//------------------------------//
// The Adventures of Arbuckle: Jon Arbuckle, Dragon Slayer 
// Story: Garfield: Friendship is a Big, Fat, Hairy Deal 
// by wingdingaling 
//------------------------------//


The Adventures of Arbuckle

Jon Arbuckle, Dragon Slayer


It was all too easy.
Blowhard watched as his would-be opponent tumbled over the edge of his lofty home, satisfied with the quick conclusion.
"And don't show your face around here again," the dragon yelled before he started to turn back to his haul of food.
"Come on! Is that all you got," Jon's voice called from over the edge.
By all means, Jon should have been splattered on the ground below.
Blowhard went back to the edge of the mesa, peered over, and found Jon tangled in the ropes for the elevator.
"I can see why your parents named you Blowhard! All talk and no walk," Jon yelled as he tried to free his legs.
The prospect of narrowly defying death filled Jon with a kind of bravado he only saw in action movies where the male lead was tall, muscular, and was invincible in battle. It was the greatest feeling in the world for him to be living like one of those testosterone-fueled power fantasies, as opposed to his usual pitiful existence. But it quickly left him when he watched Blowhard raise his bladed tail to chop his lifeline, and send him plummeting.
Jon struggled to pull himself free, and was successful. The real trouble came when the rope was actually cut.
The cartoonist fell some twenty feet before the rope he was clinging to went taut, leaving him suspended nearly four-hundred feet in the air.
The more Jon tried to free himself, the more tangled he became. He spun, twisted and flailed about, until only one of his legs remained mobile. He looked up to see Blowhard raise his tail again, to send Jon to the ground.
With his one free leg, Jon scurried across the side of the mesa, and swung himself out of danger. He then went swinging back towards it like a pendulum when his rope ran out of slack.
He watched Blowhard raise his bladed tail once more, and scurried faster past it when it came dangerously close to hitting him.
Blowhard had had about enough of waiting to swat the annoying fly as he passed, and started chopping at Jon as he swung, only just behind him.
As he ran across the vertical surface, Jon heard his opponents tail crashing behind him, getting closer with each impact. One was so close that the shock of the impact sent Jon flying further forward.
Flying through the air, Jon knew that he had to do something, but nothing came to mind. His backlog of useless hobbies he picked up would do no good here, and he wasn't exactly known for his fighting skills. All he could do was swing back toward danger, and hope Blowhard would miss.
His opponent's tail came swinging back toward him, aimed to cut the rope that held him aloft.
In order to avoid his lifeline getting severed, he pulled himself toward the wall, and pushed himself forward faster.
Blowhard's tail crashed behind him, and once more sent him spinning forward.
Jon bumped over and over across the rocky surface, until he finally managed to grab hold of a small rock that jutted out of the wall.
From all the spinning he experienced, the cartoonist was terribly dizzy, and his vision was a messy blur, with only clear images of lots of stars and chirping birds. After a moment, his vision began to clear, and he saw before him what may have been the solution to his problem. If only his vision would clear faster.
"Excuse me, Mr. Bluebird," Jon said, as he gently pushed aside one of the imaginary birds that was circling his head. Then he saw his solution clearly.
Embedded in the rocks were veins of some kind of metal. Thick ones at that. He had seen Blowhard break the rocky walls of the mesa with his tail, but maybe, just maybe, if this metal was harder than the rock, he'd have a chance to at least take care of Blowhard's tail.
Jon looked up, and saw Blowhard aiming his tail to strike once more. He knew his plan was stupid. More than likely, it was bound to end in failure.
Blowhard swung again, and with a mighty scream of terror, Jon spun away just before he was hit, and he heard the dragon bellow in pain.
Back at the top of the mesa, the ponies watched as Blowhard pulled his tail back up to examine his injury. When they saw his tail, its bony, bladed tip had cracked and broken.
Lyman's eyes went wide as he wondered what in the world Jon could have done to inflict that kind of damage to the dragon. He stepped forward to investigate, but stopped short when Blowhard's mouth started smoking, and he took a deep breath in.
After he was done spinning around, Jon found himself free from his entanglement, and clung tightly to the rope. When he stopped hearing the crash of his opponent's tail, he breathed a sigh of relief. Until he looked up, and his relief became confusion when he saw Blowhard look like he was slightly inflating.
The dragon was through messing around with Jon. He did what he knew he should have done from the beginning, and let loose a stream of flames that burned right through the ropes of the elevator.
