After a relaxing hour of music and daydreaming, I turned off my phone to preserve my battery and sat up to find Applejack and Rainbow Dash snoozing together. Twilight had also drifted off to sleep as well, her legs twitching quite substantially. Rarity was lying down with her chin resting on her forelegs, calmly zoned out and very patiently letting the time pass. Looking across from her, I spotted Pinkie in a world of her own, muttering to herself and frowning at two different fixed points, as though she was interacting with a pair of imaginary friends. I couldn’t hear her from where I was, but she seemed to be in the middle of a made-up argument. Fluttershy was the closest to me, scrawling something into a little book with a pencil delicately gripped between her teeth. I shuffled over to her, curious about what she was writing.
“What’s that you’ve got there?”
Caught off-guard, Fluttershy yelped and scrambled around to face me, dropping the book. Twilight was woken by the yelp and sprung up to her hooves, rushing towards me with her horn glowing.
“Caught you!”
Suddenly, my wrists were enveloped in hot pink magic and were forcefully pulled down to the floor. I had no choice but to drop down to my knees before my arms were practically torn from their sockets.
“Ow! Twilight, stop! Jeez!” I blurted out, gritting my teeth.
Everyone else rushed to the scene, with Rainbow Dash standing directly between me and Twilight in an attempt to break her telekinetic hold on me, not that it worked. Applejack loudly demanded to know what was going on, and Twilight shoved Dashie to one side to glare at me, her pupils like pinpricks.
“I caught him attacking Fluttershy!”
“What!?” Applejack hollered.
“Are you mad!?” I shouted defensively, desperately pulling back against my magical restraints, “I went over to have a chat with her, that’s all!”
“Liar! You came up from behind and tried to grab her, that’s why she screamed!”
All I could do was open my mouth and shake my head in sheer disbelief at such an absurd claim. I had merely been curious about Fluttershy’s notebook, and here Twilight was, accusing me of trying to harm her! Rainbow Dash refused to believe it, but Applejack, as stated a little while ago, was still on the fence. She looked back and forth between me and the unicorn, unsure of whom to trust. Who was telling the truth here, her friend, in spite of the evident paranoia? Or this alien creature, of whom she’d only just met? Thankfully, the ridiculous conspiracy was brought to an end, as Rarity loudly cleared her throat and stepped over to us.
“I’ll have you all know that I witnessed the whole thing.”
Everyone looked to face her, and I sighed a breath of relief as she calmly explained.
“What Callum says is true. He spotted Fluttershy writing in her diary and came over to have a look, there wasn’t an ounce of ill intent. He simply caught her unaware and made her jump, isn’t that right Fluttershy?”
The yellow pegasus nodded, once again upset by the ongoing hostility, more so that she had caused it. Everyone relaxed, all except for Twilight, who didn’t want to let this go. Having just been abruptly woken up, she was clearly even more paranoid than usual. Releasing me from her telekinetic hold, she whipped around to face Rarity, where she began to insult her fellow unicorn’s eyesight, implying that she was too blind to see what had actually happened. With Rarity being one of Equestria’s finest seamstresses, the insult was nothing short of comical. However, for as much as the others were amused, I was still absolutely livid that I had just been accused of attacking Fluttershy, and couldn’t help but speak my mind.
“You sound insane, do you realise that? You should be medicated.”
“Fuck you Callum!”
The cargo hold fell silent, and if not for the plane’s engines, one could have heard a pin drop. She may have sworn at me in the heat of her attack, but this? This was our first direct Twilight-to-Callum F-bomb, which marked as something of a new height for the mare’s hostility. She then realised what she had just said and blinked rapidly, anxiously breaking eye contact with me. Everypony else stared at her in shock, before passing their gazes onto me, waiting to see how I would react. Knowing that I could win Applejack over if I remained calm, I dipped my head to Twilight in feigned respect.
“Well at least you had the courtesy to say my name.”
