Chapter 5: Attempted Do Over Gone Wrong
"Alright, I'll pop by tomorrow to see what's going on between you guys. Remember to watch what say around them, man."
"If you want me to not say whatever rude thing I want to them, which I have every right to, then why don't you take 'em?"
"Royce, you know I can't sneak them in without my parents seeing them. Your parents are gone for that cruise for say, a month? That should be more than enough time to send them back home." Royce grumbled to himself. It just wasn't fair. Clearly those ponies and the dragon favored Arcanel over him, so why should he be the one to watch over them? That didn't make a lot of sense to him. Sighing, he fist-pounded his best friend and watched as Arcanel made his way to his car. As the car drove off, Royce limped back inside the mansion and slammed the door. He sulked over to his favorite gaming chair and plopped down, hissing. Royce hated to admit it, but that one pony had seriously kicked his ass, and that other one had patched him up pretty well. He felt his broken nose. It didn't hurt as much as it did when he woke up. It was amazing, and he had to give her credit. What was her name again? Fluttershy?
There were the soft beating of wings coming from behind him. Slowly turning his head like idiots in horror movies, Royce was looking at the very pony he was thinking about. She was avoiding eye contact at all cost, just floating there. Her ears were randomly twicthing. It was then that he noticed that loud noises were still coming from the basement. Fluttershy must not have like the volume of whatever game they were playing, so she came up here. Royce couldn't blame the pony. His parents would do the same thing whenever he and them were in the same vicinity and he had his volume turned up too loud. He chuckled, making Fluttershy tense. "Man, she's extremely shy. More shy than I've ever been in middle school." Royce thought to himself. He opened his mouth to speak.
"So, I'm guessing the music was too loud for 'ya, huh?" he asked. Fluttershy nodded.
"Oh, uh...yes. It's very loud for my ears. I wonder how the others are still down there without busted ear drums."
"Yep, Video games at maximum volume connected with Surround Sound will do that to ears. Trust me. I once fell asleep during a movie down there next to the stereo. Let's just say that I couldn't hear straight for a long while." The human and the pegasus sat there, wondering what to say next. Royce was scratching the bandages wrapped around his skull. His hair was sticking out at the top, which made him itchy. He was about to press Fluttershy about the matter when she opened her mouth first.
"Royce, why're you so mean to us?" she asked, sitting down in front of him. Royce glared at her, sending chills down her spine.
"Hmm, why am I so mean to 8 weirdo ponies who magically appear in my living room, knock me unconscious and blast me outta my window? Honestly, I have no friggen' idea, Fluttershy. Do you know why? Please, enlighten me." He folded his arms and looked out the window.
'Now that was cold, Royce.'
Royce stiffened as the voice of Discord lingered at the back of his head. Fluttershy saw this and layed a hoof on his knee. "Are you okay?"
The human glanced at his knee, then back at the pegasus. Then back at his knee. Back to the pegasus. Knee. Pegasus. Knee. Pegasus. He narrowed his eyes at the yellow pony. Royce slowly picked up her hoof, rewarded with a gasp of suprise, and threw it off. He shook his head in a negative response, and Fluttershy knew what it meant. She was to never touch him again. Ever.
"I'm fine. Look, you and me...and the others got off on the wrong foot. How 'bout we all just meet up again and start this over? The nice way." Royce swallowed the vomit that was trying to break free from his insides. He hated this kind of crap with other people. But this was worse. These were ponies. Talking ponies to be exact. He didn't even know ponies could talk in the first place. How did these things even get here, one, TWO why are they here, and three, why the hell did it have to be him? Why couldn't it have been Arcanel or Keir, or some other guy or girl that wasn't him? But, believe it or not, he sorta liked this shy one. He couldn't really tell why, though. Fluttershy smiled brightly and offered a hoof for Royce to take and stand, but being the badass he is (Really?) denied and stood up himself, gritting his teeth. Together, they both walked towards the hallway that led to the basement.
"Hey girls, since Arcanel left, aren't we stuck with Royce again?" Rainbow Dash asked, pressing a combination of of buttons on the Xbox 360 controller to make The Flash punch and kick Scorpion. (By now, Arcanel has taught the fundamentals of each video game Royce had, which was a lot.) Scorpion fell, and Rainbow Dash had won the match. She smirked and averted her gaze to her friends. Spike was napping on the floor, Rarity was fussing over the dirty clothes piled in the corner, Twilight was studying the instruction manual for the Xbox, Pinkie Pie was once again nowhere to be found, as well as Fluttershy. Applejack was looking at one of those boxes that said Left 4 Dead 2, and the princesses were having a conversation. Twilight put the manual down and looked towards the princesses.
