//------------------------------//
// Globophobia 
// Story: Not Here 
// by ulcuran 
//------------------------------//

‘’Twilight?’’ I say to Twilight without looking at her. I don’t dare leave my eyes off the Pink Baloon in fear of what would happen.

‘’Y-yes?’’ She responds a little surprised not expecting me to talk to her.

‘’Are you seeing what I’m seeing?’’ 

‘’Ohhh? What are you seeing Lai-Lai? Ah! Is it a giant piece of chocolate?’’ Pinkie Pie leans on the balloon basket, puts a hoof on her forehead, and looks around. Did she just call me…Lai-Lai!? She did. 

‘’No…I don’t see a giant piece of chocolate. I see an unrelenting hound that won’t leave me alone!’’ Harsh, is it wrong? Well, she is unrelenting, that is for sure. 

‘’Silly Laika, hounds cannot be on the air,’’ Pinkie laughs. 

‘’Yeah? I’m looking at one that can right now!’’ I say while trying to stare a hole into her and make her leave. 

‘’O-oh…’’ Pinkie’s eyes widen and her smile vanishes when she finally realizes what I’m talking about and that the hound is actually her. 

‘’Umm, what is going on?’’ Twilight decides to cut into the conversation that I was having with Pinkie Pie. 

‘’You guys are friends right?’’ I turn my head to Twilight and suppress the urge to run away when I come face-to-face with her again. She nods. ‘’Well, your friend has been a pain in my side since yesterday. She was watching me while I was sleeping just so she could say ‘sorry’.’’ Twilight sucks her teeth in a little. ‘’She blasted me with a cannon full of chocolate! Then licked the chocolate off my face.’’ Twilight’s face winces. ‘’And now this!’’ I point to the Pink she-demon in the hot air balloon. 

‘’But I just want to apologize!’’ Pinkie tries to protest. ‘’I’m really really really really really sorry!’’ 

‘’And I really really really really REALLY don’t want to see you! So leave me alone!’’ I yell back.

‘’Pinkie maybe you should come down from there? It doesn’t seem safe,’’ Twilight asked a bit concerned for her friend. I think she should come down from that too, I don’t want another balloon incident on my hands. It wouldn’t be on your hooves it would be on hers. Still, I don’t want to be involved in one. 

‘’Will you accept my apology if I come down?’’ Pinkie Pie said with closed eyes and crossed arms.

‘’Wha-no?!’’ 

‘’Then I’m staying here,’’ Pinkie Pie blows a raspberry. 

‘’Pinkie…’’ Twilight tries to appeal to Pinkie Pie. 

Is that…is she trying to coerce me into accepting her apology?! It appears so. I’m never going to accept that apology in a million years now. Maybe after a million years. Maybe… 

‘’Pinkie Pie?’’ She perks up and smiles probably thinking that I’m going to accept that damned apology of hers. ‘’Get it through your thick skull that I’m not going to accept your apology.’’ She flinches and her smile vanishes. ‘’And if you don’t leave me alone-’’

 A soothing feeling envelops me. Ssh, calm down now. It's like I’m floating through the sky. Anger leads to ruin …and ruin is not pretty. My muscles relax a little. I’m with you, take deep breaths. 

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. 

I close my eyes take...a deep breath through my nose, and exhale it out from my mouth.  and open them back up again. I saw Pinkie’s eyes begin to water. Oh, damn. I wanted her away sure, but I didn’t really wanna make her cry. Ever the compassionate one. Of course, I am. Didn’t I take you in my mind? Which I am happy to do.  …You did.  

‘’Look Pinkie Pie,’’ She sniffs and looks at me, her hooves dangling from the edge of the basket. ‘’Just come down and apologize like a normal pers-pony then we’ll talk. How about that?’’ 

‘’...Okay.’’ She nods. 

‘’So just land the balloon and come to my room we ca-what is that?’’ I see…something from behind the balloon coming closer and closer to the balcony. 

‘’Isn’t that…’’ Twilight narrows her eyes and looks at the approaching mass. ‘’-one of The Wonderbolts?’’ 

Huh, it is one of the Wonderbolts, wasn’t this guy eating the pie yesterday? Hold that thought why is he coming here? So fast too? My eyes widen he’s diving towards the balcony! 

‘’Waghhh!’’ He screams while coming here. ‘’I can’t seeeee!’’ He hits the barrier of the balcony with such speed that it shatters on impact and with the barrier broken and the huge gust of powerful wind the balloon gets blown towards the balcony. 

Suddenly I tense up and my body gets thrown to the side. The diving pegasus crashed right into where I was sitting, his body rolled into the room and got halted at the door. Wa-was that you Selene? Yes. Don’t relax just yet the balloon is coming. I look up and see the pink balloon is about to crash onto the balcony. I can see the Pink pony trying to hold onto the sides with panicked eyes. Twilight’s horn glows and she raises it to the balloon. The balloon stops mid-air.