At that, Twilight turned away, defeated. She plodded over to the far side of the cargo hold and refused to look at us. Having expected another fight, the others all let out a collective sigh of relief, Applejack included.
{I don’t think I could have played that better.} I thought to myself.
It wasn’t that I was trying to sway them into trusting me more than Twilight, but having their faith would certainly help in preventing instances like this from happening. The more they believed in my genuine intentions, the fewer opportunities Twilight would have to make further accusations. I hoped there would come a time when they wouldn’t believe a word she said about me, but we weren’t there yet, and with each accusation, I knew some of the girls still felt the faintest twinge of fear.
The ponies dispersed, with Fluttershy going to pick up her diary. Rainbow Dash decided to have a nap, taking off to find a comfy suitcase to perch on. Applejack, still being the closest to Twilight, went over in an attempt to calm her down and get her back on-side. As for Pinkie, she had already returned to her imaginary conversation, though it haunted me to overhear what she was saying.
“See guys? I told you they’d start fighting again soon! I’m telling you, one of these days it’s going to get real ugly, and all we’ll be able to do is sit back and watch!”
Gulping, I knew better than to ignore a prophecy from Pinkie. If her imaginary conversation held any weight to it, then it would seem my conflict with Twilight was only going to get worse.
“She didn’t hurt you with her magic, did she?” Rarity asked, who was still standing beside me.
“I’d be lying if I said my shoulders weren’t aching.” I answered honestly, turning to face her, “But otherwise no, I’m fine.”
Tutting, the unicorn sat down with me and shook her head bitterly.
“That mare, honestly…”
“I’ve already asked Rainbow, but…” I began, “do you seriously not have a clue what’s going on with her?”
“I’m afraid Rainbow speaks the truth, dear.” she murmured, “We haven’t the faintest idea why she’s become like this, only that it all began after her private conversation with the Princess.”
“Do you think Celestia’s behind it?”
“I…” she started, swallowing, “I couldn’t see why, if that was the case.”
Clearly not wanting to bad-mouth the Princess, Rarity shifted uncomfortably, and so I didn’t press the matter. Sensing my frustration at the whole thing, Rarity decided to change the subject.
“You know, despite Twilight’s transgressions, I really must say, you do fit in well with us.”
“Really?” I replied, taken aback.
Nodding, she reflected on my personality, in which I had qualities that allowed me to gel with everypony here with relative ease. Hardly convinced, I asked for examples, to which she pointed out many. For Fluttershy, there was the love I had for my dogs, clearly showing my capacity for tenderness. For Rainbow, there was my athleticism and competitiveness, along with my broad sense of humour, which ticked the box for Pinkie as well. As for Applejack and Rarity, who were more mature than the others, I had the ability to hold a weighty conversation, such as the one we were currently having.
“I’ve not known you long, granted, but it’s quite clear to me that you have a lot to give.”
“Pfft, Rarity…” I scoffed awkwardly, unable to take the compliment.
“I mean it!” she insisted, “Now, I can’t assure what the future holds for your relationship with Twilight, but as for the rest of us? Well, if you continue to be the person we’ve seen so far, then our time together throughout this trip is going to be most pleasant indeed.”
Unable to prevent the smile from creeping onto my face, I dipped my head and thanked the unicorn for her kind words. She didn’t have a clue how much this meant to me, not after years of believing that I wouldn’t ever fit in with a group. Though it pained me to think that however close I grew to these girls, it wouldn’t last forever.
“What are you two lovebirds talking about?” said Rainbow Dash, squeezing in between us and causing the both of us to jump.
“I beg your-”
“Oh chillax Rare, don’t get blushy, I was just joking.” Rainbow teased, cutting Rarity off.
“The word you’re looking for is ‘flustered’.” I informed the pegasus, “I thought you were taking a nap?”
“Couldn’t sleep, egghead.”
Rotating my head to look at her head-on, I raised an eyebrow.
“But am I bovvered though?”
