//------------------------------// // Ch. 1: Hourglass // Story: Time and Space with other traits // by DetMan //------------------------------// I take a look at the clock. One hour until my birthday remained. I sat there on my couch looking around my empty apartment. No one came, though really I don’t know too many people. I was used to being alone. I’m Jenny Smith. Worst last name in my opinion, but it’s still mine, and I stick with it. I get up and head for the bathroom. I felt tired, but I still want to be awake when my birthday arrives. I step in front of the sink and turn on the warm water, splashing it in my face. The towel rack was behind me, and I turn to grab the towel and dry my face off. Once done, I look at my face in the mirror just above the sink. My blonde hair lays long and loose on my shoulders, and my brown eyes seem to be a bit bloodshot from the drinks I had. I wipe my eyes with my fingers, and step back out into the hallway. I turn on the lights to reveal my living room where I sat for the last few hours. My couch was illuminated, revealing its red color and leathery surface. The coffee table holds several alcoholic drinks and shot glasses. Today was just not my day, but I guess it was. It’s my birthday after all. Dana was going to get here soon. She’s bringing her boyfriend as well, Jack. Him and her are always with each other every time I see them. “He’s the one for me,” Dana would say. He’s a nice guy, but not my type at the very least. I don’t think I even want a boyfriend. I’m too awkward in my opinion to keep one without him running off because of my ramblings. Five minutes at the most, I think. They’ll be here in no time to celebrate my day of birth. The intercom in my kitchen buzzed, and I rush over to pick up the phone it’s attached to. I put it close to my mouth and say, “Hello?” “Jenny, it’s us~... open up we have you’re present right here!” I roll my eyes and press the button on the intercom that unlocks the lobby door. I hear a faint, muffled click and the sound of the heavy glass door opening as I place the phone back on the intercom and head for the door to let them in. Before I could get there, they beat me to the door and one of them was knocking. “Hold on, I can’t teleport!” I said, jokingly. I unlock the door and pull back the bolt to let them in. Dana was smiling like a maniac and Jack was holding a blue wrapped up present. I could only wonder what was inside as he sheepishly grins at me, and they both say to me “Happy Birthday.” Dana has brown, shorter hair than mine with brown eyes. She’s turning twenty five today as well, surprisingly. Jack has some fancy geled brown hair with grey eyes, who seems to always have a shit eating grin on his face all the time. I smile and say, “Welcome, come in, I got to get rid of all the stuff on my table, you want anything?” Dana just playfully shoved me and says “Come on, Jenny. It’s your birthday. You don’t have to act like the host you know.” I just shrug and head to the living room to clear up the drinks and leave a couple for the perfect time. I head on over to the kitchen to put away the drinks when I hear Jack place the present on the coffee table back in the living room with a thud. I say while in the kitchen, “It’s your birthday too, Dana. We’re celebrating together here.” Dana says, “True, but you come first you know! An hour before mine!” I just sigh and finish putting away the leftover drinks, heading back to the living room where everyone is. I glance at the clock. 8:20. Just about forty more minutes to go. My present sat on the table next to a few poured drinks for each of us. Jack says, “So, how old are you again?” Dana lightly hits him in his shoulder with the back of her hand. “Jack, don’t be rude. You know very well this is her twenty fifth birthday.” Jack chuckles. “You’re twenty five after an hour too, missy.” Dana throws her hands up while Jack just chuckles at his own dumb joke. I sit down on the couch opposite of Jack and Dana and play with my hands. We talked about our days, our jobs, and how fabulous being together on a day like this. It lasted for a while, setting the time at 8:57 now. My birthday starts officially at 9:00 P.M. Dana starts to get bubbly and excited, and Jack just smiles away at her and me. She says, “Oo, Jenny, you have to open your present at the exact time! It will be really special, we’ve been looking for this for a long time.” I laugh. “Really? What’s in there, c’mon tell me.” She giggles. “It’s a surprise!” One more minute. I take a shot of my favorite whiskey and so does everyone else. I place the present on my