What do you mean, 'do you know how to use a sword'!? It's a fucking sword! Stab, stab! Poke, poke! It's not that hard, dude.
“SILAS,” The voice screamed, making me flail my arms as a moderate amount of force was applied to my face. I snapped up instantly, headbutting whatever just slapped me into next week as it grunted in pain. “Oh for BUCKS sake!”
My eyes snapped open, hungrily drinking in Sunset’s four-poster bed with lavender-colored, transparent draw curtains hanging down around us. She was halfway poking me in the face with her horn as she glowered at me with a hoof on her nose.
“Damn it all, Silas! I think I’m bleeding...” She trailed off, angling her head up to try and cause the blood to slink back into her throat instead of dripping everywhere. “Ugh, today is shaping up to be a good one,” Sunset stated grumpily, sitting down on my legs as she continued to hold her head up. “First I find your body outside, then I find out you ate all my fruit; and then you start writhing around in pain while bleeding from the mouth! If it’s not one thing with you, it’s another!”
I coughed into a claw, looking off to the side as I laughed the awkwardness away. There was still something I had to ask her, and it was imperative that I know for sure. It couldn’t wait. “Uhhh, Sunset; how do you view m-”
“Yeah one sec’,” Sunset teleported in a light-blue bubble burst, staying gone long enough for me to pout.
“Hah! Talk about a cockblock, right!?” Siri’s voice cackled within my head, making me snarl in anger at her childish antics. I gripped the sheets tightly, ripping through the fabric as my face heated up in embarrassment.
“Shut your mouth, you tiny fluorescent bulb! The term ‘cockblock’ wouldn’t even be appropriate here, since no one else was in the vicinity to do it! And cockblock what, exactly!?” I narrowed my eyes for added pressure behind my words. Don’t ask me why I did it; it just felt natural.
“Zounds! I beseech thee, Romeo; please remove thine brutal dagger of angst from mine wee heart! Have thee nary a shred of chivalry... or a brain,” Siri goaded further, every other word concealing a half-chortle. “Gag me. This is like a really bad soap opera... being played in reverse. I don’t know any girls who would take a guy that was being an asshole to them; lift him off the ground in front of her house, lug his big ass back inside, and then stay awake all night to see if he was alright after he started tossing and turning.”
I fixed my face at her last sentence, scrounging it up in disbelief. “Did... did she really do all that?”
I heard Siri smack her face within my head. “You’re laying IN HER BED, right!? While you were busy being tossed out of her room, I stayed behind and watched her from the corner of her room. She tossed and turned all night, grunting and saying ‘This is why you have no friends now’ or ‘And you wonder why you live in a cabin outside of Stonehaven’! How much sleep do you think she got,” Siri asked, her voice laced with hidden anger.
I stayed quiet, turning my head to the side with a sigh.
“Correct, jackass; none. She was even crying, you dick. Sunset thinks this shit is her fault, when in truth; it’s your-”
I got up, sliding the curtain to the side as I ordered, “Shut up. I’m going to fix this.”
Siri blew a short raspberry of mockery. “Puh-lease, asshole! How are you gonna do that? Last time I checked; you often dig cemeteries, not graves! Not to mention your about as sharp as a bowl of mashed potatoes! You’ve got no chance! In fact...” Siri trailed off, making me blow black smoke out of my nose in irritation. “I bet one humiliating act that you’ll fuck this situation over!”
I stopped in the middle of the hallway, which I had entered in my anger. The sound of sniffling to my right snapped me out of it, however; and I tentatively put my ear up to the door. Muffled sniffles and quiet sobbing caused me to grow sad a little bit.
“... Say something, dickweed.”
I sucked my teeth.
“Hello!?” Sunset’s voice sounded like she was in full panic mode now. I groaned quietly to myself, cursing Siri with a molten death before placing a claw on the door.