‘’Pinkie I can’t pick you up too! You need to jump!’’ Twilight yells. I look up at Pinkie Pie and she seems like she won’t be able to jump. 

I get up, take a step forward, and open my arms. What are you doing?! Get away! I’m going to grab her. I may not like her but I don’t want her to die. You’ll help me, right? …I’m getting you out if it looks like you may be injured. Thanks. 

‘’JUMP!’’ I yell at Pinkie Pie who looks down at me. She closes her eyes and jumps out of the basket and towards me. 





‘’Ughhh. Can we leave now?’’ Rainbow Dash groans and throws her head back. 

‘’Hush.’’ Applejack puts her hoof on her mouth to shut her up while Rarity continues talking to the Sea Serpent with the fabulous mustache.

‘’So you’re telling me you haven’t seen a pony like that in the forest?’’ 

The sea serpent rubs his chin and hums. ‘’Nope, I haven’t seen anyone like that, and I’ve been living here like forever.’’

‘’Ah, well thank you for your time darling. Oh and before I go, your mustache is looking as dashing as ever.’’ Rarity bids her goodbyes.

‘’Thank you, you’re the best darling!’’ The sea serpent waves goodbye.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy wait for their friend and when she joins them they begin their journey back home. 

‘’So we got nothing? Booo.’’ Rainbow Dash begins dragging her hooves. 

‘’Nope. Zecora said she never saw somepony like him too,’’ Applejack says, she takes her hat off, wipes her brow off the sweat, and puts it back on. 

‘’The animals said the same too,’’ Fluttershy adds in. 

‘’I don’t know about you girls but I’m leaving this…’’ Rarity steps in the mud. She shudders. ‘’Has Celestia forsaken me?’’ She shakes the mud off and begins marching in front of everyone.

‘’Well, we can try again when Twi and Pinkie come back,’’ Applejack says.

‘’And why did they stay in Canterlot anyhow?’’ Rainbow Dash gets hit in the face with a branch. ‘’Ow! I bet they stayed because they didn’t wanna deal with this.’’ 

‘’I don’t know about Pinkie but Twilight said she wanted to know him better.’’ 

‘’I wonder how that’s going.’’ 





‘’Aghh.’’ I lay on the floor back-first with Pinkie on top of me. ‘’Are you -ugh- okay?’’ I ask her and raise my head a little to look at her. She seems fine. Are we fine? Well…we should be? We’re fine.  

But before I can push the shaken-up pink pony on me we both get enveloped in a violet glow wha-? I look past Pinkie Pie and see Twilight approaching us worry clear on her face, with her horn glowing. 

‘’Celestia above please be okay, please be okay!’’ Wait…wasn’t she holding the balloon? Twilight’s face goes from worry to instant relief and the glow surrounding us disappears. 

‘’W-weren’t you holding the balloon?! What are you doing!?’’ I ask shouting. 

Twilight flinches from my shouting. ‘’It’s okay! I sent the balloon away,’’ She says while pointing to the place where the balloon was supposed to be. I follow her hoof and lo and behold there is only air, no balloon. 

‘’What do you mean you sent it away?’’ I asked still looking at the empty space.

‘’I sent it away to someplace else.’’ 

‘’How?’’ 

‘’Magic, actual-’’ 

‘’Okay, fine I don’t care how anymore.’’ Fucking magic. The bane of our existence. Oh? I’m your magic now, am I the bane of your existence? Of course not. You know what I mean. ‘’What was that you just did?’’ 

‘’I scanned both of you to check if you were injured or not,’’ She smiles. ‘’Fortunately, you both are okay!’’ 

‘’How about that guy?’’ I point to the still groaning pegasus on the opposite side of the room. 

‘’Oh! R-right!’’ She nervously laughs and quickly does the same thing she did earlier. ‘’Huh, he’s surprisingly tough, no serious injuries only some minor bruises.’’ 

‘’Ohhhh, wha- happen- whaah!’’ Hearing the pink one above me start to talk I finally throw her off her me and get up. 

‘’Twilight how about you take your friend and that-’’ The pegasus groans again. ‘’-yeah him. And take them both to the infirmary?’’ 

‘’I-...what about you?’’ Twilight’s horn glows again and Pinkie Pie and the Wonderbolt get picked up.

‘’I’m fine. Just need some rest.’’ You always need rest. I wonder why. ‘’So please, just…leave me alone?’’ I was practically begging her to leave now. Well, I wouldn’t really beg. Nah, I totally would. You would? No, of course not…maybe.  

