Entropy

by PseudoBob Delightus

Lost Chapters - #9 "The Twilight Zone"

Chapter 9
The Twilight Zone

“I swear I could have done it if you guys hadn’t jumped, man. I mean, ouch.” Fluttershy was helping remove my bandages after we got back. I started to bleed again after failing to carry the five ponies, and it had taken three of them to carry me back. The pain was even more unbearable than before.

“Well at least you know what not to do for next time.” Fluttershy was joking around, but was significantly more serious whenever she was treating a patient.

“I guess now would be the time to tell me about my wounds, considering I’ll have to see them anyway.”

“I really don’t think… just look in the mirror, I don’t really like giving this sort of news.” She finished removing the bandage, while the opened wound stopped bleeding, and I stood up to the larger mirror she had brought up. The view was almost sickening, especially with it being my body.

Nearly all of my skin was streaked with faint red-brown patches from the burns, and I had several larger and more noticeable scars. Four deep marks across my chest, some similarly spaced marks on my left shoulder and arm, and the open wound, a hole that almost went straight through my stomach. All the skin that wasn’t burned or scarred or still bleeding was a ghostly white.

Fluttershy finished with the new bandages and gave me one of the simple shirts rarity had made with a little confusion. “Why is it that you wear clothes all the time?” I pulled the soft, white fabric over my body and arms.

“It’s sort of a cultural thing,” I paused, looking for her reaction, which stayed a cross between worrying and questioning, “Everybody like me, every human I know, wears at least some sort of clothing at all times, except when bathing or showering. There really isn’t a lot of exception to the rule outside of that, and in most places you would get arrested if you were naked in public.” I looked over my lower chest before flipping the shirt down and adding, “Some of us just don’t look very good without them.”

She was about to ask an obvious question, but I answered ahead of her, “Its considered public indecency, for a lot of reasons involving hygiene and the more intimate parts of our concealed areas. I think you know what I mean.” She nodded and turned away, showing she probably knew more than just that.

I flattened the shirt and pushed the sleeves up, turned around and raised my arms. “Well, how do I look?” Fluttershy turned back and looked up at me, standing at almost twice her height. She almost flinched, but then flew to eye level and said, “You look… nice,” with a little smile.

“Oh come on!”

At that point, we just headed over to the library at which this “slumber party” was taking place. We passed a few ponies along the way, but they usually gave me weird looks, saw Fluttershy, and just shrugged it off. Somehow. I seemed to remember Twilight said she lived there, but when Fluttershy and I stopped at a corner I didn’t see anything that looked like a library or a house. Then she knocked on a door I hadn’t noticed.

“Woah, this tree is a house? That’s crazy!” Fluttershy gave me a sideways look, “I mean, crazy in a good way. I’ve never seen a real tree house before.” She nodded and looked back at the opening door. I leaned so my head wouldn’t smack on the doorway. The purple lizard creature saw Fluttershy and let her in, but looked up to me and screamed, trying to slam the door.

“It’s ok, guy, I’m with Fluttershy. I don’t bite.” I smiled as he reopened the door, looking over at the pegasus.

“Spike, he’s nice. Show him in!” ‘Spike’ looked up to me in horror as I crouched down to his level. My elbows were touching the ground by the time I got face to face with him. I smiled and stuck out my hand.

“Great to meet you, Spike. I’m Ethan.” He looked at my hand for a few seconds before shaking it gingerly, like it would break at any moment. I looked down and saw that the hand he shook, my right, was scarred and burned far worse than my left, and I sighed.

“Sorry about that, I haven’t quite healed yet.” I started coughing and stood back up, causing the small lizard to jump back at my full height. I leaned back down again, and asked if he was going to let me in.

“Oh, yeah, sorry about that, Ethan… Its just, you’re a little… tall. Like, the tallest pony I’ve seen!” He jumped at the expression, and I just laughed a little. We began walking into the room.

“Yeah, well, I’m not a pony, so we don’t compare very well.”

“Oh yeah… I guess that explains your claws…”

“No, you have claws. These things are fingers. I can imagine they serve the same purpose, but mine are fleshy and aren’t as tough as yours.”

“Hey, can I see your ‘fingers’ for a second?” I handed him my hand. He compared the two, with my large hand covered in callous, wrinkled, scarred skin and his small hand covered in smooth, purple scales.

“Hey, spike, uh… what are you? Like, a lizard or reptile or something…?” The green spines and pale green scales on his back and front, respectively, made it hard to determine what animal he most resembled.

“I’m a dragon, a baby dragon to be exact.” This might get a little awkward later on, if I asked the ponies about the events that I didn’t remember. “What are you?”

“Cool. I’m a human, basically a smarter, less hairy monkey.” Spike scanned my body shape and seemed to find the comparison humorous.