After the flames subsided, Lyman, and all of the other ponies ran to the edge to see what happened.
Jon screamed manically as his lifeline was torched, until it was completely burned through and he started plummeting to the ground below.
All he had with him now was the length of rope in his hooves. Most of it was untouched by the flames, so it retained its strength. The many jagged outcroppings on the walls would serve nicely as anchor points. Even though he had only seen other people do it, it was his only chance.
Jon quickly fashioned a lasso out of the rope, and tried to recall Desert Rose's throwing technique. As the ground came closer, he cut his remembrance short, and just threw.
"Fly true, little rope," Jon yelled.
The rope looped around one of the outcroppings.
"Yes! Jon Arbuckle will live!"
Jon held fast as his momentum swung him around and around the formation.
"WHOAHWHOAHWHOAHWHOAHWHOAHWHOAHWHOAHWHOAH!!!"
--THUD!!!
Finally, he crashed into the outcropping, and clung tightly to it, shaking like a leaf in the wind.
Back at the top of the mesa, Blowhard saw that Jon was still alive, and beyond his reach. Something had to be done about that, and he was going to see to it that Jon was ended.
The dragon crawled over the edge of his perch, and climbed down the side like an oversized gecko.
"The new guy's in for it now," one of the ponies said to nopony in particular.
As he clung to the jagged outcropping, Jon heard a crunching sound that was growing closer and closer. He looked up to see Blowhard crawling towards him at a rapid pace, spurring Jon to loose his rope, and jump from the rock just before it was scorched.
"OH, NO!!--OH, JEEZ!!--OH, MOMMA!!" Jon shouted as he hopped from rock to rock as they were torched behind him. He readied his lasso again, and swung himself further away from his opponent. As he swung upward, he yelled as he felt the heat of the flames singe his hindquarters.
He swung around the bend of the mesa to the area behind it, and landed on another rock where he fanned his toasty flank.
Behind the mesa, it was much different than the front, or the sides. Here, he had a clear view of the ocean, and all of the rocks below him jutting out of the water. Also below, he could see a familiar silhouette weaving between the rocks.
The creature from before poked its head out of the water, looked up the cliff for any vittles, and Jon swore it smacked its lips when it saw him.
It started crawling up the sides of the mesa, lending itself to greater visibility than when Jon saw it underwater. To him, it looked like a different kind of dragon. One that was better suited for living in the water, not to mention lousy at climbing with its webbed feet. Seeing that it couldn't climb was a great relief to Jon, but not so much when Blowhard appeared around the bend.
Taking his one chance at escape, Jon jumped from the mesa to the rocks in the ocean below. Of course, being inexperienced in acrobatics, he missed completely and went straight towards the ocean dragon's open mouth.
Not about to become anyone's snack, he threw his rope again, and looped it around the top of one of the rocks, stopping his fall just short of the ocean dragon's snapping jaws.
The dragon grew frustrated by this. Normally, food like this was more trouble than it was worth, but it had to eat something, so it decided to try again.
Jon rolled himself up in the rope, pulling himself higher out of danger. Unfortunately, he left no hooves free this time, and had to go spinning back as he dropped back to the reach of his predator.
"Y-You shouldn't eat me," Jon shouted before he had to roll up and down like a yo-yo. "I'm stringy!"
Roll up.
*SNAP*
Roll down.
"I'm high in cholesterol!"
Roll up.
*SNAP*
Roll down.
"I put too much butter on my potatoes!"
Then it really hit the fan when Jon saw Blowhard jump from the face of the cliff to the top of the rock next to him. He swung himself out of the way of another stream of flames, which also sent the ocean dragon diving underwater to avoid getting burned.
On the other side of the rock, Jon looked down and saw that the ocean dragon had circled around with him, and tried once more to snap him out of the air. To avoid him again, Jon went scrambling over the top of the rock, where he quickly jumped down the other side as another stream of flames, and sent him right toward the other dragon's open mouth.
Mid-fall, Jon started scrambling up his rope, but couldn't avoid having the cuff of his pants snagged on one of the ocean dragon's fangs. Jon tried to shake his leg loose, only for it to let go of him when Blowhard's flames came streaming in.
"Back off, bubble head," Blowhard shouted, "That pony's mine."
The ocean dragon retaliated by spitting a stream of water at Blowhard's face, soaking him. He would have retaliated, if not for how Jon was escaping. The cartoonist had left his rope from earlier, and was now hopping across the tops of the rocks toward the shore.
