//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Me, Myself, and The Boys // Story: How A Realist Saved The Show // by Mare Of Mystery //------------------------------// "Oh geez, Celestia's performance on the play of herself last night was spectacular, she got all of her lines delivered most passionately. I didn't think she would be the one to break the natural timeline, that's my job! Oh well, tomorrow I have plans with the guys after Twilight's first magic lesson with me. It should be after school time at Cheerilee's schoolhouse, so this is my perfect chance to visit Cozy Glow for the day." The stroll over to the schoolhouse was pretty far from the school of friendship as most of the locations around Ponyville felt very far from each other. James thought Ponyville was just a quaint town with a few residents and businesses packed together, but the trek was atrocious. His reason for visiting her was to keep her in check, see if she struggles to make friends. It wasn't that he wants her not to attend Friendship School, just making sure she doesn't have to. A few minutes passed by, and the nearby playground was bare empty with a few foals on the swing set. Mobius spotted Cozy Glow sitting patiently on the steps of the play structure, approaching slowly to catch her off guard the front. "Hey Cozy Glow!" She had a delayed response turning over to Mobius a few feet away from her, mummering. "...Hey, Mobius..." Something was different about Cozy today, and it wasn't the fact James altered her future from the show. No, this was different. It's like she sounded very concerned about something like she was when he first met her. She was fine just yesterday, what seemed to be her problem? "You sound down in the dumps, what's the matter?" Mobius gently placed himself next to the same step with Cozy Glow, seeing her a bit flustered when she averted her head to the opposite direction sat. But, she finally opened up to him about her issues, scooting over to his ears as he went with her notion. "It's just that, my dad started seeing my mom again." "More about her mother? I knew she was going to come up eventually, didn't expect it to be now," He would have thought he was finished with her, but Mobius never expected to come back to it. How does he approach this he asked himself. Mobius slowly approached this discussion with a curious question. "How does she feel now that your father has custody over you again?" "They were just discussing her visitation rights," she elaborated further as she turned her head towards his direction. "They're still divorced, but she still loves me as a whole." That was a good start as Mobius would describe it, maybe he didn't need to intervene after all? The road to healing should be taken slow and steady, with no detours ahead. "That sounds brilliant, Cozy!" he thought it was the end of her worries, but something else was clouding Cozy's mind as Mobius looked below her flustered face still. "Is something else bothering you?" "Well...I...I just don't get why you always wanted to be with me?" she stuttered from the beginning of her sentence, keeping her stare away from him. He already knew what's going on, seeing all the signs indicating that Cozy Glow has a little crush on him. Flattered by all of this, he still had eyes on Twilight. It wouldn't do any harm for some teasing, right? Mobius gave her a sign of comfort to assure her. "Look, If I'm just bothering you too much, there's no shame in telling me. But, you're the first friend I made outside of school. You're important to me, that's all." She turned her gaze towards him, giving him a clear sign of her flushed face. "I'm...important to you?" "You know, I never really thought about how adorable Cozy Glow looks up close. Her short curly blue mane, those little freckles, and her stunning scarlet eyes make for the cutest—Hold up! What am I saying!? I can't date somepony who's younger than me! What kind of sicko would ever want to do that? At least no one can ever find out about...it..." Mobius placed his left foreleg on her left shoulder to give her a little squeal from her mouth to answer. "Of course you are. Now, what do you want to do first?" "How about getting some treats at Sugar Cube first?" she suggested to him, and he nodded "Of course we can, let's get going then!" "The first thing we did today was get a delicious treat from the Sugarcube corner. I made sure that she didn't get an entire tray of cupcakes and treated her to two. After finishing, we decided to head out to the local store as she grabbed a few things she needed for the house. I offered to carry the bag to make her have an easier time. I would have thought of going easy on her in chess to be the appropriate thing to do, but she was quite the strategist. Not