The Human Side of Things

by Gylden Glor

Bonding: Twilight

I knock on Twilight's door several times before clasping my hand behind my back and rocking on the balls of my feet. I hear a groan from the other side of the door before it opens.

"Oh, hello," Twilight mutters. She sighs as she rubs her eyes. "No offense, but...I'm not exactly in the mood for this right now, okay?"

"In the mood for what?" I ask, confused and slightly insulted.

"Your sarcastic jokes and overall attitude," she responds. "Which I am not in the mood for..."

I frown at Twilight. "Is everything okay?" I ask, concerned. "You're not usually this blatantly irritated - and I haven't even been sarcastic with you for about two months now; I know how much you hate it."

She looks me over with a sigh. "Yeah, but that's not the point, I just...I'm just not in the mood for much of anything right now, okay?" The lavender unicorn hangs her head as she grasps the door. "Certainly not anything in Ponyville..."

"Ah," I remark with a sympathetic smile. "Homesick, are we?"

She looks up at me with a nod. "Yeah," she mutters. "Just...don't tell the girls, alright? I don't want them to think that I don't like it here...I do, it's just..."

"Sometimes you see something," I suggest. "Something that reminds you of home, and you remember a happier time - a simpler time."

She looks at me in surprise. "Yeah...how d'you-"

"My home is much farther away than yours," I remind her. "And unlike you, I can't just pack up and decide to visit." A small amount of bitter resentment creeps into my voice at the end, but I do my best to suppress it.

"I...I thought you hated it there?" Twilight asks, confused. She shakes her head. "Wait - come on in, if we're going to talk about this, we might as well do so in comfort..." I nod in agreement, and she leads me inside.

After sitting me down on a couch, she goes to fetch refreshments. When she asks if I'd like anything, I respond in the negative, wringing my hands in nervous apprehension.

I'm not looking forward to talking about this with her, but it's obvious that she needs it - she needs to have somepony to connect to right now.

"Hey - haven't seen you around lately." I look to my left with a small smile, where the baby dragon is seated.

"Yeah - I've been pretty busy," I explain. "Doing a bunch of stuff with these new circuit boards Luna's having me design - they're made out of magical crystals that can be altered infinitely. Makes it a bit easier, but it's still hard to get used to..."

Spike nods, and hurries off as Twilight calls for his help. I hear soft muttering, and I assume that Twilight is asking Spike for some privacy so we can discuss our homes.

A few minutes later, Twilight exits the kitchen with two cups and a teapot steaming from the spout. I thank her for the cup, and pour myself a bit of tea. I don't remark about having answered "no" to her initial offer.

"So...as I was saying," she begins, settling into a chair across from me, "I always thought you hated it back at your home."

I frown with a nod. "That's what I've said," I respond. She seems surprised. "I say that to make myself feel better about it all."

"Oh...I'm sorry."

"Don't be," I shrug. "It still hurts either way. It just makes it easier to look myself in the eye in the mirror - makes me believe that I've become a better person because of all of this."

Twilight frowns again, and a small bit of silence passes before she asks a question. "So...what was your home really like? I...I doubt that everything you said about it was true."

"Well...the part about the fluctuations is true," I inform her. "The universe really was getting screwed up, but...whatever." I sigh as I take a sip of my tea. It's bitter, yet sweet - a nice flavor with a nice scent.

"What about your family? Are they...are they as messed up as you said they are?"

"Nowhere near," I respond. "Nowhere near...it just helps to make me feel better about the fact that I died back home." I sigh as I pinch the bridge of my nose, and realize something that I'd been suppressing. "Jesus, they don't even have a fucking body to bury - all they have is a scorched lab and a few notes..."

"I...I'm so sorry," she whispers, softly. "But...I...I'm sure they're alright...right?"

I nod. "Yeah...yeah, I hope so..." I sniff as emotions begin to surface. "It probably hit my sister the hardest - she and I were so close..." I chuckle lightly to myself. "I remember, at her wedding, that she wanted me to, y'know...give her away. Like a father usually does. But...Dad was long gone by then. Snorting cocaine every day...Jesus, I still can't believe he got so bad - we had to call the police when he showed up to the wedding with a handgun, shouting about God and some fucking bullshit..." I sigh as I rub my temples.

Twilight frowns at me in compassion. "Why did he start doing drugs in the first place?"

I purse my lips. "He couldn't handle it," I announce.

"Couldn't handle...what?"

"Losing her," I respond. "My mother."

