Chapter Nine: Explanations
Equis, Equestria, Ponyville Library
We both froze where we were; hoping against hope she would not be able to see us if we did not move. It did not work.
"You do know we can see you, right?"
That was a different voice. It was a voice I feared almost as much as the first voice.
"Sister, do they really think we can't see them?"
"I'm not sure sister; maybe we should ask them."
There was a moment of silence before they started speaking again.
"Well, do you really believe that we aren't able to see you?"
I decided I was not going to be afraid. If they were going to turn me inside-out with their magic, so be it. But I really do not think that will be the case. I am a talker after all; I can talk my way out of anything.
"Yes?" It sounded as if a mouse had answered.
The lights all came on at once with a burst of magic that lit every candle in the room. I saw the two princesses standing at the side of the room, flanked by at least twenty guards.
"You t-"
Celestia had started to speak, but at the sight of us in the light made her stop. We were still wearing our outfits from the lingirie shop, and I will bet all my bits that they were not expecting to see us like this.
"What?" I asked. "you look like you've never seen a maid and her gimp before."
The two of them got some of their focus back and started talking again.
"What are you wearing?" That was Luna, and she looked shocked that we were wearing something like this around. "But more importantly; where did you get it?"
I looked at her with a wry smile and a raised eyebrow. "Why do you ask? Planning on doing a little holiday shopping?"
Her eyes widened and she blushed intensely at my words.
"But more importantly," I said, just like she did. "who are you going to buy it for? Do you have a secret lover, or..." I looked over to Celestia. "Maybe it's a gift for a family member..."
Now Celestia joined her sister in blushing. I had them just where I wanted them. Just a little more, and I was home free.
I looked Celestia over as if I were judging her. "Yeah, I could picture you in a little maid's uniform."
Her blushed brightened and she looked away.
"Luna, you would look great in a school teacher's get-up. The little glasses, the pencil behind your ear..." I smiled wryly. "Oh yes, very attractive."
Luna's eyes widened even further and her jaw dropped open when I said that.
The whole time I was talking, I was inching my way across the library's main room and towards the basement door. All I need was a few more feet...
"I don't really care if you two want to play dress up for each other; but I'm not sure what the citizens would say..."
"Enough!" They both had reached their breaking point. I thought they would be able to handle a bit more, but I was wrong.
Luna stormed up to me and tried to get in my face... She could not. She was taller than all the other ponies except Celestia; but I still towered over her. She only realized that once she was standing right in front of me. She tried to stand on her tippy-hooves, but nearly fell over.
"Need some help there?" I asked.
She looked up at me with a glare and opened her mouth to say something, but I made my move before she could say one word. I reached down and gripped her underneath her front legs and hoisted her up so we were eye level. She yelped with surprise when I did this, but that is to be expected. She weighed about the same as my aunt's golden retriever, and I have always been way strong for my age, so picking her up was no trouble for me at all.
"There, now you can glare at me at eye level all you want," I said in a cheery voice.
"Put us down this instant! We shall not tolerate such behavior!"
"Oh reeeaally?"
"Yes! Now put us down or we will turn you to ash! This does not amuse us!"
I then got an idea... A brilliant idea...
I started moving my index and middle fingers in a way that would be considered as something we all know to be called "tickling". She started to squirm after only a second, and began giggling soon after.
"Haha, no, we comman- hahaha, command you t- haha, to stop this at once!"
Her eyes were watering and she had a look on her face that could only be described as an "angry smile".
"If it doesn't 'amuse you', then why are you laughing?"
She was past the point where she could form words, but she could still do magic. She lit up her horn and started to glow, then there was a loud "zwang" noise and Luna was gone. Well, not gone, but out of my grasp. She was standing on the other side of the room next to her sister, trying hard to fight back laughter. After a while she was able to get the giggles under control and continued to glare at me, but did not make the mistake of coming too close again. Instead of her trying to say something again, it was Celestia's turn now.
"You certainly are a strange creature Django; do you know that?"