“Don’t you dare start…” she growled at me.
“Don’t tempt me then.” I retorted, winking at her.
We all chuckled, before Rarity broke into a yawn, covering her mouth with a hoof.
“Tired?” I asked.
“A little, I must admit.”
She went on to explain that she hadn’t slept so well, especially due to the snoring of her new tent-mate, since I had moved in with Fluttershy.
“Hey, I don’t snore!” Rainbow protested.
“Oh-puh-kh-ff!” the unicorn spluttered, “Rainbow, darling, if you don’t snore, then pigs have wings!”
“Uh well, they… they did when Discord broke free and took over the place!”
“Hm, touché…” Rarity hummed, “Either way, you snore… terribly.”
“No I don’t!” Rainbow Dash whinged.
I joined in on the banter by laying on my back and imitating the pegasus, pretending to snore loud enough to startle Pinkie on the other side of the cargo hold.
“No! Not the Yakuza!” she shrieked at the top of her lungs.
She then immediately went back to what she was doing without a care in the world. Watching her for a moment, I realised that she was reading all the labels on the suitcases, merrily humming to herself. I looked back to Rainbow Dash and Rarity with a look of utmost confusion.
“Is she…?” I began slowly.
“She’s fine.” Dash confirmed, rolling her eyes.
Rarity yawned for a second time, which caused the contagious yawn effect, something I personally liked to call the Mexican Yawn, derived of course from the Mexican Wave. I opened my mouth wide and yawned in my usual fashion, which always created a high-pitched whine. Upon hearing it, Rarity looked at me with curiosity.
“What?” I asked innocently.
“Your yawn, it’s very… um… dog like.” she pointed out with a chuckle.
“Ugh, if I had a pound for every time I’ve been told that.” I grumbled playfully, “Yes, I know, I sound like a dog when I yawn. And no, I don’t put it on, it’s just how I yawn.”
“Fair enough dear, no judgement. Also, a pound?”
“England’s form of currency.” I explained, “The Pound Sterling. It’s like one of your bits, basically.”
“Ahh, I see…” she murmured with understanding.
With that, Rainbow Dash declared that she was going to try napping again, and with her tiredness known, Rarity went to join her. Thanking her again for her kind words, I left the unicorn to snooze and went to chat with Fluttershy, of whom I still needed to apologise to for making her jump. Making my way over, I found her with her diary, finishing off what she had been writing earlier. She saw me approaching and put the pencil down.
“Heya.” I said quietly.
“Hi…”
Coming to sit close to her, I lowered my head and gave her a sorrowful expression.
“Look, I just want to say I’m sorry for making you jump earlier, I really didn’t mean it.”
“Oh, um, thank you for saying that, but it wasn’t your fault.” the pegasus replied, “I’m the one who had a big silly reaction. It was because of me that Twilight got mad, so I’m the one who’s sorry.”
Scooting closer so that I was sat right beside her, I protested that she needn’t be silly. She had been deep in thought with her back turned to me, and I shouldn’t have got so close to her without making my presence known first.
“It was totally my fault, so I’m the one who’s sorry, not you, alright?”
With her eyes darting around anxiously, Fluttershy replied with a mumble.
“Well um, I’m sorry for putting you in a position where you feel the need to be sorry.”
“That is not something you have to apologise for.” I instructed, smiling warmly.
“Oh, alright… Sorry…”
“Stop.” I ordered, now grinning.
“Okay…” she whispered.
The mare paused for a handful of seconds, before sheepishly looking back up at me.
“Sorry.”
I planted my palm into my face and broke into a laugh. Fluttershy too, had a giggle of her own, sticking out just the tip of her tongue and admitting that she was being extra sorry on purpose. I then gestured to her diary and asked what sort of stuff she wrote in there. Swallowing, the mare began to fumble over her words.
“I um… um…”
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” I said to her, smiling.
My gentle tone and warm smile got to her. Smiling back, she reached for the notebook to show me.
