Mordecai, a regular groundskeeper, has a not so regular meeting with a girl who is interested in studying the strange phenomena that happens regularly at the park he works in.
A sister story of sorts to Dan&Pinkie VS. Cover Image provided by DA’s kaiamurosesei
Mordecai is a regular guy who recently got as job as a groundskeeper alongside his best friend Rigby at a not so regular park where strange phenomena seemed to be a daily event. Though common for the park employees, these phenomena caught the attention and interest of a young girl and researcher from the University, who intends to study the cause of the phenomena that appear to be connected to the park. And the meeting between these two is anything but regular.
Twilight didn’t know how many times her friends asked her the same question and how many more they will ask again. The six ponies, known as the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, were all inside of Ponyville’s library that served as residence for the local librarian and magic expert, Twilight Sparkle.
The purple unicorn just informed her friends of a ‘mission’ sent directly from the ruler of their land of Equestria, Princess Celestia.
“I already told you girls, I’m going to be fine.” The unicorn replied with the same answer already gave them before. She was touched by her friends caring attitude, but they seemed to have forgotten she wasn’t defenseless at all. She was the Princess’ protégée, for Zacherle’s sake! She can take care of herself just fine.
“Bu…but going alone into the Everfree F..f..forest is dangerous.” Said the ever nervous Fluttershy. From all of her friends, she was the one who worried the most. “What if you encounter a cockatrice and turn you into stone?”
“Don’t worry Fluttershy! I’m prepared with these!” Twilight responded while taking out some shades from her saddlebag. “These are enchanted to prevent the effect of a cockatrice petrifying stare!” A very simple spell she found in one of her books after the incident in the Everfree Forest all those years ago.
“Cool!” Rainbow Dash, expert flyer and self-proclaimed fastest Pegasus in the land, couldn’t help but comment on the pair of sunglasses, they looked wicked cool.
“I still don’t understand why the Princess wants you to go into the forest, Twi.” The hat wearing Applejack pitch in. “And why go all alone?” Though she was the more level headed in the group most of the time, the cowpony still had her own doubts about her friend’s mission. And she wasn’t the only one.
“I have to agree with Applejack, Darling. What is it the Princess wants you to do in that horrible place?” Rarity inquired as well. If the darkness and dirtiness of the place wasn’t enough, the forest was crawling with all sorts of monsters.
“Yes Twilight! That place is like super-duper scary!” The pink party pony Pinkie say while jumping around trying to make her best at imitation some sort of imaginary monster that only existed on her head.
“Girls, I’ll be fine! Besides, this mission is important.”
“How so?” asked Rainbow Dash, how wasn’t really that worried for Twilight, she was more interested in what the mission entailed. “Do you have to search inside a tomb looking for some sort of magic artifact to defeat an ancient evil that has been sleeping for thousands of years and that its return is told by a prophecy ponies no longer believes in?”
Twilight just looked a quiet look at her friend before coming up with an answer. “Rainbow, that was last time, don’t you remember?”
“Oh yeah!” the blue Pegasus replied after recalling their last mission. They had to find six magic wands to stop the resurrection of a lava demon and prevent him from stealing all the magic of the land. Man! that was a fun weekend.
“Princess Celestia wants me to investigate the true nature of the forest” Twilight disclosed the purpose of her mission. It wasn’t like it was a secret, but she felt like she was revealing top secret information.
“The true nature?” repeated back AJ who didn’t understand what she was talking about.
“Yes, we want to know the true reason of why the forest acts the way it does” The studious unicorn clarified to her friends. Better give them a more condense version of the story and use simpler words or the interruptions and question would keep on coming.
“If all of you remember, the Everfree forest hasn’t always been there. Over a thousand years ago, the royal castle were both Princesses lived was on what today is the forest.” Even today the castle still stood, after a thousand years of uncontrollable weather changes and the proliferation of creatures.
“At first Princess Celestia assumed that the forest was born out of the remnants of magic from the battle against Nightmare Moon.” It was a comprehensible theory, despite magic being common place, there was still much to it to uncover. Starswirl the Bearded spent most of his life trying to decipher the biggest mysteries that today still plague magic researchers to this day.
“But after some time, further research claimed that the reason behind the strange qualities of the forest were due to ‘Chaos Magic’.” At the mention of Chaos, everypony mind went directly to the only know source of chaos in their lives: Discord.
“I know what you are all thinking, in fact, the Princess thought so as well. She believed that it was the world’s way of maintaining some sort of balance between Harmony and Chaos, after Discord was imprisoned many years before the Nightmare Moon Incident”
After Discord was imprisoned a second time, Celestia told to her faithful student her belief that Chaos would always be present even if Discord were to cease to exist.
“The Princess once told me that Chaos cannot exist without Harmony and Harmony cannot exist without Chaos. The world would always try to keep a balance between the two. That’s why Equestria had so many threats to the world. If a villain is defeated another has to appear and take its place. That was the balance of the world.”
“So the Everfree Forest is just another way for the world to keep the balance between Harmony and Chaos” Rarity summarized perfectly for the rest of the group. She didn’t only have style and good looks, you know. She also had smarts, never at the level of her friend Twilight, but still smarts.
“My head hurts…” said Pinkie while rubbing her temples with her hooves. Besides her, Applejack agreed with nod. She wasn’t really that good with all that Magic Mumbo Jumbo.
“That’s what we believed, but after Discord’s ‘reformation’…” Twilight said while looking at the shy Pegasus, who blushed embarrassed when everyone else turned to look at her. “He told us that the forest indeed had some traces of chaos magic, but that it wasn’t the source of the phenomena.”
“Then what is? What is the source?” Rainbow Dash asked intrigued by the whole thing. It all sounded like a mystery her favorite book character would unravel.
“That is what I will try to find out.” She said much to the surprise of her friends. “Since I’m dealing with probably a new kind of magic, Princess Celestia has been tutoring me in the use of Chaos Magic and…Dark magic”
“D..d…dark magic?!” stuttered the frighten Fluttershy. She had the more visible reaction, but the rest too show looks of worry, concern and fright.
“Yes, Dark Magic…” Twilight said with difficulty. Dark Magic was something everypony knew existed but no one wanted to talk about. So admitting to be learning about such a taboo topic was hard.
“Twi, Isn’t that dangerous?!” Applejack was the first one to voice her concerns, and she was quickly followed by Rarity and then the rest.
“What is the Princess thinking?” “Wha! Twilight I don’t want you to become evil! “Dark Magic? That’s sounds kind of cool…”
Everyone turned towards the pony who said that last line, who unsurprisingly was Rainbow Dash. “What? What did I say?”
“Everyone, Listen!” Twilight took the moment of silence Rainbow’s comment brought to clarify things. “I know the topic of Dark Magic is uncomfortable and that me learning it is kind of disconcerting.”
“But my teacher is Princess Celestia, and she wouldn’t send me to this mission alone if she wasn’t sure I’m one hundred percent ready for this” The rest looked abashed for a second for doubting the princess judgment, but still Twilight was their friend and they had the right to be concerned for her.
“Besides, I’m not exactly going to be alone. Discord is going to keep tabs on me from time to time.” Twilight said with a slight hint of dread on her voice. Despite the chaotic draconequus being no longer a bad guy, he kept messing around with people and was annoying most of the time. “His comprehension on Chaos Magic that resides there could help me unravel the thousand year-old mystery of the Everfree Forest.”
After a moment of silence, her friends look back at her with a more confident look.
“Well, Twi if someone can do such a thing it’s you” “I know you are ready, but if you feel that something might be wrong please come back home, Darling.” “Mmm..um..I’ll support you anytime, Twili…” “Yeah! Go get it Twi!”
“Thank you guys!” Twilight said thankful of her friends support. But then she noticed that Pinkie still had her head down and was sniffing. “Pinkie? Aare you okay?”
“No I’m not! Your going and I couldn’t make you ‘good luck in you mission’ party!” she said with a comically fountain of tars pouring from her eyes.
“I’m sorry Pinkie. I know it was short notice but if it makes you feel better, you can throw me the biggest ‘welcome home’ party ever.” The unicorn reassured her pink friend with a small hug.
“Really?” Pinkie asked hopefully with eyes no longer pouring torrents of water.
“Yes, really!”
“Yeah! I can wait for you to come back! It would be the biggest, loudest, most awesome party ever!” she said returning to her ever perky self.
“Now, I’m all exited! Please come back soon, Twilight I want to go to that party!” chip in Rainbow Dash with a hug on her own, which incited the rest to join in and have a group hug.
“Thank you girls. I promise I’ll come back and maybe with a new form of magic we never seen before.”
-------------------------
It would be much later when Twilight discovered that the source of the strange magic in the Everfree wasn’t magic at all, but a different kind of energy that came from outside their world.
You see the Everfree Forest was linked to that new energy, but that energy didn’t originate from the forest, it sort of existed in the borders of reality served as some sort connection to similar places in other worlds.
And one of these places was in a world vastly different to that of ponykind, but shared several similarities. In that world, the place where the energy was found wasn’t in a spooky dark forest, but in a park, somewhere at the south of a place known as United States.
Chapter 1: Not so Regular First Meeting. [Edited: Nov 16 '13.] by natedeanmaan from FF.net
Like all stories, this one began on a nice sunny day. Perfect for all sorts of outdoor activities, for example, spending the day in the local park and just enjoy the day away.
Everyone who did that day to the park was doing just that, enjoying the warmth the sun provided and the cool breeze of the blowing wind. Yep, today everyone was having a great and relaxing time at the park...except…
"This place is extensively massive!" thought a very tired girl walking through the park carrying her luggage: a backpack and a duffle bag; and both were very heavy.
*Sigh* "How much longer is this going to take?" She had been walking through this place for around 30 minutes in a straight line and she still hasn't found her destination.
"My legs hurt…" It didn't help that she had been carrying the luggage way before entering the place. She was regretting not calling for a taxi to drive her all the way inside the park.
"I need to rest for a while…" she said out loud before looking around for a place to rest. The search didn't last long, because nearby, there was an unoccupied bench right beside a tree, which provided a nice shade. "Ah-ha! Perfect!"
Once she placed her luggage on the bench, the girl sat next to it and rested her aching legs. "I'll just rest here for a while." She wasn't exactly in a hurry, but she always prided herself to always be on time. "Only for 5 minutes, 10 minutes tops."
She needed to meet with the park manager to discuss the reason for her visit. She was sent by the California Institute of Technology in order to research the supposed strange phenomena that plagued the park.
Apparently, there have been eye witnesses that claimed to have seen black holes and/or wormholes forming out of nowhere and without logical reason.
She didn't quite believe the stories herself, but some strange energy readings caught by satellites in space showed that there was definitely something going on here.
Though the owner of the park had given permission to the university (in exchange remuneration of course), but still, she needed to talk to the manager in charge to discuss her 'living arrangements'.
She had heard that there were living quarters for stay-in groundskeepers, so maybe she could get a room there, but she was also prepared for the possibility of having to raise a camp with several tents to serve as her mini-research lab.
Right now, it wasn't time to start worrying. She had already rehearsed what she was going to say, and prepared for any possibility she could think of to not mess this up.
All she needed to do was to relax and rest to regain enough energy to keep on her walk.
The girl took very deep breaths and tried to relax as much as possible. She had read before that deep breathing was a very common technique for relaxation that helped with aching muscles.
After the tenth breath she was sure she returned to breath normally and felt the aches in her legs fading away.
"What a nice day..." she thought while closing her eyes. "It reminds me of home."
Home, despite being just a few weeks since she traveled all the way to California, she missed her home and friends. "I wonder how everyone back at home are doing."