Not about to let Jon escape, Blowhard started walking across the rocks after Jon, clawing, biting and shooting fire all the way.
Jon hopped as fast as he could ahead of his opponent, praying for mercy as his hooves just barely landed on each platform.
Ahead of him, Jon could see that the next rock was too far away for him to land on. He wasn't about to take his chances with stopping, know how close Blowhard was behind him. He had to at least try.
When he came to the last rock, Jon jumped with all his might to the distant landing, hoping desperately that he would make it. But that's not how things ever worked for Jon Arbuckle.
He came up several feet short, and went falling toward the water, just as the ocean dragon's silhouette started surfacing below him. It came bursting out of the water, once again hoping for a tasty morsel.
Jon twisted mid-air, hoping to dodge its teeth once more, only instead to bump its snout as it jumped upward. The force of the ocean dragon's jump sent Jon flying back towards the wall of the mesa. Once again, the ocean dragon lost its meal, and splashed its front fin in frustration.
Back in the air, Jon impacted the mesa wall face first with a solid thud.
"I think my face is inside out..." Jon moaned after hitting his face for what must have been the hundredth time. But he realized that he couldn't dawdle as he put his face back together when he heard Blowhard jump back on the wall and come crawling toward him.
Try as he might, Jon couldn't scramble away as fast as he could before now that he was without a rope, so he ended up doing the only thing he could to avoid getting toasted. He let go of the rocky surface and fell further back towards Blowhard, who raised a claw to smash Jon as he fell.
Seeing the claw raise, and with little other recourse, Jon rolled out of the way just as the claws smashed the wall, and clung tightly to Blowhard's leg.
Throughout the battle, Jon had become increasingly annoying to Blowhard. Now he was holding onto him like a persistent little flea. He violently shook his front leg, until Jon's grip loosened, and sent him flying into the air. Satisfied, Blowhard started climbing upward to tell the ponies about the example Jon had set: anypony who challenges him gets destroyed. But then he felt something on his back.
Looking over his shoulder. Blowhard saw that Jon was now holding fast to the spines on his back.
"Not so fast," Jon said, "I'm not done with you yet!"
He spoke as if he had any position of power over Blowhard, and the dragon knew that he was only blowing smoke. Still, the pony had to be gotten rid of. Blowhard started bucking wildly, trying to shake his opponent off his back.
For Jon, it was like riding on the back of a horse, like he did when he was a kid. Only this time, it was like the angry horse was a fire-breathing, two ton monster. His dad taught him ways to stop a bucking horse, but the problem was that he fell off too many times to retain any of that knowledge. So, instead he held on until his hooves slipped loose, and he went falling down the dragon's back, bumping his head on every one of his spines as he went. His fall stopped when he grabbed onto the base of Blowhard's tail.
"Ya had enough yet," Jon asked in a daze.
His dizziness was cleared for him when he was suddenly shaken around by Blowhard once more.
Blowhard was beyond tired of having to deal with this pony. As far as he could tell, there was no way to kill this pony. But he knew a spineless type when he saw them, and he could tell that this pony was often treated like a doormat. Ponies like him could easily be talked into quitting, and that was going to have to be his recourse.
"You could just give up, you know," Blowhard said as he swung Jon around. "You can stop this, and put it behind us. Then you can live your miserable little existence like it never happened."
"No way," Jon yelled as he was flung around. "Someone has to help these ponies!--And darn it, if I don't who will!"
"What do you owe them anyway? What makes you feel like you have to help them!"
"Because--WHOAH!!--Because even though I just met them--I know they need--a helping hand--I can't pass that up--It's like that saying about--treating others like you would yourself!!"
Back at the top of the mesa, Jon's words touched something within Lyman.
Back in the day, Lyman was weak, helpless and homeless. His parents wouldn't allow him to move in with them, because he wouldn't give up Odie, who ruined every inch of the carpet in a single night. And he had very few friends.
It was only Jon who took him in, offering his home without a second thought.
In the years to come, he lived under Jon's roof rent free, as if he was a member of Jon's own family. There, Lyman felt like he belonged, and could be there forever.
But then, one day, Jon started talking to him less and less, until he stopped talking to him altogether. So, one day, he left the house to make his own way. He invited Odie to go with him, but the dog acted like he wanted to stay behind with Jon and Garfield, like he had some kind of obligation to do so. With that, he left on his journey alone.
