39 Hours Earlier...
It was around the late evening, whilst Rue was being visited by Rarity and Fluttershy to help out with some clothing issues. Fluttershy stayed whilst Rarity left after they were finished. She’d been more open with me about how she felt being here every day, but despite today leaving a little patch of a grey-ish gloom over our heads, she still isn’t open enough to let me help her with some of her clothes.
I can respect that choice. Truthfully, I’ve not actually offered to help, just envisioned how it would go down mentally.
Today, we’ve had at least one encounter with some rudely entitled colts who think they can boss “lesser beings” around. Ironic, since we kinda did vice versa back on Earth. It’s strange, having almost human-like ponies, hmm… anthroponies if you will… and trying to belittle you as stuck up tw--
‘Cal, could you come here for a sec?’ Came Rue’s soft yet strong voice.
Her surprise question interrupted my thoughts perfectly before they could go anywhere else.
‘Yeah?’ I replied, an eyebrow raised as I peeked up from the magic book I forgot I was studying. ‘What’s up?’
‘Could you…’ She yawned, with a small “eep” on the end. ‘Could you carry me to bed? I’m too tired to take the wheels to that short-range portal machine.’
I knew exactly what she was meaning, but she’s never asked me to help her before. That was sometimes done with the other girls as well. I love how Rue has bonded with the eight girls.
‘What were their names again?’ I thought, as I carried her upstairs carefully whilst my thoughts flitted about. ‘Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Wallflower Blush, Starlight Glimmer... Wait a second, is my memory better than it used to be? I don’t recall being able to remember all of them so vividly and so easily.’
I left the thoughts to flutter away, for no better term, as she grasped around my neck. Our proximity was a new one. After reaching her bedroom door, I found my erubescent cheeks felt like they were burning strongly. Rue and I were definitely at the friend stage, but our bond just feels like it’s grown more than that.
After wishing her a good night’s sleep, and getting one in return, I felt a cozy and fairly warm glow form in my chest. Well, until it was replaced with a rather tingly, fluttery sensation. Of course, not like I’d been knocked out in a cartoon with stars, or birds around my head. Just like you felt like you had a crush, or were falling for someone.
Sure, we verbally flirted from time to time, but that was simply a platonic, mutual friendship. Probably like a pair of siblings who get along really well, regardless of what others think. But for those who don't know us, well, we liked to keep them guessing if we're siblings or not, just to keep our thoughts distracted.
I fell into a blissful sleep, hoping that tomorrow would be a better day for us. I wasn’t ready for the next step in this what-are-we-now stage of our friendship. If I could even dare to call it what I thought it was turning into; a growing love interest.
22 Hours Earlier...
The following morning, I awoke softly with a smile on my face. Only for a thick wad of something to thwack into the side of my head at the same time as a loud-ish crash reached my ears. I picked it up without looking at it, rubbed the side of my head and took a peek out of my open window. Well, the one that faced the road.
'Sorry, Mister!' A young voice, sounding sad and slightly hurt, called from below. 'I didn't mean to throw it that hard! I kinda got a bump and it kinda got thrown faster than I thought.' It was young Scootaloo, the little gir-- filly from the group of fillies who called themselves The Cutie Mark Crusaders.
'Are you okay though?' I yelled back just before I saw her with a faintly tear stained face, and her bike on top of her with lots of newspaper rolls sprawled around her.
'I'm fi-- no, I'm not fine...' She hesitantly replied, her tears flowing a little faster. 'My leg, it hurts.'
'Yeesh, talk about timing. I completely forgot the window was open. But I'm glad it was.' I thought to myself, after I closed the window and put on a temporary set of clothes.
I rushed downstairs loudly as I struggled to put a loose hoodie on, ignoring the zipper entirely as I opened the door and pounded my feet across the short section of grass. It was a bit of a struggle but eventually, I carefully pulled and pried Scootaloo's bike from her bruised legs, making sure she was okay and hadn't damaged her legs.
To make things worse, some snobby colt came trotting by and started sneering menacingly towards me. His deep blue fur a subtle shade brighter than the clothing he wore, I couldn’t help but sense his name was blue-related.
