//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: Torn Between Two Worlds // by Alex Barkhorn //------------------------------// "Wakey-Wakey, Alex!" The ecstatic voice of Pinkie woke me up from my hour and a half of sleep. I grumbled and pried my eyes open, and saw all the other girls crowded around me. "...This better be important," I mumbled, yawning and sitting upright. Twilight simply pointed at my wristwatch, which gave me a nasty mark from laying awkwardly on it, and I facepalmed. Eight thirty. "We should probably get going. We've all gotten ready, so we're just waiting on you. Grayson even showed up," Twilight informed me. I was about to reply, but my friend entered my room. "Hey, get your ass ready, we gotta go soon! It takes more than forty five minutes to get into the city, man." He said quickly. I raised an eyebrow, and couldn't help but detect a hint of...Anticipation? Maybe even excitement, in his voice. The other girls also looked at me with equally excited looks, and I sighed. "I'll be ready in a few," I said, grabbing my dark purple MLP hoodie, which had Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark in a small area on the upper arm. While zipping it up, I noticed Twilight eying the hoodie. "Is that..." She began, but I nodded, already knowing what she was gonna ask. "I have one for each of you," I said a bit sheepishly, showing them my closet. On top of a majority of normal clothes, mainly black, blue, or red, there were a few patches of cyan, white, yellow, orange, pink and purple. "Wow, you must really be a huge fan of us," Applejack said, giving me a smug grin. I cleared my throat, and shrugged. "He's a brony, what can you do?" Gray chirped. The girls all raised a brow in curiosity. "A 'brony'?" Fluttershy asked quietly. I scoffed and shook my head. "That's what we call your fans. For guys, at least. We call the girls who are your fans Pegasisters." I explained quickly, clipping my belt together and attaching the chain to my wallet. I had my boots laced and my hair moderately combed a few minutes later, and I was ready to head out. I looked at the clock, to see it was only five til nine. I turned and gave Grayson an annoyed look. "Ah, you needed to get up anyway," He said, knowing what I was thinking. "You know I have sleeping problems," I said quietly. Twilight and Rarity, who were the closest to us as we exited through my front door, looked at me curiously. "Yeah, well...I didn't wanna be late," He replied at the same volume. "Whatever," I replied with a sigh. "Everything alright?" Twilight asked. "Fine," I replied simply. Twilight by now got the hint of what that means coming from me, but by the look on her face, I could tell she was planning on talking with me later. Rarity gave me the same look, though hers had another hint of sadness to it. Maybe worry. Minutes later, we were on our way to the city, and the girls, yet again, looked out at the scenery with wonder, and smiling faces. "I just thought of something," Grayson said from the drivers seat. I turned away from the window to look at him, hoping he would elaborate. "When Christine said details, what did she mean?" He asked. I gave a shrug. "Dunno. Probably new names, a bit of background info..." I began, but instantly perked my head up. "You didn't do any of that last night, did you," He asked in an annoyed tone. "We kinda had...Other issues last night," I replied, glancing at Pinkie and Rainbow. Grayson was obviously about to stay on the current topic, but was interested, and moved onto the new tangent. "Issues?" He repeated in question form. "Well, someone stumbled upon a fic that didn't..." I was about to continue, but Grayson looked in the rearview mirror and saw the look on Pinkie's face. "They didn't." He said quietly. "They did," I replied. "I'm so sorry you had to read that, Pinkie Pie," Gray said with a nervous chuckle. Pinkie only shrugged. "Ah, it was just a crazy story! Whoever wrote that was seriously loco in the coco! But, it's no biggie, now!" She replied with a smile, squeezing the arm of Rainbow Dash, who was sitting next to her. Dashie rolled her eyes and smirked. "Anyway, you're right. Names. We need names. And we need some basic information on you. Twilight's the scholar, so we can..." And with that, we began giving the girls some names and information. They had some other ideas, and, while some were completely outrageous, they still contributed. Wouldn't have been fair otherwise. We made it to Christine's office building, and the girls were all satisfied with the new information we had given them. "Alright, this is a huge step. Are you girls ready?" I asked. They all gave me silent, but determined nods in response. "Alright," I said, pausing to let the elevator ding, signaling we were at our designated floor. "Let's go, then," I finished, exiting the elevator with my seven friends. Christine was ready and waiting for us, giving us all a warm smile. She led us to her office, and sat at her desk. "Well, do we have everything figured out, then?" She asked, and I gave her a firm nod. "Alright, then. Let's start with names. I did a little research on my own, Alex, and I hope you did have names ready for them. Twilight