//------------------------------// // Episode 3: Personal Space!!! // Story: Life at Canterlot High // by Down with Chrysalis //------------------------------// Ugh...Did anyone get the license plate of that semi? I slowly opened my eyes to see the ceiling of my soon-to-be bedroom staring back at me. Which is strange considering I remembered being in the living room before passing out. What was I doing anyway before everything went dark in the first place? Let's see...I was starting to move my stuff to their proper rooms to unpack them later, then I realized how long it was going to take to actually do all that, then I think the doorbell rang? As I was pondering this I slowly started to get up from my bed, which the movers had considerately set up. Good thing too because with my gamer body, I didn’t know how I was going to move it upstairs. Okay so the doorbell rang, and I went to answer it. Who was at the door again? It suddenly hit me like a wrecking ball in a bad music video just who was at my door. This realization caused me to jump out of bed and begin looking around in panic. "Pinkie! Where is that demented sorceresses that somehow managed to clone herself?!" I frantically looked all over my room in fear for the crazy pink girl and her clone, but to my relief I caught no sight of them. "Okay, they’re not in my room…And I was just in bed, so was all of that just some sort of stress induced nightmare?" The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Pinkie may be a bit...okay really weird but not even she could break the laws of science so easily. There’s no way she could have cloned herself just to torture me! I mean unless she had some sort of magical pond that cloned whatever was reflected in its surface, but that only happens in the Twilight Zone, I reasoned. Yeah...that must have all just been a nightmare. Maybe I could use this as an excuse to do less in gym? My fantasies about using stress induced nightmares as an excuse faded however when I noticed that there were a number of moving boxes in my room. That's weird, last I'd checked I hadn't even gotten to the upstairs stuff yet. Heck I haven't moved anything yet! So why are- *CRASH* My thoughts were interrupted from a sudden crash from downstairs, as well as a familiar voice calling out, "Watch it Pinkie! The guy may be a jerk but that doesn't mean we can trash his stuff!" This was soon followed by another very familiar voice. "Sorry Dashie! But you should see some of this cool stuff he has!" Now you'd think that I would act rational when it comes to people being in my home without my knowledge, you know, hide in a closet and call the cops. But what you fail to realize is that they were messing with my stuff. Years of collecting nerdy merchandise and gaming supplies could be in danger if I didn't act fast. My ‘stuff is in danger’ senses are tingling! MUST! SAVE! MEMORABILIA! With that thought I booked it out of my room and practically jumped down my staircase to stop my 'friend' from damaging any more goods. What I saw downstairs was both strange and unexpected...and slightly awesome I have to admit. In the center of the room was that purple girl from school who was the closet manga freak. It looked like she was using one of my empty boxes as a stand and in the middle of giving orders. Off to the side were Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, both of which were wearing some of my past cosplay helmets from Comic Con. Pinkie was wearing a Darth Vader helmet while Rainbow was trying to squeeze her head into a Red Rescue Ranger helmet. Now usually I would have been a little bit peeved at them for putting on my old stuff without my permission, which if you couldn't tell was rarely often, but even I can let some things pass. I mean there's getting mad for something deliberate, but then there’s times when things are just accidents. That being said, we all just sort of stared at each other for a decent couple of seconds before I cough into my hand to break the silence. "Well, this wasn't what I expected. What are all of you doing in my house?" Instant regret came from speaking as the now helmetless Pinkie appeared almost instantaneously next to me with a huge smile on her face. "Oh well you see after you passed out I got super duper worried so I called in my friends to help out! After we put you to bed I started to feel bad because I caused you to faint so I got an awesome idea to make it up to you! My friends and I decided to help you unpack and stuff!" Personal space Pinkie! Personal space! I internally shouted as I slowly pushed away the hyper pink fluff girl, before giving doubtful looks towards Rainbow and the purple girl. "Okay, how'd she rope you two into helping? We weren't exactly 'buddy buddy' at lunch, and I don't even know your name." While the purple one just gave me a sheepish smile, Rainbow joined Pinkie in invading my personal space as she wrapped her arm around my shoulders while saying, "Ah come on pal, what's a favor between two feather fighters? Besides you gotta get something for showing up those Dazzle jerks during lunch today." After giving her a blank stare, I brushed her arm off my shoulder and scuttled to the other side of the room so that I could breathe without anyone in my face. "First of all I highly doubt having a feather war during a boring documentary means you owe me anything, and secondly, no one owes me anything for telling off those Disco rejects. I just did what everyone else should have done." "Well not really,” the Manga girl spoke up. “Practically every student is terrified of what the Dazzling's are capable of. No one really wants to stand up to them since they don't want to become the laughing stock of the whole school." "Yeah! That and those meanie mean pants are always ganging up on everybody!” Pinkie add her two cents, invading my bubble once again. “They even popped my balloons during my welcome party for them! Can you believe that they would do such an evil thing as popping a balloon?!" "Wow, truly they must be the vilest human beings on the planet,” I rolled my eyes, ignoring her tears. "I know right?!" she declared, practically pressing her forehead into mine. In response, I pushed her face away, and continued talking to the purple girl. "Look um-You, I've dealt with my fair share of bullies both in real life and online, and those three have nothing on any of them. If anything they should be the ones being bullied, I mean have you