Stuck

by NickyD

Of Reflections and Readings

3:07 P.M.

Best shower ever! I'm not usually partial to cold showers, but after a workout like that, I needed it so my body can cool off.

I step out, wrap a towel around my waist and walk towards the mirror. I stare at the reflection of myself. I still look stubby. I think it grew out a bit more these past couple of days. I really need a shave.

I hear a few light taps at the door. "Hey Nick?" I hear Twilight call on the other end.

"Yo!" I say back.

"I've noticed that your facial hair has been growing a bit this past week." So she's noticed too. "The other day when I went out to get supplies, I picked up some razors and shaving cream for you. They're in the cabinet under the sink." I hear the clip-clop of her hooves start to leave, but then she continues to speak. "Make sure to get around the neck area too. There's a few hairs there as well." I hear her hoof steps becoming more faint as she walks away.

Taking in her words, I kneel in front of the cabinets that are under the sink so I can face them. I open up the one on the right and sure enough, there's a shaving razor and a can of shaving cream sitting at the base of the cabinet. "Thanks Twilight," I mumble to myself. I take one object per hand and bring myself up, closing the cabinet with my knee.

I place the shaving equipment on the edge of the sink. I then proceed to fill the sink with hot water. When I feel there is enough water in the white porcelain bowl, I shut off the faucet. I splash the hot liquid on my face so my face would not be tense. Shaving with cold water is not a good experience.

After my face feels nice and warm, I press my index finger on the nozzle of the can and the white foam dispenses on my other hand. When I have the right amount of cream, I let go of the nozzle. I place the white substance on my face and start spreading around. I make sure to get under my chin, on my cheeks, the side of my face, anywhere where hair is visible on my face. Especially the neck.

When the shaving cream is evenly spread on my face and neck, I lightly splash the razor in the hot water. I then bring the blade to the right side of my face. Slowly, I bring the razor down. I feel the blades dice off the hair from my face. It feels a lot more...what's a good word to use?...Exposed. I can feel feel the temperature of the air now that I'm ridding myself from facial hair.

I keep this up for a few moments until I have a shaving cream goatee. "I'm the one who knocks," I mutter quietly, while doing a mock Walter White impression, then letting out a few chuckles. I always crack myself up whenever I do that. I proceed to shave what is left after my little fun with Walter White.

By now, my entire face and neck is clear of facial hair. I touch my face to make sure. No stubbs or any other traces of hair. And thank goodness I didn't cut myself doing so. That's such a pain for me.

I drain out the water that is full of hair and shaving cream residue. I turn the water back on and cup my hands under the warm, running liquid. I splash it my face again because there are still a few, small traces of shaving cream present. It only takes a couple splashes to get them off.

I look at myself in the mirror once again. Man, I look good! I could never pull off facial hair.

I admire my reflection for a bit and another tap is at the door. "It's Twilight again," I hear her say. "I'm opening the door slightly and giving you some clothes." The door opens a bit and I see a purple aura around some clothes of mine, that are magically floating. I take hold of them, one hand on top, the other on the bottom.

"I got 'em Twilight. You can let go." The purple aura around the clothing immediately disappears. "Thanks Twi. And thanks for the shaving material, I really appreciate it."

"Your welcome." I hear the clip-clop of her hooves move away from the door once again. I take a look down at the clothing and it's the one's I wore when I first came to Equestria. I still can't believe all of this has transpired. A teenager, almost done his junior year, has been transported to a fictional world. Man, I wonder how I'm going to tell my friends this. They gonna' ask me where I've been in the past week no doubt. If I tell them I was transported to the My Little Pony world, they'll think I'm crazy.

I'm sure I'll think of something. Maybe I'll just say: I decided to spend a week in Hoboken. It's more convincing than saying I was sent to a cartoon world and then became friends with the main characters of said world.

After hanging the towels up, I put on the red V-neck and brown cargos, along with the red Reeboks. My necklace, watch and ring are on the edge of the sink and I put them on the respected body parts. I take one more look into the mirror and say, "Looking good there buddy." Oh how much I love saying I'm good looking.

I walk downstairs and see Twilight reading a book of some sort. She must be done with that weird concoction for the day and is moving on with her daily activities. "Whatcha' got there Twilight?" I ask.

"Just a book," she replies. "Princess Celestia lent it to me. I haven't read this one yet. So far, it's really good."

"What's it called?"

"Death of a Salespony."...You're kidding me right? I facepalm at the ridiculous title. "What?" she asks.