only she's mature enough to do her groceries, but she's smarter than she looks? Maybe if Twilight is a bust, I can go for my second favorite— NO STOP! Stop it! I want to be with Twilight, not her! It was fun while it lasted, but now it was time to see her off as it was running a bit late for her." "That wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked Cozy Glow, seemingly satisfied with the time spent together when she nodded. "Good, We'll pick it up next week, I have something to do with the guys tomorrow." Cozy Glow looked away from his glance like she was going to say something, only to find herself stuck on the first few things to say. "Mobius, I... erm, T-Thank you for hanging out with me again!!" She grabbed the brown bag of groceries and scurried off to her front door, leaving Mobius's head-scratching. It sounded like she was about to say something to him, but she changed it last second. He shrugged it off as he went off to the school and prepared tomorrow's magic lesson with Twilight. "An exciting day of doing magic lessons from Princess Twilight herself; I've studied all the materials she gave me, ate a big breakfast, and headed out to her castle library as directed by her. We began with a few warmup routines before going into basic spell casting; I was a quick learner by her surprise. She even taught me a nifty trick of storing personal belongings in a pocket dimension and spawning them anytime. I could perhaps use this to conceal my phone from prying eyes to prevent curious eyes on it. It would be boring to anypony, but I was encapsulated by the experience.." After finishing the lesson for today, Twilight gave him a list of spells to practice for next week's lesson and saw him out the door. The next thing to do was meet Gallus and Sandbar for something special they planned. They were thinking that they'd been spending too much time around the girls that they needed a break from them and do boy stuff. Their meeting spot was the cafe that was most popular to most of the students at the school, so he made his way over there in quick fashion. The door sprung open with his hooves, and Mobius could spot them sitting at a table. "Yo! How's the date with Headmare Twilight today?" snickered Gallus from his chair, getting a big whack behind the head from Mobius. "Agh! S-sorry," He answered back with a little hiss. "Our lesson went smoothly as ever, so what's planned for today?" "Well, Las Pegasus has that sweet arcade but," Sandbar paused briefly to move over four hot air balloon tickets on the table, "My dad gave me four hot-air balloon tickets, and we don't have any extra guy to go with." "Since this day is currently the day after the play, the next episode should be about Starlight and Sunburst solving a friendship problem in their childhood town, that gives me some time before Chrysalis officially appears in 13. But the timeline seemed to have erased Cozy Glow's appearance. I don't know what events will transpire during those missing episodes, they might be completely different scenarios. I'll just have to keep a watchful eye," "That is quite the conundrum, have you asked any of the students if they want in?" suggested Mobius, as Gallus and Sandbar shrugged from their sides of the table. "All busy with stuff..." sighed Gallus, resting his head on the table and throwing ideas out there. "Didn't Silverstream mention having a brother? Maybe we'll hook him up?" "We barely know the dude and he lives pretty far," said Sandbar, seemingly losing faith this special day only to have been enlightened with a suggestion. "I know! We can ask Figure Eight!" "Oh yeah, that pegasus that posted those flyers from the school bulletin boards?" Gallus somehow remembered something from his little noggin. "You're buddies with him Mobius, wouldn't he like to tag along" "This is troubling, the guys wanted Figure Eight to come with us on a trip to Las Pegasus for the arcade. Just one problem; I'm Figure Eight! Oh crap, I just need to think of something quick" "Hold on a minute fellows, I don't think I would want to bother him with his work," he sheepishly answered back. "Maybe we can just sell the ticket for extra bits?" "No way! My dad spent a fortune getting us these four tickets and game tokens to last the whole day!" Sandbar then placed a bag filled with tokens on the table. "We should at least ask him and get his answer," "N-No!" he shouted at the table, giving them a slight scare from their seats when he simmered down. "I-I will ask him, just give me a few minutes to reach him!" "Fine by us, but the next balloon doesn't depart for another hour. Make sure you reach out for him till then." Sandbar reminded, getting a waitress's attention with a wave of his foreleg. "Alright, I'll go and fetch