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Down to the Wire
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The drive back home was awkward. Between Chet’s embarrassment over falling asleep at the wheel, and Alex’s somewhat visible guilt for knocking him out, every person in the car felt each agonizing second pass as they headed back to Alex’s house.
“So, what are your plans, now that you’re finished with school?” Chet asked, looking from the road to Alex for a moment, before returning his focus to driving.
“Well, I’m not exactly the university type, I don’t think,” Alex said, knowing that he could never return to a life of school five days a week… or work, for that matter, “Maybe just relax for a little bit. Mom and dad left me plenty to live off of.”
“Well, you could put a bunch of that in to tuition for some agriculture courses,” Chet suggested, “Then, you could spend another chunk of the money buying up some more land. Maybe start growing and selling some vegetables, or livestock! Then use the leftover cash to supplement your income.”
“You’ve thought a lot about this, haven’t you?” Alex laughed, knowing that his uncle wasn’t the type to look this far in to the future, “Or maybe it was Tammy?”
“Well, a bit of both.” Chet laughed, looking over his shoulder to the girls in the back, who were all looking a bit more apprehensive than anything else, “You girls okay?”
Twilight looked at the clock on the front of the van, and was honestly shocked at how much of their time had vanished, while they waited for Alex to complete his test. By her measure, Dash would be having her ceremony in no more than a couple hours Equestrian time.
“We’re fine!” Fluttershy answered, not wanting their silence to be telling of Alex’s impending departure, but, perhaps that secret had already been told.
“I don’t think agriculture is my thing, Chet,” Alex continued, uncomfortably moving the conversation on, and trying to shift it to a more comedic one “I’m more of a… hooker type. You know, just invite some lonely ladies back to the house, and have them pay me tons of money to please them.”
“You do know what kind of ladies you’d find in that job, right?” Chet asked, shaking his head at Alex’s bullshit, “Not the kind of ladies you want to be pleasing.”
“Well, maybe I’ll be a professional magician,” Alex furthered, not letting on just how possible that job could be, “Do parties for kids and stuff.”
“Alex, unless you can make money appear in thin air with that magic of yours, you’d be shit outta luck with that job too.” Chet concluded, as Alex just sighed and leaned back.
The mood had certainly lightened, as they reached the final leg back to their homes. But, it was still a long leg. And it was something that made each of them nervous.
“How are we doing for time?” Alex asked, not giving enough information for Chet to piece anything together.
“Twenty minutes?” Twilight said, giving as safe an answer as he could.
“Oh good,” Alex said, trying his best to cover himself up, “I’d hate to miss the show.”
“You don’t need to bullshit me, Alex,” Chet said suddenly, as every pair of eyes in the car shot to him, “You’re leaving again, right?”
“What?” Alex asked, exhaling quickly, “What gave you that idea?”
“Little things here and there,” Chet shrugged, “The girls at breakfast, or… lunch, were giving each other all sorts of whispers while they thought I wasn’t listening.”
“What are you talking about?” Rarity asked, laughing, as if to throw him off at her strange reaction.
“I can’t tell you how many times I heard you all saying that you ‘needed to get back.’” Chet continued, ignoring Rarity, “So, at this point, I guess I’m not going to be getting any truth out of it from you all.”
Alex was afraid that the spell he had used on Chet had affected Chet a little too much, as he was no longer asking about their destination, but was still bringing it up quickly.
“All that I ask, Alex,” Chet exhaled, “Is that you come back more often than once a year! Jesus Christ, I thought you were dead, you know that?”
Alex didn’t have an answer for Chet.
“I may have hidden it pretty well, but you have no idea how relieved I was when I saw you a couple weeks ago,” Chet sighed, knowing that bearing his soul was the only way to get Alex to take him seriously, “You’re all I have left in this world for family. And if you’re out- god knows where, screwing around, and doing dangerous shit... what do you think you dad would do to me?”
Alex looked up from the floor to make eye contact with Chet. That last line made it all so much clearer to him.
“Your mom, and your father—my brother, left you in my hands. I know you’re a grown man. I know that you’ve got to find your own way… But if you go out and kill yourself, then how would I ever live with myself?” Chet asked, as he took his foot off the gas, and rolled to a stop in front of Alex’s house, “I just- I need you to tell me that you’re safe. That you’re being careful!”
Alex opened his mouth, before closing it a moment later.
“Well?”
“I… I try my best Chet,” Alex managed, his voice obviously strained, “But I’d be lying if I told you that I wasn’t getting in to trouble.”
