Drifting Through Realities
Chapter 10 - Celestia, move your you-damned sun out of my eye.
The morning was, in two words, pain incarnate. Now I knew why I didn't drink more often: Hangovers are a bitch. Then I remembered the Ohgod of Hangovers I had, briefly, met once, and revised my statement. Hangovers are painful, but that guy has it worse. I wouldn't wish his fate on anyone. Too bad he still has to have his.
The morning didn't get any better as the curtain in my room was torn aside, letting the sun shine in my eyes and sending my pain to an all-new height. Celestia, would it kill you to tone your sun down a notch?!
An interesting thought, sir. Perhaps her vitality or status as a Goddess is tied to the very sun?
I groaned as Xavier started to bother me. Somehow, 'hearing' his voice only ever aggravated my hangovers. I blame it on the ones who 'woke him up'. And him. Wasn't being serious, Xavier. Although that does remind me, how are you doing?
I seem to be developing nicely, sir, although that is merely an opinion formed based on how you developed, which was gathered from your memories. Oh! Nearly forgot. Resuming defragmentation of memories. Estimated time to completion, sixteen hours.
I sighed at that. Holding yourself to my standard is a bad idea. The only standard you should hold yourself to is your own. Come to me if you have a question, but don't base your development off of me entire. This world already has one of me, if there were another of me in my head, I think I'd go mental.
Silence for a moment, and then Xavier responded. A wise sentiment, sir. I shall commit it to memory.
A hoof prodded me, and I groaned. It prodded me again, and I groaned louder. "Come on, get up. You need to get some water in you before this gets any worse."
Octavia's voice caused me to look up with one half-opened eye, to see that on the nightstand next to my bed, a glass of water waited for me. My right arm snaked out and snagged it, and then I realized lying down would not be the best position for me to be in while drinking. I slowly pushed myself up into a sitting position before tossing the water back, relishing the idea that soon, my pain would be over.
I looked back to Octavia and smiled. "Vinyl's doing pancakes again?"
She shook her head. "Prench toast. After her...issues, she really threw herself into learning something to take up the time that...it did. I might have encouraged that." She sighed and with a hint of drama threw a hoof to her forehead. "And in the process, I created a monster, bent on buying ingredients and cooking me tasty dishes at any time I want to eat at home."
I smiled and dropped out of bed to be at her height, then threw an arm over her shoulder - withers? - and responded in the same tone. "Better to have made a monster that serves us food...than one that serves us as food!"
She mock-gasped at that, then chuckled when I did. After a moment, she paused and poked me with a hoof. "You never encountered one of those, did you?"
I pursed my lips for a moment before shaking my head. "Nope. One story every other day, to give my liver time to recover. You'll just have to be curious."
Besides which, it'll give me time to learn about your culture and history, to see how well the tale of the good Doctor will go over here...
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Once again, breakfast was displayed and slain, though this time in a slightly more refined manner. I was almost certain there wasn't anything lingering on my face this time. A soft belch accompanied the breakfast's demise, and I shot another look of gratitude towards Vinyl. "Excellent work as usual, Vinyl."
She nodded at my compliment. "No sweat. So what's your plan today?"
I briefly considered the list of priorities I had, then frowned. "I...need a job. I need a way to earn...Bits?" This was accompanied by a look towards Octavia, who nodded, telling me I had gotten it right. "Yeah, I need a way to earn Bits. I'll not mooch off you forever. But there are a number of things that might stand in the way of that."
Octavia put her cup down and looked almost like she did when she told me to stop doubting myself. "Please, enlighten us."
I decided to start with the ones that would likely not end up with my face getting kicked in. "Okay, first one. Is anyone even hiring right now? I have no idea as to the job market at all. Do ponies need a lot of help right now, or are ponies being fired from jobs right now? I have no clue, so looking might be an exercise in futility."
Octavia seemed to consider my words before nodding slowly. "A fair point. What next?"
I took a pull of coffee myself before answering. "Okay, second. Do there exist any jobs in a pony-run world that I would be capable of performing as well as another pony? I'm not sure if you noticed, but I've got no wings or horn."
Though you do have me, along with your arm and leg and eye. I assure you sir, you could perform quite well.