“Sunset? Are you alright in there?” I tried making my voice as soft as possible. It didn’t work too well given my natural voice and dragon-like anatomy, though. The pony stayed quiet, all sniffling and sobbing halting in their tracks. Eerie silence filled me with a gut-wrenching sense of dread.
“... Go away,” Sunset moaned, the sound of head meeting hooves echoing through the door. “I’ve failed you as a compatriot. I should’ve been more patient with you! Because I wasn’t, some stupid animal got to you out there and beat the hell out of you! What kind of selfish, prideful, arrogant, loathsome mare would do such a thing to someone from outer-”
“You shut your damn mouth and listen to me,” I hollered instantly. “This is not your fault, it’s mine!”
“But yo-”
“NO,” I cut her off again. “Let me talk! I’m not angry at you; I’m pissed at myself! I did nothing; NOTHING, but come here and grate on your nerves for hours! I poked fun at you; made crude humor in situations you found inappropriate, spat on the customs of your people for a good time, and ate all your food! I’M NOT MAD AT YOU!” I was breathing hard now.
“Then why are you yelling,” Sunset asked quietly.
“Because...because...” I shut my eyes and fixed my jaw, actually struggling to get the words out. It was like someone placed the positive charge on the words I wanted to speak, and made my esophagus the negative. The polar force bounded around in my neck, causing me to tear up from the feeling of choking. “... I’m an asshole...”
“... What.”
“I was an asshole to you since minute one, Sunset. I cared only for myself, and couldn’t really give two damns about what happened to you; so long as I got information out of you by the time you served a pre-determined purpose. You were nothing to me...” I trailed off, sniffling a little myself as Sunset stayed quiet.
“...WHAT,” She suddenly roared from within the bathroom, blowing the door off its hinges and into my face. I gave a cry of surprise, being sent back into the wall behind me. For a split second the whole house tilted my way, causing a bout of screaming to come out of my mouth as it eventually tipped back into place. “I endured all that BULLSHIT just to serve a purpose!? DO I LOOK LIKE A SUNDAY PAPER!?”
Sunset popped into existence right in front of me as I moved the door. Her eyes were reservoirs of hurt and sorrow. Even though most of her color scheme was red; the pink in her eyes as tears matted the hair around them did nothing to incorporate the new color.
I gritted my teeth as she swatted me across the face with a hoof. “Answer me! Was I just some stupid piece of information all this time!?”
The will to move my head back to face her was non-existent. Obviously, I was still conflicted within myself. One one hand; my apathetic nature was screaming at me to just get up and walk away from Sunset, leaving her enraptured with her sorrows forevermore. On the other; I wanted to scream at her; not in anger, but in happiness of making a true friend. A person I could count on to never hurt me, and to have my back-
My head was jerked to the other side as Sunset struck me again. “Don’t be quiet now,” she hollered, striking me again. “Was it all for nothing; the time we spent talking to each other and goofing off! How could you say something so vile to me, Silas!?”
I heard her hoof whistle through the air. I grabbed it and pulled her in close, hugging the hell out of her as I sobbed. “... Stop it... please! You don’t have to be angry at me, Sunset! I fucked up; I know I did! That’s how I used to feel about you! Now I feel,” I paused, feeling Sunset’s erratic heartbeat against my chest as she sobbed.
“...You feel what, S-Silas,” she hissed. “I swear to C-Celestia, you s-stupid dragon,” she half-yelled, half-sobbed.
This was it. No other situation could be more perfect than now. My apathy was going to take a backseat! “... Like I’ve made a good friend...” I hugged her tighter, crying into her shoulder. If someone were to come by, it would look like I was taking a bite out of her shoulder to them. “Not just some one time acquaintance, but someone that’d stick with me through thick and thin. You’re so much more dear to me than those sixteen years of fake friends I endured.”
I don’t know what happened after that; such was my shame as I practically bathed Sunset in my tears. The faces of my facades and transparent friends clawed at my soul, with my apathy strong beside it. The Station of Awakening shined brightly for but a second, the left half marking Sunset’s standing body against an orange backdrop as she stared up at the moon with from the opposite side.