lap, and grin at the two on the other couch. Dana seems to really anticipate something amazing, and Jack just stares at the present. Five... four... three... two... one... … … Five Score... ...Divided by four... … … … ...DITZY! I blink. I felt like for a moment there I just lost my focus. What happened? Dana was snapping her fingers in my face and Jack sits back on the couch with a worried look on his face. “Jenny, Earth to Jenny, you alright?” I say with a muddled tone, “Wha... what happened? What’s going on?” Dana sighs with relief and Jack leans in, still looking worried. Dana says, “Whoah... Jenny we thought we lost you. You spaced out for five minutes.” Five minutes? I don’t just lose focus like that, i’m quite the attentive girl. “Really...? I must have had a quick case of déjà vu.” I said. I need to start to pay more attention to stuff around me. Then again, I always do, but something came over me to space out for a whole five minutes. Dana sits back down on the couch next to Jack, who in turn shuffles in his seat to accommodate her space. Jack says, “Well, after that little episode, how about you open your present?” I nod, and start to tear at the cold blue paper. It reveals a white box, labeled with the local cake factory. I grin at the cake, then back at the two sitting in the couch that have a similar smile. I open up the cake box, and inside is a blue cake. It’s remarkable, the details in it are amazing. It’s styled in these blue boxes, like carved wood. In the center, it’s labeled in white: “Happy Birthday, Jenny and Dana.” Dana sits up and looks down on the cake in my lap. “I never actually got to see the whole cake, Jack here was the one that planned it.” Jack holds up his hands in defeat, saying, “True, it was all my idea. It’s a present for both of you. I set up two candles. Jenny gets to blow out one and Dana gets to blow out the other. Here, put it out on the table.” I carefully take out the cake that came with a glass plate under it, and place it on the coffee table. Jack takes out a lighter, and lights the two candles. I smile the whole time, enjoying the company of the two jokers. Dana seems excited, and Jack flicks off the lighter, motioning for me to make a wish and blow. I close my eyes and think of a wish. What could I wish for? I don’t have much to wish for. I could wish for better social skills, or rather money to help get a better house and car, maybe. But those are more... normal wishes. I want something big to wish. I want to... I want to... I wish that I could travel the stars. I wish that I could meet aliens, go to far off planets, make friends with everyone. I wish... I blow out the candle on the left side of the cake. My wish was cast into the wish void, then. No going back after that. I don’t know where my wish of traveling came from, but it seemed like a fantastic idea to me. It felt like it was the best thing that could ever happen to me. I smile and open my eyes at the two. Dana blurts out, “So... what did you wish for?” I just giggle. “Ditzy, if I told you, it would never come true. Remember the rules?” Dana rolls her eyes. “Okaaaay, whatever you say, missy... wait, what?” Dana looks at me with a quizzical look. I say, “What?” Dana squints at me suspiciously. “You just called me Ditzy.” “I did?” “Yeah, you did.” Huh. Now that I think back I did say that, didn’t I? Where did that come from? I don’t even know a person named Ditzy. I scratch my head and say, “Huh. Sorry about that, then.” She just shrugs and Jack stares at me. It’s starting to make me a bit uncomfortable, but I just shrug it away. “Dana, I think it’s your turn to make a wish.” Dana jumps up from her seat, and smiles widely. She closes her eyes for a few minutes, and blows out her candle. Jack claps his hands together a few times, saying, “Congrats, you two!” We all laugh and eat cake for the next half hour. It tasted wonderful, it was also flavored blue berries. I like cake, Dana likes blueberry flavored items. She always liked pastries, like cupcakes and cake in general. Pie and others as well, though she admits her favourite is muffins. I laughed when I first heard that. It was just so cute, oddly enough, to hear that her favourite food is muffins. They were about to leave when Dana just froze still. They were heading out the door when it happened, and Jack snapped his fingers in her face trying to get her to come out of it. I shake her, saying, “Dana, come on, it’s time to go home now.” Dana stares at me... and begins to cry. She mumbles and cries in my shoulder, and Jack creates a worried look on his face. He rubs her back while