//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Yellowed Pages // Story: Rehabilitation // by moviemaster8510 //------------------------------// Jesse sorely woke up, his eyes still greeted to the library where he had found himself the night before. His eyes were burning and red, which was only made worse by the bright sun shining directly into his eyes. Jesse attempted to stand up, only for his head to feel heavy and racked with pain. Jesse knew that it couldn’t have been from the beer he drank the night previous; it was cheap beer that was meant to quench his thirst, and he had drunken larger quantities of stronger brews in the past. It certainly didn’t help that he was transported to God only knows where. The pain his head felt coupled with the stress he was feeling was began to horribly affect his stomach. Crawling to the wall of the library, he emptied the contents of his stomach onto the floor. Jesse wept a little bit as he gagged more gobs of saliva and puke from his throat. It seemed that even a simple cheeseburger proved to be too rich after a diet of cheap pork and beans and the occasional pint of Ben and Jerry’s after a successful cook. Many hours had to have past, being that it was already morning, and Jesse would need some breakfast soon. That would mean having to explore the building he now found himself in… as well as the numerous unknowns that lied within. With a final, enraged spit, Jesse stumbled to his feet, using the wall for balance. Jesse began to wobble his legs towards the large broken window, seeing the area around him to find any signs of civilization. Upon reaching there, his heartbreak and anguish returned as he saw nothing but a large expanse of a foreign jungle-like forest. With no means or strength to defend himself, Jesse decided to walk throughout the building, deciding that the inside would at least be safer than out there. Jesse first came across a spiraling staircase leading downwards. It didn’t really matter to Jesse where the staircase led. If it for some reason resulted in his death, it didn’t seem to affect him; for all extents and purposes, he already was dead. “This is insane,” he muttered to himself. Leaning against the guardrail-less wall, Jesse slowly stepped down one foot at a time, careful to not falter, slip, or alert anyone or anything that would be lurking inside. As he reached the halfway point, he heard the sound of something walking through; loud clops as if it were horse’s hooves on cobblestone. The noise alerted Jesse so well that his footing was lost as he tried to step back up the last stop, causing him to fall and roll down the next couple of steps. Jesse groaned as he tried to get himself up. “What was that?” asked a young boy’s voice. “I don’t know,” a young woman’s voice responded. “You stay here. I’ll go and check.” Clearly hearing her objective and the sound of the clopping coming closer, Jesse felt a surge of adrenaline rush through his body as he shot up to his feet and sprinted up the stairs. As he reached the top step, he found the rows of bookshelves and promptly hid himself behind the first one. Coming up from the top step was a lavender alicorn pony with a purple mane and tail streaked with magenta, as well as a marking on both flanks showing a magenta six-pronged star. “Hello?” the pony called out. “Is anyone there?” Jesse listened to the sound of the woman’s voice, and she didn’t sound threatening in the slightest, and perhaps she could help him out. Regardless, he would probably be found soon enough in his spot anyways, and coming clean would make him appear less hostile. “Yo!” Jesse called, feeling slight regret as he crossed the point of no return. “Lady, please…. I… I need help!” The pony reeled back, appalled by the crass way in which he referred to her, but she could recognize a frightened voice when she heard it. Hearing the voice come from the bookshelves, the pony gently approached the source. “Please, come out,” the pony called back. “I can help you in any way.” Jesse, feeling an instant wave of trust come over him, stepped out from his hiding place and sticking his hands up for a more harmless approach. “Listen,” he said, “this might sound whack, but…” Jesse found himself face to face with the alicorn, both staring the other down with alienating shock. Both of them were dumbfounded by their