"Oh...I...I'm so sorry, Peter..." She frowns at me. "I'm sure she was wonderful."

"Oh, she was," I sigh. "So caring, so loving...but stern as all hell. And funny, too." I chuckle lightly at the memory. "I remember one time, I came home piss drunk from a friend's house, right? Instead of shouting at me or chewing me out, she took care of me. But she got me, in the morning..."

I smirk to myself. "She blasted Billy Joel and other music from the early twenty first century...started cleaning the house, knocking things about and turning on the vacuum..." I sigh. "But when she was done, she sat with me and helped me get through it...that was my first hangover, you know. I was sixteen...never drank again until I was eighteen - when my mom shared a bottle of vodka with me for graduating from High School. Oh, she was great..."

Twilight smiles. "She sounds great." She hesitates before asking, "do you mind...if I ask how she...passed?"

I swallow a lump in my throat. "Yeah," I whisper. "Yeah...it was, uh...it was a car accident."

Twilight nods, seemingly in understanding. I can't help but smirk at her. "You have no idea what I mean, do you?"

"No, none whatsoever."

I chuckle as I scratch my head, and quickly explain what a car is. She blinks when I tell her how large one is, and how much force would be present in a collision. "That's...that's a lot," she mutters.

"Yeah...my mother was crushed in the accident - hit by a truck that skidded on the black ice."

"Was...was anybody else in the car?"

"Yeah," I whisper. A silence spans before I bring myself to answer. "My unborn little sister..." My voice cracks as I speak, and I feel tears coming forth. I wipe then away with my arm, and I look up in surprise when I feel Twilight's hoof on my hand.

"I...I'm so sorry, Peter," she whispers. "I am so...so sorry..." I nod, and she hesitates before moving next to me and pulling me into an embrace. I hug her back, reveling in the contact and the comfort that it brings.

"Thank you," I whisper to her as we part, my breath shaking as I wipe more tears away. "I just...it feels a bit better, to get it out. Rather than keeping it all pent up..." I rub my eyes before smiling at Twilight. "So...how about you tell me about your home, Twi'? I haven't heard much about it."

Twilight looks to me with a small smile, before she begins to explain what Canterlot and her family was like.

---

One Hour Later...

Twilight, Spike, and I laugh hysterically as the two of them recall their past. I sigh as my laughter falls off, and the two of them look to each other with big smiles - they were just telling me the story of the time that Spike burped and burned down a curtain. Twilight had covered for him by making a miniature explosion with a chemistry set and making it look like an accident, because she didn't want him to get into trouble. But, apparently, that's not the best part.

"So, what is the best part?" I ask, intrigued.

"Celestia still doesn't know it was Spike!" Twilight shrieks in laughter.

I smirk in surprise. "How do you know?"

"When she let me stay at Ponyville after we freed Luna, she told me not to burn down any curtains!" She exclaims. "She still thought it was me that burned it, and not Spike!"

I laugh with them, mostly at the absurdity - the oldest and wisest of all monarchs, and a goddess to boot - outsmarted by a filly!

Twilight is about to tell me another story when there's a knock at the door. She goes to get it as Spike and I laugh together.

"Oh, Rainbow Dash - I hadn't expected you today!" Twilight announces, her mood much improved from earlier this morning. "What's up?"

"Is Peter here?" She asks, seemingly angry. I immediately go through everything that I could have done to tick her off today, but I can't think of anything - I didn't even see her today!

Wait...

Oh.

Oh.....

Oh.

"Uh, yeah, he's -"

"You ditched me!" She shouts at me, her eyes burning with fury.

"Sorry," I respond, softly. "I got distracted..."

"I waited at your door for twenty minutes!" She exclaims. "I even went in through your window to see if you were there!"

"Wait - you went in through my window!?" I demand, feeling slightly disconcerted. "What the hell?"

"I knocked and rang a thousand times!" She groans. "I thought we were gonna hang, man - it was gonna be awesome!"

"If you want, we can go hang now," I respond. "I mean - you said your whole day is free, right?"

"Well, why the hay do you think I'm here!?" She cries. I jump in surprise as she grasps my arm. "C'mon - let's go!" She starts to drag me out the door.

"By Twi', by Spike, thanks for having me it was lovely - AAAHHHH!" Is all I have a chance to say as I'm dragged through the door and into the sky.

Author's Note:

Flibbity flibbity bang, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is fucking awesome.

Comments

[hs0003]

Unborn little sister.. Ouch.

[sirraf]

I agree. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem was a very well made game.