Surely everyone was busy doing what they loved. AJ working of the fields with her family, harvesting apples and making sweet apple cider; Rare busy with her latest designs for the summer and several customers happy with her dresses; 'shy taking care of her animal friends or probably in another rally for the protection of the environment; Dash training hard in keeping in shape for the next soccer tournament, or marathon, or any other kind of sport related event; And Pinkie…
"Isn't Pinkie living somewhere in the San Fernando Valley? I should probably visit her once I have some free time." They weren't really that far apart, a 1 to 2 hour trip. She only hoped her business here wouldn't leave her time to go and visit her friend. "Knowing her, she would throw a big party just for me."
With her eyes closed and lost in thought, the girl couldn't help but nod off and fall asleep.
"Ugh!' Mordecai complained for the tenth time that day. He was usually a laid-back guy who tried to live life as chill as possible, but right now he was irritated and driving around carelessly through the park.
Why you ask? Well, earlier today, Benson, the park manager, needed someone to deliver some kind of parcel outside of the park. Usually Benson would've sent Muscle Man or Fives, but since they were taking a lunch break, he had to delegate the task to Mordecai and Rigby. And of course, Benson had to interrupt them in the middle of their video game and tell them that he was going to fire them if they didn't do it.
Rigby, being his lazy ass self, moaned in protest and tried to slack off as always, but Mordecai, the more responsible of the two, tried to convince him to get up from the couch and help him do it.
In the end, Rigby talked him into playing their game in 'versus' mode and the loser would have to do the chore alone. Foolishly, Mordecai accepted thinking he could win, considering that Rigby has always been a lousy player. But that sneaky bastard had to cheat, making Mordecai do the chore alone.
"Damn you Rigby, you cheater..." muttered a clearly annoyed blue haired guy driving a golf cart through the park.
He wasn't angry for having to do the chore alone, the delivery was easy to accomplish on his own. He was angry at Rigby for his cheating.
But looking at the bright side he could drive the golf cart at his own leisure. Even so, Rigby was so going to get it once Mordecai made it back to the house.
"Man, I'm thirsty…" it seems his retribution against his best friend would have to wait for now, as the tall bluenette stopped at a nearby drinking fountain.
"Mmm...that's good." He said after he finished his sips. It was no soda, but it would have to do for the meantime.
As he was about to hop back into the cart, he noticed someone sitting on a park bench a few meters across from him.
It was a girl, and by what he could tell, a cute one at that. She had long blue hair, but instead of azure like his, hers was more like darkish sapphire with two long colorful streaks of violet and pink. Strangely enough, these three colors blended perfectly with each other.
As for clothes, she was wearing a light mulberry sweater vest over a long sleeved white blouse, combined with a dark blue skirt, black knee high socks and brown shoes.
She was a peculiar sight indeed. Adding to this, was the fact that she had fallen asleep while she was sitting on the bench, next to what Mordecai assumed to be her stuff.
The girl looked very peaceful, he almost didn't want to wake her up, but he couldn't leave her asleep and all alone, who knows what could happen to her. She could be attacked by a weirdo, despite it being the middle of the day.
As soon as that thought came to his mind, Mordecai noticed a shady looking guy approaching the girl from behind.
"HEY! WATCH OUT BEHIND YOU!" Mordecai yelled out trying to wake up the defenseless, unconscious girl. Luckily his yell made the girl wake up startled; unfortunately for them, the shady guy continued his mugging and took off with one of the girl's bags.
"He-hey! Thief! THIEF!" she screamed out at the rapidly retreating guy, who sped off like a devil. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, someone just stole from her and right in the middle of the day. "STOP!" She yelled again, but to no avail. It seemed that the thief was going to get away with her stuff.
Then the girl felt a very fast object pass right next to her, it was a golf cart going right after the thief!
Mordecai was really mad now. Sure he was annoyed with Rigby and his cheating, but this was a whole other level. He couldn't stand seeing scum like that steal from unsuspecting innocent people, which really pissed him off.
"You're not going to get away with this, dude!" He yelled at the surprisingly fast guy, not even the big bag seemed to be slowing him down.
The angry groundskeeper stepped on the gas pedal with all his strength, making the small engine roar like an untamed beast. It was surprising just how a few small modifications to the engine could make such a small vehicle run like a normal car.
Thanks Skips
Though the thief was unnaturally fast for a normal human being, his body couldn't keep up with the fast pace and began slowing down, making Mordecai catch up in an instant.
"Now I got you dude!" Mordecai said as he jumped out of the golf cart and tackled the thief into the grassy ground. Unfortunately for him, the added momentum from the cart made his fall a lot more painful for him and the thief.
"Ow...Bad idea…" He didn't know it would hurt this bad. All those action movies lied to him.
"Man, what the heck is your problem?" the thief shouted in anger as he stood up from the ground. "Piss off, I don't have time to deal with a loser like you!" The thief was ready to pick up the stolen goods and resume his escape, but he was intercepted by the bluenette's fist.
"So, this is what you want, eh? Well don't say I didn't give you the chance to leave." The thief said while rubbing his cheek where the groundskeeper punched him.
In the blink of an eye, the dude delivered a fast fist into Mordecai's torso, followed by a punch in the face when the tall bluenette bent down. Surprisingly, Mordecai didn't fall, instead he stood up with a serious look on his face, as if the punches hadn't affected him.
"My turn!" He quipped back before retaliating using his superior height and longer reach to deliver fast and powerful strikes to his opponent.
Although Mordecai was a very laid-back person, he had his fair share of fighting experience, mostly because Rigby got them into trouble in high school. Let's just say, he wouldn't have made it past third grade if it weren't for Mordecai.
The burglar was shocked by Mordecai's strength. How can a guy so lanky, possibly be this strong. No matter how many punches he delivered, the blue head showed no sign of pain. Was this guy even human?
What the burglar didn't know was that Mordecai really felt those punches, every single one of them. But no matter how much they hurt, he held back from showing a single sign of being in pain.
It was a psychological that really threw people out of balance, making them feel instinctively weaker and powerless against a seemingly stronger opponent. Who knew that watching documents about famous boxers one sleepless night would really pay off.
Now all that Mordecai needed was for the perfect opportunity to present itself to finish this off. He didn't have to wait much longer, since the guy was getting sloppier by the second.
"There! Right there!" he screamed in his mind when the dude threw what looked like a very avoidable punch. Regrettably, Mordecai miscalculated his distance and the punch ended up brushing his nose.
But being someone who didn't give up that easily (or at least when it wasn't work related) he continued to push forward and struck back half a second later with a powerful counter.
The exchange of blows ended with Mordecai standing over the unconscious form of the thief.
The groundskeeper walked away from the thief, who wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, picked up the duffel bag and swung it onto his shoulders. But that turned out to be a bad idea, because the bag turned out to be way heavier than it looked and with the damage he sustained in the fight, he ended up stumbling to the ground below.
"HEY! ARE YOU OKAY?" Mordecai heard a feminine voice call out for him. As he turned his head, he saw the approaching form of the girl from earlier.
Once the girl reached to where he was, she kneeled down beside him and noticed the state he was in. "You...you're bleeding!" she said with obvious shock and worry in her voice.
"Eh?" was his eloquent response. The blue head reached towards his face, but instantly removed his hand after he felt a jolt of pain originate from his nose. Then he felt a wet sensation on his hand.
It was blood. His blood.
That last punch in the face must have broken his nose or something,
"Please don't touch your nose." She kind of ordered, but it sounded more like a plea than a request. "Please let me take care of it." The girl quickly went for her bag and took out a small box with a red cross on it, A first aid kit.
Before he could ask her about it, she answered with a more calmed voice than before. "Don't worry! I know what I'm doing." She had gone to those first aid classes her friend Fluttershy insisted on everyone of her friends to take all those years ago.
Now it was time to take those lessons into practice.
With a wet wipe, she carefully cleaned off the blood right below his nose, making sure not to touch it. Once the blood was off, she examined the protuberance,
As she worked, Mordecai kept his eyes closed trying to relax his face as much as he could so he wouldn't tense it and make his injury worse.
"Hmm… it is a little swollen, but the bleeding appears to have stopped, and… the nasal spectrum doesn't seem crooked or out of place…" she relayed her observations to him. "Do you feel like fainting? Numbness in the arms? Neck pain? Blurred vision? Headache?" She shot question after question like she was reading from a checklist.
"Hmm… no, no, not really, nope and slight dizziness." He answered her questions in order, still with his eyes closed.
"It doesn't look like you have to go to the hospital." She said with a much more relaxed tone, much to the relief of the groundskeeper. "You'll have to hold some ice packs to your nose for 20 minutes for every 2 to 3 hours for a few days, and sleep facing up, but other than that, you'll be fine."
"What a relief… Thank you very…" He stopped in mid sentence when he noticed the girl looking into the first aid kit once more. "What are you…?" And once again, he didn't finish his sentence, but this time it was because of pain after she put something on his nose. "Ow! What was that for?"
"There! A nose band-aid!" She clarified for him. "Just a precaution."
"Thanks once again!" he said while finally having a clear view of her face for the very first time.
"No, thank you for getting back my bag." She replied back looking back at him.
All of a sudden, time seemed to have stopped the exact moment their eyes met. Clear blue met moderate violet in a moment which lasted mere seconds, but it felt like hours between the two. Their eyes moved away from each other and took in the features of the person in front of them.
Mordecai had already seen her from afar and called her cute, but now that he got a good look at her, he realized that his description came up short. She was more than cute, she was really pretty. No, gorgeous.
At the same time, she too was taking a good look at him.
He had two-toned hair, azure over black roots, a very peculiar combination of colors that blended perfectly. And despite his injury, she could tell that he had a very boyish face, making him look young, but still handsome.
She also noticed the way he was dressed: A blue and white hoodie over a plain white t-shirt, black cargo pants and blue sneakers. It reminded her of the the way many guys dress up in High School. Like a Skater Boy, or something similar.
After a few more seconds of silence, they both realized that they were staring at each other and looked away to the side.
"Sorry! Didn't mean to stare." The flustered girl apologized still looking away, and with a small tint of red on her cheeks.
"No problem…" replied the equally flustered man as he rubbed the back of his head. "I'm glad you patched me up, I really do want to go to the hospital." Mordecai said the first thing that came to his mind. He really wasn't sure what to say, but he didn't want to fall into an awkward silence either.
"It's the least I could do after you retrieved my bag…" She began saying, but she slightly trailed off when she saw the state he was in. His hands looked hurt and bruises were beginning to appear.
"You shouldn't have bothered…" She whispered with a down look on her face. It was her fault he was in pain right now.
"Hey, hey, don't be sad! It's not your fault! It was his." The groundskeeper said looking at the thief still on the grass. "I can't stand guys like that. Glad I could teach him a lesson. Now he'll have to think twice before trying to steal from a cute girl again."
The girl couldn't help but blush at that last part. "Did… did he just call me cute?" No guy has ever called her that since she broke up with her first and last boyfriend, Flash.
The blue haired guy then stood up from the ground, showing how tall he really was. He was 6'4" tall (1.95 m), a whole foot (30 cm) taller than her.
Come on, lets get out of here." He suggested, as he bent down and picked up the heavy bag for her. "Where are you headed? Maybe I can take you there." God, the bag sure was heavy! How could she be carrying it all by herself?
"Hmm… I'm supposed to meet with the park manager… Do you know where I can find him?" She explained still surprised at his full height. She had never been near a person this tall before.
"The park manager?" Mordecai thought out loud for a second. "Oh, you mean Benson! Yeah, I know him. He's my boss." Oh crap! Benson! He was going to be so angry at him for taking so long to return from his chore.