Lyman remembered how he tried to find somewhere else he could stay, and find new friends who he could be with. But, no such luck. The only person he ever related to was Jon, and now he was acting like he didn't exist. So he kept travelling further and further.
Eventually, he decided to start his life anew and move across the sea. He stowed away in the back of a cargo plane that was bound for Africa, and waited patiently for his new life to begin.
But there was a development that he didn't anticipate. He didn't know what happened, but the noise outside made him think it was some kind of rough weather that was responsible for the plane suddenly plummeting into the ocean.
Lyman escaped, and he never found the pilot. He salvaged a life raft, which he inflated and climbed aboard, only to be tossed and churned by the stormy waters. By the end of the storm, a fog rolled in, and he was left alone at sea, wondering if he'd ever make it off the ocean.
After the fog cleared, Lyman discovered two new developments. The first was that he found land, but the second was far more puzzling than that. He discovered that his body had changed to equine proportions, hooves, tail, long face and all.
He paddled to shore with his bare hooves, and eventually, his raft washed up on the shore. There, he found a town of other ponies like him, who had all ended up there under circumstances just as unusual. But none of them had any interest in sharing how so. All they did was tell him how even though they were all good-hearted individuals, not one of them was appreciated as such and was phased out of the lives of their friends. Ever since, that was where Lyman had been, living his lonely life with his neighbors.
Now, Jon was back in his life, and fighting for the sake of not only him, but for a group of ponies he never even met before. It was stupid! It was crazy! Heck, it was what he would have done for Jon in the same situation! He ran away from the other spectators to try and help his friend.
For almost a minute, Jon tightly held onto Blowhard's tail, knowing he was finished if he let go without a plan. The safest thing to do would be to launch himself upwards to the top of the mesa where he'd be back on solid land. Unfortunately, he couldn't count on Blowhard aiming him in that direction.
He held on for as long as he could, until he felt his hooves slipping again. Jon tried to tighten his grip once more, but it did no good for him. He went flying away, parallel to the wall, and straight to the rocks below where he would surely be splattered. If not for what happened next, that is.
As he flew, Jon saw several ropes slowly shifting toward him. Not about to waste time wondering how they were doing that, he grabbed onto one of them, saving his hide.
Now that he was safe, Jon looked at the ropes, and found them to be the elevator system from earlier. Looking up, he saw Lyman with his hooves pressed firmly against the supports.
"Lyman," he yelled, surprised that his friend was able to push that big, heavy thing on his own.
"Hang on, Jon! I'll get you out of there," Lyman strained, as his whole body shook under the pressure of of the support trying to snap back into place. 
In order to ease his friend, Jon started climbing the ropes, clumsily though it may be. But an idea occurred to him when he heard Blowhard crawling toward him.
He first tried to execute his plan by swinging back and forth, but it did no good. He needed all of the ropes to pull it off.
"You need to wobble the supports," he yelled to Lyman."
"What!!?"
"The supports need to wobble! I have a plan!"
Lyman didn't know what was going through Jon's mind, but he complied anyway. He eased the supports back to their original position, and started wobbling the supports. Pushing them slightly to the side was difficult enough, since the things were so rigid. He tried pushing and bucking as hard as he could, but only managed to get a light sway.
"Come on, Lyman! It's the only way we can help these people," Jon yelled as he swung himself away from Blowhard's claws.
Lyman began to tire from his work, but he wasn't going to give up. Not when Jon sounded so sure he was going to succeed. Then the structure began to sway more.
Seeing two ponies work together awoke something within the other ponies that made them remember what life was like when they tried to spread their goodwill, instead of giving up on it.
It started with one pony helping Lyman, then another, and another, and another joined in. Soon, the whole population of the island was helping to rock the supports of the elevator. They didn't know what Jon was planning, or even if he would succeed, but the least they could do was try.
Jon and Blowhard almost stopped when the ropes around them all came alive, and swung around them. But neither could stop. They had to finish each other off.
Blowhard swatted the ropes out of his way as Jon started swinging all around him. No matter how he tried, he couldn't get rid of Jon. Everywhere he looked, Jon was suddenly somewhere else, swinging on a different rope than before. His mouth smoked as he was about to let loose another stream of flame, but it stopped before it even started.
Just as the flames came, Jon swung a rope around Blowhard's snout, tying it tightly shut. All Blowhard could do was blow smoke out his nose as the fire cooked inside his mouth.