“It’s just, um, some personal stories, about things that have happened in my life, and, um… things…”
Holding the diary in her hooves, she slowly passed it to me, but just as I was about to take it from her, there was another bout of turbulence. The notebook dropped to the floor, landing on the spine and causing the pages to flip open. Squeaking with embarrassment, she dived forward to cover something I was clearly not meant to see, which accidentally sent two loose slips of paper directly into my lap. Instinctively, I picked up one of them and turned it over, which revealed a purplish blue colt with a sky-blue mane.
{So this is Midnight.} I thought to myself, studying the young stallion.
I then picked up the other picture, and upon turning it over to look, my eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. Fluttershy then realised that I had it, and gasped.
“No!”
Before I had a chance to properly take in what I was seeing, the pegasus practically barrelled into me in order to seize the images. She then stuffed them back into her diary, slammed the notebook shut, and swiftly put it back into her bag. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Twilight glaring at me. In an act of sheer mockery, I blew her a kiss, effectively telling her to mind her own business. Turning back to Fluttershy, I found the pegasus’ cheeks were now red as a beetroot. Having just seen the contents of that picture, I could understand why.
“I… I… Um… I… Um-”
“Hey.” I smirked, cutting her off, “I didn’t see anything.”
I gave her a sly wink, and the pegasus gulped emphatically, before nodding and trying her best to compose herself. It would seem that Rainbow Dash hadn’t told me the full story, or perhaps, she didn’t even know it herself, but this Midnight fellow was certainly more than just a crush. Still, that was none of my business, and until Fluttershy and I were a little closer, I would let sleeping dogs lie.
It was then that my mood dropped, and quite considerably too. This happened sometimes due to my depression, though I had expected it not to any more since beginning this journey. I supposed that even the Mane Six whisking me away on a worldwide adventure wasn’t enough to subdue the abyss. Noticing the emotional shift, Fluttershy asked me if something was wrong, to which I shrugged.
“I’m not sure.” I murmured.
She asked what I meant, to which I put my mouth to one side. Though my depression often cropped up unexpectedly, there was usually something that triggered it, even if it seemed spontaneous at first. The notion that depression attacked for no reason was erroneous; though the darkness was there at all times, there was always something that allowed it to creep in. The best way I could describe it was that of a house deep below the sea. The water was the darkness, and the house was me. There was never a time when I wasn’t underwater, my form of depression existed eternally, but permitting that the doors and windows were closed, the inside of the house could remain warm and dry. That was until someone, or something, opened the windows. The water would then come rushing in, and it would consume all the warmth inside, forcing out the air and drowning all which took sanctuary within. That was how clinical depression worked, it was always there, and somehow, between seeing the photo from Fluttershy’s diary and letting her know I wouldn’t say anything about it, a window had been opened.
Thinking on it some more, I tried to analyse what I was really feeling, and why I was feeling it. Obviously, I was overjoyed that the ponies were real, and that I was travelling with them. I had a true purpose now, serving as a guide and protector, and if I succeeded, I would essentially be a hero, having contributed to the protection of an entire world. So why on earth was I now feeling this surge of darkness, endeavouring to flood my mind and bring me down?
I started thinking about the negatives, scrutinising them in the hope of locating the perpetrator.
Let’s think… I had forever sacrificed a normal life, and I had given up my beloved dogs, along with all forms of electronic leisure, which meant no internet, no TV, and no video games. As for my friends on Facebook and Skype, I would never speak to them again. Faking my death hadn’t been all that fake in one sense, because I had well and truly killed my old life. From here on out, the majority of my time would be spent on the move, transitioning from location to location in search of the pieces of the Titans’ Orb, encountering goodness knows how many dangers…
At last, though all this thinking, I found it; the culprit for bringing me down. It was the images from Fluttershy’s diary… This Midnight fellow and his relationship with Fluttershy had reminded me of something else I was giving up, something far more valuable.