I looked at Celestia and answered with a completely serious face. "My insanity is one of my best qualities."
Celestia raised an eyebrow at that. "First you storm out of Twilight's home and get a train ride to Canterlot, then you break into my castle and retrieve your missing items, then you somehow manage to avoid detection by my guards and get all the way back to Ponyville. All while wearing that?"
I looked down at my clothing and then back up to Celestia. "But it breathes so nicely..."
She chuckled slightly, but then went back to being all serious.
"Django, you committed a serious crime by breaking into my castle. You're lucky nopony was hurt, or you would be facing much more punishment than I'm giving you."
I swallowed nervously at the idea of receiving punishment by the princess; but then thought it was funny that she was going to punish me in my current clothing, and could not resist making the joke.
"Yes mistress," I said, taking a bow. "Would you like to borrow one of my whips? Or maybe a riding crop is more your style?"
Her eyes went wide and she was silent for a few seconds. When she next opened her mouth to speak, she could not and closed it again.
It was not until I started laughing that she realized that I was making a joke. When she did though, she gave a half-hearted shake of her hoof and joined me in laughing. But after a bit, I could not avoid it anymore; I had to face my punishment.
"So, what's my punishment going to be?"
Celestia got serious again and looked to her sister. They both nodded and turned to me with grim faces.
I'm going to be killed, aren't I?
"Django Garcia, you have broken the law by trespassing on castle grounds, and destroying the window in the biological research labs," Celestia began.
Yep, definitely gonna die.
"By this crime you have been sentenced the following punishment," Luna added.
I wonder if it'll hurt...
They both looked back to one another, then back to me.
Oh god, they're both gonna kill me at the same time!
"You must pay the fee that is required to replace the window you broke," they both said at the same time.
I'm gonna miss this place, I wonder if- wait, what?
I stared at them in shock. Did they just say what I think they just said?
"Are- are you serious? All I gotta do is pay for the broken window?"
"Yes," Luna said, "you must pay what us what you owe."
"Like I said earlier," Celestia started, "you are lucky nopony got hurt."
I looked at them both in amazement. I had broken into their home, and they were going to let me live! I really am lucky!
"So how much will it cost?" I asked.
"It will cost you one hundred and thirty bits," Celestia said. " But I know that you have only just got here and don't have any money. So I have arranged for you to raise the money through community service."
I got a small grin on my face as I reached into my pocket. "actually, I have the money right here."
The both looked a little surprised that I had that much money already. I guess they did not know just how easy I can make money in bars.
I counted out the money I owed them, and still had almost two hundred bits on me. I put the money I still had in a large leather pouch that one of the mares in that bar had shoved down my pants, and put the money that I was giving to them in another pouch and handed it to them.
"How did you get so much money this quickly?!" Celestia was stunned that I had made that much money in only the two days that I've been here.
I just did the only thing that could sum it up in a reasonable explanation. I tapped the side of my nose with my index finger and said the only thing I could. "Magic."
They both stared at me for further explanation, but they were disappointed. I was a tight-lipped son of a bitch when I wanted to be.
"Well anyways," Celestia said, "I would still like to know why you would risk your life just to get something back that we were going to give back to you a few days later."
"Yes," said Luna, "we would like to know why as well."
"Well, I guess I just don't like people touching my stuff. That, and I haven't gone a day without listening to my music since I bought my iPod, and I was getting a little jumpy without it."
They both looked a little confused, and started asking questions.
"How do you listen you listen to music; we do not see any instruments with you."
"Yes, how is it that you can listen to music?"
"Yeah Django, you don't have anything on you that even looks musical."
That last one was from Rainbow; I had forgotten she was even here.
I spun around to face her and saw that she was a little annoyed that I had indeed forgotten her.
"Hey Rainbow, go stand over by the princesses so I don't have to keep turning around."
"Okay Django," she said, "but you better not be making this music stuff up."
