//------------------------------// // Stuck In Time // Story: The Girl With The Crooked Eyes // by ForgottenCanvas //------------------------------// Chapter 2: Stuck In Time You're the closest to heaven, then I'll ever be and I don't wanna go home right now. The next day has dawned as my father eagerly awaited me in the time traveling room. I didn't know what to quite say since in all the time traveling stories my father has told me, I never heard anything about ponies! Nonetheless, ponies wasn't seen as a very 'manly' type of thing.. Oh, dear.. how to even start? As I entered the room I heard my father begin to grumble and cough. "Finally, there you are boy!" He motioned me over as I grabbed a rolling chair to drag over to him. I sat upon it and began to spin around in the seat. Haha, this is quite fun! I should bring a rolling chair when I travel somewhere from now on! I could roll everywhere… "Boy! Pay attention, enough of your funny business. I want to hear all about your time traveling adventures!" My mother in turn came in and stood behind my father, a big smile lining her face. "As do I!" She chimed in and I could feel sweat droplets form on my forehead. "Well, uhm. You see.. I went to another world, there were… creatures there. It was sunny! Yes, hah! It was very, very sunny…" I stammered as my father narrowed eyed me. "Out with it boy!" He snapped, tapping his foot against the tiled floor. He was obviously thinking I was playing around with him. I swallowed hard and managed to let the word escape my lips. "Equines." I whispered as my father and mother both perked an eyebrow. "What was that, dear?" My mother questioned, looking like she was straining her hearing. "They were equines, mother!" I shouted as I looked for their reactions. Their eyes were the size of golf balls and my father seemed to be lost from words. "Ponies… you mean to tell me you went back to a land… with ponies. You are supposed to take over for your old man now and you are seeing ponies?!" My fathers voice rose as he slammed the table with his fist. "How absurd!" "It's not my fault… the time traveler thingy sent me back there and!" "Well, what was this problem? Was it just ponies in trouble? What did you do?" "The ponies talked to me! I was even a pony! They were all colorful and had these marks on them that displayed their talents or some hubba balloo like that!" I muttered recollecting my memories. "I solved the problem though, so I did good… right?" "You will TIME TRAVEL again! Now! That is absolutely ridiculous! What did you do?! Fall asleep in the time machine? I see you used your pen!" He pointed to the pen he gave me that I had lodged behind my ear. The number 2 glowed on top of it. "You didn't solve ANYTHING! You told me you were to take this seriously. Not like a croc! You go back in that machine and make me a proud father!" My mother frowned and walked out of the room silently. I felt miserable, I was failing at this time traveling business. Did I really fall asleep and dream up this fantasy about talking ponies? With my head hung way down, I entered the time machine and let it whisk me away to my next destination. As the portal opened, I found myself in a little colorful town. When I tried to walk forward I realized I found myself on four legs…again. My mind began to panic. This can't be real, am I back in that pony place? Did I fall asleep? What's going on? I'm going to be a disgrace of a time traveler… As I walked forward on my four legs, too scared to look down to see hooves… all the confirmation I needed was there. There were dozens of these colorful ponies walking everywhere. Holding items that they have brought from a market, gardening, eating at a cafe table, talking and laughing. This was real… this place was real! As I looked to my left I saw a stream of bubbles coming towards me. My mouth opened to find Derpy sitting on a hay pile, blowing some bubbles again. Just like how we met yesterday. "DOCTOR!" She cried as she ran… galloped? Over to me with a huge smile. "I knew you wouldn't leave me! I guess these bubbles are so that I can find something that's lost!" She gave me a tight squeeze as I tried to bellow out a sentence. But instead, all that came out of my mouth was… "Don't." She looked up at me startled. "Is everything alright? You don't look very good and I know it's not my eyes, haha..he." She awkwardly trailed off with a laugh. I swatted at the pen behind my ear as it fell to the ground. She looked down at it then back up to me. "You're going to leave me again… aren't you…" I saw tears welling up in her eyes. "Everyone I care about… always… leaves me." I couldn't help but feel unsettled by her reaction. I didn't like making girls cry… even if she was a pegasus pony. "I'm sorry." I whispered as I hit the red button on my pen. I arrived back home to my father sitting on a chair right in front of me. "Well?" He spoke as he looked at the pen. "One…" He trailed off as he rubbed his temples. "You are failing me! That pen was meant for you to have for the rest of your life. You are supposed to be able to-" "I was back with the… ponies." He smacked his hand down as I said this to him. "BACK IN THE TIME MACHINE! NOW!" He cried, shoving me back in and slamming the door shut. I'm going to fail him again.. as the time went back and the portal opened, I was too scared to even open my eyes. As I did, the same town appeared to me as did a sobbing Derpy. Before she could see me again, I hit the red button on the pen to go back. Ponies, ponies, ponies, PONIES! Why can't I go somewhere else? Why must I be there? Was I just not destined for this?! As I appeared back in my house, in that room, my father stared at me disappointed. He grabbed the pen that he gave me as a gift and threw it at the wall. "A timeline full of time travelers… ends here. All thanks to my failure of a son." He knocked over the chair he was sitting on and paced the room. "Get out of this room and never show your face in here again. Ponies, absurd! Ridiculous! Malarky!" He spat as I was shunned. I hurried my way through the hallway, making the walk of shame past my mother where I closed my door and cried like I haven't in a long time. Ten years later… I opened the microwave door to prop out my microwave dinner. I plopped it on the table and bit at it slowly. Twenty years old and living with my parents.. this is not how I would of planed my future before. I would of thought I would be time traveling, going to get an engineering degree at Harvard. But now, I just barely graduated high school, locked myself up in my room, and neglected all my friends. Now I'm all by myself. My parents do not even speak a word to me. My father just grunts at me and spends all of his time on the sofa, staring off at the television. I failed my future, my parents, and my friends. I am a nobody now. I pushed the tv dinner away from me, suddenly not feeling all that hungry and headed towards my room again. As I did I passed by the old time traveling room. The door was half ajar and I just felt the need to venture in. As I did, a huge gust of dust came straight at me. I coughed a bit, but pushed on through. As I stared around the empty room I could still hear my fathers shouts. All the words, "I'm a failure, a disappointment, a waste to be a part of my family." All the words that made me want to give up on my education, my friends, even my life. All because of those blasted PONIES! I kicked a stool that was in my way as I it slammed right in front of the time traveling machine. The machine was boarded up with nails and boards, something my father has done out of rage after I had failed him three times. I then began to feel the sensation of wanting to open its doors and let it take me to wherever I can go. Maybe I can solve a problem and bring some type of title back to my family name. I can continue our blood line of time travelers. Surely, I won't be sent to that pony place again, right? There is simply no way… even if it did. What would it matter? My life here doesn't. I searched the room to find the hammer that my father had used on the boards lying on the ground. I grabbed it and began to take the nails out of the time machine. As the last board became undone, I took a deep breath and opened its doors. The familiar smell went into my nostrils and I was enveloped in a deep feeling of nostalgia. Part of that nostalgia was bitter sadness, for all the years I grew up in this room with my father… bonding with him and making him proud was all a distant memory. Soon, my existence will be just that too. I activated the time machine and closed my eyes, leaning on the back of its door. When I opened my eyes, I was in the middle of a field. A field full of white daisies and the sun shining down on me. It felt like bliss, like some kind of heaven on earth. As I took a step out of my time machine, I knew it was going to be for good because I couldn't go back. Not until I solved the problem that was going on here. I can do this this time. I know it! This is my chance… as I looked to the right then to the left I found a trail of bubbles coming my way. That's when I realized I was again on four legs and a crooked pair of eyes staring at me.