"Really? That's great! Could you take me to him, I need to speak to him." She couldn't believe her luck. Not only did he help her by stopping the thief, but he could also help her get to her destination.
"Yeah, just let me get the golf cart and I'll… WHAT THE H!" Mordecai yelled when he saw what happened to the cart after he jumped out of it. Apparently, the golf cart continued its path and with no one behind the wheel, it ended up flipping upside down and rolled over crashing into a tree.
If Benson wasn't going to fire him before, now he was surely going to do so once he sees the state the cart is in.
Mordecai turned his head and saw the girl looking at him with eagerness in her eyes. Sighing in defeat, Mordecai walked towards the cart and turned it back up.
He couldn't escape from this or try to get the golf cart fixed now. He had to take her to see Benson. The groundskeeper only hoped that his boss would be lenient with him.
After setting the duffel bag on the back seat, followed by the backpack, Mordecai sat on the driver seat, while the girl sat next to him as his copilot.
"Thank you for everything you have done for me, Mr…" The girl began thanking him, only to realize that she didn't know his name.
Catching on quickly, Mordecai turned towards her and introduced himself. "Oh, yeah! The name's Quintel. Mordecai Jay Quintel. Just call me Mordecai, everyone else does." Really, it would be weird if someone called him Mr. Quintel or something. That was his father, not him.
"My name is Tara. Tara Sparkle, but my friends call me Twilight." She introduced herself too.
"Nice to meet you Twilight."
"Nice to meet you too Mordecai!"
Chapter 2- Meeting the Regular Staff and Settling In.
Chapter 2 – Meeting the Regular Staff and Settling In.
“So…, why ‘Twilight’?.” Mordecai ask genuinely curious. He didn’t want the trip to be completely silent, so he asked the first thing that came to his mind. But after just half a second he added.“If you don’t mind me asking.”
He had to watch his manners in front of Twilight. It wasn’t like he was talking to one of the guys who didn’t care for formality or correct manners.
“I don’t mind. My friend, Pinkie, gave me that nickname the day I met her. And it stuck ever since.” Apparently she received that name because she resembled a cartoon character from the 80’s or something. “It grew on me and now I prefer being called that.”
“That’s nice. People just call me by my first name.” He never minded not having a real nickname. Though from time to time someone would call him ‘Mordo’ but it never caught on.
“So Mordecai, you said that the park manager is your boss, right?” Twilight asked to the bluenette who just nodded in confirmation. “What kind of person is he?” She had to be prepared to meet the manager; he was the one who had the final word on where she was going to live during her stay.
The only problem was that she had no idea who he was or how would he react to her. So getting information from an employee was her best chance to know how to approach him.
“Benson? Well he’s kind of…” Mordecai trailed off. He was conflicted on how to answer her question. Should he tell her about Benson from his perspective as an employee? Or should he try to be more objective in his description?
If he gave his employee opinion, Mordecai risked exposing himself as a lackluster worker and a slacker. And the second option wasn’t good either; he didn’t know if he was capable of putting aside his personal bias while describing Benson without lying.
Knowing he had to give an answer soon, he just let him mouth do the job while his mind of occupied trying to block off anything that make Benson and him sound bad.
“He’s kind of difficult to describe honestly. He’s…um…very expressive (yells a lot) of his…emotions (mostly anger)…If things go according to the daily schedule (If Rigby and I don’t mess things up) he’s fine, but when things go out of hand (which is most of the time) he gets stressed. (Yells at us)."
“Well, he sounds like a very responsible boss.” Thought it wasn’t much info to go around forming a conclusive ‘discussion plan’ it was better than knowing nothing. “Thanks for telling me, it will help me when I meet with him.”
“Yeah, no problem.” If she only knew half of it. “But, why exactly are you meeting with him? Do you want to apply for a job or something?” It would be cool if she did.
She was really cute so he wouldn’t mind working with her every day. She would be a welcome change and addition to the park.
“Oh no, I’m not looking for a job here” Twilight said slightly disappointing Mordecai. “I’m here to do a field research in this park for the university.” She told him with a hint of excitement in her voice.
And how could she not be? This was for what she lived for; observing, analyzing and learning new things fill her with such a sense of success and accomplishment.
“So, you are a college student?” he asked slightly surprised but mostly in interest. She must be on a Social Science Major or something similar to be doing things like field research on parks and things like that.
“No, no, no, I’m not a student. I already have my PhD and my Sc.D. I was just hired by the California Institute of Technology and send me on this research trip.” The Doctor on Science and Philosophy said in a very light hearted manner, as if she was talking about the weather instead of her academic accomplishments.
The shock was so big for Mordecai that he accidently stepped on the brake, making the golf cart came to an abrupt stop. “Dude! Seriously?! How old are you?”
She looked no older than 20, there’s no way she could possibly have a Doctorate in Philosophy and Science; she must be pulling his legs or something.
Twilight, slightly taken back by Mordecai’s mini outburst just answered him honestly. “Um…I’m 25, I graduated from college in just one year thanks to all my Advance Credits from High school. I was 18 at the time, after that I got my PhD and ScD in less than 5 years. “
By the time she was over, Mordecai had his jaw hitting the floor. Not only she was a Doctor and a super genius, she was also older than him. Two years older to be exact.
At the same time Twilight was getting embarrassed by the look of incredulity on the blue head face. “It’s not difficult to believe, is it? It really isn’t THAT big of the deal” Really, she disliked when people looked at her like that when she told them about her study career.
“Sorry! It’s just…wow…” He really was speechless. Mordecai always thought that super geniuses like that were just make-believe stories to pamper spoiled kids who did better than everyone else at school. But here it was living proof of the contrary.
Mordecai didn’t necessarily have to take her word for it as truth, since at the moment there wasn’t any conclusive evidence to support her claim. But what would she gain from lying to him anyways; he was but only a groundskeeper.
“What about you, Mordecai? How many years have you been working here?” Twilight asked trying to change the topic to something else. Besides, it helped to get more background information to help on her research of the park’s strange phenomena.
“Um…I’ve only recently gotten this job. A less than a month.” The groundskeeper admitted with a hit of reluctance before stepping on the gas and resume driving. “Before that I had just finish with college.”
Well, not exactly. He lived with his folks for a year after he ended his studies. Then his parents kicked him off for not getting a job and bring money to the house. But he wasn’t going to tell her THAT.
“Really? What did you major in?” the ‘Doctor’ asked with interest. Inwardly she felt bad for assuming he was only a high school graduate. Never judge a book by its cover, she thought.
“Ehm….I graduated from a small community college…I got a bachelor in …Visual Arts.” He barely got his degree at the end. And now his certificate was gathering dust in his parents’ house.
“Oh! So you are an artist!” Twilight said with interest, “When I was younger, I give being an artist a try, but I find out I really don’t have what it takes to be one.” She told him with a small laugh, “I’m really bad at painting, sculpting, handcrafting, even at photography I was terrible.”
“Well, we can’t always be good at everything” Mordecai said with a small smile on his face. He was afraid that by having such a exemplary career, she would think less of him for his barely deserved art degree from a very small school. But instead of acting all high and mighty, she had a small sense of humor and admitted her own lack of talent in other things.
Now that he thought about it, he had been pretty good at drawing stuff. From 6th grade to high school everyone always complimented the cool drawings he made on the back of his notebooks.
He didn’t exactly remember when he stopped but he should probably give it a try once more. Just to see if he still got it.
-------------------------
The rest of the trip back to the ‘House’ continued like that. Mordecai and Twilight just chit-chatting, getting to know a little bit more from each other.
But the relative peace of the drive wouldn’t last for much longer, because when the finally parked the car, Benson was standing there with his arms crossed and an irritated look on his face.
“Mordecai! What happened to the cart?” The angry park manager demanded an answer after looking at the state the golf cart was in. Not only was it covered in dirt and grass, but also had dents everywhere.
“Wait Benson, let me explain” But before Mordecai could even say a single word to defend himself, Benson ignored his plea and continue with his scolding.
At the mention of the name Benson, Twilight turned to give a good look at the man she had a meeting with.
Benson was a 30 something year old man, with short red hair showing initial signs of baldness and a five o’clock shadow. He was wearing a red jacket over a long sleeved dress shirt and a grey tie on his neck.
“I don’t want to hear any excuses! I send you out for a simple errand that shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes and you return hours late and with the Golf Cart completely trashed! I ought to fire you RIGHT……..”
“What Benson? Aren’t you going to fire me?” the groundskeeper said with a tone that almost sounded daring, asking to be fired.
“Mordecai…what happened to your face?” Benson inquired putting aside his anger for the moment. “You look terrible” His employee’s nose was swelled and with a band-aid over it, a little bit or red remained just below the nose hinting that it was bleeding before, also there were bruises on both sides of his face too.
“Thanks for the news flash, Benson.” Mordecai couldn’t help but answer back sarcastically. He really should try harder to avoid putting his foot on his mouth.
“Do not give me any lip. Just tell me what happen!” Really, the one time he tried to show some worry for his employee and what did he receive? Just some sassy response.
“Hey, what is going on outside?” called out a voice from inside the house before the front door opened revealing a very big guy who for some reason skipped down the stairs and towards them.
Following closely behind, the rest of the park staff descended from the stairs. It was a very ‘colorful’ group to say the least. “Wow, Mordecai? What happened to you?” He asked the same man you ‘skipped’ down the stairs first.
The man looked somewhat old, with his white hair and all. But he definitely didn’t looked he was past this prime yet. The white haired man was HUGE, he wasn’t the tallest of the whole staff, but he certainly looked the strongest, especially with all his upper body muscles under the white tank top.
“Oh my! Mordecai you look dreadful!” said another one of the group, and the second to come down the stairs. He looked definitely older than the white haired man. This man was wearing very classy suit-and-slacks, a top hat over his bald head; also sporting a very curved white mustache. He was the picture of a classic gentleman.
But his voice seem wrong, it didn’t match up with his gentlemanly appearance. He sounded like a very big child.
“Yeah bro, you look like somebody beat the crap out of you, right Fives?” The next in line were a duo who looked the complete opposite of each other.
The one who spoke was a short tanned man with shoulder-length, greenish-brown hair who…um… sometime in the past he let himself go…and never came back. In other words he was fat. Really fat.
How fat? Well, let us say that underneath that long-sleeved gray shirt he wore, he really needed the assistance of a bra.
The other one, Fives, was the complete opposite. He was definitely more slender and younger than his companion. Though he didn’t look older than 18, Five had white hair, in fact he was all white. His skin was ghostly pale, had white-ish grey eyes, not to mention white sleeveless t-shirt, pants and sneakers.
“Yeah man! Did you get in a fight or something?” Finally, the last member of the group asked his question to the nose-broken Mordecai.
The last one on the group was also the shortest of them all, standing barely above the 5 feet mark. He had spiky brown hair and was wearing a matching stripped t-shirt. Also he had black rings around his eyes, showing his tendency of staying up late.
“Don’t worry guys. I just have a fight trying to stop a thief.” Mordecai explained to his friends a little relieved that Benson didn’t look as angry as before.
“I chase him down using the golf cart, that’s why it looks like that.” In retrospect, he shouldn’t have jumped out of the cart at such high speed. But like they said, hindsight is 20/20.
“Are you sure it was a thief? Are you absolutely sure?” Benson questioned him with keen eyes. It better had been a thief, because if it was a random passerby, HE was the one who was going to get in problems with Mr. Maellard.
“Dude, Benson! Of course I’m sure! I saw him with my own eyes!” Mordecai answered exasperated. Why would he go around the park getting into fights with random people? Really, Benson thought very little of him.
