I awoke to find sunlight streaming through the window, onto the floor of my mundane room at the orphanage. I sighed and stared blankly at the bland ceiling before getting up and getting myself prepared for the last day of school this week. Tomorrow oficially started Hearths Warming break and I didn't want to miss a single second of it.
I walked out of my bathroom, my black hair combed over my right eye, the white tip of the bang stopping just short of my chin. I marked the date off on my calendar, not quite believing it was the 17th. I gave a sigh of relief and hurried off to school, not even giving the slight creak of my closet door opening a single thought.
The white mare looked out the window at the fleeting figure of her oldest friend and gave him a sad gaze and sighed as tears came to her eyes while she used her blue mane to cover her face.
"Ma'am," a voice behind her said.
She turned around to see the owner of the orphanage sitting there staring at her and she gave him a smile, pretending that she was ok.
"Yes," she asked as nicely as she could.
"Are you alright," the bright green stallion asked her.
She shook her head and said, "Yeah, just fine."
"Was that your son," he asked as he looked out the window behind her.
"No, no. Just a...a really old friend," she managed.
She walked out the door after that, leaving the owner of the building alone with his thoughts as she walked out onto the street.
I smiled at the mare sitting next to me. Her grey coat and silver mane shining in the sunlight streaming in through the windows. She looked up and gave me a weird stare before writing something down on a piece of paper and passing the note to me.
I opened it and read, "What's up with the weird smile?"
I gave a small laugh and wrote, "Nothing, I'm just happy you decided to move up beside me," and passed the note to her.
She rolled her eyes and wrote onto the note, passing it to me once more and I read, "Well, you are the only colt in here that wants to be my friend."
"I'm sure that if you were to talk to a few of them and got to know them, then they would like you."
"No, they wouldn't. I don't deserve friendships with them after what I did to them."
"Alright, but I promise this, you'll always have me. Always, even if the worst possible thing were to happen."
We both got a little laugh out of that and she smiled at me once more before focusing on Ms. Cherilees lesson on how snow was made.
The mare gazed into the school again and sighed before speaking to the brown stallion beside her.
"Doctor, please, can't I just talk to him once,"she pleaded.
The Doctor looked at her and said, "I know you miss him Vinyl, but you can't just go up to him and talk to him, that could change his history and then what would we do? Huh? We wouldn't have a chance to save this world and it would be ruled by that tyrant. Now which do you want? Save Equestria, or talk to your friend?"
The electric headed mare looked at the colt talking to the filly beside him once more and smiled a little as she said, "I just miss him so much Doctor. I miss the days when we would do nothing but sit around and play music all day long, deciding on what songs to play next at a concert. Fighting over which bands were better. Arguing over who could create the best bass drop.
"You know, I never got to tell him that he was better than me. He was always better than me, at everything. But I would never admit it. I was too stubborn and I would always put him down and tell him that maybe he would be as good as me one day. And you know, he actually thought that he wasn't as good as me. Ever. And it's all my fault," tears were cascading down her cheeks as she talked, "he always felt that he needed to prove himself to earn my respect. And I went along with it. I kept letting him think that he wasn't any good."
She looked at the window and watched as Alex listened to his teacher talk through half lidded eyes. She waved one last time and turned, walking behind the tree her and the Doctor had been beside, but never coming across from the other side. The Doctor gave one last look at the colt sitting at the desk and noticed he was looking his way with tears on his cheeks. The Doctor gave him one last wave and turned to walk behind the tree.
I had seen her. My oldest friend. She had been there, sitting and watching me for Celestia knew how long. Tears began to pile up and spill over as I watched her walk behind the tree and not come out the other side. The stallion raised his hoof in a farewell and trotted behind it, dissapearing just like Vinyl, leaving me with a heart unsure what to do.
The rest of the lesson continued on with me hardly paying any attention, with my gaze focused on the tree, wanting desperately for Vinyl to walk out so I could walk over to her and tell her how much I missed her. But she never came back out.
The bell rung and I flew out the door, rushing for the tree and arriving to see two sets of hoofprints and a set of prints I had only seen one other place besides a book. A Foals Guide to the World of Humans
It had detailed blueprints on the human body, the shape, the prints. But it was mythology, wasn't it? Something was nagging at the back of my mind, pushing and pushing against my mental barrier untill it broke and memories flooded back.
"No," I whispered. "I'm not letting her go...she's my friend."
"Alex," the mare beside me pleaded, "you have to let me go, for the love of Celestia, you have to live your life."
"What's the point in living if I don't have my best friend, even if I don't remember you," I snapped. "N-," I managed before the shadow in front of us spoke out, his voice barely a whisper.
"Garanth," was the only thing he said.
By now, the ground was splintered open and there was light spilling from under my hooves. Something in my head was turning, but it was taking a few seconds till it clicked in place, and in those seconds I began to ask, "What?"
Then the name clicked and I immediately remembered what would happen if I were to not give Anna up. I looked down at Anna and said, "Anna, I'm sorry," and looked up at the shadow with sorrow in my eyes and tears on the edge of my vision, "I remember. I know what I have to do. I'll let her go, but you have to hold true to your promise." Tears were still at the edge of my vision and I blinked them from my sight, clearing my eyes to see the shadow in a silent scream as light burst from where his eyes and nose should be, as well as his mouth. Anna also had the same thing happening to her, but she was smiling at me while tears fell down her muzzle. I raised a hoof to her cheek and kissed the top of her snout, crying as I realized that I was loosing my best friend. Cracks began to form along the shadows body and Annas, leaving them scarred with light spilling out of both of them in all directions. And then everything exploded and I was left floating in a haze of darkness.