‘’Okay…I’m-we’re sorry.’’ She lowers her head and moves towards the door with both the Wonderbolt and Pinkie Pie floating behind her. She leaves and I close the door and collapse at the foot of it. 

I put my hoo-hands on my face and rub it while groaning. Why? Why? Why? Is it truly that much I ask of? A moment’s peace, a quiet moment, a simple breakfast. No, it’s not. It really is not, right? Of course. So is it just simple luck? I’m sure it is. Some malignant force is cackling over us I bet. Lucky or not, I’ll be with you. Yeah? Yes. That is…comforting to hear. I’m glad. Alright, let’s get up before something else happens. 

‘’Laika are you okay?!’’ Before I can even think about moving my legs the door burst open and I get squished behind it. 





‘’This is an utter outrage! We have never even been so-’’ The nobles of Canterlot were all gathered in the throne room. Well, most of the snobby ones anyway. 

They were all saying the same thing basically. They were mad about the gala, and they would complain to the sisters about it. Yeah, the sisters, not Celestia herself. Luna didn’t want to but Celestia didn’t give her a choice, saying she needed to learn how to deal with modern nobles one way or the other and this seemed like the best opportunity for her. 

Luna called her out, Celestia just didn’t want to deal with the nobles alone. Celestia neither agreed nor denied the accusation. Luna begrudgingly complied and here they were both listening to the same thing over and over again. However, Luna might have tuned them out a long time ago. Her mind was elsewhere. 

It was on her friend. He certainly had a bad night. There was one thing Luna and the nobles could agree on it was the elements that had ruined the night. Ohhh, how she would banish them from the castle if she had the chance. But alas poor Luna, they were too important to be exiled, bah! her sister wouldn’t allow it anyway. 

…She could still do it though? She doesn’t bow to her sister, she’s not above herself. But they’re equal. So if Celestia tries to do something Luna doesn’t approve of she can stop her. So it’s fine…right? 

‘’-and my sister also shares how I feel, right sister?’’ Celestia’s voice cuts her line of thought like a knife and she snaps out of it. 

‘’Huh? Yes, of course.’’ She quickly forms a response, not the best one but it will do. Her sister says nothing but smiles. 

‘’Well that didn’t really change how it wa-’’ And the nobles start talking again. Ugh, is this what her sister goes through every day? She’d rather be having breakfast with her friend. Luna solemnly looks outside one of the many glasses in the room towards his. 

Is that a balloon? She shakes her head quickly and looks again. Yes, that is a balloon. A pink one at that.

…

She leaps out and runs towards his room, ignoring both the cries of the nobles and her sister.





‘’Twilight am I a bad pony?’’ Twilight heard the voice of Pinkie Pie talking in a small voice laying on one of the many beds in the infirmary. 

‘’Of course not Pinkie Pie,’’ Twilight got up from the chair she was sitting on to comfort her friend. ‘’He just doesn’t want to be bothered. He’s like Cranky.’’ 

‘’But Cranky became my friend. I don't think Laika will...’’ 

‘’Maybe he will, maybe he won’t. That’s up to him.’’ 

A silence filled the room only cut off by the irregular groans and moans of pain from the Wonderbolt lying on the bed beside Pinkie Pie’s. 

‘’Does he hate me?’’ Pinkies puffy hair was nowhere to be seen now.

‘’No…if he did, would he catch you?’’ Twilight truly believed that, but she could still be wrong.

‘’...that’s true.’’ Pinkies sad eyes regained a bit of their shine back, just a bit. 

Twilight's mind wanders to that moment, she teleported the balloon to a faraway mountain. But she doesn’t stay on that, no. It’s when she scanned both Pinkie and Laika. They were both fine. But something felt odd, their magics weren’t similar. 

She’s sure that Laika is an earth pony. But he didn’t have that feeling to it. An earth pony's magic feels heavy, strong, and sturdy. A unicorn’s magic feels gentler, refined even. And pegasus magic feels cool, swift, and free. Of course, everyone’s magic is different but the same races have a similar feel to them. 

They weren’t similar at all. He didn’t look or feel like any other pony. He was almost like a…combination of all put together. It was strong, it was gentle, and it was…free. Is he-Is he? There is no way, right? It’s just not possibl- 

‘’Woah, you good dude?’’ 

‘’No…everything hurts.’’ 

Her thoughts get interrupted by the Wonderbolts coming to see what happened to their friend. 

‘’What happened to you? You just started spiraling out of control.’’ 

‘’My goggles. They-they became fogged up all of a sudden and I panicked.’’ 

‘’Your goggles?’’

‘’Yeah! In fact, you gave them to me Fleetfoot!’’ 

‘’Huh? I didn’t do that? What are you talking about?’’ 

Captain Spitfire finally talks. ‘’She was with me the entire time, there is no way she could have.’’ 

