“Science babble, science babble, science babble, aqua.” Jax looked at Pinkie, who was just done with her… presentation. Then he looked at the blackboard she had with her… where she had it from was up to debate. Written on it were some equations, and some Latin words were translated. The only relevant thing to what Pinkie was trying to do was a graph which depicted happiness as a result of being scratched. It rose exponentially.
“Pinkie, I don’t think saying ‘science babble’ a couple of times and the Latin word, or whatever pun Latin translates to, for water, is a scientific reason to scratch you behind your ears.” He was still laying outside, being awoken by the pink pony a couple of minutes earlier. It was nice weather, blue skies and not a cloud in sight, just like he liked it.
“Aww.” She looked like she had actually thought that would work. Well in a way it did.
“Well I guess that is a pretty good graph… Alright, come here then.” She instantly brightened up, coming into range. He slowly started to scratch her, getting shivers and sounds of pleasure from her. It felt… weird. He was torn between wanting to talk to her like one would to a dog; asking her if she was a good pony and so on, and respecting that she was a sapient being. It was a hard battle, but he didn’t want to hear about this later, so he kept his mouth shut.
“A little lower… lower… Oh yeah, that’s the spot.” He was now scratching her back.
“Jax?” He heard Beating’s confused call from inside the room.
“Out here.” He called in. She appeared in the window, taking in the scene. He stopped scratching Pinkie at her facial expression.
“… I brought breakfast.” Was all she said before turning back inside. He looked at Pinkie.
“Something wrong with scratching a pony?” He asked her.
She shook her head. “Nope.” She giggled. “Maybe she was jealous? Anyway, thanks for the scratching Jaxie, here's your invite.” She then leaned very close, “It’s for princess Luna’s ‘welcome to Ponyville’ party” She whispered, before… bouncing away. He looked from the invite in his hand, to the pink bouncing pony. She was weird… but good weird. She definitely meant well. He still had the cake she gave him yesterday, from the party the day before yesterday… wonder if it still tasted good.
He got up and wrapped himself in the blanket, slowly crawling in through the window.
***
“Hey Jax.” Lyra said as she walked in with Bon Bon after her. He was laying on the small bed, half the cake eaten. It still tasted good. Breakfast had consisted of eggs, salad, two apples and water. It was okay, the eggs were appreciated. It was, however, a portion for a pony, which was too small for him. The cake helped with that.
“Hey Lyra, hey Bon Bon. Want some cake?” He asked happily.
“Sure!” Lyra said happily, while Bon Bon replied with a “no thanks.”
He cut up the cake and handed Lyra a piece. She seemed to be in a good mood, in fact she looked like she was dying to tell him something. She didn’t even take a bite of the cake before she almost exploded with excitement.
“We’re in ‘The Canterlot Informant’!” She exclaimed as she threw a paper at him. The front page showed a picture of him standing in front of a podium. ‘From Another World: Traveler In Ponyville’ the headline presented. He started reading the article. Turning the page he saw the two other pictures taken at the meeting. The one with him hugging Lyra was taken from an angle so his face was hidden behind her shoulder, which was good since it hid his pain-distorted face. The other one showed them smiling at each other, it looked pretty good. He read on.
…
“Oh my God!” He exclaimed as he facepalmed.
“What? What?” Lyra curiously asked, trying to see where he was at. He showed her the sentence.
“… It was later discovered that a nurse called Beating Heart was watching over him until his return to the hospital, thereby explaining his joke…”
“No wonder nobody laughed! I forgot to mention Beating Heart was there with me.” He should have built up that joke better.
“I didn’t laugh because it wasn’t funny…” Bon Bon helpfully explained.
“I found it funny, but it was more a smile kind of funny than laugh kind of funny.” Lyra added. “But still, isn’t this amazing? Me, in the most prestigious paper in Canterlot! Have you read my interview yet? Pretty good huh?” He smiled at her excitement.
