//------------------------------// // The Fall Formal // Story: I just wanted to go to Equestria! // by Ditz //------------------------------// “I’m moving away, Lemon.” I say nothing in response. I CAN’T say anything as my brain struggles to catch up, almost as if the words were a high maintenance program, slowing down my thought process… but I know that isn’t the case. It’s a simple fact. “I’m moving away, Lemon,” Pinkie’s words replay in my mind as I look at her. I try to focus on the barely audible sounds of music, trying to pick up something to distract me, something to keep the knot in my throat from preventing me from replying. I have to say something! Anything! Pinkie’s face through this whole thing remains unfazed. In fact, she just proves my fears correctby turning away and opening the door revealing the show of colors that encompass the gym tonight. “I’m going back inside,” she says through the midst of my silence. “P-Pinkie!” I finally manage to call out, reaching out to her and grabbing her arm. “W-why tell me here!? Why would you tell me in something like this? I just…” I can’t even finish my sentence. I fall to my knees, with my hand still attached to her still arm. “Why now…?” “Lemon,” she says my name, kneeling to my level, and giving me a big smile. “We are here, son!” Wait, what? “Son! Wake up!” “Ah!” I scream as loud as my lungs would let me, my eyes opening widely, seemingly closed. “I, what, how?” I look around confused. Breathing heavily, I take my surroundings, recalling nearly instantly where I am: I'm in a car with father right now, on the way to the dance. “You okay there, Lemon?” dad calls me. I turn to face him, and I catch that paternal look of worry, very becoming of a father who cares. “You know, it was just a twenty minute ride. Did you have a bad night’s sleep?” The yawn I let out gives away my response better than I ever could do it myself—guess the insomnia finally let off. “Yeah, I did. Guess I was nervous, is all…” I laugh it off with an indirect half-lie. He laughs right back, playfully punching my shoulder. “No need to be nervous about a dance! It can’t be worse than how I met your mother, huh? That day was h- “Hot, wet, and you didn’t even buy what you wanted from ‘Bed, Bath and Beyond’ yeah, yeah,” I complete for him, reaching critical mass eye rolls. I recall having had this story told many times before when I was younger; I could never forget that so easily. “Bed and what now?” dad asks seemingly confused. “You mean ‘Quills and Sofas’ right?” he shakes his head, chuckling to himself. “I'll be! Guess, I don’t tell you that story as often as I thought, huh? Don't worry, I'll make sure to change that." “Wha-” I catch myself trying to question what he is saying, but just then, I remember that was told to me by dad: my other dad… but wait, how would this dad know about it? “Lemon?” “Dad!” I shout in response. Lamely. “S-sorry,” damn it, what does it matter how he knows? I have far more important things to deal with… no offense, dad. “I told you not to worry!” he tells me again, ruffling my already messy hair. “Come on, I even let you borrow my lucky tux!” he wastes no time in reminding me of the old, gray thing that passes for a tuxedo. “You are right, dad,” I decide to humor him, allowing me to finally leave his car. “Remember to protect yourself if you bring Pinkie over!” he shamelessly shouts as he starts the car again, and I stand embarrassingly silent while watching the old man drive off, leaving me alone on the sidewalk. I keep up my smile, silently waving at him with the one finger that counts, until he finally turns in a corner, and is out of sight. “I really don’t know what to say,” I mumble as I turn around, and I’m faced with the well acquainted Canterlot High School—but it feels different—there is something about staring at the school during nighttime, the moon shining behind the building, giving it a more foreboding appearance… … Or maybe, it’s the fact that I’m standing here, ready to head into a budget school dance in a gym. I’m going to place bets on the latter because I am big dick man who is afraid of nothing. I’m moving away, Lemon. Nothing, dammit! I finally force myself to walk to the entrance, passing a good amount of couples on the way. I’m sure I should be regretting it now, but I never paid particular attention to most kids in the school, and watching them walk hand-in-hand all prettied up gives ye olde ‘shipping machine’ gears some oil to go around for a bit. Some of them feel WRONG together, but I’m really not here to pair them correctly, am I? “Oh,” I exclaim out loud, noticing both Flash and Trixie waiting by the entrance steps… together… again. “Hey!” I call at them, waving vigorously to catch their attention. “Lemon!” they both respond in