I looked in front of me to see that I had almost walked straight into the purple unicorn Twilight Sparkle, and she had her forelegs raised to stop me. The five other ponies around me were snickering, and I crouched down to meet Twilight’s level.

“Hey, so thanks for inviting me here, but how is this going to work? I’ve never been at a slumber party, and even if I had been at something similar it wasn’t with ponies.” She seemed delighted at that, and cleared her throat before reading me a checklist of things she wanted to do. The first item was ‘Hear elaborate story about Ethan’s world and how it works’. I sat down at a couch, and they all sat around me with curious eyes.

I leaned back, put my arms around all six of them, and asked what they wanted to hear first. I could hear discussions among them, and a few things about my arms, but I looked up at the ceiling, trying to daydream about whatever came to mind.

“Your childhood!” Pinkie jumped about before leaning back against my hand.

I regaled to them the story of my childhood, about how I was an only son, I was fairly smart throughout school and had fairly good grades. I was always into building things with blocks, and liked playing video games. I had a very standard childhood.

“What’s a video game?” Rainbow Dash asked, causing more discussion before all the ponies turned to me again. I told them that it would have to be a pretty long story, but justified it with video games being so awesome. They agreed, especially Dash.

“Well, that would get into the topic of technology, and that would be really hard to explain without a proper reference.”

“I really can’t wait, but I think the others would just like a basic explanation.” Twilight chimed in. The ponies around me all nodded.

“Video games are like another world that you insert yourself into, via a motion picture display and a handheld controller. Most of them let you control fictional characters, and just to name a few, there are racing games, puzzle games, platform games, first person shoo… yeah there are lots of games. And almost all of them come in a box around this big.” I finished by shaping the size of a small computer with my hands. I never liked having to describe concepts like that, as I was never a teacher.

Nevertheless, the ponies were speechless, and Rainbow Dash jumped out of the couch and hovered right in front of me.

“Wow! That’s awesome! I mean, it’s only, like, 20% as cool as me, but for a boring bob like you, that’s crazy! In a good way, I mean.” I narrowed my eyes at her self comparison. Something seemed familiar about it, but I just couldn’t place it…

“As much as I would love to hear how these video games work, how about we get back to your life, shall we?” Twilight was moving the topic along.

“Fine, fine. What fantastic adventures do you want to hear about?”

“How about you tell us what you did later in your childhood, and what you think your special talent is?” I hadn’t heard Rarity in a while, and while I didn’t know what she meant by ‘special talent’, I gave her a nod before continuing my story telling. All of them were still comfortable on top of my arms.

“I was always into building, as I told you earlier, and after I graduated from high school, I went to college for three years to become an architect, but ended up in construction. I was mainly a carpenter, but I did some electrical, structural, masonry, mechanics… I really liked building things, and it was a mostly fun job.”

“How long were you at school, in total? I don’t know what you mean by ‘high’ school…” Twilight trailed off, looking to the same patch of ceiling that I was.

“Well, I started at four, and ended at… uh, I think I was 20 or 21 when I graduated colle-”

“You were at school for seventeen years?” Twilight cut me off quickly.

“Yeah, but that was a long time ago.”

“How long?”

“Almost sixteen years.” I waited for them to figure it out. Pinkie Pie, who was quiet for most of the time, blasted off and seemed to hover in the air for a few seconds.

“Wow, your old! Since you’re Pinkie Pie number two, I have to throw all those parties for you to make up for not having them with me!”

“Sorry, as much an honour as it would be, I’m afraid I’m not related to you. Besides, I had most of the parties that mattered so you don’t really need to-”

“But every party matters! How many did you have?” She was saddened that I missed some of them.

“Well, all of them until the twenty third, when…” I didn’t want to say it. I couldn’t tell these ponies, they would probably care too much.

“Until when, Ethan? You can tell us!” That Pinkie, it’s like she read my mind. I shook my head, but Fluttershy from my left, Twilight to my left, and the others got closer to me and all told me, “You can tell us anything about you.” My expression darkened and I looked to the floor.

“On my twenty third birthday, I got a watch, and it… Do you really want to hear more? Do you really care about-” I was cut off by all of them getting into ready-for-hugging positions and telling me they did, in fact, care.

“Ok. On August 15th, 2002, over fourteen years ago, my twenty third birthday started. I went to work like every other day, but after I got home to clean up I would go to my parent’s house, the same way it was for the two previous years since I moved out. I got home, got the mail, ate a late lunch, and got ready when I noticed a large package had come for me.

“I opened it the package, and inside was a letter on top of something heavy. I looked at the object underneath. It was the watch I had made with my father only a year before.”

The ponies were hanging on my every word, and I continued, “I opened the letter, half expecting what it said, but still hoping it didn’t…”

“What did it say, Ethan?”