“And what exactly did he try to steal?” asked the big white haired man. He looked really big, especially standing near Mordecai who was lankier in comparation.
“He stole a duffle-bag from Twilight.” The tallest of them all said while pointing behind him with his thumb.
“Twilight? Who’s Twilight?” Benson was confused until he looked behind Mordecai and found a weirdly clothed girl walking towards them.
“Hello, my name is Tara Sparkle, but my friends call me Twilight. Nice to meet you.” She introduced herself politely enough, a welcome change for Benson who had to deal with the slobs of Mordecai and Rigby.
Speaking of Rigby, he walked forward to stand near his friend Mordecai chuckling all the way. “He…he…he…’Twilight Sparkle’ ? Did you heard that Mordecai?” he said while nudging at his friend on the arm. “Are you related to certain vampire franchise or something?”
“Shut up dude!” Without wasting a second, the tall bluenette punched his smaller friend on the shoulder.
“Owh! That hurt!”
“Please don’t mind him. He’s an idiot that never thinks before opening his mouth” Mordecai turned towards Twilight and apologized for his friend’s behavior.
“Don’t worry. I’ve already heard that joke thousands of times before. It doesn’t bother me.” Frankly, she had heard that joke so many times it didn’t offend her anymore. She just thought it was sad that people couldn’t come up with better jokes.
Pushing the scene aside, Benson approached Twilight and called for her attention. “Excuse me, miss. I just want to tell you that I’m deeply sorry for today’s incident, but I have to inform you that the park is not really responsible for any damage or loss caused by thirds.”
“Oh no! no,no,no! I’m not here to file a complaint against that park.” The girl said much to Benson relief. With the stuff that tended to happen regularly around the park, he didn’t want to add legal problems into his mental list of things to worry about.
“I’m here to… meet the manager and discuss my…um… living arrangements.” Twilight began a little intimidated by Benson. Even with the short time she had being in his presence, she could tell that Mordecai’s description was selling him short, on the whole ‘express his emotions’ thing he said.
“Living arrangements” Benson repeated back confused. “What living arrangements? What are you talking about?”
“Oops. My bad!” The well dress gentlemen with the inadequate voice interrupted and enter the conversation. No kidding, that childish voice shouldn’t belong to someone who looked as old as him.
“I’m so very sorry Benson, but it seems that I completely forgot to inform you that my Papa called this morning, telling me about the arrival of a distinguished member from a prestigious educational academy today!”
The red head manager pinched his nose in silent annoyance until he let out a sigh. “It’s okay Pops. It was just a mistake.” It wasn’t like it was a MAJOR mistake that caused a lot of trouble. He was only upset because he disliked surprises. “So what’s this thing about living arrangements again?”
“I was sent here by Caltech as a researcher with the approval and permission of Mr. Maellard.” Twilight explain for the second time that day. But before she could continue, Mordecai decided to intervene and add his own two cents much to Twilight’s embarrassment.
“Yes, Benson. Twilight here is like a super genius! She finished college in one year and even has a PhD and Sc.D.!” Everyone turned to look at Twilight with impressed looks, making the girl blush slightly. It isn’t THAT big of a deal, she thought.
Benson, who remained the most calmed of the group. The girl may have diplomas and honorifics, but to him those things didn’t meant anything unless you proved your worth with practical hard work.
“So…about what exactly is your research about?”
Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew this question was coming, and already had an answer prepared. The only thing that troubled her was the reaction everyone would have when she told them.
“I was sent here to investigate about the strange rumors surrounding the park.” She revealed with her eyes open again. “Personally, I would’ve ignored such rumors for the sheer absurdity of some of them. For example: the appearance of a black hole a few weeks ago.”
Really? A black hole in the middle of a park? How much absurd could it get? Black holes can’t just form from out of nothing. According to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, a black hole is formed by the deformation of space-time caused by extremely compacted mass. Not by tying 100 times in rock-paper-scissors, if the rumors were to be believed. Also it was almost mathematically impossible to tie 100 times in that game!
Seriously! The imagination some people have.
While Twilight was lost in thought thinking about physical impossibilities of the rumors she heard, the staff turned to look at each other in the eyes. They all knew that the whole black hole incident wasn’t a crazy rumor. It really happened and it was Mordecai’s and Rigby’s fault.
“But as you all probably know, the university doesn’t waste its time investigating or testing something without some sort of proof to back it up.” Twilight continued with her explanation, not noticing any of the staff reactions. She was focusing on her prepared mini-speech.
“We discovered that during the timeframe when those rumors supposedly happened, several scanners and satellites picked up on some sort of strange energy signals.” Though Twilight was skeptic about the whole ‘black hole’ rumor, she believed in the reliability of science and technology which told them there was definitely some sort of energy output located in this park.
The park staff remained awkwardly silent, not knowing if they should disclose any information that could support or disprove any of the scientist girls claims.
No one ever complained or tried to investigate about these and previous incidents before. Everyone kind of accepted the weirdness of the park, and didn’t bat an eye to it anymore. Even Mordecai and Rigby who just became parts of the staff, didn’t question any of it.
So this was all new for everyone.
Benson, having to step up for everyone else, was getting anxious about the implications and problems that could arise if more people came investigating the park.
“So…what will happen if you were to found something in the park?” Benson was worried that they would have to close the park down and leave his without a job. Being the park manager was all what he had in his life.
“I was told to stay and investigate in depth, but if I were to find something that is dangerous, I’m obligated to call the appropriate authorities.” One couldn’t rule out that the strange happenings in the park could be cause by some sort of radioactive material that could cause mass hallucination.
“And Mr. Maellard approved of this?” Just what was Mr. Maellard thinking? If this girl found something it could mean the closure of the park.
“Well…he didn’t ask for specifics. He accepted when the university offered to cover any damage done to park, alongside other things…” She herself wasn’t exactly sure about the dealings between her superiors and the owner of the park. The only thing they told her was to avoid causing any collateral damage to the property.
“I’m sorry Ms Sparkle but I’m afraid that at the moment we don’t have accommodations for you.” Benson lied through his teeth. If the girl in front of him stayed it could lead to a major disaster that would most certainly leave him without a job. He knew his lie would only momentarily delay the issue, but it would provide him with enough time to figure out a plan B for when crap hit the fan.
“But Benson what about the empty room on the second floor?” Pops stepped in much to the manager’s dismay. “I’m sure those lodgings are well-suited for our gracious guest!”
“But…Pops, I…”
“I say that we let her stay; besides my Papa already gave his permission.” The child like gentleman reminded Benson, who really couldn’t protest against a direct order of both Maellard senior and son.
Sighing in defeated, the red head just nodded in acceptance. “Okay, you can stay in the empty room on the second floor, Ms Sparkle” As the new resident of the house gave him a big smile of appreciation, Benson couldn’t help but feel that dread and fear that he initiated his own doom.
“Thank you very much, Sir.” She said gratefully, ”I’ll try to not be a nuisance or interfere with the Park’s work.” The only response she got was Benson looking at the side muttering something that sounded like ‘too late’ but she wasn’t exactly sure.
“Congrats, Twilight.” Mordecai said besides her grabbing her attention and make her forget about Benson’s mutter. “I guess this means we will see each other around more often.” The tall blue head said scratching the back of his head.
“It looks like it.” She agreed with a smile that Mordecai thought make her look cute. “I’m sure we will be good friends.”
“Yeah…friends…”Mordecai trailed off a little bit down, but quickly recovered. Right now he was glad that he could be her friend. “Hey! Let me introduce you to everyone!”
“First there is Pops, He’s the owner’s son!”
“It is very nice to meet you Miss Sparkle.” Pops greeted with that voice that really put the girl off. How could a man who looked so refined have a voice like that?
“It is nice too meet you, Mr. Maellard.” She greeted back, “though you may call me just Twilight, all my friends do” She was going to spend a lot of time with everyone here, so it was better if everyone treated each other as friends.
“I’ll do, only if you call me Pops in return.” He really felt more comfortable that way. Besides Mr. Maellard was his Papa, not him.
“Of course!”
“Next one is Skips!” Mordecai presented her to the muscular white haired man.
“Nice meeting you, girl” He greeted friendly enough. He didn’t sound or acted like the muscle head Twilight expected him to be.
“Nice to meet you, Skips!” Twilight refrained from asking him about his name, not wanting to look rude. On top of that, it wasn’t like she could talk about weird names with her last name being Sparkle.
“The next two are Muscleman and Fives, respectively.”
“Muscle Man?” Twilight repeated back confused, until the tanned greasy man answered.
“That’s me, girl! The name’s Mitch but don’t ever call me that.” He really meant it. Muscle Man only let family and hot babes call him by his first name.
He would usually try to put his moves on Twilight, but when he heard she was like a genius he reconsidered. He didn’t like girls who were smarter than him.
“And this here is my bro Fives.” Muscle Man talked for his friend who just remained quiet and stared at Twilight. “Is he alright?” Twilight asked feeling at edge by the stare of the albino boy. Not only that, but his pale complexion made him looked like he was sick.
“Don’t worry Twilight. Fives is a little reserved. Once he gets to know you better I’m assure you he will be more talkative.” Mordecai explained for her. He wasn’t sure if they should tell her about Fives ‘condition’.
‘Condition’ as in the fact that he was dead. And a ghost. A ghost who interacts and talks with everyone just fine like any other living person.
Who knows how would Twilight react to the news? Rigby and he didn’t really paid much mind. In fact they forgot Fives was a ghost half of the time. But with Twilight he had no idea.
“And finally, there is Rigby. As you can see his is height challenged.” Mordecai joked at his friend expense. It was quite a picture seeing such tall guy standing near a very short guy.
“Hey! You’re face is challenged!” Rigby called back, insulted. He wasn’t short! Mordecai was just freaking tall!
“That doesn’t even make sense, dude!” Even with his nose broken and his face bruised, that comeback didn’t make any sense.
“Shut up!” the short brown haired man punched his friend arm but with no real strength on it.
“Um…nice to meet you, Rigby” Twilight interrupted the scene in front to her. She didn’t want it to escalate into a fist fight, especially with Mordecai’s current condtion.
“Uh? Oh yeah, the same Ms. Vampire” He greeting back sounding uninterested. But his tone changed after Mordecai delivered a punch to his arm. “ouch! What was that for?”
“I told you dude. Be nice” The taller one gave his short friend a look that meant he was serious for real.
“Whatever.” Muttered Rigby. Why was Mordecai mad out of the sudden? He didn’t do anything wrong. He just called the girl a funny nickname, which a few minutes earlier she said didn’t mind.
“It is nice to meet all of you and I’m grateful for welcoming me. I hope to get to know you better and we can become friends” The rest of the staff had similar reactions to her and welcomed her to the park.
“Come on! Let me show you to your room!” Mordecai said before walking back to the cart and grab on to Twilight’s luggage. “I’ll carry your stuff too.”
Twilight smiled at his offer but she couldn’t accept. “But Mordecai, you are still hurting, aren’t you?” She could see that small grimaces of pain when he walked. She didn’t like the idea of him making his wounds words for pushing himself too hard.
“Don’t worry about me. I can handle it on my own.” He lied but he refused to put the bags down. Call it stupidity or macho bullcrap but he didn’t want to look like a wuss in front of her.
“Okay. Let’s go.” Twilight was convinced by his act but she decided not to push the issue. She knew that if she argue, the more stubborn he would act. Like any other male she knew: her two brothers were exactly the same.
Mordecai had some difficulties trying to climb up the stairs but his own stubbornness make him pull through and got make his way inside the house with Twilight and Rigby following behind.
“Is it me or Mordecai is acting like he has it bad for the new girl?” Benson asked out-loud after they entered the house.
