I see a bright flash of light envelop me and suddenly, I’m once again standing on the wooden panels of the floor of my room! I look at my best friend and say, “Alright Jessi! Time to smoke a super joint!”
She stares at me with wide burnt orange eyes and says something I often say, “Say what now?”
I stare at her with all the seriousness I can muster, “Alright by golly, you and I have to get through this whole awards ceremony thing or whatever, right? You don’t have to do it often or ever again, but I think you should at least do this once!”
She frowns at me, “But what if I get addicted?”
I nod, “Yes, there’s a risk of that just as there’s a risk of getting addicted to anything! But coming down just once won’t be so bad!”
She sighs, “Well um, okay Twinkle Shine! If you really think it’ll help me?”
I frown, “That was surprisingly easy!” before turning to my right to stare down at my round wooden table there and fetching a roach from the floof of my chest and setting it down next to the black pack of rolling papers and then using my left forehoof to collect the two specific small baggies of nugs on the other end of my table.
As I’m creating the joint using resin from this old roach mixed with two particular strains I know will calm her down, she asks me, “Are you sure about this?”
As I’m creating the roll around the line of weed I had formed after hoof grinding the nugs, I say back to her, “Well, you’ve been inhaling my secondhand all this time! Is a joint really gonna matter?”
As I lick to seal the paper in my right hoof, she says back to me, “Well, true! But come on Twinkle! A super joint? Really?”
I seal up the roll and put it inside my mouth before smiling at her on my hooves, “Well golly gee, it’s your first time and we’re doing it right! Now these strains are heavy indica and will mellow you out! You may fire, when ready!”
She says, “Oh, golly!” and I widen my eyes to her as she furrows her brow to concentrate and create a spark at the end of my joint… I inhale and soon taste the mellow fruity flavors of the herb inside as it rolls down my tongue and the heat shortly enters my lungs as I feel them fill with smoke…
She frowns at me and I can tell she’s nervous by the look in her ever so slightly quivering eyes as I take the stoge out of my mouth with my right forehoof and exhale smoke before staring back at her and saying, “Tradition says you get two hits before passing! If there were more than two of us, you’d pass to your left!” before putting it in my mouth to take my customary second drag and then, holding it up for her to see my hoof while holding the warm smoke in my lungs.
She causes her horn and the joint to both glow sky-blue before the joint floats out of my hoof and I exhale as it’s floating towards her before looking her way, “Now, inhale slowly and gradually! You don’t wanna take in too much too fast!”
“U-um, okay Twinkle!” She says as she stops the joint right in front of her face and she turns it around to float the tip into her mouth… She clamps down on it and begins to inhale… The end of the joint flickers slightly brighter as the first ever hit of smoke enters her lungs…
<*****>
I really didn’t expect it to be so hot! It entered my lungs and I felt the warm gas there now, and I soon exhaled smoke out the right side of my mouth before coughing and sputtering as I floated the joint out to be just in front of my face!
She giggles, “Yeah, you get used to it Jessi! No worries! Just take your time and take your next hit when you’re ready!”
I slurp up some spit from my bottom lip and look at her before saying, “Oh, thanks Twinkle! Now I’m doing drugs!”
She smiles and nods, “You’re welcome! Now go ahead and take your next hit!”
“Ugh!” I groan as I clamp down on the joint in my mouth after floating it there and take another slow gradual drag… I’m more ready this time as I feel the smoke enter my lungs after tasting the fruity flavors of the weed on my tongue… I’ll admit that it’s actually pretty yummy!
I soon feel a wave hit my body and I suddenly feel very relaxed and calm… I blink before using my magick to lazily float the joint out of my mouth and back towards the pink filly smiling at me as she says, “You’re starting to feel it now, huh?”
I exhale smoke while she collects the wavering joint in the air with her right forehoof and brings it to her mouth, “Uh huh!” I say as I nod and she inhales, causing the end to glow as she giggles quietly to herself…
She exhales before taking the joint out and saying to me, “I really do care about you Jessi and this is a quick way to calm you down… I love you and I want you to be happy…” before putting it back in with her right hoof and inhaling, causing the embers to glow at the end.
I smile at her, “I appreciate it Twinkle! Uh, whoa! This isn’t like inhaling your exhaust! This is harder!”
She takes the joint out and holds it up to signal me, before exhaling smoke and nodding, “Yeah, it’s a bit different from a shotgun, huh? You know, I would’ve done this with you sooner?”
I float the joint back to me while saying, “Yeah, but I don’t wanna get addicted!”
She sighs, “Well, you know, you’ve been inhaling from me this whole time! You’ve kinda already been using!”
“I nod with the burning joint now in my mouth, “Well, yeah!” before clamping and inhaling to make it glow…
“So don’t you think you need to be more honest with yourself about certain things?”