“Love…” I whispered softly to myself, much too quiet for Fluttershy to hear.
I had surrendered the possibility of ever having a girlfriend; a companion to love, and to be loved by. This path I had chosen meant for certain that I would never meet someone that I could form a real intimate relationship with. For a split second, I pondered on if a relationship with one of these ponies was an option, which I immediately cast aside in vague disgust; what an absurd, degraded, desperate thought… No, what I wanted was a human woman at my side, and now, I would never have that.
I had relinquished love.
“Callum, are you okay?” Fluttershy murmured, gently poking at my wrist.
Realising that I had been quiet for some time, I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
“Sorry, I was just thinking.” I replied.
“Want to talk about it?” she offered.
“No, it’s fine.” I assured her, “I was just thinking about the stuff I’ve left behind, that’s all.”
“Oh, I’m sorry…” she said, looking down.
“Honestly, it’s fine.” I reiterated, “I know I made the right choice, but it would be folly to think I’m not going to have a few dips here and there, you know?”
Nodding, she said that she perfectly understood, and I rubbed at my wrist where she had poked me. Slowly but surely, I recovered from the low mood, shutting the window of my underwater home, as it were. With time, the darkness would be siphoned back out, and I would be okay again. How could I not be, when the living, breathing Element of Kindness was sat right here with me, real enough to physically touch me? I let out a heavy sigh, and asked if it would be alright for me to take a nap close by?
“Didn’t you already have one?” she pondered.
“I’ll be honest,” I told her, “I didn’t sleep a wink, I just lay there zoned out.”
“Oh, well in that case, of course!”
Getting my new silky pillow, I curled up and tried to drown out the noise of the aircraft, along with the remnants of the suffocating darkness that swam around inside me. It took a while, but with Fluttershy’s calming presence beside me, I was finally able to drift off for a few hours of kip.
“Hey Callum, I was wondering, um… could I ask you something?” asked Fluttershy, prodding at the floor with a hoof.
I had only been awake for a handful of minutes, and by some sheer miracle amidst the plane’s rattling, Rarity had been able to make some tea for us all, which was a lovely treat to wake up to.
“By all means!” I replied merrily, taking a sip from my cup.
“Okay um, well, I was wondering about the wildlife on Earth, and how the natural world works here. Like, um, why are all the animals here so wild? Feral, I mean… It seems like most creatures here behave like they do back in the Everfree Forest.”
Scratching at my chin, I said that it was a good question, and then explained how unlike in Equestria, nearly all creatures in this world lacked any form of proper sapience.
“Besides humans, well, and a few vague exceptions like dolphins and elephants, animals on Earth lack the capacity for selfhood or complex thought. They run predominantly on instinct, with no intention of living beyond the simple ‘wake, eat, drink, sleep, and breed’ routine.”
“Sounds like my Saturday nights back home.” Rainbow Dash chuckled.
There was a loud hoot of laughter from Applejack at that, while Rarity pointed at the pegasus sternly with a hoof.
“You really are a revolting little creature, did you know that?”
“Aww, thanks!” she replied, giggling.
Rolling my eyes, I brought the subject back on track, answering Fluttershy’s question in full.
“That’s not to say there isn’t intelligence or emotion in the animal kingdom.” I told her, “There are hundreds of species that thrive on social bonds and unique survival methods. Cats for instance, were intelligent enough to domesticate themselves, by way of altering their meows to mimic the cries of human babies! Over hundreds of years, they adapted to exploit our empathy, essentially grooming us into taking care of them. They may not be truly sapient, but that kind of intelligence speaks for itself.”
“That’s incredible!” Rarity remarked.
“You can say that again.” I agreed.
Fluttershy too, murmured in agreement, before prodding at the floor again.
“So um, there really aren’t any other creatures like humans?”
Shaking my head, I confirmed that we were very much alone on this planet when it came to a species of equal stature and soul.