The next thing the dragon knew, his legs were tightly tied together as Jon swung around and around him at blinding speeds.
It felt completely natural to Jon to do this. Even though he had never done any sort of trapeze or rope contortions, he felt like his mind had focused completely on which rope he needed at the moment, and where it needed to be used. One more whirl around the dragon should finish him off...aaaaaaannnd done. With plenty of rope to spare, even.
With one last swing, Jon flew high into the air and landed gracelessly on his face. When he stood up, he looked over the edge, and saw Blowhard dangling helplessly in the air, struggling to free himself. But it was no good for the dragon, who only made his situation worse.
All the rocking had weakened the base of the supports, and his struggling was doing it no favors. After only a few seconds, the supports broke, and fell over.
The momentum of his swing sent him falling to the side of the mesa, where down below, the ocean dragon spied the entangle Blowhard falling. It quickly swam to shore, and awaited its long overdue meal.
As Blowhard fell, Jon dove for the ropes, caught them, and was dragged toward the edge by the dragon's weight. It was only the supports catching on the jagged edges of the towering formation that stopped Blowhard just short of the ocean dragon's reach, who was hopping as high as it could to catch its meal.
Nobody had to ask Jon why he did what he did. If they didn't save Blowhard, how would they be better than he was? As soon as Jon stopped sliding, they all joined him and pulled the ropes as hard as they could.
Slowly but surely, Blowhard was pulled higher up to safety.
The ocean dragon was too hungry to give up. With one last effort, it jumped high, only to get tangled in the ropes that were still left dangling, and only made it worse the more it struggled.
Back at the top, the ponies all doubled their efforts when the weight suddenly increased. Jon himself felt something new growing inside of him.
Something that made him feel warm all over, and incredibly lightheaded. It may have been that which made him feel like he was able to lift Blowhard up all by himself.
Lyman noticed how dazed Jon was looking, and stopped pulling to escort Jon away while Blowhard was safely pulled up to the ledge. "You feeling okay, Jon," he asked.
"Yeah. I feel...strangely great," Jon answered. After his ordeal Jon felt like there was nothing that he couldn't handle.
"AH!!!!!"
However, he yelped like a sissy when he saw the ocean dragon get pulled up over the edge, even though it too was tightly bound.
"So, what do we do now, Sir Lancelot?"
"Well, I guess from here, we try to make things right."



Almost an hour passed, and things already changed for the better.
New farmlands had been plowed, and the ponies were all working with one another. Ponies were cooperating to plant and water, and even took time out of their own work to help others with their projects.	
"That's some mighty fine work," Lyman said as he and Jon took a break from their labor and overlooked the progress that was made. "You haven't been here a day, and you already got everyone working together. It's like you were sent here for just that."
"Well, I can't take all the credit for this. It was a group effort, after all."
"Ugh... This is so disgraceful," Blowhard moaned as he passed by Jon and Lyman, now tightly tied to the elevator's supports, which had been modified into a makeshift plow.
"You're disgraceful," Jon shouted, making the dragon cringe, "If you want to stay here, you're going to start pulling your weight, and act like a good neighbor! So get plowing, mister!"
With his tail between his legs, Blowhard resumed his labor without any further arguments.
Jon then turned his attention to the nearby ocean, where the ocean dragon had been lashed to the woven platform, which had been modified into a ferry.
"That goes for you too! These people need supplies from the other islands, and you're going to help them! You got that!?"
The ocean dragon timidly submerged its head so that only its fearful eyes poked out above the water.
"Good! Now, MUSH!"
The ocean dragon quickly swam away with the ponies ferrying behind it to whichever island was the nearest.
"Jeez, Jon. If you talked to Garfield like that once in a while, your life might be a bit easier," Lyman quipped.
"I know. But I guess I'm just too nice a guy to yell at my pets."
"Well, I bet those boys will be glad to see you again when you get home."
"Yeah..."
Jon hadn't thought about them for a while. It had been so long since he saw them, he started to doubt that he would ever see them again. He searched what must have literally been all over the world, and he found no trace of them. He was told that by helping others, he'd find them, but so far, nothing worked. He was so despondent, he barely even reacted when he and Lyman were both bathed in a familiar twinkling light.
"Whoah. Somebody call the Enterprise. Scotty beamed the wrong coordinates," Lyman said, wide eyed.
"That's where I need to be next," Jon answered.
"Wait! What!? You're leaving!? After almost three decades, you're gone! Just like that!"
