Torn Between Two Worlds

by Alex Barkhorn

Chapter 32

"Alex, wake up! Wake up, wake up, it's the big day!" Twilight shouted. I grumbled and opened my eyes, looking over at a smiling Fluttershy next to me, and the rest of the girls hovering over my bed. I groaned, and slammed my head back into my pillow, but was poked and prodded at by the lot of them for the next five minutes.

"Okay, I'm up! I'm up." I scoffed, yawning and sitting up, stretching and yawning loudly. I sighed, and stood up, looking myself over in the mirror. I looked tired- not dead tired, like usual, but just a bit. My hair was a mess- it had grown in the weeks since my mother had left. It was now long enough to cover just a small portion of my right eye, and long enough in the back to tie into a stubby pony tail- pun not intended.

"Good. Now, Dana and Gray called, they said they're on their way over." Twilight informed me, and I looked back at her, after tying my hair back.

"What? Why so early?" I asked, a bit uncomfortable with Dana after the other day. Or, rather, nervous for what she'd have to say.

"Well, Gray, he said he wanted to help ya get ready, for whatever reason." AJ said with a shrug.

"And Dana said she'd like to help us get nice and prettied up." Rainbow Dash added, obviously not too enthusiastic about having to get too frou-frou for tonight. Applejack huffed lightly, obviously her way of agreeing. I chuckled and nodded, looking at the clock. It was ten o'clock already, so i figured I could start getting the basics ready.

As predicted, Gray and Dana showed up about half an hour later, and I got the chance to talk to Dana about what was going on.

"So, you're okay with this?" I asked, raising a brow.

"Um. Yes? Why wouldn't I be?" She replied, crossing her arms.

"Well, I dunno... You seemed upset the other day." I replied sheepishly.

"Yeah, well, I'm fine now. Excuse me, I have to help the girls." And with that, she walked off.

"She's probably fine. Most likely just upset no one asked her." Gray told me a few minutes later, when we were readying our tuxes. I looked back at him, surprised by what he had just said.

"No one asked her? Really?" I scratched the back of my head for a moment, thinking. "Huh..."

"Heh. Why do you sound so surprised?" He inquired, folding his slacks neatly.

"I dunno," I shrugged. "I just figure someone would by now."

"Hm. Maybe she was waiting on you." Judging by his tone, he was obviously joking, most likely trying to tease me. But, still...Maybe he was right. I mean, there always was slight tension between Dana and I, but I thought that was just her being Dana. "But, it doesn't matter now. What does matter, is that you get your ass ready." Gray chuckled.

"...We don't leave for another two hours." I informed him matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, but you look like a freakin' hobo." He retorted, pointing a finger at my scraggly scruff of facial hair. I hadn't shaved for a while, so calling it a shadow would be a bit generous- mind you, I wasn't full on Grizzly Adams, thanks Christ.

"Oh, right...Eh-heh." I nodded, heading towards my door. "Right, then. Be back in a flash." I smirked, and went into the hallway. I needed to get my razor from my bathroom, but, as I went to open the door, I heard someone shout.

"Alex, wait!"

I raised a brow and looked over, and only saw Dana staring right at me. SHe had a look of shock, maybe even confusion, but I didn't bother paying attention- I wanted to get this done as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, I should have listened to the 'warning'.

When I snapped my head forward, inside the bathroom, nearly naked in only her bra and panties was an extremely shocked Fluttershy. We both stared eachother dead in the eyes, unmoving. We just stood there.

"Uh...Hey, Shy." I choked.

"...Hi." She managed to squeak.

"...You forget to lock the door?"

"Oh, no...The lock is still jamming."

"Oh, right...I should fix that." I looked down at my cabinet, and back up at her. "I just, uh...Needed to get my razor."

"Oh...Okay." She gulped. Without breaking eye contact, I leaned down, grabbed my razor, and turned tail, slamming the door shut and darting to my room. The second I did, I heard an embarrassed shriek come from the bathroom.

"What the hell happened?" Grey asked, heading for the door. I stopped him from even touching the handle, before explaining the situation to him. It didn't entirely help that I was still incredibly flustered from the situation, so, after I told him ten minutes later, he busted up in wild laughter.

"Oh, Christ, that's priceless!" He gasped, literally rolling on the floor in laughter. I growled in anger, before letting it go and simply smirking, going to my guest bathroom to shave.

Thankfully, I knocked. It was vacant.

I came back, sporting a small variant of a chin spike of facial hair, and got a thumbs up from Gray. "Lookin' sharp, man. Now, get your ass showered and ready."

And that I did. About forty five minutes later, I was all showered and shaved, my face was washed, and my teeth were nice and clean. Mind you, it was close to half an hour after noon, but, hey. I was kind of on schedule.

"Alrighty, then, man. Time to get your tux ready." He said with a grin, breaking out two bags from my closet- one with his tux, one with mine. I unzipped my bag, and overlooked my get-up.