him!" Mobius got off of his seat and rushed outside the cafe. Running vigorously through the crowd of ponies on the streets and dodging the ones in his path, Mobius made his way to the entrance to the Everfree forest panting after a long sprint. This would be the moment where he faced a serious issue. How was he going to be two ponies at the same time? "No-no-no! This is a disaster! How can I manage to be Mobius and Figure Eight at the same time!? It's not like I can clone myself, that's an advanced unicorn spell I read from the books. I'm not nearly sufficient enough to even perform such a cast. There must be something they gave me on my phone; an app, or an extra feature...wait! The extra featuring in the disguise app!" Mobius spawned in his phone using the pocket d. Navigating to the transformation app showed the same menu. But, he spotted the three dots to the right of each transformation, meaning that there must be some extra function to go with it. Tapping the three dots on the pegasus, a little pop-up menu showed up with only one option: Duplicate Conciousness "I wonder what that means?" the curious Mobius was reluctant to tap on the strange feature, but what choices does it have besides bailing them entirely. "If it will help me in my situation, so be it!" Slowly tapping on the option, and Mobius felt like a pulsating surge of energy coursing through his mind, giving him an experience similar to how he felt when his conscious was separated from his body and reappeared back in his world somehow. It didn't hurt at all, but it was like a brain blast when suddenly... *POOF* Regaining composure from that epsiode, he would appear as if nothing happened at all. He was still a unicorn from the touch of the horn, and nothing besides that strange surge he felt in his brain and the puff of sparkles that appeared in front of him that drifted off in the wind. "Nothing happened, I must have done it wrong?" he shook his head from the anomaly he experienced, seeing his eyesight going blurry for a few seconds and spotting a figure he recognizes. "I don't see anyone here except Figure Eight besides—" "FIGURE EIGHT!?" The two colts were staring deep into the eyes of each other, trying to make sense out of all of this when Mobius blinked his eyes over at what appears to be himself? He raised one hoof as Mobius, but Figure Eight doesn't seem to budge. As he thought of why he wasn't moving his foreleg, the pegasus miraculously moved the same limb off the ground. The experience was like some trick mirror, except it was no trick at all. "Okay, this is getting super freaky now!" Figure Eight somehow spoke out from his mouth, "Why is Figure Eight talking? Isn't this my mind?" James felt vigorously confused beyond his comprehension, seeing another version of himself existing at the same time gave him an existential crisis. "What the hell is going on? Who are you?!," "I am you!" "I am me!" The only thing he could get answers from was calling Princess Sunbutt herself, picking up the phone from his side, and tapping on her name when Mobius levitated it. Thinking as to how in the concepts of space and time is Figure Eight and himself are existing at the same time. "Hello James, is something the matter?" "Yes, something is the matter! There's two of me!" both of them shouted in unison. "Oh I see, you figured out how to duplicate your conscious already? How was it, were you quite surprised to see it?" "So this is what you mean by figuring it out myself, and I thought entering a cartoon world was crazier already!" pouted Figure Eight, seeing Mobius the one to panic. "Celestia, what gives!? Why are my thoughts seemingly leaking out of Figure Eight's mouth?" he demanded answers to the princess as she laughed within the phone's speaker. "Calm down Mobius, it's just your first time duplicating your conscious into a physical form, you'll get used to controlling it better fast enough. This is a similar spell I've used to create the six from our first encounter, a derivative of that spell was also used to bring you back to your world for a short time. You can control your conscious self alongside your actual self, granted if you can handle being two beings at once." "This is so freaky... and narcissistic," muttered Figure Eight sitting on the ground. "It could be useful though, I could use this to go to Las Pegasus with me and the guys. They were four tickets, but only three of us you see..." "Yes, I've seen that epsiode before. Now be careful as the conscious double is still you, after all." "Yes... I can see that..." "Meaning everything your double sees and experiences will also trigger a reaction in you as well as vice versa. Injuries are a great example of this. With enough practice, you can emit inner thoughts within