‘Oh look, the monkey has tried to trick a young foal into being helpful!’ He called out, the spoiled tone of his voice worse than the two from yesterday. ‘What’s the point of being nice when all you are is a weird looking, hairless ape that couldn’t care less for others than you do for yourself! You should be ashamed to be in the presence of us royal ponies in such atrocious attire! It’s not like y--’
‘OH SHUT-UP YOU BLUE-BLOODED, HALF-WITTED, ROYAL COAL-BAG AND LEAVE SCOOTALOO AND MY ALMOST-BOYFRIEND ALONE!’ Came the interrupting and extremely surprising screech from behind Scootaloo and I, which was so loud we both covered our ears and stared at each other.
To know that Rue had such a strong pair of lungs was astonishing. But the surprise that she dropped the B-word did feel a little embarrassing. After all, last time I thought of her as my girlfriend, it was just an afterthought. Or did I mention it? I don’t know, but either way, I know for a fact we’re both kinda falling for each other.
Back to the moment, I could feel a strongly growing, albeit indescribable pressure coming from Rue’s direction, followed by a loud, bodily thump. Once I looked over at the stuck-up colt, he was barely able to crawl, let alone hold himself up from the ground. I could immediately tell Scootaloo was having trouble as well.
‘What is that… thing, doing?! She’s going to kill us all!’ The spoiled colt screamed, as loud as he could just before I shakily made my way over to him and gave a solid, yet very sore left hook across his muzzle. Almost knocking him out completely, but he probably fell unconscious anyway from the odd pressure building around us.
I turned to face Rue and saw she was floating above her wheelchair. Her long dress whipped around her dangling legs as I stared in shock. A strong aura glowed around and off of her body, and clothes, as the black likes one could mistake for tattoos glowed in waves and sparkles of every colour from the rainbow. I was snapped out of my staring when I saw her eyes slowly widen in fear.
‘RUE! CALM DOWN!’ I yelled as loudly as I could muster, the magical pressure creating that same, indescribable static-like noise in my ears. ‘PLEASE! BEFORE ANYONE GETS HURT!’
I felt a tug then an immediate pull from inside my mind, then immediately realised who wanted to come out. I watched as I dropped whatever mental barrier that I unconsciously had up as a silver thread weaved its way down my arm and out of my palm, to a rotating white circle encompassing my wrist. The circle had odd symbols littered around it, almost as if I was summoning the BirchenWolf.
I barely registered the faint outline of a white, flat, runic circle around my wrist as I watched the BirchenWolf mother appear and put up a shield between Scootaloo, at least five other ponies nearby and that spoiled colt as she stood between Rue and I.
‘Master, her magic levels are increasing. You need to release her power from her by force, just like last time.’ She growled, but the words sounded like they were directly spoken to my mind.
‘How do I do that?’ I replied, keeping my voice loud enough for her to hear as I stepped closer and leant gently on her side.
‘Just focus on the strands, like last time, but aim them upwards this time. I sense destructive power with these ones.’ Her voice strained as she continued to focus on communicating whilst she kept her barriers around everyone.
I complied, as I felt for the magic with my free hand and my mind, the one without the silver strand flowing from it. I couldn’t feel the strands there, so I did the next thing that crossed my mind. I closed my eyes, focused on the pressure and reached out with my arm and tried something I’ve not done before; creating an inverted cone, the base aimed towards the sky.
I felt a skim of a strand touch the image I was using, then mentally grabbed it and aimed it upward. I did so with every strand I sensed pushing through my own magical barrier. Well, what felt like a magical barrier. It was almost unreal, how clear and crisp the image was. I opened my eyes only to see, and feel, Rue staring at me with wispy, yellow filled eyes. I saw a purple, rune covered cone surrounding her, the runes fading towards the visual “top” of the cone.
The pressure suddenly lifted and I don’t know how, but I felt and saw Rue’s magic build up and shoot skywards. The beam of silver-ish pink energy pierced the skies, before it coalesced into a ball and exploded.
I fell onto my knees, coughing heavily. I felt the corner of my mouth raise as I looked up at Rue, her eyes now back to normal, who now sat back in her wheelchair. She had a very thankful look in her eyes.
‘Thanks Cal. I didn’t think I could control it.’ She snivelled, her voice weak from what I guess Twilight would call an “influx of magic”. ‘I’m really sorry Scootaloo. Come, let’s get you inside.’ She simply nodded, desperate to hide her pain.
We made our way inside but as I closed the door, after helping Scootaloo with her arm slung over my shoulder, I spotted a broken, pavement-coloured but thought nothing of it as I closed the door. After all, any injuries take immediate precedence over pure speculation. However, I think her display of raw power may have tipped the scales ever so slightly.