she cries into my shoulder. In her haze of tears, I could have sworn her ask for a doctor. I pat her on the back and set her upright again, her eyes red from the crying. I say calmly, “You alright now?” She nods, saying. “I-I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me... Jack will take me home, i’ll see you later then, Doctor.” I nod, and then blink. “Doctor? In case you didn’t know I don’t have a medical license.” I say, grinning. Her face starts to blush, and she heads for the door, back out into the parking lot in five seconds. Jack just looks at her rush back to his car, and then he looks at me with a serious face on. I look at him, and say, “What?” He reaches into his coat pocket, and takes out an average looking key. He hands it to me, without saying much except, “You’re going to need this.” I take the key, and examine it. It’s ordinary, not labeled in any way. Its hold is circular, with a hole at the top for key chains. I hold it, and just look at it’s simplistic design like it’s the most beautiful thing in the world. I look up to ask why, but Jack was gone. I could hear his car pulling out and driving away. I tap the key in my left palm and sigh. I look at it again, asking myself, “What do you go to then?” It sits there, being an average key, and doesn’t answer me. I sigh once again, and head to my bedroom. I place the key on top of my dresser, and scratch my thigh. “I guess I should go take a shower, and head to bed.” I head over to my towel closet, and pick out a light blue towel. Inside the bathroom, I strip down and turn on the shower, letting it run a bit to get warm. I again scratch my thigh, which is starting to get real itchy. Damn. I step in, and rinse down the days dirt and grime from head to toe, occasionally scratching once or twice the same area on my thigh, then on the other thigh. I paid not much mind to it, and after the shower I dry myself off, first the hair, then my body. Showers are the best thing ever invented for the stressed. I enjoyed today, it was fun to hang out with my friends, but for some reason I felt tense. I wrap the towel around myself and head back to my bedroom. I pick out a sleeveless white cotton shirt and shorts. I pick out some underwear as well, and slip them all on. My thighs are now killing me, and I decide to check out if I have a rash or something. Then I saw an hourglass. A brightly colored hourglass was emblazoned on my thigh, stuck in time dropping sand from the top to the bottom. It had a light brown bottom and top to it, and the overall art style of it reminded me of cartoons. I freaked out. “What the he- What?!” I said out loud, as I checked my other thigh. Yep, another one was on the other thigh too. I feel the mark on my right thigh. It has no cracks in it, no sign of irritation either. It looks perfect, with no flaw in it in any way possible. When. The Hell. Did that get there? It can’t be a tattoo, I don’t remember ever going to a tattoo parlor to get a fucking hourglass printed on my thigh. Did Dana and Jack do it? No, couldn’t have. I don’t ever remember passing out with them around and throwing on a wet tattoo on there. Did they do it when I spaced out? No, it was five minutes, I checked. It would have taken much longer to do it. All I could think of it ever happening was when I would be sleeping, which I highly doubt anyone would break in to just put an hourglass on me. It’s the worst possible way to prank someone. Ugh... I just hop into bed. Whatever, it will probably go away like most of those crazy water tattoos do over a while. No one will notice if I wear jeans all day. It will go away, and no one will notice. I pull the blankets over me, and clap twice to turn out the lights. Those clappers are sure the most lazy invention ever. I close my eyes and go to sleep, having a very strange dream for the rest of the night. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I ran out of my Tardis to check to see if Ditzy was still outside. She ran when she heard the monsters outside start to stampede out of the pits of Tartarus. Those hellspawn should not exist, at least not now. Time was in flux, once again. The town was on fire, the ponies were galloping left to right away from the demons, and I could see some ponies fade away. Lyra was gone, so was Bon Bon. I could see Rainbow Dash flying at remarkable speeds to who knows where. I need to find her... I ran around town, avoiding the demons and fire pits. Where is she...? It felt like hours before I found her, trapped in a strange aura in front of that abomination called a draconequus. He was chanting something. Oh no NO, HE’S...! I don’t think. I scream out her name as I jump in to tackle her out of the monsters grasp, and just when I did, everything went white... