The Joke is on Me

by StandardIssue

Reality Check

Author's Note:

So yeah, sorry for the long wait. Anyway, please tell me what you think! Not good at these notes...

“James, Wake up!”

I open my eyes and everything is blurry, I also have a bad taste in my mouth. I look around my room and wonder why something felt off. I try to fight the feeling of a dry throat as I clear it and call out.

“What?”

“It’s my birthday,” Said my sister. “What did you get me and Mikey?” My sister screams this as she runs in my room with Mikey and jump on me in my bed. That really woke me up.

“Oof!” I tried to wrench her off me and she is easily removed.

“Go run off as I go get your present…” I said while yawning mid sentence. They both nodded and ran off as told. I couldn’t help but blink. ‘That was surprisingly easy, usually they fight me as much as they can.’ Whatever, maybe they were cutting me a break.

I got up from my bed and walked to my closet. I remembered going to the store and getting something, but what did I get them? ‘Mikey got an….action figure! Yeah, a G.I.Joe, but what else did I get?’ I opened my closet and a big present was there. It had blue and pink stripes with an orange bow on top with a tag written in blue ink. The tag had my brother and sisters names on it. I was confused but shrugged it off; It was early, judging that my clock was saying seven in the morning. That was early to me at least. I picked up the box -Which was actually pretty fricking heavy- and walked out with it. The thing was big, easily matched the size of a small T.V. box or something of same size.

“Alright,” I called out. “In the living room if you want it!” I put said gift down in the middle of the living room and sat on the couch. The two little devils run in and look at the box. My brother gasped as my sister smiled a wicked grin.

“Awesome! What is it?!”

‘What...is it?’ I thought I would remember by now.

“...Uh...open up and find out, duh.” I said after thinking.They didn’t need any more convincing. They started ripping the wrapping paper off, and as they did, I noticed there were holes poked along the side of the present. It was funny, but, I only really saw those size holes in presents if there was...

“A Puppy!” My sister screamed and my brother gasped again. I blinked, while my mom, who was in the other room screamed ‘What’ herself.

“A what?!” My sister reached in and pulled out a puppy cat thing that was red orange with black paws with…

“It’s not a puppy, It’s a fox!” I half screamed, half gasped. The thing looked familiar. Why did it look familiar. I mean it should, I got it. But, I didn’t buy it. I won it. Wait….

like that, a flood of memories hit me. All at once, everything stopped moving. I looked around the room. It was like time stopped.

“What is going on…?” I asked myself. Then I heard an all too familiar voice speak out from somewhere.

“It took you long enough to break this dream. Seriously, I hardly even used a fraction of my power. You need to work on your awareness.” I looked to my right and saw the anime woman.

“What is going on?!” I screamed at her. “I...Fire...pain…” Past the fire, everything was foggy.

“Well, our bet. I won. But, give that a second.”

“What are you talking about?! Send me home, fix this!” I screamed at her. I was done with this. Done. Nope. Time to get the fuck out of here.

“Well, I said listen. You see.” She began as she sat on the couch and took upon a thinking pose whilst speaking as if nothing was going on. “I won the bet. Now, you are here for a purpose, to do something for me.”

“Forget that! No, I want out now!” I screamed at her. She simply sighed.

“You annoy me boy.” She waved a hand and my mouth closed shut and I sat down in the couch. I was sitting straight and everything, but I couldn’t move a thing. I. Didn’t. Like. This. I didn’t even remember getting up.

“There, much better. Now, listen to me.” She fixes her hair and looks at me with a smile. I was glaring at so hard, I felt like I was going to explode. I do not like this feeling at all. I hate this beyond all reason.

“So, as you may remember, you woke up in a land not like this. Granted, you were in so much pain you can’t remember much of it. Sorry about that, but hey. Not everyone can fly in on a rainbow.” She began while also laughing to herself. I found none of this funny at all.

“Well, I’ll keep this short. Basically, you lost the bet. To prove it, I sent you to the world of Equastria. Equis. Now, don’t dwell on that thought.” She decided to cross her legs at this point. “So, now that you are there, you should do some good. Now don’t get me wrong. It will be very hard. But, stay there a few days and you will see why you should help this place. I will come back in two weeks time. Then I will ask you if you want to stay or go home. But until then, that is all you get.”

I wanted to scream at her again. Tell her to send me home and leave me alone. I didn’t want anything to do with this.

“Oh, you may not remember this because I decided it would be nice to see again, but hey. Equastria is real. Now what was it you said about yourself if Equastria was real?” She smiled and looked me in the eyes. Her smile was conniving and evil. “Oh yeah, something about you being a girl.”