“Yes, he has it bad” confirmed Skips. One didn’t have to be as old as him to notice something like that. “What are we going to do now, Benson?” Skips asked secretively, but Benson caught exactly what he was referring to.
“I don’t know Skips. The only thing we can do now is hope nothing happens that convince her to close down the park.
“Yes, let’s hope so.”
------------------------- “Here we are!” Mordecai announced as he open the door to Twilight’s new room and rested her bags on the floor. “Sorry there isn’t much to it. Maybe tomorrow we can get you a bed.” He offered after he saw the emptiness of the room.
It was spacious like his room he shared with Rigby, but it had no bed or furniture besides a very old looking closet. “If you want you can have my bed while we get you a bed.”
“No. No. I don’t want to be a bother” She refused his offer kindly. “Besides, I came prepared with a sleeping bag and a small tent for the possibility of having to sleep outdoors.”
From her back pack, she took and unrolled her sleeping back on the floor. “See! No problem.”
“Wouldn’t you be more comfortable with a bed? I don’t mind sleeping on the living room couch.” He offered once again. “Mordecai, I’m a big girl. I think I can take a few nights on the floor.” She was grateful for his offer, but she didn’t like to be treated like she was helpless all the time.
Mordecai, getting what Twilight was saying, just sighed and retracted his offer. “Okay then. But can I at least offer you a pillow?”
“That would be nice.” Now that was something she could accept.
“I’ll be right back!”
As he walked around looking for some extra pillows, Mordecai came upon the cord that brings down the stairs for the attic. Twilight’s room was just so empty, and maybe he could find something nice or useful for her there.
Once inside the attic, he took a look around and found a small folding table for Twilight to put some of her stuff on, and a lamp for her when the sun sets down.
Happy with his findings, Mordecai came down the attic and walked towards his room. He didn’t find any extra pillows so he decided to lend Twilight his only one.
As he entered, Mordecai found his friend and roommate Rigby looking at him weirdly. “What are you doing?” The brunette asked mostly for the stuff Mordecai was carrying around.
“Nothing” the blue head said wondering about the strange look Rigby was sending his way. “Why you ask?”
“Because, you’ve been acting strange since you came back. A lot more assistive than usual.” Rigby couldn’t exactly put his finger on it but he was sure it had to do with something that happened today. “Is it the new girl? Is she making you do this?”
“Wha…? Don’t be ridiculous, Rigby. I’m just trying to be helpful. Now if you excuse me I have to bring this stuff to her.” When he approached his bed to pick up his pillow, he found Rigby on his way blocking his path. “Dude, move I need to take my pillow.”
“Why?”
“Because she has none, so I’m lending her mine!” Mordecai said exasperated with Rigby. “Now move!” Rigby didn’t move a muscle and stayed planted in front of his friend, looking directly at his eyes. “Oh my god! You like the new girl!”
“What! Don’t be ridiculous!” The bluenette said with red slowly appearing on his face. “I don’t like her! I’m just being helpful!”
“I can’t believe you like little miss bookworm!” Rigby poked fun at his friend with trying not to laugh out loud.
“I don’t like her!”
“The more denied the more you confirm it!” the short brunette keep on ribbing.
“Fine! I like her. Happy?” Mordecai was getting really tired of Rigby’s mocking tone. “So what? What are you going to do?”
“Nothing really. I just find it hilarious.” The short one said before continuing with a sing a song tone. ”Mordecai and the new girl, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”
Instantaneously, the blue head responded with a punch on his friend arm. “Dude, what are you, 10?”
“You didn’t have to punch me, man” Rigby said while rubbing his arm. He must have really tick Mordecai off because he felt that punch a whole lot more. “You know I’m just joking man!”
“Well, keep the jokes to yourself!” the annoyed groundskeeper took the change to take his pillow from his bed while Rigby was preoccupied with his arm. “I’m serious dude.” And with that he left the room with Rigby alone.
“Man, he really got it bad!”
-------------------------
“Hey I’m back! And look what I also brought! I table and a lamp.” Mordecai said as he entered Twilight’s room. “Wow! Thanks Mordecai. Set the table over there!” She pointed out to the other side of the room. Both things will surely come in handy.
As Mordecai set up the table where he was instructed, he noticed that Twilight had already set up her clothes inside the closet and now she was pulling some books and electronics from her bags.
“What’s this?” He asked curiously at what looked like a yellow box with something attached to it by a cable.
“That’s a Geiger Counter! It’s a particle detector that measures radiation of alpha and beta particles and gamma rays.” Twilight explain as simple as she could.
Mordecai refrained to ask what any of these things was; for fear of sounding dumb when she would explain them to him. “Um…what’s that thing?”
“That is a energy scanner. It’s used to detect emissions of light energy and bio-energy.” Once again, Mordecai nodded and didn’t ask about any of those things. “Looks like very expensive equipment.”
“Kind of, this is all basic equipment that only serves to detect and measures energy outputs. If I were to require something more specialized I’ll have to call to the research center to send me more equipment.”
“Wow. It must be great being as intelligent as you.” Mordecai was a simple guy who never really achieved much in his life as a student and never really complained about it.
But now, standing next to someone like Twilight who achieved so much in so little time, he couldn’t help but feel a pin of regret.
Where would he be if he had focused more on his studies? Would he be doing something more meaningful with his life? Would his parents be proud of him and not kick him out of the house?
One could only wonder.
“Most people think that. That I was born a genius and that everything comes easy to me.” Twilight began talking with a slight sad tone on her voice. “But they are wrong. It wasn’t easy. I had to work hard and give upon a lot of things to be where I am now”
She remembered all those years back when she was a reclusive girl who never really spoke with anyone besides her family. Thought she never regretted studying as hard as she did, Twilight admitted that she missed out on a lot of things growing up.
If it weren’t for her friends she would’ve never open up and discover what life and friendship is all about.
Mordecai just stared at her, almost feeling her own emotions. “You really are something.” He whispered low enough that Twilight didn’t notice her utter anything.
They remained in silent for a whole two minutes, until Mordecai decided it was best to leave her alone for now. “I better go, make sure Rigby stays out of trouble.” He said before opening the door “See you later Twilight. I hope you enjoy your stay here!”
“I’m sure I will…see you later, Mordecai”
And with that the bluenette left the room and Twilight alone with her stuff.
Hours later when she went to sleep, she lied in her pajamas over her sleeping back with only a thin sheet covering her.
“Today sure was a very interesting day.” She said to herself, “I wonder how tomorrow is going to be” and with that she closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep.
‘This pillow smells really nice
-------------------------
On another room on the same floor. Mordecai was struggling to get some shut eye.
“Man, I can’t sleep.” His nose hurt, but he was sure that wasn’t the reason why he couldn’t fall asleep. Also Rigby’s snore weren’t helping at all.
“Better do something to tire myself.” But what? He didn’t want to wake up the whole house and his body was still aching from the fight. He needed something he could do silently and without moving around a lot.
Then an idea hit him. He turned towards his drawer and took out a piece of paper and a pencil. Maybe he could try and see if he still got his drawing skills.
Mordecai doodled for a while but none of his drawings look particularly good.
“Man, I’m I really that rusty at this or was I never really good at it?” Feeling his eyelids became heavier and heavier by the second, he drop the paper and pencil back on his drawer and finally turn to sleep.
Extra: (Note: what happens on extras do not affect the narrative of the overall story)
Just as Mordecai and Twilight drove away in the golf cart. The thief stood up again and using a strange hand-sign, he opened a portal and jumped in.
“I did what you wanted. I got Twilight Sparkle and Mordecai to meet each other. Are you happy now, XeroM?” The thief said before a light enveloped him and transformed him back into MoreX.
“Yes! I’m very happy!” The ‘female’ and ‘dark’ counterpart said with glee. “But there is still something missing!”
“What? I deal was I’ll do only three things for you! I would write this MordeTwi story, that one; I would personally made them meet each other by letting Mordecai beat the crap out of me, that’s two; and three, I was going to allow this story to share the same universe as my Dan&Pinkie VS. Those were the three things!”
“Yes and you done an excellent work my inferior self!” MoreX just ignored the backhanded compliment from Xerom. He was already accustomed to them. “Now all we need is a cross over between the two stories!”
“No way XeroM!” he male counterpart shot down the idea as quick as it came. “It would be total chaos! Besides don’t you think there is already too much weird stuff happening in California without adding your crossover idea?”
“He…he…he… well I guess we can forget about that crossover for now and focus in other parts of the US and the world” XeroM said with a smirk that send shivers to her counterpart’s spine.
“What do you...?” But before he could finish his question, Xerom threw at him a folder filled with pages of notes.
“What?! This is madness! I won’t allow…ugh!” MoreX was interrupted once more, but this time by a karate chop to the neck that rendered him unconscious.
“Silly, MoreX. This may not be able to alter any of your stories directly. But I’m allowed to have a little bit of fun on the sidelines. He, he, he, he.” [To be continued in other extras]
On any other normal day, the inside of the house would’ve remained still for at least another hour waiting for Benson to arrive and enter his office to arrange a work plan and schedule for the day.
However, today was different to any other day, because today the new resident of the house was already up and working.
Twilight was very accustomed to wake up on the early hours of the morning; it granted her more hours for whatever project she was working on.
But since she hasn’t begun with her ‘investigation’ yet, it left her with nothing to do. And never being one to waste time, the researcher decided to look around the house.
She found out that on the second room, besides being were bedrooms and bathroom were, there also was Benson’s office with a plaque that said so in the door, and a computer room with just one computer and for personnel use only.
The first floor was where the kitchen and the living room were. And oh boy! Oh boy! What a mess the latter was!
All around the couch, there were cans of soda, bags of chips, plastic wrappers and all sort of things littered around. And Twilight, despite not being a neat-freak, couldn’t stand the sight of such disorder and messiness and began cleaning up.
She began by going to the kitchen to search around the cabinets for a plastic bag. When she found one, she return to the living room and collected all the trash on the floor. In the end she collected a total of 12 cans of soda 5 bags of chips, and 21 wrappers of all sorts of candy.
After she finished with the trash, Twilight continued by picking up some magazines she found on the floor, and rearranged them by title and by topic and place them on the table in front of the TV, where she noticed something peculiar.
“Uh? What’s this?” she asked out-loud to herself as she touched a black and red device that was hooked up to the television. “Master System? Is this a videogame console?”
The studious girl wasn’t exactly a fan of videogames or knew much about them, the only things she knew about there the things her friend Pinkie and Dash told her when she was on high school.
“Looks quite old!” she commented while she took a closer look at the console. “Cartridge Input…it’s definitely old.” She didn’t remember the last time she heard of a console that still uses cartridges. They all used CD’s or were downloaded into the consoles themselves.
“I wonder why they have it.” Probably it was for sentimental value.
Finally, after taking her eyes of the old console, Twilight took a step back to observe her handy-work. It definitely looked cleaner than before, but there was still crumbs in the rug what she couldn’t pick up. If only she knew were the vacuum was.
Suddenly, her belly complained with a grumble demanding to be fed. “I better get something to eat.” Thankfully, she didn’t have to get her own food since the previous night before going to bed, Pops told her she could take what she needed from the kitchen.
Hesitantly, Twilight opened the fridge’s door. Even with permission from Pops, she still felt like uncomfortable taking food that didn’t exactly belonged to her.
“Maybe…instead of preparing breakfast to myself, I should make some for everyone else” Yes, that would be a nice gesture and a way to show she wasn’t going to freeload during her stay.
“But what to make?” Twilight wasn’t sure what to prepare. She barely knew everyone so she had no idea what they all liked. What if she prepared food everyone hated? Or if she used an ingredient that someone is allergic to? It was a really difficult decision.