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I wake up in a sweat, screaming. I felt my face with my drenched hands as I tried to calm myself down. That dream... was terrible. I remember those ponies. I used to enjoy that show until the horrible ending to the whole series came around. It was the worst. Discord betrayed Celestia in the end... Friendship is Magic used to be such a nice show. I wonder to this day how the hell that episode got on there, since it’s supposed to be a kid friendly show. I don’t watch the older episodes anymore. They just don’t feel right after that. It just doesn’t. I look at my digital clock on my nightstand, next to my bed. It’s just morning, 8:23 A.M. I get up and check my phone. Three missed calls from Dana. She tried to call me the last half hour three times. I roll my eyes, and tap her face on my phone. It expands, and it starts to ring as I bring it up to my ears. Dana answers it, and yells into my ear, “Where the hell were you?! I need to talk to you, come over to my place as soon as you can. Bye.” And there we have it. I didn’t even get to say a word before she orders me to come to her house. I sigh, and click the hang up button to stop the beeping coming out of it. She sounded really... angry. That’s unusual. She’s usually happy most of the time. Nothing really makes her angry at all. Whatever happened must of been serious. I get dressed quickly, glancing slightly at the mark on my leg, and put on some jeans with a green t-shirt. Over the shirt, I put on a thin black dress jacket with buttons, and look at myself in the mirror. Looks fine to me, and that mark on my thigh can’t be seen through the jeans, so work today should be embarrassment free. I nod at myself, and grab the key on my dresser without thinking. It put it in my pocket, and grab my car keys on the kitchen counter. I felt like I was on autopilot, as I walked outside and sat in my car, fumbling with my keys to put it in the slot and turn on the engine. The drive over to Dana’s house was fuzzy the whole way. I kept thinking about a deep blue color, and the key. Before I knew it, I was there at her small one story house. I pull up into her driveway, and kill the engine. I sat there, just staring ahead at her house. Soon, her door opens to reveal an angry Dana. I snap out of my trance, and get out of the car. Dana points inside while looking at me, and I just mumble “Hey” before I head in. Her house was a humble color of grey and blue. It’s mostly a living room, with a kitchen and one bedroom with a bathroom inside. I sat on a light blue couch next to a small table with a lamp on it, and a T.V. sat in the corner, muted but playing a weird looking show. I didn’t recognise it. She steps into the living room eventually with a disappointed look on her face. “What did you do?” I look at her with a confused look on my face. “Do what?” She looks down the hallway, and back to me. “This!” and she pulls down her pants. I shield my eyes from the sight, saying, “Woah, in case you didn’t notice, I like guys.” She makes an annoyed sound, and says, “No, get your head out of the gutter! I meant this mark!” I put my hands down to see a series of bubbles on her thigh. I look at the bubbles with interest. They looked similar in art style to my weird mark... She points at it roughly. “Why the hell do I have a cutie mark on my thigh?” I look up at her. “I don’t know, what make you think that’s a cutie mark?!” She throws up her arms in frustration, and pulls back up her pants. “I know it’s a cutie mark, because it belongs to Derpy!” I frown. Derpy was that grey pegasus pony from the show. She was a background pony for a while, only having one spotlight episode in which she actually speaks. Those bubbles do look familiar, as it was her cutie mark... My head begins to throb painfully. I rub my temples slowly in a circular motion, and look back at Dana. “I didn’t do that if that’s what you’re thinking.” She takes a deep breath and sits down next to me on the couch. “I’m sorry I got angry, I woke up with this thing on me and I just... got really angry for some reason. Sorry for yelling at you.” I rub my hands on my pants. “The thing is... I got a similar surprise last night too.” She raises an eyebrow. “What...?” I pull my pants down a bit to show my thigh to Dana, revealing a much more prominent than last night hourglass. She looks at it, and I could see her eyes glaze over after seeing it. I wave my