I grinned as I thought of how they never even heard of something as amazing as an iPod before. "Don't worry Rainbow," I said, "I'm not making this up." I pulled off my pack and opened it up. I then reached into it and pulled out my iPod. I then pulled out my headphones and plugged them into the port on the bottom of the iPod. I pressed the little button on the top and unlocked it. I then opened my music tab and scrolled through the thousands of songs I had on there. I finally picked a good one by KORN and walked over to Celestia.
"You can put these over your ears, or I can pull them out so we can all hear it at the same time. You pick."
She gave me a cautious look and turned to Luna, who shook her head.
"Let's all listen to it at the same time," she said.
I shrugged. "Fine by me."
I pulled out my headphones and put them around my neck. I then pushed play, and one of KORN's best songs- in my opinion- started playing. We listened to the song "Freak On A Leash", and I must say, Rainbow looked to be liking the song... a lot.
After the song ended, the two princesses looked amazed. They had never seen a device that could play music without a disk. They had CD and casette players here, and even record players, but they did not have anything close to this.
"That little device can play a song without even needing a disk or record?! That is the most amazing thing we have ever seen!"
"Yeah Django, that's so awesome!"
Celestia did not say anything; she just sat there with a look of astonishment on her face.
"So Celestia, what do you have to say about it?"
She shook her head slowly and looked me in the eye. "It's one of the most amazing things I have ever seen Django. I can see why you would risk yourself for something so valuable."
Rainbow spoke up again after the princess had finished. "Heck yeah it is valuable; it can play awesome songs like that whenever he wants!" She then looked over to me with a curious stare. "How many songs can you play on that thing anyways?"
I looked down to my iPod and turned it over in my hands a couple of times. I was not sure exactly how many songs I could hold on it. But I would just give them a rough estimate. "Um, I think it can hold about fifty thousand, or something like that."
"What?!" Rainbow yelled. "You can have fifty thousand awesome songs like that ready to play whenever you want?!"
"Uh, yeah."
"That is so awesome!"
"Yeah, kinda. But hey, now that I've paid the fine and all, can I go to bed? I'm kind of tired."
Both of the princesses laughed at my request and nodded.
"Thanks. See you two later I hope."
"Don't worry," Luna said, "we shall come back to town and have you play songs for us."
I chuckled at the way she assumed I would do as she said. I had a serious problem with authority figures, and a princess kind of counted as one. But if she asked me to, I would play a song. But only because it was her- if a guard told me to play a song, I would probably tell him to go fuck himself.
I put the iPod into my pocket and slung my pack over my shoulder. I was worn out after our little adventure. I was planning on going downstairs, taking a nice, hot shower, and passing out on my bed.
But Rainbow had other plans. She zoomed over to me and blocked my way into the basement.
"No way! I bet you got all kinds of cool stuff in there!" She was blocking my path, and I was tired, so I did the only thing I could think of. I pushed her roughly out of the way and kept walking.
"Hey! Let me see what's in your bag." she flew back in front of me and made bambi eyes. "Please?" she asked me in a baby voice. If she had planned on it making me do what she wanted, it did not work
"Move."
"Let me see what's in there first."
"Move."
"C'mon, it'll only take a second."
"You know Django, she can be very stubborn."
I turned around to see Celestia and Luna watching our little exchange with amusement. I gave them an angry look, but they just kept on watching to see who would win.
"Yeah, so you better just give in, 'cause you're not gonna win."
I heaved a great sigh and pinched the bridge of my nose. "So you really wanna see what's in my bag, huh?"
"Sure do."
"Okay, fine." I then took off my pack and held it way out to the side of me. She went to grab it but I spun around in the other direction faster than she thought I could move and sprinted to the door. I was about to grab the handle when there was a tug on the pack and it slipped out of my hands.
"Hey! Give that back!"
Rainbow flew up to the ceiling and stuck her tongue out at me. She opened my pack and started to pull things out. First all my note books and text books from school, then she pulled out my gym clothes, then she stuck her whole head in to see what else was in there.
"Damn it Rainbow, stop! Give me back my fucking pack!"
She just ignored me and kept rifling through it.
