//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Ligatures // Story: Fabrication // by Bomber //------------------------------// Blake turned his iPhone on to check the time. 7:32 AM the phone read. Their flight would leave at 8:30, which would give them a little less than an hour to get through the JFK International Airport and onboard their flight. They had travelled all through the morning from their current town of Albany to reach New York City, where they would board their flight on a Boeing 747 to travel to Europe. Blake’s parents thought that they would have made it to the large airport over three hours before their flight even started boarding, but major construction had postponed their long car ride. “I knew something like this would happen! I told you we should’ve booked a hotel in New York!” his mother had said earlier while his father was trying to maneuver around a traffic jam. “Honey, you know how expensive this trip is. We couldn’t have afforded another dime without skipping at least several meals while we’re in Paris or Berlin or any other town we’ll visit on this vacation,” his father had replied, with a tone of annoyance in his voice. The memories of his two parents bickering and arguing with each other during the car ride still lingered in Blake’s mind. His family now moved around the sea of people, sprinting as fast as they could. Blake couldn’t believe how crowded the airport was, this early in the morning. When they reached security, all hopes of making it on time had vanished. The lines to get through were enormous, and would take at least an hour and a half just to get through. But somehow, a miracle happened right in front of them. Apparently, one of the metal detector machines was malfunctioning, and the airport had brought a team of electricians to come and fix it. And somehow, someway, they finished it at the exact moment the Johnson family arrived at security. An airport security officer announced, “This line’s now operational!” A hoard of people bombarded their way to try and make it first in line, including the Johnsons. Even though they weren’t in the front of the line, it would only take fifteen minutes tops to get through. Blake passed the time chatting about baseball with his dad. They were both big Florida Marlins fans, as they had lived in Miami before his dad bought several acres of land in Albany where he could build his dream gun range. After they had gotten through security free of any bombs, chainsaws, axes, rat poisoning, guns that fired portals, or any other dangerous items that might be used as a “terrorist” weapon during their flight, they sprinted to reach their gate before they started boarding. As before, they pushed past their way through a crowd of people. Blake wondered why his family wasn’t getting stares from all passerbies they were rushing passed, but then figured that it was probably normal for a group of people who were sprinting to be late for their flight. All the people who were waiting at their gate had most likely seen groups like his family plenty of times. Blake checked the time again. 8:17 AM. They had made it with thirteen minutes to spare. His stomach then rumbled. He had wished they could’ve gotten breakfast but there was no time for that. His family boarded the flight and took their seats according to the number on their tickets. Blake wished he didn’t have to get stuck next to his annoying, bratty eight-year-old sister for the eighteen hour trip it was going to take for them to reach wherever they planned to go first. Was this trip even worth it? It was going to cost Blake his entire summer vacation, but he might be able to bring back a bunch of souvenirs that he could brag about to his friends when he got back, and possibly a hot French chick too. Blake mentally facepalmed for letting his hormones get the best of him. Although, he needed to get the courage to go up to a girl and ask her out. He’d never been on a date, kissed a girl, danced with a girl, and he’d never even hugged a girl save the ones in his family. His friends always teased him about it, but he had hardly cared. Every time he did get the guts to go ask, he’d choke and would totally annihilate any chances of a girl saying, “Yes.” His thoughts wandered off while the flight attendant went through the standard safety procedure of how to deploy the oxygen masks and where to go if the plane had to land and blah, blah, blah. He took his iPhone out of his pocket and turned on the Airplane mode feature, so that he didn’t mess with the plane’s radar or whatever the hell electronics with access to the internet did to it. Before he hit the music app, he noticed his sister watching a TV show on their parent’s laptop that she borrowed from them. Curious, he asked her what she was watching. His sister replied, “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic! You should totally watch it with me!” Blake