unison. “You two,” I come to a stop near them, the words already coming out of my mouth. “Are you two here… together?” It’s somewhat of an amazing sight when their faces go from confusion, to understanding; then, switching from disgust, to indignant, and finally to hate as they join together in saying the one simple word: “No!” “Alright, geez! No need to shout,” I chuckle, slowly backing away. It’s then that I can appreciate their own outfits. Flash (much like me) is wearing a tux—but his is black, and shiny, and better than mine in every conceivable way... ANYWAY, we also have Trixie doing the opposite by wearing what’s probably an old and simple, but very fitting and relatable blue dress. “You two look, um, good.” “And you look almost acceptable, Lime,” Trixie replies, reaching over my shoulder and fixing the neck of my suit. “You appear to have done a bit of a messy job with yours, as expected.” “N-no! I was just doing some, er, homework!” right. My mind wasn’t exactly focused on perfect attire etiquette. “Trixie caught me up with everything that happened earlier,” Flash speaks up, quick as always to point out the obvious. “How are you holding up?” he asks, voicing his clear concern from behind Trixie's busied body. “I'll answer that when tonight is over,” it’s all I really want to say and do at this point. “Forget about that, is Sunset here yet? She said she would be coming.” After a moment of silence, I then hear Flash mutter in a low voice. “Wait what?” “Waiting for me?” speaking of the devil, Sunset Shimmer appears. Strangely enough, she wears a very simple white dress of her own, which makes her seem very plain, and we ARE talking about Sunset ‘Bacon Hair’ Shimmer here. “Glad you made it!” I greet her, and I do mean that in more ways than one. When I met this new version of her, she had started off being very shy and reclusive, but she has really come out of her shell in the past few weeks; today being a special exception in which she actually offered to come, to my delight. “And hey! The four of us get to finally hang out together!” “Huh?" Sunset asks with a questioning stare, looking us over with a confusing demeanor. “Really? Who else is coming? Are they late?" Silently, I turn around to look at… Trixie. She also turns her head and stares at the empty spot behind her that Flash occupied no more than a few seconds ago. “Right, sorry… I meant three of us,” I answer dryly; I don’t want to question this right now. “Come on, let’s get this night on the way.” I'm thankful to the pair when they don't ask about it, but it really helps to walk through the mostly empty halls. It's a liberating feeling to traverse freely without constant pushing and shoving of the other kids trying to get to class. I guess that’s another way of seeing this night as something special. Maybe. We get to the gym entrance in a matter of minutes, having been led by the increasingly louder music which now booms loudly behind the door... and I just stand there. "Are you alright?" Trixie calls, naturally enough, noticing my hesitation. Feeling their stares digging into the back of my head, I take a deep breath before I impulsively push the door wide open, heading inside before I can think about it any longer. “Whoa,” awe is my first reaction as I take in the sight of at least fifty kids on the dance floor. “Crap…” annoyance is my second reaction. I look up onstage, and catch a glimpse of Vinyl, DJ’ing her heart out while bopping her head alongside the music—I'm guessing child labor isn’t too far for discount dance central. Saying nothing, Trixie suddenly dives through the crowd of dancers as Sunset and I watch with utterly lost expressions. “Wh- hey, wait!” I call out with Sunset in tow, poking our way through the packed dance floor and finding our way through the erratic showcasing of hands and legs. It’s almost as if we were trying to swim through a ball pit as I carefully try to not touch something I shouldn’t be in here. “Ow!” I groan as I inevitably bump into someone, falling down in surprise. “Damn it, that hurt!” “Oh, Lemon! Ms Shimmer,” shouts vice-principal Luna, a strange sight to see in the middle of the dance floor considering she is wearing her usual work clothes amidst the well-dressed… with the distinct difference of a powerful perfume aroma that I swear I smelled the moment I crashed. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there!” I shake my head, doing my best to look behind her as I do. “No problem! I was in a rush, and, er, have you seen Trixie? She went through here, and I think we lost her.” She commits to her best impression of me and shakes her head in response. “I haven’t, sorry! I’ve been too busy keeping an eye on everyone here, what with my sister suddenly going on into dealing with something ‘more important’” she says with added finger quotes which I'm assuming are sarcastic as all hell. “Thank you!” I thank her and walk off with just a little bit of guilt. I bet she wanted to somehow dump some of her woes on me through the loudness, but we have our own stuff to worry about. I notice the first sign of freedom when I see the snacks table in the distance, and make a beeline towards it. Fortunately, the first thing I meet when we get there is Trixie, ‘coolly’ taking a sip from a cup, eyeing us with that smug look of hers. “What took you so long?” she utters, raising her nose in an especially smug show. “What are you doing?” I ask without delay. “Why did you run-off like that?” “You,” she confusedly answers. “Trixie isn’t blind! I can see how worried you really are. And Trixie is definitely sure you will do your best to procrastinate the issue somehow.” “What the hell are you getti-” she interrupts me and her confusing point by, well, ‘pointing’ over the other end of the snacks table. “What are you... oh,” anxiety then fills every fiber of my body when my eyes suddenly spot the Mane 6 standing together, drinking some punch. ‘I’m moving away, Lemon,’ the dream runs through my head again. I think of everything that could go wrong the moment I approach them, or heck, to even think of potentially approaching them, what with Twilight’s magic that could maybe read minds or something. “And there she is,” Sunset comments, likely talking about one, and ONLY one person; Pinkie Pie. Trixie stands in front of me, blocking my view and giving me an intense glare. “So, what will you do, Lime?” “I, well,” what can I even do? Should I go for it? Would they walk away from me the moment I get there? Outright ignore me? A combination of the both? They could even get Rainbow to beat me up if they wanted: the possibilities are endless. “Look at her Lime,” Trixie whispers into my ear, pointing towards Pinkie. That one look was all I needed. “Screw it,” I don’t waste a single second as I walk past Trixie, insecurities be damned. There is no need to specify what they are doing here or what they will think as I approach them. All that matters is the pink girl with the cute dress and the tiny hat who seems like the most miserable person in the room… and that’s just not the Pinkie Pie I know. “Pinkie!” I call loudly when I stop in front of them, not that they would be missing me obviously going towards them. “Lemon? What are yo-” “Don’t,” I interrupt whoever said that. “I’m just here to dance with my girlfriend.” I don’t bother to look over Twilight’s reaction to the casual confession as I instead focus on Pinkie. “Er, will you?” her face lighting up with a brief smile coming into existence is all I need. “You smiled! I’m taking that as a yes!” I grab her hand without further questioning, and I pull her to the dance floor, and... well I admit I have zero idea what I’m doing as I pull the vague memories of ballroom dancing I did one time from the depths of my brain, putting one hand on her waist, and wrapping her hand with the other. “Lemon?” I catch Pinkie’s low voice through the loudness of the music, and surely, it’s clear that she is confused by what I’m doing if her face is anything to go by, but she hasn’t said anything against it. I’m more surprised by this as the other kids who were doing their own thing catch sight of it, and proceed to to stare and probably judge not just me, but Pinkie, harshly… oh god, what if this was a mistake? My thoughts are cut short at the sound of a record scratch, and suddenly, the previously fast-paced dance track turns into slow, more soothing music. “What the?” I look over to the DJ podium, noticing Trixie standing next to Vynil, giving me a wide smile and a curt nod; never in my life did I think I would call Trixie a bro… er, sis. “Whoa,” I feel Pinkie’s hair suddenly poking my skin, and notice her head resting on my chest, fulfilling the highest amount of cliches I have being involved with in just one day when the smell of her cotton candy-like perfume reaches my nostrils. To prove me wrong and increase my record further, more couples join us on the floor, taking their significant others and dancing as well, joining us in this very cheesy bandwagon of sorts. But really, nothing else matters. All I need to care about is the fact that I’m dancing my messy dance with my girlfriend—my best friend Pinkie—and if we don’t think about it too hard, the world around us could just disappear and everything would be okay. “Lemon?” it feels like an eternity later when Pinkie finally speaks, breaking through my trance. I look at her face and she looks back, an unexpected second eternity passes as we stare into each others eyes, and she gives me a wide smile. “Lemon, I…” “Go on,” I encourage her. Here