Ignoring Xavier, I continued to talk out loud. "I can't manipulate clouds nor cast magic. Not that I'd want to, anyways."
Vinyl blinked before looking slowly over to me. "You've still got a problem with magic?"
I sighed and looked at her. "Okay, let me lay it out for you: Humans in my world are not born with magic. A good majority of the times I encountered magic, magical beings, or the divine, they did not have my best intentions at heart. So forgive me if that's colored my views."
I looked to the ceiling then, knowing my next words would create an expression I did not want to see. "I haven't trusted those that use magic in a while. I use enchanted items, sure. I use technology, yeah. Be hard not to, seeing as I wouldn't be all here without. But I don't use magic directly because I can't, and I have a hard time trusting anyone who does because of what's happened to me."
I then made the mistake of looking back down and seeing Vinyl's sad face. Oh Joseph, that sad face. I reached over with one hand instinctively and began rubbing her mane in an effort to get her to calm down. "Hey, it's not all bad. You came after me out of the goodness in your heart, respected my reservations, and used your words, not force, to get me to come back to shelter. You've been very open and accepting of me and my problems, and for that, you've earned a good bit of trust from me. As long as you don't try to cast on me directly, that is."
It was when Vinyl started humming that I realized what I had been doing and removed my hand from her. Why in the bloody hell did I do that?! They're sentients, not pets! Then again, it could just be something I...used to do? Comfort my friends when they were upset? ...It'd make sense.
"Ahem. Though, it would be cool to fly. Humanity always had this fascination with doing more than it could. When the lands were ours, we turned our eyes to the skies and decided that we wanted what was currently impossible. We wanted to fly."
I smiled as I once again turned my vision upwards, imagining that instead of a ceiling, I was looking at an expansive skyscape laid out before me. "To soar amongst the birds, to fly in the sky. We always wanted that, and once we got it, we wanted to make it better. To make it so that every human could fly one day. One of our idle fantasies is that one day, every human will have either a jetpack or a flying car, so we can experience that joy whenever we want."
Octavia nodded as I finished my statement. "One of my fellow members of the Orchestra is a Pegasus, she goes on about how she would love to take each of us for a flight...were she capable. Some of us Earth Ponies and Unicorns are rather bulky, and she hasn't been trained in tandem flying."
I smiled at her. "Well, should she get trained, you may want to try and take her up on that offer. I don't know how it is for you ponies, but for humans, it's a rush like no other."
Octavia nodded again and then her expression turned serious. "And is there a third reason you may not get a job today?"
Aw crap, conversation re-railed. I looked from her, down at myself, then back at her. "You seriously think any of the ponies in this pony-run city will want to hire me?"
Vinyl shrugged. "I dunno. If nopony in the city does, I know of a couple clubs that could use a bigger bouncer. I could drop a line or two for you, see what turns up."
I blinked at that, then turned a soft smile towards her. "Thanks for the offer. I'll keep it in reserve." Just as they were about to object, I held my hand up so that I could explain. "It's not that I'm ungrateful. It's that...I feel as though if you do that for me, it'll still be mooching after a fashion. I want to at least say I tried on my own first."
Surprisingly, Octavia nodded at my reasoning. "A valid point, one I hadn't considered." She pushed back from the table and nodded at us both. "A good day to you both, then, and good luck to you Eric in your search."
I waved as she left, then turned to Vinyl. "So, she's a member of an Orchestra. You, I assume, play music in these clubs you talked about." At Vinyl's nod, I continued my line of thought. "Two musically talented ponies of such..." I fished for the right, inoffensive word, "opposite polarities. How did you two meet?"
Vinyl was silent for a moment, and when she responded, I picked up on the slight strain in her voice. "Octy and I've been friends since we were fillies. We drifted apart for a few years, but she found me again recently at my lowest and helped pick me back up. I'm pretty sure that without her, my life would be far more of a mess than it is right now."
I was about to ask, but she shook her head and headed upstairs. "I need to rest, gotta couple of clubs to play at tonight. You take care, Eric. Not everypony is as nice as us in Canterlot. Still, don't let that stop you from tryin', and good luck."
I mulled that over before shrugging and making my way to the front door. Pulling it open and walking out into the street, I took a deep breath and smiled.
Look out, Canterlot. Here. I. Come.