//------------------------------// // Just Call Her // Story: PonyFall: Australia // by Thunderbug80 //------------------------------// Just Call Her April 27, 2012 “You should just call her.” I nearly dropped my phone at the sound of the voice. I’d been so focused on staring at it that I hadn’t heard the gentle disturbance of the leaves as Apple Bloom made her way over and sat down on the rock next to me. She looked up at my face with those bright red-orange eyes of hers, then looked down at my hands. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?” I asked, pocketing the phone. “You need your rest if you’re going to recover.” The cuts on Apple Bloom’s face and arms stood out against her pale skin despite the darkness of the night. It had been less than two days since Sweetie Belle had lost control of her budding magical powers and inadvertently blasted Apple Bloom and Angel with them. Both Equestrians seemed to be recovering quite well, but it would do no good to get too confident too early. “I tried,” she responded. She put her hands on her knees and looked into the dark forest ahead of us. “But I can’t go right to sleep knowin’ we just found the others. I mean, think about it,” she held up her hands, “Princess Luna and Twilight! I reckon if anypony can help get us back home, it’s those two.” Her eyes focused on her arms for a moment, and her voice grew soft. “Maybe they can help Sweetie, too.” Finding Princess Luna wandering around the Australian Outback had been surprising enough. To see that she had arrived on Earth in the body of a child, and that she was in the company of none other than Twilight Sparkle… Well, that still hadn’t quite sunk in yet. “One thing is certain,” I said, looking down at Apple Bloom. “It seems my theory has all but been confirmed. Twilight said that neither she nor Luna could use magic until tonight, yet the princess bloody well managed to cast a sleep spell on me. Even if it did backfire on her, it’s evidence that magic strengthens or returns to Equestrians whenever they’re reunited with their friends here on Earth.” “Yeah…” Apple Bloom replied. She spoke quietly, almost to herself. “I know that bein’ around Sweetie just might make her magic go even more haywire–” her eyes shone with resolve, “–but there’s no way I’m gonna leave her all alone! She needs her friends now more than ever.” The poor girl was in a tough situation. One the one hand, if my theory was correct, then Apple Bloom’s mere presence would be enough to make Sweetie Belle’s magical problems worse. On the other hand, the only real solution would be to completely isolate Sweetie from all of the other Equestrians – something I knew would be traumatizing to everyone involved. With the arrival of both Luna and Twilight Sparkle, there was some hope that one of them might be able to help the former filly out. They would need to do it quickly though, if we were to avoid any further incidents. Apple Bloom understood all of this, and she was determined to be there for her friend. Even if it meant she would be risking her life again to do so. The Apples were a tough lot indeed. I sat in silence, unable to think of anything to say. What the Equestrians and I had been through in the previous two weeks had been nothing at all like some of the stories I read involving ponies showing up on Earth. Most of those seemed to assume that things would be relatively easy, like some kind of dream come true. No mention of fights, arguments, injuries, or emotional trauma. As I thought about those things, I realized that I had been grasping the wedding ring I kept in my pocket. “You know, I got in big trouble once with my brother and sister,” Apple Bloom said, jolting me from my thoughts. I took my hands out of my pockets and placed them on my knees, then turned to listen. “I was with the girls, tryin’ to find a way to earn our cutie marks like we always do,” she continued. “We started writin’ stories for the school newspaper, only it kinda got outta control, and we wrote some pretty mean stories about ponies because it seemed like that was all anypony wanted to read.” I had seen what she was describing in an episode of the show, of course, but I kept quiet and let her continue. “Well, I was so caught up in the thrill of being good at somethin’ that I ended up helping to write some pretty bad things about my family. When A.J. and Big Mac found out what I’d done, they practically disowned me!” Apple Bloom’s head was hung in shame and her cheeks had grown pink, but she continued. “I don’t blame them one bit, either. It was really hard when I went back to apologize to them. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done, really! Not because sayin’ ‘I’m sorry’ is hard to do, or because of the fact that I was in trouble, but because I knew they were upset with me. Havin’ to face their disappointment was awful because I love them so much. But you know what?” She paused a moment and caught my eye. “That’s what made it worthwhile. There was a part of me that was happy to face their anger, because I love them more than anything.” With that said, she hopped off the rock and stood up. “I’ll do it again in a heartbeat, if it means there’s a chance I could see them both again.” She leaned forward and gave me a quick hug. “I’m gonna head back to camp. You should just call her,” she repeated, then disappeared before I could even begin to think of a response. Just call her, I thought. I looked up at the sky and the stars above. It’s really that simple, isn’t it? Just call her. Only, it wasn’t that simple. What was I supposed to tell her, the truth? Hey, you know that half-naked girl you saw straddling me when you walked into our apartment? It’s okay, she’s actually a pony from another dimension who pounced on me because, get this, that’s just kind of her thing. Nothing to worry about. No, it wasn’t going to be that simple. Apple Bloom had a point, though. Whatever I had coming would be difficult to hear, but it’s only difficult because I love her so much. That’s what makes it worth the effort. That is why I needed to try. I reached into my pocket with a shaking hand and, after a moment’s hesitation, grasped the phone. It would be a simple matter to just take it out and make the call. All I needed to do was just do it. My hand was frozen in place, and refused to budge. You should just call her. My knees shook and my breathing quickened as I gathered my resolve. I’d just take the phone out on the count of three. It’s that easy. One. Two. Three! Just try again. I didn’t do it that time, but I’d get it on the next try. I was certain. One. Two. Three! My heart sunk. The phone remained in my pocket. I closed my eyes