“Probably because they exterminated the others.” Twilight suggested, sneering at me.
“Nope, but good on you for adding to the conversation.” I retorted cheerily without missing a beat.
Kissing her teeth in revulsion to me, Twilight went back to her silence.
“Hey, I’ve got a question for you!” Rainbow piped up.
Gesturing for her to proceed, the pegasus inquired as to whether humans had any powers or not.
“Like, we pegasi can fly and have extra stamina, unicorns have magic and all the smarts, and earth ponies are extra strong, with tougher skin and stuff. Do humans have anything like that?”
“Hah, I wish!” I laughed, “Without magic in this world, we don’t really get any bonuses like that, but to be honest, we don’t really need them. Humans, or ‘Homo sapiens’ to be specific, have enough merits as is. We naturally have good stamina, half-decent strength, and then of course, there’s our intelligence.”
Gesturing all around, I pointed out that we were flying across the sea in a gigantic metal machine, hurtling over the clouds at hundreds of miles an hour. If that wasn’t a testament to our mental capacity, then I didn’t know what was.
“Using nothing but the various metals beneath the soil,” I continued, “we can manufacture the means to reshape the very ground we walk upon, and conjure devices of near-unlimited potential. I guess, thinking about it, we do have a power of sorts, it’s just not a magical one. It’s quite simply, our ingenuity.”
“Woah, did anyone else just get goosebumps?” Rainbow Dash breathed.
“Oh I felt a shiver alright.” Applejack replied, chuckling.
Smirking to myself, I took another sip of my tea and had a little stretch. I rolled my shoulders back and received a few satisfying crunches in my upper spine, along with a nice pop in my collar bone. After a few moments of silence, Fluttershy moved on to another question, although it was more of a long-winded request.
“Um, I was wondering, you know how Pinkie told you her life story? Would you be able to tell us yours?”
“Oh, what a wonderful idea!” sang Rarity, nodding in full agreement.
“Blimey uh, where to begin…” I said nervously.
“At the start!” Pinkie squealed, giggling.
Huffing with amusement, I started to cast my mind back to my earliest days, and slowly but surely, I was able to piece together a coherent narrative, and began telling them all of my life…
I was born and raised in a town called Redhill, and my early memories were mostly pleasant. My family was loving and supportive, and I was deeply cared for. At the age of five, I was diagnosed with autism, which began to manifest more and more as I transitioned from infancy to childhood. When out of my comfort zone, I was prone to meltdowns, screaming fits, and all the other accompanying traits of an out-of-control child. Clifford, my father, was incredible at handling it, and was so unbelievably patient with me, not once did he give up in learning how to manage me, his love was unparalleled. My mother, Janice, as one might imagine, was not so forgiving, and quickly came to hold a great deal of contempt for her defective child.
When I came of age to attend primary school, things very quickly went downhill. With stunted social abilities, I was almost immediately ridiculed as a freakish outcast, and forming friendships was nigh impossible. The teachers were also for the most part, without mercy, taking the stance that I was just an ill-behaved brat, very much in need of a good hiding. I was wild and unmanageable, to the point where I had to be dragged into the school grounds by members of staff, literally kicking and screaming.
“Running away became a frequent habit for me.” I muttered, rubbing the back of my neck with embarrassment, “Eventually, I ran out of chances, and against my father’s wishes, I was deemed a case too far gone, and was relocated to an institution for severely troubled children.”
“Gosh…” Fluttershy whimpered.
“What was that place like?” Dashie inquired.
“Oh it was awful.” I told them, “I’m talking padded rooms, no sharp objects, the whole ‘insane asylum’ package. I spent three years in there, missing out on my education and being surrounded by the screams of the other children.”
After taking a moment to finish my tea, I continued.