appearances, but they were mostly astounded by how sentient they appeared to each other. Jesse was frozen stiff, not wanting to do or say anything that would provoke the alien pony, but it was her who broke the silence, shouting in fear and making Jesse bolt down the aisle. The pony, realizing what she had done, chased after him. “Wait!” she cried out. “I’m sorry! Please, come back!” Turning a corner Jesse grabbed a pair of books from an adjacent shelf and spun halfway around, waiting for the pony to appear in his sights. “Come on…” he quietly prepped himself. “Come on… come on…” The instant the alicorn’s horn peered out from behind the wall, Jesse chucked a book at her, striking her squarely in the side of the head, making her yelp in both pain and shock as the aged pages shattered from the spine. Jesse tossed the next book, but before it could hit her again, the book stopped inches from her face, a sparkling purple aura coating both the pony’s horn and her book. Seeing the now angered face of the pony with the second tome and the now-ruined first one in what appeared to be a magical grasp, Jesse collapsed to the floor, his legs only serving to flop around like dismembered tentacles from a helpless octopus. “No!” he cried, using his hands to pull him down the aisle as the pony came even closer. “Shoo! Get! Oh, god!” “What is wrong with you?” she shouted, pushing the tattered book in his face. “Do you have any idea how old this book you destroyed is?” Somehow regaining function of all his limbs, Jesse tried to shoot to his feet and sprint off, only for his body not to be moving forwards, but up. Suddenly, his vision became purple and hazy, and he instantly realized why. “No!” he shrieked. “Let me go! Don’t kill me!” “Kill you?” the alicorn asked, turning him to have him face her. “Why would I–” “Twilight,” cried the boy’s voice. “Are you okay?” “Spike!” shouted the alicorn Twilight in concern. The boy, Spike, appeared, only for Jesse to stare wide eyed at him once he saw that he was a small, bipedal purple dragon with a green underbelly. “Holy shit!” he sputtered. “Is that a fucking dragon?” “Twilight!” exclaimed Spike, recoiling in fear at the sight of Jesse. “What is that thing?” “I told you to stay!” scolded Twilight. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I just heard something hit you, because I heard you shouting, and then–” “Never mind. Whatever it is…” Twilight studied the strange creature’s face once again, noting his quivering lip and his eyes as they streamed tears like cascades. “…he’s certainly looks more frightened than he does dangerous.” “Listen,” panted Jesse, the feeling of weightlessness in Twilight’s magical grasp increasing his anxiety. “please… don’t hurt me! I promise I won’t hurt you. Just please… let me live.” Twilight set Jesse softly onto the ground, his adrenaline rendering his arms as wobbling ends. “I have no intention to harm you…” Jesse looked oddly at the winged alicorn, unsure of her pause. “What is your name, creature?” she asked. “My…” he stammered. “My name?” “Yes. You do have one, don’t you?” Jesse continued to look at Twilight as if she had been speaking a completely foreign language. “Listen,” assured Twilight. “You have no reason to be scared.” “No reason to be scared?” Jesse giggled insanely. “Bitch, I just got sucked into this place through some fuckin’… wormhole or whatever and now I’m talking with… a god-damned unicorn!” Twilight shifted herself back, threatened by Jesse’s words. “I’m not sure what a… bitch is,” she said, “but I’d appreciate if you didn’t call me that. Secondly, have you never seen a unicorn before?” “N– No!” he exclaimed. “Those things are fairy tales where I come from.” “Speaking of, where do you come from?” Jesse looked about him, hoping to find the proper things to say on the floor or the spines of the books on the shelves. Twilight, still seeing his evident mistrust and fear, slowly approached him. “It’s okay,” she cooed, reaching for his leg. “You can trust me. I promise I won’t harm you.” Twilight’s hoof grazed Jesse’s jeans, and by instinct, Jesse reeled his foot back and kicked out, forcing Twilight to jump backwards. “Hey!” she scolded. “That wasn’t nice!” “Well,” reasoned Jesse vehemently, “didn’t anyone ever teach you to not pet wild animals?” “With all due respect,” she spoke, still winded from Jesse’s attempted