Izzy stares at the filly on her left, currently taking a drag from a joint. She watches the cherry glow as she says, “I guess you had another nightmare?”
Twinkle blows smoke out the right side of her mouth before staring at Izzy and harshly saying, “You think?” Twinkle starts and blinks before widening her eyes and saying, “I-I’m sorry Miss Izzy! I’m uh, kinda tense right now…”
Izzy frowns, “Obviously! Uh, you just keep smoking that joint little filly! Uh, we can talk about it, whenever you’re ready!” she shakes her head, “Hey! I’m gonna go make some espresso! Do you want some?”
Twinkle shakes her head lightly before staring up at the unicorn, “Well golly Miss Izzy! I’ll try anything once!”
<*****>
(About 12 minutes later…)
The roach burns softly before going out with a final puff of smoke in the ashtray on the table as Twinkle stares at Izzy with wide brown eyes while her little filly body quivers with sudden spastic jolts and the cannabinoids from the weed encircle her mind, propelled by the sudden surge of caffeine for an almost supernatural feeling rush.
Izzy stares at this strange vibrating filly with wide interested eyes and an interrogative frown, “Uh, you okay Twinkle?”
The filly just sits there on her haunches in the chair as her little body lightly vibrates and her wide auburn eyes stay very much open…
“Uh, oh gosh! Maybe I shouldn’t have given a quad espresso drink with cream to a little filly?”
Twinkle vibrates again as she starts and looks up at the unicorn, “I uh, what?”
Izzy leans forward with wide eyes, “Are you okay?”
Twinkle blinks, “Um, I think so?” and frowns while staring on with wide, dazed eyes.
Izzy shakes her head, “You’re buzzing like a bee, aren’t you?” and scrunches her mouth.
Twinkle blinks again and repeats herself, “Um, I think so?”
Izzy grins and chuckles, “Well um, better stoned and wired than sad and traumatized, right?” and leans forward to the left with her right eye wider than the other.
Twinkle jitters out, “Yes! Of course! Absolutely!” and smiles… At that point, Twinkle looked at Izzy wide-eyed, much like a cow would look at an oncoming train, when her smile lowered and she started frantically saying, “Yeah! So, there I was! I was there, right? Yeah! I was in that same freaky blue cave, same as before! Yeah! I was in the blue cave! And not me was still outside, taunting me! Yeah, she was talking about how I, used Hitch to get weed, and this other stuff! Yeah! So, she was talking about that! And I started looking for her! Right! I started searching for not me in the cave when I saw a light! Yeah! There was a light! So, I went up there and I was in a grassy field and there were storm clouds and angry weather, and the evil me! Uh, Cozy Glow was there smiling! Yeah! And so, I flew up to her, and I beat her face in!” she nods, “Yeah! I beat it, right the buck in! Yeah!” she widens her eyes, “And she started talking to me about being mad at that point…” before narrowing her eyes, folding in her ears, and frowning, “So uh, what do you think, Miss Izzy?”
Izzy stares at the weird filly sitting at her left wide-eyed as she starts and says, “I uh, think you need to slow down! Uh, what?” before frowning.
Twinkle blinks and shakes her head. “Oh uh, right!” She stares wide-eyed at the unicorn, “So, I woke up in that freaky blue cave, same as before, right? And then, I heard Cozy Glow outside, yelling at me about how I’m really Cozy Glow… And so, I got on my hooves and started looking around!” she nods, “Golly yeah, I wanted to see if I could find a way out of this cave… Anyway!” Twinkle’s eyes re-widen themselves, “I saw a ramp there! And so, I went up the ramp while she kept talking and I came up in a big grassy field, and there were storm clouds and a lightning flash behind Cozy as she smiled at me… Yeah, so I flew at her!” Twinkle shakes her head, “I had my hooves out and I flew her into the ground by angling my wings!” she looks at Izzy and narrows her mouth, “Pegasi can do that, you know?” she shakes her head, “Anyway, I just got so MAD! I mean, she’d been trying to say that I’m evil and bad, and” she shakes her head again before stuttering, “I’m not like that!” she nods, sighs, and continues, “So, I was uh, pretty upset, and I kinda um, beat her face into the ground…” she blinks, “Then, I heard her voice saying from somewhere that it must feel good to be mad, after all the nothing I felt earlier…” she blinks and stares back up at the unicorn, “I’m still not exactly sure what that means though?” she frowns.
Izzy frowns as she stares down at the hyperactive filly blankly, “Um, well, weren’t you trapped in stone, for about two thousand years? I mean, “she blinks, “that’s a lot of nothing, right?”
Twinkle shakes her head, “But I don’t remember it! I” she blinks, “don’t remember anything before waking up in that lousy courtyard?” she blinks again and stares up at Izzy intently, “So uh, does it even count?”