yourself and still control what Figure Eight does at the same time. You understand this?" "Alright, I'll try," even though this was a lot to take in, Mobius agreed upon the phone before he ended the call abruptly and poofed his phone out from assistance for the time being. It's as if his powers are getting more ridiculous, he now has to speak to himself. "...S-So...Figure Eight, how would you like to go to Las Pegasus with me and the boys?" "Me? I love to hang with the gang!" Figure Eight said as he tried to fly inches off the ground. "C-Come on d-dude..." This is getting out of hoof, now there are two of me! At least this solves my little issue. I've taken more than half an hour trying to separate my inner thoughts and my consciousness; I believe I got used to it now as Figure Eight is silent. Speaking of me, I mean him, I think I can manage to control him to fly better. It reminds me of those mind control toy scams but this works. You know what, I think I may pull this off... me and...myself, were walking back towards the cafe when I saw Gallus and Sandbar just walking out towards the door. "Hey, It's Figure Eight!" called Sandbar from afar, running up to the two ponies putting the same cringy smile. "Did Mobius tell you everything about our plans!?" This was Mobius's time to shine, trying to control his consciousness to make Figure Eight answer as he landed to the ground, "Y-Yeah! I'm down to go to Las Pegasus for a while, and who's this guy next to you?" "I'm Gallus, you seem like a cool dude to chill with..." raised a brow from Gallus, seeing the cheery pegasus wave at him. "Mobius, you alright? We're heading towards the station now," "I'm fine, but...it was quite hassle finding him around these parts!" he nervously answered, "Say Figure Eight, have you been to Las Pegasus before?" "Not really," Figure Eight blurted. "First time there too?" "Well, it'll be all our first times there!" Sandbar replied. "Come on, we need to catch the balloon now." The balloon ride to Las Pegasus was awkward for the four boys, each one trying to sit in each corner as they all stared down at each other from their peripheral visions. Mostly it was Mobius and Figure Eight who stood silently the most, gazing into the eyes of each other. This means that James is playing a staring competition against himself, wondering who will win. This is getting freaky, I'm sitting at two sides of the hot air balloon at the same time. Yet, I feel like I'm in two different ones. I better just calm down and wait until this awkward vibe dies down and go to the more fun stuff. Just a few minutes ascending above the clouds and Las Pegasus was in their sights landing the hot air balloon in the designated spot for tourists to take a turn to descend. The four were panning their faces in multiple directions of the attractions, crowd of ponies walking to each facility, and loud ambiance. "This is better than the pamphlets! said Gallus, soaring a few feet in the sky to get a panoramic view, "Yo Figure Eight! You seeing this?" Noticing the Griffin signaling him to fly up with him, Figure Eight flew up to his height to see the view, "Woah! This place rocks!" Oh god! Seeing a top-down view while being on the surface makes me wanna puke! It didn't look so well for Mobius when his cheeks showed a greenish color next to Sandbar. The earthpony gasped upon his sickened friend as he patted his back. "Not a fan of balloon trips huh?" Moments after his nauseousness, Mobius and the rest of the boys all walked over to the main attraction; the arcade room filled with other teenagers their age. Sadly, they couldn't visit all the other parts of Las Pegasus containing the casino and adulteries. Not like James would want to see how Equestria sees the unsavory parts of Las Pegasus. The game room was filled through the brim with little games and other entertainment amenities that made them and gaze upon the atmosphere. "Dude, we're finally here!" Mobius witness all the ambient sounds of arcade machines, causing faint flashbacks of visiting the arcade from his high school years back home. "Let the games...begin!" Over at the CMC treehouse, the trio accompanied a guest to their base of operations, Cozy Glow. She sat down with them looking quite troubled as if this is a serious matter that needs to be discussed shortly. The girls were worried too about her strange behavior, gathering around her. "Hey now, don't you worry about the darn thing Cozy Glow! We can solve whatever problem you have in your little noggin' there!" assured Applebloom, holding her hoof with hers to check her pulse. "Are you sick? Your cheeks are all red? Is it a fever?" She replied shaking her head, refusing to speak up on her troubled look. "Is it somepony in-class bullying you?" guessed