I covered my eyes, not crying, but trying to erase my emotion as I repeated the line, “It said that my parents were dead.” I said it without flinching, my eyes and face cleared of any and all emotion. All the ponies sat there shocked for a few seconds before Pinkie broke, collapsing onto me and crying loudly. All the others joined in and I was under a pile of sobbing ponies, even Applejack and Rainbow Dash affected by the story. I thought I heard the whimpers of a baby dragon coming from the upper floor.

I didn’t shed a tear at that point; I just pulled them close and let them cry it out for a few minutes. Afterwards, they all tried to apologize for making me tell them.

“Please, don’t apologize. I wouldn’t have told you if I didn’t want to. I’ve kept that in for so long. You know at the forest entrance, when you all convinced me to come here, saying you were my friends?” All except Pinkie nodded, but she was both not there when it happened, and still on the verge of crying.

“When you hugged me, I shed a single tear. That means something to me, because it was the first time I had come close to crying since the watch. I had just insulted you guys, probably because I was angry at the result of the dragon incident, and I was ready to leave you all behind until you broke me. Thanks, Fluttershy, Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie. I guess you are my friends.”

We hugged again, and then Twilight checked off the first item on her list and got to the next.

“Ok, that was a pretty variable story, full of every emotion and we learned lots, but it’s safe to say we won’t go back to it. That’ll be hard to beat with the next one, which is ‘Scary stories’. Ethan, do you want to go first?”

“No, I don’t think it would be fair if I went first, since I’m from a… different kind of place. I’ll go last, if that’s ok with you.” She nodded and we got off the couch, setting up seven pillows around a lantern. They were about to start, when I heard sniffing above me. The others didn’t seem to notice, so I excused myself and went up to where I assumed Spike was sleeping, based on the sounds.

I opened a door and saw a small basket bed with a moving lump inside it. I silently strode up to it, mindful of the creaky floor, until I got right next to the baby dragon. I patted him on the back, which caused an initial scare, and he turned towards me with watery eyes.

“Ethan, I can’t believe you had to go through…” His voice was cracking beneath the emotion. I gave him a gentle smile and told him I was ok, and everyone else was ok. After a bit of sniffing, more back rubbing, and a, “Thanks”, I moved away from the comforted dragon and slid down the stairs, ducking to avoid smashing my teeth on a support beam. The others were silently waiting for me in the sparse light.

“What was wrong, Ethan?” Fluttershy flew up to me and asked. I sat down, with Fluttershy still over my shoulder.

“Spike overheard my story and was a little upset, so I went up there and told him everything was ok. I think he’s fine now, but I don’t know much about dragons.” The ponies around me ‘bawww’ed, and Twilight told me that it was “The sweetest thing I’ve ever seen!” Fluttershy hugged me around my neck again and sat down next to me.

“Ok, who’s telling scary stories first?” I crossed my legs and got ready for the scariness.

“Well, since the guest of honour is going last, I guess me, the host, should start. This is a tale about the terrible writer, and how nopony ever wanted to read her books!” Thus began a long and extremely un-scary story telling session, with Applejack talking about the tree that dropped apples on its own, Rarity regaling us with the story of the missing diamond, and Rainbow Dash spun tales on that one time she didn’t win a race. It was shocking.

There was an interesting point, where Pinkie managed to scare a few of the ponies with the punny tale, “The headless horse,” but disappointingly left out any of the gory bits involved with losing your head. Fluttershy ended it on a calm note by telling us about when Angel, her pet bunny, got a broken toe and it took her days to find him. I didn’t find any of the stories particularly scary, and started to yawn, when I was caught by Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, I suppose you have some sort of scary story? I bet it’s another yawn fest like the others…” I looked at her, positioning my head so only the scarred side was visible in the lamplight.

“Oh, I think there is much more to this story than you think, for it is the tale of…” I paused for dramatic effect, “The dread hand.”

“Once, there was a mailman. An ordinary guy that delivered mail to every house on his street, and he had a family and a happy life. Not rain or shine, not sleet nor snow, should his quest begin to slow… or, so he thought. Going on his merry way at 8 in the morning, he stepped outside to a cloudless day, ready to begin his journey of deliverance. But, it was not meant to be.

“After a few minutes of walking, a dark cloud appeared overhead. He brought his raincoat, so he didn’t worry about the rain getting him wet. More clouds started to form, but no rain. Eventually, about an hour in, the entire sky was nearly black, the morning becoming night in minutes. There was nopony outside, nopony in their houses, just an empty street, and a single message in the mailbag.”

I started to vibrate the lantern, silently and slowly turning the valve and darkening the room in an extremely subtle effect.

“The mailman walked over to the address. He had never seen this house before; he had never seen anything like it. The grass around it was burning and charred, and the wooden boards that made up the mansion were cracked and warped. He was a mailman, pure and fearless, so he took a step towards the house. More clouds, more darkness.”