I exhale and force the joint to fly out of my mouth and head back towards her… “Well, yeah…”
She nods and says, “You know, you’re kinda just lying to yourself about your usage, right?” before collecting the aerial joint with her right hoof and bringing it back to her lips.
I sigh and look off to the right as I say, “I-I know Twinkle… I guess I was just lying to myself about getting high?” I blink. “I think I was lying to myself about a lot of things?”
She exhales smoke before nodding with the burning stoge still in her mouth and takes it out with her right hoof and nods before saying, “Okay, it’s good that you recognize that, Jessi! But uh, that’s not really why we’re here, now is it?” before bringing it back to her snout.
I stare back at her, “Well uh, no! No it’s not!”
She exhales smoke before lowering her head and raising her hoof with the joint so I see it… I cause it to glow and float towards me once more… She stares back at me and lowers her hoof while asking with a serious expression and tilting her head slightly to the right, “So, tell me Jessi! Why do you think being different is bad?”
The joint floats in front of my face as I say to her, “Because I just want to be normal like everypony else!” before I force it to float back into my mouth and I soon taste the peculiar strawberry/blueberry combo flavors of this weed we’re smoking together out of the half-joint…
She nods, “Okay, follow-up question! I’m an amnesiac stoner pegasus filly from two thousand years ago! Do you think that’s normal?”
I exhale out the right side of my mouth and force the joint to float before me and say back to her, “Well uh, no! Probably not?” before forcing the joint to float back to me, where I fasten my lips around the tip.
She nods again as I clamp down on the cigarette to inhale, “Okay, now Misty was abused and killed her captor in cold blood! Do you think that’s typical?”
I exhale smoke out the right side again before causing the joint to float out of my mouth and back towards the pegasus as I look at her and say, “Well uh, not really? I mean, most ponies don’t do that!”
She collects the joint with her right hoof again and looks at me and smiles before saying, “Right! And Little Snack was warped here from another space and time! Is that an everyday occurrence? Do you think that’s ordinary, Jessi?” before moving the joint back into her mouth where she clamps and the end soon glows…
I frown, “Uh, no, not at all! That’s extremely unusual!”
She exhales while giggling and taking the joint out of her mouth with her right hoof, “See?” and says in a robotic voice, “Jessi Trotsky! You are a weirdo! And you are among friends!” and then brings it back for another hit…
I giggle at her, “Stop it! This is serious! I don’t like being too strange because then, ponies don’t like you!”
She chuckles while taking the joint out of her mouth with her right hoof, looking at the glass ashtray on her round table, and snuffing it out… She looks back at me and says, “Well gee, you know, we all like you? All three of us, plus a lot of adult ponies! I think you’re doing alright, but I’ll tell you something else Jessi… “she sighs, “I learned this lesson the hard way, but a few close friends is a lot better than all the popularity in the world!” and then she smiles faintly while nodding, “You could have a thousand friends and it won’t mean anything if none of them truly like you and know you…”she leans forward. “And more importantly, if they’ll actually help you when you need a hoof...”
I smile, “Th-thanks Twinkle! That really helped mellow me out!”
She smiles back, “You’re a dope smoker!”
“Shut up!” I say back while giggling!
“You smoke dope because you’re a dope smoker!”
“Shut up!” I repeat myself and chuckle a little bit more as the funny floaty feeling now consumes my body!
She stares at me and asks, “So uh, you know, they probably formed a search party or whatever, right? Can you warp all the necessary ponies back to the theater?”
I smile, “As a matter of fact, I can!”
<*****>
I’m soon consumed by a blue light! I was just standing in a field earlier, but suddenly, I find myself in the same amphitheater stage from earlier next to the podium, where that same pink mare from earlier is now standing with a confused look on her face. I stare up at her as I feel the familiar feeling of my two pigtails on my back.
“Ahem!” A teal green alicorn filly behind me clears her throat and says loudly, “I have something I need to say!”
I look over at the theater and only see a few ponies left, but I do notice that my dad is sitting on the right side of the front row and the two lesbians on the other end… It made me happy to know that at least they’ll get to see this…
Jessi continues speaking as she trots to the area in front of the podium, “When I first became an alicorn, I was terrified… I knew that that made me different from most other ponies and I didn’t think that ponies liked differences… But then, I realized differences are what make us all special and unique and that that’s what really makes the world a great place… Yeah, I’m an alicorn and yeah, I have a lot of power… But that’s just part of who I am now and I think,” she blinks, “I think I need to just accept that… I think accepting myself for whatever I may be is the most important thing I can do right now…” she smiles. “After all, how can you really help anypony else out unless you know all the different things you can do?”
Suddenly, a pink pegasus filly shouts from behind me, “So, you’re not gonna hide anymore, huh?”
Jessi smiles and turns her head right towards the pink filly and giggles slightly before saying, “No, not anymore Twinkle… Not anymore… “
(To be continued…)