//------------------------------// // Ch4: I'm Sorry // Story: Synthetic // by Not Luna //------------------------------// Deep within the confines of his subconsciousness, Jacob was dreaming. Dreaming of the past. Dreaming of times spent with Luna, spent with Celestia, spent with Cadence, and spent with Twilight. They were happy times. Simple times. Times when he didn’t have to worry about who was arguing with who and his very existence wasn’t called into question. “...fried his processing unit…” “...command override…” “...terminate his coding…” “...with the AMPS the…” “...Welcome to the future…” Suddenly, his peaceful sleep was interrupted by horrid and nightmarish visions of all kinds. Images of Canterlot burning. Of evil tyrants and violent conquest. Of vile monsters, bent on destroying the world. But none, absolutely terrified him more than one. It was a nightmare that he had for several weeks after he and Luna got engaged. One that robbed him of sleep every night he had it. It was of Luna, turning down his offer for marriage. She would always stand on the balcony he proposed on with a scowl on her face, staring him down from an intimidating height, while he was left kneeling there, ring in had, confused and frightened. “What?” she would always say with a disgusted sneer. “Exactly what I said! Will you marry me?” he would reply before she started to laugh her head off. Literally. Her head would physically come off, float down to him, and laugh in his face while circling him like a predator waiting for the perfect time to strike at its prey. “You think that I, a moon goddess, would step so low, as to be wed to a mortal? And an ape no less? HAHAHAHAHAHA!” her floating head would continue to laugh mockingly through the whole dream. Then, like clockwork, the heads of Celestia, Cadence, and Twilight would join in on the “fun” and laugh at his increasing sadness. He would always end up a sobbing mess on the floor by then, vainly willing the horrible visions away from him. Only this time, something other than him waking up in tears and a cold sweat happened.. Out of the blood red cloud cover, shone an extremely bright light. The taunting heads screamed out in surprise and pain before crumbling to dust. The crimson overcast slowly cleared away to show a bright blue sky and a shining sun. He stayed there in the fetal position until a heavenly voice rang out to him from above in a comforting tone. “Jacob. Are you okay?” it said. He raised his head up slowly to find four piles of ash and a voice speaking from above. “Who are you?” he asked in response. “Can you not recognize my voice Jacob? It is me. It is Luna.” the voice said with a hint of sadness, perhaps hoping that its mate would recognize it. “Luna?” he thought with a physical gasp in the dream world. “She was never able to access my dreams! I’m magic resistant!” “I assure you, this is no magic. Though it was through an original action using magic that led up to this, this is something else entirely. Something I’m afraid I do not even have knowledge of, but am ever grateful of.” the being, now recognized as Luna, explained with a heavy sigh. “When I wake up Twilight, you are going to have a truckload of shit to answer for.” he said with a well practiced anger management technique taught to him by Cadence. “As she should. But for now it is time for both of us to awaken.” she said as the dream started to slip away. As he entered the space between awareness and unconsciousness, he saw a figure emerge from the ground and begin to type on walls upon walls of binary… -------------------------------------------------------------- “Okay. Just one more egg and-” *sniff* *sniff* “Son of a bitch! Not again!” “Need some help there auntie?” “Cadence? Yes, help me! Please I have no idea what I'm doing!” “Okay, calm down, I’ve done breakfasts like this before. What you need to do is-” -------------------------------------------------------------- Behind a set of lavender doors in Twilight's suite, a pair of creatures on an over-sized queen bed, stirred from their slumber. Ones eyes flickered open and the others’ optical lenses began to have power fed to them. Jacob turned over on his right side to find that Luna was already to her hooves and shaking out the rather sexy bed-head she had on her short mane. “So beautiful.” he thought with a wistful smile. He didn’t even know if she got the reference or if she actually thought he wanted her to have a short mane. Either way she couldn’t be any more alluring. He never knew he liked short hair until now. “Ugh, I'll never get used to talking like that in the dream world. Always makes me feel older than I already am.” she said searching for a t-shirt to put on.. “Talking like I’m some wizened old god or something. 'instills a sense of respect and awe!’” *ttttppppppffffff* she blew a raspberry. He closed his eyes and smiled wider while she continued searching for a shirt. He swore she was like a teenager in an adult body, disregarding the rules and doing generally anything she wants. When she needs to be an adult she can be a real fuckin’ adult, however. Right now, seeing her act normally in the face of all this shit gave him some reassurance. Her body language seemed to be telling him “Nothing has changed between us, it's going to be fine.” “Eh screw it, you don’t think Twi will mind if I use one of her shirts, do you?” she asked him putting on a red t-shirt from a chest of drawers that said ‘Buy me things’. Shaken out of his daydreaming, he replied “Nah, I don’t think so.” “Yeah. Hey, you go ahead and use Twi’s shower this morning. Now I know she won’t mind that. I’m going to mine because it has all of my stuff in it. Then I’m gonna go to the kitchen to grab some food. It’s three doors down and to the right if you want any after your shower.” she explained, already trotting toward the door. “Okay, see you in a few.” he said to her, giving her a quick peck on the lips as she left. “Love you!” she called out from the living room. “Love you too!” he called back. Turning his attention over to the door on the far left of the lavender room he walked over to it and opened the door. -------------------------------------------------------------- “I thought you said you knew how to do this!” “I’ve never used sub-bacon for this though! Just hay-bacon! How in the hell do we cook this?” “You two are both imbeciles.” “TWILIGHT?” “Can you help us with this? Please, it's for Jacob.” ... “I guess I could spare the time. Okay, first you have to microwave it, then-” -------------------------------------------------------------- As