it comes. She nods weakly, struggling to speak. “Um, well… hey, what is that!?” she shouts suddenly, pointing behind me. “Wha-” I turn around without thinking about it, only to find other couples still dancing. “What? I don’t see any-” as I say the words, I turn back around just to find an empty spot where Pinkie was just milliseconds ago. “W-what?” I look up quickly, managing to catch Pinkie Pie leaving through an exit nearby. “Hold on, P-Pinkie…?” I don’t run after her. After that, I really can’t. Confusion over the whole thing leaving me instantly drained. Hold on, what? What just happened? Why did it happen? Why did Pinkie do such a thing? Is she playing with my emotions? Is this one of her ‘Pinkieisms’? Did I do something wrong? Danced particularly badly? Did I… “… happened? What happened!?” a voice calls, becoming instantly clear. “Lemon!” the voice calls again, and I recognize Flash’s face as he shakes me wildly. It’s a strange feeling as I find myself laid back against a wall, not even realizing I was moved. “Lemon! What was that all about? Why did she run off?” he asks again. I open my mouth to say something to reply to his question, but nothing really comes. There is no response I can give to explain something that not even have an answer to. And to be honest… “Do you know?” Flash asks again. “Why did s-” “It doesn’t matter.” “Huh?” “It doesn’t matter!” I shout, making Flash back away in surprise. I push myself against the wall and slide down to the floor, letting my drained body rest. “It’s over.” “Trixie calls out your obvious foolishness,” Trixie clearly speaks up, arriving on the scene. “You can’t just give up! You have to go after her!” “Did you not see what happened!?” I shout once again, this time catching the attention of others nearby. Though Trixie remains unfazed. “She literally played a trick on me to run off. It’s literally worthless.” Trixie struggles to speak, trailing on the first word while she tries to find a way to say anything. “Pinkie Pie is… she must be dealing with whatever she is going through in her own way, is all! Trust Trixie! You just need to be patient and have a talk!” "She is right, Lemon," Flash agrees with her. I turn to Flash, and I can't help but feel a burst of rage as my mouth starts moving: "Seriously!? You of all people? The man who literally runs away when he is near Sunset Shimmer? What would you know? You are god damn coward!" I breathe heavily as I finish, looking at Flash's stoic face, unflinching. I know what I said. "Lime!" Trixie calls out, looking enraged. “Shut up! Just leave me alone!” I shout, running off. I dive through the crowd once again, zigzagging through everyone to keep myself from being found, doing my best to keep my brain from exploding from everything. After a few minutes, I run for the nearest door and slip out, making sure to carefully close it behind me, and… and… “Nothing. That’s it, I’m done.” I sit down by the wall. I huddle up, and I think nothing… because nothing is better than anything else now. It’s just me sitting here. Nothing more. Nothing less. … … … *Creak* *Thunk* … … … *Step* *Step* *Step* … … … *Thud* … … … *rustle* ... *rustle* … … ... ... ... ... “She doesn’t really hate you, you know?” “What the?” I look up, my silence broken by the surprise appearance of Twilight ‘The Worst’ Sparkle sitting right next to me, watching me with a solemn expression and pretending that she cares. “What are you doing here? What are you talking about?” She doesn’t answer right away, focusing on finding a way sit on her legs comfortably. “I’ve known Pinkie Pie for a few years, you know? And whenever she feels sad, my friends and I were usually able to figure it out,” she begins speaking, taking a deep breath. “And yet, somehow, I couldn’t even figure out why she was sad today. Not this Pinkie Pie, at least. I thought trying to cheer her up as usual would work, but it didn’t.” “Why are you telling me this? I thought you hated me,” I ask confused. Is she trying to instill a false sense of security in me? Maybe she wants me to tell her something about Sunset, and this is how she’ll get it out of me. “Trust me, this doesn’t have anything to do with Sunset Shimmer,” she replies, somehow able to decipher my thoughts. “And contrary to your own belief, I don’t hate you.” “Well, you definitely turned on me the moment I defended her,” I scoff in response. “And you weren’t exactly nice about it either.” “That’s not…” she trails on, instead taking a deep breath. I sit there in the awkward silence, listening to the music in the gym as a way to distract myself from the horse woman right next to me. “You know, this body is really strange.” “Excuse me? Seriously?” I manage a laugh at the sudden change of topic. “Wow, that’s not exactly what I was