//------------------------------// // Ch. 33 - The Divide // Story: Bad Company // by Symphony //------------------------------// My mouth was wide open as I took rushed steps forward in silence and before she could say anything I threw my arms around her and held her tight to me. I felt her arms tighten around me and I crouched down and put my head low to her shoulder. The stupid tears in my eyes started spilling forward slowly. I heard her sniffle and she rubbed her head to mine. “We thought you were dead, Jay...” She choked up. “The police couldn't find you and they couldn't trace your phone!” Her grip on me tightened even further. “We had just started planning for your funeral...” I eventually separated from her and wiped my face clean with the back of my hands. The pit in my stomach grew with every word. A low, gravelly chuckle came from my throat. "W-well, I told you that it was ha-hard to explain..." She took a step back and looked me over, a trail of tears came from her eyes but a small smile present on her face. “You never stop to impress me with the things you get yourself pulled into, do you?” I gave her a weak smile back. "Yeah, but getting displaced in a dimension of colorful ponies takes the cake!" We both laughed awkwardly but eventually, it got quiet again. She sighed and sat down on the way too small bed, rubbing her arms. I took off my hoodie and gave it to her. She accepted it and quickly put it on. I sat down next to her and she leaned over and put her head on my left shoulder. “So... Since you never came back...” Her head pressed harder to my shoulder and I could feel her start to shake lightly. “Does this mean that I'm also trapped in this place with you?” I sighed and put my head on top of hers. “I couldn't come back because... Well, I'm guessing you could see that doctor pony having a horn?” She nodded. “That means they can use magic. I'm not talking about sleight of hand stuff that dad does, I'm talking teleporting, levitating. Magic magic.” Her eyes widened a little but I took her continued silence as a cue to continue. “The princesses told me that from the research they did, doing dimensional travel on command is dangerous for both worlds but they have some ponies still testing things...” I shook my head a little and frowned. “Here's the kicker; they can with a ton of work but it's really dangerous.” “...Magical pony princesses?” She eventually asked. I chuckled. “Believe me, I know.” We were quiet for a few more minutes, just sitting on the bed. “So for the last few months, you've been in a room like this?” I shook my head. "No, I got my hands on some money by dumb luck and bought myself a house in a smaller town a few hours from here. A couple of weeks later I got a job leading a product line in an industry." I stood up and stretched. “So, you just got up and kept going?” She asked as she also stood up. I looked down at the floor and rubbed my left hand to the back of my head. “Not really... It was hard. Really hard. I was able to get back up on my feet cause I made... friends.” I fished my phone out of my pocket and unlocked it, browsing through some images. The first one I saw was of Twilight and me. She had fallen asleep and I had found a marker and had written 'Egghead' on her forehead, posing in the photo with a thumbs up and a giant grin. "This is Twilight Sparkle, the first pony I got to know when I first arrived." I scrolled to another picture, this one had me and Rarity. Rarity was making a duckface and I was doing a horrible rendition of it that made me look like a human thumb more than anything. “This one's Rarity, she made clothes for me. She made that hoodie I gave you.” I paused at the next picture and coughed. Spike had taken this one, it was Rainbow and I punching each other. He had managed to capture the exact moment the hits landed somehow. My cheek was pushed in from the hit, I was biting down on my tongue with my eyes crossed. Rainbow's eyes were closed and she was gritting her teeth. I felt mom glare daggers at me. “This is uh... Rainbow Dash. We didn't have the best of introductions...” Note to self: Don't tell mom about the lightning hit. Not for my safety but for Rainbow's. I turned the phone to myself and slid over to the next picture and it made me stop completely. 'Strawberry...' My face fell a little. How will she react once I tell her about Strawberry? Will she freak out? I have to tell her though, I'm bringing mom back to Ponyville so she won't be stuck in some stale hospital room. There's no way in hell I can do that to her... I ran my hands down my face and grit my teeth. “I... Also met someone.” I started browsing faster through the image gallery as I observed her reaction. Her eyes narrowed a little and she pursed her lips. “I'm assuming that this is a..?” I felt my heart sink and I shrunk back. I finally found the first picture I took with Strawberry. I saw several things flash across her eyes. Disbelief, anger and some disgust even... “She is a pony, yeah... A unicorn and her name's Strawberry. She's one of the first ponies I got to know and she helped me a lot after I was told I couldn't go home.” I stopped what I was doing on my phone and looked over at her. “She's been a huge help for me... I was in a really bad spot and... and I didn't know what to do with myself.” “She didn't leave me on my own, she picked me up when I needed it the most and I do anything I can for her.” "So after two just months, you became involved with a pony?!" She stared up at me and crossed her arms. "Did you ever think this through about how this could affect you if you can come back to our... world ever again?" My eyes averted from her and I rubbed my left arm. “I was told that I couldn't go home and I wanted to be able to build something with my life here...” I felt my hands start shaking. Mom's eyes softened and she walked over to me and put her hands on mine. “I shouldn't be judgemental, you always knew what was good for you... I don't know how you've been or what you have been forced to do. It's a shock for me but...” She pulled me back into a hug. “...Do you love her?” My cheeks flushed. “I-I do... She lives with me.” I heard a knock on the doorframe behind us and mom peeked past me. Her eyes widened and she quickly went back to staring right at me. "Jay, there are two very big horses behind you.” I arched an eyebrow and looked over my shoulder. Celestia and Luna stood there and was staring at us, trying to look past me at mom. “Fuck's sake, guys!” I turned around and jammed a finger at them. “First, you send me in here alone and then waltz in out of nowhere!” I crossed my