Everyone sat in silence for a moment after Anthony’s last comment. It was the sort of awkward pause that you rarely see outside of a sex-ed class. The human looked over the faces present, attempting to gauge the tension of the room. Thinking carefully, he decided to speak up.
“Look… I may be trying to sound” Anthony ran a hand through his hair, trying to think of the word. “Candid, about all of this. But I won’t deny that the last year has been difficult, primarily for the reasons I spoke of. And I guess, taking a step back and looking at how ridiculous it all is has helped me keep what’s important in mind… which is hard, when everything you thought was important in life suddenly disappears.” Anthony finished, eyes downcast. He sat in silence for a few moments before a voice from his left spoke up.
“I get that... “ Fletch said. “Quite frankly, all of our situations, or what brought us to them are completely ridiculous… And in a way, our realization of that and reflection over it can help coping in certain regards.” He paused. Anthony looked up, eyes meeting the hippogriffs stoic features. “ But from my experience, acceptance doesn’t come from just believing that something happened, it comes from the acknowledgement of the reality of what happened. Even if it’s ridiculous, dissociating ourselves from that removes us from what we’re currently experiencing. You create a divide between yourself mentally and physically, and that generally leads to bad decisions.” Fletch finished, leaving the tension of the room as thick as it previously was. Anthony studied the hippogriff with mild surprise. Slowly, a sad smile creased his face. This whole situation was still so surreal. His mind had seemingly churned so much that it had left him with a numb lightheadedness slightly akin to the effects of laughing gas, or perhaps it was the alcohol. Either way, the hippogriff had a point. But at this moment, Anthony knew his reminiscing on the past wasn’t helping his mental state. It was time to change the subject.
“So, um…” Anthony spoke, catching the attention of those around. “What exactly am I here for?” He stared at the mostly blank and curious faces around him. “Not that I don’t appreciate being invited or anything! I haven’t actually talked this much in… a while. But uh…” As he trailed off Fizzle seemed to perk up.
“Well Oddities Anonymous is simply a support group! So by being a member you’re obligated to help those in the group who may need it and receive the same in return. But it’s not like we have quotas or anything, it’s more about, like, helping out friends!” She said cheerfully. Anthony nodded slowly.
“Okay, so like with the meat?” Anthony asked, glancing over at the hippogriff brothers. Fletch shook his head.
“Sort of, that’s just a sample bag we happened to have. We have a business to run you know? But if you wanted, we could discuss the details of getting you some of the real stuff later on.” Nock nodded at his brothers every word. Anthony frowned, thinking.
I don’t have any money, but maybe we could work something out… His stomach growled at the prospect. Fizzle, who had been gazing at the ground in thought with furrowed brows suddenly looked up.
“Wait a minute… Anthony, how old are you?” she asked, a hint of suspicion to her voice.
“Why do you ask?”
“You spoke earlier like you were really young!” Anthony cocked his head curiously.
“I am fairly young…” He said matter of factly. Fizzle pointed a hoof towards his face.
“But you have a beard!” The mare accused. Anthony instinctively reached to scratch the small patchy lumps of fur on his face.
“So?”
“Only OLD ponies have beards!”
“I’m not a pony…”
“So how old are you!” Anthony was getting frustrated.
“Well I’ve been here a year now so I’d be 18.” Fizzles eyes grew to the size of saucers.
“You’re not even old enough to drink?!” Fizzle shouted. Anthony frowned.
“Actually, most countries where I’m from the drinking age is~WOAH! Watch it!” Anthony called as Fizzle lunged for the bottle of alcohol by his seat. Anthony quickly reached for the bottle, managing to lift it out of the way before the mare skidded by, successfully preventing her from slamming face first into the thing.
“And I think that just about concludes today’s meeting!” Discord said before snapping his talons. As he did so, the four walls including the doorway that surrounded the group began to lift up with the heavy sound of grinding stone. Anthony turned, startled as he watched the area around him open up, revealing them to have been sitting in the center of the previous room the whole time. Ahead of Anthony was the bowling alley, to his left the pool tables and bar, and above and below him was the oddly out of place square area of acoustaboard ceiling tiles and linoleum floor that marked out the areas of the room they had been in.
“Well, that’s one way to make an efficient use of space…” Anthony said. Discord chuckled heartily.
“Yes, indeed! Thought up this design myself believe it or not.” He gestured to the area around him with a flourish.
No shit… Anthony thought sarcastically.
“I’ve got you!” Came a sudden shout as Fizzle came by for another pass, snagging the bottle from Anthony’s lofted hands and sliding away across the floor. Anthony blinked a few times astonished, empty hand still held in the air. He looked at his outstretched arm and shrugged.
“Whatever, can’t stand the taste anyways.” He muttered, suddenly noticing that the other oddities were starting to stand up. As a few of the members around him began walking away, Anthony quickly turned to Fletch and Nock.
“Wait, do we just go?” He asked the brothers curiously. They both looked at Anthony and then to each other before Nock spoke up.
“Well, you can go if there’s somewhere you need to be, but ponies generally hang around for a bit. Plus, Fletch and I in particular spend the night here.” He finished. Anthony looked at the lion-pony in confusion.
“You live here?” Fletch shook his head.
“No, our hunting cabin is deep in Whitetail woods down the mountain, but we don’t exactly fancy walking home in the dark.” He explained. Anthony nodded in understanding.
“Anyone else stay here like that?” Fletch looked at Anthony and then around the room.
“You know what? We got a pool game to finish. Why don’t you sit down and we’ll answer any of your questions while we finish it up. We could also start working out a deal to get you some meat.” The idea seemed to excite Anthony as he bolted up from his chair.
“Sounds great!” He cheered.
