes the idea of talking to him. She mentally scolded herself for being too afraid to speak after apparently angering him.
Lyra yawned. It was pretty late. Oddly enough, there was a small clock on the bookshelf that read 2:03am in large red glowing numbers. She'd have to ask how such device works later.
She didn't want to intrude on Alex's slumber. There wasn't another soft comfy spread for her to sleep on other than his bed, so instead she slowly walked to the foot on the bed and took off her saddlebag and placed it on the carpet as a pillow. The carpet was plush enough to sleep on. With a flick of her magic, she put out the lamp attached to the ceiling and did her best to sleep with a human just two feet from her.
She had done it. She made it to the human world. Now all her dreams would come true.
Andrew deadpanned.
“I'm not in the mood for your jokes.”
“No seriously.” Dale urged. “Check this out.” Dale held out his right arm with a normal yellow pencil in hand. Andrew was not impressed. Not one bit. This was an embarrassment for the both of them. He waited for something stupid to happen.
But... nothing stupid happened. Heck, nothing happened at all. Just the white noise of silence. He'd rather watch paint dry than watch Dale stare at a pencil for ten seconds.
Something must have gone wrong with Andrew's hearing. A faint very high frequency ringing pinched his ears. Maybe it was sound bleeding through the wall from the outside, but they lived in a quiet neighborhood far from late night traffic. After plugging his nose and clearing his eardrums of pressure, the subtle noise was still there. He looked around the room as it seemed to get louder by at least a decibel. It was definitely not his imagination.
He looked back at Dale, only to see a sharp pencil floating a dangerous two inches from his eyeballs. He recoiled from the intimate danger, jerking backward on the bed with enough force to hit his head against the wall.
“ARGH!” He rapidly recovered to yell out of pain and hostility. “Dammit, what the hell du—“
Andrew stopped his verbal assault short.
That pencil... is floating!?
The deadpan expression fell away. Any previous anger Andrew put on display was instead replaced by shock. No words could describe what was going on. His mind was treading deep water.
But- but- but— a pencil is floating in midair. Midair! Pencil! FLOATING!
This has got to be some illusion, right? Andrew thought hard to himself. Dale was no magician, even he couldn't figure out even the simplest of card tricks. But this? This is just insane.
“What—“
“Isn't it cool?” Dale interrupted gleefully.
Andrew darted his gaze back and forth between Dale's hand and the pencil. A pale blue mist, almost like a luminescent glow, shifted in waves as it radiated from his skin. The pencil also had the glow, but much less obvious.
No words, just brain mush.
“I figured it had something to do with what happened to you somehow rubbed off on me,” Dale stated. “I don't know how, but think it has something to do with being around you when you were a magical pony. For all we know, you might have been radioactive.”
Andrew gulped the dry saliva crackling on his tongue. “H-how?”
“I don't know. It's cool huh?” With one flick of the finger, the pencil suddenly shot straight upward and lodged itself into ceiling. “It's still a work in progress.” He said smiling.
Andrew snapped his head back to follow the pencil shoot up like a rocket projectile. He blinked once while his eyes just sparkled from the revelation. His mouth was open all the way as well. He kept it that way for a while before slowly looking back down at his friend.
More surprise when another pencil was floating just above Dale's palm. Andrew suddenly sprung his arm forward and slapped the pencil out of the air.
“Stop that!” he shouted.
“Okay dude,” Dale said throwing his hands up as if caught by police. “I was just showing you something cool.”
“Do you have any idea what this means?”
“That I can lift things without touching them?” Dale gave a cheeky smile.
“It means I'm right! It was all real. We both just saw it! Magic is real!” Andrew's cheeks puffed as a mix of excitement and confusion dripped from his lips.
“Well yeah, how else do you explain what I just did. Maybe—“
“This is amazing.” Andrew cut him off, but not to interrupt. The anxious human thought to himself out loud as if he was a delusional nutcase. “If magic is real, maybe I can see how this all happened. Maybe I can use it to contact Equestria, or maybe even go—“
“HEY!” Dale yelled with a quick bop to his head. “What's go you so paranoid all of a sudden? I thought you'd be more alarmed about this.”
“I'm not paranoid. I think this is great, we can finally get to the bottom of this.” Andrew stood up and exited the room.
“The bottom of what?” Dale followed after him.
“Why I turned into a unicorn. Stuff like that doesn't just happen, there's gotta be a reason for it.: The both of them reached the kitchen. Andrew opened the fridge for another can of soda, this time root beer. Dale leaned against the door frame to the kitchen.
“And what makes you think that reason was intentional, for all we know it could have just been a freak of nature. You know, like another universe—one with magic—collides with ours and magic bleeds into ours.”
“You have no idea what you're talking about.” Andrew opened the can and deliberately took an obnoxious sip. “That kind of stuff is just pure fantasy. It's untested physics.”
“Then how do you explain this.” Dale lifted the soda can from Andrew's grip this time, pulling away from his mouth before he could drink. It nearly spilled all over the floor. His friend immediately snatched it from midair and covered the top with his hand.