snickered. “I’m too old to watch that shit, Melody,” he said. “You’re never too old! There are actually some guys in my class who watch this show too!” Melody countered. “Are they gay?” “Of course not! How could you say something so mean?” “Because any straight male would rather lick a donkey’s ass rather than watching twenty-two minutes of pure girly torture. That show is meant for five-year-old babies, not for sixteen-year-olds like me.” “Well, do you still like Disney movies?” Blake thought about that question for a moment, trying to figure where his sister was going with it. “Yeah… I guess.” “Those movies are made for both kids and grown-ups to enjoy. The same goes for this one!” “When pigs fly, Melody.” He decided he was finished with this argument. He inserted his headphones over his ears and turned his music up enough to drain the voice of his bothersome sister. He didn’t dare put it up on full volume, because his headphones were also designed to be speakers. If the volume was at its max, the whole plane, including pilots would be able to hear it too. He figured he would be at least respectful to the other people around him. This was going to be a long flight. Blake continued to drift in and out of sleep. The only reason he woke up was because his sister would use a wrist band to whack him on the side of the arm within minutes of him falling asleep. He knew better than too tattle, as his parents were over-protective of Melody. He could never win an argument. After he believed that his arm was starting to bleed, he snatched the rubber band, snapped it in half, and then tossed the remnants of it into his backpack. Unfortunately, his sister had a back-up one, and was preparing to strike his arm again. Blake glazed at her with an ice-cold stare. “If you hit me with that thing again one more time, I’ll toss you off the Eiffel tower and into the Seine River.” She stopped and turned her attention back to her pony infested TV show. Blake let out a sigh of relief and turned his head towards the window. He saw a bright light emerging from the ground at a ridiculously fast speed. It took three seconds for Blake to recognize what it was: A SAM, or a surface-to-air missile. It collided with the right wing of the plane, causing it to lose altitude at an alarming rate. There were prayers, pleads, cries for help, screams, or whatever noises came from the panicking passengers after the missile collided. The intercom from the cabin came on, telling everyone to remain calm. Blake ignored it and used his body to cover his sister. He then awaited their certain death. <><><><><><><><><><> Lyra jolted awake, panting heavily. She rolled off the side of Twilight’s guest bed, pondering about the dream she just had. Something was different with this dream than the others she had about the human world. It was like she was actually there. She had felt all of Blake’s movements, heard all of his thoughts in her head, could smell everything he could smell, including all of the other senses as well. It was just so impossibly realistic. She moved her sight to the balcony of Twilight’s library, where she noticed the Lunar Princess gazing at the stars. Figuring she wouldn’t be able to get anymore sleep, she joined Luna. “Having difficulty sleeping?” Luna asked calmingly. Lyra described everything in her dream to the princess. Luna remained silent, taking in all of her words and trying to put them together as if they were a puzzle. Once Lyra finished, Luna turned to her and smiled. “It seems that there is a strong bond between the two of you. It’s almost as powerful as the one between Celestia and me,” Luna said. “Do you have any explanation as to why this is happening?” Lyra asked, curious. “None,” Luna replied, pointing towards a shooting star that soared through the night sky. “It is something I have never heard of before.” Lyra let her eyes follow the trail the shooting star had made, taking in all of its beauty. “One more question,” she said, turning her attention back to Luna. “Do have any idea what’s happening to Blake?” “Unfortunately, psychology is not one of a princess’s fields of expertise. We will only know what’s causing him to act this way when we know his entire story. It most certainly seems to be a terrible one, if I might add.” The two couldn’t think of anything else to say. Lyra could do nothing but admire Luna’s excellent job of raising the moon and the night. It felt so peaceful, like there was nothing in Equestria that could cause discontent. Lyra began to wonder what Blake’s planet was like, besides the landscapes she had seen in her dreams. Did they have humans that control the weather like the pegasi? Was it possible that they could perform magic like a unicorn? Did they have the ability to fly— wait, she had just seen in her dream that the humans had built large machines to fly. What about more simple things like housing, food, or music? Being