“Maybe something simple and easy to make.” But what was the most simple breakfast aside from cereal and milk? “Fried eggs! And toast! With coffee or orange juice!” Yes, that was simple enough, and most of the people she knew liked at least one of those things. It was perfect.
“Okay! Let’s make breakfast!”
----------------------------- “Ugh!”
Mordecai, didn’t know how long he has been awake. Could’ve been just a few minutes or even a whole hour. Either way, he didn’t want to get off the bed just yet.
He just wanted to fall back asleep, but no matter what he keep trashing around, fixing his position, trying to find the most comfortable position.
It was a difficult task to achieve, since he didn’t have a pillow and he couldn’t sleep facing down because his nose hurt a lot!
This whole thing lasted until Mordecai couldn’t take it anymore and accepted the fact that he had to get up.
“Ugh!”
But even when he got up, his mind began screaming at him to get back to bed for some more rest. It was a battle of two fronts: One demanded sleep and well-deserved rest and the other knew that that was already impossible and there was no returning to the land of the sleeping.
While Mordecai’s mind was on this state of conflict and disarray, his body kept moving in auto-pilot, doing his daily routine that just recently had been ingrained into his subconscious mind.
He got up, opened his drawer, took some clothes, walked out his room and down the hall, turn on the corner, keep on walking until he reach the bathroom door, open it, get inside, close the door behind him, took off his clothes, get inside the tub and open the shower.
Thankfully, the splash of water was enough to get him off of the trance-like state he was and regain enough mental functions to start cleaning his body under the lukewarm water.
“Man, I hate waking up so early!”
-------------------------
Down below another person who just entered the house, shared Mordecai’s same thoughts.
“Ugh, I didn’t get enough sleep…” Benson mumbled to himself. And how could he? He spent the whole night worried about the future of the park and his job.
Being the park manager was his whole life, and if he loses his job, it was all over for him. Of course, he still retained his skill as an expert drummer, pinball machine and a stick hockey player.
But none of those lifestyles really suited him. The constant travelling of a band member, the late night competitions and pressure of a professional stick hockey player, were too much for him. He’s afraid that he was already too old for that.
His only hope, despite sounding horrible, was for something to happen to that university researcher that prevents her from even being her or begin her field research.
Speaking of which, as he entered the kitchen, Benson found none other than the girl that prevented him from getting some shut-eye the previous night.
“What are you doing?” he asked her out of the sudden making the girl jumped in surprise.
“Wha!...Mr. Benson! You startle me!” the girl responded not with an accusatory manner, but more like just stating a fact. “I didn’t expected you to come here so early!” or come in so silently for that matter.
“I always come in early to work on today’s schedule.” The red head responded not bothered in the slightest from startling her. “Still you haven’t answered my question. What are you doing?” Really, with the night he had, he wasn’t in the mood to babysit this girl or put on with any sort of unruly behavior.
“Um…I’m just making some breakfast!” Twilight answered hesitantly. For the short amount of time she had seen of him, she had come to know not to say something to make him angry.
Yesterday, she saw who angry he was with Mordecai for the state of the golf cart and he didn’t even waited to hear any sort of explanation of the bluenette’s part.
As a student and most of her life, Twilight has come to become accustomed to having all sort of different kinds of authority figures; all with different kinds of temperament and attitudes. So she was familiar with the strict kind of boss figure.
But Benson somehow was in another level. He didn’t have any sort of real power over her, per se. and still she was intimidated by him.
On his part Benson, either didn’t noticed or simple ignored Twilight’s uneasiness towards him. He was too preoccupied with his own thoughts which were mostly peeves.
“Oh, great! Not only she’s freeloading and the catalyst for ruining my life and others’, she is now eating our food too!” How much he wished he could say something, but unfortunately, she wasn’t his employee and in fact she was a ‘guest’ of both Mr. Maellard and son.
“Here I hope you like it” Twilight said, bringing Benson out of his thought. He look down at what she presented him and found a plate with two fried eggs and toast.
“what’s…?” The red head was out of a loop. Did she just serve him breakfast? Why did she serve him breakfast?
“What do you prefer, Mr Benson? Coffee or juice?” She asked him with a smile, furthering confusion the restless manager. “Uh…Coffee, I guess.” He had no clue what was going on but at least he understood her offer for the greatly needed beverage.
“I’ll get it in minute!” she said as she turned around to look for a cup to serve the coffee in.
By now, Benson was far past the confusion and was now in the weird-out state. Nobody, and he meant, nobody had ever served him breakfast in a LONG time. And the weirdest part was that the person doing it was the one who could potentially get him jobless.
With nothing to lose, the manager decided to try out the food that was served in front of him. He didn’t have anything to lose and he had skipped eating breakfast back at home.
He took a fork and knife and quickly cut the fried egg into piece from which he took a small one and taste it hesitantly. It wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t that good either. But heck, it was better than not eating anything at all.
“Here’s your coffee.” she said while serving him with a smile. Benson was pleasantly surprised by it all. It made him wonder if she had experience working as a waitress before.
After putting some sugar into his coffee, he took a sip of the much needed drink and sigh in pleasant relief. “It’s good.” And after a small pause, he added. “Thank you, Miss Sparkle.”
“It was nothing, I’m happy to help.” Twilight replied, relieved that Benson liked his food. Despite him not being her boss, she still saw him as an authority figure, and she couldn’t help but to try and make the best impression she could.
Similar to a teacher’s pet if you will.
“Mr.Benson, you said you come in early to work on the schedule for today right?” She asked for confirmation which she received in the form of a nod from the red headed manager. “Does that mean that the rest aren’t going to come down anytime soon?”
“Yes, usually when I arrive everyone is still sleeping or just waking up.” The manager informed her between sips of his coffee. “So, the rest should come down in half to one hour.”
Twilight nodded and said a small ‘thanks’. It seemed that she began making breakfast a little too early. Well, it didn’t matter now; she could seat down and eat breakfast.
As she sat down to enjoy her own breakfast, which was the same as Benson’s but with juice instead of coffee. Benson finished with his own, and quickly got off his seat. He had work to do after all. But standing up so quickly resulted in accident when he accidently bumped into the table making Twilight’s glass full of juice to fall and spill its content into her clothes.
“My god, I’m sorry! It was an accident!” Benson apologized which sounded very uncharacteristically coming from him.
“D-don’t worry! It’s nothing!” Twilight said no longer on her seat, she was standing up looking at the mess her shirt and skirt was. “I just need to change clothes. That’s all. Now if you could excuse me for a moment.”
“Yes, off course. Go! I’ll clean this mess.” Benson would’ve usually sent someone else to do the job of cleaning up, except this time it was directly his fault, so he was responsible for cleaning up the mess he made.
“Thank you, Mr.Benson!” She said before exiting the kitchen, going into the leaving room, climbed up the stairs to the second floor and walked into her room. “Now I have to change once again!”
Twilight quickly went directly to the closet and took out another shirt and skirt. “Now to take this clothes off!” as she buttoned off her stained shirt she noticed her bra was also wet. “Great, now I need to change bra too.”
With a sigh of silent frustration, Twilight walked towards her duffle-bag and took out another bra from it. Then she stopped for a second. “Should I take another shower?” she pondered out-loud. If she was going to change clothes might as well. So she took off the rest of her clothes until she was only in her underwear, and walked towards the door with a fresh set of clean clothes and a towel. Thankfully, the bathroom door was just a few steps across her door.
Peeking through the door, she made sure there was no one on the hall before walking out and opened the bathroom door. All she had to do was to take a quick shower and then she could return to breaaa….
Twilight mind could process that last thought, because the moment she entered through the door in went into complete shock when she saw who was inside.
It was Mordecai. Who in that exact moment was stepping out of the tub reaching for the towel, and who was also frozen in place.
The underwear clad Twilight, stood there with her eyes so widen they almost fell off her eye sockets. But instead of doing that, her eyes began inspecting every inch of the tall boy’s body.
From his long neck to his well shaped torso that completely shredded his lanky image. Though he wasn’t buff or well toned, there was definitely some muscle in him. From there her eyes went lower and lower…and then…
“Twilight! What are you doing here!” after two seconds of being frozen, Mordecai grabbed the towel and put it around him waist as he turned around to try and cover himself the best he could.
“Ah! I’M SORRY! I DIDN’T MEAN TO…!” Twilight responded with her face completely red finally snapping back from her trance and realized she just ogled him.
Trying to hide her embarrassment, she burrowed her face into her clothes and with a fast turned she exited the bathroom and into her room closing the door behind.
The poor towel-clad Mordecai stood with an equally red face and his back facing the door until he heard the door close behind.
He couldn’t believe what just happen. Twilight just walked in on him and saw him full blown naked! How did this happen? Then Mordecai looked towards the door and noticed that it didn’t have the lock on.
Crap! He forgot to lock the door when he walked in the bathroom. In fact, he never locked it when he takes a bath. Since until this day the only ones who lived here were only dudes, he didn’t think it was that big of a deal seeing another dude naked. Unless it was Pops, thankfully Pops had his own bathroom on his room, so there was no chance of ever seeing his old, wrinkly …
“Gah! Don’t think about THAT! Think of something else, think of something else!” the blue head said trying not imagining THAT! He needed to think something else. Then his mind went back to the issue at hand.
What would Twilight think of him now? Would they be able to look at each other after this? Should he say something? Should he even bring it up? Or wait for her to bring it up? Should they pretend it never happened? Yes, that was for the best.
Sighing in frustration, Mordecai finished drying himself and put on some underwear before exiting the bathroom with the towel around his waist and walked back to his room.
-
Back inside her room, Twilight was trying to make sense of what just happened too.
“I can’t believe I did that!” the poor red faced girl said with her face burrowed in her clothes. She was so embarrassed she wished the earth to open and swallow her whole.
Not only she walked in on Mordecai, she also ogled him like a hormone driven teenager! From his neck down to his…
“Gah! DON’T THINK ABOUT IT!” but she couldn’t help it. It was her first time seeing something like THAT. Well, not exactly, she did saw pictures and models in her Sex-Ed class but she had never seeing the real thing before. It was so…
“I SAY DON’T THINK ABOUT IT!” she repeated trying to get rid of the mental image. “Think about something else! Think about something else!”
And that something else was once again Mordecai, but not his body but the person.
What would she think about her? Would she think of her a pervert voyeur? Would he ever talk to her again? Would they be able to look at each other again? What should she say? Should she say anything? Should she even bring it up? Would he bring it up? Or should they pretend that nothing really happen? Yes, that was the most sensible thing to do.
-------------------------
Half an hour later, Twilight came down with her new change of clothes to eat breakfast, trying her best to pretend nothing happened.
She was doing a perfectly good job, until she Mordecai, with clothes this time, already eating breakfast.
The moment their eyes fell on each other, their faces light up in a very bright red and turned their heads to the side to avoid looking at each other.
The two embarrassed ‘youngsters’ stood there in silent for a whole minute before Mordecai, stepped up and broke the awkward silence.
“Uh…hey Twi!...um…”Unfortunately the tall boy didn’t have anything to say. That is until his gaze fell upon his breakfast.
“Um…Benson told me you prepared this breakfast! Um…it’s really good.” Better try talking about stuff before things got too awkward.
“Um…thanks…glad you liked it” the red faced girl answer uneasily. She was glad that he still talked to her, but she could tell that it was difficult for him as it was for her.
But after those short sentences that counted as ‘conversation’ the silence fell upon them again. Both of them were waiting for the other to say or do anything.
