How Cruel Is The Golden Rule?

by TLC

6. "Indoor Voices" (Alternate Title "Pour Me, Pour Me, Pour Me Another")

6

Indoor Voices

"Golden, What are you talking about?" Cherilee asked with concern. I snapped out of my dreamy state in her arms to answer, but I couldn't think of a way to explain it to her. That dream...was one of the most terrifying things I've ever lived through. The field, the city, that phrase...

"Golden?" Cherilee nudged me to get my attention. "Why are you here, at Twilight's?" I looked around to find I was indeed still in Twi's room. How long had I been asleep? I jumped from Cherilee's embraced and to the window. The sun had already set and the moon was out.

"Cherilee." I said, empty of emotion. "Can I stay with you tonight? Twilight and Fluttershy had a fall out and they left together. I don't want to be here when they get back." A hoof touched my shoulder. I turned to see Cherilee standing there with a warm, comforting smile.

"Of course, Golden. I won't have my best friend stay in another pony's home while in such of a condition." As she turned towards the bedroom door, I notice the c.d. player. My mind ached and my curiosity got the best of me. I snatched it off the bed and hide it in my mane. Cherilee wrapped an arm around me and we head towards the front door.

______________________________________________________

We traveled to her house in silence at first, but after a few minutes, she broke it. "What were you dreaming about, if you don't mind me asking?" I thought about it, thinking whether or not to say, but she was Cherilee. I stopped and turned to face her.

"I was having a nightmare." I began, shakily at first. "It was...I felt so lost. I woke up in a field, of flowers. They were all the same gold color, but they were all dead." Cherilee came closer to me as I continued. "They didn't move in the wind that came. Just dead and unmoving. I walked in a single direction until I saw a dark figure. I don't know who or what it was, but it brought this familiar feeling. When I went after it, it vanished."

Cherilee held a hoof to my face to wipe a tear from it. It was hard to relive the dream, even in her presence. She smiled and spoke. "Come on. You can continue at my place. It's getting cold." I love having her around. The event at the cliff, Twilight, and the school vanished as soon as she touched me. I nodded and walked with her towards her home. The moon shined down on us as we walked, like it was the spot light, we were the stars, and the world was our stage. The stars twinkled and flashed. It was a quiet night, and I wouldn't want to spend with any other pony.

We finally made it to her home. It was a cozy, violet house with a pink roof and flowers filling up most of the yard. Cherilee smiled and approached the door. She took a key out off her mane and placed it in the key hole, it clicked and the door opened. She waved to me into the house, to which I obliged. The living room was warm and inviting. The paint on the walls were a soft, faded pink. The decor was old fashioned, but family-like. Cherilee lead me to the couch and sat me down.

"I'll go get some tea. You just sit here and relax." She said placing her hoof on mine. She got up and trotted to the kitchen, leaving me with my own thoughts. I sat there and thought about the dream over and over again. Thinking about it's surroundings and meaning, if it had one. 'That song...' I pondered. I took the c.d. out of my mane and observed it. It was just a dark circle with big white letters. "Box Cart Racer...Ugh, of all the music Twi listen's to, why is this her choice?"

"Why is what Twilight's choice?" Cherilee asked entering the room. "What is that?"

"This c.d. has a song that triggered the nightmare." I said. "The song on it made that dream the way it was, and I think it made a apart of my memory rear it's ugly head."

Cherilee took the disc from me and observed it. She read the letters on the side. "It looks...Creepy. Why would Twi listen to something like this?"

"I don't really know...Do...do you want to listen to it?" I asked nervously. I didn't want to wind up in the same sequence as the dream was, but I wasn't sleeping, and I'm with Cherilee. "We can share this c.d. player I took from her room."

She thought about it for a second, gave me a suspicious look, and smiled. "Sure. Are you sure the head phones will work with two ponies?" I gulped as I tried to smooth out what I was about to say.

"We could, I don't know, have them over both of our heads...Or something..." I then took the head phones and draped them over my head and hers. Clamping our heads together, making me blush a little. She giggled a little while I put the c.d. in the player with shaky hooves, Once everything was in place, I pressed play.

Seeing how The song kept playing over and over again, I assumed it was on repeat. It was quiet at first, then that acoustic guitar came in and made a shiver travel up my spine. Cherilee felt me shaking and laid her hooves on mine to calm me, but it wasn't helping. The song went through the first verse and right to that damned chorus. 'And I, I won't lie, I won't sin...'

Maybe I don't wanna go...

Something in my mind snapped. I screamed, ripped the head phones off us and threw them across the room, I then fell off the couch with my hooves to my ears. Cherilee was by my side in a second, holding me while her eyes widened. "Golden! Are you okay?! What happened?!" She shook me, but I just laid there. Eyes twitching and my body shivered. When I looked up to her, she had tears in her eyes. I tried to speak.

"C-Cherilee...What's h-happening?" I sobbed as I continued to shake on her floor. "P-please...I don't...wanna..." My pupils grew small and I felt faint. She picked me up and hugged me in a tight embrace.

"You're gonna be fine. I'm here, Golden. Look at me!" She held my face in her hooves to look me in the eyes, which were struggling to stay open. Her green eyes glistened with bitter tears. "I'm not leaving you like this! You have to stay with me!" She sobbed. "Don't die! Please!"

The last thing I saw was the tears that fell from her eyes as she screamed my name, before I soon lost consciousness.