"Remember how I mentioned there were similarities of cities between this planet and mine earlier today?"

"Yeah." She raises an eyebrow at the weird questioning.

"Well, I guess it's the same with books too. There's a book back home called Death of a Salesman. What's yours about? It may be different than my planet's."

"It's about a salespony who has been struggling with selling merchandise and is dealing with a lot of stress at home. His two sons are old enough to move out, but aren't going to any time soon, adding to his stress. What else is there?...Oh! He wants to pay off the mortgage to the house soon, so that adds to his want to sell the merchandise he could never sell. He also-"

"I think I get it," I interrupt her. She's speaking so excitedly and passionately about it. Does she always act like this when it comes to books? It kind of reminds me of Belle from Beauty and the Beast: loving and passionate about every story book she picks up. "Everything you've said is present in my world's version. What part are you at?" I remember reading Death of a Salesman for my honors English class and really enjoying it. I remember almost everything from the book.

"I'm at the point where Willy Lopony-" Oh God! "-is having a flashback to when his son found out that he was cheating on his wife." If I remember correctly, that's a bit past the middle of the book.

"Isn't he having the flashback when he's in the restaurant restroom?"

"Correct."

"That's a very interesting scene. The book gets better from there." Hmm...with all of this talk, I want to tease her a little. "You know, by the end of the book, Willy-

"Hey! No spoilers!" I crack up immediately at her response. It's priceless. I think I feel my sides starting to hurt a little. "That's not funny!"

"I was kidding. I wasn't going to spoil anything. I was just teasing you."

"Still not funny," Twilight says sternly. Geesh, butthurt much?

"Okay, sorry." Not really. "So, what are going to do for the rest of the day?"

"I usually read. I'm probably going to finish this bad boy up in an hour or two. What about you?"

"I don't really know." I look around the library, trying to think of something to do. I could read a book for myself. "I guess I'll do some reading."

I make my way to a bookshelf and skim through the tiles that have been embedded on the spines of these paperbacks. A certain and familiar book catches my eye. It's the icon book I was reading when Discord popped out from it. I'm a bit hesitant to pull it out. Maybe he isn't between the lines this time?

I slowly pull out the icon book, carefully open it, preparing for the worst, and….nothing happens. That's a relief. I open it too a new page and come across something I haven't read yet. It somepony called Nightmare Moon. "Hmm." With curiosity striking me, I head over to a table and plop the book down. I place my finger to where I want to start reading and...well...start reading.

"Nightmare Moon is the darkness and hatred that overshadowed Princess Luna a thousand years ago. Jealous that the ponies of Equestria were enjoying Princess Celestia's day and not being awake to enjoy her night, Princess Luna gave into hatred and jealousy to become Nightmare Moon.

"She fought against her sister, who tried to coax her to lower the moon so she could raise the sun. Nightmare Moon refused to do so. Feeling that there were no options left, Princess Celestia banished her sister to the moon for a thousand years using the Elements of Harmony.

"During Luna's, at the time Nightmare Moon's, banishment, Celestia took the duty to lower and raise both the sun and moon for a thousand years.

"After the thousand year banishment was over, Nightmare Moon returned during the Summer Sun celebration, which was in Ponyville at that time. Princess Celestia did not appear and Nightmare Moon took her place.

"In order to stop Nightmare Moon, the Elements of Harmony were to be used so she can return to her previous ego, Princess Luna. However, just after Nightmare Moon's banishment a thousand years previous, the Elements of Harmony were stowed away and turned to stone. Only a spark could bring the elements back. And that spark was the magic of friendship.

"The spark brought back the Elements, courtesy of Twilight Sparkle (See page 84), back to their usable state. Once usable, Twilight Sparkle and her friends (also located on page 84) used the Elements on Nightmare Moon to eliminate her, causing Princess Luna to return to her original state.

"The two sisters reunited in that instant. They now co-rule the land of Equestria in peace and harmony, all thanks to the Elements and the six ponies who wielded them."

Princess Luna was like that once? Overshadowed with jealousy and hatred that she changed herself to some sort of monster? Jeez! She seemed like a nice pony in my dreams. She probably is a likable mare, it's just when hatred and jealousy overshadow her is when one should run to the hills frantically. "Is this all true?" I ask Twilight, raising my head from the book.

"What's that?" she asks, raising her head from her book.

"Princess Luna becoming a psychotic alicorn who was power hungry, banished to the moon for a thousand years, and you along with the others reforming her with the elements after her banishment?"