“Hey Mordecai! Why didn’t you wake me up for breakfast!” came the voice of Rigby as he enters the kitchen, providing their desperately needed distraction.
“Yeah, sorry dude! I woke up earlier than usual.” Mordecai apologized appreciating for the first time for Rigby’s loud and obnoxious persona.
“Yeah! You better not have eaten all the breakfast for yourself!” the small brunette continued talking unaware of the silent relief that the other two occupants felt by his presence.
“Don’t worry, I could make some more for you, Rigby!” Twilight said trying to sound as natural as ever. It wouldn’t do if someone else were to find out what happen by looking at the way she and Mordecai were acting, so focusing on doing breakfast should provide a much necessary distraction of her own embarrassment.
“Really? Hey thanks Sparkly Vamp!” Rigby replied pleasantly surprised by her offer. But that didn’t stop him from using another of his nicknames for her.
“No problem, I get in a minute!” Twilight ignored his ‘nickname’ and do as she said, turning towards the fridge to get some eggs.
“Maybe having the Vamp chick around wouldn’t be so bad after all, right Mordecai” the shorter of the two boys laughed as he nudged his taller friend.
On his side, Mordecai wanted nothing more than to punch Rigby for that comment and educated him in proper manners, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it this time.
“Dude, she’s not a Vamp.” was the only thing he said. The art school graduate still remembered some seeing people who follow that fashion and being confused at what were the differences between Vamps, Goths and Emos.
“Whatever dude!” Rigby replied not really caring his nickname didn’t make sense.
The rest of breakfast was spent mostly on Rigby who kept talking about all sort of things, never noticing that Twilight and Mordecai weren’t talking with each other.
-------------------------
Bonus: From the computer screen, XeroM smiled at her handy work while MoreX was still unconscious on the floor from her Karate Chop.
“You’re for a surprise when you wake up, MoreX” she laughed and gloated in her own sense of superior writing prowess. “He..he…he..Let’s see what else is happening in other parts of the world!”
-
An island on the Pacific
“Hey, Edward! Wanna blow some bubbles? Only 5 cents!” said smiling a young blond haired boy behind a stand that advertised Bubble Blowing.
Edward, a green haired man with a large nose, just looked at the blond boy that was his neighbor like he was crazy. Just why did he had to live next to a 10 year old kid in a body of a 18 year old?
“Oh, right. Like I would spend a moment of my time blowing bubbles.” Edward responded sarcastically trying to sour the young boy cheerful attitude. But the only response his sarcastic comment received was a smile and an ‘Uh huh!’.
“Oh please! I mean, who in the world would pay to blow bubbles?” really, how in their right mind would pay for something that could be done for free at their own houses?
“Wow! Bubbles for 5 cents? Can I try?” came a voice from behind, surprising the heck out of Edward.
“Sure! In fact for being my first costumer the first blow is free!” the blond boy said with a big smile happy to receive his first costumer!
Edward confounded by the fact that indeed was a person willing to pay money to blow bubbles from a stand on the side of the street, turned around and look at the ‘costumer’ expecting to find an idiot but what he found was something much different.
It was a girl. A young blond haired girl who look to be around his neighbor’s age. She was wearing a grey blouse and blue shorts. But the most peculiar and noticeable trait of the girl was her eyes.
Being an underappreciated artist, Edward noticed that her eyes were a bright set of moderate gamboge. Still, what caught his attention wasn’t the color, but the position of the eyes. They were cross-eyed.
‘Thank you very much, Mister!” the cross-eyed girl said with a voice that didn’t inspired an expectation of being a genius girl.
“No need to call me mister! I’m Robert! Robert Squarepants! But my friends call me Bob!” “Nice to meet you Bob! I’m Ditzy! Ditzy Doo!”
Intermission I or Chapter 3.5 : ...back on Equestria.
“Finally! It’s all done!” Twilight said triumphantly as she placed the last piece necessary for her settlement inside the Everfree Forest.
Establishing a habitable camp the forest had not being easy for the purple unicorn. First she had to locate an area that had enough clear space for her to move around. After that she had to move large heavy rocks and fallen trees out of the way and even out the ground. That was the easy part.
The hard part was setting up a perimeter to make sure no random or dangerous creature end up stumbling in her camp while she was tired, sleeping or simply away. Thankfully she came prepared.
Twilight brought with her, a special set of crystals, that when set properly and charge up with magic, it would activate a special charm and form an invisible protective barrier that lead of intruders without any of them noticing.
It was a neat special charm that not only protected her, but also didn’t disturb the wildlife inside the forest. The only drawback thought was that the crystals required to be charged every 24 hours and required a large amount of magic. For the regular unicorn of course, for her the drawback was the fact that she constantly needed to remind herself not to forget to charge the crystals, no matter how busy she was.
And the hardest part of all?
Shelving all the books she had brought with herself to this makeshift research camp. And believe it, there were a lot of books. She simply couldn’t decide the way in which she wanted them to be ordered. By title? Or Author? By topic? Maybe by relevance? Or a combination on all four?
If only Spike had come with her.
No. it was safer for him to remain on Ponyville. Besides he seemed to be happy when he heard he was staying with Rarity while she was here.
“Now that everything is ready, I can finally begin my research!” Twilight said as she magically reached for her saddlebag to start exploring more deeply into the Everfree and maybe take some samples. She noticed something strange happened to her saddlebag.
“What? It.. it turned into rock!” Yes, her saddlebag was no longer made of cloth, now it was made of heavy rock. “How could it be? It was fine a second ago…unless…DISCORD!”
“Why hello~, Twilight! Long time no see!” Discord, master of chaos, greeted with sly grin.
“Discord! Turn my saddlebag back to normal!” Twilight demanded in a foul mood. She really didn’t have time to deal with any of the draconequus antics. “I need to start working, and you should too.”
“Well, excuuuu~uuusme, but that wasn’t the deal! You are here to work. I’m here just to supervise.” Discord explained with the grin still plastered in his face. “That means you do all the work, while I just observe.”
“Turning my saddlebag into stone isn’t just observing!” Twilight complaint must to Discord’s amusement.
“And you seriously expect ME to sit idly by watching you work and do NOTHING at all? And they call me crazy!” The master trickster laughed while he made a buffoon hat appeared on top of Twilight.
“You could work, that’s what you could do if you’re bored!” The irritated unicorn responded as she let the hat fall into the ground only for it to appear again on her head.
“Twilight, my dear, we gone over this, my job is to watch you do all the work! Haven’t you been paying attention?” Now Discord was drinking mayonnaise and wearing a shirt that said ‘I’m with stupid’ with an arrow pointing at Twilight.
“Ugh! At least do me a favor and turn my bag back to normal.” Twilight ended with a sigh of defeat. It was no use to try to make Discord behave, besides if she kept responding like she did, it would only encourage his behavior.
“Let me think about it…mmm…nope!” The draconequus answered as he made his neck grow larger and large to comically proportions.
“Figures.”
“Look at it as a test!” Discord explained. “I heard that you have been taking lessons on Chaos magic and from Celestia no less.”
Really, Sunbutt giving lessons about chaos magic. Who would’ve thought she had it in her. Though he did feel offended that she didn’t ask him to help. He would’ve say no, but still, she should’ve at least asked!
“So?” Twilight responded failing to see his point.
“So? Use your fancy new magic to turn your bag back to normal.” He said like it was the most obvious thing on the world, which in turn made Twilight blink several time trying to process what he just said.
“That make sense, I guess.” Which was weird coming from someone who loved not making sense whatsoever.
“Just don’t go around saying that to ponies.” After all, he got a reputation to uphold, you know. “Well, time is running out, intermission is about to end, so I better go.”
“Intermission? What are you talking about? And aren’t you supposed to stay and watch me transform my bag? You said it was a test after all.” Why couldn’t he stay still on a topic for more than a second? He was worse than Pinkie Pie on a sugar rush.
“I prefer the hands off, or as you ponies say it, hooves off approach style of teaching.”He explained off handedly “Now off I go to try to find out why XeroM is such a female dog! Bye!”
And with a flash of light he disappeared.
…Well that didn’t make any sense at all, no matter how hard Twilight tried. But what else would you expect from Discord, the master of chaos?
How about appearing a second later in another flash of light?
“By the way, if you’re going to talk to that Zebra friend of yours, please do it off-script. The author sucks at rhyming. Bye!”
And for a second time he disappeared in a third flash of light.
“You know what. I’m not even going to bother with that last one.”
Chapter 4 – A Regular First Day, Right? (Also: The Pressure)
“Alright, listen up!” Benson called up for everyone’s attention.
After breakfast was finished, it was time for everyone to be assigned their chores for the day, so Mordecai and Rigby, alongside the rest of the staff gathered on the steps outside the house, waiting for Benson’s orders like any other day.
But today was slightly different. Today there was another person among the regular staff. It was Twilight, who attended the ‘meeting’ as a casual observant, curious on how exactly parking management worked.
“We've got this birthday party today, so... lots to do. Lots to do.” Benson continued speaking while scribbling notes on his writing board. Though he appeared to be focusing on his writing like normal, in reality he was distracted by the new addition to the meeting.
Despite her nice gesture earlier today, he was still wary of her presence. She may have good intentions and natural curiosity for the happenings that plagued the park, but those same things could, most likely leave them all without a job.
So yes, he didn’t like her presence at all. Still he had to keep up appearances and continue with his work.
“Muscle Man, Hi Five Ghost, you're in charge of picking up the special entertainment.” He pointed out to the duo, who look delighted of receiving the task.
“Yes! Uh!” The duo cheered while high fiving.
“High Five Ghost?” Twilight repeated back confused causing Mordecai to wince at Benson’s slip.
“It’s just a joke!” Mordecai said rapidly, forgetting to feel embarrassed from the bathroom incident from earlier “Sometimes we call Fives like that!” He really hoped Twilight bought his explanation. It was better if for now, they refrain from revealing HFG true ‘nature’.
“Oh, okay!” Twilight accepted the ‘explanation’, not because it instantly made sense, but because of the surprise of Mordecai talking to her again. "I can see why, though. He really is pale like a ghost.” She added on her mind.
“Moving on…” Benson continued not exactly happy from the interruption. “Skips, you set up the bouncy castle.”
“Hmm.” Skips hummed and nodded before, like his namesake, skipped into the bushes. An action that didn’t seemed to surprise anyone besides Twilight, who took notice but didn’t voice any questions.
‘Seems like everyone here has their own quirks” It kind of reminded her of home and how her friends would act and say stuff to each other that only made sense to themselves and probably would confuse any outsider that happened to look at them.
“Let's see, I'm picking up the kids, so...” Benson continued reading the assignments while scratching his pencil against the side of his head. “Mordecai and Rigby, you set up the chairs.”
“Augh!” Rigby moaned and to show his displeasure for the task more clearly, he slid from he was sitting from the steps and into the ground. And after his butt touched the ground, he turned around and looked up confused at Mordecai who didn’t imitate his actions.
“Hey, you left me hanging!”
But before Mordecai could say anything to his friend, Pops decided that that exact moment was the perfect one to step into the conversation.
“Oh, what about me~? Surely, I'm invited to my own birthday party!” Pops called out from all the way up to his room on the attic or ‘third floor’ of the house with a sing-a-song tone that sounded weird coming from a man his age.
“Um, your birthday was last week, remember? It's a kid's party today.” Benson explained not having the heart to get angry at any of Pops’ ‘antics’.
“I still have ballo~ons!” The overly excited elder declared as he pulled out an exorbitant bundle of inflating balloons for everyone to see.
“We've got it covered, Pops!”
“Oh, I see.” Pops said sadly as he made his whole body go limp and let the bundle of colorful balloons slip him out of the window, and carry him through the air.
