After we got home, we just sat in the car talking more and more. Twilight was fun, a little nerdy at times, but that wasn’t bad. “Lauren was a nice girl,” she said pleasantly, changing topics from tesla coils.
I smiled. “Yeah, she’s alright. A little hyper sometimes, but I’d say she’s a great kid.”
“So humans just live on technology and that’s it right?”
I nodded. “I think you guys are so lucky in Equestria. I mean, it’s peaceful there right?”
“Well, what I heard of last was that there’s some tension on the borders of the griffon territory and then there’s the Everfree Forest, which is a whole other subject, but that covers most of the problems.”
“So that aside,” I said with a placid look on my face, “could you actually call living in Equestria a ‘love and tolerate’ lifestyle?”
“Why Alex, are you jealous?”
“You have no idea how jealous Twilight. The human world is filled with strife and unhappiness, sometimes I just can’t stand it. It’s lousy to spend your life knowing that we can try to make it a better place, but some stuff just refuses to change.”
She blinked at me, her ears lowered. She unbuckled herself and looked at me with concern. “I’m sorry to hear that,” her voice was so sad, like it was a knife through your heart. “Will you be okay when we leave?”
“Dunno, nothing’s certain in life; we just have to keep going as best we can.”
Twilight scoffed and nudged my shoulder. “And now you want to act like a philosopher? Make up your mind, are you sad or not?”
“Of course I’m not sad. I mean I’ll be sad, but not right now. If nothing else Pinkie might kill me if I go in there all mopey and depressed.” As a grin formed on my face, Twilight was restraining the urge to laugh, and losing horribly. I think she might’ve known where I was going with this. “Or she might do a random song, perhaps with a dance routine to boot.” With my added remark, she finally started to laugh.
After regaining her composure, Twilight opened her door. “We should get inside before-”
“Everypony starts to think we were making out in the car?” Can you blame me for wanting to make one last cheesy joke? Seriously, can you say it with a straight face? I popped the trunk and gave a quick glance over to see if I got a reaction at all.
“Before they decide to eat without us,” she told me. Her face bore a confused look that told me it sailed right over her head. It just told me I either had to tone down the low humor or try and get her some better social cues.
We got the bags out of the trunk; Twilight was cheating by using magic. After getting in the house, we made our way towards the kitchen, wanting to just put everything away and enjoy a good meal.
*****
Fluttershy gave me a nasty look at first glance, but warmed up quickly when I started to unpack my bags. “Sorry Fluttershy,” I said as I unpacked a bag of tomatoes and a head of lettuce. “I should’ve told you before we left. I’ll have to do my best at the vegetarian thing with everypony here.”
“Oh, um that’s okay Alex. I don’t think you should do something like that for our sake. It’s your nature and all isn’t it?” She didn’t sound like it was okay.
“Some scientists say it’s healthier for you so I think I can give it a try for a while at least.” I looked over to the sink and saw several utensils, machines, and pans waiting to be cleaned. “Is everything all set then?”
“Yep,” came Pinkie’s cheerful voice from the dining room. “We just finished preparing everything. So take your seats and we can get started.” The three of us exchanged glances, silently telling each other we’d get to the groceries and dishes after dinner. Well, put the dairy away then have dinner.
*****
That first dinner, it makes me hungry just trying to remember it, so I’ll save you the trouble of the mouthwatering goodness. That was my first actual vegetarian meal and I have to admit that I could get used to meals like that. Nothing was over spiced, the flavors felt balanced, and everything even looked appealing regardless of if you devoured food like Rainbow or had Rarity’s immaculate manners.
After that, we drew straws for dish duty. While Applejack was working hard on cleaning up our dirty dishes, Fluttershy and I were putting everything away. Shortly afterwards however Spike would come to me with a very interesting question.
“Um Alex,” he said with a curious tone, “what’s this thing?” He was holding up a black box that he had found somewhere
I smiled, it was a simple way to keep the dragon busy all day, for how many days would be a good question. “This is a video game system Spike. It allows you to play electronic games on it called video games. It’s time you learned what some kids in the human world do for fun. I encourage the liberal use of fingers in this case.”
“Fingers,” Spike gave a proud wiggle of his digits, “check.”
“Right, now I’m going to explain to you how to play the game that’s already in the system.” With that, I went into a simple explanation about the GameBoy and the game currently inside. After my brief explanation, he turned it on and got right to playing. I guided the little dragon to a chair and helped him into it.
As I turned around, I saw Twilight heading upstairs, perhaps returning to the study to read more. Rarity had moved over to the couch and was reading a magazine she found. As for Rainbow, well she was looking over a controller for my Xbox 360.