Luck was slightly on our side though; Scootaloo loved the summoned creature I’m bonded with and suggested a name for her that the BirchenWolf found rather fitting. I then told her what the female Birchenwolf had said to me, as we all agreed on the name.
Nari.
14 Hours Earlier...
It took a good two and a half hours to calm Rainbow Dash down when she found out her sister had been injured no less than thirty minutes after the event transpired. Luckily, Applejack arrived with Rainbow to make sure she was kept in check. Rue had gone back to bed. Whatever just happened, didn’t just take it out a lot for me, but seemed to have an even stronger toll on Rue.
However, this wasn’t the last straw that tipped the scales. In the past two hours, stuck up colts and mares were the cause of so many negative comments and accusations about the two of us living just like everypony else. Luckily, Nari and her cub, helped to keep Scootaloo preoccupied whilst
Not like such luck could help with that Blueblood guy, who’d managed to coerce some guards to come and arrest both of us. Especially after Rue’s display of raw power earlier.
‘I wonder if Twilight knows how to teach her how to use that power of hers?’ I thought silently, as a rather, hmm… “heated discussion” ensued from beyond our front door.
‘So what’s the little guy called?’
That question bumped me out of my thoughts, briefly startling me. I couldn’t seem to remember naming the pup, but it must have come up at some point.
‘Honestly? I can’t remember.’ I replied, as I scratched my head.
I’d just finished my third coffee of the day, when I got an idea. I got up and pulled out a drawer from below the lounge table. Removing a piece of paper, I wrote some random ideas down for names, to see if it would jog my memory. Names like Gaeles, Leris, Ceres, Kowl, and Keos littered the page, hoping to come across the name I feel like I’d mentioned previously.
After writing all the ideas down, I went to sit by Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash when a large knocking barely obscured the soft din of verbal onslaught from outside. It came from behind the house. Rue and I shared a look of surprise, before I got up, being careful of Scootaloo’s damaged leg, which had annoyingly found its way onto my lap whilst I sat with her on the sofa.
‘Oh thank Celestia!’ Came the surprised voice of Sunset Shimmer. ‘I’m so glad you answered! Your front garden is covered in angry snobs and reporters.’ She stammered, making her way inside. ‘You have no idea what Twilight’s doing outside to keep them from barging in and taking your girl Rue there. Besides, to be blunt with you two, I was tasked to make sure none of them get inside.’ She added before taking a long breath, removing her leather-like jacket and sitting down on the smaller sofa beside Rue.
Her comment about Rue and I made our cheeks erubescent for a good minute or so, causing Sunset to chuckle at our expense when she noticed. The swarm of voices outside decreased a little, enough so I could finally hear my thoughts again, but it felt like it wouldn’t last long.
‘I have some idea, but I guess we’ll have to wait and find out.’ I replied, sitting down beside Scootaloo again.
‘Hey Sunset,’ Rue began, as she put her drink down in her wheelchair’s new cup holder. ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me.’ She asked, leaning forward as much as she could from her position.
‘Sure, go ahead!’ She answered, with a soft smile forming on her face. That’s when the strangest and shortest conversation between the two happened.
‘Do you know of the humans from a world on the other side of a mirror portal by any chance?’
‘Nope. Do you know any ponies like us from your world?’ All was silent, sans outside, until a giggle came from my left.
It left Rue a little speechless whilst Scootaloo just giggled loudly. Sunset slowly unable to hold back her knowing smile for any longer, joining Scootaloo with a whole-hearted laugh. Her cheerful laughter caused the rest of us to join in.
‘If it makes you feel better, I do know them and they’re all out of school now.’ Sunset replied, pulling out a geode from her shirt’s neckline. ‘I just wasn’t expecting humans to actually arrive in Ponyville without turning into ponies. I- well, Twilight and I have experienced a few issues with having duplicates of us after a cruise liner crashed, but nothing’s happened like that since then.’ That comment made Rue’s eyes widen into a pair of saucers.
‘I remember our world had Rainbow seeing the Storm King’s mark in the water before the whole ordeal went down! Was it the same for your friends over there?’ Effused Rue, fully focused on Sunset.
I tuned them out as I started to just let my mind wander to what’s going on around us today.
‘The day couldn’t get any worse, could it?’ I thought, biting a nail in the process.