Something that once again only Twilight seemed to have found it strange.
“Did..you guys see that?” that shouldn’t have been possible at least not with the amount of balloons he had. Unless the balloons were inflated with a gas much lighter than helium in order for Pops to achieve air buoyancy.
Hydrogen came to mind, but knowing the inflammable nature of the gas she discarded as ridiculous. So then, what gas could it be?
While Twilight was deliberating and calculating the properties of all the different gases she knew in order to explain what she just saw, Mordecai took the opportunity to complain to Benson about the job.
“Dude, how come we always get stuck with the lame jobs? Setting up the chairs?!” It was the most boring job of them all, besides he still wanted to impress Twilight by doing something big.
“Laaa~aaame!” Rigby added his eloquent two cents.
“I can't trust you guys with something actually important. You're always slacking off.” Benson explained annoyed by the complaints. The two slacker should be grateful to even have a job in the first place.
“You calling us slackers?” The tall bluenette asked in low tone, peeved by that remark.
Not missing one bit, Rigby got the cue and followed his friend remark.
“Did he?” “Did you?” asked in an almost sincere tone of disbelief. Gotta handed to him, he’s delivery was excellent.
“He's calling us slackers.” Mordecai confirmed with the same voice before confronting Benson once more. “Look dude, we can totally set up all those chairs without slacking off.”
Now, Mordecai would be the first to admit that he was so full of bull when he said that he wasn’t a slacker. Heck, it was practically being his lifestyle since he could remember. Still, he’ll be damned if he admit to it when the word was used against him as an insult.
“Good. Do it then.” Retorted back knowing well they were full of themselves.
“We will” Mordecai was full alright, but with conviction. This time it WILL be different,
“Yeah, and then next time you'll get someone else to set up the chairs?” Rigby added hoping they would never have to do such a boring job ever again.
After pondering for a second, Benson gave in. Let’s see if that was motivation enough for them to complete this ONE job. “Fine” the redhead answered.
Only to regret it a second later when both slackers broke into a loud cheer.
“OOOOOOOOHHH!! Not settin' up the chairs next time! Not settin' up the chairs next time! UHHHHH!”
God! Why couldn’t the two of them put the same enthusiasm into their jobs?
Then the manager noticed that Twilight seemed to be lost on her own little world. “Hey you! Wake up!” he yelled and snapped her out of whatever she was thinking of.
“Wha? What happened?” Twilight said confused, looking around for what broke her away from her mental calculations.
“You. What do you plan to do?” Benson was conflicted, on one hand he should wish this girl to be a slacker or terrible at her job so she wouldn’t find anything strange, but on the other hand, he really, REALLY, disliked people who didn’t do their jobs correctly.
“Um… well, before I can conduct proper research, first I need to get acquainted with the park’s general topography, then I can look around searching for whatever this ‘anomalies’ are.” Twilight could barely wait to start. Even though she didn’t believed in most of the ridiculous tales about this place, this was still an excellent learning opportunity.
“Hey! Maybe she can come with us!” Rigby suggested appearing right next to Benson.
“What? Why?” the redhead asked confused.
“Well, she needs to look around the park right? So what better way to do so than by coming with us? Right Mordecai” The small brunette offered while nudging Mordecai to follow along.
“Well, I…”
“Oh no! no, no, no, no. You’ll just take that as an excuse to ride around the park and slack off!” Benson said convinced that he had figured out Rigby’s plan.
“No, no way, maybe…maybe she can supervise us!”
Benson wasn’t far off when he assumed what Rigby plan was. His plan was that if little miss overachiever came along with them maybe he could trick her into setting up the chairs for them. It was the perfect plan.
“Then you can be sure that the chairs will be set and ready long before the party even begins, Right man?” The little trickster said once again while trying to get his partner to support him.
“If you ask me then…”
“Wait just a second” Benson cut Mordecai off again to turn his head back to Twilight. “Do you have any sort of experience with this kind of job?” Again, he was aware of her title and degrees, and had seen her make and serve breakfast in an efficient manner first-hand, but that didn’t really tell him if she was prepared for this kind of job, especially if it was supervising those two.
“Well, I don’t like to brag but back when I was…” Twilight began ready to tell Benson her long winded story, he cut her off completely.
“Wait. Stop. Stop. I don’t want your life’s story; Just a simple yes or no!”
“Yes, I do have experience.” Twilight said refraining to show any kind of annoyed emotion on her face. Yes, she had strict teacher before but she didn’t remember being cut off like that before, and certainly never that rudely. Benson remained silent for a few more seconds until he finally conceded. “Fine, she can go!”
“Really?!” asked both Mordecai and Rigby for two different reasons. Rigby was happy because he got to try his secret scheme. Mordecai on the other hand was worried.
It was true that he wanted to impress Twilight, and setting of the chairs wasn’t the way to go, and worryingly enough. If he failed in his task, the embarrassment would be even greater. If he had gotten something more difficult, he could at least blame it for being to hard but that he did try nonetheless.
“Yes, really” Benson confirmed. Why did they act all surprised anyway? It’s not like he was this bad, ugly monster of a boss. Was he? Anyways, he was about to walk away to do his on job when he noticed that Twilight had her arm lifted into the air like a kid wanting the teacher’s attention.
“You don’t have to do that, we’re not on a classroom.” The redhead manager sighed, while the girl brought her down looking embarrassed by her faux pass. “What do you want?” Though in a weird way he appreciated the gesture of respect, something he didn’t get from the two slackers.
“Um…” Twilight began hesitantly still a little embarrassed by her mistake, “May we take the cooler?” When she saw Benson about to respond she quickly added. “It’s for Mordecai. He still needs to apply ice to his nose once every few hours in order for it to fully heal.”
At her explanation the tall bluenette went to touch his nose with his hand, which he regretted instantly because it sent a sharp sting of pain. He had completely forgotten about his nose.
“Fine you can take it. But you better not fill it with sodas and spent the day just drinking!” Benson warned seriously, he even used his pencil to emphasize the point. “Take what you need and do your jobs!”
“Thanks, Mr. Benson!...ehm…” Twilight thanked only to look embarrsed again.
“What? What is it?”
“What was the job I need to supervise?”
“Just… set up the chairs”
[Bonus]:
in Elmore, California.
More precisely, inside a treehouse several girls were discussing amicably.
“Boring!” Well everyone except Masami, the smug rich girl from school. “You think because it's on a tree it's all that.” She was kind of a snub just because her father was the local factory that employed a lot of people in their town.
“Well, it isn't, it's just as boring as a real house. I mean, what is it you actually do in here, Molly?” Masami asked to Molly, the one who invited everyone into her treehouse.
“Well, I just hang out, watch the boys...” Molly said nervously. Molly being a very tall girl for her age, was self-conscious about her height which make her very shy.
Speaking of boys, there were just down below acting like most boys acted at their age. Very dumbly.
“Lame! “ Masami continued with her rant. “You don't watch boys, you kiss them.” She said in a very suggestive manner, which surprised the rest of the girls.
“What?” They couldn’t believe what Masami just said. Sure they have thought about it as normal girls tent to do, but they never said it out loud.
“Hold on! Don't tell you don't have boyfriends. You do, Molly, right?” Masami continued, picking on Molly, knowing that she was an easy target.
“Hmm! Sure I do! You don't know him, though.” Molly answered nervously. “He's way older and... he's in High School!” She finished off, surprising the rest of the girls.
“Wow!”
Not wanting to be undone, each of the girls said something about their ‘boyfriends’.
“Well, my boyfriend is so old that he doesn't have a babysitter!” said Terry, the hypochondriac of the group.
“Wow!”
“Well, mine's so old, he stopped wearing braces!” said Carmen, the bookworm. Who despite being one of the smartest kids at school, she didn’t realized that her statement made little sense. Either way it worked.
“Wow!”
“I wish I had a boyfriend” lamented Penny, the cheerleader, who was the only one who answered honestly as she looked down the window and see the boy she had a crush on; a blue headed boy known as Gumball.
“What about you, new girl?” Masami said as she turned to a redhead girl who remained mostly silent the entire time. “Do you have a boyfriend, Pumpkin?”
Pumpkin, a dumb play on words from the term Country Bumpkin, because she had moved with her family from a rural town.
“No, I don’t have one.” ‘Pumpkin’ Cake answered honestly. “But there was an older boy back in my home town!” That’s part was true. Philip also known as ‘Pip’ was an English boy, whom she had a crush on.
“Hmm. A likely story.” Masami said not believing her. “You don’t fool me, I’m sure he doesn’t even exist.”
Pumpkin wanted to protest and yell at Masami to take it back, but she didn’t want to cause a scene in front of the rest. Since she was new at their school, she didn’t want to mess things up and fit in with the rest.
“See she can't even defend herself!”
“Cut it out, Masami.” One of the girls intervened, It was Carrie, the resident Emo/punk rock chick (don’t ask it’s complicated) who also happened to be a ghost. Yes, a ghost. And considering the weird stuff that happens in Elmore, heck in California in particular, a ghost wasn’t all that strange.
“Don’t pick on her when you too don’t have a boyfriend!” Carrie pointed out, finally tired of Masami’s attitude.
“I have a boyfriend!” The rich girl responded defensively. “he is... it's...Darwin!” she said after taking a quick peek at the window.
“Darwin!?” The adoptive brother of Gumball? It was a little too hard to believe.
“Yeah, he's great because... he's got legs and, you know... a head.” She finished lamely, not knowing anything about the boy.
“Okay…” Carrie sum up everyone reaction with just one word. “Anyway. I just want to say that MY boyfriend is the best!”
“Oh yeah? Why?” asked Masami, again not believing any word. I mean, how can a ghost have a boyfriend?
“Not only he is older, he has a job!” Carrie revealed, wowing the rest of the girls.
“No way! Prove it!”
In an instant Carrie took out her cell phone and showed them a picture of her and her boyfriend on a date at a concert of a famous rock band.
“By the way, his name is Fives!”
[Extra]:
“Stop it XeroM! You don’t know what you’re doing!” Yelled out MoreX who was currently chained to a radiator and being forced to watch how his ‘evil’ counterpart XeroM kept on adding on stuff to the story he had created from the heart.
“If you continue like this, soon you will run into a plot hole so big that even you can’t cover up with excuses. It will be the end of my story!” MoreX only hope was for XeroM to open her eyes and see reason before it was too late.
“OUR story!” XeroM snarled with anger “Remember that we are still one and the same! Only that I am superior and far better writer than you!” How dare he claim ownership for the stories? Even if MoreX never realized it, she had being there from the very beginning, influencing his writing. She had as much claim for ownership as he did!
“Please, listen to me!” MoreX pleaded but it fell in deaf ears.
“Now have you begun writing the next chapter yet?” The captor said with a more relaxed manner than before.
After her captive refused to answer, she walked towards the computer she gave him and read what was written. She knew that despite his protests, MoreX would continue writing no matter what. It was in his nature.
“Good, very good! A little short but still, a decent job.” Though she was happy with the result, she would never give a direct compliment to her obviously ‘inferior’ self. “Now after you’re finished I’ll just add my extra and the chapter can go up!”
“Please XeroM, I know that you think you want this because you think our readers want it, but that’s not true! It is intrusive and distracting; it doesn’t add anything to the story itself, and soon our very existence will be the catalyst that would cause our readers to stop reading!”
XeroM stop herself and remained still while she pondered his words. Maybe, just maybe, he finally was able to reach to her. But his hopes were instantly dashed when XeroM began moving away, leaving him all alone.
“XeroM?”
“Sorry, but that’s not for me to decide. It’s our readers.”