___________________________________________________________

I woke up on the floor and opened my eyes and slightly. Everything was hazy and blurry. When I open them all the way, I found Cherilee laying in my arms, tears in her eyes as she slept. I looked at her for a few moments. She was so peaceful as she slept. So peaceful and beautiful. She stirred. Her eyes fluttered open and gazed up at me. She immediately hugged me tight and silently sobbed.

"Golden...You're alive.." Her sobs grew slightly louder. "I thought I lost you!" She buried her face into my coat. I hugged her back. She pulled away and put her hoof to my face.

"Wha...What happened to you?" She looked at me as I laid close to her. What did happen to me? My mind swelled with dark images that I didn't recognize. All of which showed me as a filly with another filly about the same age. We looked alike, but I couldn't remember her.

I shook my head and looked at Cherilee, who still held me. "I...I don't know." Cherilee was obviously worried as she hugged me, ignoring the whistling of the tea pot. After the tea, we went up to her room and laid on the bed. I laid next to her a few centimeters away.

She turned to look at me. "Do you want a drink?" Of course, I wanted a drink. This day had been to much to deal with since the day I woke up! If anything, something strong.

"Sure, I could use one." She got up and left the room. Her bed was soft and frilly. It smelled of her. That smell of flowers and a hint of honey. It made me shiver with excitement. No! Stop, Golden. She's not interested remember? But...she was there when I woke up. How did she find me? The last thing I remember from that hellish experience was screaming her name...and she was there. I smiled and rolled around on the bed, taking in that sweet, sweet aroma.

Cherilee came in with two bottles of cider and two cups on her back. She sat beside me on the bed and poured me some cider. She took her own glass and filled it with the sour liquid. I took a sip and my face squeezed together from the taste and sourness. I felt the cider's smoothness go through out my body as it traveled to my stomach. Cherilee took a sip from her cup and dawned a similar face. "This really, *coughs* hits the spot!" She said. All I could do was laugh. She was never good at handling her alcohol. Even in collage, she would have one cup and lose herself in the intoxication. She finished her drink in one gulp and smiled at me.

"I'm really glad we got over that little issue, Golden. I don't really think I could really, uh, stand not talking to you..." Why was she blushing? Maybe it's the cider getting to her head. I chugged my cup and poured some more for her and myself. We threw back our drinks for an hour in a half. Talking about school, times in high school, ponies in town. But soon, when we moved to the second bottle, Cherilee looked at little flushed.

"*burp* Gold...Gold...en! Hey! I..uh, wanted to tell you shumethin'..." She slurred moving about on the bed as a drunk pony would.

"....Wha? What ish it? No, I don't want to work at the scshool!" I shouted, from the ground. I had fallen off the bed while laughing and hadn't gotten up since.

"N-no, Shilly!" She said leaving the bed to join me on the floor. "It's shumethin', IMPORTANT..." She went into a whisper. I tilted my head and turned to face her. I found that we laid face to face. Her muzzle only a few inches from mine. I blushed and went cold. "I wanted to talk about what chu' said at the...the...plashe I work?"

"The scshool?"

"Don't interrupt me!" She hissed. "Anyway...." She stopped. She lifted her hoof and placed it on my side to draw me closer. I felt my face getting warmer and warmer as she drew nearer and nearer. "Did...did you really shay that chu...loved me?"

I was no longer as drunk, but a little buzzed as Cherilee reminded me of that. I did tell her I loved her, I still do! But she's in such a bad state for me to pour my feelings out now. I frowned and placed my hoof on her face. With one last gulp, I told her.

"Ye....Yesh. Yes. I do...love you." I said slowly, slurring at first. Cherilee looked at me, dreamily as she came closer. To the point of our noses touching. She smile and said something I'll remember for the the rest of my life.

"I...I love you, too." She then wrapped her hooves around me and brought me in for a deep, passionate kiss. I was shocked at first and tried to pull away, but I noticed something. She was really getting into this. And when she pulled away to see my reaction, Cherilee showed no signs of being drunk. She just laid on me with a red hue across her muzzle and a smile on her face. She loves me. She actually loves me.

I grabbed her and brought her lips back down to mine. I noticed her eyes go wide as I forced my tongue into her mouth. She moaned then wrapped her tongue with mine. We lost our selves in each others embraces, loving every second of ourselves. I had never felt so close to her...I love her and she loves me...I could die happily now...

"GOLDEN!!!"

________________________________________________________

"Wha...?" I opened my eyes to see Cherilee cradling me. A dream. A BUCKING dream. My heart hurt, and it cried out. I had never felt this sad. It was all a crude imagination. She doesn't love me. She doesn't love me... I sat up, clutched her and cried, loudly.

She was shocked, but held me tight. "Why?!" I cried. I couldn't take knowing that something as strong as that dream exists in my mind. She was whispering in my ear, but I drowned it out with my sobs. She wouldn't understand, even if she remembered what I said at the school. I had poured my heart out to her twice now...And she heard none of it. It was all bullshit.

Pour me,
Pour me,
Pour me another,
It haunts me,
Haunts me,
Like no other,
One more drink then I swear that I'm going home,
Truth is I don't really have a place to go,
So Pour me,
Pour me,
Pour me another...

Comments

[Barry From Mars]

Nicely written, It keeps reminding me of times when I get depressed which sometimes come from a lack of communication, Other times they're from laziness. I keep thinking of Morphine songs while reading your story, This chapter in particular reminds me of "You Look Like Rain". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkSzV6jAkhQ

[TLC]

Yeah, the ending to the chapter was a bit harsh. It was how it was supposed to go. Golden's life is about to take a step back and take a couple of turns.

[Frizzy]

Ah yes, a fellow member of the Undead Army.