Jacob exited the shower, he went over his mental schedule for the day again. He was going to get breakfast, ask Twilight a shit-ton of questions, then have Luna give him a tour of this new future world. He shuddered in delight at the potential wonders that awaited him outside, beckoning him to them like a siren song. Even though he knew that he himself was one of these wonders, he was well on the way to understanding and accepting that. He needed reassurance from his family that he is real and not some fabricated A.I. first and foremost. “I’m not sure Luna would enjoy having sex with an A.I. though.” he thought with a loud laugh. … But before he did any of that he needed to do something vitally important first. Apologize to Cadence, Twilight, Luna... ... And Celestia- especially Celestia! He really should have kept his emotions in check that night. He should have apologized right then and there instead of bawling his eyes out while she stormed off! It was completely out of character, and just the wrong answer to the situation. What should have happened is he should have let her finish her apology, ask what was the argument about, resolve it, comfort Luna, bed, the end. But instead he tried to kill the only sister he had ever known… He even called her...In-law… He shivered in the warm, steam filled room as the offending words crawled their way across his mind like a pair of writhing, dirty maggots. If there was anything, almost anyone he ever knew, could say about Jacob, it was that he loathed the use of the word In-law. It only told him that he and Celestia were not blood relatives. But they might as well be. Luna may act like a teenager, bless her heart, but Celestia was always the responsible adult of the group. Always the acting like the sister he never had. She completed him in a way no other could possibly imagine. His cool and collected personality matched perfectly with hers. He told himself once that if he wasn’t so sure he and Luna were soul mates, he would have gone for Celestia. Whenever he wasn’t with Luna or the others, he was with Celestia, doing things a brother and a sister would do. Tag-team prank wars with the other three, movies that sometimes he would fall asleep in but would politely listen afterwards as she would ramble on and on and- He stopped himself. She couldn’t possibly forgive him for the things he did. No matter how many times he apologized, she would probably never him as family ever again. He would be just as alien to her as the day they met. His silent tears mixed with the water on his face while he continued to air dry. Everything he had built up the last twenty years of his life would come tumbling down over one. Little. Mistake. This is why he needed to apologize… He clung to the firm belief that if there was anyway he could salvage, even a small percentage, of the wonderful things he had been blessed with, he would give his own two arms for such a thing. With this thought firmly in mind, he turned his attention to the bathroom mirror. In the reflection stood a man with a fair, even complexion, shoulder length straight, dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and a bit of an angular jaw-line. The man in the reflection was a complete stranger to Jacob. It seemed the gang had made him to look like he was thirty-two or thirty-three again. Not quite when he looked his best but they couldn’t have known that, he came to them when he was thirty-two. It was also the age he fell in love with Luna in so if it made her comfortable then he was just gonna suck it up. Yet despite all this he felt like he was twenty-five and fresh out of college again. “I bet it's all the shit Twi put in me.” he thought. Taking one of the many hair elastics from the counter, he pulled back his locks into a ponytail with his bangs in a side-part so it was out of his face and still covered up his forehead. On his face, he wore a short, rough beard. Twilight had actually suggested it and the thing just seemed to click with the rest of his look. Deeming himself presentable, he set course back to the bedroom where he donned his previously worn clothes after giving them the “not too horrible” rating, sans his coat, He could do without that for now. He was quite sure that it was also the original one from… a long time ago due to the faded German on the tag. “How long was I done for?” he thought Adding another question to the long list of "ask Twilight questions", he began the trek to the previously mentioned kitchen that Luna told him about. -------------------------------------------------------------- “Okay, does anypony know what his favorite pancake flavor is?” … … “Seriously? Nopony?” “Blueberry.” … … … “Luna, I-” “No. I’m going first this time. Before you say anything, I forgive you and I’m sorry for causing all this drama and grief. What I did was selfish and-.” “Stop stop stop no no no. Everything you just said is wrong. You did not cause any grief or drama whatsoever. I think I can safely say, we all forgive you and are so very sorry as well. Especially me. Because of your actions, we have the void in the family filled again and I personally can't thank you enough.” “Celest-” “shh. No talkie, more helpie. We need to get this right if he is going to forgive us. Now come help us!” … *sniff* “Right behind you.” -------------------------------------------------------------- Walking through the halls of the building he was in, following the heavenly smell of breakfast, Jacob momentary forgot when and where he was. For a moment, he was in Canterlot Castle, walking by the stoic guards and colorful tapestries. He was snapped out of his daydream, however, when he walked straight through a guard as if he weren't there. The guard only flickered for a second before returning to his patrol. Suddenly very aware of where he was, he continued to follow the smell of something vaguely familiar. He reached for the door indicated by Luna. Was it raspberry? Cranberry? or- … Qwat? Laid out on the long table was a veritable treasure trove of morning meal items. There were eggs of all kinds, muffins, bagels, cherrychangas, blueberry muthatruckin’ pancakes, four smiling alicorns, and… “Bacon! Sweet mother of-” … ... Wait… He slowly turned his gaze up to the four beaming alicorns standing off to the side. He had no words. Celestia was the first to walk up to him and embrace the human in a bear-hug that would have killed a lesser man. None needed to be spoken. Quickly, the other three ran up to the duo and made a big Pony vs. Human feels-pile. So he just let the silence sing…