a musician, it only made Lyra even more intrusive to wonder what human music was like. “I believe we should go check on our special guest,” Luna said, breaking the silence. Lyra nodded and quietly followed her through the bedroom, trying not to wake either Twilight or Spike. When did Spike get here? Lyra thought. They then silently tiptoed down the staircase and into the main room of the library below. The two guards were still stationed at the door, ready to stop Blake if he tried to escape. Both Lyra and Luna stood in front of Blake. He was lying down on the hard, wood floor, staring blankly at the ceiling. Twilight had prepared a bed for him, composing of only sheets and blankets as she had nothing else, but for some reason Blake completely ignored it and decided to stay uncomfortable and cramped. His eyes were bloodshot from crying and he was inhaling deeply. Lyra waved a hoof in front of his face. He made no attempt to acknowledge her other than exhaling. “Looking as quaint as ever, I see,” Luna said sarcastically. Blake turned his gaze to meet hers. He lifted his hand off the ground and balled it into a fist, shooting his middle finger up into the air. Neither Lyra nor Luna understood what the expression meant other than it was most likely an insult. “Why can’t you damn horses see that I want to be left alone?” Blake asked rhetorically. “We’re not horses, we’re ponies,” Lyra corrected. “And I’m giving a fuck, because?” “You’re giving a fuck? Is that like a human item or tool or something?” Lyra asked, raising an eyebrow. She didn’t understand Blake’s vocabulary. He laughed obtrusively. “I have a dictionary app I could let you use on my iPhone, but you ponies took away all my shit.” “We can’t let you have your things until we know that you’re not going to hurt anypony,” Luna explained. It was now Blake’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “I only do what’s necessary to keep me alive. Even if that means killing other living things,” he said. “But what if we gave you food to eat, a place to live, ponies to talk to? Would you still try to harm anypony then?” Luna asked hypothetically. “The only time I will ever take another soul for the rest of eternity is if I signed up for the military, which was what I was planning on doing as soon as I turned eighteen.” “Why?” Luna asked, keeping mental notes of everything the human said. “Because… there’s nothing left for me. I hardly have any friends, I now have no home, and my family is dead. They’re gone! Taken away from me!” The tears once again flooded out of Blake’s eyes. Even though this had happened before, both Lyra and Luna were taken aghast by the sudden change of emotion. Like before, Lyra felt melancholy herself just as Blake did. Lyra thought, feeling tears swell up inside her own eyes too. What? Who said that? Blake’s voice said inside her head. Was it possible that they were sharing thoughts now as well? Lyra thought, trying to figure out if whether or not the voice inside her head was real or just imaginary. It’s you? You’re reading my mind, aren’t you? “What’s going on here?” Luna asked, noticing that something strange was going on. They both ignored her and continued with their telepathic conversation. Your world is fucked up. Um… which ones? You don’t know what cussing is? Can you promise me something? If you ever hear a word that comes out of my mouth that you don’t know the definition of, it’s probably a swear word. You could consider them ‘bad words’. So don’t ever curse, because seeing a bright-colored pony swear makes me want to laugh my guts out. Look, I’m killing myself inside-out right now! My heart feels like a black hole that sucks all the happiness that I used to have right inside it! You really think you can help me? I want you to get my pistol. It’s the thing that was on the side of my belt. It shoots bullets. No, I’ve just decided that I now don’t give a shit about survival. I’ve had it with life. I’m a dog that needs to be put down. Blake looked away from Lyra, not saying another word. Blake remained silent. He curled up into a ball, and began rocking back and forth like an old pony would do on a rocking chair. Lyra frowned, knowing he would be curled into blackness until he could regain his senses. “Lyra, I command you to tell me what’s happening between you and Blake this instant,” Luna ordered. “We were just talking to each other,” Lyra replied. “What do you mean?” Luna asked, puzzled. “It seemed as if you two were having a staring contest.” “We communicated through our minds.” Luna thought briefly, scratching her chin with her hoof. “Forget what I said before,” she stated. “Your bond is much stronger than I had originally thought.” “What does this mean then?” Lyra asked, trying to figure out the future she would have between Blake and herself. “I’m not sure,” Luna said. “But the sun is rising, and it’s time for us to head off for Canterlot.”