"Oh, that?" I nod. "Every word...well, I'm not too sure about the psychopath part. It's kind of disrespecting Luna." It kind of is now that she mentions it. "But it was no easy task. Yet me and the girls defeated Nightmare Moon and were able to bring Princess Luna back to original self."

"Wow that's...that's…" There's a word for this. "That's pretty wild." I wonder what other interesting things are here in this book.

4:00 P.M.

I avert my eyes from the book for a second to look at my watch. I see that it's four o'clock. So I've been reading for a little less than an hour. Within that time, I have learned quite a bit about a couple of historical figures like Starswirl the Bearded, Enemies to Equestria like Sombra and Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings, along with a few other odds and ends.

Chrysalis is an interesting character. She is a leader of this colony in a far off land called the Badlands. The colony she leads consists of these shape shifting creatures called Changelings, who feed off the love of other ponies. She even tried to ruin Shining Armor's and Princess Cadence's wedding according to the text, just so she could be able to suck the love out of Equestria. She even knocked out Princess Celestia in the process. What a c##t. Thank God that Shining Armour and Princess Cadence were able to take her down and send her back to where she came.

Everything that Shining and Cadence said about Sombra is present in this book too. Everything is pretty much on the dot.

The most interesting one is Starswirl the Bearded. He's like the Dumbledore of Equestria and was alive more than a thousand years ago. So Celestia and Luna must have met him at some point. He is best known for creating spells and doing a banishment spell.

I found that little bit quite peculiar, so I further read on. Basically, there were these creatures called Sirens who feed off the negative energy of others through their singing voices. They're like the Changelings, but without the shape shifting abilities and more singing. With them causing so much chaos and trouble that Discord would be both impressed and jealous of at the same time, Starswirl banished the sirens to another world.

Who ever is in that world, they're boned because if those creatures were able to cause so much chaos and trouble here, that said world would be amuck. May God help them.

"OH MY GOSH!" Twilight shouts. Her sudden burst startles me and makes me fling the book to the ground by mistake.

"What?" I ask worried, raising my head and seeing she still has her face buried in her book.

"Willy just committed suicide!" Oh, she's just reacting to what's going on the the book. Good.

"Oh, good. I thought something bad happened."

"Willy committed suicide! That's pretty bad!"

"Well…" Crap, I cornered myself. Think of a way out! "I mean, that's bad for Willy and his family." Nice save.

"Of course it is!" I see her eyes frantically moving from side to side, flipping to a new page in a matter of seconds, reading worriedly no doubt. After a couple short moments, Twilight speaks again. "She used the insurance money to...to pay off the mortgage. They're free…" she trails off. She closes the book and lets out a sigh. "Wow. That was... that was a really good book."

"Yeah, I remember enjoying it too. Why did Celestia send that book to you again."

"Well, one day, Princess Celestia was leisurely reading it and thought it is a well written piece of literature. Knowing me too well, she thought I may enjoy it. And quite frankly, I really did like it. This book is already a new favorite."

"What about it did you enjoy?"

"The characters. Definitely the characters. The sons are both idealists, but have different approaches, the way the uncle is what Willy wanted." I smile at her appreciation of the literary work.

You know, upon arriving in Equestria, I thought I wouldn't have anything in common with the pony folk of this world. Surprisingly, I was found wrong. Twilight enjoyed Death of a Salesman (in her case Salespony) as much as I did; Vinyl, Octavia and I were able to find a common ground for music; Rainbow Dash and I have an appreciation for sports; Trixie and I both love the stage; Rarity and I like being fashionable; and so on. I never really noticed how many bonds I have made until now.

The friendships I have made already and the ones that will come as the rest of the week unfolds are definitely ones I will keep close to my heart. But the one thing I haven't taken into account for is the parting of my pony pals. I am not sure if I'll be able to physically see them anymore by the time I leave. I just know by the time I say goodbye, it will not be easy.

But that's life. Sometimes you have to let go. But even if you won't be seeing them for either a long while, or the rest of your life, friendships you make will remain.

I'll no doubt miss them, and I probably won't be seeing them again, but that doesn't mean our friendship will drift away into nothingness. They're my friends no matter where I am throughout the cosmos.

Comments

[zaku666]

not bad but you the g in knowing

[Hawkx1]

This story is like watching a train wreck you know what's going to happen but you can't look away

[CORRUPTED-DATA]

5916848
I just realized what Luna meant by his greatest fear becoming a reality he's about to leave all the friends he just made and found something in common with