Sparkle isn't entirely a name that is acceptable by our standards," She said with a light laugh. "We have the majority of information we figured you'd need," I replied simply. "Alright, then, but we'll still start with names, first," She said, looking at Twilight first. "My name is...Takara Sarani." She said with a confident smile. Christine nodded, and typed a few things into her computer. She then looked to Applejack. "Mah name's Allison Jackson," She said with a smile and a wink. Again, a nod, and typing. Next was Fluttershy. "Um...I-I'm Faith Sherman." She said shyly, giving a small smile. "Raine Teno," Rarity said next, accenting her name to give it a bit more flare. "And I'm Raven Davis," Rainbow Dash said with a smirk, stuffing her hands inside of her hoodie's front pockets. "That makes me last! I'm Patience Patterson! Nice to meetcha!" Pinkie said with an ecstatic smile. Christine smiled and laughed again. "I like this one," She quipped, and Pinkie was positively glowing at that. Twilight - er, excuse me, Takara laughed as well, and looked back at Christine. "What else do we need, Ms. Parker?" She asked politely. ...Yeah, no. I'm still callin' them by their own names. Twilight waited for a reply, as Christine finished typing. "Now, I'm going to need to know what classes you want. There are many choices..." We spent the next couple of hours going over the different classes and assigning them to each. We made it so they all had decent GPA's, so each girl had one off campus period, to lighten their workload. Other than that, they got the normal english, math, and government classes. They also got to choose their own electives, and what they chose didn't surprise me at all. Twilight decided to take the Psychology course, which I also took, so I was hoping I'd have a class with her at that. Next, Dash and Applejack decided on fitness and weights - it's one of those conditioning classes where you run the track and do other exercises. Very typical of them. Fluttershy took ecology, a new course at my school, and Rarity took fashion design, another newer course. I'd say they all lucked out with that. Finally, Pinkie took Foods class, which was, you guessed it, cooking. I also requested that they all take Speech and Debate with me, so I could keep an eye on all of them at a time. That, and, it'd be a good way for them to get used to other kids. People in that class were relatively tolerable, at least to me. "Alright, Alex. We're almost all set. Next thing I need to do is push their papers in and get them their schedules, which they'll hopefully be able to pick up tomorrow morning when you get to school." Christine said, taking off her glasses and giving us another smile. "Thank you so much, Chris. I can't tell you how much this means to me," I said, giving her a smile. She returned it, and waved it off. "Ah, anything for you, Alex." She replied simply. I laughed lightly, and nodded. "So, is there anything else you need?" Rainbow asked with a slight yawn. Christine shook her head. "Nope. You're all free to go. Good luck in school, girls, and have fun!" She called out, as we exited her office. While in the elevator, we, again, shared collective shouts of excitement. The ride home was spent giving the girls tips, tricks, Do's and Dont's, and hints at the scary place called high school. Gray and I both gave them decent advice, concerning who to and not to trust, and, the entire time, we demanded they called eachother by their new names, just so they all got used to them easier. "Here we are," Gray said, pulling into my driveway. The girls and I exited the van, and I looked back at Gray. "Thanks for all your help this weekend, man," I said with a smile. "Don't worry about it, man. If anything, I should thank you. Who'da thought that we'd be going to school with the mane six?!" He said, suppressing a fanboyish squeal of delight. I snickered and shook my head. "I'll see ya tomorrow, man," I said. He nodded, extending a fist, which I happily bumped back. "See ya tomorrow," He replied, backing out of my driveway and into the street, driving off. I sighed and walked up to my door, allowing the others in. That night was spent going over the advice and rules I gave the girls, when, halfway through our meal of a large tossed salad, I suddenly remembered. They needed supplies! I facepalmed, and caught the girls' attention. "Something the matter?" Fluttershy asked me, when I nodded. "Yeah, but, I'll be back in a few. You girls think you can clean up without me?" I asked, standing up. They all nodded, and I gave them a quick thanks, before running off to my room. Thankfully, I made it a habit to save all of my old binders, which I stored in my mother's large office room. And, being an office, I also got a generous amount of paper. Next, I looked in the closet, and grabbed all of my old backpacks and courier bags that I used over the years. I dunno why, but I always wanted new bags for school. Whether it had to do with a new style that caught my eye, or a need for change, I don't really know. But, it payed off for now, so I don't really care. There were three backpacks, and three courier bags. I set up each girl with two binders each, some