Chet closed his eyes and dropped his head back on to the rest of his seat, those were not the words he wanted to hear.
“But let me tell you right now,” Alex said, hoping to calm Chet’s fears, “These girls in here with us, they try their very best to keep me safe when I get in to tough spots.”
“We sure do!” Pinkie exclaimed, a bright smile on her face.
“He does his best, and we do ours.” Applejack added.
Chet opened his eyes, and gave a small smile that Alex could see.
“He’s like a brother to us,” Fluttershy added, her tone conveying her sincerity to them all.
“He’s helped me, with more problems than I can count!” Rarity said.
“We all owe him our lives.” Twilight finished, as Chet’s face showed just a hint of confusion.
“Your lives, huh?” Chet asked, turning his head to Alex, “Well, I guess that’s better than nothing.”
“Its way better than nothing,” Alex smiled, reaching his hand out to his uncle, “Thank you.”
“You sure you don’t wanna tell me where you’re going?” Chet asked, much more playfully.
“You couldn’t believe me if I told you,” Alex shook his head with a smile, as Chet took his hand, “But, maybe I can give you a taste.”
Chet only tilted his head, as he felt something heavy in his hand suddenly.
“Come on girls,” Alex said, retracting his arm, and opening the door, “We have to hurry.”
Chet just watched in bewilderment as they all filed out of the van, and headed back toward the house. He was about to look at what had seemly appeared in his hand, when Alex turned around and got his attention just before closing the door.
“Take that to the jeweler in town,” Alex smiled, beaming at his ability to be sharing Equestria with his uncle in this small way, “That should answer a question or two about where I’m going.”
Before he could say anything to Alex, the door was closed, and he was jogging to catch up with the girls who were all congregated at the front door. And, once Alex had the entrance unlocked and opened, they followed him inside, and closed the door behind them.
Finally, taking his eyes off the door, Chet opened his palm, and looked down in a mixture of confusion and shock.
In his hands was a clear, multi-colored jewel, which was about the size of a golf ball. Depending on how he looked at it, the color was displayed differently. From above and below, each color was visible in strips, from left to right, starting at red, and finishing at purple. But, if he looked at it from the left or right side, the diamond was black, as it was a mixture of every color. Finally, if he rotated the black side ninety degrees along the smooth circle, the diamond was clear, as if there was no color at all.
“What the hell is this thing?” Chet asked, trying to remember just how Alex had slipped this in to his hand, because from how he recalled, it just appeared. There was no way Alex could have put it there in any way shape or form.
But, knowing that Alex wanted to be left in piece, Chet decided to take his advice and go back in to town. He was curious as to what this stone was made out of, and if it took a jeweler to tell him just what it was, then his interest was piqued. Maybe it was from… Africa?
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“Are you guys ready?” Alex asked, having walked right through his house to the back yard where they wouldn’t be seen by anyone, “If you wanna have a snack, or pee, now’s the time.”
“No time,” Twilight cut in, “When we get to Equestria, we’ll have a little over an hour to get to Manehattan.”
“How is that possible?” Rarity asked, “It’s an overnight trip!”
“I was expecting Alex to be done way faster!” Twilight argued, “But don’t worry, I’ll be able to teleport us to Canterlot from Ponyville, and we can take the bullet train there in about forty minutes.”
“Uh… Twilight?” Alex asked.
Ignoring him, she continued, “From there, we can probably run there in just under a half an hour. I wouldn’t be able to teleport us from there. I don’t know the town well enough.”
“Twi?” Alex asked again, only to be ignored.
“And then, assuming we aren’t stopped by jerky security, we will have five or ten minutes to have a short conversation with Dash.” She finished, “So? Let’s go already!”
Alex just cocked his eyebrow, and nodded.
“Okay, you win!” He laughed, not bothering to tell her his secret, “Everyone place a hand on me.”
Following his instructions, each girl placed one hand on various parts of his chest and back, as Alex reached his own arm out, and summoned a spell he had never had a chance to practice.
Princess Celestia had once told him that he would need to master the usual teleportation spell, but on top of that, think about his home, his family, and earth in general. Once that was done, he would be able to force the spell to take him to that place.
So, to get from earth to Equestria, Alex just had to imagine all the feelings he had felt when he was in a particular part of that world.
So, he thought of his anxiety, his fear, his desperation… and an overwhelming sense of love.
These mix of things only game in to place one time in his life while in Equestria. And they were in Manehattan, in the days before Alex rescued Dash from the Wonderbolts.
Instantly, the ground started to shake, as a series of sparks starting firing from his index finger.