I snapped my head up, ramming it into the wall after that. The image popped like a bubble after I hit my head, making me shake my head to clear the black haze inside my head; which also began to throb like hell.
Looking down at Sunset while using a claw to rub my head, the sound of her sniffling quieted down some. Her face was still buried in my chest, giving me pause; but I overcame it by lifting her head to stare into her eyes. “Stop crying, Sunset. You look weird when you do.” I smiled at her and rubbed my own.
“... How the hell did you do that? I honestly expected you to just get up and walk off, or let her self-destruct. But you did neither? I just don’t get you, Silas.” Siri sounded disinterested with a response, so I didn't give her one. If she wanted to be the annoying pessimist in my head; I say let her!
“And you’re a barbaric neanderthal,” Sunset shot back as she forced her way back onto my chest; almost crushing my claw in the process. “But you’re my first best friend! I haven’t cried on anyone before; not even with the friends I have now.” Sunset snuggled in further as I stroked her head comfortingly. “Before I came to Bullivia, making friends was next to impossible due to my passion for the unexplained and space. Others claimed I was boring, or a nerd. It hurt so bad; not being able to make friends.”
“Good,” I thought with a smile. “She’s opening up to me; a true sign of friendship if I’ve ever heard it!”
“Most of my problems came from the ‘do as I say’ attitude my parents had. When they saw how much of a prodigy I was at magic some sixteen years ago, they wasted no time in whoring me out to any self-proclaimed archaic scholar. My repertoire of spells grew unreasonably quick, and this prompted my family to try out for Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns,” Sunset paused, swallowing a lump in her throat.
“Amidst my studies after passing the entrance exam, I would sneak in some stargazing and charting as my study periods ended. Overtime, my performance began to wane, and because of this, my father became irate and violent towards me. Every day brought about another laceration; some magical while others were physical. I began to wonder if father’s hits were the reason the colts at my school avoided me like the plague...” Sunset trailed off softly.
“I graduated at the top of my class, and was immediately taken under the wing of Princess Celestia herself. Of course, my parents got what they wanted from this; even more status among the nobility to the point where they were having their hooves kissed in public. Ponies worshipped them, and my mother and father ate it up while I was subjected to mundane lessons in friendship of all things,” Sunset suddenly exploded, making me widen my eyes a little as she got up quickly.
“Friendship, HA!” Sunset turned her head and made the sound of spitting. “It’s as if Princess Celestia herself was having fun at my expense! That bitch knew making friends was a delicate case for me, and even went so far as to drop me into social situations and have me be the star! I didn’t make friends that way; I WAS WORSHIPPED!” A stomp of authority made my claw flinch a little bit. “Ponies sucked up to me in order to have a good standing with Princess Celestia; even the so-called friends she summoned from time to time weren’t really interested in me!”
“Uhh... Sunset,” I tried in askance, hoping to quell the inferno of Sunset’s armageddon-like rage.
“NO, let me finish,” Sunset mocked, making me purse my lips to the side at having my own words thrown back at me. “I tried telling Princess Celestia that her lessons weren’t helping, but she didn’t listen! It was always, ‘You are young, and so, do not know what you truly need in life. I’m helping you, Sunset; you just don’t see it yet’! She encouraged me to follow my desires, yes; but she claimed friendship to be more important than what makes me happy! NO ONE GETS ME,” she roared, her head angled up towards the ceiling while facing away from me.
I rose my eyebrow as a response to that as she started heaving.
“Haah... Haah... Haah...” she panted, before turning to me with a wide smile on her face. Bits of her mane were sticking out at random intervals, reminding me of toenail clippings in some areas. Of course, this comparison caused me to chuckle a little.
“Finally got it off your chest, girl,” I asked smugly, getting up for the first time since this little spiel of ours began. Sunset chuckled, letting me know that she did. “That’s good. It’s not well to keep all that pain inside, so I’m glad you shouted it away. It’ll make dealing with you bearable from now on~” I teased with a smile, getting a playful frown out of the mare.