“Yeah, you did well. It’s a good article overall as well. Gets its information from my own speech and three different interviews, all of which has had contact with me. You, Twilight and Fluttershy all show me in a good light, but the writer still manages to stay neutral and use only information he has, but somehow at the same time playing at the… tragedy… of my… method of arriving. Well written indeed. Only rumor he includes is that Luna came here to make sure I’m harmless… Which could be to calm people down. Two princesses watching over me, that oughta do it. Well I know who to go to if I ever need an article in the paper.” He looked at the name of the author. Raven Writingdesk. Ponies and their names…
“Yeah, there is a reason ‘The Canterlot Informant’ is the most prestigious paper in Canterlot, Raven upholds that title perfectly with his articles. Wonder what he was doing in Ponyville though” Lyra happily said.
Jax could think of a couple of reasons, him being the main one. He was in fact surprised there weren’t more journalist lurking around, and there had only been one photographer at the meeting. Which was definitely good, he just had a feeling that he should have drawn more attention. If not then, then definitely now. He did not want that….
“Anyway, how are you feeling Jax?” Lyra sounded concerned. He focused on her. She looked concerned as well.
“That’s… a tough question Lyra. I think… overwhelmed would be a good term to use. Eager to get out of the hospital could be another. I’m happy to be treated here, sure, but I want to get out and see what pony culture is all about. Pretty hard to do that from in here.”
“Oh… Yeah I can see that. How long do you think you’ll be here?” She still looked concerned.
“With burns like these? Too long” He tried to calm her down with a smile, but her concern turned to sadness anyway. He hated that they could look so sad it hurt. The pinned down ears, the turned down head, the giant eyes reflecting their sadness. It was hard to take.
“Oh… Yeah, okay. Listen, Jax, I know you said it was okay, but I still feel bad about our first meeting.” Bon Bon rolled her eyes at that. Jax almost did the same thing, but the sadness in Lyra’s eyes was too… real, in a sense. He couldn’t roll his eyes when she really felt so bad about it.
“Listen, Lyra, I already told you. As far as I’m concerned, we met at the party.” He held up his hand to stop her from objecting. “And even if there had been a green unicorn yelling at me when I first came into town, I would tell her that her reaction was perfectly understandable, kind of funny, and that she was forgiven for letting her feelings take control of her. It happens to the best of us.”
He noticed that Luna and Twilight had come in to his room at some point. He focused on Lyra again. She had a small smile now, but still looked kind of sad.
“… If you insist. Still, if there’s anything I can ever do for you, don’t hesitate to ask” She gave him a gentle hug that he returned. It didn’t hurt that much, thanks to Beating salving him not long ago.
“Sorry to interrupt, but can we get some time with Jax? I need to ask him some questions.” Twilight asked politely. Lyra and Bon Bon both bowed to her and Luna, making Twilight look abashed.
“Of course princess.” Lyra said as she made her way out. Bon Bon went over to Jax.
“Thanks for that.” She whispered. “I told her it was silly of her, but she insists that she should have acted better, that she had already learned not to judge others by appearance alone. Maybe she can finally move on now.” He smiled back at her.
“I meant what I said. I don’t blame her at all for what she may or may not have said.” She nodded at him before making her way pass Luna and Twilight.
“So… What’s this about?” He asked Twilight. She actually shivered of excitement.
“I have soooo many questions Jax! This has kept me up at night, but finally… finally I can get some answers…” She looked… slightly out of it. He shared a look with Luna, and she gave him a small reassuring smile. He took that as assurance that she wouldn’t let Twilight go too far.
***
4 hours later
They both looked at him in shock.
“So what you’re saying is… humans are slowly destroying their climate and thereby their entire race, because of this… global warming?” Twilight asked. He nodded.
“And you do nothing about it because this… car… is convenient?” He made a face at that.
“Well it’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of it. It’s not the car itself, it’s the fuel. If they all switched to electronic cars, the problem would be greatly reduced.”
“That’s… terrible! They should do that then!” He made another face.