and wiped the tears away. What was wrong with me? Why couldn't I do such a simple thing? If I loved her, I would do it. There was nothing stopping me. No physical force. No arcane spell. The only thing holding me back was my own cowardice. I love you, I thought. No countdown this time. No special tricks or trying to talk myself into it. I just focused on what was important: my wife. Instead of imagining her angry glare, or her look of disappointment, I tried to focus on her smile. To my surprise, what finally filled my mind wasn't any of those, but was a vision of her sitting in a dark corner with her knees folded up to her chin, her shoulders heaving as the tears rolled down her face. It was a memory I knew well: the day our daughter had died. I wanted to rush over and hold her in my arms; tell her everything would be alright. I was dying inside, and I felt like my entire life had crumbled all around me. A very large part of me wanted to find a corner of my own that I could crawl into and try to hide from the pain. Nothing could fill the void left in my heart when my daughter was taken from me, and I knew life would never be the same again. But I hadn't crawled into a corner. I had pushed my own heartache aside, if only for a moment, because someone else I dearly loved was in pain. I had gone to her, despite feeling the way I did, and I had stayed up the entire night, rocking her in my arms, caressing her hair, and telling her we would find a way to go on. Because I love her. I looked down and saw that the phone was in my hand. There was one bar on the service indicator. You should just call her. I wiped the last of my tears away and scrolled down through my contacts until I found her number. I hit the ‘call’ button before I could change my mind. It rung once, and I realized that my number would come up on her caller ID. Would she even pick up the phone? It rang a second time. What was the time, almost two o’clock in the morning? I was mad to call her at this hour, regardless of what had happened. It rang a third time, then someone answered in a shaky, sleepy voice, “Hello?” My heart raced against my chest, and a lump found its way into my throat. I couldn’t make my mouth work, and my wife repeated herself. “Hello? I-is that you, Doug?” My mind reeled. She was on the phone. She was actually talking. What was I supposed to say? She didn't sound too angry, but that could change at any given moment. How long had it been since I'd properly spoken to her? Saying 'how are you?' seemed ridiculous, but I really wanted to know how she was doing. I realized that if I didn't say something soon, I risked having her hang up on me. I decided to just go with it. "Hey," I said quietly. "It's me." There was a nearly palpable silence. Not even the wildlife all around me made any sounds, or if they did, I was immune to their calls. After what could have been anything from ten seconds to ten minutes, she spoke again. “Are you safe?” she asked. It was an odd question, coming from someone who had seen what she’d seen. I tried to picture myself in her shoes, but it was no use. I decided to just answer the question. “Yeah,” I responded. “How… how are you?” Another moment of silence, then: “Scared. Confused. Unsure of what to think anymore.” My hand found its way back into my pocket and around the wedding ring. I wasn’t sure what to say. It’s hard to be honest when you know the truth is unbelievable. “I want to tell you the truth of what’s going on,” I said. “I want to help you understand, but…” I closed my eyes and put my hand to my forehead. Nothing is ever as easy as it should be. “Why did you hit Moey?” she asked suddenly. “What?” Of course she would have known about that by then. Moey wasn’t just my friend; he was a friend of the family. How long had it been since I had done that? I couldn’t recall. “Doug, I called Moey the night you left. I knew he’d be one of the first people you’d turn to.” She’d certainly been right about that. “I… I asked him to try to find out what’s going on. I guess I wanted to know what those two women meant to you. Whether they were more than… than what they seemed to be. He told me you were fiercely protective of them. He tried to lie about what happened to his face, but I know you both better than that.” My mind reeled. So Moey had known that I would show up at his place even before I had called him. That explained his odder-than-normal behavior and the argument that we’d had. He’d gone out of his way to insult Pinkie and Fluttershy to see what kind of reaction I’d have. He had been willing to fight me, a man much stronger than he is, if it meant preserving my honor. He was never interested in sleeping with the girls, he was only trying to see how far I’d go to protect them. I replayed the events over and over again in my head, and it all made sense. “After you left him, he looked into what you’d been doing the past few days.” After asking him to forge false papers for three young girls, I couldn’t much blame him. But I’d been too busy trying to sort everything out to worry about that. Victoria continued. “He knew that you were spending a lot of money on things, so he followed you for some time. He heard you call one of the women ‘Pinkie,’ and he looked it up online. Obviously, he found out who she’s supposed to be dressed up as.” She sighed, and I could almost see her shaking her head. “He didn’t know much about the cartoon, so he hired some brony off of an online forum to go meet you at the airport and report back to him. I guess we were… we were looking into whether you’ve developed some kind of mental illness, or if this was just some kind of strange fantasy for you.” So that’s who that ‘Southern Cross’ guy was who had met John and I at the airport. Again, I should have caught on earlier, but I wasn’t thinking things out the way I usually do. Victoria went on. “Moey said the man came back and was almost beside himself with excitement. The man said that your two friends and the girls were the ‘most authentic’ he’d ever seen, and Moey had a hard time getting him to calm down. The man kept saying how amazing it’d be if it turned out that they’re the ‘real deal.’ What does that even mean?” I swallowed hard. Whatever I said here would be the difference between getting back together with Victoria, or possibly losing her forever. There were so many secrets that needed to be kept, and there was so much that could go horribly wrong for not just me, but everyone I had pledged to protect, if the truth got out any more than it already was. Tell the truth, or tell a lie? What would be best for everyone involved? Taking one more shaky breath, I opened my mouth and began to talk.