“Oh really,” she asked with a smooth voice. “You make it sound like I’m the only one with problems, Justin the Human~!” Sunset walked up and stepped on my foot playfully. “Why don’t you tell me about yourself a little bit more?”
“She certainly seems radiant now! Everything about her seems so... reflective about myself....” I shook my head and smiled, sliding my massive foot out from under hers as I strode into the living room and sat down on the couch; spreading my arms along its back like before, because the feeling of soft faux-leather was euphoric even against clothed appendages.
Sunset bobbed her head to some unknown song, but the word ‘smile’ was sung about three times before she hopped up onto the loveseat and looked at me expectantly.
I tilted my head up to face the brown ceiling, a smile on my face all the while. I knew it was ephemeral. “Let’s see... Well my full name is Justin Richards. My human age was sixteen, but this body is well over eight-hundred. I guess it’s fair that I start out at my childhood like you did!” My exclamation felt flat to myself as I kept up a fake smile, but Sunset was eating my optimism up.
“Well, ever since I could walk and talk, my parents would fight with one another. Humans didn’t worry about social class like ponies do here; but that’s mainly because our nation wasn’t a nation, but a company for bigwig corporations to have their way with. And there we were, the Richards Family; living in the small town of Chester. When I was ten, my parents got a divorce and went their separate ways.” My smile slowly started to vanish as I pictured both of the homesteads I used to frequent.
A red barn with matching farm house on some five acres. A shoddy blue townhouse with slightly cracked windows and moss growing from its fissures. The former belonged to my father, Samuel “Adonis” Richards; while the latter belonged to my mother, Candice Monique Richards, who was a busy cubicle rat that barely had time to play with my younger sister Natasha and myself.
“I lived with my mom and sister, mostly. Many folks around our little ghetto called us the ‘Oreo Family’, because even though we were dark of skin, our mannerisms reflected those of the ideal caucasian household and upbringing; which is normally viewed as luxurious in comparison to other minorities.” A grunt alerted me to how she feels about stereotypes and racism, but it also served as a means to tell me to continue on.
“I was, essentially, torn between the laid back farmer and the overbearing businesswoman. On rare occasions, my pops would make visits to our home while mother was at work. Those were fun, because he always brought his homegrown candy apples with him; they were coated with just enough caramel as not to stick on your teeth as you bit into it.” I wiped some of the drool that leaked out from the side of my mouth. “It’s because of his candy apples that apples in general became my favorite food, but I digress.”
“Didn’t your mother have qualms about her ex-husband visiting while she was out? You do make it sound like it wasn’t allowed, if I may,” Sunset interjected quickly, making me smile at how attentive she was being.
“Naturally,” I responded with a chuckle. “Which stands to reason that on one day when she came home early, and caught our father playing with us; it wasn’t pretty. I’ve never seen a woman so angry in my life; and the way she swung the kitchen knife at him even when he was next to Natasha and I...” Using one of my claws, I snatched up a throw-pillow and held it up in front of my face.
“Imagine this being a textbook.”
“Okay.”
“Now picture my face as it protected my life from the knife my mother threw.”
I lowered the pillow and looked at Sunset Shimmer, whose mouth was doing the job of a vacuum cleaners better than the machine. “... But... but that’s horrible!”
“No.” I waved my index finger side to side. “Telling your in-shock spouse to ‘stop dicking around and stab him already’ is horrible. I didn’t, as you can imagine; but that was the day I started to see things a little differently than most kids.” I frowned and moved my arm back to its proper position, blowing a stray piece of my mane away from my right eye.
“My mom was charged with aggravated assault and attempted murder, which also served to get her fired from her job as well as incarcerated. Natasha didn’t like physical labor; she preferred the ‘come home and study’ boon of living with mother. And you didn’t have to be sharp of mind to know she preferred mother over father, given that mother was the more outspoken and take action type.” I sighed and used a claw to pinch the bridge of my nose.