attack, “you don’t look all that wild to me. Your clothes for the most part look clean and untorn. Minus your bedhead, you look well-groomed. Please, sir, I just want to help you by understanding just what you are.” “Well, I don’t want any help, so why don’t you take your… dragon and just leave me alone!” Twilight kept her spot, continuing to look deep into Jesse’s tough façade. “I said go!” he shouted, hopping to his feet to put himself taller, only by half a foot or so. “Come on, Twilight,” Spike responded as he shied away. “I think he means business.” “And what will you do?” asked Twilight to Jesse, ignoring Spike. “It’s clear you’re far from your home, your family, and your friends. Where will you go from here?” Jesse stepped forward and opened his mouth to speak, only for the words of the winged unicorn to block his own. “I’m willing to help you,” cooed Twilight. “I’ll help get you back home. I’ll let you stay with me while I try. I just want two things from you.” Jesse stared at Twilight, her words still ringing like a siren in his ears. Reflecting on his nonexistent home, the family that no longer cared for him, the friends he lost and abandoned, and his feelings of isolation he felt in this strange new world, he backed himself away, stumbling as he tried to maintain his composure. “Hello?” Twilight asked him, unsure of his actions. Falling down on his rump, Jesse pressed his palms into his eyes and let out several sobs, the pain he felt only matched by his inability to repress it to this strange creature approaching him. “You…” Twilight slowly reasoned, “don’t have a home… or a family… or… friends, do you?” Jesse continued crying, feeling the dark pits of his life surrounding him again. Twilight stepped towards him again, making Spike’s face freeze with shock and fear. “Twilight?” he questioned. “What are you doing? Get away from that thing!” “He’s not just a thing, Spike…” she responded, reaching for his leg again Spike recoiled from the seemingly inevitable as Twilight rubbed his leg once again. This time, however, Jesse’s leg was lax and tired, unable to fight any longer. Jesse’s sobs seemed to cease as Jesse rest his eyes on his arm. “…he’s just a frightened creature in need of help.” “Well,” chuckled Spike nervously, “he said he doesn’t want our help, so I think we should go before he eats–” “Jesse,” he moaned. “My name is Jesse…” Twilight finally hearing some progress from the man, let out the slightest of smiles as she felt Jesse opening up to her. “Alright, Jesse,” she continued. “Can you please tell me where you’re from and how you got here?” Jesse looked up to Twilight with a slightly baffled expression, as if there was far too much to tell her with no way to condense it or make it sound plausible. “Just tell me what you can,” she whispered. “At this rate, I’ll believe anything you tell me.” Jesse nodded, constructing his words in his mind. “I…” he began. “I come from a place called Earth… I… was reading this comic book of these superhero ponies that somehow got into my bag.” “In your bag?” she questioned. “I went to buy some comic books to read, and this one just happened to show up with the others. I read it, and then…” Jesse made a popping sound with his lips that quickly changed to him blowing through this top set of teeth on his bottom lip. “…here I am.” “Superhero ponies?” Spike questioned, standing beside Twilight as he suddenly began to realize something. “Was there a little line on the last page of it?” “Y… yeah,” Jesse said, kneeling down to look the dragon in the eye. “Did it say, ‘Take a closer look…’” “‘…to join the adventure in this book,” both of them said at the same time. Jesse, floored by this coincidence, fell back into a seated position. “Oh, wow!” he gasped. “This little guy knows what I’m talking about.” “I’m afraid I do too, actually,” Twilight said with a rolling of her eyes. “Huh? What do you–” “When Spike read that line, he, as well as my friends and I, were sucked into the book and made to play out the rest of the story in the comic. When we got out… the book disappeared.” Jesse kept his eyes on Twilight as the last piece of the puzzle was put into place. “So… that book came all the way to my world?” “I suppose it did. You wouldn’t happen to know where it is now, do you?” “No. It up and disappeared again when I got up.” “I see… And that’s