I am, Helena

by RowanSkie

1 - Your name is Helena

My name is Helena Ryder.

You’re name is Twilight Sparkle.

This is all just a dream.

This isn’t a dream.

“Who are you?” I asked to the dreamscape.

Somepony who knew you once.

“I am not Twilight Sparkle!” I shouted.

Are you? Try to remember.

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked again. “Just, who are you really!?”

You’ll know, my faithful student…

---

“Wait!” I shouted as I woke up on my bed.

I looked around checked the time at my alarm clock. It was just three in the morning. I sighed in relief and went back to sleep. I hoped that dream wouldn’t show itself again.

As morning came, I quickly refreshed myself and came towards the family dining room. I looked around and smiled as my family sat around the table. My father, who was at my right, smiled at us as he read the morning newspaper like every morning. My mother, who was at my left, prepared food while my big brother, who was in front of me, played finger gun with the air. As breakfast was being served, I took the moment to pull out a fiction pocketbook from my pocket and secretly read. However, my mother caught me.

“You know,” she told me. “If you read the books about healthcare, you should already know that breakfast is healthy for you. And you—” My mother faced my brother— “stop playing like you’re in a battlefield! This is the dining area, and you know what you should do.” She sat on her chair and sighed. “Let’s eat. And don’t apologize, both of you. I know you are going to, but you are already forgiven.”

The current generation of Ryder family, a military wannabe and an egghead. Being a Ryder meant I would be special and would shape the history of mankind. That was, if I could get myself out of my desire of hitting the books figuratively and literally. I hid the pocketbook and began to eat as well. I sighed on the inside, telling myself that this is going to be another boring—

“Oh, and advance happy birthday Helena dearie,” my dad chimed in as he ate. “Are you going to tell your friends?”

I smiled. “I already told them last week,” I answered.

—er… It seemed like this day will be slightly busy with me shopping my birthday items, apparently. It’s the Ryder’s instinct to prepare the day before an occasion. I continued eating my breakfast until it was empty then headed outside. I walked, ignoring an hallucination of a purple pony staring right at me. I headed towards downtown afterwards. It’s all just a walk away.

---

Dear Diary,

It’s a tough day trying to ignore an hallucination which just came up ever since I was ten while going for shopping. It’s also getting hard trying to ignore voices in my head while you’re trying to talk to somebody else. The family doctor just came up with nothing after I checked up. Dad tried to tell me to wait for tomorrow and decided to force me into watching a stupid horse show. I only saw a few similarities, but I still couldn’t understand what it meant. Me as a little horse character? Not a chance!

As things might go, there were some intimidating glares I picked up as I did my usual morning summer job being…

---

“Hey Helena,” someone called. “You’re up already?”

I looked around and saw a bookstore owner waving his hands.

“Oh, hey Jen,” I greet as I walked towards the bookstore he was in. “I’m ready for the day, you know, as always.”

Jen chuckled. “As always.” We both enter the store and flip the closed sign open. “What you planning for the afternoon?”

“Oh, buy for some party supplies,” I lazily explained. “Birthday’s tomorrow, you know. Gotta get ready, stuff and stuff, Ryder’s instincts.”

I look at Jen who just stared at me silly. “Are you okay, sir? You look silly.”

“It’s your birthday tomorrow, right?” Jen affirmed. “Oh, sorry about my behavior… but I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really—” I blinked. “—would really like to help on those supplies!”

“Okay,” I answer. “Sure, you can help.”

Jen walked over the card aisle and threw a pack towards my direction. I caught the pack and took notice of the title.

“My Little Pony-themed invitation cards?” I rose my eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yeah, really.” Jen walked back at the cashier as he whistled something which made me stop at my tracks. “I once liked those ponies, you know that?”

“What?” I asked. “You? You like a little girl’s show about ponies and friendship?”

“Yeah,” Jen answered. “It were the best days. Until it took a little turn and I lost interest of it. It was season two when that happened.”

The picture of Jen wearing pony merch made me giggle while he blushed, knowing what I was thinking. I finished giggling as soon as a customer entered the bookstore and waved towards the both of us. I then headed towards the employee’s area and picked up a sign and then headed outside and began my summer job.