“She caused a lot of problems for Ol’ Sam and I; mostly because she was next to useless when it came to lifting this or pulling weeds. Growing up with mother had made her soft in muscle, and since she didn’t get enough ‘clean air’ as father calls it; her body wasn’t used to the strain associated with farming. Our daily chores consisted of plowing fields, watering the garden, feeding the animals, and cooking... and it was mostly me doing it, heh.” I gave a short laugh and sunk into the couch some more, eyeing down the tan ceiling fan above as it spun around lazily.
“Natasha held a strong dislike for Ol’ Sam. She claimed the chores he gave her were too much for someone of her build, and that he was giving me special attention because I didn’t like mother... which is bullshit; that my father knew.” My new object of interest continued to spin lazily, making me smile at how lackadaisy its life is.
“But,” Sunset said quickly. “She wasn’t happy living with her family, even after what her- I mean -your mother tried to pull? It seems a little farfetched to me.”
“Ha!” I wasn’t prepared for that one, and promptly guffawed like an idiot. I coughed into my claw in embarrassment. “Then I know now that ponies might not be as bad as humans! The human race acts as if it’s never satisfied with what it has; there’s always something more that they desire at all times, even if that thing is next to impossible to grasp... or wasn’t made for them to have. That’s just the way they- and in some ways, me-are.”
“... I see. Sorry for interrupting, Silas.” Sunset sounded rather downcast at my explanation, causing me to sit up and chuckle to brighten her mood a little bit. She did smile at my chuckle, which is a nice sign that it worked.
“Think nothing of it! Let’s me know you’re listening, after all,” I exclaimed, dipping my head at her with closed eyes. Once I opened them, Sunset was staring at me with a curious face. I tilted my head to the side as I am wont to do when perplexed. “Is something amiss?”
She smiled. “You have pretty eyes. I just noticed them because things have been so hectic lately.”
Raising my eyebrow in response, I responded with the ever-appropriate, “Bu-wuh?”
Sunset laughed as her horn ignited in that light-blue aura of hers, grabbing a tiny mirror from the corner of the living room and floating it over into my face. I looked into the reflective surface and smiled when my eyes made themselves apparent.
“Wow,” I stated happily, turning my head to the left so my left eye was showing. “The ‘whites’ of my eyes are actually black! And the pupil itself looks like a diamond in this one, but a blade of grass or shined emerald in the other! What’s that eye condition called when the pupils are two different colors?”
“Heterochromia?” tried Sunset with a hoof on her chin.
I snapped my fingers with a short grin. “Yup! That’s it!” Turning my head, the drop of fierce green regarded me with a bright countenance. “I bet they’d catch a good price on the black market, er,” I paused and looked at Sunset, whose face sunk into one of apall. “Which is to say... uh... huh,” I sighed. “Yeah, I got nothing for that. Thanks for the mirror though; I can’t believe I never paid attention to what my eyes looked like before now!”
“Right...” Sunset trailed off uneasily as she floated the mirror away from my face and back to its appropriate corner. “Well if we’re done with weird statements like that, would you please finish up your story? I’ve been wanting to introduce you to my friends.”
“Friends, she says? I wonder if there are any other ponies around here... or minotaurs. The only one I seem to remember was that little runt named Joseph... or something. Meh, it’s not that important.” I shrugged my shoulders, preparing to give a ‘Too Long;Didn’t Read’ version of my past.
Clearing my throat, I leaned back into the couch with a sigh. “To make a long story short, Natasha basically became my mother. She hated Ol’ Sam to the core, and despised me because I was pretty indifferent towards the strife in our family and such. Natasha’s the type of girl to hold grudges, no matter how trivial the transgression was; which means it only stands to reason that she’d tried to get me twisted once or twice.”
“Twisted?”