Alex exhaled sharply, as he felt the massive amount of energy start to backlog in his body. He simply wasn’t able to focus all the energy properly.
“Are you okay, Alex?” Twilight asked, as the spell started to sputter, “Are you able to do this?”
Throwing caution to the wind, Alex forced as much energy through his arm, while sending the remainder back to his forehead, but without his horn there to protect him.
The shaking intensified, as the last of the spell was cast, and they were all engulfed in a light coming from the ground.
“Alex!” Fluttershy shouted, seeing the blood start to run from his eyes and nose, “You need to be careful!”
“Just…. A little more!” Alex shouted, making sure they weren’t only half sent because the spell destabilized.
Finally, the ground opened up, and they all fell in to the blinding light.
////
Before any of them knew what was happening, they were thrown in to a wall filled with lockers, as they were spit out of a glowing hole, and thrown across a massive room, obviously built to accommodate the changing of upward of a hundred ponies.
It took them all a minute to situate themselves, as they were now in a new, colorful world, in the form of ponies.
“Is everyone alright?” Twilight groaned, rolling over herself, and looking to her heap of friends around her.
“Yeah…” Pinkie coughed, shaking standing up.
“I believe so,” Rarity said rather coherently as she also regained her footing.
“Ah’m just gunna lay here a moment,” Applejack said, wobbling her hooves around to make sure they were still working.
“I’m okay,” Fluttershy said calmly, standing up next to Rarity.
“Alex?” Twilight asked, looking to his still collapsed form, “Alex?!”
He didn’t respond as the girls all rushed around him.
His face was stained with blood that had come from his casting the spell, and it made all of them panic. None of them even knew if he was alive.
Placing a hoof on his neck, Twilight exhaled in relief as she turned to her friends and nodded, “His heart is beating.”
“Can’t you heal him?” Pinkie asked Twilight, as the purple pony sighed.
“I’m not able to cast that kind of magic. It falls under chaos, not harmony.” Twilight explained, having no idea what she could do for her friend, short of taking him to a hospital.
“I believe this is my department,” Rarity said, stepping past Twilight and beginning to cast a spell she had been practicing for the last couple of weeks, “Since I accepted Avarice, I’ve been able to use all sorts of spells! It’ll only take a moment!”
Rarity leaned down toward Alex’s collapsed form, and slowly worked the spell out of her horn, and over his head, making sure none of the magic went to waste.
As she did this, Twilight looked around the room and contemplated where it was that he had sent them.
“I don’t think any locker rooms this big are in Ponyville,” Twilight spoke aloud, standing up and looking for some kind of marker to tell her where they were.
“Haven’t we been here before?” Pinkie asked, looking around herself.
“Yeah!” Applejack agreed, “Ah’ know ah’ve been here before!”
“I feel the same way…” Twilight muttered.
From the end of the room, just around a wall, they all heard the door open, and somepony start yelling.
“Get changed! Everypony else is out there already, and you just got out of bed! You’d better be out there in two minutes!” The voice shouted, as the door closed, leaving the pony to walk through the small hallway.
As she turned the corner, they all remembered where it was that they were.
“Y-you guys?” Rainbow Dash said, seeing her friends gathered in the change room, with Alex collapsed on the ground, being tended to by Rarity, “Alex?!”
Forgetting her friends, she sped past the group of them and gasped at the bloody sight on the ground.
“What happened?” Dash asked quickly, her voice full of panic and worry, “Is he okay? Did he hurt himself? Is he dead?!”
Each girl felt the raw emotion coming off of their friend, which only made their hearts break a little more for the situation she was in.
“He’s fine.” Rarity said, backing off from her spell. “He’s not bleeding anymore… He should—”
“Dash…?” Alex asked, opening his eyes, “I guess I got us to Manehattan after all.”
“Are you alright?” She asked, getting down on her knees to be closer to him, “I- I mean… I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Alex’s head may have been spinning like crazy, but this was sobering him up fast.
And while he had been expecting a rush of anger, and resentment toward her, seeing her there, standing over him with such concern for his wellbeing… it just made him hurt. It felt like he had been punched in the chest. The mare who cared for him so much, would forever be out of his reach.
His head started to spin. All of this was too much. He couldn’t keep his thoughts straight, as his eyes started to blink erratically, and with increasing length.
“I’m sorry, Alex.” Was all she could say, as he forced his eyes open for another moment.
“I-I still love you, Dash.” He said, tears replacing the blood in his eyes, “I m-miss… I miss—”
His eyes closed once again, as he passed on in to the much more peaceful world of slumber.
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