"Princess Celestia, Luna, Rainbow's right. I mean, Arcanel explained everything about humans and Earth, as well as the human entertainment systeam and it's trends. But we need to find Discord and the Elements. Who knows what he's done so far..." Twilight headed for the steps, the others in tow. When she managed to lay a hoof on the first step, Royce came rolling down the steps, laughing his head off with a giggling Fluttershy in his arms. Everypony and Spike jumped out of the way as quickly as they could, and the two landed with a dull thud on the wooden floor. The two continued to laugh, poking each other in the ribs and neck. Applejack cleared her throat. Royce slowed his jabbing and looked up to see the shocked and amused faces of the ponies and dragon. He glanced down at Fluttershy, who was blushing. Without even caring if he was holding a delicate pegasus, Royce scrambled to his feet, dusted himself off and leaned on the wall, one hand scratching the back of his head, the other on his hip.
"Yeah, uh...that never happened."
"Real smooth, Royce."
"Quite, you!"
The girls and Spike all busted out laughing, not caring for the fact that he was talking to someone else at that moment. Rainbow flew up to Royce's level and lightly punched him in the shoulder.
"What was that all about? You two marefriend and...uh...I think it's boyfriend?" Royce frowned and Fluttershy blushed.
"Hell no! If you actually believed I was in love with am alien pony from a different reality, then that means you're into beastiality, you sicko!" Royce growled, making Rainbow tense. She flew back over to her friends, whispering to Rarity, "It was just a joke. Dang."
"Um...no, Rainbow Dash. It wasn't like that. See, I poked Royce in the face with my wing upstairs, and he poked my in the cheek. I poked him again in the neck, and he grabbed me and started to tickle my stomach. We were both laughing so hard that we um...didn't notice we had neared the steps." Fluttershy explained, smiling in the human's direction. Said human offered a weak wave. He nodded at the other ponies and dragon.
"True story." He said. Royce tried to walk over to sit on his leather couch, but his leg ached, causing him to hiss and let out a startled gasp of pain. Fluttershy went over to help, the others following. Applejack whispered to Princess Celestia, "Was he actually playin' with Fluttershy an' not bein' mean to 'er?" Celestia nodded. "Yes, he seems to have taken a liking to your friend. I'm glad he has. Now, maybe he'd be willing to assist us with Discord and the Elements." Luna stood next to her sister and nodded her head.
"I agree with Celestia. The more help we can get to beating Discord, the better."
"Did you two say Discord?" Applejack and the princesses looked over to Royce, who was laying on the couch, Spike messing with his spicky hair. Royce rocked his head back, causing the dragon to fall. Rarity giggled and Twilight face-hoofed. Luna nodded her head.
"Yes, Royce. We were indeed talking about Discord. Thou wouldn't by any chance know of him?" Everybody in the room stopped what they were doing and directed their attention on the human. He shifted, looking around so he wouldn't see all those eyes on him. When he opened his mouth, his head started to feel a little dizzy. Then, all of a sudden, a massive headache washed over him. The sheer force of the pain made him scream. Fluttershy was doing her best to quiet him down, but the human kept squirming, beating at his head, which didn't seem like a good idea. Finally, his screams were silenced, and Royce laid there, eyes open, mouth agape. Everyone was in shock. Fluttershy put her head on Royce's chest. She couldn't hear a heartbeat. Trying to contain the tears building in her eyes, she checked everywhere she could for a pulse. She found nothing. Fluttershy turned around to the others, her tears dripping to the floor. Rarity took tiny steps towards her pegasus friend.
"Fluttershy, did...did Royce just...?" A tear was beginning to well up in her eye as well. She was thinking the same as everyone else was. Twilight was shaking her head, Spike had his hands cupped over his mouth, Applejack had her hat over her face, Rainbow Dash was looking the other way, trying to hide her crying face. Celestia and Luna both looked at the floor. It was weird. Yes, this human acted like a big bully. Yes, he almost physically hurt one of the Elements of Harmony. And yes, he even insulted one of the princesses. But they couldn't help but feel bad for him. He started to show kindness towards Fluttershy, and if they had pressed him hard enough, he would have made good friends with everybody else. Rarity stood over Royce, sobbing. She found a blanket and levitated it over him. She turned around and spoke to her comrades.
"I...I just don't know what to say. He was not very kind to us, but with Arcanel's description, he sounded like a fine gentlemen. Girls, Spike, do you wish to say anything?" Rarity asked. Spike raised a trembling hand. "Yes, Spike?"
"Yeah, uh...can humans become zombies?" Twilight gave him a dissaproving look.
"Now Spike, why in Equestria would you even ask such a silly question?" She asked the baby dragon. He pointed a trembling hand over to where Royce's body was. But instead of him being prone, he was now sitting straight forward. The covers fell off his face, and everybody gasped.
Royce's normal black hair had become grey. He had two horns poking out of his head, the left one a goat's horn, the right one a deer's. His black eyebrows had become long and grey. He also sprouted a long, grey beard. And to put the icing on the cake, his eyes, once icy blue, had become brilliant crimson and light brilliant yellow. The look made him look ridiculous, but because they remembered that look, it filled them with fear and anger. Unusual Royce smirked, showing a short snaggle tooth. He waved at the small group in front of him.
"Hello, everybody. Did you miss me?"
to be continued...
Yeah, I'm gonna end it here. Got studies, have to take care of the kittens and do other stuff. See you cooks later!