"Hey," she finally said, "what's this thing?"
She pulled out a black box abut the size of one of my text books. It had two tops so she started turning it over, deciding which one to open first.
"Rainbow, please, I'm begging you, don't open that!"
"Why don't you want her to open it Django?" I heard Celestia ask from behind me.
I did not turn around when I answered, but they could probably tell by my voice the expression I wore. "It has something personal, and I really don't want her to open it."
"Rainbow Dash, I think that's enough," Celestia said after a short period of silence.
"Why, is there something embarrassing in here? Oh geez, I bet it's full of naughty magazines!" With that she picked a side and undid the snaps holding the lid down. We all saw her face drop and fill with confusion. She tipped the box over and let the small black object inside fall into her hoof while still holding the box with her other hoof."What's this thing?" She held up what looked like the letter "L" made out of black metal. It had a small groove on top, and a little hoop on the bottom with a small piece of curved metal coming out of the main part. There was a hole on one end, and she thankfully kept that pointed away from her. I knew what she was holding, but the others in the room had no clue what it was.
"It's nothing; just give it back!"
She looked at me with suspicion; she could tell I was lying by the frantic way I was trying to get it back. "Tell me what it is first; then I'll give it back."
"Damn it Rainbow, this isn't funny! Give it back or I'll make you sorry!"
I heard the two princesses behind me speak up.
"Yes Rainbow Dash, enough is enough. Give it back to him."
"We agree; give that back to Django."
Rainbow looked hurt. She obviously wanted to know what it was, and she was prepared to fight for her answers.
"What if it's dangerous; and that's why he wants it back?"
I turned around to face Celestia and Luna. They were both clearly thinking about what Rainbow had just said.
"Is it dangerous Django?" Celestia asked.
"Only if you don't know how to use it."
"What do you mean? what does it do?"
I did not want to tell them exactly what it did; but I had to tell them something.
"I use it to scare away people who would want to hurt me or rob me. That's what it does. Now can you use your magic or something and take it away from her so she doesn't break it?"
I saw Luna's horn light up and turned to see the metal object in Rainbow's hoof light up with magic as Luna levitated it away from Rainbow and towards me. It was almost within reach, but it took a sudden turn upwards and over my head. I truned around to see the object floating right up to Luna's face and watched in horror as she looked straight into the little hole on the front.
"NO!"
I screamed it as loud as I could and reached over to my side and grabbed a book off of a nearby shelf and threw it with all my strength at the floating object in front of Luna's face. I missed by an inch and only hit the bottom part. Even though it was not enough to knock it out of Luna's magical grip, it was still enough to make it spin like a top in mid-air.
Luna was shocked at what I did and lost focus for a second.
"BANG"
The sound echoed off the walls for a few seconds before fading. It was loud enough to make us all cringe; but when we righted ourselves, something was wrong. There was something wrong with Luna, and there was something wrong with Celestia too. They looked horrified for some reason.
It must have been the shot.
I was about to try to calm them down by explaining that it makes that noise to scare people away. I took in a breath so I could start up my explanation, but I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I looked down to see what caused the pain, but I could not see anything. There was way too much red in the way for me to see what was on my chest. I wiped my hand over where the red was pouring out of and discovered that it was warm and a little sticky.
Huh, kinda like blood...
I wiped a few more times but the red just kept coming back. Stupid color, it was annoying me. Red just went down on my "favorite colors" list. I was going to ask for something to help me get rid of all this red, but I was feeling really tired all of a sudden.
Stupid Rainbow; why did she have to block the way to my bed? Now my mom's gonna get mad at me because I'm up too late and I have school tomorrow.
"But mom, it's not my fault; Rainbow won't let me go to sleep."
Then my legs felt weak and I collapsed to the floor. It was all wet from the red stuff that was coming out of me. I heard muffled voices screaming and yelling my name. Silly voices; they should know that it is bedtime.
"Mommy, can you tell me the story about the three bears?"
I could feel myself being moved.