The pinstripe pants were perfectly pressed (say that five times fast) and looked great. I put the black leather belt over it as I gently placed it on my bed, and rummaged around the bag again. This time, I pulled out my plain white dress shirt, that came with a black vest and a crimson red tie. Last, but not least, was my pair of black boots- dress shoes are overrated, and too hard to maintain.

After I had put everything on and looked myself over in the mirror, I was pretty damn satisfied. Not to sound too vain, but I looked pretty damn good. Even Gray gave a wolf-whistle- as mocking as it was. I looked over at him, and he was all dressed as well. Plain black slacks, a white dress shirt, and a black jacket to go over it. His tie was a deep midnight blue, that, somehow, seemed to shine in a cyan color. Fitting, as his date was Dash.

"You know what the difference between me and you is?" I asked, grabbing my pinstripe jacket, and throwing on my black and crimson fedora.

"What?" He asked, smirking.

"I make this look good." I teased, opening my door and walking out to the living room. The girls, save for Fluttershy, were all out and ready. Twilight looked great, as she had picked out a dress that was lavender in color with a deep purple belt, that went down to about her knees.

Rarity was next, sporting a lovely, sparkling white gown. It was a bit short for my tastes, reaching a few inches above her knees, but I figured I could deal.

Pinkie's dress was actually pretty funny, because it wasn't actually pink, but, rather, blue, with a yellow hue at near the bottom that reached down to her shins. She was even sporting a blue and yellow belt to go with it.

Rainbow Dash's was, of course, very awesome. It was small, about the same size as Rarity's, being to her mid thigh. It was a brilliant cyan in color, with a large black belt that had a gold belt buckle on it.

Applejack's dress was a striking red, almost crimson color, that reached down all the way to her ankles. Fortunately, she refrained from wearing her trademark hat, but still had her hair in a beautiful braid.

"Where's Faith?" I asked Rarity and Pinkie, after we had all complimented each other on our outfits. I looked over at Dash and Gray, who were taking photos together, along with Twi and AJ's dates.

"She's being same old Faith, poor girl is just so nervous." Rarity informed me. Just then, I heard the creak of a door from down the hall. I peeked into the hallway to see Fluttershy barely poking her head out, before she squeaked nervously, and went back into the bathroom. "Faith, dear, come on out. You look stunning." Rarity said with a smile.

"...Oh...Okay." She gave in, and opened the door, stepping out to us. My eyes lit up when I saw how beautiful she was.

Her dress was long, and flowing. The same length as Applejack's, but it was yellow in color, with a slit starting at the knee on the left side. The edgings were laced with a forest green color, which perfectly accented the overall pale yellow color of the dress. She had a butterfly hair clip on the left side of her hair, opposite of where the bangs parted, and the back was styled into a bun with lacquered chopsticks, most likely courtesy of Dana.

"Faith, you look absolutely incredible." I breathed, still taken aback by the girl that was in front of me. Fluttershy squeaked, and allowed herself to hide behind the part of her hair that was still in her face.

"Um...th-thank you..." She said, incredibly quietly. I had to strain myself just to hear her.

We got pictures out of the way, and everything, and it was off to dinner at a small-time Italian joint. Which was perfect, since it was decently priced, not too crowded, and pretty damn delicious. An hour and a half later, we made it to the school's large gymnasium, where the gig was being held. They managed to make the place look awesome- the theme was New York in the 20's, hence why a lot of people were wearing zoot suits and such, and the DJ played some pretty good music. None of that poppy radio junk, but some pretty good electronic and dubstep beats. Now, a lot of the people were doing...Let's call it dirty dancing, but thankfully, the girls and their dates managed to dance without having to basically have sex on the dance floor. Shy and I took a break, and had a seat outside the gym, after I grabbed some punch for the two of us.

"Thank you so much for asking me, Alex." Fluttershy said sweetly, slowly sipping her punch.

"It was my pleasure. I'm having a great time." I replied with a smile. She lowered her head, smiling, and glanced up at me. She placed a hand on mine, and squeezed gently.

"You're a very nice boy, Alex." She said quietly.

"Thanks, Faith." I said, a bit concerned as to what brought this on.

"No, really...You don't deserve all of the bad things you get." She said, starting to sniffle.

"Faith...? Really, it's alright..." I said, not being able to stand the sight of the poor girl sad.

"You're just...You're such a good person...You do so much, and expect so little..." She trailed off for a moment, leaning into my shoulder. "You're an amazing person...Alex..."

I was at a loss. Did I do something wrong? Was it something I said? The whole night, the whole day, I never brought anything up, except how beautiful she looked, and how I was so happy to be with her. It was terrible, I felt like I messed up horribly.

"Faith...Please, don't cry. What happened? What did I do?" I asked.