hands in front of her face, but she just sits there. I frown as I pull back up my pants hiding the mark from view. In turn, she snaps out of it, and looks back at me. “You have an hourglass cutie mark...” I tilt my head at her. “Again, with the cutie marks. You’re making me feel a bit uncomfortable here, Dana. Do you know what’s going on?” She just shakes her head and holds it with both her hands. “I don’t know... I called Jack first before you and every time it just goes straight to voicemail. I don’t know what’s going on with him. I suspect he’s the one responsible for this.” I nod my head slowly. Jack was the only one we knew that actually knew about the show, and how we used to enjoy it long ago. Then again, that would just be a big punch in the face because it just reminds me about the horrifying ending. Jack wouldn’t sink that low to pull off a prank. Besides, I could charge him with sexual assault for pulling off my pants to do that. I stand up from the couch. “I need to get to work, i’ll call you after to see if you got Jack on the phone. See you later, Dana.” Dana nods, staring at the T.V. It’s showing off some odd looking guy in a long coat stepping inside of a blue police box with a blonde girl. I don’t think I want to know what happens next. I walk outside and head back to my car to drive on over to the school. I was a substitute professor for a local community college that masters in algebra and physics. It’s a bit advanced, and believe it or not I enjoy just talking about it to students. My lectures weren’t the most entertaining, but it certainly wasn't the worst. It was only part time, however. I was looking for a more permanent position in what I enjoy the most. Technology. Computer science. Anything along those lines were alright with me. The drive there was quiet, not much traffic around this time of day. I liked these quiet drives. It gives me time to think, and that time I did use. I never did ask Dana about the mark, didn’t I? This is going to bother me all day. My phone rings half way through the drive, and I stop at a red light to see who it is. It’s Jack. I answer the phone with a “Hello?” Jack says immediately, “Jenny, listen. I need you to come around the college after you’re done with the lectures. There’s something I need to tell you.” I raise an eyebrow. “Jack, what is it? Something wrong?” Jack doesn’t answer for a moment, but eventually says, “No, nothing yet. I just need to show you something that is very important. I’ll see you next to the parking lot. Later.” The phone emits that familiar droning sound of a disconnected line and I hit the end call button. Today is just not a normal day, is it? It seems like it’s just one mystery after the next. Ah, well. I need to get to the class and give out the days lectures. We’ll see about that thing Jack has to tell me later. I pull up front of the college. It was generously large, enough to fit about eight hundred students at the most. It was built recently as well, with all those glass adaptations to brickwork. Some of the building was similar to a castle, while the rest was modern day architecture with glass walls and white concrete supports to hold them up. It was a strange place to put modern art, but it’s better than just straight up concrete and bricks. I park in the staff parking lot and head over to the doors, scanning my ID on the lock, opening the door. I head down the empty halls towards my given room, and peek inside. No one seemed to be inside, so I just head in and sit at the desk in the far corner of the room. It was a standard lecture hall, with raised seats going up to the back wall and a large space for me to stand, along with a half chalkboard half white board to play around with when giving out my speech. The desk was clear, with only a single thin paper folder placed neatly on the desk, with my name on it. I sit down in a leather swivel chair and open the folder, revealing a paper filled with what the topic was going to be today. The full time professor had written the paper as a quick run through of what they want me to do with the students. I scan over it, re-reading areas and memorizing the schedule when I noticed a small postcard paperclipped to the back of the list. It’s not really a postcard, but a photo. I read the back first, which says in cursive writing, “Remember, you have to remember. Don’t forget.” Huh. That’s creepy. This guy must be pulling my leg... I turn the photo over to see the picture, and what I saw gave me a massive headache. It was a box. A big, blue box. My thigh began to burn in irritation again as I looked at