“If it was that easy… If you can convince the whole world to switch to more expensive, more troublesome cars after all this time, then it would be, yes, and of course if everybody bought them then they would become less expensive and the technology powering them would improve, thereby making them less troublesome… and therein the problem. They need more people to buy them before they can get more people to buy them. I do think that when the problem becomes more… clear, people will act. Hopefully not too late.”
Maybe explaining global warming was a mistake.
“This light pollution… could it happen here?” Luna sounded worried. He pulled another face. Explaining things he knew almost nothing about was frustrating.
“I don’t know much about light pollution, I don’t know if it’s because of the light or because of electrical light. Technically, using magical light could avoid the problem. I’m sorry I can’t help much, I’m not a scientist.” Luna still looked worried.
Spending hours explaining all the biggest faults of his planet might have been a mistake. He took a sip of his water. Remembering the bag of sweets he still had under the bed, he turned on his stomach to reach for it. Pain shot through his body as his more burned stomach and chest took his weight.
“What are you then?” Twilight inquired.
“What?” He asked, distracted by his quest. He finally grabbed the bag from under the bed.
“Your profession? I know you said humans don’t have cutie marks but you have jobs nonetheless. What was yours?” He popped a couple of sweets into his mouth.
“Oh… That.” He offered the bag to his guests, but only Luna levitated a couple of sweets up. Even though Pinkie had taken much more than he had anticipated, there was still enough for a couple of weeks here.
Luna’s face brightened up when she put the sweets in her mouth. It made him smile.
“Well… I didn’t have a profession. I was finished with high school, and was staying at my mom’s place until I could find out what I wanted to do.” His smile faltered and disappeared. He saw Twilight and Luna exchange a look before Twilight spoke again. “Jax… I spoke with Fluttershy yesterday, and she said you told her that you didn’t want to go back to your world… how come?”
“There are… many reasons.” He sucked on the sweets for a time. “I died there. Unless time between our worlds is different, I have been found, buried and mourned. Imagine if I went back.”
Twilight stepped forward as in defiance. “But we can’t be sure! You could have been transported here before you died, you’re still walking around in your body after all! Maybe you were just reported as missing?” Hope shone in her eyes. He almost couldn’t take it.
“This isn’t my body.” He simply said, puncturing her confidence.
“What? You… but..?”
“When I came to this world all my scars were gone. Scars don’t heal. Of course I managed to get an even bigger collection since then.” He tried to make a joke out of it but his heart wasn’t in it. Twilight got some determination back and tried again.
“But that doesn’t mean-.”
“Twilight. Let it go. I’m not going back.” His tired voice interrupted her. He didn’t want to tell her the real reason he didn’t want to go back. But apparently Twilight Sparkle doesn’t give up that easily.
“Your family and friends must miss you…” It hurt. It still hurt too fucking much to think about it. He clenched his fist as he tried to keep calm. His façade quickly shattered. He took a couple of deep breaths. It helped a little, enough for him to be able to turn his gaze towards Twilight. She looked… frightened. Confused maybe.
“Get. Out.” He managed to say with clenched teeth.
“I… I’m sorry I didn’t mean to…” She definitely looked confused. She looked at the floor, then back at his cold gaze. “I’m sorry.” She said before she left.
He threw his blanket up over his head and curled up under it. The pain from laying on his side was a welcome distraction from the pain on the inside. He lay for a while, contemplating what he had done. She had gone too far, he had tried to tell her, but she didn’t listen. Still, she was trying to help… even if he didn’t want her help. She was probably sad now. Maybe he had gone a bit too far as well. It wasn’t that big a deal, it was in the past… He could almost convince himself of that.
A muzzle found the top of his head under the blankets. Luna was still there.
“You should have gone with her.” He told her.
“She shall be fine. ‘Tis thou We worry about.” Her muzzle started moving down towards his face. It was a funny feeling.
“I’ll be fine as well.” He said half-heartedly. Her muzzle went over his forehead, where it continued its journey towards his eye.