I leaned slightly closer to the dimming lantern, my face becoming the only lit object in the room. My voice was getting deeper, and it rumbled the floor.

“The man had a choice; he could leave now, or deliver the mail. Eventually, the rain picked up and stopped the burning lawn. He couldn’t see anything but his own hands; he couldn’t hear anything but his own breath and the pit-pat of rain behind him. He was about to put the mail in the slot, when the door opened…”

The room was almost pitch black now, but I could still see the ponies. They were all huddled across from me, shivering, looking about as I silently walked to move my voice.

“The door opened with a, “creeeeeeaaaaaak…” and inside was an empty hole of nothingness, black as the void, drawing him closer. But he knew better than that. He grabbed the doorknob, and tried to pull it closed. The door was being pulled equally back, so he tried harder. In the darkness, beyond all the planes of land and soul, he could hear a voice that was saying…”

I walked right behind them and whispered, throwing my voice in front of them.

“Come closer… We need you… We need to feed…” I backed away and continued, while the ponies were almost fainting with terror, even Dash.

“The darkness was all-consuming. He felt dread through his entire body, and promised that he would never let go of the doorknob. Eventually, the skies cleared, the day brightened, and everything went back to normal. The mailman had kept his promise, he had continued holding on. For the next day, when the replacement mailman came in and delivered his rounds, he noticed a paper in front of a strange house. On it were the words, “Last wish; Make it count.”

I vibrated the lantern on, but stood in the shadows.

“The replacement walked up to the door and noticed something… odd about it. The mailman had kept his promise, all right, he never let go. But he was nowhere to be seen. All that was left, attached to the door, was the mailman’s last wish. The hand…”

I thrust my hand towards the group, showing it in the light.

“…was still there!” Cue thunder, cue turning the lantern off, cue running upstairs without a sound. All the ponies were screaming and shuffling, trying to get the light back on. Spike asked me what happened, and I told him it was a scary story. That just gave him a smile and he lied back down. When the light was turned on, I slid down silently and sat on my pillow.

Rainbow Dash was on the floor shivering, Fluttershy was in a pile mumbling something, Twilight was looking out all the windows before shutting and covering them, Rarity was unconscious on the couch, Applejack was staring daggers at me through teary eyes, and Pinkie just stood there, frozen with a frightened face.

I waited a few minutes without a word as they all managed to wake up or unfreeze and sit at their pillows again.

“So. Was that scary enough for you?” I heard a resounding chorus of “Way more than enough” and smiled at their reactions, but then noticed they were still acting weird, like they believed the story.

“Come on guys, it’s a ghost story, they’re all made up!” Rarity woke up and looked over at me for a split second before turning away and sniffing. I really messed up on that one, and I would have to make it up to them. I started by gathering them closer, and though they were reluctant, they were eventually sitting next to each other. I went for Fluttershy first, for she was probably the most affected by the story.

I picked her up and hugged her, rubbing her back, saying I was sorry, and told her it would all be alright. She was originally really cold, but I warmed her up and she quickly returned the hug. I set her down and did the same to Rainbow and Applejack, apologizing to them and getting them to return the hug. I repeated again for Twilight and Rarity, and then centered my attention on the frozen Pinkie.

She didn’t seem to react to any sort of contact. Confused, I snapped my fingers in front of her and she shrieked, bouncing around the room at high speed until she stopped in front of me.

“Wow, Ethan! That was the scariest story ever! I was really scared, not frightened, but genuinely terrified at that ending with the hand, and you doing that thing with the lights! Oh boy that was some great fun I had there!”

The others started giggling at Pinkie’s reaction, and as soon as I let out a chuckle we all burst into laughter.

Eventually, after several minutes of snorting and guffawing, Twilight used her magic to bring out the sleeping bags for her and the other five ponies. None of them were large enough for me, so I offered to just sleep on the floor. Obviously, they disagreed, and eventually they had all their sleeping bags under me and started finding spots on top of me.

It was originally uncomfortable, but with Applejack lying between my knees and ankles, Dash upside down on my stomach, Pinkie flat on my chest, Rarity on my right arm, Twilight over my left arm, and Fluttershy laying over my neck, I quickly nodded off.

Fluttershy was tossing and turning on my windpipe, and was mumbling things in her sleep. Still half asleep myself, I lifted Twilight and Rarity into curled positions on my sides, without waking them, and lifted Fluttershy so she was beside my neck, facing away. I put my chin over her head and began stroking her mane, trying to get her to go back to sleep. She mumbled something and rolled over, grabbing my face. I tried to pull her away, but she continued to hold tight and I gave up.

I put my arm around her as we both drifted back to sleep.

Author's Note:

I think the end of this chapter is where it really broke down for me; I was not writing anything worth reading, let alone worth writing. As that was always my concern, I didn't finish the 11th chapter even though I'd gone past that point in the story bible.