"I'm sorry Lyman, but apparently people need me somewhere else. But you know: I don't think it would hurt if you came with me."
After so many years, Lyman was elated to learn that he'd be reunited with his friend. He stepped forward, ready to return to his old life, but something stopped him.
"Hey! We could use a hoof over here! Blowhard's plow caught on somepony's house."
All around Lyman, he saw how the ponies, who were once as downtrodden as he was, working happily together. He knew the ponies all felt the same way he did, like they had rediscovered their purpose in life. It was something that they needed to keep, and somebody had to make sure they did. It was what he did for Jon before, so why wouldn't he do it for others?
"Actually, I think I'm needed here," Lyman answered. "All my life, I've been making other folks feel better about themselves, and I think these guys need me more than you do. So, thanks but no thanks."
"Are you sure you want to stay?"
"Yeah. I feel like I'm with my own kind here. Besides, you've got Garfield and Odie to keep you company."
"They really do make things worthwhile," Jon sighed.
He stayed beside Lyman for a few more seconds, basking in his friend's presence, until he stepped forward through the doorway. And this time, he promised himself not to forget Lyman when he was gone. Once he stepped through, he turned back to say his final goodbyes. "Goodbye, Lyman. Be good to everyone here."
"So long, Jon. And give this to Odie when you find him," Lyman said as he tossed something to Jon, which he caught just before the doorway closed.
Jon stood alone in the starry corridor, and examined what Lyman gave him. What he found in his hoof was a familiar yellow and red ball. He gave it a light shake, and it made that familiar dingle-dingle noise. Normally, he would have been annoyed by the noise, but this time it was different.
After he heard the noise, he could practically hear Odie barking, and come charging toward him. He imagined how Odie would jump and frolic until he woke up Garfield, who would boot him across the room. As troublesome as that would actually be, he longed for it again, if only he could see Garfield and Odie.
With his pets in mind, he turned around and walked down the corridor, but stopped after the first few steps, and slumped onto the ground.
"Jon?"
Jon looked up to see the stellar horse from when he first arrived standing before him.
"Why have you stopped? Your friends still have need of you."
"I can't do it," Jon said quietly, "I've been looking for so long, and it's done no good."
"What are you talking about? You've done plenty of good on your journey."
"No, I haven't. I only started this thing to find my friends. But I only feel like I'm getting further away from them. I've been all over the place, and every time I feel like I'm getting close I find out they're somewhere else." Jon let out a heavy sigh, "I'm no use to them...I'm no use to anyone."
"I don't think you understand the importance of your actions," the stellar horse said to Jon. "Ever since you came to Equestria, you've done nothing but help those in need. You brought laughter back to an entire town. You secured the bonds of loyalty when two friends were as distant as can be. You helped an entire island remember the warmth of kindness. And that's only the beginning. Before that, you were the man who saved the lives of two homeless pets. Who else but you would have adopted a cat who was left in a pet shop for eating everything in the kitchen he was born in? Or took in the dog who was kicked out of every other home he had for repeated acts of stupidity? Tell me: why would you do that?"
"Because..." Jon never actually thought about why he did the things that he did. It all came to him by nature, and it was just a part of who he was. But if he had to think about it, "Because no one else would. I felt like if I didn't take them in, they wouldn't make it. And even though they drive me nuts, I've had too many good memories that would never have happened without them. Dating Liz, (disastrous as that's been). Going to Hollywood. Giving me endless inspiration for my comic strip. Life's so much better when I have them."
"Exactly," the stellar horse said, "For you see, the world is not always a pleasant place to live in. And the people we meet are not always the friendliest. When the rare glimmer of kindness shines, others are attracted to it, and hope that it never leaves them. As heavy as the responsibility may be, it's those who possess that light that need to share it with others, and remind them that the world is not always such a bad place. Now go, Jon. Your friends are just down this hall."
And the stellar horse ascended and disappeared into the stars around him.
Jon never knew how much others must have appreciated meeting him, even if they didn't realize it. And he knew that wherever they were, Garfield and Odie were missing him terribly now that they didn't have him. But he couldn't think about that forever. If what the horse said was true, he was about to be reunited with his friends, and he marched down the corridor with a renewed spring in his step.
His heart grew so light, he felt like he could fly as he imagined how his pets would react to seeing him again.
But as he walked, he could feel the air around him growing hotter. And then he could smell smoke. Wherever Garfield and Odie were, it couldn't be anywhere good.