Scootaloo right her on her right. Showing a stern face as she slammed her forelegs together with aggression. "Tell us who, and we'll make sure they'll never see the light of day again!" Sweetie Belle cuts her off as she pushes Scootaloo off from her. "We're not doing that! This isn't getting us anywhere if you bottle up your feelings, Cozy. Just tell us what's up?" "I...I don't know what to say to him..." murmured Cozy while turning her eyes over to Sweetie Belle, making quite a worrisome face. "Say what to who?" "M-Mobius..." "What about him!? Tell us!" the girls were pestering the poor pegasus for answers at once. Cozy refuse to tell them what's on her mind, covering her face from her flustering. "N-No! I can't tell anypony about this!" "Come on! We're friends here, we'll keep it secret!" Pleaded "Promise?" "We promise!" "I...I...I'm in love with him, okay!" she blurted out from her mouth, dragging her forelegs across her face. "I wanted to tell him yesterday! But I just can't!" Gasping from the surprising news from Cozy, all three crusaders jumped out of their sitting position and screeched in unison. "EEEEEEEEK~" "Their! I said it! Now go tell it to the world why don't ya!?" yammered Cozy, burying her face to cope with her embarrassment. "No-No! Cozy! We won't tell a single soul! We'll respect your secret like one of ours!" Sweetie Belle assured her little secret, giving her a little pat on the back to go with it. "I think you two would make a great couple!" "R-R-Really?" "Yeah! You're the smartest student in our class! No wonder why Mobius catches your eye," Scootloo slid over to her side and with one foreleg, nudged Cozy on the shoulder. "Say...Hearts and Hooves day is coming soon, maybe you could give him something special?" Her suggestion left Cozy Glow flustered. "I can't! I don't even know if he likes me that way! I think he would prefer somepony much his age, I'm just one filly!" "Come on! I think you're a cute matchup; two of the smartest students in their class, coming together in the most romantic day of Equestrian history, only to be hindered by their different peer groups!" the dramatic tone in Sweetie Belle's voice went out like a soap opera summary. "Will she find the courage to spill out her heart's content? Or will he be swooped away by another fair maiden in the mix?" Applebloom paused her friend to remind her of the obvious issue at hoof. "Hold it their Sweetie Belle, Isn't Mobius like 15?" "Yes?" she perked her head at Applebloom to answer. "And how old are you exactly?" "I'm 10!" Cozy answered back. "Oh! Pff. Kch. Ts! It's like a 5 year age difference, it's alright in Rarity's books!" Sweetie Belle ignored Applebloom's concern over age and moved over to Cozy Glow's other side. "You should be proud of yourself, we can be of great assistance with setting you up with Mobius just in time for Hearts and Hooves day!" "I appreciate it, but I don't think I'll go through with it, Sweetie Belle," she frowned back at her. "Mobius deserves somepony older..." "Alright, we won't bother you for it...let's just see what fate has in store for you..." Meanwhile in Las Pegasus... "Seriously, technology in Equestria makes no fucking sense, first some games like the DDR knock-off use a paper scroll to move all the arrows, sure that's believable in this time, but there are somehow lightbulbs and fluorescent lights everywhere. Just when I think it couldn't get weirder, I've seen games with literal display screens all over the place; Are we in medieval times? Or the fucking 1980s?" Each one of them was scattered around the arcade observing the other ponies or waiting in line on popular games. Mobius was busy throwing skeeball and scoring points with his hoof tossing the ball as no unicorn magic was allowed when playing. In James' case, he was technically playing two games at a time when Figure Eight as his conscious in physical form was pitted against Gallus in a fighting game controlled by joysticks and buttons. The game had Twilight friends as each playable fighter, Gallus picked to be Rainbow Dash while Figure Eight chose Fluttershy. "Skee-ball and a street fighter clone played at the same time!? The best accomplishment of my life! Still, feel like I've seen that fighting game before...Nah..." When Gallus had the edge of winning, he was defeated soundly when Figure Eight somehow parried all of his characters special and finished the fight with a KO. Leading go a bitter scream from his defeat "How is this possible? I have talons controlling each button! I should perform combo moves easier!" "Hmmm, well combo moves are pointless against the art of button mashing!" Snickered Figure Eight, looking over at the side of the cabinet for any signs of others, "Where's Sandbar at?" "Playing