paper, and a pencil each. We'd stock up more over the next...However long we needed to. Thinking a bit more, I suddenly got an idea. I looked through my nightstand, and grabbed a small white packet. I was saving these for a different occasion, that I honestly wasn't entirely sure what, yet, though I knew there would be an occasion. I guess this was it. I emptied the contents of the packet, and inside, were three by three patches of each girl's individual cutie mark. I returned to my mother's office to grab a needle and thread, and began work, applying Rarity's mark to a white courier bag, Pinkie's to a red backpack, Dashie's to an electric blue backpack, Twilight's to a deep purple courier bag, Applejack's to a brown courier bag, and Fluttershy's to a black backpack. I was a bit upset, considering it was a strange thing to add to a dark bag, but it was all I had, and it was my favorite bag out of them all. So, hopefully that would make it up to her. A knock on the door cut my thoughts short, and I looked over my shoulder. "Come in," I called out. The door creaked open, and Fluttershy poked her head in the door. "Alex? Twilight sent me in here, you've been here for almost an hour and a half. Is everything alright?" She then asked. I stood up at full posture, slightly looking down to meet her gaze. "Yeah, everything's fine. In fact, get the others in here, I wanna show them something," I said, finishing the last bag and zipping it closed. Soon enough, the six of them were all present, and I presented them with their little gifts. "Oh, my, Alex, these are lovely," Rarity said with a warm smile, running her hand across the clean white bag, tracing her fingers along her cutie mark patch. "These are definitely awesome! Are these our cutie marks?" Dashie said, looking at the bag with a smile. "Yep. I wanted to make the bag about 20 percent cooler," I snarked, earning a chuckle from the small multi-color-haired girl. "These are so...Nice," Fluttershy said with a smile. "Sorry yours is black, Fluttershy. It was the only one I had left. But, it's my favorite backpack I used, so..." I trailed off, and Fluttershy's smile grew, as she hugged the bag close to her chest. "Thank you so much, Alex," Fluttershy said with a big smile, one that made me smile back. "It's no problem at all." I replied simply, crossing my arms and giving a slightly loud yawn. I checked the clock, and scoffed. It was barely nine thirty. I didn't notice till the last minute, but Rarity and Twilight exchanged glances before looking back at me. "Alex, why don't you get some sleep? Don't we have to wake up for school tomorrow?" Twilight asked. "She's right, darling, you must get some rest!" Rarity urged, and I raised my hands in defense. "Alright, I get it," I said, though I didn't want to give up so easily. Having the problems I faced, sleep began to be more of a gift then a habit. I was lucky to get more than three hours a night. "Good," Rarity said simply, giving me a satisfactory smile. I set my alarm, said my goodnights to the girls, and layed back in my bed, staring at the ceiling. I heard hushed voices outside, and raised an eyebrow. Minutes later, the door opened, and I pretended to be asleep, just to avoid more hounding. I heard quiet and slow footsteps approach, then, silence. Suddenly, my covers slowly raised themselves, and someone slipped into bed with me. I quickly got up and scrambled for my lamp, turning it on and barely managing to catch it before I tipped it over. Rarity looked at me with surprised eyes. "Rarity, what the hell?!" I gasped. "What? Twilight told me you had trouble sleeping, so I figured having someone spend the night in your room would bring a little comfort and allow you to sleep better," She explained casually. I sighed and shook my head. "That's sweet of you, Rarity, but we don't share beds here," I said. "Why not?" She asked. The question caught me by surprise, and I tried to think of a way to reply. "We just...There's only a few circumstances where you do, and this isn't one of them," I explained quietly. She nodded and shrugged. "Oh, well. I was just trying to help you, but, have it your way," She said simply, getting out of my bed. "Wait," I called out, surprising both her and myself. "Yes?" She asked, looking back at me. "...You can still sleep here. Just, sleep in my bed. I'll sleep there," I said, pointing at the small couch across my room, that I used to watch tv. It may be on the other side of the room, but she was right. Something about having another person in the same room with me kind of calmed me down a bit. "I suppose that works," She said with a small smile. I grabbed a blanket and a spare pillow, walking to the couch and laying down. She sat in my bed, and looked at me, giving me another smile. "Goodnight, Alex," She said, laying down. "G'night, Rarity." I replied, stuffing my head into my pillow. Thoughts raced into my mind, and everything was silent. The only thing I heard came a few minutes later, being Rarity's calm, even breathing. I sighed and stared at the ceiling, when my eyes started to close, ever so slowly. The thought of precious sleep was then the only thing on my mind, and happily accepted the rest.