---

...a sign spinner/advertiser to my favorite bookstore that my friend Jen owns. After a long thinking as I do my 3-hour job, apparently the glares seemed to be from my father’s workmates who walked around the city pretending to be regular people. When I told my dad that he’s secret is out and I knew it, I still remember his face being upset and them forcing me to tell everything I know about them. My answer was just simple as it was obvious from their methods.

Anyways, that wasn’t one of the most weird things I had today. I had found myself on a dark alley where I always found that hallucination always looking at me. Sometimes I try to talk to it but today my legs didn’t respond to my thoughts and I went toward the white pony thing which my parents told me was just some trick to my eye.

---

“Uh… Why am I doing this…?” I asked to myself as I tried to walk back. I managed to stop myself after willing so. “Okay. Where am I again?”

I looked back and faced the open road only to feel a gut feeling that I should’ve continue deeper into the alley. I stared as I took out a pocket book from my pocket. I had to choose where to go. I could believe my parents when they said that the hallucinations are just hallucinations or I could let my mind take for itself and let the hallucinations get worse. That, and I remembered something and I made a run outside.

---

I ran away instead of checking it out, since I have to buy more materials than ever. Being a Ryder is really hard if you actually want to since I heard there were Ryder families going around the world doing some of their own items. I just got into the plan of sending this and extra diary entries to Joanna Scales, who is actually my cousin named Lissia Ryder. Best publisher of stories.

Noon came afterwards and I have already enough materials for the party and enough money to be myself another book until…

---

“HELENA!!” my mother shouted.

I jumped, causing my materials to scatter around my bedroom for the second time. I groaned as I went towards the living room and was shocked to see who was at the door. She was my third cousin named Amy Ryder Loveheart.

“Amy?” I squeak. “You’re here?”

“Why?” Amy asked as she hugged me. “Can’t watch my favorite cousin turn eighteen, hmm?”

“Words…spread…fast,” I reply as I try to catch my breath after she released grip. “So, what’s up besides doing Ryder instincts and fighting that mental thing of yours since you were ten?”

“Trying to sort my party materials until mom shouted,” I replied.

“Boring,” Amy countered back as she pulled me outside. “Look what I got for you!”

I look around and find a small blue box with a red button. “Is that it…?”

“Just my latest invention,” Amy explained. “The Party Box! It scans the area, creates a scenario if there was a party, and uses all nearby party materials. That way I wouldn’t pay for extra materials and with permission people could just pop one up! Of course it’s reusable since when the party’s over all it needs is another click of the button and microbots will fix everything else.”

“Wow. That’s…wow,” I comment. “That’s sick. You actually made something fictional into a thing. Were you inspired?”

“Apparently they based the movie character Flint Lockwood to my family branch so yeah,” Amy finished. “Inspired.”

As I take the box and checked it out my mother calls us in and for supper. I take a few loaves of bread and ate them as I redirected towards my bedroom as I check Amy’s little Party Box and connect it to my personal computer. I connect its OS to my AI which then duplicates its capabilities and sort it into my fusion hard disk which can support over 256 TB of space. I then go back down and give Amy her box back as I came headed back and watch as my AI try to improve her algorithm.

“So,” I say out loud. “Let’s see where I was… Oh, right. Sorting out my party materials. I wish I had some kind of magic so that I could just place the My Little Pony-themed out of the non-Pony themed. Then everything would be so easy.”

---

…my mad scientist cousin arrived. There isn’t nothing much I can say except for my AI named Spike which now has the capabilities of a human being. I didn’t noticed that at first until I saw her sort her own code. I didn’t really regret it since I also managed to shape it into the G4 character of the same name. You know, as I write about this, the similarities are increasing as I thought about it. Jen reminds me of that pink party pony. Amy reminds me of that brown pony with an affinity of science. My brother reminds me of the main character’s brother. And thousands more.

Anyways, it’s about time to head to bed. I still can’t think of something when I went towards that alley though. A part of me, probably my soul, wants to get back there. I’ll probably head there myself with my dad after he arrives. I am a father’s daughter after all.

Your owner,

Helena Tess Ryder

PS: I nearly wrote Twilight Sparkle as my name. What’s wrong with me?

---

I looked around and decided to call it a night after writing at my diary. As I flopped myself to my bed, I stared at my ceiling full of glow-in-the-dark stickers. Most of them were ponies I once liked. As I closed my eyes, I failed to recognize the sounds of hoofsteps. I instantly opened my eyes and looked towards the door. There were nothing to be seen, or so I thought. I quickly rested my head and slept.