that stupid dancing game where you have to align the arrows with the rhythm of your steps." Answered Gallus, seeing some game of interest on his right. "I'm going to check out some games over there," "Mobius should be done with his skeeball game," "Hey fellas!" Mobius appears from behind them, holding up a large stack of tickets in the air," Managed to beat the high score on all lanes and got over 100,000 tickets for it!" This sounds corny, but I need to act like two different ponies around here. "Woah, sweet dude!" the Pegasus stared over at the stack of tickets Mobius left floating with magic, "We should turn it in for..." "Hello Mobius, surprise to see you here!" Figure Eight, or in this case another conscious of James in physical form looked over next to Mobius, seeing a figure around him with no acknowledgment of him. Immediately knew who it was when transmitting signals through his mind from Figure Eight's perspective. Mobius looked down to spot the dragon holding a large pile of tickets in his palms, "Spike! How are you? It's quite a surprise to see you here," "I just go here, spend a few bits on games and other stuff." boasted the dragon, trying to bear hug the pile of tangled tickets as he placed them down on the floor., "I was going to get something for Rarity by the prize counter. May I ask who might you be?" Spike pointed his claw at the pegasus, reaching for a little hoof shake as Figure Eight greeted. "I'm Figure Eight, a friend of Mobius. Say, you're that dragon that's also Princess Twilight's assistant, correct?" "Well, more of a dear friend and caretaker of mine, but yeah!" he nodded. "I've heard you won some tickets Mobius," "Yeah, from that skeeball game by beating the high score." Mobius pointed to the row of skeeball lanes at the corner. "Sweet, If you want to we can split my winnings together?" He smiled back, "That's nice of you, but it won't be fair for only me to share your winnings..." "So Spike surrendered to split his winnings with the four of us leaving him with barely enough to buy what he wanted to give Rarity. The dude didn't even need all of those tickets! So Sandbar got some fancy pens, Gallus found this neat spinner top toy, Figure Eight— me, got a nice harmonica, and I got a fancy ruby pendant in the shape of a red heart with diamond encrusting. I'm surprised they even have this at an arcade prize counter, cost me almost all of my tickets. I have a great use for this in the future." After spending an hour more in the arcade, the boys shared lunch at the buffet and shared a table. Figure Eight was still Mobius' consciousness, so anything he ate would still count towards his stomach movements. He planned ahead and only obtain half the portion size he would normally get. The rest of the day was touring and sightseeing most of the time when suddenly it almost got to evening. So they parted ways with Spike sooner than before as they head back down with the hot air balloon. The four boys grew tired from all the playtime and walking in Las Pegasus, waving goodbye as both headed out in different directions. Gallus flew over to the train station to catch the train the Griffonstone for the rest of the weekend and Sandbar went back to the direction of his house. Leaving Mobius and Figure Eight left behind near the hot air balloon station. A long walk to the Everfree forest later, the two both smiled in succession with being two ponies in one mind. "Well now, Figure Eight, I say that was an excellent time we had," Mobius grinned from seeing the pegasus smile back in return. "What do you think?" "It was cool and all! I hope we can chill out in the future," he replied, giving Mobius a small hoof bump. "Hang on just a sec." curiosity filled Mobius' mind as he spawned in his phone from mid-air and navigated to the disguise app. "So theoretically speaking, I can revert to my human self and cast a conscious form as Mobius? This will give me extra insurance to prevent my true identity from being revealed if I approach the school. Time to undo this thing," Tapping on the three dots to the right, Mobius undid the duplication feature as Figure Eight vanished from thin air. This gave him a small throbbing sensation in the noggin as he rubbed it off quickly with his hoof. "Nngggh! She didn't mention that sharp pain after I ended the spell! Must be a side effect for using it for the first time. Oh well, I guess I should head back now." "I made my way back to the school dormitory and into my assigned room number. Placing all of my stuff on the shelf as I made my way to my desk to reach for my books. Next week is going to be a tremendous moment for me because Heart's and Hooves' day is just a few days away. The day I will finally come clean to her! To make Twilight Sparkle all mine!"