Well. To make a long story short; it did. That Blueblood guy or whatever tried so hard to get the Royal Guards to take us in as prisoners for ruining his good looks.
‘Like he has any good looks.’ I added silently.
We were about to be outed as animals that didn’t deserve a house, when something incredible happened. All the sound disappeared, except for one voice. Well, maybe two, but I couldn’t be certain. The voices were hard to miss, especially in a crowd that big. I recall that I peeked out of the closed window and immediately closed it when about 50 ponies were corralled outside our house. Anyway, when the two voices shut the crowd up, I could see Sunset snap her head towards the front door at a speed just above what would be considered normal.
Within seconds of the ‘angry mob’ going silent, two muffled but authoritative voices could be heard corralling and guiding them away. After a painfully long two minutes, Twilight made her way inside. Rue must have given her the spare key when she visited earlier.
‘Cal? Rue? Where are you?’ She hollered into the house.
‘We’re in here, Twilight.’ Sunset replied. I noticed that she was fiddling with her hair. Sorry, mane.
‘Oh good, the back lounging area was a good choice. I can’t even hear most of them from here!’ Twilight gushed, before she realised that we hadn’t been introduced yet. ‘Oh, right, sorry! These are the Princesses. Cal, Rue, this is Princess Celestia.’
‘It’s lovely to meet you.’ she articulated. ‘Twilight’s told me a lot about your situation.’ She added, her eyes darting between me and someone to my left. I guess she was looking between Rue and I.
‘Well, first things first,’ Rue stated matter-of-factly. ‘You’re free to relax around us, like you do around Twilight when it’s just the two of you in the throne room. Or three, if you count Princess Luna. I don’t mind it if you’d like to complain about your roles either, we all need a break from time to time.’
The two figures, who were about a head taller than any of us in the room, possibly two heads for Scootaloo, didn’t really react to Rue’s statement. However, their slightly widening eyes that looked intently focused on Rue whilst Scootaloo nudged me and leaned to whisper.
‘That’s the first time somepony’s ever made both Princesses speechless!’ She giggled, whilst I caught her staring at Rue.
‘Well, Twilight told us you knew about things nopony else knew about, but for you to know that… well…’ Out of nowhere, both Luna and Celestia seemed to get flustered and, to my surprise, dropped a little in their shoulders whilst they lowered their guards.
‘T’is such a surprise for thou to let one relax around thee.’ Luna marvelled, before pulling out a blocky phone. ‘One struggles with the use of these devices from time to time…’ She hesitated, before she continued, relaxing into our normal speech patterns. ‘BUt I have no idea how I hear that you two have got devices from the world Sunset has briefly returned from.’
Even Sunset was surprised at this revelation. Rue’s eyes glossed a little, like she remembered something.
‘I had no idea you couldn’t use these phones!’ Sunset exclaimed quickly, interrupting Rue’s chance to jump into the conversation again. ‘Your counterpart over at Canterlot High is rather skilled in her use of a smartphone.’
‘Now that’s not such a big surprise. Seeing how I remember her not using her phone as much as Principal Celestia does, it goes to say that Luna will still be Luna, no matter what world she’s from.’ Rue teased, making us, including Luna and Celestia, laugh.
We all spent a good two hours sorting out the issues we’d had these past two days after that reveal. Rainbow Dash had left right as we discussed our situation to the princesses to get some help for Scootaloo.
This time, with help from who Rue, Sunset, and Twilight called the “Royal Sisters”, luck was definitely on our side. We quickly got word that Blueblood had unintentionally been behind Scootaloo’s crash on her morning job and had put the blame onto us to, and I quote, “keep his image clean”. Rue absolutely loved how the Cutie Mark Crusaders were a lot more grown up than their television counterparts.
We both shared a secret glance during the conversation, hoping that none of the others could sense our hidden, non-verbal conversation: ‘Let’s hope nothing worse happens than what happened earlier.’
2 Hours Earlier...
Hopefully, everything goes according to the plan we all came up with before our two hour lunch break. With a little help from Sweetie Belle, who came visiting Scoolatoo just half an hour before we set out, we were able to take Scootaloo back to her home. Afterwards, we got Rarity’s help in designing some... dare I say it, absolutely stunning outfits for the upcoming welcoming ceremony.
It wasn’t much, but we definitely got the ball rolling. We're both hoping, despite everything, that this was the last of our issues…