As the two Hippogriffs and Human began to make their way away from the center of the room, Fizzle continued to lay on the ground, bottle in hoof and face against the floor as the group dispersed. She lay there motionless, dejected frown across her features until a large fuzzy paw patted her mane gently.
“Something the matter, my dear?” Discord said consolingly, Fizzle gazed up at the draconequus with puppy dog eyes.
“Nothing…” She said, her expression obviously betraying her words.
“Now, now, Fizzle you know you can tell me anything.” He said, giving the mare an encouraging smile. Fizzle looked up.
“I don’t know… I thought Anthony might pay a little more attention to me, that’s all.” She said with a hint of disappointment to her voice. Discord gave a light tsk.
“What? He seemed to be paying you plenty of attention to me! Did you perhaps expect him to have a bit more of a reaction to your teasing?” He asked, floating over the prone mare in a relaxed pose. Fizzle fuffed out her glassy cheeks.
“No! I just… maybe. But usually it’s a bit easier. But that’s not what I meant! I thought he’d want to hang out with me or something, (or at least try my soda…)” She finished in a whisper. Fizzle shoved her face harder against the linoleum floor and groaned. Discord raised an eyebrow that went ever so slightly beyond the confines of his face.
“Why Fizzle dear, there will be plenty of time to talk with the lad. I myself was planning on meeting with him sometime tonight.” He smiled deviously. Fizzle looked up, eyes sparkling with curiosity.
“What did you want to talk with him about?” She asked. Discord’s smile grew.
“Well, you already know that both him and I are not natives of these lands, correct?” He asked. Fizzle nodded. “I must tell you the truth, though I am a being that has traveled through dimensions for countless years, Anthony, his species at the very least, is entirely new to me…” He paused, staring over at the pool table where the human sat on a barstool watching the hippogriffs as they played, the three leisurely chatting with one another.
“New to YOU!... Wow…” Fizzle said, dazzled. Discord gave her a sidelong glance and scoffed.
“Don’t act so surprised, reality is quite expansive you know.” He lifted his claw, running the talons through his goatee. “But no. While it is difficult to make judgements on chance and possibility when you’ve traveled as much as I have, I truly believe his presence here is something special.” Fizzle giggled, rolling over.
“What? Are you saying it’s ‘destiny’ that he’s here or something? He doesn’t seem exactly like the hero type.”
“The ‘why’ is quite simple, but the ‘how’ not so much.” Discord said, ignoring Fizzles question. “You know what type of place he comes from right?” He questioned. Fizzle frowned and slowly sat up.
“I don’t know the specifics, but it sounded fairly normal based on what he said earlier.”
“He comes from a magicless world.” The draconequus said hollowly, continuing to float motionless in the air. Fizzle shrugged.
“Well, Minotaurs and Diamond Dogs don’t use magic. So how different could that really be?” Discord gave an amused look to the mare.
“You’re lucky that I like explaining things to you…” Fizzle giggled and waved a soda filled hoof at him in an “oh stop it, you!” manner. Discord smiled slightly.
“I’ll try to keep it simple. You know that in the past I have traveled through the planes of existence.”
“Like the pudding one?” Fizzle interrupted. Discord chuckled.
“Yes, that and many others. Traveling planes is an enormously difficult task, but it can generally be done by beings with significant enough power and knowledge. But for the sake of this explanation, imagine the planes of existence and reality like this.” Discord snapped his talons and with a flash of magic a miniature bathtub full of water appeared before Fizzle. “The water in this tub represents all possible planes of existence. There are an infinite number of them! So let’s say that I’m swimming around this tub and I happen to find a place that I want to come back to later, or maybe I want to track the ‘distance’ between two places in the tub. In that case, I make a marker of sorts.” With another snap of the draconequus’s talons, a small rubber ducky appeared in the pool with a thin string tied around it’s body that connected to the edge of the tub.
“When you understand how to find and utilize these markers, traveling around the tub and knowing where you are is quite simple. But there’s a bit more to it than that…” With a third snap. A tiny bucket of thick black oil appeared above the tub and unceremoniously dumped its contents into the clean water. “This small amount of oil represents areas that contain plains which are magicless. They go by a number of names but are most commonly called voids.”
Fizzle watched as the globules of oil dispersed through the water. The oil, being what it is, naturally didn’t mix with the water and floated in various clusters suspended at different points in the tub. “Because these areas are magicless, traversing them is extremely risky. In them, you no longer regain magic naturally, so you have a finite amount. But this is oil we’re talking about, it expels water, the longer you spend in the voids, the more your magic dwindles.” Fizzle lifted a hoof and tapped the rubber ducky, watching as it swayed in the water.
“Why can’t you just place a rubber ducky~ or marker in the void areas?” She asked.
“The markers are made using magic and as far as I know there is no reliable way to keep magic within them permanently.”
“But you’ve been in them before?” Discord nodded.
“Yes, but even with all my power I can only jump between two, or possibly three void planes before needing to return, and that itself is extremely risky. From the few dives that I have done I’ve either found little to nothing within the realms or otherwise completely unstable and hazardous INFINITY!” He paused, arms held high. “The nature of voids is considered to be one of the last great questions of everything! And to be in a room with a being that claims to come from a magicless world! Why, he could possibly be the key to uncovering the answer to one of the oldest questions in existence!” Discord said, seemingly excited. Fizzle tilted her head, looking up towards the floating amalgamate.
“Do you really care about answering that question, Discord?” She asked skeptically, he laughed.
“No, not particularly! But it undoubtedly makes him all the more interesting. Speaking of, I believe Anthony's just about finished speaking with the brothers.” Discord said, seeing the man begin making his way away from the pool tables.