it. Surrounding the box was an odd array of lights, all shades of blue. It was like it was falling through a hole, this blue box. Looking closely, I began to make out the details. It was not just a box, but it had a door in the front. The windows were tinted, so I could not see inside. On top of the box was a light bulb that was flashing blue. My head was pulsing, I couldn’t take it. I drop the photo on the floor and fall out of my desk. “Remember.” I hold my head with both my hands, on my knees now. I could hear something odd forming in my head, a sound. It was a deep, echoing ‘vworp’ sound, like a dead engine having trouble to start up. I kept repeating in my head, and I just wanted it to stop. I just wanted it all to stop. “You have to remember.” I yell out in pain as my head felt like it split open, and my chest began to heave and tug at me like it was shifting. Something was happening, I can feel it in my chest, something is happening, oh god, make it stop, it hurts, stop, please... I begin to cry. The vworp sound continues to echo in my head, but the pain in my chest begins to fade. I cry more and more and more as the pain begins to subside, the sounds in my head fading. “Don’t forget.” I could hear the sound of my heartbeat in my ears from all the excessive amounts of blood flow. It sounded different, though. Is my heart failing? No, it has the same beat... but then it isn’t. I can hear something new. Something changed. My heartbeat is way off. I could feel the beats in my ears as it makes a ‘bu-bum-ba-BUM’ sound in quick succession. It makes me feel really weird, but I sit up after I notice I was on the floor bawling my eyes out. I sniff out my tears, and wipe them away with my sleeve. That was a terrible episode... what had gotten over me? The pain is gone, but I just feel a little bit heavier all of a sudden. I need a drink... Then I notice a student was standing there for the past few minutes just staring at my torture. I look up at him in extreme embarrassment. “Oh-Oh, uh, how long were you there?” He adjusts his backpack and looks at me with a worried look. “...Are you okay?” I flick my shirt forward. Is it getting hot in here? It just got suddenly warmer... “I’m fine, I just had a bit of a panic attack, nothing to worry about now. I’ll be fine.” The student looks at his watch. “You’ve actually been wiggling on the floor for the past twenty minutes...” I go wide eyed. “WHAT?!” I yell, and look at the clock. Sure enough, it was twenty minutes since I got here. Oh god... The student just shrugs. “We tried getting help, but they just said to let you go through it until you were ready. The nurse wants to talk to you.” “N-Nurse? Of course, i’ll head over...” “I guess lectures cancelled?” he asks as I quickly get my things and head for the door. I sigh. “For now, you’re lucky I had a mental breakdown.” He nervously laughs, but scratches the back of his head. I just shake my head and head out the door, towards the nurse office. I grind my teeth on the way there. I felt torn for some reason, like I just lost something very important, and I need to get it back. But what? I knocked on the office’s door, and an aged woman answers.. She has slight wrinkles, and her hair is beginning to grey. Her eyes though, are a deep blue, and full of life. She smiles at me and says sweetly, “You’re okay then, sweetie? Come in, I want to check to make sure you’re physically fine.” I nod. I just wonder why they just didn’t try to get me here in the first place, but push it to the side. I guess they couldn’t since I was freaking out without my knowledge for the past twenty minutes. I sat in a wooden chair as the old woman collected her equipment. She checked my temperature, asked questions about any brain or heart problems, and then she broke out the stethoscope. She places the ear pieces into her ears, and goes to check my heart. She places it on the left side of my chest, and nods. She moves it again, and again, and her face starts to scrunch up in confusion. “What’s the matter?” I say, and she moves the hearing piece farther and farther to the right, her look growing more concerned. She takes out her earpieces slowly, and looks at me like i’m some kind of alien. “Dear...” she began, and says after, “You have any surgery done on you in the past?” I look at her, worried. “No... nothing too serious to ever lead to that... what is it?” She backs away from me, and says, “I listened to your heart, and noticed a beat differentiating from the normal human beats. Dear... you have not one, but two hearts.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Chapter 1