The stallion I had seen only once before, in the medium, appeared in front of me muinutes later and I gazed at him, allowing my eyes to land on his own and I was allowed to see the world he inhabited.
There were tons of creatures that stood on two legs, I didn't know what they were, but I was determined to know what they were or where this place was by the time I was to go back.
"So what exactly are those creatures that live in your world," I asked Garanth.
He smiled, his grey coat shifting on his body a little as he moved to sit beside me on the invisible ground, and said, "I'll only tell you one thing, the rest after that is up to you. They're called humans."
I opened my mouth to ask more, but he put a hoof to my mouth, effectively making me shut up.
"Shhh, just listen for right now, ok," he said. I nodded and he continued, "I'm going to keep my promise, you are going back, but I'm going to give you a choice. Would you like to keep your memories, be able to remember your life up until this point?
I gazed at him with a look of confusion on my face as I said, "But that would mess up the time streams, wouldn't it?"
He gave me a smile and said, "Oh kid, if only you knew how screwed up they already are."
I nodded my head a little and said, "Y-yes, I'd like to remember it. I want to remember it all. Even if it hurts. Even if it makes me want to die. I don't want to forget her."
Garanth smiled and said, "Good, I'll ta-."
He stopped talking and his face twisted into a grimance of pain as he fall back onto his flank, practically gasping for breath as he struggled to get to his hooves. I rushed to his side and helped him up as he leaned forward and whispered into my ear.
"There is a man named the Doctor. When you meet him, trust him with your life Alex, for now, there is nothing I can do to help you," he said haltingly as he began to spasm.
"Wait, what do you mean," I asked, "What do you mean," I screamed at him.
Garanth turned to me with a sad smile on his lips and said, "I'm so-."
I woke up the next morning laying on the ground in the apple orchard. I hurried to the town and asked if anypony had seen Anna, with no luck. Nopony had seen her. It was as if she had...dissapeared.
It hit me like a blow to the side of the face and I fell to my knees, crying my eyes out in the middle of the courtyard, not even caring who had seen me. I had lost my best friend again.
A pony came up behind me and I swung at the stallion, not taking the time to see who it was. My hoof connected and I turned to look at who it was, only to see a flash of a white coat, then I was unconcious again.
I ended up getting the information on what had happened in my past from my records. I had left home at the age of eight and had been on the run for three years before my own mother called off the search, opting to let me run and not have to worry about me because I managed to get away every time. I felt tears well up at the information and I just simply walked to the orphanaged at the edge of town. Not even giving going home another thought.
I stood on trembling hooves as I looked at the human footprint. These creatures only lived in Garanths dimension, yet one had plainly been here. My eyes traveled to the box-like imprint in the ground and I wondered what in Tartarus that could be. I didn't know of anything that could make marks in the ground that big and there seemed to be something else on the tree.
Canterlot Castle, December Twenty-fifth, 2014.
I shook my head and looked at it again. Not quite believing what I was seeing. Had somepony given me coordiantes as well as a date, or was it for somepony else? I drove it from my mind and turned around to go home, ending up walking straight into Silver Spoon and making both of us tumble down the small incline, landing with her laying on my chest.
"O-oh uh sorry, I didn't see you there," I stammered, giving her a weak smile and hoping the blush on my cheeks wasn't as apparent as I thought it was.
"I-it's alright, I was just coming to ask you if you wanted to come with me and my dad to Phillydelphea for our Hearths Warming vacation for the week," she said.
I gave a shy smile and thought about what would await me there, not even hinting on the outside the torture I was putting myself through. I thought about all of the ponies that would be there. Ponies who knew me and most likely wanted me dead or worse.
But I simply smiled and said, "Yeah, I'd love to go."
Spoon gave a delighted little squeal that I had come to love over the past few days and said, "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you," before quickly giving me a small kiss and rushing away before I had the chance to react.
I didn't want to react either way, I just layed there and watched her skip off into the sunset, stopping once to wave to me, before she headed into her house. Night fell and I gave a small sigh, staring at Lunas' sky with a little bit of contempt in my eyes as I watched little shapes dance across the surface of the night.
I smiled one last time before saying, "Goodnight Anna," and pushing myself up, heading to my dreary home and the lecture wating for me, the one thing standing between me and my bed. I half listened to the keeper as he explained the importance of me needing to be "home" before the night fell, hurrying up to my room and getting ready for bed when he was done.
I lay in my bed and thought about the day, wondering what I had seen. Why Vinyl and that other pony had been there. Why I agreed to go to Phillydelphea. I gave up my thoughts and surrendered to my dreams, knowing the Princess of the Night would protect me there. If only she could protect me during the day.
My eyes slowly opened and I moaned, feeling the scars across my body and the poisoned blood coursing through my veins return with a vengance, burning horribly all across my fur and under it as well, making me feel as if I was being burned alive. I struggled and tried to move but found that my hooves and torso were strapped to the table, restricting my movement. I also noticed as beeping sound that grew more frantic along with my movements and I stopped moving, looking around to see the room I was in.
My vision was hazy at best and I couldn't focus on much, butI saw a white stallion heading my way and I watched as his face grew clearer and clearer untill I could tell who it was.
"S-Shining Armor," I questioned.
He gave a little smile that I picked up on and said, "Shhh, just be calm, it's going to be ok now." I felt a small little prick in my arm. Looking down, I saw a needle in my arm. I began to get sleepy and when Shining Armors voice came again, it sounded distant. "You know, you never apologized for punching me all that time ago," he said.
I gave a tired smile and said, "I didn't know who to file an apology to," before the lull of sleep overtook me, leaving me worried and knowing that Luna couldn't save me from the night terrors anymore.