expecting you to say, I’ll tell you that much.” “… Lemon, I don’t know what I’m doing,” she turns to me, giving me a saddened look. “I told everyone that I was a princess in another world, but I’ve never done any princess work, and much less something like this! Princess Celestia send me to solve something that I had no idea about! I tried to be serious and harsh because I had zero information, and I was going into this without a solid plan. I almost want to turn my focus away to studying this strange new body instead… just to forget about all of this for a moment,” she finishes softly, raising her hand and observing her wiggling fingers. Ignoring the obvious euphemisms to what ‘studying’ and her wiggling fingers bring to my mind, I ask: “Okay, now, why are you telling me this?” She clenches her hand into a fist, and quickly raising it, she punches my shoulder. “Because I want you to know that I do trust you.” We stay silent, her hand still hanging on my shoulder… awkwardly. “Twilight?” “… Er, I, um, it’s one of the things that this world’s Rainbow Dash would do a lot,” she whispers embarrassingly, pulling her arm away and hiding her face. “This is one of them, I mean! Er, s-sorry…” I do my hardest to hold my upcoming laughter, and I shake my head to show my still-very-clear lack of understanding. “But why? Why now? Why do you trust me so easily after yesterday? I just don’t get it!” Twilight shakes her head, giving me a more stern look. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m still watching Sunset.” “Then wh-!” “But!” she interrupts. “You don’t seem to be lying about her; you don’t seem to think you are, at least.” “What’s your poi-” “The point!” she sternly interrupts, doubling down and jumping on her feet. “The point is that when you asked her to dance, she actually smiled—just like that!” she slumps back down, sighing for the umpteenth time. “And the way you reacted to her running off! If that isn’t a clear sign you aren’t at least a decent guy, then I don’t know what is.” “Then why?” I sigh, laying my head back on the wall. “Why would she actually run off like that?” it’s the question I should have asked first, but I guess I was too angry to do it? Ugh. Is that even a good excuse? “My best guess is that she is afraid of something,” she comments, wrapping my shoulder with her strangely clumsy hand. “Tell me: do you want to find out?” she asks, staring into my eyes, as if trying to read an answer out of my expression. It's pretty obvious at this point. “I have to go,” I stand up quickly, my mind made up. “But Twilight?” “Just go; she left through the door right across,” she adds, thankfully giving me some clear direction. “I have to get back, and you need to find your girlfriend… I’m still wrapping my head around that revelation.” Funny enough. I’m still doing that myself “But thank you, Twilight. Really,” I smile and bide her goodbye, heading into the gym to jump into the crowd once again. As I move through everyone, I have to think, to wonder what the deal with Pinkie is. I probably grew even more frustrated as she continued thinking stuff on her head, but how was this affecting her, exactly? What is her mind going through, and why won’t she just tell me? That’s an answer I have to find sooner rather than later. “… Thank you all once again for coming; it is now time to announce the winner of this year’s Fall Formal Crown!” Luna’s voice booms loudly, not only stopping the music, but garnering everyone’s attention. “Thaaaank you!” I say silently, running the new clearing and into the parking lot at the other side of the door, leaving behind the cheery atmosphere, and entering into a dark space with an almost eerie silence. “Pinkie Pie!” I waste no time shouting her name towards the car-filled lot. I instantly regret not having asked what car they rode in here. “Huh?” before I can even think of a plan, a familiar aroma fills my nostrils. “That’s… cotton candy!” Doing my best to follow what could very well be her crouching behind a car, I call out, expecting to see her pink hair jump into view before running off again, but that doesn’t happen even as the smell gets stronger, and- “Oh.” I resist the urge to groan as I come across a car with stickers on the side: rainbow colored, lighting stickers, to be exact. It doesn’t take a genius to know who the vehicle belongs to. “What the?” I mumble, catching the sight of something sticking out besides the car. “What is that?” I cautiously take out my phone to shine a light on the thi- “Oh god, no!” I call out in a panic as the light shines down on the immobile body of Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie? Are you okay!? Pinkie!” I call out her name kneeling down to try t- no. TO wake her up! She is okay, damn it! Suddenly, I feel a sharp