‘’W-well, I heard her voice, and the goggles were tossed to me.’’ Soarin groans again when he tries to explain what happened. 

‘’I think you should just rest dude, that pie made you see things,’’ Fleetfoot said.

‘’I guess…I’m going to sleep now, guys. Could you say sorry to Laika for me?’’ Soarin put his head on the pillow and slowly closed his eyes. 

‘’Yeah don’t worry bout it,’’ Spitfire assured her friend and left so that he could rest. 

His goggles fogged up? Things were getting weirder and weirder by the minute. Maybe this Laika guy is more important than she thought? Twilight hugged Pinkie and told her goodbye. She needed to talk to The Princess. 





Celestia was not having a great day that was for sure. After the gala, she knew the nobles would come knocking but she didn’t expect them to be this much. That’s why she wanted Luna to be with her too. And it went as well as she expected it would. Luna didn’t do much. But her presence alone helped her immensely so she was sure she could have this done by the hour. 

…Well that is until her sister suddenly jumped and started running. Celestia tried to stop her but to no avail she was gone by the second. Leaving a room full of confused guards, nobles, and one princess. Everything was silent, and then all hell broke loose. 

It took two hours to get every noble pony to at least calm down enough to be escorted to their rooms. Celestia was…exhausted, to say the least. She quickly retreated to her room and ceased all court activities for the day. She needed this rest. 

‘’Finally…’’ She said finally being able to not be tense for just a split second. 

*knock-knock* 

And of course, it had to be ruined.

‘’Princess Celestia? It’s me Twilight!’’ 

Or not! Celestia’s face instantly lit up. She missed her dearest student, this could be a great chance for them to catch up. She let her in. 

They talked for hours, and every second was a delight for Celestia. She truly did miss her. She was so joyous when she heard tales of her life in Ponyville. But she seemed troubled. 

‘’Twilight my dear, are you alright?’’ 

Twilight froze, looked at her, and sighed. ‘’So I went to visit Laika and-’’ 

Celestia now understood why Luna had suddenly done what she had done. She is probably with him now. He really did attract trouble. But it seems everything had been solved so why was Twilight so unsure? 

‘’It looks like everything ended well, but you still look troubled dear,’’ Celestia asked Twilight while she draped a wing over her student sitting beside her. She didn’t expect the incoming question. 

‘’Can I scan you, Princess?’’ 

‘’I…of course.’’ Celestia didn’t expect this but she still complied with Twilight’s request. 

‘’...Just as I suspected,’’ Twilight muttered when she was done with her spell. Celestia didn’t like the sound of that. 

‘’What do you mean dear?’’ 

‘’Princess…’’ Twilight bit her lip. ‘’Why does Laika have Alicorn magic?’’ 

‘’...what?’’ 





‘’Ugh, Luna I’m fine!’’ I tried to plead to Luna while I was being levitated to my bed. 

‘’No, thou art not!’’ She basically tucked me into bed like a baby, while checking if I was okay. 

This went back and forth until I managed to convince Luna that I was okay. And now I had to explain what happened to her. And the more I told her I could see her becoming angrier and angrier by the words. 

‘’That little! How dare she! I’ll have her-’’ 

And then I spent another thirty minutes not to throw Pinkie Pie to the dungeons. She calmed down, or I think she did. I hope she did. Assuring that I was fine, we finally started talking normally. She told me about the nobles and boy did they not sound pleasant to talk at all. They're not, she is right.

‘’They sound like a pain in the ass.’’ 

She laughed. ‘’Thou would be correct! But we still have to deal with them.’’ 

‘’Well, you have my sympathies.’’ 

‘’I’d rather have you with me while dealing with them.’’ 

‘’Oh no, thank you, but I’ll have to refuse my lady.’’ I’d rather not do that. Are you lazy? No, I just don’t want to deal with snobby people. That’s fair. 

‘’Hmm, actually that is an order. You’ll now help us deal with the ‘pain in the asses’.’’ She laughed again. Great. Maybe they won’t be so bad? 

After more talking, I felt tired so Luna bid me farewell and let me rest. The moment I lay my head on the pillow I was already asleep before I could even blink. 

And here I am on the plains of snow. 

‘’Plains of snow? Really?’’ 

‘’Yeah, they’re more like, hmmm, clouds?’’

‘’I like the snow, Lai-Lai.’’ Selene said in a sharp, yet gentle and playful voice.

‘’Thanks for pulling me away from that pegasus,’’ I said to Selene.

She approached closer and sat behind me again as she did last night, she practically formed a half-circle around me. ‘’I wouldn’t let my shield be broken that easily.’’ Her words made me feel…safe and tingly. 

My dreams were shaping up to be quite interesting.