“Don't do that!” Andrew leaped back one big step. “You're way out of control.”
“Sorry, man.” The teen defended with his hands raised. “It just that now that you know of what I can do, I don't have to hide it anymore. I've been meaning to tell you for months.”
“Months? How long have you known? Andrew carefully sipped the liquid dripping from the can to make sure it tasted the same as before. For all he knew, magic could have contaminated it or changed the taste. “Better yet, how what gave you the idea to just randomly try magic?”
With Andrew's interest growing tenfold and his acceptance of magic as real already at maximum, there's nothing Dale couldn't say that his friend wouldn't believe.
“Remember the time I picked a fight with Jacob in the hallway at school?” He began as we gestured Andrew to follow him back to the room.
“That jerk? I always wondered how you managed to send him to the nurse.”
Dale sat back in his chair. Andrew sank back on the bed. “Good thing I didn't get suspended, too. I was so scared he was gonna beat me to a pulp, but when he threw the first punch, his fist just stopped before it hit my face. I noticed my hands were glowing a blue tint and I felt cold inside, like I my blood was made of ice.”
“What happened after that? How did you manage to hit him back?”
“I didn't. He hit himself.” Dale chuckled, seconds away from bursting into laughter. “He punched himself three times and fell backward into a trash can.” The giggling intensified. “He tried to get up, but stumbled into the girls bathroom. He was chased out of there like a wild animal and fell on the floor before running away. I've never seen that man cry before.”
It was at this point where Dale let loose his laughing spree. He clenched his gut before looking at Andrew to see his reaction. His friend held an ill grimace, one not too happy.
“What? Everyone thought I hit him, they didn't see any magic. Neither did I.”
“Dude, that's the funniest thing I've even heard.”
“Then why aren't you laughing?”
“Because you kinda sounded sinister when you were talking, like evil villains in the movies. I'm worried you let the power go to your head.”
“Don't be silly, I have control of it now. I've been practicing.”
“Sure sure, that's what everyone says when they get power.” He crossed his arms playfully and rolled his eyes. “Haven't you seen Chronicle?”
Dale sighed. He knew his friend was right, up to the point of exploiting his use of magic down the road to destroy the city of something. But at least he wasn't antisocial or it would be a serious problem.
“You can't go around using magic for everything, especially violence.”
“I never said I was going fight with it! EVER!” Something must have ticked in Dale's head. His sudden shout recoiled back onto Andrew as he retreated away to let the man sizzle down. Dale rigidly whirled around to put his back to him, returning to his original state of silence and stern browsing the web on his laptop.
“Okay okay, I didn't mean to go that far.” Andrew glanced at the clock at the end of the desk and exhaled. “You know I better get home, we still have school tomorrow, or technically speaking, later this morning.”
He stood up and stuffed most of his things back into his backpack, all except for his journal. In fact, he couldn't find it. It wasn't where he had left it earlier.
Andrew quietly sighed and strip searched the bed and all around it for his journal. Short on luck, he checked in other places he knew it shouldn't be, but looked anyways. After a minute, something didn't smell right.
He turned around to face Dale, whose slumped figure obstructed what was on the desk in front of him. There was a reason he paid no mind to Andrew raiding his room. He walked over to Dale, revealing that his privacy has invaded without his knowledge.
“Hey!” Andrew barked, springing into action as he thew his arms out to grab his journal from Dale's hands. This wasn't without counter force. His friend effortlessly defended from his attempt to swipe the journal away. “Give it back!”
The mild struggle ceased momentarily, the two of them tangled at arms with each other. Dale shot him both a glare of malice and a glint of empathy. Andrew caught sight of his friend's eyes and pushed away.
“What's wrong with you!?” His growl was no more threatening than that of a kitten.
“Don't take this the wrong way, I was just curious. You made me curious by pissing me off a second ago.” Dale half glanced at the current page of the journal. “I never knew you so poetic.”
Only a sigh could leave Andrew. “I don't write very good.”
“Don't belittle yourself.” Dale shut the notebook and timidly handed it back. “You have quite a way with words.”
Andrew snatched it safely in his own hands as balance was restored. He quickly put in in his backpack. “Don't do that again. Even though you're my best friend, there are some things you shouldn't mess with.”
Right on cue, Andrew covered his mouth with a hand as a long awaited yawn forced its way out. Dale proceeded to do the same.
“I gotta go home and sleep.”
“Why don't you sleep here?” Dale offered.
Andrew paused halfway out the door and looked at his friend with eyes half closed.
“No no I'm fine, I like my room, where it's nice and private.
“Yeah yeah, one night won't hurt, it's already pretty late. Besides, you look too tired to walk. Just sleep here and we'll walk to school in the morning. Take the guest room.”
The choice was simple. Andrew managed a meek smile—nearly falling asleep where he stood—and sighed. He didn't even have to say anything for his nod was easy enough to understand as an agreement to stay for the night.
As he parted the room, Dale closed his laptop and rolled right into his comfortable memory foam bed. He fell asleep almost immediately while forgetting to turn off the light on his desk.