arms. “Turns out that this human mare as you so eloquently said, Celestia...” I took a step to the side and mom was exposed to them. Her arm latched to mine. “Is none other than Kathleen Andersen, my mother...” Celestia and Luna's jaws dropped. Their eyes were instantly drawn to her. After half a minute of silent staring, Celestia composed herself. She took a slow step forward. “Well, I can certainly see the similarities between you.” She said. “I'm Princess Celestia, diarch of Equestria and this is my younger sister, Princess Luna.” “Nice to meet you, your um... Highnesses?” Mom replied. We began talking about what happened to bring her to Equestria. Apparently, she was cleaning my room because they were leaving it the way I left it. When she opened the closet door, she had also timed it with a dimension portal thingy. Being curious, she had passed through. The house she arrived in was an abandoned old house though, she had walked out and she heard the door from inside close and went back inside to open it and there was nothing there. She left that house and walked for a day until she found the pony settlement where she was brought here. After a few minutes of conversation with the princesses, mom had begun to calm down a little but she was still watching them warily. I walked past Celestia and motioned for her to come with me. She raised an eyebrow but followed me. I led her down another hallway away from the ponies and I looked around and there wasn't a guard patrolling here. I turned around and crossed my arms. “We need to talk about this...” “What do you me-” I clamped her muzzle shut with a hand and brought her closer to me. I gritted my teeth. “I don't know how and I don't care about your pissy magic morals...” I snarled and brought her closer. “But we're gonna make sure that she can go home.” I released it and Celestia wiggled her nose and sneezed. I pointed to the hallway we had just walked from. "She doesn't fucking deserve this! She worked her ass off to raise my siblings and me right!" I punched the wall closest to me and pointed a finger right at her nose. “I can't let her stay here, I can't do that to dad! They were preparing for my fucking funeral! They thought I was dead and it would have been better that way!" I breathed heavily. "Please Celestia..." I wiped my face with the back of my hand. "Find a way for her to go back. I'll take her to Ponyville with me in the meantime..." I turned my back to the wall and slid down so I sat down against it. “I'll notify the mages to restart their work and stabilize it.” Celestia shook her head. “I don't know how long it will take them or how it will turn out... But it's the least I can do for you.” I ran a hand through my hair. “It's all I ask for... She really doesn't deserve to go through the same shit as I did...” “We'll send you a letter when the spell is ready. Luna and I will participate in the research to make it quicker.” Celestia said, levitating me to my feet and brushing some dirt off my clothes. “Come, let's go and talk to your mother about all the things you did since arriving here...” ...Fuck. -Third person switch- The next day... Strawberry walked through town with her head low from fatigue, she had been absolutely swamped by work and the stress was really building up. Coupled with the fact that Jay was away and not there to cheer her up with a dumb joke or just tell her that everything will be fine was also taking its toll on the mare. It was late in the evening when she was finally able to leave her work for another day. Mayor Mare had insisted that she'd go home and wouldn't take no for an answer. Poindexter had left this morning to take a train back to Manehattan, leaving her alone in the house. Even Twilight hadn't been around much after Spike and her came back from Canterlot. Then Strawberry learned of the changes surrounding Twilight. Her ears perked at a peculiar sound and she looked up in the sky. Her ears perked when she saw that it was a royal chariot coming down for a landing on the other side of town where the house was. 'Jay's back!' A smile broke out on her face and she started running through town, ignoring all the stares of the ponies around her. A few minutes later, she arrived and quickly opened the gate just as the chariot flew away. She saw the familiar shape of Jay and another human standing next to him. It was shorter than him and she wasn't able to get a better look as Jay unlocked the door and walked inside, a hand on the other human's shoulder. Her pace slowed down to a trot, then eventually a slow walk. The door closed and Strawberry waited, staring at the door before shaking her head and entering. She heard a door on the second-floor open and voices talking. “I'm in the room in the middle there if you need anything, make yourself comfortable. Love you.” She heard Jay say. Another voice spoke before the door closed. Jay's heavy footsteps came back around the corner. She stared up at him as he walked downstairs, looking down at the floor. He glanced up at her. Before Strawberry could speak, she was scooped up in his arms and hugged tight. “...It was worse than I thought.” He said, his voice muffled by her coat. “The woman was my mom, Kathleen...” He let out a shuddering breath. “The princesses are trying again to test out dimension magic.” Strawberry's jaw dropped and she hugged him around his neck, holding him close. “Jay... I'm sorry that you have this happen to you...” She chewed on her lip. “I can't say much but I'm here for you...” Eventually, she separated from her hug and wiggled in his grasp. His hold didn't budge. "Have you eaten anything? I was late at work and we brought in some food." Jay nodded and yawned. He promptly did a one-eighty and walked back up the stairs, right into their bedroom. “I haven't slept at all last night, was too busy thinkin' about stuff...” He plopped down on the bed still fully clothed and let his arms drop to his side. She leaned down and kissed him gently on the nose. “Let's get some sleep then, okay?” He scrunched his nose and she giggled. He sighed. “Yeah...” Strawberry moved from her position and Jay took off his shirt and stared up at the ceiling before rolling over to face her. “I missed you...” She smiled and curled up to him, taking her rightful place as the small spoon. “I missed you too...” Then the room became silent and soon after she could hear his quiet snores as he went out like a light. Her head churned with thoughts of what would happen tomorrow when she would meet and talk to his mother who undoubtedly had questions for her to answer. That was future Strawberry's problem, though.