Izzy blinks, “Count?” she stares down at the filly, “Well, it still happened, right?”
Twinkle blinks and stammers, “Yeah, but I don’t remember it?”
Izzy suddenly scrunches on herself and squints her eyes while frowning when she says in a low whimsical voice, “And so, we ask the age-old question, is ignorance truly bliss?”
Twinkle giggles, “You’re silly!”
Izzy widens her eyes and grins, “No U!”
Twinkle giggle-snorts happily while her wavy mane vibrates!
Izzy breathes in deeply through her nose before looking down at the filly with open red eyes and ears perked her direction as she says, “But um, I’m not even sure it matters anymore?” she frowns, “I mean, two thousand years is a long time?” her eyes dart to the filly as she grimaces deeper, “Um, right?”
Twinkle blinks, “Um, right!”
Izzy blinks, “Right! So uh, “she looks at the filly carefully, “Does anything really bother you? I mean,” she blinks, “does anything really make you sad or upset?”
Twinkle stares up at the unicorn as her little body quivers slightly before stopping, “Um, I don’t think so?” she blinks and gives a confused frown…
Izzy nods, “Well, right! But uh, Twinkle?”
Twinkle blinks excitedly before shaking her head and staring back at the other pony, “Um, yes Miss Izzy?”
Izzy smiles, “I want you to know that I do care about you and that I am here for you, okay?”
Twinkle blinks as she leans forward, “Now, why’d you have to do that?”
Izzy shakes her head and blinks, “Do what?”
Twinkle moves her neck up slightly, “You got all sappy on me!” she blinks, “Knock it off!”
Izzy grins and giggles, “No U!”
Twinkle blinks again, “That’s gonna continue too, huh?”
Izzy chuckles more, “Yeah, probably!” she leans forward, “So, you ready to go get enrolled in school?”
Twinkle blinks, “Say what now?”
<*****>
The light purple unicorn trots to the right of the pink pegasus filly through the darkened forest-village as they pass a dilapidated house on their right, Izzy looks down at the filly, “Uh, did you bring your novel with that hunky stallion on the cover? Antoine Ponyo?”
Twinkle looks up at the unicorn, “Stallion’s Desire? No, I got done with that two days ago!” she nods and smiles, “This new one is called, The Mares of Saddle Arabia, and it’s about three separate relationships, that all intermingle somehow…”
Izzy blinks as they pass the abandoned library, “Why are you into mush books, again?”
“What?” Twinkle blinks, “They make me feel good!”
Izzy looks forward at the big brown two-story building in front of the two ponies as they both abruptly stop trotting, “Uh, we’re here!”
Twinkle looks up and blinks, “You know, Bridlewood really isn’t that big!”
Izzy looks down at Twinkle on her left, “Who said it was?” she starts, “Cause I’ll tell them they’re wrong!”
<*****>
The blue unicorn stallion with the dark red buzzcut mane stared at the pegasus filly from behind his desk, “So uh, what’s your name?”
Twinkle blinks, “Twinkle Shine!” and smiles.
The stallion nods, “Okay, what city were you born in?”
“I don’t know!”
“Okay, who are your parents?”
Twinkle blinks again, “I don’t know that, either!”
At this point, Izzy steps up from Twinkle’s left and says to the stallion, “I’m uh, er,” she frowns before smiling slightly and normalizing her mouth. “her guardian!” Izzy nods, “Yes! So uh, any parental stuff goes to me, alright?” and she smiles dimly before staring back at the other pony with wide-open red eyes.
As Twinkle stares up at Izzy on her left with wide-open auburn eyes and a shocked expression on her scrunched up mouth, the stallion looks at Izzy and says, “Very well! She’ll be starting here in two and a half months, for the spring semester!” he looks down at Twinkle and smiles, “Congratulations! You’re now enrolled in Bridlewood Elementary!”
<*****>
Twinkle looks at Izzy trotting on her left as the ponies exit the elementary school, “Oh golly! So uh, does this make you, my mommy?”
Izzy looks down at the filly, “Well uh,“ she frowns, “more of a guardian, I’d say?” before smiling.
Twinkle blinks, “So uh, this means that you’re taking care of my parental paperwork and stuff, right?”
“Yup!” Izzy nods.
Twinkle looks down to the left before back up at the unicorn as they trot, “And uh, it means you’re taking care of me and comforting me when I’m sad and feeding and bathing me and everything too, right?”
Izzy widens her eyes slightly and blinks, “Yes! That stuff too! I would imagine?”
Twinkle nods as the ponies approach Izzy’s front door, “Right! So, you’re basically a mom, but under a different name, huh?”