"I-it's nothing, I...I just am really glad you're happy now. You're such a good person, Alex..." She stopped herself from crying, thankfully, right when they began to announce prom king and queen. Perfect.

"Hey, I think I know what will cheer you up." I suggested, standing up and taking her hand. She sniffled one last time, before smiling again and nodding.

What happened next was a huge freaking shocker.

I hadn't been paying attention to the nominations, seeing as how I don't pay attention to have the crap around school, but then I heard something that made my jaw drop like a one-ton anvil.

"Alright! Prom King and Queen of this year are...Grayson Turner, and Raven Davis!"

I literally did a triple take, looking to the stage and seeing Gray and Rainbow Dash hugging eachother tightly, and thanking the crowd.

"What in the seven hells?" I shrieked, though it was barely audible due to the cheering.

"What?" Fluttershy asked.

"When the hell were they nominated?"

"Alex, they handed out the voting ballots last week. Don't you remember?" She asked. The look on my face must have been a sufficient answer, as she simply smiled and shook her head in amusement. The DJ then turned the track to a slow song, allowing the King and Queen to have their dance. Gray and Rainbow still looked stoked as all hell that they had won, and Gray managed to lead Rainbow into a dance. I figured, to hell with it, I'll be the first to start. So, I grabbed Fluttershy, held her close, and began to dance with her, keeping one hand interlocked with hers, and another on her hip. Eventually, she leaned her head against my shoulder, and we danced peacefully. That is, until a minute later, when they turned the damn wubs on again.

Hours passed, and more dancing commenced. The lot of us had the time of our lives, partying, dancing, laughing, and enjoying the night. It made me regret all of the times I passed up opportunities like this. Nights when I could have gone out with friends, when I could have had the time of my life with my friends. But I quickly pushed those thoughts out of my head, to enjoy the now. It was funny, right as I was thinking that, I looked over at Gray, who gave me a wink and a single nod.

Unfortunately, they had to usher us out at close to eleven.

"That was so much fun!" Pinkie exclaimed, skipping alongside the rest of us. Fluttershy and I were hooked together, arm in arm, as was Rainbow and Gray.

"Seriously, and congrats, you two. You make a great king and queen." I complimented to the two.

"Aw, thanks, Alex. To be completely honest, I didn't think we'd win. I thought those snobby jerks would have beaten us." Rainbow said with a chuckle.

"Well, congratulations, anyway," Fluttershy added. "So, um, what now?"

"I dunno about you guys, but I'm beat. I think Takara and AJ's date already took them home, so we should probably head there." Gray said with a yawn. He looked at me and Fluttershy, then Pinkie and Rarity. "Why don't you two ride with me." He suggested. "We'll see you at your place in a few, man."

"Alright, then...?" I called back to him. "Huh." I mused, looking back at Fluttershy with a smile. "Well, let's go home, then." I suggested.

The drive home was nice and peaceful. We made the occasional idle chatter of how much fun the night was and all that jazz. When we made it home, we noticed some lights on, and Gray's car parked curbside in front of my lawn. I opened Shy's door for her, and grabbed her hand, leading up to the front door, where the porch light was shining brightly above us.

"I had an amazing night, Alex." Fluttershy said, taking a hold of both of my hands with hers.

"Me too." Was all I replied with, and I felt my heart start to pump faster. We said nothing for the next minute, just looked at eachother, as if staring into eachother's soul. I didn't even notice, but our faces were slowly getting closer. I wrapped my arms around her waist, and hers around my neck. I could feel her warm breath against my lips, and her forehead touched mine.

"Alex..." She whispered longingly.

"Fluttershy..." I whispered back.

Fluttershy...I hadn't called her by her real name all night. Fluttershy. Fluttershy. Not Faith. Not Faith Sherman. She was Fluttershy, from Equestria.

I was torn. If I took the plunge now, if I committed myself, that would be it. It would make this whole situation so much more difficult for me. For the both of us. It would break our hearts.

But, God, did I want this. We both did, I needed it. I finally had someone to care for me in a way more than a friend or family member could. A person who generally wanted to be with me for me, and not because of my money, or because they were desperate. A person, the most kindest, more sweetest girl ever, genuinely wanted to be with me.

But couldn't. Not for long, anyways.

I wanted to. I shouldn't. I didn't know what to do. I stood there, motionless, our lips still only inches away.

What do I do? What road do I go down?

Comments

[Ostrich Man]

I hate to do this, but it really annoys me.

slight tension between Dana and I

It should be Dana and me

[Spring_Saint]

Did i spot a MIB referance?

[IMR1fley]

2176406 Actually, it's not. Think about it like this. Split the two and make them singular.

I had slight tension

and

Dana had slight tension.

Instead of

Me had slight tension.

Me Alex, you Dana

[Lord Nopony]

Do it Alex!!! Kiss her!