I barely had any social contact, and was left stunted in all mental growth. But at last, there was a turning point, when my father bought a dog for me, a Cocker Spaniel like Chilli, but with black fur. We were truly inseparable, and despite still being a young pup without an ounce of training, she was the truest and most dedicated support dog. She could sense when I was upset or anxious, and she would come to comfort me. She would wait by the front door for me every afternoon, to the point where she could identify the engine of the vehicle that brought me home. I would step indoors and she would jump into my arms. She was, as sad as it sounded, my first and only friend for a very long time.
“Her name was Inca…” I breathed, closing my eyes and picturing her in my mind.
Despite being just a dog, she quickly came to provide more social enrichment than I had received in years. Alongside my dad and my brother, she prevented my communication skills from stagnating, and was the key to the eventual overcoming of my social ineptitude, but this did not come without a cost…
One day, when I was nine years old, Inca changed, for the worse. For no apparent reason, she started to become confused and violent, and although she never once attacked me, she consistently went for the rest of my family. After a trip to the vet, it became apparent that Inca had developed a brain tumour, which was causing the behaviour. I arrived home one day to discover that she had been put to sleep, without me being given the opportunity to say goodbye.
Needless to say, I didn’t take this news well, and after having an almighty meltdown, I found myself plummeting into a pit of emptiness and despair. Just finding the motivation to get out of bed was nigh impossible. I wasn’t even a decade old yet, and I had legitimately lost the interest to live any more. I began to consistently have bitter and angry thoughts, and while in this horrible place, a darkness started brewing within me, a shadowy heaviness that sapped away at all my emotions.
Inca’s death had inflicted me with a sickness, one that was oh-so-ironically known, as the Black Dog.
I was clinically depressed.
“I don’t like this story any more…” Pinkie whimpered, her eyes full of tears.
“I can stop if you wa-”
“No, please! Carry on…” Twilight blurted out, before clamping her mouth shut again.
I looked at the unicorn in disbelief, as did the rest of us. Was she really this invested in my story? Forget that, had she just said please!? The others, as emotional as they now were, had also been completely taken aback by Twilight’s sudden interest. Clearing my throat, I chose to grant her request; if hearing this story had the chance to form a positive connection with the unicorn, then there was no way in hell I was going to pass up on that.
Continuing from where I left off, I explained that from this place of darkness, something else in me had awakened, and for the first time, I started to become properly self-aware. The way I talked, the way I behaved, even the way I dressed, every aspect of myself was noticeable to me, and I realised how abnormal I was. I finally understood why I had been bullied at school, and why the teachers had been so exasperated with me.
They didn’t just think of me as a freak, I was a freak!
From then on, I started analysing the people around me, from my family, to the staff at the institution, to characters in live-action films and TV shows. I began learning how they conversed with each other, and how body language and eye contact worked. Then I began mimicking this behaviour, and lo and behold, it worked! Everyone started to realise that my father had been right all along, that I wasn’t just some lost cause, and that I deserved another chance at school. I shortly thereafter began secondary education, at a boy’s only boarding school, a place for children with less intensive special needs, such as dyslexia, speech impediments, and Asperger’s Syndrome. I started to make friends with my peers, and I was able to catch up on all the education I had missed out on, and quickly. With how little I had been taught until this point, my teachers were genuinely astounded at how quickly I picked things up, calling me ‘gifted’ and the like. I soon went on to become one of the top pupils, but that was only academically speaking; I was no teacher’s pet, that was for sure.
“I cannot even begin to stress how much trouble I got into.” I chuckled, “I was always goofing around during and between classes. There were just far too many open goals for me to not assume the comedian’s role. Besides, people actually found me funny and likeable for once, and I wasn’t going to give that up.”
Sighing, I reflected on how at long last, I had transitioned into something of a functional teenager. Things were going well, and this story of mine very nearly had a happy ending. But just as Inca had come and gone, so too did my upward trajectory. Janice delved further into alcoholism, while Oliver and I grew more distant from each other. And then, as I had explained last night, Clifford put the nail in the coffin with his gambling stunt, incurring enough debt to force us into selling the house and relocating to Ifield. Jan then gave him the boot, and proceeded to lord over my brother and I with spite in one hand, and a bottle of booze in the other. Life descended to a point of absolute suffering, with the sickness in me growing stronger than ever before. It would have totally consumed me, if not for two things.