Daddy must be home from work early today. He must be carrying me to bed like he always does when I'm too tired to walk.
There were more voices now; and they kept getting louder. It was really annoying; I was turning five tomorrow and I wanted to wake up early so I could play with my friends before we went to grandma's house.
"But mommy, it's my birthday. Why can't you come?"
I could hear my mother's voice telling me what she always told me.
"I'm busy mijo, maybe next time."
I started to get really cold. My sister must have come into my room and opened the window to make me cold because I embarrassed her in front of her friends. It is not my fault I do not know how to ride a bike; I was only three years old.
I could not feel myself moving anymore; and the voices were going away.
Finally! Now I can sleep; I'm really tired.
Everything was completely dark. I did not like the dark. The dark was scary. I tried to call out to somebody, but I could not talk like the grown-ups could. I was still learning how to talk; so it was easier to just cry. Mommy or Daddy always came and made me feel better when I cried.
I hope they come and get me soon; there's a strange man walking towards me. I don't like him; he's scary looking.
The man leaned down into my face and whispered something so quiet I almost did not hear him.
"It's time Django; you have to come with me now."
"Who are you?"
"I'm the one who takes all the children who die to safety. Don't you want to be safe and warm?"
"Yes. It's cold."
"Well, just come with me and I promise that you'll be safe from all the bad things in the world forever."
"Forever?"
"Yes Django, forever."
He reached out his hand to me, but I was too small to grab it. I was only two years old; and that is not very old. He saw that I could not reach and bent down to pick me up. I hoped he was going to carry me all the way there; I was really tired, and wanted to go to sleep.
But as soon as his skin touched me I felt a huge shock in my heart. It hurt so bad I could not even cry. There was another shock, and I started to fall away from the man.
"No, come back Django!"
I tried to crawl towards him, but there was another shock in my heart and I started to fall farther away.
"Django, come back!" He sounded far away and his voice echoed a little bit.
Things started to get brighter and warmer. It felt like I was stepping out of a pile of ice and onto the beach.
There was another shock; but this time it hurt a whole lot worse than before, but I was able to scream.
"Aahhh, stop; it hurts!"
There was another shock and it almost felt like my heart was on fire. I could not see or hear the man anymore; but that was okay, I did not really want to live there if it was cold.
I could hear voices again, and I could also feel people touching me. I really hated people touching me. I hated that even more that people staring at me.
There was another shock and I was able to think straight enough to yell at them.
"Stop that! It hurts!"
It was getting brighter and I could hear a lot more noise. Somebody must have given me a coffee at some point too; because I felt much more awake now.
There was a high pitched whine and the I felt another shock to my heart. This time it was a lot different. It shook my whole body and everything got loud and I could see clearly.
I was back in the hospital and I was surrounded by doctors. I heard the sound of the defibrillators and looked over to see a doctor pony about to shock me again.
"Oh no you don't!"
I grabbed the paddles out of his hooves and hit him in the side of the head with them. His mane shot straight up and he looked to be in a great amount of pain. There was even the smell of singed flesh to top it off. It was a magnificent moment in my life.
All the other ponies backed away from me and hit the sides of the room.
I got up off of the table and pulled all of the needles out and pulled the pads I had stuck to me off and looked around at all the doctors in the room. There were seven in all, and I planned to make seven corpses.
"Security!"
I turned towards the pony who had just yelled for security to show up. She was a white mare with light pink hair and blue eyes.
"You're first," I growled. I grabbed her by the neck and started to squeeze. I could hear her making choking sounds, and I squeezed harder. She was trying to pry my hands off of her neck so she could breath, but she just could not manage to free herself from my grip.
I could feel her spine starting to bend from the pressure and knew it would take much more for me to snap her neck. I was just about to do it too; but a half-dozen royal guards galloped into the room and tackled me to the ground.
I was able to get them off of me, but I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I looked down to see blood gushing out of a big hole in my chest.
"What the fuck?!"
But after I managed to say that little bit of profanity, I passed out from blood loss.
End Chapter: Chapter Nine: Explanations