In my line of “work,” I’ve done many all-nighters. Though seeing Rainbow with that controller was just something I wasn’t up to trying to explain that night. I wanted to get sleep sometime before one in the morning tonight. Actually, because of staying up last night and being woken by an unruly slurping I needed sleep. “Put the controller down Rainbow,” I said with a stern look, “I’ll teach you how to play the Xbox in the morning. I’d like to get some sleep and that also means we can get food for when we run out because I could do my job. I have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow.”
“But you’ve got plenty of money Alex,” Rainbow returned with a skeptical look on her face. “I could see it all. You’ve got a wall around your home and a big, spacious house too.”
I locked eyes with her. “Do you actually live in a cloud house Rainbow?”
“Yes, but I-” Her wings were wide open, trying to make herself look intimidating.
“And you can move and shape clouds right?” I wasn’t raising my voice at all but eyes had started to follow the back and forth of dialogue. Well, except Spike’s which were still on the GameBoy.
“Yes but-”
“I have money because my parents had money.” Personally, I hated having so much with so little effort. I hated high society social functions, being around so many stuffed up jerks concerned with how rich they are compared to their peers was stifling. Having to dress up just to see a friend of my parents for ten minutes was something I despised most of all. After my mother passed, I cut my ties with those kinds of people. High society wasn’t my kind of society, I preferred the middle class and their day to day problems.
“Oh,” she folded her wings in, “Oh! So you just have nice things because you were given nice things Alex?”
“Kind of Rainbow, my parents left everything to me, my older sister Jessica, and my younger brother Rick. Jessica, well, she’s already gone so it’s just Rick and me now. He’s in the army and on tour right now so that just leaves me to handle all the money and taxes.” I had taken care of my parents in their final months. They wanted me to stay in school, and I graduated college with honors. After that though, I was home all the time taking care of them. My future could wait until they were gone, but here I am now still without the future I envisioned. “I just don’t like talking about it is all, makes me look like the bad guy in all of it.”
“What in the hay do ya mean Alex,” Applejack asked.
“My sister died serving in the army, my parents were terminally ill, and all I did was attend college then. Towards the end, I took care of my parents, but only after I finished my degree. My brother enlisted right out of high school and he’s over in the Middle East right now.” I gave a meek smile. “Of the three of us kids I was an idealist. I thought I could help make everyone’s lives better after I graduated, but here I am with the past keeping me rooted in place.”
There was silence after that and Rainbow had set the controller on the table. Rarity had put the magazine she was reading aside. Pinkie looked up at me from where she sat on the carpet. Even Spike had averted his eyes from his game to look at me. I told my story and I hope I made it clear enough for everypony to know not to push it.
“Ahm sorry for putting you on the spot Alex,” apologized Applejack after it all sunk in.
“It’s okay Applejack; I needed to get it off my chest sooner or later. I never really told anyone everything.” I got up and tried to give a warmer smile. “I’m going to go to bed now, I’ll teach you after work tomorrow Rainbow.”
I knew somewhere down inside of me that it was better to get it out of my system, eventually I’d have to explain to them why I lived alone in a place like this. The walk upstairs felt better with each step. It was a weight lifted from my mind and I went into my bedroom for a notebook and pen. I took them back to my brother’s room and wrote something by the desk lamp. I felt like I learned a lesson, not quite about friendship, but even if it wasn’t really like a friendship report I still addressed it to the princess, like it was one.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I know I’m not a citizen of Equestria. I know I’m not one of your little ponies. I’m not even sure you could fathom my species without seeing one. Regardless, I wanted to write to you because I think you would like the gesture at the very least.
Tonight I learned that keeping something about yourself bottled up for too long is the worst thing you could do. Eventually, it lingers long enough and you grow reluctant to move on. Today I shared one such burden with some of your subjects, my new friends.
After I said everything, I felt the weight of the situation start to feel less like a burden. Now it feels more like something that just happened to be a tragic part of my life. I feel like I can finally move on and I have nobody to thank but Twilight and her friends.
I hope you’re well,
Alexander
P.S. Everypony hopes to return to Equestria soon and I hope I can help them. If nothing else, I want you to know I’ll be doing my best to keep them from the dangers of my world.
I wondered if it was even possible to send a letter to Princess Celestia, or if she even understood what a human was. It was something that could fester in my mind for a while, a new puzzle to figure out when I needed to think about something.
As time passed, I relaxed in bed, staring that the top bunk as I tried to get to sleep. I heard the shuffling of ponies heading to bed and I even heard Spike climbing up the ladder to get into the top bunk. In the end, I figured that I remained an idealist; determined to help those who asked for my help. Even now for a few that never had to ask for it in the first place. I doubt that part of me will ever, truly change.