seen the ringleader’s hair? Is she going for a solar system look with planets Dopey and Grumpy orbiting her?” While this got a giggle from Rainbow and Pinkie, Purple girl scowled at me. “My name is Twilight Sparkle first of all, if you didn’t know you should have asked. But anyway aren't you worried that the Dazzling's might, I don't know, ruin your reputation or something!?" Geeze, you'd think that it was her that mouthed off to them with how worried she is. Then again she does have that neurotic vibe about her, I thought with a raise of my brow. "What reputation? This was literally my first day, and the only reason why no one leaves me alone is because I made her cry on accident,” I answered, pointing to Pinkie. "Yeah Twi, Michael here isn't exactly the most popular guy at school,” Rainbow added. “Everyone pretty much glared at him the whole day from what I saw." "Okay so his reputation is already...undesirable,” she punctuated in annoyance, her eye twitching. “But the Dazzling's will only make it worse! You said so yourself Michael, Aria knows how to make people feel bad. She once got a whole club disbanded just by mocking the president of it!" I just rolled my eyes at that before I say stubbornly, "Look I can’t care less about people who I don't know. In fact, I intend not to know them,” I rolled my eyes in annoyance. “They can spread whatever rumors they want and do whatever clichéd bully trick they have, but I don't care. Unless they actively try and kill me then it’s no big deal." This declaration somehow made her eye twitch even faster somehow. Okay you barely know me and I made one of your friends cry, remind me why you’re so worried about my reputation again? Twilight closed her eyes, to help still the twitching I suppose and took a deep breath to try to calm down, but that went out the window when Pinkie spoke up again. "Yeah Twilight, you don't need to worry about ol'Micheal here! I mean he stared down that meanie Sunset Shimmer and didn't even flinch!" Dang it Pinkie! Why'd you blurt that out Twilight just calmed do- "HE WHAT!?" Surprisingly not only did Twilight shout in shock but so did Rainbow, but while Twilight's was more of an aghast one, Rainbow’s seemed to be more in awe. "Do you have any idea what you just did!?" Twilight shrieked, grabbing my shirt in both hands and shaking me. "Yo, hey! Personal space!” I cried as I wriggled my shirt from her clutches, “And aside from awakening your inner monster that's a nervous wreck thank you Pinkie, I don’t know or care." The eye twitching seemed to infect her other eye as she backed away from me and stood back up on her podium, and began to nervously pace somehow without stepping down. And while this did confuse me, I couldn’t think much on it before Rainbow pulled a Pinkie and was right in front of me. "Dude, are you telling me that not only did you stick up to those Dazzle jerks, but also Sunset Shimmer!?" "Look she was annoying me, so all I did was mock her for what I hoped to god isn't her natural hair color,” I admitted with a sigh. Before Rainbow had a chance to say anything Twilight snapped out of her little nervous pacing and exclaimed, "That's it! You’re doomed! You just made yourself the enemy of two of the top tier bullies in the entire school! They’re gonna get you suspended! No, even worse they'll expel you for sure with enough rumors and false evidence!" "Oh no, don't let them expel me from school,” I said sarcastically. “Truly my life will be over if I never have to go back to where I'm surrounded by people who I don't want to be near. Oh the horror." To that, a strange look came over Twilight. She looked at me as if I had just insulted her god, and had to purge the blasphemer from the face of the earth. It was this look that made me change my approach, lest I have to put her in my straight jacket to keep her from killing me. ... ... ... What? A straight jacket is useful for a lot of situations so I bought one, sue me. But yeah, with a sigh I begin to walk over to her while thinking, Okay, if anime and TV have taught me anything, it’s that you need to comfort a panicky person before reasoning with them. Hopefully this works. And so I reluctantly placed my hand on her shoulder to try and calm her down. "Look there’s no need to be upset. You barely know me and you’re getting so worked up about my problem when it’s not needed. So how about you take a few deep breathes and stop worrying about little ‘ol me, okay?" I was honestly surprised when she actually nodded her head and proceeded to do just that. Oh sweet that worked! I smiled and took my hand off of her. And those self-help books Mom forced me to read said not to do this, ha! In your face you brainwashing stack of meaningless words! While I was celebrating my win over those annoying over-worded and over-rated self-help books, Twilight finally managed to calm down. "Like I said I can deal with those idiots. No matter what they do I'll just ignore it and go about my day to. You should to or I'm afraid you might have a mental breakdown,” I replied smugly. And I do not need to be blamed for that thank you very much! I then noticed the other two girls giving me smug looks of their own. "What's with the smiles?" I asked in confusion. "Weeeelllllll,” Pinkie answered while Rainbow’s smirk grew, “for someone who claims to not want any friends you sure seem to be good at doing friendly things!" My eyes widened at her accusation, so I quickly tried to dial it back with a scoff. "I-I was just stopping your friend from having a mental breakdown in my house! I do not need my neighbors thinking I'm psychotic if she goes crazy in here!" "Suuuurrreeee...,” both Pinkie and Rainbow said mockingly as they both shared a look. Huffing in annoyance I crossed my arms and declared "Usually I would be shoving you all out the front door since I didn't invite any of you in. But considering I'm very lazy and don't want to do all this work by myself I'll let you stay. Keep in mind I will kick you all out if one of you even tries to take one of my babie-I mean consoles. Understand?" And like that the three girls nodded their heads and resumed getting back to…whatever system they’d devised that they called work, with Twilight barking orders and the Pinkie and Rainbow following her whims. Should I feel ashamed that I'm letting three girls do manual labor? *CRASH* “Whoops, sorry about that bro,” Rainbow apologized picking up whatever it is she had broken. ...Nah!