pain as something hits me over the back of my head. I fall to the floor, with my glasses flying off my face, landing safely for the sound of it to my passive relief. But what’s going on? What was that? I try to look around, breathing heavily, trying to look over my now blurred vision, not used to having glasses off my face after months of wearing them. “That felt good.” I frantically look around for the source of the voice, and stop as I notice the shape of someone in front of me. “W-what are yo-” my words stop as the figure moves again, an- *thunk* … … … “What!?” I ask, opening my eyes to the blurry world around. “Aah!” I hiss next as a sharp pain makes my head hurt like a bitch. “Fuck! Ah! W-what the hell just happened?” “You are okay!” I feel the embrace of someone jumping on me, and I recognize the previous sweet smell without fail “Pinkie… Pinkie!” I shout, wrapping my arms around her, the memory of her on the hard ground flashing momentarily, sending a chill down my spine. “Y-you are okay! You are, right?” “Yep! I just woke up from a nice nap! But my cookies didn’t make it!” she states, reaching into her hair and taking out what is possibly crumbled cookies. “Oh and here you go!” she goes on, handing me what feels like my glasses. “Lucky you, they didn’t break!” “T-thank you,” I put them on quickly, and my vision soon adjusts back. I look around quickly, finding I’m still in the parking lot (what will all cars and whatnot) but that alone makes me come to a realization. “Pinkie?” “Yeah?” “Why is it so quiet?” I ask, failing to listen to the muffled sounds of music in the distance. If the cars are still here, then why is it that the music stopped? Something is wrong. “That’s the right question,” a different voices says. I jump up, and appear face to face with none other than Principal Celestia herself. “Good to see you are alright.” “M-Ma’am!” she is the least likely person I expected to see here of all places. “What are you doing here?” “Molly!” Pinkie gasps happily, reaching out to hug the giant woman while I hold a laugh at that name. “Come now, Celestia. You are wasting time, here!” I look over to the newer voice, and I almost reel back when I see none other than human Discord right behind Celestia, casually talking to her as if it were nothing. “Pinkie!” I jump up in front of her, my mind rushing for ways to fight him. How the hell did he get out? How did h- “Lemon!” Celestia cuts in front, holding my shoulders forcibly. “I know this looks bad, but trust me when I say he won’t hurt you. Trust me.” “What!? Are you seriously defending that asshole!?” What the hell is up with her reaction!? Maybe I just went nuts! Yeah! Someone hit me over the head and I’m currently dreaming nutty stuff! What other explanation could there be? “Lemon! That’s no way to react to Mister Heart!” it feels unreal to say this, but it was Celestia who answered… yep, I’m still looking at her. She did it. “What the hell happened when I was out!?” I ask to the night sky. It makes more sense than anything here right now. “I told you not to mess with stuff you didn’t understand,” yet ANOTHER voice joins the fray; it’s Chryssa, freaking Chryssa! I stare at the unlikely pair completely dumbfounded, and then, just turn and walk away. “Okay, I’m going home now. I’m clearly hallucinating this all.” “You aren’t!” Celestia shouts from behind, catching up and stopping in front of me with a worried stare. “This is real, and a very serious thing!” “Yeah, it is! Just the fact that there is two convicts in a school parking lot! What the FUCK are you doing, Celestia!?” I shout at her, dropping any pretense of respect. Hallucination or not, this has gone way too far, and I’m not going to let it slide. “And one more thing! I j-” "This isn't about us!" she cuts me off, her shouting catching me by surprise. "The world needs help, and you are the only one we can ask!" "I, wait, what?" I try to response in turn, but words no good now. "W-what do you mean?" "What happened to our friends?" Pinkie speaks up, looking downright miserable as she does. "No one is in the gym!" she continues to explain. In our discussion we must have missed her going back towards the school to check. "Taken to Equestria," Celestia speaks, a sentence I never expected to hear from this version, at least. "And if we don't get them back soon, the world might be in danger." "You know?" I ask, feeling defeated at the sudden revelation. "Okay, anyone else want to add to the pile? I'm waiting!" I challenge, awaiting the next development. It can't get any worse than this. "Screw this," Chryssa speaks up, walking to the forefront of the group, stopping near me, and crouching to be at eye-level to say: "Tell me kid, what would you say if I told you the world was only twenty years old?"