“Off’d. Killed. Pick your poison.” I shrugged my shoulders indifferently, but refused to make eye contact. “And it wasn’t just me. Ol’ Sam got caught in scandal she’d set up. It’s funny what a major in the Arts and a box of markers can spawn in the way of bruises or other lacerations. Natasha was small, so a lot of people believed her over Ol’ Sam; completely disregarding his streak of flawless-although-brutal honesty.” I got up after that and stepped over the table, headed for the front door.
“Wait! Silas, where are you going!?” Shuffling hooves filled the air as I opened the door and stepped outside, Sunset by my side the entire time as she finally caught up. “You can’t just get up and walk out during a talk about your past! Isn’t this supposed to be some crucial development in your character!?” Sunset was practically shoving herself into my legs in an attempt to halt my advance.
She miscalculated the distance between the front door and the steps, unfortunately, when she tried to block me off. “Wait! You shou- Wah!” Her outburst was followed by two simultaneous thumps before the sound of gravel path being invaded with horse body made me chuckle.
“Guess this means I can keep walking?” I squatted down on the top step and looked down at her. Sunset was on her back with her face peering up at mine.
“Don’t start,” Sunset warned and made the motion of slicing someone’s neck with her hoof. I laughed at this and sat down, waiting for her to get up and reacquire her bearings. She did so with gusto, using a hoof to dust herself off. Turning around, she gave a short harrumph and walked down the dirt path. “Come along, now.”
I watched her for a minute, walking with a slight pep in her step that wasn’t there before. This normally unnoticeable change caused me to chuckle as I followed after her. The pace of a pony compared to mine was in my favor by miles, meaning that catching up to her wasn’t a problem.
And it was like this that we made our way down the path and into the forest, where we took an abrupt right onto another path.
“... And that’s how I rescued the baby duckling from a wild dog.” At the end of my story, Sunset prodded my arm with her head; specifically, where I was bitten.
“But weren’t you scared? We ponies have wings and magic, with an uncanny amount of stamina for those that don’t; but humans? I guess your ingenuity and will is a trait most ponies will never have, but I find myself wondering if your kind knows the difference between willpower and stupidity,” Sunset teased, poking me in the same arm with her horn as we came close to a patch of bright light at the end of this path.
“Sadly, I don’t. If I want something, because of the way Ol’ Sam taught me; I’m more than prone to chase it down until it’s mine. Most of the time, the object I desire is intangible... or fleeting; but eh, what are you gonna do, right?” I placed both my claws behind my head and began whistling a tune similar to a song I like.
It was light-hearted, and reminded me of the times I would just lay on top of the barn roof and gaze up at the night sky. I could feel the cool winds of autumn playing on my skin like little leaflets, while the moon orchestrated the hints and shades of precious night; treating each and every star like its newborn as it cradled them under her watchful gaze.
“... I’ve never heard a song like that...” Sunset breathed. “What is it? It sounds magnificent... if not a little plain, or missing something.”
“Moonlight Sonata,” I answered in earnest. “Oh, that’s right; you guys don’t have Beethoven! Awww man, you Equisians are missing out! I just wish there was a piano around here so I could play it the way it was meant to be played!”
Sunset merely chuckled at my enthusiasm towards great pieces of music as we cleared the forest, coming to stand in front of a large array of grassland and some rolling hills. In the distance were these cobblestone houses with hay roofing... which required me to use my Draconic Sight to see in detail. The houses themselves were about twenty-feet in height.
But the house that was closer to us was not; in fact, it was larger.
About three stories high, and about twenty feet long... if that. And a tiny garden flanked by white gates opened up towards us; a dirt path made of soft brown earth leading right up to a lime-green screen door.
“So is this the house of that one minotaur boy you were playing with,” I asked as we strode up to the door. Sunset hummed her affirmation. “And we’re getting ready to meet... Jack! That was his name! Yes! We’re getting ready to meet Jack’s parents, right?”
Another hum.
“Always wanted to meet a minotaur! This is going to be so interesting!” I knocked on the screen door, and smiled when a southern-but-motherly ‘Coming!’ came as a response.