“Firstly, there was the boxing.” I said, readjusting my sitting position as my legs were beginning to go numb, “Learning to fight helped me immeasurably. It allowed me to take all that anger, pain, and bitterness, and apply it in combat, while remaining in a totally controlled environment so nobody got hurt. It absolutely stopped me from going off the deep end.”
“And the other thing?” Rarity quizzed, offering me the last of the tea from the teapot.
Gladly accepting, I elaborated that the other thing was, well… them!
My Little Pony had brought so much colour and light into my bleak and grey existence, and had given me more joy than they could ever know. The boxing meant diddly squat in comparison, it was that cartoon, based on the very ponies before me, that had allowed me to retain my true nature, along with my desire to be a good person.
“A bit ironic, isn’t it Twilight?” I said with my eyebrows raised, “You seem to think I’m some sort of monster, when you’re the reason I’m not one.”
Not giving her a chance to respond, I brought the story to a close, as I had been talking for bloody ages.
“Anyway, I was planning on running away at some point. But then you lot showed up, and well, you know the rest.”
Smiling at them weakly, I held no shame whatsoever that I had just lied to them…
There had been enough heaviness for one day, and I didn’t want to go overboard by telling them of the incident that had occurred about a year ago. In truth, I had attempted to take my own life, and despite failing, I was secretly planning to try again. There was no plan to run away, the plan had been to hang myself in Dad’s old shed. Still, this end would now never come to pass, for these girls had saved me far more literally than they realised.
“Well, that’s the story!” I announced, clapping my hands together, “Sorry it was so long-winded and depressing, I hope you didn’t find it too bori-”
I was cut off as Fluttershy lunged forward and wrapped her hooves around me, tightly hugging me and breaking into a sob. This set the others off, with Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie also bursting into tears. Rainbow Dash was clearly trying her best not to join in too, while Twilight observed me with glassy eyes, her expression deeply saturated with unknown thoughts and feelings.
“I’m… I’m so sorry…” Fluttershy whimpered, “You’ve been through so much! I’m so sorry!”
“You are… so incredibly brave.” Rarity spoke solemnly, with tears of her own slithering down her cheeks.
“Hey, come on.” I protested, “I didn’t tell you all this for a big sappy song and dance. I’m fine, really!”
“No one is just fine, not after all you’ve been through.” Fluttershy choked, shaking against my body.
Patting at the pegasus’ back to the rhythm of a heartbeat, I settled her down and repeatedly assured everyone that I was okay, and that this big emotional reaction wasn’t at all necessary.
“We just feel bad for you, dude.” Rainbow Dash joined in, “Sure, some ponies can have it pretty bad back in Equestria, but not like what you’ve just described.”
Shrugging, I admitted that it definitely hadn’t been easy, but none of that mattered any more. I had a whole new life now, and although I didn’t know for sure what lay ahead for us, it was safe to say that it wasn’t going to be quite so bleak and lifeless. Upon hearing this, Fluttershy wiped her eyes and calmed down, as did everyone else.
“Well, you know what Callum?” she said.
“What?”
“It may have taken a long time to make friends in your old life, but in this new one, you won’t need to wait so long. From here on out, you’ve got me, okay?”
“Really?” I huffed, slowly breaking into a smile.
“You’ve got all of us, darling.” added Rarity, welling up again.
Everyone bar Twilight got up and came over to me, and before I knew it, I had been sucked into a big girly group hug, and just like that, I was one of them. Overwhelmed by the emotion, all I could do was break out into a ginormous grin, followed by bursting into tears of my own. They had accepted me for who I was, and from here on out, they weren’t just a group of novelties for me to bewonder, nor just my allies to protect.
They were my friends…