“Indeed. Because We art here to lift thine spirits.” Her muzzle reached his check, and just when he was about to ask what she meant and what she was doing, she did something so… so unexpected, so unfitting of the situation, that he couldn’t do anything other than to burst out laughing.
She blew a raspberry on his cheek.
“Luna!” He finally got out between laughs. “You can’t just blow raspberries on other people!” He tried to take deep breaths, he could hardly breathe. “Not cool!”
“Thine laughter tells a different story!” She had a huge victorious smile plastered on her face. “The fun hath been doubled!” He burst into a new round of laughter. It felt really fucking good.
“Thanks Luna… I needed that.” He said when he finally calmed down, a huge smile still in place on both their faces.
“Thou… You are most welcome.” She reverted back to ‘normal’ speech.
He sighed. “I guess I’ll have to have a talk with Twilight now. Again.”
“At least she did not set you on fire this time.” Luna joked. He smiled at that.
“I see the bar has been set. As long as I’m not set on fire, things are going well.” It was good to see Luna being relaxed around him. Completely different from when she was introduced to him. He guessed it had been the nerves.
They were interrupted by the door being recklessly opened. “I came as soon as I heard!” Rainbow announced. She took a moment to bow to Luna before coming over.
“Uhm… Heard what exactly?” Jax was confused, while giving her the usual fist/hoof bump.
“Pinkie said those…” she pointed at his hands. “things are very good at scratching.”
“And that possessed you to come as fast as you could?” He was still confused.
“Hey, if I had come as fast as I could, this hospital would have one window less.” She stated confidently. “But yeah that’s the gist of it. I’ve been having this scratch for days that just won’t go away, and I need your…”
“Hands.” He added helpfully.
“Yeah, your hands to get it away. So get to it.” She turned her back to him, waiting for him to start.
“Rainbow, I don’t mind, but at least ask politely. No need to be rude about it.” She turned around again, a thoughtful look in her eyes.
“You’re right, that wasn’t very thoughtful of me. I…” She swallowed. “I’m sorry. Would you please scratch my back?” He smiled at her obvious effort to be polite, giving her a nod. He slowly started scratching her from her top of her head to her lower back, as far as he could reach from his position on the bed. Rainbow turned to jelly under his touch, especially when he scratched her behind her ears. Luna watched with interest from the side.
“Sorry I’m late Jax, I had a…” Beating Heart had made her way in but stopped at the sight. “I’ll come back later.”
“No wait! We were just about done here anyway. Luna, can you tell Twilight to come see me later?” He hurriedly said. He needed that salve….
Rainbow didn’t look too pleased about the interruption, but gave him a smile nonetheless. “Thanks Jax, Pinkie was right. Your hands are really good for this.”
Luna looked like she wanted to say something but in the end she just nodded to him and made her way out.
Beating went over to him as Rainbow left, closing the door behind herself.
“… Are you going to be scratching a lot of mares around here?” She sounded unsure of herself.
“I don’t… know. Maybe? Does it… bother you?”
“It’s not…” She sighed. “I had a husband. A griffin to be exact.” She started explaining. “He used to scratch me on the back, much like you do. I just get reminded of him when I see you like that.” She put on the sad-pony-look that every pony seemed to have mastered. At least there weren’t any tears yet, that was the real destroyer.
“Had… divorced or…?” She shook her head.
“Dead. A year ago.”
“Ah… I would give you my condolences but… words like those don’t really help much do they?” She gave him a sad smile.
“You lost somepony.” It wasn’t a question. He nodded anyway.
“Well Jax, I’m sorry I soured the mood. You have enough on your hooves as it is, without worrying about my problems….”
“That’s fine Beating, I don’t mind. Just… don’t ask any questions about them, I don’t want to talk about it.” She nodded understandingly, before giving him and obviously forced smile.
“Well, I thought I would teach you how to bandage properly, if you want to continue doing that.” He forced a smile as well.