Izzy stares at the filly with a dazed straight glare as she suddenly realizes that she’s outmatched and stammers out, “Um, r-right! That!” just as the ponies stop trotting…
<*****>
The filly stands on the left side of the foyer, with Izzy on the other end, closer to the door. Twinkly stares up at the unicorn and asks, “So, what do you want to do now, Miss Izzy?”
Izzy smiles down, “Whatever you wanna do, Twinkle!”
Twinkle blinks and stares up at the unicorn, “Izzy! What are we doing now?”
Izzy squints her eyes and smiles, “Well, I didn’t smoke earlier? Wanna split a doobie and play cards?”
<*****>
The brown unicorn pizza delivery stallion with the blond mane cocked his clear green visor hat with the Unicorn Express Pizza logo on it with his right forehoof before using it to knock on the red door 4 times...
A purple unicorn with a long blue wavy mane answers as it swings inward to the right in her blue glow and she stares at the stallion with her eyes, now red in more ways than one, “Yes?”
The stallion lowers his gaze as he hefts the dark blue pizza bag on his back, “Yeah, I have a pizza delivery here for Izzy Fuzzy-Nose Booboo-Face Horsebow?”
Izzy blinks as she wonders why Twinkle used that name and says, “Um, y-yeah! That’s me!”
He widens his eyes and smiles dimly, “That’ll be six bits, ma’am!”
<*****>
Twinkle lays prone on her stomach while she moves her black checker piece over two of Izzy’s red pieces to the end of the board, before looking up at Izzy, currently trotting into the room with a square pizza box and rectangular breadstick box in her blue magical glow. Twinkle moves her forehooves to the checkerboard and scoots it off to the right side as she looks up at Izzy, “That should give you the room you need!”
Izzy sets the pizza down between her and the filly and sits across from her on the floor, and sets the breadsticks to her right before she magically fetches a slice of pizza for Twinkle from the box and floats it over to her.
Twinkle moves to her haunches on the floor and collects the slice with her right forehoof before smiling at the unicorn and saying, “Thanks!”
Izzy sits on her haunches before the filly and opens the box and collects her own slice of pizza in a blue glow before staring up at the filly, “You’re welcome Twinkle!”
Twinkle takes a bite of her pizza and chews it while her eyes narrow. She swallows and looks at the unicorn, while Izzy uses telekinesis to move a red checker piece diagonally across the board. She swallows and says, “So uh, nightmares?”
Izzy stares up at the filly, “Yes?” before floating over her slice for a bite of her own.
Twinkle blinks, “I think Cozy Glow is something from my past?” she frowns, “I don’t know what it is, though?”
Twinkle takes a bite while Izzy swallows and says, “Well, have you talked to Princess Twilight recently?”
Twinkle swallows and blinks at the unicorn, “Um no, actually!”
Izzy eyes the foal carefully, “Well, what’s different now?” she lowers her chin, “I mean, why did you talk to Twilight before, and not now?”
Twinkle swallows another bite of her mostly eaten slice and stares at the unicorn, while Izzy takes a bite, “Well, I only met her when I trotted deeper into the cave…” she blinks and frowns, “I guess she can’t come out?”
Izzy voraciously takes the final ultra-cheesy bite of her pizza before she magically sets the crust down inside the box on her right. She stares back at the filly, “Well, don’t you think you should go back there? I mean, the other way just leads to Cozy Glow and uh, “she shakes her head as she starts, “well, you saw how that turned out!”
<*****>
Twinkle awakens, once again on a stone slab inside the mysterious blue cave. She hears her voice outside, “Cozy Glow! I see you’re here again! Ready for round two?”
Twinkle frowns as she gets to her hooves and trots to the back of the cave as the lights illuminate the atrium softly from the walls.
The voice outside continues to taunt, “Cozy Glow! I wanna talk to you again! Come on! Let’s talk, oh buddy, oh pal of mine! You know, there’s a lot of things we need to discuss!”
Twinkle only stares forward with resolution in her brown eyes as she trots to the back of the cavern towards the light in the back.
Cozy’s voice gets fainter, “Oh come on! You had so much spunk yesterday when you tried to kill me!”
Cozy’s voice dies down as she trots towards the scene in the center of a new cavern in the back, where she once stood before…
She sees a purple alicorn, sitting there on her haunches, and staring down at cards, neatly laid out on the floor before her…
She clears her throat, before looking down to see that the Twilight is playing solitaire, and then, finally stares at the purple alicorn directly and speaks up, “Princess Twilight?”
The alicorn starts and looks over at the filly, “Oh uh, Cozy er,” she starts and shakes her head, “Twinkle Shine! I was wondering when you’d come back!”
Twinkle lowers her gaze at the other pony, “I just have one question…”
Twilight widens her eyes at the filly as she leans forward slightly, “Which is?”
“Why did you save me?” Twinkle asks while slightly raising her chin…
(To be continued…)