all you remember?” “Except for wandering inside here after I woke up and coming across you, yeah.” Twilight stepped up closer to Jesse so that she stood beside his left arm. “Look, Jesse,” she consoled, her hoof now on his shoulder. “I know this might be asking a lot of you considering what you’ve been through…” “Lady,” huffed Jesse grimly. “You don’t know any of it.” “Any of what?” “What my life was like back where I was from. You say you don’t even know what ‘bitch’ means. If that’s true, you would think I was a monster after you knew what I’ve done on my home world.” Twilight, suddenly off put by Jesse’s odd wording, stepped away from him, Jesse’s icy glare telling her to keep her distance. “What were you going to ask me, huh?” continued Jesse. “If I wanted to stay at your place? That I could chill at your pad until I can stand on my own two feet again and start a new life in your magic fantasy land and live happily ever after?” Twilight looked genuinely hurt at Jesse’s words, Jesse trying to hold back his smile as his defense seemed to be working. “I’m not going to lie,” he admitted. “All things considered, leaving my world is probably one of the best things to happen to me in two years, leaving all that bullshit behind. But like hell I’m going to bring it to this one. If you’re smart, you’re going to leave this castle, and you’re never going to see me again so I can live and die alone like I’m meant to.” Twilight looked deep into Jesse’s eyes, suddenly noticing a nervous blinking. Her face turned serious as Jesse gasped, his bluff being caught. “I can’t let that happen,” she said. “I think Equestria could learn a lot from a creature like you.” “Equestrian?” Jesse queried. “Equestria.” Twilight corrected sternly. “You know, this ‘magical fantasy world’ you’re now in.” “Look, lady…” “My name is Twilight!” “Okay,” he admitted, “Twilight, whatever, the only thing your world can learn from someone like me is exactly what not to be in life, okay?” “I understand that you had a rough life, Jesse, but so have many others I’ve met and who have changed for the better.” “Oh, yeah?” challenged Jesse, as if insulted by this suggestion. “Have they ever been forced to watch the ones they loved be killed right in front of them? Have they even had to kill others just to survive themselves?” Twilight’s eyes started going wide, haunted by what this creature was suggesting. “Twilight,” whined Spike, “I think we should leave before he does something bad.” “Yeah,” agreed Jesse, keeping his eyes on the alicorn. “You should listen to him. It will do you and whoever you know a lot of good.” “And what good will it do you?” asked Twilight. “That I just leave someone out here to die alone in the middle of the Everfree Forest? Please, Jesse. I truly believe that whatever it is that’s troubling you, I… no, my friends and I can help you.” Jesse, stunned by Twilight’s insistence, slowly began to turn his tired exasperation into desperate rage. “What are you, my mom?” he yelled, the tone of the term he bestowed her like a bitter poison on his tongue. “We’ve only been talking for a couple of minutes. Why do you care so much about me?” “Because someone should!” Twilight yelled back. “And if you care so little about me, why do you trust me enough to tell me your name?” Jesse wanted to answer, but found his words caught in his throat, unable to answer truthfully. Twilight nodded to herself in slight triumph as she watched Jesse slump back down in a submissive sit. “I think you do want to come with me,” Twilight cooed, “because deep down, I know you don’t want to die.” “No, I don’t!” Jesse relented. “But I’ve messed up every life I’ve been a part of, and I can’t let that happen here.” “I can assure you, whatever life you led wherever you came from will be far different here. Just give me a chance, and if you still don’t like it, I’ll let you free to do whatever you want.” “And you promise that?” “On my life,” she said, reaching her hoof forward. Jesse stared at Twilight’s hoof, knowing exactly what he had to do. Spike looked between the two, nervous about the fate of the strange creature before him. Jesse peered to the uptight Spike, easily seeing his reluctance on the entire matter. Jesse reached his arms to put his hands on his knees, leaning back and exhaling, finally having made the decision he knew he wanted to make.